The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-28 00:00:00

LOCAL SHIPPING DUES BILL.

A meeting was held at Manchester, in the Mayor's
Palour, Town-hall, yesterday, of the supporters of
Mr. Lowe's late bill for abolishing local dues on ship-
ping, in order to organise an association to continue the
agitation of this question, and " to obtain the right ap-
propriation of the Liverpool town dues." The meeting
was numerous, and exceedingly influential.
Mr. Thomas Maley, President of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce, presided in the absence of the
Mayor, arid there were present Mr. Heelis, Mayor of
Salford ; Mr. Buckley, Mayor of Ashton ; Mr. J. Ker-
shaw, M.P., Sir J. Putter, Mr. NV. Neild, Mr. W. R.
Callender, Mr. I. Mackief Mr. J. A. Turner (president
of the Manchester Commercial Association), Mr. M.
Ross, Mr. W. Reyner Wood, Mr. Alderman Shuttle-
worth, Mr. H. Ashworth, Mr. T. Fairbairn, Mr. J. E.
Taylor, and Mr. Mason of Ashton.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the bu,iness, said the col-
lectors of town dues in various ports of the kingdom
were determined to appropriate for private municipal
purposes taxes they gathered from public sources. The
Government of the country had wisely brought in a mea-
sure to put an end to this unjust misappropriation of
funds ; but be regretted that the Administration had
shown a want of administrative courage—(hear, hear)—
and had withdrawn their bill. He was afraid there had
been something like fickleness on the part of the Go-
vernment, and the time bad now arrived when they must
themselves, in these mauufacturing districts, take up
the question more energetically than they had yet done.
He heped the organisation now about to be called into
ex'atence would take up the question with the earnest-
ness it deserved ; and he trusted that funds collected
for public purposes would, as the result, be compelled to
be applied for public convenience and in furtherance of
public objects only. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. W. R. WOOD said the grievance they sought to
remove was a sort of relic of old times, of a state of
things that was passing away, and meet yield before the
knowledge and intelligence of the day, when the misap-
propriation of public taxes of any kind could be endured
in the open manner now practised to Liverpool. Those
who had ascended the Rhine found its waters crowded
with treffic, while the remnants of feudal times existed
only on its banks in the form of picturesque ruins, and
he saw no reason why the waters of the Mersey should
not be as free as those of the Rhine. He di.l not com-
pare the Liverpool town dues to the scenes of war and
rapine once pursued on the banks of the Rhine ; but the
exaction of town dues and passing tolls were remnants
of the same system, and were equally obstacles to that
trade and commerce which could only flourish as it ought
where there was the utmost freedom. We had been
contending in the north of Europe and at the Confer-
ences of Paris for the free navigation of the Danube,
and he should like to know why the corporation of Liver-
pool should be entitled to do on the Mersey what other
eeuntries were not allowed to do on the Danube. The
justice of their cause must insure its success, and he
would move,—

"That this meeting has learnt with regret the with-
drawal by her Majesty's Government of the bill introduced
into the House of Commons, entitled `A Bill for the Abo-
lition of Passing Tolls, and for the regulation of Local
Dues on Shipping,' being fully impressed -with the belief
that, had Government persevered with that measure, the
just principles therein embodied would have commanded
the support of a majority of the House of Cornmer.s, as well
as the approbation of a large class of her Majesty's subjects.
That this meeting is of opinion that the injustice inflicted
upon this district, as well by the exaction of the Liver-
pool local dues as by the purposes to which they are ap-
propriated, and the growing importance of the principles
involved in their continuance, call for a special effort on