« 
lii General Meeting of Governors and Members , 
in the bye-law. He said that under 
the bye-laws, as drafted, the Council 
would consist of twelve Trustees, 
twelve Vice-Presidents, and fifty-four 
elected Members, so that there would 
be twenty-five co-opted Members out 
of the total of seventy-nine. By this 
arrangement of taking only one Mem- 
ber of Council for under 300 Members 
of the Society, it worked out that, 
except in four cases, and also in 
London, no county, however far from 
London, would return more than one 
Member. He could not help thinking 
that this was very hard upon those 
counties which were a long way from 
London and which had some difficulty 
in their representatives coming up. 
He could not see why 200 should not 
have been taken instead of 300. If 
200 were taken as the number, it 
would allow not less than sixteen 
agricultural constituencies to have 
an additional Member. Under this 
proposition there would be twelve 
Trustees, twelve Vice-Presidents, and 
seventy ordinary Members of Council, 
making ninety-five Members, of whom 
twenty- five would be co-opted, which 
was a very fair share of co-opted 
Members. 
What they wanted to get was 
representation. Unless they got repre- 
sentation from agricultural counties 
there was not much use in changing 
the Charter. He knew he would be 
told that his plan would add seventeen 
Members, and that the Council would 
be very large ; but if the Council 
should be reduced, let it be reduced in 
regard to its co-opted Members. There 
were twelve Trustees, but they had no 
more duties or responsibilities than the 
ordinary Members of the Council. If 
they inserted 200 instead of 300 the 
counties would get an extra Member, 
which would enable the Members to 
send representatives from a great 
distance, and would also, in many 
cases, enable them to do what they 
would like to do, viz., to send both 
an owner and an occupier of land 
to represent them. His plan would 
not alter the grouping of the counties, 
as at present proposed. He had put 
the question forward simply on the 
plea that what was required to make 
the Society popular and put it on its 
legs again was representation and the 
confidence of the agricultural counties. 
If these counties desired further repre- 
sentation, it was only fair to give it 
to them. He did not think it fair, if 
the number of co-opted Members 
should remain, that the agricultural 
counties should not have further 
representation. If there was to be 
any reduction, it should be amongst 
the co-opted Members and not amongst 
those required to represent the agri- 
cultural districts. 
Mr. H. M. Simmons seconded the 
resolution. 
The President pointed out that 
every county was able to increase its 
membership on tbe Council by in- 
creasing its number of Members of 
the Society. He thought the bye- 
law would be an inducement to the 
counties to increase the number of 
their Members in order to obtain 
further representatives upon the 
Council. 
Surg. - Lt. - Col. Ince supported 
the amendment, and hoped that it 
would be adopted, as, if the bye-law 
was once carried in its present form, 
it would, like an Act of Parliament, 
be very difficult to repeal it. 
Earl Spencer said he felt that the 
original motion was quite right and 
justifiable, and he was strongly in 
favour of it. As one of the older 
Members of the Society he was also 
strongly in favour of the introduction 
of the representative principle into 
the Council ; but with regard to the 
amendment of his noble friend, Lord 
Heneage, he did not share his views, 
and he thought the original proposi- 
tion a wiser one. He did not know if 
many of the Members had been con- 
nected with the redistribution of seats 
in Parliament. If so, they would 
remember that it was a very queer 
and difficult subject. “ Single Seats ” 
was one of the principles of a great 
statesman — not on his side of politics, 
because by single seats they gained 
a greater variety of opinion. Once 
they got the principle of representa- 
tion established, they must look a 
little to the body which was to 
become the ruling body of that great 
Society. To have a large and un- 
wieldy Council would not be at all 
an efficient and proper way of con- 
ducting its business. They all knew 
