The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 19, 1844.

The Anti-monopoly Association have done our-
selves and a contemporary the exceeding honour of
addressing to us another "Circular," in reply to our
remarks upon their last; and a more Jesuitical
and tricky production we certainly never met with.
Our rejoinder will be very brief. And, first, with
respect to the statements put forth by the association
as to the average rate of freight upon foreign wheat.
In our publication of the 27th of February we had
commented upon the dishonest character of a calcu-
lation. of the rates of freight which appeared in the
Liverpool Mercury, evidently furnished by some
great authorities upon the subject,—indeed these
authorities were:known to us. In that calculation,
by what we justly called "a juggle of figures," the
average was made to appear as ranging from 4s. 10d.
to ss. 11d. per quarter. This very calculation was
reiterated in the circular, and conclusions drawn
from it in favour of the arguments of the Anti-mo-
nopoly Association, that the cost of importation of
foreign wheat was a large protection to the British
farmer. The same circular contained an estimate,
forwarded to government by the Consuls of the
various European corn-markets, of the probable
quantities of wheat which could be forwarded to
Great Britain in the event of a free trade.
Of this latter document we availed ourselves, in
an endeavour to arrive at a just average of freight,
which we had maintained could only be done by
taking into consideration the quantities forwarded
at the various rates. Thus, if half-a-million quarters
were shipped from one port at 2s. per quarter, and
a hundred thousand from another at 10s., it would
be grossly erroneous and dishonest to give the aver-
age of the whole six hundred thousand c.uarters as
6s. per quarter; and yet the calculation given by the
Mercury and the Anti-monopoly Association was
made upon this erroneous and dishonest principle.
The true mode, we stated, was "to carry out the
calculations at the various foreign ports, and, for the
average, to divide the gross amount by the total
number of quarters ;" and by the application of this
principle to the case put above, our readers will see
the vast difference made—the average being by the
mode of calculation adopted by the association 6s.
per quarter, and by the correct mode 3s. 4d. only.

The reply of the association to this portion of our
remarks is this :
" We agree with the STANDARD that this is the correct
mode of obtaining the average, and rnorrover assert that
it is the way in which it is obtained. Our charge against
him is that professing to adopt the table as the means of
ascertaining " an average something like a true one," he
substitutes his own figures to work out his desired re-
sult. We repeat that the average freight of 4s. 9.1 d.,
stated in the Parliamentary Table, is calculated according
to the principle laid down in the STANDARD, and in cor-
recting it to 3s. lid. he has made an error, as any honest
" boy in the Blue Coat School or Mechanics' Institu-
tion," will prove to him. In the mean time he will do
well to apologise for pestering his readers with ques-
tions of arithmetic,' until he is better versed in its rules."

One word of explanation will suffice to show the
cool independence and dishonesty of this paragraph.
We attacked—and the association knew the fact—
their calculation which made the average rates of
freight from 4s. 10d. to ss. lid. Our remarks
could apply to no other calculation. We had, the
week before noticing their circular No. 2, quoted
the very statement of whose correctness we com-
plained, and which we found repeated in that circu-
lar ; and we only took the quantities given by the
consular returns to show the incorrectness of that
calculation by contrasting it with the result of a
proper merchant-like calculation, made upon com-
plete data, and with as high and even. higher rates,
which gave 3s. 11d. as the average, instead of 4s.
10. to ss. lid. .The fact, therefore, that the average
freight given by the circular returns is properly
calculated, does not affect our position. We never
noticed the average there given of 4s. 0.-d. at all.
We gave only the quantities in that document, with
the association's own rates, not " our own"—except
in two instances, when we took higher rates. This
portion, therefore, of the association's reply to us
we cannot characterise as any other than a mean

attempt to quibble their way out of a conviction of
trickery and imposition.

With respect to the quantity of home grown
Wheat moved coastwise to the various markets
for consumption, which we had stated was very
large, the Anti-Monopoly gentlemen, in their cir-
cular, assert that they "have it from the best au
thority that only about five per cent. of the home
growth of wheat, or about one million quarters,
is moved coastwise." Now we do not know
exactly what the " young men, as the Mercury
calls them, who penned this very hardy asser-
tion, call "the best authority ;" but we should ima-
gine that the world at large would admit the experi-
ence of past years to be a very good authority. From
the weekly returns of the past year we find that
306,798 quarters of home grown wheat, exclusive of
Irish Wheat, were imported into London alone; in
addition to 325,801 sacks of flour which may be put
down (taking a sack to be equal to 3-sths of a quar-
ter of wheat) at 195,480 quarters. In all therefore
we had somewhat more than half a million quar-
ters of wheat (exclusive of Irish) imported last
year into the port of London alone, besides 234,498
qrs. of Barley, 267,993 qrs of Oats, 47,301 qrs of
Beans, and 61,695 qrs. of Pease, or above a million
quarters of grain altogether.
We should like to know from the young gentlemen
in question, who appear disposed to constitute them-
selves a Liverpool League Board of Trade, to what
amount this will be swelled when we have taken
in the imports from Ireland (say of two or three
million quarters of grain, meal, and flour, together
with the coastwise imports of the ports of Hull,
Goole, Newcastle, Leith, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bris-
tol, Gloster, Plymouth, &c. Surely for the whole
of these ports, even the assurance of "the council
of the Liverpool Anti-Monopoly Association" will
scarcely be sufficient to enable them to reiterate
their stupendous outrage upon the credulity of the
public !
We shall perhaps have a few more remarks to
make upon one or two portions of this circular in
our next publication, after we have made some ne-
cessary enquiries. In the meantime we leave the
public to examine the " sample," as the corn mer-
chants say, with which we have already furnished
them, of the truthfulness and accurate knowledge
of these "young men."

