Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/741

 LIVERPOO; 717 taining Liverpool was purchased by certain merchants of London, who, in 1632, reconveyed the crown rights, including the fee-farm rent of 14, 6s. 8d., to Sir lid. Molyneux, recently created Lord Maryborough, for the sum of 450. In 1672 all these rights and interests were purchased by the corporation. Apart from the national objects for which Liverpool was founded, its trade developed very slowly. From 10 per annum, in the beginning of the 13th century, the crown revenues had increased towards the end of the 14th century, to 38 in modern currency about 570 ; but then they underwent a decline. The Black Death, the fatal scourge of the 14th century, passed over Liverpool about 1360, and carried off a large part of the population. The Wars of the Roses, in the 15th century, unsettled the north western districts, and repressed all progress for at least a century. The crown revenues diminished from 38 to less than half that sum, and were finally leased at 14, 6s. 8d., at which they continued until the sale by Charles I. Liverpool sent no representatives to Simon de Montfort s parlia ment in 1264, but to the first royal parliament, called in 1296, the borough sent two members, and again in 1306. The writs of summons were then suspended for two centuries and a half. Dur ing the 14th and loth centuries nearly the whole of the returns of the sheriffs of Lancaster were to the following effect : There is not any city or borough from which any citizens or burgesses are able or accustomed to come, according to the tenor of the writ, by reason of their debility and poverty.&quot; In 1547 Liverpool, with the rest of the Lancashire boroughs, resumed the privilege of returning members. In 1588 the borough was represented by Sir Francis Bacon, the immortal philosopher and statesman. During the civil war the town was fortified and garrisoned by the parlia ment. It sustained three sieges, and in 1644 was escaladed and taken by Prince Kupert with considerable slaughter. The true rise of the commerce of Liverpool dates from the Restoration. Down to that period its population had been either stationary or retrogressive, never exceeding about 1000 souls. Its trade was chiefly with Ireland, France, and Spain, exporting fish and wool to the Continent, and importing wines, iron, and other commodities. The rise of the manufacturing industry of South Lancashire, and the opening of the American and West Indian trade, gave the first impulse to the progress which has ever since continued. The importation of sugar led to the establishment of sugar refineries, which after the lapse of two centuries continue to form an import ant branch of local industry. By the end of the century the population had increased to 5000. The town burst the narrow limits within which it had hitherto been confined, and extended itself across the pool stream. In 1699 the borough was constituted a parish district from Walton, to which it had previously apper tained. In 1709, the small existing harbour being found insufficient to accommodate the shipping, several schemes were propounded for its enlargement, which resulted in the construction of a wet dock closed with flood-gates impounding the water, so as to keep the vessels floating during the recess of the tide. This dock in Liverpool was the first of the kind, and was the parent of all the magnificent structures which have attracted the admiration of the world. The name of the engineer, Thomas Steers, deserves recording, as the author of the practical application of a principle already known leading to a world-wide utility, of a similar class to the adaptation of the railway by George Stephenson at a subsequent period. About this date the merchants of Liverpool entered upon a traffic which, however questionable in point of morality, became very profitable during the remainder of the century the slave trade, into which they were led by their connexion with the West Indies. In 1709 a single barque of 30 tons burden made a venture from Liverpool and carried 15 slaves across the Atlantic. Little was done during the next twenty years, but in 1730, encouraged by parliament, Liverpool went heartily into the new trade. In 1751 53 ships sailed from Liverpool for Africa, of 5334 tons in the aggregate. From this time the trade set in with such a steady current that it soon became one of the most lucrative branches of the commerce of the port. The voyage was threefold. The ships sailed from Liverpool to the west coast of Africa, where they shipped the slaves, and thence to the West India Islands, where the slaves were sold and the proceeds brought home in cargoes of sugar and rum. In 1765 the number of Liverpool slavers had increased to 86, carry ing 24,200 slaves. By the end of the century five-sixths of the African trade centred in