LIVERPOOL DOCKS. 5 3 



which covers over sixteen acres, and in which there is twelve 

 feet at low water, is just completed there. 



Each dock has its own dock-master, custom-house superintend- 

 ent, and police force. The police seems to us perfect. It is 

 composed of well-instructed young men, most courteous and 

 obliging, at the same time prompt and efficient. It quite sur- 

 prised me to see our fierce ship masters submit like lambs to have 

 their orders countermanded by them. 



There are three docks for the convenience of steamers alone. 

 The American steamers, I suppose, are too large to go into them, 

 for they are lying in the stream. 



The docks were built by the town, and besides the wonderful 

 increase of its commerce which they have effected, the direct 

 revenue from them gives a large interest on their cost. The 

 charges are more moderate than at other British ports, and this 

 has, no doubt, greatly helped to draw their commerce here. This 

 is the principal ground, for instance, of the selection of Liverpool 

 in preference to Bristol as the port of departure for transatlantic 

 steamers.* The foreign commerce of Liverpool is the most val- 

 uable of any town in the world. Its immense business is proba- 

 bly owing to its being the best port in the vicinity of the densest 

 manufacturing district of England. It is not naturally a good 

 harbor, but a very exposed and inconvenient one. The amount 

 paid by vessels for dockage has in some years been $1,000,000, 

 and the whole is expended by the corporation in improvements 

 of the town and for public purposes. 



The small steam-craft do not usually go into the docks, but 

 land passengers on the quays outside. The ferry-boats, of which 

 there are half a dozen lines crossing the Mersey, all come to one 



* The port charges at Bristol have been lately greatly reduced, and are now lower than 

 those of Liverpool, or any other port in the kingdom. 



