The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-09-07 00:00:00

;e portions of bays which are more

miles f

.orn the shore. It is said that

the British Government has now agreed to ratify
this concession on consideration of a nominal reci-
procal concession on the part of the States. Such
an arrangement, implying no undue compromise•of
the rights or dignity of Great Britain, ought to be
most cheerfully hailed, were it likely to be the
means of putting an end to a paltry quarrel, which
might, nevertheless, result—as many paltry quar-
rels have done ere now—in disastrous warfare, or
long and embarrassing controversy. No doubt the
Americans will make a bold push to obtain all that
their piscatorial fellow-citizens seem, from Mr.
SEWARD'S account, to require, and which Mr.
WEBSTER, the great protector of " bob, line, and
sinker," has declared to he their due. Mr. SEWARD,
I g the modest wishes of the fisher-
men in the language above cited, proceeds to de-
clare " There is only one way that Congress can
act, and that is by reciprocal legislation of some

after express

with the British Parliament or the British
colonies." It is sincerely to be hoped that her
Majesty's Government, before thinking of pro-
posing any further concession or compromise, will
consider with care the character of American reci-
procity.

Among the 'cute things of which brother JONA-

THAN may boast, there never was a sharper than
the pretty " reciprocity" juggle which he played
upon her Majesty's last Government, with respect
to the Navigation Laws. While the American Le-
gislature was tightening the protective restrictions
in favour of its own trade, and practically proving
its want of faith in the cosmopolitan commercial
system recently adopted by this country, the Eng-
lish Free-trade Government met the comments of
all cavillers by pointing out the " reciprocity" which
the United States had agreed to with respect to

the Navigation La\vs. The Americans had, for-
sooth, agreed to admit the English to free compe-

tition in navigation, excepting only as regarded
their coasting trade, England having made an ex-

ception in favour of its own. A very pretty ar-
rangement in theory—in practice, a very farce.
America's foreign trade, compered with that of
England, is insignificant. It has no colonies. Its
" coasting trade"—within the meaning assigned by
its government to those words,—is immense, in-
cluding, for example, the voyage to California.
The coasting trade of England, compared with the
foreign and colonial, is of small national importance.
In fact, the American Government, in reserving its
coasting trade, conferred but the smallest boon on
the English by its " reciprocity ;" while the British
Government, by its exception, reserved nothing ma-
terial, but threw open to competition its immense

commerce with its colonies and foreign countries.

If, therefore, any attempt be made to carry
out the " reciprocal legislation" on the Fishery
Question to which Mr. SEWARD alludes, we re-
commend the Government and Parliament to keep
a sharp look-out, lest our Transatlantic cousins
again jockey us out of substantial advantages,
giving us in return a worthless " reciprocity."

MR. SAMUEL HOLME'S PROPOSED
IMPROVEMENT OF THE TOWN.

MANY years ago a comprehensive plan for the
improvement of Liverpool was brought before the

public by Mr. SAMUEL HOLME, to which we gave
our earnest support. Mr. HOLME proposed to open
out, wherever it was possible, spacious streets, run-
ning from the margin of the river to the high parts
of the town, which would form what might be
regarded as its lungs, and permit the healthy sea
breeze to circulate freely. Burlington-street, at the
north end, was one of those to be opened; and it
was also proposed that the opportunity of the Old
Queen's Arms. Hotel, in Castle-street, having fallen
into the hands of the Corporation, should be seized
upon, to enable that body to construct a wide
thoroughfare through the crowded streets between
Castle-street and Whitechapel to St. George's-hall.
Unhappily for the pubic, the scheme was considered
of too great magnitude, and the opportunity was
lost. Since then a vast quantity of outskirt land has
been built over, with no regard to uniformity of
plan, or to sanatory principles ; and a further large
portion of our population are walled in, as it were,
from the pure atmosphere. Meanwhile, hundreds
of thousands of pounds have been spent in paving
and severing filthy little streets and courts, which
ought long ago to have been swept away. Crotch-
etty and petty improvements have been made here
and there, with no sensibly beneficial effect in im-
proving our sanatory condition ; and we are yet
without a decent approach to a town which already
rivals the metropolis in the vastness of its commerce,
and is only second to it in the number of its population.

We agree with Mr. HOLME, that the time has
arrived when a great work of improvement of this
character must be carried out. In arriving at this
conclusion, we do not dwell upon the fact that pes-
tilence threatens us with its approach, although it
is deplorable to reflect that past warnings of its
visitations have been in a great measure neglected.
The fever of 1846 carried off thousands of the
population of the unwholesome streets in the district
from Vauxhall-road to Scotland-road ; yet those
streets are still unventilated and unwholesome.
The epidemic of 1847 ravaged the outskirts round
the boundary line of the borough to the Dingle,
most singularly not visiting the old fever parts of
the town ; yet we have been covering those out-
skirts with buildings constructed with little regard
to either ventillation or drainage. The cholera,
three years ago, found us still unprepared ; and its
approaching arrival—for this terrible scourge has
already reached the shores of the Baltic in its course
westward—will find us talking only of the measures
which ought to have been taken years ago. Pure
air is one of the essentials of health for our crowded
population. Our wealthy classes enjoy it in their
rural retreats, and in their aristocratic streets and
squares ; and it can only be brought to the dwellings
of the poor by such ventilating shafts as will be
afforded by the improvements which Mr, HOLUB