"Mr. President, my lords and gentlemen," he began, "I regret exceedingly that I have to make my first appearance in your midst with an apology. I take it that you have all seen the paragraph in the papers stating that the Great Seal is missing from the Lord Chancellor's House, and, in addition to that, £250 in notes and gold. No explanation is needed as to the absence of the Great Seal, for that resulted from the mandate of your club. The other item calls for a clear and explicit statement of the facts of the case."
Here Hilton gave an account of the robbery from his first meeting the burglar to his parting from him, concluding, "So now, gentlemen, I suggest that I deserve your sympathy rather than your blame; for not only has Mr. Sikes relieved me of £250, but I have promised the Lord Chancellor to return anything we took away with us. I shall, therefore, have to send him a further like sum. I do not grudge the loss of £500, since I have been enabled to qualify as a member of your club, but I do most sincerely regret that my bungling has led to even a temporary suspicion that the taint of professionalism has been brought into your midst. My lords and gentlemen, I am in your hands. Here, at any rate, is the Great Seal of the United Kingdom."
The last words were lost in tumultuous applause. Each member rose to his feet and acclaimed the speaker, and then they crowded round him and shook hands.
"Gentlemen," said the President, when order had been restored, "I move that Mr. Richard Hilton be now formally enrolled as a member of the Club, and in your name I welcome him as one who has already added lustre to our annals. The circumstances of his entry are so unusual that, as a mark of our appreciation, I beg to move that the provincial line due from him in the usual course of things in two years' time be hereby excused, and that, as an exception to our rule, Mr. Hilton be elected for a term of four years."
The proposition was carried by acclamation.
"Your Grace and gentlemen, I thank you," said the beaming Richard Hilton.
The Privy Council met at ten on the following morning, and ordered a new seal to be engraved; but at noon a postal packet was delivered at Shipley House, which, on being opened, disclosed an old biscuit tin, then tissue paper, then cotton-wool, and finally the Great Seal of the United Kingdom.
The treaty between England and Korea was signed with the usual formalities at three in the afternoon.
Later in the day the Lord Chancellor received from five different quarters registered parcels, each weighing about a pound avoirdupois. Each packet contained fifty sovereigns.