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HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMMERCE AND TOWN 
 
 LIVERPOOL, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 THE RISE OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ADJOINING COUNTIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS BAINES. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 LIVERPOOL: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 1852 . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 7 ^. 72 
 31L2 H 
 
 The object of this work is twofold: first, to trace the 
 History of Liverpool from the time when it was raised 
 to the rank of “a free borough on the sea”, by the 
 Charter of King John, to the Middle of the Nineteenth 
 Century; and, second, to trace the growth of the Com¬ 
 merce of the Port, from its feeble commencement, to the 
 present time, when it includes nearly one-half of the 
 export trade of the country, one-third of its import trade, 
 and causes a movement of six million tons of shipping 
 yearly. 
 
 In writing the first part of this work—that which is 
 chiefly local—the author has had access to a number of 
 sources of information which have not before been thrown 
 open to any one engaged in a similar undertaking. 
 
 The first of these sources is the extensive collection 
 of ancient documents made by the late Mr. Clias. Okill. 
 These include the results of the labours of twenty years, 
 spent in search of documents illustrative of the ancient 
 history of Liverpool, in the various Record Offices of the 
 Crown, and the Duchy of Lancaster, of which duchy 
 Liverpool is the principal borough. The information 
 collected by Mr. Okill commences with the first mention 
 of the country between the Ribble and the Mersey, in 
 the year 1004, in the will of Wulfric, Earl of Mercia, 
 and extends to the time when the ancient rights of the 
 Crown and the Duchy of Lancaster, within the borough of 
 Liverpool, passed by sale, first to the citizens of London, 
 
IV 
 
 and then, by lease, confirmed by a subsequent sale, to 
 the Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool. These docu¬ 
 ments extend over a period of eight hundred years, 
 beginning before the Norman Conquest, and stretching 
 almost to the present time. The whole of these docu¬ 
 ments have been thrown open to him by the kindness of 
 the Corporation, acting through the gentlemen who have 
 held the office of Mayor during the last five years, 
 namely, Mr. Thomas Berry Horsfall, Mr. John Bramley- 
 Moore, Mr. John Holmes, Sir John Bent, Knt., and the 
 present Mayor, Mr. Thomas Littledale; and the Town- 
 clerk, Mr. William Shuttleworth. 
 
 The second is the muniments of the noble famihes 
 of Stanley and Molyneux, both of which have long been 
 connected with Liverpool and the neighbourhood. 
 
 These have been kindly thrown open to the author 
 of the work, both by the late and the present Earl of 
 Derby, and by the Earl of Sefton. 
 
 The direct connexion of the Stanley family with 
 Liverpool commences in the year 1405, the seventh of 
 Henry the Fourth, when that king authorized Sir John 
 Stanley, Knt., the ancestor of the Earl of Derby, to 
 erect and fortify a house of “ stone and lime” within the 
 borough of Liverpool. This house was long known as 
 the Tower. The indirect connexion of the Stanley 
 family with Liverpool goes back two centuries further, 
 they having become possessors, by marriage, of the 
 estates of the Lathoms, within the borough of Liverpool, 
 as well as elsewhere ; and possessors, by purchase, of the 
 estates of the ancient family of the Moores, who were 
 the principal owners of property in Liverpool in the reign 
 of King John. The papers at Knowsley go back to the 
 
reign of that king. Many of them are of great interest; 
 and amongst them is the oldest document connected with 
 Liverpool, written in the English language, which is of 
 the reign of Henry the Sixth, about the year 1422. All 
 the previous documents, both at Knowsley and elsewhere, 
 are written either in Latin or Norman French. 
 
 The connexion of the Molyneux family with Liver¬ 
 pool and the neighbourhood is even more ancient. They 
 hold their estate at Sefton, under the grant of Roger de 
 Montgomery, the Roger Pictavensis of Domesday Book; 
 and hold another estate from King John, in exchange for 
 the manor of Toxteth, which was made into a royal park 
 by that king. Hugh de Molyneux is one of the witnesses 
 to the return of the members for Liverpool, to the Par¬ 
 liament of Edward the First, in which the inhabitants of 
 the boroughs of the kingdom were first represented. 
 The Molyneuxes, of Sefton, held the governorship of the 
 Castle of Liverpool from the reign of Henry the Sixth 
 to the time when the castle was destroyed, by order of 
 Charles the Second. Many of the most interesting 
 papers in the following work are from the muniments of 
 the Molyneux family. 
 
 The middle portion of this work, including the 
 account of Liverpool under the Tudors and Stuarts, is 
 chiefly compiled from the manuscript records of the 
 Corporation of Liverpool. These records commence in 
 the reign of Henry the Eighth, about the year 1525, 
 and extend almost to the present time. The earlier 
 volumes are full of curious information, of which a careful 
 summary will be found in the chapter which contains the 
 account of Liverpool under the House of Tudor; and 
 the earlier part of that of Liverpool under the House of 
 
VI. 
 
 Stuart. Tlie publications of the Cheetham Society have 
 also been found of great value in this part of the history, 
 especially the volumes containing the account of the 
 travels of Sir William Brereton, the Parliamentary 
 General; Dr. Ormerod’s Collection of Papers on the 
 great Civil War; the very minute and curious account 
 of Liverpool in the reign of Charles the Second, con¬ 
 tained in the Moore Rental; and the particulars respect¬ 
 ing Liverpool in the reigns of William and Mary, and 
 Queen Anne, contained in the Norris Papers. 
 
 The account of the History of Liverpool under the 
 House of Hanover is derived from a variety of sources. 
 Amongst them are the numerous local Acts of Parliament 
 relating to the town, the corporate property, and the 
 dock trust, all of which have been carefully examined, 
 and Avhen of permanent interest, analyzed ; the Corpora¬ 
 tion Records for the reigns of George the First and 
 Second; and the various works published respecting 
 Liverpool, from the essay of Enfield, in 1770, to the 
 present time. But the principal source of information 
 on which the latter part of the history of the port is 
 founded, is the files of Liverpool newspapers, com¬ 
 mencing in June, 1756, and extending to the present 
 time. Each newspaper is a local history of the week. 
 Every copy of those files has been examined during the 
 whole ninety-six years, and from this immense mass of 
 local information all has been selected that appeared 
 worthy of preservation. 
 
 The account of the formation of the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway is founded on information obtained 
 from the parties who planned and executed that great 
 undertaking. 
 
Vll . 
 
 The chief interest of the History of Liverpool arises 
 from the vast commerce which the port now possesses; 
 and this work, from the beginning to the end, has been 
 written with the view of throwing light on the causes from 
 which that commerce has sprung, and on the extraordi¬ 
 nary development to which it has attained. 
 
 The first chapter of the work will be found to contain 
 a sketch of the commerce of England, and of its distri¬ 
 bution in the various districts of the kingdom, previous 
 to the discovery of America, when wool and grain were 
 the chief exports of the kingdom. 
 
 The eighth chapter contains an account of commerce 
 and industry in the reigns of the Tudor Princes, when 
 the woollen manufacture was becoming the chief means 
 of furnishing payment for articles of foreign produce 
 imported into the kingdom. 
 
 The ninth contains an account of the discovery of 
 America, and of the ocean route to India and China ; two 
 discoveries which have given to the commerce of England 
 its present direction and extent, and which may be said 
 to have created the modern commerce of Liverpool. 
 
 The twelfth chapter contains a sketch of the 
 planting or colonizing of North America ; of the 
 growth of manufactures in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Che¬ 
 shire, and Staffordshire, the counties from which Liver¬ 
 pool draws its supplies of goods for export; and of the 
 commencement of the sugar trade with the West Indies, 
 and the tobacco trade with the North American 
 plantations. 
 
 The three concluding chapters of the work trace the 
 commercial history of the port from the accession of the 
 House of Hanover, when a single dock, of four acres, 
 
Vlll. 
 
 was sufficient to contain all the shipping and commerce 
 of the port, to the present time, when 80 docks, covering 
 200 acres, are insufficient to contain it; when vessels 
 with an aggregate burden of six millions of tons enter 
 or leave the port yearly; when the export trade, to 
 foreign countries, and the colonies, is of the value of 
 thirty-six millions a-year; the import of the value of 
 thirty-three millions, exclusive of duties paid to the 
 Government ; and the whole value of the exports, 
 imports, and coasting trade is from seventy to eighty 
 millions a-year,—a greater amount of commerce than 
 is now, or ever was, possessed by any other port in the 
 world. 
 
 In writing this part of the history, (as well as the 
 more ancient portion of it,) the author has received 
 most valuable assistance from the large collection of 
 manuscripts belonging to Mr. Thomas Moore, who has 
 been a diligent collector of everything of interest relating 
 to Liverpool for the last fifty years; from Mr. Jaques 
 Myers, who has placed at his disposal the commercial 
 papers of the eminent house of Ewart, Rutson, and Co., 
 and Ewart, Myers, and Co., which contain the materials 
 of a complete history of the commerce of Liverpool, from 
 the year 1786 to the close of the general war; and from 
 Mr. Jesse Hartley, the surveyor of the Liverpool Docks, 
 from whom he has obtained much interesting and 
 authentic information respecting that great estate, a sum¬ 
 mary of which will be found in the text or appendix of 
 the work. He also begs to acknowledge much valuable 
 information received from gentlemen engaged in every 
 considerable branch of the commerce of Liverpool. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Natural resources of the country around Liverpool — Pastoral resources of 
 England—Forests of Lancashire and Cheshire — The ancient Wool trade — Agricul¬ 
 tural resources—The ancient Corn Trade — Fisheries of the River Mersey and the Lanca¬ 
 shire coast—Salt field of Cheshire—The ancient iron districts of England — The Coal 
 Fields of England—The Lancashire Coal Field—Waterpower of Lancashire—Streams 
 about Liverpool—The valley of the River Mersey as compared with the other vallies of 
 England and of foreign countries—Position of Liverpool for the trade with Europe—Com¬ 
 parison of the river Mersey with the Thames, the Severn, the Ouse, the Trent, &c.—Causes 
 of the early rise of London, Bristol, Lynn, Hull, Boston, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 Chester, and Southampton — Improvements in the navigation of the Mersey—Direction 
 of Roman roads in Lancashire — Valuation of Liverpool in the reign of Edward the Third 
 — Causes of the decline of Chester, and of the rise of Liverpool, as the port of the north¬ 
 west of England ::::::::::::: 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Notices of Liverpool and the adjoining district previous to the reign of King Jobu— 
 
 No authentic information respecting Liverpool previous to the reign of Henry the Second 
 — The Manor of Liverpool granted to Wariue de Lancaster, by Henry the Second— 
 Confirmed by John, Earl of Morton, afterwards King John—The owner of Liverpool, 
 Henry Falcouarius, joins in the conspiracy against King Richard the First : : : 52 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Liverpool, from the accession of King John, to the granting of the second charter by 
 King Henry the Third—The manor of Liverpool purchased by King John — The castle 
 of Liverpool built by the same king—The royal Park of Toxteth formed by him—First 
 charter of King John, granting to Liverpool all the liberties and free customs which any 
 free borough on the sea possessed—Effects of that charter on the position of the 
 inhabitants—Position of the ancient town of Liverpool — Second charter of the thirteenth 
 of Henry the Third, making Liverpool a free borough for ever — Lease of the fee-farm of 
 Liverpool to the Burgesses, by Henry the Third :::::::: 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 From the granting of the charter of Henry the Third to the accession of Edward the 
 Third—The Borough of Liverpool granted to Rauulf, Earl of Chester, by King Henry 
 the Third — Passes into thehauds of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, and Agnes his 
 wife, sister of theEarl of Chester, on the death of Earl Rauulf — Passes to William de 
 Ferrers, next Earl of Derby, on their death—Passes to Robert de Ferrers, on the death 
 of the second Earl William of Derby—Forfeited, with the other estates of Robert, Earl of 
 Derby, in the rebellion of Simon de Montfort — Granted to Edmund Plantagenet, the 
 first Earl of Lancaster, by King Henry the Third—Passes to Thomas Plantagenet, 
 second Earl of Lancaster, on the death of his father—Confiscated after the rebellion of 
 Earl Thomas of Lancaster against King Edward the Second — Restored to Henry, Earl 
 of Lancaster, after the deposition of Edward the Second :::::: 07 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 From the accession of Edward the Third to the accession of the House of Lancaster 
 — Account of Liverpool at the time when it was restored to Henry, Earl of Lancaster— 
 
 L 
 
X. 
 
 Grant for paving tlie town, in the second year of Edward the Third—Articles of 
 commerce enumerated in that grant—Earliest mention of the ancient streets of the town, 
 Castle-street, Dale-street, Bonke-street, (now Water-street,) Moore-street, (now Tithe- 
 barn-street,) aud Clmpel-street—Charters of Liverpool confirmed by Edward the Third, 
 iu the sixth year of his reign, (1333)—Royal orders to the port of Liverpool to supply 
 shipping for the Scotch aud Irish Wars—Liverpool passes into the hands of Henry 
 Plautagenet, first Duke of Lancaster—Detailed account of the town at that time— 
 Proceedings respecting the Ferry at Birkenhead—Lease of fee-farm, by Henry, Duke of 
 Lancaster, to Burgesses of Liverpool, in the year 1354—Liverpool passes into the hands 
 of Lady Blanche Plautagenet on the death of her father, Henry, Duke of Lancaster— 
 
 She marries John of Gaunt, fourth son of King Edward the Third—Leases of the fee- 
 farm of Liverpool, by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster—On the death of John of 
 Gaunt, passes to his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, afterwards King Henry the Fourth : 135 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 From the accession of Henry the Fourth to the death of Richard the Third—Charter 
 of Henry the Fourth confirming all the rights of the Burgesses of Liverpool—License 
 granted to Sir John Stanley, Knight, to build and fortify a house iu the town of Liverpool 
 —Liverpool passes to King Henry the Fifth, with the other possessions of the Duchy of 
 Lancaster, on the death of his father—Petition to Parliament from the Burgesses of 
 Liverpool—Fee-farm of Liverpool granted to the Burgesses by the King—Liverpool 
 passes to King Henry the Sixth—Conflict between Thomas of Stanley and Sir Richard 
 of Molyneux—Sir Richard Molyneux, of Sefton, made Governor of the Castle of 
 Liverpool, with succession to his heirs male—Account of Liverpool in the twentieth 
 year of the reign of Henry the Sixth—First English document relating to Liverpool, 
 being a copy of instructions to Sir Thomas of Lathom respectiug a new Lease—Liverpool 
 passes to Edward the Fourth, with the other estates of the House of Lancaster, after the 
 death of Henry the Sixth—Granted bv him to his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester 
 —Lease of the Ferry granted by Richard the Third—Ancient deeds, illustrative of the 
 times—Lists of the Mayors aud Bailiffs of Liverpool under the Plantagenets : : : 178 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Tudor—Liverpool, with the whole Duchy of Lancaster, 
 passes into the hands of Henry the Seventh, after the battle of Bosworth Field—Leases 
 granted by Henry the Seventh—Passes to Henry the Eighth on his father’s death—First 
 notice of the claim of the Mayor and Corporation to the wastes of the Borough—Lease 
 of part of them to Sir William Molyneux, Knight—The King’s rent roll in Liverpool, in 
 the twenty-third Henry the Eighth—Dissolution of the Monasteries—Account of the 
 Church Lands in Liverpool—The Elder Precedences from the Corporation Records, of 
 about the year 1525—Lease of fee-farm of Liverpool to Sir William Molyneux, sublet to 
 Edmund Gee, of Chester, “the great Merchant” of Liverpool—Leland’s Account of 
 Liverpool in the reign of Henry the Eighth—Liverpool passes to King Edward the Sixth, 
 and afterwards to Queen Mary—King Philip and Queen Mary confirm all the Charters 
 of Liverpool—Liverpool passes to Queen Elizabeth—Destruction of the ancient Harbour 
 in a great storm—The new Haven formed by the inhabitants—Contests with the 
 Chancellor of the Duchy about the choice of Members of Parliament—Mr. Ralph 
 Sekerston chosen Member for Liverpool—March of troops through the town to Ireland 
 —Preparations to receive the Spanish Armada—Account of the Government of the 
 Town and the Manners of the Age, abridged from the Corporation Records—Extracts 
 from those Records relating to remarkable events—Camden’s Account of Liverpool in 
 his “ Britannia”—List, of Mayors and Bailiffs under the House of Tudor—Income and 
 Expenditure of the Corporation of Liverpool under the Tudors : : : : : 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Trade of Liverpool under the Tudor Princes—Rise of Manufactures—The State of 
 Trade—Condition of Society—Leland's account of the imports of Liverpool in the reign 
 of Henry the Eighth—Linen Yarn, from Ireland, for the use of the Manchester 
 Manufacturers, the principal import—The Growth of Flax in Ireland, and the Spinning 
 of Yarn in that country—Account of the Manufactures of Manchester in the reign of 
 King Henry the Eighth—Camden's account of the Manufactures of Manchester and 
 Bolton—Account of the trade of Liverpool in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the 
 records of the Custom-house, preserved at the Public Record Office—List of vessels 
 
XI. 
 
 which entered and cleared out of the port for three months, with the account of their 
 Cargoes—Imports: yarn, skins, hides, tallow, and linen cloth — Exports: Manchester 
 cottons, Yorkshire woollens, Manchester checks, Chester cups and trenchers, Kendal 
 cottons, Hallamshire (Sheffield) knives, coals, iron, and divers smallwares—Trade with 
 France in wine and fruits—Account of the Commerce of Ireland with Liverpool — 
 Account of the Woollen Manufacture, and its distribution in different parts of the 
 kingdom, especially Lancashire and Yorkshire—Notices of Manchester, Bolton, Bury, 
 Rochdale, Blackburn, Halifax, Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield—Manufactures of Cutlery 
 and Hardware at Sheffield, Rotherham, Birmingham, and Walsall—Account of the Iron 
 Trade in the time of the Tudors—Account of the Trade of England with the Continent 
 of Europe, with India, and with Brazil—Population, Shipping, and Customs’ Revenue 
 of Liverpool at the death of Queen Elizabeth :::::::: 236 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 On the effects which the discovery of America and of the new route to India produced 
 on the Commerce of Europe—The Portuguese discoveries on the Coast of Africa, under 
 Don Henry of Portugal—The Cape of Good Hope first doubled, in the year 1486— 
 Vasco de Gama discovers the route to India round the Cape—Christopher Columbus’s 
 discovery of America, in the year 1492—The Merchants of London and Bristol send 
 out Sebastian Cabot on a voyage of discovery towards America—He discovers Newfound¬ 
 land and the fisheries on the banks—French voyages of discovery, under Jacques Cartier— 
 Settlement and trade of Spaniards on the American Continent—Settlements of the 
 Portugese on the Coast of Brazil—Effects of these discoveries in changing the course of 
 trade of the European Nations—Effect of the conquests of the Turks in destroying the 
 trade of Genoa and of Venice—Sir Francis Drake’s voyage round the world—His 
 discovery of California, which he “ everywhere found to present a likelihood of Gold” — 
 Attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to Colonise the Coast of Virginia—Failure of all the 
 early English attempts to Colouise America—Tobacco introduced from Virginia : : 263 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Stuart, from the accession of James the First to the 
 restoration of Charles the Second—Liverpool passes into the hands of King James the 
 First, on the death of Queen Elizabeth—He grants a new lease of the fee-farm of the 
 town to Sir Richard Molyneux—Toxteth Park sold first to the Earl of Derby, and 
 afterwards to Sir Richard Molyneux—Account of the local Government of Liverpool — 
 Increase of the Burgesses, in the reign of James the First—Liverpool passes into the 
 hands of Charles the First—Sold by him, along with many other Manors, to the Lord 
 Mayor and Citizens of London, in payment of a loan of two hundred and twenty-two 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven pounds, aud of a further loan of a hundred 
 and twenty thousand pounds—Abstract of the Deed of Sale—The Manor of Liverpool 
 sold to Richard, Lord Molyneux, Viscount Maryborough, by the Lord Mayor and 
 Citizens of London—Abstract of the Conveyance—Attempt to raise ship money in 
 Liverpool—Preparations for the great Civil War—Liverpool in the hands of the Royalists 
 at the commencement of the War—Besieged and taken possession of by Colonel 
 Ashton, the leader of the Parliamentary party—Fortified by Colonel Rosworm, a German 
 engineer—Its importance in the Civil War—Besieged aud stormed by Prince Rupert— 
 Besieged by the Parliamentary forces, under Major General Meldrum—Garrisoned by 
 the Parliamentary forces—Joins the rising of Sir George Booth and the Earl of Derby 
 in behalf of Charles the Second ::::::::::: 289 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Stuart, from the restoration of Charles the Second to 
 the death of Queen Anne—Curious and interesting account of Liverpool in the Moore 
 Rental, written by Sir Edward Moore, the principal landowner in the town—His 
 proposal to cut or enlarge the Pool for the reception of shipping — His account of the 
 introduction of the Sugar Trade from Barbadoes—Lord Molynenx-street, now Lord- 
 street, built by Lord Molyneux in the Castle Orchard—Contest with the Corporation 
 about the ownership of the waste lauds within the Borough—The Corporation successful 
 —Commencement and growth of the Corporate Estate of Liverpool—The fee-farm, or 
 town dues, leased by the Corporation from Lord Molyneux for a term of a thousand 
 years, at a rent of £30 a-year—Richard Bloome’s account of Liverpool in the year 1673 
 —The ancient Castle of Liverpool destroyed, by order of King Charles the Second _ 
 
XU. 
 
 Intrigues of the Duke of Monmouth in the north of England—Accession of James the 
 Seeoud—Compels the Corporation to surrender their charters—Dismisses the deputy 
 Mayor and Silvester Richmond, a justice of the peace, for misbehaviour—Questions the 
 Mayor as to the return likely to be made to a new Parliament—The Revolution of 1688 
 —All the Charters restored—Richard, Lord Colchester, and Thomas Norris, of Speke, 
 returned as Members for Liverpool, in the Convention Parliament—Renewal of the 
 Charter of Charles the First, in the third of William and Mary—Liverpool made a 
 separate Parish, in the year 1699—A new Church founded, called St. Peter’s, in addition 
 to the old Parochial Chapel of St. Nicholas—Both made Parish Churches—Improvement 
 of the river Mersey, from Runcorn to Warrington, by Mr. Thomas Patten, of Bank Hall 
 —Ilis account of the manner in which goods were transported into the interior at that 
 time—Account of difficulty of travelling from London—Application to Parliament for 
 permission to form the first or old Dock—Plan for bringing Water into the town from the 
 Springs at Bootle—Valuation of Property in the town, in 1717—Account of the Corpor¬ 
 ate Estate at that time—List of Members of Parliament, from 1617 to 1711—List of 
 Mayors and Bailiffs, from 1603 to 1714—Income and Expenditure of the Corporation, 
 from 1600 to 1707 ::::::::::::: 323 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 History of the Commerce of Liverpool under the Stuarts—Progress of manufactures 
 in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire—Colouizing of the West Indies 
 and of North America—Trade with Ireland—Growth of manufactures—Rivalry of the 
 Dutch in the woollen trade, and of the Germans and Swedes in the iron trade—Sir 
 William Brereton’s account of the Dutch manufactures in 1635—Yarranton’s account of 
 the Dutch manufactures in 1677—Of the spinning schools of Germany, and of the iron, 
 tinplate, and copper manufactures of the upper Elbe, as well as of the iron manufactures 
 of Sweden—Rise and progress of the manufactures of Manchester—Introduction of 
 cotton yarn from Cyprus, and of cotton from Smyrna—Rise of the woollen manufacture 
 of Yorkshire—Account of the industry of Leeds and Wakefield—Account of the salt 
 trade of Cheshire—The iron trade of Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire— 
 
 Sir Josiah Child’s account of the foreign trade of England, and of the causes of superiority 
 of the Dutch—His account of the early Plantations or Colonies of England—Of their 
 first success, and of the causes of it—Account of the founding of the Plantation or 
 Colony of Virginia—Also of Maryland—Settlement of New England—New York taken 
 from the Dutch—Settlement of the Carolinas—Settlement of Pennsylvania—Account 
 of the Colonies in the West Indies—Barbadoes, Jamaica, Antigua, Nevis, St. Chris¬ 
 topher, Dominica, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Honduras—The sugar and tobacco trade 
 of Liverpool—Commerce of the port of Liverpool at the death of Queen Anne : : 358 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the accession of George the First to the 
 death of George the Second—King George the First grants the site of the ancient Castle 
 for the building of a new Church, being St. George’s Church—-Resolute resistance of 
 Liverpool to the Jacobites in the Rebellion of 1715—Act for completing the Old Dock— 
 
 The rivers Mersey and Irwell made navigable from Liverpool to Manchester—The river 
 Weaver made navigable from the Mersey to the Cheshire Salt Fields—The river Douglas 
 made navigable to the Coal Field of Wigan—The Blue Coat Hospital founded by Bryan 
 Blundell—Produce of the Town Dues in the reign of George the First and Second—Act 
 for forming a second dock, called Salthouse Dock—Raising of a regiment, called the 
 Liverpool Blues, to resist the Pretender in the Rebellion of 1745—Founding of the 
 Liverpool Infirmary, in 1748—Names of the original subscribers—Act for building the 
 new Church of St. Thomas—Detailed account of Liverpool in the year 1753—Act for 
 forming a Canal, the Sankey Canal, to unite the Coal Fields of St. Helen’s to the river 
 Mersey—Commencement of the Seven Years’ War, and account of its influence on the 
 trade of Liverpool—Thurot’s Expedition into the Irish Seas—Establishment of the 
 first Stage Couch from Warrington to London—Derrick’s account of Liverpool in the 
 year 1760 ::::::::::::::: 397 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the accession of George the Third to the 
 close of the American War of Independence—Act for forming the third dock, named the 
 George's Dock, and for constructing Lighthouses at the approaches to the rivet'— 
 
Xlll. 
 
 Commencement of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Cana]—Forming of the grand Trunk 
 Canal from the Mersey to the Trent—Proposal to make a canal from the Mersey and 
 Irwell Navigation to the river Calder, near Halifax—Plan of forming the Leeds and 
 Liverpool Canal—Great diminution in the expense of transport from Liverpool into the 
 interior, caused by the formation of these canals—Act for building the churches of St. 
 
 Paul and St. John—Proposal to open the India trade—The Liverpool Chamber of Com¬ 
 merce in 1774—The races on Crosby Marsh—Opening of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal 
 —Commencement of the . first. American Wa r—Disastrous .effects, of Aliat. .war on,J,he 
 commerce "of Liverpool—List of Privateers fitted, out in the first American War—Prest- 
 wich’s account of Liverpool in the j^earJjlZfl-TT-Clqsejjf the first American War : 429 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the close of the American War to the 
 French Revolution—Revival of the trade with America—Establishment of Mail Coaches 
 between Liverpool aud London—Great Musical Festival in 1784—Act for forming the 
 
 King's and the Queen’s Docks—Act of 1786, for widening the streets and beautifying the_ 
 
 town—Exhibition of the Works of Living Artists—The African Slave Trade—Long 
 controversy in Liverpool as to its lawfulness—Part taken in that controversy by William 
 Roscoe—Account of the Liverpool Library—Founding of the Blind Asylum—Formation 
 of numerous Canals, extending the line of Water Carriage from Liverpool into the 
 interior—Canal from Manchester to Bolton and Bury—from Manchester to Ashton- 
 under-Lyne and Oldham—Formation of the Rochdale Canal—Of the Canal from Man¬ 
 chester to the river Calder, at Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax—Formation of the Canal 
 from the river Mersey to the Severn, and to the river Dee, at Llangollen—Formation of 
 the Grand Junction Canal, connecting all the northern canals with the river Thames— 
 Great effect of these lines of internal navigation on the commerce of Liverpool— 
 Rapid progress of the port, between the American War of Independence and the French 
 Revolution 465 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the commencement to the close of the 
 Wars of the French Revolution—Breaking out of the War with France—Commercial 
 Panic of 1793—Destruction of the Commerce of France and Holland—Position of the 
 different ports of the kingdom in 1795—Alarm produced by the appearance of the French 
 Fleet in Bantry Bay—Landing of a French force at Fisguard, in South Wales— 
 Rapid preparations for fortifying the town of Liverpool—Raising of numerous Corps of 
 Voluuteers—Voluntary Loan for the assistance of Government—Contributions of the 
 Merchants of Liverpool—Act for forming two new Docks—Formation of a Company for 
 supplying the town with Water—The new Exchange built by public subscription— 
 Population of Liverpool at the census of 1801—Close of the War with France, by the 
 Peace of Amiens—Life-boats first introduced at Liverpool—The Liverpool Athenaeum 
 founded—The Liverpool St. George’s Fire Office established—The Goree warehouses 
 burnt down—Renewal of the War with France—Threatened Invasion—Immense Military 
 Preparations—Account of the Regiments and Corps of Volunteers raised at Liverpool, 
 with a list of their Officers—Register of the Men capable of bearing Arms, and the 
 
 Military Supplies in Liverpool aud Lancashire—Opening of the Rochdale Cana!_ 
 
 Opening of the Grand Junction Canal—Liverpool made a Warehousing Port—General 
 Embargo in 1805, for the purpose of manning Sir Robert Calder’s Squadron—Arrival of 
 the news of the French Fleet being in the West Indies—Arrival of the news of the Battle 
 of Trafalgar—Meeting to erect a Monument to Lord Nelson—Proposal to build a new 
 Corn Exchange—William Roscoe elected member for Liverpool—Meetings aud proceed¬ 
 ings on the Orders in Council—Account of the American Trade in 1808—Opening of the 
 Liverpool Exchange, and of the Corn Exchange—Plan for forming new Docks, with an 
 
 account of the size of the existing Docks, and of the Commerce of the port in 1809_ 
 
 Fall of the Spire of St. Nicholas’s Church, on Sunday, the 11th of February, 1810 
 
 The Panic of 1810—Census of Liverpool in 1811—Commencement of the second 
 American War—Destructive effects on the Commerce of Liverpool—The great contest 
 between Brougham aud Cauniug—Close of the War with France—Establishment of the 
 Liverpool Royal Institution—Opening of the trade with India—Restoration of Peace 
 with the United States—Account of th e Tonnage of the port, from 1793 to 1814 : ; 493 
 
 L* - — ~ ~ 1 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 From the close of the War in 1815 to the year 1825—Introduction of Steam Naviga¬ 
 tion—The first steamer on the river Mersey on the 30th June, 1815— Progress of Steam 
 
XIV. 
 
 Navigation — Charles Mathews’ visit to Liverpool—Arrival of the Kiugsmill, belonging 
 
 to Messrs. Gladstone audGrant, being the lirst vessel from Liverpool to the East Indies_ 
 
 Gas introduced into Liverpool — The Prince’s Dock commenced—Establishment of Steam 
 
 Boats between the Mersey and the Clyde—Birkenhead begins to rise into notice_ 
 
 Establishment of Steam Boats between Liverpool and Dublin—also between Liverpool 
 and North Wales—Population of Liverpool at the ceusus of 1821—Opening of the 
 Prince’s Dock on the Coronation Day of George the Fourth—Progress of the town—■ 
 Rapid increase of Commerce from 1814 to 1825 558 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Formation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, from 1825 to 1830 : : : 591 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the year 1825 to the accession of Queen 
 Victoria—The filling up of the Old Dock — Erecting of the Fort at the entrauce of the 
 River — Establishment of the Branch Bank of England—The Lighthouse erected at the 
 entrance of the River—The Telegraph formed between Liverpool and Holyhead— 
 Valuation of Property in Liverpool in 1829—Establishment of the Bank of Liverpool, 
 the first joint stock bank established in the town—Death of William Roscoe — Arrival of 
 Chantrey's Statue of Canning—Appearance of the Asiatic Cholera in Liverpool—Change —^— 
 of the Constituency of Liverpool by the Parliamentaay Reform Bill—Trial of the Right 
 of the Corporation to Collect the Town Dues, before Lord Chief-Justice Denman—Sketch 
 of the Evidence—Verdict for the Corporation—Opening of the Brunswick Dock—The 
 Victoria Channel buoyed and laid open—The trade with Canton opened by the arrival of 
 the Jumna—The Corporation Inquiry at Liverpool, and the Corporation Reform Bill— 
 Appropriation of the Clarence and Trafalgar Docks to the use of steamers : : : 623 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Liverpool under Queen Victoria—Opening of the Grand Junction Railway and the 
 London and Birmingham Railway, forming the main line of the London and North- 
 Western—Meeting of the British Association for the Encouragement of Science, in 
 Liverpool—Discussion as to the practicability of making the voyage by means of Steam 
 from England to the United States—Paper on the Navigation of the river Mersey, and 
 the means of preserving it from injury—Establishment of Steam Navigation from 
 England to the United States—The Royal William, Lieut. Swainson, belonging to the 
 City of Dublin Steam Boat Company, the first steamer from Liverpool to New York— 
 Establishment of the British and North American Royal Mail Steamers—Progress of 
 Railway Travelling—The screw steamer Archimedes exhibited in the river Mersey— 
 Reports on the Conservancy of the river Mersey—Rental of Liverpool in the year 1840— 
 
 Loss of the President steamer—Plans for enlarging the Docks—Plan for forming Docks 
 at Birkenhead—Establishment of the Liverpool Observatory—Establishment of the 
 Sailors’ Home—Sanatory Improvements in Liverpool—Account of the Supply and 
 Distribution of Gas in Liverpool—Rapid progress of the town—Visit of her Majesty the 
 Queen, of Prince Albert, and of the royal children to Liverpool in the year 1851 : : 642 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 History of the Commerce of Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the accession 
 of George the First, in 1714, to the end of the Eighteenth Century—State of the 
 Commerce of Liverpool at the accession of George the First—Formation of a line of 
 Wa er Carriage from Liverpool to Manchester— State of the Manufactures of Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire in the reign of George die^lfsTaird-^cond—Progress of the Colonies in 
 North America and the West Tndies t—The Sla je-Trade—Commerce of Liverpool in the 
 year 1752—Conquest of Canada and of Bengal iu the Seven Years’ War—The Era of 
 Mechanical Inventions—Discoveries of Sir Richard Arkwright, of Hargreaves, and of 
 Crompton, in the Cotton Manufacture—James Watt’s improved Steam Engine applied to 
 the Smelting of Metals and the Working of Machinery—Progress of the Iron Trade— 
 Wedgewood’s Improvements in the Manufacture of Earthenware—Extent and Value of 
 the Coal Fields of Lancashire, and their Effect on the Commercial Prosperity of 
 Liverpool—List of the imports and Exports of Liverpool in the year 1770—Establish¬ 
 ment of the Independence of the United States—Revival and Extension of the Trade 
 with America—Removal of the Restrictions on the Trade with Ireland—Progress of the 
 
XV. 
 
 Commerce of Liverpool between theAmericau and French Wars—Tbe African Slave 
 Trade—Commerce of Liverpool in 1792—Prices of all the leading Articles of Com¬ 
 merce before the Revolutionary War—Effect of the Revolutionary War in Destroying 
 the Commerce of France, Holland, and Spain, and in Extending that of Great Britain— 
 
 Tbe Revolution in St. Domingo, its Effect on tbe Prices and Production of Sugar, Coffee, 
 Cotton, and other articles of West Indian produce—Prostration of Industry in the 
 Colonies of France, Spain, and Holland—Increase and Extension of British Colonies : G91 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 History of the Commerce of Liverpool under the House of Hanover, from the com¬ 
 mencement of the Nineteenth Century to the close of the general War in 1815— 
 Prevalence of High Prices at the commencement of the century—Increased Culti¬ 
 vation of Cotton in tbe United States and in Louisiana—The Peace of Amiens, its 
 Effect on Prices—The Renewal of the War—Rapid Rise of Prices—Fluctuations of 
 Prices and Variations in Trade caused by Warlike Events, traced through each year, from 
 the renewal to tbe close of tbe War—Closing of the Trade of Europe by the Berlin and 
 Milau Decrees—Opening of the Trade of Brazil and Spanish America—The Second 
 American War, its Disastrous Effects on the Commerce of Liverpool—The Fall of 
 Napoleon—The Re-establishment of Peace with the United States : : : : 725 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Commerce of Liverpool, from the general peace in 1815 to the middle of the 
 Nineteenth Century—Immense extent of the Commerce of Great Britain at the present 
 time—Its rapid increase since the close of the general War—This Commerce chiefly 
 carried on through twelve seaports, namely, Liverpool, London, Hull, Southampton, 
 Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow, Leith, Greenock, Cork, Belfast, and Dublin—Comparative 
 tonnage employed by these and other ports—Comparison of the extent of the Export 
 Trade of the above ports—Comparison of the Import Trade of London, Liverpool, and 
 Hull—The Coasting Trade of Liverpool—Causes of the great extent of British Commerce, 
 and of the large amount of it carried on through the ports of Liverpool and London— 
 Increase of the Population and Wealth of the United Kingdom—More than ordinary 
 increase of Population and Wealth in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, 
 the Counties which use Liverpool as their port—Immense extent of the Cotton Trade— 
 Account of tbe yearly value of this trade—Causes of its progress and present greatness— 
 Influence of the Cotton Trade on the prosperity of Liverpool—Account of the Cotton, 
 Woollen, Worsted, Linen, and Silk Manufactures in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire - 
 —Influence of the Iron Manufacture on the Commerce of Liverpool—Of the Manufactures 
 of Earthenware and Glass—Account of the Salt and Coal Trades, aud of the trades in 
 Alkali, Stationery, Soap, and other articles of Export—Nature and value of tbe Exports 
 of Great Britain and Ireland in 1850-51—Commerce of Liverpool with Foreign Countries 
 —Rapid growth of the United States—Commerce with the different ports and districts 
 of the States—Dock revenue derived from the trade with the principal Countries of Europe, 
 
 Asia, America, Africa, aud Australia, from 1844 to 1851—Commerce with New York, 
 with New Orleans, with Boston, with Philadelphia, with Charleston, with Mobile, with 
 Savannah, with Baltimore, and with Apalachicola—Great extent of the trade with the 
 United States—Commerce with the East Indies and China—Account of Imports and 
 Exports of India—Trade with Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Ceylon, Mauritius, Sincapore, 
 Lebuan, Hongkong, Shaughae, and Aden—The Tea Trade of Liverpool—Commerce 
 with the West Indies—Account cf Ships cleared from Liverpool to the different ports in 
 the British and Foreign West Indies—Trade of Jamaica, Demerara, Barbadoes, Antigua, 
 Granada, St. Vincent, Trinidad, aud the smaller Islands—Comparison of the Produce of 
 the Islands in 1830 and 1849—Effects of the Abolition of Slavery—Tbe Sugar Trade of 
 Liverpool, London, Bristol, Hull, and the Clyde—Production and Consumption of Sugar, 
 both Cane and Beetroot—Commerce of Liverpool with Canada, New Brunswick, Nova 
 Scotia, and Newfoundland, in 1851—Exports to the North American Colonies—Account 
 of the Timber Trade of Liverpool—Commerce of Liverpool with the Republics of Span¬ 
 ish America—Shipping and Exports to those countries, namely, Mexico, Central America, 
 
 New Granada, Venezuela, Bueuos Ayres, Uraguay, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, and Equador— 
 Account of the Trade in Hides, Guano, Nitrate of Soda, and Californian Gold—The 
 Peopling of the shores of the Pacific by the Anglo-American Race—Steam Navigation 
 in the Pacific Ocean—Commerce with the Empire of Brazil—Immense extent and im¬ 
 portance of the British Trade with the Continent and Islands of America—Commerce of 
 Liverpool with tbe countries on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, 
 
XVI. 
 
 namely Spain, France, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Russia, and the Dauu 
 bian Provinces—Effect of opening the Overland Route to India—Commerce of Liverpool 
 with Africa—The Palm Oil Trade—Commerce with Australia—The rapid rise of this 
 trade—Effect of the discovery of the Gold of Australia on the progress of the Australian 
 Colonies—Great increase of Emigration from Liverpool to Australia—Account of the 
 other resources of those Colonies—Commerce of Liverpool with the North of Europe, 
 including Russia, Scandinavia, Prussia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium—Commerce 
 with France, Spain, aud Portugal—The Coasting Trade—The Corn Trade of Liverpool 
 with Ireland, England, aud Foreign countries—Account of Emigration from Liverpool to 
 the United States, British America, and Australia—Its vast extent and rapid increase— 
 Comparison of the progress of the Shipping of Liverpool with that of all the principal 
 ports of the Empire, from the close of the war, in 1815, to the year 1850—Shipping of 
 Liverpool to the close of the year 1851—Steam Navigation of Liverpool, London, and 
 other ports in the Coasting Trade, the Irish Trade, the Trade with France and Belgium, 
 the Mediterranean, with the United States, British America, and Brazil—Internal Steam 
 Communications of Liverpool, by means of Railways—Account of the Liverpool Docks in 
 1852—The nature of the present Commerce of Liverpool, its immense extent, and the 
 prospect of its future progress. ::::::::::: 
 
 
 74 
 
HISTORY OF LIVERPOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER FIRST. 
 
 NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY AROUND LIVERPOOL. 
 
 England produces a greater number of articles, suited to the purposes 
 of Commerce, than any other country of equal extent. It is alike rich in 
 animal, vegetable, and mineral products ; in articles useful for the support 
 of life, and in materials applicable to the purposes of industry. As 
 early as the time of the Anglo-Saxons, when the agriculture of England 
 was rude, and when its manufactures were still ruder, the merchants of 
 Cologne, and other large cities of Germany, visited the southern parts 
 of the island to purchase the wool of the numerous flocks of sheep, 
 which roamed over its downs and pastures ;* and after the Norman Con¬ 
 quest, the Venetians and Florentines encountered the perils of an ocean 
 voyage, to supply the looms of Italy, from the same abundant store.f The 
 insular position of England saves it alike from the extremes of heat and 
 cold; and gives it, if not the perpetual spring, which poets dream of, the 
 mildness of climate which is most favourable to the growth of every descrip¬ 
 tion of herbage, and to the development of animal life. Its pastures are not 
 burnt up in summer by those long droughts, which destroy millions of 
 sheep, and multitudes of cattle^ on the dry plains of Africa and Australia; 
 neither are they laid bare, in the winter months, by the intense cold, which 
 withers every blade of grass, on the boundless plains of Poland and the 
 Ukraine, and renders it needful to house-feed and shelter all domestic 
 animals for five or six months of every year. Hence England has 
 ever been celebrated as a pastoral country. The quantity of wool, 
 at present yielded by its numerous flocks, is more than a hundred 
 millions of pounds weight per year ;f and it must also have been very great, 
 both in weight and value, in those remote times, when five-sixths of the 
 
 * Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, i., 288. + Daru’s Venice, iii., 154. 
 
 | 463,108 packs of 240 lbs. = 111,160,320.— J. Tt. McCulloch’s Account of the British 
 Empire , i., 505. 
 
 K 
 
o 
 
 country lay open, and was grazed by flocks and herds. We may judge 
 of the rapid rate at which the resources of pastoral countries are developed, 
 from the facts, that the few thousand sheep, which have been turned loose 
 on the plains of Australia during the last half century, have increased to 
 between six and seven millions; that they already furnish upwards of twenty 
 million pounds weight of wool, for export, every year and that under 
 the influence of this rapid increase of pastoral wealth, large towns are 
 already springing up, on the coasts of Australia, at points which had 
 never been visited by civilized man at the commencement of the present 
 century. The great English ports of ancient times—London, Bristol, 
 Lynn, and Hull—owed nearly as much of their commercial prosperity 
 to the wool trade of England, as Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide 
 owe to that of Australia. They were the outlets of the richest valleys, 
 and the finest sheepwalks, in England : of the valleys of the Thames, the 
 Severn, the Nene and Ouse, and the Trent; and of the fertile hills which 
 encircle them. Upwards of sixty royal orders still remain, issued by the 
 English Kings, from the reign of King John, the founder of Liverpool, 
 to that of Edward the Fourth, regulating the trade in wool, which, if not 
 all models of sound policy, may at least be regarded as proofs of the 
 importance attached to the trade.f In those times parliaments often 
 voted the supplies for the year, in the form of fleeces, lambs, and packs of 
 wool ; and the Kings of England negociated loans on that security. 
 Such was the loan negociated by that warlike monarch, Edward the Third, 
 with the merchants of the flourishing city of Ipres, in Flanders, which he 
 engaged to repay in the form of a thousand packs of wool, and for the 
 better securing of which, he deposited his cousin, Henry, Earl of Derby, 
 son of the Duke of Lancaster, who was at that time Lord of Liverpool, 
 in the hands of the merchants of that city, who kept him in safe custody, 
 until the people and sheep of England had been sufficiently fleeced, to 
 furnish his ransom.J In the 1st of Henry the Fifth, when the national 
 revenue amounted to £55,743, no less than ,£30,011 was raised by taxes 
 on wool.§ 
 
 * Southey on Colonial Wools, p. 36. 
 
 + For a list of these see the word Lana, in the Index Rerum, in Astle’s Calendarium 
 Rotulorum Patentium, p. 333. 
 
 + “ The King, to the Sheriifs, and Collectors of Wool, &c. greeting:—Since our beloved 
 Matthew Conaceon and his Associates, the merchants of the Society of the Leopards, 
 have undertaken to liberate our beloved relative, and faithful subject, Henry of Lancaster, 
 Earl of Derby, who for certain debts of ours is detained in prison, in foreign parts, we, 
 as a reward of their goodwill, graciously concede to them, that they may export a thousand 
 sacks of Wool, out of our Kingdom to the parts of Flanders .”—Cotton M.S., Claudius, E. 8. 
 
 § Rymer’s Foadera, s. 113. 
 
3 
 
 In the reigns of the early Plantagenet Kings, when Liverpool 
 commenced its career as a port, the northern counties of England were 
 still covered with extensive forests—the resorts of outlaws and wild beasts. 
 They then presented few advantages, even for pasturage, still fewer for 
 agriculture, and scarcely any for commerce. The only manufactures, 
 which existed at that time, were rude fabrics of woollen and flax, which 
 every family prepared for its own use. The natural aspect of the 
 country, north of the river Trent, differs greatly from that of the country to 
 the south of that river. To the south of the Trent, the country undulates 
 gently; and consists of rich valleys, fertile plains, and rounded grassy 
 hills. North of the Trent, a range of barren heights extends, from the 
 banks of that river, to the borders of Scotland, sending out numerous 
 ridges of hills, both to the east and west. The summits of these hills 
 still defy cultivation ; and present a long succession of moors, covered with 
 heath and moss. The natural herbage of this great range is too poor for 
 the support of any but the hardiest animals, except in a few districts, such 
 as Craven, in which the mountain limestone reaches the surface, and forms 
 a soil, rich in grass, and well suited for pastoral purposes. Some remains 
 of a military road, formed by the Romans, to keep open the communication 
 between the cities of York and Ribchester, are still to be found on 
 the hills of Craven, and in the valleys of the Ribble and the Wharfe. 
 This road served to maintain an occasional intercourse, from the eastern 
 to the western side of the island, in the Saxon and Norman times. 
 It was near the point where it enters Lancashire, that Roger of Poictou, 
 the first Norman Lord of Lancashire, built the Castle of Clitheroe, to 
 command the pass through the hills.* All the rest of this range 
 is barren, and was formerly almost impassable. Ancient historians 
 inform us, that the hearts of the daring soldiers of William the 
 Conqueror sank within them, as they stood on the su mm its of these 
 hills, and looked down on the scene of desolation presented by 
 the forests, heaths, and swamps of Lancashire. At that time an 
 immense forest covered the lower part of the hills, on both sides 
 of the chain, and extended far over the broad plains at their base. This 
 forest stretched, under various names, from the Trent and the Dee, 
 to the Cheviot hills. The celebrated forest of Sherwood, the resort of 
 so many daring outlaws, which extended from Nottingham to the centre 
 of Yorkshire, was a portion of it. So were, also, the forests, afterwards 
 known as those of Macclesfield, Delamcre, Rossendale, Bowland, Wirral, 
 
 * Whittaker’s History of Whalley, 184. 
 
4 
 
 and West Derbyshire; the two latter of which encircled the estuary of 
 the Mersey, and extended to the Irish sea. The forest of West Derbyshire 
 included the ground on which the town of Liverpool now stands, and 
 all the surrounding townships, as far as the Sankey Brook, in one 
 direction, and the manor of Formhy, in another.* * * § - All who resided 
 in this district were subject to the forest laws, which imposed 
 numerous restrictions on agriculture, and forbad the keeping of any 
 sort of stock, which might interfere with the grazing of the King’s 
 deer.f At the time when the Domesday survey was made, numerous 
 woods and hawking grounds existed, in the ancient hundred of West 
 Derby; and woods and forests of much greater extent, existed about 
 Warrington, Newton, Salford, Blackburn, and in the hundred of Leyland. 
 The country between the Mersey and the Bibble was then a wilderness of 
 woods, moors, and mosses, relieved here and there by small manor-houses, 
 and plots of cultivated land, varying in extent from 20 to 100 acres. The 
 whole belonged to Edward the Confessor, at the time of his death; and may 
 perhaps have been visited occasionally by that eager lover of the 
 chase.J All the Thanes who occupied the different manors, did so on 
 condition of joining in those great hunting parties, called Stabilitiones, 
 in which a large tract of country was surrounded by a multitude of 
 persons, who drove the game of the district into a narrow circle, called 
 a Haia, where it was slaughtered by the chief hunters, at their pleasure.§ 
 Such a wilderness as I have described was altogether unsuited to the 
 rearing of sheep, although the glades of the forest must have yielded an 
 abundant pasture for cattle. We learn from the account in the Domesday 
 survey, that six herdsmen kept the cattle of Roger of Poictou, in the 
 woods and clearings of West Derby. Cattle, not sheep, have always 
 formed the favourite stock, both in Lancashire and Cheshire. They do so 
 
 * From a Report of the Pleas of the Forest, held before William Bassett and Robert 
 do Hungerford, in the 11 Edw. 3, it appears that the following townships were within the 
 forest, and that they were then at the merry of the King, for various offences against the 
 forest laws:—“Sankey, Kuerdeleigh, Bolde, Apulton, Button, Crounton, Parr, Sutton, 
 Raynhull, Eceleston, Knowselegh, Kyrkeby, Wyston, Pluyton, Torbok, Hale, Garston, Spek, 
 Allerton, Parva Wolvcton, Magna Wolveton, Childwall, Ayntree, Walton, Derby, Kirkedale, 
 Lytherpol, Wavertree, Eveton, Bothull, Lytherlond, Parva Crosseby, Magna Crosseby, 
 Thornton, Ins, Sefton, Aghton, Maghul, Mellyng, Lydiate, Down Holland, and Fomeby.” 
 The ancient spelling is curious, and in some cases throws light on the origin of the name. 
 
 + White’s Natural History of Selhome, 16. 
 
 | Edward the Confessor. —The chief delights of this king were the coursing of swift 
 hounds, whose clamour, during the sports, he was eager to cheer; and the flight of birds, 
 whose nature it is to pursue their kindred prey. Every day, after his morning devotions, 
 he indulged in these exercises.— Sharon Turners History of the Anylo Saxons, iv., 107. 
 
 § Stahilitio meant stalking the deer. To drive the deer, and other game, from all quarters 
 to the centre of a gradually contracted circle, where they were compelled to stand, was 
 stahilitio.— Sir Henry Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday, 35. 
 
5 
 
 at the present time, when the chief wealth of the Cheshire farmers consists 
 in their 100,000 milch cows;* and that of the farmers of Lancashire 
 in nearly as many more. When Camden visited Lancashire, in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, he remarked, that the goodness of the soil and 
 climate was proved, by the beauty of the inhabitants, and the fineness of 
 their cattle, the latter of which, he says, were noted for their long horns, 
 their well-formed bodies, and for all the good points which Columella, and 
 Mago the Carthagenian—those ancient judges of horned cattle—consider 
 that an ox should possess.f From the nature of the surrounding country, 
 Liverpool never possessed any share of the trade in wool, when it was the 
 principal export of England, and the great creator of commercial wealth. 
 The fame of the Cheshire and Lancashire dairies is of long standing. 
 About the beginning of the last century, this port was much frequented by 
 the London cheese ships, and had to fight a hard battle with the cheese¬ 
 mongers, who resisted the making of the first dock, and insisted on their 
 ancient right to stick their ships in the mud, as their fathers had done 
 before them.| 
 
 England is scarcely less fortunate as an agricultural than it is as a 
 pastoral country. It is better suited than any other country in Europe for 
 the alternate system of husbandry, in which a change of crops answers 
 all the purposes of rest to the soil. It also abounds in soils which are 
 easily worked, and yet yield an abundant return of grain. During the 
 dominion of the Romans in Britain, the corn fields of England furnished 
 large supplies of grain, for the use of the garrisons which defended the 
 frontier fortresses of the empire, on the banks of the Rhine.§ Agriculture 
 and pasturage formed the chief occupations of the people, during the 
 Anglo-Saxon period. It was probably during this age that the practice 
 of enclosing fields with hedge-rows, which gives so great a charm to the 
 rural scenery of England, when compared with the bare and open plains 
 of the Continent, was introduced.|| We find frequent mention of woods 
 and groves of hedge-row plants in the Domesday survey. During the last 
 two hundred years of the Anglo-Saxon period, the pursuits of the 
 husbandman were continually interrupted by the irruptions of the 
 Northmen, or Danes; who too frequently reaped the harvests which he 
 had sown. As soon, however, as the confusion caused by the Norman 
 Conquest had subsided, and as the Norman Kings had organised effectual 
 
 * See M’Cullocli's Account of the British Empire, i., 501. 
 
 + Camden’s Britannia, 012. 
 
 f See Case against making a Dock at Liverpool in a later part of this work. 
 
 § Camden's Britannia, 0. || Laing's Notes of a Traveller, 34. 
 
6 
 
 means of national defence, agriculture began to improve, and fresh land 
 was taken from the waste.* The course of improvement then commenced, 
 has continued to the present time, when the yearly value of the pro¬ 
 duce of the soil of the three kingdoms has risen to upwards of two hundred 
 millions.f Unfortunately for the early prosperity of Liverpool, all the 
 great corn fields of England, as well as its finest sheep-walks, are situated 
 in the east, the central, or the southern districts of the kingdom. Six 
 hundred years ago, William of Malmesbury described the neighbouring 
 county of Cheshire, as a region, poor in corn, especially wheat, but rich in 
 cattle and fish. The first part of this description is equally applicable to 
 the soil of South Lancashire. These counties never yielded a larger 
 quantity of grain than was required for the support of their own popula¬ 
 tion. For the last hundred years they have not done that, but have 
 been dependent, in a constantly increasing degree, on the southern and 
 eastern counties of England, on Ireland, and on the continents of Europe 
 and America. At the time when the Domesday survey was made, there 1 
 was a smaller quantity of arable land, in the country between the Eibble 
 and the Mersey, than in any other district of equal extent. Of the whole 
 700,000 acres included in the hundreds of West Derby, Warrington, 
 Newton, Salford, Blackburn, and Leyland, only seventy-nine hides, equal 
 to from eight to ten thousand acres, were in cultivation. The value 
 of the whole district between the Kibble and the Mersey was only one 
 hundred and forty-five pounds, at the death of Edward the Confessor. 
 Allowing the pound of that day to have been fifteen times as valuable as the 
 modern sovereign, this will make it equal to little more than two thousand 
 a year.J At that time the small county of Rutland paid the crown a yearly 
 rent of one hundred and fifty pounds, equal to upwards of s£2000 of 
 
 * See List of Permissions to Inclose Land, in Calendarium Rotulormn Patentium. 
 
 + ,£217,551,977.—./. R. M’Culloch’s Account of the British Empire, i., 573. 
 
 + There were no coins named pounds, or even shillings, in those days. The pound was 
 12 ounces of silver; the shilling was the twentieth part of the pound; the penny (which was 
 a coin made of silver) was the twelfth part of the shilling. It contained nearly as much 
 silver as a threepenny piece of the present day. In turning the money of the Norman and 
 early Plantagenet Kings into money of the present day, I have followed the computation 
 made in that interesting work, “• A Description of the Close Rolls, in the Tower of London: 
 by Thomas Duffus Hakby, F.S.A.,” prefixed to that valuable contribution to the national 
 records. Speaking of the money of the reign of Henry the Third, the son of King John, he 
 says:—“We must not forget that money bore a value, according to the best calculations, 
 “ about fifteen times greater than it does at present. The shillings of that day were three 
 “ times the weight they are now; and yet a modem shilling would at that time have bought 
 “ about five times as much as it will at present: consequently, one shilling of the coin of 
 “ Henry the Third, would produce fifteen times as much as one of William the Fourth.” 
 — General, Introduction to the Close Rolls , 178. In the same way, a penny of that time 
 was worth fifteen pence of the present day, and a pound was worth fifteen pounds. The mark 
 of silver was two-thirds of a pound, and was worth about ten pounds of the present day. 
 
our money; and after the Domesday survey, a land tax, of six shillings 
 per hide, produced four hundred and fifteen pounds in the county of 
 Dorset, and five hundred and nine pounds in the county of Somerset,* 
 —equal respectively to £ 6 , 225 , and £ 7 , 535 . These facts show that the 
 country between the Ribble and the Mersey was at that time in a lower 
 position, as relates to industry, and the value of property, than other 
 parts of the kingdom. Its progress for many ages afterwards was very 
 slow, when compared with that of more favoured districts; nor was 
 it until the forests of which I have spoken had been cleared away, and 
 many of the smaller mosses had been drained, that cultivation was 
 carried on to any considerable extent. In the two hundred and eighty 
 years which elapsed between the Domesday survey and the reign of 
 Edward the Third, the yearly value of landed property, between the 
 Ribble and the Mersey, had increased from£l45 to £5,170, in the money 
 of those times ; or from £2,175, of our present money, to £77,550.f 
 
 The yearly value of the manors about Liverpool was as follows, at the 
 time when the Domesday Survey was made:—West Derby, with its six 
 berewicks, or subordinate manors, which are supposed to have been 
 Liverpool, Everton, part of Wavertree, Garston, Great Crosby, and 
 Thingwall, £10 12s., equal to about £249 of our present money; 
 Toxteth, in two manors, worth 4s. each—8s., equal to £6 of our present 
 money ; Wavertree, 8s., equal to £6 ; Kirkdale, 10s., equal to £7 10s.; 
 Walton, 8s., equal to £6 ; Smethom, or Esmedune, 2s. 8d., equal to 
 £2; Woolton, 5s. 4d., equal to £4; Allerton, 8s., equal to £6 ; 
 Speke, 5s. 4d., equal to £4 ; Childwall, 8s., equal to £6 ; and Bootle, 
 5s. 4d., equal to £4. 
 
 The fisheries of England were of greater comparative importance 
 in ancient times, when the whole of the people made a point of conscience 
 of consuming fish on certain days and at certain seasons of the year, than 
 they are now. The early surveys of the kingdom, and the most ancient 
 deeds still in existence, show the value which was then attached both to 
 the sea and the river fisheries. It is mentioned in Domesday Book, that 
 all the King’s tenants between the Ribble and the Mersey were bound to 
 attend at the royal fisheries, as well as the hunting parties. The fishery 
 of the River Mersey is one of the articles enumerated in all the ancient 
 leases of the town of Liverpool. Salmon and other fish abounded in the 
 stream, and as many as forty-four varieties were formerly caught either 
 
 * G. P. Cooper on the Public Records. The Exon Domesday, i„ 212-14 
 + Nonarum Inquisitiones. 
 
8 
 
 in the river or on the neighbouring coast.* In the reign of William Rufus, 
 Roger of Poictou granted the fishery of Tlielwall, above Warrington, to 
 the Abbey of St. Peter and St Paul, which his father had founded, at 
 Shrewsbury ;f and it remained in the hands of that community till the 
 reign of Henry the Third, when it employed the terrors of the Church, 
 to rescue it from the hands of Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester 
 who had seized it, under a general grant made to him by the King of lands 
 in Lancashire. In the reign of Edward the Fourth a Royal Order was 
 issued, commanding that the fish weirs on the Mersey should be reduced 
 in width, so as to render it possible for an eight-oared boat to pass up 
 the river, and for the salmon to reach the higher parts of the stream. 
 We learn from the Norris Papers that salmon were caught in the River 
 Mersey, at the end of the seventeenth century, in so great abundance, that 
 they could not be consumed by the population of the towns and villages 
 on its banks4 There can be no doubt that these fisheries gave much 
 employment, and produced a considerable revenue, in ancient times. The 
 sea fisheries on the southern part of the Lancashire coast have never been 
 so valuable as those on the eastern side of England, where the herring 
 and the cod fisheries have been carried on to a great extent, from ancient 
 times. The port of Yarmouth owed its early importance, to the 
 skill and spirit with which the Yarmouth men carried on the herring 
 fishery ; and Camden attributes the rapid rise of the port of Hull, to the 
 trade in stock fish, or dried cod, which the merchants of Hull obtained 
 from the coasts of Iceland,§ as it has since been obtained on the banks of 
 Newfoundland. 
 
 England is richer than any other country in Europe, except Poland, 
 in brine springs, and mines of salt. The brine springs of Cheshire have 
 been worked from the time of the Romans; || but the rock salt, which 
 
 * Enfield’s Essay towards a History of Liverpool, 7. 
 
 + Dugdale’s Monasticon, iii., 521. 
 
 + Norris Papers.—Mr. Thomas Patten, of Warrington, writing to Mr. Richard Norris, 
 on the 8th January, 1097, saysI am informed that there is a design to bring a Bill into 
 “ the House of Commons against fish weares that hinder navigation, in navigable rivers, and 
 “ that take and destroy fish, and the fry of fish. You may well know the mischief that is 
 “ done in the River Mercy (Mersey), or at least have frequently heard, what vast numbers 
 “ of salmon trout are taken, so as to supply all the country and market towns, twenty miles 
 “ round, until the country is cloyed, and when they cannot get sale for them, they give 
 “ them to their swine. Your brother did formerly take three or four salmon a-week, at a 
 “ fishing, in or near Speke, hut of late hath taken very few, or none, of which he hath 
 “ complained to me, and he imputes this loss to the destruction of the fry, and hath often 
 “ threatened to prosecute your fisheries.”— From vol. 9 of Remains, Historical and Literary, 
 connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, published by the Chetliam 
 Society. The Norris Papers, edited by Thomas Hcywood, Esq., F.A.S., 37-8-9. 
 
 § Camden’s Britannia, 579. || Camden’s Britannia, 486. 
 
9 
 
 is found in abundance, in the neighbourhood of Northwich, was not 
 discovered until the year 1670,* * * § The salt supplied from the brine springs 
 of Cheshire furnished the port of Chester with a valuable article of export, 
 in former times, as it does that of Liverpool at present. As early as the 
 time of the conquest, the manufacture of salt was carried on in Cheshire, 
 and yielded a revenue to the Crown, and to the Earls of Chester; but the 
 difficulty of conveying so bulky an article to distant parts of the 
 kingdom, rendered it cheaper to manufacture a coarse salt from sea 
 water, than to buy the produce of the mines of Cheshire or Worcester¬ 
 shire. Salt pits were, in consequence, formed all round the coast; to the 
 extent of some hundreds, in some of the southern counties.f Even at 
 Liverpool salt was worth T12 per ton, in the reign of King John.J In 
 consequence of the dearness of the article, the manufacture of salt from 
 sea water was continued, on the coast of Lancashire, as late as the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth.§ It was not until the river Weaver, which flows 
 through the centre of the Cheshire salt district, had been rendered 
 navigable, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, that Liverpool 
 obtained any considerable share of the salt trade; which has since become 
 one principal means of drawing vessels to this port from all parts of 
 Europe and America. 
 
 Long before Caesar had shown the Romans the way to Britain, the 
 Cartliagenians, their rivals in arms, and superiors in arts, had faced the 
 perils of an unknown ocean, and a cloudy sky, without chart or compass, 
 to purchase the tin and copper of Cornwall. || The mines which they 
 explored have been worked, with some periods of cessation caused by 
 the wars between the Cornish Britons and the Saxons, for upwards of 
 2000 years ; and are amongst the oldest, if they are not the oldest mines 
 now worked, in any part of Europe. The lead mines of Derbyshire 
 have also been worked, for many ages; but they, as well as the tin 
 mines of Cornwall, are too distant to have had any influence in 
 developing the commerce of Liverpool. Iron mines or manufactories 
 existed, at the time when Domesday Book was composed, in the 
 counties of Somerset, Hereford, Gloucester, Chester, Lincoln, and 
 Northampton.H There is no mention of the working of the iron mines of 
 Furness, in North Lancashire, in that survey; but they were worked, in 
 
 * Philosophical Transactions, 2015. 
 
 + Sir Henry Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday. 
 
 + See Sheriffs Account, or Pipe Boll for 17th John. 
 
 § Camden’s Britannia, 618. || Heeren’s Historical Researches, i., 109. 
 
 1[ Sir Henry Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday, 44. 
 
 C 
 
10 
 
 the reign of Edward the Second, when Robert Bruce overran the whole 
 of North Lancashire with his victorious army, laid waste the country as 
 far as the river Ribble, and carried oft’ every morsel of iron which could be 
 found in Furness.* The monks of Furness Abbey continued to work the 
 mines, down to the time of the Reformation ;f and theworkswere afterwards 
 carried on, by private proprietors, to the end of the last century. So long 
 as charcoal was the only material used in manufacturing iron, the wild 
 and woody districts of the kingdom were the principal seats of the iron 
 manufacture. Such were the hills of Furness, the forest of Deane, and 
 the great forests which formerly covered the hills of Kent and East 
 Sussex ,X as well as those of Worcestershire and South Staffordshire. 
 Great and grievous complaints began to be made, as early as the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, of the destruction of the woods of Worcestershire, 
 Staffordshire, and other districts; and this decay of the woods was one 
 reason for inducing Lord Dudley to attempt to manufacture iron with 
 coal, as early as the reign of James the First. The attempt succeeded, 
 so far as to show the practicability of the plan; but was not carried to 
 any considerable extent, until the middle of the succeeding century. 
 At that time the quantity of iron produced had sunk to 17,350 tons a 
 year ;§ and it appeared as if this great and ancient manufacture was about 
 to be lost to England, and to be transferred to the inexhaustible forests 
 of Sweden and Russia. Fortunately, however, the art of smelting 
 ironstone with coal was greatly improved about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. The manufacture has advanced with giant strides 
 since then; and now furnishes a yearly supply of upwards of two million 
 tons of iron. || The opening of the Mersey and Trent Canal established 
 a connexion between the iron districts of Staffordshire and Liverpool, 
 early in the present century; and, since that time, Liverpool has become 
 the central port, for receiving the iron of Staffordshire, Yorkshire, 
 South Wales, and Scotland; and for forwarding it to foreign countries. 
 This great trade has grown up within the last sixty years. Until that 
 time Bristol was the principal shipping port for iron. It drew its 
 supplies from the forest of Deane, and South Wales. Liverpool had 
 nothing of the trade at that time, except a few cargoes, shipped at the 
 Pile of Foudrey, from the mines of Furness. 
 
 * H. Serivenor’s History of the Iron Trade, 32. 
 
 + West’s Antiquities of Furness, Appendix No. 8. 
 
 J Camden’s Britannia, 32. § Serivenor’s History of the Iron Trade, 57. 
 
 |j “ The make of iron has increased in a most remarkable degree. In 1840 it amounted 
 to 1,390,400 tons; in 1843 it was 1,215,350 tons; in 1847 it was 1,909,668 tons; and in 1848 
 it was 2,093,736 tons .”—Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir C. Wood), July 2, 1849. 
 
11 
 
 Around the borders of that great chain of hills, already spoken 
 of, as stretching through the northern counties of England, from Trent to 
 Tweed, the coal formation approaches the surface of the earth, at numerous 
 places, and over extensive districts. This wonderful accumulation of the 
 remains of primaeval forests furnishes inexhaustible supplies of fuel, for 
 the comfort of man, and the purposes of the arts. Several large beds 
 of coal are found south of the River Trent, and south of the point where 
 the primitive rocks rise to the surface of the earth, at Mount Sorrell and 
 Charnwood Forest. Amongst these are the valuable bed of coal, near 
 Ashby de la Zouche, which is chiefly worked to supply fuel to the town 
 of Leicester, and other places south of the coal formation ; the bed of 
 coal, on which the town of Atherstone stands; and the beds of South 
 Staffordshire, in which the coal is of extraordinary thickness, and 
 alternates with equally rich beds of ironstone.* The most extensive, 
 however, of the coal formations of England, are those which lie to the 
 north of the River Trent, and which are found around the edges, and on 
 the slopes, of that great chain which has been called the Pennine Range. 
 One large series of the carboniferous strata commences in the neighbour¬ 
 hood of Nottingham and Derby, and extends in a northerly direction, as far 
 as the River Aire, and the manufacturing towns, in the West Riding of 
 Yorkshire. The coal there disappears; but again shows itself on the banks 
 of the Tees. From that point it extends northward, across the counties 
 of Durham and Northumberland, almost to the borders of Scotland, 
 approaching close to the sea at the mouth of the River Tyne, and creating 
 the commerce of Newcastle. On the western side of the hills, the coal 
 appearsin the valley of the Ellen, southwest of Carlisle; and winds round the 
 mountain limestone of Cumberland, until it reaches the sea at Whitehaven. 
 Further south, it is again found in the valley of the Lune; but there the 
 beds are thin, and of little value. The great coal-field of Lancashire — 
 the foundation of its present manufacturing and commercial greatness — 
 commences to the south of the River Rihble, and extends over the greater 
 part of the district between that river and the Mersey, sending out a large 
 branch southward into Cheshire, in the direction of Macclesfield.f Another 
 range of coal-fields there approaches it, and continues the supply of fuel 
 iuto the Potteries of North Staffordshire. A valuable coal formation 
 also exists in the county of Flint, on the southern bank of the River Dee ; 
 
 * Bucklaud’s Bridgewater Treatise, i., 529. 
 
 t See Accounts of the Lancashire Coal Field, in the Transactions of the Manchester 
 Philosophical Society, hy E. W. Binney, Esq., and James Heywood, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
 
D2 
 
 and furnishes the means of smelting the rich ores with which that district 
 abounds. The coal-fields of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Flintshire, and 
 the salt district of Cheshire, encircle the valleys of the Mersey, 
 the Weaver, and the lower valley of the Dee, with mineral formations. 
 The Lancashire coal-field extends from Todmorden, at the foot of the 
 Yorkshire hills, to Torbock, about six miles east of Liverpool; and from 
 Colne, on the edge of Ribblesdale, to Macclesfield, in Cheshire. It is 
 more perfectly developed than any of the neighbouring coal-fields, the 
 strata having been ascertained to be six thousand six hundred feet in 
 thickness, and to contain one hundred and twenty seams of coal. This 
 immense store-house of fuel has been the principal means of creating the 
 cotton manufacture of Lancashire; as the coal-fields of Yorkshire, Cheshire, 
 and Staffordshire, have been the chief means of creating the manufactures of 
 woollens, cutlery, salt, earthenware, and iron. Liverpool is the western 
 outlet of all these rich coal-fields, on which stand the great workshops 
 in which those manufactures are prepared which English commerce 
 exchanges for the products of the world. 
 
 The first coal-field of England, which was rendered available for the 
 purposes of commerce, was that of Northumberland. This coal-field is 
 intersected by the river Tyne, which affords a natural means of shipping its 
 produce to London, and to all the cities and towns on the eastern coast. 
 Coal is not found, on the eastern side of England, south of the river Tees; 
 nor anywhere, on the southern coast, from Kent to Cornwall. In ancient 
 times, all the great cities of England, with the exception of Bristol and 
 Chester, were situated either on the east or southern coasts of the Island, or 
 within a moderate distance of them. Firewood was also less abundant 
 on the eastern coast, from the comparative dryness of the climate ; the 
 chalky and sandy nature of the soil; the abundance of population : and 
 the greater spread of cultivation. From these causes, the coal trade 
 of Newcastle came into existence very soon after the Castle had 
 been built by William Rufus, and rendered Newcastle a flourishing port 
 before Liverpool existed as a place of commerce.* This trade has 
 increased with the increase of the population of London and the total 
 destruction of the forests. A similar trade has sprung up, in modern 
 times, at Whitehaven, on the western side of the Island, whose coal 
 mines now supply the people of Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, and all 
 the eastern coast of Irelaud, with fuel. 
 
 The existence of the great coal-field of Lancashire must have been 
 
 * Brande’s History of Newcastle, ii., 203. 
 
13 
 
 known from a very early period, although it has been only during the last 
 hundred years that coal has been extensively applied to manufacturing 
 and commercial purposes. In early times, the ground was covered with 
 forests and mosses; and the immense supplies of wood and turf rendered 
 coal of little value as a fuel. Turf was the fuel consumed in Liverpool 
 in early times, when the Turbaries around the town were considered of 
 great value. Amongst the earliest documents, relating to the town of 
 Liverpool, is a Deed of Gift, written in the barbarous law French of the 
 time, by which Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, who was then 
 the proprietor of the town, presented his good Burgesses of Liverpool 
 with twelve acres of mosses, or peat land, in consideration of a yearly 
 payment of one denarius, or a penny. This land still belongs to the 
 Corporation of Liverpool. It was afterwards called the Great Heath; 
 and is part of the ground on which the Infirmary formerly stood, and 
 on which the handsomest building in Liverpool, the new St. George's 
 Hall, now stands. Great quantities of turf were also obtained in 
 the fields between Abercromby Square and Edge Hill. In a survey 
 of the boundaries of Toxteth Park, made in the reign of Henry 
 the Third, it is stated that a portion of the northern boundary was 
 at the ancient Turbaries, between two meres, or lakes; of which the 
 Moss Lake, in that hollow, was one. Turf continued to be much 
 in use so late as the reign of Charles the Second, when Sir 
 Edward Moore complained bitterly, that the Molyneux family had 
 ruined his turf grounds, by damming up the waters of the Lake, 
 in order to make them flow to their mills in Toxteth-park, instead 
 of following their ancient course to the head of the pool. It appears 
 from other documents, that the same abundance of turf existed in 
 Everton and West Derby; from which places successive governors of 
 the Castle of Liverpool, and other favourites of the Crown, obtained their 
 fuel. The supplies of turf and firewood were even more abundant 
 about Manchester, and in the eastern parts of the county; and, though 
 the town of Wigan became a royal borough earlier than any other place in 
 the interior of Lancashire, it was owing to the favour of the vicar of the 
 parish with one of our early kings, and not to the rich mines of coal which 
 existed in the neighbourhood.* When Leland visited Lancashire, in the 
 reign of Henry the Eighth, he found that the Bradshaighs, of Haigh, near 
 Wigan, the ancestors of the Earl of Balcarres, on the female side, had 
 opened mines of cannel, “like se coal,” in that neighbourhood.t From 
 
 * Baines’s History of Lancashire, iii., 530. 
 
 + Lclancl’s Itinerary, viii., 47. 
 
14 
 
 that time coal lias been gradually used as fuel, and applied to a great 
 variety of useful purposes. But it was not until the middle of the 
 eighteenth century that Liverpool was connected with the coal-field of 
 Lancashire bv anything better than a common road. In the year 1760, 
 the Santey Canal, the first navigable canal formed in England, in 
 modern times, was completed, and served to connect one portion of the 
 coal-field of Lancashire with the River Mersey and Liverpool ; and 
 some years later, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was formed, which cut 
 through the heart of the coal-field of Lancashire. In the year 1759, 
 Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, obtained an Act, authorising him to 
 form a canal, from his coal mines at Worsley, to the town of Manchester. 
 This was the commencement of those noble and original undertakings, 
 which entitle him to rank amongst the greatest benefactors of his 
 country.* Manchester also possessed coal mines at no great distance, in 
 other directions. On the discovery of the steam-engine, the manu¬ 
 facturers of Manchester were able, at once, to substitute the certain and 
 regular power of steam, for the uncertain and varying power of water. 
 By thus combining the great discovery of Watt with the mechanical 
 discoveries of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton; and by availing 
 themselves of the large supplies of cotton which the commerce of the West 
 Indies brought into Liverpool, they placed Manchester at the head of 
 the manufacturing cities of the empire. It has since become the manu¬ 
 facturing capita] of the world; a position which it has well won, and is 
 likely long to retain. Innumerable other applications have since been made 
 of coal, as a fuel, and as a means of creating motive power.f The glass 
 trade, after having languished in the South of England, has been carried 
 to the highest perfection in Lancashire. The manufacture of earthenware, 
 at one time appeared likely to take root in this county; and though the 
 finer branches of the trade were removed to North Staffordshire, by the 
 taste and ingenuity of Wedgwood, this has not deprived Liverpool of the 
 commerce in the beautiful and useful products of the Potteries. The manu¬ 
 facture of machinery has been carried to an immense extent in Lancashire; 
 and forms one of the most valuable sources of wealth possessed by the 
 county. The improved chemistry of modern times has discovered the 
 means of extracting a valuable alkali from muriate of soda. Many other 
 applications of fuel have been made, in the adjoining counties, which fur- 
 
 * See Article on Aqueducts and Canals in the Quarterly Review, No. cxlvi. 
 
 + “ It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, 
 “ it prints .”—Bridgewater Treatise, /., 535. 
 
15 
 
 nish additional products to the markets of Liverpool. In our own times 
 steam has been applied to new purposes. The great invention of steam navi¬ 
 gation, due to the genius and perseverance of the American, Fulton, has 
 received its noblest application in the opening of a steam communication 
 between Europe and America, by which those two continents have been 
 brought within nine or ten days’ distance of each other. At a still 
 more recent period, the power of steam in propelling carriages upon rail¬ 
 ways, which was improved, perfected, and all but discovered by George 
 Stephenson, working with the capital, and cheered by the encouragement 
 of a few merchants of Liverpool, has already been the means of covering 
 England with a network of railways, and of enabling us to move 
 between distant places with the swiftness of the wind. 
 
 The western side of the island is subject to continual rains, caused by 
 the bursting of the clouds formed by the exhalations of the Atlantic 
 Ocean, and borne inland by the westerly winds, which prevail for nearly 
 three-fourths of the year on the Lancashire coast. The average rainfall on 
 the west side of the island is thirty-five inches in the year, while that on 
 the eastern side is only about twenty-five inches. It has been ascertained 
 that it rains on two hundred and eight days in the year on the western 
 side of the island, and only on one hundred and fifty-two on the eastern.* 
 The range of hills which extends from Kendal, in Westmorland, to 
 Macclesfield, in Cheshire, stops the progress of a large portion of the 
 clouds as they are flying eastward, and causes them to discharge their 
 contents along the edges of the hills, and on the adjoining valleys and 
 plains of Westmorland, Lancashire, and Cheshire, in such profusion, that 
 the rainfall on some points on the hills is found to be from fifty to sixty, 
 and sometimes seventy inches per annum. Thus, it has been ascertained 
 that the rainfall on the banks of Grasmere is sometimes upwards of 
 sixty-five inches in the year ; that at Ambleside it is more than fifty-eight 
 inches; at Kendal it is nearly fifty-eight inches; on Kinder Scout it is 
 upwards of seventy inches; and that at some points on the tops of the 
 Lancashire hills it is from sixty-seven to seventy-seven inches.f From 
 these causes, the water power of the districts which lie on the sides of these 
 hills is greater than that of any other part of the kingdom. As early as 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Kendal, Manchester, and Halifax, all of 
 which lie around them, were the three great manufacturing towns of the 
 North of England ; and it is in the neighbourhood of this chain of hills, 
 
 * See Map of Meteorology, No. 4, in Johnstone’s Atlas of Physical Science. 
 
 + See two Papers, in the Eighth Volume of Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical 
 Society of Manchester, by John Frederic Bateman, M. Inst. C.E. 
 
16 
 
 that other great manufacturing towns have since arisen, at Preston, 
 Blackburn, Bury, Ashton, Stockport, Oldham, Macclesfield, Congleton, 
 and Leek, on the western side of them ; and at Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, 
 Huddersfield, and Sheffield on the east; as well as at Belper and Derby, 
 which stand on the streams flowing southward from the Peak of 
 Derbyshire. The water power of Lancashire is also greatly increased by 
 the rapidity of the western descent from the hills. The slope along which 
 the rivers of Derbyshire reach the sea is nearly two hundred miles in 
 length, following all the windings of the River Trent; that by which the 
 Yorkshire rivers reach it, is nearly one hundred miles ; that by which the 
 Lancashire rivers reach it, is little more than fifty. Thus, from the 
 combined effect of the extraordinary weight of rain which falls on the 
 hills of Lancashire, and the rapidity of the descent, the momentum 
 applicable to the propelling of water mills is greater in this county than 
 in any other part of the kingdom; whilst, from the frequency of the 
 rainfall, it is also more constant. Manchester is situated at the point at 
 which the River Irwell brings down the waters from the rivers and brooks 
 of Central Lancashire ; and at which that stream receives the Medlock 
 and the Irk, which descend more directly from the east. It is thus the 
 point of meeting of most of the rivers and streams of South Lancashire; 
 and the different valleys, which converge at that point, possess a greater 
 abundance of water, and a larger supply of water power, than is to be 
 found within an equal space in any other part of England. According 
 to Dr. Kuerdon’s manuscripts, there was a fulling mill at Manchester in 
 the reign of Edward the Second.* It was only of the value of eight shillings 
 and fourpence, and yet it was more than the place could sustain, if we are 
 to believe the declaration made in the following reign, that there were 
 then no people engaged in trade at Manchester. Manufactures seem 
 to have taken root in Lancashire during the dreadful conflicts between 
 the houses of York and Lancaster, which wasted most other districts of 
 the kingdom, but never touched the country between the Ribble and the 
 Mersey. When Leland visited Manchester, in the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth, it was a flourishing place; and from that time to the present it 
 has advanced more steadily, more rapidly, and to a higher position, than 
 any other manufacturing town in the kingdom. Long before the modern 
 improvements in the steam-engine had established the manufacturing 
 ascendancy of those districts which possess an abundant supply of coal, 
 manufactures had been firmly established in the valleys of Lancashire, 
 
 * Dr. Kuerdon’s MSS., 974. 
 
17 
 
 Yorkshire, and Cheshire, by the numerous streams flowing through them ; 
 and had abandoned their original seats in the southern and eastern parts 
 of the island, where the streams are less numerous, and where their 
 course to the sea is so gentle as to be scarcely perceptible, and to be 
 nearly useless for the purposes of industry. 
 
 The streams about Liverpool are too small to be of much use 
 for manufacturing purposes. The brook which feeds Otterspool formerly 
 turned a corn mill, which was called the Mill of Atters.* The spring at the 
 Bootle Water Works also turned a mill, at Bootle ;f and the stream which 
 formerly ran from the Mosslake, at the foot of Edge Hill, turned two or 
 three mills, before it fell into the Pool. The Moores and Molyneuxes had 
 a great contest for the possession of this stream, in the reign of Charles the 
 Second. The former contended that it ought to flow into Liverpool Pool; 
 the Molyneuxes (who had mills in Toxtetli Park) dammed up the waters, 
 until the stream ran through the present Prince’s Park, and Parkfield, to 
 the river. The following passage from the Moore Rental, respecting 
 this quarrel, contains so much information as to the water power, the 
 turbaries, and the pool which formed the original harbour of Liverpool, 
 as to render it well worth quoting:—“ Remember one thing of great 
 “ concernment” (says Sir Edward Moore, writing to his son) “ within the 
 “ memory of man, the Lord Mullmex hath erected two water mills in 
 “ Toxteth Park, and raised dams for them withiu his said park; and since 
 “ these late wars” (the great civil war) “hath laid the water over and 
 “ upon the moss or turf room belonging to me and my ancestors, for many 
 “ hundred of years, which moss lies within the liberties of Liverpool; but 
 “ the times growing peaceable, and I intending to get a dig for turfs, as 
 “ all my ancestors have done, I could not get the said turf, by reason 
 “ the Lord Mulliuex caused his millers to lay their dams upon my moss, 
 “ in a great height; whereupon I caused one *** to scour an old ditch, 
 “ over which there is a great stone plate, that hath for many hundreds of 
 “ years been the usual water course, to take the waters off my firing; and 
 “ when they had opened the old water course, the Lord Mullinex sent me 
 “ a threatening letter, how Liverpool heath was all his, and the ditch was 
 “ made upon the heath, and he would command his tenants in Toxteth 
 “ Park to come and put it all in again; whereupon, considering that it 
 “wasjust at the King’s” (Charles the Second’s) “restoration, so that all 
 “ those red-letter men were so high, and that the Chancellor of the Duchy 
 
 * See Inquisition of the Forest3 of West Derbyshire—10 and 17, Edward Third. 
 
 + See Plan in Enfield’s Essay towards a History of Liverpool. 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 “ was the Lord Seymour; and likewise, by the same lady, the Lord 
 “Treasurer of England was his brother-in-law; all which considered, 
 “ made me sit down with this great wrong, yet not the first by many 
 “ that family hath done us, and to be contented with less fires, till it shall 
 “ please God to raise me a greater interest and him a weaker; and then, 
 “ if an opportunity serve, to endeavour, by all just and honest means, to 
 “ get your own right, which may he done as follows. If ever you he 
 “ Mayor of Liverpool, when the grand jury is chosen, I mean that jury 
 “ which go round the town, for viewing all common nuisances and water 
 “ courses, then you may inform them that you held ten acres of moss under 
 “ the broad seal of England, out of which your ancestors have gotten all 
 “ or most of their yearly fire, hut by reason of a common water course, 
 “ over which there is an ancient plate of stone, lying in the highway to 
 “ the town of Liverpool, is stopped, so that your moss is drowned; 
 “ therefore you desire the jury may view it, and find whether the town (it 
 “ being in the highway) ought to open it, or that they will make an order 
 “ for you to do it. * * * * Besides, there is two great reasons 
 
 “ wherefore the town ought to keep that water course the right and usual 
 “ course, which, if otherwise, it may prejudice the town very much: the 
 “ first is, there is no water course convenient or about the town for skinners, 
 “ dyers, and other such trades, as this is which makes the continual water 
 “ stream which runs down the gout to the Pool bridge, so that if this stream 
 “should be turned, such tradesmen will have no encouragement; the 
 “ second is, if ever the Pool be cut navigable, of necessity all such cut 
 “ wherein ships are to ride, must either have a considerable fresh stream 
 “ to run continually through it, or it will quickly wreck up, or else there 
 “ must be convenient places for raising great dams of water to let out 
 “ with flood gates when necessity requires, for cleansing of the channel; 
 “ and truly God and Nature hath made all the places between the Pool 
 “ and stone plate so convenient for raising excessive great dams, and 
 “ that so convenient out of the way, so great a fresh from off the Moss- 
 “ lake, that though my eyes may never see it, yet I am confident that 
 “ God Almighty, which makes nothing in vain, hath ordained this to be 
 “ the greatest good for this town. Therefore I hope the town will never 
 “lose the advantage of the water coming that way; for if they do, all 
 “ they are worth cannot procure a stream to cleanse the Pool as above 
 “ said. If once you are of the Council, your oath obliges you to care for 
 “ the good of the town ; and if you are not, your interest is so involved 
 “ with theirs, that take this as a warning from me, that if they prosper 
 
19 
 
 “ you must thrive, and if the town sink you must drown; so as where a 
 “ finger he cut, the whole body feels it; so you, or your interest, being a 
 “ member of that body, it can receive not the least sere either in loss or 
 “ repute, but your estate or person will be damnified thereby. Therefore, 
 “ in the name of God, let them love you and you them, and twenty of 
 “ the greatest men in the county cannot wrong you; but if you quarrel, 
 “ you are easily broken. God bless you both. Amen. Remember that 
 “ when you get this watercourse opened, it will not only be so advantageous 
 “ to the town, but will make the turf room so dry, that I dare assure you, 
 “ you may sell fifty pounds’ worth at least of turf to the town in a year; 
 “ for of my knowledge you have good black turf at least for four yards 
 “ deep ; if so, it may be worth two hundred pounds an acre, and you have 
 “ ten acres of it; in a word, you know not what it may be worth, lying 
 “ so near a great town; and if you leave half a yard of the bottom 
 “ ungotten, once in forty years, it will swell and grow again. Besides this 
 “ interest of your turf, if the water be taken off the Mosslake, it will be 
 “better for your wind mill by .£10 per annum, for that it will make the 
 “ Park Mills want water, the greatest supply being from that lake.”* 
 
 It will be seen from the above brief account of the natural resources 
 of South Lancashire and the adjoining districts, that they afforded little 
 winch could create commerce, at the port of Liverpool, during the period 
 when pasturage and agriculture formed the chief occupations of the 
 people, and when wool and grain were the principal exports of the 
 kingdom. The commerce of Liverpool began to show itself only when 
 the mechanical arts had made some progress, and when the power of 
 falling streams began to be extensively used, to aid the feeble strength of 
 man in propelling machinery. It has attained its present greatness only 
 since the discovery of the wonderful power of steam and machinery 
 combined has given to the manufacturing districts of England the 
 command of a power equal to the united strength of four to five hundred 
 millions of men, and means of production sufficient to supply the wants of 
 the whole world.f During the pastoral and agricultural ages, Liverpool 
 suffered from the combined disadvantages of being situated in one of the 
 smallest and least fruitful valleys in England, and of not possessing any 
 convenient communication, either with the interior of that valley or with 
 foreign countries. 
 
 * The Moore Rental, edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. No. 12 of the publi¬ 
 cations, Historical and Literary, connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and 
 Chester, published by the Chetham Society, 09. 
 
 t Bridgewater Treatise, i., 535. 
 
20 
 
 The valley of the Mersey is the smallest of the numerous districts 
 whose products have given rise to a large port and an extensive commerce. 
 The main valley of the Mersey, with those of its tributaries, the Irwell 
 and the Weaver, does not contain more than one thousand square miles 
 of land, whilst the valleys of the Thames and the Severn each contain 
 about six thousand square miles, and that of the Trent, and of the 
 other streams which discharge their waters into the Humber, contain 
 about nine thousand. The largest of these valleys is small compared with 
 the valleys of the Continent of Europe. In France, the fine valley of 
 the Seine contains upwards of twenty-two thousand square miles of land; 
 that of the Garonne upwards of twenty-four thousand ; that of the Rhone 
 upwards of twenty-eight thousand; and that of the Loire upwards of 
 thirty-three thousand. The valleys of Germany are on a still larger scale. 
 That of the Oder contains upwards of thirty-nine thousand square miles 
 of land; that of the Elbe upwards of forty-one thousand ; and that of the 
 “ wide and winding” Rhine upwards of sixty-five thousand. The valleys of 
 Southern Europe are also of considerable magnitude. The valley of the 
 Tagus contains upwards of twenty-one thousand square miles ; that of the 
 Douro upwards of twenty-nine thousand, and that of the Po, with its tribu¬ 
 taries, nearly thirty thousand. The commercial rivers of Africa and Asia,' 
 and the valleys which they water, are on a much greater scale. The valley 
 of the Nile contains upwards of five hundred thousand square miles; 
 that of the Ganges upwards of four hundred and thirty thousand; and 
 that of each of the great rivers of China upwards of five hundred thousand. 
 Even these vast ranges of territory yield to that contained in the valley 
 of the Parana, which covers eight hundred and eighty-six thousand square 
 miles of the earth’s surface, and to that of the still mightier Mississippi, 
 which covers upwards of a million. The valley of the Mersey, with its 
 thousand square miles of land, and its twenty miles of natural navigation, 
 stands at one end of the scale; the Mississippi, with its million square miles, 
 and its twenty thousand miles of inland navigation, stands at the other.* 
 
 Commercial cities owe their origin, and the rate of their progress in 
 population and wealth, chiefly to the advantages which nature gives 
 them for exchanging the products of one country, or region, for those 
 of another. The ocean, with its gulfs and bays, and the rivers which 
 flow into it from the interior of continents and islands, are the great 
 
 * All the calculations of the sizes of valleys, in the above paragraph, are from Johnstone's 
 Physical Atlas, plate Hydrology, 5 and 6, and are founded on the calculations of Professor 
 Berghaus, of Berlin, except those which relate to the Thames, the Severn, and the Trent, 
 which are from the Penny Cyclopaedia, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
 Knowledge; and that of the Mersey, which is from calculation. 
 
21 
 
 natural means of conducting commercial exchanges. Few cities have 
 risen to eminence, as places of commerce, and none rapidly, which did 
 not possess either some special advantage for communicating with seas or 
 countries not otherwise accessible to each other, or an easy communication 
 with the interior by a large navigable river. Some commercial cities are 
 situated on isthmuses, whose opposite shores are washed by the waters of 
 oceans or seas, which do not approach each other at any other point available 
 for commerce, and hence become the natural points for the exchange of the 
 products of the countries which are washed by their waters. Such was the 
 great city of Tyre, the commercial capital of the ancient world, which owed 
 its greatness to the convenience of its position, for conducting the overland 
 trade between the Mediterranean and India, caused by its position on 
 the coast of Syria, and its proximity to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.* 
 Such were Panama and Acapulco, cities of considerable importance, 
 created by the intercourse across the isthmus of Darien, even in the time of 
 the Spaniards. Such is Chagres, which promises to attain a greater amount 
 of importance since the introduction of steam navigation on the Atlantic, 
 and along the whole coast of North and South America, has rendered it the 
 great point of passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The two 
 greatest commercial cities of the Hanseatic League, Hamburg and Lubec, 
 owed their early importance to the convenience which their positions 
 afforded for exchanging the products of the German Ocean for those of 
 the Baltic, at a time when the coasts of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 
 were peopled by pirates; and when the passage through the Sound was 
 doubly dangerous, from the difficulties of the navigation and the habits of 
 the people who lived upon its shores. Other cities have sprung up, at 
 points where two seas not merely approach each other but mingle their 
 waters. Such was the cause of the greatness of the ancient Byzantium; 
 and of its modern successor, Constantinople. At the time when the 
 commerce of the Athenians flourished, Byzantium was the point from 
 which the merchants of Greece sailed to purchase the grain and wool of 
 the Ukraine, and the more costly products of Asia Minor and Persia. 
 The commerce created by the Greeks at tins point never ceased until 
 Constantinople was taken by the Turks.f Now that the Turkish 
 Government has become friendly to commerce, Constantinople has again 
 become a great emporium for the trade of all the countries on the Black 
 
 * “They (the Tyrians) must be regarded as the most active intermediaries and 
 “ agents in the connection of nations, from the Indian Ocean to the West and North of 
 “ Europe.”— Humboldt's Cosmos : Mrs. Sabine's Translation , ii., 125. 
 
 + See a fine description of the wealth and greatness of Byzantium, chap. 53 of Gibbon. 
 
22 
 
 Sen and the Mediterranean, and also a depot for the trade in English 
 goods, carried on with Turkey, Persia, and the southern provinces of Russia. 
 Various other cities might he mentioned, which owe their greatness to the 
 advantage of a double water carriage with distant seas. Such is Cadiz, 
 built nearly three thousand years ago by the Phoenicians, to carry on the 
 trade between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean ;* Copenhagen, 
 at the entrance of the Baltic; Aden, the gate of the Red Sea; and 
 Sincapore, whose admirable position was selected by Sir Stamford Raffles, 
 one of the ablest statesmen of modern times, at the point where the Indian 
 Ocean joins the Chinese and the Australian Seas, a point at which lines 
 of steam navigation already converge,—on one side from India and 
 Europe, on the other from China and Australia. 
 
 For three hundred years after Liverpool had been raised to the rank 
 of a seaport, the commerce of England, and the intercourse with foreign 
 countries, were chiefly directed to the continent of Europe; and hence 
 those ports which were situated on the coasts adjoining to it, possessed 
 great advantages over those which were more remote. The Cinque Ports, 
 on or near the Straits of Dover, were at that time the chief places of 
 communication with the Continent in time of peace ; and Southampton 
 (or Portsmouth) was the place at which the great naval and military 
 expeditions, which were directed against the Continent, were assembled 
 in time of war. It was at Portsmouth, and whilst preparing to sail for 
 Guyenne, that Henry the Third gave his estates, between the Mersey and 
 the Ribble, including the borough of Liverpool, to Ranulf, Earl of 
 Chester. The Cinque Ports of Dover, Sandwich, Hastings, Hythe, and 
 Romney, possessed a greater number of ships than any other ports, with 
 the exception of London.f They had a monopoly of conducting passengers 
 across the channel to the Continent, and held it on condition of furnishing 
 fifty-two vessels in time of war, for the defence of the channel and the 
 coasts. This monopoly became vested in the port of Dover, as the harbours 
 of Sandwich, Hastings, Hythe, and Romney were gradually destroyed by 
 the drifting of sand, and other causes. An order is still in existence, 
 addressed to the Mayor and Bailiffs of Liverpool, in the reign of Edward 
 the Third, informing them, that travellers proceeding to the Continent 
 must take their course through Dover or Southampton ; but that parties 
 proceeding to Ireland may sail from Bristol, Chester, Liverpool, or any other 
 port. At that time the merchants of London, and the other cities along the 
 
 * Hceren’s Historical Researches, i., 317. 
 t See Sir Henry Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday. 
 
23 
 
 eastern side of the island, had a considerable commercial intercourse with 
 Germany and Flanders ; and occasionally the vessels of Venice, Genoa, 
 and Pisa, entered the southern ports of Engdand, from London to Bristol. 
 There is no trace of their ever having sailed up the Irish Channel. 
 Political causes produced a frequent intercourse between England and 
 the English provinces on the Continent; and religious affairs occasioned 
 a constant intercourse with Rome, the capital of the Christian world. 
 
 When Liverpool was raised to the rank of a free borough on the sea, 
 the commerce of the world was in the hands of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and 
 Florence ; and of the free cities of Germany, forming the Hanseatic 
 League. An eloquent native historian, whose works are admired wherever 
 taste and learning are appreciated, and whose memory will ever be honored 
 in the town of which he was the brightest ornament—William Roscoe— 
 speaking of Venice, says, “ The superiority which it had acquired, was 
 “ in a great degree derived from the extensive commerce then carried on 
 “ by the Venetians, to different parts of the East, the valuable productions 
 “ of which were conveyed, by way of Egypt, into the Mediterranean, and 
 “ from thence distributed by the Venetians, throughout the rest of Europe. 
 “ In this branch of commerce the Genoese and Florentines had succes- 
 “ sively attempted to rival them; hut, though each of these people, and 
 “ particularly the latter, had obtained a considerable portion of this 
 “ lucrative trade, the Venetians maintained a decided superiority, until the 
 “ discovery of a new and more expeditious communication with India, by 
 “ the Cape of Good Hope, turned the course of Eastern traffic into a new 
 “ channel.”* In addition to the great trade which the Venetians carried on 
 with Egypt, they also traded extensively with Constantinople, and with 
 other parts of the Greek Empire. Constantinople still retained much of its 
 original greatness, f The extent of its wealth may be judged from the fact, 
 that when it was stormed and taken by the Venetians and the Crusaders, 
 in the year 1204, the plunder of the city amounted to four hundred 
 thousand marks of silver, equal in weight to <£800,000 of our present 
 money, and in exchangeable value to four or five times that sum. In 
 addition to Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Milan, and all the cities of Northern 
 Italy flourished in wealth and population at that age; whilst the rich soil 
 of Lombardy, refreshed and renewed by the streams swelled by the melting 
 of the snows of the Alps, and by a skilful system of artificial irrigation, 
 
 * ltoscoe’s Life of Lorenzo di Medici, i., 121. 
 
 + See Account of the Storming of Constantinople, by the Venetians and Crusaders, 
 chapter 60 of Gibbon. 
 
24 
 
 yielded the corn, wine, and oil required for the support of a large popu¬ 
 lation, and silk for the finest products of the loom. When Yenice was 
 in her glory, which was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the value 
 of the goods exported by sea is said to have been ten millions of ducats, 
 and the profits on the foreign trade four million ducats per annum. 
 Yenice had at that time 3000 vessels, of from 100 to 200 tons burthen, 
 manned by 17,000 sailors; 300 large ships, manned by 8000 ; and a navy 
 for the defence of the republic, the government of her colonies, and the 
 protection of foreign trade, consisting of 45 war galleys, manned by 
 11,000 seamen.* At that time the vessels of Yenice visited every port 
 of the Mediterranean and every coast of Europe, and her commerce was 
 probably nearly equal to that of all other countries united. 
 
 At an early period, the merchants of Venice, Milan, and other great 
 cities of Italy, had established a commercial intercourse across the Alps, 
 with the south of Germany, and the rich valley of the Rhine. Zurich 
 and Inspruck were the resting places of the merchants, who conducted 
 the silver, the embroidery, the glass, the arms and armour, the spices and 
 other articles with which the Italians traded to the north of Europe across 
 those awful solitudes. The venerable City of Augsburg, situated on one 
 of the tributaries of the Danube, was the point at which the merchandise 
 of Venice was shipped to all the countries lying on the banks of that mighty 
 river. Basle was the place of shipment for the rich valley of the Rhine 
 and Northern Europe. The great league of the German Cities, called 
 the Hanseatic League, grew out of this commerce, which was the means of 
 diffusing wealth and municipal freedom through the cities on the banks 
 of the Rhine and of the Danube; and of creating a new centre of 
 civilization north of the Alps, from which wealth and intelligence radiated, 
 westward to Bristol and Waterford, and eastward to Novogorod, in Russia. 
 Lubec was the head of the first section of the league; Cologne of the 
 second ; Brunswick of the third ; and Dantzic of the fourth. When this 
 great confederation was in its highest glory, it included from seventy to 
 eighty cities. It was the Cologne branch of the league, which carried on 
 the most active intercourse with London, where the merchants of 
 Cologne had a Guild Hall. As the seas became safe from the ravages 
 of pirates, and the mouths of rivers ceased to be infested by their fleets, 
 cities began to spring up in the rich and level districts near the mouths 
 of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt About the time when 
 
 Dam’s History of Venice, ii., ISO. 
 
25 
 
 Liverpool was struggling into existence, the people of the Netherlands 
 began to display those talents for the useful arts, which placed Flanders, 
 and afterwards Holland, in the first rank among the nations of Northern 
 Europe. A hundred years later Liege, Ipres, Ghent, and Antwerp were 
 crowded with an industrious, enterprising, high-spirited population, who 
 paid a nominal obedience to the house of Burgundy, but managed all 
 their own internal affairs. The manufactures and agriculture of Flanders 
 soon rivalled those of Lombardy; and at a later period the commerce of 
 Holland surpassed that of Venice. The weavers of Flanders introduced 
 one of the greatest branches of industry into England, in the reign of 
 Henry the Second; and at a later period the rude agriculture of England 
 adopted from the same country, the rotation of crops, the cultivation of 
 artificial grasses and roots, and most of those improvements which we see 
 in the best cultivated districts of England and Scotland. These form 
 as great an improvement on the rude culture of our ancestors, as the 
 machinery of the present day does on the ancient spindle and loom. 
 Norwich, Lincoln, Colchester, and other towns in the eastern counties, 
 were the first to imitate and rival the manufactures of Flanders; as 
 Norfolk and Lincolnshire have since imitated, and in some respects 
 excelled its agriculture. 
 
 At the time of which I speak, Liverpool stood nearly at the extremity 
 of the known world. Little was known of the great ocean which 
 stretched to the west, except that it washed the shores of Ireland, and of 
 Iceland; the former a country wasted by continual wars, the latter an 
 island, encircled with ice, and buried in snow and darkness. A feeble 
 settlement had indeed been formed by the Danes, in the still more dreary 
 regions of Greenland; and evidence exists, that the same enterprising 
 people visited various points of the coast of North America, to which 
 they gave the names of Winland and Markland; and even pushed as far 
 south as the territory which forms the present states of Virginia and 
 North Carolina. Evidence has also been discovered, that the Island of 
 Iceland was in part colonized by natives of Scotland and Ireland.* 
 
 * “ Amongst other things we know, with regard to Iceland in particular, that many 
 natives of Scotland and Ireland were among its earliest inhabitants. This information we 
 have from an old history of the whole settlement of that island, called the Landnamabok, 
 compiled about the year 1100, and continued in the 13th century. It is in this way that 
 many Icelanders, and, among others, the celebrated sculptor Thorvaldsen, are still able to 
 deduce their descent, in uninterrupted succession, from natives of Britain or Ireland, some 
 of them of princely lineage, who had settled in Iceland as far hack as the times of Paganism." 
 —Guide to Northern Arehceology, edited for the use of English renders, by the Right Hon. the 
 Earl of Ellesmere, 7.—See account of the Discoveries of the Northmen, on the coast of 
 America, in the same interesting work; and in the second volume of Humboldt’s Cosmos. 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 These early discoveries, however, and this feeble attempt at colonization, 
 produced no lasting or notable effect on the trade of England. For 
 many ages the intercourse from the north-western parts of the island, 
 especially from Liverpool, was confined to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; 
 and even with those countries it arose, not from commerce, but from the 
 sending out of naval and military expeditions, for the purposes of conquest 
 or defence. We find very few traces of commerce at Liverpool previous 
 to the reign of Henry the Eighth, but before that time the Kings of England 
 occasionally assembled large bodies of troops at the Castle of Liverpool 
 for attacks on Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; the great family of the 
 De Lacys, of Halton Castle, brought together in this port the knights and 
 followers whom they collected on their large estates in Cheshire, 
 Lancashire, and Yorkshire, for new, but most barren, conquests in Meath 
 and Ulster; the Molyneuxes assembled at Liverpool the billmen and 
 bowmen, with whom they kept garrison at Beaumaris Castle; and the 
 Stanleys maintained a more regular intercourse between their tower in 
 Liverpool and their castles in the kingdom of Man. Beyond the 
 occasional bustle produced by these movements; by the passing of a 
 Viceroy of Ireland ; or the sudden assembling of a fleet in the port of 
 Liverpool, to watch the movements and defeat the plans of Robert Bruce 
 and his daring Lieutenants, or to aid new invasions of Scotland, Ireland 
 and Wales, Liverpool was little frequented in ancient times. Its position 
 at that time was nearly the worst in the empire for communicating with 
 foreign countries, even if it had possessed any means of bringing the mate¬ 
 rials of commerce from the interior. This it did not: its water communi¬ 
 cation with the interior extended no further than Runcorn, about twenty 
 miles up the Mersey, and there was no paved road on either bank of the 
 river. In addition to these disadvantages, Liverpool and the other ports 
 on the western side of the island were exposed to the depredations of the 
 Northern pirates, long after they had been driven from the German 
 Ocean. Before and after the Conquest, chiefs of that race governed 
 in Dublin, Waterford, and some other cities, who occasionally paid an 
 unwilling homage to the more powerful of the Irish chiefs, but who 
 much more frequently defied them, by the aid of the Northern pirates, 
 who then infested the Western Seas with powerful fleets. The Isle of 
 Man was at that time the head quarters of these daring sea kings ; 
 but there was scarcely an island, on the western coast of Britain, 
 from Shetland to the Isles of Scilly, which was not either permanently 
 occupied, or frequently visited, by them. It appears, from the Chronicles 
 
27 
 
 of the Kings of Man, that these piratical chiefs maintained a frequent 
 intercourse with Norway and Denmark, from which countries they drew 
 constant supplies of men and ships.* These they supported by plundering the 
 coasts of the three kingdoms, and selling the captives, who had the misfor¬ 
 tune to fall into their hands, as slaves, to the Irish Chieftains. The first 
 great blow given to their power was struck by King John, who assembled 
 a large fleet in the western seas, three years after he had founded the port 
 of Liverpool, and laid waste to the Isle of Man for fifteen days, taking 
 hostages for the better behaviour of these adventurers. A few years 
 afterwards they were defeated, with great loss, at Largs, on the Clyde, in a 
 daring attempt to conquer Scotland. But it was not until Robert Bruce 
 had besieged and taken their stronghold, at Castle Rushin, in 1318, 
 that the western seas were freed from their incursions, and became 
 safe for the purposes of commerce. With such a position, and in the 
 midst of such dangers, there was nothing to create commerce between 
 Liverpool and foreign countries. There was just as little to promote it 
 at home. 
 
 The most common of all the facilities of communication which have 
 created commerce in particular cities, is that formed by the existence of large 
 navigable rivers, flowing through rich and extensive valleys. In ancient 
 times, the Nile, which flows for upwards of two thousand seven hundred 
 miles, through the great valley of Egypt and Nubia, which it irrigates 
 and enriches with its waters, and causes to pour forth all the products 
 both of temperate and tropical climates, was one of the principal causes 
 of the greatness of Alexandria.t The rapid Rhone, which brings down to 
 the Mediterranean the products of the southern provinces of France, and 
 which was, in the time of the Greeks, the means of carrying on an extensive 
 river trade with Britain and the North of Europe, created the commercial 
 greatness of Marseilles, more than two thousand years ago, and has 
 sustained it through the revolutions of twenty centuries.| The beautiful 
 River Rhine, which flows through a valley more extensive than the whole 
 of England, was not only the great means of spreading commerce and 
 civilization through the North of Europe, by conveying the manufactures 
 of Venice, and the luxuries of the East, to Northern Europe, but was also 
 the chief creator of the commercial greatness of Holland and of the 
 Netherlands. Venice owed much of its commercial importance to the easy 
 
 * See Chronicles of Man, in Camden’s Britannia. 
 
 + Mrs. Somerville’s Physical Geography, i., 2b 1. J Humboldt’s Cosmos. 
 
28 
 
 communication afforded by the River Po and its numerous tributaries 
 with the rich plains, and beautiful cities, of Lombardy and the Milanese.* 
 The Scheldt and the Meuse were amongst the principal causes of the 
 greatness of Antwerp. The Elbe has sustained Hamburgh in the rank of 
 the first commercial city of Germany, although Lubec, which formerly 
 surpassed it in population and wealth, has lost its commercial importance, 
 since the trade with the Baltic changed its course. The Vistula, winding 
 through the immense plains of Poland, has produced the commercial 
 greatness of Dantzic ; the Seine, that of Havre; the Garonne, that of 
 Bordeaux ; the Douro, that of Oporto; and the Tagus, that of Lisbon. 
 In the East, Calcutta has been created by the Ganges and the Hoogley; 
 and Shanghae, and the other great cities of China, by the stupendous 
 rivers of which they are the outlets. In the New World, Buenos Ayres 
 has become a port of the first importance, from the facilities afforded by 
 the Parana, which is navigable upwards of fifteen hundred miles above 
 its mouth; and each of the large rivers of South America, with the 
 exception perhaps of the Oronoko, has given rise to a commercial city of 
 some importance, notwithstanding the anti-commercial policy of Spain 
 and Portugal, and the frequent revolutions which have occurred since the 
 colonies of those countries established their independence. These, 
 however, must yield the precedence, to the great and wealthy cities, which 
 the energy and intelligence of the Anglo-Americans are creating at the 
 mouths of the splendid rivers of North America. Montreal has tripled 
 its population within the last forty years, from the facilities afforded by 
 the St. Lawrence, for bringing down the products of a magnificent valley, 
 containing upwards of five hundred and thirty million square miles, 
 either of land or of fresh water lakes.f New York, which had already been 
 made a great city, by its admirable position on the Hudson, has been 
 secured in its rank, as the capital of North America, by the foresight 
 and public spirit of its distinguished citizen, De Witt Clinton, who united 
 the Hudson with the St. Lawrence and the American Lakes, by means of 
 the Western Canal; and thus made that city the outlet, not only of its 
 own beautiful valley of the Hudson, but of the much greater valley of the 
 St. Lawrence. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and 
 Mobile, all owe much of their importance, and of the rapidity of their rise, 
 to the ease with which they communicate with large and fertile districts 
 of the interior, by means of considerable streams. All these, however, 
 if not New York itself, will have ultimately to yield to New Orleans, 
 
 * Daru’s Venice, xix. 
 
 t Mrs. SomerviUe’s Physical Geography, ii., 1. 
 
29 
 
 which promises to become the first commercial city in America if not in 
 the world, from the unparalleled advantages of its position, at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi—a mighty stream—which, joined with the still 
 mightier Missouri, the beautiful Ohio, the Arkansas, and other immense 
 tributaries, gives to New Orleans an inland navigation of twenty thousand 
 miles, communicating with every part of a valley, containing a million and 
 a quarter of square miles of the richest land yielding all the products 
 of the temperate, and most of those of the torrid zone.* 
 
 The rise of the more ancient seaports of England, like that of the cities 
 which I have enumerated above, may be clearly traced to the convenience 
 of their positions on the principal navigable rivers of the kingdom. 
 
 London, which is the outlet of the valley of the Thames, was a great 
 commercial city, during the dominion of the Romans, in Britain. The 
 sagacious historian who informs us of this fact, states, that London was 
 renowned, as early as the reign of the Emperor Nero, for the number of 
 merchants who frequented its port, and the abundance of the supplies 
 which it furnished, although it did not possess the advantage of being a 
 Roman colony.f The River Thames was the true creator of London. It 
 furnished the means, by which the products of the most fruitful valley in 
 England, containing upwards of six thousand six hundred square miles, 
 were brought together at its port.J This valley includes the greater portion 
 of the counties of Kent and Essex, Surrey and Hampshire, Berkshire, 
 Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, and Oxfordshire—counties which 
 contain the finest corn-fields, and the richest pastures, in England. The 
 tides of the German Ocean flow up the Thames not less than seventy 
 miles; and the stream is navigable, for vessels of fifty tons, one hundred 
 and thirty-eight miles above London. § It also approaches within a few 
 miles of one of the streams which flow into the Severn; and thus furnishes 
 a natural water communication, extending through the broadest and 
 richest part of the island, from the Eastern to the Western Seas. The 
 Thames adds to these great advantages, the further advantage of possessing 
 a harbour, which gives a perfect shelter from every storm, and a depth of 
 water sufficient for the largest vessels. It is also within a couple of days’ 
 sail of the mouth of the Rhine, and of those portions of the Continent of 
 Europe, in which arts and civilization first revived, after the downfall of 
 the Roman Empire. These causes raised it to commercial importance, 
 upwards of sixteen hundred years ago; kept it in existence during the 
 
 * Mrs. Somerville’s Physical Geography, ii., 4. + Annals of Tacitus, Book xiv. 
 
 J Penny Cyclopaedia—Thames. § Maitland’s History of London, i., 57. 
 
30 
 
 storms of the Saxon and the Danish periods; gave a fresh impulse to 
 its prosperity, on the establishment of the Norman Government; and have 
 promoted and extended its prosperity, until it has surpassed every other city 
 of the world, in population and wealth, and has become the main-spring 
 and regulator, of the commerce of the world. 
 
 Looking at the commercial and political events which have ooourred 
 on the banks of the River Thames, if not to the size of the river, we may 
 almost agree in the eulogium pronounced upon it by our partial historian 
 of London :—“ The River Thames,” says Maitland, “ if considered in its 
 “ rise, course, extent, navigation, produce, and the innumerable number 
 “ of people it wholly maintains, is not to be equalled by any other river in 
 “ the whole world.” 
 
 The following facts regarding the early history of London throw 
 light on the progress of English commerce. London (as I have already 
 mentioned) was a great commercial city, during the dominion of the 
 Romans in Britain; and we learn, from the most ancient British historians, 
 Gildas and Nennius, that the Thames was one of the two great commercial 
 rivers of the Britons, after the retirement of the Romans from this island. 
 The venerable Bede informs us that London was the chief city of the 
 Britons, when the Saxons arrived in Britain. London was more than 
 once taken by the Danes during their struggles with the Saxons, but was 
 re-taken by Alfred the Great and other Saxon Kings. The lithesmen, or 
 seamen of London, as well as the citizens of London, were distinguished 
 for their courage in those early times. It was during these wars that 
 Southwark, or the southern fortress, was built to protect the city on that 
 side. London is said to have paid no less a sum than ten thousand 
 pounds to the Danish conqueror Canute, a sum equal to one hundred 
 and fifty thousand pounds of our present money: but this is scarcely 
 credible. The city had many commercial privileges previous to the 
 Norman Conquest, which were respected and confirmed by William the 
 Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings. Henry the First, the youngest 
 son of the Conqueror, granted a commercial charter to London, which has 
 served as a model for the Charters granted to the other cities and boroughs 
 of the Kingdom. In the reign of Henry the Second, the citizens of 
 London (who were liable to pay the description of taxes called tallages, 
 which the Kings and nobles imposed on their immediate dependents) gave 
 a donum, or gift of one thousand and forty-three pounds, equal to sixteen 
 thousand pounds of our money, to escape being tallaged ; and during the 
 same reign they repeatedly paid a thousand marks, equal to ten thousand 
 
31 
 
 pounds, for a similar exemption. In the year 1197, Richard the First, 
 on his return from Palestine, granted a new Charter to the city, 
 together with the conservancy of the River Thames, on payment of one 
 thousand five hundred marks, equal to about fifteen thousand pounds of 
 our money. King John, the enfranchiser of Liverpool, and the most 
 liberal granter of commercial charters of all our early kings, granted 
 three charters to the Londoners, but made them pay somewhat heavily 
 for them. For one of these charters the citizens agreed to pay three 
 thousand marks, equal to thirty thousand pounds of our money; for 
 another they consented to pay the king a fee farm rent of three hundred 
 pounds a year, equal to four thousand five hundred pounds, as compen¬ 
 sation for the petty taxes or dues paid by foreigners, or non-freemen, 
 trading to the port of London, and in place of the other branches of the 
 Jura Regalia, or rights of the Crown. The city of London joined the 
 Barons in the struggle with King John, which led to the granting of the 
 great Charter. The rights of the city of London are specially provided 
 for by one of the articles of that charter. In the succeeding reign of Henry 
 the Third, the citizens of London again joined the Barons, headed by 
 Simon de Montfort, in the struggle for a representative Government, and 
 when that struggle failed (for the time), they were deprived of all their 
 charters, and were fined twenty thousand marks, or two hundred thousand 
 pounds, for the part which they had taken in it. It was in this reign 
 that the King declared that the citizens of London were rich enough to 
 buy the treasures of Csesar Augustus. In the succeeding reign of Edward 
 the First, the citizens of London recovered their charters, and again took 
 a decided part in the struggle between the Barons and the King which 
 led to the establishment of the leading principles of that excellent form 
 of government which has existed ever since, and under which England 
 has attained its present position amongst the nations of the world.* 
 
 Flourishing cities existed on the banks of the River Severn, as early 
 as the time of the Romans ; and we are informed by the two most ancient 
 of British writers, that the Britons employed the Severn, as well as the 
 Thames, to carry on their commerce with foreign nations.f The valley of 
 the Severn, with those of the numerous beautiful rivers which discharge 
 their waters into the main stream, extends over a surface of nearly six 
 thousand square miles; and includes the most fertile districts of Somerset, 
 Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Mon¬ 
 mouthshire—a beautiful and romantic region—several portions of which 
 
 * See Maitland’s History of London, 1. 
 
 + Gildas and Nennius. 
 
32 
 
 claim to be the Garden of England. The Severn is naturally navigable 
 for about two hundred miles; * it communicates with the valley of the 
 Thames, by Stroudwater, and with the valley of the Kennett by the lower 
 Avon, which was navigable so early as the reign of Richard the First.f 
 Bristol probably owes the lead which it has taken, over all the other ports 
 in the valley of the Severn, to the extraordinary security of its natural 
 harbour, formed at the point of junction of the Avon and the Frome. 
 From a very early period it derived abundant supplies of commodities, for 
 purposes of commerce, from the corn-fields, and rich pastures, in the valley 
 of the Severn; from the Downs of Cotswold and Herefordshire, which 
 were famous for producing the finest wool in England ;J from the salt 
 mines of Worcestershire, which were worked before the Conquest; from 
 the iron mines of the Forest of Deane, which were also worked at the same 
 time ;§ and from the tin and copper mines of Cornwall and Devonshire, 
 whose produce was floated up the estuary of the Severn. From a very 
 early period, Bristol was the chief port of communication with Ireland. 
 The city of Dublin was governed on the model of the city of Bristol, and 
 was, in a great measure, created by and subordinate to it. || 
 
 Previous to the Norman Conquest, all the commercial towns of 
 England carried on a trade in slaves; and Bristol and Chester, which 
 were situated near the frontiers of Wales, where war was continually 
 raging, were noted for their share in this traffic. At that time slavery 
 existed in every country in Europe; and in England the price of slaves 
 was regulated by the Saxon Kings in the same tariffs of prices in which 
 they regulated (or pretended to regulate) the prices of cattle, sheep, and 
 swine. It was the sight of a number of beautiful children, natives of the 
 province of Deira, in the north of England, on sale in the slave market 
 at Rome, which first inspired Gregory the Great with the noble desire to 
 introduce Christianity amongst our Pagan ancestors; and one of the 
 greatest triumphs of the preaching of St. Wolfstan, who was Bishop of 
 Worcester at the time of the Norman Conquest, was that he had influence 
 enough to persuade the citizens of Bristol, and, through their example, 
 many others, to abandon the traffic in slaves. It ought to be mentioned, 
 in justice to a monarch whose character for humanity cannot afford to 
 lose the credit of a single good action—I mean William the Conqueror— 
 
 * Penny Cyclypsedia—Severn. + Barrett’s History of Bristol, 678. 
 
 J Camden’s Britannia, 472. 
 
 § Giraldus Cambrensis. || Leland’s History of Ireland, i., 81. 
 
33 
 
 that he passed a law which put an end to the slave trade with foreign 
 countries, which had existed during the whole of the Saxon dynasty. 
 The following law of his on this subject reads more like a law of William 
 Wilberforce than of William the Conqueror:—“ We forbid any one to 
 sell a Christian out of the land, but more especially into a Paganish 
 country: let us take care that the soul which God redeemed with his 
 own life be not lost ”* 
 
 The Romans had a station near Bristol, hut it was not one of any 
 great celebrity. Their principal station on the Lower Avon was at Bath. 
 Bristol was a place of consequence before the Norman Conquest. At the 
 time of the Conquest, it was part of the royal demesne. In the reign of 
 Henry the Second, Bristol paid a thousand marks towards the expenses 
 of the first expedition against Ireland ; and in the second year of King 
 John, it again paid a thousand marks for the same purpose. The men of 
 Redcliffe, near Bristol (probably the Knights Templars), also paid a 
 thousand marks for the same object; and the citizens of Gloucester paid 
 five hundred.f The fee farm rent of Bristol amounted to two hundred 
 and forty-five pounds a year, in the year 1225, about which time the fee 
 farm rent of Liverpool amounted to ten pounds! 
 
 Another extensive system of internal water communications, is that 
 formed by the rivers Ouse and Nene, two streams, which after flowing 
 parallel to each other for more than a hundred miles, discharge their 
 waters into the gulf or bay called the Wash, within a few miles of the 
 same point. At a very early period, the port of Lynn, at the mouth of the 
 river Nene, became a place of great trade, and served as a point of 
 communication with both the valleys which I have mentioned. So long 
 as the foreign commerce of England depended on the export of the 
 products of its pastures and corn-fields, Lynn, in Norfolk, ranked with the 
 first commex’cial cities in the empire. The district around Lynn was 
 celebrated in ancient times for its extraordinary fertility, which was 
 caused by the periodical overflowing of the Nene and the Ouse. Lynn 
 was also the port of the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Northampton, 
 Bedford, and of West Suffolk and West Norfolk, districts which still 
 rank amongst the richest and best cultivated in England. Unfortunately 
 for the modern prosperity of Lynn, the valleys of the Nene and Ouse are 
 entirely destitute of minerals, and of other means of manufacturing 
 industry ; hence that port has declined in importance since the agricultural 
 
 * Krlham's Laws of William the Conqueror (attached to his Norman Dictionary), 
 Law xli., 63. + Barrett’s History of Bristol—Annals. 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 wealth of the country has ceased to afford a surplus of grain and other 
 produce, to he exported to foreign nations. It still carries on a very 
 extensive coasting trade, and is one of the granaries of London. 
 
 The tax of Quinzeme, or Fifteenths, produced £651 11s. lid. at 
 Lvnn, in the sixth year of the reign of King John, when it was the fourth 
 outport of the kingdom. The great customs paid at Lynn, in the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, amounted to £1661 15s. 10d., at which time it was 
 the first of the outports. 
 
 Soon after the Norman conquest, several small ports contended for 
 the commerce created by the numerous rivers, which discharge their 
 waters into the great estuary of the Humber. This is the largest of all 
 the systems of rivers in England, and drains a country extending over a 
 surface of nine thousand square miles.*" Grimsby, the most ancient port 
 on the Humber, was built by the Danes, at the time when they possessed 
 the kingdom of East Anglia ;f and it was for a considerable time the 
 principal port of the Humber, j Unfortunately for its prosperity, it lies in 
 too exposed a situation, and it is only in the present times that artificial 
 docks have been constructed there for the protection of shipping. In the 
 reign of King John, Hedon, a port situated a few miles below Hull, was 
 a place of some note; as was also Selby, the birthplace of Henry the 
 First, the first English born King of the Norman race, and Barton, at 
 the mouth of the river Trent. The growth of the commerce of the 
 Humber was greatly impeded, in early times, by the ravages of the Danish 
 and Norwegian pirates, who infested its waters, plundered its coasts, and 
 drove the greater part of its commerce to more secure points, higher up 
 the streams of the Ouse and the Trent, as to York and Lincoln, both of 
 which cities ranked as ports of the sea, in the reign of King Jolin.J 
 Soon after the Conquest, however, a port began to rise on the banks of 
 the river Hull, which soon outstripped all the other ports of the Humber, 
 and which received the name of Kingston-upon-Hull, in the reign of 
 Edward the First. The chief cause of the rise of Hull was the excellence 
 of its port, which is situated a little above the point where the river 
 FIull falls into the Humber. As early as the reign of King John, Hull 
 had taken the lead of Grimsby, and of all the smaller ports of the 
 Humber; and in the reign of Edward the First, it had become one of the 
 most flourishing seaports in the Kingdom. It has continued to be so ever 
 since. 
 
 * Penny Cyclopaedia—Humber. + Snorre's Heimskringla, i., 139. 
 
 \ See List of Ports of the Sea, in a succeeding page. 
 
35 
 
 
 Hall paid .£344 14s. 7£d. to the tax of Quinzeme or the Fifteenths, in 
 the sixth year of the reign of King John, when it was the fifth outport 
 in the kingdom. It paid £1,515 18s. 3d. to the great customs, in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, when it was the second outport. The first 
 charter which is known to exist is that of the 29 th Edward the First, 1299, 
 but I can scarcely believe that there were not earlier charters than this, 
 though nothing is known of them. 
 
 The River Trent was the principal means of communication between 
 the richer and more tlnckly-peopled south and the ruder north in ancient 
 times. The burgesses of Nottingham were bound to keep open the 
 navigation of the Trent from Nottingham to Torksey, opposite to Lincoln, 
 and to conduct the King's messengers from their borough to that place. 
 The burgesses of Torksey were then bound to conduct them to York. 
 This they could do easily, by dropping down the Trent to the point 
 where it falls into the Humber, and by then ascending the Ouse with the 
 tide. By this route they had the advantage of a good and safe navigation, 
 and the aid of the propelling power either of the stream of the Trent, or of 
 the tides of the Humber, nearly all the way. By taking this route, they 
 not only travelled much faster than by land, but they avoided Sherwood 
 Forest, with Robin Hood and his merry men—people whom it is very 
 pleasant to read about in Ivanhoe, but must have been disagreeable to 
 meet in the dusk on the King’s highway. From the advantage of this 
 intercourse, and the ease with which it communicated with Derby, Burton, 
 and Stafford, up the valley of the Trent, and Newark and Lincoln 
 down the stream, Nottingham became a place of the greatest importance 
 in early times. In the year 1342, the ninth part of the moveables of the 
 men of Nottingham was of the value of £465 10s. 4d. of the money of 
 that day, or equal to £6,517 4s. 4d. of the present, at a time when the 
 ninth part of the goods of the men of Liverpool was only worth £6 17s. 6d., 
 or about £96 5s. of our money.* This gives Nottingham a capital of 
 £58,654 19s., and Liverpool one of £866 5s. 
 
 Until the reign of Henry the Third, a considerable portion of the trade, 
 created by the river Trent, left that river at Torksey, which is about seven 
 miles from Lincoln, and passed down to Botolfston, or Boston, by the 
 River Witliam. In order to promote this trade, the Fossdyke was 
 turned into a navigable canal, in the reign of Henry the Third.f At that 
 time Lincoln was one of the most populous cities in England; and had a 
 
 * Nonarum Inquisitioncs, 202 
 
 + Calendarium Botulorum Patentium. 
 
36 
 
 market, to which men flocked both by land and water. The Witham was 
 then navigable from Boston to Lincoln ; but, owing to the slowness of its 
 current, it has been impossible to keep it deep enough for the purposes 
 of navigation, without continual clearing.* From this cause it has 
 gradually gone to decay as a navigable stream. The port of 
 Boston has also been ruined by the collecting of sand banks. At the 
 time when Liverpool was founded, the whole of the country about 
 Boston was cultivated like a garden, and was every year enriched by the 
 overflowing of the Witham.f Soon after that time a great irruption of 
 the sea took place, by which the district of Holland, in Lincolnshire, 
 was laid waste. It was only by slow and laborious efforts that the 
 fertility of the soil was restored. The commerce of Boston has never 
 revived.J 
 
 Boston paid L780 15s. 3d. to the tax of Quinzeme or the Fifteenths, 
 m the reign of John, but only LJ68 2s. ll£d. to the Great Customs, in 
 the reign of Elizabeth. The beautiful City of Boston, in New England, 
 was founded by a body of emigrants, who sailed from Boston, in Lincoln¬ 
 shire. It was originally called Trimountain, from three hills round the 
 Bay, one of which was the famous Bunker’s Hill. The name was 
 afterwards changed to Boston; it is said out of respect for the Rev. 
 Mr. Cotton, who had been minister of Boston in England, but more 
 likely from some yearnings after the ‘ old country.’§ 
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, though not situated upon a river possessing 
 any great extent of internal navigation, possesses an excellent water 
 communication, from the coal-field of Northumberland, to the best 
 markets for the consumption of fuel. j| It owes every thing to the abundant 
 supplies of coal, furnished by the country intersected by the River Tyne. 
 That river flows for many miles through one of the richest coal-fields in 
 England, and gives every facility for shipping coal to the London market, 
 and to the eastern and southern districts of the Kingdom. 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne was founded by William Rufus during the life of 
 the Conqueror. Henry the First granted a charter to Newcastle; Henry 
 
 * Dugdale on Embankment, 176-7. 
 
 t William of Malmesbury gives the following account of tlie Fen Country:—“The fens 
 were a very paradise, and seemed a heaven for the delight and beauty thereof: in the very 
 marshes bearing goodly trees, which for tallness, as also without knots, strived to reach up 
 to the stars. It is a plain country, and as level as the sea, which with green grass allureth 
 the eye. There is not the least portion of ground that lies waste and void there ; here you 
 shall find the earth rising somewhat for apple trees; there you shall have a field set with 
 vines, which either crop upon the ground, or mount on high poles to support them.” 
 
 J Winterbotham’s History of America, ii., 141. 
 
 § Pishey Thompson's History of Boston, 283. || Brande’s History of Newcastle, ii., 30. 
 
37 
 
 the Second granted another. In the year 1214, the fee-farm rent, or petty 
 taxes paid to King John produced £50, equal to about £750 of our 
 money; in 1275, the fee-farm rent of Newcastle was declared to be 
 worth £100. Newcastle paid £'158 5s. lid. to the tax of Fifteenths in 
 the sixth year of the reign of King John; and £229 8s. 3d. to the great 
 customs in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 The six ports which I have enumerated—London, Bristol, Lynn, 
 Hull, Boston, and Newcastle—were the great commercial ports of ancient 
 times. Southampton, which was also a place of some importance, was 
 rather a naval than a commercial station, although it carried on a 
 considerable commerce with the Continent, at the time when the 
 neighbouring city of Winchester was the most flourishing place in the 
 kingdom, the residence of Alfred the Great and of the other Kings of the 
 West Saxon dynasty. The importance of Southampton greatly decreased 
 when the seat of government was removed from Winchester to London. 
 Still it retained a considerable naval importance, from the fact that there 
 the Norman and Plantagenet Kings collected the ships for the numerous 
 expeditions which they led into France, either to defend their own 
 dominions in Normandy, Anjou, and Guyenne, or to assail those of France. 
 At that time few places possessed ships, except those lying between 
 London and Southampton, including the cinque ports of Sandwich, 
 Dover, Winchelsea, Hythe, and Romney, all of which have gone to 
 ruin, except Dover.* On occasions of military expeditions, all the 
 shipping of the neighbouring ports was collected at Southampton, or 
 Portsmouth, which names are indifferently applied in ancient histories. 
 The earliest docks of which we have any account were the docks, or exclusa, 
 which the Sheriff of Hampshire was ordered to construct, and enclose, at 
 Southampton, for the protection of the war galleys of King Jolin.f 
 
 The fee-farm rent, or the Jura Regalia of Southampton, produced 
 £200 a-year. Southampton paid to the tax of Fifteenths, in the reign of 
 John, £712 3s. 7d. It was then the first of the outports. 
 
 The importance of the port of Chester, like that of Southampton, was 
 chiefly political. Chester was a fortress of the first order, under the 
 Romans, Saxons, and Normans, and was constantly garrisoned with 
 troops, appointed to watch the daring mountaineers of North Wales, who 
 were alike prompt in attacking their enemies, and resolute in resisting 
 
 * Sir Henry Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday. 
 
 + T. D. Hardy’s Introduction to the Close Rolls. 
 
38 
 
 their attacks. It was also the residence of an Earl, who possessed all the 
 authority of an independent Prince; and of the Bishops of Lichfield, who 
 were known by the title of Bishops of Chester, long before the modern 
 bishopric of Chester was created by Henry the Eighth. It was also the 
 seat of a wealthy clergy, of many flourishing monasteries, and of a 
 numerous gentry. Its commerce depended on the rich salt mines in the 
 valley of the Weaver, with which it was connected by a military road 
 formed by the Bomans; and on the cheese, hides, skins, and fish yielded 
 by the neighbouring pastures, woods, and streams.* Chester possessed 
 many elements of prosperity, and might have become a flourishing 
 commercial port, if its harbour had not been ruined by enormous masses 
 of sand drifted into it by the storms of the Atlantic. This evil began to 
 be felt very soon after the Conquest; and continued to increase, until 
 the commercial importance of Chester was entirely lost, and that of 
 Liverpool had risen on its ruins. 
 
 The river Mersey, at whose mouth the port of Liverpool is situated, is 
 an insignificant stream, both as relates to the length of its course, and the 
 volume of water which it carries to the sea. The length of the central 
 stream, which divides Lancashire from Cheshire, is not more than forty 
 miles, from the point where it leaves the Derbyshire hills, to that at which 
 it enters the estuary at Runcorn. Including the estuary, its length is not 
 more than sixty miles. Its principal tributary is the Irwell, which 
 brings down the waters of numerous smaller streams from the hills of 
 central Lancashire. The united stream is not more than forty yards in 
 ■width, at the point Avhere the tides begin to be felt, opposite to 
 Warrington. The river Weaver, which enters the estuary of the Mersey 
 below Runcorn, is a still smaller stream. None of these rivers were 
 navigable until the end of the Seventeenth Century, so that Liverpool, in 
 the early period of its existence, possessed none of those advantages of 
 water communication, with the interior, from which London, Bristol, Lynn, 
 and Hull derived so much of their early wealth. The numerous and 
 extensive water communications with the interior, which Liverpool now 
 possesses, are entirely the result of art and labour, and have all been 
 formed in modem times. 
 
 The first improvement made in the River Mersey, was that of render¬ 
 ing it navigable from Runcorn to Warrington. The course of the river 
 between those two places is extremely tortuous; so much so, that it has 
 since been found more convenient to abandon the natural bed of the 
 * See Mortimer’s History of Wirral, 118. 
 
39 
 
 stream, and to form a canal. Mr. Thomas Patten, of Warrington, 
 a member of the family of the Pattens of the Bank, was the author of this 
 great step towards opening a communication with the interior. Writing 
 to Mr. Richard Norris, of Speke, the member for Liverpool, in the year 
 1690, Mr. Patten, speaking of the evil produced by fish wears in rivers, 
 said:—“ Then again, weares are as mischievous, another way, by their 
 hindering the passage of ships, boats, and barges ; as for example, in the 
 same River Mersey, what a vast advantage would it be to Liverpool, if the 
 river were made navigable to Manchester and Stockport. Since I made 
 it navigable to Warrington, there have been sent to Liverpool, and from 
 Liverpool, 2000 tons of goods in a year, and I believe as much by land, 
 which, if the river were cleared of weares, would all go by water; for the 
 river to Manchester is very capable of being made navigable at a very 
 small charge. And this would encourage all tradesmen (in Manchester, 
 Stockport, Macclesfield, Congleton, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, some parts 
 of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire,) to come to Liverpool to buy 
 their goods, instead of going to Chester, Bristol, or London; the carriage 
 would be so easy and cheap: I think it would nearly double the trade of 
 Liverpool.”* 
 
 This suggestion did not bear fruit at once. Liverpool was at that 
 time intent upon another great object, almost equally essential to the 
 prosperity of the port, that was on the forming of the first great artificial 
 dock ever constructed for commercial purposes in England. Still, the 
 idea found favour in other quarters, and in the year 1712, Mr. Thomas 
 Steers, the engineer of the Liverpool dock, was consulted by a number 
 of Manchester gentlemen on the subject, and made a survey of the river, 
 a plan of which lies before me. It is entitled “ A Map of the Rivers 
 “ Mersey and Irwell from Bank-key to Manchester, with an Account of 
 “ the rising of the water, and how many locks it will require to make it 
 “ navigable; surveyed by order of the gentlemen at Manchester, by 
 “ Thos. Steers, 1 712.” In order to recommend the undertaking to public 
 favour, the following statement of advantages is engraved on the plan :— 
 “ The inland parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire being favoured with 
 great variety of valuable manufactures in woollen, linen, cotton, &c., and 
 that in very great quantities, has made that neighbourhood as populous, 
 if not more so (London and Middlesex excepted), as the same extent of 
 any part of Great Britain. The trades of these counties extend consider - 
 
 Norris Papers, 38. 
 
40 
 
 ably through the whole island, as well as abroad; and the consumption 
 of groceries, Irish wool, dying stuffs, and other imported goods, conse¬ 
 quently is very great, but as yet not favoured with the conveniency of 
 water carriage, though Providence, from the port of Liverpool up to the 
 most considerable inland town of trade in Lancashire, Manchester, has 
 afforded the best not yet employed rivers of Mersey and Irwell, for that 
 purpose. Those rivers are here described from Bank-key (whither from 
 Leverpool the navigation at present is used). The conveniences of the 
 navigation carried thence to Manchester, might one time or other be of 
 the greatest importance in time of war, in joyning a communication of the 
 East and West Seas of Great Britain, with only 28 miles of land carriage. 
 The trade made more easy, by an expensive land carriage (cause in a deep 
 and flat country) being turned into an easy and cheap water carriage, and 
 Cheshire served with coals, flaggs and slate, far cheaper than at present.”* 
 
 A bill for carrying out this useful object was obtained in 1720, and 
 soon after Liverpool had at length a water communication with Man¬ 
 chester. 
 
 In the same year (1720), permission was obtained to improve the 
 navigation of the Weaver, and thus to connect the salt district of Cheshire 
 with the port of Liverpool. 
 
 In the year 1755, a number of spirited persons, of whom Mr. John 
 Ashton, an eminent merchant of Liverpool, was the head, formed a plan 
 for connecting the western part of the great coal field of Lancashire with 
 Liverpool, and with the salt district of Cheshire, by improving the 
 navigation of the Sankey Brook. This plan was afterwards changed to 
 the much bolder one of digging a navigable canal down the Sankey 
 Valley, from the coal field of St. Helens to the Mersey, at Sankey Bridges, 
 near Warrington. This canal was the precursor of the system of navigable 
 canals. Although, from the small extent and easy nature of the works, 
 it cannot be compared with the great works which the Duke of 
 Bridgewater had then determined to attempt, and which that self-taught 
 genius, James Brindley, was executing, still the Sankey Canal was a 
 work of great merit, and of inestimable value to Liverpool, St. Helens, 
 and the salt district of Cheshire. 
 
 A disappointment in an affair of the heart drove Francis, Duke of 
 Bridgewater, from the Court, where his fortune, family, and youth gave 
 him all the means of shining, and turned his attention to objects of the 
 
 * Map belonging to Mr. John Samuel Smith, of Liverpool, obligingly lent to the author. 
 
41 
 
 highest importance, which he pursued with a zeal, constancy, and 
 self-denial which have justly earned for him the title of the great Duke 
 of Bridgewater. He was the first Englishman who seriously attempted, 
 and risked a fine fortune in the attempt, to carry navigable canals across 
 wide valleys, over deep rivers, and along purely artificial beds. The 
 aqueduct across the Irwell at Barton was incomparably the first specimen 
 of civil engineering in the kingdom at the time when it was executed, 
 and it was long before it was surpassed. An eloquent writer has justly 
 observed: “ When the first barge passed over the Barton aqueduct, 
 Bridgewater and Brindley might have still better reason for pride 
 than Agrippa and his architect, when from the last stone of the 
 Pont du Gard they looked down on the savage ravine, on which a 
 freak of Roman vanity had chosen to exert its art pontifical.”* This was 
 the commencement of a series of works, which hold the same rank in 
 the history of canals as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway holds in 
 that of railways. “ Descriptions,” says the writer whom I have quoted, 
 “ more or less detailed, of the Duke’s works, are to be found in many 
 publications. It may be sufficient here to state, that the line of open 
 navigation, constructed under his acts, beginning at Manchester, and 
 branching in one direction to Runcorn and in another to Leigh, amounted 
 in distance to some thirty-eight miles, all on one level, and admitting the 
 large boats which navigate the estuary of the Mersey. Of this, the six 
 miles from Worsley to Leigh were constructed after Brindley’s decease. 
 We use the expression open, because to this we have to add the extent of 
 the subterranean navigable canals, by which the main produce of the 
 Worsley coal-field is brought out in boats to be conveyed in the open 
 canal to its various destinations. This singular work was commenced in 
 1759, and has been gradually pushed on as new coal-workings were 
 opened and old ones became exhausted. Frisi speaks of them with much 
 admiration, at a period when they extended about a mile and a half: at 
 the time we write, the total length of tunnel amounts to forty-two miles 
 and one furlong, of which somewhat less than two-thirds are in disuse and 
 rendered inaccessible. There are in all four canals. The main line which 
 commences at Worsley, is nine feet wide and nine feet high, including 
 four feet depth of water. The others are the same height, but only 
 eight feet wide. Two are respectively at fifty-six and eighty-tliree yards 
 
 * Quarterly Review, No. l td. Article on Aqueducts and Canals, bearing strong internal 
 evidence of having been written by the present noble and accomplished possessor of the 
 Bridgewater estates. 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 below the main line: the fourth is thirty-seven yards above it. The 
 communication with the latter was formerly conducted by means of 
 an inclined plane, which has however been disused since 1822, the coal 
 being now brought by shafts to the surface. Distinguished persons 
 have visited this curious nether world. The collective science of 
 England was shut up in it for some hours, rather to the discomfiture of 
 some of its members, when the British Association held its meeting at 
 Manchester in 1843. Heads, if not crowned, destined to become so, 
 have bowed themselves beneath its arched tunnels : amongst others that 
 of the present Emperor of Kussia. The Due de Bordeaux is the last 
 on the list.” 
 
 After the great achievements of Bridgewater and Brindley, nothing 
 was considered impossible in the construction of canals. Within a few 
 years after the opening of the Bridgewater Canal, the daring idea was 
 formed of connecting Liverpool with the manufacturing districts of 
 Yorkshire—the Mersey with the Humber—and the Irish Sea with the 
 German Ocean, by means of a canal carried across the central chain of 
 hills which separates Yorkshire from Lancashire. A few years later 
 Liverpool was connected with the Potteries and the iron districts of 
 Staffordshire, and the Mersey with the Trent, by means of the Grand 
 Junction Canal. Innumerable other schemes for constructing navigable 
 canals were foimed about the same time; nor did the impulse given by 
 the Duke of Bridgewater and his great engineer to the public mind cease 
 to be felt until upwards of one hundred and ten canals had been 
 constructed, supplying two thousand four hundred miles of artificial 
 navigation, and uniting with each other all the ancient navigable rivers 
 of the kingdom.* The constructing of canals took the same strong hold 
 on the minds of men in the latter half of the eighteenth century which 
 the constructing of railways has taken in our own times; and though 
 many follies and extravagancies were committed, and many unprofitable 
 schemes were carried into execution, yet the general result was to add 
 incalculably to the wealth of the country, and to pour an extraordinary 
 portion of that wealth into this part of the kingdom, which took the same 
 decided lead in the construction of canals which it has since taken in the 
 construction of railways.. 
 
 In the early periods of the history of Liverpool, this neighbourhood 
 was as deficient in the communications supplied by good roads as in those 
 supplied by inland navigations. Not the slightest trace can be discovered 
 
 See Quarterly Review, No. 140. 
 
43 
 
 in the western part of Lancashire of any of those great military roads 
 which were formed by the Romans in nearly all parts of Britain, and 
 which continued to be the high roads of the kingdom for upwards of a 
 thousand years after the Roman legions had retired from the island. 
 This is the more remarkable, as the eastern parts of the county and the 
 whole of Cheshire are intersected by Roman roads. The road which the 
 Romans formed from Chester to Warrington, and from Warrington, 
 through the centre of South Lancashire, to the banks of the river Ribble, 
 is still so distinctly marked that the greater part of it has been laid down 
 within the last half-dozen years in the maps formed from the Ordnance 
 survey. The Roman road from Chester to Manchester is also laid 
 down in the same maps. It formed part of the line of communication 
 between Chester, the head-quarters of the twentieth Roman Legion, and 
 York, the head-quarters of the sixth Legion. The road from Manchester 
 to Ribchester can also be distinctly traced. It is part of that stupendous 
 line of road, nearly 4000 miles in length, which extended from the 
 frontiers of the ancient Caledonia to the deserts of Syria, from Carlisle 
 to Jerusalem.* These roads formed the most valuable legacy ever 
 bequeathed by a civilized to a barbarous people. They were erected 
 in the unwavering belief, that while the world stood imperial Rome 
 would stand to rule it. With this faith, they were formed of the 
 most durable materials, (brought from a distance when they did not 
 exist upon the spot,) and were constructed on the plans of the 
 ablest military engineers of Greece and Rome. Hence they have 
 proved nearly indestructible; and from the judgment with which they 
 were planned, they long continued to be used as the highways of 
 the kingdom, by generations which scarcely knew the Roman name.f 
 The great road from the Straits of Dover to Chester, Manchester, 
 and the Caledonian Wall, to which the Saxons gave the name of 
 Watling-street, was so perfect in the time of Alfred the Great, that it 
 was made the boundary between the Saxon and the Danish territories, 
 from the neighbourhood of Bedford to the river Mersey, in the treaty 
 which that great king concluded with Guthrum, the Danish chief.! In 
 the laws of William the Conqueror, the same Watling-street, together 
 with the Roman roads called Fosse and Ermin-street, are spoken of as the 
 
 * Gibbon, chapter 2. 
 
 t Essay on the Roman Roads in Lancashire, by Mr. Just, Master of the Bury Grammar 
 School, read before the Liverpool Historical Society. 
 
 { Palgrave’s Rise of the English Commonwealth, SO. 
 
44 
 
 three highways of the kingdom.* Six hundred years later, Watling- 
 street is still spoken of as a boundary, in deeds executed in South 
 Lancasliire.f These roads, called the King’s highways, were especially 
 under the protection of the Crown, and travellers passing along them 
 had always the satisfaction of knowing that if they were robbed on the 
 King’s highways, they could recover the value of the property stolen 
 from them, from the hundred in which the robbery was committed. 
 Hence the inhabitants of the hundreds through which they passed main¬ 
 tained a regular patrol upon them to prevent robberies,J and to clear 
 themselves from responsibility.§ As I have already stated, not a vestige 
 of any road of this description exists in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, 
 or anywhere nearer to it than the line of road which entered the county 
 at Warrington, and ran northward by Newton and Wigan to the river 
 Kibble. 
 
 The oldest road of which we have any account near Liverpool is 
 Smethom-lane, so named from the ancient manor and township of 
 Smethom, or Esmedune, mentioned in Domesday Book. The manor of 
 Smethom was laid waste by King John about the year 1204, to en¬ 
 large the deer park which he was then forming at Toxteth; but the 
 road was spared. It ran along the east side of the park wall, from 
 Wavertree to the Moss-lake, and skirted the Edge hill side of the lake, 
 to the present Pembroke-place. At that point it crossed the stream, which 
 then ran from the Moss-lake, and which fell into the Pool at the head of 
 Byrom-street. It crossed Liverpool Heath hy the line of the London- 
 road, and descended by Shaw’s-brow to the Townsend-bridge, at the 
 end of Dale-street. From that point it was continued along Dale- 
 street, which was long a rural lane, with the mansion of the Crosses on 
 one side, and that of the Banistres on the other, and with gardens and 
 green fields sloping down to the Pool, until it reached the High Cross, in 
 front of the present Town-hall, from which point it was continued down 
 Water-street, then called Banke-street, to the river. This Smethom-lane 
 never seems to have been anything better than a lane; but it was much the 
 oldest road from Liverpool into the country; and is the only one of which 
 we find any distinct trace in ancient times. It has preserved the name of 
 the township of Smethom for six hundred years after it was wasted hy 
 King John. 
 
 Travellers proceeding from Liverpool to the south, in those early 
 
 * Kelham’s Laws of William the Conqueror, 30. + Whitaker’s History of Whalley, 12. 
 
 j Palgrave’s Rise of the English Constitution, 200. § Maddox’s FirmaBurgi. Notes 158. 
 
45 
 
 times, crossed the Mersey to the Priory at Birkenhead, from which point 
 they made their way along the tracks over the forest of Wirral to Chester, 
 where they got on one of the noble roads formed by the Romans. They 
 were then on the King’s highway; and continued upon it all the way to 
 London. As early as the reign of Edward the Second the prior and monks 
 of Birkenhead possessed a right of ferry across the Mersey ; and, in that 
 reign they obtained permission to build a hospice or inn for the 
 entertainment of travellers, and to take certain fees for entertaining 
 them, and conveying them across the river. This ancient right of ferry* 
 still exists, and is called the Monks’ Ferry. 
 
 From the isolated position of Liverpool, and that of the towns in the 
 interior of Lancashire, as well as from the want of materials of trade 
 and commerce in early times, it will naturally he concluded that the 
 progress of Liverpool and of South Lancashire in arts and industry was 
 very slow. There is abundant evidence that it was so. 
 
 Liverpool received its first charter from King John on the 28th August, 
 in the year 1207 ; and obtained a second charter from Henry the Third, 
 the son of King John, in the year 1229. These charters gave to the 
 burgesses of Liverpool every commercial privilege which was possessed 
 by the merchants of London, Bristol, Lynn, and the other great ports of 
 the kingdom; but they were long unavailing for the purpose of creating 
 trade and commerce at Liverpool. In the reign of Edward the Third, 
 in the year 1343, an inquiry was made into the value of property in 
 all the boroughs in the kingdom, and amongst others in Liverpool. It 
 shows how slight was the progress made in commerce during the one 
 hundred and thirty years which elapsed between the granting of the first 
 charter by King John, and the date of this inquiry. The following is 
 a copy of the return :— 
 
 “ Borough of Liverpool. —The true value of the ninth part of the 
 moveables of the men dwelling in the Borough of Liverpool is TO 10s. 7d., 
 (equal to Tl 03 3s. 9d.) And these are the names of those who have declared 
 the said value—Adam, the son of William, Richard de Walton, Roger 
 do la More, Robert de la More, William Fitz Richard, John Fitz Mariot.” 
 
 By means of these returns, we are able to form an estimate of the 
 precise position of the trading interest of Lancashire at that time. 
 
 Manchester had then no manufactures, nor any inhabitants engaged in 
 trade whose transactions were large enough to render them liable to pay 
 the tax imposed upon merchandize and moveable property.* Viewed as 
 
 Nonarum Inquisitiones—Lancashire. 
 
46 
 
 an agricultural parish, Manchester was one of the first in the county, the 
 produce of the soil being worth 80 marks, or about £800 a-year of our 
 money; hut not even a germ existed at that time of the manufacturing 
 industry which rendered it the most prosperous manufacturing town in 
 Lancashire in the reigns of the Tudors, and which has since placed it at 
 the head of the manufacturing cities of England and the world. The same 
 observation applies to all the other towns in the hundreds of Salford and 
 Blackburn. They are mentioned by name, and a particular account 
 is given of the value of the corn, the wool, and the lambs produced in 
 each township ; hut it is declared, with regard to all parts of Salford 
 and Blackburn, that they contain no merchants, nor any persons liable 
 to pay the duty on moveable goods. 
 
 At this time there were four royal boroughs in Lancashire,— 
 Lancaster, Preston, Liverpool, and Wigan. I have already spoken of 
 Liverpool. The following are the particulars supplied by the same 
 authority—the Nonse Bolls—with regard to the other three :— 
 
 Lancaster, although it gave title to one of the most powerful 
 earls in England, possessed a strong castle, and was the county town, 
 was hut an insignificant place in point of population and wealth. The 
 following is the return made with regard to it :— 
 
 “ Borough of Lancaster. —The ninth part of the goods of the 
 burgesses of Lancaster is £6 13s. 6d., (equal to £100 2s. 6d.)—John de 
 Laurence, Thomas de Holland, William Banes, and others.” 
 
 Preston, which was also a royal borough, was somewhat a-head of 
 the other royal boroughs in Lancashire, and maintained that position 
 until the time of the Stuarts; still the return of the property of Preston 
 is very humble. It is as follows:— 
 
 “ Borough of Preston. —The undersigned made inquiry, as to the 
 true value, of the ninth part of the goods of the men, dwelling in the 
 Borough of Preston, and found that the true value was £6 17s 4d., (equal 
 to £103.)—Albert Fitz Bobert, John de Wiche, Galfred de Hakenesliou, 
 Nicholas de Preston, William Smyth, and Boger de Bluwath.” 
 
 Wigan was, at that time, the only royal borough in the interior. 
 The return with regard to it was as follows:— 
 
 “ Borough of Wigan. —The true value of the ninth part of the 
 moveable goods, of the men dwelling in the Borough of Wigan, is £5 9s. 4d., 
 (equal to £82,) which value the undersigned have presented.—Henry de 
 Fulschagh, Simon Payn, Almeric de Walker, Bobert de Mareschall, 
 William le Lycster, and William Fitz Walter.” 
 
47 
 
 It will be seen, from the foregoing returns, that the aggregate amount of 
 trading property in the only four boroughs of Lancashire which acknow¬ 
 ledged that they possessed any property of that kind, was about £232 19s. 9d. 
 of the money of that time, or £3,494 lGs. 3d. of our present money. At 
 that time the capital of Nottingham, according to the same calculation, 
 was equal to £50,000 of our money ; that of Bristol to £30,000. Lan¬ 
 cashire was thus immeasurably below the southern and central districts 
 of the kingdom in capital and industry, and so continued to be for many 
 succeeding ages. 
 
 Of about forty ports on the sea, which existed in the reigns of the 
 Plantagenet Kings, not above a dozen are now available for the purposes 
 of foreign commerce.* Some have been washed away by the waves. This 
 was the case with Dunwicli, which was a great port at the time of the 
 Conquest, though it had even then lost a carucate of land by the 
 encroachments of the sea. It has since been utterly destroyed by the 
 same cause. Ravenspurn, in Yorkshire, and a number of other places 
 situated on chalky cliffs, have been ruined in like manner. 
 
 Others have been destroyed by the collecting of the sands. This is 
 the case with Sandwich, Romney, Hytlie, and all the Cinque Ports, 
 except Dover; and with many other ports, Chester especially. 
 
 Others have sustained no physical change, but have ceased to be 
 used as ports from the increased size of vessels employed in modern 
 navigation: York, Lincoln, and Exeter, are of the number. 
 
 It was the misfortune of Chester, as well as of most of the ports founded 
 by the Romans, to be built at too great a distance from tbe sea. That great 
 people never overcame their fear of the ocean. Nothing struck them with 
 
 * The following is a list of the ports of the sea at the time when Liverpool was raised 
 to the rank of a free borough, with an accoimt of the sum paid by each to the tax of 
 fifteenths, in the sixth of King John:— 
 
 PORT. 
 
 AMOUNT. 
 
 £ fi . d . 
 
 EQUAL TO 
 
 £ 8 . d . 
 
 PORT. 
 
 AMOUNT. 
 
 8 . d . 
 
 EQUAL TO 
 
 £ 8 . d . 
 
 London. 
 
 83(5 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 12,540 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 Seaford .... 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 189 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
 Boston. 
 
 788 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 11,831 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 Shoreham .. 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 303 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 Southampton. 
 
 712 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 10,682 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 Chichester .. 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 349 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 Lincoln . 
 
 656 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 0,848 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 Exmoxitii .... 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 214 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 Lynn. 
 
 651 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 9,773 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 Dartmouth .. 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Hull. 
 
 344 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 5,170 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 Esse. 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 108 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 York. 
 
 175 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 2,631 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 Fowey . 
 
 48 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 731 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 Dunwtcii .... 
 
 104 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 1,566 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 Pevensey .... 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 253 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Grimsby .... 
 
 01 
 
 15 
 
 1§ 
 
 1,376 
 
 6 
 
 104 
 
 Coton . 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 Yarmouth.... 
 
 54 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 822 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Whitby. 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Ipswich. 
 
 60 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 006 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 Scarboro’ .... 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 0i 
 
 340 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 Colchester .. 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 246 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Selby . 
 
 17 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 263 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 Sandwich .... 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 240 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 Barton. 
 
 33 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 503 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Dover . 
 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 484 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 Hedun. 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 H 
 
 281 
 
 16 
 
 10£ 
 
 Rye . 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 r>i 
 
 160 
 
 1 
 
 10| 
 
 Norwich .... 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 104 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 WlNCHEI.SEA. . 
 
 62 
 
 2 
 
 
 931 
 
 15 
 
 
 Orford. 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 170 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
48 
 
 greater awe than the rushing of the tides into the estuaries of Britain. 
 “ Nowhere,” says Tacitus, “ is the wonderful power of the sea to be seen 
 in greater extent than here; driving back the waters of many rivers, or 
 forcibly carrying them away with its own. Neither are its flowings and 
 ebbings confined to the usual limits of the bank and shore, but it works 
 and winds itself far into the land, and even forms bays in rocks and moun 
 tains, as if the same were its natural bed.” With these feelings of awe 
 it was natural that the Romans should form their ports as high up the rivers 
 as they could do, without losing the advantage of the double power supplied 
 by the advancing and receding tide; and in some instances even higher. 
 This they did at Chester, Gloucester, York, Lincoln, Colchester, Hun¬ 
 tingdon, Ribchester, and many other places. Some of these ports never 
 possessed sufficient depth of water for the purposes of modern commerce : 
 others which once possessed it have lost it from the collecting of sand banks. 
 
 The port of Chester, which was originally the principal port on the 
 north-west side of the island, has been thus ruined by the collecting of 
 sand at the mouth of the River Dee. At the time when Domesday Book 
 was drawn up, the port of Chester was worth ^70 (T1050) a year to the 
 Crown, but soon after that time its value began to decline, owing to the 
 drifting of the sands which were driven into it by the storms of the 
 Atlantic. In the first year of Richard the Second, the rent of the 
 port of Chester, which had previously risen considerably, was reduced 
 from T100 to £73 10s. 8d., “owing to the shallowing of the river 
 Dee.” In the fourth of Henry the Sixth, the rent of the same port 
 was again reduced “ by reason of the decay of merchandize, and because 
 the port was destroyed by the sand of the sea.” In the fourth of Edward 
 the Fourth, the King forgave d£80 of the rent of Chester, “ because 
 of the charge of the walls, and that the river had become sandy, and 
 merchandize was in decay.” In the year 15G0, a collection for the new 
 haven at Chester was made in all churches throughout the kingdom. In 
 the ninth of Queen Elizabeth, 1566, the decline of the port still continued, 
 as appears from the following extract of a state paper of that date :—“ And 
 forasmuch as we be credibly informed that the said merchants, citizens, 
 and inhabitants of our said city of Chester have, within the space of 
 ten years last past, lost divers notable ships and vessels of the said city, 
 and great quantities of their goods and merchandizes upon the seas, as 
 well by pirates as by divers other misfortunes, and namely at their 
 entries in and going out at the mouth of the haven of the said port, being 
 lately grown and become more dangerous for the coming in and issuing 
 
49 
 
 out of ships than in times past it hath been, by reason whereof the said 
 merchants and their trade in merchandizes there be lately fallen into 
 great decay, and very unable to recover their said losses, or to maintain 
 their said trade, if they should stand charged to the said new imposts, 
 therefore they are exempt,” &c. The above are specimens of numerous 
 orders on the same subject, all of which trace the decay of the port of 
 Chester. This decay of the port continued during successive ages, and 
 still continues. 
 
 Another cause of the abandonment of Chester and other ancient 
 ports, has been the great increase in the size of the vessels used for the 
 purposes of commerce. We know from history that Caesar was able 
 to draw on shore, in a few days, the vessels with which he invaded 
 Britain. The vessels with which the Danes and Northmen overran all the 
 coasts of Europe, and in which they crossed the Atlantic, cannot have been 
 of more than twenty or thirty tons each. We have particular accounts 
 of some of the largest of them, and are told that they could convey from 
 20 to 40 men and a couple of horses.* The five hundred vessels which 
 King John collected in the Irish Sea, in the year 1210, were mere boats. 
 We know that even the herring boats of Yarmouth were considered large 
 enough for warlike purposes, although they were excused on account of the 
 importance of the fishery. When the great Columbus sailed on his ever 
 memorable voyage of discovery, one of the vessels which accompanied him 
 was a carvel of 15 tons burthen. The vessels fitted out at Bristol, and in 
 which Frobisher crossed the Atlantic, were of 15 or 20 tons burthen each ; 
 and Sir Hugh Gilbert made his first voyage from Europe to Newfoundland 
 in a vessel of 10 tons, which however was lost on its return.f While 
 vessels of this size were in use a very small depth of water was sufficient 
 to form a port; but in modem times, when we have seen vessels of 1,000, 
 2,000, and even 3,000 tons employed for the purposes of commerce, and 
 when it is habitually carried on in vessels of 500 or GOO tons, the 
 foreign trade of the country is confined to the ports which possess a 
 much greater depth of water, as London, Bristol, Hull, and Liverpool. 
 Even a greater depth than they supply is required for the vessels of the 
 Koyal Navy, and hence Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Plymouth, 
 and Milford have become the receptacles for the stupendous ships which 
 compose it. 
 
 While the port of Chester was thus going to decay from the ruin of 
 
 * Snorre’s Heimskringla, i., 317. 
 
 + Sir Charles Lyell’s Second Visit to the United States, c. 1. 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 the harbour, Liverpool, which possesses an abundant depth of water for 
 all the purposes of commerce, continued to rise. Liverpool being within 
 two or three miles of the sea, had not to contend with the same difficulties 
 as ports like Chester, situated twenty miles from it. In addition to its 
 proximity to the sea, Liverpool is favoured by the form of the entrance to 
 the river, which is narrow when compared with the higher part of the 
 estuary, and is therefore constantly scoured out by the rushing of the 
 receding tides. The width of the Mersey at its entrance is only one- 
 fourth of the width of the Dee ; it is turned northward, and so protected 
 from the direct influx of the Atlantic; and it is further sheltered by the 
 peninsula of Wirral, which rises like a great bulwark between the estuary 
 and the ocean. A similar form of river and land has kept open the port 
 of the Wyre, whilst the Kibble and the Dee, which are open to the full 
 action of the tides and winds, have long since been ruined as ports. 
 
 The following extract from “ The Coasting Pilot of Great Britain,” 
 drawn up by Captain Greenville Collins, in the reign of William and 
 Mary, shows what was the state of the entrance to the river Mersey 
 before any efforts had been made to improve it; and also what was the 
 nature and extent of the accommodation which this port afforded for 
 large ships, previous to the construction of the magnificent line 
 of docks which now form the safest, the most commodious, and the 
 most extensive artificial harbour in the world :—“ Being at the back 
 of Hyle sand,” says Captain Collins, “bring the mill (Bootle) and 
 wood, one on the other, and run in, keeping close along Hyle sand, and 
 so into Hyle Lake and anchor. Here the great ships that belong to 
 Liverpool put out part of their lading, till they are light enough to sail 
 over the flats into Liverpool. There is a channel near Formby to go into 
 Liverpool, where there is three fathoms at low water on the bar, but this 
 place is not buoyed or beaconed, and so not known. The ships lie 
 aground before the town of Liverpool. It is bad riding afloat before the 
 town, by reason of the strong tides that run here, therefore ships that 
 ride afloat ride up at the Slyne, where is less tide.” Such was the 
 natural entrance, and such the amount of accommodation, afforded by the 
 port of Liverpool a hundred and fifty years ago. Since that time the 
 passage near Formby has been buoyed, and a new and much better 
 passage than either of those mentioned by Greenville Collins has been 
 discovered, by means of which vessels three times as large as those which 
 were used for commercial purposes in his time enter the harbour without 
 discharging any portion of their cargo. A succession of brilliant 
 
51 
 
 lights, some afloat, others placed on hills and head-lands, render the 
 approach to the river as safe by night as by day. Once within the 
 Mersey, numerous docks are open to receive vessels, in which they 
 lie as safe as in the smoothest and most land-locked harbour in the world. 
 The history of these docks, and of the rude harbours which preceded 
 them, will he given in a succeeding part of this work. 
 
 The above sketch will show the principal causes of the commercial 
 insignificance of Liverpool in ancient times, and will indicate some of 
 the causes of its modern greatness. I now proceed to trace the history 
 of the Lordship, Borough, Port, and Inhabitants of Liverpool from the 
 earliest ages down to that in which we live. 
 
CHATTER SECOND. 
 
 NOTICES OF LIVERPOOL AND THE ADJOINING DISTRICT PREVIOUS TO 
 THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. 
 
 A single writer on British Antiquities has claimed for Liverpool an 
 origin as ancient as that of Chester, Manchester, and Lancaster, all of 
 which places have existed from the time of the Roman dominion in 
 Britain, and are mentioned as military stations in the Roman Itineraries. 
 The writer who makes this claim is William Baxter, the author of a 
 learned but fanciful work written in the Latin language, and published at 
 the beginning of the last century, under the title of “ Glossarium Anti- 
 quitatum Britannicarum.” In his preface, Baxter makes a boast of 
 having discovered the sites of upwards of two hundred Roman stations, 
 which were not known to Camden or any other English antiquary. 
 Amongst a variety of discoveries, most of them apocryphal, one is that 
 the river Mersey was called the Tyne, or Tinna, (the winding stream,) 
 both by the Britons and Romans. Another is that Warrington was 
 named Yeratinum from the fact of its being situated on the said river 
 Tyne, or Tinna. A third is that Liverpool is the true site of a mysterious 
 port, named the Poi'tus Segantiorum, which has been much sought by 
 antiquaries, but never yet found.* All tliat is really known of that port 
 is, that it is mentioned in the account of Britain given by Ptolemy, the 
 geographer of Alexandria, as one of the ports lying between Morecambe 
 Bay and the river Seteia, which river is supposed to be the Dee, although 
 on very slight evidence. The learned Camden, who was as much at a 
 loss as any of his predecessors or successors as to the position of the 
 Segantian port, hazarded the bold conjecture that no port of that name 
 had ever existed; and suggested that the belief in its existence had 
 arisen from the error of an ignorant transcriber of Ptolemy’s work, 
 who, by substituting the Greek name for a port for the Greek name for a 
 lake, had set the learned world to seek at the mouths of the Lancashire 
 
 * Segantiorum Portus. —In the works of Ptolemy, it is written incorrectly Setantion 
 Limen for Segantion. It is Litherpool, at the mouth of the River Mersey, or Tinna. * * 
 
 Camden wandered far from the way when he sought the Poi’tus Segantiorum at Dictis, or 
 Winwandermere.— Baxter, 217. 
 
53 
 
 rivers for a position which was only to be found on the banks of the 
 beautiful Windermere.* This theory Baxter denounces as a great error, 
 and declares that the father of English topography had entirely lost his way 
 on this subject. By way of setting him right, he asserts very positively 
 that Liverpool, or as he calls it Litherpool, at the mouth of the Mersey, 
 is the true site of the Segantian port. Unfortunately for the anti¬ 
 quarian claims of Liverpool, he forgets to supply the evidence on which 
 his assertion rests; and certainly nothing has been discovered either 
 before or since, in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, which would induce 
 us to believe the assertion without evidence. If the Romans had formed 
 or even occupied a position in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, some 
 traces would have been discovered of the fact, in the course of the 
 innumerable excavations which have been made in tliis neighbourhood. 
 Chester and Ribchester have each of them proved inexhaustible mines of 
 wealth to our antiquaries ; and both Manchester and Warrington have 
 yielded remarkable specimens of the works of the masters of the ancient 
 world. Not even a single Roman coin has been discovered in Liverpool. 
 This might have well occurred if the site had been even temporarily 
 occupied by the Romans : still less have any remains of altars and temples 
 been found, which are rarely absent from positions where they fixed 
 themselves permanently. The most decisive proof, however, that they 
 never established themselves in this neighbourhood, is that which I have 
 mentioned in the previous chapter, I mean the absence of those military 
 roads which ai’e found in other parts of the country, and which never 
 failed to exist in the neighbourhood of every town or station of any 
 importance. As far as we have the means of judging, this part of 
 Lancashire was a solitude in ancient times. It was probably covered 
 with one of those great forests, in the recesses of which the ancient Druids 
 celebrated the rites of a bloody superstition, under the shade of 
 ancient oaks, and in circles of unhewn stones, such as the Calder stones, 
 which still exist within a few miles of Liverpool. 
 
 The first people of whom we find any certain traces around the estuary 
 of the Mersey are the Danes or Northmen. These daring adventurers 
 subdued and colonised numerous points on the coasts and islands of the 
 Irish Sea some centuries before the Norman conquest, and they retained 
 possession of the principal island in that sea, the Isle of Man, for two 
 hundred and fifty years after the Norman conquest. We learn from the 
 
 * Camden’s Britannia, 621. 
 
54 
 
 Saxon Chronicle that the river Mersey was the southern boundary of 
 the Danish kingdom of Northumbria, on the western side of the island. 
 Manchester is expressly spoken of as a place situated in the king¬ 
 dom of Northumbria,* and Cheshire is known to have formed part of 
 the kingdom of Mercia.f The power of the Danes was more firmly 
 established along the coast than it was in the interior. This circum¬ 
 stance is easily accounted for by the rapid communication which the 
 Danish settlers near the sea had with the Danish Chiefs established in 
 the Isle of Man, at Dublin, at Waterford, in the Orkneys, in the 
 Hebrides, as well as with the pirates who roamed along the coasts of 
 Europe from Norway to Spain. Nearly all the names of places on the 
 coast of Lancashire bear marks of a Scandinavian rather than of a 
 Saxon origin. We are told by the most learned writers on Northern 
 Antiquities, that the invaders introduced Danish or Norwegian, in the 
 place of Saxon names, wherever they formed permanent settlements. 
 The author of the History of the Rise of the English Commonwealth, 
 (Sir Francis Palgrave,) speaking of the settlement of the Danes in the 
 north of England, says, “ The old Saxon names gave place to Danish 
 appellations. Northworthig became Derby, or Deorby; Stonesalch is the 
 present Whitby. The vessels of Grimsby, if they enter a Danish port, 
 can even now claim the exemption derived from the Danish founder 
 or restorer; and the topography as well as the language of the north and 
 east of England will afford the most convincing proof of the pre¬ 
 ponderance of the Danish settlers.” The names of nearly all the ancient 
 villages around Liverpool, if not that of Liverpool itself, bear evidence 
 to the truth of this observation. The name of the village of West 
 Derby, situate about four miles from Liverpool, from which the hundred 
 of West Derby is named, was no doubt derived from the same enterprising 
 race. It was probably the chief place in the district during the Danish 
 as well as the Saxon dominion. The manor house which stood at West 
 Derby, in the reign of Henry the Third, was built on the site of a 
 still more ancient castle, whose origin is entirely lost in antiquity. It 
 was there before the Norman conquest; and most likely was there at the 
 time when the Danes were driven out of Lancashire, by Atlielstane and 
 Edmund, the grandsons of Alfred the Great. The name of Derby is 
 probably derived from the Danish words Dyr, a wild beast, and Bye, a 
 town. The Saxons afterwards called the town of Derby, in Derbyshire, 
 
 * Saxon Chronicle, 138. 
 
 + Sir Peter Leicester’s Antiquities of Cheshire, 92. 
 
55 
 
 Deorby, which is evidently derived from their word Deor, the general 
 name which they gave to all wild animals. The modern English word 
 Deer is the same word slightly altered, and restricted to a single tribe 
 of animals of chase, instead of being applied to all. Up to the time of 
 the Norman conquest, the Lancashire Derby was still a hunting seat of 
 the Saxon Kings. As I have already mentioned, all the Thanes in 
 South Lancashire held their estates on condition of joining the royal 
 hunting parties, with their dependents, for the purpose of driving the 
 game of the district into the haias or enclosures in which it was killed by 
 the royal hunters. Three aeries of hawks existed in the Manor of West 
 Derby, at the time of the Norman conquest, and extensive woods stretched 
 on all sides. All these are traces of the circumstance from which the manor 
 and hundred of West Derby took their name. Another evidence of the settle¬ 
 ment of the northern tribes on the banks of the Mersey, is found in the 
 existence of villages on both sides of the Mersey bearing the name of 
 Thingwall—the name which they gave to their courts of justice and 
 places of public assembly. These courts were generally held on the 
 summits of hills commanding extensive views of the surrounding 
 country. “ Natural hills, or artificial tumuli, (says Sir Francis Palgrave,) 
 upon whose summit the judges might meet, visible to the surrounding 
 multitude, yet separated from the throng, were also appropriated to 
 popular assemblies. Such was the Mons-placiti or Moot-hill at Scone, 
 the only portion of the Koyal demesne retained by Malcolm, when he is 
 said to have bestowed all his lands upon the Barons of his realm ; and 
 such still is the Tynwald Hill of Man.” We learn from the Chronicles 
 of the Kings of Man, preserved in Camden’s Britannia, that Tingualla, 
 or Thingwall, was the ancient name of the Manx Tynwald.* Thingwall 
 was also the name of a temple or court of justice, built in the Island of 
 Iceland by the Norwegian King Olaf; and it was there that the great 
 assemblies of the people were held every year.f We find the same 
 
 * Camden, 738. 
 
 + Snorre Sturlason, the Historian of the Northern Kings, gives the following account 
 of Olaf named Helga or the Holy :—“ In the spring Olaf had his fleet prepared, in which 
 he was accustomed, in the summer, to make his voyages through the southern regions,”— 
 (Man was the chief of the Soder-eyes, or Southern Islands)—“ holding solemn assemblies, 
 in which he settled questions in dispute and prescribed laws to the people. He also 
 collected tribute”—(Childs, perhaps Childwall, is named from this)—“where it was due. 
 He further pursued his voyage, in the autumn, towards the most distant regions, where he 
 initiated the inhabitants in the mysteries of Christianity, in his extensive territories, and 
 promulgated statutes and laws. Having sent out embassies, he made many friends in 
 Iceland, Greenland, and the Feroe Islands. He also sent the timber needful for building a 
 temple to Iceland, where a temple was afterwards built at a place called Thingwall, 
 (Tingwalla,) where solemn Courts of Justice were held yearly.— Heimskringla,part 7. 
 
56 
 
 name in the Shetland Islands, at Lerwick, in which islands the Northmen 
 ruled for many hundred years. Two places, hearing the name, are 
 also found within a few miles of Liverpool, one in Lancashire and the 
 other in Cheshire. The Cheshire Tliingwall is mentioned in Domesday 
 Book; and very strong evidence exist that the Lancashire Tliingwall was 
 a dependency of West Derby at the time that hook was drawn up. Its 
 position is precisely that described by Sir Francis Palgrave,—a beautiful 
 green hill, rising from an extensive plain, and commanding a view of 
 all the surrounding district of South Lancashire. The position of the 
 Cheshire Tliingwall also very much corresponds with that assigned to 
 these ancient courts and places of assembly. Numerous other traces of 
 the Danish race are found along the Lancashire coast, and for some 
 miles in the interior. All the small islands on the coast have still the 
 Danish termination of “ eye,” or island, as Walneye, Foudreye, and 
 Hilbrie. The promontories are still known by the Danish or Norwegian 
 name of “ ness,” or “ naze.” The sites of the most ancient churches 
 still bear the Danish name of “Kirk,” as Kirkham, Kirby, Kirkdale, 
 Ormskirk. Numbers of the oldest villages retain the Northern termination 
 of “by;” as Koby, Derby, Crosby, Formby, Kirby, Frankby, Tliirlby. 
 and others. In some parts of the district we still recognise the 
 names of the chiefs who figure in the wars of the ancient Sea Kings. 
 Thus, in Amounderness, formerly written Agmunderness, we find the 
 name of Agmund, the governor, who is mentioned in the Saxon chronicle;* 
 in Ormskirk, that of Earl Orme, whose descendants remained in 
 Lancashire after the Norman Conquest; and in Garston, that of Earl 
 Gaer, another celebrated warrior. The old northern names of Syward, 
 Arnold, Ulf, and others, remained in use in Lancashire long after the 
 Norman Conquest; and the female name of Quinilda was so popular two 
 hundred years after the Norman Conquest, that we find three females bear¬ 
 ing it, in the account of South Lancashire given in Testa de Neville. As 
 the old Northern language is now spoken no where except in the Island of 
 Iceland, it is difficult to trace the origin of many words derived from it. 
 I suspect that this is the cause of the difficulty which has been found in 
 discovering the meaning of the first part of the name of Liverpool. 
 
 The latter part of the name of Liverpool is evidently derived from the 
 pool which washed its shores. Some doubt, however, exists as to whether 
 the pool from which the name was taken was the narrow creek which 
 
 * Saxon Chronicle, 129. 
 
57 
 
 encircled the ancient town, or a part of the wider expanse of the Mersey, 
 extending from Litherland or Croshy to above the present town. We find 
 the term pool applied both to narrow creeks and to open expanses of water. 
 In the latter sense, it is applied to that portion of the river Dee called 
 Dawpool; to the reach of the river Thames, lying below London Bridge, 
 which forms the harbour of London; to the large bay from which the town 
 of Poole, in Dorsetshire, is named; to Wampool, on the coast of Cumber¬ 
 land ; and to Hartlepool, on the coast of Durham. We also find the 
 upper expanse of the Mersey, between Runcorn and Warrington, called 
 the Fresh Pool in a deed of the reign of Edward the Fourth—a desig¬ 
 nation which seems to have been given to it to distinguish it from some 
 pool lower down. Holinshead, who wrote in the reign of Queen Eliza¬ 
 beth, speaking of the river Mersey, says: “ finally, our Mersie, going 
 by Moulton, it falleth into Lirpool, or, as it was called of old, Liverpool 
 Haven, when it is past Runcorn.” As early as the reign of Edward the 
 First, the burgesses of Liverpool claimed and succeeded in establishing 
 their claim to the river as far down as Crosby or Litherland.* 
 
 Most of the attempts hitherto made to explain the meaning of the 
 first part of the word Liverpool have been very unsuccessful. I shall not 
 add to the number of conjectures, hut point out the one which appears 
 to me to be most probable amongst those already made. A difficulty 
 arises from the fact, that it is scarcely possible to tell whether the original 
 name of the township was Liverpool, Litherpool, or Lithepool, or whether 
 the name was spelt all those ways indifferently. When Camden visited 
 Liverpool in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he found the name written 
 and pronounced Litherpoole ; but he says that the original name, in 
 the time of the Saxons, was Liferpole.f That would have been, as nearly 
 as possible, the present name, for the Saxons used the letter f where we 
 use the v. But there is not the slightest evidence as to the manner in 
 which the name of Liverpool was written at that time. The most ancient 
 deed now in existence in which the name occurs, is one of the reign 
 of Richard the First, about the year 1190, and will be found quoted in a 
 succeeding page. In that the word is written Liverpol, modernized into 
 Liverpool, which confirms, in some degree, the spelling of Camden. The 
 same mode of spelling (or contractions which are equivalent to it,) occur 
 in King John’s charter to the town of Liverpool, granted in the year 
 1207; in the second charter granted by Henry the Third, in the year 
 
 * Picas of the Crown, 20th Edward First. + Camden’s Britannia, 615. 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 1229 ; and in most of the deeds of that age. There are exceptions, 
 however. The most remarkable of these is found in that ancient and 
 curious record of the royal rights, entitled Testa de Neville, in which 
 the word is written Litherpol.* That part of Testa de Neville which 
 relates to Lancashire must have been drawn up in the reign of King 
 John, for we find mention made in it of “ the Earl of Morton, who now is 
 king,” which description can apply to no other than King John. The 
 name is written Lithepole in one of the Sheriff’s accounts, in the reign 
 of Edward I., the grandson of King John. These modes of spelling are, 
 therefore, of nearly equal antiquity, so far as we have the means of 
 judging from original documents. I am inclined to think that the Lider 
 and Liter of Domesday Book ;f the Liver of the reign of Bichard the First, 
 the Litker of Testa de Neville, and the Lithe of the Sheriff's accounts, are 
 all originally the same word, and that they are derived, as has been sug¬ 
 gested, from the old Gothic word Lide or Lithe, the Sea, or from some of 
 the words formed from it, as Lid and Liter, a ship ; Lithe, a fleet of ships ; 
 Lithesman, a seaman. We find this word as a part of several names 
 around the coast, as in Lytham, at the mouth of the Kibble; Litherland 
 and Liverpool, at the mouth of the Mersey; Lidford, in Devonshire; 
 Litliermore, or Livermore, in Suffolk, and probably Leith, in the estuary 
 of the Forth. The old Scandinavian name Forth has entirely superseded 
 the classical name Bodotria, in the Frith of Forth ; and it has been 
 clearly shown, by Dr. Jamieson, Sir Francis Palgrave, and other writers, 
 that Scandinavian names, as well as Scandinavian words, abound in the 
 north of England and in Scotland. It is at least a curious coincidence, 
 that the Eiver Liffey, which flows into the Bay of Dublin, is called the 
 Biver Lith, in six or seven official documents published in the reign of 
 King John. 
 
 The earliest mention of the Eiver Mersey by its modern name is con¬ 
 tained in a deed of the reign of the Saxon King Ethelred, executed in 
 the year 1004, that is about sixty years before the Norman Conquest. 
 The earlier history of that river is very obscure. Baxter is the only 
 writer who professes to tell us its ancient name ; and his assertion that 
 the name was the Tinna, or Tyne, which he says means the Winding 
 Stream, is a mere assertion. Stretford, or “ the ford of the street” or road, 
 and Warrington, were the two points at which the Mersey was crossed by 
 the Boman Koads. There is no doubt that the Mersey was the boundary 
 
 * Testa de Neville, 371. 
 
 + Used in what we call Litherland. 
 
59 
 
 between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, both in the Saxon and 
 the Danish times. Some writers have even thought that the latter king¬ 
 dom was named from that circumstance ; but most persons will agree in 
 the opinion of Sir Peter Leycester, the historian of Cheshire, that the 
 river is more likely to have been named from the kingdom which it 
 bounded, than the kingdom (which extended over seventeen counties) 
 to have been named from so small a stream. “ It was called Mercia (says 
 Sir Peter Leycester) not from the river Mersey running from the corner 
 of Wirhallia, in Cheshire, because that wa^ the utmost limit thereof west¬ 
 ward, but T rather believe that river took its denomination from the king¬ 
 dom which it bounded on that side.”* I am the more disposed to concur 
 in this opinion from the fact that the river Mersey is not the main stream, 
 in the upper part of its course. The Irwell, which flows into it from 
 the north, is the larger river; but the smaller stream, which formed 
 the boundary, still bears the name of Mersey from the point where it 
 leaves the hills to the sea. 
 
 The first mention of the country between the Mersey and the Kibble 
 —Inter Ripam et Mersam—is contained in the will of Wulfric Spott, 
 Earl of Mercia, made in the year 1004. In that deed that powerful 
 nobleman bequeathed the district between those two rivers to his heirs, 
 Elfhelme and Wulfage, subject to a payment, by each of them, of three 
 thousand sceattas, (a small coin then current in this part of the country,) 
 to the monastery of Burton-on Trent, of which he was the founder. This 
 deed is the earliest document in which the rivers Ribble and Mersey are 
 mentioned by their modern names, or from which we obtain any 
 information, as to the ownership of property between them.f 
 
 Wulfric Spott, the testator in the above will, was killed in a great 
 battle, fought with an invading army of the Danes, at Ipswich, in the year 
 1010. This was the commencement of a series of disastrous conflicts, 
 which ended in the conquest of the kingdom by the Danes, under their 
 brave and able kings, Sweyne, and his son, Canute. Amongst other results 
 of that struggle was the ruin of the Earls of Mercia, who were the most 
 powerful subjects of the crown. Although they recovered a large portion 
 of their estates, when the Saxon line of kings was restored, they never 
 regained the country between the Mersey and the Ribble. That passed 
 
 * Sir Peter Leycester’s Antiquities of Cheshire, 92. 
 
 t Dugdale’s Monasticon, iii., 2. See also note on Dugdale’s Translation of Wulfric 
 Spott’s Will, in Proofs and Illustrations of Sir Francis Palgrave’s Rise of the English 
 Commonwealth, 292. 
 
60 
 
 into the hands of Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king of the race 
 of Alfred. 
 
 We aro told that King Edward held the whole, in the introduction 
 to the account of the six Hundreds of West Derby, Warrington, 
 Newton, Salford, Blackburn, and Leyland, given in the Domesday survey. 
 It thus appears that all the country between the Babble and the Mersey 
 was Boyal Demesne, previous to the Norman Conquest. 
 
 At the death of Edward the Confessor, the greater part of the manors 
 about Liverpool were held by Thanes of the second or third class, who 
 paid the king a nominal rent of two oras or ounces of silver, for each 
 carucate of arable land, and a fine of 40s., (equal to about ,£30 of our 
 money,) on the accession of each new tenant. These Thanes were also 
 obliged to help in building the King’s houses, and to send all their 
 servants to assist in cutting the king’s com for one day in the month of 
 August. The only man of much wealth in this part of the country at 
 that time, was a Thane named Uctred, who held Knowsley and fifteen 
 other manors, including Kirkdale, which now forms part of the town of 
 Liverpool. This Uctred is believed to have been the son of the Uctred 
 who is mentioned in the history of the wars of King Canute, given in 
 the Saxon Chronicle. The other manors were in the possession of 
 Thanes of a smaller class, each of whom had his rude mansion or manor 
 house, where he resided in the midst of his dependents, whom he 
 governed after the manor of his Saxon ancestors. The quantity of 
 arable land—terra—attached to these manor houses was very small; in 
 some instances not more than twenty acres, and in few more than from 
 a hundred to a hundred and fifty acres. At that time, however, the 
 population was rather pastoral than agricultural in its habits. The 
 chief wealth of the landed proprietors consisted in the herds of cattle 
 and swine which subsisted on the wastes and in the forests which surrounded 
 the small clearings in which their mansions were built. 
 
 The only part of South Lancashire in which we have any information 
 as to the numbers and occupations of a lower class of people than the 
 Thanes, or gentlemen, at the close of the Saxon dynasty, is in the 
 manor of West Derby, near Liverpool, and the berewicks or subordinate 
 manors attached to it. This manor and these berewicks were then 
 held by the Crown, and were cultivated and inhabited by fifty-three 
 villeins, sixty-two bordarii, three ploughmen, six herdsmen, a radman or 
 horseman, two bondmen, and three bondwomen. If these hundred and 
 thirty persons were heads of families, this would give a population of 
 
61 
 
 between six and seven hundred inhabitants in West Derby, and the six 
 berewicks attached to that manor. These are supposed to have been Liver¬ 
 pool, Everton, Garston, Tkingwall, Great Crosby, and perhaps a portion 
 of Wavertree. This is quite as large a population as is likely to have existed 
 in those days in West Derby and its dependencies, when the whole kingdom 
 is computed to have contained a population of not more than a million 
 and a half of inhabitants. The smallness of the number of inhabitants in 
 the neighbourhood of Liverpool proves that no town of any consequence 
 existed there at that time. This is equally proved by the occupations of 
 the people. The villeins were the farmers or cultivators of the district. The 
 bordarii were the cottagers, that is, the day labourers employed in 
 husbandry; and perhaps the fishermen and ferrymen of the Mersey. 
 Such was the population of this district at the earliest period at which 
 we obtain any insight into its condition. 
 
 In addition to the manors let to Saxon Thanes, it appears from 
 Domesday Book that King Edward the Confessor held in his own hand, 
 up to the time of his death, the royal manor of West Derby, and six 
 berewicks, or subordinate manors, dependent upon it. The names of 
 these six berewicks are not given; but we naturally look for them 
 amongst those of the manors or townships adjoining West Derby, which 
 are known to have existed, and to have been connected with it, from 
 ancient times. The manors which best answer these conditions are 
 Liverpool, Everton, and Thingwall, which adjoined West Derby ; Garston 
 and Great Crosby, which lie within a moderate distance of it; and a 
 portion of the present township of Wavertree, lying between West Derby 
 and Garston. No account is given in Domesday Book of the value of 
 the lands in Everton, although the name is mentioned. The names of 
 Liverpool, Garston, Thingwall, and one of the Crosbys are not even 
 mentioned, though there is evidence that they all existed very soon after 
 that survey was made. To have omitted these manors, or any others, 
 would have been to defeat one principal object for which the survey was 
 made, which was the raising of a land tax of six shillings (£i 10s.) a hide, 
 on all the arable land of the kingdom, to resist an invasion of the kingdom, 
 which was threatened by Canute King of Denmark, Norway, and 
 Sweden, one of the successors of the Danish conqueror Canute. There 
 can be no doubt that all the manors in this neighbourhood, without 
 exception, are included in the Domesday Survey; and that those which 
 are not mentioned by name, are comprised under the general head of the 
 six berewicks of West Derby. 
 
62 
 
 It will be seen in n subsequent chapter of this work, that tlie manors 
 of Liverpool, Everton, Thingwall, and Crosby, as well as the greater 
 part of the lands within those manors, belonged to the successive lords 
 of the manor of West Derby for three or four hundred years, and that the 
 connection of some of those manors with each other was not severed 
 until they were sold by Charles the First to the merchants of London, 
 in the year 1629. In 1617, the West Derby men, with Sir Richard 
 Molyneux at their head, attempted to seize on part of the waste lands of 
 Liverpool, in right of this ancient superiority ; but as the Lordship of 
 West Derby did not belong to them, but to the Crown, they clearly had no 
 claim. As we shall see afterwards, the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Town Council 
 of Liverpool met and repulsed them, either by moral or physical force— 
 it does not very clearly appear which. Indeed it ought to be said in 
 justice to the Corporation that they defended their claim to the wastes of 
 the manor, when they produced only 7s. 5d. a year, as resolutely as if 
 they had foreseen that the time would come when they would be worth 
 L'100,000 a year. 
 
 We find in Domesday Book descriptions of two different states of 
 society. The former is that which existed at the death of Edward 
 the Confessor, or, as it is expressed in the Exon Domesday, on 
 the day in which that king was living and dead. The second is 
 that which prevailed twenty years after the battle of Hastings, when the 
 Saxon Thanes had been driven from their estates to make way for Nor¬ 
 man knights and gentlemen, and when the feudal system, of which only 
 imperfect traces existed amongst the Saxons, had been established in all 
 its rigour. This system was military in its origin ; it was directed to 
 military purposes; and whatever were its disadvantages in other respects, 
 it was effectual as a means of repelling attack from abroad. In the two 
 hundred years which preceded its introduction, the kingdom was invaded 
 and wasted fifty times. After its introduction, no invader entered the 
 English territory for three centuries without being signally defeated; and 
 no one ever since succeeded in gaining any permanent advantage. Military 
 organization was the forte of the Normans; want of it the weakness of 
 the Saxons. According to the feudal system, the king was looked upon as 
 the head of the armed force of the nation, which force consisted of the 
 whole population, drawn out by conscription, as required. All the land 
 of the kingdom was considered to belong to the king, to be held for public 
 purposes, and was granted to the great tenants of the Crown, who re¬ 
 granted it to knights and gentlemen, on condition of military service. 
 
63 
 
 The king, as I have said, was looked upon as the Commander-in-Chief; 
 and the extraordinary military talents of the kings of the Norman and 
 PlaDtagenet lines did much to establish the military reputation of 
 the English race. Next to the king came the Earls and Barons, 
 who held their great estates on condition of bringing a certain 
 number of knights and retainers into the field. Their earldoms and 
 baronies varied in extent, partly with the fertility and wealth of 
 the districts in which they were situated, partly with the military 
 necessities of those districts. In some of the southern counties 
 where the land was rich, where cultivation was comparatively good, and 
 where there was no danger of foreign attack, a single county was divided 
 among forty or fifty tenants, holding directly from the Crown, including 
 generally an earl, a baron, and numerous knights. In the northern 
 districts of the kingdom, and along the frontiers of Wales and Scotland, 
 where the land was comparatively uncultivated, and where the danger of 
 attack was urgent, the earldoms and baronies comprised immense districts 
 of land. Thus, the earldom of Shrewsbury included the greater part 
 of Shropshire. That of Chester included the whole of Cheshire, 
 with the exception of the lands belonging to the bishop. And 
 that of Boger of Poictou included the whole of the present county of 
 Lancaster, without any exception, and very extensive districts in other 
 counties. These earldoms were sub-divided by the respective earls amongst 
 the knights and gentlemen who had followed them to battle, and on whom 
 they relied to defend them in their newly-acquired possessions. 
 
 At the time when the Domesday Survey was made, the lands in the 
 manor of West Derby, and in the subordinate manors or berewicks of 
 Liverpool, Everton, Garston, Crosby, Thingwall,, and Wavertree, were 
 in the hands of eight Norman knights, to whom they had been presented 
 by Koger of Poictou. The names of these knights were Goisfred, Boger, 
 William, Warin, a second Goisfred, Tetbald, Bobert, and Gislebert. The 
 only circumstance which has come down to us respecting any of these 
 knights is, that one of the two Goisfreds was Vice Comes or Sheriff of the 
 Honour of Lancaster, in the reign of William Bufus. He is so described 
 in a grant to the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, at Shrewsbury, in 
 which he settled the manor of Garston on that Abbey. It is impossible 
 to trace the history of the other knights settled in this neighbourhood. 
 This difficulty arises chiefly from the absence of surnames, which renders 
 it impossible to distinguish them from innumerable Goisfreds, Eoberts, 
 Bogers, Williams, and Warins settled in Lancashire and in other parts 
 
64 
 
 of the kingdom. Almost the only Norman families settled in the county who 
 brought surnames with them, and retained them, were the Molyneuxes of 
 Sefton; the Butlers of Warrington; the Gresleys, who were originally 
 settled in Leyland, hut afterwards became Barons of Manchester; the 
 Boiseuils of Preston and Penwortham; the De Lacys of Halton and 
 Clitheroe; the Banistres of Newton; the Gerards of Leyland; the Fitz 
 Henrys, who afterwards took the name of Lathom, and who are now 
 represented by the Stanley family; and the De la Meres, from whom the 
 De la Mores of Liverpool were probably descended. The spelling of 
 surnames, even when they did exist, was so arbitrary in that age, as to add 
 to the difficulty of recognizing ancient families. Thus we have Molyneux 
 written Molineus, and De Meulas, and latinized into Molendino. We 
 have Butler translated into Pincerna, and De la Mere translated into 
 Del Mor, De Mora, and De la More. Still further difficulty is produced 
 by the practice which then existed of changing surnames with a change 
 of property or occupation. Thus the following names all belong to 
 different members of a single ancient family, some of whom possessed the 
 manor of Liverpool in early times:—Ivo de Taillebois, Gilbert de 
 Purnesis, Warine de Lancaster, Henry Pitz Warine, Henry Palconarius, 
 and Henry de Lee. Amidst this chaos of names it is not possible to trace 
 the descent of more than a few families. There is little doubt, however, 
 that the Waltons of Walton, who were the original stewards of the 
 Hundred of West Derby, and the first governors of the Castle of 
 Liverpool, were descended from one of the knights who came over with 
 Roger of Poictou; and there is no doubt that the Molyneuxes, who 
 held those offices from the reign of Henry the Sixth, were of equally 
 ancient origin. 
 
 When William the Conqueror divided the lands of England, amongst 
 the chiefs of his army, after the battle of Hastings, he conferred especial 
 marks of favour on the great family of Montgomery. Earl Roger de 
 Montgomery, the head of it, he raised to the rank of Earl of Arundel, 
 Chichester, and Shrewsbury ; giving to him the strong castle of Arundel, 
 with a large portion of the county of Sussex, together with the castle of 
 Bridgenortli, and nearly the whole of the county of Shropshire. This 
 powerful Earl afterwards built the castle of Montgomery, in Wales, 
 which has since given name to the county of Montgomery. At his death, 
 his eldest son, Robert, and his second son, Hugh, divided the immense 
 possessions of the family between them. Hugh, the second son, obtained 
 the English earldoms, whilst Robert, the eldest, obtained the Norman 
 
65 
 
 estates, both of the family of Montgomery, and of the still wealthier house 
 of Belesme, in right of his mother, Mabille, the heiress of that great 
 Norman house. The Montgomerys are said to have possessed thirty castles 
 in Normandy, France, England, and Wales. On the death ^f Hugh, the 
 second Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in a skirmish with a body 
 of Norwegian pirates, in the Island of Anglesea, in the year 1098, Robert, 
 the eldest son, succeeded to the English earldoms, and thus united in 
 himself all the possessions of the elder branch. These he held until the 
 time of the ruin and banishment of the whole family, on the accession 
 of Henry the First. 
 
 The younger sons were as liberally provided for by the Conqueror, as 
 the head of the house. 
 
 Earl Arnulf, the fourth son, received all the lands which he could 
 conquer, in that beautiful district of South Wales, now called Pembroke¬ 
 shire, where he is said to have founded the castle of Pembroke.* 
 
 Earl Roger of Poictou, the third son, received even more exten¬ 
 sive territories than the other members of the family. These included 
 the whole of Lancashire, from the river Mersey to the hills of Westmor¬ 
 land, together with large estates in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
 and in the counties of Dorby, Nottingham, and Lincoln. During the 
 life of Roger of Poictou, and for many years after his death, these great 
 possessions were known by the name of the Honour or Earldom of Roger 
 Pictavensis. They afterwards formed the Honour and Earldom ofLancaster, 
 and were part of the Duchy of Lancaster, a great historical dignity, which 
 continues to the present day. 
 
 The wealth and power heaped on the family of Montgomery proved 
 its ruin. In the interval between the battle of Hastings, which was 
 fought in the year 10G6, and the completing of the Domesday survey, 
 which was finished in the year 1086, Roger of Poictou had forfeited 
 his estates in England, by conspiring with other Norman chiefs to dethrone 
 the Conqueror. He had been compelled to fly from the kingdom, to escape 
 his terrible fury, and was an exile when the Domesday survey -was made. 
 At that time the whole of his Honour or Earldom was in the hands 
 of the king. After the death of William the Conqueror, Roger of 
 Poictou succeeded in regaining his English estates, by joining William 
 Rufus, against his elder brother, Robert Duke of Normandy. The 
 estates thus recovered lie held during the whole of the reign of William 
 Rufus. This is proved, not only by contemporary historians, but by 
 
 * Camden’s Britannia, 523. 
 
 It 
 
66 
 
 the deeds of the priory of Lancaster, and of the monastery of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, at Shrewsbury. It appears from a deed, preserved in 
 Dugdale’s Monasticon,* that Roger of Poictou made extensive grants to 
 the monastery of St. Martin-de-Sees, in Normandy, (of which the priory 
 of Lancaster was a cell or dependency), in the year 1094. Amongst 
 his gifts to that monastery were the tithes of Walton, which then included 
 the present parish of Liverpool; the tithes of West Derby, Everton, 
 Hale, and Salford; the church, tithes, and fishery of Preston, with the 
 church and town of Hessam ; and many other gifts. To administer this 
 extensive property, the superiors of the monastery of St. Martin-de-Sees 
 established a subordinate monastery at Lancaster, under the title of the 
 Priory of St. Mary of Lancaster. This priory continued to manage 
 the estates of the Norman establishment, until the property of the alien 
 priories was seized by the crown. 
 
 The priory of St. Martin de Sees was not the only one to which 
 Roger of Poictou was liberal, at the expense of the people of Lancashire. 
 He also added to his father’s endowment of the monastery of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, at Shrewsbury, the following gifts:—The fisheries of 
 Thelwall on the river Mersey, and of Osciton and Poulton on the river 
 Wyre. In return for these gifts, he stipulated that a mass should 
 be said daily for himself, his wife, his son, his father, and his mother.f 
 At the same time, Goisfridus, or Goisfred, his vice-comes, and one of 
 the knights whom he had settled in the manor of West Derby, added the 
 church of Walton and the town or township of Gerston, or Garston, to 
 the endowment. He, it appears, had a son, named Achard, in the 
 monastery. The presentation of the church of Walton remained in the 
 gift of the monastery of St. Peter and St Paul, at Shrewsbury, until the 
 reign of Edward the Fourth, when it was sold to the Molyneuxes, of 
 Sefton. I shall have to refer to the history of Walton Church, which 
 is the most ancient place of religious worship in this part of the country, 
 and which was long the parish church of Liverpool, at a later period of 
 this history. 
 
 At the death of William Rufus, the family of Montgomery was in 
 the height of its glory. The three sons of Roger de Montgomery held the 
 estates belonging to five earldoms; and the Earl of Morton, who had mar¬ 
 ried Matilda the youngest daughter of Roger, possessed upwards of seven 
 hundred manors, including the greater part of Devonshire and Cornwall, 
 and was the wealthiest and most powerful subject in the kingdom. This 
 
 * Dugdale’s Monasticon, vi.,fl07. + Dugdale’s Monasticon, iii., 521. 
 
67 
 
 great accumulation of wealth and power caused their ruin. A civil war 
 sprang up, on the accidental death of William Rufus, between Henry the 
 First, his youngest brother, and Robert, Duke of Normandy. The 
 Montgomerys thought themselves powerful enough to turn the scale in 
 favour of the Duke of Normandy. They risked everything in the attempt, 
 and failed. Henry, who was more popular with the English people, than 
 either of his predecessors, on account of his English birth, and his 
 marriage with a princess descended from the great Alfred, called on his 
 English subjects to join him against his enemies and theirs. This call 
 was eagerly responded to, by an army of 20,000 English infantry, and a 
 considerable number of Norman peers and knights. The castle of 
 Arundel was taken, after an obstinate siege. The king afterwards captured 
 the still stronger castle of Bridgenorth. The final struggle between the 
 king and these great Norman lords, took place on the banks of the Severn, 
 between Bridgenorth and Shrewsbury. It ended in the total overthrow of 
 the Montgomerys and of their allies. The castle of Shrewsbury, built by the 
 first Earl, on the ruins of the houses of upwards of fifty of the burgesses 
 of that town, was wrested from his sons. They fled to Normandy, leaving 
 their estates in the hands of the king. From this time, their connection 
 with England ceases. According to the testimony of contemporary 
 writers, they were remarkable, even in that age of violence, for their pride, 
 insolence, rapacity, and cruelty to the poor; and their fate was according 
 to their merits. Mabille, the mother of the four earls, and heiress of the 
 Belesmes,was murdered in her bed, by two Norman knights, whose estates 
 she had seized. Hugh, the second son, was killed in an obscure skirmish 
 in the Isle of Anglesey. Robert, the eldest son, was taken prisoner in 
 Normandy, and died a prisoner; and his two brothers,—Arnulf and Roger 
 Pictavensis,—lost their estates in Normandy, as well as those in England, 
 and died in obscurity.* 
 
 According to Camden, the castle of Liverpool was built by Roger 
 of Poictou. There is no evidence in support of this assertion. The 
 probability is, that the castle occupied (but not built) by Roger of Poic¬ 
 tou, was that of West Derby, situate about four miles to the east of 
 Liverpool. As I have already mentioned, the castle of West Derby was 
 of very great antiquity, and a manor house, also very ancient, was 
 built on its ruins. So late as the year 1790 remains of this manor house 
 
 * History of Shrewsbury, i., 59. This account of the Montgomerys is condensed from 
 the works of Ordericus, generally, hut not correctly, called Ordericus Vitalis, who was born 
 near Shrewsbury, and spent his life in the Norman Monastery of Sees. He was a 
 contemporary of the Montgomerys. 
 
68 
 
 still existed near Croxtetli Hall, in a mound from twenty to thirty feet 
 high, surrounded by traces of a moat.* 
 
 The public records of the reign of William Rufus are totally lost. We 
 are, therefore, unable to add anything to the accounts derived from the 
 deeds of the priory at Lancaster, those of the abbey at Shrewsbury, and 
 the works of Ordericus. 
 
 After the ruin and the flight of the Montgomerys, the honour of 
 Lancaster, and the great earldom of Mortaigne or Morton, passed by 
 forfeiture into the hands of Henry the First. They were granted by him 
 to his cousin, Stephen de Blois, who was the son of Eustace, Earl of 
 Blois and Chartres, and of Adela, the youngest daughter of William the 
 Conqueror. Earl Stephen of Bologne and Morton, was the founder of 
 the beautiful abbey of Furness, in this county.f The only one of the 
 national records of the reign of Henry the First which has been preserved 
 is the sheriff"s account, or Great Roll of the Pipe, of the year 1130, the 
 thirty-first of Henry the First. In this roll, what we now call south 
 Lancashire, is still spoken of as the country Inter Rijsam et Mersam; 
 and the landholders are spoken of, as the men of the Earl of Morton 
 —Homines Comitis Maritonice. 
 
 On the death of Henry the First, Earl Stephen claimed the crown of 
 England, in opposition to Matilda, the daughter and only surviving child 
 of the King. Matilda, who is generally known as the Empress Matilda, 
 married Henry the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, as her first husband, and 
 afterwards Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. From this marriage 
 sprang the royal race of Plantagenet, which governed England for so 
 many ages. The claim of Stephen gave rise to a desperate civil 
 
 * In the manuscripts of my friend Mr. Thomas Moore, of Liverpool (to whom I am 
 under the greatest obligations, for his kindness in placing his large and valuable collection 
 at my disposal), I find the following observation on the site of this ancient castle :—“ In the 
 writer’s time (1790), there was a mound in what is called the Castle Field, situate between 
 the hall of Croxtetli Park and Derby Castle, in what was called the Castle Field, perhaps 
 twenty or thirty feet high, surrounded by a moat nearly filled up. The mound was sold for 
 building. Sand, and no stone-work, remained, the latter having been carried off. A portion 
 of the old timber was made into a cabinet or writing desk, as appears by the following extract 
 from Robert Syers’s History of Everton, page 71:—‘ The site of the ancient Castle at West 
 Derby was named at the Inquisition held at Lancaster in the First of Edward the Third, 
 a. d. 1327, and also in the Domesday Book. [It is rather referred to than named in Domesday.] 
 Timber and hewn stone have recently been dug out of its crumbled ruins. Mr. M’George, 
 of Everton, has a handsome writing desk constructed of a piece of oak which was dug out of 
 these ruins. On a brass plate of that writing desk, the following sentence is inscribed:— 
 “ This desk was made from part of an oak beam that was dug out of the ruins of Edward the 
 Confessor’s Castle, at West Derby, Lancashire, supposed to have been built anno Domini 
 1050, executed under the direction of John M’George, 1827.”’ I may add, that there is no 
 evidence that the Castle of West Derby was built in the year 1050. The probability is that 
 it existed long before that period. 
 
 t West’s Antiquities of Furness, 21. 
 
69 
 
 war, which raged for fifteen years. Although the idea of a female’s 
 succeeding to the crown in her own right was altogether new, both to 
 the Normans and the English, yet the claim of the daughter of the last 
 Norman king was at least as good as a claim derived from the daughter 
 of a preceding king,—which was all that Stephen could advance. The 
 nation and the great nobles divided into two parties, one favourable to 
 the Empress Matilda, the other to King Stephen. In order to strengthen 
 his own party, Stephen made extensive grants of estates to the chief 
 noblemen of the kingdom. Amongst other grants, he presented the 
 Earl of Chester, who was at that time one of the most powerful of those 
 nobles, with all his estates between the Kibble and the Mersey* ; hut 
 neither this grant, nor other marks of the royal favour, had the effect of 
 securing to King Stephen the support of the Earl of Chester for any length 
 of time. On the contrary, he was soon found fighting in the ranks of the 
 king’s enemies, and assisted to defeat and capture Stephen, at Lincoln, 
 in the year 1141. In the hope of fixing the allegiance to the other 
 side, Henry Plaotagenet, Duke of Normandy, and son of the Empress 
 Matilda, confirmed to him the lands between the Kibble and the Mersey.f 
 This confirmation, however, was as unavailing as the previous grant by 
 King Stephen to fix the faith of the Earl of Chester. In a short time he was 
 in arms against the Plantagenets ; and forfeited all that had been confirmed 
 to him by the Duke of Normandy. The final result of the struggle between 
 Stephen and the Plantagenets was this. It was arranged that Stephen 
 should retain the crown for his own life, hut that at his death he should 
 be succeeded by Henry, the son of Matilda. This established the principle 
 of the right of females and their descendants to inherit the throne of 
 England. It was further stipulated that William de Blois, the son of 
 King Stephen, should succeed to the private estates which had belonged 
 to his father, before he seized upon the crown. Amongst these, as I have 
 already stated, were the Earldom of Morton and the Honour of Lancaster. 
 
 There was formerly a belief that Henry the First had granted a charter 
 to the borough of Liverpool; hut there is no such charter in existence, 
 nor any evidence that it ever existed. The belief in its existence arose 
 from an entry made in the corporation records in the year 1581. With 
 reference to this entry, Mr. Henry Brown, who was formerly town-clerk 
 of Liverpool, writing to Mr. Hargreaves, who was at that time recorder, 
 says of this reputed charter, or rather charters, “I would observe that in 
 
 * Roll of Grants in tlie Duchy Office, made in the reign of Richard the Second. 
 
 + Rymer’s Fcedera, 1, part i., 10. 
 
70 
 
 our council or corporation books, in the year 1581, mention is made of 
 two charters of Henry the First; but not a word is said of the purport of 
 these charters.” Pretended charters of this reign, and of the reign of 
 Henry the Second, were produced a good many years ago, by a person 
 who offered to sell them to the corporation; but they are, evidently, 
 forgeries. They were not shown at the municipal inquiry in 1833, when 
 all the real charters of the town were produced, nor are they deserving of 
 any further notice.* The shorter charters of that age so much resemble 
 each other, that any one who has studied one of them might write a dozen. 
 
 On the death of King Stephen, which took place in the year 1154, 
 his son William de Blois became possessed of these estates, and held 
 them for twelve years. This William de Blois, who was Earl of Bologne, 
 Warrene, and Surrey, was a liberal benefactor of the abbey of Furness, 
 which his father had founded during the reign of Henry the First. The 
 only fact in his history, connected with the neighbourhood of Liver¬ 
 pool, of which we have any record, is that he presented or confirmed 
 the ancient family of the Waltons, of Walton, in the stewardship of the 
 hundreds of West Derby and Salford, which they held for many generations, 
 and which the Molyneuxes of Sefton have held for as many more.f 
 
 In the twelfth year of the reign of Henry the Second, William de Blois 
 died, childless, when the Earldom of Morton and the Honour of Lancaster 
 passed into the hands of the king. About this time we begin to obtain 
 accounts of Liverpool from the national records, and other authentic 
 sources. 
 
 From the twelfth year of Henry the Second, the Sheriff or Vice 
 Comes of Lancashire renders accounts of the royal estates in Lancashire, 
 more or less detailed. The returns for the thirteenth, fourteenth, 
 and fifteenth years of Henry the Second are made by William de 
 Vesci, who was sheriff during those years; those of the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth, by Roger de Herberga; that of the 
 twenty-second by Ranulf de Glanville, the celebrated justiciary of 
 England; those from the twenty-second to the thirty-first by Ranulf 
 Fitz-Bernard ; and those for the remainder of the reign by Gilbert Pipard f 
 There is no mention of Liverpool in any of the Pipe Rolls of this reign ; 
 but that may arise from the fact, that the manor of Liverpool was 
 given by the king to Warine de Lancaster, along with four other 
 manors, a few years after he obtained possession of it. It is probable, 
 
 * Municipal Inquiry, Appendix, 1. + Charter Rolls, 1st John. 
 
 J Pipe Rolls of those years, in Roger Dodsworth’s Collection in the Bodleian Library. 
 
71 
 
 however, that the blank in the following return, of the sums paid by the 
 king’s manors, to a tallage or tax, levied in the year 1177,* ought to be 
 filled up with the name of Liverpool :— 
 
 “ West Derby, 34s. 8d.; Hale, 2 marks ; Formby, 36s. 8d.; Crosby, 
 36s. 8d.; Wavertree, 1 mark; Walton, marks; Litherland, 1 mark; 
 * * * * [thus in the original], 3 marks.” 
 
 The principal reason for believing that the blank in the above 
 return relates to Liverpool, is that Litherland and Liverpool were both 
 given away by the king, at the same time, and to the same person. It 
 is only a fair inference, therefore, that Liverpool as well as Litherland 
 was in the hands of the king in the year 1177. If so, it would be 
 equally liable to be tallaged with the surrounding townships and manors, 
 and would, therefore, appear in the list. 
 
 During the time when the Honour of Lancaster was in the hands of 
 Henry the Second the forest laws were executed with great severity. 
 Amongst the delinquents who were fined for offences against those laws, 
 we find a number of names which we should have scarcely expected in 
 such a list. At the head of them is the archdeacon of Chester, who is 
 fined 100s., equal to £75 of our money.f Then follows Humphrey the 
 priest, the brother of Albert Boiseul, Lord of Penwortham, and owner of 
 the manor of Bootle, in this neighbourhood. After him come Stephen, 
 parson of Walton ; Half the parson, and Adam the priest, of Prescot; 
 Bobert, priest of Childwall; Adam, priest of Meols; and Jordan, dean of 
 Manchester. It does not follow, however, that these reverend gentlemen 
 had really chased the king’s deer—though it is likely enough that they had. 
 It was very difficult for persons who lived in the royal forests to avoid 
 offences against the forest laws. Thus, we find that John de Spellowe, 
 who resided at Walton, in this neighbourhood, was fined for breaking 
 down the young shrubs—the vert—which sheltered the deer; and in the 
 Forest Charter, agreed upon by the barons during the minority of Henry 
 the Third, a variety of harmless acts are rendered legal, from which we 
 may conclude that they had been previously illegal. Amongst them was 
 the digging of a ditch, on a man’s own land, within the limits of the 
 forest; the sinking of a marl pit; the driving of swine through the forest; 
 and the gathering of wild honey, which was, at that time, an article of 
 great value, being used for the purposes for which we now use sugar, 
 and also for manufacturing mead and brewing ale. The 1 awing of dogs 
 
 * Pipe Roll, 22nd Henry Second. 
 
 + Pipe Roll, 21st Henry Second. 
 
72 
 
 was still enforced,—that is, the cutting off the claws and the middle 
 joint of the fore feet. The penalties still retained for these offences were 
 very severe, consisting of imprisonment, grievous fines, and banishment; 
 hut it was declared that henceforward no man should be punished in life 
 or limb, for offences against the forest laws. At this time, Liverpool was 
 within the forest of West Derby. It afterwards had a forester, whose duty 
 it was to account for all the deer killed, and all the timber taken from the 
 forest. The oppression produced by these laws filled the great forest of 
 Sherwood, and the wilder parts of the country, with bands of outlaws 
 from amongst the lower classes of the people, and did much to drive the 
 barons of the kingdom, and the clergy, into armed resistance against 
 the crown, in the reign of King John. 
 
 The most ancient document now in existence in which Liverpool is 
 mentioned by name, is a deed executed in the reign of Richard the 
 First by John Earl of Morton, afterwards King John, who was 
 then Lord of the Honour of Lancaster, in which he confirms Henry 
 Fitz Warine in the possession of Liverpool, and of four other manors 
 which had been granted to Warine de Lancaster, the father of Henry 
 Fitz Warine, by Henry the Second. The following is a translation of 
 the deed :—“ Know that we have granted, and by this our deed confirmed, 
 to Henry, the son of Warine de Lancaster, the lands which King 
 Henry, our father, gave to Warine, his father, that is, Ravenmeols, 
 Anmolesdale, (Ainsdale,) Up Liturland, Liverpool, and French Le, (or 
 Lea,) and eight denarii (or pence) in the borough of Preston.” 
 
 There is no date to the above deed of confirmation, nor is any infor¬ 
 mation to be obtained as to the year in which the original grant was 
 made to Warine de Lancaster. The confirmation must, however, have 
 taken place between the years 1189 and 1195; for in the former year, 
 Prince John, who had been disinherited by his father, received the earldom 
 of Morton and lordship of Lancaster, along with other large estates, from 
 his brother King Richard, who was then about to embark for the Holy 
 Land; and in the latter year he forfeited those estates, by attempting 
 to seize upon tbe crown, and by conspiring to retain his too generous 
 brother a prisoner for life in the dungeons of Austria. It is not 
 possible to fix the date of the original grant to Warine de Lancaster, 
 but it is probable that it was about the time of the great council held at 
 Northampton in the year 1176, at which the kingdom was divided into 
 circuits, for the better administration of justice, and at which judges 
 itinerant were ordered to travel regularly through the kingdom, at stated 
 
73 
 
 periods, for the trial of offences.* In that year Lancashire was visited by 
 the learned and warlike Sir Ranulf Glanville, the captor of the King of 
 Scotland, the companion in arms of Richard the Lion-hearted, and not 
 less the author of one of the earliest treatises on the laws of England, who 
 held the first general gaol delivery, for the county of Lancaster, along 
 with Robert de Wals, and Robert Pikenet, two other judges of less 
 celebrity. In order to give greater effect to the administration of the 
 laws, Lancaster Castle was made a prison for criminals about this time, 
 and Warine de Lancaster was appointed governor of it. In that age the 
 kings of England were much richer in land than in money, and were in 
 the habit of rewarding their servants with grants of manors and estates, 
 instead of salaries. This was done in the case of the governor of the 
 Castle of Lancaster, who received Liverpool and other manors previously 
 belonging to the royal demesne, as the reward of his services. All the 
 circumstances attending this grant are stated very clearly in the following 
 extract from an old book in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster :— 
 
 “ England, in King Stephen’s time,” says the writer, “ was con¬ 
 stantly in troubles, and no laws executed; but each man lived de rapto, 
 (by plunder and violence). After his death, King Henry the Second, 
 coming to the Crown peaceably, had the laws put in better execution, 
 and arranged that Justices Itinerant should see the same performed in 
 each county, which were before only to be had at the King’s Court. 
 And whereas, Gilbert, the Baron of Kendal, in Westmorland, being 
 his receiver for the county of Lancaster, was called Gilbert de 
 Furnesis: William, the son of the said Gilbert, was constituted Senes- 
 calus (steward) hospitii regis, and a Baron in Lancashire; and thereupon, 
 by consent of Parliament, called himself William de Lancaster; and 
 Warine, his younger son, Lancaster Castle being a prison for malefactors, 
 was made keeper of the Castle and Prison, and as a Magister 
 serviens, had his maintenance therein, and for the reward of his 
 services had given him by the King, the towns of Aynolsdale, Raven- 
 meals, (now totally destroyed by the sea), Liverpool, Liturland, and 
 French Lea, from which his son was called Henricus de Lee ; to whom 
 King John, afterwards, in lieu of his surrender of Liverpool, 
 which he forthwith made a borough, confirmed the rest of the 
 aforesaid towns, and also added English Lea to the same.” 
 
 The deed of John, Earl of Morton, confirming the grant to Warine dc 
 Lancaster, is still in the possession of the family of Sir Henry Bold 
 Iloghton, Bart., of Hoghton Tower and Walton-le-Dale, one of whose 
 
 * T. H. Duffus’s Description to the Close Rolls, 94. 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 ancestors, Richard de Hoghton, married Sybilla, heiress of the De Lee or 
 Fitz-Warine family, in the seventeenth year of Edward the Second. She 
 took part of the estates granted hy Henry the Second to Warine de 
 Lancaster, into the Hoghton family, in whose possession they still remain. 
 The documentary history of Liverpool commences with the record of this 
 grant made by Henry the Second to Warine de Lancaster. The changes 
 which have taken place in the ownership of the Lordship and Manor of 
 Liverpool can thus be traced from before the commencement of legal 
 memory, a period of upwards of six hundred and fifty years. 
 
 Every reader of history or romance is well acquainted with the story 
 of the generous confidence of Richard the Lion-hearted in his unworthy 
 brother ; with the gallant exploits of that warlike king in the Holy Land ; 
 with his captivity in the prisons of Austria; and with the efforts of his 
 brother to render that imprisonment perpetual. All the ingratitude which 
 Richard had shown to his father, who died broken-hearted from the ingra¬ 
 titude and rebellion of all his sons, was visited on him by his brother. 
 It is not, however, so well known that he succeeded in drawing several 
 of the gentlemen on his Lancashire estates into his plots, and that when 
 he was deprived of the earldom of Morton, and of the honour of Lan¬ 
 caster, his principal followers in Lancashire only saved their estates by 
 paying heavy fines to the king. The following is a list of the fines paid 
 by some of them to purchase the pardon of King Richard:—Henry Fal- 
 conarius (Lord of Liverpool) 15 marks, equal to s6l50; Robert (Clergy¬ 
 man of Walton)30 marks, equal to <£300; Gilbert de Walton 10 marks, 
 equal to £100; and Jordan de Manchester 20 marks, equal to £200.* 
 
 On the return of Richard from his captivity, all the lands and castles 
 of his brother John were seized; and, although that unworthy Prince 
 afterwards regained the favour of his brother, they were never restored to 
 him during Richard’s life. Instead of his estates, he received an 
 annuity of £5,000 a year, a most liberal income in those times, when 
 the pound was fifteen times as valuable as it is at present. 
 
 One fact worthy of notice in the account of the suppression of Prince 
 John’s attempted insurrection against his brother is, that there is a list 
 given of his castles, as well those which surrendered without resistance 
 as of those which were defended. The Castle of Lancaster is mentioned 
 in this list along with those of Tickill, Marlborough, and St. Michael’s 
 Mount, Cornwall; but nothing is said of any castle at Liverpool, which 
 creates a tolerably strong presumption that no such castle existed at 
 that time. 
 
 * Pipe Roll, Gt.h Richard First. 
 
CHAPTER THIRD. 
 
 LIVERPOOL FROM THE ACCESSION OF KING JOHN TO THE GRANTING 
 OF THE SECOND CHARTER BY HENRY THE THIRD. 
 
 On the accession of King John to the throne of England, all the 
 estates of the Crown passed into his hands, and, amongst them, those of 
 the Honour of Lancaster, which he had held when he was Earl of Morton. 
 Several deeds are still in existence, in which he confirms the principal 
 tenants of the crown in Lancashire in their possessions; amongst others, 
 the deed already referred to in favour of the Waltons of Walton. A similar 
 deed was granted to Henry Fitz Warine, confirming him in the possession 
 of the estates granted to his father, Warine de Lancaster, by Henry the 
 Second. There was one exception, however, in this deed. The name of 
 Liverpool was altogether omitted in it. Tins renders it probable that 
 King John had already determined to take possession of Liverpool, and 
 to form a port and borough there. Several circumstances confirm this 
 opinion. 
 
 No member of the warlike house of Plantagenet was more eager to 
 extend his dominions than King John, although his expeditions were 
 badly planned, and rarely crowned with success. One of his favourite 
 objects was to complete the Conquest of Ireland, which had been com¬ 
 menced in the time of his father. For this purpose it was desirable that 
 he should possess a strong navy in the Irish Seas, and ports to shelter it 
 on the western coast of England. Such ports would be doubly valuable 
 if situated in the neighbourhood of the royal estates, from which the early 
 kings drew a large portion of their supplies, for warlike purposes. Liver¬ 
 pool possessed both the advantages of a good port, and of a position in 
 the midst of the royal estates. In the latter respect it was more conve¬ 
 niently situated than Chester, as the whole of the lands in Cheshire 
 belonged to the Earls of Chester, and, therefore, yielded neither rents 
 nor tallages to the crown. Liverpool was also favourably situated 
 for shipping the forces of the De Lacy family, who took a very active 
 part in the early wars of Ireland, and who, in the time of King John, 
 were lords of the manors and chief proprietors in Knowsley, Huyton, 
 Roby, Torbock, Little Crosby, Maghull, Kirkby, Great and Little 
 Woolton, North Meols, Birkdale, and Kirkdale. They were, in short 
 the great proprietors of Lancashire, after the Crown. The Butlers, 
 
76 
 
 who were lords of Warrington, and who held the manors of Halsall, 
 luce Blundell, Thornton, Lydiate, and the half of Barton, also took an 
 active part in those early wars; and the owner of Hale, bore the name of 
 Mida or Meath, for his exploits in Ireland. King John was thus able to 
 direct the whole force of South Lancashire into his Irish wars; and 
 Liverpool was precisely the position to render it available. Immediately 
 after obtaining the crown, he began to carry on those wars with increased 
 activity, and to despatch large reinforcements from Lancashire. The 
 drain on this county was so severe that several of the Thanes of 
 Lancashire consented to pay a considerable sum of money, that they 
 might not be compelled to serve beyond the sea.-* 
 
 It also appears, from the sheriffs’ accounts, preserved in the Pipe 
 Bolls, that large sums of money were expended in the fourth year 
 of King John, on his castles in West Derbyshire. A sum of twenty 
 marks, equal to £200 of our money, and a second sum of £6 17s. 6d., 
 equal to nearly £100 of the same money, were expended on those castles 
 in the years named. These were sums large enough to construct con¬ 
 siderable works at that time. We know that two of the arches of old 
 London bridge were built, in this reign, for £25, equal to about £300 of 
 our money, and they would probably cost as much as such a castle as that 
 which existed at Liverpool.t It appears, from the account of offices under 
 the Crown, given in Testa de Neville, that the master builder of the king’s 
 castles in Lancashire, as well as the joiners and the workers in iron, were 
 paid by grants of land, and not in money. All the materials of the castle, 
 with the exception of the iron, were furnished by the king’s estates; and 
 doubtless his bondsmen, in the surrounding manors, assisted in the work. 
 
 Another circumstance which confirms the belief that the Castle of 
 Liverpool was built at this time, is the fact that the park of Toxteth, 
 which was always attached to that castle, was certainly formed early in 
 the reign of King John. This park was formed by enclosing the two 
 manors of Toxteth, mentioned in Domesday Book, and a considerable 
 portion of the manor of Smethom or Esmedune, also mentioned in that 
 venerable record. We learn from Testa de Neville that King John 
 bought the Toxteths from the Molyneux family, giving them in exchange 
 another manor, which was probably that of Litherland.J In order to enlarge 
 the park, he also bought the greater part of the manor of Smethom, from 
 Robert de Smethom, giving him in exchange lands in Thingwall. The 
 park, thus formed, contained upwards of two thousand acres, and was 
 
 * Pipe Eoll, 3rd John. 
 
 + Maddox’s Firma Bnrgi, 165. 
 
 | Testa de Neville. 402. 
 
77 
 
 about five miles in circuit. It extended from the present Parliament- 
 street, in Liverpool, as far as Otterspool, and was bounded on one side by 
 the river, and on the other by Smetbom-lane. It was originally enclosed 
 with a wooden paling; but was afterwards surrounded with a stone wall. 
 In former times this must have formed one of the most beautiful parks in 
 the North of England, from the graceful undulations of the ground, the 
 beauty of the dells and dingles, the numerous wooded promontories which 
 project into the river, and the extensive views of the river itself. The 
 Mersey spread before the park like a great lake, twenty miles in length, and, 
 in some places, from three or four in breadth, with the Abbey of Stanlaw, the 
 Priory of Birkenhead, and the Castle of Liverpool on its banks, the hills 
 of Wirral in the foreground, and the line of Welsh Mountains in the 
 distance. One small portion of this park still remains, which has been 
 preserved by the generosity and public spirit of a man whose name will 
 always be honoured in Liverpool,* from which we may form some faint 
 idea of the scenery of Toxteth Park in the days of its glory. 
 
 Another reason for believing that the Castle of Liverpool was built 
 about tliis time is, that King John himself visited Lancashire and Cheshire 
 in the seventh year of his reign. He was at Lancaster on the 2Gtli February, 
 1206, and at Chester on the 28th February following;! and would, in all 
 probability, visit the royal estates in this neighbourhood, whilst passing 
 from one place to the other. 
 
 The position of the Castle of Liverpool had some advantages as a place 
 of strength. It stood where St. George’s Church now stands, and 
 included all the ground extending from St. George’s Crescent on one side, 
 to Preeson’s Row on the other. When it was built, the ground was 
 open on all sides, and sloped rapidly down to the river and the pool. 
 The water thus approached it on three sides of the four, within little more 
 than a bow shot, so that the fire from the castle commanded three-fourths 
 of the circuit, and rendered it untenable by a besieging force. The form 
 of the castle was nearly square. Each comer of the building had a 
 circular tower, and the side which faced up the present Castle-street was 
 strengthened by a much stronger tower and gatehouse. The front of 
 the castle facing in that direction was thirty-six yards in breadth. 
 That facing down Lord-street, where the castle orchard and gardens 
 were situated, was thirty-six yards in breadth. The front facing 
 towards the pool, where the quay and landing-place were situated, was 
 thirty-seven yards in breadth; and that facing towards the present 
 
 * Richard Vaughan Yates. 
 
 + Calendar of King John’s Movements in Introduction to the Close Rolls. 
 
78 
 
 James-street was thirty-five yards. A covered way ran down to 
 the river on that side, through which supplies could he introduced 
 into the castle. The castle was surrounded by a ditch from twenty 
 to thirty feet deep. With these defences it was as strong as most castles 
 were at that time; and always afforded a place of refuge for the inhabitants 
 of the town in turbulent times. The foundations of the castle still exist; 
 and the outline of the ditch can be traced. The foundation of one of the 
 circular towers was laid bare a few years since, and the old ditch was 
 opened whilst digging the foundations of the North and South Wales Bank. 
 Its depth was about twenty feet below the present level of the ground, and 
 must have been much more before the brow of the hill was cut away. 
 The castle itself was destroyed as a fortress, by order of Charles the 
 Second, who did not like the spirit which the inhabitants of Liverpool 
 had shown during the great civil war; and the ruins of the castle were 
 swept away in the reign of George the First. 
 
 Before proceeding with the history of the town which sprang up 
 around the Castle of Liverpool, it may be well to give an account of the sums 
 of money which were expended in early times on the Castle. The first 
 reference which is supposed to exist to this Castle is contained in the 
 Pipe Boll, or Sheriff s Account of the Fourth of King John, about the 
 time when Toxteth Park was formed, and just three years previous to 
 the date of the first Charter of Liverpool. The entry is as follows:— 
 “ And in the works, (in operatione) of the Castle of West Derby, 
 <£6 I Is. 8d., under the inspection of Henry de Travers and of Henry de 
 Waletone. And in the works of the Castles of Lancaster and West 
 Derby 20 marks, according to the letter of the king, and under the 
 inspection of Walter de Paries and Henry de Hirst; and again, in 
 the same works 28s., according to the letter of the king.” There 
 is little doubt that the castle mentioned in the above extract was 
 the Castle of Liverpool, of which Henry de Walton and other members 
 of the same family were governors. We find the castle mentioned as the 
 castle of the West Derby Hundred, in the Seventeenth year of the reign 
 of King John, when an account is given of the expenditure of a large sum 
 of money for the cost of provisioning it, for an expected siege. The 
 Castle of West Derby, strictly so called, was a mere manor-house, not a 
 fortress, and the latter sum must, therefore, have been expended on the 
 Castle of Liverpool, which was the only place of strength in the hundred 
 of West Derby. The jurors who inquired into the nature and extent of 
 the property of Edward Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Edward the 
 First, reported as follows, respecting the Castle at West Derby : —“ The 
 
79 
 
 jurors declare that in the manor of West Derby there is a certain site of 
 an ancient castle, where a chief manor house (capitale messuagium) stood, 
 surrounded by a ditch, the herbage of which is worth four shillings, 
 &c.” And a few years later another jury report:—“ And there is at 
 West Derby the site of a certain ruined castle.” 
 
 It is deserving of notice, that the sums of money expended on the 
 castle mentioned in the earlier extracts, are all spoken of as having been 
 expended in operatione, which may mean, either in building or repairing 
 the castle; whilst the sums spent at a later period are spoken of as 
 having been expended in emendatione, which can mean nothing but in 
 repairs and improvements. The earlier sums are also spoken of as having 
 been expended under the authority of orders from the king. Coupling 
 this fact with the further facts of the granting of the first charter to 
 Liverpool, by the same king, about three years afterwards; of his forming 
 the park at Toxteth; and of his removal of the hundred courts from West 
 Derby to Liverpool, there can be little doubt that these entries relate to 
 the Castle of Liverpool. From the form of expression, the probability 
 is, that they relate to the building of it. 
 
 The following is a list of the sums expended on the castle of Liverpool, 
 during the reigns of the Plantagenet Kings, according to the accounts 
 rendered by the Sheriffs of Lancashire to the Crown and the Dukes of 
 Lancaster:—4th John, Works of West Derby Castle, £6 11s. 7d.; 4th 
 John, Works of Castles of West Derby and Lancaster, 20 marks; 4tlr 
 John, ditto, ,£1 8s.; for Repairs of the Castle of Liverpool—2nd Henry 
 III., £5 ; 13th Henry III., £16; 19th Richard II., £2 2s. 8^d.; 1st 
 Henry IV., £25 4s. 5£d.; 9th Henry IV., £8 4s. 2d.; 6th Henry V., 
 £51 17s. lljd.; 12th Henry VI., £38 8s. 6d.; 14th Henry VI., £20 
 Is. 0£d.; 15th Henry VI., £6 16s. 8d. ; 18th Henry VI., £6 13s. 4d.; 
 22nd Henry VI., £8 13s. O^d.; 24th Henry VI., £26 8s. lid.; 35th 
 Henry VI., £13 Os. lid.; 37th Henry VI., £22 8s 9d.; 38th Henry 
 VI., £20 13s. lid.; 39tli Henry VI., £3 4s.; 8th Edward IV., £16 15s. 
 4d.; and 8th Edward IV., £12 9s. 8d.* 
 
 * In order to reduce the above sums to money of the present time, they must be multi¬ 
 plied by five, to account for the change in the value of silver. Those previous to the reign 
 of Richard the Second must also he multiplied by three, on account of the greater weight 
 of the pound (£) of silver at that time; and those subsequent to that date by two, on account 
 of the same circumstance. The number of grains of standard silver in twenty shillings, 
 or ,£l, in the first period, was 5,400; the number in the 3rd of Henry the Fourth, was 
 4,320; the number in the 9th of Henry the Fifth, was 3,600; the number in the 4th of 
 Edward the Fourth, was 2,800. The subsequent course of depreciation was even more 
 rapid; but I need not follow this part of the subject, at present, further than to state that 
 the number of grains of silver at present in £ 1 , is 1,745 and about a half. At the first 
 period, tho Cologne pound of silver of 12 ounces was coined into, or rather was computed at, 
 20s.; it is now coined into 60s., of which 4s. are retained as seignorage. 
 
80 
 
 Tho year after King John visited Lancashire, he formally possessed 
 himself of Liverpool by tho following deed, in which it is stated that he had 
 given English Lea, to Henry Fitz Warine, in exchange for Liverpool :— 
 “ John, by the grace of God, &c., Know ye that we have granted, 
 and by our present Charter have confirmed, to Henry Fitz Warine of 
 Lancaster, the lands which King Henry, my father, gave to Warine, his 
 father, for his services, to wit: Ravenesmoles, Amnolnesdal, and the 
 French Lea, and eight-pence rent in the Borough of Preston, and the 
 English Lea, which we have given to him in exchange for 
 Liverpul, and Uplitherland, which the aforesaid Henry, my father, 
 had given with the aforesaid lands, to the aforesaid Warine, his father, 
 
 AND WHICH THE SAID HENRY HATH REMISED TO US AND OUR HEIRS, 
 
 To be holden to him and his heirs (on payment of) 20s. yearly, at the 
 feast of St. Michael, for all service and exaction, saving to us and our 
 heirs the wardships and marriages of the heirs of the said Henry, in 
 manner as our ancestors used to have the same, when Warine, the 
 father of the said Henry, did the service of a falconer to our ancestors. 
 Wherefore, the aforesaid Henry, and his heirs after him, may have 
 and hold the aforesaid lands, with all their appurtenances, of us and our 
 heirs, by the aforesaid service in wood and plain, in ways and paths, in 
 meadows and feedings, in moors and marshes, in waters and mills, and 
 in pools, well and in peace, freely and quietly, peaceably and honorably, 
 fully and entirely, in all places and things, with all liberties and free 
 customs, to the aforesaid lands pertaining, as is aforesaid. 
 
 “ Witness, “ William, Earl Warenne, 
 
 “ William, Earl of Derby, 
 
 “ S. de Quency, Earl of Winchester, 
 
 “ William Bruhere, 
 
 " Gilbert Fitz Reinfare (Reinfred), 
 
 “ Thomas Basset, 
 
 “ Allan Basset, 
 
 “Robert de Groseley (Grezley), 
 
 “ William de Cantilupe. 
 
 “ Given by the hand of Henry de Wells, Archdeacon of Wells, 
 “ at Winchester, on the 28th day of August, in 9th year, &c.” 
 The above deed once more placed the manor of Liverpool in the 
 hands of the Plantagenets ; and King John having obtained possession 
 of it, did not lose a single day in raising the newly-acquired manor to the 
 position of a free borough on the sea. The following is the brief but 
 comprehensive charter, by which he conferred on Liverpool all the 
 
81 
 
 privileges possessed by London, Bristol, Hull, Lynn, Southampton, 
 Newcastle, and the other free boroughs upon the sea, or seaports of the 
 kingdom :— 
 
 “ Charter of King John. —The King, to all who may be willing to 
 have Burgages, at the town of Liverpul, &c.—Know ye, that we have 
 granted to all who shall take Burgages at Liverpul, that they shall have 
 all liberties and free customs, in the town of Liverpul, which any free 
 borough on the sea hath in our land. And we therefore command you 
 that securely, and in our peace, you come there, to receive and inhabit 
 our burgages. And in testimony hereof w r e send you these our letters 
 patent. Witness, Simon de Pateshill. At Winchester, the 28th day of 
 August, in the Ninth Year of our Reign. By Simon de Pateshill.” 
 
 The above charter entirely changed the position of Liverpool. It 
 at once delivered its inhabitants from the jurisdiction of the hundred 
 courts ; it gave them the privilege of choosing their own bailiffs ; it 
 created local courts of justice ; and it freed the burgesses from the 
 liability to pay the customs of the crown, either in the borough of 
 Liverpool, or in any other royal borough throughout the kingdom. In 
 fact, it granted every facility and advantage which it is possible to grant 
 to the inhabitants of a commercial town. I shall describe the privi¬ 
 leges conferred by this charter, and the subsequent charter of Henry the 
 Third, more fully at the close of the present chapter, after having said a 
 few words as to the site and position of the town thus brought into 
 existence. 
 
 The original town of Liverpool was built under the protection of the 
 castle, and extended along the brow of the hill on which Castle-street, 
 the Town Hall, the Exchange Buildings, and Oldhall-street, are erected. 
 A lofty cross, called the High Cross, stood near the present Town Hall, 
 and at that point the main line of street was intersected by another line, 
 extending from the river side to the Townsend Bridge, which crossed the 
 pool, at the end of the present Dale-street. Banke-street was the ancient 
 name of that part of this line which we now call Water-street; the other 
 portion of the street bore the name of the Dale-street, from leading down, 
 with a rapid descent, into the dale in which the pool was situate. For 
 several ages the chief population was confined to the brow of the hill along 
 Castle-street and Oldhall-street. Dale-street was a sort of outskirt of the 
 town, in which the Crosses and other county families had their mansions. 
 All the land in the neighbourhood of these streets was let by the crown on 
 burgage tenures, and there were originally, or at least at an early period, 
 M 
 
82 
 
 one hundred and sixty-eight burgesses holding by these tenures, and 
 transmitting their burgages from father to son. At that time the only 
 method of becoming a burgess was to hold burgage land, but as the town 
 extended, various means were discovered of adding to the number of 
 burgesses. 
 
 At the time when the feudal system existed in all its rigour, and 
 when no such thing as freehold land was to be found anywhere, burgage 
 tenure was the easiest and most agreeable tenure by which men of moderate 
 means could hold property. The consequence of this was, that many 
 persons, unconnected with trade, possessed themselves of burgage land 
 in Liverpool, and the other royal boroughs, built themselves mansions, 
 and resided there from father to son, for many generations. Thus the 
 Moores, of Moore Hall, settled in Liverpool in the time of King John, 
 and remained there until the reign of Queen Anne. The Crosses, of 
 Crosshall, in Dale-street, came somewhat later, but remained till nearly 
 the same time. The Banistres came somewhat later than the Crosses. 
 Other families followed. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, upwards 
 of a dozen of the county families held burgage lands in Liverpool, 
 independent of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, who occasionally resided 
 in their fortified tower on the banks of the river, and the Molyneuxes, 
 who were hereditary governors of the castle. The two families, however, 
 which most completely identified themselves with the town, were the 
 Moores and the Crosses. There was scarcely a member of either family 
 which did not hold the office of mayor; and we find the names of 
 a great number of them as magistrates, farmers general of the royal 
 rights, and in other offices of trust. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 the Moores had bought upwards of thirty burgages in Liverpool, 
 besides being possessed of large estates in Bootle, Kirkdale, and 
 other neighbouring townships. Sir Edward Moore, who lived in the 
 reign of Charles the Second, in his introduction to the Moore Kental, 
 says to his son :—“ In this town was your ancient house, called 
 Moore Hall, together with the street it stood in. Of this mansion I 
 find your ancestors possessed time out of mind, most of all of your 
 deeds for your land and houses there being without date. Only one I 
 find of John de la More, son of John de Mora, dated Anno Domini, 
 1200.” A large proportion of the deeds formerly belonging to the 
 Moore family are at present at Knowsley, the Liverpool estates of the 
 Moore family having been purchased by the Earls of Derby. The oldest 
 deed, with a date, in that collection, is one of 13 LI, in which William de 
 
83 
 
 Castro grants a ridge or butt of land in Liverpool to William Walsemnn 
 and bis heirs ; but there are eight deeds in the collection without dates, and 
 which appear to be of muoh greater antiquity, in one of which the name of 
 Quinilda de Kirkdale is introduced. If she is the heiress mentioned in 
 Testa de Neville, the deed must have been executed either in the reign of 
 King John, or of his son Henry the Third. 
 
 The position of Liverpool was well chosen, not merely for the 
 purposes of military defence and of commerce, but also for the health 
 and enjoyment of its inhabitants. This is the case as to the whole of the 
 ground on which both the old and the new towns are situated, with the 
 exception of that part of them which is built upon the bed of the ancient 
 pool, where a splendid natural harbour was destroyed to create building 
 land of the worst description. With the exception of this district, 
 both the old and the new towns of Liverpool have every advantage of 
 position. The brow of the hill on which the castle was erected, and 
 along which Castle-street and the other ancient streets of the town were 
 afterwards built, is about fifty feet above the level of the Old Dock sill— 
 that is above the level of the river; and the slope of the ground on both 
 sides of it is sufficient, with very moderate assistance from art, to render 
 it dry and healthy. Beyond the bed of the pool the ground rises rapidly 
 to the east, until it reaches an elevation of 230 feet at Edge-hill church, 
 and 240 at Everton church, and a general elevation of about 200 feet 
 along the eastern boundary of the modern borough. The ascent to the 
 north and the south is more gradual, but an elevation of 50 or 60 feet 
 is soon reached in either direction. The general form of the land on 
 whioh the town is built is that of an amphitheatre of hills, with two 
 depressions in their rise, the upper one caused by the ancient bed of the 
 Mosslake, the lower by the bed of the pool. The bed of the Mosslake 
 being at an elevation of 150 feet above the level of the river, has been 
 easily and effectually drained; but the land on the ancient bed of the pool, 
 being little above the level of ordinary tides, and below the level of spring 
 tides, can never be rendered as dry as is desirable for the purposes of 
 health. If this pool had not been filled up, the docks of Liverpool would 
 have been in the form of a semicircle, a segment of which would have run 
 through the heart of the town, whilst the other portion of it would have 
 extended along the bank of the river. This arrangement would have been 
 most convenient for commerce, and equally conducive to the health of the 
 inhabitants. Yet we ought not to blame those who committed this error 
 too severely. They formed both the first and the second dock on the bed 
 
84 
 
 of the ancient pool, and it was impossible at that time to foresee that a 
 position which had not brought together more than 6,000 inhabitants 
 during the first, five hundred years of its existence as a borough and a 
 port, would bring together 70,000 before the end of the next century, 
 and 400,000 in another half century. 
 
 There is a tradition that when King John laid waste the manors of 
 Toxteth and Smethom, he removed the inhabitants of those manors to 
 Liverpool; and it is said that they formed the original population of the 
 borough, along with the fishermen and boatmen of the river. This is 
 not so improbable as it might appear in our times. The original 
 population of most of the smaller boroughs of the crown must have 
 been composed of the tenants of the royal estates, very few of whom 
 were freemen. It was part of the policy of our early kings to render 
 their boroughs populous and wealthy, by alluring population to them 
 from all quarters. Even the villeins, or nativi, were very readily received, 
 without any very particular inquiry as to where they came from ; indeed, 
 it was one of the laws of William the Conqueror, that every bondman, who 
 remained unchallenged for a year and a day, in any city, or walled town, 
 or royal castle, should be free from the yoke of bondage ever afterwards. 
 The cities and towns of the kingdom were thus the means of creating a 
 free population. In the neighbouring borough of Preston there was a 
 local law, expressed in nearly the same words as the law of William the 
 Conqueror which I have just referred to. It is a fact that we never 
 hear of villeins or bondmen in Liverpool, after the period of King John’s 
 charter, although they are continually mentioned, during the next two 
 centuries, in the accounts of the population of Everton, Great Crosby, 
 and Wavertree. 
 
 In the year succeeding that in which King John granted the first 
 charter to Liverpool, he ordered khe hundred courts to be removed to 
 Liverpool from West Derby, where they had been held from before the 
 Norman conquest. This appears from the following extract from the 
 sheriff’s account, or Pipe Koll of the year 1208:—“And, in default of 
 W T est Derby, which is removed to Liverpool, .£8.” As the £8 of King 
 John was equal to £120 of Queen Victoria, the amount shows that the 
 administering of justice was at that time a profitable affair for the crown. 
 This and similar charges explain the reason why the barons of the 
 kingdom, when they extorted Magna Charta, about seven years later, 
 introduced into it the memorable clause, that justice should not be sold, 
 or refused, or delayed to any one. 
 
85 
 
 It appears from one of the Patent Rolls of the year 1207, that King 
 John was about to set out for Ireland at the time when he granted the 
 first charter to Liverpool. The fleet with which he made the voyage and 
 transported his army, is said to have consisted of five hundred vessels. 
 The greater part of these were merchant ships, for although King John 
 had a few war galleys, which he kept at Portsmouth, yet the usual course 
 was to impress all the shipping belonging to the different ports on the 
 sea, for naval expeditions. It was by this means that he collected the 
 great fleet of seven hundred ships, with which his admirals fought and 
 gained the battle of Damme—the first great sea fight won by the English. 
 It was by the same means that he collected a large fleet in the Irish seas, 
 amounting, according to the Chronicles of the Kings of Man, to five 
 hundred ships. We have no certain information as to whether this fleet 
 sailed from Liverpool, but on its return from Ireland it approached within 
 a few hours’ sail of the port, having landed an army in the Isle of Man. 
 According to the account of this army, given in the Chronicles of that 
 island, it was commanded by a certain earl called Fulco, probably Fulco 
 Fitz-Warin, the brother of Henry Fitz-Warin, of whom I have already 
 spoken, and one of the ablest and most merciless of King John’s generals. 
 He is said to have laid waste the island for fifteen days. It appears from 
 the sheriff’s account for 1212, that considerable supplies were in that year 
 sent out of Lancashire for Ireland, probably for the support of the army 
 left there. They consisted of 117 quarters of wheat; 113 quarters of 
 oats; 200 swine ; 500 cheeses; 2 tuns of wine ; and 1900 horse shoes, 
 with nails. The cost of conveying these articles to Ireland was 70s., 
 equal to about T50 of our money. 
 
 King John’s enemies were at least as numerous as his neighbours. 
 In the year following the expedition to Ireland, the sheriff charges the 
 expense of a body of troops which passed through Liverpool on its way 
 to Wales. This force consisted of 15 knights and 64 horsemen, with 
 466 foot soldiers and 96 pioneers, or, as they are called, carpenters, who 
 accompanied the army to cut down the woods in the Welsh passes. This 
 detachment was supplied with 400 swine and 100 cows for provisions, and 
 with 200 axes and 250 spades for clearing the ground for the army. 
 The Lancashire detachment only formed part of a very much larger army 
 assembled at Chester, with which King John succeeded in fighting his 
 way as far as the foot of Snowdon, though without gaining any permanent 
 advantage. 
 
86 
 
 The sheriffs' accounts for this reign throw great light on the state 
 of prices at that time in this part of Lancashire.* The prices of grain 
 do not differ much from those of the present day, except as relates to 
 oats ; the prices of cattle and sheep are very much lower, as was naturally 
 to be expected in a thinly peopled pastoral country; and the price of salt 
 was enormously dearer, being not less than P3 a quarter in modem money. 
 
 Mixed up with the warlike entries given above, there also appear in 
 the sheriff’s accounts various charges for the support of a large hunting 
 establishment. Amongst them are the expenses of the master-huntsman 
 and forty-nine men, with ten horses, two packs of dogs, fifty-two spaniels, 
 two thousand hand-nets, and two hundred and sixty cocks—I suppose for 
 cock-fighting. It appears from numerous entries in the Close Rolls that 
 King John had his falcons and hounds in all parts of the kingdom. 
 The above charges may probably have been for the hunting establishment, 
 at his newly-formed park at Toxteth. The following orders from King 
 John are specimens of the mandates which he sent to the sheriffs of different 
 counties on the subject of his hawks and hounds:—“ The King to John 
 Fitz Hugh, &c. We send to you by William de Merc, and I de Erlham, 
 three girefalcons, and Gibbun, the girefalcon, than which we do not 
 possess a better, and one falcon gentle, commanding you to receive them 
 and place them in the mewes, and provide for their food plump goats and 
 sometimes good hens, and once every week let them have the flesh of 
 hares, and procure good mastiffs to guard the mewes. And the cost which 
 you incur in keeping those falcons, and the expenses of Spark, the man 
 of W. de Merc, who will attend them with one man and one horse, shall 
 be accounted to you at the Exchequer.—21st March, 16 th John—Close 
 Rolls, 192.” The following is another specimen of these orders :—“ The 
 King to William de Pratell, and the bailiffs of Falk de Breaut of the Isle of 
 Ely, greeting—We command you to find, out of the issues of the see of Ely, 
 necessaries for Richard, the huntsman, who was with the Bishop of Ely, 
 and for his two horses and four grooms; also, find for his fifteen grey- 
 
 * The following is a list of the prices at which various articles were supplied, both in 
 the money of that time, and in that of the present day:— 
 
 T s. 
 
 Salt . CO qrs. 12 0 
 
 Wheat.... 240 qrs. 40 0 
 
 Baei.ey _ 121 qrs. 15 2 
 
 Oats . 300 qrs. 15 0 
 
 Cows. 80 16 0 
 
 Sheep .... 130 C 10 
 
 Hekhings . .20,000 6 5 
 
 d. 
 
 0 or 4s. Od. per quarter . 
 0 or 3s. 4d. „ 
 
 6 or 2s. Cd. „ 
 
 0 or Is. Od. „ 
 
 0 or 4s. Od. each 
 0 or Is. Od. each 
 0 or 3s. 2|d. per thousand 
 
 Present money, 
 equal to 413 0 0 per quarter. 
 
 „ £2 10 0 „ 
 
 „ £1 5 0 
 
 „ TO 15 0 
 
 „ 13 0 0 each. 
 
 „ TO 10 0 each. 
 
 „ T1 10 0 per thousand. 
 
87 
 
 hounds, and twenty-one hounds de mota, their allowance of bread or 
 paste, as they may require it, and let them hunt sometimes in the bishop's 
 chase for the flesh on which they are fed.—13th March, 17th John.— 
 Close Rolls, 253.” 
 
 So much for King John’s hunting establishments, of which the one 
 in Lancashire seems to have been amongst the largest and best appointed. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of Toxteth Park, it may be well to give the 
 following additional notice of its formation, from the Close Rolls of the 
 succeeding reign of Henry the Third. 
 
 “ The king to the sheriff of Lancashire, greeting.—We command that 
 without delay you inquire diligently, by discreet and legal men of your 
 county, what is the value of the vill of Smethedon, which our Lord King 
 John, our father, laid waste for a Haia of Toxtathe.” The answer to this 
 mandate is given in the following entry in the sheriff s account:—“ And, 
 in the waste of the vill of Smethedon, which King John laid waste for a 
 Haia of Toxtathe, 13s. 4d.” 
 
 In the sixteenth year of King John, the Castle of Liverpool was 
 provisioned for a long siege, in the course of that memorable war in 
 which the barons of the kingdom, assisted by the citizens of London, 
 wrested from King John the liberties recognized in the Great Charter. 
 Amongst the most important of these were the following:—That no 
 extraordinary aid or tax should be imposed, without the assent of the 
 national council. That justice should not be sold, refused, or delayed; 
 that assizes for the purpose of administering justice should be held at 
 fixed times and places; that no freeman should be arrested or imprisoned, 
 or be deprived of his land, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in anywise pro¬ 
 ceeded against, unless by the sentence of his peers and the law of the land ; 
 that no freeman, or merchant, or villein should be unreasonably fined 
 for a small offence ; that the first should not be deprived of his tenement, 
 the second of his merchandise, or the third of his implements of 
 husbandry; that all merchants should have safety and security in 
 going out of and coming into England, and also in staying and travelling 
 in the kingdom, whether by land or by water, without any grievous impo 
 sition, and according to the old and upright customs, except in time 
 of war, when, if any merchants belonging to an enemy’s country should be 
 found in the land, they should, at the commencement of the war, be arrested, 
 without injury to their persons and property, until it should be known 
 how the English merchants who happened to be in their land were 
 treated there; if they were uninjured, the foreign merchants should 
 
88 
 
 bo equally safe in England. It will be seen from the above brief 
 summary that not only were control of the public purse, personal freedom, 
 and the right administration of justice, promised by the Great Charter, but 
 that foreign merchants were promised liberal treatment in peace, just 
 treatment in war, and freedom from all taxes except the ancient and upright 
 customs of the kingdom. The Great Charter was thus a charter of com¬ 
 mercial freedom, as well of personal liberty and legislative control ; and 
 the treatment which it guaranteed to the mercantile classes was not only 
 just but liberal. 
 
 These great principles were not established without a desperate 
 struggle. King John gave his formal assent to the great charter at 
 Runnymede, near Windsor, on the 15th June, in the year 1215 ; hut he 
 was not a man to he restrained by an oath. In the following year he 
 renewed the war, and pressed the barons so hard that they were compelled 
 to call in the King of France and the Dauphin, to resist the swarm of 
 foreign mercenaries whom John had collected under his standard. 
 Amongst other places fortified by the king was the Castle of Liverpool, 
 which received provisions for a long siege. The following are the articles 
 charged for by the sheriff of Lancashire, in the 16th and 17th King 
 John:—240 quarters of wheat; 121 of barley; 300 of oats; 60 quarters 
 of salt; 80 cows; 130 sheep, and 20,000 herrings. There is no record 
 of an actual siege at Liverpool, and it is probable that none took place ; 
 for in the year in which the supplies were furnished, and in the midst of 
 the struggle between the king and his barons, he was seized with sudden 
 illness, and died at Newark Castle, from a fever, caused partly by excess 
 in eating, partly by fury of mind, produced by the loss of the treasures 
 and the baggage of his army, in crossing the Wash, on his march from 
 Lynn into Lincolnshire. The death of King John gave the barons and 
 citizens of London all the advantages of a complete victory, and secured 
 the triumph of many of the most valuable principles of the English 
 Constitution. 
 
 On the accession of Henry the Third, the son of King John, at the 
 age of eleven years, the government of the kingdom passed into the hands 
 of a council of Barons, of whom William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, a 
 man of distinguished wisdom and patriotism, was appointed chief, with 
 the title of Governor of the King and Kingdom—Rector Regis et Regni. 
 The Honour of Lancaster, including the Borough of Liverpool, was 
 managed during the minority of the young King, by Ranulf de Blundville, 
 the most powerful of the Earls of Chester. Jordan, the son of Roger, 
 
89 
 
 afterwards acted as Custos, until the tenth year of the young king’s reign. 
 We learn, from the Pipe Roll, or Sheriff’s account of Henry the Third, 
 that the income of the Honour of Lancaster at that time was £200 a year, 
 equal to about £3,000 a year of our money. This may appear a small 
 sum for so vast an estate, hut it must be remembered that cultivation was 
 extremely rude; that there were scarcely any towns in Lancashire, and 
 that those which did exist were small and poor. The income of the great 
 Earldom of Chester did not amount to more than £250 per year, or about 
 £3,750 of our money. It was only in the south of England, where the 
 towns and cities were large and prosperous, and where the land was 
 comparatively well cultivated, that the incomes of even the highest of the 
 nobility were larger. The income of the Earldom of Gloucester, which 
 included the cities of Bristol and Gloucester, and many of the finest manors 
 on the banks of the Severn, amounted to £723 is. 2d., or about £10,845 
 per year of our money, in the thirty-first year of Henry the Second. This 
 was probably the most valuable private estate in the kingdom at that time. 
 
 To return to the Honour of Lancaster. In the tenth and eleventh 
 years of the reign of Henry the Third, William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, 
 who had married Agnes, one of the sisters of the Earl of Chester, held the 
 office of Custos. Adam de Yoland, afterwards held it during the twelfth, 
 thirteenth, and fourteenth years of the same king’s reign. All these 
 successive representatives for the Crown were very active in raising 
 tallages or taxes from the king’s manors, in addition to the ordinary rents. 
 They also succeeded in greatly extending the cultivation of the waste 
 lands on the royal estates, and in otherwise increasing their value. One 
 reason why they were able to effect this was, that many of the most oppres¬ 
 sive clauses of the forest laws, which rendered cultivation nearly impossible 
 in the neighbourhood of the royal forests, were repeated by the Earl of 
 Pembroke, and that nearly the whole of the lands which had been turned 
 into forest during the reigns of Henry the Second and his sons, Richard 
 and John, were disforested. The charter of the forest, granted during the 
 minority of Henry the Third, was a worthy supplement to the great 
 charter which the Barons had won from King John at Runnymede. It 
 was equally favourable to the owners and the cultivators of the soil. 
 
 In the sixth of Henry the Third, a tallage was levied on the borough 
 of Liverpool, and on all the king’s manors, which yielded the following 
 sums:— 
 
 Liverpool, 5 marks, equal to <£50 ; Crosby, 5 marks, equal to £50 ; 
 West Derby, 1 mark, equal to £10 ; Everton, 1 mark, equal to £10. 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 In the eleventh year of the reign of Henry the Third, another general 
 tallage was raised, when the payments of the three Lancashire Boroughs 
 were as follows :— 
 
 Preston, 15 marks, equal to T150; Lancaster, 13 marks, equal to 
 L'130 ; Liverpool, 11J marks, equal to £l 15. 
 
 Some of the payments from the rural manors of the county were as 
 follows :— 
 
 West Derby, 7 marks, 4s. 6d., equal to T70; Everton, 5 marks, 2s., 
 equal to T50 ; Great Crosby, 8 marks, 5s., equal to T80. 
 
 Such was the position of Liverpool and of the neighbourhood in the 
 eleventh year of Henry the Third. 
 
 In the thirteenth year of that king’s reign, he granted a second 
 Charter to Liverpool, confirming in detail all the privileges granted by 
 his father. King John, and making Liverpool a free borough for ever. 
 The following is a copy of it:— 
 
 “ Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, Duke of Normandy and 
 Aquitain, Earl of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, 
 barons, justiciaries, sheriffs, reeves, ministers, and to all his bailiffs and 
 faithful people, greeting, Know ye that we have granted, and by this our 
 charter do confirm, that our town of Liverpool shall be a free borough 
 for ever, and that the burgesses of the same borough may have a guild 
 merchant, with a hanse and other liberties, and free customs to that 
 guild pertaining, and that no one that shall not be of that guild shall 
 traffic in any merchandise, unless by the consent of the same burgesses; 
 also, we have granted to the same burgesses and their heirs, that they may 
 have soc and sac and tol and thame and infrangenethef, and that they 
 shall be quit throughout our whole realm and throughout all the ports of 
 the sea of toll, lastage, passage, pontage, and stallage, and that they shall 
 do no suit of county courts, or wapentake courts, for their tenures which 
 they hold within the borough aforesaid ; also, we have granted to the 
 same burgesses and to their heirs, that whatsoever merchants shall come 
 to the borough aforesaid, with their merchandizes of whatsoever place 
 they may be, whether foreigners or others, who shall be in our peace, or 
 shall come into our realm by our license, may safely and securely come 
 to our aforesaid borough with their merchandizes, and there safely dwell, 
 and thence safely depart, rendering therefore the right and due customs. 
 Also, we forbid that any one shall do injury, damage, or grievance to the 
 aforesaid burgesses, upon forfeiture to us of ten pounds; wherefore we 
 will and firmly command that the aforesaid town of Liverpool be a free 
 
91 
 
 borough, and that the aforesaid burgesses may have the aforesaid guild 
 merchant, with an hanse, and other liberties and free customs to that guild 
 pertaining, and that they may have all other liberties and free customs 
 and acquittances as is aforesaid, these being witnesses— 
 
 “ H. De Burgh, Earl of Kent, Justiciary of England, 
 “ Philip de Albany, 
 
 “ Ralph Fitz Nicholas, 
 
 “ Nicholas De Moeles, 
 
 John son of Philip, 
 
 “ Geffrey Dispensar, and others. 
 
 “ Given by the hand of the Venerable Father R Bishop of 
 Chichester, our chancellor, at Merleberge, the 24th day of 
 March, in the thirteenth year of our reign.” 
 
 When Liverpool received the above charter, and that of King John, 
 nearly all the principal towns in the kingdom were the property of the 
 crown. This was the case, amongst others, with London, Winchester, York, 
 Lincoln, Bristol,Gloucester, Lynn, Hull, Southampton,Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 and upwards of thirty ports, with at least as many inland towns. It was a 
 favourite object of the able princes of the Norman and Plantaganet lines 
 to create boroughs, cities, and ports on the sea, on their vast estates, in 
 all parts of the kingdom. In order to effect this object, they granted to 
 the manors which seemed likely to become populous and prosperous the 
 privileges of free boroughs. Those privileges consisted chiefly in the 
 following points:— 
 
 First, the parties who took burgages, or small portions of land, on 
 which they built houses in the royal boroughs, were exempted from the 
 payment of the principal manorial and regal rights, both in the boroughs 
 in which they resided, and in all the other royal boroughs of the kingdom. 
 Thus, for instance, the burgesses of Liverpool, after receiving the above 
 charter, could not only buy and sell whatever merchandise they thought 
 fit in the port of Liverpool, without paying any dues to the Crown, but 
 they could do the same in all the other cities, ports, and free boroughs in 
 the kingdom. The dues paid to the Crown, and which formed part of 
 the jura regalia, were at that time the only regular and permanent taxes 
 on commerce. The tallages and parliamentary grants, which were occa¬ 
 sionally levied, were rather property taxes imposed for a short time, and 
 for a specific purpose, than taxes upon trade and commerce. It is impos¬ 
 sible to conceive a more perfect freedom with regard to trade and com¬ 
 merce than that which was given by the Crown to the burgesses in 
 
the royal boroughs. The value of these privileges was so great that 
 persons residing within royal boroughs, hut on land wliieh did not belong 
 to the Crown, and which therefore did not confer the rights of a burgess, 
 were willing to buy those rights for a considerable sum; thus, David 
 Le-Tinctor, or David the Dyer, gave King John a sum equal to TlO 
 of our money, to have his house, in Carlisle, made a burgage tenement 
 These rights were strictly confined to the king’s tenants—the holders of 
 burgage lands. All non-burgesses were liable to pay the ancient rights 
 of the Crown, and have paid them in London, Bristol, Liverpool, and 
 numerous other places, from the earliest periods to the present time. 
 Even before the Norman Conquest, the Kings of England collected, in 
 right of their prerogative, a duty equal to about one shilling a ton of our 
 money, on every ton of goods disposed of in the port of Chester; and at the 
 time when Domesday Book was drawn up, the customs of towns formed a 
 considerable item in the royal revenues. It was in some cases as great 
 as the land gable or ground rent of the land on which the towns were 
 built. The town dues of the present time are the remains of these 
 ancient rights of the Crown. The earls and barons of the kingdom 
 granted similar privileges to the tenants in their own boroughs. Thus, 
 Thomas de Gresley, in his charter of 1301, granted precisely the same 
 privileges of buying and selling to his burgesses of Manchester, as King 
 John and King Henry the Third had granted to their burgesses of Liver¬ 
 pool nearly a century before. He did not extend these privileges to 
 strangers trading there. On the contrary, all men of “ another shire” were 
 declared to be liable to pay tolls to the lord of the manor, and were heavily 
 fined if they attempted to evade them. In principle there was little if 
 any difference between the charters granted by earls and barons to the 
 burgesses of their towns and those granted by the kings to theirs ; but in 
 practice the difference was very great, for a charter granted by an earl or 
 baron gave no privileges beyond the estate of the granter ; whilst a charter 
 granted by a king made every burgess to whom it was granted free to 
 trade, without the payment of customs, in every city and large town in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Another privilege conceded in the charters granted to the royal 
 boroughs was, that of trying offences committed within the bounds, in 
 courts situated within the borough. They thus escaped the necessity of 
 having recourse to the courts of the hundred or the county, and also 
 escaped the paying of the enormous fees and fines which the Crown 
 levied in those courts. 
 
93 
 
 A third privilege conferred by these charters was, that of electing 
 their own sheriffs, mayors, and bailiffs, by whom they were governed, 
 instead of being governed by the bailiffs of the Crown. Liverpool was 
 governed by its own bailiffs from the time when it obtained its first 
 charter; and by its own mayor and bailiffs from the reign of Edward the 
 Third. 
 
 These three great points of freedom of buying and selling at home 
 and abroad, of administering justice by means of local courts, and of 
 governing themselves by means of municipal officers of their own 
 choosing, were the three great means which the early kings of England 
 used for bringing trade and commerce to the Royal Boroughs. They 
 were in general effectual in doing so. They were also the means of 
 creating and strengthening public opinion in all parts of the kingdom, 
 and of training the people to habits of self-government. 
 
 The following is the meaning of the old Saxon and Gothic words 
 used in this and similar charters:— Commercial Terms —A guild mer¬ 
 chant was an association or company of merchants, united for mutual 
 assistance and protection. A hanse was also an association of mer¬ 
 chants; but one formed for the purposes of foreign commerce. Free 
 customs was freedom from the ancient customs of the crown. Thol 
 signified liberty of buying and selling. Freedom from Thelonium was 
 freedom from dues and market tolls; lastagium, from a duty of so much 
 per last, levied on heavy goods; passagium from passage or ferry rate ; 
 pontegeum from bridge rates, and stallageum from dues on stalls erected 
 in markets and fairs. Administration of Justice —Freedom from suit 
 and service in county and wapentake courts was freedom to manage their 
 own local affairs, without foreign interference. Soc signified the power, 
 authority, and liberty to administer justice. Sac was a royalty or privilege, 
 which a lord of the manor claimed to have in his own courts, of holding 
 pleas amongst his tenants and vassals; thame was a right of trying 
 bondmen ; and infrangenethef was a right of trying thieves taken—fangen, 
 within the jurisdiction* 
 
 On the 25th of March, the day following the grant of the above 
 charter, the king granted a lease of the royal rights in the Borough of 
 Liverpool to the men of Liverpool, by the following lease :— 
 
 “ Henry, by the Grace of God, King of England, &c.—To the 
 sheriff and all his bailiffs of the county of Lancaster, greeting,— 
 
 * See Blount’s Dictionary for all these words, and Maddox's Firma Buryi, for a fuller 
 explanation of the commercial terms. 
 
94 
 
 Know ye, that we have granted to our honest men of Liverpool our 
 town of Liverpool, to be held at farm, from the feast of St. Michael, in 
 the thirteenth year of our reign, unto the end of four complete years, 
 rendering therefore unto us in each of the aforesaid years, at our 
 Exchequer, by the hands of the Sheriff of Lancaster, at two terms, 
 TlO; to wit: at Easter, in the thirteenth year of our reign £5, and at 
 the feast of St. Michael, in the same year £5, and so from year to year, 
 at the same terms, dG 10 as is aforesaid. In witness whereof we have 
 caused these our letters hereof to them to be made patent.—Witness 
 ourselves, at Marlborough, the 25th day of March, in the same year of 
 our reign.” 
 
 The rent of T10 a year at that time was equal to about T.150 of our 
 money. There is no statement of the precise sources of income, which 
 were to be held at farm for this payment, but they no doubt consisted of 
 the reserved rights which the kings retained in all the free boroughs of 
 the kingdom, and which formed a very considerable item in the receipts 
 of the Exchequer. 
 
 Before closing the account of the early Charters of Liverpool, and of 
 the position of the new borough at the time when they were granted, 
 it may be well to show the position of the principal cities and towns of 
 the kingdom about the same period. As nearly the whole of the cities 
 and towns were the property of the crown, a very good test is furnished of 
 their comparative position, by the amount of the yearly rents which they 
 yielded to it.* These rents were in part derived from the ground rents of 
 the burgage lands; in part from the tolls on trade and commerce ; in part 
 from the profits of the royal mills ; in part from the fees and fines of the 
 
 * The following are the amounts yielded by the fee farm rents of London, and of the 
 other principal cities and towns of the kingdom, at about the same time. They are made up 
 from the Sheriffs’ accounts for the different counties of England, in the years mentioned in 
 the table:— 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 EQUAL, TO 
 
 £ 
 
 s. cl. 
 
 EQUAL TO 
 
 London . 
 
 .300 
 
 0 
 
 0U4500,11th Rich. 1st. 
 
 Cambridge. .40 
 
 0 0 ,£600, 
 
 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Bristol . 
 
 .244 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3675, llth Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Chichester ..38 
 
 10 0 
 
 000, 15th Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Southampton.. .200 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3000, 4thEdw.6th. 
 
 Ipswich ..35 
 
 0 0 
 
 500. 
 
 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 .180 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 2700, 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Huntingdon35 
 
 0 0 
 
 500, 
 
 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 York. 
 
 .100 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 2400, 16th John. 
 
 Oxford .... 30 
 
 0 0 
 
 450, 56th Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Winchester. . 
 
 -142 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 2139, 20th Hen.2nd. 
 
 Westcumb . 22 
 
 0 0 
 
 300, 
 
 7th Rich. 1st. 
 
 Godmanchesterl20 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1800, 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Shrewsbury 20 
 
 0 0 
 
 300, 
 
 2nd Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Norwich . .. . 
 
 .108 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1600, 13th Edw. 1st. 
 
 Lyme.20 
 
 0 0 
 
 300, 
 
 5th Edw. 3rd. 
 
 Chester. 
 
 .100 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1500, 25th Rich. 2nd 
 
 Dorchester .20 
 
 0 0 
 
 300, 
 
 21st Hen. 7tli. 
 
 Andover . .. . 
 
 . 80 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1200, 2nd Rich. 2nd 
 
 Helleston.. 20 marks 
 
 200, 
 
 2nd Rich. 2nd. 
 
 Yarmouth .. . 
 
 . 55 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 750, 9th John. 
 
 Appleby ..15 
 
 0 0 
 
 200, 
 
 5th Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Newcastle-on- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bedwin ... 11 
 
 0 0 
 
 160, 
 
 18th Edw. 1st. 
 
 Tyne. 
 
 . 50 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 754, 3rd John. 
 
 Bala.10 
 
 12 0 
 
 160, 
 
 5th Edw. 3rd. 
 
 Bedford. 
 
 . 42 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 000,22ndHen.2nd. 
 
 Liverpool. . 10 
 
 0 0 
 
 150, 
 
 llth Hen. 3rd. 
 
 Hereford.... 
 
 . 40 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 000, 8tli Hen. 4th. 
 
 BridgonorthlO marks 
 
 100, 
 
 18th Edw 2nd. 
 
courts of justice; and from various other sources, which will be men¬ 
 tioned when I come to speak of the leases of the fee farm of Liverpool. 
 They rose, fell, or remained unaltered, according to the position ot the 
 various towns. In London and Bristol, York and Lincoln, Southampton 
 and Winchester, the payments were equal to from £2,139 to £4,500, in 
 our present money. In smaller places, though of some standing, they 
 were of the value of as many hundreds. In places of a still smaller 
 class, such as Liverpool then was, they did not produce more than from 
 £100 to £200 of the money of the present day. As I have mentioned £10 
 of the money of Henry the Third, which is equal to £150 of the money 
 of this age, was the amount which the “ honest men” of Liverpool 
 agreed to pay to Henry the Third, in the year 1229, as a fee farm rent, 
 for all the royal rights in the borough of Liverpool. 
 
 It will he seen that the table in the subjoined note confirms the account 
 which I have given in the first chapter of this work, of the manner in which 
 the commerce of England was distributed in early times In those ages 
 seaports did not owe their importance (such as it was) to manufactures, for 
 nothing deserving the name of manufactures existed in any part of the 
 kingdom, but to the quantity of agricultural and pastoral produce which each 
 district supplied, beyond what was required for the wants of its inhabitants. 
 The great export of the kingdom, as I have already said, was wool; and 
 skins and hides formed the next. Grain was never sent out of the country 
 without the royal permission, which was rarely given. Parties exporting 
 it illegally were punished with the greatest severity. The first complete 
 account which we possess of the exports of England gives their total 
 value at £212,338, equal to about £3,187,070 of our present money. 
 Of this amount, £195,978, equal to £2,939,670, consisted of wool and 
 skins, and the rest of the amount of coarse manufactures of wool and 
 worsted. Probably the only point in which the exports of the reign of 
 Henry the Third differed from those of Edward the Third, was, that the 
 quantity of wool exported was somewhat less in the former, and that no 
 manufactures were exported at that early period. There is not, in the 
 reign of King John or Henry the Third, evidence of the export of any 
 thing hut wool, except in the case of a small quantity of grain exported 
 from Yarmouth to Flanders, which drew down a heavy fine on the inha¬ 
 bitants of that enterprising and industrious port. As relates to wool, it 
 appears that both King John and his son, Henry the Third, were exten¬ 
 sively engaged in the trade. It also appears that the Knights of the 
 Temple, and the heads of various monasteries, united the risks of wool 
 
96 
 
 dealing to their religious and warlike cares. These transactions of the 
 kings account for the entry in the calendar of the Patent Polls of various 
 large sums of gold and silver received from abroad, chiefly from Germany. 
 As far as we have the means of judging, there was always a very large 
 balance of trade in favour of England, which was paid in silver. In the 
 year 1354, the total value of the imports of the kingdom is given at 
 .=£38,383 16s. 10d., equal to ^£545,756 of modern money, whilst that of 
 the exports amounted to ^212,331 5s., equal to .£3,184,968. If these 
 accounts are correct, or if they at all approach correctness, the balances 
 due to the kingdom on commercial account were very large. Doubtless, 
 a large portion of these amounts were wasted in the long and destructive 
 wars which Edward the Third waged on the continent. The same ob¬ 
 servation applies to the times of King John, and of all the early Henrys 
 and Edwards. They were seldom at peace with their neighbours for 
 more than a few years together; and though there was a steady increase 
 of national wealth from the time of the Norman Conquest to the accession 
 of the Tudors, and has been a rapid one ever since, yet the rate of 
 increase was greatly retarded both by civil strife and external war. The 
 civil strife may have been worth all the sacrifices which it entailed, for out 
 of the confusion of the reigns of King John and Henry the Third arose 
 many of the noblest principles of British freedom. The foreign wars, 
 though full of brilliant events, and though they placed England in 
 the first rank of the warlike nations of Europe, were as -wasteful and 
 unprofitable as such wars usually are. 
 
 I now proceed to trace the History of Liverpool from the time of the 
 granting of its most valuable Charters to the time when the Commerce of 
 the Port began to develop itself vigorously; accompanying the sketch of 
 the rise of the Port with a sketch of the rise of industry in the surrounding 
 districts. 
 
CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 
 FROM THE GRANTING OF THE CHARTER OF HENRY THE THIRD, TO 
 THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD THE THIRD. 
 
 At the time when Henry the Third granted the charter to the 
 Borough of Liverpool which J have quoted in the preceding chapter, 
 that weak and obstinate monarch, whose reign was a series of disasters, 
 was preparing to commence an attack on the dominions of the King of 
 France. This attack was made without provocation, and ended in 
 complete defeat, which was rendered doubly galling by the fact, that the 
 King of France was at that time a boy of fifteen years of age, under the 
 guardianship of his mother. Little anticipating such a result to his 
 first military expedition, the King ordered all the shipping of the 
 kingdom to assemble at Portsmouth, by Michaelmas day, in the year 
 1229, to convey his army across to Brittany;* and summoned the 
 military tenants of the crown to join him at Portsmouth. As the 
 expedition was known to be undertaken in opposition to the wishes and 
 opinions of the prime minister, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent,+ and of 
 other experienced councillors of the crown, the nobles assembled slowly 
 and reluctantly. In the hope of quickening the zeal of Banulf, the 
 great Earl of Chester, who was at that time the most powerful nbhleman 
 in the kingdom, and who had governed the earldom of Chester for nearly 
 fifty years, with all but regal power, the king made him a grant of the 
 whole of the royal estates lying between the Kibble and the Mersey. 
 This grant included the Borough of Liverpool, the town of Salford, and 
 from twenty to thirty other manors, chiefly in the hundreds of West 
 Derby and Salford. The following is a copy of the deed by which the 
 Sheriff of Lancaster was ordered to transfer these estates to the Earl of 
 Chester :— 
 
 “ The King hath granted, and by this Charter confirmed, to Ranulf, 
 Earl of Chester and Lincoln, the whole land which he hath between the 
 Ribble and the Mersey; that is to say, the town of West Derby, with 
 the Wapentake and all the appurtenances; the Borough of Liverpool, 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 13th of Henry III. 
 
 + Knight’s Pictorial History of England, i.; 676. 
 
 O 
 
98 
 
 with the appurtenances; the town of Salford, with the wapentake, and 
 all the appurtenances ; the Wapentake of Leyland, with all the 
 appurtenances, in demesnes, forests, hays, homages, services, and all 
 other their appurtenances, and with all liberties and free customs 
 to the aforesaid lands, wapentake, borough, hays, forests, appertaining, 
 as is more fully contained in the King’s Charters, to him thereof made. 
 And it is commanded to the Sheriff of Lancaster, that he cause the 
 same Earl to have, without delay, full seisin of the aforesaid lands, 
 wapentakes, borough, with all the appurtenances in demesnes, forests, 
 hays, homages, services, and all other appurtenances, with all liberties 
 and free customs, to the aforesaid lands, wapentakes, borough, hays, and 
 forests pertaining. Witness, the King, at Portsmouth, the 19th day 
 October.”* 
 
 At the time when the above estates were transferred to the Earl of 
 Chester, they formed somewhat more than one-third, in value, of the whole 
 Honour of Lancaster. It appears, from the Sheriff’s return, in the Great 
 Roll of the Pipe, for the fourteenth year of King Henry the Third, that 
 the income of the Honour of Lancaster amounted that year to £ 174 7s. 3£d. 
 of the money of that time, equal to ^2,615 9s. 4^d. of modern money. Of 
 this income the land belonging to the crown, between the Kibble and the 
 Mersey, produced I>68 18s. 4d. a year in the money of that time, equal to 
 Tl,033 15s. of the money of this. Of this amount ^46 16s. 7d., equal to 
 ;£702 8s. 9d. of modern money, was derived from estates in the Hundred of 
 West Derby, and £21 11s. 2d., equal to I>323 15s. of present money, from 
 estates in the Hundred of Salford. In the Hundred of Leyland the royal 
 property had been reduced by previous grants, to a single carucate ofland > 
 worth 10s. a year of the money of that time ; whilst in the Hundred of 
 Blackburn every acre of the royal estates had been alienated, previous to the 
 grant to the Earl of Chester. The Borough of Liverpool was the most 
 valuable of the manors transferred by this grant. It then yielded a rent 
 of TlO a year, equal to T150 of our money.f At the time when this 
 grant was made to the Earl of Chester, the fee farm of the Borough, that 
 is, the royal rights and property, were leased to the inhabitants, who 
 collected the various rents and dues by their own officers, during the 
 continuance of the lease. Next in value to Liverpool, amongst the 
 manors granted to the Earl of Chester, was Great Crosby, the chief part 
 of the lands of which belonged to the crown, and were cultivated by 
 
 * Close Rolls, 13th of Henry III. 
 
 + Lease of the Borough, at p. 93. 
 
99 
 
 bondsmen, otherwise called villeins, or nativi. The rent paid by the 
 bondsmen of Great Crosby was £5 5s., equal to £78 15s. of the money of 
 the present day. There were also in that manor two free tenants, Robert 
 (Molyneux) de Crosby, who paid the king 10s., equal to £7 10s. of our 
 money, and Robert Malet, who paid 7s. 6d., equal to £5 12s. 6d. Everton 
 was next in value to Great Crosby. The whole of the lands of Everton 
 were cultivated by bondsmen, who paid £4 16s., equal to £72, of 
 yearly rent. They had a few years before obtained an order from the 
 king, that they should not be compelled to render any other services than 
 those which they had rendered in the time of his father. King John, 
 “ before the war;” and that they should have, from the royal woods at 
 West Derby, reasonable estovers, or grants of timber, for the building and 
 repairing of their houses.* The sums yielded by the other manors in 
 which the king held lands will be seen by the subjoined extract from the 
 Sheriffs Account, or Pipe roll, of a preceding year—the tenth of Henry 
 the Third.f It will also be seen, from the same extract, that each of 
 the thanes, or gentlemen who held manors around Liverpool, paid to the 
 king a yearly sum of 20s. of money of that time, equal to £15 of present 
 money. The income of the estate granted to the Earl of Chester was 
 thus derived from the royal rights and estates in Liverpool; from the rents 
 of the lands, cultivated by the bondsmen, in a few of the adjo ini ng 
 manors; and from the sums paid to the chief lord of the honour in numer¬ 
 ous manors, in which the lands were held by free tenants. The following 
 is the extract, with the rents stated both in ancient and modern money :— 
 
 “ Wapentake of West Derby. —William, Earl of Derby, renders 
 account of £4 16s, equal to £72 of our money, for rent of Overton 
 (Everton), with the extension of the works of villeins (or bondsmen) of 
 the same town, for lands which they hold in villeinage in the same town ; 
 and for 60s., equal to £45, for rent of assize at Waleton (Walton); and 
 of 105s.. equal to £78 15s., from villeinage of thekingin Crosbey; and of 
 1 Os., equal to £7 10s., of rent of assize of Robert de Crosbey, who holds as 
 a freeman in the same manor; and of 7s. 6d., equal to £5 12s. 6d., for rent of 
 assize of Robert Malet, who holds in the same manor; and of £4 10s., 
 equal to £67 10s., for rent of assize of Hale, which Richard de Mida holds 
 by charter of King John ; and of 50s., equal to £37 10s., for increase of the 
 
 * Syers’s History of Everton, 13. 
 
 + These extracts from the Great Roll of the Pipe, or Sheriffs’ Accounts, are taken chiefly 
 from Roger Dodsworth’s MS. extracts respecting Lancashire, in the Bodleian Library, 
 Oxford. Some, however, are from the notes of Maddox’s Firma Burgi, his History of the 
 Exchequer, and other works in which those valuable records of past ages are quoted. 
 
100 
 
 same manor; and of 20s., equal to £15, for rent of assize at Wavertree ; 
 and of half a mark, equal to £5, for increase of the same; and of £9, 
 equal to £135, for rent of assize at Liverpool; and of 72s. 6d., equal 
 to .£54 7s. 6d.,forrentof assize of WestDerby; and of 20s., equal to £15, 
 for rent of assize at Ladum (Latham), for tlianage; and of 21s. 4d., equal 
 to £16, for rent of assize for thanage ; and of 20s., equal to ,£15, for 
 rent of assize of Ditton; and of 20s., equal to £15, for rent of assize 
 of Gerstan (Garston); and of one mark, equal to £10, for thanage of 
 Tinginwell (Thingwall); and of 10s., equal to £7 10s., of Richard 
 Wallens, for thanage in Up Lederland; and of 15s., equal to £11 5s., of 
 Henry de Melling, for thanage in Melling and Up Holland; and of 20s., 
 equal to £15, of Adam de Mullinell (Molyneux), for thanage in 
 Lederland ; and of 18s., equal to £13 10s., of Alan de Hoiland (Holland), 
 for thanage in Hoyland, and Aintree, and Barton ; and of 5s., equal to £3 
 15s., of Alan the son of Bernulf, for thanage in Bickerstaff; and one mark, 
 equal to £10, of Richard the son of Roger, for thanage in Formeby and 
 Bold; and of 28s., equal to £21, of Henry de Waleton, for rent of assize 
 of Formeby, which he holds by charter of King John; and of half a mark, 
 £5, of the same Henry, for increase; and of 11s. 10d., equal to £8 17s. 
 6d., for sacfee of the fee of William Butler; and of 3s., equal to £2 5s., 
 for the same of R. Bussel, in Kirkdale; and of 6s., equal to £4 10s., for 
 the same of Adam de Millenel (Molyneux).” Total amount, £46 9s. 2d.; 
 equal to £702 2s. 6d. of modem money. 
 
 It will also be seen from the following extract from the Pipe Roll of 
 the fourteenth of Henry the Third, that the estates granted by that king 
 to the Earl of Chester, were transferred to him, by the Sheriff of 
 Lancashire, in the same year:— 
 
 “ The same sheriff renders account of £21 1 Is. 2d. from several farms 
 in the Wapentake of Saltford; and of £46 16s. 2d. from several farms 
 in the West Derby; and of 10s. rent from one carucate of land, in 
 Leylandshire, which Richard de Thorpe holds—total £68 17s. 4d. 
 Nothing in the treasury ; but paid to Ranulf, Earl of Chester, 
 £68 17s. 4d. for the aforesaid wapentakes, lands, and rents, according 
 to the letter of the king, in which it is said that the king has given to 
 him all the lands which he had between Ribble and Mersey.” 
 
 Soon after the Earl of Chester had obtained the above grant from 
 the crown, he added greatly to the extent and value of his estates in 
 Lancashire, by purchasing the property of a landowner, named Roger 
 de Mersheya, who appears to have had other estates, and probably 
 
101 
 
 residences, in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham. The pro¬ 
 perty purchased by the earl consisted of numerous manors, chiefly 
 situated in the hundred of Salford, some of which have since become 
 the sites of great towns. Amongst them were those of Bolton and 
 Little Bolton, Hilton, Brightmede, Redcliffe, Urmston, Sharpies, Haigh, 
 Adlington, Derwent or Darwen, Eccleshill, and Heaton, near Lan¬ 
 caster. The price which he paid for these manors and estates was 
 200 marks of silver, to which 40 marks were afterwards added ; the two 
 sums being equal to about 412,400 of modern money.* 
 
 Although the great Earl of Chester did not live to enjoy his estates 
 in Lancashire more than three or four years after the grant of Henry the 
 Third, yet he created some memorials of his possession, during that short 
 period, which have helped to preserve the remembrance of his name for 
 many ages. A very ancient tradition assigns to this earl the honour of 
 having built the beacon, or lighthouse, on Everton hill, near Liverpool, 
 which continued in existence until the beginning of the present century. 
 It is not certain whether this beacon was constructed for the purpose of 
 guiding vessels into the port of Liverpool, or for that of raising the 
 country in case of warlike attack. From its position on a hill which 
 rises to the height of upwards of two hundred feet above the town of 
 Liverpool, it must have been visible for many miles at sea, as well as 
 from most of the high grounds of Cheshire. A lighthouse, for purely 
 commercial purposes, was erected in England as early as the reign in which 
 the great Earl of Chester lived. This appears from a grant of certain 
 customs, made by Henry the Third, to support a light or lighthouse 
 erected in the harbour of Winchilsea, for the safety of seamen.t But 
 Earl Ranulfs knowledge was not confined to his own country. A few 
 years previous to the grant made to him by Henry the Third, he had 
 visited Palestine as a Crusader. At that time the route usually taken 
 by the northern crusaders was either through Marseilles, which has never 
 ceased to be a beautiful and populous city for 2,000 years, or through 
 Genoa and Venice, which were then the first commercial cities in the 
 world. The route of King Richard the First was through Marseilles, 
 in going to the Holy Land and he would probably have returned by 
 Venice, if he had not had the misfortune to be shipwrecked in the 
 Adriatic. King Phillip, of France, sailed from Genoa to Palestine. 
 We have no information as to the route taken by the Earl of 
 
 * Duchy Office, Cartas Regum, No. 79. + Calendar of the Patent Rolls, -loth Henry Third 
 
 J Pictorial History of England, i, 486. 
 
102 
 
 Chester, either in going or returning; but it must have been through 
 countries full of commercial activity and intelligence, where he would 
 see everj r establishment which the science and skill of that age had 
 invented for the security of commerce. It is therefore not improbable, 
 that one of his objects in erecting the beacon at Everton, may have been 
 to add to the prosperity of the port of Liverpool, which, as I have 
 already shown, was the most valuable portion of the property that he 
 had received under the grant of Henry the Third. 
 
 Another benefit which the country between the Kibble and the Mersey 
 received from the Earl of Chester, was the forming of a police force, 
 supported by local rates. This was found to be so useful as to be con¬ 
 tinued after his death, by authority of the king.* 
 
 A third act of Earl Ranulf’s was of a more questionable character. 
 He seized on the Church of Walton, then the Parish Church of Liverpool; 
 on the manor of Garston; the fishery of the Mersey at Thelwall; and on 
 other estates which had been granted to the Abbey of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul, at Shrewsbury, by Roger of Poictou, and Goisfred, his vice-comes 
 or sheriff, in the reign of William Rufus. It is not known on what 
 pretext he did this. He soon restored them, however, “ for the good of 
 his own soul, and the souls of his ancestors,” by the following deed of 
 restitution :— 
 
 “ Ranulfus, Earl of Chester, to the Bishop of Chester, and all 
 the Clergy, the Constable and Seneschal of Chester, &c.—Know 
 that we have restored (nos redidisse), for the safety of our own 
 soul and those of our ancestors, to God and the Holy Virgin Mary, 
 and to the Abbot and Monks of the Church of the blessed St. Peter, of 
 Shrewsbury, the manor of Gerston (Garston), with all its appurtenances, 
 the church of Walton, with its appurtenances, a certain house at Newton, 
 in the demesne, the two towns of Poulton and Ulfston, and the half part 
 of the fishery of Thelwall, in the Mersey.—Witness, The Bishop of 
 Chester.” f 
 
 The Bishop of Chester, whose name is attached to the above deed, 
 may possibly have induced Earl Ranulf to submit to the authority of the 
 Church in this matter; but he was not given to pay implicit obedience 
 even to the pope. He firmly refused to allow a tax of one-tenth, imposed 
 by Pope Innocent the Fourth, on all the countries which acknowledged 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 36th Henry Third. 
 + Harleian MSS., No. 2063, p. 230. 
 
103 
 
 his supremacy, but which was raised for no better purpose than that of 
 carrying on a war with the Emperor of Germany, to be levied in the 
 Earldom of Chester, although it was levied in all other parts of England, 
 as well as in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.* 
 
 The great Earl of Chester died at his castle, at Wallingford on the 
 Thames, in the year 1232, after having possessed the earldom of Chester for 
 upwards of half a century ;f hut after holding the lands granted to him by 
 Henry the Third, between the Ribble and the Mersey, only three or four 
 years. As he left no children, his immense estates were divided amongst 
 his four sisters, or their heirs. In this division his sister Agnes, who was 
 married to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, obtained the estates 
 between the Mersey and the Ribble. The following extract from a royal 
 order, “ Concerning the heirs of Ranulf, Earl of Chester,” will show the 
 arrangement which was made with regard to that portion of the earl’s 
 estates:— 
 
 “ It is provided that the castle of Chartley, with the manor and all 
 appurtenances for a chief residence, shall pass to William de Ferrers, Earl 
 of Derby, and Agnes his wife, as part of what falls to the said Agnes ; 
 and that the same earl and his wife shall receive the castle and town of 
 West Derby, with its appurtenances, together with the lands which the 
 aforesaid earl possessed between the Ribble and the Mersey. Witness the 
 King at Northampton, November the 12th.”;J; 
 
 The Earl of Derby and his Countess Agnes subsequently paid the 
 king d£50, equal to T750 of our money, as their relief, on taking possession 
 of the estates; and it will be seen by the following deed, that they agreed 
 to render to the king every year an asturca or falcon, or in place of it 
 40s., for their lands between the Ribble and the Mersey. It is an order 
 addressed to the Barons of the Exchequer :— 
 
 “ Know, that William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, and Agnes, his wife, 
 are bound to pay to us yearly a falcon (asturcaJ, or 40s., for the land 
 between Ribble and Mersey, which we gave to Ranulf, formerly Earl of 
 Chester, and which is assigned to the said Earl, and Agnes his wife, as 
 part of the portion which goes to them of the lands which formerly 
 belonged to the said Earl of Chester. And therefore I command you that 
 you receive the said payment from them yearly, and give them acquittance. 
 — Witness, myself, at Westminster, 21st day of October.”^ 
 
 William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, who thus became possessed of the 
 
 * Matthew Paris, 372. t Mortimer’s History of Wirral, 79. 
 
 t Close Rolls, 17th of Henry III., m. 17. § Excerpta e Rotulis Finium, i.,2G7. 
 
