Fabraary 20, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIC0LTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



159 



which the Council were prepared to recommend, lie felt it his 

 duty to second the motion tliat this Meeting do not receive or 

 adopt the Report of the Council [hear and cheers]. 



Mr. C. PoYNTZ Stewart said lie should he happy to second 

 the motion proposed by Sir Alfred Slade. 



Mr. Allan Bruce complained that no notice of the previous 

 meeting had been given him, and uo notice last night of the 

 present Meeting. He thought that if their privileges were to 

 be affected in the way intended by the Council, it ought to 

 be done courteously as a question of good faith and gentle- 

 manly feeling as much as a question of people acting for them 

 to protect their interests, and not the interests of Her 

 Majesty's Exhibition Commissioners of 1851. The whole 

 question seemed one of much wider ground than one merely as 

 between the Fellows and 

 the Council. He made the 

 charge that good faith had 

 not been kept by the Council 

 to the I'ellows [hear, hear]. 

 They ought to consider the 

 circumstances under which 

 the whole of that neighbour- 

 hood had been improved — 

 under what circumstances 

 people had taken their 

 houses — what sums of 

 money had beenput into the 

 pockets of people who owned 

 the laud, whether Commis- 

 sioners or not — and into the 

 pockets of contractors who 

 built the houses — and how 

 the value of the property 

 had been increased [loud 

 cheers]. One of the chief 

 inducements for coming to 

 that neighbourhood was the 

 power to go into the Royal 

 Horticultural Society's Gar- 

 dens [hear, hear]. They 

 wanted it for themselves, 

 their families, and friends, 

 and there were very few 

 people in the neighbourhood 

 who had not taken tickets 

 for the Koyal Horticultural 

 Gardens, who were not en- 

 titled to the privileges of 

 these Gardens, and who did 

 not look upon it as a ques- 

 tion much wider than that 

 merely between the Fellows 

 and the Council as to 

 whether the privileges of 

 the Gardens were to be 

 reserved for the FeUows of 

 the Society [hear, hear]. 

 These were the views he had 

 intended to bring before the 

 Meeting had the Council 

 persisted in moving the 

 adoption of the Report. As 

 it was they had found the 

 Council out [loud cheers]. 

 They had found out what 

 the Council were doing. As 

 a body, one-half of the Coun- 

 cil belonged to the Royal 

 Commission. 



.„^,™"'^' S'--"Ti' (interrupting).— I am the only one belonging 

 to the Exhibition of 18-51. t= e 



Mr. Bruce.— What about Mr. Kelk? 



Mr. Kelk. — I am not one of them. 



Mr Bruce begged to apologise. WeU, the Council and the 

 bociety have said the Report is to be withdrawn because they 

 are ashamed of it, and if there is a vote of confidence brought 

 |°™^™^e '^^"^ ^""^ °°* ""^^^ "'"■ feehngs upon it are 



The Chairman.— The Duke of Buccleuch has not attended the 

 Council meetings at all. I may say that notices of the Meeting 

 were inserted m the Tirnes and Standard, and I am very pleased 

 to see so full a Meeting. ^ ^ 



, Mr. Hauohton thought a special notice ought to have been 

 given of so important a Meeting as that [hear, hear]. This 

 was quite an exceptional case to those in which the FeUows did 

 not care to attend in order to transact the ordinary business of 

 a meeting. He had come to the Meeting with a wish to support 

 tne Council, and he thought they were in some sort partners 

 with the Commissioners. The provisions read by Sir Alfred 

 blade stowed that the Society held their land upon most favour- 



Barleria elegans. (For description see page 166.) 



able terms. The land had been given to them on terms such 

 as they could not get in the market, and they were Ijound, he 

 thought, to act harmoniously witii those who were their partners 

 [hear, hear]. He wished that these Gardens and the buildings 

 surrounding them, and the Albert Hall, should work as far as 

 possible in union — one with the other, so as to confer the greatest 

 possible benefit on the jilace [hear and no]. .\.t the same time 

 they had to consider what were their own rights and privileges 

 respecting the Gardens, and he thought that the conditions 

 offered to them were absolutely unsatisfactory, as the most 

 vaUnible of their privileges would be taken away witliout getting 

 auytliing in return [hear, hear]. If the Council had reduced 

 the number of tickets to one-half, and made them freely trans- 

 ferable, he could have assented to some slight modifications 



in some of the subsequent 

 clauses not expressed so 

 clearly as they ought to be, 

 and then he could liave given 

 the propositions his hearty 

 support. As it was, he de- 

 clined to join in the impu- 

 tation of motives on gentle- 

 men sitting at the Council- 

 table [cries of hear] ; in- 

 deed, he felt strongly that 

 such imputations ought 

 never to have been made. 



Mr. Bruce. — Oh, no im- 

 putations were made. 



The Chairman. — Well, 

 gentlemen, the question be- 

 fore us is — Whether the Re- 

 port of the Council be or be 

 not adopted ? 



A Fellow. — That Report, 

 I understand, is withdrawn. 

 The Chairman. — No ; it 

 was placed over until this 

 day for consideration, it be- 

 ing agreed that certain re- 

 solutions of Sir Alfred Slade 

 were added by the Council. 

 The Council do adopt these 

 resolutions in their Report. 

 Sir A. Slade. — I think 

 not. 



A Fellow. — The Com- 

 missioners tender an agree- 

 ment to the Council of this 

 Society. 



Sir A. Sl.ide. — No ; tho 

 Council tender it. 



Tlie Fellow. — No, I am 

 stating the case con*ectly. 

 The Council intend propos- 

 ing certain modifications in 

 the agreement. 



The Chairman. — Tou are 

 quite right as far as you go. 

 The Fellow. — The na- 

 ture of these modifications 

 I do not know, but on ac- 

 ceptance of them by this 

 Society, Her Majesty's Com- 

 missioners withdraw their 

 proposals. That being so, 

 I do not see how it is in the 

 power of the Council to lay 

 these propositions before 

 ^ the Meeting. 



Sir A. Slade.— They have not withdrawn the propositions. 

 The Chairman.— This document has never before been sent to 

 Her Majesty's Commissioners. We knew nothing of what the 

 Commissioners thought untU this morning, when we received 

 the letter I have read to you. We have nothing to do with the 

 Commissioners, mind, in this matter. The Council are not 

 influenced by them in any way whatever. Knowing this docu- 

 ment was coming before you to-day for your assent or disap- 

 proval, the Council recommended a course for your adoption. 

 'That IS exactly where it is. We have nothing further to do in 

 this matter than to show the way in which the Commissioners 

 are now meeting us. According to this proposal, they say 

 they will have nothing to do with any propositions. The 

 whole thing is broken up, and we go back to the subsisting 

 arrangements previously to this correspondence. The motion 

 is-" That the Report of the Council be not adopted." 



Mr. HiBBERD rose to move an amendment [cries of " order,' 

 and "divide."] He should be very brief. Last week they were 

 taken by surprise, and to-day also. It seemed to him advisable 

 to make terms with the Commis.sioners if they could— [No, no] — 

 and for the future to keep as far apart from them as they could 



