XXX11 
Monthly Council, February 5, 1890. 
to young men remaining members for 
so long and enjoying the privileges 
for 102. He thought that 10?. after 
thirty years of age was a quite suffi- 
cient amount for the Life Composi- 
tion, and that anything more than 
two sums would be extremely incon- 
venient. 
Mr. Bowen-Jones, in seconding 
the amendment, said he thought it 
would be an equitable arrangement 
and a fair compromise between the 
conflicting opinions which existed on 
the Council. 
Mr. Ransome thought that the 15/. 
composition between the ages of 
twenty-one and thirty was rather 
against getting new members between 
those ages. 
Mr. Gilbey said he would content 
himself by simply moving the reso- 
lution which stood in his name: — 
" That the Life Composition be in 
future 152. for members over twenty 
years of age and not more than thirt y, 
122. 10s. for members over thirty and 
not more than forty, and 102. for 
members over forty years of age." 
Mr. Garrett Taylor seconded 
this amendment. 
Sir Nigel Kingscote said he 
thought the Council would allow him 
to explain the position in which he 
stood as Chairman of the Finance 
Committee. He had the cordial sup- 
port of his colleagues, both of those 
who were present and of those who 
were absent — viz., Lord Bridporl and 
Sir Matthew Ridley — with whom he 
had had considerable correspondence. 
The Council would remember that on 
May 1 last, after full debate, they 
came to a certain decision, and it 
was not the desire of the Finance 
Committee that this decision should 
bo disturbed. But Mr. Stratton 
brought forward at the last meeting 
of Council a motion which sought to 
upset the settlement arrived at in 
May. and although Mr. Stratton's 
motion was defeated by a large 
majority, the general feeling of the 
Council appeared to be that it would 
be desirable for a member to have 
the opportunity of paying a life com- 
position upon his election, instead of 
having to wait for a number of years, 
as decided by the Council in May. 
Accordingly, he, as chairman of the 
Finance Committee, undertook, mini- 
sterially only, to make a formal 
motion at the present meeting of the 
Council for the payment of a life 
composition of 152. for all new mem- 
bers elected after the beginning of 
this year, which was coming back 
precisely to the resolution which the 
Finance Committee asked the Council 
to accept last May. He did not pro- 
pose to go over the ground again. 
He had corresponded with Mr. Strat- 
ton on the subject, and had tried to 
arrange the matter amicably witli 
him, but he found they could not 
agree. He must still adhere, an 
ask the Council to agree, to the 
original proposal of the Finance 
Committee — viz., that the life com- 
position should be 152. in future. 
Mr. Foster suggested that Mr. 
St rat ton should substit ute thirty-five 
3 - ears for thirty years as the age at 
which a member could compound 
at 102. 
Mr. Stratton accepted this pro- 
position. 
The Duke of Richmond and 
Gordon hoped the Council would ad- 
here to the resolution on the agenda 
paper. He was old enough to recol- 
lect the time when they thought 
a great deal about a " sliding scale " 
connected with agriculture. However 
good that might have been in those 
days, it had been abandoned for many 
years. He did not think with regard 
to the subscription of members of 
this Society that a sliding scale would 
be at all a satisfactory mode of ar- 
rangement. They had the greatest 
confidencein this Finance Committee. 
He supposed that there was no Society 
whose Finance Committee took more 
trouble and came to more satisfactory 
results The Council had gone tho- 
roughly into the matter, and. as he 
understood, were satisfied with the 
proposal which the chairman, Sir 
Nigel Kingscote, had made. He 
should ask Sir Nigel to adhere to the 
motion upon the agenda paper, and 
to take the sense of the Council 
upon it. 
On the question being put, Mr. 
Gilbey's amendment was negatived 
without a division, and Mr. Stratton's 
(as altered by Mr. Foster) by thirty 
votes to seven. 
Sir Nigel Kingscote's motion 
providing for the payment of a life 
composition of 152. ivpon election \Vas 
then carried nem. con. 
