1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



51 



LIVERPOOL DOCKS. 



Sir — I beg to forward the annexed extract from the " Liverpool 

 Standard" newspaper for insertion in your vaUiable Journal. My 

 reasons for so doing are : 



1st. From personal respect to the talented engineer whose name it 

 bears. 



2nd. That the very important document may be preserved, and 

 read by the greatest possible number of individuals at all interested 

 in similar matters. Such documents are very scarce, and very pro- 

 bably this would not have existed, but for the very cxtraonUnanj cir- 

 cumstances which demanded such in defence. 



3rd. As a beacon to others, shewing the necessity of always being 

 prepared for similar attacks. 



And lastly. To just drop a hint to all the eminent engineers, whether 

 British or Foreign, who may have examined the important works at 

 the Liverpool Docks — works which have been " designed and con- 

 structed by the energies of his (Mr. Hartley's) own mind alone, un- 

 aided by the designs, arrangement, or superintendance of any other 

 civil engineer." I say just a hint to such persons, that they may lose 

 no time in committing their opinion of the works in question to paper, 

 and forward them to you for insertion in your Journal. 



When little dogs bark, it is best to walk away and heed them 

 not; but when great dogs bark and shew their teeth, (especially 

 ■when they want a bone with a little flesh on it to pick,) there is great 

 danger of their biting; then is the time for defence. 



Your insertion of the above, together with the annexed defence, 

 will oblige 



Your obedient servant, 



Warrington, A Lover of Fair Play. 



litJany., 184L 



"To THE Chairman and Members of the Dock Committee. 



" Gentlemen, — I feel called upon, not only as a mark of respect to those 

 Tarious gentlemen who have composed the Dock Committee during the 

 sixteen years I have had the honour to fill the situation of Dock Surveyor, 

 but also in justification of myself, to make some remarks on the notice of a 

 motion given by Mr. Chapman, at the last meeting of this Committee, as well 

 as to the charges brought against me by him in so abundant and unqualified 

 a manner, both previous and subsequent to his giving notice of that motion. 



" It was, I beheve, and I do not wonder at it, a sul)ject of surprise to 

 many, that I did not say more in my defence. It was not, however, from a 

 deficiency of matter, but from an overpowering feeling of astonishment at the 

 sudden and unqualified torrent of assertions, charging me with incompetency, 

 incorrect statements, &c., with which I was assailed. 



" Had I only to reply to the individual member who made tliese charges, 

 1 might think it proper to take a ditferent course, and should probably simply 

 refer him to the books and resolutions of this committee ; but as his charges 

 reflect not only upon me, but upon this committee, upon those who composed 

 the committee before you, as well as upon those who elected me to the oflice 

 I hold, I think I am bound to rebut them, in doing which I anticipate httle 

 diificulty. 



"In the first place, I am charged with incompetency and ignorance of my 

 profession, upon wliich is founded the motion, 'That a first-rate engineer be 

 appointed, to furnish designs for new works, and superintend then- con- 

 struction.' 



" In answer to this charge, I will not refer you to the testimonials which 

 procured my appointment to this situation from amongst numerous candi- 

 dates, without my having had any previous knowledge of any gentleman 

 forming the then council ; but I will refer you to those important works 

 which I have constructed since I have filled the situation I hold, from my 

 practical knowledge as a civil engineer, and from the energies of my own 

 mind alone, unaided by the designs, arrangement, or superintendence of any 

 other civil engineer, and which, I may he allowed to say, so far from being 

 considered evidences of incompetency, have elicited the admiration of civil 

 engineers of the highest standing, both of our own and foreign nations. I 

 wiU also refer you to the proceedings of the Dock Committee since my ap- 

 pointment, and during the progress of those works, and I wiU ask the mem- 

 ber who lias brought forward thes? charges, whether he has found in those 

 proceedings (which, of course, he made himself master of before bringing 

 such charges) any resolutions accusing me, in the most remote manner, with 

 incompetency, or casting the slightest stain upon my character ? and I will 

 ask him furt'ier, to mention an instance in which those interested in the 

 working of the dift'crent designs I have furnished and executed, have made a 

 complaint of the inefficiency of those designs, or of their construction, to this 

 committee, until his becoming a member of it, and bringing forward objec- 

 tions against a work, the first of the kind yet executed here or elsewhere, 

 which had been in progress for several mouths, which had received the ap- 

 probation of the authority next to be consulted by me after the committee 

 (I allude to the Master of the Graving Docks), and in which, on the 31st 

 July, when partly completed, one of the large steam ships was docked, 

 shored, and the necessary work effected, without a complaint having been 



made, or an objection offered ? — a practical proof of its not Icing unsafe for 

 life or property. 



