March 27, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



2.'57 



at wliich tliey passed a resolution that they had resigned. In 

 consequence of that resolution Sir Alfred Slade communicated 

 with some other gentlemen with the view of forming another 

 Council, and after certain negotiations the Council asked them to 

 wait upon them, which they did, and the statements then made 

 were of such overwhelming importance, that he could not pass 

 them by without notice [hear, hear]. They began by asking if 

 they could suggest any way by which the Council could escape 

 from their difficulty. A more extraordinary question he had 

 never heard proposed [hear, and confusion]. Now the Council 

 were in this dilemma, that when they dissolved the meeting they 

 either knew that they had the power to adjourn, or they did not, 

 and if they did, their conduct was dishonourable in adjourning 

 and not dissolving the meeting. We suggested to them that they 

 ought to be responsible for their accounts, and they made the ex- 

 traordinary statement that they were not answerable for the ex- 

 penditure of the Society's funds [cheers and counter cheers]. 

 Just imagine, they were not responsible for one penny they 

 spent! [great laughter]. Then they arrived at another dilemma 

 — namely, that by a mistake of their's the sum of ±'931 had 

 been applied to a wrong purpose. Their contention seemed to 

 be that they were not answerable for their accounts. If that 

 were so, it was, indeed, a diiHcult thing to have confidence in a 

 body possessing such enormous irresponsible powers [cheers 

 and counter cheers]. The Council had frittered away five 

 weeks of the Society's time in making the most abominable 

 bye-laws that ever were framed [cheers and counter cheers]. 

 He desired to say that they were only there to deal with the 

 Council as a body, and not as single gentlemen. If they had 

 thought it desirable to go out as a body there would have been 

 no noise, and all irritation on the subject would have been spared 



on both sides, and though Mr. Wilson [interruption]. 



The Ch-ueman. — I must request you not to enter into any- 

 thing not before the meeting. 



Mr. LiNDs.w. — If it is necessary to charge any one man with 

 having failed in his duty, it was the Secretary who had pro- 

 mised to resign [hear hear], and he considered the conduct of 

 the Secretary in holding a correspondence between his right 

 and his left hand was an insult to the Society as long as he sat 

 in his chair [applause and uproar]. He had stated to the best 

 of his ability the faults of the Council, and it appeared to him 

 that they only existed as a Council by sufferance, to carry on 

 the existing routine business of the Society, and had no power 

 whatever to legislate on its behalf [applause and counter ap- 

 plause]. His opinion and that of the party with whom he 

 acted was, that the C'ouncU were under the sway of persona of 

 gigantic influence as Commissioners [cheers and ironical cheers] , 

 and that they were under the impression that the Society was 

 insolvent when it was in a solvent state, and it was their duty 

 to protest ffost emphatical'y against any such conclusion. He 

 had heard that the Council had conceded part of the land to Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners, and if so they had acted ultra vires, 

 and the transaction must be repudiated, for they had no right to 

 barter away property belonging to the Society without its con- 

 sent [renewed applause], and any such arrangement must be 

 ratified by a general meeting before it could be carried into 

 effect. If the Council, acting on their own responsibility, could 

 bargain away one part of the Sooiety's property, why not every- 

 thing ? The thing would be absurd [cheers]. There might be 

 perhaps some arrangements between the Council and the Com- 

 missioners, but they certainly had not appeared in any paper 

 to which that Society had access [hear], and he could only re- 

 peat that if sach were the case it was a most unwarrantable 

 proceeding. The way in which they had carried on the aiJairs 

 had not been satisfactory he believed to a single member, and 

 there was every reason to believe that if their efforts had been 

 properly directed they would have been in a much more satisfac- 

 tory position [applause]. The Council had proved themselves 

 unable to carry on the affairs of the Society to a prosperous issue, 

 and he wished to impress upon the Fellows present the necessity 

 of their voting against the proposition before the meeting, and 

 passing a final resolution unanimously which would enable the 

 Council to resign. 



General Scott said he durst say they had all heard of the story 

 of ** Coelebs in search of a wife," and how the old man was 

 always talking of his lamentable condition as a miserable sinner 

 [cries of " question " and " silence."] He claimed to be heard 

 [cries of " Speak to the point."] He was speaking to the point, 

 but the great difficulty in societies Hke that was to get the Fel- 

 lows to understand how matters were really situated. If the 

 meeting would allow him he should continue his story [ no, 

 no.] It was very short and very much to the point. They 

 had been told that they were all good men with the exception of 

 himself [a voice, " Individually, not as a body."] Well, he 

 would give up the story, although it was a good one [laughter]. 

