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390 THE LONDON WEST INDIA INTEREST July that the standing committee was appointed in the first place at a general meeting. Additions to it were, we know, made from time to time by general meetings. It had, therefore, no constitutional connexion with the meetings of the merchants' society, though many of the members did in fact belong to both. This is an interesting point. The merchants' society had been in existence for over twenty years ; its members had been active in promoting general meetings, but it received no recog- nized position at the constitution of the standing committee. The standing committee, if we can judge from the minutes that have been preserved, did not meet regularly, but rather as business required. The chairman continued for the rest of the century to be Lord Penrhyn, the secretary was, as for the merchants' meetings, James Allen, and the treasurer, Mr. Samuel Long. The fund appears to have been the same as that from which the expenses of the merchants' society were paid. The minute book in which the meetings of the standing committee are recorded contain also general meetings of the planters and merchants. These could meet only by summons from Lord Penrhyn. 1 There are also the meetings of numerous sub -committees appointed by the standing committee to deal with matters of special interest ; the most important were those formed to deal with the agitation respecting the slave-trade and the scheme, finally brought into operation, for the con- struction of wet docks for the exclusive use of the West India trade. Enough has been said already to indicate that with the growth of the standing committee of planters and merchants — the predecessor of the present West India Committee — the meetings of the Society of West India Merchants did not cease. The business undertaken by their meetings lessened considerably in scope during the last decade of the century, gradually becoming more and more confined to the regulation of trade : but the organization, however, continued as before. On the death of Mr. Beeston Long early in 1785, he was succeeded as chairman by Sir Richard Neave, Bart., who had been for some time deputy chairman ; and Mr. Beeston Long's son, another Beeston Long, became deputy, and in turn succeeded Sir Richard Neave as chairman. The treasurer was still Mr. Samuel Long, and the secretary James Allen, son of the former secretary of the same name. The only meetings recorded in the minute books of the merchants' society are the monthly meetings and meetings of 1 The earliest evidence for this statement is in connexion with a meeting of •21 December 1792 (Standing Committee's Minutes, vol. i). General meetings had formerly, however, ever since the beginning of the minutes of the standing committee in May 1785, been summoned by Lord Penrhyn.