102 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK <*. 



Dean Alford as representatives of the Church of England ; 

 Cardinal Manning, Father Dalgairns and W. G. Ward 

 as Roman Catholics ; among statesmen, Gladstone, the 

 late Duke of Argyll, Lord Sherbrook, Sir M. Grant Duff, 

 John Morley, Ruskin, as well as Martineau, Tennyson, 

 Browning, R. H. Hutton, W. Bagehot, Frederick Harri- 

 son, Leslie Stephen, Sir J. Stephen, Dr. Carpenter, Sir 

 W. Gull, W. R. Greg, James Hinton, Shadworth Hodgson, 

 Lord Arthur Russell, Sir Andrew Clark, Sir Alexander 

 Grant, Mark Pattison, and W. K. Clifford, it will not be 

 wondered at that I looked forward to the meetings with 

 the greatest interest. I experienced also one of the 

 greatest surprises of my life. We all, I suppose, won- 

 dered who would be the first President. No doubt what 

 happened was that Roman Catholics objected to Angli- 

 cans, Anglicans to Roman Catholics, both to Noncon- 

 formists ; and the different schools of metaphysics also 

 presented difficulties, so that finally, to my amazement, 

 I found myself the first President ! The discussions were 

 perfectly free, but perfectly friendly ; and I quite agree 

 with Mr. H. Sidgwick, that Huxley was one of the 

 foremost, keenest, and most interesting debaters, which, 

 in such a company, is indeed no slight praise. 



We dined together, then a paper was read, which had 

 generally been circulated beforehand, and then it was 

 freely discussed, the author responding at the close. 



One of his warmest supporters during the 

 contest of 1868 had been Mr. W. Lee, M.P. for 

 Maidstone. As soon as the fight was over, Mr. 

 Lee came and proposed to resign his seat in 

 Sir John's favour, saying that he had been many 

 years in Parliament, and wished to give a younger 

 man his turn. Sir John declined absolutely 

 this generous offer, but on Mr. Lee's pressing it, 

 said that if he was of the same mind a year after- 

 wards the case would be different. Mr. Lee said 

 at once that he should return at the end of the 

 year, and insist on his proposal being accepted. 

 This he did, and consequently early in 1870 Sir 



