210 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



He was still busy about the Early Closing 

 and Sunday Closing Bills. " We had a confer- 

 ence," he writes, on January 19, " of London 

 Shopkeepers, with the Bishop in the Chair, to 

 consider the Early Closing Bill, which was 

 unanimously approved. The Bishop made a 

 capital speech. They passed me a very cordial 

 vote of thanks. Incidentally the Sunday Closing 

 Bill came up, and they seemed very glad to hear 

 that I was going to re-introduce it. Altogether 

 we had a very satisfactory meeting." The latter 

 Bill came up in the House of Lords on March 14, 

 when he notes : " The Government proposed an 

 amendment to reject the Bill, but have a Select 

 Committee. However, we stood to our guns, 

 and finding that the feeling of the House was 

 with us, they withdrew their opposition, and 

 let the Bill through. It is going to a Select 

 Committee." 



In January Lord Goschen writes to him on 

 questions of finance ; especially with regard to 

 the stock of gold supposed to be in the country 

 at different periods. Lord Goschen's main 

 position is indicated by what he writes of " the 

 nonsense of our being unable to pay for our 

 imports without a drain upon us." He calculates 

 that the surplus import of gold over the export 

 for the last thirteen years was £42,000,000. 

 Remarkable figures, coming from a source of 

 such undeniable authority ! 



There was some lengthy correspondence on 

 the same subject between him and Lord Goschen 

 in April, initiated by a letter to the Times of 

 Sir Joseph Lawrence with which Lord Goschen 



