1 
General Meeting of Governors and Members , 
Watney, James Watt, J6nas M. Webb, 
W. F. Wilson, &c. 
Election of Temporary President. 
The President, in opening the 
proceedings, explained that under 
the bye-laws upon which up to the 
present the Society had acted with 
reference to the conduct of business 
at the Anniversary Meetings, the first 
matter to occupy their attention was 
the election of the President, Trustees, 
and Vice-Presidents. The suggestion 
of the existing Council with regard to 
the Presidency for the short interval 
which elapsed before the new bye- 
laws came into force would be found 
in paragraph 8 of the Report (see page 
131). As they would gather from 
this Report, Sir John Thorold had 
very kindly consented, at the request 
of his colleagues on the present 
Council, to allow himself to be placed 
in nomination as President pro tem ; 
and as the bye-laws prescribed that 
the election of the President should be 
taken by show of hands, he now put 
the question : 
“That Sir John Thorold be elected 
President of the Society, to hold office 
during the interval between the retire- 
ment of Lord Middleton at the end 
of June, and the election of a new 
President at the Annual General Meet- 
ing on August 1, to be convened under 
the Supplemental Charter.” 
Re-election of Trustees, Vice-Presidents 
and Council. 
This resolution was unanimously 
adopted, and the Trustees, Vice- 
Presidents, and the twenty-four 
retiring Members of Council were 
re-elected to hold office for the like 
period. 
Report from the Council. 
The President, in moving the 
adoption of the Report (see pp. 128- 
135), said that the questions arising 
out of the present position of the 
Society had been so fully discussed 
at recent meetings that there could 
be no advantage in going over the 
ground again, especially as their third 
Show at Park Royal, upon which so 
much depended, was so close at hand. 
He hoped and believed that the new 
Council, directly representative of 
the Members, would give a fresh 
impetus to the work which the 
Society had carried on now for two 
generations to the great advantage 
of agriculturists. 
The Earl of Derby, in seconding 
the motion, said there was no doubt 
that the Society was at the parting of 
the ways. They had endeavoured to go 
on as long as they could in the old 
ways, and they then endeavoured to 
hold their Shows under altered circum- 
stances. They had now come to the 
time when they thought that by way 
of still further progress it would be 
better to bring a larger body of Mem- 
bers of the Society into close touch 
with the governing body. It was for 
this reason that the constitution, 
which had lasted for a good many 
years, had been altered. That 
constitution had been placed upon 
a wider basis, and it would be for the 
new Council to discuss what should 
be the future of the Society. The 
record of affairs up to the present had 
been frankly given in the Report. He 
hoped and believed that the Members 
of the Council of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society under the new 
circumstances would endeavour to act 
as whole-heartedly in the interests of 
the Society as he knew they them- 
selves had endeavoured to do in the 
past. 
Suggestions of Governors and Members. 
•The report having been adopted 
unanimously, the President put 
the usual inquiry as to whether any 
Governor or Member had any remarks 
to make or suggestions to offer that 
might be referred to the Council for 
consideration. 
Mr. E. Packard suggested that 
the amount expended upon the 
Journal for editing and literary con- 
tributions might be reduced if the 
Secretary undertook the editing in 
addition to his present duties. 
Extraordinary General Meeting. 
The President having promised 
that this suggestion should receive the 
attention of the Council, said he 
thought they might now regard the 
ordinary business of the meeting as 
concluded, and might go on to the 
consideration of the preliminaries 
which were necessary before the new 
Council could come into existence. 
