CHAPTER XII 



MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT (1868-1870) 



(Age 34-36) 



Among the correspondence preserved by Sir 

 John Lubbock relating to the year 1868 are 

 two notes, one from Mr. Gladstone and the other 

 from Mr. Disraeli. The former is no more than 

 an invitation to breakfast, but has an interest 

 of its own from the subject of discussion proposed 

 for the breakfast party. A common love of 

 archaeology drew Mr. Gladstone and Sir John 

 together, and the latter notes that they had 

 many a talk in the Division lobbies on this 

 subject. Other guests of the proposed break- 

 fast party were Dr. Percy, the eminent metal- 

 lurgist ; Mr. Layard, etc. ; and Mr. Gladstone 

 writes : "I hope to get some further light on 

 the question what was the 6 %aX/co? ' of Homer." 

 Whether the knotty problem was satisfactorily 

 solved over the tea and toast is not recorded. 



XaX/cos, the Homeric bronze, if that be the 

 right modern translation of the word, was not 

 so much a commercial as a martial metal, 

 fashioned into the short sword rather than the 



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