BIRKENHEAD. 75 



room enough on her decks for one of our Rockaways to stand, 

 and she seemed to have no idea of ferrying any thing but 

 foot-passengers. What would the good people of Birkenhead 

 think of a Fulton ferry-boat, with its long, light, and airy 

 rooms, their floors level with the street, and broad carriage- 

 roads from stem to stern, crossing and recrossing without 

 turning round, or ever a word of command, or a rope lifted 

 from morning till evening and from evening till morning? 

 The length of the ferry is about the same as the South Ferry 

 of Brooklyn, and the fare one penny. 



BIRKENHEAD is the most important suburb of Liverpool, 

 having the same relation to it that Charlestown has to Boston 

 or Brooklyn to New York. When the first line of Liverpool 

 packets was established, there were not half a dozen houses 

 here ; it now has a population of many thousands, and is 

 increasing with a rapidity hardly paralleled in the New 

 World. This is greatly owing to the very liberal and enter- 

 prising policy of the land-owners, which affords an example 

 that might be profitably followed in the vicinity of many of 

 our own large towns. There are several public squares, and 

 the streets and places are broad, and well paved and lighted 

 A considerable part of the town has been built with reference 

 to generaLeffect, from the plans and under the direction of a 

 talented architect, GILESPIE GRAHAM. 



We received this information while crossing in the ferry 

 boat from a fellow-passenger, who, though a stranger, entered 

 into conversation, and answered our inquiries with a frank- 

 ness and courtesy that we have thus far received from every 

 one in England. By his direction, we found near the landing 

 a square of eight or ten acres, about half of it enclosed by an 

 iron fence, and laid out with tasteful masses of shrubbery 

 (not trees), and gravel walks. The houses about it stood 

 detached, and though of the same general style, were suffi- 



