256 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK CH . 



would be Iberian. The exact limits would give rise to 

 an endless number of bitter disputes. Indeed so much 

 intermingled are the different races that one of our 

 highest authorities, Dr. Beddoe, after careful and pro- 

 longed study, says : " With respect to the distribution 

 and commixture of race elements in the British Isles 

 we may safely assert that not one of them, whether 

 Iberian, Gaelic, Cymric, Saxon or Scandinavian, is 

 peculiar to, or absent from, or anywhere predominant in 

 any one of the three kingdoms." 



This being so, I submit that any argument in favour 

 of Home Rule based on the existence of distinct nation- 

 alities falls utterly to the ground, while the effect of 

 rousing race antagonisms, from which we have suffered 

 so terribly in the past, and which are now happily latent, 

 can only add to our political difficulties and tend to 

 weaken the British Empire ; while, on the contrary, if 

 we recognize the undeniable ethnological fact that the 

 English, Irish and Scotch are all composed of the same 

 elements, and in not very dissimilar proportions, it 

 would do much to mitigate our unfortunate dissensions 

 and add to the strength and welfare of our common 

 country. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



John Lubbock. 



The following is some of the more interesting 

 of the correspondence which this letter produced : 



18 Lennox Gardens, S.W., 

 Slst March 1887. 



My dear Lubbock — Touching the said Archpirate 

 Maccus — a bilingual document (Bodl. MSS. Wood, 

 1 fol. 68. b) being a grant by King Edgar to the Monastery 

 of Glastonbury — is signed in the following order : 



Ego + Edgar rex tocius Britanniae. 

 Ego + Eggiva ejusdem regis mater. 

 Ego + Edward (their son). 

 Ego + Kynadius rex Albania?. 

 Ego + Maccusius archipirata. 



Ego + Dunstanus Dorobernensis eccl. archiepiscopus. 

 Ego + Oswald Eboracensis eccl. primus. 

 Ego + Athelwoldus Winton eccl. minister et Glastonie 

 eccl. quondam monachus. 



