The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-04 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

sions to be subdued; and interference by the legis-
lature to regulate their condition, at all, is "a con-
spiracy against the liberty of manufacturers!" Liber-
ty—what to do ? We need not suggest the answer.
But another speaker, the Rev. W. Mlierrow, was
still more explicit with respect to the motives of hos-
tility to factory legislation. This gentleman, at least,
has in him more of the spirit of a leaguer than of a
christian minister. We give here a portion of his
delirious trash :

" Would any man of sense expect any sound, liberal, or
beneficial mode of education from those now at the head
of public affairs? What did they care for the physical,
intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the peo-
ple, the men who kept up the sugar monopoly and the
corn monopoly,—(applause)—who extracted from the poor
hard-working classes ten times the amount by their prin-
ciples of unjust legislation that would enable them to edu-
cate their own children?—(Applause.) Yet these men,
forsooth, were weeping and lamenting over the ignorance
and degradation of the millions ! Out upon such cant and
hypocrisy !—(Applause.) They had obstructed the chan-
nels of commerce, paralyzed trade, raised the price of
bread, and yet they professed to be exceedingly desirous
to ameliorate the condition of the poor. They had degra-
ded and pauperised the people, and yet they were so gene-
rous as to offer to provide for them a particular kind of
religious instruction ; they were so kind as to furnish them
with workhouses and prisons, and with schools where the
attention of the children might be directed to any other
world than the the present.—(Hear.)"

Surely, there can be no doubt, after this, with re-
spect to the influences which drive such men as this
WKerrow and his coadjutors, to agitation in oppo-
sition of government schemes of education ! Humi-
liating, indeed, is the position, of professing mini-
sters of the gospel, who can thus lend themselves, if
not sell themselves, to the advocacy of any cause,
however unrighteous and dishonest, by which they
can win mob applause or the favour of selfish pa-
trons ! This is the working of "the voluntary prin-
ciple !"

It has been objected to us, by some of our
readers and friends, that, in the course which we
have pursued, with respect to the movement of the
various mercantile associations to procure the repeal
of those clauses of the dock act which restrict the
power of the trustees to erect warehouses on the
dock quays, we have been acting injuriously to the
interests of the commerce of the port. But what
has, in reality, been our position ? Not, certainly,
one of hostility to any well-considered plan for pro-
moting the security of that commerce. Not, cer-
tainly, one intended to retard the adoption of any
well-considered steps of precaution or regulation, by
which the safety from fire, and the cheap and secure
stowage, of produce warehoused in our port can be
effected. We have placed ourselves in antagonism
only against the headlong resort to measures, which
we conscientiously believe to be prejudicial to the ob-
jects which the mercantile associations have in view.
We have said, and we repeat it now, that in the ex-
tension of the powers of the dock trustees, and the
headlong prosecution of what is at present only an
experiment, of very doubtful success, is not the
remedy, most proper to be applied to the evil which,
as deeply as the mercantile bodies, we deplore.
The argument of the parties, who object to the
course which we have taken, resolves itself into this.
The establishment of warehouses on the dock
quays, to be managed by the dock trustees, will
operate as a spur upon warehouse owners and
warehouse keepers to adopt, in self-defence, the
very best system of warehouse regulation. It is
taken for granted, here, that with warehouse
keepers rest all the faults of the present system ;
but is this so ? Again, it is taken for granted
that dock warehouse management will be perfect;
but that remains to be proved. The evils of the
present system of stowage and regulation of the
warehouses of the town are not to be attributed
exclusively to warehouse owners. The purcerage
I.lllioL. tr c/A Ulu i..ipea 1e Woe, in me majority of cases,
conducted by them ; but by the brokers and the
owners of the produce warehoused. The irregulari-
ties which are constantly occurring are attributable,
in a great measure, to the fact that warehouse
keepers are actually not allowed to perform the
duties which are obviously a part of their business !
That such is the case is not our supposition only,
but that of other parties as well, is evidenced by the
fact that, where warehouse keepers conduct their
own porterage, the insurance offices are willing to
insure at very materially reduced rates!

Again, we are told, or it is to be taken for granted,
that the warehouses erecting upon our dock quays
are, from their position and construction, to possess
an immunity from calamity by fire, which does not
belong to. similar erections in other localities. We
have said, on the contrary, that the principle, upon
which those warehouses are being erected, is so
radically bad, that the produce warehoused in them
will not be insured except at extravagantly high
rates of premium ; and we ara at length borne out
in our assertions, by the admission of the chairman
of those mercantile associations, whose views we
have been warned to regard as those of absolute
wisdom. Upon this point we take leave to quote
the following remarks of Mr. Wm. Brown, delivered
at a meeting of the commercial associations on
Monday the 26th ult. :

Mr. Brown stated that "he that morning met a gentle-
man belonging to one of the offices, who told him that six
of the principal offices in London had declined altogether
to insure goods in the St. Katherine's warehouses, except
to the extent of £lOOO each, and this on condition that
the goods were placed in their vaults. As to two other
offices, he could not speak officially ; but, if the merchants
here wished for private information, he had no doubt that
they might obtain it by writing up to London. He (the
Chairman) thought it was very desirable to consider the
way in which warehouses were about to be erected in this
town, inasmuch as, after the receipt of the information
which he had communicated, this subject became very
important. By the Act of Parliament, the Dock Com-
mittee were empowered to erect warehouses round the
Albert Dock, and, unfortunately, on the verge of the quay,
where, it was said, they would not be insured. He fear-
ed that, as considerable expense had already been incurred
in sinking the foundations, it might now be too late for
the committee to make any alteration in the site, so as to
throw the warehouses further back. This, however, was
the case with only about two:thirds, and it was for the
meeting to consider whether it was necessary for them to
address any communication on the subject to the Dock
Committee."

