the national mark, on a distinction already acquired by your genius
and labours."

The banquet followed, writes Mr. Graves. "It was no little addition
to the honour Hamilton had already received that, when Professor
Whewell returned thanks for the toast of the University of Cambridge,
he thought it appropriate to add the words, 'There was one point
which strongly pressed upon him at that moment: it was now one
hundred and thirty years since a great man in another Trinity College
knelt down before his sovereign, and rose up Sir Isaac Newton.' The
compliment was welcomed by immense applause."

A more substantial recognition of the labours of Hamilton took place
subsequently. He thus describes it in a letter to Mr. Graves of 14th
of November, 1843:--

"The Queen has been pleased--and you will not doubt that it was
entirely unsolicited, and even unexpected, on my part--'to express
her entire approbation of the grant of a pension of two hundred
pounds per annum from the Civil List' to me for scientific services.
The letters from Sir Robert Peel and from the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland in which this grant has been communicated or referred to have
been really more gratifying to my feelings than the addition to my
income, however useful, and almost necessary, that may have been."

The circumstances we have mentioned might lead to the supposition
that Hamilton was then at the zenith of his fame but this was not
so. It might more truly be said, that his achievements up to this
point were rather the preliminary exercises which fitted him for the
gigantic task of his life. The name of Hamilton is now chiefly