Jaly 2, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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THE GARDENERS’ ROYAL 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 
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A S we briefly reminded our readers last week, the fifty-second 
anniversary festival dinner of this admirable institution will 
take place on Wednesday evening, July 8th, in the Whitehall Rooms 
of the Hotel Metropole, and we trust there will be a great gathering 
of friends of the charity on the occasion. The fame of the Chair¬ 
man, the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, as an orator is of world¬ 
wide repute, and he will have a theme with which he will be in full 
sympathy and worthy of his most powerful advocacy. Mr. Cham¬ 
berlain takes great delight in his fine and well-equipped garden, 
and is held in the highest esteem by those employed in it. His 
desire to benefit the industrial classes and do all he can towards 
formulating means by which they may receive support in the decline 
of life is well known, and it may be expected that the speech he will 
deliver at the meeting in question will be one of considerable im¬ 
portance. 
All prominent statesmen have a great number of devoted 
adherents and about a corresponding number of uncompromising 
opponents. But this is only politically, and probably there is no 
leading parliamentarian who is not proud of the number of his 
■enemies, as these indicate the measure of his influence and his 
power. In these days a public man, whether he is a politician or 
not, who in his official capacity is never opposed, is soon regarded 
by the outside world as a mediocrity, and the flattery of which he 
is the victim is apt to be characterised as a system of “ bolstering.” 
But happily in the conflict of opinion on questions of policy true 
personal respect exists between the opposing exponents, and each 
admires the abilities and character of the other. Great men in 
their contests on public questions teach smaller men a wholesome 
lesson. The former welcome full and fair criticism, and have a 
profound respect for honest assailants ; the latter repel it, and are 
unfortunately somewhat wont to regard it as a personal attack. 
Fortunately opportunities arise for men of differing views on 
public matters meeting on a common platform as true and trusted 
friends engaged in the furtherance of a common object which all 
admit to be good, and then they receive as they deserve a great 
ovation. 
Mr. Chamberlain, in advocating the claims of the Gardeners’ 
Royal Benevolent Institution for the support of all who can give 
it, will assuredly find his efforts fully recognised and his endeavours 
warmly applauded. All who will meet him at the festive board 
next week will be his friends, because they are in sympathy with 
the object with which he by his presence proclaims his sympathy— 
namely, making provision for aged gardeners and widows of gar¬ 
deners whose latter days would without the help of friends be 
days of privation and practical destitution. That this privation 
ought not to be experienced is a sentiment with which all lovers 
of gardens, and all who believe that those who labour in them 
are worthily engaged, will be in absolute unison ; of that there can 
be no doubt whatever. 
Than the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution there is 
no organisation that has done, is doing, and will do more good in 
a large and important section of the community, nor is there one 
more firmly established or more carefully and judiciously managed. 
That it was staggered momentarily by the sudden death of the 
late Secretary, Mr. E. R. Cutler, who for upwards of fifty years 
laboured on its behalf with extraordinary zeal and great success, was 
No. 575 .—Vol. XXIII., Third Series. 
only natui'al; and because of this loss it is necessary that special 
efforts be made to, as far as possible, counteract its effect. It must 
be the wish of all to give encouragement and help to the recently 
appointed Secretary, Mr. G. J. Ingram, a gentleman who. we may 
be sure, possesses the requisite qualifications for the discharge of 
the duties which after much deliberation he was elected to per¬ 
form. He is fortunate in what we may term his public inaugura¬ 
tion, in the Institution having as Chairman of the first dinner since 
his (the Secretary’s) appointment, a statesman so distinguished 
and eloquent as Mr. Chamberlain, who, it will be remembered, was 
unable to attend on a former occasion through illness. It is our 
strong hope that the gathering will be large, influential, and 
successful, and we know that many persons are looking forward 
to the privilege of hearing a speech that they anticipate will be 
memorable. 
As an example of the power of Mr. Chamberlain as a speaker 
we may appropriately relate an episode that has not hitherto been 
published, and which at least one reader of these lines will know 
to be true. The right hon. gentleman was once upon a time 
delivering a series of speeches for which the country was waiting. 
A few days subsequently we happened to visit the town in which 
the demonstrations had been held, and on asking one of the best 
gardeners in the district if he had been to hear Mr. Chamberlain 
received thi3 reply, “ Yes, I went to one of his meetings, but only 
one, and do not think I shall go to another.” “ Why, was not the 
speech good enough ? ” was our rejoinder, and this was the answer 
we received. “ The speech was certainly wonderful. I never heard 
such a fluent, persuasive speaker ; he carried all before him but 
me, and the fact is I do not think I dare attend another of Mr. 
Chamberlain’s meetings through the fear he might convert me to 
his views ! ” 
The right honourable gentleman probably never had a greater 
compliment paid him than that, and he will not regret the fact that 
the gardener’s fears of being converted have left him. The once 
fearsome listener would be glad to undertake a very long journey 
to hear Mr. Chamberlain now, and we shall be very glad if it is 
convenient for him to do so next week. 
We trust the Chairman of the meeting of the 8th ult. will be 
the means of converting many who have not hitherto been sup¬ 
porters of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution, and at the 
same time stimulate some of those who are enrolled in the noble 
army of helpers to renewed efforts on its behalf, for infirm and 
aged gardeners and widows are wearily waiting and anxiously longing 
to become participants in the benefits it is established to bestow. 
How great these benefits have been in the past, and how they 
have steadily increased from small beginnings, were concisely 
stated by Mr. N. N. Sherwood at the election dinner in January 
of the present year. He reminded his hearers that “ the Institu¬ 
tion was established in 1839, and in 1840 they had only one 
pensioner, in 1841 two pensioners, in 1842 four pensioners; 
in 1850 they paid away £492 in pensions, and they had £2250 
invested. In 1860 they paid away £723, and had £5100 invested. 
In 1870 they paid away £787, and had £7800 invested. In 
1880 they paid away £1074, and they had £12,000 in stock. 
In 1889 the sum paid away was £2345, and they had £23,000 
in stock ; and in 1890 the sum of £2648 was paid away, and 
they had £25,000 in stock. In 1891 the pensioners numbered 156. 
The oldest pensioner was upwards of 103 years of age, and had 
subscribed £18 18s., while during the thirty-one years that he 
had been a recipient of the charity he had received £510. The 
number of pensioners who had been on the Society’s books up 
to the present date was 559, and the amount of money paid, 
including expenses, was £56,288.” Well might that statement 
be received with cheers, and we shall hope to hear something 
of a very cheering nature at the gathering of gardeners’ 
friends at the fifty-second anniversary dinner of this splendid 
charity on Wednesday evening next. 
No. 2231 —Yol. LXXXV., Old Series. 
