The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

have an equal right to refuse to work, if they do not
choose to accept the wages offered. This may be
the strictly legal view of the question, but it by no
means implies the moral right which ought to be
binding on both parties, if honour and honesty are
still to have any influence in English transactions.
The manufacturer embarks large capital in the
erection of mills and machinery, and—upon the faith
of well-understood arrangements with those whom
he employs, as to the rate of wages, which are
usually upon an equality in a district he ac-
cepts orders for his manufactures at propor-
tionate prices. It is, therefore, but equity that
those whom he employs should continue their
labour so long as the rate of wages is equal to that
which they agreed to accept as a fair remunera-
tion, or until, by mutual arrangement, both parties
agree to a change. The waster, on the other hand,
is morally bound to continue the employment, nor
is it unusual for them to do so at times when they
have no demand for the products of labour, owing
to an unwillingness that the operatives should be
the chief sufferers. In the present instance, how-
ever, the operatives appear to have relied upon a
presumed activity in trade, and, by turning out
for additional pay, attempted to practise a species
of intimidation, which it is the manifest right of
the masters to resist as far as practicable. This
they have done to a great extent, as in most
instances where the strike has commenced at one
mill, the other masters in the district have closed
their mills, so that the turn-outs should not be
maintained out of the wages of the others, and
encouraged in their contumacy. It is this union,
on the part of the masters, which has caused so
many hands to be out at one time, and it is to be
hoped that it will have the effect of sooner bringing
back the men to reason, as it is evident that, if one
manufacturer be allowed to suffer, the others will
soon share the same fate.

The men have, however, grossly deluded them-
selves, or are the victims of their leaders, who, in all
such cases, are the least worthy characters. So
far from the masters being just now open to inti-
midation for the briskness of demand for their
goods, the case is just the reverse. The unsettled
state of political affairs, the difficulties in the
money market, and the lull in the demand from
abroad, have rendered the manufacturers almost
indifferent about closing their mills; so that, instead
of being at the mercy of the men, the latter will
find, to their cost, that they are at the mercy of
the masters, which their recent conduct has done
little to deserve. Let us suppose, however, that
the men should be successful in obtaining their
demands, and a little reflection will serve to show
that they have gained a loss. If they are only out
of work for three or four weeks, it will take many
months, at an advanced rate of wages,to put them in
the same position that they would have been in
had they continued work on the former scale.
They will have not the slightest guarantee for the
continuance of the higher rate ; and should cir-
cumstances occur, which none can tell how soon,
to abate the present fancied prosperity of trade,
they will have no claim for merciful consideration
at the hands of those to whom they have now
shown so little. It is to be hoped that the men,
who have been really the dupes of agitators, will
allow their good sense to operate, and give up their
senseless quarrel before they have made the breach
irremediable.

THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL.
No. 111.

NOTWITHSTANDING the great natural advantages pos-
sessed by Wallasey Pool for the extension of the Shipping
trade of the Mersey, it was only as recently as 1843 that
any attempt was made to render them available by the
construction of the requisite works. It is true that about
the year 1826 several of the Liverpool shipwrights opened
establishments in Birkenhead, and a slip was constructed
at Wallasey Pool, for hauling up vessels wanting repairs,
and Mr. LAIRD established his iron and shipbuilding
yards. In 1827, a proposal was made by a joint-stock
company for the construction of a dock and floating har-
bour, in connection with a ship-canal to the Dee ; but in
1828 the Corporation of Liverpool: purchased the land on
the shore of the Pool, and the scheme was abandoned.
Nothing further was done in this matter untillB43, when
the Liverpool Town Council re-sold the land to Messrs.
LAIRD, JACKSON, and POTTER, by whom a scheme was
proposed for the construction of a tidal harbour and sea-
wall, whereby an inclosure would be made at Wallasey
Pool, affording an amount of accommodation greater than
the entire of the Docks at Liverpool. _ _

The requisite plans were prepared, commissioners or
trustees were appointed, application was made to Parlia-
ment ; and, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition to
the bill before the Committees of both Houses, it received
the Royal Assent in July, 1844. This gave rise to several
other schemes, among which was the formation of a com-
pany for the erection of iron:warehouses on the margin of
the river, and an extension of the railway to the ware-
houses and docks. In 1845 the works were vigorously
proceeded with ; and, at the same time, the Herculaneum
Docks at Liverpool were purchased by the Birkenhead
Dock Estate. During the Session of that year, the sanc-
tion of Parliament was obtained for the extension of the
railway to the docks ; for the construction of warehouses
on the dock-quays ; and, also, to compel the Corporation
of Liverpool to sell the fee-simple of the land, which had
only been obtained from them under lease. A small dock
was also made: on the south side of Birkenhead, and a
considerable enclosure of Tranmere Pool.

The ostensible object for which the enclosure of Wal-
lasey Pool was commenced was the insufficiency of the
docks on the Liverpool side of the river, in order to
remedy which the Dock Trustees made large purchases of
land at the extreme north and south of the town. These
have since been converted into docks ; but trade has
increased still faster than the means for efficiently carrying
it on, while the limit of available accommodation has been
reached, if not exceeded. The works at Wallasey Pool
were commenced by the elected Commissioners of Birken-
head, with funds raised on the credit of the undertaking ;
and, whatever rates were received beyond the amount
necessaryato pay the interest of the loans, or whatever
funds should arise from property acquired and disposed of,
were to be applied in reducing the principal of the debt
until the works were relieved from all incumbrances, and
the rate afterwards, should any be necessary, would be
required merely for maintaining the works. It was also '
a proviso, that if more property should be acquired than
was necessary to discharge the debt, the surplus should be
applied to the annual charge of maintenance, and the
works then become free of all rates.
Such were the conditions under which the docks at
Birkenhead were commenced ; but the attempt gave rise
to much angry discussion between the two sides of the
Mersey, which might have been spared had the parties
considered that they had a common interest in the trade
of the port, as it was impossible that one side could be
benefited without the other enjoying a large share of the
prosperity. On the one part, it was said that the land at
Wallasey Pool, which the Corporation of Liverpool had
bought expressly for mercantile purposes, appeared to
have been retained by them solely for the purpose of pre-
venting any useful adaptation of it ; while by the other
complaint was made of the conduct of the Birkenhead
parties in appropriating their purchase to dock purposes
as a breach of faith, from the opinion that such accommo-
dation should be confined to the eastern side of the
Mersey, notwithstanding the sale by Mr. PRICE, the
original Lord of the Manor, was made upon the express
agreement that the Pool was to be appropriated to the
" purposes of trade connected with the interest of
Liverpool."
The object to be accomplished by the enclosure of Wal-
lasey Pool was to be effected by two distinct operations ;
one, the enclosure of the upper, and the other, the em-
banking of the lower part. The first was to be accom-
plished by a masonry dam, having in it a pair of flood-
gates of 70 feet in width ; and two locks, one of 50 feet,
and one of 30 feet, extending across the Pool from near
the shipbuilding yards on the Birkenhead side, to the
smalt-works at Seacombe. By this means the water
within the larger inner harbour, called the Great Float, of
150 acres, would be retained ; and though enormously
large as this " dock may be deemed for commercial pur-
poses, it is not too large as a reservoir to contain water
for scouring the basin." The water in the Float was
proposed to be kept at the depth of nineteen feet, or six
feet below the Liverpool datum. The low-water basin
was to be formed by the construction of a massive sea-
wall along the low-water margin of the Mersey, from