in a direct line"; Turf (1868);
Union (1822); United Service (1815); Wellington (1885); Windham (1828).
Almost every interest, rank and profession has its club. Thus there is a
Press Club, a Fly-Fishers' Club, a Gun Club, an Authors', a Farmers', a
Lawyers' (the Eldon) and a Bath Club. Of the purely women's clubs the
most important are the Alexandra (1884), the Empress (1897), Lyceum
(1904) and Ladies' Army & Navy (1904); while the Albemarle and the
Sesame have a leading place among clubs for men and women. Of political
clubs having no club-house, the best known are the Cobden (Free Trade,
1866); the Eighty (Liberal, 1880) and the United (Unionist, 1886). There
are clubs in all important provincial towns, and at Edinburgh the New
Club (1787), and in Dublin the Kildare Street (1790), rival those of
London.

The mode of election of members varies. In some clubs the committee
alone have the power of choosing new members. In others the election is
by ballot of the whole club, one black ball in ten ordinarily excluding.
In the Athenaeum, whilst the principle of election by ballot of the
whole club obtains, the duty is also cast upon the committee of annually
selecting nine members who are to be "of distinguished eminence in
science, literature or the arts, or for public services," and the rule
makes stringent provision for the conduct of these elections. On the
committee of the same club is likewise conferred power to elect without
ballot princes of the blood royal, cabinet ministers, bishops, the
speaker of the House of Commons, judges, &c.

The affairs of clubs are managed by committees constituted of the
trustees, who are usually permanent members, and of ordinarily
twenty-four other members, chosen by the club at large, one-third of
whom go out of office annually. These committees have plenary powers to
deal with the affairs of the club committed to their charge, assembling
weekly to transact current business and audit the accounts. Once a year
a meeting of the whole club is held, before which a report is laid, and
any action taken thereupon which may be necessary. (See J. Wertheimer,
_The Law relating to Clubs_, 1903; and Sir E. Carson on Club law, in
vol. iii. of _The Laws of England_, 1909.)

Previous to 1902 clubs in England had not come within the purview of the
licensing system. The Licensing Act of 1902, however, remedied that
defect, and although it was passed principally to check the abuse of
"clubs" being fo