628 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 16, 1676. 



from the boiler discharges the waste and steam. With this 

 arrangement an explosion is impossible. The cold-water feed- 

 pipe, being conducted ineide my dwelling house, it cannot 

 freeze ; and the reserve water in the cistern is a sufficient sup- 

 ply for several days should the water company's supply fail. — 

 W. J. Tatlok, Eye Hill, Nexccaatle-on-Tyne. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



December 9th. 



A Speciai, General Meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 was held last Thursday afternoon in the Cooncil Room, South 

 KensiDgton, under the presidency of Lord Aberdare, "for the 

 purpose of explaining the scheme of the Council, and of giving 

 the Fellows an opportunity of stating their opinion on its details." 

 The importance of the meeting can be estimated by the fact 

 that the following notice was attached to the advertisement 

 calling the meeting : — " The President trusts that it will be con- 

 venient for Fellows to attend, as the subject to be discussed is 

 of the utmost importance to the interests of the Society." In 

 response to that invitation there was a large gathering of the 

 Fellowp, several ladies being present; and it may be stated that 

 in the conduct tf ttie proceedings by those who took part in 

 them there was au almost entire absence of that bitterness of 

 feeling and expression of jealousy which for the last few years 

 has characteaeed the meetings of the Society. At the Council 

 Board the President was supported by the Hon. and Rev. J. T. 

 Boscawen, Admiral Hornby, Mr. Grote, Mr. Little, Mr. W. 

 Hanghton, Dr. Denny, Mr. Warner, Mr. Campion, Mr. Henry 

 Webb (Treasurer), and Dr. Hogg (Secretary). Amongst the 

 general body of tbe Fellows were the Earl of Strathmore, Vis- 

 count Cardwell, Viscount Bury, Lord Alfred Churchill, Sir 

 Peter Pole, Sir Alfred Slade, General Scott, Dr. Pinches, Mr. 

 Liggins, Mr. Guedalla, Mr. Bowen, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Steward, 

 Col. Trevor Clarke, Mr. Bateman, Mr. W. H. Jacob, Mr. Knill, 

 Mr. Caird, Mr. Godson, sen., Mr. Godson, jun., &c. 