104 
 
 borough of Liverpool, and of many other estates in Lancashire, was the 
 descendant of an ancient Norman family, which had obtained the Earldom 
 of Derby, with large estates in that county, by the valour and conduct of 
 one of its members, at the Battle of the Standard, fought at Northallerton, 
 in the reign of King Stephen. This earl and his countess Agnes 
 were far advanced in life when they inherited their estates between the 
 Kibble and the Mersey, and they did not hold them more than a few years. 
 The only act recorded of them in connection with their Lancashire 
 estates is, that they granted a portion of the manor of Altcar at the 
 mouth of the river Alt to the Abbey of Miraval, in Warwickshire.* 
 This estate passed into the hands of the Molyneuxes of Sefton at the time 
 of the Reformation, and now forms part of the fine coursing grounds of 
 the Earl of Sefton, in the Altcar meadows. William, Earl of Derby, and 
 the Countess Agnes both died (within a month of each other) at the 
 age of ninety-four years, in the year 1247, having, (according to 
 Matthew Paris,) lived together as husband and wife for seventy-five years. 
 The same writer gives this Earl of Derby the honourable character of 
 having been a just and peace-loving man, and says of his Countess Agnes, 
 that she was his equal in age, reputation, and goodness.f 
 
 A second William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, succeeded to the estates 
 of his father and mother, in the thirty-second year of the reign of 
 King Henry the Third. The following is the account of the homage 
 which he rendered for his estates between the Mersey and the Kibble, 
 taken from the Fine Rolls of that year, 1247 :— 
 
 “ The King has received the homage of William de Ferrers, for all 
 the lands and tenements which belonged to his mother Agnes, formerly 
 Countess of Derby; and it is commanded to Thomas de Stanford and 
 Robert de Crepping, escheators beyond Trent, that they give full seizin 
 (possession) without delay, to the said William de Ferrers, of all the lands 
 of the said Agnes, formerly Countess of Derby, and of the Castles of West 
 Derby and Liverpoll.” 
 
 This second Earl William did not hold hi3 estates for many years. 
 He was a victim of the rich man’s plague, the gout; and his end was 
 hastened by the accident of his having fallen, whilst passing over a bridge, 
 from a litter on which he was usually carried whilst travelling. The 
 following circumstances connect this Earl with Liverpool and Lancashire : 
 
 * Evidences of the Molyneux family, at Croxteth ; which I have been kindly allowed to 
 see, by the Earl of Sefton. 
 
 t Matthew Paris, 'U'-i. 
 
105 
 
 In the year 1252, he obtained a grant of free warren, that is, of the 
 right to take hares, rabbits, and partridges * on his demense lands in 
 Liverpool, and in numerous other manors in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and 
 Staffordshire. In the same deed he obtained for his tenants in the 
 manor of Bolton, the right of holding a weekly market and a fair. 
 This grant first made Bolton-on-the-Moors a market town, and thus laid 
 the foundation of the prosperity of that flourishing place. The following 
 is an extract of the grant:— 
 
 “The king to the archbishops, &c., Greeting: Know that we have granted, 
 and by this our charter confirmed, to our beloved William de Ferrers, 
 Earl of Derby, that he and his heirs may have for ever free warren in all 
 his demesne lands in the manors of Liverpool, West Derby, Evertou, 
 Crosby, Wavertree, &c., provided those lands are not within the hounds 
 of our forest, so that no one may enter those lands to hunt in them, or to 
 take anything that belongs to the warren, without the license and consent 
 of the said earl, or his heirs, under forfeiture of £10 (equal to ,£150). 
 We also grant to the said earl and his heirs, for ever, that they may 
 have, in the manor of Bowelton, in the county of Lancaster, a market 
 and a fair, and also in his manor of Huttokes, in the county of Stafford, 
 &c., &c.—Dated 14th Dec.”t 
 
 The same earl also obtained permission from the king to keep up and 
 support by a public rate, the police force which had been organised by 
 his uncle Ranulf, Earl of Chester. 
 
 Matthew Paris gives the second earl William of Derby, the character 
 of having been a discreet man, well skilled in the laws of the land,—no 
 mean praise in an age in which might was so much more thought of than 
 right J 
 
 On the death of William, Earl of Derby, his estates became the 
 property of his eldest son, Robert de Ferrers, then a boy fourteen years 
 of age. He was the last member of the de Ferrers family who possessed 
 them. Being a minor at the time of his father’s death he was a ward of 
 the crown, and all his estates passed into the hands of the king, who 
 allowed them to be plundered, first by his son, Prince Edward, and 
 afterwards by the Queen Alianor and her brother, Peter of Savoy, 
 
 * Pheasants have since been held to be birds of warren; grouse not to be so. Of the 
 nobler game, the hart, the hind, and the wild boar were held to be beasts of the forest, and 
 were reserved for the hunting of the king; and the buck, the doe, and the fox were held to 
 be beasts of chace. The right, of hunting them was sold by King John to the Lancashire 
 gentlemen for upwards of 44,000 of modern money. 
 
 + Charter Roll, m. 24, 30th Henry Third. 
 
 P 
 
 J Matthew Paris, 884. 
 
106 
 
 without shame or scruple. The following facts will show, that if Robert, 
 Earl of Derby, became a rebel in after life, it was not without having- 
 received numerous provocations from the king, and from other members of 
 the royal family, in his younger days. 
 
 Before the death of his father, and whilst he was yet a boy of nine 
 years of age, Robert de Ferrers was compelled, or persuaded, to contract 
 a marriage, which was held to be good in law, with a child still younger 
 than himself, Maria, the niece of the king, and the daughter of the 
 Count of Angouleme and March.* Forced marriages like this were 
 mentioned by the barons among their grievances, when they rose in 
 insurrection against the king shortly after. 
 
 Having thus secured possession of Robert de Ferrers and of his estates 
 for his niece, when the former should reach manhood, the king proceeded 
 to make the most of the estates, for other members of the royal family, 
 during the minority of the heir. For this purpose he made over the 
 -wardship of Robert de Ferrers, and the income of his estates, to his eldest 
 son, Edward, afterwards the celebrated King, Edward the First. It will 
 he seen, from the following copy of the grant, that it states with perfect 
 frankness that the management of the estates is given to Prince Edward, 
 in part payment of 15,000 marks of land, that is to say, of as much land 
 as -would produce 15,000 marks a year of the money of that time, or 
 £150,000 of present money, which the king had promised to give his son : 
 
 “ The king hath granted to Edward, his first-born son and heir, the 
 custody of all the lands which were of William de Ferrers, late earl of 
 Derby, on the day on which he died, to be held unto the full age of the 
 heirs of the same earl, in part for the supplying of the defect of 15,000 
 marks (equal to £150,000) of land, which, by our charter, we are bound 
 to provide for him, together with the lands which we have given and 
 granted to him in England, Ireland, and elsewhere, saving to the wife of 
 the aforesaid earl her reasonable dower, out of the aforesaid lands, when 
 the king shall assign the same to her. And it is commanded to William 
 de Wilton that he do take the fealty of all the tenants of the aforesaid 
 lands, to the use of the aforesaid son of the king, and that he do also 
 answer for the reasonable tallage to be assessed upon the aforesaid tenants, 
 out of the issues of the same lands, at the king’s exchequer, to the use of 
 the same son of the king, as the custos of the same, so long as he shall 
 hold the same custody, and that he do cause the same to be levied without 
 delay. Be it known that the king has sent James Frese, his escheator, to 
 
 * Annals of Burton, H10. 
 
107 
 
 take to the use of the aforesaid son of the king, the fealty of the tenants of 
 the lands which were of the aforesaid earl, in the counties of Northampton 
 and Berks, and to assess a reasonable tallage upon the same. Witness, 
 Alianor, the Queen, and Richard, earl of Cornwall, at Windsor, the 15th 
 day of April. By the Queen and H. D. Mara.”* 
 
 No doubt Prince Edward, who had as firm a grasp as any man of his 
 age, did his utmost to obtain the whole of his 15,000 marks a year from 
 the estates thus placed in his hands, by imposing tallages in addition 
 to the ordinary rents, and by other means of raising money, well under¬ 
 stood in those times. Owing to this grant to Prince Edward, we obtain 
 a glance into the condition of Liverpool at that time, from the following 
 extract from the “ Roll of accounts of the lands of Lord Edward, in the 
 forty-first year of King Henry his father.” It shows that the fee farm of 
 Liverpool still produced the same sum of £10 a year, equal to £150 of our 
 money, which it had produced twenty-seven years before, when leased by the 
 king to the honest men of Liverpool, and thatit was still let out on lease:— 
 
 “ West Derbyshire. Liverpool with the Members.—Henry de 
 Lee, bailiff, renders account for the aforesaid time. The same renders 
 account for £10 for the town of Liverpool, put at farm, with toll, 
 stallage, passage, and two water mills, and one windmill, and for 3s. 9d. 
 for rent of the two messuages, for the term of the Annunciation ; and for 
 G6s. Ijd. for rents of assize at Cnateby (Crosby), Everton, and Waverton 
 (Wavertree), for the term of the Nativity, and for 60s. l|-d. for rents there, 
 for the term of the Annunciation. Sum, £16 16s.” 
 
 This account, drawn up by Henry de Lee, who was at that time 
 sheriff of Lancashire, was audited at the exchequer at Bristol, before the 
 Lords, Richard Abbot of Kingeswood, Galfrev de Caur, and Elias de Cumber, 
 treasurers, and Thomas de Boulton, clerk for the issues of the lands of 
 the said Lord Edward, in the forty-first year of the reign of the king. 
 a.d. 1257. No particulars are given in this return of the nature of the 
 tolls levied in Liverpool at that time, but they were probably the same 
 which the crown levied in other places, about the same period. In 
 London they consisted, in the year 1268 (fifty-first Henry Third), of 
 tronage,f of customs on foreign goods, J metage of corn, customs of fish, 
 tolls on the river gates, customs of the river Thames, stallage, soccage, 
 foreigners’ forfeited goods, &c. These produced a revenue of £366 15s. 4|d., 
 equal to £5,501 10s. 7ld. halfyeai'lv, and were afterwards let to the citizens 
 
 * Close Rolls, 38th Henry Third, 1285. + Weighage, from trona, a beam. 
 
 1 The original is “ de consnetudinibus omnimodarum mereandisarum venientiiun de 
 partibus transmarinis ad Civitatem praediotam.” 
 
108 
 
 for a yearly rent of £400, equal to £6,000 a-year.* We find most of the 
 above items enumerated in subsequent leases of the fee farm of Liverpool. 
 
 After holding the estates of Robert de Ferrers for some time, Prince 
 Edward sold his interest in them to his mother, Queen Alianor, and her 
 brother, Peter of Savoy, for 6,000 marks, equal to about £60,000 of our 
 money. As Peter of Savoy was the most insatiable of the parasites who 
 had come over from Provence in the train of Queen Alianor, there can be 
 no doubt that the estates were thoroughly drained, before they were allowed 
 to escape from their hands. 
 
 The time when Robert de Ferrers arrived at manhood afforded 
 ample opportunities for avenging the injuries which he had received 
 daring his minority. The contest between the king and the barons, under 
 Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was just breaking out. For many 
 years the government of Henry the Third had been extremely unpopular. 
 His continental wars had been discreditable in their origin, expensive in 
 their progress, and, with one exception, disgraceful in their results. The 
 court had been filled with needy relations of the Queen Alianor, a 
 princess of Provence, who had been allowed to plunder the estates of the 
 wards of the crown, to marry their sons and daughters to the heirs and 
 heiresses of the finest estates in the kingdom, and to render bankrupt an 
 exchequer exhausted by thirty years of extravagance and weakness. 
 The immense estates of the crown, and the royal rights which it possessed 
 in all the cities and towns of the kingdom, then formed the fund out of 
 which the government ought to have been supported and carried on; but 
 they had been greatly reduced by imprudent grants before they passed 
 into the hands of Henry the Third, and he had still further diminished 
 them. Instead of having an income of £1,000 a day of the money of 
 that time—equal to several millions a year of our money—as William the 
 Conqueror is said to have had, the average income of Henry the Third, 
 from all sources, is known not to have amounted to more than £240,000 of 
 modern money.f Hence the king was continually driven to the most 
 desperate schemes for raising supplies. Large sums were extorted from 
 the citizens and burgesses of the kingdom for the renewal of charters. 
 Heavy fines were also imposed for insignificant offences, as in the case 
 of William, Earl of Derby, whose Lancashire estates were seized by the 
 king, and were not restored until he had paid a fine equal to £l,500 of 
 our money. Frequent tallages were imposed on the tenants of the 
 royal estates, on the most frivolous pretences. In addition to these 
 
 * Madox’s Antiquities of the Exchequer, 534. + Matthew Paris says 24,000 marks. 
 
109 
 
 exactions from his Christian subjects, the unfortunate Jews, who were 
 at that time the only persons in the kingdom who possessed much 
 capital in the form of ready money, were plundered without mercy, 
 limit, or the slightest show of decency. Sums equal to £50,000, 
 ^6100,000, and even to £200,000, were extorted from them at various 
 times, and with various forms of cruelty and oppression. Little 
 as the mass of King Henry’s subjects were disposed to sympathise with 
 the Jews, they at length became furious at being plundered to enrich 
 court favourites, and to carry on wars which led to nothing but disgrace. 
 The crowning stroke was given by an attempt to raise an enormous sum 
 of money, equal to a million and a half of the money of the present 
 day, for expenses incurred in a wild enterprise, into which the king 
 had been drawn by the pope; the object of which was to place the 
 king’s son, Edmund, who afterwards became Earl of Lancaster, on the 
 throne of Sicily. The attempt failed, but in the course of it, upwards of 
 £100,000 of the money of that time was borrowed by the pope, in the 
 commercial cities of Italy and Germany, which the king of England was 
 afterwards called upon to pay. The attempt to raise this immense sum 
 was resisted with equal firmness by the barons, the citizens, and the 
 clergy of the kingdom. In the hope of freeing himself from his embarras- 
 ments, the king called the barons together at Westminster. They came 
 at the call, but came armed, and announced to the king that it was not 
 their intention to grant supplies, but to effect a thorough reform in the 
 administration of the affairs of the kingdom. They afterwards met in 
 much greater force at Oxford, under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, 
 Earl of Leicester. The object of their meeting was to consider the state 
 of the kingdom “ and of Sicily” ; and one of the first resolutions which 
 they came to, was to the effect that “ amongst other things it appeared 
 most clearly that the desire of obtaining Sicily was a great injury to the 
 kingdom.*” An inquiry was next instituted as to the large sums carried 
 out of the kingdom by the relatives of the king. It was finally arranged 
 that a committee of twenty-four barons and prelates should be appointed, 
 to manage the affairs of the kingdom, twelve to be selected by the barons 
 and twelve by the king, all real power being vested in Simon de 
 Montfort and the leaders of the barons’ party. This arrangement, which 
 was considered a virtual deposing of the king, gave the greatest dissatis¬ 
 faction to the royalists ; but still it was submitted to for a considerable 
 time, Prince Edward at first rather leaning to the side of the barons. 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 42nd Henry Third. 
 
110 
 
 Matters were at length brought to a crisis, by an attempt of the council 
 of barons to obtain powers which would have prolonged their authority 
 after the death of the king. This attempt roused Prince Edward, a 
 young and daring prince, who was in every respect a contrast to his 
 father, to a most determined effort to defend his rights. War was 
 declared between the two parties immediately. The nobles and 
 clergy were equally divided between the king and the barons. The 
 citizens of London, Bristol, Lincoln, Hereford, and all the large cities, 
 took part with Simon de Montfort. From the commencement of the war 
 Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, eagerly joined the barons’ party. He 
 collected an army in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, with which he overran 
 the counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Hereford, capturing the city of 
 Worcester (where he destroyed the Jewry, or quarter of the Jews), and 
 afterwards wasting the king’s estates in Herefordshire.* The principal 
 struggle, however, between the two parties, commenced at Northampton, 
 where Prince Edward defeated the barons with great loss. After his 
 victory Prince Edward marched northward, took the town of Leicester, near 
 which Simon de Montfort’s estates were situated, captured the castle of 
 Nottingham, and led his army into Derbyshire, where he laid waste the 
 estates of Robert de Ferrers, with fire and sword.f But these victories and 
 plunderings decided nothing. The main strength of the two parties 
 remained unbroken until the day of the great battle, which was fought at 
 Lewes, in Sussex, on the 14th of May, in the year 1264. On that 
 eventful day the royal army was commanded by Prince Edward, supported 
 by many of the English nobility, and also by Robert Bruce, John Baliol 
 and John Comyn, all of whom held estates in England as well as in 
 Scotland, and fought on this occasion under the orders of the prince, who 
 afterwards became the implacable enemy of their name and race. The 
 barons’ army was commanded by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, 
 supported by Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, Gilbert de Clare. Earl of 
 Gloucester, and other nobles of the popular party, and by a large body of 
 the citizens of London, the latter of whom were almost entirely destroyed 
 by a furious attack of Prince Edward. The battle, which was desperately 
 contested, and in which upwards of 5,000 men were slain, ended in the 
 total defeat of the royal army, and in the capture of the king, of Prince 
 Edward, and of all the leaders of the royal party. Their lives were spared, 
 and they were treated with some external marks of respect; but during the 
 two years which followed this battle, the Government was in the hands 
 
 * Matthew Paris, 992 a. d. 12U2. + Huntingford, 581. 
 
Ill 
 
 of Simon de Montfort, Robert de Ferrers, and other leaders of the 
 popular party. As usually happens with parties who have to bear the 
 whole responsibility of Government, their popularity soon began to fail. 
 They also quarrelled amongst themselves, and Robert de Ferrers, especially, 
 lost the favour of his own party, who charged him with holding 
 communications with the King and the Prince. There was probably 
 some truth in this charge, for when Prince Edward shortly afterwards 
 escaped from captivity, brought the forces of the royal party together, 
 defeated the army of the barons, and killed nearly all its leaders, in the 
 great battle of Evesham, Robert de Ferrers was not at first involved in 
 the ruin of his party. His estates were indeed seized, and he was com¬ 
 pelled to throw himself on the mercy of the Crown “ for his life, 
 members, lands, and tenements.’’ This submission was made at West¬ 
 minster on the 23rd of February, in the 49th year of the reign of Henry 
 the Third, and it seems to have been effectual in securing his safety, and 
 in preserving his estates. It will be seen from the following deed which 
 bears date the 5th of February, in the 50th year of the reign of King 
 Henry, that it was at least effectual in preserving for him his estates in 
 Liverpool. On that day and year he confirmed the burgesses of Liver¬ 
 pool in the possession of their charters by the following deed:— 
 
 “ To all to whom the present writing may come, Robert de Ferrers, 
 Earl of Derby, greeting in the Lord,—Know that we have inspected the 
 charter of the burgesses of Liverpool, which they have in these words 
 [here follows King John’s charter, see p. 81] : we have also inspected the 
 confirmation of our Lord, Henry the King of England, in these words [here 
 follows Henry the Third’s charter, p. 90] : which, having inspected and 
 fully understood, we grant and confirm, for ever, all the liberties and 
 free customs in the preceding charter, and confirmation to the aforesaid 
 burgesses and their heirs, from us and our heirs. In testimony of which, 
 we have caused our seal to be affixed,—these being the witnesses of the 
 Lord :—William de Botiller, Robert de Banastre, Robert de Lathom, 
 Henry de Lee, Alan de Wyndhull, John de * * * Tristram de Lealond, 
 Master (Magister) Robert, rector of the church of Waleton, Master 
 William de Waleton, William de Molineux, and others. Given at 
 Liverpol, by the hands of Master H. Lovel, our chancellor, on the fifth 
 day of February, in the 50th. year of the reign of King Henry, the 
 son of King John.” 
 
 Unfortunately for Robert de Ferrers, he again ventured to try the 
 fortune of war in the spring of the same year. About that time, the 
 
112 
 
 sons of Simon de Montfort seized upon the Isle of Ely, in Cambridge¬ 
 shire, and of Axholme, in Lincolnshire, both of which were rendered strong 
 by the surrounding marshes. A daring knight named Adam de Gordon, 
 organised an insurrection in the New Forest, in Hampshire; the seamen 
 of the Cinque Ports resolutely refused to submit to the king ; and Robert 
 de Ferrers raised an insurrection, on his Derbyshire estates. All these 
 insurrections were suppressed by the courage and military skill of Prince 
 Edward, or other leaders of the royal party. That headed by Robert 
 de Ferrers proved the least formidable of all. The forces which he had 
 got together were defeated near Chesterfield, and their luckless leader was 
 compelled to fly to a church, where he was taken prisoner.* He was 
 afterwards sent in custody to Windsor Castle, and although he succeeded 
 in saving his life, by presenting the king with a gold cup, ornamented 
 with jewels, and 1,500 marks in money, all his estates in Derbyshire, 
 Lancashire, and Staffordshire, were confiscated. By a decree, bearing 
 date Kenilworth Castle, 20th of June, in the 50th year of the 
 reign of king Henry, he gave to Edmund Plantagenet, his son, all the 
 lands of Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, “ from the day of the conflict 
 at Chesterfield.”t The confiscation of the estates of Robert de Ferrers and 
 Simon de Montfort was confirmed by the dictum or decree of Kenilworth. 
 The estates of the Earldom of Leicester, as well as those of the Earldom of 
 Derby, were also given to Prince Edmund, the aspirant to the throne of 
 Sicily, and the founder of that great house of Lancaster which afterwards 
 seized on the throne of England. The following are the deeds by which 
 the estates of Robert de Ferrers were granted by the king to his son, 
 Edmund Plantagenet:— 
 
 “ The king to all greeting &c.:—Know ye that we have granted to 
 Edmund, our most dear son, the castles and all the lands and tenements 
 which were of Robert de Ferrers, with all their appurtenances, to have as 
 long as it shall please us, in testimony whereof, &c. Witness the king at 
 Kenilworth, the 5th day of August, in the 50th year of our reign. 
 
 “ The king to the abbots, friars, barons, knights, ffeemeu, and to all 
 other tenants of the lands and tenements which were of Robert de 
 Ferrers, heretofore Earl of Derby, greeting:—Whereas we have given 
 and granted to Edmund, our most dear son, the castles, and all the 
 lands and tenements, with all wards, reliefs, and escheats, homages, 
 services, knights-fees, advowsons of churches, and all other their appur¬ 
 tenances, which were of the aforesaid Robert, we command you that to 
 * Wykes, 35, a. d. 1266. + Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 50th Henry Third. 
 
113 
 
 the same Edmund, as your lord, in all things which to the premises 
 pertain, from henceforth ye be attendant and answering; in testimony 
 whereof, &c. Witness the king at Windsor, the 3rd day of January.” 
 
 The following order from the king to his niece, Maria de Ferrers, 
 commanding her to surrender the Castle of Liverpool, closes the history 
 of the connection of the house of Ferrers with Liverpool:— 
 
 “ On surrendering the Castle.—The King to his beloved niece, 
 Maria de Ferrers, greeting. As we have committed to our beloved and 
 faithful Adam de Gosmuth, the lands and all the tenements of Robert 
 de Ferrers, Farl of Derby, to be held as long as it may please us, we 
 command you, that you deliver to the said Adam de Gosmuth, or to 
 William de Syleby, the castle of Liverpol, with its appurtenances, on 
 their presenting these letters, with the lands and tenements aforesaid. 
 Witness the king at Westminster, the 11th day of July.” 
 
 Edmund Plantagenet, the first Earl of Lancaster, was one of the 
 favourites of fortune. By the rebellion of Simon de Montfort and Bobert 
 de Ferrers, he became possessed of the greater part of the estates of the 
 earldoms of Leicester and Derby; by a marriage with Avelina de Fortibus, 
 the heiress of the Earls of Albemarle, he obtained the estates of that 
 ancient earldom; and by a grant from his father, Henry the Third, he 
 received the Honour of Lancaster, with the title of Earl of Lancaster. He 
 thus reunited the portions of the latter Honour, which had been divided 
 by the grant of the land between the Kibble and the Mersey, to Ranulf, 
 Earl of Chester. These great estates he held to the close of his life. 
 When his brother, Edward the First, returned from the Holy Land, 
 where he had rivalled the exploits of Richard the Lion-hearted, he 
 confirmed Earl Edmund in the possession of all his castles, counties, 
 and honours. In the eighth year of his reign, he also gave to him the 
 residue of Robert de Ferrers’s estates in Derbyshire, in exchange for the 
 counties and castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan, which had just been 
 conquered from the Welsh. The lands thus given to the Earl of Lancaster 
 consisted of the wapentakes of Wirksworth and Ashburne; of the hamlets 
 of Matlock, Underwood, and Bredlaw ; and of the rich lead mines of 
 Derbyshire. Those mines were at that time leased to Robert del Don,* 
 and formed the most valuable mining property in England. By subse¬ 
 quent deeds, the kiug authorised Earl Edmund to appoint justices, and 
 to hold Pleas of the Forest on all his estates; and he also freed him from 
 
 * Calendar of Patent Rolls, 40. 
 
 Q 
 
114 
 
 all real acknowledgment to the crown, by allowing him to hold his 
 possessions for three knights’ fees, instead of three hundred, which would 
 have been about the proper acknowledgment for so vast an estate. He 
 further authorised him to fortify (kernellare) his palace of the Savoy, in 
 the parish of St. Clement’s Danes, outside the gate of the Temple, London. 
 In short, he did everything in his power to build up and extend the 
 influence of the family which afterwards waged war with his own son, 
 and in the end grasped the crown of England. 
 
 Although Edward the First was one of the most popular, as well as one 
 of the ablest of English kings, his insatiable ambition and his incessant 
 wars involved him in continual difficulties, and induced him to have 
 recourse to methods of raising money from his subjects, which would 
 have been fatal to a less popular or a less resolute king. Amongst 
 other means of replenishing the treasury, he sent itinerant judges through 
 the kingdom, to inquire into the titles by which bodies corporate, and 
 persons of known wealth, held their estates, with the view of seizing upon 
 everything to which even a colourable claim could be established, on the 
 part of the crown. The inquiry in Lancashire was conducted by the 
 notorious Hugh de Cressingliam—as unscrupulous a judge as ever dis¬ 
 graced the judgment seat—who, after having rendered himself odious 
 in England, afterwards made himself ten times more so in Scotland, 
 where he ended a career of injustice and tyranny by a death of violence. 
 He was killed in a battle with William Wallace, which was brought on 
 chiefly by his rash meddling; and after his death his skin was stripped 
 off, tanned, and made into saddle-girths and sword belts. Wallace 
 himself is said to have had a belt made from the skin of this cruel 
 tyrant.* 
 
 During the visit of Hugh de Cressingham to Lancashire, several Quo 
 Warrantos were tried, relating either to the Borough of Liverpool, or to 
 persons and property connected with it. 
 
 The first of these was an inquiry as to the title by which the burgesses 
 of Liverpool held their municipal rights. The following is a record of 
 the case from the Pleas of the Crown:— 
 
 “ Proceedings de Quo Warranto before Hugh de Cressingham and his 
 fellows, Justices Itinerant, at Lancaster, in the octaves of the Holy Trinity, 
 in the twentieth year of King Edward, son of Henry (1292). 
 
 “ The bailiffs and commonalty of the borough of Liverpool were sum- 
 
 Pictorial History of England, i. 717. 
 
115 
 
 moned that they be here this day, to show by what warrant they claim to 
 be quit of common fines and amercements of the county, and suits of 
 counties and wapentakes (hundreds), and of toll, stallage, thorough-toll, 
 passage, pontage, and lastage, throughout the whole kingdom of England, 
 and to have a market, fair, pillory, tumbrel, iufangenethef, gallows, and 
 the amendation of the assize of bread and ale broken in the town afore¬ 
 said, which belong to the crown and dignity of our lord the king, without 
 the license and will of the lord the king, or of his progenitors, kings of 
 England, &c. 
 
 “ And certain men of the borough of Liverpool came for the com¬ 
 monalty, and say that they have not at present a bailiff of themselves, but 
 have been accustomed to have, until Edmund, the king’s brother, impeded 
 them, and permits them not to have a free borough, wherefore at present 
 they do not claim the aforesaid liberties, except that they may be quit of 
 common fines and amercements of the county, and suits of counties and 
 wapentakes, and of toll, stallage, thorough-toll, passage, pontage, and 
 lastage, through the whole kingdom of England, &c. 
 
 “ And as to the other liberties, they say that they have been accus¬ 
 tomed to have them, but the aforesaid Edmund now has them, and they 
 say that the Lord John, late King of England, grandfather of the lord, 
 the now king, in whose time the aforesaid borough first began to be, by 
 his charter, which they showed, granted to all his faithful people, who 
 should take burgages there, that they should have all the liberties and 
 free customs in the town of Liverpool, which any free borough upon the 
 sea has in the king’s land; and the Lord Henry, father of the lord the 
 now king, by his charter, which they showed, granted that the town of 
 Liverpool should be for ever a free borough, and that the burgesses 
 thereof should have a mercatorial guild, with a hanse and other liberties 
 to the guild pertaining, and that they should have sac and soc, toll and 
 theme, and infangenethef, and that they should be quit throughout the 
 king’s land, and through all seaports, of toll, lastage, pontage, and 
 stallage, and that they should do no suit of counties or wapentakes, for 
 their tenements, which they hold within the borough aforesaid, &c. 
 
 “ And whereas, it appears by their evidence that the aforesaid Edmund 
 hath usurped and occupied the aforesaid liberties, the sheriff is com¬ 
 manded that he cause him to come here on Monday next, after the feast 
 of St. James the Apostle, to answer, &c. 
 
 “And it is directed to the commonalty, that then they be here to pro¬ 
 secute for our lord the king, together with William Inge, &c. 
 
116 
 
 “ And the commonalty put in their place John de la Mor, (Moore) 
 Adam son of Alan Walseman, and Richard Liverpol. 
 
 “ Aftenvards the aforesaid Edmund came, by his attorney, and a day 
 is given at Appleby, in the county of Westmorland, in the octave of St. 
 Michael,” &c. 
 
 It will be seen from the above proceedings that no final decision was 
 come to in this case, or at least that none is upon record. We know, 
 however, that the burgesses of Liverpool retained and exercised all the 
 municipal rights conceded to them by the charters of King John, and 
 King Henry the Third ; and it will be seen, in the course of the present 
 chapter, that Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, who held the lordship of the 
 Borough of Liverpool, under the grant originally made by Henry the 
 Third, to Ranulph Earl of Chester, continued to hold a market and fair, 
 and to receive tolls, and foreign tolls, precisely as Prince Edward his 
 brother had done when he had the guardianship of the estates of Robert 
 de Ferrers, Earl of Derby. It will also be seen, in a later part of 
 this work, that the descendants of Earl Edmund had the right of 
 enforcing the laws for regulating the price of bread and beer—the assize 
 of bread and beer— and, therefore, had the power of punishing offenders 
 against those laws with the pillory and tumbrel. With regard to the 
 inflicting of the punishment of death, or of having a gallows, it will 
 also be seen that Richard de Walton, the governor or gaoler of the castle 
 of Liverpool, claimed and exercised that right, as steward of the hundreds 
 of West Derby and Salford. 
 
 The second in point of interest of the Quo Warrantos tried before 
 Hugh de Cressingham and his fellows, was one raised by the burgesses of 
 Liverpool themselves, with the view of maintaining the jurisdiction of 
 the port of Liverpool over the waters of the Mersey, and the entrance 
 to the river. They appeared to complain that William de Alkmundbury 
 had seized certain goods, which were wreck of the sea, at Crosby Short, 
 which is a place four or five miles below the town of Liverpool, and had 
 detained them to his own use. They succeeded in establishing their 
 complaint, and compelled the offender to pay a fine of half a mark, equal 
 to about £5 of our money, for his offence. The following is the report 
 of the case:— 
 
 “ Pleas of the Crown before Hugh de Cressingham, William de 
 Ormesby, John Wogan, Master John Lovett, and William de Mortimer, 
 justices itinerant in the county of Lancaster, in the octaves of 
 the Holy Trinity, in the twentieth year of the reign of King Edward, 
 
117 
 
 the son of King Henry. The township of Liverpol comes by twelve 
 jurors, concerning wreck of the sea: They say that a certain ship, 
 which belonged to Peter le Poer, was wrecked in the port of Liverpol, in 
 a certain place called Crossebyschort, and William de Alkmundbury took 
 away (certain) of the goods of the said Peter, which were wreck of the 
 sea, and detained them to his own use, and it is not known by what 
 warrant, therefore it is commanded to the sheriff that he cause him to 
 appear. Afterwards the aforesaid William came, and made a fine of half 
 a mark, by pledges of Adam de Tateloch, and John de la Mor, of 
 Liverpul.” 
 
 The following extract from a statute passed in the early part of the 
 reign of Edward the First, will show what was, at that time, the state of 
 the law with regard to vessels wrecked on the coast of England. It was, 
 no doubt, on this statute, or on a similar proviso, in the Law of Coroners, 
 that the burgesses of Liverpool founded their case :— 
 
 “ Concerning wreck of the sea, it is agreed that where a man, or even 
 a dog or a cat escape alive out of the ship, that neither such ship nor 
 barge, nor any thing within them, shall be adjudged to be wreck ; but the 
 goods shall be saved and kept by view of the sheriff, coroner, or the 
 king’s bailiff, and delivered into the hands of such as are of the town 
 (ville), where the goods were found, so that if any sue for those goods, 
 and after prove that they were his, or were lost in his keeping, within a 
 year and a day, they shall be restored to him without delay; and 
 if not, they shall remain to the king, and be seized by the sheriffs, 
 coroners, and bailiffs, and shall be delivered by them of the town, as 
 wreck belonging to the king. And where wreck belongeth to another 
 than to the king, he shall have it in like manner. And he that otherwise 
 doth, and thereof be attainted, shall be awarded to prison, and make fine 
 at the king’s will, and shall yield damages also .”—\The First Statute of 
 Westminster , third Edward the First.] In the statute De Officio Coro- 
 natoris, of the fourth Edward the First, it is also provided : “Concerning 
 wreck of the sea, wheresoever it is found, if any lay hands upon it he 
 shall be attached by sufficient pledges, and the price of the wreck shall 
 be valued and delivered to the towns.” 
 
 Two other Quo Warrantos were also tried at the time of this searching 
 inquisition, relating to the rights and powers of the steward of the 
 hundreds of West Derby and Salford. Richard de Waleton, or Walton, 
 who then held that office, was summoned to show by what right he held 
 it. He proved to the satisfaction of a jury that he held it by a grant 
 
118 
 
 from William, Earl ol' Bologne, Warrene, and Surrey, sou of King 
 Stephen, and lord of the honour of Lancaster, to Waltliric, his ancestor; 
 which grant had been confirmed by King John, in the first year of his 
 reign, to Henry, the son of Gilbert, the son of Walthric. It further 
 appeared that he had, as his remuneration for discharging the duties of 
 the office, six bovates of land in Walton, four in Wavertree, and four in 
 Newsom, all in the immediate neighbourhood of Liverpool. 
 
 Another inquiry was also raised as to the circumstances under which 
 a certain robber named Hugh le May had been confined in the castle of 
 Liverpool, and afterwards put to death by Kichard de Walton, when the 
 following facts were proved to the satisfaction of the jury :— 
 
 “ Pleas of the Ci’own before Hugh de Cressingham and others, justices 
 itinerant, in the county of Lancaster, twentieth Edward the First—Hugh 
 le May was apprehended on suspicion of robbery, by the bailiff of Sal- 
 fordshire, and taken to the castle of Liverpool, in the year in which 
 Henry de Lee was sheriff, and was there imprisoned, and afterwards 
 escaped from prison. The jurors testify that the said Hugh le May, a 
 long time afterwards, was taken in the wapentake of Salford, by Robert 
 de Walton, jailer of Liverpool, and was there put to death.” 
 
 The last Quo Warranto tried on this occasion was one directed 
 against William de Lee, the grandson of Henry the Falconer, from whom 
 King John had bought the manor of Liverpool. The following is the 
 record of this case :— 
 
 “ The Lord the King,* by William Inge, who sues for him, demands 
 against William de Lee. the manor of Lee with the appurtenances, as his 
 right, and whereupon, as he saith, that Lord John, the grandfather of the 
 Lord, the now King, was in seisin of the aforesaid manor, as of fee and 
 right, in the time of peace, &c., and this he is ready to verify for the lord 
 the king. 
 
 “ And William de Lee cometh, and saith, that he holds certain tene¬ 
 ments in Lee Engleys, and certain tenements in Lee Fraunceys, and prays 
 that William Inge may declare, for the lord the king, in which of the 
 aforesaid towns he claims the aforesaid manor, and William Inge saytli 
 that the lord the king claims the manor in both towns, &c. 
 
 “ And William de Lee denies the right of the said lord the king, and, as 
 to the tenements, in Lee Fraunceys, he saith that the lord King Henry 
 (Henry the Second), father of the aforesaid lord. King John, gave those 
 
 * William Inge was one of king’s council, 1st Edward the Second.— Madox's History of 
 the Exchequer, ii., 30. 
 
119 
 
 tenements to one Warine, great grandfather of the same William de Lee, 
 and afterwards the same lord, King John, confirmed the aforesaid gift— 
 whereupon as to those tenements he denies the right of the lord the king, 
 and the seizin of the aforesaid King John as a fee and right, and he 
 puts himself upon the country, in the place of the great assize of the 
 lord the king, and he prays recognition to be made whether he should 
 have the greater right in those tenements before the aforesaid lord the king. 
 
 “The jurors say, upon their oath, that the aforesaid William de Lee 
 hath the greater right in the aforesaid tenements, as he held the same 
 before the aforesaid lord the king, &c. 
 
 “ And as to the tenements in Lee Engleys, he well knows the seizin of 
 the’aforesaid lord, King John, and saith that the same lord, King John, 
 gave to one Henry Fitz Warine those tenements in exchange for certain 
 tenements in Liverpool and Up Litherland, and as to those tenements, he 
 denies the right of the same lord the king, and he prays recognition to be 
 made whether he should have the greater right in those tenements by the 
 gift of the aforesaid lord the king, made to Henry Fitz Warine, the great 
 grandfather of the aforesaid William de Lee, whose heir he is of the 
 aforesaid tenements in Lee Engleys, in exchange, &c., as he held them 
 before the aforesaid lord the king so demands the same. Therefore, let a 
 jury be made thereon. 
 
 “ The jury say, upon their oath, that the aforesaid William de Lee hath 
 the greater right in the aforesaid tenements, as he held them before the 
 aforesaid lord the king so demands the same.” 
 
 The above report confirms the statements given in the preceding 
 chapter as to the manner in which the borough of Liverpool came into 
 the hands of King John. 
 
 Liverpool was not the only Lancashire borough which had to pass the 
 ordeal of a trial before Hugh de Cressingham. The bailiff and com¬ 
 munity of Preston were also summoned to show by what warrant they 
 claimed to have a free borough, with market, fair, and other privileges. 
 Apparently they were less successful in satisfying the unjust judge than 
 the burgesses of Liverpool, for judgment was given against them ; the 
 liberties of the town were seized; the bailiff and community were held 
 to be at the mercy of the king; and the sheriff of Lancashire was ordered 
 to estimate the value of the said liberties. Preston, however, soon 
 recovered its liberties, and has retained them to the present time.* 
 
 * Madox's Firma Burgi, 130. 
 
120 
 
 Edmund Plantagenet, tlie first Earl of Lancaster, died at Bayonne, 
 where he had been sent in command of an army, in the course of the 
 year 1296. An inquiry, or Inquisitio post mortem, was held after his 
 death, according to the plan prescribed by the act Extenta Manerii,* with 
 a -view of ascertaining the nature of the estates possessed by him at the time 
 of his death. They were found to he immense in extent, and to include 
 lands in numerous counties. Amongst other property which belonged to 
 him, were the manor and borough of Liverpool, with the tolls and foreign 
 tolls, the fairs and markets, the burgage houses and lands, the mills, the 
 ferry, and pretty nearly all the property of the town. His income from 
 Liverpool amounted to .£25 of the money of that time, or about £>350 
 of the money of this. It further appeared that Earl Edward had held 
 most of the adjoining manors, with fifteen bovates of land in Wavertree, 
 eight in Thingwall, twenty-four in Everton, three parts of the manor of 
 Great Crosby, the Forest of West Derby, and the woods of Cropthall, 
 and Simon’s Wood. He also held the greater part of the lands of West 
 Derby. The information which was required to be given on this, and 
 all similar inquiries, was very minute. The points to he ascertained 
 were arranged under thirteen heads, and included the following par¬ 
 ticulars :—The value of all castles and manor houses, enclosed within 
 the ditch, which was then invariably drawn around the castle of the 
 chief lord; the value of the outbuildings and gardens; the number 
 of fields in the demesne ; the number of acres of land in each field ; and 
 the yearly value of each acre. Similar information was also required 
 with regard to the meadows, the pastures, the commons, and the woods. 
 Information was also required as to the value of the pannage, or food for 
 swine; as to the wild honey; as to the turbaries, the fisheries, and the 
 mills. Inquiry was also ordered to be made as to the number of free 
 tenants, and bond tenants, on the estates; what land they had, and what 
 they paid for it, in money, or in labour. Similar information was 
 required as to the cottagers and their holdings. Returns were also 
 required as to the profits of the manorial courts; the number and value 
 of the church livings in the gift of the lord; and, lastly, as to the value 
 of the fairs and markets held on the different manors, the tolls and foreign 
 tolls; the pleas and perquisites of the courts; and all other casualties. 
 The following is the return made at the inquisition taken on the death of 
 Earl Edward. That portion of it which relates to West Derby, Everton, 
 
 * Act Fourth Edward First. Statutes at large. 
 
121 
 
 Wavertree, Great Crosby, and Garston, contains much curious information 
 as to the state and value of landed property immediately around the borough 
 of Liverpool. The return as to Liverpool, though expressed in few words, 
 contains much information as to the value of the burgages, the fairs and 
 markets, the tolls and customs, the mills and ferry, and other points of 
 interest. As I shall have to refer to several similar inquisitions post 
 mortem, in the course of this work, I have thought it well to give the 
 above explanation of the mode of taking them. The return as to Liver¬ 
 pool and the adjoining manors is as follows, giving the various sums 
 both in the money of that time and of the present day :— 
 
 “Inquisition as to the manors of West Derby, Wavertree, Liver¬ 
 pool, Thingwall, Everton, &c., in the year 1296.*—An inquisition 
 taken at West Derby, on Wednesday, in the week of Pentecost, in 
 the 26th year of the reign of King Edward, of the extent of lands 
 and tenements, fees and rents, which were of Lord Edmund, brother 
 of the lord the now king, in the wapentake of West Derby, by Alan 
 
 le Norr., of Sefton, William de Soutliwarth, Richard de 
 
 Molvneus, of Crosseby, Mathew de Haydok, Ralph de Bykerstath, Henry 
 de Huton, Robert de Bolde, Richard de Holand, William de Aynetre, 
 and Robert de Thornton, who speak as to the first, second, and third 
 articles, of capital messuages, &c., so many acres of arable land, &c., so 
 many acres of meadow, &c. They say that in the manor of (West) 
 Derby is a certain site of an ancient castle, where a chief manor-house 
 used to be within the circuit of the ditch, the herbage whereof is worth 
 by the year 4s., equal to T3 ; and there are in demesne in a field, which is 
 called Harbruns, sixty-five acres of arable land, which are now at farm in 
 the hands of the tenants of the town, who render by the year 21s. 8d., 
 equal to T16 5s., at the feast of St. Michael, to wit, for the acre 4d., 
 equal to 5s. ; and in a certain other field, fifteen acres, likewise at farm, 
 and they render therefor by the year 10s., equal to £7 10s., at the same 
 term, to wit, for the acre 8d., equal to 10s. And in another field, near 
 the meadow, are twelve acres of demesne, which render by the year 12s., 
 equal to T9, at the same time, to wit, 12d., equal to 15s. for the acre. 
 There are also there of demesne, twenty acres of meadow, which are worth 
 by the year 60s., equal to T45; that is to say, 3s., equal to £2 5s. for the 
 acre, at the same term ; and there are there in the hands of the tenants 
 thirty burgages and a half, wherefor they render by the year, with the 
 cottages let out, 31s. 6d., equal to T23 12s. 6d., at four stated terms. 
 
 * “ Inquisitiones post mortem,” in the Records of the Court of Chancery. 
 
 R 
 
122 
 
 Those also of the town hold among themselves twenty oxgangs of land, 
 for which they render by the year 40s., equal to £30 ; at the same terms, 
 to wit, for the oxgang 2s., equal to 30s., and for the same oxgangs 20s. 
 8d., equal to £20 at the feast of St. Michael, and for half an oxgang 12d., 
 equal to 15s. And there are there eight cottages, which render by the year 
 4s. 4|d., equal to £3 5s. 7|d., at the same term; also the tenants of the town 
 render yearly to the lord for having a certain way through the middle of 
 the meadow 12d., equal to 15s., at the same term; and for having entry 
 to the wormstal, with their cattle, within their forest, they render by the 
 year 2s., equal to 30s., at the same term, for having estover of ... . 
 
 . to be cut in the winter, in the common wood, for the sustenance of 
 cattle; and there are there two mills, one a windmill and the other a 
 watermill, and they are commonly worth by the year five marks, equal to 
 £50. There are also there others who hold by charters, and render 
 their rents at the feast of Saint Michael, that is to say, Hugh, the reeve, 
 holds two oxgangs of land, two tofts, and five shops, by executing the 
 office of reeve, and renders by the year 2s., equal to 30s.; Henry del 
 Rydins for his land 15s., equal to £11 5s.; Richard de Trellowe and 
 Gilbert de Kekwyk for land which was of John Grenetu 14s. lQd., equal 
 to £11 12s. Gd.; Galfrey de Bruere, for his land 5s., equal to £3 15s.; 
 Robert, the son of Richard de Holand 12d., equal to 15s.; Richard, 
 the son of Richard de Blakemore 2s., equal to £l 10s. ; the prior 
 of Byrkeheved holds fifteen acres of land by deed, and renders 5s., 
 equal to £3 15s. by the year, but they know not whether in fee or for 
 a term ; and the tenants of Derby hold of approvement of tbe wastes two 
 hundred and fifty-one acres and a half, by the greater hundred, and half 
 a perch of land, and render hy the year £4 17s. 2|d., equal to £72 18s. ljd., 
 at the same term, to wit, the acre of 4d., equal to 5s.; also, they hold two 
 hundred and thirty four acres, hy the lesser hundred, and two parts of 
 one rood of land, and they render hy the year G7s. Id., equal to £50 6s. 3d., 
 that is to say, for the acre 6d., equal to 7s. 6d., also they hold two hun¬ 
 dred acres (except half an acre), and render by the year at the same 
 term £7 19s. 8d., equal to £119 15s., to wit, for the acre 8d., equal to 
 10s., and for one acre which Rose holds 12d., equal to 15s.; and the 
 perquisites of the Courts of Derby are commonly worth hy the year 
 10s., equal to £7 10s. Sum £33 9s. 2d., equal to £501 17s. 6d. 
 They say, also, that there are in Wavertre, of demesne, fifteen oxgangs 
 of land, which are set to farm by deed, and render by the year 45s., 
 equal to £33 15s , at four terms; and the tenants of the town hold of 
 
123 
 
 approvement one hundred and eleven acres, one rood, and a half of land, and 
 render by the year 43s. 9^d., equal to .£32 16s. 1 Oid-, to wit, for the acre 4d., 
 equal to 5s.; and one Roger de Thingwall holds there one oxgang of land 
 by charter, and renders by the year 4d., equal to 5s., at the same terms. 
 Sum £4 9s 5|-d., equal to £167 Is. 10|d. In Thingwell there are eight 
 oxgangs of land which William, the son of Roger de Thingwall, holds of 
 ancient conquest, and renders to the lord by the year one mark at the same 
 terms. Sum 14s. 4d., equal to £10 15s. And the men of Everton hold 
 twenty-four oxgangs of land, and render by the year £4 16s., equal to £72, 
 at four terms, that is to say, for the oxgang 4s., equal to £3, and they 
 hold of approvement of the wastes thirty-four acres and an half and one 
 rood and an half of land, and render by the year 17s. 5£d., equal to 
 £13 Is. 6fd , to wit, for the acre 6d., equal to 7s. 6d. Sum 117s. 11 jd., 
 equal to £88 9s. Ofd. And they say that the rents of assize of Lyverfole 
 are worth by the year £8 7s. 6d., equal to £125 12s. 6d; also the 
 herbage of the garden, and the dovehouses 10s., equal to £7 10s. 0d., 
 and the passage over the Mersey 26s. 8d., equal to £20; and there 
 are there two mills, one a watermill and the other a windmill, and they are 
 worth by the year five marks, equal to £50. The fairs and the tolls of 
 the market, with foreign tolls, are worth about £10, equal to £150. 
 The perquisites of the courts of the same town are worth about 40s., 
 equal to £30, by the year. Sum £25 10s. 2d., equal to £383 2s. Od. 
 They say also that Nicholas Blundel holds in Great Crosseby an eighth 
 part of the town of ancient conquest, and renders by the year 10s., equal 
 to £7 10s., at four terms. Also, he holds four oxgangs of land, which 
 were of Simon de Wakeman, by charter, by doing a moiety of suit at the 
 Wapentake Court, and rendering by the year 10s., equal to £7 10s., 
 at the same terms. Thomas Banastre holds three oxgangs, and doeth 
 the other moiety of the suit at the Wapentake Court, and renders 
 . . . . and the tenants of the town hold of the lord twenty-one 
 
 oxgangs of land, and render by the year £4, equal to £60, at ... . 
 
 and they hold a certain field of the lord, and render by the year 
 .sum . . . .11s., equal to £8 5s.” 
 
 It appears from the above minute account of Liverpool and the 
 surrounding country, that the value of property continued to advance 
 steadily, both in Liverpool and in the neighbouring districts ; and that 
 large quantities of land had been brought into cultivation in West Derby 
 and the adjoining manors. At the time when the Domesday survey was 
 made, the total value of the property in West Derby and its six bercwicks— 
 
124 
 
 Liverpool, Everton, Thingwall, Wavertree, Garston, and Great Crosby— 
 ■was £16 12s. 6d., equal to about £250 of tlie money of the present time. 
 When William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, made the return as sheriff, in 
 the year 1225, which I have quoted above, the rents of West Derby and 
 its berewicks, exclusive of Garston, which had been given to the abbey of 
 Shrewsbury, amounted to £24 4s. 8d., equal to about £363 1 Os. of modern 
 money. Garston, which was one of the most fertile of the berewicks, 
 might probably be worth another £100 a year of modern money. When 
 the above inquisition was taken, after the death of Earl Edmund, in the year 
 1296, the value of the same property had increased to £76 19s. 7d. of the 
 money of that time, equal to £1154 13s. 9d. of modern money. The 
 rapid increase in the latter period was partly owing to the increase of the 
 borough of Liverpool, partly to the fact that the tenants of the surrounding 
 manors had brought upwards of a thousand acres of additional land into 
 cultivation. In the reign of Edward the First cultivation began to extend 
 rapidly, being much encouraged by grants of large portions of land from the 
 royal forests, made on liberal terms. The general rent reserved to the crown 
 in these enclosure grants was 3d. or 4d. an acre, equal to about 5s. or 6s. 
 of our money. Thus, in the forest of West Derby, nearly 1000 acres were 
 approved or reclaimed, for which a rent of £16 4s. was paid, of the money 
 of that time. In the forest of Kynefare, Staffordshire, fifty-four acres 
 w r ere reclaimed, for which 17s. 2d. was paid yearly. In the forest of 
 Wychewood, Oxfordshire, sixty-nine acres, for which a yearly rent of 
 17s. 5d. was paid. TnBochoulte forest, Hampshire, twenty-two acres, for 
 which 7s. 6d. was paid. In Wolmer forest, Hampshire, 102 acres, for 
 which 36s. was paid. In Savemake forest, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, 
 421 acres, for which £7 4s. was paid. In Windsor forest 172 acres, for 
 which about 57s. 4d. was paid. In Sherwood forest 30 acres, for which 10s. 
 was paid. In Bernwood forest 401 acres, for which £5 0s. 4|-d. was paid. 
 In Melksham forest 472 acres, for which £5 8s. was paid.* These 
 rents do not differ much from the improvement rents paid in the manors 
 of West Derby, Wavertree, and Everton. The general rent of arable 
 land seems to have been about 4d. an acre, or 5s. of the money of this 
 time. That of meadow land was in some cases as high as 8d., or 10s. of 
 modern money ; and there is one instance of a meadow in West Derby 
 let for 3s. an acre, equal to about 45s. of the money of the present time. 
 The rent of land let on burgage tenure, in small patches of an acre each, 
 was Is. an acre, equal to about 15s. a year of modern money. It was 
 * Calendar of the Patent Polls, G2, -3, 4. 
 
125 
 
 by these grants that the class of small freeholders was ultimately formed ; 
 and that seems to have been the ordinary rate at which land was let on 
 burgage in all parts of the kingdom. 
 
 In the same year in which the first Earl of Lancaster died, and in 
 which the above inquiry was made, the burgesses of Liverpool were called 
 upon to return two members to the parliament which was then about to 
 assemble at Westminster. This was the first occasion on which the 
 boroughs of the kingdom were called upon to return members to par¬ 
 liament, by authority of the crown, although Simon de Montfort had 
 summoned the burgesses, along with the knights of the shire and 
 other great landowners, to his revolutionary parliaments. It appears 
 from the original return, that the names of the first two members 
 who were returned for Liverpool were Adam Fitz Richard and Robert 
 Pinklowe. These names sound like those of a Norman and a Saxon. 
 It appears further that they were guaranteed to attend at the parlia¬ 
 ment at Westminster by John de laMore, Hugh de Molendino (Molineux), 
 William Fitz Richard, and Elias le Baxter, that is, Elias the Baker.* 
 These members afterwards attended the parliament at Westminster. They 
 received wages for their services, as well as their expenses, and earned 
 (hem well, if they took any part, however small, in the deliberations of 
 the parliaments which soon after compelled the king to confirm the 
 ancient charters of the kingdom, and to pass the ever-memorable act, 
 which declared that no tallage or tax should be taken or levied by the 
 king or his heirs, without the good-will and assent of the archbishops, 
 bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of the land. 
 The passing of this act, and others of a similar kind, brought to a close a 
 vehement, though bloodless, struggle between Edward the First and his 
 people; and may be said to have established the crowning principles 
 of the English constitution. Three men made themselves so conspicuous 
 in this struggle as to render it necessary for them to obtain pardon for 
 the part which they had taken in it, in opposition to the king. They 
 were Humfrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable of 
 England; Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, Marshal of Eng¬ 
 land ; and John de Ferrers, the son of Robert de Ferrers, who forfeited 
 Liverpool and his other estates, in the struggle which I have described in 
 the previous part of this chapter.f 
 
 * Petits MSS. Inner Temple Library, 15, 88. 
 
 + Statutes at Large, 31 Edward 1st. Statutum de Tallagio non Conccdendo, clause 5. 
 
126 
 
 Edmund, the first Earl of Lancaster, was succeeded in his extensive 
 estates bv his eldest son Thomas, who was allowed to take possession of 
 them immediately on his father's death, although he was at that time a 
 minor. Thomas, the second Ear! of Lancaster, was one of those men 
 who experience the extremes of good and of had fortune. The immense 
 estates which he inherited from his father, as well as his close connection 
 with the Eoyal Family, rendered him the most powerful nobleman in 
 England ; and he added to his hereditary possessions estate after estate, 
 and earldom after earldom, until he accumulated an amount of wealth and 
 power, which tempted him to aspire to the Government both of the king 
 and of the kingdom. He failed in that rash enterprise, and closed a 
 life of brilliant prosperity by an ignominious death. 
 
 Soon after the accession of Edward the Second, the Earl of Lan¬ 
 caster was appointed seneschal or steward of England, by the king. 
 Shortly afterwards he received the jewels of Piers Gaveston, the favourite 
 of the king, whom he and other nobles murdered (with the forms of 
 a public execution) in the neighbourhood of Warwick Castle. A little 
 later he received from the king, who hated him much but feared him still 
 more, a large portion of the estates of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. 
 But these gifts and grants were small, when compared with the 
 immense increase of wealth and power which he obtained by his marriage 
 with Alicia de Lacy, the only child and heiress of Henry de Lacy, Earl 
 of Lincoln, and of his wife Margaret d’Espee, who was, in her own 
 right, Countess of Salisbury. By this marriage the Earl of Lancaster 
 acquired the Castles of Halton, near Runcorn, of Pontefract, in 
 Yorkshire, of Clithero, in Ribblesdale, and numerous other places of 
 strength in all parts of the kingdom, in addition to the Castles of 
 Liverpool, Kenilworth, Pickering, Tickhill, and Tutbury, which he had 
 inherited from Earl Edmund. So great was the wealth of this noble¬ 
 man that his yearly expenditure amounted to T7,358 of the money of 
 that time, equal to more than Tl 10,370 of present money; and so 
 great his power, that he repeatedly raised armies of from 20,000 to 30,000 
 men, and long gave law to his Sovereign. 
 
 Liverpool, with its Castle, formed a small portion of the estates of 
 this nobleman; and the corporation and burgesses of Liverpool have some 
 reason to think well of a man who presented their predecessors with what 
 now forms a valuable portion of their property. It is true that at the 
 time when Earl Thomas presented the burgesses of Liverpool with the 
 twelve acres of land, mentioned in the following deed, the ground of which 
 
127 
 
 they consisted was an unenclosed moss or peat bog: but it was given to 
 the burgesses to supply them with fuel to warm their homes, and was, no 
 doubt, a very acceptable present. The deed by which this grant was made 
 is remarkable as being the first deed relating to Liverpool written in the 
 French language. All the previous deeds respecting the town are in Latin ; 
 and no deed or document relating to Liverpool, written in English, occurs 
 until more than a hundred years later. The following is Earl Thomas’s 
 grant to his burgesses of Liverpool, which bears the date of the year 
 1309, the 3rd year of the reign of Edward the Second:— 
 
 “ Know all men that we, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, have given and 
 granted, and by these presents confirm to our burgesses of our town of 
 Lyverpole, six acres of mosses,* lying between the Pikecroft lands and the 
 Lombthorn, adjoining the goit of the said town of Lyverpolle, to hold and 
 to have, from us and our heirs, freely for ever, paying yearly to us and 
 our heirs a silver penny, at the feast of St. John the Baptist, for all sendee. 
 And we, the aforesaid Thomas, and our heirs, the aforesaid six acres of 
 mosses and the appurtenances guarantee and defend to our burgesses of 
 Lyverpolle, and their heirs for ever. In witness of this we have affixed 
 our seal, in the presence of the following witnesses. Robert de Latham, 
 Adam de Ireland, Alyn le Ferrers, Robert de Byrom, John le Ferrers, 
 Henry de Huyton, Robert de Kykedale, and others. Given at Lyver¬ 
 polle, the Thursday next after the feast of St. Mark, in the 3rd year of 
 the reign of King Edward, the son of King Edward.”t 
 
 In the same year in which the above grant was made, we find mention 
 of the two first bailiffs of Liverpool whose names have come down to us, 
 namely, John de la Mor (Moore) and Alan Walsman. The office of 
 bailiff had existed much earlier; probably from the time when the first 
 charter was granted to Liverpool. This is implied in the statement that 
 the burgesses had been accustomed to have a bailiff, which was made on 
 the trial of the Quo Warranto, respecting the franchises of Liverpool, 
 before Hugh de Cressingham, in the twentieth year of Edward the First. 
 The names of most of the earlier bailiffs are lost, but in a deed belonging 
 to the ancient family of Crosse, of Crosse Hall, bearing the date of the 
 year 1309, we find it stated that it was executed in the presence of John 
 de la Mor and Alan Walsman, then bailiffs of Liverpool. At this early 
 period the greater part of the boroughs of the kingdom were governed by 
 
 * Large acres, each of them equal to nearly two statute acres. 
 +■ Muniments of the Corporation of Liverpool. 
 
128 
 
 bailiffs; and it was only in a few of the larger cities, such as London, 
 York, Chester, Lincoln, Norwich, Exeter, and Bristol, that the chief 
 municipal officer held the rank of mayor. It will be seen in the course 
 of the present work that we find no mention of the Mayor of Liverpool 
 previous to the reign of Edward the Third. As complete lists of the 
 mayors, bailiffs, and other municipal officers of Liverpool, as it is’possible 
 to form, will be given in the course of this work. The ancient office of 
 bailiff of Liverpool was abolished by the Municipal Reform Act, 
 after having existed upwards of six hundred years. John de la Mor 
 and Alan Walsman were the first bailiffs of Liverpool, whose names are 
 known ; and James Pownall and Ambrose Lace were the last. 
 
 In the 10th year of Edward the Second, 1316, a negotiation was 
 opened between the monks of the Abbey of Whalley, in Ribblesdale, 
 and Earl Thomas of Lancaster, for the removal of the abbey to Toxteth 
 Park, which was at that time a deer park attached to the Castle of Liver¬ 
 pool. The monks of Whalley had been originally settled at Stanlaw, 
 near Bromboro’, on the Cheshire bank of the river Mersey, where an 
 abbey was founded in the year 1172, by John de Lacy, Constable of 
 Cheshire, and commander of the army of the Earl of Chester. The site 
 at Stanlaw was very ill chosen, except as a place of mortification, being 
 damp and low, and liable to be flooded at spring tides by the waters of 
 the Mersey. In consequence of these annoyances, the monks of that abbey 
 sought and obtained permission from the Pope, in the year 1294, to 
 remove the abbey to a more healthy and agreeable situation ; and they 
 selected for their new abode the pleasant valley of Whalley, in Ribbles¬ 
 dale. This site was also situated on the estates of the De Lacy family ; 
 who were always munificent patrons of the abbey. Three or four years 
 after the marriage of Alicia de Lacy to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the 
 monks of Whalley were seized with a wish to return to the banks of the 
 river Mersey; and a deed was executed, by which Toxteth Park was made 
 over to them by the Earl of Lancaster, as the site of a new abbey.* The 
 reason given by the monks for making this change was, that the abbey 
 at Whalley required to be rebuilt, and that timber could not be obtained 
 in the neighbourhood for that purpose. They also alleged that there was 
 a want of fuel in the neighbourhood of Whalley. Probably they had other 
 motives ; some arising from the fact that North Lancashire was at that 
 time threatened with an invasion by Robert Bruce, who soon after burst 
 into the county at the head of his victorious army, and laid waste the 
 * Abbatia de Wballia. Patent Rolls, 10th Edward 2nd, p. 1, m. 5. 
 
129 
 
 hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness. The monks may have foreseen 
 the coming storm, and wished to escape from it; but they failed to do so; 
 for the negociation respecting Toxteth Park, after having been nearly 
 concluded, was broken off, and was never completed. Possibly this 
 may have been occasioned by the scandalous quarrel between the 
 heiress of the De Lacys and her husband, which broke out about that 
 time. In the course of it she allowed herself to be carried off by a 
 former lover, whom she refused to quit, until her indignant husband raised 
 an army of 18,000, and threatened to recover her by force of arms. She 
 is supposed to have been encouraged by the king, who was delighted to 
 have this opportunity of mortifying the murderer of his favourite Piers 
 Gaveston. 
 
 The only monastic establishment which remained in existence for any 
 length of time in the neighbourhood of Liverpool was the Priory of 
 Birkenhead, which was founded as early as the reign of Richard the 
 First, by the Norman family of de Masci, whose baronial residence was 
 at Dunham Massey or Masci, near Altringliam. This priory was built 
 on a wooded promontory of the Forest of Wirral, which projects into 
 the River Mersey opposite to Liverpool, and is now becoming the site of 
 a large town. At the time when the priory was founded, Liverpool was 
 nothing more than a village; and the intercourse between the opposite 
 shores of the river could not be very frequent. After the Castle 
 of Liverpool had been built, and the borough had been formed, the 
 intercourse across the river increased greatly. The road southward, 
 towards London, was then through Chester, which city was the capital 
 of the north-western parts of England. 
 
 In the eleventh year of the reign of Edward the Second, the prior and 
 monks of Birkenhead (or, as it was then called Byrkelieved), obtained 
 permission from the king to build houses, for the accommodation of travel¬ 
 lers intending to pass across from Birkenhead to Liverpool, but detained 
 by stress of weather or other causes, on the Cheshire side. This is the 
 first mention of the priory of Birkenhead in connection with Liverpool. 
 Amongst the records of the Court of Chancery, preserved in the Tower of 
 London, that is to say, the patent rolls, of the eleventh year of the reign 
 of King Edward the Second, p. 1, m. 14, it is thus set forth :— 
 
 “ For the Prior of Byrkelieved.—The king to all to whom these 
 presents may come, greeting:—Know, that of our especial grace we 
 have conceded and given licence for us and our heirs, to our beloved in 
 Christ, the prior and convent of Byrkeheved, that they may cause to be 
 s 
 
130 
 
 built, on their own ground at Byrkeheved, near the arm of the sea 
 between Liverpool and Byrkeheved, in any place where this may be done 
 without injury to other parties, sufficient houses for receiving and enter¬ 
 taining travellers passing beyond the arm of the sea, and that they and 
 their successors may hold those houses for ever, without occasion or impe¬ 
 diment of us or our heirs, or of our justices, escheators, sheriffs, or other 
 bailiffs or ministers. Witness the king at Westminster, the 20th day of 
 November.” 
 
 A second charter to the same effect, but more explanatory of the 
 reasons for which the privilege of building these houses of entertainment 
 was granted, was issued in the same year, and was as follows : — 
 
 “ Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, 
 and Duke of Aquitaine, to all to whom the present letters shall come. 
 Greeting:—Know ye that, from the town of Liverpool in the county of 
 Lancaster, under the priory of Byrkeheved in the county of Chester, and 
 from the said priory unto the aforesaid town, beyond the arm of the sea 
 there, a co mm on passage is used, and on account of contrariety of weather 
 and frequent storms, great numbers of persons wishing to cross there from 
 the said county of Chester, into the parts of Lancaster, being often hindered, 
 it hath hitherto been needful to turn aside to the said priory, by reason that 
 at the passage aforesaid there are not any houses for lodging such persons, 
 nor can any provisions be there found to be bought for the support of the 
 said persons; on account whereof the said priory hath hitherto been 
 burdened beyond its means, and the said persons have been very much 
 wearied and grieved. We willing in this behalf to apply a remedy, of our 
 special grace have granted and given license for us and our heirs, as 
 much as in us lies, to our beloved in Christ, the prior and convent of 
 Byrkeheved, at the place of the passage aforesaid, or as near as shall most 
 conveniently be done, to build sufficient houses for lodging such persons, 
 and the same being built to hold to them and their successors for ever ; 
 and that the persons who shall dwell in the same houses may buy and sell 
 provisions for the support of the men there about to cross the said arm of 
 the sea, without the hindrance or impediment of us, or our heirs, justices, 
 escheators, sheriffs, or other bailiffs or ministers whatsoever. In testimony 
 whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness 
 ourself at Shene (Richmond), the 20th day of February, in the eleventh 
 year of our reign. 1318.” 
 
 It will be seen that the above charters, although they recognise the 
 existence of a ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool, do not confer any 
 
131 
 
 privileges with regard to that ferry on the priory of Birkenhead, except 
 that of building houses of refuge for travellers. The exclusive right of 
 ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool was not conferred until the reign of 
 Edward the Third, when it was formally granted to the priory, by a 
 deed which will be quoted in its proper place. 
 
 The last seven years of Earl Thomas’s life were spent in violent quarrels 
 with the king, and in preparations for the civil war, which at last brought 
 him to the block. His principal adviser seems to have been a Lancashire 
 knight, Robert de Holland, to whom he made large grants of land 
 and manors in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. If his object in making 
 these grants was to secure his assistance, in the rebellion which he 
 afterwards raised, it failed ; for when that infatuated nobleman commenced 
 his final struggle with the king many of the friends on whom he 
 had relied abandoned his cause, and amongst them Robert de Hol¬ 
 land. One of his dependants, Adam de Banistre, had already raised 
 an insurrection against him, in the king’s name, in the neighbourhood 
 of Preston; whilst others held back, and left him to his fate. 
 After three days’ hard fighting, at Burton, the royal army, under 
 the command of the king, succeeded in forcing its way across the 
 river Trent. On this the Earl of Lancaster and his allies retreated 
 rapidly into Yorkshire. The earl was overtaken, defeated, and taken pri¬ 
 soner at Ferry Bridge, on the river Aire. He was conducted to his own 
 castle at Pontefract, where, after undergoing all manner of indignities, he 
 was beheaded by the public executioner. The king immediately seized upon 
 the whole of his estates; and amongst them, on those which he had granted 
 to Robert de Holland, who was too prudent to offer any resistance. A 
 return was then made by the king’s minister, which, though very imperfect, 
 contains some additional information as to the lands within the borough 
 of Liverpool, and the three parks of Toxteth, Croxteth, and Simon’s 
 Wood, which were attached to the castle. It is as follows :— 
 
 “ The herbage of the park of Toxteth, appertaining to the castle of 
 Liverpool, is let to Thomas de Stukebroggelaigh, and to Robert Fitz 
 Henry for .£11 per annum. 
 
 “ Also forty acres of land, called Salthousemorc, is let to Robert Fitz 
 Henry, of Liverpool, for five marks per annum. 
 
 “ Also the herbage of the forest of Croxteth is let to the tenants of the 
 king, at Derby, for 54s. 4d. 
 
 “ Also the herbage of Simon’s Wood is let to Robert, the son of Melle, 
 for 00s. per annum, for a term of three years. 
 
132 
 
 The minister also remarks that “ ten marks, equal to ,£100, worth of 
 oaks (cheynes), might be sold out of Croxteth and Simon’s Wood, without 
 making any waste.” 
 
 It appeal's from.the date of a deed in Rymer’s Foedera, that Edward the 
 Second visited the castle of Liverpool soon after the death of Thomas, 
 Earl of Lancaster. The king at that time made a progress through the 
 northern part of his dominions.* 
 
 The triumph of Edward the Second over his enemies was very short. 
 The loss of Scotland, and the overwhelming defeat of Bannockburn, had 
 destroyed the waning popularity of this weakest of all the Plantagenet 
 kings; at the same time that it laid open the northern counties to the 
 army of Robert Bruce, which wasted the country up to the gates of York, 
 and the banks of the Ribble, without meeting with any enemy to resist 
 its course. The internal affairs of the kingdom went rapidly to ruin, 
 under the misgovernment of the Dispensers, and other favourites of the 
 king. The most formidable, however, of the enemies of the falling 
 monarch were those of his own household, especially his wife, Isabella of 
 France, whom a long course of neglect had rendered the most implacable 
 of his enemies. His overthrow was at length brought aliout by an expe¬ 
 dition organized by the Queen and Roger Mortimer. Several orders were 
 received by the bailiffs of Liverpool, during the last two years of the 
 reign of Edward the Second, all of which show the unsettled state of the 
 kingdom. In the 18th year of his reign (1325), an order was 
 received from the king, addressed “ to the bailiffs and community of the 
 town of Liverpool,” commanding them not to allow any persons, whether 
 merchants or others, to pass through Liverpool, unless they were proceed¬ 
 ing to Flanders. Another order, addressed to the same parties, was 
 received in the course of the same year, ordering them to arrest all 
 vessels, and to send them round to Portsmouth. Tw t o years afterwards, 
 when the affairs of the king had become still more desperate, an order 
 was received by the bailiffs of Liverpool, ordering them to examine all 
 letters, and to arrest all suspicious persons.f About the same time the 
 garrison of the castle of Liverpool, as well as those of Hornby and 
 Clitheroe, received an intimation that the king had raised the pay of 
 the commanders to 8d. per day, and of the men to 4d. a day, equal 
 to 10s. and 5s. a day of our money.J But all these precautions and 
 this liberality were in vain. The queen landed with her son, Prince 
 
 * Speed, 661. 
 
 + Rymer’s Feeder a, iii., 229. 
 
 \ Cotton MSS., Julius, c. 3, f. 21, a. 4. 
 
133 
 
 Edward, then a boy about fifteen years of age, and with her adviser and 
 lover, Roger Mortimer. Nearly all the nobility of the kingdom hastened 
 to join her; and the cities and towns opened their gates to receive her. 
 Scarcely a hand was raised in defence of the king, who sank from the 
 throne amidst universal contempt. After having endured every insult, 
 he was soon after murdered in Berkeley Castle, under circumstances 
 of detestable cruelty. At his death, all the estates of the house of Lan¬ 
 caster passed into the hands of Henry, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, 
 the next brother of Earl Thomas, beheaded at Pontefract. The borough 
 of Liverpool was one of them. 
 
CHAPTER FIFTH. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD THE THIRD TO THE ACCESSION OF 
 THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 
 
 When Edward the Third succeeded to the crown of England, on the 
 dethronement of his father, he found the kingdom not only distracted 
 with internal war, hut threatened with attack from without. Although a 
 truce for thirteen years had been made between England and Scotland, the 
 temptation to attack England was irresistible to Robert Bruce' and his 
 subjects. A large Scottish army was suddenly collected and marched 
 into England, under the command of Douglas and Randolph, which 
 plundered and wasted all the northern counties. To escape the 
 ravages of this desolating host the inhabitants fled in all directions, and 
 orders were given to the governors of Liverpool and other northern castles 
 to throw them open to receive the fugitives. At the same time the whole 
 male population of Lancashire and Yorkshire, between the ages of fifteen 
 and sixty, were ordered to take up arms, and join the king atNewcastle.* 
 
 This invasion was only one of a succession of attacks, by which large 
 districts of the north of England were reduced to the condition of a wil¬ 
 derness. Fifteen years after the accession of Edward the Third the 
 inhabitants of forty townships in the north of Lancashire claimed to he 
 excused from paying taxes, on account of the ravages of the Scottish 
 armies. Even at that time great numbers of persons had abandoned their 
 homes, and were still living in the wastes and hills, to escape an 
 inroad which was threatened by the borderers. But the tide of victory had 
 again turned in favour of England, and the great victories of Dupplin 
 Moor, Halidon Hill, and Neville’s Cross, thinned the ranks of the 
 nobility of Scotland, annihilated its regular armies, and left the son of 
 Robert Bruce a captive in the hands of King Edward. Unfortunately for 
 the northern counties of England, victory was almost as fatal to them as 
 defeat, for it always lead to fresh schemes of conquest in Scotland, and 
 to additional levies of men, in the adjoining counties. Lancashire suffered 
 
 Rymer’s Fceclera, iv., 293. 
 
135 
 
 especially, in those early times, from its central position with regard to 
 Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; all of which were the scenes of constant 
 wars.* The laws of conscription, or military service, extended to all classes 
 of men, from the earl to the peasant; and were rigorously enforced. By 
 the statute of Wynton or Winchester, passed in the thirteenth Edward 
 the First, it was enacted that every man, between fifteen years of age and 
 sixty, should be required to have amis, according to his rank, and should 
 be ready for military service when called on. The man who had £15 of 
 land, or 40 marks of goods, was required to have an liawberk, a breast¬ 
 plate of iron, a sword, a knife, and a horse ; he who had TlO in land, or 
 20 marks in goods, was required to have the same arms, but without the 
 horse; he who had £5 in lands, was required to have a doublet, a breast¬ 
 plate of iron, a sword, and a knife ; he who had between 40s. and 100s. 
 of land, was required to have a sword, a bow and arrows, and a knife ; he 
 who had less than 40s. in land was required to have gif-arms, knives, 
 and other lesser weapons; he who had less than 20 marks in goods was 
 required to have a sword and a knife ; and all other persons were required 
 to have bows and arrows, out of the forest, and cross-bows and bolts, in it. 
 An inspection took place twice a year, to ascertain that all classes of men 
 had the arms and armour prescribed by law. It appears, from an inventory 
 of the goods of William the son of Adam, of Liverpool, made in the year 
 1380, that he was just worth 40 marks, or about £400 of modern money, 
 so that he would be required to serve on horseback; and probably there 
 were half a dozen more of the burgesses of Liverpool in a similar position. 
 The poorer classes were trained to archery, on a spot which was called the 
 Shooters’-green,f and doubtless added their small quota to those swarms 
 of archers who fought in the van of every English army, and who often 
 decided the victory, before a blow was struck by the knights or billmen. 
 
 On the overthrow and dethronement of Edward the Second, Henry, 
 Earl of Lancaster, the brother of Earl Thomas, was appointed guardian 
 of the youthful king, and received other offices of trust. He also regained 
 all the estates which his brother had possessed,! including those which 
 Earl Thomas had obtained by his unfortunate marriage with the heiress 
 of the de Lacys. Alicia de Lacy had found no difficulty in consoling 
 herself for the death of her first husband, by taking a second. She was 
 married to Ebulo Lestrange; and when Henry obtained his brother’s 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 116. 
 t Muniments of the Crosses, of Crosse Hall, 14th Henry 4th. 
 
 ; Rolls of Parliament, 2, 3. 
 
136 
 
 possessions, having no choice in the matter, she consented to give up all 
 her immense estates, on receiving a pension of 1200 marks, equal to 
 about £12,000 a year of our money. Camden and other writers are 
 somewhat hard on Alicia de Lacy; hut, although it cannot be denied that 
 the conduct of this descendant of Fair Rosamond did give ground for 
 scandal, yet it must be said, in extenuation of her misdeeds, that her first 
 marriage was a mere matter of political convenience to the royal family, 
 in which she had no choice whatever. All heiresses at that time, from 
 Alicia de Lacy, whose lands would have formed a handsome principality, 
 down to Margaret de Litherpol, whose patch of ground in Garston was 
 worth half a mark, or £5 per year,* were in the gift of the king; and were 
 given away, or openly sold, to whomsoever the king pleased, without the 
 slightest regard to their own wishes or feelings. We cannot expect every 
 virtue under Heaven from ladies so disposed of. 
 
 At the time when the borough of Liverpool passed into the hands of 
 Henry, Earl of Lancaster, an inquiry was made as to its value. The 
 jurors appointed for that purpose made the following return :— 
 
 “Also the jurors say that that there is at Lyverpoll a certain castle, 
 whose trench and herbage are of the value of 2s. per year ; and that there 
 is there a certain dove cote under the castle, of the value of 6s. 8d.; and 
 that there is there a certain Borough, in which are divers free tenants 
 holding in burgage, and paying yearly £8 8s.; and that there is there a 
 certain Market held on Saturday, whose tolls are worth £10; and that 
 there is there a certain ferry beyond the Mersey, which is worth 40s.; and 
 that there is there a windmill of the value of 26s., and a watermill of the 
 value of 24s.; and that there is there a certain Fair held on the day of St. 
 Martin, whose toll is of the value of 13s. 9d.; and that there is there a 
 certain park, which is called Toxteth, whose herbage in summer is of the 
 value of £11; sum total £35 0s. 5d.,” equal to £525 6s. 3d. 
 
 At the time when the above return was made, the greater part of the 
 business of the country was transacted at fairs and markets. To the 
 markets men came together from all the surrounding districts; and where 
 the fairs were of any celebrity, multitudes of people attended them from 
 all parts of the kingdom, and even from foreign countries. The fame of 
 the fairs of Bristol has continued from the reign of Henry the Second to 
 the present time.f Those of Winchester were so important in the reign 
 of Henry the Third that a royal order was issued that no one should 
 
 * Testa de Neville, 371. 
 
 + Madox's Firma Burgi, 17. 
 
137 
 
 interfere with persons going to them. In the reign of Edward the First 
 the burgesses of Hull petitioned the king for the privilege of holding a 
 fair for thirty days in every year.* Lincoln had a fair which was fre¬ 
 quented by men coming, by land and water, from all parts of the 
 kingdom.f In the tenth year of the reign of Edward the Third a royal 
 order was issued, granting an especial protection to a large body of Ger¬ 
 man merchants, who were coming to the great fair of St. Botolph, or 
 Boston, in Lincolnshire, with forty ships.* The only fair held in this 
 part of the country which could at all compare with these was that of 
 Chester. The fairs of Liverpool never had any great reputation; but 
 they have been regularly held for many centuries. An ancient custom 
 still exists of exhibiting a hand or gauntlet in front of the Town-hall, on 
 the days of the fair. During that time all persons attending the fair are 
 exempt from liability to be arrested on suits originating in the borough 
 courts, so long as they are within the precincts of the fair. The High 
 Cross, which formerly stood near where the present Town-hall stands, was 
 the central point of the fair. The limits within which parties are free 
 from arrest are still marked, in one direction at least, by a broad flat stone 
 sunk in the middle of the pavement of Castle-street. 
 
 Soon after Henry Earl of Lancaster had recovered the estates of his 
 brother, Robert de Holland, whom I have mentioned in the preceding 
 chapter, put in a claim to the numerous manors which he had received 
 from Earl Thomas, and amongst them to the manor and borough of 
 Liverpool. In consequence of this demand an inquiry was ordered to 
 be made by a jury of Lancashire gentlemen, as to the validity of his 
 claim. The jurors sat at Wigan, and after some inquiry, made the 
 following report, in which they recognized the fact of Robert de Holland’s 
 possession of Liverpool, and the other manors claimed by him, but 
 declined to give an opinion as to the question of his legal rights :— 
 
 “ Lancaster.—An inquisition taken before Simon de Grimesby, 
 escheator of the lord the king, beyond Trent, at Wygan, on Tuesday next 
 after the feast of St. Gregory the Pope, in the first year of the reign of 
 King Edward the Third, according to the tenor of the writ to this inqui¬ 
 sition shown, by Peter de Burnhull, Gilbert de Haydock, Richard de 
 Bolde, Robert le Grelle, John le Norreys the younger, Gilbert de Scares- 
 brook, Robert le Norreys, Richard le Waleys, Henry le Eltonhevede, 
 Alan de Ecclestone, John de Trafford, Robert del Bothe, Robert the son 
 
 * Madox’s Antiquities of the Exchequer, 291. + Rugdale, 176. 
 
 } Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 120. 
 
 T 
 
138 
 
 of Galfrey de Waleton, John de la More, of Lyverpoll, Adam Clerk of 
 the same place, Robert the son of Henry, Adam Baron, Richard de Walton, 
 Robert de Anderton, Robert de Hesltuin, William del Bothe, Henry de 
 Dokesbor, and John de Eton, who say upon their oath, that Robert de 
 Holland, about the time of seven years before the death of Thomas late Earl 
 of Lancaster, entered into the Castle and borough of Lyverpoll, which are 
 worth by the year in all issues 4230 10s., equal to 42457 10s. of present 
 money ;* and into the manor of Everton, which is worth by the year £4 16s., 
 equal to 4272 ; and into the manor of Great Crosseby, which is worth by the 
 year in all issues £ 7 , equal to 42105 ; and into the manor of Wavertree, 
 which is worth by the year in all issues 426 9s. 4d., equal to 4297; and 
 into the park of Toxteth, which is worth by the year in all issues 4210, 
 equal to 42150 ; and into the forest of Symondeswode, which is worth in 
 all issues 66s. 8d., equal to 4250 of our money; and into the wapentake 
 of Derby ; and that he received all rents of all free tenants in the same 
 wapentake, with the perquisites of the same, which are worth by the year 
 in all issues £22 15s. 5d., equal to 42341 11s. 3d. of our money; and into 
 the borough and wapentake of Salford, and hath received all the rents of all 
 the free tenants in the same wapentake, with the perquisites of the same, 
 which are worth by the year in all issues £29 13s., equal to 42444 15s.; and 
 hath made and constituted his bailiffs and ministers, and hath received all 
 the profits and issues of the aforesaid castle, borough, manors, park, 
 forests, and all the rents as well of freemen as others, in the wapen¬ 
 takes aforesaid, which the aforesaid Thomas, late Earl of Lancaster, was 
 accustomed to receive; and hath demeaned himself as lord, until the death 
 of the same Thomas, the late earl: But they say that the aforesaid Robert 
 showed no charter, nor any other special deed, under the name of the 
 aforesaid Thomas, the late earl, of the gift or grant of the said Thomas, 
 the earl, of the aforesaid castle, boroughs, manors, lands, and tenements 
 aforesaid in those parts; neither had the said Thomas the late earl per¬ 
 sonally nor by his attorney, by his deed hereunto specially deputed, ever 
 delivered any seizin to the aforesaid Robert of the aforesaid castle, 
 borough, manors, lands, and tenements aforesaid : And they say that none 
 of the free tenants in the wapentakes of Derby and Salford, or elsewhere, 
 by deed of assignment of the aforesaid Thomas, late Earl of Lancaster, 
 nor of his own deed, have ever attorned themselves, either from their 
 homages or fealties, to the aforesaid Robert de Holland : And upon these 
 
 * I give the valuation in modern as well as ancient money, to .save the trouble of 
 calculation. 
 
139 
 
 being required of, whether the aforesaid Thomas, late Earl of Lancaster, 
 died seized of the aforesaid castle, borough, manors, wapentakes, lands, 
 and tenements aforesaid, in his demesne, as a fee or not, they say that 
 they know not, and hereupon to speak precisely, they wholly refuse. And 
 they say that the aforesaid Thomas, the late earl, before the aforesaid 
 Robert entered into the aforesaid castle and borough of Liverpool, manors, 
 lands and tenements, forests, park, wapentakes, and demesnes, him¬ 
 self as lord, as is aforesaid held all the premises aforesaid, with their 
 appurtenances of the Lord Edward, late King of England, father of the 
 now king in capite, by the service of one Gosshawk, and that he held no 
 other lands or tenements of others in the county aforesaid; and they say 
 that Lord Henry, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, steward of England, 
 is the brother of the aforesaid Thomas, and is next heir, and of the age of 
 forty years and upwards. In witness whereof the aforesaid jurors to this 
 inquisition have affixed their seals. Dated at Wygan, the day and year 
 above said.” 
 
 In consequence of the indecisive result of this inquiry, Robert de 
 Holland petitioned parliament for the restoration of the estates which he 
 claimed;* The treasurer and the barons of the exchequer were ordered to 
 inquire into the particulars of his claim ; and to report upon them without 
 delay. This they did, and their report was, in effect, that Robert de Hol¬ 
 land was entitled, under the grant of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, to the 
 manor of Holland, with its members, Wigan and Orrell; to the forests of 
 Toxteth, Croxteth, and Simon’s Wood;- to the manors of Hale and 
 Woolton; to certain tenements in Waver tree, Everton, Crosby, Haydock, 
 Derby, Chorley, Aughton, Newton, and Haigh; to the town of Salford ; 
 to an acre of land in West Leigh, with the presentation of the church of 
 Leigh ; and to the castle and town of Liverpool. 
 
 Although the above decision was thus in favour of Robert de Holland, 
 both as relates to Liverpool and the adjoining manors, there is no evidence 
 that he obtained possession of Liverpool. It is not enumerated amongst 
 his possessions, or those of his widow Maude or Matilda de Holland, in 
 the inquisitions which were held after their respective deaths. However 
 this may be, the whole of the estates of Robert and Maude de Holland, 
 who died childless, returned into the hands of the Earls of Lancaster after 
 their decease. Maude de Holland, who was the survivor, died in the year 
 1349, the twenty-third year of the reign of Edward the Third. 
 
 The following Paveage grant made in the second year of the reign of 
 
 * Rolls of Parliament, ii., 18. 
 
140 
 
 Edward the Third, may be considered the first local improvement act 
 ever granted to the town of Liverpool. The various sums should be mul¬ 
 tiplied by fifteen, to show their equivalents in modern money. 
 
 li Pave age conceded to the town of Liverpool.—The King to his 
 beloved bailiffs, and to the honest men of the town of Liverpol. 
 greeting. Know that we have granted, in aid of the paving of the 
 said town of Liverpol, that, from the date of the grant of this deed to 
 the end of the three years next following, you may take, by the hands 
 of those whom you think fit to depute for that purpose, and for whom you 
 are willing to answer, the under-written tolls (consuetudines) on articles 
 sold: That is to say, on every horse load of grain, of whatever kind it may 
 be, £d.; on every horse, mare, ox, and cow sold, Jd.; on every hide of a 
 horse, mare, ox or cow sold, whether fresh, salted, or tanned, Jd.; on 
 every five bacon pigs sold, 4d.; on every ten porkers, jd. ; on every ten 
 sheep, goats, or small pigs, Id. ; on every ten skins, 4d.; on every hun¬ 
 dred skins of sheep, with the wool on, and of goats, Id.; on every hundred 
 skins of lambs, kids, hares, rabbits, foxes, cats, and squirrels, £d. ; on 
 every hundred of gray work, 6d.; on every quarter of salt, yd. ; on every 
 horse load of cloth, ^d. ; on every whole piece of cloth of the value of 
 40s., |-d.; on every truss of cloth brought by cart, 3d.; on every hundred 
 yards of cloth of worthsted (worsted), 2d ; on every hundred yards of 
 linen cloth, ^d.; on every hundred yards of linen cloth of Aylesham, Id.; 
 on every ‘ cendallo afforciato,’ Id.; and on other cendallo, |d.; on every 
 cwt. of salt mullets, and of dry fish, 2d.; on every cart load of sea fish, 
 4d. ; on every horse load of sea fish, -gd.; on every salmon, yd.; on every 
 twelve lampreys, Id. ; on every thousand herrings, yd. ; on every horse 
 load of ashes, |-d. ; on every horse load of honey, Id. ; on every sack of 
 wool, 2d.; on every cart load of bark, Id.; on every cart load of lead Id. ; 
 on every cask of wine, 2d. ; on every chaldron of sea coals, Jd.; on every 
 cwt. ‘ aceri gadorum,’ £d. ; on every cart load of iron, Id.; on every horse 
 load of iron, -id-; on every hundred horse shoes, ^d. ; on every cwt. of 
 averdepois, yd.; on every weigh of tallow, Id. ; on every quarter of 
 woad, 2d. ; on two thousand onions, |d. ; on every bale of cordovan 
 leather, 3d. ; on every cwt. of bordi, |d. ; on every mill stone, g-d. ; on 
 every hundred faggots or thousand turves, yd. ; and on each cart load of 
 brush wood, used per week, |d.; on every cwt. of tin, brass, and copper, 
 2d.; on every truss of merchandise exceeding the value of 10s., -id.; on 
 every other article not enumerated exceeding the value of 2s., yd. And, 
 therefore we command you that the aforesaid customs you take, in the 
 
141 
 
 aforesaid form, to the end of the aforesaid three years, and the term of the 
 said three years being completed, the said customs shall altogether cease 
 and he abolished. Witness the king at York, the 7th day of February.” 
 
 The above grant shows what were the principal articles imported into, 
 exported from, and consumed in Liverpool, in the early part of the 
 reign of Edward the Third. It will be seen from the nature of the 
 articles that the larger portion of them were derived from the corn fields, 
 the pastures, the woods, the heaths, the mines, and the fisheries of 
 England. 
 
 The articles which then formed the most important part of the 
 exports of England, were those yielded by its pastures and forests. 
 Upwards of 31,600 sacks of wool, each of them containing twenty-eight 
 stone weight, together with 3,036 cwt. of the same material, were exported 
 in a single year of this reign (1354). The value of the wool thus 
 exported was 42195,978 of the money of that time, the total value of 
 the exports being 42212,338,* equal in modern money to 4!3,185,070. 
 I have already stated that Liverpool never possessed more than a very 
 small share of this trade. Lancashire was almost the only county in 
 England which did not possess a native breed of sheep.f Cheshire 
 had such a breed in Delamere Forest. Staffordshire had one on 
 Cannock Heath; and what was called the woodland-horned sheep 
 was spread through the whole of Yorkshire. The most celebrated 
 breeds, however, were found in the southern and eastern counties. 
 Bristol was the port of shipment for the celebrated long wools produced 
 on the Cotswold Hills, and also for the Ryeland wools of Hereford¬ 
 shire, which were considered the finest wools in Europe.J Both 
 Boston and Hull were places of shipment for the Lincolnshire wools, 
 which were remarkable for uniting extraordinary weight to good quality. 
 Those of Kent were scarcely inferior; Norfolk and Suffolk had also 
 excellent wools. Liverpool was better situated for the trade in hides, 
 and in the skins of mid animals, of which many varieties are enume¬ 
 rated in the above list. Lancashire has always been famous for its 
 breeds of cattle, and the woods and wastes which then covered the greater 
 part of the county must have contained many wild animals. 
 
 With regard to the grain brought into Liverpool, it was probably 
 chiefly for home consumption, though occasionally shipments were made 
 to Wales and the Isle of Man. At this time the merchants of Chester 
 
 * Pictorial History of England, i., 832. + Penny Cyclopaedia, xxi., 359. 
 
 { Camden’s Britannia, 4'JO. 
 
142 
 
 imported grain from abroad, and probably some small quantities might 
 reach Liverpool.* 
 
 The woollen goods mentioned in the above grant were some of them 
 of home manufacture; others of foreign. In the year 1350, 8,061 pieces 
 of worsted were exported from England, each piece worth on the average 
 16s. 8d., equal to ^12; and 4,774 pieces of coarse woollens, each of the 
 value of 40s, or ^30 of modern money; and, in the same year there were 
 imported into England 1,831 pieces of fine woollens, of the average 
 value of £6. The latter were probably imported from Elanders and 
 Italy, both of which were then celebrated for producing fine woollens. 
 
 The salt fish used in England at this time was chiefly imported from 
 the Island of Iceland, which was the Newfoundland of those ages. 
 Bristol, Hull,f and Scarborough were the principal ports which carried 
 on this trade, but as the consumption of fish was universal, some portion 
 of the imports may have found their way to Liverpool. 
 
 It will be seen that honey is mentioned as an article then brought to 
 Liverpool for sale in large quantities. The flowering heaths and meadows 
 of Lancashire still yield this article in abundance, when any pains are 
 taken to collect it, but in modern times honey has been almost super¬ 
 seded by sugar. Sugar was well known in England as early as the 
 reign of Edward the First, as we find from an Essay on Weights and 
 Measures, published in that reign, in which it is stated that a 108 lbs. of 
 sugar (zucarii) make a hundredweight.^ The crusaders found the 
 sugar cane growing in Syria, || at the time of the early crusades. It had 
 probably been introduced there by the Arabs, whose empire then ex¬ 
 tended from the banks of the Indus, where the sugar cane has grown 
 from the most remote ages, to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The 
 sugar cane also flourished in the Greek Islands and in the Island of 
 Sicily, where the Norman King, William the Second, granted a sugar 
 mill to the monastery of St. Bennet, in the year 1166. The knowledge 
 of this valuable article was widely diffused by the Venetians and 
 Genoese, who traded to England as early as the reign of King John. 
 It was at that time, however, only a luxury for the rich, owing to 
 its dearness. As late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth sugar sometimes 
 sold as high as half-a-crown a pound ;§ and a faithful chronicler of 
 the Liverpool Corporation, makes honourable mention of one of the 
 mayors of Liverpool, Thomas Bavande, who feasted the burgesses of 
 
 * Rolls of Parliament, i. 413. + /Camden’s Britannia, 079. + Statutes at Large, i. 149. 
 
 || Encyclopaedia Britannica, xx., 791. § Hollinshead's Description of Britain, 105. 
 
143 
 
 Liverpool with an unlimited supply of wine and sugar on that famous 
 Queen’s birth-day.* 
 
 Wine was at that time one of the principal articles imported into 
 England from abroad. The imports of one year (1354), the first in which 
 we obtain any detailed account of the imports and exports of Eng¬ 
 land, was 1,820 tons ; the average price of it was 40s. a ton, equal to 
 about i>30 a ton of the money of that time. The wines imported were 
 chiefly those grown in the south of France. Gascony and the adjoining 
 provinces were then subject to the Crown of England, having been 
 acquired by Henry the Second, about the year 1160, (by his marriage with 
 the divorced wife of the King of France,) and having remained united 
 to England till about the year 1470. During the whole of that time 
 those beautiful provinces supplied England with wine, oil, dried fruits, 
 and nearly all the other luxuries which were consumed in the families of 
 the great, and by the richer class of burgesses and citizens. Chester 
 carried on a considerable trade in wine from a very early period, and the 
 earliest Custom House case of which we have any mention in Liverpool, 
 is one respecting a cargo of wine, part of which was landed at Liverpool 
 and part at Chester. This occurred in the reign of Edward the Third. 
 
 The above, as I have already stated, is the first of six paveage grants 
 made to the borough of Liverpool, in a period of about sixty years. Great 
 numbers of similar grants were made in the reigns of Edward the First, 
 Edward the Second, and Edward the Third, to other towns, from which 
 we may conclude that towns were becoming more populous, and the inha¬ 
 bitants of them more careful of their own comfort, than they have been in 
 past times. The paveage grants to London, Bristol, Lincoln, York, 
 Chester, and other ancient cities, are extremely numerous about this time. 
 I also find that the following towns obtained similar grants previous to 
 Liverpool. In the reign of Edward the First:—Shrewsbury, Huntingdon, 
 Coventry, Lichfield, Hereford, and Hull; in the reign of Edward the 
 Second, Warrington and Sankey, Boston, Worcester, Stafford, Spalding, 
 Cork, Birmingham, and Newcastle under-Lyne.f A much greater number 
 of towns obtained murage grants, that is to say grants for constructing 
 walls, which were then as needful for the protection of towns as ditches 
 were for the protection of manor houses in the country. I cannot find 
 any murage grant for Liverpool; but the walls of the town are mentioned 
 in a trial between the Molyneuxes and the Corporation, in the reign of 
 
 * Kaye's Stranger in Liverpool. Appendix. J See Calendar of Patent Rolls for these reigns. 
 
144 
 
 Philip and Mary ; and a public officer, named a murager, was regularly 
 appointed in Liverpool, as late as the reign of King James the First. 
 
 The earliest mention which I can find of any of the existing streets of 
 Liverpool is in the reigns of Edward the Second and Edward the Third. 
 The streets of Liverpool were then five in number, namely, Castle-street, 
 Dale-street, Bonke-street, now called Water-street, Moore-street, now 
 called Tithebarn-street, and Chapel-street, which, like Castle-street and 
 Dale-street, retains its ancient name. The following deeds, from the 
 muniments of the ancient family of Crosse, of Crosse Hall, in the 
 Borough of Liverpool, contain the earliest mention of these streets. 
 
 Castle-street.—The first mention of Castle-street is in a grant of the 
 8th of Edward the Second, from John de Kirkby to Adam de Cliorlate 
 and his heirs, of a piece of land, with the building thereon, in Castle- 
 street, Liverpool, bounded on the north by his own tenement, on the 
 south by that late of Adam, son of Richard; in front 24 feet, and in depth 
 65 feet; to have and to hold of the chief lord in fee, “ with all liberties to 
 such a tenement in the town of Liverpol pertaining paying to the lord 
 fourpence-lialfpenny in silver, to John the son of William ninepence in 
 silver, to Richard le Someneur fourpence-halfpenny in silver, and to 
 the heirs of Roger de Sonkey one halfpenny in silver. Witnesses, John 
 de Mora, Richard de Mora, William son of Ralph, William de Kirke- 
 dale, William Walshomo (Walshman,) and others. Dated at Liverpol, 
 on the Saturday next after the feast of St. Michael, in the 8th year of 
 the reign of King Edward, son of King Edward. 1314. 
 
 Dale-street.—The following deed contains the earliest mention of 
 Dale-street:— 
 
 “ To all the faithful in Christ who may see or hear this writing. 
 Cecilia, formerly wife of Adam Uttinge, greeting : Know that I, in my 
 pure widowhood, and with full legal power, have given, &c., to Richard 
 de Walton, the half of a burgage in the town of Lyverpoll, in le Dele- 
 strete, between the land of William Baret on the east, and the land of 
 Richard Tewe on the west, to he sold, &c., rendering to Alexander, 
 son of Matthew de Wally, eighteen silver pence. These being witness¬ 
 ing, John de Mora, Adam son of William, Adam le Clerk, Adam Baron, 
 and others. April 15. Third Edward III.” 
 
 Bonke-strete, now Water-street.—By a deed hearing the date of Sun¬ 
 day after the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, in the forty-third 
 Edward Third, John, the son of Adam le Clerk, of Liverpull, grants to 
 William, the son of Adam, of Liverpull, a piece of land, 20 feet by 1 7, in 
 
145 
 
 le Bonke-street, between the tenement of St. Nicholas (the chapel) and 
 that of John de Staney. Witnesses, John de Almeric, Bichard de Ayne- 
 sargh, Wm. le Child, John le Someneur, and Nicholas le Clerk. 
 
 Moore-street, now Tithebam-street.—The following deed contains the 
 earliest mention of the ancient Moore-street, now Tithebarn-street:— 
 
 “ Be it known to the present and the future, that T, Adam, the son 
 of Ranulf, of Lyverpull, give, grant, and by this my present charter 
 confirm, to Richard de Mapelduram and his heirs and assigns, two 
 bovates of land lying in the field which is called le Dalefield, near the 
 royal road—juxta viam regalem—on one part, and the lands of Robert 
 le Merser on the other, to be held from the chief lord, with the liberties 
 and easements belonging to such land in the town of Lyverpoll. And be 
 it also known that I the said Adam, the son of Ranulf, assign to him a 
 burgage which lies in the Morstrete, between the tenement of Roger the 
 son of Elkenild and the tenements of John de Mora. Witness, John de 
 Mora, Alan Walseman, William Baron, John de Poter, Ric. deMora, and 
 others. Given at Lyverpol, on the day of St. Gregory the Pope (12th 
 March), in the year 1304.” 
 
 Chapel-street.—The following copy of an ancient mortgage contains 
 the first mention of Chapel-street:— 
 
 “ Be it known to all, as well present as future, that I, John de 
 Formeby have given, granted, and by this deed confirmed, in mortgage 
 to John Amoryson, of Wygan, and to his heirs and executors, the half of 
 a burgage, with its appurtenances, in the town of Lyverpul, that is to say, 
 that lying in le Chapel-strete, clearly contained within its marks and 
 bounds, to be held until seventeen pounds of silver, by the said John 
 Amoryson, or his heirs and executors, are paid. [Then the warranty as 
 usual.] In testimony of which I have fixed my seal. These being wit¬ 
 nesses, Ric. de Aynesagh, William son of Adam of Lyverpull, Robert de 
 Lydyate, Stephen le Walsh, Richard Tipping. The Wednesday before 
 the feast of St. Mary Magdelene. Forty-third Edward III.” 
 
 In the fourth year of the reign of Edward the Third, the prior and 
 monks of Birkenhead received from the king a confirmation of the grants 
 made to them in the previous reign ; and also a distinct grant of a right 
 of ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool. The following is a copy of this 
 deed:— 
 
 “ Edward, &c. Greeting.—We have inspected letters patent of the Lord 
 Edward, late King of England, our father, in these words (reciting the 
 grant of permission to build hospicia, of eleventh Edward the Second), 
 u 
 
146 
 
 And we tlie grant aforesaid holding firm and valid, the same for us and 
 our heirs, os much as in us lies, do grant and confirm, to the aforesaid 
 priory and convent, and their successors, as the letters aforesaid reasonably 
 witness. And being willing to do more ample favour unto those desirous, 
 for their advantage, to cross the water there, we have granted for us and 
 our heirs, to the aforesaid prior and convent, that they and their successors 
 for ever may have the passage beyond the said arm of the sea, as well for 
 men as for horses and other things whatsoever, and for the same passage 
 may receive (fees), without hindrance or impediment of us and our heirs, 
 or our ministers whomsoever, saving our right, and the right of any person 
 whomsoever. In testimony, &c. Witness the king at Woodstock, this 
 13tli day of April, 1331, by writ of privy seal.”* 
 
 In the Sixth of Edward the Third, 1333, the king granted to the town 
 of Liverpool an inspeximus and confirmation of the charters of King 
 John and King Henry the Third, but without in any way adding to, 
 diminishing, or varying the privileges granted by those charters. The 
 following is this confirmation. It was granted hy the king at York, on 
 his way to Scotland. The payment for it was 40s., equal to about £30 
 of our money :— 
 
 “ Charter of Confirmation by King Edward the Third, in the sixth 
 year of his reign, 1333.—Edward, by the grace of God, King of 
 England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitain, to the archbishops, 
 bishops, abbots, peers, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, reeves, ministers, 
 bailiffs, and all his faithful people, greeting. We have inspected a charter 
 of the Lord John, late King of England, our progenitor, in these words— 
 John, hy the Grace of God, &c. (See charter of King John, p. 81.) 
 We have also inspected a charter of the Lord Henry, late King of Eng¬ 
 land, our great grandfather, in these words—Henry, by the grace of God, 
 &c. (See charter of King Henry the Third, p. 90.) We, moreover, 
 holding firm and valid the grants and confirmations aforesaid, do for us 
 and our heirs, as much as in us is, grant and confirm them to the aforesaid 
 burgesses, and their heirs and successors, as the charters aforesaid do 
 reasonably testify, and as the same burgesses and their ancestors the 
 liberties aforesaid have hitherto reasonably used and enjoyed. These 
 being witnesses ; the venerable fathers W., Archbishop of York, Primate 
 of England, J., Bishop of Winchester, our Chancellor, John de Eltham, 
 Earl of Cornwall, our most dear brother, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, 
 
 Rolls of Chancer}’, 4th Edward Third. 
 
147 
 
 Henry de Beaumont, Henry de Percy, Ralph de Nevill, Steward of our 
 Household, and others. Given by our hand, at York, the 22nd of 
 January, in the sixth year of our reign (1333). By fine of 40s., equal to 
 £30—Pokell.* 
 
 Liverpool is mentioned twice in the pipe roll, or sheriffs account, of 
 the ninth of Edward the Third. The first mention of it is in connexion 
 with the freightage of two ships, for the purpose of carrying provisions to 
 the king’s forces at Skymburnesse, at the mouth of the Solway. The 
 second is in a report made by William Fox and William Aynolesdale 
 (probably one of the Blundells of Ince and Ainesdale), who had been 
 appointed commissioners of the king, to examine the silver coin then current 
 in the borough of Liverpool, with powers to fine all parties having base 
 or light money in their possession. They must have found a large quan¬ 
 tity of it, for the fines which they imposed in Liverpool, and paid into 
 the Exchequer amounted to 60s., equal to £45 of our money. It appears, 
 from several laws of this reign, that large quantities of base coin were in 
 circulation. Much of it is said to have been imported by the Flemish 
 merchants; but the great corruptor of the coinage was the King himself. 
 In the eighteenth year of his reign he reduced the quantity of pure silver 
 in 20s., or £1, from 4,995 grains to 4,933 grains ; in the twenty-third year 
 of his reign he again reduced it to 4,440 grains; and in the thirtieth he 
 reduced it once more to 3,996 grains, thus coining 25s. out of the quan¬ 
 tity of silver from which 20s. had been previously coined. He thus 
 defrauded his subjects in all immediate payments from the Exchequer, 
 and himself and his successors in the value of the fixed money rents, which 
 formed a great part of the royal revenue. 
 
 In the ninth year of the reign of Edward the Third, in the year 1335, 
 when the king had arrived at man’s estate, and was preparing to return 
 all the evil which he had received from the Scotch during his minority, 
 he issued the following order for the assembling of a squadron of ships in 
 the port of Liverpool. It is found among the records in the office of the 
 Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer, in the Exchequer, in the Originalia of the 
 ninth year of Edward the Tlnrd :— 
 
 “ Touching ships to be taken, and furnished with Men and other 
 necessaries, to be sent upon the Sea.—The King to the sheriffs, 
 mayors, bailiffs, masters of ships, mariners, and all other his ministers 
 and faithful people, as well within liberties as without, to whom, &c.. 
 
 * Municipal Inquiry. Appendix, 
 t M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, 224. 
 
148 
 
 greeting:—Whereas, we are given to understand that the Scots, our 
 enemies and rebels, who have risen against us in wax’, endeavour to 
 lead and draw together, by sea, men and arms and victuals from foreign 
 parts, to maintain the said war against us. We .willing, as it behoveth 
 us, to oppose, with our might, the malice of those our enemies, in this 
 respect, have assigned our dear and faithful Simon de Beltoft and Henry 
 de Kendall, jointly and severally, to provide, take, and arrest six ships of 
 war, of the larger and stronger ships, which may happen to be found on the 
 sea coast, towards the western parts, from the port of the town of Liver- 
 pol, and within the same port, unto the port of the town of Skymbur- 
 nesse; and to cause those ships to be furnished and prepared, as well with 
 mariners, as other fit and strong men, well and sufficiently armed by the 
 said Simon and Henry, or either of them, for this to be elected, in the 
 ports and places between the towns aforesaid, where he or they shall see 
 best to be done; as also with victuals and other things necessary for war, 
 which they may want, by the same Simon or Henry, or either of them, to 
 be taken for our monies, to those from whom the victuals and other 
 things shall happen to be taken to be paid, at our Exchequer, at certain 
 days, by the said Simon and Henry, or either of them, to be assigned; 
 and the said ships so furnished to send with all haste that may be, upon 
 the sea, to oppose and resist the ships of the parts of Scotland, and others 
 that shall be adhering to them. And therefore we command you, all and 
 singular, firmly enjoining that to the aforesaid Simon and Henry, and 
 either of them, you be attending, answering, consulting, and aiding, as 
 often and when the said Simon and Henry, or either of them, shall make 
 known to you, on our behalf. We give also to the same Simon and Henry, 
 and to either of them, by tenor of these presents, full power to arrest and 
 commit to our prisons, all those whom in the premises they or he shall 
 find contrary or rebels. We give likewise to you the afore-named sheriffs 
 and bailiffs in command, that those whom the said Simon or Henry, 
 or either of them, shall deliver to you, you shall receive, and them 
 cause to be safely and securely kept, until thereupon you shall have from 
 us in command. Witness the king at York, the 3rd day of June.” 
 
 In the eleventh year of Edward the Third, Earl Henry of Lancaster 
 confirmed his tenants in Liverpool, in the procession of their chartei’s or 
 leases. The following letter on this subject appears in the muniments of 
 the Crosses, of Crosse Hall:— 
 
 “ Henry Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, steward of England, to 
 Mons. William le Blunt, our Sheriff of Lancaster, greeting. We send 
 
149 
 
 you the charters of our tenantry of Liverpool, and we command you that 
 you cause them to be delivered, according to the form of our charters 
 aforesaid; and this letter should be your authority. Given at our castle 
 at Kenilworth, the tenth day of August, in the eleventh year. And 
 always be careful to take good security, that we receive the fines of in¬ 
 crease, that is to say, for each acre five marks, at the days fixed.” 
 
 In the eleventh of Edward the Third, 1335, and in the following 
 year, Pleas of the Forest were held in Lancashire before William Basset 
 and Robert de Hungerford, when a variety of delinquents were tried for 
 offences against the forest laws, committed in the forest of West Derby¬ 
 shire and the park of Toxtetli. The following are a few specimens of 
 these ancient game-law cases:— 
 
 It was presented by twelve jurors of the forest of Derbyshire, that 
 William de Ryding and Hugh his brother, Henry the son of Ranulf, 
 Richard de Acres, William de Hethe, and John de Spellowe, had broken 
 down the underwood, in the wood of Derby, near the forest, whilst 
 passing through it. 
 
 Gilbert de Haydok, Alan de Eltonhead, Richarde de Alvanleigh, 
 Verderers, and a jury consisting of Richard de Walton, Roger del More, 
 Adam le Clerk, Alexander Comyn, William de Barker, John Mariotson, 
 William, the son of Richard, William de Grenelf, Roger de Stone, Adam 
 the son of Simon, Roger Titup, John de Formby, and Adam the son of 
 Adam Edeston, made the following presentment, namely, that:—“ OnMon- 
 day, &c., Reginald de Yoxall entered the park of Toxteth, and there, in 
 a certain place which is called the Holly Hurst, concealed himself with 
 hushes and branches of trees, in order to deceive the wild animals grazing 
 there; that he shot at the deer, and killed two does, which he carried away 
 in the night.” 
 
 Another presentment was, that William Blundel, of Ince, and others 
 concealed themselves in Maghull wood, and took a doe with their dogs, 
 in the water of Alt, near Ingwath. 
 
 An immense number of other cases were tried. In one, Adam 
 de Houghton, knight, the master forester, was himself presented for 
 taking a stag and a doe, in the park of Toxteth; Henry de Dutton was 
 also presented for taking a doe in Toxteth Park, in the presence of the 
 steward of the forest; and Ranulf de Dacre, the parson of Prescot, and 
 Nicholas Penwortham, and others were presented, for breaking into the 
 park of Toxteth and taking a doe. The presentment further states that 
 Ranulf de Dacre and his companions were “common malefactors of 
 
150 
 
 the forest;” tlmt Robert de Barton, the priest, encouraged them in their 
 depredations, by entertaining them in his house in Smethedon subtus 
 Toxtath, and that Adam Itill also received and entertained them, at his 
 house in Aykbriglit (Aigburth). At these enquiries the verderers, or 
 keepers of the woods, were called on to give account of the timber cut 
 down in the earl’s woods, and the various uses to which it had been 
 applied; as, for instance, two oaks cut in the park of Croxteth, to repair 
 the mill del Atters; three oaks to repair the houses, in the Castle of 
 Liverpool; an oak given to John the hermit of Walton, to build his 
 hermitage; trees for the repair of the tenants’ houses, for mill-shafts, and 
 for many other purposes. 
 
 In the fifteenth year of Edward the Third, an inquiry took place at 
 Prescot, into a matter of much greater importance, that is, into the value 
 of all landed and personal property in the hundred of West Derby. The 
 object of this inquiry was to fix the amounts to be paid by the boroughs 
 of Liverpool and Wigan, and by the rural parishes, towards the Nonae, 
 or ninths of all personal property and all landed produce, which the 
 Parliament had granted to the king, to enable him to carry on Ins wars 
 with Scotland and France. The lord abbot of Furness presided at this 
 inquiry, supported by a number of learned associates, and assisted by a 
 jury composed of the following freeholders:—Adam de Rusheton, Robert 
 de Huyton, Robert de Hurleston, Robert de Molineux, John de Dyche- 
 field, Robert de Mossiton, William de Urmston, William de Holland, 
 William de Raynford, Richard de Bradeshagh of Pennyngton, Richard 
 de Parr, Robert de Blakebume, Richard de Ashton, Gilbert de Ines, John 
 Gosefordsith, William del Hethe, William de Riding, Richard de Byer- 
 lyes, Richard del Salford, William del Pemberton, Simon de Stotfold, 
 Thomas de Penrith, William de Norreys, Roger de Wynstonleigh, Gilbert 
 de Gosefordsith, Richard de Tingwall, Adam de Alcroft, Simon de Holland, 
 Richard de Wolstan, Henry de Downholland, Richard de Bradshaw, of 
 Westleigh, William de Stonbrigleigh, Robert de Travis, John de Holland, 
 and Robert de Eaves. The above list seems to have included the repre¬ 
 sentatives of nearly every township in the neighbourhood. They reported 
 the Nonae, or ninths of the wapentake or hundred of West Derby to be of 
 the value of T293 2s. 4d., equal to T4396 15s. of modern money. Of this 
 sum T280 16s. 4d. was derived from the tax on corn, wool, and lambs, in 
 the rural districts of the hundred; and £12 5s. lid. from the ninths of the 
 goods of the burgesses of Liverpool and Wigan ; namely, £6 16s. 7d. from 
 the borough of Liverpool, and £5 9s. Id. from the borough of Wigan. 
 
151 
 
 The following valuations from other towns and cities will show how 
 humble a position Liverpool then occupied. Bristol, £244 8s. 9d.; 
 Gloucester, £60 Is. 9d.; Lincoln, £114 13s. 2d.; Beading, £20.; 
 Bridport, £12 3s. 4d. ; Ipswich, £49 10s. 4d. ; Droitwich, £44 10s.; 
 Winchester, £72 15s. 8d.; Southampton, £9.; Portsmouth, £8 6s.; 
 Scarborough, £27 6s. 8d.; Whitby, £15 10s. 4d.; Grimsby, £10 15s.; 
 Stafford, £5 3s. 7d.; Lichfield, £7 9s. 4d. ; Newcastle-under-Lyne, 
 5 marks; Oxford, £43 13s. 4d. ; Hereford, £40; Shrewsbury, £56 
 2s. lOd.; Bridgenorth, £16 10s.* 
 
 I have already mentioned in the introductory chapter to this work 
 that no manufactures of any importance existed in what are now the great 
 manufacturing districts of Lancashire, at the time when this return was 
 made. The return made from the hundreds of Salford and Blackburn, 
 which now supply manufactures and clothing to the population of half 
 the world, was, that there were no persons depending upon merchandise 
 in those hundreds, and none who were liable to pay the tax imposed on 
 persons engaged in trade. Wherever the woollen and linen manufac¬ 
 tures mentioned in the paveage grant to Liverpool, came from, it does 
 not seem to have been from what are now called the manufacturing 
 districts, unless it was from the West Biding of Yorkshire. The weavers 
 of York are mentioned as an incorporated body possessed of a royal 
 charter as early as the reign of Henry the Second; and in the reign of 
 Edward the Third a cloth-hall was established at Leeds, which still con¬ 
 tinues to be the great cloth mart of the north of England. The woollen 
 trade was also carried on to a great extent in the reign of Edward the 
 Third, at Lincoln, Norwich, Bristol, and in many parts of Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, Essex, Kent, as well as throughout the west of England. 
 Numerous laws were passed in this reign for the encouragement of 
 manufactures. Some of them were wise and useful, extending a liberal 
 hospitality, and conferring numerous privileges to the cloth-workers of 
 Flanders and other foreign countries, who were willing to settle in 
 England. Others were of a different character, attempting to force 
 manufactures by rendering it felony to export English wool, or to wear 
 foreign cloth, or even silks and furs. These laws, however, were not 
 observed, for the king was obliged to raise a large portion of his supplies 
 by borrowing money from the merchants of Flanders, and those of 
 Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Lucca, and Venice; and as he never possessed 
 
 * See Return in Nonte Rolls. 
 
152 
 
 the means of repaying them in money, his payments were generally 
 made in sacks of wool. The woollen manufactures of England con¬ 
 tinued steadily to increase during this reign, especially in the counties 
 which I have mentioned above. In those districts considerable quantities 
 of capital had already been accumulated by agriculture, commerce, and 
 retail trade; and fine breeds of sheep supplied abundance of the raw 
 material for the woollen manufacture, with little cost of carriage. As 
 I have already mentioned, the soil and climate of Lancashire have always 
 been unsuitable to the rearing of sheep; and it is partly owing to that 
 cause, partly to the want of capital in the north-western districts of 
 England, that manufactures took root so slowly in the district which 
 has become the workshop of the world since water power, steam, 
 and machinery have become the chief means of manufacturing pro¬ 
 duction. The precise time at which manufactures were established 
 in Lancashire cannot be ascertained; hut it was between the reign 
 of Edward the Third and Henry the Eighth. They scarcely existed 
 at the former time; whilst at the latter they were not merely established 
 hut flourishing. 
 
 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Edward the Third, the men of 
 Liverpool were summoned to appear before Bobert de Plessingliam, 
 William Lawrence, and Henry de Bickersteth, justices of the king, for 
 using weights and measures not agreeing with those lately established by 
 the king. They were fined 66s. 8d. for this offence; and the men of 
 Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster were fined in the same amount. All these 
 fines were afterwards returned, from which we may conclude that the 
 offence was not very serious. 
 
 At the siege of Calais, in the 21st year of Edward the Third, 1347, 
 nearly all the navy of England was assembled. One vessel, with six 
 mariners, was the contribution of Liverpool to a fleet of 700 ships and 
 14,457 mariners.* 
 
 Henry the First, Earl of Lancaster, died in the twentieth year of 
 Edward the Third, 1346, and was succeeded by his son Henry, named 
 Grismond, from the place of his birth, who was afterwards raised to the rank 
 of Duke of Lancaster. He was the second Englishman on whom the title 
 of duke was conferred. He was also one of the original knights of the 
 garter; and held the estates of the six earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester, 
 Lincoln, Grismond, de Ferrers, and de Warenne. 
 
 Kaye’s Stranger in Liverpool, p. 15. 
 
153 
 
 The inquisition post mortem, held on the death of the first Earl 
 Henry was very vague and general, but a return of the bailiffs of the 
 second Earl Henry, made two years after, contains much valuable infor¬ 
 mation, and amongst it the following curious account of the borough and 
 fee-farm of Liverpool:— 
 
 “ Lyverpoll.—The bailiffs there answer for Id. of rent from the 
 bui’gesses of the town of Lyverpoll, for twelve acres of turbary, on the 
 moss, in exchange for a piece of ground enclosed within the park, by 
 charter of Thomas, late Earl. And of 6s. 8d. of John de Wamburgh, 
 and heirs of his body, by deed of Earl Henry, father of the present lord, 
 for three parts of one burgage, and five sellions of land, which came into 
 possession of our lord by death of John Le Botiller, an illegitimate. 
 And of 4s. of rent for the third part of a burgage called Long Stable, 
 before the gate of the castle ; besides one burgage, in the hand of 
 Dyonisius Kelynge, held by service of finding stabling for twelve horses, 
 on every visit of the lord within the said borough. And of .£8 4s. lOfd. 
 of rent for one hundred and sixty-four burgages, three parts, the eighth 
 part, and the forty-eighth part of a burgage, in the same town of 
 Liverpool, as appears in the rentaly. And of 14d. which was fixed by 
 computation as the rent of one burgage, an eighth part, and a sixteenth 
 part of a burgage, in the rentaly of the burgages. And of 4d. of increase 
 of rent of William de Lyverpoll, clerk, for the half of a burgage, formerly 
 belonging to Henry, the son of John le Walker. And of 18d. of the 
 rent of John Bacon, for a cottage, on the fosse of the castle, held at will, 
 as appears by the new rentaly. And of 68s. 6d. rent of forty acres of land 
 on Saltousmore, as in the new rentaly. Sum total of land and buildings, 
 £12 7s. lfd,”—equal in money of the present day to £185 7s. 2|d, 
 From Farm of tolls, stallage, markets, and fairs of the town of Liverpool, 
 ferry boat, one horse mill, and two windmills, let to John, the son of 
 William de Mor, £26,” equal to £390. From Farm of Richard de Walton, 
 for herbage and fruit of the garden, and produce of the dovecote, 16s. 
 From herbage of the castle trench, 2s. From fines of ingress, from 
 perquisites of the court, from perquisites of the Tortmoot Court, from 
 wreck of the sea and things cast on shore, and from fishery of the 
 Mersey, 15s. From which 4s. are paid to Benedict le Stedman, of 
 annual rent of a certain tenement, which Earl Henry, the father of the 
 present lord, remitted to the said Benedict for the term of his life, for his 
 services; and which the present Earl confirmed and ratified for the whole 
 term of the life of the said Benedict." 
 
 x 
 
154 
 
 The following is another account of the above payments, from the 
 return of the earl's ministers :— 
 
 “ Lytherpole.—The charge of the ministers upon the lands of the 
 lord the Earl of Lancaster, upon their account, in the twenty-second year 
 of the reign of King Edward the Third, after the Conquest. County of 
 Lancaster. For the farm of tolls, stallage, markets, fairs of the town of 
 Lytherpole, the passage boat, one-horse mill, two windmills, so let to 
 John, son of William de More, at the terms of the Annunciation and 
 St. Michael, T26. For the farm of Richard de Walton, for the herbage 
 and fruit of the garden and issues of the dovecote, for the term of eight 
 years, this being the first year, 16s.; at the terms of Easter and Michael¬ 
 mas for the farm of the herbage and fosse of the castle, 2s., with 15s. of 
 fines of increase, perquisites of courts, customs, anchorage, &c.” 
 
 It appears from the Close Rolls in the Duchy Office, No. 52, that 
 Duke Henry granted a pension of 20s. a-year (equal to £15 of our 
 money) for life to William de Lyverpull, for the good and agreeable 
 service which he had rendered, and was expected to render. The order 
 granting this pension is tested at the castle of Liverpool, in the ninth 
 year of his dukedom. 
 
 Shortly after he let the house in Castle-street, previously held by 
 Benedict le Stedman, to Richard de Aynesargh, for life:— 
 
 “For Richard de Aynesargh.—The duke to all to whom, &c., greeting: 
 Know ye that we have given and granted for us and our heirs as much as 
 in us is to Richard de Aynesargh, of Lyverpull, the same messuage with 
 the appurtenances, in Lyverpull, in the street which is called the Castle- 
 street, which Benedict le Stedman, late constable of our castle of 
 Lyverpull, held of the gift of Lord Henry, late Earl of Lancaster, our 
 father. To have and to hold to the same Richard, and the heirs of his 
 body lawfully begotten, of us and our heirs. Rendering therefor yearly 
 to us and our heirs 4s. of silver at the usual terms of the town aforesaid, 
 and doing to us and our heirs such other services for the same messuage 
 as the other tenants of the same town do for like messuages. And we and 
 our heirs will warrant, acquit, and defend the said messuage to the before 
 named Richard, and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten, as is afore¬ 
 said, against all men. In testimony whereof, &c.. Witness Henry de 
 Walton, archdeacon of Richmond, lieutenant to the duke in the duchy 
 aforesaid, the 8th day of March.” 
 
 A house occupied by the constable or governor of the castle, would 
 no doubt be one of the best in the town. The rent of 4s. of Edward the 
 
155 
 
 Third’s time is equal to T3 of our money. The highest rent for a private 
 house mentioned in the Calendar of the Close Rolls, is 20s., or T15 a 
 year, paid for a house in Stonegate, York. At that time York was the 
 second city in the kingdom. 
 
 It appears from the Statute of Labourers, passed in the year 1350, 
 25th Edward the Third, that the farm labourers in the counties of Lan¬ 
 caster, Stafford, and Derby, in Craven in Yorkshire, and in the marches 
 of Wales and Scotland, were in the habit at this time of rambling through 
 the country in time of harvest, to assist in cutting and securing the grain 
 of the better cultivated parts of the kingdom, much as the Irish harvest- 
 men do at the present time. This practice having been found convenient 
 was allowed to be continued, by a special exemption in the Statute of 
 Labourers, although no other kinds of labourers were allowed to work in 
 summer out of the townships in which they lived in winter. 
 
 In the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, 1351, Earl Henry of 
 Lancaster, granted the office of constable, or keeper of the Castle of 
 Liverpool, to John Baret, with a salary of ten marks, equal to about T100 
 of our money. Three years afterwards he granted to him a messuage 
 and six ridges of land, which had come into his hands as an escheat or 
 forfeit, by the death of John le Butler, with twenty acres of moss, in the 
 park of Toxteth, joining upon the moss of Liverpool. 
 
 In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Edward the Third, 1354, 
 the prior of Birkenhead was summoned by the Earl of Chester (Edward, 
 the Black Prince, the king’s eldest son), to give account of the right 
 by which he held the ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool, with various 
 other privileges belonging to the priory. As valuable rights still exist 
 depending on the evidence furnished on this inquiry, and as it shows not 
 only what was claimed by the priors of Birkenhead but what was not 
 claimed, I think it well to give the proceedings at length:— 
 
 “ Pleadings in a Plea of Quo Warranto, (extracted from the 
 Roll of Pleas of the county of Chester, remaining in the exchequer 
 of Chester, of the twenty-seventh year of Edward III.) [A.D. 1354.] 
 The prior of Birkehead was summoned to answer the lord the earl 
 concerning a plea, by what warrant he claims to dig turves and to 
 have common of pasture in the townships [vills] of Budeston, Morton, 
 and Salghan, for himself and his men and tenants, for all their cattle ; 
 and within the bounds of the manor of Claghton, to wit, from the 
 boundary of the township [vill] of Oxton, to the edge of the water of 
 Mersee, on his own proper soil, to make all kinds of fisheries [fishing 
 
156 
 
 places] ; and in his said soil to receive all sorts of profits, except royal 
 wreck ; and to have small boats, as well in his aforesaid part of the water 
 of Mersee as in his own proper soil, to wit, to fish, and to carry and to 
 receive all other profits beyond the said water, to all manner of lands 
 being in the peace of our lord the king for the time being; and that he 
 and his men and tenants shall not be impleaded of any matter touching 
 the forest, unless they be found in the manour ; and that he and his men 
 and tenants may be quit of receiving and feeding all manner of servants, 
 except six foresters, without horse and without all other suit, when the 
 turn of feeding them shall come. And to have the ferry [passage] over 
 the water of Mersee for all things, and for that ferry [passage] to receive 
 as shall be just; and in the place of the ferry [passage] on his own proper 
 soil to erect and have sufficient houses, and that the men dwelling 
 in those houses may have all sorts of victuals, and may buy and sell them 
 without the hindrance of any one; and that he and his successors and 
 their men and tenants may be quit of all suit at the hundred of Willaston; 
 and that he and his successors may have their free court twice in the 
 year, for the correcting of all their tenants, to wit, the assize of bread and 
 beer, and all manner of forfeiture of bylagh ; and to have furze and fern, 
 and common of pasture for all their cattle in the township [vill] of 
 Tranemoll [Tranmere] at all times of the year. And the aforesaid prior 
 comes, and as to his first claim, to wit, to dig turves and have common of 
 pasture, he says that in what respect soever he claims those liberties by 
 name, it is nevertheless free tenement, and does not fall within the claim 
 of a liberty ; wherefore he has no need at present to show warrant thereof. 
 Therefore it was considered by the judges that the aforesaid prior, as to 
 this, may go thence without day.* And as to the holding his free court, 
 he says, that he has divers tenants who owe suit to his court of Claughton, 
 according as is granted of common right; wherefore it does not fall within 
 the claim of liberties. Therefore it was considered by the judges that the 
 aforesaid prior as to this may go thereupon, without day. And as to the 
 assize of bread and beer, and all kind of forfeiture of bylagh, he disclaims 
 it altogether in the same liberty; therefore let that liberty be taken into 
 the hand of our lord the earl, so that the tenants of the same prior con¬ 
 cerning the rest may be in attendance at the turn of the sheriff in the 
 hundred of Willaston [Wirrall] of our lord the earl. And the aforesaid 
 prior as to this is in mercy. And as to this that he claims above to have 
 
 * Without any day being fixed for further inquiry into the matter. 
 
157 
 
 fisheries from the boundary of the manor of Claghton as aforesaid ; and 
 as to this which he claims above that he and his men and tenants may 
 not he impleaded of anything touching the forest, unless found in the 
 manour; and as to this which he claims to have furze and fem, and 
 common of pasture, in the township [vill] of Tranemoll; all those things 
 touch the forest of our lord the Earl, of Wirhale, therefore let nothing 
 he done thereupon at the present, but they are respited until, &c. plea of 
 the forest there. And as to the liberties of feeding servants, and so forth, 
 he says that he has divers lands and tenements in Wirhale, and that the 
 Lord Ranulf, formerly Earl of Chester, by his charter granted to all free 
 men and tenants, and those having lands in that part, that they and their 
 heirs for ever should be quit from receiving and feeding all servants, except 
 six foresters only, without any horses, and without any other suit. And 
 he brings here the charter which witnesseth the same. And as to the 
 other liberty, to wit, the being quit of suit at the hundred of Wilaston 
 [Wirrall], he says, that a certain Ranulf, formerly Earl of Chester, by his 
 charter granted to the prior of Birkhead who then was, and to the monks 
 there, that they and their free men should be free and quit of suit at the 
 hundred aforesaid, and of eight pence, which to the sheriff of the same 
 hundred they were used to pay. And he brings here the charter which 
 witnesseth this same, and by that warrant he claims that liberty, to wit, 
 for himself and his men, to wit, his tenants at will, &c. And as to the 
 aforesaid ferry [passage] and the building of houses to he made at the 
 place of the ferry [passage], he says, that the Lord Edward, formerly 
 King of England, the father of our lord the now king, by his letters 
 patent, granted and gave license, for himself and his heirs, to the prior of 
 Birkhead who then was (he being the) predecessor of the now prior, and 
 to the convent of the same place, that they, in their own grounds at 
 Birkhead, at the place of the ferry [passage], from the town of Lyverpol, 
 in the county of Lancaster, to the priory of Birkhead, in the county of 
 Chester, and from the same priory even unto the aforesaid town, across 
 the arm of the sea, (which ferry, indeed, was before that held common,) 
 or near to the same ferry accordingly as might more conveniently be done, 
 they might build sufficient houses for such entertaining, and might hold 
 the houses so constructed, and that men abiding in those houses might 
 buy victuals for the support of people .about to pass over at that place, 
 and might sell the same without any let of him our lord the king, or his 
 heirs, or any other persons whatsoever, which letters patent, indeed, our 
 lord the king, now inspecting, has ratified and confirmed the same by his 
 
158 
 
 letters patent. And moreover he granted to the same prior and convent 
 then being, that they and their successors should for ever have in that 
 place a ferry over the said arm of the sea, as well for men as for horses, 
 and other and whatsoever things ; and receive for that [passage] according 
 as might reasonably be done. And he brings here the letters patent of our 
 aforesaid lord the now king which testify the premises, the date of which is 
 at Wodestock, the 13th day of April, in the fourth year of his reign. 
 And by that warrant he claims that liberty. And William Braas, who 
 sues for our lord the earl, prays that the aforesaid prior may show and 
 declare to the court, &c., what and what kind of profits he claims by 
 virtue of the aforesaid ferry,—Who says that he claims for a man and 
 horse, laden or not laden, two-pence, and for a man on foot one farthing ; 
 and on the market day at Liverpool, to wit, on Saturday, for a man a half¬ 
 penny, and for a man and his baggage, on market day, one penny. And 
 the aforesaid William Braas says, that the aforesaid prior has taken the 
 aforesaid profits in excess, and after another mode than by right he ought 
 to do, and this he prays may be inquired of by the country. And the 
 aforesaid prior doth the like. Therefore it is commanded to the sheriff 
 that he cause to come hither at the next common twelve [jurors], &c., by 
 whom, &c., And who to the aforesaid prior have no, &c., To inquire 
 [recognize,] &c., Because as well, &c.” 
 
 From the form of the above proceedings, as well as from the fact 
 that Edward the Third had recently confirmed the rights which his son 
 appeared to question as Earl of Chester, it is not unlikely that the above 
 may have been one of those amicable suits which were raised for the pur¬ 
 pose of explaining and putting upon record the grounds on which rights 
 apparently questioned were claimed. It was necessary, in this case, for 
 the safety of the priory, to have legal sanction for the tolls collected for 
 ferrying passengers across the Mersey, as the demanding of unreasonable 
 tolls was at that time a ground for depriving parties demanding them of 
 the franchises under which they were claimed. The tolls claimed by the 
 prior and convent were quite high enough to give rise to dispute. The 
 2d. which was charged for a man and horse was equal to 2s. 6d. of our 
 money. The farthing charged for a foot passenger was equal to 4d. A 
 still more doubtful question was whether the raising of the ferry to £d., or 
 8d. for a man, and Id. or 15d. for a man with his baggage, on the market 
 day of Liverpool, did not savour of extortion. There is no evidence that 
 William Braas ever carried this part of the question any further, or that 
 it was ever raised by any one else. If the tolls were somewhat unreason- 
 
159 
 
 able at that time they gradually became very reasonable, as the silver 
 coinage was reduced in value by Edward the Third and his successors, and 
 as the value of silver decreased, after the discovery of the American mines. 
 Whatever the ferry may have been in the days of Edward the Third, Bir¬ 
 kenhead is one of the cheapest ferries in the world, in the reign of Queen 
 Victoria. 
 
 The first mention of the Mayor of Liverpool occurs in this reign. It 
 is contained in a letter from the king, bearing date the 19th of May, 1356, 
 thirtieth Edward Third, authorising Richard de Aynesargh, “Mayor of 
 the town of Liverpool,” to acquire TlO of land belonging to the Duke of 
 Lancaster, and to give and assign the said land (notwithstanding the 
 statute of Mortmain,) to perform divine service, every day, for the souls 
 of the faithful deceased, in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary and 
 St. Nicholas at Liverpool.* The title of Mayor thus given to the chief 
 officer of Liverpool by the king is also used by the Bishop of Lichfield 
 and Coventry, in a letter addressed “ to the Mayor and Commonalty” of 
 Liverpool, in which he authorizes the dedication of the Chapel and Ceme¬ 
 tery of St. Nicholas, in Liverpool, in the year 13Gl.t In the year 1358 
 the Duke of Lancaster, in the seventh year of his dukedom, in a deed, 
 dated Preston, 21st April, also for a fine of forty shillings, granted to the 
 “ Mayor, Bailiffs, and good men of the town of Lyverpoll,” that they 
 should be empowered to take and receive certain rates for the two years 
 next following, in aid of the paving of the said town. The title of Mayor 
 of Liverpool was thus recognized by regal, ducal, and episcopal authority, 
 and has continued in use ever since. 
 
 The letter of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, referred to in 
 the above passage, was a permission granted by that bishop to consecrate 
 a cemetery within the town of Liverpool. Liverpool was at that time 
 suffering from the ravages of a dreadful disease, which had swept over 
 the whole of Asia and Europe, like the cholera of modern times, 
 destroying an innumerable quantity of the people, and involving whole 
 nations in grief and terror. On the first appearance of this dreadful 
 disease, which took place in the year 1348, nearly one-half of the 
 population of London is supposed to have perished; and it was many 
 years before it disappeared entirely. It raged so dreadfully in Liverpool 
 about the year 1361, that the inhabitants had neither heart nor strength 
 to remove the dead to the ancient burial place at Walton, which is about 
 
 * Patent Rolls, 35th Edward the Third. 
 
 + Ecclesiastical Register, Lichfield, Lib. v., 44-45. 
 
160 
 
 three miles distance from the town. They therefore used the good offices 
 of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, one of the sons of Edward the Third, who 
 had passed through Liverpool on his way either to or from Ireland, to 
 obtain permission to form a cemetery around the chapel of St. Nicholas. 
 This permission was granted, and the place is still used for that purpose. 
 It was either during this or some similar visitation that a piece of ground 
 was used as a cemetery outside of the town, on what was then the 
 road to Everton. The lane adjoining to it received and long retained 
 the name of Sickman’s-lane. In modern times, Addison-street has been 
 built on the site. 
 
 On the 24th of March, in the year 1354, the thirty-first of Edward 
 the Third, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, leased the fee-farm of Liverpool 
 for ten years to the following parties. William the son of Adam, of 
 Liverpull, John de More, of Liverpull, William de Liverpull Clericus, 
 Alexander Cumming, William de Grenelf, Bichard de Aynesargli, Adam the 
 son of Richard, of Liverpool, and Robert the son of Thomas, of Liverpool. 
 They were the chief persons in the town, and probably acted for all the 
 burgesses. The deed mentions as the things devised by the duke, the fol¬ 
 lowing :—The town of Liverpool, with its appurtenances; all the mills, the 
 rents, and the farm of the said town; the ferry of the river Mersey; the 
 perquisites of the Court; any parcels of turbary below the park of Toxtetli 
 which had come into the duke’s hands, by the death of the preceding tenants; 
 
 ALL FINES ARISING FROM BREACHES OF THE LAWS REGULATING THE ASSIZE 
 OF BREAD AND BEER, AND THE PUNISHING OF FORESTALLERS ; with all 
 other profits arising in the said town ; reserving only to the duke the 
 orchard below the castle, the herbage of the fosse of the same castle, waifs 
 and strays, and the forfeiture of the lands and goods of fugitives and felons. 
 The rent to be fifty marks a year, equal to about 42500 of our modern 
 money. The lease also states, that the duke wills and concedes that no 
 one belonging to the same town shall be summoned before any county or 
 wapentake court for any debt, breach of agreement, or other personal 
 matter, arising during the course of the said lease. It also provides that 
 the said tenants shall repair the mills at their own expense, taking suffi¬ 
 cient timber from the duke’s parks of Croxteth and Toxteth, and his wood 
 of Simonswood, in the presence of the duke’s foresters. This deed is 
 witnessed by Henry de Walton, archdeacon of Richmond, locum tenens 
 of the duke, in the duchy aforesaid, at Lancaster, on the 24th of March, 
 in the thirty-second year of the reign of Edward the Third. 1357.* 
 
 * Close Roll of Henry Duke o-f Lancaster, No. 3. 
 
161 
 
 At the time when the above lease was granted, and for many ages 
 before and after its date, the several classes of retailers in Liverpool and 
 all other towns were compelled to sell the articles which they dealt in, 
 at prices fixed by Act of Parliament, under penalty of heavy fines, or in 
 case of repeated offences, of being put into the pillory, or being ridden 
 round the town on a tumbrel or dung cart. Still heavier penalties were 
 awarded against forestallers, by which term was meant all persons who 
 bought up grain and other articles, with a view of selling them again 
 at higher prices. Amongst retail tradesmen bakers and brewers were 
 objects of especial jealousy, and it will be seen that the duke’s lessees 
 under the above lease were entitled to the fines paid by them, for all offences 
 against the assize or regulation for the sale of bread and beer. The 
 original assize of bread, made by King John, with the common council 
 of his barons,* was that every baker should put his seal or mark upon his 
 bread, and should be allowed to have a profit of 3d. or 4d., equal to 3s. 9d. 
 and 5s. of modern money, on every quarter of wheat made into bread, 
 together with the bran. A much more formal statute was passed in the 
 fifty-first year of the reign of Henry the Third, and continued in force for 
 many ages; and this was the law which the duke’s lessees had to enforce.f 
 It is stated, in the preamble of the act, that the king’s bakers have 
 proved that a profit of 4d. per quarter, equal to 5s. of our money, together 
 with the bran, and two loaves, is sufficient for the baker. The expenses 
 of baking are said to be l^d., equal to about Is. 10d. of our money, for 
 wages of three servants ; Jd., equal to 7jd., for two lads ; |d. for salt; 
 £d. for kneading; Jd. for candle; 2d. for wood; and ^d. for bultel or 
 boulting. This proper amount of profit was supposed to be secured, and 
 any greater profit to be prevented, by a sliding scale, which regulated the 
 number of pounds and ounces of bread which were to be sold for jd. of 
 the money of that day, or about 4d. of our money, according to the rise 
 or fall in the price of wheat. Thus it was provided, that when the price 
 of wheat was Is. a quarter, equal to about 15s. of our money, Jd., or as 
 we should say 4d., should buy 6* lbs. of very good bread, called wastel 
 bread, “ white and well baked," or twice that weight of bread of treet, 
 that is of the coarsest kind of bread in general use ; that when -wheat 
 sold at Gs. per quarter, equal to 90s. of our money, ^d., or 4d. of 
 modern money, should buy ljlb of wastel bread, or twice that weight 
 of treet; and that when wheat sold for the enormous price of 12s., or as 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 3. + Statutes at Large, i., 33. 
 
 Y 
 
162 
 
 we Bliould say of 180s. per quarter, |-d., or 4d. modern, should buy 
 rather more than ^lb. of wastel bread, and a little more than lib. of 
 treet. It is difficult to tell what was the average price of an article 
 which fluctuated so greatly. In the Statute of Labourers, passed in the 
 reign of Edward the Third, 6s. 8d. per quarter i3 the price at which 
 labourers are required to receive wheat. That is also the price at which 
 English wheat was allowed to be exported, by a law of Henry the Sixth; and 
 at which foreign wheat was allowed to be imported, by a law of Edward 
 the Fourth. After all the tampering with the coinage, 6s. 8d. was at least 
 equal to from 70s. to 80s. a quarter of modern money. The law against 
 forestallers might have been passed for the express purpose of preventing 
 the storing of grain in cheap years for use in years of scarcity; for it de¬ 
 nounced the forestaller, “ who buys up cheap to sell dear,” as the common 
 enemy of the whole people, and subjected him to fine for the first offence, to 
 the pillory and tumbrel for the second, and to expulsion from the town for 
 the third. With such laws of course no one would venture to deal in 
 grain, except the farmers who grew it, and the actual consumers. 
 This probably is one reason why prices sank so low in abundant 
 years, and why they rose so high in dear ones. The want of 
 roads, and other means of communication between different parts of 
 the kingdom, was another. With regard to the bakers, they then 
 carried on their trade amidst many perils, for if it was found that their 
 loaves were deficient, even to the extent of one or two per cent., they were 
 liable to be fined at the discretion of the judge of the court; and if they 
 were deficient more than one or two per cent., they were to be put in the 
 pillory, and not let off for any amount of fine. With regard to brewers, 
 it was provided that they should sell two gallons of beer or ale for Id., 
 that is to say for about 15d., in towns and cities, and three gallons in the 
 country, when barley was selling for 2s., or about 30s. a quarter of our 
 money, and other grain in proportion. They were also subject to the 
 same penalties as the bakers, for breach of these laws. Similar laws were 
 afterwards passed with regard to butchers, wine dealers, tanners, and other 
 tradesmen, with heavy penalties attached to any breach of them. This 
 will be seen from subsequent leases. These were the laws which the 
 lessees of the Duke of Lancaster’s rights were authorised to enforce in 
 Liverpool by the above lease; as they were enforced in all other parts of 
 England, for many ages. 
 
 Henry, the first Duke of Lancaster, died on the 24th of March, 
 1361, (in the thirty-fifth of Edward the Third,) leaving two daughters, 
 
163 
 
 Matilda and Blanche.* The former died childless, soon after her father. 
 The younger married the celebrated John of Gaunt, who then bore 
 the title of the Earl of Richmond, the fourth son of King Edward the 
 Third. He was afterwards raised to the rank of Duke of Lancaster. 
 By this marriage the immense estates of the house of Lancaster were 
 still further increased by the addition of those of the earldom of Rich¬ 
 mond, which then included the rich and flourishing town of Boston, in 
 Lincolnshire, and many other valuable estates in various parts of the 
 kingdom. By this marriage two branches of the house of Plantagenet, 
 one descending from Edward the Third, the other from Henry the Third, 
 were united; and the power of the great house of Lancaster was rendered 
 still more formidable. 
 
 During the latter part of the reign of Edward the Third, Ireland, 
 which had never yielded more than a nominal obedience to the kings of 
 England, was violently agitated by civil war and insurrection. The 
 English party was at that time confined to Dublin, Waterford, Drogheda, 
 Cork, and a few other cities and towns, with the districts immediately 
 around them. Five-sixths of the country was governed by native chieftains, 
 who acknowledged the kings of England as their superior lords, just as 
 the highland chiefs acknowledged the kings of Scotland to be theirs, but 
 who acted as little kings in their own territories, and whenever they could 
 agree amongst themselves (which was not often), threatened to drive the 
 English out of the island. Several times during the latter part of this reign 
 affairs became so alarming in Ireland, that it was necessary to send over 
 governors of superior rank and influence to defend the English interest. 
 On all these occasions fleets were ordered to assemble at Liverpool, 
 to convey them and their attendants and forces across the channel. 
 The first of these viceroys was Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Earl of 
 Ulster, the third son of the king; another viceroy was William of 
 Windsor. The following is the order respecting the sailing of the Duke 
 of Clarence:— 
 
 “ The king to the justice, chancellor, treasurer, and others of our 
 council in the land of Ireland, greeting:—Recalling to memory how our 
 Irish enemies and rebels, and others, have in great manner destroyed 
 our faithful subjects of the land aforesaid, and have wasted their lands 
 and places, and cease not daily to commit such evil and wicked acts, 
 
 * The inquisition, post mortem , was very general. The Jurors say only:—“ The afore¬ 
 said duke was possessed of the Castle of Liverpool, the Manors of West Derby and 
 Salford, with the members and appurtenances which are of the honour of Tut.burie.” 
 
164 
 
 and in process of time much greater are dreaded to be done unless their 
 wickedness he soon restrained: We, for the cause aforesaid, have 
 determined to send our most dear son Lionel, earl of Ulster, with a 
 competent armed force, to the land aforesaid; And for the comfort and 
 solace of our adherents and faithful supporters in the said land, we have 
 resolved to send beforehand our beloved clerk, Thomas de Baddely, on 
 whose faithfulness and circumspection we can depend, to announce to 
 you and them the news of the coming of our said son, and to excite, and 
 on our behalf to lay the charge on you, that the whole navy of the land 
 aforesaid, competently armed, shall be sent with all speed to the ports of 
 Lytherpool and Chester, and other ports lying between (them), for the 
 passage of our said son to those parts, so that it he there seven days 
 before the feast St. Peter ad vincula next coming, at the latest; and to 
 ascertain for you, and to provide those things which for such his coming 
 you shall judge useful and necessary; and with all the dispatch in your 
 power to report to us, or to cause to he reported by some other, your 
 advice concerning all the premises ; and therefore we command you, that 
 to the said Thomas, in the doing and executing the premises, you he 
 attending, advising, and assisting, and communicating to him your advice 
 upon the said affairs, so that being thereof well advised, he may he able 
 to return to us in England, and relate what things you shall decree to be 
 so done, and that the same, our son (the Lord willing), may be able, more 
 happily and more advisedly, to depart to the land aforesaid. In testimony 
 whereof, &c. witness the king, at Westminster, the tenth day of May.”* 
 In the thirty-ninth of Edward Third, 1365-6, an order was issued 
 by the king to the mayors and bailiffs of the principal ports of the 
 kingdom, ordering them to seize all vessels of the burden of forty tons of 
 wine, and to send six of the larger and better-armed to join Roger de 
 Hegham, admiral of the fleet from the Thames westward. In this man¬ 
 date the mayor and bailiffs of Bristol and Southampton were each of 
 them ordered to furnish two ships; the bailiffs of Falmouth and Ply¬ 
 mouth, each one; the bailiffs of Great Yarmouth, two; the bailiffs of 
 Lynn, one ship; the mayor and bailiffs of Kingston-on-Hull, one ship ; 
 the mayor and bailiffs of Ravensere, one ship; the bailiffs of Hartle¬ 
 pool, one ship; the bailiffs of Scardeburgh, one ship; the mayor and 
 bailiffs of Newcastle-on-Tyne, one ship; the bailiffs of Little Yarmouth, 
 one ship; and the bailiffs of Ipswich, (Gippuceo,) one ship. A general 
 
 * Patent Roll, 35th Edward the Third. 
 
165 
 
 order to arrest ships and shipping was also addressed to the mayor and 
 sheriffs of London; to the mayor and bailiffs of Cicester, Lynn, and 
 Chester; and to the bailiffs of “ Shoreham, Newebiggyng, Whiteby, 
 Almath, Tynemuth, Weekworth, Eueldon, Baumburgh, Holy-iland ; 
 Tuedemuth, Blakeney, Dunwich, Kirkele, Orford, Goseford, Herewich, 
 Saltcotes, Grymeshy, Barton, Saltfleathy, St. Botulph, (Boston,) Talles- 
 bury, Ualflete, Gaynesburgh, Gilyngham, Porcestre, Lemyngton, Mel- 
 combe, Weymuth, Lynn, Bruggewater, Exon, (Exeter), Exmuth, Seton, 
 Sydemuth, Tengemuth, Falceston, Raculore, Cristchirche, Birkheved,* 
 Lyverpol, and Stonore.”t 
 
 The following is the last of a long series of orders to collect shipping 
 in the port of Liverpool issued during this reign :— 
 
 “ The king, to all and singular admirals, sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, 
 ministers, owners, masters, and mariners of ships, and other his faithful 
 subjects, to whom, &c. greeting, know ye that we have assigned our 
 beloved Simon Charwellen, clerk, and Walter de Eure, jointly and seve¬ 
 rally, to press, without delay, all ships of the burthen of twenty tons and 
 upwards to two hundred tons, in the port of Bristol, and in all ports and 
 places from thence to the port of the town of Liverpool, and to cause the 
 same to be brought to the said port of Liverpool, so that they be there 
 with all the dispatch possible, ready and equipped for the passage of our 
 beloved and faithful William de Wyndesore, governor and guardian of our 
 realm of Ireland, and of the men at arms and others about to depart in 
 our service in the retinue of the said William, at his wages and expences, 
 and there to remain for the preservation and defence of our aforesaid 
 realm, according to the order of the same William. And also to take and 
 arrest all those whom they shall find opposers or rebels to the said Simon 
 and Walter, or to either of them, in the execution of the premises, and to 
 commit them to our prison, there to remain until we shall cause to be 
 otherwise demanded of them. And therefore we command you, that to 
 the said Simon and Walter, and to each of them, in doing and executing 
 the premises, you be intendant, counselling and advising as often as they, 
 or either of them, shall make known to you, or either of you, on our 
 behalf. In witness,” &c4 
 
 It will be seen that Liverpool and Chester are spoken of as separate 
 ports in the first and second of the above royal orders, and that Liverpool 
 
 * This may have been to the prior of Birkenhead, or perhaps it is an error altogether. 
 There was not even a village there at that time. 
 
 + Scotch Rolls, 39th Edward the Third, m. 44, dors. 
 
 * Patent Rolls, 47th Edward the Third. 
 
166 
 
 is mentioned in tlie third, without any reference to Chester. Nothing 
 occurs in any of these royal orders which confirms the opinion that 
 Liverpool was in any way dependent upon Chester, in the earlier periods 
 of its history. The two ports belonged at that time to entirely different 
 jurisdictions : the one to the Duchy of Lancaster, the other to the Earl¬ 
 dom of Chester. The royal orders sent to Liverpool about this time 
 were always addressed either to the mayor or the bailiffs of the town of 
 Liverpool, and Liverpool is almost spoken of in the terms used with regard 
 to other independent ports. Thus, in the eleventh of Edward the Third 
 the bailiffs of Liverpool were ordered to take care that no rams of the 
 English breed were exported from Liverpool. In the thirty-sixth of 
 Edward the Third, two orders were received by the bailiffs of Liverpool, 
 commanding them to take care that no grain was sent out of the port. 
 No such order was sent to Chester on that occasion. In the thirty- 
 seventh of Edward the Third, the bailiffs of Liverpool were ordered to 
 take care that no horses were exported. In the thirty-eighth of Edward 
 the Third, an order was issued for seizing all ships between Southampton 
 and Furness, in Lancashire, and for taking them to the port of Liverpool, 
 thence to proceed to Ireland. In the same year the bailiffs of Liverpool 
 received orders to take care that no coined money was sent out of the 
 kingdom. In the forty-first of Edward the Third a royal order, respect¬ 
 ing the mints of the kingdom, was addressed to the mayor and bailiffs of 
 Liverpool, but no such order was sent to Chester. In the forty-second 
 of Edward the Third an order was issued for seizing on all ships and 
 sending them to the port of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster; and 
 in the forty-seventh of Edward the Third another order was issued for 
 seizing all ships in the port of Bristol, and in all ports between Bristol 
 and the port of Liverpool, and for conducting them to the port of 
 Liverpool. The above are only specimens of numerous orders which 
 still exist in the national records, all of which clearly show that Liverpool 
 was at that time perfectly independent of Chester. The only Earl of 
 Chester who possessed Liverpool subsequent to the granting of the 
 charters of King John and Henry the Third, by which it was made 
 a borough and a port, was Ranulf de Blundeville. It will be seen from 
 the deeds quoted in a previous chapter, that he obtained the borough by 
 grant from the king, not by inheritance; that he held it only for three 
 years ; and that at his death Liverpool passed into the hands of William 
 and Agnes de Ferrers, whilst the Earldom of Chester passed into the 
 hands of John the Scot. The connexion between Liverpool and Chester 
 
167 
 
 was an arrangement made in the time of the Tudors; probably for the 
 convenience of the farmers of the great customs : this I shall show in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 In the register of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, p. 50, b. forty- 
 sixth Edward Third, 1372-3, there appears a mandate addressed “to our 
 well-beloved clerk, Sir William de Hornby, receiver of the county of Lancas¬ 
 ter,” informing him that the Duke hath appointed his well-beloved esquire 
 William de Bradshagli, for the good and agreeable service which he hath 
 done, or shall do for time to come, " constable of our Castle of Liverpool 
 and keeper of our parks of Toxtat and Croxtat, and likewise of Svmonds- 
 wode, and of our forests, chases, warrens, and woods of West Derbyshire, 
 for the term of his life, taking for his fees and the good and safe keeping 
 of the same, 10 m. (equal to about £100) for the office of the said con¬ 
 stable, and 40s., £30, for the parks, and ordering the receiver to pay those 
 sums, in half-yearly payments, from the issues of the lordship of Liver¬ 
 pool. This order is given at the manor of the Savoy, the 17th day of 
 March, in the forty-sixth Edward Third, King of England, and thirty- 
 third King of France. 
 
 By the following deed of John of Gaunt, hearing date the 16th July, 
 1373, forty-seventh of Edward the Third, he grants to Eankyn d’lpres an 
 annuity out of the farm of the town of Liverpool for the term of his life. 
 This Eankyn of Ipres was a Fleming of high standing, who was a great 
 favourite of the Prince. John of Gaunt was dining at his house in London 
 on the day on which the mob rose and attacked his palace of the Savoy. 
 This occurred during the trial of John Wycliffe, who was openly patro¬ 
 nised by the great Duke of Lancaster. The following is the order 
 respecting Eankyn of Ipres. 
 
 Among the records of the duchy of Lancaster, in the register of John 
 Duke of Lancaster, fo. 22, b., it is thus contained:— 
 
 “ For Eankyn dTpres.—This indenture, made between our Lord John, 
 King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, of the one part, and 
 Eankyn dTpres, esquire, of the other, witnesseth : That the said Eankyn 
 is retained and dwelling with our said lord, for peace and for war, for the 
 term of his life, in manner following: that is to say, in time of peace the 
 said Eankyn will he at board at court in the manner as other esquires of 
 the household of our said lord; and for his fees in time of peace, our 
 said lord has given and granted to the said Eankyn 17 marks, 6s. 8d., 
 besides 100s., which he hath lately granted him, to he taken from the 
 issues of the manor of Skerton; so that our said lord wills that the 
 
168 
 
 said Rankyn should have find take, in time of peace, for the term of his 
 life, for the whole, 25 marks sterling, from the farm of the town of 
 Liverpol, by the hands of the receiver of our said lord in those parts 
 who at the time shall he, at the terms of St. Michael and Easter, by 
 equal portions. And during the war the said Rankyn shall he hound 
 to serve our said lord, and to travel in his affairs to what parts he 
 shall please; and he shall take for his fee for one year, in time of war, 
 twenty pounds sterling from the said farm, by the hands of the said 
 receiver, at the terms aforesaid, and such wages as other esquires of his 
 condition shall take. And our said lord wills and grants, that if the said 
 rent of 25 marks in time of peace, or the said T20 in time of war, be in 
 arrear in part or in whole, for one month after one of the terms aforesaid, 
 it shall be lawful for the said Rankyn, in the said town, or any part 
 thereof, to distrain, and the distresses to retain until full satisfaction he 
 made to him, together with the arearages, if any shall he due to him : and 
 he shall commence his year of war the day on which he shall remove 
 from his household towards our said lord, by his letters, which shall he 
 thereafter sent him; and thenceforth he shall take wages in coming and 
 returning, by reasonable journies, in manner as other esquires of his 
 condition shall take. And the said Rankyn shall have convenient 
 shipment for him and his people, horses, and other business as reason 
 shall demand; and in right of his horses of war, taken and lost in the 
 .service of our said lord; and also of prisoners and other profits of war, 
 by him or any of his people taken or gained our said lord shall do to 
 him as he shall do to other esquires of his condition. In testimony, &c. 
 Done at the Savoy, the sixteenth of July, &c., of England the 46th, 
 and of France the 33rd.” 
 
 The practice of retaining the services of men of influence connected 
 with foreign countries was very common at this period. John of Hainault 
 was in the service of King Edward the Third for many years, although 
 he afterwards passed over into that of the King of France. James von 
 Artaveldt, the famous brewer of Ghent, who governed Flanders for many 
 years with more than sovereign power, was also the close ally, and was 
 falsely charged with being the paid retainer, of the same king. Both 
 Edward the Third and his sons cultivated the alliance of the popular leaders 
 in Bruges, Ghent, Ipres, and others of the large commercial cities of 
 Flanders, as a means of directing their influence against the King of 
 France. At the time when John of Gaunt made Rankyn d’lpres the 
 above grant out of the revenues of Liverpool, he was engaged in a bold 
 
169 
 
 scheme for obtaining the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, -whilst the 
 government of France was not less resolutely bent on defeating an 
 enterprise which would have exposed France to be attacked by all the 
 forces of England on one side, and all those of Spain on the other. The 
 claim of John of Gaunt was founded on the fact of his having married, 
 as his second wife, the Lady Constance, the eldest daughter of Don 
 Pedro, the dethroned king of those countries, who had taken refuge at 
 Bordeaux with his two daughters. John of Gaunt married the elder, and 
 his brother, the Earl of Cambridge, afterwards created Duke of York, 
 married the younger. With the assistance of the Black Prince they 
 succeeded in restoring Don Pedro to the throne, after defeating his 
 rival, Henry de Trastamara, in a great battle fought at Nevarette, at 
 the foot of the Pyrenees. Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton, was knighted 
 for his valour in this battle. This success, however, was only transitory. 
 The English army returned to Bordeaux, after having gained a worthless 
 success, and after its leader, the Black Prince, had ruined his health, and 
 contracted a disease, which shortened his life, during the winter campaign 
 in the Pyrenees. Soon after Don Pedro had been restored by the English 
 army, he was dethroned and murdered by his half brother and rival, who 
 was supported by the French. After his death, John of Gaunt claimed the 
 throne of Castile and Leon, in right of his wife the Lady Constance; and 
 for many years he directed all his efforts to this object, and induced the 
 English people to incur great expenses in supporting his claims. He 
 ultimately failed in his main object, but succeeded in marrying one of his 
 daughters to the Prince of Asturias, so that his descendants ruled in Spain 
 as well as in England for many generations. His eldest son, Henry of 
 Bolingbroke, who sprang from his first marriage with Lady Blanche 
 Plantagenet, held no claim to the throne of Castile and Leon, and that 
 probably may be the reason why he directed his ambition to the seizing 
 of the crown of England, whilst his father was satisfied with attempting 
 to grasp the crown of Spain. 
 
 On the 18th of November, 1374, the forty-eighth of Edward the Third, 
 the duke confirmed a lease of the profits of the town of Liverpool for ten 
 years. In this deed, which is directed to William de Neofeld, seneschal of the 
 county of Lancaster, he states that he confirms the lease which William de 
 Neofeld had made to William the son of Adam of Liverpool, to Richard de 
 Aynesargh, to John de Hull, and John de Wolveton, of Liverpool, of all 
 the profits of the same, on the same terms and conditions as it had been 
 z 
 
170 
 
 Jet by him before, but on condition that they pay an increased rent 
 of two marks. The lease is as follows:— 
 
 “ 48 Edward Third, 1374. John, &c. To our well-beloved William 
 de Neofeld, our steward in the county of Lancaster, greeting: Whereas 
 we have understood that you have let to farm to William Fitz Adam, of 
 Liverpole, Richard de Aynesargh, John de Hull, and John de Wolveton, 
 of Liverpole, the town of Liverpole, with all the profits thereof, for the 
 term of ten years, by the same covenants and conditions that it hath 
 been let to farm by us heretofore, and that they shall pay for the same 
 town two marks increase more than it was accustomed to let to farm 
 before: We command you that the persons before named you suffer to 
 have at farm the said town, in and by the same manner that you have 
 let the same to them. And these, &c. Given at the Savoy, the 18th 
 day of November, the year the 48th.”* 
 
 In the Register of John Duke of Lancaster, pp. 65, 66, there 
 appears another order, appointing “ our well beloved Chevalier, Master 
 John Botiller, for the good and agreeable service which he hath done to 
 us, constable of our Castle of Liverpool, and keeper of our parks of Toxtat 
 and Croxtat and Symondeswode, in manner as our well-beloved esquire 
 Thomas de Haselden held them of our gift,” taking for his fees 10 m. as 
 governor of the castle, and 40s. for the parks, for the term of his life, 
 from the issues of the lordship of Liverpool. Given at the Castle of 
 Hertford, 10th December, forty-eighth Edward Third. 
 
 King Edward the Third died in the year 1377, after a brilliant reign 
 of fifty years, having survived his eldest son, the Black Prince, only one 
 year. He was succeeded hv his grandson, Richard the Second, then a 
 boy only eleven years of age. Five years after his accession to the throne, 
 the youthful king confirmed the charters of Liverpool. This confirmation 
 is remarkable for the evidence which it affords of the progress of society 
 and of public opinion. By the charter of Henry the Third it was 
 provided that no one should be allowed to carry on business in Liverpool 
 who was not a burgess of the town, without the permission of the burgesses. 
 When Richard the Second confirmed all the other rights granted by the 
 previous charters, he refused to confirm the burgesses in the possession 
 of this monopoly. It will be seen by the following deed of confirmation 
 that this clause was excepted (penitus excepta) in the confirmation :— 
 
 “ Charter of Confirmation, by King Richard the Second. Richard, 
 
 * John of Gaunt’s Register, p. 213 B., Duchy Office. 
 
171 
 
 by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, 
 to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, dukes, earls, barons, knights, 
 justices, sheriffs, reeves, bailiffs, ministers, and all other his faithful people, 
 greeting. We have inspected a charter of confirmation of the Lord 
 Edward, late King of England, our grandfather, to our beloved burgesses 
 of our town of Lyverpull, made in these words :—Edward, by the grace 
 of God, &c. [See charter of King Edward, p. 140, reciting the previous 
 charters of King John and Henry the Third]. And we also, the grants 
 and confirmations aforesaid, as well of our said grandfather as of others 
 of our progenitors, (the clause above expressed that no one, who is not 
 
 OF THE SAME GUILD, SHALL TRANSACT ANY MERCHANDIZE, UNLESS BY 
 CONSENT OF THE SAME BURGESSES, BEING WHOLLY EXCEPTED,) holding 
 firm and valid, do for us and our heirs, as much as in us is, according to 
 the tenor of the charters aforesaid, by our especial grace, accept, approve, 
 ratify, and to the aforesaid burgesses, and their heirs and successors, 
 burgesses of the borough aforesaid, by the tenor of these presents, do 
 grant and confirm the same, as by the charter aforesaid is reasonably 
 witnessed. Moreover, willing to do the same burgesses, and their 
 heirs and successors, more abundant grace, we have granted to them, 
 for us and our heirs, and by this our charter have confirmed, that 
 although they or their predecessors, burgesses of the borough afore¬ 
 said, shall not in any case have heretofore fully used any one or more 
 of the liberties or acquittances in the said charter contained, the same 
 burgesses notwithstanding, and their heirs and successors, burgesses of 
 the borough aforesaid, shall henceforward and for ever fully use and enjoy 
 the liberties and acquittances aforesaid, and every of them, except the 
 clause aforesaid, without let or impediment of us or our heirs, justices, 
 escheators, sheriffs, or other bailiffs or ministers whomsoever. These 
 being witnesses, the venerable fathers W., the confirmed elect of Canter¬ 
 bury, R., Bishop of London, and W., Bishop of Winchester; John, King 
 of Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of Bucking¬ 
 ham, our most dear uncles; Richard, Earl of Arundel, Thomas, Earl of 
 
 -; Richard, chancellor ; Hugh de Segrave, our treasurer; John de 
 
 Montacute, steward of our household, and others. Given by our hands 
 at Westminster, the 11th day of June. Symyngton.” 
 
 The refusal of the king to continue the monopoly of trade in the 
 hands of the burgesses shows that sounder views were beginning to 
 prevail as to the interests of towns and the rights of the subject. 
 
 Early in the reign of Richard the Second, the government had received 
 
172 
 
 a terrible lesson from the rising of the commons in all the southern parts 
 of the kingdom, a rising commonly known as Wat Tyler’s rebellion. At 
 that time villeinage, or forced servitude, was drawing to a close, the bonds 
 of the peasantry having been much weakened by the increase of the towns. 
 As I mentioned in a previous chapter, a twelve months’ undisputed 
 residence in a borough town gave the villein a right to his freedom. 
 Freedom to trade in fairs and markets (at which all the business of the 
 country was transacted) was one of the four demands made by the populace 
 when they rose in insurrection. Their chief demands were, first, the 
 total abolition of slavery for themselves and their children for ever; 
 second, the reduction of the rent of good land to 4d., or about 5s. of our 
 money, per acre ; third, full liberty of buying and selling, like other men, 
 in all fairs and markets; and fourthly, a general pardon for all past 
 offences. Nothing could be more reasonable than the first and third, or, 
 in most cases, than the fourth of these demands. Even the third was not 
 more unreasonable than that clause of the Statute of Labourers, which 
 had been passed a few years before, by which it was declared that no one 
 should demand higher wages than he had been accustomed to receive, 
 during the twenty years previous, under pain of being sent to gaol; or 
 than the laws by which parliament attempted to fix the prices of bread, 
 beer, wine, and innumerable other articles of general use. Wat Tyler’s 
 followers were no worse political economists than their masters. It 
 would have been strange if they had been better. 
 
 In the same year in which Richard the Second confirmed the charters 
 of Liverpool he or his ministers sent the following order to the mayor and 
 bailiffs of Liverpool, (through the Duke of Lancaster,) permitting grain 
 (wheat only excepted) to be exported to Wales, in return for supplies of 
 other kinds of food. This permission was given at a time when the 
 exporting of grain to foreign countries was prohibited. 
 
 Among the records preserved in the Duchy of Lancaster, that is to 
 say, in the Close Rolls of the fifth year of the reign of King Richard the 
 Second, No. 53, it is contained as follows :— 
 
 “ The king and duke to the mayor and bailiffs of our town of Liver¬ 
 pool, greeting: Know ye that we have received the royal mandate of our 
 lord the king of England and France, to us directed, in these words,— 
 
 ‘ Richard, by the grace of God, King of England and France, and 
 Lord of Ireland, to his most dear uncle John, King of Castile and Leon, 
 Duke of Lancaster, or his lieutenant in the duchy aforesaid, greeting. 
 Although lately we commanded you that in the several boroughs, market 
 
173 
 
 towns, and other places in the duchy aforesaid, where you should see most 
 expedient, you should cause it to he publicly proclaimed and prohibited 
 on our part, that any one, of whatever state or condition he might be, 
 should take, or cause to be taken, any kind of grain out of our kingdom 
 of England, to any foreign parts, under forfeiture of the same grain, or of 
 the value of the same, secretly or openly, without our special license, as by 
 the inspection of the rolls of our Chancery, to us it appears: We, how¬ 
 ever, with the advice of our Council, command you, that in the several 
 boroughs, towns, and places aforesaid, within the said duchy, you cause 
 to be proclaimed, that our several subjects and liegemen, who will buy 
 such grain, wheat only excepted, and take or carry the same to the parts 
 of Wales, for other victuals there to be bought and to be taken back 
 within the duchy aforesaid, for the sustenance of our liegemen, may take 
 and carry the same freely, and without any impediment, to the said parts 
 of Wales, and not to other foreign parts, our said mandate, to you 
 otherwise directed notwithstanding. Witness myself at Westminster, 
 the 17th day of February, in fifth year of our reign: And willing to 
 obey the same mandate in all things, as we are bound, we command 
 you that the royal mandate aforesaid you cause to be publicly pro¬ 
 claimed and executed in our said town, in all things as the same 
 mandate itself requires.—Witness the King and Duke of Lancaster, the 
 first day of March.” 
 
 In the age in which the above order was issued grain was seldom 
 allowed to be exported from England; but a few years afterwards, in the 
 year 1436, a law was passed by which it was allowed to be exported when 
 the price of wheat was below 6s. 8d., that is, from 70s. to 80s. of our 
 money, and barley was below 3s., or, as we should say, below 30s. 
 Agriculture was at this time excessively rude and unproductive. On the 
 Hawsted Manor farm, in Essex, the average produce of wheat, oats, and 
 barley per acre was only eight bushels ; that is, wheat six, barley twelve, 
 and oats five bushels per acre. This is not more than the fifth part of 
 the produce which is now yielded by land of average quality, fairly farmed. 
 
 In the thirteenth of Richard the Second, 1389, the barons of Dover 
 presented a petition to Parliament, praying that all travellers proceeding 
 to the Continent might be compelled to pass through the port of Dover, 
 as they had been previously compelled to do, by an act of Edward the 
 Third, under penalty of one year’s imprisonment. The pretence for this 
 strange demand was that the search of gold and silver, and other contra- 
 
174 
 
 band articles, could be more conveniently made at one port tlian at many. 
 The answer was as follows :— 
 
 “ The King wills that all travellers and all other people, except known 
 merchants, and also soldiers and people of arms, who will pass by sea 
 out of the kingdom, so pass to the ports of Dover, and Plymouth, and 
 no port besides, without special leave of the king himself; but that 
 those who will pass towards Ireland, pass by Liverpool, Chester, Bristol, 
 or elsewhere, where they please.”* 
 
 Although the intercourse between Liverpool and Ireland was thus 
 allowed to be continued, this port, in common with many others, was 
 greatly injured by the exclusive privilege of dealing in the staple products' 
 of the kingdom—-wool, hides, and lead—which was given to certain cities 
 and ports, under the laws respecting the holding of the Staple. 
 
 By a law of the twenty-seventh Edward the Third it was provided that 
 the Staples (or great markets for the sale of staple articles) should be held 
 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Exeter, and 
 Bristol; at Carnarvon, in Wales; at Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and 
 Drogheda ; “ and no where else;” and that the shipping places for staple 
 articles should be Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull, Boston, Great Yarmouth, 
 London, Sandwich, and Southampton. When this law was passed, and 
 for some time after, all other places were excluded from the export trade 
 of the kingdom; and though the law was afterwards relaxed, the places 
 where the staple was fixed were allowed to retain many privileges which, 
 joined to their great natural advantages, gave them a practical monopoly 
 of the foreign trade of the kingdom. 
 
 In the seventeenth year of the reign of Bichard the Second, John of 
 Gaunt granted another lease of the fee farm of Liverpool to the following 
 persons:—Thomas de la More, Bobert de Derby, Bicliard de Hulme, and 
 William de Baby. In this lease, amongst the articles mentioned as let 
 to the lessees are “ the whole toll (totum theolonium) as it hath been 
 anciently accustomed to be taken.” This theolonium was the toll paid by 
 strangers, that is to say, by non-burgesses, from which the burgesses 
 themselves were free by the charter of Henry the Third. Another article 
 included in the lease was the fines on butchers and tanners, as well as 
 those to which I have previously referred, on bakers and brewers. The 
 lessees of the duke were also entitled, under this lease, to the correction 
 
 * Petitions to Parliament, 13th Richard the Second, a. d. 1389, No. 7. 
 
175 
 
 of all workmen dwelling in the said town or hereafter coming there ; that 
 is to say, they were entitled to the fines imposed by the Statute of Labourers 
 on all persons who dared to pay or attempted to obtain a greater rate of 
 wages than had been paid previous to the passing of that statute. This 
 lease also freed the burgesses from the obligation of serving on county 
 juries. The words of the lease are as follows :— 
 
 “John, son of the King of the English, Duke of Aquitaine and Lan¬ 
 caster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Seneschal of England, 
 to all to whom these present letters shall come, greeting. Know ye that 
 we have granted and let to farm to Thomas de la More, of Liverpull, 
 Robert de Derby, Richard de Hulme, and William de Raby, our town of 
 Liverpull, with the common pasture lying between our said town and 
 our park of Toxteth, together with all our mills to the said town belonging, 
 together with the income and whatsoever farms in the said town and 
 thereto belong, and also to receive the passage money of the water of 
 Mercee, as anciently accustomed to be taken, and our particular court of 
 the said town to be held by them, Thomas, Robert, Richard, and William, 
 together with the parcels of turbary, under our park of Toxteth, which 
 have come into our hands, or those of our ancestors, by the death of any 
 of our tenants of the said town; and also that they may dig in the same 
 lands for turves, and dry and carry them at their will. We have also 
 granted to the same Thomas, Robert, Richard, and William, to correct 
 the assize of bread and ale, the fines and forfeitures of forestallers, 
 butchers, tanners, and peace breakers, and other things which belong to 
 view of frankpledge, although there has been shedding of blood, and also 
 the goods and chattels of fugitives, and also the correction of all workmen 
 dwelling within the said town, or hereafter coming there, and all toll 
 (“ totum tlieolonium” in the original) of the said town, to he taken as 
 anciently accustomed to he taken, together with the herbage of the fosse 
 of our castle of the said town, with waifs and strays, wash of the sea, 
 and with all other profits to the said town belonging, as well by sea as by 
 land, to have and to hold from us and our heirs, from the feast of St. 
 Michael next coming after the date of these presents, unto the end of 
 seventeen years next following to he fully complete. Rendering herefor 
 to us and our heirs yearly, at Leverpull, fifty-seven marks of silver, at 
 the feasts of Easter and St. Michael the Archangel, in equal portions, 
 for all things which belong to us and our heirs in the said town. We will 
 also and grant that no one of the said town shall be impleaded in the said 
 county or wapentake for any debt, or transgression, or agreement, or any 
 
176 
 
 other personal thing whatsoever arising within the said town ; and we also 
 will and grant that no one of the said town shall he put as a juror on any 
 jury, unless arising from land or tenement in the said town during the 
 aforesaid term. And always that the said Thomas, Robert, Richard, and 
 William make and repair the aforesaid mills at their own proper costs, 
 taking sufficient wood for making and repairing the said mills, as there 
 may he need, in our parks of Toxteth and Croxteth, and our wood of 
 Symondswode, by view and permission of our foresters there. In 
 testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to he made patent. 
 Given under our seal, at our Castle of Lancaster, the 10th day of August, 
 in the seventeenth year of King Richard, the Second since the Conquest.”* 
 
 The above lease is the last act by which John of Gaunt is connected 
 with Liverpool. That powerful prince died soon after, and, on his death, 
 the contest between his eldest son, Henry of Bolingbroke, and King 
 Richard the Second commenced, and did not cease until Richard had been 
 driven from the throne, and the House of Lancaster reigned in his stead. 
 
 In the same year in which the above lease was granted, a return was 
 made of the value of the Duke’s estates in the county palatine of Lan¬ 
 caster. It appears from the return, that they then produced a rent of 
 £2,8] 6 a year, equal to at least £42,2-10 a year of modern money. Of 
 this sum, the manor of West Derby and its dependencies produced 
 £146 8s., equal to £2,196 a year; and the borough of Liverpool produced 
 £38, from which 12s. a year was allowed (“ by the late Duke, whom God 
 assoil”) to the chapel of Liverpool, leaving a clear rental from Liverpool 
 of £37 8s.,or about £561 of present money. 
 
 It will have been seen, from the course of the preceding narrative, 
 that the wealth and power of the great House of Lancaster had been 
 steadily increasing for a period of a hundred and forty years. After the 
 rebellion of Simon de Montfort, Edmund Plantagenet obtained all the 
 estates of the earldoms of Derby and Leicester, and, by a grant from his 
 father he obtained possession of the whole of the Honour of Lancaster. 
 Thomas, the second Earl of Lancaster, added immensely to the wealth 
 and power of his family by marrying the heiress of the De Lacys, Earls 
 of Lincoln, and constables of Chester. All the estates thus accumulated 
 by the preceding earls descended to Henry, the third earl; and afterwards 
 to his son Henry, the first Duke of Lancaster. On the marriage of 
 Blanche, the sole surviving heiress of this Duke of Lancaster, to John of 
 
 * MS. in possession of the Eight Hon. the Earl of Derby. 
 
177 
 
 Gaunt, who was then Earl of Richmond, these vast estates were united 
 to all which he had received from his father, Edward the Third. Ultimately 
 the estates of another wealthy and powerful earldom were added to the 
 above, by the marriage of Henry of Bolingbroke, the eldest son of John of 
 Gaunt and Lady Blanche Plantagenet, to Maria de Bohun, the heiress of 
 the great earldom of Hereford. The private fortune of Henry the Fourth 
 is said to have amounted to 24,000 marks per annum, equal, probably to 
 about T240,000 a year of our present money. In addition to this 
 immense fortune he possessed strong castles in all parts of the kingdom, 
 and was connected by marriage or alliance with all the most powerful 
 nobles in the kingdom. Thus he was connected by marriage with the 
 Percies of Northumberland, and also with the Nevilles, Earls of Westmor¬ 
 land, the ancestors of Warwick the king-maker. With all these advan¬ 
 tages, and with the still greater advantage of a resolute mind and a politic 
 understanding, he eagerly seized the opportunity of engaging in the strug¬ 
 gle which Richard the Second commenced, by seizing on his paternal estates, 
 after the death of John of Gaunt. The contest ended in the overthrow, 
 the capture, the dethronement, and the death of Richard the Second. 
 By the accession of Henry of Bolingbroke to the throne, as King Henry 
 the Fourth, Liverpool became once more one of the possessions of 
 the crown, and continued in the hands of all the succeeding sovereigns of 
 England until the reign of Charles the First. On the accession of Henry 
 the Fourth the dukedom of Lancaster was united to the crown, and has 
 not since been separated from it. 
 
 2 A 
 
CHAPTER SIXTH. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY THE FOURTH TO THE DEATH OF 
 RICHARD THE THIRD. 
 
 In the first year of the reign of King Henry the Fourth, he 
 granted to the burgesses of Liverpool a confirmation of those of their 
 charters •which they wished to have confirmed, that is to say, of the 
 charters of King John, of Henry the Third, and of Edward the Third. 
 The charter of Richard the Second, which threw open the borough to all 
 persons who chose to settle in it, being too liberal for the taste of the 
 burgesses, was quietly set aside, and passed over without notice. The 
 following is King Henry the Fourth’s confirmation of the previous 
 charters:— 
 
 “ Charter of Confirmation by King Henry the Fourth. Henry by 
 the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland ; to 
 all of whom these presents shall come, greeting. We have inspected a 
 charter of the Lord Edward, late King of England, our great grandfather, 
 made in these words :—Edward, by the grace of God, [reciting the charters 
 of Edward the Third, Henry the Third, and King John,] We also holding 
 the grants and confirmations aforesaid firm and valid, do, for us and our 
 heirs, as much as in us is, accept and approve, and, to the aforesaid 
 burgesses and their heirs and successors, do grant and confirm the same, 
 as the charters aforesaid reasonably testify, and as the same burgesses 
 ought to use and enjoy the liberties and acquittances aforesaid, and as 
 they and their predecessors have used and enjoyed the liberties and 
 acquittances aforesaid from the time of the sealing of the charters and 
 confirmations aforesaid. Witness the king at Westminster, the ninth day 
 of May. For six marks paid at the hanaper. Thoralby.” 
 
 In the same year in which the king confirmed the above charters, he 
 also confirmed the lease of the fee farm of the town which his father, 
 John of Gaunt, had granted to Thomas de la More and others, in the 
 seventeenth year of Richard the Second* 
 
 * This, and all the other leases of the fee farm of the town, not given in the text, will 
 be given in the Appendix to this work. 
 
179 
 
 In the seventh year of his reign, King Henry the Fourth gave 
 permission to Sir John Stanley, knight, to fortify a house which he had 
 built “ with stone and lime” in the borough of Liverpool. As this is the 
 first mention of the Stanley family in connection with Liverpool, and is 
 thus the commencement of a connection which has continued for many 
 hundred years, and still exists, I shall briefly explain the reasons why the 
 Stanleys built and fortified the Tower of Liverpool. 
 
 Sir John Stanley was a younger son of an ancient and honourable 
 family which had been settled in Cheshire for many ages. In his youth 
 he acquired a high reputation for courage and military skill in the wars 
 of France, which he greatly increased in Ireland, where he held command 
 in the reign of Kicliard the Second. He had in the mean time married 
 Isabella de Latliom, the sole heiress of a family which had been settled 
 in Lancashire from the time of the Norman conquest, and one of whose 
 members was the founder of the Priory of Burscough, near Ormskirk. 
 The family of Latliom had been closely connected with the Lancaster 
 branch of the Plantagenets from the reign of Edward the First, and Sir 
 John Stanley naturally adopted the hereditary attachments of the 
 Lathom family. In the first year of the reign of Henry the Fourth, 
 he was appointed lieutenant to the king in Ireland ;* and, in the second 
 year of his reign the king issued a proclamation in Ireland, commanding 
 that all in the land should be obedient to Sir John Stanley, knight, 
 lieutenant to the king.f Henry also granted to him the Manor of 
 Neston, with all the estates which had belonged to John, Earl of Salis¬ 
 bury, in the forest of Wirrall, with the homage and personal service of 
 those who held them. Two or three years afterwards, the Percies, of 
 Northumberland, under the renowned and heroic Hotspur, rose in in¬ 
 surrection against the king. In this rising, they first put forth the 
 claims of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, the heir by the female 
 line of Lionel Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John 
 of Gaunt, whose rights afterwards descended to - the house of York. 
 Hotspur was connected by marriage with the house of Mortimer, and as 
 the influence of that great family was extremely strong along the 
 Welsh border, nearly the whole of the Cheshire gentry joined him, and 
 fought in his army at the battle of Shrewsbury.+ After the death of 
 Hotspur and the ruin of his cause, all his estates and those of his father 
 and uncle were confiscated. The king made extensive grants from these 
 
 * Calendar of the Close Rolls, 238. + Ibid, 241. 
 
 { Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 206. 
 
180 
 
 estates to Sir John Stanley, wlio was one of the very few men in whom 
 he placed confidence. On this occasion he granted to Sir John 
 Stanley, in fee, the castle, peel, and lordship of Man, and the dominion 
 pertaining to it, with the patronage of the bishopric of the island; to 
 be held by homage and allegiance, and by the service of rendering to 
 the hing and his heirs, the kings of England, on the day of the king’s 
 coronation, two falcons. He further granted “ that the heirs of Sir John 
 Stanley might enter on the castle and lordship immediately after his 
 death, although it had not so been held by Henry, Earl of Northumber¬ 
 land.’’* In order to facilitate communication between Sir John Stanley’s 
 Lancashire and Cheshire estates, and his new dominion in the Isle of 
 Man, he authorized him to fortify a house which he had built at Liver¬ 
 pool. This house, which was long known as the Tower, stood on the 
 brink of the river, at the foot of the present Water-street. It was 
 from this point that the Stanleys kept up their communication with the 
 kingdom of Man for more than three hundred years; indeed, until the 
 time when the Isle of Man passed into the Atholl family, by the 
 marriage of the heiress of the tenth Earl of Derby with a member of 
 that family, when the Lancashire estates of the family devolved on the 
 heir male, from whom the present Earl of Derby is descended. The 
 following is the grant by which Sir John Stanley was authorized to 
 fortify the Tower:— 
 
 “John de Stanley, Knight. The King, to all to whom the present 
 letters shall come, greeting. Know ye that, of our special grace, we have 
 granted and given license, for us and for our heirs, as much as in us lies, 
 to our dear and faithful knight, John de Stanley, steward of our house¬ 
 hold, that he may embattle and fortify a certain house, which he has 
 lately constructed of stone and lime, in the town of Liverpool, and hold 
 the same so embattled and fortified to him and to his heirs for ever, 
 without impeachment or disturbance of us, or of our heirs, or of our 
 officers and ministers whomsoever. In testimony whereof, &c. Witness 
 the king, at Westminster, the 15th day January. By writ of privy seal.” 
 
 It will be seen that the above deed speaks of the tower or house, 
 as having been recently built by Sir John Stanley, and there is no 
 evidence that any such building existed in Liverpool previous to his time.f 
 
 Soon after his accession to the throne, the king made a grant to Nicol 
 de Atherton of <£10 per year for life, out of the fee-farm of Liverpool. 
 
 * Calendar of the Patent Polls, 251. 
 
 + Patent Polls, 7th Henry the Fourth, 2 p., m. It. 
 
181 
 
 This pension he continued to receive during the greater part of the reigns 
 of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth. The following is a copy of 
 the grant:— 
 
 “For Nicol de Atherton, chevalier, Henry, &c.; to all those, &c., 
 greeting, Know ye that of our especial grace, and for the good and 
 agreeable service which our dear and faithful Nicol de Atherton, chevalier, 
 has done to us and will do for time to come, we have granted to him to 
 have yearly £20 for the term of his life, from the issues of our lands 
 within the said county of Lancaster, that is to say, £10 from the issues, 
 profits, and commodities of our manor of Derby, in the said county of 
 Lancaster, and other £10 from the farm which the mayor, bailiffs, and 
 men of our town of Liverpole pay to us yearly, by the hands of our 
 receiver, bailiff, farmer, or other occupier of the said farm, for the time 
 being, at the terms of St. Michael and Easter, by equal portions. Pro¬ 
 vided only that the said Nichol be not retained by any other for the 
 term of his life, save only by us. In witness, &c. At Westminster, the 
 2d day of July, in the first year of our reign.”* 
 
 On the 6th of August, 1410, the king granted a pension of 2d. a day 
 to Robert Bickerstath, out of the farm of the ferry of Liverpool. 
 
 In the first year of the reign of King Henry the Fifth, we first find 
 the mayor and burgesses of Liverpool presenting a petition to the Commons 
 House of Parliament. In this petition, which is written in excessively 
 bad French, they complain that the king’s bailiffs had interfered to prevent 
 their holding the local courts which they had been accustomed to hold 
 from the time of Henry the Third. The following is a copy of this 
 petition :— 
 
 “ Petition to Parliament. To the very wise Commons of this present 
 Parliament, beseech humbly the poor tenants of our lord the king of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, the burgesses of the Borough of Liverpool, in the 
 county of Lancaster: That whereas King John, formerly king of Eng¬ 
 land, by his letters patent under his great seal, granted that those who 
 held any burgage in the town of Liverpool, should have all the 
 liberties and free customs that any borough upon the sea had; and also 
 King Henry, formerly King of England, by his letters patent under hi3 
 great seal, granted that the said town of Liverpool should be a free 
 borough at all times, and that the burgesses of the same borough should 
 have a guild merchant, with Hanse, with all manner of liberties and 
 
 * Duchy Register, 15, in the reign of Henry the Fourth, 19. 
 
182 
 
 customs to the said guild appertaining, and he moreover granted to the 
 said burgesses among divers other franchises soc and sac, thol and theam, 
 as in the said letters patent is more fully contained, which same our said 
 lord the king, by his letters patent, has ratified and confirmed generally ; 
 which word sac is interpreted a free court, as it is declared of Record in 
 the Exchequer ; by authority of which grants the said burgesses have at all 
 times had and continued a court in the same borough, and the perquisites 
 of the said court, with all manner of profits to the said court appertaining, 
 have taken and received; until now lately, that the officers and ministers 
 of our said lord the king, of the said county, have come, usurped, and 
 held certain courts, in the same borough, with force, since the said con¬ 
 firmation, and at no time before; and thus the said burgesses are grievously 
 molested, vexed, and disturbed of their said liberties and franchises, by 
 the said officers and ministers, against right and reason, and against the 
 effect of the letters patent and confirmation aforesaid, to the great 
 hindrance and detriment of the said borough, and the disinheriting of the 
 said burgesses, if they be not secured and aided in this present Parlia¬ 
 ment. May it please your very wise discretions to consider the said matter, 
 and hereupon to pray our said lord the king, that the said burgesses may 
 have and enjoy all the liberties and franchises specified in the said letters 
 patent, according to the effect and purport of the grants of the said late 
 kings, and of the late confirmations aforesaid, without disturbance or 
 hindrance from the officers and ministers in these parts : for God and in 
 the work of charity.” 
 
 To the above petition their very wise discretions of the house of 
 commons returned the following discreet answer:— 
 
 “Be the matter within written committed to the Council of the king, 
 and let the same council, by authority of the parliament, have full power 
 to do right to the servants within written, upon the contents specified 
 in this petition.” 
 
 In justice to the crown it must be mentioned, that the king’s officers 
 made much the same complaint against the mayor and bailiffs of Liverpool 
 which they made against them. They complained that the mayor of 
 Liverpool had held the king’s courts without authority, and received his 
 tolls and profits; and so far was the quarrel pushed, that the following 
 order was issued to distrain the goods of all parties who had been mayors 
 of Liverpool from the time of the king’s accession :— 
 
 “ Eor the King. Henry, &c. To our Steward of our Wapentakes 
 of Salford and Derby, or to his Lieutenants there, greeting: We com- 
 
183 
 
 mand and charge you that you cause to be distrained all those who have 
 been mayors and bailiffs of Liverpole from the time of our coronation 
 until now, that they be before the barons of our Exchequer at Lan¬ 
 caster, at the next session there to be holden, to render us account from 
 the time that they have holden our courts, and for the toll and other 
 profits by them levied in the mean time, as reason demands. And this 
 omit not at your peril. Given, &c., the 2nd February, in the second 
 year. By the Council.” 
 
 About this time there was a great preparing of arms and armour 
 caused by the wars with France; and in the seventh year of this reign, 
 Bichard Crosse, of Crosse-hall, Liverpool, the executor of Makyn of 
 Kenyon, presented William of Kenyon, his son, with the armour of his 
 father, in the presence of Sir John Stanley and other persons of rank. 
 The following account of this presentation of armour is a curious 
 specimen of the English of that day: it is from the muniments of the 
 Crosses, of Crosse hall:— 
 
 “ The armour of Makyn of Kenyon. This endenture beres wittenes 
 yat Bic of the. Crosse, on of the executores of Maykyn of Kenyon, hath 
 delyverde to William, the son of Maykyn of Kenyon, the hemes (armour) 
 yat was of the forsaid Maykynnes, the whech was in keping of the forsaid 
 Bic, in presence of Sir John of Stanley, knyght, James of Strangwais, and 
 others, at Lancastre, the Thursday be fore the fest of the Annunciation of 
 our lady, in the yere of King Henry, the son of King Henry, the 
 Seventh ; yat is to wete, a muche maser haftet baslard barnesshet wyth 
 silver, a girdell of silver, barret with lokkes and batches of silver, and a 
 nother girdell of silver, barret throughoute; a colar all of silver, six bosses 
 for a jak of silver, wyth foure poyntes of silke and silver, a tabule, one 
 wmolde of silver in a purse of velvet, and a payre of bedes of whyt ambre. 
 In the wyttenes of the whecli thyng the forsaid Sir John, James of 
 Strangwais, and William of Kenyon, haven set to ther sealles. Wretyn 
 at Lancastre, the day and the yere before said.” 
 
 On the 15tli July, 1421, the ninth of Henry the Fifth, the king granted 
 permission to the men of the town of Liverpool to enjoy the farm of the 
 town for one year, from the 29th of September preceding ; and he further 
 directed that an inquisition should be held to ascertain the value of the 
 town, and how and in what manner the said people had held the town, 
 during the time of his very honoured grandfather, John of Gaunt.* 
 
 See Appendix. 
 
184 
 
 The career of Henry the Fifth was as short as it was 'brilliant. He 
 (lied in the ninth year of his reign, leaving to his son, then an infant one 
 year old, a doubtful succession to the throne of England and a ruinous 
 war with France. This unfortunate reign was little else than a series of 
 disasters abroad, and of confusion at home. 
 
 In the third year of the reign of Henry the Sixth, 1424, a violent 
 quarrel sprung up between Thomas Stanley the younger (who was 
 afterwards Lord Stanley) on the one side, and Sir Richard Moly- 
 neux of Sefton on the other.* The cause of this quarrel is not 
 known, but it appears from the report of the facts made by Ralf 
 of RadclifFe and James of the Holts, justices of the peace within the said 
 county of Lancaster, that they had some difficulty in preventing a pitched 
 battle between the retainers of these two powerful families. The justices 
 reported to the chancellor of the diocese, that having heard that there was 
 “ great rumour and congregation of routes” between these two honourable 
 persons, they and the sheriff of Lancashire, Sir Richard Radcliffe, pro¬ 
 ceeded to the house of Sir John Stanley, in Liverpool, where they found 
 “ Thomas of Stanley, with a multitude of people in the town, to the 
 number of 2,000 men or more,” waiting to receive Sir Richard of 
 Molyneux, who was expected to enter the town immediately, for the 
 purpose of attacking the Stanleys. With some difficulty the sheriffs and 
 justices succeeded in arresting Thomas Stanley. They afterwards ar¬ 
 rested Sir Richard Molyneux, whom they found marching from West 
 Derby, “ with great congregations, route and multitude, to the number of 
 1,000 men or more, arrayed in manner as to go to battle, and coming 
 fast towards Liverpool town.” The sheriff having fairly got hold of 
 the two chief offenders, obtained an order from the representatives of the 
 king to the following purport :—“ That Thomas, son of John Stanley, 
 knight, now residing in the castle of Clidderliow, shall withdraw himself 
 as far as the castle at Kenilworth ; and that Richard Molyneux, knight, 
 residing at the castle of Lancaster, shall withdraw himself as far as the 
 castle at Windsor.” The quarrel between these two families did not 
 continue long. We find them soon after connected by marriage, and 
 supporting the same side in the wars of York and Lancaster. 
 
 The Thomas Stanley mentioned above was summoned to Parliament 
 as Lord Stanley about the year 1456. His name appears in the list of 
 the Lords who assisted in the treaty with the Scots at Coventry, on the 
 11th June, 1457. 
 
 * Dodsworth’s MSS., 87, 80. 
 
185 
 
 Liverpool, like most other places, appears to have declined in pros¬ 
 perity during this turbulent period of our national history. In the ninth 
 year of the reign of Henry the Sixth, the number of burgesses in 
 Liverpool was still only 1G8, which is not more than it had been in the 
 reign of Edward the Third. The farm of the town derived lrom tolls, 
 mills, and other sources, also fell off rapidly during the whole of this 
 and of the succeeding reigns, so as not to amount to half the sum, at 
 the close of the reign of Edward the Fourth which it had produced at 
 the end of the reign of Richard the Second. This is easily accounted 
 for. The whole county was the scene of continual strife and confusion. 
 When the Princes of the House of Lancaster seized on the throne, they 
 drew a great part of their resources both in men and money from their 
 hereditary estates, which included nearly the whole of Lancashire. 
 When their feeble successor, Henry the Sixth, had to fight for his 
 crown and life, the leading Lancashire families, especially the Stanleys 
 and Molyneuxes, with all their retainers, were found fighting in the 
 thickest of the fray, hut fighting on the side of the House of York. 
 And when the enormous crimes of Richard the Third had brought about 
 a union of the partizans of the Houses of York and Lancaster, to drive 
 him from the throne, the levies of the second Lord Stanley, consisting of 
 the men of Lancashire and Cheshire, struck the decisive blow. Whilst 
 these " long years of carnage urged their destined course,” the greatest 
 crimes were committed with impunity, and all the arts of peaceful life 
 languished. In the year 1463 there was a great rising of the commons 
 of Lancashire and Cheshire, to the number of ten thousand men ; and 
 such was the poverty and turbulence of Lancashire that a Norfolk gen¬ 
 tleman of that day, writing to his brother in the year 1473, could say:— 
 “ Sir, my lord hath sent unto the most part of the gentlemen of Essex to 
 wait upon him at Chelmsford, where, as he intendeth to meet with the king, 
 and that they he well appointed, that the Lancashire men (then expected) 
 may see that there be gentlemen of so great substance, that they be able 
 to buy all Lancashire !”* The above brief explanation of the course of 
 public events will account for the tenor of most of the following notices. 
 
 In the nineteenth year of Henry the Sixth, Sir Richard Molyneux, 
 of Sefton, was appointed governor of the castle of Liverpool, with a 
 yearly salary of TG 13s. 4d., equal in value to about £ 100 of our money. 
 Five years afterwards he was appointed governor for life, and the office 
 was made hereditary in his family. The following is an extract of the 
 * Paston's Letters, ii., 163. 
 
 2 B 
 
186 
 
 deed by which the Molyneuxes received this office, which they held so 
 long as a castle existed in Liverpool:— 
 
 “'Whereas, on the 10th of February, in the nineteenth year of our reign, 
 we did of our especial grace, constitute and ordain our trusty and well- 
 beloved Sir Richard Molyneux, knight, and Richard, his eldest son, to be, 
 as well the master forester of our forests and parks within our wapentake 
 of West Derby, as to be our steward of the same wapentake, and also of 
 Salfordshire, to be held for their lives ; and on the 10th day of February, 
 in the year aforesaid, by others letters patent, the constableship of 
 Liverpool Castle, &c., and they being willing to restore to us their 
 estate in the said offices, to the intent that we would graciously grant the 
 same to the heirs male of the aforesaid Richard the father, We, taking 
 the same into our gracious consideration, have ordained them the said 
 offices to hold as aforesaid, with the fees, wages, profits, and commo¬ 
 dities, to the said offices pertaining.” 
 
 Sir Richard Molyneux was one of the first victims of the wars of 
 the houses of York and Lancaster. He fell, along with many other of 
 the gentlemen of Cheshire and Lancashire, whilst fighting on the side of 
 the Yorkists, in the desperate battle of Blore Heath. In that battle 
 Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, defeated the army of the Lancastrians 
 commanded by Lord Audley. This Sir Richard Molyneux was brother- 
 in-law of the second Lord Stanley, who had himself married Lady Eleanor 
 Neville, sister of the Earl of Warwick the king maker, and the champion, 
 before he became the enemy and rival, of the house of York. 
 
 In the twentieth year of the reign of Henry the Sixth, a new tower 
 was completed on the south side of the castle of Liverpool. It appears 
 from the accounts of Thomas Urswick, receiver for the king in the 
 duchy of Lancaster, that the stone used in building this town was got 
 from the quarries in Toxtetli Park, the wood from the royal forests of 
 Croxteth and Symonswode, and that the lime was brought from the 
 Isle of Man. There is also mention made in his report of the draw- 
 well, by which the castle was supplied with water. The cost of the 
 repairs, and of that part of the new building erected in the twentieth of 
 Henry the Sixth, was T4G 13s. 10£d. Of this sum £23 Gs. 8d. was 
 received from the mayor and burgesses of Liverpool, as the rent of the 
 fee farm of the town, which they then held under the crown, or rather 
 under the duchy of Lancaster, which had been inseparably annexed to it. 
 
 In the twenty-second of Henry the Sixth, the mayor and burgesses 
 of Liverpool obtained another lease of the fee farm of the town, by the 
 
187 
 
 good offices of Thomas de Lathom, of Parbold, a descendant of the 
 ancient family of the Lathoms, of Lathom Castle. The following copy 
 of the instructions to Thomas de Lathom from the mayor and burgesses 
 of Liverpool, as to the matters which they wished to have included in the 
 lease, is the earliest document relating to the affairs of Liverpool, written 
 in the English language, which has yet been discovered. The instructions 
 were written on the back of the lease which John of Gaunt granted to 
 Thomas de la More, of Liverpool, and others, in the seventeenth year of 
 Bichard the Second. The lease is now in the possession of the Earl of 
 Derby. The instructions are as follows :— 
 
 Copy of the minute at the back of John of Gaunt's lease, written in 
 Henry the Sixth’s time, for and concerning certain instructions agreed 
 upon by the town of Liverpool, to be sent to the chanceller of the duchy 
 to allow of, &c. :— 
 
 “ These been the poyntes and the articles that the mayre of Liverpoole, 
 with assent of all good men and commoners of the same towne, praying 
 Thomas of Lathom to sue to the counsell of the dutchee: in the first, to 
 take the towne to ferine to as eysey a rent as liee can get it be his gud 
 labour; the second article, to gett annual fayre upon ane day; the third 
 article is, to gett us poaire to tack a man by his body ; the fourth article 
 is, to gett us a recognizance of [imperfect here] and with 
 
 the seale that 'longs thereto ; and these iij last articles most be in a patent 
 both to ourselfe, to the mayre, and to the bayles, and to their successors 
 for evermore. Halfe in mynde, to take the castle orchard, in our takeing, 
 and the May in anywise. Halfe in mynde alsoe to speake to my lord 
 Sir Tlios. for the Moldkirke. Halfe in mynde alsoe to gett a privy seale 
 direct to the mayre, charging all those that holden of the kinge, in 
 Liverpull, to appear before the counsell at London, else they will agree 
 with the mayre.’’ 
 
 The sum for which the fee farm of the town was leased to the mayor 
 and burgesses in the preceding lease was £21 per year. Another lease 
 was granted in the thirty third Henry the Sixth, in which the rent was 
 reduced to £17 16s. 8d. a year. 
 
 After a long and desperate struggle, the house of York succeeded in 
 possessing itself of the throne. Amongst the early acts of Edward the 
 Fourth, were deeds to confirm the Stanleys in the possession of their honours 
 and offices, and to confirm Thomas Molyneux in his office of governor of the 
 castle of Liverpool and steward of the hundred of West Derby.* During 
 * Patent Polls, first Edward the Fourth, No. 270. 
 
188 
 
 the early part of the reign of Edward the Fourth, he held the borough of 
 Liverpool along with all the other estates which had belonged to the 
 fallen house of Lancaster. Several leases of the fee farm of the borough, 
 granted by him, are still in existence, and will be given in the Appendix 
 to this work. The following are two leases, one of the mills, the other 
 of the ferry of the Mersey, which are worth giving here :— 
 
 “ The King has granted to farm to William Leyland and Kobert 
 More, a wind-mill in the town of Liverpool, formerly in the tenure of the 
 said Kobert, to have and to hold the said mill, with all the profits to the 
 said mill belonging, to the aforesaid William and Kobert, and their assigns, 
 from the feast of St. Michael the Archangel last past, to the end of the 
 term of seven years thence next following, and to be fully completed, 
 rendering therefrom yearly to the aforesaid lord the king, his heirs and 
 assigns, 13s. 4d., to be paid at the feast of Easter and St. Michael the 
 Archangel, by equal portions: And the aforesaid William and Robert shall 
 sustain and repair, at their own proper cost and expenses, the said mill 
 in all things ; moreover that the said lord the king shall find timber for 
 the repair of the same, in his parks of Toxteth and Croxteth, and his 
 wood of Simondswode, to be taken by the view of the officers there, for 
 the time being, &c.: With consent for re-entry in case of non-payment of 
 rent, &c., &c. In testimony, &c., given at Westminster, 26th February, 
 in the eleventh year, by the council of the duchy.” 
 
 In the Bill of Patents of the third year of King Henry Fourth, 
 preserved among the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, is the following: 
 
 “ Third Edward Fourth, 1463. The king, &c. To all, &c., greeting: 
 Know ye that we of our special grace, in consideration of our good and 
 faithful service of our beloved servant, John Best, page of our bed¬ 
 chamber, heretofore rendered, and in future to be faithfully rendered, 
 have granted to him the rents and profits of the passage of the water of 
 Lithpole, within our Duchy of Lancaster, to have and receive to himself 
 from the feast of St. Michael, in the second year of our reign, for the 
 term of his life, without any redemption to us and our heirs. In witness, 
 &c., given, &c., at Westminster, on the 4th of March. By letter, with seal.” 
 
 In each of the leases of the borough of Liverpool, granted during 
 this reign, there is a decrease in the amount of rent paid. The last and 
 lowest sum at which the fee farm was let by Edward the Fourth, was 
 £14 a year. Allowing for the difference in the value of money, this is 
 not more than the rent for which the borough was let in the reign of 
 Henry the Third, two hundred and fifty years before. 
 
189 
 
 In the ninth year of Edward the Fourth the king gave to his brother 
 Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the principal part of his honours, castles, 
 and lordships in Lancashire. This appears from a warrant addressed by 
 the king to Thomas, the second Lord Stanley, who was at that time 
 receiver of the duchy, in which he was ordered to pay over the rents to 
 the Duke of Gloucester, or his deputy. Amongst the property named in 
 this warrant is the town and castle of Liverpool, with the parks of Tox- 
 teth and Croxteth. In an article in the Harleian manuscripts, of the 
 date of the twenty-second of Edward the Fourth, Richard, Duke of 
 Gloucester, is styled chief steward of the honour of Lancaster. His 
 salary, as steward, is stated to have been <£6 13s. 4d. The following 
 parties, with their salaries, are also mentioned : Thomas Molyneux, con¬ 
 stable of the castle of Liverpool, T6 13s. 4d.; the same as forester of 
 Symonswode, and parker of Croxteth, T3 10s. 4d., and as steward of 
 West Derby and Salfordshires, £5 : Thomas, Lord Stanley, as receiver 
 of the county of Lancaster 1 , T6 13s. 4d. ; as parker at Toxteth-park, 
 T3 Os. 8d.; as steward of Halton and of Halton Castle, Til 13s. 4d.; 
 and as receiver of the lordship of Halton, T3 lGs. 8d. 
 
 Every one is familiar with the history of the unnatural murders of his 
 youthful nephews, by which Richard the Third possessed himself of the 
 throne; of the crimes by which he attempted to maintain himself there ; 
 and of his final overthrow and death. The following is an account of 
 the few acts which connect the history of this wretch with the town and 
 castle of Liverpool. 
 
 In the first year of his reign, he confirmed Thomas Molyneux in the 
 office of constable of Liverpool and master forester of Toxteth, Croxteth, 
 and Symonswode, during the minority of his nephew, Richard Molyneux, 
 by the following deed :— 
 
 “ The king grants to Thomas Molyneux the offices of constable of 
 the castle of Liverpool and master forester of our forests and parks of 
 Symonswode, Toxteth, and Croxteth, which came into our hands, as well 
 after the death of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knight, as by reason of the 
 minority of Richard, the son and heir of the said Thomas; to have and to 
 hold, for himself or his deputy, from the time of the death of the aforesaid 
 Thomas Molyneux, Knight, during the minority of the heir or heirs of 
 the said Thomas Molyneux, with all fees, salaries, and profits anciently 
 due and accustomed. Dated at York, the 18th September, in the first year." 
 
 In the second year of Richard the Third, he bid very much higher 
 for the support of Thomas Lord Stanley, the only man of whom he was 
 
190 
 
 ever really afraid. In that year he made a grant of 1,000 marks per 
 annum, and of numerous manors, including Chorley, Bolton, andBright- 
 mede, together with a messuage near Powle (or St. Paul’s) Wharf, to 
 Thomas Lord Stanley, and his son, Sir George Stanley, Lord Lestrange. 
 He also granted to him the forestership of Macclesfield forest.* 
 
 In the same year in which the above grant was made, King Bichard 
 granted the ferry of Liverpool for life to a much less celebrated person; 
 one whose services, perhaps fortunately for his memory, are totally un¬ 
 known. The following is the deed :— 
 
 “ The king, &c.: Know ye, that we of our special grace and for the 
 good and grateful service which our beloved servant, Kichard Cook, hath 
 performed and shall perform to us in time to come, have given and granted 
 to the said Richard the passage or ferry over the water of Mersey, between 
 the town of Lythepole and county of Chester, part of the duchy of Lan¬ 
 caster, together with the boat and all the profits, issues, and emoluments, 
 to the same passage or ferry pertaining, or in any manner belonging : To 
 have and to hold the passage or ferry, with the said boat to the same 
 pertaining, to the before-named Richard for the time of his fife, together 
 with all profits, issues, and commodities to the same passage or ferry 
 whatsoever pertaining or belonging, without any account therefor to us 
 to be rendered, or anything therefor to be paid. In testimony whereof, 
 &c. Given at the castle of Nottingham, the fourteenth day of September, 
 in the year, &c. the second. By letter under the signet.” 
 
 I need scarcely remind any of my readers of the events which preceded 
 the downfall of Richard the Third. On the 7th of August, in the year 
 1485, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, one of the descendants of John 
 of Gaunt and Catherine Swinford, landed at Milford-haven, and claimed 
 the throne. On the 21st of August he arrived at Tamworth with a con¬ 
 siderable army, where he was joined by swarms of deserters from the 
 falling tyrant. On the following day the battle of Bosworth Field was 
 fought, in which the charge of Lord Stanley, who had brought up an 
 army of three thousand men from Lancashire and Cheshire, gave the 
 victory to Henry Tudor. Richard the Third fell on the field of battle, 
 fighting with the hereditary valour of his race ; and Lord Stanley placed 
 the battered and blood-stained crown on the head of the first monarch of 
 the house of Tudor. 
 
 The following copies and abstracts of ancient deeds executed in 
 
 Muniments of the Eight Hon. the Earl of Derby. 
 
191 
 
 Liverpool, or the neighbourhood, during the reigns of the Plantagenet 
 kings, throw some light on the state of society, and on the manners of 
 those early times:— 
 
 “ Last will and testament of William, the son of Adam, of Lyverpull.— 
 In the name of God. Amen. I, William, the son of Adam, being of 
 sound mind, though weak in body, make my last will in this manner. 
 Imprimis, I bequeath my soul to God, and to the blessed Virgin Mary 
 and all the Saints; and my body to be buried in the chapel of Lyver¬ 
 pull, before the face of the white image of the virgin, which is my 
 perpetual place of burial. I leave to be distributed in bread, on the day 
 of my burial, three quarters of wheat. I leave six pounds of wax to 
 be used about my body. I leave to every priest in the chapel of Lyver¬ 
 pull 4d. I leave the rest of all my goods to Katherine, my wife, and 
 our children. To perform my will, I appoint as my executors, John le 
 Fuller and William Parker, chaplain. Given at Lyverpool, on the 
 Tuesday next after the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist, in the 
 presence of Thomas de la More, the Mayor, and John de Eccleston, 
 and others of my neighbours, in the year 1380.”* 
 
 “ Inventory of the goods of William, the son of Adam, of Liverpull.— 
 Imprimis, in grain, 10 marks. In seven oxen and cows, each 10s. 
 In two cows, two horses, and a mare, each a mark. In three horses, 
 1 mark. In eighteen pigs, 30s. In twenty-four sellions of wheat sown 
 in the ground, £7. In domestic utensils, 11 marks. Sum total, 40 
 marks.” Equal to about £400 of modern money.f 
 
 The following abstract of a deed of the tenth Henry Fourth, contains 
 the first mention of a payment of rent to the mayor and corporation of 
 Liverpool:— 
 
 “ Nicholas de Lyverpull, clerk, grants to Richard de Crosse, all his 
 messuage in Dale-street, thus described. The messuage which I had of 
 the gift and feoffment of Peter de Dytton, in the Dale-street, which was 
 late the tenement of William le Child, to be held of the chief lords of the 
 fee, rendering to the said Nicholas and his heirs, &c., for the next 
 six years from the date hereof, a rose on the Feast of the Nativity of John 
 the Baptist, and after the expiration of the six years, to Nicholas aforesaid, 
 3s. 4d. per annum, at two terms ; and also to the mayor and commonalty 
 of the town of Lyverpull, 3s. of silver at Christmas and Midsummer, for 
 all services. Witnesses, Robert del Derby, the Mayor, Robert Coudray 
 
 * Muniments of the Crosses of Crosse Hall. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
192 
 
 and Robert de Seacombe, bailiffs and others. On the Monday after the 
 feast of the translation of St. Thomas, the martyr.” 
 
 The following deed contains the first mention of Jugelar-street:— 
 
 “ Know tliatl, John Gregory, chaplain, have given to William Gaytliead, 
 of Leverpull, merchant, a piece of ground near to the Cross, between the 
 street called the Dale-street and another street called the Jugelar-street. 
 Witnesses : Roger Chernock, now mayor of Leverpull, Robert del More, 
 Henry de Mossock, Robert Coudray, &c. Given at Leverpull, 18th 
 August, Sixteenth of Henry the Sixth.”* 
 
 “ Warrant to deliver twelve oaks. Henry, &c. To the keeper of our 
 park of Toxteth, near Liverpool, greeting : We command you that you 
 cause to be delivered in our aforesaid park, to our very dear and well- 
 beloved Isabella, wife of our very dear and well-beloved John de Stanley, 
 seneschal of our palace, twelve oaks, fit for timber, to have to the said 
 Isabella, of our gift, to build her messuages in Liverpoi. In witness, &c. 
 Given at Westminster, 8th June.”f 
 
 “ Duchy Book, 18th Henry the Sixth, page 111. To the keeper of 
 our parks of Toxteth and Croxtetli, greeting : We command you, that you 
 cause to be delivered to our dear and faithful knight,' John de Stanley, 
 out of each of our said parks, four live bucks and four live does, to have 
 to the said John, with them to store his new park, of our gift. In witness, 
 &c. Given 10 th February.” 
 
 “ Sixteenth Henry the Sixth. The king let to farm to Sir Thomas 
 Stanley and Sir Richard Molyneux the herbage and pannage of his park 
 of Toxteth, in the county of Lancaster, with the honey and wax of the 
 bees in the oaks of the aforesaid park swarming, and the heath there 
 growing. To hold for twenty years, at a rent of T6 13s. 4d.”J 
 
 I have traced the ancient History of Liverpool somewhat more fully 
 than I should have thought it necessary to do, if the present interests of 
 the town and corporation had not been inseparably connected with the 
 past. An income of more than one hundred thousand pounds a year, 
 applicable to public purposes, is now enjoyed by the corporation and 
 inhabitants of Liverpool, under a title which is historical, and which 
 can only be understood by tracing the changes, by which the lordship 
 of Liverpool has descended from Henry the Second, the first king of 
 the house of Plantagenet, to the Mayor, town council, and burgesses of 
 Liverpool. 
 
 * Harleian MSS., 20-12, p. 280. 
 
 * Duchy Register Book, No. 14, page 94, 14th Henry the Fourth. 
 
 \ Duchy Book, p. 90. 
 

 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LIVERPOOL ■< N THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
MAYORS AND BAILIFFS OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE PLANTAUENETS. 
 
 MAYORS OF 
 
 1350. .30th Edw. 3. .Richard de Aynesargh. 
 1366. .40th Edw. 3..Richard de Aynesargh. 
 
 1374. ,48th Edw. 3. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1375. .49th Edw. 3. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1377.. 51.t Edw. 3..Richard de Aynesargh. 
 
 1378.. 1.t Rich. 2..Wm. the son of Adam. 
 
 1380. ,4th Rich. 2. .Richard de Aynesargh. 
 
 1381. ,5th Rich. 2. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1383.. 7.h Rich. 2..Thomas del More. 
 
 1385.. 9th Rich. 2. .Hugh Crosse. 
 
 1388.. 12th Rich. 2.. Edward del More. 
 
 1390. ,14th Rich. 2. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1395.. 19th Rich. 2. .Adam Birkliead. 
 
 1397. ,21st Rich. 2. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1400. .2d Henry 4. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1401. ,3d Henry 4. .Robert de Derby. 
 
 1402. .4th Henry 4.. Thomas del More. 
 
 1403. ,5th Henry 4. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1405. .6th Henry 4. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1406. ,7th Henry 4. .Thomas del More. 
 
 1408. .9th Henry 4. .Richard de Derby. 
 
 1409.. 10th Hen. 4. .Richard de Crosse. 
 
 1410. ,12th Hen. 4. .John de Osbaldston. 
 
 1411. ,13th Hen. 4. .Robert de Derby. 
 
 1413.. 1st Henry 5.. Robert de Derby. 
 
 1414. .2d Henry 5. .Richard de Crosse. 
 
 1415. .3d Henry 5. .Robert de Derby. 
 
 BAILIFFS OF 
 
 1309. .3rd Edw. 2. .John del Mor, 
 
 Allan Walsman. 
 
 1377.. 6.h Edw. 1. .Stephen Walsman. 
 
 John le Somenor. 
 
 1388. .11th Rich. 2..Robert de Salley, 
 
 John de Morehouses. 
 
 1390.. 13th Rich. 2. .John de Morehouses, 
 
 Henry de Roby. 
 
 1394. ,18th Rich. 2. .Henry de Chatterton. 
 
 1396. ,20th Rich. 2. .Thomas de Th el wall, 
 
 John Cook. 
 
 1397. ,21st Rich. 2. .Richard de Hulme, 
 
 John Lynacre. 
 
 1400. 2d Henry 4..Thomas de Gleste. 
 
 William de Swynley. 
 
 1402. .4thHenry 4. .John de Lunt, 
 
 John Dey. 
 
 1403. .5th Henry 4. .John de Hutt, 
 
 William del More. 
 
 1405. .7th Henry 4. .John Dey, 
 
 Richard del Moss. 
 
 1406. .8th Henry 4. .John de Driffield, 
 
 John de Sallay. 
 
 1409.. 11th Hen. 5.. Robert Caudrey, 
 
 Robert Seacome. 
 
 1410.. 11th Hen. 4. .Robert de Derby, 
 
 Henry le Barker. 
 
 1411. .13th Hen. 4. .John de Bykersteth, 
 Richard Paills. 
 
 1412.. 13th Hen. 4. .Robert le Dey, 
 
 Robert de Holland. 
 
 1413.. 14th Hen. 5. .Thomas de Bold, 
 
 Roger de Holland. 
 
 1438.. 17th Hen. 6.. .John Bretherton. 
 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 
 1416.. 4.h Henry 5.. Henry de Mysoke. 
 
 1418.. Oth Henry 5.. Henry Mossock. 
 
 1420. .8tli Henry 5. .Robert de Derby. 
 
 1421.. Oth Henry 5.. Robert Coudrey. 
 
 1424. .2d Henry 6. .Robert del More. 
 
 1425. .4th Heniy 6. .Thurstan de Holcroft. 
 
 1426.. 5th Heniy 6.. Henry Mossock. 
 
 1428. .7th Henry 6. .Robert del More. 
 
 1432.. 11th Hen. 0.. Hugh de Botyll. 
 
 1433. .12th Hen. 0. .Robert del More. 
 
 1434. .13th Hen. 6. .Thomas del More. 
 1437. .10th Hen. 0. .Roger de Chernock. 
 
 1439.. 18.h Hen. 0..Jas. Harebrown. 
 
 1441. .20th Hen. 6. .Roger de Cliemock. 
 
 1443.. 22d Hen. 0.. Robert del More. 
 
 1448. .27th Hen. 6. .John More. 
 
 1454. .33d Henry 6. .John More. 
 
 1459. .38tli Hen. 6. .John Crosse. 
 
 1464.. 4th Edw. 4. .Nicholas Ilarebron. 
 
 1469.. Oth Edw. 4.. Edward Crosse. 
 
 1471. ,11th Edw. 4. .Hugh Harebron. 
 
 1472.. 12th Edw. 4. .John Tempest. 
 
 1473. .13th Edw. 4..John Davenport. 
 
 1474. ,14th Edw. 4. .Robert More. 
 
 1478.. 18th Edw. 4.. Richard Bold. 
 
 1479. ,20th Edw. 4. .John Davenport. 
 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 
 1414. .2d Henry 5. .Thomas de Gleste, 
 
 William de Goosnargli. 
 
 1416. .4th Henry 5. .Thomas Gleste, 
 
 John Kyllbrande. 
 
 1417. .5th Henry 5. .Thomas de Bold, 
 
 1420. .8th Henry 5. .Hugh de Botyle, 
 
 Thomas Bold, Merc. 
 
 1421. .9th Henry 5. .Hugh de Botyll. 
 
 1428. .7tli Henry 6. .John de Bretherton, 
 
 John de Lathe. 
 
 1433.. 12th Hen. 6.. Richard Caudrey, 
 
 Nicholas Lunt. 
 
 1434. .13th Hen. 6. .Nicholas Lunt. 
 
 1437.. 16th Hen. 6. .William Mynor, 
 
 John Taylior. 
 
 1439.. 18th Hen. 6.. Richard Swynley, 
 
 William Gayteherd. 
 1441. .20th Hen. 6. .Thomas Braude, 
 
 Thomas del Mosse. 
 1459. .38tli Hen. 6. .John Garston, 
 
 Hugh Richardson. 
 
 1469.. 9.h Edw. 4..Richard Swindley, 
 
 Thomas Wodeley. 
 
 1472. .12th Edw. 4. .Robert Farrinton, 
 
 Thomas Butler. 
 
 1474. .13th Edw. 4. .Robert Swyndley, 
 
 Thomas Wodely. 
 
 1475. .14th Edw. 4. .Christopher Day. 
 
 Richard Seacome. 
 
 1479. .20th Edw. 4. .Edward Thorpe, 
 Thomas Hurst. 
 
 RECORDER. 
 
 Clericus et Recordator villas 
 
 TOWN-CLERK. CORONER. 
 
 1470. .10th Edw. 4. .William Maude. | 1378. .2nd Rich. 2. .Thomas Dutton. 
 
 CLERGYMEN. 
 
 1439.. 18th Hen. 6.. Sir John Harrison, I 1433 .. 12th Hen. 6.. Sir John Gregory, 
 Chaplain. | Friest. 
 
 2 C 
 

CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF TUDOR. 
 
 During the period of a hundred and eighteen years which elapsed 
 between the battle of Bosworth Field and the death of Queen Elizabeth, 
 the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the kingdom made rapid 
 progress. The firm and wise policy of the Tudor Princes freed the 
 country from two evils, which had greatly retarded its progress, under the 
 preceding dynasty: from civil war on the one hand, and from extravagant 
 schemes of foreign conquest on the other. During the hundred years 
 which preceded the accession of the first of these resolute Sovereigns 
 to the throne, all branches of industry had been checked, and the 
 fruits of industry had been wasted, in internal strife, and in wild attempts 
 to conquer France; and though England had been tolerably free 
 from civil war during the preceding reigns of Edward the First and 
 Edward the Third, yet it was in the first of those reigns that the scheme 
 of conquering Scotland, which cost so much blood and treasure, was 
 formed; and in the latter, that that hopeless enterprize was abandoned 
 only for the still wilder one of subduing the kingdom of France. All 
 parts of England suffered greatly from the internal confusion caused 
 by the long rivalry between the successive occupants of the throne and 
 the Princes of the great House of Lancaster ; from the struggles which took 
 place between the Houses of York and Lancaster, after the latter had 
 seized on the crown, for the same brilliant prize; as well as from the 
 incessant wars with France, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales : yet the pres¬ 
 sure both of these domestic and foreign wars was felt much more severely 
 in the north of England, than in the south. The northern counties of 
 Lancashire, Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland 
 were frequently laid waste in the wars with Scotland ; and whether those 
 wars were successful or unfortunate, the counties near the borders were 
 subject to a merciless conscription, which on more than one occasion drained 
 away a fifth, if not a fourth, part of the male population. This was also 
 the case, though not to quite the same extent, in the wars with Wales and 
 Ireland ; and from the warlike habits of the population of the north they 
 
196 
 
 had also their full share in the wars with France, in which the Dukes of 
 Lancaster, the great proprietors of Lancashire, frequently took the field, 
 at the head of 1,500 or 2,000 bowmen and men-at-arms, chiefly drawn 
 from their northern estates. In the civil wars the north suffered still more, 
 either from the drain of men or from the presence of hostile armies. In 
 Lancashire, all the landowners were dependents of the House of Lancaster; 
 and the fortunes of those wars varied, as the great Northern Houses of 
 Percy, Neville, Clifford, Scrope, and Stanley, joined first one party then 
 another. 
 
 The accession of the house of Tudor freed the kingdom from both 
 these evils. It was the wise policy of Henry the Seventh to avoid 
 all foreign wars. His vain-glorious son was not equally prudent: but 
 still a frivolous campaign or two in France, in which the capture of 
 Boulogne w r as the most important achievement; and the short and fierce 
 war in which the King of Scotland was slain, and his nobility were 
 destroyed, at Flodden, were very brief interruptions of the peace generally 
 maintained with foreign nations during his long reign. The foreign 
 wars of Edward the Sixth, and Queen Mary, were not more important. 
 The battle of Pinkey put a speedy end to the one; and the loss of Calais, 
 the principal event of the other, deprived England of a constant tempta¬ 
 tion to quarrel with its most valuable friend and its most powerful enemy. 
 The wars of Queen Elizabeth were of longer duration ; but they were con¬ 
 ducted with extreme economy, and were chiefly defensive in their character. 
 That prudent princess rather aimed to retain what she already possessed, 
 than to acquire new and costly conquests. She even refused the Sove¬ 
 reignty of the Netherlands when it w 7 as offered to her. On a comparison 
 with the policy of the Plantagenets, that of the Tudors may be regarded 
 as very pacific; and, therefore, as highly beneficial to the country. 
 
 Nor was the condition of the country less improved in its internal 
 relations. The marriage of Henry the Seventh with the heiress of the 
 House of York put an end to the rivalry and strife amongst the members 
 of the royal family, which had been the ruin of England during the 
 preceding century. The successive princes of the House of Tudor also 
 rendered an unspeakable service to the country by repressing the over¬ 
 grown power of the great families of the nobility; of the Percys, the 
 Nevilles, the Boliuns, the Howards, and the Stanleys, who had 
 repeatedly given and taken away the crown during the preceding age. 
 The unvarying object of the Tudors was to reduce the power of the 
 nobility within such limits as would render it impossible for any of them 
 
197 
 
 ever again to contend successfully against the crown. In this they 
 succeeded; and, iu succeeding, they freed the crown and the people from 
 a continual source of danger and disquietude, and, at the same time, 
 retained for the nobility themselves a permanent position amongst the 
 institutions of the country, by rendering their power not only consistent 
 with the order and tranquillity of society, but highly conducive to it. It 
 was part of the policy of Henry the Seventh, and of his successors, to 
 raise up a middle class of small landed proprietors and yeomen, as well 
 as of citizens and burgesses, as a counterpoise to the nobility. 
 
 A further increase of the power of the middle classes arose out 
 of the great struggle with the Church of Rome, which commenced 
 in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and continued during those of his 
 successors. The vast estates of the abbeys, priories, and other monastic 
 institutions were broken up, and divided among a multitude of purchasers 
 or favourites, thus adding to the number of landowners and small 
 proprietors in town and country. In Liverpool, where the con¬ 
 fiscations were small, and where only a portion of the confiscated 
 lands were sold, upwards of thirty persons became purchasers of church 
 property.* The great change iu religion, and the revolution of property 
 by which it was accompanied, were not effected without cousiderable 
 internal strife and a long period of restlessness and danger; yet, the 
 actual wars which the Reformation produced in this country were short 
 in duration, and very slight in the injury which they inflicted on the 
 community, when compared with those of other countries—when com¬ 
 pared, for instance, with the sufferings which were iuflicted on France 
 by the destructive wars between the Catholics and the Huguenots ; on 
 Germany by the thirty years war, which at length, after a period of 
 unparalleled misery, secured freedom to the Protestants of Germany, at 
 the expense of the unity of the empire; on Flanders by the inhuman 
 massacres of the Duke of Alva, and the stern system of repression 
 adopted by his successors; and on Holland, in that heroic struggle in 
 which the Dutch established their independence as a nation, and 
 vindicated the rights of conscience against the bigotry of Spain. Com¬ 
 pared with these events, no country suffered so little, and gained so 
 much by the Reformation, as England. It was during the merciless 
 wars and massacres of France and Flanders that the most ingenious 
 artizans of those two countries took refuge in England, furnishing all 
 
 * Gregson’s Fragments. 
 
198 
 
 existing trades with the most skilful workmen, and introducing numerous 
 branches of manufacture previously unknown. The ultimate effect of 
 tho changes caused by the Reformation was to separate the northern 
 from the southern portions of the Netherlands, so that Flanders, then 
 the first manufacturing country in the world, was deprived of an 
 independent outlet for its products; and the commerce of Holland was 
 deprived of those great sources of internal support which are furnished 
 by a skilful agriculture, and by water power, iron, and coal. 
 
 Probably the worst effect of the Reformation, so far as England was 
 concerned, was its tendency to aggravate the difficulties of Ireland. 
 These difficulties were greatly increased by the fact, that the two nations 
 took directly opposite views on the great questions which.then divided 
 the world. It will be seen, in the course of the present chapter, that the 
 disordered state of Ireland, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was 
 the principal reason why Liverpool, which then depended on that country 
 for nine-tenths of its imports, shared in so small a degree in the 
 prosperity which pervaded the kingdom during the latter years of the 
 house of Tudor. 
 
 Whilst the general tendency of political events, both at home and 
 abroad, was to give fresh vigour to every branch of internal industry, a 
 still stronger impulse was given to all by the discovery of a new world. 
 The first effect of the discovery of America was to pour the precious metals 
 into all parts of Europe, in quantities unknown before. The result of 
 this great increase in the circulating medium of the whole civilized world 
 was two-fold. It facilitated commercial exchanges : it created at the same 
 time a great demand for all descriptions of manufactures. Whilst the 
 Spaniards obtained gold and silver directly from the mines of Mexico and 
 Peru, the English and other nations obtained them indirectly, by pro¬ 
 ducing in their workshops numerous articles, which the owners of the 
 new Indies willingly accepted in exchange for their gold and silver. The 
 effect of this increased ability of the Spaniards to buy was a prodigious 
 increase in the demand for English manufactures in the markets of 
 Antwerp and Bruges, where they purchased many of their supplies, as 
 well as in those of London ; and also a great increase of the trade with 
 Spain and Portugal. I shall trace the course of the discovery of America 
 in another chapter; and therefore shall only observe, in passing, that it is 
 very doubtful whether the English were not, from the first, greater gainers 
 than the Spaniards themselves, by the discovery of Mexico and Peru. 
 The effect of the discovery of the gold and silver mines of America was 
 
199 
 
 still further to thin the population of Spain, which had already been reduced 
 by perpetual wars, and by the expulsion of the Moors, after the triumph of 
 the Christians. During the whole period of the Tudors the population of 
 Spain was rapidly passing over to the New World ; and all the ordinary 
 occupations of industry were looked on with contempt, when compared 
 with the pursuit of gold and silver. What is occurring in California in 
 our own times, occurred in Spain in the sixteenth century. On the other 
 hand, the first attempts of England to colonize America were singularly 
 unsuccessful; and hence it was saved from the drain of its population, 
 until it was able to bear it. Nor were the circumstances less different 
 under winch the English efforts to colonize at last succeeded. Whilst the 
 Spaniards landed in an open country, abounding with gold and silver, and 
 inhabited by a mild and docile population, easily converted into slaves, 
 and whose labours enabled their conquerors to live in idleness, the 
 English fixed their abode on the edge of immense and trackless forests, 
 extending from the Atlantic, for nearly a thousand miles, across the 
 Alleghanies. Into these forests they had to cut their way with the axe. 
 They lived either by the sweat of their brow, with the labour of their hands, 
 or at the hazard of their lives, by hunting in forests, in which the wild 
 beasts were the least formidable inhabitants. The natives whom they 
 encountered, instead of resembling the soft, timid creatures, who fled before 
 the Spaniards, were brave, subtle, implacable; resolute in resisting attack, 
 and prompt in seizing every opportunity of revenge. The result of this 
 difference of circumstances was a still greater difference in character. The 
 Spanish settlers soon lost in sloth, and in their easy dominion over an 
 unresisting people, all the energy of their ancestors ; the Anglo-Americans, 
 on the other hand, trained in the school of difficulty and danger, more 
 than retained theirs; and hence they have in modern times succeeded in 
 establishing the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race on the American 
 Continent. In tracing the course of English discovery and settlement 
 in America, Asia, and Australia, from the earliest times, and in showing 
 the progress of domestic industry from its feeble commencement, I shall 
 best show the causes which have created the commercial greatness of 
 England, and which have ultimately fixed so large a portion of it in the 
 port of Liverpool. Before doing this, however, it will be necessary to 
 give a sketch of the local events in Liverpool, under the kings and queens 
 of the house of Tudor. 
 
 One of the first acts of Henry the Seventh, after obtaining possession 
 of the crown, was to secure for himself and his successors the estates of 
 
200 
 
 the Duchy of Lancaster. They were still large and valuable, notwith¬ 
 standing many imprudent grants made, and much neglect sustained, 
 during a century of political confusion and civil discord. The Borough 
 of Liverpool and two of the parks which had been so long attached to the 
 Castle of Liverpool, with most of the manors around the town, still 
 formed portions of the estates of the duchy. The only considerable 
 alienation of property which had taken place in the neighbourhood, during 
 tire wars of York and Lancaster, was that of the beautiful park of Tox- 
 teth, which had been granted to Sir Thomas Stanley, (afterwards Lord 
 Stanley,) and his heirs, in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Henry the 
 Sixth.* With this exception, nearly all that had ever been possessed by 
 the earls and dukes of Lancaster, in and about Liverpool, passed into the 
 hands of Henry the Seventh ; and in the first year of his reign he induced 
 parliament to agree to an act, which not only secured him in possession 
 of the lands of the duchy, but also of all the ancient royal and manorial 
 rights belonging to it. These were described in the act as all ” toll, 
 pannage, passage, pickage, stallage, lastage, tallage, tollage, and car¬ 
 riage,” which the tenants, inhabitants, and residents had been accustomed 
 to pay, in all lands, market towns, and places whatsoever, belonging to the 
 duchy.f The history of Liverpool during this reign consists of little 
 more than an enumeration of various schemes by which the king, whose 
 only passion was avarice, attempted to draw as much money as possible 
 from the town and neighbourhood, as he did from every other part of his 
 dominions. 
 
 In the third year of his reign, Henry the Seventh resumed the ferry 
 of the river Mersey, which his predecessor, Richard the Third, had 
 granted to Richard Cook, rent free, for the term of his life. This Henry 
 leased to him for seven years, at a yearly rent of sixty shillings.^ In the 
 seventh year of his reign, he granted to Thomas Fazakerley, in considera¬ 
 tion of a small annual rent, permission to form a fishing station at his 
 own cost and expenses, in the river Mersey, between Toxtetli and the 
 Borough of Liverpool.§ In the tenth year of his reign, this prudent 
 monarch granted a lease of the fee-farm of Liverpool to one of his Welsh 
 followers, David ap Griffith, not forgetting to raise the rent from ^611 to 
 J614.II In the thirteenth year of his reign he attempted to extort 
 money from the mayor and burgesses of Liverpool by the terrors of a 
 
 * From the Chancery Documents at Lancaster Castle, 25th Henry Sixth. 
 
 + Rolls of Parliament, 1st Henry Seventh. 
 
 } Register Book of the Duchy. § Ibid. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
201 
 
 Quo Warranto, which wasone of hisfavourite methods of obtaining money ;* 
 but he appears to have abandoned the proceeding, probably on finding 
 that there was nothing to be gained by fleecing his own tenants.f In the 
 fourteenth year of his reign, he imposed fines on certain of the inhabitants 
 of Liverpool, for selling corn for the purpose of exportation, without 
 royal license. In the seventeenth year of his reign, he again leased the 
 fee-farm of the town to David ap Griffith, or, as he is called in one of the 
 leases, David Harvey. In the twenty-second year of his reign, he secured 
 a return in money from the two remaining hunting grounds of the crown 
 in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, by letting Croxtetb and Simonswood 
 to William Molyneux, of Sefton, for a perpetual rent of Tl6 a year,J equal 
 even then to about <£100. At the time when they were so leased they 
 were mere wastes. Simonswood “ was overgrown with wood of little 
 value, and was a watery, moorish, and mossy ground, with little or no 
 grass growingand Croxteth was “ a barren and moorish ground.” By 
 these grants the last of the royal parks in the neighbourhood of Liverpool 
 was alienated from the Crown and Duchy of Lancaster. With them 
 terminates the brief, inglorious, History of Liverpool and its dependencies, 
 under the first king of the house of Tudor. 
 
 Henry the Eighth was as extravagant as his father was rapacious, and 
 his calls for money were therefore equally urgent. In the sixth year of 
 his reign he, or his ministers, caused a commission to be issued, to inquire 
 into the causes of a decline which had taken place in the customs revenue 
 of Liverpool.§ One of the principal objects of this inquiry was to 
 ascertain whether the Mayor of Liverpool had not caused this decline, 
 by enfranchising strangers resident in the borough, and so freeing 
 them from the liability to pay the town dues, which then belonged 
 to the king, as Duke of Lancaster. Amongst the commissioners appointed 
 to make this inquiry was Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton, who thus 
 obtained that knowledge of the royal rights in Liverpool wffiich afterwards 
 induced him and his successors to lease, and ultimately to purchase them 
 from the Crown. Nothing is known of the report made by these com¬ 
 missioners. 
 
 * Quo Warrantos flew about like hailstones in a storm, at this time. Amongst the 
 corporations and proprietors aimed at in Lancashire, were the mayor, bailiffs, and com 
 munity of Liverpool; the mayor and burgesses of Preston; the prepositus and burgesses 
 of \\ igan ; the prepositus and burgesses of Salford ; the mayor and burgesses of Lancaster; 
 the prior of Cartmel; the Abbot of Delacrosse; Margaret, Countess of Richmond and 
 Derby (the king's mother!) ; George Stanley; Lord le Strange and Johanna, his wife; Sir 
 Edward Stanley; Sir John Townley, knight; Lord de la War; Sir Richard Langton, knight; 
 Sir Thomas Butler, and many others .—Molls in the Castle of Lancaster. 
 
 + Rolls in Lancaster Castle. + Muniments of the Earl of Sefton. § Duchy Book of Leases. 
 
 2 D 
 
202 
 
 In the seventh year of Henry the Eighth, the present Oldhall-street, 
 which had previously been a private road to the Old Hall, was made a 
 common way, for the ease of the burgesses and commonalty going with 
 their carriages or otherwise into the fields of Liverpool. This was done 
 by an agreement between William More, of the Old Hall, and the mayor 
 and burgesses.* The town was thus slowly extending. 
 
 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, we find the 
 first documentary evidence of the claim of the mayor and burgesses of 
 Liverpool to the wastes or common lands within the borough. As these 
 wastes have in modern times become building land of immense value, and 
 now yield an income of more than Tl00,000 a-year to the Corporation of 
 Liverpool, it is interesting to trace them from the earliest period of their 
 history, when they produced a rental of only a few shillings a-year. The 
 subjoined lease of a few roods of waste land, situated near More Green, an 
 open space at the top of the present Tithebarn-street, granted by the mayor 
 and burgesses, to Sir William Molyneux, in the year 1524, the fifteenth of 
 Henry the Eighth, is interesting, both as the first act of ownership of which 
 we have any knowledge, and because it must have greatly strengthened 
 the corporation, in their final struggle for the possession of the wastes of 
 the town with the Molyneux family, in the reign of Charles the Second.f 
 The object of the lease was to enable Sir William Molyneux to build an 
 office or Tythebarn, to store the tithes of that part of Walton parish which 
 was then comprised in the townships of Liverpool and Kirkdale. The 
 Molyneux family had bought the living from the Abbots of Shrewsbury, 
 in the reign of Edward the Fourth. It had been in the possession of the 
 abbey from the reign of William the Conqueror; having been granted to 
 it by Goisfred, the vice-comes of the Honor of Lancaster, one of the 
 followers of Roger of Poictou. 
 
 » Muniments of the Crosses, of Crosse Hall. 
 
 + “ This indenture, made between William More, Armiger, mayor of the Town of Lythe- 
 pole and the community of the same town, on the one part, and Sir William Molyneux, 
 knight, on the other part, testifies that the said mayor and community have unanimously 
 conceded, delivered, and demised, in perpetual fee-farm, by these presents, to the aforesaid 
 Sir William Molyneux, a certain parcel of land, lying near the More-green, opposite to a 
 certain croft of William Fazakerley, of Kirkby, containing four roods in length, and in 
 breadth, at the end abutting the lands of William Fazakerley, two roods and a half, and 
 at the other end, one rood and a half, according to the measure of twenty-four feet to the 
 rood, on which parcel of land the aforesaid Sir William Molyneux intends to build a certain 
 office (officium), to be held by the said Sir William Molyneux, his heirs, and assigns, in 
 fee-farm for ever, paying yearly to the aforesaid mayor and community of the aforesaid town, 
 and to their successors, at the Feast of St. Michael, sixpence sterling, towards the reparation 
 of the Chapel of St. Nicholas, in Liverpool: and, if it should happen that the said rent of 
 sixpence shall be in arrear, <fcc. [Here are clauses for distress, warranty, delivery of 
 possession, interchange of deeds, penalty of £50 on either party making default.] Given 
 on the 5tli day of the month of October, in the fifteenth year of the reign of King Henry 
 the Eighth .”—Muniments of the Corporation of Liverpool. 
 
203 
 
 This is the earliest document claiming the commons of the town as the 
 property of the mayor and burgesses, but it is not the only one of this date. 
 In the most ancient Record Book of fhe Corporation the subjoined 
 account of the rental yielded by the common lands of the town appears, 
 as one of the elder “ precedences.” under date of the sixteenth of Henry 
 the Eighth. The rental of seven shillings and fivepence, mentioned in it, 
 is the germ out of which the present splendid estate of the corporation 
 has grown.* 
 
 In the same year in which the above entry was made, the King, as 
 Duke of Lancaster, granted a lease of the fee-farm of the town to Alice 
 Gruff, or Griffith, and to Henry Ackers, who is supposed to have been 
 her son-in-law. The term for which the lease was granted was twenty- 
 one years. Four or five years later, that is, in the twentieth of Henry the 
 Eighth, another lease was granted, for a further period of twenty years from 
 the date of the second lease, at an increased yearly rent of 6s. 8d. In 
 the following year, on the 15th of March, 1531, Henry Ackers sub-let the 
 half of the fee-farm of the town to the mayor and burgesses of Liverpool 
 for a term of six years, at a yearly rent of £10; the mayor and com¬ 
 munity undertaking by this agreement to collect the whole of the dues, 
 and to account to the lessee for his share of them, as well as for the 
 rent. In the same year, Henry Ackers claimed the ferry from Liverpool 
 to Runcorn, as part of the fee-farm; and obtained a royal order, forbidding 
 any one else to carry passengers between Liverpool and Runcorn, until 
 the question of right had been tried and decided.f No record of any such 
 trial is known to exist. 
 
 A copy of the king’s rent-roll in Liverpool, made on the 8th day of 
 October, in the twenty-third year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, 
 1539, is still in existence. Among the king’s tenants were “ my Lord 
 of Derby,” who paid a rent of 19s. 8d. for the Tower lands ; the heirs of 
 Sir John Stanley, who paid 2s. 6d.; William More, who paid 49s. 6d. 
 for his lands, and who was the owner of a house in Castle-street, “ letten 
 
 * The rentals of the commons at the assembly aforesaid, (R. Corbett, mayor.) The true 
 copy of the rental that is found written in these words following, by the hand of William 
 More, Esquire, deputed, due at Michaelmas, anno sixteenth, regn. reg. Henrici Octavi, 
 etc. “ Inprimis, Sir William Molyneux, knight, for the new Tend-bam, (Tythebarn,) Od.; 
 Richard Barker, for certain common ground lying betwixt St. Catherine’s Hey and his croft, 
 20d.; John Smyth, mariner, for common ground, 8d.; Gilbert Cooke, for common, lOd.; 
 Robert Dobbe, for common, 20d.; Adam Dandye, for mill-dam, lOd.; Jenlcey Baxter, 
 for common, 4d.: Thomas Wystanley, for common, 12d.: sum total, 7s. 5d. Such is the 
 earliest account of the landed estate of the Corporation of Liverpool! 
 
 + Tleadings and Surveys of the Duchy of Lancaster, tempore Henry Eighth, ii., 62. 
 
204 
 
 unto the king's fanners,' at a rent of 4s.; Richard Crosse and Roger 
 Crosse, Esquires, for land exchanged with William More, Esquire, 
 18s.; John Walker, “fora house that he dwells in, and for the lands 
 he bought of Edmund Gellybrond, for the shops," 18d.; Thomas 
 Mossocke, for “the stone-house,” Gd.; Roger Eazalcerley, fora house 
 in Castle-street, 6d.; Sir William Molyneux, knight, for his lands, 14d.; 
 Miles Gerrard, for half a burgage, Gd.; James Blundell, of Ince, 6d.; 
 Sir Ralph Howarth, for St. Nicholas’ lands, 2s. Id.; Sir Richard 
 Frodsham, for the lands of our Lady, 18d.; Sir Thomas Roley, for the 
 lands of St. John, Gd.; William Norris, Esquire, for lands, Gd.; Miles 
 Gerrard, “paid by John Sudlow,” Gd.; the Priests’ Chambers, Gd.; 
 William Mather, for lands he bought of William More, 2d. The 
 sum total of the rent of Henry the Eighth from Liverpool, was TlO. 16s.* 
 It will be seen that the title of Sir is given to the priests who held 
 the church-lands. It was then usually applied to clergymen, as to that 
 amusing though indifferent specimen of the priesthood, Sir Hugh 
 Evans, in “ the Merry Wives of Windsor,” and to the false Sir Topas, 
 in “ Twelfth Night.” 
 
 The twenty-sixth of Henry the Eighth, 1534-5, was the memorable 
 year in which the king and parliament declared the connexion with the 
 Church of Rome, which had existed for so many ages, to be at end ; and 
 in which they thus committed the monarchy and people of England to 
 that great movement which had already agitated the continent of Europe 
 for upwards of twenty years ; which continued to agitate both the conti¬ 
 nent and these islands, with constantly increasing violence, during the 
 whole of the reigns of the Tudor princes; and whose consequences will be 
 felt to the most remote ages. The effect of this great change was at 
 once felt in Liverpool, in the revolution of religious opinion, and the 
 change in the forms of public worship. The change in the property of 
 the church was less felt in Liverpool than in many other places; the 
 endowments, for purposes proscribed by the reformers of religion, being 
 very small. The patronage of Walton, which was then the parish 
 church of Liverpool, had been sold (as I have already mentioned) some 
 years before to the Molyneux family, by the monastery of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, at Shrewsbury : hence it escaped the general plunder of monastic 
 property. The priory of Birkenhead, immediately opposite to Liverpool, but 
 notpossessingmuchpropertyintlie town, was at once suppressed, alongwitli 
 
 + Gregson’s Fragments. 
 
205 
 
 the smaller monastic houses. In the year 1545, all the property and rights 
 which the priors had held for about four hundred years passed, by grant, 
 into the hands of Ralph Worsley, of Worsley, in Lancashire, page of the 
 wardrobe and groom of the chamber “of the unconquered chief,” Henry 
 the Eighth, and afterwards keeper of the lions, lionesses, and leopards in 
 the Tower.* This grant included the site of the late priory of Birken¬ 
 head, with all the church, belfry, and churchyard of the same; all the 
 house, edifices, mills, barns, and stables, within or nigh the precincts of 
 the same ; a messuage or tenement, in the possession of Robert Molyneux ; 
 one dove house, one mill, and all the fish-yards, with two acres of mea¬ 
 dow, seventy acres of arable land, and one parcel of land where flax was 
 used to be grown ; the ferry, the ferry-house, the boat called the “ Ferri- 
 bot,” and the profit of the same; situated and being in Birkenhead, and 
 Bidston, and Kirkby Whally, otherwise Wallasey; together with all 
 lands and rights belonging to the said priory, in the townships, parishes, or 
 hamlets of Birkenhead, Claughton. Wolton, Tranmere, Bidston, and Kirkby 
 Whally. At the time when the priory was granted to Ralph Worsley it 
 produced a clear yearly rental of £115. 13s. 5d. After passing through 
 various hands, it has come into the possession of Francis Richard Price, 
 Esq., in whom the manor of Birkenhead, and the rights which formerly 
 belonged to the priory, are now vested. The monks of Birkenhead had a 
 granary in Water-street, Liverpool, which produced a rent of 4s. 2d., at 
 the time when the priory was suppressed. That was the only property 
 which they possessed in Liverpool. 
 
 The church property in Liverpool confiscated at the time of the 
 Reformation was not very large. It consisted of four chantries belonging 
 to the chapel of St. Nicholas, of which two were sold, and two were 
 retained in the hands of the crown.f 
 
 The first of the chantries was that of the High Altar, founded by 
 Henry Plantagenet, the first Duke of Lancaster, to pray for the souls 
 of himself and his ancestors. The incumbent at the time when it was 
 suppressed was Ralph Haworth. The lands and tenements were of the 
 value of £5 19s. 10d., and the priest also received 40s. a-year for his 
 living ! The ornaments belonging to this chantry were valued at 2s., 
 and the number of ounces of plate belonging to it was eight. 
 
 The second chantry was that of St. Nicholas, founded by the 
 famous John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to pray for the souls of 
 
 * Mortimer's History of Wirral, 31G. 
 
 + See Grcgson's Fragments. 
 
206 
 
 himself and his ancestors. The incumbent was Richard Frodsham, a 
 venerable priest, eighty years of age. The chantry lands produced 
 .£5 14s. 7d., besides 40s. for the living of the priest. There were no 
 ornaments, nor plate, belonging to the chantry of St. Nicholas. 
 
 The third chantry was that of the altar of St. John, founded by John 
 of Liverpool, to pray for his soul and the souls of his ancestors, for ever. 
 John Hurd, aged fifty years,- was the incumbent, with a salary of 
 £5 4s. 8d., besides 40s. for his living. The ornaments belonging to this 
 chantry were of the value of 40s., besides eight ounces of plate, in the 
 form of a chalice. 
 
 The fourth chantry was that of the altar of St. Catherine, which was 
 founded by John Crosse, of Crosse-hall, Liverpool, to celebrate for his 
 soul ; to do one yearly obit; to distribute at the same time 3s. 4d. to 
 the poor ; and to keep a school of grammar for all children bearing the 
 name of Crosse, and for poor children (which latter duty was not per¬ 
 formed). Humphrey Crosse, a member of the founder’s family, was the 
 incumbent. He was of the age of fifty years. His revenue from the 
 chantry was £G 2s. 10d., besides 40s. for his living. The ornaments 
 belonging to this chantry were of the value of 3s., and there were besides 
 twelve ounces of plate. 
 
 At the dissolution of these four chantries, the sum of £5 13s. 4d. 
 a-year was granted for the purpose of establishing a grammar school in 
 Liverpool, a portion of the rents was retained by the crown, and a portion 
 was sold in about thirty lots. The principal purchasers were Richard 
 Rose, who bought <£40 worth of property, producing a rent of 26s.; 
 Robert Moore, who bought £39 worth, producing a rent of 23s.; Lancelot 
 Walker, who bought £33 worth, producing a rent of 18s. Gd. ; William 
 Ecceleston, who bought £37 9s. worth, with arent of 35s 8d. ; — Hitch- 
 mough, who bought .£55 worth, with arent of 35s. Gd.; Thomas Lurting, 
 who bought £30 worth, with a rent of 29s.; William Coore, who bought 
 £51 worth, with a rent of 33s. 4d.; Edward Robinson, who bought £40 
 worth, with a rent of 21 s. 2d.; and Mr. Rose, who gave £50 for the Merlin, 
 a house which once stood where Nelson’s Monument now stands, in the 
 middle of the Liverpool Exchange. These prices were all high in 
 comparison with the rents ; and as thirty-one purchasers were found 
 amongst the principal inhabitants of the town, we may conclude that the 
 Protestant interest was tolerably strong, in Liverpool before the sale. It 
 certainly would not be weaker after it. Amongst other property sold on 
 this occasion was the Custom House, which was the property of the 
 
207 
 
 chantry of St. Catherine; and which produced a rental of 5s. a year, 
 equal to about £1 5s. of our money. 
 
 At the time of the reformation, a number of new bishoprics were 
 created, of which the modern see of Chester was one. The diocese of 
 Chester was formed by separating the county of Chester and that part 
 of Lancashire which lies between the Mersey and the Ribble, from the 
 diocese of Lichfield, and by uniting to those districts portions of the ancient 
 Richmondshire, and of the counties of Flint and Denbigh. Cheshire and 
 South Lancashire had been united to the bishopric of Lichfield from a 
 period so early that it is scarcely possible to tell when it commenced. 
 The belief, in the reign of Henry the Eighth was that it went as far back 
 as the times of the Saxon Heptarchy, when Penda, the last Pagan 
 King of Mercia, was vanquished and slain by Edwin, the Christian King 
 of Northumberland.* Under the rule of the Christian kings of Mercia, 
 Lichfield was raised to the rank of an archbishopric; but after the over¬ 
 throw and dethronement of that line of kings by the Danes, it was shorn 
 of much of its greatness, although it afterwards regained a high rank. 
 Lichfield was the parent of many bishoprics, several of which it has 
 survived. The bishopric- of Manchester is the last created from the 
 ancient territory of the bishops of Lichfield. 
 
 It is in the reign of Henry the Eighth that we begin to obtain a 
 view of the interior of society in Liverpool, from the Corporation Records. 
 What are called the “elder precedences” commence about the year 1525, 
 although the regular series of the Corporation Records does not begin 
 until nearly thirty years later. We learn from these “ elder precedences’’ 
 that the town was then governed by a mayor and bailiffs, and by twelve 
 burgesses of the commonalty “ appointed to order for the public weal.” 
 A few of the elder precedences will give a clearer notion of what was 
 the state of the place at that time than any description. It was provided 
 by these ancient local laws, that a priest should say mass at St. John’s 
 Altar, between five and six o'clock every morning, so that labourers might 
 be able to attend before they went to their work ; that the burgesses 
 should wait upon the mayor whenever commanded to do so, on the 
 business of the town or of the church ; that all vagrants should be kept 
 out of the town ; that the bailiffs, aldermen, and burgesses, the keeper of 
 the common warehouse, the water-bailiff, and waites, should attend the 
 mayor on market-days and in yearly processions, armed with halberds or 
 
 * Lelands Itinerary, iv., 118. 
 
208 
 
 bills; that all bakers should bake wholesome bread, and keep such assize 
 as the mayor doth give ; that no ballast should be thrown into the 
 sea-lake or pool; that suspicious or suspected persons should not 
 walk in the streets after nine o'clock at night; that persons afflicted with 
 pestilence should be kept separate from the rest of the inhabitants; that 
 no flax should be gigged in houses in the town; that no flax, nor hemp 
 should be watered in or about the town; that the liberties or boundaries 
 of the borough should be walked once a-year; that foreign burgesses 
 should bear equally with those of the town, scot and lot, but that they 
 should not follow their occupations in the town, nor bake, brew, nor sell 
 ale, nor expose their goods for sale, except on market-days ; that tanners 
 should not leave horns or hides in the streets ; that apprentices should 
 not play at cards or dice ; that sheep should not be turned out without a 
 shepherd, nor swine without a swineherd ; that carts should pay 4d. a-year 
 each towards mending the roads, and that country carts should not ply in 
 the town; that corn should not be sold before the market-bell rang, and 
 that country persons should not buy any until an hour after; that corn 
 and malt should not be winnowed in the streets; that the curfew-bell 
 should “ toll the knell of parting day” at eight o’clock ; that waites should 
 be appointed to play on musical instruments, morning and. evening, every 
 day except Sunday ; and that all the inhabitants should join the mayor, 
 bailiffs, and aldermen, in public procession round the borough, on St. 
 John’s or Midsummer’s Eve. Such were the laws, and the old customs 
 of Liverpool, three hundred years ago. 
 
 In the twenty-eighth year of Henry the Eighth, the fee-farm of 
 Liverpool was let to Thomas Holcroft, Esq., a great trafficker in 
 church-lands; and on the 27th of August, in the same year, Holcroft 
 assigned his lease of the fee-farm to Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton. 
 This was the commencement of the connexion of the Molyneux family 
 with the fee-farm of Liverpool, which continued for upwards of two hun¬ 
 dred years. On the 3rd September, 1539, Sir William Molyneux granted 
 a moiety of the fee-farm to the mayor and burgesses of Liverpool, at a 
 yearly rent of ^10 ; and some time afterwards he sub-let the other moiety 
 to Edmund Gee, of Chester and Liverpool, on payment of a fine of £i, 
 and subject to a yearly rent of T8. In this sub-lease, Edmund Gee 
 covenanted not to sublet the farm again ; and “ not to do, or procure to be 
 done, any act or acts against the liberties of the town of Liverpool.” He 
 also granted a right of pre-emption to Sir William Molyneux and his 
 heirs and assigns, of all merchandize, wines, or wares, which he or his 
 
209 
 
 factors might bring into the port and town of Liverpool.* This Edmund 
 Gee was elected Mayor of Chester during the year 1551-2, and died, 
 during his mayoralty, of that fatal and mysterious disease the sweating 
 sickness. He is mentioned in two deeds of this time, in one of which 
 some large importations of w r ine into the port of Liverpool, from Spain, 
 are said to have been made at his instance, by a Spaniard named Lope de 
 Rivera; in the other of which he is spoken of, by the chancellor of the 
 duchy, as “ the great merchant” of Liverpool. 
 
 The earliest account of Liverpool given by any writer of celebrity, is 
 that published by John Leland, or Leyland, the librarian of Henry the 
 Eighth, who visited all parts of the kingdom in the latter part of the 
 reign of that monarch, and spent six years in collecting the materials for 
 his Itinerary. His account of Liverpool is as follows:—“ Lyrpole, 
 alias Lyverpole, a paved town, hath but a chapel. Walton, four miles 
 off, not far from the sea, is the parish church. The king hath a castelet 
 there, and the Earl of Derby hath a stone house. Irish merchants come 
 much thither, as to a good haven. After that Mersey water coming 
 towards Runcorn, in Cheshire, loseth among the common people the 
 name (of Mersey) and (floweth) to Lyrpole. At Lyrpole is small custom 
 paid; that causeth merchants to resorte. Good merchandize at Lyrpole ; 
 and much Irish yarn, that Manchester men do buy there.” From the 
 above account it will be seen, that although Liverpool was at this time 
 an inconsiderable place, yet that it was already the port through wdiich 
 Manchester and the manufacturing district of Lancashire obtained the 
 materials for carrying on the manufactures, which (as I shall show in a 
 succeeding chapter) were beginning to flourish there. It will be seen 
 that Leland speaks of the smallness of the customs duties as a reason 
 why merchants frequented the port. The only customs collected in 
 Liverpool at that time were the petty customs, now called town dues, a 
 branch of the jura regalia. The local dues, called murage and key age, 
 which were collected in Bristol, Chester, and other strongly-fortified 
 cities, and which were nearly as heavy as the town dues, were never paid 
 in Liverpool; and it is stated, in a petition addressed to Queen Elizabeth, 
 that the still more considerable taxes of tonnage and poundage were not 
 paid at Liverpool previous to her reign—probably because they would not 
 have paid the cost of collecting. Liverpool was thus a cheaper port 
 than cither Bristol or Chester. 
 
 On the death of Henry the Eighth, which occurred in the year 154C-7, 
 
 o 
 
 E 
 
 * Muniments of the Earl of Seftou. 
 
210 
 
 Liverpool passed into the hands of his son, Edward the Sixth, along with 
 the other estates of the crown and of the duchy of Lancaster. The regu¬ 
 lar records of the Corporation of Liverpool commence in this reign, from 
 which time we have very much fuller information as to local events in 
 the borough. In the year 155G, we find the earliest audit of the accounts 
 of the Corporation of Liverpool. It shows that the corporation was then 
 in receipt of the town's customs or dues, which it held under a sub-lease 
 from the Molyneuxes of Croxteth, the lessees of the crown.* A summary 
 of the information afforded by the Corporation Records, both as to this 
 and the two succeeding reigns, will be given in the course of the present 
 chapter. 
 
 In the second year of Edward the Sixth, Henry Shaw sold to Henry 
 Tarlton, of Fazakerley, gentleman, four shops near the High Cross, in 
 Liverpool, that is close to the present Town Hall: the price paid for 
 them was TlO, and an annuity of eleven shillings, to be paid to Ellen 
 Shaw, for the term of her life.f 
 
 Edward the Sixth died in the seventh year of his reign, in the year 
 1553-4. The accession of Queen Mary was the signal for the revival of 
 the power of the Catholics; and the Corporation of Liverpool, seeing the 
 approach of the storm, very prudently elected as their mayor Sir William 
 Norris, of Speke, the representative of one of the oldest, bravest, and most 
 zealous of the Catholic families of Lancashire. In the same year, Sir 
 Richard Molyneux, whose family was even more distinguished, and 
 equallv zealous for the old religion, obtained a renewal of his lease of the 
 fee-farm of Liverpool, from the queen, for forty-one years. The granting 
 of a lease of the town, for so long a period, produced great alarm in Liver¬ 
 pool, as it gave the Molyneuxes the control of the commerce of the port, 
 in addition to the great influence which they possessed as hereditary 
 governors of the castle. In their anger, the mayor and burgesses deter¬ 
 mined to resist the payment of a portion of the dues claimed by the lessees 
 of the crown ; and attempted to prove that they belonged to the corpora¬ 
 tion, either by prescription or under their ancient charters. 
 
 They began by taking the law into their own hands. This they did 
 by arresting and throwing into prison Hugh Daubie, the collector of the 
 dues of Sir Richard Molyneux. The consequence of this illegal act was, 
 that Mr. Thomas Moore, the Mayor of Liverpool, who had gone up to 
 
 * Mr. Thomas Mor, Mair of Liverpol, tok the accompt of Roff Sekerston, beyng mair 
 the year before, and of Rauff Leay and Thomas Bolton, Bayleys, the 20th of December; and 
 they were quyt; and their remaynyse to receyve of Edward Preskot, for the town custum, 
 21s. 3d .—Corporation Records. 
 
 + Harleian MSS., 2042, p. 250. 
 
211 
 
 London on the business of the town, was himself arrested and committed 
 to the Fleet prison, where he was kept in durance, until he made an 
 apology for his conduct and that of his co-burgesses. The question of 
 the right of the crown and of its lessee to collect the dues in question was 
 afterwards brought before the chancellor of the duchy, who, after a full 
 hearing, decided that Sir Richard Moiyneux was entitled to all that he 
 claimed, as tenant of the crown. That is, “ to all and singular the profits 
 of the said custome, arising and coming, by any mean, within the said 
 town and lordship, as well by all freemen of the same town, as also by 
 all foreigners and estrangers, whatsoever they he, that shall bring, 
 transport, or use any kind of merchandize within the said town or 
 lordship of Lyverpoolle, or liberties of the same; and also the profits of 
 the stallage, passage, anchorage, keil-toll, profits of the fairs and markets, 
 within the said town and lordship; as also all and singular other profits, 
 whatsoever they be, belonging to or in any wise appertaining to the said 
 town of Lyverpoolle.”* 
 
 During the contest with Sir Richard Moiyneux a parliamentary elec¬ 
 tion occurred, and the burgesses of Liverpool, like discreet men, determined 
 to make as many powerful friends out of it as possible. With this view, 
 they first elected Sir Richard Sliirborne, steward to Edward, Earl of Derby, 
 as one of their members: they then returned the writ, with a vacant space 
 in it, to be filled by the chancellor of the duchy, with whatever name he 
 might think proper to insert! 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1556, King Philip and Queen Mary inspected 
 and confirmed the charters of the borough of Liverpool. The following 
 is their deed of confirmation :— 
 
 “ Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, 
 France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Prince 
 and Princess of Spain and Sicily, Archduke and Archduchess of Austria, 
 Duke and Duchess of Milan, Burgundy, and Brabant, Earl and Countess 
 of Hapsburgh, Flanders, and Tyrol, to all to whom these present letters 
 shall come, greeting : We have inspected the charter and the letters patent 
 of the Lord Richard the Second, heretofore King of England, the pro¬ 
 genitor of us the aforesaid Queen, made in these words: Richard, by the 
 grace of God, &c. [After reciting the charters of Richard the Second; of 
 King John; of Henry the Third; and of Edward the Third, the charter of 
 Philip and Mary proceeds as follows :] We, also, the charters and letters 
 aforesaid, and all and singular in the same contained, except the clause 
 
 * Decree of the Duchy Court, and and 3rd Philip and Mary. 
 
212 
 
 aforesaid (the clause of Richard the Second's charter, mentioned at page 
 171). holding linn and valid, do, for us and the heirs of us the aforesaid 
 Queen, as much as in us is, accept and approve, and to our beloved 
 the burgesses of the borough aforesaid, and to their heirs and successors, 
 burgesses of the said borough, by the tenor of these presents do ratify and 
 confirm the same, as the charters and letters aforesaid do reasonably wit¬ 
 ness. In testimony whereof these our letters we have made patent. 
 "Witness ourselves at Westminster, the 4th day of January, in the second 
 year of our reign.” 
 
 Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne on the 17th of November, 1558. 
 It was during her reign, which did not close till the 24th of March, 1603, 
 that the commerce of Liverpool first began to make some progress, 
 notwithstanding the deep depression which prevailed when she ascended 
 the throne. This was caused partly by the unsettled state of the kingdom, 
 partly by threats of invasion from abroad, and partly by the ravages of 
 the plague, which in one of its recent visitations had swept away 250 
 persons, in a population of from 1,200 to 1,500, in the town of Liverpool. 
 
 In the year 1561, Liverpool was visited by one of those destructive 
 storms which occasionally rage with irresistible fury on the open coast of 
 Lancashire. In this storm the old haven of the town, which there is some 
 reason to believe had existed from the reign of Edward the Third, was 
 totally destroyed. This occurred in the mayoralty of Robert Corbett. He 
 lost no time in calling the burgesses together, and in urging them to 
 construct a new haven, in the place of the one which had been destroyed. 
 It will be seen from an extract from the Corporation Records given below, 
 that the burgesses set to work with spirit, and in a short time constructed 
 a new and better haven, by their own voluntary and gratuitous services.* 
 
 * The New Haven — Robert Corbett, Mayor, 1561.—Sunday being the 9th of 
 November, this year, and next after the great wind and storms aforesaid, master mayor 
 called the whole town, as many as then were at home, together, unto the hall, where they 
 councilled all in one consent and assent, for the foundation and making of a new haven, 
 turning the fresh water out of the old pole (pool) into the new haven; and then and there 
 before he rose, by the side of the bench, of his free will, gave a pystal of gold towards the 
 beginning, which that day was good and current all England through for 5s. 10d., although 
 after, in few days, it was not so, but by proclamation in London, by the Queen’s Majesty, &c., 
 was prohibited and not current, &c. Also, the same day, Mr. Sekerston did give, also all 
 the rest of the congregation did give, so that in the whole was gathered that present day 
 the whole sum of 16s. 9d. current, &c., and put into the custody of Richard Eazakarley and 
 Robert Mosse, who were then appointed to be collectors for that time, &e. On the Monday 
 morning then next, Mr. Mayor, and of every house in the Water-street, one labourer went 
 to the old pole, and there began and enterprized digging, ditching, and busily labouring 
 upon the foundation of the new haven; and so the Tuesday, of every house in the Castle- 
 street. was a labourer sent to the same work. Wednesday then next after came forth of 
 every house in the Dale street to the said new haven, a labourer gratis. Thursday then 
 next after the Juggler-street. With the More-street, Mylne-street, Cbapell-street, every 
 house sending a labourer, and this order continued until St. Nicholas Day, then next after, 
 gratis .—Corporation Records. 
 
213 
 
 About this time, the burgesses, finding that nothing was to be got by- 
 resisting the law, made a treaty of friendship with the Molyneux family, 
 and to confirm it elected Richard Molyneux, Esq., the son and heir of 
 Sir Richard, as one of the members for the borough. In order still 
 further to strengthen the local interest, it was the wish of the burgesses 
 that their powerful neighbour the Earl of Derby should nominate the 
 other member. By thus fixing on both the members without taking his 
 advice, they gave mortal offence to the chancellor of the duchy, who had 
 always been in the habit of nominating one, if not both of them. 
 Fortunately, the nominee of the Earl of Derby, Mr. Ralph Sekerston, 
 was as little troubled with fear as he was with modesty. He took and held 
 his seat, in defiance of the chancellor of the duchy, and distinguished 
 himself by both making and delivering several speeches in Parliament; an 
 achievement to which no member for Liverpool had ever before aspired. 
 He did still more than this, for “ of his own politic wit and wisdom" he 
 drew up, and presented to the queen, a very melancholy picture of the 
 state of the town; in which he insinuated that it had recently been 
 deprived of certain valuable privileges (which, however, was not true), 
 and suggested that it would be very much benefited if the queen would 
 give up the town dues to the burgesses. Her majesty having quite as 
 much occasion for money as the Corporation of Liverpool, gave a civil 
 answer to this request, which amounted to a refusal. This Ralph 
 Sekerston, who seems to have been a very active man in Liverpool about 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, had a favourite maxim, which shows 
 that his charity not only began but ended at home. It was “ Save me 
 and mine, and the town of Liverpool, and all that belongs to it; and let 
 the lords kill whoever else they like!” 
 
 The progress of the Protestant religion was much slower in the north 
 of England than in the south. In the north Protestantism was chiefly 
 confined to the towns. Liverpool and Manchester were then small 
 and insignificant places when compared with the towns and cities 
 of the south, the east, and the west of England, which were the great 
 seats of industry, population, and intelligence. North of the river Trent 
 all the noblemen, with the exception of the Earls of Derby, who were 
 Protestants from the first, and nearly all the country gentlemen clung 
 resolutely to the Catholic cause. During the great rising of the north in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Ralph Sadler declared that there were not 
 ten gentlemen, north of the Trent, who were favourable to the new opinions ; 
 nnd Strype, the historian, mentions, in his annals of the year 1570, that 
 
" from Warrington, all along the sea coast of Lancashire, all the gentlemen, 
 except Mr. Butler (of Busey) were of that faction (that is, of the Catholic 
 party), and withdrew themselves from religion (from the Protestant 
 worship) as Mr. Ireland, of Hale, Sir William Norris, of Speke, alderman 
 ■of Liverpool, and many others.” So strong was the Catholic party in 
 Cheshire and Lancashire, that there are said to have been 2,442 Roman 
 Catholic “ recusants” in the diocese of Chester, out of a total number of 
 8,512 who were known to exist in the kingdom. Dr. Chatterton, the 
 Protestant Bishop of Chester, had even formed a plan of living in 
 Manchester, which was then “ the best,” meaning thereby the most 
 Protestant place in these parts. Liverpool was probably the next. 
 
 In the sixth of Queen Elizabeth, we have again an account of the 
 revenue of the corporation, from the waste lands of the town, from which 
 it appears that it had increased since the reign of Henry the Eighth, 
 although it was still ludicrously small, in comparison with its present 
 amount.* 
 
 Liverpool (as I have already stated) suffered greatly during the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth from the civil and religious wars of Ireland. 
 Although it might have seemed almost impossible to add to the 
 confusion which had existed in Ireland during preceding reigns, yet 
 the internal conflicts of that country now assumed a greater vehemence 
 and intensity, from the addition of religious discord to all the previous 
 causes of public confusion. The condition of the province of Ulster 
 was at that time pre-eminently turbulent, owing to the continual strife 
 kept up by the great chiefs of the house of O’Neal, who waged war with 
 astonishing determination, and for a long time with great success, against 
 the lieutenants of Queen Elizabeth. One governor after another passed 
 through Liverpool during this reign, to assume the command either of 
 the whole country or of particular portions of it; and the town was not 
 a little troubled by crowds of ill-disciplined soldiers assembled for the 
 Irish wars. 
 
 Amongst the governors or commanders whose names are mentioned 
 
 * Rentally. Anno 1503, Sixth of Elizabeth: 1st, Alexander Garnet, two butts, called 
 ■crooked lands, 12d. each ; 2d, ditto, five butts at the lower ends of the crooked lands, 12d. 
 each ; 3d, Thomas Seacome, Sickman’s-lane, for the term of his life, Od.; 4th, ditto, for a 
 parcel of land near the Hogs-heys, Od.; 5tli, Richard Haydock, for one land in the Higher 
 Heavy lands, Is. 2d.; 0th, ditto, for another land in ditto, Is. 2d.; 7th, for ditto, Is. 2d.; 
 8th, for half a land in the Higher Short, Is. 7d.; 9th, ditto for ditto; 10th, Gilbert 
 Hughson, for a parcel of land called Brown’s Croft, Is. 8d.; 11th, Elizabeth Bailie, widow, 
 for a parcel of land called the Hurst Hey, having the footway from Bank Hall going through 
 the same, 3s. 4d.; 12th, ditto, for the lane lying along the pikes, 8d.; 13th, Richard 
 Fazakerly, for the Sea Bank, fid.; Richard Mercer, for part of Middle-mill Dale, 20d.; 
 
 15th, ditto, for the mill dam, 10d.; 16th, William Tatlock, for land lying by Gods’ Croft, 12d. 
 —Corn oration Records. 
 
215 
 
 in the annals of the corporation, as having passed through Liverpool to 
 take commands in Ireland, are the Earl of Bedford, Sir Henry Sidney, 
 Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Sir George Stanley. The two 
 whose visits produced the greatest sensation, were Sir Henry Sidney and 
 the Earl of Essex. The former visit was rendered memorable in local 
 annals by a dreadful storm at sea, which occurred soon after Sir Henry’s 
 retinue had embarked from Liverpool, in which all the shipping of the 
 port very narrowly escaped shipwreck. The second was rendered 
 almost equally remarkable by the outrageous conduct of the officers and 
 soldiers, who came to join the earl. They fought among themselves in 
 Liverpool, and committed so many outrages in the town and neighbour¬ 
 hood, that at length the mayor, bailiffs, and all the inhabitants of 
 the town were compelled to turn out, with their halberds and bills, and 
 offer them battle on Liverpool heath. To the credit of Liverpool, it 
 is recorded that this display of vigour brought the soldiers to their 
 senses, and induced them to behave better, until the time when they em¬ 
 barked for Carrickfergus. There they were most of them destroyed by the 
 army of O’Neal. A Liverpool ship which had helped to convey them 
 across was driven on shore, and the captain and crew were slain. 
 
 In the year 1586, the whole kingdom was thrown into the utmost 
 excitement, by the sailing of the Spanish Armada. The earliest intelli¬ 
 gence of the sailing of the Biscayan division of the fleet to Corunna, 
 where it was joined hy the three other divisions, equally strong, was 
 brought to England by Humphrey Brooke, merchant and shipowner of 
 Liverpool, who was at St. Jean de Luz, in the south of France, with his 
 vessel, when the fleet sailed. He immediately returned to England, after 
 collecting all particulars, aud forwarded to the government a very minute 
 description of the Spanish fleet and its equipment. Liverpool was not at 
 that time in a condition to add much to the large fleet of upwards of a 
 hundred merchantmen, which joined the twenty ships of the royal navy, 
 and took so distinguished a part in baffling, defeating, and dispersing 
 the “ invincible” armada. 
 
 The Corporation Records are very full and minute during the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth and those of her predecessors, Edward and Mary. 
 Whoever kept them was a man of some imagination, and occasionally in¬ 
 troduced curious and amusing descriptions of passing events, along with 
 the graver records of his office. I shall give a few specimens of his 
 lighter effusions, after having given a summary of the more prosaic in¬ 
 formation which the records supply, as to the government and ordinary 
 affairs of the town. 
 
216 
 
 To begin with that dignified character, the mayor. We find the 
 following particulars respecting that high functionary. The mayor was 
 elected on St. Luke’s Day, that is, the 18tli of October; it was his duty 
 to preside at elections, when he sat on the bench in state; on all great 
 occasions he was attended by the aldermen, bailiffs, and burgesses, who 
 were required to appear in their best robes, and with their halberds ; 
 the seijeant-at-mace, called by the classical recorder “ lictor” and “ ser- 
 viens ad clavem,” was appointed by the mayor, and walked before him 
 with the mace; the waites or musicians of the town were at his 
 orders, and it was their duty to play before his house morning and even¬ 
 ing; a “decent pew” was prepared for him in the church, with the 
 Queen’s Arms set over it; it was the mayor’s office to give and preside 
 over the banquets offered to visitors of distinction ; he had the expending 
 of all the public monies; thus the mayor of 1571 received £24 14s. 8d., 
 and contrived to expend £28 11s. 8d. ; the mayor of 1572 received 
 £23 11s. 8d. What he expended is unknown to posterity; hut it is to 
 be feared that it was more than he received, for the mayor of 1573 had 
 a very much smaller sum to dispose of, namely, £5 14s. 9d.; neverthe¬ 
 less he left office with credit, having expended only £5 7s. 9d., thus 
 leaving a surplus of 7s. with his bankers. The mayor of 1574 received 
 £10 Is. 4d., and expended £10 8s. Any one not sufficiently con¬ 
 scious of the dignity, and refusing to serve the office of mayor, was 
 fined £6 13s. 4d., which sum went to the mayor who supplied his lack 
 of service. As the chief person in a corporation which was a trading 
 guild, it was the duty of the mayor to make bargains for the public; as, 
 for instance, on one occasion he bought two hundred measures of wheat, 
 as a town bargain ; on another a cargo of salt; on another a cargo of 
 salmon, “ lying near the Tower gates.” He was entitled to the second 
 best fine, paid on the admission of freemen, admitted dui’ing his mayoralty; 
 and presided at the genial feasts given on the admission of freemen, at 
 one of which the recorder informs us that one of the occupants of the 
 chair got exceedingly merry, and ended by falling asleep —dormit in 
 concilio. It was part of the mayor’s more serious duties to see that the 
 highways were kept in order; to perambulate the bounds of the town; 
 and to preserve the public peace, which was no easy matter in that 
 turbulent age. 
 
 Next in dignity were the aldermen, or mayor’s peers. Each alderman 
 was required to keep four halberds, to assist in overawing the unruly ; 
 and to supply two men to walk in the great procession on Midsummer’s 
 Eve. Each of them was also required to walk himself, and in his best 
 
217 
 
 gown, and one alderman was presented by the grand jury for absenting 
 himself. The junior alderman at that time acted as coroner. Any alderman 
 refusing to take a reasonable journey, on the town’s business, having his 
 expenses paid, was subject to a fine of TlO ; and any burgess abusing an 
 alderman was liable to a fine of £20. 
 
 Next in dignity to the aldermen were the bailiffs, the men-of-all-work 
 of the corporation. Two bailiffs were appointed; one by the mayor, the 
 other by the burgesses. It was their duty to collect the town’s rents; and 
 also all the leys or taxes; and to pay them themselves, if they were not 
 diligent in their office; to keep two halberds or bills ; to go with the 
 mayor to inspect and put down nuisances; and to turn out of the town 
 all persons “ disallowed” by the grand jury. For performing these duties 
 they were entitled to a share in all fines, including the cost or ransom 
 money, of ducks (diggs), geese, and swine seized in the corn market on 
 Saturday. Any inhabitant presuming to abuse the bailiffs was fined 
 £20. 
 
 The governing body of the town was the council. It appears to have 
 undergone several changes, as to its numbers, having at one time con¬ 
 sisted of twelve members, then of sixteen, then of thirty, and at one 
 time of forty. The council was consulted as to the buying of town’s 
 bargains. We trace several struggles between the “ Aristocracy ” and 
 
 “Democracy” of the town in the reports of its proceedings; especially 
 
 < m 
 
 in the account of a long and stormy meeting held in the mayoralty of 
 Edward Halsal, in the year 1570, at which the Town Council, the organ 
 of the former, gained a final triumph over the burgesses in common hall 
 assembled. 
 
 In the earlier times, when the burgesses were few in numbers, they 
 all met in common hall. Two such assemblies were required to be held 
 yearly; but as the number of the burgesses increased this democratic 
 form of government was supplanted by,a common council, which soon 
 became despotic, and ultimately absolute, self-elected and exclusive. As 
 usual one extreme was followed by another. 
 
 The mayor and burgesses were authorized by their charters to act as 
 a trading guild, and they did so as late as the reign of Charles the First. 
 They claimed a right of buying, as town’s bargains, whatever was brought 
 into the port; and on one occasion they fined Gilbert Brooke, one of the 
 principal burgesses, twenty marks, for buying a cargo of goods on which 
 they had set their hearts. As no “ foreigner” could buy or sell without 
 their consent, except in the markets and at the yearly fairs ; and as no 
 2 F 
 
218 
 
 single burgess dared to bid against them, they had a monopoly of the 
 market, no doubt to the great injury of the town and port. 
 
 Burgesses and freemen were originally the same class, that is, none 
 were free except those who held burgage lands under the crown ; but 
 various classes of freemen were known in the Tudor times. Amongst 
 them were freemen w T ho were sons of burgesses, though not the 
 possessors or even heirs of their burgage lands; freemen wdio had 
 become so by serving an apprenticeship to parties who were themselves 
 free; freemen by purchase; and a few freemen by gift. All freemen 
 paid fines on admission, except the possessors of burgage tenures, 
 and freemen by gift. The younger sons of burgesses and freemen by 
 apprenticeship were expected to give a pot of ale on admission: those 
 somewhat better off in the w r orld gave “ ale, wine, and cakes and one of 
 them gave a small collation— -paruula collutio —which cost 5s. The 
 sums paid by strangers for admission to the freedom of the town depended 
 on the mayor and burgesses, and long formed a principal source of their 
 income. William Warrison, the first citizen of London w r ho is known to 
 have taken up his freedom in Liverpool, paid 54s.; and Dennis Kelling, 
 the first Bristol freeman, paid 48s. Amongst the persons admitted as 
 honorary freemen were most of the younger branches of the Stanley 
 family ; several of the Molyneuxes; Robert Blundell, of Ince ; and Gil¬ 
 bert Ireland, of Hale. 
 
 The mayor, council, and assembly claimed and exercised the right of 
 regulating the prices, quantities, and qualities of numerous articles sold 
 in the towrn. Thus they decreed that ale and beer should be sold at Id. 
 a quart; and during a time of scarcity they ordered that ale and beer 
 should be brewed only of moderate strength, on account of the high 
 price of corn: bread was ordered to be viewed and weighed in the bakers’ 
 shops, once a month; to be made only into half-penny, penny, and 
 three-penny loaves; and to be sold at the prices fixed by the mayor: 
 bricks were to be sold at the rate of eight shillings the thousand, and the 
 hundred of bricks was to consist of five score and twelve : corn was not 
 to be sold any where but in public market, and there only by the Liver¬ 
 pool windle or measure, which was ordered to contain fifty-six quarts or 
 fourteen gallons: no country person was allowed to buy more than four 
 windles of com in one day; no badger or retailer more than two windles ; 
 and no burgess more than from four to eight windles; no person was 
 allowed to buy corn by a factor or agent: candles were ordered to be made 
 and sold at the rate of sixteen to the pound ; coals were not to be shipped 
 
219 
 
 without license from the mayor ; oranges “ arrived from France" were to 
 be sold at the rate of 120 for Is.; geese for 8d., and woodcocks for 2d. ; 
 websters or weavers were to sell cloth at the rate of 19 lbs. to the stone ; 
 and wool, flocks, &c., were to be sold at the rate of 18 lbs.; a saltmaker 
 was allowed to come to the town, and make salt, on condition of selling it 
 at 12d. a bushel: post horses were to be supplied to the royal messengers 
 at the rate of Id. per mile; and soldiers billetted in the town were to be 
 fed at the rate of 3d. per meal, and their horses at the rate of 4d. per day. 
 
 The police regulations, if not all very good, were at least sufficiently 
 minute. Alehouses were ordered to be curtailed in number, and to be 
 licensed; wine was only to be sold retail by licensed dealers, of whom 
 there were two, each of whom paid £3 Gs. 8d. for his license: bachelors 
 were not allowed to walk out after nine o’clock, without lawful business : 
 bowling alleys were voted immoral and put down; so were gaming 
 houses, with more reason; two “ honest men," afterwards increased to 
 four, were appointed to keep order in the corn market; cudgels were not 
 to be carried in the streets : chiders and scolders were to be fined and 
 imprisoned, and if otherwise incurable, to be ducked; the side of a 
 house built too slightly was to be pulled down, and “ to be made lawful 
 fire was not to be carried from house to house, except it was covered up; 
 gorse stacks were not to be built near houses, for fear of fire; a man 
 having married two wives was ordered to leave the town, and to take his 
 second wife with him ; some unlucky vagabonds, described as “ the wan¬ 
 derers with the hobby-horse,” were ordered to be put in the stocks at the 
 high cross; no jugglers, players, nor showmen were to exhibit or perform 
 without permission from the mayor; houses were not to be let to strangers 
 without informing the mayor; watch and ward was to be kept from eight at 
 night to four in the morning, and parties not keeping watch in their 
 turn were to be fined ; inmates or lodgers were not to be received, and 
 no one was to lodge a stranger for more than one night, without giving 
 notice to the mayor; strangers visited with pestilence were to avoid the 
 town, and those suspected of having the plague, or any other dangerous 
 disease, were removed to huts or cabins built on the common, where they 
 were placed in quarantine, until they recovered, or died; all roads were 
 ordered to be mended by statute labour, and the streets were to be 
 cleaned once a week. 
 
 The following presentments of grand juries will further show what 
 acts were regarded as nuisances, or as offences against the local laws. 
 Parties were presented : For baking and brewing, not being free; for 
 
220 
 
 keeping “ an illegal instrument, called an oven for ploughing the town 
 common; for forestalling ; for turning a water-course ; for washing wool, 
 skins, and flax at the Fall-well, “ the common well of the town,”—a fine 
 spring which formerly burst from the hill-side, near the site of St. George’s 
 Hall; “ the whole tailors’ craft” was presented for licensing strangers to 
 work, without liberty from the mayor; other parties were presented for 
 lodging guests, “ which do not go to churchothers “ for receiving 
 strangers, inmates, and poor people, to he a charge to the town others for 
 refusing to sell a quart of ale for three halfpence; for selling salt and 
 other merchandize, not being free ; the people of Everton and Low Hill 
 were presented for delving and floeing Liverpool Heath ; one Torbuck 
 for getting marl, which was not to be got in future without paying 20s. 
 to the common purse; the bailiffs were presented for not causing the 
 shooting butts to be kept up ; (they stood on the heath near the London 
 and North-Western Railway Station;) a shipper was presented for buying 
 twenty-six loads of coal to load a barque, “ contrary to the ancient orders 
 of the town ;” a woman was presented for being a common scold; a free¬ 
 man for selling slates to foreigners; a dog-fancier for keeping an unlawful 
 dog; a knave for using double measures, “a large one to buy, and a 
 small one to sell with;” a ruffler, for walking at unlawful times of the 
 night, with unlawful weapons ; an engrosser for buying more corn than is 
 appointed; a non-burgess for retailing timber, without any satisfaction to 
 the town; and (by way of climax) a Paul Pry of Queen Elizabeth’s days 
 “ for listening under the cliurch-wall to what the jury did say.” 
 
 During this period the modern system of poor-laws was founded, 
 by the celebrated act of Queen Elizabeth. The following orders 
 respecting the treatment of the poor occur in the records of the Cor¬ 
 poration :—A begging woman with five children was to be hindred 
 from wandering about during divine worship. Beggars were not to 
 be permitted in the town, “ except such as be licensed by the mayor” ; all 
 other beggars were to be expelled; a house of correction was to be 
 built, in which “ idle, lewd, and loitering people were to be set at work, 
 according to Act of Parliament” ; and again, “ it was provided for the poor 
 folke” by the overseers “ according to the estatute of Parliament.” The 
 house of correction was Mordyke or Pool-house, at the foot of Chapel- 
 street, opposite St. Nicholas’s Church. It belonged to the More family; 
 and was rented from them by the town for this purpose. 
 
 Liverpool was at this time merely a township or the parish of Walton- 
 on-the-Hill, and the Church of St. Nicholas was only a chapel of ease 
 
221 
 
 under Walton. The following regulations occur respecting the church. 
 All the inhabitants of the town were required to assist at church-work 
 (1541 :) the mayor was required to survey the walls and windows of the 
 church, and to see that they were kept in order; service was then per¬ 
 formed on week-days as well as on Sundays; the churchwardens and 
 sidesmen were chosen in Easter week, by the Council, or by the assembly 
 of the burgesses, and one sidesman was publicly reproved for making a 
 complaint against the clergyman, to the Bishop of Chester; the church 
 property consisted of a silver cup for the communion, a large book of 
 service, organ pipes, copes, vestments, banners, candlesticks, and tapers. 
 
 The clergyman, or, as he is generally called, the minister, was elected 
 at the common ball, by the burgesses; he was paid, partly by a ley or rate 
 on the inhabitants; partly by the queen, out of the rents of the lands 
 confiscated at the time of the Reformation; partly by a yearly sum 
 allowed by Mr. Alexander Molyneux. The portion of the stipend paid 
 by the queen was payable at Halton Castle, by the steward of Halton ; 
 and was not always forthcoming at the proper time. The stipend of the 
 clergyman amounted to £25 a year; and a part of the Old Hall was taken, 
 at a rent of T4 13s. 4d. a year, as a residence for him. At one time the 
 clergyman held his living at the pleasure of the burgesses ; but afterwards 
 on his good behaviour (quamdiu se bene gesserit.) 
 
 Although good friends in the main, occasional differences took place 
 between the clergyman and the Corporation. Thus, one minister was 
 requested not to go so often to Chester, to see the bishop ; one was “ pre¬ 
 sented” by the grand jury for not wearing his surplice at funerals, and 
 was requested always to wear it when he met a corpse, whether of the 
 poor or rich ; one was requested to read a homily when there was no ser¬ 
 mon ; one was desired to read both the chapters in the body of the church ; 
 he was afterwards presented for not doing so, and the mayor was presented 
 for not compelling him ; one clergyman was requested to “ cut his hair of 
 a comely and seemly length, in fair and decent manner, as best becometh 
 a man in his place” ; one was, very properly, presented for cutting down 
 “ the great thorn” growing in the church-yard ; and one was so much 
 dissatisfied, either with his living or bis treatment, that it is recorded of 
 him that “ he conveyed himself away without leave-taking!” 
 
 Liverpool contributed to the cost of a peal of bells at Walton; and the 
 bailiffs were ordered to be diligent in collecting all fines, to pay for a peal 
 of bells in Liverpool. 
 
 That necessary appendage of the church, the clerk, was at one time 
 
222 
 
 paid out of the tolls on corn ; then he had to collect his fees from door 
 to door; he was required to ring the curfew hell at eight o’clock every 
 evening; and was ordered to he diligent in whipping dogs out of the 
 church. The sum of 6s. 8d. was allowed to the clerk of Walton Church 
 for his fees. 
 
 The schoolmaster was appointed at the discretion of the mayor. Like 
 the clergyman he was paid partly by fees ; partly out of the revenue of 
 the confiscated chantry estates. He had to go to Iialton Castle for part 
 of his salary, and often came empty away. A rent of 20s. a year was 
 paid for the old school house. A new one, described a century after as 
 “ a famous piece of antiquity,” was afterwards built at the corner of the 
 old church-yard. There also stood a statue of St. Nicholas, which 
 was much honoured in ancient times. 
 
 Auditors were appointed to examine the accounts of the mayor and 
 bailiffs ; they were chosen by “ the whole comyn consent;” and were fined 
 6s. 8d. for neglect of duty. 
 
 The following are a few of the orders and regulations made to ensure 
 the payment of town dues, and to defend the rights leased by the Corpo¬ 
 ration from the crown, or its tenants-in-chief. All vessels and boats were 
 required to be entered with the town’s customer ; a beam and scales “ of a 
 large manner” were provided, in which all goods imported or exported 
 were weighed; all goods imported were lodged in the common warehouse 
 of the town, whence they were delivered by billet or note, “ according to 
 use here”; the boats of Wallasey, Formby, &c., were ordered to pay 
 anchorage and customs; Bootle, Eastham, Frodsham, and Warrington 
 were declared to be in the port of Liverpool; the merchants and chapmen 
 of Manchester, Bolton, and Wigan, and “Mr. Boyes, a Yorksliireman,” 
 are mentioned by name as having been compelled to pay toll on their wares. 
 
