A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



river or at most coasting traffic ; 70 it was not until 

 the forties that they began to be employed for the 

 ocean trade in which Liverpool is mainly concerned. 

 But as soon as this happened, the size of the vessels 

 in the port rose with great rapidity, from an average 

 of 280 tons in 1850 to an average of 1,270 tons in 

 1 906. Liverpool has indeed become peculiarly the 

 home of large vessels. While the number of her vessels 

 is only two- thirds of that of London, their total 

 tonnage is one-third greater ; m that is to say, the 

 average Liverpool ship is twice as big as the average 

 London ship. Of 171 British vessels which in 1906 

 measured over 4,000 tons, no less than 146 belonged 

 to Liverpool ; and while in number Liverpool pos- 

 sesses not much more than one-tenth of the British 

 mercantile marine, in tonnage she possesses consider- 

 ably more than one-fifth. 



In regard to the position of Liverpool among the 

 ports of the world, the following comparative state- 

 ment of the value of the trade of the first six ports of 

 the world may be quoted. 702 In 1905 the trade of 

 London was estimated to be worth 261,000,000 ; 

 of Liverpool, 237,000,000 ; of New York, 

 221,000,000; of Hamburg, 196,000,000; of 

 Antwerp, 147,000,000; of Marseilles, 86,000,000. 

 The following are the census 

 GROWTH OF returns during the period, includ- 

 POPULATION ing for the earlier dates the suburban 

 districts later added to the town : 



1841 286,487 



1851 376,065 



1861 462,749 



1871 493,405 



1881 ...... 611,075 



1891 617,032 



I9 01 684,947 



1907 .... 746, 1 44 7M 



These figures, however, do not adequately represent 

 the growth which has taken place, since they omit 

 notice of the growth of Bootle, of the northern 

 suburbs of Seaforth, Waterloo, and Crosby and other 

 outlying districts outside of the municipal boundary, 

 as well as of the population of about 200,000 in 

 Wirral, which almost wholly depends economi- 

 cally upon Liverpool. The whole of this popula- 

 tion has been created during the period under notice, 

 and the urban population dependent upon Liver- 

 pool now exceeds 1,000,000. 



It should be noticed that the Irish population of 

 Liverpool, always large, was enormously increased by 

 the inrush of immigrants after the Potato Famine of 

 1 845-6 ; over 90,000 entered the town in the first 

 three months of 1846, and nearly 300,000 in the 

 twelve months following July 1847. Most of these 

 subsequently emigrated to America, but many thou- 

 sands, unable to find the passage money, remained to 

 swell the misery of the Liverpool slums. 



No account can here be given 



GEOGRAPHICAL of the rapid expansion of the 



GROWTH street-covered area, but it is 



necessary to note the stages of 



the expansion of municipal control over this area. 



" Smithers, Liverpool, 186. 



7 fll In 1906 London had 3,300 vessels 

 of z, 1 00,000 tons ; Liverpool 2,200 ves- 

 sels of 2,800,000 tons. 



' M Annual statement of the Chairman 

 of the Dock Board, quoting American 



After the enlargement of the boundaries in 1835 

 nearly sixty years passed without any further en- 

 largement ; in the meantime the borough of Bootle, 

 which was essentially an expansion of Liverpool, 

 had grown up and obtained its incorporation with- 

 out opposition in 1869 ; beyond it the populous 

 areas of Seaforth and Crosby lay separated from the 

 town ; the borough of Birkenhead was similarly 

 incorporated in 1877. At the end of the century, 

 however, the city awoke to the danger of allowing 

 the wealthy residential suburbs which derived their 

 prosperity from the city to escape from their share 

 of the costs of government. In 1895 the township 

 of Walton, a second large section of the extensive 

 township of West Derby, the township of Waver- 

 tree, and the remaining southern half of the town- 

 ship of Toxteth, were added to the city. 704 In 

 1901 the township of Garston, on the eve of apply- 

 ing for an incorporation which would have shut in 

 the city on the south as it was inclosed by Bootle on 

 the north, was also taken in. In 1903 an attempt 

 was made to incorporate Bootle in the city ; but 

 though the approval of the Local Government Board 

 was obtained, the vigorous opposition of Bootle pre- 

 vented the passage of the bill through Parliament. 

 In 1 904 the township of Fazakerley was incorporated. 

 The increase of the city's area involved in these 

 successive enlargements may be briefly shown : 



1830 1, 860 acres 



1835 5,* 10 



1894 



19 



I9 7 16,619 



After the Municipal Re- 

 form Act the Whig party 

 for a brief period enjoyed 

 control of the borough gov- 

 ernment. At the outset they 



possessed an overwhelming majority, but by i 842 this 

 majority had disappeared. The main cause of this was 

 the unpopularity of the Whig attempt to abandon 

 compulsory Anglican religious teaching in the two 

 corporation schools, which was advocated on the 

 ground that the population served by these schools 

 was mainly Roman Catholic ; but the proposal aroused 

 a fierce opposition. The Whigs, however, also initiated 

 a series of elaborate inquiries into the various depart- 

 ments of borough government, reconstituted the 

 corporation service and effected large economies by 

 reductions of salaries, and commenced a vigorous pro- 

 gressive policy in regard to the regulation of buildings 

 and the safeguarding of the health of the town. In 

 these respects the transference of power to the Tory 

 party led to little change ; and the years from 1835 

 to 1870 witnessed a vigorous, sustained, and not un- 

 successful campaign for the amelioration of the con- 

 ditions of the borough. The powers of the Watching, 

 Lighting, and Cleansing Board had been taken over 

 by the corporation under the Act of 1835, and were 

 administered by a special Watch Committee; they were 

 now enlarged by a new local Act, 706 under which the 

 council took powers to impose numerous penalties for 



DEVELOPMENT OF 



MUNICIPAL 

 GOVERNMENT 



official estimates. 



7 8 From the Medical Officer's Report 

 (estimated). 



704 The birth-rate, which shows a slow 

 but steady decline throughout the later 

 half of the period, was in 1907 estimated 

 at 31-7 per 1,000, as compared with 



38 



26*3 per 1,000 for England and Wales. 

 On the other hand the death-rate has sunk 

 from an average of 32-5 per 1,000 in 

 1861-70 to 20-4 in 1901-7. 



705 59 vict. cap. 7. 



7 i Vict. cap. 98. 



