The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

THE HEALTH COMMITTEE,

Mr. LANGSDALE having moved the confirmation of the
proceedings of this committee,
Alderman PARKER complained that Mr. Moss had made
an unmanly and cowardly attack upon him in the com-
mittee, making use of his name, in consequence of his
voting at the last Council meeting against the proposed
deputation to Scotland, on the smoke nuisance.
Mr. HA RMOOD BANNER called attention to a nuisance
in Crown-street, which had often been memorialised
against, but still continued.
It was explained that it could not be removed without
au indictment, and that the committee could not interfere,
as the medical officer had not reported that it was inju-
rious to health. The place complained of is a " rotten
works " (so we understood the words), the property of
Mr. Bigham.
Mr. GLADSTONE thought they ought to be cautious, and
not drive manufactories from the town; and the subject
then dropped.
Mr. GREGSON next called attention to a deposit of
chemical refuse in Boundary-street, which would form the
foundations of future buildings, and which must give out
an unwholesome effluvium for years to come.
The TOWN-CLERK explained that the committee at pre-
sent could not interfere ; but it was one of the matters
which they sought for power to prevent in their new bill.
A recommendation for a small increase of salary to three
of the officers of the committee stands over pursuant to
standing orders • and the proceedings were then confirmed.
The proceedings of the Gardens, Church Expenditure,
and Observatory Committees were then read and con-
firmed. THE WATER COMMITTEE.
This committee recommended that Mr. Isherwood's
contract for the Rivington Works, No. 3, which had been
terminated, should be given to Mr. Evans.

Mr. HOLT moved the confirmation of the proceedings,
and said that Mr. Evans had large means and experience,
and offered to take the works in the same way as by the
former contract, both as to the past and the future.
Alderman COOPER seconded the motion, which was
agreed to.
The proceedings of the Library, Hackney Carriages,
Shipbuilding, and Baths Committees, were then read and
confirmed ; the Coroner's account, amounting to £2l 10s.,
was passed, and this closed the ordinary business of the
Council.

TOTE OF THANKS TO THE MAYOR: EXTRAORDINARY

CONDUCT OF MR. BOBEIITSW GLADSTONE.

Mr. 5. B. LLOYD then rose and said : Mr. Mayor, I
have been requested, to fulfil a duty which affords to my-
self the. greatest possible satisfaction, as I am sure it
will be to the Council, to receive the proposition that I
have to make, which is, sir, to vote the warmest thanks
of this Council to you, for the manner in which you
have presided, in the last year, over our deliberations,
and to- assure you, sir, that in retiring from that chair,
you take with you the sincere thanks of the Council,
for the firmness, dignity, and impartiality with which
you have performed the duties devolving upon you. I
can only state my regret that it has not fallen into abler
hands to express thanks, not only for the way in which
you have presided in this Council, but the hospitable man-
ner in which you have maintained the duties of that chair
throughout the whole year. (Applause.) I. have great
pleasure in proposing to the Council that the best thanks
are due to you, not only for your services to the Council,
but for the services which you have rendered to the town
during your mayoralty. (Loud applause.)
Mr. GEORGE HOLT said,—lt gives me great pleasure to
second the vote of thanks to you. The way in which
you have performed all the duties of the office, and the
great ability you have shown in that office, not only in this
room but elsewhere, wherever you presented yourself as
director or chairman, whether in public rooms or on the
hustings your perfect impartiality, and fairness, and
justice in the office which you fill, has entitled you to
hearty thanks from every member of the community.
(Applause.) Of course, sir, I have great pleasure in
seconding the resolution. (Loud acclamation.)
Mr. ROBERTSON GLADSTONE then rose. He said—
Mr. Mayor, this is a moment when perfect unanimity of
opinion is perhaps more desirable than on any other occa-
sion I can refer to, and I for one should be very sorry to
disturb the feeling which seems to pervade this Council.
Circumstances, however, have taken place which I shall
not be at liberty now to refer to ; but, hearing this vote of
thanks moved, affords me an opportunity of making one
or two remarks. I confess that I cannot quite go so
far as my friend Mr. Holt has done, but I will do
this : I will take very good care that I am not the
cause of the creation of any unpleasant feeling, where
an evident majority appear to desire the compliment
should be paid the chief magistrate of this town. The
question I refer to has a reference more to the future than
the past, and it is possible I may be in error in labouring
under the apprehension on my mind ;—if I am, I stand
corrected. It will be in the recollection of the Council
that the Mayor has three or four times been absent from
our proceedings—one time in Dublin, and another in Lon-
don. The Council are aware when the Mayor is appointed,
he has a right to go away,—that is right enough; but, if
I understand correctly, the May-or on these occasions was
absent as the Mayor of Liverpool. I should like to offer a
remark or two on that point ; bat if he was there only
in his private capacity, I shall intrude upon the Council
no more. Perhaps the Mayor will be good enough to say.
It is as to whether you went to London and Dublin as the
Mayor of Liverpool, or in your individual capacity ?
The MAYOR—I was invited by the Lord Mayor of
Dublin on the one hand, and by the Lord Mayor of
London on the other, as the Mayor of Liverpool—
(applause) ; and, as the Mayor of Liverpool, I deemed it
right to respond to the invitations. of the representatives
of the two great municipal bodies of the kingdom ; and
I hope while I was there Liverpool suffered nothing.—
(Applause.)
ULADSTONE—It was quite right and proper that
the Mayor should receive those invitations, and
equally proper he should go ; but I have always been
under the apprehension that the Mayor, as Mayor
of Liverpool, was only so within the precincts
of the borough, and when he departed from those precincts
he could only do so with the acquiescence and approval of
the Council. Now, allow me to call the attention of the
Council to the possible inconvenience from the under-
standing being otherwise. I don't allude to the present
mayor —take the case of any mayor who goes to London,
and there discusses the subject of education. Now, it
would be obvious, the present mayor would not state my
views on education, and I would not choose him to do it
any more than he would choose me to represent his ;
therefore I wish to call attention to this. It was
usual in earlier times, in my younger days, to
state when the mayor was absent. I want to
to point out how necessary it is that on any such occasion
there should be a concurrence of the Council. I should
be sorry to be committed by the Mayor. I never had any
personal feeling, but as the opportunity is afforded of
making these remarks, I make them as much for the
future— (Cries of " Order.")
Alderman LAWRENCE deemed it very wrong in Mr.
Gladstone—