 A great number of miscellaneous facts are mentioned in the records 
 which do not admit of being classified, but which are w T orth mentioning, 
 as illustrative of of the manners and opinions of the age. Sunday was 
 the day on which all town’s meetings were held. All corn sown on the 
 common was forfeited to the church. The cattle market was held, first in 
 Chapel-street, and afterwards at the castle “ outside the town.” Otters- 
 pool is spoken of as a dock with ships lying in it. The herring fishery 
 was carried on extensively in the river Mersey, and strangers frequented 
 the town in the fishing season, who were ordered to leave it as soon as 
 the fishery was over, A Mr. Bold, and some other wags, astonished the 
 town by proposing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; which, however, (as the 
 
223 
 
 recorder gravely informs us,) was not performed. A number of Irish 
 masons, who had been employed by Queen Elizabeth in repairing the 
 fortifications of Berwick and all the other places of strength within twenty 
 miles of the Scottish border, passed through Liverpool, and spent their 
 money freely, to the great content of the burgesses. Kenyon House, 
 (afterwards Byrom’s sugar-house,) in Dale-street, belonged to the Cor¬ 
 poration in 1563. Privateering was a popular profession in the reign of 
 Elizabeth. A privateer fitted out by Sir Thomas Stanley, of Hooton, 
 brought a prize into the river Mersey. Another privateer, fitted out by 
 the licensed victuallers of Chester, brought in two prizes, one of which 
 was sold and the other ransomed. This privateer astonished the inha¬ 
 bitants by firing off broadsides of guns in a style which had never been 
 heard before on the banks of the Mersey. Captain Cornwall, a Govern¬ 
 ment messenger, complained that he had not been properly supplied with 
 post horses at Liverpool, when travelling from Ireland on the Queen’s 
 business : ordered that post horses should be promptly furnished, and 
 should be charged one penny a mile. The hire of a single horse from 
 Liverpool to London and back was 13s. 4d. in the time of Queen Eliza¬ 
 beth. Lawyers’ fees were not exorbitant. Edward Halsal, recorder, re¬ 
 ceived 8d. for discharging a recognisance; and the amount paid to him in 
 one year by the Corporation was T3. 6s. 8d„ according to the bailiffs 
 accounts. The number of streets in Liverpool at this time was seven : 
 namely, Castle-street, Water-street, Dale-street, Chapel-street, Juggler- 
 street; More-street, (now Tithebarn-street,) and Mylne-street, (now Old- 
 hall-street.) The emblem on the arms of Liverpool was a sea bird, but 
 it is called a cormorant, when first mentioned, not a liver; the liver is an 
 invention of the Heralds’-office. A supply of warlike weapons was, or 
 ought to have been kept up for the use of the burgesses. It -was reported 
 to the Council that “ artillery was not kept as by statute it is provided 
 and a man was set to take care of the arms. About the time of the sailing 
 of the Spanish Armada the Council laid in 300 lbs. of gunpowder; and 
 ordered “ a gun” to be set up at Nabbe (afterwards Pluckington Point,) 
 above the pool. It appears that Bibles were not so abundant as they 
 happily are now, for mention is made of “ the old Bible book.” There 
 was a public clock in the town in the reign of Elizabeth, but it was only 
 an indifferent one, as there are seven orders for repairing it in the records. 
 The price of grain is frequently mentioned. Barley sold for four shillings 
 the windle of 14 gallons in the year 1578. The charters of the town 
 are enumerated by Edward Halsal, the recorder, but not correctly. He 
 
224 - 
 
 mentions charters of King John, of 1207 ; of Henry the Third, 1229 ; of 
 Edward the Third, 1333; of Eichard the Third, “date uncertain, being 
 worn out”—and the charter being really of Richard the Second, 1380—of 
 Henry the Fourth, 1339 ; and of Philip and Mary, 1556. The public 
 seal used at this time is called the crocket seal, being chiefly used for com¬ 
 mercial purposes. A good horse, shod on all fours, after having been 
 trotted tln-ee times round the High Cross, according to custom, was sold 
 to the Earl of Derby’s steward, for forty shillings. The cost of several 
 public banquets is mentioned : one cost twenty shillings; another, to the 
 Earl of Derby, the great patron of the town, when the civic hospitality 
 displayed all its resources, cost twenty-four shillings—a sum quite large 
 enough to give a noble dinner in those times. The inhabitants were fre¬ 
 quently mustered for military display; on one occasion by Lord Monteagle, 
 the “ Stanley” of Flodden Field, or his son. There was no prison in 
 Liverpool at this time, but persons were confined until they could be sent 
 to Lancaster Castle in a place which is called, in one account, the 
 Slaughter House, and in another, the Black Hole, “edibus tenebrosis.” 
 The slighter offenders were confined in the Town-hall. The original 
 Town-hall stood in High-street, where the police-office now stands. 
 Our ancesters, who where good economists, compelled the mayor to 
 mend the windows of the Town-hall at his own cost; they also enfran¬ 
 chised a slater on condition that he would keep the roof in order as long 
 as he lived; and they turned an honest penny by letting out the building 
 for dances and brydals, or weddings, at the rate of 5s. a time, “ to be paid 
 beforehand.” Nevertheless, this building had many fine names. It was 
 called the Guilde-hall, our Lady’s-hall, the Town-hall, Aula-communis, 
 and even the Praetorium. Leys or rates were then imposed for the following 
 purposes :—For furnishing soldiers ; for repairing the church, and church- 
 walls; for setting the poor and idle loitering people to work, according to 
 act of Parliament; to protect the trade of the town ; a ley of £5 was 
 imposed in these primitive times “ to pay the debts owing by the town,” 
 and afterwards another ley of ^13 18s. lOd. for the same purpose ; leys 
 were imposed for subsidies granted by Parliament, a fifteenth and a 
 tenth producing 52s. 4d; for repairs of the church and of the common 
 hall, and for obtaining a new charter. A hogshead of wine, costing 
 £3 6s. 8d., was voted to the Master of the Rolls, in consideration of his 
 services, in assisting to open the trade with Spain and Portugal, which 
 had been closed against Liverpool by the merchant adventurers of Chester. 
 A race for a silver bell was run on the shore every Ascension Day. 
 
225 
 
 The cup was given by Mr. Torbuck, town-clerk, and was not to be kept 
 by the winner for more than a twelvemonth. Security was taken that 
 it should be forthcoming at the next year’s race. There was at this time 
 a Webster or Weaver’s Corporation in Liverpool, but the art never took 
 much hold. It was formed with the whole assent of the town ; and 5s. 
 was paid to the brotherhood, by each person using the occupation. The 
 tailors of Liverpool also formed a brotherhood; and the sum of 4s. 6d. 
 was paid by each brother for permission to work. The town had at this 
 time a stipendiary servant, to serve in and for all manner of business and 
 affairs. He was elected at a common hall, at which 120 persons were 
 present. Of these eighty-two voted for the appointment and forty-four 
 against it. The events of national importance, mentioned in the records, 
 in addition to those which I have spoken of elsewhere, are the death of 
 Shane O’Neal; the execution of the Earl of Northumberland, at York ; and 
 the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Carlisle. 
 
 Before taking leave of this portion of the records I must present my 
 readers with a few specimens of the more laboured compositions of the 
 writer of these records. They are curious as specimens of English 
 provincial style in the reign of Elizabeth; and as illustrations of the 
 manners of the time. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the mayor and burgesses were 
 troubled with so many patrons that they were not able to give the 
 nomination of a member to each. In the year 1562 they were thus per¬ 
 plexed with the rival claims of the Chancellor of the Duchy, of Sir 
 Richard Molyneux, and of the Earl of Derby. The Chancellor of the 
 Duchy claimed the right to return both members, as the representative of 
 the Queen, who was then Duchess of Lancaster. He had some foundation 
 for his claim, in the fact that the grant of palatine rights to John of Gaunt 
 authorized the duke and his successors to return two members for each 
 borough in the county. For a considerable time Liverpool had returned 
 no members whatever, probably considering the duke’s nominees dear at 
 2s. a day, which was the sum then allowed to a borough member. 
 Under the Tudors, however, the burgesses were compelled to return 
 members, and as a great concession they were allowed to give away one 
 seat themselves, on condition that they permitted the Chancellor of the 
 Duchy to dispose of the other. Thus, in 1552, the town returned the 
 Earl of Derby’s steward as one of its members, and left a vacant 
 place in the return, that the Chancellor of the Duchy might fill it up 
 with any other name at his pleasure. In 1562 they were not able to 
 2 a 
 
226 
 
 arrange matters so pleasantly. Policy induced them to elect Mr. Richard 
 Molyneux, the son of the governor of the castle, and the lessee of the 
 town dues, which they suh-leased, and on which they were making a 
 pleasant little profit of cent, per cent.; and a lively sense, both of past 
 and future favours, induced them to give the filling up of the second seat 
 to their powerful neighbour the Earl of Derby. Thus nothing was left 
 for the Chancellor of the Duchy. The course and result of this first 
 attempt to give away the borough, according to their own wishes and 
 interests, is thus recorded in the corporation minutes:— 
 
 “ 1562.— Thos. Secum, mayor. In the beginning of this mayor’s 
 time, master mayor and the town were evil troubled about the election of 
 the two burgesses for the parliament held at Westminster, beginning the 
 11th day of January, 1562—et an. 5to.—domse Eliz. reginse, &c. First, 
 before Mr. chancellor sent to the town, for the nomination of a burgess to 
 this parliamt., the town had granted & appointed Mr. Richd. Molyneux, 
 younger son of sir Rd. Molyneux, kt. for the one burgess, & reserved the 
 other for my lord, the earl of Derby, marvelling much that he sent not to 
 the town, as he was wont to do, requiring the nomination of one burgess, 
 which was a great stay, and caused the town to meet in the hall diverse 
 times about the same ; and in one meeting, sitting in the hall, sir Thos. 
 Hesketh, sheriff of Lanclishire, sent his servant with letters from Mr. 
 chancellor of this duchy, sir Ambrose Cave, directed to Mr. mayor and 
 his brethren, for the nomination of a burgess, and the said servant was 
 diligent expectant for an answer; but master mayor & his brethren 
 willed him to go to his dinner, and after he should he answered; and it 
 was thought good to take deliberation therein, and so shewed to the 
 servant, and desired his master not to he displeased, for so much as one 
 burgess was granted before Mr. chancellor’s mind was known, and 
 promised to send him answer after my 1. the earl of Derby’s pleasure 
 were known to us, whom always we were most naturally beholden 
 & bounden to, and in this doing Mr. Sekerston was appointed one 
 day and disappointed another day, &c. so that then the town agreed 
 that Mr. Sekerston should go up to London, and so he rode almost 
 post & took the said certificate with him, and also to go to my 
 lord the old earl of Derby, and show his lordship, that whereas he did 
 not send to the town for a burgess, yet the town thought good his 
 lordship do his pleasure therein, and my lord was well pleased with the 
 town, giving us his thanks, and gave his election to Mr Sekerston ; and 
 he showed himself & kept time & hour, and was put back by the means 
 
227 
 
 of Mr. chancellor. Yet he stuck to the matter still, & obtained his room 
 & served there ; and, where other town burgesses had & did retain speakers 
 for them in the parliament house, he retained none, but stood up after 
 the manner there, & was speaker himself, to the great grief of Mr. chan¬ 
 cellor,—so that in his fumes he caused privy seal made, and was ready 
 directed to fetch master mayor up to appear in the duchy chamber, (but, 
 as God would,) by the means of earl of Derby, &c. the privy seal was 
 called in again, which, if it had not, the town would have been put to a 
 great charge. In the mean time, a sess was laid for Mr. Sekerston giving 
 his attendance in the parliament house, for the charges of him, after 2s. 
 a day.” 
 
 In the year 1565 the recorder again found occasion for a considerable 
 display of eloquence, in describing a dreadful storm at sea, which occurred 
 immediately after the sailing of Sir Henry Sidney, the father of the 
 gallant Sir Philip Sidney, for Ireland. In this storm several Liverpool 
 vessels were lost, and the whole of the little navy of the port was greatly 
 endangered ; indeed, the storm was so dreadful, that Sir Henry Sidney’s 
 escape from shipwreck in it is mentioned in Camden’s History of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The eloquent recorder thus describes it:— 
 
 “ Magister Jolmes Crosse, ar: maior. This year the Saturday, being 
 the 22 December, the Sacar, one of the queen’s ships, William Peres, 
 gentleman & captain of the same, departed forth of this port & haven 
 with a merry wind for Dublin water, for the safe conducting of the 
 queen’s treasurer, sr. Henry Sidney, appointed & made lord high deputy 
 of Ireland, then being in Beaumaris, there tarrying for the said captain 
 Peres, one master Thwaytes of his councill & his treasurer, & other of 
 the worshipfuls & their ladies & their train, with my lord high deputy; 
 where Mr. Thwaytes fell sick and died there, after their departing; and 
 with the said captain & his company many fine trim & tall furnitures ; 
 John Wynstanley mr. of the Sacar; the George of Liverpool; Thomas 
 Uttyn & his bark ; Edward Nicholson and John Willmson & their bark; 
 William Walker & Thomas Mason & their bark, Mr. Corbet bark; with 
 Nicho. Ricson and that bark called Mr. Corbet's small bark; Ratcliff of 
 West Kirby & John Aynsdale’s bark, all charged with great horses, all 
 fine apparcll A other treasure, besides the worshipfull company & servitors 
 & all their costliness, to a great abundant treasure of riches. And 
 Sunday morning then next after being windy, cold, frost & snow, misty, 
 dark and dim, without ceasing the snow driving & warping to & fro, 
 That all Christian people called & erved, praying & making their most 
 
228 
 
 humble prayers unto All Mighty to amend the weather, so fearfull & 
 terrible, & to save the foresaid ships & barks with all the Christian people 
 in them being, & all Christian people upon the seas elsewhere; but it 
 continued all day & about sun setting it something calmed, and about 
 10 or 11 of the clock that Sunday at night, suddenly sprung & rose 
 the marvelousest & terriblest storm of wind & weather that continued 
 about six hours or little less, as well upon land as water, to the great 
 hurt of the co’ialty & their houses, bams, with many windmills clean 
 overthrown & all to broken, with great hurt upon churches & chapells, 
 in which storm diverse pinnacles and borders of the chapell of this town 
 of Liverpoole were blown down & with falling broken all to pieces, and. 
 other hurts of glass windows; but to say the truth further, in this night 
 storm was a part of our chapell walls of this town, next the tall sea 
 
 mark, bursten &washen out, & some of the greater stones moved-with 
 
 the extremeness of the seas carried 6 or 7 yards out of - 
 
 Soon after the recorder becomes eloquent upon the weather, and thus 
 expatiates :— 
 
 “ This year was a pleasant seeding of all corn, and after such a fervent 
 heat and drought succeeded that it was great plenty of all kind of fuel, 
 especially turf and coal, and the market of all corn but wheat and lie did 
 rise to a doubtful opinion of all people, so as all England over the people 
 dreaded an excessive charge of hay and other fodder for the cattle of all 
 the land. At Warrington this year was a load of hay sold for 15s., a 
 mean market load; and as God Almighty, giver of all goodness, of his 
 free mercy, of us undeserved and not looked for, about — day of July, 
 sent us such plenty of pleasant weather with rain, and moderate rain 
 continuing from day to day, and time to time, all August and after in 
 September, that corn, hay, fuel!, and all kind of victuals fell and came 
 down to reasonable price, to the great laud and praise of God, the comfort 
 of all faithful Christians, and to the distress of covetous farmers and 
 avaricious storers of all towns and countries.” 
 
 Soon after this the recorder rises to a bolder strain, in describing a 
 great act of municipal valour, namely, the offering battle by the mayor 
 and burgesses to a company of disorderly and mutinous soldiers. These 
 fellows formed a sort of rear guard of the army of Walter Devereux, 
 Earl of Essex, who had passed through Liverpool a little before for 
 Ulster, with a view not only of conquering but of colonizing, or, as it 
 was then called, of planting, that province; a project which was not 
 carried into effect successfully until the following reign, nor without an 
 
229 
 
 eight years’ war with the great O’Neal. The Earl of Essex had received 
 a grant of the half of the district of Claneboy, in that province, from 
 Queen Elizabeth, and besides mortgaging his own estates for £10,000, to 
 raise funds for the enterprise, had induced numbers of other persons to 
 advance large sums, and raise troops, in return for grants of land. The 
 plan was to build three towns, and ten sconces or castles, and the invaders 
 hoped to obtain a revenue of £7,000 from the country the second year ; 
 but they never obtained a shilling, for the Irish chieftains drove the 
 cattle, of which one of them had no less than 30,000 head, into the 
 forests and marshes, which then covered the greater part of Ulster ; wore 
 out the invaders with frequent skirmishes and long marches; and at 
 length reduced them to such distress from disease, famine, and the sword, 
 that they were only too glad to get back to England. The Earl of 
 Essex never returned. He died at Dublin of mortification and disease. 
 Those of his followers who where able to do so returned to Liverpool, 
 where they had embarked. Many died there, and were buried at the 
 public expense; and so great was the pressure on the town that an order 
 was issued, that no more maimed or wounded soldiers should be landed, 
 without the permission of the mayor. The misfortunes of this motley 
 host were probably aggravated by their wretched want of discipline, to 
 which the following extract from the Corporation Records bears witness: 
 
 “Mm. qd. 4th day of September, 1573, a greviouse contenton and 
 discord sprang betwyxt these two, Bartley and Sydnam; and Sondaye 
 mornyng next aft., beying 5 Sept, of same year, Roger Sydnam, levet’ant 
 of the blue cotes, about 5 of the clock, at his uprisyng, walkying and 
 comyng forth of Roger Jameson’s house, his boost, wth. 3 or 4 of his 
 soldeurs, and the sayd captayne Bartley comyng wth a more company of 
 his motley cotes, drew theyr swords and set upon the sayd levet'ant, and 
 forced hym and his men for saveguard of theyr lives to take in to the 
 house and houses, where agt the ragiouse psecutne, and enterpse of the 
 said Bartley, therein by the good p’vise and good fortune shyfte of the 
 wyfie of the same house, the sayd Sydnam and his men, all but one, were 
 conveyed in to an high loft chamber by the ladder, and soe they drawne 
 up the ladder up to them in the sayd lofte, and so escap'd death, as pleased 
 God; but that one soldieur wchwas staied in the house, was to all much 
 swynged and beatten, knylying upon his knyes bareheded, callyng and 
 cryingmostwoufullie for mcie andpdon oflieffe. Rogr. Sidnam.pooregent., 
 was in cover all the whiles aft. It is long to repete and more to reherse 
 the riotiouse tumulte and disordre of the said captayne Bartley and 
 
230 
 
 motlv coots, and over tediose to wte of the spoyles of booth motlies and 
 blew coots, as well abrood in the countrie hereto adionyng as within this 
 towne. Truth is, there was such surrecon styrred by the said captn. 
 Bartley as the like was never seed in the towne and this countrie; for to 
 be short, Mr. maior and all the towne sodynlie, as pleased God Almightie, 
 were readie upon the heath of this towne, every man wth theyr best 
 weapons, soe as by good chance everie householder heying at home 
 Sondaye mornyng, egar as lions, made sliowe almost evyn lyke to the 
 numhre of the sayd capitayns and all theyr soldeors, soe as the capte. and 
 all theyre men beyng areyd and there upon the sayd heath, the sayde 
 captayn Bartley and all his gentlemn moved Mr. maior to ordr all in 
 good pt, and to thinke no other but all shall well and quiet, and soe prvd ; 
 and after the sayd battell arey Mr. capte. shewed all curtesie and gentil- 
 ness to Mr. maior, and came up to the towne in friendship and amitie, 
 and aftr all this done the captys and theyr souldors were moor gentle to 
 deal wth all whils they abode wthin towne.” 
 
 The Protestant subjects of the queen made a great point of cele¬ 
 brating her accession to the throne, not merely from loyalty, but because 
 some false prophet had put forth a prediction that she would never 
 survive the twelfth year of her reign. This prophecy having proved 
 false the well-wishers of the queen celebrated all succeeding anniversaries 
 of her accession with redoubled triumph. 
 
 The following extract from the records will show that Liverpool was 
 not behind the rest of the kingdom in loyal rejoicing:— 
 
 “ Thys veare the 17th daye of Novembre, 1576, and entering upon 
 the 18tli yeare of the raigne of our moste graciouss sovraigne ladie 
 Elizabeth, by the grace of God, quene of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, 
 defender of the fayth, &c. &c., Mr. Thomas Bavande beinge mair of this 
 her maties corporation and porte towne of Lirpole, in the countie of 
 Lancr. caused the same daye in the eveninge, a greate bone fyre to be 
 made in the marquet place, near to ye Hye crosse of same towne, and an 
 other anendest his owne dore, gyvinge warning yt everie householder 
 should doe the lyke throughoute the towne, wch was done accordinglie. 
 And immediatelie after caused to call together his brethren, the aldermen 
 and divers others of the burgesses of ye same towne, and so went all 
 together to the house of Mr. Raphe Burscough, alderman, where they 
 banqueted a cteine tyme; wch done Mr. Mair depted to his owne house, 
 accompanied of the said aldermen and others, a great number, upon 
 whom he did bestowe sacke and other whyte wyne & sugar lyberally, 
 
231 
 
 standing all wthout ye clore, lawding & praising God for the moste 
 prperouse raigne of oure said moste graciouse sovrainge ladie the quene’s 
 most excellent matie, whom God grant longe over us to raigne, wth greate 
 tranquilytie, and victoriouse successe over all her grace enemies. And so 
 appointeinge his bailiffe and other officr to see the fyres quenched, depted 
 in, &c.” 
 
 But the grand effusion of the recorder’s eloquence and ink was on the 
 occasion of a great triumph given to one of the Earls of Derby. The 
 Stanley family were then the great patrons of the town; they saved it 
 from the persecution of the Chancellor of the Duchy, as we have seen; 
 they obtained for the burgesses the privilege of trading with Spain and 
 Portugal, as we shall see in a succeeding chapter ; they allowed them to 
 graze their cattle in Toxteth-park ; and when that park was disforested 
 they offered them a hundred acres of it on very easy terms. In short 
 they were good friends of the town, when it wanted a powerful friend, 
 not merely to obtain for it favours but justice, which was often the 
 greatest and rarest of favours. To show their sense of the good offices 
 of Henry Earl of Derby, they determined to give him “ a great 
 triumph” on St. George’s Day. Of this triumph the recorder has left 
 the following flourishing account:— 
 
 “ 1577.—The ryght honorable Henrye, erle of Derbye, having lycence 
 of the quene’s moste excellente matie to goe over into the Isle of Mann, 
 came to Lyrpole the 15th daye of Aprile, anno supdco, and there his 
 honor stayed upon a wynd till the 28th of the same monethe, in well 
 tyme his 1. did feaste Mr. Mair, his brethren, wth the bailiffe and others 
 of the same towne. On Mondaye, beinge the 22tli of Aprile aforesaid, 
 his lionoure came to the churche or chappell of Lirpole aforesaid to vewe 
 and appointe oute a fytte place for the clothe of estate, well was on the 
 souths syde of the same churche or chappell, rychlie hanged wth costlie 
 ornament and cloth of gold. And Mr. Thomas Bavande, beinge then 
 mair of Lyrpole aforesaid, caused preparaton to be made for a greate 
 tryumphe, to hour the said noble lord erle, at the said moste honourable 
 feaste, appointinge Thomas Englefelde to be captaine and leader of a 
 greate number of towne’s men, burgeses of Lyrpole, & others, whome he 
 caused his bayliffe, Roger Rose and Robert Baule to se furnished and 
 trymlie sette fourthe as souldiers, in warre lvke mannr, to mrche and 
 skirmyshe before the said righte honorable erle, whoe did the same verye 
 orderlie and right well at divrs & sundry convenient tymes duringe the 
 said most honorable ffeaste, as hereaftr is more at large declard. The 
 
232 
 
 same said 22th daye of Ap’le aforesaid the said riglite honourable erle 
 came to eveninge prayer at fyve of the clocke in the after none, accom¬ 
 panied wth Mr. Mail', the aldermen, bailiffe, and others aforesaid, going 
 in due order, that is to saye, the said twoe bailiffe formoste, and then the 
 bailiffe peares, then aftr theim the aldermen, then certaine of my 1. his 
 gentilmen, then the srjente, bearinge the mace before Mr. mail 1 , and then 
 nexte after Mr. raaior my 1. his honors usslier, and then the said right 
 honourable erle in his robes of reade purple, his trayne beinge borne uppe 
 by Mr. Lee, of Bagulaye, and then came after a greate numbre as well of 
 his honors gentilmen as yeomen ; and so his honor comynge to the churche, 
 at that tyme ffirst of all he did marke him selfe unto God, and then 
 triminge himsilfe, did his duetie in making obeysannce to the place of 
 estate, and before his honr did take his owne place obeisannce againe to 
 the said place of estate, and so sate downe. And afterwards, service 
 beinge done, at his honors goine from church, there was (as Mr. maior 
 hadde appointed) the said captaine Thomas Englefelde, with his souldiers 
 readie, and there skirmished very bravelie and orderlie, shotinge of great 
 store (not onlie) of culliver shotte, but also of great cast ordinance & 
 chambers, being placed in the churche yaurde, according to Mr. maiors 
 appointmt, besides shotinge of from the shipps rydinge in the river. Then 
 after the same eveninge Mr. maior gave commandemt & warninge that 
 all the said companie shoulde be in readiness the morninge next folow- 
 inge, wth theire furniture, & wch was done accordinlie, and mrched upon 
 the warthe and skirmished againe before the said right honorable erle, in 
 right good ordre, beinge Tewsdaye,'St. George his daye, when his honor 
 came to the churche very gorgiouslye, accompanied of Mr. maior and 
 maine gentilmen more then on the daye before, & so came to the churche 
 & there taried a certaine tyme, and after went in solemne procession 
 aboute the churche yearde, & so entered again into ye churche, and there 
 offered a pece of golde, wch was given to sr James Seddon, clarke, minister 
 there. That beinge done Mr. Cadwall, his honors chaplaine, made a 
 godly and learned sermon upon the Psalme, Audi popvlus mens, et contes- 
 tabor te Israeli si audires, dec. And at every tyme of my 1. his honors 
 departure from church there was greate triumphe as afore is said, bothe 
 after morning & eveninge prayer. So that there was shotte at the leaste 
 twelve hundred cullyver shotte duringe ye saide moste honorable feaste, 
 beside the greate ordinance aforesaid. And the same evennig, at after 
 supper, one Raphe Powell, gonner, by Mr. maior’s appointmt being readie 
 wth squybbes, to make pastyme, was commanded by my 1. to staye tyll 
 
£33 
 
 yt was a litle darker, whoe afterwards, when yt was darke in ye eveninge, 
 caste the said squibbe abroad very trymlie, whereat bis honor toke greate 
 pleasure. And on Wednesdaye his honor came to churche, to morning 
 prayer as aforesaid, but in changeable robes, at web tyme Mr. Untter, 
 her maiesties chaplen, batcbler in divinitie & pson of Sefton & Agbton, 
 made a passinge famouse learned sermon upon the 22th of the Apocalippo, 
 Ecce venio cito; et merces mea mecum, &c., which sermon was lyked 
 much above the other. There was manye thinge done & pastymes made, 
 as a morres daunce over and besides the pmisses, wch were all so orderlye 
 & trymlie handled, as was to the greate lykinge & pleasure of the said 
 right honorable erle, the lyke whereof was never sene or knowen to he 
 done in this said towne of Lirpole, for the wch his honor did not onlie 
 gyve unto Mr. maior maniefolde thanke, hut also constrained him to take 
 his honors liberalitie, sore against Mr. maiors mynde, to bestowe upon the 
 said companie. All these things being fynished in decent ordre, then on 
 the Sondaye nexte followinge, God sending his honor a psperouse wynd 
 & faire weather, his 1. toke shippinge at Lirpole, in the Edward, mr 
 Torbocke shippe, about foure of ye clocke in the after none, beinge accom¬ 
 panied wth the Michael] , of Lirpole, the Bee, of the same, the Elizabethe, 
 of Aulte, and the Good Lucke, of Douglasse. Grannte his honor a good 
 & luckie psperouse voiage, wth the lyke retourne to his 1. expectacon, 
 wth pfecte health, and dailie encrease of honor, long to endure.” 
 
 When the most eloquent of English topographers, William Camden, 
 visited Liverpool in this reign, he found that it was the most com¬ 
 modious and the most frequented route to Ireland. He speaks of the 
 town as more remarkable for its elegance and populousness than for its 
 antiquity. This description was written near the end of the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, and it may satisfy us that it was already recovering from 
 the depression into which it had sunk in the early part of the reign. 
 It was afterwards severely tried, during the eight years’ war which Hugh 
 O’Neal, the great Earl of Tyrone, waged against the queen, in the course 
 of which Ireland was utterly wasted, and all trade destroyed.* During 
 this war the wages of the keeper of the Common Hall were reduced to 
 26s. 8d., “ owing to the small trade that now is.” Camden’s account of 
 Liverpool, written previous to the commencement of this war, which 
 broke out in the year 1594, and was not ended until the year 1602, is as 
 follows:—“ Meanwhile, let us follow the course of the Mersey, which now 
 is borne by Warrington, a town noted for its market and bustle; which 
 
 * Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, G37. 
 
 2 II 
 
234 
 
 having passed, after having spread itself out, and again suddenly narrow¬ 
 ing its stream, it once more expands, and with a wide bosom, most con¬ 
 venient for commerce, enters the ocean, where Litherpoole flourishes, in 
 the Saxon Lyferpole, vulgarly called Lirpoole, so named, as is supposed, 
 from its water spread out in the form of a pool, which is the most com¬ 
 modious and most frequented passage to Ireland, a place more celebrated 
 for its elegance and activity than for its antiquity. For its name does 
 not occur amongst ancient writers otherwise than for the fact that Eoger 
 of Poictou, who was lord of the Honour of Lancaster (as it was then 
 named) built here a castle, the keeping of which has been long held by 
 the noble and knightly family of Molyneux, whose original seat is at 
 Sefton, in this neighbourhood, which Eoger of Poictou presented in the 
 Norman times to Vivian de Molyneux.” 
 
 This description proves that Liverpool had become a place of some 
 consequence about the year 1590, when the first edition of Camden’s 
 Britannia was published; and although its commerce was destroyed for a 
 time during the war with O’Neal, yet after the downfall of that great chief 
 it again revived, and increased steadily during the whole of the succeeding 
 century. 
 
 MAYORS AND BAILIFFS OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE TUDORS. 
 
 1503.. 10th Henry 7. 
 
 1507.. 23.l Henry 7. 
 
 1512.. 4.h Henry 8. 
 
 1516.. 8.h Henry 8. 
 
 1521.. 13th Henry 8. 
 1523. .15th Henry 8. 
 
 1524.. 16th Henry 8. 
 
 1529.. 21st Henry 8. 
 
 1530.. 22. Henry 8. 
 1539. .31st Henry 8. 
 
 1540.. 32.1 Henry 8. 
 1544. .30th Henry 8. 
 
 1548.. 2d Edward 6. 
 
 1550.. 3d Edward 6. 
 1551. .4th Edward 0. 
 1553. .6th Edward 6. 
 
 1554.. 1st Mary 1. 
 
 1550.. 3. Mary 
 
 1557.. 5.h Mary 
 
 1558.. 6th Maiy 
 
 1559.. 2d Elizabeth. 
 
 1560.. 3d Elizabeth. 
 
 1561.. 4.h Elizabeth. 
 
 1562.. 5th Elizabeth. 
 
 1563.. 6.h Elizabeth. 
 
 1564.. 7th Elizabeth. 
 
 1565.. 8th Elizabeth. 
 
 1566.. 9th Elizabeth. 
 
 1567.. 10th Eliz. 
 
 1568.. 11th Eliz. 
 1570. .12th Eliz. 
 
 MAYORS OF 
 
 .David ap Griffiths. 
 
 ■ William More. 
 .William More. 
 
 .Robert Coudray. 
 
 • Edward Norris. 
 .William More. 
 
 . Thomas Houghton. 
 .Thomas Houghton. 
 
 . Roger Fazakerley. 
 
 . Christopher Hoghe. 
 
 . Thomas Houghton. 
 
 . Thomas Fayerclough. 
 
 ■ Edward Gee. 
 
 • Ralph Sekerston. 
 
 . Thomas More. 
 
 . Roger Walker. 
 
 • Sir Wm. Norris, Knt. 
 .John More. 
 
 . Thomas More. 
 
 . Robert Corbett. 
 .Alexander Garnett. 
 .Ralph Sekerston. 
 .Robert Corbett, 
 .Thomas Secum. 
 
 . Robert Corbett. 
 .Alexander Garnett. 
 .John Crosse. 
 
 . Robert Corbett. 
 
 . William Secum. 
 
 .Sir T. Stanley, Knt. 
 .Ralph Burscough. 
 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 
 1571.. 13th Eliz. 
 
 1572.. 14th Eliz. 
 
 1573.. 15th Eliz. 
 1574. .16th Eliz. 
 
 1575.. 17th Eliz. 
 
 1576.. 18th Eliz. 
 1577. ,19th Eliz. 
 
 1578.. 20th Eliz. 
 
 1579.. 21st Eliz. 
 
 1580.. 22d Eliz. 
 
 1581.. 23d Eliz. 
 
 1582. .24th Eliz. 
 
 1583. .25th Eliz. 
 
 1584.. 26th Eliz. 
 
 1585.. 27th Eliz. 
 
 1586.. 28th Eliz. 
 
 1587.. 29th Eliz. 
 
 1588.. 30th Eliz. 
 
 1590.. 32d Eliz. 
 
 1591.. 33d Eliz. 
 
 1592.. 34th Eliz. 
 
 1593.. 35th Eliz. 
 
 1594.. 36th Eliz. 
 
 1595.. 37th Eliz. 
 
 1596.. 38th Eliz. 
 1597. ,39th Eliz. 
 
 1598.. 40th Eliz. 
 1599. ,41st Eliz. 
 
 1600.. 42d Eliz. 
 
 1601.. 43d Eliz. 
 1602. ,44th Eliz. 
 
 . .Thomas Bavande. 
 
 . .John Crosse. 
 
 .. Robert Corbett. 
 
 . .John Mannering. 
 
 . .William Secum. 
 
 . .Thomas Bavande. 
 
 . .Sir T. Hesketh, Knt. 
 .. William More. 
 
 . .Edward Halsall. 
 
 .. Robert More. 
 
 . .John Crosse. 
 ..William Secum. 
 
 . .Ralph Burscough. 
 
 . .Thomas Bavande. 
 
 .. Fred. Lord Strange. 
 
 . .Edward Halsall. 
 
 . .William More. 
 
 . .Sir R. Molyneux 
 . .John Byrde. 
 
 .. Robert More. 
 
 .. Giles Brooke. 
 
 .. Robert Barry. 
 
 . .John Byrde. 
 
 .. Robert More. 
 
 . .William More. 
 
 . .Richard Hodgson. 
 
 . .William Dixon. 
 
 .. Robert More. 
 
 . .John Byrde. 
 
 . .Egidius Brooke. 
 
 .. Ralph Secum. 
 
235 
 
 BAILIFFS OF LIVEKPOOL. 
 
 1507.. 23d Henry 7 .. Thomas Barker, 
 
 James Haydock. 
 
 1540.. 32d Henry 8..Ralph Sekerston. 
 
 1550.. 3d Edward 0..Richard Leay, 
 
 Thomas Bolton. 
 
 1551. .4th Edward 6. .Alexander Garnett, 
 Robert Corbett. 
 
 1553.. Oth Edward 0.. Thomas Secum, 
 
 John Winstanley. 
 
 1554 ..1st Mary .... Robert Corbett, 
 
 Martin Comberhach. 
 
 1550.. 3d Mary .... Thomas Bostock, 
 
 William Lawrence. 
 
 1557. 
 
 1558. 
 
 1559. 
 
 1500. 
 
 1501. 
 
 1502. 
 
 1503. 
 
 1504. 
 
 1505. 
 1500. 
 
 1507. 
 
 1508. 
 
 1570. 
 
 1571. 
 
 1572. 
 
 1573. 
 
 1574. 
 
 1575. 
 1570. 
 
 .5th Mary 
 . Oth Mary 
 .2d Eliz. 
 
 • 3d Eliz. 
 
 . 4th Ehz. 
 
 • 5th Ehz. 
 .0th Ehz. 
 .7th Ehz. 
 
 • 8th Ehz. 
 .9th Ehz. 
 .10th Ehz. 
 
 • 11th Eliz. 
 .12th Ehz. 
 . 13th Ehz. 
 . 14th Ehz. 
 .15th Ehz. 
 . 10th Ehz. 
 .17th Ehz. 
 . 18th Ehz. 
 
 ... Peter Rymer, 
 
 George Assheton. 
 
 ... George Assheton, 
 William Seacombe. 
 
 ,... Rauf Burscougli, 
 Humfrey Webster. 
 
 ... William Rose, 
 
 J. Maynering. 
 
 ... Thomas Bostock, 
 Richard Abram. * 
 
 .. .Thomas Jannison, 
 Thomas Roe. 
 
 ... Reginald Mellyng, 
 Thomas Uttyn. 
 
 .. .Thomas Bavande, 
 Thomas Wignall. 
 
 .. - William Secum, 
 Thomas Engleflelde. 
 
 ,.. .Humfrey Webster, 
 Robert Nicholson. 
 
 .... Reginald Mellyng, 
 George Raynefortli. 
 
 .... Ralph Burscoughe, 
 Thomas Rowe. 
 
 .. .John Gilibrond, 
 
 John Williamson. 
 
 .. .John Englefielde, 
 Edward Nicholson. 
 
 .. .James Chamber, 
 Augustine Turner. 
 
 .. .Thomas Bastwisel, 
 Robert Witter. 
 
 ... Thomas Mason, 
 William Gellond. 
 
 .. .Robert Witter, 
 
 James Chamber. 
 
 ... Thomas Bank, 
 
 Roger Rose. 
 
 1577.. 19th Ehz. ... 
 1578. .20th Ehz. ... 
 
 1579.. 21st Ehz. ... 
 
 1580.. 22d Ehz. 
 
 1581.. 23d Ehz. .... 
 1582. ,24th Ehz. ... 
 
 1583.. 25th Ehz. ... 
 
 1584.. 20th Ehz. ... 
 1585. ,27th Ehz. ... 
 
 1580.. 28th Ehz. .... 
 
 1587.. 29th Ehz. ... 
 
 1588.. 30th Ehz. ... 
 
 1590.. 32d Ehz. ... 
 
 1591.. 33d Ehz. ... 
 
 1592.. 34th Ehz. ... 
 
 1593.. 35th Ehz. ... 
 
 1594.. 30th Ehz. ..., 
 
 1595.. 37th Ehz. ... 
 
 1590.. 38th Ehz. ... 
 
 1597.. 39th Ehz. ... 
 
 1598.. 40th Ehz. ... 
 
 1599.. 41st Ehz. ... 
 
 1000.. 42d Ehz. ... 
 
 1001.. 43d Eliz. ... 
 
 1602.. 44th Ehz. ... 
 
 ,. Robert More, 
 
 James Chamber. 
 .Anthony More, 
 William Galbrond. 
 .John Bryde, 
 
 Peter Starkye. 
 
 . Roger More, 
 
 Thomas Bauastre. 
 .Edward Nicholson, 
 Alexander Gogney. 
 .William Galbrond, 
 John Goare. 
 
 .Thomas Rose, 
 
 John Byrde. 
 
 . Giles Brooke, 
 
 Edward Erlome. 
 
 . Thomas Hodgeson, 
 Thomas Wycksted. 
 .William Parr, 
 
 Robert Berry. 
 
 .John Smyth, 
 
 William Galbrande. 
 
 . Roger Rose, 
 
 Robert Ball. 
 
 . Robert Ball, 
 
 Gilbert Formbie. 
 .John Wakefielde, 
 Evan Richardson. 
 .Cuthhert Lawrence, 
 John Sandeford. 
 
 . Robert Ball, 
 
 Richard Birde. 
 
 . Richard Hodgson, 
 Gilbert Formbie. 
 .William Dixon, 
 William Richardson. 
 
 . Christopher Holden, 
 Thomas Tarlton. 
 .Ralph Secum, 
 Thomas Hubberstey. 
 • Thomas Johnson, 
 Evan Richardson. 
 
 . William Banastre, 
 Henry Monely. 
 
 . Richard Rose, 
 William Williamson. 
 
 . Robert Mather, 
 Thomas Richardson. 
 .William Formbie, 
 Roger Hey. 
 
 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE CORPORATION 
 UNDER THE TUDORS. 
 
 OF LIVERPOOL 
 
 
 £. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £■ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £- 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1570...13th Eliz. 
 
 ..20 
 
 14 
 
 8 . 
 
 .23 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 1593.-35th Ehz. 
 
 —00 
 
 10 
 
 2 . 
 
 .49 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 1581. ..23d Eliz. 
 
 ..40 
 
 16 
 
 10 . 
 
 -30 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 1594. .30th Ehz. 
 
 ...92 
 
 13 
 
 10± 
 
 .57 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1586...28th Eliz. 
 
 -46 
 
 9 
 
 6 . 
 
 -36 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 1595...37th Ehz. 
 
 ...82 
 
 12 
 
 io±. 
 
 .77 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 1587...29th Eliz. 
 
 -48 
 
 13 
 
 2 . 
 
 .43 
 
 12 
 
 4§ 
 
 1596—38th Ehz. 
 
 ...48 
 
 19 
 
 3 . 
 
 -44 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 1589...31st Ehz. 
 
 -43 
 
 10 
 
 r ii 
 
 39 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 1597—39th Ehz. 
 
 ..50 
 
 0 
 
 6 . 
 
 .51 
 
 0 
 
 10§ 
 
 1590...32d Ehz. 
 
 -80 
 
 13 
 
 2 . 
 
 -72 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1598.-40th Eliz. 
 
 ...37 
 
 3 
 
 0 . 
 
 .34 10 
 
 1 
 
 1591...33d Ehz. 
 
 -74 
 
 19 
 
 7 . 
 
 -01 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 1599—41st Ehz. 
 
 -00 
 
 5 
 
 OL 
 *2' 
 
 .03 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 1592...34th Ehz. 
 
 -74 
 
 6 
 
 4 . 
 
 -06 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 1000...42d Eliz. 
 
 -55 
 
 15 
 
 2 . 
 
 .55 
 
 0 
 
 2* 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTH. 
 
 TRADE OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE TUDOR PRINCES. 
 
 RISE OF MANUFACTURES.—STATE OF IRELAND.—CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 
 
 When Leland visited Liverpool, near the close of the reign of Henry 
 the Eighth, he found that Irish merchants came much there as to a good 
 haven ; that there was good merchandise in Liverpool, consisting chiefly 
 of Irish, that is, of linen yarn ; and that Manchester manufacturers were 
 the principal buyers of it.* It thus appears that at that early period in 
 the history of the national industry, Ireland was celebrated for its 
 growth of flax and its production of linen yarn; that the linen manu¬ 
 facture was carried on to a considerable extent at Manchester; and that 
 Liverpool was the port through which the ingenious artizans of that 
 place obtained their supplies of raw or prepared materials. Flax and 
 linen yarn were then the only materials of manufacture imported into 
 England, to any great extent^/ Wool, the raw material of what was 
 then the national manufacture, was produced in England in greater 
 abundance and of better quality than in any other country in Europe, 
 so that England exported it in large quantities instead of importing it. 
 Both raw silk and cotton woolf were, however, imported into England 
 by the Genoese and Venetians nearly a hundred years before this time, 
 hut in insignificant quantities, and for purposes of luxury anu ornament, 
 not of common use. The linen manufacture then ranked next to the 
 woollen in extent and usefulness, but it was confined to a few districts, 
 whilst the woollen manufacture was spread over the whole country. 
 
 Ireland has long been celebrated for its growth of flax. It owes its 
 superiority as a flax-growing country to the openness of its soil, which 
 is in general light and easily work, to the mildness of its climate, and 
 to the abundance of its supplies of moisture in the seasons of spring 
 and summer. These circumstances, whilst they injure it as a wheat¬ 
 growing country, render it the first country in Europe for the growth of 
 
 * Leland’s Itinerary, 7, 47. 
 
 + Libel of English Policy, in Hacklnyt's Voyages. 
 
237 
 
 flax, as well as of roots and all kinds of grasses. From the natural 
 suitableness of the soil to the growth of flax, both the English settlers 
 and the aboriginal inhabitants turned their attention to the growth of 
 that most valuable plant, from the earliest periods of their history. A 
 short robe of linen, dyed yellow, with an extract of the poplar tree, formed 
 part of the dress of the Irish chiefs.* The spinning of linen yam 
 naturally followed the cultivation of flax; and as capital has increased 
 in Ireland, and the textile art has improved, those districts of that 
 country which have enjoyed the advantages of political tranquillity, have 
 taken the lead of all other parts of the empire in the linen trade, nor is 
 anything wanted, but equal tranquillity and equal industry, to render the 
 south and west as prosperous as the north, and by the same means. In 
 the reign of Henry the Eighth, Ulster, which is now the chief seat of 
 the Irish linen manufacture, was the wildest and most disturbed part of 
 Ireland ; and no part of that country enjoyed that settled tranquillity 
 which is necessary for carrying on the more elaborate and costly pro¬ 
 cesses of manufacturing industry. Hence a large portion of the linen 
 yarn of Ireland spun at Dublin, Drogheda, Carlingford, Newry, Wex¬ 
 ford, and Waterford, was sent to England, where it was woven, bleached, 
 and made into linen cloth. Manchester, from its proximity to Liverpool, 
 which was the place of import, had thus ihe means of obtaining linen 
 yarn more easily and cheaply than any other town in England; for 
 all attempts to establish the cultivation of flax in England failed. 
 This circumstance gave to Manchester a variety of material; and 
 naturally led to the production of a variety of fabrics. Hence its rise 
 was rapid, in spite of an indifferent supply of home-grown materials. The 
 south and west of England and the West Riding of Yorkshire were all 
 of them better situated than Manchester, for obtaining wool and woollen 
 yarn, from the fine sheep pastures by which they were surrounded, and 
 have maintained a superiority in the manufacture of fine woollens; but 
 for variety of materials and fabrics Manchester established a reputation 
 at a very early period of its history, chiefly owing to its easy communi¬ 
 cation with the flax-growing districts of Ireland, and afterwards retained 
 it, chiefly owing to the ease with which it communicated with the cotton¬ 
 growing districts of the West Indies and America. 
 
 We have a fuller knowledge of the state of manufactures at Manches¬ 
 ter in the reign of Henry the Eighth than of that of any other town in 
 
 * Hollinsheful’s Chronicles. 
 
238 
 
 the kingdom. We owe this knowledge to the curious fact, that the Col¬ 
 legiate Church of Manchester was one of the places of sanctuary for 
 offenders, which retained that privilege after the Keformation. At that time 
 any delinquent who had not committed a capital offence was safe 
 from justice, when once he had reached the sacred pi’ecincts of the 
 Collegiate Church. This system, although it worked wonderfully well 
 for those who did ill, worked just as ill for those who did well. It was 
 soon found to he an intolerable nuisance to an industrious, thrifty, and 
 “ true-dealing” population. An act was, in consequence, introduced into 
 Parliament, for the purpose of freeing Manchester from this dangerous 
 honour of sanctuary. In the preamble to this act a full account is given 
 of the various branches of industry carried on in the town and neigh¬ 
 bourhood, for the purpose of showing the unreasonableness of allowing 
 such a place to be turned into a den of thieves. This preamble states 
 that the town of Manchester is well inhabited, and distinguished for its 
 trade both in linens and in woollens; that the inhabitants have obtained 
 riches and wealthy livings, and employ many artificers and poor people’; 
 that by “ their strict and true dealings” they have given rise “ to the 
 resort of many strangers from Ireland and elsewhere, with linen yarn, 
 wool, and other necessary wares, for making of cloth to be sold there 
 that in the course of the manufacture of linen, the flax and yarn have to 
 lie out in the fields night and day, for half a year, to be whitened, before 
 they can be made into cloth; and that the woollen cloth made in the 
 town and neighbourhood must also hang on the tenters, to be dried before 
 it can be dressed. It further states that Manchester, besides being 
 a principal place for manufacturing linens and woollens, is also frequented 
 by the manufacturers of the neighbouring towns and villages, who 
 bring goods to be finished and sold. “ Many strangers,” says the act, 
 “ inhabiting other townships and places, have used customarily to resort 
 to the said town, with a great number of cottons, to be uttered and sold 
 by the inhabitants, whereby many poor people have been well set to work, 
 as well with dressing and frizeing of the said cottons, as with putting to 
 sale the same.”* “ All these processes,” says the act, “ are endangered 
 
 * Whereas, the said towne of Manchester is and hath of long tyme been a tovme well inha¬ 
 bited, and the kinges subjectes inhabitauntes of the same towne are well set a worke in 
 makinge of clothes, as well of lvnnen as of woollen, whereby the inhabitauntes of the saide 
 towne haue obteyned gotten and come vnto riches and welthy lyuings, and haue kepte and 
 set manye artificers and poore folkes to worke within the said towne, and by reason of the 
 great occupienge good order strayte and time dealing of the inhabitantes of the said towne, 
 many strangers, as wel of Ireland as of other places within this reahne, haue resorted to the 
 saide towne with lynnen yarne, woolles, and other necessary wares for mailing of clothes, 
 
239 
 
 by the resort of light and evil-disposed persons to the town.” For these 
 reasons it was proposed and enacted that the right of sanctuary should he 
 taken away from Manchester. That disagreeable honour was conferred 
 on Chester, where there was no such “ occupying of merchandise,” and 
 where it was hoped that the claimants of sanctuary would be less trouble¬ 
 some, and better looked after. Such was Manchester three hundred years 
 ago. Already a flourishing manufacturing town, where the woollen and 
 linen trades were carried on with spirit and success ; the manufacturing 
 capital of the towns and villages which were already springing up in the 
 numerous valleys which meet or converge at Manchester; and the place 
 to which the manufactures of other adjoining townships were brought to 
 be finished and sold. 
 
 It will be seen in the course of this chapter that Bolton-on-the-Moors 
 was the principal place at which the article (by a prophetic misnomer) 
 called cottons, was produced. Camden informs us that the Manchester 
 cottons of his day were in reality woollens. The name of cottons was 
 probably given to them from some real or fancied resemblance to the 
 fustians of Lombardy, or other strong cotton goods, which were known in 
 England as early as the reign of Edward the First ;* that is to say, nearly 
 three hundred years before the fine fabrics called calicoes were imported, 
 by the Portuguese, from Calicut in India; and probably long before the 
 still finer fabrics called muslins (which were sometimes of cotton, some¬ 
 times of silk and gold thread) were imported by the Genoese and Vene¬ 
 tians from Mosul, the successor of the ancient Nineveh, on the banks of 
 the Tigris. 
 
 Camden, who visited Liverpool about forty years later than Lei and, 
 that is, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, does not give us 
 
 to be sold there, and haue vsed to credit & truste the poore inhabitantes of the same towne, 
 which were not able and had not redy money to pay in hande for the saide yarnes wolles 
 and wares vnto such time the saide credites with their industry labour and peynes myght 
 make clothes of the said wolles yams and other necessary wares, and solde the same, to 
 oontente and paye their creditours, wherein hath consisted much of the. common welth of the 
 said towne, and many poore folkes had lyuynge, and children and seruants were vertuously 
 brought up in honest and time labour, out of all ydleness. And for as muche as of necessitie 
 the said lynnen yame must lye without as well in the night as in the day cotinually for the 
 space of one halfeyere to be whited, before it can be made clothe, andthewollen clothes there 
 made must lmnge vppon the taynter, to he dried before it can be dressed up, and for the saulfe- 
 gardo therof it is and slial be expediet and necessary, that substanciall honest iuste true and 
 credible persons be and shuld dwell in the sayd towne, and no maner of lyght persone or 
 persons there to be inhabytauntes. And where also many straungers inliabytinge in other 
 towneshyps and places, haue vsed customably to resorte to the sayd towne of Manchester 
 with a great number of cottons, to be vttered & solde to the inhabitantes of the same towne, 
 to the great profit of all the inhabitantes of the same and therby many poore people haue 
 ben well set a worke, as wel with dressyng & frisyng of the sayd cottons, as with putting to 
 sale the same,” &c .—Act 33d Henry Eighth. 
 
 * Statutes at Large, i, 140. 
 
240 
 
 anv additional information as to the nature either of the exports or of the 
 imports of the port. Fortunately, however, official returns still exist, 
 which give us a very clear account of both ; and which throw much light 
 on the history of the manufactures of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, 
 and Westmoreland, as well as on the various branches of industry pursued 
 in Ireland. The return of which I propose to give an analysis relates 
 to the year 158G. At that time the foreign trade of the kingdom was 
 almost entirely suspended, by the violent quarrel with Spain, which led 
 to the attack on England by the Invincible Armada. It therefore contains 
 little information as to the foreign trade of the port. That shall be given 
 subsequently, from another source. I may observe, in passing, however, 
 that the foreign trade of Liverpool was then much less regular and 
 extensive than its trade with Ireland. Ireland was then the main stay 
 of the port of Liverpool. 
 
 Amongst the records of the Custom-house, preserved at the Branch 
 Public Record Office, in which the accounts of the Customs are kept, is 
 a series of returns, made by the Custom-house officers, at the different 
 outports, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. These returns were addressed 
 to Sir Francis Walsingham, who was at that time not only Secretary of 
 State, but himself lessee of the great customs of the outports. These he 
 held under the Queen, at a yearly rent of Tl 1,250, for a term of six years.* 
 This rent appears very small, and yet it was so much more than the 
 customs of the outports produced, (after deducting the cost of collection,) 
 that the secretary was very glad to give up his lease, at the end of the 
 third year, and to pay the sum of £2 1,000, to be freed from his bargain. 
 The following are the ports which were comprised in his lease :—Chester, 
 which then included Liverpool, Exeter, Boston, Bridgewater, Bristol, 
 Gloucester, Hull, Newcastle, Lynn, Plymouth, Milford, Fowey, Poole, 
 Yarmouth, and Berwick. The gross revenue yielded by the port of Chester, 
 including along with it the revenue of Liverpool, Beaumaris, and Conway, 
 during the quarter of a year commencing on the 25th of March, and ending 
 on the 25th of June, 1586, was T221. 5s. 4jd., or at the rate of T885. Is 6d. 
 
 * The following is the agreement:—“ Her Majesty grantes to the said Sir Frances, all 
 subsidies of poundage and other duties whatsoever of customs, etc., of vessels, which shall 
 be laden or unladen within any of the ports here named, namely, Plymouth, Exeter, Poole, 
 Bridgewater, Bristol, Gloucester, Milford, Cardiff, Chester, Berwick, Newcastle, Hull, 
 Boston, Lynn, Yarmouth, with the creeks thereunto belonging, except the creek of Wood- 
 bridge Inward, being a member of the port of Yarmouth, with all custom or subsidy of 
 wines, etc., all customs of remnants and of lengths of woollen cloths, etc., with all forfeits, 
 etc., to have, etc., the said subsistes, etc., except as above, from Michaelmas next, for a 
 term of six years, yielding to her Majesty for the same ,£11,203. 8s., to be paid in the 
 Exchequer by the first day of June and the 10th of January by even proportions, accounting 
 the years aforesaid, from our lady’s day next." 
 
241 
 
 a year. From this was to be deducted the sum of £'100 8s. 7^d. a 
 quarter, or £401 14s. 5d. a year, for costs of collection, and for various 
 exemptions from the customs’ duties, leaving only £120 16s. 4d. as the 
 neat customs for the quarter, and £483 7s. 8d. for the whole year. 
 This does not differ materially, though it is somewhat higher, than the 
 yearly average during a period of five years, that is, from 1580, the 
 twenty-third of Elizabeth, to 1585, the twenty-eighth year of the same 
 queen’s reign. The average of each of the five years was £437 13s. 4j-d.* 
 Comparing this return with those of the other outports of the kingdom, 
 we find that Chester and its associated ports occupied the seventh position, 
 in point of rank, amongst the ports of England, in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 The order of the ports, judging from the amount of revenue received 
 in each, was London, Lynn, Hull, Exeter, Bristol, Yarmouth, and 
 Chester.f 
 
 Again, comparing the receipts in the port of Liverpool for the quarter 
 already mentioned, with the whole amount of the receipts of Chester, 
 Liverpool, Conway, and Beaumaris, it appears that Liverpool then pro¬ 
 duced a neat customs’ revenue of £68 0s. 9d. a quarter, or £272 3s. a 
 year, leaving for Chester, Conway, and Beaumaris only a revenue of 
 £52 16s. 2d., or £211 4s. 8d. It thus appears that Liverpool had 
 already passed Chester, with its other ports, in point of commerce, 
 although it was still greatly inferior to that venerable city in point of 
 wealth, reputation, and dignity. This fact helps to account for the 
 vehement resistance offered by Liverpool to the claim which Chester made 
 to superiority, on the ground of its having been constituted the principal 
 port, for custom-house purposes, in the north-west part of England. No 
 such claim had ever been asserted against Liverpool during the first three 
 hundred years of its existence as a port, when Chester was greatly superior 
 to it in the extent of its commerce, as well as in all other respects, 
 except the convenience of its port; and it was, therefore, strenuously resisted 
 under the Tudors and Stuarts, when Liverpool had already surpassed it 
 in commerce. A long and angry feud between Liverpool and Chester 
 arose out of this claim, in the course of which the authorities and inhabit¬ 
 ants of the two places became much exasperated, Liverpool indignantly 
 denying the superiority of Chester, and Chester as indignantly asserting 
 it. This quarrel continued for upwards of a century, and was only put 
 an end to in the year 1660, soon after the restoration of Charles the 
 
 * Harleian BISS, 300. Art. 4. 
 
 2 i 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
Second. At that time the customs’ authorities in London interfered 
 authoritatively, declaring that Liverpool possessed, and always had pos¬ 
 sessed, an independent authority, from the Red Stones at the point of 
 Wirral to the River Mersey, and in all the creeks on both sides of the 
 river, and positively forbidding the custom-house authorities at Chester 
 to interfere beyond their own boundaries, at the mouth of the River Dee.* 
 
 To return, however, to the commerce of Liverpool in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth. The following is an account of it, made out day by 
 day, for a considerable period, from which a clearer notion of its nature 
 and extent will be obtained than can be given in any other way :— 
 
 On the 28tli March, 1580, two vessels entered the port of Liverpool 
 and one sailed from it. The two which entered it were the Trinitie, of 
 Marlington, John Clarke, master, burthen 15 tons, from Dundalk; and 
 the Speedwell, of Wallazie, Robert Ensdall, master, burthen 16 tons, 
 from Dublin. The vessel which left it was the Trinitie, of Marlington, 
 which returned to Dundalk. The cargo which the Trinitie brought into 
 Liverpool consisted of 29 packages of yam, consigned or sent to different 
 parties; of 5 barrels of tallow; and of 600 sheep and brokefells. The 
 cargo of the Speedwell consisted of 17 packages of yam, sent to several 
 persons ; of 150 yards of linen cloth ; and of 1,600 sheep, deer, and broke- 
 fells. The outward cargo taken to Dundalk by the Trinitie consisted of 
 diverse sorts of smallwares, namely, 5 cwt. allum, 1 cwt. madder, 5 bales 
 hops, 4 dozen yards broad Yorkshire red cloth, 14 dozen strait, 5 red 
 Yorkshire frisedows, 2 dozen Manchester cottons, 12 dozen knives, and 1 
 dozen horse combs. 
 
 No other vessel entered the port until the 8th April, when the Michael, 
 
 * The following is the order which at length put an end to the quarrel of Chester and 
 Liverpool:—“ Custom-house, London, 12th December, 16G0. After our hearty commenda¬ 
 tions, having by a former letter taken notice of the differences and disputes arisen betwixt 
 some officers and other interested persons, within the port of West Chester and the town 
 of Liverpool, concerning the bounds and limits of each port and place, and having declared 
 our opinion and knowledge that Liverpool, however it may be accustomed a member of West 
 Chester, yet in the execution of all custom affairs hath ever been distinct and absolute of 
 itself, and that the whole river of Mersey, and the shores on both sides, was and ought to 
 be under the care, privilege, and inspection of the officers of his Majesty’s customs at 
 Liverpool; but finding our letters either misunderstood or not regarded, and the same 
 dispute and worse troubles prosecuted and fomented, as well against the merchants as 
 officers there, w-hich is a very great prejudice to his Majesty’s service, we are again neces¬ 
 sitated, for prevention of further inconvenience, to order and desire that what ships’ goods 
 or merchandize soever shall be exported or imported from or into the Biver Mersey, on 
 either side the shore, beginning on Worra! side, at a place called the Bed Stones, and not 
 further southwards, be entered and accounted for at the custom-house at Liverpool, and to 
 the officers there, without any your let or hindrance; and hereunto we do expect your ready 
 compliance with, the quiet and welfare of his Majesty’s service being very much concerned 
 therein ; and so we rest your very loving friends, Nicholas Crisp, John Sliaw, John Harris, 
 John Wolstenholme, John Jacob. To the customs’ collector, and all his Majesty’s officers 
 in the port of West Chester." 
 
243 
 
 of Liverpool, burthen 16 tons, Evan Thomason, master, arrived from Tre- 
 darth, or Drogheda, bringing 47 packages of linen yarn, consigned to 
 several different persons, 1 barrel of tallow, and 1,400 skins of sheep, 
 deer, &c. On the same day, the Marie, of Liverpool, Richard Johnson, 
 master, 6 tons burthen, entered from Drogheda, bringing 1,200 hides 
 and skins, and 3 barrels of tallow. 
 
 On the 12tli April, the barque Strange, John Stronge, master, of 18 
 tons, entered from Carlingford, bringing 10 packages of linen yarn, 
 and 2,200 skins and hides; and, on the same day, the Tobie, of Hilbrie, 
 Richard Little, master, of 26 tons burthen, entered from Dublin, with 
 18 packages of linen yarn, and 3,700 skins and hides. 
 
 On the 13th April, the Tobie, of Hilhre, 15 tons, cleared out for 
 Dublin, with a cargo consisting of divers sorts of smallwares (particulars 
 not named) of the value of £9. 12s. Id. 
 
 On the 16th April, the Elizabeth, of Liverpool, Robert Pemberton, 
 master, burden 10 tons, cleared out for Dublin, with 10 tons of coal. 
 
 On the 18th April, the Hope, of Liverpool, Cuthbert Lawrence, 
 master, burden 34 tons, cleared out for Dublin, with 28 tons of coal; and 
 with 6 pieces of cotton, 5 pieces of housewives cloth, and 6 dozen 
 Manchester checks. On the same day the Swallow, of Wallazie, Robert 
 Williamson, master, burden 12 tons, cleared out for Drogheda, (Tre- 
 darth,) with 4 cwt. of madder, 2 cwt. of alum, and divers other small¬ 
 wares, of the value of £12. 3s. 6d. 
 
 On the 22nd April, the Spedewell, of Wallazie, cleared out for Carig- 
 fargos, (Carrickfergus,) with 20 barrels of barley malt, and 12 barrels of 
 wheat, “to be delivered to the Queen’s Majesties Victualler, in the said 
 town (and fortress) of Carigfargos, for her Majesties use, for provision.” 
 
 And on the last day of April, the Golden Gray, of Liverpool, Robert 
 Kettle, master, 19 tons burden, arrived from Dublin, bringing 22 
 packages of yarn, and 4,000 hides and skins. 
 
 In the month of May the entries inwards and outwards were as 
 follow:— 
 
 On the 3rd of May, the Little Michael, of Liverpool, John Williamson, 
 master, arrived from Drogheda, with 31 packages of linen yarn, and 
 1,412 hides and skins; and on the same day the Little Margaret, of 
 Liverpool, Henry Shaw, master, burden 12 tons, cleared out for Dublin, 
 with 70 Chester bushels of oat malt, to be delivered in Dublin, to her 
 Majesty’s use; and with 4 pieces of fustian and other smallwares, valued 
 at £10. 
 
244 
 
 On the 5th May, the Peter, of Wallazie, James Johnson, master, 
 burthen 16 tons, entered from Carlingford, with 24 packages of linen 
 yarn, and 1,100 hides and skins; and, on the same day, the Edward, 
 of Liverpool, William Blackmore, master, burthen 10 tons, sailed for 
 Carlingford with 140 windles of malt, and 40 windles of wheat, for¬ 
 warded, by warrant from the Earl of Derby, to Sir Nicholas Bagnall, 
 Knight, Marshal of Ireland ; and also with divers sorts of smallwares, 
 consisting of 4 barrels of Chester cups and trenchers, (of pewter, then 
 used instead of earthenware,) 6 dozen coarse gloves, 6 dozen leather 
 points, (strings, used instead of buttons,) 4 gross of knives, 2 dozen 
 girths, 6,000 nails, 1 dozen shoeing horns, 2 dozen cans, 12lbs. glue, 6 
 short and 4 northern dozen, (cloth,) 1 piece Manchester cotton, and 3 
 pieces Kendal cotton. 
 
 On the 4th May, the Great Margaret, of Liverpool, John Robinson, 
 master, burden 10 tons, cleared out for Drogheda, with the following 
 cargo:—5 bags of hops, 2 cwt. anniseeds, 2 cwt. madder, 3 firkins of 
 soap, 2 barrels black salt, 1 hhd. Chester cups and trenchers, 5 dozen 
 woollen cards, 2 dozen scythes, 6 saddles, 3 cans, 6 bridles, and 3 
 packages of smallwares, of the value, respectively, of s£l5, £20, and 
 £18. 
 
 On the 5tli May, the Michael, of Liverpool, cleared out for Dublin, 
 with a cargo of mercery wares, of the value of £180. 
 
 On the 6th May, the Michael, of Liverpool, Richard Gyneson, 
 master, burden 16 tons, cleared out for Drogheda with 7 tons of coals, 
 many packages of hops, 3 dozen hanging locks, 2 dozen knives, 2 gross 
 tin spoons, and 2 dozen purses. 
 
 On the 16th May, the Michael, of Liverpool, John Williamson, 
 master, burden 16 tons, brought from Dublin 5 packages of linen 
 yarn, and a bundle of brass ; and “ from Nicholas Lewcar, of Waterford, 
 merchant, one firkin, containing 18 pieces of callicow cloth,”—where 
 obtained from is not stated. 
 
 On the 18th May, the Margaret, of Liverpool, arrived from Drogheda, 
 brought 7 packages of linen yarn, and 1,146 skins and hides. 
 
 On the 26th May, the Marygold, of Liverpool, 20 tons, arrived from 
 Dublin, with 500 sheep fells and 14 deer fells. 
 
 On the 29 th May, arrived the Margaret, of Marlington, Patrick 
 Cosgrave, from Drogheda, with 23 packages of linen yarn, 2,800 skins 
 and fells, and 1 cwt. of old brass. 
 
 On the last day of May, the Fenex, of London, James Covenant, 
 
245 
 
 master, of 36 tons, sailed for Dublin with 1,400 tennis balls, 24 rackets, 
 1 ton of iron, 1 sack of hops, and 60,000 nails; and the Little Mar¬ 
 garet sailed for Dundalk, with 7 Northern dozens, 4 Northern strait, 4 
 Kendal cottons, 7 Manchester cottons, diverse smallwares, valued at £13, 
 and 1 ton of English iron. 
 
 On the 4th June, the Spedewell, of Wallazie, sailed for Dublin, with 12 
 tons of coals; and on the same day the Margaret, of Carlingford, sailed 
 for Drogheda with a hogshead of Chester cups, 1 dozen woollen cards, 
 6 pieces Manchester cottons, 1 gross Hallamshire (Sheffield) knives, 1 
 dozen coarse stockings, and an assortment of other smallwares. 
 
 On the 8th June, the Golden Grey sailed for Dublin, with 3 pieces of 
 poledavies, (a kind of sail cloth, manufactured about Warrington,) 4 
 pieces of Northern broad-clotli, 1 piece of red narrow cloth, smallwares 
 of the value of £33, and 10 tons of coals; and, on the same day, the 
 Michael, of Liverpool, sailed for Dublin, with 10 tons of coals. 
 
 On the 13th June, the Edward, William Blackmore, entered from 
 Carlingford with 11 packages of linen yarn, 13 dickers of tanned hides, 
 and 4 packages of salted hides ; and, on the same day, the Blomeflower, 
 of Dublin, 30 tons, entered from Dublin, with 4 packages of linen yarn, 
 40 cadows and blankets, a quantity of old pewter, and a number of fells 
 and skins. 
 
 On the 15th June, the Ellen, of Liverpool, sailed for Dublin with 10 
 tons of coals. 
 
 On the 15th June, the John, of Drogheda, burden 12 tons, entered 
 with 21 packages of linen yarn, 190 hides, and 3 barrels of tallow. 
 
 On the 17th June, the Swallow, of Wallazie, entered from Dublin, 
 with 19 packages of linen yarn. 
 
 On the 22d June, the Spedewell, of Wallazie, 18 tons, entered, with 
 17 packages of linen yam, and 140 lbs. of old brass. On the same day, 
 the Michael, of Liverpool, entered, with 25 packages of linen yarn, and 
 several parcels of skins and hides. 
 
 Such was the principal import and export trade of Liverpool in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. The foreign arrivals were few and far 
 between; but still occasional arrivals took place, of cargoes of wine from 
 Spain, Portugal, and France; of oranges and other fruits from Bordeaux; 
 and of iron from Biscay. The rarity of these arrivals was partly the 
 result of the superior capital of the merchants of other ports, which 
 enabled them to risk more, and to wait longer for their returns; partly of 
 the unsettled state of the foreign relations of England, which was more 
 
246 
 
 or less openly at war with Spain, then the great naval power of Europe 
 and America, during the whole of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and 
 partly of the obstacles created in the smaller outports, by the extensive 
 privileges conferred by the crown, on the great Association of Merchant 
 Adventurers, in London; on the branches of that association at Chester, 
 Bristol, and other wealthy places; and by the exclusive right of trading 
 possessed by the companies formed to trade to the East Indies, to Mus¬ 
 covy or Russia, to the coast of Barbary, to Spain and Portugal, and to 
 the Levant. 
 
 It was not until the year 1581 that the trade of Liverpool obtained 
 relief from an intolerable grievance, to which it had been subjected in 
 the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, owing to the exclusive 
 privileges of an incorporated trading company, which had been established 
 at Chester in the reign of Queen Mary, and which had obtained a confir¬ 
 mation of its charter from Queen Elizabeth. This company had been 
 formed for the purpose of trading with Spain and Portugal, which were 
 then the most commercial countries in Europe, the channels through 
 which the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, and the sugar of Brazil, 
 were transmitted to all the other countries of Europe; and through which 
 the manufactures of England were exported to all the richest countries of 
 Europe and America. This company claimed a right to exclude all retailers 
 from the trade, and to impose a duty of twenty-live per cent, on the goods 
 of all persons trading to Spain and Portugal, from Chester or Liverpool, 
 without its permission.* Liverpool, as I have already mentioned, was at 
 that time subject to Chester for custom-house purposes. In this dilemma, 
 the people of Liverpool appealed to the Earl of Derby for protection 
 against this ruinous monopoly; and, by the good offices of the noble 
 earl with Mr. Secretary Walsingham, they obtained permission to trade 
 with Spain and Portugal at their own pleasure. This question was not 
 settled until it had been referred to the Lord Chief-Justice of England 
 and the Master of the Rolls, who decided that the Chester company had 
 no right to make any such order; and gave it as their opinion, that if 
 retailers “ of such poor cities and towns, where small trade of navigation 
 is used, should be put from their trade of shipping, it would be a great 
 decay to the same poor cities and towns.”f 
 
 At this time, and for many years after, the foreign trade of England 
 was carried on by great incorporated companies, whose policy was to 
 
 * Corporation Records. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
247 
 
 treat all persons, not of their companies, as the merchant adventurers of 
 Chester treated the retailers of Liverpool. These companies were not 
 without their advantages, in securing respect to the mercantile body at 
 home and abroad, and in opening new branches of trade, at a time when 
 private capitals were comparatively small, and when the whole course 
 of the commerce of the world was passing through a great revolution. 
 Still they formed a very serious obstacle to the efforts of individual 
 merchants in the smaller outports. Commerce was also greatly impeded, 
 and without any countervailing advantage, by a multitude of monopolies or 
 exclusive privileges of dealing in particular articles, some of them in great 
 request, given or sold to court favourites. So far was this pernicious 
 custom carried, that it at length produced an alarming difference 
 between the queen and her parliament. This led to the abolition of the 
 practice. The queen apologized for it openly in parliament, declaring 
 that she had erred in ignorance; and adding, “ I had rather my heart 
 or hand should perish, than that either my heart or hand should allow 
 such privileges to monopolists as may be prejudicial to my people.* 
 
 It will be seen from the account of the trade of Liverpool with 
 Ireland, given above, that it did not extend to the whole island, but only to 
 the ports between Carlingford and Waterford. The shipments to Carrick- 
 fergus, which is the only place mentioned north of Carlingford, were not 
 made in course of trade, but consisted of provisions for the garrison of 
 that fortress. Waterford was the furthest point to the south and west, 
 with which any considerable trade was carried on at that time. The trade 
 was thus limited to the province of Leinster, and one or two ports 
 bordering upon it. 
 
 At this time the differences of race were much more strongly marked 
 in Ireland than they are now. The English interest, as it was called, 
 was then confined to the provinces of Leinster and Meath, which 
 have been united to form the modern province of Leinster. The Irish 
 interest prevailed almost without rival in Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, 
 although a few fortresses and ports were occupied by English garrisons 
 or colonies. One of the most celebrated writers of Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign speaks of Leinster, as a fertile and fruit-bearing region, with a mild 
 climate, and inhabitants whose dispositions were not altogether hostile.f 
 The same writer quotes with approbation the opinion of an older 
 
 * Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 635. 
 + Camden’s Britannia, p. 604. 
 
248 
 
 writer, who gives the following description of Meath:—“ As for the soil 
 it is fertile in corn, in pastures, and in herds of cattle. The pro¬ 
 vince abounds in fish, flesh, and other articles, as butter, cheese, and 
 milk; and is watered by numerous rivers. It has a delightful aspect, and 
 a salubrious air. The woods and marshes at its extremities render 
 attack from without difficult; and because, therefore, of the innumerable 
 multitude of its people, and the strength of its towns and castles, it is called 
 the Chamber (Camera) of Ireland, on account of its tranquillity.” A 
 large portion of both these provinces was included in the English pale, 
 the only portion of Ireland in which the English language was spoken, 
 English manners were cultivated, and the English Government was even 
 moderately well obeyed. The account given by the same writer of the 
 provinces of Munster, Connaught, and Ulster is very different. The 
 English rule was little more than a name. They were in general governed 
 by chiefs, who were nearly independent. Some of them were of the Irish, 
 others of the Norman race. The Fitzgeralds, the O’Briens, the De Burghs, 
 and the O’Neals were amongst the most powerful of them. These chiefs 
 frequently waged war with each other, and as frequently with the lieu¬ 
 tenants of the English Crown; and these contests were the principal 
 hindrance to the improvement of the country. Ulster was at that time 
 the wildest part of Ireland, and the most hostile to the English rule. 
 “ The region is wide, (says Camden,) interspersed with many and vast 
 marshes, and gloomy with dark woods. The soil is in some places barren, 
 in others fertile; but as the land lies wild, without cultivation, so are the 
 minds of the inhabitants most averse to civilization.”* This unfavourable 
 description was written in the brief interval between the two desperate 
 civil wars raised by Shane and by Hugh O’Neal, at a time when Ulster 
 was wasted with the sword, and when the minds of men were too much 
 exasperated to form just judgments. The general opinion, both of Ireland 
 and of its inhabitants, expressed by this great writer, was juster and more 
 favourable. “ The island (says Camden, quoting Geraldus) is uneven, 
 hilly, soft, moist, and woody, exposed to the winds, and so marshy that 
 you see the waters stagnate on the tops of the mountains. The climate 
 (as says Pomponius Mela) is unfavourable for maturing grain, but so 
 abundant, not only in pleasant, but in nourishing herbage, that the cattle 
 satisfy themselves by grazing a short part of the day, and sport the 
 remainder.” “ Hence,” adds Camden, “ an infinite number of cattle, 
 
 * Camden, 700. 
 
249 
 
 which are the first and the chief wealth of the inhabitants; also many flocks 
 of sheep, which are shorn twice a ypar, and from the wool of which they 
 form rugs and mantles, which are exported to foreign nations. The 
 horses are also excellent; and the hawks are famed. These and 
 all the other animals (except men and the hunting dogs called greyhounds) 
 are less than those of England. But the moistness of the climate and 
 soil is so great that diarrhaea and catarrhs abound; towards curing which, 
 however, they have the best usquebagh (aqua vitas), which inflames less, 
 and cherishes more, than ours. So great is the multitude of bees that 
 they are found not only in hives, but in trunks of trees, and in caverns of 
 the earth. Besides this, no snake nor venomous creature is found ; but 
 the wolf still prowls around. To sum up in a few words, whether we look 
 to the fruitfulness of the land, to the abundant yield of the sea, to the 
 convenience of the ports, or to the inhabitants themselves, who are warlike, 
 ingenious, finely formed, with wonderful softness of flesh, and incredible 
 agility, from the suppleness of their members; the island is endowed with 
 so many good gifts, that Giraldus has well said of it, “ That nature has 
 looked on this island of the west with her most benignant smile.”*' It 
 will be seen from what I have already stated, that Ireland furnished 
 the greater part of the imports, and consumed the greater part of the 
 exports of Liverpool in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. I shall show, 
 in subsequent portions of this work, that this trade has since greatly 
 increased, until Ireland has become the chief granary of Lancashire, and 
 the pasture from which its crowded population draws its principal 
 supplies of the necessaries of life. Hence the trade of Ireland has been 
 one of the greatest sources of the wealth of modern, as it was of ancient, 
 LiverpooL 
 
 The Irish ports which are mentioned as trading with Liverpool, in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, are Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, 
 Carlingford, and Waterford. Dublin was already a fine city, wanting 
 nothing which could be desired to secure its prosperity except a harbour 
 freer from sand, and a larger river to bring down the produce of the 
 adjoining counties. The district of Fingal, north of Dublin, was the 
 best cultivated part of the kingdom, and yielded so great a quantity of 
 corn, as to be called the granary of Ireland. Waterford, built and colonized 
 by the Norwegian sea kings, situated at the outlet of two fine rivers, the 
 Barrow and theSuir, was the second city in Ireland, from the convenience 
 
 2 K 
 
 * Camden’s Britannia, G80. 
 
250 
 
 of its port, and the numbers and wealth of its population. It was then 
 noted for its attachment to the English rule. Drogheda, the capital and 
 outlet of the fine province of Meath, had been a flourishing city for 
 many ages. Drogheda, Dublin, and Cork were the three Irish seats of 
 the staple, in the reign of Edward the Third.* Camden speaks of it as an 
 elegant and frequented place. Dundalk, Newry, and Carlingford were 
 places of some trade, though not equal to Drogheda and Waterford. 
 Cork and Limerick were at that time rather small English colonies than 
 Irish cities. According to Camden, Cork was a crowded little emporium, 
 but so besieged by seditious neighbours that its inhabitants were com¬ 
 pelled to keep continual watch against surprise, and not daring to take 
 their daughters into the country, they intermarried with one another, until 
 they were all of one blood. Limerick, situated on the finest river in the 
 British islands, capable of floating the largest ships, was the most 
 celebrated emporium of Munster. Galway was also “ an elegant and 
 turreted city,” which, from the advantage of the adjoining rivers and 
 lakes, possessed great means of commerce. Wexford, though not a 
 place of much commerce, was memorable amongst the first, for its loyalty 
 and attachment to the English crown. Hence it was made a colony. 
 The whole of the surrounding district was crowded with descendants of 
 the English settlers. They used the ancient English dress and language, 
 as many of them do to this day. It was and is cultivated like a garden, f 
 On examining the list of exports given above, it will be found that 
 they consisted chiefly of manufactured articles. Amongst them were 
 many materials of dress, as Manchester cottons and checks, Kendal 
 cottons, Yorkshire broad and narrow cloths, friezes or friezedows, can¬ 
 vas or poledavies, housewives’ cloth, gloves, stockings, mercery, and 
 smallwares; and of several articles of cutlery and hardware, as Hallamshire 
 or Sheffield knives, scythes, locks, nails, cans, and spoons, and pewter 
 cups and dishes, the last of which seem to have been made at Chester. 
 There were also a number of substances used in the arts, as allum, mad¬ 
 der, and anniseed ; a quantity of grain and malt, for the use of the army 
 in Ireland; several small cargoes of coals, and parcels of salt and iron. 
 The imports consisted chiefly of linen yarn, hides and skins, and other 
 raw materials. Thus both the export and import trades of Liverpool 
 had already received the character which they have possessed ever since, 
 that is, of an export of manufactures, and an import of raw materials. 
 
 Statutes at Large, i. 
 
 + Camden’s Britannia, 690. 
 
251 
 
 The most valuable part of the export trade of the port was that of 
 the materials of clothing, nearly all of which, whether described as 
 woollens or'cottons, were formed of wool. By this time the export of 
 wool in an unmanufactured state, which formed the original commerce of 
 the country, had greatly decreased, and that of manufactures of woollen 
 and worsted had increased, in an equal degree. The manufacture of coarse 
 woollens had always existed in England, but until the reigns of the latter 
 princes of the House of Tudor, the English fabrics were too coarse and 
 uneven to compete with the fine fabrics of Italy and Flanders. Florence 
 was the original seat of the woollen manufacture in modern times. That 
 beautiful city owed its wealth to the fine woollens which it then supplied 
 to the whole of Europe;* and which were conveyed (along with other 
 Italian manufactures) by the Genoese and Venetians, to every country from 
 the Euxine to the Irish Sea. Flanders next took up the manufacture of 
 fine woollens, and added to it that of linens.f It had long been the wish 
 of the more intelligent and patriotic of the English kings to establish the 
 manufacture of the fine, as well as that of the coarser, woollens in 
 England. Many attempts were made to effect it, by encouraging the 
 immigration of the artizans of Flanders, by granting privileges to the 
 woollen manufacturers, and by discouraging the importation of foreign 
 woollens. As early as the reign of Henry the First, the youngest son of 
 the Conqueror, a number of Flemish or Belgian artizans, who had been 
 driven from Flanders by an irruption of the ocean, took refuge in England, 
 and were well received. An ancient writer, speaking of these Flemings, 
 says, that they were a brave and robust race ; most experienced in the 
 woollen manufacture and in trade; everywhere seeking gain, whether by 
 labour or by peril, on land or on the ocean. Unfortunately, the king 
 settled them in Pembrokeshire, that “ little England beyond Wales,” as 
 it was called; a country where they found much more exercise for the 
 sword, in daily battles with the Welsh, than for woollen-weaving. Many 
 of their descendants afterwards followed Earl Strongbow to Ireland, and 
 settled there. Henry the Second, another intelligent king, brought over 
 a small body of Flemish weavers, and further encouraged the art by 
 granting great privileges to the weavers of York and other cities. The 
 weavers of York long possessed an exclusive right of making woollen 
 coverlets.I But the age was too barbarous, the country too unsettled, for 
 
 * Quarterly Review, June, 1821, 290. 
 
 t Miller’s History of the British Constitution. } Statutes at Large, ii. 
 
252 
 
 these early attempts to be attended with any great success A much 
 more successful effort to improve the English woollen manufacture was 
 made by Edward the Third. In the tenth year of his reign he in¬ 
 duced a number of Flemish weavers to settle in England, and granted 
 them most extensive privileges. Some of these Flemings were established 
 in London, which was then the first manufacturing city, as well as the 
 first seaport, and the capital of the kingdom. Others were settled in 
 Norfolk. But the principal colony was established at Tenterden, in Kent, 
 and in the surrounding villages and towns. “ Near Newenden (says 
 Camden) in a woody district, are Cranbroke, Tenterden, Benenden, and 
 other neighbouring towns, in which the glory of the woollen manufacture 
 first flourished, in the time of Edward the Third, who brought the Belgians 
 into England, by promises and many immunities, in the tenth year of his 
 reign, who taught us the art of weaving woollen cloth, which is now 
 justly regarded as one of the chief columns of the public strength.”* 
 After the confusion caused by the Wars of the Roses had passed away, 
 Henry the Seventh greatly encouraged manufactures of all kinds,f and 
 that of woollen cloth especially, which from that time spread so rapidly, 
 that in the reign of Edward the Sixth, in the year 1550, it had extended 
 to almost every county in England.J It continued still further to extend 
 and improve during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who willingly received 
 into the kingdom the thousands of ingenious artizans of France and 
 Flanders, who were driven from their homes by civil war, and by the per¬ 
 secutions of Alva and the Guises. “ The queen,” says Camden, “ enter¬ 
 tained, with all kind of curtesey, such French people as fled into England : 
 as also Netherlanders, of whom a great multitude had withdrawn them¬ 
 selves into England, as to a sanctuary, while the Duke of Alva breathed 
 nothing but slaughter and blood against them. These, by the queen’s 
 permission, settled themselves at Norwich, Colchester, Sandwich, Maid¬ 
 stone, and Southampton, to the great benefit and advantage of the 
 English; for they were the first that brought into England the art of 
 making those slight stuffs which are called bays and says, and other light 
 stuffs of linen or woollen weaving.”^ 
 
 Although the woollen manufacture was spread over the whole king¬ 
 dom, yet certain districts were already taking the lead of the rest. 
 Amongst these were the valley of the Thames, and its tributaries, the 
 
 * Camden’s Britannia: Kent. 
 + Statutes at Large, ii. 
 
 + Lord Bacon’s History of Henry the Seventh, 76. 
 § Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 56. 
 
253 
 
 Thame, the Isis, the Chum, and the Kennet, from the point where the 
 streams which flow easterly descend from the Cotswold Hills, as far down 
 ns Reading, and even Windsor Forest; the great valley of the Severn and 
 its tributaries, from Shrewsbury to Frome, and from Kidderminster to 
 Hereford ; the city of Norwich, and all the towns of East Norfolk; the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire ; South Lancashire ; and Kendal in Westmore¬ 
 land.* Each of these districts possessed some especial advantages. The 
 upper part of the valley of the Thames had abundant supplies of the 
 finest wool from Cotswold and the Wiltshire Downs, as well as numerous 
 running streams, and a greater command of capital, for manufacturing 
 purposes, than any other part of the kingdom. The valley of the Severn 
 was scarcely behind that of the Thames in any of these respects. The 
 Ryeland wool of Herefordshire rivalled that of Cotswold ; and before the 
 quality of both had been sacrified to quantity, and to the rearing of larger 
 animals, they were superior even to the wool of Spain, from which the 
 finest Saxony and Australian wools are derived. Neither Norfolk nor 
 the north of England could at all compare with the west of England in 
 the quality of their woollen cloth. The reputation of Norfolk rested on its 
 worsted goods, which were the best in England. This arose partly from 
 the peculiar quality of its wools; partly from the frequent influx of 
 Flemish workmen. The West Riding of Yorkshire, a district of rivers 
 and brooks, and abounding in fine pastures, possessed a good supply of 
 materials for serviceable woollens, and the means of working them up into 
 cloth. South Lancashire was behind most parts of the kingdom in its 
 supplies of wool, both as relates to quantity and quality, but it had 
 enough to manufacture the coarser kinds of woollens. As relates to the 
 supply of linen yarn, it was before any other county in England; and it 
 possessed a greater amount of water-power than is to be found within an 
 equal space, in any other part of the kingdom. Kendal resembled Lan¬ 
 cashire in the abundance of its water-power and the purity of its streams, 
 but surpassed it in its supplies of wool. The sheep pastures of West¬ 
 moreland and Cumberland are of great extent and good quality. The 
 woollen manufactures of the valley of the Thames were the great means 
 of sustaining and extending the commerce of London ; those of the valley 
 of the Severn were the chief support of that of Bristol; the worsted 
 manufactures of Norwich rendered Lynn and Great Yarmouth two of the 
 most flourishing ports in the kingdom ; the West Riding furnished Hull 
 
 * See Leland’s Itinerary and Camden's Britannia. 
 
254 
 
 with the greater part of its exports, and joined with South Lancashire 
 and Kendal to create the early commerce of Liverpool. 
 
 The following is the account given by contemporary writers of the 
 condition of the principal towns and districts from which Liverpool then 
 obtained its supplies of woollen, linen, and cotton goods. 
 
 In South Lancashire, Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, and 
 Blackburn were already manufacturing towns of some importance. 
 Manchester was the best built, most active, and most populous town in 
 Lancashire; with diverse fine mills on the river Irwell; two market places ; 
 several stone bridges over the three streams which unite there; and a 
 handsome collegiate church. But the Irwell, its principal river, was not 
 navigable, on account of rocks and shallows.* Bolton, the next in im¬ 
 portance, then “ stood” mostly by cottons and coarse yarn. Diverse 
 villages in the moors about Bolton also made cottons. We have fewer 
 particulars respecting Bury, Blackburn, and Rochdale; but their manu¬ 
 factures were of sufficient importance, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 to employ a deputy alnager, or measurer of cloths.f Kendal, in West¬ 
 moreland, was a celebrated emporium of woollen cloths, in the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth; and in that of Elizabeth its inhabitants carried on 
 an abundant trade in that article throughout all England. In the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, the manufacture of woollen cloths was carried on to 
 a great extent, in the valleys of the Calder and the Aire, almost from 
 their sources to the point where they fall into the Ouse. Wakefield, on 
 the Calder, stood by clothing, and was the principal manufacturing town 
 of the district. It was a very “ quick” market town, tolerably large. 
 Halifax, and the villages in the surrounding hills and valleys were 
 also full of manufactures. “Forasmuch (says the preamble of an 
 act of Parliament, of the reign of Philip and Mary) as the parish of 
 Halifax and other places thereunto adjoining, being planted in great 
 wastes and moors, where the fertility of the soil is not apt to bring forth 
 common good grass, but in rare places, and by exceeding and great 
 industry of the inhabitants, the inhabitants altogether do live by 
 cloth making; and the greater part of them neither groweth corn, nor 
 is able to keep a horse to carry wool, nor yet to buy much wool at once; 
 but hath ever used only to repair to the town of Halifax, and some other 
 nigh thereto, and there to buy upon (of) the wool driver, (dealer,) some 
 a stone, some two, and some three or four, according to their ability, and 
 
 * Leland’s Itinerary, v., 04. 
 
 t Statutes at Large, ii. 
 
255 
 
 to carry the same to their houses, some three, four, five, or six miles off, 
 upon their heads or hacks; and so make and convert the same either 
 into yarn or cloth, and to sell the same, and so huy more wool of the 
 wool driver; by means of which industry the barren grounds in these 
 parts are now much inhabited, and above five hundred households there 
 newly increased, within these forty years past.” For these reasons these 
 industrious people were allowed to continue to huy wool in the same way, 
 notwithstanding a recent act of Parliament regulating the mode of wool¬ 
 buying. Lower down these vallies, on the junction of three streams, 
 Bradford, a pretty quick market town, half the size of Wakefield, stood 
 by clothing.* And about eight miles lower than Bradford, on the banks 
 of the Aire, stood Leeds, which had been a clothing town from the 
 reign of Edward the Third, when the fulling mills were let for 33s. 6d. 
 a year;f and which has since become the capital of the woollen districts 
 of England, although it was inferior to Bradford, when it was visited by 
 Leland. “ Leeds, (he says,) two miles lower then Kirkstall Abbey, on 
 Aire river, is a pretty market, having one church, reasonably well 
 builded, as large as Bradford, but not so quick as it.”I Such was the 
 condition of the districts from which Liverpool then drew its chief supplies 
 of manufactures ; and whose great increase in activity and wealth, in more 
 recent times, has been the principal cause of the wonderful increase which 
 has taken place in the commercial prosperity both of Liverpool and Hull. 
 At the time of which I write, the north of England was still far behind 
 Norfolk, and the vallies of the Thames and the Severn, in manufacturing 
 wealth and resources; but it was steadily gaining on them, and has 
 continued to advance, until it has greatly surpassed them all. 
 
 Next, perhaps, in importance to the woollen trade, was the manufacture 
 of cutlery and hardware. Gloucester was the original seat of this great 
 trade ; hut Sheffield and Rotherham, Birmingham and Walsall, were noted 
 for their manufactures of knives, swords, bucklers, scythes, locks, nails, 
 bits, and numerous other articles, as early as the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth, and probably much earlier. Hallamshire, that is to say Sheffield, 
 knives are mentioned amongst the exports of Liverpool, in the summary 
 given above, as well as many articles of cutlery and hardware, some of 
 which were probably obtained from that part of Yorkshire, others from 
 Staffordshire and Warwickshire. 
 
 * Leland's Itinerary, vii., 45. + Thoresby's Ducatus Leodensis, 82 
 
 J Leland’s Itinerary, vii., 45. 
 
256 
 
 The export of English iron was at that time very small. Biscay, 
 then, as now, the most flourishing part of Spain, was the great iron country 
 of those days. Considerable quantities of Biscayan iron were imported 
 into Liverpool. The quality of the Spanish iron was much superior to 
 that of the English. Camden, speaking of the iron made in the great 
 forest of Andradswald, in Sussex, (then the greatest iron district in Eng¬ 
 land,) says that it was less tenacious than the Spanish iron, either from 
 nature or want of skill in the manufacture.* The forest of Deane was 
 the second iron district in England in extent; and the manufacture was 
 carried on in many parts of the kingdom, amongst others at Bury, and at 
 Furness, in Lancashire. It ceased about Bury in the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth, from -want of wood for the furnaces.f It was also suspended in the 
 rich mineral district of Furness, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for the 
 same reason. There the farm-tenants agreed to pay a bloomary rent to the 
 lord of the soil, on condition that the furnaces should be blown out, and 
 that the young trees, used in the iron manufacture, should be kept to feed 
 their cattle, in the winter months. So general was the alarm caused by 
 the wasting of the woods in the manufacture of iron, that an actj was 
 passed in the first year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, declaring that no 
 timber, a foot square at the root, should be cut anywhere within fourteen 
 miles of the sea, or of the rivers Thames, Severn, Wye, Humber, Dee, 
 Tyne, Tees, Trent, or any other river, to be used in making iron, except 
 in Sussex and in the Weald of Kent, where the forests were then considered 
 inexhaustible. A further act was also passed at the same reign, in the 
 year 1591, declaring that no iron works should be formed anywhere 
 within twenty-two miles of London.§ The following are the places at 
 which iron was produced during the reigns of the Tudors :—The Weald, 
 or Wild of Sussex and Kent; the forest of Deane, in Gloucestershire; 
 Bury,|| and Furness, in Lancashire ;H Blomefield and Ruabon, in North 
 Wales;** Walsall, in Staffordshire ;ff and Lantrissant, in South Wales.JJ 
 The trade in earthenware did not exist at the period of which I am 
 writing. At that time pewter answered all the purposes which earthen¬ 
 ware answers at the present time ; and Chester seems to have had a good 
 share of that useful manufacture. A writer of the age of Elizabeth 
 notices the increased use of pewter vessels, in the place of treen or wooden 
 ones, as one of the principal signs of improvement, in his times. “ There 
 
 * Camden's Britannia, 220. + Leland’s Itinerary, vii., 49. J Statutes at Large, ii., 528. 
 
 § Statutes at Large, ii., 028. || Leland’s Itinerary, iv., 83. y Camden’s Britannia, 273. 
 
 ** Leland’s Itinerary, v., 33. ++ Ibid, vii., 28. Ibid, iv., 41. 
 
257 
 
 are old men yet dwelling in the village where I remain (says Hollinshead) 
 which have noted three things to be marvellously amended in England, 
 within their sound remembrance. One is the multitude of chimnies 
 lately erected. * * The second is the great amendment of lodging. 
 
 * * The third is the change of treene plates into pewter, and wood 
 
 spoons into silver and tin. For so common were all sorts of treene vessels 
 in old time, that a man should hardly find four pieces of pewter (of which 
 one was peradventure a salt) in a good farmer’s house; and yet for all this 
 frugality (if it may so be justly called) they were scarce able to live and 
 pay their rents, in those days, without selling a cow, or a horse, or more, 
 although they paid but four pounds, at the uttermost, by the year. * * 
 
 Whereas, in my time, although peradventure four pound of old rent be 
 improved to forty or fifty pounds, yet the farmer thinks his gains very 
 small if, towards the middest (middle) of his term, he have not six or 
 seven years’ rent lying by him, wherewith to purchase a new lease, 
 besides a fair garnish of pewter for his cupboard, three or four feather 
 beds, so many coverlets or carpets of tapestry, a silver salt, a bowl for 
 wine (if not a whole nest), and a dozen of spoons, to furnish up the 
 suit. - ’* 
 
 The above must have been good times for farmers; and so they doubt¬ 
 less wore. From the continued influx of silver and gold from the Spanish 
 mines, and from the rapid increase of the population, the price of grain 
 rose rapidly during the whole of the Tudor period; and though rents 
 also rose considerably, yet they did not rise either so rapidly or to such a 
 height as to deprive the farmers of very liberal profits. Camden says that 
 the improvement of agriculture was greatly promoted by the removal of 
 restrictions on grain, which had prevented the free transport of it. “ The 
 country people also (says he), when license was once granted to transport 
 grain, began to ply their husbandry more diligently than before ; yea and 
 above that which the laws afterwards made required, by breaking up ground 
 which had lain untilled beyond all memory of man.”f Even this was not 
 found sufficient to supply the wants of the country, and, in consequence, a 
 bold scheme was formed for reclaiming the great marshes and wastes, in the 
 eastern counties of England. In the year 1600, the forty-third Elizabeth, 
 an act passed for reclaiming many hundred thousand acres of marshes 
 and wastes, in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, 
 Essex, Kent, and Durham.J Under these circumstances the exports of 
 
 * Hollinshead's History of England.— Book ii., 85. 
 
 + Camden's History of Qneen Elizabeth, 5(1. ♦ Statutes at Large, A.D. 1600. 
 
 2 L 
 
258 
 
 grain were naturally very small. Those sent from Liverpool consisted 
 merely of supplies for the English garrisons in Ireland. In the year 1595 
 the home supply was found to he insufficient, and permission was given 
 to import grain from abroad, without duty. “ Great quantities of grain were 
 brought into England from the Hanse towns, after that the queen had 
 given leave to every one to bring it in without custom, which much 
 abated the price of grain, which, by continual rains in summer, and 
 private transportation of it, was grown to that high rate that some of the 
 meaner sort of people in London began to raise tumults about it.”* 
 
 The result of all these circumstances was, that England had become 
 one of the first countries of Europe, in point of industry, in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, both as to the extent and the variety of its products. With 
 regard to variety it may he mentioned that nearly twenty different fabrics of 
 woollen, linen, and, what were then called, cottons, are enumerated in an 
 order sent to London for Santos, in Brazil, in the year 1578. This is 
 probably the first order for a cargo of goods for the South American 
 market. Most of these were evidently of English manufacture, from their 
 names and descriptions, including a lot of 400 ells of Manchester 
 cottons.f With regard to the extent and value of English commerce, 
 
 * Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 506. 
 
 + The following is the order, as given in the third volume of Hakluyt’s Collection of 
 Voyages : It is contained in a letter written by John Whittal, a young Englishman, 
 who settled in that country in the year 1578, where he married the daughter of a Genoese 
 planter, of the name of Doria, who possessed an ingenio, or sugar manufactory, with sixty 
 or seventy slaves. John Whittal addresses a letter, dated Santos, in Brazil, the 26th of 
 June, 1578, to Mr. Richard Staper, an old friend in London, in which, after having given 
 him the particulars of his marriage, and having informed him that certain mines of gold 
 and silver had been discovered at a place called Saint Vincente, he informs him that a ship¬ 
 load of goods from London would sell at a very great profit in Brazil, where a return cargo 
 of sugar might be got very cheap. The outward cargo, he says, would yield a profit of 
 three for one, and the proceeds might be invested in white sugar at 400 reis the roue (321bs. 
 for a ducat). He further says the voyage is as good as any voyage to Peru, and informs his 
 friend that if he chooses to try the adventure, in a vessel of sixty or seventy tons, he will do 
 well to follow his directions, by sending out the following goods :—First, he must load his 
 ship partly with Hampshire and Devonshire carsies, with which he must proceed to the 
 Canaries; there sell the said carsies, and, with the proceeds, load sixteen tons of wines that 
 be perfect and good, and six dozen of cordovan skins, of these colours, orange tawney, 
 red, and very fine hlack. As it may not be easy to find those colours, the captain is to take 
 saffron with him to dye them. He is also to take onboard, at the Canaries, three hogsheads 
 of sweet oil. Also, in London, to load in the said ship these parcels of commodities or 
 wares:—First, 4 pieces Holland, of middle sort; 1 piece of fine Holland ; 400 ells of Osen 
 bridges (Osnaburghs), very fine ; 4 dozen of scissors, of all sorts ; 16 quintals of pitch, of 
 the Canaries; 20 dozen of great knives, which be made in fardels of a low price ; 4 dozen of 
 small sort; 0 pieces of bays, of the lowest sort; 1 very fine piece of bays ; 400 ells of Man¬ 
 chester cottons, most black green, some yellow; 8 or 10 dozen of bats, the one-half trimmed 
 taffeta, the other plain, with the bands of cypress ; 6 dozen of coarse shirts; 3 dozen of 
 doublets of canvas ; 3 dozen of doublets of stitched canvas ; one piece of fine Milan 
 fustian; 6 dozen of locks for doors and chests ; 6,000 of all manner of fish hooks ; 4 
 dozen reams of paper ; 2 dozen of glasses of divers sorts ; 2 dozen of Venice glasses, the 
 one-half great, the other middle sort; 2 dozen of mantles of frize of tbe lowest price that 
 can be; 3 dozen of frize gowns; 400 lbs. of tin of the use of Portugal, most small dishes 
 and trenchers ; 4 lbs. of silk of all colours ; 21 lbs. of spices, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and 
 
259 
 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Camden says, “ Certainly in these our 
 days (I speak it out of books of accounts,) the commerce betwixt the 
 English and the Netherlanders hath amounted to twelve millions of 
 ducats every year ;* and the English cloths, to say nothing of lead, tin, 
 &c., to five millions.” This great trade was afterwards much injured, 
 when “ the most beautiful city of Antwerp, which did not yield to any 
 of the most flourishing towns of Europe, was miserably sacked by 
 the Spaniards.”f But this was only one, though a very principal, branch 
 of the foreign trade of England. A large trade also existed with Ham¬ 
 burg. Elbing, on the Baltic, owed a great part of its beauty and splendour, 
 and of the great resort of people to it, to the commerce and trade of the 
 English.J The trade with Muscovy, or Russia, was also extensive. At 
 that time the English Muscovy Company had a monopoly of the foreign 
 trade of Russia, which it carried on by way of Archangel. Not 
 content with this, they penetrated to the centre of Asia. Ascending the 
 Duina in canoes, they crossed from Wologda to Yaraslaw, and then by 
 the Volga, and after a voyage of thirty days and as many nights, 
 descended down the river to Astrakhan. From Astrakhan, where they 
 built ships, they crossed the Caspian Sea many times, and pierced 
 through the vast deserts of Hyrcania and Bactriana to Tenerin and 
 Casbin, cities of Persia, “ in hope to attain Cathay,” that is, China. 
 This bold enterprise, however, failed, “ for the wars which shortly after 
 grew hot between the Turks and Persians, and the robberies of the 
 barbarians, interrupted the laudable enterprise of the Londoners.Ӥ In 
 addition of the above branches of commerce, a valuable trade existed 
 with Portugal and its colonies, on the coast of Africa, that is, with Madeira 
 and the Azores. || The Turkey Company carried on a gainful trade with 
 Constantinople, Scio, Angora, Petrazzo, Alexandria, Egypt, Cyprus, and 
 elsewhere in Asia, for spices, cottons, raw silk, tapestries, Indian dyes, 
 
 saffron ; 2 quintals of white soap; 3 lbs. of thread, white, black, and blue ; 3 lbs. of fine white 
 thread; § dozen of northern carsies, of divers colours; 4 sorting cloths, blue, red, yellow, 
 and green; 0 northern dozens of divers colours ; 1 fine blue cloth of 8 lb.; one fine stanmel 
 of 10 or 12 lbs.; 1 fine sheep’s colour cloth, of 12 lbs.; 1 fine black carsey; 1 fine stanmel 
 carsey; (i yards of black velvet; 3 barrels of nails for chests; 3 barrels of nails for ships 
 and barques; 0 quintals of oakum ; 2 dozen of velvet girdles, without hangers ; 400 yards 
 of taffata, red, black, and blue, with some green; 2 dozen of leather girdles; 6 dozen of 
 axes, hatchets, and small bills, to cut wood; 4 masses of gittem strings ; 400 or 500 ells of 
 some fine linen cloth that is of a low price, to make shirts and sheets; 4 tons of iron; (i 
 yards of crimson velvet; 6 yards of crimson satin; 12 yards of fine puce black; also, a 
 dozen of shirts, and 0 or 8 dozen pieces of says for mantles. 
 
 * Hollinshead speaks of three ducats as about equal to one pound sterling. 
 
 + History of Queen Elizabeth, Camden, 214. { Ibid, 539. 
 
 § Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 124. |] Camden, 215. 
 
260 
 
 grapes of Corinth (currants), soap, &c.* And at the close of Elizabeth's 
 reign that greatest and most celebrated of trading companies, the English 
 East India Company, was formed. “ The queen,” says the noble 
 historian, whom I have so often quoted, " for the increase of navigation 
 and the propagation of trade, about this time set up a company of East 
 India merchants, with large privileges, who forthwith sent James Lan¬ 
 caster thither with three ships, the same man whom we mentioned in 
 1594 to have valiantly won Eernambuck (Pernambuco) in Brazil. And 
 they have luckily despatched a fleet thither every year since, to their 
 great profit and advantage; and, to the honour of the English nation, 
 have placed factories in Surat, in the empire of the Great Mogul, in 
 Musilipatam, Bantam, Patane, Siam, Seged, Macassar, and also in 
 Japan; and have with happy victories repressed the insolence and Turkish 
 treachery of their enemies ; whether to the good of the commonwealth, so 
 great a mass of silver being still exported from England, and such a 
 multitude of seamen consumed in the voyage, let wise men speak and 
 posterity judge.”f Happily the evil of this export of silver, (if it ever 
 was one,) gradually ceased to be felt, as silver accumulated in Europe; 
 and in modern times the export itself has almost ceased, with the change 
 in the balance of trade with the east. As for the mortality which 
 Camden so justly lamented, that has also been greatly diminished, since 
 the discovery of anti-scorbutic remedies has extirpated that dreadful 
 scourge of long voyages—the scurvy—since improvements in the con¬ 
 structing, the victualling, and the management of ships, have guarded the 
 sailor from so many of the evils to which he was formerly exposed, and 
 since the improvements of navigation have shortened the duration of the 
 voyage one-half. 
 
 In the fifth year of the reign of Philip and Mary, during the war with 
 Erance, in which Mary had involved her kingdom to promote the schemes 
 of Spain, the king and queen addressed a letter to “ the mayor, customs- 
 comptroller, and searcher, of the town and port of Liverpool, and to all 
 other officers to whom it shall appertain,” informing them that the 
 French and Scotch were making great preparations for war; commanding 
 that no vessels should leave the port of Liverpool until further orders; 
 and requiring them to make a return of the number of ships and other 
 vessels within the port, and the creeks belonging to the same; of the 
 tonnage thereof; and likewise of the number of mariners and seafaring 
 
 Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 596. 
 
 + Camden, 237. 
 
261 
 
 men •within the port and creeks. This order bears date the 16th February, 
 1557. In answer to it, Thomas Moore, who was then mayor, reported 
 that there were two ships, one of 100 tons and the other of 50 tons, and 
 seven smaller vessels belonging to the town or creeks, which were then in 
 port; that there were four abroad ; and that the number of seamen 
 belonging to the port was two hundred. 
 
 In the year 1565 an order was addressed to John Crosse, Esq., who 
 was at that time Mayor of Liverpool, requiring information as to the 
 number of vessels belonging to the port, and also as to the number of 
 seamen by whom they were worked. From the return made to this order 
 it appears, that the number of vessels belonging to the River Mersey 
 was 15, the amount of their tonnage 268, and the number of seamen 
 80. It also appeared that no vessel of greater burden than 40 tons 
 belonged to the town at that time, so that the two vessels, one of 100, 
 and the other of 50 tons, mentioned in the previous return, made in the 
 reign of Queen Mary, must have been lost, sold, or worn out. Although 
 voyages of immense length were performed at that time in vessels of from 
 40 to 100 tons, (as will be seen in a succeeding chapter,) still this 
 return shows how very small a portion of the shipping of England 
 belonged to Liverpool at this time. According to the historian Hollins- 
 head, the mercantile navy of England, in the latter part of the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, consisted of from 1,700 to 1,800 vessels, of the 
 average value of <£ 1,000, or 3,000 ducats. Supposing this estimate to 
 have been near the truth, the shipping of Liverpool was humble indeed, 
 at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth ; but it began to increase 
 about that time, and has advanced step by step, and without interruption, 
 until it has attained to its present greatness. 
 
 The following official returns of the population and shipping of Liver¬ 
 pool in the year 1565, the seventh of Queen Elizabeth; and of the average 
 yearly amount of customs’ duties, paid at the principal outports of 
 England, from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth years of the same reign, 
 will complete this portion of the History of Liverpool:— 
 
 RETURN OF THE POPULATION AND SHIPPING OF LIVERPOOL IN THE MAYORALTY OF JOHN 
 
 CROSSE, ESQ. : 
 
 “ The sum and number of the householders and cottagers the 12th November, 1565, is 
 138, whereof are owners, masters, and mariners and fishers with their barks, great and 
 small, to wit: 
 
 The Eagle. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 40 
 
 Men. 
 
 12 and 1 Boy. 
 10 
 
 The George. 
 
 . . .John and Thomas Wiustanley. . . 
 
 . . . 30 
 
 The Saviour .... 
 
 . . Thomas Uttyn. 
 
 
 8 
 
 The Bartholomew . 
 
 . . William Lawrence. 
 
 
 6 
 
 The Falcon. 
 
 . . George Ashton. 
 
 
 6 
 
262 
 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Men. 
 
 
 
 The Mighliill . 
 
 . Edward Nicholson and John Williamson. 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 and Master. 
 
 The Sondaye . 
 
 . William Walker and Thomas Mason . . 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 The Maria George . . 
 
 . Thomas Fisher and Richard Barker . . 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 Men. 
 
 
 
 The Peter . 
 
 . Peter Starkie. 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 The Swallow. 
 
 . Thomas Bastwysell . 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 The Good Luck . . . 
 
 . Thomas Bradshaw . 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 The Elizabeth .... 
 
 . Nicholas Richardson . 
 
 12 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 The Mygell, Wallazie 
 
 . Gilbert Dobb and Jas. Robinson . 
 
 14 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 The John, Ditto . . . 
 
 . John Aynesdale ., . . . . 
 
 24 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 The Lark, Ditto . . . 
 
 . H. and R. Young . 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 268 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 AVERAGE RECEIPTS OF 
 
 GREAT CUSTOMS AT THE PRINCIPAL OUTPORTS 
 
 OF ENGLAND 
 
 , FROM 
 
 
 20th to 25th queen Elizabeth. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 
 
 £. 
 
 S. 
 
 d. 
 
 Chester, including Liverpool . 437 13 4§ Newcastle .... 
 
 
 
 °29 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 Exeter . 
 
 
 
 
 . 1,661 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 Boston. 
 
 
 
 . 281 
 
 17 
 
 11 
 
 Bridgewater. 
 
 . . . . 87 5 11 Poole. 
 
 
 
 . 751 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 Bristol. 
 
 
 
 
 . 1,167 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 
 47 13 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hull. 
 
 .1,515 18 2 Total . 
 
 
 
 £6,195 
 
 3 
 
 7* 
 
 Before the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the customs’ revenue 
 from London and the outports had increased to about i?50,000 a year.f 
 
 * Harleian MSS., 306. Art. 4. 
 
 + Camden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, 446. 
 
CHAPTER NINTH. 
 
 ON THE EFFECTS WHICH THE DISCOVEBY OF AMEBICA AND OF THE 
 NEW BOUTE TO INDIA PEODUCED ON THE COMMEECE OF EUEOPE. 
 
 Although the reign of Henry the Seventh was as barren of local 
 events as any period of equal extent in the annals of Liverpool, yet it 
 was in that reign that those noble discoveries were made by Christopher 
 Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and other navigators, which have had so 
 great an influence on the commerce of the port in more recent times. 
 It will therefore he convenient to give a brief sketch of the events which 
 preceded and followed the discovery of America, and of the ocean 
 passage to India, as an introduction to the history of the greatest branch 
 of commerce now carried on from the port of Liverpool, which we shall 
 thus be able to trace to its origin. 
 
 The first impulse given to maritime discovery in the middle ages 
 was that communicated to it by the Portuguese, who were then amongst 
 the most enterprising of the nations of Europe. The opening of the 
 new route to India, by the southern point of Africa, was the crowning 
 result of a succession of voyages of discovery along the coast of Africa, 
 commenced under the patronage and direction of Don Henry, of 
 Portugal, the fifth son of King John the First of that country. As early 
 as the year 1418 the fine island of Madeira, then covered with thick 
 woods, from which it takes its name,* was discovered by two gentlemen 
 of the household of Don Henry, named John Gonzales Zarco, and 
 Tristram Vaz Texeina; and about the same time the prince acquired the 
 Canary Islands, by purchase from the heirs of John de Betancourt, a 
 Norman baron, who had conquered them, under a patent of the King of 
 Spain. In a few years these islands were settled and richly cultivated, 
 and were covered with vineyards and sugar plantations,! the plants, both 
 of the vines and canes, having been brought from Sicily. An active 
 
 * Madhera, in Portuguese, a wood or forest, 
 t History of Maritime and Inland Discovery. Lardner’s Cyclopaedia. 
 
264 
 
 commerce sprang up between those islands and the peninsula; and they 
 became the starting points for numerous expeditions, by which the whole 
 coast of Guinea was discovered, as far as the equator, and the way was 
 prepared for still greater enterprises. 
 
 In the year 1486 the Cape of Good Hope was first doubled—the 
 Indian Ocean first entered, from the south—by Bartholomew Diaz, a 
 knight of the royal household of Portugal. From the violent storms 
 which he encountered whilst sailing round it he gave it the name of 
 Cabo Tormentoso, or the Cape of Storms; but, on his return, John the 
 Second, his royal master, gave it the more encouraging and enduring 
 name of the Cabo de Buena Esperanca—the Cape of Good Hope. In spite 
 of the storms which he encountered Diaz sailed some distance along the 
 coast of Africa, and found that it took a north-easterly course after the 
 Cape was passed. He reached a large river, to which he gave the name 
 of Rio do Infante. This is supposed to have been the Great Fish river, 
 within the limits of the Cape colony, on whose banks a flourishing 
 English settlement has been formed in modern times. The hopes of 
 completing the circumnavigation of Africa, and of reaching India, 
 founded on the discoveries of Diaz, were greatly strengthened by 
 intelligence received from two Portuguese envoys, who had been sent 
 down the Red Sea, to find out and open a communication with the 
 Christian King of Abasynnia, the mysterious Prester John of Africa. 
 In the year 1487, these envoys, Pedro de Cavilhem, and Alonzo de Payva, 
 despatched two Jewish messengers from Cairo, to King John the Second 
 of Portugal, informing him that there could be no doubt, from the reports 
 brought by Indian pilots to Calicut, Goa, Aden, and Sofala, on the coast 
 of Africa, that if the Portuguese prosecuted their voyages of discovery 
 round the southern point of Africa, they would reach Zanzebar and 
 Sofala, “ rich in gold.”* In consequence of this intelligence; of the dis¬ 
 coveries of Diaz ; and still more of the wonderful impulse just given to 
 maritime enterprise by the successful voyage of Columbus to America, 
 (which was then believed to be a part of India.) Yasco da Gama sailed 
 from Lisbon on the 8th of July, 1497, with a determination to reach India 
 by passing round the Cape. After making his way from point to point, 
 and struggling against winds and currents for eight months, he reached 
 the channel of Mozambique. From that point Gama made his way to the 
 Moorish city of Melinda, further north ; and there taking an Indian pilot 
 
 * Humboldt’s Cosmos, 2, 250. 
 
265 
 
 he crossed the Indian Ocean in safety, and reached Calicut, on the coast 
 of Malabar, about nine months after his departure from Europe. 
 
 Five years before Yasco de Gama opened this new route between the 
 different quarters of the old world, Christopher Colon, or Columbus, had 
 shown the way to the new world, which we call America, but which to the 
 hour of his death he believed to be a portion of Asia. “ Columbus,” says 
 the illustrious Humboldt, “ sailing westward of the meridian of the Azores, 
 through an entirely unexplored sea, and employing the newly-improved 
 astralobe for the determination of his position, sought the east of Asia by 
 a western route, not as an adventurer, but according to a preconceived and 
 steadfastly pursued plan.”* The course across the ocean which the imper¬ 
 fect science of that day induced Columbus to take would have conducted 
 him to Florida, and probably thence to Virginia, but this was the region 
 reserved by Providence for the seat of the Anglo-Saxon race.f On finding 
 that he did not reach the coast of Japan, (the point which he sought,) as 
 soon as he ought to have done, according to the geographical theories of 
 his age, Columbus turned his course southward ; and after overcoming all 
 the difficulties caused by the fears of his companions, he at length reached 
 the islands of the West Indies. Here he at once found himself amidst the 
 beauties and wonders of tropical America. “ The loveliness of this new 
 land (says Columbus, in his journal of his first voyage to America) far 
 surpasses that of the Campina de Cordoba. The trees are bright with 
 ever-green foliage, and perpetually laden with fruit. The plants on the 
 ground are tall and full of blossoms. The breezes are mild, like those of 
 April in Castile, and nightingales sing more sweetly than I can describe. 
 At night other small birds sing sweetly, and I also hear our grasshoppers 
 and frogs. Once I came into a deeply enclosed harbour, and saw high 
 mountains which no human eye had seen before, from which the lovely 
 waters streamed down. The mountains were covered with firs, pines, and 
 other trees of very various forms, and adorned with beautiful flowers. As¬ 
 cending the river which poured itself into the bay, I was astonished at the 
 cool shade, the crystal clear water, and the number of singing birds. It 
 seemed to me as if I could never quit a spot so delightful; as if a thousand 
 tongues would fail to describe it; as if the spell-bound hand would refuse 
 to write.” In his first voyage Columbus visited several of the most 
 beautiful islands of the West Indies, and amongst them the large and fertile 
 island of Hispaniola, or St. Domingo. After a stay of some months he 
 
 * Humboldt’s Cosmos, ii., 263. 
 2 M 
 
 + Ibid, ii., 264. 
 
266 
 
 returned to Europe, and on the 15th of March, 1493, reached Palos, the 
 port from which he had sailed on the ever-inemorablc voyage, in which 
 he first “ unbarred the gates of the ocean" to mankind. He brought 
 back with him a considerable quantity of gold and silver, a number 
 of fine fabrics of native manufacture, and such reports of the beauty and 
 wealth of the newly-discovered regions, as gave to the European nations 
 that great impulse to western adventure which continues to this day, and 
 which is now pouring hundreds of thousands of emigrants yearly from 
 the shores of Europe to those of the new world. 
 
 As I have already mentioned, the glory of discovering the ocean 
 passage to India belonged to the Portuguese alone. After the discovery 
 of Diaz this great prize seemed almost within their grasp, and they had 
 already secured exclusive possession of all their new possessions, and of 
 those which they hoped to obtain, by a bull from the Pope, which 
 possessed weight with all the nations of western Europe at that 
 time. Hence, when the immortal Genoese offered to the King of 
 Portugal, who was looked on as the hereditary patron of naval 
 enterprise, to open a new route to India, by sailing to the west, 
 liis offer was coldly received, and ultimately rejected. Undeterred by this 
 refusal, Christopher Columbus proceeded in person to Spain, where, after 
 long delay and disappointment, he at length obtained the needful assist¬ 
 ance from the sovereigns of that country, Ferdinand and Isabella. Whilst 
 this was still doubtful, he sent his brother Bartholomew to London, to 
 solicit the assistance of King Henry the Seventh, in the great enterprise 
 on which he had fixed his soul.* He had the more reason to expect 
 assistance from the King of England, from the fact that the English were 
 already known as daring navigators. Fifteen years before Christopher 
 Columbus discovered America, in the year 1477, he had visited the distant 
 island of Iceland, and when there had found that many Bristol ships 
 frequented its distant and inhospitable coasts, to carry on the trade in 
 stockfish or dried cod.f Unhappily, or happily, (who shall presume to 
 say which?) Bartholomew Columbus met with delays which deprived 
 England of the honour of furnishing the means for the great enterprise 
 of his immortal brother. On his voyage to England he fell amongst 
 pirates, who plundered him of everything that he possessed, so that when 
 he reached England he was in a state of utter destitution.); Being a man 
 
 * Lord Bacon’s History of Henry the Seventh, 389. 
 
 + Humboldt's Cosmos, ii. J Hakluyt's Voyages, iii., 2. 
 
267 
 
 of prudence, he resolved to postpone his application to the king until he 
 could apply in a more influential character than that of a penniless adven¬ 
 turer ; being also a man of resources, he succeeded, after a time, in obtain¬ 
 ing a respectable position, by making and selling sea cards, or charts, on 
 which “ the burning zone”, discovered by the Portuguese, was depicted, 
 along with all the other portions of the world described by the older geo¬ 
 graphers.* After having obtained a position of moderate prosperity, he 
 brought the great project of his brother before the English king, and suc¬ 
 ceeded in obtaining an offer of assistance. He immediately proceeded 
 to Spain, to bring his brother to England, but, on arriving there, he found 
 that he had obtained aid from the sovereigns of Castile and Arragon, and 
 had sailed in search of the world which he discovered. 
 
 The news of the discovery of America soon spread throughout the 
 whole of Europe. It produced an immense excitement everywhere, and no 
 where greater than in England. Happily, Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian 
 navigator, only second in fame to the great Genoese, was then in England, 
 and possessed the confidence of the king and of the merchants of London 
 and Bristol.f The desire of following up, if not of rivalling the discoveries 
 of Columbus, took possession of his mind, and he soon succeeded in com¬ 
 municating his confidence and his enthusiasm, both to the king and the 
 people. “In that time,” says Sebastian Cabot, “ when news was brought 
 that Don Christopher Colonus, a Genoese, had discovered the coast of 
 India, whereof was great talk in all the Court of King Henry the Seventh, 
 who then reigned, insomuch that all men, with great admiration, found it 
 to he more divine than human, to sail by the west unto the east, where 
 spices grow, by a way that was never known before ; by this fame and 
 report, there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt 
 some notable thing.”! The same desire, if not of attempting, at least of 
 assisting in some notable thing, in the way of discovery, had spread to 
 the hearts of many in England, and gave rise to a long succession of 
 vogages of discovery. These were all unsuccessful in their immediate 
 object, which was to find a passage to a land of gold and spices, supposed 
 to be a part of India, by sailing to the north-west, or afterwards to the 
 north-east; but they were successful in opening many new branches of 
 trade, in greatly extending the knowledge of navigation, and in strengtli- 
 
 * Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., C. 
 
 t There was one Sebastian Gabato, a Venetian, dwelling in Bristow, a man seen and 
 expert, in cosmography and navigation .—Lord Bacons Life of Henry the Seventh, 1ST. 
 
 J Hakluyt, iii., 7. 
 
268 
 
 ening that spirit of enterprise and self-reliance, ■which has since rendered 
 the English the most distinguished colonizers and merchants of modern 
 times. 
 
 The first expedition which sailed from England was fitted out under 
 authority of a charter granted to John Cabot, citizen of Venice, and his 
 sons Louis, Sebastian, and Sancius, by Henry the Seventh. This charter, 
 which bears the date of the 5th March, 1495, authorized them to sail 
 under the banners and ensigns of the ICing of England, in search of new 
 countries, unknown to Christians, in the seas of the east, the west, and the 
 north. These countries they were authorized to subdue and to occupy, 
 on condition of paying to the king a fifth part of their gains.* As a 
 further encouragement to the adventurers it was agreed that all goods 
 which they might import from the new countries should be free from 
 customs ; and to encourage the merchants ofBristolto advance their money 
 freely for the enterprise, it was stipulated that Bristol should have an 
 exclusive privilege of receiving the articles imported from the newly-disco¬ 
 vered countries.f Owing either to the difficulty of raising funds, or some 
 other cause, the expedition did not sail until the month of May, 1497. 
 The ships which composed it were manned and victualled at the cost of 
 the king: several merchants of London sent small stocks of goods in 
 them ; and they were accompanied by three or four small Bristol ships, 
 loaded with “ slight and gross merchandizes, as coarse cloth, caps, laces, 
 and points.” The expedition sailed from Bristol, and, crossing the 
 Atlantic at a higher latitude than that followed by Columbus, reached the 
 island called Prima Vista by the Italian Commanders, and Newfoundland 
 by the English, about five o’clock, on the morning of the 24th of June, 
 1497. Of course the commanders and seamen in this voyage neither 
 found gold nor silver ; neither a soft climate, nor a fertile soil, nor a 
 passage to India: but instead of what they sought they found a sea 
 swarming with seals, and with fish of many kinds, especially with the 
 fish which the natives called baccalaos, and the English codfish.^ After 
 examining the coast of Newfoundland, the Cabots proceeded with 
 their voyage. In the course of it they discovered the Continent of 
 America. Sebastian Cabot landed upon the iron-bound coast of Labrador, 
 between 56 and 58 degrees of north latitude,§ seventeen months before 
 Columbus saw the Delta of Oronoco, in his third voyage, on the 1st of 
 August, 1498.|| After the discovery of Labrador he sailed along the 
 
 * Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., 5. + Ibid. | Ibid, iii., 6. 
 
 § Humboldt’s Cosmos, ii., 266. |] Ibid. 
 
269 
 
 coast of North America as far as Florida, thus passing along the shores 
 of that great territory, which was settled a hundred years later by English 
 colonists, and which now contains twenty millions of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 Three years after the English expedition under Sebastian Cabot had 
 landed on the coast of Labrador, and seven years after Columbus had 
 discovered the West India Islands, in the year 1500, the coast of Brazil 
 was discovered by a Portuguese navigator, Vincent Pinzon, and also 
 by Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, who was driven upon it by a violent storm, 
 whilst on a voyage to the East Indies. 
 
 Some years later—in 1534—the French sent out an expedition under 
 the command of the gallant Jaques Cartier, which explored the coast of 
 New Brunswick, and sailed many hundred miles up that magnificent river, 
 the St. Lawrence.* 
 
 Although the English followed the Spaniards at a very short distance 
 as explorers of America, and preceded the Portuguese, yet they were left 
 far behind both, as settlers of that country. This arose from the 
 difference of the natural productions, and of the character of the 
 inhabitants, in the districts of America explored by the three nations. 
 
 The Spaniards landed in the West Indies, an open and beautiful 
 country, abounding in wealth, and whose inhabitants were unable to 
 resist their power, and feared to disobey their commands. These 
 unfortunate creatures the successors of Columbus, (for he was himself 
 unstained by cruelty and injustice,) first plundered of all that they 
 possessed, and then turned into slaves. The whole race soon perished 
 in swelling the wealth of their conquerors, in the field and the mine; 
 but its place was at once supplied with a hardier race of slaves, brought 
 from the coast of Africa. Thus the wealth of Spanish America con¬ 
 tinued to pour into Europe in an uninterrupted stream, and Spanish 
 settlers spread themselves rapidly over all the central regions of 
 America, prolific in gold, silver, and tropical produce, or stretching out 
 into great savannahs, swarming with herds of cattle. When Bobert 
 Tomson, an English merchant, visited the Spanish West Indies, in 
 the year 1555, he found in the island of St. Domingo great stores of 
 sugar, ginger, and sarsaparilla.f There were at that time four hundred 
 Spanish households in the city of St. Domingo. At a somewhat later 
 period, as Lopez Vaz, a Portuguese, states in his account of the West 
 Indies, the chief wealth of the island was in its sugar. He adds, that 
 
 * Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., 212. 
 
 + Ibid, iii., 449. 
 
270 
 
 there were many “ ingenios,” or sugar manufactories ; that the island had 
 been entirely laid bare of its native inhabitants, who had perished in the 
 mines, or who had been cruelly butchered; that the Spaniards, lacking 
 men for their ingenios, had been obliged to bring negroes from the coast 
 of Guinea, who had so increased, that the island was as full of them as 
 it had been of the natural inhabitants, so that the Spaniards carried 
 negroes from the island to the maiu land, and sold them there.* The 
 splendid vice-royalty of Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards about 
 the year 1519; that of Peru in the year 1531; and the fine regions of 
 Chili in 1538. The rivers Amazons and Plate were also explored; and a 
 great and most profitable trade was established across the continent. These 
 countries were soon colonized by settlers eagerly seeking for gold, silver, 
 and tropical produce. When the English traveller, who has been men¬ 
 tioned above, landed at Vera Cruz, in Mexico, he found that it contained 
 three hundred Spanish households. At Puebla de los Angelos he found 
 six hundred Spanish households. In the great and splendid city of 
 Mexico there were fifteen hundred of those households, and three hundred 
 thousand native inhabitants. In the country he found rich mines of 
 silver, and large supplies of silk, cotton, indigo, cochineal, sugar, and 
 many other valuable articles. Mr. Henry Hawks, who travelled in 
 Mexico in the year 1572, found a great store of cotton wool, “ with which 
 they make a manner of linen cloth”—plain cottons like linen. This 
 served for shirts and all other kinds of garments, both for the natives and 
 the poorer class of the Spaniards. “ Were it not for this,” adds Mr. 
 Hawks, “ all manner of cloth that goeth out of Spain—I say, linen cloth— 
 would be sold out of all measure.”! He further states that the pomp and 
 splendour of the owners of the mines were like that of noblemen. Each 
 owner of a mine also required to have at least a hundred slaves to carry 
 and stamp his metals, together with numerous mules, and oxen, and 
 wains to carry the ores, the wood, and the quicksilver, which was then 
 beginning to be used. Some of the mines were even then falling into 
 decay for want of hands to work them; but still the country was full of 
 wealth, and a constant stream of gold and silver flowed from it to the 
 mother country. The wealth of Peru was even more wonderful. The 
 plunder of the treasures of Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, yielded 
 1,326,500 pieces of gold, and that of his subjects much more; and the 
 numerous silver mines furnished unnumbered treasures. J In Peru a Negro 
 
 Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., 783. 
 
 + Ibid, iii., 400. 
 
 I Ibid, iii., 035. 
 
271 
 
 slave was worth 400 ducats.* The profit on European goods sent across 
 from Brazil by the River Plate was 1200 per cent.f The American variety 
 of cotton was found growing on the coast of Peru by the English navigators, 
 who entered these seas. “ In the Isle of Puna” (near Guayaquil, says 
 Cavendish, the English navigator) “ we found trees set, whereon bomba- 
 sin cotton groweth after this manner. The tops of the trees grow full of 
 pods, out of which the cotton groweth, and in the cotton is a seed, the 
 size of a pease, and in every pod there are seven or eight of the seeds, 
 and if the cotton be not gathered when it is ripe, then these seeds fall 
 from it, and spring again.”! Lima, built by Pizarro, contained two 
 thousand households, and had more commerce than all other places on the 
 western coast united. St. Jago, in Chili, contained eight hundred houses. 
 
 The Portuguese, who landed on a fine and healthy coast, were less 
 successful than the Spaniards in the search for gold and silver, but more 
 successful in raising sugar and other tropical produce. In the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, Pernambuco was the most flourishing place on the coast 
 of Brazil. It contained three thousand houses.§ Around it were seventy 
 ingenios, or sugar manufactories, all worked by slaves ; and the port sup¬ 
 plied plenty of Brazil wood and cotton. Bahia contained one thousand 
 houses; and there were forty ingenios for sugar, and much cotton in the 
 neighbourhood. Rio de Janeiro had not then more than three hundred 
 houses, and three ingenios ; and Santos contained four hundred houses 
 and also three ingenios. When Captain Lancaster took the city of 
 Pernambuco, in the year 1594, he found the following articles:—Brazil 
 wood, sugar, calico-cloth, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmegs. 
 Several of these were probably products of the Indian posessions of Por¬ 
 tugal. Pie also found the root which has since become so noted—the potato. 
 For many years the Portuguese supplied sugar to all the principal nations 
 of Europe. As old Hollinshead says, “ the sweet hand of the Portingal’’ 
 was seen in their dishes. They furnished sugar wholesale at Santos, at 
 the price of 32 lbs. of the “ whitest dry sugar” for the ducat, that is, at 
 less than 3d. a lb. The price seems to have varied greatly in Europe, 
 ranging from sixpence up to half-a-crown a pound. In the year 1580, 
 a set of copper and iron caldrons for boiling sugar was sent out from 
 London to Santos, in the English ship Minion. || 
 
 During the whole of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese, besides 
 dividing the trade of America with the Spaniards, possessed almost 
 
 ♦ Hakluyt, iii., 771. t Ibid, iii., 707. 
 
 { Ibid, iii., SOI. § Ibid, iii., 787. || Ibid, iii., 70S. 
 
272 
 
 exclusively, the commerce and government of Africa and Asia. They first 
 reached India in the year 1498, and from that time until the year 1582 they 
 encountered no European rivals in the Indian seas, except in the extreme 
 east, where the Spaniards formed colonies in the Philippine Islands, then 
 called the Islands of China, about the year 1570, to which they sent four 
 or five ships yearly, from the west coast of Mexico, and from which they 
 obtained gold, much cinnamon, cloves, dishes of earth, and cups of the 
 same, so fine that they were considered worth their weight in silver.* 
 With this exception, the Portuguese had the exclusive possession of the 
 commerce of the east, from the time of the discovery of the ocean route to 
 India, until the time when Portugal and all its foreign possessions fell 
 into the hands of Spain, which thus united the empire of the east to that 
 of the west. In the east the Portuguese traded in gold, in silk and cotton 
 goods, and in spices ; and, from their possessions on the coast of Guinea, 
 they supplied negroes, for the sugar plantations of Brazil. They also 
 maintained large fleets of ships, with which they plundered the coasts of 
 India, Ceylon, and other rich kingdoms of the east; and carried on 
 frequent wars with the Mahomedan princes of India, the pirates of the 
 Eastern Archipelago, and the Turks, who built a fleet at Aden, at the 
 mouth of the Bed Sea, to dispute the empire of the eastern seas with 
 them. They also encircled the coasts of Africa and Asia with a line of 
 fortified settlements, extending from Madeira to Macao, in China. Of 
 these the most celebrated wire their settlements on the Guinea Coast; 
 FernandoPo ; Congo andLoango ; Mozambique; Ormus, in the Persian 
 Gulph; Bombay, Goa, and Macao. The English flag was rarely seen 
 in the eastern seas, until about the year 1600, when the English East 
 India Company began to despatch vessels to India, China, and Japan. 
 
 The discovery and colonization of the magnificent regions of tropical 
 America, and the opening of the ocean route to India, immediately pro¬ 
 duced an important change in the course of the trade of Europe, as well 
 as a great increase in its magnitude. Previous to those discoveries the 
 Mediterranean was the medium, by which the nations of western Europe 
 communicated with the regions, from which they obtained gold, silver, 
 sugar, cotton, the delicate fabrics of India and Persia, spices, and all 
 the products of tropical climates. The commerce in those articles was 
 in the hands of the Genoese and Venetians. The Genoese were at that 
 time the boldest navigators, and the best sailors, in southern Europe; and 
 
 * Hakluyt, iii., 467. 
 
273 
 
 the Venetians were little inferior to tliero. After contending with each 
 other for many years, with a preponderance of success on the side of 
 Genoa, though not without some victories on the part of Venice, they 
 divided the trade of the east between them. The Genoese retained the 
 trade with the Black Sea and Asia Minor; the Venetians that with Syria, 
 Egypt, the Morea, and the line islands of Cyprus and Candia, both of 
 which were then subject to Venice. At that time the nations of southern 
 Europe obtained from the Ukraine, by means of the Genoese, grain, 
 timber, flax, tallow, hides, and nearly all those products of the forest and 
 the wild, which they now obtain from the Baltic, the White Sea, the 
 banks of the St. Lawrence, and the plains of South America, South 
 Africa, and Australia. They also obtained large supplies of salt fish from 
 the fisheries of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the immense rivers which 
 discharge their waters into those seas. In addition to these coarser 
 articles, they received gold from the mines of the Caucasus, and probably 
 from the washings of the Ural mountains ; together with fine cottons, silks, 
 and spices, brought from Armenia, Persia, India, and China. This was 
 the trade which the Londoners endeavoured to revive, when they had 
 reached the Caspian Sea, through Russia. In the latter years of the 
 Greek empire the Genoese were only one degree less powerful at Constan¬ 
 tinople, and in the Greek empire, than the English arc at Delhi and 
 throughout India. They collected the public revenues, and retained 
 nearly three-fourths of them, either as interest of loans, as the price of 
 protecting the empire, or as costs of collection. The suburb of Pera, 
 adjoining to Constantinople, was a Genoese fortress, as well as a factory; 
 and they founded a city at Caffa, in the Crimea, which rivalled Genoa itself, 
 and one, only second to Caffa, at Tana, on the Tanais or Don. “ Europe,” 
 says Sismondi, communicated with Asia, by means of the Genoese at 
 Caffa. The stuffs of silk and cotton manufactured in Persia ; the spices 
 and the rich products of India arrived there by Astrakhan ; and the mines 
 of the Caucasus were worked for the profit of the Genoese.”* They also 
 traded with Armenia, and the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, bv 
 way of Trebizonde and Sinope, on the southern shore of the Euxine. 
 
 Whilst the Genoese thus conducted the trade with the north-east 
 of Asia, and the caravan and river trade with the interior of the continents 
 of Europe and Asia, the Venetians almost monopolized the trade with 
 the East, which was carried on through Syria and the Persian Gulph, and 
 
 * Sismondi: Kepubliques Italiennes, vi., 38. 
 2 N 
 
274 
 
 through Egypt and the Red Sea. By means of this trade they obtained 
 considerable supplies of gold and silver from Africa and Asia, as well as of 
 spices and fine stuffs from India and China. This was one of the 
 greatest sources of the wealth of Venice.* So completely was the trade in 
 the most precious of metals, gold, in the hands of the Italians, previous 
 to the discovery of America, that they only are mentioned in an English 
 act of Parliament, of the year 1487, for regulating the sale of that 
 valuable commodity. “If any person,” says that act, “put to sale any 
 gold of Venice, Florence, or Gean (Genoa) for a pound weight, which 
 does not contain twelve ounces, he shall forfeit the same, or the value 
 thereof. ”f 
 
 But the trade of Venice and Genoa did not consist merely in supplying 
 western Europe with articles brought from distant regions, but also in 
 furnishing them with the rich products of the shores of the Mediterranean, 
 such as sugar and cotton. Sugar, which was only known to the ancients, 
 as the product of a cane growing in India, was grown in all the hotter 
 countries, on the shores of the Mediterranean, previous to the discovery of 
 the West Indies. As early as the year 1108 it was cultivated in Syria. 
 “ The Crusaders, (says an ancient historian of the Crusades,) found 
 sweet-honeyed reeds in great quantity, in the meadows, about Tripoli, (in 
 Syria,) which reed was called zucra. These they sucked, and were 
 much pleased with the sweet taste of them, with which they could scarcely 
 be satisfied. This plant is cultivated with great labour of the husband¬ 
 man, every year. At the time of harvest they bruise it when ripe in 
 mortars, and set by the strained juice in vessels, till it is concreted into 
 the form of snow, or white salt. This, when scraped, they mix with 
 water, or rub it with bread, and eat it as pottage, and it is then more 
 useful and pleasing than the honey of bees. The people who were 
 engaged at the sieges of Albaria, Marra, and Archas, and suffered dreadful 
 hunger, were much refreshed thereby.”J The same writer mentions the 
 capture of eleven camel loads of sugar, from the Saracens. Another 
 historian of the Crusades, speaking of the events of 1306, says, that 
 sugar was produced in large quantities, in the Mahomedan countries 
 round the Mediterranean, and that it was also made in Cyprus, Rhodes, 
 the Morea, Malta, Sicily, and other places belonging to the Christians. 
 The Mahomedans, who at this time inhabited the shores of the Mediter¬ 
 ranean, from the Orontes to the Straits of Gibraltar, were of the Arabian 
 
 Eoscoe’s Lorenzo de Medici. + Statutes at Large, ii., 79. 
 
 J Albert us Agnensis, 270. 
 
275 
 
 race, and inherited much of the civilization, by which the Syrians, the 
 Egyptians, and the Morescoes of that race had long been distinguished. 
 They followed the arts of commerce, and of manufacturing and agricultural 
 industry, with vigour and success.* The sugar of Barhary was well known 
 in England and the west of Europe. Cotton was also extensively 
 cultivated on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the time when America 
 was discovered. It was imported into England by the Genoese; and the 
 first purchases of cotton, which are known to have been made by the 
 manufacturers of Manchester, were obtained from the Levant.f Speaking 
 of the commerce of the Italian republics, and of the nations surrounding 
 the Mediterranean, at this time, an eloquent writer says, “ The Mediter¬ 
 ranean alone was furrowed without ceasing with galleys or merchant 
 ships. America did not exist as yet for the European nations, and the 
 route to India round Africa was unknown. The ocean lay desert and 
 unfrequented; and the kingdoms of the west communicated by land, rather 
 than by sea, with the most fertile and industrious countries. But the two 
 greatest and richest trades of the world, those which in all times have 
 given prosperity to all the rest, the commerce of the north-east, and that 
 of the Indies, were carried on by the Mediterranean ; the one by the ports 
 of the Black Sea, and at the mouths of the rivers of Russia; the other 
 by means of the Armenians, or by that of the Arabs, in the ports of 
 Greece, Syria, or Egypt.” 
 
 Even if no political events had occurred to blast the prosperity of the 
 countries around the Mediterranean, and to stop the intercourse with the 
 East, the discovery of America, and of the ocean-route to India, would 
 have exposed Venice and Genoa to a dangerous competition, on the part 
 of Spain and Portugal. The Spaniards at once seized on all the gold 
 and silver which the American nations had been accumulating for ages, and 
 poured it into the markets of Europe : they then seized on the wretched 
 inhabitants, and compelled them to toil for more in the mines, until 
 multitudes of them perished ; and when that race of slaves was 
 destroyed, they brought a hardier race from the coast of Africa. The 
 effect of the great increase in the supply of the precious metals was to 
 diminish their exchangeable value to a fourth or a fifth of its previous 
 amount, and to render all gold and silver mines, which had not been 
 unusually profitable, entirely worthless. The sugar growers of the Mediter¬ 
 ranean were also exposed to a similar competition, with the slave-grown 
 
 * Sismoncli : Republiquea Italiennes. 
 
 + Baines’s History of the Cotton Trade. 
 
276 
 
 produce of Hispaniola and Brazil. Tliey had to contend against 
 unlimited supplies of slaves, against a rich virgin soil, and against a 
 climate even finer than their own, for the production of tropical produce. 
 As relates to articles brought from India, up the Bed Sea, and by long 
 journeys on the hacks of camels, to the shores of the Mediterranean and 
 the Black Sea, the difference in the cost must soon have proved fatal to 
 the old route, and decisive in favour of the new. In the time of Pliny 
 the cost of bringing produce from India to Borne is said to have 
 added a hundred-fold to the cost at the place of production; and even 
 supposing this to have been an exaggerated estimate, yet the cost of con¬ 
 veying goods up the Bed Sea and along the Mediterranean, and of trans¬ 
 porting them across the desert, must have been enormous. No periodical 
 winds blow nor currents run in those narrow seas, which can he rendered 
 available for the purposes of commerce, like the currents and the prevailing 
 winds of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. From these causes the 
 New World and the new route to the East must have triumphed under 
 any circumstances; hut their triumph was rendered much more rapid and 
 complete by the ravages of that great storm of fanaticism and barbarism, 
 which spread over the finest countries of the Mediterranean, about the 
 time when America and the ocean route to India were discovered. 
 
 For some time before the discovery of America, the beautiful shores of 
 the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, had been threatened with that inroad 
 of Turkish barbarism, which has laid them waste for upwards of three 
 centuries. In the year 1453, that is forty-six years before Columbus 
 discovered America, and fifty-three years before Gama reached India by 
 the Cape, the Sultan Mohamed the Second besieged, stormed, plun¬ 
 dered, and enslaved the great city of Constantinople. Constantinople 
 was then the centre of the commerce of the world; the great market of 
 the East, and the key of the Black Sea. This great blow to the com¬ 
 merce of Genoa, and of all Europe, was followed up, in the year 1475, by 
 the siege and conquest of Caffa, in the Crimea, the great centre of the 
 trade with Northern Asia and Bussia, with which the Genoese had still kept 
 up an imperfect communication through Hungary.* In the year 1461 
 Trebizonde, and all the other cities through which the Genoese and Vene¬ 
 tians had traded with Armenia and Persia, fell into the hands of the Turks. 
 Thus the dominion and trade of the Genoese in the Black Sea were 
 destroyed, and the intercourse of European nations, with the countries on 
 
 * Sismondi’s Republiques Italienues, vi., 03. 
 
277 
 
 its shores, fell under the control of a fanatical, and anti-commercial race. 
 The ruin of the industry and commerce of the nations on the shores of the 
 Black Sea was rapid and complete. In the year 1470 a Turkish fleet 
 first sailed from the Dardanelles, and soon the Christians on the shores 
 of the Mediterranean had to fight for their independence, by sea and land. 
 
 The ruin of the trade of Venice with the East was brought about in 
 the same manner. Twenty-three years after the return of Columbus, 
 Syria and Egypt, the richest countries of the East, and those through 
 which the Venetians traded with India, were overrun and conquered, 
 by the Sultan, Selim the First. Their descent to poverty and degradation 
 was rapid. The beautiful island of Cyprus, the finest of the Venetian 
 possessions, was conquered by the Turks in 1571 ; and the island of 
 Rhodes in 1522. In a short time the Turkish fleets threatened the 
 coasts of Italy, and about the same time large bodies of Turkish 
 pirates obtained possession of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, and or¬ 
 ganized that system of ferocious piracy which, for three hundred years, 
 rendered the southern shores of the Mediterranean dens of thieves 
 and murderers, and completed the ruin of the commerce of Italy. 
 The utter desolation which fell on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
 and the closing of all the overland routes to the East, contributed almost 
 as much as the discovery of America, to that great revolution in the 
 commerce of the world, under which Venice, Genoa, Florence, Cafla, 
 Alexandria, and Constantinople declined ; whilst Cadiz, Lisbon, London, 
 Bristol, and, in a later age, Liverpool, rose from their decay. 
 
 The ability of Italy to struggle against these frightful evils was greatly 
 diminished, by the dreadful state of internal discord, into which nearly all 
 the Italian States fell, at the time when their utmost energies were 
 required to resist the inroads of the Turks. No internal union existed, 
 whilst foreign nations, the French, the Spaniards, the Germans, and the 
 Swiss fought out their own battles, on the soil of Italy. In those struggles 
 the freedom, independence, and prosperity of Italy perished. 
 
 “ The greatest misfortune, (says the eloquent historian of the 
 Italian Republics,)* of this constant state of foreign war, was the 
 continuance of military rule, the sojourn or the passage of Spanish troops 
 through the different provinces (of Italy), and, above all, the intolerable 
 burdens with which the Court of Madrid overwhelmed the people. The 
 ignorance of those ministers, who knew nothing of the principles of 
 
 Sismondi’s Repitbliques Italiennes, xvi., 158. 
 
278 
 
 political economy, was even more destructive than tlieir rapacity or their 
 dilapidations. They did not impose a single tax which did not seem to 
 he intended to crush industry and ruin agriculture: manufactures fell 
 into decay, commerce disappeared, the fields lay untilled, and the 
 inhabitants, reduced to despair, were forced at length to adopt robbery as 
 a profession. Chiefs, distinguished by their birth and their talents, put 
 themselves at the head of hands of assassins, which were formed at the 
 close of this age, in the kingdom of Naples and the States of the Church; 
 and this war of brigands even endangered the sovereign authority itself. 
 During these times the provinces remained without soldiers, the coasts 
 without vessels of war, fortresses without garrisons. There was nothing 
 to check the ravages of the Corsairs of Barbary, who, not content with the 
 prizes which they seized at sea, made descents on every coast in its turn, 
 burnt the villages, and often the towns, and carried all their inhabitants into 
 slavery. All the horrors which the slave trade has inflicted on Africa during 
 the last two centuries, were practised during the sixteenth by the Maho- 
 medans, in Italy, In the same manner the rapacious slave-merchants 
 employed traitors on the coasts of Italy, to point out and to deliver to them 
 their wretched countrymen ; in the same manner recompence was always 
 given to crime ; and in the same manner the extremest misery threatened 
 without ceasing the family which had the greatest reason to hope for 
 safety from its innocence and its obscurity. Such were the calamities 
 under the pressure of which Italy deplored, at the end of the sixteenth 
 century, the loss of its independence." Under the pressure of these 
 intolerable evils, the manufactures of Italy, which had been the finest in 
 Europe, rapidly gave place to those of Flanders, and other northern 
 countries; as those of Flanders, which was soon after oppressed by civil 
 war and foreign tyranny, passed in their turn, to the happier shores of 
 England and Holland. At the same time the commerce of Genoa and 
 Yenice gave way to that of Spain, Portugal, England, and Holland; and 
 the great trade which had flowed through the Mediterranean, for two 
 thousand years, passed over to the West Indies and the Continent of 
 America, to which multitudes of settlers speedily followed, seeking a 
 refuge from the intolerable evils which then afflicted the countries of 
 Europe. 
 
 The English attempts to settle in America were very unsuccessful, 
 during the reigns of the Tudors. A profitable trade in salt fish was the 
 consequence of the discovery of Newfoundland; but the report of the 
 immense wealth which was poured into Spain and Portugal by their rich 
 
279 
 
 and splendid settlements, rendered the English dissatisfied with their barren 
 discoveries, and continually urged them to try to reach the spice islands, 
 and the land of gold, hy voyages to the north-west and the north-east, round 
 the northern points of America or Asia. So long as they were deluded 
 hy tliis hope they neglected the fine regions of North America, which had 
 been discovered by Sebastian Cabot; and it was not until repeated failures 
 had at length induced them to abandon the search for gold, that they 
 began to direct their energies, to the great and practicable object of 
 colonizing the coast of Virginia. 
 
 The observations made during the voyage of Sebastian Cabot to New¬ 
 foundland, having shown that the passage, which he and all other voyagers 
 sought, to the tropical regions of Asia, was not to be found in that direction, 
 without sailing very far to the north-west, it was determined to seek it by 
 sailing to the northeast, round the northern shores of Europe and Asia. 
 In the year 1555, a great expedition was fitted out in London, with that 
 intention, under the superintendence of Sebastian Cabot, who at that 
 time held the office of Grand Pilot of England, under the youthful king, 
 Edward the Sixth. The capital expended in fitting it out was ,£6,000, 
 which was raised in shares of £25 each. The expedition consisted of 
 three vessels, all expressly prepared for the navigation of the northern 
 seas, and fitted out with so much care, that Cabot declared, that the like 
 had never been seen or known in any other realm. The brave but 
 unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby acted as commander-in-chief; and 
 Richard Chancellor, a friend of Sir Henry Sidney, acted as second in com¬ 
 mand, in another ship. Little was known at that time, either of the form or 
 size of the continent of Asia, and still less of the real nature of the 
 difficulties created by the shortness of the summers, the intolerable cold 
 of the winters, and the impenetrable accumulations of ice. The expedi¬ 
 tion of coui’se failed in discovering a north-east passage to India, and it 
 was attended with dreadful disasters, the commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh 
 Willoughby, and all the officers and seamen of two of the three ships, 
 composing the expedition, having perished from hunger, disease, or the 
 intolerable severity of a Polar winter. Richard Chancellor, and his 
 companions in the first ship, were more fortunate. After escaping many 
 dangers, they found their way into the White Sea, to the city of 
 Archangel, then the only seaport of the Russian empire, which was at 
 that time only known by report to the nations of western Europe. There 
 they were most hospitably received by the Czar and his subjects, and 
 succeeded in opening a valuable trade with Russia. 
 
280 
 
 In tlio early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, many other 
 voyages were made, in the hope of discovering a northern passage “ to 
 the isles of Moluccas and the coast of China,” before the attempt was 
 abandoned as hopeless. That brave sea captain, Martin Frobisher made 
 three voyages, all directed to this object, in the years 1576, 7, and 8; 
 and in the years 1585, 6, and 7, John Davis, an equally resolute seaman, 
 renewed the attempt. They failed, as all their successors have done: yet 
 their voyages were not without results, for they created the whale fishery, 
 which has proved a source of wealth to England, and an admirable 
 nursery for seamen. In these unsuccessful, but resolute and glorious 
 struggles, to open a new passage to the east, many of the brave captains 
 and seamen were trained, who afterwards defeated and dispersed the 
 Spanish Armada. 
 
 Although the famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake, round the 
 globe, was undertaken, rather for purposes of war and plunder than of 
 discovery, or commerce, yet it was attended by the discovery of a region 
 which has become very celebrated during the last few years,—the gold 
 yielding region of Upper California. It is a curious historical fact, that 
 this modern El Dorado was discovered, was taken possession of in the 
 name of Queen Elizabeth, and was “ everywhere found to present a like¬ 
 lihood of gold”, before a single English colonist had been planted on the 
 eastern coast of America. In Hackluyt’s Collection of Voyages, published 
 in London in the year 1600, there is an account of all the incidents of 
 Drake’s voyage, which was alike remarkable, for the immense amount 
 of treasure taken from the Spaniards, the circumnavigation of the globe, 
 and the discovery of the gold region of California. * 
 
 On the 15tli November, in the year 1577, Captain Francis Drake 
 sailed from Plymouth with five ships, carrying 164 men and officers, 
 professedly on a voyage to Alexandria, in Egypt, but really with the 
 intention of sailing into the Pacific Ocean, where the English flag had 
 never been seen before. After passiug the Cape de Verde Islands, he 
 sailed during fifty-four days without sight of land, and then entered the 
 River Plate. After supplying his vessels with water, from that great river, 
 Drake sailed southwards, and passing through the straits named after the 
 only circumnavigator of the globe, who had preceded him—the Straits of 
 Magellan—he entered the Pacific Ocean, on the 6th of September. He 
 arrived off Valparaiso on the 29th of November. He plundered the town 
 
 * Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., 742. 
 
281 
 
 of St. Jago, where he took a booty of 25,000 piezos of very pure and 
 fine gold.* Proceeding thence to a certain port named Tarapaca, he 
 landed and found a Spaniard sleeping by the seaside, with thirteen bars 
 of silver lying by him, of the value of 4,000 ducats. He took the 
 silver, and left the owner to finish his nap. Not far from thence, going 
 inland for water, his men met a Spaniard and an Indian boy driving eight 
 llamas, or sheep of Peru, “ which are as big as asses,” every one of 
 which had on its back two hags of leather, each bag containing 50 lbs. 
 weight of fine silver. Bringing the llamas and their burdens to the 
 ship, they found in all eight cwts. of silver. Thence they proceeded to 
 Arica, where they plundered a vessel containing fifty-seven wedges of 
 silver, each weighing 20 lbs. On the 13th of February they arrived at 
 Lima, where they plundered all the ships in the harbour, in one of which 
 they found a chest full of rials of silver, and good store of silks and 
 linen cloth. Here they heard of a rich treasure-ship named the Caca- 
 fuego, which had sailed to Paita. They immediately gave chase, but on 
 arriving at Paita, found that the Cacafuego had sailed for Panama. They 
 at once renewed the chase, and in the course of it they picked up a 
 vessel which contained 80 lbs. weight of gold, and a crucifix of the same 
 metal, with “ goodly great emeralds set in it.” Continuing the pursuit, 
 they at last came up with the Cacafuego, which well repaid them for the 
 trouble that it had given them. Besides precious stones, they found 
 thirteen chests of rials of silver, eighty pounds weight of gold, and twenty- 
 six tons of uncoined silver, f This rich capture was made off Cape St. 
 Francisco, about one hundred and fifty leagues from Panama. From this 
 point they proceeded to Guatulco, and thence to Ceno, where they careened 
 their ships. On leaving the island of Ceno, “ which is in eight degrees 
 north latitude,” Drake resumed his cruise, and took another rich ship ; 
 and being now satisfied with his booty , he determined to return home by the 
 islands of the Malucos, and “ thence to sail by the course of the Portugals, 
 by the Cape of Bona Esperanca.” For this purpose he ran northward for 
 800 leagues, to get a favourable wind, and on the 5th day of June, “ being 
 in 43 degrees towards the Pole Arctic, being speedily come out of extreme 
 heat,” Drake found the air so cold, that his men, being pinched with the 
 same, complained of the extremity thereof, and the further they went, the 
 more the cold increased upon them. Whereupon they thought it best to 
 seek land, which they found to be not mountainous, but low plain land. 
 
 * Hakluyt, iii., 735. 
 2 O 
 
 + Ibid, iii., 736. 
 
282 
 
 “ We drew back again (says the historian of the voyage) without landing, 
 till we came within 38 degrees towards the line. In which height it 
 pleased God to send us into a faire and good bay, with a good wind to 
 enter the same.”* 
 
 This country was no doubt the country which has recently become so 
 famous under the name of California, and this bay was probably the great 
 bay of San Francisco. The inhabitants came down to the shore, gave 
 Drake a very friendly reception, and the king offered him the?Government 
 of the country. “ Wherefore, in the name and to the use of her Majesty, 
 (Queen Elizabeth,) he took the sceptre, crown, and dignity of the said 
 country in his hands, wishing that the riches and treasures thereof 
 might so conveniently be transported, to the enriching of her kingdom, as 
 it aboundetli in the same.” “There is no part of earth here to be taken 
 up, wherein there is not some special likelihood of gold or silver.” At his 
 departure from the country Drake set up, as a monument of his having 
 been there, as also of her Majesty’s right and title to the same, “ a plate, 
 nailed upon a fair great post, whereupon was engraven her Majesty’s (Queen 
 Elizabeth’s) name; the day and year of our arrival there ; with the free 
 giving up of the province into her Majesty’s hands, together with her 
 highness’s picture and arms, and a piece of sixpence of current English 
 money;” under the plate also was written the name of Drake. “It 
 seemeth (says the historian of the voyage) that the Spaniards hitherto had 
 never been in this part of the country ; neither did ever discover the land, 
 by many degrees to the southwards of this place.” Such was the account 
 of this land of gold, published in England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 It certainly is one of the curiosities of history, that the first land ever taken 
 possession of by the English, on the continent of America, should have 
 been the now famous California, and that it should have been occupied 
 some years before the first attempt was made to colonize the provinces, 
 which have since grown to be the United States of America. 
 
 Amongst the articles described in the early account of Drake’s voyage 
 round the world, were the cocoa-nut tree, the fine earthenware and silks 
 of China, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, and sago, and all the spices grown 
 in the East India Islands.f 
 
 The first act towards the colonizing of the continent of America, by 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, was the granting of letters patent to Sir Humphry 
 Gilbert, knight, of Compton, in the county of Devon, by Queen Elizabeth, 
 
 Hakluyt, iii., 442. 
 
 + Ibid, iii731, 736, 741. 
 
283 
 
 “ for the inhabiting and planting of our people in America."* These 
 letters were granted in the year 1578. It appears from the account of 
 this unfortunate attempt, that the object was to “ discover and to plant 
 Christian inhabitants, in places convenient, upon those large and ample 
 countries, extending northward from the Cape of Florida, lying under very 
 temperate climates, extremely fertile, and rich in minerals, yet not in the 
 actual possession of any Christian prince.” It also appears, from the 
 narrative written by “ Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, and principal actor 
 in the same voyage; who alone continued until the end, and by God’s special 
 assistance, returned home with his retinue, safe and entire,” that the expe¬ 
 dition sailed from Plymouth, on Tuesday, the 11th of June, 1583. It 
 consisted of the following vessels :—The Delight, 120 tons, Sir Humphry 
 Gilbert, general (or commander-in-chief,) Mr. Winter, captain; the Raleigh, 
 vice-admiral, fitted out by “Mr.” Walter Raleigh, 200 tons, Mr. Butler 
 captain, and Mr. Robert Davies, of Bristol, master; the Golden Hind, of 
 ■10 tons, Mr. Edward Hayes, captain and owner, William Cox, of Lime-house, 
 master; the Swallow, of 10 tons, Captain Morris Brown; the Squirrel, of 
 10 tons, Captain William Andrews, and one Cade, master. These vessels 
 carried about two hundred and sixty men ; they went by the trade way to 
 Newfoundland, where they arrived on the 30th of July, seven weeks after 
 sailing. They took formal possession of the island, and then proceeded 
 towards the continent of America, passing the islands of Sable and Cape 
 Breton. Unhappily they here met with great misfortunes. The Delight, 
 the admiral’s ship, was lost, on the night of the 29th of August. After 
 enduring many hardships, they determined to return to England. On the 
 voyage Sir Humphry Gilbert sailed in the Squirrel, a mere boat of ten 
 tons, and in her he was lost. Mr. Hayes thus describes the last hours of 
 this noble hero : “The general (commander) sitting abaft, with a book in 
 his hand, cried out unto us, in the Hind, as oft as we did approach within 
 hearing, ‘ We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land,’ reiterating the 
 speech, well becoming a soldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify 
 he was.”f Thus terminated the first attempt to colonize America. The 
 merchants of Bristol, with the liberality which distinguished them, during 
 the whole of these stirring times, subscribed one thousand marks towards 
 the enterprise.! 
 
 Unfavourable as was the result of the first attempt to colonize America, 
 the spirit of colonization had taken too firm a hold to be eradicated, 
 
 » IJakluyt, iii., 135. 
 
 + Ibid, iii., 160. 
 
 { Ibid, iii, lsi. 
 
284 
 
 either by one, or by many failures; and, in the year 1584, Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh obtained other letters patent from the queen, for the discovery 
 and planting of new lands and countries on the coast of Amei'ica. 
 
 In the year in which these letters patent were granted, 1584, Captains 
 Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow were sent out to explore the coast 
 of America.* They made a report on their return, which greatly increased 
 the desire to settle in the country. They started from England on the 
 “27tli of April, 1584, and, instead of proceeding to the northward, as Sir 
 Humphry Gilbert had done, sailed southward, to the Canaries. Then, 
 crossing the Atlantic, they reached the West India Islands, and, after 
 crossing the Gulph of Mexico, between the Cape of Florida and Havana, 
 they reached the coast of North America, on the 2d of July. <c On that 
 day, (says their report of the voyage,) we found shoal water, where we 
 smelled so sweet and so strong a smell, as if we had been in the midst of 
 some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers; by 
 which we were assured, that the land could not be far distant; and, 
 keeping good watch, and bearing but slack sail, the 4th of the same 
 month we arrived upon the coast, which we supposed to be a continent, 
 and firm land, and we sailed along the same one hundred and twenty 
 miles, before we could find any entrance or river issuing into the sea. 
 The first that appeared unto us we entered, though not without some 
 difficulty, and cast anchor about three harquebuss shots within the haven’s 
 mouth, on the left hand side of the same ; and, after thanksgiving 
 to God for our safe arrival thither, we manned our boats, and 
 went to view the land next adjoining, and to take possession of the 
 same, in the right of the Queen’s most excellent Majesty, as rightful 
 Queen and Princess of the same ; and after delivered the same to your 
 (Sir Walter Ealeigh’s') use, according to her Majesty’s grant and letters 
 patent, under her highness’s great seal. Which being performed, accord¬ 
 ing to the ceremonies used in such enterprises, we viewed the land about 
 us, being, as where we first landed, sandy and low towards the water side, but 
 so full of grapes, as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them, 
 of which we found such plenty, as well there as in all places else, both on 
 the sand and on the green soil on the hills, as in the plains, as well on 
 every little shrub, as also climbing towards the tops of high cedars, that 
 I think in all the world the like abundance is not to be found ; and 
 myself having seen those parts of Europe that most abound, find such 
 
 Hakluyt, iii., 246. 
 
285 
 
 difference as were incredible to be written.' This pleasant country they 
 found to be an island, called Wokoken by the natives ; and here they met 
 with the inhabitants, whom they found to be “ a very handsome and 
 goodly people, and in their behaviour as manly and civil as any in 
 Europe.” The name of the country they found to be Wingandacoa, 
 changed by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to Virginia. They traded with 
 these people in the most friendly manner, and afterwards sailed along the 
 coast. After sailing past the islands, they entered a splendid bay on the 
 coast of Virginia. “ When we first had sight of this country,” say they, 
 “ some thought the first land we saw to he the continent; but after we 
 entered into the haven, we saw before us another mighty long sea; for there 
 lieth along the coast a tract of islands, two hundred miles in length, adjoining 
 the ocean sea, and between the islands two or three entrances. When you are 
 entered between them, these islands, being very narrow for the most part, 
 as in most places six miles broad, in some less, in few more, then there 
 appeareth another great sea, containing in breadth in some places forty, 
 and in some fifty, and in some twenty miles over, before you come unto 
 the continent, and in this enclosed sea there are above a hundred islands, 
 of divers bignesses, whereof one is sixteen miles long, at which we were, 
 finding it a most pleasant and fertile ground, replenished with goodly 
 cedars, and divers other sweet woods, full of currants, of flax, and many 
 other notable commodities, which we at that time had no leisure to view. 
 Besides this island there are many more, as I have said ; some of two, of 
 three, of four, or five miles, some more, some less, most beautiful and 
 pleasant to behold, replenished with deer, conies, hares, and divers beasts, 
 and about them the goodliest and best fish in the world, and in great 
 abundance.” 
 
 This account of Virginia produced an ardent desire to settle there, and 
 in the following year a party of Englishmen proceeded to Virginia, with 
 Sir Richard Grenville, in order to see the country, and to settle, if it 
 answered their expectations. They were nearly a hundred in number. 
 They were placed under the command of Mr. Ralph Lane, and remained 
 there upwards of twelve months. The governor, in a letter to Mr. Richard 
 Hakluyt, says, “ We have discovered the maine to be the goodliest soil 
 under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees, that bring such 
 sundry rich and pleasant gums, grapes of such greatness, yet wilde, as 
 France, Spain, nor Italy have no greater; so many sorts of apothecary 
 drugs, and several kinds of flax, and one kind like silk they gathered, of a 
 grass as common there as grass is here. And now, within these few davs 
 
286 
 
 we have found here maize, or guinea wheat, which here yieldeth corn for 
 bread, four hundred upon one ear, and the cane maketh very good and 
 perfect sugar; also terra samia, otherwise terra sigillata. Besides 
 that, it is the goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world; for 
 the continent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well 
 peopled and towned, though savagely; and the climate so wholesome that 
 we have not one sick since we touched the land here. To conclude, if 
 Virginia had hut horses and kine, in some reasonable proportion, I dare 
 assure myself, being inhabited with English, no realm in Christendom 
 were comparable to it. For this we already find, what commodities 
 soever Spain, France, Italy, or the East do yield unto us, in 
 wines of all sorts, in oils, in flax, in rosins, pitch, frankincence, 
 currants, sugars, and such like, these parts do abound with the growth 
 of them all; but being savages that possess the land, they know no 
 use of the same. And sundry other rich commodities, that no other 
 parts of the world, be they West or East Indies, have, here we 
 find in great abundance. The people naturally are most cour¬ 
 teous, and very desirous to have cloths, but especially of coarse 
 cloth, rather than silk; coarse canvas they also like well of; but copper 
 carrieth the prize of all, so it be made red.” Unfortunately, all the hopes 
 expressed in the above letter were defeated, by a quarrel with the 
 natives, in the course of which several of the Indians were slain. This 
 happened on the 4th June, 1586, about which time Sir Francis Drake 
 arrived off the coast, when the colonists, not thinking themselves strong 
 enough to maintain themselves against the Indians, abandoned the 
 country, and returned to England. 
 
 In the following year another attempt was made to colonize Virginia, 
 and in this case with better prospect of success, as several of the colonists 
 were accompanied by their wives. John White was appointed governor 
 of the colony, and Ananias Dare the deputy-governor. Unfortunately 
 this expedition failed also. Having arrived at an unfavourable season of 
 the year, and having again become involved in quarrels with the natives, 
 the settlers were ultimately compelled to leave the country. During their 
 stay in the colony, Eleanor Dare, daughter of the governor, and wife of 
 Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter, in 
 Roanoak, “and the same christened there the Sunday following; and 
 because this child was the first Christian bora in Virginia, she was named 
 Virginia.” 
 
 Another attempt to colonize Virginia was made in the year 1590, but 
 
287 
 
 that also failed. It was not until a few years after the death of Queen 
 Elizabeth, that the successful effort was at length made, by a body of 
 colonists, who landed on the banks of James’s River, and laid the 
 foundation of the old dominion of Virginia, the original seat of the 
 Anglo-American race. The settlement of Virginia was retarded for a 
 few years, by the rumour of the existence of the golden empire of 
 Guiana, in the vain pursuit of which the efforts and fortunes of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh and his brave associates were wasted, in three unsuccessful 
 voyages, made in the years 1595, G, and 7.* The failure of these ex¬ 
 peditions ruined the principal patrons of colonization, and the events of 
 one of them cost that gallant enthusiast, Sir Walter Raleigh, his liberty, 
 and ultimately his life. After the total failure of all hopes of reaching 
 the promised El Dorado, the great enterprise of colonizing Virginia was 
 resumed, and was at length brought to a successful issue. I shall trace 
 the growth of the American and West Indian colonies in another chapter. 
 
 Amongst a variety of articles which were brought from Virginia by 
 the early colonists, one took especial hold on the taste of the public, and 
 had almost as much influence in promoting the peopling of that fine 
 province as the gold of Mexico, the silver of Peru, and the sugar of 
 Brazil and the West Indies, had in peopling those vast regions. This 
 was the much-admired, much-abused American plant, tobacco. Camden, 
 after speaking of the early attempts to colonize Virginia, says, “ And 
 these men, who were thus brought back, were the first that I know of, that 
 brought into England that Indian plant which they call Tabacca, or 
 Nicotia, or Tobacco, which they used against crudities, being taught it 
 by the Indians. Certainly from that time forward it began to grow into 
 great request, and to be sold at a high rate, whilst in a short time men 
 everywhere, some for health’s sake, others from wantonness, with insatiable 
 desire and greediness, sucked in the stinking smoak thereof, through an 
 earthen pipe, which presently they blew out again at their nostrils; 
 insomuch that tobacco shops are now as ordinary in most towns as tap- 
 houses and taverns. So that the Englishmen’s bodies (as one said wittily) 
 which are so delighted with this plant, seem, as it were, to be degenerated 
 into the nature of barbarians, since they are delighted, and think they 
 may be cured with the same things which the barbarians use.”f 
 
 Tobacco continued to triumph in defiance of Camden’s sarcasm, and 
 in spite of an affecting anecdote which he tells of “ Richard Fletcher, 
 
 * Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii., 631, 73, 93, 
 
 * Camden's History of Queen Elizabeth, 331. 
 
288 
 
 Bishop of London, a courtly prelate, who while by immoderate taking of 
 tobacco, he sought to smother the cares he had by his unfortunate mar¬ 
 riage, and misliked by the Queen (who did not approve of married 
 bishops,) he breathed out his soul.”* 
 
 Neither this case of an unfortunate bishop killed by too much 
 tobacco, (aided by a bad wife, and an angry Queen,) nor the fierce 
 counterblast of that northern Solomon, King James, availed anything 
 against the deluding and soothing weed. It made its way in spite of 
 wit, wisdom, and royal authority, to the great advantage of the 
 Virginian settlers; and has held it, to the great improvement of the 
 national revenue, which still draws its millions from tobacco smoke. It 
 will be seen in a subsequent chapter that tobacco was the first article of 
 American growth imported into Liverpool. 
 
 ) 
 
 * Camden’s Elizabeth, 528. 
 
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 promised Royalist Fortifications 
 
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 B. DR GOMMEZ. A - 
 
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CHAPTER TENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF STUART, 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES THE FIRST TO THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES THE SECOND. 
 
 The improvement of agriculture and manufactures and the extension 
 of commerce, described in the preceding chapters, were attended with a 
 rapid increase of population, both in town and country. It was during 
 this period that the middle class of the English people grew into import¬ 
 ance. This class sprang in part from the younger sons of the landed 
 gentry, in part from men who had raised themselves from the ranks of 
 the labouring population by superior talents and industry. Whilst neat 
 villages, good farm-houses, the comfortable residences of substantial 
 yeomen, and the handsome abodes of gentlemen sprang up in all parts of 
 the country, the cities, towns, and seaports of the kingdom increased still 
 more rapidly, in population and wealth. Thus, in Liverpool, the 
 number of burgesses or freemen nearly doubled itself between the acces¬ 
 sion of Queen Elizabeth and the end of the reign of James the First. 
 A still more rapid increase took place in the large towns of the south and 
 west of England. Nor was it in numbers only that the population in¬ 
 creased. Many circumstances concurred to rouse its mental activity and 
 increase its political power. The Reformation bad given an impulse 
 to the spirit of inquiry, which soon extended from questions of religious 
 faith and discipline, to all other questions which affect the higher interests 
 of society. The discovery of a new world awakened interest and 
 inquiry, and added greatly to the amount of knowledge. The wars of 
 Queen Elizabeth, which were wars of principle and opinion, waged 
 for the purpose of resisting not merely religious but civil tyranny, and 
 which ended in the establishing of a free and popular government in 
 Holland, gave additional strength to that love of free government 
 which has always characterized the Anglo-Saxon race. As the interest 
 of the middle classes in questions of religion and politics increased, their 
 power of expressing and giving weight to their opinions increased in an 
 equal proportion. By the reduction of the value of gold and silver, which 
 followed the discovery of the mines of Mexico and Peru, as great a change 
 took place in the county franchise, as if it bad been reduced from £20 
 
 2 p 
 
290 
 
 of our money to 40s. Hence the number of enfranchised freeholders 
 increased rapidly in the counties. As the town population increased the 
 town constituencies became more numerous, and less under the influence 
 of the crown. The burgesses in the various boroughs of the kingdom 
 generally refused to allow strangers to carry onbusiness within their liberties’ 
 without taking up their freedom, hut were quite willing to admit them 
 to all the privileges of freemen, including that of voting for members of 
 parliament, on the payment of moderate fines. The result was, that the 
 town constituencies were rapidly increased by purchase, as well as by birth 
 and apprenticeship. Owing to the depreciation in the currency, and the 
 decline in the value of the precious metals, the fixed burgage rents became 
 of less value in every reign, even in those boroughs in which the crown 
 did not sell its rights. Those, however, were very few, for the necessities of 
 James and Charles the First compelled them to part with everything 
 that was saleable.* Hence the borough franchise ceased to be a property 
 qualification ; and the burgesses passed entirely out of the control of the 
 crown. Unfortunately for the princes of the house of Stuart, they could 
 never be induced to admit nor feel the change which had taken place in 
 the power of the electors and the elected, hut insisted on governing accord¬ 
 ing to the precedents of a different age and state of society. The result was 
 that parliament, in its turn, began to look for precedents in those ages in 
 which a fierce and turbulent aristocracy had dethroned and even murdered 
 kings. This irreconciliable difference of opinion continued during the 
 greater part of the period which I am about to trace, and tinged the 
 whole local, as well as national, history of that period. In no part of the 
 kingdom was the battle between the crown and the parliament fought 
 with greater fierceness or obstinacy than in Lancashire. We find strong 
 traces of this difference soon after the accession of James the First. 
 When the quarrel was at its height, it exposed the town of Liverpool to 
 three sieges, in two of which it was taken by storm, in the third reduced 
 by blockade: nor do the traces of this quarrel entirely disappear until 
 some years after the accession of the house of Hanover. 
 
 On the death of Queen Elizabeth, the royal estates in Liverpool and 
 the neighbourhood passed into the hands of her successor, James the 
 First; who, in the second year of his reign, granted a new lease of the 
 fee farm of the town to Sir Richard Molyneux, at the same rent which 
 
 * “He (King James) broke the power of the crown by selling the quit-rent of vast 
 possessions, and thus lost influence over many tenants of the crown and over many boroughs.’ ” 
 — Burnet : Own Times, i., 2S. 
 
291 
 
 he had previously paid.* Sir Richard, being better acquainted with the 
 value of the property than the officers of the crown, declined to sublet 
 it to the corporation on the same terms on which it had previously 
 held it. He separated the ferry from the rest of the fee farm, let it for 
 £8 a year, and required from the corporation the same rent for the 
 remainder of the estate which it had previously paid for the whole. As 
 the corporation was making twice as much by the fee farm as it paid for 
 it, it consented to pay the increased rent rather than lose a good 
 bargain, or allow the collecting of the local dues to pass into other 
 hands. 
 
 In the same year in which Sir Richard Molyneux obtained this renewal 
 of his lease of Liverpool from the crown, he purchased the adjoining 
 estate of Toxteth-park from William, Earl of Derby, for the sum of 
 eleven hundred pounds. It has since proved a mine of wealth to his 
 descendants. The park had been disforested in the year 1590, the thirty- 
 eighth of Queen Elizabeth, and soon after sold to Edward Smolte 
 and William Aspinwall, by the Earl of Derby; but they were unable to 
 fulfil the terms of the purchase. It was in consequence resold to Sir 
 Richard Molyneux, under a deed which bears date the 21st May, in the 
 second year of King James the First. Great progress had been made in 
 cultivating the park between the thirty-eighth of Elizabeth and the 
 second of James the First. It appears, from a return made on the 2d of 
 June, 1604, by John Ireland, John Crosse, and Edmund Molyneux, 
 Esquires, who had been appointed Commissioners of Inquiry by the 
 Duchy-office, that they had surveyed the said ground of Toxteth; that 
 they found that it was disparked ; that there was not a single deer left in 
 it; that it had been divided into several farms, on which farm-houses had 
 been built; that the ground was, for the most part, converted into arable 
 and pasture land ; and that there were no woods nor underwood remaining, 
 save the hedge-rows and orchards. It is a remarkable proof of the 
 antiquity and stability of what Camden calls “ the noble and knightly 
 house of Molyneux,” that it possessed Toxteth before it was converted 
 into a royal park by King John; purchased it when it was disparked, 
 after an interval of four hundred years; and retains great part of it to the 
 present day. 
 
 At the time of which I am writing, the members of the House of 
 Commons were still paid for their services, by their constituents. On the 
 
 * See copy of lease, which was for forty-one years, in Report of Trial of the Corporation 
 of Liverpool v. Bolton and others, p. XIX. 
 
292 
 
 18th February, 1610, the two members for Liverpool, Mr. Brooke and 
 Mr. Hiding gave in their accounts, for their attendance in Parliament, 
 which were examined and passed. The sum paid to Mr. Brooke for his 
 services was ^28 14s.; and that paid to Mr. Riding £ 27 .* 
 
 A very different arrangement was made with the town-clerk and other 
 corporate officials. They were compelled to buy their offices ; and as those 
 who buy generally think that they have a right both to govern and to sell, 
 the corporation sometimes found that they had made very bad bargains. 
 Amongst the officers who bought their places, in the reign of King James, 
 were Mr. Peter Torbnck, who was appointed town-clerk on the 20th of 
 August, 1011, and who gave T50 worth of plate, “ marked with a 
 cormorant—the arms of the town,” for his place; Mr. Robert Brooke, 
 who was appointed to the same office two years after, on the death of 
 Mr. Torbuck, and wdio also gave T50 worth of plate ; and Mr. Robert 
 Dobson, who was appointed town-clerk in the year 1623, on the death of 
 Mr. Brooke. He gave T70 worth of plate for his place, but soon proved 
 himself to be a very bad bargain, even at that price. For some years 
 after Dobson had been appointed to office, the corporation records are 
 full of entries, as to his offences against the purse and the dignity of 
 the corporation. Soon after he had entered office, he was presented 
 by the grand jury, for the three offences of not entering the records ; 
 of taking precedence of the bailiffs, contrary to order; and of de¬ 
 manding excessive fees. He was tried by a Liverpool jury, and found 
 guilty of all the three offences; but he afterwards removed the case 
 into a higher court, and defeated the corporation. Emboldened by this 
 victory, he did not hesitate to defy and insult the mayor and burgesses. 
 Again he was presented, for saying that whoever was mayor of Liver¬ 
 pool he would be town-clerk ; for escaping out of the custody of the 
 bailiffs, to which he had been committed for that act of municipal sedition ; 
 and for describing the whole body of burgesses as a set of “ bashragges.” 
 He was about to be tried again in Liverpool for these enormities, when 
 he removed the case, by writ of certiorari, into another court. He was 
 again presented for this impeachment of Liverpool justice ; was sum¬ 
 moned to deliver up all records in his possession ; and was suspended 
 until he did so. He refused to deliver up the records, on which he 
 was committed to the custody of the bailiffs, from which he again 
 escaped. On this renewed defiance of the corporation, he was 
 
 * Corporation Records, ii, 740. 
 
293 
 
 dismissed from the council; and was summoned to surrender the seal 
 of the statute merchant and the book of entry, under penalty of 
 £40. In the hope of escaping from Dobson for ever, the corporation 
 passed “ a perpetual inhibition” against him, with penalties of £100 
 against any rqayor who should re-appoint him to office, and of £20 
 against any councillor who should vote for his re-appointment. But 
 Dobson was not yet conquered. He now became plaintiff, and compelled 
 the mayor and corporation to appear before the judges of assize at 
 Lancaster. There the battle was fought once more. At last it was 
 left to four of the first men in the county to decide all points in dispute, 
 the principal one being, whether Dobson was a much injured individual or 
 a public pest. After a full bearing, the referees decided—if not in words, 
 in effect—that Dobson was a nuisance, and that the corporation had 
 served him right. Then at length the attorney owned himself vanquished ; 
 and the great Dobson controversy was ended. As a security against 
 future Dobsons, the practice of selling the office of town-clerk for a round 
 sum was abolished, though a yearly payment of £0 13s. 4d. was still 
 exacted from the holder of it, towards the repairs of the church and school, 
 and a formal resolution was passed, declaring the office to be held during 
 good behaviour, and not for life.* 
 
 It appears from an entry in the corporation records, of the date of 
 June 18, 1G20, that the number of the burgesses of Liverpool was at that 
 time two hundred and forty-five. At the commencement of the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth the number had been only one hundred and thirty- 
 eight. 
 
 On the death of James the First the lordship of Liverpool passed into 
 the hands of his unfortunate son and successor, who was the last of the 
 English kings by whom it was held. He sold it, along with many hundred 
 other manors or lordships, to raise money, during his quarrels with his 
 parliament. 
 
 In the second year of his reign, (and previous to the sale,) King 
 Charles granted a charter to the borough, in which all the rights claimed 
 by the corporation were recited and confirmed. This charter opens with 
 a statement that Liverpool is “ an ancient and populous town, and the 
 ancient and only port of the county palatine of Lancaster.” It then 
 proceeds to state that the mayors, bailiffs, and burgesses have enjoyed 
 divers liberties, franchises, immunities, and pre-eminencies, either under 
 
 * Corporation Records. 
 
294 
 
 former grants from the crown, or by prescription and usage from time 
 immemorial; that they have besought the king that he would exhibit and 
 extend his royal favour and munificence to them, by making, reducing, 
 creating, and confirming them into one body corporate and politic, 
 whether that had or had not been done by their previous charters; that 
 the king, willing that thenceforward and for ever there should be one 
 manner of authority, for the keeping of the peace and the rule and govern¬ 
 ment of the people in the town of Liverpool, in order that the town might 
 be a place of peace and quiet, for the terror of evil-doers and the reward 
 of the good; and that the mayors, bailiffs, and burgesses, enjoying greater 
 liberties and privileges than their predecessors, might feel themselves more 
 strongly bound to the service of the king, has willed, appointed, and declared 
 that the town of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, is, and shall be 
 for ever, a free town, and that there shall be there a body corporate and 
 politic, known by the name of the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Liver¬ 
 pool ; that they shall have perpetual succession; the right of holding 
 and demising lands and tenements; of pleading and being impleaded ; of 
 having a common seal, and of changing that seal at their pleasure ; of 
 electing a mayor and two bailiffs; that the mayor, bailiff, and burgesses, 
 or the greater part of them, “ upon public summons thereof, to be given 
 for that purpose, assembled,” shall have power of making reasonable laws, 
 “ for the good rule and government of the town aforesaid, and of all and 
 singular the officers, ministers, and artificers, inhabitants and residents 
 whatsoever within the town aforesaid, and the liberties thereof for the 
 time being;” and of declaring “ in what manner and order the said 
 mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses, and all and singular the officers, ministers, 
 burgesses, artificers, inhabitants, and residents of the town aforesaid 
 should behave and conduct themselves, for the further public good, common 
 advantage, and good rule of the said town, and the victualling of the 
 same, and for all other things and causes whatsoever touching, or in any 
 manner concerning, the town aforesaid.” For the better carrying out of 
 these objects the charter proceeds to appoint .Tames Stanley, Lord Strange, 
 son and heir of “ our beloved and faithful cousin William, Earl of Derby,” 
 to be the first and modern mayor (esse primum et modernum majorem) 
 of Liverpool; and Richard Tarlton and James Sotherne to be the first 
 bailiffs.* According to this charter the constitution of the local govern¬ 
 ment was at least sufficiently democratic, and its powers sufficiently 
 
 * See a copy of the charter, which is excessively long and wordy, in the Appendix to 
 the Municipal Inquiry, xiii. 
 
295 
 
 extensive, for the governing body was the mayor, the bailiffs, and the 
 whole body of the burgesses, in public meeting assembled, and the only 
 limit to their power was that none of their acts should be contrary to 
 the laws of the land. Liverpool may be justly proud of having had for its 
 first modern mayor so great and good a man as James Lord Strange, 
 the “ great Lord Derby” of the civil war, the husband of Charlotte de 
 Tremouille, the heroine of Lathom. Lord Strange was also member for 
 the borough of Liverpool, in the parliament of 1625. 
 
 Two years subsequent to the granting of the charter, the necessities 
 of the king compelled him to sell the royal estates in Liverpool, together 
 with upwards of three hundred other manors belonging to the crown. At 
 that time the unfortunate, ill-advised, and headstrong king had quarrelled 
 with his parliament, beyond hope of reconciliation, and had entered on 
 the desperate enterprise of governing without a parliament, which he 
 continued for twelve years, and which in the end cost him both his crown 
 and his life. During this time the taxes of tonnage and poundage, 
 together with ship money, were raised without any legal authority, and 
 were consequently collected with great difficulty. Numerous monopolies 
 of the right of dealing in articles of commerce were sold to private 
 persons, to the great injury of commerce. Immense and ruinous fines 
 were imposed on the most frivolous pretences, for the purpose of raising 
 money. These and all other means of meeting the expenses of the 
 government being insufficient, it was found necessary to sell nearly all 
 that remained of the crown lands, and all the royal estates both in town 
 and country. A sale of several hundred manors, of which Liverpool 
 was one, took place in the fourth year of Charles’s reign, the par¬ 
 ticulars of which are recorded in a deed in the Rolls Chapel, as 
 follows: 
 
 The deed recites a loan of £222.897. 2s. made by the lord mayor, 
 commonalty, and citizens of London to Lord James, the then late king 
 of England; it then recites a contract between King Charles and the 
 lord mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, for a further loan of 
 £120,000, for which the king had granted certain manors, lands, tene¬ 
 ments, and hereditaments of the yearly value of £12,496. 6s. 6d. ; and it 
 also recites a contract for a further sum of £25,000 by the lord mayor, 
 commonalty, and citizens, in consideration of all which the king makes 
 over to trustees appointed by the citizens, namely, Edward Ditchfield, 
 John Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, their heirs and 
 assigns for ever, nearly three hundred manors and estates, and amongst 
 
296 
 
 them “ all that our town and lordship of Litherpooll, parcel of the honor 
 of Lancaster, in the aforesaid county of Lancaster, with every of their 
 rights, members, and appurtenances.” Amongst the articles enumerated, 
 as included in the sale of Liverpool, by the crown, are the ferry across the 
 Mersey; the market tolls; the perquisites of the courts ; all customs, 
 anchorage, and keytoll of the water of Mersey aforesaid, and within the 
 aforesaid town and lordship of Litherpooll,’ and all manorial, seig- 
 norial, and regal rights then existing. The only thing reserved to the 
 crown was a yearly sum of Tl4. 6s. 8d., which was at that time payable 
 by Sir Richard Molyneux, as the rent of the fee-farm.* 
 
 * Sale of the Lordship of Liverpool to the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London. 
 —The following is a fuller abstract of this important sale:—“ The King to all to whom, &c., 
 greeting. Reciting a loan, by the mayor and commonalty and citizens of London, to Lord 
 James, the then late king, and also to King Charles, after his coming to the crown, of 
 .£229,897. 2s. And reciting a contract, between King Charles and the mayor and common¬ 
 alty and citizens of London, for a further loan of £120,000, and for which the king had 
 granted certain manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, of the yearly value of 
 £12,496. 6s. 6d. And also reciting a contract for a further sum of £25,000, by the mayor 
 and commonalty and citizens, the said King Charles, in further fulfilment of the agreements 
 and premises in the said several contracts specified, and at the humble petition, nomina¬ 
 tion, and requisition of the said mayor and commonalty and citizens of London, did give 
 and grant to Edward Ditchfield, John Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, 
 their heirs and assigns, for ever, with other manors, lands, &c. All that our town and 
 lordship of Litherpooll, parcel of the honor of Lancaster, in the aforesaid county of Lancas¬ 
 ter, with every of their rights, members, and appurtenances. And all that boat and passage 
 over the water of Mersey there, and the butchers’ shambles in the said town of Litherpooll. 
 And also all stallage and tolls of the market and fairs, with the perquisites of courts in 
 Litherpooll aforesaid. And all customs, anchorage, and keytowle, of the water of Mersey 
 aforesaid, and within the aforesaid town, or lordship of Litherpooll aforesaid, then or late 
 in the tenure or occupation of Richard Molyneux, knight, or his assigns, by a particular 
 thereof mentioned to have been of the yearly rent or value of £14. 6s. 8d., and to have 
 been parcel of the lands and possessions of the ancient duchy of Lancaster. And also all 
 and singular farms, messuages, cottages, mills, houses, edifices, &c., &c., rivers, rivulets, 
 waters, watercourses, fisheries, fishings, stallage, tolls, suit, soc, mulets, fines, amerciaments, 
 courts’ leet, and views of frankpledge, hundred courts and leets, perquisites and profits, and 
 all things which to courts of hundred, leet, and view of frankpledge, pertain, goods and 
 chatties, waived goods and chatties of felons, &c., &c., fairs and markets, issues of courts 
 of piepowder, stallage, tolls, customs, pickage, emoluments, immunities, acquittances and 
 hereditaments whatsoever, with all and singular their rights, members, and appurtenances, 
 and the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, &c., &c. And the said King 
 Charles did further grant to the aforenamed Edward Ditchfield, John Heighlord, Hum¬ 
 phrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, their heirs and assigns, that they, then’ heirs and assigns, 
 should henceforth for ever have, hold, and enjoy, So many such like the same such and 
 the like courts leet, views of frankpledge, law days, assize and assay of bread and wine, and 
 all goods and chatties, waived estrays, goods and chatties of felons and fugatives, felons, of 
 themselves, and put in execution, outlaws and convicts, and other felons whatsoever, 
 deodands, escheats, reliefs, heriots, free warren, hawking, hunting, and all other rights, 
 jurisdictions, franchises, liberties, privileges, customs, immuniments, acquittances, profits, 
 commodities, advantages, emoluments, and hereditaments whatsoever, so many as much as 
 the like, and which, and as fully, freely, and entirely, and in as ample a manner and form 
 as any duke of Lancaster, or any abbot or prior, abbess or prioress, of any then late monas¬ 
 tery, abbey, priory, or hospital, or any other, or any others, the aforesaid castles, lordships, 
 manors, messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and other the premises by the 
 now abstracting indenture of grant before granted, or mentioned to be granted, or in any 
 parcel thereof ever having, possessing, or, being seized thereof, ever had held, used, or 
 enjoyed, in the premises by the now abstracting indenture of grant before granted, or 
 mentioned to be granted, or in any parcel thereof, by reason or pretext of any charter, gift, 
 grant, or confirmation, or by reason of any letters patent by the said King Charles, or by 
 
297 
 
 The object of the Londoners, in accepting of this mass of landed 
 property in payment of their loans to the king, was to turn it into money. 
 This they did, so far as Liverpool was concerned, about four years after¬ 
 wards, by selling the town, manor, and lordship to the Light Hon. 
 Richard Lord Molyneux, Viscount Maryborough, the representative of the 
 family which had held the fee farm under the crown since the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth. The deed of sale to Lord Molyneux was eni'olled in 
 Chancery, on the 29th of January, 1635. By this purchase the Molyneuxes 
 became possessors of all the manorial, seignorial, and regal rights in the 
 borough of Liverpool, subject only to a fixed yearly payment of 
 a£l4. 6s. 8d. to the crown. That reserved rent they also subsequently 
 bought, and thus became absolute possessors of the freehold estate.* 
 The price paid to the Londoners by Lord Molyneux was four hundred 
 and fifty pounds. 
 
 any of his progenitors or ancestors, then late kings or queens of England, theretofore had 
 made, granted, or confirmed, by reason or by pretext of any act or acts of parliament, or by 
 reason or by pretext of any lawful prescription, use, or custom theretofore had, or used, or 
 otherwise, by any lawful manner, right, or title, and as fully, freely, and entirely, and in as 
 ample manner and form as the said King Charles, or any of his progenitors or ancestors, 
 then late kings or queens of England, the premises, by the now abstracting indenture of 
 grant before granted, or any parcel thereof, had used or enjoyed, or ought to have had, used, 
 or enjoyed. And the said King Charles, for his heirs and successors, did further grant to 
 the aforenamed Edward Ditchfield and John Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke and Francis 
 Mosse, their heirs and assigns, All and singular the aforesaid lordships, manors, messu¬ 
 ages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and other the premises by the now abstracting 
 indenture of grant, before granted or mentioned to be granted, and every parcel thereof, 
 with every their rights, members, and appurtenances, as fully, freely, and entirely, and in 
 as ample manner and form as all and singular the same premises, and every parcel thereof, 
 to the said King Charles’ hands, or to the hands of any of his progenitors or ancestors, 
 then late kings or queens of England, or to the hands of any or either of them by reason 
 or pretext of any dissolution, suppression, surrender, or release of any late monastery, abbey, 
 or priory, or by reason of any act of parliament, or acts of parliament, or by reason of any 
 exchange or acquirement, or of any surrender, gift, or grant, or by reason of any attainder 
 or forfeiture, or by reason of escheat, or by any other lawful manner, right or title, coming, 
 or ought to have come, or in the said King Charles’ hands then being or ought to have 
 been, except, however, always and out of the now abstracting indenture of grant to the said 
 King Charles, his heirs and successors, always reserved all forests, and chaces, and parks, 
 then used and filled with deer, and all knights’ fees, wards, and marriages, and all advow- 
 sons, donations, free dispositions, and rights of patronage, of all and singular rectories, 
 churches, and vicarages, chapels, and ecclesiastical benefices whatsoever within the premises 
 before granted, or any parcel thereof, or to the premises, or any or either of them, belong¬ 
 ing, pertaining, incident, appendant, or incumbent; Also, except all mines of gold and silver 
 witbin or upon the premises, being or to be found, and all prerogatives, to the same mines 
 belonging. To hold the aforesaid town of Litherpooll by the now abstracting indenture of 
 grant, before granted, as parcel of the aforesaid duchy gf Laneastei>or to the. same duchy 
 mentioned to be annexed, with every their rights, members, and appurtenances, to the said 
 King Charles, his heirs or successors, as of the manor of Enfield, in the county of Middle¬ 
 sex, by fealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite nor by military service, in 
 fee farm for ever. By and under payment of the yearly rent to the said King Charles, his 
 heirs and successors, for and on account of the aforesaid lordship and town of Litlierpoole, 
 in the same county, with the appurtenances of J.T4. Os. 8d., to be paid at the times and in 
 the manner therein-mentioned. Executed by King Charles at Canterbury.” 
 
 » Sale by the Londoners to Lord Molyneux _The following is an abstract of the deed 
 
 of conveyance to Lord Molyneux:—“ By indenture of bargain and sale made between the 
 said Edward Ditchfield, John Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, of the one 
 part, and the Right Honourable Richard Lord Molyneux, Viscount Maryborough, Sir Thomas 
 
 2 Q 
 
298 
 
 In the year 1635 the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty of Liverpool 
 received a writ ordering them to raise a certain sum towards the tax of ship- 
 money. Similar demands were made in all parts of the kingdom, one of 
 which led to the memorable trial, in which John Hampden resisted the 
 claims of the crown. In Liverpool many of the inhabitants refused to 
 pay this illegal tax, but only two of the leading men in the town sup¬ 
 ported them. These two were John Moore, of Bank Hall, afterwards 
 Colonel Moore, in the civil war, and one of the judges of the king; and 
 Edward Nicholson. The following account of the transaction is taken 
 from the Corporation Records for the year 1634 : 
 
 “Robt. Williamson, gent., maior, 1634. Febr. the 2 do 1634. It is 
 consented, ordered and agreed upon, by Robt. Willmson, gen., maior, 
 John Moore, esq., Raph Seacome, Willm Banister, John Walker, and 
 John Willmson, aid 1 ', the bailives, and the most pte of the comonalty of 
 this town, That, whereas by virtue of his writt for levyinge of a certaine 
 some of money, towards the erectinge and furnishinge of a ship of 400 
 tuns, for his maties’ service, the said m r maior, with the assente of the 
 aldermen and others of the same towne, hath assessed and imposed a 
 competent some of money for that purpose, upon sevrall inhabitants and 
 others with in the p’cinte aforesaid, and for that purpose hath directed 
 
 AValmesley, of Dukenaugh, in the county of Lancaster, knight, William Fazakerley, of Kirby, 
 in the said county of Lancaster, gentleman, and John Nutter, of Pendle, in the said county 
 of Lancaster, of the other part. It is witnessed that the aforesaid Edward Ditchfield, John 
 Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, by the appointment and direction of the 
 aldermen and commonalty of the city of London, as well in consideration of 10s. to the said 
 John Humphrey and Francis, by the aforesaid Thomas AValmesley, William Fazakerley, and 
 Thomas Nutter, paid, as in consideration of four hundred and fifty pounds by the said 
 Richard Lord Molyneux, paid to the hands of Robert Bateman, then chamberlain of the 
 said city of London, to the use of the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens, did grant, bar¬ 
 gain, sell, and confirm to the aforesaid Sir Thomas AValmesley, AVilliam Fazakerley, and 
 John Nutter, their heirs and assigns, All that the town and lordship of Litherpoole, parcel 
 of the duchy of Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster, with all their rights, members, and 
 appurtenances. And all that ferry and passage over the water of Mersey there. And 
 the butchers’ shambles in the said town of Litherpoole. And also all the stallage 
 and tolls of the markets and fairs, and perquisites of courts in Litherpoole aforesaid. 
 And all customs, anchorage, and keytowle of the water of Mersey aforesaid, and within the 
 aforesaid town or lordship of Litherpoole aforesaid, then or late in the tenure or occupation 
 of Sir Richard Molyneux, knight, or his assigns, by the particular thereof mentioned to be 
 of the yearly rent or value of 414. Cs. 8d., and to be parcel of the ancient lands and posses¬ 
 sions of the duchy of Lancaster, and the reversion and reversions, remainder and remain¬ 
 ders, and the rents and yearly priftits of all and singular the same premises and of every 
 parcel thereof, as fully, freely, and entirely, and in as ample manner and form as the said 
 King Charles, by his letters patent, sealed as well with his great seal of England as the 
 seal of the duchy of Lancaster, and the seal of the county palatine of Lancaster, bearing 
 date the 9th day of September, 1029, gave and granted the premises, or any of them, to the 
 aforesaid Edward Ditchfield, John Heighlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse, and 
 their heirs, in fee farm, except as in the said letters patent is excepted. To hold unto and 
 to the only and proper use of the said Sir Thomas AValmsley, AVilliam Fazakerley, and 
 John Nutter, their heirs and assigns, in fee farm for ever, subject to the yearly rent of 
 444. Os. 8d., which, by the aforesaid letters patent, was reserved for the aforesaid town and 
 lordship of Litherpoole, with the appurtenances at the time and in the manner therein 
 mentioned. Duly executed. Inrolled in Chancery, twenty-ninth day of January, 1635.” 
 
299 
 
 sevrall warrantes to the bailives and other offic s of this town, for the 
 levyinge and collectinge the sevrall somes, upon the sevrall prtyes assessed 
 upon them, and that sevrall of the pties aforesaid assessed doe refuse to 
 pay the moneys imposed upon them, or suffer distresse against them, hut 
 doth menace the said bailives with suite, if they levy the same. It is, 
 therefore, ordered and concluded by the house aforesaid, that if any suite 
 or trouble bee brought against the said maior, or any other officer, by 
 executinge his warrant, that defence thereof shall bee made at the genrall 
 cost of the whole towne, as well for the fees and cliardgesin suite, as other 
 necessary cliardges in goinge or rydeing thereaboute. All the house 
 consented, the aforesaid John Moore, esquire, and Edward Nicolson, 
 excepted.”* 
 
 In 1638 the determination of Archbishop Laud to force the episcopal 
 form of church government on the people of Scotland led to an insur¬ 
 rection in that country, which was soon followed by an invasion of the 
 northern counties of England. There was nothing to resist it except a 
 mutinous militia, which sympathized with the Scots ; and even that force 
 the king had no means of paying. In this dilemma he was again compelled 
 to call his parliament together, after a twelve years’ cessation of parlia¬ 
 mentary government. It would have been well for him if he had acted 
 on the advice of that parliament, for it was composed of moderate men, 
 disposed to forgive the past, if rendered secure for the future. The mem¬ 
 bers returned to the short parliament, from Liverpool, were Lord Cranfield 
 and John Holcroft, both decided opponents of the court, yet not altoge¬ 
 ther implacable against it. The parliament only lasted a few months, 
 having been hastily dissolved, to the unfeigned regret of moderate men, 
 and the undisguised satisfaction of sterner and more hostile spirits. 
 Another election took place in the same year, when John Moore was 
 returned for Liverpool, on the parliamentary interest; and Sir Kiehard 
 Wynn, on that of the court. No two men could be more opposed than 
 these. Moore was a bold, stern, and bitter enemy of the court, and willing 
 to go all lengths in his opposition to it. Wynn was easy, complying, and 
 timid, opposed in his heart to the fiercer opinions of his colleague, but 
 never (except in the case of Strafford’s trial) daring to beak with the 
 
 * 1039.—The following rates show the proportion which Liverpool bore at this time to 
 “ the serveral towns in the parish:—“Lancashire. Hereafter followeth the calender for 
 muster and makinge of souldiers, eyther men or money w th in the couutie of Lane 1 - When 
 the countie makes their number, men or money, 200, then Darbie makes their same men 
 or money £48 or men. Then Walton prish payes £4 or men, Then the severall townes in 
 the prish paie as followeth: Walton and Fa/.akcrly, 13s. 4d.; Kirkby and Formbie, 13s. 4d.; 
 Barbie, 2s. 8d.; Liverpoole, 17s. 9d.; Kirkdale, 3s. 4d.; Bootle and Lineker, 3s. 4d.; Ever- 
 ton, 2s. 2d.” 
 
300 
 
 majority. Possibly bis zeal for tlie crown may have been cooled by the fact 
 of his having been summoned to advance a sum of ^3,000 to the king, as 
 portion of a forced loan raised in tlie year in which the long parliament 
 assembled.* 
 
 In the spring of 1642 both the king and the parliament came to the 
 conclusion that the sword alone could decide the controversy between 
 them, and from that time both of them began to prepare for the conflict. 
 The king had left London on the 10 th of January, never to return, except 
 as a prisoner.f Early in March he proceeded northwards, and reached 
 York, the northern capital of the kingdom, on the 19th day of that month. 
 He there called together the principal noblemen and gentlemen of the 
 royalist party, amongst whom were James Stanley, Lord Strange, 
 afterwards Earl of Derby, the Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, 
 Cheshire, and North Wales, and the wealthiest and most powerful 
 noblemen in the kingdom; Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, then 
 the possessor of those great estates in Yorkshire, Cumberland, and 
 Westmoreland, which have since descended to the Dukes of Devonshire, 
 and the Earls of Tlianet; William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, 
 afterwards the commander of the king’s northern army ; and Robert 
 Bertie, Earl of Lindsay, a Lincolnshire nobleman of great influence 
 and courage, to whom the king entrusted the nominal command of the 
 army which fought at Edge-hill. With the assistance of these and other 
 councillors he arranged his plans of resistance to the parliament, and 
 issued commissions of array, calling on his loyal subjects, in all parts of 
 the kingdom, to join the royal standard. Armed with this authority. 
 Lord Strange returned to Lancashire, and began to arm the tenants 
 on his great estates, in defence of the crown. His neighbours and friends, 
 Richard, Lord Molyneux, and Caryl Molyneux, who succeeded his 
 brother, were equally zealous in the same cause, and each raised a 
 regiment, which he commanded in person. Animated by the example 
 of these noblemen, a large portion of the Lancashire gentry also 
 prepared to risk everything for the royal cause. Amongst them were 
 Colonel Tyldesley, of Myerscougli, afterwards Sir Thomas Tyldesley, an 
 officer equally distinguished for his skill and courage, who defended 
 Liverpool in the first siege which it sustained during this war; and also 
 the heads of the old Lancashire families of Blundell, of Crosby; 
 Chisenhale, of Chisenhale; De Trafford, of Trafford; Ratcliffe, of 
 
 * The Fairfax Correspondence, i. 402. 
 t Guizot’s History of the English Kevolution, 137. 
 
301 
 
 Ordsall; Gerard, of Bryn ; Talbot, of Salusbury ; and Gridlington, of 
 Thurland Castle. By the united influence of these families so strong 
 a force was organized in the four western hundreds of Lancashire, that 
 Lord Strange was induced to urge the king to set up the royal standard 
 at Warrington, within fifteen miles of Liverpool; hut this advice, like 
 much other excellent advice from the same quarter, was rejected.* * * § 
 
 No sooner had Charles left London than the parliament, which had 
 previously endeavoured to obtain the command of the militia, with the 
 assent of the king, passed an ordinance, hy which it assumed the command 
 of that force on its own authority.f It had previously dismissed the lord- 
 lieutenants of counties who were supposed to he favourable to the king, and 
 had appointed others in their places who were known to be favourable to 
 the parliament. One of the first persons dismissed by parliament was 
 Lord Strange; and immediately afterwards the parliament appointed 
 Philip Lord Wharton to the lord-lieutenancy of Lancashire.^ The new 
 lord-lieutenant was more remarkable for his zeal, which had exposed him 
 to be tried by court-martial, by order of Lord Strafford, in the Scottish 
 war, than for his courage and influence.§ Nevertheless his appointment 
 was eagerly accepted by the parliamentary party in Lancashire, the leading 
 men of which received commissions of deputy-lieutenants and commands 
 of regiments, on the authority of Lord Wharton, and soon succeeded in 
 bringing together a large force for the Parliament. Amongst the deputy- 
 lieutenants thus appointed were John Moore, of Bank Hall, Kirkdale, 
 and of the Old Hall, Liverpool, one of the members for that town, who 
 has been already mentioned as having refused to pay ship-money; Ralph 
 Ashton, of Middleton, one of the members for the county; Alexander 
 Rigby, one of the members for Wigan; Richard Shuttleworth, one of the 
 members for Preston ; Sir Ralph Ashton, of Whalley ; Sir William Bre- 
 reton, of Honford, Cheshire ; Sir George Booth, of Dunham Massey and 
 Warrington; Sir Thomas Stanley, of Bickerstaff; John Bradshaw, of 
 Bradshaw; Thomas Birch, of Birch; Thomas Standish, of Duxbury; 
 
 * “Warrington was, unfortunately for the king, also rejected."_£hof Warburton's Prince 
 Rupert and the Cavaliers, i. 316. 
 
 t Guizot’s History of the English Revolution, 148. 
 
 | Dr. Ormrod’s Civil W ar Tracts of Lancashire, vol. 2 of Clietham Society’s publications, 2. 
 
 § “ Petitions from several counties soon arrived, entreating the king to conclude a 
 peace. Lords Wharton and Howard ventured to present one themselves. Strafford caused 
 them to be arrested, convoked a court-martial, and demanded that they should be shot at 
 the head of the army, as abettors of revolt. The court remained silent; at length Hamilton 
 spoke: ‘ My lord, said he to Strafford, ‘when this sentence of yours is pronounced, are you 
 sure of the soldiers .’ Strafford, as if struck by a sudden revelation, turned away his head 
 shudderiugly, and made no reply.”_<?i/izof's History of the English Revolution, 82, 
 
302 
 
 Nicholas Starkie, of Huntroyd ; Edward Hopwood, of Hopwood ; Peter 
 Egerton, of Shaw, in Flixton; Robert Hide, of Denton; and John 
 Holland, of Heaton. Amongst those who were appointed colonels of 
 regiments, by Lord Wharton, were Ralph Ashton, of Middleton, afterwards 
 colonel-general or commander of the Lancashire forces, who besieged 
 Liverpool in the year 1G43 ; John Moore, who defended the town against 
 Prince Rupert in the following year, and afterwards assisted to blockade 
 it for the parliament; John Holland, of Heaton, who commanded the 
 garrison of Manchester; Thomas Eirch, of Birch, who held the office of 
 governor of Liverpool under the parliament; Alexander Rigby, who 
 defended Bolton against Prince Rupert; and Richard, Uctred, Nicholas, 
 and William Shuttleworth, four brothers, who commanded in the district 
 about Preston, and all proved themselves good soldiers. It will be 
 seen that the landed gentry of the county were greatly divided in opinion. 
 The mass of the population was equally so. In the four western hun¬ 
 dreds of West Derby, Leyland, Amounderness, and Lonsdale, which were 
 chiefly agricultural, the royalists had the preponderance, and hence 
 Liverpool (which was encircled by the Stanley and Molyneux estates) 
 fell into the hands of the royalists at the beginning of the war, as did also 
 Warrington, Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster. In the two eastern hundreds 
 of Salford and Blackburn, in which a large portion of the population 
 was already engaged in manufactures, the parliamentary preponderance 
 was equally decided. Manchester, which was never taken by the royalists 
 during the whole course of the war, was the head-quarters of the party; 
 “ the London of the north.”* There the war began ; there the whole 
 population of the surrounding districts assembled, whenever the tocsin— 
 the church-bells rung backward!—gave notice of the approach of the 
 enemy ; and thence issued those hardy bands, which not only overran and 
 conquered the four western hundreds of the county, but which more than 
 once pushed into Yorkshire and Cheshire, assisting Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 in the West Riding, and Sir William Brereton in the valley of the Weaver. 
 
 The first trial of the strength of the partizans of the royal and the 
 parliamentary lieutenancies, in Lancashire, took place on Preston Moor, 
 on the 20th June, 1G42.J On that day Sir John Gridlington, the high 
 
 * “ Manchester is the very London of these parts, the liver that sends hlood into all 
 the countries thereabouts, and until it he cleansed or obstructed, I cannot imagine there 
 can he any safety in this neighbourhood. —Letter of Arthur Trevor to the Marquis of Ormonde, 
 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, December 21, 1642. 
 
 + Civil War Tracts, 221. 
 
 I Letter of Alexander Rigby to the Speaker, in Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 325. 
 
303 
 
 sheriff of the county, acting under instructions from Lord Strange, and 
 also under direct orders from the king at York, called the county together, 
 for the purpose of opening the royal commission of array. Hearing of 
 his intention, two of the parliamentary colonels, Alexander Rigby and 
 Richard Shuttleworth, proceeded to the moor, and warned the multitude 
 that the array was unlawful, according to the ordinance of parliament. 
 On this a violent scene of confusion arose. The royalist leaders called 
 on all who were for the king to join them, and rode round the moor, 
 with loud shouts of “ For the king, for the king ! The partizans of the 
 parliament also gathered round Rigby and Shuttleworth, in great strength. 
 The assembly broke up in much confusion, but without bloodshed. 
 Each party considering this an open challenge, began to prepare for the 
 coming civil war with redoubled earnestness. Lord Strange, in a short 
 time, got together 3,000 men, and occupied and fortified Liverpool, 
 Warrington, Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster. He also seized on the 
 magazines of powder and arms in those places.* That of Liverpool 
 contained thirty barrels of gunpowder and a large quantity of match—for 
 as yet matchlocks, not firelocks, were commonly used. Having thus 
 secured the hundreds of West Derby, Leyland, Amounderness, and 
 Lonsdale, he called together the array at Bury, in Salford hundred, 
 and having made a considerable display of strength, proceeded to 
 Manchester, to demand the surrender of the parliamentary magazine in 
 that town.f The people of Manchester were much divided. There was 
 a strong royalist party in the town, but the parliamentary party was 
 bolder, if not more numerous, and refused to give up the magazine. 
 Whilst matters were protracted by discussion, Lord Strange was invited 
 to a public dinner in the town, by his friends there. He went, accom¬ 
 panied by a considerable number of his armed followers. Scarcely 
 was he seated at table when the drums of the parliamentary party began 
 to sound. Lord Strange and his followers succeeded in getting on 
 horseback with some difficulty; and, when mounted, made so formidable 
 an appearance, that Colonel Birch, the parliamentary commander, was 
 compelled to retire, though his party soon rallied. As Lord Strange was 
 leaving the town, an affray took place, in which Richard Percival, “ a 
 linen-webster,” was killed by one of his armed followers. This un¬ 
 fortunate weaver is supposed to have been one of the first, if not the 
 
 * Letters from the Committees in several Counties to the Hon. William Lenthall, Esq., 
 
 Speaker of the House of Commons, read in both Houses of Parliament, June 127, l(i±2_ 
 
 Civil War Tracts, xvi. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
304 
 
 first man killed in this war, in which tens of thousands of lives were 
 afterwards sacrificed, and by which a king was brought to the block,* 
 This affray occurred on the evening of the 15th July, 1642. In 
 consequence of these transactions, the House of Commons ordered Lord 
 Strange to he impeached for high treason. It also ordered the sum of 
 Tl 6,000 to he raised on the public faith; and commanded that Sir John 
 Seaton, a Scotch officer of merit, should go down to strengthen the 
 Manchester garrison.f But men and money came in very slowly, and 
 Seaton did not reach Manchester until the town had passed through a 
 much more serious trial. 
 
 On the 25th September Lord Strange again appeared before Man¬ 
 chester, hut this time at the head of an army of 2,000 or 3,000 men, 
 and with six or seven pieces of cannon. In the interval between Lord 
 Strange’s first and second visit the town had been fortified against a 
 sudden assault, chiefly by the exertions of a German engineer, named 
 Bosworm. These fortifications were not very formidable, consisting 
 chiefly of chains and posts at the ends of the streets ; but the town was 
 full of armed men, headed by the parliamentary commanders, Holland, 
 Ashton, Egerton, Duckinfield, Arden, Butterworth, Booth, Hide, and 
 Bradshaw. On the 26th Lord Strange began to cannonade the town, 
 hut his guns were ill served, and the only result of his firing was the death 
 of a hoy, who was killed as he was looking at the action from a stile. 
 The parliamentary soldiers became holder every day. The tenants of 
 Colonel Ashton were especially remarkable for their courage ; and those 
 of Captain Bradshaw, when summoned to give up their arms, set up a 
 general shout, that they would only part with their arms together with 
 their lives.f During the siege, on the 30th September, Lord Strange 
 became Earl of Derby, by the death of his father, Earl William. All his 
 efforts to take the town failed, and the king having determined to march 
 southwards, to fight the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Derby received 
 positive orders to join him with all his forces. On this the earl broke up 
 the siege on the 1st of October, andjoined the king at Shrewsbury, where 
 he made over his forces to the king, namely, three regiments of infantry, 
 
 * “ It is a difficult and unprofitable task to discover where the first blood was shed. By 
 some it was said to have been in Somersetshire, by Sir John Stowell; by others, in Man¬ 
 chester, by Lord Strange, where one Richard Percival, a linen-webster, was lulled ; by others 
 to have been in Yorkshire, by a body of Northumberland Royal Horse,— Memoirs of Prince 
 Rupert and the Cavaliers, h\j Eliot Warburton, i., 293. 
 
 + Parliamentary Commission for raising money for defence of Lancashire, and sending 
 down Colonel John Seaton.— Civil War Tracts, 41. 
 
 J Siege of Manchester. Civil War Tracts, 333. 
 
305 
 
 and three squadrons of cavalry.* These forces were incorporated with 
 the royal army, marched with the king, and on the 23rd of the same 
 month took part in the battle of Edge-hill, after which they advanced 
 towards London. 
 
 The Earl of Derby, who was no favourite with the courtiers of the 
 king, nor with the king himself, was sent back to Lancashire, to raise 
 fresh forces, and to carry on the war against the Lancashire parliamentary 
 party as he best could. He immediately set about raising another army, 
 but before he could give his new levies any organization, he was defeated at 
 Chowbent, and afterwards at Lowton Common, near Leigh, by the 
 Manchester bands, on the 27th of November.! About the same time the 
 royalists of the Blackburn hundred were defeated by the clubmen of the 
 district;! and Sir Gilbert Hoghton, of Hoghton, was also defeated by 
 Colonels Shuttleworth and Starkie, on Hinfield Moor.§ Emboldened 
 by these successes, the parliamentary forces advanced into the West Derby 
 hundred ; but they had miscalculated their strength, for the Earl of 
 Derby’s forces at Wigan fell suddenly upon them at Hindley,|| put them 
 to the route, and drove them back to Manchester. On the 10th of 
 December the royalists of the county assembled at Preston, and formed 
 a council of royalist gentlemen, to assist the Earl of Derby in carrying 
 on the war. At the close of the year the four western hundreds, 
 including the towns of Liverpool, Warrington, Wigan, Preston, and 
 Lancaster, were still in the hands of the royalists; whilst the two eastern 
 hundreds of Salford and Blackburn, with the towns of Manchester, Bolton, 
 Blackburn, and Rochdale, were in the hands of the parliamentary forces. 
 
 In the course of the winter the parliamentary forces at Manchester 
 were reinforced by a regiment under the command of Sir John Seaton ; 
 and the Earl of Derby was reinforced by Lord Molyneux and his gallant 
 regiment, which had distinguished itself at the siege of Reading and the 
 storming of Brentford. The parliamentary forces were the first to take 
 the field. On the 9tli of February they appeared before Preston, and 
 falling boldly on the works of the royalists, they carried them, and captured 
 the town.H Five days afterwards Captain Starkie captured Hoghton 
 Tower, where he and nearly a hundred of his men were killed by the 
 blowing up of the powder magazine.** On the 17th Colonel Birch took 
 Lancaster Castle,ft with twenty-four pieces of brass cannon, which had 
 
 * Statement of the Earl of Derby, in Peck’s Curiosa Desiderata, 
 t Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 65 and 125. 
 
 J Pnd, 125. § Ibid, 66. || Ibid, 66. U Ibid, 71, 76. *« Ibid, SO. u Ibid, R. 
 
 2 R 
 
306 
 
 been seized on board a Spanish ship. On the 16th of February the 
 Earl of Derby took the field. Appearing suddenly before Bolton, he 
 attempted to take the town by assault; but the garrison and inhabitants 
 were ready to receive him, and he was repulsed with loss.* On the 18th 
 of March he appeared before Lancaster, stormed and captured the town, 
 but could not get possession of the castle.f On the 21st of the same 
 month Lord Derby captured Preston, and took the parliamentary maga¬ 
 zine ; and about the same time the royalist cavalry gained a victory over 
 the parliamentary dragoons.^ Whilst the Earl of Derby was thus rapidly 
 retrieving the royal affairs, Lord Molyneux received positive orders from 
 the king to join the royal head-quarters with his regiment. Having no 
 choice in the matter he obeyed, and thus the Earl of Derby was deprived 
 of his best forces, and left to fight out the battle with his raw levies. 
 From this time he lost ground rapidly. On the 22d of March he was 
 repulsed in another attack on Bolton :§ and on the Easter eve, April 1, 
 the royalist garrison of Wigan was surprised, and that “ impregnable 
 piece” was taken. || A few days afterwards the royalists had a momentary 
 gleam of success, having repulsed the Lancashire and the Cheshire forces, 
 under Sir William Brereton, in an attack on Warrington.il Fifteen days 
 later the Earl of Derby in person was defeated by Colonel-General Ashton, 
 at Whalley,** and two days after that defeat Tyldesley and the royalists 
 were repulsed from Wigan, by the same officer. On this the Earl of 
 Derby retired to Lathom-house; and Colonel Tyldesley fell back, with 
 1,600 men, on Liverpool. Colonel Ashton followed on the heels of Col. 
 Tyldesley, stormed the outworks, got possession of the principal street and 
 the church, and shut up the royalists in the castle. The royalists, 
 finding that the town was lost, and that they were about to be cannonaded 
 from the tower of the church, proposed the following terms :—1st, That 
 the town should be surrendered to Colonel Ashton. 2d, That the 
 royalists should be allowed to carry away their arms, ammunition, and 
 baggage. And 3d, That, without pursuit or interruption of the parlia- 
 
 * Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 81. + Ibid, 81. J Ibid, 85, 86. § Ibid, 133. 
 
 || The following letter from the noble-spirited Charlotte de Tremouille, Countess of 
 Derby, to Prince Rupert, announces this misfortune: 
 
 “ The Countess of Derby to Prince Rupert.— My Lord,—I have just received the 
 disastrous news of the loss of Wigan, six miles from this place. It has held out only two 
 hours, having been panic-struck. My husband was twelve miles off, and before he was 
 ready to succour it, it was surrendered. In the name of God, my lord, take pity on us ; and 
 if you appear you can conquer it easily, and with much honour to your highness. I do not 
 know what I say; hut have pity on my husband, my children, and me, who are lost for ever, 
 if God and your highness do not take pity on us. I am, my lord, your very humble and 
 obedient servant, C. de la Tremaille. 
 
 “ At Ladhom, April 1, 1043.” 
 
 t Civil War Tracts, 95. 
 
 ** Ibid. 95. 
 
307 
 
 mentary forces, they should march to Wigan, or any other place in the 
 county. These terms were instantly rejected by Colonel Ashton, who at 
 once assaulted the royalists, put them to the route, and drove them out 
 of town, with a loss of 300 prisoners, 80 killed, and 10 guns. Thus, 
 for the first time from the commencement of the civil war, Liverpool passed 
 into the hands of the parliamentary forces. Colonel John Moore was 
 appointed commander of the town, and new and stronger works were 
 constructed, under the superintendence of Colonel Rosworm, the German 
 engineer who had fortified Manchester.* About the 20th June Colonel 
 Ashton captured the castles of Hornby and Thurland, in the north of 
 Lancashire, and drove the scattered remnants of the royalists out of 
 the county.f They proceeded to join the queen at York, and accompanied 
 her to the king, in Warwickshire. Colonel Tyldesley headed the desperate 
 charge of cavalry across the bridge of thirty-six arches, at Burton-on- 
 Trent, by which the passage was opened to the queen. He was knighted 
 for his bravery. He was the chevalier without fear and without reproach, 
 of the Lancashire royalists. Thus for the time the royal cause w r as 
 entirely lost in Lancashire. 
 
 The parliamentary forces of Lancashire, having gained complete pos¬ 
 session of the county, proceeded to render assistance to the Yorkshire forces 
 under Sir Thomas Fairfax. At this time they were contending with great 
 courage hut with indifferent success, against the army of the northern 
 royalists, eight thousand strong, commanded by the Marquis of New¬ 
 castle. They were drawn chiefly from the towns of Leeds, Halifax, and 
 Bradford, and the manufacturing villages around them. J A large body of 
 Lancashire musqueteers were present with the Fairfaxes at the battle of 
 Adwalton Moor, but, in spite of their assistance, they were thoroughly 
 beaten by Newcastle, and Lord Fairfax and his son were compelled to 
 take refuge within the walls of Hull. The marquis followed the Lanca¬ 
 shire troops as far as Bradford, from which town he sent a summons to 
 the garrison of Manchester, to surrender. § This summons was indig¬ 
 nantly rejected, and Colonel Rosworm was ordered to fortify the heights of 
 Blackstone Edge. This he did so effectually that the marquis’s troops 
 were defeated in an attempt to pass the hills. || Newcastle, whose com¬ 
 mand extended from the Scotch borders to the Trent, was soon after drawn 
 
 » Rosworm’s “ Good service hitherto ill rewarded,” in Civil War Tracts, 228. 
 
 + Civil War Tracts, 99. 
 
 } “ The parishes of Leeds, Halifax, and Bradford, and some other small clothing towns 
 adjacent, being the only well affected people of the county .”—Letter of Lord Fairfax , in 
 Bell's Fairfax Correspondence , i., 28., Civil Wars. 
 
 § Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 143 || Ibid, 145. 
 
308 
 
 away, by the hope of capturing the rich and populous town and port of Hull. 
 Thus Lancashire was freed from all danger of attack from that quarter. 
 
 The capture of Liverpool hy the parliamentary forces was a serious 
 blow to the royal cause, as it gave parliament and its partizans the power 
 of fitting out vessels of war in the Mersey, and of thus interrupting the 
 communication with Ireland, whence the lord-lieutenant of the king, the 
 Marquis of Ormonde, was preparing to send supplies and reinforcements 
 to the royal party. Several frigates, or small vessels, were fitted out at 
 Liverpool, one of them hy Colonel John Moore. A number of Liverpool 
 frigates, under the command of Captain Danks, cruized in the Irish 
 Channel, sometimes blockading Dublin, and cutting off the supplies 
 of provisions, coals, and other necessaries, which that city previously 
 obtained from England.* These cruizers also added much to the difficulty 
 of sending over reinforcements to England. So great was the inconveni¬ 
 ence produced by the Liverpool squadron that the Marquis of Ormonde 
 strongly urged the royalists in Chester to attack Liverpool by sea.f 
 Exactly the same advice was given to the marquis himself by Dr. Williams, 
 Archbishop of York, who, in that warlike age, garrisoned Conway for the 
 king; and by Orlando Bridgeman, a royalist gentleman, whom the Marquis 
 of Ormonde appointed to arrange the landing of the Irish reinforcements in 
 England. J This advice, however, was much more easily given than acted 
 upon, and in the end the forces sent by the marquis landed near Chester, 
 without making any attempt upon Liverpool. On their arrival the fortifi¬ 
 cations of Liverpool were immediately strengthened^ 
 
 From the commencement of the civil war in England, it had been the 
 wish of the king to put an end to the war in Ireland, and to bring over 
 to England the army which had been employed there. With this view 
 the lord-lieutenant (the Marquis of Ormonde) concluded a peace with the 
 Irish insurgents, and at once sent over an army of 3,000 or 4,000 men 
 to England. This force landed at Chester in the month of November, 
 1043, and joined the brave and numerous garrison of that loyal and 
 devoted city, in the first great effort to re-establish the royal power in the 
 north. Within a few weeks after the landing of this army, Lord Byron had 
 regained nearly the whole of Cheshire. Hawarden Castle, then a fortified 
 
 * Carte’s Life of Ormonde, iii, 190. 
 
 + The marquis, writing to Lord Byron, January 10, 1043, says, “When they (the royal 
 fleet) are gone it is too probable the Liverpool ships will look out again, if that town be not 
 in the mean time reduced, which I most earnestly recommend your lordship to think of 
 and attempt as soon as you possibly can, there being no service that to my apprehension 
 can at once so much advantage this place (Dublin) and Chester, and make them so useful 
 to each other.”— Carte’s Ormonde , iii., 229. 
 
 + Ibid, iii, 212, § Corporation Becords. 
 
309 
 
 house belonging to the Earl of Derby, was surrendered by the parliamentary 
 garrison, after a feeble defence. Holt Castle, commanding the principal 
 bridge across the river Dee, was freed from blockade. Wrexham, 
 whose beautiful church had been turned into a prison and fortress, was 
 also retaken, and the Manchester bands which had overrun that rich dis¬ 
 trict were overthrown at Booth-lane, near Sandbach, and a second time at 
 Middlewich. The royal army, proceeding in its course of victory, took 
 Crewe-house and Acton Church by storm, and surprised Beeston Castle, 
 in a night attack. By the month of December Nantwich was the only 
 place in Cheshire which remained in the hands of the parliament, and that 
 was closely besieged by Lord Byron. On the 26th December, 1643, Lord 
 Byron wrote a letter to the Marquis of Newcastle, the commander of the 
 northern royalists, informing him that he had driven Sir William Brereton 
 and the Lancashire forces out of Cheshire, and urging him to cross the 
 hills to Stopford (Stockport) and to join him in an attack on Lancashire.* 
 Unfortunately for the royal cause Lord Newcastle rather required 
 assistance than was in a position to render it. One strong division of his 
 army, which had advanced in Lincolnshire, after the defeat of the Fairfaxes 
 at Adwalton Moor, had been totally routed by Oliver Cromwell and Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax atHorncastle ;f the marquis himself had been driven from 
 before Hull; and Col. Lambert (afterwards General Lambert,) had defeated 
 another party of royalists in the West Riding. Under these circumstances 
 the marquis was not only unable to join Lord Byron, but was unable to 
 prevent the march of Sir Thomas Fairfax, who, on hearing of the danger 
 of Sir William Brereton, crossed the hills with a strong force to Man¬ 
 chester, to render assistance. He was there joined by the Lancashire 
 regiments of Ashton, Holland, and Booth, as well as by Sir William Bre¬ 
 reton, and at the head of these united forces he advanced into the valley 
 of the Weaver, to attack Lord Byron and his Irish army. The victorious 
 career of that army had been arrested before Nantwich, then the principal 
 town of the salt district, where Col. George Booth, the son of Sir George 
 Booth, had been left in command by his brother-in-law Sir William Bre¬ 
 reton. After firing upon the town for some days, Lord Byron made an 
 assault upon it, but was repulsed, with the loss of four hundred men. 
 Before his army had recovered from its discouragement, news was received 
 that Sir Thomas Fairfax was advancing at the head of the Yorkshire, 
 Lancashire, and Cheshire forces. On his arrival a desperate and decisive 
 battle took place, in which Lord Byron was defeated, and his army 
 
 » Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 154. + Rushworth's Historical Collection, vi., .‘100. 
 
310 
 
 destroyed or taken.* He escaped with the wreck of his forces to Chester. 
 Thus terminated the first attempt of the royalists to regain their power 
 in the north, and with it all the hopes founded on the Irish army. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1644 it appeared as if the royal 
 cause was again entirely lost in Lancashire. Lathom-house was then 
 the only place in the county where the authority of the parliament was 
 not fully recognized ; hut it was scarcely suspected that the Countess of 
 Derby, who then resided there, would venture to offer any resistance, if 
 summoned to surrender the house. She was, accordingly, summoned to 
 do so by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and, though nothing could he further 
 from the intention of that noble-spirited woman than to comply with the 
 summons, she skilfully contrived to obtain much time for preparation, 
 before she gave a positive refusal. At length, being ready for the struggle, 
 she boldly defied Fairfax to do his worst. On this he began the siege, 
 early in March, and remained before the house for a month, assailing it as 
 hotly as his means would allow. At length, his services being urgently 
 required in Yorkshire,f and being somewhat ashamed of his occupation, 
 he took his departure, leaving Colonel Alexander Rigby and Colonel 
 John Moore to continue the siege. They were even more unsuccessful 
 than Fairfax. They not only failed to take the castle, but they were 
 repeatedly defeated by the sallies of the garrison, and the mortar, or gena- 
 doe, with which they attempted to destroy the house was captured, and taken 
 within the walls in triumph. They, nevertheless, continued the siege 
 until June, when news was received that Prince Rupert was advancing at 
 the head of ten thousand men, to the assistance of the garrison. On this 
 Colonel Rigby retired to Bolton, and Colonel Moore to Liverpool, leaving 
 the countess triumphant.J 
 
 From the time of the defeat of the Irish army, under Lord Byron, at 
 Nantwich, by Sir Thomas Fairfax, it had become clear that nothing could 
 save the royal cause in the north except the advance of a large portion of 
 the royal army, and Prince Rupert was regarded as the fittest man to 
 make the attempt. Early in the year the Scottish army had marched into 
 England, to the assistance of parliament, and had gradually pressed south¬ 
 ward, driving the Marquis of Newcastle before it, until it had reached the 
 gates of York. At the same time the army of the eastern counties, 
 nominally commanded by Montague, Earl of Manchester, hut really 
 directed by his lieutenant, Oliver Cromwell, had reached the same city from 
 
 * Eushwortli’s Historical Collection, vi., 302. + Ibid, v., 017. + CivilAVar Tracts, 183. 
 
311 
 
 the south. Sir Thomas Fairfax, after having gained another victory over 
 Colonel Ballasis at Selby, had also reduced all the rest of Yorkshire. At 
 this time all the royal forces north of the Trent were besieged. Those 
 in Newark Castle by Sir John Meldrum, who afterwards besieged Liver¬ 
 pool ; those of Cheshire in the city of Chester; those of Lancashire in 
 Lathom-house, and those of Yorkshire, and all the other northern counties, 
 in York. Nothing could save the royal cause except the raising of several of 
 these sieges; and with this object Prince Rupert left the royal head-quarters 
 in the month of May, 1644. Previous to his departure he received the 
 following letters, soliciting his assistance for the Countess of Derby ; the 
 one written by the brave cavaliers who were shut up in Chester, the other 
 by the Earl of Derby himself: 
 
 “ From the Cavaliers keeping garrison at Chester to Prince Rupert. 
 May it please your highness,—We have thought it worth your highness’s 
 knowledge and this express, to inform you that since your highness’s 
 departure from these parts, the house of Lathom (wherein your very heroic 
 kinswoman, the Countess of Derby, is) hath, by Sir Thomas Fairfax, 
 (who is yet there,) been very straitly besieged, and as we hear assaulted, 
 (notwithstanding any rumours which were to the contrary.) yet so defended 
 by her admirable courage, as from the house there hath been killed divers 
 of the assailants, some prisoners taken, and many arms. By these means 
 she hath occasioned the enemy to strengthen the leager, and exasperated 
 their malice. But she hath wasted much of her ammunition and victual, 
 which must needs hasten the sadness of her ladyship’s condition, or render 
 her captive to a barbarous enemy, if your highness’s forces do not speedily 
 release her; in contemplation whereof, as also of the happy effects of her 
 gallantry, who, by this defence, hath not only diverted a strong party of 
 the Lancashire forces from joining with those who would endeavour to 
 interrupt your highness’s march and retreat, or otherwise might have joined 
 in one body to have annoyed us here in the division of our forces, we 
 arc, therefore, bold (with an humble representation) to become suitors to 
 your highness, for your princely consideration of the noble lady's seasonable 
 and speedy relief, in which (besides her particular) we conceive the in¬ 
 finite good of all these northern parts will be most concerned, and his 
 majesty’s service very much advanced. The happy success of your 
 highness is now our principal hope and prayer, which, and all your high¬ 
 ness’s designs, shall be promoted with the lives and utmost services of your 
 highness’s most faithful servants, Caryll Molyneux, Thomas Tyldesley, 
 Robert Grosvenor, Henry Leigh, Richard Molyneux, A. Shipman, 
 
312 
 
 J. Mainwaring, Richard Greene, James Anderton, Will Walton, John 
 Benninglmm.” Chester, March the 22d, 1643.* 
 
 THE EARL OF DERBY TO PRINCE RUPERT. 
 
 “ Sir,—I have followed your highness’s commands in serving this 
 worthy bearer, Sir William Neale, concerning his government of Harden 
 (Hawarden) Castle ; hut he finds a gentleman already in it, pretending 
 your highness’s warrant for his dwelling there, with a lady and many of 
 her family, which were so unexpected by him and me, that both think 
 good to acquaint your highness therewith, and desire your further pleasure. 
 
 “ Sir.—I have received many advertisements from my wife of her 
 imminent danger unless she be relieved by your highness, on whom she 
 doth more rely than any other whatsoever, and all of us consider well she 
 hath chief reason so to do. I was in hope to have seen your highness here 
 yesterday, seeing you were so resolved when last I had the honour to wait 
 upon you ; hut not now knowing any certainty of your coming hither, and 
 my Lord Byron and others most unwilling to stir hence with any forces 
 towards her, without your highness’s special direction, I do take the 
 boldness to present you again my most humble and earnest request in her 
 behalf, that I may he able to give her some comfort in my next I would 
 have waited on your highness this time, hut that I hourly receive little 
 letters from her, who haply, a few days hence, may never send me more. 
 
 “ There is now an opportunity, in my opinion, to take the town of 
 Liverpool, which your highness took notice of in the map the last evening 
 I was with you, for there is not at this time fifty men in the garrison, 
 neither are there many more in Warrington; also divers be drawn forth 
 of Manchester, most to Latliom; so that if any small force he showed 
 before any of these towns it is thought very possible to raise the siege (of 
 Lathom-house) or so weaken it that it may be much easier to relieve 
 the house with such things as it may want. 
 
 “ Your highness, doubtless, knows that men are newly landed here 
 from Ireland; but all these and twice so many are not considerable in 
 comparison of your own appearing, which strikes a terror to that wicked 
 party and gives life to the half-dead true ones that are banished so long 
 from their counties. Sir, though it becomes me to be earnest for her that 
 is so dear to me, and for one whose great honour is to he so near to you, 
 yet I humbly lay before you, also, the great advantage of her Majesty’s 
 service, if that family he preserved, and a certain inconvenience when, with 
 
 Eliot Warburton’s Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, i., 304. 
 
313 
 
 that, all the county, and so many well affected, will utterly be lost, and 
 not likely regained, hut with too dear a purchase. But lest I be judged 
 too importunate, I will only ask God to put into your heart how to help 
 that poor soul, which deserves your favour, and so commit your highness 
 to the Almighty's protection, and rest,* 
 
 “ Your highness’s most humble and faithful servant, 
 
 “Chester, March 7, 1644.” “ DERBY. 
 
 Urged by many reasons of policy, and by a generous feeling of sympathy 
 for the Countess of Derby, Prince Rupert began his march northwards. 
 He arrived before Newark early in May, 1644, where his approach raised 
 the siege. In the middle of the same month he was at Chester, which 
 city was also freed by his approach, and allowed to enjoy a short interval 
 of rest between its first and second sieges. On the 25th he forced the 
 pass at Stockport, “ the second key of the county”,f and entered 
 Lancashire. On hearing of his approach Colonels Rigby and Moore 
 raised the siege of Lathom-house, and retired, the former to Bolton, the 
 latter to Liverpool. The force under Colonel Rigby has been variously 
 estimated at 2,000, 3,000, and 4,000 men; that under Prince Rupert was 
 nearly 10,000. About two o’clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 
 28th of May, the royal army was discovered about a mile from Bolton. 
 “ They appeared at first like a wood or cloud”, says an eye-witness, 
 “ and presently were cast into several bodies.” Not expecting any very 
 serious resistance they advanced at once to the attack ; but Rigby was 
 a resolute man, his soldiers were as good as any in England, and they 
 received the prince so warmly that he was compelled to draw off, with a loss 
 of two hundred men. “ In their retreat they (the garrison) cut them 
 down before them in great abundance, and they fell like leaves from 
 the trees on a winter’s morning.” According to the royalist account 
 Rigby’s soldiers murdered their prisoners in cold blood: a similar charge 
 was made against the Earl of Derby ; but there is no evidence of any 
 value in support of either of these charges. It being absolutely 
 necessary to obtain possession of the town at any cost, another attack 
 was decided upon. This desperate assault was led by the Earl of Derby 
 in person, at the head of a large body of his friends, tenants, and 
 retainers, and was attended with complete success. Bolton was carried, 
 about 1,700 of Rigby’s soldiers, and of the armed inhabitants, were 
 killed, and the town was plundered without mercy. Rigbv and a few of 
 
 * Eliot Warburton's Rupert and the Cavaliers. 
 
 + Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, 182. 
 
 2 S 
 
314 
 
 liis soldiers escaped. Upwards of twenty stand of colours were taken, 
 and were sent as a present to the Countess of Derby, at Lathom-house, 
 at which place it was hoped that they would remain, as a “perpetual” 
 memorial of the prince's estimation of the valour and constancy of the 
 heroine of Lathom. 
 
 Having revenged the Countess of Derby on one of her enemies, 
 Prince Rupert immediately directed his forces against another of them. 
 Colonel Moore, the Governor of Liverpool. It appears from the Earl of 
 Derby’s letter, given above, that the prince had long had his eye on 
 Liverpool; and we learn from letters of Daniel O’Neale and Arthur 
 Trevor, and from other evidence, that it was his intention to 
 fortify the town strongly, and to keep it as a point of communication 
 with the royalists of Ireland. The attack had been expected for some 
 time, and, in the interval, the town had been fortified with a mud wall, 
 and a deep ditch running from the pool, at the east end of Dale-street, 
 to the river. The ditch was twelve yards wide and three deep ; but, from 
 the nature of the land, it must have been dry on the higher ground near 
 Oldhall-street, from which point the ground falls rapidly to the river. At 
 that time the town did not approach the pool at any other points than the 
 end of Dale-street and Pool-lane. An orchard belonging to the castle then 
 covered the slope on which Lord-street now stands, and fields extended 
 from the east side of Castle-street to the pool. A strong fortification was 
 formed along this slope, extending from the castle to the end of Dale- 
 street, where it joined the northern wall. The ends of the two streets 
 facing the pool were built up. Numerous cannon were mounted on the 
 castle; and the entrance to the harbour, which then was where the 
 Custom-house now is, was defended by a powerful battery. At that time 
 besieging artillery was clumsily constructed and slowly worked, so that 
 the effect of its fire was slight, in comparison with that produced by the 
 terrible instruments of destruction used in modern warfare. The town, 
 though everywhere commanded by the fire from the surrounding hills, 
 was very defensible against assault, being protected by the river and the 
 pool on three sides, and well fortified on the fourth. According to 
 Seacome, the historian of the House of Stanley, Prince Rupert considered 
 the place indefensible, and expected to obtain possession of it in a few 
 hours. He compared it to a crow’s nest, and said that a parcel of boys 
 might take it. He soon found his error. Colonel Moore and his brave 
 garrison held out for eighteen days, defied the prince's cannonade, and 
 repulsed his army in at least two general assaults. It was not until 
 
315 
 
 the prince had expended a hundred barrels of powder in an incessant 
 cannonade, and had lost 1,500 of his men in attempts to storm the town, 
 that he succeeded in taking it, by a night attack.* Caryl, afterwards 
 Viscount Molyneux, a native of the district, and well acquainted with the 
 ground, either led or directed this attack, and is said to have killed several 
 of the garrison in the assault. The town was entered near the north end 
 of Oldhall-street, where the ditch was probably dry, and where the 
 approach of the attacking party would be covered by the wood which 
 formerly extended from the north side of the town into Kirkdale. All 
 the accounts agree that the slaughter was very great, but that it ceased 
 when the garrison of the castle advanced to the White Cross, and laid 
 down their arms. The prince seized upon all the muniments of the 
 corporation, which he carried off with him, but they were afterwards 
 recovered. He immediately set his chief engineer, a Spaniard or 
 Frenchman, named Gomez or Gomme, to work, to form a plan of a 
 new and much stronger line of fortifications. These were never 
 constructed, owing to the course of subsequent events; but the plan of 
 them, as drawn out by Captain Gomez, will be found amongst the 
 illustrations of this work. 
 
 Prince Rupert remained in Liverpool nine days,f recruiting his army, 
 and organizing the district and the county of Chester. lie would probably 
 have remained longer, and have rendered Liverpool the basis of his future 
 operations, had he not received a letter from the king, not only urging 
 but commanding him to hasten to raise the siege of York. In this letter 
 the king declared that he should consider the loss of York the certain 
 precursor of the loss of his crown, and commanded the prince to lay aside 
 all other undertakings, and hasten to the relief of that city. Thus vehe¬ 
 mently urged, the prince could do nothing but comply. Leaving Sir 
 Robert Byron, one of the brothers of Lord Byron, in command of Liver¬ 
 pool, with a garrison of English and Irish troops, he marched rapidly to 
 York, by way of Clitheroe, Skipton, Otley, and Boroughbridge, eluding 
 the parliamentary armies, which had drawn up in order of battle near 
 Tadcaster on hearing of his approach. The prince had thus, in succes¬ 
 sion, raised the sieges of Newark Castle, Chester, Lathom-house, and 
 York. Here his good fortune ended. On the following day he was 
 defeated at Marston Moor, by the combined skill and valour of Cromwell 
 
 * Liverpoole cost a hundred barrels of munition, which makes Prince Rupert march ill 
 provided .—Letter from Arthur Trevor In the Marquis of Ormonde, dated Chester, June 29,1644. 
 
 + Carte's History of England, iv., 507. 
 
316 
 
 and Fairfax, and by the more perfect discipline of the parliamentary forces. 
 Thus, in a single day, all that had been gained in a brilliant campaign, 
 and far more, was lost. The battle of Mavston Moor really decided the 
 fate of the civil war. Up to that disastrous day the prospects of the king 
 had been at least as good as those of the parliament; but the battle which 
 shattered the military reputation of Rupert, and revealed the military great¬ 
 ness of Cromwell and Fairfax, was the first of a series of disasters, which 
 continued, with little interruption, until the last battle had been fought at 
 Naseby, until the last fortress had surrendered, and until the king was a 
 captive in the hands of the army and the parliament. 
 
 Immediately after the defeat of the royal army at Long Marston 
 Prince Rupert commenced his retreat, by the same route by which he had 
 advanced, that is, through the West Riding and Lancashire. Traversing 
 those districts in great haste he reached the River Mersey about the 20th 
 July, which he passed at Haleford, or Runcorn, on his way to Chester, 
 whence he proceeded to join the king, with the wreck of his army, about 
 6,000 strong. The Lancashire royalists, thus left to themselves, made a 
 bold attempt to keep the field. On the 8th of August the parliament 
 resolved “that the Lord Fairfax should take care of Yorkshire, and send 
 1,000 horse into Lancashire, to join with the forces of that countie against 
 Liverpole.”* On the 20th the Lancashire royalists were totally defeated 
 at Ormskirk by the parliamentary army, under Major-General Meldrum.f 
 Lords Byron and Molyneux escaped from this battle, but thirty gentlemen 
 connected with the county, with upwards of a thousand horsemen, were 
 taken in the pursuit. The wreck of the royalist army escaped to Liver¬ 
 pool. Major-General Meldrum followed it, and laid siege to the town 
 on the land side, whilst Colonel Moore, the late governor, blockaded it 
 by sea. The siege commenced about the 20th of August, and continued 
 until the 4th of November. Had the garrison been as brave or as faith¬ 
 ful as the gallant governor, it would have continued much longer, but in 
 the beginning of November the garrison mutined and gave up the 
 town to the besiegers. It appears, from Sir John Meldrum’s letter to 
 the parliament, that about fifty of the English soldiers first made their 
 escape out of the town, and drove away most of the cattle on which the 
 garrison relied for subsistence. On this the Englisli-Irish within 
 the garrison, perceiving that they were now in a desperate condition, as 
 quarter had been previously refused to them, seized upon all their officers, 
 and delivered them up to Sir John Meldrum. Their lives were spared, 
 * Civil War Tracts, 203. t Ibid, 204. 
 
317 
 
 and they were sent to Ireland. Thus ended the third and last siege of 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The entries in the Corporation Records, respecting public affairs, are 
 very brief during the civil wars, the sudden changes of fortune rendering 
 it dangerous to create any lasting evidence of plans, or opinions, either 
 during prosperity or adversity. The records become fuller after the third 
 siege, when all danger from the royal party was at an end. The position 
 which the local authorities then assumed was that of martyrs for the 
 cause of parliament, and this position was recognized, to some extent, by 
 parliament. Two months after the surrender of the town to Sir John 
 Meldrum, the following resolution was passed at the Portmote Court :— 
 “ We find that a great company of our inhabitants were murthered and 
 slain by Prince Rupert’s forces. The names of the murderers we cannot 
 yet be certified of, or any of them.” The following melancholy order 
 was agreed to at the same meeting :—“ That the dead bodies of our 
 murthered neighbours, buried out of the town, shall be better covered 
 betwixt this and the 2d of February next; and for the effecting hereof we 
 order that the two bailiffs, or any other officer giving notice or warning 
 to any house, it shall send one thither, with a spade or wisket, for the 
 covering of them as aforesaid.” On the 5th of March following, during 
 the mayoralty of John Holcrofte, the following record of proceedings 
 appears:—“ Forasmuch as the present state and condition of the town 
 doth require that some speedy course be taken, as well for the repairing 
 of the losses and sufferings of the inhabitants thereof, by the cruelty of 
 the prince’s army, lately prevailing there, as also for the better securing 
 of the said town for the time to come, it is ordered that Mr. William 
 Laughton, recorder, shall accompany themaior to London, and there solicit, 
 on behalf of the said town, according to the ensuing instructions, viz. : 
 
 “First, to procure relief, if it be possible, for poor widows and 
 fatherless children, that had their husbands and fathers slain, and their 
 goods plundered, and others in the town, who are in distress and want. 
 
 “ Second, to procure that the manner of the losing, or rather the 
 giving, of the town to the enemies may be fully tried and examined, that 
 so it may appear in whose neglect or default it was that so much innocent 
 blood was spilt, when there was a possibility of resistance, or any terms of 
 quarter would have been granted.* 
 
 » Colonel Moore had the usual fate of unsuccessful commanders. He was charged 
 with treachery; but he was afterwards employed by parliament and by Cromwell, and was 
 one of the commissioners to whom the Marquis of Ormonde surrendered Dublin, which 
 would not have been the case, if there had been any ground for the suspicion. 
 
318 
 
 “ Third, to procure that some course be taken to secure the town from 
 the power of the enemy hereafter, it being of great concernment to the 
 country, and is not as yet in any good posture of defence, for want of 
 provisions, men, and monies to supply the same, in case of danger. 
 
 “Fourth, to obtain an order for the enclosing and improving of the 
 commons and waste grounds, within the town’s liberties, for the good of 
 the corporation, and that the mills and ferry-boats formerly belonging to 
 the town, and injuriously taken and kept from them by the Lord 
 Molyneux, may be restored to the corporation, as formerly ; and, 
 
 “ Fifth, to agitate the business of the rebels’ (quere royalists) goods, 
 claimed by the Manchester men.” 
 
 The Liverpool deputation which proceeded to London with the above 
 requests was tolerably successful. It obtained a grant of £20 in money, 
 for the immediate relief of the widows, orphans, and poor of the town ; and 
 further grants of five hundred tons of timber, for the rebuilding of the 
 ruined houses. The latter was to be taken from the woods of the Earl of 
 Derby, Lord Molyneux, William Norris, of Speke, Robert Blundell, 
 Robert Molyneux, Charles Gerard, and Edward Scarisbrick, Esqrs., all 
 of the royalist party. In addition to this grant of timber, part of the 
 lead from the ruins of Lathom-house was allowed to the town, for the 
 repairs of the school-house, “ inasmuch as the lead from the old school- 
 house had been taken for public use,” that is, to be fired at Prince Rupert 
 and the cavaliers. With regard to some other matters referred to in the 
 petition, the Earl of Warwick reported a bill, on the 1st of October, 1045. 
 In this bill, after stating that the mills and ferry-boats on the Mersey had 
 formerly belonged to the town of Liverpool, but that they had lately been 
 in the hands of Lord Molyneux, “ who is in hostility against the parlia¬ 
 ment” ; that all the writings and ancient records belonging to the said 
 corporation were taken away, when the town was stormed by the enemy ; 
 and “ further, considering the exceeding great losses and sufferings of the 
 said town, it was provided that the corporation should enjoy the wind¬ 
 mills, ferry-boats, and rent of £20 a year, formerly paid to Lord Molyneux, 
 till both houses take further order, and that they should also continue to 
 enjoy all rights which they had enjoyed under their said charters.” At a 
 subsequent period, a large grant of land in Ireland was made to the town 
 and corporation of Liverpool, for their public services, in the act entituled 
 “ Satisfactions of the adventurers of lands in Ireland, and of the arrears 
 due to the soldiery there, and of other public debts.” The clause making 
 the grant to Liverpool is as follows: — “And be it further enacted, that 
 
319 
 
 in consideration of the great losses of the town of Liverpool, the com¬ 
 missioners of the parliament of Ireland set forth and appoint so much 
 land as amounts to T 10,000, (according to the rates that the debts due 
 upon the publique faith are appointed to be satisfied by this act,) for the 
 use and benefit of the said town and their successors for ever.”* The 
 land thus granted was situated in the county of Galway, a part of the 
 only spot on earth which Cromwell had left to the native Irish, and it 
 proved as unprofitable to Liverpool as a bishopric in the parts of the infidels 
 usually proves to its possessor. After various journeys to London and 
 Ireland on this business, and after handsome bonuses had been offered, to 
 parties who might succeed in obtaining possession for the town, (even to 
 the extent of half the estate,) and after considerable expenditure, continued 
 for several years, the corporation at length gave it up in despair, and thus 
 escaped the perilous honour of becoming absentee Irish landlords. The 
 city of Gloucester experienced the same amount of liberality from parlia¬ 
 ment, with precisely the same results. 
 
 The state of Lancashire continued to be very unsettled during the 
 period which elapsed between the third siege of Liverpool in 1G44 and 
 the seizing of the government by Cromwell, in 1653. The ravages of pes¬ 
 tilence and famine followed close upon those of the sword; and so little 
 were the people of Lancashire satisfied with the state of affairs which arose 
 out of the downfall of the king, that they soon became nearly as hostile 
 to the new government as they had been to the old. Lancashire was 
 one of the few English counties which adopted the Presbyterian form 
 of church government willingly and completely. In this it differed 
 from the rest of the kingdom, and hence it became the centre of the 
 intrigues and operations, by which the Scotch and English Presbyterians 
 endeavoured to overthrow the power of the army and the Indepen¬ 
 dents, who had seized the prize for which the others had fought. In the 
 year 1047, the government determined to send down six hundred men of 
 the regular army, to garrison Liverpool; and though the council remon¬ 
 strated, a strong force was sent, which was billeted on the inhabitants. 
 This was the commencement of that system of military government which 
 prevailed throughout England under the pretended Commonwealth, and 
 which ended in rendering the name of Commonwealth hateful to the Eng¬ 
 lish people. Lancashire being set down as a particularly “ malignant” 
 county, felt the system with more than common rigour. In the year 1648 
 a strong Scotch army entered the county, under the command of Duke 
 Hamilton. Its objects were the settling of Presbyterian government 
 * Scolicl's Acts and Ordinances, 240. 
 
320 
 
 according to the covenant, and liberating and re-establishing bis majesty. 
 Such was Hamilton’s declaration on entering the county. The Lan¬ 
 cashire royalists rose eagerly, forgiving the Presbyterianism of the Scottish 
 army for its loyalty; but the Presbyterians would not rise. They met 
 Hamilton’s declaration with a counter declaration, in which they said “ we 
 have all taken the covenant, and are zealous for re-establishing his majesty, 
 and doubt not the reality of the intentions of both houses of parliament.” 
 After some wavering, the Lancashire militia joined Cromwell, on his 
 entrance into the county, and fought in those desperate battles in which 
 the Scottish army was destroyed. The first battle was fought at Preston, 
 the last at Winwick, about fifteen miles from Liverpool. Although 
 Cromwell himself admitted that no troops could have fought better than 
 the Lancashire troops did in this campaign, he was so little satisfied with 
 the spirit of the county that he and his friends caused the Lancashire 
 militia to be disbanded at the end of the same year. By many years 
 active service they had become equal to the regular troops in courage and 
 discipline, and were considered doubly dangerous on that account. The 
 following is a striking picture of the condition to which the whole county 
 had been reduced at this time by war, pestilence, and famine:—“ The 
 hand of God,” says a writer of that age, “ is evidently seen stretched out 
 upon the county; chastening it with the three-corded scourge of sword, 
 pestilence, and famine all at once afflicting it. They have borne the 
 heat and burden of the first and second war in an especial manner above 
 other parts of the nation. Through them the two great bodies of the 
 English and Scottish armies passed, and in their very bowels was that 
 fighting, bloodshed, and breaking. In this county hath the plague of 
 pestilence been raging these three years and upwards, occasioned by the 
 wars. There is a very great scarcity and dearth of all provisions, chiefly 
 of all sorts of grain, particularly that by which that county is most 
 sustained, (oats,) which is full sixfold the price that of late it hath been. 
 All trade, by which they have been much supported, is utterly decayed. 
 It would melt any good heart to see the numerous swarms of begging 
 poor, and the many families that pine away at home, not having faces 
 to beg. Very many now crave alms at other men’s doors who were 
 used to give others alms at their doors;—to see paleness, nay, death 
 appear in the cheeks of the poor, and often to hear of some found dead 
 in their houses, or highways, for want of bread.” 
 
 But the plague of civil war was not yet ended in Lancashire. The 
 king, Charles the First, was put to death in January, 1649, and soon after 
 the Scottish people placed his son on the throne of Scotland. The 
 
321 
 
 consequence was a war with Cromwell and the parliament, in which the 
 Scottish army, after sustaining great disasters in its own country, made a 
 hold advance into England, hoping to obtain additional strength by the 
 union of the loyalists and presbyterians. Previous to the advance of 
 the army a rising had been arranged in Lancashire. On the 12th of 
 August, Charles the Second, or, as he was called, the King of the Scots, 
 arrived at Lancaster, and lodged for the night at Ashton-liall, “ where 
 Hamilton lodged two nights before the battle of Preston,” and where his 
 descendants have since dwelt.* On the 13th the king slept at Myers- 
 cough-lodge, the seat of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, who was hastening to his 
 assistance. On the 14th he passed Kibble-bridge, at Preston, and the 
 same night slept at Euxton-hall, the seat of the loyal family of Anderton. 
 On the 15th he lodged at Sir William Gerard’s, of Bryn. On the 16th he 
 passed Warrington-bridge, with his whole army, after a smart skirmish 
 with Cromwell’s Cavalry. He then marched southward towards Worcester, 
 by way of Shrewsbury. On the same day on which the Scottish army 
 crossed the Mersey, the Earl of Derby arrived in Wyre Water, (near the 
 present port of Fleetwood,) with three frigates, bringing a number of 
 officers from the Isle of Man. He immediately set up the banner of the 
 king, and was joined by many of the royalists. His principal hope of 
 effecting anything of importance depended on the conduct of the presby¬ 
 terians, who had the arms of the county in their possession ; but it was 
 hoped that Major-General Massey, (the defender of Gloucester against 
 Charles the First, but then a zealous adherent of Charles the Second,) 
 would be able to induce them to rise. “ The earl began to beat drums,” 
 says his antagonist, Colonel Lilburne, “ and raise men in all places 
 where he came, and would have been very strong in a short time, not only 
 through the access of many malignant papists and disaffected persons, 
 but that assistance the ministers and those who are called presbyterians 
 afforded, and would more abundantly have afforded ; for they are the 
 men who are grown more bitter and envious against you than others 
 of the old cavalier stamp.” Cromwell, foreseeing the danger of a 
 rising in Lancashire, had strengthened the garrison of Liverpool; 
 had placed his own regiment of foot in garrison at Manchester, 
 where the Earl of Derby “ had the assurance of the assistance of five 
 hundred men, in and about the town and had left Lieut.-Col. Robert 
 Lilburne, one of his best and trustiest officers, with a regiment of horse, to 
 keep the field against Lord Derby. On the 25th of August Lilburne, 
 reinforced from Liverpool and Chester, attacked the royalists near Wigan, 
 
 * Civil War Tracts, 287. 
 
 O 'p 
 
322 
 
 aud after a desperate battle defeated and dispersed them. The Earl of 
 Derby escaped, only to witness a greater overthrow at Worcester, and to 
 close his noble career on the scaffold at Bolton. Sir Thomas Tyldesley 
 fell fighting for the cause for which he had risked his life in a hundred 
 combats; and all the other loyalists were killed, taken, or dispersed. I 
 subjoin the account of the battle of Wigan-lane, forwarded by the 
 Governor of Liverpool to the Speaker of the House of Commons.* 
 
 The local events of Liverpool during the protectorate of Cromwell were 
 of little importance. The corporation enjoyed the fee farm under the 
 grant of parliament; and some progress was made in reclaiming the com¬ 
 mons around the town; but no great or permanent improvement was made 
 at home, and the utter ruin of Ireland by the civil war caused the trade 
 of the port to languish. Immediately after the death of Oliver Cromwell 
 the royalists and presbyterians of Cheshire and Lancashire rose against 
 his son, Richard Cromwell. This insurrection, which was headed by Sir 
 George Booth and the Earl of Derby, extended to Liverpool, which 
 declared for the king, and was held for a short time by Lord Derby and 
 Colonel Gilbert Ireland; but after the defeat of Sir George Booth by 
 General Lambert it again fell into the hands of the army and the parlia¬ 
 ment. Their triumph, however, was very short. Early in the following 
 year General Monk and the northern army declared for the king; who 
 was shortly afterwards recalled to the throne, by the all but unanimous 
 voice of the nation. Amongst the consequences of the restoration were 
 the setting aside of all the grants made by parliament, including those 
 made to the corporation of Liverpool. Lord Molyneux again became 
 proprietor of the fee farm of the town; and several of the leading members 
 of the Cromwellian party were expelled from the town council. 
 
 * It pleased the Lord yesterday to give an utter overthrow by Col. Lilburne’s regiment 
 of horse to the Earle of Derbie, who was raising men here in this county for the Scots king. 
 The earl at his comming over from the Isle of Man, brought but 300 men, whereof 60 were 
 horse, but landing about the middle of the shire, when the Scots army were passing out of 
 it, he had the better opportunity by our distractions to march up to Warrington to them, 
 and there he had the assistance of Major-General Massey with a regiment of horse to 
 countenance his proceedings, while he gathered more to him, who afterwards leaving him 
 when the earl’s forces were reputed considerable to cany on the worke, and there being 
 none in this county left competent to make opposition, but all marched out with the army, 
 I sent both to my Lord Generali and the Major-Generalls, to acquaint them with it; where¬ 
 upon Col. Lilbume came very opportunely, yet the enemy being stronger in foote, and 
 securing himself betwixt two rivers, he was not to be attempted by horse only, and all that 
 could be afforded in assistance were two foot companies from Chester, one of my regiment 
 left about Manchester, not being so ready as the rest to march out, and what musketeers I 
 horsed from hence, with some few countrymen. But since my Lord Generali’s owne 
 regimente of foote being sent up, and within one dayes march, the enemy attempted 
 towards the Scots army, and being pursued by Col. Lilbume’s regiment and the small 
 addition before named, without the conjunction of my Lord Generali’s regiment, it pleased 
 God to give them an absolute overthrow, as the inclosed from Col. Lilburne intimates ; the 
 number of prisoners and the slaine with their qualifications I cannot yet give further 
 account of, hut I hope the success prevents all designs in these parts. I must excuse for 
 this distracted letter, and ever am, sir, your most reall and humble servant, 
 
 Liverpoole, Aug. 20, 1601. Tuo. Birche. 
 
CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF STUART, 
 
 FROM THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES THE SECOND TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. 
 
 During the period of fifty years, whose history I am about to trace in 
 this chapter, Liverpool increased in population, commerce, and wealth, 
 with a rapidity which had never been previously known, so that by the 
 close of the half-century it had become the third port in the kingdom. 
 
 Shortly after the restoration of Charles the Second, a great impulse was 
 given to the commerce of Liverpool, by the numerous misfortunes which 
 befel the city of London. These caused many of the inhabitants to fly 
 from it, as from a city doomed to destruction, and to settle in Liverpool, 
 and other places. Early in the year 1665 London was stricken by the 
 most destructive visitation of the plague which had ever been known in 
 England, by which upwards of a hundred thousand persons were swept 
 away, in a few months. In the autumn of the following year the great 
 fire of London broke out, which was not extinguished until it had reduced 
 the whole of the city, from the Tower to Temple-bar, to ruins. During 
 the course of these dreadful visitations the commerce of London, and of 
 all the ports on the east side of the island, was paralyzed, by a desperate 
 war with Holland, in the course of which the Dutch fleet obtained the 
 command of the Channel, sailed up the Thames, and burnt Sheerness. 
 The result of these misfortunes to the great centre of English commerce 
 was, that “ many people coming from London, in the time of the sickness, 
 and after the fire, several ingenious men settled in Liverpool, which caused 
 the trade of the port to the plantations and other places. This so 
 enlarged the trade of the port, that, from scarcely paying the salaries of 
 the officers of customs, Liverpool, before the close of the century, possessed 
 the third part of the trade of the country, and paid the king upwards of 
 .£50,000 a-year in customs.”* 
 
 We possess a minute and curious account of Liverpool, written 
 shortly after this time, which shows that its commerce was extending, 
 that population was increasing, that numerous new streets were forming, 
 
 * The case of the Corporation of Liverpool, in relation to a hill for making a new parish, 
 and erecting a new church there. (About 1G!I!).) 
 
324 
 
 and that the grand project of cutting an artificial harbour, by deepening 
 and widening the pool, which hounded the town to the south and east, 
 was already under consideration, and was expected to he carried into effect. 
 This account is contained in a rental of the Moore estates in Liverpool, 
 drawn up by Sir Edward Moore, of Bank-hall, the son of Col. John 
 Moore, for the instruction and guidance of his son and heir. After 
 remaining in manuscript for nearly two centuries, this curious record of 
 past times has been published by the Chetham Society, and brings before 
 us a minute and lively account of the interests, hopes, and passions 
 which agitated Liverpool and its inhabitants, in the latter half of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 The Moore rental commences with an account of Oldhall-street, then 
 the genteelest street in the town, and now one of the busiest. There the 
 Old Hall was situated, which had been the original seat of the writer’s 
 ancestors, from time immemorial; but which he, under the pressure of 
 heavy debts, incurred by his father during the civil war, had been com¬ 
 pelled to let, for three lives, to Mr. Alderman Anydoe, who was mayor of 
 Liverpool in the year 1665. This alderman, Sir Edward Moore warns 
 his son against, as one of the lurkingest knaves in the townfor it 
 seems that he had been guilty of the offence of voting against his landlord, 
 “ both for parliament man and mayor.” This Sir Edw r ard regards as the 
 unpardonable sin; and throughout the rental never fails to put a black 
 mark against the name of every man who had committed it. Along with 
 the hall, Alderman Anydoe held two fields belonging to it, the Parlor Hey 
 and the Barn Hey. “ If ever this falls in,” says Sir Edward to his son, 
 “ and trading as good as now, you may well make a street running 
 down to the river, parallel to Chapel-street. This recommendation has 
 long since been carried into effect. The whole site of the Old Hall, and 
 of the fields which then surrounded it, are now covered with streets and 
 warehouses. In this part of the rental Sir Edward gives his son a piece 
 of advice which shows how rapidly the town was improving. “ Remem¬ 
 ber,” says he, “ if ever it lie in your power, to buy of young Mr. Sherwin, 
 the estate he bought of my cousin Lea of Lime, lying in this town. He 
 gave hut four hundred pounds for it, hut if you had it for a thousand it were 
 well bought.” Some marks still remained in Oldhall-street of the damage 
 done during the siege by Prince Rupert, which gave Sir Edward Moore 
 the opportunity of having the following fling, at his great rival in the 
 
 * Moore Rental, 12. 
 
325 
 
 town, Caryl, Lord Molyneux. “ Keep room,” says lie, “ sufficient for 
 outhouses and other necessaries for the Old Hall, which outhouses were 
 pulled down, when Prince Rupert took Liverpool, Whitsuntide, 1644, 
 putting all to the sword, giving no quarter: when Caryl, that is now 
 Lord Mullineux, killed seven or eight poor men with his own hands. 
 Good Lord deliver us from the cruelty of blood-thirsty papists. Amen.” 
 
 Chapel-street is the next street mentioned in the rental. Speaking of 
 one of the tenements, Sir Edward says that the sea was washing away the 
 bank so rapidly that land that was worth <£10 a-year, in his grandfather’s 
 time, was not worth 5s. a-year in his. He recommends his son to build 
 a sea wall, and if it be possible to get warehouses and dwelling-houses 
 built along the wall, and also to make a street to go up the middle of it. 
 “ This is a project, if God help the town, may be possible.” It has been 
 done long ago. He also recommends his son not to lease again the “ fine 
 large croft” held by Thomas Lancelot, “ a drunken, idle fellowbut to 
 build houses upon it. This is the site of the present Lancelot’s-hey. He 
 also advises his son to buy a small piece of land between Chapel-street 
 and Water-street, and to build a street between them, “ which would be a 
 street very convenient, in regard of the great compass all people are now 
 forced to go about” to get from one to the other. 
 
 Sir Edward next speaks of Titliebarn-street. Amongst his tenants in 
 that street was John Hacking, “ a very honest man,” that is, a man who 
 voted for him at elections. “ When his house, barn, and ground falls 
 out,” says Sir Edward, “ then doth likewise fall out of lease a house called 
 Hacking’s House, in the Dale-street, through the lower end of which 
 house I charge you, with God’s permission, make a street, which will run 
 directly north, through the croft belonging to the house and barn, and so 
 will be a most convenient passage for a street, from the Dale-street into 
 Tithebarn-street.” This is the street which still preserves the name of 
 honest John Hacking. 
 
 In Water-street lived Alderman Formby. “ He is one,” says Sir 
 Edward, “ who, when to have chosen me a parliament man would have 
 saved my whole estate, would not give me his vote. This fellow, Baly 
 March, Alderman Anydoe, and Alderman Cories, were all the tenants that 
 openly appeared against me, on the king’s coming in, for being a parlia¬ 
 ment man.”* “ The Lord Jesus forgive them,” prays Sir Edward — but 
 it is clear that he never did. 
 
 * Moore Rental, 37. 
 
326 
 
 lu Castle-street lived Thomas Row. “ Pretty honest," says Sir 
 Edward, “ yet trust him not; for if he see a greater party against you he 
 will deceive you.”* There also resided Richard Williamson, whose 
 family had been settled in Liverpool from the time of Queen Elizabeth; 
 and whose descendants still possess a good estate about Williamson- 
 square, where they had a country house in King Charles’s time. “ A 
 most notorious knave,” says Sir Edward, “ at least to me and mine; 
 upon all occasions he hath been against me. Remember you never trust 
 any of the name in this town, for there is a great faction of them and 
 their relations. They have always been enemies of me and all your 
 predecessors, time out of memory of man.” The next of Sir Edward’s 
 tenants was Baly Johnson. “ One of the hardest men in the town,” says 
 Sir Edward, who was anything hut soft himself. This Bailiff or Baly John¬ 
 son was the father of Sir Thomas Johnson, from whom Sir Thomas’s- 
 buildings are named, and one of the most useful men that ever lived in 
 Liverpool. In speaking of Baly Johnson’s house and land, Sir Edward 
 Moore first mentions the great scheme of cutting or widening the pool,— 
 the scheme out of which the Liverpool docks and dock estate have grown. 
 “ Remember,” says Sir Edward, “ there belongs a great close to this 
 house lying in the Dale-street, which runs down to the pool, (the present 
 Whitechapel.) If ever the pool shall he cut, so as shipping shall come 
 up to the hack of the town, this will he a most especial place to make a 
 street. I charge you never lease it again, but reserve it for a street.” 
 Speaking of some other pieces of land further down Castle-street, he 
 says, “ If ever the pool he made navigable, the shipping will be two 
 parts round them. These four closes are the only” (the best) “places in 
 Liverpool to build on.” Amongst other residents of Castle-street, at this 
 time, were Mr. William Bushell, a prosperous man, who was making a 
 fortune as a spinner of cordage; Colonel Thomas Birch, governor of 
 Liverpool under the Commonwealth, who died in peace, at the age of 70; 
 and Mr. Clayton, the founder of one of the most eminent of the 
 commercial families of Liverpool. Lower down the street dwelt a most 
 notorious witch, Widow Bridge by name. “ Her own sister, Margaret 
 Loy,” says Sir Edward, with perfect gravity, “ being arraigned as a 
 witch, confessed she was one; and when she was asked how long she had 
 so been, replied, since the death of her mother, who died thirty years ago, 
 and at her death she had nothing to leave her and this Widow Bridge, 
 
 * Moore Rental, 43. 
 
327 
 
 who were sisters, but her two spirits, and named them, the eldest spirit 
 to this widow, and the other spirit to her, the said Margaret Loy. God 
 bless me and mine from all such legacies ! Amen.” 
 
 Sir Edward Moore had a windmill in Dale-street, and a horsemill in 
 Castle-street. He and Mr. Crosse, of Crosse-hall, had the exclusive 
 right of grinding corn in the borough, which they had bought from the 
 ancient lords of Liverpool, and they were entitled to demand one bushel 
 in twenty as their dues. He describes his mill as a thing of great con¬ 
 cernment to his estate. “ I have got, when the trading to Lochabar, an 
 island (district) in Scotland, was used, twenty measures of toll a week, 
 for two years together, when malt sold for five shillings the Winchester 
 measure; but now nine or ten measures a week, and against fairs and 
 holidays twenty measures a week.” He adds, that, in the time of his 
 grandfather, Edward Moore, his allowance to his household was sixteen 
 measures of malt a week, and sixteen measures of bread corn, and that 
 he got it all for toll. 
 
 In Sir Edward Moore’s account of Dale-street we find the first 
 mention of the opening of the trade with the West Indies, which has 
 since been so great a source of wealth to Liverpool. Speaking of a plot 
 of land in Dale-street he says, “ Sugar House Close. This croft fronts 
 the street for some twenty-seven yards, and I call it the Sugar House 
 Close, because one Mr. Smith, a great sugar-baker at London, a man, as 
 report says, worth forty thousand pounds, came from London to treat 
 with me. According to agreement he is to build all the front twenty- 
 seven yards a stately house of good hewn stone, four story high, and 
 then to go through the same building with a large entry ; and then, in 
 the back side, to erect a house for boiling and drying sugar, otherwise 
 called a sugar-baker’s house. The pile of building must be forty feet 
 square and four stories high, all of hewn stone; then he is to take the 
 little house of Roger Rogerson, in Dig-lane, (now Cheapside,) and make 
 the back way in through there ; then he is to encompass all his ground 
 with a brick wall round. If this be once done, it will bring a trade of 
 at least forty thousand pounds a year from the Barbadoes, which formerly 
 this town never knew. This house, it is thought, will cost at least one 
 thousand four hundred pounds, and when it comes out of lease it will be 
 worth to you and your heirs fifty pounds a year of a good rent, for I 
 would never have you lease it again.”* 
 
 * Moore Rental, 78. 
 
328 
 
 Sir Edward Moore also possessed land of great, capabilities in Pool- 
 lane, which he points out to his son, with his usual sagacity. “ Here,” 
 says he, “ is a most convenient parcel of land, if ever the pool be cut 
 navigable, to build almost round it. I mean so far as lies to the river, 
 there being not the like place in Liverpool to the river side for cellars 
 and warehouses.” By cellars Sir Edward means places for storing goods, 
 for the word cellar was then very commonly used in the same sense as 
 the Latin word cella, from which it is derived. “For the worth of this 
 place, I know not how to value it: for if the pool shall ever be cut, it 
 may be worth five hundred pounds to you; therefore be careful what you 
 do with it.” “Remember,” adds the prudent father, “you improve your 
 rent when it comes out of lease: and if you could buy Baly Blundell’s 
 little parcel of ground next on the north side of it, and so wall it all in 
 together, you might make forty pounds per annum, with laying coals 
 there for the sea, there being not the like place in Liverpool for that use. 
 Consider well of this coal trade, and put it in execution.”* 
 
 If Sir Edward Moore’s descendants did not make a fine fortune from 
 the forming of the docks of Liverpool, it certainly was no fault of their 
 ancestor, who pointed out the advantages which would arise from it 
 with unwearying iteration. “These four closes (in Pool-lane) may 
 be the greatest concern you have in England: for if the pool be made 
 navigable, the shipping must be all along these closes, and the trade will 
 be all in them for the whole town. You may have building here worth 
 far more than twenty thousand pounds, if God send peace and prosper 
 trade. I do not question but see this brought much to a head in my 
 time.”f 
 
 After mentioning his house on the Castle-hill, and the row where the 
 rubbish was laid, that was taken out of the Castle trench, “ in which 
 Thomas Preeson lives,” (whose name it still bears,) Sir Edward proceeds 
 to give particular directions about two new streets, which had been built 
 entirely on his own land. The first of these is Moore-street, then one of 
 the best streets in Liverpool, but now blocked up with warehouses, with 
 here and there a curious old house, which preserves some traces of its 
 original gentility. The second is Fenwick-street, quite as genteel a street 
 in its day as Moore-street, and now a street of offices, crowded with men 
 of business. In speaking of Moore-street, Sir Edward, after exhorting 
 his son, “in the name of God, never (to) converse with any man, nor 
 
 * Moore Rental, 80. 
 
 + Ibid, 81. 
 
329 
 
 give ear to any man, nor trust any man, that desires him to join with him 
 against the good old town of Liverpool,” proceeds to dwell with pride and 
 exultation on the long friendship which had existed between the men of 
 Liverpool and his family. “ This you may boldly and truly say, the cor¬ 
 poration and you have lived together this four hundred and odd years, and 
 in all that time you have been in great affection one to another, and not 
 one generation of so many hundred years but your ancestors have been 
 mayors, many of them in man’s memory two or three times a-piece, 
 and one Thomas de la More, in Kichard the Second, was in his life 
 twelve times mayor, as you may see by your deeds marked accordingly ; 
 and this you may further say of truth, which few if any of England can say, 
 of your quality, that there hath not been a parliament this two hundred 
 and fifty years, but one of your ancestors have been burgesses for that 
 town ; and in man’s memory, my father, John Moore, my grandfather, 
 Edward Moore, and my great grandfather, William Moore, have been 
 parliament men.” Whilst Moore-street was thus named from family 
 pride, Fenwick-street was named from the better feeling of conjugal 
 affection, for an excellent wife, who made his home happy, and had 
 twice saved him and his family from ruin. With the following touching 
 and eloquent summary of the reasons which induced Sir Edward Moore 
 to name Fenwick-street after his wife, the daughter of a brave old loyalist, 
 I take leave of the Moore Eental:—“ The reasons why I named this 
 street Fenwick-street were four, the first of which is, that your mother 
 was one of the co-heirs of Sir William Fenwick, knight and baronet of 
 Meldon-hall, in Northumberland, by whom I came actually possessed of 
 £700 per annum land of inheritance, for my third part; the second 
 reason, for that by her fortune I disengaged ten thousand pounds 
 principal money, of a debt contracted by my unfortunate father in the 
 service of the parliament, in those late unhappy wars ; the third reason, 
 for that after all the debts aforesaid were discharged, yet at the restoration 
 of King Charles the Second, my whole estate, that descended as heirs, 
 was by act of parliament confiscated, for my father’s fault, who was dead 
 near fifteen years before the said act of parliament was made : and, not¬ 
 withstanding all this, upon the petition of my wife to the Lords’ House, 
 the said house order four earls to go with it to the king, to acquaint his 
 majesty that the sense of the house was, the petitioner was a fit object of 
 mercy, in regard to her father was an excepted person from pardon by the 
 late usurpers, and had lost from his loyalty to the value of £100,000, 
 a third of which should have been the petitioner’s; besides she herself 
 2 v 
 
330 
 
 endured much hardship, by imprisonment and other things, for her 
 loyalty. So the king, referring the petition to his attorney-general to 
 know the truth, finding all things accordingly, was graciously pleased, 
 in consideration of her father’s merits and her own sufferings, to grant 
 John Moore's estate, to such feolfees in trust, as she, Dorothy Moore, 
 daughter and coheir of Sir William Fenwick, should name. Thus, 
 under God, you see she and her fortune saved your estate in Lancashire 
 twice. The Lord God grant that there may never want one of my name 
 and blood, from her very loins, in this very poor Bank-hall, to return 
 him thanks in a most particular manner for these his great mercies, and 
 indeed rather miracles. Had you but lived in our days, at that very 
 time, to have seen, at the turning of the tide, what a stream we were to 
 go up, that indeed nothing but God’s immediate hand could have procured 
 it finished ! The fourth reason why I named this street so is, that to add 
 to all these mercies which God was pleased to make her an instrument 
 in, to sweeten them the more to us, he hath been pleased to bless us with 
 four sons and two daughters. These reasons considered, I hope, whoever 
 thou art that reads the same, thou will not condemn my gratitude, thereby 
 to put my posterity in mind of the praises and thanks they owe to God 
 Almighty, for his Providence, in predestinating such an instrument to 
 match into that family, which He, by his Divine wisdom, foresaw had 
 such inevitable necessity thereof.”* 
 
 Sir Edward Moore was not the only landed proprietor in Liverpool 
 who saw the advantage of forming new streets. Caryl Lord Molyneux, 
 the possessor of the fee farm and the hereditary governor of the castle, 
 saw it as clearly. About this time (1668) he laid out the castle orchard 
 as building land, and erected upon it Lord-street, or, as it was orginally 
 called, Lord Molyneux-street. This street extended from the castle-ditch 
 to the pool, and it was Lord Molyneux’s intention to build a bridge across 
 the pool, from the end of Lord-street to Liverpool Heath, on the opposite 
 side, and thus to give his tenants egress into the country by the line of 
 the present Church-street. No sooner were the mayor and council in¬ 
 formed of this intention than they decided that the time had come, to con¬ 
 tend against Lord Molyneux, for the waste lands of the manor beyond the 
 pool, as well as within it. They, therefore, passed the following resolu¬ 
 tion :—“ It is ordered, that information is given to the assembly that the 
 Lord Molyneux is intending to erect a new bridge over some part of the 
 
 - Moore Rental, 106. 
 
331 
 
 pool or current from the pool bridge, upon the waste or common of Liver¬ 
 pool, without the leave and consent of the mayor and burgesses of the 
 town, they and their predecessors having been time out of memory 
 reputed and taken to have the rightful seignory of the same common or 
 waste under his sacred majesty, and accordingly have enjoyed the royalties 
 and privileges inviolate to this time; and that, forasmuch as the making of a 
 bridge upon the town waste, without license of or composition with the mayor 
 of this town for the time being, may seem to invade or break in upon the 
 ancient privileges of this town, it is hereby ordered unanimously, that if 
 any such attempt shall hereafter he made, to lay any foundation or to 
 build any part of the same bridge, the same shall be forthwith obstructed, 
 pulled down, and laid waste.” 
 
 On hearing of this resolution Lord Molyneux, not feeling sure of the 
 result of an appeal to the laws, as to the ownership of the wastes, attempted 
 to arrange the matter peaceably with the mayor and burgesses ; but they, 
 seeing their advantage, and that they had got both Lord Molyneux and 
 his tenants into a cul de sac, were determined not to let them out, until 
 they had obtained a formal recognition of their right to all the waste lands 
 of the manor, and also such an arrangement of the town dues and other 
 seignoral rights as would secure them from trouble on that head in 
 future. They, therefore, rejected all offers of compromise. On this Lord 
 Molyneux, finding that he must either fight or yield, prepared to fight. 
 In the month of May he took the advice of Mr. Webster, a gentleman 
 learned in the laws, as to his right to make a bridge, and seems to have 
 got a favourable opinion, for shortly afterwards his servants came to the 
 pool, provided with seventy yards of plank, and began to erect a bridge 
 across it.* No sooner did they break ground on Liverpool Heath than 
 Evan March and James Whitfield appeared at the head of the Liverpool 
 forces, and tore down the bridge.f On this the Molyneux party retired, 
 and his lordship prepared to let loose all the terrors of the law on the heads 
 of the offending parties. On the 9th October they were served with notices 
 of an action. This action was tried at Lancaster at the following spring 
 assizes, and the result of it was that Lord Molyneux was nonsuited, and 
 that the mayor, bailiffs, and corporation came off triumphant. His lord- 
 ship had to pay T20 for the costs of the action to the corporation. His 
 tenants being thus left without egress from his new street, his lordship soon 
 showed signs of yielding to the terms of the corporation, which were 
 
 * Steward’s Accounts at Croxteth hall. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
332 
 
 willingly met by that body. On the 20tli April, 1671, the following 
 pacific resolution was passed by the town council:—“ Whereas suits and 
 controversies have been stirred up, and some of them yet depending, on 
 behalf of the corporation of Liverpool, of the one part, and the Lord 
 Molyneux on the other; and whereas of late it hath been signified to the 
 mayor by some, from the Lord Molyneux, that he is willing to have a 
 treaty with the said mayor, in order to the accommodation of the said 
 differences; it is hereby concluded by this assembly, that the said mayor 
 take him, to his assistance, Mr. Percival, to treat with the Lord Molyneux, 
 and, if occasion he, to proceed in order to an accommodation and conclu¬ 
 sion of the said differences, or any of them; and whatever may be done to 
 be binding.’’ On the 1st of May following it was further ordered, that 
 the mayor and Mr. Corless may treat, on behalf of the corporation, with 
 Mr. Fazakerley and Mr. J. Tatlock, on behalf of the Lord Molyneux, in 
 order to the composing and ending of the suits and differences between the 
 corporation and Lord Molyneux, and what Mr. Corless and the mayor 
 shall agree upon or conclude shall he binding, as if done by the privity 
 and consent of the whole assembly ; “ the aforesaid treaty to he at this 
 town to-morrow, at the house of Mrs. Margery Formby.” 
 
 As both parties were sincerely anxious for peace, there was no great 
 difficulty in bringing matters to an arrangement; and a treaty was conse¬ 
 quently concluded on the following terms : 
 
 That Lord Molyneux should be allowed to build a bridge across the 
 pool, from the end of Lord-street to Liverpool Heath, paying the corpo¬ 
 ration, as lords of the soil, a yearly rent of two-pence. 
 
 That Lord Molyneux should grant to the corporation a lease of the fee 
 farm of the town, for a term of one thousand years, the corporation paying 
 him the advanced rent of £30 a-year, during that time, instead of £20, 
 which they had previously paid. 
 
 On the 15th of May these terms were reported to the corporation, and 
 were agreed to. They were afterwards set forth in a deed, an abstract of 
 which will be found below.* The effects of this agreement were as follow: 
 
 t By indentures of lease between the said Caryl, Lord Viscount Molyneux, and the 
 said John Tatlock, of the first part, the said Mayor, Bailiffs, and Burgesses of Liverpool 
 aforesaid, of the second part, and Lawrence Brownloe, of Liverpool aforesaid, Alderman, 
 Thomas Andoe, Henry Cories, John Chandler, of Liverpool aforesaid, Alderman, Peter 
 J-,urting, of Liverpool aforesaid, Alderman, John Sturzaker, of Liverpool aforesaid, Aider- 
 man, Thomas Bickersteth, Thomas Johnson, James Jerrom, of Liverpool aforesaid, mer¬ 
 chant, Silvester Richmond, of Liverpool aforesaid, gentleman, Robert Secome, of Liver¬ 
 pool aforesaid, gentleman, Robert Williamson, of Liverpool aforesaid, mariner, and Edward 
 Tarleton, of Liverpool aforesaid, mariner, of the third part. Reciting the said grant or 
 letters patent of the 9th day of September, fourth of Charles the First, and the bargain 
 and sale of the 4th day of December, eleventh Charles the First; and also reciting that 
 
333 
 
 First, the mayor and burgesses, that is, the inhabitants, became the 
 undisputed possessors of upwards of 1,000 acres of building land within 
 the borough. They were thus enabled to introduce tbe plan of letting it 
 on building leases, first for three lives, and then for three lives and twenty- 
 one years, renewable on easy and well-ascertained terms, a plan which 
 secured to the tenants land, without any great outlay of capital, and to the 
 corporation a revenue, without the risk of building. This has gradually 
 raised the value of the landed estate of the corporation from a few 
 hundreds to upwards of £50,000 a-year. 
 
 Second, they obtained free access to the pool on both sides, and the 
 control of the docks which were afterwards formed in its channel. 
 
 Third, they obtained possession of the town dues, the market dues, 
 and other manorial and seignorial rights at a trifling rent, and for so 
 long a term that the owners of the fee simple were afterwards glad to 
 sell their reversionary interest in them to the corporation, for the sum of 
 £2,250. By this arrangement the corporation was secured in the pos¬ 
 session of dues and tolls which now produce an income of £100,000 
 a-year. 
 
 Fourth, these bargains gave the corporation both funds and credit, 
 and thus enabled them to contribute considerable sums for the forming 
 of the Old Dock, the Salthouse Dock, and other public improvements. 
 
 the said Thomas Walmesley, William Fazakerley, and John Nutter, the trustees of the said 
 Richard Lord Viscount Molyneux, were all dead, of whom the said John Nutter was the 
 survivor without issue, and Robert Nutter, his heir, was likewise dead, having had no issue 
 but daughters, (that was to say,) Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Margaret, of whom the said 
 Eleanor was dead, having issue one Richard Crambotle, of Larkhill, in Whalley, her son 
 and heir, and the said Margaret was also dead, having issue Henry Robinson, of Chatham, 
 her son and heir, and stating the premises to he then vested in the said John Tatlock, in 
 trust for the said Caryl, Lord Viscount Molyneux, by indentures of lease and release, of tho 
 14th and loth September, twelfth Charles the Second. And also reciting that divers 
 variances, suits, controversies, and debates had of then late been between the said Caryl, 
 Lord Viscount Molyneux, with others on his behalf, and the said mayor, bailiffs, and 
 burgesses, or others on their behalf, concerning several claims and demands by the 
 said Caryl, Lord Viscount Molyneux, or others, within, out of, or from the said town 
 and borough of Liverpool, or near the same, which differences had been since com¬ 
 posed and the agreement of the 20th day of March in the twenty-fourth year of 
 the reign of his then said Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second entered into. 
 It is witnessed, that, for the considerations therein mentioned, they, the said Caryl, Lord 
 Viscount Molyneux, and John Tatlock did grant, demise, bargain, and sell unto the said 
 Lawrence Brownloe, T. Andoe, H. Cories, J. Chandler, P. Lurting, J. Sturzaker, T. Bicker- 
 steth, T. Johnson, J. Jerrom, S. Richmond, R. Secome, R. Williamson, and E. Tarleton, 
 their executors, administrators, and assigns, The town and lordship of Liverpool, and the 
 customs, anchorage, and keytoll, and all the hereditaments and premises comprised in the 
 hereinbefore abstracted indenture of bargain and sale, and in the said letters patent, except 
 the ferry boats, and battleage and passage over the said water or river of Mersey, and all 
 and every the burgage rents within the said town and borough of Liverpool, To hold, 
 except as before excepted, unto the said several persons parties thereto of the third part, 
 their executors, administrators, and assigns, for the full term of one thousand years, subject 
 to the payment of the yearly rent of T30 at the time therein mentioned. Executed by the 
 said Caryl, Lord Viscount Molyneux, and John Tatlock and attested. Inrolled in the High 
 Court of Chancery. 
 
334 
 
 This agreement was the emancipation of the borough from the remains 
 of the feudal system; the origin of the corporate estate; and the pre¬ 
 cursor of all the public improvements of the last and the present century. 
 As long as Liverpool stands, the names of the principal actors in this 
 transaction, of Edward Tarleton, William Percival, Henry Corless, 
 Evan March, and James Whitfield, the leading men of the council, 
 should be spoken of with respect, as amongst the greatest benefactors of 
 the town and port. 
 
 On the occasion of this treaty Mrs. Margery Formby presented the 
 corporation with a silver tobacco-box, which has since been turned into a 
 gigantic snuff-box, and is still handed round after dinner at the mayor’s 
 banquets at the Town-hall. 
 
 One circumstance which greatly assisted the corporation in esta¬ 
 blishing its claim to the wastes outside the pool, was, that the practice of 
 walking the bounds had been regularly kept up. In the thirty-second of 
 Henry the Eighth, an order was made by the corporation that the bound¬ 
 aries of the borough should be perambulated yearly, “ to the intent that 
 every burgess may well know the circuit thereof.” A subsequent entry in 
 the Corporation Records contains the following account of the boundaries : 
 — “The perambulation is from Water-street to Beacon’s Gutter, on the 
 north side of Liverpoole; thence to the grove and the meyre stone in Mr. 
 Moore’s meadow; thence to Kirkdale-lane, to the meyre stone there, over 
 against the beacon; thence to the meyre stone in Syers’ Ditch, joining to 
 the breck there; thence through to—(illegible in the records); thence 
 through several closes to a meyre stone in Everton Cawsey; thence 
 through several fields to Liverpool Common, and after the Common side, 
 to the meyre stone at Johnson’s Field, and on the east side of the town, 
 and soe up the gutter or vale to the Mosslake, to a place called Hollin-edge; 
 and thence straight to the Park Wall, and soe to .the sea syde, and all 
 along the sea syde over the pool, and thence along the sea syde to Water- 
 street end.” 
 
 These were the boundaries claimed by the corporation in the trial 
 with Lord Molyneux, and which the event of that trial confirmed to 
 them. They were also made the boundaries of the parish of Liverpool, by 
 the act of eleventh William the Third, passed in the year 161)8, by which 
 the borough, town, township, and liberties of Liverpoole, “ as the same is 
 butted and bounded by meer stones, which are constantly repaired every 
 year,” is made into a separate parish, independent of Walton. 
 
