The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-11-28 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

application to Parliament for power to proceed to
the formation of New Docks, at the North and
We think " Sarah" will on reflection, consider that
enough has been said on, the subject of her letter when , South of the present Dock Estate, is, for the pre-
she reads our columns to-day. sent year, laid aside. With this determination of
If " An old Seamat

.., had been a reader of the Standard the Committee, we can scarcely bring ourselves,
be would have known that we have made frequent re-
ference to the impropriety noticed in his letter. Our under the circumstances, to find fault. The Dock
correspondent complains that whilst in Ireland the authorities do not appear to have been sufficiently
Irish are driving the English from their employment, prepared with the necessary plans, estimates, &c.,
the English merchants and tradesmen in Liverpool are
employing scarcely any but Irish. for Parliament ; and to attempt to proceed without
A member of the Church of England" wishes that a these would have been to invite opposition and pos-
public meeting should be immediately held for the pur- .
sible defeat, and, at the same time, to throw away
pose of expressing the sympathy of the inhabitants of
this town with Dr. Kally, during his unjust imprison- all the advantages derivable from mature considera-
ment. We should certainly be glad if some decided
lion as to details. They have acted, therefore, for
expression of feeling were manifested in this country
'cis that ill-used man, who is still in prison in Ma- the best; although it is scarcely clear that they have
leira, through the iron tyranny of blood-thirsty Rome, come to their decision upon the very best possible
rh liberpool AntanDatt.

grounds

I Independently of the obvious want of prepara-
tions which the committee must have felt, it ap-
pears to us that some vague notions have prevailed,
in the minds of some of the members of the com-
mittee, that the proposed docks on the Cheshire
shore had, to some extent, relieved us from the
pressing want of dock room on this side of the
river, and ought to prevent us, as prudent men,
from venturing upon the construction of new docks
here. This notion, we are satisfied, ought not to
be indulged, or to interfere with the prosecution, by
the Dock Committee, of every possible improve-
ment of the estate under their charge, and the pro-
viding of every possible additional accommodation
for the commerce of the port. The docks at Wal-
lasey Pool will, we have no doubt, be made—will
relieve us of some of our present difficulties—will
be highly useful and advantageous to both sides of
the river; but we are not on that account to decide
that on this side we have reached the limit to which
we should go—that Liverpool should stand still in
her present position, and Cheshire only progress.
We can only compete advantagepusly with our
neighbours by adding to the facilities and conveni-
ences which we at present possess ; and to do that
effectually, we maintain that the whole of the now
postponed scheme of the Dock Committee will be
required, and is imperatively necessary.
It is said, indeed, that there is a danger, by pro-
ceeding to the carrying out of this scheme, of alarm-
ing the Dock Bondholders ; that the interest of a
million and a half of money will be a heavy burthen
to saddle upon the Dock Estate. Possibly, at this
moment, with the stunning impression produced by
the publication of the Birkenhead scheme fresh in
their minds, some timid people may view with alarm
the state of the security which they hold upon pro
perty menaced, as they imagine, with injury; and
be disinclined to fasten an additional large charge

TUESDAY 31ORNING, NOV.

28, 1843

His high Mightiness, the Liberator, released for
the present from the contemplation of a jail, has
betaken himself to his lair at Derrynane, where he
may at leisure count over the pounds sterling, which
he has just succeeded in extracting from the duped
people of Ireland, and determine upon the particular

upon that property. Such feelings, however, will
pass over, as additional light is thrown upon the
source from which they have arisen. Th 3 public
will remember that increased dock space, urgently
wanted as it is, must bring with it increased re-
venue; and, perhaps they may discover that, in-
stead of endangering, such increased provision for
the growing commerce of the port is likely to im-
prove their security, and to be a benefit to the
estate.

Postponement, however, and not abandonment of
their plans, is all that is at present decided upon;
although there is little doubt that the effort will be
made to arrest any further agitation of the question.
A powerful party in the Dock Committee long for
the appropriation, in a different direction, of the
surplus revenue of the Dock Estate. Dock ware-
houses—not docks—are the hobbies on which
these gentlemen would fain ride; and if they could
he indulged, the community would very soon dis-
cover with what alacrity they could spend a million
or two, and how very little they feared the croaking
of Dock Bondholders. We should hear little, in
that event, of the danger of Cheshire competition ;
and less still of any prospect of reduced Dock rates.

The clique of busy Radicals, whom the apathy of
our Conservative fellow-townsmen has allowed to
be foisted upon the Select Vestry, have, during the
past week, signalised themselves by an achievement,
which can be most justly described as worthy of
them. For months past, the meetings of that body
have been the scene of their everlasting jabber. The
small beings have carped at every thing and every
body about the workhouse establishment, from the
clogs of a pauper boy to his catechism and his gruel
—from the nurses and midwife to the chaplain and
the doctor. Nothing, in the shape of an abuse, or
which could be twisted into one, has been insignifi-
cant enough to escape their prying vision ; no
source of information has been contemptible enough
to be beneath their ready acceptance. And at length
their ardent zeal and uncleanly prying have been
rewarded by the discovery of a mare's nest, which
has afforded them an opportunity for a wholesale
discharge of the venom and spleen, with which they
are surcharged—a relief of the overboiling caldron
of Radical and sectarian spite and malignity.
Some months ago, it will be remembered, that, to
escape from the constant badgering to which he was
subjected by these worthies, the house-surgeon of
the workhouse—a gentleman who has held that post
and, with a few cases of exceptions, discharged its
duties efficiently and zealously, for upwards of twenty
years—tendered his resignation to the Vestry, Sub-
sequently, however, he was induced to withdraw
that resignation ; and a cue having been furnished
them by the discovery of some entries in a minute-
book kept by the honorary medical officers, the
spite of his Radical tormentors broke out, in a de-
mand, addressed to the Poor-law Commissioners, for
an enquiry into his, conduct during the past three
years of his holding the office. The enquiry in
question, the main particulars of which will be found
in our columns, took place, on Thursday and Friday
last, before the Hon. Mr. Clements, Assistant Poor-
law Commissioner, and the Select Vestry; and the
evidence will be transmitted forthwith to the Board
in London, for their consideration.
Of course we cannot presume to foretel what will
be the verdict passed upon the accused by that tri-
bunal ; but we can predict, with tolerable accuracy,
the award which will be made by the public upon
his spiteful and inveterately malignant accusers.
Upon evidence so trumpery as that furnished before
Mr. Clements—the censure, on two or three occa-
sions of the honorary medical committee, recorded
in their private minute book, and the complaint of a
refractory pauper, who has been 27 times within
the walls of a prison—an attempt has been made to
blight the character of an old public servant, which,
if successful, must inevitably destroy his prospects
in life, and consign him to comparative penury ; and
we do not so underrate the kindliness or the dis-
cernment of our fellow-townsmen as to imagine that
they will regard such an attempt with any other feel-
ings than those of abhorrence and disgust.
Mr. Nightingall, like other men, may have occa-
sionally fallen short in the performance of his very
arduous duties—so arduous, indeed, that it is in
evidence that their efficient discharge by any one
man, or even two, was impossible ; but are the ser-
vices of twenty years to be cast into the shade, and
the few lapses in his career of usefulness to be alone
held up to view ? We trust they will not ; and es-
pecially so, as they are plainly shewn to have been
the result of family misfortunes, pressing upon his
mind, and bodily illness, weighing down both men-
tal and physical energy. From both these, Mr.