the West Indies, makes it famous: its situation afford-| The Rev. Francis Brokesby, in a letter written about ing in great plenty, and at reasonabler rates than most parts of England, such exported commodities proper for the West Indies, as likewise a quicker return for such imported commodities, by reason of the sugarbakers, and great manufactures of cotton in the adjacent parts; and the rather, for that it is found to be the convenientest passage to Ireland, and divers considerable counties in England with which they have intercourse of traffic." There is a good deal in the above passage which indicates that the commerce of Liverpool had begun to assume an important position before the end of the seventeenth century. The allusions to the West Indies and to Ireland, to sugar and to cottons, are all significant, and have an immediate bearing on the later history of the port. These 'cottons' (as was explained in Manchester,' p. 162) were, in all probability woollen stuffs, and not the vegetable fibre now known by that name. The town appears to have felt its growing importance, and to have been impatient of subserviency to other places. Until 1699, Liverpool was a chapelry dependent on Walton-on-the-Hill, but in that year it was raised to the rank of an independent parish, and a new parish church (St. Peter's) was built. LIVERPOOL IN THE 18TH CENTURY. The year 1700 is a convenient one in marking the progress of the commerce of Liverpool; for in that year the first ship entered the dock, since called the Old Dock-the former place of anchorage having been rather a small haven, or creek, than a dock. In the Act of Parliament which allowed the corporation to receive dues for the use of this dock, it was stated that "the entrance to the port of Liverpool has been long experienced to be so dangerous and difficult, that great numbers of strangers and others have frequently lost their lives, with ships and goods, for want of proper landmarks, buoys, and other directions into it; and more especially for want of a convenient wet-dock, or basin therein." At this time the inhabitants are said to have numbered 5714. There was only one church, for the second structure was not yet finished. The only dock was very little more than a pier, enclosing a kind of harbour. The number of ships belonging to the port was about sixty. The prosperity of Liverpool began to set in, and has never since flagged. By the choking up of the Dee, Chester lost its former supremacy as a port; and Liverpool gained by the loss of her neighbour. By 1709, the ships belonging to Liverpool had increased to 84, manned by 900 sailors; and the vessels which frequented the port amounted to about 350 annually. The same year witnessed the commencement of a system which was a moral blot on the character of the town, though not so regarded by society in those days: viz., the employment of Liverpool ships and capital in the transport of African slaves to the West Indies. this period, speaking of the Liverpool merchants, says: "They drive so great a trade to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the Caribbee Islands, and also to Virginia and Maryland, &c., that their customs have been the greatest in England, next to those of London and Bristol; and in some years, not long since, they have equalled those of Bristol. Their unsuccessful voyages of late, occasioned by their losses from French privateers, have not discouraged them from setting upon making a dock, or quay: the ordinary station of ships by the town side being insecure, and their ships often damaged as they lay therein." Here, then, we have, so long back as a hundred and forty years, the phenomenon of Liverpool being third on the list of English ports, in respect to customs' duties: we shall see, by-and-by, that she now scarcely yields to the metropolis itself in this matter, and far outdoes every other port. To trace the steps of Liverpool greatness during the last century and a half, is more than we here undertake. The misfortunes and the struggles of the town were over, and her onward career was to be one of almost unchecked progress. First came the Irwell and Mersey navigation, to connect her with the Manchester district, and the Weaver navigation to open communication with the salt districts of Cheshire; then came the Sankey Brook navigation, the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, the Grand Trunk Canal, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, to give her water communication with the chief seats of manufacturing industry. The one dock being insufficient, a second (the Salthouse) dock was constructed in 1738. Yet we find that, in 1750, no stagecoach came nearer to Liverpool than Warrington, and that there was only one private carriage in Liverpool! The latter half of the eighteenth century exhibited the rapid spread of commerce, and the spread of the town and its institutions to accommodate this commerce. New Exchange and other commercial buildings were founded; new churches were built; a newspaper was started; and a coach ran from Liverpool to London in four days. A