335 
 
 From the time when the borough was thus emancipated, it began to 
 increase more rapidly than any other seaport of the empire, and it has 
 continued to do so to the present day. When Richard Blome, the topo¬ 
 grapher, visited Liverpool in the year 1673, he found that its church, though 
 large and good, was not large enough to hold its inhabitants. These were 
 many ; and amongst them “ were divers eminent merchants and trades¬ 
 men, whose trade and traffic, especially unto the West Indies, made it 
 famous; its situation affording in greater plenty, and at reasonabler rates 
 than most places in England, such exported commodities proper for the 
 West Indies ; as likewise a quicker return for such imported commodities ; 
 by reason of the sugar bakers, and great manufactures of cottons in the 
 adjacent parts; and the rather for that it is found to be the convenient 
 passage to Ireland, and divers considerable counties in England, with 
 which they have intercourse of traffic.” He also found that there was 
 then erecting at the charge of the mayor, aldermen, &c., “ a famous town 
 house, placed on pillars and arches of hewn stone; and underneath, the 
 public exchange for the merchants.” Amongst the antiquities of the town 
 these were not to be omitted :—“ On the south side a castle, which com¬ 
 mands the pool, built by King John during his stay here for a wind to 
 Ireland: on the west side, upon the said river, a stately and strong pile 
 of building called the Tower, erected many hundred years ago by Sir John 
 Stanley and his lady, who lie interred in the chancel under their alabaster 
 tombs: on the north side a mansion-house called the Old Hall, formerly 
 More Hall, wherein Sir John de la More lived temp. Henry the Third, as 
 did many of his ancestors before that time, the truth of which appears by 
 several deeds now in the custody of the Mores, of Bank-hall, who are 
 successively heirs in name and blood to them : and on the east side an 
 ancient mansion called Crosse-hall, where divers worthy gentlemen of 
 that name lived for many generations.” “Here,” says Blome, “is also a 
 piece of antiquity, formerly a chapel, now a free school, at the east end 
 whereof, next to the river, stood the statue of St. Nicholas, (long since 
 defaced and gone,) to whom the mariners offered when they went to sea.” 
 Nor was it only on account of its rising commerce and its remains of 
 antiquity that Liverpool was then noted. Blome adds, “ And to add to 
 the honour of the town, there have been several mayors of the greatest 
 families of this county ; amongst which were divers of the Earls of Derby, 
 whereof one was Lord High Constable of England, one Lord Deputy of 
 Ireland, four privy councillors, and several of the Knights of the Garter; 
 and since his Majesty’s restoration, for three years together, a nobleman 
 
336 
 
 hath been mayor, viz., Charles Earl of Derby, Thomas Lord Viscount 
 Colchester, and William Lord Strange of Knocking.”* 
 
 The last mention of the castle of Liverpool, as a building still standing 
 in a perfect state, is contained in the above notice. It appears from a 
 minute book of the Earl of Derby, commencing in the year 1662, and 
 ending in 1676, that the fortifications of the castle were destroyed some 
 time between these two dates.f At that time fifteen feet of the wall of 
 the gate house, the strongest part of the castle, which faced towards 
 Castle-street, had been pulled down ; on the north side of the castle the 
 outer wall had been pulled down, leaving only a height of a yard-and-a-half; 
 and on the west and south sides the wall had been reduced to the height 
 of four feet. A horse-mill, and a few slight buildings erected by Colonel 
 Birch, still remained. The castle continued in this ruinous state for 
 upwards of thirty years, when the ruins were removed, and St. George’s 
 Church was built upon the site, at the expense of the corporation. It 
 should be mentioned that the castle was destroyed in obedience to orders 
 from Charles the Second, who always looked upon the counties of Lan¬ 
 cashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire with great suspicion. They had contri¬ 
 buted as much as any three counties in the kingdon to the overthrow of 
 his father; and though the presbyterians of Cheshire and Lancashire had 
 been the first to rise in his favour under Sir George Booth, yet, after he 
 had ejected their ministers and quarrelled with the party, he justly 
 regarded them as the most implacable of his enemies. Hence he gave 
 orders for the destruction of the castle of Liverpool, as a place likely to 
 be seized by them if they should rise again. During the conspiracies 
 against Charles, and the early intrigues of the young Duke of Monmouth, 
 the chief reliance of the discontented was on the presbyterians of Lan¬ 
 cashire and Cheshire. Monmouth visited this neighbourhood in 1683, 
 under the pretence of attending the races, which were then held at Wallasey, 
 where he rode and won a race. At that time the Wallasey, or Leasowe 
 Eaces were amongst the most popular in the kingdom ; and the memory 
 of them is still preserved in the Leasowe race run at Newmarket. 
 
 About the time of Monmouth’s visit to the north, the party discon¬ 
 tented with the government of Charles, and hostile to the succession of 
 his brother James, assumed a very threatening attitude. On this the corpo¬ 
 ration of Liverpool endeavoured to clear itself from suspicion of sympathy 
 in the designs of Monmouth and Shaftesbury by a most loyal address to 
 the king. In this address the council speak of Charles the Second as 
 * Blome’s Britannia, 134. t Matthew Gregson’s Fragments, 170. 
 
337 
 
 “ the best of princes and of men !” and congratulate him on his “ and 
 (his) dearest brother’s” escape from the evil designs of “ aspiring Abso- 
 loms and the desperate advice of pestilent Ahitophells.”* 
 
 In the following year Charles’s “ dearest brother” James, having suc¬ 
 ceeded to the throne, the corporation received the reward of their ser¬ 
 vility in a summons from the king to surrender their ancient charters to 
 Lord Chief-Justice Jeffries,f who had already become the tool of his 
 tyranny and usurpations. In consequence of this summons a deputation 
 of sixteen members, including the mayor and the town-clerk, proceeded 
 to Bewsey-hall, near Warrington, the seat of Sir Richard Atherton, and 
 there delivered their charters to Jeffries. On the 8th of April following 
 they were again ordered to attend at Bewsey, where they were “ kindly 
 received and nobly entertained” by Sir Richard Atherton, who, in the 
 interval, had been elected mayor of Liverpool; and there they received a 
 new charter, in which the king assumed the power of removing any mem¬ 
 ber of the council to his will. Nor was the power assumed merely for pur¬ 
 poses of show, for, at a court held at Windsor, on the 14th August, 1087, 
 his majesty, having received information of the “ misbehaviour” of Oliver 
 Lyme, deputy-mayor of Liverpool, and Silvester Richmond, a justice of 
 the peace there, thought fit to order their removal from their offices in 
 the town of Liverpool. Their “ misbehaviour” was their opposition to 
 his illegal schemes : and both of them were restoi’ed to office after the 
 revolution. 
 
 These and other removals were preparations for an attempt to pack a 
 parliament favourable to the views of the king. On the 2d November 
 the mayor of Liverpool was summoned by the lord-lieutenant of the county, 
 to give answer to certain questions (sent down from the king) as to what 
 class of candidates he would support at the coming election. The mayor 
 answered very prudently, “ That what was required by his majesty was 
 a very weighty and new thing, and that he was not prepared to give any 
 other answer than this : When it shall please the king to call a parliament, 
 he proposed to vote for such persons, as he hoped would serve the 
 interests both of his majesty and the nation.’’J 
 
 In the following year the memorable and happy revolution took place 
 by which the elder branch of the house of Stuart w r as for ever banished 
 from the throne of England. On the 29th December, 1G88, a circular 
 signed by William, Prince of Orange, was forwarded to Liverpool, in 
 
 * Corporation Records. + Ibid. ♦ Ibid. 
 
 2 x 
 
338 
 
 common with the other boroughs of the kingdom, ordering the burgesses 
 to return two members to the Convention Parliament, which was to 
 assemble at Westminster on the 22nd January. This order was addressed 
 “ To the chief-magistrate, or such others of the borough of Liverpool, in 
 the county of Lancaster, who have right to make returns of members to 
 serve in parliament, according to the ancient usages of the said borough, 
 before the seizure or surrender of charters made in the time of King 
 Charles the Second.' By the wording of this mandate, the charters of 
 Charles the Second and James the Second were set aside as of no force, 
 and that of Charles the First was restored. The following is a copy of 
 the return to the Convention Parliament, made from Liverpool:—“ Wee, 
 the maior, baylives, and burgesses of the borough of Leverpoole, in the 
 countie palatine of Lancaster, doe humbly certifie, that pursuant to his 
 highnesse letter hereunto annexed, we have this day unanimouslie elected 
 the Hon. Richard Lord Colchester, and Thomas Norris, of Speake, 
 esquire, representatives for the said borough of Leverpoole, to sit in the 
 convention, which, God willing, will begin at Westminster, the two and 
 twentieth day of Januarie instant, for the good ends and purposes in the 
 said letter mentioned.”* Both the members thus returned to Liverpool 
 belonged to the Whig party, and, doubtless, both joined in declaring 
 the throne vacant, by the flight of King James, and in placing his 
 son-in-law, William Prince of Orange, and his eldest daughter, Mary 
 Princess of Orange upon it as his successors. It is well known that this 
 decision met with general approbation in England, but that it was reso¬ 
 lutely resisted by the partizans of James in Ireland, and in the Highlands 
 of Scotland. In the course of the war to which it led in Ireland the new 
 king, William the Third, visited Liverpool on his way to that country. 
 He left London on the 4th June, 1690, in company with his brother-in- 
 law, Prince George of Denmark, with the Duke of Ormonde, and the 
 Earls of Oxford, Portland, Scarborough, and Manchester. On his arrival 
 at Liverpool he reviewed the army which he proposed to take to Ireland, 
 on Wallasey race-course, and embarked with it at Wallasey Leasowe, on 
 the 13th of June. On the 14th he arrived at Carrickfergus, and, having 
 joined the army of Duke Schomberg and the Irish protestants, fought the 
 decisive battle of the Boyne on the 1st of July. 
 
 In the third year of William and Mary the burgesses of Liverpool 
 obtained a renewal of the charter of Charles the First. Two other 
 
 * Corporation Eecords. 
 
339 
 
 charters were also granted in the same reign, the one called “ the 
 Governing Charter,” granted on the 18th September, 1695, and another 
 granted in the year 1697, by which the mayor of Liverpool lor the 
 time being was made a justice of the peace for the county. These 
 charters were very far from giving universal satisfaction amongst the 
 burgesses. They did not create any system of municipal representation 
 analagous to the parliamentary system of the country ; but rendered the 
 town council self-elected, leaving only a nominal control to the burgesses, 
 in common hall assembled. These meetings in common hall were too 
 numerous and tumultuous to be of any use in conducting the government 
 of the town, and hence they fell into disuse. The local government 
 thus became what the general government of the •country would have 
 become, if it had been administered solely by a House of Lords or a 
 senate, constantly renewed by self-election. Frequent conflicts and 
 struggles took place between the burgesses and the town council during 
 the succeeding century, in Avhich the latter were always victorious. They 
 retained their power undiminished, until the passing of the municipal 
 reform hill of 1836, when the ancient burgesses were merged, for electoral 
 purposes, in the body of the ten pound householders of the town and its 
 suburbs ; and when popular election took the place of self-appointment. 
 
 The reigns of William the Third and his successor, Queen Anne, are 
 remarkable in the annals of Liverpool for the commencement of numerous 
 improvements, all of which bear witness to the growing prosperity of the 
 town. 
 
 In the year 1699 Liverpool was formed into a separate parish, and 
 authority was given to build and endow a second church. The ancient 
 chapel of St. Nicholas, which had been dependent upon the parish church 
 at Walton from the time when it was built, which was some time in the 
 reign of one of the early kings of the House of Plantagenet, had been 
 insufficient to contain all the inhabitants, when Blome visited Liver¬ 
 pool thirty years before. During the intervening period the commerce of 
 the port, as tested hy the amount of the town dues, had doubled, and the 
 population had increased, probably in the same proportion In order to 
 furnish the needful accommodation and instruction to the inhabitants, the 
 corporation determined to build a new church heyond the pool, to which 
 they proposed to give the name of St. Peter’s. They took this opportunity 
 to apply to parliament for powers to form Liverpool into a separate parish, 
 under the government and teaching of two rectors, one of them to officiate 
 at St. Nicholas's, the other in the new church of St. Peter. After some 
 
340 
 
 opposition from Lord Molyneux, who was the legal patron of the living 
 of Walton, though at that time disqualified from acting, by his religion as 
 a Roman Catholic, the hill passed through parliament, and soon after the 
 building of the church of St. Peter’s was commenced and completed, at 
 the expense of the corporation and inhabitants. The two first rectors 
 named in the act were the Rev. Robert Stitlie and the Rev. William Atherton. 
 The memorial of the inhabitants, praying for permission to form the town¬ 
 ship into a separate parish, which throws much light on the causes of the 
 growth of Liverpool, and is otherwise curious as a picture of manners, will 
 be found below.* 
 
 Another great improvement, effected about the end of the seventeenth 
 century, from which Liverpool lias derived immense advantage, was the 
 deeping of the River Mersey above Runcorn, for the purpose of rendering 
 it navigable into the interior. It has been mentioned already that the 
 Mersey was not naturally navigable for more than fifteen or twenty miles 
 above Liverpool. The consequence of tills was, that goods sent to Man¬ 
 chester or other places in the interior had to be forwarded either on the 
 backs of pack horses in small parcels, or by slow wagons or carts, in 
 either case at a great cost. The first improvement in the Mersey was 
 effected by Mr. Thomas Patten, of Bank-hall, Warrington, about the year 
 1094, by which the river was made navigable from Runcorn to Warring¬ 
 ton. f The following extract of a letter from Mr. Patten will show how 
 goods were sent forward into the interior from Warrington in the year 
 
 * “The case of the corporation of Liverpool in relation to a bill for making anew 
 church there, (Giro. 1099.) 
 
 “ It was formerly a small fishing town, but many people coming from London, in time 
 of the sickness and after the fire, several ingenious men settled in Liverpool, which caused 
 them to trade to the plantations and other places, which occasioned sundry other tradesmen 
 to come and settle there, which hath so enlarged their trade, that from scarce paying the 
 salary of the officers of the customs, it is now the third part of the trade of England, and 
 pays upwards of L'50,000 per annum to the king ; and by reason of such increase many new 
 streets are built, and still in building; and many gentlemen’s sons of the counties of Lan¬ 
 caster, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and North Wales, are put apprentices 
 in the town. And there being but one chapel, which doth not contain one-half of our 
 inhabitants, in the summer, (upon pretence of going to the parish church, which is two 
 long miles, and there being a village in the way,) they drink in the said village, [Kirkdale,] 
 by which, and otherwise, many youth and sundry families axe ruined; therefore it is hoped 
 the bill may pass, being to promote the service of God. 
 
 “ The objections are, that we, being the sixth part of the parish of Walton, the patronage 
 of Walton doth belong to the Lord Mullineux, (who is a Roman Catholick,) and it is hard that 
 his estate should bo taken away. That the town have agreed with the present rector and 
 vicar for their purchase money, therefore there is no present wrong; and Liverpool takes 
 away but a sixth part, and at the same time taketh off the charge of more souls than is in 
 the whole parish besides. Moreover, they are willing to give for the perpetual advowson 
 that which shall be a reasonable price, considering there is a life upon it, having already 
 offered his sollicitor to refer it to two indifferent men, they to chose one and the town another. 
 
 “And it is hoped that so good a work as this bill desires shall not be obstructed by so 
 inconsiderable a claim.”—The Moore Rental , 77. 
 
 + Norris’s Papers, 98. 
 
341 
 
 1701. He says, “ I have received answer from Mr. John Hall, of Stock- 
 port, relating to the carriage of tobacco that way to Hull, which he says 
 is not to be done in the hogshead, by cart or wagon, but in packs by 
 horses; and though this seems no good method, yet in regard of the slow 
 conveyance hither I am resolved to make a trial of it, and would have 
 forthwith 20 or 30 hogsheads sent from Bank-key (Warrington) to Stock- 
 port by cart, where he is to break them into three or four parcels, and 
 after putting them in canvas to load three parcels upon a horse, and the 
 distance thence to Doncaster (whence they pass to Hull by water) being 
 only thirty-six miles, I presume we may, by employing a great many horses, 
 make a good riddance.”* The effect of Mr. Patten’s improvement of the 
 river was at once to increase the quantity of goods conveyed very con¬ 
 siderably. “Since I made the river navigable to Warrington,” he says, 
 “ there have been sent to Liverpool and from Liverpool 2,000 tons of goods 
 a-year, and I believe as much by land, which, if the river (above Warring¬ 
 ton) were cleared of wears would all go by water ; for the river to Man¬ 
 chester is very capable of being made navigable at a very small charge. 
 And this would encourage the tradesman in Manchester, Stockport, 
 Macclesfield, Congleton, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, some parts of Yorkshire 
 and Staffordshire, to come to Liverpool and buy their goods instead of 
 going to Chester, Bristol, or London ; the carriage would be easy and 
 cheap ; I think it would nearly double the trade of Liverpool.”+ Instead 
 of doubling this and other improvements have increased the trade of 
 Liverpool nearly a thousand fold, for thrice as many goods enter and leave 
 Liverpool in a day as entered and left it in a year when Mr. Patten 
 effected the first improvement in the navigation of the Mersey. The 
 yearly traffic in 1848 was 3,350,000 tons, according to a calculation with 
 which I have been favoured by Mr. Braithwaite Poole, goods manager of 
 the London and North-western Railway. The suggestion that the rivers 
 Mersey and Irwell could be easily improved from Warrington to Man¬ 
 chester was not acted upon until the reign of George the First, although 
 a number of spirited persons at Manchester caused a survey of the rivers, 
 between those places, to be made in the year 17124 This survey was 
 executed by Mr. Thomas Steers, the engineer of the first dock constructed 
 at Liverpool; and served as the ground-work of the plan which was after¬ 
 wards carried into effect. The period during which the attention of the 
 public was directed to the improvement of river navigation in England 
 
 * Norris's Papers, 37. t Ibid, 37. J Plan referred to at page 39. 
 
 9 
 
342 
 
 commenced about the time of the restoration of Charles the Second, and 
 extended to the accession of George the Third,* when navigable canals 
 began to supersede river navigations. Previous to the date of Mr. Patten's 
 improvement of the Mersey several other rivers had been rendered naviga¬ 
 ble. Amongst them were the Wye to Chepstow; the Warwickshire Avon 
 to Stratford; tbe Wiltshire Avon from Salisbury to Chfistchurch ; the 
 upper part of the Trent; the Thames from Burcot to Oxford; the 
 Colne from Lechlade to the Isis ; the Lugg, in Herefordshire; and the 
 Stow and Waveney in Suffolk and Norfolk. Apian had also been formed, 
 but only partially carried into effect, for forming aline of inland navigation 
 from Chester to London, by deepening the river Dee up toBangor-bridge; 
 then deepening the most northern of the tributaries of the Severn ; ren¬ 
 dering the Avon which flows into the Severn navigable above Stratford, to 
 the point where it approaches nearest to the Cherwell, and connecting the 
 Severn with the Thames by means of that stream.t The improvement of 
 river navigation was the great work of the latter half of the seventeenth and 
 the first half of the eighteenth century ; and the forming of canals, and 
 the constructing of turnpike roads was the work of the latter half of 
 the eighteenth and the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, as 
 the forming of railways has been the work of the last twenty years. Lan¬ 
 cashire followed the rest of the kingdom in constructing river navigations 
 and turnpike roads; but preceded the rest in constructing navigable 
 canals and railways. Those who are accustomed to be whirled from 
 London to Liverpool in six hours by the North-western Railway, will 
 smile at the following account of the difficulty which Lady Norris, of 
 Speke, and her daughter experienced in making the same journey, in the 
 year 1696 :—“ I removed from Chelsea last week, after which came my 
 mother and sisters (Lady Norris and her daughters.) Upon earnest 
 solicitation went to my Lady Stroud’s, in Hatton-garden, to be near the 
 coach which they had taken at the beginning of the week, with intention 
 to set forwards towards Lancashire the 5th instant, and accordingly last 
 Friday sent their goods and clothes all away by the carrier; but there 
 having fallen great quantities of rain these two days, made my mother and 
 sisters very apprehensive of the waters being out, and so rather chose to 
 lose their earnest (half-fare) than run the hazard of drowninge or over- 
 
 * See Statutes at Large, from 1600 to 1700, for titles and objects of acts referred to in the 
 
 following paragraphs. 
 
 t Yarranton’s England’s Improvement by Sea and Land, 102. 
 
343 
 
 turninge. I am almost of opinion, if the weather continues bad a week 
 longer, they will not venture on a northern journey this winter.”* 
 
 Another great improvement, the honour of which belongs to the 
 corporation and inhabitants of Liverpool, after having been talked of from 
 the accession of Charles the Second, was commenced in the reign of Queen 
 Anne : I mean that of constructing an artificial dock, for the reception of 
 shipping. It appears, from the account of the various harbours of the 
 kingdom given by Captain Grenville Collins, in the year 1G90, that 
 docks, in the modern sense of the term, were unknown in England, at that 
 time. N o docks seem to have existed even in the great naval stations of 
 Portsmouth, Plymouth, Falmouth, or Milford, except graving-docks for the 
 purpose of careening ships ; nor at Harwich, which was already a packet 
 station for the continent. The only commercial ports which possessed 
 good accommodations for shipping were those in which nature had done 
 nearly everything, namely, London, Bristol, Hull, and Newcastle. The 
 harbour of London was the stream of the Thames, unimproved but 
 almost unimprovable by art. The harbour of Bristol was the rivers 
 Avon and Frome, probably deepened in ancient times, but not otherwise 
 altered. The harbour of Hull was also the natural bed of the Hull and 
 the Humber; and that of Newcastle was the bed of the Tyne. Quays along 
 the banks of these rivers were all the artificial improvement which had been 
 effected in them. Still they afforded shelter and good anchorage. The 
 river Mersey at Liverpool, on the other hand, afforded little shelter to 
 vessels, and the anchorage was very dangerous, owing to the violence of 
 the tides. Still, with all its defects, it was the best harbour between Milford 
 and Whitehaven; and the corporation now determined to render it as safe 
 by art as the other great commercial ports of the kingdom were by nature. 
 
 It has been seen from the extracts given from the Moore Rental, that the 
 plan of deepening or cutting the pool was under discussion during the 
 whole of the reign of Charles the Second ; but it was not until the eighth 
 of Queen Anne that the corporation felt itself to be strong enough in 
 resources and credit to enter on so great an undertaking. For some 
 years previously, however, all grants of land made by the corporation, 
 about the pool, had been made subject to conditions connected with the 
 projected undertaking. In a grant made to Mr. Peter Atherton, in the 
 year 1701, of land on which Atherton-street has since been built, it is 
 mentioned that “ the town is to build a bridge over the intended canal," 
 
 * Letter of William Norris, Esq., M.P. for Liverpool, to Thomas Norris, Esq., High-sheriff 
 of Lancashire.— Norris's Papers, 37. 
 
344 
 
 or cutting of the pool. About the same time Mr. William Bibby petitioned 
 for a lease of land “ along the intended canal.”* Near the close of the 
 year 1708 the corporation considered itself strong enough for the enter¬ 
 prise. For some time it had possessed a revenue of about £1,200 a-year; 
 and its income had increased upwards of fifty per cent, since the first year 
 of the century. Under these circumstances the corporation gave the fol¬ 
 lowing instructions to Sir Thomas Johnson and Richard Norris, Esq., the 
 members for the borough, on the 3rd of November, 1708: 
 
 “ Ordered, that Sir Thomas Johnson and Richard Norris, Esq., the 
 representatives in parliament of the corporation, being now going to 
 parliament, be desired and empowered to treat with and agree for a person 
 to come to the town, and view the ground and plan of the intended dock.” 
 
 The members accordingly looked out for an engineer capable of 
 planning and executing such a work, and found one in the person of 
 Mr. Thomas Steers, who came down and settled in Liverpool. After 
 surveying the ground, he laid the plan of the old dock before the corpora¬ 
 tion, which met with general favour; and shortly afterwards a resolution, 
 authorizing an application to parliament, for a bill to carry out the plan, 
 was agreed to unanimously by the town council. 
 
 Early in the following session a bill for forming a dock at Liverpool 
 was brought before parliament, and the project being entirely new in 
 England, a printed paper was handed to honourable members, which gave 
 the following reasons in favour of the scheme. It commenced by stating 
 that in the harbour of Liverpool the sea or tide flows about five hours and 
 a half, and ebbs about six hours and a half; and that in spring tides it 
 rises about thirty feet, and at the lowest neaps fifteen feet. The distance 
 between high and low water mark against the town side, it is stated, is 
 between three and four hundred yards. The current of the tides, both 
 ebb and flood, is very strong and rapid, especially at spring tides, 
 or upon high winds, or when there are freshes in the river. The 
 harbour of Liverpool (the case proceeds to state) lies very open, and 
 is very much exposed to strong westerly winds and tempestuous weather, 
 which are very frequent in those parts. The shipping which trades 
 to the port, to take in or deliver out their merchandize, either lie 
 on the ground between high and low-water mark, which is rock covered 
 with a thin sand, or else ride afloat in the channel or current of the tide, 
 where they often suffer great damage, either by beating on the rocks, by an 
 
 Corporation Records, vi., 295. 
 
345 
 
 extraordinary wear and tear of their cables and rigging, or by being driven 
 from their moorings and wrecked against the town side, for preventing 
 these dangers for the future, (the case states,) it is proposed that a dock 
 should be built, covering four acres of ground, capable of containing one 
 hundred ships at a time. This will always have at the lowest neap tides 
 about fourteen feet of water ; and at spring tides enough water for a fourth 
 or fifth-rate man-of-war. The shipping will always have three hours 
 every tide, that is, every twelve hours, for going in and coming out of the 
 dock. Kevs and wharfs are intended to be made all round the dock, and 
 warehouses may be built “ thereunto” for the storing of goods. The charge 
 of making the dock is estimated at Tl 0,000. The duties are intended 
 to be 4d. a ton on coasters, but more on vessels sailing foreign ; calculated 
 on a medium of the exports and imports of Liverpool for the last three 
 years to yield a return of six hundred pounds a year. It is to be noted, 
 (says the case) that this dock will also be a great benefit and accommo¬ 
 dation for the graving or careening of ships with more expedition and 
 safety, and less charge, “ and also of extraordinary service to her majesty’s 
 ships-of-war employed in those parts, for the careening and refitting them 
 upon any accidents or occasion, there being no convenience of a dock for 
 these purposes in all the channel, or any nearer than Plymouth harbour.” 
 The case then mentions that the only opposition to the bill is made by 
 the cheesemongers of London, whose ships frequent the river to buy 
 cheese, but it contends that they are as much interested in the success of 
 the scheme as any other class of shipowners, or shippers of goods. It 
 therefore seems very reasonable that they should come under this contri¬ 
 bution as well as others:—“ Because work of this nature, being for the 
 general and public good of navigation, ought to be done by a contribution 
 of the shipping, as general as the security and relief for the navigation of 
 it, which in this case may not only have the benefit, but in all probability 
 will have a very frequent occasion for such security and relief. Instances 
 of this kind are very common in this kingdom, viz., the piers of Yarmouth. 
 Whitby, Dover, &c., where the shipping contribute to the charge of making 
 and supporting them, without regard whether they at any time come into 
 such piers, it being thought a sufficient consideration for such their 
 contribution, that these accommodations are ready for their relief and 
 security, upon any occasion or accidents. And, indeed, it would be as 
 unreasonable for our seamen to object against contributing to the relief 
 or support of their fellow-seamen that are disabled by age or accident, 
 upon pretence that they being well have no present occasion for, or 
 benefit by, such contribution.” 
 
 o 
 
 v 
 
346 
 
 To this' case the cheesemongers answered as follows:—That the 
 great argument of the bill was the good of navigation, but that it was 
 apparently a burden on navigation for the benefit of the particular ships 
 of Liverpool ; that this was the first instance of a bill for laying a duty 
 on shipping to defray the charge of making a dock for the benefit of par¬ 
 ticular persons; that the dock might be very convenient for fitting, 
 repairing, and laying up their ships, but was not proper for loading or 
 unloading vessels; that the comparison between a pier and a dock did 
 not hold good, because a pier was always open to shipping, whereas 
 this proposed dock was three miles distant from the sea, up the river, and 
 was to be shut with flood-gates, which would only be opened in fair 
 weather, at or near high water, and therefore could be of no service in 
 stress of weather; that divers ships took their loading at Ince and 
 Frodsham, ten or twelve miles above the town, but never touched at 
 Liverpool, which would still be compelled to pay; and that the ships 
 which load cheese, rock salt, &c., near Liverpool, always load by charter 
 party, and are allowed only twelve or fourteen days to take in their 
 cargoes, but if they should load in the intended docks it would be im¬ 
 possible for them to despatch “ in treble that time !” 
 
 To this string of assertions and fallacies the promoters of the bill 
 answered as follows:—That the bill was no burden on navigation in 
 general, but only concerned the ships which came into the port of Liver¬ 
 pool ; that the benefit was not confined to particular ships belonging to 
 Liverpool, but was open to all vessels coming there, without distinction 
 of or preference to those that belonged to the port; that there was no 
 ground for the insinuation that the dock was made for the benefit of par¬ 
 ticular persons, or that it would be serviceable only for careening ; that it 
 would be quite as convenient for vessels loading or discharging cargoes 
 as for vessels repairing, for in this dock or basin “ they would be secure 
 from beating on the hard rocky ground, and be free from the great wear 
 and tear of the cables and rigging, and lie safe from all dangers or acci¬ 
 dents arising from storms or tempestuous weather, and would be able to 
 work in loading and unloading all the day and at all times of the tide, 
 whereas now, without this dock or basin, they could only work at such 
 times of the day as the tides were out, and must all the while lie exposed 
 to all hazards of any storms or tempestuous weather that happened, which 
 were very frequent, and had done very great damage to the shipping in 
 this harbourand that the example of taxing ships for the support of 
 piers, as at Dover, Whitby, &c., more than supported the principle of this 
 
347 
 
 bill, for in those cases ships passing on the high seas were taxed, although 
 they never entered the harbours in which the piers were formed, whilst the 
 dock and harbour of Liverpool would be open to all, and yet none but 
 those who entered the harbour would be taxed for the dock. 
 
 Fortunately for the commerce and navigation of the empire, and more 
 especially for the interests of Liverpool and the adjoining counties, the 
 arguments of the promoters of the bill prevailed, and a Public Act 
 was passed,* authorizing the forming of the old dock of Liverpool, the 
 first dock of the kind constructed in England. The following are the 
 most important provisions of this invaluable act: 
 
 The act commences by stating, that the town and borough of Liver¬ 
 pool, in the county palatine of Lancaster, is an ancient borough, seaport, 
 and corporation, and is entitled to enjoy divers ancient franchises, rights, 
 and privileges; and for the better government thereof, hath several good 
 and laudable customs, not repugnant to the laws of the realm; and hath 
 by long experience been found to be of great importance for advancing 
 her majesty’s service and revenue, and trade in general, and for breeding 
 and employing great numbers of skilful mariners and seamen. It then 
 proceeds to state, that the said port is and may be of great use and 
 benefit to merchants and others trading to the northern parts of the 
 kingdom, who, by stress of weather, and to avoid the common enemy in 
 time of war, may be drawn upon the coast; but that the entries into the 
 harbour and port have been found so dangerous and difficult, that great 
 numbers of strangers and others have frequently lost their lives, as well 
 as ships and goods, for want of proper land-marks, buoys, and other 
 directions into the said harbour ; and, when such ships have entered the 
 said port, have been exposed to great dangers for want of a convenient 
 wot dock or basin. For these reasons (the act proceeds to state) it is 
 conceived to be highly necessary for the preservation, not only of 
 merchants’ ships, but also of her majesty’s ships-of-war, that a con¬ 
 venient wet dock or basin should be made, and that, at the entrance 
 into the said port and harbour, buoys should be placed, and necessary 
 land-marks erected, for guiding and directing her majesty’s commanders 
 of sliips-of-war, and all other mariners and traders trading to and from 
 the said town or port, all which will be a means greatly to encourage 
 trade, advance her majesty’s revenues, and the public good, “ not 
 only of the said town and port and the country adjoining in 
 
 * Eighth Queen Anne, cap. 12. 
 
348 
 
 particular, but of the nation in general." It then further states 
 that the mayor, bailiffs, and common council of the said borough in 
 council assembled, have granted a piece of ground, containing four acres, 
 or thereabouts, parcel of the waste belonging to the said corporation and 
 borough, lying in or near a certain place called the Poole, on the south 
 side of the said town of Liverpool, the same to remain to and for such 
 use and uses for ever; but forasmuch as the making- the said dock or 
 basin, and the canal or sluices therewith intended to belong, and the 
 preserving and maintaining the same when made, will cost more than the 
 inhabitants of the said borough and corporation can raise ; and that the 
 same cannot be effected without the aid and assistance of all persons 
 trading to or from the same ; it is enacted that the mayor, bailiffs, and 
 common council of the said borough, and their successors, shall have full 
 power and authority to make a wet dock or basin, with wharfs, sluices, 
 and canals in and upon the aforesaid premises, and to levy the following 
 rates on all ships and vessels entering the port with any goods and mer¬ 
 chandize, which port extends “ from a certain place in Hoylake called 
 the Red Stones, and from there all over the River Mersey to Warrington 
 and Erodsham Bridgesnamely, 
 
 On every ship trading between the said port of Liverpool and St. 
 David’s Head, or Carlisle, for every ton the sum of twopence; on every 
 ship or vessel trading between St. David’s Head and the Land’s End, or 
 beyond Carlisle, to any port in or on this side the Shetland, or to and 
 from the Isle of Man, for every ton the sum of threepence; on every 
 ship or vessel trading to any port of Ireland, for every ton the sum of 
 foui-pence; on every ship or vessel trading up the Queen’s Channel, 
 beyond the Land’s End, or beyond the Shetlands, for every ton the sum 
 of fourpence; on every ship or vessel trading to and from Norway, 
 Denmark, Holstein, Holland, Hamburgh, Flanders, or any part of France, 
 without the Straits of Gibraltar, or the Isles of Jersey or Guernsey, for 
 every ton the sum of eightpence; on every ship or vessel trading to or 
 from Newfoundland, Greenland, Russia, and within the Baltic, Portugal, 
 and Spain without the Straits, Canaries, Madeira, Western Isles, Azores, 
 for every ton twelvepence ; and on every ship or vessel trading to or from 
 the West Indies, Virginia, or any other part of America, Africa, Europe, or 
 Asia within the Straits, or not named before, any part of Africa without 
 the Straits, or Cape de Verd Islands, for every ton the sum of one shilling 
 and sixpence. 
 
 In order to enable the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council 
 
349 
 
 to raise the needful amount for constructing the works, the act authorizes 
 them to borrow six thousand pounds, on mortgage of the dock rates. 
 After a variety of details which it is not needful to refer to, it provides 
 that the accounts of the dock trust shall be under the inspection of nine 
 commissioners, three of them to be appointed by the mayor, aldermen, 
 bailiffs, and common council of the borough of Liverpool; three by the 
 justices of the peace for the county palatine of Lancaster, at their sessions 
 held at Ormskirk ; and three by the justices of the peace for the county 
 palatine of Chester ; “ which said commissioners shall and may order and 
 appoint all such monies, which shall rest due upon such account, to be 
 laid out and expended, to and for the uses and purposes in the said act 
 mentioned, and to and for no other uses whatsoever.” Such were the 
 powers of the first dock act. On the 8th December, 1709, the corpo¬ 
 ration gave ,£500 towards the commencement of the work ;* but so much 
 difficulty was found in raising the needful sums of money, that this great 
 undertaking was not completed until some years after the accession of 
 the house of Hanover. 
 
 In the same year in which powers were obtained to construct the first 
 dock in Liverpool, powers were also granted to Sir Cleave Moore, Bart., 
 the son of Sir Edward Moore, to supply the town of Liverpool and the 
 shipping of the port with fresh water, from the springs on his estate at 
 Bootle, three miles from the town. The act under which these powers 
 were given is entituled “ An Act to enable the corporation of Liverpool to 
 make a grant to Sir Cleave Moore, Bart., for liberty to bring fresh water 
 into the totyn of Liverpool.” It commences by stating that the mayor, 
 bailiffs, and burgesses of Liverpool, “upon the insinuation and assurances 
 which were made and given to them, by John Green, of the city of West¬ 
 minster, gentleman ; Thomas James Hall, of the city of London, clock- 
 maker, and Bichard Barry, of the said city of Westminster, gentleman, 
 about fifteen years since, that they could and would, at their own costs and 
 charges, bring or procure to be brought into the said borough of Liverpool 
 good and wholesome fresh water to supply the same, did, by indenture 
 bearing date the 29th October, 1695,” give them power to do so, for 
 a term of one hundred years, but that up to that time they had not taken 
 a single step towards that object. The corporation therefore pray that 
 they may be freed from that engagement, and allowed to enter into 
 another, for a like term of one hundred years, with Sir Cleave Moore, Bart., 
 
 * Corporation Records. 
 
350 
 
 “ who has proposed to the said corporation that he will, from springs at 
 Bootle, arising in his own lands, which lie about three miles from the said 
 borough, or at least by the assistance of other springs which arise 
 between those and the said borough of Liverpool, furnish wholesome 
 fresh water, sufficient to supply the uses of all such of the inhabitants and 
 ships as shall desire the same.” The act then proceeds to give powers to 
 Sir Cleave Moore to lay such “main aqueducts and pipes” as he may 
 think necessary for completing his plan; and to give all other powers 
 necessary for carrying out the whole scheme. It also provides that the 
 work shall be completed within seven years, or in case of its not being 
 so, that the corporation shall be freed from its engagement with Sir 
 Cleave Moore, and be at liberty to agree with any other undertaker. 
 Unfortunately for Sir Cleave Moore and the inhabitants, this excellent 
 scheme was not carried into effect until nearly a century after it was 
 formed. At the time when the act was obtained the greater part of Sir 
 Cleave Moore’s estates were mortgaged to the representatives of Sir John 
 Moore, Knight, “ late one of the aldermen of the city of London,” no 
 relation but the principal creditor of Sir Cleave. The latter in vain 
 attempted to form a joint-stock company to carry out the scheme, and 
 also to raise money towards it, by mortgaging the Old Hall and other 
 property to Mr. Bertie, an ancestor of the Dukes of Ancaster. All his 
 attempts to effect this most useful, necessary, and profitable undertaking 
 failed, and only served to bring the ruin of his affairs to a crisis. The 
 plan was not carried into effect until long after the death of Sir Cleave 
 Moore. His estates in and about Liverpool were put up to sale shortly 
 after the bill had been granted, when they were purchased by the Earl of 
 Derby, by Mr. Bertie, and by an ancestor of Colonel Plumbe Tempest, of 
 Tong-hall, Yorkshire. It is impossible to trace all the causes by which 
 the Moore property in and about Liverpool, which is now worth upwards of 
 a million sterling, came to be sacrified for less than T20,000, at a time 
 when its value was increasing so rapidly. One principal cause, however, 
 was a succession of contested elections, in all of which Sir Cleave Moore 
 was defeated, in his attempts to represent “ his borough” of Liverpool. 
 At that time the cost of an uncontested Liverpool election was upwards of 
 <£100; that of a contested one many times as much.* Another cause 
 
 * At the election of Lord Colchester and Thomas Norris, Esq., in the year 1689, the 
 money given was <£68 18s. 6d., that spent in treating was <£31 10s., for which latter sum 
 17a of the “free and independent” were dined, and supplied with claret, sack, ale, and 
 tobacco, at the Dining-room, the Hose and Crown, the Lose, the Mermaid, and the Union. 
 The highest charge for a dinner was one shilling, but the charge at second-class houses was 
 only sixpence. The ringers received twenty shillings. 
 
351 
 
 was a succession of petitions to parliament, in which the lawyers swallowed 
 up the inheritance of his family. Fortunately for Sir Cleave Moore he 
 retained or obtained another estate in the south of England, which still 
 remains in the hands of one of his descendants. 
 
 Although Liverpool was increasing in population and improving in 
 commerce, yet it was not a place of more than 10,000 inhabitants at 
 the time when George the First succeeded to the throne. Towns of 10,000 
 inhabitants were, however, very rare in England at that time. The num¬ 
 ber of streets in the town in 1717 was thirty-seven, but sixteen new streets 
 were laid out between 1705 and 1725. In 1707 a rate of 3d. in the pound 
 on houses, land, and stock produced £292 13s. 4d. At the present time 
 a similar rate on houses and lands would produce £15,000; and one on 
 stock still more. The following are a few of the principal valuations in 
 1707 :—Mr. Ralph Peters’ house and stock, £100; Mr. John Pember¬ 
 ton, £350; Mr. Robert Tuite, £200; Alderman Thomas Sweeting, 
 (after whom Sweeting-street is named,) £120 ; Mr. Richard Gildart, 
 £75; Alderman Preeson, £100; Mr. Richard Warbreck, £300; Mr. 
 Henry Parr, £250; Mr. Daniel Danvers, house, warehouse, sugar- 
 house, and stock, £450; Mr. Richard Ashton, £100; Alderman James 
 Benn, £120; Mr. John Percival, house, warehouse, and stock, £l 00 ; 
 Mr. Blackburne, “ for the salt works over the Poole,” stock, £150.* It 
 will be seen that there is no one in the above list whose stock is entered at 
 £500, and though this may perhaps have been a very indulgent valuation, 
 yet still it shows how small private fortunes still were in Liverpool. 
 This, however, only increases our respect for men who entered on 
 so many spirited undertakings with such moderate means, and thus 
 laid the foundation of the modern wealth and prosperity of the town 
 and port. 
 
 Before closing this chapter, it may be well to bring together, in a 
 condensed form, a number of facts illustrative of life, manners, and 
 society, during the rule of the Stuarts, but which do not require a more 
 lengthened notice. 
 
 The parish books commence in the year 1681, and throw much light on 
 the condition of the poor and of the church in Liverpool. In the following 
 year, 1682, the sum of £60 was raised for the relief of the poor; and, 
 during the next ten years, the sums raised for that purpose fluctuated 
 from £50 to £70 a year. In 1692 the rate for the poor amounted to 
 
 * From a MS. Assessment of Liverpool, belonging to the late Henry Holmes, Esq., lent to 
 the Author by John Holmes, Esq., Mayor of Liverpool. 
 
352 
 
 only .£50 ;* but it rose rapidly during the succeeding ten years, and reached 
 £120 in the year 1699. In 1702 the rate amounted to £100, and 
 continued to increase until it reached £350, in the year 1711. In 1712 
 it had risen to £400, and remained at that point until the death of 
 Queen Anne, beyond -which date it is not necessary to trace it at present. 
 During this period the population had more than doubled itself, and 
 -wealth had also increased rapidly ; but pauperism had increased in a still 
 greater degree. This is an interesting portion of local history, and one 
 which will be more fully traced in a later part of this work. 
 
 The sum raised for church or chapel rate, in 1682, was £40 ; and that 
 is about the average of the sums raised for the same purpose during the 
 next twenty years. In 1703, when Liverpool had become a separate 
 parish, and when the parishioners had undertaken to support the minister 
 of the new church, the church rate rose to £130. In 1705, after the 
 two rectors had been duly instituted, the payments to the “ ministers” 
 rose to £200 a year, besides from £50 to £60 a year for the repair and 
 support of the “ Old” Church, that is the church of St. Nicholas. This 
 continued to be the rate of payment for these purposes for many years. 
 
 The parish books of this time throw light on many old facts, 
 customs, and laws. At this time the parish authorities turned an honest 
 penny, by enforcing a law passed for the protection of the English woollen 
 manufacture, which commanded that all persons should be buried in 
 woollen instead of linen graveclothes, unless they chose to pay £5 
 for permission to be interred in linen. A great poet of that age describes 
 a dying beauty as supremely anxious that her lovely form should not be 
 thus enveloped in “ odious” woollen after death ;f and many of the 
 genteeler sort in Liverpool seem to have had the same feeling. This law 
 continued in force from 1682 to the death of Queen Anne; and, during 
 that period, numerous instances occur of parties whose friends paid the 
 penalty to the parish authorities for permission to inter them in linen. 
 
 Before concluding this chapter it will be well briefly to refer to the 
 
 * Dr. Davenant states, in his Essay on Ways and Means, published in 1695, that the 
 poor-rate in England and Wales amounted, in 1692, to ,£665,392. The rates of several 
 of the counties were as follows:—Lancashire, £7,200; Cheshire, £5,796; Yorkshire, 
 £26,150; Devonshire, £34,764; Essex, £37,348 ; Lincolnshire, £31,500; Norfolk, £46,200 ; 
 Somersetshire, £40,263 ; Middlesex, £56,380 ; Wales, £33,753. 
 
 + “ Odious! in woollen ! ’twould a saint provoke !” 
 
 Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke. 
 
 “ No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace 
 “ Wrap this fair form and shade this dying face. 
 
 “ One would not sure be frightful when one’s dead ; 
 
 “ And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”— Pope's Moral Essays. 
 
353 
 
 progress of the corporate estate, and to the various sources from which 
 it was derived. It will be seen, from the table of income and expenditure 
 appended to this chapter, that the income of the corporation amounted 
 to only £55 lbs. 2d. in the year 1G00, and that it had increased to about 
 £l,200 a-year previous to the death of Queen Anne. The accounts are 
 very imperfect in the latter years of the reign of Queen Anne and for 
 many years after, the orginal documents having been destroyed, when the 
 Town-liall was burnt, in the year 1795. Still sufficient documents remain 
 to enable us to trace the progress of the estate, at intervals of a few years, 
 down to near the end of the last century, when the accounts become per¬ 
 fectly regular. The following particulars appear, from the “ Audit of the 
 Right Hon. James, Earl of Derby, late mayor, (1707-8,) Josiali Poole, 
 and Henry Chorley, gentlemen, bailiffs, stated and settled by and before 
 the worshipful George Tyrer, Esq., John Clieveland, Esq., Jasper Maudit 
 and John Earle, Esqrs., aldermen; JamesBenn, Richard Norris, William 
 Webster, Sylvester Moorcroft, and John Seacome, this 11th April, 1711.” 
 The sum total of income was £ 1,115 Is. 10jd., derived from the following 
 sources :—Received from Mr. Coore, late bailiff, £25 ; from town’s duties, 
 £378 19s. lid. ; from fines on the admission of freemen, £352 18s. 6d.; 
 from ingates and outgates, .£25 ; from fines of leases, £G0 18s. ; from 
 leasehold rents, £84 Cs. Gjd ; from rents of shops, shambles, stalls, and 
 houses in the butchers’ market, £109 17s. Gd.; from brick-money and 
 lime-kilns, £3 Gs. 8d.; from small tolls, £4 5s. 2d. ; from Quarry-hill 
 stone delph, £l 1 10s.; from tithes, according to agreement, £55; from 
 Mr. Norton, the balance of his land-tax collection, 13s. 7d.; from quarterage 
 from Mr. Swarbrick and Mr. Smith, £1 ; from Captain Tarleton’s gift, 
 £2 5s.; Lord Molyneux’s rent for opening on the town-wall at Lord-street, 
 2d.: total, £ 1,115 1 s. 0|d. The account on the other side was as follows:— 
 By deficiencies in the rent roll, £3 2s. 3d.; by deficiencies allowed to 
 poor people living in the butchers’ market, £20 6s. Id.; by distribution 
 of Captain Tarlton’s gift, £2 5s.; by cash paid Messrs. Cunliffe and 
 Wainewright, as per account, £99 5s. Id.; by sundry disbursements, as 
 per account allowed, £959 5s. lOd. ; balance due from the bailiffs, £30 
 10s. 9|-d.: total, £1,115 Is. 0|d. 
 
 At the time when the above account was made up, and for many years 
 before and after that date, no one, whether native or stranger, was allowed 
 to commence business in Liverpool, without either taking up his freedom 
 or buying it by a fine from the corporation. Hence the item of freemen’s 
 fines forms a test of the increase of population and business. In the 
 2 z 
 
354 
 
 mayoralty of Charles, Earl of Derby, in the year 1067, the freemen's 
 lines produced £43 13s. 4d. ; in that of Lawrence Brownlow, in 1672, 
 £135 6s. 8d. ; in that of Robert Seacome, in 1682, £117 3s. 4d; in 
 that of Richard Houghton, in 1694, £134 14s. 2d; in that of Cuthbert 
 Sharpies, in 1699, £175 13s. 4d. ; in that of Thomas Bickersteth, in 
 1701, £208 14s. 8d ; and in that of James, Earl of Derby, in 1707-8, (as 
 I have already mentioned,) £352 18s. 6d. Thus the number of persons 
 commencing business in Liverpool yearly increased between 1667 and 
 1707, in the proportion of 352 to 43, that is, more than eight-fold,—a 
 wonderful rate of increase, and one which shows that that great influx of 
 population had already set in, which has drawn and continues to draw 
 into Liverpool multitudes from the various counties of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland; numerous natives of the Colonies, and of the 
 United States of America; and representatives of every commercial 
 nation on the face of the earth. 
 
 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FOR LIVERPOOL FROM 1014 TO 1714. 
 
 1614.. William Johnson.. Thomas May. 
 
 10:20..The same.The same. 
 
 1623.. 51.T.Gerard, Kt..George Ireland. 
 
 1625.. James L. Strange.. Edward Moore. 
 
 1625.. I dw. Bridgman .. Thomas Stanley. 
 
 1628.. Henry Jerrnyn... .John Newdigate. 
 
 1640.. Jas L. Craniield..John Holcroft. 
 
 “ Waved Bramber and chooses Liverpool, 2:3d 
 April, 1(540"; the parliament dissolved May 
 2, so that he sat twelve days. 
 
 1640.. Col. John Moore,.Sir lid. Wynn, Bart. 
 Bied June, 1050. Died 1649, and then Col. 
 
 Thomas Birch elected. 
 1653. .No writ issued for Liverpool. 
 
 1654.. Col. Thos. Birch.. 
 
 1656.. Col. Thos. Birch.. 
 
 1658 ) 
 
 1659 I I re ^ ari( ^ ..Alderman Blackmore. 
 
 1660. .Hon.Wm.Stanley..Sir G. Ireland, Knt. 
 
 1661.. The same.The same. 
 
 1678.. SirR.Ashton,Bit..Richard Atherton. 
 
 June 5, Sir Edward Moore petitioned against 
 this return, and the sitting members were, 
 
 Richard Wentworth. .John Dubois. 
 
 1681.. The same.The same. 
 
 1685.. 51. Rd. Atherton ..Thomas Leigh. 
 
 1688. .Lord Colchester . .Thomas Norris. 
 
 1690.. The same.The same. 
 
 1695.. Thomas Bretherton, vice Lord Colchester. 
 
 1698.. 51. Wm. Norris ..William Clayton. 
 
 1700.. The same.The same. 
 
 1701.. William Clayton . .Thomas Johnson. 
 
 1702.. The same.The same. 
 
 1705.. The same.The same. 
 
 1707.. The same.The same. 
 
 1708.. 51. T. Johnson ..Richard Norris, Esq. 
 
 1710.. 51. T. Johnson ..John Cleveland. 
 
 1714.. 51. T. Johnson ..William Clayton. 
 
 * 
 
1603 
 
 1604 
 
 1605 
 
 1606 
 
 1607 
 
 1608 
 
 1609 
 
 1610 
 
 1611 
 
 1612 
 
 1613 
 
 1614 
 
 1615 
 
 1616 
 
 1617 
 
 1618 
 
 1619 
 
 1620 
 
 1621 
 
 1622 
 
 1623 
 
 1624 
 
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 1627 
 
 1628 
 
 1629 
 
 1630 
 
 1631 
 
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 1633 
 
 1634 
 
 1635 
 
 1636 
 
 1637 
 
 1638 
 
 1639 
 
 1640 
 
 1641 
 
 1642 
 
 1643 
 
 1644 
 
 1645 
 
 1646 
 
 1647 
 
 1648 
 
 1649 
 
 1050 
 
 1651 
 
 1652 
 
 1653 
 
 1654 
 
 1655 
 
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 1057 
 
 1658 
 
 1659 
 
 1660 
 
 1661 
 
 1662 
 
 1663 
 
 1664 
 
 1665 
 
 3.55 
 
 OF MAYORS AND BAILIFFS OF LIVERPOOL, FROM 1603 TO 1714. 
 
 MAYORS. 
 
 William, Earl of Derby. 
 Edward Moore. 
 Edmund Rose. 
 
 William Banastre. 
 Robert Moore. 
 
 Richard Secum. 
 Richard Rose. 
 
 Thomas Hackenhall. 
 Edward Moore. 
 
 Henry Stanley. 
 
 Peter Ulster. 
 
 Richard Mellinge. 
 
 Sir Cuthbert Halsal. 
 Richard Moore. 
 
 Edward Rose. 
 
 Sir Richard Molyneux. 
 Richard Seacome. 
 Edward Moore. 
 
 Oliver Fairliurst. 
 
 John Walker. 
 
 John Williamson. 
 Richard Rose. 
 
 Lord Strange. 
 
 Edward Moore. 
 
 Ralph Seacome. 
 
 John Walker. 
 
 Robert WiRiamson. 
 John Williamson. 
 
 Ralph Sandiford. 
 
 John Walker. 
 
 John Moore. 
 
 Robert Williamson. 
 Thomas Biekersteth. 
 William Dwerryhouse. 
 Thomas Eccleston. 
 John WiRiamson. 
 
 Hon. Thomas Stanley. 
 WiRiam Ireland. 
 
 John Walker. 
 
 Thomas Bixteth. 
 
 James WiRiamson. 
 John Holeroft. 
 
 Thomas Blackmore. 
 Richard Tarleton. 
 Thomas Tarleton. 
 WiRiam WiRiamson. 
 Thomas Hodgson. 
 James WiRiamson. 
 
 Thomas WiRiamson. 
 Ralph Massam. 
 
 Edward WiRiamson. 
 Robert Comall. 
 
 Thomas Ayndoe. 
 Gilbert Formby. 
 Thomas Blackmore. 
 Richard Percival. 
 Thomas WiRiamson. 
 Alexander Green. 
 
 Henry Cories. 
 
 Hon. Thomas Stanley. 
 Peter Lurting. 
 
 Peter Sturzaker. 
 
 Michael Tarleton. 
 
 BAILIFFS. 
 
 Alexander Marsh, Thomas Renthinge. 
 John Hewett, Launcelot Wilkes. 
 
 Oliver Fairliurst, John Eccleston. 
 
 Richard Rose, Richard Bird. 
 
 Richard MeRinge, Richard Hey. 
 
 Edward Blanchard, Isaac Abraham. 
 Thomas Hodgson, James Travis. 
 
 John Walker, Thomas Brookbank. 
 WiRiam Lawrenson, John Birde. 
 
 Oliver Fairhurst, Richard Toxtathe. 
 Edward Blanchard, WiRiam Pendleton. 
 John WHliamson, Edward Nicholson. 
 John Winstanley, Gilbert Balshaw. 
 Thomas Brookbanke, Peter Nicholson. 
 John Winstanley, John Walker. 
 
 Robert WiRiamson, Richard Lunt. 
 
 John WiRiamson, Hugh Stirzaker. 
 
 B. Bainclough, John Chauntrell. 
 
 GRbert Balshawe, Ralph Sandiforth. 
 Nicholas Lurtinge, Robert Mellinge. 
 Robert Williamson, Edward Nicholson. 
 Richard Tarleton, James Southern. 
 Thomas Brookbank, John Astley. 
 
 Ralph Sandiford, Robert Lurting. 
 
 William Ireland, Ralph Worrall. 
 
 John Chandler, Thomas Biekersteth. 
 Thomas Eccleston, John Moore. 
 
 John Mellinge, Thomas Tarleton. 
 
 Robert MeRinge, John Higginson. 
 Richard Tarleton, Edward Chambers. 
 Thomas Tarleton, Roger Jones. 
 
 Thomas Blackmore, Edward Alcock. 
 
 John WiRiamson, jun., Ralph Massam. 
 John Higginson, James WiRiamson. 
 
 John Chantler, Richard Johnes. 
 
 Edward Alcock, Henry Robinson. 
 
 Edward Chambers, Hugh Gardiner. 
 Thomas Hodgson, John Wood. 
 
 Ralph Massam, WiRiam WiRiamson. 
 Edward Fonnby, Lawrence Mercer. 
 Thomas WiRiamson, .John Tarleton. 
 Edward Williamson, Robert Garnett. 
 Thomas Hodgson, John Sandiford. 
 Richard WiRiamson, John Sturzaker. 
 Edward Lyon, Thomas Storey. 
 
 GRbert Formby, Evan Marsh. 
 
 Thomas Ayndoe, William Lurting died, 
 
 Peter Lurting succeeded. 
 Richard Percival, John Eccleston. 
 
 Peter Lurting, WRliam Eimmer. 
 
 John Blundell, John Lurting. 
 
 Henry Corless, Richard Livesey. 
 
 Robert Sutton, Henry Moore. 
 
 Thomas Sandiford, WiRiam Bushell. 
 Alexander Green, Thomas Ashbrook. 
 
 John Sturzaker, John Owens. 
 
 Thomas Storey, Edmund Livesey. 
 
 Evan Marsh, John Pemberton. 
 
 John Chandler, WiRiam Blackmore. 
 WiRiam Kitehin, WiRiam Gardner. 
 Thomas Johnson, Thomas Alcock. 
 Thomas Birch, James Holt. 
 
 Thomas Preeson, George Bennett. 
 
1666 
 
 1667 
 
 ItiOS 
 
 1069 
 
 1070 
 
 1071 
 
 1072 
 
 1073 
 
 1674 
 
 1675 
 
 1676 
 
 1677 
 
 1678 
 
 1679 
 
 1680 
 
 1681 
 
 1682 
 
 1683 
 
 1684 
 
 1685 
 
 1686 
 
 1687 
 
 1688 
 
 1689 
 
 1690 
 
 1691 
 
 1692 
 
 1693 
 
 1694 
 
 1695 
 
 1696 
 
 1697 
 
 1698 
 
 1699 
 
 1700 
 
 1701 
 
 1702 
 
 1703 
 
 1704 
 
 1705 
 
 1706 
 
 1707 
 
 1708 
 
 1709 
 
 1710 
 
 1711 
 
 1712 
 
 1713 
 
 1714 
 
 356 
 
 MAYORS. 
 
 Cluu'les, Earl of Derby. 
 Thomas Visct. Colchester. 
 William Lord Strange. 
 Thomas Bickstetk. 
 
 Thomas Johnson. 
 
 Lawrence Brownlow. 
 Silvester Richmond. 
 
 James Jerrom. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Ireland died, 
 Thos. Bixteth succeeded. 
 Thomas Chapman. 
 
 Robert Williamson. 
 
 William, Earl of Derby. 
 
 John Chorley. 
 
 William Williamson. 
 Thomas Clayton. 
 
 Richard Whittle. 
 
 Edward Taxleton. 
 
 Robert Seacome. 
 
 Sir Richard Atherton, Knt. 
 Oliver Lyme. 
 
 Peter Bold. 
 
 James Prescot. 
 
 Thomas Tyrer. 
 
 William Clayton. 
 
 Thomas Brookbank. 
 
 Richard Houghton. 
 
 Joshua Fisher. 
 
 Jasper Maudit. 
 
 Alexander Norris died, 
 Thomas Johnson succeeded. 
 Thomas Johnson, jun. 
 William Preeson. 
 
 James Benn. 
 
 Thomas Sweeting. 
 
 Cuthbert Sharpies. 
 
 Richard Norris. 
 
 Thomas Bickersteth. 
 
 John Cockshot. 
 
 John Cleveland. 
 
 William Hurst. 
 
 William Webster. 
 
 Silvester Moorcroft. 
 
 James Earl of Derby. 
 
 John Seacome. 
 
 John Earle. 
 
 George Tyrer. 
 
 Joseph Townsend. 
 
 Edward Tarleton. 
 
 Thomas Coore. 
 
 Richard Gildert. 
 
 BAILIFFS. 
 
 Thomas Bixteth, John Bulkeley. 
 
 Thomas Tarleton, William Fleetwood. 
 Thomas Atherton, Richard Bushell. 
 Richard Windle, Robert Fleetwood. 
 
 Robert Williamson, Thomas Norbury. 
 Henry Higginson, Joseph Prior. 
 
 Thomas Chapman, Thomas Galloway. 
 William Williamson, Peter Atherton. 
 
 Robert Seacome, Thomas Clarke. 
 
 Rickard Williamson, Thomas Brooksbank. 
 William Travers,. James Prescott. 
 
 Joseph Williamson, John Molyneux. 
 Robert Carter, William Bailey. 
 
 John Williamson, Henry Smith. 
 
 Edward Williamson, Thomas Heyes. 
 Thomas Tyner, Joshua Fisher. 
 
 Thomas Warmingham, W. Preeson. 
 Richard Seddon, Richard Diggles. 
 
 Richard Houghton, Ger. Winstanley. 
 David Poole, Alexander Norris. 
 
 Jeremy Himt, Thomas Alanson. 
 
 James Barton, Thomas Sweeting. 
 
 James Benn, Joseph Travers. 
 
 Thomas Johnson, Edward Crane. 
 
 John Amerie, Roger Richasdson. 
 
 John Cleveland, William Hurst. 
 
 Thomas Bickersteth, George Taylor. 
 
 James Townhend, James Gamond. 
 
 Richard Warbrick, Richard Lurting. 
 
 Richard Norris, Levhnus Houstown. 
 Cuthbert Sharpies, William Reynolds. 
 Joseph Briggs, John Crane. 
 
 John Cockshot, John Lady. 
 
 Robert Shields, James Kennion. 
 
 J. Gibbons, S. Moorcroft. 
 
 John Crompton, John Proctor. 
 
 John Seacome, William Webster. 
 
 Charles Diggles, Joseph Eaton. 
 
 Peter Hull, Robert Benson. 
 
 John Earle, John Fells. 
 
 William Squire, Thomas Cooke. 
 
 Josia Poole, Hemy Clarke. 
 
 Foster Cunliffe, John Wainwright. 
 
 Francis Goodriehe, Henry Taylor. 
 
 Edward Tarleton, John Hughes. 
 
 Richard Kelsall, Thomas Kendrick. 
 William Braddock, Richard Gildart. 
 
 John Hughes, John Murray. 
 
 Thomas Fallington, John Litkerland. 
 
357 
 
 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE CORPORATION FROM THE YEAR 
 1000 TO THE YEAR 1707. 
 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1600...43d Eliz. 
 
 55 15 2 
 
 55 
 
 6 
 
 3$ 
 
 1667... 19thChas.II 
 
 357 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 317 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 1601...44th Eliz. 
 
 38 5 2 
 
 37 
 
 5 
 
 o$ 
 
 1008...20thChas.II 
 
 348 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 232 
 
 l 
 
 6 
 
 1602...45th Eliz. 
 
 70 9 8 
 
 66 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 1609... 21stChas.II 
 
 531 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 427 
 
 17 
 
 11 
 
 1603... 1st Jas. I. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1670... 22dChas.II 
 
 495 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 476 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 1004... 2d Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1671... 23dChas.II 
 
 286 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 247 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 1605... 3d Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1672... 24thChas.II 
 
 745 
 
 9 
 
 0$ 
 
 687 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 1606... 4th Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1673...25thChas.II 
 
 903 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 906 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 1607... 5th Jas. I. 
 
 59 3 8 
 
 52 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 1674...26thChas.II 
 
 853 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 840 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1608... 6th Jas. I. 
 
 54 4 8 
 
 Not stated. 
 
 1075...27thChas.lI 
 
 652 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 622 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 100!)... 7th Jas. I. 
 
 96 9 7 
 
 76 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 1670...28thChas.lI 
 
 644 
 
 8 
 
 3$ 
 
 604 
 
 8 
 
 H 
 
 1010... 8th Jas. I. 
 
 85 4 5$ 
 
 01 
 
 14 
 
 11$ 
 
 1677...29thChas.II 
 
 391 
 
 5 
 
 7$ 
 
 352 
 
 19 
 
 7 i 
 
 1011... 9th Jas. I. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 l678...30thChas.II 
 
 543 
 
 13 
 
 5$ 
 
 382 
 
 12 
 
 H 
 
 1012...10th Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1679... 31stChas.II 
 
 594 
 
 7 
 
 9 X 
 
 522 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 1013...11th Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1680... 32dChas.II 
 
 401 
 
 14 
 
 8 2 
 
 367 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 1614...12th Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1681... 33dChas.II 
 
 301 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 347 
 
 5 
 
 H 
 
 1015..,13th Jas. I. 
 
 107 19 7 
 
 73 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 1682...34thChas.II 
 
 437 
 
 11 
 
 n$ 
 
 428 
 
 11 
 
 n$ 
 
 1016...14th Jas. I. 
 
 101 6 5 
 
 83 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 1683...35thChas.II 
 
 477 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 459 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 1617...15th Jas. I. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1684...36thChas.il 
 
 650 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 595 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1618.. .10th Jas. I. 
 
 1019.. .17th Jas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 133 14 6 
 
 96 
 
 12 
 
 10$ 
 
 Irani 37th Chas. II 
 1080 {andlstJas.il 
 
 508 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 518 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1620..,18th Jas. I. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1686... 2d Jas. II 
 
 374 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 299 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 1621... 19th Jas. I. 
 
 162 8 1$ 
 
 96 
 
 17 
 
 11 
 
 1687... 3d Jas. II 
 
 850 
 
 19 
 
 8$ 
 
 827 
 
 15 
 
 1] $ 
 
 1622...20th Jas. I. 
 
 172 10 0$ 
 
 102 
 
 18 
 
 1$ 
 
 1688... 4th Jas. II 
 
 409 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 398 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 1623...21st Jas. I. 
 
 278 13 3 
 
 138 
 
 17 
 
 0$ 
 
 ( 5th Jas. II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1624...22d Jas. I. 
 
 283 2 5$ 
 
 112 
 
 7 
 
 3$ 
 
 1689 -J and 1st Wm. 
 
 317 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 257 
 
 15 
 
 
 1625... 1st Chas. I. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 (and Mary. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1020.. .2d Chas. I. 
 
 1627.. .3d Chas. I. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 323 10 4f 
 
 116 
 
 4 
 
 11$ 
 
 
 OO 
 
 GO 
 
 17 
 
 10$ 
 
 448 
 
 12 1$ 
 
 1628...4thChas. I. 
 
 244 15 3 
 
 209 
 
 5 
 
 10$ 
 
 1691... 3dWm.&M. 
 
 811 
 
 5 
 
 1$ 
 
 788 
 
 1 
 
 OI 
 
 1629...5thChas. I. 
 
 189 7 6$ 
 
 113 
 
 14 
 
 10$ 
 
 1692.. .4thWm.&M. 
 
 802 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 547 
 
 15 
 
 84 
 
 1630 to 1639. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 1693...5thWm.&M. 
 
 798 
 
 12 
 
 4 ! 
 
 ill 
 
 577 
 
 17 104 
 
 1040 to 1044. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1694...0thWm.&M. 
 
 332 
 
 19 
 
 312 
 
 10 
 
 5$ 
 
 1645...21st Chas. I. 
 
 212 14 0 
 
 Not stated. 
 
 1695...7th Wm. Ill 
 
 1492 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 1400 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 1646...22d Chas. I. 
 
 170 3 9 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 The 
 
 accounts 
 
 
 
 
 1647 and 1648. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 
 of 1694 and 5 
 
 
 
 
 1649...24th Chas. I. 
 
 275 6 4 
 
 189 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 are intermixd. 
 
 
 
 
 1650... IstChas.II 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1696... 8thWm.HI 
 
 565 
 
 19 
 
 3$ 
 
 528 
 
 2 
 
 $1 
 
 1651... 2dChas.II 
 
 204 13 9 
 
 109 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1697... 9thWm.III 
 
 No 
 
 Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1052... 3dChas.II 
 
 370 17 6 
 
 242 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 1698... 10th Wm.III 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 
 
 
 1653... 4thChas.II 
 
 312 2 9 
 
 102 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 1699... 11th Wm.III 
 
 804 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 762 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1654... 5thChas.II 
 
 366 0 6 
 
 Not stated. 
 
 1700...12thWm.IH 
 
 1203 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1241 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 1055... 6thChas.II 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1701... 13th Wm.III 
 
 874 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 789 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 1656... 7thChas.II 
 
 392 7 3 
 
 191 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 1702...1st Anne. 
 
 908 
 
 15 
 
 
 897 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 1657... 8thChas.II 
 
 No complete 
 
 
 
 
 1703...2d Anne. 
 
 1096 
 
 18 
 
 3$ 
 
 982 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1704...3d Anne. 
 
 1457 
 
 0 
 
 3$ 
 
 1432 
 
 10 
 
 0$ 
 
 1658, 9, 60, 61. 
 
 No Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1705...4th Anne. 
 
 1277 
 
 13 
 
 11$ 
 
 1248 
 
 18 
 
 o| 
 
 1662...14thChas.II 
 
 281 19 3 
 
 260 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 1706...5th Anne. 
 
 No 
 
 Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1663... 15thChas.I I 
 
 325 19 9 
 
 229 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 1707...6th Anne. 
 
 1115 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 1084 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 1664.. .16thChas.II 
 
 355 13 6 
 
 206 
 
 15 
 
 9$ 
 
 1708...7th Anne. 
 
 No 
 
 Audit. 
 
 
 
 
 1665... 17th Chas.II 
 
 349 18 4$ 
 349 1 3 
 
 210 
 
 17 
 
 0$ 
 
 1709...8th Anne. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1660...18thChas.II 
 
 214 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER TWELFTH. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE STUARTS. 
 
 PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURES IN LANCASHIRE, YORKSHIRE, CHESHIRE, AND STAFFORDSHIRE.— 
 COLONIZING OF THE WEST INDIES AND OF NORTH AMERICA.—TRADE WITH IRELAND. 
 
 The rapid growth of the commerce of Liverpool during the latter 
 reigns of the Stuart princes was chiefly caused by two circumstances, the 
 one the increase and improvement of manufactures in the neighbouring 
 counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, the other 
 the planting and rapid growth of numerous colonies in the West Indies 
 and on the continent of North America. These two causes of prosperity, 
 which applied in an especial manner to Liverpool, were aided by others 
 of a more general nature, which affected Liverpool in common with other 
 parts of the kingdom. The most important of these was the reclaiming of 
 large tracts of land in all parts of England ; and the improvement of cul¬ 
 tivation by means of new plants, and of some of the processes on which the 
 excellence of the modern system of farming depends. The effect of these 
 improvements was to create an internal and external trade in corn, cattle, 
 and provisions, which produced wealth in all parts of the country, and 
 increased the demand for foreign as well as home produce, conveniences, 
 and luxuries. According to a contemporary writer, the rental of England 
 increased from T6,000,000 in the year 1600 to Tl4,000,000 in 1688 ; 
 and the value of real property in the country from T72,000,000 to 
 T250,000,000.* During this period numerous articles of commerce, such 
 as tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, and the cottons and silks of India, came into 
 common use with the wealthier classes, and gradually made their way 
 amongst people of smaller means, until a great writer could declare, 
 shortly afterwards, that no washerwoman sat down to her evening meal 
 without tea from the East Indies and sugar from the West. 
 
 During the Stuart period the manufactures of England underwent a 
 great revolution, by which they were gradually concentrated in a few dis¬ 
 tricts, especially favoured with manufacturing advantages, instead of remain- 
 
 * Dr. Daverant. 
 
359 
 
 ing scattered, as they had been in former times, over the whole kingdom. 
 This change was the result of a close and increasing competition both at 
 home and abroad. At home these favoured districts sustained them¬ 
 selves, in times of distress, through difficulties which were fatal to their 
 less favoured competitors; abroad they competed successfully with foreign 
 rivals, by whom their weaker associates were overthrown. During the 
 whole of this period the manufacturers of England had to sustain a close 
 and often doubtful contest with the Dutch and Germans, in the produc¬ 
 tion of woollens, linens, and cutlery, and with the Swedes, Saxons, and 
 Biscayans in the production of iron. This contest was by no means 
 ended at the close of the period of which I am writing. 
 
 The next formidable rivals of the English manufacturers were the 
 Dutch, a people of admirable industry, and who united the utmost pru¬ 
 dence to the greatest enterprise in affairs of business. A considerable 
 portion of the capital which the Dutch people had accumulated under the 
 house of Burgundy had survived the tyranny of Spain, and the memorable 
 conflict in which that tyranny was overthrown. This was rapidly increased 
 by strict economy and indefatigable industry, and, being confined entirely 
 to purposes of trade and commerce, soon gave them an abundance of 
 capital, and created an extended system of commercial credit. This 
 abundance and cheapness of money was the admiration and envy of Eng¬ 
 lish writers during the whole of this period, and it undoubtedly gave to 
 Holland, in the seventeenth century, one of the greatest advantages which 
 England possesses over its manufacturing rivals in the nineteenth. 
 Amongst the results of this abundant capital was the introduction of the 
 best machinery which money could procure, of the finest dye wares, and 
 of every process then known by which labour could be either economized or 
 rendered more productive. The manufacturers and merchants of England 
 were much less favourably situated, as relates to capital. England was at that 
 time engaged in numerous great enterprises, which required large supplies of 
 capital, and only yielded slow, though in the end, great returns. Amongst 
 them were those which I have already mentioned, namely, the enclosing and 
 reclaiming of large quantities of waste land; the improving of farming, 
 by the introduction of clover, turnips, and potatoes, and of the more 
 expensive processes of culture which they require; the planting or 
 colonizing of Ulster twice over, once in the reigns of James and Charles 
 the First, and again after the massacre of the Protestants, and the 
 still greater massacres of Cromwell; the planting or colonizing of the 
 islands of Jamaica, Barbadocs, Antigua, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Kitt’s, and 
 
360 
 
 the Bahamas, in the West Indies ; and of the great provinces of Virginia, 
 New England, Maryland, Carolina, and New York, in North America. 
 From the drain caused by these undertakings, and the waste and ruin of 
 the great civil war, capital continued to be much dearer in England than 
 it was in Holland during the whole of the century. If we may believe 
 contemporary writers, money could be had in abundance in Holland, for 
 commercial purposes, at from three to four per cent.; whilst six per cent, 
 was the legal rate of interest in England, until the year 1713, and more 
 than that amount was often paid for it. 
 
 Amongst the many intelligent Englishmen who visited or resided in 
 Holland during the seventeenth century, several have left descriptions of the 
 manufacturing establishments of that country, which enable us to account 
 for the difficulty which English manufacturers experienced in contending 
 with them. When Sir William Brereton, afterwards the parliamentary 
 general, visited Holland in the year 1635, he found, amongst other evi¬ 
 dences of the existence of abundance of capital, spacious docks in every 
 port of the republic, and a complete system of inland navigation, by which 
 a cheap and daily intercourse was kept up between Leyden, Harlem, and 
 Dort, all great manufacturing towns, and the ports of Amsterdam and 
 Kotterdam. At Leyden, which was then the principal seat of the woollen 
 trade, he found that cloth made from English wool, and better dyed than 
 English cloth, could be bought cheaper than the English merchants could 
 sell theirs. The linen trade was carried on with even greater spirit. 
 Sir William found numerous yarn crofts about Rotterdam and Dort. 
 Speaking of those about Dort, he says, “ There are abundance of yarn 
 crofts about the town. Some, which contain an acre, are let for aOlOO 
 a-year, others, which contain two acres, for ^6200. Between every twelve 
 yards a narrow ditch is cut, about a yard broad, out of which the water 
 is cast upon the yarn.”* From some cause, not stated, the manufactures 
 of Harlem, which afterwards became the most celebrated in Holland, 
 were out of repute when Sir William Brereton visited that city. When 
 Andrew Yarrenton visited Harlem, about the year 1670, he found that 
 it was the principal seat of the linen and woollen manufactures of Llolland.f 
 The machinery used for fulling woollens far surpassed that of England; 
 and, from the superior quality of the goods it was generally believed that 
 the water of the lake of Harlem was superior to that of any other place, 
 for manufacturing purposes. This Yarrenton denies. He says that the 
 
 * Brereton’s Travels, Chetham Society's Publication, i., 14. 
 
 + England’s Improvement by Sea and Land: by Andrew Yarrenton. London, 1677. 
 
361 
 
 water of the lake is very soft, and fit for scouring cloth, and the best in 
 Holland, but that there are many places in England where the water is 
 equally good. Cheap capital and superior machinery he considered the 
 causes of the manufacturing prosperity of Holland. He gives a view of 
 a Dutch fulling-mill, turned by wind, and of a German mill, turned by 
 the stream of the river Elbe, for the instruction of his fellow-countrymen. 
 The great object of his work, as also of the essays of Sir Josiah Child 
 on Trade, is to explain and enforce certain plans to render capital cheaper, 
 create commercial credit, and lower the rate of interest in England. 
 
 We learn from Yarranton’s work, that, though the Dutch were the 
 greatest manufacturers of linen cloth in Europe, they did not produce the 
 yarn used in their manufactories, but bought it from the Saxons and 
 Silesians, who produced it by the labour of children, in large spinning 
 schools, greatly resembling the factories of the present day. “ The fine 
 linens,” says he, “ are made in Holland and Flanders, that is, are woven and 
 whitened there,—but the thread that makes them comes out of Germany, 
 from Saxony, Bohemia, and other parts thereabouts, and is brought down 
 the Elbe and Rhine, in dry flats, for Holland and Flanders; and there 
 the merchants have at this day, and so will ever have, a vast trade in 
 those commodities, unless that trade of linen be established in England, as 
 I shall set down. But first observe that the people of Holland eat dear 
 and pay great rents for their houses, and so they do in Flanders; but the 
 weaving and the whitening of the cloth is not the tenth part of the labour, 
 for the great labour is in preparing the flax, as pulling, watering, dressing, 
 spinning, and winding, and all that is done in the upper parts of Germany 
 and thereabouts. There victuals are cheap, and in all those parts there is 
 no beggar, nor occasion to beg; and in all towns there are schools for 
 little girls, from six years old and upwards, to teach them to spin, and so 
 to bring their tender fingers by degrees to spin very fine, which, being- 
 young, are easily fitted for that use ; whereas people overgrown in age 
 cannot so well feel the thread. Their wheels go all by the foot, made to 
 go with much ease, whereby the action or motion is very easy and 
 delightful. And in all towns there are schools, according to the bigness 
 or multitude of the poor children. I will show you the way, method, 
 rule, and order, how they are governed. First, there is a large room, and 
 in the middle thereof a little box like a pulpit. Second, there are benches 
 built about the room, as there are in our playhouses ; upon the benches sit 
 about two hundred children spinning, and in the box in the middle of the 
 room sits the grand mistress, with a long white wand in her hand. If she 
 
 3 A 
 
362 
 
 observes any of them idle, she reaches them a tap; hut, if that will not 
 do, she rings a bell, which, by a little cord, is fixed to the box, and out 
 comes a woman ; she then points to the offender, and she is taken away 
 into another room and chastised. And all this is done without one word 
 of speaking. In a little room by the school there is a woman that is 
 preparing and putting flax on the distaffs; and upon the ringing of the 
 bell and the pointing of the rod at the maid that hath spun off her flax, 
 she hath a distaff given her, and her spoil of thread taken from her, and 
 put into a box, unto others of the same size, to make cloth.” Yarranton 
 adds, “ And after a young maid hath been three years in the spinning- 
 school, that is, taken in at six and there continued until nine years, she 
 will get eightpence the day. And in these parts I speak of, a man that 
 hath most children lives best; whereas here he that hath most is poorest. 
 There the children enrich the father; but here beggar him.” About 
 the time when Yarranton wrote this account of the German spinning- 
 schools, German yarn came into use at Manchester, Maidstone, Kidder¬ 
 minster, and other places in England where linen was manufactured.* 
 At Kidderminster a£l00 worth per week was consumed, which was then 
 considered a large quantity. 
 
 The competition to which the manufacturers of England were exposed 
 was not confined to the products of the loom and the spinning-wheel. 
 It was equally severe in tinned-plates, cutlery, and other articles formed 
 of iron and steel, as well as in timber and in com. The same writer, 
 Andrew Yarranton, was sent to Saxony and Bohemia, to collect 
 information as to the manufactures of iron and tinned-plates in those 
 countries, and gives us much information as to the manner in which those 
 and various other branches of industry were carried on abroad, and as 
 to improvements which might be made at home. 
 
 When Yarranton visited Saxony he found that the manufacture of 
 iron was established on all the crown lands, in the woody mountains 
 which separate Saxony from Bohemia. The Grand Duke of Saxony had 
 three great manufactures, one of iron, tin, and copper; another of linen 
 and spun thread; the third of sawn timber. The iron, tinned-plate, and 
 copper manufactures were fixed in the valley of the Upper Elbe; the 
 hills and mountains supplied metallic ores, and the country around was 
 covered with woods, which furnished charcoal. Not an acre of common 
 land was allowed to lie waste. The streams which descended from the 
 
 * Yarranton’s England’s Improvement by Sea and Land, 146. 
 
363 
 
 mountains furnished moving force for the iron manufactories, and also 
 for the saw-mills. “ At the descent of the hills are infinite saw-mills that 
 go by water, which saw all manner of fir and oak ; and in the summer 
 time it is dragged to the River Elbe, and so sent down to Hamborough. 
 And thus being fixed, with all the advantages that trade can desire, that 
 place is stangely populous, and vastly rich, and yields to the duke a 
 great revenue. And it is as Wales and as the Forest of Deane lie to 
 England.”* The King of Sweden was the other great iron-manufacturer 
 and timber-merchant of northern Europe. He also forwarded his iron 
 and sawn timber to Hamburgh, and obtained advances of seventy-five 
 per cent, upon it from the capitalists of Germany and Holland. Holland, 
 also, “ diffused and sent all the world over” the cutlery of Liege and 
 Cologne; and it divided the corn trade with Hamburgh. Immense 
 granaries were formed in Holland, where the grain of all countries was 
 stored up in cheap years, to be sold in years of scarcity. This was also 
 the case along the banks of the Elbe. At Magdeburg there were three 
 hundred public granaries, in which the grain of Saxony and Silesia was 
 stored up in years of abundance. One of the objects of Yarranton’s 
 work was to induce the landowners of England to form similar granaries, 
 especially in the counties of Warwick, Leicester, Northampton, and 
 Oxford, which were the cheapest and most fruitful counties in England, 
 and those most inconvenienced by the want of good markets.! 
 
 Amidst the severe competition which every branch of industry was 
 exposed to from Holland, Germany, and other countries, some of the 
 manufacturing districts of England more than held their position, whilst 
 others were conquered in the strife. The woollen and linen manufactures 
 almost disappeared from Salisbury, Worcester, Reading, and others of 
 their early seats in the south of England ; but they continued to flourish 
 vigorously in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and in the hilly districts of Glouces¬ 
 tershire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire. During this period numerous 
 machines were invented for cheapening and improving the various 
 processes of manufacture, most of which were worked by water-power. 
 Hence the regions of hills and rapid streams gradually took the lead in 
 manufactures. 
 
 It is not possible to trace the progress of Manchester, the manufac¬ 
 turing capital of Lancashire, by means of statistical tables, during this 
 period; but it may be judged of by numerous and well-authenticated 
 
 * Yarranton’s England’s Improvement by Sea and Lai 111. 
 
 t A. Y., 48. 
 
364 
 
 facts, and by the notices of contemporary authors. I have already spoken 
 of the part which Manchester took in the great civil war, but previous to 
 that memorable conflict it had attained a position of wealth and influence. 
 This is proved, amongst other circumstances, by the fact, that three of 
 its master manufacturers had accumulated fortunes sufficiently ample to 
 cause them to be appointed to the office of high sheriff for the county 
 palatine. One of the three, Humphrey Chetham, has connected his name 
 as honourably with his native town as his contemporary, George Heriot, 
 did his with his native Edinburgh, by founding a college and public 
 library, both of which still exist, and bear testimony to his wealth, public 
 spirit, and love of learning. In the year 1638 Manchester contended 
 with York for the honour of becoming the seat of a university, on the 
 model of Oxford and Cambridge, for the instruction of the youth of the 
 northern counties. In a memorial of that date, numerously signed by 
 the nobility, gentry, clergy, freeholders, and others inhabitants of the 
 northern parts of England, the following reasons are given why Man¬ 
 chester should be chosen as the seat of the proposed university :—“ We 
 apprehend Manchester to be the fittest place for such a foundation,” say 
 the memorialists, “ it being about the centre of the northern parts; a 
 town of great antiquity ; formerly both a city and a sanctuary, and now 
 of great fame and ability by the happy traffic of its inhabitants; 
 for its situation, provision of food, fuel, and buildings, as happy 
 as any town in the northern parts of the kingdom.”* Two 
 years later Lewis Roberts, in his “ Treasury of Traffic,” praises 
 the manufacturers of Manchester for their spirit and enterprise in pur¬ 
 chasing the cotton wool of the Isle of Cyprus and Smyrna, and 
 forming it into numerous fabrics, which were in great demand both at 
 home and abroad. “ The town of Manchester’, in Lancashire,” says he, 
 “ must be herein remembered, and worthily, for their encouragement, 
 commended; who buy the yarn of the Irish in great quantity, and, weaving 
 it, return the same again into Ireland to sell. Neither doth their industry 
 rest there, for they buy cotton wool in London that comes first from 
 Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home work the same and perfect it into 
 fustians, vermillions, dimities, and other such stuffs, and then return it to 
 London, where the same is vended and sold, and not seldom sent into 
 foreign parts, who have means at far easier terms to provide themselves of 
 the said first materials.' In the account which Blorne, the topographer, 
 
 > Bell's Fairfax Correspondence, ii., 273, Eeign of Charles the First. 
 
365 
 
 gives of Liverpool, in the year 1G73, he attributes its prosperity to the 
 cottons produced in the neighbouring district, and to imports of sugar 
 from the West Indies. Andrew Yarranton, whose work, published in 
 1677, has already been referred to, in urging the establishment of the 
 thread and tape manufacture in Warwickshire, says, “ And the comfort 
 of that place may be, that if they once fix well in that manufacture there 
 they will deter all others setting up the same, and so, consequently, at last 
 be the great masters of it, as Manchester is of all things it trades 
 in.” This high reputation for skill and enterprise continued to the close 
 of the period of which I am writing; so that in the year 1712, when a 
 number of Manchester gentlemen employed Mr. Thomas Steers, the engi¬ 
 neer of the first Liverpool Dock, to survey the rivers Irwell and Mersey, 
 with a view of rendering them navigable from Manchester to Warrington, 
 the engineer was able to put forth his plan with the following announce¬ 
 ment :—“ The inland parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, being favoured 
 with great variety of valuable manufactures in woollen, linen, cotton, &c., 
 and that in very great quantities, has made that neighbourhood as popu¬ 
 lous, if not more so, (London and Middlesex excepted,) as the same extent 
 of any other part of Great Britain. The trades of these counties extend 
 considerably through the whole island, as well as abroad, and the con¬ 
 sumption of groceries, Irish wool, dyeing stuff, and other goods conse¬ 
 quently very great; but as yet not favoured with the conveniency of 
 water-carriage, though Providence, from the port of Liverpool, up to the 
 most considerable inland town of trade in Lancashire, Manchester, has 
 afforded the best not yet employed rivers of Mersey and Irwell for that 
 purpose.” Such was the position of Manchester and the surrounding dis¬ 
 tricts of Lancashire, at the time of the accession of the House of Hanover. 
 The subsequent progress of its manufactures will be traced in a succeeding 
 part of this work. 
 
 With regard to the nature and material of the manufactures of Man¬ 
 chester and South Lancashire, the following is the principal information 
 which I have been able to glean from contemporary works and acts of 
 parliament. At the beginning of this period the Manchester and Lan¬ 
 cashire “ cottons” were not cottons, in the modern sense of the term, but 
 still coarse woollens, as they had been in the Tudor period. An act of par¬ 
 liament of the 4th James the First, (1606,) speaks of “ cotton and other 
 woollen cloths;'* and another act of the 7th James the First speaks of 
 
 * Statutes at Large, 4tli James 1st, eap. 2. 
 
366 
 
 “ Kendals and other coarse things of the like nature, and made of the 
 like coarse wool, and differing only in name, called Cogware, coarse 
 cottons, or carptmels.” The latter of these articles were so named from 
 being manufactured at Oartmel, in North Lancashire. Soon after this, cot¬ 
 ton and cotton yarn began to he imported from Cyprus, long the principal 
 colony of Venice, and cotton from Smyrna.* This, it has already been seen 
 by the extract from Lewis Koberts’s “ Treasury of Traffic,” was bought by 
 the manufacturers of Manchester, chiefly in London, and worked up into a 
 variety of articles. The same writer also informs us that linen yarn was 
 still imported from Ireland, as it had been from the time of Henry the 
 Eighth. The ruin which fell upon all Irish industry during the 
 massacres, plunderings, and confiscations of the great civil war 
 caused the manufacturers of Manchester to purchase German yarns 
 prepared in the manner above described. About this time the wool¬ 
 len, linen, and cotton trades were all carried on in Manchester; and 
 these three materials were also mixed in many of the fabrics of that town. 
 In the year 1G60 every single piece of Manchester baize, not exceeding 
 34 lbs. in weight, was declared to he subject to an export duty of 20s.; 
 and in the same tariff of duties all “ northern, Manchester, Taunton, and 
 Welsh cottons” were declared subject to an export duty of 40s. the 100 
 goads. In a discourse on the Provision for the Poor, written about the 
 year 1000, and generally attributed to that excellent man Sir Matthew 
 Hale, linen cloth is spoken of as amongst the manufactures of 
 Lancashire; and we have seen that cotton had already been intro¬ 
 duced. During the latter part of the century the manufacture 
 of woollens seems to have been gradually abandoned, and those 
 of linen and cotton substituted for it. In those articles Manchester 
 and South Lancashire had no English rival, whilst they had many 
 in woollens. Another reason why they gradually abandoned the 
 woollen manufacture may have been, that it was then encumbered with 
 so many restrictions and prohibitions in every process, as rendered 
 improvement nearly impossible, and subjected all who were engaged in 
 it to innumerable penalties. It was in exactly the same position as 
 businesses carried on under the inspection of the excise. Those engaged 
 in it were subjected to all manner of annoyances; and could scarcely 
 venture to try experiments, lest they should infringe on the restrictions 
 of parliament. The legislators of that day seem to have supposed that 
 
 * Lewis Roberts's Merchants’ Map of Traffic, 1038. 
 
367 
 
 the manufacturer, like the poet, was horn, not made ; for they laid down 
 rules for the manufacturing of every article, without an hour’s practice, by 
 which they controlled the movements, crippled the industry, and blighted 
 the ingenuity of men who had practiced those arts during the whole of 
 their lives. Fortunately, they were not quite so confident on the subject 
 of linen as they were on those of woollens and leather; and, still more 
 fortunately, they did not even pretend to know anything about cotton. 
 
 The West Riding of Yorkshire kept pace with Lancashire in manu¬ 
 factures, though industry there was directed to the production of other 
 articles, namely, woollens, iron, and cutlery. The pride of an eloquent 
 local historian has recorded, that, when Henry the Eighth visited the 
 West Riding in the year 1548, the riches of the district between Doncas¬ 
 ter and York were shown to him by Bishop Tunstal, and that the king 
 pronounced it to be the richest country that he had seen in all his travels 
 through Europe. It then contained one hundred and sixty-five manor- 
 houses of lords and gentlemen of the best quality; two hundred and 
 seventy-five woods, whereof several contained five hundred acres; thirty- 
 two parks and two chases of deer; one hundred and twenty-six rivers and 
 brooks, whereof five were navigable; seventy-six water-mills for the 
 grinding of corn ; twenty-five coal-mines, which yielded abundance of 
 coal for the whole county ; and three forges for the making of iron, with 
 stone enough for the same. A writer of Queen Anne’s reign, who records 
 the above facts, adds, “ To the navigable rivers may now be added the 
 Aire and Calder, the rivers of Leeds and Wakefield. The corn-mills 
 and coal-mines are now without number, by reason of the great populous¬ 
 ness of the country, and the increase of the clothing trade, which was 
 then inconsiderable, but now is the very life of these parts.”* On the 
 single stream which watered the town of Halifax there were twenty-four 
 mills, namely, eleven corn-mills, eight fulling-mills, for preparing raw 
 cloth for the dressers, two for grinding all sorts of wood used by dyers, 
 one employed in making such paper as is used by cloth-makers, one 
 steer-grinder’s forge, and one for the frizeing of cloth. + A great number 
 of mills also existed about Leeds; and all the rapid streams of the West 
 Riding, from the Aire to the Don, were covered with them. Leeds was 
 already the manufacturing capital of the district. Speaking of Briggatc, 
 the principal street of the town, Thoresby says, “ The famous cloth- 
 market, the life not of the town alone, but of these parts of England, is 
 
 » Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis, Introduction, vi., London, A.D. 1715. 
 
 + Watson’s History of Halifax. 
 
368 
 
 held in tins street, sub dio, twice every week, upon Tuesdays and 
 Saturdays, early in the morning,* * * § where several thousand pounds’ worth 
 of broad cloth aro bought, and, generally speaking, paid for, in a few 
 hours’ time, and with so profound a silence as is surprising to strangers, 
 who, from the neighbouring galleries, &c., can hear no more noise than 
 the murmur of the merchants upon the exchange in London.” In addition 
 to the market held in the open air in Briggate, there were two cloth-halls, 
 one for the sale of coloured cloths, which is said to have existed from the 
 reign of Edward the Third ;f the other for the sale of undyed cloths, 
 called the White Cloth-hall, built in the reign of Queen Anne.J At this 
 time Bradford and Wakefield rivalled Leeds and Llalifax as manufacturing 
 towns, and Huddersfield was also rising into note. The woollen manu¬ 
 facture extended from Bingley and Keighley, on the Aire, to Penistone, 
 on the Don. South of the latter river, on the banks of the Bother and 
 the Sheaf, and the innumerable streams of Hallamshire, the manufacture 
 of cutlery had been carried on for hundreds of years. Then, as now, the 
 whole region resounded with the ponderous blows of tilt hammers, 
 worked by the brooks and rivers of the district. It has been shown, in a 
 previous chapter, that the woollens of Yorkshire and the cutlery of 
 Hallamshire were amongst the exports of Liverpool in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth; and they continued to be so, in greatly increasing quantities, 
 during the period whose history I am now tracing. 
 
 The rich salt mines of Cheshire, which have added so much to the 
 commercial prosperity of Liverpool since the river Weaver was rendered 
 navigable, and since the coal- fields of Lancashire were connected with the 
 salt district of Cheshire, had little effect in promoting that prosperity in 
 the time of the Stuarts. Owing to the dearness of fuel in the heart of 
 Cheshire, and the difficulty of getting the salt down to the coast, the 
 foreign salt-trade scarcely existed in Cheshire. It was then confined to 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, and those parts of the valley of the Forth where the 
 coal strata reach the sea. In 1635 Sir William Brereton, whose family 
 was engaged in the Cheshire salt trade, visited Newcastle, and has recorded 
 that there was more salt made there than at any place in England.§ The 
 salt-pans, which, he says, “ are not to be numbered,” were placed at the 
 river’s mouth, where salt water was easily obtained, and they were wrought 
 
 * Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis, 14. 
 
 + See a representation of this market in Knight’s Pictorial History of England. 
 
 + Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis. 
 
 § Sir William Brereton’s Travels, 80. 
 
369 
 
 with coals brought by water from the Newcastle pits. Sir William Brere- 
 ton says that the furnaces were placed in the same way as his “ brother 
 Booth’s at Nantwicli.” He further informs us that the cost of coals at the 
 Newcastle salt-works was seven shillings a chaldron, “ which is three wain 
 and that the men employed in the salt-works received fourteen shillings 
 a week. Owing to the abundance of coal, the glass-trade, as well as the 
 salt-trade, was then carried on to a great extent at Newcastle. London, 
 and all the east coast, as well as Holland, were supplied with coal from 
 that port. There was then a spacious haven, “ now naked of ships, but 
 sometimes throngedand the finest quay in England.” Of Newcastle 
 itself Sir William Brereton says, “ This is beyond all compare the finest 
 and richest town in England, inferior in wealth and building to no city 
 save London and Bristow, and whether it may not deserve to be accounted 
 as wealthy as Bristow I have some doubt.”f After leaving Newcastle Sir 
 William Brereton proceeded to Edinburgh, and in riding along the south 
 bank of the Forth he found “ an infinite, innumerable number of salt¬ 
 works” erected along the shore, in which salt was evaporated from sea¬ 
 water. With regard to the supply of coal he says, “ The conveniency of 
 coal gives the greatest encouragement to the erection and pursuit of these 
 works. Coals abound all along the shore, yea, it is conceived that the vein 
 lies all under the river, seeing it is found on both sides, as it were, reach¬ 
 ing towards the other.”J The cost of coal at the pit’s mouth was from 3s. 
 to 3s. 6d. a chaldron; the cost of carriage to the salt-works 2s. 6d. The 
 salt made in Scotland was chiefly exported to Holland. Cheapness of 
 fuel and ease of transport thus fixed the salt-trade on the east side of the 
 island, and the want of those advantages rendered the unrivalled strength 
 of the brine of the Cheshire salt pits, and the abundant supply of rock salt, 
 comparatively unavailing. For the same reason—the cost of transport — 
 the coal exported from this part of the island was chiefly shipped from 
 Mostyn, on the river Dee, where the coal-field runs close to the 
 river, and not from Liverpool, where a considerable land-carriage inter¬ 
 venes between the mines and the place of shipment. “ Three miles from 
 this place,” says Collins, “is Mostyn Mark, where vessels load coals. 
 This place doth not only supply the neighbouring place with coals, but 
 the kingdom of Ireland.Ӥ The only article of much value which Cheshire 
 supplied to the commerce of Liverpool was its famous cheese, which 
 
 * Brereton’s Travels, 88. + Ibid, 85. } Ibid, 112. 
 
 § Grenville Collins’s Coasting Pilot, 11. 
 
 3 B 
 
370 
 
 was then as popular in London and the colonies as it is now ; and which 
 the London cheesemongers shipped, in large quantities, in the river Mersey, 
 sometimes from Liverpool, at other times from Frodsham, and other small 
 places on the southern hank of the river. It has been seen that these 
 cheesemongers were the only parties who opposed the making of the first 
 Liverpool dock. 
 
 The iron trade of Staffordshire, which has been another great means 
 of developing the commerce of Liverpool, made much progress during the 
 period of which I have been treating. By this time the great forest of 
 Andradswald, and some other extensive forests in the south of England, 
 which had been the original seats of the iron manufacture, had become 
 exhausted, from constant use and neglect of planting. The consequence 
 was, that the iron works of Sussex, Kent, and Surrey, which flourished in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had been abandoned in the reign of Charles 
 the Second.* Owing to the great care with which the woods of the forest 
 of Dean were kept up,f that district of Gloucester had become one of the 
 principal seats of the iron trade at that time. The cinders of the ores, from 
 which the Komans and ancient Britons had extracted a small portion of 
 the metal, by means of feeble blasts, were exposed to much more powerful 
 blasts, and were made to yield a second supply. In addition to these 
 Homan cinders the rich ores of the district were also smelted. At that 
 time 60,000 persons were sustained by the iron works of the Forest of 
 Dean.J Of the pig or sow iron of that district a part was sent down to 
 Bristol, from which place it was exported, some of it to Ireland, where it 
 was sold at about £5 a ton, and there manufactured, in the extensive 
 woods of Wicklow and Wexford, into bars, which were then worth about 
 £20 a ton.§ Much the greater part of it, however, was sent up the 
 Severn to Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and 
 by land-carriage into Cheshire, where it was made into bar iron. This 
 bar iron was again worked up into innumerable implements, or sold un¬ 
 manufactured, about Birmingham, Dudley, and Stourbridge. Yarranton 
 states, that, in the reign of Charles the Second, within ten miles around 
 Dudley, there were more people inhabiting, and more money returned in 
 a year, than there were in four of the richest agricultural counties ;|| that 
 land was there twice as dear as it was in those counties; and that upwards 
 of 100,000 persons were supported by the iron trade of that district.1T 
 
 Yarranton’s England’s Improvement, 60. + Yarranton, 58. 
 
 § Brereton’s Travels, 147. || Yarranton, 52. % Ibid, 58. 
 
 + Ibid, 58. 
 
371 
 
 Owing to the want of water-carriage from Staffordshire to Liverpool, only 
 a small part of this great trade found its way to the hanks of the Mersey 
 at that time ; but, as the iron trade has been and is one of the great trades 
 of the port of Liverpool, I have thought it well to trace the gradual 
 migration of the trade from the south, to districts with which Liverpool is 
 now so closely connected. Viewing the manufactures of England as a 
 whole, there is no reason to doubt that they increased greatly during the 
 reigns of the Stuart princes, although the increase was chiefly confined to 
 the counties of Lancaster, York, Stafford, and to some parts of the west 
 of England, and was accompanied by a decline of manufacturing industry 
 in other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 It appears, from the accounts of the commerce of England left us 
 by Sir Josiah Child—the Alexander Baring of his day—and other com¬ 
 mercial writers of that age, that the foreign trade of the country passed 
 through as great a change about this time as its manufactures. Several 
 of the older branches of foreign trade were lost altogether; whilst others 
 sprang up which more than supplied their place. Amongst the branches 
 of trade which were lost, or greatly diminished, were the following:—1st, 
 The Russian trade, in which the Dutch had twenty-two ships employed, 
 in the year before Sir Josiah Child published his Essays on Trade, and in 
 which the English, who had formerly had a monopoly of the trade, had 
 only one. 2nd, The Greenland whale-fishery, in which the Dutch and 
 the Hamburghers had together four or five hundred ships, whilst the 
 English had only a single ship. 3rd, The trade of carrying salt from St. 
 Ubes, in Portugal, and wine and brandy from the French ports, to the 
 Baltic. 4th, The “ vast and notorious” trade of fishing for white her¬ 
 rings (that is, herrings so salted as to retain their white colour) on the 
 coasts of Scotland and England. 5tli, The East Country and Baltic 
 trade, in which England had not half as many ships as the Dutch, though at 
 one time it had had ten times as many. 6th, The greater part of the trade 
 in Spanish wools, from Bilboa. 7th, The East India trade for nutmegs, 
 cloves, and mace. 8th, The great trade to China and Japan. 9th, The 
 trades of Scotland and Ireland “ two of our own kingdoms” (which) “ the 
 Dutch have bereaved us of, and in effect wholly engrossed to themselves.” 
 10th, The trade to Norway. 11th, A great part of the trade of France, 
 owing to the heavy duties (60 or 70 per cent.) “on our draperies” or 
 woollen goods. 12th, The trade with Cadiz, for the silver and gold of 
 America. 13th, The trade with Surinam. 14th, The trade of 
 Menades, or New York, which was not at that time fully transferred 
 
372 
 
 to England by tlie Dutch. And 15th, The trade with Guinea for 
 negroes, ivory, gold, and palm oil. Such were the trades which 
 Sir Josiah Child regarded as lost to England, and of these he says,* the 
 above-mentioned are the greatest trades in the world, for the employment 
 of shipping and seamen. The trades which England retained were, 
 1st, The red herring trade of Yarmouth, and the cod-fisheries of New¬ 
 foundland and New England. 2nd, A good part of the Turkey, Italian, 
 Spanish, and Portugal trades. 3rd, The trade to and from the plan¬ 
 tations, namely, Virginia, Barbadoes, New England, Jamaica, and the 
 Leeward Islands. In the opinion of Sir Josiah Child, who was the 
 greatest merchant of his age, the principal causes of the decay of the 
 various branches of trade enumerated above, as being in a declining state* 
 were the following:—1st, The high rate of interest on money in 
 England compared with Holland. The rate of interest in England being 
 six per cent, and in Holland three.f This, he states, gave the Dutch a 
 profit on transactions which left a heavy loss in England. 2nd, The 
 facility of transferring debts, by means of inland bills of exchange, 
 which was allowed in Holland and not in England, “ by means of which 
 they can turn their stocks twice or thrice in trade, whilst we can once 
 in England.’’^ 3rd, The banking system of Holland, and the system of 
 credit which grew out of it, tvliich he considered equal to a capital of a 
 million pounds sterling per annum in favour of the Dutch.§ 4th, The 
 low customs of the Dutch, who raised their revenue chiefly by excise 
 duties, || and, in times of pressure, by loans at low interest ; and 
 the high customs of England, which were imposed, without limit or 
 discrimination, on exports as well as imports.H 5th, The prevalence of 
 perfect liberty of conscience in Holland, which drew in foreign capitalists 
 from all countries and the religious persecutions of England and Scot¬ 
 land, which drove away many even of the native inhabitants. 6th, The 
 wonderful frugality of the Dutch, who spent less, in mere show, on an 
 estate of ,£100,000, than people in England did on an estate of Tl,500.ff 
 7th, The strictly commercial education of the whole people, which made 
 even the Dutch women as good accountants as the English men.JJ To 
 these and other causes, which are enumerated by Sir Josiah Child, it may 
 be added, that the Dutch introduced the bonding and warehousing system 
 
 * Sir Josiali Child’s Discourse on Trade. Introduction, xviii. -t Ibid, 5. J Ibid. 
 
 § Ibid, 4. || Ibid. 
 
 5T See Tariff of Export and Import Duties in Statutes at Large, Twelfth Charles the Second. 
 
 ** Child’s Discourse on Trade, 4. ++ Ibid, 3. + J Ibid. 
 
373 
 
 early in the seventeenth century, that is nearly two hundred years before 
 it was introduced in England, and thus made Holland the warehouse, 
 and themselves the carriers, of Europe.* 
 
 Although Sir Josiah Child thus speaks in very discouraging terms of the 
 foreign trade of the country, yet no writer of that age speaks more warmly 
 of the internal improvements of the kingdom, or of the wonderful prosperity 
 of the colonies or plantations, which had sprung into existence during the 
 sixty years preceding the publication of his Essays on Trade. Amongst 
 the proofs of the increase of internal wealth he mentions the following :— 
 A five hundred pounds’ portion with a daughter, sixty years before, was 
 esteemed a larger portion than two thousand pounds, at the time when he 
 wrote ; gentlewomen in those days would esteem themselves well clothed 
 in a serge gown, in which a chamber-maid would he ashamed to be seen in 
 Sir Josiah’s times ; the citizens of his day were richer in clothes, plate, 
 jewels, and household goods than the best sort of knights and gentry 
 were sixty years before ; whilst the knights and gentry exceeded the 
 former state of the nobility, many of whom could not formerly afford a 
 white satin doublet, “ the embroiderer being yet living, who hath assured 
 me (Sir Josiah) that he had made many hundreds of them for the nobility 
 with canvas backs.” In his time there were a hundred coaches where 
 there was one formerly ; the people, with ease, paid a greater tax in one 
 year than their forefathers paid in twenty ; the customs had increased in 
 the proportion of six to one; he could himself remember an increase of 
 one-third in the number of wharfs and quays used by merchants in Lon¬ 
 don, and also that the smaller number of wharfs of former times were not 
 half employed, whilst the greater number of that day were “ all too little, 
 in time of peace, to land the goods at which come to Londonin the 
 country, lands, which were formerly not worth more than eight to ten 
 years’ purchase, had become worth twenty years’ purchase; rents had 
 greatly advanced ; “ a person was yet living, and but seventy-seven years 
 of age, namely, Captain Russell, of Wapping,” who had assured Sir Josiah 
 Child, that he could remember since when there were not above three 
 merchant ships, of 300 tons and upwards, belonging to England ;f pepper, 
 indigo, calicoes, and several useful drugs, to the value of £150,000 to 
 £180,000 per annum, were imported into England from the East Indies, 
 for home consumption, and from £200,000 to £300,000 worth per annum, 
 
 * “ But this encouragement is here given to strangers and merchants, that what goods 
 they bring hither and hence export are excise frco, except tobacco.”— Brerelon’s Travels, 05. 
 
 t Child's Discourse on Trade, 51. 
 
374 
 
 of the same articles, for exportation; London had nearly doubled its 
 population in sixty years, in spite of fire and plague; other places had also 
 increased greatly, as Yarmouth, Hull, Scarborough, and other ports in 
 the north; as also Liverpool, West-Chester, and Bristol, Portsmouth, Lime, 
 and Plymouth ;* “ and withal,” adds Sir Josiah, “ if it be considered, 
 what great improvements have been made these last sixty years, upon 
 breaking up and enclosing of waste forests and parks, and draining of the 
 fens, and all those places inhabited and furnished with husbandry, &c., I 
 think it will appear probable that we have in England now, at least had, 
 before the late plague, more people than we had before we first entered 
 upon foreign plantations, notwithstanding likewise the great numbers of 
 men which have issued from us into Ireland.”f 
 
 His account of the rise of the plantations or colonies is still more 
 interesting. England, he asserts, had done more in the way of successful 
 planting or colonizing in sixty years, than the Spanish or Portuguese 
 had done in two hundred, and vastly more than the Dutch and French 
 had done, since they began to plant the islands and main land of 
 America. 
 
 Beginning the comparison with the Dutch, he says, that the English 
 had done ten times as much in Jamaica, in five years, as the Dutch had 
 done in Tobago, Curacoa, and the other tropical colonies, in thirty or 
 forty.f He adds, “ Neither have the Dutch at any other time, or in any 
 other parts of the world, made any improvements by planting ; what they 
 do in the East Indies being only by war, trade, and building of fortified 
 towns and castles upon the sea coasts, to retain the sole commerce of 
 the places, with the people which they conquer; not by clearing, 
 breaking up the grounds, and planting, as the English have done. ’§ 
 
 With regard to the French, Sir Josiah Child says, that they had had 
 footing in the West Indies almost as long as the English, but that they 
 had made no considerable progress in planting. This, he attributes, 
 first, to France being an absolute government, which had not, until 
 lately, given any countenance or encouragement to navigation and trade; 
 and, second, to the fact that the French settlements in the West Indies 
 had not been made by freeholders, to whom the crown had granted the 
 fee simple of the soil, as the English plantations had been, hut by 
 persons in subjection to the French West India Company; “ which 
 company being under the French king, as lord proprietor of the places 
 
 Child’s Discourse on Trade, 121. t Ibid, 145. J Ibid, 148. § Ibid, 148. 
 
375 
 
 they settle upon, and taxing the inhabitants at pleasure, as the king does 
 them, it is not probable they should make that successful progress in 
 planting; property, freedom, and inheritance, being the most 
 
 EFFECTUAL STEPS TO INDUSTRY.”* 
 
 With regard to the Spaniards, he says, that whatever may be the general 
 opinion on the subject, it is a fact that the English, since they set to the 
 work of forming plantations in America, “ have cleared and improved 
 fifty plantations for one, and built as many houses, for one the Spaniards 
 have builtthat the oldest of the English plantations had been begun 
 within sixty years, whilst some of the Spanish plantations had existed for 
 two hundred; that what the Spaniards had done in the West Indies, (that 
 is both on the continent and in the islands,) had been more by conquest 
 than by planting ; that they had found most of their cities and towns ready 
 built and inhabited, and much of the ground improved and cultivated, 
 whilst the English had built and planted everything for themselves: that 
 the Spaniards had found in Mexico and Peru, and other parts of America, a 
 people whom they had subdued, with whom some of them could and had 
 mixed, from which unions had proceeded a race called Mestises, whereas 
 the English, where they had set down and planted, “ either found none, 
 or such as were mere wild heathen, with whom they could not nor even 
 had been known to mix :”f and still that with all these advantages, and all 
 this lapse of time, the Spanish possessions were scarcely so populous, in 
 any part of the West Indies, as to be able to bring an army of 10,000 
 men together in a month’s time, whilst the English, as we learn from 
 another authority, could bring together 10,000 fighting men, in the 
 little island of Barbadoes. Sir Josiah Child attributed the inferiority 
 of the Spanish plantations, compared with the English, to the following 
 causes:—First, and principally, to the fact that the Spanish crown 
 exercised the same policy and government, civil and ecclesiastical, in its 
 plantations, as it did in the mother country ; “from whence it follows,” 
 says he, “ that their people are few and thin abroad, from the same 
 causes as they are empty and void of people at home; whereas, although 
 we in England vainly endeavour to arrive at an uniformity of religion at 
 home, yet we allow an Amsterdam liberty (of conscience) in our 
 plantations.”f Secondly, to the inferiority of the products raised in the 
 Spanish plantations, gold and silver only excepted, and to the excessive 
 
 * Child’s Treatise on Trade, 150. 
 
 + Except in very rare cases, as that of the Virginian Princess Pocahontas, who married 
 a young Englishman, and adopted the religion and manners of the English. 
 
freight of their ships, which was four times as high as that of the ships 
 of England. Thirdly, to the greatness of the customs’ duties in old 
 Spain, “ for undoubtedly high customs do as well dwarf plantations as 
 trade."* Fourthly, to the “intense and singular industry” of the Spaniards, 
 in seeking for gold and silver, by which they had destroyed numbers of 
 their people, at least, of their slaves, and in following which they had 
 neglected “ the cultivating of the earth, and the producing commodities 
 from the growth of it, which might give employment to a greater navy, as 
 well as sustenance to a greater number of people by sea and landand 
 lastly, to “ the multitudes of fryers, nuns, and recluse, and ecclesiastical 
 persons, who are prohibited marriage.”f 
 
 With regard to the Portuguese, he acknowledges that they have 
 been great planters, in the Brazils and other places ; but adds, “ yet, if 
 we preserve our people and plantations by good laws, I have reason to 
 believe that the Portuguese, except they alter their politics, which it is 
 almost impossible for them to do, can never bear up with us, much less 
 prejudice our plantations.” He says, that it was evident that they had 
 not hurt the English hitherto, for “ in my time (he adds) we have beat 
 their Muscovado and Paneal sugars quite out of use in England; their 
 whites we have brought down in all those parts of Europe in price, from 
 seven or eight pounds per cwt. to fifty shillings and three pounds; and, 
 in quantity, whereas formerly their Brazil fleets consisted of one hundred 
 to one hundred and twenty thousand chests of sugar, they are now 
 reduced to about thirty thousand chests, since the great increase of 
 Barbadoes/’J 
 
 Such is the comparison drawn between the English colonies and 
 those of the other colonizing nations of Europe, by the greatest mer¬ 
 chant of England, whilst they were in their infancy. It is almost 
 superfluous to say that they have fully realized all the hopes 
 and opinions expressed by him. As the commerce of Liverpool rests 
 chiefly on the two great facts, of the rise of manufactures in the sur¬ 
 rounding districts of England, and of the peopling, planting, and culti¬ 
 vating of America, it will be well to give a brief sketch of the planting 
 and early progress of the principal colonies of England, in North America 
 and the West Indies. 
 
 Virginia, the first English colony formed on the Continent of 
 America, was “planted” under a charter granted by James the First, in 
 
 * Child’s Essay on Trade, 153. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
377 
 
 the year 1601!, to a London company. The parties most active in 
 obtaining the charter were Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a gentleman of 
 fortune; Sir John Poplmm, Lord Chief-Justice of England ; Richard 
 Hakluyt, the geographer, and Captain Gosnold, an experienced navi¬ 
 gator, who had visited Virginia, and was well acquainted with the country 
 and the Indians. According to the terms of the charter, the London 
 company was authorized to take possession of and plant the region 
 extending from the 34th to the 38th degree of north latitude, that is, from 
 Cape Fear to the south point of Maryland, on condition of paying 
 to the king one-fifth of all the gold and silver and one-fifteenth of the 
 copper found in the colony. By the charter, the general superintendence 
 of the new plantation was placed in the hands of a council resident in 
 England, and the local superintendence in those of a council resident in 
 the colony. The emigrants were promised that they and their children 
 should continue to be Englishmen,* and should enjoy all English rights. 
 Furnished with these authorities and guarantees, an expedition, consisting 
 of three small vessels, the largest not exceeding a hundred tons, and 
 carrying a hundred and five emigrants, sailed from England for Virginia, 
 on the 19th November, 1C06, and arrived in the Bay of Chesapeake in 
 the spring of the following year. The country which there opened to 
 them appeared to the emigrants “ to claim a prerogative over the most 
 pleasant places in the world.” In passing between the Capes of Vir¬ 
 ginia, they named them Capes Henry and Charles, in honour of the king’s 
 two sons; and after sailing up a fine river, which they named James’s 
 River, after the king, they landed, on the 15th May, 1007, on a penin¬ 
 sula nearly encircled by it, where they built a few huts, to which they 
 gave the name of Jamestown. During the first three years the colony 
 suffered excessive hardships, some of them caused by the unfitness of 
 several of the colonists to struggle with so new a mode of life ; others by 
 vain and delusive attempts to discover gold and silver, and a new route to 
 the Pacific Ocean, up the rivers of Virginia. The colony would in all 
 probability have perished, if it had not been sustained by the courage, 
 good sense, and unwavering enthusiasm of Captain John Smith, a gallant 
 soldier, who, after distinguishing himself in the wars of Europe, had 
 thrown himself into the enterprise of planting Virginia, with the same 
 daring courage which he had shown in fighting against the Spaniards in 
 the Netherlands, and the Turks in Hungary. Under the influence of this 
 
 * Bancroft’s History of the Colonization of the United States, i., 121. 
 
 3 c 
 
378 
 
 high-spirited leader the colony was kept in existence through famino, 
 disease, and danger, although it was at one time reduced to forty souls. 
 In the year 1009, Lord Delaware was appointed governor of the colony, 
 and ever after proved himself its true friend.* In the year 1011 Sir 
 Thomas Gates took out three hundred new settlers, just in time to 
 save the first set of colonists; and from this time the colony continued to 
 advance, though still slowly, and amidst many difficulties. About this 
 time tobacco began to be generally cultivated, and soon became both the 
 staple and the currency of the colony. The previous industry of the 
 colonists had been directed to the production of ashes, soap, and tar, articles 
 for which Virginia had no special fitness. In June, 1619, the colony 
 having increased in the meantime, the first colonial assembly ever held in 
 Virginia, was called together. Up to this period the Virginian Company 
 had expended T80,000 in colonizing Virginia, though without having 
 obtained any return in money, at all equal to so great an expenditure. In 
 1621 the colony received an accession of 1,261 persons in a single year. 
 Amongst them were ninety young women, agreeable and of unblemished 
 character, who soon found husbands amongst the colonists. The next year 
 “ sixty maids, of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recom¬ 
 mended,” were sent out by the company, which received 1501bs. of tobacco, 
 for the cost of conveying each of them out, from those who married them. 
 In the year 1621 there were already 3,500 persons in the colony. In 
 the month of August, 1620, a Dutch vessel entered James’s Eiver, 
 bringing twenty negroes for sale. This was the commencement of slavery 
 and the slave trade in English America. The trade was chiefly carried 
 on by the Dutch for some years; but it made so little progress that the 
 whites were to the blacks as fifty to one thirty years after. In 1621 
 attempts were made to introduce the rearing of silk and the cultivation 
 of the vine in Virginia ; but they made no progress, owing to the scarcity 
 of labour. The first cultivation of cotton in Virginia also took place 
 this year. The plant came up plentifully, and the experiment excited 
 great interest both in England and America.! The following year 
 was rendered memorable by a terrible massacre, committed by the Indians, 
 in which 347 of the colonists perished. This led to a desperate war, in 
 which the power of the Indians was effectually broken. The accession of 
 Charles the First did nothing to weaken the rights of the colonists. He 
 appointed Sir George Yeardley, a popular man, governor, and confirmed 
 
 * Bancroft, i., 141. 
 
 t Ibid, i., 179. 
 
379 
 
 the power of the Colonial Assembly.* In the following year 1,000 
 emigrants were added to the colony, and the demand for the products of 
 the soil greatly increased. In the year 1624 the English parliament 
 assembled, and Sir Edwin Sandys, the unchanging friend of the colony, 
 obtained a complete protection for the Virginian tobacco-planters against 
 all foreign rivals. “ The people of England,” says Bancroft, “ could not 
 have given a more earnest proof of their disposition to foster the planta¬ 
 tions in America, than by restraining all competition in their own market, 
 for the benefit of the American planter.”! During the next twenty years, 
 which was a period of unexampled struggle and suffering on the part of 
 England, Virginia continued to prosper. “ Thus,” says an eloquent 
 American historian, “ the colony of Virginia acquired the management of 
 all its concerns: war was levied, and peace concluded, and territories 
 acquired, in conformity to the acts of the representatives of the people. 
 Possessed of security and quiet, abundance of land, a free market for 
 their staple, and practically possessing all the rights of an independent 
 state, having England for its guardian against foreign oppression rather 
 than its ruler, the colonists enjoyed all the prosperity which a virgin soil, 
 equal laws, and the general uniformity of condition and industry could 
 bestow. Their numbers increased : the cottages were filled with children, 
 as the ports were with ships and emigrants. At Christmas, 1648, there 
 were trading in Virginia ten ships from London, two from Bristol, twelve 
 Hollanders, and seven from New England. The number of the colonists 
 was already 20,000, and they who had sustained no griefs were not 
 tempted to engage in the feuds by which the mother country was divided.”! 
 The colony remained firm to the Stuarts. “ Virginia,” says Hammond, 
 “ was whole for monarchy ; and the last country belonging to England 
 that submitted to obedience to the commonwealth.” 
 
 Thus was the first and greatest of the commercial colonies founded. 
 It is not needful to trace its subsequent history in detail. It afterwards 
 submitted to the parliament, but willingly welcomed back the king. With 
 the exception of one violent commotion in Virginia, caused by the strife 
 of two parties within the colony, it continued to enjoy peace, and to 
 advance in prosperity and population to the close of the century. At tlio 
 time of the Revolution of 1688 the population of the province had in¬ 
 creased to “ 50,000 or more.”! Twenty years later the following was the 
 condition of Virginia:—“ In former ages no colony had ever enjoyed a 
 
 * Bancroft, i., Ifl6. 
 
 t Ibid, i., 101. 
 
 } Ibid, ii., 450. 
 
380 
 
 happier freedom. From the days of Bacon’s insurrection (in 1676,) for 
 a period of three-quarters of a century, Virginia possessed uninterrupted 
 peace. On its own soil the strife with the Indians was ended ; the French 
 hesitated to invade the western frontier on which they lowered ; if some¬ 
 times alarm was spread by the privateers upon the coast, a naval foe was not 
 attracted to a region which had neither town nor magazines, where there 
 was nothing to destroy but a field of tobacco, nothing to plunder but the 
 frugal stores of a scattered population. The soil was stained with nothing 
 but the sweat of the labourer. In such scenes of tranquil happiness, the 
 political strifes were but the ebullitions of a high spirit, which, in the 
 wantonness of independence, loved to tease the governor; and again, if 
 the burgesses expressed loyalty, they were loyal only because loyalty was 
 their humour.”* 
 
 Maryland grew up as a younger sister of Virginia. The charter under 
 which it was planted, “ however it may have been neglected to provide for 
 the power of the king, was a sufficient frank pledge for the liberties of 
 the colonist.”! The boundaries of the new plantation were the ocean, the 
 fortieth parallel of latitude, “ the meridian of the western fountain of the 
 Potomac,” the river itself from its source to its mouth, and a line drawn 
 due east from Watkins’ Point to the Atlantic.! The name of the pro¬ 
 vince was given in compliment to ITenrietta Maria, the daughter of the 
 good Henri Quatre of France, and the beautiful wife of the unfortunate 
 Charles the First of England. The date of the charter under which 
 Maryland was planted, is the 20tli June, 1632. The party to whom it was 
 granted was George Calvert, a Yorkshire gentleman, and for some time the 
 representative of that great county in Parliament. Sir George Calvert 
 was a Roman Catholic from conviction and conversion, and having known 
 the bitterness of persecution himself, rendered Maryland a refuge for the 
 persecuted of every creed. Plaving died before his patent was executed, 
 all the proprietary rights which it had been proposed to concede to him 
 were granted to his eldest son, Cecilius Calvert, who was about the same 
 time created Lord Baltimore. The colony was actually planted by his 
 brother, Leonard Calvert, who sailed from England on the 22d November, 
 1632, with about two hundred persons, most of them Roman Catholic 
 gentlemen and their servants, in two vessels, named the Ark and the Dove. 
 Plaving made the voyage by way of Barbadoes, they did not arrive on the 
 banks of Potomac until February in the following year. By a friendly 
 
 * Bancroft, in., 20. 
 
 + Ibid, i., 211. 
 
 + Ibid, i., 242. 
 
381 
 
 agreement with the Indians they obtained possession of an Indian village, 
 and there, on the 27th of March, 1(534, “ the Catholics took quiet posses¬ 
 sion of the little place ; and religious liberty obtained a home, its only 
 home in the wide world, at the humble village which bears the name of 
 St. Mary’s.”* 
 
 In the same year in which King James the First granted to the Lon¬ 
 don company the charter under which Virginia was planted, he also 
 granted to a company formed in the West of England, and generally 
 known as the Plymouth Company, another charter, authorizing it to plant 
 or colonize that part of the coast of America which lies north of the 40th 
 degree of latitude, and which includes New England and the great state 
 of New York. The charter gave the Plymouth Company the power of 
 “ planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New England, in North 
 America, from the 40th to the 48th degree of north latitude,” and from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. It thus gave the company an immense 
 region, containing a million square miles of land, and capable of sustain¬ 
 ing two hundred million of inhabitants ;f and also gave it the power 
 of governing it, as it might seem best, for the interests of the colony and 
 the company. 
 
 The first settlers in New England were a small but resolute band of 
 persecuted Puritans, who sought refuge from the tyranny of unjust laws, 
 by flying from their native England, to the wilds and forests of America. 
 Whilst commerce originated Virginia, abhorrence of tyranny peopled 
 New England; and the difference in the origin of the two colonies was long 
 seen in the different spirit of the colonists. Virginia was for ages a com¬ 
 mercial and loyal colony, the people of which lived “in a gentlemanly 
 conformity to the Church of England,” and stood firmly by the crown ; 
 New England was a Puritan and democratic colony, vehemently opposed 
 to episcopacy, and not very favourable even to monarchical government. 
 
 On Monday, the lltlx December, (old style,) in the year IG20, the 
 exploring party of the pilgrims first landed on a spot to which they gave 
 the name of Plymouth, in memory of the last spot of English ground 
 on which they had trod. The whole number of souls who had crossed 
 the ocean, in the Mayflower, was only one hundred. During the first 
 winter they suffered great hardships from cold, disease, and want of food; 
 and for the first three years the history of the colony is that of a 
 desperate battle for existence. “ Even in the third year of the 
 
 * Bancroft, i., 247. 
 
 + Ibid, i., 272. 
 
382 
 
 settlement their victuals were so entirely spent, that they knew not 
 at night where to have a hit in the morning.”* Cattle were not 
 introduced until the fourth year of the settlement; and the grain raised 
 being insufficient for their support, they had to sustain life for months 
 together on shell and other fish. After the harvest of 1C23 their con¬ 
 dition was much improved, for, from that time, they were free from the 
 danger of famishing from hunger; and, in a few years, they raised so much 
 grain as to he able to exchange the surplus produce of their fields with 
 the Indians for beaver and other skins. Still the progress of the colony 
 was slow and difficult, so that there were only three hundred souls in 
 New England ten years after the pilgrims landed.f On the 4th March, 
 1029, Charles the First granted a liberal charter to the company of 
 Massachusetts Bay. This created a governor, deputy-governor, and 
 assistants for the colony, to be elected by the shareholders; and con¬ 
 firmed to the colonists all the rights of British subjects.J On the 
 suggestion of Matthew Cradock, the governor of the company, it was 
 proposed that the charter should be transferred to those of the company 
 who might themselves emigrate to the colony. This was agreed to after 
 a full debate, and thus a commercial corporation was changed into a 
 free provincial government^ With this charter the leading friends of 
 the colony emigrated to New England, and from that time the colony 
 advanced rapidly.|| In the year 1630 as many as fifteen hundred souls 
 emigrated to New England; in 1631, ninety; in 1633, two hundred. 
 Boston, which had “ sweet and pleasant springs”, and which was sur¬ 
 rounded by good land, “affording rich corn-fields, and fruitful gardens,’ 
 became the capital of the province. In 1638 the king attempted to 
 withdraw the patent of the colony ; but in that year the people of Scot¬ 
 land rose in open insurrection to resist the imposition of episcopacy,If and 
 the great struggle commenced between the king and his parliament, which, 
 amongst other important results, secured the freedom of New England. 
 At the time when the Long Parliament met, in 1640, the population of 
 the province had increased to about 21,000 souls.** The exports of 
 the colony at that time were furs, fish, timber, and grain, shipped to the 
 West Indies. Shipbuilding had also been introduced, vessels of 400 
 tons having been built previous to the year 1643 ; saw-mills, turned by 
 water, (then a new invention,) had also been constructed; and, during 
 
 + Ibid, i., 321. + Ibid, i., 343. § Ibid, i., 353. 
 
 IF Ibid, i., 413. ** Ibid, ii., 00. 
 
 * Bancroft, i., 315. 
 
 || Ibid, i., 354. 
 
383 
 
 the great civil war, when few supplies arrived from England, the colonists 
 even began to manufacture cotton, “ whereof they had store from 
 Barbadoes.”* In the year 1649 Prince Rupert, who was then cruizing 
 in the West Indies with a squadron of ships of war, half royalist half 
 piratical, supplied his crews by seizing on the New England ships 
 carrying provisions to Barbadoes and the other colonies.! The civil war, 
 however, was scarcely felt by the New Englanders ; but, on the 
 restoration of Charles the Second, great numbers of the republican 
 party found refuge there. In the year 1675, fifteen years after the 
 restoration, the population of New England amounted to 55,000 souls. 
 About this time the colony suffered miserably from wars with the Indian 
 tribes, who, though everywhere defeated in the field, prowled about the 
 scattered homes of the colonists, and massacred multitudes of men, 
 women, and children. One of the first acts of James the Second, on 
 succeeding to the throne, was to seize upon the charters of the New 
 England colonies. That of Massachusetts was annulled in 1685, and 
 remained suspended until the year 1688, when the liberties of America 
 were again secured by the memorable English revolution of that year. 
 The news of the English revolution was received at Boston on the 18th 
 April, 1689. “The amazing news did fly like lightning”; and every¬ 
 where the colonists rose to support the English movement. “ William 
 and Mary, the Protestant sovereigns, were proclaimed, with rejoicings such 
 as America had never before known in its intercourse with England.”! 
 At this great epoch the population of the whole of the New England 
 colonies was about 75,000 souls, that is, about half as many as the 
 present population of the city of Boston. 
 
 For upwards of a century after the revolution of 1688, the present 
 State of Maine remained a district subordinate to Massachusetts, so that 
 the history of one is the history of both. Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 and New Hampshire, were off-shoots of Massachusetts, although the two 
 former soon obtained independent charters, and the connexion of New 
 Hampshire with Massachusetts was more than once broken. 
 
 The Dutch were the first people who explored the Connecticut River,§ 
 but the English never admitted the claims which they founded on that 
 circumstance. In July, 1635, the younger Winthrop, “the future bene¬ 
 factor of Connecticut,” returned from England, with a commission from 
 the proprietors of that region to erect a fort at the mouth of the Connec- 
 
 * Bancroft, i., 147. 
 
 t E. Warburton’s Rupert and the Cavaliers, iii., 384. } Bancroft, ii., 449. § Ibid, i., 273. 
 
384 
 
 ticut River, tm object which was accomplished. Before his return to 
 America, the settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield had 
 been formed, by emigrants from the environs of Boston; and late in the 
 autumn of the same year a compauy of pilgrims, women and children 
 being of tire number, began their march to the west, for the infant colony, 
 where, however, they suffered dreadful privations in the following winter. 
 “ In June” (of the following year) “ the principal caravan began its 
 march, led by Thomas Hooker, the light of the western churches.”* 
 At this time the Connecticut River was thought to be the best channel for 
 carrying on the fur trade with the unknown regions of the west; and its 
 meadows were already famed for the fertility of their soil. After suffering 
 more severely than any other colony, from the rancorous hatred of the 
 Indiaus, the colony was at length firmly established, and became one of 
 the most prosperous regions of New England. On the restoration of 
 Charles the Second all the liberties of Connecticut were confirmed. 
 
 The origin of the Rhode Island settlement is one of the most interesting 
 events in the history of America. It was founded by Roger Williams, an 
 Englishman, who had emigrated to Massachusetts, not merely to obtain 
 freedom of conscience for himself, but to assert the right of every human 
 being to possess it. This doctrine he preached boldly, and declared 
 himself “ ready to be bound and banished, and even to die” in defence of 
 it.f For holding these opinions the General Court of Massachusetts pro¬ 
 nounced against him the sentence of banishment. After enduring great 
 hardships in the forests of Massachusetts, he embarked in a small Indian 
 canoe, with five companions, and landed in Rhode Island, at a spot to 
 which he gave the name of Providence. “ I desired,” said he, “ it might 
 be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience.Here he was 
 soon joined by others who fled to this asylum of religious liberty. The 
 great civil war broke out in England soon after, and the settlers in 
 Rhode Island, thinking the opportunity favourable, sent Roger Williams 
 to England, to ask a charter for the new settlement. His distinguished 
 merits induced “ both houses of parliament to grant unto him and friends 
 with him, a free and absolute charter of civil government for those parts 
 of his abode.” Rhode Island thus owed its existence, as a separate com- 
 munitv, to the Long Parliament, and more especially to Sir Harry Yane, 
 the younger, the friend of Milton- Roger Williams was received with 
 transports of delight on his return to America, and, under his wise in- 
 
 * Bancroft,, i., 396. 
 
 + Ibid, i., 379. 
 
 + Ibid, i., 379. 
 
385 
 
 fluence, and the noble principles of civil and religious freedom established 
 by him, the settlement continued to flourish. “ From the first beginning 
 of the Providence colony,” said the inhabitants, in an address presented 
 to Sir Harry Yane, “ you have been a noble and true friend to an outcast 
 and despised people; we have ever reaped the sweet fruits of your constant 
 loving-kindness and favour. We have long been free from the iron yoke 
 of the wolfish bishops; we have sitten dry from the streams of blood spilt 
 by the wars of our native country. We have not felt the new chains of 
 the Presbyterian tyrants; nor, in this colony, have we been consumed by 
 the over-zealous fire of the (so called) Godly Christian magistrates. We 
 have not known what an excise means : we have almost forgotten what 
 tithes are. We have long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any 
 people we can hear of, under the whole heaven. When we are gone, our 
 posterity and children after us shall read, in our town records, your 
 loving-kindness to us, and our real endeavours after peace and righteous¬ 
 ness.”* On the return of Charles the Second he confirmed all the civil 
 and religious liberties of Rhode Island, in the amplest manner. In a 
 charter, bearing the date of July 8, 1603, it was declared, that the laws 
 were to be agreeable to those of England, yet with the kind reference “ to 
 the constitution of the place and the nature of the people.” In religious 
 matters the charter provided that “no person within the said colony, at 
 any time hereafter, shall be, in any wise, molested, punished, disturbed, 
 or called in question, for any difference in opinion in matters of religion; 
 every person may, at all times, freely and fully enjoy his own judgment 
 and conscience in matters of religious concernments.”f 
 
 Although the charters of James the First to the London and the Ply¬ 
 mouth companies granted to those two companies all the territory extend¬ 
 ing from the 36th to the 48th degree of north latitude, yet the two great 
 clusters of English settlements on the American coast, the Virginian and 
 the New England groups, were separated for lialf-a-century, by the settle¬ 
 ments formed by the Dutch in the present State of New York, then called 
 New Netherlands, and by those formed by the Swedes in New Jersey, then 
 called New Sweden. On the 3d of September, 1609, Henry Hudson, the 
 brave Dutch navigator, anchored within Sandy Hook, in the good ship 
 Crescent. After a week’s delay he sailed through the Narrows, and then 
 spent ten days in exploring the beautiful river, which will ever immortalize 
 his name. The boat of the Crescent ascended the river as high as the 
 
 * Bancroft, i., 428. 
 3 D 
 
 t Ibid, ii., 02. 
 
386 
 
 present city of Albany. He shortly after returned to Europe, where he 
 described the banks of the great river which he had explored as the most 
 beautiful in the world. 
 
 The first building erected on the banks of the Hudson was a rude 
 fort, which was built by the Dutch, on Manhattan Island, in the year 
 1614, seven years after the planting of Virginia, and seven years before 
 the planting of New England. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company 
 obtained a charter from their own government, giving them the exclusive 
 right to traffic and plant colonies on the coast of Africa, from the tropic 
 of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope; and on the coast of America, 
 from the Straits of Magellan to the remotest north. “ England, in its 
 patents, made the conversion of the natives a prominent purpose; the 
 Dutch were chiefly intent on promoting trade : the English charters gave 
 protection to the political rights of the colonists against the proprietories ; 
 the Dutch, who had no popular liberty at home, bestowed no thought on 
 colonial representation.”* Trade, not colonizing, was the original object 
 of the Dutch on the banks of the Hudson; but, in 1625, there was 
 certainly one family settled on Long Island. In 1629 the Dutch College 
 of Nineteen, to whom the affairs of the Dutch West India Company was 
 committed, adopted a charter of privileges, for patrons who desired to 
 plant colonies in the New Netherlands. By this most aristocratic constitu¬ 
 tion it was provided, that any one who should plant a colony of fifty 
 souls, within four years, should become lord of the manor, or patron, 
 and should have an absolute property in the lands which he might 
 colonize. These lands might extend sixteen miles in length, or, if they 
 lay on both sides of a river, eight miles on each side, and as far into the 
 interior as the situation might require. Where cities grew up, they were 
 to be governed by the patron, who was to possess judicial power. The 
 colonists were forbidden to make any woollen, linen, or cotton fabric, on 
 penalty of exile. " To impair the monopoly of the Dutch manufacturers 
 was punishable as a perjury!” The company, moreover, promised to 
 furnish the manors with negroes; “ provided the traffic should prove 
 lucrative.” The result of these miserable regulations was, that the most 
 fertile and best situated lands soon fell into the hands of a few proprie¬ 
 tors ; and that the population of the colony increased very slowly, in spite 
 of its incomparable advantages of situation. Meantime, the English 
 spread rapidly over the valley of Connecticut, and, crossing the Sound, 
 
 * Bancroft, ii., 276. 
 
387 
 
 occupied the greater part of Long Island. The Dutch colonists, thus 
 pressed by the English on one side; by the Indians on the other; and, 
 without a single political right worth fighting for, gradually lost heart; 
 and in September, 1664, surrendered the colony to the English. Charles 
 the Second conferred the seignory of this splendid acquisition on his 
 brother James, Duke of York, by whom the name of the colony was 
 changed from the New Netherlands, and of the city from New Amsterdam, 
 to the name, now so familiar in Europe and America, of New York. 
 Before the English absorbed theNewNetlierlands, theDutch had swallowed 
 up New Sweden, where a small Scandinavian colony had been commenced in 
 the year 1624, on a plan formed by the great Gustavus Adolphus, and 
 sustained for some years after his death by the wisdom of the celebrated 
 Chancellor Oxenstiern. This colony received the name of New Jersey 
 from the English. By these acquisitions the English colonists in New 
 England were freed from the possibility of an attack on the south ; those 
 of Virginia were rendered equally safe on the north; and the English 
 possessions were made to extend along the coast, in an unbroken line, 
 from South Carolina to Maine. 
 
 The two Carolinas were planted in the reign of Charles the Second. 
 The first settlers in Carolina were a few hardy New Englanders, who 
 formed a plantation on the river Cape Fear in the year 1660 ; hut the 
 climate not suiting them, most of the colonists returned to their former 
 homes, where they “spread a reproach on the harbour and the soil.”* 
 About the same time a few Virginians occupied favourable positions in 
 North Carolina, and the governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, ap¬ 
 pointed William Drummond, a Scotch emigrant to Virginia, the first 
 governor of North Carolina; and, establishing a colonial assembly, and 
 an easy tenure of lands, “ left the infant people to the care of themselves.” 
 In 1665 a colony of shipbuilders from Bermudas settled at Albemarle, in 
 North Carolina. In 1677 the colony contained about4,000 inhabitants; 
 and “ a few fat cattle, a little maize, and 800 hogsheads of tobacco formed 
 all their exports.” 
 
 The first successful attempt to settle South Carolina was made by Sir 
 John Yeomans, who arrived from Barbadoes in the year 1671, bringing 
 with him his negro slaves. Other planters followed, and from that time 
 South Carolina became essentially a planting colony, with slave labour. 
 It soon became the great object of the planters to purchase negro slaves. 
 
 * Bancroft, ii., 132. 
 
388 
 
 “ without which,” says Wilson, the historian of Carolina, “ a planter can 
 never do any great matter.”* The negro race increased so rapidly by 
 importation that in a few years the blacks out-numbered the whites, in 
 the proportion of twenty-two to twelve.f During the inhuman persecution 
 of the Scottish Covenanters; and after Monmouth’s rebellion in the 
 West; many political refugees fled to the Carolinas, which continued to 
 increase in population, though not so rapidly as the northern settlements- 
 
 The last great plantation formed by the English raoe on the American 
 continent, in the seventeenth century, was Pennsylvania, the creation of 
 William Penn, the most distinguished of the many eminent men pro¬ 
 duced by the Society of Friends, “in scorn called Quakers.” William 
 Penn was the son and heir of Admiral Penn, the gallant officer who 
 added the island of Jamaica to the possessions of England. At his death 
 the admiral left to his son, along with a good estate, a claim on the 
 government for the sum of T16,0004 Charles the Second being then, 
 as he usually was, pennyless, paid the debt, by granting to the admiral’s 
 son the territory of Pennsylvania, “ which was to include three degrees 
 of latitude by five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware.Ӥ 
 
 The charter, as originally drawn up by William Penn himself, conceded 
 liberty of conscience and civil freedom to all settlers. The only point in 
 which it differed materially from the charters of the other plantations was, 
 that it expressly reserved to the English parliament the power of levying 
 taxes in Pennsylvania. 
 
 On the 27th October, 1682, William Penn landed in his new settle¬ 
 ment, where he organized a free government; treated with the Indians 
 for their lands, on principles of strict justice ; and laid the foundation of 
 Philadelphia, “the city of brotherly love." “In August, 1683, Phila¬ 
 delphia consisted of three or four little cottages ; the conies were as yet 
 undisturbed in their hereditary burrows; the deer fearlessly bounded past 
 blazed trees, unconscious of the foreboded streets ; the stranger that 
 wandered from the river bank was lost in the thickets of the interminable 
 forest; and two years afterwards the place contained about six hundred 
 houses, and the schoolmaster and the printing-press had begun their 
 work.” In three years from its foundation Philadelphia gained more 
 than New York had done in half-a-century. This was the happiest 
 season in the life of William Penn. “ I must, without vanity, say” (such 
 was his honest exultation,) “I have led the greatest colony into America 
 
 * Bancroft, ii., 171. + Ibid, ii., 171. J Ibid, ii., 302. § Ibid, ii., 3G2. 
 
389 
 
 than ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous 
 beginnings that ever were in it are to be found amongst us.”* 
 
 During the seventeenth century the population of New England, like 
 that of Virginia, was scattered over the fields, in the clearings of the 
 woods, on the banks of rivers, and along the sea shore. Few towns existed 
 in either province. Jamestown, the chief place of Virginia, consisted of 
 a church, a court-house, and eighteen private houses. Boston, the 
 capital, not only of the State of Massachusetts, but of the whole of New 
 England, was a much more considerable place, and already gave promise 
 of its future greatness. The following is an account of Boston, published 
 in the year 1673:—“Boston, the capital, seated very commodious for 
 traffic on the sea shore; at present a large and spacious town, or rather 
 city, composed of several well-ordered streets, and graced with fair and 
 beautiful houses, which are well inhabited by merchants and tradesmen, 
 who drive a considerable trade for such commodities as the country 
 affordeth to Jamaica, Barbadoes, and other the Carribbe Isles, as also to 
 England and Ireland. It is a place of good strength, having two or 
 three hills adjoining, on which are raised fortifications, with great guns 
 mounted thereon.”f 
 
 The following is one of the earliest notices of the city of New York, 
 the real capital of the United States. It describes it as it appeared in the 
 year 1673 :—“The English that inhabit in those parts for the present are 
 not many, and do principally reside in New York, first built by the Dutch, 
 and called New Amsterdam, a town well seated both for trade, security, 
 and pleasure, in a small isle called Mabatan, regarding the sea, and made 
 so by Hudson’s Biver, which severeth it from Long Island, a place of 
 great fertility, which said river is very commodious for shipping, being 
 about two leagues broad. The town is large, containing about five hun¬ 
 dred well-built houses, which are inhabited by the English and Dutch, who 
 drive a considerable trade with the Indians, for skins of elks, deers, bears, 
 &c., also for those of the beaver, otter, and other furs, and doth likewise 
 enjoy a trade with the English. For civil government it hath a sheriff 
 and justices of peace for their chief magistrates, who are English ; and 
 for its further defence it hath a strong fort, called James’s Fort, which is 
 well maintained with men and ammunition.”! Albany, the seat of 
 government in the State of New York, so named from the Scotch title of 
 
 * Bancroft, ii, 392. 
 
 t Blome’s Britannica, American Plantations, 326. 
 
 + Ibid, 328. 
 
390 
 
 James, Duke of York, was at this time a trading station and fort, and the 
 most advanced position in “the great west.” 
 
 The growth of the English colonies on the continent of Amerioa was 
 greatly promoted by the profitable trade which they carried on with 
 Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the other English settlements in the West Indies ; 
 whilst the West Indian colonists, amply supplied with all the necessaries 
 of life from New England, New York, and Virginia, were enabled to 
 apply the whole of their capital and industry to the production of sugar, 
 cotton, indigo, dyewoods, and other articles of tropical growth. 
 
 Barbadoes, which was the most valuable West Indian colony of 
 England until near the end of the seventeenth century, was planted in 
 the year 1625, by a party of emigrants sent out by Sir William Courteen, 
 an enterprizing London merchant, under authority of a charter granted 
 by James the First to the Earl of Marlborough. Blome, writing of this 
 colony in 1673, says, “Although but of a small circuit, (being reckoned 
 not above eight leagues in length, and five in breadth, where broadest, 
 being of an oval form,) yet it is a potent colony, and able on occasions to 
 arm 10,000 fighting men ; which, with the strength that nature has 
 bestowed upon it, is able to bid defiance to the stoutest foe, having been 
 several times (but in vain) assaulted by the Spaniards.”* We learn from 
 Lignon’s History of Barbadoes, published in the year 1657, and containing 
 an account of a long residence in the island, that when he arrived there 
 in the good ship Achilles, in the year 1647, he found twenty-two ships 
 taking in cargo in Carlisle Bay. He informs us that indigo, cotton wool, 
 and fustic-wood, with a little bad tobacco, had been the products first 
 raised; but that when the sugar-canes, brought from Pernambuco, in Brazil, 
 had been fairly tried, they had been found to be “the main point.”f 
 The capital necessary for forming a Barbadoes plantation, of 500 acres, was 
 d£l4,0004 The mode of cultivation was to divide the land into the following 
 crops:—200 acres of sugar-canes, 30 of tobacco, 5 of ginger, 5 of cotton 
 wool, 70 of provisions, 10 of pasture, and 120 of wood for the boiling-house. 
 The force used in working a plantation of 500 acres, belonging to Colonel 
 Modiford, a friend of Lignon’s, was 96 negroes, 3 Indian women, 28 
 Christian servants, (convicts,) 45 cattle, and 12 horses. Asses, mules, and 
 camels were also used in the island. “ In managing your plantation,” 
 Lignon says, “ you must be sure to have a factor both at New England 
 
 * Blome’s Britannica, American Plantations, 337. 
 
 + Lignon’s History of Barbadoes, 27. + Ibid, 117. 
 
391 
 
 and Virginia, to provide you with all commodities they afford, that are 
 useful to your plantation, or else your charge will be treble: as from 
 New England, beef, pork, fish of all sorts, dried and pickled; from 
 Virginia live cattle, beef, and tobacco, for theirs atBarbadoes is the worst 
 (I think,) that grows in the world ; for cattle no place lies nearer to 
 provide themselves, and the Virginians cannot have a better market to 
 sell them ; for an ox of £5, at Virginia, will yield £2b there.”* The 
 capital necessary for planting and working an estate of 500 acres was 
 (as we have already mentioned) Tl4,000, and Lignon enters into a 
 calculation, to prove that the yearly income of such an estate, after 
 paying all expenses, was T7,516 16s. lOd.f With regard to the value 
 of the whole of the sugar grown in the island, he makes a calculation which 
 is even more startling. His calculation is, that there are 55,072 acres 
 of sugar grown in the island ; that a large yield per acre is 4,000 lbs. of 
 sugar, a small one 2,000 lbs., a medium one 3,000 lbs. ; this, at 
 3d. per pound, is <£37 10s. an acre, and that sum, multiplied by 
 55,072 acres, is £2, 065,200. He further calculates that the sugar, 
 when clayed, becomes worth the sum of <£3,097,800 ; and -when sold in 
 London, at 12d. a pound, as refined sugar, worth £>6,195,6004 He adds, 
 “ Now you see what a vast revenue this little spot of ground can produce 
 in twenty-two months,” that is, from the time when the canes are put into 
 the ground to that when the refined sugar is sold in London ; and even 
 allowing for some exaggeration, the revenue was wonderful. The number 
 of Europeans, or persons of European race, is said to have been 50,000. 
 This is scarcely creditable, although convicts were then sent to Barbadoes, 
 as they have been more recently to Australia, and amongst them many 
 political prisoners and prisoners taken in the civil wars. There 
 were also a few Indian slaves. The number of negro slaves was im¬ 
 mense, amounting, according to some accounts, to 100,000. Lignon, who 
 was a humane as well as an observing man, has a good word for both these 
 races. In speaking of the fidelity of the Indians, he tells the anecdote on 
 which Sir Richard Steele founded his beautiful story of Inkle and Yarico ;§ 
 and of the poor negroes he says, “ Though there be a mark set upon 
 these people, which will hardly ever be wiped off, I believe, and I have 
 strong motives to cause me to be of that persuasion, that there are as 
 honest, faithful, and conscionable people amongst them, as amongst those 
 of Europe, or any other part of the world.”|| 
 
 * Lignon’s History of Barbadoes, 112. t Ibid. + Ibid, 00. § Spectator, No. 11. 
 
 || Lignon’s History of Barbadoes, 50. 
 
392 
 
 The other smaller West Indian Islands were cultivated like Barbadoes, 
 though with less spirit. From the account of Prince Rupert’s cruize in 
 the West Indies, recently published in Warburton’s eloquent and original 
 life of that amphibious warrior, we gather the following particulars of the 
 early history of these settlements. Of St. Lucia, the author of the 
 Journal of the Prince’s Voyage says, “ This land was formerly inhabited 
 by the English; but their numbers being small, they were cut off by the 
 Indians, and their dwellings laid waste.”* Of Dominica he says that it 
 was inhabited solely by the Indians. Of Monserrat, “ that it was esteemed 
 the best island for sugar: and made little of any other commodity, only 
 some tobacco, which was valued more than that of any other of the 
 English plantations.”f He also speaks of Nevis, St. Christopher, 
 and Antigua as English colonies, but without giving any particu¬ 
 lars. The order in which the smaller West Indian colonies were 
 occupied was, Antigua in 1623; Barbadoes in 1625; St. Christopher in 
 1628 ; Dominica and Monserrat in 1632 ; and Nevis, or Nieves, in 1650. 
 The Bermudas were occupied in 1611 ; the Bahamas in 1629 ; Hon¬ 
 duras in 1650 ; and the Virgin Islands in 1666. 
 
 The large and beautiful island of Jamaica was conquered by Admirals 
 Penn and Venables, under Cromwell’s vigorous protectorate, in the year 
 1655. Speaking of Jamaica, in the year 1673, Blome says, “ This 
 island does produce many excellent commodities, which time may bring 
 to good perfection.” Of these, he notes “ sugars, so good that they 
 outsell those of Barbadoes five per cent.” ; indigo, cotton, “ which is 
 excellent fine”; ginger, “ which thriveth exceedingly” ; pimento or Jamaica 
 pepper, “ very aromatical, and of so curious a gusto, that it hath the mixed 
 taste of several spices; dyewoods and drugs in great abundance; but, 
 above all, cocoa, of which chocolate is made, the principal and most 
 beneficial commodity in all the isle.” Coffee was not yet grown in any 
 of these islands, although both coffee and tea were coming into use 
 in England. When Sir Hans Sloane visited Jamaica, about the year 
 1700,J he found that it had become a great, populous, and wealthy 
 colony, in which the production of sugar and other tropical produce 
 was carried on to a vast extent. A most profitable contraband trade, 
 in negroes and English goods, had already sprung up with the 
 Spanish colonies around the Gulf of Mexico. He states that the profits 
 
 * E. Warburton’s Prince Bupert and the Cavaliers, iii., 371. + Ibid, iii., 376. 
 
 j A Voyage to the Islands of Madeira, Barbadoes, Nieves, St. Christopher, and 
 Jamaica, &c., by Hans Sloane, F.C.P., Secretary to the Eoyal Society. London, 1707. 
 
393 
 
 on clothing, serges, and others goods sold to the Spanish smugglers, 
 amounted to fifty-five per cent., and that many negroes were sold to the 
 Spanish planters.” “ When the trade of the Assiento,” says Sir Hans 
 Sloane, “ for furnishing the Spanish West Indies with negroes, was in 
 the island, it was not only very beneficial to the African company, but to 
 the governers of the island.”* This trade was restored to England by the 
 treaty of Utrecht, and became a source of immense wealth, but of wealth 
 stained with blood and tears. 
 
 The population of the different English settlements, on the continent 
 of America, was nearly as follows, at the time of the revolution of 1688 :— 
 Massachusetts, with Plymouth and Maine, 44,000 souls; New Hamp¬ 
 shire, Rhode Island, and Providence, 6,000 each; Connecticut, 17,000 to 
 20,000; New York, 26,000; New Jersey, 10,000; Pennsylvania and 
 Delaware, 12,000 ; Virginia, 50,000 ; and Carolina, 8,000. This gives 
 a population of 176,000, eighty years after the landing of the first colo¬ 
 nists in Virginia. As the population of America doubles itself in twenty 
 years, it is probable that it was not much less than lialf-a-million, at the 
 accession of George the First, in the year 1715. The West Indies may 
 then have contained a population of about a quarter of a million 
 of inhabitants, giving a total colonial population of from seven 
 to eight hundred thousand souls. The effect produced by these 
 flourishing settlements on the prosperity of England was already 
 very great. Sir Joseph Child calculated that one Englishman, settled in 
 the plantations, gave employment to four Englishmen at home or on the 
 ocean ; and, though this calculation cannot be literally verified, yet there 
 can be no doubt that the amount of employment thus created was im¬ 
 mense. Sir William Petty states, in his Political Arithmetic, published 
 in 1676, that about 40,000 tons of shipping was then employed in the 
 American trade and the Guinea trade, which was very closely connected 
 with it; and Dr. Davenant says, that it appears, from a careful exami¬ 
 nation of the custom-house books, during the six years between 1682 
 and 1688, that the yearly value of the exports from England to America, 
 consisting chiefly of manufactures and implements of husbandry and 
 trade, was T350,000 ; whilst the yearly value of the imports, consisting 
 of tobacco, sugar, ginger, cotton wool, fustic, indigo, fish, (from New¬ 
 foundland,) and staves, masts, and furs, (from New England,) was not 
 less than T950,000. Of the colonial produce thus imported, no less than 
 
 3 E 
 
 * Sloane’s Voyage. Introduction, 10 
 
394 
 
 £000,000 worth was re-exported, either to the continent or to Ireland 
 and Scotland, which then had little, if any, share of the direct colonial trade. 
 
 It has been seen that the sugar trade was introduced into Liverpool 
 about the year 1607, when the first sugar-refinery was built in Sugar- 
 house Close, Dale-street. The tobacco trade was introduced a little 
 earlier, and soon became the great trade of the port. We learn, from the 
 correspondence of Captain Tarleton, one of the first shipowners of Liver¬ 
 pool, in the reign of Charles the Second, that he had extensive transactions 
 with Virginia and Maryland, in the year 1076; and the first Liverpool 
 policy of insurance which I have been able to find is a policy on Captain 
 Tarleton's good ship Anne and Sarah, by which she is insured to Barba- 
 does and home again, for a premium of four per cent, on the ship and 
 cargo. By the close of the century the tobacco trade of Virginia was firmly 
 settled in Liverpool, and had taken the lead of all others. In the year 
 1701 Sir Thomas Johnson, then one of the members for Liverpool, states, 
 in a letter to one of his constituents, that a threatened interference with the 
 tobacco trade would destroy half the shipping in Liverpool;* in 1702 
 he mentions that the Irish and Scotch tobacco, that is, the supplies 
 for those countries, was imported into Liverpool ;f in the same year Sir 
 Thomas’s brother-in-law, Mr. Peter Hall, informs Mr. Richard Norris, 
 that two new custom-house surveyors, Messrs. Manly and Walker, had 
 come down to Liverpool, who had reduced the allowance for damaged 
 tobacco from 150 lbs. the hogshead to 50 lbs., “ and put all the Pilgarlics 
 into a cold sweat.”J He then gives an amusing account of a dispute 
 between these new brooms and himself, assisted by Messrs. Clayton and 
 Houghton, and eight other tobacco-importers, in which, “ with much ado, 
 they brought them, (the custom-house officers,) to stand on their feet, and 
 hope in a few days to learn them to go”; which they afterwards did, for 
 the facetious Mr. Hall adds, in a postscript :—“ We have now clearly 
 gained our point with Messrs. Manly and Walker, who are honest, rational, 
 ingenious men, and big with expectation at first, and treated us as they 
 believed us to be, robbers; but our light now shines in darkness, and 
 there is not one word to be believed that was spoken against us by the 
 poor devils; they declare that they find us to be an honest, industrious 
 people, and that we deserve encouragement.Ӥ In the same year, Sir 
 Thomas Johnson speaks of the tobacco trade “ as one of the chiefest 
 trades in England ;”|| and in another letter he informs Mr. Richard Norris, 
 
 Norris’s Papers, 81. 
 
 + Ibid, 89. 
 
 J Ibid, 99. 
 
 § Ibid, 100. || Ibid, 110. 
 
395 
 
 that the custom-house officers, Manly and Walker, had not left Liverpool 
 with quite so high an opinion of the tobacco-importers as Mr. Peter 
 Hall supposed, for he says, “ Sir William Deans, told me to-day, he dined 
 at a (London; merchant’s house, where all the surveyors of the port (of 
 London) dined; and, after some discourse about tobacco, and his com¬ 
 plaining how they had lost their trade, he said you had 100,000 (lbs.) 
 allowed for damages in one ship, and some other circumstances, that I 
 found it came from Manly. He could give an account of the town (of 
 Liverpool), and how they lived, and said he was told Mr. Houghton had 
 a fine house, and kept good wine, but we all lived frugally; Mr. Clayton 
 had a fine house, but it was not furnished. Now, I suppose these 
 gentlemen thought we did not make enough of them: when they come 
 again we shall lenow better how to deal with them. We are sadly 
 envyed, God knows, especially the tobacco trade, at home and 
 abroad nor were they altogether free from internal danger, for Sir 
 Thomas Johnson and Mr. Clayton, the members for the borough, quar¬ 
 relled on the subject of tobacco, and Mr. Clayton wrote a letter on it, 
 which led to the following sharp comment from Sir Thomas :—“ Cer¬ 
 tainly his letter is a great reflection on all the merchants in town that 
 ever repacked; my neighbour, B. H. [oughton] does not escape. Alas ! 
 there’s the rise of it; he sees he’s out-done : it’s a sad temper, God 
 knows ; when these gentlemen come to be partners, they will make liavock 
 with us, but, as you say, I hope they will not stop up the river !"\ 
 
 In spite of envy and strife, Liverpool retained, and still retains, much 
 of the American tobacco trade, which was the great trade of America, 
 until it was outgrown by the cotton trade, at the beginning of the present 
 century. In the year 1702 the shipping and seamen belonging to the 
 principal ports of the kingdom were as follows:—London, 560 vessels, 
 of an average burden of 150 tons, and 10,065 seamen; Bristol, 165 ves¬ 
 sels, of an average burden of 105 tons, and 2,359 seamen; Liverpool, 
 102 vessels, of an average burden of from 84 to 85 tons, and 1,101 
 seamen; Hull, 115 vessels, average burden 66 tons, and 187 seamen, 
 (80 of the Hull vessels were laid up at this time;) Yarmouth, “ the chief 
 and only place for the herring trade,”J 143 vessels, average burden 62 
 tons, seamen 668; Exeter, 121 vessels, burden 58 or 59 tons, and 970 
 seamen; Whitby, 110 vessels of 75 tons, and 571 seamen; Scarborough, 
 100 vessels, of about 69 tons burden, and 606 seamen. No other port had 
 
 * Norris’s Papers, 114. 
 
 + Ibid, 119. 
 
 { Captain Grenville Collins. 
 
396 
 
 100 vessels. Newcastle bad 163, measuring 11,000 tons, or above 73 tons 
 eacli; Ipswicli bad 39, measuring 11,170 tons, or above 286 tons on an 
 average. In this year, (1702,) the number of vessels belonging to all the 
 ports of England was 3,281; the tonnage 261,222 tons; the average 
 burden 80 tons. The number of seamen was 27,196.* This was exclu¬ 
 sive of the royal navy, which had consisted, in the year 1695, of 200 
 vessels, of the burden of 112,400 tons, manned by 45,000 seamen. In 
 the years 1713, 14, and 15, the closing years of the reign of Queen Anne, 
 the average value of the whole exports of the kingdom, including native 
 produce and colonial produce re-exported, was £7, 696,573. 
 
 It will be seen, from the facts above stated, that Liverpool had become 
 the third seaport of the kingdom, previous to the accession of the House 
 of Hanover. I now proceed to trace its history under that illustrious 
 House; and to show the steps by which it rose to its present position of 
 the first outport of England, and the rival, in foreign commerce, of its 
 time-honoured capital. 
 
 * From returns made to the Commissioners of Customs, quoted in Knight’s Pictorial 
 History of England, iv., 704. 
 
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE THE FIRST TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE SECOND. 
 
 I now proceed to trace the modern history of Liverpool from the 
 accession of the house of Hanover to the middle of the nineteenth cen¬ 
 tury, a period of almost uninterrupted internal tranquillity, during which 
 the population of the port has increased nearly a hundred-fold, and its 
 wealth and commerce have augmented in an equal proportion. 
 
 In the first year of the reign of George the First an act was passed, 
 authorizing the mayor and corporation to remove the ruins of the ancient 
 castle of Liverpool. This building, erected by King John about the year 
 1208, had been for five hundred years the feudal fortress and state prison 
 of the district. The walls were destroyed in the reign of Charles the 
 Second, lest the castle should fall into the hands of the discontented ; 
 but the site remained covered with ruins until the accession of the house 
 of Hanover. By an act passed in the year 1714, George the First, as 
 Duke of Lancaster, gave the site of the castle to the mayor and corpora¬ 
 tion for ever, on payment of a nominal rent of £6 13s. 4d. a-year, to 
 build a church for the use of the inhabitants. This act, after mentioning 
 the act of the tenth and eleventh of “ King William the Third, of glorious 
 memory,” authorizing the building of St. Peter’s Church, and also refer- 
 ing to the ancient church or chapel of St. Nicholas, states, that “ the 
 said town and borough of Liverpool, by the increase of buildings, and 
 great number of inhabitants employed in trade and commerce there, is 
 become much more populous than when the said act was made, so that 
 the said church, and the said parochial chapel there, cannot contain the 
 inhabitants, who would resort thither to attend divine service, according 
 to the rights and usages of the Church of England; and, therefore, the 
 mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of the said town are willing and desirous, 
 at their own charge, to build and endow another church or chapel in a 
 convenient place, within or upon the soil and site of the said late castle; 
 and our most gracious sovereign lord the king, being of his great goodness 
 and zeal for the honour of God and our most holy religion, piously dis- 
 3 F 
 
398 
 
 posed to promote so good a work, by assuring to them the said soil and 
 site of the late castle of Liverpool, does make over the site of the castle 
 to them for that purpose, on condition that they shall build a church 
 upon it, and secure to the curate or chaplain a salary of not less than 
 fifty pounds a-year, but more at the discretion of the mayor, bailiffs, and 
 burgesses.” In compliance with the powers of this act, St. George’s 
 Church was built a few years afterwards, on the site of the ancient castle 
 of Liverpool; and thus that ancient memorial of feudal times was swept 
 away for ever.* 
 
 Very shortly after the accession of George the First, the inhabitants 
 of Liverpool had an opportunity of showing their attachment to the 
 house of Hanover, and to the principles of constitutional freedom which 
 placed that family on the throne, and which it has so steadily sustained for 
 more than a hundred and thirty years. The Stuart party was still strong 
 in Scotland, Ireland, and amongst the Roman Catholics and the High 
 Churchmen of England. So long as a daughter of James the Second 
 reigned, the Jacobites did not despair of securing the throne for his son 
 without bloodshed; and during the latter years of the reign of Queen 
 Anne they received so much encouragement from her ministers, especially 
 from Lord Bolingbroke and the Duke of Ormond, as greatly to strengthen 
 their hopes. At the death of Queen Anne all these hopes were destroyed 
 by the unopposed accession of George the First, an event which left them 
 only the alternative of submission or rebellion. The greater part of the 
 Jacobites, making a virtue of necessity, submitted ; but a few rash and 
 ambitious men determined to risk everything, rather than abandon the 
 object of so many wishes and intrigues. Hence rebellions burst out in 
 the autumn of 1715, both in the Highlands of Scotland and the North 
 of England, the latter of which extended to Lancashire. The leader of 
 the Scottish rebellion was the Earl of Mar; the leader of the English 
 was a Northumbrian fox-hunter named Forster. Had the ministers of 
 George the First had the appointing of these two commanders, they could 
 not have chosen two men better suited for their purpose; for Mar would 
 justly have passed for the most incapable general of his age, if Forster 
 had not clearly proved that there was one still more incapable. 
 
 But if there was little judgment there was enough of zeal amongst 
 the Highlanders and the Roman Catholic gentry of England. At one time 
 the Earl of Mar had ten thousand men under his orders, and was strong 
 enough to send Brigadier Mackintosh, of Borlum, with 2,000 Highlanders, 
 * Local Acts, first George the First. 
 
399 
 
 to join Forster and his Northumbrian levies in a march into Lancashire. 
 Forster's forces were about 1,200 strong, and consisted chiefly of horse¬ 
 men, without discipline or organization. After a quarrel between the 
 Highlanders and the English Jacobites, which led to the departure of 
 upwards of five hundred of the former back to their hills, the forces of 
 Forster and Mackintosh marched southward, without meeting with any 
 opposition. They entered Lancashire early in the month of November, 
 and advanced to Preston, where they received some reinforcements, though 
 much fewer than they expected, from the Roman Catholic gentry of 
 Lancashire and their dependents. 
 
 No town in England had adopted the principles of the Revolution 
 of 1688 more heartily than Liverpool, or maintained them with greater 
 steadiness and courage. As soon as the approach of the Jacobites was 
 heard of, men of all ranks joined to place the town in a defensible 
 position. The waters of the pool were dammed up, so as to cover the 
 approaches from the east; and batteries, armed with seventy pieces of 
 cannon, were constructed at the north side of the town, where alone it was 
 accessible. All the seamen of the port were landed, and joined in manning 
 the batteries.* The town was thus not only rendered secure, along with the 
 custom-house, the public monies, and the property in the warehouses, 
 but it became the refuge and head-quarters of the Hanoverian party in 
 Lancashire. This it continued to be, until Generals Wills and Carpenter 
 arrived before Preston with a strong body of regular cavalry, and, after 
 a sharp skirmish, compelled the Jacobite host to surrender. This sur¬ 
 render took place on the 10th of November, the day on which Mar’s army 
 was disorganized, and his plans were defeated, by the Duke of Argyle, 
 in the hard-fought battle of Dunblane. 
 
 After the rebellion had been entirely suppressed, a commission was 
 opened at Liverpool, before Mr. Justice Eyre, Mr. Baron Bury, and 
 Mr. Baron Montague, to try the prisoners. No less than one hundred 
 and sixty-one prisoners were tried, all of whom were convicted of high 
 treason, except seven. Of those convicted, upwards of thirty were hung; 
 four of them on Liverpool Heath, near the top of Shaw’s-brow. The 
 most noted of the prisoners executed at Liverpool was a gentleman of 
 Northumberland, of good landed estate, named Collingwood, a member 
 of the family which, in happier times, gave birth to Admiral Lord 
 Collingwood, the friend of Nelson, and one of the brightest ornaments 
 of the British navy. After this rebellion, the Jacobites remained quiet 
 
 * Corporation Eecords. 
 
400 
 
 for thirty years. During the greater part of that time Sir Robert 
 Walpole was at the head of affairs; and, soon after he had been raised 
 to that arduous post, the town council of Liverpool expressed their 
 opinion of his fitness for the office, by conferring on him and on his 
 son-in-law, Lord Malpas, the freedom of the borough.* 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the dock committee, vigorously 
 supported hy the town council, commenced the forming of the Old 
 Dock, immediately after the passing of the act of the eighth of Anne. 
 After continuing their labours until the year 1717, the third of George 
 the First, they found that their money was done, but not their work. 
 In addition to the ,£0,000 which they had been authorized to borrow, 
 and which they had borrowed and spent, they had expended £5,000 of 
 their own money, and they still required £4,000 to complete the work. 
 Another act was accordingly sought for in the third of George the First, 
 authorizing the mayor, bailiffs, and common council to borrow that 
 sum, (£4,000,) on security of the rates. In order to improve the 
 security, the term during which the rates granted by the act of eighth 
 Queen Anne were to have been collected was extended to thirty-five years, 
 a further term of fourteen years being added to the original term of 
 twenty-one years. After the expiration of the thirty-five years, the rates 
 were to he reduced to one-fourth of the original amount; an arrangement 
 which was set aside hy the subsequent dock acts. In the preamble of the 
 act it is stated that the dock trustees had begun to make the wet dock or 
 basin, and had carried it on so far as to be capable of taking in, 
 receiving, and harbouring ships, but that the works were not near per¬ 
 fected or finished; nor were the proposed landmarks and buoys placed, 
 according to the act of 1709, although upwards of £11,000 had been 
 expended on the works. The act then proceeds to give powers for 
 borrowing £4,000 of additional capital, and for collecting the original rates 
 for fourteen years longer. In return for these powers, the mayor and 
 corporation undertake to complete the docks, and also to place at least 
 three buoys and two landmarks, in or at the entrance of Formby Channel, 
 (which had never been buoyed before,) and two buoys on the Hoyle 
 sand, one on the north-west, and the other on the north-east, spits of the 
 said sand; and to complete the buoying of the channels before the 25tli 
 December, 1718. Such is the substance of the second dock act.f 
 
 The mayor and corporation could not well have gone into the money 
 market at a better time for raising capital to complete the dock. About 
 * Minute Book of tlie Corporation. + Dock Act, third George the First. 
 
401 
 
 the year 1719 the interest of money fell below five per cent, for the first 
 time. The Bank of England and the South Sea Company were then 
 contending for the management of the National Debt, which amounted 
 to upwards of thirty millions sterling. Twenty-six years before, the 
 hank had lent all its original capital to the government at eight per cent.,* 
 hut the struggle in 1719-20 was to decide which company should have 
 the management of the debt, at the rate of five per cent, interest for a 
 certain term of years, and of four per cent, afterwards.f The country 
 was at that time at peace with all the world; the price of grain was 
 wonderfully low, owing to great improvements in agriculture and a suc¬ 
 cession of good harvests; the trade with the West Indies, Africa, the 
 American plantations, and the East Indies was pouring wealth into the 
 country; and, at the same time that the capital of the nation was 
 increasing, commercial credit was extending in a still greater ratio. The 
 greatest and most powerful of joint-stock banks, the Bank of England, 
 had been at work for twenty-six years; and the South Sea Company, 
 another great joint-stock company, not possessing any legitimate means 
 of employing its capital, was applying it to organize a system of gambling, 
 which nothing could equal, unless it was the gambling arising out of the 
 Mississippi scheme of the projector Law of Lauriston. The excitement 
 of that time gave men spirits to undertake some good but difficult schemes, 
 along with a multitude of bad ones. It was during this time (about 1720) 
 that the first Liverpool dock was completed. In the same year acts were 
 passed for rendering the rivers Mersey and Irwell navigable from Liver¬ 
 pool to Manchester; the river Weaver navigable from the salt district 
 of Cheshire to the estuary of the Mersey ; and the river Douglas navigable 
 from the coal-field of Wigan to the mouth of the Dibble. Shortly after the 
 South Sea year, when confidence had again been restored by the prudent 
 measures of Sir Robert Walpole, the act for constructing the first turnpike 
 road ever formed in the neighbourhood of Liverpool was passed, namely, 
 the road from Liverpool to Prescot. Previous to that time the Lancashire 
 roads were nothing better than horse-tracks, scarcely passable for wheeled 
 carriages, except in very fine weather; nor was there a proper carriage 
 road from Liverpool to the great north road at Warrington until about 
 the time of the accession of George the Third. 
 
 As the improvement of the rivers Mersey and Irwell, from Liverpool 
 to Manchester; of the river Weaver, from the point where it falls into 
 the Mersey to the salt district at Winsford-bridge, and afterwards to 
 
 * Francis’s History of the Bank of England, i., 02. + Ibid, i., 320. 
 
402 
 
 Nantwich; and of the river Douglas, from the coal-field of Wigan to 
 the sea, by -which a cheap though circuitous mode of communication was 
 established with Liverpool, were all events of the greatest importance to 
 the rise of Liverpool, the following sketch of the acts by which those 
 great improvements were authorized will be read with interest. 
 
 The act for making and keeping the rivers Mersey and Irwell naviga¬ 
 ble from Liverpool to Manchester was passed in the seventh year of 
 George the First. It sets forth that the making and keeping those rivers 
 navigable for boats, barges, lighters, and other vessels, from Liverpool 
 to Hunt’s Bank, in Manchester, would be very beneficial for trade, 
 advantageous to the poor, and convenient for the carriage of coal, cannel, 
 stone, timber, and other goods, wares, and merchandise, and would tend very 
 much to the employing and increase of watermen and seamen, and be a 
 means of preserving the highways. It therefore proposes to appoint, and 
 does appoint, certain parties as undertakers, for making the rivers Mersey 
 and Irwell navigable from Liverpool to Manchester. The following are the 
 parties named as undertakers of this work :—Oswald Mosley, of Ancoats, 
 and George Kenyon, of Peele, Esquires; Joseph Yates, John Leech, 
 Joseph Byrom, Kalph Houghton, James Bradshaw, Joseph Vigor, John 
 Lees, Samuel Clowes, James Bayley, Matthew Graves, Jeremiah Bowers, 
 William Shrigley, William Holme, Francis Devonport, James Marsden, 
 Bichard Holden, Hamnet Kirke, Daniel Bayley, James Liglitbourne, John 
 Greaves, Jeremiah Bradshaw, Peter Wolstenholme, Daniel Lees, Oswald 
 Konald, Abraham Hayworth, Thomas Gandy, James Gartside, Edward 
 Neild, Henry Booth, Kalph Banks, John Seddon, Samuel Boardman, and 
 John Moss, all of Manchester, gentlemen; and Bichard Gildart, Thomas 
 Steers, and Henry Trayford, of Liverpool, gentlemen. These parties the 
 act authorises to scour, enlarge, or straighten the rivers Mersey and 
 Irwell; to make new cuts for shortening distances ; to cut down trees ; 
 to build bridges and form sluices ; to take materials from adjoining lands; 
 to alter bridges, turn highways, pull down mills or wears ; to make towing 
 paths, and to do all other matters or things necessary for making, maintain¬ 
 ing, continuing, and perfecting the navigable passage of the rivers Mersey 
 and Irwell. The act further provides that the water of the river shall not 
 be raised or dammed up to such a height as to hinder the working of corn 
 mi lls ; that no wharf shall be built within a mile of Bank Quay, Warring¬ 
 ton, without consent; that coal, cannel, stone, timber, and other goods 
 carried along the rivers Mersey and Irwell shall pay duties to the under¬ 
 takers, not exceeding 3s. 4d. per ton; and that on payment of those 
 
403 
 
 duties the said rivers shall be esteemed navigable from Liverpool to Man¬ 
 chester, and free for all the king’s subjects paying the said duties. The 
 act is declared to be a public act. Under its provisions the Mersey 
 and Irwell navigation was managed until the year 1794, when an act was 
 passed, forming the then proprietors into an incorporated company, though 
 without making any important change in their powers or responsibilities. 
 
 The act for rendering the river Douglas or Asland navigable from 
 the river Ribble to Wigan was passed in the sixth George the First, 1720. 
 It sets forth that the making and keeping the Douglas navigable would 
 be very beneficial to trade, advantageous to the poor, and convenient for 
 the carriage of coal, cannel, stones, slate, and other goods, and mer¬ 
 chandises to and from the towns and places adjacent, and would very 
 much tend to the employing and increase of watermen and seamen, and 
 be a means to preserve the highways. The act, therefore, appoints 
 William Squire, Esq., and Thomas Steers, gentleman, both of Liver¬ 
 pool, undertakers, with full powers to render the river Douglas navigable, 
 and to demand and collect tolls or dues, not exceeding 2s. fid. a ton, on 
 all coal, cannel, stone, slate, goods, wares, merchandises, and commo¬ 
 dities conveyed along the river. On payment of these tolls all the king’s 
 liege subjects, whatsoever, are to enjoy a free passage along the river 
 Douglas, with boats, barges, lighters, and other vessels. 
 
 The act for rendering the river Weaver navigable from Frodsham on 
 the Mersey to Winsford-bridge, in the county of Chester, sets forth, that 
 the rendering of that river navigable will not only be very beneficial and 
 convenient, as well for the carriage of salt and cheese, the great manu¬ 
 factures and produce of the said county, as of other goods and mer¬ 
 chandise; and appoints John Egerton, of Olton, Esquire, John Anson, 
 of Lees, Esquire, and Richard Vernon, of Middlewich, undertakers, to 
 carry out the said act, with full powers to render the river Weaver navi¬ 
 gable from Frodsham to Winsford-bridge. The tolls fixed by this act 
 were extremely moderate, (Is. 3d. a ton,) until the charge of making the 
 river navigable had been met, and only Is. a ton ever after. The river to 
 be navigable to all parties paying the above-named tolls. The act 
 further states, that the cost of effecting the improvement of the Weaver is 
 expected to be T9,000, and that the following parties have agreed to 
 advance it: namely, the Hon. Langham Booth, Esq., Tl,000 ; Sir 
 George Warburton, Bart., Tl,000 ; John Egerton, Esq., Tl,000 ; Henry 
 Legli, Esq., T500 ; Randle Dodd, Esq., T500; John Anson, Esq., 
 T500 ; the Rev. Philip Egerton, Doctor in Divinity, T500; Henry 
 
404 
 
 Mainwaring, Esq., ^500 ; Thomas Vernon, Esq., £500 ; Richard Vernon, 
 gentleman, Tl,000; Israel Atherton, gentleman, T500 ; John Williams, 
 Esq., ^500 ; Peter Warburton, Esq., ^500; and James Mainwaring, 
 Esq., T500. For these sums the undertakers are to pay £5 per cent, 
 interest, and L'l per cent, risk, until they are repaid. After all the sums 
 borrowed have been repaid, the net income arising from the tolls is to be 
 applied to the repair of the county bridges; to the repair of the road 
 from Frodsham-bridge to Winsford-bridge; and the surplus to the 
 repairs of the highways of the county. In the seventh George the Second 
 an act was passed for extending the navigation of the river Weaver from 
 Winsford-bridge to the town of Nantwich. In this act “salt, cheese, 
 and corn” are declared to be the great produce and manufactures of the 
 county. 
 
 In the reign of George the First, one of the most permanent, pros¬ 
 perous, and useful of the charities of Liverpool was established, and 
 that chiefly by the noble generosity and untiring zeal of one man. 
 
 Bryan Blundell, the founder of that noble and flourishing charity, the 
 Blue Coat Hospital, was one of the most remarkable men whom Liverpool 
 produced in the early part of the eighteenth century. It appears, from a 
 brief and modest sketch of Mr. Blundell’s life, written by himself, that in 
 his earlier years he was a shipowner, and the commander of his own ship, 
 in the foreign trade. He and the Rev. Robert Stithe, one of the rectors 
 of Liverpool, were very intimate, and being alike benevolent and generous, 
 they agreed to use their best endeavours to found a charity-school in 
 Liverpool. They began by soliciting subscriptions from the mayor and 
 the most respectable inhabitants, and gradually got together a yearly sub¬ 
 scription of from sixty to seventy pounds. With this they built a little 
 school-house, which cost thirty-five pounds, and appointed a master at 
 twenty pounds a-year, who was paid out of the money collected at the sacra¬ 
 ments. They then took fiftypoor children into the school, clothed, and gave 
 them learning. Mr. Robert Stithe was made treasurer: “ and I,” says 
 Mr. Blundell, “ went to sea on my employment, telling Mr. Stithe that I 
 hoped to be giving him something every voyage for the school.” In 1713 
 Mr. Stithe died; but from 1709 to the time of his death Mr. Blundell 
 had given him two hundred and fifty pounds, to the support of the school, 
 earned on his several voyages, two hundred of which he had put out to 
 interest. When Mr. Blundell came home, in 1713, he found that 
 his friend and fellow-labourer, Mr. Stithe, was dead, and that the 
 new rector, Mr. Richmond, was much indisposed at times, and not 
 
405 
 
 able to undertake such a charge. He therefore determined to leave 
 off the sea, and undertake the care of the school, of -which he was 
 chosen treasurer in 1714. At that time there was £200 at interest, 
 which was all the stock the school had. “ In a little time,” says Mr. 
 Blundell, “ I saw some of the children begging about the streets, their 
 parents being so poor as not to have bread for them, which gave me great 
 concern, insomuch that I thought to use my best endeavours to make 
 provision for them, so as to take them wholly from their parents, which 
 I hoped might be promoted by a subscription.” This subscription pro¬ 
 duced between £2,000 and £3,000, of which sum, however, Mr. Blundell 
 himself gave £750, being the tenth part of his whole property. He also 
 determined to apply the tenth part of all his future earnings to the same 
 object, and, in fulfilment of this generous determination, gradually made 
 up his £750 into £2,000. Out of these various funds the Blue Coat 
 Hospital of that day was built, at a cost of £2,000 to £3,000, and was 
 finished in 1718. This noble benefactor of the poor of Liverpool con¬ 
 tinued to prosper in all his undertakings to the end of his life. “ So 
 great,” says he, “ has been the mercy and providence of God, in prosper¬ 
 ing me in business, that I have made up the £750 to £2,000, which I 
 have paid to the use of the school; and my children (six in number, the 
 youngest of them now near thirty years of age) are so far from wanting 
 and being worse for what I have given to the school, that they are all 
 benefactors to it, some of them more than £100 at a time.” In 1720 
 ten more children were taken into the school, in addition to the original 
 fifty. In 1735 the whole sixty children were taken in to lodge and 
 diet, wholly from their parents, at the cost of the school. In 1742 ten 
 more children were admitted, making the number seventy. In 1744 Mr. 
 Foster Cunliffe gave a thousand pounds to the school. “ Our stock by 
 good Providence increasing,” says Mr. Blundell, “ and being very desirous 
 of seeing one hundred children in the place before I died, I got a second 
 instrument drawn on parchment in 1747, and solicited subscriptions 
 to enable us to take in thirty children more. Accordingly £2,000 
 was subscribed, upon which we determined to trust to the good 
 providence of God, which hath always made up our deficiencies; 
 and in 1748 we took in thirty children more, so that there are now 
 seventy boys and thirty girls, in all one hundred; a sight I much and 
 earnestly desired to see before I died. The charge is now £700 per 
 annum, towards which we have, by the blessing of God, attained to a 
 stock or income of £400 a-year, the other £300 comes as gifts and 
 3 G 
 
406 
 
 legacies, so that we have never yet wanted at the year’s end, but always 
 continue to increase a little. I have now been treasurer thirty-seven 
 years, in which time more than four hundred children have been put out 
 apprentices, mostly to sea, in which business many of them are masters 
 and some mates of ships; several of them have become benefactors to the 
 school, and useful members of society.”* Mr. Bryan Blundell lived to 
 the year 1756, and the Blue Coat Hospital, which he thus founded and 
 sustained for so many years, continues to flourish, and that on a much 
 wider scale than he ever hoped to see. Two of his sons held the office of 
 treasurer after his death, and all his descendants, to the present time, have 
 taken a strong interest in an institution which reflects such lasting honour 
 on the founder of their family. 
 
 Imperfect as were the means of communicating with the interior 
 in the beginning of the reign of George the First Liverpool continued to 
 increase in population and wealth ; and in 1724 the corporation determined 
 to erect a third church for the accommodation of the inhabitants. It 
 appears, from an old minute-book of the corporation, that Mr. Edward 
 Litherland was ordered to pull down the walls of the old castle in 1724 ; 
 and on the 14th of April, 1725, the following resolution was agreed to, 
 at a meeting of the town council :—“ Ordered, that an estimate and plans 
 of a new church, to be erected in the late castle, upon the ground where 
 the old large stone tower, and the stone buildings adjoining the same 
 northward, now stand, being now laid before the council by Mr. Thomas 
 Steers and Mr. James Sliawe, and this council having taken the same 
 into consideration, and being desirous to promote so pious a work, which 
 is now much wanted, it is ordered with all convenient speed to erect a 
 convenient church with a proper spire and steeple. Estimated cost, 
 411,488 3s. 2d.” The stone-work of the church was shortly after let to 
 Mr. Thomas Steers, who agreed to finish it for £800; and the new 
 church, to which the name of St. George’s was given, was proceeded 
 with, and completed in the year 1734. 
 
 As the commerce of Liverpool increased, the income of the corporation 
 increased in the same ratio. The average yearly income of the corpora¬ 
 tion, during the first ten years of the 18th century, was £1,121 ; the 
 yearly average, from 1721 to 1731, was £l,723.f 
 
 The town dues, which serve as a measure of the commerce of the 
 port, produced £352 18s. 6d. in the year 1708 ; £500 16s. 6Jd. in 1722 ; 
 
 * Narrative hy Mr. Bryan Blundell, in Mrs. Trimmer’s Life and Writings. 
 
 + Memorandum Book of the Corporation. 
 
407 
 
 £527 6s. 4d. in 1723; £483 18s. 2jd. in 1724; £574 Os. 10|d. in 
 1725; £672 Os. 9d. in 1726; £588 11s. ll^d. in 1727; £561 14s. 
 8|d.in 1728; £708 9s. 9£d. in 1729; £588 17s. lfd. in 1730; £648 
 16s. 3d. in 1731; £795 15s. lOd. in 1732; and £705 Os. 7d. in 1733. 
 Judgingfrom tlie rate of increase, the trade of the port more than doubled 
 itself in twenty years, in the reigns of George the First and Second.* 
 
 At this time the corporation raised a considerable part of its income 
 by freemen’s fines. No one was allowed to carry on any business without 
 buying the freedom of the town; but any one was allowed to buy it, at 
 a moderate price. The fine of a merchant was from £20 to £30 ; that of 
 a tradesman from £5 to £10 ; that of a mechanic, or gardener, from 10s. 
 to 20s. The corporation received £300 or £400 a-year from freemen's 
 fines at the beginning of the reign of George the Second.f 
 
 The act for constructing the Old Dock, the first dock ever formed in 
 Liverpool, was passed in the year 1709. Twenty-seven years after that 
 date a single dock was found to be insufficient for the commerce of the 
 port; and it was determined to construct a second one, to which the name 
 of the Salthouse Dock was given, from a large salt manufactory which 
 stood near the ground on which it was formed. It was also resolved to 
 run out a pier to the north of the Old Dock, to shelter vessels which had 
 left the dock, and were waiting in the river for a fair wind. The mayor 
 and corporation of Liverpool took the same active and spirited part in con 
 structing the Salthouse Dock and the pier which they had taken in forming 
 the Old Dock. At a meeting of the town council, held on the llth 
 January, 1737, (the tenth George the Second,) the following statement 
 and resolutions were agreed to by the town council:—“ It having been 
 heretofore and is now again represented to this council, that there is an 
 absolute necessity for an addition to be made to the present dock or basin, 
 for lightships to lie in whilst refitting, and other necessary uses : And 
 (also) for a convenient pier to be erected, in the open harbour, on the north 
 side of the entrance into the present dock, towards Redcross-street, for the 
 safety of all ships when ready to sail from the port to lie within till a 
 fair wind happens, and which very often are prevented when in the wet 
 dock or basin by other ships lying before at the entrance, and then all 
 pressing to get out before them, to the manifest prejudice, frequent delay, 
 and often loss of their voyages : And that in case (of) a fire happening 
 in the wet dock (which God avert!) it would be of the greatest consequence 
 and safety to the rest of the ships to fly into and to be preserved from : 
 
 * Memorandum Book of the Corporation. + Ibid. 
 
408 
 
 And that according to a plan and estimate lately made by Mr. Thomas 
 Steers, the same will take up at least seven acres of the adjacent waste 
 ground of and belonging to this corporation, and will cost at least the 
 sum of £12,000, to make and perfect such work and conveniences: and 
 the mayor, aldermen, bailifFs, and common council now taking the same 
 into consideration, and that the making of such addition and pier will 
 tend greatly to encourage trade, advance his majesty’s revenues, and be a 
 public good and safety to all ships trading to and from this port, do order 
 that so much of the said waste ground as shall be sufficient for the making 
 of such addition and convenience, on the south side of the said entrance 
 into the present wet dock, and for such pier and compass within as shall 
 be necessary on the north side entrance, be granted and set apart to and 
 for such use or uses for ever, saving and reserving to the corporation 
 for ever the benefit and advantage of selling, letting, and granting the 
 waste ground adjoining, in such manner as they might have done in case 
 the said addition and pier had not been made : And it is further ordered 
 that the corporation do advance and appropriate out of the town customs, 
 or take up upon the credit thereof, the sum of £1,000 towards the first 
 charge to carry on such pier, which it is conceived should be first made, 
 and will be of great advantage to the harbour and port, and that the 
 treasurer do pay as shall be first wanted, and take it up at interest under 
 the common seal, if occasion be, and be allowed the same in his 
 accounts.”* 
 
 The act authorizing the forming of this second Liverpool dock, and 
 the ruuning out of a pier into the river, for the protection of vessels 
 arrived from sea or ready to sail on their outward voyages, was passed in 
 the year 1737, the eleventh of George the Second. The act commences 
 with a recital of the provisions of the acts of the eighth of Queen Anne 
 and the third of George the First, for forming and completing the Old 
 Dock. It then proceeds as follows:—“And whereas the said dock or 
 basin has been made, finished, and perfected, pursuant to the directions 
 of the said recited acts, and made capable of taking, receiving, and har¬ 
 bouring a considerable number of ships, which has tended to the increase 
 of navigation and improvement of trade within the said town and port of 
 Liverpool; and in order to enable the trustees to complete or finish the 
 said basin, they borrowed and took up upon the credit of the said recited 
 acts several sums of money, and there now remains due to the persons 
 who have advanced and lent the same the sum of four thousand eight 
 * Corporation Eecords, ix., 53G. 
 
409 
 
 hundred and thirty pounds at interest: and whereas by reason of the 
 straightness of the entrance into the said dock or basin, from the open 
 harbour of Liverpool, the navigation into and from the said dock or basin 
 is greatly obstructed, and ships or vessels lying in the said dock or basin 
 are frequently prevented from getting out to sea, and ships and vessels 
 lying in the harbour without the said dock or basin are frequently forced 
 on shore and lost, to the great damage of the merchants and owners of 
 ships, and (of) the trade of the said town and port of Liverpool: and 
 whereas, in case the said dock or basin was enlarged, and a pier erected 
 and built in the open harbour of Liverpool, on the north side of the 
 entrance into the said dock or basin, such losses, mischiefs, and inconve¬ 
 niences might in a great measure be prevented, and the harbour be ren¬ 
 dered more safe and commodious for the lying, lading, and unlading of 
 ships and other vessels resorting thereto, or trading within the said port: 
 and the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council of the said borough 
 and corporation of Liverpool, have agreed to grant another piece of ground, 
 containing seven acres, or thereabouts, parcel of the ground belonging to 
 the said corporation, adjoining to the entrance into the said dock or basin, 
 on the north and south sides of such entrance, where such pier and addi¬ 
 tional dock may be made and erected, to beheld, used, and applied to that 
 purpose for ever; and have also agreed to lay out, apply, and advance out 
 of the common stock of the said corporation the sum of one thousand 
 pounds, for accomplishing so useful and necessary a work : but as the 
 rates and duties arising by virtue of and under the said recited acts, and 
 the sum so agreed to be collected or advanced by the said corporation, 
 will not be sufficient to answer the expenses of such new works, and dis¬ 
 charge the debt due on the securities made in pursuance of the said acts, 
 a design so useful and beneficial to the said town and port of Liverpool, 
 and to the trade and navigation of the kingdom, cannot be effected and 
 carried into execution, unless the said former acts, and the terms, rates, 
 and duties thereby granted and continued, be enlarged, and other provi¬ 
 sions made for the purposes before-mentioned: may it, therefore, please 
 your most excellent majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted 
 by the king’s most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the lords, spiritual and temporal, and commons, in the present parlia¬ 
 ment assembled : that from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, 
 1738, the said piece or parcel of ground, containing seven acres, or there¬ 
 abouts, so agreed to be granted by the said corporation as aforesaid, shall 
 be, remain, enure, and be applied or employed to or for the use before- 
 
410 
 
 mentioned, and to no other use whatever ; and that it shall and may be 
 lawful for the said mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council of the 
 said borough of Liverpool, and their successors, and they shall have by 
 this act full power and authority to enlarge or make an addition to the 
 said wet dock, and erect or build, or set up, a pier in the open 
 harbour of Liverpool, on the north side of the entrance into the said 
 wet dock or basin, of such materials and dimensions as to them shall seem 
 requisite and necessary for the purposes before-mentioned.” For the 
 effecting these objects the act authorizes the collecting of the original dock 
 dues for a further term of thirty-one years, after the expiration of the term 
 of thirty-five years mentioned in the previous acts. It authorizes the bor¬ 
 rowing of the sum of £ 14,000, on security of the rates. It provides that a 
 hoard, consisting of twelve commissioners, shall he appointed to inspect, 
 audit, and adjust the account of the collections, receipts, and disbursements 
 of all the moneys collected and levied under the act; four members of 
 this hoard to he nominated yearly by the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and 
 common council, and eight by the merchants inhabiting the said town of 
 Liverpool, and being owners or part-owners of ships belonging to the 
 port of Liverpool aforesaid, or the major part of them ; which said twelve 
 so appointed shall he invested with such and the same powers and 
 authority in all respects, and to all intents, constructions, and purposes 
 as were given to and invested in the commissioners appointed in 
 pursuance of the said former acts, or either of them. It further authorizes 
 the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council to erect lamps about 
 the docks, for the security of life and property. This act, like the two 
 previous dock acts, is declared to he a public act. The works were pro¬ 
 ceeded with immediately, and when completed increased the area of the 
 Liverpool docks from four to eleven acres, whilst the pier erected to 
 the north of the docks served as a breakwater for shipping in the river. 
 
 In the years 1745 and 1746 the merchants and other inhabitants of 
 Liverpool had again an opportunity of showing their attachment to the 
 house of Hanover, and to the principles which placed it on the throne of 
 England. The country was at that time involved in a war with France 
 and Spain; and the young pretender, Prince Charles Edward, thinking 
 it a favourable opportunity to assert the claims of the house of Stuart, 
 landed in the Highlands of Scotland, where he was joined by several 
 thousand Highlanders, under the command of their hereditary chiefs. 
 At the head of this gallant force he seized the city of Edinburgh, 
 defeated General Cope’s army at Preston Pans, and advancing boldly 
 
411 
 
 into England, by way of Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston, and Manchester, 
 reached Derby on the 4th December, 1745. 
 
 The first news of the landing of the pretender in the Highlands was 
 communicated to the government by the mayor of Liverpool, Owen 
 Pritchard, Esq., having been brought to Liverpool by Captain Eobinson, 
 tbe commander of a vessel trading to the Baltic, who put into the Isle of 
 Skye on his return voyage, a few days after the pretender had landed. 
 An express was immediately forwarded to the office of the secretary of 
 state; and the mayor and principal inhabitants of Liverpool, foreseeing 
 that another attempt would be made to invade England, at once began to 
 make vigorous preparations to defend the town against the Jacobites. 
 A trust-worthy person, Mr. Samuel Street, was sent to Edinburgh, to 
 report as to the number and progress of the rebels; and a sum of 
 £1,000, which was gradually increased, by successive grants and sub¬ 
 scriptions, to TG,000, was raised by the corporation and inhabitants to 
 fortify tbe town, and raise a regiment of eight companies of volunteers. 
 This regiment, which was named the Liverpool Blues, was about seven 
 hundred strong. The private soldiers were clothed and armed, and 
 received 12d. a day from the public purse of the town; and the officers 
 also were paid from the same fund. The regiment was placed under the 
 command of the Hon. Colonel William Graham, a distinguished officer 
 of the regular army, and after he had been raised to the rank of general 
 of brigade, under that of Lieut.-Colonel Gordon and Major Bendish. 
 After having been drilled for about three months, on the approach of the 
 pretender and his army, the Liverpool Blues were ordered to march to 
 Warrington, and other places in Lancashire and Cheshire, for the purpose 
 of breaking down the bridges, and thus preventing the march of the 
 insurgents to the Welsh border, where the supporters of the house of 
 Stuart were supposed to be very strong. After breaking down all the 
 bridges, and capturing a reconnoitring party of Highlanders at War¬ 
 rington, they returned to Liverpool, to defend the town, if attacked. At 
 the same time all the ships and boats belonging to the town were 
 removed, so as to render it impossible for the insurgents to cross the 
 river at Liverpool, even if they succeeded in obtaining possession of the 
 town. Fortunately, however, the vigorous preparations for defence ren¬ 
 dered any actual defence unnecessary. Liverpool was never attacked, 
 although the pretender’s army advanced within fifteen miles of it. On 
 the retreat of the rebels and the advance of the royal army, the Liver¬ 
 pool Blues joined the Duke of Cumberland, and marched with him as 
 
412 
 
 far as tho Scottish border, where they were left, with some other foroes, 
 to conduct the siege of Carlisle, into which city the English Jacobites 
 had thrown themselves. When the blues marched with the royal 
 army, the merchants and other inhabitants formed themselves into 
 five companies of volunteers, did duty regularly, and preserved the 
 peace of the town. During the march of the Duke of Cumberland 
 through Lancashire, the corporation sent an express to ask if there 
 was anything that they could send him for the use of his army; and 
 the duke, having expressed a wish for a supply of biscuit, they for¬ 
 warded to him thirteen waggon loads, under the care of Joseph Clegg 
 and William Pole, Esqrs., aldermen of the borough, which supplies 
 reached him at Carlisle. These zealous and disinterested services from 
 the town of Liverpool, at a time when the house of Hanover was in greater 
 peril than it had ever been before, or has ever been since, were warmly 
 acknowledged by the government and the Duke of Cumberland.* 
 
 The year 1745 is memorable in local annals, not only for the attach¬ 
 ment of the inhabitants of Liverpool to the house of Hanover, but for 
 the commencement of a great public charity, which still flourishes. 
 Several addresses had been published in Liverpool from time to time 
 previous to the year 1745, recommending the forming of a public 
 Infirmary. These induced the clergy, physicians, surgeons, merchants, 
 and tradesmen, with some neighbouring gentlemen, to open a subscription 
 for erecting a new building, in the year 1745, upon a well-situated field 
 (the site of the present St. George’s-hall,) liberally given by the corpora¬ 
 tion for a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, “ which succeeded 
 beyond expectation.” In July the work was begun, and carried on with 
 great vigour, but soon after the national disturbances (the rebellion of 
 1745) so much retarded the prosecution of it, that the house was 
 not finished till the latter end of 1748. Then the two upper wards 
 were furnished with thirty beds, “which was judged nearly equivalent 
 to the yearly subscription for the support of that number of persons.” 
 On the 25th day of March, 1749, the house was opened “ for the admission 
 of patients.” It further appears, from the auditors’ report from the 25th of 
 March to the 5th of March following, in the year 1749, that the officers 
 for that, the first year, were the Eight Hon. Edward Earl of Derby, 
 president; Foster Cunliffe, Esq., treasurer; Mr. Charles Goore and Mr. 
 Edward Deane, deputy-treasurers; Mr. Samuel Ogden and Mr. Thomas 
 Seel, auditors; Dr. Walter Greene, Dr. John Kenyon, and Dr. Thomas 
 
 * Official Report in Corporation Records. 
 
413 
 
 Robinson, physicians; Mr. James Bromfield, Mr. Thomas Antrobus, 
 and Mr. William Pickering, surgeons; and the Rev. Matthew Lowe, 
 chaplain. The subscriptions to the building fund amounted to £1,809 
 13s. 5d. in Liverpool, and to £438 13s. Cd. in the country; making a 
 total of £2,248 7s. lid. The yearly subscription list amounted to £480 
 14s. Od. The cost of building the infirmary was £2,648 7s. lid., of 
 which sum about £400 was borrowed. The number of in-patients 
 admitted in 1749 was 122; of out-patients, 72. 
 
 The following is a list of the principal subscribers to the building and 
 founding of the Infirmary, or, in other words, of the principal inhabitants of 
 Liverpool in the year 1745:—Alderman Robert Armitage, £5 5s.; William 
 Armitage, £5 5s.; John Ashton, £10 10; John Atherton, £10 10s. ; Rev. 
 T. Baldwin, £10 10s.; Alderman John Brooks, £15 15s.; Alderman John 
 Bromfield, surgeon, £32 6s.; Alderman Joseph Bird, £5 5s.; Thomas Ball, 
 merchant, £5 5s. ; John Bostock, £5 5s.; Alderman Bryan Blundell, Esq., 
 £42; James Barton, brewer, £5 5s.; Jonathan Brooks, merchant, £3 3s.; 
 Thos. Bickersteth, gentleman, £5 5s.; William Blundell, merchant, £5 5s.; 
 John Blackburne, jun., £6 Gs.; William Benson, £5 5s.; Roger Brooke, 
 £10 10s.; Thomas Backhouse, £10 10s.; William Bulkeley, £7 7s.; 
 John Brancker, jeweller, £2 2s.; Bryan Blundell, jun., £5 5s.; Jonathan 
 Blundell, £5 5s.; Mrs. Alice Bushell, £10 ; Mrs. Mary Barton, brewer, 
 £5 5s.; John Colquitt, sen., Esq., £5 5s.; John Colquitt, jun., Esq., 
 £2 2s. ; Richard Cribb, £5 5s. ; Thomas Crowder, merchant, £10 10s.; 
 James Crosbie, ditto, £10 10s.; Ellis Cunliffe, ditto, £10 10s.; Robert 
 Cunliffe, £21; Madam Elizabeth Clayton, deceased, £5 5s.; Mrs. Sarah 
 Clayton, £21 ; Alderman Joseph Clegg, £5 5s.; Edward Cropper, mercer, 
 £2 2s.; Alderman Joseph Clegg, £26 5s. ; Mrs. Sarah Christian, £10 ; 
 Scroop Colquitt, gentleman, £2 2s.; Corporation, for Thomas Oliver, 
 £9 15s. 9d.; Joseph Davies, Esq., merchant, £5 5s.; George Dickins, 
 Esq., M.D., £5 5s.; Edward Deane, merchant, £5 5s. ; Thomas Dunbar, 
 £5 5s. ; John Eden, £10; Catherine Eccleston, ‘plummer,’ £5 5s; John 
 Eaton, merchant, £5. 5s.; Robert Edmondson, ‘ plummer,’ £5 5s.; Ralph 
 Earle, merchant, £2 2s.; Joseph Farmer, merchant, £5 5s.; William 
 Farrington, merchant, £5 5s.; Potter Fletcher, £5 5s.; Edward Forbes, 
 merchant, £10 10s.; a person’s fine given, £30; James Gildart, 
 merchant, £5 5s.; George Gildart, ditto, £5 5s.; Francis Gildart, £5 5s.; 
 Richard Gildart, Esq., merchant, £50; Charles Goore, ditto, £10 10s. ; 
 John Gorrell, £10 10s.; Richard Golightly, shipbuilder, £10 10s.; 
 Richard Gerard, apothecary, £21 : John Hughes Guthrie, £5 5s. ; John 
 3 H 
 
414 
 
 Hadwen, merchant, £10 10s.; Arthur Heywood, merchant, £5 5s.; Ben¬ 
 jamin Heywood, merchant, £5 5s.; Peter Holme, merchant, £5 5s.; Mrs. 
 Isabella James, £5 5s.; James Kelsall, gentleman, .£5 5s.; John Knight, 
 merchant, £ 10 10s.; Morecroft Kirks, merchant, £5 5s.; John Kennion, 
 £5 5s.; Edward Livesey, surgeon, £10 10s.; Charles Lowndes, mer¬ 
 chant, £10 10s.; W. A. and A. Lightbody, £5 5s.; Rev. William Martin, 
 £6 10s.; Joseph Manesty, merchant, £5 5s.; John Nicholson, linen- 
 draper ; £5 5s.; Samuel Nicholson, M D., £5 5s.; John Okill, merchant, 
 £10 10s.; Edmund Ogden, merchant, £5 5s.; Samuel Ogden, £10 10s.; 
 Alderman Owen Pritchard, merchant, £10 10s.; Alderman William Pole, 
 £5 5s.; William Penketh, merchant, £5 5s.; James Percival, merchant, 
 £5 5s.; Edmund Rigby, £10 10s.; Samuel Rigby, £5 5s.; Thomas 
 Robinson, merchant, £10 10s.; Edward Roughsedge, merchant, £10 10s.; 
 Edward Rathbone, merchant, £5 5s.; Alderman Thomas Steers, £10 10s.; 
 Alderman Thomas Shaw, £10 10s.; Thomas Seel, £84 5s.; Spencer 
 Steers, merchant, £5 5s.; William Spencer, £5 5s.; Edward Trafford, 
 merchant, £15 15s.; John Tyrer, £l Is.; John Tarlton, £10 10s.; 
 Levinus Unsworth, £5 5s.; George Wilkinson, merchant, £5 5s.; Rev. 
 Mr. Henry Wolstenliolme, £7 7s.; Rev. Mr. John Williamson, deceased, 
 £10 10s.; Robert Whittle, gentleman, £57 15s.; John Williamson 
 £5 5s.; Henry Winstanley, £10 10s,; Peter Whitfield, sugar-baker, 
 £3 3s.; Thomas Wakefield, sugar-baker, £2 2s.; John Worral, £2 2s. 
 
 Amongst the subscribers to the Infirmary not resident in Liverpool 
 were Owen Brereton, Esq., recorder, £5 5s.; Nathaniel Basnett, merchant, 
 London, £21 ; Chase, Tennant, and Co., London, £21; the Right Hon. 
 the Earl of Derby, £50; James Farmer, Birmingham, £5 5s.; Richard 
 Gildart, jun., London, £21 ; Archibald Hamilton, merchant, Rotterdam, 
 £5 5s.; Henry Lassell, Esq., London, £26 5s.; Richard Milnes, Wake¬ 
 field, £5 5s.; Mr.M‘Cannon, Newry, £5 5s.; Charles Pole, London, £21; 
 Richard Pigott, Esq., Chester, £10 10s.; JohnPeloquin,merchant,Bristol, 
 £21; Thomas Salusbury, Esq., Flint, £100; Walter Scott, merchant, 
 London, £5 5s.; Sir William Smith, London, £31 10s.; Richard Smith, 
 merchant, Barbadoes, £20 ; and Right Hon. James Lord Strange, £50.* 
 
 Two years after the Stuarts had made their last effort to recover the 
 throne of England, it was found that the town of Liverpool had increased 
 so greatly that the three churches of St. Nicholas, St. Peter, and St. 
 George were insufficient to accommodate those of the inhabitants who 
 belonged to the Church of England. A public subscription was conse- 
 * Auditors’ Report for 1749. 
 
415 
 
 quently entered into towards the cost of building a fourth church, which 
 subscription produced the sum of £2,300; and a public-spirited mer¬ 
 chant, Mr. John Okill, agreed to surrender his interest in a piece of land 
 in Park-lane, for the site of the church; the mayor and corporation also 
 agreeing to surrender their reversionary interest in it for the same purpose. 
 An act was accordingly applied for, in the session of 1747, with powers to 
 build this new church, to which the name of St. Thomas was afterwards 
 given. The preamble to the act, after mentioning the acts for building 
 the churches of St. Peter and St. George, and referring to the existence 
 of the ancient church of St. Nicholas, sets forth that, “ Whereas the 
 buildings and inhabitants of the said town of Liverpool are of late years 
 so greatly increased, that the said three churches or chapels are not 
 sufficient to contain one-third part of the inhabitants of the said town 
 professing the doctrine of the Church of England, it is thought necessary 
 that one or more church or churches, chapel or chapels, should be erected 
 and built in some convenient place or places within the said town : and 
 whereas, for encouraging and promoting so charitable an object and 
 design, the inhabitants of the said town of Liverpool have promised 
 and agreed to contribute several sums, amounting to £2,300, for erecting 
 and building such new intended church; and John Okill, merchant, 
 being possessed of a piece of ground near Park-lane, in the borough of 
 Liverpool, which is held by lease of the corporation of Liverpool for 
 the term of three lives and twenty-one years, is willing to give and convey 
 his interest therein; and the said corporation are also willing and desirous 
 to grant and convey the reversion and inheritance thereof, for the purpose 
 and to the intent that the said new-intended church and chapel may be 
 thereupon erected and huilt.” For the purpose of carrying out the 
 objects of the act, the following gentlemen were appointed commissioners 
 and trustees: namely, Thomas Shawe, Esq., mayor of Liverpool; Joseph 
 Bird and Bryan Blundell, Esqrs.; John Okill, Thomas Seel, Charles 
 Goore, and James Crosbie, merchants; John Gorrell, John Park, Richard 
 Golightly, and William Shaw, timber-merchants; John Seddon and 
 Samuel Irlam, anchor-smiths; and the Rev. William Martin, clerk. This 
 reverend gentleman was appointed the first minister or incumbent of the 
 new church, with a salary of ,£120 a-year. Sufficient powers were then 
 given for carrying out the purposes of the trust, and the building of the 
 church was immediately proceeded with. The church of St. Thomas was 
 consecrated and opened for divine service in the year 1750. 
 
 In the same act of parliament by which powers were obtained to build 
 
416 
 
 St. Thomas’s Church, powers were also obtained to establish a nightly 
 watch in Liverpool, consisting of sixty watchmen; to light the town 
 with lamps ; and to cleanse the streets and alleys. A board, composed 
 of the mayor, recorder, justices of the peace of the town of Liverpool, and 
 of eighteen commissioners appointed by the ratepayers at a yearly vestry, 
 was appointed to carry out the provisions of this useful act. The board, 
 thus entrusted with the treple duty of keeping the town safe, and light, 
 and sweet, continued in existence until the passing of the municipal reform 
 act, when those duties were transferred to the town council. 
 
 The following sketch of the town and port of Liverpool, a hundred 
 years since, is abridged from an account published on the spot, in the 
 year 1753 : * 
 
 “ Liverpool,” says the author of this account, “ is a very ancient 
 borough ; situated on the east side of the river Mersey, about three miles 
 from the sea. It is of late the most flourishing seaport (London 
 excepted) in Great Britain. The inhabitants are universal merchants, 
 and trade to all foreign parts, except Turkey and the East Indies.” (From 
 which trades they were cut off by the charters of the East India and 
 Levant Companies.) “ It shares the trade of Ireland and Wales with 
 Bristol, and engrosses most of the trade with Scotland. It is both a con¬ 
 venient and very much frequented passage to Ireland and the Isle of 
 Man, there being always vessels going and coming from thence. Ships 
 of any burden may come up with their full lading and ride before the 
 town, which is quite open and unfortified; and vessels of eighteen feet 
 draught of water may go into the docks, which are not inferior to any in 
 Great Britain. On the 14th September, 1749, the first stone of a new 
 Exchange was laid, which is now near finished, and for its size is not to 
 be paralleled in Europe.” The author of this sketch then proceeds to 
 give the following particulars as to the size of the town; the public 
 buildings ; the arrangements of the Post-office ; the shipping of the port; 
 and the means of communication with London and the interior: 
 
 The number of streets, squares, lanes, and alleys in the town of 
 Liverpool in 1753 was two hundred and twenty-two. There were four 
 churches ; namely, that of St. Nicholas, built many hundred years before ; 
 that of St. Peter, consecrated in 1704 ; that of St. George, finished in 
 1734; and that of St. Thomas, consecrated in 1750. In addition to 
 these churches, there was the old Presbyterian chapel in Key-street, the 
 new Presbyterian chapel in Benn’s-gardens, the old Anabaptist meeting- 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Memorandum Book, for the year 1753. 
 
417 
 
 house, bottom of Dale-street, the new Anabaptist meeting-house, bottom 
 of Stanley-street, the Quakers’ meeting-house, Hackin’s-hey, the Roman 
 Catholic chapel, Lombard-street, and the Jews’ synagogue, Stanley-street. 
 Besides the buildings devoted to the worship of God, there were the fol¬ 
 lowing buildings applied to the purposes of charity and education :—The 
 Blue Coat Hospital in School-lane, founded in 1708, chiefly by the exer¬ 
 tions of Bryan Blundell, a generous and charitable shipowner of Liverpool, 
 whose memory thousands have had reason to bless; the Infirmary, 
 founded and supported by subscription, opened in 1749 ; the Work and 
 Poor-house, in Hanover-street; the Sick and Lame Hospital, Shaw’s- 
 brow; the Sailors’ Sixpenny Hospital; sets of alms-houses in Dale-street, 
 Hanover-street, and on the Heath ; and the ancient Free-school, founded 
 at the time of the reformation. The buildings and establishments con¬ 
 nected with trade, commerce, and navigation were, the Exchange and 
 Town-hall, (then rebuilding,) at the top of Water-street; the Custom¬ 
 house, erected by Alderman Sylvester Morecroft, “ a commodious and 
 very elegant piece of building,” at the upper side of the Old Dock; the 
 Stamp-offices, at Mr. Williamson and Mr. Fleetwood’s, booksellers ; the 
 Excise-office, “kept” by Mr. Johnson, Paradise-street; the Salt-office, 
 “ kept” by Mr. Greenwood, collector, Prince’s-square; the Dock-office, 
 “ kept” by Mr. Joseph Yalens, Brooks-square; the Waterside Cart-office, 
 “ kept” by Mr. Fox, south-east corner of the Dock ; the Sun Fire-office, 
 “ kept” by Mr. William Pole, Fen wick-street; and the Post-office, “ kept” 
 by Mr. Samuel Street, (probably the person sent to Edinburgh, in 1745, 
 to watch the movements of the Pretender,) at the Wool Pack, near the 
 Exchange, Water-street. The following nota lene informs us of the 
 Post-office arrangements of 1753:—“ N.B. London and foreign post 
 comes in every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday morning: goes out every 
 evening about twelve o’clock, the same day it comes in. The PosGoffice 
 shuts up before eleven o’clock.” The places of public amusement in 
 Liverpool at that time were the “ Play-house”, Drury-lane; the Tennis- 
 court, Dale-street, “opposite Stanley-street”; two bowling-greens, 
 one situated a little beyond the Salthouse Dock, the other in a com¬ 
 manding position on Martindale’s-hill, now Mount-pleasant; and an 
 Assembly-room at the Tower. The markets were then situated as 
 follows :—The butchers’-market, in High-street, the principal approach 
 to the present Exchange; the fish-market, in Pool-lane, and at the old 
 fish-house, Cliapel-street; and markets were also held in Castle-ditch, 
 and at the Old White Cross. One part of the ancient tower of the 
 
418 
 
 Stanleys, at the bottom of Water-street, had gone down in the world, 
 so as to have degenerated into a borough gaol. Two watch-houses 
 were situated, the one in Derby-square, near St. George’s Church, the 
 other, the tide-surveyors' watch-house, at the bottom of Water-street. 
 
 This writer further informs us that there were in Liverpool 101 
 merchants, in London 135, and in Bristol 157, who were members of the 
 African Company. The shipping belonging to the shipowners of Liver¬ 
 pool was employed as follows :—In the West India and North American 
 trades, 106 vessels ; in the African trade, 88; in the trade with Europe, 
 28; in the coasting and Irish trades, 125; and in the salt, coal, and 
 river trades, 80 sloops, of from 40 to 70 tons each. The latter vessels 
 kept up the communication with Manchester and Warrington, by the 
 Mersey and Irwell river navigation, with the salt district of Cheshire by 
 the Weaver navigation, and with the coal-field of Wigan by the river 
 Douglas. 
 
 Travelling between Liverpool and London and Liverpool and the 
 interior was very rare in the year 1753. Not a single stage-coach left 
 the town either for Manchester, London, or any other place. The general 
 mode of travelling for gentlemen was on horseback, and for ladies in 
 hired carriages. The roads were then much infested with highwaymen 
 of the Turpin and Jack Sheppard breed; hence travellers preferred jour¬ 
 neying in companies. Thus, every Friday morning, William Knowles, 
 George Glover, William Thornton, or James Lancaster, started from the 
 Swan with Two Necks, Lad-lane, London, “ with a gang of horses”, for 
 the conveyance of passengers and light goods, and reached Liverpool on 
 the Monday evening following. 
 
 This was considered very swift travelling. The old Lancashire and 
 Cheshire stage-wagons, which started from the Axe Inn, Aldermanbury, 
 London, every Monday and Thursday, were ten days on the road in sum¬ 
 mer, and eleven in winter; goods were forwarded from Liverpool at about 
 the same speed of travelling, by various carriers, to Wigan, Blackburn, 
 Preston, Lancaster, Halifax, Leeds, York, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Shef¬ 
 field. The cost of carrying goods to Sheffield, by wagon, was 3s. 6d. per 
 cwt. There were, at this time, five ferry-boat houses on the river Mersey, 
 in Cheshire, namely, Ince, Carlton or Eastham, Bock, Woodside, and 
 Seacombe, “ where passengers for the most part (weather and tide per¬ 
 mitting) might meet with accommodations to bring their goods, &c., to 
 Liverpool.” 
 
 Although some of the above details are a little old-fashioned, yet 
 
419 
 
 Liverpool was already regarded as a very spirited place. “ By the pre¬ 
 ceding descriptions and lists,” says the author of the Liverpool Memo¬ 
 randum Book for 1753, “we may judge of the opulency, trade, &c., of 
 Liverpool, which have increased within these few years more in this port 
 than any other in Great Britain. In the last war (1739 to 1748) trade 
 flourished and spread her golden wings so extensively that, if they had 
 possessed it seven years longer, it would have enlarged the size and riches 
 of the town to a prodigious degree. The harbour being situated so near 
 the mouth of the North Channel, between Ireland and Scotland, (a 
 passage very little known to or frequented by the enemy,) afforded 
 many conveniences to the merchants here, untasted by those of other 
 ports, which invited numbers of strangers from different parts to begin 
 trade and settle here, finding it so advantageous a mart. Trade since the 
 late peace has not been so brisk as formerly, but it appears by the Custom¬ 
 house books to be much revived. The chief manufactures carried on 
 here are blue and white earthenware, which at present almost vie with 
 China, (large quantities are exported for the colonies abroad,) and watches, 
 which are not to be excelled in Europe. All the different branches are 
 manufactured in and about the town, to supply the London and foreign 
 markets.” So far Mr. Williamson; and although his theory, that Liver¬ 
 pool flourished more in war than in peace, was absurd enough, yet there is 
 no doubt thatLiverpool suffered much less during the early wars with France 
 and Holland, from the privateers of the enemy, than London, Hull, and 
 Bristol. In the war which broke out three years after this account was 
 written the French privateers found their way into the north passage and 
 the Irish Sea, under Captain Thurot, and kept Liverpool blockaded for 
 many weeks. 
 
 In the tenth George the Second, 1737, Scroop, Duke of Bridgewater, 
 the predecessor of the great Duke Francis, obtained an act of parliament 
 for rendering navigable the Worsley Brook, a small stream which flows 
 from the neighbourhood of the Worsley coal mines into the river Irwell. 
 The object of this measure was to furnish water carriage from the Worsley 
 coal-field to Manchester, though by a totally different route, and in a 
 totally different manner, from that afterwards proposed and carried out 
 by Brindley and the great duke. 
 
 In the twenty-eighth George the Second the act was passed for 
 making navigable the river or brook, called Sankey brook, and the 
 three branches thereof, from Sankey bridges, near the river Mersey, to 
 the coal-fields of St. Helens. This act sets forth that the Sankey 
 
420 
 
 brook, from the point where it empties itself into the river Mersey, 
 below Sankey bridges, is capable of being made navigable up the stream 
 or brook, and the three several branches thereof, namely, to Boardman’s 
 Stone-bridge, near St. Helens, on the south branch; to Gerard’s-bridge, 
 on the middle branch ; and to Penny-bridge, on the north branch ; and 
 that the rendering the same navigable would tend greatly to the advantage 
 of great numbers of tradesmen and manufacturers within the counties of 
 Lancaster and Chester. The act then proceeds to appoint the following 
 parties undertakers, to carry out the purposes of the act:—Charles 
 Goore, James Crosbie, John Ashton, John Blackburne, the younger, and 
 Richard Trafford, Esqrs. To these gentlemen it gives the power to clear, 
 open, scour, enlarge, and straighten the Sankey brook, and its several 
 branches; and also to make such new cuts, canals, trenches, and passages 
 for water as they shall think proper, through the lands adjoining, or near 
 to the said stream. It authorizes them to collect tolls or dues, at the rate 
 of lOd. per ton, on all coal, cannel, store, slate, timber, or other goods and 
 merchandise conveyed along the said navigation. The undertakers are 
 bound by the act to begin the works before the 29th September, 1755, 
 and to finish them before the 16th September, 1766. The most 
 interesting clause of this act is that which enacts that the navigation 
 from Sankey bridges to above Holme-mill brook mouth shall be by a 
 new cut or canal. Out of this clause the Sankey canal, the first formed 
 in England, may be said to have grown. 
 
 In the month of May, 1756, the peaceful pursuits of commerce 
 received a rude shock in Liverpool and other parts of the kingdom by the 
 commencement of another war with France. This war continued during 
 the whole of the remainder of the reign of George the Second, and during 
 the first and second years of George the Third. The early part of the 
 war was extremely unsuccessful, both on sea and land; but the latter part 
 of it, which was carried on under the vigorous administration of the first 
 William Pitt, afterwards the great Lord Chatham, was just as successful, 
 Canada and all the other French possessions in North America were con¬ 
 quered by Wolfe and Amherst; the rich province of Bengal was captured 
 by Clive ; and the French fleets, after having been victorious over Admiral 
 Byng, were in their turn defeated by Hawke and Boscawan. In this 
 war Liverpool was threatened with attack by Thurot; and the commerce 
 of the port was much injured by French privateers. Great numbers of 
 privateers were also fitted out in Liverpool, some of which were very 
 successful in capturing prizes from the enemy. 
 
421 
 
 The first effect of the war was a rapid rise in premiums on sea risks. 
 The rates of insurance rose on vessels from Liverpool to Jamaica to twelve 
 guineas per T100; to North America to ten guineas; from Carolina to 
 Cowes and a market to twenty guineas; from North America to Jamaica 
 to twelve guineas; from Liverpool to Gibraltar to twenty guineas; and 
 from Newfoundland to the Mediterranean to twenty-five guineas : rates 
 almost or altogether ruinous to commerce. 
 
 Trade having come almost to a stand-still, privateering took its place. 
 The Anson, privateer, of 150 tons, carrying sixteen guns, twenty-four 
 swivels, and 100 men, was the first of many that sailed from Liverpool. 
 The Brave Blakeney followed her very shortly. These two privateers 
 were very successful on their first cruize. The Anson returned in a few 
 weeks with two West Indiamen, worth T20,000 ; and the Brave Blakeney 
 with two others, also of great value, named La Gloire and Le Juste. 
 Immediately the whole port became mad after privateering. Five other 
 privateers sailed immediately. The French, however, played at the same 
 game with equal vigour; and before the end of the year news was received 
 that the Mary, Captain Bichmond, on her voyage to Virginia, and many 
 other Liverpool vessels, had been taken by French privateers. In 1758 
 privateering continued with equal spirit. A whole host of armed vessels 
 went on the cruize, one of them, the Liverpool, carrying 22 guns and 
 200 men. Amongst the commanders of these privateers. Captain For- 
 tunatus Wright was particularly distinguished. He fought several sharp 
 actions with the enemy, in which he got and gave many hard blows, 
 and won both prize-money and renown. In this year the French 
 had decidedly the best of the privateering. In March, 1758, no ships 
 of any sort sailed from Liverpool or arrived in the port for some weeks, 
 owing to the boldness of the Frenchmen “which laid an effectual embargo 
 on the coast."* Early in the following year, Captain Lowndes, of the 
 armed ship Baltimore, from Liverpool to Maryland, captured the Resolute, 
 a French vessel sailing under Dutch colours, having onboard 231,901 lbs. 
 of sugar, 35,803 lbs. of coffee, 5,913 lbs. of indigo, and 6,339 lbs. of cocoa. 
 In the course of the year the Hazard, of Liverpool, W. Parkinson, fought 
 and beat off two French privateers, the one carrying twelve, the other 
 eight guns, on her voyage to the West Indies. Still the damage done by 
 the French cruizers was so great that the principal shipowners sent in a 
 round-robin to Mr. Williamson, the publisher of the Liverpool Advertiser, 
 requesting that he would not publish any more accounts of vessels sailing 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 17, 1758. 
 
 3 i 
 
422 
 
 from Liverpool, “ as they had reason to believe that it had been of very 
 had consequence during the war.” In the course of this war the practice 
 of ransoming vessels for large sums of money became very common. 
 Thus, Captain Spears, of the Granville, who arrived in Liverpool from 
 Edenton and North Carolina, with a cargo of tar and tobacco, and who, 
 on his voyage, had the ill-fortune to meet with the French cruizer Jupiter, 
 of Bayonne, 22 guns and 250 men, Captain Jean Mauheaule, agreed to 
 pay the said captain 12500, as ransom money for his ship and cargo, on 
 his arrival at Liverpool. The French captain, who was a Frenchman of 
 the good old school, treated Captain Spears with perfect politeness; 
 offered him fresh bread and water, in short, anything that his ship 
 afforded, only begged to carry off Mr. Alexander Scott, the chief mate, 
 to he kept as security for the due forwarding of the ransom money. 
 This practice continued during the whole of this war and during part of 
 the American war, hut it was then declared illegal. The present Sir John 
 Tobin, when a boy, on his first voyage narrowly escaped being carried 
 off as “ a ransomer,” along with the mate and one of the able seamen of 
 the ship. Fortunately for him, the captain of the privateer, who was an 
 Irish Frenchman, Captain Kelly by name, had known his father at 
 Douglas, and, on finding whose son he was, sent him away rejoicing. 
 
 About the end of the year 1759 Liverpool was not a little excited by 
 the approach of M. Thurot, a gallant French naval-officer, who entered 
 the Irish sea with a squadron of frigates, landed and took Carrickfergus, 
 afterwards overran the Isle of Islay, and threatened to take everything 
 that came in his way. That he might not take Liverpool, a very strong 
 regiment of volunteers was raised, with great promptitude, and batteries, 
 mounting fifty 18-pounders, were erected on the pier which then pro¬ 
 jected into the river, near Bedcross-street, and in the Old Church¬ 
 yard, the walls of which were strengthened and made ball-proof. 
 Whether Liverpool was M. Thurot’s object is uncertain, for, on the 28th 
 February, 1760, all his plans were put an end to for ever. On that day 
 his squadron of frigates was brought to action, a few leagues south of the 
 Isle of Man, by a squadron of English frigates, under the command of 
 Captain Elliot. After a desperate battle, in which Captain Thurot was 
 slain, and nearly 300 of his officers and men were killed or wounded, 
 the whole of the French frigates were taken. By this victory Liverpool 
 was again rendered perfectly safe ; hut the volunteers remained embodied 
 till the close of the war. 
 
 The commencement of the war with France was followed by a rapid 
 
423 
 
 rise in the price of grain in England. At Liverpool the price of wheat rose 
 between May, 1756, and the close of the year, from 42s. to 59s. a-quarter, 
 which was then considered an extravagant price. In the hope of relieving 
 the distress of the poor, the corporation bought 10,000 bushels of wheat, 
 which they retailed at cost price. They also threatened to enforce the 
 laws against forestalled and regraters, that is against those who bought 
 grain to sell again. One merchant, Mr. Penketh, who was attacked as a 
 regrater of grain, defended himself with great spirit in Williamson’s 
 Advertiser. He said that he had bought and imported into Liverpool 
 upwards of 26,000 bushels of wheat; that he had made nothing more than 
 a fair profit; and that the people who were abusing him as a regrater 
 would have been starving if it had not been for himself and others like 
 him.* 
 
 At this time a quarrel took place between the journeymen shoemakers 
 and their employers, about wages. The journeymen put forth an adver¬ 
 tisement, in which they stated that they were still willing to work for nine 
 shillings a week, but that their masters were trying to beat them down 
 below that rate.f 
 
 In 1756 Mr. Benen advertised that he travelled regularly post from 
 Liverpool to Lancaster; and that he had “ two good double horses” on 
 the road, for conveniency of ladies.* 
 
 The Liverpool gentlemen belonging to the Parkgate club met there 
 on the 27th December, and hunted during the remainder of the week.§ 
 
 At a meeting of the wholesale ale and beer brewers of Liverpool, held 
 on the 20th December, it was resolved not to sell ale for less than 34s., 
 or beer for less than 8s. the barrel, owing to the high price of barley.|| 
 
 On the 31st January, 1757, the common council began to sell flour 
 for the relief of the poor, at the rate of 9 lbs. for Is.: no person being 
 allowed to buy more than 3 lbs. a-week.H 
 
 In the course of that year Mr. John Deltrea advertised that he had to 
 sell, at his office in Union-street, 10 pipes of raisin wine, a parcel of 
 bottled cider, and “ a negro hoy !” 
 
 Contracts were this year entered into for making the “ unfinished part 
 of the road between Warrington and Prescot, extending from Bold-heath 
 to Sankey-pavement.” The work to be completed in not more than two 
 years. 
 
 In November of the same year it was announced by the undertakers 
 of the Sankey-brook navigation, that the navigation was open for flats 
 » Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, 1756. + Ibid. ♦ Ibid. § Ibid. || Ibid. % Ibid, 1757. 
 
424 
 
 to the Haydock and Parr collieries; that there was a considerable quan¬ 
 tity of coal laid near the said navigation, ready for sale, and that three col¬ 
 lieries were already opened, which were capable of supplying any further 
 quantity of coal which might be required that season. Mrs. Clayton, of 
 Liverpool, also announced that “ two delfs” were opened at her collieries 
 in Parr, and that she was selling coal on the spot, at 4s. 2d. a-ton, beside 
 vessels at Liverpool, at 7s. a-ton, and in Liverpool at 7s. 6d. a-ton.* 
 
 On the 9th June in the same year it was announced that a “flying” 
 stage-coach had begun to run from Warrington to London, twice a-week. 
 Liverpool passengers tlie^ rode over to Warrington the day previous to 
 the departure of the coach. The following is the announcement in the 
 Liverpool paper: 
 
 “ Warrington Flying Stage-coach : Sets out from the Red Lyon 
 Inn, in Warrington, every Monday and Thursday morning, and arrives 
 at the Bull Inn, in Wood-street, London, every Wednesday and Saturday 
 evening; and sets out from the Bull Inn, Wood-street, London, every 
 Monday and Thursday morning, and arrives at the Bed Lyon Inn, in 
 Warrington, every Wednesday and Saturday evening. Each passenger 
 to pay two guineas, one guinea as earnest, and the other guinea on 
 taking coach; and every passenger to be allowed 14 lbs. of luggage; 
 all above 14 lbs. to pay after three-pence a-pound. Outside passengers 
 and children on safety to pay half-price. To be performed, if God permit, 
 by “ Anthony Jackson and Henry Secrit.” 
 
 Early in 1759 the Dublin Packet, from Liverpool to Dublin, with 
 sixty passengers on board, was lost off the coast of Wales. Every soul 
 on board perished. 
 
 Captain William Hutchinson, who afterwards compiled a series of 
 observations on the tides of Liverpool, exending over a period of twenty- 
 four years, was appointed dock-master this year. 
 
 In the month of February, in 1758, the publishing of the lists of 
 vessels sailing from the port of Liverpool was suspended, in consequence 
 of the following address having been presented to the publisher of 
 Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser. The names attached to it are those 
 of the principal shipowners of that day : 
 
 “ To Mr. Robert Williamson, Printer of the Liverpool Advertiser. 
 
 “Liverpool, 13tli February, 1759. 
 
 “ Sir,—The publishing a list of the ships that enter outwards and sail 
 from this port every week we have too much reason to apprehend has been 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, 1757. 
 
425 
 
 of very bad consequence this war; we, therefore, desire that for the future 
 you will omit it in your papers, &c.—We are your humble servants, 
 Matthew Stronge William Fleetwood William Crosbie 
 William Trafford 
 Richard Savage 
 John Bridge 
 
 Robert Cheshire 
 John White 
 R. Armitage 
 George Campbell 
 John Clement 
 John Stronge 
 William Gregson 
 James Brown 
 John Parr 
 Thomas Rumbald 
 John Stanton 
 John Hanmer 
 Ralph Earle 
 Charles Goore 
 
 George Drinkwater 
 Wm. Williamson 
 Robert Hesketh 
 John Maine 
 John Ashton 
 Thomas Mears 
 Henry Hardman 
 John Hughes 
 Edward Parr 
 John Crosbie 
 
 John Ansdell 
 Samuel Woodward 
 William Reid 
 Robert CunlifFe 
 John Tarleton 
 James Gildart 
 John Backhouse 
 John Welch 
 A. and B. Heywood 
 Halliday and Dunbar 
 John Gonell 
 Campbell and Sons 
 Scroop Colquitt 
 James Clegg.” 
 
 William Earle 
 
 Ranelagh-gardens, Liverpool, in imitation of the London Ranelagh, 
 were opened to the public in 1759. 
 
 In the year in which George the Second died, (1760,) Liverpool had 
 the honour of a visit from no less a person than Samuel Derrick, Esq., 
 Master of the Ceremonies, and arbiter elegantiarum at the fashionable 
 watering place of Bath, who has left an account of the town and port, in 
 a couple of letters, addressed to his distinguished friend, the Earl of 
 Cork. From the first of these letters we learn that Mr. Derrick “ having 
 no where met with any account of the very opulent town” of Liverpool, 
 and fearing that his noble correspondent might have been equally unfor¬ 
 tunate, was induced to hope that his endeavour “ to give his lordship 
 something of that sort may not prove disagreeable.” The town, he 
 states, (not very accurately,) is situated about six miles from the sea, on 
 the decline of a hill, and is washed by a broad and rapid stream, called 
 the Mersey, were ships, lying at anchor, are quite exposed to the sudden 
 squalls of wind that often sweep the surface from the flat Cheshire shores 
 on the west, or the high lands of Lancashire, that overlook the town, on 
 the east. The banks in the river, he says, are so shallow and deceitful, 
 that when once a ship drives in the river, there is no possibility of pre¬ 
 serving her, if the weather prove rough, from being wrecked, even close 
 to the town. This, it seems, happened about three years before to a ship 
 outward bound for America, and richly-laden, which, being badly piloted. 
 
426 
 
 struck and went down. Her mast was still plainly to be seen. On 
 account of these dangers few ships anchor in the river. To guard 
 against them the docks, “ which are three in number” (the Old, 
 Salthouse, and Dry Docks,) have been built, “ with vast labour 
 and expense.” They are flanked by broad commodious quays, sur¬ 
 rounded by handsome brick houses. “ When the famous Thurot was 
 in the channel,” says Mr. Derrick, “ this town expected that he would 
 honour them with a visit; and they made good preparation to receive 
 him. The ear of a bastion was run out at the main dock head; the walls 
 of the Old Church-yard, under which he must have passed before he came 
 abreast of the town, were strengthened with stone buttresses and mounds 
 of earth; and the whole furnished with some very fine eighteen-pounders, 
 which were so disposed as fully to command the river. The merchants 
 were regimented under the command of the mayor, as colonel, divided 
 into four independent companies, uniformly clothed and armed, each man 
 at his own expense. Besides Lord Scarborough and Major Dasliwood 
 marched from Manchester, at the head of the Lincolnshire militia, upon 
 the first notice of danger, without waiting for orders from above ; so that, 
 had this bold adventurer presented himself, there is no doubt but he 
 would have been opposed with a true British spirit of resolution and gal¬ 
 lantry.” Passing from the arts of war to those of peace, Mr. Derrick informs 
 his noble correspondent that the town of Liverpool seems to be nearly as 
 broad as it is long. The streets are narrow, but tolerably well built; 
 the place is populous, though inferior in that respect to Bristol. Some 
 of the houses are faced with stone, and elegantly finished. The 
 Exchange, he says, is a handsome square structure of gray stone, sup¬ 
 ported by arches, built at great expense, under the inspection of Messrs 
 Wood, the father and son, “ to whose correct taste and great genius Bath 
 owes some of her finest ornaments and most useful improvements.” In 
 the upper part of the Exchange are noble apartments, wherein the cor¬ 
 poration transact public business. “ The assembly-room, which is also 
 up stairs, is grand, spacious, and finely illuminated : here is a meeting 
 once a fortnight to dance and play cards: where,” adds this most con¬ 
 descending of masters of the ceremonies, “ you will find some women 
 elegantly accomplished and perfectly well dressed.” The proceedings, he 
 adds, are regulated by a lady styled the queen, and she rules with very 
 absolute power. The Theatre, then in Drury-lane, he states, was very 
 neat. “ Here a company of London performers exhibit during the summer 
 season, and acquire a good deal of money.” Shuter, Holland, and Mrs. 
 
427 
 
 Ward were the principal performers when Mr. Derrick was in Liverpool; 
 Grimaldi, Maranisi, and Signora Provencella the principal dancers. 
 
 In another letter Mr. Derrick informs his noble correspondent, that 
 he is credibly informed that vessels of a thousand tons may enter the 
 docks of Liverpool, “which are large enough to contain five or six 
 hundred vessels.” Though a small place a hundred years ago, Liver¬ 
 pool then carried on a greater trade with the Coast of Guinea and the 
 West India Isles than London itself. 
 
 “ Though few of the merchants have more education than befits a 
 counting-house,” says Mr. Derrick, “ they are genteel in their address. 
 They are hospitable, very friendly to strangers, even those of whom they 
 have the least knowledge. Their tables are plenteously furnished, and their 
 viands well served up ; their rum is excellent, of which they consume large 
 quantities in punch, made when the West India fleets come in mostly with 
 limes, which are very cooling, and afford a delicious flavour. I need not 
 inform your lordship,” says he, “ that the principal exports of Liverpool 
 are all kinds of woollen and worsted goods, with other manufactures of 
 Manchester, and Sheffield, and Birmingham wares, &c. These they 
 barter on the Coast of Guinea, for slaves, gold-dust, and elephants’ 
 teeth. The slaves they dispose of at Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the other 
 West India islands, for rum and sugar, for which they are sure of a 
 quick sale at home. This port is admirably situated for trade, being 
 almost central in the channel, so that, in war time, by coming north- 
 about, their ships have a good chance for escaping the many privateers 
 belonging to the enemy which cruize to the southward. Thus, their 
 insurance being less, they are able to undersell their neighbours; and 
 since I have been here, I have seen enter the port, in one morning, seven 
 West India ships, whereof five were not insured.” 
 
 Mr. Derrick further informs his lordship that when he visited Liver¬ 
 pool the roads in the neighbourhood were deep and sandy, consequently 
 rather unpleasant; “hut the views are grand and extensive, particularly 
 from a summer-house on Childwall-hill, about three miles distant, where 
 you have a prospect of fifteen counties, and a good view of the sea.” It 
 would have puzzled Mr. Derrick to have named the fifteen counties visible 
 from Childwall; though few views can be finer than those obtained from 
 that spot, and from the ridge on which Childwall stands, of the plains of 
 Lancashire and Cheshire, the river Mersey and the sea, and the moun¬ 
 tains of Flintshire, Denbighshire, and Carnarvon. In very clear weather 
 Black Comb, the Isle of Anglesea, and the faint outline of the hills of 
 
428 
 
 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and perhaps Staffordshire may be seen; but it 
 would require a strong imagination, as well as good eyes, to make out the 
 other counties. 
 
 “ In the skirts of the Childwall ridge,” says Mr. Denrick, “ are several 
 small villages, with gentlemen’s seats scattered about, well covered with 
 trees, and for the most part delightfully situated.” 
 
 “ There are at Liverpool,” he adds, “ three good inns. For tenpence 
 a .man dines elegantly at an ordinary, consisting of ten or a dozen 
 dishes. Indeed, it must he said, both at Cheshire and Lancashire, that 
 they have plenty of the best and most luxurious foods at a very cheap 
 rate: their mutton is small and juicy ; their fowl, whether wild or tame, 
 brought in very fine order to market; and of fish they have great variety 
 in the utmost perfection.” 
 
 Such was Liverpool at the close of the reign of George the Second. 
 
CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER, 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE THE THIRD TO THE CLOSE OF THE AMERICAN WAR OF 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 The reign of George the Third opened in Liverpool with preparations 
 to form a third wet dock, for the convenience of the rapidly increasing 
 trade and commerce of the port, and to erect two new churches for the 
 accommodation of the inhabitants, who were increasing as rapidly as the 
 trade. This dock act also contained powers for constructing a number 
 of light-houses on the coasts of Lancashire and Cheshire, for the 
 guidance of vessels which might arrive off the port of Liverpool in the 
 night, and might be compelled or induced to enter in the dark, either 
 by stress of weather or other cause. 
 
 The preamble of the dock act which was applied for in the year 
 1702, after reciting the principal provisions of the previous dock acts, 
 eighth Queen Anne, (1709,) fourth George the First, (1718,) and eleventh 
 George the Second, (1737,) proceeds to state that, “Whereas the trade 
 and shipping of the town and port of Liverpool of late years is greatly 
 increased, and the ships and vessels now belonging to and trading 
 to and from the port of Liverpool, are more numerous and of larger 
 dimensions, and require a greater draught of water than heretofore : And 
 whereas the wet docks and dry pier already made and constructed in the 
 said port of Liverpool are not sufficient for the reception of the ships and 
 vessels resorting thereto, and for the requisite convenient dispatch in 
 lading and unlading the same: And as there is not a sufficient depth of 
 water in the said docks or pier for the security and protection, as well of 
 his majesty’s ships of war, which frequent it, and especially in time of war 
 are stationed at the port of Liverpool, as for large merchant ships trading 
 thereto, to go in or out of the said docks or pier, unless in high spring 
 tides, and which, for want of additional docks, and being obliged to lie 
 in the harbour, are exposed to the rage of tempestuous weather and a 
 rapid tide or current, and in imminent danger of shipwreck, the mayor, 
 aldermen, bailiffs, and common council of the borough of Liverpool have 
 3 K 
 
430 
 
 taken the premises into consideration, and in order to obviate or remove 
 the said difficulties and inconveniences, and encourage and promote trade 
 and commerce, and for the benefit of navigation, have thought it requisite 
 that another wet dock, with proper piers and other necessary works inci¬ 
 dental to the same, should be made and erected at Liverpool aforesaid, 
 and for that purpose have agreed to give, grant, and appropriate another 
 piece or parcel of ground belonging to the said corporation, lying or being 
 at the ends or bottoms of certain streets called James or St. James-street, 
 and Chapel-street, in Liverpool aforesaid, or such part thereof, or any 
 other lands adjoining to the north or west wall of the said dry pier, which 
 shall be thought necessary on that behalf.” The act then proceeds to 
 authorize the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council to make, 
 erect, or build another wet dock. This was afterwards named George’s 
 Dock, in honour of the youthful king. For this purpose they were em¬ 
 powered to borrow the sum of <£25,000, on security of the dock rates; 
 and to collect those rates for a further term of twenty-one years, in 
 addition to the terms mentioned in the previous acts. Various powers 
 were also given for the more convenient working of all the docks.* 
 
 With regard to the second great object of this act, the constructing of 
 lights and light-houses at the approaches to the river, it is stated in the 
 24th clause of the act of 1762, that “Whereas, by reason of the many 
 sand-hanks that he off the adjacent sea-coasts, and the entrance to the said 
 harbour of Liverpool, and by the frequent moving and shifting of the 
 said hanks, and thereby choaking up, shortening, or confining the old 
 channels or currents, and making and forming new channels and currents 
 in the sea, and there being at present no light-houses or other lights 
 erected and set out, ships and vessels sailing to and from the said port 
 and harbour of Liverpool are frequently engaged and entangled in dark 
 and tempestuous nights, within the said hanks and shoals, and the navi¬ 
 gation into and from the said port and harbour is very difficult, precarious, 
 and uncertain; whereby the lives and properties of several of his majesty’s 
 subjects have, from time to time, been lost, and are frequently endangered: 
 And whereas, by the erecting of proper light-houses in convenient places, 
 within and near the said port, the navigation into the said port or harbour 
 of Liverpool would be rendered more safe and certain, not only to all 
 trading ships and vessels, but also for his majesty’s ships of war 
 Therefore, the act authorizes the trustees of the docks to purchase lands, 
 and erect one or more lights or light-houses on the Cheshire coast, between 
 * Liverpool Local Acts, in Athena;uin. 
 
431 
 
 Hilbre Island and the point of tbe Rock land at the entrance to the river 
 Mersey, and on the Lancashire coast, between Formby point and the town 
 of Liverpool; and, for the purpose of defraying the cost, to collect light 
 dues, varying from a halfpenny to twopence a ton, according to the length 
 of voyage, on all vessels (except ships of war) entering the port of 
 Liverpool. 
 
 By this act the property in all the docks, piers, buoys, landmarks, 
 beacons, or perches, light-houses and lights, formed and erected either 
 under this act or the previous dock acts, is vested in the mayor, aldermen, 
 bailiffs, and common council of Liverpool; who are authorized to bring 
 and defend actions under the name or style of the Trustees of the Docks 
 and Harbour of Liverpool. 
 
 In the first year of the reign of George the Third, the income 
 of the corporation of Liverpool was £4,726 Gs. 2jd. a-year, having 
 increased nearly four-fold from the year 1720, when it amounted to 
 £1,232 1 Is. 7|d. The town dues, raised by a small tax on imports and 
 exports, were £1,022 11s. 4jd., having increased more than three-fold 
 for the year 1720, when they amounted to £305 14s. lOd. The dock 
 dues were £2,383 Os. 2d., having nearly trebled themselves since 1724, 
 when they amounted to £810 11s. Gd. 
 
 The docks (not including the graving dock) were two in number, with 
 a water space of 37,0G0 square yards, or about eight acres, and the 
 quays 1,292 yards in length.* 
 
 The number of houses in the town was 4,200, which would give a 
 population of about 30,000 inhabitants.f And the rate of relief to the 
 poor was 1 Gd. in the pound on houses and 18d. on land, which shows a 
 tolerably prosperous condition of the labouring classes. 
 
 It has been seen, in the previous chapter, that the improvement of the 
 navigable rivers of Lancashire and Cheshire was one of the great works 
 of the reigns of George the First and Second, and that by means of 
 those improved navigations Liverpool was connected, about the same time, 
 with Manchester, with the salt district of Lancashire, and with the coal¬ 
 fields of Wigan. At the accession of George the Third all that it was 
 possible to effect by the improvement of the rivers which water the valley 
 of the Mersey had been effected. Owing to the smallness of those 
 streams the inland navigation from Liverpool did not extend more than 
 thirty miles in any one direction, nor more than a hundred miles in the 
 whole. At that time, however, the genius of the self-taught engineer, 
 
 * Troughton’s History of Liverpool, 273. + Enfield’s History of Liverpool, 25. 
 
432 
 
 James Brindley, and the enterprize of the great Duke of Bridgewater, were 
 beginning to display themselves in the construction of navigable canals. 
 The impulse given to improvement by these two extraordinary men soon 
 spread through the country, and led to the formation of a great net-work 
 of artificial navigations, most of them connected with each other, and with 
 the great natural navigations of the Severn, Trent, and Thames. Hence, 
 within twenty years of the accession of George the Third, Liverpool 
 obtained all the advantages of internal communication which London, 
 Bristol, and Hull had possessed from remote times, together with many 
 advantages of a similar kind which no English port, however happily 
 situated, had possessed in any previous age. I have already mentioned 
 the circumstances under which the Duke of Bridgewater commenced his 
 great undertakings, hut, as the history of the Worsley and Bridgewater 
 Canals is inseparably connected with that of numerous works whose origin 
 and progress it will be needful to trace, it may be convenient to restate 
 those circumstances. 
 
 It has been mentioned in the preceding chapter that Scroop, Duke 
 of Bridgewater, the predecessor of the great Duke Francis, obtained an 
 act in the tenth George the Second, for rendering the Worsley-brook 
 navigable from his Worsley estates to the point where the brook fails 
 into the river Irwell. The length of this navigation would not have 
 been more than five or six miles, (exclusive of the subterraneous cuttings 
 in the coal;) nor would the nature of the ground have called for or 
 afforded any opportunity of displaying unusual engineering talent. 
 Neither would the levels of the Worsley-brook, when improved, have 
 been such as to render this cutting of any use in carrying out the great 
 designs which afterwards suggested themselves to Brindley, and his 
 patron and coadjutor, Francis, Duke of Bridgewater. The chief interest 
 of this scheme (which was never carried into execution) arises from the 
 association of names. All the powers which the Worsley-brook act gave 
 were those of opening, enlarging, and straightening the natural course of 
 the stream, and of forming new cuts in the adjoining land, where the 
 windings of the brook rendered them necessary. 
 
 The first act granted to Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, although it 
 was a mere embryo of the noble schemes afterwards developed by him 
 and his great engineer, Brindley, was both hold and original. According 
 to this act, which was passed in the thirty-second George the Second, 
 1758, the Duke claimed and obtained powers for effecting the following 
 objects:—First, for forming an artificial canal from Salford, near Man- 
 
433 
 
 Chester, to Worsley-mill, to be supplied with water from the neighbouring 
 brooks; and then of carrying that canal forward, in a westerly direction, 
 so as to join the Mersey and Irwell navigation at Hollin’s-ferry, about 
 six miles above Warrington. This plan was afterwards modified and 
 greatly improved; but as the act was the first of the Bridgewater acts, 
 properly so called, the following brief sketch of its provisions will be 
 read with interest. 
 
 After referring to the act granted to Scroop, Duke of Bridgewater, 
 for improving Worsley-brook, and stating that the parties appointed to 
 carry that act into effect had neglected to do so, the act of 1758 proceeds 
 to state that a cut or canal, from the neighbourhood of Manchester to 
 Worsley-mill and Middlewood, in the manor of Worsley, and continued 
 to Hollin’s-ferry, would be very beneficial to trade, advantageous to the 
 poor, and convenient for the carriage of coal, stone, timber, and other 
 goods, to and from the places and parts adjacent. It then proceeds to 
 state that the most noble Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, being lord of 
 the manor of Worsley, and proprietor of very considerable quantities of 
 coal there, and being also proprietor of a great part of Worsley-brook, 
 and of the lands through which the intended cut or canal will be made 
 for many miles in length, is willing and desirous to undertake the making 
 of it as his own expense. In order that he may have the power of doing 
 so, the act authorizes him to make and maintain a navigable cut or canal, 
 passable aud portable for boats, barges, and other vessels, at all times 
 and seasons, from any part of a croft or meadow, known by the name of 
 Master Cooke's Tenter-field, in the township of Salford, and then in the 
 occupation of Master Cooke, to Worsley-mill and Middlewood, and from 
 thence to Hollin’s-ferry, (on the river Mersey,) supplying it with water 
 from Worsley-brook and the other streams within five hundred yards of 
 the canal. It provides that the canal and towing-path shall not be more 
 than sixteen yards in breadth when within six feet of the natural level of 
 ground, nor more than a hundred yards in breadth in crossing hollow 
 doughs, or water-courses. It vests the property of the canal in Francis, 
 Duke of Bridgewater, and his heirs, as their proper estate and inheritance. 
 During the first forty years after the canal is opened, coals from the 
 duke’s pits, at Worsley, are to be sold to the inhabitants of Manchester and 
 Salford at no higher rate than 4d. per cwt. of 120 lbs., (6s. 8d. a-ton.) 
 All persons to be authorized to use the canal on paying Francis, Duke of 
 Bridgewater, and his heirs or representatives, 2s. Gd. a-ton, “ in consi¬ 
 deration of the great charges aud expenses the said Francis, Duke of 
 
434 
 
 Bridgewater, must bear and sustain in the making, maintaining, and 
 supplying with water the said cut or canal.” The act also provides, 
 that the Duke of Bridgewater shall not have the power of carrying the 
 said navigation further towards Warrington or Sankey-brook than the 
 limits stated, that is, than Hollin’s-ferry on the river Mersey, without the 
 authority of parliament for so doing. 
 
 In the course of the year following, the Duke of Bridgewater and his 
 great engineer changed their plan, both as to the course and the length 
 of the projected canal. They determined that the Manchester terminus 
 of the canal should be in a certain field called the Dole-field, close to the 
 town, and that the canal should be continued to Longford-bridge, in 
 Cheshire. They also resolved that the canal itself should be carried 
 across the river Irwell, by a lofty aqueduct near Barton-bridge ; a project 
 quite unprecedented, and considered almost impracticable by the engineers 
 of that age. An act was consequently applied for and obtained, in the 
 year 1759, authorizing these variations in the original plan. They were 
 rapidly and successfully carried into effect by the great Brindley, to the 
 wonder and admiration of the country and the age. The successful 
 execution of this grand scheme of carrying a navigable canal over valleys 
 and rivers, may be said to have created the system of navigable canals in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 It has been seen that in the first of the canal acts of the great Duke 
 of Bridgewater, he obtained powers for forming a canal from Worsley to 
 the Mersey and Irwell navigation at Hollin’s-ferry. This would have 
 given him water-carriage for the produce of his coal-mines to Liverpool 
 and to the salt districts of Cheshire, and would also have created a 
 double line of water communication from Manchester to Hollin’s-ferry. 
 On more mature consideration, the Duke of Bridgewater abandoned the 
 plan of a canal to Hollin’s-ferry, and adopted the much bolder plan of 
 continuing his canal from Longford-bridge, in Cheshire, to the estuary of 
 the Mersey at Runcorn ; thus rendering himself independent of the river 
 company, shortening the distance, by avoiding the windings of the 
 Mersey, and establishing a second line of water communication from 
 Liverpool to Manchester. 
 
 In the second year of George the Third the Duke applied for and 
 obtained powers to construct the canal by which he united Liverpool and 
 Manchester. The portion of this great work which extends from Man¬ 
 chester to Longford-bridge, near Stretford, was formed under the act of 
 1759; the remaining portion, extending for twenty-four miles, from Long- 
 
435 
 
 ford-bridge to the Mersey, at Runcorn, was formed under the act of the 
 second George the Third. That act sets forth the advantages of construct¬ 
 ing this canal in the following words :—“And whereas the said cut or canal / 
 so begun and carried on may be further continued and extended from 
 Longford-bridge over the river Mersey, and through the townships of 
 Altringham, Dunham, otherwise called Dunham Massey, Lynn, and 
 Tlielwall, in the county of Chester, and to and near a certain place 
 called the Hempstones, in or near the township of Halton, below the 
 town of Warrington, and may there fall into and communicate with 
 the river Mersey, whereby the conveyance of coal, stone, timber, and 
 other goods, wares, and merchandises, to and from the great trading 
 towns of Manchester and Liverpool, and the country lying near and 
 contiguous to the said navigation, will be much facilitated and rendered 
 less expensive ; and the utility of the undertakings, authorized by the 
 said former acts, will be greatly increased to the public; and the said 
 duke is willing and desirous to extend, continue, make, and complete 
 such new-intended cut or canal, at his own expense, and to do and 
 perform such things as shall be necessary for the supporting, maintaining, 
 and rendering the same effectual for the purposes aforesaid, without any 
 higher tonnage rate or duty, throughout the whole or any part of the said 
 navigation, than is authorized by the said former acts to be taken on the 
 cuts or canals therein mentioned.” (2s. 6d. a ton.) The act then gives 
 full powers for constructing the canal; provides that it shall not be more 
 than thirty-one yards wide, (except on artificial ground and turning 
 places,) nor more than six feet deep. 
 
 The impulse given to the public mind by the genius of Brindley and 
 the enterprize and perseverance of the Duke of Bridgewater, was felt 
 throughout the kingdom, in a succession of great schemes for creating 
 canal navigation. 
 
 The first of these enterprizes was that of joining the river Mersey to 
 the great river Trent, by a navigable canal from the Trent, at or near 
 Wilden-ferry, in the county of Derby, to the river Mersey at or near 
 Runcom-gap. This canal, which was frequently called the Staffordshire 
 Canal, from its intersecting that county for many miles, was also 
 projected by the Duke of Bridgewater, and his brother-in-law, the Earl 
 Gower, grandfather of the present Duke of Sutherland and Earl of Elles¬ 
 mere. It was formed by Brindley, supported by a company, of whom they 
 were the chief members. The act set forth that the forming a cut or canal 
 from the river Trent, near Wilden-bridge, to the river Mersey, at or near 
 
436 
 
 to a certain place called Runcorn-gap, for the navigation of boats and 
 other vessels, with heavy-laden burdens, will open an easy communica¬ 
 tion between the interior parts of the kingdom, and the ports of Hull 
 and Liverpool, “ which will he of great advantage, not only to the trade 
 carried on to or from the said ports, but to several different manufactures 
 which abound in many towns or places through or near which the said 
 canal or cut is proposed to be made; and will also tend to the improve¬ 
 ment of the adjoining lands, the relief of the poor, and the preservation 
 of the public roads; and, moreover, be of great public utility.” The act 
 therefore authorizes the Right Hon. Earl Gower, his Grace the Duke of 
 Bridgewater, and the other projectors of the canal, to form it, giving them 
 the usual powers for forming a canal twenty-six yards in breadth, and 
 five feet deep ; for raising a capital of £130,000, in 650 shares of £200 
 each; and ,£20,000 more, if necessary. Interest at £5 per cent, to be 
 paid on the works until completed ; and tolls to be taken at the rate of 
 ljd. per ton per mile. Navigation to be open to all persons on paying 
 those tolls. Powers are also given of connecting this canal with the 
 Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook, the duke agreeing to make the 
 junction. 
 
 Other great schemes followed in rapid succession. 
 
 On the 14th Sept., 1766, a meeting of gentlemen connected with York¬ 
 shire and Lancashire, was held at the Union Flag Hotel, Rochdale, Thomas 
 Ferrand, Esq., in the chair, to consider the practicability of driving a 
 canal through the mountain chain which divides Lancashire from York¬ 
 shire, and of thus joining the Mersey and Irwell navigation at Manchester, 
 to that of the Calder, one of the tributaries of the Humber, at Sowerby 
 Bridge, near Halifax, so as to form an uninterrupted line of water commu¬ 
 nication from Liverpool to Hull. At this meeting careful surveys were 
 ordered to he made, and an adjourned meeting was held at the same place 
 on the 12th November, in the same year, to which all persons were called 
 “ who were disposed to promote an undertaking of such general tendency 
 to the improvement of land, the advancement of trade, and the public 
 welfare.” These proceedings led to the carrying out of the proposed 
 plan, though not until some years after. 
 
 Another scheme, equally hold, and directed to the same object of 
 forming a direct line of water communication from the Mersey to one of 
 the tributaries of the Humber, first began to he spoken of with confidence 
 in the year 1767. That was the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. On the 29th 
 January, 1768, the following announcement on this subject appeared in 
 
437 
 
 Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser:—“ We hear that the navigable canal 
 proposed to be made from this port to Leeds, in Yorkshire, by the rivers 
 Aire and Kibble, has been deemed practicable, at a meeting of several 
 gentlemen lately held at Bradford, which, if carried into execution, will be 
 extremely advantageous. A committee was appointed on behalf of York¬ 
 shire, which, in conjunction with one to he appointed in this county, is 
 to direct the surveys and resurveys of it. ’ The wdiole of the year was 
 employed in these surveys and resurveys, and on the 30th December, 
 1768, the following announcement was put forth in Liverpool and 
 Yorkshire:—“Whereas, at two numerous meetings, in pursuance of 
 announcements in the public papers, of the gentlemen, merchants, land- 
 owners, and others of the county of York, held at Bradford the 5th of 
 this instant, December, and of the county of Lancaster, held at Liverpool 
 the 9th, called to receive and consider Mr. Brindley’s report of his survey 
 of the proposed navigable canal, from Leeds to Liverpool, it was unani¬ 
 mously agreed, That the said canal is very practicable, and will be of great 
 public utility ; and application should be made to parliament, the present 
 session, for leave and power to effect the same : A meeting is therefore 
 desired of the nobility, gentlemen, merchants, landowners, manufacturers, 
 and others who are disposed to promote this most beneficial undertaking, 
 for the county of York, at the Sun, in Bradford, on Monday, the 9th day 
 of January next; and for the county of Lancaster, at the Exchange, in 
 Liverpool, on the same day; when and where a subscription will be 
 opened upon the following scheme, being nearly the same as those of the 
 Staffordshire, Coventry, and other canals, for which acts have been lately 
 obtained: namely, That the power be vested in a company, under the 
 name of the proprietors of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Canal: that 
 the capital sum be divided into shares of ;£100, and each subscriber to 
 have a vote for every share he is possessed of, but no person to be allowed 
 more than 100 shares: that such shares he made personal estate, and 
 transferable as such : that the money subscribed be made payable by 
 different calls or instalments, and no call to exceed ten per cent, at one 
 time, and between every call that there shall be at least an interval of 
 three months: that an interest of £5 percent., to be regularly paid at a 
 stated day in every year, attend the sum advanced upon every call: and 
 that when the whole navigation is completed every proprietor shall 
 become entitled to a proportion of the full profits of the shares he is 
 possessed of.”* 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, December •‘10, 17(18. 
 
 3 L 
 
438 
 
 
 The act for forming the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, or, as it was 
 styled, “ a cut or canal from Leeds-bridge, in the county of York, to the 
 North Ladies’ Walk, in Liverpool, and from thence to the river Mersey,” 
 was passed in the tenth year of George the Third, 1769. The preamble 
 sets forth that the making a cut or canal from the town of Leeds, through 
 the various townships of Yorkshire and Lancashire enumerated in the bill, 
 to the port of Liverpool, will open a short, easy, and commodious commu¬ 
 nication between the several populous towns of Leeds, Bradford, Bingley, 
 Keighley, Skipton, Gargrave, Settle, Colne, Burnley, Blackburn, Padi- 
 ham, Whalley, Preston, and Ormskirk, and other the interior parts of the 
 counties of York and Lancaster, and the ports of Hull and Liverpool, and 
 will be of great advantage to the trade carried on between those two ports, 
 and of great public utility. It therefore authorizes a company of pro¬ 
 prietors, 409 in number, whose names are given, to form it, and incor¬ 
 porates and forms them into a company, under the title of “ The 
 Company of Proprietors of the Canal Navigation from Leeds to Liver¬ 
 pool.” The capital to be raised is £260,000, in shares of £100 each ; 
 and no works to be begun until the sum of £200,000 is subscribed. A 
 further sum of £60,000 may be raised if required. Proprietors to receive 
 £5 per cent, interest until the canal is finished. The toll payable to the 
 company to be Jd. per mile for every ton of brick, clay, or stone; 1 d. 
 for every ton of coal or lime; and l|ff. for every ton of timber, goods ; 
 wares, and merchandise conveyed along the canal. Navigation to be free 
 on paying these tolls. The act further provides that the Bootle springs 
 shall not be diverted into the proposed canal; and that nothing 
 shall be done to interfere with the act passed in the reign of Queen Anne, 
 authorizing Sir Cleave Moore to bring water into the town of Liverpool. 
 It also authorizes the making of a cut from the river Douglas to the 
 said canal. 
 
 It will be seen, from the table of rates given above, that the charge for 
 transporting merchandise along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was the 
 same as that for carrying it along the Staffordshire Canal; but that 
 the charge for transporting coal and other heavy articles was thirty-three 
 per cent, less, and that for bricks, clay, &c. upwards of sixty-six per cent. 
 
 The conveying of coal from Wigan to Liverpool has been one principal 
 source of revenue on this canal. 
 
 In addition to the above schemes, many others of equal boldness were 
 projected about the same time, several of winch have been carried into effect. 
 Amongst them were the following:—1st. A canal between the Thames 
 
439 
 
 and Severn, with a reduction of the fall at London-bridge. 2nd. From 
 the lowest level or canal leading into the Severn to the Mersey south of 
 Liverpool. 3rd. From Liverpool to Hull. 4th. From Liverpool by 
 Preston to Lancaster. 5th. From Carlisle to Newcastle-on-Tyne. Gth. 
 From Berwick to Carlisle and the Clyde. 7th. From the Clyde by 
 Renfrew, Glasgow, Rutherglen, Hamilton, and West Lothian, &c., into 
 Newhaven or Leith, by north-west of Edinburgh. 8th. From the Trent 
 to the Severn. 9th. From York to Preston. 10th. From Chester to the 
 rivers Mersey and Severn and North Wales.* Smeaton, the great engi¬ 
 neer, made two reports on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in the second 
 of which he calculated that a canal seven feet deep and fifty-two 
 feet wide at the top could he formed for the sum of jGl43,337.f The 
 following announcement relating to the Chester Canal appeared on 
 the 23rd December, 1768 :—“We are assured, from good authority, that 
 the subscribers for making a canal from Chester intend to meet every 
 Friday, till the affair is completed. Mr. Brindley’s men are still making 
 further surveys, in hopes to avoid going under ground ; and it is also 
 under consideration whether it may not be more advantageous to the city 
 of Chester to carry their canal more south than was at first intended, and 
 thereby have a shorter and better communication with Staffordshire, 
 Shropshire, and Worcestershire.”J 
 
 Another bold scheme which has often been proposed but never 
 executed, that of building a bridge from Lancashire to Cheshire, across 
 the tideway of the river Mersey at Runcorn, was also projected at this 
 time, and was pronounced to be practicable by the indomitable Brindley. 
 “ On Monday last,” says Mr. Williamson, “ Mr. Brindley waited upon 
 several of the principal gentlemen of this town and others at Runcorn, in 
 order to ascertain the expense that may attend the building a bridge over 
 the river Mersey at that place, which is estimated at a sum inferior to the 
 advantages that must arise, both to the counties of Lancaster and Chester, 
 from a communication of this sort.Ӥ 
 
 The following comparison of the rates per ton at which goods were con¬ 
 veyed by land carriage before the opening of the Grand Trunk Canal, and of 
 the rates at which they were carried by it, will show how great was the ad¬ 
 vantage conferred on the country by the introduction of navigable canals. 
 The cost of carrying a ton of goods from Liverpool to Etruria, the centre 
 of the Staffordshire potteries, by land carriage, was 50s. : the Trent and 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 19, 1768 + Ibid, October 21, 1768. 
 
 X Ibid, December 31, 1768. § Ibid, July 19, 1768. 
 
440 
 
 Mersey reduced it to 13s. 4d. Tlie land carriage from Liverpool to Wol¬ 
 verhampton was £5 a-ton: the canal reduced it to £ 1 5s. The land 
 carriage from Liverpool to Birmingham, and also to Stourport, was £5 
 a-ton; the canal reduced both to £1 10s. The land carriage from Man¬ 
 chester to Lichfield was £4: the canal reduced it to £1. That from 
 Manchester to Derby was £3 : the canal reduced it to .£1 10s. That 
 from Manchester to Leicester was £6 : the canal reduced it to £1 10s. 
 From Manchester to Newark, £5 6s. 8d. : the canal reduced it to £2. 
 From Manchester to Nottingham, £4: the canal reduced it to £2. From 
 Manchester to Wolverhampton, £4 13s. 4d.: the canal reduced it to 
 £1 5s. From Manchester to Birmingham, £4 ; the canal reduced it to 
 £1 10s. From Liverpool and Manchester to Shardlaw, six miles from 
 Derby, where the Mersey and Trent Canal joined the Trent, completing 
 the grand junction of those two rivers, the land carriage was £3 : reduced 
 by the canal to £l 10s; and from Shardlaw to Gainsborough, in Lincoln¬ 
 shire, by the river Trent, 10s. more. Thus the cost of inland transport 
 was reduced to about one-fourth of the rate paid previous to the intro¬ 
 duction of canal navigation. Hence coals, salt, iron, timber, and other 
 heavy articles could be conveyed a hundred miles into the country for the 
 same sum which it had formerly taken to convey them twenty-five miles; 
 and wheat, which formerly could not be conveyed a hundred miles from 
 corn-growing districts, to the large towns and manufacturing districts, for 
 less than 20s. a-quarter, could he conveyed for about 5s. a-quarter.* 
 These facts show how great was the service conferred on the country by 
 Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater. 
 
 A contested election took place in Liverpool in April, 1761, at which 
 Sir William Meredith, Bart., polled 1,163 votes, Sir Ellis Cunliffe, Bart., 
 1,138 votes, and Charles Pole, Esq., 1,089 votes. The total number of 
 freemen who voted at this election was 2,164. At a contested election, 
 in the year 1727, the number of freemen was 1,280, so that the number 
 had nearly doubled in thirty-three years. 
 
 An act was passed, in the second of George the Third, for erecting 
 two new churches, at the expense of the inhabitants of Liverpool. The 
 former of the two was named St. Paul’s, and was built in what was then 
 an open field, called the Dogfield, at the north end of the town, which 
 the parish had bought from Mr, Ralph Earle. The latter, named St. 
 John’s, was also built in the open country, on the Great Heath, a piece 
 of ground which the corporation had given for the purpose. The act 
 * Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, August 8, 1777. 
 
441 
 
 authorized the raising of the sum of £4,000 by rate on the inhabitants, 
 for the erecting of these two churches; but this sum was found to be 
 insufficient to complete them, and another act was passed, in the seventh 
 George the Third, authorizing the raising of an additional sum of £2,000 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 In 1704 the site of Williamson-square was proposed for a market by 
 the Williamson family. The council offered to take the proposal into 
 consideration, if they would “ fill up the swamp”, in the land adjoining 
 Frog-lane—the present Whitechapel.* 
 
 Tu 1705 the corporation determined to give part of “ the Great Heath” 
 to build another church, St. John's, below the present London and 
 North-western Railway station. + 
 
 William Pownall, Esq., mayor of Liverpool, died in the course of his 
 mayoralty, on the 12th of March, 1768, universally beloved and lamented. 
 
 The merchants of Liverpool and the other outports had long regarded 
 the exclusive privileges of the East India Company with great jealousy; 
 and their eagerness to obtain a share of the trade with India was greatly 
 increased about this time, by Lord Clive’s splendid conquests in Bengal 
 and Southern India, and by the rumours of almost fabulous wealth created 
 by the fortunes of Clive and other East India nabobs. On the 28th 
 January, 1708, a meeting of merchants was held at the Exchange, Liver¬ 
 pool, to consider a proposal for buying a share of the India trade from 
 the government, at the close of the company's then existing charter. The 
 plan proposed was, that a new company should be formed for carrying on 
 the trade with India and China, which should advance the sum of 
 £8,000,000 to the government, at two per cent, interest, as the price of 
 its charter. This large sum it was proposed to raise in the following 
 proportions:—London, £3,200,000; Bristol and Liverpool, £1,600,000 
 each ; and Hull and Glasgow, £800,000 each. In consideration of these 
 sums, it was proposed that a chamber should be formed in each of the 
 ports, the members of which should have the exclusive privilege of 
 trading with India and China. 
 
 This scheme, like all the others formed for the same purpose during 
 the next forty years, produced no result except disappointment; but it is 
 interesting as showing the commercial spirit of the port within a few years 
 after the accession of George the Third. Other parties in Liverpool went 
 still further, and called for the abolition of the East India monopoly, 
 and the throwing open of the trade, without any restrictions. These 
 
 * Corporation Records. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
442 
 
 spirited and intelligent men put fortli the following declaration of the 
 advantages of an open trade to India and China :—“ The company,” they 
 said, “ allow that they send out one year with another 27 ships, whilst, if 
 the trade was laid open, twenty ships for one could he sent, the number 
 of which would amount to above 350 ; and allowing only 50 men to each 
 ship,” (the company manned their vessels like ships of war,) “ it would 
 employ above 25,000 seamen. What an increase of naval strength! 
 Again, the company have leave to trade for £2,000,000 ; it is said, they 
 employ £4,000,000, and for proof it is urged, that they have kept in ware¬ 
 houses, in teas only, to the value of £ 2 , 000,000. If the company only trade 
 for £2,000,000 yearly, free merchants would employ ten times as much; 
 they would send ships to many places where the company never did, and 
 by industry open new branches, even in those places where they now do 
 trade, which it is natural for the indolence of rich monopolising com¬ 
 panies to neglect. The company complain that their servants cheat them, 
 and take home hundreds of thousands of pounds ; now the free merchants 
 who send their ships, under the direction of men that they can confide in, 
 will, of course, save to themselves as their share as much as the com¬ 
 pany complain of being cheated of. Lastly, the whole nation will be 
 benefitted; for, proportionally to the increase of trade, the amount of duties 
 on the vast augmentation will be increased, and thereby the sinking-fund, 
 which was formed to be a means of paying off the national debt and 
 taking off the taxes, will be proportionally increased.”* 
 
 The number of seamen employed in the Liverpool ships in 1771 was 
 5,967.t 
 
 About the end of the year 1772 Mr. Thomas Earle established a 
 line of packets, sailing at regular times, from Liverpool to Leghorn, the 
 great commercial emporium of Italy. This was the first line of foreign 
 packets established in Liverpool.^ 
 
 In consequence of the new stamp act, the price of the Liverpool 
 papers was raised to twopence-halfpenny, “ the price at which newspapers 
 were sold in most parts of England.Ӥ 
 
 The ship Kent, of 1,100 tons, launched in Liverpool in April, 1773, 
 was then the largest ship ever built in the north of England.|| 
 
 The celebrated “ Mr. Astley and his pupils,” from London, visited 
 Liverpool in February, 1773, and exhibited their wonderful feats of liorse- 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 27, 1708. + Enfield’s Liverpool, 20. 
 
 J Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 4, 1772. § Ibid, December 18, 1772. 
 
 I| Ibid, April 27, 1773. 
 
443 
 
 manship to upwards of 20,000 of the inhabitants of Liverpool, “ in a 
 large field near Mr. Roscoe’s bowling-green, Mount-pleasant.”* 
 
 The Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached in Pitt- 
 street Chapel, Liverpool, on Sunday evening, March 21, 1773.J 
 
 George Alexander Stevens, the Charles Mathews of his day, delivered 
 his facetious lecture upon heads to a Liverpool audience in April, 17734 
 The Bishop of Chester consecrated St. Anne’s Church on Thursday, 
 the 29th July, 1773. A sermon was preached on the occasion by the 
 Rev. Mr. Crigan, afterwards Bishop of Sodor and Man. 
 
 Mr. John Okill, the founder of St. Thomas’s Church, died suddenly 
 in August, 1773.§ 
 
 An Italian opera company first appeared before a Liverpool audience 
 in September, 1773.[| 
 
 In October, 1773, it was reported that thirty-one miles of the Leeds 
 and Liverpool Canal was finished at the Liverpool end; twenty-four miles 
 near Bingley, and that good progress was made in the neighbourhood of 
 
 Leeds.If 
 
 During the winter of 1774 the Duke of Bridgewater ordered coals to 
 he sold to the poor of Liverpool in pennyworths, at the same rate as by 
 cart loads. Twenty-four pounds of coal was sold for a penny.** 
 
 A hundred ladies of Liverpool presented an address to Queen Char¬ 
 lotte, informing her that they felt “ unspeakable pleasure,” on learning 
 that she was about to introduce the fashion “ of wearing the hair in a 
 state of nature, unpowdered and unpomatumed, which will be the means 
 of showing that most excellent natural ornament in its true beauty.”ff 
 It was announced that light-houses were to be erected on the Skerries, 
 Tuskar, and on or about Holyhead.JJ 
 
 The months of December, 1773, and January, 1774, were unusually 
 sickly in Liverpool. The number of deaths was 269. The mortality of 
 the corresponding months in the seven years preceding was as follows:—. 
 1772, 182; 1771, 171 ; 1770, 292; 1769, 168 ; 1768, 179; 1767, 342 ; 
 1766, 194. The cause of the great mortality of 1767 could not be posi¬ 
 tively traced, but it was supposed te have been fever; that of 1770 was 
 owing to the ravages of small-pox, which destroyed 675 persons in three 
 months; and that of 1773, was owing to “ a low nervous fever, with more 
 
 » Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 12, 1773. +■ Ibid, March 10, 1773. 
 
 } Ibid, April 2, 1773. § Ibid, August 28, 1773. || September 10, 1773. 
 
 Ibid, October 29, 1773. ** Ibid, November 5, 1773. 
 
 ++ Ibid, February 4, 1774. J{ Ibid, January 14, 1774. 
 
444 
 
 or loss putridity;” supposed to be caused by “ poor low diet, confined 
 putrid damp air, and want of cleanliness, perhaps unavoidable in those 
 striking scenes of misery and distress so frequent amongst our numerous 
 poor, of which none but those who have been witness to them can form 
 an adequate idea, and which no humane heart can see without anxiety 
 and commiseration.”* 
 
 On Saturday, March 19tli, 1774, the Right Hon. Sir William Mere¬ 
 dith, who had accepted the office of comptroller of the household, was 
 re-elected member for Liverpool, without opposition.f 
 
 The Manchester, Warrington, and Liverpool stage-coach began to run 
 three times a week, on Monday, the 25th April, 1774. It set out from 
 the Spread Eagle, Salford, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and 
 returned from the Bull Inn, Dale-street, Liverpool, every Tuesday, Thurs¬ 
 day, and Saturday. This coach started at seven in the morning, and the 
 passengers dined at Warrington. Fare, inside, 8s., and only 14 lbs. of 
 luggage allowed.J 
 
 The “ Liverpool and Preston machines, on steel springs,” (coaches,) 
 began to run on the 15th June, 1774. The coaches to and from Liver¬ 
 pool started at, 8 a.m., met and dined at Ormskirk, and each returned to 
 its place of starting “ the same evening.” Fare, inside, 8s. 6d., luggage 
 allowed 14 lbs., and charge Id. per lb. above that weight.^ 
 
 A Liverpool academy established. The members met every Tuesday 
 evening “ at their drawing-room, in John-street.”|| 
 
 A royal proclamation was issued on the 24th June, 1774, authorizing 
 Messrs. Arthur Heywood, Son, and Company, of Liverpool, Thomas Hart, 
 of Uttoxeter, Messrs. Samuel Crompton and Son, of Derby, Messrs. 
 William Haydon and Son, of Guildford, Charles Bushby, of Arundel, and 
 the governor and company of the Royal Bank of England, to receive the 
 light gold then in circulation, and to exchange it for gold of full weight, 
 according to the provisions of a former proclamation.*ff 
 
 The following gentlemen were elected members of the Liverpool 
 Chamber of Commerce, in July, 1774 :—Nicholas Ashton, Joseph Brooks, 
 jun., John Chorley, Thomas Case/^ Edward Chaffers, John Dobson, 
 (chairman,) Joseph Daltera, William Earle, Thomas Falkner, Thomas 
 Foxcroft, Arthur Heywood, Benjamin Heywood, William James, Francis 
 Ingram, Richard Kent, Alexander Nottingham, Henry Rawlinson, Gill 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 18, 1774. + Ibid, March 25, 1774. 
 
 + Ibid, April 15, 1774. § Ibid, June 24, 1774. || Ibid, July 1, 1774. 
 
 Ibid, July 8, 1774. 
 
445 
 
 Slater, Thomas Smyth, (deputy-chairman,) Thomas Staniforth, and 
 William Wallace, Esquires. Samuel Green, secretary.* 
 
 The Liverpool race week, ending August 6, 1774, “ was one continued 
 scene of gaiety, from the variety of entertainments, consisting of plays 
 every evening, assemblies and balls on Tuesday and Thursday, the races 
 during the last three days, and from the brilliant appearance of the com¬ 
 pany.” The races were run on Crosby Marsh. “ The multitudes on the 
 ground, and the coming and returning, was a spectacle of wonder. From 
 the winning chair to the port of Liverpool, seven miles extent over the 
 wide smooth sandy level, was continued a train of carriages, horse, and 
 foot, as far as the eye could carry : a nimble harlequin might have stepped 
 from one carriage to the other, and walked on the heads of the waving 
 multitudes over the wide extended shore. The turf is judged by the 
 jockeys to be the finest, and the regulations of the course the best, in 
 England. The horses are in view every foot of the way from every stand ) 
 and into every carriage, and both horse and foot, by moving a few hun¬ 
 dred yards into the centre, saw every contested push, and the last great 
 struggle and combat for the prize.” Although the glory of Crosby Races 
 has passed away, the natural beauties of the fine sea view described in 
 the following account of these races still remain to charm :—“ Besides the 
 spectacle of sport and splendour common to all races and race grounds, 
 were many advantages peculiar to Crosby Marsh. In sight of the stands 
 aud theatrical booths which covered one side of the race ground with 
 colours, streamers, and standards flying, lay the open sea, extending to 
 the Ormeshead, Carnarvon-hill, and Snowdon on the west, unbounded on 
 the north-west, and towards the Isle of Man ; the sea was covered with 
 sails, sloops, wherries, and boats, loaded with passengers, discharged at 
 the foot of the race ground; to the east the villages and the Leeds Canal 
 with sloops and boats, and colours flying, with people from all parts of 
 the country and inlands.”f 
 
 Twenty miles of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, extending from the 
 neighbourhood of Bingley to the neighbourhood of Bradford, was opened 
 on the 21st March, 1 774. “ From Bingley and about three miles down,” 
 
 says a correspondent of Williamson’s Advertiser, “ the noblest works of 
 the kind that perhaps are to be found in the universe are exhibited, 
 namely, a five-fold, a three-fold, a two-fold, and a single lock, making 
 together a fall of 120 feet; a large aqueduct bridge of seven arches over 
 the river Aire, and an aqueduct on a large banking over Shipley-vallcy. 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, 1774. + Ibid, July 0 , 1774. 
 
 3 M 
 
446 
 
 Five boats of burden passed the grand lock, the first of which descended 
 through a fall of sixty-six feet in less than twenty-nine minutes. This 
 much-wished-for event was welcomed with ringing of bells, a band of music, 
 the firing of guns by the neighbouring militia, the shouts of spectators, 
 and all the marks of satisfaction that so important an acquisition 
 merits.”* 
 
 A stage coach began to run this spring from the Pyed Bull, North- 
 gate-street, Chester, to the New Ferry, and back the same day; fare 4s.f 
 
 A correspondent of Williamson’s Advertiser informs the proprietors 
 that seventy miles of the Staffordshire Canal were finished on the 29th of 
 March, 1774. “It was thought that if it was not for the stop at Sir 
 Richard Brooke’s, the whole canal, from the Trent to the Mersey, would 
 be navigable in twelve months.” Thirty-six trading boats were already 
 at work on the canal and fourteen on the Trent.J Of the Harecastle 
 tunnel 2,480 yards were completed. 
 
 A public notice put forth that parties burning candles on hoard vessels 
 in the docks, “without lanthorns,”would be fined forty shillings for each 
 offence. § 
 
 At a vestry held the 6th September, it was ordered that the walls and 
 roof of St. Nicholas’s Church should he taken down and rebuilt, nearly 
 on the old foundation.|[ 
 
 On Monday, October 10th, the Right Hon. Sir William Meredith, 
 Bart., and Richard Pennant, Esq., were re-elected members for Liverpool 
 without opposition. Thomas Butterworth Bayley, Esq., of Hope, near 
 Manchester, who had offered himself as a candidate, declined to go to the 
 poll. “ The two following days the freemen were plentifully regaled, and 
 on Wednesday a ball and cold collation was given by the members, to 
 near 300 gentlemen and ladies, which was elegantly and splendidly 
 conducted.”1[ 
 
 The Liverpool end of that great work, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, 
 was opened from Liverpool to Wigan on Wednesday, the 19th October, 
 1774, “ with great festivity and rejoicings. The water had been let into 
 the basin the evening before. At nine, a.m., the proprietors sailed up the 
 canal in their barge, preceded by another filled with music, with colours 
 flying, &c., and returned to Liverpool about one. They were saluted with 
 two royal salutes of twenty-one guns each, besides the swivels on board 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 1, 1774. + Ibid, April 22, 1774. 
 
 1 Ibid, April 29, 1774. § Ibid, August 28, 1774. || Ibid, September 9, 1774. 
 
 *|f Ibid, October 14, 1774 
 
447 
 
 the boats, and welcomed with the repeated shouts of the numerous crowds 
 assembled on the banks, who made a most cheerful and agreeable sight. 
 The gentlemen then adjourned to a tent on the quay, where a cold colla¬ 
 tion was set out for themselves and their friends. From thence they 
 went in pi’ocession to George’s Coffee-house, where an elegant dinner was 
 provided. The workmen, 215 in number, walked first, with their tools 
 on their shoulders and cockades in their hats, and were afterwards plen¬ 
 tifully regaled at a dinner provided for them. The bells rang all day, and 
 the greatest joy and order prevailed on the occasion.”* 
 
 In consequence of “just complaints of housekeepers and others,” of 
 delivery of short measure and other unfair practices of the common dealers 
 “in that most useful article, coal,” the proprietors of the Sankey naviga¬ 
 tion announced that they had appointed “ sworn agents” in Liverpool, who 
 would deliver coals to housekeepers and ships at the following prices:— 
 Peter Leigh, Esq., to housekeepers at 7s. 2d. per ton, to ships at 
 Gs. Gd. ; John Mackay, Esq., to housekeepers 7s., to ships at 6s. 4d. ; 
 Thomas Case, Esq., to housekeepers at Gs. 10d., to ships at Gs. 2d.; Sir 
 Thomas Gerard, to housekeepers at Gs. Gd., to ships at 5s. lOd. To 
 accommodate the poor, coals were to be sold at 4d. perewt. of 120lbs.f 
 The earlier part of the reign of George the Third was a period of 
 peace and prosperity, during which, as will have been seen from the 
 preceding details, the facilities of Liverpool for accommodating shipping, 
 for conveying English manufactures to foreign countries, and for distri¬ 
 buting the produce of foreign countries through the interior of England, 
 were greatly increased by docks, canals, and other public works. In the 
 year 17G0 not more than 1,245 ships paid dock dues at Liverpool, 
 whilst in 1772 the number had increased to 2,2624 The tonnage of the 
 vessels which cleared out of the port in the former of those years was 48,820 
 tons, that of the vessels which cleared outin 1774 was 85,954, an increase 
 of nearly a hundred per cent, in thirteen years.§ The income of the dock 
 trust and of the corporation, and the revenue arising from the town dues, had 
 increased with equal rapidity during this period. The income of the dock 
 trust, which was not more than £2,385 in the year 17G0, had increased 
 to £4,554 in 1771: the town dues, which produced £1,022 11s. 4^d. 
 in 17G0, had increased to £4,536 3s. in 1773-4 : and the income of the 
 corporation, which amounted to £4,72G Gs. 2d. in the year 1760, had 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 21, 1774. + Ibid, December 9, 1774. 
 
 J Enfield’s Essay towards a History of Liverpool, 09. 
 
 § Troughton’s History of Liverpool, 20. 
 
448 
 
 risen to <£10,913 7s. Gd. in 1773. Tried by these, and all other tests 
 which can he applied, it. appears that the twelve years of peace which 
 intervened between the seven years’ war and the first American war were 
 years of great prosperity, during which the commerce and wealth of 
 Liverpool increased more rapidly than they had ever done before. 
 
 The causes of the rapid growth of commercial wealth during the above 
 period will be traced more fully in a succeeding chapter; but it may be 
 stated generally, that, so far as Liverpool was concerned, the great causes 
 were the improvement and extension of manufactures in the interior 
 of Lancashire, and the adjoining counties; the rapid increase of 
 population and wealth in the thirteen American colonies ; the new 
 acquisitions of England, in Canada; and the improvement and extended 
 cultivation of the West India Islands. Already the influence of the 
 inventive genius of Arkwright and others was beginning to be felt in the 
 cotton manufacture; already from two to three millions of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race peopled the shores of America ; and already the industry of the 
 West Indies, stimulated by the capital of England and the labour of Africa, 
 produced immense returns of wealth. According to calculations made 
 at the commencement of the first American war, the value of the American 
 produce imported into England from the thirteen colonies was upwards 
 of three millions, whilst that of the English goods exported to British 
 America was as much. At the same time the amount of capital vested 
 in the West Indies was sixty millions. At that time Liverpool had taken 
 the lead of all the seaports of the empire in the American and the African 
 trades, and also possessed a large share in the trade of the West Indies. 
 Hence the commercial ruin caused by the American war fell more severely 
 on Liverpool than on any other place in the empire. The first blood 
 drawn in the American war of independence was that shed at Lexington, 
 in April, 1775 ; in 1778, France acknowledged the independence of America, 
 and declared war against England ; Spain followed in the steps of France 
 soon after; and Holland before the close of the war. This desperate and 
 ■wide-spreading contest with America, France,Spain, andHolland continued 
 to the year 1783, when England, finding the attempt to subdue her late 
 colonies hopeless, abandoned the attempt, acknowledged their independ¬ 
 ence, and made peace with their allies. It is no part of the plan of this 
 work to trace the history of this unjust and disgraceful war; but a sketch of 
 the events arising out of it, which bear upon the interests of Liverpool, 
 will be found in the summary which I now proceed to give. The general 
 result of the war on the position of Liverpool was, that the foreign 
 
449 
 
 commerce of the port, which had doubled itself between the accession 
 of George the Third, in 17(30, and the commencement of the American war, 
 in 1775, declined in all its branches from the commencement of the war 
 to its close in 1783; and that the condition of the population of Liver¬ 
 pool was deteriorated so greatly in the latter years of the war, that not 
 less than ten thousand of the forty thousand inhabitants became de¬ 
 pendent either on the parish or on charity for their daily support. 
 
 In January, 1775, a meeting, consisting of from 300 to 400 mer¬ 
 chants, trading with North America, belonging to all the ports and 
 manufacturing towns in the kingdom, was held at the King’s Tavern, 
 Cornliill, London, to remonstrate against the violent proceedings of the 
 government towards the colonists, and to petition for the repeal of all 
 acts which had interfered with the friendly and commercial relations with 
 America. “ The whole remonstrance,” says a writer in Williamson’s 
 Liverpool Advertiser, of the 20th January, 1775, “ was couched in decent, 
 manly terms ; and, in point of style, good sense, and precision, showed 
 the committee appointed for drawing it up every way equal to the great 
 trust delegated to them.” The Liverpool West India merchants joined 
 with the other West India merchants of the kingdom in a general meeting, 
 held at the London Tavern, on this subject, at which a strong remonstrance 
 was also agreed to, by a majority of two hundred to seven votes. At this 
 meeting Mr. Edwards, of Jamaica, stated that the English capital invested 
 in the West Indies amounted to sixty millions sterling ; that the North 
 American colonists consumed 20,000 hogsheads of sugar and 25,000 
 puncheons of rum yearly, besides 10,000 hogsheads of refined sugar from 
 England; and that the West Indians, in their turn, depended on the 
 North American colonists for food, staves, and great numbers of other 
 articles. “ Should, therefore,” he said, “ any interruption happen in the 
 general system of the commerce and cultivation of those islands, (the West 
 Indies,) should the vast national stock thus employed become unprofit¬ 
 able and precarious, will not Great Britain, with a debt of 1)140,000,000, 
 be sensibly affected ? Sir,” said he, “ it will shake her empire to its 
 base. Her African trade will be lost, and many other branches of the > 
 great commerce with her colonies, which, during the last war, rendered 
 her the arbitress of Europe, will be dried up and exhausted for ever.” 
 These remonstrances and warnings unfortunately failed to produce any 
 effect on the government. It plunged madly into war with the colonists, 
 and for a time more than realized all these predictions of commercial ruin.* 
 
 » Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 27, 177.7. 
 
450 
 
 V 
 
 Within a month of the date of the above remonstrances, it was 
 announced that 8,000 tons of American shipping had returned to America 
 without cargoes, the captains knowing well that they would not be allowed 
 to land them. Early in February, 1775, the ship James, Captain Wilson, 
 of Glasgow, which had arrived at New York on the 1st of that month, 
 with a cargo of Scotch goods, was compelled to depart without breaking 
 bulk. In the same month the Beulah, Captain Russell, of London, was 
 ordered to leave New York, with her cargo, within two days of her arrival 
 there. About a month later the Liverpool brig, Henry and Joseph, was 
 refused permission to land her cargo at Baltimore. On the 2Gth of June 
 Captain Crippen, of the Liverpool ship Albion, who had attempted to land 
 a cargo of salt at Philadelphia, was compelled to depart, and a resolution 
 was passed in that city, declaring that Mr. Henry Cour and Nicholas 
 Ashton, Esq., of Liverpool, the owners of the salt, had wilfully violated 
 the orders of the American congress. The inhabitants of Philadelphia 
 were warned not to have any commercial dealings with them.* 
 
 In the autumn of 1775 the Americans began to fit out privateers at 
 Philadelphia and other ports. In January of the following year, it was 
 announced that there were American privateers in all parts of the Atlantic. 
 In July of the same year, letters from the West Indies announced that 
 American privateers swarmed round every one of the islands. Meanwhile 
 the English government vessels were not idle. In the first half of the 
 year 1776 they captured seventy-two American vessels. Thus the 
 energies of the two nations were turned to the destruction of commerce, 
 and continued to be so till the end of the war. As early as February, 
 1776, only seven vessels entered at the London Custom-house in a whole 
 week; a circumstance not known before for forty years. The foreign 
 trade of Liverpool rapidly declined, until it sank to a small part of what 
 it had been before the war. There were at that time one hundred and 
 seventy American cruisers at sea. Amongst other prizes, they took 
 twenty-three valuable West Indiamen, in the summer of 1776.J 
 
 In November, 1775, it was announced that 600 vessels, formerly em¬ 
 ployed in the trade with America, were lying idle in the Thames. Pre¬ 
 cisely the same state of things existed in Liverpool. A writer in the 
 Liverpool General Advertiser, of the 29th September, 1775, says, “ Our 
 once-extensive trade to Africa is at a stand : all commerce with America 
 is at an end. Peace, harmony, and mutual confidence must constitute 
 the balm that can again restore to health the body politic. Survey our 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 11, 1770. + Ibid, September 13, 1776. 
 
451 
 
 docks; count there the gallant ships laid up and useless. When will they 
 be again refitted ? What become of the sailor, the tradesman, the poor 
 labourer, during the approaching winter?” 
 
 I now proceed with a summary of miscellaneous local events. 
 