The MAYOR.—I shan't stop Mr. Gladstone.
Mr. GLADSTONE said he was in order. A vote of thanks
had been proposed to the Mayor, and he should state his
opinion, whether right or wrong.
Mr. WAGSTAFFE.—If Mr. Gladstone goes on the ques-
tion of education, I have something to say to him on the
subject of education.
Alderman PARKER.—I am sure that anything which
fell from the Mayor of Liverpool on the subject would be
encored by the vast majority of the members here, and .I
hope the principles the Mayor holds will ever be main-
tained by a majority of this council. (Loud applause.) I
beg to reiterate our warmest thanks to the Mayor.
Mr. PICTON said he could not express the pain
he felt, that on the present occasion' when
certainly he supposed for one that there
would be a unanimous feeling of respect to our worthy
chief magistrate, that the apple of discord in any way or
by any gentleman, however worthy of respect he may have
been, should be thrown in. (Applause.) At the same
time that the question had been put by Mr. Gladstone, he
thought it only right that any gentleman who followed
on the subject should express his opinion, not in respect
to the question of education, for he begged to say that was
not before them in any shape or way ; but in regard
to the position the Mayor of Liverpool occupies
when away from this borough ; because, as Mr. Glad-
stone had said, it was an important question, and one
which they should perfectly understand ; and he did not
know any opportunity that was better for properly con-
sidering it than when there was moved a vote of thanks to
the chief magistrate. (Hear, hear, from Mr. Gladstone.)
Now he (Mr. Picton) in his simplicity thought that when
invitations were sent to the different Mayors of Liverpool
(this was not the first time the Mayor of Liverpool had
been invited to the Mansion-house), it was a tribute of
respect, not as a compliment to the Mayor personally, but
a compliment to the great commercial community he
presides over. (Loud applause.) It could never be
supposed for one moment that the Mayor of Liverpool, in
attending a meeting of that kind., be the subject what it
might, came armed and backed with the sentiments of the
majority, or any portion of the inhabitants of Liverpool,
—that was, that he went there to represent their views,—
nothing of the kind could be contemplated for a moment.
The Mayor's views on education might or might not be
the same as those he (Mr. Picton) held ; but he looked
upon the invitation in this way :—The Mayor occupies
a pre-eminent and commanding position in the commu-
nity which he presides over ; a great public question
was put before the meeting on which he was called to
speak, and he giving his views on the subject, not as com-
missioned to represent the views of the inhabitants of
Liverpool, but his own individual views,—he did not see
how any gentleman could mistake that for a single mo-
ment. It did not follow that the Mayor always spoke
officially every word he utters. (Applause.) It would,
indeed, be a very strange thing if the Mayor of Liverpool,
when he goes abroad, was to be tied, bound, and fettered,
and restricted from expressing his own opinions,
simply because he was Mayor of Liverpool. He
ventured to suppose that such a precedent would
be a dangerous one, and he ventured to say that
when Mr. Gladstone filled that chair, he did not consider
that in the sentiments he put forth he was expressing the
opinions of the people of Liverpool. He should be sorry
to see the day when any such rule should prevail. (Ap-
plause.)
Mr. HODSON said he had now sat for several years in
that Council, and had heard several votes of thanks pro-
posed to chief magistrates for the way in which they had
discharged the duties of that office, but he had never
known the subject of education or any matter upon
which there was a difference of opinion brought forward
in that assembly—(applause)--and he was very sorry that
Mr. Gladstone on that occasion should have thought it his
duty to do so. He agreed with Mr. Gladstone in many
things politically and religiously, but he thought in the
way that the Mayor had discharged the duties of his office,
he had forgot all distinctions of party. (Applause.) He
must confess that if in the office which he was leaving the
Mayor must be crippled from giving his individual views,
the office was not worth having. (Applause.) He thought
Mr. Gladstone had forgotten the time for making his
remarks, which should have been when the new Mayor
was appointed. He thought the Mayor left that chair
unsullied—(applause) ;—and he rose to say that much,
because he had himself used every
exertion that man
e
could use, to secure for another gentleman the seat which
he now filled. He (Mr. Hodson) had admired Mr. Gladstonei
s
for his straightforward policy, but he thong
lit he Wa now
mistaken in tills particular. He could say thatb thevey r Mayorone
left that chair honoured and respected by e.
PPlause-)
INtr, JA.74ga TTRER said I I wonder how they addressed