The Maidstone election was a very close and equal contest
in the early part of the day. It ended, as we feel no doubt from the 3 o'clock poll, in the return of Sir John Lubbock. The Maidstone Liberals could not have selected a better man to fight their battle than one who had both the hearty good-will of the retiring Liberal Member, Mr. Lee, a con- siderable local prestige as an excellent landlord in Kent, and a far more considerable general prestige in England as one of the ablest and most scientific men of his day. His great speech to the electors on Tuesday week was extremely able. He had changed his mind, he said, on the ballot, because the experience of the last election had convinced him it was not only needful to protect the independence of the tenant, but also to protect the popularity of the landlord,—a new point, and a candid one from a landlord, though it can hardly present itself in that light to Sir John Lubbock himself,—and as good a one as can be made for so mischievous a necessity, if necessity. it be, as secret voting. On the education question Sir John Lubbock told one admirable story, in reference to the fear expressed by existing schools that the new Government schools will act just as new and deeper wells
act on shallower wells in their neighbourhood, and drain them of their children :—" I had heard not long before, of a large parish in one of our western upland districts, where there was only one windmill, and the farmers, finding that they often had to wait a long while before getting their corn returned from the mill, called a ineetiog and raised a subscription to put up another windmill. They had almost agreed to do this, when the proprietor of the old mill got up and said, I admit, gentlemen, that my old mill is not large enough to do all the work of this district, and that you often have to wait a long while before you get your corn ground; but then that is because there is often no wind. If there was always wind I should be able to grind all your corn ; but I ask what is the use of putting up another windmill when very often there is not wind enough for one?' "
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