CHANGE IN SECRETARYSHIP. 369 



head of a public department ; but I feel, he remarked, that 

 the Directors of the Highland Society, without Mr Hall 

 Maxwell, would be much in the position I should have 

 been in at the Post Office when I was there, if I had been 

 without Sir Rowland Hill. The Highland Society, he 

 continued, during the whole of its existence, had never a 

 Secretary of more energy, more zeal, and more efficiency 

 than Mr Hall Maxwell. 



The Secretary, in returning thanks, stated that he had 

 entered on his duties twenty years ago, his first show being 

 at Inverness, and he had resolved to end his duties where 

 he commenced, adding that he never could forget the kind 

 reception accorded to him in 1846. He could not lightly 

 part with the Directors, who had ever treated him with so 

 much generosity, nor could he easily dissociate himself 

 officially with the farmers of Scotland, at whose hands he 

 had ever received unbroken kindness ; but he had the 

 consolation of thinking that he left the Highland Society 

 in a condition at once peaceful and prosperous, with funds 

 enlarged, and constituency greatly augmented. 



Mr Hall Maxwell followed up his intimation at the 

 show by sending a letter, of date nth August, to the 

 President and Directors of the Society intimating his 

 resignation, which he said he had resolved on exclusively 

 on personal considerations he must not disregard. These 

 considerations, unfortunately, had reference to his health, 

 which had become seriously impaired. As is noticed on 

 a subsequent page, the Directors, in accepting Mr Hall 

 Maxwell's resignation, resolved that his portrait should be 

 painted for the Society's Hall. 



At the meeting in January 1866, at which the resolu- 

 tion respecting Mr Maxwell's portrait was made public, a 

 new Secretary was elected, Mr Macduff of Bonhard being 

 chosen on the recommendation of the Directors. It was 

 resolved that the Secretary should in future have a salary 

 of ^700, and that he should have offices in the first floor of 

 the Museum, at 3, George IV. Bridge, which it was recom- 

 mended should be altered for that purpose. Mr Macduff of 



2 A 



