General Meeting , Tuesday , June 20, 1893. 
cii 
Devonshire, K.G., do take the chair 
as President after the conclusion of 
the present Meeting.” He said the 
duty placed in his hands gave him 
great pleasure to perform. He was 
more especially interested in coming 
to Chester, as there was held the first 
Show of the Royal Agricultural Society 
that he ever attended. He little 
thought then that he should be placed 
in so prominent a position as to appear 
before the meeting that day. Since 
that time he found he belonged to 
that party to which Sir Jacob Wilson 
had so gracefully alluded as the “old 
fogey ” party. Still, he hoped that 
there was a certain amount of life 
yet left in it. The reason he had 
been appointed to move the resolution 
was that he was a Derbyshire man, 
and next year they were to have one 
of their most eminent Derbyshire men 
as President of the Royal Agricultural 
Society. To say anything as to the 
merits of their future President would 
not be becoming; it was a subject 
that would take too long to dilate 
upon. He moved, therefore, “ That 
his Grace the Duke of Devonshire 
take the chair as President after the 
conclusion of the present Meeting.” 
Mr. T. Stirton had great pleasure 
in seconding the resolution. He was 
sure it would give great satisfaction 
to all the members to have the Duke 
of Devonshire at the head of that 
large and important Society. 
The motion having been carried, 
The Duke of Devonshire, who 
was received with loud cheers, re- 
turned his sincere thanks for the 
honour which they had done him in 
electing him to be President of the 
Society for the ensuing year. For 
some reasons he regretted that the 
Meeting next year was to be held in 
a part of the country with which he 
was not directly connected, and he 
was afraid that it would not be in his 
power either personally or through 
his tenants to give much assistance 
to the Annual Meeting of the Society. 
But it did happen that he was officially 
connected with the University of 
Cambridge, where their next show 
was to he held, and the University of 
Cambridge, he need hardly say, was, 
through its Colleges, who were con- 
siderable landowners, very much 
interested in the prosperity of agri- 
culture, and in the success of that 
Society. It therefore might appear 
not altogether unfitting that in his 
official capacity as Chancellor of that 
University he should be President 
next year. And it was rather a curious 
coincidence that his father, who once 
had the honour of being President of 
that Society, was President in the 
year when the Show was held at the 
city of the other great English Uni- 
versity, viz. Oxford. He thought 
that, in justice to the University over 
which he was the head, he ought to 
remind them that she was not only 
taking an interest in the prosperity 
of agriculture as owning property, 
but she was commencing to devote 
(and he hoped would continue to do 
so) her great educational powers to 
the improvement of agricultural edu- 
cation. He thought, looking to the 
earnestness with which the subject 
was being taken up in some quarters 
at Cambridge, they were only paying 
a very proper compliment in visiting 
the town which was the seat of 
the University. There was one other 
point to which he might refer, espe- 
cially in connection with the remarks 
that were made by his friend the 
Duke of Richmond. He was glad to 
hear, from the way in which his 
observations were received, that that 
Society did not altogether ignore or 
condemn the sport of racing. He 
might remind them that the next 
Show was going to be held in the 
neighbourhood of the head-quarters 
of racing in England. And he had 
very little doubt that if the Show 
were held, as he supposed it would 
be, at the same period of the year as 
they were then assembled, and if the 
members of the Society liked to pro- 
long their stay at Cambridge into the 
following week, they would see an 
excellent exhibition of what he might 
call a most interesting class of live 
stock. (Laughter.) He had not the 
slightest doubt that they would 
receive as hearty a welcome at the 
hands of the Jockey Club, who reigned 
supreme at Newmarket, as they would 
from the Municipal and University 
authorities of the town of Cambridge. 
He begged to thank them very sin- 
cerely for the honour which they had 
conferred upon him. (Cheers.) 
The proceedings then terminated. 
