Fdbraory U, 1867* j 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER.,. 



123 



MesBTfl. Waterer Ss Godfrey, Messrs. Lee» Messrs. Osbom & Sons, 

 Mr. Dancer, Mr. Standish, and Mr. W. Paul. When establislied, 

 these wiU afford nsefol information to those gentlemen who may wieh 

 to make selections for ornamental plautiupr. A collection of liosea 

 was also contributed by Mr. W. Patd, Mr. C. Turner, Messrs. Eivers 

 and Son, and Moesrs. Wood Sc Son. 



" It is yet too early to ascertain the amonnt of damage occasioned 

 by the exccBsive cold to which tho Chiswick Garden was exposed dur- 

 ing the frosts of January 1SG7, but it is to be feared that half-hardy 

 flnbjects will have saftered severely," 



The PRERIDENT said ihe other ^Reports appended to that which had 

 been read were in the hands of the members of the Soriety, and as 

 they were rather long it would not be necessary to read them, evei-y 

 member having a fall opportunity of making himself acquainted with 

 their contents. They would, with the consent of the meeting, be taken 

 as read (hear) . 



The Rev. George Cheere then moved that the Report just read bo 

 received and adopted. 



Mr. Harry Chester said, before the question was put he wished 

 to be allowed to make a few observations. The meeting wixa vei-y 

 satisfactory, and no one could fail to observe it as contrasted with 

 their meeting of two years ago, when there was a great deal of excited 

 opinion; but now quiet reigned, and excited feelings were gone. But 

 though there was an improved condition of affairs, the meeting was 

 not BO numerous as on that occasion, when the room was tilled. 

 There were two points in the Keport of .great interest. In one of them 

 he (Mr. HaiTy Chester) had taken a very great interest, having been 

 the first, he believed, to bring the matter before the Society, and that 

 Has the education of gardeners. The scheme had been well received 

 by the Council, and he had the pleasure of serving on the Committee, 

 who investigated that and other matters. There were some who had 

 doubts as to the possibility of the Council carrying out the scheme 

 recommended by that Committee, but the majority were in favour of it. 

 A very considerable portion of the scheme had been carried out, and it 

 was satisfactory to hud it had been attended with such excellent results. 

 Nothing could be more important to the Horticultuj-al Society than the 

 education of gardeners, and he (Mr. Harry Chester) would be glad if 

 some member of the Council would tell them more in detail what had 

 been done, as the passage in the Keport referred to it only in a very 

 cursor^' manner, and he should like to know more about it. That was 

 one point, the other was a matter that was referred to with a vagueness in 

 the Report which he could not understand — he meant the relations that 

 existed between the Royal Horticultural Society and the International 

 Horticultural Exhibition. On that part of the affairs of the Society 

 the Fellows were entitled to have more information. That Kxhibition 

 arose out of the visit of the Society's representatives to the Brussels 

 International Exhibition. It appeared from the statements which had 

 gone forth that the Royal Horticultural Society had treated the Exhi- 

 bition Committee with great liberality, and it also appeared that an 

 arrangement was made that under certain circumstances the gardens 

 were to be kept open longer than had been agreed ; a certain portion of 

 the profit arising therefrom to come to the Royal Horticnltnral Society. 

 It appeared that during the first four days of the Exhibition (the time 

 fixed originally as the duration of the Exhibition), there was a com- 

 plete failure, and instead of the Committee of the International Hor- 

 ticultural Exhibition having a profit, there was nothing but a loss, 

 and, of course, the obligations of the management to pay expenses, 

 would have been veiy great indeed. The act of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society prevented that, which would have been a veiy gi'eat dis- 

 couragement to future exhibitions. Now, the way he understood it was, 

 that a proposition came from the Exhibition Committee tlu'ough Sir 

 W.Dilke — who, by-the-by, he (Mi". Chester) did not see present, though 

 he wished he did. The Exhibition Committee sent Sir Wentworth 

 Dilke to negotiate with the Royal Horticultural Society, and the Society 

 gave them a chance of turning that into a great success which had 

 been at its outset, and as originally projected, a failure. The Society 

 agreed to open their gi'ounds for another week, for which concession 

 the Exhibition Committee were to pay all the expenses ; if there was 

 a loss the Society would not claim anything from the Committee, but 

 if there was a stuqjlus, then the Society were to have a portion of that 

 surplus. Cei-taiuly that seemed a natural bargain, and one entirely 

 within the limits and course of natural justice. This was agreed to 

 by Sir Wentworth Dilke ; a memorandum of the matter was made, 

 and a minute drawn up, which was read over to him, and he received 

 it before the Exhibition took place, and they (the International Hor- 

 ticnltiu'al Exhibition Committee) were bound by that which had been 

 agreed upon and put in writing, and given to Sir Wentworth Dilke, 

 the Chairman of their Executive Committee. But for the Society that 

 Committee would have been large sufferers ; they (the Society) had 

 come forward liberally, and did that which had brought about the good 

 result of a large irurplus. Now what was to become of that surplus ? 