 A remonstrance was sent to the postmaster-general, in 17 75, stating that 
 there was only one letter-carrier for the delivery of all the letters received by 
 the Liverpool Postoffice. An answer was received, stating that there was only 
 one in any provincial town, and that the postmaster did not think himself 
 justified in incurring the expense of more than one. He added, that the 
 merchants of Liverpool might continue any arrangement which they had 
 themselves entered into, for securing a more speedy delivery of letters.* 
 
 A floral meeting was held at Mr. Clifton’s, Fazakerley-street, on the 
 25tli April.f 
 
 On Saturday, July 24, (St. John’s day,) “ the worshipful the mayor 
 laid the first stone of a new church, near the Infirmary, with the following 
 inscription on it (in Latin) :—‘ This stone was laid the seventh day 
 before the calends of July, in the year of grace 1775, and on the feast of 
 the greatly venerated and holy John the Baptist, to whom this church is 
 dedicated. Peter Rigby, mayor; John Colquitt and James Gildart, 
 bailiffs ; Edward Chaffers and William Hatton, churchwardens.’ ”J 
 
 The Earl of Sefton founded “ the new town of Harrington,” which 
 is now a flourishing suburb of Liverpool, on his estates in Toxteth-park, 
 about this time. A local poet, J. Shewell, jun., by name, thus sang the 
 hopes of infant Harrington : 
 
 “ From small beginnings, if great cities rise, 
 
 And raise tlieir lofty turrets to the skies ; 
 
 Sure Harrington, beneath the auspicious care 
 Of Sefton, shall her spacious fabric rear; 
 
 And, as she rises in the lists of fame, 
 
 The illustrious founder to the world proclaim. 
 
 Let Liverpool, still like a faithful friend, 
 
 Her infant sister from each wrong defend. 
 
 Here be tbe olive’s sacred boughs displayed 
 To both the kindred towns a peaceful shade; 
 
 So shall their riches from their union grow, 
 
 As streams from rivers join’d more copious flow.”§ 
 
 On the 16th of September, 1775, the managers of the navigation from 
 the Trent to the Mersey reported as follows, to the shareholders and the 
 public:—The whole length of the canal, when completed, (they stated,) 
 would be ninety-two miles. Of this eighty-two miles were finished, 
 extending from the river Trent, near Wilden-ferry, in Derbyshire, 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 17, 1775. + Ibid, April 25, 1775. 
 
 t lbi,1 > J une 30, 1775. § Ibid, August 10, 1775. 
 
452 
 
 to Booth-lane, near Middlewich, Cheshire, and from the Duke of 
 Bridgewater’s canal, at Preston-hrook, to Acton-hridge. Upon these 
 parts of it eighty boats were employed. The number of locks on 
 the whole canal was seventy-five, of which seventy-two were finished, 
 and the remaining three would he in about a month. The fall of 
 the forty locks north of the Harecastle tunnel (the highest level 
 of the canal) was 316 feet; south of it 326 feet. On the line of canal 
 there had been built 163 cart bridges, 11 foot bridges, and 150 culverts, 
 or aqueducts. At Eggington, in the county of Derby, the canal was 
 carried across the river Dove, and at Budgely, in Staffordshire, across the 
 river Trent, by means of two aqueducts, the former consisting of twenty- 
 three, the latter of six spacious arches. At Armitage there was a tunnel 
 160 yards in length, 16 feet in height, and 14 feet in breadth, besides the 
 towing-path, all cut out of the solid rock. Through the great hill called 
 Harecastle, near the Staffordshire potteries, a subterranean passage had 
 been made for the canal, in length 2,850 yards, in height 12 feet, and in 
 breadth 9 feet 4 inches. Out of this tunnel several branches had been 
 made to the coal mines under the hill. The canal was also conveyed 
 through Preston-liill, in Cheshire, by another subterranean passage 1,241 
 yards in length, 17 ^ feet in height, and 13|- feet in breadth, “ which will 
 admit vessels large enough to navigate the tideway to Liverpool.” “ Ten 
 miles,” they say, “ now only remains to finish this great work, and to open 
 the long-desired communication between the ports of Liverpool, Bristol, 
 Hull, and the interior parts of this kingdom, which the company are 
 proceeding to accomplish with all possible expedition. But it is much 
 to be regretted that this communication, after so much labour and expense, 
 will still he incomplete, if the obstruction given to it by Sir Bichard 
 Brooke, at Norton, in Cheshire, is not removed.”* This difficulty, at 
 Norton, was caused by the canal passing through Sir Bichard Brooke’s 
 park. It was soon after overcome, and thus Liverpool was at length 
 connected, by water-carriage, with Bristol and Hull, the Severn and the 
 Trent, the Staffordshire potteries, the iron and Birmingham districts, and 
 with nearly the whole of the interior of England ; a truly great work, and 
 one of the principal causes of the rapid growth of the modern commerce of 
 the Mersey. 
 
 The year 1776 opened with a fall of snow, which cut off all communi¬ 
 cation between Liverpool and London for many days. The mail due on 
 Tuesday in one week did not arrive until the Monday following.f 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 12, 1775. t Ibid, January 10, 1770. 
 
453 
 
 The following advertisement contains the earliest notice that I can 
 find of a great man, whose name will ever be honourably associated with 
 the town of Liverpool:—“The partnership between Messrs. Banister 
 and Roscoe, attorneys, in Liverpool, being by mutual consent dissolved, 
 William Roscoe begs leave to acquaint his friends, that he now carries 
 on the business of an attorney, on his separate account, at his house. No. 
 10, College-lane, Liverpool.”* 
 
 The Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal from Runcorn to Manchester was 
 completed on Thursday, the 21st March, 1776. “The vessels went 
 through to Manchester on Friday and Saturday, and some of them 
 returned to Liverpool on Sunday evening. To make the junction (near 
 Halton) a mile was completely cut, and four capital bridges built, between 
 the 22d January and 22d March, in which there were twenty-one days of 
 frost and very bad weather. So singular a transaction cannot be equalled.”f 
 Canal boats, “ fitted up in an elegant manner,” began to run between 
 Liverpool and Wigan, carrying passengers for Id. a mile.J 
 
 Seamen, though no longer in demand for merchant vessels, were 
 much sought after for the royal navy, into -which multitudes were im¬ 
 pressed. The attempts at impressment gave rise to desperate battles, in 
 which many lives were lost. In November, 1776, a seaman, forcing his 
 way into a house in Liverpool to impress another, was shot dead.§ 
 
 In consequence of the attempts of the incendiary, John Hill, com¬ 
 monly known as John the Painter, to set fire to the Portsmouth and others 
 of the naval arsenals, “ a very great and most respectable public meeting” 
 of the mayor, magistrates, merchants, and traders of Liverpool was held 
 in January, 1777, at which it was resolved to place a much stronger watch 
 around the docks. Numbers of gentlemen volunteered to keep guard by 
 night in rotation. || 
 
 An anonymous Liverpool poet tried the public taste at this time, bv 
 publishing a new poetical translation of the Odes of Horace.H 
 
 A Liverpool fire insurance office was established in 1777, with the 
 following gentlemen as directors:—Gill Slater. Richard Heywood, John 
 Tarleton, Thomas Case, B. A. Heywood, Benjamin Heywood, Thomas 
 Tarleton, and Thomas Parke, Esquires.** 
 
 The Trent and Mersey or Staffordshire Canal was announced to be 
 finished on the 13th June, 1777. 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, Feb. 23, 1776. + Ibid, March 29, 1770. 
 
 J Ibid, May 10, 1770. § Ibid, November 22, 1770. || Ibid, January- 21, 1777. 
 
 If Ibid, February 14, 1777. ** Ibid, February 28, 1777. 
 
 3 N 
 
454 
 
 The beautiful Miss Farren, afterwards Countess of Derby, made her 
 appearance on the Liverpool boards in the winter of 1776-7.* 
 
 The light-house at the point of Ayr first showed its lights on the night 
 of the 30th September, 1777.+ A series of subscription concerts was 
 given in the same winter.! 
 
 Early in the year 1777 the corporation and inhabitants of Liverpool 
 raised a regiment of regular soldiers, which was named the Liverpool 
 Blues. It was commanded by General Calcraft, as colonel; Major Pole, 
 as lieutenant-colonel; Hon. Thomas Stanley, as major; Banistre Tarleton, 
 (afterwards General Tarleton,) William Greaves, Bryan Blundell, Thomas 
 Dunbar, Richard Cribb, Lieutenant Pigot, and Lieutenant Andrew Despart, 
 as captains; Mr. Buckley, as captain-lieutenant; George Headlam, as lieu¬ 
 tenant ; and Christopher Graves, George Leigh, Thomas Leigh, and James 
 Smith, as ensigns.§ 
 
 On the 4th June, the birth-day of George the Third, the Liverpool 
 soldiers were reviewed in front of the Goree warehouses. || A few days 
 afterwards the regiment marched from Liverpool to Warley Common, Essex, 
 where it was encamped with other regiments. On the departure of the 
 Liverpool regiment, the first division of the Leicestershire militia, com¬ 
 manded by the Marquis of Granby, was stationed in Liverpool. 
 
 The Penelope frigate, of twenty-eight guns, was launched in Liverpool 
 on the 24th June. 
 
 Sheridan’s comedy of the School for Scandal wa3 brought out at the 
 Liverpool Theatre in July, and performed eight times. 
 
 In May, 1777, an American privateer made its appearance in the 
 Channel, and captured a sloop bound from Greenock to Kinsale.H 
 
 In July, 1777, the American privateer General Mifflin, of twenty six- 
 pounders, fitted out at Boston, and commanded by Walter Day, appeared 
 in the Irish Channel and captured the following vessels:—The Priscilla, 
 from Sligo to Liverpool, with linen yarn; the James, from Glasgow to 
 Oporto, taken the day after she left Glasgow; the Rebecca, from Liver¬ 
 pool to Limerick; the Mary and Betty, from Liverpool to Ballyshannon. 
 Most of these vessels, and of the other prizes taken by the American 
 privateers, were sent to France to be sold. The General Mifflin was 
 orginally a Liverpool vessel, called the Isaac, and commanded by Captain 
 Ashburner, in the West India trade.** 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, June 20, 1777. + Ibid, September 26th, 1777. 
 
 J Ibid, October 17th, 1777. § Ibid, January 20, 1778. || Ibid, June 5tli, 1778. 
 
 If Ibid, May 0, 1777. ** Ibid, July 18, 1777. 
 
455 
 
 It appeared, from a return published in the London Gazette of the 
 11th July, 1777, that the English cruizers on the coast of America cap¬ 
 tured, between the 1st January, 1777 and the 22d May following, 203 
 American vessels, and recaptured 15 English vessels taken by the Ameri¬ 
 cans. Thus the work of destruction and the ruin of commerce proceeded 
 with equal vigour on both sides.* 
 
 In the year 1777 the Earl of Sefton sold his reversionary right in the 
 manor and lordship of Liverpool to the corporation, for the sum of 112,500, 
 thus rendering them lords of the fee. 
 
 In the month of February, 1778, an inquiry took place before the 
 House of Lords as to the amount of injury done to British commerce 
 from the beginning of the war, in which it was stated, that the number 
 of vessels destroyed or taken since the commencement of the war was 773, 
 or, after allowing for those retaken, 559; that their value, at a very 
 moderate computation, was £l, 800,000 ; that of the ships thus taken 247 
 were engaged in the West India trade; that all articles imported from 
 America had risen enormously in price: tobacco from 7jd. to 2s. Gd. per 
 lb.; pitch from 8s. to 35s. a barrel; and tar, turpentine, oil, and pig iron 
 in the same proportion. It was considered a sufficient answer to this 
 statement to show that the English cruizers had taken 904 American 
 vessels, of the value of ill,808,000. It was forgotten that the enormous 
 sums taken from the merchants of England were not transferred to the 
 merchants of America; nor those taken from the merchants of America 
 transferred to those of England; but that the whole were taken from 
 commerce and turned into prize-money. 
 
 In April, 1778, the famous Paul Jones sailed boldly into Whitehaven 
 in the Ranger privateer, and set fire to the shipping. He then sailed 
 northward, and afterwards landed in the Scottish isles, remaining on 
 the coast for a considerable time, but occasionally taking refuge in the 
 French and Dutch ports, when hard pressed by English cruizers. The 
 garrison of Liverpool at this time consisted of four companies of the 
 Liverpool Blues, and two companies of veterans, all commanded by 
 General Calcraft. There were three batteries of cannon, the George’s 
 Battery, commanded by the mayor ; the Queen’s, by Captain Hutchinson, 
 harbour-master, and the King’s Battery, commanded by Colonel Gordon. 
 The first and second armed with eighteen-pounders, the third with thirty- 
 two-pounders. The Hyaena frigate was also kept in the river, to assist in the 
 defence of the town, if required.! The following vessels were afterwards 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 15, 1777. + Ibid, May 1, 1778. 
 
456 
 
 sent to cruize in St. George’s Channel:—The Thetis, 32 guns; the Stag, 
 28 ; the Boston, 28; the Heart of Oak, the Satisfaction, and the Three 
 Brothers, all of 20 guns. 
 
 As a security against privateers, all vessels were ordered to sail under 
 convoy, and in large fleets. In the third week in September, 1778, it was 
 announced that all the principal fleets had arrived safely, namely, the 
 Jamaica fleet at Liverpool and Bristol; the Leeward Island fleet at 
 Plymouth, and the Lisbon and Spanish fleets in the Downs. The arrivals 
 that week were the largest that had been known for many years.* 
 
 As soon as the French and Spaniards joined the Americans, privateering 
 became a much more profitable pursuit than it had previously been, and 
 great numbers of privateers were sent out from all the ports of the kingdom. 
 The Liverpool merchants and shipowners fitted out upwards of a hundred 
 and twenty privateers, and made great numbers of rich prizes. The most 
 valuable of these was the Carnatic, East Indiaman. “ A box of diamonds,” 
 says the Liverpool paper, “ was discovered on Friday on board the Car¬ 
 natic, French East Indiaman, which is arrived in the river, (Mersey,) to 
 the no small satisfaction of the captors.f” 
 
 The following - is a list of the principal privateers fitted out in Liver¬ 
 pool in this war, with the names of their owners and commanders : 
 
 LIST OF LIVERPOOL PRIVATEERS IN THE WAR WITH AMERICA, 
 FRANCE, SPAIN, AND HOLLAND. 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 Marchioness of 
 Granby 
 
 Wasp . 
 
 Ellis. 
 
 Gregson. 
 
 Knight . 
 
 Tartar. 
 
 Hornet . 
 
 St. George_ 
 
 Dragon . 
 
 Arethusa. 
 
 Bellona . 
 
 Revenge. 
 
 Catcher . 
 
 Eagle . 
 
 Retaliation .... 
 Sturdy Beggar- 
 
 Griffin . 
 
 Rover. 
 
 Townside 
 
 COMMANDERS. 
 
 OWNERS. 
 
 TONS. 
 
 GUNS. 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 Marquis of Granby and Nicholas 
 
 260 
 
 20 
 
 
 Byrne. 
 
 
 220 
 
 14 
 
 Washington.. 
 
 
 340 
 
 28 
 
 
 250 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 220 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 14 
 
 N aylor. 
 
 
 120 
 
 16 
 
 Hanley .... 
 B risers. 
 
 
 110 
 
 14 
 
 
 112 
 
 14 
 
 Jones . 
 
 
 150 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 24 
 
 Ramsay .... 
 Fletcher .... 
 
 
 120 
 
 14 
 
 
 110 
 
 14 
 
 Bond . 
 
 
 110 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 160 
 
 16 
 
 Cooper .... 
 Grimsh aw ... 
 
 
 160 
 
 16 
 
 
 130 
 
 14 
 
 Bancroft.... 
 
 
 120 
 
 14 
 
 Watmouth .. 
 
 Mitton and Co. 
 
 130 
 
 16 
 
 HEN. 
 
 130 
 
 95 
 
 130 
 
 120 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 
 90 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 92 
 
 140 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 
 100 >- 
 100 
 90 
 80 
 90 
 
 * Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, September 18, 1778. 
 + Ibid, November 27, 1778. 
 
457 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 1 
 
 COMMANDERS. 
 
 OWNERS. 
 
 TONS. 
 
 GUNS. 
 
 MEN. 
 
 Viper 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 18 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 340 
 
 26 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 
 320 
 
 22 
 
 147 
 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 20 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 20 
 
 130 
 
 
 
 
 260 
 
 10 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 20 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 280 
 
 10 
 
 60 
 
 Jenny . 
 
 Ashton .... 
 
 Ashton & Co., of the Island of Tortola 
 
 80 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 
 400 
 
 28 
 
 102 
 
 
 
 
 270 
 
 18 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 16 
 
 39 
 
 
 Ball .... 
 
 
 300 
 
 20 
 
 79 
 
 Little Ben .... 
 
 Bostock .... 
 
 Radcliffe and Co. 
 
 110 
 
 14 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 Fowden and Berry. 
 
 250 
 
 20 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 16 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 
 Walker .... 
 
 
 140 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 16 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 Hindley Leigh and Co. 
 
 220 
 
 14 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 210 
 
 16 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 270 
 
 18 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 14 
 
 40 r 
 
 
 
 
 800 
 
 20 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 14 
 
 35 
 
 Tom 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 12 
 
 36 
 
 Molly . 
 
 
 
 240 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 Thos. Moss and Co. 
 
 250 
 
 14 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 Nelson and Co. 
 
 320 
 
 24 
 
 100 
 
 Tyger. 
 
 Qualtrough.. 
 
 
 200 
 
 14 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 Jas. France and Co. 
 
 300 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 350 
 
 18 
 
 110 
 
 
 
 Watts and Rawson . 
 
 220 
 
 14 
 
 70 
 
 Sally 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 16 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 Crosbie and Greenwood . 
 
 120 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 Rawlinson and Co. 
 
 150 
 
 10 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 20 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 Mason and Co. 
 
 120 
 
 10 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 1200 
 
 30 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 800 
 
 20 
 
 >100 
 
 
 Fell. 
 
 
 2(10 
 
 20 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 300 
 
 10 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 400 
 
 22 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 14 
 
 80 
 
 
 Bell. 
 
 
 200 
 
 16 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 1400 
 
 28 
 
 1 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 On the 29th May, 1777, Messrs. Marshall and Morris informed “ the 
 public in general,” that in consequence of the Staffordshire canal being 
 navigable to Northwich, they would despatch vessels almost every day 
 from the South Dock, Liverpool, by which goods would he conveyed 
 “ with the greatest care, quickest despatch, and on the most reasonable 
 terms,” to the following places:—Northwich, Middlewich, Namptwich, 
 
458 
 
 Sandbach, Congleton, Leek, Newcastle, Burslem, and all parts of the 
 Pottery; Stone, Stafford, Lichfield, Dudley, Eidgley, Wolverhampton, 
 Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Stourport, Bewdley, Worcester, Gloucester, 
 Bristol, Cheadle, Utcester, Derby, Asliburn, Lougliboro’, Nottingham, 
 Lincoln, and Gainsboro’. 
 
 A gentleman who had the curiosity to count the equipages and horses, 
 and to estimate the company at the Liverpool races, in July, 1777, made 
 them out to be—coaches, post chaises, phaetons, cabrioles, and single horse 
 chaises, 143; covered waggons or carts, 93; horses, double or single 
 mounted, 3,400 ; people, about 40,000 * 
 
 The first Liverpool Dispensary was formed in the year 1778. The 
 annual subscription to Easter, 1779, amounted to £117 12s., to which 
 the parish added £105, making an income of £222 12s. The number of 
 patients relieved up to September, 1779, was 5,337.f 
 
 In 1779 the corporation granted the ground on which the fort was 
 erected to the government, which retained it until the year 1817. 
 
 A regiment of Yorkshire militia, commanded by Sir George Saville, 
 did duty in Liverpool in the year 1779. At the close of the year Sir 
 George gave £50 to the Infirmary, £50 to the Dispensary, and £50 for 
 the relief of the French and American prisoners.^; 
 
 In March, 1780, two additional frigates and two cutters were stationed 
 in the Irish Channel, in consequence of a petition of the Liverpool mer¬ 
 chants, in which they stated that the force previously on the station was 
 insufficient for the protection of trade.§ 
 
 In September, 1780, Bamber Gasgoyne and Henry Kawlinson, Esqs., 
 were elected members for Liverpool, after a five days’ contest, defeating 
 Mr. Pennant, one of the old members. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 25th April, 1780, the West Eiding Division of the 
 Yorkshire militia, which had been quartered in Liverpool all the winter, 
 marched from Liverpool for Leeds; and, on the same day, the Cheshire 
 militia entered the town.|| 
 
 During this critical part of the war, the Eoyal Liverpool Blues formed 
 part of the garrison of the beautiful island and rich colony of Jamaica, 
 which was in the utmost danger, until Eodney’s great victory gave the 
 English forces the complete ascendancy in the West Indies. Lieut. Despart, 
 of the Liverpool Blues, died in Jamaica early in the year and a very 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 4, 1777. 
 
 + Ibid, October 22, 1779. J Ibid. § Ibid, March 30, 1780. 
 
 || Ibid, April 27, 1780. Ibid, May 18, 1780. 
 
459 
 
 small portion of the regiment survived the climate of the West Indies. 
 The Manchester regiment, raised at the same time, formed part of the gar¬ 
 rison of Gibraltar, under General Elliot, -where it earned the highest repu¬ 
 tation for courage and discipline. The history of that memorable seige 
 -was afterwards written by Lieut. Drinkwater, of that regiment, and was 
 published by subscription in Manchester and Liverpool. 
 
 TheDsedalus frigate, of 32 guns, was launched from the building-yard 
 of Mr. Fisher, in Liverpool, on the 19tli May.* 
 
 Amongst other curiosities exhibited in Liverpool, in 1780, was a 
 zebra, shipped on board a Spanish ship, the St. Inez, at the Cape, as a 
 present for the Eng of Spain, and captured, along with the St. Inez, by 
 the Liverpool privateer Amazon.f 
 
 The Albion, Hutchinson, from Liverpool to Archangel, was taken on 
 the 8th July, by three American letters of marque, bound to Amsterdam, 
 with tobacco ; the General Washington, of 18 six-pounders, and seventy- 
 three men, with 100 hogsheads; the Alexander, of 12 four-pounders, 
 and 50 men, with 110 hogsheads ; and the Maryland, of 10 four- 
 pounders, with 50 men, and 120 hogsheads. Captain Hutchinson (who 
 was put on hoard a vessel which landed him at Inverness) also reported 
 that the ship Ashton, and three brigs, which sailed with her from Liver¬ 
 pool, had been taken by American privateers.J 
 
 The best contested battle fought by any of the Liverpool privateers, 
 during this war, was that fought by the Watt, Captain Coulthard, and 
 the American ship Trumbull, Captain Nicholson. The armament of the 
 Watt was 32 twelve and six pounders, that of the Trumbull 36 twelve- 
 pounders. They fought for several hours, often within pistol-shot of 
 each other, and were both of them pretty nearly knocked to pieces. The 
 Watt lost eleven men, killed, the Trumbull its captain and fifty-seven 
 men. It was a drawn battle, and both the vessels were nearly sinking 
 when they got back into port, the Watt into Liverpool, the Trumbull into 
 New London.^ 
 
 The year 1781 began with the heaviest fall of snow ever known in 
 Liverpool. It came down for forty-eight hours, without ceasing, and lay 
 three feet deep on the ground, without drifting. || 
 
 England was now at war with Holland as well as with the United 
 States, France, and Spain. Two valuable Hutch prizes, laden with 400 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 25, 1780. 
 
 + Ibid, June 8, 1780. J Ibid, June 29tli, 1780. § Ibid, July 27, 1780. 
 
 || Ibid, January 20, 1781. 
 
460 
 
 hogsheads of sugar, 119 hogsheads tobacco, and 800 bags of coffee, 
 arrived in the port of Liverpool, on the 1st February.* 
 
 The Wiltshire militia, commanded by Lord Porchester, marched into 
 Liverpool early in April, and took the place of the Cheshire militia in 
 garrisoning the town.f 
 
 In a debate in the House of Lords, on the 27tli March, the Bishop 
 of Chester mentioned several remarkable instances of the growth of 
 population in the Lancashire portion of his diocese, especially at Liver¬ 
 pool, Manchester, Bolton, and Rochdale. He said that there had been 
 an increase of houses in one of the archdeaconries of 11,000 since the 
 year 1717, and that the population of Liverpool was six times as great 
 in the year 1770 as it had been at the beginning of the century, that is, 
 that it had increased from about 6,000 to upwards of 30,000. J 
 
 The Count de Guichen, French privateer, was taken by the English 
 frigate Aurora, Captain Collins, with the following ransom bills, or pro¬ 
 mises to pay ransom, given by English merchant ships to the com¬ 
 mander of the Count de Guichen:—The Peace, of Whitehaven, 2,000 
 guineas; the Spooner, of Glasgow, 1,800 ditto; the Fortitude, of 
 Greenock, 1,500 ditto; the Six Sisters, Isle of Man, 1,500 ditto; the 
 William, of Bristol, 1,500 ditto; the Sally, of Strangford, 500 ditto; the 
 Lark, of Workington, 300 ditto ; the Glory, of Workington, 150 ditto ; 
 and the Elizabeth, 110 ditto.§ Scores, if not hundreds, of Liverpool 
 ships paid ransom in the same way during this war. 
 
 In spite of the war, internal communication, both for passengers and 
 merchandise, continued to improve. The London and Liverpool Flying 
 Machine started from the Angel Inn, Liverpool, every Sunday, Tuesday, 
 and Thursday afternoon, at two o’clock, and arrived in London in forty- 
 eight hours, being twenty-four hours less than the time in which the 
 Warrington Flying Machine made the journey from Warrington to London, 
 in the year 1758. The London and Liverpool Diligence, which took 
 matters more easily, gave the Liverpool passengers a rest of ten hours 
 the second night, at Stony Stratford, and arrived in London at five 
 o’clock in the afternoon of the third day.|| Inside fare to London, £2 5s.; 
 outside, £l 5s. The journey was made from Liverpool to Carlisle in 
 one day and a half; to Glasgow in two days and a half.H The Manchester 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February, 1, 1781. 1 Ibid, April 12, 1781. 
 
 + Ibid, April 19, 1781. § Ibid, May 31, 1781. 
 
 || Prestwicli’s MS. History of Liverpool, 245. 
 
 If Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, June 21, 1781. 
 
461 
 
 coaches started from Liverpool at six in the morning ; the passengers 
 breakfasted, instead of dining, at Warrington ; and they arrived in Man¬ 
 chester in time for dinner. Inside fare 7s. 
 
 Liverpool was still more decidedly the port of communication with 
 Ireland than it had been in former times. An unpublished manuscript, 
 written in Liverpool in the year 1779, informs us that “this port may 
 justly boast of being the most frequented passage into Ireland ; so it is 
 likewise allowed, in the summer season, to be the safest and most conve¬ 
 nient port of embarkation for the following places, situated on the east 
 part of that kingdom; namely, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, 
 Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and Belfast. Between Dublin and this 
 port a company of merchants, of this town, fitted out six packets for 
 the accommodation of passengers; but now (owing to our unhappy 
 troubles) these are lessened to four, namely, the Prince of Orange, the 
 Duke of Leinster, the Hawke, and the Fly, which are all well and com¬ 
 pletely fitted out, to sail three times a week between this port and Dublin, 
 with passengers and in ballast only. Each vessel is elegantly furnished 
 with state-rooms and cabins, with every desirable convenience suitable 
 for ladies and gentlemen. The proprietors have been exceedingly careful 
 in the choice of skilful and humane captains and pilots, for which atten¬ 
 tion they have merited encouragement, as well as the praise and thanks of 
 the public in general. With a fair wind and good weather the passage 
 is but fourteen hours; but at other times it is uncertain, like every other 
 voyage. Here follows the price :—For cabin passage, with luggage, £l Is. ; 
 for steerage, 10s. Gd.; for the hold, in which the poor labourer, with his 
 wallet, on which he rests his weary head, 2s. Gd.”* 
 
 This year (1781) the Dublin linen ships, said to be worth T150,000, 
 were convoyed from Dublin to Chester fair by the Boston frigate and 
 two armed cutters. 
 
 The pilots’committee gave notice that, after the 1st October, 1781, 
 the Liverpool pilots would be stationed at the Point of Lynas, the north¬ 
 east point of the isle of Anglesea. “ All ships and vessels wanting pilots 
 for Liverpool or the adjacent ports, may steer boldly for this point; hoist 
 their colours by day, and show lights or fire guns by night; run close in 
 shore, and bring too either in Williams’ or Pilots’ Bay, within the race of 
 the strong tides off the point, according to the wind, that they may be 
 boarded in smooth water, with greater safety both to themselves and pilots.”! 
 
 * Prestwich’s MS. History of Liverpool, 178. 
 
 + Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 0, 1781. 
 
 3 o 
 
462 
 
 Threats of a French invasion were very confidently given out about 
 this time; and, in the beginning of September, the following alarming 
 announcement was received, by the commanding officer in Liverpool: 
 
 Dublin, in Homoaze, Aug, 30, 1781. 
 Sir,—I think it necessary to acquaint you, by express, that, on the 
 evening of the 28th inst., the combined fleets of the enemy, (French, 
 Spanish, and Dutch,) consisting of thirty-four or thirty-five sail of the 
 line, were seen five or six leagues to the east of Scilly, and that there is 
 great reason to apprehend that they are now in the channel; in order that 
 you may make the same known to the captains of any of his Majesty’s 
 ships that may be within your reach, as well as the merchants of Liver¬ 
 pool, to prevent any of their trade from falling into their hands. Vice- 
 Admiral Darby, with his Majesty’s squadron under his command, is now 
 in Torbay.— I am, sir, yours, Shuldham.* 
 
 A line of canal-boats from Liverpool to Shardlow, on the river Trent, 
 began to run in September, 1781, in connexion with regular stage 
 wagons from Shardlow to London, by which “ goods requiring a speedy 
 conveyance” were delivered in London, on the tenth day after leaving 
 Liverpool.f 
 
 At a sale of tobacco, in Liverpool, on the 23rd October, 1781, the 
 leaf was sold at 3s. per lb,, duty free.! 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1782, the whole country had begun to 
 be weary of the war. Petitions and addresses against the further prosecu¬ 
 tion of it began to pour in. In January the corporation of Bristol unani¬ 
 mously voted a petition to the House of Commons, against the further 
 prosecution of the war in America, and requested the house “ to advise 
 the king, to a total change of the unhappy system which has involved 
 the nation in such complicated misfortunes.Ӥ 
 
 At the beginning of 1782, it was announced that the canal navigation 
 had been opened from Liverpool into the river Ribble, and that goods 
 were forwarded regularly by canal from Liverpool to Preston. || 
 
 Friday, the 7th February, having been appointed a general fast, by 
 royal proclamation, “was strictly and devoutly observed throughout this 
 town,” (Liverpool) IT 
 
 On Sunday evening, March 3rd, as two of the press-gang were 
 conveying a man to the press-room, whom they had just impressed, he 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 6,1781. + Ibid, October 11, 1781. 
 
 | Ibid, October 25, 1781. § Ibid, .January 31, 1782. || Ibid, February 14, 1782. 
 
 Ibid, February 14, 1782. 
 
463 
 
 suddenly turned upon them, drew out a loaded pistol, shot one of them 
 dead, and escaped. The coroner’s jury brought in a verdict of man¬ 
 slaughter.* 
 
 On the 14th March, 1782, the nation being utterly weary of the war 
 with America, a bill was introduced into parliament, by the government, 
 authorizing the king to put an end to the war, by acknowledging the 
 independence of the late thirteen colonies, henceforth the United States 
 of America. 
 
 On Monday morning, the 19th May, 1782, at six o’clock, an express 
 arrived in Liverpool from the admiralty, bringing dispatches to the mayor, 
 with “ the great and glorious news” of Admiral Rodney’s victory over the 
 French fleet, in the West Indies. As soon as the news was made public 
 the bells began to ring, and so continued the whole of the day. Flags 
 were displayed on all the public buildings. At noon a royal salute of 
 twenty-one guns was fired from George’s battery; at one o’clock the 
 Westminster militia (then on duty in Liverpool) were drawn up before 
 the Exchange, and fired three vollies, amidst the acclamations of many 
 thousands of the inhabitants. This victory, which restored confidence 
 to the public mind, after so many disasters, was particularly prized in 
 Liverpool, which was deeply interested in Jamaica and the West India 
 Islands, both on the ground of property, and because so many hundred 
 Liverpool men were on military duty in the former island.f After this 
 great victory all the West India ships sailed for England, and arrived in 
 safety. Amongst them were eleven rich Jamaica ships for Liverpool, 
 which arrived in July. 
 
 On the 8th October, 1782, the Grampus, a ship of war, of fifty guns, 
 was launched into the Mersey from Mr. Fisher’s building-yard.J 
 
 The Liverpool Advertiser of the 17th October, 1782, contained two 
 pieces of intelligence, which spread universal joy throughout the nation. 
 The first was, that the grand attack of the Spaniards and French on the 
 fortress of Gibraltar had been totally defeated by sea and land, by 
 /f General Elliot; the second was, that Messrs. Fitzlierbert and Oswald, on 
 the part of Great Britain, had exchanged credentials with Messrs. 
 Franklin and Jay, the ambassadors of the United States, preparatory to 
 the arrangement of the terms of peace between the two countries. 
 
 On the 24th January, 1783, Mr. Secretary Townshend announced, in 
 the House of Commons, that preliminaries of peace had been signed with 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 7, 1782. 
 
 {Ibid, October 10, 1782. 
 
 V. ^ 1 
 
 tA<A - CKAa£A\ < 
 
 r t . d ac 
 
 ( 6/wa- a. i tfV'- 
 
 + Ibid, May 23, 1782. 
 
 V 
 
464 
 
 France, Spain, and the United States.*' The definitive treaty of peace 
 appeared in the London Gazette on the 27th January, 1783, and in the 
 Liverpool papers of the 30th. In the same paper there appeared the 
 following paragraph :—“ The mercantile world is in a hurry and hustle 
 unknown at any former time. The merchants are endeavouring to 
 outstrip each other in the race of traffic. European goods, and particu¬ 
 larly the produce of England, being greatly wanted in the ports of 
 America, the destination of many of the vessels, now in the river, is 
 altered from the West India islands to the American ports, where it is 
 expected the cargoes will sell at an immense profit.”t 
 
 * Both the French and Spaniards sustained great losses and defeats in the year 1782. 
 A Liverpool poet, Edward Eushton, published some spirited verses on the victories of that 
 year-, of which the following are a specimen : 
 
 “stanzas on the yeah 1782. 
 
 “ Britain ! thy fame in eighty-two 
 Outswells the boast of fifty-nine, 
 
 Gallia was vanquished then, ’tis true, 
 
 But now a host of foes combine ; 
 
 A host combine to pull thee down, 
 
 And strip thee of thy nautic crown; 
 
 Whilst proud rebellion towers on high, 
 
 And millions from their duty fly : 
 
 Never, oh, Britain ! did the warring storm 
 
 Howl round thy rocky coast in such a threatening form. 
 
 To keep such numerous foes at hay, 
 
 Is one continued victory; 
 
 But now old ocean owns thy sway, 
 
 And vanquished foes confounded fly. 
 
 As skims the flying finny brood, 
 
 When by the Albicore pursued, 
 
 So, in this great, this wondrous year, 
 
 When ’bove themselves thy sons appear, 
 
 Proud Gallia’s navy fled in dire dismay, 
 
 And had Cordova dared, so had he winged his way. 
 
 Britain ! ’tis done, and grim despair 
 Has fastened on each vengeful foe; 
 
 The Eock’s* relieved; and through the air, 
 
 Hark ! how the sounds of triumph flow. 
 
 And now, ye unassisting powers, 
 
 What think ye! is the trident ours ? 
 
 Ye baffled foes, what arts, ah ! say, 
 
 Can wipe the foul disgrace away? 
 
 For wondering Europe ey’d the important deed, 
 
 And, spite of every boast, beheld your foes succeed.” 
 
 * Gibraltar. 
 
 t Williamson’s Liveipool Advertiser, January 30, 1783. 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER, 
 
 FROM THE CLOSE OF THE AMERICAN WAR TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 Nothing was wanting at the close of the American War to insure a 
 rapid return of national and local prosperity, except the continuance of 
 peace, and the revival of commercial intercourse with America. It has 
 been already mentioned that the first twenty years of the reign of George 
 the Third had been distinguished by immense internal improvements, 
 and numerous discoveries in the arts. During that period the northern 
 .and central and the eastern and western districts of the kingdom had been 
 united by navigable canals. The newly-invented cotton machinery of 
 Arkwright and Hargreaves had given an immense impulse to the cotton 
 trade, which increased the consumption of cotton five-fold in a dozen 
 years. The woollen and linen trades more than kept the position which 
 they had so long maintained. The taste, skill, and ingenuity of Wedge- 
 wood had given beauty and cheapness to the manufacture of earthenware. 
 A new mode of extracting iron from the ore, by means of coke instead of 
 charcoal, had given an impulse to the iron trade of England, scarcely less 
 powerful than that which the invention of machinery had communicated 
 to the cotton manufacture. The science and perseverance of James 
 Watt had changed the steam-engine from a slow and clumsy instrument, 
 suited for only a few purposes, to an inexhaustible source of power, appli¬ 
 cable to every description of machinery. And the steady improvement 
 of agriculture, less seen hut not less felt in its results, had insured to the 
 country several years of cheap and abundant food. Everything was thus 
 prepared for an immense advance of national prosperity on the return of 
 peace. Nor was there any part of the kingdom to which these various 
 improvements promised greater results than to the port of Liverpool. The 
 Trent and Mersey, the Leeds and Liverpool, and the Bridgewater canals 
 connected Liverpool with all the principal seats of manufacturing industry. 
 The port already possessed the most extensive docks in England, recently 
 increased by the formation of the George’s Dock, so as to supply 91,7f>0 
 
466 
 
 square yards, or about nineteen acres of water-space, and 2,666 yards of 
 quay frontage. “ The singular advantage of these docks can only he 
 seen”, says a writer of that age, “by comparing the great ease and con¬ 
 venience with which goods are discharged at Liverpool with the labour 
 and delay of unloading ships at Bristol.”* Whilst the port had been ren¬ 
 dered more commodious its approaches had been rendered much safer 
 than they had ever been before. In addition to numerous buoys, rendering 
 the approaches safe hy day, three light-houses had been constructed, which 
 rendered it tolerably secure by night, namely, the Bidston Light, in an 
 octagonal tower, on a lofty hill, seen far off sea; the Leasowe Light, in a 
 tower upwards of a hundred feet high; and the lake light at Hoylake, 
 in a tower fifty feet high. With these greatly increased facilities for car¬ 
 rying on foreign trade, the only doubt that existed was whether the 
 American trade would resume its former course, now that the former colo¬ 
 nies had become an independent state. Before the close of the first year 
 of peace these doubts were entirely removed, by the arrival of large orders 
 from America. A similar revival took place in the West Indian and 
 African trades. Hence the next ten years of peace were years of extra¬ 
 ordinary activity and prosperity, during which the trade of Liverpool 
 increased more rapidly than it had done during any previous ten years in 
 the history of the port. With these general observations I proceed to 
 trace the history of Liverpool in the present chapter, from the close of the 
 American War, in 1783, to the commencement of the war with France 
 in 1793. 
 
 On the 17th, 18th, and 19th of February, 1783, the Westminster 
 militia, the last regiment quartered in Liverpool during the American 
 war, took its departure. The only force left in the town was a body of 
 one hundred volunteers, called the Military Association, commanded by 
 Gill Slater, Esq. They were soon after disbanded, and men turned their 
 minds altogether from war to peace.f 
 
 In consequence of the ravages of that fatal disease, the smallpox, it 
 was resolved, in the month of March, that a general inoculation of the 
 inhabitants should take place. The following medical men were formed 
 into an inoculation Society, for that purpose :—Drs. Houlston, Brandreth, 
 Binns, Worthington, Camplin, Currie, and Lyon, and Messrs. Alanson, 
 Blundell, Buddicum, R. and J. Gerrard, Goldie, Hughes, Moss, Park, 
 Renwick, Shortcliffe, and Tetlow.J 
 
 * Prestwich’s MS. History of Liverpool. 
 
 + 'Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, February 20, 1783. J Ibid, March 13, 1788. 
 
467 
 
 During the equinoctial gales of this year, a fine new ship, the Count 
 Belgioso, was wrecked on the Kish Bank, three days after sailing from 
 Liverpool. The commander, Captain Pearce, 147 persons, comprising 
 passengers and crew, and a cargo worth £130,000, were swallowed up in 
 the waves.* 
 
 The distress of the poor of Liverpool continued until the summer set 
 in. In the month of March the following quantities of corn, and other 
 articles of food, were supplied to the poor, weekly, at very reduced prices : 
 namely, 38,780 lbs. of wheat flour; 9,633 lbs. of oatmeal; 138 bushels 
 of peas, and 448 bushels of potatoes. Upwards of 10,000 persons were 
 thus supported.f 
 
 About the month of June another great work was announced, by 
 means of which a line of internal water communication was first esta¬ 
 blished between London and Liverpool,—the Thames and the Mersey. 
 This was a canal from the Severn to the Thames. “ It is proposed,” 
 says the notice of this undertaking, “ that the transit of heavy goods 
 between London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool, shall be con¬ 
 ducted by this route.” The sum subscribed for the work was £130,000, 
 but a million could have easily been had in London alone, if it had been 
 required, for the south was then becoming emulous of the canals of the 
 north % 
 
 Amongst other results of the return of peace was a great influx of 
 country visitors into Liverpool from the interior, consisting of persons 
 who had been deterred from visiting Liverpool during the war, by fear of 
 falling into the hands of press-gangs. “ For the last week,” says the 
 Liverpool Advertiser, “ the town has been uncommonly crowded with 
 country people from the vicinity of Rochdale, Blackburn, Manchester, 
 &c. It is computed that there were upwards of 3,000 of them. They 
 came to bathe and drink salt water. During the war very few of them 
 durst come down, on account of the warmth of the impress; and it is, 
 therefore, supposed that this is the most crowded bathing season ever 
 known liere.Ӥ 
 
 A bold plan was proposed in the autumn of 1783 for facilitating 
 intercourse between England and Ireland, by forming an embankment 
 across tho Menai Straits, with a lock and a drawbridge in the middle 
 of it, near the spot where Telford’s beautiful bridge now stands; but 
 it was strongly opposed in Liverpool, and other western ports, from a 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, March, 1783. t Iliid, April 3, 1783. 
 
 } Ibid, .Tune 20, 1783. § Ibid, August 14, 1783. 
 
468 
 
 fear that it would ruin the navigation of the strait, and was in the end 
 abandoned.* 
 
 It appeared, from a report of the Liverpool Dispensary, that the total 
 number of persons relieved by that most useful charity, from the time 
 when it was established, in the year 1778, to January, 1784, was 53,228.t 
 In the spring of 1784 the great struggle for office took place between 
 William Pitt, then a young man of twenty-four years of age, supported 
 by the king, and the coalition of Fox and North. William Pitt was 
 the favourite in Liverpool, from which place an address was presented to 
 the king, signed by 814 of the inhabitants, thanking him for appointing 
 the young minister, and expressing a confident hope that he would prove 
 worthy of his distinguished office.J 
 
 In the autumn of this year mail coaches were first introduced in 
 England, by which the carrying of letters and passengers was greatly 
 accelerated. The first mail coach left London for Bristol on the 8th of 
 August, 1784. It started at eight in the morning, and reached Bristol about 
 eleven o’clock the same night. The mail from Bristol started at four in 
 the afternoon of the same day, and reached London at eight the next 
 morning. The Liverpool merchants immediately addressed Mr. Pitt, 
 begging that a mail might run between Liverpool and London. Their 
 request was shortly afterwards complied with, and thus the time of com¬ 
 munication with London was reduced from forty-eight to thirty hours. 
 The mails were at first small vehicles, drawn by two horses, which were 
 changed every six miles. They carried four passengers, besides the 
 guard and coachman, both of whom were armed with blunderbusses, as a 
 security against highwaymen.§ 
 
 In September of this year a grand festival of music took place in 
 Liverpool, “ which by the cognoscenti was allowed to have surpassed 
 anything of the kind ever performed in the kingdom, beyond the bounds 
 of the metropolis.” It commenced on Tuesday, the 14th of September, 
 with the performance (in St. Peter’s Church) “ of the sublime and sacred 
 oratorio of the Messiah”, and “ this great work undoubtedly went off the 
 best of all the performances. Mrs. Kennedy sang ‘ He shall feed his 
 flock’ divinely; so did Miss Phillips, with exquisite taste, ‘ Come unto 
 him’; and that sublime air, ‘I know that my Bedeemer liveth’, was sung 
 with such sentiment and delicacy by Miss Cantelo as to ravish the ears of 
 the judicious.” Judas Maccabeus was performed the next day, and a 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, November 20, 1783. + Ibid, January 8, 1784. 
 
 J Ibid, March 18, 1784. § Ibid, August 12, 1784. 
 
469 
 
 grand selection from the works of Handel the day following. The 
 orchestra consisted of 150 performers, “ amongst whom were our famous 
 Lancashire chorus singers, whose abilities are universally admired.” The 
 receipts were i>2,000, and, from the success of the performance, it was 
 determined to have a festival in Liverpool every third year.* 
 
 According to a calculation of the number of inhabitants in Liverpool 
 at the beginning of the year 1785, founded on the returns of births and 
 deaths during the previous seven years, the population at that time 
 amounted to 41,000 souls.f 
 
 A society for the cultivation of music was founded in Liverpool in 
 May, 1785. The members met monthly, and began boldly with Handel’s 
 Messiah. Mrs. Siddons performed in Liverpool three times during the 
 same month, to the unspeakable delight of her audiences.^ After she left, 
 the celebrated aeronaut, Lunardi, visited the town, with his balloon. He 
 ascended from the fort, and came down safe and sound at Simon’s-wood.§ 
 The increase of the commerce and shipping of Liverpool on the 
 restoration of peace was so rapid, that it was found necessary to apply for 
 powers to form additional docks in the year 1785. Under the powers 
 then obtained two capacious docks were formed, one called the King’s, 
 the other the Queen’s. This increased the number of docks to five, and 
 enlarged the ai'ea of the docks from about 20 to nearly 34 acres. When the 
 King’s and Queen’s Docks were formed the line of docks extended about 
 a mile in length, from George’s Basin to the southern boundary of the 
 borough of Liverpool. 
 
 The preamble of the act for forming the King’s and Queen’s Docks, 
 after reciting the principal provisions of the previous dock acts, and 
 stating that the debt of the dock estate amounted to T22,550, proceeds 
 as follows:—“ And whereas the trade and shipping of the said town and 
 port of Liverpool, of late years, are greatly increased, and the ships and 
 vessels now belonging to and trading to and from the said port are more 
 numerous than heretofore : and whereas the three wet docks already made 
 in the same port, by virtue and under the authority of the said former 
 acts respectively, are not sufficient for the reception of the ships and 
 vessels resorting thereto, and for the requisite convenient despatch in 
 lading and unlading the same; and which, for want of an additional 
 dock, and being obliged to lie in open harbour, are exposed to the rage 
 of tempestuous weather, and a rapid tide or current, and in imminent 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, September SO, 1784. + Ibid, January, 1785. 
 
 t Ibid, June 2, 1785. § Ibid, June 27, 1785. 
 
 3 r 
 
470 
 
 danger of shipwreck.’’ For these reasons, the act states, the mayor, 
 aldermen, bailiffs, and common council have granted part of the land 
 extending from the Duke of Bridgewater’s basin to the boundary of Toxtetli- 
 park, and sold another part of it to the dock estate, for the constructing of 
 two additional docks. The act then authorizes the trustees of the docks to 
 collect the then existing rates for a term of forty-one years, in addition to the 
 terms mentioned in the act of the second George Third; and also to borrow 
 the sum of £70,000, for the purpose of forming the proposed new docks. 
 
 According to the report of the Dispensary, published at the begin¬ 
 ning of the year 1786, it appeared that 66,359 persons had been relieved 
 up to that time.* 
 
 At the commencement of the parliamentary session of 1786 a bill was 
 introduced, giving the corporation of Liverpool the power of widening 
 the streets and beautifying the town.f At that time there was not one 
 wide or well-constructed street in Liverpool; even Castle-street was still 
 described by a writer of that time as “ the crooked and incommodious 
 street called Castle-street.” Under the ample powers given by this act, 
 the corporation set to work vigorously, beginning with that street, which 
 they soon rendered handsome, wide, and commodious. The sum expended 
 under the powers of the act of 1786 was £150,000; and nearly a million 
 has been spent under the powers of that and subsequent improvement acts. 
 
 In July, 1787, an exhibition of the works of living artists was 
 announced as about to take place in Liverpool. The official announce¬ 
 ment stated that amongst the artists who had agreed to furnish pictures 
 for the exhibition, were Sir Joshua Keynolds, Wright of Derby, Fuseli, 
 and Stubbs, the last a native of Liverpool. It was added, “ It is expected 
 that the artists of this town and neighbourhood will not neglect the pre¬ 
 sent opportunity of convincing the public, that the attempt to establish a 
 school of painting, and to diffuse a taste for the arts in this part of the 
 kingdom, has not been without effect.”! 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 9, 1786. + Ibid, February 20, 1786. 
 
 J Eoseoe took an active part in promoting this School of Painting. He wrote some 
 fine lines on the subject, to which he appended a note, containing his first public 
 reference to Lorenzo de’ Medici, whose life he afterwards wrote with so much eloquence 
 and learning. The lines and note are as follows: 
 
 “ In elder Greece, when arms and science reign’d, 
 
 The finer arts an equal rank maintain’d, 
 
 High ’midst the rest, the Muse of Painting shone, 
 
 And bade the admiring world her wonders own; 
 
 To nature true, the graceful outline flow’d, 
 
 With more than life the vivid colours glow’d ; 
 
 Applauding nations saw with grateful joy, 
 
 And wealth and honours crown’d the fair employ: 
 
471 
 
 At the close of the year 1787, during the mayoralty of Thomas Earle, 
 Esq., the town of Liverpool was divided into four districts, each of which 
 was placed under the care of a head-constable.* 
 
 On Saturday, the 22nd December, 1787, that great and good man, 
 John Howard, the friend of the friendless, arrived in Liverpool to inspect 
 the public prisons. He visited the New and Old Gaols, the Workhouse, 
 the Infirmary, the House of Correction, and the newly-erected Alms¬ 
 houses. He expressed his approbation of the New Gaol, and of the 
 internal arrangements of the old one, “ and gave a dinner on Christmas 
 Day to the prisoners confined in it.” He inspected the gaol three times 
 during his stay. This was his fifth visit to Liverpool, for purposes of 
 benevolence, in fifteen years.f 
 
 In January, 1788, the Society formed in the previous year, in London, 
 for the Abolition of the African Slave trade, made its first appearance 
 before the public of Liverpool, with a long and well-written address, 
 designed to prove that the trade in African slaves, which was then 
 bringing a profit of from two to three hundred thousand pounds a-year 
 into the port of Liverpool, was immoral and unjust, and one which 
 ought to he abolished, as unworthy of a Christian nation. Along with 
 this address appeared a list of the original members of the Society for 
 the Suppression of the Slave trade. Only two Liverpool names figure 
 in the list; which I mention for the sake of honour. They were those 
 of William Rathbone, the father of the present William, Richard, and 
 Theodore Rathbone, and Dr. Binns, uncle of the late Thomas Binns. 
 These, however, where not the only enemies of the slave trade in Liver- 
 
 Yet wlielm’d amid the wreck of former days, 
 
 Lie the gay monuments of ancient praise, 
 
 And though revolving years have spared the name, 
 
 Dimm’d is the radiance of the painter's fame. 
 
 “ Long droop’d the sacred art—hut rose at length 
 With brighter lustre and redoubled strength ; 
 
 When great Lorenzo,* 'midst his mild domain, 
 
 Led the gay Muses and their kindred train ; 
 
 Then, as the bard the imagined story drew, 
 
 The kindling artist bade it rise to view ; 
 
 Till the strong comment shamed the sister art, 
 
 And found a nearer passage to the heart.” 
 
 * “ Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent, (born in 1448, died in 1402,) was the 
 director of the Florentine republic for upwards of twenty years, and the father of John de' 
 Medici, afterwards Pope, by the name of Leo X. To the munificence and taste of Lorenzo 
 is principally to he attributed the sudden progress of the fine arts in Italy at the close of 
 the fifteenth century. But this is only a small part of his praise. If a full inquiry be 
 made into his life and character, he will appear to be not only one of the most extraordinary, 
 hut, perhaps, upon the whole, the most extraordinary man that any age or nation has 
 produced.” 
 
 * Williamson’s Liveipool Advertiser. December 10, 1787. + Ibid, December 31, 1787. 
 
m 
 
 pool, even at that early period. Ten years previously William Roscoe, a 
 native of Liverpool, and one of its brightest ornaments, had expressed, 
 in his juvenile poems, an abhorrence of the slave trade, which he never 
 ceased to entertain or to express, until he had communicated it to the 
 majority of his fellow-townsmen, and had received from them the 
 honourable mission of voting and speaking in parliament for the total 
 abolition of the trade. Edward Rushton, who had himself, as a sailor- 
 boy, witnessed the horrors of the slave trade ; whose life had been saved 
 by a generous negro; and who had lost his sight in an attempt to 
 relieve the sufferings of a cargo of negro slaves, suffering from ophthalmia, 
 also sang the wrongs of the African race in vigorous manly verse. And 
 Dr. James Currie, the father of the late William Wallace Currie, a 
 native of Annandale, in Scotland, but then rising into notice in Liver¬ 
 pool, as a physician, had the courage to risk popularity and practice by 
 writing in defence of the negro, and in reprobation of the slave trade. 
 These were the men who first raised the standard of justice and truth in 
 Liverpool, against a profitable traffic, which had been sanctioned for 
 centuries by the practice of every European nation, which had been 
 recognized in numerous national treaties, and which did not want 
 defenders even amongst the ministers of religion themselves. 
 
 Two months after the society for the abolition of the slave trade had 
 broken ground in Liverpool, it found an antagonist, in the person of the 
 Rev. Raymond Harris, a Spanish Jesuit, and native of Seville, who had 
 been expelled from Spain, along with the rest of his order, a few years 
 before, and who had settled in Liverpool. This intrepid defender of the 
 slave trade put forth a pamphlet in the month of March, 1788, under the 
 following title :—“ Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave 
 Trade, showing its conformity with the principles of Natural and Revealed 
 Religion, delineated in the sacred writings of the Word of God; by the 
 Rev. Raymond Harris.” In this pamphlet the reverend sophist contended 
 that no one could doubt the licitness of the slave trade who believed that 
 the Bible was the Word of God. In proof of this assertion he first laid 
 it down as an axiom, that whatever practices were mentioned in either 
 the Old Testament or the New, with implied approbation, were sanctioned 
 by God, and would continue to be lawful through all time. This, he 
 contended, was the case with slavery and the slave trade. ___ His firs t 
 example was that of Hagar, slave of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who, having 
 fled from her mistress, in consequence of having been hardly dealt with 
 by her, was ordered by God to return, and humble herself under the hand 
 
473 
 
 of her mistress. A second example was that of the patriarch Joseph, 
 who had bought the whole people of Egypt for King Pharoah, during the 
 seven years of famine. A third was that of the Giheonites, who had 
 been condemned to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for ever, to 
 the Israelites. Many other instances, equally apposite, followed, and 
 the general inference which the author drew from them all was, that the 
 slave trade was a “ licit” occupation, and that those who did not believe 
 it to be so did not believe their Bibles. Such was the reverend gentle¬ 
 man’s argument and conclusion. 
 
 This astounding vindication of the slave trade was promptly answered 
 by several parties; amongst others, by the Rev. Mr. Dennett and the 
 Rev. Mr. Hughes; but the most eloquent of the answers to Harris’s 
 pamphlet was that of William Roscoe, entitled, “ A Sfili jptural Refuta - 
 tion of a Pamphlet lately published by the Rev. Raymond Harris, 
 entitled, ‘ Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade’, 
 in Four Letters from the Author to a Friend.” 
 
 They all showed that if the reverend gentleman’s argument proved 
 anything, it proved a great deal too much ; for it proved that the marry¬ 
 ing of three or four wives at one time was a commendable practice ; made 
 it a matter of duty to stone all blasphemers to death ; and justified true 
 believers not only in making slaves of heathen nations, but in extermi¬ 
 nating them with fire and sword. 
 
 One of the answers to Harris’s work contained the following con¬ 
 temptuous notice of him :—“ Mr. Locke has observed that slavery is so 
 vile and miserable an estate of man, and so opposite to the generous 
 temper and courage of our nation, that it is hardly to be conceived that 
 an Englishman, much less a gentleman, should plead for it; I hope I may 
 add, much less a clergyman of the Church of England. Many readers, 
 living at a distance from Liverpool, may be led to imagine from the title of 
 the Scriptural researches, that the author of them is a clergyman of the 
 Church of England. In justice, therefore, to the respectable body of 
 our clergy, and in honour of my countrymen, I must observe, that the 
 Rev. R. Harris is a native of Spain, and of the order of the Jesuits : the 
 last information is perhaps unnecessary to those who are at all conversant 
 in their writings.” 
 
 Nevertheless, the reverend father returned to the charge in another 
 pamphlet; but, very soon afterwards, his death put an end to the con¬ 
 troversy. After the death of the Rev. Raymond Harris no one had the 
 assurance to defend man-stealing as a practice expressly sanctioned by 
 
474 
 
 God. From that time the question was argued as one of profit and poli¬ 
 tical necessity hy the defenders of the trade, not of right and wrong. The 
 following may he considered fair specimens of this controversy, as it 
 was carried on in Liverpool for twenty years.* 
 
 One writer resisted the abolition of the slave trade on the following 
 grounds:—That the number of negroes in the West Indies was not 
 sufficient to carry on the cultivation of the islands without an annual 
 supply from Africa; that half the estates would become useless if the 
 trade were abolished; that the population could not he supplied hy 
 natural causes, as the females slaves were to the males as only one to 
 ten ; that there must he an import either of whites or blacks, unless the 
 islands were to he abandoned; that to send Europeans there was to 
 send them to their graves; that to abandon the islands would he to 
 sacrifice our commercial marine, and the naval greatness of the country ; 
 that all Europeans' who had lived in the West Indies were of opinion 
 that the negroes were an inferior race, incapable of living as freemen ; 
 that working-people, in all parts of the world, were more or less slaves, 
 and that the principal difference between the free labourers of Europe,! 
 and the negroes of the West Indies, was that the former could choose 
 their masters, the latter could not; that the idea of setting the negroes 
 
 A . * The following extract of a letter of Dr. Currie’s will help to show what was the state of 
 public opinion as to the slave trade, in Liverpool, in 1788 :—“ The general discussion of the 
 slavery of the negroes has produced much unhappiness in Liverpool. Men are awaking to 
 their situation, and the struggle between interest and humanity has made great havoc in the 
 happiness of many families. If I were to attempt to tell you the history of my own trans¬ 
 actions in this business, I should consume more time than I can spare. Altogether I have 
 felt myself more interested, and less happy than is suited to my other avocations. The 
 attempts that are continually made to justify this gross violation of the principles of justice, 
 one cannot help repelling; and at the same time it is dreadful to hold an argument, 
 where, if your opponent is convinced, he must he made miserable. A little scoundrel, a 
 Spanish Jesuit, has advanced to the assistance of the slave-merchants, and has published a 
 vindication of this traffic from the Old Testament. His w'ork is extolled as a prodigy by 
 these judges of composition; and is, in truth, no had specimen of his talents, though 
 egregiously false and sophistical, as all justifications of slavery must he. I have prompted 
 a clergyman, a friend of mine, to answer him, by telling him that if such be religion, I 
 would ‘ none on’t.’ Whatever be the issue of the present efforts for the parliamentary aboli¬ 
 tion of the slave trade, much good, I am persuaded, will be done by the discussion of the 
 subject. We shall, in future, find fewer persons so abandoned in their modes of reasoning 
 and practice towards the unhappy negroes as many now are, for there is something in the 
 censure of man which the greatest villain dreads, and does much to avoid. It likewise 
 gives one a better opinion of the present generation, to find that they can be roused by the 
 pure dictates of humanity, independent of all party questions or distinctions ; and there can 
 be no doubt that sooner or later the voice of freedom and truth will exert itself on this 
 subject with irresistible influence. Priestley, who spent an evening with me lately, is of 
 opinion that no effort even of the humblest individual is ever lost. Let there he but agita¬ 
 tion of any question, and the interests of truth and virtue are promoted;—no matter in 
 ‘ what direction the motion comes, let there be motion, that is enough: the tide-mill goes 
 equally whether the water runs with the flood or the ebb. This is a great man, and a most 
 agreeable one.” 
 
 + Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, January, 28, 1788. 
 
475 
 
 free, and giving compensation to the masters, was “ extravagant beyond 
 all measure,” as there were in the island of Jamaica alone 200,000 
 negroes, worth four millions of money. 
 
 Another defender of the slave trade professed to give an account of 
 the number of slaves held by each nation, which he stated to be as 
 follows :—The British, in the West Indies, and Anglo-Americans, on the 
 American continent, together, 1,500,000 ; the French, chiefly in St. 
 Domingo,400,000; the Spaniards, 2,500,000; the Portuguese, 1,000,000; 
 the Dutch and Danes, 100,000 : total number of negro slaves in 
 America, 5,500,000.* The inference which he drew from these facts was, 
 that this was too vast an interest to be touched. 
 
 A third writer, signing himself “ Spectator”, contended that the 
 slaves were either prisoners of war, or criminals, in Africa; and that if 
 not bought by Europeans “ they whould have nothing to hope for short 
 of death, and that, perhaps, with all its accumulated horrors.” Still, he 
 denied that the nations of Africa went to war with each other to procure 
 slaves. In proof of this he stated that the number of slaves exported 
 from theFantee country, on the Gold Coast, had been 7,000 to 8,000 
 annually, for the last fifteen or twenty years ; and, yet, that the Fantees 
 had not been at war with any nation. One-fourth of them were their own 
 criminals ; the remaining three-fourths were brought from the interior of 
 Africa, and were equally unknown to the natives and to Europeans. 
 
 A fourth writer undertook to show the importance of the trade from 
 Great Britain to Africa. He argued as follows:—The manufactures 
 sent to Africa were all of our own producing; the returns were gold, 
 ivory, wax, dye-woods, and negroes ; the four first articles for home 
 consumption or manufactured for export ; the last affording a pro¬ 
 digious employment to our people, both by sea and land. Without 
 them the plantations could not be cultivated, nor the shipping employed. 
 There was no rivalry from the natives in the African trade. In this 
 trade great improvements might be introduced. “ Consider,” said the 
 writer, “ the vast continent of Africa, the extent of coast within the 
 limits of our trade, by act of parliament, (from Port Salee, in Barbary, 
 to the Cape of Good Hope,) an extent of near 3,000 leagues, most 
 advantageously situated for commerce ; the inland parts rich in gold and 
 other valuable commodities beyond description, watered with innumerable 
 rivers, navigable for many hundred leagues up the country, the soil 
 amazingly fruitful, and the people numerous. In what light, then,” adds 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 11, 1788. 
 
476 
 
 he, “ but in that of enemies of their country, can we look upon those who, 
 under the specious plea of establishing universal freedom, endeavour to 
 strike at the root of this trade, the foundation of our commerce, the 
 support of our colonies, the life of our navigation, the first cause of our 
 national industry and riches ? What vain pretence of liberty can 
 infatuate people to run into so much licentiousness, as to assert a 
 trade is unlawful, which custom immemorial, and various acts of parlia¬ 
 ment, have ratified and given a sanction to ?”* 
 
 Another, and much abler, writer addressed a letter to the gentlemen 
 of Manchester, “ calling themselves a Committee for the Abolition of the 
 Slave Trade”, in opposition to their proceedings. He informed them that 
 their plans and attempts to abolish the African trade were “ totally incon¬ 
 sistent with the true interests and safety of their country.” Could they 
 prevail on the other nations of Europe, he says, to abolish the trade, as 
 France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, &c., the consequences might 
 not be so fatal; but if not, it was to very little purpose that our Kodneys, 
 Hoods, and other great commanders had fought our battles, and con¬ 
 quered the French, Spaniards, and Dutch in the West Indies; if, after 
 all these victories, “ the great bone of contention,” our West India Islands, 
 “ those very islands from which manufacturers are supplied with cotton,— 
 those very islands which have cost England so much blood and treasure 
 to gain and keep possession of,” were to be given up to our national ene¬ 
 mies, which, he contends, would be the certain consequence, so soon as 
 ever the planters found that England refused to supply them with slaves 
 for the cultivation of their estates. When the islands had thus been com¬ 
 pelled to change their allegiance, the governments of France, Spain, 
 Portugal, or Holland, to which ever of those powers they might belong, 
 would compel them, " as they do at present with their own planters, under 
 pain of death and confiscation of property,” to send all their produce home 
 to Europe in their own vessels. Should this be the case, the French 
 or other foreign nations would carry all the sugars, coffees, cocoa, 
 rum, dyewoods, cotton, and other West Indian products to their own 
 country, England must become dependent upon them for those articles, 
 and either pay them their own prices, (out of which their government would 
 raise a revenue,) or else do without them. “ In that situation”, says this 
 writer, “ what will become of the town of Manchester and the county of 
 Lancaster at large, when France tells you ‘ Gentlemep you shall have 
 none of our cotton for the supply of your manufactories, without paying 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, February 11, 1788. 
 
477 
 
 us Is. or 2s. a pound duty upon it.’ I do not need,” he continued, “ to 
 point out the reasonableness of what I say on this head, since it is a 
 fact, well known to every man who has imported cotton from Trance, 
 that France always exacts a duty of 12 livres (10s. Gd. English) per hun¬ 
 dred pounds, on all raw cotton leaving her ports ; and no longer ago than 
 the year 1787 (the previous year) she increased the duty to 33 livres per 
 hundred pounds, in consequence of a petition from the cotton manufac¬ 
 turers of Eouen, in Normandy, who represented to the Court of France 
 that the English cotton dealers purchased such very large quantities of 
 cotton at the French ports, that their own manufactures would he left 
 without a sufficient quantity for their consumption.” Supposing France 
 to obtain the monopoly of raw cotton, it would he in her power to say, 
 “ Except you pay such prices for our cotton as we choose to demand, or 
 allow us free liberty to import British wool in exchange, (which would he 
 the certain ruin of our woollen manufactures,) you shall have no cotton 
 from us." By so doing France would annihilate the British cotton manu¬ 
 facture. So far was France from being disposed to follow the advice of 
 the English abolitionists, by suppressing the slave trade, that she was 
 giving it every encouragement. France admitted into her ports, free of 
 duty, all goods whatsoever, and wherever manufactured, which were proper 
 for the purchase of slaves in Africa. She did this before the commercial 
 treaty with England; and, as a further encouragement to the slave trade, 
 she gave a bounty equal to £7 of English money per head on every 
 slave imported into her West Indian Islands, in a French ship ; and at 
 one of these settlements, Caies St. Louis, (Aux Cayes, in St. Domingo,) 
 this bounty amounted to £10 a-head. The effect of this had been that 
 the number of French slave ships had increased surprisingly from 1 780 
 to 1788 ; “ during which period she has procured some Liverpool captains 
 to command her ships, and many vessels have been fitted out at Havre de 
 Grace, by a gentleman well known to the manufacturers of African goods in 
 Manchester and Birmingham.” As for Spain, whose islands and settlements 
 used formerly to be supplied with slaves by the British merchants, the 
 Spanish government had become so anxious to create a slave trade of its 
 own, that it had recently despatched vessels from Cadiz to the East Indies, 
 with hard dollars, to buy up goods suitable for the slave trade. Spain, in 
 order to encourage her slave trade, had also relinquished to Portugal her 
 claim to the valuable island of St. Catharine’s, “ which was the cause of 
 the last war between Spain and Portugal”, in exchange for the islands of 
 Fernando Po and Anna Bona, in Africa, which Portugal had ceded to her. 
 
 3 Q 
 
The writer then proceeds to ask the Manchester abolitionists in what 
 manner they intend to employ the ships and seamen which were then 
 employed in the African trade ? In order to show the advantage and 
 the necessity of the trade, he produced the following statements, which 
 he had received from Mr. Oliphant, late of the Liverpool Custom-house, 
 and which applied to the slave trade of Liverpool alone, excluding the 
 slave trade of London, Bristol, &c.:—“ For several years past ninety 
 vessels have sailed annually from the port of Liverpool to purchase 
 slaves on the coast of Africa ; these ninety vessels carry out 2,700 
 hands, with goods, (including said vessels’ outfit,) to the amount and 
 value of between ^800,000 and ^£900,000 English money, purchased 
 from the East India Company, the manufacturers of Manchester, Birming¬ 
 ham, &c.; consume prodigious quantities of provisions brought from 
 Ireland, and employ vast numbers of workmen, as carpenters, joiners, 
 ironmongers, painters, sail-makers, braziers, boat-builders, coopers, 
 riggers, plumbers, glaziers, gunsmiths, bread-bakers, carters, labourers, 
 and consume great quantities of copper for ships’ bottoms.” “ In case 
 we abolish the slave trade,” demands this writer, “ what must become of 
 all these people, who will be left without employ ? Will you compel them 
 to stay at home and starve, or will you tell them to go to France and 
 Spain to get bread ? Should they go, your enemies will receive them 
 with open arms, to the irreparable loss and injury of England. What 
 other markets,” asked he, “ shall we find out for all the East India goods, 
 Manchester, Birmingham, and other manufactures, which are carried out 
 to purchase slaves, as well as for the consumption of the West India 
 Islands ? What satisfaction do you propose making to the West India 
 planters, whose estates are very valuable whilst cultivated, but will be 
 worth nothing, and their families reduced to beggary and ruin, whenever 
 the cultivation is stopped by want of hands ? which is not the only evil 
 the planters have to dread, for your violent writings, and attempts to 
 abolish the trade will, in all probability, be made public to the slaves 
 themselves in your islands, cause insurrections amongst them, and the 
 loss of thousands of lives, both whites and blacks.” 
 
 Although opposed to the abolition of the slave trade, this writer 
 declared that he was friendly to a reform both of the trade and of slavery 
 itself, on which subject he proceeded to state his views, which were not 
 founded on hearsay, but upon what he had seen in the West India Islands 
 belonging to France, Spain, Holland, and England. The French, he said, 
 treated their slaves with greater humanity, fed and clothed them better, 
 
479 
 
 than any other European nation ; caused them to be properly instructed 
 in the principles of religion, and obliged them to attend constantly and 
 regularly to Divine service on Sundays and holydays. For this end they 
 had built churches, and fixed clergymen in very town and almost every 
 large village throughout their West India Islands; and they, from experi¬ 
 ence, had found that it was the true policy so to do, as the French slaves 
 were more faithful than those of other nations, and in case of attack by 
 an enemy had generally proved true to their masters, “ who reside upon 
 their estates, and acquire an esteem and attachment for their slaves, which 
 British planters who reside in London, and commit the care and manage¬ 
 ment of their negroes to hired overseers, cannot hope for.” The Spaniards, 
 he said, treated their slaves better than the English, but not so well as the 
 French. Proper attention was paid to them in point of religion, but 
 they were not so well fed and clothed, and they were made to work more 
 than the slaves in the French islands. The English and Dutch were 
 pretty much upon a par in the treatment of their slaves. Some planters 
 behaved very well to them, but others did not treat them as well as they 
 might do, “ which is certainly a great shame and disgrace to civilized 
 people,” and ought to be prevented. In point of religion, neither one nor 
 the other gave, or caused to be given, the least religious instruction ; nor 
 were there a sufficient number of churches and chapels established in the 
 English islands for the necessary purposes of religion. This, however, 
 the writer contended, might be remedied, without abolishing the slave 
 trade, which neither the French nor Spaniards would ever think of doing ; 
 certainly not the Spaniards, who could not work their mines without slaves, 
 and would thus lose a revenue of from twenty to thirty millions of hard 
 dollars, which were brought at particular times by the register ships from 
 La Vera Cruz to Cadiz. “ Were these gentlemen,” said he, “ now so violent 
 for abolition, to become a little more moderate in their ideas, and to open 
 their purses with liberal subscriptions, they might do a great deal, and be 
 of real benefit to the slaves in the English islands. With money raised 
 for the purposes of humanity, churches might be built, and clergymen be 
 established to instruct the slaves in religion, with as much success as is 
 practised in the French islands; and a sufficient fund might be established 
 for the purpose of prosecuting and punishingsuch planters as may hereafter 
 treat their slaves improperly or with want of humanity. This would prove 
 the means of bringing about a reformation, and put a stop to such prac¬ 
 tises in future.” 
 
 This letter was promptly answered by an Abolitionist writer, in the 
 
480 
 
 Liverpool paper of the 18th February, 1788. He began by informing the 
 author of the above defence of the slave trade, that as the gentlemen of 
 Manchester, calling themselves “ a Committee for the Abolition of the 
 African Slave Trade”, might not think it necessary to notice an anony¬ 
 mous writer, he would take the liberty of offering some observations “ on 
 his very elaborate performance.” When he found this “ Friend of Old 
 England” attacking the Manchester committee for the violence of their 
 resolutions, their ignorance of the true interests and safety of the country, 
 and of the consequences which must follow from the abolition of the slave 
 trade, he admired liis great assurance, and felt a desire to have his opinion 
 of the resolutions and petitions of many counties, cities, and towns, which 
 had since expressed the same opinions as those expressed at Manchester. 
 For example, he wished to know what he thought of the resolutions of 
 the city of Bristol ? What he said to those of the inhabitants of Hull, 
 Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham ? Did they not understand the true 
 interests of the country ? Had they not considered the consequences of 
 abolition ? or were they only understood by profound geniuses like himself ? 
 He then proceeded to inform the defender of the slave trade that he would 
 have served his cause much more effectually if, instead of pronouncing 
 general censures on the resolutions agreed to at Manchester, he had com¬ 
 batted and overturned the principles on which those resolutions were 
 founded. This he had not done, because he was aware that the African 
 slave trade could not be defended on a principle of religion, or “ on the 
 ground of common honesty.” His long letter was therefore confined to 
 an exaggerated account of its commercial advantages, and a false repre¬ 
 sentation of the consequences that will result from the suppression of this 
 “ infernal traffic ; a mode of reasoning which in private life would justify 
 the profession of a highwayman or a pickpocket.” One sentiment of these 
 resolutions he would recommend very earnestly to the consideration of 
 this defender of man-stealing. It did honour to British manufacturers, 
 and to adopt it would not disgrace the British merchant. “ That this 
 meeting, though fully sensible of the importance of manufactures and 
 commerce to the real interests of the nation, is yet too jealous of that 
 reputation which all honest men ought to desire, to wish the promotion of 
 any traffic, however lucrative, by means inconsistent with humanity and 
 integrity.” 
 
 The writer then proceeded to inform his opponent that the object of 
 the present application to parliament was the abolition of the slave trade 
 from Africa to the West Indies, and such regulations respecting the 
 
481 
 
 slaves now in our islands as shall immediately improve tlieir condition, 
 and prepare the way for gradual emancipation. Even his oppo¬ 
 nent acknowledged the necessity of a reform in the mode of treating 
 the slaves in the British colonies, and admitted that many of our planters 
 treated them in a manner which was a disgrace to a civilized people. 
 With regard to the inquiry as to whether the evils of slavery could not be 
 remedied without totally abolishing the trade, he said, “ It is curious to 
 observe that, till the question of an abolition of the slave trade became 
 agitated before the public, we heard nothing of the reforms now taken up 
 so warmly by the advocates of its continuance. Why has your humanity, 
 sir,” said he, “ slept so long ? You, who have seen the condition of the 
 unfortunate African in the settlements of France, Spain, and Holland, 
 why did you not come forward sooner with your appeal ? And how can 
 you, who feel so much for his situation in the West Indies, justify the 
 commerce that placed him there ? Your own experience must convince 
 you that nothing hut the abolition of the trade in question will remedy 
 the evil complained of; and the consequence will he, that those will he 
 compelled to be humane, from interest, who are not so from principle ; 
 and the planter will eventually be a gainer, unless you can prove, what 
 you have not attempted, that a continued importation of slaves from 
 Africa is absolutely necessary to the cultivation of his land. It, however, 
 fortunately for the cause of humanity, appears that the contrary is the 
 fact; and that many instances can be adduced of estates in the West 
 Indies, on which the number of slaves has been not only supported, but 
 increased, without any foreign supply, for many years; a circumstance 
 which affords the strongest proof which the nature of the case will admit, 
 that a proper attention to the principles of humanity, in their treatment, 
 would preclude the necessity of any further supplies from the coast of 
 Africa.” In concluding this part of the argument, he begged, that when 
 next his opponent wrote in defence of this humane traffic, he would 
 inform the public what bad consequences had arisen to the planter during 
 the American war, from the want of a constant supply of slaves, when the 
 import of slaves was so nearly annihilated ? With regard to the West 
 India Islands, he assured his antagonist, that the planters were not 
 likely to give the islands to a foreign power, until they met with one 
 who could afford them a better market for their produce, or could supply 
 their wants on better terms. 
 
 “ With respect to our cotton manufacture,” said the writer, “ can you 
 be ignorant that our islands do not produce of the raw material more 
 
482 
 
 than onc-fifth of the general consumption; and that, if your arguments 
 were founded in truth, we should now experience some of the inconve¬ 
 niences you mention; and you must also know that the produce of the 
 French islands, notwithstanding the duty you allude to, comes to this 
 market in competition with our own. When the French shall consume 
 the whole produce of their settlements, and when the Dutch, the Portu¬ 
 guese, and the Turks (all cotton-growers) shall commence cotton- 
 manufactures, we may he a little inconvenienced; hut, till then, never 
 fear that our money, and the exertions of our good friends, the cotton 
 speculators, will keep us in good stock ; and when you cast your eye 
 over the map of the countries that produce this valuable article, you will 
 easily see that the growth can be extended beyond the utmost possibility 
 of consumption. Your predictions, therefore, of the French refusing us 
 cotton, of our own people being under the necessity of emigrating into 
 France, and of the ruin of woollen manufactures are truly laughable, and 
 of a piece with your dread of losing the West India Islands, reducing 
 the planters to beggary, injuring the revenue, starving such vast numbers 
 of carpenters, joiners, ironmongers, &c., as if the whole commerce 
 of the kingdom was centred in the slave trade, or the very existence of 
 the empire depended upon a continuance of it.” “ Why should you, my 
 good friend,” he adds, “ be alarmed for our manufacturers and mechanics, 
 when they have no fears ? They are convinced that there is honourable 
 commerce sufficient for honest men, and that we may still hold the same 
 distinguished place in the scale of commercial nations, when this foul 
 exuberance shall be lopped off.” In concluding this well-written, well- 
 reasoned letter, the writer added, “ It will be time enough to consider 
 the propriety of building churches in the West Indies when the planters, 
 and others concerned in the slave trade, shall become Christians. They 
 are at present unacquainted with the first principles of religion, and c to 
 do unto all men as we would they should do unto us,’ is not, I am afraid, 
 to be found in their gospel. If you are inclined to appear again as 
 the advocate of the slave trade, remember that its principles ought to be 
 justified before its policy can be defended; the latter only you have 
 attempted, with what success the public will determine.”* 
 
 The above may be taken as fair specimens of this great controversy. 
 It continued to be carried on in Liverpool with great spirit, and some¬ 
 times with great vehemence, for the next twenty years. I shall have to 
 notice, in the course of this work, the different aspects which it assumed 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, Leb. 18, 1788. 
 
483 
 
 at different periods, until it was finally closed by the abolition of the 
 slave trade. 
 
 I now proceed to trace the course of local events of a less exciting 
 character. 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1788, Patrick Bourne and John Silvester 
 Dowling were hung in front of the gaol at Liverpool, in the presence of 
 20,000 spectators. They had been convicted at Lancaster of burglariously 
 breaking into the house of Mrs. Graham, of Liverpool. Hanging was 
 at that time the universal infallible specific for all moral diseases; and 
 the judges, thinking that the sight of a public execution might deter 
 others, sent the prisoners to be hung at Liverpool. At the spring 
 assizes, in the previous year, no less than 240 prisoners were capitally 
 convicted in England, and 82 were left for execution. 
 
 On the 5th November, 1788, the centenary of the English revolution 
 of 1688 was celebrated in Liverpool by a grand banquet; William Boscoe 
 contributed a fine ode to the pleasures of the entertainment. The French 
 revolution had commenced, but nothing had yet occurred to excite appre¬ 
 hensions that it would be carried further than the revolution of 1688. 
 
 The communication between Liverpool and Dublin was considered 
 almost perfect at the beginning of the year 1789, three packets, the Earl 
 of Charlemont, the Duke of Leinster, and the St. Patrick having sailed 
 in two days. The following was mentioned in a Liverpool paper as an 
 instance of expeditious travelling, “ which now frequently occurs.” A 
 gentleman left London on Monday evening by mail, and arrived in Liver¬ 
 pool on Wednesday morning; found a packet ready to sail for Dublin ; 
 arrived there on Thursday ; did the business that occasioned his going 
 there; returned by another packet on Friday; arrived in Liverpool on 
 Saturday; and was in London again on that day week that he left it. 
 “ Compare this,” adds the editor, “ with a few years back, when the 
 sober citizen used to make his will before he undertook a journey of 
 two hundred miles into the country, and was a week in effecting it.”* 
 
 In April, 1788, great rejoicings took place in Liverpool on the resto¬ 
 ration of the king to health, after a period of mental aberration. The 
 town was brilliantly illuminated, and a grand ball and banquet was given 
 at the Town-hall. The following gentlemen formed the committee who 
 conducted the festivities :—John Blackburn, Esq., Mayor, Mr. John 
 Gregson, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Statham, Mr. Stanifortli, Mr. Crosbie, Mr. 
 Earle, Mr. Clayton Tarleton, and Mr. Steers. 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 4, 171)0. 
 
484 
 
 In 1789 William Eoscoe was elected President of the Liverpool 
 Library. That institution has now flourished for upwards of ninety 
 years, and has attained a magnitude and value which its founders never 
 anticipated. It was established near the end of the reign of George the 
 Second, in the year 1757, when several of the principal merchants, 
 professional men, and tradesmen of the town, “ including nearly all the 
 members of the St. Paul’s-square Club,” with a view, as the prospectus 
 states, “ of furnishing an ample fund of amusement and improvement at 
 the easiest expense,” formed themselves into a society, for establishing a 
 circulating library. The original list of subscribers contained 109 names ; 
 the first catalogue, that of November, 1759, gave a list of 450 volumes, 
 which then formed the whole intellectual wealth of the library. The 
 books were originally kept in a large chest, in a room in St. 
 Paul’s-square; they were then removed to the parlour of a house 
 in Prince’s-street, a small street leading out of Dale-street; and 
 after that to a building belonging to Mr. Everard, the first librarian, 
 situated in John-street. In the year 1760 the number of books 
 had increased to 650 volumes; and in 1770, to 1,547. Mr. Everard 
 ceased to be librarian in 1770. He was succeeded by Mr Brodick, 
 who held the office of librarian for two years; and on his retirement 
 from the office Mr. George Barker was appointed librarian, and held 
 the office for forty-six years. In the year 1786, the books having 
 increased beyond the accommodation which the room in John-street 
 afforded, the library was removed to a room twice the size, situated in 
 Lord-street. “ The library” (says the introduction to the catalogue of 
 1850) “was by this time considered as one of the most important insti¬ 
 tutions of the town, being one of the largest, if not the largest collection 
 of books in this part of the kingdom. The society had counted amongst 
 its members the greater part of those inhabitants of Liverpool most distin¬ 
 guished for intellect or acquirement. Besides the illustrious Eoscoe, the 
 following may be mentioned as having been active members of the com¬ 
 mittee :—Dr. Currie, Dr. Bostock, the Eev. John Yates, Mr. Bathbone, 
 Dr. Worthington, Dr. Eutter, Dr. Lyon, Mr. Evans, (afterwards Sir 
 William D. Evans and Becorder of Bombay,) Mr. Daulby and Mr. 
 Brooke. Of these the sole survivor is the last-named gentleman, who, 
 now in his ninetieth year, still retains a lively recollection of Liverpool, 
 as it was seventy years since, and to whose information, kindly commu¬ 
 nicated by his son, Bichard Brooke, Esq., this account is under great 
 obligations.” The subsequent progress of the library has been a 
 
485 
 
 continual success. In 1794 the number of books bad increased to 5,095. 
 In 1800 the plan of building a library—the present Lyceum—was agreed 
 upon, and in 1803 the books were removed to it. At that time the number 
 of volumes was 8,157 ; in 1814 it bad increased to 11,831 ; in 1830, to 
 21,400 ; and, in 1850, to 36,751. 
 
 This fine collection of books is divided into the following classes :— 
 Theology and mental philosophy, 2,753 volumes; natural philosophy, 
 Ac., 2,318 ; history and biography, 5,499 ; antiquities and topography, 
 1,190 ; geography, voyages, and travels, 2,981 ; law, politics, &c., 3,251 ; 
 language, logic, &c., 579 ; miscellaneous literature, 7,064 ; fine arts and 
 mechanics, 657; poetry, 1,379 ; novels and romances, 6,832 ; drama and 
 dramatic literature, 502; Greek and Latin classics, 286. Having traced 
 the history of the Liverpool Library from its origin, I proceed to the 
 events of the year 1791. 
 
 The Blind Asylum, one of the most interesting and successful of the 
 Liverpool charities, was established in that year. The idea of forming 
 such an institution originated with Edward Kushton, the poet, who 
 was himself entirely blind during thirty years of his life. The following 
 lines were written by him, to excite sympathy for sufferings which he 
 was so well able to feel and to describe : 
 
 “blindness. 
 
 “ Ah ! think, if June’s delicious rays 
 The eye of sorrow can illume, 
 
 Or wild December’s beamless days 
 Can fling o’er all a transient gloom. 
 
 Ah ! think, if skies obscure or bright, 
 
 Can thus depress or cheer the mind, 
 
 Ah ! think, ’midst clouds of utter night, 
 
 What mournful moments wait the blind. 
 
 And who shall tell his cause for woe, 
 
 To love the wife he ne’er must see, 
 
 To be a sire, yet not to know 
 
 The silent babe that climbs his knee ? 
 
 To have his feelings daily torn, 
 
 With pain, the passing meal to find ; 
 
 To live distress’d, and die forlorn, 
 
 Are ills that oft await the blind. 
 
 When to the breezy uplands led, 
 
 At noon, or blushing eve, or mom, 
 
 Ho hears the redbreast o’er his head, 
 
 While round him breathes the scented thorn. 
 
 But oh ! instead of nature’s face, 
 
 Hills, dales, and woods, and streams combined, 
 
 Instead of tints, and forms, and grace, 
 
 Night’s blackest mantle shrouds the blind. 
 
 If rosy youth, bereft of sight, 
 
 ’Midst countless thousands, pines unblest, 
 
 As the gay flower withdrawn from light, 
 
 Bows to the earth where all must rest; 
 
 Ah ! think, when life's declining hours 
 To chilly penury consigned, 
 
 And pain has palsied all Ins powers, 
 
 Ah ! think what woes await the Blind.” 
 
 3 R 
 
486 
 
 The three years which preceded the commencement of the wars of the 
 French revolution, were years of extraordinary prosperity, during which 
 an immense number of new canal schemes were launched. 
 
 In the year 1791 an act was obtained for forming a canal from the 
 Mersey and Irwell Navigation, at Manchester, to the flourishing manufac¬ 
 turing towns of Bolton and Bury. The length of the canal was fifteen 
 miles and one furlong. The rise 187 feet from the river Irwell. This 
 canal followed the windings of that river during great part of its course, 
 and traversed a country rich in minerals, and crowded with inhabitants. 
 
 In the following year an act was obtained for forming a canal from 
 Manchester to Asliton-under-Lyne and Oldham. The length of this 
 canal was about eleven miles, and its rise 152 feet. Coal, lime, timber, 
 raw cotton, and manufactured goods are the principal articles of transport 
 upon it. 
 
 The Huddersfield and Ashton, like the Bochdale Canal, joins the 
 Manchester and Oldham Canal and forms a means of communication 
 with the populous towns of Ashton, in Lancashire, and Huddersfield, in 
 Yorkshire. The act for forming this canal was passed in the year 1794. 
 The Huddersfield Canal, after passing by Ashton and Staleybridge, enters 
 Yorkshire in the manufacturing district of Saddleworth: it passes through 
 the hills by a tunnel three miles in length. The rise of this canal is 
 334 feet on the Lancashire side of the hills, and it falls 436 feet before 
 it joins Sir John Ramsden’s canal from Huddersfield to Cooper-bridge. 
 That canal is connected with the river Calder, and thus forms a fourth 
 line of water-carriage across the island from Liverpool to Hull. 
 
 In the same year, powers were obtained for forming a canal 
 from the limestone district about the Derbyshire Peak, by Chapel-le- 
 Frith, Disley, Marple, and Mellor, to join the Ashton and Huddersfield 
 Canal, near Duckinfield-bridge. 
 
 In the month of February, 1791, the plan of forming a canal from the 
 Mersey and Irwell Navigation, at Manchester, to the river Calder, at 
 Sowerby-bridge, near Halifax, was again revived. A meeting of gentle¬ 
 men, merchants, and others interested in the project, was held at Rochdale, 
 on the 10th of February, at which it was determined that new surveys 
 should be made. These, with the original plans and estimates of Brindley, 
 made in the year 1766, were produced at an adjourned meeting, held in 
 the month of April, at the same place, at which it was unanimously 
 resolved to proceed with the canal. So great was the eagerness to obtain 
 shares in the undertaking that ^60,000 worth of scrip was subscribed for 
 in an hour. The act for forming this canal did not receive the consent 
 
487 
 
 of parliament until the year 1794, the early attempts to obtain it having 
 been defeated by the opposition of the mill-owners, whose works stood on 
 the streams, from which the supplies of water for the projected canal were 
 proposed to be drawn. This canal, which is called the Rochdale Canal, 
 commences close to the town of Manchester, passes by Denton, Chaderton, 
 Middleton, and Hopwood, to within a short distance of Rochdale, whence 
 it sends off a small branch to that town. From Rochdale the main line 
 proceeds to Littleborough. At Dean Head, between Littleborougli and 
 Todmorden, it reaches its highest level, to which it is raised by a series of 
 locks. The rise from Manchester is 438 feet. From this point it descends 
 through the valley of Todmorden to the river Calder, at Sowerby-bridge, 
 falling 278 feet, by a succession of locks, before it reaches the Calder. 
 This canal is supplied with water by large reservoirs, formed in the hills, 
 so as to render it unnecessary to draw any part of its supplies from the 
 running streams which furnish water-power to the manufactories of the 
 district. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1792 meetings were held at Shrewsbury, 
 Ellesmere, Whitchurch, and other places, to consider a proposed plan of 
 forming a canal from the river Severn at Shrewsbury to the Dee at Chester, 
 and the Mersey near Stanlow. At the Ellesmere meeting it was resolved 
 that such intended canal would be highly beneficial to the landed and 
 commercial interests of the country in general ; that it was practicable to 
 make it so as to pass near to, or communicate by branches with, several 
 extensive coal, lime, and slate works, in the parishes of Chirk, Ruabon, 
 and Llangollen, in the county of Denbigh, and Oswestry, in the county 
 of Salop. Surveys were also ordered to be made, to ascertain whether it 
 could not be extended to the neighbourhood of Wem and Whitchurch. 
 At a subsequent meeting held at Newport, Shropshire, it was unanimously 
 resolved that the canal should be large enough to be navigable for vessels 
 of fourteen feet beam. Commencing in the basin of the Chester Canal, it 
 was to complete the grand commercial communication between the Severn, 
 Dee, and Mersey, by a canal capable of navigating barges of eighty tons, 
 through the whole length of fifty-two miles, without a tunnel.* There were 
 at first two rival canal schemes on this line, the Eastern and the Western 
 Canals, but before the work was completed one canal was found to be quite 
 enough both for the shareholders aud the public. 
 
 Another project launched at this time was the Grand Junction Canal, 
 by means of which the Oxford Canal, which was connected with all the 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 1 , 1702. 
 
488 
 
 Lancashire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire Canals, was joined to the river 
 Thames. The canal making this junction commenced at Braunton, in 
 Warwickshire, and extended through the counties of Northampton, 
 Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford, and Middlesex, joining the Thames 
 at Brentford. 
 
 These, however, were only a small portion of the schemes then in 
 agitation. The canal fever of 1792 was not less intense than the railway 
 fever of 1845 ; nor were the undertakings projected at the former period 
 less hold than those of the latter, if allowance be made for the inferiority 
 of the national resources at the former time. It will he remembered that 
 the only canal which existed when George the Third ascended the throne, 
 in 1760, was the Sankey Brook Canal, fourteen miles in length, whilst, 
 according to a list of canals published in Liverpool, in 1792, the number 
 of canals then constructed was thirty-one, with an aggregate length of 890 
 miles. Fully as many more were projected and planned in that year. 
 The total length of the English canals is 2,614 miles, so that it appears 
 that two-thirds of all these canals were formed or planned within 
 forty years after the opening of the first. The canal share market in 
 1792 very much resembled the railway share market in 1845. At a 
 sale of canal shares in October, 1792, the shares in the Trent navigation 
 sold for 175 guineas each ; those in the river Soar Canal, in Leicester¬ 
 shire, for 765 guineas; those in the Erewash Canal for 642 guineas; 
 one share in the Oxford Canal for 156 guineas; one in the Cromford 
 Canal for 130 guineas; one in the Leicester Canal for 175; ten shares 
 in the Grand Junction Canal, of which not a sod was dug, sold for 
 355 guineas premium ; a single share in the same canal for 29 guineas 
 premium ; and ten shares in the projected Mersey and Severn Canal for 
 29 guineas. 
 
 I have shown, in the first chapter of this work, that Liverpool was 
 naturally much inferior to the other great ports of the kingdom, in the 
 means of transporting merchandise and produce into and from the interior. 
 That whilst the stream of the Thames furnished London with a navigable 
 channel, communicating with many of the richest counties of England, 
 and flowing through a course of more than two hundred miles; that 
 whilst the Severn gave nearly equal advantages of inland communication 
 to Bristol; the Trent and Humber to Hull; and the Ouse and Nene to 
 the once-flourishing port of Lynn, in Norfolk ; Liverpool possessed no 
 means of communicating with the interior beyond the banks of the estuary 
 of the Mersey, owing to the smallness of the streams which discharge 
 
489 
 
 themselves into it. This great disadvantage, which rendered the cost of 
 transporting goods into or from the interior four times as great as it was in 
 places possessing the convenience of water-carriage, continued to be felt until 
 the accession of George the First. Soon after the final settlement of the 
 constitutional quarrels of England, the work of improvement commenced; 
 and before the close of the century, Liverpool, from being worse supplied 
 with the means of internal transport than any port in England, was much 
 better. The systems of canals, which terminate in the estuary of the 
 Mersey, were four in number, and served all the purposes of internal 
 communication as well, if not better, than the four finest rivers in the 
 kingdom would have done. 
 
 The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was the first of these systems of inland 
 navigation. By its connexion with the navigable rivers Aire and Calder, 
 on the east side of England, it formed a line of water communication 
 across the island, from Hull and the East Biding of Yorkshire, to Liver¬ 
 pool. In a winding course of nearly two hundred miles, this series of 
 navigations passed by or communicated with the port of Hull; with the 
 ancient and populous city of York ; with the fruitful coru-growing district 
 of Driffield, in the East Biding; with Leeds, the capital of the Yorkshire 
 woollen district; with Bradford, the chief seat of the stuff and worsted 
 manufacture ; with Bingley and Keighley, bustling towns engaged in the 
 woollen manufacture; with Gargrave and the district of Craven, rich in 
 limestone, in cattle, and in the products of the dairy. Then, entering 
 Lancashire, it passed near the populous and flourishing towns of Colne, 
 Burnley, Blackburn, and Chorley, on to Wigan, the chief place in the 
 Lancashire coal district. Near that place it received the canal from 
 the north, which commenced at Kendal, in Westmoreland, and passed 
 southward by Lancaster, through the rich district of the Fylde, and by 
 the pleasant and improving town of Preston, until it joined the Leeds 
 and Liverpool Canal. From Wigan the main trunk of the canal passed 
 forward to Liverpool and the estuary of the Mersey. 
 
 The Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey and Irwell Navigation served 
 as two grand trunks, by which another great system of natural and 
 artificial navigations, reaching from the eastern side of the island, was 
 connected with Liverpool. This system of navigations commences in the 
 great corn-growing district of Lincolnshire; passes by Doncaster; com¬ 
 municates with Sheffield, for many centuries the seat of the cutlery trade ; 
 with Barnsley, one of the few English towns in which the linen trade 
 has flourished in modern times; with Wakefield, the capital of a district 
 
490 
 
 rich in corn, cattle, and minerals; with Halifax, Huddersfield, and 
 Dewsbury, all great seats of the woollen manufacture; and with the 
 crowded, populous, and industrious villages of the West Riding. From 
 Todmorden, where the cotton manufacture of Lancashire appears, and by 
 Rochdale, where the woollen manufacture dies out, it passes on until it 
 reaches Manchester, the centre and capital of the industry of Lancashire. 
 There it is joined from the north by the navigations of Bolton, Bury, and 
 Worsley; and from the south and south-east by those of Derbyshire, 
 Stockport, Oldham, and Ashton. From Manchester the line of this vast 
 internal communication passes down to Liverpool by the Bridgewater 
 Canal and the Mersey and Irwell Navigation ; receiving the trade of 
 Warrington and St. Helens on the north, and that of the Cheshire 
 salt-field on the south. 
 
 A third great system of internal navigation is that of which the 
 Grand Trunk, or Staffordshire Canal, and the Grand Junction Canal form 
 the main channel. This commences in the valley of the Thames, and 
 forms the means of communication between London and Liverpool. 
 After intersecting several of the richest agricultural counties, it enters 
 the Birmingham district. There it receives the trade of that great hive of 
 industry, as well as of the Dudley, Walsall, Stourbridge, and Wolver¬ 
 hampton iron districts. It communicates with Leicester, Newark, Not¬ 
 tingham, and Burton, by the river Trent, and after that passes through 
 the middle of the Staffordshire potteries, and over the great plain of 
 Cheshire, until it joins the Bridgewater Canal, at Preston Brook, and 
 the Mersey, at Runcorn. 
 
 The fourth and last of these great systems of internal communication 
 is the canal by which the Severn, the Dee, and the Mersey are united, 
 commonly known as the Ellesmere Canal. By one branch this canal 
 communicates with the valley of the Severn, in Montgomeryshire; by 
 another with that of the Dee, at Llangollen ; by a third with Whitchurch 
 and the fine agricultural district of Shropshire; whilst the main line 
 passes from Shrewsbury, by Ellesmere, to Chester, and is continued from 
 that ancient city to the river Mersey, at what is called Ellesmere Port. 
 
 When it is considered how large a portion of the wealth, the natural 
 resources, and the population of England is found along the banks of 
 the four great lines of internal communication above described, it will 
 not be matter of wonder that the effect of uniting them to Liverpool, by 
 the cheap and easy medium of navigable canals, should have been to 
 give an immense and lasting impulse to the prosperity of that port. 
 
491 
 
 Had the peace and plenty which England enjoyed from 1783 to the 
 end of 1792 continued for ten years longer, the great projects of 1792 
 might possibly have been accomplished, without any extreme difficulty; 
 but war and scarcity were rapidly approaching; and, though most of the 
 projects were ultimately effected, it was not until many of the projectors 
 had been ruined. The harvest of 1792 was the first of a succession of 
 bad harvests. The rain seldom ceased during the summer, there being 
 only twenty-six dry days between the 30th April and the 5th November 
 in that year. Hence the prices of grain began to rise rapidly. This, 
 however, was only a small evil, in comparison with that which followed, in 
 January, 1793. On the 28th of that month, Louis the Sixteenth was executed 
 at Paris; and immediately after that event, M. Chauvelin, the French 
 Ambassador, received an intimation from the English government, that 
 his mission was entirely terminated by the fatal death of his late most 
 Christian majesty, and that “ the king could no longer permit his resi¬ 
 dence in Great Britain." War followed immediately ; and thus com¬ 
 menced that great conflict which was not brought to a final close until 
 the year 1815. 
 
 Before entering upon the history of Liverpool during the twenty years 
 of war which followed the rupture with republican France, it may be well 
 to bring together a few facts, which show the progress of the port, from 
 the accession of the House of Hanover to the commencement of the 
 revolutionary war. 
 
 The average amount of shipping which entered and cleared from the 
 port of Liverpool, for the seven years, ending in 1716, was 18,371 tons; 
 the average of the second period of seven years, ending in 1723, was 18,607 
 tons ; the average of the third period, ending in 1730, was 18,564 tons ; the 
 average of the fourth period, ending in 1737, was 19,921 tons; the average 
 of the fifth period, ending in 1744, was 22,404 tons ; the average of the 
 sixth period, ending in 1751, was 32,702 ; the average of the seventh 
 period, ending in 1758, was 44,168 ; the average of the eighth period, end¬ 
 ing in 1765, was 62,390 ; the average of the ninth period, ending in 1772, 
 was 84,792 ; the average of the tenth period, ending in 1779, was 79,470 ; 
 the average of the eleventh period, ending in 1786, w r as 151,347 ; and 
 the average of the twelfth period, ending in 1792, was 260,380. Thus, in a 
 period of seventy-seven years, the tonnage entered and cleared from Liver¬ 
 pool had increased from 18,371 to 260,380 tons. Comparing the tonnage 
 which cleared out of Liverpool in 1716, with the amount of the tonnage 
 cleared out of all the ports of England, it formed the twenty-fourth part of 
 the whole; comparing that of 1792, it formed the sixth part of the whole. 
 
492 
 
 In 1716 the whole tonnage which entered and cleared from English ports 
 was 456,309 tons, of which 18,371 tons cleared from Liverpool ; in 1792 
 the whole tonnage cleared was 1,565,154, of which 260,380 cleared 
 from that port.* 
 
 The Customs’ revenue collected in the port of Liverpool increased 
 rapidly during the eighteenth century. In the year 1700 it produced 
 .£50,000; in 1733 it had increased to £93,466 13s. 4d. ; in 1755 to 
 £201,367 9s. 2d.; in 1760 to £248,312 Is. 9d.; in 1765 to £269,435 
 8s. Id. ; in 1770 it had declined to £231,994 12s. 5d.; in 1775 ithad again 
 increased to £274,655 3s. Id.; in 1780, during the heat of the American 
 war, it had declined to £188,830 6s. Id., (that is to less than in the 
 middle of the reign of George the Second;) and in 1785 it had increased, 
 with astonishing rapidity, to the sum of £680,928 19s. lOd. The 
 Custom-house books, from 1789 to the end of 1792, cannot be found ; 
 but, as that was a period of great prosperity, it is probable that the 
 Customs’ revenue of Liverpool, at the commencement of the French war, 
 was little short of a million a-year.f 
 
 The quantity of cotton imported into Liverpool in the year 1790 was 
 9,608,741 pounds; that imported in 1791 was 12,198,805 pounds; and 
 that in 1792 was 14,064,573 pounds.J 
 
 No regular or complete census of the population was taken in England 
 until the year 1801 ; and it is not possible, therefore, to give the popula¬ 
 tion either of Liverpool or of any other English town with strict accuracy, 
 previous to that date. The following, however, are the results of the best 
 data which exist:—In the year 1700 the population is supposed to have 
 been 5,715 souls; in 1710 it had increased to 8.168 ; in 1720 to 11,833 ; 
 in 1730 to 12,074 ; in 1742 to 18,000 ; in 1752 to 18,500 ; in 1766, on 
 the accession of George the Third, to 25,787; in 1770, previous to the 
 American war, to 35,600 ; in 1777, owing to the distress caused by that 
 war, it had diminished to 34,107; in 1786 it had again increased to 
 41,600 ; and in 1790, two years previous to the breaking out of the great 
 French war, to 55,732.§ As the years 1790, ’91, and ’92, were years of 
 wonderful activity in business, it is probable that the immigration and 
 the number of births were both great, and that the population of the 
 port, at the commencement of the war, in 1793, was fully 60,000 souls, 
 or more than ten times as great as it had been at the commencement of 
 the century. 
 
 * Chambers’s Estimate. t Table in Appendix of Liverpool Municipal Inquiry. 
 
 1 Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, Jan. 28, 1703. 
 
 § Appendix to Municipal Inquiry. 
 
CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. 
 
 FROM THE COMMENCEMENT TO THE CLOSE OF THE WARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
 
 1793 to 1815. 
 
 From the commencement of the year 1793 to the close of 1814 the 
 commerce of Liverpool was exposed to all the dangers and chances of 
 war, with only one short interval of rest during the peace of Amiens. It 
 is no part of the plan of this work to discuss questions of national policy. 
 It will, therefore, be sufficient to state, that the differences between the 
 English government and the revolutionary government of France, were 
 brought to a crisis, by the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt, and 
 by the murder of Louis the Sixteenth. By the first of these acts the 
 government of France seized upon a military and naval position, from 
 which it shortly afterwards invaded Holland, and from which the suc¬ 
 cessive governments of France never ceased to threaten England with 
 invasion, until the city of Antwerp, and the magnificent harbour of the 
 Scheldt, were wrested from them at the close of the war. By the murder 
 of the king the Jacobin leaders excited a general feeling of pity for their 
 victim, of horror of their crime, and a vehement desire to avenge so great 
 an outrage on humanity. 
 
 When the news of the execution of Louis the Sixteenth arrived in 
 Liverpool it produced an universal feeling of despondency and gloom. 
 The colours at the Exchange and Custom-house were hoisted half-mast 
 high, and the shipping in all the docks exhibited the same signs of 
 mourning.* Similar feelings of sorrow were expressed throughout the 
 whole kingdom; but they soon gave way to anger, and to the most reso¬ 
 lute preparations for war with “ republican and regicide” France. Early in 
 February a meeting of merchants was held in Liverpool, at which a letter 
 was read from Mr. Pitt, requesting that a deputation might be appointed 
 to proceed to London, for the purpose of communicating with the govern¬ 
 ment, on the “ protection necessary to be afforded to the shipping of the 
 port.” Messrs. George Case, Richard Walker, and John P. Richard 
 
 3 s 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 28, 1793. 
 
494 
 
 were appointed to make the needful arrangements.* For the purpose of 
 depriving the enemy of naval and military supplies, and of arming the 
 English fleet more rapidly, an embargo was laid on vessels taking out naval 
 and military supplies. Greenland ships proceeding to the northern fisheries 
 were ordered to he well armed; and letters of marque were issued against 
 French ships and commerce.t On the 5tli of April the armed Liverpool 
 ship Harriet, Captain Caitcheon, owner Mr. Thomas Barton, brought the 
 first French prize into the port. She was a cedar-built West Indiaman, 
 named L’Agreeable, P. M. Cuille, master, laden with coffee, indigo, sugar, 
 and cotton, of the supposed value of T6,000 to T9,000, and was taken 
 on her voyage from Port-au-Prince to Bordeaux. Early in May the 
 Victoire, of Honfleur, from Guadaloupe, laden with 125 hogsheads of 
 sugar, 80 casks of coffee, and 18 hags of cotton, was brought in as a prize, 
 by the Earl of Derby, privateer.J By the 1st of July no less than sixty- 
 seven Liverpool privateers were either at sea or preparing to sail; and 
 the number of prizes taken up to that time was from fifteen to twenty. 
 Great numbers of privateers were fitted out afterwards, and an extraordinary 
 number of prizes was taken. The French were too much distracted by 
 internal dissensions, and attacks from abroad, to carry on this mode of 
 warfare with any success. In three or four years their commerce was 
 swept from the ocean; whilst, from the commencement of the war, the 
 English commerce was carried on in tolerable safety under the protection 
 of ships of war.§ 
 
 The commencement of the war with France was attended by a com¬ 
 mercial panic, which prostrated upwards of five hundred mercantile houses, 
 including in the number many provincial banks, between the beginning 
 of February and the end of May, 1793. The only Liverpool bank which 
 was borne down by the storm was that of Charles Caldwell and Co. 
 All the others stood firm; and the merchants and corporation made 
 extraordinary efforts to restore confidence in their stability. On the 23d 
 March, 1793, a meeting of merchants and traders was held, to consider 
 the most probable means of restoring confidence, at which Messrs. John 
 Brown, Edward Falkner, Richard Walker, Thomas Hazlehurst, Thomas 
 Leyland, and Jacob Nelson were appointed a committee, to consider what 
 was best to he done. The town council held a special meeting, for the 
 same purpose, at which they also appointed a committee, to communicate 
 and act with the committee of merchants. The committee of the council 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 11, 170.3. + Ibid, Feb- 18, 1703. 
 
 + Ibid. § Ibid, July 27, 1703. 
 
495 
 
 consisted of Messrs. Clayton Tarleton, (mayor,) William Crosbie, George 
 Case, Thomas Earle, Joseph Brooks, and Richard Statham. An address 
 to the inhabitants was drawn up by the joint committee, and signed by 
 them, and by two hundred and twenty of the principal firms in the town, 
 in which they recommended all parties to whom bills were due to make 
 payments as easy as possible; and pledged themselves to receive the bills 
 of all the Liverpool banks at one or two months’ date, “ as has been the 
 usual custom.” The banks named in the address were those of Messrs. 
 William Clarke and Sons ; Arthur Heywood, Sons, and Co.; William 
 Gregson, Sons, Parke, and Morland ; and Staniforth, Ingram, Bold, and 
 Dealtra; being all that then existed. The town council afterwards went 
 much further. They applied to Parliament, and obtained powers to issue 
 from ;£200,000 to T300,000 in promissory notes, to be loaned to the 
 merchants of Liverpool, on security of merchandise and shipping. The 
 government was still more anxious to restore confidence and re-establish 
 commercial credit. In the month of May, Mr. Pitt applied to Parliament, 
 for permission to issue five millions, in exchequer bills, on security of 
 produce and merchandise. The advances were to be to the amount of 
 half the value of the goods, and were to be repaid in instalments of three, 
 six, nine, and twelve months. The bills were to bear an interest of 2jd. 
 per cent, a-day. All goods and produce on which advances were made 
 were to be deposited in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Hull, Glasgow, or 
 Edinburgh. The result of these measures was to restore both general 
 and local confidence, and to give the government credit and the means 
 of carrying on the costly struggle in which it was engaged.* 
 
 Amongst the local events of the year 1793, of less stirring interest, 
 were the following:—In the month of February, in compliance with the 
 request of the merchants of the port, the mayor and corporation appro¬ 
 priated the lower part of certain new buildings, north of the Town-hall, 
 (which buildings have long since been pulled down,) as a place of meeting 
 for the merchants, instead of the flags in front of the Town-hall.f In 
 April the Warwickshire militia, then on duty in the town, rendered good 
 service, in extinguishing a dangerous fire in Park-lane. As usual then, 
 and for many years afterwards, there was a great want of water at the 
 commencement of the fire. The 19th of April was kept as a national 
 fast and day of humiliation, under the scourge of war. 
 
 During the year 1791, the principal West Indian colonics of France 
 fell into the hands of England; and during the same year the navy of 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser. + Ibid, February IS, 1793. 
 
496 
 
 France received a blow from which it never recovered. On the 28th of 
 April the mayor of Liverpool, Henry Blundell, Esq., gave a grand 
 banquet, in honour of the capture of the island of Martinique, in which 
 feat one of his brothers, Lieut.-Colonel Blundell, greatly distinguished 
 himself. On Friday, May 21st, the bells of the churches rang all day, in 
 honour of the conquest of Guadaloupe; and early in July news was 
 received of the capture of Port-au-Prince, in the island of St. Domingo. 
 But the great event of the year was Lord Howe’s naval victory, on the 
 1st of June. “On Friday morning, when the news of Lord Howe 
 having defeated the French fleet arrived in Liverpool, it gave rise to the 
 most unbounded joy. The bells of the different churches rang inces¬ 
 santly; flags were displayed from the ships and steeples; the ships in the 
 different docks were gaily decorated; pendants and ensigns were hung 
 out from the various dwellings throughout the town ; and, where those 
 could not be obtained, quilts, handkerchiefs, curtains, &c. At one o’clock 
 a royal salute was fired from the great guns of the fort. On Saturday 
 the flags were again displayed.”*- Although this victory greatly dimi¬ 
 nished the apprehensions of invasion, it did not altogether remove them. 
 A county subscription was entered into, to raise volunteer regiments, 
 which was headed by the corporation of Liverpool, with a subscription of 
 £ 1 , 000 .+ 
 
 During the spring of 1794 the press for seamen was very hot. In 
 May a press-gang stopped the Warrington boat coach and the York mail, 
 at Low-hill, to look for sailors. During the scuffle the horses of the 
 mail took fright, galloped off, and upset the coach, seriously injuring two 
 of the passengers. 
 
 A suite of new baths, built by the corporation, were opened in the 
 month of May, which were much superior to anything that had been 
 seen in Liverpool previously.^ 
 
 A benefit was given at the theatre, in the month of July, for the 
 widows and children of the seamen killed in the battle of the 1st of 
 June. It produced T208 18s. Gd.§ 
 
 In August the public was congratulated on the fact that the directors 
 of the Phoenix Fire-office had sent down a capital patent balloon fire- 
 engine, “ made by the ingenious Mr. Bramah, of Piccadilly,” which 
 would throw water to the perpendicular height of ninety feet. 
 
 There were great floods of rain this autumn, by which the lower 
 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, June 10, 1794. + Ibid, October 14, 1794. 
 
 \ Ibid, May 26, 1794. § Ibid, July 21, 1794. 
 
497 
 
 part of Liverpool, built in the bed of the ancient pool, was laid under 
 water. 
 
 The year 1795 commenced with a great local catastrophe—the burn¬ 
 ing of the interior of the Town-hall. The fire burst out on Sunday, the 
 18th of January, but it had been smouldering amongst the timbers of the 
 building for some days. The whole interior of the building was destroyed, 
 but all the most important muniments of the corporation were preserved, 
 and the walls stood uninjured, as they do to this day.* 
 
 In the same month the pressure of the war began to be felt in the 
 distressed condition of the poor. Grain, which had been advancing 
 from the commencement of the war, rose to a famine price before the 
 the harvest; the average price of wheat being 106s. 9d. a-quarter in the 
 month of August, 1795. A very liberal subscription was entered into in 
 Liverpool for the relief of the poor. 
 
 In the course of the year 1795 Liverpool was deprived, by death, of 
 two of the patriarchs of its commerce—Arthur and Benjamin Heywood. 
 Arthur Heywood, the elder brother, who died on the 11th of February, 
 was the oldest and most respected of the merchants of Liverpool, at the 
 time of his death, and was the founder of the bank which still bears his 
 name. He descended from a Lancashire family, but was born at 
 Drogheda, in Ireland, where he possessed a paternal estate, and came to 
 Liverpool in very early life, where he was placed in the counting-house of 
 John Hardman, Esq., member for the borough, in the administration of 
 Sir Robert Walpole. He resided in Liverpool for sixty-four years, and 
 was alike distinguished for his enterprise as a merchant, his judgment 
 as a banker, and his generosity and kindness as a man. Benjamin Hey¬ 
 wood came to Liverpool about the same time as his brother, and was 
 equally distinguished for his commercial and civic virtues. He com¬ 
 manded a company of the regiment of Liverpool Blues, raised to defend 
 the crown, in the rebellion of 1745, and died at the age of seventy-five, 
 on the 10th of August, in the same year as his brother. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1795 about fifty of the merchants of 
 Liverpool, who had been opposed to the war from the beginning, pre¬ 
 sented a requisition to the mayor, requesting that he would call a meeting 
 to address the king in favour of peace. He declined to do so, having 
 received a memorial from upwards of two hundred merchants, in which 
 they expressed the opinion that any such meeting would not only be 
 useless but mischievous.f Exactly the same thing happened at Man- 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 19, 1795. + Ibid, February 9, 1795. 
 
498 
 
 Chester. There and here, and, indeed, everywhere, the peace party was 
 still a small minority. 
 
 A hill was passed in February, 1795, enacting that no British ship 
 should be allowed to go to sea from any port, until that port had supplied 
 the royal navy with the number of seamen which the government con¬ 
 sidered it able to furnish. The following are the number of seamen 
 which each port was considered competent to furnish :—London, 5,725 > 
 Liverpool, 1,711; Newcastle, 1,240; Bristol, 666; Hull, 731; White¬ 
 haven, 700; Glasgow, 683; Sunderland, 669 ; Whitby, 573 ; Dart¬ 
 mouth, 394 ; Yarmouth, 506; Beaumaris, 207 ; Cardigan, 139; Dover, 
 259; Exeter, 184; Falmouth, 121; Feversham, 147; Harwich, 166; 
 Lancaster, 163; Lynn, 193; Poole, 279; Rochester, 134 ; Scarbro’, 275; 
 Southampton, 133; Weymouth, 139; Aberdeen, 219; Borrowstoness, 
 155; Campbeltown, 125; Dundee, 139; Irvine, 131; Kirkaldy, 136; 
 Leitb, 206; Montrose, 107; Rothsay, 168; Isle of Man, 126. In 
 order to quicken the recruiting in Liverpool, the town council added 
 greatly to the bounties given by the government. The bounty paid in 
 Liverpool was £31 5s. for each able seaman, £23 10s. for each ordinary 
 seaman, and 4117 10s. for each landsman. In order to give a still further 
 impulse to enlistment, the mayor, bailiffs, and leading merchants daily 
 marched round the docks, with drums beating and colours flying, inviting 
 seamen to join. After some little time the Liverpool contingent was 
 supplied, and then the embargo was removed.* 
 
 On Friday, the 17th of April, in this year, the Queen’s Dock was 
 opened. The first vessel which entered it was the American brig Baltimore, 
 Captain Johnston, commander. Soon afterwards Thomas Naylor, Esq., 
 and other commissioners, met and marked out the quays of the Queen’s 
 Dock as legal landing quays, according to the commission issued from 
 the Court of Exchequer, f 
 
 In June, 1795, the Ellesmere and Chester Canal was so far advanced, 
 that canal-boats began to run from Ellesmere Port, on the Mersey, to 
 Chester. “ On Monday last,” says a public writer of that day, “ an 
 elegant passage-boat was launched into the new branch of the Ellesmere 
 Canal, from Chester to the Mersey. Her first passage, it is expected, 
 will be in a few days. By this easy conveyance, considerable advantages 
 will be reaped by the inhabitants of that city and this town, as the passage 
 will now be no more than a cheap and pleasant trip.”J 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 13, 1795. 
 
 § Ibid, June 15, 1795. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
499 
 
 The freedom of Liverpool was this year voted to Sir Edward Pellew, 
 (afterwards Lord Exmouth,) in consideration of “ his great humanity 
 and noble-hearted exertions”, in saving the military, passengers, and 
 crew on board the Dutton, West Indiaman. 
 
 In the spring of 1796 a great work was completed on the Leeds and 
 Liverpool Canal, hv which the communication between Liverpool and 
 Yorkshire was still further facilitated. “ On Tuesday,” says the Liver¬ 
 pool paper of May the 9th, “ the grand tunnel on the Leeds and Liverpool 
 Canal, at Foulridge, between Colne and Burnley, was opened. A number 
 of ladies and gentlemen passed through it, attended by a grand band of 
 music, and proceeded down to Burnley, accompanied the whole way by 
 vast crowds of people, who expressed their satisfaction with repeated and 
 loud huzzas; and, what adds to the happy circumstance, one of the 
 vessels was laden with different kinds of grain. The tunnel is 1,630 
 yards in length, and has been five years in completing.”* 
 
 During the whole of the year 1796 the country was threatened with 
 invasion, a large French army being drawn up on the coast of Normandy, 
 ready to embark, if an opportunity should be offered of crossing the 
 channel. An additional force of 60,000 militia was raised to meet this 
 threatened attack. Of this new levy, Yorkshire furnished 6,915 men; 
 Middlesex, 5,820 ; and Lancashire, 5,160. No other county furnished 
 more than 2,000 men.f 
 
 The year 1797 opened with alarms. On the 2d of January, the 
 Beresford packet, belonging to Messrs. Lake and Brown, arrived at Liver¬ 
 pool, from Dublin, bringing the news that a French fleet of seventeen 
 line-of-battle ships was lying off Bear Island, in Bantry Bay, with a large 
 body of troops on board, commanded by General Hoclie. This alarm 
 was dissipated, almost immediately, by the arrival of another vessel, 
 bringing the news that the French ships had been driven to sea in a gale, 
 and that they were either dispersed or returning to France. On Saturday 
 evening, the 25th February, Liverpool was again aroused, by the arrival 
 of an express, with the intelligence that another French expedition was 
 in Cardigan Bay, and was advancing to Liverpool, to burn the shipping 
 and destroy the docks. On the following day (Sunday) a meeting 
 of the inhabitants was held, to consider the best mode of putting the 
 town and harbour in a state of defence. At this meeting, “ which 
 was the most numerous ever held in Liverpool”, the utmost unanimity 
 prevailed amongst all ranks and description of people; “ every one 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 9, 1796. + Ibid, November 7, 1796. 
 
500 
 
 vieing with the other in zeal to forward the general cause, and 
 readiness to enrol himself for the defence of the port.” The gentlemen 
 who had offered themselves to the government as a volunteer troop of 
 light horse, agreed to patrole the approaches to the river, in any manner 
 which might be thought useful; and another set of gentlemen, who had 
 learnt the use of arms as infantry, also stood forward, to accept any service 
 which the commanding-officer of the district might think them qualified 
 to undertake. Several of the merchants, who had warlike vessels nearly 
 equipped for sea, offered them as floating batteries, to be placed at the 
 entrance of the river ; and temporary batteries, of five to seven guns, were 
 erected at all prominent points on the river, with a furnace to each, for 
 the purpose of heating shot. Upwards of a thousand men were enrolled 
 as volunteers immediately; “ and we doubt not,” says an eye witness, 
 writing on the day after the arrival of the news, “ that, in the course 
 of another day, this valuable port, which has hitherto appeared so 
 vulnerable, except for its sandbanks, will be put into such a state of 
 defence as to defy any attempt of the enemy.” The same writer, 
 a few days later, says, “We have great pleasure in being able to 
 inform the public that, from the unremitting attention and spirited 
 exertions of the general committee appointed at the moment of 
 alarm, consisting of the mayor and magistrates, the naval and mili¬ 
 tary officers, and some of the first and most respectable merchants 
 and other gentlemen of the town, who have continued to sit daily; and 
 from the surprising promptitude, zeal, and alacrity with which their orders 
 have been carried into execution by all ranks and descriptions of the 
 inhabitants, that this town and port, with all its valuable docks and 
 shipping, have, in the course of one week, been put into a most complete 
 state of defence; for, in addition to twenty guns, 32 and 18 pounders, 
 mounted on their carriages in one single day, at the fort, (which had been 
 for a considerable time disused,) there have, in the course of the week, 
 been ten more 18-pounders mounted there, and twenty-six of the same 
 weight of metal placed on temporary batteries of wood, erected on the 
 occasion, at the commanding and projecting points of the river and dock 
 piers, &c., making, in the whole, a strong line of fortifications of 5G guns 
 and 576 men, being well appointed and manned, ten or twelve men to 
 each gun, consisting of masters, mates, and seamen, all volunteers, and 
 interested in the defence of the town, and, what is equally important, all 
 trained and tried, and used to service and real action, in defence of their 
 own and employers’ property, and in support of their king and country.”* 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 6, 1797. 
 
501 
 
 In the following week reinforcements arrived, consisting of two troops of 
 the Ayrshire fencible cavalry and a regiment of the East Kent militia. 
 In the course of the month of March, 1707, the Liverpool volun¬ 
 teers were organized into six companies of infantry and one troop of 
 cavalry, under the following officers :—Captain Dunbar, Captain George 
 Case, Captain Birch, (afterwards Sir Joseph Birch, Bart.,) Captain Thomas 
 Earle, Captain Doran, Captain Goring, and Captain Edward Falkner. 
 These companies formed the nucleus of the several regiments of volun¬ 
 teers which were afterwards raised in Liverpool. They were trained 
 regularly in the Mosslake-fields, and soon became well-disciplined, as well 
 as spirited and resolute, soldiers. They were composed of “ respectable 
 gentlemen, merchants, and the principal tradesmen and their sons," and 
 were armed and clothed at their own expense, not costing the government 
 a shilling. 
 
 In January, 1796, the underwriters presented a piece of plate, of the 
 value of one hundred guineas, to Captain Jacob Fletcher, of the ship 
 Elizabeth, of Liverpool, for his gallant and seamanlike conduct in action 
 with a privateer of superior size. In the following month there was 
 launched from Edward Grayson’s building-yard a fine three-decked vessel, 
 called the Watt, built for Richard Walker, Esq., and intended for the 
 Jamaica trade. She was pierced for twenty-two guns. A great crowd of 
 spectators was present at the launch. The vessel glided into the water 
 to the sound of martial music. At this time war and commerce were 
 commonly blended together. 
 
 In Juno, 1796, Colonel Gascoyne and General Tarleton were re¬ 
 elected members for Liverpool. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons again appeared before a Liverpool audience in the 
 month of June. Her benefit produced i>208. Miss Mellon also made 
 her first appearance in Liverpool during the same season, in the comedy 
 of the “ Way to Get Married.” She afterwards discovered the way to get 
 married, first to the millionaire, Coutts, and afterwards to the Duke of 
 St. Albans. 
 
 Charles Jenkinson, the personal friend of George the Third, was made 
 an earl in 1796, with the title of Earl of Liverpool. At the request of the 
 corporation, he was allowed to assume the arms of the town of Liverpool, 
 along with those of his own family.* 
 
 Considerable progress was made this year with the canal by which 
 Kendal was united to Liverpool. “ The engineers,” says the Liverpool 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, August, 1796. 
 
 6 T 
 
.5 02! 
 
 paper of Nov. 29, 179G, “ are now completing tlie survey of the canal 
 from Kendal to Burton, the making of which will commence in a short 
 time. It is expected the canal from Burton, by Lancaster, Garstang, &c. 
 to Preston, will he navigable in the course of next summer.”* 
 
 The frost of January, 1797, was the severest known in England since 
 1739-40. On Christmas eve the thermometer stood two degrees lower 
 than it had done in that intense frost. 
 
 In January, 1797, it was proposed to erect a convenient building for 
 the use of the Blind Asylum in Liverpool. The plan was taken up with 
 great spirit, both in Liverpool and the adjoining counties, which enjoyed 
 the advantages of that excellent charity; and numerous subscriptions 
 were received from a distance, in addition to large sums raised in Liverpool. 
 
 This year, 1797, Owen Salisbury Brereton, Esq., resigned the office of 
 recorder of Liverpool, having held it for the extraordinary period of fifty 
 years. Francis Hargrave, Esq., of Lincoln’s-inn, a much more celebrated 
 lawyer, was appointed his successor. 
 
 In the year 1797 the useful plan of bringing water into Liverpool, 
 from the fine spring at Bootle, originally proposed by Sir Cleave Moore, 
 in the year 1708, was revived. “ The water from Copperas-hill,” says a 
 writer of that time, “ may well supply the eastern part of Liverpool; 
 whilst the water from Bootle may supply the western district. It may he 
 hoped that a time will come, after the blessings of peace are obtained, 
 and the magnitude of the town is further increased, that Liverpool will 
 require the aid of both sources.” At this time water was taken about in 
 carts, and sold from house to house. “ Knowles’s pump,” says the 
 writer whom I have just quoted, “lately was not able to supply its 
 customers with water, (fourteen carts:) the whole number of carts at 
 present employed is forty-one, and this is no small nuisance.”t 
 
 In December, 1797, a meeting of the Liverpool Choral Society was 
 held, at which it was determined that the performances of that society 
 should he modelled on the plan of the ancient concerts at the King’s 
 Theatre, London. In the same month the plan of erecting the Lyceum 
 Library and Newsroom was first brought before the public.J 
 
 In the autumn of 1797 the English fleet was victorious at Cam- 
 perdown; hut Bonaparte’s brilliant victories in Italy gave the French 
 equal grounds for triumph on land. The 18th December was, how- 
 ever, celebrated as a thanksgiving day, for the great naval victories 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, Jan. 2, 1797. 
 
 I Ibid, December 25, 1797. 
 
 + Ibid, June 5, 1797. 
 
503 
 
 of that year. There were, at that time, 1,332 French prisoners in 
 Liverpool. 
 
 In the mouth of February, 1798, the government being greatly 
 pressed for money to meet the enormous expenses of the war, a voluntary 
 subscription was entered into, for its assistance, in all parts of the 
 kingdom. The sum raised for that purpose in Liverpool amounted to 
 upwards of <£17,000, which is equal to a contribution of about £100,000, 
 in the present state of the population and wealth of the town. At the 
 same time, it was determined to raise an additional volunteer force, to 
 meet the double danger of a threatened invasion from France and an 
 approaching rebellion in Ireland. At this time of peril, upwards of eight 
 hundred new volunteers came forward in defence of their country. The 
 whole volunteer force of Liverpool was then formed into two battalions of 
 infantry, the first commanded by Colonel George Case, the second by 
 Colonel Pudsey Dawson; a strong body of artillery, commanded by 
 Jacob Nelson, Esq.; and a troop of cavalry, commanded by Edward 
 Falkner, Esq., of Fairfield. These different corps remained embodied 
 until the peace of Amiens. They, with similar regiments in all parts of 
 the kingdom, formed a large part of the defence of the country, many of 
 the regulars being on foreign service, and upwards of 88,000 of the 
 militia quartered in Ireland. During the rebellion of 1798 the marching 
 of troops through Liverpool was almost incessant. No less than 7,000 
 militia sailed from Liverpool for Ireland in a single week. The sup¬ 
 pression of the Irish rebellion in the summer of 1798, and Nelson's 
 victory of the Nile in the autumn of that year, which, for a while, cut 
 off the already formidable Bonaparte from Europe, restored confidence, 
 but did not cause any relaxation in the preparations for the defence of 
 the country. At the close of 1798 there were 4,009 French prisoners in 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Amongst the voluntary subscriptions contributed in Liverpool for the 
 support of the government were the following :—John Bolton, £500 ; 
 Thomas Staniforth, mayor of Liverpool, <£300 ; John Sparling, £200 ; 
 John Brown, £200 ; Thomas Barton, £200 ; William Dickson and Sons, 
 £300 ; Moses Benson, £300; Venables, Taylor, and Taylor, £400; Nel¬ 
 son and Pearson, £300 ; Neilson and Heathcote, £300 ; John and James 
 Stanton, £200 ; Thomas Leyland, £300; James Orrell, Blackbrook, £ 100; 
 Samuel Staniforth, £ 100 ; John Kirkpatrick, £105 ; John Weston, £100 ; 
 Edward Atherton, £100 ; William Gregson, jun., £105; James Astley, 
 £100 ; George Case, £100; Pudsey and R. Dawson, £100 ; Roger Leigh, 
 
.504 
 
 ,£100; John Gregson, £500 ; William Pole, £200 ; Thomas Hamson, 
 £200 ; Edgar Corrie, £300 ; Thomas Corrie, private in the 1st company 
 of Liverpool volunteers, £10 10s.; James Sutton, £100; Henry Parke, 
 £100; John Drinkwater, £100; Thomas Molyneux, £100; Edward 
 Chaffers, £100; Patrick Black, £100; John North, £100; J. Jackson, 
 Firgrove, £200; Ewart and Hutson, £200; Edward Falkner, £100 ; White 
 and Beckwith, £100 ; Ford North, £100 ; Titherington and Smith, £100 ; 
 Peter MTver, £100 ; James Penny, £100 ; Thomas Parke and Son, £300 ; 
 Brooke and Owen, £42, yearly during the war; Cornelius Bourne, £100 ; 
 Edward Mason, £300 ; William Bolden, £105 ; Bicliard Statliam, £50 ; 
 Bichard Wicksted, £50 ; John Leigh, attorney, £50 ; Marwode and Bird, 
 £50 ; Win. Denison, £50 ; J. and H. Matthews, £50 ; J. and S. Matthews, 
 £50 ; B. H. Bouglisedge, £50 ; John Bensliaw, £50 ; Thomas Naylor, 
 £50 ; William Bipley, £50 ; John Hornby, £50 ; George Hutton, £100 ; 
 T. M. Tate, £100 ; J. Tomlinson and Son, £50 ; Jonathan Batcliffe, 
 £50 ; J. Myers, Wavertree, £100; John Taylor, £105; Isaac Knowles, 
 £50; James Plargreaves, £50; Valentine Byrom, £100; J. and James 
 Aspinall, £100 ; John Keay, £50 ; James Gerard, £50 ; J. Kitchin, £50 ; 
 Stephen Waterworth, £50 ; John Wilson, £50 ; Edward Ashburner, £50 ; 
 Bicliard Bichmond, £50; J. Smith, Colquitt-street, £50 ; William Boe, 
 £50; Elijah Cobhon, £50; Bichard Woodward, £100; John Fowey, 
 £50 ; Thomas Holland, £50 ; Leicester and Goutliwaite, £100 ; Hen¬ 
 derson, Bodie, Begge, and Co., £200 ; Bichard Barton, £150 ; G. Pres¬ 
 ton, £50 ; Peter Marrow, £50 ; William Colbourn, £40; Bobert Wain, 
 £50; Thomas Foxcroft, £100; Dr. Worthington, £50 ; Davies, Jones, 
 and Co., £60 ; Edward Bigby, £200 ; Bancroft and Lorimer, £200; 
 John Shaw, £100; John Foster and Son, £52 10s.; John Gregson, 
 £200; Boger Owen, £50; William Crosbie, £100 ; B. Formby, £50; 
 J. Wright, £50 ; James Swan, Olive Mount, £100 ; W. Naylor Wright, 
 £50 ; William Harper, Everton, £200 ; Bobert Ward, £50 ; John Henley, 
 £50; Bichard Wood, £50; Thomas Parr, £50; Thomas Capes, £50 ; 
 Plato Denny, £50 ; G. and J. Hornby, £50 ; Christopher Shaw, £50 ; 
 J. Henry, £50 ; Arthur Onslow, £100 ; T. C. Clemens, £100 ; A. Bigby, 
 £200; Scroop Colquitt, £50 ; D. Backhouse, £100; J. Backhouse, 
 Wavertree, £100 ; F. Holland, £50 ; C. Alexander, £100 , Wilkins and 
 Migault, £50 ; William Naylor, £50 ; John Tarleton, £300; Bichard 
 and Aikin, £200. 
 
 In the year 1799 the Court of Exchequer decided a cause on which 
 that part of the revenue of the corporation of Liverpool which is derived 
 
505 
 
 from town dues depended. According to the charters of the city of 
 London, the citizens were exempt from the payment of those portions 
 of the ancient Jura Regalia which are now known as town dues, in all 
 the cities and boroughs of the kingdom, precisely as the burgesses of 
 Liverpool and other boroughs were exempt from the payment of the 
 same dues in London. Knowing this fact, a number of long-headed 
 men, resident in Liverpool, bought the freedom of the city of London, 
 from some of the smaller companies, which willingly sold it to them for 
 a few pounds; and, having done so, attempted to pass their goods as 
 those of freemen of London. The town council of Liverpool, regarding 
 this as a mere evasion, refused to let the goods pass without paying town 
 dues. On this the case was brought before the Court of Exchequer, 
 which decided that the goods of freemen of London, resident in London, 
 were free from the payment of Liverpool town dues, but that those of London 
 freemen resident anywhere else were liable to pay them. This decision 
 secured the revenue of the corporation of Liverpool, and put an end to 
 the attempt to evade the dues under colour of the freedom of London.* 
 
 At the Easter vestry of the parish of Liverpool, in the year 1799, the 
 parishioners voted that two pieces of brass cannon should be presented to 
 the Royal Regiment of Liverpool Yolunteers.f 
 
 In the session of 1799 application was made to parliament for per¬ 
 mission to form two new docks near the sites of the present Prince’s and 
 Albert Docks. “The two projected new docks,” says the paper of June 
 3d, in that year, “ when completed according to the plan, will form a 
 most capital addition to the appearance and accommodations of this 
 port. The line of shipping along the shores of the river will then reach 
 an extent of nearly two miles, and will indisputably constitute one of 
 the grandest naval spectacles in the world. The following is the 
 intended situation of the new docks, according to the bill now lying at 
 the Exchange. The northermost of the docks will reach from north to 
 south, namely, from the north side of George’s Dock Basin northwardly 
 to a place called Hog’s-hey Nook ; and from east to west, namely, from 
 the high to the low water-mark of the River Mersey. The southermost 
 dock will extend from north to south, namely, from the north side of 
 the entrance into the Old Dock southwardly, to the north side of 
 certain land belonging to the Duke of Bridgewater; and from east to 
 west it will extend from the west side of the Salthouse Dock to the low 
 water-mark of the river.”J 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April22,1799. + Ibid, May 0,1799. J Ibid, June 3, 1799. 
 
506 
 
 In May, 1799, the sugar-house of Messrs Wakefield and Okill was 
 burnt down. This private misfortune had the effect of securing to the 
 corporation of Liverpool the services of the late Mr. Charles Okill, a man 
 whose unwearied industry and great knowledge of local and national 
 antiquities enabled him to place the title of the corporation, to its estates, 
 in a much clearer light than it was ever placed before. The mass of 
 evidence which he collected from the national records, and from the muni¬ 
 ments of ancient Lancashire families, extends over a period of seven hun¬ 
 dred years, and forms a noble monument of his persevering industry and 
 historical sagacity. 
 
 In the course of the year 1799 the corporation, after having made 
 several abortive attempts, during the previous hundred years, to induce 
 different parties to carry out various plans for supplying the town of 
 Liverpool with water, succeeded in forming a company, to which it 
 delegated its powers of effecting that most useful and necessary object. 
 The powers thus unwisely conceded were eagerly grasped by a joint-stock 
 company, and in two days the subscription-list was filled up :* similar 
 powers of supplying another part of the town with the same necessary 
 article were conceded to the Bootle Water Company. That company 
 carried out the plans which had been authorized by the act granted to Sir 
 Cleave Moore in the year 1708. 
 
 In July, 1800, the Grand Junction Canal, which had been upwards of 
 eight years in forming, was opened. This completed the canal communi¬ 
 cation between Liverpool and London, and also completed the junction of 
 the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey, and the Humber.f 
 
 At the close of the year 1800 that madman, the Emperor Paul, of 
 Russia, declared war against England, and suddenly seized on all the 
 English vessels in Russian ports. By way of reprisal, all Russian vessels 
 which were in English ports were seized and confiscated. The only one 
 in the port of Liverpool was the Angola, which was seized, and the crew 
 sent to prison. This easy seizure gave the commander of the port. 
 Captain Hue, T800 of prize-money.J 
 
 In April, 1801, the plan of forming an Exchange, worthy of the 
 growing importance of the commerce of Liverpool, was first proposed. 
 The project was brought forward on Saturday, the 11th of April, and 
 in three hours the subscription-list was filled up. “ The spirit and 
 opulence of this flourishing place were strikingly examplified on 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, June 24, 17!)9. 
 
 + Ibid, Jan. 5, 1801. 
 
 + Ibid, July 21, 1800. 
 
507 
 
 Saturday last,” says the paper of the 13th of April, “when the scheme 
 for erecting an extensive and ornamental range of public buildings, and 
 of forming a spacious square, to the northward of the Town-hall was 
 submitted to the public, and the subscription, amounting to ^680,000, 
 was actually filled up in three hours after the book was opened, although 
 no one was allowed to subscribe for more than ten shares. By this plan 
 it is proposed that a large quadrangle, or area, shall be formed, to the 
 northward of the Town-hall, which is intended to be enclosed on the 
 northeast and west sides by a uniform range of buildings, in a style of 
 architecture similar to that of the north front of the Exchange, so as to 
 connect the whole under one general denomination of the Liverpool 
 Exchange, with piazzas, streets, and avenues, for the convenience of the 
 public at large.” On Friday, the 24tli April, a meeting of the sub¬ 
 scribers was held, at which plans of the projected Exchange were 
 exhibited, and a committee of twenty-three gentlemen was appointed to 
 carry them into execution.* 
 
 In the spring of 1801, the first year of the nineteeth century, a com¬ 
 plete census of the population of Great Britain was taken by public autho¬ 
 rity, and a similar one has been taken every ten years from that time to 
 the present. These returns furnish much better means of tracing the 
 progress of the country, and of all the localities comprised in it, than any 
 which existed previously. At the date of the census of 1801 Liverpool 
 had become the port of the northwest of England, almost without a rival, 
 and statements of its population at that time will serve as a starting point 
 for comparison at the succeeding censuses of 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841, 
 and the census of the present year 1851. 
 
 The population of the parish and ancient borough of Liverpool at the 
 date of the census of 1801 was 77,653 souls, exclusive of about 6,000 
 seamen belonging to the port, who were absent from home on various 
 voyages, and were not therefore returned with the resident population. 
 The population of the townships of Toxteth-park, West Derby, Everton, 
 and Kirkdale, of which large portions are now included in the parliamen¬ 
 tary borough of Liverpool, was as follows:—Toxteth-park, 2,069 inhabi¬ 
 tants; West Derby, 2,636; Everton, 499 ; and Kirkdale, 393. The 
 districts of Birkenhead, Seacombe, Liscard, Tranmere, and Oxton, 
 which are now suburbs of Liverpool, were then very thinly peopled 
 by an agricultural population. The returns of 1801 gave them the 
 following population :—Birkenhead, 110; Oxton, 137; Tranmere, 353 ; 
 
 » Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 27, 1801. 
 
508 
 
 Seacombe, 178; and Liscard, 211. According to the whole of these 
 returns, the population of the ancient borough of Liverpool, in the 
 first year of the present century, was 77,653, or, including 6,000 seamen, 
 83,653; the population comprised within the present limits of the 
 borough, which include Toxteth-park and the more populous part of West 
 Derby, Everton, and Kirkdale, was about 89,250 ; and the population on 
 the Cheshire bank of the river, opposite to the town of Liverpool, was 
 989. These returns give a total population for the town and suburbs of 
 Liverpool of 90,239 inhabitants, at the date of the first complete census 
 of the British islands. 
 
 At the close of the year 1800, the nation being w r earv of the war 
 with France, Mr. Pitt retired from office, and Mr. Addington, afterwards 
 Lord Sidmouth, took his place. Although the professed groitnd of Mr. 
 Pitt’s retirement was a difference between the king on the Roman 
 Catholic question, yet it was generally understood that that retirement 
 would facilitate the restoration of peace with France. That proved to be 
 the case, for, in October, 1801, it was announced that the peace, commonly 
 known as the Peace of Amiens, had been concluded between England 
 and France. This news was received with great rejoicings in all parts of 
 England, and no were greater than in the town of Liverpool, which was 
 brilliantly illuminated in honour of the event. The public, however, was 
 kept uneasy, by the long delay in the signing of the definitive treaty of 
 peace, which was not signed until March, in the following year. The news 
 was received in Liverpool on the 30th of March, having been brought 
 down to Manchester by the Defiance coach, in eighteen hours and a half, 
 or eleven hours less than the mail. “ The arrival of the news created 
 great joy; the bells rang throughout the two following days, and flags 
 were displayed from the steeples of the different churches, and in 
 various parts of the town. On Thursday the whole of the garrison, 
 namely, the Lancashire and Cheshire regiments of militia, and the 
 troops of dragoons, together with the Royal Regiments of Liverpool 
 Volunteers and the artillery, drew up on the shore, and fired three 
 vollies on the occasion. The day was unusually fine for the season, and 
 the concourse of people immense.”* On the following Monday 320 
 French prisoners of war were sent from Liverpool to France,and on the 
 Thursday following 1,083. In the month of May following the Liverpool 
 Royal Regiments of Volunteers were disbanded, having attended church in 
 full uniform on the 3d May, on which occasion the Rev. F. Hodson preached 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 5, 1802. 
 
509 
 
 an appropriate sermon. Services of plate were afterwards presented to 
 Lieut.-Colonel Dawson, Lieut.-Colonel Case, and Major Birch, in acknow¬ 
 ledgment of their public services. The colours of Major Birch s regiment, 
 originally presented by Mrs. Birch, were deposited in St. Thomas’s Church. 
 
 In January, 1802, life-boats were first introduced into the yiort of 
 Liverpool by the Dock Committee, after a dreadful storm, in which many 
 lives were lost. Since that time the life-boat service has been so much 
 improved and extended as to give the greatest possible amount of security 
 in all parts of the port of Liverpool, from the mouth of the river Dee to 
 that of the Ribble. There are six life-boats maintained and worked at the 
 cost of the Liverpool Dock Estate, at Hilbre Island, Hoylake, the Maga¬ 
 zines, Liverpool, Formbv, and Southport, giving security along a line of 
 coast thirty miles in length. 
 
 The Liverpool Athenaeum was founded in the year 1797, chiefly by 
 the exertions of William Roscoe, Mr. Edward Rogers, and Dr. Rutter,* 
 all eminent scholars and true lovers of learning. Their object was to 
 form a collection of standard works, not for the purpose of circulation, 
 but of reference, and to encourage a taste for the higher branches of 
 knowledge, by forming a library in which all the noblest productions of 
 the human intellect might always be found. It appears, from a report of 
 the Athenaeum published in the year 1802, that the library already con¬ 
 tained 0,226 volumes. Of these volumes 3,705 were in the English 
 language, 848 in the Greek, Latin, and Oriental languages, 1,502 in the 
 French, 102 in the Italian, 5 in the Spanish, and 4 in the Dutch. The 
 annual subscription furnished a fund of 400 guineas a-year for the pur¬ 
 chase of new books. “ The prosperity of the Athenaeum,” adds the author 
 of the report of 1802, “ unparalleled, we believe, in the history of similar 
 institutions, has been chiefly derived from the general union of public 
 sentiment in its favour, and the remarkable unanimity with which its 
 affairs have beeD conducted. May these continue : may the happy omens 
 which attend its infancy he accomplished in its progress! its friends 
 having nothing better to hope or wish.” A writer in the paper of that 
 date adds, most truly, “ To the above account may he added, that, consi¬ 
 dering its comfort and convenience, its elegance of accommodation, dis¬ 
 tinctness of arrangement, and every appropriate appendage of which such 
 an institution is susceptible, the Athenaeum is perhaps one of the greatest 
 literary luxuries in Great Britain.”! 
 
 In March, 1802, the committee for erecting the New Exchange 
 
 * Life of William Roscoe, by his son, Henry Roscoe, i. 229. 
 
 + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 8, l ft 02. 
 
 3 u 
 
510 
 
 succeeded in buying all the land required for building and forming it, 
 without being obliged to have recourse to any Parliamentary powers.* 
 
 It appears from the report made at the parish vestry in April, 1802, 
 that the cost of supporting the out-door poor of Liverpool had increased 
 between the years 1794 and 1802 from £3,000 a-year to £10,000, and 
 that the total cost of the poor had increased from £18,000 to £33,000 
 a-year. The rate for parish purposes in 1802 was 2s. 9d. in the pound for 
 the poor, 2g-d. for the church, and |-d. for land tax : total 3s. in the pound. 
 
 In June, 1802, the Liverpool St. George’s Lire Office was opened, for 
 insuring houses, warehouses, buildings, manufactories, farmers’ stock, 
 goods, wares, merchandise, ships in harbour or dock, and their cargoes, 
 ships building, and vessels, barges, and other craft and their cargoes, in 
 port or used on navigable canals, and other property within Great Britain, 
 from loss or damage by fire. The capital of this company amounted to 
 £300,000, and the following gentlemen were proprietors :—Trustees, 
 Moses Benson, P. W. Brancker, George Case, John Gregson, A. Heywood, 
 and Thomas Leyland. Directors :—Joseph Birch, George Booth, Thomas 
 Booth, C. Bonner, Alexander Carson, James Currie, Thomas Earle, 
 William Ewart, Caleb Fletcher, John Leigh, William Naylor, William 
 Rathhone, Thomas Rawson, S. Staniforth, and John Wilson. Proprietors : 
 —J. B. Aspinall, James Atherton, Ashton Byrom, Henry Clay, Pudsey 
 Dawson, Thomas Downward, William Earle, John Poster, J. R. Freme, 
 John Gladstone, Thomas Golightly, Nathaniel Heywood, Joshua Lace, 
 Joseph Leigh, Ellis Lorimer, Duncan M’Viccar, Wm. Marsden, Thos. Moly- 
 neux, Samuel Newton, Thos. Rodie, James Swan, Christopher Sidebotham, 
 John Wakefield, Kendal, Nicholas Waterhouse, and Ralph Wright. 
 
 The St. George’s Office came into existence at an unfortunate 
 time for its proprietors. Within three months of its formation, the vast 
 pile of the Goree warehouses was burnt to the ground. No less than 
 seventeen immense warehouses, full of the most valuable property, were 
 destroyed, and, owing to the utter insufficiency of the existing means of 
 extinguishing fires to contend with so terrible a catastrophe, almost 
 without an effort to save them. The following account of this great con¬ 
 flagration is from the pen of an eye-witness:—“On Tuesday last, the 
 14th September,” says the writer, “ this town was visited by a calamity 
 as singularly awful in its appearance as it was disastrous and destructive 
 in its effects. About ten o’clock in the evening a smoke was observed 
 to issue from a room in the warehouse belonging to Thomas France, Esq., 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 22, 1802. 
 
511 
 
 at the Goree, whose spacious and lofty front has long attracted the ad¬ 
 miration of strangers, and which, if equalled, was not surpassed in mag¬ 
 nitude by any similar structure in the kingdom. The alarm of fire was 
 rapidly spread through the town, and an immense crowd was soon assem¬ 
 bled, where the danger had been first discovered. For a time appearances 
 seemed to justify a hope that the tremendous mischief which had been 
 announced and apprehended might be subdued without much effort; but 
 no sooner were the doors and windows of the building forced than the 
 flames, which had been smothered, burst out with horrid fury, extending 
 their ravages in every direction with equal rapidity and violence. In a 
 few hours this immense pile, together with that large and commodious 
 range of warehouses which was erected in front, at the distance of six¬ 
 teen yards, as well as that which extends from it in a line to Water-street, 
 was a heap of ruins, and a great proportion of all that rich and various 
 produce with which every apartment of those buildings had been stored 
 and crowded was consumed. The mildness of the evening, and the tide, 
 accompanied with light and variable breezes, being fortunately at flood, 
 gave an opportunity to remove the shipping beyond the reach of the 
 flames, and so prevented the devastation which was spreading on 
 the shore, from being aggravated by a scene of confusion and ruin 
 which the imagination even shudders to contemplate. The solemn 
 grandeur! the majestic horror of the scene no tongue, no pencil 
 can describe. Throughout a great part of the immense crowd that was 
 assembled scarcely a whisper disturbed the awful stillness that prevailed; 
 and, without an effort to resist the devouring element, it was left for a 
 while to act its dreadful part alone, every eye being fixed on the 
 tremendous spectacle, and every countenance marked with emotions of 
 profound astonishment or silent despair. Of the immense property 
 which perished no adequate estimate can yet be given, and we trust that, 
 upon investigation, it will turn out less than is apprehended ; but the 
 disasters of that night will long be remembered and deplored.”* 
 
 The military force which preserved order at this great catastrophe was 
 commanded by Captain Stapleton Cotton, the present gallant Viscount 
 Combermere. After the lapse of half-a-century, and after witnessing the 
 storming of Badajos and Bhurtpore, the noble lord still retains a vivid 
 recollection of the great fire of Liverpool.f 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 20, 1802. 
 
 t My authority is Mr. Harold Littledale, to whom the noble lord recently gave a most 
 vivid account ol' the burning of the Goree. 
 
512 
 
 The peace of Amiens proved to he nothing more than a truce, a 
 shortbreathing time between two desperate conflicts. Whilst the victories 
 of Jemappes, Ruremonde, Hohenlindcn, Lodi, Areola, and the crowning 
 triumph of Marengo had placed the continent of Europe at the feet of 
 France, the naval victories of the 1st of June, of St. Vincent, Camper- 
 down, and the Nile, with innumerable smaller triumphs, had given 
 England the undisputed possession of the ocean. Each party had sus¬ 
 tained heavy losses, but they had served only to irritate, not to intimidate. 
 England had seen, with profound regret, the overthrow of all her allies 
 on the continent, and the establishment of the military dominion of 
 France, under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, on a scale of great¬ 
 ness which the Grande Monarque had never dreamt of. France had seen, 
 with a regret not less profound, an uninterrupted succession of naval vic¬ 
 tories, by which all her colonies had been placed at the mercy of England, 
 and by which the military and commercial navies of France, Holland, 
 and Spain had lost 81 line of battle ships, 187 frigates, 248 smaller ves¬ 
 sels of war, 934 privateers, and 5,453 merchant vessels. The war which 
 had ruined the allies of both had left the principals in possession of 
 immense strength, and unbroken courage. It had also added to their 
 national pride, and given bitterness to their hereditary jealousy. Hence 
 grounds of difference sprang up almost immediately, during the short 
 interval which divided the two wars. England complained of the un¬ 
 provoked attack made on Switzerland by Bonaparte; of the avowal 
 of designs on the integrity of the Turkish empire in the report of 
 Colonel Sebastiani; of the official insolence of the Moniteur; and of the 
 conduct of French agents who exercised the office of consul in the 
 English ports in the spirit of spies. Bonaparte, on the other hand, com¬ 
 plained with still greater bitterness of the incessant attacks made on his 
 character and conduct by the English press and French refugees resident 
 in England. Matters were brought to a crisis by the refusal of the 
 English government to evacuate Malta, which island Bonaparte had 
 seized, without a shadow of right, from the knights of Malta, and which 
 the English had taken from him. After a scene at Paris between Bona¬ 
 parte and Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, unexampled in the 
 annals of diplomacy, both parties began to prepare for war, each with a 
 determination to humble the pride of the other, or perish in the attempt. 
 Bonaparte immediately collected an army of 200,000 at Bologne for the 
 invasion of England, and caused upwards of 2,000 gun-boats to be pre¬ 
 pared to carry it across the Strait. The Moniteur even went so far 
 
513 
 
 as to announce the day on which the victorious armies of France would 
 arrive in London. The English people received these threats with shouts 
 of defiance. The armed vessels of England scoured the channels, sinking 
 every gun-boat that ventured to leave Bologne, and even attacking them 
 under the batteries ; whilst hundreds of thousands of men rushed forward 
 as volunteers to defend the country, and the government organized the 
 whole population between the ages of sixteen and sixty for the defence of 
 the empire. 
 
 Liverpool did not yield to any town in the empire in the energy of its 
 preparations to resist the threatened attack. In the same week in which 
 the two houses of parliament pledged themselves to support the king 
 and the government in the war which had now become inevitable, it was 
 announced that one of the richest merchants of Liverpool had offered to 
 raise a regiment of volunteer infantry at his own expense, and also that 
 the volunteer cavalry was about to he increased. “ We have the liveliest 
 satisfaction,” says the Liverpool paper, of the 30th of June, 1803, “in 
 congratulating the public on the liberal and patriotic offer which has been 
 made to government at the present momentous crisis by John Bolton, 
 Esq., of Duke-street. This gentleman has proposed to raise and clothe 
 a regiment of volunteers, to consist of 600 men, at his own individual 
 expense, for the protection of this town and neighbourhood; an offer 
 which has been accepted in the most gracious manner. This loyal and 
 spirited effort in defence of our national independence, it is not doubted, 
 will excite other gentlemen of fortune to follow so distinguished an 
 example, not only in this neighbourhood, but in various parts of the 
 kingdom.” The same paper announced that in consequence of the present 
 state of the country, the gentlemen of the Liverpool Light Horse, com¬ 
 manded by Captain Falkner, met on Wednesday for the purpose of 
 augmenting the troop, when it was unanimously agreed to increase its 
 present establishment.* 
 
 In the course of the following week the enrolment took place, 
 (Tuesday and Wednesday,) when many hundred volunteers offered 
 themselves beyond the number required. The meeting for enrol¬ 
 ment was held at the Exchange, where the mayor and all the principal 
 merchants attended to give it their support. Mr. Bolton having briefly 
 explained the motives which had induced him to make an offer of his 
 services, in the then critical state of the country, the enrolment of volun¬ 
 teers commenced, and in two hours the whole number of the ten companies 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 30, 180.3. 
 
514 
 
 was more tlian complete. The enrolment continued during the whole 
 of Wednesday, when many hundred additional names were given in. In 
 consequence of the eagerness of men of all ranks and classes to come 
 forward, it was determined to augment the strength of Colonel Bolton’s 
 regiment to 800, and to raise two other regiments of infantry, a regiment 
 of artillery, a company of riflemen, and three troops of cavalry, in 
 addition to the Custom-house corps and the local militia. Besides 
 this strong array of volunteers, clothed and armed at their own expense, 
 the whole male population of the town, from sixteen years of age to sixty, 
 was carefully ascertained, and arrangements were made for arming and 
 calling it out in case of actual invasion. 
 
 To carry out the grand object of arming the population for the defence 
 of the country almost daily meetings were held. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 13th May, a meeting was held at the Exchange, at 
 which all the boatmen of the river Mersey, who were secured from im¬ 
 pressment, came forward, and offered to assist in working the great guns 
 at the forts. They were formed into a regiment of artillery, under the 
 command of Peter Whitfield Brancker, Esq., and other gentlemen, 
 whose names will he found in the list of volunteer officers given in 
 another page. 
 
 On the following day another meeting was held at the Exchange, to 
 vote an address to the king on the critical state of the country. The 
 meeting was opened by the mayor, who stated that at that “ awful crisis 
 of affairs” it was the indispensable duty of that great commercial commu¬ 
 nity to renew the profession of its attachment to his majesty’s person and 
 government, and to avow its determination to support them with the 
 most strenuous efforts, in the arduous contest in which they were engaged. 
 An address to that effect was then moved by Thomas Earle, Esq., and 
 agreed to unanimously. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 21st of May, a very numerous meeting of mer¬ 
 chants and other inhabitants was held at the Town-hall, in pursuance of a 
 public notice issued by the mayor, for the purpose of considering the best 
 means of defending the town and port, when it was unanimously agreed 
 to erect a battery near the mouth of the river, at the rocks called the Bed 
 Noses, near the Bock Perch, and another on the Lancashire shore; to 
 organize a squadron of gun-boats; and to raise two additional regiments 
 of 5G0 men each, and GOO artillerymen, to work the great guns. The 
 committee appointed at a previous meeting having laid a general plan of 
 operations before the meeting, which was unanimously approved of, the 
 
515 
 
 Corporation immediately subscribed T2,000 from their own funds, and 
 dSl,000 from the funds of the docks. “ From the spirited manner in which 
 the meeting was conducted”, says the paper of that date, “ we have no 
 doubt that the energy of the people will enable us to defend ourselves on 
 this coast against the attempt of any foe, however wild and desperate : 
 only let us join hand and heart to repel any attack that may be made 
 against-us.”* 
 
 Besides the volunteer force, and the regulars and militia, it was determined 
 to form an army of reserve for the defence of the kingdom. The Lanca¬ 
 shire contingent to this army consisted of 2,425 men, of which Liverpool 
 supplied 284 men.f 
 
 The following is a list of the officers who commanded the several 
 regiments or companies raised in Liverpool for the defence of the country, 
 in the year 1803. First Battalion of Liverpool Volunteers:—Lieutenant- 
 Colonel : John Bolton, Esq.; Major : Joseph Greaves, Esq.; Captains : 
 Thomas Kodie, William Forbes, William Stanistreet, William Hurry ^ 
 James Penny, Samuel Dutton, Isaac Littledale, Thomas Naylor, jun., 
 Moses Benson, and George Irlam, Esqs.; Lieutenants : John Scott, (on 
 half-pay of the 68th Foot,) William Lennox, RobertBagott, Isaac Oldham 
 Bold, Christopher Jaques, John Machell, John Gouthwaite, Thomas Colley 
 Porter, Henry Wilson, Thomas Caley, Hugh Taylor, and James Scott, 
 gentlemen ; Ensigns: DonaldMacleod, Anthony Minton Rogers, Thomas 
 Brancker, Samuel Robertson, John Thompson, Richard Machell, James 
 Thompson, and George Dri nkwater, gentlemen; Adjutant: Capt. Richard 
 Armstrong, (on half-pay of the 68th Foot;) Surgeon: Joseph Brandreth, 
 gentleman; Assistant-surgeon: James Dawson, gentleman. 
 
 Second Battalion, or Liverpool Fusileers:—Lieut.-Colonel: William 
 Earle, Esq.; Major : Edward Brooks, Esq. ; Captains : Robert Pickering, 
 Alexander Freeland, Henry Blackman, William Jones, James Freme, 
 and J. T. Campbell, Esqs.; Lieutenants: Thomas Nicholl, William 
 Coupland, Hugh Jones, Edward Morrall, William Wallace Currie, John 
 Brown, jun., Thomas Hodgson, Charles Turner, John Keogh, Samuel 
 Went, Henry Rolls, and Thomas Stephenson, gentlemen. 
 
 Third Regiment of Volunteer Infantry:—Lieutenant-Colonel Com¬ 
 mandant: George Williams, Esq.; Lieutenant-Colonel: Henry Blundell 
 Hollinshcad, Esq.; Captains: George Goring, Jacob Fletcher, John Tom¬ 
 linson, jun., Richard Alison, Ford North, Thomas Hallowav, Jonathan 
 Radcliffe, Samuel Matthews, Edward Dickson, and James Homby; 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 25, 1803. + Ibid, July 25, 1803. 
 
516 
 
 Lieutenants: Thomas Bromfield, Thomas Ward Denison, Samuel Brown, 
 Thomas Berry, Thomas Peacopp, Adam Lodge, John Swainson, Edward 
 Rensliaw, William Deane, Joseph D’Aguilar, Michael Pool, John Roskell, 
 Henry Norris, William Brocklebank, Henry Pennington, William 
 Matthews, John Hind, John Price, John North, William Criclilow, and 
 Charles Greetham ; Ensigns : Joshua Goring, George Roskell, Edward 
 Corrie, Edgar Corrie, jun., William Welch, James Walthew, Job Brown, 
 and Joseph Pool, gentlemen. 
 
 Liverpool Volunteer Artillery :—Major-Commandant: Peter Whitfield 
 Brancker, Esq.; Captains: William Ward, John Brancker, James 
 Drinkwater, and Bryan Smith, Esqs. ; Lieutenants: James Minsliull, 
 Samuel M'Dowall, Robert Bibby, John Ainsworth, William Fell, John 
 Carson, John Livingston, and Thomas Simmons, gentlemen ; Surgeon: 
 Henry Parke, gentleman. 
 
 Liverpool Independent Rifle Corps:—Captain CommandantLieutenant: 
 D. O’Donoghue, (on half-pay of the 22nd Light Dragoons;) Captains: 
 Edward Pearson and James Greene, gentlemen; Lieutenants: Thomas 
 Phillips, J. T. Smedley, and P. M. Taylor ; Surgeon : George Catlow. 
 
 Liverpool Light Horse :—Major Commanctant: Edw. Falkner, Esq. ; 
 Captains: James Gregson and William Neilson, Esqs.; Lieutenants: 
 Thomas Hinde and Edward Atherton ; Cornets : Samuel Staniforth and 
 Henry Dixon. 
 
 Liverpool Independent Companies:—Captain Commandant: Edward 
 Onslow, Esq.; Captain : Edward Rigley, Esq.; Lieutenants: Scrope 
 Colquitt and Thomas Woodward, gentlemen; Ensign : Thomas Butler. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, August the 5th, a meeting was held at the 
 hotel. Dale-street, of all persons liable to serve in the first class under 
 the National Defence Act, Thomas Earle, Esq., in the chair. “ The 
 chairman addressed the meeting in an impressive and nervous speech, 
 in which he pointed out to them, in very appropriate terms, the 
 line of conduct which the pressing emergencies of the times demanded 
 from persons of their station and time of life. He then read them a 
 letter from Lord Hobart, explaining the nature of the services expected 
 from them. Mr. Earle concluded with expressing a hope, that if any 
 person was in the room, subject to the conditions of the National 
 Defence Act, who had not yet enrolled his name, he would not fail to 
 do so with as little delay as possible.”* 
 
 By the 8th of August the regiment of Lieutenant-Colonel Williams 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 8, 1803. 
 
517 
 
 was nearly completed. The musical amateurs of the Music-hall offered 
 to raise a military band for this regiment; and Lieut.-Colonel Hollins- 
 head, who was the second in command, raised and clothed a company of 
 pioneers at his collieries, to serve along with it. Ford North, Esq., 
 presented the regiment with two brass guns, completely equipped for 
 service; and a number of young ladies, with Miss Rebecca Miller at 
 their head, presented it with a pair of colours, which colours are now in 
 the Town-hall, Liverpool, having been given to the corporation by 
 the sons of Colonel Williams, as a memorial of their gallant father, and of 
 past times. The drilling of this and the other regiments was incessant, 
 and the spirit which animated them all was well expressed by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Hollinshead, in the following brief speech :— 
 “ Gentlemen, before we separate from this morning’s parade, permit me 
 particularly to impress upon your minds the importance of unanimity. 
 Let there he only one mind amongst us; all being determined to save 
 our country, or nobly fall in the attempt.”* 
 
 At a grand review of the Liverpool Volunteers, on the sixty-seventh 
 birth-day of George the Third, the number of officers and men who ap¬ 
 peared in the field was as follows :—1 colonel, 6 lieutenant-colonels, 8 
 majors, 54 captains, 111 subalterns, 221 serjeants, 152musicians, and 
 3,313 rank and file.f 
 
 In anticipation of actual invasion, a careful register was made of all 
 the men in the kingdom capable of bearing arms, or rendering other 
 military service ; of the number of horses, wagons, carts, and barges 
 available for moving troops and supplies ; and of the supplies which each 
 district could furnish for the support of an army. The following is an 
 abstract of the returns for the county of Lancaster and the borough of 
 Liverpool:—Lancashire, 112,697 men, between sixteen and sixty years 
 of age, Liverpool, 13,134; Lancashire, 4,166 men, willing to serve on 
 horseback, and to supply their own horses, Liverpool, 148 ; Lancashire, 
 12,055 men, willing to serve on foot, and to supply their own muskets 
 and clothing, Liverpool, 2,676, besides 4,194 willing to serve with 
 sword, pistol, and other arms; Lancashire, 25,988 men, to be supplied 
 with arms at the general assembly, or levy en manse, Liverpool, 5,250 ; 
 Lancashire, 18,081 pioneers and labourers, furnished with felling-axes, 
 pickaxes, spades, shovels, mattocks, and saws, Liverpool, 200 ; Lan¬ 
 cashire, 13,410 guides and overseers, for the removal of wagons, live 
 and dead stock, &c., Liverpool, 120 ; Lancashire, 238 persons, who will 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 22,1803. + Ibid, June 11, 1804. 
 
 3 x 
 
518 
 
 supply wagons, drawers, and conductors, with four horses to each wagon ; 
 Lancashire, 222, who will supply wagons with three horses, Liverpool, 
 4 ; Lancashire, 975 carts with three horses, and 2,538 with two, Liver¬ 
 pool, 241 ; Lancashire, 266 canal and river barges, tonnage, 24,400 tons; 
 Liverpool, 381 harges and boats, tonnage 17,384; Lancashire, 170 corn- 
 mills, Liverpool, 13, able to grind 181 sacks of flour in twenty-four 
 hours; Liverpool, 173 ovens, baking, on an average, 37,893 loaves of 
 3 lhs. weight daily, hut sufficient to hake 95,036 loaves daily. The fol¬ 
 lowing w r ere the average supplies of live stock, dead stock, and provisions 
 in Liverpool at that time :—13 oxen, 936 cows, 16 young cattle, 262 
 sheep and goats, 1,626 swine, 509 riding horses, 832 draught horses, 
 471 carts of all kinds, 4 wagons, 57,684 quarters of wheat. 13,151 quar¬ 
 ters of oats, 6,582 quarters of barley, 8,204 quarters of beans and peas, 
 768 loads of hay, 172 loads of straw, 28,401 barrels of American flour, 
 of 196 lhs. each, 5,045 sacks of flour, 23,276 quarters of malt, 32 tons 
 of cheese, 160 tons of bacon, 3,479 tierces and barrels of beef and pork, 
 200 quarters Indian wheat (corn,) 4,160 sacks and barrels of Indian 
 wheat (corn,) 825 quarters rye.* 
 
 In order to give additional vigour to the military preparations for the 
 defence of the kingdom, the members of the royal family came forward to 
 partake in the common danger. His Eoyal Highness Prince William of 
 Gloucester, the nephew of the king, took the command of the Liverpool 
 district, and resided for some time at St. Domingo-house, Everton. For 
 the three years immediately following the revival of the war, until Nelson 
 had annihilated the navies of France and Spain, and rendered an invasion 
 of England utterly impossible, the training of the volunteers and militia 
 was incessant. Before the end of the year 1803 the Liverpool Artillery 
 Regiment had become very expert in working the great guns of the 
 forts. On Tuesday, the 8th of November, they were exercised in firing 
 at a mark. A boat, properly equipped for the purpose, was anchored 
 near the shore, at the distance of about a mile from the fort. The guns 
 of the fort then opened their fire upon it. One of the first shots carried 
 away its mast and colour ; a second went through its how; a third cut 
 the cable and sent the boat adrift. After firing nineteen shots it was 
 necessary to discontinue the fire of the guns, as the boat was sinking.! 
 
 On the night of the 2nd of January, 1804, the metal of the Liver¬ 
 pool Volunteers was tried by an alarm, which proved, in the end, to 
 he as unfounded as that which roused the chivalry of Fairport and 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Avertiser, August 22, 1803. + Ibid, November 21, 1803. 
 
519 
 
 the neighbourhood.* About nine o’clock that night the frigate Princess, 
 Captain Colquitt, stationed in the river, began to fire her guns rapidly, 
 evidently for the purpose of producing an alarm. In a very short time 
 all the batteries were manned, and the troops were drawn up ready for 
 action. It was soon, however, ascertained that it was the frigate that 
 was in danger and not the town She had been caught by the tide, her 
 anchors had given way, and she was drifting on shore on the Cheshire 
 side of the river. The guns were signals of distress, to bring other king’s 
 ships in the Mersey to her aid, not signals of an approaching enemy. 
 
 According to a statement made by Lord Castlereagh, in December, 
 
 1803, that is, in seven months after the renewal of the war, the force armed 
 for the defence of the kingdom consisted of 490,000 men in GreatBritain, 
 125,000 men in Ireland, 85,000 commissioned and non-commissioned 
 officers, with 401 pieces of cannon, 5,900 horses, 3,000 drummers, and 
 all needful supplies of ammunition and stores. In addition to this 
 immense army, there was a naval force of 100,000 men, and upwards 
 of 500 vessels of war of various sizes. Thus, the total military and 
 naval force of the empire amounted to upwards of 700,000, although the 
 population of the three kingdoms was less by ten millions than it is at 
 present. 
 
 In the month of March, 1804, the public of Liverpool was shocked 
 by the occurrence of a fatal duel; a rare event in a commercial com¬ 
 munity. The following is the only account of the event which appeared 
 in the papers of that time :—“ Died, on the 4th instant, (in consequence 
 of a duel fought the preceding week with William Sparling, Esq.,) Mr. 
 Edward Grayson, shipbuilder. This adds a melancholy instance to the / 
 many that have lately happened of the dreadful effects of appeals to the 
 miscalled laws of honour. Society has rarely lost a more agreeable com¬ 
 panion, kindred a more affectionate relative, or intimates a steadier friend. 
 
 He was manly, generous, and sincere, kind and charitable to all depend¬ 
 ent on or who wanted his assistance. He possessed a superior talent of 
 wit and humour, and successfully turned the laugh on vanity and pride, 
 but never debased it by calumny or ill-nature. ‘ I am distressed for thee, 
 my brother ; very pleasant hast thou been unto me.’ ”+ 
 
 On Tuesday, December 21st, 1804, another direct line of water com¬ 
 munication, from the Irish Channel to the German Ocean, was completed, 
 by the opening of the Rochdale Canal, which unites the Mersey and Irwell 
 
 * See Sir Walter Scott’s Antiquary. 
 
 + Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, March !26, 1804. 
 
520 
 
 navigation at Manchester with the Calder navigation at Sowerby-bridge, 
 and also connects the ports of Liverpool and Hull. “ On Friday,” says 
 the Liverpool paper, of the 24th December, “ the Rochdale Canal, which 
 completes the line of inland navigation from the Irish Channel at Liver¬ 
 pool to the German Ocean at Hull, was opened in grand style. The bells 
 at Manchester commenced ringing at half-past two, and the company’s 
 passage-boat and yacht, the Saville and Travis, were greeted from the 
 banks, for a great distance, by an immense concourse of spectators, with 
 many a vociferous cheer of grateful approbation, every person present 
 seeming to feel a high degree of conscious pride and pleasure at behold¬ 
 ing this additional proof of commercial industry, genius, and growing 
 prosperity. The two vessels were filled with the gentlemen proprietors 
 and their friends, attended by the band of the Fourth Class Volunteers, 
 who continued to play many loyal and patriotic tunes; and, on approach¬ 
 ing the town, the company landed, on the termination of the popular air 
 of ‘ God save the King.’ Each gentleman, together with every servant 
 and workman of the company, wore in his hat a blue ribband, with the 
 inscription, in gold letters, ‘ Success to the Kochdale Canal,’ and on the 
 flag of the yacht was inscribed, ‘ Koyal Rochdale Canal.’ The gentlemen 
 afterwards repaired to the Bridgewater Arms, where an elegant dinner was 
 prepared for their entertainment. The day was remarkably fine, and vast 
 numbers of people lined both sides of the canal.”* 
 
 In January, 1805, died Mr. Peter Litherland, watchmaker, of Liver¬ 
 pool, the inventor of the patent-lever watch. “ As a mechanical genius, 
 his talents were of the first order He early distinguished himself by the 
 invention of a machine for filing pinions, which has been of very exten¬ 
 sive utility; but which, as it was not secured by a patent, did not prove 
 so profitable to himself as to others. He also invented the patent-lever 
 watch, which is now acknowledged, by disinterested makers, to be far 
 superior to any other ever manufactured at an equal price; and which, 
 had it been first established in London, instead of Liverpool, and been 
 vigorously pursued, would have rendered his latter days more comfortable, 
 and, most probably, have prolonged a valuable life. He was also the 
 projector of many other important inventions; of one in particular, which 
 is here omitted, as it has not yet acquired that perfection which, there is 
 no doubt, it will ultimately attain.”f 
 
 In March, 1805, the Grand Junction Canal Company completed the 
 tunnel through Blisworth-hill, Northamptonshire, and thus removed the 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 24, 1804. + Ibid, January 7, 1805. 
 
521 
 
 last obstacle to the inland navigation from Liverpool to London. The 
 first boat passed through the Blisworth tunnel on Tuesday, the 4th March. 
 The officers of the company were attended by Mr. Henry Weeks, “ the 
 great canal-carrier between London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, 
 and Liverpool.”* 
 
 In April, 1805, Liverpool was first made a warehousing port. A 
 public meeting was held in Liverpool as early as the 30th May, 1803, 
 Jonas Bold, Esq., in the chair, to consider the measures which it was 
 proper to adopt, in consequence of the bonding or warehousing hill then 
 before parliament.f The object of this act, which has gone far towards 
 making England the warehouse of Europe, was to render the principal 
 ports of Great Britain and Ireland free for all nations to import, deposit, 
 and re-export, at their pleasure, their merchandise, without paying toll or 
 tax upon it, unless it was voluntarily brought into the British market 
 for home consumption. “ It cannot be improper to remark,” says a writer 
 in a Liverpool paper, “ that the great outlines of the act, accompanied 
 with numerous illustrations, were presented from this town to Mr. Pitt, 
 in 1795 ; that the plan received the most marked and unqualified appro¬ 
 bation of that illustrious statesman ; and that it would have been imme¬ 
 diately acted on, if the then existing circumstances of the port of London 
 had admitted of it.”j; When first the act was passed, it was confined to 
 London, owing to an opinion that the arrangements of the port of 
 Liverpool would not allow of its being established there, without danger 
 to the revenue. This, however, was a mere prejudice; and in April, 1805, 
 it was overcome by the representations of a deputation of merchants, sent 
 to London for the purpose. “ It gives us great pleasure to learn,” says a 
 Liverpool paper of that date, “ that the gentlemen who went as delegates 
 from this town have prevailed on the lords of the treasury to put this town 
 on the same footing as the port of London, in regard to the warehousing 
 system, without requiring new docks or warehouses to be constructed for 
 the purpose. Thirty-four warehouses, which had been tendered, will be 
 immediately licensed. We cannot refrain from adding, that Messrs. 
 Currie, Fletcher, and Horsfall, who acted as delegates, are entitled to the 
 grateful regards of their townsmen, for their perseverance and unwearied 
 attention to this momentous concern Ӥ 
 
 In the month of May, 1805, an order for a general embargo on 
 shipping was issued from the Admiralty. It extended to London and all 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 11, 1805. t Ibid, May 30, 1803. 
 
 { Ibid, August 25, 1803. § Ibid, April 22, 1805. 
 
52 2 
 
 the outports, and was followed by a very hot press for seamen, and even 
 landsmen. Protections were altogether disregarded, and ships were 
 stripped of their hands, except such as were absolutely necessary to pre¬ 
 serve them. “ The immediate augmentation of our naval force,” says the 
 paper of the 13th May, “is thought a matter of such pressing necessity, 
 that all considerations of individual suffering must, for the present, give 
 way. The order for an embargo at this port was announced from the 
 Custom-house on Thursday; and, during the whole week, the press-gang 
 have been indefatigable in their exertions. Persons of all professions, as 
 well as seamen, have been occasionally taken; though many have been 
 released, on proper application being made. In the early part of the 
 week about forty Irishmen, just landed from a Dublin packet, and who 
 were proceeding up the country in search of employment, were pressed, 
 and immediately taken on board the tender; but most of them are since 
 liberated. The embargo extends to all vessels bound to foreign parts, 
 including Ireland and the Isle of Man, with the exception of ships 
 belonging to foreign powers, provided they have no British seamen on 
 board. It extends, likewise, to coasting vessels of every description, 
 except such as are laden with coals and grain.”* 
 
 The cause of this extraordinary press for seamen was, that the French 
 and Spanish fleets were at sea, prepared to strike a great blow either 
 at the colonies, at Ireland, or at England itself, and it was thought 
 urgently necessary to be prepared at every point. The French Admiral, 
 Villeneuve, left Toulon on the 31st March, with ten ships of the line, 
 seven frigates, and two brigs, and, giving the slip to Lord Nelson, sailed 
 down the Mediterranean and appeared off Cadiz, Avhere he was joined by 
 six Spanish and two French ships of the line, the Spaniards under the 
 command of Admiral Gravina. The combined fleet now consisted of 
 eighteen line of battle ships, and six forty-four gun frigates, besides 
 smaller vessels. With this powerful force Villeneuve crossed the Atlantic, 
 and on the 12th of May appeared suddenly off Martinique. After 
 remaining about a month in the West Indies, without effecting or attempt¬ 
 ing anything of importance, Villeneuve, whose fleet had been reinforced 
 by two additional line of battle ships, made sail for Europe. There is 
 every reason to believe that it was his intention to join the Spanish 
 squadron at Ferro 1, and afterwards the French fleets at Bochfort and 
 Brest. This would have given him a force of from forty to forty-live 
 line of battle ships, and might have enabled him, for some weeks, to 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 13, 1805. 
 
523 
 
 command the British Channel, on the south shore of which Bonaparte was 
 waiting with an army of 200,000 men, and with 2,000 gun-boats ready 
 to convey them across. Lord Collingwood, writing to Lord Nelson at 
 this time, said, “ The French government never aim at little things while 
 great objects are in view. I have considered the invasion of Ireland as 
 the real mark and butt of all their operations. Their flight to the West 
 Indies was to take off the naval force, which proved the great impediment 
 to their undertaking. This summer is big with events: we may all, 
 perhaps, have an active share in them, and I sincerely wish your lordship 
 strength of body to go through it, and to all others your strength of 
 mind.”* Whether England or Ireland was the butt and aim of these 
 plans, there is no doubt that they were intended to strike a fatal blow at 
 the British empire. Happily, this object was defeated by the fleet which 
 had been fitted out in such hot haste, in the spring of the year, and which 
 had been sent to sea under the command of Sir Robert Calder. This 
 fleet, consisting of fifteen line of battle ships, a cutter, and a brig, fell in 
 with Villeneuve and Gravina’s fleet of twenty line of battle ships, seven 
 frigates, and two brigs, about forty leagues from Cape Finisterre, on the 
 22nd of July. A smart action took place, in which Admiral Calder 
 captured two ships, disabled three, and either compelled or induced 
 Villeneuve and his fleet to retire into Ferrol. After this victory, Sir 
 Robert Calder joined Admiral Cornwallis at the mouth of the channel, 
 thus bringing together a force which rendered any attempt of the French 
 to obtain possession of the narrow seas hopeless. Villeneuve did not 
 even attempt it, but, on leaving Ferrol, sailed southward to Cadiz, where 
 he remained till the 21st of October, when he issued forth, to witness the 
 ruin of the navies of France and Spain, at Trafalgar. 
 
 The news of that great victory, and of the death of the hero who 
 achieved it, arrived in Liverpool on the 8th of November; and on the 
 17th one of the most numerous and respectable meetings ever remembered 
 in Liverpool was held at the Town-hall, for the purpose of taking into 
 consideration the propriety of erecting “ a public monument, to the 
 memory of the naval hero, who had just fallen a sacrifice in the service of 
 his country.” The business of the meeting was opened by the mayor, 
 after which Mr. Roscoe pronounced a warm eulogium on the departed 
 hero. Resolutions were then proposed, and agreed to unanimously, in 
 favour of erecting a monument to his memory in the centre of the Liver¬ 
 pool Exchange. One of the resolutions specially provided “ that it be 
 
 * Collingwood Correspondence. 
 
524 , 
 
 an instruction to tlie committee, that the memorable words of Lord 
 Nelson, in his last orders to his conquering countrymen, he inscribed on 
 his monument, £ England expects that every man will do his duty.’ ” 
 The mayor subscribed £1,000 in the name of the corporation, the 
 chairman of the underwriters at Lloyd’s £750, and the chairman of the 
 West India Association £500. A very liberal subscription was also 
 entered into by the gentlemen present. The following gentlemen were 
 appointed a committee to carry out the objects of the meeting:—John 
 Bolton, William Roscoe, John B. Aspinall, Thomas Booth, Joseph Birch, 
 George Case, Alexander Carson, Thomas Earle, William Ewart, John 
 Foster, John Gladstone, John Gregson, William Harper, Arthur Hey- 
 wood, Peter Leicester, William P. Litt, William Neilson, Thomas R. 
 Rodie, John Stanton, and John Weston, Esquires. 
 
 Another fatal duel took place in December, 1805, between Colonel 
 Bolton, of the First Regiment of Liverpool Volunteers, and Major Edward 
 Brooks, of the Second Regiment. The previous duel between Sparling 
 and Grayson had taken place in the Dingle, in Toxteth-park; that 
 between Colonel Bolton and Major Brooks was fought in a field on the 
 London-road, a little above the spot where George the Third’s monument 
 now stands. The papers of the day do not contain any particulars of 
 this fatal event; but the following notice of Major Brooks appears in 
 one of them on the 23rd December of that year:—“Died, on Friday, the 
 20th instant, in the 29th year of his age, Edward Brooks, Esq., major of 
 the corps of Liverpool Eusileers. In this gentleman was united a most 
 amiable temper, a strong and cultivated understanding, and a warm 
 and benevolent heart: his mind was susceptible of every honourable 
 feeling, his disposition most open and generous, his friendship con¬ 
 stant and sincere. He was most esteemed by those who knew him 
 best, and his death will be lamented in a wide circle of most respectable 
 friends.”* 
 
 In January, 1806, the inside of the dome which surmounts the Town- 
 hall was first thrown open ta the public. The height from the pavement 
 of the hall to the centre of the dome is nearly 120 feet, and the whole is 
 in the style of the purest and simplest Grecian architecture. The interior 
 is illuminated by side lights, which free it from that gloomy and sombre 
 appearance which often strikes the eye in the cupolas of great buildings.f 
 
 In April, 1806, an embargo was laid on all Prussian vessels in Liver¬ 
 pool, in consequence of the dispute with that country. This dispute arose 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 23, 1805. t Ibid, January 13, 1806. 
 
525 
 
 out of the seizure of Hanover by the Prussian government, which was at 
 that time wavering in its choice as to which side it should take in the 
 struggle between England and France, and which involved itself in a 
 discreditable quarrel with England before plunging into its fatal con¬ 
 flict with France.* 
 
 At a meeting of merchants, held in June, 1806, it was unanimously 
 resolved, that ’Change should commence at ten o’clock and close at three. 
 A hell to be rung at the latter hour, as a signal for breaking up. This 
 regulation to come into force on the 23rd June.f 
 
 At this time the advantages resulting from the canal navigation, 
 opened from Liverpool as far as Montgomeryshire, by means of the 
 Chester and Ellesmere Canal, began to be much felt. The junction of 
 the Ellesmere Canal with the Chester Canal, at Nantwich, had opened a 
 direct communication from the remote parts of Montgomeryshire to Liver¬ 
 pool, and had been the means of bringing immense quantities of timber, 
 corn, hark, and other produce of the rich and fertile counties of Salop, 
 Denbigh, and Montgomeryshire, to Chester, Liverpool, and the neighbour¬ 
 hood, and of supplying those counties with all kinds of West India produce 
 from Liverpool, at a moderate expense, compared to the uncertain and 
 expensive navigation of the river Severn from Bristol.J 
 
 In July, 1806, it was determined to build an Exchange, for the accom¬ 
 modation of the corn trade, in Brunswick-street, on the site then occupied 
 by Ned’s coffee-house. “ We doubt not,” says the paper which made 
 the announcement, “ but the building will he worthy of the town, and of 
 the wealthy and liberal body who have instituted the scheme.Ӥ 
 
 In the autumn of 1806, Liverpool was visited by the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards George the Fourth. He came over from Knowsley, where he 
 was staying on a visit with the Earl of Derby, and was received in 
 Liverpool with great honours. The town was illuminated in honour of 
 his visit. || 
 
 Parliament was dissolved in November, 1806, on which occasion the 
 great Boscoo was elected one of the members for Liverpool. At that 
 time he was in the zenith of his fame as a writer and a politician. He 
 was also connected with one of the first banks in Liverpool, of which 
 Thomas Leyland, afterwards the richest man and most skilful hanker in 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 7, 1800. + Ibid, June 23, 1806. 
 
 t Ibid, June 30, 1806. § Ibid, August 11, 1806. 
 
 • |[ Ibid, September 1, 1806. 
 
 3 Y 
 
526 
 
 Liverpool, was the head.* His views as a parliamentary reformer, a 
 friend to the admission of the Roman Catholics, and as an avowed advo¬ 
 cate of the abolition of the slave trade, were not in accordance with the 
 general views of the Liverpool constituency, although they were with 
 those of a considerable portion of the inhabitants. Nevertheless, his 
 high standing in the commercial, the literary, and the political world, and 
 the unsullied excellence of his private character, induced the burgesses to 
 overlook all differences of opinion, and to return him as one of the 
 members for his native town, by a triumphant majority. At the close of 
 the poll the numbers stood: Roscoe, 1,151; Gascoyne, 1,138 ; Tarleton, 
 986. The parliament in which Mr. Roscoe sat was of very short 
 duration; but, short as his term in parliament was, it gave him the 
 opportunity of assisting to abolish the slave trade. That disgraceful traffic 
 was finally declared to be illegal in the session of 1807, after a conflict 
 of five-and-twenty years between truth and falsehood, justice and selfish¬ 
 ness, humanity and cruelty. At the age of nineteen the youthful genius 
 of Roscoe sang the wrongs of Africa; in early manhood he had confuted 
 the sophistries by which the Jesuit Harris attempted to vindicate the 
 same trade, from the word of God; during the whole career of Clarkson 
 and Wilberforce he had shared their hopes and their fears; and, at the 
 close of that glorious struggle, he had the heartfelt satisfaction of standing 
 up in parliament, as the representative of Liverpool, and of giving his 
 vote, and the vote of his native town, for the final abolition of the trade 
 in the bodies and souls of his fellow-creatures. 
 
 In July, 1807, the common council determined to make “a capital 
 improvement” in the south front of the Town-hall, facing Castle-street, by 
 erecting a noble portico of three stories, the lower piazza of which Avas to 
 extend into the street, as far as the outward edge of the flagged pavement. 
 “ This,” it was stated, “ would form a very fine facade towards Castle- 
 street, and would tend to diminish the heavy appearance which the cupola 
 at the top of the building now gives to that fine structure.”f 
 
 The travelling between Liverpool and Manchester, and Lancashire and 
 
 * The firm of Leyland, Clarke, and Eoscoe was dissolved in December, 1800. The 
 following notice of its dissolution appeared in Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser of January 5, 
 1807:—“ The partnership heretofore carried on in Liverpool by the undersigned, Thomas 
 Leyland, John Clarke, and William Eoscoe, all of that place, bankers, under the firm of 
 Leyland, Clarke, and Eoscoe, is this day, by mutual consent, dissolved. 
 
 “ Thomas Leyland. 
 
 “ John Claeke. 
 
 “ Liverpool, 31st December, 1806.” “ Wm. Eoscoe. 
 
 + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 13, 1807. 
 
527 
 
 London, had increased greatly about the end of the eighteenth, and the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1770 there was only one coach 
 between Liverpool and Manchester, and one between Liverpool and Lon¬ 
 don; in 1807 there were twenty-seven.* 
 
 In November, 1807, Bonaparte having overthrown the power of Prussia 
 in the great battle of Jena, issued liis famous Berlin decree declaring the 
 British islands in a state of blockade. By this decree, which bore the 
 date of Berlin, November 21st, the French Emperor decreed:—That the 
 British islands were to be considered in a state of blockade by all the con¬ 
 tinent ; all correspondence or trade with England was forbidden, under 
 the severest penalties; all articles of English manufacture or produce 
 of the British colonies were declared to be contraband. Property of every 
 kind belonging to British subjects, wherever found, was declared to be 
 lawful prize. All letters to or from England were to he detained and 
 opened at all the continental post-offices. After the winter campaign of 
 1807-8, Bonaparte compelled Prussia, and induced Russia, Austria, and 
 all the other powers of the continent, to carry out the principle of the 
 Berlin decree, against the commerce and intercourse of England. The 
 British government immediately retaliated, by orders in council, declaring 
 all the ports of the French empire in a state of blockade. “ The order of 
 council,” says a Liverpool paper of January, 1808, “ issued relative to the 
 trade of neutrals with the ports of the enemy, must meet with the full 
 approbation of every British subject. Its effects will be to place France 
 and the countries under her influence, on the whole continent, in a state 
 of blockade, and to bring at once the question to an issue whether the 
 enemy can do without foreign trade. It is a measure of just though 
 dreadful retaliation against the enemy, for the piratical expedients to which 
 he has recently resorted against our commerce ; and there is every pros¬ 
 pect of its speedily annihilating the little that remains of trade or mer¬ 
 cantile spirit in France.”f 
 
 The annual ball of the Ladies’ Charity was at this time given on New 
 Year’s Eve. The hall on the eve of the year 1808 was attended “ by a 
 most brilliant and fashionable company, of three hundred and eighty-nine 
 persons.^ 
 
 The “ Liverpool Courier” newspaper was established in January, 1808, 
 by Mr. Thomas Kaye. It was the first political paper that ever took root 
 and flourished in Liverpool. The other two papers then in existence, 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 14, 1807. + Ibid, January 19, 1808. 
 
 1 Ibid, January 4, 1808. 
 
528 
 
 “ Billinge’s Advertiser”, established in 1756, under the name of “ Wil¬ 
 liamson’s Advertiser”, and now known as the “ Liverpool Times and 
 Billinge’s Advertiser”, and “ Gore’s Advertiser”, established in the year 
 1765, were not political but commercial papers. The “ Liverpool 
 Courier” came out from the first as a political paper, on what are now 
 known as conservative, but were then generally designated as tory or church 
 and king principles,—the principles which it has steadily defended for 
 upwards of forty years. The following paragraph from the prospectus of 
 the “ Liverpool Courier”, issued on the 10th December, 1807, explains 
 more precisely the views with which that paper was established :—“ De¬ 
 voted to the person and family of a sovereign who has so long adorned the 
 throne hv his virtues, he (the proprietor) heartily embraces the principles of 
 the British constitution in church and state ; he scruples not to profess 
 himself an enemy to those measures which would derogate from the dignity 
 of the one, or violate the purity and endanger the existence of the other. 
 Equally opposed to intolerance and to anarchy, he shall feel proud if any 
 attempts of his be successful enough to lead his readers more highly to 
 estimate that mild and paternal government which so fully secures us from 
 both ; and more carefully to guard against those delusions which would 
 steal away our great and real privileges, under the frail pretence of grant¬ 
 ing others, greater and more valuable.”* 
 
 On the 23rd of February, 1808, a circular was issued by the principal 
 Liverpool merchants engaged in the American trade, inviting the mer¬ 
 chants and inhabitants interested in that trade to attend a meeting, to be 
 held at the Boyal Hotel, Lord-street, on Friday, the 26th instant, for the 
 purpose of concurring in a humble petition to the legislature, praying that 
 the bill then before parliament, entitled “ A Bill for more effectually 
 carrying into execution certain Orders in Council, made for the protection 
 of the Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, and granting Duties of 
 Customs on certain Goods exported from Great Britain”, might not pass 
 into a law, until the objectionable parts of the bill had been expunged or 
 modified. The requisition calling this meeting was signed by men of the 
 most opposite political opinions, including amongst them John and 
 Bobert Gladstone; Ewart, Rutson, and Co.; Case and Murray; Rathbone, 
 Hughes, and Duncan; Cropper, Benson, and Co.; Martin, Hope, and 
 Thornely ; Hobsons and Bolton; and, indeed, nearly all the leading 
 houses in the American trade. 
 
 The meeting was held on the day named, that excellent man, the late 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 28, 1807. 
 
529 
 
 James Cropper, in the chair. In opening the business of the meeting he 
 said that those who had been active in promoting it disclaimed solemnly 
 all considerations of party differences, or any other motives than those of 
 public and general concern. Mr. William Rathbone, the head of the firm 
 of Rathbone, Hughes, and Duncan, in moving the first resolution, said 
 that the meeting was not convened under propitious circumstances, or in 
 such a state of things as was calculated to call forth feelings of mutual 
 congratulation. They were surrounded by difficulties of no common 
 nature, which required to be considered in a spirit alike remote from rash¬ 
 ness, which shuts its eyes to danger, and from dismay, which sinks under 
 its pressure. The distress which had arisen from our commerce being 
 excluded (by Bonaparte’s decrees) from every port in Europe (except 
 those of Sweden) was now aggravated by a new calamity. A general em¬ 
 bargo had been laid on all the shipping in the ports of America. No 
 inhabitant of Liverpool could be insensible to the importance of that 
 measure. No person could observe the almost daily arrival of American 
 ships throughout the year ; could see them landing their cargoes of the 
 most essentially useful or necessary commodities, and taking back those 
 very articles in a manufactured state which they had not long before 
 brought as raw material, without being struck with the extreme import¬ 
 ance of this intercourse. Nearly five hundred voyages were made from 
 America to this port in the course of a year, in ships of which the burthen 
 amounted to more than 123,000 tons. This traffic was of the first mo¬ 
 ment to the nation at large; but so peculiarly interesting to Liverpool v 
 that there was scarcely an individual in the place who was not affected by 
 it, directly or remotely. The amount of British manufactures annually 
 exported to America was more than ten millions sterling, and of course a 
 return was made to about the same amount, either in goods or money. 
 
 By a fair calculation, the revenue derived to government from that portion 
 of the trade which was carried on in Liverpool only, was not less than one 
 million sterling per annum. If in times like these our wants were to be daily 
 increasing, and our resources daily diminishing, this must prove a most 
 striking consideration. There was also another matter to be considered, 
 of not less importance. From the free spirit of the British constitution, 
 and the various advantages enjoyed by its subjects, it might, without 
 arrogance, be said that their capital, their resources, and their character 
 for integrity, placed them on a footing with the merchants of any other 
 nation. Hence it happened that in their dealings with foreign countries 
 they were enabled frequently to export on credit. In consequence of this 
 
530 
 
 it was supposed that the overage debt due from America to this country 
 was not less than twelve millions sterling. If the embargo in America 
 should be continued, how was it possible for this enormous debt to be paid ? 
 There were many persons present who might not be directly affected 
 thereby; but even those, it was presumed, would feel for the distresses 
 of others, more especially for those whose chief property might be involved 
 in the issue of this unfortunate misunderstanding: still more for those 
 who might be thereby deprived of the power of paying their just debts : 
 and most of all for the widow and the orphan whom such misfortunes 
 might ultimately reach. Mr. Rathbone next took a view of the American 
 trade to the West Indies, stated the dependence of those islands on 
 America, and the quantity of produce annually exported from them. He 
 also adverted to the trade to America, to the East Indies, and to China, 
 the export to each of £500,000 annually in silver only, and the facility 
 which it was admitted to give to the trade of our East India Company. 
 He remarked on the lucrativeness of this trade to the merchants of 
 America, and hoped the day was not distant when it would be equally 
 opened to British merchants. 
 
 Another most important consideration (he said) must be adverted to, 
 respecting the welfare of their native town. The American ships which fre¬ 
 quented this port expended amongst the tradesmen of Liverpool, in repairs 
 and other necessaries, to the amount of £ 150,000 a-year ; and the charges 
 on the cargoes (exclusive of all Government duties) was not less than 
 £150,000 more; making in the whole a sum of not less than £300,000 
 annually left in the port of Liverpool. With such evidence of the 
 importance of the American trade, would it not be surprising if the 
 inhabitants did not feel some alarm when their immediate interests were 
 at stake, and if they did not assemble to consider whether any means 
 could be devised of arresting the progress of a measure so destructive 
 to their prosperity ? The West India Association of the port had then 
 its delegates in London ; the salt proprietors had sent up theirs ; memo¬ 
 rials had been presented by the manufacturers ; the London American 
 merchants had not been inactive; and should those of Liverpool, by 
 whom three-fourths of the whole trade between Britain and America was 
 carried on, be asleep ? Mr. Kathbone next remarked on the singularity 
 of the circumstance, that, while parliament was employed in legislating 
 for the commerce in American ships, the whole foreign trade of America 
 was subjected by its own government to an embargo ; so that, shortly, 
 there would scarcely be one of her vessels found on the ocean ; and that, 
 
531 
 
 while parliament was imposing duties, and framing regulations for 
 exports from Britain to the ports on the continent, all those from the 
 northern to the southern extremity of Europe (Sweden only excepted) 
 were shut against such exports. He then adverted to the effect which 
 the orders in council would produce in America, and the feelings they 
 would excite. To judge of this, he said, it was necessary to place our¬ 
 selves in their situation ; to divest ourselves of all national bias and 
 prejudice, and to inquire how we should feel if a similar treatment were 
 practised upon us. If the American government had resolved that their 
 non-importation act should take effect; if she had subjected all her 
 foreign commerce to an embargo before any authentic information of our 
 ordei’s in council had reached her ; and if she was not necessarily 
 ignorant of their full effects on her commerce; what must be her 
 feelings when she was informed of those humiliating and injurious 
 effects, in all their various and complicated relations ? The great 
 grievance, however, would be, that her commerce on the ocean should 
 ever be regulated by the decrees of a foreign state, on principles new and 
 unprecedented, and not merely be subjected to restraint but to taxation. 
 If we would judge of the feelings of the Americans on that occasion, let 
 us ask how we ourselves should feel were the same system to be practised 
 upon us by France ? Suppose she were to prescribe what course our 
 ships should follow on the ocean, direct to what ports they should 
 proceed, what duties they should pay, what restraints they should submit 
 to; was there an Englishman whose feelings would not revolt from 
 submission to such a power ? “Are there any sacrifices or privations that 
 he would think too great to make ? And shall we not suppose the same 
 feelings in America ? Is she not allied to us by the ties of affinity, by 
 similarity of language, of manners, habits, and even to a considerable 
 extent by the structure of her government ? Her whole code of law is 
 formed, with some few exceptions, on the principles of ours, and the 
 decisions of law in our courts are frequently quoted as precedents 
 and authorities in theirs. Can we, then, wonder that she should be 
 animated with the same love of freedom and independence that we 
 are ? Has she not rights as well as ourselves, and is it not natural 
 that she should be equally jealous of them ? How then can we 
 expect she will ever consent that we shall dictate the terms on which 
 her commerce shall traverse the wide ocean ? or that her ships shall 
 be forcibly compelled to enter our ports, and subject to taxation, in 
 return for which they derive no advantage. On the subject of foreign 
 
532 
 
 taxation America may naturally be expected to be jealous in the extreme. 
 Will sbe, who voluntarily encountered all dangers, struggled under all 
 difficulties, endured all privations, submitted to all sacrifices, and largely 
 expended both her treasure and her blood, rather than submit to taxation 
 by a foreign state, submit to be taxed by us ? And is not the tonnage 
 duty on her shipping, forcibly brought into our harbours, a direct, unjust, 
 and oppressive tax ? Is it by such measures as these that we can hope 
 to give value to her friendship, or to conciliate her ? Deplorable, indeed, 
 must be the prospect of returning amity and commerce with America, if 
 this system of infatuated policy be persevered in.” 
 
 Mr. J. Richardson and Mr. Martin supported the views expressed by 
 Mr. Rathbone. 
 
 The chairman (Mr. Cropper) said that he wished to notice a few 
 points which had not been mentioned by the previous speakers. The 
 supply of flaxseed in Ireland, it was well known, depended wholly on 
 foreign countries. The quantity imported into that country the preced¬ 
 ing year had been 60,000 casks; that year only 10,000 had been received, 
 so that there must still be a great deficiency, which would seriously affect 
 the linen trade. There was another consideration of still greater import¬ 
 ance ; Great Britain now required every year a large importation of corn 
 and flour, which was commonly received from America and the Baltic. 
 From the ports of the latter they were now entirely excluded, and their 
 supply from the former would be equally cut off if the embargo were con¬ 
 tinued. The quantity imported from America into tins port alone, last 
 year, was 500,000 bushels of wheat, and 136,000 barrels of flour. From 
 Ireland the usual large supplies could not be expected, because con¬ 
 siderable shipments of wheat and flour were now making to that 
 country, in consequence of the deficiency of com and potatoes. 
 From no country with which they were then in connexion could 
 they receive any supplies ; on the contrary, large shipments must 
 be made for the supply of the West Indies. What reason had they 
 to suppose that England, which had always required large importa¬ 
 tions of grain, would be able not only to do without, but to export 
 largely, to her foreign possessions ? 
 
 Two petitions, the one to the Lords and the other to the Commons, 
 opposing the orders in council, and praying for permission to be heard 
 against them at the bar of the house, were then agreed to unanimously. 
 The petition praying for a hearing at the bar of the House of Commons 
 was rejected by the house, on the ground of informality. Another petition 
 
533 
 
 was in consequence drawn up to the same purport, which in a few hours 
 received 354 signatures; but that also was rejected. 
 
 Great, however, as was the importance of the American trade to the 
 port of Liverpool, there was a strong party in the town fully determined 
 to support the government in its retaliatory policy against the French 
 government, whatever the consequence of that policy might he, not only 
 on the commerce of England, hut on our relations with neutral powers. 
 This party, which included the mayor, the common council, and the 
 majority of the merchants of the port, held a meeting at the Town-hall, 
 on the 21st of March, to express its undiminished confidence in the 
 government. The mayor, Henry Blundell Hollinsbead, Esq., presided ; 
 and his was much the ablest speech that was delivered at the meeting. 
 He said that their common interests, the welfare of their country, and 
 their duty to their sovereign, all demanded that they should stand forth 
 at that momentous crisis to support his government, and to give effect, 
 by their unanimity, to those measures which were best calculated to dis¬ 
 comfit the designs of their enemies. They were assailed by an implaca¬ 
 ble foe, who sought their destruction, and would gladly satiate his ambi¬ 
 tion with the ruin of their commerce, their privileges, and their independ¬ 
 ence. Under such circumstances could they be at a loss for a moment 
 how to act ? Was there a person in that assembly, who possessed the 
 spirit of a Briton, who did not feel himself interested in that glorious 
 struggle ? Was there one who was not willing patiently to suffer the 
 privations which the peculiar circumstances of the times assigned to the 
 lot of all, rather than stoop to a mean submission to a tyrant whose object 
 was, first, to divide, and then to destroy them ? By force or artifice he 
 had unhappily succeeded in leaguing all Europe, with the exception of 
 Sweden, against this country; but neither the prowess of his arms nor the 
 subtlety of his intrigues had been found sufficient to effect his purposes. 
 As a last resort, he had organized a systematic attack on our commercial 
 interests, and flattered himself with the hope that by his blockading 
 decrees he would be able to effect that which his military strength had 
 not, and never would he able to accomplish. In that also he trusted he 
 would be disappointed. In that he must be disappointed, unless they 
 were false to themselves, unless they bartered the permanent interests of 
 the country, under the delusive expectation of gaining a temporary relief 
 from their domestic pressures. They had it in their power to make the 
 measures of the enemy fall on his own head. His majesty’s ministers 
 had adopted a mode of retaliation which must, if vigorously supported by 
 3 z 
 
534 
 
 the energies of the country, ultimately lead the enemy to accede to those 
 terms of conciliation ■which shall be honourable to Britain, and secure 
 the repose and happiness of Europe.* 
 
 A resolution and a petition, expressing the sentiments of the mayor’s 
 speech, were then moved. These, however, were met by counter resolu¬ 
 tions and a counter petition, moved by Mr. Roscoe. The following passages 
 from the two petitions will show precisely the views of the two parties. 
 The address moved by the mayor’s party commenced with the warmest 
 expressions of attachment to the king and government, and concluded as 
 follows:—“No part of your majesty’s dominions is liable to be more 
 affected than this town by the state of trade, in which we are all in different 
 ways interested, and upon the success of which our prosperity essentially 
 depends; yet we see no cause for desponding, and so far from drawing 
 unfavourable conclusions against your majesty’s government, in the 
 measures which it adopts upon views of public advantage, we should deem 
 ourselves unworthy of the name of Britons, who are the only remaining 
 hope of Europe, and the last stay of the civilized world, if we did not, with 
 your majesty, bring into this great contest for freedom and independence, 
 an unshaken determination to consent to every sacrifice which either now 
 or hereafter may be required, and if we did not employ all our efforts to 
 realize the hope of your majesty, that the present awful and momentous 
 struggle, through the blessing of Providence, may prove ultimately 
 successful and glorious to Great Britain.” The following extract from 
 the address moved by Mr. Roscoe will show the points in which the two 
 parties agreed, and those in which they differed :—“ Whilst we affect not 
 to conceal from your majesty the pressure of the heavy burdens which 
 we sustain, in consequence of the war; and which, in this town, so 
 peculiarly interested in a free intercourse with foreign states, is most 
 severely felt, and can only be effectually alleviated by the return of peace; 
 we humbly beg leave to assure your majesty, that it is still our firm reso¬ 
 lution to be deterred by no privations, and to spare no sacrifices, in 
 defending your majesty’s royal person and throne, and the happy consti¬ 
 tution under which we live, against all your enemies; relying on your 
 majesty’s wisdom for the adoption of such councils as may tend to con¬ 
 vince your enemies, not only of the unconquerable power of your ma¬ 
 jesty’s arms, but of the justice and moderation of your majesty’s views; 
 and trusting that, by a firm and dignified, but, at the same time, con¬ 
 ciliatory conduct towards hostile and neutral states, your majesty will 
 * Liverpool Courier, March 14, 1808. 
 
535 
 
 be enabled not only to maintain the yet unbroken relations of peace and 
 amity with a power (the United States) nearly connected with us by the 
 ties of a common origin, and advantageous commercial intercourse, but 
 to restore, at an early period, to your faithful subjects, and to the world 
 at large, the blessings of a secure and lasting peace.” 
 
 A dispute arose at the meeting as to which of these petitions was 
 carried; but both of them were very numerously signed. The former 
 was forwarded by Lieutenant-General Tarleton and Major-General 
 Gascoyne to Lord Hawkesbury, and by him presented to the king, 
 “who was pleased to receive the same in the most gracious man¬ 
 ner.”* It is well known to every reader of history that the bill con¬ 
 firming the orders in council was carried through parliament. The 
 united result of the Berlin decree, of the orders in council, and of the 
 American embargo was to suspend, and for a time destroy, the commerce 
 of the United States. “ Our commerce at this moment,” said the Boston 
 Centinel, “is like a poor flying fish, pursued from below by a couple of 
 dolphins, and from above by a couple of hawks. While the French block¬ 
 ading decree and the English retaliatory order in council pursue it on 
 one side, the non-importation act and the general embargo assail it on 
 the other.”t 
 
 Early in February, 1808, a long pending cause between the parish of 
 Liverpool and the trustees of the docks, respecting the liability of the 
 dock dues of the port to the poor-rates, came before the Court of King’s 
 Bench, when the judges decided unanimously that the dock dues were 
 not chargeable to the relief of the poor.j; 
 
 In the month of March, 1808, the Liverpool Exchange was completed 
 and thrown open to the public. “ In the course of last week,” says the 
 paper of the 7th March, “ all the sandstone and rubbish have been taken 
 away from the area of the new Exchange, the ground has been levelled, 
 covered with sand, and rolled, and, all the partitions and temporary build¬ 
 ings having been cleared away, the beauty and grandeur of the whole 
 structure are now taken in by the eye, and seen with the fullest effect. 
 Crowds of persons, both strangers and inhabitants of the town, have been 
 to view this noble fabric, which has hitherto been seen so imperfectly that 
 it now appears with all the charms of novelty.Ӥ 
 
 In the paper of the succeeding week we find the following account 
 
 * Liverpool Courier, March 30, 1808. 
 
 + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, April 11, 1808. } Ibid, February 8, 1808. 
 
 § Ibid, March 7, 1808. 
 
536 
 
 of the opening of the Exchange, as a place of business:—“Monday last, 
 the 7th March, was a day of some importance in the commercial annals 
 of Liverpool, as on that day the merchants abandoned their usual place 
 of meeting, at the upper end of Castle-street, and assembled, for the first 
 time, in the grand area of the new Exchange. No place in the world 
 affords so elegant and commodious a situation as this for all the purposes 
 of a public Exchange ; and we have often been surprised to hear it 
 observed, that it would be difficult to bring the merchants to abandon 
 their old situation, to which they were so much attached by the strong 
 ties of habit and early prepossession. In opposition to this common 
 opinion, we are happy to observe that the translation was absolutely 
 perfect the first day, not a single person being found loitering about his 
 old haunt during the whole ’Change hours. We understand that the 
 different classes of merchants are selecting their appropriate walks, as 
 upon the London Exchange, and we have no doubt that they will be 
 sensible of all the advantages of their present situation.”* 
 
 At this time the laws for the protection of property were written in 
 blood, and were executed with a sternness altogether unknown in our milder 
 times. On Saturday, April the 8th, Mary Chandley was executed at 
 Lancaster, pursuant to her sentence, for robbing her master’s house in 
 Liverpool. She was nineteen years of age ! and was so ignorant of her 
 religious duties as to be unable to repeat the Lord’s Prayer! As the 
 executioner was putting the cap over her face, she exclaimed, “ Oh ! man, 
 I never will forgive you !” and her shrieks were loud and piercing !f 
 The improvements by which Dale-street was converted into a wide 
 open thoroughfare were so far advanced, in 1808, as to be considered the 
 greatest that had taken place in Liverpool since the rebuilding of Castle- 
 street, the new Exchange-buildings only excepted. 
 
 On the 28th July, 1808, the mayor, bailiffs, and common council of 
 Liverpool, in council assembled, agreed to an address to the king, in 
 which they expressed “the most heartfelt congratulations, on those late 
 events on the continent of Europe, which seem to promise the dawn of a 
 brighter day to the liberties and independence of nations.”J The events 
 referred to were the rising of the Spaniards and Portuguese against the 
 armies of France, and the commencement of that glorious struggle, which 
 ended in the liberation, not only of the Peninsula, but of all Europe, from 
 the military despotism of Napoleon. 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 14, 1808. 1 Ibid, April 10, 1808. 
 
 1 Ibid, August 8, 1808. 
 
537 
 
 On Tuesday, the 2d August, the new Corn Exchange, in Brunswick- 
 street, was opened to the trade. At half-past ten the stands were all occu¬ 
 pied, and were well attended hy country buyers. The business was con¬ 
 ducted with great spirit and regularity. At three o’clock the proprietors and 
 many of their friends dined together, at the, Boval Hotel, in Lord-street. 
 “ Many as our opportunities have been,” says a paper of the 8th August, 
 “ of adding our tribute of praise to the numerous excellent institutions 
 with which our town abounds, yet we never noticed any new plan with 
 equal pleasure. The corn trade forms a most essential and important 
 branch of our commerce, and it has often concerned us to reflect on what 
 a confined and imperfect scale it has hitherto been conducted. For the 
 future, it is to be hoped that no encouragement will be given to any of 
 those who would wish to violate its rules, and, contrary to the spirit of 
 the undertaking, divert the country dealers from that market, where both 
 buyers and sellers are placed on a fair and equitable footing. We feel 
 persuaded that the longer our new Corn Exchange is known the better it 
 will be liked; and, from our hearts, we give its proprietors and supporters 
 our best wishes.”* 
 
 In December, 1808, it was announced that the proprietors of the Leeds 
 and Liverpool and the Bridgewater Canals had determined to unite the 
 two canals, by extending the Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Wigan to 
 the Bridgewater Canal at Leigh. This junction not only greatly improved 
 the communication between the inland towns of Lancashire, hut created 
 a third line of water communication between Liverpool and Manchester.f 
 
 On Monday, January 2nd, 1809, the great commercial-room at the 
 Exchange, now known as the Exchange Newsroom, was first thrown open 
 to the public ; and, when seen in its original freshness and beauty, was 
 pronounced to be the most magnificent apartment in Europe erected for 
 commercial purposes. It occupies the whole of the lower story of the 
 east wing of the building. Its extreme length, from north to south, is 
 94 feet 3 inches ; its breadth, from east to west, 42 feet 7 inches; its 
 greatest height from the centre of the ceiling, between the corridors, is 
 51 feet 9 inches. The ceiling is supported by sixteen Ionic columns, 
 each composed of one entire and beautiful stone. The walls are adorned 
 with sixteen pilasters to correspond with the colonnade. The whole build¬ 
 ing was executed from the plans and drawings of Mr. John Foster, archi¬ 
 tect to the corporation.^ 
 
 » Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, August 8, 1808. t Liverpool Courier, Dee. 14, 1808. 
 
 1 Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, January 4, 1809. 
 
538 
 
 A meeting was held in the beginning of the year to consider the 
 necessitous condition of the poor, at which it was determined to open 
 soup-sliops for their relief. Upwards of 10,000 quarts per week was dis¬ 
 tributed, at the rate of one penny a quart. It was found impossible at 
 first to make it fast enough. 
 
 In February, the Maida, transport, arrived in Liverpool, with a num¬ 
 ber of poor soldiers on board, belonging to the army of Sir John Moore. 
 The Maida sailed from Corunna along with the other transports, but was 
 driven up the Irish Channel to Liverpool by violent gales. The poor 
 war-worn, tempest-tost soldiers were received with great kindness, were 
 feasted abundantly, and upwards of T300 was raised, with which each of 
 the private soldiers was furnished with a flannel shirt and drawers, stock¬ 
 ings, shoes, cap, and gloves.* Like the rest of Sir John Moore’s army, 
 they had lost everything (except their honour) in their march over the 
 mountains of Gallicia. 
 
 In February, 1809, Liverpool lost one of the ablest and most estima¬ 
 ble of its merchants, by the death of William Rathbone, the bosom friend 
 of Roscoe and Currie. It had been the custom of Mr. Rathbone to 
 inscribe, in a book devoted to that purpose, the names of those of his 
 family whom he had lost by death. In this volume Mr. Roscoe has, in 
 his own hand, thus recorded the death of his friend : 
 
 “ 11th February, 1809. 
 
 “ William Rathbone died at nine o’clock in the morning, aged 51 
 years and 8 months. 
 
 “ This domestic record, which contains the brief memorials of his 
 beloved and respected relatives, registered by his own hand, and endeared 
 by the warm expression of his affection, now receives the honoured 
 name of William Rathbone, 
 
 Of Liverpool, Merchant; 
 
 a name which will ever be distinguished by independence, probity, and 
 true benevolence, and will remain as an example to his descendants of 
 genuine piety, patient resignation, and of all those virtues which give 
 energy to a community, adorn society, and are the delight of private life. 
 
 “ Through life beloved ! O let this votive line 
 Unite in death, its author’s name with thine. 
 
 “William Roscoe.” t 
 
 In consequence of the number of captures made by the enemy’s pri¬ 
 vateers in the channel, government gave directions, about this time, for 
 * Liverpool Courier, Feb. 1, 1809. t Life of William Roscoe, by his son, Henry Roscoe. 
 
the adoption of a system of alarm gun-signals, intended to serve as an 
 intimation to the men-of-war, that a privateer was on the coast, and to 
 point out the place where it might he found.* 
 
 The South Stack Lighthouse, off Holyhead, one of the guides to ves¬ 
 sels arriving from sea, was lighted, for the first time, on the night of the 
 9th of April, and, although the weather was not very favourable, it 
 appeared, at the distance of four or five leagues, as if the whole building 
 was on fire. “This useful edifice,” says a paper of March the 6th, “ is 
 60 feet high, exclusive of the lantern. It has twenty-one lamps placed 
 in the centre of large reflectors, from 16 to 20 inches in diameter. It is 
 on the revolving principle, and shows its greatest light every two 
 minutes.”f 
 
 On the 25th of October, 1809, the jubilee, or fiftieth anniversary of 
 the accession off George the Third to the throne, was celebrated with 
 extraordinary rejoicings, in all parts of the kingdom. In Liverpool, in 
 addition to the ringing of hells, public processions, a brilliant illumina¬ 
 tion, and other ordinary signs of rejoicing, it was resolved to erect an 
 equestrian statue to the good old king ; and, on the proposal of William 
 Roscoe, to liberate all the prisoners confined for debt in the Borough 
 Gaol. A subscription large enough to effect both these objects was raised. 
 Upwards of seventy poor debtors were set at liberty, and the monument 
 of George the Third, which still stands in the London-road, was com¬ 
 menced. J 
 
 In the year 1809 the Liverpool docks were again found to be insuffi¬ 
 cient for the accommodation of the commerce of the port, which about 
 that time had received a sudden impulse from the opening of the trade 
 with Spain and Portugal, and with the Spanish and Portuguese colonies 
 in America. Owing to the pressure of the war, the plans of dock exten¬ 
 sion formed in 1799 had not been carried into effect; but the increase of 
 commerce was so great in 1808 and 1809 as to render any further delay 
 in supplying more dock room impossible. A correspondence took place 
 on this subject between Mr. John Foster, the man of business of the dock 
 trustees, who were then the corporation, and the present Sir John Glad¬ 
 stone, Bart., who was then chairman of the West India Association, which 
 contains much information, as to the condition of the commerce of the 
 port and the dock estate at that time, as well as the particulars of various 
 plans of dock extension which were then under consideration. 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March fi, 1809. t Ibid, March 6, 1809. 
 
 } Liverpool Courier, October 18, 1809. 
 
540 
 
 In a letter addressed “ to John Gladstone, Esq., and the rest of the 
 gentlemen of the West India Association deputed to confer ■with the 
 trustees of the docks,” Mr. Foster says, 
 
 “ Gentlemen,—Conformably to the instructions I have received from 
 the committee of the trustees of the docks, I have the honour to com¬ 
 municate to you, for the information of the West India Association, the 
 following opinions of Mr. Eennie, the engineer (delivered in writing) by 
 him to the Dock Committee, upon the 14th ult., after he had attentively 
 surveyed the port and considered the subject. 
 
 “ From the best information Mr. Eennie could obtain, it appeared that 
 at various times during three years ending Midsummer, 1808, there had 
 been in the docks 400 sail of vessels of the average size of 190 to 200 
 tons, and also that there had been 300 sloops or flats at the same period 
 in the docks and upon the banks of the river ; and that tb accommodate 
 the above number of vessels in a proper manner, at least double the dock 
 space that is now used will be required, without looking to any further 
 increase of trade. 
 
 “ That a dock of about seven statute acres may be made between 
 George’s Dock basin and the Fort in about six or seven years, at an 
 expense of about T220,000, which dock will contain about seventy sail 
 of vessels, of the average size of 200 tons; but that it will not be a con¬ 
 venient dock unless possession of the Fort can he obtained, in order to 
 form an additional basin there. 
 
 “ That additional dock space may he obtained upon a larger scale 
 (than the proposed north dock) at the south end of the town, in half the 
 time, and at about two-thirds the expense. 
 
 “ That the sum of T500,000 will he required to complete the docks, to 
 the extent, and upon the plan proposed, exclusive of buildings, or the 
 purchase of land or premises. “John Foster, Secretary, &e. 
 
 “ Liverpool, September 2, 1809.” 
 
 Tables accompanied this communication, explaining more precisely 
 the nature and amount of additional accommodation intended to be given, 
 together with certain improvements intended to he made, and also ex¬ 
 plaining the financial position of the dock estate, and the future plan of 
 raising the needful revenue. 
 
 The enlargements of the docks proposed were as follows : 
 
 A new dock, the present Prince’s Dock, between George’s Dock Basin 
 and the Fort, about 350 yards long and 100 yards wide, to he built 
 in seven years, and to contain about 7 acres. 
 
541 
 
 An addition to the King’s Dock, 2G4 yards long, by 42£ yards, 
 to be finished in about fifteen months, and to add 2 a. 1 r. 11 p. 
 
 An addition to George’s Dock, 241 yards long by 21^ yards wide, to 
 be made in about two years, and to give la. 0 r. 11 p. 
 
 An addition to the Queen’s Dock, 190 yards long by 105 yards wide, 
 to be made in about two years, and to give 4 a. 19 p. 
 
 A half-tide basin at the south end of the Queen’s Dock, 120 yards 
 square, to be made in about three years, and to contain 2 a. 3 r. 36 p. 
 
 Total, 16 a. 1 r. 37 p. 
 
 Deduct Old Dock (3 a. 2r. and 4p.) intended to be filled up. For 
 that part intended to be relinquished to the corporation of Liverpool, an 
 equivalent space to be given at their expense. 
 
 Additional dock space to be given in three years, 6 a. 3 r. 33 p. 
 
 Further southward, in about four years, 10 acres. 
 
 The proposed north dock, 7 acres. 
 
 Total, 23 a. 3r. 33 p. ; say 24 acres of wet dock space, exclusive of 
 4|- acres additional dry basin. 
 
 By another plan an additional five acres, together with Custom-house, 
 Excise-office, Pilots’-office, in about seven years ; sheds for transacting 
 business, and cranes for landing and discharging merchandise to be 
 provided. 
 
 It was also proposed to seek powers to establish a dock police; to 
 provide a place for the shelter and accommodation of pilots on the coast 
 of Anglesey; and to establish a telegraph to communicate between the 
 isle of Anglesey and Liverpool. 
 
 A financial statement accompanied these plans, from which it appeared 
 that the bond debt of the dock estate amounted to £ 180,812, on the 2nd 
 September, 1809. In addition to this it wa3 proposed to borrow the sum of 
 £500,000, to form the additional dock space above described, also £60,000 
 to buy the land, and £60,000 to build a new custom-house; thus adding 
 the sum of £620,000 to the bond debt, and making its total amount 
 £800,812. To meet the interest on this sum of £800,000, it was calcu¬ 
 lated that £40,000 a-year would he required, five per cent, being the rate 
 of interest at which the money was expected to be obtained. To this 
 £40,000 a-year for interest were to be added the sums of £9,056 for 
 expense of the dock establishment, as it then existed; of £3,500 for proba¬ 
 ble increase of expense of management; and of £7,000 for probable annual 
 repairs, giving a total of £19,556; or, in round numbers, £20,000 for 
 cost of management, and £40,000 for interest, making£60,000 for expenses 
 4 A 
 
542 
 
 of every description. To meet tliis outlay, it was proposed that the dues 
 on tonnage should he so regulated as to produce 1130,000 a-year, and 
 those on goods as to produce an equal amount, making a total revenue of 
 ^£60,000 a-year, to meet the same amount of expenditure. 
 
 It will he seen from the following table, which appeared in one of the 
 Liverpool papers,* in October, 1809, that the prices of all the necessaries 
 of life were more than twice as high at that period as they were at the 
 accession of G-eorge the Third, or as they are at the present time: 
 
 
 PRICES IN 1760. 
 
 PRICES IN 1809. 
 
 Wheat, per quarter. 
 
 
 0d. 
 
 . 100s. 
 
 0d. 
 
 Malt, „ . 
 
 _28s. 
 
 Od. 
 
 . 80s. 
 
 Od. 
 
 Flour, per bushel. 
 
 
 10d. 
 
 . 15s. 
 
 8d. 
 
 Bread, per gallon. 
 
 
 8d. 
 
 . 2s. 
 
 4d. 
 
 Bacon, per lb. 
 
 
 6d. 
 
 .... is. 
 
 2d. 
 
 Butchers’ Meat, per lb. 
 
 
 4d. 
 
 
 8d. 
 
 Cheese, „ . 
 
 
 4d. 
 
 
 10d. 
 
 Butter, „ . 
 
 
 6d. 
 
 
 6d. 
 
 Soft Sugar, ,, . 
 
 
 3d. 
 
 
 10d. 
 
 Soap and Candles, per lb. 
 
 _ Os. 
 
 fid. 
 
 
 3d. 
 
 In consequence of the 
 
 pressure of these 
 
 high prices, a 
 
 public 
 
 meeting was held at the Town-hall, Liverpool, the mayor (James Clarke, 
 Esq.) in the chair, to consider the propriety of petitioning parliament, to 
 continue the act prohibiting the distilling of spirits from grain, at which 
 the following resolutions were agreed to unanimously :—“ That the act 
 passed in 1808, prohibiting the distillation from grain, has been found 
 productive of great benefit, and given general satisfaction to all classes 
 of the community in this town; that, notwithstanding that prohibition, 
 the prices of grain have continued to advance in an alarming degree; 
 that, should that salutary measure not he continued, an immediate and 
 considerable further advance in the price of corn will he inevitable, par¬ 
 ticularly in oats, c that most necessary article of consumption in this 
 countythat the act now in force, for preventing distillation from grain, 
 will expire on the 4th of March next; that, in order to guard against 
 an increase of the present high prices of corn as much as is in our power, 
 humble petitions he presented to both houses of parliament, praying that 
 the distillation from grain may continue to be suspended; that the mem¬ 
 bers for the borough he requested to use their utmost endeavours to for¬ 
 ward the objects of this meeting.”f 
 
 On the morning of Sunday, the 11th February, 1810, a dreadful acci¬ 
 dent took place at the parish church of St. Nicholas, Liverpool, by 
 which twenty-two persons were killed and many more were seriously in¬ 
 jured. At about half-past ten in the morning of that day, a few minutes 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 23, 1809. + Ibid, January 29, 1810. 
 
before the time when Divine service usually commences, the key-stone of 
 the bell tower gave way, when the north-east corner of the tower, with the 
 whole of the spire, came down, and, with a tremendous crash, broke 
 through the roof of the church, falling along the centre aisle, till the ruins 
 reached near to the rails of the communion-table. The spire and tower, in 
 their fall, carried with them the peal of six bells, the west gallery, the organ, 
 and the clergyman’s reading-desk, totally crushing all that they came in 
 contact with. The ringers, who were in the tower, ringing the bells, were 
 fortunate enough to escape, with the exception of one who was caught in 
 the ruins, along with a little boy, who was in the steeple at the time when 
 it fell. The two were immediately extricated by the exertions of the 
 other ringers. The man was only slightly wounded, but the boy died 
 soon after. The alarm was given to the ringers by the falling of a stone 
 upon the fifth bell, which prevented its swing, on which they all ran out. 
 The Rev. L. Pughe, the officiating minister for the day, entered the church 
 at nineteen minutes past ten, having himself noticed the clock on his 
 entrance. He proceeded immediately to the great south door, and was in 
 the act of entering it, when he was stopped for a few seconds by the 
 children of the Moorfields school, who were passing into the church at the 
 same time. On his appearance a young woman, a teacher in the school, 
 and one of the unfortunate sufferers, began to separate the children on 
 each side, to afford him a passage, when he heard a person exclaim, “ For 
 God’s sake, Mr. Pughe, turn back.” He stepped back, and, looking up, 
 perceived the spire sinking down towards the east. Immediately the 
 whole fell in, burying the young teacher and all the children in the ruins, 
 and killing her and seventeen of the children. These poor innocents 
 were all interred at St. John’s Church on the following Tuesday, and were 
 followed to the grave by a great number of children of their own age, 
 friends and acquaintances, decently habited in white. The tower, whose 
 fall produced this lamentable catastrophe, was a piece of patch-work. The 
 foundation was at least as old as 1360, and upon this foundation the upper 
 part of the tower and a lofty steeple had been built in the year 1746.* 
 The Liverpool Academy of Arts was opened for the first time in 
 August, 1810. Great numbers of pictures were sold, and the undertaking 
 was so prosperous that it was determined to erect a new and handsome 
 building for the accommodation of the academy, to which H. Blundell, 
 Esq., of Ince, offered to contribute the handsome sum of £1,600.+ 
 
 * Liverpool Courier, February 14, 1810. 
 
 + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 18, 1810. 
 
 <0 ' . / / Q / (Ajr/ o 'll r‘ 
 
 // f CTZPs 'Lj'&O/ Lt-t ‘ 
 
 (A C G'4 'V " 
 
544 
 
 Unfortunately, a terrible commercial panic came on shortly afterwards, 
 and for a while defeated the scheme. 
 
 The year 1810 closed amidst commercial ruin caused by the sudden 
 subsiding of the extravagant hopes and speculations founded upon the 
 re-opening of the trade with Spain and Portugal, and the opening, for 
 the first time, of a direct trade between England and the American pos¬ 
 sessions of Portugal and Spain. The shipments of goods to South 
 America during the year 1808-9 were on an enormous scale; and prices 
 of all articles rose extravagantly in England. After some time it began 
 to be seen that there were no returns for these immense shipments, and then 
 a terrible panic took possession of the public mind, prices falling as rapidly 
 as they had risen. The government, in the hope of relieving the distresses 
 of the mercantile and manufacturing classes, agreed to make a consider¬ 
 able loan for the relief of trade ; and on the 15th March, 1811, a meeting 
 of the principal merchants, brokers, and traders of Liverpool was held at 
 the Town-hall, at which it was determined to apply for a share of the 
 government loan, for the relief of the commerce of Liverpool. The 
 following remarks on the evils of commercial scandal are as appropriate 
 at all times as they were in 1810 and 1811 :—“ It is lamentable to observe 
 the wantonness with which men speak of the credit of the most eminent 
 houses, in consequence of the recent distresses in the commercial world. 
 Talk of gossiping at the tea-table ! The tongues of antiquated maidens 
 are not more loose, nor their insinuations more scandalous, than those of 
 some gossiping men; and when it is considered that credit is to a 
 merchant what chastity is to a woman, this licentious practice of whis¬ 
 pering away reputation cannot be too severely condemned.”* 
 
 In February, 1811, a public meeting was held in the Town hall, at 
 which it was resolved to form a Magdalen Hospital, for the relief of fallen 
 but penitent females.f 
 
 In March of the same year the Havannah, a fine frigate of 42 guns, 
 was launched from the building-yard of Messrs. Hassall and Co., Trent- 
 ham-street.J 
 
 In April, 1811, the first stone of the beautiful church of St. Luke’s, 
 in Leece-street, was laid, in the presence of the mayor, the common 
 council, and many of the principal inhabitants. In the following week 
 the foundation stone of the Independent Chapel, Great George-street, was 
 also laid. This chapel was originally intended for the Eev. Thomas 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 13, 1810. + Ibid, February 4, 1811. 
 
 J Liverpool Courier, March 19, 1811. 
 
545 
 
 Spencer, a young man of fine talents and early excellence. In the month 
 of August following, and before the chapel was finished, Mr. Spencer was 
 drowned, whilst bathing in the river Mersey. After that melancholy 
 event the congregation invited the Rev. Dr. Raffles, then also a very 
 young man, to occupy the pulpit which had been intended for the youth¬ 
 ful Spencer. He consented to do so, and has now presided over the 
 congregation assembling in Great George-street Chapel for forty years, 
 with distinguished ability and usefulness. 
 
 A census of the population of the United Kingdom was taken in the 
 spring of the year 1811, when it was found that the population of Liver¬ 
 pool and the suburban townships had increased in the following ratio :— 
 Borough of Liverpool, from 77,653, in 1801, to 94,376, in 1811 ; sea¬ 
 men of the port, from 6,000 to 7,000; Toxteth-park, from 2,069 to 
 5,864; West Derby, from 2,636 to 3,698 ; Everton, from 499 to 913; 
 Kirkdale, from 395 to 665; Walton, from 681 to 794 ; Wavertree, from 
 860 to 1,398 ; Bootle, from 537 to 610. On the Cheshire side of the 
 river Mersey the population of Tranmere had increased from 353, in 1801, 
 to 474, in 1811; that of Wallasey, from 274 to 440 ; that of Liscard, 
 from 211 to 289; that of Poulton-cum-Seacombe, from 178 to 214; 
 that of Oxton had decreased from 137 to 128; and that of Birkenhead 
 had also decreased from 110 to 105. Thus, the population of the borough 
 of Liverpool, including seamen, had increased from 83,053, in 1801, to 
 101,376, in 1811; and the population of Liverpool and the suburban 
 townships from 90,239 to 116,687. Increase of the borough and sea¬ 
 men in ten years, 17,723; of the borough, seamen, and suburban town¬ 
 ships, 26,448. 
 
 The first number of the Liverpool Mercury was published on the 
 5th July, 1811, by Mr. Egerton Smith, who edited the paper to the time 
 of his death, and whose family still possess the principal interest in it. 
 The first number of the Liverpool Mercury contained an eloquent 
 letter from William Roscoe to Henry Brougham, in support of a reform 
 in the representation of the people. In introducing this letter the editor 
 of the Mercury said, “For our own part, we willingly identify our 
 opinions, on this important subject, with those which Mr. Roscoe 
 has here expressed, with the mildness and manliness of a genuine 
 patriot. It is not violence but firmness, not virulence of language 
 but clearness of reasoning, which distinguishes the reformer from 
 the revolutionist, the friend of liberty from the partizan of anarchy.”* 
 Peace, freedom, and improvement were announced to be the great leading 
 * Liverpool Mercury, July 5, 1811. 
 
546 
 
 objects which would be advocated in the pages of the Liverpool Mer¬ 
 cury, and they have now been steadily advocated in that paper for the 
 long period of forty years. 
 
 The very ancient custom of riding the bounds, now gone out of use, 
 was still kept up, with all the honours. “ On Monday last,” says the 
 Liverpool Mercury, of October 11, 1811, “according to annual cus¬ 
 tom, the worshipful mayor, bailiffs, and council rode the liberties of the 
 borough, when the mayor was attended by the gentlemen of the Liverpool 
 hunt and a very large concourse of people. The ships in the dock were 
 decorated with their different flags on the occasion.” 
 
 At this time the exporting of machinery to foreign countries was 
 punished as a great offence. “ On Monday, the 14th instant,” says a 
 paper of the 25tli of October, 1811, “Mr. Miller, the superintendent of 
 police, took a man of the name of Wagstaff into custody, in the act of 
 putting on board the ship Mount Vernon, bound to New York, twenty- 
 three boxes, containing about 140 gross of spindles, used in the spinning 
 of cotton. The prisoner has been proved to be a manufacturer of spin¬ 
 dles, and to have agreed with the captain of the Mount Vernon to take 
 a passage to New York. He was examined before the mayor, and com¬ 
 mitted to Lancaster to take his trial at the next assizes.” 
 
 The year 1811 was the year of the famous comet; and in the follow¬ 
 ing winter the comet train was all the rage amongst the ladies. It was 
 of the form of a fan, prodigiously long, and ornamented with a profusion 
 of silver spangles. The body, of the dress was of a pale red, with a star 
 in the centre, composed of gold spangles.* 
 
 A public meeting was held in Liverpool, in November, 1811, to con¬ 
 sider the expediency of presenting a petition to the Prince Regent, for 
 suspending the distillation of spirits from grain for a further term. Mr. 
 Gladstone having concisely stated the object of the meeting, and the 
 prayer of the petition, it was adopted unanimously, and ordered to be 
 transmitted by the mayor for presentation.! At this time the quartern 
 loaf was selling for eighteenpence in London J Early in the following 
 month a public meeting was held, at which a liberal subscription was 
 entered into for the relief of the poor: and a few days afterwards a second 
 meeting was held, at which it was resolved, that it was desirable that a 
 sum of money should be lent to the trustees of the docks, on their bonds, 
 bearing interest at five per cent., for the specific purpose of employing as 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, October 25, 1811. 
 
 t Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, November 11, 1811. Ibid, November 25, 1811. 
 
547 
 
 many hands as possible, on the works, during the winter season ; and fur¬ 
 ther, that an engagement he entered into by the subscribers to this loan, 
 that the money should remain with the trustees of the docks for five years. 
 The following gentlemen advanced money on these terms:—William 
 Wain, £200; Eev. John Yates, £300; James Gerard, £100; John 
 Brancker, £200; Thomas Porter and Son, £200; Thomas Dempsey, 
 £100; William Statham, £50 ; Joseph Hadwen, £400 ; Bichard Statham, 
 £50 ; Rev. Richard Formby, £100 ; George Crooke, £100 ; Hethering- 
 ton and Cross, £400; J. A. Yates, £50; J. B. Aspinall, £500 ; Edgar 
 Corrie, £100; John Shaw, £500; John Leigh, £500; Thomas Lyon, 
 Warrington, £1,000; E. and W. Smith, £50 ; J. B. Yates, £50 ; M. 
 Pool, £50; Alexander Macgregor, £100; John Foster, £200; James 
 Cropper, £200; John Goldie, £200; T. and W. Earle, £300 ; Samuel 
 Staniforth, £100. In addition to these sums, lent to furnish employ¬ 
 ment, about £2,000 was raised, to be distributed in charity. 
 
 In consequence of the continued distress of the poor of Liverpool, a 
 meeting was held at the grand jury-room, on the 23rd of April, 1812, 
 John Bridge Aspinall, Esq., in the chair, “ for the purpose of taking 
 into consideration the present high price of provisions, and adopting such 
 measures as may be deemed expedient upon the occasion.” At this 
 meeting it was resolved that a subscription should he entered into, for 
 the purpose of buying up provisions, such as “rice, peas, potatoes, and 
 other substitutes for bread and flour,” to be retailed to the poor, at 
 reduced prices. A committee was appointed to manage this matter, con¬ 
 sisting of the following thirty gentlemen:—J. Bourne, Esq., mayor, J. B. 
 Aspinall, William Roscoe, H. B. Hollinsliead, Thomas Earle, Pudsey 
 Dawson, John Shaw, John Moss, G. E. Dale, John Eason, Edward 
 Pearson, Thomas Corrie, Robert Greetliam, John Carter, George Marsden, 
 Robert Makin, Joseph Brooks Yates, Francis Jordan, Thomas Case, 
 William Ewart, William Duff, William Wainwright, Jon. Ratcliffe,, 
 William Sutton, William Roe, James Ackers, Robert Gladstone, J. R. 
 Freme, Robert Benson, and John Richardson. Amongst the recom¬ 
 mendations of this meeting to the easier classes were these :—“ That it 
 be strongly recommended to all housekeepers to he economical in the use 
 of bread and potatoes, to abstain altogether from pastry, and not to use 
 any bread until after the expiration of twenty-four hours from the time of 
 its being baked : and that it be also strongly recommended to all persons 
 who keep horses, to be economical in the feeding of them, by diminishing 
 the quantity as much as possible.” 
 
548 
 
 The foundation stone of the church of St. George’s, Everton, was laid 
 on Monday, the 12th January, 1812.* 
 
 The Fly packet was lost in the month of March, 1812, on her voyage 
 from Newry to Liverpool, with seventy-eight passengers on hoard, all of 
 whom perished.f 
 
 In spite of the efforts of the merchants engaged in the American 
 trade, of many of the ablest men in the country unconnected with 
 commerce, and of the urgent and angry remonstrances of the American 
 government, the English government adhered resolutely to the policy of 
 the orders in council, until the spring of 1812. According to a state¬ 
 ment of President Madison to the American people, upwards of a 
 thousand American vessels were seized, under these orders, on the high seas. 
 These were carried into English ports; many of them were condemned, 
 and all subjected to heavy losses. During the whole of this time, from 
 1807 to 1812, the American merchants of Liverpool continued to remon¬ 
 strate against these orders, both on the ground of policy and principle. 
 They contended that, by inducing the American government to retaliate, 
 they inflicted infinitely greater evils on England than on France; and, 
 moreover, that however just they might be as measures of retaliation 
 against France, they were altogether unjust in their operation on neutral 
 nations. At the beginning of the year 1812 these remonstrances became 
 more urgent, as the commercial and manufacturing distresses became 
 greater; and as it became more evident that a perseverance in the policy 
 of the orders in council would produce a war with America. In the years 
 1810 and 1811, the opponents of the orders of council obtained the 
 powerful assistance of the present Lord Brougham, then Mr. Brougham, 
 who was already pre-eminent amongst contemporary statesmen and 
 orators, for his great attainments and his powerful eloquence. By 
 his advocacy, aided by the pressure of the mercantile and commercial 
 classes, the English government was at length induced to give way. In 
 the month of June, 1812, Lord Castlereagh announced to parliament 
 that the English government had resolved to suspend the orders in 
 council. The repeal of the orders was celebrated in Liverpool by a public 
 dinner, at which Mr. Brougham was present; and by a public meeting, 
 at which thanks were voted to the leading men who had taken part in 
 procuring their repeal; amongst whom Mr. Thornely, the present member 
 for Wolverhampton, had particularly distinguished himself, by his activity 
 and zeal.J Unfortunately, the concession came too late. War against 
 * Liverpool Mercury, January 17, 1812. tlbid, March 20, 1812. j Ibid, July 3, 1812. 
 
549 
 
 England was declared by the American government in the same month, of 
 June. In the course of this war, which lasted more than two years and 
 a half, the losses of both nations were enormous, whilst their successes 
 were so nearly balanced that they were both heartily glad to accept the 
 mediation of the Emperor of Russia to put an end to the strife. In the 
 course of the conflict, from eight hundred to a thousand English merchant 
 ships were taken by the American privateers and ships of war; and at 
 least an equal number of American merchantmen were taken by the British 
 cruizers. In the latter part of the war, the risk of capture was so great, 
 that the freight on cotton from Savannah to France rose to lOd. a pound. 
 At the close of the contest, upwards of 200,000 bales of cotton, which was 
 then more than a year’s supply, was piled up in the warehouses of 
 America; whilst in this country that great article of consumption was 
 sold at prices ruinous to trade. 
 
 The Liverpool Mercury of May, the 7tli, 1813, quoting from an 
 American insurance list, says, “ The following is a statement of the pre¬ 
 miums of insurance on the coasting trade from Boston, on the 3rd ult.: 
 —To Eastport, 7 to 10 per cent.; other eastern ports, 2 to 5 ; to New 
 York, £6 to £7 10s.; to Philadelphia, 10 ; to the Chesapeake, 12 to 15 ; 
 to North Carolina, 17 to 18 ; to South Carolina, 21 to 28 ; to Savannah, 
 22 to 25. With regard to foreign trade, it is emphatically stated in 
 the insurance list that there is none remaining, except to France, and the 
 premium upon voyages to that quarter is 30 to 50 per cent.” ! On the 
 other side of the account it appeared, from a return made to the House of 
 Lords, that from the 1st of October, 1812, to the 1st of May, 1813, 382 
 British ships were captured by the Americans, of which 66 were retaken 
 and 20 restored, leaving a loss of nearly 300 British ships in seven 
 months.” Such are the results of a naval war to the mercantile classes.* 
 
 Whilst the orders in council thus involved England in a war with 
 the United States, the Berlin and Milan decrees, or, at least, the policy 
 on which they were founded, involved Napoleon in a war with Russia, in 
 which his power received an overwhelming blow, from which it never reco¬ 
 vered. In the year 1811 the pressure of the continental system, to which 
 the Emperor of Russia had assented, after the peace of Tilsit, became into¬ 
 lerable to Russia. His vast empire, at that time, possessed scarcely any 
 manufactures, and the incomes of the nobles depended on the sale of the 
 flax, timber, corn, tallow, and hides produced on their extensive estates, 
 whilst the government required a considerable revenue on imports to 
 ‘ Liverpool Mercury, May 14. 1813. 
 
 4 B 
 
550 
 
 meet the cost of governing its immense territory. The trade with England 
 thus supplied a large portion both of the public and private revenue of 
 Russia. Hence the exclusion of English goods and colonial produce, 
 and the suspension of intercourse with England, produced the greatest 
 inconvenience to Russia, and, at length, decided the emperor to encounter 
 the anger of France. After having connived at the trade with England for 
 some time, the government openly authorized it, under certain restric¬ 
 tions, in the year 1811. The remonstrances of Bonaparte against this 
 abandonment of his continental system were angry and threatening; hut 
 the Russian government had decided not to yield to his threats. Finding 
 himself thus defied, he collected, in the summer of 1812, the largest army 
 that has been seen in modern times, and led it into the heart of Russia, 
 where, ultimately, the whole of it perished, either in desperate battles 
 with the Russians, from famine, or from the intolerable rigours of a 
 Russian winter. 
 
 In the autumn of 1812 there were all the signs of an approaching 
 general election, and the two great rival parties in Liverpool began to 
 prepare for it with more than usual resolution. Up to this time the 
 members for Liverpool had generally been very ordinary persons ; but on 
 this occasion each party resolved to bring forward at least one of the 
 ablest men whom the whole country could supply, to advocate its opinions. 
 The present Lord Brougham, then Mr. Brougham, was selected by the 
 opposition party as their candidate; whilst the ministerial party, with 
 equal judgment, selected that great orator and statesman George Canning, 
 as theirs. Early in September the opposition gave a public dinner to 
 Mr. Brougham, as a mark of grateful respect for his unwearied attention 
 to the business of the country, and particularly for his successful exertions 
 in promoting the repeal of the orders in council. This entertainment 
 was attended by the late and the present Earls of Derby, by the Earl of 
 Sefton, by Mr. Wedgwood, of Staffordshire, Mr. Shakspear Phillips and 
 Mr. George William Wood, of Manchester, Mr. Potts, of Birmingham, 
 and many other representatives of the manufacturing interest. William 
 Roscoe presided ; and, after delivering an eloquent speech in praise of 
 their guest, he turned to Mr. Brougham and said, “ Sir, we have already 
 thanked you in our more serious moments: it was the tribute of our 
 judgment. We now thank you amidst our conviviality: it is the tribute of 
 our hearts. The third time, I hope, sir, we shall thank you in a manner 
 more adequate to your high deserts.”* But the ministerial party were not 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, September 11, 1812. 
 
551 
 
 to be outdone either in public dinners or in any other mode of rallying 
 their forces for a contested election. They dined together, on the 25th of 
 September, in honour of the Marquis of Wellington’s great victory at 
 Salamanca, of the capture of Madrid, and of the other splendid achieve¬ 
 ments in the Peninsula. At this dinner the health of his majesty’s 
 ministers, of whom Mr. Canning was the ablest supporter, notwithstand¬ 
 ing his personal differences with some of them, was drunk with great 
 applause. On Monday, the 5tli of October, Mr. Brougham made his 
 public entry into Liverpool. His friends assembled near the Botanic 
 Gardens, and, on the arrival of their candidate, proceeded in procession 
 down Mount-pleasant, Kanelagh-street, Church-street, and Lord-street, 
 to Castle-street. A large body of freemen, decorated with a profusion of 
 pink and white favours, and carrying several new and splendid colours, 
 led the van After them came the merchants and tradesmen, few of whom 
 had votes. The candidate, Mr. Brougham, brought up the rear. He 
 was seated in a carnage drawn by four horses, and was accompanied by 
 William Roscoe, the Earl of Sefton, Arthur Heywood, B. Rawson, and 
 Colonel Williams. The procession halted at the bank in Castle-street, 
 from which place Mr. Brougham, the Earl of Sefton, Mr. Roscoe, and 
 other gentlemen addressed the assembled multitude.* Here a slight dis¬ 
 turbance took place, in which a few heads and windows were broken, but 
 no great damage was done. Mr. Canning was to have entered the town 
 on the same day as Mr. Brougham, and his friends assembled at Low-hill, 
 to escort him in public procession. The crowd of his friends was immense, 
 and amongst them were a considerable part of the most influential mer¬ 
 chants and other inhabitants. The trades marched separately, and an 
 innumerable quantity of colours, interspersed in the procession, contri¬ 
 buted greatly to the gaiety of the scene. Assembled at Low-hill, W. P. 
 Litt, Esq., addressed Mr. Canning’s friends, from an open carriage, in 
 which he was accompanied by H. B. Hollinsh ead. John Bol ton, Thomas 
 R odie, John Gladstone, W illiam Ewart, and William Barton , Esqrs. He 
 stated that Mr. Canning had experienced so many impediments in his 
 journey that, although he had used every exertion to arrive at the 
 appointed time, it was impracticable. His friends, nevertheless, had their 
 procession ; and Mr. Canning arrived in the evening, when he delivered 
 one of his eloquent speeches from the front of Mr. John Bolton's house, 
 in Duke-street. 
 
 The polling commenced on Thursday morning, when five candidates 
 * Liverpool Mercury, October 0, 1812. 
 
552 
 
 appeared in the field, namely, the Bight Hon. George Canning, Henry 
 Brougham, General Gascoyne, (one of the old members,) Thomas 
 Creevey, a second opposition candidate, most unwisely put forward along 
 with Mr. Brougham, and General Tarleton, also one of the old members, 
 but who was in this case deserted by the whole world. The mode of voting 
 was in tallies of ten votes, which were taken in turns, so that the interest 
 of the contest was kept up until one of the parties had quite exhausted 
 its votes. Mr Canning headed the poll from the beginning to the end 
 of the election, but for several days it appeared probable that Henry 
 Brougham would be returned along with him. At the close of the first 
 day the numbers stood : Canning, 139 votes ; Brougham, 137, Creevey, 
 135 ; Gascoyne, 117; and poor General Tarleton, 5 ! The second day 
 General Gascoyne’s friends, excited by an energetic appeal from Mr. 
 Canning, made a great rally, so 'that at the close of the day the numbers 
 stood: Canning, 318; Gascoyne, 288; Brougham, 284; and Creevey, 
 277. On the third day the Brougham party redoubled their exertions, 
 and at the close of the day the numbers were : Canning, 520 ; Brougham, 
 488 ; Gascoyne, 483 ; Creevey, 473 ; and the gallant Tarleton, 6 ! On 
 the fourth day the Brougham party had still further improved the position 
 of their candidate. The numbers were : Canning, 722 ; Brougham, 691 ; 
 Gascoyne, 671; Creevey, 666; and Tarleton, 6. On the fifth day 
 Brougham was still gaining ground. At the close of the day the numbers 
 were: Canning, 926 ; Brougham, 892 ; Gascoyne, 864; Creevey, 666; 
 and Tarleton as before. To the end of the sixth day Brougham retained 
 his position as second on the poll. At the close of the day the numbers 
 were: Canning, 1,076; Brougham, 1,030 ; Gascoyne, 1,003 ; Creevey, 
 991. The seventh day’s polling told a very different story, and gave the 
 following numbers: Canning, 1,361; Gascoyne, 1,276; Brougham, 
 1,105 ; Creevey, 1,055. These numbers were tolerably decisive, but Mr. 
 Brougham’s friends determined to try the chance of another day. That 
 was quite decisive, giving the following result: Canning, 1,631; Gas¬ 
 coyne, 1,532; Brougham, 1,131; Creevey, 1,068; and Tarleton, 11. 
 The number of freemen who polled on this occasion was 2,726, the 
 greatest number who had polled at any previous election being 2,413. 
 As the population of Liverpool and the suburbs was upwards of 100,000 
 in 1811, this gives one vote for about every thirty inhabitants. The 
 following account of the spirit of this great contest, written at the time, 
 is candid and just, as well as interesting :—“ The poll opened every 
 morning at ten o’clock, and closed every night at five, when each of the 
 
candidates was accompanied to bis respective residence by an immense 
 crowd of people. Mr. Brougham’s abode, in Clayton-square, and Mr. 
 Canning’s, in Rodney-street, were attended every evening by an immense 
 concourse of persons, of all ranks and both sexes, in order to hear the 
 speeches which those two eminent orators regularly addressed to their 
 respective partizans at the close of the poll. Mr. Brougham’s speeches 
 were chiefly concerning the circumstances of the actual election, though 
 he occasionally introduced observations on public affairs, and on the 
 present awful state of the country, which exhibited specimens of the most 
 glowing and impressive eloquence, of the most extensive views, and most 
 profound reflection. Mr. Canning’s orations were of a more various 
 description, and entered more largely into the subjects of general politics. 
 On the three first evenings his remarks, like those of his antagonist, were 
 chiefly confined to the occurrences of the election; but, during the last 
 week, he has entered into a more detailed exposition of his sentiments on 
 some of the great leading questions which now agitate the public mind. 
 On Monday he spoke of the external relations of the country, with regard 
 to its remote or immediate prospect of obtaining the blessings of peace. 
 On Tuesday he entered on the two great questions of parliamentary 
 reform and catholic emancipation ; on the last of which subjects he 
 explained his opinions with a degree of perspicuity, eloquence, and 
 moderation which, perhaps, have seldom been excelled. On Wednesday 
 he spoke of the domestic condition of the country ; of the late scarcity, 
 and of its connection with the war. On Thursday evening, when he 
 naturally expected the business was drawing to a close, he confined him¬ 
 self to the subject of the election, and most earnestly recommended to 
 his hearers an entire oblivion of all dissensions and animosities as soon 
 as ever the heat of the contest had subsided. He spoke of his opponents 
 with the utmost respect, particularly of Mr. Brougham, for whose talents 
 and character he professed a high admiration and regard. ‘ That gentle¬ 
 man,’ said Mr. Canning, ‘ as well as myself, has come hither on the 
 invitation of a large and respectable portion of the inhabitants: it has 
 been my lot to succeed and his to fail in the present contest; hut I 
 anxiously hope that, as no bitterness or ill-will exists among the candi¬ 
 dates in consequence of the different termination of our hopes, the 
 respectable inhabitants of this town, who have espoused our respective 
 claims, will feel and act in the same spirit.’ 
 
 “ At eleven o’clock on Friday (the seventh day) Mr. Brougham and 
 Mr. Creevev, finding that the majority in favour of their opponents had 
 
554 
 
 increased to such a degree as to leave no doubt respecting the issue of 
 the contest, declared their intention of withdrawing from the hustings, in 
 order that the tranquillity of the town might, as soon as possible, be 
 restored. Previously to his withdrawing, Mr. Brougham addressed the 
 mayor, the returning-officers, and the gentlemen assembled on the hus¬ 
 tings, in a speech which produced such an impression on his auditors 
 that he left the court with the universal feeling most strongly excited in 
 his favour. He took leave of Iris brother candidates with the strongest 
 expressions of kindness and good-will; disclaiming every sentiment of 
 personal opposition or animosity; and expressing his heartfelt gratitude 
 for the cordial reception he had received, and the order and perseverance 
 with which he had been supported. Mr. Canning seemed greatly affected 
 by this address, and extended his hand to his opponent with the warmest 
 cordiality. General Gascoyne did the same ; and, after a short address 
 from Mr. Creevey, the two unsuccessful candidates left the hustings, in a 
 manner which reflected credit on the conduct of all parties.” 
 
 Thus ended this remarkable contest, the most interesting of the many 
 contested elections that have taken place in Liverpool. 
 
 A public meeting was held at the Town-hall, Liverpool, on the 8th of 
 January, 1813, at which it was determined to open a public subscription 
 for the relief of the Russian people, residing in the districts which had 
 been laid waste in the campaign of 1812.* 
 
 Owing to the pressure of the war, the plan of dock extension, autho¬ 
 rized by the act of 1810, made little progress for some years; but in 
 March, 1813, parliament made a grant of ,£60,000 “for the repair, 
 improvement, and increase of the docks of Liverpool.” “ By the help of 
 this grant,” says the Liverpool Mercury of March 19, 1813, “we may 
 hope that the magnificent and desirable plan of improvement, exhibited 
 in 1810, may be carried into execution. By this plan the Old Dock is 
 to be filled up, the Queen’s Dock considerably enlarged, a new dock to 
 be built to the south of the Queen’s Dock, to be called the Brunswick 
 Dock, and a new one to the north of the George’s Dock, to be called the 
 Prince’s Dock.” 
 
 The year 1813 closed with great rejoicings, on the overthrow of 
 Napoleon and his armies in the battle of Leipsic, and the triumphs of 
 Wellington in Spain. Peace was at length approaching, heralded by 
 victory, after the longest and most desperate contest in which England 
 had ever been engaged. Tuesday, the 14tli of December, was the day set- 
 * Liverpool Mercury, January 22, 1S13. 
 
555 
 
 apart in Liverpool for the commencement of rejoicings, which continued 
 for four days. The festivities commenced before daybreak, with the 
 ringing of hells. At daylight all the public and many of the private 
 buildings were decorated with flags. At noon the military assembled in 
 Castle-street, where they fired three feux-de-joie. At one o’clock the 
 frigate Princess, in the river, fired a royal salute. At five o’clock in the 
 evening there was a brilliant display of fireworks, from Everton-hill. “ At 
 seven o’clock the Princess frigate fired the signal-guns for the general 
 illumination, and now the attention was directed to the general blaze, 
 which spread, as it were, by magic : the glare of light was so great as to 
 be distinctly seen from the walls of Chester; the effect from the surround 
 ing eminences was grand beyond description, and was greatly heightened 
 by the darkness of the night; the evening proved particularly favourable 
 to those who illuminated with lamps, there being scarcely a breath of air.” 
 On the following evening there was a splendid ball, in the great assembly- 
 room at the Town-hall, which was attended by 985 ladies and gentlemen. 
 On Friday upwards of 400 gentlemen dined together in honour of the 
 occasion ; and the rejoicings concluded on Saturday evening, with a great 
 display of fireworks, from the high ground behind the old Botanic Gar¬ 
 dens. Early in the spring of 1814 the peace so long anticipated and so 
 earnestly desired at length arrrived, and was thus announced in Liverpool: 
 —“Downfall of the tyrant! Peace! heavenly peace! the desire of all 
 nations, dawns on the world !! The Almighty’s name be praised !” 
 
 The monument erected in honour of Admiral Lord Nelson, on the 
 Exchange of Liverpool, was thrown open to public view on the 21st of 
 October, 1813. The design was supplied by M. C. Wyatt, and the 
 monument, which is of bronze, was executed by R. Westmacott, R.A. 
 The cost was <£9,000.* 
 
 The Liverpool Royal Institution, formed “ to promote the increase 
 and diffusion of literature, science, and arts,” was established in the year 
 1814. At a meeting held at the Liverpool Ai’ms, Castle-street, on 
 Thursday, the 31st of March, B. A. Heywood, Esq., in the chair, it was 
 resolved to raise the sum of £20,000 for that purpose, in shares of <£100 
 and £!50 each. The plan of the institution embraced a handsome and 
 commodious building, (since erected in Colquitt-street,) a museum of 
 natural history, a good collection of philosophical and chemical apparatus, 
 lecture-rooms, and courses of lectures by men of science and literature. 
 The plan was taken up readily by the public, and led to the founding of 
 * Liverpool Mercury. October 22, 1813. 
 
556 
 
 nu institution worthy of the rising influence and intelligence of Li¬ 
 verpool.* 
 
 On the 27th May, 1814, Liverpool first began to*participate in the 
 advantages of the trade with India, from which it had, up to that time, been 
 excluded, as well as the other outports of the kingdom, by the previous 
 charters of the East India Company. “ On the 27tli ult..” says the 
 Liverpool Courier of the 8th of June, 1814, “the fine ship Kingsmill, 
 Captain Cassells, sailed hence, to join convoy at Spithead, for Madeira and 
 Bengal, fully loaded. She measures 516 tons, is sent out by Messrs. 
 John Gladstone and Grant, and is the first ship that has sailed from Liver¬ 
 pool for India. This is a consequence of the opening of the trade ; and 
 we trust that she may be followed by many others. The situation of 
 Liverpool certainly offers many advantages for both the export and import 
 trade with that quarter of the world, which, we doubt not, the enterprise 
 and intelligence of our merchants will follow up with advantage.” 
 
 In the month of May the long-suspended commerce with France was 
 renewed, by the importation of two cargoes of grain into Liverpool from 
 Havre. All that was then wanted was the arrangement of the dif¬ 
 ferences with the United States. The negociations for this purpose 
 were opened at Ghent in the June following; and, after a long delay, 
 which cost many thousands of lives, were brought to a close at the end 
 of the year. It was not, however, until the month of April, 1815, that 
 the commercial intercourse of the two countries was resumed. The 
 arrival of the first American ship in Liverpool was thus announced in 
 the paper of the 3rd of April:—“ Several hundred vessels left this port 
 on Friday and the day before, which had been detained many weeks by 
 adverse winds. The river afforded a most brilliant and interesting 
 spectacle. A still more pleasing and interesting sight was witnessed on 
 Thursday, about one o’clock, in the arrival of the ship Milo, the first 
 belonging to the United States which has arrived since the restoration of 
 peace. The day was remarkably bright, and she came up the river in 
 very fine style, with the British flag flying at the mainmast-head, the 
 American colours at the mizenmast, which were lowered on passing 
 H.M.S. Argo, lying in the river, and a beautiful signal-flag at her foremast. 
 This first effect of the restoration of amity between two countries, 
 designed by nature, habits, and mutual interests to maintain, unin¬ 
 terruptedly the relations of peace, was hailed with delight by a great 
 number of spectators, who covered the piers and the shore. The Milo 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, April 1, 1814. 
 
557 
 
 left Boston on the 12th ult., in company with the Liverpool packet, daily 
 expected. The Milo arrived in ballast.” The first British vessel arrived 
 at New York on the 5th of May, and was thus announced in one of the 
 papers of that city:—“The regular British packet, after an absence of 
 nearly three years, at length re-appears in our harbour, in token of return¬ 
 ing amity. We hail with sensations of gladness the joyful omen, and 
 may no inauspicious event ever occur again to banish her from our 
 waters!” 
 
 The following is the official return of the number of vessels and of 
 the tonnage which entered and paid dock dues, in the port of Liverpool, 
 from the commencement of the war with France, in 1793, to the close of 
 the wars with France and the United States, in 1814: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1793 
 
 4,129 
 
 
 1804 
 
 4,291 
 
 448,761 
 
 1794 
 
 4,205 
 
 
 1805 
 
 4,018 
 
 463,482 
 
 1795 
 
 3,948 
 
 
 1806 
 
 4,676 
 
 507,825 
 
 1796 
 
 4,738 
 
 
 1807 
 
 5,791 
 
 662,309 
 
 1797 
 
 4,528 
 
 
 1808 
 
 5,225 
 
 516,836 
 
 1798 
 
 4,478 
 
 
 1809 
 
 6,023 
 
 594,601 
 
 1799 
 
 4,518 
 
 
 1810 
 
 6,729 
 
 734,391 
 
 1800 
 
 4,746 
 
 450,060 
 
 1811 
 
 5,616 
 
 611,190 
 
 1801 
 
 5,000 
 
 459,719 
 
 1812 
 
 4,599 
 
 446,788 
 
 1802 
 
 4,781 
 
 510,091 
 
 1813 
 
 5,341 
 
 547,426 
 
 1803 
 
 4,791 
 
 494,521 
 
 1814 
 
 5,706 
 
 548,957 
 
 The income of the dock estate, from the year 1812, when a new mode 
 of levying rates on goods and tonnage was introduced, to the close of the 
 war, was as follows: 
 
 18121 
 18131 
 18141 
 
 Total Amount of Dues. 
 
 .Tonnage Dues... 
 
 .£20,260 
 
 3s. 
 
 4d. 
 
 .Duties on Goods. 
 
 .£24,143 
 
 4s. 
 
 6d. 
 
 .Tonnage Dues... 
 
 .£24,134 
 
 18s. 
 
 8d. 
 
 .Duties on Goods. 
 
 .£20,042 
 
 14s. 
 
 6d. 
 
 .Tonnage Dues... 
 
 .£28,630 
 
 11s. 
 
 3d. 
 
 .Duties on Goods. 
 
 .£31,110 
 
 11s. 
 
 Id. 
 
 .£44,403 7s. lOd. 
 £50,177 13s. 2d. 
 £50,741 2s. 4d. 
 
 It thus appears that the revenue of the docks, raised under the act of 
 1810, did not reach the expected sum of TOO,000 a-year until after the 
 close of the war. 
 
 4 c 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. 
 
 FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR IN 1815 TO THE YEAR 1825. 
 
 In the month of May, 1815, one month after the revival of commercial 
 intercourse between England and the United States, steam navigation, 
 which had already been applied with eminent success in America, and with 
 a certain amount of success on the Clyde and the Thames, was introduced 
 on the river Mersey. As it will he necessary to trace the rise and exten¬ 
 sion of steam navigation in Liverpool from its feeble origin, to its present 
 magnificent development, it may be well to state, very briefly, what 
 degree of progress it had made, and under what circumstances it had 
 been applied, when the steam-hoat was introduced on the river Mersey. 
 
 Many years before James Watt had brought the steam-engine to 
 perfection, plans were proposed of propelling vessels by means of New- 
 coman’s steam-engines, then in use; hut these proposals, which were made 
 as early as the year 1730, by Dr. John Allen,* and in 1736, by Mr. 
 Jonathan Hulls, led to no practical results.f The improvements of the 
 steam-engine by James Watt, which were perfected about the year 1780, 
 were almost immediately followed by a multitude of projects for applying 
 that stupendous power to the propelling of vessels. As early as the year 
 1783 an ingenious American, Mr. Fitch, attempted to introduce steam 
 navigation on the Delaware river, but failed, although encouraged by the 
 government of the state of Pennsylvania, which granted him an exclusive 
 right of constructing vessels, propelled by steam, on the waters of that 
 great state .% Another American, Mr. James Rumsay, who came over to 
 England shortly after Mr. Fitch’s experiments on the Delaware, attempted 
 to construct a steam-boat on the Thames, but was equally unsuccessful.§ 
 Mr. Livingston, (the Chancellor Livingston,) afterwards the friend and 
 associate of Fulton, in his great and successful experiments, was not 
 more successful in the attempts which he made, in the year 1798, to 
 introduce steam navigation in the state of New York, under a patent, 
 
 * Speeimina Ichnographica. 1730. 
 
 + A Dissertation and Draught of a new-invented Machine, for carrying vessels into or 
 out of any harbour, against wind or tide, or in a c alm . 1736. 
 
 1 Colden’s Life of Robert Fulton, 130. 6 Ibid, 133. 
 
559 
 
 ■which gave him the exclusive right of navigating the -waters of “ the 
 empire” state, for a term of twenty years, on condition that he should, 
 within twelve months, build a boat, whose progress should not he less 
 than four miles an hour.* On obtaining this patent, Mr. Livingston built 
 a boat of thirty tons burthen, which was propelled by steam, but which 
 never reached the speed prescribed by the terms of the patent. 
 
 Mr. Livingston, nevertheless, did not despair of attaining his object; 
 and, seeing its immense value to his country and the world, he strongly 
 urged his countryman, Fulton, whom he met with in France shortly after¬ 
 wards, to turn his attention to it; and ultimately rendered him the most 
 valuable assistance in carrying out his plans. 
 
 As early as the year 1774 the Comte d’Auxiron, a French nobleman, 
 of scientific attainments, had constructed a steam-hoat on the river Seine. 
 M. Perier, also a Frenchman, and a man of science, built a second boat, 
 with paddle-wheels, in 1775; and the Marquis de Jouffrey, a French 
 nobleman, built a much larger boat on the Soane, at Lyons, in 1782. 
 None of these were found to he of sufficient value in practice to be 
 brought into use. In the year 1803, when Fulton was in France, M. des 
 Blanes built a steam-boat on the Seine, which was propelled by means of 
 an endless chain. He accused Fulton of pirating his invention ; hut the 
 latter had no difficulty in showing the superiority of the plan of propelling 
 steam-boats by means of paddle-wheels, which he was then trying.f 
 
 Amongst the earliest experimenters in steam navigation, Patrick 
 Miller, of Dalswinton, James Taylor, and William Symington, all fellow- 
 countrymen of James Watt, hold a very high position. In the year 1788 
 Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, built a small steam-boat which moved at 
 the rate of five miles an hour, on the lake at Dalswinton; and in the 
 following year he caused a steam-engine, of twelve-horse power, to be 
 constructed at the Carron Iron Foundry, mounted it on a strong boat, 
 and succeeded in drawing barges along the Forth and Clyde Canal at a 
 rate of “nearly” seven miles an hour.J In the year 1801 William 
 Symington, who had been associated with Miller, of Dalswinton, in his 
 earlier experiments, constructed a steam-hoat, under the patronage of 
 Lord Dundas. It was propelled by means of a paddle-wheel in the stern, 
 and is said to have drawn two heavily laden vessels, of 70 tons each, along 
 the Forth and Clyde Canal, at the rate of nineteen miles in six hours. 
 Many other experiments were also tried, and amongst them the one thus 
 
 * Colden's Life of Robert Fulton, 146. t Ibid, 159. 
 
 } Knight’s Penny Cyclopaedia. Article on Steam Navigation. 
 
560 
 
 described in the “Monthly Magazine” of July, 1797:—“Lately, at 
 Newton-common, in Lancashire, a vessel, heavy laden with copper 
 flag, passed along the Sankey Canal, without the aid of haulers or rowers, 
 the oars performing eighteen strokes a minute, hy the application of steam 
 only! After a course of ten miles the vessel returned the same evening, 
 hy the same means, to St. Helens, whence she had set out. This inge¬ 
 nious discovery, by the original form and motion of the oars, may he 
 ranked amongst the most useful of modem inventions, and, in particular, 
 promises the highest benefits to inland navigation.” 
 
 One reason why the experiments of Miller of Dalswinton, of 
 Symington, and the very successful experiment described in the above 
 extract from the “ Monthly Magazine,” produced so little effect in this 
 country was, that steam-power is not suited to the navigation of canals, 
 or of rivers encumbered with locks and weirs. Even now, when its value 
 is so fully appreciated on wide open rivers and on the ocean, it is scarcely 
 used on the canals of this country, or on our small rivers, above tide 
 water. As relates to canals, it is objectionable on account of the injury 
 which the violent action of the paddles does to the embankments; on 
 account of the general shallowness of the water; and on account of the 
 immense number and lowness of the bridges, which occur every mile or 
 two, and interrupt the action of steamers so often as to render them use¬ 
 less. Nor is it of much greater use on rivers like the Thames, the Hum¬ 
 ber, the Severn, and Mersey, above tide water; for, from the smallness 
 of the volume of water which descends those streams, it has been necessary 
 to dam them up for the purposes of navigation, and to keep open the 
 communication hy narrow locks, unsuited for the passage of steam-boats. 
 For these reasons the use of steam-boats in England and Scotland has 
 been chiefly applied to the estuaries of rivers and to the open sea. In 
 the former the slow and cumbrous steam-boats originally built, which did 
 not make more than four or five miles an hour, were inferior, as a moving 
 power, to the ebbing and flowing of the tides; and it was only by slow 
 degrees that steamers were constructed capable of standing the violence 
 of the open sea. Liverpool, having a worse river communication with 
 the interior than any other English port, did nothing of consequence by 
 means of steam, until steam began to be applied to the navigation of seas 
 and the ocean ; whilst New York, possessing in the river Hudson, a splen¬ 
 did means of communication with the interior of the great state of New 
 York, took as distinguished a part in originating steam navigation on 
 rivers, as it has since done in extending it on the ocean. 
 
561 
 
 The first laurel, in connection with steam navigation, certainly belongs 
 to Robert Fulton, who formed the most useful and beautiful art of steam 
 navigation, partly on his own discoveries, partly on the abortive or unpro¬ 
 fitable experiments of others. 
 
 Fulton was a native of the state of Pennsylvania, and was born in 
 the township of Little Britain, and county of Lancaster, in that great 
 state, in the year 17GG.* All that his parents were able to give him was 
 the rudiments of a common English education : his own inventive genius 
 and unwearied perseverance did the rest. He came to Europe soon 
 after he had reached manhood, and spent several years, either in this 
 country or France, labouring amidst every discouragement to carry out a 
 variety of ingenious projects of his own invention. One of these was a 
 plan of a double-inclined plane, by which he hoped to be able to draw 
 vessels along navigable canals.f In May, 1794, he obtained a patent for 
 this invention from the English government; but, though well acquainted 
 with the great Duke of Bridgewater, never succeeded in applying it in 
 practice. He also, about the same time, invented a machine for spinning 
 flax, and another for making ropes, for both of which he likewise obtained 
 patents. Another invention, on which he expended many years’ labour, 
 was a warlike weapon, called the torpedo; by which he hoped, first to 
 change the nature of marine warfare, and ultimately to render naval wax- 
 impossible. This torpedo was a sort of bombshell, which he proposed 
 to bring under the sterns of ships of war, by means of a submarine 
 boat, and so to blow them into the air.J In the year 1801 he tried his 
 invention at Brest harbour, in the presence of Admiral Villaret, when 
 he succeeded in blowing a small shallop to pieces; and, in the year 1805, 
 he blew up a strong-built Danish vessel, of 200 tons, in Walmer Roads, 
 Deal, near Walmer Castle, then the residence of Mr. Pitt.§ In a letter 
 to Lord Castlereagh, of the lGth October, 1805, he says, “Yesterday, 
 about four o’clock, I made the intended experiment on the brig, with a 
 carcass of 170 of powder ; and I have the pleasure to inform you, that it 
 succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectations. Exactly in fifteen 
 minutes fi’om the time of drawing the peg and throwing the carcass into 
 the water, the explosion took place. It lifted the brig almost bodily, and 
 broke her completely in two. The ends sunk immediately, and, in one 
 minute, nothing was to be seen of her but floating fragments. Her main¬ 
 mast and pumps were thrown into the sea; her foremast was broken in 
 three pieces; her beams and knees were thrown from her decks and sides ; 
 and her deck planks were rent to fibres. In fact, her annihilation was 
 * Colden’s Life of Robert Fulton, 6. x Ibid, 11. J Ibid, 30. § Ibid, 50. 
 
562 
 
 complete; and the effect was most extraordinary. The power, as I had 
 calculated, passed in a right line through her body, that being the line of 
 least resistance, and carried all before it. At the time of her going up, 
 she did not appear to make more resistance than a hag of feathers, and 
 went to pieces like a shattered egg-shell.” Notwithstanding this promising 
 success, the experiment failed, when tried against the French gun-boats 
 in Boulogne harbour; and was never applied with success in actual 
 warfare. The fame of Fulton, as a successful discoverer, rests on the 
 great invention of steam navigation. He commenced his experiments in 
 steam navigation as early as the year 1793. but laid them aside, for 
 objects less worthy of his attention, until about the year 1803 ; when 
 Mr. Livingston, the American ambassador at Paris, and afterwards his 
 most liberal patron and firmest friend, strongly urged him to renew them. 
 Fulton returned to America in the year 1806, and there expended some 
 time and money in the attempt to perfect his scheme of torpedo warfare; 
 but his success was not greater than it had been in Europe. At length, 
 urged by Mr. Livingston, he set himself seriously to the work of bringing 
 his plans of steam-boat propulsion into use. The following is the 
 substance of a statement communicated to the American Philosophical 
 Reporter in 1811, entitled “An historical account of the application of 
 steam, for the propelling of boats, furnished by Mr. Livingston.”* “ Robert 
 R. Livingston, Esq., when minister in France, met with Fulton, and they 
 formed that friendship and connection with each other to which a simi¬ 
 larity of pursuits generally gives birth. He communicated to Fulton his 
 views of the importance of steam-boats to their common country; informed 
 him of what had been attempted in America ; of his resolution to resume 
 the pursuit on his return ; and advised him to turn his attention to the 
 subject. It was agreed between them to embark in the enterprise, and 
 immediately to make such experiments as would enable them to deter¬ 
 mine how far, in spite of former failures, the object was attainable. 
 The principal direction of these experiments was left to Mr. Fulton, who 
 united, to a very considerable degree, a practical to a theoretical know¬ 
 ledge of mechanics. After trying a variety of experiments on a small 
 scale, on models of his own invention, it was understood that he had 
 developed the true principle on which steam-boats should be built, and 
 for want of a knowledge of which all previous experiments had failed. 
 But as they both knew that many things which are apparently perfect 
 when tried on a small scale, fail when reduced to practice on a large 
 one, they determined to go to the expense of building an operating boat 
 * Colden’s Life of Robert Fulton, 148. 
 
563 
 
 upon the Seine. This was done in the year 1803, at their joint expense, 
 under the direction of Fulton, and so fully evinced the justice of his 
 principles, that it was immediately determined to enrich their country by 
 their valuable discoveries, as soon as they should meet there, and, in the 
 meantime, to order an engine to be made in England. This engine was 
 accordingly made for them by Bolton and Watt; and, on their arrival in 
 the United States, in the year 1806, they immediately engaged in building 
 a boat, of what was then considered very considerable dimensions. This 
 boat began to navigate the Hudson river, between New York and Albany, 
 in the year 1807 : its progress through the water was at the rate of five 
 miles an hour. In the course of the ensuing winter it was enlarged to a 
 boat of 140 feet keel and 16J feet beam. The legislature of the state 
 were so fully convinced of the great utility of the invention, and of the 
 interest the state had in its encouragement, that they made a new con¬ 
 tract with Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton, by which they extended the 
 term of the exclusive right to three years, for every additional boat they 
 should build, provided the whole term should not exceed thirty years.” 
 Under this privilege they continued to increase the number of their boats 
 on the Hudson. They built the North River or Claremont, in 1806; 
 the Rariton and Car of Neptune, in 1807; the Paragon, in 1811; the 
 Firefly and Jersey Ferry-boat, in 1812; The Richmond, Washington, York 
 Ferry-boat, Nassau Ferry-boat, and Fulton, in 1813. In 1814, the last 
 year of the war with England, they built for the American government 
 an immense steam-frigate of 2,475 tons, called the Fulton the First. 
 After the death of Fulton, which happened in the year 1815, his patrons 
 built the Olive Branch, the Emperor of Russia, and the Chancellor 
 Livingston, steamers, in 1816.* Fulton thus lived long enough for fame; 
 but not for fortune. He died before his great discovery had returned him 
 any profit; and at a time when he was involved in a troublesome litigation 
 in defence of his rights. It was derided before he perfected his discovery, 
 and plundered afterwards. 
 
 Steam navigation was first introduced on the great river of the West 
 in the year 1811. The following announcement of the building of the 
 first steam-boat, for the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, appeared 
 in the Liverpool Mercury, of December the 20th, 1811 : — “ American 
 Steam-boat. The steam-boat built at Pittsburgh, by Rosevelt and Co., 
 for the navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, to carry goods 
 and passengers between New Orleans and the different towns on these 
 rivers, was loading at Pittsburgh, the beginning of this month, and would 
 * Colden’s Life of Robert Fulton. List of steamers at beginning of Appendix. 
 
564 
 
 sail about the 10th instant, for New Orleans. We are told she is a well- 
 constructed vessel, about 140 feet long, will carry 400 tons of goods, has 
 elegant accommodations for passengers, and is every way fitted in great 
 style. It is supposed she will go fifty miles a-day against the stream, 
 and thereby make a passage from New Orleans to Pittsburgh in six 
 weeks; but, as she must go considerably faster with the current, she will 
 make the passage down in two or three weeks.” There was a single 
 steam-boat on the St. Lawrence in 1814, the last year of the war between 
 England and the United States. 
 
 Steam navigation was introduced in Great Britain, on the river 
 Clyde, by Henry Bell, in the year 1812. “A beautiful and commodious 
 boat,” says the Liverpool Mercury, of the 21st August, 1812, “has 
 just been finished, constructed to go by wind power and steam, for carry¬ 
 ing passengers on the Clyde, between Glasgow, Port Glasgow, Greenock, 
 and Gourock. On Thursday, the 15th instant, it arrived at the Bromie- 
 law, in three hours and a half, from Port Glasgow.” 
 
 The following additional notice of American steam navigation, and of 
 Henry Bell’s steam-boat on the Clyde, appeared in the Liverpool Mer¬ 
 cury on the 11th June, 1813 :—“ Steam-boat. It is long since vessels, 
 impelled by steam, have been applied to all sorts of useful purposes upon 
 the great rivers in America; but it is only within these few months that 
 the same power was applied with success to that purpose in this country. 
 Very lately Mr. Henry Bell, for the Helensburgh-baths, on the Clyde, con¬ 
 structed a boat, having a small steam-engine adapted to it, and so effec¬ 
 tually succeeded in carrying passengers to Greenock and Helensburgh, to 
 their perfect satisfaction, that no less than four coaches plying between 
 Glasgow and Greenock have been recently discontinued. The distance 
 from Glasgow to Greenock by water is twenty-six miles, which is performed 
 in ordinary cases in four hours, sometimes under tliree-and-a-half, what¬ 
 ever the state of the wind or tide may be.” 
 
 The following is a description of Henry Bell’s steam-boat Clyde :—Her 
 extreme length was seventy-five feet; her breadth fourteen feet; the 
 length of the cabins six feet six inches; she was built very flat, and drew 
 two feet nine inches or three feet of water. The best or after cabin was 
 twenty feet long, and was entered from the stem. Between the after 
 cabin and the engine there was a space of fifteen feet for goods. The 
 engine was of twelve-horse power, and occupied fifteen feet of the vessel’s 
 length. The paddles were sixteen in number, and formed the wheels of 
 nine feet diameter, and four feet broad, made of hammered iron, with a 
 
565 
 
 dip into the water of one foot three inches, to one foot six inches. The 
 Clyde ran at the rate of four to four-and-a-half miles an hour in calm 
 weather, but against a breeze at the rate of three miles. In October, 
 1813, there were three vessels of this kind plying on the river Clyde 
 between Glasgow and Greenock, and they were so much used that they 
 had driven four of the eight coaches, which ran before, off the road. The 
 fare was five shillings in the after cabin, and in the fore cabin half-a-crown.* 
 In the year 1813 steam navigation was introduced on the river Yare, 
 between Norwich and Yarmouth. The steamer used on that river was 
 built at Leeds, by Messrs. Fenton, Murray, and Wood, and was launched 
 in the month of July. In the same month two other steamers were 
 launched, one at Manchester and the other at Bristol.t 
 
 In the month of October, 1811, the first steam-boat was introduced 
 on the Humber. “ The steam-boat lately arrived here,” says a Hull 
 paper, “ has, during the week, been exhibiting her capabilities on the 
 Humber; and it appears that, with both wind and tide against her, her 
 speed is very considerable. On Wednesday she went off to Gainsborough, 
 and the weather being favourable, reached Burton in the space of an 
 hour and a half, travelling at the rate of fourteen miles an liour.”J No 
 such speed as this had ever been attained before in England ; though Mr. 
 Stephens, of New Jersey, America, is said to have succeeded in propelling 
 his steamers at the rate of thirteen miles an hour, about the same time. 
 
 In December, 1814, the first steam-boat was introduced on the river 
 Thames. This vessel was put in motion on the 15th December, on the 
 canal at Limehouse. The lord mayor and other principal persons of 
 the corporation were on board. “ The vessel,” says the Statesman, of 
 December 16, “is about 40 tons burthen, and will convey between two 
 and three hundred passengers ! It proceeded a mile and returned, per¬ 
 forming the distance in sixteen minutes. Another is building in the river, 
 of 200 tons, to be employed as a packet between London and Ramsgate. " 
 Another steamer began to run on the Thames, in Februarv, 1815. “ A 
 
 new steam-boat,” says a paper of that date, “is launched to run between 
 London and Gravesend. It performed its first voyage last week, against 
 wind and tide, in two hours and a quarter. The vessel is very commo- 
 diously fitted up, and capable of holding three hundred persons. It 
 consumes, during the voyage, lialf-a-chaldron of coals. The expense of 
 each passenger is fixed at 2s. 0d.Ӥ 
 
 * Monthly Magazine. + Leeds Mercury, quoted in Liverpool Mercury, July 2, 1812. 
 
 Hull Rockingham, October 15, 1814. § Liverpool Mercury, Feb. 17, 1815. 
 
 4 1) 
 
566 
 
 In Marcli, 1815, the Dumbarton Castle, the largest steamer built up 
 to that time on the Clyde, was launched from Mr. M'Laclilan’s building- 
 yard, at Dumbarton. She was eighty-four feet in length, and propelled 
 hy an engine of thirty-horse power She was launched under the fire of a 
 salute from the forts, in honour of the occasion.* 
 
 In May, 1815, it was first announced that a steamer was about to be 
 introduced on the river Mersey ; and in the month of June the first steamer 
 arrived from the Clyde. “ On Wednesday last,” says the Liverpool Mer¬ 
 cury, of the 30th June, “ about noon, the public curiosity was considerably 
 excited, by the arrival of the first steam-boat ever seen on our river. She 
 came from the Clyde, and in the passage called at Ramsey, in the Isle of Man, 
 which place she left early the same morning. We believethat she is intended 
 to ply between this port and Runcorn ; or even occasionally as far as War¬ 
 rington. Her cabin will contain about one hundred passengers.” 
 
 In August and September, 1815, Mr. Egerton Smith wrote a series of 
 letters in his own paper, the Liverpool Mercury, strongly urging the 
 merchants and shipowners of Liverpool to introduce steam-boats, for the 
 purpose of towing vessels out to sea; a practice which has now become 
 almost universal in this and other ports. In the first of these letters he 
 stated that vessels could not leave this port or proceed to sea with a 
 north-west wind, which is very prevalent upon this coast; neither could 
 they get out by the mere action of the tide, when it was absolutely calm. 
 Owing to this, they frequently lost a tide; and, from losing it, were delayed 
 by contrary winds for many weeks All that was necessary to guard 
 against this evil was to establish steam-boats, of sufficient power to tow 
 vessels out, to the north-west buoy. He stated that a steam-boat of 
 fourteen-horse power had recently been employed at Portsmouth, to tow 
 out the Endymion frigate ; and recommended that a much larger one, of 
 one hundred-horse power, should be employed in the Mersey for that 
 purpose, or, if it was thought more convenient, several smaller ones.f 
 In a second letter he mentioned, as a case in point, that the Weston Point 
 packet, being unable to move in a calm, was towed by the Runcorn 
 steam-boat for about ten miles, although the engine of the boat did not 
 exceed the power of eight horses. He also gave the name of a Liverpool 
 vessel, the Harriet, Captain May, belonging to Messrs. Barton and Co., 
 which had made a voyage to Barbados and back, from having got out of 
 the river before asudden changeof wind, whilst all theotherWest India ves¬ 
 sels were detained in port. This was in time of war, when vessels sailed 
 * Liverpool Mercury, March 3, 1815. + Liverpool Mercury, July 21, 1815. 
 
567 
 
 under convoy from a given point, on a given day. J n third letter he 
 mentioned the particulars of the towing of the America n ship Sybil, by the 
 steamer Etna, one of the vessels of the Mississippi ste. am ‘h° at company, 
 from English Bend up to New Orleans, against wind ana 1 6de. And, m 
 the fourth and last letter, Mr. Smith gave the following summary of 
 the evidence of Mr. Dodd, the engineer, given before a committee 
 of the House of Commons, showing that steam-boats were apphcam 1e 
 to sea as well as to river navigation. Mr. Dodd, in his evidence, said 
 “ He had just arrived in London, after performing a voyage from Glasgow 
 in a steam-boat. During the voyage he experienced some extremely 
 heavy gales of wind and high seas, and found her more sea-worthy than 
 any vessel he had ever been in, being fully capable of going a-liead in 
 violent gales and over high seas. He ran into Dublin against wind and 
 tide, and beat the mail into Wexford about three hours. In Milford 
 Haven he ran round the Waterford packet two o$ three times whilst she 
 was on her course, and he writing a letter to Dublin. This voyage 
 demonstrated that steam-engines were applicable to propel vessels 
 in all kinds of weather; that they had the peculiar advantage of going 
 against winds and tides; and in a calm, when another vessel could not 
 proceed at all, would go at the rate of from seven to nine knots an hour; 
 that they were more secure than vessels with sails, as they could not be 
 lost on a lee shore. Whilst the vessel was off Port Patrick it blew a 
 complete gale of wind, and Mr. Dodd found her to go upwards of three 
 knots and a half over the sea, and directly against the wind. During a 
 voyage of one thousand five hundred miles she passed every sail she 
 came up with on the ocean. The burthen of this vessel, which was called 
 the Thames, was upwards of 72 tons; she drew from four to four-and- 
 a-half feet water, with passengers on board ; the engine was of fourteen- 
 horse power; and, upon an average, required a ton of coals to work a 
 hundred miles.”* 
 
 I shall continue to trace the further applications of steam according 
 to the order of time. 
 
 In the spring of 1815 a company was formed for the purpose of 
 erecting an hotel and sea-bathing cottages on the fine hard sands of 
 Crosby sea-bank.f Upwards of T4,000 was subscribed for that pur¬ 
 pose, and by midsummer some of the buildings were finished. It was 
 just at that time that the battle of Waterloo was fought, and the 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, September 1,1815. 
 
 + Ibid, March (i, 1815. 
 
568 
 
 name oi \Y aterloo was j n consequence given to that pleasant bathing 
 place. 
 
 Charles Math' dWS> the fi r gt au( j greatest of the name, visited Liver¬ 
 pool soon after the conclusion of the war. He had performed in Liverpool 
 twice befo’-^y. His g rst appearance was in 1803, when he was well received, 
 but foin the w hole people full of military fervour, a French invasion being 
 expected daily. He had reason to remember Liverpool volunteering, 
 having been thrown from his horse, trampled on, and nearly killed, at a 
 review on the North Shore. He came again in 1811, and was again well 
 received, though the town was all in the dismals. “ Now,” says he, in one 
 of his letters to his wife, “ though Liverpool is ruined, and nothing but 
 long faces are now to be seen, I have an immense box-plan already; and 
 I expect a good house : a great house, I fear, and am told by my friends, is 
 out of the question. The Americans were an amazing support of the 
 theatre, and they have vanished.”* In January, 1815, he again showed 
 his mirth-inspiring face in Liverpool, and though the Americans had not 
 got back, yet peace had just been concluded with America, and all the 
 world was gay. “ This town,” says he, writing to Mrs. Mathews, “ has 
 turned out most famously : I did not think of performing here more than 
 two nights, and, but for the entreaties of Mulock and Rvley, I should 
 have been last night at some thirty-pound town, merely because it would 
 have been in my road to Wolverhampton, where I am engaged on Friday, 
 the 20tli. I had no idea of my performance succeeding anywhere more 
 than two or three nights at the most. Mulock said that I should be mad 
 to go, and that he was sure it would answer six nights; advising me 
 to sacrifice all other places to it, on a speculation. I think I told you 
 that on the first night there was H64. I returned last Monday, and there 
 was £52 in the room. Good ! you will say, for a second night. Well, 
 last night, for the third, time, there was ill5, and one hundred tacked to 
 it ! above seven hundred people crammed, wedged into the room ! ill 15. 
 12s. 6d.! what think you of that ? Never was such a thing known to a 
 budgeter. So I at it again to-morrow and Monday.” He adds, in another 
 letter, “ Last night I finished with eclat. God bless the good people of 
 Liverpool! £72 again : last though not least. The circus too full every 
 
 night. Horses against me, and some very bad weather on two nights.”f 
 
 On the 31st July a public meeting was held to institute a subscription 
 for the relief of the widows and children of the brave men who had 
 
 Memoirs of Charles Mathews, by Mrs. Mathews, ii, 124. 
 
 + Ibid, ii, 344. 
 
569 
 
 fallen at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. The sum raised in Liverpool for 
 that purpose was about T9,000.* 
 
 On the evening of the 25th September, in this year, whilst Edmund 
 Kean was acting in the play of Richard II., at the Liverpool theatre, a 
 sudden panic was caused by a false alarm of fire. A large part of the 
 audience rushed from the house, and, in their frantic eagerness to escape, 
 trampled to death a young woman of the name of Edge, who had been 
 thrown down in the rush.f 
 
 In September, 1815, the Kingsmill, Capt. Cassels, belonging to Messrs. 
 Gladstone and Grant, returned to Liverpool, after an absence of fifteen 
 months. She was the first Liverpool ship that ever made the East India 
 voyage, and her voyage was one of the most prosperous ever made. Her 
 cargo from India consisted of cotton, sugar, indigo, piece-goods, and spices.” X 
 
 From a survey of the houses of Liverpool, made in December, 1815, 
 it appeared that there were at that time 7G1 empty houses in the town. 
 At the time of a previous survey, made in 1813, there had been no less 
 than 1,422 houses empty.§ 
 
 In January, 1816, preparations were made for introducing gas, 
 “ which had been used with such brilliant effect in some parts of 
 London,” into the town of Liverpool. The experiment was first tried 
 in front of the Town-hall, where multitudes crowded to see the new and 
 beautiful light, and went away delighted with the success of the experi¬ 
 ment. || An eye-witness thus describes the scene: 
 
 “ Liverpool Gas-lights.—Two large gas-lamps, with three burners in 
 each, have been lighted up with gas, and exhibited for the last few uiglits, in 
 front of the Town-hall. The light is so brilliant that a person may with ease 
 discover the hour with his watch at the distance of twenty or thirty yards. 
 We understand that it is intended to light the dock lamps by this method ; 
 and we trust it soon will become general.”H Shortly after this it was 
 announced that a Liverpool Gas-light Company had been formed, and had 
 so far arranged its plans that it would be able to give the whole town the 
 benefit of that brilliant light in a short time. “ To show the superiority 
 they possess over the convex lamps, it is only necessary to observe the 
 gas-lamp at the coachmaker’s, in Dale-street, lately put forth, which gives 
 nearly as much light as all the other lamps in the street.”** 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 25, 1815. + Ibid, October 2, 1815. 
 
 J Liverpool Mercury, September 8, 1815. 
 
 § Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 4, 1815. || Ibid, January 8, 1816. 
 
 If Liverpool Mercury, January 26, 1816. *• Ibid, March 22, 1816. 
 
