Page:Item 6 1854.pdf/129

From Historical Hastings
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idle tales. At length, one morning, the young cherubs were informed that if they did such naughty things any more they would be 'pacificated.' What awful thing as that? What might have been a joke became a terrible bugbear. Well it seems this erudite native gardener of Hastings finds out that for many years, his beautiful garden of Eden has been invaded by the audacious young dogs of St. Leonards, who have appropriated his delectable fruits - e.g. Eversfield place, Grand parade, &c. No wonder, then, that 'A Native of Hastings' consents to become a sort of Ghost-of-Hamlet finger-post, which, pointing, says-

Ye trespassers who here locate
Hasting your eyes will lucidate;
St. Leonards, too, beware and sigh,
And Argyll, mind your dexter eye.

And hence, ye St. Leonards transgressors and iconoclasts, 'of all structures of social harmony and derident sweeps' beware of that clique of concentrated wisdom wisdom of which certain members of the Local Board form the nucleus. Behold, we say, the ominous and portentous warnings of the finger-post; and if ye are not frightened by the 'Lordly bombast', why, then we must suppose 'A Native of Hastings' to be disappointed in the object for which his technical legal-savouring letter was written. Again, we (i.e. St Leonards) want to have discussed, impartially, not the powers of the Local Board - we know them - nor the meanings of expediency - we think we know them too - nor the sins of the Postmaster-General (wicked as he may be in aiding and abetting the people of St. Leonards in that which, no doubt, will give them a prominent position in English History, but which we were not aware of, nor the causing of the degeneracy of the spirit of true English liberty), but the discussion of this affair by the rules of common sense. And we ask, if the general weal had been the object of the Board, would they have acted as they have done in hurrying through regulations affecting the commercial interests ad local feelings of the town of St. Leonards without those, the most interested knowing anything of it? A member of Parliament wishes to frame a bill or alter one; does he think it unnecessary to be guided by the wants and desires of his constituents? Will he not first enquire as to the necessity, and will not the public feeling be his guide? Or does he think that matters of public interest can be weighed and settled by his own empiric brain schemes? If so, his axe of reform may demolish a main support of the fabric he sought to consolidate, and, like another Samson, draw down ruin on his own head. And now we ask, is it beneath the dignity of the Local Board to weigh 

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