The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-03-04 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT OF EMIGRANTS'
HOMES, TO BE PAID FOR OUT OF THE
FUNDS OF THE DOCK ESTATE.

It seems almost like a mockery to canvass a proposed
legislative enactment, at a time when we have neither a
government nor a parliament which represents the voice
of the people, or which may not be dissolved at any mo-
ment. We nevertheless take the liberty of directing the
attention of our readers to one feature of the bill origi-
nated by the American Chamber of Commerce, purport-
ing to be a bill to alter the constitution of the Dock Trust
of Liverpool, which appears to us to be so monstrous and
impolitic as to deserve consideration, even in the present
unsettled state of our legislative system.
The bill in question, upon whose main features we have
previously remarked, is, we may remind our readers, put
forth by a dissatisfied or a piqued minority of this com-
munity, and has for its object to snatch from the bur-
gesses of Liverpool their legitimate control over the ma-
nagement of the dock estate. That portion of it, to
which we now proceed to direct our observations, appears
to us to be a sop offered to gratify the centralising pro-
pensities of the modern race of statesmen, who have
grown wonderfully considerate of late of the interests of
their humbler fellow-beings—or rather of the power and
pay to be derived from the attempt to take care of them—
as is testified by all their recent legislation. For some
time past a hankering has been manifested in official
quarters to gain a complete control over the emigration
taking place from Great Britain and Ireland. To forward
this object, every accident which has taken place—every
case of fraud upon emigrants which has occurred—(and
in some ports these have been legion, whilst, to the cre-
dit of Liverpool be it spoken, such has been the first-rate
character of the ships engaged in the trade, and such the
respectability of the emigration agents, that both acci-
dents and frauds have been rare)—and every irregularity,
however unavoidable, have been magnified and distorted
to create a pretext for further government meddling, such
as that which for the last month has paralysed the ship-
ping trade of every port in the kingdom, and driven our
hardy seamen to the verge of open mutiny against esta-
blished law and order.

The proposition contained in this bill to open emigrant
homes at such of our docks as the new Dock Trust may
select, is a sop thrown down to propitiate government,
and a few sentimental theorists, in favour of a measure
which we have already designated as impudent through-
out. The would-be new rulers of the dock estate are not
content with being permitted to compete, with the public
funds, against the private enterprise of our warehouse-
owners, porters, coopers, and other ratepayers of the
town ; but must become boarding-house-keepers on a
large scale. What system of management they may have
in view—how they propose to keep in order and in good-
humour the unruly elements which form the emigrating
community—whether they will become their own slop-
dealers, their own chandlers, their own tinmen, and their
own provision-dealers—we do not know. But confident
we are that the whole project is crude and ill-considered ;
that it will result disastrously to its authors and the estate
under their management, to the parish of Liverpool. and
to the emigrants themselves. The very fact of the esta-
blishment of public asylums for emigrants will attract
hordes of paupers to the port, seeking and expecting to
be sent forward at the public expense. Every parish in
Ireland will contribute its quota of penniless beings, who
must either be sheltered within the new " homes," until
they can be sent back, or turned into our streets to beg
or to do worse. In the meantime the respectable class of
emigrants will sturdily refuse to enter such lazar houses.
All who are acquainted with these people know that they
like above all things to lay out their own money, and to
be the masters of their own actions ; and although they
do often act foolishly, they will prefer risking the conse-
quences to being controlled by any system of manage-
ment, however excellent.

We object, however, to the establishment of emigrants'
homes, as being an unjust and uncalled-for interference
with the enterprise of individuals, and calculated seriously
to depreciate the value of a certain class of property in
the town. We have, especially in the neighbourhood of
the north docks, considerable masses of household pro-
perty, fitted up as boarding-houses for the emigrants
sailing from this port, and kept generally by men of sub-
stance and good character, practically acquainted with the
emigration trade, and capable of pointing out to the emi-
grant the best mode of procuring the necessaries for his
voyage. But for such men, the bulk of whom are known
to the government emigration officers, and to the various
charterers of vessels, as conducting their business honestly
and well, a much larger portion than at present of the
emigrants arriving in our port would be caught hold of
and fleeced by the vagabond crimps and runners on our
quays, with whom the boarding-house-keepers are too
often and too hastily confounded. The Dock Committee
have no right, we consider, to take the livelihood of these
men—who are householders and large ratepayers—out of
their fingers, merely to gratify a maudlin sentimentality,
and a longing for power in high places.
The Committee and our local magistracy might indeed
effect something highly beneficial to the emigrant, if they
would consent to proceed in a common-sense and prac-
tical course. Let the respectable boarding-house-keepers
in the town be licensed, giving previous notice of their
intention to apply for licenses, and security if required ;
then close the steam docks of the port against the hordes
of mancatchers and crimps, whose importunities and ruf-
fianism, on the arrival of every packet conveying emi-
grants, is a disgrace to the port. A policeman or two,
stationed at each dock-gate, with instructions to admit
only the respectable holders of such licenses, would very
shortly render systematic roguery towards emigrants an
unprofitable trade, and add greatly to the reputation of
Liverpool as an emigration port.