The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-22 00:00:00

s not a female who passed along* the

ree to the corporatio

hid not contributed to ti

d•what th

leople of Ma

6S:s lio I

a corporation. He d

m followed b

gentlemen

ter than I

s.commercial char-

lould endeavour to

ving relation

question. That

what niiYlncontrie ted
* but

igh an

I show t

•er, ,they

d in the resolution

the payment a

anew what right there

Corporation in the

respect to 'the use of

lore which extended from

Dee to a place on the mouth of the blerse;

entire of

Mersey, and several miles upon the other side of it.
Therefore the right to those dues seemed to him to be
utterly incapable of proof. But he apprehended that
the corporation of Liverpool would probably affirm
their claim upon the ground of " prescription." NoW pre-
scription supposed a grant once made and afterwards lost
add, therefore, nothing could

laitned up,

of prescription, which, in its nature, could not have been
granted. What power which ever existed in that king-
dom could give to the Corporation of Liverpool the right
to tax everything which came into the river, when, as he
said before, the ground and the soil was not theirs, he was
utterly at a loss to conceive. (Hear, hear.) He always
thought that the power of taxation was one which must
emanate from the House of Commons, and receive the
sanction of House of Lords and of the Crown. (Cries of
med here that'by means of some
ained, the Corpor
_...seed upon it that they had now a prescriptive
.ght to those tolls. Upon a former occasion the Town-
clerk of Manchester had most ably shewn that no such
right could be supposed to exist, and he (the speaker) felt
quite satisfied that if the Town-clerk had to contest that
question with the Corporation of Liverpool some 23 years
ago, instead of its having been left in the hands of
interested parties, a very different result would ,have
been found to the litigation which was then
on foot. (Cries of hear, hear.) Upon that occasion, Man-
chaster was beaten, but he stood up there that day, pre-
pared to contend that the terms upon which they were
beaten, would at once show the vicious nature, and the
utter worthlessness of the claims set up on the cart of the
corporation of Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) That corpora-
tion said, however, that they had a prescriptive right to
those tolls. Now, as a lawyer, he held it to be indispu-
table to the, maintenance of a prescriptive right, that the
right must have been constant in its usage, and not varied.
(Hear, hesr.) The sums which were now levied by the
Liverpool corporation, were out of all manner of propor-
tion with the• sums which, assuming for a moment that
they had a right to levy them, must have been levied at the
time when the prescription commenced. 'lt must be borne
in mind, that prescription commenced in the reign of
Richard the First. Now, if the corporation of Liverpool
levied on cargoes which came into the river at that time,
such sums as they now levied, they must in fact, have
confiscated ever vessel and all which she had on board.
(Hear, hear, and laughter.) Therefore. as 'a lawyer, he'
contended that the claim was rank and bad upon the
face of it. (Hear.) He maintained that they were entitled
to no more pennies—for they were only pennies— at this
day than they were entitled to charge' at that time. But
inasmuch as the charge had been since then increased, he
thought he had the authority of the law for saying that
that increase vitiated any right which they might origi-
nally have had. (Hear, hear.) If he could show, first of
all, that the charge was unreasonable in the commence-
• and next, that it had been varithle in action, he
t he should have shown enough to satisfy the mind
"^, no such prescriptive right
t.aught it could. be shown,
at one time ;'

hear, bear.) But it .s
y had of

use wh

pool in

y court a

of pr

lion of Liver-

'a vir ill its naturo not have been
granted at the m il
time. Now, how many acould articles of import
and export were there at this present time which were
utterly unknown to their forefathers for centuries after
the period when it was stated the prescriptive right had
commen^- There were new articles of commerce,
rich had been :introduced subsequently to the
the grant must be assumed to have been made,
—.fore, under that grant the corporation
.1 not claim to tax. There
.2, prescription obtained

many of

and wl-

pod c

at that time for turnips
duced into England subs
tion commenced. Apply

and potatOe

which were intro-

quent to the time when prescrip-
that rule,• and they would find
rpooteould not possibly have
he guano, their cotton,
vul XII

they did

nose articles is point
America, which were

—en were indigenous to
iit.trely new, and were utterly un-
iinown at the time the prescription commenced. It was
alleged, also, that the Corporation of Liverpool were
under no obligation in regard to the expenditure of the
funds which they raised to such an enormous amount..
Nqw, he was there to deny that allegation, and to main-
taih that it was necessary there should be some corre-
sponding obligation upon their part. (Cries of Hear.
hear.) He maintained :that when once they disclaimed
that obligation, they disclaimed the right also, because
their right rested upon an obligation to do something for
it. (Hear, hear.) He also contended that the right which
the Corporation of Liverpool claimed was an unconstitu-
tional one. (Hear, hear.) If the Corporation of Liverpool
had a discretionary power, by which they could tax trades
to the extent of 1/ or 501, they could tax them to the extent
of 1,0001. or 50,000 i. There was no limit where the public
could strp them, and say, " thus far shalt thou go and no
farther.' (Hear, hear.) There could be no right acquired
to taxation in any way unless with the consent of the
Queen, Lords, and Commons. Their ancestors fought to
the death for a vast deal less than that which was now
levied upon them as an impost by the corporation of ' Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) They fought for shiplioney,
and fought for it because in point of fact it involved a
large principle—the question of taxation by the Crown
alone, instead of the assent of the nth„- L _

„,,... uey say that their title
_„„..., .... miler branches came from the Molyneux fanny, when twenty years after
vim%
of the legis7ar,"r`e"a(Hear, hear.) And be maintained that the purchase of the property they put their other claim
at the present day
Wit was unconstitutional and unjust to exactl“shipnme_,,,
Y forward in a court of law, as the only title udder which they
to attempt to exact a toll from them state as a fact, which he defied them to contradict or
it would beonconstitutional and unjust, even oft he Crown, could claim the town dues ? In addition to that; he would
for the neighbouring port of Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) • disprove, that sixtyyears before the corporation ever dreamed
That, then, being the case, the corporation of Liverpool
of obtaining anything from Lord Molyneux, before Lord or
could have no stronger right than that granted by the
Molyneux had purchased from the corporation of London,
Crown. There could be no doubt that a certain privilege