The situation of this great city is in some respects one of the most
enviable in the country. Stretching along the upper bank of an
unrivalled estuary, 1200 yards across where narrowest, and the river
current of which flows westwards, it is near enough to the sea to be
called a maritime town, yet sufficiently far inland never to suffer
any of the discomforts of the open coast. Upon the opposite side of
the water the ground rises gently. Birkenhead, the energetic new
Liverpool of the last fifty years, covers the nearer slopes; in the
distance there are towers and spires, with glimpses of trees, and even
of windmills that tell of wheat not far away.
Liverpool itself is pleasantly undulated. Walking through the busy
streets there is constant sense of rise and fall. An ascent that can
be called toilsome is never met with; nor, except concurrently with
the docks, and in some of the remoter parts of the town, is there any
long continuity of flatness.
[Illustration: SHIPPING ON THE MERSEY]
Compared with the other two principal English seaports, London and
Bristol, the superiority of position is incontestable. A town situated
upon the edge of an estuary must needs have quite exceptional
advantages. London is indebted for its wealth and grandeur more to its
having been the metropolis for a thousand years than to the service
directly rendered by the Thames; and as for Bristol, the wonder is
that with a stream like the Avon it should still count with the trio,
and retain its ancient title of Queen of the West. Away from the
water-side, Liverpool loses. There are no green downs and "shadowy
woods" reached in half-an-hour from the inmost of the city, such as
give character to Clifton; nor, upon the whole, can the scenery of the
neighbourhood be said to present any but the very mildest and simplest
features. Only in the district which includes Mossley, Allerton,
Toxteth, and Otterspool, is there any approach to the picturesque.
Hereabouts we find meadows and rural lanes; and a few miles up the
stream, the Cheshire hills begin to show plainly. Yet not far from the
Prince's Park there is a little ravine that aforetime, when farther
away from the borough boundaries, and when the name was given, would
seem to have been another Kelvin Grove,--
"Where the rose, in all its pride,
Paints the hollow dingle side,
And the midnight fairies glide,
Bonnie lassie, O!"
Fairyland, tram-cars, and the hard facts of a great city, present few
points of contact--Liverpool contrives to unite them in "Exchange to
Dingle, 3d. inside." Among the dainty little poems left us by Roscoe,
who was quick to recognise natural beauty, there is one upon the
disappearance of the brooklet which, descending from springs now dried
up, once babbled down this pretty dell with its tribute to the river.
To the stranger approaching Liverpool by railway, these inviting bits
of the adjacent country are, unfortunately, not visible. But let him
not murmur. When, after passing through the town, he steps upon the
Landing-stage and looks out upon the heaving water, with its countless
craft, endless in variety, and representing every nation that
possesses ships, he is compensated. The whole world does not present
anything in its way more abounding with life. A third of a mile in
length, broad enough for the parade of troops, imperceptibly
adjusting itself to every condition of the tide, the Liverpool
Landing-stage, regarded simply as a work of constructive art, is a
wonderful sight. It is the scene of the daily movement of many
thousands of human beings, some departing, others just arrived; and,
above all there is the many-hued outlook right and left.
[Illustration: AMERICAN WHEAT AT LIVERPOOL]
Thoroughly to appreciate the nobleness, the capacities, and the use
made of this magnificent river, a couple of little voyages should be
undertaken: one towards the entrance, where the tall white shaft of
the lighthouse comes in view; the other, ascending the stream as far
as Rock Ferry. By this means the extent of the docks and the magnitude
of the neighbouring warehouses may in some degree be estimated. Up the
river and down, from the middle portion of the Landing-stage, without
reckoning Birkenhead, the line of sea-wall measures more than six
miles. The water area of the docks approaches 270 acres; the length of
surrounding quay-margin is nearly twenty miles. The double voyage
gives opportunity also for observation of the many majestic vessels
which are either moving or at anchor in mid-channel. Merchantmen
predominate, but in addition there are almost invariably two or three
of the superb steamers which have their proper home upon the
Atlantic, and in a few hours will be away. The great Companies whose
names are so familiar--the Cunard, the Allan, the White Star, the
Inman, and five or six others--despatch between them no fewer than ten
of these splendid vessels every week, and fortnightly two extra, the
same number arriving at similar intervals. Columbus's largest ship was
about ninety tons; the steamers spoken of are mostly from 2000 to 5000
tons; a few are of 8000 or 9000 tons. Besides these, there are the
South Americans, the steamers to the East and West Indies, China,
Japan, and the West Coast of Africa, the weight varying from 1500 to
4000 tons, more than fifty of these mighty vessels going out every
month, and as many coming in. The total number of ships and steamers
actually _in_ the docks, Birkenhead included, on the 6th of December
1880 was 438.
