240 Horticultural Society and Garden. 



On the margin of the Report, references are made to the documents on 

 which it is founded. These documents are chiefly the examinations of Mr. 

 Sabine, Mr. Lindley, Mr. Munro, and other officers or servants of the So- 

 ciety, and of some private gentlemen, nurserymen, and gardeners, including 

 ourselves, as taken by the short-hand writer employed for that purpose. 

 We have "lanced over these documents, and made a few extracts. The 

 essence of the whole may be considered as comprised in the two papers first 

 following by Mr. Lindley. 



Letter from Mr. Lindley to Mr. Sabine, written soon after the Committee 

 beo-an to hold then- meetings, and placed among the documents marked S. 



gj r Acton Green, Friday evening. Feb. 12. 1830. 



It has been impossible for me to misunderstand what occurred in the Council to-day. Upon 

 being called into their presence, I found that an impression had been made upon them, that cer- 

 tain estimates, prepared by the last Council, and sent to the Committee, had been first assented to 

 by me before the Council, and then dissented from by me before the Committee. It is possible 

 that this impression may have ceased with my disavowal of the charge, and that the Council see 

 that no such stigma attaches to me ; but this does not satisfy me. I conceive that you, as a gen- 

 tleman, and professing to be my friend, were bound not to have allowed any such impression to have 

 existed, as you must have known that I was above suspicion upon such a point. You know per- 

 fectly well that I have always protested against the statements by which the Council have frequently 

 been deluded into sanctioning measures and expenditure, which, had they known the real state of 

 the Society's affairs, they could not have countenanced ; and that I was entirely opposed in opi- 

 nion to the very heads of estimate objected to by the Committee. You know I have always dissented 

 from any higher value than 2000/. being placed upon the library, drawings, and models, which are 

 estimated in the return to the Committee at 3580/. You are perfectly aware that I remonstrated 

 against the exaggerated amount of assets in the balance-sheet laid before the Council, and I believe 

 given to Lord Essex so recently as Jan. 22. last ; that on account of those exaggerations I did not 

 comply with your request to put a copy of that document into the hands of Mr. Gordon ; and that 

 one of my objections to it was the valuing of the Transactions at 9691/. ; the information I had 

 obtained at your request was, that they were only worth 1000/., as I told you over and over again ; 

 and consequently, you must have known that I could not have assented to a statement in which 

 their value is fixed at 2000/. You could not be ignorant that I should have objected to 500/. being 

 estimated as the value of the fruit-room and sheds; for you yourself, not a month since, told me 

 that, by the lease, no buildings except the glass-houses at the garden, are the property of the So- 

 ciety. All these things being thus, I think I have aright to enquire why you allowed the Coun- 

 cil to suppose that I had assented to their estimates. Y'ou may perhaps say that you can explain 

 this to my satisfaction; but I have both seen and heard lately too much of explanations to take 

 them against the evidence of my senses. I see clearly that all intrigue is going on for the purpose 

 of making it appear that I am at one time allowing myself to be identified with those miserable 

 proceedings which have brought the Society to its present state, and to which I have been con- 

 stantly and openly opposed, and at another disavowing those proceedings before the Committee. 

 I have never been a party to the exaggerations of the Society's means, and concealment of the 

 Society's debts, by means of which many honourable and excellent men in the Council have been 

 unfortunately induced to believe a ruined Society to be in a state of prosperity. I have been stea- 

 dily opposed to the measures by which that ruin has been brought about; and I do not choose, 

 now, at the eleventh hour, either to be cajoled into a suppression of my opinions, or to allow you 

 to make the world believe that I now, for the first time, entertain sentiments adverse to your pro- 

 ceedings. That there may be no farther misconception upon this and other points, I have written 

 you this letter, a copy of which I shall give to all persons whom it is likely to interest. 



I am, Sir, &c. John Lindley. 



To Joseph Sabine, Esq. Sjc. SfC. 8(C. 



Statement given in by Mr. Lindley, respecting mismanagement in the garden 

 at Chiswick, and in the office in Regent Street, marked S. 2. 



The mismanagement of the garden may be reduced to the following 

 heads : — 



1. The Control exercised by the Secretary on the Details of the Gardener's Business. The gar. 

 dener has no power to hire or dismiss, to promote or degrade, to punish or reward, his labourers ; 

 he can neither determine the duties they have to execute in the garden, while under his direction, 

 nor recommend them to places if their conduct is satisfactory to him. All these things are done by 

 the Secretary; and the consequence is, that the gardener has no control over his men, who 

 know that they hold their places at the will of the Secretary, and that the authority of the gar- 

 dener is only nominal. 



I understand it has been stated to the Committee, that not a tree can be moved, or a border 

 dug, without a written order from the Secretary. This is not literally true, but it is so substan- 

 tially ; the fact is, that the authority absolutely insisted on by the Secretary has been of such a 

 nature that no important work, and very few unimportant ones, can be executed without a writ- 

 ten report being first made to him, and his sanction having been obtained ; in consequence of 

 this it has frequently happened that many of the most important operations in the garden have 

 been delayed for weeks, or even until it was too late to execute them ; as the Committee will 

 learn from any of the under-gardeners, or the garden clerk, if they think proper to examine 

 them. 



To these causes, which must be fatal to the wellbeing of any establishment, I think the errors 

 and failures of that of the Society ought to be attributed : to these causes I should refer the un- 

 neatness of some parts of the garden, particularly the flower-garden, which I certainly think dis- 

 graceful, as I have repeatedly stated in writing to the Secretary years ago ; and the instances of 

 bad cultivation, which any experienced gardener could point out, and which have existed to such 