570 
 
 In March, 1816, the whole rental of the town of Liverpool, including 
 buildings of every description, except churches and chapels, was said to 
 be £580,000.* 
 
 The first stone of the new North or Prince Regent’s Dock, now 
 commonly known as the Prince’s Dock, was laid in the month of May, 
 1816, by the present Sir George Drinkwater, then George Drinkwater, 
 Esq. After the usual ceremony of christening, Sir George made a 
 short and appropriate address, which was followed by loud acclamations 
 from the spectators assembled to witness the ceremony.f 
 
 The number of the civic knights of Liverpool received an increase 
 on the occasion of the marriage of Princess Charlotte of Wales, to Prince 
 Leopold, the present king of the Belgians. Sir William Barton, mayor 
 of Liverpool, was one of the numerous knights created in honour of 
 that event, on which so many fond hopes were founded, soon to he 
 withered by the touch of death.J 
 
 A second line of steam-boats was established in the river Mersey, in 
 June, 1816. which was intended to open a cheap and speedy communi¬ 
 cation with Chester, by way of Ellesmere Port and the Chester and 
 Ellesmere Canal. The following is an account of the first trial of the 
 new steamer built for this line :—“ Grand Steam-packet: The Ellesmere 
 and Chester Canal Company have established an elegant packet, worked 
 by steam, to ply between Ellesmere Port (the termination of the canal) 
 and Liverpool. Tuesday last she performed the first experimental 
 voyage, in the presence of an immense number of passengers and spec¬ 
 tators. About half-past ten she set out from Liverpool townside, in a 
 direction opposite to her intended course, to prove her power against the 
 run of a spring tide and adverse wind. Under these very unfavourable 
 circumstances she proceeded nearly a mile with astonishing steadiness 
 and celerity, to the entire satisfaction of every person present. She then 
 commenced her voyage, and performed it, without the assistance of a 
 sail, in one hour and five minutes; the engine making twenty-five 
 strokes per minute, its general rate being thirty. It is impossible for us 
 to give an adequate idea of the majestic movement of this novel machine, 
 of the elegance of its structure, of the convenience it possesses for pas¬ 
 sengers ; its principal cabin is spacious, elegantly furnished for a large 
 party; there is a handsome private apartment for ladies, in taste and ac¬ 
 commodation superior to anything we ever saw on the river. We had not 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 4, 1816. 
 
 { Ibid, June 3, ]81G. 
 
 + Ibid, May 27, 1810. 
 
571 
 
 the means of measuring the principal parts of the vessel, but were 
 informed she is 90 feet long, 31 feet across from side to side, and is 
 impelled by a power equivalent to thirty-two horses, or 180 men. As 
 much mechanical ingenuity is displayed in the construction, and great 
 taste in the decorations, she cannot fail of attracting the attention of 
 the curious ; and by her superior accommodation, expedition, and safety, 
 of obtaining universal approbation and encouragement.”* 
 
 One of the earliest applications of steam navigation to sea voyages 
 was in the autumn of 1816, when steamers began to ply regularly be¬ 
 tween Holyhead and Dublin. The commencement of this undertaking 
 was rather unfortunate, the first steamer being compelled to put back 
 when half-way across the channel. The next and the succeeding experi¬ 
 ments were more successful. “ On Monday sennight,” says a Liverpool 
 paper of November 4, 1816, “ a party went off from Howth, merely for 
 the sake of having a trip of pleasure ; they sailed from that harbour at 
 twelve at noon, and were landed at seven, to tea, at Holyhead; they em¬ 
 barked next day, and reached Howth in eight hours, thus making the 
 two passages, going and coming, in fifteen hours, finding all accommoda¬ 
 tion quite complete, and the voyage very pleasant. These vessels are lugger- 
 rigged, and capable of making good voyages without the machinery, 
 which can be hoisted out of the water at pleasure. They are 77 feet in 
 the keel, carry 112 tons, and draw nine feet water abaft. Three weeks 
 since, a gentleman, from whom we obtained the information, left Holyhead, 
 in one of the steam-boats, which worked out of the harbour, in company 
 with a sailing-packet, having an express on board for the Irish govern¬ 
 ment. On landing at Howth a messenger was despatched to the castle 
 at Dublin, to apprise government that an express, outsailed by the steam¬ 
 boat, was on its way; which express they received in eight hours after. 
 By one of these boats the victory of Lord Exmouth, at Algiers, was 
 known in Dublin several hours sooner than it otherwise would have been. 
 Last week the Hibernia, which is the name of one of them, took over 
 sixteen cabin passengers. There are separate sleeping apartments for 
 ladies and gentlemen ; the former attended by a respectable female servant, 
 or stewardess ; and every refreshment is to be had on board, which saves a 
 great deal of expense, trouble, and imposition, in laying in sea stocks. 
 We give this information, which we have received from unquestionable 
 authority, with great pleasure, as our first notice of the packet was neces¬ 
 sarily unfavourable.”! 
 
 » Chester Chronicle, quoted in Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, of June 3, 1816. 
 » Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, November 4, 1816. 
 
572 
 
 The sailing vessels between Liverpool and the United States, particu¬ 
 larly those of American build, were already famous for their quick 
 passages. Amongst the best passages performed in 1816, were those of 
 the Nestor, Captain Stirling, from New York to Liverpool, and back to 
 America, in fifty-three days; and of the Courier, Captain Price, from 
 Boston to Liverpool, and back again, in fifty days.* 
 
 The foundation-stone of the handsome church of St. Michael, Pitt- 
 street, was laid in June, 1816, by Sir William Barton, knight, mayor of 
 Liverpool. The following was the inscription on the foundation-stone :— 
 “This plate is affixed to the first stone of a church to be ei’ected under 
 the name of St. Michael, at the expense of the parish of Liverpool, and 
 was laid on the 26th day of June, in the 56th year of the reign of King 
 George the Third, in the year of our Lord 1816 : By Sir William Barton, 
 knight, mayor; Jonathan Blundell Hollinshead and Richd. Bullen, bailiffs; 
 Samuel Renshaw and Robert Hawkmoor Roughsedge, rectors. George 
 Syers and John Merritt, wardens. John Foster, architect.” The design 
 of the new church of St. Michael, says a notice of that date, “ is of 
 Grecian architecture, something similar to the admired church called St. 
 Martin’s-in-the-Fields, in London. It will have a lofty and ornamental 
 spire steeple, and, taken together, will probably be esteemed the first 
 sacred structure in Liverpool. The estimated expense is ,£33,000, and it 
 is expected to be completed in about five years.”f 
 
 In the course of the summer of 1816 a steamer, named the Princess 
 Charlotte, began to ply between Liverpool and the pleasant ferry-house 
 at Eastham, in connection with which coaches ran to Chester and 
 Shrewsbury.^ 
 
 In September, 1816, the new church of St. Philip, in Hardman-street, 
 was opened for Divine worship. The walls of the church are of brick, but 
 all the mouldings, mullions of windows, pinnacles, and such ornaments 
 as, when of stone, are apt to be injured by the climate, are formed of 
 cast-iron; the whole painted and sanded so as to give an uniform appear¬ 
 ance of stone.§ 
 
 The first actual use of steam in the port of Liverpool for the purpose 
 of towing vessels out to sea is thus recorded in a paper of this date:— 
 “ One of the most important advantages of the steam-boat, which has 
 been long successfully practised in America, was adopted for the first time 
 
 * Boston Palladium, 20th November, 1816. 
 
 + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, July 1, 1816. J Ibid, September 2, 1816. 
 
 § Ibid, September 16, 1816. 
 
.573 
 
 in Liverpool last week, when the Harlequin, a vessel belonging to Messrs. 
 M‘Donel and Co., was towed out of the harbour, by the help of one of 
 the steam ferry-boats.”* 
 
 At this time the footwalks of Liverpool were not flagged, but paved 
 with little sharp stones, which reminded pedestrians of the agonies de¬ 
 scribed in the Pilgrim and the peas. In 1816, however, the commissioners 
 of highways took heart of grace, and flagged the north side of the foot 
 pavement in Church-street. Starting from that point, they, in a few 
 years, rendered the streets not only passable but pleasant for pedestrians.! 
 
 The old Custom-house of Liverpool, built by Alderman Silvester 
 Morecroft, in the reign of Queen Anne, was completely repaired in the 
 year 1816, and several additional buildings were joined to it. At the 
 same time it was arranged that the hours of attendance for the clerks 
 should he from 10, a.m., to 4, p.m.J 
 
 A steam-boat, named the Waterloo, began to run between Glasgow 
 and Belfast in the summer of 1816.§ 
 
 The Bengal, East Indiaman, arrived in Liverpool in May, 1816, being 
 the second Liverpool vessel from Tndia. She belonged to Messrs. Cropper, 
 Benson, and Co.|| 
 
 Mr. Coglan’s floating-bath, so well known to the Liverpool public 
 twenty years since, was launched on the 10th of June, 1816, in the 
 presence of a great crowd of spectators.H 
 
 On Monday, the 28th October, the Queen’s Dock, which had been 
 enlarged according to the plan of 1810, was opened for the admission of 
 vessels. “ This fine dock,” says a paper of that date, “ is now increased 
 nearly one-third in its dimensions, and is at present almost twice the 
 size of any of the other Liverpool docks. The quay is also greatly 
 enlarged, and improved at the north end.”** 
 
 The scheme of shortening the distance between the port of Liverpool 
 and all places lying to the southwest of Liverpool, by forming a bridge 
 across the tide-way of the river Mersey at Runcorn Gap, which had been 
 much discussed in Brindley’s time, was again brought under discussion 
 at the close of the year 1816, when a numerous company was formed, for 
 the purpose of carrying out that object. Early in November, a meeting 
 of upwards of two hundred of the projectors of the intended bridge, from 
 Liverpool and the counties of Chester and Stafford, was held at the house 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 21, 1816. + Ibid, October 28, 1816. 
 
 J Liverpool Mercury, March 29, 1816. § Ibid, April 5, 1810. || Ibid, May 31, 1816. 
 
 IT Ibid, June 14, 1816. •* Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, November, 1816. 
 
 4 E 
 
574 
 
 of Mr. Davies, tlie Royal Hotel, Runcorn, to receive plans and estimates 
 for carrying the proposed undertaking into effect. After Mr. Cropper, of 
 Liverpool, had been called to the chair, Mr. Finchett, the solicitor of the 
 company, gave a history of the different projects which had been formed, 
 from time to time, for accomplishing that great undertaking. From the 
 concurring of many intelligent men (he said) and the surveys and reports 
 of the most eminent engineers, particularly Mr. Telford, who had examined 
 all the circumstances of the situation, no doubt could be entertained of the 
 possibility of constructing a bridge at Runcorn, which would give all the 
 advantages of a communication, without the impediments of piers, or 
 hindrance to the navigation of the river. Six different plans were pre¬ 
 sented. One was for a stone bridge of seven arches; one for an iron 
 bridge of five ; one for a framed timber bridge of five; one for a timber 
 bridge of two arches ; one for a chain bridge of 1,600 feet span, carrying 
 a road way 110 feet above high water ; and one for an iron bridge of nearly 
 similar construction and dimensions, but consisting of iron bars faggotted 
 together, instead of being fastened by chains. A committee was appointed 
 to report on the comparative merits of these plans ; but, as my readers 
 are aware, nothing has been done even to the present time towards the 
 constructing of such a bridge.* 
 
 The harvest of 1816 was one of the worst ever known, both as to quan¬ 
 tity and quality, and great distress prevailed amongst the labouring classes 
 in Liverpool and all other places during the following winter. “ The num¬ 
 ber of paupers who now sit down to dinner every day at the Liverpool 
 Workhouse,’ says a Liverpool paper, “ although the winter is only just 
 begun, exceeds the number of any former period since the erection of the 
 building by more than fifty.”t This was in spite of great efforts on the 
 part of the merchants and the Dock Committee to find employment for 
 the labouring poor, by pressing forward the constructing of the docks. 
 “ Independently of the subscriptions made by the merchants of this town 
 for a loan to the trustees of the docks, to enable them to employ the poor, 
 a few spirited individuals, tradesmen of the town, have placed at the dis¬ 
 posal of those trustees a sum amounting to upwards of £, 1 0,000, for that 
 laudable purpose. We rejoice also to announce that the whole of the 
 bonds offered for sale by the dock trustees, on Friday last, were bought 
 with great readiness, which is a gratifying proof that the excellence of 
 that security is becoming known to the public, and we doubt not that some 
 of the purchasers adopted that mode and opportunity of contributing to 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, November 11, 1810. + Ibid, December 9, 1810. 
 
575 
 
 the means of employing the labouring classes of the community.’’* Not¬ 
 withstanding these laudable exertions, there were no less than 20,000 
 persons maintained at the cost of the parish of Liverpool in the month of 
 February following. 
 
 At a meeting of the parish vestry, held on the 3rd February, 1817, the 
 churchwardens stated that the out-door poor receiving relief in Liverpool 
 amounted to 3,600 families ; or, assuming each family to consist of four 
 persons, to 14,400 individuals: that 800 families, or 2,400 persons, 
 received occasional relief; making 16,800 persons who received out-door 
 relief to a greater or less extent. To these were to be added 1,667 per¬ 
 sons in the workhouses, and 303 distressed seamen, maintained at the cost 
 of the parish, amounting to 1,970 persons, and swelling the whole number 
 dependent on parish relief to 20,000. The money paid to the out¬ 
 door poor had increased, since the previous meeting, from £350 a-week 
 to £650 : that paid to the in-door poor from £230 to £340. In conse¬ 
 quence of this lamentable increase of pauperism it was decided to lay an 
 additional rate of Is. 3d. in the pound.f 
 
 An account was made public, in 1817, of the cost of the Exchange- 
 buildings of Liverpool; from which it appeared that it amounted to 
 £110,848. This large sum was raised as follows :—£70,500 in 705 shares 
 of £100 each; £9,575 by premiums on shares; £3,473 by interest on 
 shares; and £27,300 by rent and profits, to the 26th January, 18174 
 
 Coaching had been carried to wonderful perfection, on the Liverpool 
 and Manchester road, by this time, at least as relates to speed. “ The 
 rate at which the coaches between Liverpool and Manchester are driven,” 
 says a paper of that date, “ ought to be the subject of magisterial investi¬ 
 gation. Last week, we are assured that one of them arrived from Man¬ 
 chester at Lowhill, Liverpool, in two hours and a half, averaging about 
 fourteen miles in the hour, or twice the speed of the mail.Ӥ This is the 
 quickest journey on record; but the journey of thirty-six miles was often 
 performed in three hours and a half. Accidents from furious driving 
 were very common about this time, and juries occasionally gave 
 exemplary damages against coach-proprietors; as, for instance, in the 
 case of Mr. John Ritchie, of Liverpool, who obtained £750 damages, 
 for injuries received by the overthrow of one of the Liverpool coaches 
 at Prescot.|| 
 
 In the month of March, 1817, it was announced that a steam-boat was 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, December 0, 1816. + Ibid, February .'!, 1817. 
 
 ♦ Liverpool Mercury, March 28, 1817. § Ibid, April 25,1817. || Ibid, May 23, 1817. 
 
576 
 
 building in a yard near Queen’s Dock, and was expected to be launched 
 early in the month, intended to be employed for the purpose of carrying 
 passengers, carriages, horses, &c., across the Mersey, “ with a degree of 
 security, comfort, and dispatch which it is impossible to obtain by any 
 other mode of conveyance.” This steamer, which bore the rather ominous 
 name of the Etna, consisted of two vessels, sixty-three feet in length, 
 connected by beams, propelled by a wheel placed in the centre, and with 
 a deck twenty-eight feet wide over all. “ It will be the peculiar advan¬ 
 tage of this packet,” said one of the papers of that day, “ that in crossing 
 the river in a calm, or any state of the wind or tide, the passage will 
 always be very short, and the inconvenience to passengers, and the risk 
 to carriages, horses, &c., which is inseparable from the use of sail-boats, 
 will be almost entirely removed. The plan on which this packet is con¬ 
 structed has been introduced with great success in different parts of the 
 continent of America, and we anticipate from its adoption great advantages 
 to the town, as well as to those persons who reside on the opposite side of 
 the river.”* At the end of the month of March the proprietors of the 
 Etna announced to the public that she would begin to ply between Liver¬ 
 pool and Tranmere, on Thursday, the 4th April. This was the first of the 
 numerous lines of steam ferry-boats, by which Cheshire has been united 
 with Liverpool, almost as effectually as it would have been by the building 
 of half-a-dozen bridges across the river Mersey, and by which the whole 
 range of the shore from New Ferry, to the mouth of the river, at New 
 Brighton, has been covered with villas, suburban villages, and, at one 
 point, with a considerable town. As the opening of the first of these 
 great steam-bridges to Cheshire is an event of considerable interest in 
 local annals, it maybe well to give the official announcement of the plan, 
 which was as follows :—“ Etna, Tranmere Ferry Steam-packet.—The 
 proprietors of the above concern respectfully inform the public that it is 
 their intention to start, for the purpose of conveying passengers to and 
 from Tranmere, on Thursday next, from the Parade Pier, precisely at 
 eight o’clock in the morning, and will continue to run, without intermis¬ 
 sion, throughout each succeeding day, remaining at each side only ten 
 minutes, in order to obviate the unpleasant necessity which has hitherto 
 arisen of being detained on either side by particular state of wind or tide, 
 &c. The proprietors likewise inform the public that a slip is in a state 
 of great forwardness, and will be completed in a few days, for the purpose 
 of landing and taking on board the said packet carriages, carts, horses, 
 * Liverpool Mercury, March 13, 1817. 
 
577 
 
 and cattle of every description, of which due notice will be given. 
 Performed by Jon. Batman and Co. 
 
 “Liverpool, 31st March, 1817.”* 
 
 In May, 1817, the Liverpool public was offered the novelty of a trip 
 to Chester Races by steam, with a choice of two routes, either by way of 
 Ellesmere Port, in the Countess of Bridgewater, or of Eastham, in the 
 Princess Charlotte.t 
 
 In July, 1817, the funds of the Dock Trust became unequal to pay the 
 great number of men whom the trustees had employed during the previous 
 winter and spring. A thousand men were discharged in a single week.J 
 In the month of September the corporation of Liverpool made a 
 handsome donation of I; 1,000 to the Royal Institution. About the same 
 time Mr. Canning gave <£100 to the same institution^ 
 
 Sea going steamers began now to appear in increased numbers in the 
 British seas. In October, 1817, a new steamer, the Prince of Cobourg, 
 began to run between Hull and London.|| 
 
 The Liverpool Royal Institution, planned in 1814, was completed and 
 opened in November, 1817 Mr. Roscoe delivered an eloquent address 
 on the occasion, in which, after giving a sketch of the progress of litera¬ 
 ture, he dwelt on the compatibility of the pursuits of commerce and active 
 life with the cultivation of letters.H 
 
 Up to the commencement of the year 1818 Liverpool was one of the 
 worst lighted and worse paved towns in England. A Londoner, who 
 visited the town in January, of that year, thus poured forth his remon¬ 
 strances in one of the London papers, againstagonizing footpaths and dark¬ 
 ness visible :—“ I wish to he informed, by some of your Lancashire readers, 
 why that justly celebrated town of Liverpool is so shockingly ill-paved 
 and lighted ? It is certainly the worst paved town in the kingdom. I 
 can assure you that, on a recent visit there, I could not help abusing the 
 corporation,” (who were not the delinquents,) “ for such a total disregard 
 of their own credit, and the convenience of the public. In every other 
 respect the town cannot fail to impress its visitor with a true notion of the 
 public taste, spirit, and liberality of its inhabitants.** 
 
 In the month of February following Mr. Canning presented a petition 
 from the town of Liverpool, praying that the town might in future be 
 lighted with gas. A bill for that purpose was introduced shortly after- 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, March 31, 1817. + Ibid, May 5, 1817. j Ibid, July 14, 1817 
 
 § Ibid, September 8, 1817. || Ibid, October (i, 1817. Ibid, December 1, 1817. 
 
 ** Sun, London paper, January 8, 1818. 
 
578 
 
 wards, which had passed botli Houses of Parliament on the 22d May of 
 the same year.* 
 
 Iu March, 1818, a great push was made with the embankment, 
 formed on the western side of Prince’s Dock, for the purpose of shutting 
 out the sea. By employing an extraordinary number of workmen it 
 was completed on Monday, the 2d of March. The sea being thus 
 shut out the workmen were enabled to proceed without interruption. 
 The eastern wall of the dock was completed on the Saturday preceding. 
 It was built in five hundred days, by eight masons and four labourers, 
 the first stone being laid in May, 1816.f 
 
 In the course of the month of March, 1818, great progress was made 
 in laying the foundation of the sea-wall. “ Many of our readers,” says 
 a paper of that date, “ may not be aware that the base of that grand 
 piece of masonry, the sea-wall of the Regent’s or Prince’s Dock, can 
 seldom be laid at any other time than the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, 
 when the ebbs of the tides are the lowest in the year. In March last the 
 low water workings at the base of this stupendous wall were wholly pre¬ 
 vented by the tempestuousness of the weather. However, the loss was, 
 in a great measure, compensated in September, and the beginning of 
 October, by the laying of six courses of balks, extending 105 yards in 
 length. A similar operation, it is expected, will take place in this and 
 the two following days, when the dock artists and engineers hope to be 
 enabled, if the weather prove fair, to lay three or four more lengths of 
 those balks. The time most suitable for viewing this most animated 
 scene will be about six in the mornings and evenings.”]: 
 
 A curious experiment was tried on the Mersey in the summer of 
 1818; a boat with wheels, turned by horses instead of a steam-engine. 
 The following is the advertisement of this strange invention :—“ Horses 
 intsead of steam. The public are hereby respectfully informed that a 
 new packet, worked by horses instead of steam, and named the Safety, 
 sails daily from the new slip, west side of George’s Dock, Liverpool, to 
 Runcorn, lands and takes in passengers and luggage at Weston Point, 
 and returns to Liverpool with the same tide.” The horses went round 
 in this vessel, as in a horse thrashing mill, and turned a wheel. The 
 experiment was soon abandoned.§ 
 
 An American paper, received in Liverpool in August, 1818, an¬ 
 nounced a very bold enterprise, which was accomplished shortly after - 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 23, 1818. + Ibid, March !), 1818. 
 
 + Ibid, March 23, 1818. § Ibid, June 1, 1818. 
 
579 
 
 wards, namely, a voyage across the Atlantic, in a steam-vessel. “ It is 
 stated in an American paper,” says a Liverpool paper of that date, “ that 
 a ship, of about 375 tons, was ready to he launched from one of their 
 ship-yards, which is actually to be fitted up with a steam-engine and 
 apparatus, as a steam-packet ship, for crossing the Atlantic.”* 
 
 The progress made in the construction of the Prince’s Dock, in 
 1818, was very rapid. In November the sea-wall had been carried to the 
 northern extremity, a distance of nearly one hundred yards beyond the 
 old fort. The foundation of the dock basin was laid, the excavation in 
 the centre of the dock was proceeding rapidly, and the south entrance to 
 the dock was completed. It was supposed that this magnificent dock 
 would be completed in two years.f 
 
 At the close of the year 1818 it was announced that Dale-street, which, 
 from its narrowness and its crowded condition, had for many years been 
 dangerous to pass, would be greatly widened, under the powers of the act 
 granted thirty years before. This great improvement was shortly after¬ 
 wards proceeded with, and carried out with spirit.^ 
 
 To the close of 1818 the communication between Liverpool and the 
 Clyde was still kept up by means of sailing vessels. A fine smack called 
 the Manchester arrived in that month from Bridport, where it had been 
 built for Messrs. H. Matthie and Theakstone. It was to he followed by 
 another called the Liverpool. They were built on the model of the 
 London and Leith smacks, “ so celebrated for making passages in almost 
 any weather,” and were intended to ply between Liverpool and Glasgow.§ 
 
 On Sunday night, January 24th, 1819, Castle-street and Lord-street 
 were lighted with gas for the first time. The effect more than answered 
 expectation. Gas-lighting was gradually extended to the whole town.|| 
 
 In the session of 1819 the question of the resumption of cash pay¬ 
 ments was much discussed, and finally decided in favour of resumption. 
 A good number of petitions were presented against it, and, amongst them, 
 one from Liverpool, signed by about two hundred persons, whom Mr. 
 Canning described as most “ respectable and intelligent.” They all asked 
 merely for a postponement, except one, the late Mr. James Cropper. He 
 signed as follows:—“ James Cropper wishes that payments in specie may 
 be postponed, but he does not agree in the importance or advantage of 
 their ever being resumed.’’^ 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, August 17, 1818. + Ibid, November 30, 1818. 
 
 J Ibid, December 14, 1818 § Ibid, December 21, 1818. || Ibid, January 25,.1819’. 
 
 IT Ibid, February 8, 1810. 
 
 
580 
 
 On Sunday, the 20th June, 1819, the first steam boat that ever crossed 
 the Atlantic arrived in the port of Liverpool. The Liverpool papers con¬ 
 tain the following notice of her arrival:—“ Yesterday morning week,” says 
 one of them, “ a beautiful steam-ship arrived here in twenty-six days 
 from Savannah. She is called the Savannah, and was built at New York, 
 under the inspection of her commander, Captain Rodgers, brother to 
 Commodore Rodgers. Her burthen is 319 tons. Her destination is said 
 to he St. Petersburg^ as a present to the Emperor Alexander.”* 
 
 In the year 1819 Birkenhead first began to rise into notice. On 
 Monday, the 26th July, in that year, the foundation stone of a new church 
 was laid, close to the ancient ruins of Birkenhead Priory. Lord Kenyon 
 laid the stone, on which was a plate of copper bearing the following 
 inscription :—“ The first stone of this church was laid by the Right Hon. 
 Lord Kenyon, Baron of Gredington, in the county of Flint, this 26th day 
 of July, in the year of our Lord 1819, and the fifty-ninth year of the 
 reign of King George the Third. Erected by Francis Richard Price, 
 Esq., lord of the manor. Edward Newton, minister; Thomas Rickman, 
 architect.” This was not the only improvement. “ The erection of the 
 church,” says a paper of that date, “ will be but one among a number of 
 improvements that will in a short time be made in this delightful spot. 
 An elegant hotel, on a very extensive and commodious plan, is in a 
 forward state, and will, it is expected, be ready for the reception of visitors 
 early in the spring. It stands on an elevated rock in front of the river, 
 and commands one of the most beautiful and picturesque prospects on the 
 Mersey. Before the spectator is the town of Liverpool, with its extensive 
 line of docks, and innumerable shipping, as well as the richly diversified 
 scenery of Toxteth-park; behind is Bidston-hill, with its lighthouse and 
 signal poles. On the right hand the Mersey expands to its greatest 
 breadth, displaying on its banks the most luxuriant scenery ; on the left 
 the river is crowded with shipping, the prospect terminating in the sea 
 beyond the rock. Contiguous to the hotel will be baths for ladies and 
 gentlemen. Immediately in front of the house, and almost level with the 
 river, grots or alcoves will be formed, where visitors may sit in the shade, 
 and enjoy the delightful prospect before them. A commodious landing- 
 place will also be formed, in which boats may enter and land passengers, 
 at any time of the tide. The ground around the hotel is laid out for 
 streets; and several- lots are already purchased for the erection of 
 houses. This charming situation promises in a short time to become 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, June 28, 1810. 
 
581 
 
 one of the most fashionable resorts for company on the banks of the 
 Mersey.”* 
 
 In the summer of 1819 a steamer, bearing the noble and heroic name 
 of Robert Bruce, began to ply between Liverpool and Glasgow. The fol¬ 
 lowing is the announcement of this great step in the march of steam 
 navigation, in the port of Liverpool:—“ Safe and expeditious travelling 
 between Liverpool and Glasgow. The elegant new steam-packet boat 
 Robert Bruce, Captain John Patterson, will sail for Glasgow to-morrow, 
 Tuesday, the 3rd of August, at eight o’clock in the morning, from George’s 
 Dock Pierhead. The accommodation for passengers is most excellent, 
 and she is expected to perform the passage within thirty hours. The 
 fares, in the cabin, 40s; steerage, 21s. Passengers will be accommodated 
 with provisions on moderate terms. For passage apply to Captain Pat¬ 
 terson, or to John Richardson. 
 
 “ Liverpool, 2nd August, 18l9.”f 
 
 In June, 1819, the largest steam-boat was launched at Greenock that 
 had been launched up to that time in Great Britain. She was of the 
 burthen of 200 tons, with two engines of thirty-horse power each, and was 
 intended to ply between Glasgow and Belfast.^ 
 
 Coaching continued to be carried on with amazing spirit. In July, 
 1819, the journey from Nottingham to Liverpool, upwards of 100 miles, 
 was made in eight hours and a half.§ A new plan of conveying the mails 
 by light carriages, without passengers, travelling at the rate of eleven 
 miles an hour, was then under consideration. || 
 
 In July, 1819, the Waterloo steamer arrived in Liverpool. “Yesterday,” 
 says the Liverpool Mercury, of the 23rd July, “ a beautiful steam-packet 
 arrived at this port from Belfast, after a passage of only twenty-four hours. 
 She is called the Waterloo, and is a fine, well-built vessel; burthen 201 
 tons, length 98 feet, breadth on deck 37 feet, and has two highly-finished 
 steam-engines of thirty-horse power each, which work without noise or 
 vibration, and are on the low-pressure construction, perfectly safe from 
 accident. They are attended by two experienced engineers. The vessel 
 is also provided with two masts, with sails and rigging. Her interior 
 accommodations are as complete and elegant as skill and expense can 
 make them. She has a handsome dining-room, capable of accommodating 
 all the cabin passengers, a separate and neatly-decorated cabin for ladies, 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, July 2, 181!). -t Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 2, 181!). 
 
 | Liverpool Mercury, June 4, 1810. § Ibid, July 0, lRli). l| London Courier. 
 
 4 F 
 
582 
 
 and two apartments for private families ; twenty-two well-furnished beds, 
 each accommodated with light and air, and a comfortable place for steerage 
 passengers. She cost nearly £10,000. She will sail for Belfast at 
 tide-time to-day, and will return on Monday. She will sail again the 
 same day, and regularly every Monday and Friday. Fares : cabin, 
 £1 11s. 6d. ; steerage, 10s. 6d. The cabin passengers are not under 
 the necessity of taking provisions, as they are well accommodated on 
 hoard with everything, at the most moderate prices. Passengers attended 
 by Captain Townley, on board, or Mr. John Crowther, 23, east side of 
 Salthouse Dock.” 
 
 On the 7th September, the Waterloo steamer was taken off the Belfast 
 line, and began to run between Liverpool and Dublin.* The following 
 testimonial to the merits of Captain Townley and the Waterloo appeared 
 in the Liverpool papers of the following week:—“We, the undersigned, 
 cabin passengers, on our passage from Dublin to Liverpool, by the 
 steam-packet Waterloo, Captain Charles Townley, hereby desire to express 
 our entire approbation of the attention shown by Captain Townley; also 
 of the excellent accommodation which this fine vessel affords. The 
 Waterloo performed her passage in about twenty-four hours, notwith¬ 
 standing an adverse wind and a heavy gale. Liverpool, 16th September, 
 1819. Signed, P. Mackenzie, major-general,” and thirteen other passen¬ 
 gers, chiefly officers of the army.f 
 
 The performances of the steam-boats on the Mersey, though not to 
 be compared with more recent triumphs of steam, began to be greatly 
 lauded. “ The perfection to which the navigation of steam-boats has 
 been carried, and the celerity with which they sail, will be evinced by a 
 history of the voyage of one of the Runcorn steam-packets, on Sunday 
 last. The Duke of Wellington steamer left Runcorn at four o’clock in 
 the morning, and arrived at this port at seven. She sailed hence, with 
 passengers, about eleven, and landed them at Runcorn. She departed 
 from Runcorn for Warrington, where she arrived at two o’clock. She left 
 it again at half-past two for Runcorn, where she landed her passengers; 
 and, having taken in a fresh cargo, sailed for Liverpool, and arrived here 
 at half-past seven o’clock in the evening. The whole distance which she 
 sailed, in the course of the day, was upwards of eighty miles ; a dis¬ 
 tance, we imagine, which no vessel ever performed in the same time in 
 this river. 
 
 * Liverpool Mercury, September 3, 1819. + Ibid, September 17, 1819. 
 
 { Liverpool Courier, July 3, 1819. 
 
583 
 
 In September, 1819, the Rev. Edw. Hull M.A., of St. John’s College, 
 Cambridge, was appointed minister of the newly-erected church attached 
 to the School for the Blind.* 
 
 The good old king, George the Third, died at Windsor Castle on the 
 29th of January, 1820, after a reign of sixty years. His remains were 
 interred on the 16th of February. All the shops were closed on that 
 day, business of every kind was suspended, and even the window-shutters 
 and blinds of private houses were kept closed. The churches and other 
 places of worship were crowded, and sermons suited to the occasion were 
 everywhere preached. “ It was remarked that the general appearance of 
 reverence and solemnity in the town was beyond what had ever been 
 observed on a Sunday, or other great religious festival.”f 
 
 At the levee, on the 11th May, 1820, the king, George the Fourth, 
 conferred the honour of knighthood on the mayor of Liverpool, who, by 
 that act, became Sir John Tobin, knight. Sir John was a fine specimen 
 of the old British merchant, and did as much to promote the commerce of 
 Liverpool as any man of his time.^ 
 
 A steam-boat, built for the Portuguese government, was launched 
 from Messrs. Mottershead and Heyes’s building-yard, on Tuesday, the 
 20tli September. She was named the Count de Palmella, and made the 
 voyage out to Lisbon in four days.§ 
 
 One of the last of the Lancashire Canal improvements was completed 
 in the autumn of 1820, hy the opening of the branch from the Leeds and 
 Liverpool Canal, at Wigan, to the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal, at 
 Leigh. || 
 
 An enumeration of the children of the poor, receiving education in 
 the schools of all religious bodies in the town of Liverpool, or within a 
 circuit of two miles of the town, was made in February, 1821, from which 
 it appeared that 6,754 children were receiving instruction in day-schools, 
 and 11,982 in day and Sunday schools combined. 1[ 
 
 The Cambria, the first steamer established between Liverpool and 
 North Wales, was launched on the l"th of May, 1821. She ran from 
 Liverpool to Bagillt, on the Welsh side of the river Dee. The Cambria 
 was 90 feet in length, and was propelled by two powerful engines. She 
 made her first voyage on the 4th of June.** 
 
 The building of St. Luke’s Church, commenced in 1811, and long 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, September 17, 181!). i Ibid, February 21, 1820. 
 
 } Ibid, May 15, 1820. § Ibid, September 20, 1820. |] Ibid, December 20, 1820. 
 
 IF Ibid, February 28, 1821. ** Ibid, May 15, 1821. 
 
584 
 
 suspended from want of funds, was resumed by the corporation, in the 
 course of the summer of 1821.* 
 
 The third census of the nineteenth century was taken in the year 
 1821, and again showed a very large increase in the population of the 
 borough of Liverpool, and all the suburban townships. The population 
 of the borough of Liverpool, which amounted to 94,376 in 1811, had 
 increased to 118,972 in 1821 ; the seamen of the port had increased 
 from 7,000 to 9,000 ; the population of Toxteth-park had increased from 
 5,864, in 1811, to 12,828, in 1821 ; that of West Derby from 3,718, in 
 1811, to 6,309 in 1821 ; that of Kirkdale from 665, in 1811, to 861 in 
 1821 ; that of Everton from 913, in 1811, to 2,109, in 1821 ; that of 
 Bootle from 610, in 1811, to 808, in 1821 ; that of Walton from 794, in 
 1811, to 1,171, in 1821 ; and that of Wavertree from 1,398? in 1811, to 
 
 I, 620 in 1821. On the Cheshire side of the Mersey the influence of the 
 moi'e rapid and certain mode of communication introduced by means of 
 steam navigation, in the year 1816, was beginning to be felt in the 
 increase of the population. The population of Birkenhead had increased 
 from 105, in 1811, to 200, in 1821 ; that of Tranmere from 474, in 
 1811, to 825 in 1821; that of Seacomhe-witli-Poulton from 214, in 
 1811, to 380, in 1821 ; that of Liscard from 289, in 1811, to 345, in 
 1821 ; and that of Wallasey from 440, in 1811, to 444, in 1821. Thus, 
 it appeared that the population of the borough of Liverpool had 
 increased from 94,376, in 1811, to 118,972, in 1821 ; or, including the 
 seamen, from 101,376, to 127,972 : and that the population of the town 
 and suburbs had increased from 95,898 to 121,166; or, including the 
 seamen, from 102,898 to 130,166. 
 
 It further appeared, from the census return of 1821, that the number 
 of inhabited houses in Liverpool, at that time, was 19,007; that those 
 house were occupied by 25,309 families; that 192 houses were building ; 
 that 1,140 houses within the borough were uninhabited; that of the 
 families residing in Liverpool 130 were chiefly employed in agriculture ; 
 
 II, 421 in trade, manufactures, and handicraft; and 13,758 in other 
 pursuits. The whole of the last-mentioned class, except mere paupers, 
 would have been properly returned under the head of families dependent 
 on commerce, being all employed about the docks, the shipping, and the 
 warehouses of the port.f 
 
 The coronation of King George the Fourth was celebrated in Liver¬ 
 pool on the 26th July, 1821, not merely with processions, the firing of 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, .Tune 12, 1821. + Ibid, July 22, 1821 
 
585 
 
 guns, the display of colours, and the ringing of bells, but with the 
 opening of a magnificent dock, completed after ten years of efforts and of 
 labour, and at a cost of nearly £700,000. This extensive and finely- 
 formed dock, which was commenced during the regency of George Prince 
 of Wales, afterwards George the Fourth, was originally known as the 
 Regent’s, but has since been more commonly known as the Prince’s Dock. 
 When formed it was the finest of all the docks; and its opening, so long 
 delayed by war, by scarcity of funds, and by great difficulties of construc¬ 
 tion, was celebrated with unusual rejoicings. The day was most beau 
 tiful, and immense multitudes of the inhabitants covered the stages built 
 around the dock for the occasion, as well as the tops of the warehouses, 
 and even the tower of the church of St. Nicholas. At one o’clock at 
 noon a salute of nineteen guns was fired from the north pier, and imme¬ 
 diately afterwards, the May, a Liverpool-built West Indiaman, was towed 
 into the dock. The Majestic, steam-ship, followed the May; then two 
 of the pilot-boats; which, in their turn, were followed by the fine well- 
 known American ship Martha, Captain Sketcliley. The decks of all 
 the vessels were crowded with ladies and gentlemen ; their yards were 
 manned; and on the top of the mainmast of the Martha a seaman was 
 perched, who appeared in the air “ no larger than a crow.” After the 
 Martha came the Cambria steamer. Ferry-boats, steamers, and row¬ 
 boats then crowded into the dock, which soon presented the appearance 
 of a brilliant regatta. 
 
 The day concluded with public dinners for rich and poor. Ellen 
 Tate, an ancient woman, said to have been 115 years old, who well remem¬ 
 bered the coronation of George the Third, sat at the head of the table, 
 at the feast of roast beef and plum-pudding given at the workhouse.* 
 
 On the occasion of these coronation festivities the corporation distri¬ 
 buted the sum of £1,500 amongst the charities of the town. 
 
 In the month of August the Earl Moira, Dublin sailing-packet, was 
 lost, three or four miles from the mouth of the river Mersey, owing to 
 the drunkenness of the captain. Fifty or sixty passengers are supposed 
 to have perished in the wreck.f 
 
 The building of the new Infirmary, Brownlow-hill, was commenced 
 in the summer of 18214 
 
 St. John’s Market, Great Charlotte-street, was opened on Thursday, 
 March the 7th, 1822. The building of this market was commenced in 
 
 * Billingc's Liverpool Advertiser, July 24, 1821. + Ibid, August 14, 1821. 
 
 J Ibid, September 25, 1821. 
 
// c X6 & CtfAL 7 t<- (■/ -CVU- ZS-CO ^ m ' 
 
 , , >y—! / /f /'f ' tr~> c- 
 
 ftc /y^z /Co. 
 
 586 
 
 August, 1820, so that it was completed in about eighteen months. It is 
 183 yards in length, 45 yards in breadth, and it covers 8,235 square 
 yards. The roof is supported by 116 cast-iron pillars, and there are in 
 it 248 windows.* 
 
 There was a furious opposition amongst the coach-proprietors on the 
 Manchester road this year. The journey was generally performed in 
 three hours, at the rate of twelve miles an hour.f 
 
 A liberal subscription was made in Liverpool, in June, 1822, for the 
 relief of the poor in the south and west of Ireland, who were suffering 
 all the horrors of famine. Upwards of T9,000 was subscribed.J 
 
 For the first time the Menai Strait was brought within the reach of 
 the Liverpool tourist, by means of steam navigation, in the summer of 
 1822. “ The Albion steam-packet,” says a paper of that date, “per¬ 
 
 formed a passage, on Sunday, which has never been accomplished before, 
 by any vessel. She left Liverpool at seven o’clock in the morning, with 
 a large party, and arrived opposite Bangor Ferry before one, where she 
 remained nearly two hours, that the party on board might inspect the 
 stupendous work now in progress, for the new chain-bridge, of 560 feet 
 span, and 100 feet in height. She returned to Liverpool the same 
 evening The speed of this fine vessel surpasses the expectation formed 
 from her beautiful model, and the great power of her engines.Ӥ Imme 
 diately after this experimental trip, the Albion began to ply regularly to 
 the strait. 
 
 In the summer of 1822 Mr. Canning was appointed governor-general 
 of India; and the 30th of August was fixed on as the day for a grand 
 banquet, at which he was to take leave of his Liverpool friends and con¬ 
 stituents, previous to his departure for the East; but, on the 13th of 
 August, an event occurred which entirely changed his plans. On that 
 day the Marquis of Londonderry, better known as Lord Castlereagh, who 
 had been, if not the head, the soul of Lord Liverpool’s ministry, put 
 an end to his life in a sudden access of frenzy. In the following month 
 Mr. Canning was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs. Fie soon 
 afterwards resigned his seat for Liverpool, and was succeeded by his 
 friend Mr. Huskisson. 
 
 Although there were at this time four lines of American packets 
 sailing between Liverpool and New York, all admirably built and com¬ 
 manded, long intervals, sometimes a month to six weeks, occurred without 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 5, 1822. + Ibid, March 19, 1822. 
 
 + Ibid, June 18, 1822. § Ibid, June 18, 1822. 
 
587 
 
 any communication between England and the United States. This 
 autumn no intelligence was received from the States from the middle of 
 August to the beginning of October, owing to the prevalence of easterly 
 winds.* 
 
 In the year 1822 the inhabitants of Liverpool consumed 13,963 head 
 of cattle, 18,069 calves, and 86,730 sheep and lambs, besides large 
 quantities of salt meat.f The condition of the poor w T as improving 
 wonderfully about this time. In the year ending March 25, 1821, the 
 poor of Liverpool had cost £40,630 ; in that ending March 25, 1823, 
 they cost only £23,431 17s. 3d.J 
 
 In April, 1823, Mr. Wainewriglit was appointed to succeed Mr. 
 Backhouse, as secretary to the Liverpool office, London.§ 
 
 Great but unsuccessful efforts were made, about this time, to have the 
 assizes for the southern division of Lancashire removed to Liverpool. 
 It appeared, from a statement put forward in support of this claim, that 
 the population of the two hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness, 
 north of the Ribble, -was only 113,560 ; whilst that of the four hundreds 
 of Blackburn, Leyland, Salford, and West Derby, lying south of that 
 river, was 939,299; that the rental of the former was only £536,248, 
 whilst that of the latter was £2,569,761 ; and that the county rates paid 
 by the former amounted only to £9,401 12s., whilst those of the latter 
 amounted to £45,981 18s. According to this return, which was founded 
 on the census of 1821, and the valuation of 1815, Lancashire contained 
 a population of 1,052,859 inhabitants, and property, producing a rental 
 of £3,106,009.|| 
 
 Steam was already drawing the several portions of the united kingdom 
 into much closer union. “ The improvements which have of late taken 
 place,” says a Dublin paper. “ in the facility of communication between 
 this country and England are as useful as they are astonishing. We re¬ 
 ceived, before ten o’clock this morning, (Saturday,) the papers printed in 
 London on Thursday last. They arrived by the St. George steam-packet, 
 via Liverpool. We have no doubt that this route will become the favourite 
 one between the British and Irish capitals ; and it is but just to observe, 
 that this superiority is principally attributable to the Liverpool Steam- 
 packet Company.^ 
 
 In the summer of 1823 a line of steamers began to run from Liverpool 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, October 1, 1822. t Ibid, January 7, 1823. 
 
 * Ibid, April, 1, 1823. § Ibid, April 8, 1823. || Ibid, May 20, 1823. 
 
 «’ Lublin Patriot, May 31, 1823. 
 
588 
 
 to Whitehaven and Dumfries. Charles Mathews has left an account of 
 an attempted voyage and actual journey from Whitehaven to Liverpool, 
 which will show what annoyances these steamers freed the public from :— 
 “ There were great advantages held out to me in coming” (to Liverpool) 
 “ from Whitehaven by water : 140 miles by land—mountains of Cum¬ 
 berland almost impassable in frosty weather—bad road—post-horses 
 scarce—only eight hours daylight—two long days on the road. By sea : 
 about half way—safe passage—constant traders—do it in twelve hours— 
 save ten pounds. It was agreed. Daw (Mr. Adolphus, his companion) 
 always looking blank—Saturday morning-—fine wind—fishing-smack 
 hired on purpose—carriage ‘ pood aw to bits’—put on board—wretched- 
 looking vessel—no cabin or beds—deep fog came on—felt a horror— 
 longed to say I would not go—recollected Captain Skinner saying ‘ Never 
 afraid of anything at sea but a fog.’ However, desperate courage—made 
 up my mind. Daw was already seated, wrapped up, looking like a melan¬ 
 choly watchman. I had just got the hand of a friend in mine, saying 
 ‘ farewell,’ and was descending nineteen stone steps from the pier into the 
 vessel, with a heavy heart, when crack went the foremast, and broke off 
 close to the deck. The act of hauling up the foresail had finished this 
 rickety mast. But for this providentially happening in the harbour, the 
 vessel must have gone to sea, and the consequences, if not fatal, would at 
 all events have been misery. 
 
 “ The carriage was unshipped ; started at twelve o’clock instead of 
 seven : we commenced our land journey, which, but for the escape, would 
 have been miserable. Deep fog—roads like glass—horses slipping one 
 foot forward, the other back, and a hundred and forty miles before us. 
 Still we were as merry as grigs : I did not know how to contain my joy. 
 
 ‘ Please to remember the boat’ was our watchword when any little misery 
 occurred. We made, spite of all impediments, fifty-six miles that night, 
 but almost starved to death. Yesterday morning started at seven ; and, 
 going out of Burton, about ten o’clock, down a hill, both horses fell, and 
 the driver lay under them. The first effect was terrific. We were all 
 unhurt, carriage and all. Other horses were procured, and another driver; 
 and, after a long, cold, dreary journey, arrived here (at Liverpool) at ten 
 last night, and were expected. Good fires, good beds, my old lodgings. 
 All troubles and miseries appear to be over.”* 
 
 The London morning papers were received in the newsroom, Liver- 
 * Mrs. Mathews’s Life of Charles Mathews, iii., 103-4. 
 
589 
 
 pool, at nine o’clock on the day after publication, brought by Mr. Bar¬ 
 tholomew Bretherton’s swift coach, the Rocket.* 
 
 In the autumn of 1823 a remarkably fine steam-boat, called the City 
 of Dublin, of about 300 tons burden, was launched from the yard of 
 Messrs. Dawson and Pearson. She was built to carry cattle and goods 
 between Dublin and Liverpool.f 
 
 The ground for the beautiful cemetery, the Necropolis, between Low- 
 bill and Everton, was bought in the autumn of 1823.J The was the 
 first extra mural sepulchre formed in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. 
 
 On St. Luke's Day in this year (1823) Charles Lawrence, Esq., was 
 chosen mayor of Liverpool, without opposition. He was proposed by 
 Arthur Heywood, Esq., and seconded by John Gladstone, Esq., M.P. 
 William Earle, jun., and William Wallace Currie, Esqrs., were chosen 
 bailiffs. They were the first members of the whig party who had been 
 chosen to those offices for many years. Party spirit was dying away in 
 Liverpool.§ 
 
 Liverpool was gradually spreading inland from the first range of hills, 
 Mount-Pleasant and Brownlow-hill, to the second, Edge-hill and Low- 
 hill. “ The finest improvement,” says a paper of this date, “ which we 
 observe in the outskirts of the town, is the new road just completed, from 
 the top of Mount-Pleasant as far as the Botanic Garden. The carriage- 
 road and footpath are equally complete and commodious; the former 
 paved on the plan of Mr. M'Adarn, and the other beautifully finished 
 with posts and chains, after the model of the finest roads in the neigh¬ 
 bourhood of the metropolis.” 
 
 A public meeting was held at the Town-hall, in January, 1824, the 
 mayor, Charles Lawrence, Esq., in the chair, at which it was determined 
 to form a good library of books for the use of the mechanics and appren¬ 
 tices of Liverpool. || 
 
 A Bristol paper, of February, 1824, furnishes the following compa¬ 
 rison between the commercial position of Bristol and Liverpool : 
 
 BRISTOL DOCK DUES. LIVERPOOL DOCK DUES. 
 
 In 1814 were £18,242 0 3 . In 1814 were £ 59,741 2 4 
 
 1822 „ 18,494 6 6 . 1822 „ 102,405 17 4 
 
 Increase.... £ 252 6 6 Increase... .£42,002 15 0 
 
 BRISTOL POSTOFFICE REVENUE. LIVERPOOL POSTOFFICE REVENUE. 
 
 In 1814 was £39,554 . In 1814 was £43,990 
 
 1823 „ 35,146 . 1823 „ 55,120 
 
 Decrease ..£ 4,408 Increase. .£11,130 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, September 9, 1823. + Ibid, October 7, 1823. 
 
 } Ibid, October 7, 1823. § Ibid, October 21, 1823. || Ibid, January 20, 1824. 
 
 4 G 
 
590 
 
 The increase of the commerce and shipping of Liverpool during the 
 ten years which followed the close of the war—that is from 1814 to the 
 end of 1824—surpassed all previous example. In that brief period the 
 number of vessels which paid dock dues in the port increased from 5,706 
 to 10,001 ; the tonnage of those vessels increased from 548,957 to 1,180,914 
 tons ; and the income of the Dock Estate increased from T59,741. 2s. 4d. 
 to T130.911 11s. 6d. The tide of commercial greatness and prosperity 
 had thus set in, which has continued to flow with ever increasing force up 
 to the present time. The following returns of the shipping, tonnage, and 
 dock revenues of Liverpool from the year 1801 to the year 1824, distin¬ 
 guishing the period of war from the period of peace, will give a good idea 
 of the progress of the port of Liverpool during the first twenty-four years 
 of the present century : 
 
 SHIPPING, TONNAGE, AND DOCK REVENUE OF LIVERPOOL, FROM THE 
 BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY TO THE END OF THE WAR. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Dock Revenue. 
 
 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 1801 
 
 5,000 
 
 459,719 
 
 28,365 8 2§ 
 
 1802 
 
 4,781 
 
 510,691 
 
 28,192 9 10 
 
 1803 
 
 4,791 
 
 494,521 
 
 28,027 13 7 
 
 1804 
 
 4,291 
 
 448,701 
 
 26,157 0 11 
 
 1805 
 
 4,618 
 
 463,482 
 
 33,364 13 1 
 
 1806 
 
 4,676 
 
 507,825 
 
 44,560 7 3 
 
 1807 
 
 5,791 
 
 602,309 
 
 62,831 5 10 
 
 1808 
 
 5,225 
 
 516,830 
 
 40,638 10 4 
 
 1809 
 
 6,023 
 
 594,601 
 
 47,580 19 3 
 
 1810 
 
 6,729 
 
 734,391 
 
 65,782 1 0 
 
 1811 
 
 5,610 
 
 611,190 
 
 54,752 18 5 
 
 1812 
 
 4,599 
 
 440,783 
 
 44,403 7 11 
 
 1813 
 
 5,351 
 
 547,426 
 
 50,177 13 2 
 
 1814 
 
 5,700 
 
 548,957 
 
 59,741 2 4 
 
 FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR TO THE END OF THE YEAR 1824. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Dock Revenue. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 1815 
 
 6,440 
 
 709,849 
 
 76,915 8 8 
 
 1816 
 
 6,888 
 
 774,243 
 
 92,646 10 9 
 
 1817 
 
 6,079 
 
 653,425 
 
 75,889 10 4 
 
 1818 
 
 6,779 
 
 754,690 
 
 98,538 8 3 
 
 1819 
 
 7,849 
 
 867,318 
 
 110,127 1 8 
 
 1820 
 
 7,270 
 
 805,033 
 
 94,412 11 10 
 
 1821 
 
 7,810 
 
 839,848 
 
 94,550 9 1 
 
 1822 
 
 8,136 
 
 892,902 
 
 102,403 17 4 
 
 1823 
 
 8,916 
 
 1,010,819 
 
 115,783 1 6 
 
 1824 
 
 10,001 
 
 1,180,914 
 
 130,911 11 6 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH. 
 
 FORMATION OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, 
 
 From 1825 to 1830. 
 
 The year 1825 is memorable in the annals of Liverpool as that in 
 which the first application was made to Parliament, for powers to con¬ 
 struct a railway from Liverpool to Manchester. This railway was formed 
 during the next few years, and was the commencement of the modern 
 system of railway communication, which, in quarter of a century, has 
 produced such wonderful results, not only in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 but on the continents of Europe and America. 
 
 The modern railway system, as brought to perfection by the genius 
 of George Stephenson, and the capital of the merchants of Liverpool, 
 consists of three parts : first, of a smooth unyielding pathway of iron, by 
 which friction is reduced to the lowest point; second, of an almost perfect 
 level, formed at great cost where it does not exist naturally, by the aid of 
 which power is applied, to the purpose of traction, with the greatest 
 advantage; and, lastly, of the locomotive engine, by means of which the 
 power of steam is applied to land carriage. It required many years of 
 labour and numerous experiments, to bring these three essential points of 
 the railway system, even to the degree of excellence which they had at¬ 
 tained previous to the formation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; 
 and yet the combined result of all the experiments which had been tried, up 
 to that time, had not been to give a speed of more than six miles an hour 
 on railways. The rapid, almost flying speeds, which are now witnessed, 
 are the results of a series of experiments tried since the year 1825, of which 
 the forming of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the oldest branch 
 of the London and North-Western line, was the first and most important 
 step. 
 
 As early as the year 1759, twenty years before the steam-engine had 
 been brought to its present perfection, railways of iron were introduced 
 at the Newcastle collieries,* and were found so useful for carrying 
 heavy loads of coal, that they were gradually brought into use at 
 most of the collieries of the kingdom. For many years they were 
 
 * Proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway Bill. Session 1825. Mr. Adam’s opening speech, 8. 
 
 4 H 
 
592 
 
 worked by horses, and, even as so worked, were found to be of great 
 advantage, although not so cheap or so useful as navigable canals, for 
 long distances. According to a series of experiments tried in the year 
 1802, it appeared that the cost of conveying fifty tons weight of grain for 
 a distance of sixty miles, on a railway, worked by horses, was £125 10s., 
 or upwards of 50s. a ton, whilst that of conveying it the same distance on 
 a navigable canal was only £49 5s., or less than 20s. a ton.* In another 
 set of experiments, tried for the purpose of ascertaining what weight a 
 horse could draw on a railway, it was found that a single horse drew 
 a load of fourteen tons with great ease, from the port of Ayr to the 
 Newton collieries. A speed of three or four miles an hour was considered 
 sufficient on these colliery railways. “ About three miles an hour is 
 sufficient for our business,” said Mr. Nicholas Wood, the manager of the 
 Killingwortli Colliery, in his examination before the Committee on the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Bill.f This speed being attainable without 
 any great attention to the levels, no large sums of money were expended 
 for that purpose; and when the natural levels were found to be un¬ 
 manageable by horses, stationary steam-engines were employed, by means 
 of which the trains were made to ascend with, what was then considered, 
 great rapidity, that is, ten or twelve miles an hour.J 
 
 The original patentee of the locomotive engine was Mr. Trevethick, a 
 Cornish engineer, a friend, as well as a countryman, of Sir Humphrey Davy. 
 He took out his patent in the year 1802. Mr. John Urpeth Rastrick, 
 
 * Monthly Magazine, January, 1S02, p. 556. 
 
 + Proceedings of the Committee on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, p. 212. 
 
 1 The following curious paragraph, published in August, 1802, contains as sagacious a 
 proposal for establishing railways as ever was brought before the public, previous to the 
 issuing of the prospectus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company. The author 
 of it, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, was one of the ablest men of his age. All that his plan 
 wants is the locomotive engine, which at that time was unknown :—“ Iron Railways.— 
 Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq., so well known as an author, has published an essay 
 on railroads, of which he claims the invention. He states that in 1768 he presented models 
 to the Society of Arts, for which he received their gold medal. He recommends an experi¬ 
 ment to be made, which shall demonstrate the advantages beyond the possibility of doubt 
 or cavil. He proposes four iron railways to be laid on one of the great roads out of London, 
 two of them for carts and wagons, and two for light carriages. To accommodate 
 coaches and chaises he would have cradles or platforms, with wheels adapted to the 
 railway, on to one of which each carnage would drive up an inclined plane, erected at the 
 end of the road for that puipose. The carriage would then be drawn, not upon its own 
 wheels, hut upon the wheels of the platform or cradle. He calculates that a stage-coach, 
 with six inside and six outside passengers, would travel at the rate of six miles with one 
 horse. Gentlemen’s carriages, with two horses, would go at the rate of twelve or fifteen 
 miles an hour; and if a railway were laid from London to Edinburgh, the mail-coach would 
 go in thirty hours. Even at this great speed the most timid female might trust her delicate 
 frame with the most perfect security, for the carriage could not possibly be overturned. 
 An obstruction from hills would be easily overcome. Mr. Edgeworth proposes to plant a 
 steam-engine at the top of every hill, which would move forward the carriages by a chain, 
 to which they would he connected or detached from at pleasure.”— Leeds Mercury, August 
 21s/, 1802. Quoted in the Life of Edward Baines, by his Son, 58. 
 
593 
 
 of Stourbridge, in his evidence before the Liverpool and Manchester 
 Railway Committee, of 1825, said, “About ten years ago I made one (a 
 locomotive) for Mr. Trevetbick, the person who had the original patent 
 for making it. This was exhibited in London, but I did not see it 
 myself. A circular railroad was laid down, and it was stated that the 
 engine was to run against a horse, and that which went a sufficient 
 number of miles was to win.”* Mr. Blenkinsop first introduced a loco¬ 
 motive engine on the colliery railway, from Leeds to Middleton, in 1811. 
 
 A very early and successful application of the locomotive engine to 
 purposes of utility was made by George Stephenson, at the Killingworth 
 Colliery, in the year 1814. Mr. Nicholas Wood, the manager of that col¬ 
 liery, gave the following information, in answer to questions put to him by 
 the promoters of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill of 1825 :— 
 “ Q. What (he was asked) is the distance ? (from the colliery to the river.) 
 A. It is about five miles and three-quarters Q. Do you use a rail¬ 
 road ? A. Yes. Q. How long has that railroad been laid down ? A. 
 About twenty years. Q. What mode of conveyance did you first use for 
 that railroad : horses or engines ? A. Horses. Q. About what year did 
 you begin to use locomotive engines upon the railroad ? A. In the year 
 1814. Q. How many did you use then ? A. There were two used up 
 to the end of 1814, and two more since. Q. By whom were those engines 
 made ? A. By Mr. Stephenson.”f In the course of the same inquiry on 
 the Liverpool and Manchester Bill, Mr. Stephenson himself gave the fol¬ 
 lowing account of his connection with railways and locomotives :—He 
 said that he commenced business as a superintendent engineer, at 
 Killingworth Colliery, in 1803. It was near Newcastle-on-Tyne, and 
 belonged to the Grand Alliance Company, which was composed of 
 Lord Ravensworth, the late Lord Strathmore, and the Hon. Stuart 
 Wortley, (Lord Wharncliffe.) He continued with the Grand Alliance Com¬ 
 pany till 1813. During that time it was his business to keep the engines 
 in order. They were under his control and that of his partners, Dodds 
 and Wetherburn. In 1813 he became a civil engineer generally. He had 
 superintended the Killingworth, Mount-moor, South-moor, Derwent- 
 brook, and Burrad Collieries. It was his duty to superintend the engines. 
 Considerable alterations and improvements werp made at his suggestion. 
 He constructed new engines for most of those collieries, and laid down 
 railways. He had laid down the Borrerton, the Mount-moor, the Spring- 
 Vale, the Darlington, and the Bedington Railways. Gave the plans for 
 
 * Proceedings of the Committee on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, 1825. 
 
 + Ibid, 211. 
 
594 
 
 the Hetton. He also laid down or improved the Killingworth, Hetton, 
 South-moor, and Derwent-brook Railways. He liad constructed about 
 fifty-five steam-engines, of which sixteen were locomotives. He had 
 constructed altogether twenty-eight high-pressure engines: the largest 
 thirty-horse power. The largest low-pressure two hundred-horse power. 
 The only accident that he remembered was one of the tubes of one of the 
 engines wearing out, by which a man and a boy were scalded. He knew 
 the locomotive engine at Leeds.* It worked by a rag and a wheel. It had 
 occurred to witness that locomotives would work without rag and wheel, 
 and he had so found it. About eleven years ago he brought his 
 improved engines into shape, but it was twelve months before they got 
 into use. The engine which he constructed at Killingworth, eleven years 
 before, was still in use. It had more than fulfilled his expectations. 
 Wrought-iron rails, in his opinion, were much better than cast-iron.f 
 
 Before applying to parliament the promoters of the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Bill sent a deputation down to Newcastle, to try experiments, 
 on the railways in that neighbourhood, and to ascertain the speed at 
 which goods were carried along them. These experiments were tried in 
 the presence of Mr. George Stephenson, Mr. John Urpetli Rastrick, Mr. 
 Sylvester, Mr. Brunton, Mr. Philip Taylor, and Mr. Nicholas Wood, of 
 Killingworth. The first trial was made on a portion of the Killingworth 
 Railway, on which there was a slight rise (6 feet 6 inches in a mile and 
 a quarter.) J The rails on this line had been originally laid down for horse 
 power; they were partly of cast-iron, partly of wrought. The engine was 
 an old one, with four-feet wheels, with a boiler four feet in diameter and 
 eight feet long. The weight of this engine, with water, coke, &c., was 
 9 tons 14 cwt.; and the total weight, in the first experiment, was 55 tons 
 18 cwt. With this weight the engine, on the first experiment, travelled 
 a mile up the railway in twenty-four minutes, and descended in eighteen 
 minutes, giving an average speed of three miles and a half in the hour. In 
 the second experiment, in which the weight conveyed was 40 tons 10 cwt., 
 the speed was not ascertained in going up the line, owing to the talkative¬ 
 ness of one of the gentlemen present, who confused the experimenters, 
 but in descending the speed was nearly four-and-a-half miles an hour. 
 In the third experiment,, made with a weight of 32 tons 6 cwt., the speed 
 attained in ascending was not quite four miles and a quarter, but in 
 
 * Mr. Blenkinsop’s engine. 
 
 + Proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railroad Bill, in 1825, 193, 4, 5. 
 
 j Proceedings before the Committee on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill. 
 Evidence of Mr. John Urpeth Rastrick, 155 
 
595 
 
 descending it was rather more than five miles. The experimenters, not 
 being satisfied with these very humble results, determined to try what 
 they could get out of another engine. The diameter of the wheels of 
 this engine was only three feet, and at first the experiments tried with it 
 were more unfavourable than those tried with the previous one. With 
 a weight, including engine, of 67 tons 19 cwt., they ascended the line, 
 with a speed of rather less than four miles an hour, and descended 
 at the rate of upwards of five miles. After this experiment the three 
 feet wheels were taken off", and four feet wheels put on the engine. It 
 was then run a distance of ten miles and three-quarters, with a load of 
 59 tons 5 cwt., and, with that load, attained a speed of six miles and a 
 half an hour, and, for the last three trips, of seven miles. Another set 
 of experiments was tried at the Hetton Colliery, which gave an average 
 speed of rather more than five miles and a half. Experiments were 
 also tried at the Ford Colliery, with a stationary engine, when a much 
 greater speed, one of ten miles an hour, was attained. Such were the 
 speeds attained in these experiments, of which seven miles an hour was 
 the maximum reached with locomotive power. But Mr. Stephenson, 
 Mr. Rastrick, and Mr. Sylvester were all confident that much more 
 could be done. Mr. Stephenson was examined by Mr. Joy, one of 
 the counsel for the promoters of the bill, and gave the following 
 answers :—“ Q. Would it be practicable to make an engine to take 
 30 tons, at the rate of eight miles an hour ? A. Quite practicable. Q. I 
 think you told us the calculation you made was 40 tons at four miles, or 
 20 tons at eight miles. Could 30 tons be made to go at eight miles an 
 hour ? A. They could. Q. Do you consider it beyond all question that 
 they could at six ? A. I consider it beyond all question they could go 
 at eight. Q. And you are within the mark ? A. Yes ; I have no doubt 
 they might go at the rate of twelve miles. Q. You speak as to the result 
 of your experiments ? A. Yes ; I am confident it can he done.”* Mr. 
 Rastrick expressed the same opinion. He said, “ I conceive that an 
 engine might be constructed that would take 40 tons of goods six miles 
 an hour with perfect safety. The speed will be in proportion to the 
 power of the engine. The power which takes 40 tons six miles an hour, 
 if doubled, would take the same weight twelve miles an hour.”t Mr. 
 Sylvester, a man of great science and sagacity, was even more confident, 
 and sent in a report to the projectors of the Liverpool and Manchester 
 
 * Proceedings before the Committee of the I louse of Commons on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway Bill, 11)7-8. 
 
 t Ibid, 150. 
 
596 
 
 line, promising n much higher speed than it was thought prudent to speak 
 of to the parliamentary committee Mr. Adam, the leading counsel for 
 the promoters of the hill, did not venture to go as far as his own witnesses. 
 “ I stand here,” he said, “ upon the proposition that I have the evidence 
 of Mr. Wood, who has had nearly fourteen years’ experience ; the evidence 
 of Mr. Stephenson, who has had twenty-eight years’ experience; the 
 evidence of Mr. Rastrick, in support of whose talents and capacity I have 
 a right to cite the authority of both my learned friends; all which entitles 
 me to say that, with a load of 50 tons, locomotive engines will travel at 
 the rate of six miles an hour, which is the rate of our experiments.”* 
 But Mr. Harrison, the counsel for the canal proprietors, denied this alto¬ 
 gether. “ I now come, sir,” said this well-feed and sagacious orator, “ to 
 comment on the locomotive engines. I intreat the committee to remember 
 how this project has arisen, and I will ask any honourable member whether 
 any human being would have thought of setting up a railway between Liver¬ 
 pool and Manchester, if that railway were to be conducted by horse power ? 
 I say, it never entered into the imagination of any one. But, amidst all 
 this mania that has possessed us, (for we have been running mad after 
 projects and schemes of all sorts, kinds, and descriptions,) locomotive 
 engines have sprung up, patronized and supported by some for the 
 purpose of showing their ingenuity in writing essays and pamphlets, and 
 by others for the purpose of being employed as engineers or otherwise. 
 To make the thing popular a certain number of ingenious gentlemen 
 were set to write pamphlets—how many or of what size I do not 
 know ; and I believe at last we have got clown to a review, (the 
 Quarterly.) But we have not only books, and pamphlets, and essays 
 without number, we have beautiful pictorial exhibitions of locomotive 
 engines at full work, one of which is now lying before me. One 
 ingenious gentleman has got a beautiful impression of a loco¬ 
 motive engine, with carriages, and guards standing behind them ; giving 
 a description of seven or eight stage-coaches, with trumpeters and guards, 
 and all the paraphernalia, galloping at the rate of several miles an hour. 
 The project of this railway was entirely founded upon the locomotive 
 engines; it was set on foot with a view to the expedition that would be 
 derived from the use of them. All the pamphlets published about it 
 gave us twelve miles an hour as the rate at which they were to go : you 
 were to gallop from Liverpool to Manchester at the rate at which the 
 
 * Proceedings of Committee on Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 182f). Mr. Adams 
 Closing Speech, 759. 
 
597 
 
 mail-coaches have tried to go, but never accomplished. Now, sir, how do 
 we stand upon this part of the case ? All these promises of expedition 
 of twelve miles an hour, literally before the counsel against the hill had 
 addressed the committee, came down to six; and yesterday and to-day 
 we find, in the best weather, and under the most favourable circum¬ 
 stances, the expedition is diminished to four or five; and, whenever you 
 come to rain or mizzling weather, or damp weather, it is reduced to two, 
 two-and-a-half, or three miles an hour. Is Lancashire a county free 
 from rain ? Have you no mizzling weather, no snow there ? I should 
 rather suspect—and I do not mean to calumniate the county of Lanca¬ 
 shire, for I have travelled through it with great delight—it is a county 
 which has as much rain as any other county on that side of England. 
 Unless, then, they can rarify the atmosphere as quickly as the locomotive 
 engines go along, the locomotive will have so many inconveniences to 
 contend with, that it will come down to the speed of a common horse 
 power. But, not content with goods, they are to take passengers. Now, 
 set them off with horses before them; set the proprietors of the railway 
 travelling on their own road, from Liverpool to Manchester, in wagons, 
 at the rate of four miles and a half an hour; it is impossible to state it 
 without presenting something ludicrous to the mind !”* 
 
 Such was the position of railways when the projectors of the Liverpool 
 and Manchester line determined to expend the large sum of £400,000 
 (increased, before the line was opened, to £800,000) in forming a railway, 
 such as the world had never before seen, between the great seaport and 
 the manufacturing capital of Lancashire. It will he observed, from the 
 details given above, that the railways then in existence were only five or 
 six miles in length ; that the rails were badly laid down, and were formed 
 partly of cast-iron; that the locomotives by which they were worked were 
 weak and clumsy; and that the speeds attained on the best of them were 
 so slow, that the parties most anxious to establish the advantages of 
 railways did not venture to claim for them a greater speed than six miles 
 an hour; whilst those opposed to them could deny them a greater speed 
 than three or four miles an hour, without exceeding the bounds of legal 
 licence. The Stockton and Darlington Kailway, which was in course of 
 construction at that time, but not yet opened, was superior to any of the 
 previously formed railways; but it had only a single line of rails, was 
 worked by an inconvenient combination of locomotive and stationary 
 
 * Proceedings of Committee on Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1825. Mr. Harrison's 
 Closing Speech, 702, 8. 
 
598 
 
 engines, and, though it carried a few passengers, was little else than a 
 superior colliery railway. Taking a speed of six miles an hour as our 
 rate of departure, we shall be better able to judge of the wonderful 
 progress of railway travelling during the last five and twenty years. 
 
 The great increase of population, trade, and communication in the 
 counties of Lancaster, York, and Stafford, bad given rise to the system 
 of inland navigation in the reign of George the Third, and the rapid 
 increase of trade, population, and intercourse in the same counties, gave 
 rise to the modern system of railways in the reign of George the Fourth. 
 The assembling of an active and industrious population of 30,000 inha¬ 
 bitants in Liverpool, and as many in Manchester, and the necessity of 
 transmitting from 50 to 100 tons of goods daily between the two towns, 
 created the traffic, which induced the great Duke of Bridgewater to sink 
 a splendid fortune in forming a perfect line of canal communication 
 between the two towns ; and the rapid increase of the population and trade 
 of those two towns, and of the surrounding districts, during the fifty years 
 which elapsed between the opening of the duke’s canal and the planning 
 of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, rendered it first possible, and 
 then profitable, to construct the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The 
 success of that undertaking, like the success of the Bridgewater Canal, 
 led to the forming of numerous other lines of railway, by means of which 
 all the most populous cities, towns, and districts of the kingdom have been 
 gradually joined together. The following were the immediate causes 
 which determined the formation of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail¬ 
 way : 
 
 It was in the beginning of the year 1822 that the corn-merchants of 
 Liverpool memorialized Mr. Bradshaw, the acting trustee of the late Duke 
 of Bridgewater, for a reduction in the rate of freight between that port and 
 Manchester ; and on the 9tli of April he replied, in a letter to the chair¬ 
 man of the Corn Exchange, “ That, having taken into full consideration 
 the allegations contained in their memorial, and all the information he is 
 in possession of on the subject, he does not feel himself justified in making 
 any alteration in the trustees’ present rate of freight.” 
 
 But the corn-merchants of Liverpool were not men to submit quietly 
 to such a point blank rejection of their claims, and Mr. Sandars, one of 
 the leading members of that trade, and who had drawn up the memorial 
 alluded to, had frequent conferences with parties, both in Liverpool and 
 Manchester, as to the best means of helping themselves. 
 
 As in all other cases of injustice, the rejection of reasonable claims led 
 
599 
 
 to increased demands, and a mere reduction of rates no longer satisfied 
 the views of the trade. But they sought in vain for an increase in the 
 facilities of transport, by the existing modes of conveyance, without which 
 no substantial relief could be obtained. 
 
 At this juncture Mr. Joseph Cowlishaw, of Manchester, brought down 
 Mr. William James, of Birmingham, an enterprising engineer, and intro¬ 
 duced him to Mr. Sandars, as the person most likely to promote his object. 
 
 Mr. James had just returned from Newcastle, where he had been to 
 see the railways and the locomotive engines, constructed by the then 
 obscure George Stephenson. 
 
 He produced drawings of the engines, explained their capabilities, 
 and pointed out the advantages of a railway to be worked by them, over 
 all other modes of transit. 
 
 Before separating Mr. Sandars gave him an undertaking to pay the 
 sum of ,£300, on receiving an ocular survey of a line between Liverpool 
 and Manchester, which Mr. James engaged to produce. 
 
 This, then, was the origin of that railway, to which the eyes of the 
 whole country were soon directed, and which was destined to create, by 
 its example, so great a revolution in the means of transit of persons and 
 things all over the world. 
 
 To Mr. Sandars unquestionably belongs the honour of having first 
 launched this great undertaking,* which obtained for him the well-earned 
 designation of the “ Father of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.” 
 While Mr. James was carrying on his surveys, for which, at different 
 times, he obtained payment, in anticipation, the scheme was steadily 
 prosecuted. Mr. George Ashby Pritt was selected as legal-adviser; and 
 a more judicious choice could not have been made, for his integrity and 
 talents commanded universal confidence and respect. 
 
 The next step was to obtain the co-operation of some of the leading 
 men of the town; and, amongst the rest, the following gentlemen pro¬ 
 mised to give the project their most cordial support, both in and out of 
 parliament:—John Moss, Charles Tayleur, William Rotherham, Thomas 
 Booth, William Ewart, James Cropper, Samuel Blain, Sir John Tobin, 
 Joseph Hibberson, John Gladstone, M.P., Samuel Sandbach, Dr. Traill, 
 William Rathbone, Adam Hodgson, Isaac Hodgson, Wellwood Maxwell, 
 John Garnett, William Jones, A., F., and R. Maxwell, and Richard 
 Dawson. 
 
 * An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, &c., by Henry Booth, Trea¬ 
 surer of the Company, 1830, 3. 
 
 4 I 
 
600 
 
 The co-operation of the following gentlemen of Manchester was sought 
 and obtained:—John Kennedy, Major Birley, David Holt, Hugh Birley, 
 William Garnett, Samuel Gregg, Peter Ewart, John Allen, C. Harter, 
 and — Harbottle. 
 
 At the first meeting, held at Messrs. Pritt and Clay’s office, John 
 Moss, Esq. was formally appointed chairman, and Messrs. Pritt and 
 Clay, solicitors and secretaries; and it was resolved to wait for Mr. 
 James’s plans and estimates ; but he failed to produce them in time for 
 the session of 1823. 
 
 He, however, sent in a “ preliminary report” “ On the Survey of 
 Investigation, for a Line of Engine Railway between Liverpool and Man¬ 
 chester,” in which he stated “ that, from their commencement, the works 
 may be completed in eighteen months, on a capital not exceeding 
 Ll00,000 ; hut the parliamentary survey and estimates will state the 
 sums at which contractors will he found to execute the work.” 
 
 The surveys, plans, and estimates were repeatedly promised, not only 
 in 1822 but in 1823, but they were never furnished, and thus the session 
 of parliament of 1824 was lost also. 
 
 Several meetings of the gentlemen interested were then held, and Mr. 
 Sandars, with Mr. Ellis and Mr. Henry Booth, who had both at this time 
 joined in the project, were deputed to proceed to Newcastle, to meet Mr. 
 John Kennedy, of Manchester, and inspect the railways, worked by loco¬ 
 motive engines, in the neighbourhood of Darlington, Newcastle, and 
 Sunderland.* They returned early in May, and reported most favourably 
 of what they had seen, especially of the power of the engines. 
 
 On the 24th of May, 1824, at a meeting of the projectors, held at 
 the Underwriters’-room, in Liverpool, Mr. Moss in the chair, the report 
 of the Newcastle deputation was read. A series of resolutions were then 
 entered into, and it was resolved “ that a company should he formed, for 
 the construction of a railway between Liverpool and Manchester, without 
 further delay: that the capital should consist of L300,000, to he divided 
 into 3,000 shares of <£100 each, 1,000 of which should he appropriated to 
 Manchester and 1,000 to Liverpool, and that 1,000 shares should be 
 reserved for landowners on the line, and for such other persons as the 
 committee might approve of.” Mr. George Stephenson was appointed 
 sole engineer. It was resolved also that no subscriber should be allowed 
 more than ten shares, and that the deposit should be L3 a share. 
 
 * An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Kailway, &c., by Henry Booth, Trea¬ 
 surer of the Company, 9. 
 
601 
 
 A committee was appointed, consisting of the following gentlemen:— 
 Robert Benson, Henry Booth, James Cropper, Lister Ellis, John Ewart, 
 Adam Hodgson, Isaac Hodgson, Wellwood Maxwell, John Moss, William 
 Rathbone, William Rotherham, and Joseph Sandars, together with a like 
 number from Manchester, for the purpose of carrying these objects into 
 effect, and of preparing a prospectus to be submitted to the public. 
 
 The greatest efforts were then made to prepare for parliament. A 
 memorial to the corporation of Liverpool, praying for the support of that 
 body, was presented, but it failed in its object, as will be seen hereafter. 
 The committee met very frequently, and, at the recommendation of Mr. 
 Moss, Mr. Lawrence, then the mayor of Liverpool, was solicited to join 
 the undertaking, and become its chairman. Mr. Lawrence accepted the 
 honourable office, so generously surrendered by Mr. Moss, who foresaw 
 the parliamentary advantage of the mayor of Liverpool appearing at the 
 head of the committee, and especially so, as that office was then filled by 
 a gentleman remarkable for the amenity of his manners and the general 
 kindness of his disposition. In fact, all personal considerations were 
 waived in the prosecution of the great object in view. 
 
 The prospectus was issued on the 29th of October, and, as it contains 
 the whole case of the projectors, and will be a very interesting document 
 in future times, it is given at length : 
 
 “ LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILROAD COMPANY. 
 
 “Committee: Charles Lawrence, Esq., chairman ; Lister Ellis, Esq., Robert Gladstone, 
 Esq., John Moss, Esq., Joseph Sandars, Esq., deputy-chairmen ; Robert Benson, Henry 
 Booth, Thomas Shaw Brandreth, James Cropper, John Ewart, Richard Harrison, Thomas 
 Headlam, Adam Hodgson, Isaac Hodgson, Joseph Hornby, Wellwood Maxwell, William 
 Potter, William Rathbone, William Rotherham, and John Wilson, Esqrs., Liverpool; 
 H. H. Birley, Joseph Birley, Peter Ewart, William Garnett, John Kennedy, John Ryle, 
 and Thomas Sharpe, Esqrs., Manchester. Parliamentary agent, Thomas Moulden Sherwood, 
 Esq.; engineer, George Stephenson, Esq.; solicitors, Messrs. Pritt and Clay; bankers, 
 Messrs. Moss, Rogers, and Moss, Liverpool. 
 
 “prospectus. 
 
 “ The committee of the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad Company think it right to 
 state, concisely, the grounds upon which they rest their claims to public encouragement 
 and support. 
 
 “ The importance, to a commercial state, of a safe and cheap mode of transit for mer¬ 
 chandise, from one part of the country to another, will be readily acknowledged. This was 
 the plea, upon the first introduction of canals : it was for the public advantage ; and al¬ 
 though the new mode of conveyance interfered with existing and inferior modes, and was 
 opposed to the feelings and prejudices of landholders, the great principle of the public 
 good prevailed, and experience has justified the decision. 
 
 “ It is upon the same principle that railroads are now proposed to be established; as a 
 means of conveyance manifestly superior to existing modes: possessing, moreover, this 
 recommendation, in addition to what could have been claimed in favour of canals, namely, 
 that the railroad scheme holds out to the public not only a cheaper, but far more expedi¬ 
 tious conveyance than any yet established. 
 
 “ The Liverpool and Manchester Railroad is proposed to commence near the Prince’s 
 Dock, Liverpool, thence to Vauxhall-road, then through Bootle, Walton, Fazakerley, Grox- 
 teth, Kirby, Knowsley, Eecleston, Windle, Sutton, Haydock, Newton-in-Mackerfield, Golborn, 
 Lowton, Leigh, Pennington, Astley, Irlam, Worsley, Eccles, Pendlebury, Salford, Ilulme, 
 
602 
 
 to the neighbourhood of the westerly end of Water-street, Manchester: in the whole a 
 distance of about thirty three miles. By a reference to the plan it mil be perceived that 
 the road does not approach within about a mile and a half of the residence of the Earl of 
 Sefton, and that it traverses the Earl of Derby’s property over the barren mosses of Kirby 
 and Knowsley, passing about two miles distance from the hall. In deciding upon the pro¬ 
 posed route, the committee have been anxious, at considerable inconvenience and expense, 
 to select a line which may not only be eligible, considered in itself, but may be as little 
 objectionable as possible, with reference to individual and local interest. 
 
 “ The ground has been surveyed by eminent engineers, and the estimated expense of 
 a railroad, upon the most improved construction, including the charge for locomotive 
 engines to be employed on the line, and other contingencies, is £400,000,'—which sum it is 
 proposed to raise in 4,000 shares of £100 each. 
 
 “ The total quantity of merchandise passing between Liverpool and Manchester is 
 estimated, by the lowest computation, at one thousand tons per day. The bulk of this 
 merchandise is transported either by the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal, or the 1 Mersey and 
 Dwell Navigation.’ By both of these conveyances goods must pass up the river Mersey, a 
 distance of sixteen or eighteen miles, subject to serious delays from contrary winds, and 
 not unfrequently, to actual loss or damage from tempestuous weather. The average length 
 of passage, by these conveyances, including the customary detention on the wharfs, may be 
 taken at thirty-six hours, longer or shorter, according to the favourable or unfavourable 
 state of the winds and tides. The average charge upon merchandise for the last fourteen 
 years has been about 15s. per ton. 
 
 “ By the projected railroad, the transit of merchandise between Liverpool and Man¬ 
 chester will be effected in four or five hours, and the charge to the merchant will be reduced 
 at least one-third. Here, then, will be accomplished an immense pecuniary saving to the 
 public, over and above what is perhaps still more important, the economy of time. Nor must 
 we estimate the value of this saving merely by its nominal amount, whether in money or 
 in time: it will afford a stimulus to the productive industry of the country; it will give a 
 new impulse to the powers of accumulation, the value and importance of which can be fully 
 understood only by those who are aware bow seriously commerce may be impeded by petty 
 restrictions, and how commercial enterprize is encouraged and promoted by an adherence 
 to principles of fair competition and free trade. 
 
 “ The committee are aware that it will not immediately be understood by the public 
 how the proprietors of a railroad, requiring an invested capital of £400,000, can afford to 
 carry goods at so great a reduction upon the charge of the present water companies. But 
 the problem is easily solved. It is not that the water companies have not been able to 
 carry goods on more reasonable terms, but that, strong in the enjoyment of their monopoly, 
 they have not thought proper to do so. Against the most arbitrary exactions the public 
 have hitherto had no protection, and against the indefinite continuance or recurrence of the 
 evil they have but one security: it is competition that is wanted ; and the proof of this 
 assertion may be adduced from the fact, that shares in the Old Quay Navigation, of which 
 the original cost was £70, have been sold as high as £1,250 each ! 
 
 “ But it is not altogether on account of the exorbitant charges of the water-carriers that 
 a railroad is desirable. The present canal establishments are inadequate to the great and 
 indispensable object to be accomplished, namely, theregular and punctual conveyance of goods 
 at all periods and seasons. In summer time there is frequently a deficiency of water, obliging 
 boats to go only half-loaded, and thus occasioning great inconvenience and delay ; while, 
 in winter, they are sometimes locked up with frosts, for weeks together, to the manifest 
 hindrance of business. From these impediments a railroad would be altogether exempt. 
 There is still another ground of objection to the present system of carriage by canals, namely, 
 the pilferage, an evil for which there is seldom adequate redress; and for which the privacy 
 of so circuitous and dilatory a passage affords so many facilities. Whereas, a conveyance by 
 railway, effected in a few hours, and where every delay must be accounted for, may be 
 expected to possess much of the publicity and consequent safety of the king’s highways. 
 
 “ In addition to the transport of goods between Liverpool and Manchester, an important 
 branch of revenue may be expected to result to the proprietors of the projected road, from 
 the conveyance of coals from the rich mines in the vicinity of St. Helens; an advantage 
 which the water companies do not possess, and which, from its importance and extent, may 
 probably enable the proprietors to reduce the rates of carriage still lower than now contem¬ 
 plated. These coals at present pass along the Sankey Canal, and down the Mersey to 
 Liverpool, a distance of about thirty miles. By the railway the distance will be shortened 
 one-half, and the charge for transit very materially reduced. 
 
 “Amongst the widely-diffused benefits to be expected from the proposed railroad, must 
 especially be enumerated, no inconsiderable advancement in the commercial prosperity of 
 Ireland. The latent energies of that country, her capabilities as a manufacturing power, will 
 be developed by being brought into easy contact and communication with the manufacturing 
 districts of this kingdom ; while every article of her agricultural industry will experience an 
 
603 
 
 increased demand, from the cheapness and facility with which it will be introduced into the 
 populous counties of Lancaster and York. Whatever shortens the time of conveyance prac¬ 
 tically diminishes the distance, and whatever is saved in the cost of carriage is a gain to 
 Ireland. 
 
 “ In the present state of trade and of commercial enterprise, dispatch is no less essen¬ 
 tial than economy. Merchandise is frequently brought across the Atlantic from New York 
 to Liverpool in twenty-one days ; while, owing to the various causes of delay above enu¬ 
 merated, goods have in some instances been longer on their passage from Liverpool to 
 Manchester. But this reproach must not be perpetual. The advancement in mechanical 
 science renders it unnecessary: the good sense of the community makes it impossible. 
 Let it not, however, be imagined, that were England to be tardy, other countries would 
 pause, in the march of improvement. Application has been made, on behalf of the Emperor 
 of Russia, for models of the locomotive engine ; and other of the continental governments 
 have been duly apprised of the important schemes for the facilitating of inland traffic, now 
 under discussion by the British public. In the United States of America, also, they are 
 fully alive to the important results to be anticipated from the introduction of railroads ; a 
 gentleman from the United States having recently arrived in Liverpool, with whom it is a 
 principal object to collect the necessary information, in order to the establishment of a 
 railway to connect the great rivers Potomac and Ohio. 
 
 “ The immediate and prominent advantages to be anticipated from the proposed rail¬ 
 road are, increased facilities to the general operations of commerce, arising out of that 
 punctuality and dispatch which will attend the transit of merchandise between Liverpool 
 and Manchester, as well as an immense pecuniary saving to the trading community. But 
 the inhabitants at large of these populous towns wall reap their full share of direct and 
 immediate benefit. Coals will be brought to market in greater plenty, and at a reduced 
 price ; and farming produce, of various kinds, will find its way from greater distances, and 
 at more reasonable rates. To the landholders, also, in the vicinity of the line, the railroad 
 offers important advantages in extensive markets for their mineral and agricultural produce, 
 as well as in a facility of obtaining lime and manure at a cheap rate in return. Moreover, 
 as a cheap and expeditious means of conveyance for travellers, the railway holds out the 
 fan - prospect of a public accommodation, the magnitude and importance of which cannot 
 be immediately ascertained. 
 
 “ The committee do not think it necessary to dwell upon probable and contingent 
 sources of revenue to the proprietors, and of benefit to the community; but it is impossible 
 entirely to overlook the tendency of increased economy and dispatch to extend the com¬ 
 mercial intercourse, not only upon the immediate fine of road, but diverging in ramifications 
 to the north and the south, and especially towards the rich and populous town of Bolton ; a 
 short branch line being sufficient to bring that extensive manufacturing district into rapid 
 and direct communication with this port. 
 
 “ Such is a brief review of the scheme in which the Liverpool and Manchester Bailroad 
 Company have embarked, and which, while it promises such manifold advantages to the 
 public, the committee feel confident will afford a fair and liberal return for the capital in¬ 
 vested by the proprietors. Chables Lawrence, Chairman. 
 
 “ Liverpool, 20th October, 1824.” 
 
 This prospectus, together with a pamphlet written by Mr. Sandars, 
 was generally distributed to members of parliament and others, and the 
 following postscript was added : 
 
 “ Sir,-—The Leeds and Liverpool, the Birmingham, the Grand Trunk, and other canal 
 companies, having issued circulars, calling upon ‘ every canal and navigation company in 
 the kingdom’ to oppose in limine, and by a united effort, the establishment of railroads 
 wherever contemplated, I have most earnestly to solicit your active exertions on behalf of 
 the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad Company, to counteract the avowed purpose of the 
 canal proprietors, by exposing the misrepresentations of interested parties, by conciliating 
 goodwill, and especially by making known, as far as you have opportunity, not only the 
 general superiority of railroads over other modes of conveyance, but in our peculiar case 
 the absolute necessity of a new and additional line of communication, in order to effect, with 
 economy and dispatch, the transport of merchandise between this port and Manchester.— 
 I am, sir, your very obedient servant, Charles Lawrence, Chairman. 
 
 “ Liverpool, 25th Nov., 1824.” 
 
 Nothing was left undone to secure success in parliament. Mr. Moss, 
 Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Sandars were appointed a secret and irresponsible 
 
604 
 
 committee for influence. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Headlam were despatched 
 to Ireland, to canvass the Irish members. All the plans and estimates 
 were perfected, and all the evidence in support of the case had been mar¬ 
 shalled, by the unceasing energies of the different members of the com¬ 
 mittee, and by the skill and admirable judgment of Mr. Pritt. 
 
 About this time Mr. Sylvester, of London, and Mr. Stephenson were 
 brought together by Mr. Sandars. 
 
 Mr. Sylvester then broached the novel doctrine, that the friction on a rail¬ 
 road must always be the same, whatever the speed, and asserted that there 
 was no reason why an engine, properly constructed, should not go thirty 
 miles an hour, or any other speed. Under the advice of Mr. Stephenson, 
 Mr. Sandars sent him down to Newcastle, to examine and report on the 
 engines at work there ; and on the 24th December he published “ A 
 Report on Railroads and Locomotive Engines, addressed to the Chairman 
 of the Committee of the Liverpool and Manchester Projected Railroad.” 
 In drawing out the report he was persuaded to qualify the declaration as 
 to speed, lest the projectors should be turned out of parliament as a set of 
 madmen, entitled to no credit. This report, at very considerable length, 
 went into a development of the principles he had previously inculcated ; 
 and though they were received with ridicule by nearly all the then existing 
 race of engineers, the truth ultimately established itself, and thirty miles 
 an hour did not satisfy the public a few years afterwards. 
 
 It may be affirmed, with truth, that seldom has any scheme gone before 
 parliament that excited so much interest. The numerous class of persons 
 who shelter their ignorance in doubt affected to believe nothing ; others, 
 better qualified by education, stuck to ancient prejudices, and doggedly 
 ranked themselves, as the disciples of Watt, against the innovations of the 
 high-pressure engine, and alarmed the public with sinister threats of all 
 sorts of evils to come. But the canal proprietors, with an instinctive 
 sense of danger, justly appreciated what they affected to despise, and 
 with one accord, and with one heart and mind, resolved to crush the rival 
 project, which threatened to interrupt, if not to destroy, the hopes of 
 prescription and the dreams of a sanguine avarice. Whatever a combina¬ 
 tion of money-power could effect was brought to bear against the under¬ 
 taking. No less than one hundred and fifty petitions were got up and 
 presented, amongst which may be found the following: 
 
 Petitions against the bill —Joseph Stretch and Mary Makin, Liverpool; 
 William Knowles, Liverpool; coal-owners of Windle ; Trustees of Sal- 
 ford-roads ; .John Shaw Leigh, Liverpool; Charles Orrell; Sundry land- 
 
605 
 
 owners and occupiers in the county of Lancaster; Earl Wilton ; Rev. John 
 Clowes, Manchester; Mersey and Irwell Navigation ; Inhabitants of John- 
 street and Charles-street, Manchester; Earl of Derby; Earl of Sefton ; 
 Duke of Bridgewater’s Trustees; Mrs. Atherton ; Miss Byrom ; Trustees 
 of roads; Corporation of Liverpool; Messrs. Whittaker, Eccles; Owners 
 of land and houses near the railway ; Thomas Blackburne, Eccles; 
 James Touchett, Manchester; William Lees, Whiston; Samuel Stani- 
 forth, Liverpool; John Blackburne and John Shaw Leigh; Charles 
 Barrow, Roby; William Jameson, Roby ; Owners of mansions on the 
 line; John Bradshaw, WeasPhouse; Liverpool Corporation Waterworks; 
 Bold Houghton, of Houghton; Inhabitants of Wavertree; Justices of 
 the Peace for the county of Lancaster, as to probable damage to the New 
 Bailey Prison, Salford; Leeds and Liverpool Canal; Trustees of Liver- 
 pool-road ; Sir William Gerrard ; Trustees of Barton-road ; Occupiers of 
 sundry houses in Manchester. 
 
 On the 21st day of March, 1825, the Committee of the House of Com¬ 
 mons assembled, and General Gascoigne was appointed chairman. The 
 attendance of members was so numerous that the committee were com¬ 
 pelled to retire from the room appointed, into the body of the house, 
 The committee sat for thirty-seven days, and examined sixty-seven wit¬ 
 nesses, for and against the measure. 
 
 Mr. Adam opened the case of the promoters of the bill. He said 
 that railways were a more convenient, a safer, a more economical, and a 
 more certain mode of conveyance, than canals.* Unless something were 
 done to increase the facilities of communication between Liverpool and 
 Manchester, the advances now making in commercial prosperity must 
 cease. They undertook to show that the existing means of communi¬ 
 cation were insufficient, uncertain, and attended with great risk and 
 expense. Manchester was the centre of a manufacturing population of 
 half-a-million, and itself contained 165,000 inhabitants. It-was also the 
 medium through which the woollen-manufacturers of Yorkshire and the 
 cutlers of Sheffield communicated with Liverpool. The population of 
 Liverpool was very nearly the same as that of Manchester, nearly 164,000 
 souls. Increased means were required of conveying coal both to Man¬ 
 chester and Liverpool. The committee would be surprised to hear that 
 the quantity of cotton sent from Liverpool to Manchester, which, in 1815, 
 was 110,000,000 lbs., had increased, in 1824, to 160,000,000, showing 
 
 * Proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway, i. 
 
an increase in nine years of 50,000,000 lbs. Liverpool was the port 
 which carried on much the largest share of the trade with the United 
 States, with South America, with British America, with Ireland, and 
 with Africa. In 1773, when the canal of the Duke of Bridgewater and 
 the Irwell and Mersey Navigation were in progress, the population of 
 Manchester did not amount to more than 40,000 inhabitants. It was a 
 curious fact that, in the year 1790, there was not one steam-engine in 
 Manchester, though, in 1824, there were above two hundred. In 1814 
 there was not one loom in Manchester worked by steam, whilst, in 1824, 
 there were thirty thousand. The quantity of goods conveyed between 
 Liverpool and Manchester, at the present time, did not amount to less 
 than 1,200 tons a-day, and during the year 1825 it had increased to the 
 rate of another thousand tons a-week. There were three modes of water 
 conveyance : 1st, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation ; 2nd, the Duke of 
 Bridgewater’s Canal; and, 3rd, the Leeds and Liverpool. The last of 
 these was very circuitous, and the tonnage-rates alone amounted to 
 9s. 2d. a-ton, which rendered it useless, when the freight was added. 
 The other two lines would be shown to be quite insufficient. Cases had 
 occurred of goods taking a longer time to pass from Liverpool to Man¬ 
 chester than from America to Liverpool. Cotton had been delayed 
 eighteen, twenty-two, and even twenty-four days. Timber sent to the 
 Old Kiver Company in December, 1824, had not been delivered on the 
 14th of March following. Corn had been obliged to be landed and ware¬ 
 housed for want of means of forwarding it into the interior. Moreover, 
 Liverpool was on an open estuary, liable to strong winds and violent tides. 
 The New Quay Company had seventeen flats. Between June and December, 
 1824, each of those flats made eighteen trips; a trip a week, and one 
 to divide amongst the seventeen. Thus, a vessel required a week to make 
 a trip from Liverpool to Manchester, unload its cargo, take in another, 
 and find its way back again. In 1802 and 1803, and twice within the 
 subsequent period, the canals had been stopped by frost. The length of 
 the canal was fifty-one miles. The average length of the voyage was 
 thirty-six hours; and he would show that, by railroad, they could perform 
 the same distance in six hours. The distance between Manchester and 
 Liverpool, by railway, would be thirty-one miles and a half instead of 
 fifty. Since 1759 railways had been known to a certain extent; but, 
 during the last ten years, they had been in use, with great success. At 
 the colliery at Hetton, in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, a railway had 
 been in existence, and had been worked by steam long enough to show 
 
607 
 
 the application and safety of steam to the conveyance of heavy articles. 
 The distance from this colliery at Hetton to the river Wear was about 
 seven miles, and the quantity of weight carried was about sixty tons : the 
 rate that the railway was travelled upon was about four-and-a-half miles. 
 None of the tremendous consequences had ensued from the use of steam 
 in land carriage that had been stated. The horses had not started, nor 
 the cows ceased to give their milk, nor have ladies miscarried at the sight. 
 Besides the Hetton, there was the Killingwortli Railroad, which had 
 existed for ten or eleven years. That railway had existed, without any 
 reason to doubt its efficacy, without any objection, and with the greatest 
 possible advantage. The Killingwortli Railroad ran over an undulating 
 surface ; hut the proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railroad contained 
 scarcely any rise : so little that it was not worth noticing. Hence, it would 
 not he necessary to have one fixed steam-engine along the whole line. 
 Locomotive engines they should have, and horses they might employ, if 
 they thought fit; hut they should not have to employ one single fixed 
 steam-engine, from one end of the line to the other. He was fully satisfied 
 that locomotive engines could supply force to drive a carriage at the rate 
 of five or six miles an hour. In conclusion Mr. Adam bestowed a just 
 encomium on the advantages which had resulted from inland navigation, 
 and more particularly from the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal, to the trade 
 and manufactures of this country. He observed that, if there was one 
 thing more than another that enabled us to enter into successful com¬ 
 petition with foreign nations, it had been the great facilities of our inland 
 communication, which would he rendered still more expeditious by the 
 application of steam to the land carriage of goods. America and Russia, 
 he stated, were beginning to form railroads, and to make use of locomotive 
 engines in the transit of goods, and it behoved this country to resort to 
 the same means of communication : and, lastly, he referred to the advan¬ 
 tage that would arise from the proposed railway, of enabling Ireland to 
 bring her produce into the British market, on as good terms as the Dutch 
 and other foreign nations. 
 
 After calling a number of witnesses to prove frequent delays in the 
 delivery of goods, Mr. Adam called 
 
 Mr. William Brown (the present member for South Lancashire) to 
 speak to facts of more general interest. Mr. Brown said that he was a 
 merchant in business in Liverpool, and had been so for the last fifteen 
 years. He was in the habit of shipping large quantities of goods for the 
 United States — British manufactured goods, chiefly received from Man- 
 4 K 
 
608 
 
 Chester. The value of the goods which he had received and shipped had 
 sometimes been a million a-year. There was a regular communication 
 established between Liverpool and America by means of packets. There 
 were four lines, consisting of sixteen ships, to New York, two lines of eight 
 ships each to Philadelphia, and to Baltimore one line of three vessels. 
 The value of goods, upon an average, which each of those ships carried, 
 it was difficult to say; they had put on hoard one vessel ^140,000 worth 
 of goods; perhaps <£50,000 worth might be the average value. The 
 vessels named sailed with great punctuality; they always professed to 
 sail on a certain day ; they very rarely, indeed never, took in goods after 
 that. This made it necessary that goods should be received with great 
 punctuality; hut they had frequently been disappointed in receiving 
 goods for that purpose from Manchester. He did not think that the 
 mode of conveyance between Manchester and Liverpool was adequate to 
 the demands of trade, judging from the irregularities and difficulties they 
 had experienced. He conceived it would he an advantage to have another 
 mode of conveyance, as cheap, or cheaper, and more regular. He thought 
 that if a railway were established it would be an advantage. There were 
 about 10,000 vessels came into Liverpool yearly, which would average 
 200 tons, and would require 4,000,000 tons of goods to fill them in and 
 out. If a mode of conveyance of six or seven hours were to he established 
 between Liverpool and Manchester, it would be a very great accommoda¬ 
 tion to the trade of both places.* 
 
 John Gladstone, Esq., M.P., one of the members of the committee, 
 said that he had been a merchant in Liverpool for thirty-eight years, and 
 the greater part of that time a shipowner. For the first sixteen years of 
 that time he had been almost wholly engaged in the corn trade. Since 
 that time he had been engaged in various branches of commerce con¬ 
 nected with the town of Liverpool, to the West Indies, the Brazils, the 
 East Indies, and to other parts of the world. He was acquainted with 
 the ordinary modes of conveyance between Liverpool and Manchester, and 
 had generally found them not adequate to the demand. The trade had 
 very importantly increased of late years. It appeared, from memoranda 
 which he had made, that when he came to reside in Liverpool, in 1787, 
 the dock-dues were ^9,200. In 1799 they were increased one-half; and 
 in 1810 or 11 they (the duties on shipping) were reduced one-tliird; but 
 an equal amount was laid on goods, thus increasing the whole rate one- 
 third. On that principle, the amount of dock-dues levied in 1787 would 
 * Proceedings of Parliamentary Committee, 90. 
 
609 
 
 have produced £18,400, (including light-money;) in 1800, £31,700 ; in 
 1824, £141,000. In 1788 there belonged to Liverpool 431 vessels, 
 measuring 71,953 tons; in 1800, 535, measuring 91,010 tons; in 1824, 
 1,115, measuring 176,151 tons. In 1788 there entered the port of 
 Liverpool 3,677 vessels; in 1801, 4,746; in 1824, 10,001, with a ton¬ 
 nage of 1,180,914 tons. In 1805 the warehousing system was introduced 
 into Liverpool. In 1806 the number of warehouses occupied by bonded 
 goods was 85 ; in 1824, 204. In 1790 the quantity of cotton imported 
 was 68,404 bales; in 1800, 92,580; in 1823, 578,300; in 1824, owing 
 to a deficient crop, 447,000. According to the report of the commis¬ 
 sioners of the board of inquiry, the value of the British and Irish manu¬ 
 factures exported in 1818 was £48,903,760. Of this amount, £17,333,995 
 went from Liverpool alone. In the year 1788, the year after he came to 
 Liverpool, the population was estimated at 56,000, including sailors; in 
 1821 it amounted to 141,000. He saw no reason to expect that the 
 difficulties of conveyance would diminish. The ascertained weekly con¬ 
 sumption of cotton, the preceding year, was 11,000 bales. 
 
 On the thirty-seventh day of the inquiry, after examining sixty-seven 
 witnesses, the committee decided, by a majority of 36 to 35 votes, that 
 the preamble of the bill was proved. 
 
 On the thirty-eighth day of the inquiry the committee re-assembled to 
 go through the clauses of the bill, and it soon became evident, from the 
 great muster of its opponents, that the contest was not over. On the 
 clause, “ That the said company be empowered to take land” being pro¬ 
 posed, Mr. Harrison, the leading counsel against the bill, rose to object, 
 and when questioned by Mr. Adam, the counsel for the bill, as to whom 
 he represented, he said, “ I appear for the corporation of Liverpool.” A 
 division was called for on the point, and when the promoters returned 
 into the committee-room, the chairman informed them that the question 
 had been put and negatived. Thus, after a long-protracted and laborious 
 inquiry, the corporation, at the eleventh hour, gave the coup de grace to 
 the projected undertaking, and the bill was lost for that session. 
 
 It is much to be lamented that the conduct of the corporation should 
 have contrasted so unfavourably with that of their predecessors in former 
 times. It was reasonably expected that a memorial addressed to them by 
 the projectors, dated the 1st June, 1824, and signed by their chairman, 
 Mr. Moss, added to the fact that a majority of the members of that body 
 had accepted shares offered to them when they were at a large premium, 
 would have led to a very different result. However, the old canal leaven 
 
610 
 
 prevailed for the moment; hut their subsequent conduct atoned for their 
 short-sighted and obstinate error, and afforded another proof, notwith¬ 
 standing the trite saying applied to such bodies, that they are always in 
 the end amenable to opinion and to a sense of public justice. 
 
 The defeat of the bill was the great event of the session. It was 
 immediately followed by a spontaneous and indignant manifestation of 
 feeling. A numerous body of the parliamentary supporters of the mea¬ 
 sure met the following day. Mr. Huskisson was called to the chair ; 
 when it was resolved that nothing had occurred to shake their confidence 
 as to the importance and ultimate success of the project, and the com¬ 
 mittee were advised to renew their application in the following session, 
 when there could be no doubt of their success. 
 
 Thus encouraged by their parliamentary friends, and fortified in the 
 justice of their cause, the committee retired, with a resolute determination 
 to resume the contest, and to accomplish their object by renewed exertions. 
 
 Soon after their return to Liverpool the committee re-assembled to 
 review their position. 
 
 It could not be denied but that their engineering evidence had been 
 a failure; inasmuch as there were some considerable errors in the levels, 
 the importance of which had been much magnified and dwelt on by the 
 dexterity of the opposing counsel. 
 
 Without having lost their confidence in Mr. Stephenson, his total want 
 of experience, in getting up a bill for parliament, determined them to 
 seek the services of Messrs. George and John Rennie ; men who 
 inherited a brilliant reputation from their father, and whose presumed 
 experience in the practice and details of their profession obtained for 
 them the confidence of parliament and the public. The committee felt 
 that it was due to their supporters, to frame, if possible, plans and 
 estimates for the ensuing campaign, free from blot or error; and Mr. 
 Stephenson retired; but, as will be seen hereafter, only for a short 
 period. 
 
 The committee, benefitting by experience, saw the importance of 
 breaking up the phalanx which had fought them at every point, by a 
 well-considered system of conciliation. To remove, if possible, the 
 grounds of objection on the parts of Lords Derby and Sefton, the line 
 was diverted from their properties, and brought from the north to the 
 south end of Liverpool; a change which rendered the expensive cutting 
 in the rock at Olive-mount and the inclined plane at Rainliill inevitable. 
 Great as were the objections to this concession, yet, in furtherance of the 
 
611 
 
 policy resolved upon, it was submitted to, without, however, allaying 
 their hostility. 
 
 There appeared to the committee but little chance of overcoming the 
 opposition of the combined water-carriers; hut a small section of the 
 board, without any authority whatever, and without communicating with 
 the rest of the committee, resolved, on the suggestion of Mr. Pritt, to 
 make an effort to detach the trustees of the Duke of Bridgewater, by 
 offering them a large participation in the undertaking. This was an 
 affair of the greatest delicacy. It was conducted by Mr. Lawrence, Mr. 
 Moss, and Mr. Robert Gladstone, on their own responsibility. 
 
 Mr. Pritt induced Mr. Adam, the counsel for the bill in the late 
 contest, and the friend and relative of Mr. Loch, to open a negociation 
 with that gentleman. 
 
 Mr. Loch, with that penetration and zeal for the interest of those 
 beneficially interested in the trust under his management, for which he 
 has always been so eminently distinguished, received the proposition 
 with the frankness and candour which had suggested it. A course so 
 obviously consistent with the interest of his employers, was promptly 
 adopted ; and he consented, on the part of the trust, to the terms pro¬ 
 posed, namely, to accept a fifth share in the undertaking. One thousand 
 additional shares were then created and given to the trust, thus making 
 the total number five thousand. 
 
 This negociation was conducted with the utmost secrecy, and the 
 result was communicated to the rest of the committee and to the public 
 at the same moment. Shares immediately rose fifty per cent. In those 
 days, before the consciences of projectors had been corrupted by secret 
 and successful operations, no director ventured to anticipate the public, 
 by taking advantage of any secret information which he possessed, in 
 virtue of his position. 
 
 The ranks of their opponents being broken, and the most powerful 
 amongst the number being converted into an ally, the committee renewed 
 their application to parliament in the session of 1825, and, after a smart 
 contest in the Commons, and a hard fight in the Lords, led by Lord 
 Derby, the bill was obtained, and received the royal assent. 
 
 ' The bill having been successfully earned through parliament, the 
 first general meeting of the proprietors was held in Liverpool on the 
 29th May, 1826, when twelve directors were chosen by the proprietors, 
 in conjunction with three directors nominated by the Marquis of Stafford, 
 afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the representative of the Bridgewater 
 
612 
 
 trust and estates. The first meeting of directors was held on the fol¬ 
 lowing day, when Mr. Charles Lawrence was elected chairman, and Mr. 
 John Moss deputy-chairman, of the company. In the month of June 
 following, some difference having taken place with the Messrs. Rennie, 
 and the company still retaining the highest confidence in the engineering 
 talents of Mr. George Stephenson, that great and original genius was 
 again appointed principal engineer to the company. 
 
 The works of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway were commenced 
 on Chat Moss in June, 1826. When the hill of 1825 was before par¬ 
 liament, the plan of carrying a railway, capable of supporting weights of 
 fifty or a hundred tons, for a distance of four or five miles, across the 
 softest and most dangerous hog in Lancashire, was treated with derision ; 
 and even those who did not deny the possibility of forming the road, 
 maintained that the cost of that part of the work would be ruinous. One 
 witness, an engineer of note, asserted that it would be ^£200,000.^ 
 Nothing daunted by these predictions, Mr. Stephenson began his work 
 by grappling with the dangers and difficulties of Chat Moss. He com¬ 
 menced by forming deep drains on each side of the proposed road; and, 
 when the Moss had become somewhat consolidated, he placed hurdles 
 and faggots of heather and brushwood upon it, which he covered with 
 earth, sand, and gravel; on this he spread a thick coating of cinders, 
 in which he placed cross-sleepers of larch and oak. In these the iron 
 chairs, on which the rails are fixed, were imbedded. This was not effected 
 without great labour, nor rendered complete without many trials; but, on 
 the 1st of January, 1830, one entire line of rails was laid down across 
 this dangerous bog, over which the Rocket steam-engine passed that day. 
 Lor some time this part of the road vibrated like the pathway of a sus¬ 
 pension-bridge when trains passed over it, and even to this day there is 
 a great springiness on the road over the Moss; but, as it has now stood 
 twenty years, and sustained the pressure of millions of tons, it is very 
 clear that Mr. Stephenson’s judgment was very much superior to those of 
 the engineers who denied the possibility of the undertaking. The cost of 
 this portion of the work, though very heavy, was not the fifth part the 
 amount stated before the parliamentary committee, by the opponents of 
 the bill. The cost of the Chat Moss works to the 31st May, 1830, was 
 T27,719. 11s. 10d.f 
 
 It had been the wish and plan of Mr. Stephenson to carry the railway 
 
 - Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by Henry Booth, 17. 
 
 + Ibid, 97. 
 
613 
 
 round the red sandstone ridge, on which Liverpool is built; round the 
 higher ranges of the same formation at Olive-mount; and round the still 
 higher rise of the coal formation at Rainhill, by following the natural 
 levels, to the north of Knowsley. This wish and intention were defeated 
 by the pertinacious and ill-judged opposition of the Earls of Derby and 
 Sefton, and of a few other landowners, who were determined, at all events, 
 that the line should not he carried over their estates. Unfortunately for 
 the projectors of the railway, for the public, and for themselves, they 
 succeeded; and hence it became necessary to carry the railway directly 
 over the hills, instead of round them. The fh*st consequence of this 
 forced change of plans was the necessity for constructing a tunnel, under 
 the town of Liverpool, a mile and a half in length, from the docks at 
 Wapping to the top of Edgehill; the second was the necessity for form¬ 
 ing a cutting, seventy feet deep, through the red sandstone rock at Olive- 
 mount ; the third, and worst of all, was the necessity for ascending and 
 descending the Whiston and Sutton Hills, by means of inclined planes, 
 of 1 in 96. The cost of forming the line was greatly increased by the 
 change of plans, and the line itself was permanently injured, without 
 benefit to any human being. 
 
 The first shaft of the tunnel under the town of Liverpool was opened 
 in September, 1826. “ During the whole of the year 1827,” says the 
 
 historian of the line, “ the formation of the tunnel under Liverpool was 
 carried forward with spirit and perseverance. Night and day the excava¬ 
 tion proceeded, and many difficulties in the execution of the work had 
 to be overcome. In some places the substance excavated was a soft, blue 
 shale, with abundance of water; in other places a wet sand presented 
 itself, requiring no slight labour and contrivance to support, till the 
 masonry, which was to form the roof, was erected. In passing under 
 Crown-street, near the (old) Botanic Garden, for want of sufficient props, 
 the superincumbent mass fell in from the surface, being a depth of thirty 
 feet, of loose moss-earth and sand.* On some occasions the miners 
 refused to work, and it not unfrequently required the personal superin¬ 
 tendence and encouragement of the engineer to keep them at their posts. 
 The tunnel was constructed in seven or eight separate lengths, communi¬ 
 cating with the surface by upright shafts, through which the substance 
 excavated was conveyed away. The exact joinings of these different 
 lengths, so as to form one complete whole, as now exhibited, was, of 
 course, from time to time an object of considerable interest, and to the 
 * The bed of the old Mosslake. 
 
614 
 
 proprietors of some anxiety; and the accuracy with which this was 
 effected is highly creditable to the engineer, and to Mr. Locke, the 
 assistant-engineer of that department. On the 9th of June, 1828, it 
 was reported to the directors that the last joining between the several 
 lengths of the tunnel was effected.”* The whole rise, from the Wapping- 
 station, at the docks, to the tunnel mouth at Edgehill, is 123 feet; the 
 tunnel is twenty-two feet wide and sixteen high ; and its total length is 
 2,250 yards.f 
 
 Another work, rendered necessary by the change of plan forced on 
 the engineers and projectors of the line, was the cutting in the rock, at 
 Olive-mount, 70 feet in depth. The stone in this cutting was valuable; 
 so that, though the works on this part of the line were costly, the 
 expenditure was not altogether thrown away. 
 
 After crossing the pleasant plain of Broad-green, the line reached the 
 rising ground at Whiston and Bainhill. This ascent was found to he 
 absolutely insuperable by tunnel or excavation ; and the road was, there¬ 
 fore, carried up it by the Whiston inclined plane, and down it, on the 
 opposite side, by the Sutton. The rise on these inclined planes is from 1 
 in 89 to 1 in 96. 
 
 According to the original plan of the railway, as drawn by George 
 Stephenson, it would not only have avoided the high lands between the 
 river Mersey and Bainhill, hut would also have passed the Sankey-valley, 
 to the north of St. Helens, at a point where the works would have been 
 easy of construction. By the change of plan forced upon the engineer, 
 by the opposition of the owners of property on the original line, both the 
 projectors of the railway and the people of Liverpool, Manchester, and 
 South Lancashire were deprived of the advantage of a railway running- 
 through the coal-field of Lancashire ; and, at the same time, the projectors 
 of the line were compelled to carry their works across the Sankey-valley, 
 at a point where the waters of the brook had dug out an excessively deep 
 channel through the marl-beds of the district. “In this year (1828) 
 principally,” says Mr. Henry Booth, “ was effected the piling for the 
 foundations of the piers of the great viaduct over the Sankey-valley; a 
 business of much labour and cost, but indispensable for the security of 
 the superstructure. About two hundred piles, varying from twenty to 
 thirty feet in length, were driven hard into the foundation site of each of 
 the ten piers. The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, 
 
 * An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Hallway, <fcc., by Henry Booth, Treasurer 
 to the Company, 39, 40, 41. 
 
 t Ibid, 49. 
 
615 
 
 hoisted up with double purchase, at snail’s-pace, to the summit of the 
 piling-engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the 
 devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half-inch into the stratum 
 below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, whilst 
 it illustrates the old adage of ‘ slow and sure.’ The viaduct comprises nine 
 arches, of fifty feet span each, stretching across the valley of the Sankey, 
 over which the railway was to be carried, at the height of nearly seventy 
 feet above the level of the Sankey Canal.”* 
 
 In addition to these great works, it was found necessary to build 
 sixty-three bridges, either above or below the road; and in one case— 
 that of the great Kenyon excavation—to dig out 800,000 cubic yards of 
 clay and sand. The estimate of the capital necessary for constructing the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as originally planned, in 1825, was 
 .£400,000; when the plan was changed, in 1826, the estimate was raised 
 to £510,000; but the sum expended, up to the 31st May, 1830, when 
 the line was nearly ready to be opened, though far from being completed, 
 was £739,165. 5s.t Fortunately for the projectors of the line, they had 
 as much under-estimated the income as they had the cost of construction : 
 hence the promoters of this great and novel undertaking obtained a 
 handsome reward for the risk they had run, and the public spirit and 
 intelligence which they had displayed. 
 
 Whilst the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was in course of con¬ 
 struction, a controversy arose as to the comparative advantages of loco¬ 
 motive and fixed engines. The engineer of the company and the major 
 part of the directors were in favour of locomotives; but a minority of the 
 board had a strong feeling in favour of fixed engines. At their request, 
 Mr. James Walker, of London, and Mr. John Urpeth Rastrick, of Stour¬ 
 bridge, were appointed to inspect the railways in the north, and to report 
 on the comparative advantages of the two methods of applying steam 
 power. They made a report, in which they expressed the opinion that 
 fixed engines were more economical than locomotives. Mr. George Ste¬ 
 phenson had previously made a report to the directors, in which he had 
 expressed himself strongly in favour of locomotive engines; and, after the 
 report of Messrs. Walker and Rastrick had appeared, Mr. Robert Ste¬ 
 phenson and Mr. Joseph Locke, the son and the pupil of Mr. Stephenson, 
 drew up a report, compiled from the reports of Mr. Stephenson, in which 
 they replied to the report of Messrs. Walker and Rastrick, and again 
 * An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by Ilcnry Booth, 41, 2. + Ibid, 07. 
 
 4 L 
 
616 
 
 asserted the superiority of locomotive engines. Fortunately the opinions 
 of Mr. Stephenson prevailed; and the directors, with a view of stimu¬ 
 lating ingenuity, offered a premium of .£500 for the best locomotive, 
 which, being constructed on the principle of burning its own smoke, 
 should take a certain weight at a given speed. This offer produced the 
 grand trial and race of locomotives, which took place at Rainhill, about 
 eight miles from Liverpool, in the month of October, 1829, and which 
 first showed the world the power of the locomotive steam-engine on a 
 well-constructed railway. * 
 
 On the morning of the 8th October, the day fixed for this unexampled 
 race, the sides of the “ race-ground"—that is, the level part of the railway 
 between the Winston and the Sutton inclined planes—were covered with 
 spectators, and each of the rival engines had its friends and backers. The 
 engines were five in number, namely, the-Rocket, built by Mr. Robert 
 Stephenson, weighing 4 tons 5 cwt.; the Novelty, built by Messrs. 
 Braithwaite and Ericcson, weighing 3 tons 1 cwt.; the Sanspareil, built 
 by Mr. Hackwortli, weighing 4 tons 15J cwt. ; the Perseverance, built by 
 Mr. Burstall, weighing 2 tons 17 cwt.; and a horse-machine, named the 
 Cycloped, built by Mr. Brandreth, weighing 3 tons. The real trial was 
 between the Rocket and the Novelty; and the latter, which was very 
 light ahd elegant in its appearance, was rather the favourite. 
 
 “ The Rocket,” say Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke, in 
 their account of this original contest, “was the first called out. This 
 engine was placed on four wheels. The boiler is cylindrical, having 
 twenty-five tubes passing directly through it, for the purpose of conveying 
 the heated air from the fire, which is contained in ‘ a fire-box’ attached to 
 one end of the boiler. The cylinders are fixed on the sides of the boiler, 
 and work diagonally to the outside of the two fore-wheels of the engine. 
 These wheels are four feet eight inches in diameter; those on which the 
 fire-box rests are only two feet six inches. This plan of passing tubes 
 through the boiler was suggested by Mr. Henry Booth, the treasurer to 
 the railway company, whose object was to expose the greatest surface to 
 the action of the heated air with the least area of the tube: by this 
 means the heat is rapidly transmitted into the water, and prevents 
 that escape into the chimney to which large pipes are more or less 
 subject.”* 
 
 * Observations on the Comparative Merits of Locomotives and Fixed Engines as ap¬ 
 plied to Railways ; being a Reply to the Report of Mr. James Walker, to the Directors of 
 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, compiled from the Reports of Mr. George Ste¬ 
 phenson: with an Account of the Competition of Locomotive Engines at Rainhill, in 
 October, 1829. By Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke, Civil Engineers. 
 
617 
 
 The “Novelty” of Messrs. Braithwaite andEriccson was next exhibited. 
 It consisted of an upright boiler, or steam reservoir, at the bottom of 
 which was the fire-place, surrounded with water. The fuel was conveyed 
 down a small tube which passed through this boiler, and combustion was 
 supported by means of a blast worked by the engine. From the bottom of 
 this boiler, another of a cylindrical shape passed horizontally above the 
 main axles of the carriage, and a pipe, twice returned, passed through it, 
 for conveying the heated air from the furnace. The cylinders were placed 
 perpendicularly, with cross heads, working by two bell cranks, which 
 were connected by rods to the main axle of the carriage. The appearance 
 of the “ Novelty” was light and elegant: the machinery was ingeniously 
 contrived to work out of sight; and the whole formed as compact a 
 machine as could well be imagined. There was nothing which calls 
 for particular remark in Mr. Hackworth’s or Mr. Burstall’s engines. 
 The Cycloped was a great curiosity, being nothing less than a horse 
 in a tread-mill. Owing to a dispute about the conditions of the 
 race, nothing was done the first day, to the great disappointment of the 
 spectators. 
 
 On the 9th October, the rules of the race having been fixed, the 
 “Novelty” started off smartly, but, in running her second trip, the bellows 
 for creating the blast gave way, and the engine would not work until it 
 had been repaired. A defect had also been discovered in the boiler of 
 the “ Sanspareil.” The “ Rocket” was the only engine in racing trim ; 
 but, as it had been arranged that it should not make its trials until the 
 next day, no regular race was run, though a coach, containing about thirty 
 persons, was attached to it, with which it dashed along at the rate of 
 twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, to the unspeakable delight and 
 astonishment of the spectators. 
 
 The “ Rocket” started on its first trial trip at eight o’clock on the 
 morning of the 10th October, and, with a load, including its own weight, 
 of seventeen tons, ran thirty miles in two hours fourteen minutes and 
 eight seconds, which is at the rate of nearly thirteen-and-a-half miles 
 (thirteen four-tenths) an hour. On its second trip it ran thirty miles in 
 two hours six minutes and forty-nine seconds, or at the rate of upwards 
 of fourteen miles an hour. It varied its speed, sometimes reducing it to 
 little more than ten miles, which was the minimum speed required, and then 
 increasing it to nineteen-and-tliree-quarter miles an hour. The “ Rocket” 
 concluded the trial at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour, or four times 
 the speed of the experiments tried on the Killingworth Railway, in the 
 
618 
 
 year 1824. Other trials were afterwards made, the result of which was 
 that none of the other engines fulfilled the conditions required of them, 
 whilst the “ Rocket” far surpassed all that had been asked or even 
 thought of. It wound up the race by making two trips at the rate of 
 thirty-five miles an hour, or nearly three times the highest speed that 
 had been spoken of as possible before the committee of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 The first journey from Liverpool to Manchester and back was 
 made on Monday, the 14th of June, 1830. At a quarter before nine 
 o’clock on that day the directors, consisting of Charles Lawrence, chair¬ 
 man, John Moss, Joseph Sandars, Robert Gladstone, William Rother¬ 
 ham, R. Harrison, Hardman Earle, James Bourne, David Hodgson, 
 William Wallace Currie, Esqs., and Henry Booth, Esq., the treasurer, 
 took their seats in two of the new coaches, in company with Charles 
 Tayleur, John Cropper, and other gentlemen, and started on the first 
 railway excursion from Liverpool to Manchester. After passing through 
 the small tunnel, seven carriages, laden with stone, were attached to the 
 engine, making a load, including the engine, of 39 tons. The order for 
 starting having been given, the procession moved slowly towards Waver- 
 tree-lane, where the speed was increased. The carriages passed through 
 the deep cutting at a rapid rate, the bridges and sides of the slopes being 
 lined with spectators, who had thronged to see the partial opening of 
 the magnificent work. On arriving at the foot of the inclined plane an 
 assistant locomotive engine was attached to the carriages, and the train 
 ascended to Rainhill at a steady pace. At the end of the ascent the 
 assistant engine was detached, and the “Arrow” proceeded with the 
 train towards Manchester, at the rate of sixteen or seventeen miles an hour. 
 On arriving at the Sankey Viaduct the speed was decreased, on account 
 of the unfinished state of the embankment Adjoining the bridge. The 
 engine then moved rapidly past Newton to the Kenyon excavation, where 
 a fresh supply of water was taken in, occupying about seven minutes. 
 It afterwards proceeded at the rate of about seventeen miles an hour across 
 Chat Moss; and, after taking in another supply of water at Eccles, pro¬ 
 ceeded to Manchester, where it arrived at six minutes past eleven. The 
 journey was performed in two hours and one minute, after deducting 
 twenty minutes for watering. The directors, having examined the bridge 
 and other parts of the works, proceeded to the house of Mr. Gilbert 
 Winter, one of the Manchester directors, and there passed the following 
 resolution: 
 
619 
 
 “Manchester, 14th June, 1830. 
 
 “ At a special meeting of the directors of the Liverpool and Manches¬ 
 ter Railway, held here, on their arrival this day by the ‘Arrow’ locomo¬ 
 tive engine, from Liverpool, 
 
 “ Resolved, that the directors cannot allow this opportunity to pass, 
 without expressing their strong sense of the great skill and unwearied 
 energy displayed by their engineer, Mr. George Stephenson, which has 
 so far brought this great national work to a successful termination, and 
 which promises to be followed by results so beneficial to the country at 
 large and to the proprietors of this concern. 
 
 (Signed) “ Charles Lawrence, Chairman.” 
 
 Having partaken of a lunch, the directors returned to Oldfield-lane, 
 where the carriages were in readiness to receive them ; and, after having 
 been greeted by many thousands of persons who had assembled to witness 
 the unexampled sight, they left Manchester, on their return to Liverpool. 
 The train, which consisted of two carriages, containing forty or fifty 
 persons, darted through the dense mass of persons who thronged the 
 railway near Manchester, passed across Chat Moss at the rate of twenty- 
 two miles an hour, and arrived at Edgeliill, Liverpool, (after deducting 
 seven minutes for stoppages,) in one hour and thirty-five minutes. “It 
 is scarcely possible,” says a notice of this trial, written on the day 
 on which it was made, “to over-estimate the importance of these expe¬ 
 riments. Wonderful and gratifying as were the results of the previous 
 trials, they were far less satisfactory than the trials of yesterday. The 
 whole distance between Liverpool and Manchester has now been accom¬ 
 plished in two hours and one minute, with an immense load, and in one hour 
 and thirty-six minutes with a load of a more moderate description. The 
 power of the engines to keep up a rapid motion for a long distance has 
 been fully established. The average speed of the return from Manchester 
 was twenty miles an hour, and in passing over Chat Moss the carriages 
 proceeded for a time at the rate of twenty-seven miles ! The engine is 
 on the same principle as the ‘Rocket’, which gained the prize at Rain- 
 hill in October last, the principle by Henry Booth, Esq., and the manu¬ 
 facture by Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co., of Newcastle.”* 
 
 On Wednesday, the 15th September, 1830, the opening of the Liver¬ 
 pool and Manchester Railway, which had been so long anticipated with 
 the liveliest interest, took place. The day was brilliant: the company 
 included the most distinguished statesmen, warriors, and men of science 
 * Liverpool Times, Juno 5, 1830. 
 
620 
 
 of the age; and immense, incalculable multitudes, assembled from all 
 parts of South Lancashire and the nearest districts of Cheshire, lined the 
 railway from Liverpool to Manchester to witness the extraordinary specta¬ 
 cle. The day began in exultation and triumph, hut ended in consternation 
 and grief; for, at the very moment when it had been rendered evident to 
 all that the wonders which had been anticipated from the application of 
 steam to railways were about to he realized, a terrible accident deprived 
 Liverpool of one of the most distinguished men who ever represented the 
 borough in parliament, and the nation and the world of one of the greatest 
 statesmen who ever impressed his opinions and his principles on the 
 policy of his own and of other countries. 
 
 Amongst the men of distinguished talent and rank who took part in 
 the opening of the railway were Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, 
 at that time Prime Minister of England ; Sir Robert Peel, Bart. ; the 
 Right Hon. William Huskisson; Sir James Graham, Bart.; the Hon. 
 E. G. Stanley, now Earl of Derby; Lord F. L. Gower, now Earl of 
 Ellesmere; Prince Esterhazy ; the Marquis of Salisbury; Earls Wilton, 
 Glengall, Gower, and Lauderdale; Viscounts Comhermere, Melbourne, 
 Sandon, and Belgrave; and a splendid assemblage of ladies and gentle¬ 
 men from distant counties, as well as from all parts of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire. The chief magistrates of Liverpool and Manchester, the leading 
 shareholders in the railway, and many of the principal merchants and manu¬ 
 facturers, as well as of the landowners of South Lancashire, were present. 
 At about twenty minutes before eleven a signal gun was fired, when the 
 procession began to move slowly forward. The Duke of Wellington was 
 in a splendid carriage, drawn by the “Northumbrian” engine, in company 
 with a distinguished party of ladies and gentlemen, and was most enthu¬ 
 siastically cheered wherever he was recognized. The Northumbrian was 
 followed by the Phoenix, the North Star, the Rocket, the Dart, the 
 Comet, the Arrow, and the Meteor, all drawing trains of carriages deco¬ 
 rated with flags, and filled with gaily-dressed companies, of ladies and 
 gentlemen. The procession passed beyond Wavertree-road, through the 
 midst of tens of thousands of the inhabitants of Liverpool, at a very 
 deliberate speed ; but on entering the first excavation its pace was acce¬ 
 lerated, and it darted through the Olive-mount cutting at the rate of 
 twenty-four miles an hour. Great numbers of persons had gone out of 
 the town to Broad-green, Huyton, and Rainbill, to obtain a view of the 
 several trains as they passed over the lofty embankment at Broad-green, 
 and mounted the incline to Bainhill. After ascending the inclined plane 
 
621 
 
 the procession proceeded to Rainhill, where the Northumbrian engine 
 stopped for a short time and went on to the other line, that the duke 
 might have an opportunity of examining the elliptical bridge, over which 
 the high road is conveyed. On approaching the Sutton inclined plane 
 the duke’s carriage again took the lead, passing the others with astonish¬ 
 ing rapidity, and in a short time was seen gliding over the Sankey 
 Viaduct. At this point great crowds had assembled from Warrington 
 and St. Helens to see the train pass over the viaduct, who rent the air 
 with shouts of delight as train after train darted over that stupendous 
 erection. Shortly after passing the ancient borough of Newton, the train 
 crossed the bridge over the Warrington road, and soon after arrived 
 at Parkside, a watering place for the engines. Up to this point of the 
 journey all had gone “merry as a marriage bell”; but it was here that 
 the fatal accident occurred which changed all this joy into grief and 
 consternation. 
 
 The train drawn by the Northumbrian arrived first at Parkside, and 
 there stopped for the purpose of taking in water, and at the same time of 
 allowing the various engines and carriages forming the rest of the pro¬ 
 cession to pass by on the northern lines of rails, in order that they might 
 have a view of the duke and of the other persons of note who were in 
 the first carriage. It happened that the place where the duke’s carriage 
 was kept standing was most unfortunately chosen, for on each side of 
 the railroad was a deep pool of water, approaching within about three 
 feet of the rails, so that parties alighting from the carriages were com¬ 
 pelled to descend between the lines of rails. The directors had, indeed, 
 in their placards, particularly requested that no person would alight from 
 the carriages ; but this caution (which, if it had been attended to, would 
 have effectually prevented accidents) was very generally disregarded. 
 After the two leading engines of the procession, the Phoenix and the 
 North Star, had passed the grand carriage, an interval of several minutes 
 took place before the arrival of the Rocket, which was the next in order, 
 and a number of gentlemen descended from the carriage and walked to and 
 fro upon the line. Amongst them was Mr. Huskisson. During the two 
 years preceding the opening of the line the Duke of Wellington and Mr. 
 Huskisson had had political differences, which had interrupted the inti¬ 
 macy that had long existed between them ; but, on alighting from the 
 train at Parkside, Mr. Huskisson went up to the side of the carriage in 
 which the duke was sitting, to congratulate him on the events of the day. 
 The duke, on seeing him approach, rose and received him with the 
 
622 
 
 warmest cordiality. Whilst they were conversing the alarm was given 
 that the Rocket was approaching on the other line. Mr. Huskisson, with 
 others, immediately ran across the line, hut doubting whether they would 
 he safe on the narrow slip of ground between the rails and the pool of 
 water, they all ran back and attempted to climb into the carriages. All 
 succeeded except Mr. Huskisson, who was at that time in very feeble 
 health. Before he could get into the carriage the open door was struck 
 by the Rocket, and he was thrown on to the ground between the rails. 
 Either in struggling to rise, or from some involuntary movement of his 
 limbs, or from the position in which he was originally thrown, his left 
 knee lay in a bent position across the line on which the Rocket was 
 moving, so as to bring both the thigh and the leg beneath the wheels of 
 the engine and the carriages, all of which passed over it, fracturing the 
 bone of each in the most dreadful manner, and at the same time causing 
 a very extensive laceration of the muscles and integuments, particularly 
 on the inner side of the thigh, which was cut through by the flange of 
 the wheel quite down to the fractured bone. From the moment when the 
 accident happened it was evident to all that its consequences must be 
 fatal. This was instantly felt by Mr. Huskisson himself. He was imme¬ 
 diately removed to the Vicarage at Eccles, where he died the same night, 
 at nine o’clock, having displayed the utmost fortitude and resignation 
 during many hours of mortal agony. His last words were, “ I hope I 
 have lived the life of a Christian.” The following week his mortal 
 remains were interredin St. James’s Cemetery, Liverpool, amidst the sin¬ 
 cere lamentations of tens of thousands of his admirers. A beautiful little 
 chapel has been raised above his remains, in which stands a noble statue 
 of the deceased stateman, from the chisel of Gibson. Though less bril¬ 
 liant as an orator than many of his contemporary statesmen, no man of 
 modern tim.es has given a stronger or more lasting impulse to the policy 
 of his own and of other countries than William Huskisson. 
 
 / 
 
CHAPTER NINETEENTH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. 
 
 FROM THE YEAR 1825 TO THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Having collected from the mouths of living witnesses and other 
 transitory sources, and having placed on record the circumstances which 
 attended the formation of the first great railway ever constructed, either 
 in England or any other country, I now proceed to record the other 
 events worthy of notice, which occurred in Liverpool, from the year 1825, 
 to the accession of her present Majesty, in the year 1837. 
 
 Early in the year 1825 the town council determined to fill up the 
 Old Dock, the cradle of the commerce of Liverpool, and to erect on the 
 site a handsome and costly building, to serve as a Custom-house, Post- 
 office, Stamp-office, and Dock-office. By this unwise decision the port 
 was deprived of one of the most central and convenient of its docks, and 
 the new Revenue-buildings (as they were named) were placed on the 
 lowest ground in the town, instead of being placed on some one of the 
 commanding sites adjoining, from which they might have been seen 
 from all parts of the river. In the month of September, 1826, the Old 
 Dock was cleared of all its shipping, and the work of filling up was 
 commenced shortly afterwards. By an arrangement made with the 
 government, in July, 1827, it was agreed that the site of the new 
 Revenue-buildings should be given by the corporation, and that the 
 treasury should pay the sum of £ 150,000 towards the erection, in five 
 yearly sums of £30,000 each. The foundation of the new Custom-house 
 was laid on the 12th of August, 1828, during the mayoralty of Thomas 
 Colley Porter, Esq. The following is a copy of the inscription engraved 
 on the brass plate placed under the stone:— “Borough of Liverpool. 
 The first stone of this building, intended for a Custom-house and other 
 public offices connected with the interests of this flourishing port, was 
 laid by the worshipful Thomas Colley Porter, mayor, on the 12th day of 
 August, being the anniversary of the birth of his most gracious Majesty 
 
 4 M 
 
624 
 
 George the Fourth, in the ninth year of his reign, and in the year of our 
 Lord, 1828.”* 
 
 In the month of March, 1826, the foundation-stone of the fort, on the 
 rock, at the Cheshire side of the entrance to the river Mersey, was laid by 
 the mayor, Peter Bourne, Esq., in the presence of a numerous company. 
 On the upper surface of the stone was fastened a plate of copper, bearing 
 the following inscription:—“ This foundation-stone of the Bock Perch 
 Battery, projected by and under the direction of John Sykes Kitson, Esq., 
 Captain in the Boyal Engineers, for the defence of the port, was laid on 
 the 31st of March, 1826, by Peter Bourne, Esq., mayor of Liverpool, in 
 the seventh year of the reign of his Majesty George the Fourth. His 
 Grace the Duke of Wellington, Master-General of the Ordnance.” 
 This fort is armed with long 36-pounder guns, and effectually commands 
 the entrance to the port of Liverpool. 
 
 Great improvements were made at the Seacombe ferry in the year 
 1826, by which that ancient ferry was rendered one of the most useful 
 and agreeable outlets from the town of Liverpool. At that time Seacombe 
 was the only ferry below Wallasey-pool, and the fine range of country, 
 extending from Seacombe to the sandhills of Wallasey, contained only 
 two or three small villages, inhabited by a primitive race, engaged either 
 in farming or fishing, with an occasional turn at smuggling and 
 wrecking. 
 
 In September, 1826, the foundation-stone was laid of a church dedi¬ 
 cated to St. David, the patron saint of the Welsh principality, in which 
 Divine service is performed in the Welsh language, and according to the 
 rites of the Church of England. At least 20,000 of the inhabitants of 
 Liverpool are of Welsh origin, and, like the natives of the principality 
 generally, they are distinguished by orderly habits and a strong sense of 
 religion. They have several other places of religious worship in Liver¬ 
 pool besides St. David’s Church. 
 
 Coaching continued to he carried on with great spirit between Liver¬ 
 pool and Manchester. In October, 1826, the Regulator coach made the 
 journey of thirty-six miles in two hours and thirty-two minutes. 
 
 In January, 1827, a large house, in Hanover-street, which had been 
 built by the family of the Steers, the descendants of the engineer of the 
 Old Dock, at a time when Hanover-street was the most fashionable street 
 in Liverpool, was purchased by the directors of the Bank of England, as 
 a place of business, for the branch bank, which they were about to form 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, August 12, 1828. 
 
625 
 
 in Liverpool, under the provisions of the hank act of 1826. Until that 
 
 act was passed, the direct operations of the Bank of England had been 
 
 confined to London, although no notes, except those of that bank, had 
 ever been used in Liverpool or Manchester. Very shortly after the act 
 of 1826 had authorized the directors to form branches in the country, 
 they established a branch in Liverpool, which carried on its business in, 
 Hanover-street, until two or three years ago, when the directors caused a 
 handsome stone building .to be erected in Castle-street, in which the 
 business is now conducted. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1827 the fields lying between what, in 
 old times, was called Crabtree-lane, but now Falkner-street, and Upper 
 Parliament-street, were laid out as building-ground, by the proprietor, 
 Major Edward Falkner. His plan was to form a square in the centre, 
 to which it was proposed to give the name of Wellington-square, with wide 
 streets running from it in various directions. The plan has since been 
 carried out, nearly the whole of the fields having been covered with hand¬ 
 some streets and good houses, but the name of Falkner-square has been 
 given to the central square, instead of that of the great general of 
 the age.' 
 
 The great improvement of laying down roads on the principle of 
 M'Adam was introduced in Liverpool, in the year 1827. Church-street 
 and the upper part of Mount-pleasant, opposite the Wellington-rooms, 
 were the first portions of the streets of Liverpool which were M'Adamized.* 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1827, the foundation-stone was laid of the beauti¬ 
 ful lighthouse, erected on the dangerous rock at the entrance of the river 
 Mersey, immediately below the fort. Thomas Littledale, Esq., then 
 mayor of Liverpool, laid the stone, in the presence of a great number of 
 gentlemen and ladies. The following is the inscription on the plate :— 
 
 “ The first stone of this lighthouse was laid by Thomas Littledale, Esq., 
 mayor of Liverpool, on the 8th of June, 1827. 
 
 “ Thomas Brancker, Esq.,) 
 
 “ John Ewart, Esq., 
 
 “John Foster, jun., Architect.” 
 
 - ~R mli flf* n 
 
 This lighthouse is eighty-six feet in height, is built of limestone, and shows 
 a revolving light of white and red,—two white lights and a red. It com¬ 
 pletes the land-lights at the entrance and the approaches to the river. 
 
 The Clarendon-buildings were erected in the year 1827. They con¬ 
 tain rooms for public meetings, as well as offices. 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 8, 1827. 
 
626 
 
 On Monday, the 5tli of November, 1827, the telegraph formed along 
 the hills and headlands of Cheshire and Wales, to give notice from Holy- 
 head to Liverpool of the approach of homeward-hound vessels, of ship¬ 
 wrecks on the coast, of the state of the winds out at sea, and of other 
 matters connected with commerce and navigation, was first brought into 
 # use. “ The first telegraphic communication along the whole line from 
 Holyhead to Liverpool,” says a Liverpool paper of the 6tli November, 
 
 “ was made yesterday morning, at nine o’clock, when it was announced 
 that the wind had changed at the Head from southwest to west. This 
 change did not take place at Liverpool till an hour after; and, as the 
 telegraph communication was made in five minutes, (the distance being 
 128 miles,) it may he said that this is a messenger far outstripping the 
 wind in its speed.” A still swifter messenger, flying with the speed of 
 lightning, will soon supersede this and all the ordinary telegraphic 
 communications, though the electric telegraph has not yet been applied 
 between Liverpool and Holyhead, owing to the difficulties caused by the 
 wide estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey. This, however, will soon be 
 overcome, by crossing the Dee at Chester, and the Mersey at Runcorn or 
 Warrington. 
 
 The office of mayor was vehemently contested in 1827. Two candi¬ 
 dates were brought forward, Mr. Nicholas Robinson, an extensive corn- 
 merchant, and Mr. Thomas Colley Porter, a successful tradesman. One 
 or other of the candidates would probably have given way, if their friends 
 would have allowed them; but the merchants would not yield to the 
 tradesmen, nor the tradesmen to the merchants. The consequence was a 
 violent contest, in which from £ 15,000 to T20,000 was spent in bribery 
 and treating. Towards the end of the contest votes had risen to H20 or 
 ,£30 a-piece. The election ended in the return of Mr. Porter, who 
 polled 1,780 freemen, against 1,765 for Mr. Robinson. The open 
 bribery of this election gave a great blow to the old municipal government 
 of the town. 
 
 A musical festival was held in Liverpool, in the year 1827, which 
 produced the sum of L‘4,200 for the public charities of the town. 
 
 The system of savings’ banks was introduced into Liverpool almost 
 immediately after it had been established. In January, 1828, the number 
 of depositors in the Liverpool district was 5,383 ; the amount deposited 
 was £1242,701 9s. 2d. 
 
 In the autumn of 1828 the London and Liverpool mail was accele¬ 
 rated, so that, starting from the Postoffice, London, at seven o’clock in 
 
G27 
 
 the evening, it arrived in Liverpool at six o’clock on the evening of the 
 following day. The letters were delivered at a quarter before seven, p.m., 
 instead of the next morning, as previously.* 
 
 In the spring of 1829 a valuation was made of all property in the 
 county of Lancaster liable to be assessed for parish and county rates, 
 that is, of all land and buildings. It appeared that the yearly value of all 
 property of that kind in the county was £4,214,634, and in the borough 
 of Liverpool £751,126. At the previous valuation, made in 1815, the 
 same kind of property had given £3,106,009 for the county and £584,687 
 for the borough of Liverpool.t 
 
 The first interment at the beautiful and retired cemetery at St. James’s- 
 mount took place on the 11th June, 1829. 
 
 In the autumn of 1829 the foundation-stone of the North Dispensary, 
 for the relief of the poor in sickness and time of accident, was laid by 
 William Brown, Esq., one of the present members for South Lancashire, 
 
 . and the munificent supporter, not only of the Dispensaries, but of all the 
 other charities of the town. In the preceding year the Liverpool Dispen¬ 
 saries had given assistance to 44,000 persons.^ 
 
 A return, showing the revenue arising from the production and con¬ 
 sumption of exciseable articles, in the year 1829, in the various collector- 
 ships in the kingdom, (exclusive of London,) gave the following results: 
 —Liverpool, £618,000; Manchester, £776,000 ; Hertford, £564,000 ; 
 Halifax, £ 5 13,000 ; Wigan, .£505,000 ; Bristol, £450,000 ; Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, £415,000 ; Northwich, Cheshire, £349,000; Lichfield, £341,000; 
 Leeds, £310,000; Rochester, £306,000; Glasgow, £677,000; Stirling, 
 £426,000 ; Haddington, £288,000. 
 
 The cattle market, at Stanley, near the Old Swan, was opened in 
 August, 1830, having been removed from Kirkdale, in the suburbs of 
 Liverpool. This has become one of the greatest cattle markets in the 
 kingdom, owing to the large importations of cattle and sheep from Ire¬ 
 land, Wales, Cumberland, and the Highlands of Scotland. A few Spanish 
 and French cattle have occasionally been seen in this market, but these 
 importations are very rare at Liverpool. 
 
 The vacancy in the representation of Liverpool, caused by the death 
 of Mr. Huskisson, was not filled up till the month of December follow¬ 
 ing, when it gave rise to the famous Ewart and Denison contest, in which 
 more money was spent than had ever been expended in any previous 
 
 * Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, September 9, 1828. 
 
 + Liverpool Times, April 28, 1829. J Ibid, September 15, 1829. 
 
628 
 
 borough election, either in Liverpool or anywhere else. In this extra¬ 
 ordinary contest upwards of £100,000 was spent, in treating or buying 
 the votes of rather more than 3,000 freemen. Of 4,401 persons who 
 voted at that election, not much more than 1,000 gave their votes with¬ 
 out receiving bribes, varying from £20 to £100. The scandal caused by 
 this election greatly assisted in carrying the Reform Bill.* At the close 
 of the poll, which lasted eight days, Mr. Ewart had polled 2,215 votes 
 and Mr. Denison 2,186. Mr. Ewart was declared to be elected, but was 
 unseated on petition, and the borough very narrowly escaped dis¬ 
 franchisement. As the men on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew 
 them, were not greater sinners than the other dwellers in Jerusalem, so 
 the parties engaged in this monstrous election were not worse than the 
 candidates and the electors in many other boroughs in the kingdom. 
 At that time corruption was the rule and purity the exception. Happily, 
 this scandalous practice of bribery at elections is now unknown in 
 Liverpool,—certainly as much so as in any borough constituency in 
 England. 
 
 Early in 1831 the system of joint-stock banking was first introduced 
 into Liverpool, under the provisions of the banking act of 1826. The 
 “Bank of Liverpool” was the first joint-stock bank established in Liver¬ 
 pool. The capital of this successful and well-conducted bank was fixed 
 at £2,500,000, to be raised in 25,000 shares of £100 each, of which not 
 more than 500 shares were allowed to be held by any one person. Mr. 
 William Brown presided at the first meeting of the shareholders, which 
 was held at the Clarendon-rooms, on the 17th of March, 1831. At this 
 meeting it was announced that application had been made for upwards of 
 18,000 shares; that 15,638 had been granted; and that the remainder 
 of the 25,000, into which the capital stock of the company was divided, 
 would be left at the disposal of the directors, to be by them appropriated 
 in such manner as would best advance the interests and credit of the 
 bank. Mr. Joseph Langton was appointed manager of the bank, and the 
 following gentlemen were chosen directors, for the first year:—Mr. William 
 Brown, chairman; Mr. Edward Wilson, deputy-chairman; Mr. Isaac 
 
 * Lord Brougham said, in the House of Lords, “ He had himself witnessed a contested 
 election in a great rotten borough,—for he would so denominate Liverpool, and place it at 
 the head of all the rest; and, although for many months afterwards the candidates had no 
 notion of any corrupt or undue practices, the cost of the election amounted to upwards of 
 £40,000. He had been told that three times £40,000 would not be sufficient to pay the 
 expenses of the last election that had disgraced the town of Liverpool; lie hoped the last 
 in every sense of the word; for, if the bill (the Reform Bill) were torn to shivers, another 
 and a local bill would be necessary to deprive parties of a franchise which they had abused.” 
 
629 
 
 Cooke, Mr. William Donald, Mr. Alexander Gordon, Mr. Adam Hodgson, 
 Mr. George Holt, Mr. Joseph Hornby, Mr. William Lawson, Mr. William 
 Pickering, Mr. Thomas Sands, and Mr. William Stuart.* 
 
 In the month of March, 1831, the Stafford Patent Safety Coach made 
 the journey from Birmingham to Liverpool, a distance of about 100 miles, 
 in eight hours and forty-one minutes. This was as great a speed as was 
 attained on that road, for a whole journey. 
 
 In the month of May, 1831, the directors of the Liverpool and Man¬ 
 chester Railway caused a tablet of white marble to be erected at Parkside; 
 opposite the point where Mr. Huskisson received the injury which put an 
 end to his life. It bore the following inscription :—“ This tablet, a 
 tribute of personal respect and affection, has been placed here to mark 
 the spot where, on the 15th September, 1830, the day of the opening 
 of this railroad, the Right Hon. William Huskisson, M.P., (singled out 
 by the decree of an inscrutable Providence from the midst of the distin¬ 
 guished multitude that surrounded him,) in the full pride of his talents 
 and the perfection of his usefulness, met with the accident that occasioned 
 his death, which deprived England of an illustrious statesman and Liver¬ 
 pool of its most honoured representative; which changed a moment of 
 the noblest exultation and triumph that science and genius had ever 
 achieved, into one of desolation and mourning, and striking terror into 
 the hearts of assembled thousands, brought home to every bosom the 
 forgotten truth, that ‘ in the midst of life we are in death.’” 
 
 Another census of the population of England took place this year, 
 which showed the following results:—Borough of Liverpool, in 1831, 
 165,221, giving an increase from 1821 of 46,249; Everton, 2,402; 
 Kirkdale, 2,562; West Derby, 9,613; Toxteth-park, 24,067: total, 
 203,572. Add 10,000 seamen, and the population of surrounding district, 
 and the grand total of the population of the borough and suburbs, in the 
 year 1831, was 234,747 inhabitants.f 
 
 In the month of July, 1831, died William Roscoe, the glory of the 
 literature of Liverpool. He was bom on Martindale-hill, now Mount- 
 pleasant, in the year 1753, and died within a mile of the place of his 
 birth, after a honourable career of seventy-nine years.| 
 
 In July, 1831, omnibuses first began to ply in the neighbourhood of 
 Liverpool. This was the commencement of a change which has enabled 
 thousands of persons, of moderate means, whose occupations are in Liver- 
 
 * Liverpool Times, March 22, 1831. 
 
 t Ibid, July 5, 1831. 
 
 + Ibid, July 5, 1831. 
 
630 
 
 pool, to reside in the pleasant villages which encircle it, extending from 
 Bootle to Aigburth.* 
 
 In the month of January, 1832, a letter was received from the eminent 
 sculptor, Chantrey, announcing that his statue of Canning, which forms 
 the noblest ornament of the Town-hall of Liverpool, was finished. The 
 committee asked and obtained permission from the town council to place 
 this fine work of art on the landing of the grand staircase of the Town-hall. 
 The sum paid to Chantrey for this statue was three thousand guineas.f 
 
 The limits of the new parliamentary borough of Liverpool were fixed 
 this year, (1832.)J 
 
 On the 22d of May it was officially announced that the Asiatic cholera 
 had broken out in Liverpool. This terrible disease, which appears to 
 have originated near the mouth of the Ganges, had been gradually 
 making its way across India, Persia, Turkey, Kussia, Poland, and Ger¬ 
 many, to this country. It first showed itself in Sunderland, on the east 
 coast of England, in the month of November, 1831, and gradually 
 crossed the island, reaching Liverpool in the spring of the following 
 year. In the epurse of the summer it broke out on board the emigrant 
 ship Brutus, three days after it had sailed from Liverpool for the United 
 States. That vessel immediately returned to Liverpool; but the disease 
 was ultimately carried across the Atlantic, and followed the great routes 
 of communication, and the movements of population, in the new world, 
 as it had done in the old. Although the mortality caused in Liverpool 
 by this dreadful disease was considerable, yet it was not so great as that 
 frequently produced by fevers, which excite little attention. The first 
 case noticed was on the 4th May, 1832, and the disease remained in the 
 town for four or five months : but it did not add much to the average rate 
 of mortality, its ravages bearing no resemblance to those of the oriental 
 plague, which destroyed the fourth part of the inhabitants of Liverpool, 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; or to the black plague of the reign of 
 Edward the Third, which destroyed so large a portion of the inhabitants, 
 that the survivors were not able to remove the bodies to the parish 
 cliurch-yard, at Walton, but were compelled to bury them around the 
 chapel of St. Nicholas, in the midst of the town. In the year 1832, 
 the population of Liverpool being upwards of 230,000 souls, the number 
 of cases of Asiatic cholera was 4,912 ; and of the persons attacked 3,389 
 recovered and 1,523 died. § 
 
 * Liverpool Times, July, 1831. + Ibid, February 7, 1832. J Ibid, February 28, 1832. 
 
 § Ibid, September 18, 1832. 
 
631 
 
 In the year 1832, the Parliamentary Reform Bill made an entire 
 change in the mode of electing members of the House of Commons, in 
 Liverpool, as well as other places. 
 
 It has been mentioned in a former part of this work that the burgesses 
 of Liverpool were summoned to return members to parliament as early as 
 the year 1296, the 25th of Edward the First. This was the first parlia¬ 
 ment called by royal authority in which the town population of England 
 was represented, and in that parliament Adam Fitz Richard and Robert 
 Pinklowe appeared as the representatives of the burgesses of Liverpool. 
 According to the constitution of the House of Commons, as then esta¬ 
 blished, all the royal boroughs of the kingdom, that is to say, all the 
 places in which the crown-lands were let on burgage, and which possessed 
 charters granted by the crown, were summoned to return members to 
 parliament. This included most of the places which had risen above the 
 rank of mere villages. In each of these boroughs the elective franchise 
 was vested in the holders of the burgage-lands ; hence the term burgesses. 
 From a very early period the governing body claimed and exercised the 
 right of conferring all the privileges of a burgess on their own children, 
 on their apprentices, on persons willing to buy the freedom of their 
 respective boroughs, and occasionally on powerful neighbours and other 
 favourites. According to the earliest account the number of burgages 
 or burgesses in Liverpool was originally one hundred and sixty-five, 
 and it did not rise much above that number until the reign of James the 
 First, so slow was the progress of the town and port. At times, indeed, 
 the number even decreased. Unfortunately, the return respecting Liver¬ 
 pool in the Nonarum Inquisitiones, made in 1343, does not give us the 
 names and occupations of the burgesses, as many of the other returns do. 
 All that it tells us is the amount of their movable property, which was 
 equal to about L'1,500 of our present money. In the reign of Henry the 
 Sixth, in the year 1457, the number of burgesses was 168. It was after¬ 
 wards reduced by war and pestilence ; so that, at a common hall held in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Liverpool was at its lowest point, 
 only 126 burgesses were found to attend. From that time the number 
 of burgesses or freemen increased, with the growth of the town. In the 
 reign of James the First, in the year 1620, the number of burgesses had 
 increased to 245. At a contested election, held in the year 1695, 415 
 persons voted for the two candidates. Allowing for double votes, upwards 
 of 1,000 burgesses must have voted in a contested election in the year 
 1710, when, at the close of the poll, the numbers were, Cleveland, 542 ; 
 
 4 N 
 
632 
 
 Johnson, 492 ; Norris, 447; Clayton, 439. At that time the town council 
 was not only willing to sell the freedom of the borough to all persons 
 who settled in it, hut even required that all strangers who came to settle 
 in the town should buy it. The fees from the sale of freedoms formed a 
 considerable item in the income of the corporation. In 1683 the freedoms 
 sold produced £117; in 1694, they produced <£134 ; in 1699, £175; in 
 1701, £208; in 1711, £352; in 1722, £206. About the year 1730 a 
 violent contest rose between the town council and the body of the bur¬ 
 gesses, on the subject of holding a common hall, or general assembly, of 
 the constituency, and at that time the town council was less disposed to 
 increase the number of burgesses or freemen. During this struggle the 
 fines from grants of freedom sank in one year, 1730, to £8, and in 1731 to 
 £17; but shortly after the old practice was resumed, and the freemen’s 
 fines produced £361 in 1733, and £367 in 1734. In the beginning of 
 the reign of George the Third, the practice of selling freedoms still 
 continued, though on a smaller scale; but it was soon after altogether 
 discontinued. This was a great error, as it divided the population into 
 two rival classes of freemen and non-freemen; rendered the latter hostile 
 to the corporation; and excluded a considerable proportion of the mer¬ 
 chants, brokers, professional men, and many of the tradesmen and shop¬ 
 keepers of the town, not only from municipal power, but from the 
 parliamentary franchise. Still the number of freemen continued to 
 increase,' by birth and apprenticeship, and by occasional gifts of the 
 freedom to eminent men and favourites of the town council. At the 
 contested election between Brougham and Canning, in 1812, 2,726 bur¬ 
 gesses polled, which was a greater number than had ever polled before 
 by 313 votes. At the last great contest under the old constituency, that 
 between Ewart and Denison, in tbe year 1830, tbe number of voters 
 polled was 4,401. By the Parliamentary Reform Bill, which became law 
 in the year 1832, the boundaries of the borough were greatly extended, 
 and made to include the whole of Toxteth-park and parts of West Derby, 
 Everton, and Kirkdale; a great suburban district, which now contains a 
 population of 100,000 inhabitants. In Liverpool, as throughout tbe 
 kingdom generally, the franchise was given to all ten pound householders 
 who had paid their government and local taxes, in addition to the old 
 burgesses. The result was to double the constituency the first year. The 
 household part of the constituency has since continued to increase 
 rapidly, whilst the number of tbe old burgesses has diminished almost as 
 rapidly. The constituency now amounts to upwards of 18,000 electors. 
 
633 
 
 According to a classification of the voters of Liverpool, made after 
 the first contested election under the Reform Bill, it appeared that 2,221 
 were of the class of merchants, gentry, clergy, hankers, brokers, and 
 wholesale dealers; 3,566 were shopkeepers and tradesmen; and 3,304 
 were mechanics and labourers.* 
 
 On the night of Monday, the 7th January, 1833, a dreadful fire 
 broke out in Lancelot’s-hey, which destroyed fourteen warehouses, eight 
 dwelling-houses, 10,000 bales of cotton, 700 hogsheads of sugar, and 
 other property, amounting in the whole to ,£198,000. Colonel Jordan, 
 the commanding officer of the district, had his leg shattered by the fall 
 of the ruins, so as to render it necessary to amputate the limb. The 
 supply of water at this fire was insufficient, then a very common event in 
 Liverpool fires. 
 
 In the month of February, 1833, a cause was tried before Lord Chief 
 Justice Denman, in the Court of Queen’s Bench, which involved the right 
 of the corporation of Liverpool to that large portion of its income which 
 it derives from town dues, a tax of about a twelfth of one per cent, on 
 goods exported from or imported into the port. The question of their lega¬ 
 lity had never been tried before, although they had been collected from 
 the time of Henry the Third, (1219,) and probably much earlier. The 
 various litigations which had taken place in connection with the town 
 dues previously, had turned either upon the ownership of the estate in those 
 dues, or on certain claims of exemption founded on old charters, granted 
 to the parties claiming that exemption, not on the general question of the 
 legality of the dues. The question of their legality was, however, fully 
 raised in the cause tried before Lord Denman in 1833, and was then 
 decided in favour of the corporation of Liverpool. 
 
 The ground taken by the corporation in this case was that the town 
 dues had formed part of the jura regalia, the ancient rights of the crown; 
 and that they had been sold by the crown to the parties from whom the 
 corporation of Liverpool, in its turn, had bought them. 
 
 In proof of the assertion that these dues had belonged to the crown, for 
 many ages, a great number of leases and records were produced, which 
 were considered fully to establish that point. The first document produced 
 was an extract from Domesday Book, from which it appeared that all the 
 land between the Mersey and the Ribble, including that on which the town 
 of Liverpool now stands, belonged to the crown, which therefore possessed 
 all the rights of the crown upon it, one of which rights was the demanding 
 * Liverpool Times, January 8, 1833. 
 
634 
 
 of certain small dues on all trade, foreign and domestic, carried on in the 
 town. Those were the dues described in Magna Charta as the “just and 
 ancient customs of the kingdom” ; and it will he seen from a list of the fee 
 farm rents paid to the crown, given in a previous part of this work,* that 
 they were paid in all parts of the kingdom, from London, Bristol, York, 
 Chester, Lincoln, and other great cities, to Bridgenorth, Bala, and Liver¬ 
 pool, and other insignificant towns. According to a list of these dues, 
 as collected at London in the year 12(38, they consisted of troneage or 
 weighing duty, of customs on all manner of goods coming from foreign 
 parts, of metage of corn, customs of fish, tolls at the river gates, customs 
 of the river Thames, stallage, soccage, &c. In London these dues pro¬ 
 duced upwards of £700 a-year, equal to £10,000 a-year of the money of 
 the present time, and were let to the citizens, who had the risk and 
 expense of collecting them, sometimes for £300, and at other times for 
 £400 a-year, the latter sum being equal to about £6,000 of our money. 
 
 The first lease produced by the corporation of Liverpool was one of 
 King Henry the Third, letting all the royal rights in Liverpool to the 
 burgesses of Liverpool, for a term of four years, at a yearly rent of £10, 
 equal to about £150 of the present money. The date of this lease 
 is March 25th, 1229, the 13th year of the reign of King Henry the 
 Third. Next was produced a record dated twenty-eight years later, that 
 is, in the year 1256, which showed that the fee-farm (as it was then 
 called) of Liverpool was in the hands of Prince Edward, afterwards 
 King Edward the Pirst, during the minority of Robert deEerrers, Earl of 
 Derby, to one of whose ancestors, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, it had been 
 granted by King Henry the Third, on Michaelmas Day, 1229. An 
 “ inquisitio post mortem”, dated forty years later, in the year 1296, was 
 then produced, from which it appeared that Edmund Plantagenet, the first 
 Earl of Lancaster, died that year, possessed of the tolls, market, and 
 foreign tolls of Liverpool, still worth £10, or £150 of our money, which 
 he had received from his father, King Henry the Third, along with the 
 rest of the confiscated estates of Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, in the 
 year 1266. Another record was produced, which showed that the tolls 
 of Liverpool were worth £10, or £150 of modern money, in the year 1327, 
 when they passed into the hands of Henry Plantagenet, the grandson of 
 Earl Edmund. An “inquisitio post mortem”, made in the year 1348, 
 soon after the death of this earl, showed that the tolls, stallage, markets, 
 and fairs of the town of Liverpool, which had become worth £26 a-year, 
 
 * P. 04. 
 
635 
 
 or about £300 of our money, had passed into the hands of his son Henry, 
 afterwards the first Duke of Lancaster. A lease was produced of the 
 farm of Liverpool, granted hy Duke Henry, in the year 1354. Several 
 leases were afterwards produced, granted by John of Gaunt, Duke of 
 Lancaster, who next became possessed of these estates, in right of his 
 wife, Blanche Plantagenet, the heiress of Duke Henry. Leases or deeds 
 were then produced, showing the possession of the fee-farm of Liverpool 
 by all the kings of the Plantagenet line, from Henry the Fourth, the 
 first king of the House of Lancaster, to Richard the Third, the last king 
 of the House of York. Numerous leases were afterwards produced of 
 all the kings and queens of the House of Tudor, namely, Henry the 
 Seventh, Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, and Queen 
 Elizabeth. Leases were afterwards produced, granted by King James 
 the First. The deeds were then produced hy which Charles the First sold 
 all his rights in Liverpool, to the Lord Mayor and citizens of London; 
 by which the Lord Mayor and citizens sold those rights to Lord 
 Molyneux ; and hy which the Molyneux family first leased them to the 
 Corporation of Liverpool for a term of one thousand years, and after¬ 
 wards sold their reversionary right to the same body. This great 
 mass of evidence, beginning with Domesday Book, and coming down 
 to the present time, was brought together by the late Mr. Charles Okill, 
 after a labour of many years. On examining it, Sir James Scarlett, after¬ 
 wards Lord Abinger, gave the following opinion:—“ On the whole it 
 appears to me, that the corporation of Liverpool have as strong a case as 
 any that has fallen under my knowledge, in support of their claims; and 
 I think there can be no doubt of their success if they proceed to trial.” 
 The result confirmed the correctness of this opinion. The cause was tried 
 in the Court of Queen’s Bench, in February, 1833, before Lord Chief 
 Justice Denman and a special jury; and, under the direction of that 
 eminent judge, a verdict was given in favour of the corporation. 
 
 In the summer of 1833, another large and commodious dock, 
 forming the southern extremity of that magnificent line, was opened to 
 the timber trade, one of the greatest and most valuable trades of the 
 port. This dock occupies the site of the dam of the tide mill, formerly 
 known hy the name of Jackson’s Dam. “This dock,” says an account, 
 published at the time when it was opened, “ presents a splendid specimen 
 of mural architecture, and its vast and capacious quay, laid down on the 
 east side, on the principle of an inclined plane, expressly adapted to the 
 landing of timber, together with the finishing of the locks, and the 
 
636 
 
 elegant and appropriate erections by which the walls are surrounded, 
 adds another appendage to the port, of which the metropolis of the 
 kingdom might justly he proud.” 
 
 In the summer of 1833 the Victoria Channel, now the most frequented 
 of all the entrances to the river, was carefully explored by Captain Denham 
 and Lieutenant Robinson, who were deputed by the Admiralty to make a 
 survey of the River Mersey. When first explored this channel was found 
 to afford 12 feet of water two hours after flood, and 17 feet water at half¬ 
 tide. It has proved an invaluable acquisition to the navigation of the 
 port.* 
 
 A parliamentary return, published in 1833, gives the following report 
 of the amount of Postoffice revenue received, at nine of the principal cities 
 and towns of the empire :—London, £637,178; Dublin, .£80,610 ; Liver¬ 
 pool, £70,018; Manchester, £53,499; Edinburgh, £42,758; Glasgow, 
 £35,754; Bristol, £33,887; Birmingham, £28,684; Leeds, £29,315: 
 total, £1,399,246. 
 
 The sailing of the spring fleet for the North American colonies in the 
 month of April, 1834, was a magnificent sight. After six weeks of con¬ 
 trary winds the wind became favourable for going to sea, on Sunday, the 
 6th of April. There were at that time lying in the docks of Liverpool, 
 waiting for a wind, 133 vessels, of the burden of 37,585 tons, all bound 
 for British America, besides an immense number for the United States, 
 the West Indies, and other countries, and a swarm of coasters. All these 
 got into the river with the Sunday morning’s tide, and completely covered 
 it with a cloud of sails. In two or three hours after high water the river 
 was almost deserted, the wind having carried the whole fleet round the 
 Rock, but the outward-bound vessels continued in sight nearly the whole 
 of the day, divided into two fleets, each of a hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred vessels, which proceeded to sea in full sail, one through the north 
 and the other through the south channel. 
 
 On the 10th of February, 1835, an expedition sailed from Liverpool, 
 with two iron vessels, built in the river Mersey, to explore the river 
 Euphrates. It was at that time thought that it might be desirable to 
 open an intercourse with India, by way of Alexandretta, Aleppo, and 
 Bassora ; but the result of the expedition was to show the difficulty and 
 danger of the Syrian route, and to give the preference to Lieutenant 
 Waghorn’s admirable plan of communicating with India, by way of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Liverpool Times, Aug. 27, 1833. 
 
637 
 
 In the month of March, 1835, the Jumna, the first English vessel 
 that ever made the voyage from Liverpool to Canton, returned to Liver¬ 
 pool, having sailed out and home, besides remaining three months at 
 Canton, in ten months. This was the quickest passage that had been 
 made up to that time. 
 
 In March, 1835, the Carlisle mail, and all the northern coaches were 
 detained for many hours by heavy falls of snow. 
 
 In April, 1835, it was announced that what were then called “ the 
 North Docks” were almost ready to be opened. Since then an entirely 
 new set of docks has been constructed, still further north, than those 
 Northern Docks. 
 
 On Wednesday, May the 8th, 1835, seventy-three vessels entered the 
 port with a single tide. 
 
 In the Month of June, 1835, it was announced in the “Gazette”, 
 that the Assizes for the southern part of Lancashire would henceforward 
 be held at Liverpool instead of Lancaster. 
 
 In July, 1835, Lord Brougham visited Liverpool, for the purpose of 
 laying the foundation-stone of the Mechanics’ Institution, Mount-street. 
 In the month of September, 1835, the borough of Liverpool was divided 
 into sixteen wards, under the provisions of the Municipal Act, which 
 passed through Parliament in the session of that year. 
 
 In November, 1833, “a court of inquiry, into the existing state of 
 the corporation of Liverpool ”, was held in the Court-room, in the Sessions’- 
 house, in Chapel-street, before George Hutton Wilkinson and Thomas 
 Jefferson Hogg, Esqs., two of his Majesty’s commissioners appointed to 
 inquire into municipal corporations in England and Wales. This inquiry 
 extended to all the boroughs of the kingdom, and was followed by the 
 Municipal Reform Act of 1835. The following is a brief sketch both of 
 the municipal government which was found to exist in Liverpool at the 
 time of the inquiry, and of the changes which were made by the act which 
 followed it: 
 
 The first point of inquiry before the commissioners was as to the 
 numbers and personal composition of the common council, the governing 
 body of the corporation. It was found to consist of forty gentlemen, all 
 of them men of excellent standing in the town. 
 
 By the Municipal Reform Act the number of members of the town 
 council was raised to sixty-four, of whom forty-eight are town councillors 
 and sixteen aldermen. 
 
 The next point of inquiry was as to the limits of the municipal 
 
638 
 
 borough. These were found to he co-extensive with the parish of Liverpool. 
 By the Municipal Keform Act the limits of the municipal borough were 
 greatly extended, so as to be co-extensive with the parliamentary borough. 
 
 A list of royal charters to the burgesses of Liverpool was put in, 
 the particulars of which have been given in the early part of this work. 
 
 The originals of all these charters, the oldest of which are written on 
 slips of parchment not much larger than a man’s hand, were produced 
 for the examination of the commissioners. 
 
 The common seal of the borough was also produced. It is made of 
 silver, and is of great antiquity. 
 
 The style and title of the corporation were stated to be, “ The 
 Mayor, Bailiffs, and Burgesses of the town of Liverpool, in the county of 
 Lancaster.” 
 
 The first of the officers of the corporation was the mayor. He was 
 elected on St. Luke’s Day, the 18tli of October. It was stated that the 
 mayor was elected by the burgesses, and that the choice of mayor some¬ 
 times led to severe, and, it might have been added, very expensive con¬ 
 tests. The mayor had the right of making one freeman. The sum 
 allowed to the mayor to sustain the hospitalities of his office was £1,200 
 a-year, besides wine and a carriage. Under the Municipal Reform Act 
 the mayor is elected by the town council. 
 
 The bailiffs were also elected by the burgesses. This was an onerous 
 office, as they had to attend almost daily to public business, and acted as 
 coroners for the borough. They were also officers and judges of the 
 Court of Passage. The ancient office of bailiff was abolished by the 
 Municipal Reform Act. 
 
 Next to the bailiff was the recorder, who was always a barrister. The 
 charters required that he should be an “ honest and discreet man, skilful 
 in the laws of England.” His salary was 500 guineas. The Municipal 
 Act made no important change as to the office of recorder. 
 
 The town-clerk came next. Mr. Thomas Foster then held that office, 
 having recently been elected by the town council in the place of Mr. 
 Statham. The salary of this office was only £105, but it was afterwards 
 proved to he worth £4,000 or £5,000 a-year, when fees and other emolu¬ 
 ments were taken into the account. The sum which Mr. Foster claimed 
 as compensation, when he was deprived of the office, was £80,000. He 
 obtained an annuity of £4,000 a-year for his life, but only lived to enjoy 
 it for half-a-year. The office of town-clerk is now ably filled by Wm. 
 Shuttleworth, Esq. His salary is £2,000 a-year. 
 
639 
 
 With regard to the borough magistrates and aldermen, it was stated 
 that every member of the common council who had passed through the 
 office of mayor became a magistrate and an alderman for life. This 
 excellent arrangement, which gave dignity to the office of mayor and 
 stability to the council, was abolished by the Municipal Keform Bill. 
 The magistrates are now appointed directly by the crown, and the aider- 
 men are elected by the town councillors. 
 
 The meetings of the council were held the first Wednesday of every 
 month. This practice is continued. The meetings are now open : they 
 were formerly held with closed doors. 
 
 The office of treasurer of the corporation was held by Mr. John Dean 
 Case, with a salary of £1,000 a-year. It is now held by Mr. Wybergh. 
 
 Mr. John Foster was surveyor of the corporation, with a salary of 
 £1,000 a-year. His father had held the same office before him. Mr. 
 John Foster, jun., had also a commission on the building of the 
 Custom-house of five per cent, on the outlay. The office is now held by 
 Mr. John Weightman. 
 
 Next came the swordbearer, whose duty it was to issue summonses. 
 His salary was 200 guineas a-year. 
 
 The office of clerk of committees was held by Mr. Okill. He received 
 a salary of £500. Mr. Okill was also historian and antiquarian to the 
 council, (though those offices were not named in his appointment,) and 
 rendered the greatest service to the corporation, by investigating and 
 clearly explaining the grounds of its title to the town dues. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Corrie held the office of receiver of the town dues. He 
 was paid by a commission, which had produced £1,030 yearly, on an 
 average of years. The office is now held by Sir Thomas Brancker, at 
 a salary of £750 a-year. 
 
 The freedom of the town, it was stated, was acquired in two ways; by 
 birth, and by servitude under indenture for seven years, within the borough, 
 to a freeman. It was also given occasionally for distinguished services, 
 local or national. The privileges of a freeman were to import and export 
 his own goods without paying town dues, and to vote at elections for 
 mayors and members of parliament: his special duties to serve on juries. 
 The number of persons entitled to be free was about 5,000: the number 
 of those who had taken up their freedom was 4,400, in 1830. The 
 freedom of the town is still acquired by birth and servitude. Its only 
 peculiar value now is in the exemption from the payment of town dues, 
 though it also confers the right of voting at parliamentary elections. 
 
 4 o 
 
640 
 
 It appeared that the ruling body of the corporation was the 
 town council, and that the council filled up all vacancies in its own 
 number as they occurred. The burgesses had made many efforts to 
 obtain the power of electing the members of the town council, especially 
 in the year 1791, when they chose Mr. Richard Walker as a common 
 councilman, and in 1792, when they elected Mr. Birch, afterwards Sir 
 Joseph Birch, to the same office ; but, in both those cases, juries of the 
 county of Lancaster had decided that the burgesses did not possess any 
 such power. The consequence of these decisions had been to continue the 
 election of the members of the town council in the hands of the council 
 itself. By the Municipal Reform Bill the right of electing forty-eight 
 town councillors was given to all resident householders, who had paid 
 government and local taxes for three years, and the right of electing 
 sixteen aldermen was given to the town council. The right of electing 
 the mayor was also given to the whole town council, consisting of sixty- 
 four aldermen and town councillors. 
 
 It appeared, in the course of this inquiry, that the ancient local court, 
 the Court of Passage, or Paysage, was kept up, and that the mayor and 
 bailiffs presided over it, as they had done for upwards of six hundred 
 years. This useful court was retained, and was rendered still more useful 
 by the appointment of a good lawyer to act as judge. Henry Roscoe, 
 Esq., one of the sons of William Roscoe, and himself an accomplished 
 scholar as well as a sound lawyer, was the first judge of this court. 
 Charles Crompton, Esq., is his worthy successor. 
 
 In February, 1836, the day and night police, as at present formed, 
 was first organized. 
 
 In the month of September, 1836, a great reduction was made in the 
 Liverpool dock dues. The amount remitted was about T60,000 a-year.* 
 
 In the menth of February, 1837, it was found that the steam naviga¬ 
 tion of the port had increased so greatly as to render it necessary to 
 appropriate two of the docks, the Clarence and the Trafalgar, exclusively 
 to the use of steamers. This great interest had grown up since the year 
 1819, when there were only two steam-vessels trading from Liverpool, to 
 places outside the river Mersey. 
 
 At the meeting of the Grand Junction Railway Company, in January, 
 1837, it was announced that the line of railway from Liverpool to Bir¬ 
 mingham would be opened in the course of the year 1837 ; and at the 
 
 * Liverpool Times, September (i, 1836. 
 
641 
 
 meeting of the London and Birmingham Company, it was stated that the 
 line would be opened from London to Birmingham in the course of the 
 year 1838. 
 
 The Royal William, one of the first steamers that ever crossed the 
 Atlantic, was built by the City of Dublin Steam-packet Company, in the 
 spring of 1837, and from the first gave evidence of the speed and power 
 which enabled her to assist in deciding the great problem, of whether a 
 vessel worked by steam alone could make the voyage from Europe to 
 America.* 
 
 On Thursday, the 25th May, the inhabitants of Liverpool joined, with 
 those of the other great cities and towns of the empire, in congratulating 
 the Princess Victoria on her having completed her eighteenth year; and, 
 within a month of that time, on the 20th of June, 1837, they joined, with 
 the rest of her subjects, in hailing the accession of her most gracious 
 Majesty Queen Victoria to the Throne of the British Empire. 
 
 * Liverpool Times, March 12, 1837. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTIETH. 
 
 LIVERPOOL UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 In the first twelve months of the reign of Queen Victoria three great 
 undertakings were perfected, which have given a wonderful impulse, not 
 merely to the prosperity of Liverpool, hut to that of the British Empire, 
 of Europe and America, and of the whole human race. The first of these 
 was the opening of a magnificent line of railway, 200 miles in length, 
 extending from Lancashire to London, and passing through the heart of 
 England; the second was the traversing of the Atlantic Ocean, from 
 England to the United States and British America, hy means of steam¬ 
 ships ; the third was the perfecting of the electric telegraph. The effect 
 of the first of these great undertakings was to reduce the time of commu¬ 
 nication between Liverpool and London from an average of twenty-four 
 to one of eight hours; that of the second was to shorten the time of 
 communication between Liverpool and New York, from an average of 
 about twenty-eight days to one of little more than ten; and that of the 
 third was to annihilate time and space, for the purposes of communication, 
 and to apply to the use of man a power capable of conveying intelligence 
 round the great globe itself in an instant of time. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1837, the Grand Junction Railway was first opened 
 to the public. That portion of what is now so well known as the London 
 and North-western line, creates a railway communication ninety-eight 
 miles in length, from the port of Liverpool, and the great manufacturing 
 districts of Manchester, to Birmingham and the rich mineral districts of 
 Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. Warned by the fate of 
 Mr. Huskisson, there was no public display. The first train, drawn by 
 an engine named after the great philosopher of Manchester, Dr. Dalton, 
 started from Liverpool at seventeen minutes before seven o’clock, on the 
 morning of the 4th of July. It consisted of three first-class carriages 
 and a mail carriage. The first stage of the journey, from Liverpool to 
 
643 
 
 Warrington, a distance of nineteen-and-a-half miles, was performed in 
 forty minutes, including the time consumed in attaching three Manchester 
 carriages and a mail carriage, at the Newton junction. After a delay of 
 about ten minutes at Warrington, the train proceeded towards Hartford, 
 over the plain of Cheshire, crossing the river Mersey and the Mersey and 
 Irwell Canal, near Warrington, by a bridge of two arches, each of seventy- 
 five feet span ; the river Weaver, the canal, and the valley at Dqtton, by 
 a stupendous viaduct, 1,200 feet in length, supported on twenty arches, 
 each of sixty feet span, and ten feet higher than the arches of the Sankey 
 Viaduct; and the river Weaver and the Vale Royal by a lofty embankment 
 and another noble viaduct. The train reached Hartford at five minutes 
 past eight, and Crewe at ten minutes before nine. The Madely summit was 
 ascended in fine style, up an incline of 1 in 188. At Whitmore, fifty-four- 
 and-a-half miles from Liverpool and forty-three-and-a-quarter from Bir¬ 
 mingham, the Liverpool and Manchester train passed the down train from 
 Birmingham, carrying the mail-guard and letter-bags, for the first time. 
 The next stage, of fourteen miles, from Whitmore to Stafford, was made 
 in twenty-eight minutes. About five miles further, at Penkbridge, the 
 first mixed train from Birmingham was met. At ten minutes before 
 eleven the train reached Wolverhampton. During the whole journey 
 beyond Warrington, (up to which point railway trains had already lost 
 their novelty,) the bridges and roadsides were covered with people, who 
 received the train with loud cheers and other demonstrations of joy; and, 
 on arriving at Wolverhampton and the densely-peopled districts between 
 that town and Birmingham, immense multitudes crowded round and even 
 upon the road. Fortunately, the terrific scream of the railway whistle 
 cleared the line fast enough to prevent accident, and at thirty-one minutes 
 past eleven the first train from Liverpool and Manchester arrived at Bir¬ 
 mingham, having performed the journey of ninety-seven-and-three- 
 quarter miles in five hours and one minute. 
 
 On the same day on which the railway from Liverpool to Birmingham 
 was opened throughout, an experimental trip was made on the London 
 and Birmingham line, from London as far as Box-moor, a distance of 
 twenty-five miles; but it was not until the autumn of the following year 
 that the railway communication between Liverpool and London was 
 rendered perfect, by the opening of the whole of the London and Bir¬ 
 mingham line. Still the shortening of the time of communication was 
 very considerable, as will be seen by the following account of what was 
 then considered a wonderfully rapid journey to and from London, which 
 
644 
 
 appeared in the Liverpool Albion, of the 10th of July Rapid Travel 
 ling. A gentleman left Liverpool, on Friday, by the half-past two rail¬ 
 way train, for Birmingham. Thence he posted it to London, which, after 
 sundry disasters on the road, he reached at six o’clock the next morning. 
 From London he proceeded by an ordinary stage-coach conveyance to 
 Birmingham, and arrived at Liverpool, by the last railway train, shortly 
 after eleven o’clock on Saturday night. The whole journey, upwards of 
 400 miles, was completed in the short space of thirty-two-and-three- 
 quarter hours; the quickest, there can scarcely he a doubt, on record.” 
 Within three months of the opening of the Grand Junction Railway it 
 had carried 144,818 passengers, and had received an income of i>72,000.* 
 
 The seventh annual meeting of the British Association was held in 
 Liverpool, in the month of September, 1837. The Earl of Burlington 
 occupied the chair as president, supported by a numerous body of men of 
 science. Amongst a variety of subjects discussed at this meeting there 
 were three which possessed a peculiar interest in Liverpool. Those were 
 the question of the possibility of crossing the Atlantic by steam, the 
 a nn ouncement of the discovery of the electric telegraph, and a paper on 
 the Tides, Currents, and Banks of the River Mersey. 
 
 The question of the possibility of crossing the Atlantic by steam was 
 raised in the Section of Mechanical Science, by Dr. Lardner, who there 
 contended, as he had previously done, in an elaborate printed essay, 
 that no steam-vessel could carry the quantity of coal necessary for a 
 voyage of 3,200 miles, the distance from England to the United States, 
 without being disabled from carrying anything else. His argument was 
 founded on the performances of the Medea, the best of the Government 
 steamers then afloat; and its chief fallacy consisted in assuming that no 
 better steamer than the Medea could be constructed. He stated that the 
 Medea contained a measured capacity of 800 tons : that her machinery 
 occupied 220 tons of the 800, leaving only 580 to spare: that the quantity 
 of coal necessary to propel the Medea 3,200 miles, as ascertained by her 
 actual consumption and past performances, was 540 tons, which weight, 
 added to 220 tons of boilers and machinery, would only leave 40 tons 
 available for passengers, men, and stores, even if the enormity of the load 
 did not sink the vessel before it got to sea, or soon after. The learned 
 doctor’s conclusion from these facts was as follows :—“ It is therefore 
 demonstrable that, in the present state of steam navigation, if this voyage 
 
 Letter of John Moss, Esq., Chairman, in the Liverpool Times, Oct. 18, 1837. 
 
645 
 
 shall be accomplished in one uninterrupted trip, the vessel which performs 
 it, whatever maybe her power and tonnage, must he capable of extracting 
 from coals, a greater mechanical virtue, in the proportion of three to two, 
 than can be obtained from them by the combined nautical and mechanical 
 skill of Mr. Lang, the builder of the Medea, and Messrs. Maudsley and 
 Field, who supplied her splendid machinery, and this on the untenable 
 supposition that the average Atlantic difficulties are only equal to those 
 to which the Medea was exposed.” 
 
 This reasoning, which tended to render Atlantic steam navigation 
 impracticable, was warmly and powerfully resisted, especially by Mr. 
 Guppy, a Bristol gentleman, who was one of the parties concerned in 
 building the Great Western steam-ship, a vessel whose noble per¬ 
 formances rendered Dr. Lardner’s reductio ad absurdum itself the 
 greatest of absurdities. Mr. Guppy contended that great improvements 
 had been made in the constructing of steam-ships since the year 1832, 
 when the Medea was launched. In proof of this he mentioned the 
 performances of the Bernice, which had gone 1,572 miles, with 128 tons 
 of coal; and of the Atalanta, which had gone 2,180 miles, with 154 
 tons; thus proving it to be possible to carry coals for a voyage of 5,000 
 miles.* 
 
 With regard to the Great Western, the first steamer ever built to try 
 the practicability of the voyage from England to the United States, Mr. 
 Guppy said, ‘ f A vessel was now building at Bristol, of the measurement 
 of 1,340 tons. She was fitted up as a sailing vessel, in the usual style, 
 only that, owing to her great length, she had four masts instead of three. 
 She had just arrived in London from Bristol, having made a circuitous 
 voyage in four days. When her engines are in working order, and the 
 average quantity of water was in her boilers, they weighed 350 to 400 
 tons. This left 900 tons for coals, and reckoning the average con¬ 
 sumption of coals at thirty tons a-day, she could carry coals, if it were 
 necessary, for thirty days. If she were found to average a speed of nine 
 miles an hour, which he believed she would do, she ought to complete 
 her voyage in fifteen days. These were the data on which he expected 
 that steam communication would be established across the Atlantic.” It 
 will be seen, in the succeeding part of this chapter, that these calcula¬ 
 tions, as to the speed of the Great Western, were more than realized. 
 
 * The royal mail steamers from Liverpool to Halifax and New York carry as much 
 coal as would propel them to the Cape of Good Hope. (See Evidence of Samuel Cunard, 
 Esq., before Parliamentary Committee of 1851.) 
 
646 
 
 It was announced, at this meeting of the British Association, that 
 Professor Wheatstone’s wonderful invention, the electric telegraph, which 
 would establish a communication, “ independent of light, place, and almost 
 of time,’’ had been perfected, and would shortly he brought into use. 
 
 At this meeting of the association a valuable paper was read 
 by Captain H. M. Denham, resident marine-surveyor of the port of 
 Liverpool, “ On the vertical and horizontal capacity of the river Mersey.” 
 This paper was accompanied by a trigonometrical plan, embracing the 
 two great estuaries of the Dee and Mersey, with all the sands and chan¬ 
 nels, ranging over 105 square miles; that is, as far out to sea as where 
 the cross set of the Irish Channel limits the deposit or undershelf of the 
 hank. The paper, which this plan was intended to illustrate, stated that 
 the Mersey, between its orifice at the Blackrock Lighthouse and War- 
 rington-bridge, presents an area of 113,174,200 square yards, containing 
 at the full and change of the moon 779,174,880, and at the quartering 
 292,653,290, or the average quantity of 535,914,640 cubic yards of tidal 
 water. This mass of water, it stated, circulates to and from the flood, 
 occupying five hours and twenty minutes in rushing through the straits, 
 (or neck of the bottle, which the entrance strait is to the expansive space 
 within,) at the maximum rate of six-and-three-quarter miles per hour, 
 equal to twenty-three-and-three-quarters transitu; the whole occupying 
 six hours and thirty minutes in disgorging itself and the freshes, at a 
 maximum rate of seven miles an hour, equal to twenty-nine-and-a-quarter 
 transitu. From an analysis of the mass of sediment carried by the water 
 which enters and leaves the estuary at each tide, it appeared that the 
 quantity of solid matter carried into the hay and port of Liverpool was 
 380,989 cubic yards at each flood tide, and the quantity carried out was 
 379,954 cubic yards, producing a deposit of 48,065 yards of solid matter 
 each tide, equal, on all the tides of a year, to a deposit of 35,087,450 
 yards. The cubical accumulation and increase of the hanks in Liverpool 
 hay, during the preceding fourteen years, amounted to 160,170,938 yards. 
 Captain Denham, in conclusion, said that he anticipated that, if the deposit 
 went on at the rate stated, a period might he predicted when the Mersey 
 would not command a ship channel with the ocean. It therefore behoved 
 him to state that, although man could not command the descent of rain, 
 or, consequently, the scouring of valleys and the discharging of rivers, 
 yet, on his powers of limiting the tidal boundaries of the estuary depended 
 the existence of the reflex impetus at its orifice, which would force the 
 under-water shelves of the hanks, and a channel through them some- 
 
647 
 
 where, even to the fourteen miles cross-line, or set of the Irish Sea. 
 But, diminish the back water at the estuary, by the slightest displace¬ 
 ment of the tidal reception, which, for want of conservancy guardianship, 
 has been going on, and the port is ruined.” These and other state¬ 
 ments on this important subject led to further inquiries, the nature and 
 results of which will be given in the account of the events of the 
 year 1840. 
 
 From a parliamentary return, published in 1837, it appeared that the 
 number of letters sent yearly, between the towns of Liverpool and 
 Manchester, was 582,227. The postage was then 7d. per letter. 
 
 In the month of August, 1837, a regular daily communication, by 
 steam-boat, was first established between Liverpool and Glasgow. 
 
 About this time iron began to be brought into use as a material for 
 shipbuilding. Mr. John Laird, of Birkenhead, was one of the earliest 
 and most successful builders of iron vessels. A. steamer built by him 
 of that material, for the Pasha of Egypt, the great Mehemet Ali, began 
 to ply on the river Nile in the autumn of 1837.* He also built the 
 vessels in which Colonel Chesney explored the Euphrates; a set of vessels 
 for carrying troops on the Indus and the Sutlej : the Quorra and Alburca, 
 the vessels with which his brother, Mr. Macgregor Laird, and the 
 Landers, explored the lower part of the river Niger; and, at a later 
 period, the steam-frigate Birkenhead, and a multitude of other vessels, 
 for national and mercantile purposes. Since this time iron has come 
 into general use for shipbuilding purposes, either separately or in 
 combination with wood; and from its cheapness, durability, and safety, 
 promises to have a powerful effect in maintaining the maritime greatness 
 of England. 
 
 The Sirius, Captain Roberts, the first vessel that ever crossed the 
 Atlantic by the power of steam alone, started from the harbour of Cork 
 on the morning of the 4th April, 1838. This vessel was the property of 
 the St. George’s Company, but was chartered by the British and Ame¬ 
 rican Steam Navigation Company, to make two or three voyages to 
 America, whilst their great steam-ships, British Queen and President, were 
 building. Multitudes of people were assembled to see the Sirius depart. 
 At ten o’clock the signal-gun was fired, and the Sirius proceeded to 
 sea, amidst loud cheers. On the following day she was spoken in lat. 51, 
 long. 12, by the ship Watt, hound to Liverpool. The man who first saw 
 her ran to the cabin in great alarm, and told the captain that they must 
 
 * Liverpool Times, September 5,1837. 
 
 4 p 
 
648 
 
 be very near land, as a steamer was approaching them. On the 10th of 
 April the Sirius was seen by the ship Intrepid, in lat. 47, long. 24, and 
 again on the 14th, by the Baltimore, in lat. 45, long. 37.22. She had 
 encountered very heavy weather, and had not made more than 110 miles 
 a-day. She was still 1,620 miles from New York, and opinions were 
 much divided as to whether she would get there. No further intelligence 
 was received respecting the Sirius until the 18th of May, when she arrived 
 safely at Falmouth, bringing the news that she had made the voyage 
 from Cork to New York in eighteen days, and from New York to Fal¬ 
 mouth in twenty-two days; and the further news that the Great 
 Western had arrived safely at New York, after a good passage of fourteen 
 days. 
 
 The Great Western, the first steam-ship that ever performed the 
 voyage from England to New York, sailed from King’s-road, Bristol, on 
 Sunday, the 8th of April, and arrived at New York on the 22nd of the 
 same month, twelve hours after the Sirius, having gained upon her more 
 than four days in the voyage across the Atlantic, and having made the 
 run from Bristol to New York in fourteen days, or not much more than 
 the third part of the time usually taken by sailing vessels in making the 
 voyage from Europe to America. This voyage of the Great Western 
 not merely proved the practicability of crossing the Atlantic by means 
 of steam power, but proved it to be comparatively easy, with ships of 
 proper construction. 
 
 The handsome dividends of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
 rendered it possible to raise the immense capital necessary for constructing 
 the two hundred miles of railway between South Lancashire and London, 
 and the Liverpool and Manchester line served as a basis for the greater 
 part of the railways since constructed. As the Grand Junction started 
 from the middle of the line in a southerly direction, and, after reaching 
 Birmingham, sent out further lines, one of which was continued to 
 London, and thence to Dover and Southampton, whilst another ran down 
 the valley of the Severn to Gloucester and Bristol, whence it was con¬ 
 tinued to Plymouth; so the first northern system of railways started 
 from the same base line, and has been carried, step by step, to Preston, to 
 Lancaster, to Carlisle, and so on to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leith, Dundee, 
 and Aberdeen. Nor has the extension in other directions been less 
 remarkable. Lines of railway, starting from the Manchester end of the 
 line, continue it to Leeds, to York, and to Hull; to Sheffield, to Lincoln, 
 and to Grimsby; whilst a line starting from Birkenhead, and originally 
 
649 
 
 intended to connect the ancient city of Chester with Liverpool, has been 
 continued to Holyhead in one direction, and Shrewsbury and Ludlow 
 in another; and will, doubtless, be united, before long, with the lines 
 recently formed through the coal-fields of South Wales. The general 
 result of forming all these lines has been to bring the most populous 
 districts of Lancashire and Cheshire within an hour or two’s ride of 
 Liverpool; the West Riding and Staffordshire within four hours; London, 
 Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Bristol within about eight hours; and all the 
 principal towns, cities, and seaports, from Aberdeen to Plymouth, within 
 twelve hours. When to the effect of these lines of railways, radiating to 
 all parts of England and Scotland, we add the effect of lines of steam¬ 
 boats sailing regularly from Liverpool, or communicating with all parts 
 of the British coast, from Southampton to Inverness; and all parts of 
 Ireland, from Cork to Londonderry; it will be seen how it is that Liver¬ 
 pool has become the great centre of personal communication in the British 
 islands, and the rendezvous for emigrants and voyagers. As I proceed 
 with this work I shall refer to each railway communication connected 
 with Liverpool, at the date at which it came into operation. 
 
 In January, 1838, the first half-yearly meeting of the proprietors of 
 the Grand Junction Railway was held, at which it was announced that 
 232,202 persons had been carried along the line, during the preceding 
 half-year, without a single accident.* The company began to carry goods 
 on the 1st February, 1838. Their rate of carriage to Birmingham was 
 Is. 6d. per cwt., the same as the canals. ^ 
 
 A large cotton-mill was built on the canal bank, at Liverpool, in the 
 year 1838, by Mr. John Aspinall Turner. It is still at work, and is the 
 only one of any consequence in Liverpool.t 
 
 The first yearly meeting of the Mechanics’ Institute, held subsequent 
 to the completing of the handsome and commodious building in Mount- 
 street, was held on the 14th March, 1838. At that time the total number 
 of members was 2,286, namely, 470 life members, 877 yearly subscribers, 
 218 quarterly, 366 sons of members, 163 apprentices, and 195 ladies. 
 This institution, though originally formed for the benefit of mechanics, 
 has gradually become a great educational establishment for the middle 
 classes. 
 
 At a meeting of the dock committee, held on the 22nd March, 1838, 
 it was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Eyre Evans, supported by Mr. 
 Charles Horsfall, Mr. William Potter, Mr. Thomas Leathom, Mr. Benn, 
 
 * Liverpool Times, January 23 and 30, 1838. + Ibid, January 27, 1838. 
 
650 
 
 Mr. James Aikin, and other leading members of that body, to erect a 
 line of warehouses along the west side of the Prince’s Dock, for the 
 convenience of discharging vessels. The plan and mode of working 
 these warehouses were proposed to he much the same as that of the West 
 India and St. Katharine’s Docks, in London. The announcement of 
 this determination was very warmly welcomed by a large portion of the 
 merchants and shipowners of the port, although it met with considerable 
 opposition in other quarters. In the month of April following, a memo¬ 
 rial was presented to the mayor, aldermen, and councillors of Liverpool, 
 requesting that they would confirm the resolution of the dock committee, 
 in favour of erecting warehouses on the quay of the Prince’s Dock. 
 This memorial was signed by upwards of a hundred of the leading firms 
 or merchants of the town, including, among others, the well-known 
 names of Baring Brothers and Co., Sandbach, Tinne, and Co., Wildes, 
 Pickersgill, and Co., Gibbs, Bright, and Co., R. Zwilclienbart, W. and 
 J. Tyrer, Yianna and Jones, Joseph Sandars, Focke and Boult, J. Taylor 
 Crooke, Dirom, Richmond, and Co., Heyworth and Co., Charles S. 
 Middleton, Nicol, Duckworth, and Co., M £ Crackan, Jamieson, and Co., 
 Roscow, Arnold, and Leete, Moon Brothers, George Armstrong, Ker, 
 Imrie, and Tomlinson, George Kendall, David Cannon, Cotesworth and 
 Smith, J. and G. Campbell and Co., A., F., and R. Maxwell, Robert 
 Henderson and Sons, Balir, Behrend, and Stewart, Charles Holland, 
 William Barber, Chapman and Willis, Cox and Henderson, and John 
 Bibby, jun. The memorial set forth, 
 
 “ That great delays, inconveniences, and loss occur in the discharge 
 of ships in this port, more particularly with cargoes of bonded articles. 
 
 “ That ships from the East Indies are frequently detained three weeks 
 in discharging here, while, in London, it is effected, with ease, in the 
 ordinary course, in two days. 
 
 “ That the difference between the two ports arises solely from the 
 advantages of having warehouses on the sides of the docks in London, 
 and from the want of them in Liverpool. 
 
 “ That the detention is frequently the means of losing a market to 
 the merchant and a freight to the shipowner, amounting, in many 
 instances, to the rent of the largest warehouse for a whole year. 
 
 “ That, in the opinion of your memorialists, nothing is so much 
 required, nothing could tend so much to the despatch, economy, and 
 security, and to the improvement of the business of this great port, as 
 the building of warehouses on the brink of the docks. 
 
651 
 
 “ That it would be the means not only of increasing the trade, by 
 adding to its facilities, but, also, by the saving of time, by the saving of 
 dock space, and the consequent enormous outlay of money which 
 otherwise will soon be required for the formation of new docks. 
 
 “ That your memorialists rejoice to observe that the dock committee 
 have determined in favour of a measure so desirable, and so consonant 
 to the duties of the trust reposed in them. 
 
 “ That the only objection made, or that can possibly be started, is 
 that attempted by the private warehouse proprietors, whose arguments 
 could easily be confuted, and whose alarms proved exaggerated, if not 
 altogether unfounded, if your memorialists did not rely that the principle 
 will not be admitted of staying general improvement, and a great public 
 benefit, because of the real or supposed injury that may occur to 
 individuals. 
 
 “ Your memorialists confidently hope and respectfully solicit that 
 you will confirm the resolutions of the dock trustees to build dock 
 warehouses.” 
 
 At the meeting of the council, at which the above memorial was pre¬ 
 sented, the following communications on this subject, from Messrs. 
 William and James Tyrer and Mr. George Kendall, were read: 
 
 “ JAMES AIKIN, ESQ. 
 
 “ Dear Sir,—In answer to your favour respecting the time taken up 
 in Liverpool in the discharge of vessels from the East Indies, all parts of 
 South America, Havana, &c., we beg to state that the average time taken 
 up would be, for ships of 300 tous register, about twenty days, exclusive 
 of the time for passing entries, which generally takes six days, and a day 
 or two more for obtaining a landing-waiter. 
 
 “We have hardly any occasion to state to you the time taken up in 
 discharging, arising from the weighing of the produce on the quays, 
 sorting of marks, mending bags, coopering packages, stopping from 
 landing during rain, and putting packages back again into the vessel, 
 should there be no entries, or there not being a draft of five bags of the 
 same mark. 
 
 “ This might be obviated, and it cannot be done in any other way, 
 but by building warehouses along the docks, as in London; and, by the 
 letter enclosed, from Mr. Kendall, who is a large shipowner, and a 
 nautical man, and agent for the London docks, you will see what facilities 
 there are in London.—We remain, dear sir, yours, respectfully, 
 
 “ Liverpool, April 10, 1838.” “Will. & Jas. Tyrer. 
 
652 
 
 “ P.S.—A majority of the shipowners (not belonging to the port) now 
 prefer their vessels going to London, on the same terms, who formerly 
 demanded £100 or £200 additional for doing so; and we are quite 
 convinced it will he a serious injury to the port if something is not done 
 to remedy the evil complained of. 
 
 “W. & J. T.” 
 
 “ Gentlemen,—In answer to your inquiry as to the time of vessels 
 discharging in London and Liverpool, I beg to state, most positively, 
 (having an intimate knowledge of both ports,) and am ready, if called 
 upon, to make oath to what I now state to he true: that vessels in 
 London, say of 300 tons register, discharge, say 450 tons, sugar, cassia, 
 saltpetre, rice, &c., from the East Indies, Brazil, west coast of South 
 America, Havana, &c., in two or four days, depending on the dock; if in 
 the West India Docks, two days; in the St. Katharine Docks, three 
 days ; and in the London, four days; this being the ordinary time taken 
 up in discharging. 
 
 “ In Liverpool vessels of the same size, and from any of the places 
 above-mentioned, it would take twenty-one days : some vessels might he 
 discharged in a shorter time, and some it would take longer; hut, on the 
 average, it will be, as I have stated, twenty-one days. 
 
 “ This is exclusive of the time taken up before the entries are passed, 
 which, on an average, is about six days.—I remain, gentlemen, yours, 
 respectfully, “ George Kendall. 
 
 “Liverpool, April 10, 1838.” 
 
 Great as were the advantages of the plan, and strong as was the 
 support which it received, the opposition which it met with in its original 
 form of a proposal for erecting warehouses on the side of the Prince’s 
 Dock was fatal to it, and it would have been defeated altogether, had it 
 not been for the ability and perseverance with which it was advocated by 
 Mr. Eyre Evans, and other gentlemen. 
 
 The London mail to Liverpool was first despatched by railway on the 
 28th of May. The London and Birmingham line being unfinished, the 
 mail did not reach Liverpool until half-past ten, a.m. The letters were 
 delivered at eleven, a.m., instead of six, p.m., as previous to the intro¬ 
 duction of railways. 
 
 The Transatlantic Steam Company’s steam-ship British Queen was 
 launched in the spring of 1838, and the unfortunate President steam¬ 
 ship soon after. The dimensions of the British Queen were as follow : 
 —Length, 275 feet; breadth, including paddle-wheels, 04 feet; burden, 
 
653 
 
 1,862 tons; force of engines, 500-horse power.* The President much 
 the same. 
 
 The Manchester and Bolton Railway was opened on the 24th of May, 
 1838. The first trip was performed in twenty-six-and-a-half minutes, 
 the length of the line being nine miles.f 
 
 In the month of July, 1838, the City of Dublin Steam-boat Company 
 first gave the people of Liverpool the advantage of a direct steam com¬ 
 munication between Liverpool and New York. On Thursday, the 5th 
 day of that month, the company’s fine steamer, the Royal William, Lieut. 
 Swainson, R.N., commander, sailed from this port on her voyage to New 
 York. She was a beautiful and swift boat, but not large enough, nor 
 possessed of sufficient power, for the Atlantic voyage. She made her 
 first voyage out to New York in nineteen days, and back to Liverpool in 
 fourteen-and-a-half days. The greatest distance which she made in any 
 one day was 239 miles, the smallest 116 miles. The merit of commencing 
 a line of steamers between Liverpool and New York belongs to Mr. 
 Charles Wye Williams, the managing director of the City of Dublin Steam 
 Company, who had previously rendered an invaluable service to Ireland, 
 to Liverpool, and to the whole British empire, by organizing a fleet of 
 seventeen steamers, which every year performed a thousand voyages 
 between the principal ports of England and Ireland. 
 
 On Monday, the 17th of September, 1838, the London and Birming¬ 
 ham portion of the present London and North-Western Railway was com¬ 
 pleted and opened to the public. On that day the first through train 
 started from London at eight o’clock in the morning, and reached Liver¬ 
 pool at a quarter before eight at night, having performed the whole 
 journey in eleven-and-three-quarter hours. The express trains now per¬ 
 form it in about half that time.J 
 
 In October, 1838, the steam-ship Liverpool, built for the late Sir John 
 Tobin, by, Milcrest and Humble, began to run from Liverpool to New 
 York. She was at that time the largest steamer that had ever been built 
 in the port of Liverpool. She made the passage out in sixteen-and-a- 
 lialf days.§ 
 
 Early in October, 1838, it was announced that the government had 
 determined to establish a line of mail steamers from England to Halifax, 
 Nova Scotia, and that the contract for building and working them would 
 be thrown open to general competition.|| 
 
 * Morning Chronicle, May 29, 1838. + Manchester Guardian, May, 1838. 
 
 { Liverpool Times, September 18, 1838. § Ibid, October 23, 1838. jj Globe, October, 1838. 
 
654 
 
 On Monday, the 22nd of October, the North Union Kailway, the 
 original line from Liverpool and London northward, was opened from 
 Parkside, where it leaves the Liverpool and Manchester line, to Preston. 
 The length of the line is twenty-two-and-a-half miles. This distance was 
 performed in the trial trip in forty-five minutes.* 
 
 In the course of the winter of 1838 the Liverpool Church Building 
 Society made an appeal to the friends of the Church for contributions, in 
 aid of the erection of several new churches. The sum of £12,000 was 
 subscribed in a few days.t 
 
 The handsome building erected by the Koyal Bank, in Dale-street, 
 was opened in January, 1839. 
 
 Previous to the introduction of steam on the Atlantic, the American 
 packets, which kept up the communication, had gained the highest repu¬ 
 tation for speed. Those beautiful and admirably managed vessels made 
 119 voyages in the year 1838, and their average passages were thirty- 
 four days from Liverpool to New York, and twenty-one-and-a-half days 
 from New York to Liverpool. The steamers which ran during the same year 
 made the voyages as follows :—The Liverpool, made the voyage from 
 Liverpool to New York at the average rate of seventeen days four hours, 
 and from. New York to Liverpool in fifteen days sixteen hours. The 
 Great Western, which was incomparably the best of the early steamers, 
 made the voyage from Bristol to New York in the average time of fifteen- 
 and-a-half days, and back in thirteen days. Her shortest voyage to New 
 York was fourteen-and-a-half days, and to Bristol twelve-and-a-quarter 
 days.J 
 
 It appears from a return, published in 1839, that the cost of building 
 the new Custom-house and Revenue-buildings was £283,804 13s. 8d. 
 The estimate was £175.000.§ 
 
 In the autumn of 1839 a splendid dinner service of plate, of the value 
 of 1,000 guineas, was presented to Mr. John Moss, the cliairmjan of the 
 Grand Junction Railway Company, by the proprietors, as an acknow¬ 
 ledgment of the services which he had rendered to them and the public 
 in the progress of that great undertaking. The plate bore the following 
 inscription :—“ To John Moss, Esq., from a numerous body of proprietors 
 of the Grand Junction Railway, in testimony of their grateful sense of 
 his services as chairman of the board of directors, from the commencement 
 of that undertaking, being a period of seven years. 1839.”|| 
 
 * Liverpool Times, October 23, 1838. + Ibid, December 18, 1838. 
 
 + Ibid, February 19, 1839. § Ibid, September 10, 1839. || Ibid, September 24, 1839. 
 
655 
 
 The Liverpool Polytechnic Society, formed for the purpose of 
 encouraging mechanical knowledge, and of collecting information on 
 subjects connected with the useful arts, began its useful labours in 
 January, 1839. One of the first subjects brought under its notice was 
 the best mode of forming the chimneys and roofs of houses, a subject 
 forced on the notice of the inhabitants of Liverpool, in the most 
 painful manner, by the great storm of January the 7tli, 1839, in which 
 many lives were lost on land by the falling of chimneys, and many off 
 the port by the wreck of vessels. No storm so terrible in its violence, 
 or so destructive in its effects, has occurred since the dreadful morning 
 and day of the 7th of January, 1839.* 
 
 In February, 1839, Mr. Jesse Hartley, surveyor and engineer of the 
 Liverpool Docks, gave in his estimate, which was laid before Parliament, 
 of the cost of forming the Albert Dock and Warehouses, and other dock 
 works then contemplated. The sum for which he stated that he expected 
 to be able to finish them was .£930,400. This estimate of Mr. Hartley’s 
 was accompanied by another estimate from Mr. George Withers, the 
 treasurer of the Dock Estate, of income likely to be derived from those 
 works, which he estimated at about £50,800 a-year.f Had it not been 
 for the reduction of dues, in 1847, the income would have been greater 
 than the estimate. 
 
 The comparative amount of mileage duties paid to Government by rail¬ 
 ways and stage-coaches, in 1837, 8, and 9, was as follows:—1837, railways, 
 £10,296; stage-coaches, £503,742: 1838, railways, £16,892; stage¬ 
 coaches, £482,194 : 1839, railways, £39,570 ; stage-coaches, £454,496 .\ 
 In the year 1839 the advowson of the Rectory of Liverpool, including 
 the patronage of the parish churches of St. Nicholas and St. Peter, was 
 sold to Mr. John Stewart. The price was said to be £8,150.§ 
 
 In June, 1839, the Grand Junction Railway Company reduced the 
 charge for carrying goods from Liverpool to Birmingham from Is. 6d. and 
 Is. 3d. per cwt. to Is. 3d. and Is. l^d. The company also announced 
 that it was prepared to carry goods from Liverpool and Manchester to 
 London. || 
 
 It appears, from a parliamentary return, that there were 1,751 
 public-houses in Liverpool, in July, 1839. 
 
 In the summer of 1839 a parliamentary return was published under 
 the title of “Mail Conveyance Contract”, containing the particulars of 
 
 * Liverpool Times, January 8, 1839. 
 
 + Parliamentary Taper, Session 1839, Queen Victoria. } lletum to House of Commons. 
 
 § Liverpool Times, April 30, 1839. j| Ibid, June 18, 1839. 
 
 4 Q 
 
656 
 
 on agreement entered into by government with Mr. Samuel Cunard and 
 Messrs. David Maclver and Mr. George Burns, for conveying the mails 
 from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Boston, in the United States, 
 by means of a line of steam-ships. This was the origin of the British and 
 North American royal mail steamers, which have now kept up the com¬ 
 munication between Europe and America for upwards of eleven years, 
 with a speed, regularity, and safety which have made them the admiration 
 of the old world and the new. The contract, as set forth in the parlia¬ 
 mentary return, provided that the mails should be despatched twice every 
 month in the summer and once in winter from Liverpool to Halifax, and 
 twice every month from Halifax to Liverpool, making twenty voyages each 
 way per annum. The wish of Mr. Cunard and his partners was, that they 
 should start every week, as they do at present, but they could not induce 
 the government to engage in so great an enterprise. The contract further 
 stipulated that Mr. Cunard and his partners should provide and keep a 
 sufficient number of good and efficient steam-vessels, furnished with 
 engines of not less than 300-horse power, and that they should convey 
 the mails and dispatches twice every month to Boston from Halifax, and 
 to Halifax from Boston, and, when the St. Lawrence was not obstructed 
 by ice, from Pictou, in Nova Scotia, to Quebec, and from Quebec to Pictou, 
 by good and substantial steam-vessels, provided with engines of not less 
 than 150-horse power. It was further agreed that the commissioners of 
 the admiralty should appoint the two days in each month, on which the 
 steamers were to leave Liverpool and Halifax respectively, and that they 
 were then to proceed, without loss of time, direct to the end of the voyage. 
 The despatch of the mail from Halifax for Boston was to take place as 
 soon as possible after the arrival of the mail at Halifax, and this was also 
 to be the case with the Quebec mail, and after that mail had reached Pictou. 
 The commissioners of the admiralty were to have the power of altering 
 the days of sailing, on giving three months’ notice, and at any time they 
 might delay the departure of a steamer for not more than twenty-four 
 hours. The contractors were to provide suitable accommodations for the 
 naval officers sent by the admiralty in charge of the mails; and any 
 stoppage, delay, or putting back into port, not sanctioned by the naval 
 officer, to be subject to a penalty of £100. Any delay of twelve hours in 
 proceeding on a voyage, either from Liverpool or Halifax, after the 
 appointed time, was to subject the contractors to a fine of £500, with an 
 additional fine of £500, for every additional delay of twelve hours. A 
 similar delay in the smaller vessels, carrying the mails from Halifax, to 
 be subject to a fine of £200. 
 
With regard to the number and nature of the vessels to be employed 
 in carrying the mails, it was provided that not less than four of the large 
 steam-boats, for the voyage across the Atlantic, should always be kept 
 seaworthy, and in complete repair. The contractors hound themselves to 
 introduce and adopt all improvements directed by the admiralty, or 
 suggested by the progress of science. To secure the goodness of the 
 vessels, the naval officer in charge of the mails, calling other persons to 
 his assistance, was to have full power and authority to survey and 
 examine the vessels whenever he shall think fit, and repairs which he 
 should direct in writing, were to he made as soon as possible, under a 
 penalty of T100. The lords of the admiralty, also, reserved to them¬ 
 selves a power to survey the vessels, and to order any improvements to 
 be made in them which they thought expedient; and the contractors 
 hound themselves to carry those improvements into effect, to the satis¬ 
 faction of the admiralty, or forfeit £500. 
 
 In return for all these services, and for supplying and maintaining 
 these numerous and costly vessels, the Government agreed to pay Mr. 
 Cunard and his partners T60,000 per annum, in quarterly payments : 
 the contract to commence on the 1st June, 1840, or at an earlier day, if 
 so agreed on, and to continue in force for seven years from the com¬ 
 mencement, and thenceforward until twelve calender months’ notice, in 
 writing, should be given by either party. Mr. Cunard and his partners 
 bound themselves, in a penalty of £15,000, to fulfil their part of the 
 contract. Such was the origin of this great enterprise. 
 
 The following facts will show the progress which railway travelling 
 had made by the end of the year 1838, and railway revenue by the middle 
 of the year 1S39. The number of passengei’s conveyed, in the year 
 1838, along the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and along lines of 
 equal or greater length, was as follows:—Liverpool and Manchester, 
 60 9,330 ; Grand Junction, 445,290 ; London and Birmingham, 459,385; 
 Newcastle and Carlisle, 196,051 ; and Leeds and Selby, 90,037. The 
 income of the Liverpool and Manchester line, for the half-year ending 
 June 30, 1839, was .£123,814, its profits. £48,211 ; the income of the 
 Grand Junction, for the same half-year, was £191,936, its profits £98,109 ; 
 the income of the London and Birmingham line was £270,814; its 
 profits £168,874. In the year 1831, the first full year in which the 
 Liverpool and Manchester line was at work, the number of passengers 
 upon it had been 445,047.* 
 
 * Companion to the Almanac for 1840. 
 
658 
 
 In February, 1840, tbe dock committee, with commendable gallantry 
 and loyalty, named tbe new steam-ship dock, tbe Coburg Dock, in honour 
 of the happy union of her Majesty the Queen with Prince Albert of 
 Saxe-Coburg.* 
 
 On Wednesday, February 19th, the large Independent chapel, in Great 
 George-street, built for the Rev. Thomas Spencer, and worthily occupied 
 by the Rev. Dr. Raffles, from the time when it was opened to the time 
 when it was destroyed, was burnt to the ground in a few hours. The 
 congregation immediately resolved to rebuild the chapel, in a very superior 
 style; and the beautiful building, now known as Great George-street 
 Chapel, was erected on the site of the old one, at a cost of about ^616,000. 
 In this the Rev. Dr. Raffles has ministered since it was erected. There 
 are few places which have been more fortunate than Liverpool, in obtaining 
 and retaining men of distinguished talents and excellence in the ministry 
 of religion. The truly Venerable Archdeacon Brooks has now laboured in 
 Liverpool, in the cause of God, for upwards of fifty years; the Rev. James 
 Lister, the leading minister of the Baptists, laboured regularly from the 
 year 1803 until the year 1847, and occasionally, as his strength allowed, 
 until the time of his death, in the present year 1851 ; and the labours of the 
 Rev. Dr. Raffles extend from the year 1811 to 1851, and still continue. 
 
 In February, 1840, died James Cropper, a successful Liverpool mer¬ 
 chant and an excellent man. The great features of his character were 
 sound sense, perseverance, and benevolence. By these qualities he raised 
 himself to wealth and influence in Liverpool, and entitled himself to the 
 respect of all who knew him, and to the gratitude of thousands who never 
 saw his face. The principal objects with which his name was connected 
 were the repeal of the orders in council, the issuing of which produced the 
 second American war; the opening of the trade to India and China ; and 
 the abolition of negro slavery. He also took an active part, along with 
 others, in introducing the railway system. James Cropper was born at 
 Winstanley, in Lancashire, and was for many years at the head of the 
 well known firm of Cropper, Benson, and Co. During the last years of 
 his life he devoted himself almost entirely to works of benevolence, one 
 of the most interesting of which was an orphan school, at Fernhead, near 
 Warrington, which he founded and superintended to the time of his 
 death. 
 
 A discussion took place, in the session of 1840, on the subject of the 
 tolls raised from salt and coal on the river Weaver, one of the principal 
 
 * Liverpool Times, February 18, 1840. 
 
659 
 
 tributaries of the Mersey. In the course of the discussion it was stated 
 that the sum of ,£846,543 had been raised by -tolls between the years 
 1795 and 1837, of which amount £389,155 had been applied to lighten 
 the pressure of county rates in Cheshire. The yearly revenue from the 
 tolls of the Weaver had increased from £10,293, in 1796, to £27,900, in 
 1837. The cost of the original improvement of the Weaver navigation 
 was £10,000.* 
 
 In the month of June the following advertisement announced that the 
 royal mail steamers were about to commence running:—“ British and 
 North American royal mail steam-ships, of 1,200 tons, and 440-horse 
 power each, appointed by the admiralty to sail for Boston, calling at 
 Halifax to land passengers and her Majesty’s mails 
 
 Britannia .Captain Robert Ewing. 
 
 Acadia . Captain Edward C. Miller. 
 
 Caledonia .Captain Richard Cleland. 
 
 Columbia .Captain Henry Woodruff. 
 
 The Britannia is appointed to sail from Liverpool on the 1st July. Pas¬ 
 sage, including provisions and wines, to Halifax, thirty-four guineas ; to 
 Boston, thirty-eight guineas. The steam-ship Unicorn plies between 
 Pictou and Quebec, in connexion with the above vessels, carrying the 
 mails and passengers. Apply in Liverpool to D. & C. Maclver, 12, 
 Water-street.” 
 
 The Britannia was the first of this line of steamers which crossed 
 the Atlantic. She sailed from Liverpool on the 4th of July, 1840, 
 and returned to Liverpool on the 14th of August, having made the 
 outward voyage to Halifax in twelve days, and the home voyage to 
 Liverpool in nine days and a half. These were the best passages 
 ever made across the Atlantic; the only ones even approaching them 
 in speed being tbe two best passages of that noble ship tbe Great 
 Western.! 
 
 The screw-steamer Archimedes, the first vessel of that kind ever seen 
 in the river Mersey, was brought round from London to Liverpool, in 
 June, 1840. Her performances, as well as her appearance, excited 
 general admiration. The following account of the Archimedes was pub¬ 
 lished during her visit to Liverpool:—“On Tuesday and Wednesday, 
 after her cruizes, the Archimedes lay in the middle of the river, and 
 attracted a large concourse of spectators. Viewed from the shore, she has 
 
 * Speech of Thomas Thornely, Esq., M.P., on Weaver Churches Bill, Session 1840. 
 
 + Liverpool Times, August 18, 1840. 
 
660 
 
 the appearance of being a very fast sailing yacht, of 240 tons, extremely 
 sharp at the hows, and having three rakish schooner-rigged masts. A 
 tall, narrow chimney, abaft the mainmast, is the only indication of her 
 pretensions to the designation of a steamer, as she has no external paddle- 
 boxes, which, of course, are not necessary, as the screw she is drawn by 
 is in her centre, and its operation may be said to resemble the giratory 
 movements of a snake. The natural spirit of emulation was manifested 
 by the commanders of several of our river steamers, on Tuesday and 
 Wednesday, but the stranger beat two of the swiftest of the ancient craft, 
 —the mail tender Redwing, and one of the Egremont new iron boats, 
 both exceedingly quick sailers.”* 
 
 In the year 1840 Messrs. John and George Wilkin, civil-engineers, 
 who had been employed by the board of trade to inquire into the best 
 mode of protecting and preserving the navigation of the river and 
 estuary of the Mersey, made a report on that important subject, which 
 was laid on the table of the House of Commons, on the 4th of August. 
 This report, besides containing much information, collected by Messrs. 
 Wilkin, gave a summary of previous reports made by other eminent 
 engineers, and a statement of the views of Captain Denham and Lieu¬ 
 tenant Lord, on the best mode of preserving the navigation of the 
 Mersey. 
 
 The report of Messrs. Wilkin to the board of trade commences by 
 stating that the time of Mr. George Wilkin had been almost entirely 
 occupied with this subject from the beginning of the month of March, 
 1839; and that, at his recommendation, the corporation of Liverpool 
 had employed Mr. Eyes, to make an accurate report and survey of the 
 shore within the port of Liverpool. This survey, the report states, con¬ 
 tained the description and customs of each township, showing whether 
 the same was a manor or reputed manor; whether courts were held, and 
 whether any and what claims were made on the shore, or any privileges 
 exercised therein; the names of the proprietors of land adjoining the 
 beach, the encroachments made thereon, and the marshes over which the 
 tide formerly flowed in the upper part of the river, which exceed 13,000 
 acres. Messrs. Wilkin add, that the area of the estuary of the Mersey, 
 from the Black Rock to the mouth of Woolston-weir, above Warrington- 
 bridge, (where the tide ceases,) is 23,062 acres, over which, at a twenty- 
 two feet tide, 736,945,213 tons of water flow ; and that, as already stated, 
 no less than 13,440 acres of marshes have been abstracted from the 
 
 * Liverpool Times, June 10, 1840. 
 
661 
 
 tideway, equal to about twenty-five millions of tons of water, calculated 
 at a twenty-two feet tide. 
 
 Messrs. Wilkin then proceed to give summaries of the information 
 collected, and the opinions formed by previous engineers. 
 
 The first report which they refer to is that made by Mr. Whidby, 
 the constructor of the Plymouth breakwater, in the year 1818. In this 
 report Mr. Whidby observes that the Mersey is an inlet of the sea, rather 
 than a river, being kept open entirely by the quantity of water that flows 
 into it, and not by the trifling streams which it receives at Warrington 
 and Frodsham bridges ; that tidal waters are deep, or otherwise, in pro¬ 
 portion to the quantity of water that flows into them from the sea, and 
 the fresh water that comes down to them from the interior. The greater 
 the quantity of water flowing in, the greater will be the depth, from the 
 effect which the increased body of water will have in scouring the bottom, 
 at the time of the ebb tide, in carrying out the swillage. Mr. Whidby 
 further observes, that if all the mud banks above and below Tnce, and 
 above and below Runcorn, were embanked, leaving a channel only for 
 the waters that come from the country to discharge themselves, the total 
 ruin of Liverpool would be the consequence. The back-water would be 
 so much diminished, that the scouring effect would be destroyed, and the 
 sand driven on towards the entrance of the Mersey, by the violence of 
 the north-west and western gales, would, in time, accumulate beyond 
 the possibility of removal. 
 
 The next report referred to is that of Messrs. Whidby, Chapman, and 
 John Rennie, made in the year 1822, in which those gentlemen state that 
 numerous jetties have been formed between Runcorn and Fiddler’s Ferry, 
 for the protection of the land against the violence of the current, extend¬ 
 ing, in many instances, much further than is necessary, and for the most 
 part operating as injurious impediments to the tideway, which, by 
 obstructing its course, diminish its velocity, and allow time for the 
 alluvial matter with which it is impregnated to be deposited, and form 
 banks and shoals, highly injurious to the navigation. 
 
 The third report referred to is that of Mr. Chapman, in 1823, but 
 no portion of it is quoted. 
 
 A fourth report of Messrs. Whidby, George Rennie, and Giles, in 
 1823, recommended that a quay or other boundary line, along the whole 
 of the shores of the river Mersey and its inlets, within the influence of the 
 tide, should be accurately defined upon plans confirmed by parliament. 
 
 In a fifth and separate report, made in the same year, 1826, by Mr. 
 
(362 
 
 Giles, he gave it as his opinion, that, by means of a shore and river wall, 
 such an uniformity of flood and ebb current will be established up and down 
 the river as to produce the best scouring effect of the tide and land waters, 
 and particularly upon the ebb tide, which would be directed more forcibly 
 upon the south-east end of the Liverpool shore than at present, so as not 
 only to prevent a further accumulation of bank, but most probably to lessen 
 the present extent and height of it; and that the further result of forming 
 such uniform lines of shore and river wall would equalize and distribute 
 the currents more over the river, above Liverpool in particular, so as to 
 prevent, in a great degree, the accumulation of mud and other sediment 
 under the river walls, and at the entrance to the docks generally, and, at 
 the same time, render the navigation of vessels more direct and easy than 
 can be the case through the various partial forces of currents and eddies 
 of the present tideway. 
 
 Messrs. Rennie and Giles, after having given particular consideration 
 to the sea channels and to the river, from the Black Rock to Runcorn, and 
 from thence to Woolston-weir, where the tide ceases, say it is admitted 
 by all intelligent and impartial men, that the preservation and improve¬ 
 ment of the navigable channels of a river depend entirely upon the flux 
 and reflux of the tidal waters and the discharge of fresh waters, and that 
 these have the most powerful effect during high spring tides and rainy 
 seasons, in scouring and deepening the channels through which such 
 waters must flow. 
 
 After giving the above summaries, and expressing their general con¬ 
 currence in them, Messrs. Wilkin proceed to give the opinion of Lieu¬ 
 tenant Lord, R.N., the marine-surveyor of the port, on the best mode of 
 preserving and improving the navigation. They say, “ We have 
 thought it desirable to request the corporation of Liverpool to state their 
 views as to the plan of operations, in the event of a Conservancy (Bill) 
 being granted. The town-clerk has favoured us with two letters from 
 Lieutenant Lord, R.N., the marine-surveyor of the port, to the chairman 
 of the conservancy committee. He recommends that the lines of high 
 water should be accurately marked and defined, and that no future 
 encroachments should be allowed, without authority; that the edges of 
 the banks, which, in the upper part of the river, are composed of earthy 
 sand, should be protected by a fencing of stone, or other suitable material, 
 to prevent any part from being carried away. This, he says, would render 
 permanent a scouring force of water, which would maintain the sea 
 approaches in an effective state; and it would then remain to watch the 
 
663 
 
 changes that might arise in the sandbanks in the river and its approaches, 
 and to adopt such timely remedies as might he necessary. He (Lieut. 
 Lord) refers particularly to the dredging operations, which were so suc¬ 
 cessfully carried on for a period of ten months, during the last year, by 
 which means a most valuable channel was opened, at a small expense ; 
 that success depends entirely on the column of water running out of 
 the Mersey on the ebb tide, and on a minute attention to what was taking 
 place in that region. He considers the natural formation of the Mersey 
 admirably adapted for scouring and keeping open the sea channel, if 
 encroachments are not allowed to be made on its hanks, hut he doubts the 
 propriety of scarping and removing rocks.” 
 
 The recommendation of Messrs. Wilkin to the board of trade, founded 
 upon the above facts and opinions, was, that a public act should be intro¬ 
 duced by the board of trade, for the conservancy of the navigation of the 
 Mersey, under the powers of which a conservancy hoard should he formed, 
 consisting of the mayor of Liverpool for the time being, of one of the dock 
 trustees, of a third member appointed by the board of trade, on the part of 
 the public, and, if it was thought desirable, of a fourth member, appointed 
 on the part of the canal and navigation companies; two-tliirds of the 
 expense of the conservancy to be borne by the corporation of Liverpool, 
 and the other third by the dock trustees. 
 
 The Female Orphan Asylum was established in 1840. It originated 
 with the late Mrs. James Aikin. The want of such an institution had long 
 been a principal subject of her thoughts. A life of active but unob¬ 
 trusive benevolence had rendered her familiar with the varied miseries of 
 destitution in this large community, and the distress of helpless children 
 attracted her especial sympathy. Her maternal feelings, confined within 
 no narrow instinct, yearned towards suffering children everywhere. The 
 cry of a neglected little one seldom failed to draw her to its side. The 
 necessity of some more adequate provision than had hitherto existed for 
 that most pitiable of all classes, poor female orphans, without relatives or 
 friends to protect them, became every year more apparent to her; and, 
 with the conviction that such an institution as the present would be 
 attended with incalculable blessings, Mrs. Aikin engaged in the mission 
 of its accomplishment with her whole being. She lost no opportunity of 
 pressing her views upon the minds of her personal friends, and waited on 
 others whom she thought likely to aid her. A number of ladies, including 
 some with whom she was most intimate, took the subject up in her own 
 spirit, and with a zeal worthy of so good a cause. Amongst other friends 
 4 R 
 
664 
 
 whose help she sought was Mr. Harmood Banner, who at once warmly 
 adopted her plan, and contributed most materially to its advancement, by 
 his experience, knowledge of business, and those admirable qualities 
 which have distinguished him in this and other charitable works. With 
 such co-operation, success was not far distant. The ladies formed them¬ 
 selves into a provisional committee, issued a prospectus, and appealed for 
 public support, early in 1840. The appeal was well responded to; and a 
 few months afterwards, on the 5th May, 1840, a public meeting was held 
 at the Royal Institution, at which the mayor presided, to promote the 
 object in view. A house was taken in Upper Stanhope-street, capable of 
 accommodating forty to fifty children; and, on the 24th August, 1840, 
 the first orphan was received. 
 
 According to a return from the overseers, laid before the town council 
 in August, 1840, the annual rental of Liverpool was £902,370 ; that of 
 Kirkdale, £14,147; that of Everton, £53,270; that of West Derby, 
 £42,769; that of Toxteth-park, £93,286 ; making a total value, within 
 the parliamentary borough, of £1,105,842 a-year. The value of the real 
 property in the county of Lancaster, according to the returns of the com¬ 
 missioners of the income tax, was £7,756,228 ; and, according to the 
 same returns, there were thirteen English counties, in each of which the 
 value of all the fixed property was less than the value of the same kind 
 of property in Liverpool or Manchester. 
 
 On Saturday, the 12th September, 1840, the first experimental trip 
 was made along the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, in a train of seven 
 carriages, drawn by the locomotive, Wirrall. The train reached Chester 
 in fifty minutes. The line was opened the Monday but one following, 
 and the Chester and Crewe a few days later.* 
 
 In February, 1841, it was arranged that the plan of erecting ware¬ 
 houses on the western quay of the Prince’s Dock should be abandoned, 
 but that dock warehouses should he erected round the proposed new 
 dock, since named the Albert Dock. 
 
 The Manchester and Leeds Railway was opened on the 1st of March, 
 1841, uniting Lancashire with Yorkshire, and completing the railway 
 communication between the Irish Sea at Liverpool, and the German Ocean 
 at Hull. 
 
 The census of the population of the kingdom was again taken, in the 
 summer of 1841, when it appeared that the population of the parliamentary 
 borough of Liverpool amounted to 293,963 inhabitants. The increase, 
 
 * Liverpool Times, September 15, 1840. 
 
665 
 
 since 1831, was, in the parish of Liverpool, 57,779; in Everton, 4,630 ; 
 in Kirkdale, 1,188 ; in West Derby, 7,289 : and in Toxteth-park, 17,113 : 
 total increase in ten years, 87,999. The following are the particulars 
 of the population:—Liverpool, 222,954; Everton, 9,148; Kirkdale, 
 3,779; West Derby, 16,902; Toxteth-park, 41,180: total population of 
 parliamentary borough, 293,963. An addition of about 50,000 must he 
 made to this for the seamen of the Port; the population of Birkenhead; 
 and that of the suburban villages on both sides of the river Mersey. 
 
 On the 11th of March, 1841, the steamer President sailed from New 
 York, for Liverpool, with twenty-seven passengers on board, including 
 the celebrated actor, Tyrone Power, and Lord Frederick Lennox, besides 
 two children, and the officers and crew. The unfortunate vessel, which 
 was quite new, and of great strength, though deficient in power, con¬ 
 sidering her immense size, never reached Liverpool; nor has any 
 certain information ever been obtained as to her fate. The last person 
 who saw her was Captain Cole, of the American ship Orpheus, who gave 
 the following account, at a meeting at New York, of the circumstances 
 under which he parted from her:—He said that he left New York, in the 
 Orpheus, on the morning of the 11th of March, in company with the 
 President, and had her in sight until sundown on the 12th. It appeared, 
 from his log book, that it blew a terrific gale on the 12th and 13th. When 
 last he saw the President, she was rising on the top of a tremendous sea, 
 and appeared to be pitching heavily and labouring tremendously. She 
 was then in that dangerous part of the Atlantic, about midway between 
 the Nantucket-shoal and the St. George’s-bank, just where the gulf 
 stream strikes soundings, and where the waves rise almost straight up and 
 down, and as high as a four or five story house. That the President then 
 must have been shipping seas heavily and fast; that probably those large 
 bodies of water worked through into the engine-room, or fire-room, and 
 extinguished the fires, in which case the steamer would be comparatively 
 helpless; that the storm was terrific all that night; that, next morning, 
 the wind shifted suddenly from north-east to south-east, knocking up a 
 still more tremendous sea, and that the gale continued with unabated 
 fury till midnight of the 13th. It was the belief of Captain Cole that 
 the President did not outlive the gale, but foundered, with all on board, 
 and that all perished before sundown on the 13th March. 
 
 From the opening of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway to the 
 23d September, 1841, the trains travelled three millions of miles, and 
 conveyed 257,990 passengers, without any accident.* 
 
 * Liverpool Times, October 22, 1841. 
 
666 
 
 On the 26th April, 1842, the steamer Hindostan, of 1,800 tons, was 
 launched from the building-yard of Messrs. Wilson, of Liverpool. The 
 Oriental was launched from the same building-yard a little earlier, and 
 the Bentinok a little later. 
 
 The British and North American royal mail steamers made thirty- 
 eight voyages from Liverpool to Halifax, and thirty-eight from Halifax 
 to Liverpool, between July the 4th, 1840, and June the 11th, 1842. The 
 average of the passages out was thirteen days six hours; that of the 
 passages home eleven days three hours.* 
 
 The town and neighbourhood of Liverpool were surveyed and deli¬ 
 neated on the noble maps of the board of ordnance, in the summer of 
 1842. 
 
 The Liverpool Collegiate Institution, for the purpose of giving an 
 education of the highest order, formed by the subscriptions of the 
 friends of the established church, was opened in January, 1843. Dr. 
 Sumner, then Bishop of Chester, now Archbishop of Canterbury, pre¬ 
 sided. The inaugural address was delivered by the Eight Hon. W. E. 
 Gladstone.f 
 
 In consequence of the numerous and destructive fires which occurred 
 in Liverpool from time to time, and of the great want of a sufficient supply 
 of water to extinguish them, a meeting of the ratepayers was held at the 
 Sessions’-house, on the 17th of March, 1843, John Holmes, Esq., in the 
 chair, at which it was resolved, “ That it was of the highest importance to 
 the comfort and welfare of the inhabitants of Liverpool that some efficient 
 plan be adopted for obtaining an adequate supply of water within the 
 parish, for the extinguishing of fires and for watering the streets of the 
 town.” Authority was given to the commissioners of paving and sewer¬ 
 age to raise ^650,000 for that purpose. It was the wish of the commis¬ 
 sioners to have sunk a well near the Necropolis, for the purposes mentioned 
 in the above resolution, but both the water companies opposed it, on the 
 ground that it would diminish the supply in their wells; and it was pro¬ 
 vided by the bill, as ultimately agreed to, that the well should not be sunk 
 in the borough, or within a mile and a quarter of the Windsor well. 
 Under the powers of this act a well was sunk at Green-lane, about three 
 miles from the Liverpool Exchange. 
 
 The improvements at Birkenhead, by which that rising town has been 
 made one of the best-planned and best-arranged places in England, had 
 
 * Nautical Magazine for July, 1842. 
 
 + Liverpool Times, January 10, 1843. 
 
667 
 
 made considerable progress in 1843. According to a statement laid before 
 the commissioners in the month of September, in that year, it appeared 
 that the ancient township of Birkenhead contained 998 acres, which had 
 been increased to 1330, by joining to it portions of Claughton and Oxton. 
 Of this ground 226 acres had been laid out in a beautiful park, under the 
 superintendence of the present Sir Joseph Paxton. About sixteen miles of 
 streets had been laid out, and all thoroughly sewered, being equal to the 
 quantity of sewerage usually found in a town of 140,000 inhabitants. At 
 the census of 1841 the number of houses had been 1,250, and the popu¬ 
 lation 8,227; but it was supposed that the population had nearly doubled 
 itself in two years. The number of passengers who crossed the Woodside 
 Ferry yearly was supposed to be 200,000, and about 5,000 on ordinary 
 days.* 
 
 A French tourist, who travelled by railway from London to Liverpool, 
 in 1843, and sailed from Liverpool to Dublin, gives the following account 
 of his impressions :—“ I shall not attempt to describe to you the vast and 
 fertile country intersected by the lines of railway from London to Liver¬ 
 pool. My course was so rapid that I was rather blinded than charmed 
 with the immense variety of sites which every minute, indeed every 
 second, appeared only to vanish again. My mind can only recal this 
 phantasmagoria as it does the prospects which we see in our dreams, and 
 which, on waking, leave nothing but confused and transitory images on 
 our minds. I left London at half-past ten in the morning, by the mail 
 train, and arrived at Liverpool at half-past six, having thus travelled 212 
 miles in eight hours, although the train remained half-an-liour at Bir¬ 
 mingham, and ten minutes at five or six stations. The magnificent 
 steamer Princess was waiting for us on our arrival at the port, the engine 
 already throwing off its steam, and the chimney pouring out volumes of 
 smoke. In a few minutes the mail, the luggage, and the passengers were 
 all on board; tbe Princess then moved away gently, described a rapid 
 and majestic curve, and then started off rapidly westward. We were no 
 longer in Liverpool or in England. The sea was calm and unbroken as 
 a lake, the weather superb, and the night passed without accident. I 
 slept delightfully in a little bed of mahogany, clean, elegant, and attractive 
 as the sofa of a Parisian petite maitresse. At five o’clock in the morning I 
 was on deck; the sun was already shining, and promised another brilliant 
 day. From the bosom of the sea rose, on our left, the green mountains of 
 Wicklow, girt with light clouds, driven rapidly along by a fresh breeze. 
 
 * Report of Birkenhead Markets Committee, September 5, 1843. 
 
668 
 
 At six o’clock tlie Princess entered the harbour of Kingstown, which is 
 now the rendezvous of sliips-of-war and of steam-packets. A railway unites 
 Kingstown to Dublin, and in less than a quarter of an hour the traveller 
 finds himself transported to one of the finest quarters of the Irish 
 capital.”* 
 
 At a meeting of the dock committee, in September, 1843, Mr. Hartley 
 called the attention of the committee to the long time that had elapsed 
 since the docks were let dry, and proposed that they should he allowed to 
 run dry, in turns, that he might have an opportunity of cleaning them. 
 This ought to be done every three years, at least. The report further 
 stated, that for the twelve months ending July, 1824, the number of 
 vessels which entered the port was 10,001, tonnage 1,180,914; and in the 
 year ending at the same date in 1843, the number of vessels was 16,606, 
 tonnage 2,445,276. In 1824 the dock space was 50f acres; in 1843, 
 96^ acres; and, when the Albert Dock was finished, it would be 106^- 
 acres. Notwithstanding this increase, Mr. Hartley was of opinion that a 
 further extension of dock space was desirable. At the same meeting of 
 the dock committee a report was read from Lieutenant Lord, B.N., the 
 marine-surveyor of the port, in which it was stated that the depth 
 of water in the Victoria Channel, during the late spring tides, had been 
 found to be 41 feet 3 inches at high water, and 9 feet 10 inches at low 
 water. 
 
 On the 30th October, 1843, an interesting debate took place in the 
 town council, on the subject of the sale of a portion of the estate of 
 the corporation, on the brink of Wallasey-pool,—the space on which 
 the Birkenhead docks are forming; and on the purchase of a large 
 quantity of land on the North-shore,—the ground on which the northern 
 docks have since been formed. This debate arose out of the report of 
 the finance committee, in which it was stated that that committee, in 
 the name of the council, had disposed of thirteen lots of land, con¬ 
 taining 200,000 yards, on the edge of Wallasey-pool, for a term of 
 seventy-five years, and for the sum of T120,000; and that they had 
 arranged with the Earl of Derby for the purchase of 1,000 yards in length 
 of the shore of the river Mersey, to the north of the then existing dock 
 estate. The report recommended that the committee should be autho¬ 
 rized to make this purchase, at a sum not exceeding £ 17,500. The 
 committee thought that if this purchase, together with another, in con¬ 
 templation by the dock committee, were completed, it would not, for fifty 
 * Letters of a French Tourist. 
 
669 
 
 years, be necessary to make clocks beyond the limits of the purchase from 
 his lordship ; and, indeed, they doubted whether, under any circumstances, 
 it would be advisable to make docks beyond the limits of that purchase. 
 The sale of a portion of the land on Wallasey-pool would give a greatly- 
 increased value to the much larger quantity of land which the corpora¬ 
 tion would still retain. 
 
 Mr. Eyre Evans, and other gentlemen, strongly opposed the sale of the 
 land on Wallasey-pool. Mr. Evans said that they might have made the 
 pool subservient to the welfare of Liverpool; they might have made it a 
 receptacle for empty and lying-up vessels, and for many other uses. It 
 would have been a lumber-dock for Liverpool, precisely the thing it 
 wanted; and, instead of that, they were about to spend a million of money 
 to get that very room for lumber. Who had been examined on the 
 question ? Had the surveyor of the docks been called on for plans, or 
 to produce the ancient plans which he had by him at that moment, to 
 show what were the uses the estuary could be put to ? With all this 
 valuable knowledge, which was possessed by the elder members of the 
 council, but withheld from or unknown to the more recent members, they 
 hurried on this affair without doing it any justice; without bringing 
 forward, to a full and fair and proper discussion, the question whether they 
 ought or ought not to sell that property, what were the uses to which the 
 estuary and the land on its margin could be put, or what would be the 
 benefit or injury that would result to Liverpool. 
 
 After a long and warm debate the council divided, when the sales at 
 Birkenhead were confirmed by a majority of 31 to 25 votes. The 
 following gentlemen voted against the confirmation of these sales :— 
 Councillors: James Aikin, Thomas Blackburn, William Preston, John 
 North, Joshua Edwards, William Thornhill, Henry Copeland, Henry 
 Holmes, John Stewart, John Procter, Robert Rigby, John Kilshaw, 
 James Parker, J. Plumpton, Richard Harbord, G. G. Hornby, and T. B. 
 Barclay. Aldermen: Eyre Evans, Richard Houghton, Thomas Bulley, 
 James Lawrence, and Thomas Holt. 
 
 The purchase of the Kirkdale shore was agreed to without any debate. 
 Mr. G. H. Lawrence said, that the council having agreed to sell a portion 
 of the estate on one side of the river, he now came to ask them to increase 
 their corporate rights on the Liverpool side. The mode of doing this was 
 to buy 1,000 yards of shore frontage, extending beyond Beacon’s-gutter, 
 the northern boundary of the town. The duchy of Lancaster had agreed 
 to give up its rights on this portion of the shore, for the sum of <£800 ; 
 
but a stipulation was attached to the surrender of the duchy rights, 
 which was, that the corporation should engage to make a river wall to the 
 property, one-half in five years, the other in ten. The purchase of the 
 shore, on these terms, was confirmed without a division. 
 
 The commissioners of Birkenhead, having obtained possession of a 
 large part of the bank of Wallasey-pool, immediately proceeded to give 
 notice of an application to parliament, for powers to form extensive docks 
 in the pool. The Liverpool dock committee, in the same month, gave 
 notice of their intention to apply for powers to construct the great line of 
 docks, now known as the north docks, on the land just acquired from 
 the Earl of Derby. It is well known that both these applications were 
 successful; that the north docks have since been formed, and are now 
 producing a revenue of £45,000 a-year ; and that considerable progress 
 has also been made with the Birkenhead docks, although they are still 
 unfinished. An account of what was projected and what has been 
 done, both at the northern and the Birkenhead docks, will be given in the 
 course of this work. 
 
 In January, 1844, Mr. Charles Horsfall, who had rendered many 
 important services to the commerce of Liverpool, during a long and useful 
 life, retired from the dock committee. The following observations, written 
 at the time of Mr. Horsfall’s retirement, by the author of this work, 
 express the opinion which he still entertains of the value of his public 
 services:—“During the last thirty or forty years Mr. Charles Horsfall’s 
 name has been honourably known in connexion with almost every object 
 of public utility in the town of Liverpool: he has held every office which 
 it was in the power of his fellow-townsmen to confer upon him; he has 
 discharged the duties of all to the satisfaction of the public; and he has 
 earned the respect of his fellow-townsmen of all classes and creeds by his 
 conduct in every relation of life. To the dock estate his services have 
 been especially useful, on account of the clear and large views which he 
 has always taken of the interests of that great trust.”* 
 
 A return was published in 1844, by the registrar of births, deaths, and 
 marriages, as to the amount of mortality and the comparative chances of 
 life in Liverpool, London, and the rural districts. This return, which was 
 extremely unfavourable to Liverpool, showed that of 100,000 persons born 
 in Liverpool only 48,211 were alive at ten years of age; 44,808 at twenty 
 years of age; 40,349 at thirty ; 33,748 at forty ; 25,878 at fifty ; 17,461 
 at sixty; 8,375 at seventy; 2,271 at eighty; 261 at ninety; and 33 at 
 * Liverpool Times, January 2, 1844. 
 
671 
 
 a hundred. In London, of every 100,000 persons born 64,921 were alive 
 at ten years of age; 61,684 at twenty; 56,668 at thirty; 49,852 at 
 forty; 41,309 at fifty; 29,839 at sixty; 16,344 at seventy; 4,502 at 
 eighty; 360 at ninety; and 9 at a hundred. In the rural part of the 
 county of Surrey, the return showed that of 100,000 persons born 75,428 
 were alive at ten years of age; 70,885 at twenty ; 65,559 at thirty; 69,413 
 at forty; 52,061 at fifty; 42,634 at sixty; 28,035 at seventy ; 11,205 at 
 eighty; 795 at ninety; 100 at ninety-five; 15 at a hundred; and 2 at 
 a hundred and five. This, and other statements of a similar kind, pro¬ 
 duced a great impression on the public mind of Liverpool, and led to the 
 adoption of many measures of sanatory improvement, which will be more 
 particularly described hereafter. 
 
 At the meeting of the town council, on the 6th of March, 1844, Mr. 
 James Aikin, the chairman of the observatory committee, announced that 
 this port at length possessed an astronomical observatory worthy of its 
 commercial greatness, and one which, from the excellence of its instru¬ 
 ments, would be able to indicate tlie true time with infallible certainty, 
 so as to enable the captains of merchant ships to regulate their chrono¬ 
 meters exactly, and thus to avoid those errors of time which were so often 
 fatal at sea. Very shortly the instant of noon would be shown at Liver¬ 
 pool as at Greenwich, by the falling of a ball at the observatory. The 
 committee, he stated, had also succeeded in securing the services of Mr. 
 Hartnup, an astronomer in every respect qualified to render the Liverpool 
 Observatory useful to science.* 
 
 In July, 1844, the Birkenhead Dock Bill received the royal assent.f 
 
 In December, 1844, it was announced that the Liverpool Observatory 
 was in full work, for the guidance of navigators. At one invariable 
 moment of each day a large ball was made to fall suddenly from a high 
 pole or mast. The exact point of time which it was chosen thus publicly 
 to proclaim was tbe precise moment of one o’clock at the Royal Observa¬ 
 tory of Greenwich, which, of course, differed from one o’clock at Liverpool 
 by the amount of the longitude of Liverpool west of Greenwich. This is 
 twelve minutes, within the fraction of a second, so that any clock indi¬ 
 cating forty-eight minutes past twelve, or twelve minutes before one, at 
 the moment of the ball leaving the cross at the summit of the mast, 
 indicated the true mean time of Liverpool, and the quantity by which a 
 timepiece might vary from this indication was, of course, the amount of its 
 error, fast or slow, as it might be. So admirably was the matter arranged, 
 * Liverpool Times, March 12, 1844. + Ibid, July 23, 1844. 
 
 4 S 
 
that an error of a second of time would be thought extravagant, and 
 never occurred.* 
 
 In February, 1845, died Mr. Thomas Winstanley, a true lover of the 
 fine arts, and one who did more to create and sustain a taste for painting 
 and sculpture in Liverpool than any of his contemporaries. He united to 
 a sincere love of the beautiful in art a most intimate knowledge of the 
 works of the great painters and sculptors of all countries and ages. He 
 took a principal part in forming the collection of the works of the old 
 masters at the Royal Institution, and in organizing and sustaining the 
 yearly exhibition of the works of living artists, which has now become 
 one of the permanent pleasures of the inhabitants of Liverpool. His 
 frequent lectures, and Iris publications on the subject of art, were dis¬ 
 tinguished by good taste and knowledge. In private life he was one of 
 the kindest of men and most agreeable of companions. His memory is 
 justly dear to all who knew him, and to no one more so than to the 
 writer of this brief notice. 
 
 In the spring of 1845 -all was bustle and activity about the Birken¬ 
 head docks. Seven hundred men were at work day and night, and two 
 thousand were set to work as the summer approached. It was then 
 expected that the docks would be partially opened in two years, and 
 completed in three. The dock warehouse company were making fifty 
 millions of bricks, for the large and commodious warehouses which have 
 since been built.f 
 
 In tbe session of 1845 the Liverpool and Manchester and the Grand 
 Junction Railways, the two first great lines formed in England, agreed to 
 amalgamate their property and interests. For some time they were 
 worked under the title of “The Grand Junction Railway Company”; 
 but soon after another amalgamation united the London and Birmingham 
 line to the other two, on which the joint companies assumed the present 
 well-known title of “ The London and North Western Railway Company.” 
 
 The steam-ship Great Britain, built at Bristol by the same enterprizing 
 company which built the Great Western, began to ply between Liverpool 
 and New York in 1845. The burden of this stupendous vessel is 3,500 
 tons, (old measurement,) her length over all 320 feet, and beam 51 
 feet. She is altogether formed of iron, and propelled by the screw, 
 being the most wonderful vessel ever built, if we take into account her 
 size, her material, and her mode of propulsion. 
 
 In August, 1845, the first line of screw-steamers between Liverpool 
 * Liverpool Times, December 17, 1811. t Ibid, March 4, 1845. 
 
673 
 
 rind the Levant began to run. The first vessel was the Novelty, the 
 second the Levantine, both for Constantinople. This was the beginning 
 of a great change, by which nearly the whole trade between Liverpool 
 and all the countries within the Straits of Gibraltar has come to be 
 carried on by means of sci'ew-steamers.* 
 
 The total number of houses built in Liverpool between the years 1838 
 and 1845, both included, was 14,982, namely, in 1838, 1,652; in 1839, 
 997; in 1840, 1,577; in 1841, 1,761 ; in 1842, 2,027; in 1843, 1,390; 
 in 1844, 2,450 ; in 1845, 3,728. The extraordinary increase in the num¬ 
 ber of bouses built in 1844 and 1845 was partly the result of an excellent 
 local law, forbidding tbe use of cellars as dwelling places. 
 
 In February, 1846, it was announced that the directors of the Grand 
 Junction Railway had determined to establish an express train, to start 
 from Liverpool for London at six o’clock in the morning. This train was 
 to arrive in London about twelve o’clock, thus rendering it possible for 
 merchants, brokers, and other men of business, wbo might be desirous to 
 attend sales of sugar, cotton, silk, wool, indigo, and other articles, or 
 professional men having business to perform, which required their per¬ 
 sonal presence, after passing the previous night at home, to spend four or 
 five hours in London, and yet reach home the same night by the express 
 train from London.f 
 
 A meeting was held at the Clarendon-rooms, Liverpool, in April, 
 1846, Charles Lawrence, Esq., in the chair, to originate a testimonial of 
 respect to Mr. Henry Booth, the treasurer and chief-manager of the Liver¬ 
 pool and Manchester Railway, from the time of its formation to that of 
 the amalgamation of the line with the Grand Junction Railway. The 
 chairman, after passing a warm and well-merited eulogium on the services 
 of Mr. Booth, moved the following resolution :—“That it is the opinion 
 of this meeting that Mr. Henry Booth is eminently entitled to a public 
 testimonial, for the important services which he has rendered during a 
 period of nearly twenty years, not only to the Liverpool and Manchester 
 Railway, with which he has been so long and so beneficially connected, 
 but to railways in general, which have been largely benefitted by his 
 matured experience in the management of their affairs.” A committee 
 was then appointed to carry out the object of the above resolution, con¬ 
 sisting of the directors of the late Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
 Company, the directors of the Grand Junction Railway Company, Robert 
 Bickersteth, Esq., Thomas Bolton, Esq., Robertson Gladstone, Esq., 
 * Liverpool Times, August 12, 1845. > Ibid, February 24, 184(1. 
 
674 
 
 T. S. Gladstone, Esq., George Holt, Esq., Hugh Hornby, Esq , 
 Wellwood Maxwell, Esq., Alexander Maxwell, Esq., and Samuel Sand- 
 bach, Esq.* 
 
 The Sailors’ Home owes its origin to the philanthropic and spirited 
 exertions of Mr. James Aikin, its chairman, aided by the co-operation of 
 Mr. Charles Coteswortli, vice-chairman, Mr. James Tyrer, treasurer, and 
 Mr. William J. Tomlinson, the invaluable honorary secretary, and a num¬ 
 ber of other gentlemen, who, with a view to improve the condition and 
 character of British seamen, “ to rescue them from corrupting influences, 
 and to induce them to seek and value the comforts of a well-regulated 
 establishment,” projected this institution, and, in 1841, called a meeting, 
 by public advertisement, when it was determined to establish a -£ Sailors’ 
 Home, Registry, and Savings’-bank for Seamen,” in Liverpool. The 
 fundamental principles were decided upon, and a provisional com¬ 
 mittee was appointed to adopt measures calculated to advance the desired 
 object. This committee made considerable progress in obtaining dona¬ 
 tions. A memorial was presented to the town council requesting a grant 
 of land for a building, and a grant was accordingly promised of an eligible 
 site at the north end of the Prince’s Dock. At the requisition of this 
 committee, a public meeting was convened by the mayor, Mr. Thomas 
 Sands, and held at the Sessions’-house, October 25, 1844, for the purpose 
 of still further exciting public interest, when there was a very influential 
 attendance, and, by the powerful speeches made on that occasion, a strong 
 and lasting impression was produced. The various resolutions were moved 
 and seconded by the following gentlemen, viz., Mr. Adam Hodgson, Mr. 
 Edward Rushton, (the late lamented stipendiary magistrate,) Mr. James 
 Aikin, Mr. William Potter, the Rev. Hugh M‘Neile, the Rev. J. T. Brown, 
 (minister of the Scotch Church,) the Rev. Augustus Campbell, junior- 
 rector of Liverpool, Mr. George Grant, Mr. William Ratlibone, Mr. 
 Charles Coteswortli, Mr. Thomas Berry Horsfall, Mr. Duncan Gibb, Mr. 
 Joseph C. Ewart, Mr. William Watson, Mr. W. R. Sandbach, Mr. William 
 Brown, M.P., .and Mr. George Kendall. 
 
 The following gentlemen were appointed a committee, with power to 
 add to their number, viz., Messrs. James Aikin, Josias Booker, Charles 
 Coteswortli, John A. Tinne, James Tyrer, John L. Phipps, William Potter, 
 William Watson, James Bold, Francis Shand, E. W. Jackson, William 
 Rathbone, Richard Harbord, P. W. Pritchard, W. J. Tomlinson, George 
 Grant, Robert Rankin, T. B. Horsfall, Adam Hodgson, Edward Rushton, 
 
 * Liverpool Times, April 7, 1846. 
 
675 
 
 J. B. Moore, Joseph C. Ewart, Jonathan Higginson, Duncan Gibb, 
 Andrew Low, William Brown, P. P. Younghusband, George Kendall, 
 John Archer, Robert Bibby, and John Clint. 
 
 The sum of £14,800 was subscribed. Temporary premises were taken 
 in Bath-street, and opened April 21st, 1845, for such departments as 
 could then be entered on, consisting of the affording of facilities for 
 paying off crews, the registration and shipping of seamen, the cashing of 
 advance notes, and opening a bank, where seamen could deposit their 
 money, and draw it when and in what manner they pleased. From that 
 date, April 21st, to December 81st, of the same year, 1845, there were 
 3,332 men registered, all of whom produced satisfactory characters from 
 their late employers, without which certificate no man can be put on the 
 hooks of the institution; 220 ships were supplied with crews; 2,412 
 men were shipped; 231 crews were paid off in the institution ; 1,308 
 advance notes, amounting to £3,000, were cashed; and the amount 
 deposited in the savings’-bank was £405. These facts, with others, 
 afforded a satisfactory proof of the appreciation of such an establishment, 
 even in its imperfect state, and held out infinitely greater hopes of 
 success, when the time should arrive for the opening of its other depart¬ 
 ments, and the development of its entire utility, in a suitable building, 
 with complete arrangements. In lieu of the plot of land at the north 
 end of the Prince’s Dock, originally intended, the town council substi¬ 
 tuted a grant of that on which the Sailors’ Home now stands, facing the 
 east end of the Custom-house. Plans were prepared for the building; 
 contracts were entered into; and the foundation-stone was laid July 31, 
 1846, by his royal highness Prince Albert. 
 
 A further sum of money being needed for the completion of the 
 building, a bazaar, in aid of its funds, was held within its walls, on the 
 23d, 24th, and 25th April, 1851, which yielded the large nett amount of 
 £5,000. An additional, hut comparatively small, amount is still required 
 to furnish it. The building was opened at the end of 1850, for the 
 business previously conducted at the temporary rooms, in Bath-street, 
 and is now in full operation, except for the reception of seamen to board 
 and lodge, which important department, especially entitled to the term 
 “Home,” will come into operation in the course of 1852, when accom¬ 
 modation will he provided for 350 to 400 men. Up to the end of the 
 year 1850 the number of seamen registered on the hooks was 14,488, 
 many of them having certificates from captains for six or seven voyages, 
 which may be referred to with facility. In 1850 the number of men 
 
shipped was 7,274 ; seamen whose advance notes were cashed, 575 ; 
 crews paid off, 281. 422,JOG was placed in the deposit hank ; and the 
 
 balance in the hank, on the 31st December, was 421,429 8s. 8d., against 
 42934 7s. at the same period in 1849. 
 
 Since the opening of this institution the present Mercantile Marine 
 Act has been passed; and, seeing that the objects contemplated by the 
 act are similar, though more limited and imperfect, in many respects, 
 than those which the Sailors’ Home is successfully accomplishing, and 
 designed still further to accomplish, hv voluntary effort, we cannot 
 doubt that government will afford every encouragement to the laudable 
 exertions of the committee of the Home, profitting, by their co-operation 
 and experience, rather to stimulate other seaports to supply deficiencies, 
 after the model here erected, than to retard, by any unwise interference, 
 the well-directed labours of those who, at great personal sacrifice and 
 cost, took the initiative, before the government itself, in the work of 
 ameliorating the condition of the seamen. The Sailors’ Home is not 
 only noble in its aims and regulations, hut also, in an architectural point 
 of view, is a leading ornament of the town, and reflects high credit on 
 its architect, Mr. John Cunningham. 
 
 In January, 1847, Dr. Duncan was appointed officer of health for 
 Liverpool, an office which he still fills, and in which he has rendered the 
 greatest services to the health of the town. At the time of this appoint¬ 
 ment Mr. Edwin Chadwick, the registrar-general, made the following 
 remarks on the necessity of a liberal expenditure for sanatory purposes, 
 in a place at once so rich and so unhealthy as Liverpool :—“ A parsimony,” 
 he said, “ for objects of such importance as the saving of pain and misery 
 would ill become Liverpool, where there is in course of expenditure, for 
 splendour, on one single edifice, St. George’s Hall, upwards of 42100,000 ; 
 a sum which would, if so applied, serve to sweep and cleanse in perpetuity, 
 and make decent, the filthy by-streets of upwards of 23,000 houses, out 
 of the 45,000 houses, which are under the corporation jurisdiction. And 
 allow me to pause by the way,” he added, “ to offer the suggestion for 
 consideration, since that edifice is to he adorned with statues, whether a 
 place may not he found for one, amongst other men who have adorned 
 Liverpool, to the late Dr. Currie, who, with the physicians of the fever 
 hospital, in the year 1802, pointed out preventive measures, which, if 
 they had been adopted, would have prevented Liverpool being now the 
 least healthy city in Great Britain, and would have averted the heavy 
 mortality burdens by which its population is now depressed. Ihe 
 
677 
 
 suggestion of ornamenting St. George’s Hall with a statue of a man 
 whose memory is so justly dear to the friends of literature, freedom, and 
 benevolence, as that of Dr. Currie must ever be, is worthy of adoption ; but 
 it must be added, in justice to Liverpool, that, whilst nearly £200,000 
 has been expended in adorning the town with one of the noblest buildings 
 of modern times, two, if not three, times that sum has been spent, or is 
 spending, on improvements designed to promote the public health, by 
 means of sewerage and cleansing, of baths and wash-houses, of improve¬ 
 ments in the residences of the poorer classes, and of an abundant supply 
 of water, brought from a distance of many miles. It is doubtful whether 
 a town like Liverpool, which can be reached at a trifling expense by the 
 most destitute of the Irish poor, will ever be as healthy as towns less 
 accessible to that poverty-stricken people; but it would be a great injustice 
 to suppose that the people of Liverpool are erecting magnificent buildings 
 and leaving the poor to perish. Nothing can be further from the truth. 
 Many admirable plans of improvement have been devised; immense sums 
 have already been expended in carrying them out; and there is no reason 
 to doubt that everything that is practicable will be done, to render the town 
 as healthy as a town subject to the influx of so much poverty can be 
 rendered. In the course of this work I shall have occasion to mention 
 numerous improvements, all of which were undertaken with a view of 
 freeing the town from the reproach to which it was at one time justly 
 subject. At the time of which 1 am writing, in January, 1847, when all 
 Ireland was suffering under the plague of famine, the influx of the 
 destitute into Liverpool was so overwhelming, that not less than 29,417 
 persons received parish relief, as casual poor, in six days, in addition to 
 the resident poor. 
 
 An inquiry took place in February, 1847, at the Court-house, before 
 Cuthbert Edward Ellison, Esq., barrister, and George Lowe, Esq., civil- 
 engineer, as to the supply of gas in the town of Liverpool. It appeared, 
 from the statement of Mr. Carson, solicitor to the company, that the 
 Liverpool Gaslight Company was incorporated in the year 1818, with 
 powers to raise a capital of £50,000, in five hundred shares of £100 each. 
 The company was very successful, and, in twenty-three years, expended 
 .£143,190 in supplying gas for the streets, public buildings, and houses 
 of Liverpool. In the year 1841 the company obtained additional powers, 
 and then extended its mains into Toxteth-park, West Derby, Everton, 
 Walton, Bootle, Great Crosby, and Wavertree. The price of the com¬ 
 pany’s gas, previous to 1841, was 8s. per 1,000 cubic feet; it was then 
 
678 
 
 fixed at 7s. ; in 1844 it was reduced to Gs.; in 1845 to 5s.; and again, 
 in the course of the year, to 4s. 6d. per 1,000 feet. 
 
 Mr. Alfred King, who had been engineer to the company for twenty- 
 one years, and is so still, stated that the company had two large stations, 
 one in Dale-street and the other in Vauxhall-road. The quantity of gas 
 made by the company, in 1844, was 153 millions of cubic feet; in 1845, 
 178 millions; and, in 1846, 211g- millions. The quantity made had 
 doubled in four years and a half, and trebled in seven years; the company 
 had 150 miles of mains, 132 within the parliamentary borough, and 
 18 without; the largest main was 12 inches in diameter; the most distant 
 point which the company lighted was Wavertree; 9,600 cubic feet of gas 
 was made, on an average of a year, from a ton of cannel coal; the 
 illuminating power gave a light equal to 20 18-10ths of wax candles, 
 burning six to the pound; the specific gravity of the gas was from 545 
 to 555 ; the street lamps burnt about 4 feet of gas an hour; of the 4s. 6d. 
 per thousand charged by the company, at the then rate of consumption, 
 2s. 9d. went to cost, and Is. 10g-d. to dividend ; there were 1,366 streets 
 lighted in Liverpool; the street lamps consumed 42 millions cubic feet 
 of gas; the company lighted 3,065 houses, 141 manufactories, 188public 
 buildings, 1,353 inns or taverns, 5,963 shops and offices, and 128 lamps 
 in private courts. 
 
 In March, 1847, the cargo of the Emily, from Shanghae, in China, 
 was discharged into the AlbertDock Warehouses, in five hours, a wonderful 
 instance of despatch and good management. It consisted of 919 bales 
 of silk, 27 bales of hemp, and 2,168 chests of tea; altogether, upwards 
 of 3,000 packages.* 
 
 On Monday, the 22d March, the first of the Birkenhead docks, named 
 the Morpeth Dock, was opened, as well as the large and convenient dock 
 warehouses attached to the docks of Birkenhead. The Earl of Carlisle, 
 then Lord Morpeth, opened the dock, by entering it, on board the steamer 
 Lord Warden.f The beautiful park of Birkenhead was opened on the 
 same day. 
 
 The alarming influx of the Irish poor into Liverpool, during the 
 winter of 1846 and the spring of 1847, the memorable years of famine, 
 has already been mentioned. The actual number who arrived in 
 Liverpool, from the 16th January to the 17th April, in 1847, was 
 127,785 persons, namely, 69,695 men, 36,234 women, and 22,686 
 children.J 
 
 * Liverpool Times, March 23, 1837. + Ibid, April 0, 1847. {Ibid, April 20, 18-17. 
 
679 
 
 In June, 1847, large reductions, amounting, in the whole, to about 
 £38,000 a-year, were made in the dock dues. The reductions were, on 
 cotton, £18,700; on shipping, £14,000; on salt, £3,400 ; on iron, 
 £1,500; on coal, ,£1,116. 
 
 Mr. Charles Okill, clerk of the committees of the town council, died 
 at his house, at Childwall, on the 20th June, 1847, having been in the 
 service of the corporation of Liverpool for upwards of thirty years, the 
 greater part of which he spent either in compiling plans of the corpo¬ 
 ration property, or in collecting that mass of evidence, by which the claim 
 of the corporation to its town dues’ revenue was so clearly and firmly 
 established, when its right was tried before Lord Chief-Justice Denman. 
 Mr. Okill was a good Latin scholar, and also possessed a fair knowledge 
 of the Norman and Anglo-Saxon languages. He had examined and made 
 copious extracts from every published work which either did, or might be 
 supposed to, throw light on the early part of the history of South Lan¬ 
 cashire, beginning with the account of the wars of the Saxon kings, Oswald 
 and Penda, in the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, and coming 
 down, step by step, to the reign of King Charles the Second, when that 
 portion of the jura regalia—the town dues of Liverpool—in which he felt 
 so deep an interest, passed into the hands of the corporation of Liverpool. 
 He had also examined the manuscripts in the Harleian and other great 
 collections, and the unpublished papers in the record-offices, with won¬ 
 derful industry. His collection, which fills upwards of twenty-five 
 volumes of manuscript, and which contains nearly as much Latin as 
 English, is a remarkable evidence of his patience and sagacity, and of 
 his untiring zeal for the interests of his employers. The great mass of 
 it—I should think nine-tenths of the whole—relates to periods of history 
 previous to the reign of Charles the Second; and probably two-thirds of 
 it to the times of the Saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, and Tudor sovereigns. 
 Mr. Okill is the guide whom I have followed, in matters relating strictly 
 to Liverpool, to the year 1640. His collection, subsequent to that 
 period, is very incomplete; indeed, altogether unfinished. He was an 
 enthusiastic antiquary, and one of the most industrious and sagacious 
 ever produced either by the present or any other age. 
 
 In the parliament elected in the summer of 1847, eight gentlemen 
 were returned connected with Liverpool, either by birth or residence, or 
 immediate descent, namely, the Right Hon. W. G. Gladstone, member 
 for the University of Oxford ; William Brown, Esq., one of the members 
 for South Lancashire ; Sir Thomas Bernard Birch, Bart., and Edward 
 4 T 
 
680 
 
 Cardwell, Esq., members for the borough of Liverpool ; Sir Joshua 
 Walmsley, member for Leicester, aud now for Bolton ; Thomas Thornely, 
 Esq., member for Wolverhampton ; William Ewart, Esq., member for 
 Dumfries ; and William Jackson, Esq., member for Newcastle-under - 
 Lyne. 
 
 In the summer of 1847 two distinguished performers made their 
 appearance before a Liverpool audience, Mad’lle Rachel and Jenny Lind. 
 To speak of their merits is superfluous, and it is almost so to say that 
 they were eminently successful in Liverpool. Mad’lle Rachel performed 
 in “ Les Horaces”, “ Phedre”, and other master-pieces of French tragedy. 
 Jenny Lind performed and sang in “La Sonnambula” and “LaFiglia.” 
 Grisi, Mario, Alboni, and Tamburini appeared a few weeks later, and 
 were also very successful. 
 
 On Monday, the 28th September, 1847, Liverpool possessed for the 
 first time the use of the electric telegraph, the most wonderful of modem 
 inventions. Manchester was the first place in the kingdom with which 
 Liverpool was brought into communication ; but very shortly afterwards 
 it was connected with every place in Great Britain to which the magic 
 wires of the electric telegraph extend. 
 
 In the autumn of 1847 Lieutenant Lord, R.N., the marine-surveyor 
 of the port of Liverpool, published his most elaborate and accurate chart 
 of the port and the approaches to it. 
 
 On the 26th November Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, the architect of those 
 noble buildings, St. George’s Hall and the Collegiate Institution, died at 
 Spanish Town, Jamaica, where he had gone, in the hope of benefitting his 
 health, which, like that of too many men of genius, was feeble and preca¬ 
 rious. No stranger ever visited Liverpool, for any purpose connected with 
 the arts, who obtained so general an esteem as he did, by his gentlemanlike 
 conduct, his strict integrity, and the great talent which he displayed in his 
 profession. The St. George’s Hall and the Collegiate Institution of 
 Liverpool will prove lasting monuments of his taste and genius. 
 
 During the year 1847 the British and North American royal mail 
 steamers made twenty voyages to and from Boston and Liverpool, crossing 
 the Atlantic forty times, and steaming a total distance of 120,000 miles. 
 The number of passengers conveyed from Liverpool to Boston was 1,804 ; 
 to Halifax, 249 ; and from Halifax to Boston, 247. The number on the 
 return voyages was, from Boston to Halifax, 253 ; Boston to Liverpool, 
 1,484 ; Halifax to Liverpool, 270.* 
 
 * Liverpool Times, Feb. 24, 1847. 
 
681 
 
 George Stephenson, the great engineer, who found the English 
 railway a clumsy contrivance for carrying coals from the pit’s mouth to 
 the shipping port, at the rate of three miles an hour, and raised it to 
 the rank of the swiftest, safest, and most useful mode of transit ever 
 discovered by the genius of man, closed his honourable career on the 
 12th of August, 1848. The following is an extract from the minutes of 
 the Liverpool Board of the London and Northwestern Railway, of the 
 Gth September, 1848 : 
 
 “ The public papers having announced the lamented death of Mr. 
 George Stephenson, on Saturday, the 12th ult., 
 
 “ Resolved unanimously,—That the directors embrace this the first 
 opportunity of recording the strong sentiments which they entertain of 
 admiration for the talents, and esteem for the character, of a man whose 
 death they cannot hut regard as a national loss. The directors, on the 
 present occasion, look hack with peculiar interest to their first connexion 
 with Mr. Stephenson, in the construction of the Liverpool and Man¬ 
 chester Railway; to a period, now twenty years past, when he floated 
 their new line over Chat Moss, and cut his way through the rock cutting 
 at Olive Mount. Tracing the progress of railways from that first 
 beginning to the present time, they find Mr. Stephenson foremost in 
 urging forward the great railway movement; earning and maintaining 
 his title, to he considered before any other man, the author of that 
 universal system of locomotion which has effected such mighty results, 
 commercial, social, and political, throughout the civilized world. Two 
 years ago the directors entrusted to Mr. Gibson, of Rome, the duty and the 
 privilege of producing a statue that might do honour to their friend, then 
 living amongst them. They did not anticipate that on the completion of 
 this work of art the great original would be no more; that they should be 
 constrained to accept the marble effigy of the engineer, in place of the 
 living presence of the man.” 
 
 “Resolved,—That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to Mr. 
 Robert Stephenson, with an expression of the directors’ earnest sympathy 
 under the irreparable loss which he has experienced.” 
 
 The process of clearing out the cellars of Liverpool had made some 
 progress in the beginning of the year 1849. The number of cellars 
 vacated at that time was 8,000, but 11,000 still remained, which were 
 occupied by 27,000 persons.* 
 
 In March, 1849, sixty-five of the clergy of Liverpool and the neigh- 
 * Liverpool Times, Feb. 24, 1840. 
 
682 
 
 bburhood joined iu an address of congratulation to Dr. Bird Sumner, who 
 had so long presided over this diocese, as Bishop of Chester, on his eleva¬ 
 tion to the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Tn the same month upwards of twelve hundred of the leading inha¬ 
 bitants of Liverpool joined in an address to Thomas Berry Horsfall, Esq., 
 the mayor of Liverpool, expressive of their warm approbation of his firm 
 and prudent conduct, during the alarming popular excitement produced by 
 the French revolution of that year, and the dangerous sedition to which 
 it gave rise in Ireland. 
 
 On the 20th June, 1849, a meeting was held at the Town-hall, to 
 organize a plan of paying off the debts of the Infirmary, and of the 
 Northern and Southern Hospitals, amounting altogether to about <£5,000, 
 by means of a flower show and a fancy fair. The idea of thus freeing 
 those invaluable institutions from the burdens which very seriously inter¬ 
 fered with their usefulness originated with Mrs. J. Bramley-Moore, the 
 lady of the mayor for the time being. The plan was taken up with great 
 spirit, and led to one of the most brilliant festivals ever held in Liverpool, 
 the lasting result of which was not merely to pay off the debts of the 
 charities, but to leave a large balance in their favour. During three days 
 the beautiful grounds of the Park were crowded with multitudes both of 
 the resident inhabitants and of strangers. The fancy fair was held in 
 the month of August, in Prince’s-park. 
 
 The most interesting local event of the year 1851, and the appropriate 
 commencement of a new half-century, was the visit of our good and 
 gracious Queen Victoria, with the Prince Consort, and the royal children, 
 to her old and loyal town of Liverpool. This was the first visit ever 
 made to Liverpool by reigning sovereign of England, for the avowed 
 object of becoming acquainted with the town and port, and of expressing 
 interest in the well-being of its inhabitants. Manchester was honoured 
 with a similar visit on the same occasion, and for the like purpose. 
 In her progress through Lancashire, the most populous county of 
 her dominions, her Majesty passed through the midst of nearly two 
 millions of her subjects, who crowded to meet her in countless numbers, 
 wherever she stayed, even for a few moments, or where it was even known 
 that she would pass. Every where she was received with the warmest 
 and most cordial expressions of affection ; indeed, her Majesty’s visit to 
 Lancashire was a continued triumph—a triumph not won by deeds of 
 slaughter, in fields of blood, but by an exemplary performance, amidst 
 the temptations of the highest rank, of the domestic duties which form 
 
683 
 
 the happiness of society ; and by a judicious, dispassionate, impartial, and 
 strictly constitutional use of the prerogatives, which render the sovereigns 
 of England the arbiters of conflicting parties, and ensure security in this 
 happy country against the confusion caused by struggles for the supreme 
 power in the state. 
 
 The first official intimation of her Majesty’s intention to visit Liver¬ 
 pool was received by the mayor, in the month of September, when it was 
 announced that she would arrive at Croxteth-hall, the seat of the Right 
 Hon. the Earl of Sefton, lord-lieutenant of the county, on Wednesday, 
 the 8th of October; and, after dining and spending the night at the 
 hospitable mansion of that noble earl and his amiable countess, would the 
 next day visit Liverpool, to inspect the town and its public buildings, the 
 river Mersey and the docks, and afterwards to receive an address from the 
 mayor and corporation, and to lunch at the Town-hall. The Corporation, 
 which has always been distinguished for its attachment to the House of 
 Hanover, and which showed it pre-eminently in the reigns of the first 
 and second Georges, when nearly all Lancashire was overrun by the 
 armed adherents of the House of Stuart, determined to give her Majesty 
 a reception worthy of the first seaport of the empire, and of the Queen of 
 England. The Committee of the Dock Estate, the Chamber of Commerce, 
 and the whole mercantile, trading, and working classes of the port, all, 
 according to their position, rank, and means, were equally anxious to 
 show honour to a sovereign who is alike dear to all. In addition to a 
 very liberal expenditure by the Corporation and the Dock Committee, many 
 thousand pounds were expended by the inhabitants in adorning their 
 houses with flags of welcome, and in constructing arches of evergreens, 
 adorned with flowers, at the entrance of the town, and in the principal 
 streets. Had Liverpool been favoured with such a day as any one of the 
 three on which his Royal Highness the Prince honoured the town with 
 a visit, at the opening of the Albert Dock and the founding of the 
 Sailors’ Home, it would have presented as beautiful a sight on land as 
 ever was exhibited by an English town on a festive occasion, whilst the 
 docks and the river, covered with thousands of vessels, ornamented with 
 tens of thousands of flags, and crowded with the-ships of all nations, 
 would have presented a sight such as is not to be seen in any other port 
 in the world. Unfortunately, the weather spoiled the spectacle ; but 
 her Majesty, nevertheless, expressed herself highly gratified with her 
 reception. 
 
 At her entrance to the town the Queen was received by the mayoi'. 
 
684 
 
 (Jolm Bent, Esq.,) and on the Landing-stage by Charles Turner, Esq., 
 and the dock committee. Her Majesty entered the borough from Crox- 
 teth, by the West Derby-road, and proceeded through the town along 
 Brunswick-road, Moss-street, Brownlow-street, Oxford-street, part of 
 Hope-street, Leece-street, Bold-street, Church-street, Lord-street, part of 
 Castle-street, Brunswick-street, and Strand-street, and across the north 
 bridge of George’s Dock, to the Landing-stage, on the river. There she 
 embarked on board her own beautiful little steamer, Fairy, steamed up 
 the river until nearly opposite Rock Ferry, crossed to near the Cheshire 
 shore, steamed down the Cheshire side to nearly opposite the Rock Light¬ 
 house, then crossed to the Lancashire side, and, sailing up the river, 
 returned to the Landing-stage, where she disembarked. 
 
 The Queen and Prince Albert, with the Prince of Wales, the Princess 
 Royal, the Princess Alice, and the Princess Helena, alighted at the 
 awning of the north entrance to the Landing-stage, and were received by 
 Mr. Turner, chairman of the Dock Committee ; Mr. Shand and Mr. Jesse 
 Hartley, on behalf of the Committee of the Dock Trust; and by Mr. 
 Brown, M.P., Mr. T. B. Horsfall, Mr. Rankin, and Mr. John Aikin, on 
 behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. Earl Grey and Lord Carlisle were 
 in attendance on the Queen, and the royal suite consisted of the 
 Viscountess Canning, lady in waiting; the Hon. Beatrice Byng, maid of 
 honour in waiting; and Sir James Clarke, physician to her Majesty. 
 The Mayor of Liverpool was also in attendance. 
 
 The following address of the Dock Committee was presented to the 
 Queen by Mr. Charles Turner and Mr. Francis Shand : 
 
 “ TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 
 
 “ May it please your Majesty,—We, the Corporation of the Trustees 
 of the Liverpool Docks, beg leave, with profound respect, to express our 
 devoted loyalty to your Majesty’s person and crown, and our grateful 
 sense of the honour conferred upon us by the inspection which your 
 Majesty has now been pleased to make of the port of Liverpool, and of 
 the docks, and other very extensive maritime works therein, under our 
 management and control. 
 
 “ In common with all our fellow-subjects, inhabitants of this town 
 and neighbourhood, we have hailed with the liveliest satisfaction and 
 thankfulness your Majesty’s determination, accompanied by his royal 
 highness the Prince of Wales, and other members of your royal family, 
 to visit this great commercial emporium of your dominions; and we ven¬ 
 ture most respectfully to hope that the acquaintance which your Majesty 
 
685 
 
 has now formed with a site of enterprise and industry which, in their 
 manifold operations, contribute so largely to the power and prosperity of 
 this kingdom, as well as the loyalty and delight inspired by your royal 
 presence, and manifested alike afloat and on shore, and with heartfelt 
 enthusiasm by all classes, and every person present at the humble pageant 
 which your Majesty has condescended to accept and grace, will not have 
 proved altogether uninteresting to your Majesty. 
 
 “ This auspicious visit is the first which circumstances have permitted 
 your Majesty to honour us with, but we cannot but thankfully remember 
 that the illustrious Prince, your royal consort, has before been graciously 
 pleased to give his sanction to, and permitted to be associated with his 
 name, a great work,—portion of the Liverpool Dock Estate, new in 
 principle at that time here, but now in most successful operation ; as 
 well as to afford very seasonable encouragement and support to an 
 institution for the benefit of our seamen, which his royal highness will 
 hear with pleasure is largely fulfilling the useful objects which, as its 
 founder, he ventured to predicate. 
 
 “ That your Majesty may, on some future occasion, be induced to re¬ 
 peat, and with increasing interest, the favour which we now so gratefully 
 acknowledge, and that each year of your Majesty’s reign may be rich in 
 such and all other proofs of the happiness, prosperity, and affectionate 
 loyalty of your people, is our most earnest and devoted prayer. 
 
 “ Given under our common seal this ninth day of October, one thou¬ 
 sand eight hundred and fifty-one.” 
 
 The box in which the address was presented was made from a piece 
 of oak found during the excavations for one of the docks at the north 
 end of the town ; a trunk which, no doubt, once flourished as part of the 
 ancient forest of Liverpool. It is as black as ebony, and has received a 
 brilliant polish. 
 
 The following address of the Chamber of Commerce was presented 
 to the Queen by Mr. Brown, M.P., Mr. T. B. Horsfall, Mr. Rankin, and 
 Mr. John Aikin: 
 
 “ TO THE queen’s MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 
 
 “ May it please your Majesty,—Your Majesty’s most dutiful and 
 loyal subjects, the president, vice-president, the council, and members of 
 the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce beg, with all humility and respect, 
 to approach your Majesty with feelings of devoted loyalty to your Ma¬ 
 jesty's throne and person, and with the tender of our sincere and heart¬ 
 felt congratulations on your Majesty’s arrival in this town, accompanied 
 
686 
 
 by your royal consort, and the other members of the royal family. 
 And while we feel assui’ed of the deep and lively interest which your 
 Majesty at all times takes in the welfare of every portion of the British 
 empire, we cannot but look upon your present visit as an evidence of the 
 special interest which your Majesty has been pleased to take in the pros¬ 
 perity of the town of Liverpool, and in the promotion of that commercial 
 enterprise which is conducive at once to the peace and prosperity of the 
 country. The happy event of seeing in the midst of us that gracious 
 sovereign who, in the providence of God, has, for a period of fourteen 
 years, so happily ruled over this country, will, we feel assured, be the 
 means, if possible, of increasing that loyalty which has ever characterized 
 the people of Liverpool, and of cementing more closely that bond of union 
 and affection which ought always to subsist between a sovereign and a 
 people. 
 
 “ That Almighty God may shower down his richest blessings on 
 your Majesty, your consort, and your royal children, and that you may 
 long continue to reign over a happy and contented people, is the fervent 
 prayer of your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the pi’esident, 
 vice-president, council, and members of the Liverpool Chamber of 
 Commerce.” 
 
 The Queen received both addresses very graciously. Her Majesty’s 
 manner was extremely graceful and affable, she smilingly expressing her 
 sorrow that the day was so unfavourable, not for her own sake, but for 
 the sake of the people, who had to endure such uncomfortable weather. 
 
 The addresses having been presented, Lord Cathcart, Colonel Phipps, 
 and the mayor led the way down the avenue leading to the stage. Her 
 Majesty, leaning on the right arm of Prince Albert, followed, Mr. Turner 
 being on the Queen’s right hand, and Mr. Hartley on the left of Prince 
 Albert. The ladies in attendance, Earl Grey, the Earl of Sefton, &c., 
 brought up the rear. 
 
 After receiving the addresses on the Landing-stage, her Majesty and 
 the royal party proceeded to the Town-hall, passing along Strand-street 
 as far as the Custom-house, and examining the exterior of that massive 
 building, and of the Sailors’ Home. 
 
 About one o’clock the loud shouts of a vast multitude announced the 
 approach of the royal party to the Town-hall. The company assembled 
 to receive her Majesty, and to witness the presentation of the address 
 from the corporation of Liverpool, consisted of the mayor, the sixty-four 
 aldermen and town councillors, the dock committee, many of the first 
 
687 
 
 merchants of the town, and a charming company of beautiful and elegant 
 ladies. 
 
 Precisely at a quarter-past one o’clock her Majesty entered the grand 
 ball-room, accompanied by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, by the 
 Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and two other of the royal children. 
 Earl Grey was in attendance, and the Earl of Sefton and a numerous 
 party from Croxteth were also present. 
 
 Her Majesty, the Prince, and the royal children were in mourning for 
 the Prince of Prussia. 
 
 As her Majesty entered the whole company arose, and when she had 
 taken her stand on the raised chair, with Prince Albert on the left hand 
 of her, and the royal children on the right, (a little behind her,) the 
 company saluted her by bowing respectfully, which her Majesty acknow¬ 
 ledged with her usual kindness and grace. 
 
 The Recorder, Gilbert Henderson, Esq., then stepped forward and 
 read the following address: 
 
 TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 
 
 “ May it please your Majesty,—We, your Majesty's faithful subjects, 
 the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Liverpool, approach, with profound 
 respect, to offer the homage of our devoted loyalty, and to express the 
 universal joy of the inhabitants of this borough, now for the first time 
 gladdened by your royal presence. 
 
 “ We welcome with delight a sovereign who, displaying from the 
 throne a brilliant example of private virtue, so sways the sceptre of 
 public rule as to unite the hearts of her people in firm and dutiful 
 attachment to her person and government. 
 
 “ Knowing that your Majesty is ever intent on the welfare of the 
 realm, we view this gracious visit as a mark of royal regard for the town 
 and trade of Liverpool; and we indulge a hope that your Majesty will 
 have seen with satisfaction the public .buildings now in course of com¬ 
 pletion, and the arrangements to accommodate the shipping of a seaport 
 remarkable for the rapid progress and extent of its commerce. 
 
 “ Our joy on this auspicious occasion is enhanced by the presence of 
 the illustrious Prince, your royal consort, who to many well-earned titles 
 to national admiration and esteem, as the patron of science and improve¬ 
 ment, adds peculiar claims on the gratitude of this community: we rejoice 
 that the great works inaugurated here by his royal highness, and which 
 blend his name with our commercial enterprise, are now in full operation, 
 4 u 
 
688 
 
 and that the structure -which he graciously condescended to found is 
 now completed as a Sailors’ Home. 
 
 “ Thankful for the wise and benign exercise of royal authority, and 
 for the advantages of constitutional government, we fervently pray that 
 many years of public and private felicity may be added to your Majesty’s 
 reign, and that future generations in this kingdom may long enjoy, under 
 your royal line, such blessings as are now most gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 “ Given under the common seal of the borough of Liverpool, this ninth 
 day of October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.” 
 
 Her Majesty replied to the address in a clear and beautiful voice, every 
 sound and modulation 0 / which was heard to the furthest corner of the 
 room, and in a tone of warmth and sincerity which no one could listen to 
 without feeling that she cordially returned the ardent love of her subjects. 
 She expressed herself highly gratified by the marks of attachment which 
 she had received from the inhabitants of this great emporium, of which 
 she entertained a just and a sincere admiration. Her words were as follows: 
 
 “Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,—I accept with pleasure your loyal 
 address, and I am glad to convey through you, to the inhabitants of this 
 borough, my best thanks for the very cordial welcome which I have 
 received from them on the occasion of my visiting, for the first time, 
 this great commercial town, of which I have viewed, with just admiration, 
 the magnificent public works and buildings.” 
 
 After her Majesty had read the reply, Mr. Hugh Hornby and Mr. 
 John Holmes, the mover and seconder of the address, had the honour of 
 kissing hands. 
 
 The mayor, John Bent, Esq., was then called to step forward and to 
 kneel. For an instant a sword was seen to glitter, and immediately the 
 Queen called on him to rise, Sir John Bent. 
 
 Her Majesty was then conducted by Sir John Bent to the window 
 overlooking the area of the Liverpool Exchange, which was crowded 
 with ladies and gentlemen, who received her Majesty with the most 
 vehement and long-continued cheering. 
 
 After conferring this honour on the chief magistrate, her Majesty 
 retired, with the rest of the party, to partake of a private luncheon. Not 
 a sound was heard until they had left the ball-room ; but, the moment 
 that they had passed through the doors, a vehement and irrepressible 
 burst of cheering rose from the whole assembly, which was repeatedly 
 taken up. 
 
689 
 
 After an absence of twenty minutes her Majesty returned to the 
 grand ball-room, and, after bowing to the company, left the Town-hall, 
 at a quarter to three o’clock. 
 
 Before the Queen quitted the Town-hall her Majesty and the Prince 
 stepped from the window upon the central balcony, and remained there 
 for some little time, enjoying the fine view which Castle-street presented. 
 The multitudes thronging the streets below sent forth cheer after cheer 
 during the whole time her Majesty remained in view. Precisely at a 
 quarter to three o’clock the Queen, her Consort, and children, entered 
 the royal carriages, and, escorted as before by the 16th Lancers, proceeded 
 by way of Dale-street, Manchester-street, and St. Jolm’s-lane, to St. 
 George’s Hall. 
 
 Throughout the whole route the same enthusiasm marked the pro¬ 
 gress as had been previously manifested. Her Majesty entered the hall 
 by the covered way which had been formed, extending from the eastern 
 portico to the front of the steps. She was received by Mr. John Buck 
 Lloyd, and a few other gentlemen connected with the Council, who 
 conducted her through the chief portions of the building, and gave the 
 necessary explanations. Both her Majesty and Prince Albert appeared 
 struck with the vast size and noble character of the edifice. 
 
 Before leaving the building the Queen, the Prince, and the royal 
 children stood forth beneath the southern portico. Their appearance was 
 the signal for one loud, long, and heart-stirring cheer from the masses of 
 people who were congregated on the ground below in Lime-street, and 
 the crowds upon the stages which skirted the thoroughfare. 
 
 At the railway-station, Mr. Glyn and Mr. Rotherham were the directors 
 in waiting to receive her Majesty. Amongst those on the platform were 
 the Earl and Countess of Sefton, the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Cathcart and 
 staff, Mr. Thornely, M.P., Mr. Hardman Earle, &c. At half-past three 
 precisely the Queen and Prince Albert, with the royal children, appeared 
 on the platform, when they were received with loud cheers by the party 
 assembled. Her Majesty and the Prince immediately stepped into 
 the state-carriage, his royal highness having most cordially shaken hands 
 with the mayor, Sir John Bent. The Queen stepped to the front of the 
 carriage frequently, and acknowledged the cheers with great affability. 
 The train, driven by Mr. Norris, departed in a few minutes, the Queen 
 and Prince again presenting themselves, and bowing repeatedly to the 
 assembly. The next minute the train entered the tunnel, and the Queen 
 was on her way to the Earl of Ellesmere’s. 
 