A fairly fine day, a sunshiny one if possible, should be selected for
these little voyages, not merely because of its pleasantness, but in
order to observe the astonishing distance to which the river-life
extends. Like every other town in our island, Liverpool knows full
well what is meant by fog and rain. "Some days must be dark and
dreary." At times it is scarcely possible for the ferry-boats to find
their way across, and not a sound is to be heard except to convey
warning or alarm. But the gloomy hours, fortunately, do not come
often. The local meteorologists acknowledge an excellent average of
cheerful weather,--the prevailing kind along the whole extent of the
lower Lancashire coast, the hills being too distant to arrest the
passage of the clouds,--and the man who misses his boat two or three
times running must indeed be unlucky. Happily, these uncertainties
and vexations of the bygones, actual and possible, have now been
neutralised, say since 20th January 1886, by the construction of the
Cheshire Lines tunnel under the river.
[Illustration: RAN AWAY TO SEA]
Nothing, on a fine day, can be more exhilarating than three or four
hours upon the Mersey. Liverpool, go where we may, is, in the better
parts, a place emphatically of exhilarations. The activity of the
river-life is prefigured in the jauntiness of the movement in the
streets; the display in the shop-windows, at all events where one has
to make way for the current of well-dressed ladies which at noon adds
in no slight measure to the various gaiety of the scene, is a constant
stimulus to the fancy--felt so much the more if one's railway ticket
for the day has been purchased in homely Stockport, or dull Bury, or
unadorned Middleton, or even in thronged Manchester. Still it is upon
the water that the impression is most animating. High up the river,
generally near the Rock Ferry pier, a guardship is stationed--usually
an ironclad. Beyond this we come upon four old men-of-war used as
training-ships. The _Conway_, a naval school for young officers,
accommodates 150, including many of good birth, who pay £50 a-year
apiece. The _Indefatigable_ gives gratuitous teaching to the sons of
sailors, orphans, and other homeless boys. The _Akbar_ and the
_Clarence_ are Reformatory schools, the first for misbehaving
Protestant lads, the other for Catholics. The good work done by these
Reformatories is immense. During the three years 1876 to 1878, the
number passed out of the two vessels was 1890, and of these no fewer
than 1420 had been converted into capital young seamen.[8]
[8] _Vide_ Mr. Inglis's Twenty-third Report to Government on the
Certified and Industrial Schools of Great Britain, December
1880.
Who will write us a book upon the immeasurable _minor_ privileges of
life, the things we are apt to pass by and take no note of, because
"common"? Sailing upon this glorious river, how beautiful overhead the
gleam, against the azure, of the sea-gulls! Liverpool is just near
enough to the saltwater for them to come as daily visitants, just far
enough for them to be never so many as to spoil the sweet charm of the
unexpected: for the moment they make one forget even the ships. Man's
most precious and enduring possessions are the loveliness and the
significance of nature. Were all things valued as they deserve,
perhaps these cheery sea-birds would have their due.
The Liverpool docks are more remarkable than those even of London.
Some of the famed receptacles fed from the Thames are more capacious,
and the number of vessels they contain when full is proportionately
greater than is possible in the largest of the Liverpool. But in
London there are not so many, nor is there so great a variety of cargo
seen upon the quays, nor is the quantity of certain imports so vast.
