302 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK 



OH. 



— and I suppose it would be so in any other, — is without 

 some drawback. In this case I know well that com- 

 parisons will inevitably be made between the present 

 and the past. You will, I cannot but feel, often look 

 back with regret upon the past. Still, I am sure that I 

 may ask for indulgence — that I may rely on your gener- 

 ous support, because I know that it is the aim and 

 object of us all, not merely to maintain the dignity of 

 the Council, but to fulfil to the best of our abilities the 

 duties we have undertaken, and the important trust 

 which our fellow-citizens have confided to us. 



Lord Farrer was elected Vice- Chairman, and 

 as subsequent letters will show gave most loyal 

 and valuable support. 



When Sir John followed Lord Rosebery as 

 Chairman of the County Council of London it 

 was, as he himself said, inevitable that comparison 

 between their respective leaderships should be 

 instituted. Sir John did not fulfil, so well as Lord 

 Rosebery, the popular ideal of a captain of men. 

 He had wonderful gifts as a persuader of men, 

 a capacity to win them round, by patient re- 

 assuring, to his own view, but I do not know 

 that he had that indescribable, sometimes called 

 magnetic power which would lead them to follow 

 him even on courses in opposition to their own 

 view. This, as I imagine, is of the essence of the 

 power of what is meant by a leader and a captain. 

 It is not to be inferred from this that Lord Rose- 

 bery ever thus led his County Council colleagues 

 in opposition to their better reason. The differ- 

 ence between Lord Rosebery and Sir John in the 

 chair of this important body was, as a member 

 of the council expressed it to me, that Lord 

 Rosebery was more prompt in his rulings, but Sir 

 John was the more safe. Others, however, have 



