I hope that the principle stated in 1835 may serve as precedent on
this occasion.
I am, dear Sir,
Your very faithful servant,
G.B. AIRY.
_The Right Honourable
Sir G. C. Lewis, Bart.,
&c. &c. &c._
No intimation however was received that the fees would be remitted on
the present occasion, and after consideration the proposed Knighthood
was declined in the following letter:
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, S.E.
_1863, April 15_.
DEAR SIR,
I have frequently reflected on the proposal made by you of the honour
of Knighthood to myself. I am very grateful to you for the favourable
opinion which you entertain in regard to my supposed claims to notice,
and for the kindness with which you proposed publicly to express
it. But on consideration I am strongly impressed with the feeling that
the conditions attached by established regulation to the conferring of
such an honour would be unacceptable to me, and that the honour itself
would in reality, under the circumstances of my family-establishment
and in my social position, be an incumbrance to me. And finally I have
thought it best most respectfully, and with a full sense of the
kindness of yourself and of the Queen's Government towards me, to ask
that the proposal might be deferred.
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