The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-08 00:00:00

THE 2114Y0R AND MR. R. GLADSTONE.

The following correspondence will explain itself :
Union-court, 2d November, 1853.
_ _

SIR,—In the course of the observations that fell from
you in the Town Council, at the meeting on Monday last, I
understood you to say that you had, on several occasions,
been provoked to retort, but that you had been determined
to bear in silence the remarks that had been made by me.

You must be aware that it would have been in vain for
me to attempt to reply to this statement at the moment;
but .I am not aware, in fact I deny, that, on any occasion,
I have made use of language inconsistent with the fair and
legitimate rules of debate, or such as was unbecoming the
appointment I hold as a representative of the people.
You will oblige me, therefore, by informing me what it
is you refer to, when I will take an opportunity of pointing
out another error you committed, as well as the irrelevancy
of your observations in so far as they relate to the real and
main point at issue.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
ROBERTSON GLADSTONE.
Samuel Holme, Esq., Mayor, &c., &c., Town-hall.

Town-hall, Liverpool, Nov. 3, 1853.

,
SIR,—I n have neither time or inclination to enter into
a correspondence on the subject to which your note refers.
When I have vacated the position which I now hold, I
shall be quite prepared in the Council-chamber to answer
any questions you may be pleased to put, and to vindicate
any opinions which I have ever utttered.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, SAMUEL HOL3IE.
Robertson Gladstone, Esq.

Union-court, 3rd November, 1853.
Sin,—l have received your note of this day's date. In
it you inform me that you have neither time nor inclina-
tion to enter into a correspondence on the subject to which
my communication refers ; but that when you have vacated
the position you hold, you will be quite prepared, in the
Council-room, to answer any questions, or to vindicate
any opinions you may have uttered.
Permit me to remark, that inasmuch as neither time
nor inclination were wanting, on your part, to make a
statement, which I contend is an unfounded one, it
appears to be not only your duty, but an act of justice
towards the individual to whom that statement refers,
that you should, whenever called upon, be prepared to
verify it, at all sacrifices, either of time or convenience.
You have no pretext for attempting to shelter yourself—
you have no fair grounds on which to procrastinate until
a season more convenient should arrive. A plain answer
is required to a plain question; and, as the party con-
cerned, I cannot recognise any right or authority you may
claim to defer answering, for a comparatively indefinite
period, that which ought now to receive a prompt and
decisive reply.
But since silence is the course you have marked out for
yourself, it will be for me to appeal to a competent tri-
bunal—the public—who, I cannot doubt, will be able to
form a correct judgment between us, and to determine
whether the only and proper inference to be drawn from
your conduct is, or is not, that you have made a statement
which you have no means of substantiating.
Before I conclude, I will endeavour, though somewhat
hurriedly, to redeem the promise I made in my first com-
munication, that I would take an opportunity of pointing
out another error you had fallen into, as well as direct
attention to the, irrelevancy of your observations, in so
far as they relate to the real and main point at issue.

In the course of your remarks at the Council meeting
on Monday last, you said that when I was Mayor of
Liverpool I had assisted in laying the foundation-stone of
the Collegiate Institution, and on that occasion had in-
vited you to a dinner at the Town-hall. You are mis-
taken : I was rot Mayor of Liverpool when the foundation-
stone was laid ; but I was so when that institution was
opened : and inasmuch as one of my brothers was spe-
cially invited to take a part in the ceremony, I did give a
dinner at the Town-hall; and I would have done just the
same thing for the Mechanics' Institution.
But the case is altogether foreign to the point I brought
before the notice of the Council : what took place, in re-
spect of the Collegiate Institution was within the pre-
cincts of the borough, where if anything was said or done
that was wrong, it would of necessity be at once known,
and a remedy be speedily applied ; but the objection I
raised referred solely to your travelling beyond the pre-
cincts of the borough, to your visit to the Mayor of Lon-
don, without the knowledge or sanction of the Council,
and where and when you, in the capacity of Mayor of
Liverpool (and it was to be presumed, as representing the
views of the Council), did discuss the subject of education,
in what form or manner is immaterial—thus establishing
a precedent which I believe to be dangerous to.the boat
interests of the Corporation, and opposed tv the rights, in-
dependence, and freedom or the members of the Town
Couneil.- I wo, Sir, your obedient servant,

„ -
ROBERTSON GLADSTONE.
Samuel Holme, Esq., Mayor, &c., Sx., Town-hall.

LIKERPOOL STEAM-BOAT PROPRIE-
TORS 4 THE PILOTS' COMMITTEE.

Liverpool Steam-ship Association,
3, High-street, Liverpool, 14th October, 1863.
Sin,--I am desired by the Liverpool Steam-ship Asso-
ciation to inform you that several members of the associa-
tion are now prepared to bring forward their masters and
mates for examination by the Pilots' Committee, that they
may have certificates granted to them, in pursuance of
" The Pilotage Law Amendment Act, 1853," and to re-
quest that you will inform me, at your earliest conveni-
ence, at what time and place the Pilots' Committee will
examine such masters and mates. I shall also be obliged
to you to inform me of any regulations of the Pilots' Com-
mittee of which it is necessary that masters and mates
applying to be examined should be informed.—l am, Sir,

your obedient servant, BEN. J. THOMSON.
. D. Rowland, Esq.,
Secretary to the Pilots' Committee, Liverpool.

