The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-10-04 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 4, 1842

The excitement produced in the public mind by the
late fire in this town, has naturally elicited a multitude
of propositions for the prevention, in future, of a similar
calamity. On every hand it is admitted; and with
justice, that the construction of much of the ware-
house property of the town is faulty in the extreme.
The approaches to many of our most valuable piles of
building are miserably bad, and such as, in case of a
fire occurring, prevent even the hope of any measures
of our efficient fire police being available to prevent ex.
tensive destruction. And, added to these difficulties,
the location of wretched cottage property, marine store-
keepers' warehouses, sheds, and other combustible
erections, cooperages, timber-yards, &c., in the heart
of the town, and in the immediate locality of masses of
valuable merchandise and extensive buildings, is an
evil which cannot too soon attract the notice of the
public, with a view to its removal.
As yet, however, we have seen nothing like a feasible
plan proposed to meet the difficulties with which the
subject is beset. We have seen no measure pointed
at by which the property of individuals can be regu-
lated so as to ensure public safety, without manifest
injustice being committed. It has indeed been said—
" take the warehousing of property out of the hands of
private parties, and make the dock trustees the cus•
todiers of the merchandise of the port. Let us have
centralisation of management—a uniform system of
warehousing on the dock quays a quasi-police
organisation of porterage, and other similar hobbies
of liberalism' in our local government." But the
conviction stares us in the face that no measures of
the kind can meet the extent of the evil, and at the
same time do justice to the owners of the warehouse
property at present existing. We have no right to say
to those parties, we will destroy that property which we
profited by creating. We have no right to say, we will
mulct the owners of secure and well-regulated pro.
perty for the default of those who offer imperfect secu-
rity and insufficient facilities to the public. We have
already a large mass of capital invested in warehouses ;
and our aim must be to lop away the excrescencies of
the present system, but not to destroy the property
itself.

Whatever regulations we may devise to control the
future erection of warehouses—and that there must be
some such control few men will deny—we have still to
contend with the difficulty presented by the existing
erections. How can we render these safe ? flow can
we remove from them those adjoining premises which
render them hazardous e We should suggest that the
authorities of the town have some power which might
be stretched in this direction. They have power to
put down an offensive or a dangerous nuisance ; and
we can conceive few more dangerous than a wood
hovel—a receptacle for rags, old ropes, oakum, and
other similar of the centre of a pile of valuable
buildings. We should imagine, too, that they have
the power of preventing the carrying on of hazardous
trades in such localities. If, however, they have not
such powers, to an extent likely to render their efforts
efficacious, it is time that they possessed them ; for we
cannot conceal from ourselves the fact, that until some
strong control of the nature pointed out is exercised
for the regulation of the buildings of the town—not
warehouses only, but buildings of every description—
we live in the constant fear of being subjected to
similar and even greater calamities than that which we
have just witnessed.
In the existing state of commerce, and with the low
rate of profit to which men in every branch of trade
are willing to submit, it is in vain to place our de-
pendence upon individual prudence. Merchants are
sensitively afraid of the slightest additional expense of
warehousing, cartage, or porterage of their mer-
chandise. A few months passed by, and the memory
of this calamity weakened, we shall again see the same
resort to low-rented and insecure buildings for the
storage of the most valuable property. Although we
have just seen it proved how infinitely more secure are
those fire-proof erections which abound in the town,
we shall find individuals, and even assurance com-
panies themselves, willing, for the sake of temporary
profit, to run all the hazards which attend the use of
the common erections. Our fears may perhaps be
allayed by some additional facilities being afforded for
the extinguishing of fire—by some scheme for afford-
ing a better supply of water, or for providing more
powerful engines. All these, however, are mere evasions
of the difficulty, whilst nothing less ought to satisfy
the authorities and the community of this great town
than a large and complete remedial measure.
Of what nature, then, we shall be asked, is that
remedial measure which we would suggest? Simply,
we reply, an act for the improvement of the town,
the removal of the unwholesome and dangerous pro-
perty which abounds in the neighbourhood of our
most valuable business and warehousing localities, and
the erection, upon its site, of spacious and well-planned
streets. The proposition may, we are aware, be a
startling one, from the magnitude of the object which
it has in view; but better, far better, we contend, face
the whole difficulty at once, than wait until, after
frittering away money in temporising expedients, we
are driven, by the occurrence of a conflagration which
will sweep away our most valuable along with our
worthless
property, to set about the erection, upon its
ashes, of a new town London, by such a calamity,
sprung up into its present form—exchanged for the
wretched wooden erections raised by our forefathers,
her present stately streets and noble buildings. New
York, after a similar visitation, has sprung up into a
magnificent form ; Hamburg, swept to the ground, is
even now rising from its ashes, a city which few will
parallel. Why should this great mart of commerce
wait until calamity compels her—until millions' worth
of property and hundreds of lives are sacrificed—to
secure herself from similar visitations, and assume
her proper station by the side of the other great cities
of the world ?

