PUBLIC LIFE.
My public life began in 1867, when I was 27 years of age. I then joined
the Council of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. In the following year
(1868) I was elected the President of the Liverpool Philomathic Society,
a position I was very proud of. The Society at that time possessed many
excellent speakers; we had among others Charles Clark, John Patterson,
and James Spence.
During the year I was President, Professor Huxley came down and
delivered his famous address on "Protoplasm: or the beginnings of life,"
and this started a discussion upon the evolution of life, which has
continued to this day. Professor Huxley was my guest at Seaforth and was
a very delightful man. We had also a visit from Professor Huggins, now
the revered President of the Royal Society. He greatly charmed us with
his spectroscope, which he had just invented. I had an observatory at
the top of my house at Seaforth, with a fair-sized astronomical
telescope. The professor gave us some very interesting little lectures
upon his discoveries of the composition of the various stars and
planets.
In November of the same year I was invited to offer myself as a
candidate for the Town Council to represent Pitt Street Ward, in
succession to Mr. S. R. Graves, M.P. My opponent was Mr. Steel, whom I
defeated, polling 189 votes against his 135 votes. I represented Pitt
Street for nine years, and every election cost me £150. I do not know
what became of the money, but Pitt Street was a very strange
constituency.
Looking back it seems to me that the Town Council was composed of
Goliaths in those days, men of large minds, and that our debates were
conducted with a staid decorum and order which have long since
disappeared. William Earle, J. J. Stitt, Charles Turner, M.P., F. A.
Clint, Edward Whitley, J. R. Jeffery, are names which come back to me as
prodigies of eloquence. I remember venturing to make a modest speech
shortly after I was elected, and one of the seniors touching me on the
shoulder and saying, "Young man, leave speaking to your elders"; but
they did queer things in those good old days. Many of the aldermen were
rarely seen; they only put in an appearance on the 9th November to
record their vote on the election of the Mayor.
I was early placed on a deputation to London. I think there were six or
seven deputations in London at one time, each attended by a deputy town
clerk. We stayed at the Burlington Hotel, and had seats provided for us
in the theatre and opera, and carriages to drive in the parks. It was
said that the bill at the Burlington Hotel, at the end of that
Parliamentary session, was "as thick as a family Bible."
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
In 1870 I was elected Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce,
becoming the President in 1871, and was also made a Fellow of the Royal
Statistical Society of London. My work at the chamber was very pleasant
and congenial, and together with the late Mr. Lamport, Mr. Philip
Rathbone, and Mr. John Patterson, we did a good deal in moulding the
commercial legislation of that time, the Merchant Shipping Bill and the
Bankruptcy Bill being drafted by our Commercial Law Committee.
In 1878 the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce was reconstituted, the old
chamber having got into bad repute through becoming too political. The
election of the president of the re-organised chamber was left to the
vote of the three thousand subscribers to the Exchange News Room. Eight
names were submitted, and I was elected president for the second time.
During the following three years excellent work was done by the chamber,
it became very influential with the Government and took rank as the
first chamber in the country. We declined all invitations to be
associated with other chambers, deeming that Liverpool was sufficiently
strong and powerful to stand alone, and in this I think we acted wisely.
AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
The American Chamber of Commerce existed for the purpose of safeguarding
the interests of the American trade, and was supported by dues levied on
every bale of cotton imported into Liverpool. In its day it did great
and useful work, and accumulated quite a large capital, which it spent
in giving very gorgeous banquets to the American Ministers and
distinguished strangers. I became president of this chamber in 1872, and
during my term of office we entertained General Skenk, the new American
Minister, and others.
JOINT COMMITTEE ON RAILWAY RATES.
In 1873 an attempt was made by the London and North-Western Railway to
amalgamate with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. This aroused great
indignation. Liverpool was already suffering severely from the high
railway charges levied upon her commerce, and it was feared that the
proposed amalgamation would increase these charges. Meetings were held,
and in the end all the towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire were invited to
join with Liverpool in opposing the scheme in Parliament. I was elected
the chairman of this Joint Committee, and we inaugurated an active
Parliamentary campaign. We induced Parliament to remit the bill to a
joint Committee of Lords and Commons. The bill was thrown out, and our
suggestion that a railway tribunal to try cases of unfair charges should
be formed was accepted, and is now known as the Railway Commission; but
by a strange irony of fate, it has become too expensive to be used by
the users of the railways, and is now mainly occupied in settling
differences between railway companies themselves.
THE UNITED COTTON ASSOCIATION.
In 1877 there was some friction between the various cotton interests,
brokers, and merchants, and an association--entitled "The United Cotton
Association"--was formed to endeavour to bring all the branches of the
trade together and to remodel the rules, and I was elected chairman. Up
to this time the Brokers' Association ruled the market, and as many
brokers had become also merchants it was felt that some re-arrangement
of the relative positions of brokers and merchants was necessary. The
position of chairman was one of considerable delicacy, as a very
unpleasant feeling had grown up between merchants and brokers, and there
existed considerable friction; however, in the end we managed to compose
these difficulties and to lay the foundation of the Cotton Association
which now rules the trade.
INTERNATIONAL COTTON CONVENTION.
