ROYAL GARDENS KEW March 3/[18]78
Copy My dear Lingen*1 I think that in Equity Capt[ai]n Feilden is entitled to the whole of Mr Hart's £105. -- It is of course impossible to say how much better (or worse) the Report might have been if Mr Hart had done that part which would have fallen to his share had he come forward; -- but there is

nothing to show that they would have been better -- & we have no reason to suppose that they would have been.-- The Treasury offered £210 for a joint report on the collections of both of the Naturalists not for two Reports, one on each collection thus if Mr Hart had died the Treasury my Lords would not have expected to do his part for nothing [4 words illeg] have had no choice but to require Capt[ain] Feilden to draw up the one report on the joint collection

They would I assume Capt[ain] Feilden have asked Capt Feilden to undertake the whole have offered him the other £105 for so doing.
On the other hand Capt Feilden has no legal claim & the interest[?] he could plead would be that without Harts materials the Report would have been wholly insufficient to meet the requirements of the case.

Again the Report having to be a joint one, on two collections, Capt[ain] F. could not begin even without having both under his eyes[?] at once. -- he did begin, hoping for long that Mr Hart would join him -- It would have been [1 word illeg] of him to have struck work[?] & told my Lords that he could not go on with Harts work without double pay -- he chose the right course of doing the whole & trusting to my Lords sense of his zeal & services.
E[ve]r sin[cerel]y y[our]s | JH
Endnotes
1. Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen served as secretary of the Treasury