Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-30 00:00:00

PUBLIC MEETING AT THE CONCERT HALL.

Mr. Merewether, Q.C.: In reference to the remarks
of the right hoe. gentleman respecting the question of
construction, I may state to the committee that, as soon
as this bill is over, we shall be ready to proceed with the
Construction Bill.
The committee then considered the various clauses of
the bill, and introduced several verbal amendments.
Among other things, it was ordered that the act should
come into operation on the let January, 1858.
The clause relating to the transference of the Town
Dues from the Corporation to the new Conservancy
Board, wns objected to by Mr. Phillips, and, after a short
discussion, was agreed to by the committee by a majority
of 4 to 1.
On clauses 29 and 30, which provide for the transfer of
a sum of £600,000 from the town debt to the dock estate,
in consideration of the outlay upon a custom-house and
sailors' home, in improving the immediate approaches to
the docks, and for other purposes which may justly be
treated as expenditure for the benefit of shipping and the
interests of the port.
Mr. Calvert, Q.C., suggested that the consideration of
the clauses should be postponed till to-morrow, in order
that the amount suggested by the committee to be trans-
ferred to the Dock Estate might be fully considered.
Sir J. Graham thought it would be impossible to shake
the opinion of the committee as to the amount which
ought to be transferred.
Mr. Calvert said it would be advantageous for the
promoters of the bill to consider whether clauses in any
other shape would better enable them to encounter any
opposition they were likely to meet with in another
quarter.
After a short discussion, clauses 29 and 30 were post.
poned, clauses 31 to 34 inclusive.
On the 35th clause,
Sir J. Graham remarked that the committee had already
expressed an opinion that this clause ought to be altered.
Mr. Calvert: The clause as it now stands says, " Ths
Board shall. immediately after the commencement of the
act, proceed with the construction of the outer works at
Birkenhead referred to in the ' Birkenhead Docks Act,
1853,' and shall complete the same in accordance with the
plans which have been sanctioned by Parliament." The
committee think that those plans may receive some
alteration in the course of discussion on the construction
bill brought in on the other side. My learned friend Mr.
Thring has suggested an ingenious alteration, which I
think would carry out the views of the committee. He
proposes to add after words " Docks Act, 1853," the words
—" and shall complete the same ;in accordance with the
plans which may be in force in pursuance of act of Parlia-
ment at the expiration of the present session."
Sir J. Graham said his impression was, that that would
not carry out the views of the committee. Supposing that
the bill became law during the present session, and no
other bill should become law, then it would be the duty of
the new body of trustees to commence the works upon the
plans already sanctioned by Parliament, and it• would not
be open for them to consider any modification which might
be proposed.
Mr. Johnson said he represented the Birkenhead Im-
provement Commissioners, whose only object was to
secure the completion of the works, on whatever plan
might be adopted, at as early a period as possible. He
proposed to add to the clause a prohibition against the
commencement of any new works on the Liverpool shore
until the outer works in Birkenhead should be completed.
The prohibition would be in these words :—" And it shall
not be lawful for the Board to execute any new works on
the Lancashire side or she River Mersey, until such outer
works on the Birkenhead side shall have been com-
pleted."
Sir J. Graham thought the insertion of such a proviso
would only aggravate the objection he had already stated.
The committee proceeded upon the assumption that the
new board would be trustwotthy, and they would there-
fore be sorry to fetter the discretion of the board as to
any works, unless Parliament provided for new works in
some other act.
After a short discussion, the following words were in-
serted in the clause, at the suggestion of the Chairman :
" The Beard shall, if they think fit, immediately after the
commencement of this act, proceed with the construction
of the outer works in Birkenhead, referred to in the
' Birkenhead Docks Act, 1853,' with a view to the com-
pletion of the same substantially, in accordance with the
plans which have been sanctioned by Parliament."
Several new clauses were proposed by the promoters and
added to the bill. Among others, a clause was inserted
defining the qualification of persons to be elected trustees.
Any dock ratepayer residing within the borough or cus-
toms port of Liverpool, or within ten miles of the outward
boundaries thereof, namely, Frodsham and Warrington
bridges, is to be qualified to act as trustee.
Mr. Calvert suggested that the two divisions—South
Lancashire and North Cheshire—should be taken, but
The committee objected, as in that case the dock rate-
payers of Manchester would be avowedly included.
Other clauses were added, and the committee p,djourned
at rour o'clock.

