LORD AVEBURY

Evening Star, Issue 21753, 22 June 1934, Page 4

LORD AVEBURY

THE HOLIDAY SAINT Howard Marshall writes in the London ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ : Why do we have our August Bank Holiday every year? Because Sir John Lubbock, fourth baronet and first Baron Avebury, was not only a banker, a scientist, and a politician, but a humanitarian as well. A very remarkable man, and next Monday we celebrate his centenary, lie was born on April 30, 1834, .and died in 1913, just alter the discovery of fossil remains of the Piltdown man which further justified his pioneer researches into anthropology. Looking back upon the life of this great and cultured Victorian, it is, indeed, astonishing to consider the wide range of bis activities and the solid worth of his achievements. Lord Avebury was no mere dilettante in the field of science. He took a large share in laying the foundations of modern anthropology; lie was an acknowledged leader in zoological and entomological investigation. For thirty years be was an extremely active member of Parliament, with some twenty-nine Acts standing to his credit, among them those dealing with bank holidays, ancient monuments, shop hour regulations, and open spaces. He was president of the British Association in 1881, and of many other societies and organisations; he was chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, president of -the London Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the Loudon County Council. These responsibilities ami they were by no means the only ones he shouldered—would seem sufficient for any man, but we can take the measure, of his energy better when we reflect that he was also continuously active in the banking world, where he inaugurated important reforms; that lie wrote many popular and scientific books and lectured frequently, and still found time to devote to his family. It is hardly surprising, then, to discover in his biography, published today, 1 The Life Work of Lord Avebury,’ which is edited by his daughter, the Hou. Mrs Grant Duff, that 11 he wore elastic-sided boots, explaining to his family, when they objected, that one could learn a language in the time people take to lace or button up their boots.” 1 must admit that this biography makes somewhat chastening reading for the normally lazy individual. This, for example, is how Lord Avebury spent his waking hours when he went into the family bank at the age of fifteen: — “He made good progress, reading seven or eight hours a day, and devouring all sorts of books, but especially those on biology and geology. He made himself a time-table lor the days on which lie did not go to the city, mapping out most of the day Irom 6.30 a.in. to 12 p.m. The subjects on the time-table include mathematics (which he prepared and took to his father before breakfast), natural history (reading and work with the microscope), poetry, political economy, history, sermons (these he found he could not read later than 10 p.m. without falling ■asleep!), and, finally, German, which kept him awake till midnight.” Thus are great men made, and it is easy to see where he acquired the material for his famous list of ‘ The Hundred Best Books.’ This capacity for work and this passion lor knowledge did not make Lord Avebux-y inhuman or aloof. He was, indeed, distinguished for his kindness, his courtesy, and good humour, and it is a proof of his strength of mind that he changed a naturally melancholy disposition into one of 'invincible optimism. “Almost anyone,” ho said, “ can make himself pleasant if he wishes,” and upon that belief he acted. One of Lord Avebury’s closest friends and helpers was Charles Darwin, and he adhered completely to Darwin’s evolutionary teachings. It is, then, significant that his rehgiouus convictions never wavered, though he was driven by hard logic to accept as a final truth that his religion was one which had been gradually shaped by human minds. A PET WASP. “ Science is still regarded, ’ he wrote, “by many excellent but har-row-minded persons us hostile to re-ligious-truth, while in fact she is only opposed to religious error ” —a statement which we are prepared to accept to-day though only a man of great moral courage would have made it in the year 1870. As a scientist. Lord Avebury was extraordinarily painstaking and thorough. Ho would watch a wasp for a whole day; he even went so tar as to keep a wasp as a pet. . “ 1 kept a specimen oi I olistes gai-lic-a for no less than nine months. 1 took her, with her nest, m the Pyrenees early in May. ) had no difficulty in inducing her to leed on my hand, but at first she was shy and nervous. She kept her sting in constant readiness, and once or twice in the tram, when the railway officials came lor tickets, and X was compelled to hurry her back into her bottle, she stung me slightly. 1 think, however, entirely from fright. , “ Gradually 7 she became quite used to me, and when I took her on my hand apparently expected to be led. She even allowed mo to stroke her without any appearance of fear, and lor some months X never saw her sting. As for the Act of Parliament wh ch established the August Bank Hobday and the holidays on Easter Monday and Whit Monday, it is perhaps difficult now to realise how great- was the enthusiasm it aroused when Sir John Lubbock, as Lord Avebury then was, steered it through Parliament in XB-1, or why he became at once the most popular figure m England with the uick-narae of ‘ St. Lubbock. In those days manys of our young people often worked for ninety or 100 hours a week. Lord Avebury eained qtill more gratitude when his Shop Hours Regulation Act of 1886 limited their hours to seventy-six per week. It was typical ot Lord Avebury that lie should labour with such piactical results for those less fortunate than himself, and it is surely a complete answer to those who sometimes ac cused him of seeing life through rosecoloured spectacles. He was, it is tine, often purposely blind to other people s faults or misbehaviour, but he maintained that “ the mam object of religion is not to got a man into heaven, but to get heaven into a man . . - a wise approach both to education and philanthropy. . , To complete our picture of Loicl Avebury w 7 e must remember that, apart from his nature studies, lie (lid not shut himself up indoors at his desk entirely. We learn that in his younger days “he played cricket, hunted with the beagles, went to dances and parties, and. in fact, enjoyed life in many ways.” ’.lndy a man of universal mind.