postal arrangements of St. Leonards. He knew of no town at the distance from London that had so many mails a day. He believed he was right in saying that their post-office was one of seventeen in the kingdom which had not had any complaints laid against them (cheers). There had been several complaints against the Hastings office, and perhaps the Council had made a little mistake in confounding their own mistakes with the no mistakes of St. Leonards. In sitting down, Mr. Gardiner was loudly applauded.
Mr. R. F. Davis, who was also received with applause, remarked that if the St. Leonards people ever had any reverence for the old town of Hastings, it would now be almost blotted out. He compared the Hastings Corporation with that of Folkestone, and caused considerable amusement by some references to a story at Folkestone of an immense peacock which the Folkestone people called the "Fiery Serpent", and about which most extraordinary things were said. He supposed the people of St. Leonards had offended the ex-Mayor, and that he had grown furious at their prosperity. The speaker also referred to a letter which appeared in the Hastings News of the previous Friday, and signed "A Native of Hastings." That writer spoke of the rigid technicalities of the law, and seemed to think they were never to be broken through. Laws were made to represent general principles, but there were times when they might be made to bend. The writer said no one could enforce anything contrary to Act of Parliament, and that the Postmaster-General had broken the law. He proposed that the Postmaster-General should be tried for High Treason (laughter). The writer of the letter also referred to the object the St. Leonards party sought to attain but it happened that they had not sought to attain any object whatever; they were merely endeavouring to prevent others from attaining an object that was unjust and discreditable. He (Mr. Davies) had been in St. Leonards fifteen years, and he felt very strongly on this matter. When he started in business he was considered to be in St. Leonards, and everything was done accordingly. Everyone present was bound up in the ward St. Leonards. It seemed to him to be almost an attempt to blot them out altogether. The Hastings people appeared to regard them as such rebels that whatever they said no notice should be taken of it. He thought rebellion consisted in rising for the love of it; but if the St. Leonards people were rebels, they were made ones. The Council passed a resolution which they knew would -