Mr. Derrick, writing in 1760, thus speaks of Liverpool in his day :-" There are here three good inns. For tenpence, a man dines elegantly at an ordinary, consisting of ten or a dozen dishes. Indeed, it must be said that, both in Cheshire and Lancashire, they have plenty of the best and most luxurious food at a very cheap rate. The great increase of their commerce is owing to the spirit and indefatigable industry of their inhabitants, the majority of whom are either native Irish, or of Irish descent-a fresh proof that the Hibernians thrive best when transplanted. The merchants are hospitable, nay, friendly, to strangers, even to those of whom they have the least knowledge; their tables are plentifully furnished; and their viands are well served." In the interval of sixty years which elapsed from the beginning of the century to the beginning of the reign of George III., the shipping belonging to the port of Liverpool increased from sixty to two hundred and thirty-six vessels, while the tonnage increased from four thousand to twenty-four thousand tons. most admirable. Mr. Baines remarks:- "It is to its One by one did various independent agencies tend to bring about the prosperity of the town. The long interval of peace from the Civil War to the accession of the House of Brunswick; the gradual spread of in-shire, and even of Warwickshire. Thus it concentrates ternal navigation and communication; the maintenance of intercourse with Ireland, which has always been more extensive at Liverpool than at any other of our maritime towns; the opening of commercial relations with the West Indies, with the British North American colonies, with the United States, with the South American States, and, still more recently, with India and China; the slave-trade (though 'tis sickening to enumerate this among the causes of a town's prosperity); the cotton imports, for the supply of the Manchester district; the rise and progress of steam-ships, both in respect to their construction and to their navigationall have united to bring about the wonderful commercial phenomenon which Liverpool now presents, and in which she has scarcely a parallel in the wide world. GENERAL VIEW OF THE PORT. Let us, then, take a bird's-eye view of this busy port, as it at present exists: let us see what its merchants have done to accommodate the enormous array of ships and goods which commerce has brought to its shores. First, for its general position, with respect to surrounding districts. A map of Lancashire exhibits to us a western margin exposed to the Irish Sea, and broken into three somewhat rounded divisions by the estuaries of the Mersey, the Ribble, and Morecambe Bay. The Mersey separates the south-western part of Lancashire from Cheshire, and proceeds inland from north-west to south-east. Just within the mouth of this river lies Liverpool, spreading along the Lancashire coast for a distance of three or four miles, and somewhat protected from the force of the Irish Sea by the projecting head-land of the opposite Cheshire coast. Its position, with respect to neighbouring counties, is the foreign trade of districts, not only vast in extent, but abounding, above all others, in mineral wealth, manufacturing skill, and all the elements of national prosperity. Through the port of Liverpool are poured into the interior the raw materials of our manufactures, and all the various commodities which minister to the wants and wishes of a wealthy and highly civilized people; and through the same port are sent forth, to every corner of the globe, those innumerable products of British industry which render England the 'workshop of the world.'" The recent rise of Birkenhead and Fleetwood into importance, has somewhat modified the correctness of Mr. Baines's view; but his general estimate is undoubtedly correct in the main, If a spectator were to sail leisurely along the Mersey in front of Liverpool, for a distance of three or four miles, he would see that the docks now occupy almost the entire frontage towards the river. Here and there a peep will be obtained of streets and parades, of "hards" and landing-stairs; but, as a general rule, there is one vast string of stone-built docks, studded with vessels so wedged together that the whole exhibit an almost uninterrupted range of shipping. If ever there were a place where one may speak of a "forest of masts," surely it is Liverpool! From every quarter of the globe, from every port which has risen to anything like distinction, are ships to be met with at Liverpool. The flags of all nations are indeed there floating in the air; and the interchange of mind, which always more or less accompanies the interchange of commodities, occurs at Liverpool to an extent barely equalled elsewhere. In a cleverly written' Handbook for Liverpool,' the writer supposes a visitor to have approached and entered some of the docks; where "his admiration is excited by the precision and exactness with which the ships take up their station, side by side, in the closely-thronged dock; and his wonder grows to think how they manage to keep clear from each other, and how they will