Febraary 16, 1S71. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULKIEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



117 



Colonel Challoner. — I have had a seat at the Cooncil for many 

 jearg, and having taljen a great interest in the finances, I like to 

 understand exactly in what position we are. 



Colonel Scott. — As a matter of fact, comparing the state of the 

 Society now with its state last year, we are close upon £1000 better 

 [hear]. We have paid oij a large amount of our liabilities. The 

 account shows the amount of liabilities paid off, the amount of our 

 present liabilities, and what our expenditure was. 



Colonel Challosxe. — Would there be any objection to have the 

 balance sheet made out a little plainer '? 



Colonel Scott replied, that they would be very glad to do so if the 

 way were pointed out. 



Colonel'CHALLOXEK said he felt assured the Council would carry out 

 the wishes of the Fellows in the best and most economic way. He 

 begged to move the adoption of the Report [hear, hear.] 



Mr. G. F. BLE^'XINS seconded the motion, and congi'atulated the 

 Society upon having achieved so much success in the past year. He 

 trusted the International Exhibitions when established would prove a 

 permanent benefit to the Society, bring to them an increase of mem- 

 bers, and an increase of funds. 



Mr. Batemax rose to assure his friends on the platform and in the 

 room that in addressing the few remarks to them he was about to 

 make, he was influenced by no hostile spirit. He unfortunately dis- 

 sented from the congratulation offered by his friend, considering the 

 bargain they had made and the terms they had received from Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners of 1851. He was much afraid when people 

 came to understand all these things they would scarcely think them a 

 subject for congratulation. He felt certain that the Duke of Devonshire 

 had acted loyally and honestly by the Society, and that the Council of 

 the latter had done their very best to make the most advantageous terms 

 they could with the Commissioners. But, let them just go back some 

 fifteen or sixteen years when the bargain was made whence these terms 

 came, which might have appeared comparatively easy at that time, be- 

 cause the day of reckoning was to a cei-tain extent far off. He need 

 scarcely inform the Fellows of the Society that the gardens in the 

 midst of which they then were owed their origin to a brilliant idea 

 springing from the fertUe mind of the late Prince Consort, an idea 

 which from the day of its conception had been undergoing expansion 

 and extension. The late Prince Consort conceived the admu'able idea 

 of associating together all the arts and all the sciences in a sort of 

 happy family at South Kensington, and in order to carry out that 

 idea a large amount of money had been expended. A bargain was 

 struck, and the expenses of these magnificent gardens were to be 

 defrayed jointly by the Eoyal Horticultural Society and Her Majesty's 

 Commissioners. Although they were to be defrayed jointly they were 

 not to be defrayed equally, but paitly by the donations of life Fellows, 

 and partly by loan. Her Majesty's Commissioners were pro- 

 fuse in their offers ; they were not-to be exceeded in their generosity 

 and the profusion of their gifts by a royal dispenser of good things at 

 the table of a monarch [laughter] . "SVe]!, when money was boiTowed 

 interest generally had to bo paid, but this was precisely what the 

 • Eoyal Horticultural Society had never been in a position to do. The 

 Soeiety had never been able to pay the interest, and therefore they 

 were now at the mercy of Her Majesty's Commissioners, who had it in 

 their power to impose upon the Society if they pleased terms which 

 would be hard and harsh — just such terms as the Prussian victors 

 seemed anxious to impose upon the beautiful and beleaguered city of 

 Paris. Now what these terms were he wanted to make the Society 

 understand, and he would endeavour to do that by referring to what 

 the Society had gained and lost. He should first take what they 

 had lost. They had lost three admissions to their own gardens, and 

 they would have no power of admission to their own premises during 

 th#greater portion of the year. It was true the Report spoke of the 

 gates of the g.irdens being thrown open to the large and promiscuous 

 company which would crowd the exhibition. AVhen they came to re- 

 member that at one end of the gardens there would be a number of 

 people engaged in convivial hilarity, and at the other end countless 

 articles of machinery at work, and somewhere about the centre the 

 band of the Middlesex Volunteers in full play as well, the less they 

 said about the whole thing the better [laughter] . Indeed, as he had 

 read somewhere, the state of things would 



" Rend their ears asunder 

 With guns and blunderbusses, swords and thunder." 



— [renewed laughter]. At all events they would not find themselves, 

 as they now were, in quiet seclusion, because, even supposing the Com- 

 missioners were so good as to refrain from allowin?; all promiscuous 

 visitors to the exhibition to come into the gardens, still the season ticket- 

 holders would have that privilege, and hence the privacy which the 

 members of the Society would enjoy in their gardens would not be bo 

 great as that which might be had in any one of the principal squares 

 in London, ^ow, having reviewed what they had lost, let them see 

 what they had gained. In the first place they gained a view of that 

 noble hall, which he would say — whether they looted at the grandeur 

 of its proportions, the dignit|r or severity of its Imes, or its perfect 

 adaptation to the object for which it- was intended — was a marvel of 

 architectural slnll, which reflected the utmost credit on his excellent 

 friend, who was on the platform at that moment [hear, hear] . Much 

 might, no donbt, be said about the appendages that were left, but the 

 less said about them now the better ; something might come out of 

 them by-and-by. But then they were told no one was to be edmitteS 



into the gardens or exhibitions without a capitation- toll of a penny'; 

