174 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ March 2, 1878. 



the Council certaiuly would not be justified in incurring ei- 

 penoes they thould not be able to meet [hear, bearl. He should 

 like to reft-r for one moment to the privilege lettered C in the 

 amended summary of privileges. It reads thus : — " Six-puiuea 

 fimily ticket — Two-gninea and four-gninea Fellows by raising 

 their subscriplions to six guineas will be entitled to receive, in 

 addition to the privileges of four-guinea Fellows, one extra 

 transferable ticket, giving admission to the bearer on all occa- 

 sions ; and, except to fetes, conversazioni, flower shows, and 

 reserved occasions, to the whole of the owner's family resident 

 in his house, including necessary attendants not exceeding two." 

 Now, he confidently submitted to the Fellows that that rule, 

 besides being a conservation of old privileges, made an addition 

 of new ones which he doubted not the Fellows could not fail to 

 appreciate [hear, hear[. Turning to the condition to which the 

 Society had been brought, the noble lord said if he were asked 

 why it was that the Society had not risen to a state of pro- 

 sperity, he should answer that it was to be ascribed to the 

 schisms and the diseeutions which had for some years racked 

 the Society and placed it in a most unfortunate position [cries 

 of " hear "] . And now, when there was the prospect of a better 

 state of things, he confidently asked, and he felt his appeal 

 would not be in vain, that at this critical juncture in the life of 

 their Society there should be unanimity amongst the members 

 [cheers]. They bad before them the manificent offer of Mr. 

 Frtake to lend a large sum of money to extricate the Society 

 from its difficulties ; but he would remind the Fellows that 

 even that munificent act would not of itself have the desired 

 effect unless the members of the Society were unanimous in 

 their action [hear, hear]. That fact he felt he could not too 

 strongly impress upon thv minds of the Fellows; but he was 

 folly assured that at such a time — with interests dear to them 

 all at stake — with the fair chance of bringing round the Society 

 to that position of independence and usefulness which in this 

 great community it ought to occupy, with the fact before them 

 that they had been met by the Royal Commiseioners in a liberal 

 spiiit, and that through the voluntary action of the Commis- 

 Bioners they bad obtained a very fair and reasonable time to 

 pay the rent of the gardens, the Fellows, sinkingall minordiffer- 

 ences, would work earnestly and well for the attainment of that 

 desideiatum which could alone save the Society — the raising of 

 its income to £10,000 a-year [cheers]. After all that would not 

 be 80 difficult of accomplishment if only the Fellows gave a loyal 

 and a persistent support to the Council, who would leave no 

 stone imtnrned to bring about a prosperous condition of the 

 Society [applause]. In conclusion of his remarks the noble 

 lord observed that for Fellows in or joining the Society there 

 was no personal responsibility beyond that of their yearly sub- 

 scriptions [cheers]. 



Mr. Alfred Smee. — I apprehend, my lord, that the great thing 

 for us to do on the present occasion is to settle the question of 

 the reception of the annual report of the Council [cries of 

 "no, no "]. 

 A Fellow. — Oh, that has been done [hear, hear]. 

 The Chairman (Lord Alfred Churchill) — I may say the report 

 of the Council was accepted by the Fellows at the last meeting; 

 and after that was done Lord Aberdare rose and said to the 

 meeting, " If you like to appoint a committee to confer with the 

 Council on the question of the privileges of the Fellows for the 

 year 1876, this is the time to do it ;" and this amended summary 

 of the privileges is the result of the conference which has taken 

 place [hear, hear]. 



Mr. A. Smee —1 thought it was prior to that Lord Aberdare 

 made that statement. 



The Chairman (Lord Alfred Churchill). — Not at all; it was 

 exactly as I have told you. 



