PilOCEELlNGS AT GEXEliAL MEETINGS. 27 



connected with land in every part of Scotland, it was with much justice urged as only 

 right that its Board of I\Ianagenient should embrace rejiresentatives from all the districts 

 of Scotland. The proposals of the Committee, in so far as regarded the giving those 

 members of the Society who paid the lower subscription that share in the management 

 which from their numbers they had a right to demand they should have, the Board, he 

 was glad to say, had agreed to recommend for their adoption. The tenant-farming 

 element, it would be found on examination of the list of membership, was more than 

 double in numerical importance, and quite equal in subscribing importance, to the 

 landed proprietor element of the whole Society. A reform, therefore, which proposed 

 that tenant-farmers and those paying the lower subscription should in future have a 

 largely increased representation on the Society's Board of Management was in the right 

 direction; that they, in place of having, as had been the custom hitherto, only some seven 

 or eight rejiresentatives out of a total of fitty-seven, should in future have at least 

 nineteen representatives on the Board out of a total of fifty-nine. This, he said, was 

 well, but this alone would not suffice. More was needed, and it was to ensure the 

 wider distribution of representatives over the different districts of Scotland, as well as 

 that these should be the choice of the members themselves in these districts, that he 

 had to propose that the by-law as drawTi up by the committee should be substituted 

 for the existing by-law No. 5, which the Directors had again asked the meeting to agree 

 to. Unless some such regulation as that which the committee recommended were 

 adopted, there was no guarantee that there should not be a continuance of the evil 

 which had been so generally and loudly complained of. The Directorate of the Society 

 might still continue to be the same exclusive body, electing as it did now its own suc- 

 cessors, independent altogether of what might be the wishes of its members. And 

 they should have the Society managed, as heretofore, by a certain definite number of 

 gentlemen in the near neighbourhood of Edinburgh. The method hitherto in opera- 

 tion for the selection of the Directorate had been apparently devised for the purpose^ of 

 keeping the Board as exclusive and as closely guarded from without as it was possible 

 to imagine, and one which he thought would take more eloquence and persuasiveness 

 to defend than even the gentlemen who opposed his motion could bring to bear upon 

 the understandings of all who were possessed of ordinary jintelligence. The practice had 

 been for the Directors, who were responsible for the list of new Office-bearers for the 

 ensuing year to be laid before the general meeting, to delegate the preparation thereof 

 to a committee composed as follows : —Of the Honorary Secretary and Honorary 

 Treasurer, the Conveners of the difterent committees (twelve in number), and those 

 tenant-farmers on the Board who retired for the year (usually two in number.) Now, 

 the selection being entrusted to a conmiittee constituted as that was, really amounted 

 to jdacing the choice of the Directorate in the hands of almost the same indi- 

 viduals year after year, because, as any one could satisfy himself by examining the 

 lists of committee published in the Transactions, it would be found that the con- 

 veners of the different committees were seldom changed, very properly hoMing these 

 offices for a long series of years. For instance, out of the twelve conveners who were at 

 present presiding over the committees, six had served for at least twelve years, the other 

 six for i)eriods varying from ten to two years. He asked them if a more effective deWce 

 could be hit upon for making the Directorate a close and exclusive bo<ly, and of pre- 

 venting outsiders gaining admission to its sacred precincts ? For, be it remembered, 

 though the election of all Office-bearers rested by the charter in the hands of this general 

 meeting each year; yet, as they all knew, it really rested with those who were entrusted 

 with the jireparatiou of the list to be submitted thereat. Seeing that had been the 

 method of procedure, it was not to be wondered at that the Board of Management of 

 the Society had failed to .secure the confidence of its members generally. It was true 

 that from outside pressure an apparent consulting of the wishes of members had been 

 granted of late years — viz., that provided for in the by-law No. 5, which they were 

 asketl to re-enact, whereby members had the i)rivi!t'ge of suggesting names of indi- 

 viduals to serve on the Board ; but, for several reasons, a.s those acipiainted with the 

 matter knew, this regulation had practically resulted in nothing. And some, he 

 knew, urged its failure as a reason against this new .scheme he was advocating. But 

 the pro\i.^ions in this l)y-law were widely ilifferent from the provisions in the other, 

 and he was hopeful, if ailopted, would lead to very different result.s. Here the 

 assurance was given that the nominations niaile by the .several «listricts should have 



})roper re.s]>ect i)aid to them ; and. again, there was the provision with which the by- 

 aw concluded, that regulations should be framed to ensure that the by-law should bo 

 carried out in each district, and that ellicient means should be taken to ascertain whom 

 the members resident therein ilesire to nominate as their repnsentativcs on the Boani. 

 The committee did not consider it their duty to frame these regulations, believing it 

 better to leave these for future consideration, as a matter of detail which could without 

 dilhculty be unanged, provided tlu; scheme was .iccepted by the Societv. It is urged 

 by Mr. Smith and other opponents of the bv-h\w that, if carried out, they would have 

 rcjiresentatives chosen who resided so far from F-dinlnirgh that they would not take 



