The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-22 00:00:00

DOCK COMMITTEE.

This coin nittee met as usual at one o'clock yesterday.
Mr. Rankin presided, and the other toe rbt,,rs present
were —Me•,srs. Ilaihea , Chat ne Roqu, h vaite,
Mandell, Hubback, Chilton, Gladstone, arid Audr,rson.
Tendsrs were accepted, on the recommeLdation of the
sub-committee ~f works, fir carpenler's work on the sheds
between the King's and Wapping docks, from Messrs.
Jones and Jump ; for the works on the proposal canal
basin, on the south side of Lighibody-street, for the
trustees of the Duke of Bridgewater, from Messrs. W.
M'Cormick and Co.; and for three and a half tons of ingot
copper from MasFrs. John Bibby and Co.
The sub-committee recommended 1.:1) to be contributed
towards the mtintenaLce of the lifeboat at Southport,
which was agreed to.
The offer of Mr. Clay top tint and colour the lighthouses
at Bidston, Leasowe, and H)ylake, was acceptel.
A letter was read from Mr. Jonathln P. Watmough,
stating that, having an improved plan of wages to facilitate
the loading and unloading of ships. which could be applied
to the present stages in use, he should he happy to submi
the plsn for approval. The letter was referred to the
Harbour Masters' Committee.
_ _

Mr. Gladstone asked if any report had been made to
the committee upon the condition cf the lifeboat establih-
ment. Some time ago an accident had occurred, as the
committee would remember, and one of the boats was
upset.
Mr. lialhead said the marine sub-committee inspected the
alterations which were proposed to be made in the boat by
the marine surveyor, and the boat was considered much
safer, inasmuch as the extra buoyancy was given just where
it was required.
Mr. Gladstone said the only question was, whether a
boat, which was- styled a lifeboat, and in the course of
• trial upset, did not at once lose its rig ht to the name of a
lifeboat. If the committee was to tolerate such a system
they would be positively encouraging and offering a pre
minor for boats to upset.
The Chairman reminded Mr. Gladstone that the acci-
dent in question had occurred because the sail was set,
and the boat could uot free herself fro n the mast. It was
thought by the committee that, upon the whole, no prin-
ciple could be found better than that now in use ; but
they had not lost sight of the subject by any means.
Mr. Mondell said no boat could be found which would
not upset ; but it would not be a perfect lifeboat
which did not right itself again. He concurred in
the opinion that the boat not having righted was owing
to the sail being set, but at the same time he was not pre-
pared to say whether it was the very best which could be
built at the present day.
Mr. Gladstone thought the committee were not doing
their duty if they did not strive to provide the very best.
The Chairman explained that the committee were still
considering the subject.
A letter was read from Captain Evans, R.N., acting
Conservator ofothe Mersey, enclosing on the part of the
Conservancy Commissioners, a copy of the report of Mr.
James Walker, C.E , dated 18th December, 1855, upon
the effects of the extension of the Northern River wall of
the Liverpool docks upon the channel and banks of the
Mersey, and asking whether it would, not be advisable
that some arrangement should be made on the part of the
Dock Trustees and the Corporation of Liverpool, with the
parties interested in the shore upon the Cheshire side, for
the erection of a wall which would protect that shore from
the inroads made by the river, and prevent the soil from
being washed into the tideway.
Mr. Gladstone said the subject was before the committee
Some time ago. The difficulty, he believed, was that the
committee was not to be permitted to have a share in any
of the land reclaimed. They were to be honoured by a
share in the outlay, but deprived of anything arising from
the newly found land.
The Chairman thought the principle upon which the
dock estate and the corporation wished to deal was that
the land thus made should be sold at a fair value, and that
any deficiency should be made up between the parties on
the other side, the dock estate and the corporation, upon
terms to be agreed upon.
The letter was referred to the parliamentary sub-com-

mittee,
Mr Gl&litone said he had received a communication from
the Rev. Mr, Glover, who had already addressed a letter
to the Board, upon the subject of reclaiming the Mersey
fcom the sand-deposits. The present was a very interest-
ing document, giving many details up n the subject. Mr.
Gladstone then read the following letter :
TO ROBERTSON GLADSTONE, ESQ.

