I consider you to have the first claim on the Royal Favour which Eminence in those high Pursuits to which your life is devoted, can give, and I fear that the Emoluments attached to your appointment in the University of Cambridge are hardly sufficient to relieve you from anxiety as to the Future on account of those in whose welfare you are deeply interested. The state of the Civil List would enable me to advise the King to grant a pension of three hundred pounds per annum, and if the offer be acceptable to you the Pension shall be granted either to Mrs Airy or yourself as you may prefer. I beg you distinctly to understand that your acquiescence in this Proposal, will impose upon you no obligation personal or political in the slightest degree. I make it solely upon public grounds, and I ask you, by the acceptance of it, to permit the King to give some slight encouragement to Science, by proving to those who may be disposed to follow your bright Example, that Devotion to the highest Branches of Mathematical and Astronomical Knowledge shall not necessarily involve them in constant solicitude as to the future condition of those, for whom the application of the same Talents to more lucrative Pursuits would have ensured an ample Provision. I have the honor to be, Sir, With true Respect and Esteem, Your faithful Servant, ROBERT PEEL. _Mr Professor Airy, &c., &c., Cambridge_. OBSERVATORY, CAMBRIDGE, _1835, Feb. 18_. SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 17th acquainting me with your intention of advising the King to grant a pension of _£300_ per annum from the Civil List to me or Mrs Airy. I trust you will believe that I am sensible of the flattering terms in which this offer is made, and deeply grateful for the considerate manner in which the principal arrangement is left to my choice, as well as for the freedom from engagement in which your offer leaves me. I beg to state that I most willingly accept the offer. I should prefer that the pension be settled on Mrs Airy (by which I understand that in case of her surviving me the pension would be continued to her during her life, or in the contrary event would cease with her life). I wish that I may have the good fortune to prove to the world that I do not accept this offer without an implied engagement on my part. I beg leave again to thank you for your attention, and to assure you that the form in which it is conveyed makes it doubly acceptable. With sincere respect I have the honor to be, Sir, Your very faithful Servant, G.B. AIRY. _The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury, &c., &c._ WHITEHALL, _Feb. 19th 1835_. SIR,