It is not, however, as a defence against the dangers
of fire that we would urge the removal, by the powers
of an improvement act, of those filthy and disgraceful
streets which exist in the neighbourhood of the busi-
ness portion of the town. The health of our popula-
tion surely demands something at our hands. The
morals of that population, too, should be cared for.
Can human beings, crowded in the wretched cellars
and hovels, the noisesome courts and scarcely less

noisesome street, which exist in the neighbourhood of
Whitechapel and other thoroughfares, be expected to
be either healthy or well-conducted ? Can they be
expected to breathe freely who never see the sun or
sky except through the exhalations which hang around
their filthy domiciles, or be virtuous and moral who
are pressed into the contact of vice, and have drunken-
ness, profanity, and indecency before their eyes from
morn to night—from infancy to old age ? Surely not !
It is these dens which crowd our prisons with victims
—which breathe their physical and moral pestilence
throughout our town ; and it would be a noble policy
which would, at any sacrifice, attempt their purifica-
tion.

We are perhaps wandering here from our vocation
as journalists. It is not our province, it may be said, to
point out their course to the owners of property with-
in the borough. We may be told, too, that the propo-
sition which we have hazarded is a chimera too vast to
be even contemplated. Upon the latter point, how-
ever, we are far from being convinced. A scheme, ap-
proaching to the one before us in extent, was started
when it was proposed to surround our docks with
warehouses—one, too, which would be infinitely more
fatal than this to the owners of property within the
town. Compare the relative advantages of the two
and who could for a moment hesitate between them ?
Not surely the owners of the property to be removed,
or that in its neighbourhood ; for we venture to say
that few instances have occurred in which property
has not been infinitely increased in value by such a
measure. At any rate we shall, we trust, be justified
in directing the attention of the public to the subject,
however imperfectly, by the impending discussion upon
it in Wednesday's Council-meeting; for we cannot
think that a motion so extended in its objects as the
following, of which notice has been given by Mr.
Alderman Nicol, can be disposed of without every re-
medial measure, which has been, or may be proposed,
of a nature at all feasible, being taken into serious con-
sideration by that body. Mr. Nicol proposes—

That a committee of seven be appointed to enquire into
and to take into consideration—

1. The present state of warehouses in Liverpool;

2. All practicable improvements in their construction,
separation, and arrangement, with reference to better pro-
tection of life and property from fire ; and
3. Any necessary applications to government and the
legislature for the better effecting such improvements ;
And to report thereon at the next Council.

Since the above remarks were in type, our attention
has been called to the following paragraph, in yester-
day's Albion :
" Could the corporation, by purchase or other means,
prevent the building of warehouses upon the ground cleared
by the fire, they would be entitled to apply for an act to en-
able the dock estate to construct, upon the dock quays, a
quantity of warehouses equivalent to that which has been
destroyed elsewhere. To this expedient for replacing private
warehouses which are, or may hereafter be, destroyed, or
taken down with others upon the dock quays, the warehouse
interest can offer no fair objection."