The Assistant Secretaky having read the advertisement 

 convening the meeting, the noble 



Pbesident rose and said :— Ladies and Gentlemen, it is almost 

 a necessary consequence of tbe last general meeting, held on 

 the 19th of August, that this meeting should be called. On the 

 occasion I refer to you were informed that an arrangement, 

 which I think I may call a satisfactory one, was being made 

 with the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, and with 

 respect to which the Commissioners showed considerable spirit, 

 and it was submitted for your acceptance. It was, I believe, all 

 but unanimously accepted, and then it became the duty of the 

 Council to give effect to it. I will not trouble you by going over 

 again the familiar ground of the arrangements and the nego- 

 tiations with the Commissioners, I will assume you are ac- 

 quainted with them ; but there is one of them of the very 

 highest interest, and on which the Council felt there was needed 

 immediate attention, and that was the condition of raising the 

 income of the Society to £10 000 a-year. That was agreed upon 

 in order to maintain the effectiveness of the gardens, because 

 unless you sow you cannot reap [hear, hear], and so unless you 

 keep the gardens in a good condition it is impossible to expect 

 that you will have numerous subscribers [hear, hear]. I have 

 no doubt you have by you the annual financial statement, and 

 you will see by it that a larger sum than i'10,000 has been re- 

 ceived, but it was received from exhibitions, which we could 

 not take into c msideration. What I am really dealing with now 

 is the item of subscriptions, and this is a matter which causes 

 us great anxiety, and iu a short statement I will show you the 

 necedsity for taking strong measures — very decisive measures, 

 to arrange this matter with the Commissioners. The receipts 

 from annual subscriptions in 1873 were £'8194, and the sub- 

 scribers were composed of C70 old and 52f new subscribers ; but 

 the number fell in 1871 to 725, leaving a deficit of a considerable 

 number on the year. In ttie meantime the exhibitions largely 

 increased tbe income, and I will just state to you that while in 

 18G7 the receipts were £1402, in 1874 they were £'U98, and last 

 year £305. Now labt year was, unfortunately, an exceptional 

 one in two respects : The shows were remarkably good, but the 

 days on which the principal shows fell were exceptionally rainy, 

 and the receipts of the Society show how much the success of 

 the shows depends upon the weather. Still I am told that in 

 this Society, from constant change of management, there has 

 arisen a want of confidence and a withdrawal of many of the 

 exhibitors, and the consequence of i his has been that the Society 

 has lost its old reputation, and it possibly will take some time 

 before the old confidence can be restored. The Council, then, 

 having this state of things before them, and having also before 

 them the necessity of providing within three years an increase 

 in the income of the Society of £3500, it became the consider- 

 ation of the Council by what means this could be done. I am 

 unable to speak myself with any absolute confidence, or rather 

 authority, upon many matters in conoectiou with the affairs of 

 the Society, because almost the only recommendation I possess 



is that I have never mixed myself up with the disputes which 

 have unfortunately taken place in the Society [hear, hear, and 

 laughter]. I have paid my subscriptions steadily, and I have 

 given my allegiance to the *' powers that be," but without enter- 

 ing into the nature of the differences existing between them 

 and tbe Fellows of the Society. Coming, therefore, upon the 

 Council without being prepared with any previous opinion on 

 these subjects, I have been enabled to listen to and benefit by 

 the experience of those who were upon the Council, and I found 

 it is almost their unanimous opinion that in many cases the 

 reason why the receipts of the Society did not increase in pro- 

 portion to the increasing love of horticulture and the increase 

 of population in this neighbourhood, that in point of fact the 

 great cause was — the main cause was — the great abuse of the 

 power of transferring tickets [loud cries of "hear," and a voice 

 " no "]. No doubt that was a valuable privilege, and one which 

 the holders of these tickets greatly valued ; but I think you will 

 agree with me that when they were made the means of enabling 

 householders and their families to dispense with getting, as they 

 ought to have got, their annual tickets for the gardens, 1 am 

 sure the experience of many of you will tell you there are many 

 families who enjoy as fully as they can the advantages of the 

 gardens who never contribute a single sixpence towards their 

 maintenance [cheers]. It was necessary this abuse should be 

 stopped [hear, hear], and you know it is very difficult to prevent 

 or to stop an abuse without causing inconvenience. The Council 

 were well aware that if they attempted to stop this abuse they 

 would cause dissatisfaction, and I frankly admit that the Council 

 felt that unless the Fellows made certain sacrifices of their 

 privileges we could not secure united action in the Society, and 

 more than that, that we could not improve the financial position 

 of the Society. And so we have now come to you to make this 

 statement, and we hope you are prepared to make these sacri- 

 fices in order to prevent the loss of these beautiful gardens. 

 You see that I attach the utmost importance to the result of the 

 present meeting. If you come to any weak resolution this day 

 — if the Council do not receive the support of this meeting, not 

 necessarily binding them to all the details of this scheme, I 

 think we may say the days of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 solar as South Kensington is concerned, are numbered ["no" 

 and "hear "]. Now you have before you a scheme prepared by 

 the Council, which I am sure all of you have read and studied 

 [published in No. 7G2 of this Journal, Nov. 4th, page 400]. I 

 have read a great number of letters, nearly all of them giving 

 a fair, candid, and temperate view of the matter. Some are 

 critical, but not a very inconsiderable number have approved of 

 the scheme. Others criticise it, and they are the majority; and 

 in some cases we have had suggested the substitution of other 

 schemes of the writers. Now, I believe with the Council that 

 they are right in putting forward to you what they think is right, 

 and that it would be wrong if they did not give you the oppor- 

 tunity of expressing your opinions, and enable you to form a 

 fair judgment as regards what the ohject is, whether the scheme 

 of the Council or those proposed by any Fellows among yon 

 ought to be accepted. Should there be a very distinct opinion of 

 the majiirity of the Fellows on the subject I am prepared to 

 say, as far as the Council are concerned, they will give to their 

 representations the fullest and fairest consideration [cheers] . 

 What we want to do is to take the necessary measures, which 

 we believe we cannot do without, and whether they should go 

 to the extent which we propose it is for you to judge. I should 

 not say we would not accept any amendment you may consider 

 necessary, but having carefully considered the subject you must 

 be prepared to say what you will do. The strongest objections 

 to this scheme have come from those who are compounders* 

 I cannot see on what grounds their opinions rest so far as re- 

 gards the period since 18G5. I cannot see, with respect to those 

 who compounded with a knowledge of the bye-laws, what legal 

 right they have to complain of any action which had become a 

 necessity. But whether they have a legal right or not, or a 

 moral right, I think when men have purchased certain privileges 

 and advantages, and paid a sum down for them, they should be 

 the last men to do anything unfair or harsh without the strongest 

 reason. We also say, in considering their case, it would be tha 

 bounden duty of the Council to listen to anything which might 

 relieve the compounders of their disabilities, and we are pre- 

 pared hereafter to inflict upon them nothing that can be shown 

 not to be actually necessary [hear, hear]. But when I tell you 

 the number of those who have compounded is very nearly half 

 of the subscribers you will see the difficulty which makes it 

 altogether impossible to accept the life-compounders without 

 great loss. The number of life-compoundera is 523, and the 

 number of annual subscribers is 1184. If the life-compounders 

 are to be left in full possession of their rights it will be im- 

 possible to get the residents in the neighbourhood to become 

 annual subscribers. In that case we shall not be able to raise 

 the necessary funds, and the result will be that in the attempt 

 to save everything we must necessarily lose. We therefore call 

 upon them to take a part in the sacrifices which must be made, 

 and if they think we call upon them to do too much, let them 



