The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-19 00:00:00

THE MERCURY'S "GIGANTIC ! SCHEMES OF
IMPROVEMENT ON THE MERSEY AND THE
DEE."

how great is the mutability of human affairs! A brief
month ago, " the foremost men on all the earth " were
the Commissioners of Birkenhead ; the most magnificent
scheme ever projected, their magnificent New Dock, with
its sluices, its floats, and its stupendous warehouses.
But now, all this is past. A new planet has risen above
our horizon ; and the lesser stars of the firmament—the
Jacksons, Potters, Lairds, Stansfields, and the rest—must
" pale their ineffectual fires " before the more splendid
light of the Editor of the Liverpool Mercury, who has
just developed to the world schemes whose vastness must
strike all mankind with admiration and wonder. We
Propose here to detail and, briefly and reverently, to con-
sider them.

" Gigantic scheme," No. 1, is presented to us as one
which has for some time been " placed under the con-
sideration of the Commissioners of Birkenhead by
Mr. Davies, solicitor, of this town, a considerable
landowner in the adjoining parish of Wallasey."
[low remarkable, by the bye, it is to observe how
invariably modern projectors of great schemes of im-
provement commence by becoming " considerable land-
owners " in the locality to be improved ! Mr. Davies
proposes "the formation of a ship canal, or navigable
river, to open into the deep water at Dawpool or•Hoy-
lake, thereby obviating the danger and ri-k of the
sand banks whica, at present, vessels sailing round the
Rock Lighthouse must and do encounter." This scheme,
it seems, was, some years ago, brought before the con-
sideration of Mr. Rennie and other eminent engineers,
whose opinions as to its feasibility were not so flattering
as to warrant its projectors in proceeding with it. " Cir-
cumstances, however," the Mercury informs us, "are
now altered,"—bv which, we presume, he intends to
intimate some change in the laws of gravitation, or in the
tidal ebb and flow. At all events, some organic or other
change has occurred recently to " put it into the power
of the Birkenhead Commissioners "—how omnipotent
must be these gentlemen in Mercurial estimation !—" to
extend their present plans to this object." The next
generation is, perhaps, destined to behold a custom-house
at Leasowe Castle or Mockbeggar, and He ylake, from a
fishing village, rising into the magnitude of a modern
Tyre !

" Gigantic Scheme," No. 2, is Mr. Thomas Lunt's
specific for restoring the ancient prosperity of the " port
of Chester," by the formation of a ship canal, only twelve
miles in length, from that city to a station between Park-
gate and Dawpool. Feasible enough, we dare say, to
bring the water to Chester ; but, with all humility, may
we ask, whether it would not be almost as easy to tran-
sport the ancient city to the water ? The old walls, which
are of no use where they stand, would furnish excellent
materials for the construction of the " Parkgate and
Datcpool Docks."

" Gigantic Scheme," No. 3, is the revival of the Her-
culaneum Dock and Warehouse scheme, and is but a
pigmy amongst the batch.
But " Gigantic Project," No. 4, amply makes up for
its littleness. It is suggested by "A voice from Birken-
head;" and, coming from that superior locality, what
wonder if it be, as the Mercury describes it, " one of
-itriking originality." The ancient Romans, it appears,
who took strange liberties with things sometimes, " altered
the course of the Dee from the valley near Gressford, for
the purposes of fortification and security to Chester."
But what was Caesar to the Mercury, or the people of
Rome to the people of Birkenhead ? The " Voice" from
this latter locality suggests the " further diversion of the
waters of the Dee from Chester, in the direction, and very
near the crntre, of the present Ellesmere Canal, so as to
fall into the Mersey near Stanlow Pool." By this means
Chester would get a ship canal from the Mersey, which
would do quite sufficiently for their commerce • whilst the
estuary of the Dee, no longer required, might be converted
into arable lands, with a canal, or a railway, constructed
over them, for the accommodation of the people of Flint-
shire, who would, otherwise, and naturally, be very indig-
nant at the loss of their water. The additional quantity
of this useful element thus brought into the Mersey would
increase the scouring power, and, of course, clear away
the banks outside in no time.

A grand conception this, worthy of the Mercury and
the Voice from Birkenhead !" We would, however,
suggest that the principal portion of the benefits sought
by it could be acquired by a much more simple and less
expensive plan. Our contemporary knows, of course, the
operation of a syphon. If not, it may be seen in almost
any extensive spirit-dealer's premises, emptying or filling
puncheons with marvellous expedition. What, then,
would be easier than to stick one end of a " gigantic "
syphon into the Dee at Chester, and to drop the other
into the Mersey at Stanlow Pool, thus effectually suck-
ing dry the former useless river, and giving our own the
benefit of its waters ? The splendid arch of the syphon
bestriding "like a Colossus" the whole Hundred of
Wirral would form another wonder of the world, and
immortalize its builder and ourselves, its projector! We
recommend the consideration of this plan to the Mercury
and his Birkenhead friend.