Pilot-office, Liverpool, 26th October, 1853.
SIB,—I am desired by the Liverpool-Pilots' Committee
to inform you that they do not intend to grant any
licenses to any persons who have not been apprenticed,
and regularly brought up in the Liverpool pilot service,
and are not meaning to continue in that service as their
only pursuit ; and that, therefore, they have not made
any regulations, nor do they intend to do so, for the ex-
amination of any masters or mates of steam vessels who
might be willing to offer themselves for the purpose.
In coming to this determination, the Liverpool Pilots'
Committee have had singly in view the public interest, and
an anxious desire for the protection of the vast amount of
lives and property in charge of steam-vessels resorting to
the port of Liverpool; and because they are satisfied that
there are peculiarities connected with the pilot service of
Liverpool which apply to no other place, so that it is not
sufficient for a Liverpool pilot that a man should be a the-
oretical and a practical seaman, or be experienced in the
pilotage of vessels in any other port, or even possess a ge-
neral knowledge of the coast and harbour of Liverpool,
acquired from long experience in the coasting trade. All
or any of these qualifications do not ensure the knowledge
and aptitude essential in the Liverpool pilot, for the follow-
ing amongst other reasons :
Because the approaches and entrances to the port of
Liverpool are extremely difficult and intricate, and subject
to continual and considerable change, and the requisite
knowledge of such changes, for the purposes of safe navi-
gation, can only be kept up by uninterrupted and almost
daily observation, as Capt. Evans, R.N., the conservator of
the river, and Lieut. Lord, RN., the marine surveyor of
the Liverpool Docks, have, in their printed reports, abun-
dantly demonstrated.
That it is an essential part of the education of a Liver-
pool pilot to acquire the knowledge of a large extent of
coast ' • and before a pilot's license is granted to him, he is
subjected to a strict examination in this respect, because
in the way of his calling it may be necessary that the ship
under his charge should run for shelter to the Isle of
Man, to Beaumaris Bay, to Chester Water, and to Wyre
Water, as far as the Pile of Foundry; and the knowledge
of safe places to resort to, according to the point of the
winds, can only be gained by such apprenticeship as the
Liverpool pilots are compelled to undergo, and by the
knowledge of currents and sandbanks, which can only
be acquired by unremitting observation.
That the bringing up and education of a pilot from
early life, in a particular locality, where danger is to be
apprehended to ships, and cargoes, and passengers; his
being inured from a boy to all the hardships, trials, and
difficulties of the stations, and the sense of personal res-
ponsibility under which he acts, and the conviction that
he is constantly under the observation of an executive
body, having great powers to punish any misconduct—all
these circumstances give him a status which is eminently
calculated to ensure sobriety, vigilance, and promptitude,
on which the lives and property placed in his charge
mainly depend.
The position of a pilot is so essentially that of a middle-
man, between the shipowners and masters on the one
hand, and the owners of cargo and the public on the other,
that, as soon as a vessel receives him on board in his pilot
ground, the authority of the master is superseded, and the
responsibility of the owners is at an end.
That this position of the pilot as the recognised public
guardian of lives and property, at the mouths of ports and
havens, should not be interfered with, except for the most
cogent reasons, and only in deference to the public interest
generally, and not of private interests of a particular branch
of shipowners.
That such is the necessity for skill, founded upon expe-
rience in navigating vessels through the channels during
the winter season, that the Pilots' Committee formed a
by-law twelve years ago, and which has been in operation
ever since, restricting themselves, under any circumstances,
from granting a first or second license to any one, though
regularly brought up in the Liverpool pilot service, between
the 25th of September and the 25th of March.
And that the Liverpool pilotage authorities having,
recently, mode averyagerc
pilot-
age, which will take
in council has been obtained to it, they conceive that the
eat
atfte reduction
uticite loconns in
enthteofrahteesr bolfaj estyonly just ground of complaint by the Liverpool steam-ship
ay with.
Committee ProFporir etthoerss
ebaansdboetehnerdornease az-sayt
de-
cline to grant any license except, as above stated, to per-
sons duly apprenticed and brought up to the Liverpool
pilot service, and intending to prosecute it as their only
, am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
DAVID ROWLAND, Secretary.
B. J. Thomson, Esq., Secretary to the Liverpool
Steamship Owners Association, High-street.

ALEXANDER MTLINTOCK, Esq., has been appointed by
William Blundell, Esq., of Crosby-hall, near Liverpool, to
the agency of his estates in the counties of Louth and
Meath.—Drogheda Conservative.•
TIIE ROYAL REGIMENT of Lancashire Militia Artillery
has finished its tour of twenty-eight days' duty, and was
inspected, on Friday week, by Colonel Brereton, R.HA,,
when the manceuvring of the regiment in battalion, and
the proficiency of the gunners in working the field and
garrison guns, was such as to elicit the warmest commen-
dations. On the following day the regiment, with twn
field guns, mtrched to the North Shore for ball practice,
and proved, by the nernraoy their fire, that the lessons
given in the by
square bad been carefully studied.
The strength of the regiment, at the training, was about
380 present, with their guns ; the officers—Colonel-Com-
mandant Sir Duncan M`Dongall, K.S.T. ; Majors Atchi-
son and Bourne ; Captains Hall, (brevet-major,) Fyers,
Crigan, Benton, Lediard, and Creagh ; Ist Lieutenants,
Middleton, Milton, Furnivall, and Campbell ; Captair. and
Adjutant, Campbell j surgeon, Ferguson, ALB, ; assistant-
burgeon, Belu.end.