Fobruaij 11, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



113 



to-day we have to be careful that there is noflaw as to the legality 

 of our proceediugs ; but I am sure that at the end of our pro- 

 ceediugB auy objectiou to our existence as a legal body will be 

 entirely removed. The position of the Society's finances may 

 not be found to be very sound ; but, while it may give the mem- 

 bers of the Society ample room for reflection, it is not one 

 which would allow us in auy way to despair [hear, hear]. We 

 are the only Society — I will not say the only— but we are the 

 Society which has the means at its disposal to do the greatest 

 amount of good, from our official position, for the horticultural 

 world. We can easily keep that position; hut, in order to do 

 that, we must keep shoulder to shoulder and assist each other 

 [hear, hear]. These gardens must be retained in the interest of 

 horticulture. Then the question arises — there are, besides the 

 horticultural Fellows proper, the Fellows who are owners or 

 occupiers of house property all round this neighbourhood. 

 I need not tell you tbat they are more likely than any others 

 to be interested in keeping open this, one of the lungs of the 

 metropolis [hear, hear], and that they feel that if it went over 

 into the hands of any other body than the Royal Horticultural 

 Society it would be a grievous disaster [applause]. As I have 

 before said, Englishmen if they know they have rights are very 

 careful to associate themselves in defence of those rights, and I 

 think the local Fellows are not at all unlikely to die hard if they 

 are put to it [cheers and laughter]. But I do not, as I said be- 

 fore, beUeve there will be auy necessity for a fight, but that on 

 the contrary — and I wish to repeat it even at the risk of wearying 

 you— the Royal Commissioners are willing to meet ns evenly 

 and fairly [hear, hear]. I will not consider it either uncivil or 

 uncourteous if I give this frank plain expression of our feelings 

 and opinions, and say that we are perfectly aware we hold some 

 good trump cards in our hands and know how to deal them on 

 terms of perfect equality [hear, hear]. This will not be con- 

 strued by members of the Royal Commission as in any sense 

 hostile to them, and I believe I am right in saying that there 

 are many gentlemen present representing the Royal Commis- 

 sioners who will comment upon any statement I make on your 

 behalf, and who wiU be able to make, on behalf of the Royal 

 Commissioners any statement whether it be satisfactory or not, 

 or correct or not. I will frankly say I have heard, and perhaps 

 heard from very good authority, that some terms made use of in 

 the Council's Report to the Society have been felt as wounding 

 the feelings of Her Majesty's Commissioners, I hear that two 

 paragraphs in the Report have been construed into a sneer. 

 Now I am sure, and I know I speak the sentiments of my col- 

 leagues, that anything like a sneer towards Her Majesty's Com- 

 missioners was foreign to our minds [hear, hear] ; and I say if 

 such an impression was conveyed to them, I own 1 frankly re- 

 gret any expression which can have caused it [applause]. I 

 will, however, ask Her Majesty's Commissioners to remember 

 that at the time this Report was framed the Society was labouring 

 under the smart, I will not say of unj ust, but any way of dealings 

 with Her Majesty's Commissioners. One of the principal 

 diversities of opinion between Her Majesty's Commissioners and 

 ourselves is upon the proposed establishment of a skating rink in 

 these Gardens [hear]. Her Majesty's Commissioners have felt 

 offended that we did not commuuicate with them on the subject, 

 because the agreement under which the rink was to be built 

 was signed by us. The answer to that is a simple one. We 

 are and always have been most desirous to be on the most friendly 

 and open terms with Her Majesty's Commissioners ; but I have 

 taken the trouble to look into our letter book, and I can teU 

 you that during the last two years we have seven times ad- 

 dressed letters to Her Majesty's Commissioners requesting them 

 to allow that the Expenses Committee should meet to discuss 

 the affairs of this Society, and on several occasions we were 

 told that it was impossible the Commissioners could allow it to 

 be done. I do not now question whether that was right or 

 wrong. I merely state the fact that, having seven times asked 

 Her Majesty's Commissioners to meet us for the purpose of 

 entering into the affairs of the Society, and having been seven 

 times refused — certainly in the most courteous and civil way — 

 we felt we were bound to act for ourselves in this matter, and 

 that we could not again ask Her Majesty's Commissioners to 

 meet us on the affairs of the Society. Under the Charter and 

 the bye-laws there is only one way of dealing with the affairs 

 of the Society as between ourselves and the Royal Commis- 

 sioners, and that is through the Expenses Committee. The 

 Expenses Committee and all the monetary affairs of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society are committed to their decision. That is 

 the case. Now when, as I say, we seven times requested that 

 the Expenses Committee should meet, and had seven times 

 been met with a refusal, I think, without entering into by- 

 gones, and with a desire to avoid them, you will see it was 

 quite impossible to approach Her Majesty's Commissioners on 

 the subject of the skating rink; and now that they feel aggrieved 

 that we have not consulted them, I hope that the representatives 

 of Her Majesty's Commissioners will accept this frank explana- 

 tion of the circumstances I have the honour to make to them 

 as the real, true, and only reason why the communication was 



so long delayed [hear, hear]. And, after all, the concluding 

 communication was not so long delayed, because it was only a 

 few weeks after it was made the Royal Commissioners met, and 

 to that meeting a letter was sent by Sir Coutts Lindsay, giving 

 them the fullest information. I do not know whether I should 

 enter at greater length into the arrangements between this 

 Society and the Royal Commissioners. I hope I have explained 

 our aim and object in acting as we have acted ; and, as I have 

 said, if there be anything in our Report written at a tinie when 

 I am convinced we were labouring under some irritation, and 

 with the notion that our dignity was offended, I regret it, and 

 in the words of Hotspur I would say, 



" Let not this report come betwixt my love and your Majesty." 