In the single month of October 1880 Liverpool imported from North
America of apples alone no fewer than 167,400 barrels. Most of the
docks are devoted to particular classes of ships or steamers, or to
special branches of trade. The King's Dock is the chief scene of the
reception of tobacco, the quantity of which brought into Liverpool is
second only to the London import; while the Brunswick is chiefly
devoted to the ships bringing timber. The magnificent Langton and
Alexandra Docks, opened in September 1881, are reserved for the ocean
steamers, which previously had to lie at anchor in the channel,
considerably to the disadvantage of all concerned, but which now enjoy
all the privileges of the smallest craft. At intervals along the quays
there are huge cranes for lifting; and very interesting is it to note
the care taken that their strength, though herculean, shall not be
overtaxed, every crane being marked according to its power, "Not to
lift more than two tons," or whatever other weight it is adapted to.
Like old Bristol, Liverpool holds her docks in her arms. In London, as
an entertaining German traveller told his countrymen some fifty years
ago, a merchant, when he wants to despatch an order to his ship in the
docks, "must often send his clerk down by the railroad; in Liverpool
he may almost make himself heard in the docks out of his
counting-house."[9] This comes mainly of the town and the docks having
grown up together.
[9] J. G. Kohl. _England, Scotland, and Ireland_, vol. iii. p.
43. 1844.
The "dockmen" are well worth notice. None of the loading and unloading
of the ships is done by the sailors. As soon as the vessel is safely
"berthed," the consignees contract with an intermediate operator
called a stevedore,[10] who engages as many men as he requires, paying
them 4s. 6d. per day, and for half-days and quarter-days in
proportion. Nowhere do we see a better illustration than is supplied
in Liverpool of the primitive Judean market-places, "Why stand ye here
all the day idle?" "Because no man hath hired us." Work enough for all
there never is: a circumstance not surprising when we consider that
the total number of day-labourers in Liverpool is estimated at
30,000. The non-employed, who are believed to be always about
one-half, or 15,000, congregate near the water; a favourite place of
assembly appears to be the pavement adjoining the Baths. The dockmen
correspond to the male adults among the operatives in the cotton-mill
districts, with the great distinction that they are employed and paid
by time, and that they are not helped by the girls and women of their
families, who in the factories are quite as useful and important as
the rougher sex. They correspond also to the "pitmen" of collieries,
and to journeymen labourers in general. Most of them are Irish--as
many, it is said, as nine-tenths of the 30,000--and as usual with that
race of people, they have their homes near together. These are chiefly
in the district including Scotland Road, where a very different scene
awaits the tourist. Faction-fights are the established recreation; the
men engage in the streets, the women hurl missiles from the roofs of
the houses. Liverpool has a profoundly mournful as well as a brilliant
side: Canon Kingsley once said that the handsomest set of men he had
ever beheld at one view was the group assembled within the quadrangle
of the Liverpool Exchange: the Income-tax assessment of Liverpool
amounts to nearly sixteen millions sterling: the people claim to be
"Evangelical" beyond compare; and that they have intellectual power
none will dispute:--behind the scenes the fact remains that nowhere in
our island is there deeper destitution and profounder spiritual
darkness.[11] When the famished and ignorant have to be dealt with, it
is better to begin with supply of good food than with aëriform
benedictions. Lady Hope (_née_ Miss Elizabeth R. Cotton) has shown
that among the genuine levers of civilisation there are none more
substantial than good warm coffee and cocoa. Liverpool, fully
understanding this, is giving to the philanthropic all over England a
lesson which, if discreetly taken up, cannot fail to tell immensely on
the morals, as well as the physical needs, of the poor and destitute.
All along the line of the docks there are "cocoa-shops," some of them
upon wheels, metallic tickets, called "cocoa-pennies," giving access.
[10] For the derivation of this curious word, see _Notes and
Queries_, Sixth Series, vol. ii. pp. 365 and 492. 1880.
[11] Vide _The Dark Side of Liverpool_, by the Rev. R. H.
Lundie, _Weekly Review_, 20th November 1880, p. 1113.
