cH.xLvi LAST DAYS 815 



rest, and on the 15th he was so much better that 

 they were able to move to London. On the 

 21st he was in the Chair at that meeting at the 

 Cannon Street Hotel of which Lady Avebury 

 gives the pathetic account quoted m the last 

 chapter. His own entry referring to it is : 

 " Took the Chair at the Free Trade meeting in the 

 Great Hall at Cannon Street. It was crammed, 

 and many standing. Balfour of Burleigh, 

 Brassey, Ritchie, Inchcape, Hugh Bell, A, Morley, 

 Blyth and Lawrence Currie spoke. S. H. Morley, 

 Sir E. Speyer, A. D. Elliot and many other 

 leading City men were there. Altogether it was 

 a great success." 



Mr. Elliot remarks of this occasion, that he 

 well remembers being present, and on the plat- 

 form, though with no claim to rank among " City 

 men." " Lord Avebury's speech on January 21, 

 1913," he writes, " was a really admirable one, 

 and I remember being a good deal vexed that such 

 a convincing bit of reasoning was not adequately 

 reported by the Press." 



Characteristically, Lord Avebury sounds no 

 note here of any exceptional effort which such a 

 performance must have cost him, in the condition 

 of his health, nor does he express any of the fears 

 felt by Lady Avebury. That which to others 

 seemed an act of astonishing courage, he carried 

 through as the most simple matter of course. 



Lady Avebury speaks of this meeting as the 

 last that he attended. It was, in fact, the last of 

 anything like the same scale, but on the very 

 next day he " attended the City meeting to 

 protest against the Representation Bill." 



