Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

tion which is so deficient ? Improve the schools,
it was said, and in time you will have a better
attendance. Make the practical value of educa-
tion felt; let it be seen that an instructed young
person has a better chance of employment and
higher wages, and you touch the spring of self-
interest. As at length it is found out where the
best boots and shoes are to be obtained; so people
will discover where the best teaching is to be
had. We are inclined to think that compulsory
education would not suit the taste and habits of
our people; but much may be done to induce
and alluse without compelling. It was suggested
that, in each district of a certain extent, there
should be some one whose business it should be
to visit, and persuade the parents to prolong
their children's attendance at school. Of course
he should have no coersive power, but should
aim at the persuasive. His function would be to
enlighten the parents as to the value of education,
and help to remove obstructions; and he might
be called after the manner of the Germans a
school-persuader.
Mr. AKROYD would recommend that employers
should give work to young people only on condi-
tion of receiving a certificate of school attendance.
Much might be said in favour of some such
arrangement. At present, those under a certain
age in our factories, work and learn by turns.
But, perhaps, the most valuable suggestion was
made by Lord LANDSDOWNE, that, in schools for
the poor, industrial training should be combined
with instruction. Preparation for the actual
business and work of life, should go hand in
hand with learning to read and cipher. This
appears very judicious, and it might be so
arranged as to meet, to some extent, the obstacle
arising from the poverty of the parents. The
result on the whole would be, that children
would remain longer at school. This was the
problem to be solved ; and whether solved effec-
tually or not, there cannot be a doubt of the
earnest and enlightened interest, which is being
taken in high quarters in this matter of educa-
ting the masses. No immediate or marvellous
result will follow from this meeting ; but, if it
only tend like the smile of royalty, to make the
thing more popular and fashionable, the Con-
ference will not have been held in vain.

NEVER since Liverpool was chief fishing
village in the North of England, has it been
subject to such bitter and determined attacks
as those now made by certain parties in
Parliament. Bill after Bill is taken up by
the Select Committee, over which Sir JAMES
GRAHAM presides ; one asks to do away with
the Town Dues, and take from the people of
Liverpool the management and regulation of
the Docks ; another, and another asks that they
may have the power and privilege, not only of
evading the docks, but of so conducting their
trade that they may be at liberty to impede the
commerce of the Dort. In matters of this kind_
there is nothing like asking for plenty. We
must do our friends who brought forward the
Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks Bill, and the
St. Helens Canal and Railway Bill, the credit
to say, that, in the foregoing respect, they were
modest enough to ask for what the spoliator-
general of Liverpool had not the conscience
to concede. Considering his desire to take from
Liverpool her just and legitimate rights—the
Town Dues—as well as his readiness to play
second fiddle to the tune of "invasion," which
the men of Manchester have composed for
rehearsal in a Committee room of the House of
Commons; one can readily imagine the out-
rageous character of the proposal put forward
and advocated by Messrs. LAIRD, WEIR and Co.,
and that highly important and significant party
—the folks belonging to the St. Helens Canal
and Railway Company.

But let us examine the character of the
respective measures just alluded to. In the
first place, Mr. JOHN LAIRD, finding he cannot
get any public body on either sids of the
Mersey disposed to join him, he rushes,
single handed, to the House of Commons, and,
through his agents, lays on the table of the
House, a Bill, enacting that all ships frequenting
the Mersey, but not actually using the Liver-
pool Docks, shall be exempt from the rates
and dues levied by the Dock Trust. Mr. LAIRD
is himself a large shipowner, whose vessels
frequent the Birkenhead Docks, and it is gall
and wormwood to him to be obliged to comply
with tha law which enables the Liverpool Dock
Trustees to levy certain rates and dues, which
are the only means left whereby the creditors
or bondholders of the Docks may obtain their
interests, and have security for the continued
value of their investments. Mr. LAIRD was
examined in support of his own Bill on Wed-
nesday, and detailed how he had to pay
considerable sums of money to the Liverpool
Dock Committee, although he did not use any
of their Docks. He instanced the fact, that
although he loaded his vessels in the river, he
would be subject to heavy and undue charges ;
and the only witness which he called was Mr.
WIER, part owner of the Khersonese, the gist
of whose testimony and opinion was quite on
a par with that of Mr. LAIRD.
The Dock Trustees opposed the Bill on the
following grounds, namely : that the rates and
dues levied by the Liverpool Dock Trustees were
levied from time immemorial, by and with the
sanction of Parliament, which authorised in
express and indisputable terms the right of
imposing such dues, &c., upon all vessels
loading and unloading their cargoes within the
port of Liverpool ; and Mr. LAIRD, and those
who think with them, consider that what