March 18 , 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
43'.) 
D 
D 
Weather near London in 1855. 
M 
VV 
MARCH 18—24, 1856. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Rises. 
18 
Tn 
Prs. I.ooisa born, 1848. 
29 . 730 — 29.667 
48-34 
W. 
02 
9 a 6 
19 
W 
Geotrupes politus. 
Sun’s fleclinat., 0° 2' n. 
29 . 922—28 877 
55 — 30 
s.w. 
01 
6 
20 
Th 
29 . 824 — 29.735 
58—37 
S.E. 
/ — 
02 
4 
21 
F 
Good Friday. 
29 . 391 — 29.107 
45—34 
N.E. 
2 
22 
S 
TEglalia globosa. 
28.908—28.882 
36—33 
N.E. 
13 
V 
23 
Sun 
Easter Sunday. 
29 .I 8 O- 29.025 
38-27 
N. 
57 
24 
M 
Easter Monday. 
29.301—29.283 
38—25 
N.W. 
55 
Sun Moon Bfocn’u Clock Day of 
Seta. R.&S. Age. hf, Sun.. Year. 
8 a 6 
9 
II 
13 
5 34 
5 48 
6 0 
rises. 
14 7a2l 
16 8 32 
15 9 45 
12 
13 
14 
© 
16 
17 
18 
8 8 
7 60 
7 32 
7 14 
6 65 
6 37 
6 18 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 
83 
84 
Meteorology of the Week,— At Chiswick, from observations during the h 
peratures of tliese days are 50.5°, and 32..3°, respectively. The greatest heat, Cg 
on the 20th, in 1645. During the period 114 days were fine, and on 82 rain fell. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.— 11th March. 
'.This was an influential meeting of the Fellows of the 
Society, with the Marquis of Salisbury again in the 
chair, but little, or nothing, in the way of real business 
was done. Alter the above Report was read by Mr. 
Godson, Q.C., Chairman of the Committee of Investi¬ 
gation, Colonel Clialloner, one of the Council of the 
Horticultural Society, rose to propose that this Report 
should bo relerred back to the Council, to consider on 
the possibility, or practicability, of carrying out the 
recommendations of the Committee. The Report was 
not in the hands of any of the members till that morn¬ 
ing, and most of them bad only heard it just read, there¬ 
fore, there was no time yet for considering what was best ! 
to be done. He, the gallant Colonel, quite agreed with the 1 
Committee, that the Garden of the Society should not I 
be “ sacrificed without some overwhelming necessity;” | 
but, indeed, “the overwhelming necessity” stared in 
the face of the Council, when they found that the ex- 
i penses of the Garden and Shows were more than the 
i annual income of the Society; and tlie Committee con- 
I less that, after looking “ minutely into details,” they 
found “ that the Council has already reduced the ex¬ 
penditure as low as the circumstances of the Garden 
j will permit.” He was not sanguino about the success 
! anticipated by the Committee ; and he repudiated the 
idea of a once powerful Society, though now on their 
last legs, accepting the sacrifice,of Dr. Liudley’s salary. 
All the speakers who followed, on either side, con¬ 
curred in this view about Dr. Lindley’s offer to forego 
his salary of T500, for one year, while the experiments 
proposed by the committee were being tested. Several 
members then addressed the meeting on the side of the 
Council, but nothing of particular interest was elicited 
by these discussions, save one point, and that point 
seemed to turn the current of our thoughts into a new 
channel, and it strikes me this channel is now too deep 
and too wide, and too well fortified on the other side, for 
the men of progress to breach over it. It seems that, 
by our charter, wo have no power to manage the affairs 
of the Society, either by committees, or by resolutions 
come to by a ma;jority of membei’s, such as we have 
been driving at all this time. The Council for the 
time being was said to have the sole management in 
their own hands. They could thus sell the garden, and 
all that is in it, without let or hindrance. Instead of 
doing that, however, when they came to the end of 
their tether, they “ courteously defered ” to our feelings, 
called a meeting, and submitted the best plans they 
could tliink of for our consideration ; but although we 
“ considered,” and appointed a Committee of Investi¬ 
gation, we cannot act upon the report of our Committee 
without the sanction of tlie Council. 
If all this be true about the charter, and I suppose it is 
—as on a show of hands the Council had a large majority, 
to allow them three weeks to “ consider" the present 
Report. This will bring us down to that very day on 
which it is lawful, by common usage, for one man, or set 
of men, to make April fools of as many as will obey their 
bidding.—Twenty-four hours would be sufficient time to 
digest this report, which, after all, is not more tough 
than plain bread and butter; and to require three weeks 
for the work of twenty-four hours is simply w'orking 
against time, in order to make the arrangements for the 
summer shows a matter of impossibility, and thus, by 
a side wind, to get rid of the shows for one season, 
which will be equivalent to giving up the gardens at 
once, as the Council proposed to do in their first Report. 
Instead of proving any mismanagement on the 
part of the Council, the Committee of Investiga¬ 
tion have entirely exonerated the Council from all 
that might attach to that body by hear say. Mr. God¬ 
son, the Chairman of the Committee, toid us, in his 
address, that he had five Appendices to the Report, whicli 
would be too expensive to print, and too voluminous to 
read at a sitting like this; that the pith of the labours 
of the Committee would be found in these Appendices; 
that in one Appendix, clear statements and figures would 
prove, that, during the last ten years previous to 1854, 
the profits of the Shows, after clearing every expense, 
were nineteen thousand and odd pounds, or nearly two 
thousand pounds a year; that in another, would be seen 
the expenses of the garden last year was one-third more 
than they were in 185‘J; but the inferences of bad 
management that might be drawn Irom these statements i 
was provided against, in the Report of tlie Committee, i 
when they say, that the “ Council has already reduced 
the expenditure as low as the circumstances of the 
garden will permit.” What matters it, then, were the 
clear profits ninety thousand jiounds, instead of nine- | 
teen thousand? Recollect, I am not giving any opinion 
of iny own now, but merely analiziug the Report as it 
stands before me, which is, on the whole, a very singular 
production to one who knows of all the reasons which | 
gave it birth. Here we have a world-wide-famed Society j 
falling into decay; the cause of this decay has been laid | 
down at the door of mismanagement on the part of the 
Council and Vice-Secretary, by a section of the Fellows 
of the Society, who cried loudly, for some years past, 
for a general reform in the management. The Re¬ 
formers called loudly for a Committee of Investigation ; 
they got one, and chose their own men ; moreover, they 
tell us, that the Council, and all the officers of the 
Society whom they summoned before them, “imparted 
every information which might aid the inquiry,” so that 
no select committee ever had an easier opportunity of 
prosecuting an inquiry, or a better chance of arriving at 
the truth; but the result is, that “ the Council lias 
already reduced the expenditure as low as the circum¬ 
stances of the garden will permit.” The Council may, 
therelbre, sell the garden to-morrow, and take credit to 
themselves for doing so, under this sanction of their 
economy and good management, by a committee of 
those who were formerly most opposed to their pro¬ 
ceedings. 
We shall certainly lose the garden through the polite¬ 
ness of the very men whom we appointed to save it for 
us. Heaven preserve us from our friends ! It is possi- 
No. CCCXC. VoL. XY. 
I 
