230 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



was a member of what he himself writes of as 

 the " Duke of Devonshire's Free-Trade Club." 



The Duke was more in accord with Lord 

 Avebury on this Free Trade question than other 

 leaders of the party. The diary of February 15 

 notes : " Party meeting at Lansdowne House. 

 Balfour opened, then the Duke of Norfolk 

 proposed a vote of confidence in him as leader, 

 and Colonel Sanderson seconded. The Duke of 

 Devonshire made a Free Trade protest. Chamber- 

 lain answered, and Hicks Beach rejoined. Hugh 

 Cecil spoke, asking if we were to be everywhere 

 opposed, and got no satisfactory reply ! The 

 speeches were all good and conciliatory, but 

 the result will, I feel, be disastrous if Protection 

 is to be really the policy of the Party." 



On the 21st of the same month he writes : 

 " Shop Hours Committee meeting at Cannon 

 Street Hotel. The Bishop of London could not 

 come, so I took the chair. Everything was very 

 harmonious. They also passed a unanimous 

 vote in support of our Sunday Bill. Then to a 

 meeting of the Unionist Free-Trade Club. Some 

 of them very militant. I took the line that we 

 can do more for Free Trade by acting as loyal 

 members of the Unionist Party on other questions, 

 and this was, I think, the general feeling." 



On March 9 he " moved the House of Lords 

 that Sunday Shopping required the serious and 

 earnest attention of H.M. Government. The 

 Archbishop of Canterbury supported strongly, 

 though advocating more inquiry. The Govern- 

 ment (Tweedmouth) accepted, and offered a 

 Joint -Committee. Lansdowne approved, but 