What a hankering, on the part of " liberalism,"
after its precious warehouse scheme, and its favourite
system of centralisation, does this insidious proposition
exhibit ! Prevent, "by purchase or otherwise," the
appropriation of this site to the building of ware-
houses, however complete and secure, in order that
the Dock Committee may have in their own hands the
nomination of some hundred additional officials. Mo-
dest proposition, Mr. Albion ! Doubtless, the latest
new coinage of Mr. Alderman Evans ! With all de-
ference, however, to so high authority, we venture to
predict that it will not go down with the people of Li-
verpool. The question is not, as the Albion and his
coadjutors would suggest, one in which the warehouse
owners have a right to be consulted. The public have,
or ought to have, a voice in the matter; and the pub-
lic, as " Liberalism" might before this have discovered,
is far from being enamoured of the project of surround-
ing the docks with piles of useless building, and surren-
dering the warehousing of the port to the management
of the dock trustees.

Conservatism is at present in the ascendant in our
Council. For that, may we ask of the Conservative
public, what agency have we to thank ? The answer,
if the truth be spoken, will be that to the united
energy of all ranks of Conservatives ;—to their perse-
vering vigilance—to their resolute determination to
emancipate the borough from the galling yoke of
"liberalism"—are owing all the benefits of which we
are now in possession—that the Established Protestant
Church in our town is no longer flouted at, from the
bench and from the council-room—that Socinianism
no longer rides rampant, on each Sabbath, clothed in
authority, to its favourite convencticle—that the
schools, provided to promote the spread of Scriptural
education amongst the children of our poor, are no
longer prostituted by the foot of Popery, or perverted
to the proselytising of the rising generation of our
town to Infidelity under its various modern guises—
that, in fine. we now present to the empire the noble
example of a community, Conservative, Protestant, and
loyal in everything which it has lain within their own
power to determine—anti-Conservative, anti-Protestant,
and tainted with the leaven of " liberalism," only so
far as we have not yet had time to cast out from
amongst us the dregs which the subsiding of the foul
waters of Whiggery and Radicalism has left upon our
paths.

The energy of Conservatism, awakened by the stir-
ring appeals of our Protestant champions, sustained
by a powerful press, and led on by the wealth, the
talent, and the respectability of the town, achieved for
us our present position : where, we ask, is that energy
now ? Is it a time to faint and fall down when the first
fruits of the victory are in our hands ? Shall we give
way to supineness when the enemy is only stunned—
not dead—and before we have built up and secured the
breach through which we have advanced to the pos-
session of the fortress ? We hope such will not be the
conduct of Conservatives at the present crisis; that
they will fight the battle which is approaching with the
same vigour with which they met their opponents be-
fore their strength was broken, as now it is. To keep

in their present position is a triumph as great as it was
in time past to gain; to beat back the assault even of
a rallying few, if that few be determined and desperate,
requires often as much energy as to attack success-
fully. "The faction" is desperate—is determined—
will fight to the last gasp—will rally by the last ditch;
and nothing, save the utmost energy which Conserva-
tism can put forth, can inflict upon it such an utter
prostration as will effectually secure us from its fur-
ther assaults. Yield up to it' one point on the present
occasion, and the certain result will be a revival of its
lost strength—the gathering together in their pristine
form of the bruised folds of the serpent,—with the assu-
rance that we have before us another desperate strug-
gle to encounter, in order to regain the ground which
our supineness has yielded up.
We may be in error in supposing that any lack of
energy charecterizes the proceedings of the Conserva-
tive party at the present moment. We trust that we
are so; but when we look at the all-importance of this
particular contest—at the fact that, even to maintain
our position, it will be necessary that we should win
ten seats out of the sixteen vacant; when we see
moreover the suspicious silence of every organ, in the
confidence of the Whig faction, upon the subject of
the approaching election—we must confess that we are
scarcely satisfied with our position. We know, and
we would impress the fact upon our Conservative
friends, that it is the purpose of our opponents, how-
ever moveless they may appear at the present moment,
to contest every ward in the borough, whether with or
without a chance of success. The most dangerous op-
ponent is ever that one which crouches before it
springs ; and in this attitude we fear the treachery of
Whiggery more than when it swaggers and rears its
front in the light of day. At the last hour, depend
upon it, the faction will muster all its energies ; and
shame will be upon us if we are not ready to repel its
assault however desperate !
In two or three wards we are delighted to see our
Conservative fellow-townsmen up and stirring, St.
Peter's Ward meets on Wednesday, to support the
election of an excellent candidate, Samuel Holme, Esq.,
to supply the place of Mr. Bright, who removes his
lantern to some new " Gibraltar," or perhaps to his
own shop. To contest this place of strength, Whig-
gery brings forwards the elite of its party, Mr. Hugh
Hornby ; and although thus " Greek meets Greek,"
we trust that the " tug of war" will not be against
Conservatism. ENERGY ACTIVITY, must be the
watchwords of the Conservatives of St. Peters' ! The

