XL.. EFFORTS FOR FREE TRADE 265 



that had to do with adding lustre to the name of 

 his old friend and mentor, Charles Darwin, came 

 with a special appeal to him. Mr. Alington, head 

 master of Shrewsbury School, writes to him at 

 this time asking him to give the boys a " chance 

 of really knowing a little more of their most 

 distinguished representative " and praying him 

 to give them a lecture on Darwin. Under all 

 the circumstances, however, he felt himself unable 

 to undertake it. He regretted the severance in 

 this year of his long connection with the British 

 and Foreign Marine Insurance Association, which 

 was taken over by the Royal. His colleagues on 

 the board gave him a handsome piece of plate in 

 recognition of his services as their Chairman. He 

 was President of the City Free Trade Association 

 and took the chair at their meeting and was 

 active in opposition to that Budget, introduced 

 by Mr. Lloyd George, by the rejection of which 

 the House of Lords went far towards signing its 

 death warrant. In December he had an article 

 on the Budget in the Nineteenth Century. He has 

 kept, among his correspondence, the following 

 letter from Miss Marie Corelli, which came to him 

 rather as a surprise, since he had not suspected 

 this very popular writer of an interest in matters 

 of national finance. 



Jrrivate. Mason Croft, 



Stratford -on- Avon . 



Dear Lord Avebury — I hope I may, on the privilege 

 of a brief acquaintance, take the liberty of writing you 

 these few lines. 



I have followed with keen attention your discussion 

 with Mr. Lloyd George on the evil idea of the Land Taxes, 

 which are already causing misery by the dismissal of 