ever again contrive to extricate themselves from the labyrinth of stately ships in which they appear involved, when the time of sailing arrives. The most attractive and picturesque view of the docks is taken either in sailing down the river, or from its opposite banks; and when seen from end to end, the congregated vessels look like a deep and widespread forest, with their masts bearing the colours of all nations collected at that instant in fellowship together, but soon to be separated, and to track their solitary course, in all seas, to the farthest extremities of the world. The visitor, as he makes the circuit of the docks, is perpetually reminded of the peculiar character of the place in which he is sojourning, not only by the sight of the shipping, but from meeting every now and then men of other lands, whose dress, colour, or physiognomical expression, indicate in succession the sun-burnt American, the dark Malay, the swarthy African, or the mild and intelligent Asiatic." It is not merely the foreign ships, or ships maintaining commercial intercourse with foreign nations, that appeal to our notice in the Mersey and the docks; the steamers to Ireland, to Scotland, to Wales, to the Cheshire coast, all contribute to render the Mersey one of the busiest of rivers. Observe the little steamers at George's Pier; watch them as they receive their living loads, and start one by one across the river; they are the media of communication between Liverpool and the eight or ten steam-boat stations on the Cheshire coast. It is, however, of the marvellous Docks that we have here more immediately to speak; steam-boat matters will occur to us incidentally, as the reader takes with us his dock ramble. It is not surprising that a traveller like Mr. Kohl, who has seen a good sprinkling of almost every variety of town and city, should have been struck with the stupendous magnitude of the docks at Liverpool. He remarks, "These docks offer to the stranger a spectacle of commercial bustle, and a multitude of splendid harbour and marine works, unequalled, I believe, in the world, not even excepting those of London. Some of the London docks are, perhaps, larger than any of those of Liverpool, and may, therefore, afford accommodation to a larger number of vessels; but, in the first place, they are fewer in number, and not being destined for such various branches of trade, offer not the same variegated scenes as those of Liverpool; and, secondly, being at a distance from the central part of the town, they do not afford the same convenience to the merchant. London was already a great town before she began to think of her present commercial importance; whereas Liverpool, her trade, and her docks, grew up together. In London, when docks came to be thought of, it was impossible to clear away half a town, so they had to be placed somewhat out of the way; but in Liverpool, a convenient site was, from the first, left for the docks; and the Custom-house, the Exchange, and the merchants' counting-houses, grouped themselves about them. In London a merchant, when he wants to send an order to his ship in the docks, must often send his clerk down by the railroad; in Liverpool, a merchant might almost make himself heard in the docks out of his counting-house window." Every dock has a little history of its own, associated with the spread of one or other of the various branches of Liverpool commerce; and although we do not propose to be very technical or minute, yet we may find it conducive to clearness to take the docks in their regular order, as they lie, and gossip about them all in turn. First, however, it may be well to premise that they are of three kinds. The wet docks, intended principally for ships of large burden employed in the foreign trade, are always filled with water, without reference to the external tide-the water being retained by massive gates. The dry docks or basins, chiefly appropriated to coasting vessels, are left dry when the tide is out; and the vessels rise or fall in them according to the state of the tide. The graving docks, adapted to the repair of ships, are formed so as to admit or exclude the water at pleasure; the vessels being kept dry when in dock, and floated out by a previous admission of tidal water. TOUR OF THE NORTHERN DOCKS. The most northern of the docks at present in operation is the Clarence Dock. But a few years will exhibit to us a vast area of docks yet farther north than this. We have now a plan of Liverpool before us, in which are marked out three basins, to be connected with the northern side of the Clarence Dock; then a string of small docks running far inland to the Liverpool and Leeds Canal, and intended to accommodate river and canal craft; then a new steam-dock, of most stupendous magnitude, very far exceeding in size any other of the Liverpool docks; and lastly, a basin, connected with this large dock, and almost wholly reclaimed from the river. The united length of these new works will nearly equal half the united length of all the docks now existing at Liverpool! Great as the Liverpool wonders are, therefore, the