Cologne, 16th May, 1857. I
My dear Sir,—A letter last night received from Smitballs
Hall informs me that some favourable notice of the proposition
I ventured to make for the amelioration of the conditions of
your navigation has appeared in a Liverpool paper. I am re-
joiced to hear that, because, to say the truth, while I was
myself entirely convinced of the soundness of the plan proposed,
I hardly allowed myself to think that so desperate an encounter
with your briarian enemy as the plan seems to be would find
much countenance at first. The idea, however, of impracE:-
cableness, being once got over, I consider the bade won ; for
when the consideration of the subject is redurel to detail, the
advantages which will be secured aro so manifest, and the
plan meets so fully the aeready expressed desires of those who
have Oven attention to the subject, that I have no doubt any
longer that the proposition will find general favour, and be
ultimately adopted ; and I therefore mean now to speak with
greater boldness than I ventured to do in the paper which, at
the instance of Mr. John Hartley, I addressed to the li,ck
Committee when I was in Liverpool. Since I addressed my-
self to the board I have had the advantage of an interview with
Mr. Hartley, sen.; of having heard of Mr. George Rennie's
proposition as to its main feature ; and of a conversation 'Mil
Mr. John Hartley, in London. With the former gentleman
I am happy to find myself in agreement as to the necessity of
. massing the alluvise—practically with the second, who would
wall some three or four miles of the estuary in alignement with
the east side of the river, in order to give direction to the
ontecour of the tidal waters; as the carrying out,of my propo-
sition would involve this work, to which, I believe. Mr.
Rennie proposes to confine himself—and thirdly, as I Lear-
from Mr. John Hartley that the real difficulty of the case
is not too little channel, and the want not to increase it,
bus to secure it from practically diminishing, by confining
to one outlet the stream, instead of allowing it to divert
itself into several arms, I have to observe that provision
all tiles. several points is made, as they are all com-
bined in the proposition which I hive had the honour
to submit to your attention. With Mr. Jesse Hartley's
idea of massing the alluvlm, if they can be caught, will be the
locking-up for ever the floating or moving masses whose eccen-
tricity of action is so detrimental to the navigation. With
Mr. Rennie's intelligent suggestion is combined the effectual
defence of the back of the work, which thasthoughtful engineer
proposes to lay down, and the evils pointerd out by Mr. John
Hartley as the trouble of the navigation would be effectually
checkmated, by taking away from the waters that playground
over which they now disport themselves wi b such mischievous
results. But it is not only the achievement of these throe
important points that my proposition will be found to com-
prehend, but what is of quite 28 much consideration,
• namely, .the continual deepening and diminishing the
quantity of floating matter in the whole outward
river, by the daily growth of this proposed Newfoundland,
which, though at first nothing bat an empty framework to
confine what we have, will rapidly accumulate into solidity
by the 730 laminal deposits in the year that the tidal waters
will bring into it and their subsidence lodge within it,
ehe effect of which cannot otherwise be than to reduce the
fleeting miss of sand, which every storm stirs up from the
surface of the bottom of the liver, and in so fir to provide for
the improvement of the navigation, until the whole of the
inner area of the work should become a land-growth to the
height of high water, spring, tides. But now, allowing that
these are desirable, and to be altogether the thing that is
wanted, this knowledge would nct avail us much if the whole
were impracticable, as regards the point of engineering On
this paint I consider it very fortunate that circumstances should
lave led Mr. John ILsr.lcy to London just at the time that
I happened to be there, no it has enabbel that 'gentleman to
explain to you, better than I can by letter, the facility with
which the matter would be accomplished, as by a system of
construction of sea wall, which I was enabled to explain to him,
by means of the model which lies in the museum of the
United Service Institution, in London. In respect of
which, also, I may add, that to that model it i 3 owing
that I have had the honour of presenting myself
before the Dock Committee ; and as Mr. Rennie's
plan may (or may not) be somewhat dept ndent
upon it, it will be pertinent to the occasion that I should
explain what the connection is between Mr. George Bennie,
that model, and the case in hand. Mr, Rennie having been
induced by Colonel Sykes, late chairman of the Hon. East
India Company, some time since to give his attention to this
model, and having become so satisfied of the soundness of its
principle and its practicability, Mr. Ronnie himself suegested
to me that I should bring the subject before the Liverpool
interest, as the very thing which, in his judgment, would
meet the necessities of the case; and it was accordingly owing
to that view of Mr. Rennie that I applied to Captain Evans.
That officer having explained to me the difficulties of the case,
and Lyoured me with the large (red-fisured) chart of the river
and estuary, it is from consideration of both, v:z , Cap'. Evans's
information and contemplation of the chart, that my then and
present proposition is made. That proposition has Already
for some two years been made to Captain Evans, and now
that I have since had the advantage of conversing with
Mr. Hartley, senior, with the knowledge of Mr. Rennie's
proposition, of which until now I have been ignorant, and
of the conversation with Mr. John Hartley to which I have
alluded, I do not find it necessary to alter the proposition which
I made to Captain Evans in the least; but I feel bound to
point oat that while'my plan embraces all their ideas, and pre-
sides for them, theirs, all practical and excellent, constitute a

