The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-23
THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL.
An Interesting sketch-Solid Aspect OF
the Place-The Greatness OF Liverpool
Founded on the Negro-Americans and
American Manners-C urious Con-
trasts, &c.

A correspondent Of the New York Times
sends to that paper the following very pleasant
sketch OF the great cotton market OF the
world, which thousands Of our own people will
read with interest:
Ibaye visited and written letters from most
of the important towns in the United King
dom. but this is my first visit to Liverpool,
with the slight exception OF once passing
through 1t on my way to Ireland. Most Amer1-
cans who visit Europe also pass through Liver
pool on their way to Paris. They may stop Tor
a day or two in London. Very few, ! believe,
make any stay in one Of the most important
commercial cities in Europe.
1t is natural enough, but still mistake.
Liverpool is New York over again, but with
difference. And 1t is worth seeing. Liverpool
and Birkenhead lie on the shores OF the broad
estuary of the RIVER Mersey, like New York
and Brooklyn on the East River; only the river
runs nearly due north into the Irish Sea on the
west. Steam ferry boats cross the river and
run to the villages along shore. There Is
brown stone fort at the mouth Of the river.
surrounded by water at high tide, somewhat
like Fort Lafayette, and lighthouse; but the
entrance to the roadstead is low and unplct'lr-
esoue.. The river itself, however, is very
grand and lively spectacle. hundred ships
and steamers Of oil nations lie at ancnor or are
arriving and departing. The American sees
pering masts of the finest vessels in the har-
Dor. fresh breeze from north to west gives
enough motion for comfort, and along the
eastern shore of the river lies the town OF Lv-
erpool, fringed by five miles Of the finest docks
in the world, where large part OF the worlds
shipping lies packed close as herrings at the
high tide level. The lover OF water craft can
wander here at will, and have no end OF en-
jOyment. o,
The town rises with O gradual ascent from
the water to the breezy heights of the eastern
suburbs, so there can be no excuse lor Dad
drainage The formation is brown sandstone,
covered along the shore with yellow SAND SO
fine that it drifts like snow The water is sou
and pure. / see no reason why Liverpool
might not be one of the healthiest towns IN the
world The sad truth Is, that Its death rate Is
the highest In the United Kingdom-and this,
in spite of the fact that large portion OF II Is,
in a sanitary point Of view, everything that
could be desired. Three-fourths Of Liverpool
have wide streets, good air, good water, good
drainage, everything but parks, squares, and
open spaces-so much neglected in most COM
mercial towns. Liverpool is about as soidly
built over as Cincinnati, without the excuse OF
inclosing hills.
Most English towns have antiquities; old cas-
ties, churches, Roman remains, dgnifying
past. Liverpool has none Of these-not an old
wall, tower, street, church, nor an old building
or ruin of any sort. There was fishing village
at the mouth of the Mersey at an early period,
no doubt. In the time Of James /, 1918, Liver
pool owned twenty-four vessels, whose united
tonnage would scarcely equal one good ship Of
the present day. The real trade, growth and pros
perity of the town began about ITO, when Liv.
erpool became one of the most active ports en-.
gagged in the slave trade. In l760, Liverpool mad
ninety vessels engaged in this trade They could
carry about 25, $50 slaves. These negroes were
1nhf hor in gpDt tC
America and the West Indies. The trade was
then considered highly respectable, was carried
on under Royal charters, and made immense for.
tunes for those engaged in it. The merchants
of Liverpool were also celebrated for pri-
Watering. blockade running and similar enter
prises. When the slave trade at length be-
came questionable, Liverpool still flOurished
on the products of slave labor, and became
the chief entrepOt for cotton, sugar, tobacco
&c. The negro, in fact, has built Liverpool
and given to it its solidity, its grandeur, its
wonderful prosperity. Liverpool has doubled
its trade and population every sixteen years
for the past century, and though Lancashire
like some other kings, IN difficulties, there
seems to be little check to its growth anc
prosperity.
What we of our shingly, make-shift new
world have to admire in Liverpool is the mas
sive grandeur and solidity of its works. The
merchants Of Liverpool, If they got thell
money by the slave trade and other forms O.
what tine world now calls piracy, built for pos
terity. The five miles OF stone docks, making
perhaps twenty-five miles Of massive masonry
which shelter the mercantile navies Of the
world. constitute work of which any nation
might be proud. They make the rotting wooder
piers around New York seem very shabby
And the public and commercial buildings o
Liverpool are of corresponding grandeur. The
| oIdar onaa IL ia trlp have not much arChitac
tural beauty to boast of they are about as ugly
| &C thou can he hut tnlilt of stone. mas