Liverpool is a town of comparatively modern date, being far younger
than Warrington, Preston, Lancaster, and many another which
commercially it has superseded. The name does not occur in Domesday
Book, compiled A.D. 1086, nor till the time of King John does even
the river seem to have been much used. English commerce during the era
of the Crusades did not extend beyond continental Europe, the
communications with which were confined to London, Bristol, and a few
inconsiderable places on the southern coasts. Passengers to Ireland
went chiefly by way of the Dee, and upon the Mersey there were only a
few fishing-boats. At the commencement of the thirteenth century came
a change. The advantages of the Mersey as a harbour were perceived,
and the fishing village upon the northern shore asked for a charter,
which in 1207 was granted. Liverpool, as a borough, is thus now in its
685th year. That this great and opulent city should virtually have
begun life just at the period indicated is a circumstance of no mean
interest, since the reign of John, up till the time of the barons'
gathering at Runnymede, was utterly bare of historical incident, and
the condition of the country in general was poor and depressed.
Coeur de Lion, the popular idol, though scarcely ever seen at home,
was dead. John, the basest monarch who ever sat upon the throne of
England, had himself extinguished every spark of loyal sentiment by
his cruel murder of Prince Arthur. Art was nearly passive, and
literature, except in the person of Layamon, had no existence. Such
was the age, overcast and silent, in which the foundations of
Liverpool were laid: contemplating the times, and all that has come of
the event, one cannot but think of acorn-planting in winter, and
recall the image in _Faust_,--
"Ein Theil der Finsterniss die sich das Licht gebar."
(Part of the darkness which brought forth Light!)
[Illustration: ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH, LIVERPOOL]
The growth of the new borough was for a long period very slow. In
1272, the year of the accession of Edward I., Liverpool consisted of
only 168 houses, occupied (computing on the usual basis) by about 840
people; and even a century later, when Edward III. appealed to the
nation to support him in his attack upon France, though Bristol
supplied twenty-four vessels and 800 men, Liverpool could furnish no
more than one solitary barque with a crew of six. It was shortly after
this date that the original church of "Our Lady and St. Nicholas" was
erected. Were the building, as it existed for upwards of 400 years,
still intact, or nearly so, Liverpool would possess no memorial of the
past more attractive. But in the first place, in 1774, the body was
taken down and rebuilt. Then, in 1815, the same was done with the
tower, the architect wisely superseding the primitive spire with the
beautiful lantern by which St. Nicholas's is now recognised even from
the opposite side of the water. Of the original ecclesiastical
establishment all that remains is the graveyard, once embellished with
trees, and in particular with a "great Thorne," in summer white and
fragrant, which the tasteless and ruthless old rector of the time was
formally and most justly impeached for destroying "without leave or
license." Wilful and needless slaying of ornamental trees, such as no
money can buy or replace, and which have taken perhaps a century or
more to grow, is always an act of ingratitude, if not of the nature of
a crime, and never less excusable than when committed on consecrated
ground. The dedication to St. Nicholas shows that the old Liverpool
townsfolk were superstitious, if not pious. It is St. Nicholas who on
the strength of the legend is found in Dibdin as "the sweet little
cherub"--
"that sits up aloft,
And takes care of the life of poor Jack."
Up to 1699 the building in question was only the "chappell of
Leverpoole," the parish in which the town lay being Walton.
In 1533, or shortly afterwards, temp. Henry VIII., John Leland visited
Liverpool, which he describes as being "a pavid Towne," with a
castle, and a "Stone Howse," the residence of the "Erle of Derbe." He
adds, that there was a small custom-house, at which the dues were paid
upon linen-yarn brought from Dublin and Belfast for transmission to
Manchester[12]. A fortunate circumstance it has always been for
Ireland that she possesses so near and ready a customer for her
various produce as wealthy Liverpool. Fifty years later, Camden
describes the town as "neat and populous"--the former epithet needing
translation; and by the time of Cromwell the amount of shipping had
nearly doubled: the Mersey, it hardly needs saying, is the natural
westward channel for the commerce of the whole of the active district
which has Manchester for its centre, and the value of this was now
fast becoming apparent. By the end of the sixteenth century south-east
Lancashire was becoming distinguished for its productive power. A
large and constantly increasing supply of manufactures adapted for
export implied imports. The interests of Manchester and Liverpool soon
declared themselves alike. Of no two places in the world can it be
said with more truth, that they have "lived and loved together,
through many changing years"; though it may be a question whether
they have always "wept each other's tears." In addition to the impulse
given to shippers by extended manufacturing, the captains who sailed
upon the Irish Sea found in the Mersey their securest haven, the more
so since the Dee was now silting up--a misfortune for once so favoured
Chester which at last threw it commercially quite into the shade. The
Lune was also destined to lose in favour: an event not without a
certain kind of pathos, since cotton was imported into Lancaster long
before it was brought to Liverpool. Conditions of all kinds being so
happy, prosperity was assured. Liverpool had now only to be thankful,
industrious, honest, and prudent.
