The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-06-24 00:00:00

tigation. The question of jurisdiction is one of

great complc

!City, and which, up to the time of

CHARLES 1., was often disputed; and it was not

until an act was passed in the Bth of: Queen AN

1709, that the matter was finally set at rest. In
the grant originally purchased from CHARLES 1.,
the Corporation obtained " the right to levy Town
" Dues over the waters of the Mersey, and within
" the town and lordship of Liverpool." This, it

will be seen, was a very indefinite and unsatisfac-
tory description of the corporate privilege. And
an act was obtained in 1709 which set aside all
litigation, by laying down the limits of the

port of Liverpool, as commencing at the Red
Noses, Hoylake, and extending over the waters of
the Mersey to Warrington and Frodsham Bridges
On this Act of Parliament the Corp Oration rested
their title in 1833, and succeeded in defeating the
Associated Merchants so far as the limits of the
port of the Corporation were concerned.
With regard to the Lordship of Liverpool, that
embraces the whole of the ancient Borough as first
incorporated, and its boundary, for the money pur-
poses of the Lordship, has undergone no change
whatever since the first charter was granted. There
can be no doubt or quibbling, therefore, as to the
limits of either the Town Dues port. or Lordship
of Liverpool. The exact extent of our manorial
rights by land and water can be readily given, and
have nothing whatever to do with what is called the
" Customs' Port of Liverpool," and great care must
be taken that Mr. LowE is not allowed to confound
one with the other, which appears to be his wish.
Our Customs' Port extends from the Dee to the Wyre
Water, and mercy knows where besides, and can
be extended to all England, or confined to any single
dock on the other side of the Mersey, at the dis-
cretion of two Lords of the Treasury. Mr. LOWE
would no doubt like to find us with such a frail
and shifting boundary as this for our manorial
rights. He would like to bring all the Lords of the
Manors which the Customs' Port embraces against
the Corporation of Liverpool. He would like to be
able to call Chester, Southport, Preston, and the
places dependent on them to his aid, and then to
get the Government officials to limit the Port and
Lordship of Liverpool to the Clarence Dock.
Mr. SHIITTLEWORTEL, it is hoped, will not give
Mr. LOWE a chance of hashing up our Manorial
boundaries in any such fashion. We must hold
the estate we have, and while we ask nothing more,
accept nothing less. Our- Customs' Port may be
altered to-morrow for the State's conveniency,

but the present limits of our manorial estate
cannot be changed without Parliament's sane.
tioning a wanton violation of the rights of
property. Mr. LOWE will not find an instance
on record in which we have abandoned our
right to levy Town Dues, because the Government
have thought proper to change the limits of the
Custom's Port. On the contrary, he will find that
whe❑ Runcorn was taken, some years ago, out of
the Custom's Port of Liverpool, the Corporation
still continued to levy their dues at Runcorn, as
though no change had taken place in the custom's
department. This fact ought to be enough to
convince Mr. LOWE that the Customs and Manorial
boundaries of Liverpool are very different things ;
and we have good reason to rejoice at the turn the
enquiry has taken, as it will decide the question of
boundaries for ever, and we shall be better able
to see what we may be doing for the increase of the
Corporate income by certain dock extensions.
The Committee having announced their intention
not to go beyond Liverpool this session with the
investigation will give us breathing time, and
with the aid of the blue books Mr. LOWE will
have given us, we shall be quite prepared to
renew hostilities on the re:assembling of
Parliament in 1857. - As it is, we are
perfectly ready to go on with a conflict where
we have right on our side against an unpar-
donable wrong. We neither want dry law or
historical research where great fundamental
principles are involVed ; nor does it require more
than ordinary ability to expose a flimsy pretext,
when clothed in the sacred garb of public justice.
Mr. LOWE has evidently deceived himself as to the
amount of good he has promised the commercial and
shipping interests, by a transfer of Shipping and
Towns' Dues from their lawful owners to the Board
of Trade, of which he is a member. And now that
he must have been undeceived both with regard
to the boon he offers to commerce, and what the
practical effect of his proposed change would be,
he is probably as glad as we are to find that the
Committee have resolved'on bringing their labours
to a close before the grouse grow too wild for the
sportsman. Up to the present time the Commit-
tee have done us no harm beyond putting_ the
Rate-payers to a very serious expense in defending
their Constitutional rights of property ; and, with
the exception of this palpable cruelty and injustice,
we think this good old Borough might cry quits
with the VICE-PRESIDENT of the Board of Trade
tomorrow, and that Mr. LOWE would gladly accept
peace at our hands on even less equal terms.

THE COURT

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, MONDAY. - Yesterday, her
Majesty and the Prince Consort, with the Prince of
Wales, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Alice,
attended Divine service in the chapel of Buckingham
Palace. The Hon. and Very Rev. the -Dean of Windsor
officiated. The Duchess of Kent and Prince 'Frederick
William of Prussia also attended the service. The Prince
Consort and Prince Frederick William of Prussia visited
Prince Oscar of Sweden yesterday, at Claridge's Hotel.
Prince Omar, the second surviving son of the King of
1 Sweden and Norway, arrived at Buckingham Palace in
the afternoon, and had an audience of the Quen, intro-
-1 duccd by the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for
If Foreign Affairs, and conducted by Major-Gentral the
Hon. Sir Edward Cust, her Majesty's Master of the
Ceremonies. In the evening the Irrince dine4l with her
Majesty. Prince Oscar of Sweden visited the Duchess
ofKentyesterday, at Clarence-house, St. James's. The
Prince also paid a visit to,the Duchess of Gloucester, at
i Gloucester-house.