The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-04 00:00:00

lATTER,

Nobility and Gentry of Liver-
iTYLES for the Season are NOW READY

81, CHURCH-STREET,

to inform

TO THE. NORTHERN
s TWO GUINEAS PER ANNUM.

FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1856

WHAT is to be done with the Birkenhead Docks ?
This is indeed an important commercial question.
To the locality in which they are situated it is

paramount to all other considerations, and to the

mercantile community at large it is almost as
important. With a very slight increase to British
commerce, the Mersey will require a much larger

amount of clod

accommodation than we have at

present, and Birkenhead must participate in this
increased demand for docks before any other por-
tion of the river. Her central position and other
natural advantages, totally irrespective of her rail-
way facilities, command a preference to the North
shore. Small local prejudices may for a while
retard the work of common sense ; but the steady
growth of trrde will swamp all minor interests by
its immensity. Those who have watched carefully
the progress of the trade of Liverpool can see, we
repeat, very clearly, that the day is not far off wheri
we shall be constrained to seek shelter for shipping
on the Cheshire side. But are these the matters
which were brought under the notice of Parliament ?
Nothing of the kind. There was a great engineer.
ing—a monster professional battle to be fought.
Rival dock projectors and wordy barristers
their bows and speeches
before a committee, and to renew a contest of
which every member of the House of Commons

k, and the Birkenhead Dock
Committee preferred delaying a great and neces-
sary work to having the old story of dock making

thoroughly

all oser again.
What, then, remains to be done under the cir-

cumstances ? The Liverpool pock Committee
would not be justified in allowing Mr. HARTLEY to
proceed with his plans, while there is an act in
force to make the Birkenhead Trust follow out Mr.
RENDEeS design. Pursuing such a course would
be scarcely pardonable in the eyes of a future
Parliamentary Committee, and it is not likely that
it will be attempted. The Dock authorities might
be secure in carrying on the work as sanctioned by
the Legislature when they purchased the estate.
The emergency of the case would be a sufficient
answer to any objection which could be raised
hereafter. But, then, what is to become of Mr.
HARTLEY'S plans ? Will the committee compel
Mr. HARTLEY to carry out the designs of his rival ?
The whole difficulty in the way of proceeding
with the completion of the Birkenhead
Docks seems to rest on this one point. And it is
rather too bad that while both sides of the river
have their engineers, that trade is not to have the
increased shipping facilities which will assuredly
be required before those in question can be brought
into full operation.

As for charging the Liverpool Dock Committee
now with a desire to keep Birkenhead in the back
ground, the idea is simply ridiculous. The rapid
extension of trade has often pressed them sorely,
and the screw will overtake them again ere long
The space on the banks of the Mersey applicable

to docks has its limit, and when the whole of it has
been brought into use, there will still be traffic
enough on our northern coast to support half a
dozen Liverpools. It is only a question of time as
to When Birkenhead must be treated with tender
solicitude—when her docks must be made, and her
legitimate share of the trade of our port passed
into its proper channel. This moment of auspicious
compulsion is, we are inclined to think, nearer at
hand than the good folk of Birkenhead, or the
Dock Committee believe. Be this as it may, we
cannot credit the statements made at the meeting
of the Birkenhead Commissioners on Tuesday,
with regard to undertaking works not sanctioned
by Parliament.

The chairman who presided at the meeting
stated, that he " understood the Corporation were
" about to do all the inner works, and as much of
" the exterior works as would be applicable to any plan
" that might be hereafter adopted, and that for that

" purpose, in a short time, the contracts and ten-
" ders would be prepared. Now, this system of
anticipating the consent of Parliament to works of
such magnitude, is one which the Corporation
ought to set its face against in the most solemn
manner. Executing works which " would be appli-
" cable to any plan that might be hereafter
" adopted !" Why, was there ever such a thing
heard of before ? Anything the Dock Committee do
which is not authorised, will be undertaken at their
peril. They were ordered in the Act of 1855, to go to
Parliament this year for powers to complete the
docks. But instead of complying with this portion
of the Birkenhead Dock Act of last session, they
went forth with an entirely new scheme, or revival
of effete crochets, and their Bill was thrown out,
without giving them time to go into the " merits "
of their old prcjects re-hashed. And if they
should persist in carrying those plans forward,
relying on their being applicable to any plan
which may be hereafter adopted what will
the next Committee they appear before say to
them ? They can, with some show of consistency,
follow up Mr. RENDEL'S plan, and if they attempt
to run any further risk the Council should, at once,
set their veto upon any such novel and dangerous
proposal. Meanwhile it remains for the Chairman
of the Birkenhead meeting to explain the mean-
ing of his observations with regard to the works
about to be undertaken, as it appears the
Corporation intend to carry out Mr. RENDEL'S
plan.

Tun creditor interest is paramount in Parlia-
ment. Debt is now treated of as unmitigated
fraud, and we have the debtor all but in irons.
This might do very well in a land where all men
were rogues, and if the ledgers of a commercial
country had not a debit and credit side. It appears
to be a necessary sequence, that where all traders
are creditors all must be debtors. There is
scarcely a man engaged in any commercial
pursuit who is not in debt. It would be
impossible to carry on the business of this
mercantile country in the absence of what is called
" trust." The superstructure of our social exist-

ence has been raised on mutual confidence, and if
we judge from the general appearance of England
at the present moment, we think that the faith we
have placed in one another has not been very
grossly abused. To keep engagements is the
great struggle of business life. The successful

man passes on from year to year without observa-
tion, and the amount of his liabilities are never
The unfortunate

known, nor is it necessary