The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

TOWN COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.

On Wednesday, the usual monthly meeting of tho
Council was held, at the Town-hall. The Mayor took
the chair at ten minutes after eleven o'clock, at which
time there were twenty-three members in their respective
places.

THE BIRKENHEAD DEBT.
Mr. PARKER begged to ask the Chairman of the Finance
Committee the reasons why the £llO,OOO, due from the
Birkenhead Dock Company, had not been paid into the
corporation treasury ? He said that as a trustee of the
burgesses of Liverpool, he thought he had a right to look
after their interests. Many gentlemen present were not
aware that the old corporation in their foresight and
judgment—and experience proved their judgment to be
sound, and the Mayor's sire was a member of that corpo-
ration—purchased the estate of Wallasey for the sum of
£200,000. The council had now an estate of the value of
as many millions as it had originally cost hundreds of
thousands. That estate was handed down to the Munici-
pal Reform Corporation, and they, in their glorious ple-
nitude, abused the old corporation, and the purchase was
called a job, and it was said that thousands of the public
money had been thrown away for a swamp on the other
side of the water. When the present Mayor was chairman
of the Finance Committee, that committee in their wis-
dom, thought proper to recommend to the council, in a
very quiet way, to lease away the Wallasey estate ; but no
sooner had the Birkenhead people got possession of the
property than they announced it to be their intention of
building docks on it. They took the estate at 75 years
lease ; but having had all their plans cut and dry, they
went to work to deprive the burgesses of Liverpool of the
fee-simple right which they possessed. Being supported
in this by the people of Bolton and Manchester, they went
to Parliament and obtained their bill, depriving the bur-
gesses of the fee-simple ; and by that bill they were to pay
the Liverpool Corporation the sum of £llO,OOO, not one-
tenth part perhaps of the value_ liO wicherl known
whether the bill specified the time when the £llO,OOO was
to be paid ? He wanted to know on what grounds this
£llO,OOO had not been paid ?—when it was to be paid ?
what security there was for the payment of it ?—and what
interest the corporation were receiving for it ? (Hear.)
The estate had been got from the corporation almost by
fraud. He would not say by direct fraud, but he would
say by deception. The business on the other side of the
water had been commenced in excitement, and carried on
by false agitation. (Hear, hear.) Excitement was the
order of the day. Lord Morpeth had been brought down
to open the docks ; and it was thought the people in Lon-
don would bleed, but it was now ascertained that they
would not bleed. (" Hear," and laughter.)
Mr. MANN objected. He thought it beneath Mr.
Parker to reflect upon the manner in which the Birken-
head Docks were opened.
Mr. PARKER said he was giving his honest opinion, and
that he should not shrink from the conscientious discharge
of his duty. (Hear, hear.)
Sir T. BRANCKER said that the Finance Committee
neither had nor would part with the Wallasey Estate until
they obtained full satisfaction for it. He could inform
Mr. Parker, fox the information of his friends out of
doors, that, as the Corporation were unwilling sellers in
the first instance, if they did not get the money they had
the estate, and would be very glad to repossess themselves
of it—(hear, hear.)
Mr. S. HOLME expressed a hope that Mr. Parker would,
in his usual manly way, withdraw the expression he had
used with reference to " fraud." When that expression
was applied to such men as Mr. Potter, Mr. Glynn, and
Mr. Bailey, M.P., it could not but be exceedingly of-
fensive.

Mr. PARKER did not say fraud ; but he said it looked
very much like fraud, and that there was a very great
deal of deception used there could be no doubt.
The matter then dropped.
DOCK COMMITTEE.

The proceedings of the Dock Committee having been
read,
Mr. BRAMLEY-MOORE said the dock accounts had just
been published, and that there was an increase of £32,648
in the receipts, and also an increase of 255,095 tons in
the tonnage. This rather exceeded what he estimated it
at when he last had the honour of addressing the Coun-
cil—(hear, hear.)