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Article ANTIQUARIES AND ANTIQUITIES. ← Page 13 of 18 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Antiquaries And Antiquities.
required , and that the annual fees Avere too high ; accordingly , the scale Avas reduced from four guineas per annum subscription , and an admission fee of eight guineas . They Avere made respectively two and fiA e ; but to this clay Ave hear precisely the same complaints , ancl the same general dissatisfaction . It is probably not far from the truththat all the measures taken
, have been poAverless . It would be difficult UOAV to restore the old scale of subscription ; but there are feAV in the Society AVIIO do not look on the change that has been made as a mistake . The FelloAvs Avere quite willing to pay the existing subscription . New candidates for the fellowship Avere brought forward everj ' Aveek ; and why the sum should be diminishedseems in reality
, difficult to guess . Certain it is , that since the change , though the number of candidates has not diminished , yet the qualifications of those Avho are presented does not appear to be increased . But , in truth , the comparative inefficiency of the Society proceeds from a far deeper source than any AA'hich coidd be remedied by a change of Presidentor an alteration in the
, rate of subscription . The whole constitution requires to be remodelled . It professes to be a republic * . it is , in fact , a close corporation ; each year the council nominate their own successors , and thus the traditions of the Society remain ever the same .
Even if Lord Mahon desired to make the annual election a free election , he could not do so , and why should he wish to OA erthroAV the faction Avhich has placed him on the antiquarian throne ? But that the Society is split into cliques , no one can deny , and almost all admit with SOITOAV . If a new candidate is proposed , it is not his qualifications which are looked at ,
but the names of his supporters , and he is elected or rejected accordingly . Some years ago , a few Fellows thought fit to assume that the title F . S . A . was becoming too common ; they assembled for the purpose , week after Aveek , and black-balled everybody . At another time , another clique objected to the social standing of certain candidates ; they black-balled one
, because he kept a shop ; another , because he was a clerk in a solicitor's office . The friends of these candidates , in their turn , knowing well from whom every black ball proceeded , retaliated , in like manner , and among the persons whom they rejected was Mr . Sandys Wright Vaux , of the British Museum ! A short time saAV all the parties once rejected co-members of the same bod
y . A few weeks ago , a display of the same kind took place . Four gentlemen were balloted for , as follows : —One was one of the best practical antiquarians in England ; he had himself opened no less than twenty-nine " barrows , " or sepulchral tumuli ; he had formed , in an historical spirit , one of the finest collections
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Antiquaries And Antiquities.
required , and that the annual fees Avere too high ; accordingly , the scale Avas reduced from four guineas per annum subscription , and an admission fee of eight guineas . They Avere made respectively two and fiA e ; but to this clay Ave hear precisely the same complaints , ancl the same general dissatisfaction . It is probably not far from the truththat all the measures taken
, have been poAverless . It would be difficult UOAV to restore the old scale of subscription ; but there are feAV in the Society AVIIO do not look on the change that has been made as a mistake . The FelloAvs Avere quite willing to pay the existing subscription . New candidates for the fellowship Avere brought forward everj ' Aveek ; and why the sum should be diminishedseems in reality
, difficult to guess . Certain it is , that since the change , though the number of candidates has not diminished , yet the qualifications of those Avho are presented does not appear to be increased . But , in truth , the comparative inefficiency of the Society proceeds from a far deeper source than any AA'hich coidd be remedied by a change of Presidentor an alteration in the
, rate of subscription . The whole constitution requires to be remodelled . It professes to be a republic * . it is , in fact , a close corporation ; each year the council nominate their own successors , and thus the traditions of the Society remain ever the same .
Even if Lord Mahon desired to make the annual election a free election , he could not do so , and why should he wish to OA erthroAV the faction Avhich has placed him on the antiquarian throne ? But that the Society is split into cliques , no one can deny , and almost all admit with SOITOAV . If a new candidate is proposed , it is not his qualifications which are looked at ,
but the names of his supporters , and he is elected or rejected accordingly . Some years ago , a few Fellows thought fit to assume that the title F . S . A . was becoming too common ; they assembled for the purpose , week after Aveek , and black-balled everybody . At another time , another clique objected to the social standing of certain candidates ; they black-balled one
, because he kept a shop ; another , because he was a clerk in a solicitor's office . The friends of these candidates , in their turn , knowing well from whom every black ball proceeded , retaliated , in like manner , and among the persons whom they rejected was Mr . Sandys Wright Vaux , of the British Museum ! A short time saAV all the parties once rejected co-members of the same bod
y . A few weeks ago , a display of the same kind took place . Four gentlemen were balloted for , as follows : —One was one of the best practical antiquarians in England ; he had himself opened no less than twenty-nine " barrows , " or sepulchral tumuli ; he had formed , in an historical spirit , one of the finest collections