for the encouragement of those who might take part in the present movement, a record would be kept all who gave their assistance. He was glad to find that the first step taken in this locality was by the Mechanics’ Institutions.— The Chairman, in acknowledging a vote of thanks, said he should have great pleasure in attending the meeting at the Mansion House; when Prince Albert would be present as well as most of the mayors of English towns. — A message was received from Rye to the effect that a meeting had just been held by the Town Council, and a resolution passed to co-operate with Hastings in connection with the exhibition. That the Rev. Dr. Gray, in his speech was justified in saying he was not so sanguine as to expect that peace would infallibly arise from the exhibition, the great war with is Russia so soon after maybe adduced — a war in which one of his hearers, Viscount Chewton, was so sorrowfully slain. The speeches at the above meeting, it needs no assurances, were all good in their way, but the one by Mr. Rock was most to the purpose because the most practical; and that he was determined to make it so will be seen when his own ingenuity and praiseworthy exertions come to be described in chapter XLVI.
Railway Matters
The progress of the South-Eastern Railway Works under the contract of Messrs. Newton and Smith — that is the tunnelling from the Priory to Bopeep — has been described in the preceding chapter, and the labour of construction, together with its concomitant incidents and accidents now to be considered are those pertaining to Mr. Hoof’s contract. Of Mr. Hoof himself (as well as his son) the townspeople and others with whom he had business transactions spoke respectfully, but it happened that, upon the whole, the workmen under him were not nearly so well conducted as were those in the employment of Messrs. Newton and Smith. In that respect, St. Leonards appeared to fare much better than Hastings. On the 25th of March one of the labourers was found lying in a ditch between the toll gate on the old London road and the union workhouse, half-immersed in water that had frozen around him. At first it was thought that he was dead, but he awoke to consciousness, and it was afterwards learnt that he fell into his comfortless quarters on the preceding (Sunday) night while in a state of intoxication. With difficulty he was got to his lodgings, when the foolish man discovered that he had been robbed of four pounds. It was a marvel that, under the circumstances, he had not been deprived of life.
On the 9th of April, Phillips, who had a warrant against George Brown, -