" Gigantic scheme " No. 5 is Mr. Lunt's again, who,
Mercury tells us, " loses no opportunity of testifying his
conviction, that it is better to increase our profitable
lands at home than drive our people to seek profitable
lands in foreign countries," for which we are very much
obliged to him. Mr. Lunt proposes to " mbank the
broad upper part of the River Mersey so as to save about
14 square miles of land," and to narrow the river all the
way down to its neck at Seacombe, thus producing, as
the Mercury happily styles it, " a deep business-like
stream." (! ) We cannot, however, stay to examine this
project, but must at once come to the most astounding
thing of all, viz.:—
" Gigantic Scheme" No. 6, which is communicated to
our admirable contemporary by " a reader of the Mer -
cury"—a sufficient guarantee that his talents are of a very
high order. It would be injustice to its projector to at-
tempt to describe it in any other words but Mercury's
own, which we take the liberty, therefore, of quoting.
His suggestion is simply this: to build is causeway, or dam, or
pier, from George's Pierhead to the Cheshire coast, with flood-
gates, drawbridges, &c , such as those now constructed in Li-
verpool, for the admission of the largest vessels. The writer
conceives there is no difficu ty whatever in the way. That it
would be a good speculation, in a commercial point of view, (an
important consideration with John Bull,) can be very easily de-
monstrated. The tolls would produce at least £30,000 a-year,
and there would, by means of the causeway, be no difficulty in
reclaiming some 90 acres of SLOB! which would turn out the
richest land in England. He does not deem it necessary t ex-
patiate on the advantages that would result from having the en-
tire of the estuary, south of Liverpool, afloating dock, for such it
would in reality be. He throws out these suggestions, hoping
that some other Jackson or Laird will take up the subject. He
could cite precedents for the erection of a great breakwater, such
as that proposed. but thinks he need not go farther than the Ply-
mouth breakwater, the Kingstown Harbour, &c. &c., and he
concludes by adding that £250,000 would complete the under-
taking, there being no ground to 13:: purchased at an enormous
price; nothing, in fact, required, but labour and blocks of good
stone." By the adoption of this plan, it follows that the estuary
would terminate at Liverpool and Birkenhead—the river itself
would merely be like another Thames up to Weston Point and
Runcorn; and, according to one of the preceding plans, it
would branch off to Chester. But the writer does not state how
he would compensate the loss of time to all vessels passing to
the present southern docks if floodgates were erected. Should,
however, such an embankment ever be made with flood-gates,
high water could always be retained above it, and the traffic be-
tween Liverpool and Runcorn might be carried on at all hours.
Sublime imagination ! A floating dock from Liverpool to
Runcorn, surrounded of course with warehouses ! Why
even Mr. Eyre Evans never contemplated any •thing half
so magnificent. Whilst he was about it, however, and
the " gigantic" vein was upon him, our contemporary
might have guarded against the possibility of some other
Munchausen casting his magnificent project into the
shade, by a proposal to build " a causeway, or dam, or
pier," from Bootle landmark to the Giant's Causeway,
and another from the Land's End to Cape Clear, " with
floodgates, drawbridges, &c." by which the whole of the
Irish sea would be at once converted into such a " float-
ing dock" as the world never beheld !

AVe must, however, leave the contemplation of these
" gigantic" projects. Their very vastness is overpower-
ing, and when we reflect, with the Mercury, " how busy
mind appears to be at present, meditating new conquests
over matter," the awful thought steals upon us.—what if
this sage, now seated in his editorial chair, diverting rivers,
damming up estuaries, converting water into land, and
"slob" into green fields, were some day to discover and
wickedly to promulgate the means of throwing the earth
itself off its axle, or of diverting the attention of the sun
and the moon from this poor island and shining himself
in their stead ! The bare imagination is dreadful.
Since writing the above it has been suggested to. us—
can some wag have been hamming the Mercury, or some
unhappy lunatic have got admittance to the editorial room
and managed adroitly to substitute his own ravings for an
equal quantity of our poor Mercury's ordinary prosiness?
But, no—it cannot be, Mercury is never hammed. " Ali-
quando dormitat bonus Homerus;" but the philosopher
of Lord-street never even winks.

At the Ripon corn market, on Thursday, wheat fell 2s.
per quarter.
NEW IRON SCREW PROPELLER STEAM-VESSELS.---
On Monday last, tenders, including plans and specifica-
tions, for constructing for her Majesty's navy, two second
class iron steam-frigates, and two first class iron steam-
sloops, to be propelled by the screw, were delivered to the
Admiralty. There are above a dozen competitors for the
building of these vessels, each furnishing his own plans, &c.
The frigates, we understand, are to be of 500-horse power,
and the sloops of 400-horse-power, and as it is intended
they shall be constructed of a material that requires no
seasoning, they are, as soon as ordered, to be finished in
a very short space of time.—A new iron-steam vessel, to
be propelled by a screw, has been ordered to be built for
the especial service of the Queen, as a tender to the royal
yacht, Victoria and Albert ; she will be about 135 feet
feet long, by 20 feet in breadth, and her draught of water
will not exceed seven feet. She is to have a pair of Penn's
oscillating-engines.—Mining Journal.

CARTMEL (NEAR LANCASTER) GRAMMAR SCHOOL:—
An examination of candidates for the vacant office of head
master of this school took place, as advertised, on Tues-
day, the 12th November, when eleven gentlemen pre-
sented themselves as candidates. After a searching ex-
amination in the higher classics, (the candidates in general
showing a very creditable proficiency,) Mr. Richard
Snowden, b.A., of Queen's College, Oxford, second
class man in Literis Humanitoribus, 1834, was reported
by the learned examiner, the Rev. R. W. Evans, A.M.,
Vicar of Heversham, and late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, as the greatest proficient in classical learning.
At a meeting of the trustees on the following day, Mr.
Snowden was unanimously elected head master; and there
is now every prospect of the ancient Grammar School at
Cartmel regaining in a little time that eminence which it
formerly enjoyed. It is worthy of notice, that the trustees
had, in this instance, convincing proof of the great value
of an examination on these occasions, the testimonials in
favour of several candidates being so nearly balanced, as
to render any satisfactory election on those grounds only
quite impracticable. Mr. Snowden will enter upon hts
duties at the school after the Christmas vacation.