" This is therefore to desire your attendance on Thursday next, at six o'clock,
at the Castle Tavern, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, to meet the rest of the
Fellows of the Society, in order to consider of the proper persons to serve as
Directors for the year ensuing, whereby it is hoped, that such persons will be named

who will consider the general interests of the Society.
" We are, etc.
" Castle Tavern, Henrietta Street,
"8 o'clock, Oct 8, 1768."

" In consequence of this invitation, a meeting was held, and the factious party,
with gross impropriety, insisted, that all who were there assembled should vote at
the ensuing election agreeably to tlie resolutions which should then be passed by
the majority of that meeting. This proposition was resisted by many, and much
confusion and disorder took place.''

" Not content with this arbitrary proceeding, one of the party took upon himself
to call upon every member who had attended the Castle Tavern meeting, and
requested to see his balloting list, which request was made for the purpose of putting
a private mark, by which it might be known, at the future scrutiny, who had voted
according to their influence, and who had failed. The result of these violent pro-
ceedings was what might easily have been foreseen by the factious cabal — no less
than a sudden defection of the most respectable artists, chiefly those who had been
the founders of the exhibition, and the supporters of the private academy.
" At the next Festival of St. Luke, the day specified by the charter for the
election of Officers and Directors, it was found, upon scrutinizing the votes, that
nearly two-thirds of the primitive Directors were excluded; among which Mr.
