The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE,

SEACOMBE FERRY. —WALLASEY COMMIS-
SIONERS.
"On me when dunces are satiric,
I take it for a panegyric.—SWlFT.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Owing to your kindness and urbanity, a letter of mine
appeared in the STANDARD of Tuesday last, upon the proposed
ferry at Seacombe, containing some strictures upon a very of-
fensive article in the Weekly News upon the same subject.
The writer of that classical leader did not scruple in the most
opprobrious terms to advance unfounded charges; and while
stigmatising Mr. Mawdesley as the champion of the " vested
interest," he fathered upon Mr. Meadows " all the filth and
squalor of Seacombe," and concluded by heaping upon the
Messrs. Parry unmerited sarcasm and scurrilous invective, for
wishing to retain their own property and defend their un-
questionable rights. My letter has awakened the irascible dis-
position of your contemporary, and he has honoured me with
the most severe castigation which his potent pen could give.
Your learned contemporary has not, in his admirable reply,
substantiated one of those sweeping charges which he made
against the reputation and public character of a considerable por-
tion of the Commissioners of Wallasey, and has failed to shew
me by what logical process he proves the right to deprive a man
against his will of property which will not benefit the public, or
add in the•least to their conveni nce. If he can shew, that to
juggle the Messrs. Parry of their ferry will do the township any
good, or that those gentlemen have not uniformly studied the
convenience of the inhabitants, and have therefore forfeited
their right to the managesient of the Seacombe Ferry, I will
cheerfully acquiesce in the opinion, that a private interest must
be sacrificed to a public good ; but till he shall succeed in so
doing, I shall consider it an act of intolerable injustice to esta-
blish a new ferry. The sapient editor of the Weekly News ad-
mits, with me, that the Messrs. Parry " do lose by their
ferry," and then , with a consciousness of victory, he imperiously
asks, "Why not relieve them from the disadvantage they suffer
under ?" covering, in the audacious fallacy which he propounds,
all prospective benefits which the proprietors may reasonably
hope to reap, as the reward for their long and unproductive
attempt to serve the public and to improve Seacombe.
The " individual supremacy" of his modern Napoleon over
the Gas and Water Works of Birkenhead, was defended and
maintained on the ground of ultimate more than present profit.
He intimates, however, that if the Commissioners " would give
the matter at issue a calm and serious attention, they would
find the public interest compatible with their private welfare,"
begging the question as to whether the establishment will be
for the public interest, and taking for granted what it was his
province to prove. But 1 do not imagine that the Messrs. Parry
will find it much to their interest to lose their ferry, and have
their property wrested from them, even if they should give it
their serious consideration ;"but they must submit, with the
reflection, that the ferry has become the "property of the pro-
per guardians of the town." lamat a loss to conjecture how
increased taxation and heavy rates can improve the affairs of
the township, or how the absence of them " will he destructive
to the interests" of the inhabitants. I imagine that the land-
lords, lodging-house keepers, &c., would vastly prefer to leave
the Messrs. Parry in the enjoyment of their rights, than to in-
cur a heavy debt.
When we see the townshi

la about to be

plunged in debt