The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-16 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 16, 1848.

THE proceedings, thus far, before the committee
on the Birkenhead Dock Bills have disclosed fea-
tures and pretensions on the part of the promoters
of a most unreasonable nature. To enable the
reader to form a just estimate of their character,
we shall briefly recall to his memory the circum-
stances under which this attempted encroachment
on neighbouring interests has been prompted.
The original scheme for the erection of docks on
the site of Wallasey Pool was heralded before the
public with great acclamation in 1843, as calculated
to afford a large and cheap acquisition to the ex-
isting accommodation of the trade of the Mersey.
The plans consisted of an outer basin, and a small
interior dock, with graving docks, &c.; but their
most important feature was a large inner float,
giving two hundred acres of water space, which
was to be maintained at a depth of thirteen feet.
On the faith of this stipulation being kept, the
frontage land upon the margin of the float was
eagerly bought up, at most extravagant rates, for
wharfs, building yards, &c. A line to these pro-
posed works was laid out, and is in the course of
completion, by the Chester and Birkenhead Rail-
way Company; and an expensive junction line with
Manchester the Birkenhead, Lancashire, wid
Cheshire Railway—was also projected, and subse-
quently amalgamated with the existing Chester and
Birkenhead, the encouragement being the absence
of any other charges except a moderate tonnage
rate upon vessels, and the opportunity thus afforded
for the transport of goods to Manchester and the•
interior free of cost. An act of parliament author-
ising the project was passed in 1844. Another act
was also obtained by a private company for the
erection of warehouses on the site of the proposed
inner dock, which have since been completed.
The progress made thus far, or rather the want
of progress, is known to most of our readers. A
considerable portion of the sea wall has been exe-
cuted ; and last year an inner dock, constructed,
however, without the authority of the original plans,
was opened with great pomp by her Majesty's
Commissioner of Woods and Forests. To meet
the expenditure required, the borrowing powers of
the act were. put in requisition, and between three
and four hundred thousand pounds drawn from the
pockets of private parties in search of investments.
A hitch occurred, however. Confidence in the
scheme gave way, and money was no longer to be
had. The works were suspended ; and the Com-
missioners had to go to the Woods and Forests in
the attitude of suitors for aid, and also as peti-
tioners for pardon for deviation from the original
plan, and the result was the bill of last year. By
it the land to he made on the north side of the
Pool was handed unconditionally over to the Crown,
and although the original draft of the bill in ques-
tion contained the clause requiring the depth of
water in the inner float to be maintained at a per-
manent level of thirteen feet above the Liverpool
Old Dock sill, the clause in question was thrown
out in the House of Lords, on the objection of
Captain Evans, conservator of the river, The loan-
ing part of the question was left over for further
consideration, and has at length been settled, one
of the conditions being the re-constitution of the
trust and the surrender to the Crown of a control-
ling power over the acts of the trustees, by the
nomination of a chairman. The legalising of this
arrangement is the object of two of the bills now
before the Cominittee.
That the price thus to be paid by the unfortu-
nate bondholders for the completion of the docks is
an unfortunate one for themselves and all concerned
it would not be difficult to show. In its capacity
of creditor the Crown steps in, of course, with a
prior demannd for so much of the dues which may
be raised as will cover the interest on its advance,
if the docks ever earn so much : and it must be
borne in mind that land, the sale of which was to
have paid a great portion of the cost of constructing
the docks, has already been handed over to the
Crown, and with it, moreover, every chance of the
Commissioners being able to fulfil their engage-
rnents with the coasting trade, as to the providing
of a beaching ground on the Seacombe side of the
pool.
We might perhaps question the right of the Go-
vernment to embark the money of the public in
such an undertaking, and upon such security as is
offered by the Birkenhead Docks. We have no
doubt, however, that they will secure themselves I

tolerably well. We might condole with a portion
of the bondholders upon the "silly bargain," as
Mr. Duncan Gibb justly termed the bargain with
the Crown, which certain parties otherwise inte-
rested have-rnade for them.

We might—but we will not—express our sym-
pathy with the railway proprietors, whose scheme
is rendered partially worthless by the withdrawal
of the clause insuring a thirteen feet depth of water
in the inner float, on the boundary of which they
have laid out £BO,OOO in the purchase of wharfage
land. Our object is mainly to direct attention to
the impudent bill, brought in by certain of the
large bondholders, by which, contrary to all the
past professions of the original projectors, it is at
length proposed to levy a tonnage upon goods, for
the advantage of these very bondholders, and to pro-
tect them from the consequences of their improvident
speculations—at the expense of all parties interested !
The result of such a measure will he to the railway
proprietors a heavy blow; and we cannot say they
do not deserve it.

The Manchester projectors of this railway sought,
through the cheap dock of Birkenhead, to gratify
an ancient grudge against the Liverpool Dock
Trust and the Liverpool community ; and if they
fail it is their loss. But such a power of rating
goods entering the Birkenhead Docks would se-
riously injure Liverpool, if conceded ; for there
would be nothing then to prevent inward bound
vessels, discharging on the Cheshire side, giving to
Birkenhead the dock dues on their cargoes ; and
then crossing over here, to be perhaps three or four
months in our docks, paying only the outward
dues, which would barely serve to pay our dock
gatemen and the cost of our necessary staff. The
statement of Mr. Bramley Moore, which we report
in another column, will prove this abundantly.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.
(BY EXPRESS.)

FRANCE

On Saturday night much agitation prevailed in
Paris. The members of clubs, who bad in the course
of the day made an abortive demonstration in favour of
the Poles, remained in groups in the quarter of the Made-
leine, delivering exciting harangues, and advising the
obtaining of arms that they may assist the Poles. The
rappel was beaten to have the assemblies dispersed, but
the matter passed off without violence. The greatest
discontent exists amongst many classes of workmen. A
placard addressed to the workmen. stating that in refusing
to form a ministry of labour, the Government had for-
feited its promise at the barricades, had caused much
excitement, and the workmen on the Northern Railway
had struck work, and the troops were required to prevent
them injuring the line.
The proclamation to the workmen had been the cause
of the postponement of the fete on Sunday, and multi-
tudes who had come up from the country to be present
were compelled to return disappointed.
It was strongly rumoured that the French army was
about to enter Italy; but none of the numerous reports
of war seemed well-founded, with the exception of the
statement that 100,000 stand of new arms had been or-
dered to be made at the factory of of Chatellerault.
There is no mention in the London Standard of last
night of a declaration of war by France against Austria
and Russia ; and the rumour circulated here yesterday to
that effect we presume is, therefore, groundless.