might cease to be itself in the latter respect, only to come short of Folkestone and Newhaven in the other. By all means let us have improvements – plenty of them. We have had them and are having them; thanks to private enterprise, and to the Local Board! But let these improvements continue to run in the groove which Nature and Art point out to us as that which will most surely lead to prosperity. An immense amount of capital is invested in lodging-house property. The trade of these towns lies in that direction; the borough lives by its visitors. No town can embrace every means of trading and make all streams of profit commingle. Let us do one thing well..... If our fellow-townsmen think differently from us, we must submit; but we do not think the majority of them to differ. Let them be tested before the borough be committed to anything. Let the test be applied to them individually as capitalists and ratepayers, and not as “the public” assembled at a general meeting. A public meeting may do good by giving the promotors an opportunity of stating the details of a scheme and of defining what they mean and what they want. In other respects a meeting will only help declaimers to raise expectations which sober fact will be sure to disappoint. We might hear again, as we have heard, of Royal Navies riding at anchor here in heavy storms, - of Commerce bringing her richest treasures hither and filling the borough with her wealth; - of countless lives rescued from the raging deep; of large advantages and small drawbacks; of proposals which present to an excited crowd the maximum of good with the minimum of evil. The vox populi so raised should scarcely be allowed to decide a question of such weight as this..... It is very kind of strangers to take such a deep interest in our welfare; but it is just possible that there(sic) help may only encumber us, or may be regarded by some amongst us as an objectionable experiment – an experiment that would doubtless be profitable to a few, but ruinous to the many. Our readers must not complain that in contributing our share to this discussion we have taken the adverse side, from prospectuses and agents, written and paid for the express purpose of making “the worst appear the better reason”. If we have succeeded in arousing caution, we have done our work. If any habour(sic) scheme be rejected, we shall ?(illegible). If not, and the harbour come, we must acquiesce and make the best of it.
A Magistrate’s Letter, re the Harbour.
- “To the Editor of the “Hastings and St. Leonards News”. – “Dear Sir, - I was one of those who, some years ago, took a prominent and active part in the attempt to establish a harbour at Hastings, and failed, to then my regret and disappointment. Since that time, however, my views have undergone a total change; for, when I look to the vast progress that Hastings has made as a select and fashionable watering place without a harbour, I strongly suspect that -
