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JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ February 21, 1865. 



laws, indeed, specified that he could not make any payments 

 whatever, save the saliu'ies, excepting by the orders of the 

 Council. If. therefore, Mr. Godson thouijht it his duty to 

 withdraw himself from the examination of the accounts, with 

 which he was very familiar, he (Mr. Glutton) must say it 

 was entirely his own act. At a cert.ain mectinfj, no douht, 

 a paper was produced, but it was a mere private paper of 

 Mr. Cole's, lie (Mr. Glutton) was at that meeting, and he 

 simply looked at the paper, but not as a paper coming from 

 the Treasurer ; for it did not do so at all, it was a mere 

 estimate of what was likely to be the result of the year's 

 transactions. The accounts wore not then made up, and it 

 was some months before tuey were due. As to Mr. Godson s 

 being refused a view of the accounis, nothing of the sort 

 took phace, because they were as much open to Mr. Godson 

 as to himself or any other member of the Council : there- 

 fore, he said, Mr. Godson was wrong in withdrawing from 

 the Council on that ground. 



Mr. Cole : Mr. Godson mentions my name under some 

 kind of hallucination on the subject. It is quite true I 

 ventured to make an estimate on my own responsibility as 

 an individual member of the Council. I am not careful of 

 my papers : I leave them about, and on this occasion, it 

 appears, I did so. I was so indifferent to the matter that 

 had Mr. Godson asked to see the jjaper, although it was my 

 own private memoranduvi), I should have had no hesitation 

 in complying with his request. It was left on the table, 

 and that day or next day Mr. G-odson, it seems, expressed a 

 wish to have a copy of it. I was not consulted in the matter ; 

 I did not even know that he had made any such application, 

 otherwise I should have 'at once said, " By all me;ms have 

 it ; get all the good you can out of it." But Mr. Murray 

 felt himself warranted in refusing a copy : consequently the 

 Fellows of the Society wUl see that it is not quite correct for 

 any gentleman to E.ayhe was refused a sight of the accounts. 

 I do not recollect precisely what thiii was ; it may have been 

 an estimate, and a very wroug one; but as to my having 

 any objection, 1 had not the slightest, nor have I at this 

 moment. However, it had really nothing to do with the 

 accounts. The accounts are all open to Mr. Godson, who 

 takes a great interest in them. 



The Chairman put the motion and amendment to the 

 •meeting. For the former there were only 10 hands held up ; 

 for the latter 21. Mr. Godson's resignation was, therefore, 

 accepted. 



The Secretaey then read the Report of the Council for 

 the past year, and a printed coijy of the accounts having 

 been distributed to the members, they were taken as read. 



A Member then begged to move the adoption of the 

 Report, which, he said, proved that the science of horticul- 

 ture was not neglected by the Council, whilst the comfort of 

 the visitors to the gardens had their anxious attention. It 

 was a very gratifying Report, and in no feature more so 

 than in that where it was stated, that arrangements were 

 being made with the Society of Arts for adding an examina- 

 tion in gan'ening to the examinations which they conduct 

 throughout tl.o United Kingdom, with the view of improv- 

 ing the education of gardeners. There were great facilities 

 connected with this Society for eflecting such an object, and 

 it was very well known that the old Ghiswick Gardens were 

 a very good school for gardeners. He then made some 

 remarks on the arcades provided in the Kensington Garden, 

 and on behalf of the ladies thanked the Council for providing 

 them. Some of them, he had noticed, wore glazed at the 

 back, and filled with jdants, which added very much to their 

 picturesque effect. He, therefore, hoped to see this principle 

 carrieil out to a greater extent. 

 Major-General Sir A. Soo'jt Wauou seconded the motion. 

 Mr. A. F. Godson rose to move an amendment: — " That 

 a Committee, to consist of five members with power to add 

 to their number, be appointed to investigate the aflairs of 

 the Royal Horticultural .Society, and to report at tho earliest 

 opportunity — 1, What is tho true financial iitate of the 

 Society; and what are tho circumntanccB under wliich the 

 hitherto enormous expenditure has befn incurred H '1, Wliat 

 measures should bo adopted to save, if poHsible, the Society 

 from impending insolvency? And that for these purposes 

 the balance-sheet of 1801-.'» be referred to such Committee." 

