The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

THE PROCESSION

At about a quarter to eleven o'clock, the procession moved
from the Town-hall in the following order, along the west
foot-walk of Castle-street :
Police-officers to clear the way.
Four Parish Constables in dark brown,
with red collars. -
The Blue Coat School Boys.
The Regalia, carried by the Sub-Bailiffs.
The ater Bailiff and others.
The Sergeant at Mace.
The Sword Bearer.
The MAYOR, in a black gown, and bearing the white
wand , supported by the two Rectors.
The TOWN-CLERK and his DEPUTY.
The REv. J. B. MONK and T. G. LEIGH#-.
of St. George's Church.
MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.
A long line of gentlemen

It was intended, we believe, that the parties should walk
foor and four ' but such was the crowd of anxious spectators 1
throughout the route, that it was impossible to preserve such
an arrangement, and we noticed rows of from two to five,
the average being probably about three. It was, therefore,
impossible to count the whole number who walked with ac-
curacy, but, making the fairest possible computation, they
may be stated at considerably above five hundred gentlemen.
The procession reached the full length of Castle-street.
Arriono the members of the council present we observed,
Messrs. Robertson Gladstone, T. Sands, Richd. Houghton,
Raymond Houghton, John Holmes, James Moon, James
Lawrence, Jos. Cooper, H. Copeland, C. Bushell; R. Rigby,
E. Rae, Jas. Parker, T. Toulmin, J. Aspinall, D. Hodgson,
Isaac Holmes, Richd. Harbord, 11. and J. Holmes, William
Preston, Robt. Jones, H. R. Sandbach, James Proctor, Rd.
Griffiths, J. Edwards, William Shuttlewortb, B. Ellis, and
others.
Amongst the gentlemen not of the council we noticed,
the Rev. F. Moss, of Walton, Sir T. Brancker, Dr. Brand-
reth, Sir G. Drinkwater, Lieut.-Col. Sir Ewd. Cust, Messrs.
John and D. Maddock, Lieut. Vickers, 61st Regiment, John
Wright, R. Dawson and Son, S. Stamforth, S. Sandbach,
M. D. Lowndes, T. B. Horsfall, Rt. Horsfall, Charles
Horsfall, Robt. Birkett, T. Moss, J. A. Kaye, J. Mawdsley,
Rawson, J. D. Case, Wm. Dixon, Rt. Heywood, Charles
Turner, N. Robinson, T. Muncaster, Samuel Holmes, P.
Wright, E. G. Deane, Myers (2), G. Dyson, P. Leather,
Riehd. Leyland, C. Bullen, F. Shand, Jas. Lawrence, Geo.
Ormerod, W. Shand, Chas. Okill, T. Tobin, and many other
distinguished individuals of the town and neighbourhood.
As the procession moved onwards down the south side of
Lord street, the congregated masses of well-dressed indivi-
duals, including many ladies, became more a d more dense,
and the whole of Church street and considerable length of
its approaches from the northward, were so densly crowded,
that it was with difficulty that space could be made for its
comfortable passage to the caurch, the yard of which was
surrounded on all sides by multitudes of spectators. The
greatest respect was manifested throughout, towards the
whole train ; with the most decorous absence of all cheering
or demonstration of peculiar political opinion, either in the
streets or from the windows of the houses. It was, indeed,
a glorious revival of Christian feeling, altogether devoid of
intolerence which excited no little enthusiasm in the bosoms
of the friends of the true churchmen, and roused no un-
pleasant feelings even in those who dissent from her
doctrines.
There are some interesting historical and local reminiscenes
which the occasionn was calculated to call forth. The sacred
edifice to which the procession advanced to offer up the
prayers, was the second parish church in the town—finished
and consecrated in 1704, shortly after Liverpool was made a
distinct parish from Walton, St. Nicholas's (the only oiler
church) having up to 1699 been merely a chapel of ease under
the church of Walton-on-the Hill. At that period the
" pool," which formed a little creek on the site of the old
dock, and now of the Custom House, and was called the
" Sea Lake," ran up on the site of Paradise street, Vhite-
chepel, and Byrom street, to the bottom of Dale street, and
Show's Brow, then called "Townsend." There was a
bridge, or mound with a small archway and sluice at the
bottom of the pool below near the.site of Cooper's Row.
and another at Townsend on the road to Prescot. A bridge
had also been built in 1672 at the bottom of Lord street,
leading to a " read over the common," (now Church street)
on the east bank, but this had fallen into desuetude
and on the rmains of it now stands the shop of Mr.
Gillham, the hatter. Till a considerable number of years
after the building of St. Peter's Church, the mayor and
corporation were wont on going to worship within its walls,
to be ferried across from Lord-street, a distance of about 200
feet. The whole space thus covered by water was upwards
of 50 statute acres, and now redeemed from the sea, forms
the site of several of our best thoroughfares. The Blue Coat
Hospital (in behalf of which the collection made on Sunday
last is appropriated) was established only four years after the
building of the church. The town then contained under
10,000 inhabitants, and a comparatively insignificant amount
of shipping in small craft. It is a proud reflection that the
" good old town" fostered in its commerce and enterprise by
a protestant government and protestant institutions, has, in
little more than a century, risen to her present magnitude—
second only to the metropolis itself in maritime importance,
and yielding to none in enterprise and intelligence.