This was not exactly one of those bits of over-easiness to pressure
with which you reproach me--but the resultant of a composition of
pressures, one of which was the conviction that the "Institute" might
be made into something very useful and greatly wanted--if only the
projectors could be made to believe that they had always intended to do
that which your humble servant wants done--that is the establishment of
a sort of Royal Society for the improvement of industrial knowledge and
an industrial university--by voluntary association.

I hope my virtue may be its own reward. For except being knocked up for
a day or two by the unwonted effort, I doubt whether there will be any
other. The thing has fallen flat as a pancake, and I greatly doubt
whether any good will come of it. Except a fine in the shape of a
subscription, I hope to escape further punishment for my efforts to be
of use.

[However, this was only the beginning of his campaign.

On January 27, a letter from him appeared in the "Times," guarding
against a wrong interpretation of his speech, in the general
uncertainty as to the intentions of the proposers of the scheme.]

I had no intention [he writes] of expressing any enthusiasm on behalf
of the establishment of a vast permanent bazaar. I am not competent to
estimate the real utility of these great shows. What I do see very
clearly is that they involve difficulties of site, huge working
expenses, the potentiality of endless squabbles, and apparently the
cheapening of knighthood.

[As for the site proposed at South Kensington,] "the arguments used in