The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

and having

done so, we lay down
cm, that ‘thilst the people

)1, and those who have confided to. them
meat of the Liverpool Dock Estate. en-

y good fee

ng towards the enterprise of

,rer
ly cons

3irkenhead, they are not

them to rur

nt of the commerce which has
d the docks and the port of Liverpool

subject, and as ten

conne

)w what must be the ulterior prosperity of this
•t, with the facilities offered on both sides of the
ar, worked for the advantage of the locality and
public generally, instead of being
:ir operation by the introduction o
rit of rivalry, we are enabled to

narred it

ng statistics, from a speech recently delivered by
Vlr. Visger, in the Bristol Town:coutiicil. The gen-
leman in question was referring to the high rates
evied in that port upon tonnage and produce ; and
nstituted the following comparison of the charges
)f his own town, and those levied in Liverpool :
He had made inquiries as to the charges at Liverpool,
nd although before he had an idea that there was e diffe-
ence, he had no conception that it was so grdat as it
anted out to be. Ile had taken nine articles. thb most
,rominent in commerce, and three of them West India
roduce : those were coffee, rum, sugar, brandy, olive oil,
aim oil, tallow, tobacco, and wine. lie had taken the
Averpool and Bristol rates, and without going into detail

he wou!d just sta`e the summary of the charge., on gooflP,
and the charges on ‘e,,sels at the two ports of Liverpool
and Bristol. In brandy there was an excess in Bristol
over Liverpool of 4. 10d. per ton on the goods, and
Is. 511. on the shipping, making a total over-charge, as
1 compared with Liverpool, of 6s. 34d. On coffee the ex-
cess on goods was 3s. 7d. over Liverpool, and on the ship-
ping Is. 81d., making ss. 30. On olive oil the excess on
goods was Is. Ild. ; on the shipping Is. 84d., making
3s. 74d. ; on palm oil Is. 21d. and Is. 84d., making
2s. Ild.; on rum 2s. Bd. and is. 81d., making 4s. 41c1. ;
on sugar the excess was, (sn goods 2s. 14d., on the ship-
ping is. 84d., making 3s. 10d.; on tallow Is. 4d. and
Is. 21d., making 2s. 60.; on tobacco the excess was
2s. sd. and is. 81d., making 4s. 1;d. ; on wine 6s. Bd. and
Is. 24d., making 7s. 104 d. ; the mean excess per ton on
nine principal articles of commerce was 2s. Hid. on
goods, and Is. 61d. on shipping, making a total of 4s. 64d.
in favour of Liverpool.

This is we believe a perfectly correct statement,
and is, of course, the position of affairs under our
present rates. The advantage which we shall pos-
sess, when our rates shall have been further reduced
'and our additional works completed, we need not
dwell upon.

It was almost to be anticipated, that the framing
of the rates and regulations adopted for working
such vast depositories as the Albert warehouses, in
a port where a completely different system has so
long prevailed, would excite some criticism and com-
plaint, however great the pains taken to act fairly
and impartially towards all ; and we are not
surprised, therefore, that the Dock Committee
have not altogether escaped such criticism, as the
conversation which took place in Wednesdny's
Council meeting will shew. In drawing up their
tariff they have taken, we have no doubt, every opi-
nion and authority within their reach ; and in fram-
ing their regulations they have exercised all possible
pains to afford convenience, without, at the same
time breaking through the principle upon which the
warehouses are constructed. But where every
authority consulted is himself an interested or pre-
judiced party, with a natural leaning towards the
accommodation and promotion of his own branch
of commerce—whilst the importer of palm oil con-
' siders a low rate sufficient for that commodity, and
would mulct the importer of sugar, and vice versa—
the wonder is that the Committee have steered so
fairly between such conflicting opinions.
They may have erred in some points. It is na-
tural that they should have done so in the execution
of a task so arduous and novel. Experience, how-
ever, and we trust they are open to receive its
teaching, will enable them to correct any error they
may have committed, both in the framing of their
rates and in their regulations. With respect to the
latter it ought to be borne in mind that, as yet, they
are not likely to be carried out so perfectly, and
with such convenience to merchants using the ware-
houses, as they will be by and bye. The various
offices are, as yet, incomplete, and the officers are
new to their duties. Much may, therefore, be ex-
pected to be done to facilitate business and to pro-
mote dispatch. No large concern was ever worked
well with untried and inexperienced hands, how-
ever
perfectly the rules for its working may have '
been laid down.

