500 



JOTJBNAL OF HOKTICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. [ December 22, I8«a 



pass unnoticed an imputation on his chai'acter which I 

 believe to be unmerited.— J. H. Smith. 



[Most readily do we insert the preceding coniiaunica.tion8, 

 and hope they will prove satisfactory to oiu- readers. We 

 have no other object in vituperating apparent delinquencies 

 than to secure a fair field to all competitors, nor do we 

 censure before we have obtained what we consider reliable 

 information. It is unfortunate that Mr. Hindson did not 

 announce his discovery that the birds were his own until 

 after one of the public had detected the fact ; and there is 

 one point on which neither Mr. Hindson nor Mr. Smith has 

 afibrded any information, and on which it is certainly desii-- 

 able. It would be an answer to this question now before 

 us:— "Who is Mr. Williams, of Spring Bank, near Welsh- 

 pool ? is he really an Esquii-e ^ I ask this because it was 

 said to be the namo of a man under Mr. Hindeon's control." 

 — Eds. J. OP H.] 



CAPTAIK HEATON JlNT) THE BIEMINGHA]\£ 

 SHOW. 



I HAVE read with some interest the remarks of your cor- 

 respondents lately on " Poultry Shows and Judges," I am 

 sorry that two or three cases have occurred recently, which 

 show that those communications are not uncalled for. I 

 allude to the recent occurrences at Birmingham and Leeds, 

 which you have most judiciously treated, as I think, by 

 making public the names of the offenders. AVith such cases 

 as Mr. Hindson's and Mr. Frederick Hardy's, there cannot 

 be any diversity of opinion. 



In the matter of Captain Heaton there is not any sus- 

 picion of dishonesty ; but there is a breach of rule and a 

 want of fairness, of which he must aUow me to say he has 

 not in your last paper given a satisfactory account. His 

 letter to " Small Fry" is most unsatisfactory. I have 

 nothing to do with the question whether the birds v/ero 

 bred by himseh" or Mr. KeUeway; so that they were honA nJa 

 his own property (and of this I have not heard that there is 

 any question), it matters Uttle. Captain Heaton's answer to 

 this is satisfactory enough. The question with which I 

 wish to deal is, that of his unlawful and uufiiir admission 

 to the Poidtry Show at Birmingham, on Satvu-day, the 2ath 

 of November last. 



I have before me the regulations and the programme of 

 the Meeting, from which I quote the following : — 



"17. No members of the Society, or of the Council, or 

 other person will be admitted to Bingley HaU before the 

 opening of the Exhibition, on Monday, November 30th, with 

 the exception of those who are actually engaged in the 

 aiTangements within the building. Special cai-ds of ad- 

 mission will be forwarded to the Judges to be used on Satur- 

 day, November 28th." 



" The exhibitors and the public will be admitted to Bingley 

 HaU to witness the judging of the cattle, sheep, pigs, roots, 

 and com (but not the poidtry), on Satm-day, November 2Sth, 

 at 9 o'clock A.M., upon payment of 10s. each." 



Now, these statements either mean what they put forth 

 or they ai-e worthless. If the former. Captain Heaton must 

 know this meaning as well as I do, and, therefore, with 

 knowledge he broke one of the regulations of the Show. If 

 the latter, the sooner the Birmingham Show comes to an 

 end the better for the unwary. 



Who were the many others followed by Captain Heaton 

 and Mr. KeUeway ? If they were persons who, as in the 

 case of these exhibitors, had not any business there, why 

 did not Captain Heaton at once inform the Secretary or 

 other chief in authority, and cause those persons to be le- 

 moved ? Captain Heaton must have known very weU that 

 the persons he foUovv-ed were improperly admitted,''and, there- 

 fore, he cannot escape the charge that he unfau-ly took ad- 

 vantage of an opportunity, a charge which in his case 

 becomes serious as the winner of the two sUver cups. I do 

 Dot wish it to be imderstood for a moment that I question 

 the justness of the award, or the worth of Captain Heaton's 

 birds ; but a man must accept the consequences of the 

 situations in which he may place himself. The only way in 

 "which shows and exhibitors can thrive is by strict observance 

 of rules. There cannot be any doubt but that Captain 

 Heaton on his own showing broke a rule and took an unfair 



advantage cvei- more scrupnlons exhibitors, which was most 

 reprehensible, even though he did not use it for his own gain. 