 and as some 500,000 or 600,000 persons might probably come to the 

 gardens and exhibitions, that number of pence would barely suffice to 

 pay the interest due to the Commissioners on the loan. For his own 

 part he must say he did not feel very grateful for what the Commis- 

 sioners had done for the Society. Excluded daring the better sis 

 months of the year from all enjoyment of the upper arcade, they 

 would be partly excluded from the lower one during the winter months, 

 and at a time when all the Fellows would be ont of town they would 

 have the privilege of visiting what was left of the exhibition. The 

 grandest concession to the Society, however, was in the matter of 

 tickets. It might he supposed that tickets would be offered to the 

 Fellows of the Society for exhibitions which were held almost entirely 

 within their own demesne ; but no, they were not to have the tickets 

 for nothing, but at a guinea less than other people. The public would 

 pay three guineas, but the Fellows of the Soeiety should understand 

 at once that they could not have the privilege of walking in their own 

 arcades without paying two guineas for that privilege. It did not 

 always suit a person to j)ay two guineas. It was not everybody who 

 had two guineas to expend, nor was everyone who had two guineas 

 willing to expend them. They would find by looking at the G-reat 

 Exhibition that by far the greater number of the weU-to-do people 

 did not spend anything like two guineas to go to the exhibition, and he 

 thought it would be very hard to have to pay two guineas now to see a 

 very inferior exhibition. He thought these terms were exceedingly 

 hard. Let them suppose for one moment that any person was in the 

 habit of supplying them with milk or cream, that he withheld the 

 supply, and when they complained he said, " Oh, you can have three 

 gallons of water at the cost of two" [laughter]. That was pretty 

 much the way iu which the members of the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Soeiety would be treated. He made these remai-ks in order that they 

 might find an echo in the breasts of some of the members, and pro- 

 bably reach the stony hearts of the Commissioners [hear, hear]. 



Mr. Cluttos said the interest which the Society had to pay was 

 originally fixed at 5 per cent. It was then reduced to -± per cent., iu 

 which the bondholders acquiesced. It was quite true if they had 

 pi?ofits they would be bound to pay rent to the Commissioners, but they 

 had not made any profits, and, therefore, they did not pay any rent. 

 With respect to the gardens, he might say that the Society found the 

 total funds for making them, and all the buildings round the gardens 

 and the arcades were erected by the Commissioners of 1S51. He had 

 had something to do with the arrangement for admission made with 

 the Commissi(fcers, and he could tell Mr. Bateman he was under a, 

 misapprehension if he thought the reduction was a part of the arrange- 

 ment. If was simply an offer of the Commissioners of 1S51, and he 

 thought it was vei-y liberal to give the Society the use of two arcades, 

 one on the east and the other on the west side. It had been originally 

 intended by the Commissioners to make a conservatory on the top of 

 the roof. That was objected to on the part of the Council, and the 

 Commissioners gave way, although it was part of the original agree- 

 ment that the Society should give up that part of the building. He 

 bought he ought to explain these questions in which money was 

 concerned. 



Mr. Godson differed from the last speaker as to accounts. If he 

 looked at the accounts he would find that money had been paid, 

 but not to a very great amount. By paying a certain sum evesp five 

 years they saved the privilege of theu' gardens ; and if the Council did 

 not pay their portion it was their fault, and not the fault of the 

 Society. He was quite pleased to hear some of the remarks made by 

 Col. Challoner, who had never come out in a similar way before. Now, 

 first of all, he (Mi\ Godson), was sorry he could not join in the con- 

 gratulation respecting the Report. They all knew very well that in 

 the minutes of last meeting it was stated they wouldgive up Chiswict. 

 n that were so, why had it not been done ? With respect to waUs 

 being erected at Chiswiak, he had suggested to the Council that they 

 should have them entirely to themselves, so as to he able to shut out 

 nuisances. One great drawback to Chiswick was the Militia barracks. 

 Eeferriug to Mr. Bateman's speech, Mr. Godson said that with respect 

 to that " hideous building " Mr. Bateman had spoken of, he had heard 

 His Eoyal Highness the Prince Consort point out a veiy different 

 idea. There could, he thought, be no objection to tendering the 

 thanks of the Society to His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. No 

 doubt Chiswick garden would have been a great resort had it been 

 properly managed. He thought, considering that the Council did not 

 state then- terms with the Duke of Devonshire, it would be more pru- 

 dent of them to put down in an appendix what the terms were, and 

 then they should aU know what they were going to do. 



Mr. CLUTToy remarked that at the Exhibition of 1S61 they were 

 enabled to pay a sum of £2000 as rent. 



Lord Hen-et Len-xox said he would answer a very few of the objec- 

 tions which had been r-aiseTthat day. He thought it was a matter of 

 great congratulation for the Council to find that even in the hands_ of 

 so able a 'man as his friend Mr. Bateman, the bill of indictment which 

 he brought against the Royal Horticultural Soeiety was so small a one. 

 Mr. Bateman, who no doubt would have spoken differently had he 

 been among the Council on the platform, said they could have got 

 better terms from the Commissioners. Well, they aU wanted to get 

 the best terms they possibly could, but Mr. Bateman was a member of 

 the Council when the arrangement was entered into with the Commis- 

 sioners. Therefore in these days, when so much is said of full and 



