Mr. Lee has resigned his seat for Maidstone, and Sir
John Lubbock, who so nearly gained the election for West Kent in 1868, has issued his address to the electors, promising a general and hearty support to the present Government. Maidstone will hardly be so foolish as to neglect the opportunity of returning such a candidate. An able banker, an accomplished economist and financier, a man of the widest and deepest scientific culture, a thorough physiologist, a good geologist, an original writer on pre- historic times, Sir John Lubbock combines practical and intellec- tual powers such as are rarely united in the same man. It is not often that a man so deeply versed in science would be thought other than doctrinaire when he came to speak of politics. But it is not so in the case of the late candidate for West Kent, who showed during his canvass there how sound and practical a view he took of the political situation. The alarm which the Church question then before the constituencies raised prevented the return of many a sound Liberal for English counties, and of Sir John Lubbock amongst the number. We trust he may be more fortunate at Maidstone. Parliament is poor in men who, like Dr. Lyon Play- fair, unite the highest theoretic knowledge of their day with a real capacity for political life.
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