The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

these dues were their own or not. But when the decision of
the court deeared that they were so, although he was known
to.those around Hui as a radical'reformer, he hoped he was
not an unprincipled revolutionist. (Loud cheers.) If the
government pointed to their boards in L'Ondon, the Ord-
nance, the Admiralty, the Horse Guards, he would answer
Balaklava. (Cheers.) He thought Mr. Lowe should have
had:more modesty than to ask to take the business of Liver-
pOol.into the hands of.the. government, When the business
which they had upon their hands. was so ill conducted.
The Marine Doard, a body of most respectable and
most efficient-men, had glien up their charge, and why ?
because, they were so bothered-,--49 use an Irish phrase—by
the interference of the governmea. (Hear. hear.) This
proposal was worse than Fox's East India Bill. Some of
them Clad seed how custom-house patronage had been mis-
used, and Nfoilld agree with him that they should ,he
thorough Haters of any mere Wells being planted upon
Liverpool., They would understand what that meant.
They, would not have Liverpool made a sacrifl-
_

) Wells to
protested

secure Mr. Haytet's interesi lit that Wrong
agrinst the mismanagement of centril-bOards
like centralisation, , (Heart heir.) le desired.that lo
board's should' have the ,local management, and if an
inspector was: appointed to come down and see that affairs
were Well managed, he would be rather in favour of such a
measure. Nothing more than that would be necessary to
keep their local property managed as they would wish to
have it. If the peoph of England understood this,question,
the ministry would-lose their bill; and if they attemptedlo
pres3A, he hoped they would lose their places. (Cheers.)

Ile did not

He actfiot think it neoessary to detain them any-ion

Ile should have made a capital speech, but mime of his
friends bad taken all the big bits out of his mouth.
(Laughter.) Mr. Rathbone then concluded, amid loud
applause, by proposing th
Mr. r. A. itamittod seconded the resolution; declaring

resolution

that the m

of centralization against

earnest protest

If a reasonable play w

abolition of town dues, he shoal i not be grepared to oppose
it, but when the country had had the advantage of theta he
did not think individual towns should be tilled on to bear
the expense arising from their abolition. This bill would
not tetrioVe"the butthens, but simpl and solely transfor the
management of the property into the hands of the govern-
ment. Perhaps the next thing would bo to transfer the
dock dues, and take the Management of the doeks.under
their own p-otdotion. (11ear,-hear ) Ile could not then
go to the dock office, as he did .on one occasion, see the dock
trustees, and tell them that there was a large steamer

coming to the port for which there was :no sufficient
accommodation. What was the answer he received ? He
was told to state *hat he ranted, ancl,everything should be
done which' he required. The consequence was that a ship
measuring 15 feet across, and requiring dock gates of 80
feet width, was immediately accomtnodated. (Rear, hear.)
If he had had to apply to government the ship would
be lying in the river at the present,tioment. (Cries of
hoar, hear.)

Mr. Christopher Bushell came forward to support
the resolution, and. was received with applause. Ho
'opened by congratulating "the meeting. - upon" ,the
thorough good temper which had been displaYed.
When out considered the attempt which was being madec•
one felt hii.blood boil. with indignation. Ile might very
milli. have comprehended that the Strongest language'
'would have been made use of to express the indignation
which-prevailed in the mind of every' honest man who had
heard the course which the government-proposed to take in
regard to the bill.- (Hear, hear.) The municipal institutions
of thU cenntry constituted, as they had done since they
prevailed,,the great bulwark to guard the liberties of the
people. (Hear, hear.) These municipal institutions, in
all their various ramifications; formed the basis, not only of
the liberties; bat of the prosperity. of the country.—(Hear,
hear.) Ite need not enter into that suhject; or proceed: to
chew that it was as he had said. Every man who had
studied the question knew perfectly well that the liberty
and prosperity of the people of a country *ere bound up ,in
their- municipal institutions. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
If there,were do funds to administer; and no interests to pro-
teet, municipal institutions became a shadow, not a
substance. It was not pretended that the town of
Liveittdol had mal-administered its funds. (Rear, hear.)
No one in the cottimunity had any direct interest in the
docks. They were administered for the national good, and
he should confess that he regardel with astonishment the
boldness of the government at venturing to bring such a bill
before the Comnions House of Parliament. (Hear, hear.)
It-seemed to him to be not only a slur on the integrity of
the government t9-bring in sach a bill, bat it was a direct
insult to the reptescntailYea of the people to place Huh , a
measure framed in such A spirit, before them.- If he could
lieTieve measure;
it was possible for the House of Commons to
pass sach a hill, he Should feel that the integrity of the
country was fast; going away but.he, believed in his heart
that there was in the minds of the people so much higher 'a
seuse.of right and justice. at .the present., time • than at any
other period in the history of this land; that it was
,imposaible- their representatives could, so' 'administer the
sacred trust delegated to them as to pass such a measure.
But if the House of C.,mmonq "did pass it, then ho would
say. "'Thank 1:31-ed,h and he said -U. with all reverence—
oc Goat we have a House of Peers." (Applause.)
The resolation was carried by acclamation.