[12] _Itinerary_, vol. vii. p. 40. Oxford, 1711.
Singular to say, in the year 1635 Liverpool was not thought worthy of
a place in the map of England. In Selden's _Mare Clausum, seu de
Dominio Maris_ there is a map in which Preston, Wigan, Manchester, and
Chester, are all set down, but, although the Mersey lies in readiness,
there is no Liverpool!
The period of the Restoration was particularly eventful. The Great
Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 led to a large migration of
Londoners into Lancashire, and especially to Liverpool, trade with the
North American "Plantations," and with the sugar-producing islands of
the Caribbean Sea, being now rapidly progressive. Contemporaneously
there was a flocking thither of younger sons of country squires, who,
anticipating the Duke of Argyll of to-day, saw that commerce is the
best of tutors. From these descended some of the most eminent of the
old Liverpool families. The increasing demand for sugar in England
led, unfortunately, to sad self-contamination. Following the example
of Bristol, Liverpool gave itself to the slave-trade, and for
ninety-seven years, 1709 to 1806, the whole tone and tendency of the
local sentiment were debased by it. The Roscoes, the Rathbones, and
others among the high-minded, did their best to arouse their brother
merchants to the iniquity of the traffic, and to counteract the moral
damage to the community; but mischief of such a character sinks deep,
and the lapse of generations is required to efface it entirely. Mr. W.
W. Briggs considers that the shadow is still perceptible.[13] Politely
called the "West India trade," no doubt legitimate commerce was bound
up with the shocking misdeed, but the kernel was the same. It began
with barter of the manufactures of Manchester, Sheffield, and
Birmingham, for the negroes demanded, first, by the sugar-planters,
and afterwards, in Virginia, for the tobacco-farms. Infamous fraud
could not but follow; and a certain callousness, attributable in part
to ignorance of the methods employed, was engendered even in those who
had no interest in the results. When George III. was but newly
crowned, slaves of both sexes were at times openly sold by
advertisement in Liverpool! Money was made fast by the trade in human
beings, and many men accumulated great fortunes, memorials of which it
would not be hard to find. All this, we may be thankful, is now done
with for ever. To recall the story is painful but unavoidable, since
no sketch of the history of Liverpool can be complete without
reference to it. There is no need, however, to dwell further upon it.
Escape always from the thought of crime as soon as possible. Every
one, at all events, must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the outcry
by the interested that the total ruin of Liverpool, with downfall of
Church and State, would ensue upon abolition, the town has done better
without the slave-trade.
[13] Vide _Liverpool Mercury_, 11th December 1880.
The period of most astonishing expansion has been that which, as in
Manchester, may be termed the strictly modern one. The best of the
public buildings have been erected within the memory of living men.
Most of the docks have been constructed since 1812. The first
steamboat upon the Mersey turned its paddles in 1815. The first steam
voyage to New York commemorates 1838. In Liverpool, it should not be
forgotten, originated directly afterwards the great scheme which gave
rise to the "Peninsular and Oriental," upon which followed in turn the
Suez Railway, and then the Suez Canal. The current era has also
witnessed an immense influx into Liverpool of well-informed American,
Canadian, and continental merchants, Germans particularly. These have
brought (and every year sees new arrivals) the habits of thought, the
special views, and the fruits of the widely diverse social and
political training peculiar to the respective nationalities.
[Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, LIVERPOOL]
A very considerable number of the native English Liverpool merchants
have resided, sometimes for a lengthened period, in foreign countries.
Maintaining correspondence with those countries, having connections
one with another all over the world, they are kept alive to everything
that has relation to commerce. They can tell us about the harvests in
all parts of the world, the value of gold and silver, and the
operation of legal enactments. Residence abroad supplies new and more
liberal ideas, and enables men to judge more accurately. The result
is that, although Liverpool, like other places, contains its full
quota of the incurably ignorant and prejudiced, the spirit and the
method of the mercantile community are in the aggregate thoughtful,
inviting, and enjoyable. The occupations of the better class of
merchants, and their constant consociation with one another, require
and develop not only business powers, but the courtesies which
distinguish gentlemen. A stamp is given quite different from that
which comes of life spent habitually among "hands";[14] the impression
upon the mind of the visitor is that, whatever may be the case
elsewhere, in Liverpool ability and good manners are in partnership.
And this not only in commercial transactions: the characteristics
observable in office hours reappear in the privacy of home.
[14] In Liverpool, strictly speaking, there are _no_ "hands," no
troops of workpeople, that is to say, young and old, male and
female, equivalent as regards relation to employer to the
operatives of Oldham and Stalybridge.
The description of business transacted in Liverpool is almost peculiar
to the place. After the shipbuilders and the manufacturers of shipping
adjuncts, chain-cables, etc., there are few men in the superior
mercantile class who produce anything. Liverpool is a city of agents.
Its function is not to make, but to transfer. Nearly every bale or box
of merchandise that enters the town is purely _en route_. Hence it
comes that Liverpool gathers up coin even when times are "bad."
Whether the owner of the merchandise eventually loses or gains,
Liverpool has to be paid the expenses of the passing through. Much of
the raw material that comes from abroad changes hands several times
before the final despatch, though not by any means through the
ordinary old-fashioned processes of mere buying and selling. In the
daily reports of the cotton-market a certain quantity is always
distinguished as bought "upon speculation." The adventurous do not
wait for the actual arrival of the particular article they devote
their attention to. Like the Covent Garden wholesale fruitmen, who
risk purchase of the produce of the Kentish cherry-orchards while the
trees are only in bloom, the Liverpool cotton brokers deal in what
they call "futures."
Another curious feature is the problematical character of every man's
day. The owner of a cotton-mill or an iron-foundry proceeds, like a
train upon the rails, according to a definite and preconcerted plan. A
Liverpool foreign merchant, when leaving home in the morning, is
seldom able to forecast what will happen before night. Telegrams from
distant countries are prone to bring news that changes the whole
complexion of affairs. The limitless foreign connections tend also to
render his sympathies cosmopolitan rather than such as pertain to
old-fashioned citizens pure and simple. Once a day at least his
thoughts and desires are in some far-away part of the globe. Broadly
speaking, the merchants, like their ships in the river, are only at
anchor in Liverpool. The owner of a "works" must remain with his
bricks and mortar; the Liverpool merchant, if he pleases, can weigh
and depart. Though the day is marked by conjecture, it is natural to
hope for good. Hence much of the sprightliness of the Liverpool
character--the perennial uncertainty underlying the equally
well-marked disposition to "eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we
die," or, at all events, may die. This in turn seems to account for
the high percentage of shops of the glittering class and that deal in
luxuries. Making their money in the way they do, the Liverpool people
care less to hoard it than to indulge in the spending. How open-handed
they can be when called upon is declared by the sums raised for the
Bishopric and the University College. In proportion, they have more
money than other people, the inhabitants of London alone excepted. The
income-tax assessment has already been mentioned as nearly sixteen
millions. The actual sum for the year ending 5th April 1876 was
£15,943,000, against Manchester, £13,907,000, Birmingham, £6,473,884,
London, £50,808,000. The superiority in comparison with Manchester may
come partly, perhaps, of certain firms in the last-named place
returning from the country towns or villages where their "works" are
situated. Liverpool is self-contained, Manchester is diffused.