These are precisely the views which we have ad-
vanced with respect to the warehouses in question,
and which have been met with denial the most
positive from the advocates of the dominant body in
the dock management ; and we need not say how
flattering to us is their confirmation by such an
authority as Mr. Brown.

Our impression has been that, in their anxiety to
advance the favourite project of dock warehouses,
the commercial associations have rushed to the
adoption of most hasty and ill-considered resolu-
tions. For example, at a recent meeting it was
resolved to press the erection of a pile of ware-
houses, on the land at the west side of the Prince's
Dock, at present occupied by the transit sheds.
Let us see how decisively this plan is now scouted
as impracticable by their chairman. At the meeting
above referred to, Mr. Brown remarked that

" He went that morning to look at the sheds at the
Prince's Dock, and he must confess that he was astonished
at the position in which they were placed. The sheds had
a continuous roof from one end to the other, not fire-
proof; and they were at such a short distance from the
dock, and were of such a height, that if one of them took
fire, it would be out of any human power to save the ship-
ping from fire. If they were built higher, the flames might
ascend ; but even then the rigging of the vessels would be
likely to be ignited, and the danger not at all lessened."
With respect to the same project, another speaker,
Mr. T. S. Gladstone, remarked that

" In the resolution which was passed at their previous
meeting, was not the opinion expressed, that the transit
sheds should be converted into fire-proof warehouses

Mr. TODD—Decidedly.
The CHAIRMAN said that that resolution placed then;

in a very awkward position. He had it from the same
authority to which he had previously referred, that if there
were introduced into the Fire Bill any clause to prevent
the passing of the bill, the insurance offices would not in-
sure property at all, and it therefore behoved the meeting,
in trying to get that bill, not to upset any arrangement
with the warehouse proprietors.

A very awkward position, indeed, for gentlemen
to have one day to record the impracticability of a
scheme which, on the preceding day, they have
paraded as the extremity of wisdom ! From such a
position we, at least, have guarded ourselves.

It is contended, however, in extenuation, by a
gentleman—Mr. Todd—who appears to have pushed
himself into a prominence upon this question, for
which he is apparently very unfit, that " when the
meeting passed that resolution, they did not pledge
themselves to any particular construction of ware-
house. They did not assert that the warehouses
were to be on the edge of the docks, but merely
that they were to be on the dock quays. Although
the foundation of the warehouses on the Albert
Dock had been laid, surely they were open to an
amended mode of building, if that were found to be
necessary or desirable." Of course, Mr. Todd and
his friends did not pledge themselves to any parti-
cular construction of warehouses ; but they did what
was equally as bad, or even worse. They took for
granted the infallibility of dock management! This
assumption runs through their entire proceedings.
Dock warehouses managed by the very gentlemen
who are now erecting warehouses so objectionable
in conetruction, are assumed to be the only resource
within our reach. All the intellect—all the virtue—
all the excellence of arrangement and regulation of
which our warehousing business is capable, is
assumed to belong exclusively to the warehouse
party who rule the sayings and doings of the Dock
Committee !

But Mr. Todd is somewhat hasty in assuming that
it is so very easy now to resort to that " amended
mode of building" the Albert warehouses which
would do away with the objections urged by the In-
surance companies or the mercantile body. The
foundations of these warehouses, with their expen-
sive piling, &c., are already completed ; and to throw
them back to anything like such a distance as would
ensure safety to the shipping in the docks, would
leave, we fear, such mere shells, and expensive shells
too, as would be well nigh useless to the commerce
of the port. We are quite willing, however, to go
with Mr. Todd and the mercantile body at large for
such alterations ss may render these costly play-
things of Mr. Alderman Evans and his coadjutors
capable of being worked with profit to the dock
estate and the town. We have been directing atten-
tion to this very subject, whilst the merchants of the
port have been sleeping at their posts; and if they
will now come forward and examine it in all its bear-
ings and details, they will perhaps be less anxious to
throw additional power into the hands of parties who
have shown such little aptitude in the task of direct-
ing those which they already possess for the public
good.

We have given in another column a brief report
of a meeting of the Commercial Association, held
on Saturday last, at which a memorial to the Mayor
was agreed upon, requesting him to convene a pub-
lic meeting for the purpose of petitioning Parliament
for the insertion, in the proposed Fire Prevention
Bill, of a clause releasing the Dock Commtttee from
the restrictions imposed upon them in the last dock
act with respect to the power of erecting additional
warehouses upon the dock quays. We are enabled
to announce, upon authority on which we place every
confidence, that his worship has declined to comply
with the prayer of the memorialists. In the pro-
r tety of tnis step we quite agree. 'the provision,
so obnoxious to the gentlemen who, for the past
week or two, have been agitating this question, was
one of compromise, deliberately adopted by the
Council and sanctioned by the Legislature. It was
a compact, not entered into with the warehouse
owners alone, but with with the people of Liverpool,
who felt as strongly upon the subject of dock ware-
houses as the body in question. As such, it ought
not to be disturbed, for the allaying of a merely
temporary outcry, except upon much stronger
grounds than any which we have ever heard urged
in behalf such a course.