328 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



The very indifferent leg tlie Society lialted on 

 was this. Of course, to manage the business of 

 the Society and its foreign correspondence, it was 

 necessary to aj^point ^^a quorum" to act during 

 winter, when the owners of manors, gentlemen 

 sportsmen and fishermen, were at their country- 

 seats, or, so soon as Parliament was up, pursuing 

 their amusements elsewhere. 



This quorum, or these quorums, completely mis- 

 managed everything. The funds of the Society 

 were most injudiciously squandered, public money 

 was wasted on private premises and on individual 

 amusement ; the splendid donation given by the 

 then Miss Burdett-Coutts, of five hundred pounds, 

 and other subscriptions were squandered away ; 

 and, seeing how matters were going, and that 

 it was impossible to rescue the state of affairs 

 from very questionable management and bad 

 hands, all the landed proprietors, noble lords, 

 and others, myself among them, took our names 

 out of the Society, and very soon after it 

 collapsed. 



From the very first, when I saw some of 

 the men who somehow or other got tlieir names 

 on the list, — men Avho had never belonged to 



