272 



THE BEITISH ISLES. 



began to grow rich, mainly from ilu- pi-olits dei-ived from the shivc trade. When 

 Fuseli, the artist, was called upon to admire the wide streets and noble buildings 

 of a quarter of the town then recently constructed, he said, with reference to this 

 fact, that he felt as if the blood of negroes must ooze out of the stones. 



Liverpool is hirgt'ly indebted for its prosperity to its central position with 

 reference to the sister islands of Great Britain and Ireland, for upon it con- 

 verge all the great highways over which the home trade of the British Islands 

 is carried on. This central position has been equally advantageous to its 

 foreign trade. Though farther away than Bristol from the ocean, which is 

 the high-road connecting England with America, Africa, and the Indies, this 

 disadvantage is more than compensated for by Liverpool's proximity to the vast 

 coal basin which has become the great seat of English manufacturing industry. 



Fi?. 13i. — The Landing-stage. 



The docks are the great marvel of Liverpool. No other town can boast of 

 possessing so considerable an extent of sea- water enclosed between solid masonry 

 walls, and kept under control by locks. There are maritime cities with roadsteads 

 capable of accommodating entire fleets, but few amongst them have docks 

 sufficiently spacious to admit thousands of vessels at one and the same time, like 

 London and Liverpool. The latter is even superior in this respect to the great 

 commercial emporium on the Thames, and certainly preceded it in the construction 

 of docks. In 1700 the Corporation of Liverpool first caused a pool to be deepened 

 in order that it might afford shelter to vessels. This, the precursor of the existing 

 basins, has been filled up since, and the sumptuous revenue and customs buildings 

 have been raised upon its site. But for the one dock thus abolished, twenty-seven 

 others, far more vast and convenient, have been constructed since. These docks 



