Page "Henry Fawcett" Paragraph 3

Two years later, Fawcett reportedly attended the 1860 Oxford evolution debate, during which he was asked whether he thought the bishop had actually read the Origin of Species.

Reportedly, Fawcett replied loudly, " Oh no, I would swear he has never read a word of it ".

Ready to recriminate, Wilberforce swung round to him scowling, but stepped back and bit his tongue on noting that the speaker was the blind economist.

At the next meeting ( in September 1861 ) of the British Association in Manchester, Fawcett defended the logic behind Charles Darwin's theories.

This significantly affected its acceptance.

In 1863 Fawcett published his Manual of Political Economy.

In the same year he became Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge.

He made himself a recognised authority on economics, his works on which include The Economic Position of the British Labourer ( 1871 ) and Labour and Wages.

In 1883 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University.