MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT 103 



John stood for Maidstone, his opponent being 

 Mr. Foster White, and after a fair and friendly 

 fight was returned by a majority of 102. 



He made his first speech in the House of 

 Commons on April 8, on Military Education, 

 advocating that greater attention should be 

 given to Science. This was partly agreed to at 

 the moment, but it was left for a Committee 

 which sat in 1902 to urge the very changes that 

 he had advocated thirty years before. 



A few extracts from this, his first effort in 

 the House, may be given as a specimen of the 

 simple unaffected mode of eloquence by which, 

 in the long course of his political life, he was 

 destined to get very many Acts passed by the 

 Legislature. The report begins as follows : 



" Sir John Lubbock, who had given notice 

 to call attention to the Report of the Military 

 Education Commission, especially with relation 

 to the discouragement which it gives to the 

 study of natural and physical science, said, that 

 considering the short time during which he 

 had had a seat in that House, he ought perhaps 

 to apologise for bringing forward a question of 

 so much importance. The Commission was 

 appointed in 1868 to inquire into the state of 

 Military Education, and they had recently made 

 their Report, which he did not intend to criticise 

 in any hostile spirit, because he was fully aware 

 how greatly the country was indebted to them 

 for investigating this most important subject. 

 The Commissioners had recommended that 

 certain changes should be made in the examina- 

 tions for direct commissions." He proceeded 