[Illustration: ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LIVERPOOL]
Liverpool may well be proud of her public buildings. Opinions differ
in regard to the large block which includes the Custom-house, commonly
called "Revenue Buildings"; but none dispute the claim of the
sumptuous edifice known as St. George's Hall to represent the
architecture of ancient Greece in the most successful degree yet
attained in England. The eastern façade is more than 400 feet in
length; at the southern extremity there is an octostyle Corinthian
portico, the tympanum filled with ornament. Strange, considering the
local wealth and the local claim of a character for thoroughness and
taste, that this magnificent structure should be allowed to remain
unfinished, still wanting, as it does, the sculptures which formed an
integral part of Mr. Elmes' carefully considered whole. Closely
adjacent are the Free Library and the new Art Gallery, and, in Dale
Street, the Public Offices, the Townhall, and the Exchange, which is
arcaded. Among other meritorious buildings, either classical or in the
Italian palazzo style, we find the Philharmonic Hall and the Adelphi
Hotel. The Free Library is one of the best-frequented places in
Liverpool. The number of readers exceeded in 1880, in proportion to
the population, that of every other large town in England where a Free
Library exists. In Leeds, during the year ending at Michaelmas, the
number was 648,589; in Birmingham, 658,000; in Manchester, 958,000; in
Liverpool, 1,163,795. In the Reference Department the excess was
similar, the issues therefrom having been in Liverpool one-half; in
Leeds and Birmingham, two-fifths; in Manchester, one-fifth. The
Liverpool people seem apt to take advantage of their opportunities of
every kind. When the Naturalists' Field Club starts for the country,
the number is three or four times greater in proportion to the whole
number of members than in other places where, with similar objects,
clubs have been founded. Many, of course, join in the trips for the
sake of the social enjoyment; whether as much work is accomplished
when out is undecided. They are warm supporters also of literary and
scientific institutions, the number of which, as well as of
societies devoted to music and the fine arts, is in Liverpool
exceptionally high. At the last "Associated Soirée," the Presidents of
no fewer than fifteen were present. Educational, charitable, and
curative institutions exist in equal plenty. It was Liverpool that in
1791 led the way in the foundation of Asylums for the Blind. The
finest ecclesiastical establishment belongs to the Catholics, who in
Liverpool, as in Lancashire generally, have stood firm to the faith of
their fathers ever since 1558, and were never so powerful a body as at
present. The new Art Gallery seems to introduce an agreeable prophecy.
Liverpool has for more than 140 years striven unsuccessfully to give
effect to the honourable project of 1769, when it sought to tread in
the steps of the Royal Academy, founded a few months previously. There
are now fair indications of rejuvenescence, and, if we mistake not,
there is a quickening appreciation of the intrinsically pure and
worthy, coupled with indifference to the qualities which catch and
content the vulgar--mere bigness and showiness. Slender as the
appreciation may be, still how much more precious than the bestowal of
patronage, in ostentation of pocket, beginning there and ending there,
which all true and noble art disdains.
[Illustration: THE EXCHANGE, LIVERPOOL]
Liverpool must not be quitted without a parting word upon a feature
certainly by no means peculiar to the town, but which to the observant
is profoundly interesting and suggestive. This consists in the through
movement of the emigrants, and the arrangements made for their
departure. Our views and vignettes give some idea of what may be seen
upon the river and on board the ships. But it is impossible to render
in full the interesting spectacle presented by the strangers who come
in the first instance from northern Europe. These arrive, by way of
Hull, chiefly from Sweden and Denmark, and, to a small extent, from
Russia and Germany--German emigrants to America usually going from
their own ports, and by way of the English Channel. Truly astonishing
are the piles of luggage on view at the railway stations during the
few hours or days which elapse before they go on board. While waiting,
they saunter about the streets in parties of six or eight, full of
wonder and curiosity, but still impressing every one with their honest
countenances and inoffensive manners and behaviour. There are very few
children among these foreigners, most of whom appear to be in the
prime of life, an aged parent now and then accompanying son or
daughter. In 1880 there left Liverpool as emigrants the prodigious
number of 183,502. Analysis gave--English, 74,969; Scotch, 1811;
Irish, 27,986; foreigners, 74,115.