320 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK oh. 



yesterday on the level, but am still very far from having 

 the use of my leg. 



The Government Commission on Water seems to me 

 to be right in its terms, if it gets the right men. There 

 is nothing in it to prevent our Bill going on, I think. — 

 Sincerely yours, T. H. Farrer. 



Under all the circumstances it is perhaps 

 little wonder that Sir John definitely decided 

 that at the end of his term of office as Chairman 

 he would not stand again for the County Council. 

 Pressure to reconsider this decision was put upon 

 him from various quarters. The City of London 

 Liberal Association wrote : "At our Executive 

 Committee to-day the most urgent wishes were 

 expressed that you should stand again, and a 

 resolution was passed and a deputation appointed 

 to wait on you. . . . Great stress was laid on the 

 advantage of your being spokesman of the Council 

 in the House of Commons." 



Nevertheless Sir John felt, I think, that he 

 had done his full meed of public work in this 

 particular direction, and was firm in his resolve 

 not to stand again for the Council, though he 

 did later consent to nomination as an alder- 

 man. 



On retiring from the Chairmanship he invited 

 his colleagues to a dinner. The following response 

 to that invitation from Lord Rosebery, his pre- 

 decessor in the chair, shows a full appreciation 

 of the peculiar difficulties which the office had 

 entailed on Sir John, as well as the writer's ap- 

 preciation of the gallant way in which he had 

 " crested the wave." 



