522 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the high opinion they entertained of his long-continued, 

 zealous, and devoted services on all occasions. 



IV. Mr Stodart Macdonald. — On the death of Sir 

 Charles Gordon, the Directors appointed Mr Stodart Mac- 

 donald, who had been above twenty years in the office of 

 the Society, to the post of Interim Secretary, the duties of 

 which he discharged till the General Meeting in January 

 1846, when Mr Hall Maxwell w-as elected Secretary. The 

 meeting, on the motion of Sir John Graham Dalyell of 

 Binns, Bart., unanimously agreed to the following resolu- 

 tion : ' That Mr Stodart Macdonald having been connected 

 with the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for 

 above twenty years, and having officiated as Interim Secre- 

 tary, under a special appointment, since the decease of Sir 

 Charles Gordon, the Directors deem it incumbent on them 

 to express their entire approbation of his conduct through- 

 out, and of the ability, zeal, and fidelity with which his 

 various duties have been discharged.' Mr Macdonald 

 passed as Solicitor before the Supreme Courts of Scotland 

 in 1845, and, after ceasing his connection with the Society, 

 carried on the law business of the late firm of Sir Charles 

 Gordon & Co. till his death in 1867. 



V. Mr John Hall Maxwell of Dargavel, C.B. 

 (1846- 1 866). — Sir Charles Gordon was succeeded by Mr 

 Hall Maxwell. He was proposed by the Earl of Eglinton 

 at a meeting of Directors held in December 1845, when he 

 was appointed. The nomination was reported to, and 

 unanimously confirmed by the General Meeting in January 

 1846. For his services in connection with the collection of 

 the agricultural statistics of Scotland, he was made a Civil 

 Companion of the Bath in 1856. At the Inverness Show 

 in 1865, he announced his intention of resigning office, 

 which he did soon after his return to Edinburgh. The 

 high sense which the Society entertained of the value of 

 Mr Hall Maxwell's services cannot be better illustrated 

 than by transferring to these pages the following extract 

 from the minutes of the Directors, dated 20th September 

 1865: 



' The Directors cannot accept Mr Hall Maxwell's resignation without 



