The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-25 00:00:00

TO THE E OITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

LETTER XV.

Ma. EDITOR,—The raising of the Sailors' Home is a
most necessary and praise-worthy institution, and for
Prince Albert to have laid the foundation-stone is a mat-
ter of congratulation between its founders and the town.
But, after all the hustle, where has it been laid ? upon
what site have the Corporation and the Committee eosen
to uprear a building, the estimated cost of which is to be
£24,000 ? Why, in a puddle hole, cheek by jowl with the
ugly Custom-house. Is not such a locality very question-
able for residence by day and night? The ground, al-
though, of course, rock at the bottom of all, yet is nothing
but the oh! wash of the tide, and made-ground ; hence it
becomes a likely malarious bed, unhealthy for people to
live in. The Custom-house stands objectionably, for
these reasons, even though it be chiefly occupied by hu-
man beings :luring the day time only, and that for short
hours; but when a large building is to be located in the
same unfavourable district, the numerous occupants of
which will have to pass night as well as day there, the
full force of the objection tells against it. There is no
doubt the architect will have something in his power,
through the resources of art, towards preventing the mis-
chief; and tbese aids, no doubt, he will zealously call in-
to operation for the purpose : but it is questionable whe-
ther he can sufficiently forestall the evil to be complained
of. Time will show, since the experiment is committed
for trial. It is a pity that, in all Liverpool, a spot could
not have been pitched upon presenting less obnoxious
foundations than the lowest level of Liverpool Proper.
It may be thought that it is late in the day to aver these
things ; still, if they have validity, it must be replied,
" better late than never." It is a pity that such a pos-
sible source of prejudice to the health of the inmates has
not been mere maturely weighed. If the Woodside people
were to locate an institution, for day and night abode,
upon the site of the middle of Wallasey-pool, when the
tide will be shut out, would they be considered as do-
ing a wise thing ? Yet Ihe cases would be parallel, excepting
in the particular of the period of time, as so much greater
which has elapsed between the tidal wash of Paradise-street
and its present state. Yet even this hardly weakens the
parallel;: I question if it do not strengthen it.
These remarks are not the first notice of the peculiar
unhealthiness of the site of Paradise-street. It has been
a matter of general notoriety all along, and no longer
since than May 22, of the present year, a talented letter
from Dr. Briggs, formerly a practitioner in Liverpool,
called the attention of the public, and of the authorities
especially, through the columns of the Liverpool Journal,
to the errors of planting the Custom-house where it is,
and the inhabiting of such quarters as Paradise-street.
Now, what would he say to the project of a Sailors' Home
on the same unhealthy site ! I shall quote from the doc-
tor's letter, in the hope that good may come of the exa-
n3ination of the question, although it is an unpleasing task
to deliberate over a deed past, and all but irrevocable;
also in the light of a medical protest against the unsuit-
able selection, lest otherwise the profession of Liverpool
should be reproached hereafter, and elsewhere, for having
taeitly approved of mal-sanitary arrangements, one after
another, in a town where their advice might have been
very properly supposed to have weight ; a very reasonable
supposition for French, German, Austrian, and other na-
tions to make, but rather a mistake when the English na-
tion are the party supposed guilty of taking medical advice
into their public councils. John Bull likes to have his
own an-enquiring way in matters of this and nearly all
other kinds.

I need offer no apology for ample quotation. The sub-
ject demands it, and the author will not object to the tres-
pass on his statements.
The impression of strangers must be, that Liverpool is
a town of blut.ders ; and though, as a resident, I may re-
gret that such should be the case, yet the next best thing,
after learning a bitter truth as to facts, is to remedy mat-
ters if possible, and, as far as possible, to mend tlat past,
to have a care for the future, and to steer through the pre-
sent, by the light of experience shining on the " compass."
Dr. B. observes (1 quote from a slip copy of the Jour-
nal, dated 22d May, 1846) :

