no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



composed of such men as Airy, Babbage, Darwin, Huxley, Lyell, Max 

 Miiller, Tyndall, and others, but he thought it better to leave the field 

 open to Mr. Lowe, and stood, instead, for West Kent, where he was 

 again defeated. In 1870 he was elected for the borough of Maidstone, 

 and again, in 1874, after a keener contest than the preceding one, but 

 a good-natured one. In 1880 he lost his seat for Maidstone,, but was 

 returned a few days afterward by the University of London. In 

 recommending him for this seat a number of gentlemen, among whom 

 were Messrs. Alfred W. Bennett, Grant Duff, Thiselton Dyer, F. W. 

 Farrar, D. D., Dr. Michael Foster, H. E. Roscoe, and Dr. Samuel 

 Wilks, said that, since he combined in himself eminence in many 

 branches of knowledge and walks of life, he might be said to represent, 

 as few (if any) others could, the different faculties which combined to 

 form the university. He has made his mark in Parliament as an in- 

 dustrious, discriminating, working member, more distinguished, per- 

 haps, for the merit of the measures he has introduced and supported 

 than as a brilliant orator, although he has acquitted himself excellently 

 in the latter capacity, and earned the reputation of a speaker who 

 always has something to say that is well worth hearing, and the faculty 

 of saying it well. The following list of the bills which he has intro- 

 duced and promoted in their passage through the Houses attest that 

 his labors have been to the purpose, efficient, and successful. The bills 

 are, to use the peculiar phraseology with which their titles are legally 

 expressed, the Apothecaries' Company Medical Act Amendment Bill ; 

 the Bank Holiday Bill ; the Falsification of Accounts Bill ; the Banker's 

 Book Evidence Bill ; the College of Surgeons' Medical Act Amendment 

 Bill ; the University of London Medical Act Amendment Bill ; the 

 Absconding Debtor's Bill ; the Factor's Acts Amendment Bill ; the Bills 

 of Exchange Bill ; the Dental Practitioners' Bill ; the Compromise Acts 

 Amendment Bill ; and the Ancient Monuments Bill, which was lost 

 in the House of Lords. All of these acts have a practical bearing on 

 every-day life, and show the stand Sir John has taken in Parliament 

 as the elected member for the University of London, and the repre- 

 sentative, by an unrecorded vote, of science and the banking interest. 

 The best known of his bills is the Bank Holiday Bill, which has added 

 four new statute holidays to those that were already in existence, with 

 a result that has been in every way satisfactory, both to employers and 

 to the persons in their employ. Speaking of Sir John in connection 

 with the Ancient Monuments Bill, but having this act also in view, 

 " Nature " styles him " a member whose reputation as an archaeologist, 

 though great throughout the country, is exceeded by his popularity as 

 the author of the most successful measure of private legislation in 

 modern times the Bank Holiday Act," Sir John's political career, 

 as a whole, has been that of a consistent Liberal. 



As a magistrate and country gentleman, Sir John Lubbock also 

 takes an active part in most of the varied duties incumbent on an 



