THE PRESENT STATE OF BLENHEIM.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 124, 4 July 1868, Page 4

THE PRESENT STATE OF BLENHEIM.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —Another aqueous visitation which has enriched our roads and streets with an alluvial deposit, soft and unctious as the slime of Nile, has put me into a “ brown study,” from which I seek to escape, by committing some of my thoughts to paper. 'It is now, I think, about four months since Her Majesty’s lieges in Blenheim allowed themselves to be led by the nose, while under a species of Mesmo-Sinclairic influence. The floods, which have awakened the farmers from their apathy, have done as much damage to the town, or nearly so, as they have to the country. But what have we done to remedy the evil ?—We have, for the sake of gratifying the personal pique of a few individuals, done that which my old grandmother would have called, “cutting her nose off to spite her face.” We have treated the men who sought to serve us in such a scurvy manner, that I should question the sagacity of the man who would venture to take a seat at such an inhospitable board as the "Town Board of Blenheim. ” Yea and verily! the Blenheimites are a queer race. One of our modern poets says,—

“ There’s a glorious charm, Deny it who can; Breathed in those words— ' I’m an Englishman.’ Perhaps there is ; but the glory seems to me to have faded considerably through crossing the line. At all events, the reflection of it in Marlborough is pale as—- “ The straggling moonbeams misty light. Or a lanthorn dimly burning,” Where is the public spirit which has made the Anglo-Saxon name so famous in every clime ? Why there is not a public institution in Blenheim possesssing any vitality. The Mechanics Institute has been nursed to death ; and those who have endeavoured to keep it from sinking, have been left like the Town Board, to work for nothing, and pay their own expenses. I was going to say what I thought about our gallant Volunteers, but as I hold several members of the corps in very high esteem, I shall say I am only sorry there is not more of them. I remember too, the futile efforts of a few to establish a Fire Brigade ; the volunteers who came forward to enrol their names for this truly noble service, might each and all exclaim with Hotspur,

"Oh I could go to buffets with myself, for having moved such a dish of skim milk (as Blenheim) with so honourable an action.”

We slumbered through all the loyal excitement which has vibrated from end to end of the British Empire, in spite of the remonstrances of the Express and its correspondents, and now I suppose we shall continue to wallow through muddy streets and dilapidated roads, grumbling at the state of Blenheim, and doing nothing to improve it, while the money that has been spent on it is being gradually washed out to sea. If my memory does not fail me, I think some of the speakers at the public meeting said “they had too much honour in the faith of their fellowtownsmen to suppose for a moment that they would allow them (the members of the Board) to pay public debts out of their own pockets.” How far their expectations have bean realised is tolerably well known, and with such precedents before them, who are the men bold enough to take the reins of the town coach, and pilot it out of the slough; can we find any, or must we wait for the millenium ?—I am, &c., Blenheim, July 3rd, 1868. Cassius.