" Is it a fact that the present system of dockage is based on a
correct principle? or, rather, is it not now a growing persua-
sion that it is radically. bad ? and if so, does it not follow, that
whatever is built upon it rests on a rotten foundation ?.
" All who know anything of the early history of Liverpool
must needs has e beard. or read, that before the Old Dock was
called into existence there was a stream, or pool, riot very un-
like what Wallasey Pool was till the other day. Where it
had its origin I c t nnot say ; but, even in my time, it was to be
seen as a perennial rill, in the open space between Great Nel-
son street North and Beau-street. from whence it descended, in
some way. by what is now Whitechapel and Paradise-street, till
it joined the rim.
• '1 here was living, until a very few years ago, a well-known
respected gentleman, who has often said that his own father i e-
membered w hen the ground on which King-street, and several
of the confined streets north cf it, now stand,was a cow pasture,
down to the pool, and which for years afterwards remained
open, so that there was a ferry across it from Lord-street to
what is now Church-sheet. No clidibt there still exist num-
bers in Liverpool that have conversed with elderly persons who
had themselves crossed this same ferry.
But from that time there has been nothing but a succession
of steps in the wrong direction. The first great error, and that
to which ail else may be traced, was that ever the old Corpora-
tion of Liverpool w• s allowed to have any sort of influence or
control in the rearing of a new formation which was destined
to attain such gigantic magnitude and importance.
Now, for spirits and intellects of such an order, it was quite
in keeping to conclude that their town, having got its one deck
could never require a second ;. and that, therefore, if the pool
was arched over, and a street built on its two sides, it would be
so much clear gain to themselves; all which was done; and to
perpetua e their own sense of the happiness of their exploit,
they gave it the name of Paradise-sti ea!!
" And now, without dwelling on the several intermediate
steps, let us proceed at once to the grand cansummation—the
filing up of the Old Dock, and the planting of that huge pile of
public buildi gs on its si e.
" Unhappily the mischief is of a far more serious abiding
character. The fixed laws of the physical world,—which are,
indeed. God's own laws.—are not,. any Tole than his moral
l
terrible retribution is sure to follow, sooner or lat. T. I know
not whether the cell-ars in this earthly Paradise be still inhabited
by human beings or nut. In my day, few, except such of the
durings
s
f
dtoce
balei usetn Pteee, rnas rssoodlari
extentt
orbdhyteeaawrthdl"
faeaordoarataobchut. hlegiofiduneweather
whlappearance.tle occupants.e'(ahhabitually
actstveewhimoltoll,etanjas,egreer.violated
faree' of
il tdal
ttramahwfrnrsrf characteraro'
awyvtoci nmsl
aeihhi being
recollect.
clitanPontlcelguta)
IseEl :edit 'eaten:: nuisancenYri :edt
ei;Yt vi
haeisapsst andi Whoianl tvan,rt;eaei
tedesi whereas
Irish
hellatwn; hthonooseaietfyfrrhsi entidWii
eethodsaelxtesfeeebhscadl
back
apartment rih:cohmal
e
During one of my. late evening visits! heard a pump at work in
the•
r
m
t.
t
gt
wm aaybttasbcCi
euakpli
nkcjelt
apartment these was a well, in which the kill water that was
constantly oozing in from the street was collected, a, d that it
was necessary to empty the well every night ; nor have I yet
forgotten the nausea produced by the sight at d smell of a pial-
ful of this abominable fluid, all of which must needs be bro ght
through the front cellar, to be poured out into the kennel. I
remember, too, a still more affecting scene, in the case of a fine
Irish sailor boy, who died in a cellar on the other side of the
street. in hot, damp weather, and who, in addition to all else,
was obliged to have his face constantly covered with a net, to
protect the swarms of fiesh.flies and other doleiul creatures
with 'which all such places are infested. But I have since
heard, though on t o certain authority, that the cellars in Para.
dise-street are no longer inhabited by human beings, and if this
be a fact so much the better; but is it equally a fact that
the constant exhalation of deleterious miasm has ceased?
Just the contrary. I advert to the published fact. that Liverpool
has the bad pre•einineuce of being one Of the utost onheiklthi

Aug. 25, 1R46.

of towns. And is it always to be so ? Most assuredly yes, so
long as the original sin remains ; and, in fact, every additional
step taken on the same vicious principle does bnt the More in-
crease the generation of the malaria. In every case of • epar-
ture from the right line, whether bf individuals or committees,
the only way for them to escape is, to measure back their steps
to the point from which they have deviated. Be the elfurt ever
so difficult or painful, there is nothing else for it. Never,
',ever, till this fools' paradise and the excrescence which
has taken the place of the Old Dock be swept away, caa the
foul, hidden rottenness, be reached and cured."
The extent of cellar living to which Dr. B. alludes has
been partially remedied by act of parliament ; btt defini-
tions of heights and depths of windows and door-sills can-
not extinguish malarious exhalations co readily as ima-
gined by some. It is in past evidence, that a cellar vad
cated is not, th:refore, a cellar purged of clanger, the im-
mediate subj.xts of prejudiced health are removed, but
the malaria may go on developing at even an increasing
rate. unless such places are actually filled tap. In the
parts of the town above high water mark, filling up cel-
lars may cure the evil, possibly; but in parts of the town
like this spot, which Dr. 13. sarcastically denominates
"fool's paradise," the case is very different, for, snless
I have been misinformed, the cellarage and kitchen
range, empty or filled up, of numerous houses on this le-
vel, suffer at times insupportably from the fluid retained
in the sub-soil around, which is forced upwards in all di-
rections by the flow of the tide; the sewers regurgitate
from the same cause owing to the hydrostatic pressure of
th, tide, and the stench of such refluent fluids is neither
tolerable nor healthy. It' it had been the mere oozing of
tidal sal,: water, the thing would be endurable compara-
tively, although attended with inconvenience and expenses
manifold, but when the stinking fluids are constantly
bathing the foundation walls of houses so situated, even a
fish.wornan can pronounce a true and wise opinion.
Roman cerneating has proved fruitless,—against the agency
of such immffise periodical !pressure nothing can answer
perfectly. This district, reclaimed at so costly a price of
health as well as money, had better have been even up
again to the domain of Neptune, in the shape of dockage,
as Dr.. Briggs points out. The foundation stone of the
Sailors' Home now lies in water, and they had to go
through a bed of watery slush in order to clear a bedding
for the stone, which speaks pretty plainly. By the way,
it is a pity Prince Albert did not postpone his visit a week
or two later, for he would have had the novel pleasure of
laying the stone under water, with a few diving feats : or
the whole arena which was covered with planks for the
Mayor and allied powers, might have been converted into
a truly Venetian scene of the Doge and the bridal waves
—a travestie of the Lord Mayor of London going in his
state wherry—or a naumachia of the Romans revived for
the gratification of the Prince. Of course there will be a
small hospital and staff of attendants planned in the Sai-
lors' Home, if people are brought there to run risks of
sickness from malaria.

