18 EROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



his efficient staff. But what I wish to make a few remarks upon is a system by 

 which the whole time of the Secretary is not devoted to the interests of the Society. 



The Chairman — I think that is the third resolution. Will you confine yourself to 

 the first, if you please ? 



Mr. Waldegrave Leslie — In the resolutions I put in a proviso as to the grave times 

 of agricultural depression of the present and last year, and I wish to draw the attention 

 of the members of this Society to what has been done in the English Society, where, 

 out of a directorate of fifty members, there are no fewer than twenty-one gentlemen 

 connected with it who farm themselves principally, and also there are twenty-one 

 having farms, and four implement makers, and one seed merchant. That has worked ex- 

 ceedingly well in the ancient Society of England, and I do not see why the same experi- 

 ment should not be tried here. I am led to understand, since I came into the yard 

 this morning, that this matter has been occupying the attention of the Directors, and 

 that they propose to receive a report in the month of November, and to lay it before 

 the General Meeting in January, and such being the information I have received, I dO' 

 not wish to press this in the shape of a resolution, but will leave this matter also till 

 the January meeting, when we shall receive this report. I do so because I do not wish 

 now to occupy time or to forestall what the Directors may be able to do in their greater 

 wisdom. I wish also to say, with regard to these committees, that I think 



The Chairman — That is the second resolution, I think ? 



Mr. Waldegrave Leslie — Yes, 



The Chairman — Then have you done with the first ? 



Mr. Waldegrave Leslie — I have done with the first. 



Mr. Campbell Swinton of Kimmerghame — Since Mr. Waldegrave Leslie, although 

 he has not intimated his intention of j^ressing his motion at present, has expressed an 

 opinion with regard to it, I think it may not be amiss to say a single word in addition 

 to what has been mentioned, that this subject is at present under the consideration of 

 the Directors. The matter was discussed to some extent at the Kelso meeting, and 

 following that by a Committee of Directors, which has been appointed under the presi- 

 dency of Mr. Scott Dudgeon, and during his absence from the country of my Lord 

 Polwarth, matui-ely to consider the matter of electing the office-bearers of this Society, 

 or rather the suggesting to the general meeting of persons to be appointed to the various 

 offices to the Society. But I do not think it would do to allow this large and important 

 meeting to separate without putting Mr. Leslie right with regard to the composition 

 of the Board of Ordinary Directors. I will not anticipate — for I do not know what it 

 may be — the report of the committee now sitting on the subject, but yet I may say 

 that it will be very difficult for them to suggest in regard to the composition of the- 

 Board anything that would more entirely meet the views of my honourable friend wha 

 suggested this motion with regard to the composition of the Directorate. The motion 

 points out that the Directorate shoaid be composed of proprietors or tenants interested 

 in agricultural pursuits — I forget the exact words — and not occupied chiefly with other 

 professional duties. There could not be, as it happens, a more inopportune or inap- 

 propriate period for bringing this motion forward than the present, because, vnth. the 

 exception of one gentleman — a rev. gentleman — who is, I believe, the first minister of 

 the Church who ever sat on the Board of Direction* — one of whom I may say, in a par- 

 enthesis, that I believe he is as good a farmer as he is a minister. With the exception 

 of that rev. gentleman, there is not on the present list of Ordinary Directors a single 

 man who is not either a proprietor, and thereby interested in agricultural pursuits, or 

 a tenant-farmer, known for his skill in these matters. I have sat often — I do not sit at 

 present — on the Board of Ordinary Directors, and I am free to acknowledge that I have 

 seen benefit accruing from representatives of other professions being occasionally mem- 

 hers of the Board. I have seen very useful advocates, very useful Writers to the 

 Signet, and very useful accountants members of the Board of Directors ; but at this 

 moment the Board of Direction does not contain one single man who is concerned in 

 any of these professions. It consists entirely either of landed proprietors or of tenant- 

 farmers, who have been selected for their special knowledge of the subject. As to how 

 the experience of landed proprietors is to be decided when they are appointed to the 

 Directorate, I do not know whether my honourable friend would suggest a competitive 

 examination for that purpose, but I think you may consider that a man has an interest 

 in land from the fact that he possesses it, and has a great stake in it. I would also 

 remind my honourable friend, what he seems to have forgotten, that there is a rule of 

 this Society by which every member of the Society has an individual voice in the selec- 

 tion of Directors, because it is a rule that every member is not only empowered, but is 

 requested, to suggest, previous to the annual general meeting, the names of gentlemen 

 whom he would wish placed on the Board of Direction. There is such a rule, and the 

 Directors have often lamented that it is not more generally acted on, and if I am not 



* The late Principal Baird,-who was for many years chaplain to the Society, acted as an Ordinary 

 Director of the Society diuing the years 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1830. 