Mr. DatVson moved the adoption of the petitions—one
to the House of Conimons and the other to the House of
Lords—against the bill. in doing so he' referreU to the

spirit which pervaded the speech of-.Nlr. Lowe in the 1-louse
of Commons in asking leave to introduce the bill, and that
spirit he urged they had aright to reprobate in the strongest
language. In his speech Mr. Lowe put the Liverpool
town does in the category of false and improper uses of
public funds, and he (Hr. Dawson) might observe that he
thought it a sound principle that if there was no abuse of
public funds by those to whom they were intrusted, the
government should have no pretence or right of interference.
(Hear, hear.) The cases which Mr. Lowe enumerated
were cases where public funds had been abused and appro.=
printed to other purposes than those intended, but that was
not the case with the Liverpool town dues, and their intro-
duction among such a category was merely for the purpose
of raising a prejudice against them, and misleading the
house. (Hear, hear.) They were mixed up with the
passing dues of Dover, Ramsgate, and Whitby, places
which formerly obtaine,l the right to dues to provide them
as h .rbours of refuge for ships in distress, bat which for
years past had been levying the dues without beieg in any
way able-to discharge any of the duties on,which they were
dependant. (Hear, hear.) Was that the case with the
Liverpool town dues ? (Cries of No, no.) The Trinity
House at Hull was next enumerated, and there it was font:id
that in one year, out of an income of £28,000, £7,000 or
£B,OOO was unaccounted for, and the remainder spent in a
most extravagant manner. These were the eases with
which Mr. Lowe classed the Liverpool town dues, and that
was the manner in which he sought to blacken a just and
lawful right by the most unrighteous means. (Loud cheers.)
There had been -a complaint made that the Sarah Sands
and a Brazilian vessel .had discharged her cargo in the
river, and had to pay double dock dues. It was true that
they had to do so, and of course would be liable to the
dock rates, but that would be remedied when the amalga-
mation with Birkenhead -was completed. Now he
Would ask, who it was that provided the funds of the
dock estate ? They were not levied for the benefit of
Liverpool alone—it was a national property, and the
nation reaped the benefit of it. If, before Mr. Lowe had
made the statement he had made, he had attended in that
town he would have learned something more of the matter
than he knew ; he would have known that there was not a
tax levied on the shipping, and that it was only levied for
the working cf the estate. Had the hon. member attended
the dock committee ho would have learned a good lesson,
as the affairs of that committee were so admirably managed.
It would be well if many of the members of parliament had
been educated in that committee, because the dock estate
had been managed with such care and attention, that it had
raised theirnow most magnificent port, to the finest port
in the world. (Hear, hear.) He repudiated the charges
that had been made aF,ainst the dock committee—or that
there were any defalcations on their part. What were the
dock dues granted for ? They were granted to the
port of Liverpool, and much of the prosperity,
not alone of Liverpool, but of the kingdom, depended
on their being retained. (Hear, hear.) He would not squab-
ble about the question.as between Manchester and Liver-
pool, because it was a question involving much more impor-
tance, as it was not only those two places which were'con-
cerned in it, but it was a question affecting the whole nation.
The Manchester people might rest contented that they were
not going to be hoodwinked by the misrepreientations put.
forth.by Mr. Lowe, for its far as legislating went, they might
take' a boy from the Blue Coat School who could give him
lesson. Such men, as Mr. Lowe thought that persons living
in the.proviaces. knew nothing; but• of that he would be
taught better. The bill he designated as a homoeopathic
dose, as to the ,reduction of, taxation, and condemned the
practice of members of parliament traducing the honest
mine of a community without knowing the circumstances
of the case. Mr. Dawson resumed his seat, after moving a
resointicaito the
'effect that a petition signed by the Mayor,
on behalf of ths meeting, be presented to both Houses of
Parliament. [We' refer our readers to onr advertising
columns for the petition proposed by Mr. Dawson.]
Mr. John Sidney, in seconding the resolution, said he
feltiin common with the meeting, that a great robbery was
about being perpetrated upon them. It was asked,' by
whom ? Some said by Mr. Lowe; but he would say it was
by the Government, whom they had a rig ht to look up to,
He could only say that every point in the
subject had been.
sowell touched upon, that it had left him little scope, hut
it was a question of the greatest importance' to all—the
humblest as well as the greatest men. When the question
got before such men as Lord Derby, that his " poor Bootle
sands" should be given up, he thought it would beset right.
Fur where would be his tenure ? If the House of
Con:awns should pass the bill, what would the
'Aids say to it? Pray is not, he asked, our tenure
as good as theirs.? All he could say on the subject was,
that he cou'd not believe that the Commons House of Par-
liament would ever pass such a He concluded his
observations by referring to the scandalous misrepresenta-
tions which had appeared in the London Times newspaper,
(with which, it was well known, he said, Mr. Lows was