Canals, Toxins, Villages. 525 



he assured us that the whole of the smoke miglit be consumed 

 with very little additional trouble or expense, were the pro- 

 prietors of engines compelled to do so. We are perfectly- 

 satisfied, from his information, that this might be the case ; 

 and that it only remains with the government to remedy this 

 evil, whenever they think proper. 



Liverpool is one of the richest corporations in Britain ; and 

 no town ever had a better situation for a public garden or 

 breathing place, which might at the same time have con- 

 tained horticultural, botanical, and zoological gardens, ceme- 

 teries, &c. We allude to the rising grounds at Everton. A 

 zone, from the sea on one side to the Mersey on the other, 

 might have included these, and formed a public garden, or 

 rather series of public gardens and promenades, with distant 

 prospects, such as scarcely any other situation in the king- 

 dom could afford. Something of this sort, we are informed, 

 was proposed many years ago by the late Mr. Roscoe, but 

 rejected, and the ground let for building. As, however, 

 nothing can be very permanent in a rapidly increasing com- 

 mercial town like Liverpool, we hope, when it is subjected to 

 a proper representative system of management, the improve- 

 ment so long ago suggested may yet be realised. The botanical 

 and horticultural gardens that have been formed by sub- 

 scription in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and other 

 towns, for the benefit of the subscribers, would, if town 

 governments had been properly organised, have been formed 

 by them for the good of all. The existence of these gardens, 

 of subscription libraries, institutions, and museums, &c., as 

 the property of a few individuals, however highly creditable 

 to them, is a standing proof of the imperfection of the present 

 town system. 



Villages, it is evident, ought to be subject to the same 

 system of government as towns ; and every thing proposed 

 by the vestry or council of the one, as of the other, ought to 

 be discussed openly and made public by the press. In a few 

 cases, where villages are the property, or are under the con- 

 trol, of an individual who happens to be benevolent and en- 

 lightened, we see what can be made of them. An individual 

 of taste, and of an amiable disposition, who happens to be 

 placed in a village, may, even in the present very imperfect 

 state of things, do much in the way of ornamenting and im- 

 proving it. We have seen a fine instance of this in the vil- 

 lage of Bowness on Windermere. Mrs. Starkey, who has 

 ornamented her own house and ground, situated in that 

 village, with many of the finest plants and shrubs, offers 

 seeds or young plants freely to every villager who will plant 



