Borough Election. The battle of Montibello was a great blow to Austria, and the battle of Palestro was another blow in the same direction. This was followed up in June by the battle of Magenta, a sanguinary struggle in which the Austrians were defeated with the loss of about 15,000 men.
The war was followed in due time by an imperial interview and a proclamation of peace between the rival combatants. Then came conferences, to be followed by a European congress proposed to be held in Paris.
An important ecclesiastical event at the commencement of the year was the Royal proclamation abolishing the State services for the 30th of January, the 29th of May and the 5th of November - the anniversaries of the martyrdom of King Charles the first, the Restoration of King Charles the Second, the reputed hiding of King Charles in the Oak, and the Gunpowder Plot. These celebrations had been for a long time growing in disfavour, and were at length regarded as both obsolete and absurd. Their abolishment was therefore hailed as an act of reform by most of the intelligent community in the borough of Hastings, although the secular celebration of the "Royal Oak Day" was still desired by a few of those who had annually decorated their doorways with green boughs and other mementoes. An improvement in the Guy Fawkes celebration followed, as has been shown, (the initiative having been taken by St. Leonards) in a change of name to that of "Bonfire Boys", and with a huge effigy of the Chinese Commissioner Yeh, instead of the old one of Guido Fawkes.
The year was marked at frequent intervals by agitations for Reform. The Reform Bill which had been so often promised not having arrived, it was felt that it could not be indefinitely shelved; and Mr. Bright took an early opportunity of publishing a scheme for reform, which was of an extensive character, and one that was likely to be strenuously opposed. By his plan 56 English and Welsh boroughs were to be disfranchised; 60 borough having each between 6,000 and 16,000 inhabitants to have one representative, 41 boroughs between 16,000 and 25,000, were to be unchanges; 43 boroughs, between 25,000 and 45,000 inhabitants to have two members; 23 boroughs between 45,000[a] and 127,000, three members; 12 boroughs between 127,000 and 270,000 were to be divided; 5 boroughs exceeding (illegible text), six members; 7 new boroughs to have representatives, some of the English Counties to have additional -
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