Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-11 00:00:00

twenty -odd "yars.

whether, in th

integ,ests wgr

majority of eases, the... individual whose
:Cected were not contented to luxe the

41ac 111/GOY/ULU. au mad siear,)
With-itgard to the dock board, my eogagement with that
board,bcgan, I think, somewhat Radler yen than with the
corporation, and I have continued to act for them, and I

believe it is admitted by every one thatin carrying out one
of tlie• Largest purcianses of late years, some seven or eight
years ego, I mean tke Wapping extension„wherein I acted
throughout with the most implicit confideuee of all the doek
committee, where the cdealings were with persons of all ranks
in life mall owners andlarge owners, public bodies, companies,
and private individuals; at least 80 per cent of the whole
of those ,enormous pu chases= were made with parties not
appointing any person at all, but leaving themsolves entirely
in my hands. (Hear, hoar.) Well, now, with regard to
the imaiediate subject, I do not know whether it is
meant: to , impute mercenary motives to r

taking ,the

appointment ~of arbitrator under t

that be

I can

it by saying, that I have relinquished one of the
best professional business '.cut of London. I •have relin-
quished it, sad suffered, it to go away to coinparatively
nothing, to next to nothing, by reason of the corporation
calling upon me for my. services, which have been accorded
gratuituously to them for a series of years. (Rear, hear.)
During the year 1855, I would ask the town-clerk,-, whether
throug the greater part of that year I was not most
actively and bintily engaged, entirely for 'the corporation.
' Darin.. the yelir IEO6, when the question of the great
town dues was under discussion, and the honour and
integrity of .this corporation were assailed by an
opponent, as U) ,our dealings between the docks and
the corporatioa, who was there to defend our fleal-
ings—*ho was tthere to give a history of the whole
transactions—who eras there to vindicate the honour of the
corporation but myself ? (Hear hear.) Daring 185,5 and
1856, the whole of My time, or.at least a very great portion
of it, was devoted gratuitously to the serving of the corpora-
tion. Now, sir, I come, to_speak of the effect which it has
been said my acting as arbitrator for the dock board in re-
ference to the land of Messrs. Pollard and others, will

Hitherto I have the

have upon the corporation estat
proud satisfaction of saying that the council up to a

~wu ugu was out too nappy to refer the question
he dock hoard and the corporation entirely.o my
_ _

Anany cases—

—in most ease

adeect ,In the I

the dock board, for whom I have acted so long, have got an
act of parliament to enable them to make a quay and a
. public street upon the north side of Wallasey Pool, to
obviate the &Acuities which every gentleman who was
on the Birkenhead committee knows did exist, and
which we in vain endeavoured to get over.
we never could get the pool deepened on the north side, and
the, quay walls, which ane very expensive, put in. The
'dock, board undertake to complete the .quays, they under-
take to make a dock qttay on the north sole of the pool,
they„gudertake tv. make a street twenty-five yards wide,
to Raye and sewer it, and to give the use ,and enjoyment
of it ,to the owners of the land abutting upon it on the
landward, side. And, although _it would not become
me to enter into details of the reference, I think
gentienien will hear with ,as much .astenishment
:As I -aid Shat the several landasvners claim from the dock
:board upWards of £900,000 for that purpose, the.dock board
,building the wall. In the particular -case which was the
first subject ,ef reference, the claim was upwards of 2f0,000.
Is the prosperity of Liverpool,—is the
_good of the town to
beiromeeed :by the commercial community submitting with=
-out a.strugg., pay what they conceive, rightly or ,wrongly,
to be an ex.orhita.nt sum. (Hear, hear.). Every one
eonverzant With the dock affairs, and every one conversant
with the. 'taking of land by public companiec under. cona-
pulsour,poweis, knows that thtt which you want is prote2-
tion aniust exaction on the part of owners, not against
any attempt upon t,,Le part of any public body, corporation,
or otherwle, to take anybody's land wititout paying, the
full and roe value for it. (Hoar, hear.) 1' should be
ashamed of myeslf;.,l I were to attempt to .aid such
a thing. .13,1;:t I atnflot a paid advocate. The arbitra-
tion takes- place 'Under a public act of parliament,
and that act :ofParliainect prescribes the mode of‘
-opinion:dewAing
with it. There was not necessarily any difference of
between any co-arbitrator ,and myself, because au umpire
had been e4ed iin, but the act of parliament says. before
you stir a step younigst.appoint the umpire. The ad tall
upon the arbaiators to make
,a solemn declaration before a

magistrate, that they will7l;lleidyand faithfully discharge
the trust reposed in tham; and the advocacy is confided to
two barristers on the pat of the,Deek-board, and three bar-
sisters on the part of the claimants. I had the unpleasant
duty of listening for some days to..the roundabout way in
which we are to arrive at :the value of,tihe land, according to
the lawyers, which involves something jize 1,100 or 1,200
folipis of evidence. With regard to the corporation, it is
perfectly true that the corpor4on own,certain land on the
linorth Fide of the pool, and the portion of 'awl belonging to
the corporation is included the compulsory powers.
The portiop thus included is about six and a-half
acres. Nor analogy may be taken to some (extent,
as Mr. Jeffery puts it, but every case must stand
upon its own Me4.:s.
.What is the fact with regard to the
corporation ?
,ccusiderable portion of their bud was ,
-
) ip 04- in November, 8.,1 it was that the

tst few minutes. If no notice had
tat letter by a member of .the finance coin-
d certainly not have felt ititis duty to have
. . _ _

it was 1

duty, under the. circumstances,.