Dr. Pinches observed that he had so often found himself in 

 opposition to the ruling powers of the Society, that he scarcely 

 knew how to speak on the present occasion when he had the 

 almost previously unknown happiness of not being in opposition 

 [cheers and laughter]. Briefly he would say that it might pro- 

 bably be within the knowledge of the Fellows that at the meet- 

 ing of the Society last December, after a very long and important 

 discussion, he had felt it his duty to move an amendment to the 

 propositions which were then submitted by the Council with 

 respect to the privileges of the Fellows of the Society ; his 

 amendment being to the effect that the Council should be asked 

 to reconsider the regulations respecting the privileges of the 

 Fellows of the Society for the year 1876. And in doing that he 

 expressed his regret that the Council of the Society, in putting 

 forth the revised code of privileges, did not submit them to the 

 Fellows for an expression of their opinion upon them [hear, 

 hear]. His Lordship in the chair seemed to be in some doubt 

 as to the fatecf the amended summary of the privileges now 

 snbmitted by the Council to the Fellows of the Society. He 

 (Dr. Pinchef) was of opinion, however, that the general desire 

 was to elicit the opinion of the Fellows as to the desirability of 

 receiving and approving these amended regulations or not [cries 

 of "hear, hear"], and to express an opinion that the Fellowa 

 Ehould be glad that the Council was fully prepared to carry out 



the amended regulations [hear, hear]. One could easily under- 

 stand in dealing with the affairs of a Society placed in so unfor- 

 tunate a position as theirs was that some means for mending 

 the pasition of the Society would be sought for; and it certainly 

 waa not unnatural for the Council to suppose that there had 

 been an abuse — and it was a very fair interpretation — with re- 

 spect to the transfer system of tickets, to suppose that it was not 

 calculated to induce those who were not Fellows of the Society 

 to become so [hear, hear, and cheers]. But he was sorry it had 

 not occurred to the Council that they had overlooked one very 

 important feature in the case, which indeed he had overlooked 

 himself, as he had not known it himself, and that was the fact 

 that there were many gentlemen — indeed ladies and geutlemen 

 — who had paid considerable sums of money for certain privi- 

 leges and made a contract with the Society for their enjoyment 

 when they, no doubt, thought the Society would exist in per- 

 petuity [hear, hear]. And again, he was reminded that the life 

 Fellows, and ladies and gentlemen living at pUces remote from 

 these gardens, felt that if they had not the power to transfer 

 their tickets they had in fact paid twenty guineas or forty guineas 

 for nothing whatever [applause]. That was a point which the 

 Council had overlooked, and which he himself had overlooked. 

 Well, that point being disposed of, they had to consider whether 

 the new regulations did contain the germs of a satisfactory basis, 

 or did they contaiu everything the Fellows could reasonably 

 expect to have. That was, or rather these were, the questions 

 the meeting had to consider [hear, hear]. There was no ques- 

 tion whatever that the Fellows had preserved to them all the 

 privileges they had hitherto enjoyed in their integrity; and in 

 addition to these there was a most important, and to his mind 

 valuable, concession in the clause lettered C [hear, hear]. If 

 they were to expect an accession of Fellows to raise the resources 

 of the Society, they must look forward to a large number of 

 householders in that wealthy and populous neighbourhood join- 

 ing the Society. One of the difficulties with which they were 

 obliged to deal was a disinclination on the part of members to 

 remain in the Society because they had to pay a considerable 

 sum of money for the enjoyment of very few advantages as far 

 as their families were concerned. But now a forty-guinea 

 Fellow can briug in six Fellows in this neighbourhood, which 

 seemed to be frui'ful in the production of large familie6[a laugh]. 

 In it every householder had at least three or four nurserymaids, 

 and perhaps six, or eight, or ten children [laughter] who could 

 now avail themselves of the advantages of the gardens ; and by 

 a family ticket not only the heads of families would be admitted, 

 but admission was given to individual members of families, who 

 were unable always to have the opportunity of coming to the 

 West End, by having separate tickets. In addition to that there 

 was a feature which had existed in all the regulations of the 

 present Council — that waa in No. 1, by which a Fellow may 

 bring in members of his family. So the meeting would observe 

 that, besides the conservation of the privileges the Fellows en- 

 joyed anterior to the promulgation of the last paper, they had 

 the advantai?e of procuring a family ticket for six guineas, and 

 besides the advantage of buying other tickets at a reduced cost 

 [hear, hear]. What, then, were they doing with respect to sub- 

 scribers ? They would no longer have those pretty little books 

 of tickets which would fetch a round sum of money as waste 

 paper [laughter]. They were of little nee now, because the last 

 Council did certainly restrict the privileges attached to these 

 tickets in so far that they were not available on promenade 

 days. It was the intention of the Council to restrict them in 

 that way. They had asserted a perfectly unimportant prin- 

 ciple, but they would have the advantage of a more select 

 assemblage in their gardens [hear, hear], because no one waa 

 to ccme in by payment, but any Fellow could bring in any- 

 one who called ou him by buying a book of twenty-one tickets 

 [hear, hear]. He had endeavoured to place before the meet- 

 ing the debtor and creditor side of the account, and the advan- 

 tages seemed to him to be all very much in favour of the 

 Fellows. Could anyone deny that some concessions might be 

 reasonably asked of the Fellows in the face of the difficulties 

 which beset the Society? [hear, hear]. The abandonment of 

 these tickets was one of a most trivial character [bear, hear], 

 and there was not one they could more reasonably ask for. The 

 fact remained — they must raise the income of the Society, and 

 they all knew that a " house divided against itself must fall." 

 He did believe most sincerely and honestly that one reason why 

 the fortunes of the Society bad not risen as they ought was the 

 multiplicity of divisions and schisms which had racked the 

 Society to pieces [k-ud cheers]. If the Council has been wise 

 enough and good enriugh to take earnestly and seriously into 

 consideration the difficulties in which the Society waa pieced, 

 the Fellows in return should meet them in the same spiiit and 

 adopt the suggestions placed before them with perfect unsniinity 

 [applause] . Becaute, it seemed to him, that whether the Society 

 was saved or not was a moot question, but there could be no 

 doubt the Society must be relieved from its difficulties, and that 

 could only be done by the motive and anxious desire to bind 

 themselves all together for the benefit of the Society [hear, 