 Some three years ago he foresaw what would happen between 

 the Commissioners and the Society, and he placed his resigna- 

 tion in the hands of Mr. Wilson Saunders, requesting him to 

 have it accepted as soon as he thought that it would not be of 

 benefi.t to the Society that he (General Scott) should remain 



Secretary. On two or three subsequent occasions he renewed 

 his wish to retire, and at that very moment he had sent in his 

 resignation. It was in the hands of the Assistant-Secretary, but 

 stiU he was not a bit certain that he had any right to resign 

 [oh, oh]. The gentleman who spoke last said the Council 

 should have retired in the ordinary way. Why, what was the 

 ordinary way '! They had got the opinion of their sohcitors, and it 

 was, that according to the bye-laws, the Council could go ; but 

 the Commissioners had got an opposite opinion sent them by 

 the Solicitor-General, and he (General Scott) was not sure that 

 the Solicitor-General was not right. The constitution of the 

 CouucU was to prevent any section of members coming suddenly 

 forward and creating a revolution [hear, and laughter j. He 

 should not be a bit astonished that, when the present Councils' 

 resignations were given in, the Council would find they could 

 do nothing. He thought the mode that had been adopted was a 

 very unfair way of attacking the Council. He was almost per- 

 suaded that the gentlemen who attacked them knew his (Gene- 

 ueral Scott's) own personal opinion from the first was that the 

 Council should go out, and others be admitted, one by one. 

 Mr. LiNDS.iv. — No. 



General Scott. — At all events there was a noble lord, an 

 acquaintance of that gentleman, would tell him that was the 

 case. He knew that noble lord would confirm his (General 

 Scott's) statement. 



Sir A. Slade. — He is not here to confirm it. 

 General Scott in continuation, said the last time a gentleman 

 made a most extraordinary attack upon him, because, indeed, 

 he had been superintending soldiers who were whitewashing 

 the ceiUng of Albert Hall, He should not have been ashamed 

 of that if he had done so, but he really had nothing to do with 

 the matter. 



Mr. LioGiNS. — I will explain. I did not mean 



General Scott. — Allow me. In 1868 he found a gentleman 

 who was taking great interest in the formation of the Council, 

 speaking in high terms of the " able management " of Lieut. - 

 Col. Scott. Now, that gentleman at all events must have known 

 he was not such a traitor to the Council as he (General Scott), 

 was represented to be. At another meeting a gentleman wished 

 to know what was paid to Lieut.-Col. Scott, E.E., who had not 

 the courtesy to read the Report, but left it to be done by the 

 Assistant-Secretary. It appeared, therefore, that he was too 

 proud for his work. Did he think the only salary he got was 

 abuse, when he had been accused for keeping silence about his 

 avocation and salary ? 



Mr. Lic.GiNs. — I am afraid the words were scarcely what were 

 said. 



General Scott. — The gentleman knows what is coming. Mr. 

 Liggins then said he had much pleasure in proposing a vote of 

 thanks to Col. Scott, the Secretary, for the benefits derived 

 from his services [laughter]. Well, he thought he should go 

 a little farther. In 186i he was asked whether he would come 



up 



Sir C. Lindsay rose to order, as this was foreign to the subject. 

 General Scott. — Everything is foreign to the subject which 

 they do not like. 



The Chairman. — General Scott has been attacked, and he has 

 a right to defend himself. 



General Scott. — In 1861 I was invited to come up 



Sir Charles Daueesey. — What is the question before the 

 chair? Surely it is the consideration of the bye-laws. 

 The Ch.UlBm.in. — He is replying to a personal attack. 

 Mr. LiNDS.iY.— Why go back to 186-1 '? 



General Scott in continuation said he was going to take them 

 to a question which was very much between the Society and the 

 Commissioners. When he came there his instructions were to 

 do what he could to assist the Society, and in 1868 the general 

 opinion existed that he was assisting the Society [hear, hear]. 

 On the last occasion an accusation was brought against him 

 personaUy, that he had accused the Fellows of the Society of 

 dishonesty for not paying their rent. He had never said any- 

 thing approaching it, because he never thought, from the first 

 day, that the Society could i)ay its rent [cries of "oh!" and 

 laughter]. What he did say was, that if the Commissioners 

 pointed out to the Society the way in which, without injuring 

 horticulture, they could pay their rent, then honesty ought to 

 induce them to adopt these means. Well, another attack had 

 been made upon him with reference to the sum of il'200 [a 

 voice, "i'gOO"], paid to the Commissioners [another voice, "It 

 was £900 "]. It was ±'1200, half the rental of the year, and paid 

 because it was supposed that the exhibition would have enabled 

 the Society to pay the whole of the rental. He denied that the 

 tiling was forgotten in any way. The Assistant-Secretary, when 

 the money was paid, pointed out that it would be repaid at 

 the end of the year if it were not made. It was only not repaid 

 on account of the present difficulties, but there was no sort of 

 furgetfulness about the matter at all. AU he had to say in 

 conclusion was, that Sydney Smith advised some States of 

 America which repudiated their debts to go about with S. S. 

 on their backs. If the Society did not make an arrangement to 



