[ 373 ] 



XLIII. Report on the progress of the Horticultural Society of 

 London, from May 1, 1830, to April 30, 1S40. Prepared by 

 Order of the Council. 



Read at the Anniversary Meeting, May 1, 1840. 



Ten years having now elapsed since a material change was made 

 in the management of the Horticultural Society, after the Report of 

 the Committee appointed on the 2nd February, 1830, the Council 

 think it incumbent on them to lay before the Fellows on the occa- 

 sion of the present Anniversary, the following account of the pro- 

 gress of the Society, during the above period, in the promotion of 

 the objects for which it was instituted. 



It is well known, that at the period above alluded to, namely the 

 commencement of the year 1830, the affairs of the Society had fallen 

 into a state of irregularity and confusion. The large amount of 

 debt, then first made public, and the check given to its credit, 

 in themselves difficulties in the way of carrying on the ordinary 

 business, were much increased by the loss of a considerable source 

 of income, in consequence of the resignation of a large number 

 of Fellows. The new Council, therefore, found it necessary in the 

 first instance to restore the Society's credit to a healthy state. 

 Every subject of expenditure not of the most urgent necessity was 

 unsparingly cut off ; several of the gentlemen who then composed 

 the Council, came forward individually with the loan of large sums to 

 pay the most urgent of the creditors ; w hilst others, with the late Pre- 

 sident at their head, subscribed most liberally. Thus, in the course 

 of a couple of years, the whole of the simple contract creditors were 

 paid off, and by the establishment of a system of the most rigid 

 economy the Council, in a few years more, were enabled to turn 



VOL. II. 2nd SERIES. 3 C 



