The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-11 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE DELEGATES OF THE
COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATIONS.

A meeting of the gentlemen appointed to represent the
commercial associations of this town, pending the progress
of the Fire Bill, was held on Tuesday, at the committee-
room of the East India Association, to receive the answer
of the Mayor to the requisition adopted at the meeting on
Saturday last. William Brown, Esq., presided.
The Chairman said he waited on the Mayor with the
requisition on Saturday afternoon, and on Monday re-
ceived his worship's reply.
In the absence of Mr. Duncan, who acts as secretary to
the combined body, Mr. Myers read the following letter:
Town-kall, 3rd July, 1843.
SIR,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter to me of Saturday, the Ist instant, requesting,
on behalf of the delegates of the associated commercial
bodies of Liverpool, and in pursuance of a resolution
passed by those gentlemen, that I would call a public
meeting of the inhabitants, to take into consideration, in
consequence of the alarming state of the town in reference
to fires, the propriety of petitioning parliament to allow
a clause to be introduced into the Liverpool Fire Pre-
vention Bill, to remove from the dock trustees and com-
mittee the restrictions from building warehouses on the
quays.

No one can be more feelingly alive to- the state of the
town, in reference to fires, than myself, nor can any one
be more anxious than I am that any plan for removing, or
only lessening the evils of those fires, should have the
fullest consideration.

But, as my calling a public meeting necessarily involves
that 1 should take the chair, I must draw your attention
to the circumstance that the restrictions which you pro-
pose to remove, are restrictions upon the trustees of the
Liverpool docks, and that I, as Mayor, am the head of
those trustees ; consequently, were I to preside at the
meeting proposed, the chair would be filled by a party in
the question under discussion.

I would further beg to point out, that were the public
meeting to determine the question one way or the other,
the subject must come before the council, over which I
preside. To this council would be submitted resolutions
bearing my signature as chairman of the public meeting;
and it might be that contradictory resolutions would have
to be signed by me as chairman of the council. Under
these circumstances, without giving any opinion on the
subject, I think that a right determination requires that I
should decline to comply with the requisition.
But, though I deem it my duty to decline such com-
pliance, I shall be ready to present any memorial which
either a public meeting or the delegates themselves may
wish to submit to the consideration of the council.

(Signed) ROBERTSON GLADSTONE.
To William Brown, Eeq., Chairman of the
Delegates of the Associated Body.
Mr. Rathbone, while he bore testimony to the admirable
conduct of Mr. Gladstone in his office as Mayor, differed
widely from him as to the propriety of declining to call a
meeting, and on the reasons which he had given for doing
so. He was sure Mr. Gladstone had acted according to
the best of his judgment.
Mr. Todd said they had to deal with the project as they
found it. The Mayor bad declined to call a public meet
ing, and they had to consider what should be their next
step. The subject would be taken into consideration at
the council on the following day, and, perhaps, it would
be best to suspend further proceedings till they saw what
would be said in council. He would, therefore, move that
they should adjourn till Thursday.
After some further discussion it was agreed that printed
copies of the schedules should be put into the hands of
the delegates on the following morning, and that the
meeting should adjourn.