ce of the remar

that fell from Mr.
Steaius .on that occasion, in justification of,himself. He
had I:eceived a letter that morning from .one of the

t4,i, woo was a member of the deputation,
r him for the explanation he had ~madci, and
hat he uttered. Such was the imnres-

Er, every wo:

SIOII or .Lue gentleman as a mem, cue depittation, and
such he stated to be the impressions of those who consti-
tuted that deputation. gr. Stewart had given a very manly
reply to it. The explanation, he was perfectly sure, the
deputation would receive, as it was offered with all the
frankness which he Mr. Stewart offered it. (Hear.) He
venture to dismiss this topic with expressing a hope tkat no
member of the council would again take any notice of
anonymous letters. He turned to another matter of more
vital importance as affecting the interests of the corporation.
He had ventered to state to that council that the chairman
of the finance committee was sitting as arbitrator upon
matter wherein t'

be corporation _ would very speedily

. .
oecome materially interested. Mr. Stewart had not
gaip4aill that. As he understood Mr. Stewart, the
extent of their interest was 61 acres on the Birkenhead side

on the, margin
.of Liverpool.
Mr. Stewart explained that these fie acres were under
lease, and included more than the dock hoard had power
over.. There was perhaps about one half of it involved
Mr. Jeffery understood the deputy chairman of the
finance committee that they had sent in a demand, along
with other landowners, to the extent of £50,000 for land on
the Birkenhead side of the water.
Mr. Samuel Holme said, he stated that it was a formal
claim they had sent in for something like that amount, but
the whole matter was to -be arranged by subsequent adjust-
ment. But, he added, it would be impossible to adjust it
before coming before the council.
Mr. Jeffery said, he took it to be correct that they had
sent in a claim for £50,000, subject t• adjudication ; not
whether it should be increased, but whether it should be
diminished. He, among other parties, were interested in
land on the margin of the Birkenhead-pool, but
they were not the first to have their claim,
settled by arbitration. The arbitration had commenced
as to the value of the land required at the
Birkenhead docks. He did not understand Mr. Stewart to
deny that he was selected as arbitrator for them. He used

the word advocate becau
and. thiq

he und€

the constitution,
arbitration was not in accordance with

al generally in matters of a similar kind.
He was told that before the two arbitrators proceeded to
their business' they were called upon to appoint a gentle-
.man who would act as umpire. That was the universal
practice pursued by parties to whom questions in dispute
were referred ; and it was usual that two out of three should
decide the question atissue. But he uuderstoed that that was
not the casein thepresent instance. Ile was told that when the
statements of both sides were heard, each party being re-
presented by, council, the gentlemen on the right hand and
on the left ceased to be arbitrators. He asked what position
did these two gentlemen bold, it the third were allowed to
withdraw, and he gave his decision, and that decision to be
final. He knew no other term to apply to these gentlemen on
the right and on the left but advocates—the one being the
seller and the other the buyer. If these gentlemen received
remuneration for their services rendered, which they were
entitled .to, then they were paid advocates. If the two
ceased to be arbitrators they became advocates. He did
not say this offensively for one moment. He had not the
slightest desire to give Mr. Stewart the least possible offence.
But the gentleman who occupied the chair of the finance
committee, a gentleman who was their municipal premier,
their first lord of.the treasury; their chancellor of exchequer,
the leader .of >the council, should be exalted high above all
suspicion, and it was because he, Mr. Jeffery, was sensible
of the buzzing that there was out of doors, and the rumours
that this matter had given rise to : it was because he, as a
member of the committee, was jealous that a gentleman
should occupy his (Mr. Stewart's) high position in the
council, he believed it to be their duties, as members of the
council, to-take care that that office was not permitted to have
its dignity or its honours fritted away by private gossip or by
public statement. Therefore he felt it incumbent upon him, if
there was any ground forsuch a statement, to bringthe question
bcfore the council fearlessly, in order that the chairman of
the committee might put himself, right, and say if he (Mr.
Stewart) had got into the position inadvertently, for he
would not charge him with putting himself into a false
position designedly. He believed Mr. Stewart was in a
false position, but he believed it to be by inadventure, for
he could not quite understand from Mr. Stewart's previous
conduct that he would accept 'such a position as he had
held ip reference to this matter. He would rather have Mr.
Stewart for him as against him on this question, because he
valued his evidence and his experience ; but he claimed that
experience, as a member of that csuncil, for the benefit
of that corporation, so long as Mr. Stewart
occupiatil the, position of chairman of.the finance committee
The infarrug4oll which any gentleman occupying Mr.
Stewart's position, as chairman of the flo.nce committee,
obtained, was the property of the eorporatioa, and not his
property. Then what did he understand by any corporate
body retaining the seroices of a gentleman: iforitti he
hadrpo
of giving what information he possesses, ,and w
of
obtained from his position in the conned It was unwise,
'it was injudicious, it was improper, and to the prejudice _
the corporation 014 OW
chairman of the fixtarlee colVDMTkee,