The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-19 00:00:00

attempt to quibble their way out of a conviction of
trickery and imposition.

With respect to the quantity of home grown
Wheat moved coastwise to the various markets
for consumption, which we had stated was very
large, the Anti-Monopoly gentlemen, in their cir-
cular, assert that they "have it from the best au
thority that only about five per cent. of the home
growth of wheat, or about one million quarters,
is moved coastwise." Now we do not know
exactly what the " young men, as the Mercury
calls them, who penned this very hardy asser-
tion, call "the best authority;" but we should ima-
gine that the world at large would admit the experi-
ence of past years to be a very good authority. From
the weekly returns of the past year we find that
306,798 quarters of home grown wheat, exclusive of
Irish Wheat, were imported into London alone; in
addition to 325,801 sacks of flour which may be put
down (taking a sack to be equal to 3-sths of a quar-
ter of wheat) at 195,480 quarters. In all therefore
we had somewhat more than half a million quar-
ters of wheat (exclusive of Irish) imported last
year into the port of London alone, besides 234,498
qrs. of Barley, 267,993 qrs of Oats, 47,301 qrs of
Beans, and 61,695 qrs. of Pease, or above a million
quarters of grain altogether.

We should like to know from the young gentlemen
in question, who appear disposed to constitute them-
selves a Liverpool League Board of Trade, to what
amount this will be swelled when we have taken
in the imports from Ireland (say of two or three
million quarters of grain, meal, and flour, together
with the coastwise imports of the ports of Hull,
Goole, Newcastle, Leith, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bris-
tol, Gloster, Plymouth, &c. Surely for the whole
of these ports, even the assurance of "the council
of the Liverpool Anti-Monopoly Association" will
scarcely be sufficient to enable them to reiterate
their stupendous outrage upon the credulity of the
public !
We shall perhaps have a few more remarks to
make upon one or two portions of this circular in
our next publication, after we have made some ne-
cessary enquiries. In the meantime we leave the
public to examine the "sample," as the corn mer-
chants say, with which we have already furnished
them, of the truthfulness and accurate knowledge
of these "young men."

We understand that the Birkenhead Dock Bill
has been postponed for further consideration. If
such be the case, the delay will give time for cool
deliberation, which we fear it has not yet received ;
and the many serious questions connected with it
will now receive at the hands of the Parliamentary
Committee that grave consideration which it really
demands.

Every thinking mind, acquainted with the locali-
ties of the River Mersey, must be aware that such
vast schemes as those contemplated at Birkenhead
are dependent for their success on a great variety of
circumstances ; and it cannot be concealed that the
design of enclosing Wallasey Pool, and of forming
docks at Birkenhead, has originated, not with the
merchants of Liverpool, but with a few gentlemen
who, as is notorious, are the owners of property to
a large amount in the neighbourhood.
Two questions naturally present themselves in
connection with the subject
1. The relative merits of Liverpool and Bir-
kenhead as places suitable for commerce; and
2. The comparative price of land on each
side of the river, involving those pecuniary
considerations arising out of actual value.

On the first head, we may observe that Liverpool
possesses within herself the means of unlimited in-
crease. The docks of Liverpool are connected with
the offices of our merchants, the aggregate of these
offices forming one of the best markets in the world.
Above a thousand warehouses are erected along the
line of the docks, and all the apparatus of commerce
is in full operation. The Leeds and Liverpool Ca-
nal forms a great outlet to the internal trade with
the north of Lancashire and with Yorkshire. The
railroad brings the factories of Manchester within
an hour-and-a-half's distance from the quays of the
docks; and the vast carrying establishments of the
Bridgewater Trust—located, as that wonderful con-
cern is, not only in the very centre of the dock
estate to secure the transit of general goods, but
also at the south end to secure the carriage of the
important and bulky article of timber—are all so
many corollaries and feeders, not only to Liverpool,
but to themselves ; and to oppose them is sheer
folly, so long as they are able on reasonable terms
to transact the business of the port. Looking for-
ward to an increase of our trade, even beyond the
rapid strides of late years, there are available sites
on the Liverpool side of the river to accommodate
the contemplated increase for years to come. The
immense extent of the land possessed by the Cor-
poration at the North Shore, including the recent
purchase of so many acres from the Earl of Derby
at a merely nominal price; the prodigious quantity
of land at the south end, not only including the
Harrington and Herculaneum estates, but also the
whole shore to the further extremity of the Dingle ;
all these make up an aggregate of more than four
hundred acres, every yard of which is available for
dock extension. The Dingle estate in the posses-
sion of Mr. Yates, and opposite which is the deepest
water on the river, is almost formed by nature into
a dock ; and the advantages of that sheltered and
extensive property seem to have been lost sight of
by all but a few thinking and practical men, who
have often pointed out its advantages. And although
it seems strange that such a lovely spot should be
filled with towering masts, yet the day is not distant
when the worthy proprietor may find it his interest
to sell to a company, or to the public trusts, such
an advantageous site for dock purposes. Until the
land on the eastern bank of the river is fully occu-
pied, docks on the Cheshire shore must at least be
speculative. It is a difficult matter to remove a
rookery without destroying it : and while vessels
discharging cargoes at Birkenhead must be com-
pelled to come across to Liverpool to reload, in nine
cases out of ten, and so. be liable to double dock-
dues,—and as it would cause a merchant to have
two establishments, viz. one on each side of the
river,—we cannot help coming to the conclusion
that, unless for a place to lay up ships for sale, or
timber-ships for the winter months, so as to leave
their room in the Liverpool docks available for
commercial purposes, docks at Birkenhead must
prove a failure; and the comparative merits of each
side of the river is so much in favour of Liverpool,
that it seems almost absurd to reason on the sub-

ject.
• In the next place, the comparative price of the
land in Liverpool and Wallasey Pool is absolutely
in favour of the former. Take, for instance, the
timber trade. Some timber-merchants, it is said,
have been to examine the opposite shore, and they
have been assured that they may be accommodated
with land at 30s. per square yard! The price to be
paid for the Harrington estate, about which such
an outcry has been made, was only 31s. 6d., inclu-
ding two docks already built, the land almost all
formed, and the river-wall built under Mr. Hartley's
superintendence. Now 30s. per yard is ls. 6d. per
yard per annum at Birkenhead, while it is notorious
that is. per square yard is an extreme rent for land
for timber at the South Shore, that much is let at