Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/390

382 THE LONDON WEST INDIA INTEREST July first reference that has been found relates to the year 1760. 1 Under that date there is a letter among the Newcastle Papers in the British Museum in which it is stated that ' The Agents of the Colonies and the West India Merchants ' wished to be per- mitted to wait on the duke of Newcastle with a memorial. The letter is signed ' Beeston Long, Chairman of the West India Merchants 2 Six years later the West India merchants invited the duke of Newcastle to a dinner, and a letter on the subject has been preserved from the duke of Newcastle to Mr. Long. 3 These letters could not perhaps be taken as proof of the existence of a permanent and organized society of the West India interest if it were not that from 1769 onwards there have been preserved the minutes of its meetings. These are now in the possession of the direct descendant of the society — the West India Com- mittee. The first entry in the minute books is under date 11 April 1769. By that time it is evident that the society has been in activity sufficiently long for its constitution to be taken as a matter of course. All our conclusions as to the form of the society have to be deduced from a study of the business transacted, the methods by which the society worked, and the information given as to the persons present at the meetings. It is characteristic of the whole development of the organized West India interest that there is no trace throughout the eighteenth century of any rules other than those of custom : in 1829 and again in 1843 there were constitutional reforms, but these are the earliest on record. Nevertheless, we can get from the minutes a tolerably clear and detailed account of the nature of the society. The meetings were held normally once a month, but departures from this practice appear to have been frequent. There was no regular locality for the meetings, a room at the office of the Marine Society 4 being the most usual meeting-place. The exact basis of membership of the society is difficult to determine ; probably there was no definite system of admission until the last ten years of the century. 5 By 1792 it had become usual for the names of new members to be proposed and seconded by existing members at a meeting of the society, and then after the lapse 1 It is possible that the society had been in existence since 1 746 or earlier, and that only its political activities are new in 1760 ; see below, p. 383, n. 5. 2 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 32902, fo. 458. 3 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 32975, fos. 416, 430. See also letter from Stephen Fuller, agent for Jamaica, Add. MS. 32975, fo. 400. 4 A charitable organization for ministering to the widows and orphans of seamen : it was established in 1756 ; its present office is Clark's Place, Bishopsgate. 5 At a meeting of 2 April 1771 it was resolved that ' the question of the admission of members to this meeting ' should be considered next month, but when the time came the matter was postponed (Merchants' Minutes, vol. i, meetings of 2 April and 7 May 1771).