Ten
years (for which members are usually appointed), was about to expire, Lord
Hartington (now Duke of Devonshire), caused Yule's appointment to be
renewed for life, under a special Act of Parliament passed for this
purpose in 1885.
His work as a member of the Army Sanitary Committee, brought him into
communication with Miss Florence Nightingale, a privilege which he greatly
valued and enjoyed, though he used to say: "She is worse than a Royal
Commission to answer, and, in the most gracious charming manner possible,
immediately finds out all I don't know!" Indeed his devotion to the
"Lady-in-Chief" was scarcely less complete than Kinglake's.
In 1880, Yule was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the Government
Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, a post which added to his
sphere of interests without materially increasing his work. In 1882, he
was much gratified by being named an Honorary Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, more especially as it was to fill one of the two
vacancies created by the deaths of Thomas Carlyle and Dean Stanley.
Yule had been President of the Hakluyt Society from 1877, and in 1885 was
elected President also of the Royal Asiatic Society. He would probably
also have been President of the Royal Geographical Society, but for an
untoward incident. Mention has already been made of his constant
determination to judge all questions by the simple touchstone of what he
believed to be right, irrespective of personal considerations. It was in
pursuance of these principles that, at the cost of great pain to himself
and some misrepresentation, he in 1878 sundered his long connection with
the Royal Geographical Society, by resigning his seat on their Council,
solely in consequence of their adoption of what he considered a wrong
policy. This severance occurred just when it was intended to propose him
as President. Some years later, at the personal request of the late Lord
Aberdare, a President in all respects worthy of the best traditions of
that great Society, Yule consented to rejoin the Council, which he
re-entered as a Vice-President.
In 1883, the University of Edinburgh celebrated its Tercentenary, when
Yule was selected as one of the recipients of the honorary degree of LL.D.
His letters from Edinburgh, on this occasion, give a very pleasant and
amusing account of the festivity and of the celebrities he met. Nor did he
omit to chronicle the envious glances cast, as he alleged, by some British
men of science on the splendours of foreign Academic attire, on the yellow
robes of the Sorbonne, and the Palms of the Institute of France!
