"ST. LUBBOCK'S DAY" 119 



urged the same course on several other occasions ; 

 and observes, at a much later date, that in the 

 South African War we felt the great advantage 

 of having reduced our debt in times of peace. 



He also spoke on the Budget, on the Endowed 

 Schools, and on Elementary Education, urging 

 that History, Geography, English, and Elementary 

 Science should be included in the curriculum. 

 The suggestion was at that time regarded as 

 revolutionary and almost impossible, but is now 

 to some extent carried out, with great advantage 

 and general approval. 



Assuredly Sir John Lubbock wasted no time, 

 after his election to Parliament, in prosecution 

 of those proposals which it was his intention to 

 bring forward should he ever get a seat in that 

 assembly. Most intimately and most universally 

 his name is associated with that measure for 

 obtaining holidays for the bank clerks and shop 

 people which is known by the title of the Bank 

 Holidays' Act. These holidays have been styled 

 St. Lubbock's Days, and probably he is better 

 known to the populace of Great Britain in this 

 connection, than by any other act of his life. 



The third reading of the Bill passed on May 

 15. His Journal shows that it was a very varied 

 day, and indicates how fully his time was occupied. 



Beginning with the beginning — an hour on the Army 

 Regulation Bill, then to bed at 1.30. At nine break- 

 fasted at the Athenaeum ; at 10 to the Public School 

 Commission, where we discussed the Eton statutes. 

 Then I went for a short time to the Court of Queen's 

 Bench where the Tichborne case is going on. Sir Roger 

 is a large coarse-looking man. Then to poor Sir John 

 Herschel's funeral. I was one of the Pall-bearers, with 



