120 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



Signed my dear old name for the last time." 

 And, on the following day : " My peerage is in the 

 Gazette. I began signing Avebury." 



It is evident that he did not part from the 

 old life without a pang. As a legislator in the 

 Commons his success had been extraordinary. 

 It has been said of him that the majority of the 

 measures which he passed were such as he had 

 ascertained to have the goodwill of the country 

 behind them, before he moved them, and that he 

 was " no leader of a forlorn hope." After all, is 

 that a criticism that should vex a man ? What 

 higher justification of a measure is a mover to 

 find than the opinion of the country in its favour ? 

 And is it the part of a wise man to put himself in 

 the van of any movement so desperate as to 

 deserve the name of a " forlorn hope " when there 

 are many wrongs less difficult to redress, many 

 duties lying nearer ? Certainly Lord Avebury, 

 as we should from this date style him, was the 

 last of men to waste time unavailingly in strug- 

 gling to perform impossibilities while possible 

 ways of doing good were patent. Of all the 

 measures dear to his heart to which he devoted 

 any considerable attention, there is, I think, 

 only one — proportional representation — which he 

 failed to carry during his lifetime. That also is 

 making progress, and may be seen in being in our 

 Constitution before many years have passed. If 

 it should so happen, it will be largely due to the 

 combined efforts of the late Lord Avebury and the 

 present Lord Courtney in preparing public opinion. 



Naturally he had an immense number of con- 

 gratulatory telegrams and other messages on the 