pinnacle of their greatness has yet to be attained. But to return to the Clarence Dock. This dock, which was opened in 1830, occupies an area of about 28,000 square yards; while the lock, and the "halftide basin" connected with it, raise the united area to nearly fifty thousand yards. There is nearly a mile of quay-space surrounding these sheets of water. Such quays are almost as remarkable in Liverpool as the docks themselves; for they tell forcibly of the immense amount of accommodation placed at the service of the merchants and shippers. The walls of the Clarence Dock are constructed of most durable stone; the quays are provided with commodious sheds; and exterior to all is a lofty boundary-wall. This dock is exclusively appropriated to the recep tion of steam vessels plying between Liverpool and various ports of the United Kingdom. Ireland, espe ried on in continual opposition to the tides, which have sometimes in one hour destroyed the labour of weeks; and that the piers, and walls, and stone-work must have sufficient strength to resist the attacks of the sea, ever straining to regain its former boundary-for the Liverpool docks have been formed nearly as much by steal The three sister docks alluded to in the last paragraph have, together with their locks and entrance and exit passages, an amount of stone quay-space exceeding a mile and a half in length, covered in part by appropriate sheds. Need we wonder, then, that Liverpool can afford landing space for such countless masses of goods from all corners of the world? cially, despatches enormous cargoes-bipeds and qua- | ciated when we bear in mind that they have been cardrupeds to this dock, where the process of unlading is often a very ludicrous one. Sir George Head, in his 'Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts,' gives an amusing account of the process of landing a cargo of pigs. "I went to the Clarence Dock to see a cargo of pigs unladen from Ireland. They had arrived on board the steamer Drogheda from Belfast, togethering from the sea as from the land. with a number of oxen, sheep, and geese. The pigs were, contrary to my expectation, persuaded to walk out without any difficulty, by means of planks placed zig-zag, and leading upwards all the way from the hold. The service of attending a cargo of pigs, and remaining in their company below-when it is considered that the flavour rising from their hides is so strong as to taint a column of air a mile long or more, and nobody knows exactly how broad-must be really arduous. I have understood, however, that such attendance is absolutely necessary, and regularly performed, in order to stir them up, as the only means, the creatures being so closely packed, to prevent their suffocation. At all events, on the present occasion, men were doing duty below manfully, in a hot and corrupted atmosphere. As each pig walked up the platform, Paddy behind with a small switch, whenever the animal attempted to swerve, persuaded him with a delicate touch on the rump. The animal, probably mistaking this for the bite of a fly, gently placed one leg forward; this was no sooner set in its place, than another tickle of the switch on the other side caused him to advance the other. An Irishman can certainly, in common cases, do more with his pig than the native of any other country; and this is, no doubt, mainly owing to his treating the beast with kindness." Could we dive into the proceedings of the last twelve months, we should probably find that Clarence Dock has been the recipient of a mass of woe, disease, and starvation, such as sickens the heart to think of. It is to this dock that were mainly brought the tens of thousands of wretched beings from Ireland, who, driven by famine from their own land, sought a refuge in England. The streets of Liverpool have presented, to the eye of any one who has visited the town during the early part of the present year, multiplied and mournful evidence of the extent of this immigration. But let us pass from this painful topic. Next in order, among the fine series of docks, comes a string of three, ranged side by side, and closely connected one with another. These are, Trafalgar Dock, Victoria Dock, and Waterloo Dock. The first named (Cut, No. 3) was opened in 1840, and covers an area of somewhere above thirty thousand square yards; the next was opened about the same time, and is a little smaller than the former; while the third, opened in 1834, is rather the smallest of the three. All of them, however, are nearly equal in size; and they were constructed, not so much to accommodate any one kind of traffic, as to meet the requirements of the rapidly-increasing port generally. The labour entailed in the construction of such docks as these can only be appre Bending our steps southward, either between the docks and the river, or along the Waterloo-road on the land side of the docks, we come next to the fine large basin which separates the triad of docks from the noble Prince's Dock. This, the Prince's Basin, has an area of more than twenty thousand square yards. It has three entrance channels; one to