Page:Item 6 1854.pdf/114

From Historical Hastings
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ing there, they were exercising the rights of man, and were discharging their duty as citizens by looking boldly in the face of the wrong which had been done them. His resolution was not about the post-office, and he had simply to prove to them that they were justified in being surprised at an uncalled-for and vexations act of the Town Council towards them; that the Council had treated them without common courtesy and kindness; in fact, had treated them not only as children but as very scrubby children, and their houses as dog-kennels which they might daub over as they plesed. The prime movers were very careful to express their good feelings for them, and said they were only acting from a reverence for the time-honoured name of Hastings. If they spoke as honest men, they were not acting as wise ones. All this hubbub at Christmas about a name! What was in a name? He would call the prime-mover to spell out in his own way what he meant by a name. The reverend gentleman then read the following extract from Ald. Ross's speech at the last Council meeting - "Visitors coming to that part of the town wrote home and told their friends that they were residing in the best part of the town and would call it St. Leonards. One of the consequences was that their friends, when they came, took tickets to St. Leonards Station, and were therefore taken to the Victoria Hotel or to lodging-houses in that immediate neighborhood. If the visitors could write home and call their place of residence Hastings, their friends would take tickets to Hastings and would come to the Hastings station and go to Hastings hotels and lodging-houses" That was what the Mayor meant by a mere name [Loud Cheers]. He meant by a mere name that which would fill lodging-houses and pay good rents; that which would fill hotels and pay long bills; that which would fill their carriages and buy goods from their shops. And then his usual supporter - it was quite fair to call him the seconder - Mr. Vidler [Cheers and laughter] seconded Mr. Ross's motion and he did it in a strnge way. And here they might perhaps have had a grudge against the Press. Perhaps the press laid down their pens, feeling unable to report the glowing eloquence of the speaker, but at all events, they did lay down their pens. "Mr. Vidler seconded the motion, and gave an instance, shewing the injurious effect produced by allowing the name of St. Leonards to be attached to the best part of Hastings." It so happened very -