and subsequent* Correspondence relating thereto. 291 



addressed by him to the Chairman or Secretary of the Hull Pure 

 Linseed-cake Association. He therefore wrote as follows : — 



" I beg to acknowledge the receipt yesterday of your letter of the 28tb. 

 instant ; and this morning, in a registered envelope — not through the Eetumed. 

 Letter Office, but obviously through yourselves, and in a well-thumbed con- 

 dition — that of my two registered letters of the 1st and 20th instant, to the 

 Chairman or Secretary of the Hull Pure Linseed-cake Association. 



" I beg also to acquaint you that I have been informed by the Post-Office 

 officials, to whom by your letter of the 28th instant you referred me for that 

 information, that the former of those two letters was taken in by [quoting the 

 names given], and by them delivered to you as Secretaries of the Hull Pure 

 Linseed-cake Association. I therefore assume that my letter of the 20th. 

 reached you in the same manner, and through the same channel, as they were 

 both delivered to you at the same time, and have been returned to me in the 

 same envelope. 



" In your letter to me of the 26th you say that there is neither Chairman 

 nor Secretary of the Hull Pure Linseed-cake Association ; and in yours of the 

 28th you say that, in your opinion, it is a fine question if that Association 

 really does or does not exist, although you, amongst others, continue to publish 

 its existence as a fact, and to trade under cover of its implied guarantee. 



" Under such circimistances it is idle to attempt further correspondence 

 with a body that has no real existence. I did not ask personal correspondence 

 ■with yourselves, and J shall now submit the correspondence that has taken 

 place to the Chemical Committee of the Society, in order that they may deal 

 with it as they may think proper." 



The foregoing Report of the attempted correspondence with 

 the " Hull Pure Linseed-cake Association," by means of regis- 

 tered letters addressed to the Chairman or Secretary of that body, 

 Avas published as part of the Proceedings of the February Council- 

 meeting in the Agricultural newspapers ; and the following addi- 

 tional correspondence has since taken place in reference thereto. 



" Azov Buildings, 5, High Street, Hull, 

 " February 19th, 1874. 

 " Sin, — My attention has this morning been called to a report of a meeting 

 of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, whereat the Chairman read a correspondence 

 which is published in the ' Mark Lane Express ' of the 9th inst., which has 

 been carried on with reference to the Hull Pure Linseed-cake Association, and 

 in the absence from home of the chairman, I hasten to inform you that none 

 of the letters referred to have ever reached him or myself, or, as far as we 

 know, any official of the Association. I consider it, however, a matter of such 

 grave importance that I shall call a meeting of the Committee at an early 

 date, when the affair shall be most thoroughly investigated. 



" In the meantime I w^ill thank you at once to send me the letters referred, 

 to, which the correspondence states have been returned to you. 



" I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



" H. W. Chambers, 

 " Vice-Chairman to the Hiill Pure Linseed-cake Association. 

 " To the Secretary of the Eoyal Agricultural Society. 

 " P.S. — I send a copy of this letter to the ' Mark Lane Express." 



U 2 



