Yesterday week, the Master of the Rolle granted an injunction
to Mr. Labouchere to restrain the Committee of the Beefsteak Club from striking his name off its roll. It was, indeed, obvious that the Committee had not complied in any single respect with their own rules in relation to the expulsion of members. Mr. Labouchere was not given fair notice of what was in contempla- tion. The action taken was not taken after due inquiry. Even the meeting at which the voting took place was not summoned in -compliance with the regulations. And the requisite majority of voters was not obtained, it seems a very strange thing that any Club should have set about so responsible a duty as that of expelling a member, with so little regard to its own statutes. But so, in this case, it was. Whether the Committee, if they had followed the rules laid down by their constitution, might not have found reason to act as they did, the Master of the Rolls did not decide. All he decided was that no Club can break through its own constitutional restrictions on the expulsion of a member; and that in Mr. Labouchere's case this was just what the Beefsteak Club had done. It hardly needed, one would think, the authority of a groat Judge to decide a point so plain as this.
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