The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-15 00:00:00

question

We hope that by the appointment of a committee to
examine fairly and candidly the merits and disadvan-
tages of the vexata questio of the Dock Warehouse
Scheme, some amicable compromise may be made
between the belligerent parties, so as to prevent the
unnecessary waste of public as well as private money
in a three months' fight before the House of Commons.
This subject ought to be settled in Liverpool, because,
if two parties go to London to quarrel there, the land-
holders of Cheshire and Lancashire will step in and
carry away the kernel, while the people of Liverpool
are wrangling about the husk. The question is one
of considerable difficulty. The town of Liverpool,
with its increasing trade, has an undoubted right to
adopt every improvement for facilitating commerce :
but it must not do so to the ruin, or even injury, of
those who have embarked their money during the last
century in giving those facilities which the public bo-
dies until within. the last few years were unable to
bestow. If warehouses are necessary, they ought, in
justice to those who have so large an interest in that
description of property, as well as to the merchants
who do not want warehouses at all, or who have al-
ready warehouses of their own, to be built out of a
newly-crehted trust, and not out of the general dock
estate. They may, to secure uniformity of manage-
ment, be placed under the control of the Dock Com-
mittee; and they ought to be authorised to borrow
money on security of that property alone, and not on
the credit of the whole estate. Many may say they
cannot mortgage the docks and warehouses for the
entire cost. Mr. Evans, however, says that they will

yield 15 per cent. ; and, if so, a great surplus revenue
will accrue, which may go to liquidate the bonded
debt. A change in the constitution of the Dock Trust
must also take place. It ought to consist of .thirteen
ratepayers and eight councillers—not eight self-elected
aldermen, but eight popularly-elected councillors; and,
lest the mercantile interest should reduce rates too low,
the Town Council ought, as at present, to have a veto
on their proceedings. This question might have been
settled last year had anybody else than Mr. Evans
been entrusted with it ; but as this gentleman was
determined to run a-muck against every vested inte-
rest, and carry everything in his own way with a high
hand, the Dock Trustees were shamefully foiled—as
they will be again, unless they, as well as the ware-
house-owners, are disposed to concede a little. We
repeat that this question ought to be decided in Liver-
pool, not in London. •

At the Council Meeting on Monday after considerable
discussion had taken place, as to the propriety of the
Mayor's attendance on the committee appointed on the
motion of Mr. Earle, his worship made the following
remark in reply to Mr. Bushell

"Mr. BUSHELL disapproved of the mayor's attendance on
that committee, because it would give a preponderance on
the side of warehouses. If the council had a pledge from the
mayor that he would not attend the committee, then it would
render unnecessary the addition of another member ; but,
unless lie did that, it would be necessary to have another, in
order, to equalize the numbers.
The MAYOR most readily met Mr. Bushell's suggestion,
and he hoped the council would excuse his attendance."

Why did his worship take a part in the proceedings
of the committee •on Wednesday last ? Let him be-
ware how he interferes with the deliberations, from
which he has given a solemn pledge to abstain.

A body of insane individuals—we call them " in-
sane" on the authority of Lord Melbourne—who have
formed themselves into a society, under the designa-
tion of the " Liverpool Operative Anti-Corn-Law As-
sociation," held a public meeting on Wednesday even-
ing, at the Music-hall, for the purpose of petitioning
the legislature for a total and immediate repeal of the
corn-laws, and also to address the electors of Walsall
in favour of Mr. J. B. Smith, the " insane" candidate
for the representation of that borough. The president
of this "insane" meeting was Sir Joshua Walmsley,
who has had the Quixotic hardihood to offer himself
as a candidate for the representation of Liverpool.
The proceedings at the meeting to which we refer are
scarcely worth anything like a serious remark. The
usual stock of declamatory abuse of the landed and
agricultural interests was expended on this occasion,
while the silly and fanciful dogmas of the self-conceit-
ed free-trade philosophers were duly uttered with most
oracular gravity. Sir Joshua spoke with a degree of
enthusiasm on .the subject of the corn-laws, which
strongly reminded us of the emphatic declaration of
Lord Melbourne—that none but an insane person
could think of abolishing the corn-laws. The would-
be member for Liverpool congratulated the working
classes on their advocacy of the anti-corn-law nostrum;
that is to say, he congratulated them upon the prospect
of low wages and ruined trade—upon the discourage-
ment of British industry, the abstraction of British

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