THE BIVEB MER9EY. 13 



The Corporation of Liverpool brought the state of the river under the 

 special consideration of the late Mr. Huskisson in the year 1828 ; that emi- 

 nent statesman gave the subject his most serious consideration : he viewed 

 with alarm the numerous encroachments making, which he considered would, 

 if allowed to go on, at no very remote period in all probability prove highly 

 prejudicial to the navigation, and was persuaded that a Commission of Con- 

 servancy should be without delay appointed, consisting of not more than 

 three Commissioners, including the Mayor of Liverpool, to be constituted 

 by Act of Parliament, or by the Crown, reserving to His Majesty the powef 

 of appointing additional Commissioners if it should hereafter be found ne- 

 cessary. That his suggestions were fully approved by Lord Lowther, then 

 Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, and by Mr. Arbuthnot, the 

 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, appears from the Correspondence 

 (No. 4). His melancholy death occurred before the business was finally 

 arranged. And by the reform of corporate bodies, and from other causes, 

 no effectual measure was taken till the session of the year 1837, when a bill 

 was brought into Parliament by the Corporation of Liverpool, which was 

 objected to by Government in consequence of the extensive powers sought 

 for, and was consequently withdrawn on the understanding that the subject 

 should be hereafter taken up by the Board of Trade. 



The public bodies most materially interested in the navigation of the 

 Mersey, are the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, the Duke of Bridgewater's 

 Canal, the River Weaver Navigation, the Ellesmere Canal, and the Sankey 

 Canal Companies. We have understood that objections have been raised 

 by some of these companies to the Corporation of Liverpool having a pre- 

 vailing interest in the conservancy. For the purpose of meeting the wishes 

 of these most important and highly respectable bodies, and also those 

 of the influential, commercial, and agricultural interests connected with the 

 Port of Liverpool, or the River Mersey, we have personally waited on the 

 Mayor of Manchester and the town authorities of Warrington, and the 

 gentlemen taking the most prominent part in the management of the Canal 

 and Navigation Companies. We have also seen the Earl of Sefton, the 

 auditor of the Earl of Derby's estates (both of these noble lords having 

 considerable estates adjoining the river), Mr. Potts of Chester, on the part 

 of several landowners on the Cheshire shore, as well as for the Ellesmere 

 Canal Company, for whom he acts, and other landed proprietors having 

 property adjoining the Mersey. We think it proper to annex notes of the 

 observations made (No. 5), from which it will appear that they all concur 

 in the propriety of an effective Conservancy being appointed, but some of 

 them express a strong feeling against the Corporation of Liverpool being 

 invested with more power than what is given to other public bodies, and the 

 Mersey and Irwell Company only seemed inclined to contribute to the ex- 

 pense of the Conservancy. 



It is our desire to pay every respect to the opinions of these highly re- 

 spectable and important companies, and to meet their wishes if possible; 

 but we cannot lose sight of the correct view taken by the late Mr. Huskis- 

 son, that if the Conservancy was too numerous it would probably be ineffec- 

 tive ; and we cannot therefore recommend that the Commission should, in 

 the first instance, exceed four, though we should much prefer its being 

 limited to three only, viz. the Mayor of Liverpool for the time being, with 

 power to nominate one of the Aldermen to act for him in case his public 

 duties should engage too much of his time ; one of the Dock Trustees, 

 and one on the part of the public conversant with the state of the river; 



