Horticultural Society and Garden. 251 



a little, and imagine this plan executed, and form for the area within the arboretum, I have 

 then compare it in their mind's eye with the little other objection to it, than that it requires 

 garden as actually existing. In my plan every a greater proportion of walk than a circle, 

 part has such a definite use, that it could not Neither do I think a square so handsome, or 

 be applied to any thing else without an ob- so suitable for a public garden. The sketch of 

 vious derangement ; in the plan existing the the plan now submitted, is calculated to effect 

 objects and purposes are so mixed up, and so the maximum quantity of objects, with the 

 often repeated, that a great many parts may minimum extent of walks, walls, and glass, 

 be said, using a common phrase, to be neither and without a single hedge. I have reflected 

 one thing nor another ; without definite pur- on this plan since I first saw the Chiswick Gar- 

 pose, and without character. According to den, and with all the various details that are 

 my plan, there would not be a repetition of any requisite to its complete developement. Icon- 

 plant or tree throughout the whole garden ; sider it not only very complete in its kind, but 

 according to the present plan, the same sorts calculated to be more economically kept than 

 of fruit trees, ornamental shrubs, and flowers any plan that I could devise for a piece of 

 are many times repeated. According to my ground of similar extent and shape, 

 plan, there is no one part which may be de- I think botanical travellers are unnecessary, 

 scribed as common-place ornament ; in the and not within the legitimate objects of the 

 garden, as actually existing, there are nume- Society; and that furnishing gentlemen with 

 rous borders and patches of shrubs, as at the gardeners is calculated greatly to increase the 

 old entrance, at both ends of the flower-gar- business of the Society, without at all advanc- 

 den, and the borders and walks between hedges ing the interests of horticulture. By adopting 

 on two sides of the arboretum, which are no- and carrying into every department of the 

 thing more than common-place shrubbery, of Society the general principle of attempting 

 no use whatever. I repeat, that in my plan nothing that could not be done by individuals, 

 there will not be a single tree, bush, or plant, the business of the Society will be greatly sim- 

 or walk, that could be dispensed with or trans- plified, and the objects for which it was insti- 

 posed. tuted much more effectually attained. 

 Should a square be preferred to the circular 



. We regret that our limits do not admit of our quoting various other portions of the evidence, 

 which, to gardeners in general, as well as to Fellows of the Society, would be both instructive and 

 amusing. The result of the whole, considered with reference to general principles, shows the 

 little use of societies for the promotion of science in a reading age like the present; and the 

 absurdity in all governments, from that of a few clerks and gardeners to that of a kingdom or a 

 republic, of excessive legislation. Considered with reference to previous remarks on 'the Horti- 

 cultural Society, which have appeared in this Magazine, the result proves the truth of what we 

 have all along asserted to exist, viz. a narrow-minded system of management, the object of which 

 was, in effect, not to advance gardening, but to aggrandise the Horticultural Society, and to ingra- 

 tiate the honorary secretary with the higher classes of society. A part of the unhappy results of this 

 narrow-minded system springs from the constitution of the Society, which requires or permits it 

 to attempt doing those things which it ought only to have stimulated others to accomplish ; which 

 permits its affairs to be managed by an unpaid officer, and, in consequence, precludes the interfe- 

 rence, except by etiquette, of any other member of the Society. A part, also, of this result has 

 arisen from the personal character of that unpaid officer : ambitious, and yet without great views • 

 zaalous, sanguine, active, and jealous of his power. The impracticable plan of the Chiswick Gar- 

 den ; the system of concealment which prevented that plan from being known to the Fellows 

 before it was executed,'and, consequently, from being interfered with, and which has ended in the 

 present enormous debt ; the ridiculous rules and regulations of the garden, by which not a structure 

 could be erected without being subjected to some of his alterations, nor a border dug, nor a common 

 operation performed, without his written authority; and what is called the system of espion- 

 nage, which Mr Lindley has truly designated as monstrous*, may all be traced to these qualities 

 of mind in the honorary secretary. 



Had the President and Council of the Society been, of necessity, changed every two or three 

 years, and the Secretary been a paid officer ; had the minutes of councils of committees been 

 open to the inspection of the members of the Society generally, errors might have been commit- 

 ted, but they would have been corrected, and the present state of things could never have arrived. 



Some years ago we made repeated endeavours to obtain a knowledge of the number of members 

 of the Council required to be present to constitute a council, and a list of those who had attended 

 at each of the councils held in the course of any one year. Our correspondence on this sub- 

 ject is in existence, and can be produced. The result, after a great many letters had passed, turned 

 out to be, that the Council had a right to refuse any thing and every thing, and that to us they 

 did refuse every thing. The fact is, as one member lately observed to the Society, and for the 

 truth of which, in a general way, we may appeal to Mr. Lindley, as under-secretary, it was utterly 

 impossible for any one to acquire any information respecting the affairs of the Society who was not 

 in the favour of Mr. Sabine. 



Had the Gardener's Magazine not appeared, our belief is, that things would have been even 

 worse than they now are ; and, in addition to some thousands now due for printing and engraving 

 the Horticultural Transactions, there would have been others due for the splendid 4to work on 

 fruits, and the corresponding 4to work on plants flowered in the garden of the Society, of which 

 prospectuses were circulated four years ago {Gard. Mag., Vol. I. p. 88.) ; but which we remon- 

 strated against, as interfering with works already in existence, and very well conducted. The 

 object of the Society, about that time, appeared to be, to monopolise every thing connected with 

 gardening or botany, from the placing of a journeyman gardener to the publishing of a new fruit 

 or plant. Even a Gardener's Magazine was projected ; and the assent of what is called the 

 Council obtained to use the badge of the Society on the cover, in the manner in which the 

 seal of the Royal Institution is used on the cover of Brande's Journal. The object of this Maga- 

 zine was clear enough to all the world at the time, that of putting us down ; in consequence of the 



* Mr. Bellenden Ker 'stated to the Society, at their Meeting yesterday (March 16.), that the 

 whole of the present enquiry had resulted from a report of one of his conversations, whilst walk- 

 ing with Mrs. Ker in the garden, last summer. The report was so offensive to Mr. Sabine, that he 

 proposed to the Council to expel Mr. Ker from the Society. Mr. Ker declared that the report was 

 a tissue of falsehoods, got up, as he imagined, to please Mr. Sabine. In this way, Providence 

 brings good out of evil. Every tiling tends to a crisis, bad things the most rapidly. 



