416 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Jaae 10, 1875. 



their interest forms the main liability of this Society ; hut it is 

 hecaase we look to the way ia which these debentures were 

 raised that the Council which has now the honour of addressing 

 you through me, and because our lease is terminable at any 

 moment, aud that the whole usufruct of that money goes into 

 the pockets of the Commissioners, that we think they are the 

 people to whom the debenture-holders must turn. The interest 

 of tne debentures the Society will pay so long as they can, but 

 the Commissioners should assist us in some way bo as to 

 provide for the satisfactory payment of the debenture debt. 

 With that view whenever we approached the Commissioners 

 we invariably assumed that they should take over the interest 

 at least of the debenture bonds. I have detained you not too 

 long, because it is a matter of the most vital importance respect- 

 ing the debenture debt of the Society. And now I come to 

 the time when, as I said, the International Exhibition had 

 given place to the annual exhibition in those rows of sheds upon 

 these grounds. By that time the principal power of Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners was exercised by the gentleman 

 who has done so much to advance science aud art — I mean 

 Sir Henry Cole. I believe the result of that man's remarkable 

 and magnificent scheme over the way will remain an everlasting 

 monument to his genius; but parents are rather fonder of their 

 own children than of other people's bantlings, and Sir Henry 

 Cole, I think, treated the Eoyal Horticultural Society rather 

 hardly. When an arrangement was being come to in ISKi the 

 proposal he framed was that every interest connected with the 

 Royal Horticultural Society should be vested in the Commis- 

 sioners of the Exhibition and not in the Society itself. I was 

 not then a member of this Society, nor epen a subscriber. I 

 was not a member when my honourable friend Sir Alfred Slade 

 organised the opposition to the then existing Council, which 

 procured its resignation. But after that resignation was effected 

 my friends and myself were called in as financial doctors of the 

 Socie'y, and I beg to assure you in this my farewell address 

 that we with entire singleness of purpose have devoted ourselves 

 to the interests of the Society. I found upon first joining the 

 Society that it was believed that the Society was divided into 

 two arms — the horticultural body pure and simple, and the 

 South Kensington residents. I fought against the belief, but I 

 confess I was vanquished by the belief. The Society is divided 

 into two sections, and it is to be regretted. I am sorry to say 

 I know little of botany, but I consider myself the representative 

 now of the Royal Horticultural Society in its entirety. I have 

 said this much to shovr that we have had to face a remarkable 

 sta'e of things immediately after our accession to office. Myself 

 and colleagues were called upon to make the best we could of 

 the circumstances, and I shall be able to show you that we 

 resign our trust into your hands in a better, or at least as good 

 a condition, as when we took possession of it. The debts of the 

 Society on the 1st of January, 1873, were i"6'273, and on the 1st of 

 January, 1875, they were ±'4837. Our total liabilities are not 

 above a lialf-year's income of the Society, while tbe assets far 

 exceed our liabilities, so much so that we could get on very well. 

