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has greater claims on our respect. But still, there is so much that is indefinite in the proposals and so much appears incoherent in the arguments urged by the advocates of the plan proposed, that a few remarks on the subject might at least serve to bring out something more clearly defined than we we have seen or heard at present. We confessed ourselves puzzled in the first place to know what our friends really desire. Is it a large harbour in which (as one speaker declared) a royal fleet might ride in time of war? – or is it merely a small affair, which might be made for very little money, and fit only for fishing-boats and coasters? We have heard of no plan for raising money for the prospective glory of accommodating Her Majesty’s Navy, nor do we yet see that even a smaller harbour is popular with the very classes for whose protection it is offered. To say that a harbour of refuge is useful for ships to run into during a gale is to assert what might be said with far greater truth of other places on the coast. But we apprehend that this plea of philanthropy is not the moving power with those who wish to speculate in the matter. The real question for us to decide is this:- Do Hastings and St. Leonards want a harbour to enhance their prosperity? Let us see if the affirmative of this has been proved. These towns have risen into note as watering places, not as ports. Building has gone on rapidly in the borough on the very correct assumption that our permanent revenue must ever be derived from visitors. The reputation of the place has been wonderfully on the rise for years, and a steady stream of prosperity seems to have set in which we should be careful not to arrest. Eager to prove the need of a harbour here, it has been observed that some places with harbours have advantages over Hastings. So they have, of course; but are they advantages that we should desire for Hastings? The greater accommodation for colliers, barges and wharfage that Rye has, for example, makes it all the better for that town. But Rye is not a place of resort for visitors and never can be whilst it possesses the kind of ‘advantages’ we do not possess. Our towns, on the contrary, have no such claim to the favourable notice of the class of traders who make the fortune of people living in a harbour town. Our ‘advantages’ are of another kind – the right kind for the class of people who keep alive our professions and trades – the visitors. We have neither wharves , foreign coasters, swarms of colliers, incessant street bustle and noise, nor the other concomitants of a harbour. But we have fine houses, quiet streets, an unrivalled promenade, a clean and beautiful beach, romantic scenery, and a lively and pleasant sea-view. Our business is to make the -