PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



GENERAL MEETING, 6th JUNE 1866. 



Lord Belhaven and Stenton, K.T., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



A letter was read from the Duke of Buccleuch, President of the Society, 

 regretting that it would not be in his power to attend the meeting, owing to 

 his absence in London. 



The Secretaryship. 



Mr Campbell Swinton, yr. of Kimmergharne, said he had been requested by 

 the Directors to state the steps they had found it necessary to take in conse- 

 quence of the melancholy event by which, as they were aware, they had been 

 deprived of the services of the gentleman whom they had hoped to see occupy- 

 ing the position of Secretary of the Society. They all knew how gratifying it 

 was to Mr Macduff to have that appointment conferred upon him, and the 

 Directors of the Society had been looking confidently forward to having the 

 benefit of his services. They were all aware that, shortly after his appoint- 

 ment, he had been seized with severe illness, which at length terminated 

 fatally. He was sure he only expressed the feelings of the Society generally, 

 as well as of the Directors, when he said how much they were indebted to Mr 

 Hall Maxwell for the kind and considerate manner in which, during Mr 

 Macduff's somewhat lengthened illness, he had continued to perform the 

 duties of Secretary in Mr Macduff's behalf. The Directors had recorded, what 

 he was sure the members of the Society would concur in, their thanks to Mr 

 Maxwell, which were likewise deeply felt by Mr Macduff and his family, for 

 his kindness. He was sure they would also concur in the feeling of the 

 Directors that it would be wrong in them, in reporting the proceedings taken 

 in regard to the filling up of the vacancy, were they not to place on record the 

 loss the Society had sustained by the death of the late Secretary. With that 

 view he would propose they should adopt a minute to this effect : — " The 

 Directors cannot report to the Society the steps which it has been necessary 

 for them to take for filling up the office of Secretary without desiring to record 

 their sense of the great loss the Society has sustained by the death of Mr 

 Macduff of Bonhard, who was so recently appointed to that office. Mr 

 Macduff had been for several years an Ordinary Director of the Society, and all 

 interested in its proceedings are aware of the zeal, ability, and discretion 

 which he brought to the conduct of its affairs, and will participate in the deep 

 regret which his premature death has occasioned to a wide circle of friends 

 and acquaintances." Having read the minute, it only remained for him to 

 report to them that the Directors proceeded to fill up in a temporary way the 

 office of Secretary. They could not ask the formal approval of the Society at 

 this meeting, because, by the terms of the charter, that approval could only 

 be given at the January meeting ; but he could not doubt that the steps taken 

 by the Directors would, at the January meeting, receive their approval. It 

 was for him to report simply for the information of the meeting that the 



