The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-06-11 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Owing to an unusual pressure of advertisements at a very late
hour, we are compelled to postpone the insertion of the address
to the Rev. H. Carpenter. with the Rev gentleman's reply.
We are requested by a respectable sh-pkeeper in Lord-street,
to complain of the great neglect in watering that great
thoroughfare. Yesterday notwithstanding the recent showers,
the clouds of dust in Lord street were most annoying and
injurious to the valuable goods exposed In the various shops;
and no attempt had been made by the authorities for three
days to abate the nuisance.

Ziberpool gptanDarb.

TUESDAY MORAING, JUNE 11, 1844.

The important questions involved in the Wallasey
Dock Bill are now attracting more attention than
at first; and as the real nature of the scheme be-
comes more fully known, public opinion is setting
in more strongly against it. We have used our
humble endeavours to bring about this result, and
to point out the dangerous consequences which
threaten to result to the navigation of the river,
whilst at the same time we have shewn that docks
may be so constructed in Wallasey Pool as to in-
volve no such danger, and no material diminution
of the tidal waters. The paramount consideration
with us in regarding this scheme is the preservation
of the river; and to any mode of carrying it out,
which even threatens it with injury, it is our firm
conviction that it is the bounden duty of the Dock
Committee and the people of Liverpool to offer the
most strenuous opposition.
Since our last publication two meetings of the
Dock Committee have been held, one the usual
weekly meeting, and the other a special meeting,
summoned for the purpose of receiving two impor-
tant documents, submitted for the information of
the general body by the sub-committee appointed
to conduct its parliamentary business. For the
proceedings at those meetings we must refer the
reader to the reports in our columns, and we now
propose to offer a few remarks upon the documents
in question.
The first of these is a communication from the
Chairman of the Dock Committee to the Lords
Conservators of the River, entreating their Lord-
ships, before they give their final sanction to the

plan of the proposed Wallasey Docks, to institute

an impartial and rigid inquiry into the merits of
the scheme, with a view of ascertaining the proba-
ble effects to he produced on the sea channels by
the encroachments on the river, and the abstraction
of so enormous a quantity of its tidal waters. This
paper is clearly and most ably drawn up; and by
unbiassed parties will be perused with the attention
which it so justly deserves. No opinions of the
writer are here obtruded on their lordships—no
speculative guess-work of his hazarded— but a
plain statement of facts, founded on the evidence
of eminent engineers, is submitted to their consi-
deration as a ground for further investigation.
Not a word of fault was found with this document
by any member of the committee.

The letter of the Chairman was referred by the
Lords Conservators to Captain Evans, with a com-
mand that he should report upon the evidence, and
ascertain how far the statements which it contained
were borne out by the testimony of the engineers
examined before the Committee of the House of
Commons. That report is the second of the docu-
ments produced on Friday before the Dock Com-
mittee; and we must say that any thing more lame
and irrelevant never passed through our hands. So
far from confining himself to the duty assigned to
him—that of reporting on the evidence—the gallant
captain very coolly throws it overboard; washes
his hands of the opinions of the eminent engineers
examined and volunteers his own ! We beg pardon
the opinion of one witness he does condescend to
notice—viz., that of Mr. 'Fomkinson. Messrs. Re-
nnie, Giles, Vignoles, Mylne, Probis, and several
other eminent civil engineers have recorded their
opinions against the closing and silting up of the
Pool; and those opinions are cavalierly laid on the
shelf as unworthy of Captain Evans's examination ;
whilst that of Mr. Tomkinson—a very respectable
gentleman no doubt, but who would himself be the
last to put forward any claims to the possession of
engineering knowledge—being opposed to the
opinions of these gentlemen, is dragged forward as
conclusive in favour of the scheme ! To corroborate
this opinion, the captain whisks us away from
Wallasey to the Bay of Fundy, and amuses us with
a dissertation upon the tides in that remote quarter
of the world, which is certainly as little germane to
the question at issue, and the duty imposed upon
him by the Lords Commissioners, as any thing that
can be conceived. But we must examine a few of
the captain's opinions, and compare them with
those given in the evidence upon which he was to
report.