690 
 
 On the following day her Majesty visited the mayor, corporation, 
 and inhabitants of Manchester. Her reception there was as affectionate 
 and loyal as that which she had met with at Liverpool, and the arrange¬ 
 ments for her reception were fully as splendid. A beautiful day and 
 a brilliant sun gave to her Majesty’s visit to Manchester the only 
 charm which that to Liverpool wanted. At Manchester, also, her 
 Majesty conferred the honour of knighthood on the chief magistrate, 
 Sir John Potter, thrice mayor of that groat seat of skill and industry. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF 
 
 HANOVER. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE THE FIRST, IN 1714, TO THE END OF THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Having, in three previous sketches, traced the history of the com-, 
 merce of Liverpool, and of the rise of industry in the surrounding 
 counties, under the royal houses of Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart, from 
 the time of the granting of the first charter, hy King John, in the year 
 1207, to the passing of the first dock act, hy the parliament of Queen 
 Anne, in the year 1709, I now proceed to continue the sketch, from the 
 accession of the house of Hanover to the middle of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Although Liverpool had made considerable progress, in comparison 
 with previous times, from the Restoration, in 1060, to the accession of 
 George the First, in 1714, its position was still so humble at the latter 
 period that a single dock, large enough to receive a hundred vessels, was 
 considered sufficient for the accommodation of its commerce. But the 
 impulse was already given by the rise of manufactures in the interior, 
 and by the planting of nearly twenty rich and flourishing colonies on 
 the continent of America and in the West Indies; and'the progress 
 had commenced, which has not been checked, to the present time, 
 when upwards of 3,700,000 tons of shipping leave the port in a 
 single year, carrying manufactures of the value of thirty-five millions 
 sterling to all the countries of the globe, and bringing back materials of 
 manufacture and articles of necessity, comfort, and luxury, sufficient for 
 the supply of the looms of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and for the wants 
 of a population of eight or ten millions of souls, in the north-western 
 counties of England, in Ireland, and in Scotland. 
 
 It has already been seen, in a previous part of this work,* that the 
 forming of the dock, by which so great a saving was effected in the loading 
 and landing of goods, was followed by the forming of lines of water- 
 
692 
 
 carriage from Liverpool to three great seats of industry; namely, to the 
 industrious and flourishing town of Manchester, to the coal-fields of 
 Lancashire, and to the salt-mines and manufactories of Cheshire. The 
 effect of forming these lines was to reduce the cost of conveying goods 
 between Liverpool and the interior to about one-fourth of the previous 
 rate. This was a great advantage, even as related to valuable raw 
 materials and to manufactured goods, articles capable of bearing an 
 expensive land carriage; but a much greater one as related to bulky and 
 low priced materials, like coal, salt, and timber, of which the original cost 
 was soon doubled, trebled, or quadrupled by the cost of land carriage, 
 especially over unpaved roads and through a heavy country, like the 
 Lancashire and Cheshire of the reign of George the First. 
 
 The town of Manchester had already become a place of great trade, 
 at the commencement of the reign of that monarch. The manufac¬ 
 tures carried on there, though known as the cotton trade, were still mixed 
 fabrics of woollen, linen, and cotton. According to the best accounts 
 which can be obtained, the quantity of cotton imported into England at 
 that time did not amount to quite two million pounds a-year, or not 
 more than one day’s consumption of the present time, when upwards of 
 six hundred millions of pounds are consumed yearly. This small quan¬ 
 tity of cotton was mixed up with wool, worsted, and linen, much as cotton 
 is mixed up in the manufactures of Bradford of the present day, though 
 in smaller quantities. Cotton was then as costly an article as wool, 
 worsted, or linen, selling sometimes at the price of 2s. and upwards a 
 pound.* Linen yarn, from Ireland and Germany, was used in much larger 
 quantities. 
 
 The mixed manufactures of Manchester were well calculated to fur¬ 
 nish clothing, and, therefore, to develope commerce with hot countries, 
 like the West Indies and Africa, in which winter is scarcely known ; and 
 also with the colonies on the mainland of North America, in which, 
 notwithstanding the extreme cold of winter, the summer heats are almost 
 as intense and continuous as those of Jamaica and Barbadoes. The 
 woollens of the West of England, which formed the staple of the exports 
 of Bristol, were too heavy for hot climates; and even the serges, baizes, 
 and other thin fabrics of wool were inferior, as articles of ordinary wear, to 
 the mixed cottons, linens, and woollens of Manchester. Liverpool thus 
 possessed a superiority in the variety and the suitability of its articles for 
 the tropical colonies. Nor was it wanting in woollen goods; for, though 
 
 * Autobiography of William Stout, edited by John Harland, 107. 
 
693 
 
 the woollens of Leeds, Halifax, and Bradford were at that time inferior 
 in fineness to those of Cirencester, Frome, and the clothing districts of 
 Gloucester and Wilts, they were cheap, and quite fine enough for the 
 wants of a population like that of the British plantations, too busy to he 
 fastidious. 
 
 At the accession of King George the First the population of the Bri¬ 
 tish colonies of North America amounted to about half-a-million, and that 
 of the English colonies in the West Indies to about a quarter of a million. 
 A large trade had sprung up between the mother country and amongst 
 the colonies. In this mutual traffic England supplied the colonies with 
 capital, in the form of loans and advances; with clothing and implements 
 of industry; and with labour, partly voluntary and partly compulsory: 
 the North American colonies supplied the West India Islands with 
 grain, flour, live animals, salt provisions, both flesh and fish, casks, and 
 building materials; and the mother country with tobacco, timber, shipping, 
 hides and skins, potash, dyewoods, pitch, and, also, with grain and flour 
 in years of scarcity : whilst the West Indies furnished both England and 
 the North American colonies with sugar, rum, pimento, cotton, coffee, 
 and other articles of tropical produce. During the whole of this time 
 there was a considerable amount of voluntary emigration from the British 
 Islands to the North American colonies, and considerable supplies of con¬ 
 vict labour were sent; but it had already been found, by the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese, that field labour was not suitable to European constitutions 
 in hot countries, and, moreover, that slave labour was very much cheaper 
 than free, when workmen were scarce. Hence the African slave trade 
 sprang up, and became a principal means of peopling the West Indian 
 Islands, and the southern colonies of Virginia, the Carolinas, and the 
 great region then called Georgia, out of which the present state of 
 Georgia, and part of Alabama, have been formed. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the Portuguese commenced the 
 trade in negro slaves previous to the discovery of America, when they 
 cultivated the island of Madeira and the Canary Islands, much in the same 
 way and by the same means by which the West India Islands and the 
 coast of Brazil have since been cultivated. The Spaniards, after wear¬ 
 ing out the wretched inhabitants of the Antilles, began to import negroes 
 in great numbers. In the year 1555 the Spanish colony of St. Domingo 
 was altogether cultivated by the labour of negroes. All the coast of 
 Brazil was cultivated, as it still is, by the labour of negroes ; and slaves 
 were conveyed round Cape Horn, or up the rivers of South America, to 
 
694 
 
 Peru, where a negro was worth 400 ducats. The first Englishman 
 who engaged in the slave trade was Sir John Hawkins, one of the great 
 sea captains of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; hut this infamous, though 
 most profitable, trade did not become general in England until after the 
 colonizing of Barbadoes and Antigua, in the years 1G23-25. From that 
 time the English merchants and shipowners plunged into the trade as 
 eagerly as the Portuguese and Spaniards had done before, and as the 
 French and Dutch did about the same time. 
 
 For nearly a hundred years this trade was confined to London, Bris¬ 
 tol, and other ports in the south of England. The first slaver ever 
 despatched from Liverpool sailed in the year 1708, nearly a hundred years 
 after the settling of Barbadoes, and sixty years after the conquest of 
 Jamaica. I do not mention this to create the impression that Liverpool 
 felt any reluctance to engage in a trade in which every seaport of Europe 
 was engaged, from Gottenburg to Cadiz. No more scruple was then felt as 
 to the lawfulness of the slave trade than as to the lawfulness of the trade in 
 black cattle. So totally different was the feeling which then prevailed on 
 this subject, that, whilst the article of the treaty of Vienna, denouncing 
 the African slave trade, was regarded as the noblest article of the great 
 pacification of 1815, the article of the treaty of Utrecht, giving England 
 the privilege of importing negroes into the Spanish possessions in 
 America, as well as into her own, was regarded as one of the greatest 
 triumphs of the pacification of 1713 ! ^ 
 
 The first thirty years of the rule of the house of Hanover were years 
 of peace, plenty, and internal improvement. A sincere and ardent love 
 of peace goes far to atone for the other defects of Sir Robert Walpole, 
 the great minister who then presided over English affairs. During the 
 reigns of George the First and Second, Liverpool continued to advance in 
 prosperity. A second and larger dock became necessary to accommodate 
 the increasing shipping of the port. The following account of the amount 
 and occupations of the shipping of Liverpool, about the year 1752, will 
 
 show what progress Liverpool had made during the reigns of the first and 
 
 \ 
 
 second kings of the house of Hanover, and what was the position of the 
 commerce of the port a hundred years ago : 
 
 * “ On the 5th of June Queen Anne went down to the House of Lords, and, in a long 
 speech, announced to both houses the terms upon which an honourable and profitable peace 
 might be made with France.” Among these terms were, “ that England should have New¬ 
 foundland, Hudson’s Bay, Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, Port Mahon, and also the assiento, or the 
 right of furnishing South America with slaves from Africa .”—Pictorial History of England , 
 iv., 2(10. 
 
695 
 
 In the year 1752, 523 British and 20 foreign ships entered the port 
 of Liverpool. The burthen of the former was 29,178 tons; of the latter, 
 2,535 ; making the total tonnage inwards, 31,713. The same year 588 
 British and 20 foreign ships cleared out of Liverpool, with a burthen of 
 31,185 and 2,508 tons; making the total tonnage outwards, 33,693 
 tons. 
 
 At that time there were in Liverpool 101 merchants, members of 
 the “company of merchants trading to Africa”; in London, 135; in 
 Bristol, 157.* 
 
 In 1752 the number of Liverpool vessels engaged in the trade with 
 the British plantations in North America and in the West Indies was 
 106. Of those engaged in the trade with the North American planta¬ 
 tions, 1 traded with New York, 2 with Philadelphia, 1 with Newbury, 
 1 with New London, 11 with Maryland, 12 with Virginia, 4 with North 
 Carolina, 4 with South Carolina, and 1 with Nova Scotia. Of those 
 engaged in the trade with the West Indies, 14 traded with Jamaica, 
 9 with Barbadoes, 13 with Antigua, 7 with Montserrat, 10 with St. 
 Christopher’s, 2 with Nevis, and 2 with Tortola. 
 
 At the same time there were 88 Liverpool vessels engaged in the trade 
 with Africa. Of these 5 traded with Benin, 10 with Angola, 3 with New 
 Calabar, 11 with Old Calabar, 32 with the Windward and Gold Coast, 
 9 with Bonny, and 7 with Gambia. All these vessels were also engaged 
 in the trade with America; for the living cargoes which they took in on 
 the coast of Africa they conveyed either to the West Indies or the 
 North American plantations, from Maryland and Virginia southwards; 
 after which they returned to Liverpool, with cargoes of sugar, rum, and 
 other tropical or colonial produce. 
 
 Of the Liverpool vessels of 1752, 22 only were regularly engaged in 
 the trade with the continent of Europe. 
 
 At this time there was one Liverpool vessel engaged in the Greenland 
 whale-fishery, the Golden Lion, belonging to Charles Goore and Co. 
 
 The coasters belonging to Liverpool, including the vessels engaged in 
 the trade with Ireland, were 125 in number. 
 
 There were also 80 river sloops, of from 40 to 70 tons, employed in 
 the salt trade. 
 
 The following are the names of the principal Liverpool shipowners a 
 hundred years since—in 1 752 :—Arthur and Benjamin Hcywood and Co., 
 John Welch and Co., James Gildart and Co., W. Dobb and Co., Timothy 
 * Liverpool Memorandum Book for 1753. 
 
696 
 
 Farrar and Co., Robert Cheshyre and Co., William Whalley and Co., 
 J. Manesty and Co., Jolm Brooks and Co., Henry Hardwar and Co., 
 George Campbell and Co., Jolm Robinson, John Bird and Co., Edward 
 Forbes and Co., Edward Lowndes and Co., Roger Brooks and Co., Foster, 
 Cunliffe, and Co., Thomas Leatlierbarrow and Co., J. Clayton and Co., 
 Edward Deane and Co., W. Davenport and Co., Richard Nicholas and 
 Co., Francis Green and Co., James Crosbie and Co., John Yates and Co., 
 Samuel Shaw and Co., John Okill and Co., (the only African merchants 
 not engaged in the slave trade,) John Knight and Co., Richard Towns- 
 kend and Co., Nicholas Torr and Co., Henry Townsend and Co., Richard 
 Savage and Co., William Gregson and Co., John Hardman and Co., 
 William Halliday and Co., John Kennion and Co., Richard Gildart and 
 Sons, James Pardoe and Co., Kennion and Holme, Richard Golding 
 and Co., Joseph and Jonathan Brooks and Co., William Williamson 
 and Co., Thomas Kendal and Co., Peter Holme and Co., Knight, 
 Mairs, and Co., William Farington and Co., John Backhouse and 
 Co,, Thomas Crowder and Co., Richard Armitage and Co., John 
 Tarlton and Co., Jonathan Blundell and Co., T. Chalmers and Co., 
 Matthew and John Stronge and Co., Levinus Unsworth and Co., J. Bridge 
 and Co., Christopher Bailey and Co., Thomas Falkner and Co., Thomas 
 Brownbill and Co., Charles Lowndes and Co., Robert Seel, Joseph Davies 
 and Co., Charles Goore, John Entwistle, Peter Meddows and Co., Richard 
 Hillary and Co., William Leconby and Co., John Crompton and Co., 
 Isaac Oldham and Co., Bryan Blundell and Co., Thomas Molyneux and 
 Co., Steel, Perkins, and Co., Morris, Melling, and Co., Richard Cribb 
 and Co., Harrison, Barton, and Co., Thomas Dunbarr, John Prat and 
 Co., Francis Watt and Co., Samuel Smith, William Spencer and Co., 
 Potter Fletcher, Edward Trafford, Collins and Hartley, William Barker 
 and Co., John Goodwin and Son, and George Bradley and Co.* 
 
 From the year 1752 to the month of June, 1756, the general peace 
 which had been restored in 1748 continued to exist, but in that month 
 and year war was again declared against France. This war, begun under 
 one of the weakest and ended under one of the most powerful adminis¬ 
 trations that ever existed in England, gave an irreparable blow to the 
 colonies of France, and greatly extended those of England, both in 
 America and in Asia. 
 
 This war placed under the dominion of England, and rendered avail¬ 
 able to British commerce, the immense regions watered hy two of the 
 * Williamson’s Liverpool Memorandum Book for 1753. 
 
 v 
 
697 
 
 most magnificent rivers in the world—the Ganges and the St. Lawrence. 
 As the trade which Liverpool carries on with Canada and the other 
 British provinces in North America is the second, in point of importance, 
 of the various branches of commerce connected with the port, and that 
 with India the third, it may he well to give a slight sketch of the early 
 connection of England with India, and with the vast countries, chiefly 
 planted by the French, along the hanks and at the mouth of the river St. 
 Lawrence, now known as British North America. 
 
 All the countries lying along the north bank of the St. Lawrence, 
 and the whole of the vast region north of the boundary of the United 
 States, were originally planted by France. This was the case with Canada 
 and with Nova Scotia, originally named Acadie ; with Cape Breton; with 
 Prince Edward’s Island, known by the French as the island of St. Jean; 
 and with the great region of forests to which we now give the name of 
 New Brunswick. The first of these colonies which fell into the hands of 
 England was Acadie, or Nova Scotia, which was surrendered in the year 
 1713 ; all the rest passed into the hands of England after the conquest 
 of Quebec, by Wolfe. The whole stream and valley of the St. Lawrence, 
 extending more than two thousand miles into the interior of the American 
 continent; the immense hunting grounds of the north-west, rich in 
 animals of chase; the inexhaustible forests of New Brunswick and 
 Canada; and the equally inexhaustible fisheries of the seas which 
 wash the shores of those countries, became the property of Eng¬ 
 land, by the victories of Wolfe, Amherst, and Boscawen. By a 
 singular course of circumstances, England retains all the colonies 
 originally founded by the French in North America, seventy years 
 after she has lost all the North American colonies planted by herself. 
 At the time when Canada passed into the hands of England, its popu¬ 
 lation was very scanty, and it was only very slowly, and after the 
 French population had been liberally recruited from Britain, that its 
 resources, and those of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward’s 
 Island, began to be developed. They have made rapid progress during 
 the last fifty years, and no place in Great Britain has gained so much 
 from the progress of those colonies as the port of Liverpool. 
 
 The successes of England were even more brilliant on the banks of 
 the Ganges. 
 
 The East India Company was incorporated in the year 1600, by 
 Queen Elizabeth. It was formed for purely commercial purposes, 
 although it gradually became a corporation of conquerors; after which 
 
698 
 
 it assumed all the functions of the government of an immense empire, 
 and gradually surrendered the operations of trade to individual merchants, 
 who traded under the shelter of its power. During the first hundred and 
 fifty years of the company’s existence it retained its commercial character, 
 only combining with it so much of warlike enterprize and precaution as 
 was necessary to secure its richly-laden ships from being plundered by 
 the fleets of pirates which infested the Indian seas, and its factories from 
 being burnt or pillaged, in the never-ending wars and rebellions amongst 
 the native chiefs. 
 
 In the year 1610 the company confined its operations on the continent 
 of India to Surat and Amedavad, in the dominions of the Great Mogul ; 
 to Calicut, on the Malabar, or western coast of India ; and to Masulipatam, 
 on the Coromandel, or eastern coast.* 
 
 In 1638 the company first established itself at Madras, or Madras- 
 patam. It formed this settlement at the request of the Naig, or native 
 chief, who offered, if the English would settle in that district, to erect 
 a fort for them at his own cost, and to exempt them from all customs of 
 trade. So much importance was attached to this position, that the agents 
 of the company at once consented, and built a fort at the expense of the 
 company, to which they gave the name of Fort St. George, the town of 
 Madras retaining its original name. In 1653 Fort St. George was raised 
 to the rank of a presidency ; and in 1667 it was incorporated by royal 
 charter, granted by King Charles the Second. 
 
 The island of Bombay was ceded to King Charles the Second as part 
 of the dowry of the Infanta Catherine, on the occasion of her marriage 
 with that sovereign. In 1687 it was made a presidency, and the chief 
 seat of the British government in India; all other settlements being 
 declared subordinate to it. 
 
 At the close of the same century the English, French, and Dutch 
 had trading settlements in the rich province of Bengal, on the banks of 
 the Hoogly, one of the branches of the mighty Ganges. The English 
 settlement was at Calcutta, then a mere village; the French at Chander- 
 nagore; and the Dutch at Chinsurah. About that time the rajahs of 
 the surrounding provinces rose in rebellion against the Grand Mogul, and 
 plundered the towns of the nabob of Bengal, on which the English, 
 French, and Dutch hastily fortified their factories, for their own defence. 
 In the course of the year 1698 a grandson of the Emperor Aurungzebe, 
 who had been sent to suppress the rebellion, gave permission to the 
 * Auber’s Rise and Progress of the British Power in India, i., 12. 
 
699 
 
 English to purchase the villages of Soota Nutty, Calcutta, and Govind- 
 pore, on which ground the city of Calcutta now stands. A fort was 
 ordered to he built, which was named Fort William, in honour of the 
 reigning king, William the Third.* Calcutta was raised to the rank of 
 a presidency in the year 1715. 
 
 Such was the origin of the presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay, each of them now a great empire in population and wealth, and 
 the seat of a large and rapidly increasing trade with England. In the 
 year 1G98 the East India Company gave the following account of their 
 possessions, in a petition, which they addressed to parliament, in the hope 
 of saving themselves from the opposition of a rival company: 
 
 “ Your petitioners,” they said, “ have a revenue at Fort St. George 
 (Madras) and Bombay of about £30,000 a-year; another at Fort St. 
 David’s, of about £6.000 per annum, which revenues are daily 
 increasing, and large extent of lands in both places; have about £3,000 
 a-year paid them by the Persian ; and the perpetual inheritance of Bombay 
 and St. Helena, by several grants from the crown of England; have 
 likewise diverse forts, settlements, and territories in the island of Sumatra, 
 without which the pepper trade would he entirely lost to this nation ; 
 have also a strong fortification in Bengal, and several other factories, 
 some of them fortified buildings; settlements, privileges, and immunities, 
 in many places within the limits of the trade : all of which are their 
 absolute property, and have cost them immense sums of money for the 
 purchase and grants, from Indian princes and others, and for the 
 strengthening and other expenses thereof.”! 
 
 Such was the East India Company ninety-five years after its formation. 
 In spite of the petition quoted above a second company was formed in 
 1098; hut this new company, being greatly wanting in experience, soon 
 found it prudent to amalgamate with the old one. The company, thus 
 strengthened, took the title of “ The United Company of Merchants of 
 England Trading to the East Indies.” The company consisted of all 
 persons holding a share in its capital stock, which then amounted to 
 £2,000,000. Every shareholder, male or female, possessing £500 stock, 
 was entitled to vote and take part in discussions at the meetings of 
 proprietors, who were termed, when duly assembled, a “ general court 
 of propi’ietors.” The directors were twenty-four in number, and each was 
 required to possess £2,000 stock in the company. Thirteen members formed 
 
 * Auber’s Rise and Progress of the British Tower in India, i., 12. 
 
 + Petition of the East India Company to Parliament, 23rd May, 1098. 
 
 4 Y 
 
700 
 
 a quorum, and, when assembled for business, were termed a “ court of 
 directors.” A committee was to be chosen to frame by-laws for the 
 government of the company, which laws were to have the same force as 
 those framed by parliament, when not opposed to any existing act.* 
 
 The company, thus constituted, confined itself chiefly to trading 
 operations, until near the middle of the eighteenth century, when the 
 wars between England and France extended to their settlements in India, 
 and to all the native chiefs whom they could draw into their quarrels. 
 In the year 1746, the year in which Charles Edward Stuart failed in his 
 invasion of England, the French, who had fortified Pondicherry, captured 
 the city of Madras and Fort St. George, inflicted a loss of nearly ;£200,000 
 on the East India Company, and succeeded in retaining their conquest till 
 the close of the war, in 1748, when they agreed to give it up by the 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Four years before the taking of Madras, 
 Robert Clive, the founder of the British greatness in India, went out 
 to India as a writer; but no sooner had war taken the place of peace than 
 he changed the desk for the field of battle, and, in the year 1747, had 
 become so promising an officer, that the court, writing to the Governor of 
 Madras, strongly recommended him to encourage Ensign Clive in his 
 martial pursuits. The war scarcely ceased in India, for the French 
 hacked one candidate for the nabobship of the Carnatic, the English 
 another. It was in the course of these conflicts that Clive gave the most 
 extraordinary evidences of courage and military capacity, especially by his 
 capture and subsequent defence of the city of Arcot, with a small band 
 of men, against an immense army of natives, led by French officers. 
 
 In the middle of the year 1756 open war again broke out between 
 England and France, and, at the same time, the company’s settlements 
 in Bengal were suddenly attacked by the nabob Saraja-ud-Doulah, who 
 captured Calcutta and Fort William, and thrust Mr. Holwell, the 
 governor of the fort, and his companions, into a miserable room, since 
 known as the “ Blackhole of Calcutta”, where 124 out of 146 perished 
 from heat, thirst, and suffocation in a single night. Clive was imme¬ 
 diately despatched to punish this outrage, and recover Calcutta and Fort 
 William. After defeating the rajah’s general, he attacked and captured 
 Fort William, on the 2nd of January, 1757. On the 3rd of March, in 
 the same year, Clive captured the French fort at Chandernagore; and, on 
 the 13tli of June following, the same daring leader, with 1,000 Europeans, 
 2,000 sepoys, and eight pieces of cannon, defeated the army of the nabob, 
 * Auber’s Kise and Progress of the British Power in India, i., 12. 
 
701 
 
 50,000 strong, and supplied with 50 guns. This, and a succession of 
 victories over other native chiefs, soon placed the finest provinces on the 
 Ganges in the hands of Clive. Colonel Coote was scarcely less success¬ 
 ful in the Madras presidency and the neighbouring provinces, in which 
 the French, after fighting with their usual courage, were totally defeated. 
 After a desperate defence of eight months, in which the French garrison 
 suffered much from disease, Pondicherry surrendered to Colonel Coote, 
 on the 17th of January, 1761. The general result of these and other 
 conflicts, carried on in India between the years 1757 and 1765, was to 
 give to the East India Company possession of upwards of 150,000 square 
 miles of the richest territory in India, watered by the innumerable 
 branches and tributaries of the Ganges and other great rivers, pro¬ 
 ducing every variety of tropical produce, cultivated by nearly forty 
 millions of peaceful and industrious inhabitants, yielding a revenue of 
 several millions a-year, and capable of conducting and sustaining an 
 enormous commerce. As many years elapsed before Liverpool and the 
 other outports of the empire w T ere admitted to any share in this great trade, 
 I postpone an account of the products of India, and of the development 
 of its commerce, to a later portion of this work. 
 
 A few years after these vast regions had been added to the British 
 Empire a number of mechanical inventions of transcendent importance 
 in the useful arts were perfected in England. These gave full scope 
 to those great means of generating motive power, for manufacturing 
 purposes, which are supplied by the innumerable streams -which flow down 
 from the central heights of England, through the counties of Lancaster, 
 Chester, Stafford, Derby, and Nottingham; and to the still greater means 
 supplied by the coal-fields, which form the most valuable of all the 
 sources of wealth possessed by those counties. Hence they fixed manu¬ 
 factures in the north-western districts of England, and thus secured the 
 commercial greatness of Liverpool. 
 
 Until the age of Sir Richard Arkwright, neither the streams nor 
 mines of the north of England furnished more than a secondary aid to 
 the textile manufactures of the country. Up to that time the great 
 labour of producing the yarn or thread from which all fabrics, whether of 
 cotton, woollen, linen, or silk, were afterwards made, was performed by 
 the slow process of spinning it, thread by thread, by the human hand, 
 on the spinning-wheel. Thus the undivided attention of one person 
 was required to produce a single thread ; and though this labour was 
 executed by women and children, yet the yarn thus spun was dear. 
 
702 
 
 scarce, and of very unequal quality. It does not appear that spinning- 
 schools, like those of Saxony, of which a curious account will he found 
 in an earlier part of this work,* ever existed in Lancashire, or any other 
 part of England ; hence a large part of the linen yarn, which was commonly 
 mixed up with the cotton goods of Lancashire, was, in those days, pro¬ 
 duced iu Ireland and Saxony, where flax was generally cultivated, and 
 where labour was comparatively cheap. At that time yarn was one of 
 the principal imports, not one of the exports, of Liverpool. 
 
 In the year 1770, the year after that in which Arkwright took out his 
 patent for spinning, by means of rollers turned by the power of horses, 
 the following quantities and kinds of yarn were imported into Liverpool, 
 for the use of the Lancashire manufacturers : namely, 5,274 trusses 1 
 quarter 124 packs 13 boxes 23 hales and 9 bundles of Irish yam, (linen;) 
 1,227 packs of hay yarn, 4 packs of cotton yarn, 43 packs and 842 mats 
 foreign yarn, 14 bags woollen yarn, and 5 boxes of thread; whilst only 
 6,037 bags 3 bales and 3 barrels of raw cotton were imported there 
 in the same year. The price of the yarn so laboriously produced was 
 often very high, for the supply was seldom equal to the demand. In 
 1742, coarse yam, of 20 skeins to the pound, was sometimes sold at 3s. 9d. 
 per lb.; and was often dearer. In the same year superior English yarns 
 were sold at 5s. per lb., whilst still finer yarns, imported by the East India 
 Company, were sold at from 12s. to 12s. Gd. per lb. These prices formed a 
 fatal obstacle to the spread of the manufacture, the progress of which was 
 so slow that the increase in the quantity of cotton imported into England, 
 during the first sixty-four years of the eighteenth century, was only from 
 1,985,868 lbs. in the year 1701, to 3,870,392 lbs. in the year 1764.f 
 
 Although it has been clearly shown by my brother, Mr. Edward 
 Baines, in his History of the Cotton Manufacture, that a patent for 
 spinning cotton, by means of rollers, was taken out by Lewis Paul, of 
 Birmingham, in the year 1738; and although there is strong evidence 
 that the merit of first making a machine for spinning, by means of 
 rollers, belongs to John Wyatt, the partner of Lewis Paul; yet the merit 
 of rendering that invention of practical use,—a source of wealth to 
 himself, and infinitely greater wealth to the nation and the world,—un¬ 
 doubtedly belongs to Bichard Arkwright, a native of Preston. In the 
 specification of his patent, which was enrolled on the 15th July, 1769, he 
 
 * Page 361. 
 
 + Custom-house Return, quoted in Mr. Edward Baines’s His ton of the Cotton Manu¬ 
 facture in Great Britain, &c., 109. 
 
703 
 
 stated that he “ had, by great study and long application, invented a new 
 piece of machinery, never before found out, practised, or used, for the 
 making of weft or yarn from cotton, flax, and wool, which would he of great 
 utility to a great many manufacturers, as well as to his majesty’s subjects 
 in general, by employing a great number of poor people in working the 
 said machinery, and by making the said weft or yarn much superior in 
 quality to any ever heretofore manufactured or made.” According to the 
 description given in the patent, it appears that the machine consisted of 
 a cogwheel and shaft, “which received their motion from ahorse”, giving 
 motion, through a series of wheels, to four pair of rollers. The following 
 account of the whole process I take from my brother’s History of the 
 Cotton Trade :—“ In every mode of spinning the ends to be accomplished 
 are, to draw out the loose fibres of the cotton wool in a regular and con¬ 
 tinuous line, and, after reducing the fleecy roll to the requisite tenuity, to 
 twist it into a thread. Previous to the operation of spinning, the cotton 
 must have undergone the process of carding, the effect of which is to 
 comb out, straighten, and lay parallel to each other its entangled fibres. 
 The cotton was formerly stripped off the cards in loose rolls, called card- 
 ings, or slivers; and the only difference between the slivers produced by 
 the old hand-cards and those produced by the present carding engine is, 
 that the former were in lengths of a few inches, and the latter are of the 
 length of some hundreds of yards. Let it be remarked, that the sliver or 
 carding requires to be drawn out to a considerably greater fineness, 
 before it is of the proper thickness to be twisted into a thread. The way 
 in which this is now accomplished is by two or more pairs of small rollers, 
 placed horizontally,—the upper and lower roller of each pair revolving 
 in contact: the sliver of cotton, being put between the first pair of rollers, 
 is by their revolution drawn through and compressed : whilst still passing 
 through these rollers it is caught by another pair of rollers placed imme¬ 
 diately in front, which revolve with three, four, or five times the velocity 
 of the first pair, and which therefore draw out the sliver to three, four, or 
 five times its former length and degree of fineness: after passing through 
 the second pair of rollers, the reduced sliver is attached to a spindle and 
 fly, the rapid revolutions of which twist it into a thread, and at the same 
 time wind it upon a bobbin. That the rollers may take hold of the 
 cotton, the lower roller is fluted longitudinally, and the upper is covered 
 with leather. Such is the beautiful and admirable contrivance, by which 
 a machine is made to do what was formerly, in all countries and ages, 
 effected by the fingers of the spinner. It is obvious that, by lengthening 
 
 
704 
 
 or multiplying the rollers, and increasing the number of spindles, all of 
 which may be turned by the same power, many threads may he spun at once, 
 and the process maybe carried on with much greater quickness and steadiuess 
 than by hand-spinning. There is also the important advantage that the 
 thread produced will be of more regular thickness and more evenly twisted.” 
 
 About the same time that Arkwright was bringing his great machine 
 into use, James Hargreaves, a weaver, of Stand-hill, near Blackburn, was 
 perfecting another most ingenious spinning machine, named the Jenny, 
 which is supposed to have been completed in 1767. Ten years later 
 Samuel Crompton, “ a weaver, of respectable character and moderate 
 circumstances”, living at Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, invented a 
 machine, which he named a Mule, which combines the advantages of 
 Arkwright’s Water Frames and Hargreaves’s Jenny. The superiority of 
 the yarn produced by the machine of Crompton was so great that he 
 obtained 14s. per lb. for the spinning and preparation of No. 40, i. e., 
 yarn weighing forty hanks to the lb. ; a short time after he got 25s. per 
 lh. for the spinning and preparation of No. 60. He had then spun a 
 small quantity of No. 80, to show that it was not impossible, and for this 
 he got 42s. per lb. “These prices were commanded by the unrivalled 
 excellence of the yarn ; and it affords a criterion to estimate the value of 
 the machine, when it is found that the price of yarn No. 100 is at the 
 present day only from 2s. 3d. to 3s. per lb., including the cost of the raw 
 material, which is lOd. or Is., this surprising reduction having been 
 effected chiefly by the powers of the mule ; and that, whereas it was 
 before supposed impossible to spin eighty hanks to the pound, as many 
 as three hundred and fifty hanks to the pound have since been spun, each 
 hank measuring 840 yards, and forming together a thread a hundred and 
 sixty-seven miles in length !”* Such were the results attained when my 
 brother published his History of the Cotton Manufacture, seventeen years 
 ago ; hut amongst the wonders of the Great Exhibition of 1851, one of 
 the most wonderful was a specimen of muslin, veritable “ woven-wind ”, 
 manufactured from cotton yarn of the almost incredible fineness of 
 No. 5,498, spun by T. Holdsworth, of Manchester.f 
 
 The following tables will show the progress of the cotton manufacture 
 during the whole of the eighteenth century : the first of them from the 
 beginning of the century to the date of the inventions of Arkwright and 
 Hargreaves, a period of seventy years, during which the consumption of 
 
 * Edward Baines’s History of the Cotton Manufacture, 200. 
 
 + Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition, 479. 
 
 \ 
 
705 
 
 cotton increased only from rather less than two million pounds a-year to 
 not quite five million pounds : the second a period of thirty years, 
 during which the consumption increased from rather less than five million 
 pounds to upwards of fifty-six millions of pounds. 
 
 Importation of cotton wool previous to the inventions of Arkwright and 
 
 Hargreaves: 
 
 1697.lbs. 1,976,359 
 
 1701. 1,985,868 
 
 j average yearly 1,170,881 
 
 1710. 715,008 
 
 1720. 1,972,805 
 
 1730. 1,545,472 
 
 1741. 1,645,031 
 
 1743. 1,132,288 
 
 Importation of cotton wool from the 
 inventions to the end c 
 
 | aver, yearly lbs. 4,764,589 
 1780 j aver, yearly lbs. 6,766,613 
 
 1781 . 5,198,778 
 
 1782 . 11,482,083 
 
 1783 . 9,735,663 
 
 1784 . 11,482,083 
 
 1785 . 18,400,384 
 
 1786 . 19,475,020 
 
 1787 . 23,250,268 
 
 1788 . 20,467,436 
 
 1744 . 1,132,288 
 
 1745 . 1,469,523 
 
 1746 . 2,264,808 
 
 1747 . 2,224,869 
 
 1748 . 4,852,966 
 
 1749 . 1,658,365 
 
 1751. 2,976,616 
 
 1764. 3,870,392 
 
 me of Arkwright’s and Hargreaves’s 
 the eighteenth century: 
 
 1789 . 32,576,023 
 
 1790 . 31,447,605 
 
 1791 . 28,706,675 
 
 1792 . 34,907,497 
 
 1793 . 19,040,929 
 
 1794 . 24,358,567 
 
 1795 . 26,404,340 
 
 1796 . 32,120,357 
 
 1797 . 23,354,371 
 
 1798 . 31,880,641 
 
 1799 . 43,379,278 
 
 1800 . 56,010,732 
 
 The fear of popular violence drove both Arkwright and Hargreaves 
 from Lancashire to Nottingham, and, for a short time, fixed the cotton 
 manufacture on the banks of the river Trent, and its beautiful tributary, 
 the Derwent, which descends with a rapid course from the Peak of 
 Derbyshire, by Cromford, Matlock, and Belper, the seats of Arkwright’s 
 first mills, to Derby. The vast superiority of the water-power 
 of Lancashire would have brought it back, even if Watt’s great im¬ 
 provement of the steam-engine, had not rendered the coal-fields of the 
 kingdom the seats of all our principal manufactures ; but the improve¬ 
 ment of the steam-engine, and its application to the purpose of pro¬ 
 pelling machinery of all kinds, soon gave Lancashire its original 
 superiority in the cotton manufacture. In 1787 Bolton and Watt 
 erected a steam-engine for the Peels, at Warrington, near the Sankey 
 Cana], which brings down the coal of the St. Helens section of the Lan- 
 
706 
 
 cashire coal-field to the river Mersey ; but it was not until seven years after 
 they had taken out the patent for their improved steam-engine that they 
 constructed for Mr. Drinkwater, of Manchester, the first steam-engine ever 
 used there for the spinning of cotton. The steam-engine, once introduced, 
 soon became the great moving power of machinery over the rich and exten¬ 
 sive coal-fields of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. The great dif¬ 
 ference between the effect produced by the coal-fields of Lancashire, 
 Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, and those of Durham and 
 Northumberland, is that, whilst the latter have been made chiefly the 
 means of creating a great trade in coals to distant places, the former have 
 been made the means of supplying motive-power to machinery, and fuel 
 for the manufacture of iron and salt, on or near the spots in which they 
 are situated. 
 
 It has been stated that the textile manufactures of England, cotton, 
 woollens, linens, and silk, though carried to a high degree of excel¬ 
 lence before the improvement of the steam-engine, were still limited 
 by the want of a moving power stronger than that of men or horses, 
 and more general in its application than that of running streams. 
 The wonderful expansive power suddenly evolved by the change of 
 water into steam had long been known; and more than a hundred 
 years before the discoveries of Arkwright, the Marquis of Worcester 
 had proposed a plan of applying it to the use of man. But it was the 
 work of a century to realize that grand idea in a perfect form. In the 
 year 1698 a steam-engine was constructed by Savery ; and this was again 
 improved by Newcomen shortly after. The principal purpose to which these 
 imperfect, though valuable, machines was applied, was that of pumping 
 the water from mines and coal-pits. So little was then understood of the 
 steam-engine as a general means of generating power, that it was not 
 thought of either in the spinning of cotton, woollen, or linen, or in the 
 working of blast furnaces, until some years after the erection of Ark¬ 
 wright’s cotton mills and the Carron iron works. The power of horses 
 was first tried to move cotton machinery, and afterwards that of running- 
 streams was applied both in the working of cotton machinery and in the 
 blowing of blast furnaces ; nor is it likely that the steam-engine would 
 have superseded the latter, if the genius of James Watt had not dis¬ 
 covered the means of applying the expansive power of steam in an engine 
 capable of being used in every position in which fuel could be procured, 
 and of being applied to every purpose for which moving power could be 
 required. Watt’s first patent for improvements in the steam-engine was 
 
707 
 
 taken out in the year 1700, but it was not until the year 1775 that 
 the new steam-engine was applied in practice with decisive success. The 
 following passage from a newspaper of that date contains an account 
 of one of the earliest applications of the improved steam-engine: 
 
 “ Birmingham, March 11.— On Friday last a steam-engine, constructed 
 upon Mr. Watt’s new principle, was set to work at Bloomfield Colliery, 
 near Dudley. From the first moment of its setting to work, it made 
 about 14 or 15 strokes a minute, and emptied tbe engine pit (which is 
 about 90 feet deep, and stood 57 feet high in water) in less than an 
 hour. This engine is applied to the working of a pump 14J inches 
 diameter, and works with one-fourth the fuel that a common engine would 
 require to produce the same quantity of power. The cylinder is 50 inches 
 diameter, and the length of the stroke is 7 feet. These engines are not 
 worked by the pressure of the atmosphere. Their principles are very 
 different from all others.”* 
 
 An accomplished writer of the present day thus traces the progress of 
 the application of steam to the purposes of the arts :—“ To continue our 
 examination of the importance of minute observation ; every step of pro¬ 
 gress from the employment of steam to produce a continuous motion, by 
 Ptolomy Pliiladelphus, 180 years B.c., to the discovery by Watt of the 
 expansive force of steam in 1782, might be quoted in exemplification. 
 We find Branca and Kircher employing the force of a jet of steam to drive 
 the vanes of a wheel. Baptista Porta observed the pressure exerted by 
 confined steam, and he used it to raise water. The discovery of the 
 pressure of the air, and the investigations of Torricelli, Pascal, Guericke, 
 and Boyle, led to the construction of engines by Worcester and Papin, in 
 which the elastic force of steam and atmospheric pressure were combined 
 in action. Thomas Savery, carefully studying all that had been done 
 previously, appears to have first conceived the correct idea of the force, 
 and to have applied it with much greater success than any of his prede¬ 
 cessors. In 1098 he got a patent for his discovery, calling it an invention 
 ‘ for raising water, and occasioning motion to all sorts of millwork , by 
 the impellent force of fire.' Newcomen, an ironmonger at Dartmouth, 
 associated himself with Cawley, a plumber of the same place, and they 
 together carefully investigated the phenomena of atmospheric pressure, 
 and the formation of a vacuum by the agency of steam ; and Newcomen 
 certainly transformed an imperfect, and for many purposes a useless, 
 machine into a really efficient steam engine, which could be applied 
 profitably and safely to the most important uses. Newcomen should share 
 * Letter in Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, March 15, 1770. 
 
 4 z 
 
 r 
 
708 
 
 a pedestal by the side of Watt; the ingenious contrivances of the obscure 
 ironmonger of Dartmouth, the result of minute observation, have had 
 much to do with the advancement of civilization. Of the inventions of 
 Watt it is scarcely necessary to speak; the fertility of his genius is known 
 to all; and the history of his progress informs us that every advance made 
 by James Watt was a comment on the text I have chosen,—the value of 
 observation. Of the importance of the inventions of James Watt well may 
 Arago, in his Eloge, speak as follows:—‘ We have long been in the habit 
 of talking of the age of Augustus and of the age of Louis XIY. Eminent 
 individuals amongst us have likewise held that we might with propriety 
 speak of the age of Voltaire, Eousseau, and Montesquieu. I do not 
 hesitate to declare my conviction, that when to the immense services already 
 rendered by the steam-engine shall be added to all the marvels it holds out 
 to promise, a grateful population will then familiarly talk of the ages of 
 Papin and of Watt.’ ”* 
 
 Such were the steps in the improvement of this wonderful machine, 
 which has from that time been the grand auxiliary of every invention 
 of man, and by means of which the human race has been able to 
 effect more in facilitating the production of the comforts of life, and 
 accelerating the physical progress of society, during the last eighty years, 
 than it had been able to effect during all the centuries which had pre¬ 
 viously elapsed from the creation of the world. In none of the arts has 
 its use been greater than in that of the raising and working of metals. 
 
 It has been shown, in a previous chapter, that the iron trade of Staf¬ 
 fordshire, of which county Liverpool is the natural outlet for the 
 purposes of foreign commerce, had become very extensive in the reign 
 of Charles the Second. Soon after the accession of the House of 
 Hanover the flourishing iron works of that county were threatened with 
 destruction from the same cause which had closed the iron works of 
 Sussex and Surrey, namely, the exhaustion of the woods which supplied 
 the charcoal, the only kind of fuel which had, at that time, been success¬ 
 fully applied to the smelting of iron ore and iron stone. The attempts 
 of Lord Dudley and others to apply coal and coke to the purpose of 
 smelting, though successful on a small scale, had failed when tried on a 
 large one, chiefly from the want of a sufficiently powerful blast to give 
 intensity to the furnaces. Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, 
 describes the attempts to use coal and coke for the purpose of smelting 
 iron stone as entire failures. In speaking of what he calls “ the last 
 
 * Lecture before the Government School of Mines, by Robert Hunt, Keeper of Mining 
 Records. Session of 1851. 
 
709 
 
 effort” to make iron from pit coal, which was made by a German, of the 
 name of Blewstone, in the time of the Stuarts, he says, “ Many were of 
 opinion that he would succeed in it, hut experience, that great baffler of 
 speculation, showed it could not he; the sulphurous vitriolic steams that 
 issue from the pyrites, which frequently, if not always, accompanies pit 
 coal, ascending with the flame, and poisoning the ore, sufficiently to 
 render it much worse iron than that made with charcoal.” Of coke, as 
 a material for smelting iron, Dr. Plott says, “ They have the way of 
 charring the coal in all particulars the same as they do wood, whence 
 the coal is freed from those noxious steams that would otherwise give 
 the malt (of which he was speaking) an ill odour. The coal thus pre¬ 
 pared they call cokes, which conceives as strong a heat almost as charcoal 
 itself; and is as fit for most other uses, hut for melting, fining, and 
 refining iron, which it cannot he brought to do, though attempted by 
 the most skilful and curious artists.” The consequence of these 
 failures was a rapid decline in the iron trade of Great Britain. The 
 furnaces decreased from three hundred to fifty-nine ; and the total 
 quantity of iron produced sank in 1740 to 17,350 tons.* England thus 
 seemed likely to lose the manufacturing of iron altogether, and to 
 become dependant on Sweden, which then produced about 48,000 tons 
 of iron yearly, of which 15,000 tons was sent to England ; on Russia, 
 which supplied England with 3,000 tons; and on the British Colonies, 
 all of which countries possessed forests vast enough to furnish charcoal 
 for the consumption of centuries.f From this great misfortune England 
 was saved by a succession of discoveries, which furnished the means of 
 generating and sustaining the intense heat which alone is requisite to 
 render coal or coke a useful fuel for the smelting of iron. Since the 
 time of those discoveries the British iron manufacture has spread with 
 astonishing rapidity, and has become one of the greatest sources of 
 wealth, and promoters of commerce, (especially of that of Liverpool,) 
 which England possesses. 
 
 One of the first successful contrivances for supplying furnaces with 
 the quantity of air requisite to give intensity to the combustion of coke 
 was a kind of forcing pump. In the year 17G0 Mr. John Smeaton con¬ 
 structed a set of cylinders, worked by means of a powerful water wheel, 
 for the purpose of supplying air to the furnaces, at the celebrated Carron 
 Iron Works, in Scotland. “ These cylinders were four feet six inches 
 diameter, exactly fitted with a piston, moved up and down by means of a 
 * H. Scrivenor’s History of the Iron Trade, p. 57. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
710 
 
 water wheel. In the bottom of the cylinder was a large valve like that of 
 a bellows, which rose as the piston was lifted up, and thus admitted the 
 air into the cavity of the cylinder below. Immediately above the bottom 
 was a tube which went to the furnaces, and, as it proceeded from the 
 cylinder, was furnished with a valve opening outwards. Thus, when the 
 piston was drawn up, the valve in the bottom rose, and admitted the air 
 that way into the cylinder, while the lateral valve shut and prevented any 
 air from getting into it through the pipe. When the piston was thrust 
 down, the valve in the bottom shut, whilst the air being compressed in the 
 cavity of the cylinder, was violently forced out through the lateral tube 
 into the furnace. There were four of these large cylinders applied to blow 
 the furnace, and so contrived that the strokes of the pistons, being made 
 alternately, produced an almost uninterrupted blast. The pumps being 
 worked alternately by a water-wheel, having four cranks upon its axis, 
 each of which moved the piston of a cylinder, which had a stroke of four 
 feet six inches, some little intermission could indeed be perceived, but it 
 was too trifling to produce any sensible effect on the furnace. A large 
 column of air, of triple or quadruple density, was thus obtained, and 
 effects equivalent to these great improvements followed. The same fur¬ 
 nace that formerly yielded ten or twelve tons weekly, now sometimes pro¬ 
 duced forty tons in the same period, and on the average, in one year, 1,500 
 tons of metal.” The steam-engines in use before the time of James Watt 
 were applied to the same purpose where a fall of water did not exist, and 
 this method of regulating the blast continued in general use for many 
 years, until it was superseded by the water regulator, and by the double¬ 
 acting blowing cylinder, wrought by a steam-engine of Watt and Boulton’s 
 construction. According to Lord Suffield, Mr. John Wilkinson was the 
 first person who applied steam-engines to blow the furnaces. The effect 
 of these great improvements was immediately felt in the rapid increase of 
 the production of iron. In 1740, when charcoal alone was used, the 
 quantity of iron produced in Great Britain was only 17,300 tons, and by 
 the year 1788 the production of charcoal iron had still further decreased to 
 13,100 tons ; but by that time the quantity of coke-made pig iron had 
 risen to 55,200 tons, making the total quantity of coke and charcoal iron 
 68,300 tons. The impulse thus given to the iron manufacture has never 
 ceased. In 1796 the quantity produced had increased to 125,079 tons, 
 and before the close of the century to not much less than 200,000 tons. 
 The subsequent history of this great trade will be traced, and its influence 
 on the commerce of Liverpool shown, in a succeeding chapter. 
 
711 
 
 Exports of British iron, 
 
 in tons, 
 
 from 1796 
 
 to 1800,* 
 
 with an 
 
 account 
 
 of the countries 
 
 to which it 
 
 was sent: 
 
 
 
 
 1796. 
 
 1797. 
 
 1798. 
 
 1799. 
 
 1800. 
 
 Continent of Europe... 
 
 3,565 ., 
 
 .. 1,999 ... 
 
 2,516 .. 
 
 . 4,297 
 
 ... 6,438 
 
 Ireland . 
 
 3,721 . 
 
 .. 2,689 ... 
 
 2,424 .. 
 
 . 4,019 
 
 ... 4,370 
 
 United States . 
 
 6,538 . 
 
 .. 5,246 ... 
 
 5,816 .. 
 
 . 6,695 
 
 . . 6,218 
 
 Africa. 
 
 490 .. 
 
 .. 957 ... 
 
 1,505 ... 
 
 . 1,703 
 
 ... 1,065 
 
 W. Indies and B. America 
 
 7,848 .. 
 
 .. 8,884 ... 
 
 9,732 ... 
 
 .12,743 
 
 ...10,277 
 
 East Indies . 
 
 2,419 .. 
 
 . 2,469 ... 
 
 1,809 ... 
 
 3,141 
 
 ... 3,585 
 
 The earlier years of the reign of George the Third were remarkable 
 above all preceding and all succeeding periods, for the number and value 
 of the discoveries in the arts. Besides the steam-engine, the blast fur¬ 
 nace, and the spinning machinery of Arkwright, improvements were 
 made in the manufacture of earthenware and glass, which have given a 
 prodigious extension to those valuable manufactures. The manufacture 
 of coarse pottery had existed in Lancashire for many years, and had been 
 carried on to a considerable extent in the neighbourhood of Liverpool; 
 but it was not until the year 17G3, when Wedgwood succeeded in per¬ 
 fecting a series of improvements in the quality of the Staffordshire Pottery, 
 that the trade in earthenware took rank amongst the most valuable of the 
 staple trades of the country. A noble and distinguished historian, in 
 resuming his history of the events of the year 1763, speaking of the in¬ 
 vention of Wedgwood, says, “ The very year of which I now resume 
 the narrative, was distinguished by an event of more real importance than 
 the rise or resignation of Lord Bute. In 1763 an artizan of Stafford¬ 
 shire, Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, produced a new kind of cream-coloured 
 earthenware, superior, both in fineness and durability, to the French and 
 Dutch. The tide of public taste immediately turned in its favour, the 
 foreign earthenwares were rejected, and the home-made preferred. In the 
 following years Mr. Wedgwood introduced many new kinds of porcelain, of 
 various colours and sizes. Until then the district called ‘the Potteries' 
 had been of slight significance. But so much did this branch of industry 
 grow and thrive, that, according to Mr. Wedgwood’s evidence before the 
 House of Commons, in 1785, there were then employed upon it, in that 
 district only, from fifteen to twenty thousand persons ”! “And thus,” 
 says the annalist of the trade, “ are the meanest materials, the clay and 
 flint-stones under our feet, converted into objects of the greatest utility 
 and beauty.” The abundance and cheapness of fuel induced Wedgwood 
 to raise his English Etruria on the coal-field of North Staffordshire; and, 
 
 « Parliamentary Paper, No. 140, May 5th, 1806. 
 
 + Lord Mahon’s History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht, v. 
 
712 
 
 fortunately for tlie commerce of Liverpool, the Duke of Bridgewater, Earl 
 Gower, and other noblemen and gentlemen connected with Lancashire, 
 Cheshire, and Staffordshire were, at the date of Wedgwood’s discoveries, 
 forming a magnificent line of water communication from the Trent to 
 the Mersey, which intersected the Potteries and connected them with 
 that port. 
 
 As early as the year 175G the manufacture of glass was introduced, at 
 Warrington ; and soon after the date of the wonderful group of discoveries 
 which I have described a large establishment for making plate glass was 
 formed at Ravenhead, near St. Helens. After struggling with and over¬ 
 coming many difficulties, the beautiful art of manufacturing plate glass 
 was established there, and still continues to flourish. 
 
 Since the discovery of the steam-engine, the possession of abundant 
 supplies of coal, suitable for the use of the furnace, has been the principal 
 fact which has fixed the locality of manufactures in England. It has 
 already been shown, in the first chapter of this work, that the coal-field of 
 Lancashire is one of the richest in the British empire, and that the neigh¬ 
 bouring districts of Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, and North Wales, 
 are almost equally rich in fuel. A circle, with a radius of 100 miles, 
 drawn round Liverpool, includes coal-fields covering 2,466 square miles, 
 one of which approaches within eight miles of the port: a similar circle 
 drawn round the great port of London barely touches the coal, the nearest 
 point of it being eighty miles distant: a similar circle drawn round the 
 port of Hull, includes 2,0 .10 miles of coal-field, but none of it less than sixty 
 miles distant from the port; a similar circle drawn round Bristol, includes 
 at least 1,000 square miles of coal-field, but the rival ports of Swansea, 
 Cardiff, Newport, and Gloucester, cut off and divide the stream of trade and 
 commerce which would flow to Bristol from those wealthy regions, if it was 
 what Liverpool is, the sole western outlet for the wealth created on the 
 surrounding coal-fields.* Newcastle-on-Tyne and Glasgow (including 
 Greenock and Port Glasgow) are the only two ports in the empire which 
 can be compared to Liverpool for the abundance of, and easy access to, 
 the surrounding coal-fields. The coal-fields of Newcastle have, indeed, 
 developed an immense coasting and channel trade, in coal, for the supply of 
 London, the eastern counties, France, and Germany; but the manufactories 
 established on the Northumberland and Durham coal-fields, which alone 
 could have created an extensive foreign commerce, have been, and still are, 
 few in number and importance. Indeed, one of the most important of the 
 * Taylor’s Statistics of Coal, 27 7. 
 
713 
 
 manufactures and sources of commerce, which Newcastle-on-Tyne pos¬ 
 sessed in the time of the Stuarts, that of salt, has been entirely lost to 
 that port, and transferred to the salt-fields of Cheshire and the port of 
 Liverpool, since the formation of the Sankey and the Weaver navigation 
 united the coal-field of Lancashire with the salt-beds of Cheshire. It has 
 been shown that the river Weaver, from the salt-pits of Cheshire to the 
 
 Mersey, was thus rendered navigable in the year 1720, and that the 
 Sankey Canal, from the coal-field to the same river, was rendered navi¬ 
 gable in the year 1758. From the superior strength and purity of the 
 brine of Cheshire, and the richness of its salt-mines, it soon put an 
 end to the manufacturing of salt from the waters of the sea, and turned 
 the foreign commerce in that great necessary of life to Liverpool, the 
 natural outlet of the products of the Cheshire salt-beds, and to Gloucester, 
 the outlet of those of Worcestershire. 
 
 Thus were the foundations of much of the commercial greatness of 
 Liverpool laid during the first thirteen years of the reign of George the 
 Third, by the discoveries of Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton, Watt, and 
 Wedgwood ; and by the new and improved mode of transit introduced by 
 Bridgewater and Brindley; but, before tracing the effect of those great 
 discoveries, it may be well to give, in a tabular form, an account of the 
 exports and imports of Liverpool in the year 1770, which will serve to 
 show the position of the port, just before the time when the influence of 
 those discoveries began to be felt on the commerce of the country : 
 
 COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL IN THE YEAR 1770. 
 
 IMPORTS FOR THE YEAR 1770. BROUGHT INTO ONE VIEW. AND DISPOSED 
 
 Almonds, baskets 
 
 . 10 
 
 Annata, casks 
 
 - 6 
 
 Anchovies, barrels 
 
 • 108 
 
 Anniseeds, bales 
 
 . 5 
 
 Anchor Stocks 
 
 - 18 
 
 Apothecaries’ Drugs, boxes 4 
 
 Aquafortis, casks 
 
 - 8 
 
 Ditto, bottles 
 
 - 4 
 
 Archelia, bags 
 
 - 7 
 
 Argol, casks 
 
 - - 2 
 
 Ashes, Pearl, hhds. 
 
 - 139 
 
 Ashes, Pot, hhds. 
 
 - 175 
 
 Balsam, box 
 
 - 1 
 
 Bacon and Hams, packs - 23 
 
 Ditto, hhds - 
 
 - 6 
 
 Ditto, chests 
 
 - 6 
 
 Barilla, bales 
 
 - 48 
 
 Balks 
 
 - 22,974 
 
 
 C. qr. 
 
 Ditto middle 
 
 19 0 0 
 
 Barley, quarters - 
 
 • 24 
 
 Ditto shelled, casks 
 
 . 4 
 
 Battens 
 
 -10 0 
 
 Beech, pieces 
 
 - 12 
 
 Beef, tierces 
 
 3,089 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 2,352 
 
 Ditto, firkins 
 
 - 10 
 
 Ditto, puncheon 
 
 - 1 
 
 Birch, black, logs 
 
 13 
 
 IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. 
 
 Books, bound, box - - 1 
 
 Boat-boards - - - 168 
 
 Brandy, pipes - - - 2 
 
 Ditto, hhds ... 4 
 
 Bread, bags ... 4 
 
 Bristles, casks ' - - -14 
 
 Butter, firkins - - 14,446 
 Ditto, half-firkins - - 218 
 
 Ditto, mugs - - • 794 
 
 Ditto, kegs - • • - 73 
 
 Ditto, casks • - 8,627 
 
 Ditto, barrels - - - 50 
 
 Ditto, tubs .... 378 
 Ditto, crocks - • -89 
 
 Ditto, pots - - - -50 
 Bullocks ... -4 
 
 Bugle, casks • - -54 
 
 Bugle, cases • - - 113 
 
 Canvas Spruce, rolls - - 403 
 
 Capravens - • • - 16 
 
 Capers, quarter-casks - • 10 
 
 Cedar, logs • - - -97 
 
 Chesnuts, boxes ... 4 
 
 Cloths, Guinea, puncheons - 49 
 Ditto, chests - - • 129 
 
 Clay, Potters’, tons • • 25 
 
 Clap-boards - - - 22 
 
 Copper Ore, casks - - 279 
 
 Coffee, puncheons - • 5 
 
 Coffee, hhds 
 
 
 - 917 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 
 - 41 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 
 • 18 
 
 Cocoanuts, puncheons 
 
 
 • 2 
 
 Ditto, hhds 
 
 
 • 9 
 
 Ditto, bags 
 
 
 .. 40 
 
 Cocoa, casks 
 
 
 - 104 
 
 Cocoa Husks, casks 
 
 
 - 18 
 
 Cows - 
 
 
 - 247 
 
 Cow Hides - 
 
 
 25,813 
 
 Cow Horns - 
 
 
 39,874 
 
 Cow Hair, hhds - 
 
 
 - 2 
 
 Ditto, bags - 
 
 
 • 30 
 
 Cow Tails, bundle 
 
 
 - I 
 
 Cow Hoofs 
 
 
 65,000 
 
 Cortex Elatherie, hhds 
 
 • 3 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 
 - 4 
 
 Ditto, bags 
 
 
 - 6 
 
 Coral, cases 
 
 
 - 2 
 
 Cod Fish 
 
 
 17,473 
 
 Ditto, Tongues and Sounds, 
 
 and loose, casks 
 
 
 - 46 
 
 Currants, casks - 
 
 
 - 11 
 
 C 
 
 1 - 
 
 Deals • 
 
 341 
 
 1 11 
 
 Ditto, half • 
 
 27 
 
 0 0 
 
 Ditto, ends - 
 Ebony, tons - 
 
 13 
 
 3 0 
 
 - 
 
 - 10 
 
 Eggs • 
 
 - 
 
 150,000 
 
714 
 
 Farriers’ Waste, orates 
 
 • 8 
 
 Oats, Foreign, qrs. 
 
 6,000 
 
 Feathers, beds 
 
 ■ 100 
 
 Oats, Irish, qrs. - 
 
 - 239 
 
 Figs, frails - 
 
 1,200 
 
 Oatmeal, bags 
 
 • 30 
 
 Ditto, tapnets -' 
 
 3,471 
 
 Oil, Oporto, pipes 
 
 - 10 
 
 Ditto, quarter-tapnets - 
 
 - 840 
 
 Leghorn, casks 
 
 • 2 
 
 Fir, Timber and Plank, pees 949 
 
 Ditto, half-chests 
 
 . 64 
 
 Flax, packs 
 
 - 298 
 
 Ditto, jars 
 
 - 6 
 
 Ditto, mats 
 
 - 682 
 
 Seville, casks 
 
 - 63 
 
 Ditto, bundles 
 
 - 69 
 
 Vitriol, bottles 
 
 - 14 
 
 Ditto, bobbins 
 
 6,158 
 
 Turpentine, kegs 
 
 - 4 
 
 Flaxseed, casks 
 
 - 108 
 
 Linseed, casks 
 
 - 39 
 
 Fustic, tons 
 
 - 171 
 
 Palm, casks 
 
 - 13 
 
 Galls, hhds. 
 
 - 9 
 
 Train, casks 
 
 - 721 
 
 Geneva, puncheons 
 
 - 4 
 
 Olives, kegs 
 
 ■ 19 
 
 Ginger, lihds 
 
 • 32 
 
 Ditto, jars - 
 
 - 2 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 - 2 
 
 Paper, writing, reams 
 
 - 10 
 
 Ditto, bags 
 
 Glue, hhds 
 
 1,238 
 - 54 
 
 Paper, printed, bundles - 7 
 
 C. qr. 
 
 Gloves, Leather, bundle 
 
 - 1 
 
 Pailing Boards 
 
 51 1 0 
 
 Glass, broken, casks ■ 
 
 - 32 
 
 Pimento, punebs. 
 
 - 76 
 
 Gravestone 
 
 - 1 
 
 Ditto, hhds. 
 
 - 24 
 
 Guinea Grain, casks 
 
 - 15 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 - 89 
 
 Gum. casks 
 
 ■ 22 
 
 Ditto, bags 
 
 2,487 
 
 C 
 
 qr. 
 
 Pitch, barrels 
 
 - .94 
 
 Handspikes - - 29 
 
 0 8 
 
 Pigs - 
 
 - 176 
 
 Handscoops, dozen 
 
 • 11 
 
 Pickle, cask 
 
 - 1 
 
 Hay, tons - 
 
 - 2 
 
 Poles 
 
 - 826 
 
 Hemp, packs 
 
 - 26 
 
 Pork, punchs. 
 
 - 26 
 
 Ditto, bales 
 
 - 273 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 - 87 
 
 Ditto, bundles 
 
 - 330 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 - 951 
 
 Herrings, barrels 
 
 - 226 
 
 Ditto, half-barrels 
 
 - 275 
 
 Horses 
 
 - 11 
 
 Prunes, casks 
 
 -1 22 
 
 Horse Hides 
 
 • 6 
 
 Raisins, casks 
 
 - 500 
 
 Horse, Sea 
 
 - 1 
 
 Ditto, baskets 
 
 1,450 
 
 Hogs’ Lard, casks 
 
 - 44 
 
 Ditto, jars - 
 
 - 25 
 
 Honey, pots 
 
 - 14 
 
 Rags, bags • 
 
 - 75 
 
 Hoops, Wood 
 
 61,100 
 
 Reeds 
 
 9,000 
 
 Icory, sticks 
 
 - 102 
 
 Rice, tierces 
 
 - 14 
 
 Indigo, puncheons 
 
 - 22 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 1,410 
 
 Ditto, hhds. 
 
 • 16 
 
 Ditto, half-barrels 
 
 - 253 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 - 3 
 
 Ropes, old, tons - 
 
 - 27 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 - 5 
 
 Rum, punchs. 
 
 2,226 
 
 Tons. Cwt. 
 
 qr. lb. 
 
 Ditto, hhds. 
 
 - 485 
 
 Iron, Pig - 462 14 
 
 2 16 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 - 62 
 
 Iron, Bar - 103 17 
 
 0 0 
 
 Ditto, kegs 
 
 - 21 
 
 Iron Bars 
 
 73,986 
 
 Sago, barrels 
 
 - 4 
 
 Iron, old, cask 
 
 - 1 
 
 Sheep 
 
 - 41 
 
 Kelp, tons - 
 
 327^ 
 
 - 2 
 
 Shruff, casks and loose 
 
 - 3 
 
 Lead. Black, casks 
 
 Shumac, bags 
 
 1,817 
 
 Lignum Vitae, tons 
 
 - 22 
 
 Shanks and Bones 
 
 42,000 
 
 Lemons and Oranges, boxes 661 
 
 Shingles 
 
 1,600 
 
 Ditto, chests 
 
 . 9 
 
 Silk, bales • 
 
 - 15 
 
 Linseed, cask 
 
 - 1 
 
 Skins and Fur, Rabbits 
 
 hhds. 21 
 
 Limestone, tons 
 
 - 191 
 
 Ditto, packs 
 
 - 14 
 
 Linen, Foreign, packs 
 
 - 165 
 
 Ditto, bundles 
 
 - 12 
 
 Ditto, cases 
 
 - 5 
 
 Skins, Badger 
 
 - 1 
 
 Linen, Irish, hhds. 
 
 . 18 
 
 Skins, Bear 
 
 - 6 
 
 Ditto, packs 
 
 - 820 
 
 Calf, casks 
 
 - 70 
 
 Ditto, boxes 
 
 - 574 
 
 Ditto, packs 
 
 - 4 
 
 Linen,trusses 
 
 - 288 
 
 Ditto, bundles 
 
 - 119 
 
 Linen, printed, bundle 
 
 - 1 
 
 Ditto, dozens 
 
 - 274 
 
 Lock Stocks 
 
 27,000 
 
 Deer, bundles 
 
 - 10 
 
 Madder, casks 
 
 - 23 
 
 Fox 
 
 • 2 
 
 Mahogany Logs and Planks 
 
 4,538 
 
 Kid and Lamb, casks 73 
 
 Manna, kegs 
 
 - 2 
 
 Ditto, dozen 
 
 - 1 
 
 Marble, cases 
 
 - 10 
 
 Otter 
 
 - 2 
 
 Ditto, blocks 
 
 • 32 
 
 Sea Horse 
 
 - 6 
 
 Masts 
 
 - 779 
 
 Seal - 8 casks, 4,483 
 
 Mats 
 
 3,933 
 
 Snuff, Spanish, casks 
 
 - 2 
 
 Merchandise, foreign, casks 17 
 
 Snake Root, casks 
 
 - 6 
 
 Nuts, bags 
 
 - 208 
 
 Soap, box 
 
 - 1 
 
 Oak and Pine Timber and Planks, 
 
 Soapers’ Waste, tons 
 
 - 435 
 
 pieces 
 
 Oak Knees 
 
 16,873 
 - 169 
 
 Soza, bales 
 
 - 25 
 C. qr. 
 
 Oak and Pine Boards, feet 
 
 6,621 
 
 Spars 
 
 16 2 17 
 
 Oars .... 
 
 1,120 
 
 Squilla, parcel 
 
 - 1 
 
 Sturgeon, kegs • 
 
 • 12 
 
 Staves .... 568,954 
 
 Sugar, hhds 
 
 10,089 
 
 Ditto, tierces 
 
 1,513 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 - 862 
 
 Tallow, casks 
 
 1,141 
 
 Tar, barrels 
 
 9,082 
 
 Teeth, Elephant, 
 
 6,855 
 
 Ditto, Sea Horse 
 
 - 2 
 
 Terras, hhds. 
 
 - 6 
 
 Thread, boxes 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 Tiles, Marble Paving - 
 
 11,302 
 
 Tobacco, hhds. 
 
 6,447 
 
 Tortoise Shell, casks - 
 
 - 5 
 
 Ditto, bag - 
 
 - 1 
 
 Tongues, firkins - 
 
 - 64 
 
 Tree Nails 
 
 10,590 
 
 Turpentine, barrels 
 
 2,086 
 
 C. 
 
 qr. 
 
 Ufers, single - - 3 
 
 1 4 
 
 Ditto, double • - 0 
 
 3 6 
 
 Velves, Calf, casks 
 
 - 46 
 
 Wallnut Logs and Planks 
 
 - 69 
 
 Wafers, boxes 
 
 . 1 
 
 Wax, sealing, box 
 
 - 1 
 
 Wax, Bees’, casks 
 
 - 87 
 
 Ditto, bags and loose - 
 
 - 3 
 
 Water, Mineral, hamper 
 
 - 1 
 
 Pyrmont, chests 
 
 - 7 
 
 Spaw, basket - 
 
 - 1 
 
 C. 
 
 qr. 
 
 Wainscots - - 8 
 
 2 0 
 
 Wainscot Boards 
 
 - 637 
 
 Wheat and Flour, bags 
 
 - 12 
 
 Whales 
 
 - 3 
 
 Bone, bundles • 
 
 - 9 
 
 Fins, tons 
 
 - 50 
 
 Oil, barrels 
 
 - Idi 
 
 Blubber, casks - 
 
 - 507 
 
 Wine, Lisbon, pipes 
 
 - 133 
 
 Ditto, hhds. 
 
 - 4 
 
 Ditto, quarter-casks 
 
 - 15 
 
 Leghorn, half-chests 
 
 - 61 
 
 Madeira, pipes - 
 
 - 161 
 
 Wine, Ditto, hhds. 
 
 - 34 
 
 Ditto, quarter-casks 
 
 - 38 
 
 Oporto, pipes 
 
 - 628 
 
 Ditto, hhds. 
 
 - 13 
 
 Ditto, quarter-casks 
 
 - 26 
 
 Rhenish, aum 
 
 - 1 
 
 Spanish, butts - 
 
 - 134 
 
 Ditto, hhds 
 
 - 8 
 
 Ditto, quarter-casks 
 
 - 25 
 
 TercieraandFyall,pipes 20 
 
 Wool, Cotton, bags 
 
 6,037 
 
 Ditto, bales 
 
 - 3 
 
 Ditto, barrels 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 Lambs’, bags 
 
 ■ 30 
 
 Spanish, bales - 
 
 - 4 
 
 Wood, Brazeleeto, tons 
 
 - 51 
 
 Camwood, tons - 
 
 110A 
 
 Corkwood 
 
 
 Logwood, tons - 
 
 - 958 
 
 Nicaragua, tons 
 
 - 78 
 
 Redwood, tons - 
 
 1,200 
 
 Sassafras 
 
 . 
 
 Yarn, Bay, packs 
 
 1.227 
 
 Cotton, packs 
 
 -' 4 
 
 Linen, Irish, trusses 5,2744 
 
 Ditto, packs 
 
 - 124 
 
 Ditto, boxes 
 
 - 13 
 
 Ditto, bales 
 
 : 23 
 
 Ditto, bundles - 
 
 - 9 
 
 Linen, Foreign, packs 43 
 
 Ditto, mats 
 
 - 842 
 
 Woollen, bags 
 
 - 14 
 
715 
 
 EXPORTS FOR THE YEAR 1770, BROUGHT INTO ONE VIEW, AND DISPOSED IN 
 ALPHABETICAL ORDER. 
 
 Tons. C. 
 103 12 
 
 qr. lb. 
 3 17 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 4 
 729 
 
 5 
 
 13,398 
 
 1,720 
 
 - 29 
 
 - 356 
 
 48 
 
 - 8 
 1,471 
 
 274,000 
 18 3 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 78 
 
 - 105 
 
 - 15 
 
 - 12 
 14 
 
 944 
 4 
 
 Alum 
 
 Anchors .... 
 Apothecaries’ Drugs 8 2 
 Ditto, boxes 
 Ditto, chests 
 
 Argol, cwt. 
 
 Bacon and Hams, cwts 
 Barley, quarters 
 Beer, dozens 
 Beans, quarters 
 Bellows, pairs 
 Bed Ticks 
 Bed Cords 
 Bed Stocks 
 Blankets, pairs 
 Bricks 
 
 Brass, wrought 141 
 Breeches, Silk, dozens 
 Ditto, Worsted, dozens 
 Brushes, dozens - 
 
 Brimstone, cwt. - 
 
 Buckles, plated, dozens 
 Butter - ■ 51 
 
 Buttons, groce • 
 
 Buckram, pieces 
 Candles, lbs. - - 483,619 
 
 Caps, Worsted and Woollen, 
 
 dozens - - 3,527} 
 
 Caps, Silk ... 6 
 
 Camblets, pieces - - 9 
 
 Cart and Furniture • • 1 
 
 Checks, Cotton and Linen, 
 
 pieces - - 113,267 
 
 Cheese - - 71 16 1 3 
 
 China Ware, pieces - - 150 
 
 Chaise .... 1 
 
 Cyder, gallons • - - 380 
 
 Clock .... 1 
 
 Cloaks, dozen ... 4 
 
 Cotton, Hollands - - 119 
 
 Cottons, printed, yards 10,756 
 
 Cottons and Woollens, lbs. 1,775 
 Cottons, Welch, goads 1,350 
 
 Kendal, pieces 2,830 
 
 Coals, chaldron - 1,215 
 
 Copperas • 42 19 1 20 
 
 Counterpanes - - - 52 
 
 Combs, dozens • - -12 
 
 Cow Hair, cwt • - -20 
 
 Cordage - 122 16 1 22 
 
 Corks, groce - • 1,866 
 
 Copper, wrought 40 16 1 14 
 
 Damask, Silk, pieces • • 4 
 
 Demi Cambrics, pieces - 522 
 Decanters, Glass, dozens - 3 
 
 Diaper, pieces - - - 123 
 
 Dimeties, pieces • • 20 
 
 Drapery, lbs - - 1,406 
 
 Drums, dozens 2 
 
 Earthen Ware, pieces 492,980 
 
 Ferrits, pieces - - - 18 
 
 Fishing Seans - • -41 
 
 Fishing Lines, dozens • 36 
 Fishing Hooks - - 10,000 
 
 Flint Ware, pieces • 2,300 
 
 Flagging Stones, cwt - - 80 
 
 Flannel, pieces - . 8 
 
 Frying-pans, bundles - - 5 
 
 Fustians, pieces • 3,636 
 
 Garments - - - 8,464 
 
 Garters, Silk Knee, dozens 67 
 Garden Seed, cwt - - 79 
 
 5 A 
 
 Gloves, Leather, dozens 173} 
 Glass, Green - 257 4 3 11 
 
 Flint • 19 5 3 3 
 
 Crown - 5 9 19 
 
 Grinding Stones 404 46 cwt 151 
 chaldron 
 Groats, bushels - - 5 
 
 Groceries - - 189 0 18 
 
 Guinea Stuffs, pieces - 660 
 Gun Powder, lbs - 69,786 
 
 Gun Flints - - 144,000 
 
 Hats, Felt & Carolina, doz 11,0611 
 Silk, dozens - - 3} 
 
 Stuff, dozens - - 3 
 
 Haberdashery 75 5 0 1 3 
 Handkerchiefs, Silk, dozens 35} 
 Ditto,square printed,yards 3,815 
 Handkerchief's, Cotton and 
 Linen, dozens - - 15 
 
 Handkerchiefs, Linen, doz 3,507 
 Ditto, square printed, yards 1,456 
 Hay, stone - - 2,600 
 
 Harpsicord ... 1 
 
 Herrings, Red, barrels - 890 
 Household Furniture, pieces 25 
 parcels 2 
 
 Hoops, Wood • - 8,000 
 
 Ditto, Iron, cwts. - • 120 
 
 Jewellery Ware, parcels - 2 
 
 Iron, wrought t 627 3 2 0 
 cast - t 59 18 1 10 
 Sod - < 0 5 0 0 
 
 Pots • t 4 0 0 0 
 
 Lamp Black, lbs. - - 140 
 
 Laces, Silk, dozens - - 12 
 
 Leather, tanned 3 13 2 26 
 Leather, wrought, lbs. - 52,908} 
 Lead - - 641 15 3 3 
 
 Ditto, Red - 7 17 
 
 Ditto, White - 7 0 22 
 
 Lead Ore - 317 17 3 14 
 
 Lead Litharge 84 5 3 2 
 
 Lime, bushels - - 4,100 
 
 Ditto, chaldrons • - 303 
 
 Ditto, hhds - • - 110 
 
 Ditto, barrels - - - 20 
 
 Ditto, half barrels - - 20 
 
 Linen, British, yards - 829,215} 
 Linen, Irish - - 594,799.} 
 
 Linen, printed, yards - 7,493 
 
 Linen, coloured, pieces • 102 
 
 Linsey, pieces 
 Ling Fish, dried, cwt - 
 Looking Glasses, dozens 
 Lute String, Silk, pieces 
 Madder 
 Marble, feet 
 Marble Chimney pieces 
 Marble Table 
 Mattrasses - 
 Millinery Ware, cwt 
 Mits, Silk, dozens 
 Mops, dozens 
 Molasses 
 
 Muslin, Irish, pieces 
 Ditto, parcel 
 Mustard 
 Oats, qrs 
 Oatmeal, qr 
 Oak Bark, tons • 
 
 Oakam, tons 
 Oaker, red, cwt • 
 
 I Oil, tun 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 123 
 
 15 
 
 1 2 
 
 4,000 
 
 12 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 H 
 22 
 
 22 0 21 
 8 
 1 
 4 
 
 482 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 Oil, Linseed, gallons - • 827 
 
 Olive, gallons - -124 
 
 Tar, gallons - • 128 
 
 Onions, cwt - - - 1 
 
 Ox bows, dozens - - 2 
 
 Paint - - 235 2 2 
 
 Paper, Writing, reams - 120 
 
 Sheathing, cwt - 76 
 
 Printed, yards - - 280 
 
 Pasteboard, dozen sheets - 6 
 
 Peas, bushels - - - 127 
 
 Pewter, wrought - 912 3 2 
 
 Pipes, groce - - 5,535 
 
 Pickles, gallons - - - 10 
 
 Pitch - - - 851 1 5 
 
 Porter, barrels - - - 10 
 
 Potatoes, bushels - 5,208 
 
 Purses, silk, dozens • - 30 
 
 Rice - - - 1,939 2 15 
 
 Ribbons, pieces - 1,019 
 
 Rosin, cwt ... 1 
 
 Rugs, dozens - - - 319 
 
 Salt, White, bushels - 973,203 
 
 Rock, bushels - 262,790 
 
 Sail Cloth, ells - - 280,616 
 
 Saddles - - - - 4 
 
 Saddle Cloths, Sec., dozens - 6} 
 Saddle Trees, dozens - 12 
 
 Saw.1 
 
 Scythes, dozens - - - 12 
 
 Scythe Poles, dozens - - 10} 
 
 Sieves, dozens - - • 340 
 
 Shalloons, pieces - - 93 
 
 Silver, wrought, lbs. - - 25 
 
 Silk, sowing, lbs. - 469} 
 
 Silk only, lbs. - - 354} 
 
 Silk and Inkle, mixed, pieces 283 
 Silk Twist, lbs. - - - 18} 
 
 Skins, dressed, dozens - 10 
 Soap, lbs. - - - 14,352 
 
 Spirits, Malt, gallons - 131,872 
 
 Spades, dozens • - - 10 
 
 Stationery Ware - 59 2 2 
 
 Stays, pairs ... 3 
 
 Stock Locks, groce - - 1 
 
 Stuffs, Worsted, pieces 1,794 
 Silk & Worsted, pcs. 1,320 
 Silk & Cotton, pcs. 347 
 Stockings, Silk, dozens - 87 
 Thread, dozens 1,620} 
 Cotton, dozens 105} 
 Worsted & Yarn 
 dozens - 1,045 
 
 Steel, wrought - 9 2 24 
 
 Sugar Molds - - 1,500 
 
 refined - 3265 0 4 
 
 Candy - 2 
 
 Table Linen, pieces 
 Thread, lbs 
 
 Tin, wrought 
 Twine, lbs 
 Varnish, gallons 
 Velvets, pieces 
 Vinegar, gallons 
 Whips, dozens 
 Wheel Barrows • 
 Wigs, dozen 
 Wood, Red 
 
 Brazilleto 
 Wool, Cotton, lbs 
 
 Cards, dozens 
 Woollens, pieces • 
 
 129 
 
 3 
 
 680 
 
 0 0 
 
 - 52 
 
 - 706 
 0 20 
 18,853 
 
 242 
 
 58 
 
 60 
 
 42} 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 2 21 
 0 0 
 
 - 17,498 
 
716 
 
 The impulse given to the commerce of Liverpool by the conquest of 
 the French possessions in America, and by the numerous discoveries 
 above described, received a rude shock in the year 1774, by the com¬ 
 mencement of the disastrous struggle between England and the North 
 American provinces, which now form the United States. As the pressure 
 of the wars with France and the Continental Powers fell with greater 
 severity on the commerce of London, Hull, and even Bristol, than on 
 that of Liverpool, from their position, and their greater commercial 
 intercourse with Europe, so the pressure of the first and second Ame¬ 
 rican wars fell with greater severity on the commerce of Liverpool, than 
 on that of any other port, owing to the extent of its commercial connection 
 with Continental America, and the adjoining colonies of the West Indies. 
 An account has already been given of the planting of the twelve colonies 
 which were formed by England on the North American continent, in the 
 seventeenth century. The thirteenth colony, Georgia, of which I have 
 not yet spoken, was formed in the year 1732, by General Oglethorpe, a 
 generous enthusiast, whose benevolence has been immortalized by one of 
 our greatest poets. The following sketch of the origin of this large and 
 flourishing colony I abridge from the fifth volume of Lord Mahon’s 
 interesting History of England from the Peace of Utrecht: 
 
 “ Georgia, named after George the Second, was founded by General 
 James Oglethorpe. He found associates in the Earl of Shaftesbury, 
 the author of the Characteristics, and others, in his benevolent designs, 
 and in 1732 they obtained a royal charter for their new province— 
 not as proprietors—not with any collateral views of personal advantage, 
 such as might be traced in even the most upright and high-minded 
 of all their predecessors, as in Baltimore and Penn, but solely, as 
 the deed expressed it, in trust for the poor. At their own request they 
 were expressly restrained from receiving any grant of land, or any emolu¬ 
 ment whatever, for themselves. Their common seal presented a group of 
 silk-worms, at work, with the motto, ‘ Non sibi, sed aliis’, thus alluding 
 not only to their own disinterested views, but also, more clearly, to the 
 expected produce of their colony.”* 
 
 Thus augmented and extended, the thirteen colonies of North America 
 already surpassed in extent not only the British Islands, but the largest 
 kingdoms of Western Europe. At the commencement of the War of 
 Independence, in the year 1774, they contained 371,124 square miles of 
 territory, the British Islands not containing more than 120,354 square 
 * Lord Mahon’s History of England from the Peace of Utrecht, v., 113. 
 
717 
 
 miles, the kingdom of France not more than 214,910, and the empire of 
 Austria not more than 257,540.* 
 
 The population of the colonies, though small when compared with the 
 extent of territory over which it was spread, amounted to at least two 
 millions and a half. . The English government, which desired to conceal 
 from itself the danger of the contest, estimated it at two millions : the 
 first American congress, which desired to give the colonists the most 
 favourable opinion of their ability to carry on the war, estimated it at three 
 millions : Edmund Burke and others, who were alike the friends of 
 England and of America, estimated it at two millions and a half, of which 
 two millions were of European race. The commerce of the American 
 colonies already formed a large and valuable portion of the whole com¬ 
 merce of the kingdom, hut more especially of that of the port of Liverpool. 
 According to estimates formed in the year 1774, the total value of all the 
 exports of England was £13,226,146, and of all the imports was 
 £11,822,409; and of these amounts the exports from England to the 
 thirteen American colonies were of the yearly value of £3,378,900 ; the 
 imports of the yearly value of £3,924,406. This is independent of the 
 trade of the colonies with the West Indies, which was essential to the 
 profitable intercourse of those colonies with the mother country. 
 
 The effect of the American War of Independence was to put an entire 
 stop to the commercial progress of Liverpool during seven long and 
 disastrous years. The Customs revenue of the port, which amounted to 
 £274,055 at the beginning of the war, had declined to £188,830 in 1780, 
 the sixth year of the war’s continuance; the tonnage fell from 84,792 
 tons to 79,450, of which a large part consisted of privateers ; the popu¬ 
 lation decreased from 35,600 to 34,107; and, at the close of the war in 
 1783, not less than 10,000 of the poorer inhabitants were supported 
 either by parish rates, or by doles of food, supplied from a fund raised 
 by subscription. The seven years of the first American war were the 
 only seven years of the eighteenth century, during which the port of 
 Liverpool did not increase in population and wealth. 
 
 The establishment of the independence of the British plantations, as 
 the United States of America, gave the first great blow, not only to the 
 dominion of the European powers in America, but to the original colonial 
 system of England, and to that of all other nations. Exclusive advan¬ 
 tages ceased on both sides; and, too often, the only reciprocity 
 
 * MacGregor's Tariffs of America. 
 
718 
 
 between England and its former colonies was a reciprocity of injuries 
 and restrictions; but the English people had so many wants which 
 the people of the United States could supply on better terms than any 
 other nation, and the people of the States so many which the people 
 of this country could supply, that the war of tariffs, though often 
 begun, and frequently carried to a very mischievous extent, never failed 
 to become intolerable to both parties before irreparable injury had been 
 done to either. Of late years this war has entirely ceased : and hence the 
 commerce of England with the United States, and that of the United States 
 with England, at the present time far surpasses that which they carried 
 on with all the world, in the years which preceded, or immediately followed, 
 the Independence of the United States. The population of the United 
 States was taken twice, between the Peace of .1783 and the close of the 
 eighteenth century. The first time in 1790, when it was found to 
 amount to 3,929,827 souls; the second in 1800, when it amounted to 
 5,305,925. Amongst the circumstances which had the greatest influence 
 on the prosperity of Liverpool in the eighteenth century was the increase 
 of the population of the British plantations, now forming the United 
 States of America, from about 250,000 to 5,305,925 souls. 
 
 Another circumstance which gave a considerable impulse to the trade 
 of Liverpool, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, was the relaxa¬ 
 tion of the mischievous restrictions on the commercial intercourse of 
 England and Ireland. This trade, which is now looked upon and treated 
 as a coasting trade, between different provinces of the same empire, was 
 subject to as many jealous restrictions, on both sides of the channel, 
 from about the time of the restoration of Charles the Second to the year 
 1764, as the trade with France or Spain ; nor was complete freedom of 
 trade established between these two portions of the empire until the time 
 of the Act of Union, at the close of the eighteenth century. Still, con¬ 
 siderable relaxations of the restrictions on the import of the agricultural 
 and pastoral produce of Ireland, took place immediately after the accession 
 of George the Third; and other restrictions affecting the foreign and 
 colonial trade of Ireland were made near the close of the American war. 
 A failing harvest in England, in 1764, caused provisions to rise to an 
 alarming height in this country, and gave rise to serious riots in Derby¬ 
 shire, and to very general discontent.* To relieve the distress and remove 
 the discontent, an order in council was issued, which was afterwards con¬ 
 firmed by parliament, admitting Irish beef, pork, butter, and other 
 » Lord Mahon’s History of England from the Peace of Utrecht, v., 88. 
 
719 
 
 produce into England, duty free. Tliis was the beginning of what has 
 grown to be an immense trade in Irish grain, flour, and provisions, of 
 which Liverpool has been and still is the chief port. 
 
 The ten years of peace which intervened between the close of the 
 American war in 1783, and the commencement of the wars of the French 
 Revolution in 1793, were years of great prosperity in Liverpool, as well 
 as in the kingdom generally. The cotton, woollen, iron, and earthenware 
 manufactures, stimulated by the great inventions of which I have spoken 
 in the earlier part of this chapter, doubled, trebled, and quadrupled 
 themselves in a few years, thus furnishing abundant exports for foreign 
 markets, and giving a strong stimulus to shipping, to the demand for 
 raw materials from abroad, and to the cultivation of the soil. Between 
 the years 178G and 1792 the average amount of tonnage which entered the 
 port of Liverpool yearly increased from 151,347 to 200,380 tons; between 
 the years 1780 and 1786 the Customs revenue of the port increased from 
 £188,830 6s. Id. to .£680,928 ; and between the years 1786 and 1790 
 the population increased from 41,600 to 55,732. The increased demand 
 for sugar, cotton, and all articles of tropical produce, gave a great 
 impulse to the demand for labour, and unfortunately, it must be added, 
 to the slave trade. 
 
 According to accounts, carefully prepared at the time, it appears that 
 the number of negroes transported yearly from Africa to the West Indies, 
 (for the people of the United States, much to their honour, had abolished 
 the African slave trade,) from 1783 to 1793, amounted to 74,000. Of 
 this number Great Britain imported 38,000, Holland 4,000, Portugal 
 10,000, Denmark 2,000, and France 20,000.* Of the immense multi¬ 
 tude of 814,000 negroes, conveyed from Africa to the West Indies in 
 eleven years, Liverpool had the profit and the disgrace of conveying 
 407,0Q0 . The gross amount brought into the port by this traffic was 
 £12,908,823, in eleven years, or £1,117,647 a-year. The yearly profit 
 to the port from the trade was supposed to be £298,462 ; and the value 
 of the Manchester, Birmingham, and other goods, taken out to carry on 
 the trade, was calculated at £888,738 2s. lOd. In the year preceding 
 the commencement of the Revolutionary War, the number of Livei'pool 
 ships engaged in the African trade was 136, the tonnage, 24,544, or 
 about a twelfth part of the tonnage which entered the port. 
 
 It appears, from tables carefully prepared in the year 1793, that the 
 amount of shipping, British and foreign, which cleared out of all the ports 
 * Account of the African Trade, and Descriptive History of Liverpool, 1795. 
 
720 
 
 of Great Britain, in the year 1792, was 1,565,154 tons, of which 260,380 
 tons cleared from Liverpool. Thus the clearances of shipping from 
 Liverpool formed rather less than a sixth part of the clearances from 
 all the ports of Great Britain. Tn the year 1716, two years after the 
 accession of the House of Hanover, they amounted to a twenty-fourth 
 part. Hence it appears that, during the greater part of the eighteenth 
 century, the increase of the commerce of Liverpool was four times as 
 rapid as that of the general commerce of Great Britain. These propor¬ 
 tions were maintained to the close of the century.* 
 
 The following account of prices, taken from the papers of Messrs. 
 Ewart, Rutson, and Co., in the year 1789, is interesting, as showing 
 the prices of the principal articles of merchandise, previous to the com¬ 
 mencement of the wars of the French Revolution : 
 
 PRICES CURRENT, ABOUT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION; 
 AFTER SIX YEARS OF PEACE. 
 
 January, 1789. 
 
 CURRENT TRICES OF 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s.~ 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 Annatto, Flag 
 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 10 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 Spanish ... 
 
 
 ... ,, ... 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 9 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 4 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 5) 
 
 Argol, Bologna 
 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 2 
 
 6 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Ashes, American Pot 
 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 1 
 
 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Pearl 
 
 
 ... ,, ... 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 1 
 
 18 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Danzig 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 16 
 
 0 .. 
 
 ! o 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 Barilla, Spanish 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 6 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Italian 
 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 1 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 }| 
 
 Brandy, Coniae 
 
 
 ...per gal.... 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 4 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 2 
 
 9 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 Cinnamon ... 
 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 0 
 
 18 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 )| 
 
 Cloves 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 6 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 7 
 
 9 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 Cochineal, garbled... 
 
 
 i.. ,, 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 16 
 
 6 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 Coffee, Granada ... 
 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 5 
 
 6 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 ” 
 
 Dominica ... 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 5 
 
 10 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 5 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 
 Mocha 
 
 
 ... ,, ... 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 Corn, Wheat, British 
 
 
 ...per qr. ... 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 9 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 Rye. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 >} 
 
 Barley, British 
 
 
 ... ,, 
 
 0 
 
 18 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 3 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 Oats, British 
 
 
 ... )) 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 18 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 Foreign 
 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 17 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 
 Cotton Wool, Brazil 
 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 6i . 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 81 . 
 
 . Brit, ship, free; For. Id. 
 
 Martinico 
 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 . 
 
 . o 
 
 1 
 
 3i . 
 
 
 
 
 ’ 
 
 Yarn, Turkey 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 2 
 
 9 .. 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3§ 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 Flax, Thysenbausen 
 
 
 ... per ton.. 
 
 52 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 52 
 
 10 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 Narva, 12 head 
 
 
 ... )) ••• 
 
 uncertain. . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Peters., 12 head 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 44 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Flax, Petersburg, 9 head 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 33 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 33 
 
 10 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Figs, Turkey 
 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 ; o 
 
 12 10 
 
 ,, 
 
 Flour, 1st. 
 
 
 . . per sack 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 >! 
 
 2nd. 
 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 0 . 
 
 . I 
 
 17 
 
 0 .. 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 
 3rd. 
 
 
 ... j) 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 14 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 }} 
 
 Galls, Turkey, in sorts 
 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 9 
 
 9 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 Ginger, Barbadoes 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 7 
 
 0 .. 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 Jamaica, white 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 3 10 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 }J 
 
 Hemp, RigaRh. ... 
 
 
 ... per ton.. 
 
 35 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 36 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 3 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 )} 
 
 Hides, Buenos Ayres 
 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ii . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 >1 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 
 ... „ 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 4 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 ii 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Indigo, New Orleans, Bl. and Pur. „ 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 .. 
 
 .’ 0 
 
 0 
 
 1J Export Duty. 
 
 General History of Liverpool, 1795, 253. 
 
721 
 
 CURRENT PRICES OF 
 
 Iron, in Pigs, British 
 
 ... per ton. 
 
 American ... 
 
 ... ... 
 
 in Bars, British 
 
 ... ,y ••• 
 
 Swedish 
 
 ... j| ••• 
 
 Russia, assorted 
 
 
 Lac, Shell. 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Lead, in Pigs . 
 
 ... per ton.. 
 
 Bars ... ... 
 
 ... ,, 
 
 Sheet 
 
 
 Leather, Butts, 50 to 60 lbs 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 Hides . 
 
 ... ,, ... 
 
 Madder Roots, Smyrna ... 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Dutch Crop 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 Molasses . 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Oil, Portugal 
 
 ... per tun. 
 
 Gallipoli . 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Rape . 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Linseed . 
 
 ... „ ... 
 
 Whale, Greenland 
 
 
 Oreliilla Weed, Canary 
 
 ... per ton. 
 
 Cape de Verde 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Madeira. 
 
 ... ,, 
 
 Pimento 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 Pitch, American . 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Archangel. 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Provisions, Beef, Mess 
 
 ... per tee. 
 
 Beef, Mess 
 
 ... per brl. 
 
 Butter, Rose, Cork 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Waterford „ 
 
 Dublin. 
 
 Pork, Mess ... 
 
 ... per tee. 
 
 Rice, Carolina . 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Rosin, American, black ... 
 
 ... ... 
 
 yellow ... 
 
 ... per gal... 
 
 Rum, Jamaica 
 
 Sago . 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Saltpetre, East Tndia, rough 
 
 ... n ... 
 
 British, refined... 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Seeds, Clover, red ... 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Linseed, American... 
 
 ... |) ... 
 
 Rape 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 Silk, Raw, China, small ... 
 
 ... per lb.... 
 
 Bengal, great ... 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Romagna 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Piedmont, small 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Shumack, Faro 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Sicily ... 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Malaga. 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Oporto. 
 
 ... „ "... 
 
 Staves, American Pipe 
 
 
 Hogshead 
 
 
 Barrel ... 
 
 
 Sugar, raw, St. Kitt’s . . 
 
 ... per cwt. 
 
 Montserrat ... 
 
 ... j) ... 
 
 St. Vincent’s ... 
 
 ... i) ... 
 
 Nevis ... 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 ... it ... 
 
 Tortola 
 
 ... ... 
 
 Granada, Muscovado. „ 
 
 clayed 
 
 ... ,, 
 
 Dominica 
 
 ... )) ... 
 
 Antigua 
 
 ... i) ... 
 
 Barbadoes 
 
 ... j j ... 
 
 „ white 
 
 ... )i ... 
 
 Refined Lumps 
 
 ... j) ... 
 
 Tallow, Lon. melt. 
 
 
 Russia Candle 
 
 ... j) ... 
 
 Tar, American . 
 
 ... per brl.. 
 
 Tea, Singlo . 
 
 ... per lb... 
 
 Hyson, common 
 
 ... t t ... 
 
 Souchong, common ... 
 
 ... „ 
 
 Congou, common ,.. 
 
 ... j) ... 
 
 TO 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 a. 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 io 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 ... 2 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 „ 
 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 ft 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... on board 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... on board 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... on board 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 1 
 
 2 per cwt. export. 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 If 
 
 ... 0 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 ft 
 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 46 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 7 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 n 
 
 
 48 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 7 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 tt 
 
 
 25 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 24 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 24 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 tt 
 
 
 17 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 Export 
 
 Duty. 
 
 40 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 9t 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 0 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 ... 0 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 1 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 !!! o 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 per qr. 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 ... 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 }> 
 
 
 0 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 Export 
 
 Duty. 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 
 0 
 
 17 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 n 
 
 0 
 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 Import 
 
 ” 
 
 Duty. 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 in 
 
 0 
 
 Bounty on British 26s. 
 
 p. cwt. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 free. 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 free 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 0 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 ... 0 
 
 0 11 
 
 Import 
 
 Duty. 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 ... Duty, 
 
 12* p. ct. on 
 
 value. 
 
 . 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 . 0 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 tt 
 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FROM 
 
 £ S. d. 
 
 3 0 0 
 
 5 0 0 
 
 10 15 0 
 
 18 0 0 
 
 16 5 0 
 
 3 0 0 
 
 22 10 0 
 
 24 0 0 
 
 25 0 0 
 
 0 0 11 * 
 
 0 1 0* 
 
 2 16 0 
 
 3 10 0 
 
 0 18 0 
 
 44 0 0 
 
 46 0 0 
 
 24 0 0 
 
 33 0 0 
 
 16 0 0 
 
 90 0 0 
 
 35 0 0 
 
 25 0 0 
 
 0 1 2 
 
 0 6 0 
 
 0 7 0 
 
 3 10 0 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 2 6 0 
 
 2 10 0 
 
 2 12 0 
 
 3 10 0 
 
 1 1 0 
 
 0 8 0 
 
 0 9 0 
 
 0 2 6 
 
 4 10 0 
 
 2 2 6 
 
 2 8 0 
 
 1 18 0 
 
 1 18 0 
 
 16 0 0 
 
 0 18 8 
 
 0 17 10 
 
 1 10 0 
 
 1 10 ' 0 
 
 0 15 6 
 
 0 13 0 
 
 0 16 0 
 
 0 12 0 
 
 10 0 0 
 
 6 0 0 
 
 4 0 0 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 2 5 9 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 2 4 0 
 
 2 4 0 
 
 2 4 0 
 
 2 4 0 
 
 2 6 0 
 
 none 
 
 2 6 0 
 
 2 4 0 
 
 2 8 0 
 
 3 6 0 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 1 19 0 
 
 0 13 0 
 
 0 2 8 
 
 0 4 6 
 
 0 3 3 
 
 0 2 10 
 

 722 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FROM 
 
 
 TO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CURRENT PRICES OF 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 S. 
 
 a. 
 
 
 Tea, Bohea 
 
 per lb.... 0 1 
 
 7 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 1 
 
 7§ . 
 
 . Duty, 12J p. ct.on value. 
 
 Pekoe . 
 
 „ ... 0 3 
 
 4 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 9 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Timber, American Oak ... 
 
 per load 3 5 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 3 
 
 10 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Pine Timber 
 
 . 1 15 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 5 
 
 0 .. 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Plank . 
 
 „ ... 2 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Riga, Fir ... 
 
 „ ... 1 18 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 Memel Fir 
 
 „ ... 1 16 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 17 
 
 0 . 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 » 
 
 E. Coun. Oak Plank 
 
 „ ... 6 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 8 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 
 Tin, in blocks 
 
 per cwt. 3 16 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 .. 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 • bars 
 
 . 3 17 
 
 6 . 
 
 . a 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . o 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 )J 
 
 Tobacco, Virginia, York River . 
 
 per lb. ... 0 0 
 
 3 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 4 f ■ 
 
 4 ■ 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 James Biver 
 
 . 0 0 
 
 3 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 „ 
 
 Rappahanock .. 
 
 „ ... 0 0 
 
 2f . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 H 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 „ 
 
 Carolina 
 
 „ ... 0 0 
 
 2s . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 „ 
 
 Maryland, yellow, fin 
 
 „ ... uncertain. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Turmerick, East India ... 
 
 per cwt.. 3 5 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 3 
 
 8 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 » 
 
 West India ... 
 
 „ ..2 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 2 
 
 5 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 5 J 
 
 Teeth, Elephant, 2, 3, 4, to C. 
 
 per cwt. 21 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 25 
 
 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 . I 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 Import Duty. 
 
 Turpentine, American 
 
 „ .. 0 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 „ 
 
 Valonea . 
 
 per ton. 11 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 13 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 Wine, Red Port 
 
 per pun. 40 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 43 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 10 
 
 0 per tun import. 
 
 Lisbon 
 
 „ ... 40 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 42 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 
 Madeira 
 
 . 50 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 65 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 
 Sherry 
 
 per butt.. 40 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 45 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 » 
 
 Mountain ... 
 
 „ ... 28 0 
 per hhd. 28 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 32 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 31 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 
 Claret 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 40 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 47 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 Vidonia . 
 
 per pun. 27 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 30 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Woods, for dying, Brazilleto Pro 
 
 per ton. 6 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 8 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 '. 0 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 Export Duty. 
 
 Camwood ... 
 
 „ ... 22 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 Fustic, Jamaica 
 
 . 4 4 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 5 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 » 
 
 Logwood, Campeachy 
 
 „ ... 7 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 8 
 
 10 
 
 0 . 
 
 . 1 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 „ 
 
 Nicaragua, large ... 
 
 „ ... 25 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 ii 
 
 middling 
 
 .12 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 15 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 )> 
 
 small ... 
 
 „ ... 8 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 10 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 .. 0 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 » 
 
 Mahogany, J amaica 
 
 per foot. 0 0 
 
 6 
 
 .. 0 
 
 1 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Honduras 
 
 „ ... 0 0 
 
 3 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 4 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Wool, Spanish, Leonesa, best 
 
 per lb... 0 3 
 
 10 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 inferio 
 
 „ ... 0 3 
 
 4 
 
 .. 0 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Segovia ... 
 
 „ ... 0 3 
 
 0 
 
 .. 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Sorfia 
 
 „ ... 0 2 
 
 3 
 
 .. 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 . 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Seville ... 
 
 „ ... uncertain. 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 „ 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Goats’, Aleppo 
 
 „ . ditto 
 
 .. 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 Smyrna 
 
 „ ... 0 3 
 
 6 
 
 .. 0 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 free. 
 
 
 The French Revolution, and the long wars to which it gave rise, 
 produced many changes in the commerce of England and other nations. 
 Some of them, indeed, were only temporary; but others are still felt, and 
 are likely to be felt during many ages. 
 
 The first of these changes was that which placed the carrying trade of 
 the world, for twenty years, in the hands of Great Britain and the United 
 States. The American people obtained and preserved a large portion of that 
 trade, by maintaining a wise neutrality in the quarrels of European nations, 
 from the commencement of the war between England and France, in 
 1793, to the year 1812; the English people obtained a still larger portion 
 of it by sweeping the fleets of France, Spain, and Holland from the 
 ocean, early in the war. The new and decisive system of naval warfare, 
 first practised by Lord Rodney in his battle with Count de Grasse, in the 
 last year of the American war,—the breaking of the line,—was applied 
 with even greater success by Howe, Jervis, Duncan, and the heroic 
 
723 
 
 Nelson, in the beginning of the revolutionary war. Hence, the 
 fleets of hostile nations, instead of going out of action like the 
 fleets of England, with little damage, as, after the battle which 
 cost Byng bis life, in tlie Seven Years’ War, and the battle which 
 caused Keppel to be put on his trial in the American War, were 
 captured, sunk, or ruined in the battles of the first of June, St. Vincent, ( 
 Camperdown, the Nile, and Trafalgar. These, as Nelson said of the 
 battle of the Nile, were not mere victories ; they were conquests,—con¬ 
 quests of the ocean. The fleets of foreign nations being thus driven from 
 the seas, their smaller vessels of war and merchantmen were soon hunted 
 down and captured. Hence, in addition to 81 line-of-battle ships, 187 
 frigates, and 248 smaller vessels of war, 934 privateers, and 5,453 merchant 
 vessels were taken in the first ten years of the war 1 —the greater part of 
 them in the first five years. Thus the commerce of Europe was lost to 
 Havre, Bordeaux, Cadiz, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, and ultimately to 
 Hamburgh and Bremen, and concentrated in London, Liverpool, Bristol, 
 Hull, Clyde, and the other ports of the British empire. 
 
 But these results, though immensely important at the time, were not 
 so permanent in their effects as the revolution in tropical industry, caused 
 by the insurrection of the negroes in the magnificent colony of St. 
 Domingo. 
 
 The decree of the French Constituent Assembly, in March, 1790, 
 ordering the formation of a Colonial Legislature, gave rise to the most 
 violent heart-burnings between the whites, who were 40,000 in number, 
 and the mulattoes, who were 60,000. The latter claimed an equal right 
 to vote in the elections, which the former scornfully refused them. In the 
 midst of their bickerings the negroes, who far outnumbered both whites 
 and mulattoes, amounting to not less than 500,000, of whom an unusually 
 large proportion were males in the vigour of life, formed a desperate and 
 wide-spreading conspiracy for the destruction of both. The revolt broke 
 ou t in the night.of the 3.Ut h September, 179 1. On that fatal night hun¬ 
 dreds of plantations were fired, and the whole of the planters, with their 
 wives and children, were massacred or driven into the towns. A long 
 and murderous servile war followed, in which the whites were destroyed 
 or driven out of the island, the greater part of the mulattoes were killed, 
 and the industry of the island was totally ruined. 
 
 At the time when these events took place, St Domingo was the richest 
 and most productive colony possessed by any European nation. Even 
 forty years earlier, at the commencement of the Seven Years’ War, the 
 
 5 B 
 
724 
 
 quantity of tropical produce yielded by it was very great. At tliat time 
 (in the year 175(5) St. Domingo was estimated to produce 106,200 birds, 
 of sugar, of 1,000 lbs. each; 22,000 lbs. of coffee; 184,000 lbs. of 
 cotton; 900,000 lbs. of indigo ; 230,000 lbs. of ginger; and 184,000 lbs. 
 of pimento. At the same time the other French colonies, in the West 
 Indies, Martinique, Gfuadaloupe, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, were esti¬ 
 mated to produce 56,470 lihds. of sugar, of 800 lbs. each; 573,000 lbs. 
 of cotton; 3,600,000 lbs. of coffee; and 82,000 lbs. of ginger. The 
 quantity of sugar produced in these colonies was thus already large; and 
 the quantity of cotton and coffee afterwards became so. In the year 1786 
 the French colonies supplied the greater part of the cotton used on the 
 continent, and (along with the colonies of Spain) they furnished 
 5,500,000 lbs. for English use, being more than the fourth part of the 
 cotton then used in this country.* 
 
 When the industry of St. Domingo was in its most flourishing state, 
 the exports of the island were of the value of seven millions sterling, its 
 imports of ten millions, and its commerce gave employment to 27,000 
 sailors. It was, in fact, the chief support of the commerce and naviga¬ 
 tion of France.f 
 
 The ruin of St. Domingo and the prostration of industry in the colonies 
 of France, Spain, and Holland, doubled the price of sugar and thatof cotton, 
 and long sustained those articles at prices which were unknown before the 
 war, andwhiclisoon disappeared after its close. The effect of these prices was 
 to give a prodigious stimulus to the production of sugar, coffee, cotton, and 
 other articles of tropical produce in the British colonies, in the cotton¬ 
 growing region of the United States, and in Brazil, then the great colony 
 of Portugal, the ally of England. During the greater part of the war 
 these three countries supplied all Europe and America with those articles, 
 the United States rapidly taking the lead in the production of cotton, 
 which was sent direct to Liverpool; the British West Indies directing 
 their attention chiefly to the production of sugar, rum, coffee, and dye- 
 woods, which were sent to London, Liverpool, Bristol, Hull, and Clyde ; 
 and the Brazilians, growing all those articles, though in smaller quan¬ 
 tities, and sending them to Lisbon, (no direct trade with Brazil being then 
 allowed to foreign nations,) to be forwarded to England, or distributed 
 over the continent. 
 
 ♦Baines’s History of the Cotton Manufacture, 304. 
 t Alison’s History of England, Abridged, 202. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL UNDER THE HOUSE OF 
 
 HANOVER. 
 
 FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY TO THE CLOSE OF THE 
 GENERAL WAR, IN 1815. 
 
 The first fourteen years of the nineteentli century were chiefly years of 
 war. Except during the short breathing time afforded by the peace of 
 Amiens.—the commencement of which was announced in Liverpool 
 in October, 1801, and the close in May, 1803,—England was at 
 war with France throughout the whole of that time; and, as the 
 independence of the continental powers sank beneath the arms of 
 the Emperor Napoleon, they were compelled, one by one, to declare 
 political and commercial war against this country. During the whole 
 period Holland was obliged to follow the fortunes and to adopt the 
 policy of France, although by doing so she lost the whole of her 
 commerce and her finest colonies in America and Asia. The over¬ 
 throw of the armies of Austria and Russia, in the campaign of Auster- 
 litz, in 1805, and the conquest of Naples, in spite of the brilliant 
 victory of Maida, were followed by the passing of rigorous laws excluding 
 the commerce of the United Kingdom from the Austrian dominions, and 
 from Italy. The equally disastrous defeats of the armies of Prussia at 
 .Tena, and those of Russia at Eylau and Friedland, in 1800 and 7, were 
 followed by the issuing of the Berlin and Milan decrees. The object of 
 these decrees was to exclude British commerce from every port of the 
 continent of Europe, over which theFrench Emperor had any influence: the 
 effect of them was to exclude it from Hamburgh and all the commercial 
 cities of Germ any, from Prussia, and to some degree, though less completely, 
 from Russia. The wish to ruin the commerce of England was one of the 
 motives of the French ruler in sending his armies to seize upon Lisbon, 
 Oporto, and the whole of Portugal, in 1807 ; and the expulsion of the 
 hated leopard—the emblem of England—was the professed object of the 
 attack on Spain. The result of all these exclusions was that, at the com¬ 
 mencement of the year 1808, nearly the whole continent of Europe was 
 
726 
 
 closed against British commerce, so far as Government decrees and French 
 Custom-house officers and spies could close it, in opposition to the wishes, 
 sympathies, wants, and interests of the people. Fortunately, that was not 
 very effectually. The English ports became receptacles for colonial produce 
 and manufactures, which were secretly introduced into the continent, 
 much of them directly from England, and the rest through Malta, Gibraltar, 
 and Heligoland, at the mouth of the Elbe, which was seized principally 
 for the purpose of introducing British goods and colonial produce into 
 Germany. This trade, though free from the disgrace of ordinary 
 smuggling, was attended with all its risks. It was a lottery, with this 
 difference, that the prizes on the whole were greater than the blanks. 
 
 From the commencement of the century to the close of the year 1807 
 the commercial relations of England and the United States were tolerably 
 friendly, and highly advantageous, and the rapid growth of the commerce 
 with that country in some degree compensated England for the loss of a 
 direct trade with the continent of Europe. Unfortunately, both England 
 and France, in their desperate efforts to ruin each other, began a war of 
 restrictions in 1807 and 1808, directed against all nations which were 
 suspected or known to be guilty of the newly discovered crime of trading 
 with their enemies. Into this struggle the Americans were dragged. 
 From 1808 to 1812 they met restrictions with restrictions; and in the 
 latter year they met them with war. 
 
 Yet, in the midst of so much political confusion, a number of events 
 arose out of the conflicts and convulsions of the age, which sustained, 
 and, in the end, greatly extended, the commerce of Great Britain. In the 
 first year of the century the act of union between Great Britain and Ireland 
 came into operation, sweeping away a mass of restrictions which had 
 previously fettered the industry of both countries, and creating a great 
 exchange of linens, grain, and provisions of Ireland for the manufactures 
 of England and the produce of the colonies. The naval events of the 
 war, whilst they ruined the finest colonies of France, and revolutionized 
 the most extensive of those of Spain and Portugal, enabled England to 
 increase her possessions with many of the most valuable colonies of 
 France, Spain, and Holland. Several of her acquisitions were restored 
 at the general peace, but others were retained, and during the war the 
 commerce of all ministered to the naval power and the commercial wealth 
 of the British empire. 
 
 And whilst England was conquering new colonies both in the east 
 and west; was over-running provinces in India as large and as populous 
 
727 
 
 as European kingdoms; and was laying the foundations of what has 
 become a great colony, and promises to become a great empire, in 
 Australia ; the New World, which Columbus gave to Spain, was passing 
 from its rulers, and Brazil was rising to the rank of an independent state. 
 These events commenced in the first ten years of the present century, and 
 greatly affected the commercial history of the years 1808-9 and 10. I 
 therefore mention them here, but still reserve a more lengthened notice of 
 their influence on the commerce of Liverpool, and on commerce generally, 
 to a later part of this work. I now proceed to notice the commercial events 
 of the first fourteen years of the present century, using, as my principal 
 authority, the commercial papers of the well-known house of Ewart, Butson, 
 and Co., afterwards Ewart, Myers, and Co., which then stood, as it had 
 stood long before, and continued to stand long after, in the first rank 
 of the great commercial houses of Liverpool. With these papers I have 
 been kindly favoured by Mr. Jaques Myers, the present representative of 
 that eminent commercial house. 
 
 At the commencement of the nineteenth century the prices of most 
 of the principal articles of use and consumption were three or four times 
 as high as they are at the present time. Short-stapled cotton was quoted 
 at 2s. 2d. to 2s. 4d. a-pound in the circular of the 5tli January, 1801 ; 
 good Jamaica sugar (Muscovado) at 88s. Gd. to 91s. a-cwt.; rum at 
 8s. 2d. to 8s. 5d. a-gallon; and good Jamaica coffee at 130s. to 140s.* 
 a-cwt.; wheat was selling at 120s. a-quarter ; and the price of bread was 
 fixed by the Liverpool magistrates, under the Assize of Bread Act, at the 
 rate of 2 lbs. 13 oz. 1 dwt. for a shilling, or rather more than 4d. a-pound. 
 
 In the circular in which the above prices are quoted it is stated 
 that the high price of sugar was caused partly by the smallness of the 
 quantities brought by the two fleets, the one from Jamaica, the other from 
 the Leeward Islands, and partly by the fact of the government having 
 forbidden the use of grain in distilleries. A further rise was, therefore, 
 expected, and the more confidently, as the quantity of Havana sugar, 
 received by way of the United States, for re-exportation, was also small. 
 Coffee was also rising, from the shortness of the supply, and was expected 
 to rise still higher in spring, “ if not hindered by the talked-of Northern 
 Confederacy”—of llussia, Sweden, and Denmark. The demand for 
 cotton was very great, and stocks were diminishing. In February these 
 hopes were suddenly checked by the formation of a Confederacy of the 
 Northern Powers, and by the seizing of all llussian, Swedish, and Danish 
 * Ewart, Rutson, and Co.’s Circular, January 5, 1801. 
 
728 
 
 vessels, as a measure of retaliation, by England. Fears were also enter¬ 
 tained that Prussia would join the confederacy, and would compel 
 Hamburgh and the Hanse towns to do so. These events, it was stated, had 
 suddenly checked the demand for cotton.* In March the imports of 
 American and New Orleans cotton (New Orleans and all Louisiana then 
 belonged to France) were very considerable. The foreign orders for 
 goods were pretty large, but there was a want of confidence in executing 
 them, owing to political causes. “ The fate of this article,” say Messrs. 
 Ewart and Rutson, in their circular, “ is intimately connected with 
 political events.” At the end of March they remark, that the high price 
 of provisions had lessened the consumption of sugar. In the month of 
 May an “improvident speculation” in rum, blew up; and the price 
 of that article suddenly fell from 8s. 6d. to 5s. 3d. a-gallon. In June 
 rumours of approaching peace suspended all business. Opinions were 
 divided as to the effect which such an event would produce on prices ; 
 but Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, judging from the result of the peace of 
 1783, gave it as their opinion that it would lead to a great fall in prices, 
 and the event showed the soundness of their judgment. In October 
 news was received of the signing of the preliminaries of peace with 
 France: a rapid decline in prices followed. As relates to cotton, the 
 depression was increased by the largeness of the supply from America. 
 “ The quantity produced in Georgia, Carolina, and on the banks of the 
 Mississippi, in favourable seasons, will, in point of weight, exceed the 
 growth of all the West India Islands put together, and will have a very 
 serious tendency to depress the value of our West India cotton. The 
 consumption of New Orleans and inferior Georgia is become very general, 
 and already precludes the sale of middling and inferior West India, at 
 the proportional prices we have formerly been accustomed to.”+ In the 
 month of November a cargo of 560 bales of Bahama cotton sold at 18d. 
 to 21^d., average 19d.; “and so strongly are the minds of the dealers 
 and manufacturers impressed with the idea that the article must fall yet 
 lower, that they continue to buy only from hand to mouth.” All vessels 
 which sailed from Liverpool after the 23d October sailed without convoy, 
 and at their own convenience, instead of waiting until a large fleet of 
 merchantmen was assembled, and sailing under convoy of vessels of 
 war.J 
 
 The year 1802 commenced with much lower prices than those which 
 
 * Ewart and Butson’s Circular, February 2, 1801. + Ibid, November 2,1801. 
 
 I Billiuge’s Liverpool Advertiser, October 20, 1801. 
 
729 
 
 had prevailed at the commencement of 1801. Cotton had fallen to Is. 6d. 
 and Is. 8|d. a-pound; sugar to 64s. and 69s. a-cwt.; rum to 3s. lOd. 
 and 4s. a-gallon; colfee to 94s. and 98s. a-cwt.; and wheat to 60s. 
 a-quarter. The weight of the shilling loaf, as fixed by the magistrates of 
 this district, was upwards of 5 lbs., or a little more than 2d. a-pound. 
 
 It thus appears that a similar reduction of prices to that which followed 
 the peace of 1783, and afterwards that of 1814, followed the peace of 1801. 
 It was produced by similar causes, namely, the cessation of the ruinous 
 cost of transporting produce from distant countries, caused by a state of 
 war, and by the resumption of the usual pursuits of industry, by nations 
 whose whole energies had been exclusively directed, during the war, to 
 the purposes of conquest or defence. The French government at once 
 turned its attention to the recovering of St. Domingo, with a view of re¬ 
 establishing the cultivation of sugar, coffee, and cotton. It probably 
 would have succeeded, if the peace of Amiens had lasted two or three 
 years longer. 
 
 In January, 1802, the stocks of sugar were heavy in all the ports, 
 and the foreign demand having ceased, prices continued to fall. Molasses 
 and rum also fell, distillation from grain being once more allowed. On 
 the other hand, cotton became firmer, owing to the increased demand for 
 cotton goods, both at home and abroad. “The quantity sold in this (the 
 Liverpool) market in December (1801) was not less than 10,000 bales; 
 indeed, the manufactory in and about this county was chiefly supplied 
 from Liverpool.”* 
 
 In May there was a slight rally in the price of coffee, news having 
 been received in Liverpool that Toussaint was at the head of a large army 
 of negroes in St. Domingo, that many of the French troops had been 
 killed, that Cape Francais had been burnt, and that the small remains of 
 cultivation in the island were threatened with destruction.! 
 
 In the same month it was announced that the import of cotton since 
 the beginning of the year was very great; that the price of Upland 
 Georgia cotton, of which the growth was immense, was now reduced to 
 12d. per pound; that Brazil cotton was likewise plentiful; and that it 
 was more than probable that considerable quantities would be received 
 from Turkey.J 
 
 In July the immense demand for cotton goods, caused by the restora¬ 
 tion of peace, raised the price of American Upland cotton from 12d. to 
 
 * Ewart and Eutson’s Circular, Jan. 4,1802. + Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 2,1802. 
 
 J Ewart and Eutson’s Circular, May 3, 1802. 
 
730 
 
 14d. a-pound ; but the quantity on hand, and the largeness of the supply 
 at Lisbon, (Brazilian cotton,) were expected to prevent a further rise. 
 During this single year of peace there was an increase of six millions in 
 the value of the British goods exported.* 
 
 Iu November there were rumours of a failure of the Sea Island 
 cotton, from unfavourable weather; but Messrs. Ewart and Hutson coolly 
 observe, “ they want confirmation/'f 
 
 Prices again showed a decline, in some articles, at the commencement 
 of 1803. West India cotton, which was least affected, was quoted at 
 Is. 4d. to Is. 7d. a-pound; sugar at 65s. to 70s. a-cwt.; coffee at 99s. to 
 103s. a-cwt. Bread was a little higher; 5 lbs. 1 oz. 6 dwts. for a shil¬ 
 ling. The government had granted an increase of drawback, and also a 
 bounty, on the exportation both of raw and refined sugar, which was 
 raising prices.J There was a brisk demand for coffee, owing to the 
 desperate war which the French and the negroes were waging against 
 each other in St. Domingo. In spite of the rumours of a failing cotton 
 crop in America, which were current in the previous autumn, it was 
 found that there was a considerable increase of Georgia and Carolina 
 cotton, of inferior kinds, and no change in the supply of superior. At 
 the end of February, Bowed Georgia, of first-rate quality, had fallen to 
 12d. or 12jd. per pound, which almost suspended the use of West India 
 cotton.§ In April rumours of the renewal of war began again to be 
 current, and to produce an effect on prices. “ In consequence of change 
 in politics, speculators become sanguine; but will fail, unless in case of 
 hostilities.”|| In the month of May the short peace of Amiens was 
 suddenly ended, by a renewed declaration of war between England and 
 France. Sugar experienced a pretty considerable advance immediately 
 upon war being declared; coffee rose rapidly, the failure of the French 
 attempts to restore cultivation in St. Domingo being rendered certain, by 
 the revival of hostilities. A slight advance also took place in cotton, but 
 was soon checked, by fear of the closing of the foreign markets.In 
 July the demand for cotton became uncommonly dull. In noticing this, 
 Messrs. Ewart, Butson, and Co add, “ Until channels for exportation of 
 manufactured goods be opened, no favourable alteration in the prices of 
 the raw material can be expected.” Many continental markets were 
 
 * Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 16, 1802. 
 
 + Ewart and Butson’s Circular, November 29, 1802. 
 § Ibid, February 28, 1803. 
 
 J Ibid, January 3, 1803. 
 || Ibid, April 4, 1803. 
 
 If Billinge’s Liverpool Advertiser, May 16, 1803. 
 
731 
 
 closed on the renewal of the war. In July sugar fell 3s. or 4s., owing 
 to the general stagnation of trade, and the closing of the vent for sugar, 
 by the blockade of the Elbe. In August cotton was reported to be very 
 dull, “ the want of a vent for yarns and manufactured goods on the con¬ 
 tinent of Europe having become extremely harrassing to the manufac¬ 
 turers, and the uncertainty when channels may be opened rendering the 
 dealers unwilling to hold stock.”* 
 
 In October the price of coffee was depressed by the expectation that 
 the Dutch colonies of Demerara and Java would be conquered, and that 
 large supplies would be received from both ;f but in the same month sugar 
 began to rally, in consequence of a falling off of one-fourth in the imports. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1804 sugar, coffee, and all other 
 articles of colonial produce again showed the influence of war prices. In 
 January, Jamaica sugar was worth 71s. to 72s. Gd., and by the month of 
 April it had risen to 84s. and 87s. a-cwt.; coffee commenced at 131s. to 
 13Gs., and in April it had risen to 142s. and 145s. a-cwt.; cotton, being 
 depressed by the state of the continental markets, did not partake of the 
 rise. It began the year at Is. 4d. to Is. 6Jd., and was selling at the same 
 price in October. 
 
 The rise in sugar and coffee, in the beginning of the year, was caused 
 by the continental demand. The cotton trade was very dull until July, 
 but then became active. In the course of this year the rich and extensive 
 colony of Demerara fell into the hands of England, and in September no less 
 than 22,000 bales of Demerara and Berbice cotton arrived in the Liverpool 
 markets, and drove down prices. This produced an increased consump¬ 
 tion, and the price of cotton rose from l^d. to 3d. a-lb. in December, in 
 consequence of a rumour that the crops in Carolina and Georgia had 
 suffered from a violent hurricane.$ 
 
 The year 1805 commenced with high prices. Sugar, 89s. to 91s. a-cwt.; 
 coffee, 147s. to 150s.; Nicaragua wood, ;£G0 to J!70 a-ton; and cotton, 
 Is. Gd. to Is. lOd. a-lb., which by April had risen to Is. lid. and 2s. l^d. 
 In this case the report of injury to the crops appears to have been well 
 founded. 
 
 In July of this year a great commotion was produced in prices, by 
 the arrival of the news that the combined fleets of France and Spain had 
 arrived in the West Indies. After closing their circular of July 1st, 
 Messrs. Ewart and Rutson added to it the following postscript:— 
 
 * Ewart and Hutson's Circular, August 1, 1803. +• Ibid, October 31, 1803. 
 
 } Ibid, December 3, 1804. 
 
 5 C 
 
732 
 
 “N.B. It remains to be observed, that tlie foregoing quotations and 
 remarks have not any reference to the unpleasant news we have just 
 received of the arrival of the combined fleets at Martinique, which has 
 produced no little consternation. It will probably enhance the price of 
 cotton,” &c. The consternation soon passed away, being followed by the 
 news of the check given to the combined fleets, on their return to Europe, 
 by Sir Robert Calder; and, soon after, of their total defeat, by Lord Nelson. 
 Nevertheless, the year closed gloomily, owing to the depressed state of 
 the manufacture, and the unfavourable turn of political events in Germany, 
 where the armies of Prussia had been defeated and dispersed. 
 
 The year 1806 opened with dull trade, but high prices. Sugar, 82s. 
 to 86s. a-cwt.; coffee, 128s. to 135s ; ashes, 56s. to 58s. a-barrel; 
 American wheat, 77s. a-quarter; flour, 45s. to 47s. a-barrel; and cotton. 
 Is. 4g-d. to Is. 5jd., which was a low price, compared with other articles, 
 and gradually rose to 21d. and 22jd. before autumn. 
 
 The year 1807 was one of gloom, owing to the state of the continent, where 
 the power of Bonaparte was everywhere predominant. In January busi¬ 
 ness was suspended, “ on account of the state of the continent.” The 
 occupation of Hamburgh put an end to the demand for coffee. Cotton 
 also fell Id. to ljd. a-lb. from the same cause. In February a parlia¬ 
 mentary committee was sitting to take evidence on the sugar trade, “ which 
 was in a deplorable state”, and which the government attempted to cure 
 by granting new bounties. 
 
 The effect of the abolition of the slave trade began to be felt in the 
 cessation of the demand for common rum, for which the coast of Africa 
 was the principal vent, and also of the demand for all kinds of goods 
 suited for the African market, such as gunpowder, coarse cloth, muskets, 
 and trinkets of all kinds. To relieve the pressure on sugar, a temporary 
 bounty was granted of 2s. a-cwt.* Until the disastrous results of the 
 battles of Eylau and Friedland were known, hopes continued to be enter¬ 
 tained that the French would be driven out of Germany by the combined 
 armies of Prussia and Russia. These hopes were disappointed. In 
 August the price of coffee was driven down by the precarious and unpre¬ 
 cedented state of the continent, “ the very unfavourable terms upon 
 which Prussia had made peace indicating the exclusion of this country 
 from the continent.” At the beginning of the month of August the price 
 of cotton was forced up by apprehensions of a war with the United States, 
 arising out of the orders in council, which were strongly resented in 
 * Ewart and Rutson’s Circular, 1807. 
 
733 
 
 America. At the end of the same month the price of cotton, and all other 
 articles, was again driven down by the almost total exclusion of British 
 goods and produce from all parts of the continent. 
 
 The year 1808 was one of the most remarkable years in the com¬ 
 mercial annals of Liverpool, owing to the strange and conflicting course 
 of public events. 
 
 The position of prices at the beginning of the year was as follows :— 
 Sugar, 71 s. to 70s. percwt.; coffee, 88s. to 105s.; rum, 3s. 2d. to 3s. 4d. 
 per gallon; New Orleans cotton, 15gd. to 18d. per lb.; ashes, 55s. to 
 68s. per barrel; American wheat, 84s. to 85s. per quarter; and flour, 
 44s. to 46s. per barrel. 
 
 In January the English markets were glutted with unheard-of stocks 
 of sugar and coffee, though the prices of those articles were enormously 
 high on the continent, only small quantities being introduced, and those 
 by stealth. 
 
 In the same month the supplies of cotton from America were rather 
 large, but early in February the American embargo put an end to all 
 supplies. In the year 1807 the imports of cotton into Liverpool bad 
 amounted to 197,346 bales; in 1808 they fell to 66,010 ; and, from the 
 same cause, the imports of flour fell from 134,765 to 1,648 barrels; 
 and those of tobacco from 5,758 to 440 hogsheads. In February, Messrs. 
 Ewart and Rutson, writing of the state of the coffee market, say, “ Seeing 
 the daily more rigid and barbarous decrees of the enemy, we know not 
 how an outlet is to be found for this article.”* Of cotton they report in 
 the same circular, “ The news of the American embargo caused a very 
 animated demand ; this, however, was checked before the end of the 
 month by the state of the manufactory, so much depressed by the gloomy 
 state of our political relations, that both dealers and spinners have left the 
 market as much as possible.”f In April the only hope for the coffee 
 dealers was, that the enemy might find it expedient to relax his prohi¬ 
 bitory decrees, though there was then little hope of it, it being even feared 
 that France would draw Sweden, the only remaining ally of England, 
 into the continental system. At the end of the month of May the 
 rise in the price of grain induced the government again to prohibit the 
 use of anything except sugar and molasses in distilleries during the next 
 twelve months. In the course of that month it was found that the embargo 
 had put an end to the supplies of cotton from America; but the state of 
 the manufacturing districts was so unfavourable that prices were not 
 * Ewart and Hutson's Circular, February 1, 1808. + Ibid, February 20, 1808. 
 
734 
 
 much affected. At the end of the same month a committee of the House 
 of Commons promised to suggest measures of permanent benefit to the 
 West Indies. In July the gloom which had spread over the public mind 
 was suddenly swept away, by the rising of the Spaniards against the 
 armies of the French Emperor, the defeat and surrender of Dupont at 
 Baylen, and the appearance of the armies of England, under Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley, in the Peninsula. Confident hopes were at once formed that 
 immense results, as great as those which followed ultimately, would follow 
 immediately; that Russia, Austria, and Prussia would declare against 
 France; and that the continental system, with its author, would be over¬ 
 thrown. A spirit of speculation at once took possession of the minds of 
 commercial men. In July there was a brisker market for cotton goods : 
 in August there were hopes of a rise in coffee, from the belief that the 
 example of the Spanish patriots would cause some change in northern 
 politics. In September the speculators in cotton had got possession of 
 tire market. Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, in mentioning this, state that 
 nearly all the cotton in the country was in the hands of speculators, but 
 that there was no advance in the price of goods at all adequate to the 
 advance in cotton.* 
 
 In October a Brazilian fleet (for the trade of Brazil was then thrown 
 open by the Prince Regent) had brought 5,000 or 6,000 bales. This 
 was scarcely felt in its effect on prices. In October, Messrs. Ewart and 
 Rutson anticipated large supplies of sugar from Havannah and the other 
 Spanish markets, which had been thrown open to England by the Spanish 
 Alliance. At the beginning of December they state that the average 
 yearly import of coffee into Liverpool, for the preceding five years, was 
 4,225 tons. This, however, was only imported to be re-exported to the 
 continent, the home consumption being only 110 tons. The same 
 observation applies, though not to the same extent, to sugar, and other 
 articles of tropical produce. Of cotton they reported the deficiency at 
 119,790 bags. In 1807 the import at Liverpool, in eleven months, was 
 184,140 bales; in 1808, in eleven months, 64,350. In the former year 
 America supplied 135,750 bales; in the latter, only 25,300.f 
 
 The year 1809 commenced with the following position of prices 
 Sugar, 83s. to 85s. a-ewt.; rum, 6s. 3d. to 6s. 5d. a-gallon ; coffee, 103s. 
 to 106s. a-ewt.; cotton, 2s. 8d. to 2s. lOd. a-lb.; ashes, 84s. to 86s, 
 a-barrel; tobacco, 18d. to 2s. a-lb.; American wheat, 103s. a-quarter ; 
 Canadian, 98s. to 99s.; flour, none in the market. 
 
 * Ewart and Rutson’s Circular, September 5, 1808. 1 Ibid, December 5, 1808. 
 
735 
 
 The cotton speculation continued, with more or less violence, and 
 amidst ruinous fluctuations, during the greater part of the year. To the 
 end of January the belief in the continuance of the embargo produced 
 an animated demand, at excessive prices. About the end of that month 
 prices became unsettled, owing to the number of embargo breakers, of 
 whom eighteen arrived in two months, bringing 7,300 bales of cotton. 
 Ten additional embargo breakers arrived the next month ; and, what was 
 much more alarming to the speculators, news was brought that the embargo 
 was to be abandoned. This immediately produced a fall of 3d. to Gd. 
 per lb. A good trade at once sprang up at Manchester, and goods 
 and twist became scarce. Up to June the speculators were kept in a high 
 state of fever by negociations, the result of which was understood to be, 
 cotton or no cotton. “ The result of prices,” says the circular of July 3, 
 “ depends entirely on the result of negociations with America.” In 
 October news was received that the Embargo Act was to be changed for 
 a Non-intercourse Act, which was expected to produce much the same 
 results. This news created a tremendous excitement “News of the 
 Non-intercourse Bill produced a speculation exceeding anything ever 
 known before. From 40,000 to 50,000 bags changed hands, and prices 
 rose 5d. to Gd. in a week Manufacturers still have a flourishing trade, 
 though less so than before.”* In spite of this great rally, cotton never 
 again, in 1809, reached the point at which it had started, and finally 
 closed a shilling a-pound lower than at the beginning of the year. 
 
 The fluctuations in all articles were very great, owing to the political 
 events of the year. Sugar fell 10s. a-cwt. between January and April, 
 but then recovered itself, and closed only 2s to 3s. lower than it had 
 begun; coffee gradually declined from 103s. to 87s. ; ashes fell from 84s. 
 to 57s. a-barrel; turpentine from 70s. to 35s. a-barrel; tobacco from 2s. 
 to Gd. a-lbj; whilst wheat rose from 103s. to 112s., and flour from 43s. Gd. 
 to 57s. a-barrel. In addition to the feverish state of the negociations 
 with America, and the war in the Peninsula, the public mind was excited 
 by the war between Austria and France, in which Austria was nearly 
 successful, fighting alone, and would certainly have been successful if she 
 had been supported by the other powers. Already the Spanish ulcer was 
 eating into the power of Napoleon. 
 
 The last year of the first decennial period commenced with the fol¬ 
 lowing range of prices :—Sugar, 78s. to 80s. per cwt.; rum, 5s. 2d. to 
 5s. 7d. a gallon; coffee, 90s. to 98s. a-cwt.; cotton, Is. 8|d. to Is. 10|d. 
 
 * Ewart and Hutson's Circular, October 4809. 
 
a-lb.; ashes, 58s. to 60s. a-barrel; tobacco, Gd. to 14^d. a-lb.; wheat, 
 110s. to 112s. a-quarter; flour, 57s. to 60s. a-barrel. 
 
 Iu January the Liverpool public unanimously petitioned against 
 the use of grain for distilling purposes. Cotton was kept dull by the 
 uncertain state of the relations of England and the United States, 
 and by the arrival of large quantities from Brazil. Canadian produce 
 of all kinds was in good demaud, owing to the unsettled state of our 
 relations with the United States. Considerable quantities of Pernambuco 
 cotton arrived, the production of that article being there greatly stimulated 
 by the high prices of the preceding two years. In the autumn Bonaparte 
 somewhat relaxed his continental system, introducing a system of licenses 
 in the place of absolute prohibition; but some heavy confiscations of 
 British produce on the shores of the Baltic, which took place in the 
 month of August, depressed all articles of export. The imports of 
 1809 and 10 were enormous, in comparison with those of former years, 
 and much beyond the wants of the country. The consequence was a 
 great and sudden decline of prices, and a commercial panic which caused 
 the first decennial period of the century to close in gloom. 
 
 The year 1811 was one of great depression. The sanguine hopes 
 created by the opening of the trade with South America had passed away: 
 the Peninsula, torn by a desperate conflict, afforded no field for profitable 
 commerce : the continent was in a great measure closed against the goods 
 of England and the produce of its colonies : the relations of Great Britain 
 and the United States became more threatening every month: and the 
 markets of England were crowded with goods and produce imported during 
 the speculative mania of 1809 and 10. 
 
 The year 1812 was the first year of the second American war. It 
 began with the following position of prices :—Sugar, 78s. to 80s.; coffee, 
 56s. to 59s. a-cwt.; New Orleans cotton, Is. ljd. to Is. 4Jd. a-lb. ; ashes, 
 40s. to 43s. a-barrel; wheat, 14s. to 15s. 6d. the bushel of 70lbs.; and 
 American flour, 64s. to 66s. a-barrel. 
 
 At the beginning of the year there was a good demand for cotton, 
 and the price was rising, owing to the more hostile accounts recently 
 received from America.* Tobacco, and all other kinds of American 
 produce, were also rising, owing to the accounts brought by that appro¬ 
 priate messenger of war, the Hornet. The high price of grain once more 
 induced the government to forbid the use of it in distilleries, which gave 
 an upward tendency to sugar. At the beginning of February the accounts 
 * Ewart, Rutson, and Co.’s Circular, .January 11, 1S12. 
 
737 
 
 from America became still more threatening. “ The hostile news from 
 America,” say Messrs. Ewart and Hutson, “ received here last Saturday, 
 by the Lydia, from New York, produced a considerable effect on the 
 cotton market,—the demand immediately revived, and was very brisk 
 indeed on Monday and Tuesday, at improving prices, although it has 
 since become more languid.”* In April there was again more inquiry 
 for cotton, stimulated by a continuance of hostile accounts from the 
 United States. In the first week of May the president’s warlike message 
 to congress increased the disposition to speculate in cotton, “ but that 
 was checked in some degree,” say Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, “ by the 
 disturbances which continued to prevail in the manufacturing districts.” 
 Wheat was that week quoted in Liverpool at 19s. to 20s. the 70 lbs., and 
 American Flour at 77s. to 78s. the barrel.f In the following month 
 rumour was received from New York of another suspension of com¬ 
 mercial intercourse. This arrived on the Monday, and caused a very 
 animated demand for cotton that evening and the following day, with the 
 prospect of continuing, “ but the melancholy occurrence in the House of 
 Commons,” (the murder of the Prime Minister, Spencer Percival, by 
 Bellingham,) “ of which accounts were received on Wednesday, entirely 
 suspended all operations.”! Near the end of June Messrs. Ewart and 
 Rutson state the fact of the too long deferred repeal of the orders in 
 council: “ In the early part of the week business was very dull, but since 
 the receipt of the order in council on Thursday, encouraging a full 
 expectation that the restrictions on intercourse with the United States 
 will be removed, rather more business has been done.” In the first week 
 in August these hopes were destroyed by the news that the American 
 government had declared war against England. “ A regular demand for 
 cotton this week,” say Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, “ which was extended 
 yesterday by the information from London, received by express, of the 
 declaration of war by America.’’ This was in the circular of the 1st 
 August ; that of the 14th contained the following warlike postscript:— 
 “ N.B. The brig Briton, arrived here this morning, in fifteen days from 
 Oporto, brings an official notification of Gen. Trant to the inhabitants 
 of that city, of the complete defeat of Marmont’s army,” (at Salamanca.) 
 It is dated the 30th ult., and states the enemy’s loss to be 15,000 
 to 20,000 men, including 10,000 prisoners, with four generals, and 
 nineteen pieces of artillery; that Marmont had lost an arm, and several 
 
 * Ewart and Rutson’s Circular, February 1, 1812. 
 
 J Ibid, May 14, 1812. 
 
 + Ibid, May 2, 1812. 
 
738 
 
 other French generals were wounded. The loss on the part of the allies 
 is stated to he 3,000 or 4,000 men.”* On the 22d August the return of 
 Mr. Foster, the English ambassador, from America, gave rise to some 
 excitement in the cotton market. In September it was announced that 
 there was only one parcel of Canada wheat left in Liverpool, which was 
 held at 18s. the 701hs. In October the famous Brougham and Canning 
 election put business out of men’s minds for a fortnight. Immediately 
 afterwards the declaration of the government, announcing the issuing of 
 letters of marque against the vessels of the United States, caused a brisk 
 demand for cotton, and a sale of 7,000 bales. On the 17th November 
 the news of the overthrow and destruction of the grand army of 
 Napoleon in Russia began to ooze out, and produced “ a speculative 
 demand for dyewoods !”f Early in December the cotton manufacturers, 
 moved by the certainty of war with America, and the prospect of peace 
 in Europe, came into the market in great numbers. “ There has been 
 throughout the whole of this week,” says the circular of the 12tli of 
 December, “ a very great demand for cotton, and in the whole we compute 
 that fully 17,000 bales have changed hands. The attendance of dealers and 
 consumers in the market has been numerous, and we calculate that, of 
 the total purchases, they have taken rather more than one-lialf; the rest 
 have gone into the hands of speculators, who show considerable dis¬ 
 position to continue purchasing at our highest quotations.” It adds, on 
 the 18th, “ The receipt of the president’s message to congress, and the 
 favourable news from Russia,”—of the total destruction of the grand 
 army ,—“ have caused a very brisk inquiry for cotton the whole of this 
 week.” Thus ended the commercial history of this memorable year. 
 
 The year 1813 commenced with much higher prices of American pro¬ 
 duce. New Orleans cotton was quoted at Is 1 Id. to 2s. lid. ; Sea Island, 
 at 3s. Id. to 3s. 4d.; Pernams, at 2s. 2d. to 2s. 3d.; and Surat, at Is. 2jd. to 
 1 s. 5d. per lb. The little American wheat left in the Liverpool market was 
 worth 17s. 6d. the 70 lbs., and there was no flour: York and James River 
 tobacco was selling wholesale at the rate of 6d. a-lb., and ashes at 63s. 
 a-barrel. Theprices of West India produce were also high. Good Jamaica 
 sugar was worth 83s. to 84s. a-cwt.; rum, Gs. to 6s. 3d. a-gallon ; coffee, 
 72s. to 77s. per cwt. 
 
 As the year advanced, and the prospect of return of peace with 
 America appeared remote, the prices of all articles of American produce 
 continued to advance ; and before the close of the year, as the power of 
 * Ewart and Rutson’s Circular, August 15, 1812. + Ibid, November 17, 1812. 
 
739 
 
 Napoleon gradually sank and ultimately fell, the upward tendency was still 
 further increased hy the opening of the continent. In the beginning of 
 March the government, in its anxiety to save the cotton manufacturers from 
 a total exhaustion of supply, so far relaxed the rules of commercial warfare 
 as to allow American cotton to he imported from the United States in neutral 
 vessels, on payment of an additional duty of 3d. per lb. This concession 
 drove down prices Id. to l^d. per lb., and produced a dull trade, until the 
 determination of the government to place the southern ports of the United 
 States in a state of blockade again drove them up. Near the end of 
 the month the rise was again checked by large arrivals from the Brazils, 
 (where the production had increased, under the stimulus of high prices, 
 from 46,183 bales in 1811, to 87,047 in 1813,) and also by considerable 
 arrivals of prize cottons from Plymouth.* In the middle of July prices 
 of cotton advanced a little, and the first qualities of Maranham brought 
 2s., but, in consequence of the arrival of two neutral vessels from Charles¬ 
 ton with 1,800 bags, and the expectation of the sailing of others before 
 the blockade was likely to be notified and enforced, holders became more 
 anxious to sell.f In August a cargo of turpentine arrived in a neutral 
 ship from Boston, but it was not allowed to be admitted for home con¬ 
 sumption. I On the 28th August New Orleans cotton was becoming scarce. 
 In September considerable quantities of American cotton arrived from 
 Amelia Island and Pensacola, both of which places then belonged to Spain. 
 On the 25th September the news of Blucher’s victories in Silesia produced 
 the following results in the Liverpool markets :—“ P.S. Since the above 
 went to press,” say Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, “ the still more cheering 
 news of the day from Germany has given fresh vigour to the speculative 
 demand for coffee” ! In the beginning of November the news of the battle 
 of Leipzic, and of the retreat of the French towards the Rhine, gave 
 additional animation to the demand for cotton.§ On the 27th 
 November “ the glorious news of the week had a general effect on 
 markets, and produced a great spirit of speculation in most articles.” 
 The glorious news was that of the rapid retreat of the armies of Napoleon, 
 and the commencement of negociations for a general peace. Commerce, 
 like politics, continued in a state of extraordinary excitement during the 
 remainder of the year. 
 
 The year 1814 (the last year of continuous warfare) opened with the 
 following prices:—New Orleans cotton, 2s. 5£d. to 2s. 8d. per lb.; Sea 
 
 * Ewart atul Rutson’s Circular, April 24, 1813. + Ibid, July 10, 1913. 
 
 t Ibid, August 14, 1813. § Ibid, November C, 1813. 
 
 5 n 
 
740 
 
 Island, 3s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. ; Brazilian, (Pemams,) 2s. lOd. to 2s. lid.; 
 Surat, Is. 6|-d. to Is. 8Jd.; ashes, 72s. to 75s. a-barrel; tobacco, 8d. to 
 24d. per lb.; Canada wheat, 11s. 9d. to 12s. per 70lbs. There was 
 no American grain or'flour in the Liverpool market. The prices of West 
 India produce were also unusually high ; good middling Jamaica sugar 
 112s. to 113s. a-cwt.; rum, 6s. 3d. to 6s. 4d. a-gallon; coffee, (good 
 Jamaica,) 104s. to 106s.; and everything else in proportion. At the 
 end of January a warlike message of the American president, and an 
 expectation that the little trade carried on indirectly between England 
 and the United States would be put an end to by an embargo, gave a 
 further impulse to the cotton market, which was helped by the progress 
 of the allied arms on the continent. The latter cause, also, gave a great 
 impulse to the prices of West India produce. The highest quotations of 
 1814, which were the highest of the war, so far as American produce is 
 concerned, were those of March the 19th They were as follows :—New 
 Orleans cotton, 3s. to 3s. 2^d. per lb.; Sea Island uncertain, from the 
 scantiness of the supply, but when next quoted, on the 9tli April, 3s. lid. 
 to 4s. Id.; Pernambuco cotton, 2s. 11^-d. to 3s. lg-d.; Surat, Is. 9d. to 
 2s.; Carolina rice, 65s. to 68s.; tobacco, (good and fine James River,) 
 Is. 8d. to Is. lid.; ashes, 78s. to 80s.; flour, none in the market. 
 The prices of West India produce were as follow:—Jamaica sugar, good 
 middling, 122s. to 124s.; rum, 6s. 4d. to 6s. 9d. ; coffee, Jamaica, good 
 middling, 120s. to ISOs.* On the 24th April the news of the arrival of 
 the American Commissioners at Gottenburg, (on their way to Ghent, to 
 treat of peace with England,) produced a decline of 3d. to 4d. per lb. in 
 cotton.f In the middle of May the markets for produce had fallen into 
 a most miserable state of depression. Prices gave way so rapidly and 
 irregularly that the brokers were either unable or unwilling to quote them. 
 No prices were quoted for seven weeks, of the principal articles of West 
 India produce; but it was stated that cotton had fallen 4d. or 5d. in one day, 
 in consequence of more pacific news from America. In June a quantity of 
 Brazilian cotton was shipped to France, the re-opening of a trade which had 
 been suspended for nearly twenty years, with the exception of one brief 
 interval. When the prices of sugar began to be quoted again, it was 
 found that they had run down more than 30s. a-cwt., from 122s. and 
 123s. to 90s. and 94s. During the remainder of the year the prices of 
 American produce rose or fell as the reports of the negociations at Ghent 
 were unfavourable or favourable to peace. These violent fluctuations 
 * Ewart and Hutson’s Circular, March 19, 1814. + Ibid, April 25, 1814. 
 
741 
 
 of price continued until the 31st of December, 1814, when news at 
 length arrived of the conclusion of peace with the United States. “ The 
 restoration of peace with the United States, which was known here by 
 express on Tuesday, produced a sudden suspension of demand for cotton, 
 and prices gave way on the instant 3d. or 4d. per lb.”* 
 
 Thus ended this long and dreadful conflict, during which commerce 
 was a mere lottery, prices depending on the course and result of events 
 which no sagacity could anticipate. A successful or unsuccessful battle 
 made one man, who was rich in the morning, poor at night, or suddenly 
 raised another from poverty to riches. As no one under sixty years of 
 age can have any very clear remembrance of these events, I have thought 
 that it might be both useful and interesting to show the influence of a 
 great war on commercial affairs. 
 
 * Ewart and Eutson’s Circular, December 31, 1814. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD. 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL FROM THE GENERAL PEACE, IN 1815, 
 TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The commerce of the British Empire at the present time greatly 
 surpasses, in value and extent, the commerce of the same empire at any 
 previous period of its history; and also surpasses that which any other 
 country, however prosperous and extensive it may be, either now has, or 
 ever possessed. The declared value of the British manufactures and 
 produce exported in the twelve months ending the 5th January, 1852, 
 was upwards of seventy-four millions sterling; and the official value of 
 the imports was upwards of one hundred millions. The latter does not, 
 it is true, give the value of the imports so correctly as the former does 
 that of the exports, being founded on an estimate of prices made many 
 years ago; but it shows the import trade of the country to he as great, 
 if not much greater, than the export. Adding the value of the exports to 
 that of the imports, the movement of property caused by the foreign and 
 colonial trade of the empire is not less than a hundred and sixty millions 
 sterling a-year. Nor is this great commerce either in a declining or 
 a languishing condition ; but, on the contrary, in a state of great and rapid 
 extension Looking back for a period of thirty years, we find that the 
 declared value of the export trade of the empire, in 1822, was not quite 
 thirty-seven, nor that of the import trade much more than thirty millions. 
 The increase, therefore, which may be traced in the following table, has 
 been very great during that time, and was never more rapid than at present: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Official Value of 
 Imports. 
 
 Declared Value 
 of Exports. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Official Value of 
 Imports. 
 
 Declared Value 
 of Exports. 
 
 1822 
 
 £30,531,141 
 
 £30,980,023 
 
 1837 
 
 £54,762,285 
 
 £42,069,245 
 
 1823 
 
 35,798,433 
 
 35,357,041 
 
 1838 
 
 01,258,013 
 
 50,061,737 
 
 1821 
 
 37,408,279 
 
 38,422,404 
 
 1839 
 
 62 048,121 
 
 53,233,580 
 
 1825 
 
 44,208,893 
 
 38,870,945 
 
 1840 
 
 67,492,710 
 
 51,400,430 
 
 1826 
 
 37,813,890 
 
 31,530,723 
 
 1841 
 
 64,444,268 
 
 51,634,623 
 
 1827 
 
 44,908,173 
 
 37,181,335 
 
 1642 
 
 65,253,286 
 
 47.381,023 
 
 1828 
 
 45,107,443 
 
 30,812,757 
 
 1843 
 
 70,214,912 
 
 52,279,709 
 
 1829 
 
 43,995,280 
 
 35,842,623 
 
 1844 
 
 75,449,374 
 
 58,584,292 
 
 1830 
 
 40,300,473 
 
 38,271,597 
 
 1845 
 
 85,297,508 
 
 60,111,082 
 
 1831 
 
 49,727,828 
 
 37,164,372 
 
 1846 
 
 75,934,022 
 
 07,786,876 
 
 1832 
 
 44,810,540 
 
 30,450,594 
 
 1847 
 
 90,921,866 
 
 58,842,377 
 
 1833 
 
 45,944,420 
 
 39,667,348 
 
 1848 
 
 93,547,134 
 
 52,849,445 
 
 1834 
 
 49,384,733 
 
 41,649,191 
 
 1849 
 
 105,874,607 
 
 63,590,025 
 
 1835 
 
 49,029,334 
 
 47,372,270 
 
 1850 
 
 100,460,433 
 
 71,367,885 
 
 1830 
 
 57,298,045 
 
 53,293,979 
 
 1851 
 
 Not complete. 
 
 74,250,000* 
 
 Parliamentary Paper, Session 1852. 
 
743 
 
 The commerce of the United Kingdom with foreign countries and the 
 colonies, thus amounting at the present time to upwards of a hundred and 
 sixty millions a-year, is carried on chiefly through twelve seaports, six of 
 them in England, three in Scotland, and three in Ireland. The English 
 ports, taken in the order of their foreign trade, are, Liverpool, London, 
 Hull, Southampton, Newcastle, and Bristol; the Scotch, Glasgow, Leith, 
 and Greenock; the Irish, Cork, Belfast, and Dublin. Each of these 
 ports, also, carries on a large and valuable coasting and internal trade ; and 
 many other places which have little foreign commerce possess a flourish¬ 
 ing coasting and domestic trade. The total amount of tonnage which 
 entered and cleared out from all the ports of the three kingdoms in the 
 foreign, colonial, and coasting trades, in the year ending December 31,1850, 
 was 44,125,024 tons.* Of this immense amount of tonnage, 11,441,254 
 tons was employed in the trade with foreign countries, 3,236,551 in that 
 with the British colonies, and 29,447,819 in the coasting or domestic trade 
 of the three kingdoms. The amount of tonnage of all kinds employed in 
 carrying on the inward and outward trade of the principal ports of the 
 United Kingdom was as follows:—London, 7,494,815 tons, including 
 12,033 vessels employed in supplying the capital with 3,037,878 tons of 
 coal; Liverpool, 6,01 1,870 tons, not including any of the river and canal 
 vessels which supply the port with about 1,200,000 tons of coal and 
 600,000 tons of salt; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 3,059,030 tons, chiefly engaged 
 in the coal trade; Sunderland, 2,099,772 tons, in the same trade; Har¬ 
 tlepool, 1,192,370 tons, also in the coal trade; Hull, 1,174,274 tons; 
 Plymouth, 720,608 tons; Bristol, 962,504 tons; Cardiff, 817,000 tons, 
 chiefly in the coal trade ; Gloucester, 250,100 tons; Newport, 070,933 
 tons, in the coal and iron trades; Glasgow, 1,241,234 tons; Leith, 327,993 
 tons; Dublin, 1,393,822 tons; Belfast, 1,089,096 tons; Cork, 681,152 
 tons; Waterford, 359,562 tons; Drogheda, 236,504 tons; Limerick, 
 294,240 tons; and Londonderry, 171,268 tons. 
 
 With regard to the export trade of the United Kingdom to foreign 
 countries and the colonies, it is (as I have stated) carried on chiefly 
 through the twelve ports first named in the preceding paragraph. Of 
 those ports Liverpool, London, and Hull greatly surpass the others in 
 the extent of their export trade, whilst Liverpool, in its turn, as much 
 surpasses London and Hull. In the year 1850 the value of the exports 
 to foreign countries and the colonies, from those twelve principal ports, 
 was as follows:—Liverpool, £34,891,847 ; London, £14,137,527 ; Hull, 
 £10,360,010; Glasgow, £3,768,040; Southampton, £1,889,047; New- 
 
 * Returns of Shipping. Parliamentary Papers, Session 1851. 
 
744 
 
 castle, £920,0G8; Leith, £365,552; Bristol, £362,039; Greenock, 
 £355,693; Cork, £116,268 ; Belfast, £56,506 ; Dublin, £50,354. The 
 increase of these ports has been very great on the -whole. The exports 
 of Liverpool were supposed to he of the value of seventeen millions in 
 1817. In 1839 (the first year mentioned in the Parliamentary Returns, 
 on which the above statement of the export trade of the different ports is 
 founded) they had increased to £25,703,847, since which time they had 
 increased to £34,891,847 in 1850, and, probably, to about £36,000,000 in 
 1851. The increase during the last twelve years in the value of the export 
 trade of the principal ports of the empire has been as follows :—Liver¬ 
 pool, £9,188,000 ; London, £2,550,490; Hull, £1,074,449 ; Newcastle, 
 £230,751 ; Southampton, £1,734,077 ; Glasgow, £1,918,390 ; Leith, 
 £183,159. On the whole the foreign commerce of Bristol, Greenock, 
 Cork, Belfast, and Dublin has fallen off during the last twelve years, 
 having been transferred to other ports. The following is the return for 
 the twelve years: 
 
 DECLARED VALUE OF THE EXPORTS FROM EACH OF THE TWELVE 
 PRINCIPAL PORTS OF THE KINGDOM, FROM 1839 TO 1850. 
 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 London. 
 
 Hull. 
 
 Bristol. 
 
 Newcastle. 
 
 S’hampton. 
 
 1839.... 
 
 £25,703,847 
 
 £11,586,037 
 
 £9,292,161 
 
 £563,921 
 
 £589,317 
 
 £125,570 
 
 1840.... 
 
 23,882,748 
 
 11,058,886 
 
 8,994,430 
 
 556,380 
 
 686,928 
 
 106,302 
 
 1841.... 
 
 23,726,701 
 
 10,611,034 
 
 9,501,242 
 
 511,297 
 
 724,523 
 
 459,828 
 
 1842.... 
 
 20,510,191 
 
 9,401,468 
 
 10,211,004 
 
 328,347 
 
 836,348 
 
 475,516 
 
 1843.... 
 
 24,762,522 
 
 10,250,360 
 
 10,131,419 
 
 364,702 
 
 830,283 
 
 741,878 
 
 1844.... 
 
 28,802,340 
 
 11,095,788 
 
 10,507,367 
 
 157,206 
 
 785,412 
 
 1,041,507 
 
 1845.... 
 
 28,427,767 
 
 11,078,164 
 
 10,798,338 
 
 216,778 
 
 1,015,867 
 
 1,475,105 
 
 1846.... 
 
 26,304,422 
 
 10,916,791 
 
 10,875,870 
 
 225,704 
 
 884,784 
 
 1,928,976 
 
 1847.... 
 
 27,634,356 
 
 11,608,492 
 
 9,534,728 
 
 247,716 
 
 981,160 
 
 2,278,041 
 
 1848.... 
 
 25,905,358 
 
 10,202,016 
 
 8,185,960 
 
 202,981 
 
 704,191 
 
 2,272,363 
 
 1849.... 
 
 32,341,918 
 
 11,748,833 
 
 9,721,412 
 
 313,178 
 
 786,390 
 
 2,229,020 
 
 1850.... 
 
 34,891,847 
 
 14,137,527 
 
 10,366,610 
 
 362,039 
 
 920,068 
 
 1,859,647 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Decrease 
 
 £9,188,000 
 
 £2,551,490 
 
 £1,074,449 
 
 £ 2 oi ,882 
 
 £330,751 
 
 £1,734,077 
 
 
 Leith. 
 
 Glasgow. 
 
 Greenock. 
 
 Dublin. 
 
 Cork. 
 
 Belfast. 
 
 1839.... 
 
 £183,393 
 
 £1,849,256 
 
 £1,136,334 
 
 £59,388 
 
 £132,231 
 
 £292,256 
 
 1840.... 
 
 191,217 
 
 153,371 
 
 2,214,320 
 
 1,214,970 
 
 60,395 
 
 110,006 
 
 281,444 
 
 1841.... 
 
 2,007,192 
 
 839,810 
 
 73,505 
 
 94,190 
 
 220,124 
 
 1842.... 
 
 105,027 
 
 1,649,349 
 
 666,533 
 
 52,232 
 
 113,085 
 
 100,478 
 
 1843.... 
 
 115,045 
 
 2,201,480 
 
 660,911 
 
 37,213 
 
 113,148 
 
 110,135 
 
 1844.... 
 
 123,070 
 
 2,344,888 
 
 848,478 
 
 74,447 
 
 91,082 
 
 73,351 
 
 1845.... 
 
 88,349 
 
 2,039,217 
 
 955,534 
 
 72,445 
 
 118,129 
 
 62,464 
 
 1846.... 
 
 92,474 
 
 112,023 
 
 3,024,343 
 
 478,800 
 
 18,737 
 
 94,331 
 
 107,132 
 
 1847.... 
 
 2,812,859 
 
 576,337 
 
 26,552 
 
 74,490 
 
 98,410 
 
 L848.... 
 
 172,568 
 
 2.271,364 
 
 337,471 
 
 31,765 
 
 75,504 
 
 98,435 
 
 1849.... 
 
 254,700 
 
 2,768,859 
 
 398,050 
 
 83,997 
 
 105,752 
 
 48,761 
 
 1850.... 
 
 360,552 
 
 3,768,646 
 
 355,693 
 
 50,354 
 
 116,268 
 
 56,506 
 
 Increase. 
 Decrease. 
 
 £183,159 
 
 £1,919,390 
 
 £780,641 
 
 £9,034 
 
 £15,963 
 
 £235,750 
 
745 
 
 There are no declared values of imports either into the United King¬ 
 dom or any of its ports, but the official value of the imports in 1850 was 
 i£l00,4G0,433. The quantity of foreign and colonial produce imported 
 into London, in 1850, was 1,374,947 tons; into Liverpool, 1,384,353; into 
 Hull, 639,823.* The value of the foreign and colonial produce imported 
 into London that year was about £43,183,821 ; of that imported into 
 Liverpool, £37,404,400; of that into Hull, £5,320,862.f A few of the 
 principal articles of importinto London were, grain and flour, £8,032,080 ; 
 sugar, £6,327,370 ; sheep’s wool, £5,060,000 ; tea, £7,560,000 ; tobacco, 
 £3,600,000; coffee, £1,846,000; silk, £1,580,000; hides, £1,316,000; 
 indigo, £ 1,350,000 ; rum, £1,040,000; and timber, £537,500. Some 
 of the leading articles imported into Liverpool were, cotton, £15,730,800 ; 
 grain and flour, £5,198,796 ; sugar, £2,485,000 ; tobacco, £3,388,000; 
 sheep’s wool, £1,380,000; tea, £1,831,000; hemp, £770,640 ; and 
 timber, £725,000. The largest articles of import into Hull were, grain, 
 £1,243,368; and flax, £1,350,000. London and Liverpool are the great 
 seats of the import trade from America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and 
 the south of Europe. London not only supplies its own vast and wealthy 
 population with the products of those countries, but also the whole eastern 
 side of England, and the interior, as far as Birmingham. Liverpool sup¬ 
 plies Lancashire, Cheshire, part of Yorkshire, and Staffordshire, as well as 
 Ireland and North Wales, with raw materials and tropical produce. Both 
 London and Liverpool are extensive depots for bonded produce, from 
 which the people of the continent draw a considerable portion of their 
 supplies. The import trade of Glasgow greatly resembles that of Liver¬ 
 pool, though it is on a smaller scale. That of Bristol bears some 
 resemblance to the trade of London, consisting chiefly of sugar, coffee, and 
 other articles of consumption. The imports into Hull, Leith, and Dundee 
 are principally grain, flax, timber, and other articles of European produce. 
 
 The discovery of the gold of California has recently given Liverpool 
 a great trade in the precious metals, which it did not formerly possess. 
 Last year (1851) the gold and silver imported into Liverpool from the 
 United States were of the value of £6,091,433. 
 
 The Irish and coasting trade of Liverpool is also very large, and, in 1850, 
 gave employment to 896,168 tons of steam tonnage, and 515,836 tons of 
 sailing vessels. According to an estimate made in 1844, the value of the 
 produce imported into Liverpool, from foreign countries and the colonies, 
 
 * Statistics of British Commerce, by Braithwaite Poole, Esq., 106. 
 t See Estimate, in Appendix. In this estimate the duties are included. 
 
746 
 
 was £24,538,013 ; from Ireland, £5,318,957 ; and coastwise, £2,993,922 : 
 total, £32,850,890.* The Irish trade has passed through the most 
 extraordinary changes since 1844, hut is still very great. The coasting 
 trade has increased rapidly with all parts of the kingdom, hut especially 
 with the iron districts of Scotland and South Wales. Amongst the 
 articles of Irish and domestic produce imported into Liverpool, in 1851, 
 were 436,221 head of cattle, pigs, and sheep, forwarded into the interior 
 by the London and Northwestern Railway, and 250,000 consumed in Liver¬ 
 pool. The animals forwarded into the interior were 200,672 head of cattle, 
 5,176 calves, 71,571 pigs, and 158,802 sheep. The quantity of salt brought 
 into the port was 600,000 tons, of coal 1,500,000 tons, of iron ore 120,000 
 tons, of flints and clay, for the Staffordshire Potteries, 60,000 tons, of slates 
 70,000 tons, of lime and stone 50,000 tons. The weight of the goods, 
 merchandise, and produce of all kinds which passes through the port of 
 Liverpool yearly is at least 6,000,000 tons : the shipping employed in 
 transporting it amounted, in 1850, to 6,011,870 tons. 
 
 Let us now trace the causes which have created so vast a commerce, 
 and brought so large a portion of it to the port of Liverpool. 
 
 First amongst the causes of the general increase of commerce is the 
 fact, that the population of Great Britain has doubled itself during the last 
 fifty years. At the time of the census of 1801, the population of Great 
 Britain was 10,567,873 : now, after a lapse of half-a-century, it has 
 increased to 20,936,168. Thus it appears that, whilst it required 
 eighteen centuries (or it may have been twice eighteen) to raise the 
 population of the island to ten millions, fifty years have been sufficient 
 to raise it to twenty millions. All the members of this vastly increased 
 population, whether employed in agriculture, manufactures, mining, 
 handicrafts, or commerce, are producers of wealth, and consumers of the 
 products of foreign countries. The yearly income of the nation is from two 
 to three hundred millions, and the expending and the employing of this 
 vast product of industry, either for the purposes of present enjoyment 
 or the creation of future wealth, is the main spring of the commerce 
 of the country. It is chiefly owing to the increase of population and 
 wealth in the whole kingdom that the consumption of the principal 
 articles of import has so greatly increased during the long peace of thirty- 
 seven years which this country has now enjoyed. During that period 
 the yearly consumption of the principal articles of necessity and 
 luxury has increased as followsSugar, from 2,523,316 cwts., in 1815, 
 * M‘Culloch’s Commercial Dictionary, 1851. 
 
747 
 
 to 6,255,574 cwts.,in 1851 ; tea, from 25,917,853 lbs., in the former year, 
 to 53,965,112 lbs., in the latter; coffee, from 7,103,409 lbs., in 1815, to 
 32,564,164 lbs., in 1851 ;* and foreign grain and flour from an average of 
 one million quarters to an average of eight to ten millions. The increase of 
 houses, warehouses, mills, and ships, during that time, is also the chief cause 
 of the great increase of the timber trade. The extent of the increase is 
 shown by the facts, that the yearly value of houses and messuages in 
 Great Britain, which was £16,259,400 in 1815, had increased to 
 L‘42,315,040 in 1848 ;+ and the amount of British shipping out and in 
 exclusive of coasters, which was 2,770,796 tons in 1815, had increased 
 to 8,535,000 tons in 1852. 
 
 Whilst the general increase of population and wealth accounts for the 
 general increase of commerce, the much more than usually rapid in¬ 
 crease of both in London, and in the districts which surround Liver¬ 
 pool, Hull, Glasgow, and other great seats of commerce, is amongst the 
 principal causes of the more than ordinary progress which those ports have 
 made in commercial greatness. The average rate of the increase of popu¬ 
 lation in Great Britain during the last fifty years has been ninety-eight per 
 cent.,J but in some districts it has not been more than fifty or sixty, whilst 
 in others it has not been less than a hundred and fifty to nearly two hundred 
 per cent. The population of London, for instance, which was not more than 
 958,863 in 1801, was 2,361,640 in 1851 ; that of Lancashire, which was 
 672,731 at the former time, is 2,036,915 now; that of the West Biding 
 of Yorkshire, which was 565,282 at the beginning of the century, is 
 1,339,962 in the middle of it. Cheshire and Staffordshire are also consi 
 derably above the average, the population of Cheshire having increased, 
 in fifty years, from 191,751 to 423,438, and that of Staffordshire from 
 239,153 to 630,516. Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, 
 the Birmingham district of Warwickshire, and the iron districts of England 
 and Wales, (in which the increase has been equally rapid,) are the coun¬ 
 ties and the districts which have done most to create the commerce both 
 of Liverpool and Hull. The former is their chief port of communication 
 with America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the South of Europe ; the 
 latter with Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia. Supposing the popula¬ 
 tion of the whole of Great Britain to have increased as rapidly as that of 
 the counties and districts above enumerated, (to which we may add 
 Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire,) the population of the island would have 
 
 * M'Culloch on Taxation and Funding, Appendix. 
 
 + Property and Income Tax Returns, 1815 and 1848. } Census Returns, 1851. 
 
 5 F. 
 
748 
 
 been thirty millions, instead of twenty, at the present time ; whilst, if it 
 had not increased more rapidly than in of some of the southern and eastern 
 counties of England, it would not have been more than from fifteen 
 to sixteen millions. The rapid increase of an agricultural population 
 in numbers and wealth is only possible on a wide space of territory, as in 
 the United States, where a population of twenty-three millions of persons 
 possesses a country covering upwards of three millions five hundred thou¬ 
 sand square miles of land.* Great Britain contains somewhat less than one 
 hundred thousand square miles, for the accommodation of twenty-one 
 millions of inhabitants, that is, not quite the thirtieth part of the area of 
 the United States ; yet, the increase of the population of London, and of 
 the manufacturing and mining districts of England, Scotland, and Wales, 
 mentioned above, has been scarcely less rapid than that of the United 
 States. Whilst the increase of the population of those districts has 
 been so rapid, that of their wealth lias not been less so, and now surpasses 
 that of any other portion of the world of equal extent. According to 
 the Poor-law valuation of 1847, the yearly value of the real pro¬ 
 perty of Middlesex was £7,584,668 ; of Lancashire, 426,463,363 ; 
 of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 423,576,281 ; of Staffordshire, 
 421,971,266 ; and of Cheshire, 421,574,273. Comparing these amounts 
 with the value of property in some of the largest and most fertile 
 counties in other parts of the kingdom, we find the value of the property 
 in Essex to be £1,655,540 ; in Lincolnshire, £2,212,161 ; Norfolk, 
 £1,914,282; Suffolk, £1,407,413; and Buckinghamshire, £706,265. 
 
 The most extensive source of foreign commerce which the United 
 Kingdom possesses arises from the manufacture of the materials of clothing. 
 The value of the raw materials of cotton and sheep’s wool, of flax and 
 silk, and of the various dyes, oils, &c., used in those great manufactures, 
 is not less than thirty millions a-year,f independent of immense quan¬ 
 tities of long wool grown in the United Kingdom, and of upwards of 
 ninety thousand acres (91,040) of flax grown in Ireland.| The 
 manufactured products created by the spindles and looms of the United 
 Kingdom are of the yearly value of eighty to ninety millions, and the 
 exports of the value of forty-eight millions. Adding to this forty-eight 
 millions of exports thirty millions of raw materials, we have a foreign 
 
 * Speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster on laying the foundation-stone of the new 
 buildings of the capitol at Washington, July 4, 1851. 
 
 + See estimated value of cotton, wool, flax, silk, and dye wares, in Appendix. 
 
 * Parliamentary Returns of the Agriculture of Ireland, 1851. 
 
749 
 
 and colonial trade of seventv-eight millions a-year, created by textile 
 manufactures alone. 
 
 The principal cause of the pre-eminent prosperity of Liverpool is, 
 that much the greater part of this immense trade passes through its port, 
 first in the form of raw materials imported, and then of manufactured 
 goods exported. The prosperity of Hull and of Glasgow (as a port) 
 arises chiefly from the same cause. The following are the quantities of cot¬ 
 
 ton wool imported into Great Britain in each year of the present century : 
 
 Import of Cotton Wool into Great Britain from January, 1801, 
 to January, 1852 : 
 
 1801 .lbs. 56,004,305 
 
 1802 . 60,345,600 
 
 1803 . 53,812,284 
 
 1804 . 61,807,329 
 
 1805 . 59,682,406 
 
 1306 . 58,176,283 
 
 1807 . 74,925,306 
 
 1808 . 43,605,982 
 
 1809 . 92,812,282 
 
 1810 . 132,488,935 
 
 1811 . 91,576,535 
 
 1812 . 63,025,936 
 
 1813 . 50,966,000 
 
 1814 . 60,060,239 
 
 1815 . 99,300,343 
 
 1816 . 93,920,055 
 
 1817 . 124,912,968 
 
 1818 . 177,282,158 
 
 1819 . 149,739,820 
 
 1820 . 143,672,655 
 
 1821 . 129,536,620 
 
 1822 . 142,837,628 
 
 ' 1823 . 188,402,503 
 
 1824 . 143,381,122 
 
 1825 . 222,005,291 
 
 1826 . 171,607,401 
 
 1827 .lbs. 271,448,909 
 
 1828 . 219,760,642 
 
 1829 . 221,767,411 
 
 1830 . 201,961,452 
 
 1831 . 280,674,853 
 
 1832 . 287,832,525 
 
 1833 . 304,636,837 
 
 1834 . 320,600,000 
 
 1835 . 361,700,000 
 
 1836 . 410,800,000 
 
 1837 . 408,200,000 
 
 1838 . 501,000,000 
 
 1839 . 388,600,000 
 
 1840 . 583,400,000 
 
 1841 . 489,900,000 
 
 1842 . 528,500,000 
 
 1843 . 667,000,000 
 
 j 1844 . 644,400,000 
 
 1845 . 716,300,000 
 
 1846 . 480,500,000 
 
 1847 . 464,900,000 
 
 1848 . 686,400,000 
 
 1849 . 754,300,000 
 
 ; 1850 . 685,600,000 
 
 1851 . 761,100,000 
 
 The quantity and value of the cotton consumed in the whole kingdom 
 during each of the last seven years were as follows:—In 1845 it was 
 592,023,222 lbs., of the value of £10,175,400 ; in 1846, 592,742,528 lbs., 
 
 of the value of .£11,850,430; in 1847,421,385,238 lbs., of the value 
 
 of £10,754,100 ; in 1848, 595,591,083 lbs , of the value of £10,014,000 ; 
 in 1849, 620,710,160 lbs., of the value of £12,838,850; in 1850, 
 
 584,000,000 lbs., of the value of £l 7,374,000 ; and in 1851, 648,408,151 
 lbs., of the value of £15,524,800.* 
 
 Du lay and Co.’s Circular, 1802. 
 
750 
 
 The effect of the industry, skill, and ingenuity expended on the above 
 quantities of cotton was to give the following enormous value to the 
 manufactures produced from them :—In 1845, £43,050,000; in 1846, 
 £44,454,000; in 1847, £33,462,000 ; in 1848, £44,876,000 ; in 1849, 
 £40,302,000 ; in 1850, £48,490,300 ; and in 1851, £50,831,200. Thus, 
 the additional value communicated to the cotton imported into the three 
 kingdoms (independent of freight on its conveyance from the United 
 States, Brazil, and the East Indies) was, in 1845, £34,880,600; in 1846, 
 £32,603,570 ; in 1847, £22,707,900 ; in 1848, £34,862,000 ; in 1849, 
 £27,463,150 ; in 1850, £30,906,300 ; and in 1851, £35,296,400 * The 
 labour and skill employed in this great manufacture every year create an 
 amount of wealth greater than is required to pay the interest of the 
 national debt. 
 
 The proportions in which the cotton goods manufactured in the United 
 Kingdom were applied to the purposes of external and internal consumption 
 were as follows :—The value of the goods and twist exported was, in 1845, 
 goods exported, £18,816,000, twist, £6,988,000 ; total value of exports, 
 £25,804,000: in 1846, goods, £17,717,000, twist, £7,882,000; total, 
 £25,599,000: in 1847, goods, £17,382,000, twist, £5,957,000; total, 
 
 £23,339,000: in 1848, goods, £19,761,000, twist, £7,129,000; total, 
 
 £26,880,000: in 1849, goods, £19,156,000, twist, £6,963,000; total, 
 
 £26,119,000: in 1850, goods, £21,432,000, twist, £6,820,000; total, 
 
 £28,252,000: and in 1851, goods exported, £22,994,300, twist, 
 £7,084,700 ; total exports, £30,079,000. The value of the quantities of 
 cotton goods consumed at home was, in 1845, £19,252,000 ; in 1846, 
 £18,335,000; in 1847, £17,862,000 ; in 1848, £17,986,000; in 1849, 
 £13,412,000; in 1850, £20,227,600; in 1851, £20,752,000.f Thus it 
 will be seen that the last year, 1851, presents the largest consumption of 
 cotton ever known, the greatest increase of value in the manufacturing 
 processes, the largest export of goods, and the largest home consumption. 
 
 The following account of the cotton manufacture of England, 
 attached by the Manchester committee to the cotton goods shown in the 
 Grfeat Exhibition of 1851, deserves to be preserved, as an authorized record 
 of the position of the trade at the time of that great epoch in the annals of 
 industry :—“ The Manchester Local Committee for the Great Exhibition 
 have made the selection of goods from stock, with a view of exhibiting, 
 in a condensed form, the every-day productions of the manufacturing 
 industry of Manchester and the surrounding district. The most 
 * Dufay and Co.’s Annual Circular, 1852. + Ibid. 
 
751 
 
 important feature of this branch of our manufacturing industry is its 
 immense extent, an idea of which will be best conveyed by stating the 
 quantity of cotton delivered at Liverpool for consumption, which is about 
 one million and a half of bales annually, and, as they average almost 
 400 lbs. each, it gives the enormous weight of six hundred millions of 
 pounds, and nearly the whole of this is manufactured into yarn and cloth 
 in the district of which Manchester is the capital and the centre. Our 
 exports of cotton manufactures and cotton yarn during the year 1850 
 were as follows:—Cotton manufactures entered by the yard, 1,358,238,837 
 yards; declared value, £20,528,150; other descriptions of lace, hosiery, 
 &c., £1,343,780; cotton yarn, 131,433,1G8 lbs.; total declared value, 
 £28,252,878. The feature of next importance is the perfection to which 
 machinery has been brought, as applied to this manufacture, and the 
 consequent rapidity of its production. The manufacture of mixed fabrics 
 (cotton and woollen) is now an important branch of the industry of this 
 district, and is rapidly increasing. The capital and labour employed in 
 the production of silk goods are also very large. Comparison of the 
 number of power-looms in the United Kingdom in the years 1835 and 
 1850: 
 
 
 1835. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1 
 
 INCREASE. 
 
 Producing Cotton Fabrics .... 
 
 108,023 
 
 249,627 
 
 140,995 
 
 Producing Worsted and Mixed j 
 Fabrics.J 
 
 3,082 
 
 32,617 
 
 29,535 
 
 Silk. 
 
 1,714 
 
 0,092 
 
 4,378 
 
 Total. 
 
 113,438 
 
 288,336 
 
 174,908” 
 
 Amongst the causes which have had the greatest influence in increasing 
 the manufacture of cotton have been the great reduction in the price of 
 the raw material, the improvement of spinning machinery, the invention 
 of the power-loom, and the application of the inexhaustible power of 
 steam, both to the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cotton cloth. 
 
 With regard, first, to the price of cotton wool ; it has been seen that 
 the price of the 648,408,151 lbs. of cotton consumed in 1851 was 
 £15,524,800. To have bought that quantity of cotton at the prices of 
 1801 would have required about £60,000,000 of money;* at the prices 
 of 1811, about £32,000,000 ;f at those of 1821, £22,000,000 ; at those of 
 
 * See Ante, page 727. 
 
 + See Ante, page 739. 
 
752 
 
 1831, about £20,000,000 ; at those of 1841, £18,000,000 ; or, to go back 
 to the prices which prevailed before the war, in the year 1789, a time of 
 peace and cash payments, it would have cost £45,000,000.* Putting the 
 fluctuations of war and the variations of currency out of the question, 
 the price of cotton is now about one-third what it was sixty years ago. 
 The following account, made up from the books of the Manchester 
 Bank Mill Spinning Company, between the years 1791 and 1796, will 
 show what were then the prices of cotton and of some other articles: 
 
 1791. —St. Domingo, cotton, 6,181 lbs., at 13^-d. per lb.; Tobago, 
 5,918 lbs., at 16d.; Maranham, 5,551 lbs., at 16Jd.; St. Domingo, 
 0,000 lbs., at 15£d.; Tobago, 1,257 lbs., at 16d.; 106 lbs. carded cotton, 
 at 17^d.; clean spinning waste, 40 lbs., at 12d. 
 
 1792. —St. Domingo, 14,3551bs., at 2s.; 5,424 lbs. Surinam, at 
 2s. 9d. ; 2,345 lbs. St. Domingo, at 2s. 3d.; 1,479 lbs. Surinam, at 2s. 6d.; 
 St. Domingo, 3,613 lbs., at 22d.; Surinam, 5,568ilbs. at 2s. 3d.; 182 
 picked waste, at 2s.; unpicked, Is.; 233 lbs. cotton prepared to rove, 
 rovings, fine and coarse, 694 lbs., at 3s. 6d.; clean dust, 2,430 lbs., at 
 3d.; dirty dust and waste, 725 lbs., at Id. Twist on hand averaged 
 
 14 hanks, 339 lbs., at 4s.—£67 16s. 
 
 1793. —St. Domingo, 7,556 lbs., at 22|-d.; Tobago, 963 lbs., at 
 23^d.; St Domingo, 5,247 lbs., at 22^d.; picked, 1,000 lbs., at 22jd,; 
 Maranham, 1,535 lbs., at 2s. 0|d.; St. Domingo damaged, 8d.; fine 
 rovings, 310 lbs., at 3s. 6d.; coarse ditto, 255 lbs., at 3s.; ready to rove, 
 40 lbs., at 3s. ; picked waste, 75 lbs., at Id.; clean dust, 150 lbs., at 5d.; 
 spinners’ waste, 207 lbs., at 6d.; picked, 48 lbs., at 12d. Twist averaged 
 
 15 hanks, 543 lbs., at 3s. 9d.—£101 16s. 3d ; inferior twist, 34 lbs., at 
 3s. 6d. 
 
 1794. —Jamaica, 12,310 lbs., at 16d. ; Ditto, 1,436 lbs., at 16d. ; 
 Jamaica, 320 lbs., at 16d.; picked, 190 lbs., at 17d.; Demerara, 231 lbs., 
 at 19^d.; spinning waste, picked, 155 lbs., at 12d.; spinners’ waste, 
 155 lbs, at 6d.; damaged cotton, 130 lbs., at lOd.; coarse rovings, 
 190 lbs., at 2s.; fine, 128 lbs., at 2s. 3d. Cotton twist, 5 bales 18 
 hanks, at 28s.; 40 bales 20 hanks, at 29s.; 40 bales 22 hanks, at 
 30s. 6d. ; 10 bales 24 hanks, at 32s. Od. ; 5 bales 26 hanks, and 2 bales 
 28 hanks, at 36s. 6d.; 1,152 bales, as per account sales, (discount 7£,) 
 £1,373 6s. 
 
 1795 . —6,537 lbs., (kind not stated,) at 16^d.; picked, 154 lbs., at 
 17-^d.; Pernams, 810lbs., at 22d. ; picked, 22 lbs., at 23d.; damaged 
 
 * See Price Current, 725. 
 
753 
 
 cotton, 30 lbs., at Is.; cotton bought in London as per bill parcels, and 
 entered separate in stock book, £ 2,777 Gs. 2d. 
 
 1796.—Raw cotton, .£1,308 11s. lOd. (no particulars given as to 
 prices per lb. or description.) 
 
 These accounts also supply the prices of the following articles :—In 
 1792, pipe staves the 100, £6 13s. 4d. ; chalk the ton, 30s. 1794: 
 
 cast-iron, 14s.percwt.; wrought-iron, 25s. per cwt.; worked iron, for build¬ 
 ing, 364 lbs., at 5d., £7 11s. 8d. ; old iron, 14s. per cwt.; steel, 30 lbs., 
 at 6d.; old files, 100 lbs., at ljd. per lb.; scrap iron, 19s. per cwt.; old 
 brass, 226 lbs., at 9d.; wire, 32 lbs., at 8d.; 100 pair ball spindle rollers, 
 at 4s. 4^-d.; 5 pair of card rollers, at 12s.; 3 large fly wheels, 8cwt. 2qrs. 
 25lbs., £6 2s. lid.; timber, 182^ yards frame stuff, at 12d. a-yard; 592 
 ditto, at 7jd. ; 289 feet poplar plank, at Gd.; 331 feet of l^-inch plane 
 tree, at 4d.; 128f feet of inch ash board, and 12 feet of 4-inch beech 
 plank, at 16d.; 2,135 feet of alder, at 18d. ; 20 lbs. lignumvitse, at 5s.; 
 500 pipe staves, £36 10s.; 50 ditto, at 16d., £3 6s. 8d.; 57 lbs. thread, 
 at 20d.; 13 lbs. rosin, at 3d. per lb. 
 
 Various causes have contributed to produce the fall in the price of 
 cotton, but the most powerful ones have been tli e occupation of the 
 lower part of the valley of the Mississippi (which now supplies one-half 
 of the cotton consumed in the United Kingdom) by the Anglo-American 
 race; the settlement of Alabama; the conquest of the western provinces 
 of India, followed by the opening of the trade with India; and the 
 establishment of a direct intercourse with Brazil. 
 
 Another most powerful cause in increasing the consumption of cotton 
 has been the cheapening of twist and goods, by means of improved 
 machinery. The cotton machinery shown at work in the Great Exhibi¬ 
 tion of last year was almost as much superior to the original machinery of 
 Arkwright and Hargreaves as their machinery was to the ancient spindle 
 and loom. In Crompton’s time it was thought nearly impossible to spin 
 cotton by machinery to the fineness of No. 80,—that is, 80 hanks of 840 
 yards to the pound;* but at the Exhibition, last year, Messrs Horrocks and 
 Miller showed a specimen of twist of the fineness of No. 2,150 hanks to 
 the pound. According to Beckman a pound of cotton has been spun by 
 hand to the length of 115 miles, and of sheep’s wool to the length of 48 
 miles; but this is much inferior to many of the specimens of yams from 
 machinery shown at the Great Exhibition. These, however, are the 
 marvels of machinery. The effect of its ordinary, every day, use is, that 
 * H. Baines’s History of the Cotton Trade, 200. 
 
754 
 
 whilst cotton has declined from Is. 3d to Gd. a-pound, between the years 
 181G and 1852, cotton twist No. 40 has declined, since 1814, from 
 2s. to 7^d. a-pound, and plain cloths from lGs. 8jd. to 4s. 4d. a-piece.* 
 In the first of these facts we see the effect on prices, of the reduc¬ 
 tion of cost of cotton-growing, and of freights; in the second, 
 that of improved spinning machinery, added to the previous saving ; 
 and, in the third, that of the saving in weaving, added to both the 
 previous savings. Yet, with this reduction in the cost of the raw material 
 and freights, we see an increase in the quantity of raw material imported 
 of twelve-fold in thirty years, with a proportionate increase in the employ¬ 
 ment of shipping; with the reduction in the price of twist, we see the 
 export trade swelled from a mere nothing, to £7,084,700, in 1851 ;f and, 
 with all these reductions, and the reduction in the cost of weaving, we see 
 the export of goods increased from £12,948,944, in 1816, to £22,994,300 
 in 18514 Co-existing with all these reductions, we find as few paupers 
 in the cotton district, in proportion to the population, and as small an 
 amount of parish relief to each inhabitant, as are to be found in any 
 district in England. 
 
 The above observations apply to the cotton trade generally, but they 
 have an especial application to the commerce of Liverpool, as that port 
 receives five-sixths of all the cotton imported into the United Kingdom ; 
 as five-sixths of the cotton manufactured in the kingdom is spun or 
 woven in Lancashire, or the adjoining districts of Cheshire or Yorkshire ; 
 and as a very large proportion, probably two-thirds, of the cotton goods 
 sent abroad are shipped at Liverpool. 
 
 When the cotton trade first became something considerable, the 
 Lrench and Spanish West Indies produced about a fourth part of the sup¬ 
 ply consumed in the United Kingdom; the British West Indies another 
 fourth; Brazil and Demerara another ; and Turkey the remainder. At 
 that time the British and Turkish cotton only came direct to England, 
 and that chiefly to London, much the larger part of the West Indian 
 and Levant trade being then carried on with the English capital. The 
 Brazilian cotton was then forwarded from Brazil to Lisbon in Portuguese 
 ships; the Spanish to Cadiz ; the Lrench to Bordeaux, Nantes, and Havre. 
 The ruin of St. Domingo, the independence of Brazil, the prodigious cul¬ 
 tivation of cotton in the United States, and the opening of the trade with 
 the East Indies, have entirely changed the course of this trade. All the 
 
 * Burn’s Colonial Circular, January 17, 1853. + Board of Trade Returns, January 5, 1852. 
 
 J E. Baines’s History of the Cotton Trade, 304. 
 
755 
 
 supplies for British use, wherever grown, are now brought directly to 
 this country, and chiefly to Liverpool and Glasgow, as the ports nearest 
 to the points of consumption. 
 
 The following are the quantities of cotton imported into Liverpool, 
 London, Glasgow, and the kingdom in the year ending in December 31st, 
 1851 :—Liverpool, 1,748,946 hales; London, 65,800; Glasgow, 67,000 ; 
 Bristol and Hull, 21,800: total, 1,903,546.* 
 
 The degree to which the cotton manufacture has fixed itself in Lan¬ 
 cashire and the adjoining districts will be best seen from the following 
 summary of the information on that subject laid before parliament: 
 
 In the closing year of the half-century, 1850, there were in England 
 and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, 1,932 cotton factories, containing 
 20,977,017 spindles for spinning yarn, and 249,627 power-looms for 
 weaving cotton cloth.f 
 
 In England and Wales the number of cotton factories was 1,753, of 
 spindles 19,173,969, and of power-looms 223,636 : in Scotland the num¬ 
 ber of factories was 168, of spindles 1,683,093, of power-looms 23,564 ; 
 and in Ireland the number of factories was 11, of spindles 119,955, and 
 of power-looms 2,437. 
 
 Thus it will he seen that nine-tenths of this great manufacture was 
 then carried on in England and Wales, or rather in England, for there 
 are few factories in Wales. The following figures will show that nearly 
 the whole of it is established in Lancashire, Cheshire, and the West Biding 
 of Yorkshire: 
 
 In Lancashire the number of cotton factories, in 1850, was 1,235 ; the 
 number of spindles was 13,955,497 ; and the number of power-looms was 
 176,947. 
 
 In Cheshire the number of factories was 145, of spindles 2,294,703, 
 and of power-looms 29,198. 
 
 In the West Biding of Yorkshire the number of cotton factories was 
 227, of spindles 1,943,897, and of power-looms 8,102. 
 
 In Derbyshire the number of factories was 74, of spindles 616,199, 
 and of power-looms 6,565. 
 
 In Cumberland the number of factories was 11, of spindles 124,695, 
 and of power looms 296. 
 
 In Nottinghamshire (where Arkwright first established himself) the 
 number of factories was 19, and of spindles 120,838. 
 
 * George Holt and Co.’s Annual Circular, December 31, 1851. 
 
 + Parliamentary Return, August 15th, i860, No. 745. 
 
 5 F 
 
756 
 
 In Staffordshire there were 10 factories, 65,102 spindles, and 528 
 power-looms. 
 
 Gloucestershire contained one large cotton factory, (the Bristol Cotton 
 Spinning Company,) with 47,952 spindles, and 1,032 power-looms. 
 
 There were also 17 small factories in Middlesex, containing in all 
 5,086 spindles; 7 in Leicestershire, equally small; and 2 still smaller 
 ones in Norfolk, hut none in any other part of England. 
 
 The woollen manufacture, one of the oldest and steadiest sources 
 of the commerce of England, is also of great extent, though not so 
 extensive as the cotton manufacture. The import of foreign and colonial 
 wool into the kingdom in the year ending the 5th of January, 1852, was 
 85,076,881 lbs.; and in 1850, 74,326,778 lbs.; to which must be added 
 the wool grown in the kingdom. This was supposed to be about 
 92,000,000 lbs. in the year 1800, and 112,000,000 lbs. in 1828. These 
 estimates are how thought to have been much too low. Recent calculations, 
 of a gentleman of experience engaged in the wool trade,* raise the pro¬ 
 duction of wool in Great Britain and Ireland, in 1850, to 260,000,000 lbs. 
 This, at lid. a-pound, would be worth £11,958,333, to which, adding 
 £5,416,666 for the cost of 65,000,000 lbs. of foreign wool, the value of 
 the whole would be £17,374,999. Supposing this value to be doubled 
 in converting the wool into woollen cloth and worsted goods, the yearly 
 value of the woollen manufacture would be £34,749,998.f 
 
 Until recently Liverpool possessed a very small portion of the import 
 trade of wool, but that portion has considerable increased, owing to a 
 change in the principal sources of supply, which are no longer the 
 continent of Europe, but the distant regions of Australia, America, the 
 Cape, and the Mediterranean. 
 
 For the last hundred years the United Kingdom has been chiefly 
 dependent on foreign countries for the finer, softer kinds of wool. For 
 many years the Spanish wool, supplied by the famous Merino sheep, was 
 the sort chiefly imported. About eighty years ago the Merino breed 
 was introduced into Saxony, and was cultivated with so much success 
 that Germany, and not Spain, became the chief source of supply. Within 
 the last thirty years Australian wool has come into active competition 
 with all the other varieties, and now promises to supersede all. Last 
 year the whole quantity of wool imported from the Spanish peninsula was 
 only 17,512, and that imported from Germany was only 27,599 bales, whilst 
 
 * Mr. Thomas Southey, wool-broker, London. 
 
 + See articles on this subject in Leeds Mercury, April 3rd and loth, 1852. 
 
757 
 
 Australia supplied 144,190 bales, and the Cape 19,667. In addition to the 
 ordinary kinds of sheep’s wool, the silky wool of the alpaca is now imported 
 to the extent of 2,013,202 lbs., and much more would be consumed if it 
 could be obtained.* In 1851 the import of foreign and colonial wool into 
 London was 2 ^ 7,778 bales ; into Liverpool, 74,693 ; into Hull, 29,444 ; 
 and into Southampton, 1,820 : total into United Kingdom, 313,735.f 
 
 The growth of the woollen manufacture has been very rapid in the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire and the adjoining district of Lancashire. In 
 1738 the whole quantity of woollen cloth produced in the West Riding was 
 56,877 pieces; J in 1777 the quantity of woollens and worsteds was 434,960 
 pieces. In the year 1850 the number of pieces of woollen cloth exported 
 was331,809; the number of pieces of worsted stuffs was 2,003,595.' The 
 quantity of mixed goods, composed partly of woollen, partly of cotton, 
 was 42,115,401 yards ; of blankets and blanketing, 5,708,025 yards ; of 
 flannel, 2,266,959 yards ; of carpets and carpeting, 1,565,745 yards ; and 
 of worsted and woollen stockings, 165,645 dozen pairs.§ 
 
 The following summary, from an official source,|| will show how large 
 a portion of the woollen manufacture is now carried on in the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire and in Lancashire : 
 
 The number of woollen factories in the United Kingdom in the year 
 1850 was 1,497, containing 1,595,278 spindles, and 9.439 power-looms. 
 Of these, 1,306 factories, 1,356,691 spindles, and 9,170 power-looms, were 
 in England and Wales ; 182 factories, 224,129 spindles, and 247 power- 
 looms in Scotland; and 9 factories, 14,458 spindles, and 22 power-looms 
 in Ireland. 
 
 The West Riding of Yorkshire takes the lead in all descriptions of 
 woollens, worsted, or mixed goods of woollen and cotton, as decidedly as 
 Lancashire takes it in cotton goods. 
 
 Yorkshire contained, in 1850, 880 woollen factories, 925,449 
 spindles employed in producing woollen yams, and 3,604 power-looms 
 employed in weaving woollen cloth. 
 
 Lancashire contained 26 woollen factories, 238,492 spindles, and 
 4,839 power-looms. 
 
 The West of England, once the great seat of the woollen manufacture, 
 still retained a small portion of the trade. 
 
 * Abram Gartside and Co.’s Annual Circular, January 1, 1852. 
 
 + See Acre particular account in Appendix. 
 
 J Returns in Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser, 1777. 
 
 § Parliamentary Papers, Session, 1851. || Ibid, August 15, 1850, No. 745. 
 
758 
 
 Gloucestershire contained, in 1850, 80 woollen manufactories, 61,890 
 spindles, and 221 power-looms. 
 
 Wiltshire contained 36 factories, 33,804 spindles, and 170 power- 
 looms. 
 
 Somersetshire contained 31 factories, 22,604 spindles, and 27 
 power-looms. 
 
 Devonshire contained 14 factories, 13,250 spindles, and 16 power- 
 looms. 
 
 The worsted and stuff manufacture shows the same ascendency on 
 the part of Yorkshire, as the manufacture of the finer woollens. 
 
 Yorkshire contained 418 worsted or stuff factories, 746,281 spindles, 
 and 30,856 power-looms. 
 
 Lancashire contained 11 worsted factories, 27,190 spindles, and 1,112 
 power looms. 
 
 Leicester contained 22 factories, and 27,525 spindles. 
 
 Norfolk, the ancient seat of this manufacture, contained 11 factories, 
 19,216 spindles, and 428 power-looms. 
 
 The total number of worsted factories in the United Kingdom, in 1850, 
 was 501; of spindles, 875,830 ; and of power-looms, 32,617. 
 
 Thus it will he seen that the greater part of the woollen manufacture 
 is now carried on in the vallies which extend from the foot of the Lan¬ 
 cashire hills to Leeds and Bradford, the chief seats of the woollen and 
 worsted manufactures. Liverpool is the western, Hull the eastern port of 
 this rich and populous district. 
 
 Ireland still retains its ancient superiority in the linen trade, the third 
 in order of the great textile manufactures of the country. The cultivation 
 of flax for this manufacture is extending rapidly in the north of Ireland, 
 where the quantity of land planted with that most valuable crop last year 
 amounted to 91,040 acres. The manufacture is extensive and flourishing, 
 and both the cultivation of flax and the manufacture of linen are capable 
 of great increase. The value of the linens manufactured in the three 
 kingdoms is about £12,000,000 a-year. The declared value of the 
 exports last year was, linens, £4,112,676; yarns, ,£935,939: total, 
 £15,048,615.* 
 
 The export of linen is chiefly through the port of Liverpool, for a great 
 part of the Irish and Scotch linens intended for foreign countries are 
 brought over to Liverpool by the Belfast and, Glasgow steamers, and 
 shipped, along with cottons, woollens, and worsteds, to the countries in 
 * Board of Trade Returns, January 5, 1852. 
 
759 
 
 which they are required. The quantity of linen, of lace, and linen yam 
 shipped to foreign countries, in 1850, was 122,397,457 yards; of lace 
 thread, 463,166 yards; of thread for sewing, 3,361,922 lbs. ; and of 
 yarn, 18,559,318 lbs.* 
 
 The following abstract of a parliamentary return of last session 
 will show the position of the linen factories of the three kingdoms: 
 
 In 1850 the number of flax or linen factories in the three kingdoms 
 was 393 ; of spindles, 965,031 ; and of power-looms, 3,670. Of these 
 135 factories, 265,568 spindles, and 1,083 power-looms were in England ; 
 189 factories, 303,125 spindles, and 2,529 power-looms in Scotland; 
 and 69 factories, 396,338 spindles, and 58 power-looms in Ireland. 
 
 Lancashire contained 9 flax mills, with 117,356 spindles. 
 
 Yorkshire, 60 factories, with 82,768 spindles, and 991 power- 
 looms. 
 
 Cumberland, 7 factories, with 19,986 spindles.t 
 
 The silk manufacture has also made great progress in the north of 
 England, and especially in Cheshire and Lancashire. The declared 
 value of the silks exported in 1851 was, manufactures, Hi, 134,931 ; 
 thrown silk, £57,803; twist and yarn, £138,635: total, £1,331,369. 
 The quantity of silk consumed in 1851 was about 30,000 hales. The silk 
 manufactories are thus situated : 
 
 The number of silk factories in the United Kingdom is 277, contain¬ 
 ing 1,225,560 spindles, and 6,092 power-looms. Of these, 272 factories, 
 1,188,908 spindles, and 6,092 power-looms areinEnglaud; and 5 factories 
 and 36,652 spindles are in Scotland: there are none in Ireland. 
 
 Cheshire contained 97 silk mills, 287,575 spindles, and 955 power- 
 looms. 
 
 Lancashire contained 29 silk mills, 162,988 spindles, and 1,977 
 power-looms. 
 
 Yorkshire contained 16 mills, and 128,808 spindles. 
 
 The total number of factories of all kinds—cotton, woollen, worsted, 
 flax, and silk—in the United Kingdom, in 1850, was 4,600 : of spindles, 
 25,638,716; and of power-looms, 301,445. Of these 1,310 factories, 
 14,501,523 spindles, and 184,875 power-looms were in Lancashire; 254 
 factories, 2,587,708 spindles, and 30,153 power-looms in Cheshire; 
 and 1,601 factories, 3,827,203 spindles, and 43,798 power-looms in 
 Yorkshire; making, in the three counties, 3,165 factories, 20,916,435 
 spindles, and 268,826 power-looms. 
 
 * Parliamentary Return, 1851. t Ibid, No. 37, Session 1851. 
 
760 
 
 The extent of the manufacturing establishments of Lancashire, 
 Cheshire, and Yorkshire, in comparison with those of the whole kingdom, 
 will be seen at a glance in the following tables : 
 
 COTTON, WOOLLEN, WORSTED, FLAX, AND SILK MILLS IN THE 
 UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 
 Factories. 
 
 Spindles. 
 
 Power-looms. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cotton . 
 
 1,753 
 
 19,173.909 
 
 223,026 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 1,306 
 
 1,356,691 
 
 9,170 
 
 Worsted . 
 
 493 
 
 864,874 
 
 32,617 
 
 Flax. 
 
 135 
 
 265,568 
 
 1,083 
 
 Silk . 
 
 272 
 
 1,188,908 
 
 6,092 
 
 Scotland : 
 
 
 
 
 Cotton . 
 
 168 
 
 1,683,093 
 
 23,504 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 182 
 
 224,129 
 
 247 
 
 Worsted . 
 
 6 
 
 9,404 
 
 .... 
 
 Flax. 
 
 189 
 
 303,125 
 
 2,529 
 
 Silk . 
 
 5 
 
 36,652 
 
 
 Ireland: 
 
 
 
 
 Cotton . 
 
 11 
 
 119,955 
 
 2,437 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 9 
 
 14,458 
 
 22 
 
 Worsted . 
 
 2 
 
 1,552 
 
 - .... 
 
 Flax . 
 
 69 
 
 396,338 
 
 58 
 
 Silk . 
 
 
 
 
 Total in the United Kingdom. 
 
 4,600 
 
 25,638,7.16 
 
 301,445 
 
 COTTON, WOOLLEN, WORSTED, FLAX, AND SILK MILLS IN LANCASHIRE, 
 CHESHIRE, AND YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Lancashire : 
 
 Cotton . 
 
 Factories. 
 
 Spindles. 
 
 Power-looms. 
 
 1,235 
 
 26 
 
 13,955,497 
 
 238,492 
 
 27,190 
 
 117,356 
 
 102,988 
 
 176,947 
 
 4,839 
 
 1,112 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 Worsted . 
 
 11 
 
 Flax . 
 
 9 
 
 Silk . 
 
 29 
 
 i,977 
 
 
 Total.... 
 
 Cheshire : 
 
 Cotton . 
 
 1,310 
 
 14,501,523 
 
 184,875 
 
 145 
 
 2,294,703 
 
 29,198 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 12 
 
 5,430 
 
 Worsted . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Si'k . 
 
 97 
 
 287,575 
 
 "955 
 
 
 Total.... 
 
 Yorkshire : 
 
 254 
 
 2,587,708 
 
 30,153 
 
 227 
 
 1,943,897 
 
 925,449 
 
 746,281 
 
 82,768 
 
 128,808 
 
 8,102 
 
 3,849 
 
 30,856 
 
 991 
 
 Woollen . 
 
 880 
 
 
 418 
 
 
 60 
 
 Silk . 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Total.... 
 
 1,601 
 
 3,827,203 
 
 43,798 
 
 Total in Lancashire, Cheshire, 1 
 and Yorkshire .J 
 
 3,165 
 
 20,916,435 
 
 268,826 
 
 Liverpool is the .chief port of these three counties, except for the 
 continent of Europe. Not less than ^£40,000,000 worth of textile 
 
 manufactures were exported in 1851, with haberdashery of the value of 
 
761 
 
 £1,700,000, and of these probably £28,000,000 worth passed through 
 the port of Liverpool. 
 
 Such, then, was the value of the textile manufactures exported in the 
 year 1851 : 
 
 Cottons. £30,079,000 
 
 Woollens . 9,856,259 
 
 Linens . 5,048,615 
 
 Silk . 1,331,369 y, 
 
 Haberdashery . 1,728,466 
 
 -4148,043,709* 
 
 Next in order to the textile manufactures of the country are the 
 metals, hardware, and machinery, amounting to the declared value of 
 £13,666,959; and, with the textile manufactures, swelling the aggregate 
 value of the exports to sixty-one-and-a-half millions. A large portion 
 of these, also, are sent from Liverpool to foreign countries. 
 
 With regard to cutlery, which is chiefly produced at Sheffield and 
 Birmingham, Liverpool is the natural outlet, westward, from position. 
 For the same reason, it is the outlet for the hardware of Wolverhampton, 
 and the machinery of the Manchester district. It is also, from its 
 position, the outlet for the iron of Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and North 
 Wales ; and, from the lowness of Liverpool freights for conveying metals, 
 it is a great place of export for iron, copper, lead, tin and tinned plates. 
 Iron, especially, being very useful for ballast, is carried to the most 
 distant parts of the world at very trifling expense, in vessels ladened with 
 cottons, woollens, linens, and silks, which, as has been shown, are found 
 in greater abundance in Liverpool than in any other port of the empire. 
 
 First in importance amongst the metals, both as relates to commerce 
 and the arts, is iron. At the beginning of the present century the whole 
 quantity of iron produced in Great Britain was about 200,000 tons ; the 
 whole quantity exported was 20,000 tons; and so late as the year 1815 the 
 export did not amount to more than 79,596 tons. The quantity of iron 
 produced yearly, at the present time, is upwards of 2,700,000 tons ; the 
 export last year was 910,000 tons. The United States alone, in 1851, 
 imported 341,750 tons of iron, of which nearly the whole was from this 
 country, and a very large portion of it shipped at Liverpool. The 
 total value of all the iron imported into the United States, in 1851, was 
 8,962,615 dollars, or £1,792,000 sterling. In 1821 the value of the 
 iron imported into the States was only 1,213,041 dollars, or £242,608; 
 the quantity only 20,000 tons.f 
 
 * Board of Trade Returns, January 5, 1852. 
 
 + Tables accompanying tbe Report of the American Secretary of the Treasury, Jan., 1852. 
 
762 
 
 The quantity of iron produced in Great Britain, in 1851, was 2,710,000 
 tons, and the production of each district was as follows : 
 
 Names of Places. 
 
 Furnaces 
 in Blast. 
 
 Out of 
 Blast. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Estimated Make 
 per Annum. 
 
 Scotland . 
 
 114 
 
 30 
 
 144 
 
 800,000 
 
 South Wales . 
 
 132 
 
 29 
 
 161 
 
 750,000 
 
 Ditto Anthracite. 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 37 
 
 35,000 
 
 i South Staffordshire . 
 
 North Staffordshire . 
 
 105 
 
 45 
 
 150 
 
 650,000 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 70,000 
 
 North Wales . 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 20,000 
 
 Shropshire . 
 
 23 
 
 14 
 
 37 
 
 90,000 
 
 Durham . 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 26 
 
 110,000 
 
 Northumberland. 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 35,000 
 
 Yorkshire and Derbyshire. 
 
 35 
 
 7 
 
 42 
 
 150,000 
 
 Total. 
 
 461 
 
 184 
 
 645 
 
 2,710,000* 
 
 The quantity of iron, hardware, and steel exported from all the ports 
 
 of Great Britain, during the last eight years, was, in 1844, 472,023 tons; 
 1845, 370,535 ; 1846,450,182; 1847,564,572; 1848, 637,005; 1849, 
 729,164; 1850,808,262; and 1851, 917,000. 
 
 The shipments of manufactured iron and tin plates from Liverpool to 
 New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were as follow, during the last seven 
 
 years: 
 
 Names of Places. 
 
 Bails. 
 
 Bars. 
 
 Hoops & Shts. 
 
 Tin Plates. 
 
 New York. 
 
 74,726 
 
 39,897 
 
 Tons. 
 
 13,663 
 
 Boxes. 
 
 298,363 
 
 Boston. 
 
 2,435 
 
 14,127 
 
 3,707 
 
 25,442 
 
 Philadelphia . 
 
 1,038 
 
 10,277 
 
 1,923 
 
 20,797 
 
 1851. 
 
 78,199 
 
 64,301 
 
 19,293 
 
 344,602 
 
 1850 . 
 
 29,808 
 
 66,338 
 
 19,486 
 
 338,538 
 
 1849 . 
 
 33,849 
 
 57,135 
 
 13,203 
 
 236,297 
 
 1848 . 
 
 50,188 
 
 33,621 
 
 7,237 
 
 207,255 
 
 1847 . 
 
 12,635 
 
 37,543 
 
 7,195 
 
 137,546 
 
 1846 . 
 
 12,514 
 
 12,807 
 
 1,686 
 
 193,409 
 
 The total exports of Scotch pig iron to the United States for the last 
 six years were as follow : 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1846 
 
 13,918 
 
 1848 
 
 90,235 
 
 1850 
 
 57,509 
 
 1847 
 
 44,993 
 
 1849 
 
 94,212 
 
 1851 
 
 80,019 
 
 The quantity of iron and other metals sent to the East Indies and 
 China, from Liverpool and London, in the year 1851, was, British iron, 
 bars, 30,254 tons; rails, 12,476; and foreigniron, 888 tons; copper, 3,884; 
 spelter, 2,606 ; tin’d plates, 24,889 boxes; lead, 4,037 ; and steel, 949 tons. 
 * Circular of Stitt Brothers, January?, 1852. 
 
763 
 
 Considerable quantities of copper ore are imported into Liverpool to 
 be smelted on the coal-fields of Lancashire, and considerable quantities of 
 copper are exported from Liverpool to foreign countries. In 1850, 
 40,237 tons of copper ore were imported into Great Britain, of which 
 Cuba furnished 24,765; South Australia, 13,753 ; Chili, 3,450; New 
 South Wales, 2,100 ; Peru, 1,140 ; Van Diemen’s Land, 455 ; Spain, 
 112 ; and other countries, 376. Of this ore 34,688 tons were imported 
 into Swansea, 8,046 into London, 3,272 into Liverpool, 114 into Leith, 
 92 into Hull, 24 into Southampton, and 6 into Bristol.* The ports 
 from which copper was shipped the same year were :—London, 9,896 
 tons; Liverpool, 6,971; Swansea, 2,355; Llanelly, 745 ; Hull, 229; 
 Bristol, 99 ; Southampton, 78; other ports, 127: total, 20,480 tons. 
 The countries to which this copper was exported were :—The East Indies, 
 6,482 tons; France, 3,991 ; United States, 3,027; Italy, 1,512; Belgium, 
 1,133 ; Holland, 836; Hanseatic Towns, 678; other ports, 2,824. 
 
 Liverpool is also the chief port for the shipment of the earthenware of 
 Staffordshire, of which 61,528,196 pieces were shipped in the year 1849, 
 to the following countries:—United States, 22,384,230 pieces, of the 
 value of £371,675 ; Brazil 4,478,766, value £35,278 ; Hanseatic Towns 
 4,959,371, value £29,642; Holland 3,454,516, value £28,236 ; Canada 
 2,392,103, value £22,201 ; West Indies 4,676,362, value £49,175 ; East 
 Indies 3,665,276, value £43,632; the Cape, 760,581, value £8,142; 
 Australia, 1,470,270, value £25,670; other ports, 13,970,774, value 
 £191,345. 
 
 The number of packages of earthenware shipped from Liverpool to 
 different countries, in 1849, 50, and 51, was as follows: 
 
 Names of Countries. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851. 
 
 United States. 
 
 British North America . 
 
 Brazil. 
 
 River Plate...". 
 
 West Coast South America .... 
 Spanish Main and Mexico 
 
 83,948 
 
 3,979 
 
 7,507 
 
 4,013 
 
 12,153 
 
 4,442 
 
 7,885 
 
 3,797 
 
 927 
 
 1,606 
 
 8,456 
 
 95,502 
 
 7,537 
 
 9,370 
 
 2,073 
 
 6,323 
 
 6,605 
 
 10,782 
 
 3,602 
 
 946 
 
 1,650 
 
 9,488 
 
 99,557 
 
 11,337 
 
 12,140 
 
 3,082 
 
 6,826 
 
 7,572 
 
 11,055 
 
 3,502 
 
 1,288 
 
 1,811 
 
 8,974 
 
 East Indies. 
 
 Australia. 
 
 Africa. 
 
 Europe . 
 
 Packages 
 
 138.713 
 
 153,878 
 
 167,144 
 
 Largest previous export, 1839. 
 
 .. .. 135,346 packages. 
 
 Next. 1844 . 
 
 .... 134,101 
 
 ,, + 
 
 * Parliamentary Paper, No. 457, Session 1851. + Papers of Mr. T.F. Bennett, of Liverpool. 
 5 G 
 
764. 
 
 Glass is another of the great manufactures which contribute to 
 sustain and extend the commerce of Liverpool. The total quantity of 
 the glass produced is 58,300 tons; its value ,£1,680,000.* St. Helens 
 is one of the principal seats of the glass manufacture of England. 
 Much of the finest plate and German plate glass is produced there, and 
 there are other large manufactories of flint and crown glass about War¬ 
 rington. The value of the glass exported, in 1851, was £326,562.f 
 Salt is a still greater stay of the commerce of Liverpool. In the 
 year 1850 the quantity of salt sent down the river Weaver, from the salt 
 works of Cheshire, was 610,336 tons, namely, 524,098 tons of white 
 salt, and 86,238 tons of rock salt. The quantity exported from Liver¬ 
 pool that year was 445,633 tons, which was sent to the following 
 countries:—To the Baltic, 90,033 tons; to Holland and Belgium, 43,622 
 tons; to the United States, 123,459 tons; to British North America, 
 36,941 tons; to Africa, &c., 16,665 tons; to England, Scotland, Wales, 
 Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, 149,499 tons. The 
 amount of this great trade, during the last ten years, will he seen by the 
 following return of the exports of salt from Liverpool:—1841,360,813 
 tons; 1842, 384,231 tons; 1843, 462,840 tons; 1844, 429,131 tons; 
 1845, 431,155 tons; 1846, 412,361 tons; 1847, 472,779 tons; 1848, 
 522,112 tons; 1849, 451,643 tons; 1850, 445,633 tons; and 1851, 
 446,245^ tons. 
 
 EXPORTS OF SALT TO THE UNITED STATES, FROM 1845 TO 1851, 
 
 INCLUSIVE. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Ports. 
 
 New York 
 
 15,417 
 
 15,467 
 
 25,870 
 
 32,679 
 
 23,807 
 
 20,999 
 
 31,776 
 
 166,015 
 
 Boston .... 
 
 5,160 
 
 3,835 
 
 8,173 
 
 9,508 
 
 12,217 
 
 7,086 
 
 11,403 
 
 57,382 
 
 Baltimore .. 
 
 2,896 
 
 2,074 
 
 9,695 
 
 10,948 
 
 8,953 
 
 7,905 
 
 7,276 
 
 49,747 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 4,018 
 
 780 
 
 12,586 
 
 11,366 
 
 9,305 
 
 6,320 
 
 9,076 
 
 53,451 
 
 Virginia .. 
 
 910 
 
 550 
 
 1,708 
 
 4,775 
 
 3,787 
 
 2,323 
 
 2,501 
 
 J 6,554 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 29,999 
 
 22,750 
 
 41,516 
 
 46,542 
 
 53,568 
 
 46,172 
 
 45,626 
 
 286,173 
 
 Mobile .... 
 
 6,611 
 
 1,869 
 
 8,018 
 
 12,325 
 
 14,232 
 
 10,199 
 
 15,910 
 
 69,164 
 
 Charleston.. 
 
 6,102 
 
 5,811 
 
 8,394 
 
 15,075 
 
 15,708 
 
 8,732 
 
 8,970 
 
 68,792 
 
 Savannah .. 
 
 6,774 
 
 6,860 
 
 7,716 
 
 14,081 
 
 16,709 
 
 13,723 
 
 8,657 
 
 74,520 
 
 Total.. 
 
 77,887 
 
 59,996 
 
 123,676 
 
 157,299 
 
 158,286 
 
 123,459 
 
 141,195 
 
 841,798 
 
 EXPORT OF SALT FROM LIVERPOOL TO INDIA, FROM MAY 8th, 1845, 
 (FIRST SENT,) TO DECEMBER 31st, 1851. 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 21,686 
 
 5,363 
 
 26,042 
 
 15,459 
 
 29,950 
 
 35,820 
 
 63,225 
 
 * Braithwaite Poole’s Statistics of British Commerce, 175. t Board of Trade Returns. 
 
765 
 
 The coal trade is the largest trade in the empire, and, indirectly, it 
 is the cause of all the prosperity of Liverpool, for the coal-fields of 
 Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and 
 Wales, give power and movement to the various branches of industry 
 described in the above pages. There are, at the present time, about 3,000 
 coal-mines in Great Britain, giving employment to 250,000 men and 
 thirty millions of capital.* The yearly “ get” of coal is about 34,000,000 
 of tons, and the value of the coal at the pit’s mouth £10,000,000. About 
 a third part of the coal so raised is shipped either for London or other 
 cities, towns, and districts of the British Islands, where fuel is not 
 found, or to foreign countries; about another third is employed in the 
 smelting or manufacture of iron, copper, tin, lead, and other metals; and the 
 remaining third is employed in the manufactures of cotton, woollen, linen, 
 silk, cutlery, hardware, earthenware, salt, and the propelling of steam 
 vessels. The coal-fields of Northumberland and Durham furnish much 
 the greater part of the coal shipped coastwise, or to foreign countries ; 
 those of Staffordshire, Wales, and Scotland, much the greater part of that 
 employed in the production of metals; those of Lancashire, Yorkshire, 
 and Cheshire, of that employed in manufactures. The quantity of coal 
 shipped coastwise, in 1848, was 9,074,079 tons; and foreign, 2,715,300 
 tons : total, 11,789,379 tons. Of this immense quantity, Northumberland 
 supplied 3,000,738 tons; Durham, 4,237,642; South Wales, 1,964,126 ; 
 Cumberland, 510,835; and Lancashire, 252,418 tons.f The coal sent 
 abroad was shipped either to foreign countries or to the various coal¬ 
 ing stations in the colonies, by means of which the great ocean lines 
 of steamers to British America, the United States, the West Indies, 
 Brazils, the west coast of America, India, and South Africa are supplied 
 with fuel. 
 
 The total shipments of coal, in 1850, were to the following 
 countries or seas;—The Baltic, 701,129 tons; France, 563,639; Han¬ 
 seatic towns, 447,905; Italy, 147,659; West Indies, 131,120; British 
 North America, 69,232 ; United States, 83,659 ; Malta, 51,198 ; Turkey, 
 51,062; Channel Islands, 51,750 ; East Indies, 81,866 ; Brazils, 54,483 ; 
 Portugal, 50,602 ; Egypt, 34,250 ; Chili, 40,387 ; Algeria, 10,106 ; Aden, 
 23,289; Cape, 7,261; Gibraltar, 28,926; west coast of Africa, 2,152; 
 Peru, 10,15 6; Ionian Islands, 10,909; Oriental Republic of Uruguay, 
 2,280; China, 5,845; Greece, 6,898; Australia, 5,358; Philippine 
 
 * Braithwaite Poole’s Statistics of British Commerce, 71. 
 t Letters on the Export Coal Trade of Liverpool, by William Laird. 
 
766 
 
 Islands, 6,261 ; Wallachia, &c., 3,415 ; Buenos Ayres, 4,313 ; Mauritius, 
 3,264 ; Ascension, 1,710; Mexico, 2,167; Syria, 2,317; New Grenada, 
 9,153; Red Sea, 2,218 ; St. Helena, 681; Bintang, 979; Central 
 America, 622; Java, 1,847; Tunis, 508; Morocco, 307 ; Sundries, 691. 
 
 The declared value of the coal exported to foreign countries and the 
 colonies, in 1851, was £1,302,025. The quantity of coal brought into 
 London, in 1850, was 3,637,878 tons, of which 3,553,304 tons were 
 brought by sea and 84,574 tons by canal or rail. This supplies a popu¬ 
 lation of two millions and a half with fuel, furnishes the means of work¬ 
 ing multitudes of machines of almost all descriptions, and supplies 
 upwards of 700,000 tons of steam-power, which keeps up the communica¬ 
 tion of London with France, Belgium, Hollaud, Germany, Denmark, the 
 Baltic, and the coast of England, besides the river boats which swarm 
 on the Thames. The quantity of coal consumed in Liverpool is about 
 1,500,000 tons. Of this 720,000 tons is brought down the Leeds and 
 Liverpool Canal from the Wigan coal-fields, 490,000 tons down the St. 
 Helens Canal, or along the St. Helens Railway, and about 220,000 tons 
 by the London and North-western, the Liverpool and Bury, and the East 
 Lancashire Railways. A considerable quantity of coal is brought from 
 South Wales, for the use of the British and North American and United 
 States steamers. Thus, the quantity of coal brought into Liverpool is about 
 1,500,000 tons. This supplies half a million of people with fuel, works a 
 great quantity of machinery on land, and propels nearly a million 
 (987,150) tons of steam tonnage. The export of coal from Liverpool 
 and Birkenhead is small in comparison with some other places, amounting 
 last year to only 245,905 tons ; but great exertions are now making to 
 extend this valuable trade, by giving it ample room and the means of 
 loading at the high level, at the northern docks, and by establishing 
 6team-hoists nearer the centre. The St. Helens Railway Company, 
 who have now brought their line from the St. Helens coal-fields to 
 Garston, on the river Mersey, have formed a large and convenient 
 dock, especially for the coal trade, which is to be supplied with every 
 mechanical advantage for shipping coals with economy and speed. The 
 following were the places to which coals were shipped from Liverpool in 
 1850 and 1851 : 
 
 Countries bordering on the North and Baltic Seas, 1850, 3,559 
 tons ; 1851,2,337; France, 1850, 17,292 ; 1851, 16,666. Countries and 
 islands bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, 1850, 39,184 ; 1851, 44,823. 
 
767 
 
 Countries bordering on the Black Sea, 1850, 1,098. West Indies, 1850, 
 12,642 ; 1851, 15,957. Portugal, the Azores, and Madeira, 1850, 
 6,822; 1851, 8,810. Spain and the Canaries, 1850, 6,152; 1851, 
 5,459. North America, 1850, 83,537; 1851, 73,198. South America, 
 1850,60,407 ; 1851, 38,197. East Indies and China, 1850,19,600; 
 1851, 28,617. Channel Islands, 1850, 654; 1851, 869. Africa, 1850, 
 1,493; 1851, 6,971. Australia, 1850, 2,161 ; 1851, 4,001. Total, 
 1850, 254,601 ; 1851, 245,905 tons. 
 
 The alkali, called soda ash, which has almost superseded barilla in 
 the manufacture of soap, and pot and pearl ashes in the manufacture of 
 glass and the bleaching and cleansing of cotton, is prepared extensively 
 in Lancashire, and forms another adjunct of the commerce of Liverpool. 
 Coal and salt, limestone and sulphur, or pyrites, are the articles used in 
 forming soda ash, and these are either found in abundance in the mines 
 of Lancashire and Cheshire, or are brought from North Wales, Wicklow, 
 or Sicily, through the port of Liverpool. Of thirty-seven alkali manufac¬ 
 tories which exist in Great Britain fourteen are in Lancashire, two in 
 Cheshire, eight at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, four at Glasgow, two at Birming¬ 
 ham, two in North Wales, two at Swansea, two at Bristol, and one at 
 Wakefield. Gf the Lancashire and Cheshire works eight are at St. Helens 
 or Newton, two at Blackburn, two at Wigan, two at Bolton, and two at 
 Runcorn. The quantity of soda ash exported amounted, in 1846, to 
 16,486 tons; in 1847, to 22,944 tons; in 1848, to 26,342 tons; in 1849, 
 to 34,368 tons; in 1850, to 44,407 tons.* The value of the alkali 
 exported, in 1850, was£375,351 ; in 1851, £360,565. Liverpool is the 
 principal place of export for this valuable preparation. 
 
 Stationery figures amongst the exports of the kingdom to the value of 
 £401,304. Manchester is the chief place for the manufacture of paper, 
 and Liverpool one of the principal places of export for that article. The 
 following are the comparative amounts of excise duty on paper paid in the 
 principal towns and districts of the United Kingdom in 1849 :—Man¬ 
 chester, £102,836; Haddington, £68,988; Rochester, £66,637; New- 
 castle-on-Tyne, £53,152 ; Bedford, £50,374 ; Reading, £45,982 ; Leeds, 
 £31,371; Durham, £29,558; Lancaster, £28,715; Exeter, £27,067; 
 Glasgow, £22,588; Edinburgh, £21,961 ; Aberdeen, £21,952; Lich¬ 
 field, £21,760 ; Surrey, £19,799 ; Dublin, £16,404 ; Linlithgow, 
 £15,662; Derby, £12,896; Sheffield, £11,748; Hants, £11,130; and 
 
 * Statistics of Commerce, by Braithwaite Poole, Esq., 6 and 286. 
 
768 
 
 Norwich, £10,9G0. No other place paid £10,000, hut Halifax paid 
 £8,175; Chester, £3,865; North Wales, £3,489; and Stafford, ,£4,124.* 
 
 Soap was exported in 1851 of the value of £213,402, and candles of 
 the value of £98,006. 
 
 The soap made in Liverpool and its vicinity during the year ending 
 January 5th, 1851, was, hard soap, 25,354 tons; soft ditto, 3,241 tons : 
 total, 28,595 tons. This is nearly one-third of the total quantity made 
 in Great Britain. 
 
 The hard soap was made from palm oil, tallow, resin, and alkali; 
 of the first, the consumption was about 8,500 tons; of tallow, say 5,000 
 tons; and of soda ash and alkali, say 7,000 tons. 
 
 The soft soap was made from olive oils and fish oils; the former 
 imported from different ports in the Mediterranean, and the latter chiefly 
 from Newfoundland. The alkali used in its manufacture is pot ashes, 
 imported from Canada. 
 
 The export of hard soap from Liverpool to foreign markets, during 
 the same year, was 4,360 tons, being four-fifths of the entire exports of 
 Great Britain; the export to Ireland, 4,200 tons; the latter is con¬ 
 fined to Liverpool exclusively. 
 
 Candles, of superior quality, the total production of which is of the 
 value of a million, and the export of the value of ninety-eight thousand 
 pounds sterling, are now manufactured very extensively from palm oil. 
 The composite candles, manufactured from that article, are sold at about 
 Is. per lb., whilst spermaceti cost Is. 6d., and wax 2s. London is the 
 chief place at which candles are manufactured from palm oil; the quan¬ 
 tity of palm oil used in the trade last year was 5,000 tons. 
 
 Beer and ale, the favourite beverage of Englishmen in all parts of the 
 globe, are chiefly manufactured at Burton-on-Trent for export, and 
 are shipped at London and Liverpool. The shipments from London are 
 about 18,500 tons, from Liverpool 10,000 tons. The value of the ale 
 and beer exported was £558,794 in 1850 ; £577,874 in 1851. 
 
 Such are the principal sources of the immense export trade of Liver¬ 
 pool, now amounting to from thirty-five to thirty-six millions sterling 
 a-year. The re-exporting of foreign and colonial produce, for which 
 Liverpool is a great depot, and the largest passenger trade in Europe, 
 add to the prosperity of the port, and will be spoken of in a later 
 part of this chapter. The following account of the declared value of the 
 exports of British manufactures and produce in 1850 and 1851 shows 
 * Braithwaite Poole’s Statistics of British Commerce, 240. 
 
769 
 
 how very large a portion of the export trade of the United Kingdom 
 
 arises from the commerce in the articles described in the above pages: 
 
 DECLARED VALUE OF THE EXPORTS OF BRITISH AND IRISH MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES AND PRODUCE IN THE YEARS 1850 AND 1851. 
 
 
 Year 
 
 ending 
 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851. 
 
 Alkali, viz., soda . 
 
 £375,351 
 
 £360,565 
 
 Beer and ale. 
 
 558,794 
 
 577,874 
 
 Butter . 
 
 210,226 
 
 235,528 
 
 Candles. 
 
 98,028 
 
 98,006 
 
 Cheese . 
 
 30,629 
 
 32,960 
 
 Coals and culm. 
 
 1,284,224 
 
 1,302,025 
 
 Cordage and cables ... 
 
 154,229 
 
 185,983 
 
 Cotton manufactures... 
 
 21,873,697 
 
 23,447,103 
 
 Cotton yarn . 
 
 6,383,704 
 
 6,631,897 
 
 Earthenware. 
 
 999,448 
 
 1,122,516 
 
 Fish . 
 
 337,707 
 
 336,480 
 
 Glass manufactures ... 
 
 307,755 
 
 326,562 
 
 Haberdashery and 1 
 millinery .J 
 
 1,470,302 
 
 1,728,466 
 
 Hardwares and cutlery 
 
 2,641,432 
 
 2,826,132 
 
 Leather . 
 
 608,865 
 
 598,562 
 
 Linen manufactures ... 
 
 3,947,682 
 
 4,112,676 
 
 
 Year ending 
 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851. 
 
 Linen yarn . 
 
 £881,312 
 
 £935,939 
 
 Machinery. 
 
 1,042,166 
 
 1,164,933 
 
 Metals . 
 
 8,767,646 
 
 8,905,895 
 
 Oil and seeds' . 
 
 414,621 
 
 440,195 
 
 Painters’ colours, &c. 
 
 248,493 
 
 256,846 
 
 Salt . 
 
 224,401 
 
 236.276 
 
 Silk manufactures ... 
 
 1,040,985 
 
 1,134,931 
 
 Silk, thrown . 
 
 53,273 
 
 57,803 
 
 Silk, twist and yarn.. 
 
 151,383 
 
 138,635 
 
 Soap. 
 
 201,108 
 
 213,402 
 
 Stationery . 
 
 408,380 
 
 401.304 
 
 Sugar, refined . 
 
 344,499 
 
 368,041 
 
 Wool, sheep or lambs’ 
 
 623,975 
 
 453,802 
 
 Woollen manufactures 
 
 8,588,690 
 
 8,371,824 
 
 Woollen yarn . 
 
 1,451,642 
 
 1,484,435 
 
 Total.£ 
 
 65,735,447 
 
 68,492,659 
 
 Having spoken of the principal internal causes of the rapid growth 
 
 of the commerce of Liverpool, let us examine those which are external. 
 
 First amongst these is the rapid increase in population, wealth, and 
 commerce of the countries colonized or conquered by the people of the 
 United Kingdom and their descendants, in all parts of the world. Already 
 the English, Scotch, and Irish races, or their descendants, possess nine- 
 tenths of the North American continent; rule a hundred millions of men 
 
 in India and the East; have laid the foundations of a great state in South 
 Africa; and in Australia possess a territory almost as large as the whole 
 continent of Europe. The regions subject to the British crown are 
 said to cover the eighth part of the earth; those subject to the Anglo- 
 Americans extend to the magnitude of 3,500,000 square miles; and, 
 though much the greater part of both still lies waste, from want of 
 inhabitants, yet the population subject to the British crown amounts to 
 not less than 140,000,000, and that of the American republic to upwards 
 of 23,000,000. Whilst Liverpool yields to London in the extent of its 
 trade with the continent of Europe, it surpasses the capital in its trade 
 with America, and already rivals it in the trade with the East, although 
 it was not allowed to have any commerce with India previous to the 
 renewal of the company’s charter in 1813, nor with China previous to 
 the subsequent arrangement of the Indian Government in 1833. 
 
 The most extensive commerce which this country possesses, and the 
 one which has done most to promote the growth of Liverpool, is that with 
 
770 
 
 the United States of America. The growth of the population, wealth, 
 and commerce of that great country, during the last sixty years, almost 
 surpasses belief. We learn, from a recent address of the greatest of 
 American orators, that, in the interval which elapsed between the laying 
 of the foundation-stone of the Capitol, at Washington, in the year 1793, 
 hv Washington himself, and the laying of the foundation-stone of the 
 new buildings of the Capitol, in the year 1851, by the Hon. Daniel 
 Webster, the wonderful changes indicated by the following figures, 
 had taken place in the position of the republic :—In the year 1793, the 
 number of States was fifteen, in 1851 it had increased to thirty-one : at 
 the former period the population of the republic was 3,929,328, at the 
 latter, 23,267,899 : the territory of the United States, at the former 
 period, extended over 805,461 square miles, at the latter, over 3,585,454, 
 being only less than the continent of Europe by a space of 220,000 
 square miles: at the former period the revenue of the states was 5,720,624 
 dollars, or Hi,144,124 ; at the latter, 43,774,848 dollars, or £8,574,969 : 
 in 1793 the value of the imports into the United States was 31,000,000 
 dollars, or £6,200,000 sterling; and that of the exports 26,109,000 
 dollars, or £5, 221,800 : in 1851 the value of the exports was 178,138,318 
 dollars, or £35,627,663 ; and that of the imports 151,808,721 dollars, 
 or £30,561,744. At the former period the tonnage of the republic was 
 520,764, at the latter 3,314,365 tons. In 1793 there were 7 lighthouses 
 on the American coast, in 1851,372: at the former period the post routes 
 of the States were of the length of 5,642 miles, at the latter, of 178,672. 
 Eailways were unknown in America in 1793 : in 1851, 10,000 miles of 
 railway were open, and 11,000 in course of formation: electric tele¬ 
 graphs were not even thought of at the former period, at the latter, 
 15,000 miles of telegraph connected Maine with New Orleans, and 
 stretched from the Atlantic across the Mississippi. Knowledge, the great 
 promoter of civilization and mental vigour, had increased in an equal pro¬ 
 portion, the public libraries having increased from 35 to 694 ; the school 
 libraries, which were unknown in 1793, now amounting to 10,000; and 
 the number of volumes in the various kinds of public libraries having 
 increased from 73,000 to 4,221,632. To these facts we may add, that in 
 1793 the cultivation of cotton was quite insignificant in the United 
 States, and that of sugar almost unknown; whilst in 1851 the cotton 
 crop of the States amounted to 2,474,214 bales, of the value of 
 £25,000,000, and the sugar crop to not less than 150,000 tons: that in 
 1793 steam navigation was as little known as railways and electric 
 telegraphs ; whilst in 1851 the sea-going steamers of the republic 
 
771 
 
 amounted to 240,000 tons, and a regular steam communication was kept 
 up twice a-week across the Atlantic by sixteen steam-ships, eight British 
 and eight American, twelve plying to Liverpool, and four to Southampton, 
 Havre, and Bremen. When these facts are considered, it will excite 
 no surprise that the declared value of the British and Irish products 
 and manufactures shipped to the United States in 1850 amounted to 
 .£14,891,961, and from the colonies to two or three millions more : that 
 the produce of the United States shipped to Great Britain and the British 
 colonies was still greater, making a yearly exchange of the produce of the 
 two countries of the amount or value of £i60,000,000 ; or that 778,662 
 tons of American shipping entered the ports of Great Britain and Ireland 
 in 1851, and 1,450,539 tons of British and colonial shipping entered the 
 sea and lake ports of the United States in 1 850. 
 
 The following tables show the value of the imports and exports of 
 the Republic, and the amount of its tonnage, during the last thirty 
 years; also, the exact population of the United States; and the value 
 or amount of the principal products of the Republic, according to the 
 census of 1850 : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Total Imports. 
 
 Total Exports. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1821. 
 
 dlrs. 62,585,724 
 
 dlrs. 64,974,382 
 
 1,298,958 
 
 1822. 
 
 83,241,541 
 
 72,160,281 
 
 1,324,699 
 
 1823. 
 
 77,579,267 
 
 74,699,030 
 
 1,336,566 
 
 1824. 
 
 80,549,007 
 
 75,986,657 
 
 1,389,163 
 
 1825. 
 
 96,340,075 
 
 99,535,388 
 
 1,423,112 
 
 1826. 
 
 84,974,477 
 
 77,595,322 
 
 1,534,191 
 
 1827. 
 
 79,484,068 
 
 82,324,827 
 
 1,620,608 
 
 1828. 
 
 88,509,824 
 
 72,264,686 
 
 1,741,392 
 
 1829. 
 
 74,492,527 
 
 72,358,671 
 
 1,260,798 
 
 1830. 
 
 70,876,920 
 
 73,849,508 
 
 1,191,776 
 
 1831. 
 
 103,191,124 
 
 81,310,583 
 
 1.267,847 
 
 1832. 
 
 101,029,266 
 
 87,176,943 
 
 1,439,450 
 
 1833. 
 
 108,118,311 
 
 90,140,433 
 
 1,606,151 
 
 1834. 
 
 126,521,332 
 
 104,336,973 
 
 1,758,907 
 
 L835 . 
 
 149,895,742 
 
 121,693,577 
 
 1,824,940 
 
 1836. 
 
 189,980,035 
 
 128,663,040 
 
 1,882,103 
 
 1837. 
 
 140,989,217 
 
 117,419,376 
 
 1,896,686 
 
 1,995,640 
 
 1838. 
 
 113,717,404 
 
 108,486,616 
 
 1839. 
 
 162,092,132 
 
 121,028,416 
 
 2,096,380 
 
 1840. 
 
 107,141,519 
 
 132,085,946 
 
 2,180,764 
 
 1841. 
 
 127,946,177 
 
 121,851,803 
 
 2,130,744 
 
 1842. 
 
 100,162,087 
 
 104,691,534 
 
 2,092,391 
 
 1843* . 
 
 64,753,799 
 
 84,346,480 
 
 2,158,603 
 
 1844. 
 
 108,435,035 
 
 111,200,046 
 
 2,280,095 
 
 1845. 
 
 117,254,564 
 
 114,646,606 
 
 2.417.002 
 
 1846. 
 
 121.691,797 
 
 113,488,516 
 
 2,562,085 
 
 1847. 
 
 146,545,638 
 
 158,648,622 
 
 2,839,046 
 
 1848. 
 
 154,998,928 
 
 154,032,131 
 
 3,154,042 
 
 1849. 
 
 147,857,439 
 
 145,755,820 
 
 3,334,015 
 
 1850. 
 
 178,136,318 
 
 151,898,720 
 
 3,535,458 
 
 1851. 
 
 223,405,272 
 or £44,681,054 
 
 217,523,201 
 or £43,504,640 
 
 3,772,439 
 
 o H 
 
 Nine months ending June 30. 
 
Population of the United States, according to the census of 1850 :— 
 White population, 19,630,738; free coloured, 428,461; Slaves, 3,198,324: 
 Total, 23,257,523. 
 
 EXTENT OF THE IMPROVED LAND, AND VALUE OR AMOUNT OF PRODUCE 
 OF THE UNITED STATES, ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1800. 
 
 A kml ° f impl '° Ved }ll2,042,000 
 
 • 151,820,273 
 
 Value of farming im-1. 
 plements ...dollars/ 
 
 or £30,364,054 
 Value of live stock, dls. 552,705,238 
 or £110,541,047 
 
 Bushels of wheat. 104,799,230 
 
 or qrs. 13,099,903 
 Bushels of In. corn ,, 591,586,050 
 or qrs. 73,948,406 
 Tobacco, lhs.199,532,494 
 
 Ginned Cotton, hales.. 2,474,214 
 
 Wool, lhs. 52,422,797 
 
 Wine, gallons . 141,295 
 
 Butter, lbs.103,184,580 
 
 Hay, tons. 13,605,384 
 
 Hemp, dew rotted, tons 62,182 
 Hemp, water rotted ... 13,950 
 
 Flaxseed, bushels. 567,749 
 
 Maple sugar, lhs. 32,759,263 
 
 Cane sugar, lhs.318,644,000 
 
 Value of home-made ) 
 manufactures, dols.) 
 
 27,525,545 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED STATES IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk mixed 
 manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 1848 . 
 
 Yards. 
 
 16,968,627 
 
 18,511,942 
 
 21,093,529 
 
 14,482,744 
 
 Yards. 
 
 39,447,319 
 
 49,419,477 
 
 47,951,544 
 
 41,062,863 
 
 Lbs. 
 
 81,523 
 
 125,626 
 
 88,318 
 
 183,062 
 
 £ 
 
 186,010 
 
 246,559 
 
 341,958 
 
 376,502 
 
 584,586 
 
 826,791 
 
 904,132 
 
 932,279 
 
 £ 
 
 1,672,321 
 
 1,936,782 
 
 2,293,859 
 
 1,453,115 
 
 1849 . 
 
 1850 . 
 
 1851 . 
 
 
 Whilst the commerce of the United States forms so considerable a 
 
 portion of the whole commerce of the United Kingdom, it forms a much 
 
 larger portion of the commerce of Liverpool. The extent and value of 
 the export and import trade of that port with the various countries of 
 the world is well shown by the amount of income which the trade of each 
 yields to the revenue of the Liverpool docks. In the year ending June 
 24, 1851, the amount of dock dues received from the trade of all coun¬ 
 tries amounted to £235,527, exclusive of light dues, warehouse rents, 
 and some other smaller charges, which are not classified according to the 
 countries of the shipping from which they are derived. This total 
 amount of £235,527 was furnished by the trade with various foreign 
 countries in the following proportionsUnited States, £93,489 ; Bri¬ 
 tish North America, £26,651 ; East Indies and China, £21,089; West 
 Indies and Gulf of Mexico, £12,295 ; West Coast of America, £8,206 ; 
 Australia, £656; Mediterranean, £21,386; Brazil, £8,851; Baltic, 
 
 £7,480; Continent of Europe, £14,800; Coasting trade, including the 
 trade with Ireland, £23,942. The following table will show the amount 
 
773 
 
 of dock revenue yielded by the commerce of each country during the last 
 eight years: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Dock Dues. 
 
 United 
 
 States. 
 
 British 
 
 America. 
 
 East 
 
 Indies. 
 
 W. Indies 
 and Mexico 
 
 Brazils. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1844.... 
 
 192,011 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 77,029 
 
 22,158 
 
 17,984 
 
 12 227 
 
 8,017 
 
 1845.... 
 
 232,479 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 99.288 
 
 28,238 
 
 21,330 
 
 12,058 
 
 7,723 
 
 1840.... 
 
 220,715 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 87,057 
 
 33,096 
 
 17,511 
 
 11,334 
 
 7,099 
 
 1847.... 
 
 251,075 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 112,458 
 
 30,848 
 
 15,295 
 
 13,134 
 
 7,746 
 
 1848* .. 
 
 205,035 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 91,707 
 
 25,422 
 
 14,529 
 
 10.543 
 
 0,107 
 
 1849.... 
 
 232,548 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 103,854 
 
 28,538 
 
 10,327 
 
 11,687 
 
 9,248 
 
 1850.... 
 
 219,483 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 74,208 
 
 28,615 
 
 16,800 
 
 12,059 
 
 8,889 
 
 1851.... 
 
 235,527 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 93,489 
 
 26,651 
 
 21,089 
 
 12,295 
 
 8,851 
 
 Year. 
 
 Australia. 
 
 W. Coast 
 S. America 
 
 W. Coast 
 of Africa. 
 
 Mediter¬ 
 
 ranean. 
 
 Baltic. 
 
 Other 
 
 European 
 
 Ports. 
 
 Coasters, 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1844 . 
 
 242 
 
 3,934 
 
 3,941 
 
 12,075 
 
 7,499 
 
 0,324 
 
 19,976 
 
 1845 . 
 
 745 
 
 4,014 
 
 9,281 
 
 14,040 
 
 7,890 
 
 0,091 
 
 21,174 
 
 1840 . 
 
 612 
 
 4,018 
 
 5,096 
 
 10,909 
 
 7,871 
 
 8,352 
 
 21,755 
 
 1847 . 
 
 414 
 
 4,195 
 
 3,717 
 
 17,405 
 
 6.859 
 
 10,208 
 
 23,390 
 
 1848 . 
 
 325 
 
 2,938 
 
 3,740 
 
 13,434 
 
 5,460 
 
 8,153 
 
 23,198 
 
 1849 . 
 
 387 
 
 3,812 
 
 3,273 
 
 15,009 
 
 7,227 
 
 8,774 
 
 24,407 
 
 1850 . 
 
 438 
 
 4,198 
 
 3.113 
 
 17,098 
 
 7,563 
 
 10,189 
 
 26,248 
 
 1851 . 
 
 056 
 
 8,200 
 
 4,035 
 
 21,380 
 
 7,480 
 
 14,800 
 
 23,942 
 
 Before saying a few words as to the nature of the commerce carried 
 on with the different ports of the United States, it may be well to give 
 the following tabular statement of the number of ships and the amount 
 of tonnage which cleared out of Liverpool for each of them in year 1851 : 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO THE UNITED 
 STATES OF AMERICA IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 City Point . 
 
 0 
 
 3,148 
 
 Penobscot Bay. 
 
 1 
 
 488 
 
 Newburvport . 
 
 1 
 
 403 
 
 Richinoud . 
 
 1 
 
 003 
 
 Portland . 
 
 7 
 
 2,713 
 
 
 3 
 
 1,174 
 
 Wilmington. 
 
 1 
 
 233 
 
 Bath. 
 
 2 
 
 1,491 
 
 Wiscasset. 
 
 2 
 
 550 
 
 Eastport . 
 
 2 
 
 126 
 
 Bucksport . 
 
 2 
 
 470 
 
 Torts. 
 
 *[?• 0f Total 
 
 Ships in 
 
 1851. 1,,ns ' 
 
 New York.. . 
 New Orleans 
 
 Boston. 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Charleston 
 
 Mobile. 
 
 Baltimore... 
 Savannah ... 
 Apalachicola 
 Castine ... 
 Portsmouth . 
 
 435 
 
 163 
 
 111 
 
 78 
 
 52 
 
 49 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 440,483 
 
 129,730 
 
 88,413 
 
 09,480 
 
 29,900 
 
 39,109 
 
 19,474 
 
 18,570 
 
 7,490 
 
 3,437 
 
 910 
 
 New York, as will be seen from the above table, is the American port 
 with which Liverpool has much the largest amount of commerce. The 
 * This year a reduction of from 4138,000 to .110,000 per annum was made in the Dock Rates. 
 
774 
 
 growth of that great city, during the last sixty years, has been even more 
 rapid and wonderful than that of Liverpool. In the year 1793 the 
 city ot New York contained 33,621 inhabitants; in 1851, 517,507. Its 
 surprising growth is not attributable wholly, or even principally, to the 
 development of the resources of the fine valley of the Hudson, great as 
 those resources are. The Hudson, though a large river, according to 
 European notions, running a course of 320 miles, through a valley 
 not less fertile than beautiful, is small in comparison with the St. 
 Lawrence, the great feeder of the commerce of New York, which runs 
 with a course of 2,000 miles, through a valley containing upwards of 
 500,000 square miles, or nearly ten times the size of England. In the 
 year 1825 this great valley was connected with the port of New York by 
 the Western Canal, 655 miles in length, and stretching from the river 
 Hudson, at Albany, to Lake Erie, at Buffalo, and Lake Ontario, at 
 Oswego.* This canal gives to New York a large portion of the trade 
 which would otherwise have gone down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and 
 Quebec. Although it will be seen, when I come to speak of those two 
 cities, that they are rising rapidly into commercial greatness, yet New 
 York competes strongly with them for the commerce of the lake district. 
 At one point on the lakes, at Buffalo, produce of the value of six millions 
 sterling (31,339,951 dollars) was landed in the year 1851, the greater 
 part of which was forwarded to New York by the Western Canal, including, 
 amongst other produce, grain or flour equal to 17,972,311 bushels, or 
 2,000,000 quarters; 12,364,700 lbs. of wool; and timber of the value of 
 £l, 200,000 or 8,406,858 dollars. The imports into Oswego from Lake 
 Ontario are also very large, and to this is to be added all the trade of the 
 most fertile districts of the great state of New York, itself equal in size to 
 an European kingdom, and containing a population of three millions of 
 inhabitants. The large capitals of the New York bankers and merchants 
 —the convenience of its position between the manufacturing states of 
 New England and the cotton-growing districts of the south—and the daily 
 passing of ships from New York to Europe, have made New York the 
 chief depot for the produce of the south. Great natural facilities for 
 communication with the interior by the Hudson, and by the canals and 
 railroads of the state, also unite to render New York the best point of 
 
 * The New York Canals were commenced in 1817. They consist of the Erie Canal, 
 303 miles long, from Albany to Buffalo; the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario, 38 miles long ; 
 the Cayuga and Seneca Canal, 21 miles long; the Chemung Canal, 39 miles long; the 
 Crooked Lake Canal, 8 miles long ; the Chenango Canal, 97 miles long; and the Clamplain 
 Canal, 79 miles long: total, 655 miles. Original cost, 11,962,711 dollars, or L'2,392,542.— 
 Gazetteer of the United Staten. 
 
775 
 
 landing for European emigrants, bound to the vast regions of the west. 
 According to an official announcement of the mayor of New York, put 
 forth in 1851, it appears that an emigrant can travel from New York to 
 Montreal, a distance of 375 miles, for less than 20s., (4 dollars 62 cents,) 
 
 and from New York to Hamilton, Upper Canada, a distance of 1,036 
 miles, for about 25s., (6 dollars 6J cents,) and to a multitude of other 
 places at rates equally reasonable. For some years the arrivals of emi¬ 
 grants at New York have been upwards of 150,000 yearly. This has been 
 greatly increased of late years by the immense increase of the emigration 
 from Ireland; but, independent of temporary causes, the emigration into 
 New York will continue to be very great for ages to come. The com¬ 
 mercial supremacy of New York is thus firmly established, and every year 
 is likely to add to it. It is already the first city on the American conti¬ 
 nent, and in another century will be one of the first, if not the first city 
 in the world. It possesses a magnificent harbour, 25 miles in circum¬ 
 ference, which remains open in winter as well as summer, with depth of 
 
 water sufficient for the largest vessels to load and unload at the wharves. 
 The following were the principal exports of New York, in 1851 : 
 FOREIGN TRADE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 \ aluii ur irurunioi 
 
 1849 .dols. 97,658,251 j 
 
 or 4*19,531,650 
 
 1850 .dols. 138,334,641 
 
 or £27,666,928 
 
 1851 .dols. 131,302,651 
 
 or £26,260,530 
 
 VALUE OF EXPORTS. 
 
 1849 .dols. 39,736,969 
 
 or £7,947,393 
 
 1850 .dols. 60,119,248 
 
 or £12,025,849 
 
 1851 .dols. 87,653,849 
 
 or £17,530,769 
 
 Specie, in 1851 ...dols. 43,743,209 
 or £8,748,641 
 
 PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF PRODUCE EXPORTED FROM NEW YORK IN 1851. 
 
 Ashes, pots, bids. 24,628 
 
 pearls „ . 1,637 
 
 Beeswax, lbs. 280,820 
 
 Breadstuffs: 
 
 wheat flour, brls.1,264,322 
 
 rye flour ,, . 8,244 
 
 Indian corn meal, brls. 38,388 
 
 wheat, bushels .1,468,465 
 
 rye ,, 13,162 
 
 oats ,, 5,282 
 
 Indian corn „ 1,605,674 
 
 Cotton, bales . 289,645 
 
 Oil, whale, gals.1,122,818 
 
 sperm. 543,565 
 
 Oil, lard . 
 
 . 210,492 
 
 linseed. 
 
 7,972 
 
 Provisions: 
 
 
 pork, brls. 
 
 47,482 
 
 beef „ . 
 
 40,147 
 
 cut meats, lbs. 
 
 ... 3,427,111 
 
 butter ,, . 
 
 ... 2,196,538 
 
 cheese .. 
 
 ... 7,487,139 
 
 lard ,, . 
 
 ... 5,686,857 
 
 rice „ . 
 
 29,100 
 
 Tallow ,, . 
 
 ... 2,221,258 
 
 Tobacco, hhds. 
 
 19,195 
 
 Whalebone, lbs. 
 
 ... 1,802,126 
 
 « Made up from the Custom-house Books. Journal of Commerce, Jan. 5, 1852. 
 
776 
 
 The following is the number of the vessels which entered New York, 
 in the first nine months of 1851 : 
 
 VESSELS AND TONNAGE WHICH ENTERED NEW YORK IN THE FIRST 
 NINE MONTHS OF 1851. 
 
 American . 1,902 vessels 886,411 tons. 
 
 British . 775 „ 238,773 „ 
 
 Foreign. 455 „ 142,747 „ 
 
 ARRIVALS OF EMIGRANTS AT NEW YORK DURING THE LAST TEN YEARS. 
 
 1842 . 74,949 
 
 1843 . 56,302 
 
 1844 . 61,002 
 
 1845 . 82,960 
 
 1846 . 115,230 
 
 1847 .166,110 
 
 1848 .191,909 
 
 1849 .221,799 
 
 1850 .226,287 
 
 1851 .289,601 
 
 Total of ten years...1,376,149 
 
 The emigrants who arrived at New York, in 1851, were of the fol¬ 
 lowing nations:—Irish, 163,949 ; Germans, 69,883; English, 28,553; 
 Scotch, 7,302 ; French, 6,064 ; Swiss, 4,499 ; Welsh, 2,189 ; Norwegians, 
 2,112; Dutch, 1,798; Italians, 618 ; West Indians, 575 ; Belgians, 475 ; 
 Poles, 422; Spaniards, 278; Danes, 229; Americans, 121; Sardinians, 
 98; Canadians, 150; Mexicans, 42; Portuguese, 25; Russians, 23; 
 Sicilian, 11; East Indians, 11; Chinese, 9; Turks, 4; Greek, 1: 
 total, 289,601. 
 
 The following account of the traffic on the New York Canals, taken at 
 Albany, where the canals join the river Hudson, will show the magnitude 
 of the trade between New York and the boundless regions of the West: 
 
 The quantities of produce brought from the West to the Hudson 
 amounted, in 1850, to 2,033,863 tons; in 1851, to 2,010,700 tons. The 
 quantity of goods taken from the Hudson to the West was, in 1850, 
 347,813 tons; in 1851, 466,311 tons. 
 
 The value of the produce brought along the canal from the West was, 
 in 1850, 55,474,639 dollars, or £11,094,867 sterling; and, in 1851, 
 54,088,395 dollars, or £10,817,678 sterling. 
 
 The value of the goods carried Westward was, in 1850, 80,626,635 
 dollars, or £16,125,327 ; in 1851, 87,522,635 dollars, or £17,504,527. 
 
 The tonnage from and to the West was, in 1850, 2,381,675 ; in 1851, 
 2,477,011 tons. 
 
 The value of the property carried to and from the West was, in 1850, 
 136,101,372 dollars, or £27,220,275; in 1851, 141,610,602 dollars, or 
 £28,320,120.* 
 
 Of the produce forwarded to Albany from the West ten millions of 
 * Albany Register, January, 1852. 
 
777 
 
 dollars’ worth consisted of products of the forest, thirty-eight millions of 
 dollars of the products of agriculture, four millions of manufactures, and 
 the rest of articles not admitting of classification. 
 
 New Orleans, the port of the great valley of the Mississippi, stands 
 next to New York in the amount of its commercial greatness, and in the 
 extent of its commerce with the port of Liverpool. The sources of its 
 prosperity are as numerous and as great as the products of the vast regions 
 watered hy the river which flows past its walls. Amongst these are cotton, 
 sugar, wheat, Indian corn, and every other kind of grain, provisions, 
 tobacco, and, in fact, nearly every valuable product of temperate or tropical 
 climates. The increase of the single article of New Orleans cotton during 
 the last thirty years shows the rate at which the prosperity of that city is 
 increasing. In 1819 the quantity of cotton exported from New Orleans 
 was 44,322 hales; in 1851 it was 828,947 hales. The production of 
 sugar has grown from a mere nothing within the last few years to 120,000 
 tons. It is impossible to fix any limits to the trade of the great valley of 
 the Mississippi and its tributaries, an immense region of a million square 
 miles of the most fertile soil, possessing every variety of climate, inter¬ 
 sected hy twenty thousand miles of navigable streams, and rapidly filling 
 with a population equal in industry, energy, and enterprise to any popu¬ 
 lation on the face of the earth. New York and New Orleans are as clearly 
 the two great ports of the new world, as London and Liverpool are the 
 great ports of the old. 
 
 Vast and valuable as is the produce brought along the Western Canal 
 to Albany and New York, that brought down the Mississippi to New 
 Orleans is still more valuable. The following is a comparative statement 
 of the value of the principal articles brought down to New Orleans in the 
 
 years 1840 and 1851 : 
 
 1851. 1846. 
 
 Cotton bagging.... 903,800 dollars .... 917,710 dollars 
 
 - .Bale rope . 804,104 ,, .... 255,051 ,, 
 
 Cotton . 48,756,764 „ .... 33,716,256 „ 
 
 Molasses . 2,625,000 ,, .... 1,710,100 ,, 
 
 Sugar . 12,678,180 „ .... 10,265,750 
 
 Tobacco . 7,860,050 „ .... 4,146,562 „ 
 
 Other articles .... 33,296,109 ,, .... 26,174,135 ,, 
 
 Total.106,826,083 „ .... 77,193,464 
 
 or £21,365,216 or £15,438,692 * 
 
 The following account of the quantities and value of cotton exported 
 from each place of export in the United States, in the year 1851, and of 
 the progress of the exports of cotton from all parts of the union for the 
 * New Orleans Price Current, January, 1852. 
 
778 
 
 last thirty years, will be given more appropriately under the head of 
 New Orleans, the chief place of export, than anywhere else: 
 
 QUANTITY OF COTTON EXPORTED FROM EACH PORT OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES IN 1851. 
 
 
 Sea Island. 
 
 Lbs. 
 
 Other sorts. 
 
 Lbs. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Dols 
 
 New York. 
 
 . 748,380 . 
 
 . 160,010,783 
 
 ... 21,141,298 
 
 Boston . 
 
 
 1,131,736 
 
 146,588 
 
 New Bedford ... 
 
 
 37,168 
 
 3,350 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 
 2,094,718 
 
 280,544 
 
 Baltimore. 
 
 
 147,041 
 
 21,438 
 
 Charleston . 
 
 . 4,580,310 . 
 
 . 104,538,658 
 
 ... 14,061,981 
 
 Savannah . 
 
 . 2,927,263 . 
 
 68,473.428 
 
 8,878,379 
 
 Apalachicola. 
 
 
 35,651,608 
 
 3,358,786 
 
 St. Mark’s. 
 
 
 451,980 
 
 61,686 
 
 Mobile . 
 
 4,705 . 
 
 . 150,629.389 
 
 ... 18,406,864 
 
 New Orleans. 
 
 
 . 385,814,458 
 
 ... 45,330,084 
 
 Galveston. 
 
 
 646,843 
 
 75,422 
 
 Vermont . 
 
 
 72,353 
 
 1,808 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 
 1,270 
 
 156 
 
 
 8,299,656 
 
 918,937,433 
 
 112,315,317 
 
 
 918,937,433 
 
 
 or £22,463,061 
 
 lbs. 927,237,089, or 2,066,529 bales of 450 lbs. each. 
 
 COTTON EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE PAST THIRTY YEARS. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Total lbs. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Average 
 
 Price per lb. 
 
 1821. 
 
 124,893,405 
 
 20,157,480 
 
 16.2 c. 
 
 1822. 
 
 144,675,095 
 
 24,035,058 
 
 16.8 
 
 1823. 
 
 173,723,270 
 
 20,445,520 
 
 11.8 
 
 1824. 
 
 142,369,663 
 
 21,947,401 
 
 15.4 
 
 1825. 
 
 176,449,207 
 
 36,846,649 
 
 20.9 
 
 1826. 
 
 204,535,415 
 
 25,025,214 
 
 12.2 
 
 1827. 
 
 294.310,115 
 
 29,359,545 
 
 10 
 
 1828. 
 
 210,590,463 
 
 22,487,229 
 
 10.7 
 
 1829. 
 
 264,837,186 
 
 26,575,311 
 
 10 
 
 1830. 
 
 298,450,102 
 
 29,674,882 
 
 9.2 
 
 1831. 
 
 216,979,784 
 
 25.289,492 
 
 9.1 
 
 1832. 
 
 322,215,122 
 
 31,724,682 
 
 9.8 
 
 1833. 
 
 323,798,404 
 
 36,191,105 
 
 11.1 
 
 1834. 
 
 384,717,907 
 
 49,448,402 
 
 12.8 
 
 1835. 
 
 387,358,992 
 
 64,961,302 
 
 16.8 
 
 1836. 
 
 423,631,307 
 
 71,284,925 
 
 16.8 
 
 1837. 
 
 444,212,537 
 
 63,240,102 
 
 14.2 
 
 1838. 
 
 595,952,297 
 
 61,556,811 
 
 10.8 
 
 1839. 
 
 413,621,312 
 
 61,238,981 
 
 15.7 
 
 1840. 
 
 743,941,061 
 
 63,870,307 
 
 8.5 
 
 1841. 
 
 530,204,100 
 
 54,330,341 
 
 1.02 
 
 1842. 
 
 584,711,017 
 
 57,592,464 
 
 8.1 
 
 1843. 
 
 792,297,105 
 
 49,119,805 
 
 6.2 
 
 1844. 
 
 663,633,455 
 
 54,063,501 
 
 8.1 
 
 1845. 
 
 872,905,996 
 
 51,789,643 
 
 5.92 
 
 1846. 
 
 547,558,055 
 
 42,767,341 
 
 7.81 
 
 1847. 
 
 527,219,958 
 
 53,415,848 
 
 10.34 
 
 1848. 
 
 814,274,431 
 
 61,998,293 
 
 7.61 
 
 1849. 
 
 1,020,602,269 
 
 67,396,967 
 
 6.4 
 
 1850. 
 
 635,381,604 
 
 81,984,616 
 
 11.3 
 
 1851. 
 
 927,237,089 
 
 112,314,517 
 
 12.11 
 
779 
 
 IMPORT OF AMERICAN PROVISIONS INTO LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Beef. 
 
 Pork. 
 
 Bacon. 
 
 Cheese. 
 
 Lard. 
 
 
 Tees. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Casks. 
 
 Boxes. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 Kegs. 
 
 1843.... 
 
 3,498 
 
 5,005 
 
 2,956 
 
 
 4,500 
 
 19,093 
 
 23,500 
 
 24,706 
 
 1844.... 
 
 9,300 
 
 8,354 
 
 7,939 
 
 
 5,287 
 
 18,245 
 
 20 ,027 
 
 28,795 
 
 1845.... 
 
 15,573 
 
 3,337 
 
 7,930 
 
 
 5,017 
 
 44,445 
 
 9,346 
 
 56,325 
 
 1846.... 
 
 25,913 
 
 9,218 
 
 14,871 
 
 
 4,049 
 
 58,749 
 
 21,635 
 
 65,508 
 
 1847.... 
 
 16,591 
 
 4,161 
 
 29,155 
 
 50,319 
 
 6,670 
 
 55,730 
 
 29,757 
 
 52,612 
 
 1848.... 
 
 16,183 
 
 2,253 
 
 33,253 
 
 131,937 
 
 6,027 
 
 110,803 
 
 88,332 
 
 75,952 
 
 1849.... 
 
 26,119 
 
 1,249 
 
 36,800 
 
 221,231 
 
 3,645 
 
 74,998 
 
 49,124 
 
 41.849 
 
 1850.... 
 
 20,443 
 
 1,270 
 
 18,576 
 
 156,297 
 
 3,687 
 
 64,025 
 
 74,610 
 
 54,518 
 
 1851.. .. 
 
 23,549 
 
 2,625 
 
 5,149 
 
 62,231 
 
 1,718 
 
 54,889 
 
 46,992 
 
 911* 
 
 Boston, though much inferior to Philadelphia in population, is the 
 third in order of the American cities as relates to commercial intercourse 
 with Liverpool. The population of Boston has increased from 18,000 in 
 1793, to 136,871 in 1851. Few of the exports of Boston are derived from 
 the cultivation of the soil. Stormy seas, abounding in fish : vast forests, 
 yielding timber, ashes, and turpentine : ponds of pure water, yielding ice, 
 furnish the principal exports of New England to Old England. Manu¬ 
 factures, and the materials of manufacturing industry, also form a large 
 portion of the trade of Boston, though not of its trade with Britain. In 
 the absence of good or extensive water communication with the interior, 
 a railroad from Boston to Albany renders the former port a good place of 
 landing for emigrants. The British and North American steamers start 
 alternately from New York and Boston. 
 
 Philadelphia, on the Delaware, a beautiful stream 275 miles in length, 
 and the outlet of an extensive state, rich in grain and minerals and public 
 works, is second to New York alone in population. In 1793 it had only 
 42,520 inhabitants ; in 1851, 400,045. From the excellence of its inter¬ 
 nal communications, it possesses a good share of the passenger trade. The 
 charge of travelling is wonderfully low for emigrants : from Philadelphia to 
 Pittsburg, a distance of 482 miles, 5 dollars, or 20s. : from Philadelphia to 
 St. Louis, near the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, a dis¬ 
 tance of 1,606 miles, 10 dollars 38 cents, or about 42s. A line of screw 
 steamers, consisting of the City of Glasgow and City of Manchester, keeps 
 up a regular communication between Philadelphia and Liverpool. 
 
 Charleston, the port of the great cotton-growing state of South 
 Carolina, comes next in the extent of its intercourse with Liverpool. The 
 population of Charleston, in 1851, amounted to 42,985 inhabitants. It 
 sent to Liverpool 168,567 bales of cotton, besides large quantities of rice. 
 
 Mobile, the port of the youthful but flourishing state of Alabama, rich 
 * Messrs. W. Gardner and Co.’s Circular, January, 1852. 
 
 5 I 
 
780 
 
 in a most fertile soil, in navigable rivers, ancl in mineral resources, (to be 
 developed at a future time,) comes next. After languishing for ages in 
 the hands of the Spaniards, Mobile has been raised to the rank of a great 
 commercial city, containing 20,513 inhabitants, by the energetic race of 
 the Anglo-Americans, in about thirty years. 
 
 Savannah, the chief port of Georgia, one of the most flourishing of 
 the southern states, also possesses an export cotton trade of 172,796 
 bales. 
 
 Baltimore, though the third city on the American seaboard, and con¬ 
 taining a population which has increased from 13,503 in 1793, to 169,054 
 in 1851, does not carry on so large a commerce with Liverpool as some 
 other cities which are inferior to it in general commerce. The tobacco 
 trade, the commencement of the prosperity of Liverpool, is one of the 
 principal branches of the trade of Baltimore; but immense duties check 
 this trade, and throw a considerable part of it into the hands of smugglers. 
 The flour of Baltimore has a high reputation, and forms a considerable 
 article of the commerce of the port; 900,000 barrels of flour and 42,000 
 hogsheads of tobacco, of which 35,000 were exported, arrived at Balti¬ 
 more, from the interior, in 1851. 
 
 The following is an account of the stocks, imports, and deliveries of 
 tobacco in Liverpool during the last ten years: 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE IMPORTS, DELIVERIES, AND STOCK OF TOBACCO, FOR 
 THE LAST TEN YEARS. 
 
 Names of Places. 
 
 1842 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 IMPORTS. 
 
 5178 
 
 4852 
 
 4804 
 
 5815 
 
 6343 
 
 5098 
 
 3269 
 
 5785 
 
 2162 
 
 1680 
 
 
 7580 
 
 7530 
 
 0976 
 
 6959 
 
 8669 
 
 4512 
 
 6677 
 
 5833 
 
 6422 
 
 5932 
 
 
 47 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 1465 
 
 1224 
 
 Other Ports . 
 
 371 
 
 1350 
 
 614 
 
 596 
 
 
 156 
 
 526 
 
 1587 
 
 2507 
 
 1205 
 
 
 
 Totals. 
 
 13129 
 
 13732 
 
 12441 
 
 13370 
 
 15020 
 
 10366 
 
 10477 
 
 13205 
 
 12556 
 
 10041 
 
 DELIVERIES. 
 
 3907 
 
 4777 
 
 4986 
 
 3547 
 
 4377 
 
 4510 
 
 4905 
 
 4911 
 
 4945 
 
 2970 
 
 4633 
 
 2783 
 
 5253 
 
 2329 
 
 
 2579 
 
 2761 
 
 3406 
 
 3764 
 
 2788 
 
 3357 
 
 
 2399 
 
 2100 
 
 1760 
 
 2048 
 
 2077 
 
 2054 
 
 2355 
 
 2781 
 
 2012 
 
 2637 
 
 
 1036 
 
 1411 
 
 1319 
 
 2510 
 
 2004 
 
 2067 
 
 2188 
 
 2273 
 
 2031 
 
 2233 
 
 
 
 9921 
 
 11049 
 
 11012 
 
 12341 
 
 12361 
 
 11874 
 
 12811 
 
 12960 
 
 11459 
 
 16355 
 
 17452 
 
 12452 
 
 17452 
 
 15041 
 
 * 
 
 STOCKS. 
 
 1st January . 
 
 31st December . 
 
 3553 
 
 12701 
 
 12761 
 
 15444 
 
 15444 
 
 16273 
 
 16273 
 
 17302 
 
 17302 
 
 19961 
 
 19961 
 
 18453 
 
 18453 
 
 16119 
 
 16119 
 
 10355 
 
 Of the 2,637 hhds. exported last year, 1,465 were for Africa, 383 Rotter- 
 dam, 146 Fernando Po, 52 Ostend, 67 Zante, 36 Smyrna, 36 Marseilles, 
 25 Rio Janeiro, 25 Bahia, 1 St. Vincent, 40 Malta, 24 New York, 25 
 Tronyem, 16 Jersey, 14 Christiana, 15 Draaman, 10 Cape Good Hope, 6 
 * Messrs. Parry and Crosbie’s Circular, January, 1852. 
 
781 
 
 Genoa, 5 Demerara, 3 Sierra Leone, 1 Newfoundland, 1. Antigua, 1 
 Nantes, 85 Alexandria, 91 Antwerp, 15 Gibraltar, and 49 Isle of Man. 
 
 Apalachicola, the cotton port of Florida, which has sprung up within 
 the last twenty years from nothing to be a place of great commercial 
 activity, is the last American port that it is necessary to mention in detail. 
 
 It will be seen from the table given in a previous page (773) that the 
 number of vessels which cleared out from Liverpool for ports of the United 
 States in 1851 was 992, the tonnage 880,909 : add to this the tonnage 
 inwards, which is about the same, and the result is a movement of 
 1,773,818 tons of shipping yearly between Liverpool and the United 
 States of America. Immense as this trade is it admits of much greater 
 development, for there is no limit to the production of British manufac¬ 
 tures, except the limit of demand; and it is equally difficult to assign 
 any limit to the agricultural wealth of the United States. 
 
 Another principal cause of the extension of the commerce of Liverpool 
 has been the opening of the trade with India and China, the former of 
 which was closed against the merchants of the outports, and the private 
 merchants of London, until the year 1814 ; the latter until the year 1833. 
 Some notion of the rapidity with which this trade has increased may be 
 formed from the fact that the tonnage which cleared out from the port of 
 Liverpool alone, in the year 1851, was nearly three times as great as the 
 whole amount of the tonnage employed in the British commerce with India 
 and China the year before the trade of India was thrown open to private 
 merchants. It appears, from the papers laid before Parliament in 1814, 
 that the number of ships employed in the trade with India and China in 
 the previous year was 6G, of 57,591 tons burden, whilst in 1850 the 
 tonnage of the vessels which cleared out from Liverpool alone for those 
 countries was 135,597, and from the whole kingdom 339,934 tons. 
 
 At the close of the general war, in 1815, India, and the great countries 
 lying still further to the East, could scarcely be said to compete with the 
 tropical regions of America in the European markets. Their trade was 
 chiefly confined to articles of which they had almost an exclusive pos¬ 
 session, as tea, spices, saltpetre, lac and other Eastern dyes. The 
 quantities of sugar, cotton, and coffee which they supplied were quite 
 insignificant. Now they not only supply the articles which they formerly 
 furnished in much greater quantities, but compete with the United States, 
 the West Indies, and Brazil in the production of all kinds of tropical 
 produce. In the year 1812, when both Java and Mauritius, as well 
 as India and Ceylon, were in the hands of the East India Company, 
 
782 
 
 the imports of sugar from the East were 76,889 cwts., or less than 
 5,000 tons ; last year the importation of East India and Mauritius 
 sugar, into this county, was 2,565,072 cwts., or upwards of 120,000 
 tons. So recently as the year 1831 the quantity of coffee produced 
 in Ceylon was only 1,407,227 lbs.; last year it was 35,000,000 lbs. 
 In 1816 the quantity of East India cotton imported into this country was 
 31,000 bales; last year it was 232,100 bales. An immense increase has 
 also taken place in the imports of indigo, saltpetre, pepper, cinnamon, 
 and other products, which are considered to be especially East Indian. 
 Of tea the consumption has increased from 25,917,853 lbs. in 1815 to 
 53,965,112 lbs. in 1851, and the import to 71,466,460 lbs. Liverpool, 
 which had no share of the trade of India or China at the close of the 
 war, last year imported 16,781,049 lbs. of tea, 482,000 bags of sugar of 
 If cwt. each, the produce of Bengal, Mauritius, Java, and Manilla, and 
 232,172 bales of cotton, besides large quantities of coffee, rice, saltpetre, 
 and other East Indian articles. The exports of British goods to the 
 East are now only second to those to the United States. In the year 
 1850 the value of the British exports to India was T8,022,655 ; to the 
 Indian Islands, <£700,760; to Mauritius, 46313,386 ; to Ascension and 
 St. Helena, T30,063 ; and to China, Tl,574,145 : a trade of nearly twelve 
 millions a-year to the countries formerly under the government, or 
 charter, of the East India Company. If to this is added the exports to 
 South Africa, T796,600, and to Australia, £2, 602,258, we have an 
 export trade of nearly fifteen millions, and an import trade of at least 
 an equal amount, with the countries lying between the Cape and the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 IMPORTS OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF EAST INDIA PRODUCE AT 
 LIVERPOOL, IN THE YEARS 1850 AND 1851. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Articles. 
 
 1801 
 
 1850 
 
 Cassia Lignea.cases 
 
 Coffee, Cevlon.bags 
 
 „ other East India „ 
 
 Cotton .bales 
 
 Gioger .bags, &c. 
 
 Hides .number 
 
 Indigo.chests 
 
 Jute and Hemp .bales 
 
 Lac D^e.chests 
 
 Shell Lac . „ 
 
 Linseed .quarters 
 
 3,430 
 
 400 
 
 232,100 
 
 1,800 
 
 218,700 
 
 760 
 
 95,000 
 
 315 
 
 3,230 
 
 30,300 
 
 165 
 
 15,350 
 
 775 
 
 192,500 
 
 9,650 
 
 386,400 
 
 400 
 
 83.500 
 1,180 
 2,680 
 
 15.500 
 
 Pepper (black)...bags, &c. 
 
 Rice .. 
 
 Rum .punchs. 
 
 Sago, Pearl and Flour, bags 
 
 Safflower .bales 
 
 Saltpetre. hags 
 
 Sugar, Bengal ...bags, &c. 
 „ Mauritius „ 
 
 „ Manilla, &c. „ 
 
 Terra Japonica, <fcc.,baskets 
 Tea . lbs. 
 
 3.50(1 
 
 184.700 
 420 
 
 41,900 
 
 250 
 
 44,000 
 
 350,950 
 
 72,000 
 
 59,970 
 
 35.700 
 16,781,050 
 
 8,760 
 
 314,000 
 
 315 
 
 35,200 
 
 65 
 
 42,850 
 
 334,250 
 
 76.500 
 
 22,135 
 
 23,400 
 
 9,117,730* 
 
 The following tables will show the number of vessels cleared out from 
 Liverpool for places between the Cape of Good Hope and the Pacific 
 * Report of the Liverpool East India and China Association, 1852, 37. 
 
783 
 
 Ocean, in the years 1848, 49, 50, and 51 ; and, also, the total amount of 
 the tonnage of the United Kingdom to India and China, exclusive of the 
 Mauritius, and the proportion possessed by Liverpool and the Clyde, in 
 1850: OUTWARDS. 
 
 Names of Places. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1848. 
 
 Calcutta . 
 
 
 127 
 
 130 
 
 120 
 
 84 
 
 Madras. 
 
 
 72,461 
 
 65,653 
 
 59,684 
 
 42,336 
 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 
 823 
 
 1,880 
 
 1,449 
 
 1,725 
 
 
 57 
 
 67 
 
 62 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 37,604 
 
 46,015 
 
 38,852 
 
 29,261 
 
 China. 
 
 
 27 
 
 32 
 
 32 
 
 42 
 
 . 
 
 
 11,371 
 
 12,660 
 
 12,689 
 
 16,335 
 
 Ceylon . 
 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2,294 
 
 3,336 
 
 1,287 
 
 1,642 
 
 Sincapore, &c. 
 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 ,, . 
 
 
 7,010 
 
 6,023 
 
 5,163 
 
 3,122 
 
 Java, &c. 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 „ . 
 
 
 554 
 
 1,463 
 
 3,221 
 
 757 
 
 Mauritius. 
 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 New South Wales. 
 
 
 2,444 
 
 2,826 
 
 2,366 
 
 2,461 
 
 
 32 
 
 36 
 
 25 
 
 18 
 
 >» .. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, &c. 
 
 
 23,225 
 
 22,970 
 
 17,157 
 
 8,093 
 
 
 27 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 ” . 
 
 
 8,056 
 
 3,740 
 
 6,356 
 
 5,314* 
 
 INWARDS. 
 
 Names of Places. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1848. 
 
 Calcutta. 
 
 
 106 
 
 121 
 
 103 
 
 112 
 
 Madras . 
 
 
 54,680 
 
 59,397 
 
 50,623 
 
 54,075 
 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 
 5,102 
 
 2,287 
 
 1,565 
 
 2,165 
 
 
 69 
 
 62 
 
 40 
 
 03 
 
 „ . 
 
 
 48,278 
 
 41,475 
 
 24,845 
 
 29,610 
 
 China. 
 
 
 32 
 
 21 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 ,, . 
 
 
 12,843 
 
 8,199 
 
 7,594 
 
 8,704 
 
 Ceylon . 
 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 ,, . 
 
 
 758 
 
 1,745 
 
 581 
 
 286 
 
 Sincapore, &c. 
 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 „ . 
 
 
 6,226 
 
 3,727 
 
 4,192 
 
 3,792 
 
 Java, &c..... 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 „ . 
 
 
 
 1,416 
 
 608 
 
 1,216 
 
 Mauritius. 
 
 
 i6 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 New South Wales . 
 
 
 3,856 
 
 3,553 
 
 4,524 
 
 891 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, &c. 
 
 
 3,366 
 
 1,110 
 
 919 
 
 2,023 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 ” . 
 
 
 1,385 
 
 934 
 
 155 
 
 891+ 
 
 TOTAL TONNAGE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TO INDIA AND CHINA, 
 (EXCLUSIVE OF MAURITIUS.) 
 
 Outwards in 1850 .. 339,034 
 
 Inwards. 320,801 
 
 Total. 664,835 
 
 Of which Liverpool had— 
 
 Outwards in 1850 . 135,097, or 40 per cent. 
 
 Inwards. 116,830, or 30 
 
 The Clyde— 
 
 Outwards . 65,689, or 20 „ 
 
 Inwards. 13,018, or 4 
 
 Total. 331,134} 
 
 * Report of the Liverpool East India and China Association, 1852, 36. + Ibid. } Ibid, 35. 
 
784 
 
 The following tables will show the exports of the principal manufac¬ 
 tures of Great Britain to India and China, from the port of Liverpool, in 
 the years 1850 and 1851: 
 
 Calcutta . in 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Madras.1801 
 
 1850 
 
 Bombay.1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Sincapore . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 China . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Ceylon . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Java ..1801 
 
 1850 
 
 Mauritius.1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Phillippine Isl’dsl851 
 
 1800 
 
 Calcutta . in 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Madras . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Bombay . ,.1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Sincapore.1851 
 
 1850 
 
 China . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Ceylon . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Java . 1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Mauritius.1851 
 
 1850 
 
 Phillippine Isl’dsl851 
 
 1850 
 
 Carpets 
 and Rugs. 
 £ . 
 
 235 
 
 315 
 
 20 
 
 I—* ^Or HOOD Oh-* 
 
 Or WH^pODGOtOtOH J^P HH 
 
 b co ►-* to to **-<? "go bob bPb Vj bb tobb M «—• 
 
 O OOf*. G 50 r 05 -ttOOCOGi® 05000 |hHa'£ 
 OrapapOH h-* CD ODJ— to to 00 K-p Gi Or Ss go 
 H 05 to b O) “o GO b b b “to b b b b b b Ci ' • t> 
 
 HGiQODHGODGDtOO-IOOOOTGCOai r— 1 
 
 OtOOOOOOtOOtCOOOOOOtOOOt 
 
 feo? 
 
 CO H - 1 i-* *— iO ~ g. 
 
 . . . . O' M to M M CO . H © to O (t,- 
 
 or*-: i—»i—•: : * oobo'^HOo: “to h o» 
 
 CO • OO OO * : : OO OC *— 1 OO OO or : Orf-COtfl o 
 
 OO* OO* • • © Or Or Or Or O • O O O ’ <-i 
 
 _ 
 
 tow Op to W lb JO JO P h-CO 5-^2 
 
 oob to bo*to co cob'to'br'bj'brP to 'tob’^JF*- 
 
 COlf-tOl^O'OM^OiO'-JOCO^COGOO-IShOo 
 
 O op O Or O' O'p to CO CO CO CO Q iO^f- O' Or » ^ 
 
 O Or ”-7 b bOHGO b *10 Or 00*00 b *P b GO b O 
 
 GOCOCH^GO-lClMif-H-ODOCCi-IOOrCO ^ 
 
 0 0000000 * 000*0000000 c* 
 
 . g . ... h-. . 
 
 oo: 2 : to: : : coo: : to ^: : too«» 
 
 o • 2 ; o; ; : cto; : to m; • to h- cr ^ 
 
 or : © : o : : : O O • • or or : . or or 00 £’ 
 
 Cambrics and 
 Muslins. 
 Yds. 
 112,800 
 10,400 
 2,625 
 
 174,140 
 
 178,255 
 
 19,960 
 
 12,000 
 
 1,640 
 
 3,000 
 
 2,615 
 
 1 500 
 15,300 
 
 ... . . . WOOD D 
 
 h-* h-* : : : >->: or to h ^ i—-' : *c* oo % 2 L 
 
 to to * : if- - OO GO it- OO ^1 O ; • QOO?. 
 
 o or: : : ©: ooooooor. • cob S 
 
 TO g. 
 
 , W 
 
 • > • ... • * * * o 
 
 ►—*: : : co: : : : : too®. 
 
 • • • o: : : co — u -*• ; : ►*-co o> 
 
 o: : : o: : : o or or. or. » • oo ^ 
 
 bi? E 
 
 co ©5 2 
 
 ... . . h-* -qjo PJG N “ 2 - 
 
 i—•: : ►—* ►—* • oh: b to c“o co co'^'h-* 2 2 
 
 CO: : ; CO -I ; tO ; OOOtOHO COCO • 
 
 ©: : : ©©: oo: 0000 * 0000 * 0 - 
 
 H-* b j/} 
 
 iO ^7 tO H- ‘ G 3 iO © <7 <r+ 
 
 Or . <J Or. ►—- ^7 ►— >p 00 J 33 j -7 CO G 
 
 O 0 *tO V-*: Or go: o'er 'Cr'b-'i— 1 007 -* tO *►—‘00 ££ 
 
 tf- O O * or H- * * to 00 rf- or ►— 00 OO l— 11 rf- Or iO 
 
 o O O : oo: OOOOOOrOOiOrOOO 
 
 Lace, Gauze, 
 Netts&Crape. 
 Yds. 
 236,400 
 99,264 
 35,000 
 35,000 
 1,060 
 57,970 
 
 43,600 
 
 26,000 
 
 1,200 
 
 65,080 
 
 143,500 
 
 46,000 
 
 • . HiOH JO 03 a o 
 
 co: to: : © to oo ^ oo co'otVj'to “tOH-o p 
 
 rf- • ►&- • • C 00 to O or GO or O0 O if- Or Or H-* ^ £ 
 
 O : or : : o or o O O O O or o O O or or CO © 
 
 Shawls and 
 H'dkerchiefs. 
 Dozen. 
 
 900 
 
 1,263 
 
 2,191 
 
 1,280 
 
 1,160 
 
 2,485 
 
 35 
 
 2,626 
 
 800 
 
 w 
 
 . .PfoCgC 
 
 to • : : : : : ^ : oo : co to — » 
 
 ~ ■ • * co- • • • OO CO : " _ l 1— 1 <X If- Uj 
 
 o or : : Or: : : : OO* : or. or o or • o 
 
 *-h 
 
 Sail-Cloth. 
 
 Ells. 
 
 21,112 
 
 11,975 
 
 8,370 
 
 68,040 
 
 2,593 
 
 7.800 
 10,780 
 17,160 
 
 1,308 
 
 5.800 
 
 9,280 
 
 33,145 
 
 H 
 
 GO 
 
 to 03 toco ton to to b 2 © 
 
 too . tOOHHCO P h-* J-*JO h - 1 CO h-*J 0 <. 
 
 H-*b Gi: wbbbb tobc v io“i--b 00 “co co • a 
 
 QOO- tOihGOOCOO'OliHGOCH 0 Q 2 
 
 o O O : OrOOOOOCrOO«OrOOOC 5 • 
 
 00 iO t-J 1 OO 1 — 1 I— 1 Or Or © © CO ply 
 
 COCO. . tO Or GO. O 00 jh* GO © © p pr Of CO ^ G 
 
 bbo: : tob C 5 : bb h b oo w ^ f° 2 
 
 o O • • 4 — 3 —I : 0 G 3 CC<;*- 3 -lOO 2 p 
 
 O O ! • o o O : OOOtOOOOrOOO 
 
 l_j 03 PP 2 ? 
 
 b- 7 b H obb to H"b- b L Kj 
 
 G 5 if- - 1 C.H O' tO tO H- tO tO 00 OGpt 
 
 H-* . . P oppjopp j-'jf- Jf- HCOJDO ©- iz 
 
 bo cd : : f*b“tobi bo ton bob b cob h ? c p 
 
 oo- • —-I I — 1 O O CD tO O O’ O C Good 7 p 
 
 oo: : cooooooooooooo p_ 
 
 . . . t- . . • fb 2 
 
 :oo:: ,.tt- .-SS 
 
 © • too C —7 ; OO: : ►—‘t-'t^; tonm 
 
 07 r : Or o O : O'. COT. . COrO«. OO® ^ 
 
 Other kinds. 
 
 Value. 
 
 to I—* to 
 
 CO Or . J—‘J*- c 
 
 i c : : #. (a: i-o»-cs co o co: ^ 
 
 * OO* • CO O'* o Or O’ 1— 1 O CO to • CO<^l — 1 • 
 
 : 3 : : oo: o o o o> o o • o o or 
 
 * 
 
 * Report of the Liverpool East India and China Association, 1852, 29 and 40. 
 
 Ct 
 
 o 
 
 ha 
 
 H3 
 
 O 
 
 3 
 
 55 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 t) 
 
 02 
 
 F 2 
 F O 
 
 td ^ 
 
 hs 
 
 02-F 3 
 
 ^ o 
 
 w to 
 to^S 
 
 h3 ti 
 
 ^ 02 
 
 SP 
 
 go 
 
 §§ 
 o-“ 
 tfl c-l 
 
 § § 
 
 to 
 
 - S' 
 
 I—t - 
 
 t; £. 
 
 o 
 
 tog 
 
 W w 
 >■ to 
 ?o to 
 o> pj 
 
 M " 
 
 00 to 
 
 CJ1 u 
 I—< rS 
 
 HJ 
 > O 
 
 O 1-3 
 
 to 
 
 oo ° 
 
 §> 
 
 • h3 
 
 to 
 
 so 
 
 hd 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 to 
 
 H! 
 
 O 
 
785 
 
 The following is a statement of the principal exports from Bombay to 
 Great Britain during the last eight years: 
 
 PRINCIPAL EXPORTS FROM BOMBAY TO GREAT BRITAIN DURING THE LAST 
 
 EIGHT YEARS. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Cotton.bales 
 
 241,322 
 
 127,815 
 
 95,604 
 
 221.264 
 
 164,297 
 
 244.596 
 
 302.648 
 
 225,278 
 
 Wool . 
 
 
 8,225 
 
 10,800 
 
 13,870 
 
 10,295 
 
 13.000 
 
 10,741 
 
 11,709 
 
 16,320 
 
 Coffee.. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 41,102 
 
 19,699 
 
 13,391 
 
 23,733 
 
 15,229 
 
 20,323 
 
 29,183 
 
 15,090 
 
 Pepper . 
 
 
 18,985 
 
 21,889 
 
 16,775 
 
 19,882 
 
 8,685 
 
 15,299 
 
 22,014 
 
 12,296 
 
 Ginger. 
 
 
 1,015 
 
 409 
 
 2,129 
 
 
 2,022 
 
 4,706 
 
 6,520 
 
 6,862 
 
 Cardamoms ... 
 
 
 429 
 
 243 
 
 682 
 
 1,019 
 
 248 
 
 875 
 
 653 
 
 493 
 
 Hemp. 
 
 
 9,082 
 
 8,102 
 
 6,160 
 
 2,432 
 
 4.249 
 
 10,512 
 
 11,605 
 
 4,205 
 
 Linseed . 
 
 
 20,963 
 
 24 897 
 
 486 
 
 3,281 
 
 32,001 
 
 42,039 
 
 44,909 
 
 59,271 
 
 Myrabolams ... 
 
 
 30,022 
 
 12,053 
 
 17,524 
 
 12,925 
 
 300 
 
 6,227 
 
 17,516 
 
 36.359 
 
 Senna . 
 
 
 1,522 
 
 2,917 
 
 4,994 
 
 4,145 
 
 3,029 
 
 3.475 
 
 4,228 
 
 2,129 
 
 Sapan Wood ... 
 
 
 9,631 
 
 14,970 
 
 6,604 
 
 5,153 
 
 5,262 
 
 3.754 
 
 4,475 
 
 4,167 
 
 Motber-o’Pearl) 
 Shells .) 
 
 >» 
 
 3,407 
 
 2,991 
 
 2,546 
 
 1,417 
 
 1,738 
 
 1,980 
 
 1,067 
 
 1,193 
 
 Ivory . 
 
 
 3,759 
 
 4,405 
 
 2,671 
 
 2,957 
 
 2,072 
 
 3,554 
 
 3,035 
 
 3,570 
 
 Buffalo Horns 
 
 
 6.220 
 
 6.373 
 
 7,161 
 
 2,587 
 
 1,902 
 
 2,864 
 
 4,845 
 
 6 059 
 
 Deer Horns ... 
 
 
 920 
 
 1,163 
 
 932 
 
 1,078 
 
 982 
 
 328 
 
 2,778 
 
 2,110 
 
 Gum Arabic ... 
 
 
 9,325 
 
 11,347 
 
 15,939 
 
 14,905 
 
 10,703 
 
 14,166 
 
 17,924 
 
 11,466 
 
 Gum Animi ... 
 
 
 
 1,538 
 
 1,376 
 
 1,482 
 
 830 
 
 1,460 
 
 1,929 
 
 2,002 
 
 Gum Olibanum 
 
 
 8,143 
 
 8,882 
 
 8,795 
 
 6,204 
 
 8,132 
 
 6,528 
 
 4,920 
 
 12,208 
 
 Gum Amonican 
 
 
 39 
 
 
 102 
 
 137 
 
 122 
 
 1,293 
 
 344 
 
 193 
 
 Gum Benjamin 
 
 
 285 
 
 48 
 
 307 
 
 
 10 
 
 137 
 
 584 
 
 639 
 
 Gum Myrrh ... 
 
 
 742 
 
 443 
 
 196 
 
 166 
 
 93 
 
 281 
 
 332 
 
 753 
 
 Gum Gatthu ... 
 
 
 1,138 
 
 108 
 
 1,760 
 
 912 
 
 212 
 
 1,113 
 
 1,480 
 
 2,960 
 
 Gum Assafoetida 
 
 
 606 
 
 1,611 
 
 1,892 
 
 507 
 
 191 
 
 715 
 
 1,103 
 
 1,580 
 
 Cowries . 
 
 
 4,902 
 
 3,668 
 
 1,356 
 
 43 
 
 958 
 
 1,483 
 
 3,157 
 
 6,311 
 
 Cassia . 
 
 
 4,854 
 
 3,423 
 
 998 
 
 91 
 
 11 
 
 1,014 
 
 313 
 
 571 
 
 Coir Rope . 
 
 Yarn . 
 
 1) 
 
 | 8,948 
 
 3,043 
 
 7,713 
 
 3,116 
 
 6,627 
 
 7,615 
 
 8,661 
 
 31,698 
 
 4,280 
 
 13,652 
 
 Aloes . 
 
 
 389 
 
 328 
 
 332 
 
 295 
 
 270 
 
 616 
 
 171 
 
 43 
 
 Turmeric . 
 
 
 1,368 
 
 827 
 
 
 
 
 857 
 
 5,300 
 
 5,143 
 
 Indigo. 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 151 
 
 239 
 
 811 
 
 Bees’ Wax . 
 
 
 388 
 
 187 
 
 390 
 
 
 
 347 
 
 427 
 
 645 
 
 Cloves . 
 
 
 923 
 
 494 
 
 635 
 
 692 
 
 
 1,882 
 
 3,717 
 
 1,423 
 
 Munjeet. 
 