 Although we may have to starve our Society in a great many 

 necessary things, still we are paying our way at this moment, 

 and will pay it until the end of the year. The prizes won at 

 our last show will be paid this or next week [cheers]. Prizes 

 for future shows will be provided; and though like honest men 

 we are narrowing our expenditure to the lowest limit, we are 

 still paying our way. It is quite true that we owo a debt of 

 iiSOOO, and unless it is paid we shall find ourselves in financial 

 difficulties. That debt was not incurred either by this or the 

 last Council, and with respect to the debts of 1873 to 1875 I 

 challenge anyone to say whether we have not discharged our 

 part well. We have been made the successors of a debt placed 

 upon us. Now, gentlemen, I come to the point when we took 

 office. At that time, the scheme proposed between the Com- 

 missioners and ourselves having failed, it was our duty to find 

 other bases of schemes which would be acceptable to them and 

 enable us to live in amity with them. At that time the great, 

 position of Commissioner was accepted by a most active indi- 

 vidual. Sir Henry Cole. Well, the International Exhibition 

 child must be fed and kept up at any cost. Sir Henry Cole 

 looked after his own offspring, and we were to go to the wall 

 [laughter] . We were not wanted, but our grounds were wanted 

 for the International Exhibition, and that is the long and the 

 short of it fcbeers and laughter]. We found it impossible to 

 approach the Commissioners, and hence tbe Council could do 

 nothing. The Council was told the sin of illegitimacy was upon 

 them; but two years afterwards the Council received an inti- 

 mation from the Commissioners, that having found the Council 

 were now in a legitimate position, they should be happy to deal 

 ■with them. What brought about that change ? It was that Sir 

 Henry Cole had ceased to be a Commissioner, that the annual 

 Exhibitions had ceased, and the reasons why the grounds were 

 desirable had passed away from the Commissioners' minds 

 [loud cheers]. It was quite easy to see that it was from that 

 moment the interest of Her Majssty's Commissioners to be on 

 good terms with the Council. We were secure in the possession 



of the gardens. If we were turned out the Commissioners 

 would either have to build upon the gardens — which public 

 opinion would not sanction — or the Commissioners must devise 

 some scheme to support the gardens. Were they to find the 

 money out of the revenue of the Royal Commission ? The 

 gardens are unproductive, the annual subscriptions of the 

 Fellows and the entrance money being the only means by which 

 the gardens can be made productive. We have several means 

 of keeping the gardens : we have a large organised body of three 

 or four thousand Fellows; we have a great machinery at the 

 disposal of Her Majesty's Commissioners, and we keep up the 

 gardens for the benefit of the Commissioners [loud cheers and 

 cries of "no, no"]. If we were removed the Commissioners 

 would have to find from i'2000 to i'3000 a-year to keep them up, 

 or at least a considerable sum, and that I believe does not suit 

 the bouks of Her Majesty's Commissioners, who, if report is 

 true, are not in the possession of very much ready money 

 [loud laughter aud cheers]. Under all these circumstances 

 we approached Her Majesty's Commissioners with considerable 

 confidence. It was not, however, until the early part of this 

 year we received an intimation they were ready to treat with 

 us, just after the time of our annual meeting in February. We 

 were ready at a moment's notice. When Her Majesty's Com- 

 missioners said they recognised the legitimacy of your Council, 

 we told you we had received an assurance from Her Majesty's 

 Commissioners which led to the highest anticipations, and we 

 said to you we hoped soon to arrange a plan by which the 

 Society would be relieved of its difficulties and placed in a good 

 financial position. I pledged myselt to meet the Commissioners 

 and to come to you at a meeting to be called for that purpose 

 with some such pUn. It was decided that it would be better 

 for two of the members of our Council, Sir Coutts Lindsay and 

 m.yself, should discuss the basis on which we could form nego- 

 tiations. That meeting was held, and has been since treated 

 less as a private meeting than was our original intention. At 

 that meeting three alternative proposals were made by Sir 

 Coutts Lindsay and myself. These proposals I will summarise. 

 We said we would abandon the lease on this condition — first, 

 that we should pay rent. Now that was a preliminary and in- 

 formal meeting held on the part of Sir Coutts Lindsay and my- 

 self representing the Council, to arrange the business to be 

 afterwards decided by the Council. This was not to be binding 

 on the Society unless it was approved of by you. We said we 

 would pay a vent of i'250 per year and keep up the gardens, and 

 that that would be better than to pay a rent of £2100 every five 

 years. Our lease was to be terminable in the year 1881, or at 

 any time that we did not pay the rent. Then another proposal 

 was that we should make the payment of the £2100, or that our 

 lease should be forfeited ; and we also said if the Commissioners 

 did not like that we had two other proposals — one that we would 

 surrender the lease to the Commissioners if they would give us 

 twenty days for exhibition in each year, and undertake our 

 debenture debt [loud cheers]. A third proposal was that Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners should give us leave to make the 

 skating rink, give us possession of the leasehold property of the 

 Society, and allow us to use the French annexe, our idea being 

 to make an aquarium for the study of pisciculture to enable us 

 to do the best we could with our property [cheers]. These 

 proposals having been made, we were afterwards informed that 

 the Commissioners having deliberated upon them found that 

 the first was the only one which was in any way admissible, and 

 that without approving of it they would be prepared to receive 

 further details of that scheme. Upon that I wrote a letter to 

 Lord Granville embodying the details. I may now say, as I see 

 a representative of the Messrs. Prince present, that in our nego- 

 tiations with those gentlemen we invariably received the most 

 handsome treatment at their hands; in fact, they looked more 

 to the interests of the Society than they did to their own 

 [cheers]. However, as to the first scheme the Commissioners 

 found fault with our statement of income and expenditure, and 

 made their own statement of our financial position, with which 

 we could not agree; and the Commissioners then wrote that on 

 this ground aud on other grounds the Inquiry Committee re- 

 gretted they could not recommend the Commissioners to agree 

 to the proposals, bat that they desired that the Council would 

 make other proposals. In answer to that the Council wrote 

 that they believed the Commissioners were quite willing to 

 help them. They had made other proposals, had shown their 

 position, and if the Commissioners could tell them how to 

 mould their proposals the Council would be willing to make 

 such as they thought would be acceptable to them [hear, 

 hearj. We therefore asked the Commissioners to tell us what 

 proposals they would accept; and to that the Commissioners 

 answered that it was not their business to make proposals, that 

 the Council might try again, but they could not tell us what 

 proposals would be acceptable. Now comes a very difficult part 

 of the task, because, as you are aware, private negotiations often 

 tend to more business conclusions than more public negotiations. 

 I as President felt bound to try and ascertain what proposals 

 would be acceptable to Her Majesty's Commissioners. Well, as 



