CHAPTER XXXVI 



WORK IN THE UPPER HOUSE (1903) 



(Age 67) 



If any sure trust might be placed on a Peerage 

 as a cure for gout, it is likely that this distinction 

 would be even more eagerly coveted than it is. 

 Probably it is not in all cases to be relied on, but 

 certainly in the instance of Lord Avebury it 

 seems to have had a most salutary effect. From 

 the moment of his accession to the Upper House 

 there is for a period of two years no entry of 

 the distressing kind which records an attack 

 of the hereditary enemy of his family. There 

 is little doubt that the explanation is that, hard 

 as he continued to work in the public service 

 even as a peer, his labours were light in com- 

 parison with the burdens which he voluntarily 

 undertook while in the House of Commons. For 

 him an " eight hours' day," had he ever chosen 

 to enjoy so brief a spell of daily work, would 

 have partaken of the nature of a rest cure. In 

 some degree it was this that he found in the less 

 troubled waters of the House of Lords, and his 

 health had the benefit. In 1903, however, the 

 old trouble recurred : he had some threatenings 



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