y get
the affairs of Hathelsborough placed on a more modern and a better
footing. We were all----"

The Coroner held up his hand.

"Let us have a clear understanding," he said. "I am
gathering--officially, of course--from what you are saying that in
Hathelsborough Town Council there are two parties, opposed to each
other: a party pledged to Reform, and another that is opposed to Reform.
Is that so, Mr. Epplewhite?"

"Precisely so," answered the witness. "And of the Reform party, the late
Mayor was the leader. This is well known in the town--it's a matter of
common gossip. It is also well known to members of the Town Council that
Mr. Wallingford's proposals for reform were of a very serious and
drastic nature, that we of his party were going to support them through
thick and thin, and that they were bitterly opposed by the other party,
whose members were resolved to fight them tooth and nail."

"It may be as well to know what these abuses were which you proposed to
reform?" suggested the Coroner. "I want to get a thorough clearing-up of
everything."

"Well," responded the witness, with another glance around the court,
"the late Mayor had a rooted and particular objection to the system of
payments and pensions in force at present, which, without doubt, owes
its existence to favouritism and jobbery. There are numerous people in
the town drawing money from the borough funds who have no right to it on
any ground whatever. There are others who draw salaries for what are
really sinecures. A great deal of the ratepayers' money has gone in this
way--men in high places in the Corporation have used their power to
benefit relations and favourites: I question if there's another town in
the country in which such a state of things would be permitted. But
there is a more serious matter than that, one which Mr. Wallingford was
absolutely determined, with the help of his party, and backed by public
opinion, if he could win it over--no easy thing, for we had centuries of
usage and tradition against us!--to bring to an end. That is, the fact
that the financial affairs of this town are entirely controlled by what
is virtually a self-constituted body, called the Town Trustees. They are
three in number. If one dies, the surviving two select his
successor--needless to say, they take good care that they choose a man
who is in thorough sympathy with their own ideas. Now the late Mayor was
convinced that this system led to nothing but--well