Sir John Lubbock, who contested West Kent with great spirit
in the Liberal interest in 1865, has been this week put for- ward by Mr. Carey Foster, B.A., and Dr. Odling, F.R.S., graduates of the London University, as a candidate, specially uniting the scientific and political attainments desirable in the representative of a scientific University's constituency. And Sir John Lubbock is doubtless an exceedingly able man both of science and business, an accomplished physiologist, a scientific banker, an able speaker, and a hearty Liberal. But when Dr. Odling and Mr. Carey Foster make it a point in his favour that " Sir John Lubbock, not being a graduate of our University (or indeed of any other), we should, by proposing him, avoid the otherwise inevitable difficulty of appearing to act on ;behalf of any one section of our brother graduates," they strike us as poking those to whom they appeal. According to that remark- able applica:.:In of the principle of impartiality, a naturalized Frenchman would be the most advisable choice for an English constituency, and a man without a penny of either real or per- sonal property, would be the most impartial representative of a constituency in which both the real and personal property were of the first value and importance. Sir John Lubbock is a man of the highest calibre, who would do the greatest credit either to West Kent or any other constituency ; but we fail to appreciate the special argument in his favour as the nominee of the Univer- sity of London, that he is not a graduate of that University, and can never have access to the debates of its Convocation.
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