A public meeting was held in the Concert-hall, Lord
Nelson-street, last night, for the purpose of taking steps
to support the projected Liverpool Recreative Company,
the prospectus of which appears in our advertising columns.
The attendance, probably owing to the storm which took
place, was not very numerous.
The chair was taken, amid loud applause, by J. R.
Jeffery, Esq.
Among the gentlemen on the platform, were W.
Rathbone, P. H. Rathbone, J. Finch, Rev. S. A. Steinthall
J. Samuelson, J. M. Sayers, Newton Samuelson, I. H.
Saunders, S. H. Booth, Henry Tate, E. Davies, Joseph
Thomas, George Matheson, R. T. Steele, Thomas 0-air,
Joseph Bonit, Wm. D. Powell, Edmund Baines, James
W. Gordon, Adam Gibson. _ _

... _ _
The CHAIRMAN said: My friends, it affords me very
much pleasure to meet you here this evening, because I
see in this meeting an effort being made to solve one of
the most difficult problems of political economy, which
is engaging the attention of almost all our thinking men
of the present day, namely, how to provide innocent,
rational, and therefore elevating recreation for the masses
of skilled and unskilled labour. (Hear, hear.) Man is
but an unit in the great creation—but what the units are
the "sum tottle," as our old friend Joe Hume used
to call it, will be sure to be found. (Hear,
hear, and laughter.) Labour is said, and said truly, to be
the source of all wealth, and information to be the source
of all power ; and if labour be the source of all wealth, the
labourer is certainly worth caring for, worth thinking
about, and worth teaching to think about himself. (Hear,
hear, and applause.) Man, therefore, as an intellectual
being, must have bodily work and intellectual work as well
as bread-getting work. (Hear, hear.) I know that it is
said by some that recreation is not necessary every
man should feel a pleasure in his own labour,
in his own work. This may do very well for men whose
chief occupation is of an intellectual character; but I
submit that if the labourer is to be confined to the work-
shop, some change, some relief, some relaxation, both
physical and mental, is essentially necessary to the eleva-
tion of the man himself. (Hear, hear.) We boast—and
I hope not without some reason —that this is peculiarly an
age of progress and of civilisation • but if civilisation
requred all work and no play from all of us, I say, then,
civilisation of itself would be a failure. (Hear, hear.)
If civilisation were so arbitrary ,nd and so despotic
as to demand that we should simply be each of us a
human machine—that we should work by day and sleep
by night —then, I say again, that civilisation would be of
itself a failure. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I believe too
much time is given to labour—(hear, hear) —and that too
little is given to pleasure. (Hear, hear.) Ido not mean
to say that a man should always keep himself in
a stute of excitement in order to obtain plea-
sure. (Laughter.) Will any man tell me that there
is no pleasure in sitting down quietly and reading
an instructive book? Most certainly there is a vast plea-
sure in it, and at the same time a vast improvement of the
intellect and expansion of the mind. But pleasure of
another kind is necessary also to the man of sedentary
habits during the day, (Hear, hear.) He requires some-
thing of a more athletic character; and at, this season of
the year probably out-door exertion may be essentially
necessary to his physical health, as well as to his mental
vigour. (Hear, hear) There is an affinity between
leisure and labour which probably does not occur
to us all at the first blush. (Hear, hear.) I
think it was Aaistotle who first said that the great end of
all labour is leisure. Is it not so practically ? Whet do
we find the prudent artizsn doing ? We find that even
out of his pittance he saves a trifle, and when he has put
many trifles together, he finds himself in a position to
commence business on his on account as a master.
Having acquired this position, what does he do next ?
Then he sets to work with all his power to acquire
as much as will enable him to possess a
competence, that he may do—What ? That he
may retire from business and have his leisure. Then I say
you have thus verified by fact before you, the declaration
that the great end of all labour is leisure. Now, for my
own part, gentlemen, I should like to see our places of
business closed every night throughout the year at six
o'clock. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) I should like to
see two days in the month devoted as holidays. (Renewed
cheers.) I say, that if from the first day of January to
the last day of December, two days in the month
were devoted as days of recreation, and days
of pleasure, let the pleasure be of an elevating character. I
say there would be as much labour produced from *he Ist
day of January to the 31st of December then as there is
now. (Hear, hear.)