" With reference to the several assertions made by the member concermng 

 this graving dock, which have gone through the newspapers before the pub- 

 lic — ' That if the large steam-boats, for which this dock was expressly con- 

 structed, went into it, their paddle-boxes rested on the quays, and their keels 

 did not toucii the blocks by 14 inches,' and also, 'that the sill had been 

 broken up' — I would beg, in the first place, to observe, that the extreme 

 width of till; largest steam-ship that has yet come to this port (the Presi- 

 dent), is, according to the dimensions furnished me, 66 feet 8 inches from 

 outside to outside of paddle-boxes, — whereas the width of the graving dock, 

 from the edge of one quay to that of the other, is 71 feet 6 inches, which 

 proves that tlie paddle-boxes coidd not touch the quay by 2 feel 5 inches on 

 each side, and secondly, that the sill of the dock has not been altered. The 

 alterations alluded to by the member, which caused the taking up of the ma- 

 sonry, w'as an improvement in the original design, but no error, and was 

 totally unconnected with the sill, and partly composed of the original ma- 

 sonry of the former graving dock which had not previously been touched. 



" From the l)lame of having neglected to procure the dimensions of the 

 largest steamers until the work was so far advanced, i think the chairman of 

 this committee can fully exculpate me. With regard to the allusions made 

 by the member, to the south graving docks and Cobnrg Dock, I have to 

 observe that those matters have been previously canvassed, — hut it may be 

 as well to state here, for the information of all, that what the member blames 

 me for, concerning the south graving docks, is Mhat was expressly contem- 

 plated in their construction, viz., the increased depth of their silts, to admit 

 of the admission of the heaviest ships coining to the port, at a lower tide 

 than the old graving docks would jiermit ; but if vessels are allowed to be 

 taken in by the carpenters at all tides, it cannot be expected, Ijy any who 

 have paid attention to the tides here, that a sill lying 2 feet 6 inches below 

 the level of the old dock sill, can be laid dry at a low neap tide, which does 

 not ebb within a foot of the level of that datum, unless recourse be had to 

 mechanical assistance. And as to my desire to put reverse gates to the pas- 

 sage leading into the Coburg Dock, that was an addition to, but certainly 

 not an alteration of, or error in, my original design ; neither did I report 

 ' that the dock was complete, after which it was found that it required deep- 

 ening,' as asserted by the member, my report to the committee being as fol- 

 lows : — ' The Coburg Dock has been completed, excepting a portion of its 

 bed, ichich is not yet sufficiently deepened, hut is expected to be all finished 

 in September, ehiefiy with dredging machines,' and that report would have 

 been borne out, had it not been from the desire to afford the eai'hest accom- 

 modation to the large steamers which have since almost coathuially occupied 

 the dock, often greatly to the hindrance of the dredging machines. 



" I will also beg leave to mention, that so far from my having been con- 

 sidered incompetent by others, I have at various times been requested to 

 exercise my profession in similar and other works, both here and in several 

 other parts of the kingdom ; and I may also remark, in noticing the second 

 portion of this motion, that although the terms of my appointment gave me 

 full liberty to exercise my profession elsewhere, yet so closely have I devoted 

 my time to tlie dock vvorks, as not to allow myself any leisure to accept 

 other engagements, excepting such as my son's assistance enabled me to do, 

 without requiring any lengthened absence from the duties of my situation ; 

 and I would wish the member to name any instance in which I have hereto- 

 fore been accused of non-attendance to, or neglect of those duties ; indeed, 

 so far has the contrary been the case, that during the last three years I have 

 not been in the whole more than 15 days absent on private business, and the 

 most of those days I have been hut partially absent. In concluding my 

 notice of these charges, I would beg leave to call to your remembrance the 

 circumstance of my having been presented with the freedom of this town 

 an a mark of the Council's approbation of my conduct as Dock SuiTeyor. 



" The other charges made against me by the member, and the imphcation 

 contained in the first part of the motion given notice of, hacked as it was by 

 many assertions of impropriety in the expenditure of my department, need 

 not, I think, require any lengthened refutation. With regard to the first of 

 these, personal attacks of this description are easily made on any one filhng 

 a public situation, and however unjust they may be, cause great annoyance 

 to those unfortunately subjected to them. In the present case the effect 

 ceases there. I have been too long a pubhc servant here and elsewhere, too 

 long open to the scrutiny of all, to feel afraid of my character suffering from 

 any assertion or observation the member can or has made ; and I shall con- 

 tent myself with simply assuring this committee, that in all my statements to 

 them I have invariably adhered to what I have beUcved to be the truth. 



" As respects that part of the motion, stating an increased vigilance in the 

 superintendence of the expenditure in my department to he necessary, taken 

 in the abstract, I have nothing to say against it ; on the contrary, too great 

 a vigilance cannot be had to please me, as it will consequently, in like pro- 

 portion, relieve me from care and responsibility. But taking this part of the 

 motion in the spirit in which it is brought forward, and coupling it with the 

 personal allusions made in bringing it before you, I should have considered 

 it the most serious part of the attack upon me, and should have felt great 

 anxiety to have disproved it most fully, had it been made by any gentleraau 

 of experience in the proceedings of the Dock Committee ; hut when I recol- 

 lect that it is made by a member who has but recently joined the committee, 

 and who has not yet given himself any opportunity of inquiring into the 

 manner in which the expenditure he alludes to, in my department, is made, 



H 2 



