The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-03 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TIMES

SIN—In 1854, a friend of mine—a member of the
Corporation of Liverpool, and also of every important
committee-,,,knowing that-I was-the-author-of-the pro-
spectus of "the Clarence Dock and Wigan Railway" of
1836, now the Trunk of, the "Lancashire and York-
Shire," held many conversations with me on publiC mat-
ters concerning ,Liverpool. He lamented that public
bodies lost their way in many things where in'individual
intellect might direct them, and failed to originate many
things for the public benefit from want of interest in
them'. At his zequest. I addressed. the Chairman of the
Dock Committee, and, by appointment, attended the sub-
conimittee on the 13th of- May, 1854. The immediate
object of that meeting; on my part, we to drew the
advantages of completing the railway along thicdocks,
and making it -the instrument of using travelling
hydraulic-, craned for loading : and unloading vessels,
the, mode- of doing which I explained ; and also,
more partichlarly, of laying down in. the pavement
iron wheelways, which would, at half the cost per mile of
pavement, sustain more rollage of goods and carriages,
with half the draught, and half the wear and tear thatpave-
ments do, or can do.: I•clid not enter minutely into this,
because I found that I had an apathetic audience: The
hydraulic 'conversation 'continued. • I then pointed out
the policy of placing the valuable public and
.privaleaVithin'a-bertain raditis. Z;(sl6iattge, under
the protection of water at such pressure that, with
lrydrants in: the buildings up to thp., rook_c?n-
fiagration would be staled- that
if the Roddlesworth Lodge:wine-high enough the wee
should come:from thence; but if the pressure were not

-sufficient, another mode might be adopted, viz., that an
engine: should b always ready to force, with the addi-
tion- of the gravitation, the water- from • the Edge-hill
reservoir. The engine to be used -in the daytime to
force the pressure- of water into- the travelling cranes by
a pipe along the.:Doeles; with 9913/1111Anications at inter-
vals with the cytinderrpt, the cranes, keeping the engine
ready during.' the night' tb fordo " the water, for fire-pre-
vention. -Mr.-Turner objected thatthe steanrwould be too
expensive. The interest. of £3O, GOO-L•the cost of the fire on
Sunday last—is £1,50P per annum. Since that conversa-
tion in 1854 the nil llion7fire akNewcastle has occurred, and
the "burning down of Mr. Brancker's sugar-house (but
this ie, even yet,- tiio horrible to recur to), Launcelots'-hey

£80,090, and other 4es.havo„happened. As arith-
metic may suit the purpose better tbip :philanthropy, I
7ilrtnekely remark that every farthing'SwOrtheipropercy
destroyed by fire.is lost to the public, and must be paid
for by the public. The increased insurance tax is paid
on all similar properties. In 1841 the insurance
tax ran up in Liverpool from Bs. to 86s. per cent.
The amount of property destroyed' 'by fire in
Liverpool during the present century (from 1800) ex-
ceeds four millions. In face of such fires as Launcelot's-
hey fire, £198,000, in 1333, and Formby-street fire,
£380,000, in 1842, of what avail are the present means
of extinction, or rather preventio ? We need not look
back, last Sunday morning has settled the question. It
has been objected to me that fires may be so sudden,
as in Mr. Brancket's case, that the valves in high
pressure-hydrants could not be got at ;, t can only say,
that when such hydrants areput up, self-opening valves
will be placed in them. There° are other modes of
adding high pressure besides that objected to by Mr.

Turner.—Yours, &c., • JOIEN HORS:MC/E. '
Birkenhead, May 1, 1880.
P.S.--I nee the word tax instead of rate, from itt
excess in Liverpobl.

The son of
the, unfortunate General Ortega, after
having petitioned in vain for his father's life, has left
Spain for Rome, to take servieeunder.Gen. Lamoricßre.
Parliamentary
return just
BREWERS AND BEER.—A PBa
issued,shows that the total number26;in Ireland, 109 ; and
of persons licensed
as brewers in Englainde
in Scotland, 120. is
,um,ber of licensed victuallers in
England is 63,909 ;
in Ireland,n
17,142 ; and in Scotland,
12015—making the total number of licensed victuallers
in the United
persons licensed to sell beer to be drunk on the premises,
and 2,898 not to be so consumed. The -number of.
licensed victuallers in England who brew their cm,
beer is 24,677, and in Scotland 126.
SINGULAR SthCIDE AT MANCHESTER.—A strange
suicide has been committed at Manchester. A man,
about 33 or 34 years of age, apparently in very respecta-
ble circumstances, went to Tonk's Hotel, Mill-street, on
Wednesday afternbon, having with him a portmanteau,
a box, and other luggage, and stated that he should
requirs'accommodation for the night. Re remained at
the hoteVand the next evening, when one of the ser-
vants had occasion to go to his. room, he was fotind lying
across the bed quite dead. It appeared that with a
razor he had opened an artery of his left arm in two
places, with the deliberate intention of allowing himself
to bleed to death. Not only had he placed a basin so as
to prevent the blood flowing over the floor, but he had
actually so, disposed a number of his own. shirts so as to
prevent Pie bed 'clothes Or: carpet being in any way
stained, and after using the razor had closed it and laid
it aside. His luggage did not enable the police to.
identify him.