It is too soon after the death of Lord Lugard to attempt anything more than to write down some ideas and impressions that come into the mind at the first realization of our loss.

The chief impression upon considering Lord Lugard's public career is the immense range of his life and work. This never ceased to astonish, as some chance remark of his suddenly recalled that nearly seventy years before he had been playing his part in imperial affairs. From the moment when in 1878, at the age of twenty, he left Sandhurst, until a few days before his death, his was an active working life. As the needs of the British Empire changed and his own qualities and ideas developed, he passed through four clear-cut stages of his career, any two of which would have represented the life-work of most public men.