RIGHT OF ROAD OVER A PIG-STYE.
Windsor District. Back Corlet-street to Linden-
street, which latter is chiefly, if not entirely composed of
new houses, presents a connecting pathway to and from
these streets, which leads over a very extensive piggery,
with all its appurtenances. The pathway is on a plane
more elevated now than formerly, by means of a bridge
of three planks, whereby the feet of the passers over are
carried above the heads of the useful animals below. It is
needless to say in the warm weather how pungent the sa-
lute to your nostrils must be. The road then leads
round a large heap of muck from a shippon ; and around
you on all sides are the varied tenements inhabited by
cows, horses, pigs, Sc.c. The whole forms a group such
as must surely be rare and incredible to the uninitiated in
mal-sanitary prospects. It was desirable to have the
road closed, in order to put matters into a more profitable
shape ; but the blessed " privilege" of right of road has
proved an untoward obstacle. Lindon-street is. built
upon what used to be an open pond. Vested rights here
then, though presenting an ideal property in the volatile
and disgusting air of a pigstye, are, however, worthless,
nay, prejudicial,—yet tenable by law, and cannot be Inter-
fered with!
THE CLEANLY AND TIDY PEOPLE NOT ONLY PARTAKERS
IN COMMON CHANCES WITH THEIR FILTHY NEIGH-
BOURS, BUT ACTUALLY MADE TO CLEAR AWAY THEIR
NEIGHBOURS' FILTH.

Harding-street is badly scavenged, and has always been,
from this cause and its crowded court and cellar popula-
tion, a complete hot-bed of fever of the common and
eruptive forms, and of other diseases. Scarletina used to
be very prevalent in this district. It is impossible that a
street in so wretched a plight as it has been all along, can
he healthy.

Two or three weeks back my notes were made upon
personal inspection, along with Mr. Greatres, the surgeon
to the district. (Since that time, of course, lam bound
to admit a possible improvement in matters, owing to the
possible increased vigilance of the authorities.) Inquiry
showed that scavengers' carts very seldom visited the
street. The people stated that sometimes stray country
carts did pass along the street, and that they prevailed
upon them at times to cart away from the street heaps of
offal. The street has no proper drain. The inhabitants,
poor and ill-conditioned, cannot help themselves. The
state of the entire street for years past has always called
forth my strongest reprehension when I had to visit
parochially the sick arid nuisance-struck 1

Now, suppose a poor, hard-working woman, with a
keen sense of cleanliness, and with a desire to secure her
own health and comparative comfort, does actually take
the pains and go to the expense of getting a cart to
remove away the accumulated street filth lying opposite
her own house—because if the authorities do nor dg
she in self-defence must—is not this a hardship ? Bat
what if the upshot of such a sacrifice to cleanliness 'l.
health-seeking on her part only brings down upon her the
contributions of her neighbours' offal and sweepings, who
ale too idle, or indi-posed at least, to put themselves tO
an expense which by unfairness they can impose upon the
shoulders of an exemplary neighbour. Is not this hardest
of all ? It is a fact that such is the case in this street.
Does not the apathy of authorities in this case leave a
poor woman struggling to be clean and orderly in her
place an actual prey to the wanton and barefaced impu-
dence of her idle and worthless neighbours ?—The " canna
be lashed"' outwitting the virtuous. So society works;
and yet the rich feel no jar !
In the court in Duckinfield-street from which the case
I mentioned in my last,, of. dysentery was obliged to be
removed to the hospital, a case of cholera in an infant, is
a house opposite, has proved fatal.

Aug. 25, 184 3