He says the Pool in its present state will
silt up ; and in corroboration of that opinion
produces the opinion of Mr. Tomkinson. Now
what say the other witnesses—eminent engineers ?
Mr. Vignoles says that such silting up will
not take place. " I think," he says, (page 205)
" the operations are simi ar now to what they
have been for many years, and the Pool will always
be kept open by the periodical floods of the land
water. The same causes that kept open the
Mersey will also keep open Wallasey Pool." And
more than that, he adds—" If you build a dam
across it will decidedly silt up."
Mr. Walker (page 297) gives similar evidence.
He says, "if a dam is built across the Pool, there will
be a considerable silting up ; there can be no doubt
of that." We might quote more opinions of a
similar character, upon which Captain Evans might
have remarked had he been anxious to perform the
duty required of him, or even that which he im-
posed upon himself, viz., that of giving " a simple
statement of the facts of the case, and leaving their
lordships to draw their own conclusions."
We pass over what is said about the loss of the
tidal waters being made up for by the increased
velocity gained in the stream, as this position is well
known by every sailor who enters our port to be a
fallacy. Were it correct, the difficulty of docking
ships would be greatly increased ; the banks up the
river would be washed away more than ever, and
the low lands flooded every tide. This is so clear
that we will not waste words upon it. A walk along
the shore from Dingle point to Garston would con-
vince any man, however disposed to be sceptical.
There is no analogy at all, as imagined by Captain
Evans, between the cases of the Bay of Fundy, or
the Severn, and that of the River Mersey.
The acting conservator bolds, and no doubt de-
servedly holds, the rank of post captain in her Ma-
jesty's royal navy; and we should certainly not ven-
ture to impugn any opinion which he might express
upon purely naval matters. Of the best mode of
manoeuvring a frigate, we might acknowledge him
a competent judge ; but upon engineering questions,
and even upon the subject of tides, we need scarcely
say that we attach much greater weigbt to the
opinions of such men as Messrs. Walker, Vignoles,
page, and others.
We contend, however, that,
take it for what it is worth, the captain's report is
damnatory, rather than otherwise, of the Birken-
head scheme. He says, for instance, " I consider
the objection to the refuge basin for coasters to be
well founded. It is a cul de sac exposed to the full
force of the ebb tide, which rolls into it over the in..

clined plane of Woodside Ferry pier, which from its
low position renders the entrance to the basin diffi-
cult of access with a strong tide either way. The
basin is also considered too small for the accomoda-
tion of the numerous coasters which now take refuge
on the banks at the entrance of the pool." He fur-
ther recommends another basin to be formed on the
south side of the pier. The objection, moreover, to
the alteration of the sea-wall, as delineated on the
amended plan, he considers to be well founded, and
therefore recommends the original line as that to be
adopted, to recede sixty yards in the centre in a con-
cave form.

Can any thing be more conclusive than this, that
the plans are crude, indigested and require further
consideration ? We have first the deposited plans,
with a sea-wall projecting in a straight line into the
tide way. Then we have the corrected plan, as it
passed the House of Commons, with a wall receding
four hundred and fifty feet from the coasting dock
to the entrance of the great tidal basin. And,
finally, we have the opinion of the acting conserva-
tor of the river, declaring that by the carrying out
of such amended (I) plans the docks will become a
" wallet" for the reception of the mud of the river !

We next come to consider the proposed scouring
of the tidal basin. Captain Evans remarks upon
this part of the scheme—" the plan has never been
tried, and, therefore, there can be no certainty as to
its results ;" and gives it as his opinion that "the
water sluiced out will be of very little use as a scour
owing to its being so charged with silt." If this
scouring fails, he adds, the projectors will then
resort to dredging. Here again the captain slaugh-
ters the scheme as now before parliament, for the
sluicing has been dwelt upon as its most valuable
feature—a grand panacea for cleansing the tidal
basin, deepening the river, and even acting upon
the channel at the Victoria Bar, upon which it was
to operate, like an electric shock, as soon as opened.
Such was to be the effect according to the evidence
of the Birkenhead engineers, examined before the
parliamentary committee. The fallacy, however,
of this argument as to the electrical effect upon Vic-
toria Bar may be tested by a walk to the first locks
on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. When these
are emptied, it will be seen that it takes a very con-
siderable period before the action of the water
coming out of the sluices is felt at the short distance
of a quarter of a mile. The Victoria Bar is twelve
miles from the proposed sluices at Wallasey, and
must of course be proportionally slowly effected by

