xvi MEMBER LONDON UNIVERSITY 173 



It is needless to say that Sir John Lubbock's political 

 career has been that of a consistent Liberal. 



If, after consideration of the facts above mentioned, 

 you are willing to support Sir John Lubbock's candida- 

 ture, we shall feel obliged by your signing the enclosed 

 Post-Card. 



The Times wrote, respecting the comparative 

 claims of the candidates for the seat : 



The eminent graduates, whose names were submitted 

 to the Liberal electors together with that of Sir John 

 Lubbock, will assuredly think it no slight that their 

 Vice-Chancellor should have been preferred to them- 

 selves. As a choice had to be made, there seems to be 

 a special fitness in the selection of Sir John Lubbock. 

 There was no member of the late Parliament whose 

 rejection by his former constituents was more universally 

 and deservedly regretted than the late Member for 

 Maidstone, and there is probably no public man who is 

 better entitled to enjoy the unfettered security of a 

 University seat. Sir John Lubbock is as much at home 

 in Lombard Street as he is at Burlington House, and 

 his voice in the House of Commons carries as much weight 

 in matters of commerce and high finance as it does on 

 any of the subjects which come within the wide range 

 of his scientific and literary acquirements. It would 

 certainly have been regarded as unfortunate by all who 

 wish to see the House of Commons truly representative 

 of the mind and culture of the nation, as well as of its 

 practical capacity, if Sir John Lubbock, rejected at 

 Maidstone, had failed to find a seat elsewhere, and it 

 strikes us as singularly appropriate that the University 

 of London should have determined to provide him with 

 a safe haven for the future. 



Sir John was elected without a contest on 

 June 2, and held the seat for twenty years, until 

 his elevation to the Peerage in 1900. 



In 1881 he was unlucky in the Parlia- 

 mentary Ballot, and thought it useless to bring 

 in the Ancient Monuments Bill again, and accord- 