An International Cotton Convention was held in Liverpool, also in 1877;
it was composed of delegates from all the cotton exchanges of America
and those on the Continent. I was appointed the president; our meetings
extended over ten days and were interspersed with excursions and
entertainments. The convention was productive of much advantage to the
trade, in ensuring a better supervision of the packing, weighing and
shipment of cotton from America, and I think the measures taken
practically put an end to the system of false packing which had become
so injurious to the cotton business.
MAYOR OF LIVERPOOL.
In 1880 I was elected Mayor of Liverpool, an honour which I very greatly
esteemed. It was an eventful year, for many distinguished strangers
visited Liverpool. General Sir Frederick Roberts came as the hero of the
hour after his wonderful march from Cabul to Candahar. He was
entertained at a banquet, and an At Home at the Town Hall, and he with
Lady Roberts stayed with us for three days at Blundellsands.
Among other visitors we entertained were Lord Lytton, then
Governor-General of India; and King Kallikahua, the King of the Sandwich
Islands. His Majesty was very dignified, and accepted quite as a matter
of course the royal salutes fired by the guard ship in the river as we
passed by in the Dock Board tender. At the banquet in the evening I was
warned by his equerry that I must try and prevent His Majesty imbibing
too freely. It was not an easy thing to do, but to the surprise of my
guests I stopped the wine and ordered cigars; this had the desired
effect. I believe this was the first time smoking was allowed at a Town
Hall banquet.
The King had with him a big box full of Palais Royal decorations which
he showed me, but with which, fortunately, he did not offer to decorate
me.
VISIT OF THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES.
Our heaviest function at the Town Hall was the reception and
entertainment of the Prince and Princess of Wales on the occasion of the
opening of the new north docks.
The Prince and Princess stayed with Lord Sefton at Croxteth, and their
children, the three Princesses, stayed at Knowsley, Lord Sefton's
children having the measles.
The day of the Royal Visit was lovely. We met the Prince and Princess at
the city boundary, Newsham Park, proceeding thither in the mayor's
carriage, drawn by four horses with postillions and out-riders. After
presenting the Princess with a bouquet we followed to the landing
stage, where the royal party embarked on the river for the new docks.
The course of the royal yacht was kept by our large Atlantic liners, and
by several battleships. The Princess christened the new Alexandra dock
and then we adjourned to a lunch in one of the large sheds, and after
lunch the Prince and Princess entered the mayor's carriage and drove to
the Town Hall, where an address was presented to them.
The Fenians had been very active in Liverpool, and during the evening at
Croxteth I was told by the aide-de-camp that the Prince had received
several threatening letters, to which his Royal Highness paid no
attention, but he would be glad to know if every precaution had been
taken for the Prince's safety. Although I was able to assure him that
every precaution would be taken, this intimation made me feel anxious
and I drove from Croxteth to the police station in Liverpool to consult
with the superintendents as to what more could be done. We were
compelled to drive the Prince and Princess for two miles through that
portion of the town inhabited by the Irish; we therefore decided to
quicken the pace of the carriage procession, and to instruct the
out-riders to ride close in to the wheels of the royal carriage. These
precautions were however fortunately not necessary, for right along
Scotland Road the Prince and Princess had the heartiest reception, and
when we turned out of Byrom Street into Dale Street it was with a sense
of relief that I turned to the Prince and said, "Sir, you have passed
through the portion of Liverpool in which 200,000 Irish people reside."
He replied, "I have not heard a 'boo' or a groan; it has been simply
splendid."
We had taken some trouble to obtain a very pretty jewelled
bouquet-holder for the Princess, and it was sent to the florist who was
making the bouquet. In the morning he brought it to the Adelphi Hotel,
broken in two. I showed it to Admiral Sir Astley Cooper, who was one of
the suite. He said, "Whatever you do, have it repaired." Every shop was
shut, the day being a general holiday. The boots at the hotel at last
thought of a working plumber, and to his hands the repairs were
entrusted. All he could do was to solder the handle to the
bouquet-holder, and he did this in such a clumsy fashion that great
"blobs" of solder protruded themselves all round; but it held together
and the bouquet was duly presented by the Mayoress. During the drive
from the dock the Princess, showing me the holder, exclaimed how lovely
it was; alas! my eyes could only see the "blobs" of solder! At Croxteth
that evening, while the presents were being exhibited to the guests, the
holder broke in two, and the story had to be told.
The three young princesses were entertained all day at the Town Hall by
my daughters. Princess Maud managed to evade the vigilant eyes of Miss
Knollys, and unattended made her way into Castle Street amid the crowd.
LORD MAYOR.
For six weeks in 1903 I again occupied the civic chair. In January of
that year the Lord Mayor, Mr. Watson Rutherford, was anxious to become a
candidate for Parliament, a vacancy having arisen in the West Derby
Ward. As Lord Mayor he could not act as his own returning officer, and
it became necessary that he should resign his office for a time. Both
political parties in the Council were good enough to invite me to accept
the position, and thus I became Lord Mayor for the brief period I have
mentioned. Mr. Rutherford, on retiring, informed me that he had already
spent all the allowance, and all he could offer me were a few cigars.
The duration of my reign was too short to admit of much entertaining,
but I welcomed the opportunity of showing hospitality to many of my old
colleagues and friends.