We understand that the Birkenhead Dock Bill
has been postponed for further consideration. If
such be the case, the delay will give time for cool
deliberation, which we fear it has not yet received ;
and the many serious questions connected with it
will now receive at the hands of the Parliamentary
Committce that grave consideration which it really
demands.

Every thinking mind, acquainted with the locali-
ties of the River Mersey, must be aware that such
vast schemes as those contemplated at Birkenhead
are dependent for their success on a great variety of
circumstances; and it cannot be concealed that the
design of enclosing Wallasey Pool, and of forming
docks at Birkenhead, has originated, not with the
merchants of Liverpool, but with a few gentlemen
who, as is notorious, are the owners of property to
a large amount in the neighbourhood.
Two questions naturally present themselves in
connection with the subject :
1. The relative merits of Liverpool and Bir-
kenhead as places suitable for commerce ; and
2. The comparative price of land on each
side of the river, involving those pecuniary

considerations arising out of actual value.

On the first head, we may observe that Liverpool
possesses within herself the means of unlimited in-
crease. The docks of Liverpool are connected with
the offices of our merchants, the aggregate of these
offices forming one of the best markets in the world.
Above a thousand warehouses are erected along the
line of the docks, and all the apparatus of commerce
is in full operation. The Leeds and Liverpool Ca-
nal forms a great outlet to the internal trade with
the north of Lancashire and with Yorkshire. The
railroad brings the factories of Manchester within
an hour-and-a-half's distance from the quays of the
docks; and the vast carrying establishments of the
Bridgewater Trust—located, as that wonderful con-
cern is, not only in the very centre of the dock
estate to secure the transit of general goods, but
also at the south end to secure the carriage of the
important and bulky article of timber—are all so
many corollaries and feeders, not only to Liverpool,
but to themselves ; and to oppose them is sheer
folly, so long as they are able on reasonable terms
to transact the business of the port. Looking for-
ward to an increase of our trade, even beyond the
rapid strides of late years, there are available sites
on the Liverpool side of the river to accommodate
the contemplated increase for years to come. The
immense extent of the land possessed by the Cor-
poration at the North Shore, including the recent
purchase of so many acres from the Earl of Derby
at a merely nominal price; the prodigious quantity
of land at the south end, not only including the
Harrington and Herculaneum estates, but also the
whole shore to the further extremity of the Dingle ;
all these make up an aggregate of more than four
hundred acres, every yard of which is available for
dock extension. The Dingle estate in the posses-
sion of Mr. Yates, and opposite which is the deepest
water on the river, is almost formed by nature into
a dock ; and the advantages of that sheltered and
extensive property seem to have been lost sight of
by all but a few thinking and practical men, who
have often pointed out its advantages. And although
it seems strange that such a lovely spot should be
filled with towering masts, yet the day is not distant
when the worthy proprietor may find it his interest
to sell to a company, or to the public trusts, such
an advantageous site for dock purposes. Until the
land on the eastern bank of the river is fully occu-
pied, docks on the Cheshire shore must at least be
speculative. It is a difficult matter to remove a
rookery without destroying it : and while vessels
discharging cargoes at Birkenhead must be com-
pelled to come across to Liverpool to reload, in nine
cases out of ten, and so be liable to double dock-
dues,—and as it would cause a merchant to have
two establishments, viz. one on each side of the
river,—we cannot help coming to the conclusion
that, unless for a place to lay up ships for sale, or
timber-ships for the winter months, so as to leave
their room in the Liverpool docks available for
commercial purposes, docks at Birkenhead must
prove a failure; and the comparative merits of each
side of the river is so much in favour of Liverpool,
that it seems almost absurd to reason on the sub-
ject.
In the next place, the comparative price of the
land in Liverpool and Wallasey Pool is absolutely
in favour of the former. Take, for instance, the
timber trade. Some timber-merchants, it is said,
have been to examine the opposite shore, and they
have been assured that they may be accommodated
with land at 30s. per square yard! The price to be
paid for the Harrington estate, about which such
an outcry has been made, was only 3is. Gd., inclu-
ding two docks already built, the land almost all
formed, and the river-wall built under Mr. Hartley's
superintendence. Now 30s. per yard is Is. Gd. per
yard per annum at Birkenhead, while it is notorious
that is. per square yard is an extreme rent for land
for timber at the South Shore, that much is let at