connect it with the river, another with Waterloo Dock, and another with Prince's Dock. The latter two entrances have locks of great magnitude and strength, so constructed as to admit vessels in and out at half tide. Then we come to Prince's Dock-in some respects the finest of the whole series. With a length of five hundred yards, a breadth of more than a hundred, and an area of nearly sixty thousand square yards, it presents magnificent accommodation for shipping. It occupied nearly ten years in planning and formation, and was opened for commercial traffic on the coronationday of George IV., in 1821. The gates which connect it with the adjacent basins are of enormous size, being from forty to fifty feet square. Sheds run along the quays on all sides, for the accommodation of merchandize; and a lofty brick wall, having gates at convenient distances, entirely surround the dock. No other dock, belonging to the Liverpool series, is so interesting to a stranger as the Prince's. It is destined for the largest ships engaged in the India, China, and American passages. On viewing the rows of vessels here lying in quiet, we see, painted on a board attached to each ship, the name of the port for which it is destined; and we shall fail not to see the "starspangled banner" of the United States on many a ship. Those most complete of passenger sailing-ships, the American "liners," take up their station in Prince's Dock; and are worth a visit, if only to show how much ingenuity is displayed in ministering to the comforts, and lessening the discomforts, of Atlantic voyagers. It is always interesting, and often instructive, to see what points in our commercial arrangements most strike the attention of a foreigner. Mr. Kohl appears to have noted the care with which the minor details are managed at the Liverpool Docks; for he says,—“On looking more closely into the details of these docks, we see how admirably the English have arranged every little matter connected with these great commercial boards, or of canvass stretched on iron rollers. These side walls are moveable, and are generally put out of the way when the weather is at all favourable; but they can quickly be restored to their places should a storm or heavy rain come on, when the sheds are, for the time being, converted into small warehouses, sheltered on every side." The Prince's Dock is the recipient, not only of the American liners,' but also of those fine steamers which have done so much towards annihilating time and space, in respect to the intercourse between England and America. The Acadia,' the 'Britannia,' the Hibernia,' the Columbia,' the Caledonia,' and others of their class, have shown how to steam across the Atlantic in less than a fortnight, even in the outward or slowest passage; while the homeward passage has been effected in nine or ten days! institutions, and how imperfect most of these things | These sheds have side walls, consisting either of wooden continue to be in other countries. At certain distances round all the docks, are large, broad-headed, cast-iron posts, to which the vessels are made fast. Now it seems almost incredible that in so old a commercial city as Bremen there should still be public walks, where the trees have continued to be applied to this use, for I know not how many centuries. The patient promenaders of the German city, as they stroll along the Neustadtsdeich, have for centuries been accustomed to jump over the ropes, in which their legs are in momentary danger of becoming entangled, as in so many snares; and yet, to the present day, it seems never to have suggested itself to these good people, that for so serious an inconvenience so easy a remedy might be found." The cranes, too, come in for a word of praise:-" In the next place, every dock is surrounded by iron cranes, on each of which is marked the weight it is able to lift, as thus, 'Not to lift more than two tons.' Now certainly it is natural, that before people make use of a machine intended to raise heavy weights, they should know the weight it is capable of lifting; but I know sea-port towns enough, where so self-suggesting a precaution is never thought of." As another minor example, he notices the ingenious construction of the goods' sheds on the several quays :"Close to the edge of the quays are large long sheds, under which the merchandize can be sheltered immediately on leaving the vessel, and from which it can be packed into the wagons that are to carry it away. : In front of the Prince's Dock, as of others of the Liverpool series, there is a parade or gravelled esplanade, which serves the Liverpool people as a sort of marine terrace. It has been pleasantly remarked that such parades or terraces tell as much of the commercial character of the place as do the docks themselvestheir trees are masts; their flower-beds and parterres are groups of tar barrels, tea chests, and tobacco casks; their views are the waters of the Mersey, and occasional vistas along rows of warehouses. Take a ramble to the parade in front of Prince's Dock, on the evening of a fine summer's Sunday, and you will see |