 Few persons knew even what it was. There was no doubt the money 

 had been given by a great many people, and it was difficult to say what 

 the Committee were to do with it, as could be easily done if it had 

 been reciiived for any well-defined purpose. Then they could not give 

 it for anything else. It might, perhaps, be wise to keep it, and not do 

 anything at all with it ; for if it were a trust no power but the Legislature 

 and the Court of Chancery could give the trustees power to alter the 

 trast, Then the Managers of the Exhibition had thought proper to make 



a grant of £1000 to the Gardeners' Benevolent Institution, and though 

 he (Mr. Harry Chester) did not know if there was any lawyer present, 

 if there was, he would be glad to ask him if that grant was legal. He 

 did not want to dispute it, that was not his object ; he did not want to 

 complain, but what he did wont to say was, that there was still a large 

 surplus, and did not the Committee intend to give the Society any of 

 it ? fhear and cheers). It seemed to him that according to the under- 

 taking that had been entered into, that the Society ought to have some 

 (hear}. It was said that it was proposed to invest a portion of that 

 surplus in the purchase of the Lindley Library. No doubt it might 

 be, desirable that should be bought, bat he begged to say they had no 

 right to do anything of the kind. It seemed to him (Mr. Han-y 

 Chester), that it would be only right that the surplus, or, at all events, 

 some of it, should be handed over to the Society, and then by an 

 arrangement it might be agreed between the Koyal Horticultural So- 

 ciety and the Committee of the International Horticultural, that the 

 Lindley Library might bo purchased out of that surplus, and become 

 the property of the Royal Horticultural Society. He spoke without 

 having seen the Reports of the two bodies, and he hoped before the 

 present Meeting proceeded to the final adoption of the Report that 

 was now before them, that the members would be favoured with some 

 explanation by the Councd. There was another body who treated the 

 Intel-national Exhibition Committee with great liberality. He (Mr, 

 Harry Chester) referred to Her Majesty's Commissioners of the Exhi- 

 bition of 1851, who gave the use of the ground without any charge, 

 but they were not in a position to ask the Committee of the Inter- 

 national Exhibition to give them any portion of the sui-plus, nor, 

 indeed, did he (the speaker) suppose that they would ; and, in fact, if 

 they did the Commissioners would not take it, but the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society were indebted to the Commissioners, and if the Society 

 could get any of that surplus, it would in their present financial posi- 

 tion be of great use, as it could be handed over in part payment of 

 the amount in which the Society were indebttd to the Royal Com- 

 missioners of 1851. Possibly His Grace the Pies'dent, or some other 

 gentleman connected with the Council or with ih ^ Committee, would 

 kindly inform the Meeting of the views entertained of what he (Mr. 

 Harry Chester) had said. 



Mr. Edgar Bowring, the Secretary to the Royal Commissionerg of 

 the Exhibition of 1851, said that if the question had not been raised, 

 he should have felt it his duty to have brought it before the members of 

 the Society in his capacity as one of the Fellows. He wopld just state 

 the matter shortly, which was simply this : The Council submitted to 

 the Expenses Committee their estimates of the receipts of the year 1866, 

 and on that statement the Expenses Committee based their corre- 

 sponding expenditure. They have no legal control over the applica- 

 tion of their receipts, but they have over their expenditure. In the 

 anticipated receipts there were three matters which they took into 

 account — the exhibitions, the promenades, and the special fetes. 

 Now, the Society proposed to give up the Great Summer Exhibition 

 from which a great share of the profit was derived, as they thought the 

 public would get so hhi.fi>f with shows that they would not caro to go 

 Then as to the special fetes it was found that they really realised- 

 more than they were estimated at. Now the total estimate under 

 these heads for the year 1865 was £-2630, and for 1866 ©nly £2180, 

 or £450 less than in 1865, and it seemed that if the Society took a 

 sum of £300 in return for the very large sacrifice they would sustain 

 in not holding their Summer Show, aud allowed this in the es- 

 timate, that would meet the case. Therefore the estimate was passed 

 by the Expenses Committee with only the difference of £150, that be- 

 ing the absolute amount of difference between the two years. He (Mr. 

 E. Bowring) would not deny that the bad weather necessarily affected 

 the receipts of the promenades, though not to such a very great extent 

 as might have been expected, because the class of persons upon whom 

 the Society chiefly relied for that source of income had left town when 

 the very bad weather set in. The Expenses Committee knew very 

 well that as far as the special fetes were concerned the funds must 

 suffer very seriously, and it could not for a moment be denied or con- 

 cealed that the monetary panic which had prevailed had made a great 

 difference in the receipts. All those matters had been detrimental, 

 and it was now found that the receipts had been £930 less than the 

 estimate, and that being added to the amount short already indicated 

 of £150, showed a deficit of £1080 as contrast.ed with the previous 

 year. Then it seems that there arose a state of things which had 

 never been contemplated by anybody, for the International Horticul- 

 tural Exhibition, instead of being as at first had been anticipated a 

 failure, had been by the action taken by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society turned into a success, and the Committee found themselves 

 with an unexpected surplus of £3000. Unfortunately, however, 

 they were in the position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who 

 having a surplus was applied to in all places and from all quarters, as 

 His GracBj the President, would well remember had been the case 

 with the ^mmissioners of 1851, who had the same difficulty in dealing 

 with a surplus on a large scale. He (Mr. Edgar Bowiing)" was not a 

 lawyer, but he had consulted some of his friends learned in that way 

 (hear), and from them he had ascertained, that though the International 

 Horticultural Committee had no legal right to do what they had done, 

 no one had any power, or at least any right, to find fault with them for 

 what they had done. The question under somewhat similar circum- 

 stances had been mooted as to the receipts of the Kxhibition of 

 1851, bat here it appeared that no one who had given anything was 