valuable confirmation of my view of the wants of the cas,l, as
already set forth. It new rein tins but to speak of the :urn, of
the proposed work, and of the expense of carrying it out.
the first of these points—that would have to be deter:uine.!
after a due consideration of the localities—its shape w0u,,1 Lay .•
to be of the simplest character, triangular, in trapezium forte,
or some irregular though straight aided fizureo dependent
altogether on the points to be favoured or guarded against, antT
calculated on the relative plwer of the two streams between
which it would lie. It is a comfort to think that if there be
worst wsssible form, and that, by accithnt, that shen!d he
Issutnfd, vet tint even that w he a m'Yhty and ins'ant
relit f. Neierth,lt.sa, the bte:. I stfv, n

after, an I that, regardless of expease, it should be at once
determined upon, and then the work should he set about.
" Regardless of expense !" Yes, if it should cost millions
What are the trade of Liverpool and your huge city and magni-
ficent docks worth ? Remember that the gieen of the Ocean,
greater in her day than you are in yourS, was destroyed—that
is, came to n iught by had engines run,. She lost her harbour by
filling up, as you may lose yours. The Victoria Lake or
estunary of the river Murray, navigable for 1,000 miles up-
wards, is a proof that the mightiest streams are not equal to
contend against the slow, sure, certain operation of namre, so
neither will your Mersey nor Dee conjointly. Already I hear
of migration to Milford Haven from your wonderful placo
spoken of by men who have their all embarked in your vast
enterprises. I was astonished ; but I heard it, and heard it
reasoned upon, and the reason assigned for not doing it at
once was the impossibility of turning dead capital into floating:
I say, then, that millions even must be no consideration to
hinder your doing that which you reel to be needful to save your
navigation. But you need not be greatly alarmed. The build-
ing of four miles of wall, Mr. Rennie's proposition, will no: be
done (under any plan of construction that I am acquainted with
under £lOO per foot) for less than £2,112,000. My proposition
is that you should lay down some 24 miles of my construction,
the cost of which will not exceed. in round numbers (but cal-
culated), £2,500,000; for which outlay you will secure, not only
the Rennie channel, but get rid of the enemy, and reduce his
power to hurt for alcentury to come, and show to the genera-
tions to follow the mode of abating the nuisance when it shall
become as insufferable to them as now it is to you. As the
name of Ciptain Eraas has been mentioned, it is right that I
should state that the indisposition of the gallant officer to
meddle Wiih the case from my point of view arose from the
responsibility of touching such a vast fabric as the trade of
Liverpool. He would have been glad to see it applied at a
place of less consequence—at the mon h of the Ribble, for
example. It did not become me to suggest to your conserve-
tors that there is sometimes a greater responsibility it letting
things alone than in in acting when troubles threaten, and that
he who is found struggling against the evil is more to be at'-
mired than he who awaits the blow that is to overwhelm him.
But Ido not in the least doubt that if the Duck Committee
were to come to any determination on the subject, favourable
to the view I have taken, Captain Evans would greatly rejoice,
as in that case he would be relieved of the responsibility I
have spoken of, and he is himself, I believe, quite aware that
the present state of things is far frgn agreeable, and that it
cannot remain stationary.—l am, my dear sir, with great
respect, your most obedient servant,
FRED. 11. R. A. fkovcu.
The letter was referred to the Marine and Works
Committees.
This closed the general business.