VARIOUS CORRESPONDENCE 155 



be improved. An accomplished financier in theory, he is 

 an intellectual philanthropist in practice ; but to call 

 him a politician would be as appropriate as to style a 

 razor a hand-saw. It follows from this that both in 

 politics and science Sir John Lubbock is tolerance and 

 good breeding personified. He was not at a university, 

 but he was at Eton ; and never was there Etonian yet 

 on whom Eton has more vividly and gracefully left her 

 impress. The true impression is, that Sir John Lubbock, 

 banker, savant, member of Parliament, is a country 

 gentleman to whom science — and science not lightly 

 flirted with, but completely mastered — has been a 

 relaxation and a pursuit, just as classical studies were 

 to a bygone generation of statesmen. The intellectual 

 bent of the age is scientific rather than literary ; and if 

 it is necessary that so it should be, the age could have no 

 more perfect representative than Sir John Lubbock, and 

 the rising generation no model whom it could more aptly 

 study. 



Although Sir John Lubbock sat as a Liberal, he 

 always had commanded the respect of opponents 

 in the House. We find him, for instance, in 

 May 1876, speaking on the Customs and Inland 

 Revenue Bill, following Mr. Fawcett. He notes 

 8 The Conservatives had been very noisy, so 

 Hartington kindly sent me a note advising me 

 not to let myself be put down, but to move the 

 adjournment if necessary, and he would support 

 it. However, there was no need, as the Con- 

 servatives treated me very well." 



In this year he introduced and carried the 

 Bankers' Books Evidence Act. Up to this time 

 Bankers could be compelled to produce their books 

 in Court. Many accounts being in the same 

 ledger, it sometimes happened that a customer 

 wished to consult his account, but could not do 

 so as the ledger was in Court. Under this Bill 

 Bankers were permitted to send a signed copy. 