 Mr. A. v. Godson said he did not attempt to urge one 

 word against tho Ecport, but simply with regard to the 



accounts, therefore it was useless for him to say anything in 

 reference to it : besides, no one had seen the Report, and 

 therefore no one could be expected to make much remark 

 upon it. With regard, however, to the accounts he had to 

 say a great deal. First of all he wished to draw attention 

 to the" balance of 1863, iiliSS 5s. 5c!., and to the liabilities 

 of 1.S63, paid oil' .£933. Now they had allowed ^£500 for 

 sculpture, which became due in l(Stj3, and remained over to 

 this ycai'. They would find that .£500 was taken credit for 

 as against 1H63. That might be the way of doing business 

 in this Society, but it was not the usual way. With regard 

 to the second item, £424, on the transler of life composi- 

 tions, he compared the course taken by tho Gouncd with the 

 fable of killing the goose that laid golden eggs. The life 

 composition fmid, producing .£400 a-year, had been killed, 

 -and therefore they would never see that again. The j£8260, 

 receipts for admissions and subscriptions, in 18G2 amounted 

 to j£8G00, and last year were ^8400. The annual subscrip- 

 tions were now i;7300, whereas in 1863 they amounted to 

 £7100. There had been a loss of MOO on tho exhibitions, 

 while the Royal Botanic Society had cleared ^82000 by their 

 shows. He also drew attention to £'o ISs. for odours and 

 perfumes of flowers, and asserted that the maintenance of 

 the Society cost £iO a-day, which he considered altogether 

 unwarrantable. The Journal of the Society cost ^£300, and 

 yet he looked upon it as completely valueless — as rubbish in 

 fact, for all it contained was correspondence and preliminary 

 puffs. The Arboricultnrul and Floral Committees had cost 

 in one year (1862), jESOO, but instead of assisting horticulture 

 the Council did the reverse. With regard to the handbook, 

 against which there was a liability of SoO, he wished to know 

 who had ever seen it. A few dozens, he believed, had been 

 printed, but they were of no earthly use ; and he must 

 really ask whether they were to go on throwing away ^£50 

 here and there upon things which were utterly worthless. 

 The conversazione, over which something like ^£330 was spent, 

 had been the laughing-stock of everybody. He wanted to 

 know what it had to do with horticulture. Certainly it 

 afforded an ojiportunity to a number of nobodies to turn out 

 very grand and show as if they were somebody and some- 

 thing. Last year, he drew attention to tho word " rent " 

 not being named in the accounts, when there was .£2300 

 due to the Commissioners of 1851 under that head, and 

 there was now i-47C0 due. The word "rent" was now in- 

 serted, and although when he complained of the word not 

 being there, he was told no rent was paid, he was told now 

 that it only amounted to the magnificent sum of 4s., yet 

 there was j£800 put down for rent, rates, and taxes in respect 

 to Kensington alone. With regard to the payment of in- 

 terest on debentures, the Charter stated that, first of all, 

 the expenses of the gardens should be paid, then the interest 

 on debentures, after that the debt due to the Commissioners. 

 Now, he begged to tell them, that had the expenses oJ the 

 gardens been paid, not a single farthing would have been 

 available for the debentures, much less the liquidatioi of 

 the Commi.'jsioners' debt. But that would not do: the 

 Council actually violated the Charter by paying the interest 

 on debentures beloro tho cost of maintaining the gardens. 

 What chance, ho should like to know, had the debentiu'e- 

 holders of getting anything next year H Coming to the 

 revenue, the whole amount realised was about X14,000 ; but 

 ,£20,001) had to be expended. He was a young man and had 

 a great deal to learn, but he imagined that that was not 

 the right road to prosperity. Last year J^17,400 was spent, 

 but they managed to meet it, which was very far from the 

 case this year. Ho had drawn attention on a previous oc- 

 casion to tho manner of keeping tho accounts, the heading, 

 " lialiilities and assets," having been omitted, and he was 

 told that they should bo better kept, but ho saw no improve- 

 ment. Tho bye-laws said that a true account of the state of 

 the Society shall bo rendered at tho Annual Meeting, but 

 this was not a true account. In tlie year 1861, there was an 

 acco\ilit of tlie assets and lialiilities, which showed clearly 

 what they owed. That was changed next year to profit and 

 loss account, but last year there being a great deficit it 

 was loft out, and this year tho state of things was worse ; so 

 it would not do to put it in. There was a balance in 1861, 

 according to the accounts, of illO.OOO in their favour. Now, 



K/\ur/>«r..f. iir1,nf «,ifV» ViiTl f. liMrl Pflf^/d.fi ^inhiliflPH tlllfi VOar ftTld 



however, what with rent and je354G liabilities this year and 

 other things, X20,000 had disappeared in four years. The 



