d to subscribe to six Missions of various kinds, four Easter
Monday _Fetes_, six Friendly Societies, three Literary and Scientific
Institutes, five Temperance Associations, four Quoit Clubs, two
Swimming Clubs, seven Sunday Schools, five Church or Chapel Building
Funds, three Ornithological Societies, two Christian Young Men's
Associations, three Children's Free Dinner Funds, one Angling
Association, not to speak of Fire Brigade, Dispensaries, and Brass
Bands. Have also given a Prize to be shot for by Volunteers, as
CHUBSON gives one every year. What with L80 subscription to
the Registration Fund, things are beginning to mount up pretty
considerably.

[Illustration]

Have spoken at three meetings since the Mass Meeting. TOLLAND said,
"You needn't refer to Sir THOMAS CHUBSON yourself. Leave our people
to do that. They enjoy that kind of thing, and know how to do it."
They do, indeed. At our last meeting, HOLLEBONE, the Secretary of
the Junior Conservative Club, went on at him for twenty minutes in
proposing resolution of confidence in me. "Sir THOMAS," he said,
"talks of his pledges. The less Sir THOMAS says about them the
better. I can't walk out anywhere in Billsbury for two minutes without
tripping over the broken fragments of some of Sir THOMAS's pledges.
It's getting quite dangerous. Sir THOMAS, they say, made himself. It's
a pity he couldn't put in a little consistency when he was engaged on
the job. We don't want any purse-proud Radical knights to represent
us. We want a straightforward man, who says what he means; and you'll
agree with me, fellow-townsmen, that we've got one in our eloquent and
popular young Candidate."

This went down very well. Next day, however, the _Meteor_
"parallel-columned" Sir THOMAS CHUBSON's career and mine.
Mine occupied six lines; Sir THOMAS's "Life of honourable and
self-sacrificing industry" ran to nearly a column. "It will be
observed," said the _Meteor_, "that there is a good deal of blank
space in Mr. PATTLE's comparative career; but this no doubt recommends
him to his Conservative friends, who are quite equal to filling it
brilliantly with their imaginative rhetoric about his chances of
success."

Primrose Day, the day after to-morrow. We're going to have a great
demonstration at Billsbury. Mother is going down with me to-morrow.

_April 20th, "George Hotel," Billsbury_.--The Demonstration yesterday
was a splendid success. At ten o'clock in the morning the Conservative
B