Captain Heaton wisely leaves the defence of the Birming- 

 ham Committee in their own hands ; brrt it will want very 

 ready hands indeed to aiford the Committee a defence at aU. 

 The acts of their servants are their own. They arc bound 

 to ofier some explanation, as what is miscaUtd " dignified 

 silence " may be misconstrued. Eulcs must be rigidly kept 

 by Committees and by exhibitors. It wUl not do to plead 

 mistakes of this kind on the one haad, or following the ex- 

 ample of many en the other. I hope that in aU future shows 

 any tH-each of rule by an exhibitor will be made a disqualifi- 

 cation. In this I shaU be supported by aU honest men. 



Captain Heaton wiU, I am sure, see with myself the im- 

 portance of the subject, and the necessity of foUowing it up 

 closely by speaking strongly and to the point. He has made 

 a mistake, and I have told him of it. Nevertheless, I much 

 regret any annoyance which I may thereby have caused him. 



As I am answering a communication which beai's the 

 name of Captain Heaton, I am bound to give my own, 

 which may be found in the Bu-mingham catalogue. — Geoege 

 Mamninq. 



In reply to Captain Heaton's statement in last week's 

 JoUKNAL OF HoETicuLTDKE, permit me first to thank that 

 gentleman ibr the great anxiety he displays for my especial 

 benefit, but at the same time to remind the Captain he has 

 evaded the question at issue altogether — viz., by what means 

 he and his friend gained admission on the Saturday to the 

 poidtry department of the Birmingham Exhibition, in direct 

 defiance of printed regulations ? 



Certainly your numerous readers would be iU-prepared to 

 receive the excuse, now urged by Capt. Heaton, that he 

 was not aware that " any favour was granted to himself or 

 Mr. KeUeway, we merely foUowed many others who entered 

 before we did." It is beyond doubt that Capt. Heaton weU 

 knew he was thus breaking the Birmingham rules, and the 

 excuse that he did only as others did before him is hardly 

 xvhat might be faiiiy anticipated from a government officer, 

 and one so well acquainted mth military discipline as is 

 .Capt. Heaton. It nevertheless reveals a recognition that 

 "lame excuses are better than none," whilst it does. not 

 even attempt either to explain how the admission was 

 obtained, or give a,ny reason why the rules were then so 

 flagrantly violated in favour of those exhibitors who chose 

 to pay the high admission fee often shUlings. There are 

 those individuals who curiously enough suppose that all 

 such admission money was not thrown away ; but certainly 

 the provisos of the printed rule expresslj' debarred even 

 those who actually paid the ten shUlings fi-om viewing the 

 poultry on the Saturday ; yet it is now openly admitted that 

 Capt. Heaton, Mi-. KeUeway and many others, enjoyed this 

 imvUege unmolested by any one. Should such things be ? 



It is only by strict equaUty of privileges to every exhibitor, 

 that even the Birmingham Show can" hope to maintain its 

 past position for integrity of purpose. No rule can be 

 honest if not sound to the core — in short, that does not 

 admit, or exclude, aU competitors alike, without favour or 

 affection. 



As a conclusion Capt. Heaton hands over all fm-ther 

 inquiry into this now unquestionable dereliction of rules to 

 the better hands of the Birmingham Committee. Do let 

 us hope that clean hands, therefore, are the order of the 

 day. StUl exhibitors have but Uttle reason for hope in the 

 direction now named, for rumour is everywhere rife that 

 " the matter is to be best met by allowing it to sleep ; and 

 then aU recollection of it wiU be blown over before the time 

 arrives for another year's meeting." If this rumour is 

 correct, and really present eu'Cumstances look very much 

 like it, pray let the bed be made up for two — viz., the admis- 

 sion of rich exhibitors without right, to the prejudice of the 

 less pecuniarily fortunate; and the unprecedented eccen- 

 tricities of the Game-judging at Birmingham, in 1863; 

 and then let both (if they can) sleep comfortably together, 

 for they are fitting bedfellows ; and possibly theirs wUl be- 

 roseate dreams, for 



Be it SHid, without shockinsj them. 



They lie sunring asleep, whilst tile Council arc rcokiog Ibcm. 

 — Small Fry. 



