hands of my readers. I might have extended the details and comments thereon to an almost indefinite length by going into the question of groynes and other means of protection mainly to the property rightly or wrongly erected too near to the sea. I might have given extracts from the many articles published in Brett's Gazette in connection with such protection in some of which articles were suggestions which if acted upon might have saved thousands of pounds, one of which, as it occurs to instant memory, was a concave surface to the parade walls, years before it was partially and wisely adopted by the present Borough Surveyor. I might have referred to the several litigations on the beach and foreshore, questions of later years, in which the Corporation came off only second best, and I might have dwelt on the negotiations of the town authorities with the Government officials to show that there was another and more potent claimant to certain foreshore rights than any of the local litigants or disputants. Happily, all that is now satisfactorily settled, and what I have penned is a matter of History. Suffice that I have shown in what way certain inhabitants "stole the ground" they built upon, and afterwards redeemed their character by pecuniary compensation. And now, after this lengthy digression, I return to the year 1837 for a further narrative of its events.
I have before this alluded to the bankruptcy of Messrs. Bishop and Thorpe, but I did not say that Mr. Thorpe was Mayor of Hastings at the time, and that on the 18th of July, Robert Ranking, Esq. was elected to to (sic) fill his place for the remainder of the official year, whilst Mr. Grimes, porter merchant, was elected on the Council in place of Mr. Ranking. Then, Mr. Ranking being made an alderman, Thomas Foster was elected a councillor in his place, and Frederick Ticehurst in the room of Edward Fermor, another bankrupt. In the West ward Mr. Stephen Puttman was elected on the Council Board in place of Mr. W. M. Eldridge, also a bankrupt. It often happens that one bankruptcy causes others, and this was, doubtless, so in 1837. I know of one instance in which the failure of a tradesman was attributed to such, and, besides the bankruptcy of Mr. Edlridge and Mr. Fermor, already mentioned, as well as of Bishop & Thorpe, the Council at their meeting in September, consented to a certificate of Thomas James Breeds, a bankrupt, on a debt due to the Corporation for pier dues. Also at the November meeting it was resolved that the Council consent to the Corporation seal being attached to the certificate of Mr. Charles Burfield, a bankrupt, for the debt due on the stade a/c.
The names of that Council Board were W. Duke (Mayor), Dr. MacCabe (ex-Mayor), F. North (ex-M.P.), W. L. Shadwell, W. L. Yates, J. Mannington, J. Emary, J. Harman, W. Amoore, W. Scrivens, W. Ransom, W. Ginnner, (sic) W. Brisco, C. Grenside, C. Deudney, R. Deudney, J. Thwaites, S. Putland, and T. Foster.
On the ninth of November the choice of Mayor fell upon Mr. William Duke, who, with about forty officials and friends, Kept up the time-honoured custom of dining at the Swan hotel; but there was a subject broached at the Council meeting of that day which it may be worth while to notice. I have already stated that
In Eighteen-thirty-six a letter came,
With Lord John Russell's venerated name,
That non-provision of a Cinque-ports gaol,
Would make the Hastings Quarter-Sessions fail.
It was at the meeting now referred to that the Rev. William Russell delivered a lengthy address to the Council on the subject of building a new county prison at Hastings. He was one of the Gaol Commissioners, and was sent by Lord John Russell to confer with the Council on this matter. He advocated what he called the separate system; but, as my present readers well know, the county prison at Lewes is proof that Hastings did not strenuously covet the honour of being head and chief in prison establishments. Of the twenty-one aldermen and councilmen present at that particular meeting it was twenty to one that they would not be living at the time when this was written. All, but the one exception (Alderman Deudney) has passed the bourne whence no traveller returns.
Having mentioned Lord John Russell's name in connection with the gaol, I may here say that the names of Dr. Wilmott and John Mannington having been sent to him for magistrates in the place of James Burton, deceased, his lordship replied that he could only recommend Mr. Mannington.
But gaol or no gaol, the authorities had no difficulty in finding a cage for birds, and it was on this species - not a carrier-pigeon,but a carrier without pigeon - that had his wings metaphorically cut by an old fowler belonging to Her Majesty's Customs. The bird thus caught rejoiced in the name of Syms, and hailed from the town and port of Rye. He was seen delivering to Mrs. Nash, of All Saints' street, a box which he said contained candles, but which turned out to be two casks of contraband spirits. Syms was afterwards adjudged to pay a fine of £100, but on the application of Mr. Langham, the smugglers' advocate, his sentence was commuted to six months' imprisonment. This reminds me of another affair, which took place in the same year, and had a curious and almost fatal termination. A lad, with a horse and cart, was going up the Swan Lane, when a Custom-house officer, having his curiosity excited by suspicion, overhauled the cart and discovered a tub of spirits therein. Some words which he addressed to the lad had such an effect on him that the poor little fellow's terror brought on a fit, which continued for several hours, and his life was despaired of. Dr. Dutton attended the poor boy, and at length succeeded in restoring him to consciousness. He was then set free, but the horse and cart were taken to the Custom-house yard, in High street, and there publicly sold. A few years earlier a similar case would not have been without the pale of possibility even with the embryo St. Leonardensis, for he had been the joint bearer of many a concealed keg of spirits unburdened with duty, and had never been cognizant of wrong other than that it was not desirable to expose such a commodity to public gaze.
