268 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



Imperial Parliament must retain the finance, and 

 that a supreme court would be necessary. He 

 thinks that if there was a General Election now 

 they would carry every seat in Scotland, and 

 several in the North and the Eastern counties. 

 I do not believe this. He says Parnell would be 

 thankful to get anything ! He did not give me 

 the impression, however, of being very sanguine." 



The following day they were back at High 

 Elms, and on October 2 he writes : " Just as we 

 had settled ourselves in the drawing-room after 



dinner, C came in and announced, ' Your 



ladyship's room is on fire,' as coolly as if he had 

 been announcing dinner. Fortunately no great 

 harm was done." 



There was a late autumn session this year in 

 November, and he spoke on the Education 

 Estimates and on various Bills. The political 

 situation was, of course, very difficult. On 

 November 27 he notes : " Lunched (or break- 

 fasted ?) with the Courtneys at eleven. John 

 Morley and Miss Potter there, the former very 

 frank about Ireland. He has not given up his 

 Land Bill, and, I thought, admitted that Home 

 Rule with the Irish members at Westminster 

 was quite indefensible." 



Two days later he was entertained by the 

 London shopkeepers at a dinner at Willis' Rooms, 

 and was enthusiastically received by his hosts. 



He had suffered yet another loss in the autumn 

 of the year by the death of his sole surviving old 

 queen ant, at the venerable age of fifteen years. 

 The death of her royal companion, at the age of 

 fourteen, has already been recorded. It is be- 



