In 1858 and 1867 there were two events relating to Newton and his reputation that received thorough coverage in the daily and weekly press. They were of popular interest but were also to receive attention from two experts, Brewster and De Morgan. The first event was the erection of a statue of Newton in Grantham. The second was a literary cause célèbre that saw a challenge to Newton's position as the discoverer of the laws of gravitation from the publication of a number of forged documents. The very different attitudes of Brewster and De Morgan will be compared with the reactions of other men of science and a wider public in order to highlight the consistency of outlook from the two biographers of Newton and the relationship of their work to a non-expert perception of him. A close examination of the research relating to Newton with which De Morgan was engaged at the time of these events demonstrates that historians who have viewed it as having a morality and a reverence for Newton that would be more consistent with the work of Brewster have misunderstood his intentions.

De Morgan's bugbears in fact remained those explored in his 1855 review of Brewster's Memoirs of Newton. As time went on he became, if anything, more hard-line in his approach and his criticism of Brewster was increasingly severe. De Morgan's last and longest work relating to Newton was not published in his lifetime but the two events on which this chapter focuses gave him the opportunity to repeat his message publicly. Although the two men did not correspond after the publication of the 1855 review, 1867 saw them involved in a communication of sorts, carried out through the pages of a literary weekly and a national newspaper. The concerns of both men harked back to the debates of the 1830s, and, by the late 1860s, would appear to have been of limited appeal or importance to other men of science and the general public.