 [Cheers.] Having explained that, I have a hope on the part of 

 myself and of my colleagues that all clouds may be swept away 

 which lie between the bright sunshine of the full friendship of 

 the Commissioners and ourselves [cheers]. I now pass away 

 from the subject. Now about the Society's finance. We have 

 not now, at the present moment, to discuss the position of our 

 finance in detail. It will suffice to say that we are in a position 

 which although grave is not irremediable. Not so, because 

 by the terms of our lease we have yet to pay a certain rent 

 to the Royal Commissioners, and if that rent be paid we 

 will be free for several years to come. At the same time, the 

 finances of the Society — I mean the income of the Society — does 

 not meet its necessary expenditure by a long way. We must 

 jjut our shoulder to the wheel as others have done, and devise 

 some way of meeting the difficulty. The present CouncU has 

 been in an unfortunate position since first it took office. They 

 found themselves heirs to a very large amount of debt which 

 ought to have been previously discharged. Tbat debt amounted 

 to £6300, to nearly i;6400, and out of our limited income we 

 have paid about i'200U, so that our debt now stands at i;4393. 

 According to our Charter and bye-laws we ought to have no 

 debt at all. The expenditure of the year and the income of the 

 year ought to balance, and we ought to have nothing outstand- 

 ing. Ton wiU agree with the Council when I say that when wa 

 find ourselves with a limited income, which a scientific society 

 very frequently has, the position of having to discharge large 

 amounts of debt places us in a very unfortunate position [hear, 

 hear] . This year, I regret to say in the interest of horticulture, 

 we have been obliged to diminish a number of prizes in order to 

 curtail our expenditure, even in those legitimate prizes in which 

 the Royal Horticultural Society ought to be liberal. With 

 respect to the skating rink we no doubt divested a small portion 

 of the funds from the legitimate pursuits of horticulture, but 

 we felt that the income derived thereby would give a correspond- 

 ing amount which could be devoted to the interests of scientific 

 horticulture [a laugh]. Sir Coutts Lindsay reminds me that 

 the sum to be paid was JEIIOO. How happy could we be to get 

 £1100 towards the cultivation of scientific horticulture!^ I 

 must say that we come before you with the greatest possible 

 confidence, and ask you to sanction what we have done. Another 

 point upon that skating-rink question is that not one shilling of 

 the Horticultural Society's money has been or would have been 

 expended on that rink. The agreement we have concluded 

 with Messrs. Prince is to the effect that the whole thing is to be 

 done at their expense, that large privileges should be reserved 

 for the Fellows of the Society ; in fact, the whole agreement 

 was favourable to the interests of the Society, and hence we feel 

 no hesitation in recommending it for your adoption. I think, 

 ladies and gentlemen, I need trouble you no further in intro- 

 ducing the Report. What alone remains for me to address you 

 upon is our horticultural position. You will see in the Report 

 before you that the Council have established a series of evening 

 meetings for the discussion of horticulture. These meetings 

 have already begun. I was going to refer to the black board 

 behind me for illustration, but I see they have been effaced. 

 However, I am told the meetings have been highly successful. 

 I have just been reminded by Sir Alfred Slide of the fact that 

 in the year 1875 our expenditure will be X'2i00 less than it was 

 last year [hear, hear]. The very compendious statement which 

 is in your hands will show you that the Council have most 

 closely looked into the finances of the Society, and have tried 

 to keep down the expenditure to the narrowest limit. The 

 Lindley medal was last year struck, and it reflects credit upon 

 the Society generally. I shall leave Sir Coutts Lindsay, who 

 has taken so great an interest in the matter, to state the arrange- 

 ments for the delivery of the medal, which is certainly the 

 most important medal ever issued by the Society. Gentlemen, 

 I have placed these matters before you, they are practical state- 

 ments. It is quite unnecessary for me to indulge in oratorial 

 flourishes, and I will sit down, recommending to you the adop- 

 tion of the Report [cheers]. 



Mr. Bateman asked whether the adoption of the Report would 

 be formally moved before criticism upon it was allowed? He, 

 however, wished to say that he had listened to the Chairman's 

 remarks with a great deal of interest and pleasure. He could 

 hardly, nevertheless, go over the ground as daintily and deli- 

 cately as the noble lord had done, just as if he was careering oa 



