514 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Society to bestow some lasting mark of peculiar gratitude 

 on their Secretary, as expressive of their sense of the dis- 

 tinguished ability, assiduit}-, and unremitting zeal with 

 which he had discharged the duties of his office, and that 

 Mr Macdonald having formerly resisted motions of this 

 kind did not appear to him to be a reason why the Society's 

 wishes in this respect should be any longer delayed. The 

 meeting unanimously and cordially concurred with Mr 

 Mackenzie's motion and suggestion, and resolved to remit 

 to the Directors to carry this motion into effect. At the 

 General Meeting on 30th June 1800, the meeting received 

 the report of the Committee suggesting the propriety of 

 the Society's voting a piece of plate of fifty guineas' value 

 to Mr Macdonald, to remain in his family as a mark of the 

 high sense which the Society entertained of the handsome 

 manner in which he accepted of the situation and of the 

 services done by him, and for the more effectually testifying 

 the Society's sense of these services, that he should be 

 requested to sit for his picture to Mr (afterwards Sir Henry) 

 Raeburn. The instructions of the Society were carried out, 

 and the painting placed in the Society's Hall ; it bears the 

 following inscription : ' William Macdonald, Esq. of St 

 Martins, Secretary of the Highland Society of Scotland. 

 Painted at the desire of the Society as a mark of their 

 regard and esteem, and of the high opinion they entertain of 

 his services to the Institution. 1803.' Mr Macdonald 

 resigned the Principal Secretaryship at the General Meet- 

 ing on 2nd July 1804, on which occasion the office of 

 Honorary Treasurer was revived, and Mr Macdonald was 

 elected to that office. 



II. Mr Donald Maclachlan of Maclachlan, Advo- 

 cate, was, at the General Meeting on the 2nd of July 1804, 

 unanimously, and with much approbation, elected Principal 

 Secretary with the usual powers ; and the seal of office was 

 delivered to him by the Earl of Moray, one of the Vice- 

 Presidents, with a suitable address. Mr Maclachlan's well- 

 known zeal for the prosperity of the Society was on 

 various occasions acknowledged by the Directors, and he 

 held office till the General Meeting in 181 3, when he was 