their opening.
The engineers assign very different reasons to those
of Captain Evans for the failure of the scour, and also
add, that the most serious injury would result to
the navigation. Mr. Vignoles says, (p. 206,)—
"The experience of sluicing is, that for a certain
distance it C:t iTS away and then runs up a bank.
The plan is novel, z;L:znled with uncertainty, and I
think the probable risks, contingencies, and disad-
vantages, are greater than the corresponding effect
to be produced." He adds, (p. 207,) " When the
walls are constructed, it will be scarcely practicable
to keep that low water basin; at all events a bar will
be formed at its mouth." If our limits permitted,
we might quote columns to the same effect. What
we have quoted already will suffice, we think, to
satisfy any one that the sluicing is attended with
danger to the navigation, and demands further in-
vestigation before our river is exposed to its perilous
effecte.

We cannot take our leave of Captain Evans
without remarking how unnecessarily he has in this
port attempted to reopen " the mud question," as
connected with the cleansing of the Liverpool
Docks, and how unfair it is to dwell upen " the
willingness of the Birkenhead Commissioners to
accept the Liverpool Dock mud, and to put it in
the rear of the river wall, thus settling the difficult
question of the mud." How would such an ac-
ceptance of the obliging offer of our neighbours
settle the question ? When the rear of the Birken-
head wall is filled up the question will be once
more unsettled; and at all events, surely Captain
Evans will find a more dignified and profitable oc-
cupation for the Dock Trustees of Liverpool than
that of assisting the Birkenhead Commissioners in
the formation of their works, and the filling up of
the rear of their walls.

We have reason to believe that the reply to the
case submitted for the opinion of counsel, with
respect to the legality or illegality of the system of
Orangeism, as existing in Liverpool, will shortly be
made public. Much, however, as we are anxious
for a satisfactory solution of this question, there is
one circumstance, connected with the proceedings
out of which the inquiry originated, which must not
be permitted to remain any longer unexplained. At
present, it is well known that the magistrates and
the Watch Committee are to some extent in colli-
sion, with respect to the amount of control which
each is entitled to hold over the proceedings
and regulation of the police force. The Watch
Committee complain that the magistrates, be-
fore proceeding, as on a recent occasion, to
institute enquiries into the constitution of the
police force, and laying down rules for its regula-
tion, should have consulted themselves, as the par-
ties to whom in ordinary cases the formation and
control of the force is committed ; and the justice of
the complaint is in a great measure admitted. It
was the intention of the magistrates to have ulti-
mately communicated with the Committee—when
the mattet before them had been ripe, and the of-
fending members of the force had been " quietly"
got rid of. Meanwhile, it was to remain a " police
secret," in the hands of the Mayor, the Stipendiary,
the Town-Clerk, and Messrs. Whitty and Dowling.
The question which we want to have solved is this :
from what source, and in what way, the subject ever
came before those authorities at all ?

The public have all along concluded, that some
representation was made to the Mayor, that the po-

lice force was in a state which rendered some alter-
ation necessary in the rules laid down for the ap-
pointment of its officers. Such a representation,
we believe, was made, and the party making it was,
we are informed, Mr. Rushton, our stipendiary.
But on what information did Mr. Rushton move
in the matter ? It could not be that he would take
such a step as that which he adopted, without some
strong evidence to produce of the necessity of such
a course; and the public, and especially the Mayor
and the Watch Committee, are entitled to know
what was that evidence.

It could not emallitte from the force itself ; for in
that case, had any inspector or officer entertained
the opinion that there was anything dangerous or
improper going on, it would have been reported to
the Head Constable, and from him it would have
come naturally and promptly before the Watch
Committee, to whom he was bound to report. It
could not be upon representations volunteered by
the Head Constable himself that Mr. Rushton
proceeded; for Mr. Whitty would have reported to
the committee, whose servant he was; and we have
heard it stated that Mr. Whitty has denied that he
was the informant of the stipendiary.
If it did not then come from these sources, Mr.
Rushton's authority must have originated in some
strong representations made to him by a portion of
the public, expressive of want of confidence in the
police force and in the Watch Committee, its