Conservatives of Castle-street Ward meet on Thursday
to forward the election of Mr. Glazehrook, a candidate
of the right description. Exchange is up and ready
with Mr. North at its head. Let other wards but do
their duty as these are doing, and we fear not the re-
sult. We ask only for CONSERVATIVE ENERGY to
stun the snaky thing, whiggery, in every ward, so
effectually, that it will vex us no more!

WE have pleasure in informing our readers that a
subscription is now being collected for the relief of the
unfortunate sufferers by the recent calamitous fire in
Liverpool. Already several of our most influential
townsmen are actively engaged in collecting the funds
which will be required to meet the urgency and extent
of the case. The merchants of the metropolis, too,
even foremost in responding to the call of benevolence,
have promptly, and, we believe, voluntarily, tendered
their aid ; and we have no doubt that their noble ex-
ample will be followed by every commercial community
throughout the empire.
Of the amount which will be required to fulfil the
benevolent objects in view, we are at the present mo-
ment utterly unable to offer an opinion. We know not
even as yet the numbef'of those whom this awful cala-
mity has deprived of life, and for whose parents, wi-
dows, or orphans humanity demands of us to provide.
Many, we have no doubt, whose bones lie crushed and
blackening beneath the burning mass which now covers
the scene of destruction, were strangers, drawn by the
call of the moment to offer their aid ; and their loss
will be mourned in many a cabin, in our own or in
another land, where the hand of charity cannot reach
the mourners. We shall never, accurately, ascertain
the names or the persons of half of those who have
perished ; but the number already known who have
left relatives unprovided for, or who have sustained
serious injuries, which disable them from pursuing
their usual labour, is sufficient to call forth the best
exertions of the humane and liberal in this and other

communities

As a question of mere humanity, the present attempt
ought to be taken up warmly, especially in our own
town. Peculiarly liable to the ravages of fire as Liver-
pool confessedly is, we ought at least to prove to those
of our fellow-townsmen or fellow-countrymen, who
risk their lives or their limbs to protect our property,
that they do not thus peril themselves in behalf of
selfish or ungrateful men. It is, after all, perhaps, a
miserably inadequate return which we are enabled to
offer to the bereaved and the broken-hearted for the
loss of the son, the husband, or the father, whose love
brightened and whose labour provided for the necessi-
ties of their little home. We can but dry their tears
and heal over their suffering by the sympathy and the
aid which we bring. Sitll this, even, is something;
and as we cannot do more—as we cannot recal the
lost—let us do this little, we entreat of our fellow-
townsmen, as efficaciously as we can.

Our readers will perceive in our advertising columns
the announcement of an extensive sale of timber, by
Messrs. Chaloner, Houghton, and Co. We believe
we are not wrong in saying that the sales of this firm
are not paralleled in importance by those of any
house in the kingdom ; and this being their first sale
under the operation of the new tariff, will possess an
extraordinary interest, and, we have no doubt, attract
the attention, and the attendance as well, of the
great bulk of the trade in this neighbourhood. We
may say, indeed, that it will be watched by the
country, as an index of the operation of one of the
most important features in one of the greatest mea-
sures of Sir Robert Peel's Government.