Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/173

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The moral heroism, here testified to by Mr. Darwin, was an eminent trait of Prof. Henslow's character, and a key to his career; but there was one instance of it, in Cambridge, which may be mentioned in passing. In politics, Prof. Henslow was originally a Conservative or Tory. Lord Palmerston had long represented the university on the same side. But when the Duke of Wellington, who was at the head of the government, declared against reform in any shape whatever, there came a revolution which overthrew his administration, and Lord Palmerston went over to the Liberal side and joined the reformed ministry. Prof. Henslow, like many others, fell in with the movement, and, of course, made himself obnoxious to the charge of being a "turn-coat." He did not flinch from these attacks, and was at any moment ready to do his duty regardless of popular reprobation, and he soon had an opportunity of incurring it. In the borough election