A Voice : More (Hear, hear )
The CHAIRMAN : But we are told that if we enunciate
such a doctrine as this, we cannot spare the time. " That
what you predict," persons tell us, " cannot be realised." '
Cannot spare the time l What do we mean by " cannot
spare the time?" How long since was it, if we
are to compare the present with the past,
that it occupied an entire day of twelve
hours to go to Manchester? (Hear, hear.) What do we
do now? We go to Manchester and return again in two
hours. Is that no advantage, and is every other men to
reap the advantages, and the mechanic not to participate
in the benefits? (Sear, hear.) How long since was it
when we took six months to go to Australia, and now we
do it in seventy days. Clever men, far-seeing men, men
of superior judgment, predict that that huge monster
which is now being constructed upon the banks of the
Thames, is to perform that voyage in something like a month
It will be in the recollection, I dare say, of some upon this
plat form where parties going from Cornwall to London used
to make their wills before starting. (Hear, hear, and
laughter). What we can do now compared with what was
done in those days, should give us a title to an amount of
time for recreation and for pleasure, which it might be
said, those who lived in these days were, probably,
as compare I with the present, Scarcely entitled
to. (Hear, hear). Not spare the time, my friends ?
What is the use of cheap literature, cheep trips
—by rail and by steamboats, if time is not given
to us to enjoy them ? (Hear, hear.) To talk about taking
the duty off paper, and having our penny newspapers and
cheap perio,:icals and giving us no time to read them, is
worse than a farce : it is worse than a burlesque ; it is
tantalising to know that such things emanate from the
press, and to have no time to read them; for if we merely
glance our eyes over them, it is so superficial a glance that
it makes no impression whatever, and we forget in less than
eight-and-forty hours what we have been reading. Why
is this? Because we are so kept up, so screwed up, to
a state of excitement by our constant labour, the labour of
the miller's horse, that it would be impossible for our
reading to make anything like an abiding impression upon
our memory. But it will be said, and it has been said—
but I rejoice to bear testimony to the fact that the saying
has been falsified ; that if you give more leisure to those
who have hitherto been engsged for so many hours out of
the twenty-four in labour, they will devote it to drink,
Now that there will be a certain per centage of the
population who will do so, I am quite ready freely to
admit ; but in proportion as you give an extended amount
of leisure, so do I believe that per centage will be dimi-
nished. (Hear, hear.) That is the result of my own expe-
rience. I remember the time when intemperance among
the shopkeepers' assistants was almost the rule ; and now
I rejoice to say, that from the curtailment of the hours of
business, small comparatively as the curtailment is, it has
become quite the exception. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
My friends, I have told you that man may be taken as a
human machine. Well, that is taking him at the lowest
standard ; but even on that ground is he deserving of no
care ? Is that machine, which is so fearfully and wonder-
fully made, because it is made by the great Architect of
all, deserving of no care? Who is there who has not seen,
and seen only to admire, the great care which is taken of
the metallic steam-engine by the man who is the
engineer, and has charge of it ? You see all
parts beautifully polished, you see them working
smoothly along, and you find that every part
is well oiled with oil of the very best description adapted
to the work. Now, while that engine requires its fire and
water, as a metallic engine, so it is quite true that the
human engine requires its bread and its water. But then
I submit that the one engine would not proceed satisfac-
torily very long unless it were furnished with oil in order
to make it work smoothly, nor will the other machine
proceed satisfactorily unless it has a similar ingredient.
(Hear, hear.) As oil is to the metallic engine, so I say
recreation and relief from labour are to the human engine.
(Hear, hear.) If we want a nation of thinking men, if we
want generations yet unborn to be healthy, vigorous, and
good citizens, things must not be permitted to go en as they
have done. We boast of our having self-government,
we boast of the power of the people, let that power be as
healthy, physically, as it is in our power to make it, and I
will venture to say that, intellectually, it will be in propor-
tion to what it is physically. I take it, then, that we are
all agreed that there should be leisure for pleasure,
as well as time for work, and that innocent, rational, and
as I said before, therefore elevating recreation should be
provided. (Hear, hear.) Now, there may be a variety
of opinions as to what those amusements should consist of.
There may be various classes of amusements, and thero
may be a variety of opinions as to the best mode of pro-
viding them. Hitherto all has been discussion upon this
question. Ido not think any man has been bold enough
iet to come forward and offer anything practical. But
that which is to be proposed to you to-night is of a prac-
tical character, and you are to say whether you will
I accept it. Action is now proposed to you. This effort, I
' '
believe I feel, augurs well, because it has originated with
I
the working men themselves, (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Now, I say to you, working rira—and I shpuyl, havt