We observe that the cotton brokers held a special
meeting of their body on Friday, to discuss the
bearing of the committee's regulations upon the
trade in that important staple. The leading ob-
jection urged by these gentlemen to the regulations
appears to be the refusal of permission to send their
own men into the dock warehouses to sample, as is
the practice in the other warehouses of the town.
This objection, we are afraid, cannot be altogether
obviated, though, if possible, it no doubt will. The
principle upon which the warehouses are constructed
and designed to be worked, is one of complete ma-
nagement by the Dock Committee themselves and
their servants, in order to ensure safety to the pro-
duce warehoused, and the absence of pilfering.
Manifestly this principle would be broken through
if the servants of every broker holding cotton in the
warehouses were allowed free and continual ingress
for sampling or any other purpose. Besides, other
trades would at once claim the same privilege. We
should have sugar sampling, and sampling of every
commodity deposited—a complete invasion of every
floor of the premises, which would thus forfeit every
vestige of their claim to central management, addi-
tional security from accident or pilfering, and be-
come in their main features not one iota more
adYantageous than any well constructed and well
managed warehouse, unless for its propinquity to
the dock into which the produce warehoused is im-
ported. If the ground upon which the cotton bro-
kers complain is any fear of the competency of the
committee's servants, that ground is, in a great mea-
sure, taken away by the concession made, that the
sampling may be done in the presence of an agent
from the brokers. Any further concession to meet
other objections cannot, we fear, be granted. At
the same time we are confident that every reasonable
source of dissatisfaction will be endeavoured to be
removed by the Committee.

The complaint of the brokers, that they are re-
quired to remove, at any one time any given delivery
of cotton, will be very easily met, if found to press
onerously upon the trade. Indeed we are not cer-
tain that the regulation in question will not be
found quite as inconvenient to the management of
the warehouses as to the. brokers. With respect to
the alleged inconvenience, of requiring tickets for
the delivery of produce to be presented on the day
on which they are dated, instead of being available
from day to day, until the whole order is delivered,
such inconvenience will not be felt when the ar-
rangements and the new offices for the Committee's
servants are completed. The work of procuring a
new ticket will not occupy a minute's time, whilst
the practice of requiring one will be a source of se-
curity both to the Committee and the merchant.
The suggestion, that the ticket upon each sample of
cotton should state where the bulk is stored, is a
valuable one, and will no doubt be acted upon. The
objection of purchasers, however, against cotton
stored in cellars, will not huld here, as cotton in
these warehouses is not intended to be stored in
cellars.

We feel perfectly assured that, after a little expe-
rience in their new and complicated undertaking,
the Committee will he enabled to afford every faci-
lity within their power to the trade of the port; and
we trust that in the mean time their efforts to do so
will be aided by the kindly feeling of those for whom
they are exerting themselves, at no trifling sacrifice
of time and labour, and certainly with no personal
object to serve. It can neither be their interest nor
their wish to press unfairly upon any particular
branch or class.

We are most gratified with the course which the
authorities of Liverpool are now pursuing, to pro-
mote the health of the town, over whose affairs they
are placed as rulers. The time was when such

matters as the sanatory condition of our poor was
not attended to ; when human beings, of the same
flesh and blood as their more wealthy fellow-towns-
men, were left, on account of ignorance of their
condition, to die unpitied in their pestiferous cellars
and courts, without an effort being made to remedy
their wretched state. That era happily has passed
away. We know now our duties. We know, be-
sides, our own interests. Our fears have taught us
to be charitable and considerate of• the health of the
working man. If he suffers in his cellar, we tremble
in our well-furnished houses or our villas. Fever
is no respecter of persons. It does not ask how
many pounds or shillings a week its victims receive.
It knocks at the rich man's door as well as at the
poor man's, and is as fatal in its results.
An advertisement appears in our paper this day,
announcing the startling fact, that the fever hospitals
of iur town are no longer able to accommodate ad-
ditional patients. There are people who pass over

such an announcement with Unconcern. They
have the means and appliances for the promotion
of recovery from this sad scourge. But the poor—
what means have they ? Just those which they
are told are closed against them. They have their
densely filled and ill-ventilated dwellings ; but no
more. No hospital—no gratuitous attendance and
medicine. They are told that disease has over-
stepped the bounds for which charity has provided ;
and that if stricken by the hand of affliction, they
must bear the stroke unassisted.
Can we not help them ? We must suggest that
it 4is within our power. We have no room in
our fever hospitals, it is true ; but we have houses
which may be converted into fever hospitals.
The neighbourhood of Soho-street and St. Anne-
street would furnish many houses fit for the pur-
pose ; and we do not see how a few hundred
pounds could be better bestowed than in hiring a
house suitable, in whatever neighbourhood disease
may be prevalent. The rich will not complain of
the cost : the poor will be grateful.

We may remind our readers that the foundation stone
of the new church, in Prince's-park, for the Rev. Hugh
WisTeile, will be laid to-morrow (Wednesday), at half-
past twelve o'clock.