30 Faraday, Corrcspoiidcncc of Lt.-Col. /. L. PJnlips. 



which the various Liverpool histories are only partly 

 able to account. On December 3rd, 1783 (Corporation 

 Book of Records) — 



iVIr Brown made an apolon;y in Council for the trouble & expence to 

 which this Corporation was put, on account of his refusing to take upon 

 himself the office of Mayor. — ordered that his apology be accepted of. 



]\Ir. William Boats, who played such a laughable part 

 in this comedy, was one of the principal merchants of the 

 town, and lived in Drury Lane (Liverpool). In 1791 over 

 1,000 of the Burgesses requisitioned the Ma}^or for an 

 inspection of the Corporation Books. They obtained 

 judgment against the Corporation in the King's Bench, 

 and the case was ordered to be re-tried at Lancaster. 

 Here, though the Burgesses again won, the Corporation 

 succeeded in getting an order for a third hearing from the 

 King's Bench. The matter was then dropped. The 

 Liverpool Corporation was reformed in 1836, the first 

 Mayor under the new Charter being William Wallace 

 Curric, son of Dr. Currie. 



The next letter, written October 7th, 1783, tells of 

 Taylor's experiences during a musical festival at Chester, 

 There seems to have been some arrangement between the 

 three towns of Manchester, Liverpool, and Chester, then 

 all three much of a size, for the engagement of accom- 

 plished musicians. Each town had a musical festival. 

 The second part of the letter tells of the foundation of the 

 Liverpool Academy : — 



I promised you to send an account of the proceedings at Chester after 

 my return but I have been so busy ever since (Mr Wallace being confined 

 with the gout), that I could not fulfill my promise, You have however had a 

 better account of the music from Burchall and Boden than it would have 

 been in my power to give you, I can only say how much I was pleased with 

 the whole together, but from scientific people much more may be gleaned, 

 their business is to point out what is wrong. Boden seemed to pity my 

 ignorance when I told him I liked Mrs Kennedy's Scotch Ballad which 

 gain'd so much applause, the Oratorio had a great disadvantage in the place 