 )) 
 
 4,017 
 
 7,500 
 
 6,400 
 
 
 
 
 3,518 
 
 15,269 
 
 * 
 
 Calcutta, the capital of the great presidency of Bengal, containing 
 56,283,851 inhabitants, intersected and watered by the Ganges and 
 its various tributaries, stands first amongst the seaports of India, 
 in the amount of its commercial communication with Liverpool. 
 This splendid presidency contains upwards of 400 indigo factories ; 
 a million acres of land applied to the cultivation of indigo ; nearly 
 all the sugar plantations and works of India, in which sugar is 
 prepared for exportation, the most valuable being about Benares; 
 produces opium of the value of two millions a-year; and the whole 
 soil is so impregnated with saltpetre that it may be had to any extent. 
 Silk is also produced, and prepared after the Italian manner. The 
 population of Calcutta and its suburbs is not less than 400,000 inhabi¬ 
 tants. Its exports have been estimated at £7,274,683, of which £3,765,831 
 are sent to Great Britain ; its imports at £4,123,213, consisting chiefly 
 of cotton cloth and twist, woollen goods, metals, hardwares, and British 
 manufactures generally. 
 
 * Report of the Liverpool East India and China Association, 1852, 27. 
 
786 
 
 Bombay stands next. This presidency contains 59,438 square miles 
 of territory, peopled by 6,261,546 inhabitants. Cotton and rice are the 
 most valuable articles -which it produces. The city contained 235,000 in¬ 
 habitants in 1845, and contains considerably more at present. In 1845 
 the value of its exports was supposed to be £8,992,212, and of its imports 
 £8,742,237. It already possesses the advantage of being a great steam¬ 
 boat station, and before long will possess a railway communication with 
 the interior, which will give an immense impulse to its foreign commerce. 
 These two ports divide the Indian trade between them, and serve as 
 central points for the coasting trade and the trade with the interior, as 
 well as the foreign commerce of India. 
 
 The trade of Madras is much inferior to that of Calcutta and Bombay, 
 partly from the want of a harbour, and partly because the country is less 
 prosperous than Bengal, owing to the want of fixedness in the amount 
 of the land-tax, which varies in Madras, but has been permanently settled 
 in Bengal. 
 
 The cultivation of Ceylon has been wonderfully developed within the 
 last few years. In 1849 the exports of the Island were of the value of 
 £784,554. 12s. 2d., in 1850 of the value of £855,329. 13s. 4d.; in the 
 former year the imports were of the value of £928,869. Os. 9d. ; in the 
 latter of £1,030,296. 9s. 3d. In the former year the quantity of cinnamon 
 exported was 733,781 lbs., in the latter 644,857 lbs. : in the former the 
 quantity of coffee exported was 35,000,000lbs.; in the latter 36,000,0001bs. 
 At the time when the coffee-berry is ripe great numbers of Hindoos 
 come over from the mainland of India and assist in picking it, as the Irish 
 labourers come over to this country to the harvest and hop picking. 
 
 In Mauritius, or the Isle of France, the cultivation of sugar is said to 
 have increased from seventy to eighty fold since the island came into the 
 hands of the British Government. This most beautiful and fertile island 
 contains a population of 161,920 inhabitants, on a territory of 700 square 
 miles. In 1847 there were 33,651 persons employed in sugar cultivation. 
 In 1850 the imports of all kinds were of the value of £961,200 ; 
 the exports of the value of £993,199. This island has the immense ad¬ 
 vantage of an abundant supply of labour. The cost of importing each 
 labourer from India is £5, and of this sum £3. 10s. is recovered by a 
 stamp duty on the first engagement which the labourer enters into on 
 arriving in the colony. The sugar crop of the Mauritius in 1850 was 
 estimated at 115,000,000 of lbs. weight, or about 50,000 tons. 
 
 Moulmain, in the province of Tenasserim, in India beyond the 
 Ganges, is also becoming a place of considerable trade. Six ships 
 
787 
 
 cleared out from Liverpool for Moulmain in 1851. It possesses a good 
 harbour, and communicates with the interior by the great river of Saluen 
 or Martaban. The chief products of Tenasserim are the teak wood of 
 its magnificent forests, rice, tobacco, and shell-lac ; its chief imports are 
 British cotton goods. 
 
 Proceeding eastward, the flourishing British settlement of Sincapore, 
 already containing a population of 50,000 inhabitants, rises at the 
 entrance of the Indian Archipelago. Singapore became a British pos¬ 
 session in 1819, and is now the central point for the trade of the East. 
 From five to six millions worth of property pass through Sincapore 
 yearly. The late Sir Thomas Stamford Baffles, the Governor of Java, 
 whilst that fine island remained in the hands of England, was the founder 
 of the settlement of Sincapore. Every year hears stronger evidence to 
 the value of this admirably-selected position. 
 
 Still farther eastward, on the coast of Borneo, and the highway to 
 the Philippine Islands and China, the small island of Labuan has been 
 recently occupied by England. The value of this possession arises from 
 its rich beds of coal, which promise to make it a possession of immense 
 use in the extension of steam navigation in the East. In 1849 the 
 population of Labuan was only 1,385, and that year G78 tons of coal were 
 got for the vessels calling there, and 100 tons sent to Sincapore. The coal 
 lies close to the surface, in thick beds, and is therefore easily worked. 
 
 An extract from a despatch of Lieut.-Governor Scott to Lord Grey, 
 dated Labuan, 25th March. 1851, states that “ The examination which 
 has been made during the past year of these coal measures has esta¬ 
 blished their extent and value to be fully equal to the expectation that 
 had been formed of them. The large seam alone cannot contain less 
 than 700,000 tons of coal laying above tide level.”* 
 
 DISTANCES FROM LABUAN TO 
 
 Sincapore .Miles 707 
 
 Calcutta . 2,300 
 
 Madras . 2,270 
 
 Ceylon. 2,150 
 
 Bombay . 3,170 
 
 Aden . 4,300 
 
 Mauritius . 3,900 
 
 Cape of Good Hope . 6,100 
 
 Siam . 948 
 
 * Communication of Eastern Archipelago Company to Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce, 1852. 
 
 5 K 
 
788 
 
 Manilla .Miles 650 
 
 Adelaide . 3,960 
 
 Hobart Town . 4,380 
 
 Hongkong . 1,009 
 
 Batavia . 900 
 
 Sydney . 3,750 
 
 New Zealand . 4,150 
 
 Sandwich Islands . 4,900 
 
 Otaheite . 6,000 
 
 San Francisco. 7,000 
 
 Panama . 9,950 
 
 Valparaiso .10,300 
 
 Lima .10,000 
 
 Port Philip. 4,320 
 
 Swan Biver. 2,580 
 
 It would he difficult to find a more central point, whether as an entrepot, 
 or for coaling, watering, &c., having regard to the whole of our commerce 
 in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, than the English island of Labuan. 
 
 Hongkong, the only portion of Chinese territory ever ceded to 
 England, contained 33,143 inhabitants in the year 1850. The number 
 of vessels which entered Hongkong in 1850 was 884, tonnage 299,093, 
 being a decrease of 12 vessels, and an increase of 5,382 tons, in com¬ 
 parison with 1849. The possession of this small island gives great 
 security to the trade with the south of China, which it did not possess 
 when the property and persons of Europeans were at the mercy of the 
 Governor of Canton. For commercial purposes Hongkong, Whampoa, and 
 Canton are all one. The exports of Canton in 1845 were of the value of 
 £6,622,726, and the imports of the value of £3,046,942. The tea trade 
 is the great trade of southern China. Hongkong has now a regular steam 
 communication with England. The time occupied is fifty-six days. 
 
 Sixteen vessels cleared out of Liverpool for Shanghae, the great port 
 of the north of China, in 1851. The position of this city is scarcely 
 inferior to that of New York or New Orleans, the two great rivers of 
 China, which enter the sea near Shanghae, being each from 2,500 to 2,700 
 miles in length. As many as 3,000 junks are sometimes seen at Shanghae, 
 by which the silks, teas, and other produce of the interior, are brought 
 there, and British manufactures are distributed to all parts of the coast 
 and the interior of China. 
 
 Aden, at the entrance of the Bed Sea, came into possession of 
 
789 
 
 England in the year 1839. It is the only portion of Arabia possessed 
 by any Christian power. The harbour is magnificent and the fortress 
 impregnable ; and its value as a resting-place and coaling station between 
 Suez and Bombay is incalculable. 
 
 The following table contains the latest account of the trade of the 
 cotton districts of Lancashire and Lanarkshire with the East, and shows to 
 
 what extent it is carried on through Liverpool, London, and Glasgow : 
 
 EXPORTS TO THE EAST FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL, 1852. 
 
 
 Plain Cottons. 
 
 Printed Cottons 
 
 Cotton Twist. 
 
 Bay of Bengal. 
 
 Packages. 
 
 Packages. 
 
 Packages. 
 
 a 
 
 London . 
 
 627 
 
 78 
 
 947 
 
 458,502 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 5,008 
 
 1,409 
 
 365 
 
 1,456 
 
 715,910 
 
 Clyde. 
 
 
 404 
 
 188,500 
 
 
 7,044 
 
 443 
 
 2,807 
 
 1.362,912 
 
 Amount per last statement .... 
 
 21,732 
 
 972 
 
 10,314 
 
 5,0u7,658 
 
 Jan. 1st to May 1st, 1852. 
 
 28,776 
 
 1,415 
 
 13,121 
 
 6,370,568 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 1851. 
 
 34,647 
 
 2,926 
 
 14,874 
 
 7,236,698 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 
 
 
 
 London . 
 
 1,042 
 
 49 
 
 379 
 
 133.700 
 
 Liverpool . 
 
 5,552 
 
 11 
 
 1,362 
 
 361,300 
 
 Clyde. 
 
 816 
 
 11 
 
 413 
 
 134,060 
 
 
 7,410 
 
 71 
 
 2,154 
 
 629,060 
 
 Amount per last statement .... 
 
 8,763 
 
 193 
 
 2,146 
 
 641,254 
 
 Jan. 1st to May 1st, 1852. 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 1851. 
 
 16,173 
 
 264 
 
 4,300 
 
 1,270,314 
 
 7,014 
 
 552 
 
 3,260 
 
 939,730 
 
 China, Sincapore, Batavia, and 
 Manilla. 
 
 
 
 
 
 London. 
 
 555 
 
 117 
 
 221 
 
 89,000 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 3,535 
 
 231 
 
 883 
 
 346,670 
 
 Clyde. 
 
 1,004 
 
 120 
 
 220 
 
 73,500 
 
 
 5,094 
 
 468 
 
 1,324 
 
 509,170 
 
 Amount per last statement .... 
 
 30,169 
 
 1,737 
 
 8,526 
 
 3,235,638 
 
 Jan. 1st to May 1st, 1852. 
 
 35,263 
 
 2,205 
 
 9,850 
 
 3,744,808 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 1851. 
 
 38,015 
 
 2,109 
 
 6,910 
 
 2^675,991 
 
 Increase to Bombay. 
 
 9,159 
 
 
 1,040 
 
 330 584 
 
 Ditto China, Sincapore, &c. 
 
 96 
 
 2,940 
 
 1,068 817 
 
 Decrease to Bay of Bengal .... 
 
 5,871 
 
 1,511 
 
 1,753 
 
 866,130 
 
 Ditto Bombay. 
 
 
 288 
 
 Ditto China, Sincapore, &c. 
 
 2,752 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 Dufay’s Circular, May, 1802. 
 
790 
 
 The following table will show the progress of the tea trade from the 
 year 1833, when the merchants of Liverpool were first permitted to trade 
 with China, to the present time : 
 
 TEA TRADE OF LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Imported into 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Exported from 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Total Delivery. 
 
 Total Deliveries of 
 the Kingdom. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1833 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 32,084,080 
 
 18341 
 
 1835/ 
 
 7,029,207 
 
 921,550 
 
 4,948,329 
 
 136,150,656 
 
 t.38,732,033 
 
 1836 
 
 7,336,389 
 
 639,690 
 
 5,999,207 
 
 53,412,099 
 
 1837 
 
 7,120,531 
 
 505,233 
 
 4,568,935 
 
 35,341,404 
 
 1838 
 
 4,165,507 
 
 1,123,272 
 
 6,222,890 
 
 34,929,470 
 
 1839 
 
 4,629,337 
 
 984,675 
 
 6,402,088 
 
 38,446,199 
 
 1840 
 
 4,612,837 
 
 1,233,897 
 
 .6.572,494 
 
 34,636,012 
 
 1841 
 
 3,992,255 
 
 588,242 
 
 5,919,864 
 
 41,166,030 
 
 1842 
 
 7.433,948 
 
 1,212,310 
 
 6,788,004 
 
 43,066,039 
 
 1843 
 
 5,06u,906 
 
 492,597 
 
 6,840,358 
 
 44,981.607 
 
 1844 
 
 9,846,200 
 
 742,529 
 
 8,388,534 
 
 46,677,000 
 
 1845 
 
 13,514,087 
 
 769,930 
 
 11,956,148 
 
 48,427,000 
 
 1846 
 
 18,000,000 
 
 575,534 
 
 13,560,991 
 
 51,000,003 
 
 1847 
 
 13,025,701 
 
 1,000,906 
 
 12,730,559 
 
 50,793,649 
 
 1848 
 
 10,143,460 
 
 628,696 
 
 13.320.426 
 
 52,231,000 
 
 1849 
 
 9,197,340 
 
 1 144,184 
 
 13,416,046 
 
 55,300,000 
 
 1850 
 
 9,117.726 
 
 1,366,020 
 
 11,820,124 
 
 56,400,000 
 
 1851 
 
 16,781,049 
 
 1,011,203 
 
 14,112,247 
 
 59,000,000 
 
 The imports for 1851 into the United Kingdom were, 71,466,460 lbs., 
 against 48,300,000 lbs. in 1850 ; deliveries, ditto, 59,000,000 lbs., against 
 56,400,000 lbs.; stocks, ditto, 48,000,000 lbs., against 34,500,000 lbs. 
 
 Whilst the growth and export of the sugar of the British possessions 
 in the East Indies and the Mauritius has increased from 677,790 cwts., in 
 1831, to 2,565,072 cwts. in 1851; and the production of coffee in Ceylon 
 has increased from 1,407,227 lbs. to 35,702,184 lbs.; the production of 
 sugar in the West Indies has decreased from 4,103,696 cwts. to 3,086,127 
 cwts., and of that of coffee from 20,017,023 lbs. to 3,590,839 lbs. The 
 principal cause of this extraordinary difference in countries subject to 
 the same laws, is the difference as to the supply of labour. In the East 
 Indies labour is most abundant, and in Ceylon and Mauritius any defi¬ 
 ciency that might otherwise have existed has been easily supplied from 
 the continent of India. Since the abolition of slavery in the West 
 Indies labour has been deficient in the larger colonies, especially in 
 Jamaica and Demerara. Some of the smaller colonies are better supplied, 
 and in them there has been no falling off in the quantity of sugar- 
 produced, but an increase. Thus, in Barbadoes, the quantity of sugar 
 exported in 1831, under slavery, was 379,058 cwts.; in 1849, under 
 freedom, 488, 625 cwts.; in Trinidad the quantity exported in 1831 was 
 
791 
 
 327,667 cwts., in 1849, 424,466 cwts. The change in the other small 
 colonies has been as follows:—Antigua, 193,177 cwts. in 1831, 188,981 
 cwts. in 1849; Dominica, 56,339 cwts. in 1831, 48,566 cwts. in 1849; 
 Grenada, 185,771 cwts. in 1831, S2,499 cwts. in 1849 ; Montserrat, 
 26,137 cwts. in 1831, 63,000 cwts. in 1849; St. Kitts, 101,968 cwts. in 
 1831, 93,183 in 1849 ; St. Lucia, 72,376 cwts. in 1831, 67,395 cwts. 
 in 1849; St. Vincent, 221,662 cwts. in 1831, 162,250 cwts. in 1849; 
 Tobago, 121,249 cwts. in 1831, 47,312 cwts. in 1849; Tortola, 15,559 
 cwts. in 1831, 928 cwts. in 1849. The great falling off has been in 
 Jamaica and Demerara; in the former from 1,429,093 cwts to 633,478 
 cwts., in the latter from 924,222 cwts. to 577,569 cwts.* 
 
 The quantity of cottons, and value of the woollens, silks, and linens, 
 sent to the West Indies (British and foreign) in 1848-49-50 and 51 was 
 as follows : 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTONS, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO TIIE BRITISH AND FOREIGN WEST INDIES, IN 
 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 
 Linens, 
 
 Woollen and 
 
 Total in 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 Silk mixed 
 manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen 
 Mixture, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Jamaica. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Lbs. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1S48. 
 
 4,737,998 
 
 6,090,734 
 
 
 228 
 
 42,384 
 
 3,789 
 
 1849. 
 
 5,560,045 
 
 6,593,199 
 
 630 
 
 . 287 
 
 50,256 
 
 6,500 
 
 1850. 
 
 7,889,074 
 
 7,424,098 
 
 2,250 
 
 157 
 
 61,287 
 
 10,003 
 
 1851. 
 
 6,055,249 
 
 5,288,451 
 
 1,150 
 
 
 37,458 
 
 4,427 
 
 Honduras. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1848. 
 
 3,263,323 
 
 626,784 
 
 46,200 
 
 14 
 
 1,464 
 
 1,546 
 
 1849. 
 
 5,039,589 
 
 2,137,788 
 
 38,891 
 
 1,886 
 
 3,099 
 
 2,914 
 
 1850. 
 
 4,574,476 
 
 2,240,936 
 
 10,590 
 
 239 
 
 7,348 
 
 2,201 
 
 1851. 
 
 6,230,898 
 
 2,529,660 
 
 4,300 
 
 70 
 
 5,293 
 
 718 
 
 Other Ports, B. W. 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1848. 
 
 5,202,473 
 
 4,195,992 
 
 27,132 
 
 2,312 
 
 43,769 
 
 17,790 
 
 1849. 
 
 7,956,947 
 
 8,955,847 
 
 31,617 
 
 4,268 
 
 50,873 
 
 24,034 
 
 1850. 
 
 6,973,024 
 
 6,852,926 
 
 33,840 
 
 6,027 
 
 62 886 
 
 35,625 
 
 1851. 
 
 8,210,375 
 
 9,502,344 
 
 12,584 
 
 6,385 
 
 60,709 
 
 36,659 
 
 Cuba. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1848. 
 
 3,664,084 
 
 5,499,919 
 
 
 14,725 
 
 135,701 
 
 40,464 
 
 1849. 
 
 5,584,237 
 
 8,931,943 
 
 2,280 
 
 14,836 
 
 244,681 
 
 48,658 
 
 1850. 
 
 4,700,899 
 
 5,755,615 
 
 3,607 
 
 11,088 
 
 145,907 
 
 30,315 
 
 1851. 
 
 7,335,995 
 
 11,524,449 
 
 7,336 
 
 14,990 
 
 209,048 
 
 26,207 
 
 St. Thomas. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1848. 
 
 3,120,572 
 
 2,574,093 
 
 400 
 
 558 
 
 32,124 
 
 6,263 
 
 1849. 
 
 6,956,654 
 
 5,450,645 
 
 250 
 
 1,103 
 
 73,406 
 
 8,596 
 
 1850. 
 
 10,155,401 
 
 11.963,941 
 
 
 891 
 
 122,364 
 
 18,945 
 
 1851. 
 
 8,561,298 
 
 10,258,065 
 
 
 1,347 
 
 71,860 
 
 14,046 
 
 OthkrPohts, F.W.I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1848. 
 
 760,857 
 
 471,062 
 
 
 . . 
 
 26,628 
 
 7,931 
 
 1849. 
 
 735,209 
 
 1,901,370 
 
 580 
 
 37 
 
 32,168 
 
 14,570 
 
 1850. 
 
 3,740,097 
 
 5,745,022 
 
 6,850 
 
 580 
 
 82,224 
 
 8,454 
 
 1851. 
 
 2,703,727 
 
 4,781,466 
 
 
 2,052 
 
 60,336 
 
 8,356 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, 1850, No. 280. 
 
792 
 
 The following is the number of vessels, and their tonnage, which 
 cleared out from Liverpool for the British and foreign West Indies in the 
 year 1851 : 
 
 VESSELS CLEABED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO THE WEST 
 INDIA ISLANDS IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 23 
 
 3,991 
 
 
 1 
 
 200 
 
 
 18 
 
 4,409 
 
 St. Domingo. 
 
 4 
 
 437 
 
 Falmouth, Jamaica .... 
 
 1 
 
 445 
 
 Hayti . 
 
 26 
 
 2,690 
 
 
 10 
 
 1,921 
 
 Montego Bay . 
 
 2 
 
 438 
 
 
 31 
 
 7,151 
 
 Porto Bico . 
 
 21 
 
 3,231 
 
 
 1 
 
 162 
 
 St. Jago . 
 
 2 
 
 610 
 
 
 40 
 
 8,629 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1,352 
 
 
 4 
 
 1,036 
 
 
 58 
 
 15,488 
 
 
 3 
 
 474 
 
 Matanzas. 
 
 6 
 
 060 
 
 Manzanilla de Cuba .. 
 
 2 
 
 684 
 
 
 41 
 
 11,632 
 
 
 11 
 
 2,410 
 
 
 1 
 
 300 
 
 Cardenas. 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 446 
 
 
 16 
 
 3,505 
 
 
 3 
 
 780 
 
 Montserrat . 
 
 2 
 
 209 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The beautiful little island of Barbadoes is one of the most populous 
 spots in America. It contains 150 square miles of land, and in 1844 
 had a population of 122,198 inhabitants, which is supposed to have 
 increased three per cent, per annum since then.* The value of the 
 imports of the island, in 1849, was £591,478; in 1850, £736,624: of 
 the exports £791,740 in 1849, and £831,624 in 1850. The shipping 
 which cleared out of Barbadoes, in 1849, was 85,738 tons; in 1850, 
 93,303 tons. The quantity of sugar produced in Barbadoes, under 
 slavery, in 1830, was 26,354 lihds.; in 1840 it had fallen off, under 
 freedom, to 13,898 hhds.; in 1845 it had again risen to 23,841 hhds., 
 and since the reduction of the duty on West India sugars, in 1847, it has 
 risen to 35,000 lbs. in 1850. 
 
 Grenada shows a great increase of imports, and a great decrease of 
 exports. In 1830 the imports of the island were of the value of £72,682, 
 in 1849 of the value of £133,647; a proof of a great increase of con¬ 
 sumption. In 1830 the exports were of the value of £263,263, in 1850 
 of £l05,370.f The produce of Grenada in 1849 was, sugar, 9,470,858 
 lbs.; rum, 244,396 gallons; molasses, 92,432 gallons; cocoa, 374,734lbs.; 
 cotton, 1,030 bales: in 1850, sugar, 11,227,353 lbs.; rum, 284,541 
 
 Sir W. Colebrook’s Report: Report on the state of the Colonies, 51, Session 1851. 
 
 + Ibid. 
 
793 
 
 gallons; molasses, 82,329 gallons; coffee, 14,926lbs.; cocoa, 438,637lbs.; 
 cotton, 600 ; arrowroot, 4,725. 
 
 Of Tobago the population in 1844 was 13,208, with every reason to 
 expect a considerable increase. Imports, in 1835, £72,946; in 1850, 
 £52,775 : exports in 1835, £104,228 ; in 1850, £45,064.* 
 
 St. Vincent: The imports into this island in 1849 were of the value 
 of £152,838 ; in 1850 of £167,310 : the exports of the produce of the 
 colony were of the value of £190,233 in 1849, of only £164,645 in 1850. 
 The sugar made in 1849 was 7,664 tons; in 1850, 6,603 tons. Under 
 slavery, in 1830, the imports of the island were of the value of £148,306; 
 the exports of the value of £338,042. 
 
 St. Lucia: The imports, under slavery, in 1830, were £116,930; 
 exports, £102,638 : under freedom, in 1850, imports, £60,538 ; exports, 
 £49,127. 
 
 Antigua: In 1849 the value of imports was £169,324; exports, 
 £189,605 : in 1850, imports, £163,623 ; exports, £131,882. 
 
 Jamaica, the largest of the West India Islands, and the one which 
 has suffered most by the change from slavery to freedom, contains 4,200 
 square miles of land, of which a large part is uncultivated. According 
 to the census of 1844, it contained 377,433 inhabitants, of whom 15,776 
 were whites, 68,529 coloured, and 293,128 blacks. It has suffered 
 greatly from cholera during the last four years, by which 40,000 negroes 
 are said to have perished, thus rendering the supply of labour still more 
 insufficient than it was. 
 
 British Guiana, more commonly known as Demerara, but containing 
 the three provinces of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, each of them 
 named from a magnificent river, contains a territory as large as that of 
 England. From the coast a rich alluvial plain extends inwards from 
 twelve to forty miles, and behind rise terraces of fertile land, chiefly 
 covered with forest. This colony would sustain millions of people, 
 but it only possesses a population of 120,000 inhabitants. It is every¬ 
 where abundantly watered, and is alike free from the droughts of summer 
 and the frosts of winter. The mean temperature of British Guiana is 81 
 degrees : the ordinary range of the temperature is from 75 to 96 degrees. 
 With such a climate and abundance of moisture, the vegetation is the 
 most luxuriant in the world, and nothing but a sufficient supply of labour 
 is required to render British Guiana one of the finest colonies in the empire. 
 
 * Sir W. Colebrook’s Report: Report on the state of the Colonies, 51, Session 1851. 
 
794 
 
 So small a population as 120,000 inhabitants in so rich and vast a 
 country is quite lost. 
 
 It is painful to contrast the condition of Cuba and Porto Rico, under 
 slavery and the slave trade, with that of Jamaica and Demerara under 
 freedom. Those colonies, it is true, contain a very much larger white 
 population, in proportion to the whole number of inhabitants, than the 
 British colonies, and the planter in the Spanish colonies is always a 
 resident on his own estate, whilst in the British colonies he is too often 
 an absentee. Cuba and Porto Rico comprise all that remains to Spain of 
 the great empire of the Indies, which Columbus showed to her, and 
 Cortez and Pizarro conquered. In 1841 Cuba contained 1,007,624 
 inhabitants, of whom 418,291 were whites, 152,838 free coloured, and 
 436,495 negro slaves. Porto Rico contained 500,000 inhabitants, of 
 whom not more than from 50,000 to 100,000 were slaves. The negro 
 population has greatly increased since that time both in Cuba and Porto 
 Rico, by importations of negroes from Africa. 
 
 Hayti is, what all countries which rely on slavery will ultimately 
 become—a wilderness. Its white inhabitants are long since exterminated. 
 The cultivation of sugar is a mere nothing, but coffee is still grown to 
 some extent, and the beautiful woods, which nature supplies, form an 
 article of commerce. 
 
 The direct trade of Hayti, or St. Domingo, with Liverpool has been 
 principally from the eastern part, the city of St. Domingo, renowned 
 for its unrivalled mahogany. Since the duties on this wood have been 
 taken off, commenced by Huskisson, the trade has much increased, as 
 the wood is floated down, from the very centre of the island, by tbe river 
 Artibonite, near Gonaives ; whence large quantities are now imported, as 
 well as from the city. Logwood, also, is an article of some importance 
 from Hayti. Cotton is limited, and, generally, too dirty for the Man¬ 
 chester spinners. Of coffee about forty to fifty millions of pounds’ weight 
 are annually exported. Not much of it, however, finds its way into 
 Great Britain, as it is generally too dirty for the grocers: it is consumed 
 principally in Belgium, Germany, and France, and some in the United 
 States of America. At the great opening of the trade, after the peace of 
 1815, the trade was of some importance to Great Britain, coffee at that 
 period being three to four times its present value. British manufac¬ 
 tures to the value of <£800,000 were exported during some of the good 
 years, but the export gradually declined to £250,000 and T300,000. 
 
 St. Thomas, the free port in the Danish island of St. Thomas, is the 
 
795 
 
 great rendezvous of the West Indian seas, and is frequented by 3,000 
 vessels yearly. It is a mere depot, containing only 12,800 white 
 inhabitants, and yielding no great quantity of produce. 
 
 Belize, a British possession in Central America, contains 10,000 
 inhabitants. Its chief products are mahogany, logwood, fustic, braziletto, 
 and dyewoods. This is a great and increasing trade. The particulars 
 of it will he found in the account of the wood and timber trades. 
 
 Sugar, tea, and coffee come next, after bread, meat, and malt liquor, 
 in the food and drink of the British people. The commerce in these 
 articles is immense, and is rapidly increasing. In the year eadihg April, 
 1851, the quantity of sugar of all kinds imported into the United 
 Kingdom was 7,200,000 ; in 1852, 7,638,000 cwts.,* of which 5,003,000 
 cwts. in the former, and 5,207,000 in the latter, was the growth of the 
 British possessions in the East and West Indies.f Since the reduction 
 of the duties on sugar, in 1846, the increase of consumption in the United 
 Kingdom has been 1,900,000 cwts., or nearly thirty-three per cent, in 
 six years.J This single article yielded a revenue of £4,163,535 in the 
 last year. Tea has already been spoken of under the head of China. Of 
 coffee, the consumption in Great Britain last year, 1851-2, was 
 34,390,000 lbs. In the financial year of 1851, the consumption of 
 British colonial coffee was 28,216,000 lhs. ; of foreign, 2,076,375 lbs.; 
 in 1852, 29,150,000 lbs. colonial, and 5,524,000 lbs. foreign.§ 
 
 It will be seen, from the following table, that London has a much 
 greater trade in sugar than any other port in the kingdom, and that 
 Liverpool comes next : 
 
 QUANTITY OF SUGAR ON WHICH DUTY WAS PAID IN EACH PORT IN 1851. 
 
 Places. 
 
 East India . 
 
 West India . 
 
 Mauritius. 
 
 Sincapore and 1 
 
 Penang.J 
 
 Manilla, Bata-) 
 via, & China J 
 
 Brazil . 
 
 Havannah. 
 
 Porto Rico . 
 
 All other Foreign 
 Molasses, B.P_ 
 
 Total. 
 
 London. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Bristol. 
 
 Hull. 
 
 Clyde. 
 
 Total 
 in 1851. 
 
 Total 
 in 1850. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 636,199 
 
 427,058 
 
 13,248 
 
 7,757 
 
 61,731 
 
 1,135,933 
 
 1,248,793 
 
 1,382,769 
 
 399,412 
 
 257,490 
 
 41 
 
 314,383 
 
 2,254,095 
 
 2,225,625 
 
 433,490 
 
 00,574 
 
 93,876 
 
 298 
 
 255,835 
 
 850,078 
 
 1,008,659 
 
 27,925 
 
 
 
 
 
 27,923 
 
 44,315 
 
 37,567 
 
 21,814 
 
 
 3 
 
 3,308 
 
 62,692 
 
 71,228 
 
 135,484 
 
 41,256 
 
 30,212 
 
 43 
 
 34,413 
 
 240,40S 
 
 146,950 
 
 294 478 
 
 24.524 
 
 210,536 
 
 
 28,161 
 
 557,690 
 
 809,370 
 
 144.163 
 
 31,265 
 
 3,126 
 
 104 
 
 3,804 
 
 182,462 
 
 184,122 
 
 91,167 
 
 71,330 
 
 28,747 
 
 207 
 
 43,138 
 
 162,529 
 
 97,481 
 
 116,716 
 
 217,694 
 
 3,954 
 
 
 389,723 
 
 728,077 
 
 839,830 
 
 3,228,958 
 
 1,300,927 
 
 641,189 
 
 8,453 
 
 1,134,496 
 
 6,201,188 
 
 6,226,173 
 
 * Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, May 1st, 1852. 
 + Ibid. J Ibid. § Ibid. 
 
 5 i. 
 
796 
 
 The quantity of sugar refined in the United Kingdom is supposed to 
 be about 240,000 tons. Of this, 30,000 to 40,000 tons is refined in 
 Liverpool. The quantity of molasses is 33,000 to 34,000 tons, of which 
 10,000 tons is refined in Liverpool. The export trade in refined sugars, 
 of British manufacture, is about equally divided between London, Liver¬ 
 pool, and Southampton. 
 
 The following tables, prepared by A. Klockmann, Esq., of London, 
 contain the whole history of the sugar trade for some years : 
 
 PRODUCTION OP SUGAR. 
 
 1 
 
 
 1849 
 
 
 1850 
 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated. 
 
 Cuba . 
 
 
 220,000 
 
 
 200,000 
 
 
 320,000 
 
 260,000 
 
 ! Porto Rico .. 
 
 
 43,600 
 
 
 48,200 
 
 
 49,500 
 
 45,000 
 
 Brazils. 
 
 
 106,000 
 
 
 103,000 
 
 
 113,000 
 
 90,000 
 
 Louisiana .. 
 
 
 98,200 
 
 
 120,400 
 
 
 103,200 
 
 118,000 
 
 French Colonies . 
 
 56,300 
 
 
 47,200 
 
 
 54,500 
 
 05,000 
 
 Dutch West Indies . 
 
 13,000 
 
 
 14,200 
 
 
 13,0001 
 
 
 Danish West Indies . 
 
 7,900 
 
 
 5,000 
 
 
 6,000 / 
 
 
 British West Indies . 
 
 142,200 
 
 
 129,200 
 
 
 103,3001 
 
 
 British East Indies . 
 
 73.400 
 
 
 67,300 
 
 
 78,300 J- 
 
 260,000 
 
 Mauritius .. 
 
 
 44,700 
 
 
 52,200 
 
 
 50,000 J 
 
 
 For Europe andU.S. only 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Java. 
 
 
 90,000 
 
 
 82,000 
 
 
 85,000 
 
 85,000 
 
 Manilla, Siam, & China 
 
 20,000 
 
 
 20,000 
 
 
 20,000 
 
 20,00C 
 
 Beetroot. 
 
 910,300 
 
 Beetroot. 
 
 936,700 
 
 Beetroot. 
 
 1,040,800 
 
 952,000 
 
 France . 
 
 38,000 
 
 
 61,000 
 
 
 75,000 
 
 
 
 Belgium. 
 
 5,000 
 
 
 6,000 
 
 
 8,000 
 
 
 
 Zollverein ... 
 
 33,000 
 
 
 38,000 
 
 
 49,000 
 
 
 
 Russia andl 
 
 20,000 
 
 
 25,000 
 
 
 30,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 on nnn 
 
 
 l so non 
 
 
 162,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total Tons... 
 
 
 1,011,300 
 
 
 1,066,700 
 
 
 1,207,800 
 
 1,112,000 
 
 TABLE SHOWING THE PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND STOCKS, FROM 
 
 1843 TO 1852. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Production. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 Stocks in 
 Europe on 1st 
 January. 
 
 Prices in Bond 
 in the 1st week 
 of each year. 
 
 W India Gazette 
 average : brown 
 & yel. Havana. 
 
 Average. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1843 ... 
 
 762,200 
 
 745,243 
 
 125,550 
 
 32 
 
 18 @ 22 6 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 1844 ... 
 
 818,200 
 
 823,543 
 
 140,507 
 
 34 3 
 
 17 @22 0 
 
 19 6 
 
 1845 ... 
 
 859,400 
 
 864,378 
 
 135,164 
 
 30 11| 
 
 18 @ 23 6 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 1846 ... 
 
 901,500 
 
 923,975 
 
 130,186 
 
 34 2| 
 
 22 @ 29 0 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 1847 ... 
 
 1,071,200 
 
 998,172 
 
 110,711 
 
 35 7 
 
 j 20 @ 25 01 
 \ 22 @ 31 0 j 
 
 22/6 & 26/6 
 
 1848 ... 
 
 1,067,200 
 
 1,043,427 
 
 183,739 
 
 24 7f 
 
 18 @24 0' 
 
 21 
 
 0 
 
 1849 ... 
 
 1,011,300 
 
 1,025,171 
 
 207,512 
 
 23 3f 
 
 16 6 @ 23 0 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 1850 ... 
 
 1,066,700 
 
 1,083,604 
 
 193,641 
 
 25 5| 
 
 18 @ 24 0 
 
 21 
 
 0 
 
 1851 ... 
 Estmd. 
 
 1,207,800 
 
 1,144,989 
 
 176,737 
 
 29 4£ 
 
 20 @ 26 6 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 1852 ... 
 
 1,112,000 
 
 
 239,548 
 
 21 7 
 
 15 @ 23 0 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 Second, in the amount of its contributions to the Dock Estate of Liver¬ 
 pool, is the trade with the British North American Provinces of Canada, 
 
797 
 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward’s 
 Island. 
 
 Last year the following number and tonnage of vessels cleared out 
 for British North America : 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO BRITISH 
 NORTH AMERICA IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Montreal . 
 
 48 
 
 10,780 
 
 
 3 
 
 2,076 
 
 Paspehiac. 
 
 1 
 
 Ricbibucto, N.B. 
 
 6 
 
 R724 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 348 
 
 
 44 
 
 24 113 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 932 
 
 St.John’s, Newfoundland 
 
 80 
 
 13,194 
 
 Yarmouth, N.S. 
 
 i 
 
 202 
 
 Labrador . 
 
 9 
 
 972 
 
 Harbour Grace, Newfl’d. 
 
 5 
 
 864 
 
 
 178 
 
 l 
 
 81,18(5 
 
 106 
 
 
 6 
 
 2,499 
 
 Gut of Canso . 
 
 
 i 
 
 Wallace, N.S. 
 
 1 
 
 Shediac, N.B. 
 
 i 
 
 352 
 
 Windsor, N.S. 
 
 3 
 
 577 
 
 
 3 
 
 427 
 
 New Carlisle, Labrador.. 
 
 3 
 
 180 
 
 '1'atatnaKOUche. 
 
 i 
 
 Davis Straits. 
 
 
 144 
 
 
 19 
 
 13,921 
 
 Gaspe . . 
 
 6 
 
 617 
 
 
 3 
 
 378 
 
 
 7 
 
 3,228 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 911 
 
 St. Stephens. 
 
 7 
 
 1,516 
 
 16,455 
 
 
 190 
 
 Halifax, N.S. 
 
 69 
 
 Campo Bello. 
 
 i 
 
 125 
 
 Prince Edward’s Island. 
 
 11 
 
 2,010 
 
 Shippigan. 
 
 2 
 
 989 
 
 Three Rivers. 
 
 1 
 
 
 Liverpool . 
 
 1 
 
 218 
 
 Baie Verte, N.B. 
 
 1 
 
 iao 
 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 3 
 
 402 
 
 The following were the imports of cottons, woollens, worsted, silk, 
 and linens into British North America during the last four years : 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, IN 1848, 
 
 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 tbs 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 . 
 
 9,911,445 
 
 7,159,280 
 
 832,224 
 
 54,972 
 
 7,251 
 
 262,385 
 
 1849 . 
 
 10,752,350 
 
 9,751,658 
 
 828,281 
 
 64,221 
 
 17,275 
 
 264,894 
 
 1850 . 
 
 11,463,316 
 
 12,760,957 
 
 508,432 
 
 88,390 
 
 12,094 
 
 439,308 
 
 1851 . 
 
 12,017,984 
 
 14,337,898 
 
 524,335 
 
 106,669 
 
 13,890 
 
 353,788 
 
 Canada, the great valley of the St. Lawrence, is the first in order of 
 these provinces. It is alike rich in grain and in the products of the 
 boundless forests, which still cover five-sixths of its surface ; and the 
 stupendous river which intersects it, with its tributaries, forms a great 
 natural highway, thousands of miles in length, along which the products 
 
798 
 
 of tlie most distant regions of the interior of America find a cheap and 
 easy carriage to the ocean, and the produce and emigrants of Europe find 
 an equally easy access to the fertile regions which border the stream of 
 the St. Lawrence, and the magnificent freshwater lakes into which it ex¬ 
 pands in its course to the ocean. 
 
 Although there are persons now alive who remember the time when 
 the upper provinces did not contain 30,000 inhabitants, and wdien the 
 French, habitants formed nearly the wdiole population of the lower, 
 Canada is rapidly rising to the position of a great state, full of resources, 
 and inhabited by a people capable of developing them with vigour and 
 success. In the year 1850 (the last for which we possess complete and 
 official returns) the value of the exports of Canada was £3,235,948. 
 These exports were furnished by the field, the forest, the seas, the lakes, 
 and the mines. The cultivated land of the province supplied England, 
 the United States, and other countries w r ith 650,439 barrels of flour, 
 1,293,029 bushels of wheat, 60,313 bushels of Indian corn, 66,514 
 bushels of barley and rye, 4,707 barrels of meal, 258,600 bushels of 
 beans and peas, and 667,652 bushels of oats. The vast forests sivpplied 
 31,389 barrels of pot ashes, and 11,178 of pearl, and the following 
 quantities and varieties of timber:-—Of ash timber, 1,713 tons; beech, 
 4,613 tons; birch, 38,212 tons; elm, 140 tons; maple, 30,446 tons; 
 oak, 30,446 tons; wdiite pine, 372,742 tons ; red pine, 89,996 tons ; and 
 hemlock, 1,007 tons; of walnut, 703,000 feet; hayw r ood, backmatac, 
 and hickory, 223,000 feet ; of staves, 728,000; of battens, knees, 
 scantling, and trenails, 472,184 pieces ; plank and hoard, 122,240 
 thousand feet; and deals, 2,998,608 pieces. The ocean and the lakes 
 yielded 48,852 cwt, of fish; and the copper mines of Lake Superior 243 
 tons of copper ore, and 55^ tons of copper. Comparing the exports of 
 1849 and 1850, the former were of the value of £2,498,777, the latter of 
 the value of £3,235,948, or omitting the value of the ships built and 
 exported, which appear in the accounts of 1850, and not in those of 
 1849, £2,915,518. 
 
 Whilst the exports of the colony were thus large, the imports 
 were still more so. The value of the imports of 1849 were £3,002,891, 
 and those of 1850, £4,245,517 ; the revenue of the former year, £444,547; 
 that of the latter, £615,694. The imports included the following 
 articles of British manufacture: namely, cotton goods, £906,916; 
 wnollens, £548,344; linen, £68,052; silk, £138,920; iron and hard¬ 
 ware, £320,264. 
 
799 
 
 The number of vessels which cleared out from the seaports of Canada, 
 iu 1849, was 1,392, tonnage 521,604, men 18,643 ; in 1850, ships 1,587, 
 tonnage 543,963, men 19,116. 
 
 The tonnage on the three great canals was as follows:—On the 
 Welland Canal, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, in 1849, 458,410 tons, 
 1850, 587,100 tons ; on the St. Lawrence Canals, in 1849, 444,640 tons, 
 in 1850, 460,180 ; on the Chambley Canal, 1849, 128,642 tons, 1850, 
 143,194 tons. The net revenue of the canals was ^48,033 in 1849, and 
 dE55.H0 in 1850. 
 
 The number of vessels built in Canada, in 1850, was 87, namely, 76 
 sailing vessels and 11 steamers. 
 
 The timber trade, which is the principal trade of Canada, is almost 
 the only trade of that great region of forests—New Brunswick. It will 
 be seen, from the tabular account of the timber trade of Liverpool, given 
 below, how large are the importations from St. John’s, the principal sea¬ 
 port of that extensive province. This great trade, after having been con¬ 
 siderably depressed, has recovered from its depression during the last year. 
 The following extract from the parliamentary papers of last session, will 
 show the progress of the New Brunswick timber trade in 1849, 1850, 
 and 1851 : 
 
 LICENSES FOR CUTTING TIMBER IN NEW BRUNSWICK, SOLD IN 1849, 
 
 1850, AND 1851. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 No. of 
 
 Square Miles 
 
 Highest rate 
 
 Licenses. 
 
 of Forest. 
 
 per sqre. mile. 
 
 220 
 
 887 
 
 102/ 
 
 356 
 
 1,477 
 
 90/ 
 
 711 
 
 2,751 
 
 220/ 
 
 Average. 
 
 11/8 
 
 11/5* 
 
 16/3| 
 
 Amount. 
 
 4-517 
 
 844 
 
 2,244* 
 
 The resources of Nova Scotia are very considerable, in forest, field, 
 and sea, and they are greatly increased by its admirable position for com¬ 
 municating with Europe, by its magnificent harbour of Halifax, and by 
 the rich coal-fields of Pictou. Prince Edward’s Island is one of the 
 most fertile, healthy, and agreeable spots in America. One thing only is 
 wanted to connect the British colonies with each other, to develope all 
 their resources, and to keep them in constant communication with Eng¬ 
 land, namely, a railway from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal. That, 
 there is now reason to hope, will he formed before long. 
 
 The following are the imports of timber, deals, staves, mahogany, 
 cedar, &c., into Liverpool, in each of the last four years ; with average of 
 five years preceding and five years subsequent to the alteration in the 
 
 * Report on the Past and Present State ot' her Majesty’s Colonial Possessions, 1851. 
 
800 
 
 duties, together with the tonnage employed in each branch of the 
 trade: 
 
 IMPORT OF TIMBER INTO LIVERPOOL TO THE 1st FEBRUARY IN EACH YEAR. 
 
 
 Average of 
 
 1 Average of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Produce of 
 
 the 5 years 
 1838 to 1842 
 
 the 5 years 
 j 1844 tJ 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 
 BRITISH AMERICA. 
 
 old duties. 
 
 reduced dts. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pine, Quebec Yel., cubic ft. 
 
 
 
 2 , 643,009 
 
 3 , 721,000 
 
 3 , 300,000 
 
 3 , 878,000 
 
 St.John, do. 
 
 
 
 1 , 712,000 
 
 1 , 928,000 
 
 1 , 827,000 
 
 1 , 599,000 
 
 163,000 
 
 Other Ports, do. 
 
 Total Yellow Pine of 
 
 
 
 380,000 
 
 286,000 
 
 222,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 all sorts .do. 
 
 0 , 340,000 
 
 5 , 869,000 
 
 4 , 735,000 
 
 5 , 935,000 
 
 5 , 349,000 
 
 5 , 640,000 
 
 Do. Red, all sorts...do. 
 
 470,000 
 
 493,000 
 
 440,000 
 
 457,000 
 
 302,000 
 
 384,000 
 
 Quebec Oak.do. 
 
 241,700 
 
 292,000 
 
 201,000 
 
 348,000 
 
 354,000 
 
 257,000 
 
 Do. Elm.do. 
 
 120,000 
 
 150,500 
 
 145,000 
 
 175,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 173,000 
 
 Do. Ash.do. 
 
 15,700 
 
 25,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 42,000 
 
 Hardwood.do. 
 
 293,900 
 
 329,800 
 
 207,000 
 
 319,000 
 
 544,000 
 
 371,000 
 
 Quebec Deals .std. hd. 
 
 3,040 
 
 3,652 
 
 3,771 
 
 4,914 
 
 4,517 
 
 7,031 
 
 N . B . &c. Planks, &e.ft.2in. 
 
 7 , 492,900 
 
 16 , 564,000 
 
 21 , 116,000 
 
 21 , 913,000 
 
 25 , 478,000 
 
 34 , 152,000 
 
 Railway Sleepers ...pieces 
 
 
 3 ^ 5,000 
 
 209,000 
 
 22,000 
 
 23,700 
 
 Lath wood.fathoms 
 
 i ,367 
 
 i ,444 
 
 884 
 
 828 
 
 950 
 
 922 
 
 Quebec Staves .std. M 
 
 256 
 
 244 
 
 119 
 
 377 
 
 225 
 
 386 
 
 Ditto, pun. M 
 
 875 
 
 724 
 
 552 
 
 1,009 
 
 1,129 
 
 1,055 
 
 Ditto, brl. M 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 39 
 
 30 
 
 29 
 
 Tonnage employed j 
 
 292 
 
 381 
 
 316 
 
 395 
 
 361 
 
 373 
 
 154,861 
 
 200,402 
 
 190,186 
 
 225,783 
 
 229,731 
 
 242,398 
 
 NORTH OF EUROPE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Timber, Danzig, &c. ...ft. 
 
 334,000 
 
 903,000 
 
 915,000 
 
 304,000 
 
 399,000 
 
 1 , 008,000 
 
 Deals and Battens, std. hd. 
 
 3,193 
 
 2,024 
 
 2,924 
 
 2,526 
 
 1,512 
 
 1,754 
 
 Deck Planks .pieces 
 
 6,281 
 
 2,357 
 
 1,508 
 
 367 
 
 94 
 
 260 
 
 Wainscot Logs .whole 
 
 658 
 
 399 
 
 802 
 
 151 
 
 739 
 
 1,962 
 
 Ditto, .half 
 
 96 
 
 113 
 
 20 
 
 
 363 
 
 100 
 
 Lath wood.fathoms 
 
 497 
 
 757 
 
 402 
 
 286 
 
 702 
 
 1,556 
 
 Staves.M 
 
 39 
 
 50 
 
 42 
 
 39 
 
 50 
 
 23 
 
 Tonnage employed j 
 
 56 
 
 17,110 
 
 89 
 
 25,103 
 
 81 
 
 26,606 
 
 57 
 
 14,141 
 
 44 
 
 12,068 
 
 93 
 
 26,556 
 
 OTHER PLACES. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mahogany, St.Domingo.lgs 
 
 6,112 
 
 11,576 
 
 8,628 
 
 20,412 
 
 21,152 
 
 14,768 
 
 Do. Cuba .do. 
 
 1,640 
 
 3.978 
 
 3,071 
 
 1,820 
 
 2,296 
 
 1,705 
 
 Do. Honduras ...do. 
 
 2,442 
 
 3,880 
 
 1,400 
 
 3,125 
 
 4,030 
 
 2,677 
 
 Cedar, Havana.do. 
 
 1,393 
 
 2,068 
 
 792 
 
 360 
 
 492 
 
 1,133 
 
 Do. Pencil.cubic ft. 
 
 16,500 
 
 20.800 
 
 1,800 
 
 16,700 
 
 13,800 
 
 18,000 
 
 Rosewood .planks 
 
 
 
 5,026 
 
 5,251 
 
 7,807 
 
 3,464 
 
 Pitch Pine.cubic feet 
 
 94,500 
 
 144,800 
 
 232,000 
 
 351,000 
 
 304,000 
 
 150 , 0(10 
 
 Teakwoorl.do. 
 
 78,900 
 
 48,700 
 
 18,000 
 
 88,000 
 
 124,000 
 
 140,000 
 
 Greenheart and Mora...do 
 
 
 
 9,400 
 
 21,600 
 
 75,000 
 
 83,000 
 
 
 
 
 5,267 
 
 212 
 
 5,538 
 
 10,600 
 
 1,463 
 
 8,285 
 
 Staves, U.S., bbd., &C....M 
 
 
 
 673 
 
 845 
 
 Tonnage employed j 
 
 34 
 
 8,294 
 
 63 
 
 16,854 
 
 40 
 
 10,739 
 
 60 
 
 19,661 
 
 100 
 
 26,267 
 
 77 
 
 19,955 
 
 * 
 
 The ocean is, as it ever has been, the chief source of the wealth of 
 
 Newfoundland. In the year 1850 the labours and perils of the daring 
 fishermen of the island supplied the merchants with exports of the value 
 of £975,770, and enabled them to import British and foreign produce, 
 of the value of £807,31 G. Beside the cod-fishery, which has long been 
 the main stay of Newfoundland, the seal-fishery is carried on with great 
 success in the seas between Greenland and Labrador. In the months of 
 
 * Circular of Mr. James Houghton, February, 1852. 
 
801 
 
 March and April, the bold fishermen of the island are on the look out 
 for the ice-fields, which are floated by the currents of the ocean from the 
 polar regions, into the Atlantic. Millions of seals float on or around 
 these masses of ice, and of these they kill about half-a-million yearly. 
 The exports of Newfoundland in 1850, consisted of 0,232 tons of seal 
 oil, 736 tons of cod oil, 3,107 tons of unrefined oil, 444,392 seal-skins, 
 1,089,182 cwt. of dried cod-fish, 529 boxes of caplin, (the small fish on 
 which the cod-fish feed,) 19,550 boxes of herrings, and 1,933 tierces of 
 salmon. The Newfoundland trade gave employment, in 1850, to 1,220 
 vessels, of 138,628 tons, manned by 8,270 seamen. The revenue of the 
 island was 4)69,405 in 1849, and 4)82.652 in 1850. 
 
 Having already spoken of the islands in the Gulf of Mexico, let us 
 speak of the countries around it. This brings us to the republics which 
 have been formed by the breaking up of the colonial empire of Spain. 
 These comprise the greater part of South America, nearly all Central 
 America, and one large state in North America. Around the Mexican 
 Gulf there are Mexico itself, Central America, Costa Rica, New Grenada, 
 and Venezuela ; on the east coast the republics of La Plata and the 
 Banda Oriental; on the west coast Chili, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and 
 
 the Pacific provinces of New Grenada and Mexico. 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO MEXICO, &c., 
 
 IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 
 
 Carthagena . 
 
 14 
 
 139 
 
 
 10 
 
 2,801 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 Campeachy . 
 
 1 
 
 295 
 
 Rio Hache .. 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1,859 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 469 
 
 
 i 
 
 235 
 
 VENEZUELA. 
 
 
 
 Santa Martha . 
 
 14 
 
 2,857 
 
 La Guayra . 
 
 27 
 
 5,086 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 639 
 
 
 22 
 
 4,379 
 
 
 27 
 
 330 
 
 
 1 
 
 350 
 
 NEW GRANADA. 
 
 
 
 Tampico . 
 
 6 
 
 686 
 
 Heguerote . 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO MEXICO, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixture, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 , Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 ths. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 . 
 
 . 5,252,247 
 
 10,680,937 
 
 520,376 
 
 17,243 
 
 145,458 
 
 94267 
 
 1849 . 
 
 .. 2,758,011 
 
 12,542,187 
 
 6,724 
 
 22,182 
 
 109,194 
 
 109,22.3 
 
 1850 . 
 
 . 5,040,975 
 
 8,104,899 
 
 87,260 
 
 6,3 8 
 
 87,776 
 
 58,104 
 
 1851. 
 
 .. 9,198,176 
 
 12,726,212 
 
 310,224 
 
 9,993 
 
 107,082 
 
 83,850 
 
802 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTONS, SILK, LINEN, AND WO'OLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO NEW GRENADA AND VENEZUELA, IN 1848, 
 1849, 50, AND 61. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 tbs. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 . 
 
 7,338,088 
 
 8,124,584 
 
 88,923 
 
 985 
 
 51,812 
 
 27,374 
 
 1819. 
 
 11,816,688 
 
 15,129,275 
 
 277,489 
 
 1,360 
 
 70,434 
 
 41,150 
 
 1850 . 
 
 11,578,230 
 
 15,153,194 
 
 101,345 
 
 2,779 
 
 92,209 
 
 49,522 
 
 1851. 
 
 11,558,539 
 
 17,371,401 
 
 10,603 
 
 4,773 
 
 159,478 
 
 84,987 
 
 Winding round the Gulf of Mexico, the first port in the possession 
 of the Spanish race which calls for any notice is Vera Cruz, a poor place, 
 although part of the twenty million dollars of silver and the two millions 
 of gold still yielded by the mines of Mexico passes through it. Although 
 the Spanish government was as bad as it could he, the Mexicans have 
 gained little from the establishment of liberty and independence. 
 Considering the resources of Mexico, its foreign trade is very small, and 
 the government and people are too unsettled for any great hope to he 
 entertained of a rapid increase. The Anglo-Americans have made more 
 out of the neglected province of California, in six years, than the Mexicans, 
 with their six millions of people, made of all the rest of Mexico in treble 
 that time. Annexation and absorption in the great North American 
 Republic will, at some future time, render both Vera Cruz and Tampico 
 great ports, and will also render the mouth of the Rio del Norte the seat 
 of a flourishing trade. The exports of the Mexican ports are silver, 
 gold, cochineal, vanilla, and other articles, most of them produced with 
 very little labour. 
 
 Guatemala, or Central America, comes next, a country hitherto little 
 thought of, but which will become one of the most important in the 
 world, as the highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 In the Republic of New Grenada, Carthagena, connected with the 
 river Magdalena by a canal, and Savanilla, at the mouth of that great 
 stream, are the outlets of the valley of New Grenada, a country capable 
 of being rendered rich and flourishing in good hands. Santa Martha, in 
 the same republic, ranks next in importance, though not connected with 
 any great line of internal navigation. 
 
 The republic of Venezuela contains a population of about one million, 
 (945,247 in 1839,) scattered thinly over an area of 416,600 square miles. 
 
803 
 
 La Guayra, the port of ^araccas, is the principal port of Venezuela. 
 It has an active trade, its exports consisting of coffee, cocoa, indigo, 
 hides, sarsaparilla, and dyewoods ; its imports are manufactured goods. 
 
 Porto Cabello, also in Venezuela, has a good harbour. Maracaybo 
 has an extensive water communication with the interior. 
 
 The great valley of the Orinoco, one of the largest and most fertile in 
 South America, ought to be the seat of a flourishing commerce ; and 
 should Venezuela, to which it belongs, enjoy moderate tranquillity for 
 the next twenty years, it will be so. As yet nature has done everything 
 for it, but man ha3 done nothing. 
 
 Passing from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the River 
 Plate, we come to Buenos Ayres, the outlet of the great pampas, which 
 stretch, for a distance of nine hundred miles, from Buenos Ayres to 
 Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes. These immense plains are covered 
 with rich clover and grass, and afford pasture to millions of cattle and 
 horses. The commerce of Buenos Ayres consists of hides, tallow, bones, 
 and other products of those great pastures, with some wool, grown in 
 districts in which the herbage is not too luxuriant for sheep. 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTONS, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO THE RIVER PLATE, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixture, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848. 
 
 18,099,296 
 
 7,845,469 
 
 11,474 
 
 6,031 
 
 30,265 
 
 157,456 
 
 1849. 
 
 23,730,485 
 
 17,761,223 
 
 19,323 
 
 40,405 
 
 28,429 
 
 329.694 
 
 1850. 
 
 11,995,173 
 
 9,043,949 
 
 
 12,996 
 
 15,369 
 
 242.570 
 
 1851. 
 
 6.592.057 
 
 6,523,386 
 
 13.610 
 
 5,014 
 
 25.078 
 
 193,842 
 
 The republic of Uruguay, or the Banda Oriental, on the eastern bank 
 of the River Plate, also possesses great resources of the same kind as 
 those of Buenos Ayres, with a better harbour than any other place in the 
 River Plate. Should the long siege of Monte Video be followed by a 
 restoration of political tranquillity, and by the opening of the navigation 
 of the great rivers Parana and Uruguay, flowing down from Paraguay, 
 Corrientes, Entre Rios, and the back provinces of Brazil, the commerce 
 both of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video will extend greatly. As far as 
 natural advantages are concerned, the position of those cities is very little 
 inferior to that of New Orleans or Quebec. They possess some thousand 
 miles of internal navigation, through plains watered in summer by the 
 melting of the snows of the Andes, and where the cold of winter is never 
 
 5 M 
 
804 
 
 severe enough to kill the herbage in the fields. Probably no part of 
 the world is so well suited for the grazing of cattle and horses as the 
 plains of the River Plate. 
 
 IMPORTS OP RIVER PLATE SALTED HIDES. 
 
 Imported into 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 233,500 
 
 45,200 
 
 120,500 
 
 150,300 
 
 225,700 
 
 167.100 
 
 179,200 
 
 London .... 
 
 218.200 
 
 18,675 
 
 151,300 
 
 209,000 
 
 260,900 
 
 139,800 
 
 238,300 
 
 Outports .... 
 
 83,300 
 
 11,410 
 
 36,300 
 
 44,100 
 
 86,400 
 
 117,900 
 
 85,900 
 
 
 535,000 
 
 75,290 
 
 308,100 
 
 403,400 
 
 573,000 
 
 424,800 
 
 503,400 
 
 IMPORTS OP RIO GRANDE SALTED HIDES. 
 
 Imported into 
 Liverpool .. 
 London .... 
 Outports .... 
 
 1845 
 
 89.500 
 134,100 
 
 25.500 
 
 1846 
 
 116,695 
 
 160.375 
 
 76,171 
 
 1847 
 133,900 
 168,300 
 . 50,200 
 
 1848 
 
 111,500 
 
 109,700 
 
 20,000 
 
 1849 
 
 93,900 
 
 119,800 
 
 114,700 
 
 1850 
 
 41,000 
 
 95,900 
 
 68,000 
 
 1851 
 
 62,200 
 
 69,300 
 
 125,000 
 
 249.100 
 
 853.241 
 
 352.40b 
 
 241,200 
 
 328,400 
 
 204,900 
 
 256,500 
 
 IMPORTS OF EAST INDIA KIPS. 
 
 Imported into 
 London .... 
 Liverpool.... 
 
 1845 
 
 1,485,400 
 
 291,300 
 
 1846 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 210,300 
 
 1847 
 
 1,051,600 
 
 440,000 
 
 1848 
 
 874,000 
 
 196,000 
 
 1849 
 
 839.600 
 
 205,000 
 
 1850 
 
 1,382,000 
 
 286,400 
 
 1851 
 
 2,084,194 
 
 218,700 
 
 
 1.776.700 
 
 1.610.300 
 
 1.491.600 
 
 1.070.000 
 
 1.044.600 
 
 1.668.400 
 
 2.302.894 
 
 Patagonia, though unsettled by Europeans, still yields some guano and 
 other animal remains suitable for commerce. 
 
 The Falkland Islands, the only British possession in this part of the 
 globe, will become of great value as a coaling-station, when the steam-boat 
 lines which terminate, the one at Buenos Ayres, the other at Valparaiso, 
 are connected by a line from the River Plate to Chili. 
 
 New life has been given to the western coast of America by the lines 
 of steamers which now keep up a regular communication amongst the prin¬ 
 cipal ports, from Valparaiso to San Francisco, and join with those from 
 Panama and Chagres to Great Britain and North America. Within the 
 last few months a number of magnificent steamers, built in the Clyde, 
 and intended to keep up the communication between Valparaiso and 
 Panama, and named after the great cities of St. Iago, Lima, Quito, 
 Bogota, and the river Magdalena, have visited the river Mersey, whence 
 they have sailed to the Pacific, to take the place of the smaller steamers 
 which have hitherto plied on the coast of South America. 
 
 Chili, the most peaceful and best administered of all the republics of 
 South America, contains a population of 1,300,000 inhabitants, a soil 
 which is fertile in many parts, and which supplies large quantities of 
 copper ore, and of the precious metals. Chili has been the granary of 
 Australia and California, and still furnishes the latter country with con¬ 
 siderable quantities of grain and flour. 
 
805 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO THE WEST 
 COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, &c„ IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Valparaiso . 
 
 66 
 
 21,448 
 
 2,913 
 
 
 27 
 
 7,765 
 
 267 
 
 Arica . 
 
 10 
 
 
 1 
 
 Islay. 
 
 9 
 
 
 14 
 
 3,533 
 
 9,062 
 
 Bolivar. 
 
 2 
 
 491 
 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 Cuidad Bolivar. 
 
 6 
 
 1,000 
 
 837 
 
 
 Buena Ventura. 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 526 
 
 Cobija. 
 
 1 
 
 
 6 
 
 632 
 
 Callao . 
 
 7 
 
 920 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTONS, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO CHILI AND PERU IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 .•• 
 
 28,553.564 
 
 23,640,315 
 
 4,520 
 
 22,028 
 
 128,994 
 
 256,213 
 
 1849 .. 
 
 16,222,560 
 
 28,828,650 
 
 29,953 
 
 45,665 
 
 89,332 
 
 376.273 
 
 1850 . 
 
 18,208,171 
 
 22,357,235 
 
 28,384 
 
 44,210 
 
 78,964 
 
 387.975 
 
 1851. 
 
 27,555,716 
 
 29,823,431 
 
 23,963 
 
 42,848 
 
 130,075 
 
 461,829* 
 
 Valparaiso, the chief port of Chili, is a steam-hoat station, and the 
 rendezvous of most of the vessels which sail round Cape Horn. It fur¬ 
 nishes considerable quantities of grain, flour, copper ore, silver, indigo, 
 and wool, and receives British manufactures in return for them. 
 
 Bolivia, the next of the republics, contains a population of about 
 1,030,000 inhabitants. The silver mines of Potosi, once so famous, still 
 yield a considerable quantity of silver. 
 
 Cobija is the port of Bolivia. 
 
 Peru contains a population of 1,515,000 inhabitants, and an area of 
 580,000 square miles. Its exports in 1840 were Tl,948,340 ; of which 
 bullion and specie amounted to Tl,502,149. 
 
 Callao, the port of Lima, contains 50,000 inhabitants. Its exports 
 are silver, copper, lake, vicuna wool, and nitre. 
 
 Arica, and other sea ports of Peru, situated in the rainless regions 
 from which guano is derived, have now a great trade. This richest of 
 manures is only found in its greatest strength in regions in which rain 
 
 
 Calicoes, plain. 
 
 Calicoes, prtd. 
 
 
 Calicoes, plain. 
 
 Calicoes prtd. 
 
 * Chili, 1851. 
 
 ...15,819,491 
 
 12,163,472 
 
 Peru, 1851. 
 
 ... 10,736,225 
 
 17,659,969 
 
 - 1850. 
 
 ... 9.994,091 
 
 11,068.418 
 
 - 1850. 
 
 ... 8,214,080 
 
 11.288.817 
 
 - 1849. 
 
 ... 10,089,769 
 
 16,057,436 
 
 - 1849. 
 
 ... 6,132,791 
 
 12,771,214 
 
806 
 
 never falls. The Ichaboe guano, though formerly abundant, was not near 
 so valuable, owing to the occasional fall of rain. The maritime dis¬ 
 tricts, which are nearly rainless, are the Coast of Peru, South Africa, 
 the shores of the Red Sea, and the West Coast of Australia. The inland 
 districts without rain are Upper Egypt and the great desert of Gobi, or 
 Sliamo, in Tartary The import of guano into Great Britain and 
 Ireland was 83,438 tons in 1849, 116,925 in 1850, and 243,000 in 1851. 
 Many years ago Sir Humphrey Davy, in his Agricultural Chemistry, 
 pointed out the value of the dung of sea birds as a manure, but neither 
 he nor any one else then thought of the possibility of introducing it, by 
 the hundred thousand tons, from the coasts of Peru, Africa, Arabia, and 
 Western Australia, into Great Britain. 
 
 IMPORTS OF GUANO INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM AND LIVERPOOL, 
 FROM 1841 TO 1851. 
 
 1841. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 2,078 
 
 1842. 
 
 10M68 
 
 1843. 
 
 1,817 
 
 1844. 
 
 38,910 
 
 1845. 
 
 115,120 
 
 1846. 
 
 27,549 
 
 1847. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 28,988 
 
 United Kingdom. 
 82,392 
 
 1848. 
 
 15,075 
 
 71,414 
 
 1849. 
 
 23,554 
 
 83,438 
 
 1850. 
 
 28,472 
 
 116,925 
 
 1851. 
 
 92,593 
 
 243,000 
 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 2,881 
 
 20,398 
 
 3,002 
 
 104,201 
 
 283,300 
 
 89,203 
 
 Nitrate of soda, another valuable article of commerce, is found in the 
 beds of the dried-up lakes of Peru. 
 
 IMPORT OF NITRATE OF SODA, IN TONS. _ 
 
 Places. 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Liverpool . 
 
 6,917 
 
 9,600 
 
 7,760 
 
 6,830 
 
 7.860 
 
 8,070 
 
 London. 
 
 327 
 
 3,117 
 
 1.265 
 
 5,588 
 
 3,894 
 
 3,050 
 
 Hull . 
 
 
 889 
 
 180 
 
 518 
 
 
 
 Newcastle. 
 
 562 
 
 650 
 
 272 
 
 
 280 
 
 289 
 
 Glasgow . 
 
 
 490 
 
 
 
 700 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 8,306 
 
 14,746 
 
 9,477 
 
 12,936 
 
 12,734 
 
 11,409 
 
 Ecuador, another of the Spanish South American Republics, contains 
 212,000 square miles, and a population of from 550,000, to 600,000 
 inhabitants. From the Gulph of Guayaquil to Cape San Lorenzo rain 
 never falls in this territory. East of the Andes, in the valley of the Ama¬ 
 zons, it rains almost daily. Cliincona, or Peruvian bark, is found in 
 abundance in the forests of Ecuador. 
 
 Guayaquil, the port of Ecuador, is one of the best harbours in the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Panama, in New Granada, on the isthmus which divides the Pacific 
 from the Atlantic, with a narrow neck of land not more than 50 miles across, 
 is the seat of a great steam-boat communication from England and the 
 United States, southward to Valparaiso, and northward to San Francisco. 
 
807 
 
 Should it finally be found to be the best place for crossing the isthmus, 
 it will become the most important port in the Pacific Ocean; but it is still 
 uncertain whether the Panama, the Nicaragua, or even the Tehuantepec 
 route will become the principal one between the two oceans. Probably 
 they will all three be used more or less. A railway is forming at Panama, 
 from ocean to ocean. 
 
 The gold of California renders it certain that by whatever route the 
 nations on the Atlantic communicate with those on the Pacific, the com¬ 
 munication will be great and incessant. The cession of Upper California 
 to the United States by Mexico in the year 1848, and the discovery of gold 
 in the mill-stream of Captain Sutter’s farm, on the banks of the Sacra¬ 
 mento, are amongst the most interesting events in the history of nations. 
 Already from 200,000 to 300,000 of the Anglo American race are settled 
 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. This is only the first rush of the tide 
 of population. The peopling of the whole western coast of North 
 America by the Anglo-Americans is now a matter of certainty ; and even 
 the remote possessions of Britain, in Queen Charlotte’s Island, and Van¬ 
 couver’s Island, will soon be peopled, now that the rumours of the discovery 
 of large quantities of gold in Queen Charlotte’s Island are confirmed. 
 These islands possess great quantities of coal and a rich soil. At least 
 eighteen hundred miles of the west coast of North America belongs to 
 the United States and to England, and will soon be filled by the Anglo- 
 American or British race. Plans are already discussed in California for 
 establishing a line of steamers from San Francisco to China ; and a line 
 of steamers from Panama to Sydney would complete the British girdle 
 of steam communication round the world. 
 
 Owing to the import of gold from California, the bullion of the Bank 
 of England amounted to T17,413,000 at the beginning of 1852, which 
 was Tl 33,000 in excess of the highest sum ever known before.* On the 
 3d April it had risen to T19,596,501, or £ 2 , 250,000 more than was ever 
 known previously. 
 
 Brazil, formerly the great colony of Portugal, now an independent 
 empire, and the best governed country in South America, carries on a 
 flourishing trade with England, the United States, and the continent of 
 Europe. Its exports are coffee, sugar, and cotton. The quantity of 
 Brazilian sugar imported into London, in 1851, "was 19,700 chests and 
 90,GOO bags; into Liverpool, 3,915 chests and 78,200 bags; into the 
 Clyde, 380 chests and 03,750 bags; and into Bristol, 400 chests and 
 
 * City Article of Times, .Tan. 1, 1852. 
 
808 
 
 21,200 bags. The quantity of Brazilian coffee was also considerable, 
 though the great demand for it is for the continent. The quantity of 
 Brazilian cotton imported into Liverpool was 109,224 bales. 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OP LIVERPOOL TO THE BRAZILS 
 AND RIVER PLATE IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 
 34 
 
 10,112 
 
 5,865 
 
 12,425 
 
 23,366 
 
 266 
 
 
 2 
 
 336 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 24 
 
 5,513 
 
 2,310 
 
 4,286 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 97 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 860 
 
 Brazils . 
 
 15 
 
 643 
 
 
 7 
 
 1,940 
 
 Buenos Ayres . 
 
 42 
 
 8,333 
 
 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO THE BRAZILS, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk 
 Mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 1848 . 
 
 Yards. 
 
 36,550,459 
 
 60,115,965 
 
 60,243,884 
 
 64,112,080 
 
 Yards. 
 
 27,843,545 
 
 37,475,895 
 
 39,236,927 
 
 52,735,939 
 
 IBs. 
 
 4,544 
 
 11,180 
 
 21.972 
 
 888 
 
 £ 
 
 9,343 
 
 16,599 
 
 15,326 
 
 14,209 
 
 56 
 
 169,993 
 
 115,462 
 
 99,531 
 
 224,657 
 
 £ 
 
 214,401 
 172 342 
 229,667 
 345,543 
 
 1849 . 
 
 1850 . 
 
 1851. 
 
 
 Para, at the mouth of several great rivers, and connected with the 
 
 mighty Amazons, ought to be a place of more consequence than it is. It 
 sends forth small quantities of cotton and sugar, and receives, or did 
 receive, a considerable number of slaves. It is the finest position in 
 South America, fully equal to that of New York or New Orleans, but does 
 not contain the tenth part of the trade or population of either of them. 
 
 Maranham, at the mouth of a fine river of the same name, last year 
 shipped 26,311 bales of cotton to Liverpool, and much sugar. 
 
 Pernambuco : Olinda, or Recife, is the capital of a province rich in 
 sugar and cotton. Last year Pernambuco and Parahyba shipped 42,000 
 bales of cotton to Liverpool. 
 
 Bahia is a large and flourishing city,' of more than 100,000 inhabi¬ 
 tants, with a great and increasing trade. Last year it supplied Liverpool 
 with 28,407 bales of cotton. 
 
 Rio de Janeiro, the capital, contains 170,000 inhabitants ; the scenery 
 is lovely ; the harbour amongst the noblest in the world; the exports are 
 coffee, rice, and sugar. 
 
 Rio Grande do Sul has a great trade in hides; the internal navigation 
 is extensive. 
 
809 
 
 This completes the review of the trade with America, including the con¬ 
 tinent, north and south, and all the islands. In 1850 the exports from 
 the United Kingdom to all parts of America amounted to £28,964,695, and 
 the imports to upwards of £30,000,000. This great trade with the new 
 world, causing an exchange of property of the value of fully .£60,000,000 
 a-year, is the chief support of the commerce of Liverpool. The value of 
 the British exports to the various countries of America, in 1850, was 
 as follows:—United States, £14,891,961; British North America, 
 £3,235,051; British West Indies, £2,030,229; Honduras, £183,325; 
 Falkland Islands, £1,145; Brazil, £2,544,837; foreign West Indies, 
 £1,517,744; Chili, £1,156,266; Buenos Ayres, £848,600; Peru, 
 £845,639; Mexico, £451,820; New Granada, £330,810; Venezuela, 
 £301,094; Hayti, £274,918; Central America, £251,073; Uruguay, 
 £60,480; Ecuador, £33,288; Dutch Guiana, £5,152; Greenland, £565. 
 
 The trade of Liverpool with the fertile countries around the Mediter¬ 
 ranean and the Black Sea is large and rapidly increasing. It is now 
 carried on chiefly by means of steamers, or by steam screw-propellers, 
 which sail from Liverpool. They have in a great measure superseded all 
 other modes of conveyance. 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO THE MEDI¬ 
 TERRANEAN AND BLACK SEAS IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships iu 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 
 Ill 
 
 25,403 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 11,107* 
 
 Galatz . 
 
 44 
 
 2.713 
 
 
 30 
 
 l’076 
 
 
 64 
 
 12 740 
 
 
 50 
 
 14] 759 
 
 
 i 
 
 260 
 
 
 64 
 
 14,007 
 
 Malta. 
 
 78 
 
 11 331 
 
 
 2 
 
 270 
 
 Beirout . 
 
 3S 
 
 5 357 
 
 
 3 
 
 268 
 
 Leghorn. . 
 
 
 7 117 
 
 
 27 
 
 3,987 
 
 
 60 
 
 4^416 
 
 
 1 
 
 90 
 
 Sicily. 
 
 o 
 
 
 1 
 
 136 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 72 
 
 
 4 
 
 966 
 
 
 33 
 
 342 
 
 
 1 
 
 110 
 
 
 3 
 
 402 
 
 
 44 
 
 3 547 
 
 
 10 
 
 693 
 
 
 97 
 
 10,318 
 
 1 353 
 
 
 23 
 
 1,697 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 1 
 
 99 
 
 
 57 
 
 2 944 
 
 
 2 
 
 29 J. 
 
 
 56 
 
 3 718 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 125 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 47 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 17 
 
 1,489 
 
 
 18 
 
 2 520 
 
 
 37 
 
 179 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 260 
 
 
 22 
 
 3,724 
 
 
 1 
 
 89 
 
 Patras. 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 
 * The vessels which cleared at Gibraltar and Malta proceeded to other ports. The 
 tonnage is correct, as a whole, but it is impossible to divide it accurately among the 
 various ports. 
 
810 
 
 Gibraltar, at the mouth of the Mediterranean, received T388,141 
 British manufactures in 1850. It is merely a centre of distribution for 
 Spain and Barbary. The smuggler has a large part of the trade of Spain, 
 owing to the exclusive policy of the Spanish government. Gibraltar 
 is also a place of call for steamers. It is the first stage on the overland 
 route to the East. 
 
 Malaga supplies olive oil, figs, almonds, raisins, grain, oranges, 
 lemons, and all the produce of Granada and Andalusia. 
 
 Valencia, situated in a garden of fertility, comes next. Its products 
 are wine, figs, almonds, olives, and excellent oranges. Population, 65,805. 
 
 Barcelona, a manufacturing city and sea port. So far as Spain 
 possesses any cotton manufacture it is at Barcelona; but the Catalans are 
 as great smugglers as the rest of the Spaniards. 
 
 Genoa, the great emporium of the kingdom of Sardinia, is the most 
 flourishing sea port in Italy, and carries on a large trade with Liverpool, 
 and other English ports. This beautiful and celebrated city has a free 
 port, in which British goods and colonial produce are bonded, so as to be 
 ready either for home use or export. It is the entreport for an extensive 
 region, and the port of supply for the north-west of Italy, now far the 
 most flourishing portion of that rich peninsula. 
 
 Leghorn, or Livorno, also the free port of the fertile and well- 
 cultivated duchy of Tuscany, has likewise a considerable trade with 
 Liverpool. Tuscany, the garden of Italy, rich in corn, oil, silk, and 
 fruits, supplies abundance of products for commerce, and takes a large 
 quantity of manufactures, with which, in former ages, Florence supplied 
 the greater part of Europe. 
 
 Civita Vecchia, the port of Rome, imports goods and dried fish, and 
 exports alum, grain, and antiquities. 
 
 Naples, profusely rich in natural resources, is much frequented by the 
 Liverpool steamers. Its products are corn, wine, and oil: its imports 
 colonial produce and manufactured goods of all kinds. 
 
 Messina supplies sulphur; Palermo wine. There is scarcely anything 
 which the fertile soil and happy climate of Sicily will not produce under 
 moderately good cultivation. 
 
 Ascending the Adriatic, Ancona still flourishes, and carries on a good 
 trade with England, supplying grain and oil, and receiving manufactured 
 goods in exchange. 
 
 Venice, though the mere shadow of what she was in former times, is 
 
811 
 
 still a place of considerable trade, being the outlet for the rich plain of 
 Lombardy, a region of corn, wine, silk, and rice. 
 
 Trieste, the great port of the Austrian empire, and rising rapidly to 
 the rank of the Queen of the Adriatic, is a free port. Its exports are 
 corn, oil, rice, wine, wool, shumac ; and it is a depot for sugar, coffee, 
 cotton, and British manufactures. It possesses the most flourishing 
 steam marine in the Mediterranean, and rivals Marseilles as a point of 
 communication with Egypt and the East. 
 
 Leaving the Adriatic, Malta presents itself on the way to Egypt, India, 
 Syria, Smyrna, Constantinople, and the Black Sea, a great central point 
 of communication with all the countries of the Levant. 
 
 There are few circumstances in modern history more remarkable than 
 those which gave rise to, and those which followed, the occupation of 
 the island of Malta. After defying and repulsing the forces of the Turks, 
 that almost impregnable island remained in the hands of the Knights of 
 St. John of Malta for three centuries, until the time of Bonaparte’s 
 expedition to Egypt, when that most unscrupulous leader seized upon it, 
 without any declaration of war, or pretence of injury to France, as he 
 immediately afterwards seized upon Egypt. After a long siege of two 
 years’ duration, Malta was retaken by that gallant seaman, Sir Alexander 
 Ball, about the same time that Egypt was recovered by General 
 Abercrombie. A principal object of Bonaparte in seizing on Malta and 
 Egypt had been to re-open the ancient route to India and the East, for 
 the benefit of France, and the destruction of the British power in India : 
 the result of it was to render it possible for England to re-open that route 
 for her own especial benefit, as well as that of the whole world. England, 
 Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Aden, and India, are the stages of the overland 
 route, by which the communication with India has been reduced from 
 ninety to thirty days. Without Bonaparte’s attack on Malta, that island 
 would never have been a British possession ; if Bonaparte had not 
 destroyed the power of the Mamelukes, Mehemet Ali, the most enlight¬ 
 ened of Turks, who shares with Lieutenant Waghorn the honour of 
 opening the route through Egypt, would never have been in a position 
 to render that great service to the world. 
 
 Alexandria, the port of the Nile, restored by the genius of Mehemet Ali, 
 is again a great place of trade. It is once more becoming what its founder, 
 Alexander the Great, intended it to be, the chief point of communication 
 between Europe and India. A railway across Egypt, now in course of 
 
 n n 
 
812 
 
 construction under the superintendence of Robert Stephenson, the worthy 
 son of the engineer who first showed the world what railways might be 
 made, will render the overland route to India easier and more expeditious 
 than it is at present. The cotton cultivation of Egypt restored, as every 
 thing else was, by Mehemet Ali, furnished Liverpool last year with a 
 supply of 66,515 hales. 
 
 Beirout, the port of Damascus, and Alexandretta, the port of Aleppo, 
 are again becoming places of considerable trade. Their exports are silk, 
 galls, and wool ; their imports British cottons and other goods. 
 
 Smyrna, the outlet of Anatolia, and Salonica, the Thessalonica of 
 ancient times, and the port of Boumelia, also carry on a considerable 
 trade with Liverpool and other places. The exports of Smyrna are silk, 
 cotton, Turkish carpets, opium, wool, hides, camel’s hair, skins, drugs, 
 olive oil, gall nuts, and valonia. The exports of Salonica are wheat, 
 barley, silk, wool, sponges, sesamum, timber, staves, and Turkish tobacco. 
 Their imports are British manufactures, which are conveyed by caravans 
 to all parts of the Turkish empire. 
 
 Constantinople is again becoming the centre of the commerce of the 
 east. The commercial policy of Turkey is very favourable to trade, the 
 duties on foreign goods being moderate; and the Turkish government has 
 greatly improved in all respects since the destruction of the janissaries, 
 and the easier and more frequent communication which steam navigation 
 has created with the nations of Europe. 
 
 Within the Black Sea the trade of Liverpool is directed chiefly to 
 three points, Trebizonde, in Turkey, Odessa, in Russia, and Galatz and 
 Ibrail, at the mouth of the Danube. 
 
 Trebizonde is the great rendezvous for caravans from Armenia, 
 Persia, and Central Asia 
 
 Odessa is the receptacle for the produce of the Ukraine, consisting of 
 grain, tallow, and hides. 
 
 Galatz and Ibrail form the outlets and inlets of the great valley of the 
 Danube, one of the most fertile corn-growing districts of Europe. Steam 
 navigation is restoring life and animation to the fine countries around the 
 Euxine, as well as to the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The African trade from Liverpool is still very considerable, but hap¬ 
 pily it is now a trade in palm oil, ivory, gums, and timber, not in men 
 and women. The value of the British goods exported to the west coast and 
 the Cape in 1850 was ^796,600. The imports from Sierra Leone were of 
 
813 
 
 the value of £l15,141 ; from Gambia of .£142,366. Palm oil is now the 
 great article of commerce supplied by the Coast of Africa, though there 
 is no article of tropical produce which that fertile region does not furnish 
 in greater or less quantity. The following are the quantities of palm oil 
 imported during the last twenty years : 
 
 Year. 
 
 1830.. 
 
 1831.. 
 
 1832.. 
 
 1833.. 
 
 1834.. 
 
 1835.. 
 
 1830.. 
 
 1837.. 
 
 1838.. 
 
 1839.. 
 
 1840.. 
 
 1841.. 
 
 1842.. 
 
 1843.. 
 
 1844.. 
 
 1845.. 
 
 1846.. 
 
 1847.. 
 
 1848.. 
 
 1849.. 
 
 1850.. 
 
 1851.. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Stocks, 
 
 81st Dec. 
 
 Prices, 
 
 31st Dee. 
 
 Exports, 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9,900 
 
 1,700 
 
 29 
 
 @ 
 
 30 
 
 59.3 
 
 7,050 
 
 1,500 
 
 33 
 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 
 10,500 
 
 2,500 
 
 33 
 
 
 33* 
 
 89 
 
 11.900 
 
 3,590 
 
 28* 
 
 
 28* 
 
 263 
 
 11,600 
 
 4.500 
 
 24* 
 
 
 25 
 
 713 
 
 9,500 
 
 1,700 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 1,028 
 
 11,000 
 
 1.200 
 
 30 
 
 
 31 
 
 1,235 
 
 10.000 
 
 1 300 
 
 34 
 
 
 34* 
 
 492 
 
 9,600 
 
 1.500 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 14,300 
 
 6,500 
 
 32 
 
 
 32* 
 
 666 
 
 12,270 
 
 4,200 
 
 35* 
 
 
 36 
 
 487 
 
 18,350 
 
 6,200 
 
 312 
 
 
 32| 
 
 2,121 
 
 16,480 
 
 6,550 
 
 32* 
 
 
 32* 
 
 4,009 
 
 16,235 
 
 3,800 
 
 29 
 
 
 29* 
 
 3,728 
 
 16,925 
 
 2,500 
 
 25 
 
 
 251 
 
 3,728 
 
 21,000 
 
 5.000 
 
 291 
 
 
 30 
 
 2.500 
 
 15,800 
 
 5,500 
 
 38* 
 
 
 39 
 
 2.978 
 
 19,350 
 
 3,900 
 
 27* 
 
 
 28 
 
 5,000 
 
 18,359 
 
 1.400 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 3,846 
 
 17,900 
 
 1,250 
 
 301 
 
 
 31 
 
 7,000 
 
 16,250 
 
 2,900 
 
 28* 
 
 
 
 4.000 
 
 24,000 
 
 5,300 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 7,000 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO AFRICA, CAPE 
 OF GOOD HOPE, &c., IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Morocco . 
 
 1 
 
 
 West Coast of Africa.... 
 
 75 
 
 26,933 
 
 Cape Town . 
 
 2 
 
 699 
 
 Mogadore. 
 
 i 
 
 114 
 
 Cape of Good Hope.... 
 
 27 
 
 6,574 
 
 Algoa Bay. 
 
 6 
 
 158 
 
 Fernando Po. 
 
 5 
 
 1,840 
 
 Port Natal. 
 
 3 
 
 859 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Grand Bassam. 
 
 1 
 
 
 Senegal. 
 
 2 
 
 325 
 
 Madeira. 
 
 11 
 
 3,079 
 
 Sierra Leone. 
 
 11 
 
 3,047 
 
 Metacong. 
 
 2 
 
 278 
 
 Rio Pongos . 
 
 i 
 
 
 Rio Nunez. 
 
 3 
 
 400 
 
 Cape Verde . 
 
 2 
 
 496 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO THE COAST OF AFRICA, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 1848 •.. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 4,660,295 
 
 6,881,418 
 
 4,883,403 
 
 5,107,032 
 
 Yards. 
 
 8,799,815 
 
 13,283,500 
 
 11,660,844 
 
 14,784,381 
 
 ms. 
 
 67,687 
 
 10,456 
 
 13,712 
 
 7,904 
 
 £ 
 
 1,849 
 
 7,004 
 
 1.090 
 
 1,842 
 
 £ 
 
 6,173 
 
 8,245 
 
 12,010 
 
 7,943 
 
 £ 
 
 13.390 
 
 17,719 
 
 16,545 
 
 27,632 
 
 1849 . 
 
 1850 . 
 
 1851. 
 
814 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTONS, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 IBs. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 . 
 
 3,621,009 
 
 2,979,737 
 
 37,008 
 
 8,245 
 
 15,421 
 
 59,766 
 
 1849 . 
 
 3,040,481 
 
 2,515,395 
 
 24,276 
 
 7,226 
 
 12,094 
 
 56,503 
 
 1850 . 
 
 3,836,178 
 
 4,286,626 
 
 24,963 
 
 10,447 
 
 20,350 
 
 72,499 
 
 1851. 
 
 3,577,423 
 
 3,239,998 
 
 6,292 
 
 4,407 
 
 14,846 
 
 124,997 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO AUSTRALIA, 
 
 IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 15 
 
 9,260 
 
 
 3 
 
 140 
 
 
 20 
 
 7,834 
 
 
 1 
 
 198 
 
 Sydney, N. S. W. 
 
 13 
 
 5,935 
 
 
 
 QUANTITY OF BRITISH COTTON, SILK, LINEN, AND WOOLLEN MANUFAC¬ 
 TURES IMPORTED INTO AUSTRALIA, IN 1848, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Total in 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Silk and 
 Silk Mixed 
 Manufac¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Linens, 
 
 exclusive 
 
 of 
 
 Yarn. 
 
 Woollen and 
 Woollen 
 Mixtures, 
 exclusive of 
 Yarns. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 
 Plain. 
 
 Calicoes, 
 Printed and 
 Dyed. 
 
 Twist. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 tbs. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1848 . 
 
 2,334,281 
 
 2,152,422 
 
 13,118 
 
 25,814 
 
 62,327 
 
 132,071 
 
 1849 . 
 
 6,541,318 
 
 3,264,558 
 
 16,442 
 
 35,490 
 
 90,606 
 
 204,550 
 
 1850 . 
 
 6,418,793 
 
 6,719.862 
 
 28,629 
 
 48,647 
 
 119,565 
 
 247,953 
 
 1851 . 
 
 3,881,084 
 
 6,906,130 
 
 131,086 
 
 57,468 
 
 119,079 
 
 243,439 
 
 The rise of Australia is almost unequalled in the history of coloni¬ 
 zation, and there is every reason to believe that its future progress will 
 be more wonderful than its past. Boundless pastures covered with sheep, 
 yielding the finest wool, and copper mines, of unexampled richness, have 
 hitherto been supposed to constitute the principal wealth of Australia; 
 hut, within the last year, gold has been discovered there in as great 
 abundance as it was found in South America by the Spaniards, or in 
 California by the Americans. Though it is not possible to judge of the 
 precise value of these discoveries, it is certain that they will add some 
 millions a year to the exports of Australia. One of the first results of these 
 
815 
 
 brilliant and attractive discoveries has been to give a prodigious impulse 
 to emigration to Australia. Scarcely a week now passes in which one 
 or more vessels does not sail from Liverpool to that golden region, and 
 the emigration from other ports is equally great in proportion. Before 
 giving some particulars as to the present state of each of the Australian 
 colonies, it may be well to mention that the first settlement in Australia 
 was made at Port Jackson, near Sydney, the capital of the colony of 
 New South Wales, on the 26th June, in 1788; that the colony of 
 Victoria, or Port Philip, of which Melbourne is the capital, was settled 
 in 1836, and formed into a separate colony three or four years since; 
 that Western Australia, including the Swan River and King George’s 
 Sound settlements, was established at Perth, on the Swan River, in 
 1829; that the province of South Australia was occupied as a British 
 colony on the 28th December, 1836, and its capital, Adelaide, was pro¬ 
 claimed a legal port on the 25th of May, 1837 ; and that the colony of 
 North Australia was established at Port Essington, Coburg peninsula, 
 and Victoria fixed on for the capital, on the 3d November, 1838. 
 
 The position of the colony of New South Wales was as follows, at 
 the beginning of the year 1851 :—New South Wales, including the Port 
 Philip district, contained a population of 263,503 inhabitants, showing 
 an increase of 19,204 in the course of the preceding twelve months. 
 The exports of the colony were of the value of <£2,399,580 ; being, pro¬ 
 bably, the largest value of exports ever sent abroad by so small a popula¬ 
 tion. The exports consisted chiefly of the produce of the boundless 
 pastures of the colony; namely, of 32,361,829 lbs. of wool, and 217,978 
 cwt. of tallow. The imports of the colony in 1850 were of the value of 
 <£2,078,338. The number of vessels employed by the trade of New South 
 Wales in 1850 was 1,014, of the burden of 263,819 tons. The produce 
 grown in the colony in 1850 consisted of 1,477,749 bushels of wheat, 
 457,106 of maize, 167,768 bushels of barley, 152,848 of oats, 5,529 
 bushels of millet, 14,012 tons of potatoes, 4,922 cwt. of tobacco, and 
 65,731 tons of hay. There were in the colony 1,232 acres of vineyards, 
 yielding 115,705 gallons of wine, and 2,244 gallons of brandy The 
 colony contained 132,427 horses, 1,738,965 head of cattle, 64,631 pigs, 
 and 13,059,321 sheep. 
 
 The colony of South Australia contained a population of 63,700 
 inhabitants on the 1st Jannary, 1851, having increased from 25,891 since 
 1846, or 146 per cent, in five years. Adelaide, the capital, which con¬ 
 tained 7,413 inhabitants in 1846, contained 14,577 in 1850. The value 
 
816 
 
 of the imports was £887,423, of the exports £571,348. The exports 
 consisted of 3,289,232 lbs. of wool, 44,594 cwts. of copper, and 614 of 
 lead, 8,7S8§- tons of copper ore, 4,140 cwts. of lead ore, and 335|- tons 
 of ore of emery. The copper ore was the richest in the world, being 
 worth about £27 a-ton. Amongst recent discoveries was a bolt, or 
 protruberance of native copper, measuring 8 feet in height, 7 feet in 
 breadth, and 20 feet in length. 
 
 Western Australia, or Swan River, contained, in 1850, 5,293 inha¬ 
 bitants, imported £52,351 of produce, and exported £22,134 worth. 
 The tonnage employed was increasing rather rapidly, owing to the dis¬ 
 covery of guano on the islands in Sharks’ Bay. The tonnage in 1850 
 was 15,988 tons. 
 
 The colony of New Zealand, at the very ends of the earth, contained, 
 in 1849, a British population of 22,751 inhabitants ; imported £147,767 
 worth of manufactures and produce, and exported £75,984. 
 
 For some time it has been thought probable that gold and other 
 valuable metals would be discovered in Australia. A large part of that 
 country or continent belongs to wliat geologists call the chrystaline 
 schistous formation, the same formation from which the gold of Mexico 
 and California is obtained.* The wonderful richness of the copper mines 
 of South Australia confirmed these expectations of mineral treasures. 
 On the 29th September, 1851, it was positively ascertained that gold 
 existed in large quantities in the colony of Victoria, formerly known as 
 Port Philip.t A sudden rush at once took place to the gold district. 
 On the 19th November, less than two months after the discovery had 
 been made, 42,000 ounces of gold, of the value of £126,000, had been 
 deposited in the banks at Melbourne and Geelong ; in addition to about 
 8,000 ounces, of the value of £24,000, in private hands. On the 19th 
 November the escort from the mines brought down 10,138 ounces, worth 
 £30,414 ; on the 26th November, 12,106 ounces, worth £36,318; on the 
 3d December, 16,669 ounces, worth £50,007; on the 10th December, 
 26,656 ounces, worth £79,968; and, on the 17th December, 19,492 
 ounces, worth £58,476. At the last of these dates the amount in private 
 hands, in Melbourne and Geelong, was supposed to be 28,353 ounces, 
 worth £85,059 : and, in the hands of diggers on the gold fields, 80,000 
 ounces, worth £240,000. This gives a total value of £730,242, in less 
 than three months. “ These astonishing results,” says the Melbourne 
 
 * Johnstone’s Physical Atlas. Geology, No. 2. 
 
 + Melbourne Argus, December 30, 1851. 
 
817 
 
 Argus, “ have all been arrived at in less than three short months. On 
 the 29th September the announcement of the first large yield in Victoria 
 was made known, and since then wonders have daily thickened around 
 us, and where it is to end no human being can guess. The field is 
 reported to be illimitable, the indications of gold extending over scores of 
 miles, and each last-found diggings apparently eclipsing all before it. All 
 accounts agree that the auriferous grounds, which can be profitably worked, 
 will never be dug over for years to come by any number of people that 
 can by possibility reach them. To the good people of Great Britain we 
 commit the consideration of these statements. We beg to remind them 
 that, even before this discovery burst upon us, this was one of the finest 
 and most prosperous of British colonies. Let the gold fields cease their 
 yield to morrow, and we still retain all the elements of national wealth 
 and national greatness. Those who venture to share our wealth may 
 venture boldly, for boundless plenty smiles side by side with countless 
 wealth. Our splendid harvests are now whitening for the sickle, but 
 with no men to reap them. The same land which is thus pouring forth 
 its mineral treasures is still feeding the finest sheep and cattle that ever 
 were fattened upon natural grasses. Their fate has hitherto been that 
 shameful waste, the melting pot. Let the overcrowded of the mother 
 country come freely and fearlessly. We can make room for them by 
 thousands or tens of thousands.’' 
 
 From the immense increase of emigration to Australia from the port 
 of Liverpool, it is evident that thousands and tens of thousands will 
 accept this invitation. However they may succeed as gold hunters, they 
 will find a certain living in agriculture and pasturage. 
 
 The copper ores yielded by the mines of Australia are as rich as 
 those of South America, and three times as rich as those of Cornwall 
 and Wales. At the sales of copper ores in England, from June, 1850, to 
 June, 1851, the Australian ores, from the Burra Burra mine, brought 
 £27 10s. a-ton, and those from the Kapunda mine £ 2-1 8s. a-ton; the 
 Chilian ores, T27 10s. Od.; the Cuban ores, Li 1 14s. Gd. ; the Irish ores, 
 from the Ivnockmahon mine, £5 17s. Gd.; the Welsh, from the Llanberris 
 mine, L8 19s. Gd.; and the Cornish ores, of the Fowey Consols mine, 
 £5 14s. Gd.* 
 
 The reduction of the duties on timber, and the repeal of the corn- 
 laws, have caused a great increase in the trade of Liverpool with the 
 pine-growing regions of Scandinavia and Russia, and the grain-growing 
 * Annual Mining Returns, in Mining Journal. 
 
818 
 
 districts of Poland, Prussia, Germany, and France. The quantity of 
 Danzig timber imported into Liverpool last year was upwards of a 
 million cubic feet; and the quantities of grain and flour from all parts 
 of Europe were also very large. Although Liverpool is less favourably 
 situated for the trade of the northern parts of the continent than either 
 London or Hull, yet its supplies of salt and coal, and its great demand for 
 timber, grain, and other articles of northern produce, give it a fair share 
 of the trade of those extensive countries. The finer goods of all kinds 
 sent to the north of Europe are chiefly shipped from Hull. 
 
 The following is an account of the vessels which cleared out from 
 
 Liverpool, in 1851, for the ports of northern Europe, including Russia, 
 
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium : 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO THE NORTH 
 AND BALTIC SEAS IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 
 34 
 
 4,4fll 
 
 Narva . 
 
 09 
 
 8 566 
 
 
 73 
 
 7,622 
 
 Pillau. 
 
 
 2 234 
 
 
 47 
 
 7,381 
 
 Memel . 
 
 2 
 
 343 
 
 
 25 
 
 3,005 
 
 Wismar. 
 
 1 
 
 244 
 
 
 60 
 
 13,090 
 
 Uleaborg . 
 
 2 
 
 450 
 
 
 2 
 
 '205 
 
 Aarhuis. 
 
 1 
 
 95 
 
 Kiel . 
 
 4 
 
 573 
 
 Harlingen. . 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 818 
 
 Louvain . 
 
 2 
 
 140 
 
 
 7 
 
 1,104 
 
 Christian sand . 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ' 80 
 
 Christianstadt . 
 
 2 
 
 148 
 
 
 1 
 
 105 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 117 
 
 Christiana. 
 
 10 
 
 1,292 
 
 
 4 
 
 854 
 
 Drammer . 
 
 2 
 
 
 ] 
 
 522 
 
 Stralsund . 
 
 2 , 
 
 247 
 
 
 1 
 
 97 
 
 Amsterdam . 
 
 7 
 
 500 
 
 
 1 
 
 143 
 
 Rotterdam. 
 
 119 
 
 19,758 
 
 
 2 
 
 118 
 
 Dordt. 
 
 40 
 
 l'578 
 
 
 7 
 
 760 
 
 Wordinberg . 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Archangel. 
 
 36 
 
 3,583 
 
 
 7 
 
 739 
 
 Hammerfest. 
 
 14 
 
 L934 
 
 
 1 
 
 84 
 
 Stockholm . 
 
 3 
 
 688 
 
 
 1 
 
 164 
 
 Stettin . 
 
 43 
 
 8 058 
 
 
 4 
 
 744 
 
 Elsineur . 
 
 14 
 
 1,707 
 
 
 2 
 
 248 
 
 Danzig . 
 
 43 
 
 9J61 
 
 
 1 
 
 106 
 
 Ghent. 
 
 40 
 
 2^295 
 
 
 3 
 
 280 
 
 Riga . 
 
 34 
 
 4,664 
 
 
 1 
 
 111 
 
 Antwerp. 
 
 27 
 
 3*587 
 
 
 6 
 
 360 
 
 Tonsberg . 
 
 1 
 
 109 
 
 
 1 
 
 539 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 926 
 
 Arendaal . 
 
 1 
 
 300 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Konigsberg . 
 
 28 
 
 2,71s 
 
 
 45 
 
 4,623 
 
 Liebau . 
 
 5 
 
 697 
 
 
 1 
 
 84 
 
 Kunda .. 
 
 1 
 
 151 
 
 
 8 
 
 1,209 
 
 
 1 
 
 121 
 
 Abo Bjorneburg . 
 
 1 
 
 175 
 
 Wyburg. 
 
 13 
 
 4,052 
 
 
 1 
 
 119 
 
 
 1 
 
 73 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 162 
 
 
 3 
 
 412 
 
 
 1 
 
 93 
 
 
 2 
 
 278 
 
 Frederickstadt . 
 
 2 
 
 231 
 
 
 2 
 
 171 
 
 
 1 
 
 149 
 
 Copenhagen . 
 
 5 
 
 543 
 
 
 
 
819 
 
 Starting at the mouth of the Dwina, on the shores of the White Sea, 
 the port of Archangel furnishes the commerce of Liverpool with con¬ 
 siderable quantities of grain and flax. The forests of Scandinavia 
 furnish cargoes of timber at Tronyem, Bergen, and Christiana, in Norway; 
 at Gothenburg, Carlscrona, Stockholm, Uleaburg, Abo, Helsingfors, 
 and numerous other ports in the Baltic and the ocean. Liverpool has 
 an extensive trade with Russia, at Cronstadt and St. Peterburgh, in 
 grain, flax, and tallow, and also at Narva, Revel, and Riga. Winding 
 along the coasts of the Baltic, Memel, at the mouth of the Niemen, 
 furnishes further supplies of timber; and Danzig, the outlet of the great 
 valley of the Vistula, and port of northern Poland, furnishes large 
 supplies of grain. Following the Prussian coast, Liverpool has a con¬ 
 siderable trade at Colburg, Stettin, and Stralsund; and also at the 
 Mecklenburg ports of Wismar and Rostock, as well as at the free port 
 of Lubeck. It has also some trade at Kiel, Copenhagen, and Elsineur, 
 and other places in Denmark. 
 
 Leaving the countries inhabited by the Scandinavian race, Liverpool 
 has a considerable trade with Hamburg and Bremen. It trades with 
 Holland at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and with Belgium at Antwerp, to 
 which port a line of screw-steamers is about to run from Liverpool. 
 Already Liverpool has become a chief place of embarcation for German 
 emigrants, who find it cheaper and quicker to come o^er by steam to 
 Hull, cross to Liverpool, and sail from that port, than to sail directly 
 from Hamburg and Bremen. Liverpool supplies the whole of the north 
 of Europe with salt, and also with considerable quantities of cotton, 
 palm oil, and other articles of tropical produce, receiving in return timber 
 and grain. 
 
 Until lately Liverpool had scarcely any trade with France; but, since 
 the recent change in the navigation-laws of England and America, the 
 British and North American Royal Mail Steam Company have run a fine 
 steamer from Liverpool to Havre weekly, for the purpose of collecting 
 French goods for the American markets. The repeal of the corn-laws has 
 also given rise to an extensive trade in French corn and flour; so that 
 the tricolour, which was formerly scarcely known in the Mersey, is now 
 seen there very frequently. It will be seen, from the following list, that 
 Liverpool had a commercial connexion with twenty-one French ports 
 in 1851 : 
 
 5 o 
 
820 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO FRANCE AND 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1801. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Marans . 
 
 1 
 
 105 
 
 
 1 
 
 45 
 
 Morlaix. 
 
 2 
 
 119 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 690 
 
 Bayonne . 
 
 10 
 
 1,014 
 
 
 2 
 
 167 
 
 Rordeaux . 
 
 32 
 
 4,1] 1 
 
 
 51 
 
 4 655 
 
 Charente . 
 
 17 
 
 2 ,132 
 
 
 5 
 
 98 
 
 Granville . 
 
 1 
 
 ' 80 
 
 
 2 
 
 130 
 
 Eu .. 
 
 3 
 
 257 
 
 
 3 
 
 356 
 
 Rochefort . 
 
 2 
 
 159 
 
 
 1 
 
 127 
 
 Aiguillon . 
 
 i 
 
 100 
 
 
 1 
 
 120 
 
 Jersey and Guernsey ... 
 
 65 
 
 6.192 
 
 Cam . 
 
 i 
 
 60 
 
 Havre. 
 
 36 
 
 13,305 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The trade with the Spanish ports, outside the Straits, and with 
 Portugal, is also very considerable, as will be seen from the following list 
 of the vessels which cleared out from Liverpool for the Peninsula, 
 in 1851 : 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED OUT FROM THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL TO SPAIN AND 
 
 PORTUGAL IN 1851. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 No. of 
 Ships in 
 1851. 
 
 Total Tons. 
 
 
 109 
 
 11,488 
 
 1,321 
 
 
 1 
 
 232 
 
 Bilboaand San Sebastian 
 
 12 
 
 St. Ubes. 
 
 1 
 
 293 
 
 
 19 
 
 1,200 
 
 285 
 
 
 1 
 
 72 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 131 
 
 
 34 
 
 4,182 
 
 1,281 
 
 80 
 
 
 1 
 
 78 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 2 
 
 188 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 40 
 
 4,144 
 
 Santander. 
 
 3 
 
 802 
 
 
 The coasting trade of Liverpool, including the trade with Ireland, is 
 very extensive, and gives employment to upwards of two million 
 tons of shipping. Corn, flour, meal, live cattle, iron, and potter’s clay 
 are the chief imports; manufactured goods, groceries, coals, and timber 
 the principal exports. 
 
 The following tables will show the extent and nature of the 
 corn trade of Liverpool, from the year 1830 to the year 1851, and the 
 course of the change by which Ireland, which supplied Liverpool and 
 Lancashire -with large quantities of grain and flour, previous to the 
 scarcity of 1847, has become rather an importing than an exporting 
 country: 
 
821 
 
 ANNUAL IMPORTS OF GRAIN, &c., AT LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Aver, import 
 of Grain for 
 12 yrs, end 
 ing August 
 31, 1841 .. 
 Year ending 
 Sep. 30,1841 
 
 Do. 1843 
 
 Do. 1844 
 
 Do. 1845 
 
 Do. 1840 
 
 Do. 1847 
 
 Do. 1848 
 
 Do. 1849 
 
 Do. 1850 
 
 Do. 1851 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 C. & Ire 
 Qrs. 
 
 292054 
 172365 
 125847 
 223502 
 295 J 79 
 194501 
 130761 
 137438 
 04811 
 76690 
 28674 
 
 Colonial. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 23400 
 
 24384 
 
 8934 
 
 22083 
 
 3413 
 
 49038 
 
 05006 
 
 2826 
 
 20482 
 
 4752 
 
 10783 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 170442 
 
 653637 
 
 76852 
 
 240227 
 
 65972 
 
 287451 
 
 519159 
 
 218681 
 
 507327 
 
 640638 
 
 569189 
 
 British. 
 
 Sacks. 
 
 192807 
 
 05947 
 
 155507 
 
 259556 
 
 416903 
 
 264983 
 
 79948 
 
 106964 
 
 88334 
 
 195537 
 
 48737 
 
 Flour. 
 
 Foreign. 
 Sacks. Bids. 
 
 204683 
 
 324916 
 
 175019 
 
 180505 
 
 10931 
 
 155200 
 
 41886 
 
 877659 
 
 1979491 
 
 227285 
 
 896855 
 
 402621 
 
 1192199 
 
 Colonial. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 36022 
 
 221939 
 
 79680 
 
 226833 
 
 136086 
 
 246276 
 
 410806 
 
 105127 
 
 215142 
 
 59480 
 
 115651 
 
 Oats. 
 
 British. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 328831 
 
 197468 
 
 219956 
 
 234940 
 
 232220 
 
 194059 
 
 100552 
 
 190493 
 
 175269 
 
 174761 
 
 146076 
 
 For. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 23147 
 
 13403 
 
 6022 
 
 8866 
 
 10591 
 
 4430 
 
 66307 
 
 14425 
 
 9372 
 
 29321 
 
 6630 
 
 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 
 Peas. 
 
 
 Oatmeal 
 
 I. Corn. 
 
 I. C. Meal. 
 
 Aver, import 
 of Grain for 
 12 yrs, end- 
 
 British 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 For. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 British 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 For. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 British 
 
 Qrs 
 
 For. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Coin], 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 British. 
 
 Loads. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Bids. 
 
 ing August 
 31, 1841 .. 
 
 56187 
 
 4542 
 
 19216 
 
 31957 
 
 3754 
 
 17173 
 
 4576 
 
 191331 
 
 
 
 Year ending 
 Sep.30,1842 
 
 39360 
 
 20967 
 
 12450 
 
 49751 
 
 2650 
 
 26406 
 
 17368 
 
 214966 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1843 
 
 32043 
 
 
 1023J 
 
 12978 
 
 475 
 
 981 
 
 2412 
 
 360040 
 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1844 
 
 33530 
 
 17007 
 
 12178 
 
 21726 
 
 3509 
 
 17532 
 
 8392 
 
 350747 
 
 
 ... 
 
 Do. 
 
 1845 
 
 35604 
 
 14785 
 
 11649 
 
 42633 
 
 3613 
 
 9728 
 
 4586 
 
 229424 
 
 37918 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1846 
 
 33658 
 
 8620 
 
 10418 
 
 70033 
 
 12686 
 
 5031 
 
 1765 
 
 138095 
 
 192026 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1847 
 
 30596 
 
 57992 
 
 13556 
 
 115418 
 
 9646 
 
 24400 
 
 10715 
 
 57256 
 
 1171608 
 
 430534 
 
 Do. 
 
 1848 
 
 33784 
 
 27786 
 
 11077 
 
 125504 
 
 3941 
 
 8060 
 
 696 
 
 166168 
 
 504193 
 
 105937 
 
 Do. 
 
 1849 
 
 37191 
 
 28024 
 
 6528 
 
 127756 
 
 759 
 
 28437 
 
 13962 
 
 150287 
 
 1002439 
 
 62729 
 
 Do. 
 
 1850 
 
 21605 
 
 43615 
 
 11307 
 
 93539 
 
 766 
 
 21141 
 
 9742 
 
 235493 
 
 542785 
 
 4804 
 
 Do. 
 
 1851 
 
 31910 
 
 20036 
 
 7900 
 
 114664 
 
 5507 
 
 10406 
 
 6027 
 
 210059 
 
 286043 
 
 4598* 
 
 IMPORTS OF IRISH GRAIN AND FLOUR INTO LIVERPOOL, FOR SIX YEARS, 
 
 ENDING SEPTEMBER 30th, 1846, 47, 48, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Ending 30th 
 September of 
 Years 
 
 1846 .... 
 
 1847 .... 
 
 1848 .... 
 
 1849 .... 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 .... 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Flour. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Oatmeal, i Barley. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 179,803 
 
 54,351 
 
 85,538 
 
 34,799 
 
 64,724 
 
 24,206 
 
 Sacks. 
 
 259,354 
 
 54,533 
 
 146,759 
 
 73,985 
 
 185,228 
 
 42,431 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 161,144 
 
 86,532 
 
 180,397 
 
 158,535 
 
 158,711 
 
 132,533 
 
 Loads. 
 
 137,363 
 
 49,787 
 
 104.158 
 
 140,042 
 
 232.483 
 
 207.414 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 11,254 
 
 6,058 
 
 6,009 
 
 6,572 
 
 3,036 
 
 2,922 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 2,153 
 
 11,854 
 
 5,211 
 
 3.601 
 
 6,435 
 
 1,723 
 
 Mr. Robert Procter’s Liverpool Corn Tables. 
 
8 22 
 
 EXPORTS OF GRAIN, Sc., FROM LIVERPOOL, FOR SEVEN YEARS, ENDING 
 30th SEPTEMBER, 1845, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Peas. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 
 
 C. & Ire. 
 
 For. 
 
 C’wise. 
 
 For. 
 
 
 C'wise. 
 
 For. 
 
 C’wise. 
 
 For. 
 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Ending 
 
 Sept. 30, 1845,. 
 
 10627 
 
 8567 
 
 1984 
 
 12409 
 
 1297 
 
 2986 
 
 
 3043 
 
 161 
 
 Do. 
 
 1846.. 
 
 30510 
 
 
 2620 
 
 2386 
 
 3420 
 
 102 
 
 
 4994 
 
 2 
 
 Do. 
 
 1847.. 
 
 33115 
 
 4901 
 
 9105 
 
 8900 
 
 18192 
 
 120 
 
 
 2913 
 
 1462 
 
 Do. 
 
 1818.. 
 
 52016 
 
 
 3806 
 
 438 
 
 1648 
 
 28 
 
 
 6219 
 
 895 
 
 Do. * 
 
 1819.. 
 
 69370 
 
 23 
 
 3167 
 
 180 
 
 3573 
 
 253 
 
 
 10173 
 
 42 
 
 Do. 
 
 1850.. 
 
 52535 
 
 920 
 
 3450 
 
 56 
 
 1876 
 
 265 
 
 
 7638 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1851.. 
 
 134919 
 
 1447 
 
 1051 
 
 
 
 1286 
 
 25 
 
 
 9701 
 
 
 
 
 Flour. 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Indian Corn. 
 
 I. Corn Meal. 
 
 
 
 C’wise & Ireland. 
 
 For. 
 
 C’wise. 
 
 For. 
 
 C’wise & Irel. 
 
 C’wise & Irel. 
 
 Endin 
 
 
 Sacks. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Sept. 30, 
 
 1815.. 
 
 17508 
 
 30510 
 
 45636 
 
 1199 
 
 108 
 
 
 16102 
 
 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1816.. 
 
 16603 
 
 159712 
 
 11671 
 
 1966 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 144106 
 
 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 1817.. 
 
 43887 
 
 641278 
 
 47611 
 
 19800 
 
 609 
 
 
 639667 
 
 
 161999 
 
 Do. 
 
 1818.. 
 
 20979 
 
 221244 
 
 2163 
 
 3253 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 491907 
 
 
 189567 
 
 Do. 
 
 1849.. 
 
 18912 
 
 203310 
 
 6177 
 
 7188 
 
 
 
 
 628400 
 
 
 42113 
 
 Do. 
 
 1850.. 
 
 35137 
 
 101611 
 
 9080 
 
 6989 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 418854 
 
 
 14802 
 
 Do. 
 
 1851.. 
 
 56323 
 
 214790 
 
 12092 
 
 9531 
 
 130 
 
 
 313161 
 
 
 20817 
 
 There are no accounts of grain, &c. 
 floor imported for twelve months endin 
 tities duty-paid for home consumption.* 
 
 Dassing by inland navigation. The quantities of grain and 
 g 30th September, 1850 and 1851, will represent the quan- 
 
 EXPORTS OF GRAIN, &c., TO IRELAND, FOR SIX YEARS, ENDING 30th 
 SEPTEMBER, 1846, 47, 48, 49, 50, AND 51. 
 
 Ending 
 30th Sept, 
 of Years 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 Peas. 
 
 In. Corn. 
 
 In. Meal. 
 
 Flour. 
 
 Oatmeal. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 Sacks. 
 
 Brls. 
 
 Loads. 
 
 1816.. 
 
 21,636 
 
 1,386 
 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 97,030 
 
 
 4,134 
 
 58,816 
 
 2,192 
 
 1847.. 
 
 120,257 
 
 11,033 
 
 786 
 
 7,053 
 
 4,972 
 
 487,311 
 
 153,823 
 
 27,109 
 
 296,669 
 
 5,689 
 
 1818.. 
 
 31,833 
 
 53 
 
 54 
 
 582 
 
 509 
 
 478,124 
 
 180,353 
 
 8,815 
 
 122,719 
 
 800 
 
 1849.. 
 
 11,264 
 
 431 
 
 274 
 
 2,379 
 
 1,117 
 
 629,591 
 
 40,136 
 
 4,677 
 
 99,443 
 
 6,324 
 
 1850.. 
 
 41,561 
 
 3,629 
 
 422 
 
 2,290 
 
 774 
 
 111,735 
 
 13,223 
 
 16,742 
 
 58,612 
 
 1,269 
 
 1851.. 
 
 106,076 
 
 6,135 
 
 16 
 
 2,321 
 
 461 
 
 309,515 
 
 19,432 
 
 33,087 
 
 123,115 
 
 828 
 
 But Liverpool not only possesses an immense trade in British manufac¬ 
 tures and foreign and colonial produce; the passenger trade carried on 
 
 * Mr. Robert Procter’s Liverpool Corn Tables. 
 
823 
 
 from the port is also on an enormous scale. The large ships which come 
 to Liverpool laden with cotton and timber take out passengers to the 
 United States and British America much cheaper than any other kind 
 of vessels. Hence Liverpool has been for some years the great point of 
 departure for emigrants, not only from England, Scotland, and Wales, 
 but also from Ireland. It has now become the place of emigration for 
 Germans, who are brought direct by steamers, or across from Hull, and 
 who find it cheaper to sail from Liverpool than from their own country. 
 
 The countries chiefly sought by emigrants from the British Islands 
 and the continent are three, the United States, British America, and 
 Australia. These, however, have hitherto been sought in very different 
 proportions, the United States being first, British America second, and 
 Australia third. The discovery of the gold of Australia will probably 
 change this in some degree, hut America still retains many advantages. 
 The Australian emigration will consist of emigrants sent out at the 
 expense of the colonies, and of emigrants of a higher class. 
 
 The following table of the comparative emigration to each country, 
 since 1840, will show what is the proportion in which each country is 
 sought by emigrants : 
 
 EMIGRANTS TO THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD DURING THE 
 LAST TEN YEARS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 B. N. America. 
 
 United States. 
 
 Australia, 
 New Zealand. 
 
 Other parts. 
 
 T otal. 
 
 1840 .... 
 
 32,293 
 
 40,642 
 
 15,850 
 
 1,058 
 
 90,743 
 
 1841 .... 
 
 38,164 
 
 45,017 
 
 32,620 
 
 2,786 
 
 118,592 
 
 1842 .... 
 
 54.123 
 
 63,852 
 
 8,534 
 
 1,835 
 
 128,344 
 
 1843 .... 
 
 23,518 
 
 28,335 
 
 3,478 
 
 1,881 
 
 57,212 
 
 1844 .... 
 
 22,924 
 
 43,660 
 
 2,229 
 
 1,873 
 
 70 686 
 
 1845 .... 
 
 31,803 
 
 58,538 
 
 830 
 
 2,330 
 
 93,501 
 
 1846 .... 
 
 43,439 
 
 83,239 
 
 2,347 
 
 1,820 
 
 129 851 
 
 1847 .... 
 
 109.680 
 
 142,154 
 
 4.949 
 
 1,487 
 
 258,270 
 
 1848 .... 
 
 31,065 
 
 188,233 
 
 23.904 
 
 4,887 
 
 248,089 
 
 1849 .... 
 
 41,367 
 
 219,460 
 
 32,191 
 
 6,480 
 
 289,498 
 
 1850 .... 
 
 32,961 
 
 223,078 
 
 16,037 
 
 8,773 
 
 280,849 
 
 The following will show how large a portion of the whole have sailed 
 
 from Liverpool: 
 
 EMIGRATION FROM LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Persons. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Persons. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Persons. 
 
 1 833 . 
 
 10,888 
 
 20,846 
 
 16,385 
 
 32,845 
 
 32,045 
 
 13,441 
 
 31,578 
 
 1840. 
 
 40,359 
 
 48,529 
 
 54,377 
 
 27,885 
 
 42,171 
 
 55,577 
 
 1846. 
 
 71.517 
 
 1834... 
 
 1841. 
 
 1847. 
 
 134,524 
 
 131.121 
 
 1835... 
 
 1842. 
 
 1848. 
 
 ]«3fi 
 
 1843. 
 
 1849. 
 
 153,902 
 
 174,187 
 
 1837 . 
 
 1844. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1838 
 
 1845. 
 
 1851. 
 
 206,015 
 
 1839. 
 
 
 
824 
 
 The circumstances which fix the choice of a country and future home 
 with emigrants are cheapness of passage, abundance of employment, and 
 rate of wages, in the country sought. 
 
 As far as cheapness of voyage is concerned, the United States and 
 British America are much the same, British America being a little cheaper 
 at the season when the great timber ships sail. In the spring of the pre¬ 
 sent year, 1852, the passage for steerage passengers to Quebec is £3, better 
 class £4; to New York £3 10s., cabin £15. The voyage to Australia 
 is five times as long as that to America ; the passage in steerage is ill4, 
 cabin £45. There is a great emigration to Australia with colonial funds, 
 which will probably increase very much now that the colonial revenue is so 
 greatly augmented by monthly licenses for digging gold. This will take 
 out vast numbers of labourers. Already there is a large increase of emi¬ 
 grants of a higher class. 
 
 Fortunately for Liverpool some eminent capitalists have taken 
 up this trade. There is nothing more worthy of the attention of 
 the home and colonial governments than the facilitating of emigration 
 to Australia, and the sending out a good class of emigrants. Already 
 the foundations of a great empire are laid. Australia already takes 
 upwards of two millions’ worth of goods, with a population of 300,000 
 inhabitants, and, previous to the discovery of gold, it exported upwards of 
 two millions’ worth of produce. With a population of two or three 
 millions it will probably consume ten times as much, and the gold, copper, 
 and wool of the colonies will pay for anything which they can take. If 
 it is worth while for the population of the United States to leave that 
 country for California, emigrants from this country will certainly find it 
 worth their while to go to Australia. 
 
 In 1850, the number of emigrants who sailed from London was 25,250 ; 
 Clyde, 14,431; Limerick, 10,658; Cork, (about) 8,000; Plymouth, 
 (about) 8,000; Londonderry, 4,142. The total number of emigrants in 
 1850 was 280,849, of whom 257,663 sailed to America.* 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the total amount of tonnage 
 employed by the commerce of Liverpool, in 1851, was upwards of six 
 million tons, and that of this vast amount of shipping 3,262,000 tons 
 was employed in the foreign and colonial, and the rest in the coast¬ 
 ing trade. 
 
 The following tables will show the progress of the shipping of Liver¬ 
 pool, London, and Hull, and of the other principal ports of the United 
 Kingdom, (exclusive of coasters,) since the close of the general war : 
 
 * Report on Passengers' Act. 
 
825 
 
 NUMBER OF VESSELS AND AMOUNT OF TONNAGE OF TWELVE OF THE 
 PRINCIPAL PORTS OF GREAT BRITAIN, IN 1850, AS COMPARED WITH 1816.« 
 
 
 
 1816. 
 
 
 
 1850. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Inwards. 
 
 Outwards. 
 
 Inwards. 
 
 Outwards. 
 
 
 
 
 London. 
 
 Ships 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ships 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Total 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British .. 
 
 2,82 V 
 
 513,587 
 
 2,297 
 
 489,101 
 
 6,49!) 
 
 1.370,714 
 
 3,470 
 
 907,429 
 
 1816 
 
 6,196 
 
 1,247,873 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 792 
 
 115,463 
 
 780 
 
 129,722 
 
 3,415 
 
 528,234 
 
 3,053 
 
 477,254 
 
 1850 
 
 16,437 
 
 3,289,631 
 
 Total.. 
 
 3,119 
 
 629,050 
 
 3,077 
 
 018,823 
 
 9,914 
 
 1,904,948 
 
 6,523 
 
 1,384,683 
 
 Inc. 
 
 10,241 
 
 2,041,758 
 
 Liverpool. 
 British .. 
 
 989 
 
 201,895 
 
 1,176 
 
 221,895 
 
 2,944 
 
 954,101 
 
 3,218 
 
 986,858 
 
 1816 
 
 2,946 
 
 642,063 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 351 
 
 98,778 
 
 440 
 
 199,495 
 
 1,587 
 
 651,214 
 
 1,589 
 
 670,080 
 
 1850 
 
 9,338 
 
 3,262,253 
 
 Total.. 
 
 1,340 
 
 300,673 
 
 1,616 
 
 421,390 
 
 4,531 
 
 1,605,315 
 
 4,807 
 
 1,056,938 
 
 Inc. 
 
 6,392 
 
 2,620,190 
 
 Hull. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British .. 
 
 454 
 
 81,305 
 
 414 
 
 68,920 
 
 1,172 
 
 297,710 
 
 836 
 
 237,900 
 
 1816 
 
 1,185 
 
 185,331 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 130 
 
 17,076 
 
 119 
 
 16,030 
 
 1,313 
 
 168,720 
 
 928 
 
 131,843 
 
 1850 
 
 4,249 
 
 836,173 
 
 Total.. 
 
 584 
 
 98,381 
 
 533 
 
 84,950 
 
 2,485 
 
 466,430 
 
 1,764 
 
 369,743 
 
 Inc. 
 
 3,132 
 
 650,842 
 
 Bristol. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 230 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 204 
 
 37,703 
 
 161 
 
 30,843 
 
 465 
 
 99,075 
 
 60,023 
 
 1810 
 
 458 
 
 85,782 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 44 
 
 8,090 
 
 49 
 
 9,146 
 
 265 
 
 38,237 
 
 46 
 
 13,425 
 
 1850 
 
 1,006 
 
 217,260 
 
 Total.. 
 
 248 
 
 45,793 
 
 210 
 
 3,9989 
 
 730 
 
 137,812 
 
 276 
 
 79,448 
 
 Inc. 
 
 548 
 
 131,478 
 
 Newcastle. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,884 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 534 
 
 72,072 
 
 459 
 
 78,672 
 
 933 
 
 170,390 
 
 544,162 
 
 1816 
 
 1,127 
 
 162,773 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 83 
 
 7,509 
 
 51 
 
 4,520 
 
 1,099 
 
 145,902 
 
 2,290 
 
 395,410 
 
 1850 
 
 7,200 
 
 1,165,869 
 
 Total.. 
 
 617 
 
 79,581 
 
 510 
 
 83,192 
 
 2,032 
 
 316,297 
 
 5,174 
 
 939,572 
 
 Inc. 
 
 6,079 
 
 1,003,096 
 
 Southampton 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 36,468 
 
 British .. 
 
 219 
 
 17,962 
 
 192 
 
 15,883 
 
 483 
 
 132,485 
 
 464 
 
 128,152 
 
 1810 
 
 439 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 12 
 
 818 
 
 16 
 
 1,805 
 
 143 
 
 19,632 
 
 139 
 
 19,366 
 
 1850 
 
 1,229 
 
 299,635 
 
 Total.. 
 
 231 
 
 18,780 
 
 208 
 
 17,688 
 
 626 
 
 152,117 
 
 603 
 
 147,518 
 
 Inc. 
 
 790 
 
 263,167 
 
 Glasgow. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British .. 
 
 32 
 
 2,657 
 
 55 
 
 4,571 
 
 381 
 
 79,797 
 
 613 
 
 143,660 
 
 1816 
 
 89 
 
 7,441 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 1 
 
 102 
 
 1 
 
 111 
 
 232 
 
 36,658 
 
 244 
 
 36,743 
 
 1800 
 
 1,470 
 
 296,858 
 
 Total.. 
 
 33 
 
 2,759 
 
 56 
 
 4,682 
 
 613 
 
 116,455 
 
 857 
 
 180,403 
 
 Inc. 
 
 1,381 
 
 289,417 
 
 Gheenock. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British .. 
 
 163 
 
 40,668 
 
 238 
 
 45,225 
 
 250 
 
 85,546 
 
 144 
 
 55,182 
 
 1816 
 
 433 
 
 94,530 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 15 
 
 4,162 
 
 17 
 
 4,475 
 
 15 
 
 4,828 
 
 10 
 
 3,293 
 
 1850 
 
 419 
 
 148.849 
 
 Total.. 
 
 178 
 
 44,830 
 
 255 
 
 49,700 
 
 265 
 
 90,374 
 
 154 
 
 58,475 
 
 Inc. 
 
 +14 
 
 54,319 
 
 Leith. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 61,718 
 
 British .. 
 
 188 
 
 27,450 
 
 153 
 
 22,113 
 
 425 
 
 64,771 
 
 173 
 
 32,433 
 
 1816 
 
 424 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 47 
 
 7,212 
 
 30 
 
 4,943 
 
 690 
 
 61,594 
 
 178 
 
 16,857 
 
 1850 
 
 1,466 
 
 175,655 
 
 Total.. 
 
 235 
 
 34,662 
 
 189 
 
 27,056 
 
 1,115 
 
 126,365 
 
 351 
 
 49,290 
 
 Inc. 
 
 1,042 
 
 113,937 
 
 Belfast. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 45,701 
 
 British .. 
 
 92 
 
 12,710 
 
 80 
 
 15,105 
 
 202 
 
 44,226 
 
 144 
 
 34,945 
 
 1816 
 
 265 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 53 
 
 9,742 
 
 40 
 
 8,144 
 
 110 
 
 21,210 
 
 113 
 
 23,83! 
 
 1850 
 
 569 
 
 124,212 
 
 Total.. 
 
 145 
 
 22,452 
 
 120 
 
 23,249 
 
 312 
 
 65,436 
 
 257 
 
 58,776 
 
 Inc. 
 
 304 
 
 78,511 
 
 Cork.J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 40,698 
 
 British .. 
 
 105 
 
 12,206 
 
 81 
 
 12,696 
 
 253 
 
 47,214 
 
 120 
 
 26,017 
 
 1816 
 
 320 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 64 
 
 10,009 
 
 70 
 
 10,787 
 
 228 
 
 44,900 
 
 205 
 
 38,683 
 
 1850 
 
 806 
 
 156,814 
 
 Total.. 
 
 169 
 
 22,215 
 
 151 
 
 23,483 
 
 481 
 
 92,114 
 
 325 
 
 64,700 
 
 Inc. 
 
 486 
 
 111,116 
 
 Dublin. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 66,376 
 
 British .. 
 
 182 
 
 23,777 
 
 88 
 
 14,575 
 
 281 
 
 44,721 
 
 85 
 
 21,020 
 
 1816 
 
 403 
 
 Foreign.. 
 
 77 
 
 15,674 
 
 56 
 
 12,350 
 
 182 
 
 37,401 
 
 172 
 
 36,566 
 
 1850 
 
 720 
 
 139,708 
 
 Total.. 
 
 259 
 
 39,451 
 
 144 
 
 26,925 
 
 463 
 
 82,122 
 
 257 
 
 57,586 
 
 Inc. 
 
 317 
 
 73,332 
 
 Custom-house, London, August 5, 1851. M. H. NOSS, Registrar-General of Shipping. 
 
 * Return of Vessels and Tonnage, ordered by the House of Commons, August 6, 1851. 
 + There is a decrease of 1-i ships at Greenock, hut an increase of 54,819 tons. 
 
 { Cork and Dublin are only given from 1828 to 1850. 
 
826 
 
 The above table shows a wonderfully rapid increase during the last 
 thirty-six years in the amount of shipping employed in the foreign and 
 colonial commerce of all the principal ports in the kingdom. In 1816, 
 the first complete year of peace, the capacity of the vessels employed in 
 the foreign and colonial trade in the twelve principal ports of the 
 kingdom was 2,840,786 tons; in 1851 it had increased to 10,201,917, 
 that is, it had more than trebled itself in thirty-six years. 
 
 The greatest increase of tonnage is at Liverpool, where it amounts to 
 not less than 2,500,190 tons, which is 460,000 tons more than the increase 
 of London, and 1,800,000 more than the increase of Hull. Nor does 
 this show the full extent of the increase of the tonnage of Liverpool, for 
 the steamers which trade from Liverpool for Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, 
 Cork, and Limerick, are excluded from the above returns, whilst those 
 which sailed from London and Hull for Ostend, Antwerp, Rotterdam, 
 Bologne, and all the ports between Havre and Hamburg, are included, 
 as well as those which sailed for more distant ports. The following 
 account of the amount of tonnage on which dock dues have been paid 
 in Liverpool during the last four years includes the larger class of 
 steamers employed in the trade with Ireland, but excludes the smaller 
 class of coasters, properly so called : 
 
 SHIPS AND TONNAGE OF LIVERPOOL (EXCLUSIVE OF THE SMALLER 
 COASTERS) FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 January to June. 
 
 July to December. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 ISIS. 
 
 10,449 
 
 1,748,984 
 
 10,091 
 
 1825,989 
 
 20,010 
 
 3.584,973 
 
 1849. 
 
 10,642 
 
 1,802,109 
 
 10.241 
 
 1 841,918 
 
 20,813 
 
 3,644,377 
 
 1800. 
 
 10,253 
 
 1,601,726 
 
 10,043 
 
 1.913,970 
 
 2 ',986 
 
 3,611698 
 
 1831. 
 
 10,092 
 
 1,842,543 
 
 10,346 
 
 2,012,424 
 
 20,939 
 
 3,854,967 
 
 The application of steam to the purposes of navigation has done much 
 during the last thirty years for the prosperity of commerce at all the sea¬ 
 ports of the kingdom, but nowhere else so much as at Liverpool. It 
 appears, from an official return, that the portion of the commerce of 
 Liverpool carried on by means of steam navigation in 1850 was 989,150 
 tons, and that of the commerce of London, 706,194. There is pro¬ 
 bably no one circumstance which will have so much influence on the 
 future prosperity of these and other ports as the amount of spirit and 
 enterprise which they may show in the application of steam to the pur¬ 
 poses of navigation. 
 
827 
 
 Up to the present time steam has been applied chiefly to three pur¬ 
 poses : first to the trade of the narrow seas, including the coasts of 
 England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and the part of the continent 
 which lies between Havre and Hamburg: second, to general commerce 
 to more distant countries, by means of screw propellers : and third, to the 
 carrying of the mails, of first-class passengers, and of light and costly 
 goods, to North America, the East and West Indies, Brazil, and along 
 the west coast of America, hy means of the royal mail steamers. The 
 first and second of these branches of steam navigation are dependent on 
 private enterprise: the third depends partly on that, and partly on grants 
 from the Government, for the carrying of the mails. All these three 
 branches of steam navigation are conducted with great spirit in 
 Liverpool. 
 
 With regard to the steam trade of Liverpool in the narrow seas, 
 including the trade with Ireland, it amounted, in 1850, to 896,108 tons, 
 and is increasing yearly. In a few years steamers will supersede all 
 other vessels in the coasting trade. At the present time iron steamers 
 are building in Liverpool, intended to carry coal coastwise ; and if this 
 experiment should be successful, it will more than double the steam- 
 power of England, the quantity of coal carried coastwise being upwards 
 of nine millions of tons a-year. 
 
 The trade from Liverpool to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea is 
 carried on almost entirely by means of iron screw steamers, of which there 
 are several lines plying from Liverpool to every considerable port from 
 Gibraltar to Trebizonde, Alexandretta, and Alexandria. The Great 
 Britain, the noblest of screw steamers, and the Sarah Sands, also a 
 powerful screw steamer, now ply between Liverpool and New York, 
 to which port the Great Britain has made the quickest passage ever 
 made across the Atlantic by a screw steamer. A line of screw 
 steamers also carries on an extensive trade, and keeps up a regular inter¬ 
 course, between Liverpool and Philadelphia. Several new lines of 
 screw steamers are projected, and are expected to come into working in 
 the course of the year 1852, including a line to Antwerp, aline to Brazil, 
 and a line to the West Indies. The increase of iron screw steamers on 
 the river Mersey is one of the most remarkable and gratifying events of 
 the last three years. 
 
 With regard to mail steamers to distant parts of the world, Liverpool 
 has the good fortune to possess two lines, the British and North Ameri¬ 
 can and the United States mail steamers, which have never been equalled 
 5 p 
 
828 
 
 in speed and regularity. By means of these lines Liverpool communi¬ 
 cates with Halifax, Boston, New York, and the whole of North America, 
 with greater rapidity than any other port in Europe. From ten to twelve 
 days is now the ordinary length of the voyage between Liverpool and 
 New York. 
 
 Nor is the application of steam to purposes of external communication 
 more complete than to those of internal. There is not a single city, town, 
 or district of Great Britain with which Liverpool does not communicate 
 regularly by the power of steam. 
 
 The origiu of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway has been fully 
 traced in a previous chapter of this work ; and notices have been given 
 of the formation and opening of all the principal lines of railway, directly 
 or indirectly, connected with Liverpool. There is now no town of any 
 consequence in Great Britain with which the port of Liverpool has not 
 constant communication by means of railway, and scarcely one which does 
 not add something to the commercial prosperity of the port, either by 
 taking more or less of the produce imported there, or by supplying a certain 
 amount of exports, or by doing both. Liverpool has also derived its full 
 share of advantage from the wonderful facilities for personal commu¬ 
 nication created by the railway system. The general results of the 
 introduction of that admirable mode of communication, so far as 
 passengers are concerned, has been to diminish the cost of travelling to 
 about one-third the rate paid in the days of stage and mail coaches, when 
 the average charge was fivepence a mile for inside passengers and three¬ 
 pence for outside ; and as relates to goods and merchandise, to diminish 
 the charge one-half. The result of these reductions of cost, joined to 
 the saving of time, is, that nearly eighty millions of persons travelled by 
 railway in the year 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, which would 
 itself have been impossible without railways. According to the calculations 
 of a most competent judge, it would have cost ten millions a-vear more 
 than it does to have conveyed the goods now conveyed by railway, by 
 the means of conveyance formerly in existence ; and seventeen millions 
 more to have conveyed the passengers, parcels, and letters; making a total 
 saving, in the internal traffic of the country, of twenty-seven millions 
 a-year resulting from the introduction of railways. ** 
 
 The following tables, with which I have been favoured by Mr. 
 Braithwaite Poole, show the amount of goods and merchandise sent from 
 
 Paper by Mr. Braithwaite Poole, read before the Institute of Civil Engineers, April, 1852. 
 
829 
 
 Liverpool to various towns in the interior, or brought from those towns 
 to Liverpool, in the year 1851, by the London and Northwestern Kailway; 
 and also show the nature of the goods so conveyed : 
 
 ANALYSIS OF GOODS TRAFFIC IN AND OUT OF LIVERPOOL, BY THE 
 
 LONDON AND NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY, IN THE YEAR 1851. 
 
 Stations. 
 
 1851 
 
 Stations. 
 
 1851 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 124,175 
 
 32,603 
 
 45,029 
 
 29,nl2 
 
 27,012 
 
 26.240 
 25,711 
 23,109 
 22,632 
 16.436 
 15,886 
 15,031 
 13,892 
 13,864 
 13,749 
 
 13.240 
 
 6,814 
 
 6,620 
 
 Bristol . 
 
 Tons. 
 
 4,850 
 
 4,622 
 
 4,333 
 
 4.292 
 
 4,129 
 
 4,072 
 
 3,461 
 
 3,401 
 
 3,165 
 
 2,824 
 
 2,618 
 
 2,473 
 
 1,610 
 
 1,784 
 
 1,481 
 
 1,351 
 
 612 
 
 
 Darlaston. 
 
 
 Willenhall. 
 
 Sheffield . 
 
 Coventry and Warwick . 
 
 
 Ashton and Staleybridge . 
 
 Leeds . 
 
 
 
 Crewe ... 
 
 
 Wellington . 
 
 
 
 
 Walsall. 
 
 
 ' Dewesbury . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 York and Newcastle . 
 
 
 Lichfield and Tamworth . 
 
 
 
 Road between Liverpool and Man-1 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 522,339 
 
 
 
 ANALYSIS OF GOODS TRAFFIC IN AND OUT OF LIVERPOOL, BY THE 
 
 LONDON AND NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY, IN THE YEAR 1851. 
 
 Goods. 
 
 1851 
 
 Goods. 
 
 1851 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 96,188 
 
 88,054 
 
 73,296 
 
 45,460 
 
 39,153 
 
 41,417 
 
 32,090 
 
 21,947 
 
 17,786 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 13,875 
 
 9,317 
 
 
 
 
 
 4,169 
 
 
 
 3/279 
 
 
 
 2^481 
 
 1,700 
 
 1,202 
 
 633 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 388 
 
 
 15,045 
 
 14,354 
 
 
 
 T otal. 
 
 522,339 
 
 
 
 This account of the commerce and navigation of Liverpool would he 
 altogether incomplete, if I did not add to it a description of the present 
 state of those magnificent docks, now thirty in number, which have 
 been formed in Liverpool during the last hundred and forty years, at a 
 cost of about twelve millions sterling, and which form the most per¬ 
 fect artificial harbour ever made by the skill of man. The following 
 is a sketch of the present state of each dock, beginning at the north 
 end. 
 
 The magnificent group of docks, now called the northern docks, were 
 
830 
 
 formed under tlie Dock Act of 1844, the 7th and 8th of Victoria. They 
 consist of eight docks for sailing vessels, one splendid steam dock, and 
 six graving docks. The following is an account of this great range of 
 docks, beginning with the great steam dock, named in honour of the dis¬ 
 tinguished statesman who formerly represented Liverpool in parliament: 
 
 The Huskisson Dock, the largest dock in the port of Liverpool, was 
 formed to accommodate the largest class of paddle-wheeled steamers. 
 No sooner was it intimated to the dock committee of Liverpool that a 
 line of mail steamers was about to he established between New York and 
 Liverpool, which would require a dock with an entrance of at least 80 
 feet wide, than that spirited body offered to construct both a wet dock 
 and a graving dock, (the south lock to which communicates with both,) 
 capable, in every respect, of accommodating steamers of that immense 
 size. The Huskisson Dock, which is at present the most northerly of 
 all the docks, is the result of this determination. The depth of water in 
 this stupendous dock is, in a 20 feet tide, 27 feet; the area of its water 
 space is 15 acres 993 square yards; and the length of its quay frontage 
 is 1,122 yards. When finished, it will have two entrances; one at the 
 south, from the Sandon Basin, 80 feet wide, and the other at the 
 north, from the Huskisson Basin, also 80 feet wide. These are the widest 
 dock-gates in the world. The entrances to the Huskisson Dock are 
 10 feet wider than the entrance to the widest dock at Portsmouth. 
 These gates are also 10 feet wider than the entrances to the Sandon, 
 the Wellington, and the Coburg Docks, in this port, all of which docks 
 are entered by gates 70 feet wide; and the gates of the Huskisson 
 Dock are 35 feet wider than the entrances into the Prince’s Dock, 
 which were formerly considered wide enough to admit vessels of the 
 largest class employed in commerce. The Huskisson Dock, joined to the 
 other steam docks, will render Liverpool the most commodious seaport 
 in the empire for ocean steamers; and we have the pleasure of knowing, 
 that the dock committee are determined to retain that position, hy 
 adopting any additional improvements which may he rendered necessary 
 or desirable, either hy a further increase in the size of ocean steamers, or 
 hy any change in their construction. The Huskisson Dock was planned 
 and built by Mr. Jesse Hartley, who has now wholly constructed twenty- 
 one docks, and reconstructed six, in the port of Liverpool ; and who has 
 also laid out the plans, and formed the outline, of other great works 
 connected with the commerce of Liverpool. The docks formed hy Mr. 
 Hartley will hear a comparison with the greatest works of the most 
 

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831 
 
 distinguished engineers of the present age, fertile as it is in engineering 
 wonders. 
 
 The Sandon Graving Docks, six in number, lie south-east of the 
 Huskisson and north of the Sandon Docks. They are each of them 
 25 feet in depth, 550 feet in length, and 80 feet in breadth. Those who 
 have seen that immense vessel, the Great Britain, lying in one of these 
 graving docks, and have observed how easily another large ship might be 
 accommodated in the same dock, will be able to form some adequate idea 
 of their magnitude. Each of the six graving docks is furnished with a 
 furnace, and all other conveniences for repairing ships. Like all the 
 northern dock-works, the Sandon Graving Docks are faced with granite, 
 which gives them a massy and most durable appearance. 
 
 Between the Huskisson Dock and the Sandon Basin lies the Huskis¬ 
 son Graving Dock, which can be used either as a wet or a dry dock, and 
 which is large enough, and possesses an entrance wide enough, to admit 
 the largest paddle-wheeled steamers now afloat on the ocean. Steamers 
 of the first class, like the Atlantic and the Baltic, require a width of 75 
 feet to clear the paddle-boxes, leaving only 5 feet to spare in a dock-gate 
 80 feet wide. 
 
 The Sandon Basin, through which vessels enter the Sandon Dock, 
 and which forms one of the passages into the Huskisson Dock, the 
 Wellington Half-tide, the Wellington, and the Bramley-Moore Docks, 
 communicate with the river by an open passage 200 feet wide. This 
 basin covers an area of G acres 904 yards. 
 
 The Sandon Dock is the second of nine wet docks, (including the 
 Huskisson Steam Dock,) which are generally known as the North Docks, 
 but which may, perhaps, lose that title before many years are gone, as 
 the Prince’s Dock and the group composed of the Waterloo, the Victoria, 
 the Trafalgar, and the Clarence Docks have lost it during the present 
 generation. The gate which gives entrance to the Sandon Dock, from 
 the basin of the same name, is 70 feet wide ; the water space of this dock 
 covers an area of 10 acres and 100 square yards; and the dock furnishes 
 867 lineal yards of quay space for the landing of goods. This dock was 
 named in honour of Dudley Kyder Viscount Sandon, now Earl of Har- 
 rowby, who represented the borough of Liverpool in the House of Com¬ 
 mons from the year 1833 to 1849, and who, during that period, proved 
 himself to be one of the most accessible, intelligent, and useful members 
 that ever had charge of its interests. 
 
 The Wellington Half-tide Dock, through which vessels enter the Wei- 
 
832 
 
 lington Dock, is connected with, the Sandon Basin by a double entrance 70 
 and 50 feet wide. The area of the Wellington Half-tide Dock is 3 acres 813 
 square yards ; its quay frontage is 400 yards. The area of the Welling¬ 
 ton Dock is 7 acres 4,120 square yards; its quay frontage 820 yards. 
 It is almost superfluous to state that this dock and the half-tide Wel¬ 
 lington Dock were named after the deliverer of the Peninsula, the over¬ 
 thrower of military despotism, and not less the consistent advocate of 
 internal and external peace. 
 
 The fourth of the northern docks is the Bramley-Moore Dock. This 
 dock communicates both with the Wellington Half-tide Dock and with 
 the Nelson Dock. Its gates are 60 feet wide; its area is 9 acres and 
 3,106 square yards; its quay frontage is 935 yards. This dock was 
 named in honour of Mr. John Bramley-Moore, who was chairman of the 
 Liverpool Dock Trust, at the time when the magnificent series of docks 
 which I a,m now describing was planned, and, to a great extent, executed. 
 
 The fifth, or Nelson Dock, communicates both with the Bramley- 
 Moore Dock and the Salisbury Dock. Its gates, which unite it to the 
 latter, are 60 feet wide; it contains 7 acres and 4,786 square yards of 
 water space, and its quay frontage is 803 yards. It is scarcely necessary 
 to mention that this dock is named after that great naval hero, whose 
 victories secured the independence of England, and kept open the ocean 
 to British merchants and shipowners, when it was closed to those of 
 almost every other nation. 
 
 The Salisbury is the first of three docks which extend inland. It is 
 entered from the river by a double passage 60 and 50 feet wide, contains an 
 area of 3 acres and 2,146 square yards, and supplies 406 yards of quay 
 space. It is named after the Marquis of Salisbury, who is connected with 
 Liverpool, by his descent from the Gascoynes, of Childwall. 
 
 The Collingwood Dock lies to the east of the Salisbury Dock, and is 
 approached through it, by gates 60 feet wide. It contains an area of 
 5 acres and 244 square yards, and 533 yards of quay frontage. 
 
 The Stanley Dock, the last of the “ northern” docks, lies to the east 
 of the Collingwood Dock; the Waterloo, or Regent’s-road, being carried 
 across the cut, which unites the two docks, by a drawbridge. The Stanley 
 Dock contains 7 acres and 120 square yards of water space, and supplies 
 753 yards of quay frontage. It is named in honour of the present Earl 
 of Derby, whose family has been connected with Liverpool by the 
 possession of property in and around the borough, and by other ties, 
 personal and historical, for upwards of 450 years. 
 
833 
 
 These docks form what are called the “ north" docks. It will be 
 seen, from a table of the dock dues of the port of Liverpool, given in the 
 appendix, that the amount of tonnage of the vessels which entered them, 
 in the year between the 25th June, 1850, and the 24th June, 1851, was 
 578,000 tons; and that the revenue which they produced to the dock 
 estate, the same year, was ,£43,363. 8s. 9d. 
 
 The cluster of wet and dry docks and basins, of which the Clarence, 
 the Trafalgar, the Victoria, and the Waterloo Docks are the chief, were 
 formed under the Dock Act of 1825, the 0th of King George the 
 Fourth. 
 
 The Clarence Graving Docks, with the basin, which connects them 
 with the Clarence Dock to the south and the Salisbury Dock to the north, 
 come first. Though less stupendous than the Sandon Graving Docks, 
 they are large and commodious. There are two of them with the follow¬ 
 ing dimensions :—Length, 730 yards and breadth 70 yards; depth, 25 
 feet. The Clarence Graving Dock Basin contains an area, or water space, 
 of 1 acre 556 square yards. 
 
 The Clarence Half-tide Basin, through which vessels approach the 
 Clarence and the Trafalgar Docks, contains 3 acres 4,500 yards. 
 
 The Clarence Dock and the Trafalgar Dock are approached by gates 
 47 and 45 feet wide. The Clarence Dock contains 5 acres 3,713 square 
 yards of water space and 740 yards of quay space; the Trafalgar Dock 
 5 acres 4,280 yards of water space and 727 yards of quay space. 
 
 These two docks are entirely set apart for steamers. Last year the 
 tonnage of the steam vessels which entered them was 759,749 tons, pro¬ 
 ducing a revenue to the dock estate, for the same period, of Tl3,847 Is. 5d. 
 
 The Victoria and Waterloo Docks come next. The Victoria Dock 
 contains a water space of 5 acres 3,559 square yards, and a quay frontage 
 of 755 yards; the Waterloo Dock contains 6 acres 1,153 square yards of 
 water space, and 993 yards of quay frontage. 
 
 The tonnage of the vessels which entered the Victoria and the 
 Waterloo Docks in the last year was 329,282 tons; the revenue which 
 they produced to the dock estate was not less than <£36,850 10s. Gd. 
 
 “ The Dock,’’ as it was originally called, or the Old Dock, as it was 
 afterwards named, was formed under the powers of an act passed in the 
 year 1710, the eighth of Queen Anne. It was dug in the bed of the 
 pool, which formerly ran half-round the ancient town of Liverpool, and was 
 situated about the middle of the present long line of docks, but a little 
 further inland than any of them. The Custom-house marks the site of 
 
834 
 
 this cradle of the commerce of Liverpool, having been built on the 
 ground formed by filling it up The Old Dock was formed on a piece 
 of land, or rather of water, of the size of four acres, given by the corpo¬ 
 ration for the purpose. It was made large enough to contain 100 vessels 
 of the size in use in the reign of Queen Anne, few of which were of 
 greater burthen than 150 tons. The yearly income which it was expected 
 to yield, calculated according to the average number of vessels which 
 had entered the port in the three years before it was formed, was T600. 
 It was opened in the reign of King George the First, about the year 
 1720; and was filled up in the reign of King George the Fourth, in the 
 year 1826. Mr. Thomas Steers was the engineer who constructed the 
 Old Dock, which was the first dock of the kind ever formed in England 
 for commercial purposes. 
 
 A graving dock, for repairing vessels, was formed about the same 
 time, adjoining the Old Dock. It was let on lease to Mr. Alderman 
 William Swire, whose family held it for many years, but was filled up 
 long ago. When the graving dock was formed, there was no other nearer 
 to Liverpool than the royal dock-yard at Plymouth. 
 
 The Salthouse Dock, so named from a large salt manufactory formerly 
 carried on on the adjoining land, was formed under the powers of an act 
 passed twenty years later, in the year 1737, the 11th of King George 
 the Second. It is the oldest of the existing docks, although it did not 
 take its present form until very recently, when it was re-constructed, 
 under the powers of the Dock Act of the 4th of Queen Victoria. It 
 at present contains 4 acres and 3,493 square yards of water space, and 
 730 yards of quay frontage, for loading and discharging goods. The 
 amount of shipping which entered the Salthouse Dock in the financial 
 year ending the 24th June, 1851, was 10,368 tons: the income which 
 the dock yielded to the dock estate, from duties on tonnage and on goods 
 entered inwards and outwards, during the same year, was T3,G84 16s. 4d. 
 The Salthouse Dock was made by Mr. Thomas Steers, and re-constructed 
 by Mr. Jesse Hartley, the present surveyor of the dock estate. 
 
 The George’s Dock was formed twenty-four years later than the Salt- 
 house Dock, under the powers of an act passed in the year 1762, the 2d 
 King George the Third. It was constructed on a piece of strand containing 
 14 acres, given by the. corporation, and extending from the bottom of 
 Chap el-street to the bottom of James-street. Previous to the forming of 
 the George’s Dock the tide came in, in high tides and stormy weather, as 
 far as the wall of St. Nicholas’s Church, which wall was thrown down by 
 
835 
 
 the waves in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as far as to the Tower of the 
 Stanleys at the foot of Water-street, and up to the houses at the foot of 
 James-street, into a window of one of which the bowsprit of a vessel was 
 once driven in a great storm. This was part of the townside, the original 
 place for loading and unloading vessels, the memory of which was pre¬ 
 served to our days in the old electioneering cry of “ Townside for ever.” 
 On this part of the townside the George’s Dock was constructed, at the 
 beginning of the reign of George the Third. It has been greatly enlarged 
 and improved at various times. It is now entered, through a basin con¬ 
 taining 3 acres 1,852 square yards of water space, by dock gates 42 feet 
 11 inches wide. The George’s Dock itself contains 5 acres 2,593 square 
 yards of water space, and 1,001 yards of quay frontage. The amount of 
 shipping which entered the George’s Dock in the year ending the 24th 
 June, 1851, was 107,942 tons; the revenue which this dock produced to 
 the dock estate that year was 429,741 8s. 8d. 
 
 The King’s and Queen’s Docks were commenced about twenty-five years 
 later than the George’s Dock, under the provisions of the dock act passed 
 in the year 1785, the 25th of King George the Third. These docks have 
 also been greatly enlarged and improved under more recent dock acts. 
 The following is an account of these two docks as they are in the year 1852: 
 
 The King’s Dock is entered by gates 42 feet wide. It contains 7 
 acres 3,896 square yards of water space, and 875 lineal yards of quay 
 space. The amount of shipping which entered it in the year ending June 
 24th, 1851, was 163,198 tons; the amount of income which it produced 
 to the dock estate was 4214,245 10s. lOd. 
 
 The Queen’s Dock, lying to the south of the King’s, contains 10 
 acres 3,101 square yards of water space, and 1,255 yards of quay 
 frontage. The amount of shipping which entered it in 1851 was 132,203 
 tons; the amount which it produced to the dock estate was 4215,388 
 6s. 8d. The dry dock, afterwards the Canning Dock, was formed under 
 the act of 1737. It was made a wet dock, and the name changed to 
 Canning Dock under the act of 1825. 
 
 The Canning Dock was formed under an act passed in the year 1825, 
 under which act the King’s Dock was greatly enlarged, and other im¬ 
 provements were made. The approach to the Canning Dock is through 
 a half-tide basin, containing 2 acres 2,688 square yards of water space, 
 and 429 lineal yards of quay frontage. The Canning Dock itself contains 
 4 acres and 376 square yards of water space, and 585 yards of quay 
 space. Its gate is 45 feet wide. The shipping which entered the dock 
 5 Q 
 
836 
 
 in the year ending June 24th, 1851, was 126,752 tons; the income 
 which it produced to the dock estate was .£4,366 12s. 5d. 
 
 The Prince’s Dock was formed under the authority of the Dock Act 
 of 1799, the 39th of George the Third, and was opened in the year 1822. 
 This handsome dock is approached at the north end through a basin, 
 containing 4 acres 1,549 yards of water space, and through George’s 
 Basin at the south end. The gates of the Prince’s Dock are 45 feet 
 wide. The dock contains 11 acres 3,889 square yards of water space, and 
 1,613 lineal yards of quay space. The amount of the shipping which 
 entered the Prince’s Dock in the year ending June, 1851, was 247,916 tons; 
 the revenue which it yielded to the dock estate was £33,243 13s. 8d. 
 
 The Brunswick Dock, the great timber dock of the port, was formed 
 under the Dock Act of 1825, the 6th of George the Fourth, and two 
 graving docks for the repairing of ships at the same time. It con¬ 
 tains 12 acres 2,744 square yards of water space, and 1,092 lineal yards 
 of quay space. The gates of the Brunswick Dock are 42 feet wide. 
 The quantity of shipping which entered the Brunswick Dock in the year 
 ending June 24th, 1851, was 318,464 tons ; the amount of dock revenue 
 which it produced was £34,564 4s. 7d. 
 
 The Albert Dock, surrounded by an immense pile of warehouses for 
 the discharging of goods, is one of the most perfect docks in the world. 
 It was opened by his Boyal Highness Prince Albert, in the year 1846. 
 The amount of shipping which entered the Albert Dock in 1851 was 
 194,991 ; the amount of revenue which it produced to the dock estate 
 was £24,918 7s. 3d. This is independent of the income derived from 
 the Albert Dock Warehouses, which pay a handsome per centage. 
 
 The Coburg Dock, the first dock built in Liverpool for the accommo¬ 
 dation of steamers of the largest class, is entered by gates 70 feet 1 inch 
 wide. It contains 4 acres 2,198 square yards of water space, and 747 
 yards of quay frontage. The amount of shipping which entered the dock 
 in the year ending June 24th, 1851, was 85,145 tons; the amount 
 which it contributed to the income of the dock estate was £6,987 3s. 8d. 
 
 The Union Dock is one of the smallest in the port. It contains 2 
 acres 3,505 square yards of water space, and 497 yards of quay frontage. 
 The amount of shipping which entered this dock in the year ending June 
 24th, 1851, was 11,706 tons; and the amount of revenue derived from 
 it was £843 15s. Id. 
 
 The Toxteth Dock contains 1 acre 469 yards. Income, £1,813 15s. 3d. 
 
 Such are the Liverpool docks in the year 1852. Another great dock 
 
837 
 
 is also in course of construction at Wapping, in the centre of the 
 town, near the Albert Dock. Plans have also been prepared for con¬ 
 structing a great timber float at the north end of the town, beyond the 
 Huskisson Dock. The Harrington Dock also belongs to the dock 
 estate. 
 
 The water space of the docks above described covers 179 acres 126 
 square yards; the area of the dry docks is 20 acres 4,809 square yards; 
 the total area of the docks, wet and dry, is 200 acres 95 square yards. 
 The length of the quay frontage for discharging and loading goods in the 
 Liverpool docks is 14 miles 1,355 yards. The river wall, which guards 
 the docks from the storms and tides, is five miles in length and from 
 thirty to fifty feet in height. 
 
 In addition to the great works already constructed by the Liverpool 
 dock trust, they have obtained powers to construct another dock, in the 
 central part of the present line, of 11 acres, and to form a vast timber 
 float, of 20G acres, at the northern end of the docks. The progress of 
 part of these new works is at present checked, but there is no doubt that 
 they will be carried out, and that they will prove of great value to the 
 commerce of the port. 
 
 The following memorandum, relating to the formation of the Liverpool 
 docks, contains information which will prove of general and lasting interest: 
 
 The group of docks, situate between the Prince’s Dock Basin and the 
 north boundary wall of the Clarence Graving Docks, are principally formed 
 upon rock of various qualities of red sandstone, but some portions are on 
 quick sand. 
 
 The cost of the whole, comprising the Waterloo Half-tide Dock and 
 Waterloo Dock, Victoria Dock, Trafalgar Dock and Lock, Clarence Half¬ 
 tide Dock, Clarence Dock, and two graving docks of the same name, 
 together with the sea or river walls, with stairs and slips therein, in front 
 of them, amounted to TG84,GG9 10s. 2d. 
 
 George’s Dock and Basin : A portion of this work was executed prior 
 to 1824. The dock walls are founded partly on rock and partly on marl. 
 The piers at the entrance of the basin from the river being on quick sand, 
 are built upon piles, and the cost of the portions executed by Mr. 
 Hartley has been T79,986 4s. Id. 
 
 Canning Dock (formerly Dry Dock) : This dock has been entirely 
 rebuilt and deepened, together with the two graving docks; the latter are 
 mainly on quick sand: the east wall of the dock is chiefly founded upon 
 rock. The cost of the above was <£G5,183 18s. 9d. 
 
838 
 
 Saltliouse Dock : This dock has been entirely rebuilt and deepened, 
 and is founded on rock ; the cost of it was ,£45,838 19s. lOd. 
 
 The Albert Dock and Warehouses, and the Canning Half-tide Dock, 
 are founded partly on rock and partly on marl; hut all the west and north 
 sides of the Albert Dock, the south side of the Half-tide Basin, and the 
 whole of the river wall in front thereof, and the piers in the double 
 entrance from the river into the Half-tide Basin, are on quick sand, and 
 have been built upon 13,792 piles of beech timber, the aggregate length 
 of which would amount to over forty-eight miles. The quay walls of the 
 dock are 40 feet deep below the coping. The warehouses are 66 feet in 
 height above the coping, and cover a surface of 21,390 square yards, and 
 are wholly constructed of stone, brick, and iron, and perfectly fireproof, 
 no timber whatever being used in them. The total cost of these works, 
 complete, amounted to £514,475 8s. Id. 
 
 The King’s Dock has been deepened considerably, and nearly rebuilt; 
 is founded on rock, and has cost £25,734 4s. lOd. 
 
 The Coburg Dock (formerly a dry basin, called the Brunswick Basin,) 
 has been chiefly rebuilt, and deepened, and converted into a wet dock for 
 large class steamers. The entrance gates from the river are 70 feet wide. 
 The cost of this alteration was £55,524 6s. lid. 
 
 The Brunswick Dock, its Half-tide Dock, and the two graving docks 
 connected with the dock, are formed partly on rock. The west side of the 
 dock, and that of the Half-tide Dock, are on a soft running sand. The 
 cost of these works amounted together to £341,799 18s. 4d. 
 
 The Toxteth Dock is founded on rock, except its piers and entrance, 
 which are on quick sand, and stand upon piles. The cost of this dock has 
 been £39,717 9s. 
 
 Of the new North Docks, extending from the Clarence Half-tide Basin 
 and Clarence Graving Docks to the north boundary wall of the Sandon 
 Graving Docks, the southern portion is on rock. The Wellington Dock 
 and Half-tide Dock, the Sandon Dock and Basin, and the six graving 
 docks connected therewith, are founded on marl, interspersed with deep 
 and extensive spaces of sand; but the entrances are built upon long piles 
 of beech timber, driven in a very deep peat bog, in which, below low 
 water level, were found forest trees, buffalo and deer’s horns, &c., &c.: 
 the ground altogether various, and exceedingly loose and uncertain in 
 its quality. The cost of these works, with the river wall, slips, and 
 stairs in front, amounted to £1,104,910 3s. 3d. 
 
 The Huskisson Dock, to the north of the Sandon Basin, is founded 
 
 • 
 
839 
 
 upon strata of similar description to the Wellington and Sandon Docks. 
 This dock has double entrances both at the north and at the south ends, 
 the openings being one of eighty, and the other of forty-five feet in width 
 at each end The wide entrance at the south end can be run dry and 
 used as a graving dock, when required, blocks being laid for that purpose. 
 The total cost of these works, exclusive of land, amounted to the sum of 
 ,£235,577 3s. 5d. 
 
 The whole of the Liverpool Docks, with the exception of the Prince’s 
 Dock and Basin, the Queen's Dock and Basin, and the Union Dock, 
 have been designed and built, or re-built and deepened, by Mr. Hartley, 
 the operative surveyor, and under his individual direction ; and in the 
 course of this seventy-six pairs of dock-gates, varying in their openings 
 from thirty-six to eighty feet, have been constructed. 
 
 The whole expenditure on these works, under the present dock 
 surveyor, from March, 1824, when his appointment took place, to the 
 present time, 14th May, 1852, and including the open and transit sheds 
 and warehouses, and all appertaining thereto, together with the annual 
 cost of the wear and tear of the whole, and the cost of the Great Landing 
 Stage, amounts to £4,084,111 11s. Gd. 
 
 In addition to the immense amount of accommodation furnished by 
 the dock estate of Liverpool, another large set of docks has been pro¬ 
 jected at Birkenhead, and some progress has been made in constructing 
 them. As it is still uncertain on what plan the works at Birkenhead will 
 be completed, it would be useless to give any detailed account of them, 
 in their present state; but there can be no doubt that Birkenhead pos¬ 
 sesses some great advantages of position, and that a set of docks, formed 
 there in such a manner as to turn all those advantages to the best effect, 
 will he a very valuable addition to the accommodations of the river 
 Mersey. Birkenhead is the natural port of an extensive district, south 
 of the Mersey, with which Liverpool has few facilities of communi¬ 
 cation. Its future progress depends on the more or less complete 
 development of its natural advantages as a harbour, and on the 
 adoption or rejection of various plans of railway improvement, now 
 under consideration. The notion of making Birkenhead a rival port 
 to Liverpool is altogether idle ; but it is capable of being made a very 
 useful auxiliary. 
 
 The Garston Dock, for shipping coals, will also prove a very valuable 
 addition to the commerce of the Mersey, by bringing it into easy con¬ 
 nexion with one of the richest coal-fields in Great Britain, and with the 
 
840 
 
 district of St. Helens, which is increasing with extraordinary rapidity in 
 population, trade, and wealth. 
 
 Should the commerce of Liverpool continue to increase as rapidly 
 during the next thirty years as it has done during the last thirty, both 
 banks of the Mersey will be lined with docks from the entrance to the 
 river, to the point where the water becomes too shallow for the large and 
 ever-increasing vessels which will crowd the waters of the port. 
 
 In bringing this account of the port of Liverpool to a close, it may 
 enable us to judge of its future fortunes if we point out one or two 
 circumstances peculiar to its present commercial position. 
 
 The first of these is, that the commerce of Liverpool extends to every 
 port of any importance in every quarter of the globe. In this respect it far 
 surpasses the commerce of any city of which we have a record from past 
 times, as Tyre, Venice, Genoa, Amsterdam, or Antwerp, and fully equals, 
 if it does not surpass, that of London and New York, the one the avowed 
 capital of the first commercial state in the world, the other the real capital 
 of the second. In the year 1851 upwards of twenty-one thousand vessels 
 paid dock dues in Liverpool, which had arrived from or sailed to upwards 
 of four hundred ports, scattered over the whole world, and serving as 
 outlets for the commerce of every nation which possesses any thing to 
 exchange in the way of commerce, and which does not exclude foreigners 
 from its inhospitable shores. 
 
 Commencing with the continent of Europe, the commerce of Liver¬ 
 pool is found in every port from Archangel, on the frozen shores of the 
 White Sea, to the sunny regions which encircle the Mediterranean, and 
 from the mouth of the Tagus to the river of the Don Cossacks, which 
 divides Europe from Asia. 
 
 In Asia it is found in every port open to European commerce, from 
 Smyrna, in the Mediterranean, to Slianghae, in the Yellow Sea ; and 
 from Trebizonde, on the Euxine, to the isla,nd of Java. 
 
 In Africa it may be met with in every port from Alexandria, in 
 Egypt, along the coast of Barbary, on the shores inhabited by the 
 negroes, round the Cape, up the eastern coast of the continent, as far as 
 the entrance to the Bed Sea. 
 
 It is met with in all the ports of Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, and 
 New Zealand, in which the European race is settled. 
 
 In America it commences in the Hudson’s Bay territory and extends to 
 Patagonia, including every port on the eastern coast, from the St. Lawi'ence 
 to the Kiver Plate ; and on the west, from San Francisco to Valparaiso. 
 
841 
 
 Another circumstance, worthy of note, connected with the commerce of 
 Liverpool is, that it consists chiefly of articles suited for the daily wants of 
 the whole human race, such as food, clothing, and fuel; the implements of 
 industry and of domestic life ; metals for the useful arts ; and the materials 
 for constructing ships and houses. Mere luxuries, or articles of taste, form 
 a trifling portion of the whole, and would scarcely he missed if lost 
 
 41 
 
 altogether. The clothing sent from this country, three-fourths of it 
 from Liverpool, is not much less than two thousand millions of yards 
 each year; a quantity sufficient to clothe the third or fourth part of the 
 human race. It is with British iron that the railways of America, India, 
 and Egypt have been, or will he, constructed. The machinery of Eng¬ 
 land, impelled hy English coal, presses out the juice of the sugar-cane, 
 and prepares the cotton of the east and west. The cutlery of Sheffield and 
 the earthenware of Staffordshire are found in every house. The fire-arms 
 of Birmingham decide the wars of Asia and Africa. The salt of Cheshire 
 preserves the flesh of the millions of animals fatted in the forests or the 
 corn-fields of America. And English coal furnishes the power by which 
 the correspondence, and much of the personal communication, of the world 
 is carried on. 
 
 A third circumstance worthy of note is, that the commerce of Liver¬ 
 pool, joined with that of London and other British ports, is the means 
 hy which the most distant nations are rendered useful, not only to us, 
 hut to each other. Not only are we clothed with the cotton grown on 
 the hanks of the Mississippi, the Amazons, the Indus, and the Nile ; with 
 the fleeces of Australia, Spain, and Turkey ; with the flax of Russia ; 
 and the silks of Italy, India, and China ; but it is by the capital and 
 commerce of the United Kingdom that the planter of Louisiana supplies 
 the wants of the sheep farmer of Australia : that the sheep farmer of 
 Australia clothes the Canadian; that the oak of England-and Africa, 
 and the timber of New Brunswick, furnish the ship, by which the sugar 
 of Brazil and the coffee of Ceylon are conveyed to the shores of the 
 Euxine and the Baltic. 
 
 The manufacturing superiority, which is the chief support of the 
 commerce of Liverpool, depends on three things : first, the mechanical 
 talent, the persevering industry, and the hereditary skill of the English 
 artizans ; second, on the perfection of the machinery of England ; and, 
 third, on the abundance and cheapness of capital. 
 
 The skill of our mechanics was never more conspicuous than it is at 
 the present time; our machines never so perfect ; our capital never so 
 
842 
 
 abundant. The annual income of Lancashire alone is upwards of sixteen 
 millions sterling, and money is attainable at from one-and-a-half to two 
 per cent. Of all the means of promoting present industry, none is so 
 great as cheap capital, the fruit of former industry, for it includes within 
 itself every possible economy of production and every advantage of sale. 
 
 But England is not only the manufacturer, she is the banker of the 
 world. A long series of payments and credits are required before the 
 cotton of Louisiana finds its way, in the form of clothing, to India and 
 China; or the wool of Australia, in the form of clothing, to Buenos 
 Ayres and Chili. A voyage round the world, several payments, and 
 a considerable rate of interest are requisite to accomplish all these opera¬ 
 tions, which are performed chiefly with the cheap capital of England. 
 
 Liverpool has a considerable advantage in the nature of its trade, as 
 relates to the lightness of the duties imposed upon it. The raw 
 materials of industry are almost free from taxation in this country, whilst 
 a large number of articles of consumption are more or less heavily taxed. 
 The trade of Liverpool consists chiefly of the former, that of London 
 chiefly of the latter. Hence it is that the sum paid in the form of 
 taxation on produce of the value of about thirty-seven millions, imported 
 into Liverpool, is less than four millions ; whilst that paid on forty-three 
 millions of produce imported into London is almost twelve millions. 
 
 The energy of the British race, and of the races which originally sprang 
 from the British Islands, is developing itself chiefly on four great theatres : 
 first, within the British Islands themselves; second, on the North 
 American continent; third, in British India; and, fourth, in Australia. 
 Liverpool is the most frequented of all the outlets of British industry. 
 One-half of the products which England forms, for the use of foreign 
 nations and the inhabitants of the colonies, is sent forth through this port. 
 Nearly a million tons of shipping clears out yearly from Liverpool to the 
 United States and British America conjointly, and nearly as much returns, 
 bringing the most valuable products of the most fertile and best cultivated 
 countries of the new world. Yet the quantity of land reclaimed from the 
 waste, in the United States, is not much more than equal to the surface 
 of Great Britain; nor in British America to much more than that of 
 Ireland. A population of twenty-five millions is scattered over a territory 
 which would support two hundred millions, if peopled as the whole of 
 Europe is peopled; and of four hundred millions, if peopled like England. 
 Without attempting to dive too deep into futurity, it is not unreasonable 
 to speculate on what may happen in the concluding half of the present 
 
843 
 
 century. Before twenty-five years are passed, the American race, in the 
 United States and the colonies, sprung chiefly from the people of the 
 British Islands, and speaking the English language, will number fifty 
 millions of souls; by the end of the century it will probably number 
 a hundred millions. The countries of America in which the English 
 language is already spoken consume twenty millions of the produce of 
 Great Britain and Ireland yearly, and return an equivalent value of their 
 own; and there is no reason why the commerce of the United Kingdom 
 with America should not increase with the increase of its population, 
 nor any why Liverpool should not retain the same proportion of that 
 augmented commerce which it possesses of the present. British India 
 already contains nearly a hundred millions of inhabitants, and the 
 native states under British influence at least fifty millions more. Who 
 can venture to assign limits to the trade which India will possess with 
 Great Britain, when Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, and Agra are connected 
 with each other, and with Madras and all Southern India, by the magni¬ 
 ficent railways which are already in progress ? With Australia, a 
 country containing more than three million square miles of land, entirely 
 belonging to England, and destined to be peopled by the British race, 
 there already exists an extensive trade, increasing with wonderful rapidity, 
 and capable of being increased to an amount which it would appear rash 
 to predict. Every month the connexion of Liverpool with these rich 
 and wide-spreading regions is becoming more extensive. Thus the rapid 
 development of the energies, and increase of the numbers of the British 
 races, in its four great centres of activity, in Europe, America, Asia, and 
 Australia, is rapidly increasing the commerce of this port and that of 
 the British empire generally, while even in Africa the same race is 
 making its way, amidst many difficulties, into regions hitherto utterly 
 barbarous, and will ultimately reach the Equator. 
 
 Another circumstance most favourable to the extension of commerce 
 is the long continuance of peace. From 1815 to 1852 England has been 
 at peace with all the great nations of Europe and America; and never were 
 the people and statesmen of England less disposed to exchange peace for 
 war than they are at the present time. England may be driven into a 
 war, but will never seek one. She has now enjoyed a peace, at home and 
 abroad, of about thirty-seven years’ duration, which is a much longer 
 exemption from the waste, the ruin, and the misery of war than had been 
 known during any part of the preceding century. During that period 
 
 5 R 
 
844 
 
 commerce lias created innumerable ties of friendship and interest, amongst 
 nations formerly hostile and rival, which will not be easily broken. Every 
 year these connections of man with man, and nation with nation, become 
 stronger, closer, and more numerous, and they have now acquired a strength 
 which encourages us in the hope that the world, and this country espe¬ 
 cially, will long continue to enjoy an uninterrupted and free exchange of 
 the innumerable products, which a bountiful Providence has scattered over 
 the surface of the earth, and which the commerce of England and 
 other civilized nations interchanges amongst the whole human race. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 IMPORTS OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES INTO LIVERPOOL, IN THE 
 YEARS 1847 TO 1851, INCLUSIVE. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 Imports 
 
 From 1st January to 31st December. 
 
 1S47 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Ashes, American .:. 
 
 
 7,100 
 
 8,650 
 
 16,750 
 
 20,850 
 
 17,850 
 
 Brimstone . 
 
 
 8,300 
 
 10,200 
 
 11,200 
 
 10,650 
 
 10,900 
 
 Cassia Lignea . 
 
 
 1,050 
 
 none 
 
 115 
 
 165 
 
 none 
 
 Cocoa .barrels and bags 
 
 9,770 
 
 13,365 
 
 12,500 
 
 8,335 
 
 10,975 
 
 Coffee, B. P. West India 
 
 
 3,770 
 
 2,770 
 
 2,550 
 
 3,420 
 
 2,770 
 
 barrels and bags 
 
 1,455 
 
 1,055 
 
 1,820 
 
 1,815 
 
 1,115 
 
 Ceylon. 
 
 
 none 
 
 60 
 
 500 
 
 1,570 
 
 435 
 
 
 bags 
 
 9,500 
 
 5,000 
 
 6,650 
 
 13,760 
 
 820 
 
 All Foreign. 
 
 
 850 
 
 430 
 
 200 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 bags, Ac. 
 
 62,515 
 
 29,000 
 
 40,770 
 
 20,235 
 
 34,350 
 
 Dyewoods, Logwood . 
 
 
 9,200 
 
 13,650 
 
 14,350 
 
 23,550 
 
 15,700 
 
 Fustic . 
 
 
 4,000 
 
 5,650 
 
 6,300 
 
 7,450 
 
 9,950 
 
 Nicaragua Wood . 
 
 
 2,300 
 
 2,420 
 
 2,400 
 
 5,700 
 
 4,050 
 
 Ginger, West India...barrels and bags 
 
 440 
 
 70 
 
 70 
 
 235 
 
 565 
 
 East India .bags and pockets 
 
 3,800 
 
 2,720 
 
 5,950 
 
 9,650 
 
 1,800 
 
 African . 
 
 
 1,600 
 
 2,450 
 
 1,380 
 
 1,170 
 
 850 
 
 Gum, Arabic.cases 
 
 and barrels 
 
 1,350 
 
 1,100 
 
 2,550 
 
 970 
 
 2,500 
 
 Hides, Ox and Cow . 
 
 
 367,100 
 
 333,800 
 
 397,100 
 
 266,200 
 
 287,600 
 
 East India. 
 
 
 445,400 
 
 191,500 
 
 205,000 
 
 286,400 
 
 218,700 
 
 Horse, South American.ditto 
 
 47,305 
 
 67,900 
 
 129,600 
 
 139,700 
 
 77,800 
 
 Indigo, East India. 
 
 
 1,200 
 
 815 
 
 570 
 
 405 
 
 760 
 
 Spanish . 
 
 
 1,300 
 
 5 
 
 110 
 
 200 
 
 2,000 
 
 J ute. 
 
 
 42,000 
 
 56,000 
 
 63,000 
 
 83,500 
 
 95,000 
 
 Lac Dye . 
 
 
 390 
 
 230 
 
 790 
 
 1,180 
 
 315 
 
 Shell . 
 
 
 1,400 
 
 3,860 
 
 510 
 
 2,680 
 
 3,230 
 
 Madder . 
 
 
 2,665 
 
 2,770 
 
 2,700 
 
 3,500 
 
 3,450 
 
 Madder-roots. 
 
 
 12,600 
 
 16,350 
 
 15,600 
 
 19,900 
 
 22,550 
 
 Molasses, West India ... 
 
 
 11,480 
 
 7,600 
 
 13.300 
 
 8,865 
 
 12,500 
 
 East India. 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 1,200 
 
 745 
 
 590 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 
 9,260 
 
 1,630 
 
 13,550 
 
 15,400 
 
 6,700 
 
 Olive Oil . 
 
 
 4,200 
 
 4,300 
 
 7,300 
 
 10,000 
 
 5,100 
 
 Palm Oil . 
 
 
 19,300 
 
 18,400 
 
 17,900 
 
 16,250 
 
 23,800 
 
 Pepper, East India...bags audpockets 
 
 19,000 
 
 17,800 
 
 7,550 
 
 8,760 
 
 3,500 
 
 Pimento .barrels and bags 
 
 720 
 
 2,100 
 
 1,400 
 
 3,050 
 
 1,850 
 
 Rice, East India. 
 
 .bags 
 
 378,000 
 
 351,000 
 
 297,900 
 
 314,100 
 
 184,700 
 
 American. 
 
 
 26,300 
 
 9,100 
 
 11,000 
 
 10,650 
 
 2,750 
 
 Rum, West India. 
 
 ..puncheons 
 
 9 905 
 
 9,S50 
 
 8,595 
 
 8,120 
 
 8,845 
 
 East India. 
 
 
 945 
 
 1,030 
 
 370 
 
 315 
 
 420 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 
 1,930 
 
 540 
 
 235 
 
 260 
 
 310 
 
 Saltpetre, East India. 
 
 
 34,600 
 
 66,100 
 
 48,800 
 
 42,850 
 
 44,500 
 
 Nitrate of Soda. 
 
 
 96,000 
 
 77,600 
 
 68,300 
 
 78,600 
 
 80,700 
 
 Sugar, B. Plantation...birds, and tees. 
 
 36,340 
 
 24,360 
 
 30,650 
 
 25,190 
 
 28.310 
 
 Bengal, <fcc. 
 
 
 279,600 
 
 330,900 
 
 301,400 
 
 334,250 
 
 350,950 
 
 Mauritius. 
 
 
 89,000 
 
 16.420 
 
 88,600 
 
 76,500 
 
 72,000 
 
 Manilla, Java, &c.... 
 
 
 20,035 
 
 25,965 
 
 7,240 
 
 22,135 
 
 59,970 
 
 Havannah . 
 
 
 39,180 
 
 8,790 
 
 1,110 
 
 8,620 
 
 10,000 
 
 Brazil . 
 
 
 8,710 
 
 8,030 
 
 6,470 
 
 4,080 
 
 3,915 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 .barrels, &c. 
 
 84,800 
 
 77,960 
 
 95,650 
 
 54,965 
 
 78,200 
 
 Other Foreign. 
 
 
 9,100 
 
 4,800 
 
 6,280 
 
 5.560 
 
 12,050 
 
 
 barrels 
 
 7,955 
 
 7,680 
 
 11,300 
 
 6,060 
 
 4,900 
 
 Sumac. 
 
 
 67,600 
 
 64,800 
 
 82,950 
 
 98,350 
 
 88,400 
 
 Tar . 
 
 
 36,000 
 
 31,000 
 
 56,850 
 
 39,575 
 
 43,000 
 
 Tallow, European. 
 
 
 17,100 
 
 18,900 
 
 26,250 
 
 16,200 
 
 16.950 
 
 American, &c. 
 
 
 9,300 
 
 16,750 
 
 24,100 
 
 22,700 
 
 15,100 
 
 Tincal and Borax...casks, boxes, &c. 
 
 515 
 
 1,100 
 
 700 
 
 2,510 
 
 2,675 
 
 Tobacco . 
 
 
 10,365 
 
 10,200 
 
 13,200 
 
 12,550 
 
 10,050 
 
 Turpentine. 
 
 
 44,900 
 
 52,200 
 
 51,300 
 
 61,600 
 
 54,500 
 
DOCK DUES RECEIVED AI 
 
 FKOM 25th JUNE, 1850 
 
 
 Names of Docks. 
 
 \mount 
 
 of 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Income 
 
 from 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Income [ 
 from 
 
 Goods Inwards. 
 
 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1 
 
 New North Docks.. 
 
 
 578,600 
 
 28,422 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 13,677 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 Clarence and Trafalgar Docks. 
 
 
 759,749 
 
 13,257 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 243 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Victoria and Waterloo Docks .. 
 
 
 329,282 
 
 18,675 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 13,230 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Prince’s Dock. 
 
 
 247,916 
 
 107,942 
 
 13,765 
 
 4,041 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 14,314 
 
 4,108 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 George’s Dock . 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Canning Dock . 
 
 
 126,752 
 
 3,014 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 1,057 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 Salthouse Dock. 
 
 
 10,368 
 
 392 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 753 
 
 8 10 
 
 8 
 
 Albert Dock . 
 
 
 194,991 
 
 13,729 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 11,118 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 King’s Dock . 
 
 
 163,198 
 
 7,614 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 5,063 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 Queen’s Dock. 
 
 
 132,203 
 
 7,006 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 6,503 
 
 18 11 
 
 11 
 
 Coburg Dock. 
 
 
 85,145 
 
 11,706 
 
 445 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 2,276 
 
 276 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 Union Dock . 
 
 
 4,325 
 
 13 
 
 0 
 
 19 11 
 
 13 
 
 Brunswick Dock . 
 
 
 318,464 
 
 20,023 
 
 . 8,707 
 
 20,623 
 
 1,053 
 
 136 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 12,551 
 
 727 
 
 8 10 
 
 14 
 
 Toxteth Dock. 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 Harrington Dock . 
 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 41 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 From Docks in Liverpool. 
 
 
 3,095,046 
 
 136,503 12 
 
 5 
 
 85,946 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 
 From Steamers not coming into Dock. 
 
 235,741 
 
 6,401 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 From Vessels discharging at 
 Runcorn . 
 
 178,169 
 
 
 790 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 Deduct, landed in Liverpool 
 Docks afterwards. 
 
 21,954 
 
 156,215 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 From Vessels discharging in Prince’s, 1 
 George’s, and King’s Basins; Her¬ 
 culaneum, Egerton, Duke’s, and >• 
 the Birkenhead Docks; Ellesmere 
 Port and the Cheshire Shore .j 
 
 250,664 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 From Duties on Goods landed on the 
 Basins of the Docks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 3,737,666 
 
 143,695 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 85,964 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 Duties on Tonnage . 
 
 
 
 128,026 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 „ Lighthouses. 
 
 
 
 10,909 11 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 „ Floating Lights . 
 
 
 
 4,759 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 143,695 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
3 
 
 THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL, 
 
 TO 24th JUNE, 1851. 
 
 21,536 19 5 
 
 6,401 8 7 
 790 8 10 
 
 17 17 5 
 
 107,501 5 7 
 
 17 17 5 
 
 251,196 15 5 
 
 Income 
 
 from 
 
 Goods Outw’ds. 
 
 Total Income 
 from 
 
 Goods Inwards 
 and 
 
 Outwards. 
 
 Grand 
 
 Total Income. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1,263 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 14,940 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 43,363 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 345 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 589 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 13,847 
 
 1 
 
 5 | 
 
 4,944 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 18,174 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 36,850 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 5,163 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 19,478 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 33,243 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 1,591 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 5,700 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 9,741 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 294 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 1,352 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 4,366 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 2,539 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 3,292 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 3,684 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 71 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 11,189 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 24,918 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1,567 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6,630 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 14,245 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 1,827 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 8,331 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 15,338 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 CO 
 
 CD 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 2,661 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 6,987 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 121 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 398 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 843 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 1,389 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 13,940 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 34,564 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 760 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 1,813 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 178 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 21,536 19 
 
 5 
 
 107,483 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 243,987 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 Revenae from Trade of 
 various Countries. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 E “ t h ^ n a dUs ana } 21,089 2 2 
 
 Australia & New 1 „ r „ , , . 
 
 Zealand .} 656 14 4 
 
 West Coast of) fi9f)R . 
 South America} 8 ’ 206 14 1 
 
 Brazils . 8,851 18 7 
 
 WestIndies,Gulf 1 1990P . . 
 
 of Mexico....} U ’ 205 4 8 
 
 United States. 93,498 9 8 
 
 British America, 1 0R „ 
 
 Newfoundland} 17 0 
 
 W. Coast of Africa. 5,035 12 10 
 
 Mediterranean ... 21,386 8 10 
 
 Ports in the Baltic 7,480 18 11 
 
 0 port®”?.!“} 14 > 80112 3 
 
 Coasters. 23,942 6 9 
 
 243,987 0 7 
 
 Steamers not - ) 
 coming into [• 6,401 8 7 
 Dock . J 
 
 Vessels diseharg-) 70A u ... 
 
 ing at Runcorn} ° 1U 
 
 Landed on the l 
 Basins of the !■ 17 17 5 
 
 Docks .j 
 
 .£251,196 15 5 
 
TABLE OF THE LIVERPOOL DOCKS, 
 
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 The extreme length of the River Wall belonging to the Dock Estate is 5 miles 20 yards. The total Area of the Dock Estate of Liverpool is 712 acres. 
 
6 
 
 AMOUNT OF DOCK DUTIES AT THE POET OF LIVEEPOOL, 
 
 FROM THE TIME OF THE OPENING OF THE FIRST DOCK, IN THE TEAR 1720, (GTH GEORGE 
 THE 1ST,) TO THE 25TH OF JUNE, 1851, (THE 14tH OF QUEEN VICTORIA.) 
 
 Year. 
 
 No. of 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Amount on 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1722a 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1732 
 1732 
 to \ 
 
 36,290 
 
 1,728,063 
 
 44,641 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 1742/ 
 
 1742 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1752J 
 
 1752 
 
 1,184 
 
 
 
 1,776 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 1753 
 
 1,235 
 
 
 
 2,034 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 1754 
 
 1,251 
 
 
 
 2,095 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 1755 
 
 1,082 
 
 
 
 2,417 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 1756 
 
 1,219 
 
 
 
 2,187 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 1757 
 
 1,371 
 
 
 
 2,336 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 1758 
 
 1,453 
 
 
 
 2,403 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1759 
 
 1,281 
 
 
 
 2,372 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 1760 
 
 1,245 
 
 
 
 2,330 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1761 
 
 1,319 
 
 
 
 2,382 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 1762 
 
 1,307 
 
 
 
 2,526 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 1763 
 
 1,752 
 
 
 
 3,141 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1764 
 
 1,625 
 
 
 
 2,780 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1765 
 
 1,930 
 
 
 
 3,455 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 1766 
 
 1,908 
 
 
 
 3,653 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 1767 
 
 1,704 
 
 
 
 3,615 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 1768 
 
 1,808 
 
 
 
 3,566 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 1769 
 
 2,054 
 
 
 
 4,004 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 1770 
 
 2,073 
 
 
 
 4,142 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 1771 
 
 2,087 
 
 
 
 4,203 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 1772 
 
 2,259 
 
 
 
 4,552 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 1773 
 
 2,214 
 
 
 
 4,725 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 1774 
 
 2,258 
 
 
 
 4,580 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 1775 
 
 2,291 
 
 
 
 5,384 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 1776 
 
 2,216 
 
 
 
 5,064 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 1777 
 
 2,361 
 
 
 
 4,610 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 1778 
 
 2,292 
 
 
 
 4,649 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 1779 
 
 2,374 
 
 
 
 4,957 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 1780 
 
 2,261 
 
 
 
 3,528 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 1781 
 
 2,512 
 
 
 
 3.915 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 1782 
 
 2,496 
 
 
 
 4,249 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1783 
 
 2,816 
 
 
 
 4,840 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 1784 
 
 3,098 
 
 
 
 6,597 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 1785 
 
 3,429 
 
 
 
 8,411 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 1786 
 
 3,228 
 
 
 
 7,508 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 1787 
 
 3,567 
 
 
 
 9,199 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 1788 
 
 3,677 
 
 
 
 9,200 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 1789 
 
 3,619 
 
 
 
 8,901 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 1790 
 
 4,223 
 
 
 
 10,037 
 
 6 
 
 01 
 
 1791 
 
 4,045 
 
 
 
 11,645 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 1792 
 
 4,483 
 
 
 
 13,243 
 
 17 
 
 8£ 
 
 1793 
 
 4,129 
 
 
 
 12,480 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 1794 
 
 4,265 
 
 
 
 10,678 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 1795 
 
 3,948 
 
 
 
 9,368 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 1796 
 
 4,738 
 
 
 
 12,377 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 Duties on Goods, 
 Lights, &c. 
 
 Yearly Amount. 
 
 Amount of Ten 
 Years. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 The Average 
 Amount for each 
 Ten Years, from 
 1722 to 1752 is 
 £14,880 10s lOd 
 or 
 
 £1,488 Is lOd 
 per annum. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 17,024 19 5 
 
 31,456 7 5 
 
 40,870 15 5 
 
 66,358 6 11 
 
7 
 
 Year. 
 
 No. of 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Amount on 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Duties on Goods, 
 Lights, &c. 
 
 Yeajly Amount. 
 
 Amount of Ten 
 Years. 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1797 
 
 4,528 
 
 
 13,319 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1798 
 
 4,478 
 
 
 12^057 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1799 
 
 4,518 
 
 
 14^049 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 119,258 
 
 12 
 
 8* 
 
 1800 
 
 4,740 
 
 450,060 
 
 32,379 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1801 
 
 5,060 
 
 459,719 
 
 28^365 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L802 
 
 4,781 
 
 510,091 
 
 28,192 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1803 
 
 4,791 
 
 494,521 
 
 28,027 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1804 
 
 4,291 
 
 448,761 
 
 26,157 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 180') 
 
 4,618 
 
 463,482 
 
 33^364 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1808 
 
 4,670 
 
 507,825 
 
 44,500 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1807 
 
 5,791 
 
 662,309 
 
 02^831 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1808 
 
 5,225 
 
 516,836 
 
 40,638 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1809 
 
 6,023 
 
 594,601 
 
 47,580 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 303,098 
 
 1 
 
 
 1810 
 
 6,729 
 
 734,391 
 
 65 782 
 
 l 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1811 
 
 5,616 
 
 011,190 
 
 54,752 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1812 
 
 4,599 
 
 446,788 
 
 20^200 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 24,143 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 44,403 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 1813 
 
 5,341 
 
 547,420 
 
 24,134 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 20,042 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 50,177 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 1814 
 
 5,706 
 
 548,957 
 
 28,630 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 31,110 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 59,741 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 1815 
 
 6,440 
 
 709,849 
 
 30,310 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 40,605 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 76,915 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 1816 
 
 6,888 
 
 774,243 
 
 43,705 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 48,881 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 92,646 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 1817 
 
 6,079 
 
 653,425 
 
 35,186 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 40,703 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 75,889 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 1818 
 
 6,779 
 
 754,690 
 
 43,842 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 54,695 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 98,538 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 1819 
 
 7,849 
 
 807,318 
 
 50,042 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 00,084 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 110,127 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 608,439 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1820 
 
 7,276 
 
 805,033 
 
 44,717 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 49,094 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 94,412 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 1821 
 
 7,810 
 
 839,848 
 
 43,131 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 51,425 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 94,556 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1822 
 
 8,136 
 
 892,902 
 
 47,229 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 55,174 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 102,403 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 1823 
 
 8,016 
 
 1,010,819 
 
 52,837 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 62,945 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 115,783 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 1824 
 
 10,001 
 
 1,180,914 
 
 60,878 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 70,033 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 130,911 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 1825 
 
 10,837 
 
 1,223,820 
 
 59,440 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 69,245 
 
 12 
 
 0 
 
 128,091 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 1826 
 
 9,001 
 
 1,228,318 
 
 60,411 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 70,589 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 131,000 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 1827 
 
 9,592 
 
 1,225,313 
 
 01,601 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 72,871 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 134,472 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 1828 
 
 10,703 
 
 1,311,111 
 
 62,969 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 78,400 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 141,369 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 1829 
 
 11,383 
 
 1,387,957 
 
 00,128 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 81,198 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 147,327 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,220,930 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 1830 
 
 11,214 
 
 1,411.964 
 
 08,352 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 83,007 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 151,359 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 1831 
 
 12,537 
 
 1,592,436 
 
 81,039 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 102,415 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 183,455 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 1832 
 
 12,928 
 
 1,540,057 
 
 74,530 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 95,517 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 170,047 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 1833 
 
 12,964 
 
 1,590,461 
 
 79,558 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 103,422 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 182,980 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 1834 
 
 13,444 
 
 1,692,870 
 
 84,061 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 107,068 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 191,729 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 1835 
 
 13.941 
 
 1,768.426 
 
 87,044 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 110,993 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 198,637 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 1836 
 
 14,959 
 
 1,947,613 
 
 97,847 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 124,146 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 221,994 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 1837 
 
 15,038 
 
 1,958,984 
 
 84,596 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 89,256 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 173,853 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1838 
 
 14,820 
 
 2,026,206 
 
 70,324 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 09,965 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 140,290 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 1839 
 
 15,445 
 
 2,158,091 
 
 81,680 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 74,874 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 156,555 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,770,904 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 1840 
 
 15,998 
 
 2,445,708 
 
 92,221 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 85,975 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 178,196 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 
 L841 
 
 16,108 
 
 2,425,461 
 
 91,755 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 83,750 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 175,506 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 1842 
 
 10,458 
 
 2,425,319 
 
 93,300 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 83,871 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 177,231 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 1843 
 
 10,006 
 
 2,445,278 
 
 90,445 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 91,840 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 188,286 
 
 2 
 
 l 
 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 18,411 
 
 2,632,712 
 
 99,044 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 86,119 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 185,164 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 20,521 
 
 3,016,531 
 
 118,040 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 105,200 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 223,247 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 19,951 
 
 3,096,444 
 
 114,709 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 98,714 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 213,423 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 1847 
 
 20,889 
 
 3,351,539 
 
 127,982 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 110,453 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 244,435 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 1848 
 
 20,311 
 
 3,284,963 
 
 107,589 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 118,625 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 226,215 
 
 l 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 1849 
 
 20,733 
 
 3,639,146 
 
 122,073 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 133,852 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 255,926 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,007,032 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 1850 
 
 20,457 
 
 3,536,337 
 
 116,541 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 126,448 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 242,989 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 1851 
 
 21,071 
 
 3,737,666 
 
 128,026 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 140,994 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 209,020 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 512,010 
 
 9 
 
 3*| 
 
 » For two years, or X'2,560,052 (is. 3d. in ten years. 
 5 S 
 
8 
 
 ESTIMATED VALUE OF IMPORTS INTO LONDON, LIVERPOOL, AND HULL 
 
 IN 1850. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 London. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Hull. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 880 
 
 Value. 
 
 £26,400 
 
 236,360 
 
 Tons. 
 
 5,212 
 
 9,098 
 
 7,690 
 
 Value. 
 
 £106,360 
 
 363,920 
 
 56,450 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Value. 
 
 
 5,909 
 
 9*2 
 
 £3,680 
 
 11,000 
 
 2,550 
 
 30,000 
 
 4,960 
 
 23,000 
 
 Bark. 
 
 2,200 
 
 85 
 
 15,000 
 
 620 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 10,850 
 
 86,800 
 
 
 350 
 
 
 800 
 
 84 000 
 
 
 
 
 18,460 
 
 3,850 
 
 1,000 
 
 11,300 
 
 1,846,000 
 
 115,000 
 
 450,000 
 
 678,000 
 
 57,090 
 
 3,700 
 
 370,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 262 180 
 
 15,730,800 
 
 14,602 
 
 119,040 
 
 4,000 
 
 240,000 
 
 Cocoa. 
 
 L570 
 
 9,512 
 
 396 
 
 
 380,480 
 
 2,976 
 
 346 
 
 13,840 
 
 110,000 
 
 
 2,200 
 
 
 
 
 40.774 
 
 7,350 
 
 ' 244,644 
 73,500 
 112,500 
 
 
 24,000 
 
 4,500 
 
 240 000 
 
 
 
 Flax . 
 
 225,000 
 
 2,250 
 
 27,000 
 
 5,350 
 
 103,614 
 
 1,350,000 
 
 63.960 
 
 Fruit. 
 
 
 069,340 
 
 01,000 
 
 1,500 
 
 2,000 
 
 23,500 
 
 8,032,080 
 427,000 
 360 000 
 
 433,233 
 
 30,000 
 
 5 198 796 
 
 1,243 368 
 5,040 
 
 Guano . 
 
 210,000 
 
 720 
 
 
 Hemp . 
 
 80,000 
 
 19 316 
 
 772,640 
 
 386,400 
 
 45,000 
 
 500 
 
 20 000 
 
 
 1,316,000 
 
 1,350,000 
 
 6,900 
 
 100 
 
 600 
 
 33,600 
 
 
 3,000 
 
 
 17,400 
 
 57,300 
 
 87,000 
 
 073,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18,000 
 
 324,000 
 
 13,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 5,00(5 
 
 14,220 
 
 234,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 
 i,280 
 
 64,000 
 
 
 
 
 225,000 
 
 184,860 
 
 
 10,400 
 
 135,200 
 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 4,200 
 
 Oil cake. 
 
 
 
 
 
 8,300 
 
 4,000 
 
 58T00 
 
 168,000 
 
 
 
 
 10,000 
 
 420,000 
 
 
 
 
 2,600 
 
 31,200 
 
 
 
 
 16,250 
 
 455,000 
 
 
 
 
 i,250 
 
 5,800 
 
 4,276 
 
 5,000 
 
 Quercitron bark .... 
 
 
 
 3,000 
 
 33,000 
 
 23,200 
 
 17,104 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 530 
 
 13,250 
 
 
 12,788 
 
 13,000 
 
 1,022 
 
 12,724 
 
 204,000 
 
 1,040.000 
 
 29,190 
 
 37,093 
 
 4,350 
 
 593,488 
 
 200 
 
 3,200 
 
 
 348,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 318,600 
 
 4,000 
 
 1,875 
 
 12,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 
 375 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9,850 
 
 147,750 
 
 i,ooo 
 
 10,000 
 
 Silk . 
 
 1,580 
 
 1,580,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 6,327,370 
 
 344,470 
 
 
 5,000 
 
 180,792 
 
 9,065 
 
 750 
 
 84,000 
 
 2,485,0(10 
 
 731,500 
 
 45,712 
 
 1,831,000 
 
 725,000 
 
 3,388,500 
 
 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 71,000 
 
 19,250 
 
 5,714 
 
 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 38,000 
 
 28,000 
 
 
 3,500 
 
 
 16,800 
 
 215,000 
 
 7,560,000 
 
 537,500 
 
 3,600,000 
 
 4',070 
 290,000 
 7,530 
 
 
 90,000 
 
 220,000 
 
 
 8,000 
 
 
 2,300 
 
 46,00!) 
 
 Turpentine . 
 
 
 
 8,571 
 
 68,568 
 
 2,500 
 
 20,000 
 
 
 980 
 
 14,700 
 
 
 
 4,680 
 
 65,520 
 
 140 
 
 i 960 
 
 Wool. 
 
 Wines . 
 
 Zaffre . 
 
 22,000 
 
 5,060,000 
 
 6,000 
 
 1,380,060 
 
 3,000 
 
 620 
 
 50 
 
 690,0 O 
 62.000 
 3,750 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,374,947 
 
 43,183,821 
 
 1,384,353 
 
 37,804,400 
 
 369,823 
 
 5,326,962 
 
9 
 
 IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN AND COLONIAL SHEEP’S, ALPACA, AND GOATS’ 
 WOOL, AT THE PORTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1851. 
 
 From 
 
 London. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Hull. 
 
 Southampton. 
 
 
 Bales. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 tbs. 
 
 Germany .... 
 
 5,336 
 
 5,079 
 
 180 
 
 1,729,078 
 
 1,194,661 
 
 114,345 
 
 29 
 
 226 
 
 86 
 
 9,159 
 
 52,773 
 
 70,958 
 
 22,234 
 
 6,426,042 
 
 
 
 Russia, North. 
 
 645 
 
 398,764 
 
 
 
 „ South. 
 
 13,481 
 
 4,999,233 
 
 740 
 
 297,512 
 
 10 
 
 3,962 
 
 95 
 
 40,421 
 
 C. G. Hope 1 
 Territories.} 
 
 19,056 
 
 5,813,549 
 
 11 
 
 3,042 
 
 
 
 
 N. S. Wales .. 
 
 48,260 
 
 14,800,240 
 
 349 
 
 86,986 
 
 
 
 
 
 Victoria .... 
 
 63,424 
 
 17,234,690 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S. Australia .. 
 
 12,092 
 
 3,367,303 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 W. Australia.. 
 
 1,036 
 
 368,570 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 V. D. Land .. 
 
 17,225 
 
 5,182,083 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 16,000 
 
 
 
 New Zealand. 
 
 1,728 
 
 785,887 
 
 78 
 
 23,316 
 
 
 
 
 
 Portugal .... 
 
 320 
 
 83,323 
 
 11,887 
 
 2,272,776 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 523 
 
 Italy. 
 
 606 
 
 268,740 
 
 79,970 
 
 1,901 
 
 811 
 
 324,451 
 
 415,834 
 
 
 
 
 
 Austrian Ter.. 
 
 190 
 
 
 
 .... 
 
 
 Denmark .... 
 
 25 
 
 5,020 
 
 
 4,565 
 
 1,229,814 
 
 
 
 East India .. 
 
 5,964 
 
 2,217,800 
 
 0,019 
 
 2,327,491 
 
 
 
 
 China . 
 
 258 
 
 66,887 
 
 120,837 
 
 11,220 
 
 14 
 
 2,659 
 
 257,579 
 
 
 
 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 337 
 
 681 
 
 193 
 
 
 
 1,004 
 
 485,525 
 
 Syria 
 
 34 
 
 45,714 
 
 
 
 Esypt . 
 
 2,273 
 
 3,327 
 
 709,317 
 
 811,572 
 
 2,560 
 
 2,800 
 
 904,400 
 
 780,805 
 
 5 
 
 1,547 
 
 113 
 
 24,984 
 
 Barb ary .... 
 
 
 Peru and Chili 
 Peru (Alpaca) 
 
 4,952 
 
 468,334 
 
 15,412 
 
 1,292,292 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Alpac.&Llama 
 
 1,023 
 
 74,864 
 
 25,680 
 
 1,899,706 
 
 
 
 
 
 Argen. Repub. 
 
 230 
 
 107,992 
 
 1,998 
 
 745,272 
 
 
 
 
 
 B. N. America 
 
 97 
 
 21,198 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 U. S. America. 
 W. I. Islands. 
 Iceland .... 
 Brazils. 
 
 61 
 
 780 
 
 7 
 
 1,487 
 
 291 
 
 555,310 
 
 076 
 
 320,048 
 
 33,230 
 
 
 
 
 
 3,859 
 
 
 Holland .... 
 
 
 
 431 
 
 109,964 
 
 
 
 Belgium .... 
 
 ... 0 
 
 
 
 
 1,494 
 
 244,859 
 
 
 
 Sweden. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,400 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 319 
 
 France . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1,427 
 
 Sundries .... 
 
 584 
 
 236,521 
 
 39 
 
 12,070 
 
 
 
 Total.... 
 
 207,778 
 
 00,949,029 
 
 74,093 
 
 12,734,156 
 
 29,444 
 
 8,433,301 
 
 1,820 
 
 553,199 
 
 Goats’ Wool.. 
 
 
 98,857 
 
 
 524,108 
 
 .... 
 
 79,070 
 
 
 1,418,403 
 
 Imported into 
 
 Leitli . 
 
 Glasgow. 
 
 Cork . 
 
 Grimsby. 
 
 Newcastle . 
 
 Swansea. 
 
 Grangemouth. 
 
 Dundee . 
 
 OTHER PORTS. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Imported into 
 
 Bales. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 877 
 
 272,522 
 
 Bristol. 
 
 167 
 
 64,530 
 
 145 
 
 28,345 
 
 Dover. 
 
 139 
 
 59,492 
 
 111 
 
 51,520 
 
 Falmouth . 
 
 40 
 
 11,704 
 
 
 5,095 
 
 Folkestone .| 
 
 9 
 
 1,279 
 
 35 
 
 9,531 
 
 „ Goats’ Wool j 
 
 .... 
 
 4,102 
 
 223 
 
 09,539 
 
 Gloucester. 
 
 158 
 
 55,384 
 
 12 
 
 3,360 
 
 Goole . 
 
 65 
 
 10,999 
 
 32 
 
 16,800 
 
 Hartlepool. 
 
 32 
 
 5,091 
 
 TOTAL OF IMPORTS. tbs. 
 
 Foreign Sheep’s Wool . 3d,549, 3.13 
 
 Colonial. 47,772,991 
 
 Alpaca and Llama . 2.013,202 
 
 Goats’ . .'. 2,124,000 
 
 Total tbs.... 85,460,130 
 
10 
 
 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF RAW COTTON CONSUMED IN THE CHIEF 
 MANUFACTURING COUNTRIES, FROM 1843 TO 1851, INCLUSIVE, IN MIL¬ 
 LIONS OF POUNDS. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 Iucr. 
 
 Deer. 
 
 Great Britain .... 
 
 531 
 
 643 
 
 697 
 
 604 
 
 425 
 
 091 
 
 627 
 
 584 
 
 648 
 
 117 
 
 
 Russia, Germany. 
 Holland, <fc Belg. 
 
 82 
 
 86 
 
 96 
 
 97 
 
 105 
 
 112 
 
 160 
 
 133 
 
 118 
 
 36 
 
 
 France and adjoin¬ 
 ing countries .. 
 
 152 
 
 146 
 
 108 
 
 159 
 
 126 
 
 127 
 
 186 
 
 142 
 
 149 
 
 
 3 
 
 Spain . 
 
 . . 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 34 
 
 5 
 
 . . 
 
 Mediterranean . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 . , 
 
 Countries on the 
 Adriatic. 
 
 44 
 
 26 
 
 38 
 
 39 
 
 31 
 
 29 
 
 47 
 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 1 
 
 
 United States.... 
 
 131 
 
 143 
 
 158 
 
 175 
 
 175 
 
 209 
 
 205 
 
 188 
 
 158 
 
 27 
 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 
 Total.... 
 
 940 
 
 944 
 
 1047 
 
 1074 
 
 862 
 
 1068 
 
 1220 
 
 1132 
 
 1175 
 
 198 
 
 3* 
 
 * Messrs. Dufay and Co.’s Circular, Manchester, January’ 31, 1852. 
 
Year 
 
 1715 
 
 1716 
 
 1717 
 
 1718 
 
 1719 
 
 1720 
 
 1721 
 
 1722 
 
 1723 
 
 1721 
 
 1725 
 
 1726 
 
 1727 
 
 1728 
 
 1729 
 
 1730 
 
 1731 
 
 1732 
 
 1733 
 
 1731 
 
 1735 
 
 1736 
 
 1737 
 
 1738 
 
 1739 
 
 1740 
 
 1741 
 
 1742 
 
 1743 
 
 1744 
 
 1745 
 
 1746 
 
 1747 
 
 1748 
 
 1749 
 
 1750 
 
 1751 
 
 1752 
 
 1753 
 
 1754 
 
 1755 
 
 1756 
 
 1757 
 
 1758 
 
 1759 
 
 1760 
 
 1761 
 
 1762 
 
 1763 
 
 1764 
 
 1765 
 
 1766 
 
 1767 
 
 1768 
 
 1769 
 
 1770 
 
 1771 
 
 1772 
 
 1773 
 
 1774 
 
 1776 
 
 1776 
 
 1777 
 
 1778 
 
 1779 
 
 178C 
 
 11 
 
 OF MAYORS OF LIVERPOOL, FROM 1715 TO 1851, AND OF BAILIFFS 
 FROM 1715 TO 1851. 
 
 MAYORS. 
 
 William Squire. 
 
 Foster Cunliffe. 
 
 Thomas Kelsall. 
 
 Josia Poole. 
 
 Thomas Fillingham. 
 
 Henry Taylor. 
 
 Bryan Blundell. 
 
 Edward Ratchdale. 
 
 Thomas Scarisbrick.. 
 
 John Goodwin. 
 
 William Marsden. 
 
 ( Thomas Booth and 
 (George Tyrer. 
 
 John Hughes. 
 
 Bryan Blundell. 
 
 Foster Cunliffe. 
 
 George Tyrer. 
 
 Richard Gildart. 
 
 Thomas Brereton. 
 
 William Pole. 
 
 James, Earl of Derby. 
 
 Foster Cunliffe. 
 
 Richard Gildart. 
 
 George Norton. 
 
 Robert Armitage. 
 
 Thomas Steers. 
 
 Henry Trafford. 
 
 William Carr. 
 
 Edward Trafford. 
 
 John Brooks. 
 
 Owen Pritchard. 
 
 James Blomfield. 
 
 Joseph Bird. 
 
 Thomas Shane. 
 
 Joshua Clegg. 
 
 Joseph Davies. 
 
 James Gildart. 
 
 Edward Rigby. 
 
 Henry Winstanley. 
 
 James Crosbie, 
 
 Charles Coore. 
 
 Spencer Steers. 
 
 Richard Hughes. 
 
 William Goodwin. 
 
 Robert Cunliffe. 
 
 Lawrence Spencer. 
 
 John Blackburne. 
 
 William Williamson. 
 
 William Gregson. 
 
 George Campbell. 
 
 John Tarleton. 
 
 John Crosbie. 
 
 Thomas Johnson. 
 
 William Pownall, died March 
 12,1768; Chas. Coore elected 
 for remainder of the year. 
 Matthew Strange. 
 
 Ralph Earle. 
 
 John Sparling. 
 
 Thomas Wilson. 
 
 Thomas Golightly. 
 
 John Parr. 
 
 Peter Rigby. 
 
 James Clemens. 
 
 William Crosbie. 
 
 Thomas Birch. 
 
 William Pole. 
 
 William Crosbie, Jun. 
 Richard Gerard. 
 
 BAILIFFS. 
 
 Edward Ratchdale, Samuel Richardson. 
 Richard Aspinall, William Marsden. 
 James Halsall, George Norton. 
 
 Robert Armitage, John Goodwin. 
 
 John Scarisbrick, Thomas Steers. 
 
 Edward Beckwith, Henry Trafford. 
 
 John Goodwin, George Taylor. 
 
 William Furnival, William Carr. 
 
 Robert Hornby, James Shaw. 
 
 Charles Pole, Peter Rainford. 
 
 Robert Hornby, James Shaw. 
 
 John Martindale, Robert Whitfield. 
 
 Josia Poole, Foster Cunliffe. 
 
 George Tyrer, Thomas Blease. 
 
 Robert Whitfield, William Pole. 
 
 John Martindale, Edward Litherland. 
 Thomas Steers, Philip Wilcock. 
 
 Edward Trafford, Robert Dixon. 
 
 John Brooks, Owen Pritchard. 
 
 George Tyrer, John Hughes. 
 
 John Scarisbrick, Bryan Blundell. 
 Johnson Gildart, James Brookfield. 
 George Wilkinson, William Hornby. 
 James Bird, Thomas Shaw. 
 
 Joseph Clegg, Joseph Davies. 
 
 James Gildart, William Barlow. 
 
 Edward Rigby, Henry Winstanley. 
 George Gildart, Thomas Ball. 
 
 Edward Forbes, Robert Mercer. 
 
 James Kelsall, William Penketh. 
 
 Spencer Steers, Robert Fillingham. 
 Lawrence Spencer, William Hornby. 
 Charles Gore, James Kelsall. 
 
 James Crosbie, Richard Cribb. 
 
 John Ashton, William Hornby. 
 
 Ellis Cunliffe, Richard Blundell. 
 
 William Goodwin, Matthew Strong. 
 Robert Cunliffe, Richard Hughes. 
 
 Scrope Colquitt, Oliver Castland. 
 
 William Armitage, Lawrence Carr. 
 Richard Trafford, John Blackburne. 
 George Campbell, James Jackson. 
 
 Joseph Manesty, John Parr. 
 
 Thomas Johnson, Ralph Peters. 
 
 Josh. Jackson, John Williamson. 
 
 Robert Armitage, William Gregson. 
 
 Roger Parr, Ralph Earle. 
 
 John Crosbie, William Pownall. 
 
 Peter Rigby, William Boates. 
 
 Jonathan Blundell, Edward Parr. 
 
 James Bridge, Thomas Wilson. 
 
 William Crosbie, Henry Trafford. 
 
 William Pickering, John Hughes. 
 
 Richard Powell, John Sparling. 
 
 William Pole, John Parr. 
 
 John Brown, Thomas Golightly. 
 
 Thomas Birch, Thomas Earle. 
 
 Thomas Rumbold, Richard Statham. 
 James Clemens, Richard Gerard. 
 
 John Colquitt, James Gildart. 
 
 William Crosbie, George Case. 
 
 Johnson Gildart, Hindley Leigh. 
 
 Charles Pole, John Gregson. 
 
 Thomas Earle, John Hughes. 
 
 William Hesketh, John Blackburne, Jun. 
 Henry Hardman, M. Pole. 
 
12 
 
 Year. 
 
 1781 
 
 1782 
 178 :! 
 
 1784 
 
 1785 
 
 1786 
 
 1787 
 
 1788 
 
 1789 
 
 1790 
 179] 
 
 1792 
 
 1793 
 
 1794 
 
 MAYORS. 
 
 George Case. 
 
 John Brown. 
 
 W. Hesketh 
 John Gregson, 
 
 Charles Pole. 
 
 James Gildart. 
 Thomas Earle. 
 
 John Blackburne, Jun. 
 Thomas Smyth. 
 
 John Sparling. 
 
 Henry Blundell. 
 Clayton Tarleton. 
 Henry Blundell. 
 
 John Shaw. 
 
 1795 
 
 1796 
 
 1797 
 _1798 
 
 17'gr 
 
 1800 
 
 1801 
 
 1802 
 
 1803 
 
 1804 
 
 1805 
 
 1806 
 
 1807 
 
 1808 
 
 1809 
 
 1810 
 1811 
 1812 
 
 1813 
 
 1814 
 
 1815 , 
 
 1816 ( 
 
 1817 
 
 1818 
 
 1819 
 
 1820 
 1821 
 1822 
 
 1823 
 
 1824 
 
 1825 
 
 1826 
 
 1827 
 
 1828 
 
 1829 
 
 1830 
 
 1831 
 
 1832 
 
 1833 
 1834) 
 1835 j 
 
 (Peter Baker, died Feb. 7, 
 J 1796; Thos. Naylor elected 
 l for remainder of term. 
 George Dunbar. 
 
 Thomas Staniforth. 
 
 Thomas Leyland . 
 
 ~Pudsey Dawson. 
 
 John Shaw. 
 
 Peter Whitfield Brancker. 
 James Bold. 
 
 William Harper elected, but 
 election set aside as invalid; 
 John Bridge Aspinall elected 
 , 21st Hay, 1804. 
 
 William Harper. 
 
 Henry Clay. 
 
 Tho mas Afolvnenx . 
 
 \ H. B. Hollinshead. - 
 James Gerard. 
 
 John Clarke. 
 
 James Drinkwater. 
 
 John Browne. 
 
 Samuel Staniforth. 
 
 William Nicholson. 
 
 Thomas L eylan d. 
 
 Sir William Barton, Knt. 
 John Wright. 
 
 Thomas Case. 
 
 Jon. B. Hollinshead. 
 
 Sir John Tobin, Knt. 
 
 . -Thomas Leylan d. 
 
 Bichard - Bullin. 
 
 William Molyneux. 
 
 Charles Lawrence. 
 
 Jon. B. Hollinshead. 
 
 Peter Bourne. 
 
 Thomas Littledale. 
 
 Thomas Colley Porter. 
 Nicholas Robinson. 
 
 Sir George Drinkwater, Knt. 
 Sir Thomas Brancker, Knt. 
 Samuel Sandbach. 
 
 Charles Horsfall. 
 
 J. Wright. 
 
 J. Aspinall. 
 
 BAILIFFS. 
 
 Joseph Birch, Thomas Hatton. 
 
 Thomas Smith, Thomas Earle. 
 
 C. Pole, E. Rigby. 
 
 John Greenwood, James Brooks, Jun. 
 
 Peter Baker, Thomas Clements. 
 
 Robert Moss, William Roe. 
 
 Thomas Staniforth, Clayton Tarleton. 
 
 Richard Statham, Spencer Steers. 
 
 Henry Blundell, John Shaw. 
 
 Robert Moss, Clayton Tarleton. 
 
 John Brown, Thomas Earle. 
 
 John Greenwood, John Shaw. 
 
 Thomas Naylor, Henry Clay. 
 
 John Parke, George Dunbar. 
 
 Peter Whitfield Brancker, Spencer Steers. 
 
 Jonas Bold, Thomas Leyland. 
 
 Pudsey Dawson, Thomas Hinde. 
 
 James Gerard, Thomas Molyneux. 
 
 W. C. Lake, John Weston. 
 
 Henry Brown, Henry Clay. 
 
 Thomas Hinde, John Bridge Aspinall. 
 
 William Harper, Joseph Brooks. 
 
 James Gerard, Thomas Molyneux. 
 
 William Ewart, Samuel Staniforth. 
 
 Spencer Steers, John Weston. 
 
 William Rigg, John Clarke. 
 
 James Drinkwater, Thomas Hinde. 
 
 John Weston, Samuel Staniforth. 
 
 Henry Midgley, John Bower. 
 
 William Nicholson, Thomas Case. 
 
 Edward Pearson, Thomas Corrie. 
 
 Thomas Hinde, Thomas Case. 
 
 James Gregson, John Wright. 
 
 Charles Lawrence, Thomas Corrie. 
 
 Richard Bullen, Jon. Blundell Hollinshead. 
 George Drinkwater, John Deane Case. 
 
 Richard Golightly, William Wallace Currie. 
 Willia m Molyneux , Nicholas Robinson. 
 ThomaiTCorrie,"William Earle, Jun. 
 
 Richard Golightly, Thomas Littledale. 
 
 Peter Bourne, Charles Pole. 
 
 John Shaw Leigh, Richard Dawson. 
 
 William Earle, William Wallace Currie. 
 
 Thomas Brancker, William Ripley. 
 
 Henry Moss, George Rowe. 
 
 Thomas Brancker, John Ewart. 
 
 Isaac O. Bold, Samuel Thompson. 
 
 Samuel Sandbach, R. B. Blundell Hollinshead. 
 Charles Horsfall, Richard Houghton. 
 
 Anthony Molyneu x, Thomas Foster. 
 ThomaS'Shaw, Henry Ashton. 
 
 James Aspinall, Robertson Gladstone. 
 
 J. Crosbie, J. Cockshott. 
 
 A. Lace, J. Higginson died, J. Pownall succeeded. 
 
 LIST OF MAYORS UNDER THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS BILL. 
 
 1836 William Wallace Currie, Esq. (Jan.) 
 
 1836 William Earle, Jun., Esq (Nov.) 
 
 1837 William Rathbone, Esq. 
 
 1838 Hugh Hornby, Esq. 
 
 1839 Sir Joshua Walmsley, Knt. 
 
 1840 Thomas Bolton, Esq. 
 
 1841 John Shaw Leigh, Esq. 
 
 1842 Robertson Gladstone, Esq. 
 
 1843 Thomas Sands, Esq. 
 
 1844 James Lawrence, Esq. 
 
 1845 David Hodgson, Esq. 
 
 1846 George Hall Lawrence, Esq. 
 
 1847 Thomas Berry Horsfall, Esq. 
 
 1848 John Bramley-Moore, Esq. 
 
 1849 John Holmes, Esq. 
 
 1850 Sir John Bent, Knt. 
 
 1801 Thomas Littledale, Esq. 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 
 
 TO 
 
 BAINES’S HISTORY OF LIVERPOOL. 
 
 A 
 
 Ashton, Rev. Ellis, Huy ton 
 Ashton, Frank, Mayor of Salford 
 Atkinson H. T., barrister, London 
 Ackers, Janies, Vauxhall-road 
 Ackerley, R. Y., Prince Ed win-street 
 Adams, R., North John-street 
 Addison, T., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Ahlborn, Louis, Whitechapel 
 Aikin, James, Goree-piazzas 
 Aikin, John, Prince's-park 
 Aked, Robert, Rumford-place 
 Alison, Janies, Carus-lodge, Lancaster 
 Allcard, William, Warrington 
 Allen, William, St. Helens 
 Allinson, John, St. James’-street 
 Alltree, John, Basnett-street 
 Aman and Kroeber, Sweeting-street 
 Anderson, T. D., India-buildings 
 Anderson, James, Tower-buildings 
 Anderson, J. F., Cable-street 
 Anderson, John, Canning-street East 
 Andersson, LTlric John, 10, Chapel-street 
 Andrews, James, Cooper’s-row 
 Angell, Samuel, London 
 Ansdell, John, St. Helens 
 Antwis, John, Castle-street 
 Appleton, J., St. Anne-street 
 Arrowsmith, J. H., Westmoreland-place 
 Arrowsmith. J. L., Alliance M. A. Co. 
 Armstrong, George, Cook-street 
 Armitage, W. H., Talbot-chambers 
 Arnott, J. R., North John-street 
 Arnold, Samuel James, Sweeting-street 
 Arnold, James, Rose-place 
 Arnaud, Elias, Custom-house 
 Ashton, A., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Aspinall, Joseph, Oldhall-street 
 Aspinall, H. K-, Birkenhead 
 Astley, Edward, Tower-chambers 
 Astley, John, Rock Ferry 
 Athenaeum Newsroom, Church-street 
 Atherton, Thos., Falkland-street 
 Atkinson, Jonathan, Edgar-street 
 Atkinson, J., Great Howard-street 
 Atkinson, John, Harrington-street 
 Atkinson, Thomas, Scotland-road 
 Avison, Thomas, Cook-street 
 B 
 
 Bulkelev, Sir B. B. W., Bart., M.P., Baron- 
 hill, Beaumaris 
 Birch, Sir T. B., Bart., M.P. 
 
 Baines, Right Hon. M. T-, M.P., London 
 Booker, Thomas W., Esq., M.P., Cardiff 
 Brown, W., Esq., M.P., Richmond-hill 
 Bright, J., Esq., M.P., Rochdale [2 copies ] 
 
 B 
 
 Brooks, Venerable Archdeacon, Everton 
 Barker, John, Esq., High Sheriff of Staf¬ 
 fordshire 
 
 Brunner, Rev. John, Everton 
 Bonney, Rev. T., Seel-street 
 Brown, Rev. FI. S., Chatham-street 
 Blair, ,J. K., Judge of Salford Court of 
 Record 
 
 Bent, Sir John, Knt., Rake-lane, Edge-hill 
 
 Bancroft, Alderman Joseph, Manchester 
 
 Badenach, George, North John-street 
 
 Bainbrigge, W. H., Islington 
 
 Baines, James, 6, Cook-street 
 
 Baines, Edward, Leeds 
 
 Baines, Frederick, Leeds 
 
 Baines, Mrs., Upper Duke-street 
 
 Bailey Brothers, Water-street (2 copies) 
 
 Bailey, William Latham, 20, Water-street 
 
 Baker, Thomas W., ltoe-street 
 
 Bald, John, Brunswick-buildings 
 
 Balderston, James, Grenville-street 
 
 Ball, S., Kagle-lodge, Wallasey 
 
 Balmer, Mrs., Islington 
 
 Banks, T. M., New-auay 
 
 Banks, Henry, Seymour-street 
 
 Banner, Harmood, North John-street 
 
 Banner. Edward, North John-street 
 
 Banning, C. B., Postmaster 
 
 Band, William, Duke-street 
 
 Banks, Samuel, Castle-street 
 
 Barclay, T. B., Jubilee-buildings 
 
 Barber, J. M., Islington 
 
 Barber, Charles, Royal Institution 
 
 Barbour, John, Water-street 
 
 Barry, William, Exchange-buildings 
 
 Barker, George, Mulberry-street 
 
 Barker, George J., Cook-street 
 
 Barlow, Robert, 44, Phythian-street 
 
 Barlow, John, Marybone 
 
 Barnes, Edward, Peter-lane 
 
 Barton, James, AVindsor 
 
 Barton, Thomas, Castle-street 
 
 Barton, Thomas, Manchester 
 
 Barton, Miles, New Brighton 
 
 Baruchson, Makin, and Co., Union-court 
 
 Bates, William, North John-street 
 
 Bates, Edward, Bellfield-house, West Derby 
 
 Bate, William, Drury-lane 
 
 Bateson, James, Oldhall-street 
 
 Bateson, John, Oldhall-street 
 
 Bateson, Richard, jun., Water-street 
 
 Baugh, Daniel, Wolstenholme-square 
 
 Baxter, Archibald, North John-street 
 
 Beaver, J. F., Manchester 
 
 Beazley, James, Rumford-place 
 
2 
 
 B 
 
 Beetham, Thos., 97,Farringdon-st., I.ondon 
 
 Bellamy, Thomas, 8, Chariotte-st., London 
 
 Beley, George, liedcross-street 
 
 Bell, Daniel, South Castle-street 
 
 Bell, J. W., Bootle-lane 
 
 Bell, John. Barton-moss 
 
 Belcher, Michael, Exchange-buildings 
 
 Bellhouse, D., Exchange-street West 
 
 Beloe, Henry C., Brunswiclc-street 
 
 Bent, Ilowland, Bootle 
 
 Bennett, T. F., Lower Castle-street 
 
 Bennett, G. and Sons, Fen wick-street 
 
 Bennett, William, Sir Thomas-buildings 
 
 Bennett, Henry, London-road 
 
 Berger, J. C., India-buildings 
 
 Bentley. Blain, and Co., Exchange-bldgs. 
 
 Berry, Joseph, St. John’s-lane 
 
 Betteley, Joseph, Nile-street 
 
 Bevnon, John, Kanelagh-street 
 
 Bibby, John, Tower-chambers 
 
 Bickerstetb, Hubert, Rodney-street 
 
 Bickersteth, Edmund, Park-lane 
 
 Bigland, J., I xchange-buildings 
 
 Birchenough, S., Lime-street 
 
 Bird, G. H., Upper Plill-stieet 
 
 Bischoff, Wro. Geo., Distributor of Stamps 
 
 Blackburne, T. B., Virginia-buildings 
 
 Black, John A., South Castle-street 
 
 Black, James, Fraser-street 
 
 Blacky, Wm., Bell-street, Toxteth-park 
 
 Blundell, T., Wallasey 
 
 Blundell, Bryan, Temple-court 
 
 Blyth, Thomas, Custom-house 
 
 Boardman, P., Queen-square 
 
 Bold, Thomas, Water-street 
 
 Bold, James, Water-street 
 
 Bold, John, St. Anne-street 
 
 Bold, Isaac Oldham, Edge lane 
 
 Bold, N. D., Exchange-street West 
 
 Bolton, Thomas, Brunswick-street 
 
 Bolton, R. L., Brunswick-street 
 
 Bolton, John, Rathbone-street 
 
 Booker, Josias, Postoffice-place 
 
 Booker, George, Rumford-place 
 
 Booker, Septimus, Castle-street 
 
 Booth, Chas., Croxteth-road, Prince’s-park 
 
 Booth, Thomas, 29, Hopestreet 
 
 Booth, Henry, Railway, Lime-street 
 
 Bottomley, D. H., New Duke’s Dock 
 
 Boult, Francis, Rumford-place 
 
 Boult, Swinton, Water-street 
 
 Boult, Peter S., Exchange-alley North 
 
 Bouch, Thomas, Oldhall-street 
 
 Bourne, Timothy, Liver-chambers 
 
 Bower, William, Exchange-buildings 
 
 Bowman, W., Fenwick-chambers 
 
 Bowden, Henry, Brunswick-street 
 
 Boyd, James C., York-buildings, Dale-st. 
 
 Boyer, George, North John-street 
 
 Brabner, Samuel, North John-street 
 
 Bradshaw, James, Bootle-lane 
 
 Bradley, William, Cable-street 
 
 Bragge, William, C.E., Birkenhead 
 
 Bramley, John, Dryden-street 
 
 B 
 
 Branch, Thomas, Hanover-street 
 Brancker, J. H., Exchange-street East 
 Brancker, J. B., Exchange-alley North 
 Brancker, William, Oldhall-street 
 Brazier, John, Kent-square 
 Brebner, J. It., Water-street 
 Brereton, Joseph, Speke-hall 
 Bright, Samuel, North John-street 
 Brocklebank, Thomas, Rumford-street 
 Brocklebank, Ralph, Rumford street 
 Brodribb, E., North John-street 
 Brown, A. C., Lord-street 
 Brown, William, Lydia Ann-street 
 Brown, George, Vernon-street 
 Browne, James, Tower-buildings 
 Browne, John, The Priory, Bridgewater 
 Browne, Chas., Bridgewater 
 Bromley, John, Fleet-street 
 Bromilow, H. G., St. Helens 
 Brownell, George, Bank-bldgs., Cook-st. 
 Brownell, Charles, Bank-bldgs., Cook-st. 
 Bryning, Wm., Scotland-road 
 Buchanan, C. B., Rumford-place 
 Bulley, S. M., South Chapel-street 
 Bulley, Thomas, Catherine-street 
 Bulteel, T., Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 Railway Company, Manchester 
 Bunbury, John, Oldhall-street 
 Burley, Samuel, Fleet-street 
 Burley, Thomas, Fleet-street 
 Burroughs, James, Leycester-street 
 Burchardt, O., Bank-buildings, Cook-st. 
 Bushby, T. A., Dale-street 
 Busheil, Christopher, North John-street 
 Butler, J. H., Fenwick-chambers 
 Butler, John, Scotland-road 
 Buxton, Henry, Vauxhall-road 
 Buxton, C., Mill-street 
 Byrne, A. E., Rumford-place 
 Byrom, Thomas, Wigan 
 Byron, Bernard, 3, Union-court 
 C 
 
 Crawford and Balcarres, the Earl of, 
 Haigh-hall 
 
 Chester, Right Rev. Bishop of 
 Crompton, Mr. Justice, London 
 Cardwell, E., Esq., M.P., London 
 Copeland, Aid., M.P., London 
 Campbell, Rev. Rector, Duke-street 
 Crook, Richard S., barrister, Rodney-street 
 Caine, Nathaniel, Dutton-street 
 Callan, G., Park-lane 
 Calvert, John, Bootle 
 Campbell, G. W., 15, Water-street 
 Campbell, John, King-street 
 Campbell, J. P., Exchange-street East 
 Campbell, C., and Son, Exchange-court 
 Cameron, C. F., Druid-court, Dale-street 
 Cannon, John M., South Castle-street 
 Cannon, David, South Castle-street 
 Carlisle, Thomas, Tower-buildings 
 Carr, R. L., Cl if ton-park, Birkenhead 
 Carne, C. F., Water-street 
 Carne, William Byrom, 2, Chapel-street 
 
c 
 
 Carson, P. M., Tower-chambers 
 Carson, William, York buildings, Dale-st. 
 Carson, Thomas, Fen wick-street 
 Carswell, J., Scotland-road 
 Carter, Richard, lledcross-street. 
 
 Carter, Stephen, Waterloo-road 
 Carter, William, Water-street 
 Case, Robert, Exchange-street East 
 Cato, Peter, Brunswick Dock 
 Caton, Agnes, Richmond-row 
 Castellain, Alfred, Barned-buildings 
 Castle, Thomas, Dale-street 
 Catcheside, Matthew, Clayton-square 
 Caton, AVilliam, Great Ho ward-street 
 Cazenove, James, South John-street 
 Cearns, Mrs., Rodney-street 
 Chaffers, Jeremiah, Royal Bank 
 Chaffer, T. and B., Great Homer-street 
 Charles, William, Vine-street 
 Chadwick, William, Walton-road 
 Chadwick, Robert, Manchester 
 Chadwick, David, Salford 
 Chadwick, John, Eccles 
 Challinor, Edward, Queen’s Dock 
 Chapman, H. C., Fenwick-chambers 
 Chalker, George, Harford-street 
 Cherry, Samuel, Fenwick-chambers 
 Chesney, James, Commutation-row 
 Cheshire, T., Paradise-street 
 Chidson, W. D., Bold-street 
 Chilton, T., Northumberland-terrace 
 Chillcot, Richard, Basnett-street 
 Chinn, F. F., Lower Castle-street 
 Christie, J. H., Grange-mount, Claughton 
 Christian, Henry, Harrington-street 
 Church of England Institution, Bold-street 
 Clare, William, Exchange-buildings 
 Claypole, H. K., Tower-buildings 
 Claxton, William, South-hill Grove 
 Clare, W. L., Exchange-buildings 
 Clarke, William, Lower Castle-street 
 Clarke, Andrew, Cornwallis-street 
 Clarkson, Thomas, William Henry-street 
 Clarkson, William, Great Howard-street 
 Clarke, Thomas, Cable-street 
 Clare, Joseph, Bath-street 
 Clayton, J. S., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Clements, J. J., Fairfield 
 Clewlev, T., London-road 
 Clint, John, South John-street 
 Clint, Francis A., Beech-terrace 
 Clint, T. T., Burncoose-buildings 
 Clunie, R. A., Glasgow 
 Clow, John, Redcross-street 
 Coalbrookdale Co., James-street 
 Coates, William, Industrial Schools 
 Cochrane, William, Wapping 
 Cockshott, James, India-buildings 
 Cocker, J., St. James’-terrace 
 Coglan, Edward, Exchange-street East 
 Coglan, John, Exchange-street East 
 Cole, William, Basnett-street 
 Collins, John, Richmond-row 
 Colley, F. P., Rumford-place 
 Collegiate Institution Library 
 
 5 T 
 
 C 
 
 Colton, John, Marybone 
 
 Comer, Thomas, College-lane 
 
 Cook, Thomas, Wigan 
 
 Cooper, T. O., Rumford-street 
 
 Cooper, Joseph, Great George-street 
 
 Coombes, John, Edge-hill 
 
 Congreve, Charles, New York 
 
 Copway, llev. Geo., per Richd. Rathbone 
 
 Cookson, James, Great Howard-street. 
 
 Copeland, W. R., Great Charlotte-street 
 
 Copeland, Lawrence, Netherfield-road N. 
 
 Corbally, C. J., Chapel-street 
 
 Corrie, William Byrom, 2, Chapel-street 
 
 Corrie, Edgar, London 
 
 Corrin, John, Everton 
 
 Cotesworth, Charles, Tower-buildings 
 
 Court, Thomas, Secretary to Underwriters 
 
 Coupland J., Fen wick-court 
 
 Cowell, Simeon, Kirkdale 
 
 Cowie, C. G., Tower-buildings 
 
 Cox, Edward, Chapel-street 
 
 Cox, James, Oldhall-street 
 
 Cox, Henrv, Oldhall-street 
 
 Crabtree, Abraham, Falkner-square 
 
 Crabtree, Joseph, Wavertree 
 
 Cram, Henry, South John-street 
 
 Crellin, James, Lime-street 
 
 Crellin, James, Soho-street 
 
 Critchley, W. R., Blackstock-street 
 
 Croft, Thomas, Comus-street 
 
 Crosfield, Henry, Temple-court 
 
 Crosfield, Simon, Temple-place 
 
 Crosfield, William, Temple-place 
 
 Cropper, John, Dingle 
 
 Cropper, Edward, Dingle 
 
 Cropper, John, Everton 
 
 Cropper, James 
 
 Crook, J. T., Tower-chambers 
 
 Cross, John, Rainhill 
 
 Crosse, W., St. John's-lane 
 
 Cross, Thomas, Berrv-street 
 
 Crve, Robert, Lower Arcade. 
 
 Cummins, C., Crown-street 
 Cunningham, John, Seel-street 
 Cunlitfe, George, Drury-lane 
 Cunningham, .T., Oldhall-street 
 Cunningham, George E., Old Churchyard 
 Curtis, T. A., Shaw-street 
 Curtis, W. M., Dale-street 
 Cusack, Charles, Brunswick-street 
 Cuthbert, James, Clayton-square 
 Cuthbertson, William, Glasgow 
 D 
 
 Derby, Earl of, Knowsley-hall 
 Driffield, Rev. G. T., Middlesex 
 Dalglish, James, Harrington-street 
 Daly, Thomas, Compton-chambers 
 Daly, Dennis, Brunswick-street 
 Dafby, J. B., Great Howard-street 
 Dalglish, Robert, jun.,St. Helens [2 copies) 
 Dalton, Maurice, Waterloo-road 
 j Danson, H., Cook-street 
 | Danson, Wm. and Joseph, <>, Shaw-street 
 I Danson, Hector, Circus-street 
 Darby and Sim, Sweeting-street 
 
4 
 
 D 
 
 Darbyshire, B., Goree 
 Davies, Thomas, Scotland-road 
 Davis, Henry, Tower-buildings 
 Davies and Stainton, Bold-street 
 Davies, Robert, Stanhope-straet 
 Darwell, Thomas, Manchester 
 Dawson, William, Rock Ferry 
 De la Rue, J. C., Orange-court 
 Derbyshire, Richard N., John-street 
 Derbyshire, Thomas, Gloucester-street 
 Desilva, Joseph, Bath-street 
 Devine, M., Scotland-road 
 Dickinson, Dr,, Nelson-street 
 Dickinson, John, Hackins-hey 
 Dignan, John, Chronicle-office 
 Dismore, Thomas, Bold-street 
 Distill, N. W., Parliament-street 
 Dixon, William, Rumford-place 
 Dixon, William, Williamson-square 
 Dobson, Arthur, Peter’s-place 
 Dod, William, Cheapside 
 Dod, Edward, Cheapside 
 Donnison, Thomas, Rumford-street 
 Doodson, T., Russell-street 
 Dove, Percy M., Royal Insurance-office 
 Dover, Thomas, Water-street 
 Dowie, James, Tower-buildings 
 Dowling, M. M. G., Bootle 
 Downing, John, Bootle 
 Dowie, Kenneth, South John-street 
 Driffield, W. W-, York-buildings 
 Drinkwater, P. B., llodney-street 
 Dry, William, Virginia-street 
 Duarte, R. T., Exchange-buildings 
 Duckworth, It., Cook-street 
 Duckworth, J., Prince Edwin-street 
 Duckworth, R., Prince Edwin-street 
 Duckworth, James Joseph, Gt. Plomer-st. 
 Dudley, George, Cook-street 
 Duguid, Thomas, Canning-place 
 Duke, C., Great Howard-street 
 Duncan, William, Rumford-street 
 Duncan, W. PI., Cornwallis-street 
 Duncan, G. J., Exchange-street West 
 Duncan, Thomas, Hotham-street 
 Duncan, James, Southport Railway 
 Dunbibbin, William E., Scotland-road 
 Dunlevie, C. T., Brunswick-buildings 
 Dunstan, J., jun., Lancashire and York¬ 
 shire Railway Company, Manchester 
 Durning, William, Fen wick'Street 
 Dutton, John A., College-lane 
 Dutton, Samuel, Water-street 
 Dutton, John, Exchange-buildings 
 Dymock, Edward, Wolverhampton 
 E 
 
 Ellesmere, Earl of, Worsley-hall 
 Ewart, Wm.| Esq., M.P., London 
 Ewbank, Rev. W. W., Everton 
 Evans, Captain, 5, New-street, Spring 
 gardens, London 
 
 Earle, Hardman, Exchange-buildings 
 Earle, William, Fen wick-street 
 Eaton, Hugh, Drury-lane 
 Eaton, Messrs., Berry-street 
 
 E 
 
 Eaton, John, 13, Ellison-street, Everton 
 Eccles, Edward, Rumford-place 
 Eecles, J., Exchange-alley North 
 Eccles, Joseph, Darwen 
 Eddowes, T. S., Waterloo-place 
 Eckersley, Thomas, Wigan 
 Ede, George, North John-street 
 Eden, John, Church-sti'eet 
 Edmondson, T., Scotland-road 
 Edwards, It., Wolstenholme-square 
 Edwards, A., Exchange-buildings 
 Edwards, Richard, Newington 
 Edwards, T. G., Bedford.street South 
 Edwards, Hugh, Boundary-street 
 Ellis, Arthur, Fenwick-street 
 Ellis, William, 29, Edge-lane 
 Elliott, John, Stewart-street 
 Elvis, Benjamin, Liver-street 
 Emery, Henry, Kirkdale-road 
 Emmett, W., Manchester 
 Empson, John, Great Newton-street 
 Estill, Edward, Orange-court 
 Estlin, Thomas R., Vauxhall-road 
 Etches, John C., Stone 
 Evans, Eyre, Shaw-street 
 Evans, William, Old Postoffice-place 
 Evans, John, Paradise-street 
 Evans, David, Everton 
 Evans, Thomas B., Windsor-terrace 
 Evans, D., Commerce-court 
 Evans, Edward, Wigan 
 Everard, B., Great Iloward-slreet 
 Ewart, J. C., New Brighton 
 Ewart, Peter, Harrington-street 
 Ewart, Joseph, Manchester 
 Ewer, H. A., Union-court 
 Eyre, Thomas, Seel-street 
 F 
 
 Falloon, Rev. W. M., Percy-street 
 Fairclough, C., Lower Castle-street 
 Fairhurst, J., St. Anne-street 
 Fairclough, J. A., 18, Chapel-street 
 Fairrie, Adam, North John-street 
 Fairclough, W. C., Cornwallis-street 
 Falloon, Edward L., Shaw-street 
 Fallows, William, Dutton-street 
 Falcon, Charles, Lower Castle-street 
 Farie, John, Union-court 
 Farnworth, John, Greenland-street 
 Fell, Thomas, Paradise-street 
 Fenton, Alexander, Pitt-street 
 Ferguson, John, Bold-street 
 Ferguson, Walter, india-buildings 
 Ferns, F. J., Woodside 
 Fielden Brothers, Rumford-street 
 Finch, J., sen., Formby-street 
 Finch, J., jun., Formby-street 
 Finch and Willey, Windsor 
 Fisher, William, Redcross-street (2 copies ) 
 Fisher, Thomas, Dale-street 
 Fisher, Richard, King-street 
 Fisher, Dr. W. M., Great George-sti eet 
 Fincham, Frederick, St. Helens 
 Fleming, Thomas, Sandon-street 
 Fletcher, Edward, Wapping 
 
5 
 
 F 
 
 Fletcher, It. A., Toxteth-park 
 Flynn, J., Whitechapel 
 Foden, John, South John-street 
 Forbes, Win., South John-street 
 Forshaw, John, Mount-street 
 Forsyth, Wm, Wood-street 
 Forwood, T. B., North John-street 
 For\vood,G. P., Itoval Bank 
 Foster, Thomas, Bale-street 
 Foster, James, Stourton Castle 
 Foster, Percival, Stourbridge 
 Forster, William F., 40, Dale-street 
 Fowler, John, Water-street 
 Fox, John, Rumford-place 
 Fox, William, Castle-street 
 Fraser, W. M., South John-street 
 Franceys and Comer, Tithebavn-street 
 Franklin, Ben., ltobert-street 
 Frankland, Joseph, Stroud 
 Fieeland, H. W., London 
 Froes, F. G., Albion-place, Chester 
 Froste, Thomas G., Chester 
 Froste, Francis A., Chester 
 Freme, Wm. P., Netherfield-road 
 Frecker, M. J., Park-lane station 
 Fresh, Thomas, Cornwallis-street 
 Froste, Thomas, Orange-court 
 Froes, John F., Brunswick-street 
 Fry, Joseph, Falkner-terrace 
 P’ynney, I). J., Brunswick-street 
 Furness, William, .Lawton-street 
 G 
 
 Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., M.P. 
 Greenall, G., Esq., M.P., Warrington 
 Gale, J. C., Brunswick-street 
 Gardner - , R. C., Dale-street 
 Gardner, William, North John-street 
 Gardner, W., Custom-house 
 Gardner, Joseph, Scotland-road 
 Gardner, Joseph, Park-lane 
 Garner, James, Tithebarn-street 
 Garner, George, Vauxhall-road 
 Garner, Charles, Lime-street 
 Garston, E. J., Rumford-place 
 Garland, Alfred, Lord-street 
 Garnett, Jeremiah, Manchester 
 Garnett, Jeremiah, Clitheroe 
 Garratt, Robert, Rose-hill 
 Garvan, Edward, Warrington 
 Gaskell, L. T., Bankruptcy Court 
 Gaskell, Edwin, Duke-street 
 Gaskell, Holbrook, l’atricroft 
 Geddes, William, Temple-court 
 Gee, VV. H., Castle-street 
 Gem, William, I .aces, Myers, and Co. 
 Gemmell, Alexander, Mary bone 
 Gemmell, John, Lord-street 
 Gibbs, E. G. H. IT, Kirkdale 
 Gibb, Duncan, 38, Upper l’arliament-st. 
 Gihbison, Henry, Mary land-street 
 Gibbon, Edward, Netherfield-road 
 Gibson, James, Royal Bank-buildings 
 Gibson, Charles, Salford 
 Gill, Titherington, and Co., Chapel-street 
 
 G 
 
 Gill, Robert, Chapel-street 
 Gilbert, Richard, Burncoose-buildings 
 Gillham, C., Lord-street 
 Gilliatt, W. H., Water-street 
 Gillgrass, Wm., Upper Hill-street 
 Gladstone, It., South Castle-street 
 Gladstone, Robertson, Union-court 
 Gladstone, David, West Derby 
 Gladstone, Adam, Harrington-street 
 Gladstone, John, jun., Sparling-street 
 Gladstone, Burns, and Co., Manchester 
 Glasgow and Liverpool Steam-ship Co. 
 Glazebrook, T. T., Brunswick-buildings 
 Glen, G., Upper Parliament-st. (2 cqpi#*)- 
 Glenton, Matthew, Exchange-alley^ 
 Godfrey, Thomas, Soho-street 
 Golding, Henry, James-street 
 ' Golborn, John, Scotland-road 
 Goodwin, J. F., Lower Castle-street 
 Goodacre, S., Manchester-street 
 Goodall, William, Lawton-street 
 Goore, W. H., Royal Insurance-buildings 
 Gordon, James, Exchange-buildings 
 Gorst, Thomas, Exchange-street East 
 Gorst, J. R., Great Charlotte-street 
 Gough, Gilbert B., Argyle-street 
 Gough, Henry, Woodside 
 Gould, Samuel, Redcross-street 
 Grant, George, Union-court 
 Graves, John, Sweeting-street 
 Graham and Kelly, 8, Cook-street 
 Graham, R., Great Nelson-street 
 Gray, Edward, Parish-office 
 Gray, John, Strand-street 
 Graves, Samuel Robert, 3, Falkner-square 
 Grey, John, Cook-street 
 Grey, Henry A., Oldhall-street 
 Green, John H., Oldhall-street 
 Green, Thomas, Chapel-street 
 Green, Joseph, Scotland-road 
 Green, Thomas, Soho-street 
 Greene, John W., William-street 
 Greaves, Joseph, Exchange-buildings 
 Greig, Captain J. J., Head-constable 
 Gregg, William, Bold-street 
 Greame, William, West Derby 
 Gregson, Mrs., Aigburth-road 
 Gregory, Jas., Mersey -street 
 Griffith, Richard, Chapel-street 
 Griffiths. C., B reek-road 
 i Grindrod, J., Rock Ferry 
 Grocott. John C., Cable-street 
 Grundy, Thomas, North John-street 
 Guile, Edward, Vernon-street 
 H 
 
 Harrowbv, Earl of 
 Henry, A., Esq., M.P., Manchester 
 ! Hey worth, Lawrence, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Hampton. Rev. Henry. Toxteth-park 
 Howson. Rev. J. S., Collegiate Institution 
 Hull, Rev. E., Bedford-slreet North 
 Henderson, Gilbert, Esq., Recorder 
 Harden, John W.. Judge of Cheshire 
 County Courts, Birkenhead 
 
6 
 
 H 
 
 Hilibert, T. D., barrister-at-law, London 
 Haddock, John, St. Helens 
 Haigh, Thomas, Exchange-buildings 
 I laigb, Thomas, Castle-street 
 Haigh, George, North John-street 
 Hainsworth, Benjamin, Holly-street 
 Hallding, William, West Derby 
 Hall, C. R., Breckfield-road South 
 Hall, Bernard, India-buildings 
 Hampson, Thomas, 2, Dover-street, Port- 
 land-place, Roscommon-street 
 Hampton, T. F., Heath-street 
 Hardman, Henry, St. Helens 
 Harrison, Thomas, Ansdell-street 
 Harrison, John, Castle-sti'eet 
 Harrison, .Tames, North John-street 
 Harrison, William, Fox-street 
 Harrison, J. G., Lord-street 
 Harrison, Thomas, Chapel-street 
 Harris, W. S., Moorfields 
 Harnett, John, Fenwick-street 
 Harnett, Michael, Fenwick-street 
 Harriott, William, Scotland-road 
 Hartley, Jesse, Coburg Dock- 
 Hartlev, J., Great Howard-street 
 Hart, Charles, Brownlow-liill 
 Harvey, T., Lower Castle-street 
 Harvey, James, Falkner-square 
 H arvey, R. E., Walton Priory 
 Harvey, C. W., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Harding, George, South John-street 
 Harris, Thomas, Bridgewaterstreet 
 Hartnup, John, Observatory 
 Haselden, John, Castle-street 
 Hastings, Thomas, Sir Thomas-buildings 
 Hausburg, F. L , Church-street 
 Hawksley, Thomas. Nottingham 
 Haworth, Henry, Brownlow-liill 
 Haywood, F., Exchange-buildings 
 Haynes, William H., llumford-place, 
 Hayes, James, Richmond-row 
 Haydock, R., Richmond-row 
 Hayes, Henry, and Co., Church-street 
 Healing, William, Goree 
 Heap, Joshua, Mathew-street 
 Heap, Joseph, Mathew-street 
 Heath, Edward, Orange-court 
 Henderson, Arthur, St. Ann’s-hill 
 Henderson, John, Bath-street 
 Herd, John, Brunswick-street 
 Hewitt, George W., Strand-street 
 Hewitt, Joseph, Scotland-road 
 Hey wood, J. P., Brunswick-street 
 Hihbert, Thomas, Water-street 
 Higgins, Vincent. Cook-street 
 Higgins, W. H., Exchange-buildings 
 Higgins, Alfred, Exchange buildings 
 Higgins, Mrs. Henry 
 Higgins, Charles, Seel-street 
 Higgins, P., Tilliebam-street 
 Higgins, V. T., Virginia-buildings 
 Higgin, R., jun., Rumford-place 
 Higgin, Robert, Rumford-place 
 Iligson, John, Exchange-alley North 
 
 H 
 
 Hill, Robert Brodhurst, Edmund-street 
 Hill, Joseph, Hanover-street 
 Hilton, William, South John-street 
 Hindley, Robert, St. Helens 
 Hinton, Richard, Phythian-street 
 Hodgson, Adam, Exchange-street West 
 Hodgson, M., Water-street 
 Hodgson, Thomas, Harbour-master 
 Hodgson, David, Everton 
 Hodson, John, Islington 
 Hodgkinson, J. A., Sackville-street 
 Holme, Samuel, Church-street 
 Holme, James, Church-street 
 Holme, Arthur, Benson-streel 
 Holme, J. W., University, Oxford 
 Holmes, John, Manchester-street 
 Holland, Charles, Tower-buildings 
 Holford. J., Lord-street 
 Holt, William, Chapel-walks 
 Holt, George, Fenwick-street 
 Hope, AVilliam, Castle-street 
 Hope, S. P.. West Derby 
 Hope, W. C., West Derby 
 Hope, T. A., Castle-street 
 Hopwood, Robert, jun., Blackburn 
 Horsfall, T. B., Exchange-buildings 
 Horsfall, R., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Horsfall, W. .T., Wapping 
 Horsfall, G. H., Exchange-buildings 
 Horley, Edward, Edge-lane 
 Hornby, Joseph, Exchange-buildings 
 Hornby, PI ugh, Exchange-buildings 
 Hornbv, G. G., North John-street 
 H ore, Edward, Rodney-street 
 Houghton, R., jun., Sefton.street 
 Houghton, Richard, Rodney-street 
 Houghton, Mrs., Shaw-street 
 Houghton, E. P., Old Postoffice-place 
 Houghton, Zach., Hanover-street 
 Houghton, R. W., Exchange-alley 
 Hough, Plenry, Bootle 
 Howell, William, Duke-street 
 Howell, James, Exchange-chambers 
 Hubback, Joseph, Brunswick-buildings 
 Hubert, Louis, Birkenhead 
 Hughes, James, Byrom-street 
 Hughes, Linton, Bedford-street South 
 Hughes, H. N., Fenwick-chambers 
 Hughes, James, South Castle-street 
 Hughes, T. B. and Co., 7, Exchange-bldgs. 
 Hull, Frederick, North John-street 
 Hunter, G. W., Great Charlotte-street 
 Huntley, J. H., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Hunt, Henry, Williamson-square 
 Huskisson, Mrs., Eastham, Sussex 
 Hutchinson, J., Exchange-street East 
 Hutchinson, Michael, Liver-street 
 Hyde, R. E., Oldhall-street 
 Hyslop, Maxwell, King-street 
 I 
 
 Ihne, Dr., Mechanics’ Institution 
 Imrie and Tomlinson, Oldhall-street 
 Ingram, James, Pitt-slreet 
 Inman, William, Netherfield-road South 
 
7 
 
 i 
 
 Irvine, James, Cook-street 
 Irvine, George, India-buildings 
 Irvine, T., North-street, Toxteth-park 
 Irving, James S., Blackstock-street 
 Irwin, Thomas H., Sweeting-street 
 J 
 
 James, Edward, Esq., Judge of Borough 
 Court 
 
 Jackson, William, Burlington-street 
 Jackson, W. H., llichmond-street 
 Jacques, William, 10, Rumford-place 
 James, Daniel, New-quay 
 Jamieson, M., Sessions’-house 
 Jardine, Thomas, Richmond-row 
 Jeffreys, W. P., Price-street 
 Jeffreys, Thomas, Exchange-buildings 
 Jeffery, J. R., Compton-house 
 Jenkins, Henry, Goree-piazzas 
 Jenkin, Pierson, Parker-street 
 .lerdein, John, Exchange-place 
 Jevons, Thomas, New Quay 
 Job, John, Canning-chambers 
 Job, Samuel, Canning-chambers 
 Job, Thomas B., Canning-chambers 
 Johnson, Samuel, Orange-court 
 Johnson, Gaskel, Castle-street 
 Johnson, Richard, King-street 
 Johnson, Joseph, Great Howard-street 
 Johnson, James, London-road 
 Johnson, E., Abercromby-square 
 Johnson, Samuel, London-road 
 Johnson, James, Berry-street 
 Johnson, John, Church-street 
 Johnson, W. It., Manchester 
 Johnson, Henry, St. Helens 
 Johnson and Griffith, Tithebarn-slreet 
 Johnson, James and Co., Rumford-place 
 Jones, W. H., Blackstock-street 
 Jones, B. H., Brunswick-street 
 Jones, Thomas, Vine-street 
 Jones, Thomas, ltoe-street 
 Jones, Margaret, Peter-lane 
 Jones, R. Norris, Exchange-chambers 
 Jones, James Fisher, Chapel-street 
 Jones, Josiah, Castle-street 
 Jones, Robert, Castle-street 
 Jones, William, jun., Dale-street 
 Jones, M. C-, Harrington-street 
 Jones, Owen, Brunswick Dock 
 Jones, John, Beck with-street 
 Jones, William, Great Crosshall-street 
 Jones, John, Abercromby-square 
 Jones, J. Oliver, Brunswick-buildings 
 Jones, Thomas, Brownlow-hill 
 Jones, E. P., Paradise-street 
 Jones, William, Upper Duke-street 
 Joplin, Henry, Dale-street 
 Jordon, G., Great Howard-street 
 Jowett, Samuel, Rumford-place 
 Jovnson, Thomas, Exchange-alley 
 Judkins. Charles, Windsor-terrace 
 Jump, Thomas, Pleasant-street 
 Iv 
 
 Kershaw, James, Esq., M.P., Manchester 
 
 K 
 
 I Knight, Sir A. J., Abercromby-square 
 Kaye, Allen, Castle-street 
 Kaye, Richard, Great Howard-street 
 Kay, Thomas, Fox-street 
 Kay, Jonathan, London 
 Kay, Alexander, Church Bank 
 Kayly, William, Elliot-street 
 Keats, William, King-street 
 Ivearsley, S., Exchange-street East 
 Kearne, George, Forrest-street 
 Keizer, Lawrence, Whitechapel 
 Kelso, J. W., Tower-buildings 
 Kelly, Robert W., 8, Cook-street 
 Kent, Thomas, Fen wick-chambers 
 Kershaw, William, Rum ford-street 
 Kershaw, Jonathan, Pownall-square 
 Kewley, George, Scotland-road 
 
 I Kilshaw, William T., Waterloo 
 Kilpin, T. J„ Lawton-street 
 King, Alfred, Pembroke place 
 King, Joseph, Union-court 
 King, David, Fenwick-court 
 King, C. J. M., 21, Exchange-alley North 
 Kinnear, D. C., St. George’s-crescent 
 Kirkpatrick, J S., Harrington-street 
 Kirkman, S., Great Homer-street 
 Kitchen, Joseph, Exchange-court 
 Knight, J., llenshaw-street 
 Knight, Sophia, St. John’s-lane 
 Knowles, R., Postoffice 
 L 
 
 Loch, James, Esq., M P., London 
 
 Locke, Joseph, Esq., M.P., Adelphi, London 
 
 Lowe, Rev. J. B., Mount Vernon-road 
 
 I.ord, Lieutenant, Marine-surveyor 
 
 I.ittledale, Thomas, Mayor of Liverpool 
 
 Lace, Ambrose, Union-court 
 
 Lace, Josiah, Union-court 
 
 Lafone, A. R., Castle-street (2 copies) 
 
 Lamb, John, Lancaster-buildings 
 
 Lamb, D., Everton-road 
 
 Lamb, James, Stanley-street 
 
 Lamb, William, Wigan 
 
 Lamport, W. J., Fenwick-chmbs. (2 copies) 
 
 Lamont, Robert, AVater-street 
 
 Langton, Joseph, Bank of Liverpool 
 
 Langley, Stephen, Islington 
 
 J Langton, William, Manchester 
 Langworthy, E. R., Salford 
 
 ! I.assell, Messrs., Bold-street 
 Lassell, Mrs., Starfield 
 Latham, G., Adelphi Shades 
 Latham, John, Clare-street 
 Latham, William, Vauxhall-road 
 Lawrence, James, St. James’s-street 
 Lawrence, C., Mosley-hill 
 Lawrence, G. H., Bridgewater-street 
 Lawrence, Henry, Kodney-street 
 Lawrence, John, St. James’s-street 
 Lawton, W.. Bee Hotel, Queen-square 
 Lea, Samuel, James-slreet 
 Leamonius, A. H., Bedford-street South 
 Leader, James, AVood-street 
 Ledger, Richard, Oldhall-street 
 
8 
 
 L 
 
 Leete, William G., Sweeting-street 
 
 Lee, Robert, Cropper-street 
 
 Lee, Thomas, Birkenhead 
 
 Lee, Joseph, Great Homer street 
 
 Lees, Aaron, Exchange-alley North 
 
 Let'ebvre, Jules, 39, Bedford-street North 
 
 Leicester, Peter, Fen wick-street 
 
 Leicester, T., Scotland-road Mills 
 
 Leigh, J. S., Luton Hoo, Beds, (2 copies) 
 
 Lenox, Henry, North John-street 
 
 Lepp, Thomas, Queen Anne-street 
 
 Lester, Charles, Scotland-road 
 
 Levi, Leone, Edinburgh 
 
 Lewtas, John, Myrtle-street 
 
 Lewin, James, Castle-street 
 
 Linaker, Robert, Scotland-road 
 
 Linford, R., Park-lane 
 
 Lingard, John, Benson-street 
 
 Lister, James, Union Bank 
 
 Litherland, Nath., Parish-office 
 
 Little, Robert, Vernon-street 
 
 Little, David, Egremont 
 
 Littledale, Edward, Kodnev-street 
 
 Littledale, H., Exchange-buildings 
 
 Liversidge, W., Burlington-street 
 
 Liveisidge, K., Great Charlotte-street 
 
 Livingston, Ronald, Lord-street 
 
 Lloyd, John B., Exchange-alley 
 
 Lloyd, Thomas, Scotland-road 
 
 Llovd, Thomas, Tarlton-street 
 
 Lloyd, Richard, Bold-street 
 
 Lloyd, John, Moss-street 
 
 Loader, Thomas, Hatton-garden 
 
 Lobley, Benjamin, Birkenhead 
 
 Locke, Edward, Ashton-street 
 
 Loch, George, Worsley Old Hall 
 
 Locock, Charles, London-road 
 
 Lockett, John, King-street 
 
 Logan, James, New Brighton 
 
 Lomax, Charles, Paradise-street 
 
 Longton, John, Exchange-alley North 
 
 Lord, James, Berkeley-street 
 
 Louthean, G., Fenwick-chambers 
 
 Lovelady, W. H., Tithebarn-street 
 
 Love, James, Scotland-road 
 
 Lowe, F. R., Lower Castle-street 
 
 Lowe, J. C., James-street 4 
 
 Lowe, Adrian, Royal Bank 
 
 Lowe, John, Argyle-street 
 
 Lowes, Christopher, Ridley-street 
 
 Lowndes, M. D., Brunswiek-street 
 
 Lucas, P., Manchester 
 
 Luff, Thomas, Murray-street 
 
 Lumb, G., Great Crosshall-street 
 
 Lumb, Henry, Vauxhall-road 
 
 Lumb, Richard, Tithebarn-street 
 
 Lund, William, M‘Viccar-street 
 
 Luplon, C., Copperas-hill 
 
 Lupton, R., Myrtle-street 
 
 Lyceum Library, Bold-street 
 
 Lyon, Frederick, Brunswiek-street 
 
 Lynn, AVilliam, Waterloo Hotel 
 
 1 ynch, John, James-street 
 
 M 
 
 Martin, Sir S., Baron of the Exchequer 
 M‘Neile, Rev. l)r., Aigburth 
 Manchester, Corporation of 
 Manchester, Town-clerk of 
 Mansfield, J. S., Stipendiary Magistrate 
 Macfie, William, Greenock 
 Macfie, John, Edinburgh 
 Macfie, R. A., Bachelor-street 
 Macfie, John, Bachelor-street 
 Mac Iver, Charles, Water-street 
 Mac Iver, D. and C., Water-street (8 copies) 
 Macllveen, A., Mechanics’ Institution 
 Macgregor, A., India-buildings 
 Macgregor, W. F., Vauxhall Foundry 
 Macgregor, William, Chapel-street 
 M’Connell, Robert, Union-street 
 Mackenzie, Anthony, Dale-street 
 Macnaughton, S., Town-dues Office 
 Macrae, J. Hardy, Hackins-hey 
 Macrae, John W., Hackins-hey 
 Maclellan, David, Price-street 
 M’Kee, Robert, Queen-square 
 Mackay, James, Cook-street 
 Machan, William, Vauxhall-road 
 Mackarell, Thomas, Scotland-road 
 M'Ardle, Owen, Portland-street 
 M‘Andrew, It., North John-street 
 M‘Bryde, Anthony, Richmond-row 
 M'Culloch, Samuel, Duke-street 
 M'Clelland, Robert, Great Newton-street 
 M'Candlish, Peter, liichmond-row 
 M‘Cormick, W., Clayton-square 
 M‘Corquodale, G., Castle-street 
 M‘Dougall, W., Netherfield-road North 
 M'Donnell, W., Union-street 
 M'Diarmid, John, Goree-piazzas 
 M‘Gill, James, Brunswiek-street 
 M‘Henry, James, Temple-place 
 MTvenzie, John C., Rathbone-street 
 M'Knight, E. P., Water-street (2 copies) 
 M‘Knight, R. A., ltose-place 
 M'Larty, Donald, Water-street 
 M'Laine, Nicol, Scotland-road 
 M'Millan, William, Surrey-street 
 M‘Nicol, John, Harrington-street 
 M'Viccar, D., Exchange-buildings 
 Maddock, John, Oldhall-street 
 Maddock, Daniel, Redcross-street 
 Maguire, H. J., Great Nelson-street 
 Mails, N., Rumford-place 
 Makin, Charles, Scotland road 
 Malcomson, Joseph, C, Canning-street 
 Mann, William, Tower-chambers 
 Manger, Joseph, 11, llussell-stieet 
 Manifold, W. W., Rodney-street 
 Marsden, J., and Son, Duke-street 
 Martin, John, Clayton-square 
 Martin, T., Water-street 
 Marriott, John, Exchange-buildings 
 Marwood, John, Mersey-street 
 Marrow, Peter, Brunswiek-street 
 Martindale, Nicholas, Peter-lane 
 Mason, Daniel, Secretary of Dock Trust 
 
9 
 
 M 
 
 Miller, John, Redcross-street 
 Miller and Thompson, Tower-buildings 
 Miller, John, Hotham-street 
 Miller, William, Slater-street 
 Milner, William, Erskine-street 
 Milburn, William, North John-street 
 Millward, John, Athol-street 
 Millward, Mr., London 
 Minshull, S., Chapel-street 
 Mitchell, A., Rumford-street 
 Mocatta, Maurice, 6, Water-street 
 Modesley and Davidson, Rumford-place 
 Mogford, Francis, Castle-street 
 Molyneux, E., Royal Bank-bgs. (3 copies ) 
 Molyneux, '1'. C., New Quay 
 Molyneux, Hugh, Islington 
 Molyneux, James, Gambier-terrace 
 Mondel, Joseph, Tower-buildings 
 Monkhouse, James, Customs 
 Monk, H. J., Vernon-street 
 Monteith, R. E., Brunswick-buildings 
 Moon, J., Bronte-house, Walton 
 Moon, William, Chapel-street 
 Moore, J. Bramley, Aigburth 
 Moore, James, Scotland-road 
 Moore, Thomas, Water-street 
 Moore, Edward, St. Helens 
 Mooney, Wilfred, Great Ho ward-street 
 Morris, Thomas, Lord-street 
 Morris, Thomas, Exchange-buildings 
 Morrison, Andrew, Ray-street 
 Morecroft, Thomas, Clavton-square 
 Morecroft, W. C., Clay ton-square 
 Morrish, James, Compton-house 
 Morris, J. G., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Morris, Henry, Bootle 
 Moss, John, banker, Otterspool 
 Moss, Thomas, banker, Roby-hall 
 Moss, William M., Ansdell-street 
 Moss, Barrow, Great Crosshall-street 
 Alott, J., and Son, South Castle-street 
 Moubert, Adolphus, St. Helens 
 Mould, R. A., Exchange-chambers 
 Mould, William, Knowslev-hall 
 Mozley, Lewin, Lord-street 
 Muirhead, William, Leece-street 
 Muller, J. F., Huskisson-street 
 Mason, Joseph, Castle-street 
 Mason, William, Maryboue 
 Mather, Thomas, Drury-lane 
 Slather, Daniel, Alount-pleasant 
 Afattinson, William, Lime-street 
 Matison, Silvester, Great Howard-street 
 Maxwell, F., Fenwick-street 
 Maxwell, George, Abercromby-square 
 May, S. W. S., Exchange-alley 
 Mayer, Joseph, Lord-street 
 Meigh, Charles, AVaterloo 
 Alellor, James, Water-street 
 Mellor, Cunningham, cSt Co., Ex.-alley N. 
 Mellor, Samuel M., Water-street 
 Mercer, Edward, Brunswick Dock 
 Merrick, William, Benson-street 
 Michod, J., Collegiate Institution 
 
 iM 
 
 Middleton, C. S., Everton 
 Mill, F., India-buildings 
 Mills, Thomas, Union-street 
 Mulleneux, James, Dale-street 
 Mulleneux, John W., Dale-street 
 Musgrove, E., Hargraves’-buildings 
 Afuspratt. J., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Aluspratt, Dr. Sheridan, F.R.S.E. 
 Muspratt, R., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Muspratt, F., Royal Bank buildings 
 Alylne, W. C., Fenwick-street 
 Alyers, Jaques, Exchange-alley 
 Alyers, John, Royal Bank 
 N 
 
 Naylor, B. D., Altringham 
 Neale, John, Juvenal-street 
 Neilson, D., High-street 
 Neilson, J. B., High-street 
 Neilson, Robert, 1, Dale-street 
 Neuman, C. W., Hackins-hey 
 Neuman, Henry, Canning-place 
 Neill, Hugh, Alount-pleasant 
 Neville, James, Preeson’s-row 
 Nevil, Henry, Exchange-alley 
 Nevett, William, Rumford-street 
 Newlands, James, Clare-terrace 
 Newall, John, Great Charlotte-street 
 Newlands, Alexander, Rumford-place 
 Newall, J. L., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Newton, John, Infirmary 
 Newton, James, Dale-street 
 Newall, John, Vine-street 
 Nicholson, William, Shaw-street 
 Nicholson, John, Islington 
 Nicholson T., Dale-street 
 Nicholson, William, Alyrtle-street 
 Nickson, George, Byrom-street 
 Nicol, William, Cook-street 
 North, John, Exchange-alley 
 North, R. F.. Exchange-chambers 
 North, Alfred, Falkner-square 
 O 
 
 Oakes, .John, London-road 
 O’Brien, Francis, Roscommon-street 
 O'Connell. Alorgan, India-buildings 
 Oldfield, John, Queen-square 
 lOldfield, J. P., South John-street 
 Ormandy, Fisher, Smithdcwn-lane 
 Orr, 'William, South Castle-street 
 Orred, John, Exchange-alley 
 Oulton, Henry, Bumford-place 
 Owen, Griffith, Dale-street 
 Owens, John, Brownlow-hill 
 Owens, Henry, Crown-street 
 Oxley, J. W., and Co., Rumford-place 
 P 
 
 Potter Sir John, Knight, Alanchester 
 
 (2 copies ) 
 
 Peill, Rev. J. N., Cambridge 
 Perry, Henry J., Commissioner of Bank¬ 
 ruptcy Court 
 
 Parkinson, William, Tithebarn-street 
 Parkinson, R., Scotland-road 
 Parkinson, William, Bridewell 
 
'10 
 
 p 
 
 Partington, It., Bond-street 
 Partington, T., Great Howard-street 
 Parke, William, Brunswick-street 
 Parker, Francis, Park-lane-station 
 Parker, James, Bose-hill 
 Parker, C. J., Cook-street 
 Parker, James, Pembroke-place 
 Parry, Thomas, Temple-court 
 Parsons, Henry, Tranmere 
 Parley, Thomas. London-road 
 Pask, Thomas, Great Howard-street 
 Paton, David, Exchange-alley 
 Pater, Joseph, Orange-court 
 Peacock, John, South John-street 
 Pearson, F-, Great George-street 
 Pearson, W., Lord-street 
 Peck, Watson, Birkenhead 
 Pedder. John, Richmond-row 
 Peers, William, and Son, Oldhall-street 
 Peers, William, Exchange-alley 
 Peel, Lawrence, Harrington.street 
 Peet, John, Pilgrim-street 
 Pemberton, Charles, Shaw-street 
 Perrin, W. S., Commercial-buildings 
 Perrin, Josiah, Winsford 
 Perry, Samuel, Brownlow-hill 
 Philips, Thomas, College-lane 
 Phillips, J., Elm-house, Little Woolton 
 Philips, James, Brunswick-buildings 
 Phillipps, G. A., Hanover-street 
 Picton, James A., Clayton-square 
 Pickering, C. W-, Rumford-place 
 Pickmore, John, Tithebarn-street 
 Pickup, Alfred, Stanhope-street 
 Pickup, Kichard, Great Howard-street 
 Pigot, James C-, Union-street 
 Pinkeyman, William, Seacombe-street 
 Pilkington, John, Water-street 
 Place, Edward, Rose place 
 Pollard, William, Field-street 
 Poole, Braithwaite, Wapping 
 Poole, J. F., Church-terrace 
 Pooley, Henry, Liscard 
 Porter, William, Great Charlotte-street 
 Porter, H., Great Crosshall-street 
 Porter, John, Blenheim-street 
 Porter, James, Paddington 
 Porter, Richard, Athol-street, 
 
 Porter, James, Walnut-street 
 Porter, Thomas, Mersey-street 
 Postlethwaite, T., Exchange-chambers 
 Postlethwaite, John, Temple-court 
 Potter, Alan, Tower-buildings 
 Potter, Charles, 5, Temple-place 
 Potter, William, High-street 
 Powell, Joshua, Scotland-road 
 Powell, Daniel, North John-street 
 Powell, W. J., Sweeting-street 
 Pownall, James, Castle-street 
 Pownell, George, London 
 Prange, Francis, Rumford-place 
 Preston and Watson, Water-street 
 Preston, R. W., India-buildings 
 Preston, William, Fernon-street 
 
 P 
 
 Preston, Richard, Scotland-road 
 Preston, R. B., Bedford-street North 
 Preston, Ann, Burlington.street 
 Prior, Thomas C., St. Anne-street 
 Procter, Robert, Brunswick-street 
 Procter, James, Water-street 
 Pugh, John, Basnett-street 
 Pyecroft, Job, Scotland-road 
 Pyke, Joseph. Preston 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarrell, William, Basnett-street 
 Quavle, Henry, Prussia-street 
 Quick, Alfred, Town-clerk’s office 
 Quilliam, Joseph, Church-lane 
 
 R 
 
 Raffles, Rev. Thomas, D.D., LL.D. 
 Redhead, Rev. F. F., Rock Ferry 
 Raffles, T. S., barrister, Canning-street 
 Rae, Hugh, South John-street 
 Radcliffe, W., Canning-place 
 Radcliffe, John, Chapel-street 
 Radcliffe, Alfred, Water-street (5 copies) 
 Radcliffe, Augustus, Water-street 
 Radley, James, Adelphi Hotel 
 Rainford, William, Renshaw-street 
 Rankin, Richard, Oxford-street 
 Rankin, Robert, G4, Upper Parliament-st. 
 Rankin, Robert, Spain 
 Rathbone, Richard, Woodcote 
 Rathbone, William, Water-street (5 copies) 
 Rayner, Lloyd, Exchange-buildings 
 Rawlins, Charles E., Temple-street 
 Rawdon, Christopher, Oldhall-street 
 Rawlinson, Robert, 6, Whitehall, London 
 Raynes, James T., King-street 
 Rawson, Henry, Exchange-street East 
 Rawson, Richard, Exchange-buildings 
 Rayner, Edward, Exchange-buildings 
 Rayner, J. H., Exchange-buildings 
 Reay, James, Commerce-court 
 Reay, Thomas, Church-street 
 Read, Charles, St, Thomas-square, Hack¬ 
 ney, London 
 
 Redfearn, N., Sir Thomas’-buildings 
 Reede, John, Exchange-alley North 
 Renshaw, William, Wilton-street 
 Reynolds, William, India-buildings 
 Reynolds and Son, Water-street 
 Richards, E. S , Mill-street 
 Richardson, James, Lord-street 
 Richardson, R., Lord-street 
 Richmond, John, Church-street 
 Rickerby, James, South John-street 
 Ridley, Thomas, Lord-street 
 Ridyard, George, Brunswick-street 
 Rigge, Thomas, Union-court 
 Rimmer, Edward, Tabley-street 
 Rimmer, John, Nile-street 
 Rimmer, Thomas, Orrell 
 Ripley, Thomas, Lower Castle-street 
 Ritchie, Alexander, Leeds 
 Robinson, William, Tithebarn-street 
 Roberts, J., Scotland-road 
 Roberts, E., Duke-street 
 
11 
 
 R 
 
 Robertson, John, Great Richmond-street 
 Robinson, James, Renshaw-street 
 Robinson, Thomas, Sefton-street 
 Robinson, Nicholas, James street 
 Robinson, C. B., Myrtle-street 
 Robinson, M., Clay I on-square 
 Robinson, Edmund, Exchange-buildings 
 Robinson, W. F., Aigburth 
 Robinson, Jonathan, Pemberton-buildings 
 Robinson, Joseph, Redcross-street 
 Robinson, T. R., Hatton-garden 
 Robinson, Robert, St. Helens 
 Robinson, Samuel, St. Helens 
 Roberts, R., Royal Bank-buildings 
 Roberts, T. R., Clarence Dock 
 Roberts, H., Camden-street 
 Robson, Thomas, Scolland-place 
 Rodick, Thomas, Union-bank 
 Rodger, Best, and Co., Fenwick-street 
 Rogers, John, St. James’s-street 
 Rogerson, Thomas, Chapel-street 
 Rogerson, James, Church-street 
 Romilly, Henry, Bedford-street North 
 Ronald, R. W., Dale-street 
 Ross, Charles, Harrington-street 
 Ross, David, Chronicle-office 
 Roscoe, E. Henry, Union court 
 Roskell, Thomas F., Paradise-street 
 Rotch, T. D-, Ayrshire 
 Rounthwaite, J. K., Water-street 
 Roughsedge, Thomas, Cable-street 
 Rowlinson, Richard, Tempest-hey 
 Roxburgh, William, North John-street 
 Royden, Thomas, Upper Parliament-st. 
 Rushton, H., Vauxhall-road 
 Rushton, Edward 
 Rutson, William, Newby Wiske 
 Rylev, James, Exchange-street West 
 Ryrie, A., Birkenhead 
 Ryrie, W. D., Birkenhead 
 S 
 
 Sefton, Earl of, Croxteth-hall (2 copies ) 
 Stanley, Lord, Knowsley 
 Skelmersdale, Lord, Latham 
 Sutton, Rev. S. R., Netherfield-road 
 Stevenson, Richard, Commissioner of Bank¬ 
 ruptcy 
 
 Sadler, J., Great Charlotte-street 
 Salter, M. W., Park-lane station 
 Sands, T. B., Lancelot’s-hey 
 Sands, Thomas, Lancelot's-hey 
 Sandars, Joseph, I.ower Castle-street 
 Sandbach, Samuel, Cook-street 
 Sandbach, H. R., Woodlands 
 Sandbach, W. H., Cook-street 
 Sargeantson, Peter, Oldhall-street 
 Savage, Thomas, Oldhall-street 
 Schwabe, G. W., Exchange-buildings 
 Schmidt, Eugene, St. Helens 
 Schmidt, Hypolite, Brownlow-kill 
 Scott, J. W., Mason-street 
 Scott, John, Dumfries 
 Scotson, James, Bootle 
 Scrivenor, Henry, York-buildings 
 
 S 
 
 Seel, James, Frederick-street 
 Segar, Halsall, Brunswick-street 
 Segar, Edward, Brunswick-street 
 Segar, George, Bootle 
 Shand, Francis, Old Churchyard 
 Shand, Alexander, 
 
 Shaw, John, Mount pleasant 
 Sharpe, Richard, Temple-court 
 Sharpe, William, Rumford-place 
 Sharpe, J. A. Temple-court, 
 
 Shackleton, T., Brunswick-street 
 Sharland, T. W., Cook-street 
 Sheil, Richard, Chapel-street 
 Shepherd, William, Mill-road 
 Shimmin, William, Old Swan 
 Shipley, Joseph, Chapel-street 
 Shirley. Arthur, Liver-chambers 
 Shuttleworth, W., Town-clerk 
 Simpson, George, Royal Bank buildings 
 Simpson, '1'., Great Homer-street 
 Simpson, Henry, Parish-offices 
 Sixsmith, Robert, Chapel-street 
 Skirving, William, Roe-street 
 Sleigh, Alexander, Rumford-strtet 
 Sleigh, T., Exchange-street East 
 Sloan, Alexander, Hunter-street 
 Sloan, Peter, Islington 
 Smith, Charles, Limekiln-lane 
 Smith, William, Oldhall-street 
 Smith, J. Galt, New-quay 
 Smith, Alexander, India-buildings 
 Smith, J. P. G., Oldhall-street 
 Smith, Samuel, Bank of Liverpool 
 Smith, J. G., Williamson-square 
 Smith, John A., Mathew-street 
 Smith, William, Colquitt-street 
 Smith, J. H., Exchange-alley North 
 Smith, Henry, Great Homer-street 
 Smith, Will, Vauxhall-road 
 Smith, .T., Great Howard-strcet 
 Smith, James, Brunswick Dock 
 Smith, William, Soho-street 
 Smith, David, Chronicle-office 
 Smith, John W., Sheffield 
 Smyth, Ross T., Mount-vernon 
 Snowball,.!. G., Castle-street 
 Somerville, Alexander, l.ondon 
 Spence, James, Exchange-buildings 
 Spencer, Thomas, Prescot 
 Squarev, A. T., Exchange-street West 
 j Stafford, George, Church-street 
 ‘ Stafford, W. I., Poolton 
 Statham, William, Lime-street 
 Statham, H., Lord-street 
 Stafford, William, Water-street 
 1 Stainton, Richard, Bold-place 
 Stark, David, Waterloo-ioad 
 Stamper, John, Oxford-place 
 Statter. Thomas, Bury 
 Stead, J. 1*\, Exchange-street East 
 Stewart, John, I.eigh-street 
 Stewart, A. C., North John-street 
 Steele, Edward, Sir Thomas-buildings 
 Steele, Henry, Sefton-street 
 
 5 W 
 
12 
 
 Steele, John, Canning-place 
 Steains, J., North John-street 
 Stephen, Nathan, Brownlow-hill 
 Stivens, J., and Co., South Castle-street 
 Stitt, Janies, Water-street 
 Stitt, Thomas, Everton-brow 
 Stitt, Henry B., 
 
 Stitt, Samuel, Water-street 
 Stitt, John J., Water-street 
 Stock, J., Exchange-buildings 
 Stock, William, Hale-street 
 Stocker, George, Pliythian-street 
 Stokes, Josiab, North John-street 
 Stolterfoht, H., Excliange-alley 
 Stone, George, 20, Temple-court 
 Strype, E. H., Mount-street 
 Stuart, P., Pau 1-street 
 Stuart, William, Rum ford-place 
 Stuart, John, Windsor-street 
 Sudlow, William, Exchange-street East 
 Sumners, George, Bold-street 
 Sumner, Edward, Waterloo 
 Sutton, H. G., Exchange-street East 
 Sutton, John, Exchange-street East 
 Sutton, A., Exchange-alley North 
 Swainson, W., Stafford-street 
 Sweet man, G., St. Jolin's-lane 
 Swift, John, Union-court 
 Sykes, James, Seymour-street 
 Sykes, John, Brownlow-hill 
 Sykes, Law, Mersey-street 
 Sykes, Peter, Mill-street 
 T 
 
 Tliornely, Thomas, Esq., M.P., London 
 Taylor, John, Richmond-row 
 Taylor, Thomas F., Manchester 
 Taylor, George, St. John’s Market 
 Taylor, J. S., Whitechapel 
 Taylor, Samuel, Seddon-street 
 Tayleur, Charles, North John street 
 Tetley, Richard, Rumford-street 
 Threlfall, J. M., Crosbie-street 
 Thirkell, George, Salthouse Dock 
 Thomas, George, London-road 
 Thompson, S. H., Thingwall 
 Thompson, Geoi'ge, Church-street 
 Thompson, E., Tower-buildings 
 Thompson, J., Scotland road 
 Thompson, J. C., Commerce-court 
 Thompson, Josias, Goree-piazzas 
 Thompson, J. W., Clayton-square 
 Thompson, James, Clitheroe 
 Thompson, James, Port Stewart 
 Thorpe, Edward, North John street 
 Thornely, F., Exchange-alley 
 Thornton, Wm., Byrom-street 
 Thornton, J., Vauxhall-road 
 Thornton, Rd., Whitechapel 
 Tilston, Edward, Chester 
 Tinne, John A., Cook-street (2 copies ) 
 
 Tinker, Edward, Scotland-road 
 Tipping, John, Goree 
 Tobin, Thomas, South John-street 
 Tod, James, Adelaide-buildings 
 
 Tomkinson, Richard, Virginia-buildings 
 Tomlinson, John, Water-street 
 Tomlinson, G., St. Helens 
 Topping, Robert, Town-hall 
 Torr, John, Exchange-buildings 
 Torrens, J. A., Vauxhall-road 
 Towers, Samuel, Dale-street 
 Tracy, James, London-road 
 Train and Co., Water-street 
 Treffrey, Joseph, Montpellier-terrace 
 Tregoning, J., Exchange-street East 
 Tristram, Anthony, Dale-street 
 Troughton, James, Oldhall-street 
 Tronson, R., Exchange-buildings 
 Trotman, Francis, Dale-street 
 Troutbeck, Wilfred, Hanover-street 
 Tucker, Robert, Salthouse Dock 
 Tunnicliffe, H. C., Brunswick-street 
 Tunna, Edward, Cleveland-square 
 Turner, John H., Exchange-buildings 
 Turner, Charles, Dingle-head 
 Turner, John, Hanover-street 
 Tweddle, George, Cherry-lane 
 Twiname, John, Fenwick street 
 Tyrer, James, Old Churchyard 
 Tyrer, James, Cleveland-square 
 Tyrer, W. K., North John-street 
 Tyrer, William, Everton 
 Tyrer, Thomas, Prescot 
 Tyson, Isaac, Ranelagh-street 
 Tyson, E., Brownlow hill 
 Tyson, John, Blackstock-street 
 U 
 
 Unwin, William, Rumford-place 
 V 
 
 Vance, P., Hargraves’-buildings 
 Verelst, Charles, Birkenhead 
 Venn, John, Town-hall 
 Vining, Robert, Chapel-street 
 W 
 
 Wenlock, Lord, Escrick-park, Yorkshire 
 Walmsley, Sir Joshua, M. P., London 
 Walker, Sir Edward, Chester 
 Wheeler, Rev. W., Gildart-street 
 Wilkins, Charles, Esq., sergeant-at-law 
 Washington, Captain, R.N., 18, Uppe 
 Wood-street, Woolwich 
 Wade, George, jun., Canning-place 
 Wade, A. S., Leeds 
 Wagstaff, W., West Derby 
 Wagstaff, Joseph, West Derby 
 Wait, Thomas, Bold-street 
 Walcot, S. B., Great Nelson-street 
 Walker, William, Church-street 
 Walker, Wallace, Rum ford street 
 Walker, P., South John-street 
 Walker, G. C., Great George-place 
 Walker, A. B., Brownlow hill 
 Walker, Peter, Whitechapel 
 Walker, David, Exchange-court North 
 Walker, John, 19, Exchange-buildings 
 Walker, John, jun., Exchange-buildings 
 Walker, Matthew, Great Howard street 
 Walker, Thomas, Whitechapel 
 
w 
 
 Walker, John, jun.. Canton 
 Walker, C. J. T., Manchester 
 AA r alker, John, Ilussell-street 
 AValmsley, Henry, Manchester 
 Wain, Ambrose, Birkenhead 
 Wain, Rbbert, Ram-hall, Mold 
 Walpole, Charlotte, Murray-street 
 Walter, Henry, Town-hall 
 Walthew, William, Low-hill 
 AValton, Joseph, Manchester-street 
 AVarburton, T., Exchange Newsroom 
 Ward, Edmund, Prescot 
 AVard, J., Wallasey 
 Ward ley, J. P., Cabbage-hall 
 AVarden, George, Oldhall-street 
 AA’areing, AVilliam, South John-street 
 AVaring, Edward, Oldhall-street 
 AVason, James, Harrington-street 
 AVaterhouse, Daniel, Oldhall-street 
 Waterhouse, Rogers, Oldhall-street 
 AVatson, J. M-, Scotland-road 
 AVatson, P. AV., Rock Ferry 
 AVatson, A., Underwriters’-rooms 
 Watson, Thomas, Liscard 
 AVatts and Woodward, Paradise-street 
 AVebster, John, King-street 
 AVebster, T., AVestminster 
 Webb, Edw. E., Mosley-vale, Aigburth 
 AVedge, Thomas, Chester 
 AVells, Henry, Wigan 
 Wescott, C. C., North John-street 
 AVesthead, AV., Great Howard-street 
 AVharrie, J., Upper Parliament-street 
 AVhiteside, Thomas, AVigan 
 AVhiteinan, AV. E., Hanover-street 
 AVhittaker, Charles, Nether-hill, Hull 
 AVhitmore, J. S-, Tithebarn-street 
 Whitehead, Joseph, Hunter-street 
 AViddowson, Thomas, Islington 
 AVigg, Charles, Oldhall-street 
 Wilkins, Thomas, Bevington-bush 
 AVillder, Edwin, Tithebarn-street 
 AVilding, R., St. James’s-place 
 AVillgoose, T., Exchange-station 
 AVilkinson, Mary, Shaw’s-brow 
 Wilkinson, Henry, Moor-street 
 Wilkinson, R., Park-lane-station 
 AVillert, P. F., Manchester 
 AVilliamson, S., Prescot-street 
 AVilliamsoB, Jon., Dale-street 
 Williamson, Captain, Southampton 
 AVilliams, John R., Rainford-gardens 
 
 AV 
 
 AVilliams, H., Upper Stanhope-street 
 AVilliams, C. AV., Dublin Company 
 Williams, AV. D., Bootle 
 AVilliams, Peter, Scotland-road 
 Williams, Robert, Vauxhall-road 
 AVilliams, Owen, Canning-place 
 Willis, D., George’s Dock-gates 
 AVillmer, Charles, South John -street 
 AVilson, Joseph, London-road 
 Wilson, Robert, Union-street 
 AVilson, Paul, Dale-street 
 Wilson, Robert H., AVater-street 
 AVilson and Doherty, Doran’s-lane 
 Wilson, George, Manchester 
 AA'indus, James, Soho-street 
 AVintle, Frederick, Norton-street 
 AVinch, Henry, North John-street 
 Winstanley, S. T., Mount-pleasant 
 AVinstanley, Henry, Church-street 
 Withers George, Dock-office 
 AVithers, R-, Royal Bank-buildings 
 AVood, William, Harrington-street 
 AVood, James M., Netlierfield-road North 
 AA’ood, Thomas, Blue-coat Hospital 
 AA’ood, J. N., Chapel-walks 
 AVoods, George, Bold-street 
 AA’oods, Edward, Harrington-street 
 Woodward, Robert, James-street 
 AA’oodward, G. R., 
 
 AVoodhouse, S., Henry-street 
 Woodward, John, Church-street 
 AVoollright, Henry, Bold-street 
 Worthington, I., Hargraves’-buildings 
 Worrall, John, Salthouse Dock 
 AVordley, James, Lord-street 
 AA’right, George, Canning-street 
 AA’rigley, J. H., Hackins-hey 
 AVrigley, David, Hackins-hey 
 AVrigglesworth, J., Newington 
 AV right, Peter, Brunswick-street 
 AA'rigley, James, Manchester 
 Wybergh, John, Borough Treasurer 
 AVybergh, John, jun., Sessions’-house 
 AVylie, A. H., Tower-buildings 
 AVylie, Thomas, Royal Bank-buildings 
 Y 
 
 Yates, J. B., King-street 
 Yates, John, jun., Fenwick-street 
 Yates, Thomas, Compton-chambers 
 Yates, R. A T ., Aigburth-road 
 Young, AV. M-, 3, Leycester-stveet 
 Younghusband, J. II., Exchange-rooms 
 
 Liverpool: Printed by Thomas Baines,Times-office, 12, Castle-street. 
 
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Duke University Libraries 
 
 D00399244V 
 
 
 
 
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 942.72 B162H 496265