Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-10 00:00:00

THE CASE OF MR. JI3IEB M`DONALD.

Till following memorial was read from Mr. James
M•Donald :
To the Worshipful the Mayor and Town Council of the
Borough of Liverpool.
THE MEMORIAL OF JAMES 31(D1NALp.

HUMBLY SBEWETII,—Thit, your memorialist has been for
upwards of twenty years in the service of the Corporation, in
the various capacities of police constable, inspector, superin-
tendent, and divisional superintendent in the constabulary
force ; then as engineer and manager of water works; then
as surveyor and assessor of water rates ; and la•terly, as inspector
of smoke nuisances. I t all these various offices your memo-
rialist hes been influenced by but one oLject—v;z., an earnest
desire faithfully to discharge the impor ant duties appertaining to
each to the best of his abilities. His conduct in the pollee
earned for him the gool opinion of his immediate superiors,
and the approval of all the authorities. In that service he
sustained mos: severe injuries, whist in the exeeation of his
duties, from the effects of which he must be a sufferer for
life. As manager of the Water Works, he was enabled to
render most important services to the town by introducing a
plan for ex:inguishing fires on -a cemprehensive scale by
hydraulic pressure. The partial realiza ion of this plan has
a ready proved of immense advantage to all classes. As
smoke inspector, your memorialist applied himself with all the
energy of which he was possessed to suppress the nuisance, and
he believes it will be admitted on all hands alit in this he
was eminently successful. Without harrassing the wanurae.
turer with unnecessary or vexatious information to be
followed of course by heavy penalties, or by yielding
to any of. the many tempting offers held out to hint by
the various patentees of smoke consuming apparatus, and
in fisting on the furnance owners adopting ono or other of
these, at great cost and inconvenience, your memotialist did,
by dint of sheer perseverance and labourious exertion, surmount
all the objections urged by engineers, stolters, and others, as
to the practicability of consuming, or rather preventing, smoke.
These objections Marred m :re pat titularly to the river
steamers ; yet, by pursuing the course indicated above, that
which on all saes had been pronounced ut e.ly impracticable,
was speedily accomplished, and this, too, without entailing on
the steamboat proprietors the outlay of a shilling for ahem.
Hons. These are facts that will speak for themselves.
Your memorialist was appointed to the important
offic - of managing engineer of the water works, solely
in consequence of the recommendations ha received from
all the authorities, inclu leg the then mayor; as to his fitness
for the office, He was deprived of that office, and his salary
o' £4OO per annum, for having, as in (1117 bound, informed
the Council what was the true yield of their own wells. He
was afterwards deprived of his office of surveyor and assessor
of water rates, his salary being £2OO per annum, in conse-
quence of a charge masse against him, by an influential mem-
ber of the Council, of having written a leading article in the
Liverpool Courier, on the water question ; of that charge,
your memorialist is entirely innocent. When your Worship
and the Council, take into consideration the length and
nature of his services ; the severe injuries be has sustained in
that service; and the sufferings he has endured for having
sttte d what all must now acknowledge to be the truth about

the water sup,ly, he humbly trusts his case may meet with
the favourable consideration of the Council. And your me-
in duty bound, shaLever pray.

JAMES MDONALD.

I Mr. PARIKER : I beg the memorial be referred to the
Gas Committee. There is an opening for an assistant, and
he would do very well there.
Mc. J. R. JEFFERY said Mr. Hodson had intended
moving that this memorial be referred to a committee, but
' he having unfortunately been called out of the room, had,
in his absence, begged him (Mr. Jeffery) to do the duty,
which would be so much better done if he were present.
He thought there could be no doubt that Mr. M 'Donald
laboured under the impression that he had been ill used,
that his case had not been f irly heard by the Council,
and that that belief was sympathised in by alArge majori y
out of doors. He did not think there could be two opinions
that the valuable services to which reference had been
made in the memorial had been received by the Corporation
and by the community, and that Mr. M'Dona?d did
introduce, while he was engineer to the water-works, the
use of the present fire-plu,ts for the extinguishing of fi,es •
and as he (Mr. Jeffery) had been inform', and he believed
correctly, that introduction was directly at variance with
the opinion of Mr. Simpson and other engikee,s of the
day, and the idea was not only opposed, but absolutely
ridiculed. It was said that it would be an impossibility—
that,
if attempted, it could only serve to amuse children
—and that it could never accomplish the object which Mr.
2,193,,na1d set forth that he would be able to achieve. Relative
to the yielding of the wells, the Council had bad practical
experience, subsequently which proved his statements to
be correct. Mr. M'Donald was invalided in the
service of the Corporation, and be was therefore now
unable to obtain a livelihood in consequence of injuries
which he had sustained. He (Mr. Jeffery) thought it was
due to Mr M'Donald and to the claims he had upon
interest out of doors, that the memorial be referred to a
committee to report noon. If that were the p'easure of
the Council, he (Mr. Jeffery) should be very happy indeed
to name a committee, constituted of a mixed number of
those who enterta;ne ► opp 'sing views upon that much-
vexed question, the Rivington question.
Mr. BANNER was very glad, indeed, to second the
motion, believing it to be a case which ought to be inquired
into. Mr. M'Donald had frequently memorialized the
Council He would not go now into the merits of the
case, but he would second Mr. Jeffery's motion, in order
that it might at all events be inquired Iwo. There was
one suggestion he would take the liberty of making, and
that war', that if differences of calculation and old views
with regard to the water Supply coted be forgotten, Mr.
lki.Donald would be a very useful man if an additional
main of pipes was to be laid down for the purpose of
availing a the Rivington water. He had very intimate
knowledge of all thu pipes which had been laid, and
would, he believed, be able to give some information as to
the pipes which were yet to be laid. Notwithstanding the
differences in the he believed Mr. M'Donald
to be a man vhose case deserved attention at their
hands

Mr. Alderman J. H. Tuiui thought it only due to the
Council, to say that a special committee was appointed
some time ago, which sat several days at Cornwallis-street,
in reference to a memorial from Mr. M'Donald. Ha did
not exactly recollect what the upshot of the sittings was,