Liverpool. Just before the abolition in 1807 the number of Liverpool ships engaged in the traffic was 185, carrying 43,755 slaves in the year. Another branch of maritime enterprise which attracted the atten tion of the merchants of Liverpool was privateering, which during the latter half of the ISth century was a favourite investment. After the outbreak of the Seven Years War with France and Spain, in 1756, the commerce of Liverpool suffered severely, the French having overrun the narrow seas with swift well-armed privateers, and the premiums for insurance against sea risks having risen to an amount almost prohibitory. The Liverpool merchants took a lesson from the enemy, and armed and sent out their ships as privateers. Some of the early expeditions having proved very successful, almost the whole community rushed into privateering, with results of a very chequered character. When the War of Independence broke out in 1776 American privateers swarmed about the West India Islands, and crossing the Atlantic intercepted British commerce in the narrow seas. The Liverpool merchants again turned their attention to retaliation. Between August 1778 and April 1779 120 privateers were fitted out in Liverpool, carrying 1986 guns and 8754 men. The results, though in some cases very profitable, were exceedingly demoralizing. During the whole of the 18th century the commerce of Liverpool kept steadily increasing in spite of external war and internal com petition, and has so continued to the present time. The increase of the population supplies a fair index to the growth of its com merce. The Municipality. Under the Municipal Reform Act of 1885, the boundaries of the original borough were extended by the annexa tion of portions of the surrounding district. The city is divided into sixteen wards, returning three members each to the common council, with sixteen aldermen, making sixty-four in all. The wards were originally divided according to population, but the lapse of nearly half a century has so completely disturbed the pro portions that, whilst some of the wards in the commercial localities have diminished in population, the Everton and Kirkdale ward, originally a rural suburb, now contains a population of 150,000, with a constituency of more than 20,000 electors. The electoral franchise, before the Reform Act restricted to the freemen, is still enjoyed by their successors, but their number is exceedingly small. The arms of the city as set forth in the confirmation by the Heralds College, in 1797, are described as follows : &quot;Argent, a Cormorant, in the beak a branch of seaweed called Laver, all proper, and for the crest, on a wreath of the colours, a Cormorant, the wings elevated ; in the beak a branch of Laver proper.&quot; The supporters, granted at the same time are &quot; The dexter Neptune with his sea- green mantle flowing, the waist wreathed with Laver, on his head an eastern crown or, in the right hand a trident sable, the left sup porting a banner of the arms of Liverpool ; on the sinister a Triton wreathed as the dexter and blowing his shell ; all proper.&quot; The motto is &quot;Deus nobis hjEC otia fecit.&quot; The corporation of Liverpool has possessed from a very early period considerable landed property, the first grant having been made by Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1309. This land was originally of value only as a turbary, but in modern times its capacity as building land has been a fruitful source of profit to the town, a large proportion of the southern district being held in free hold by the corporation leased for terms of seventy-five years, re newable from time to time on a fixed scale of fines. The income from this source amounted in 1879 to 83,746. There was formerly another source of income now cut off. The fee farm rents and town dues originally belonging to the crown were purchased from the Molyneux family in 1672 on a long lease, and subsequently in 1777 converted into a perpetuity. With the growth of the commerce of the port these dues enormously increased, and became a cause of great complaint by the shipping interest. In 1856 a bill was introduced into parliament and passed, by which the town dues were transferred to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board on payment of 1,500,000, which was applied in part to the liquidation of the bonded debt of the corporation, amounting to 1,150,000. The town dues at that time produced 132,592 per annum, which has increased in 1881 to 260,698. The markets produce an income of about 12,000 clear of expenses. The council form the sanitary authority of the city, in which capacity they expended in the year 1880-81 the sum of 255,738, derived from rates. In the same year there was expended for lighting and watching, 75,263 ; for parks and places of recreation, 49,178 ; for town improvements, 33,192. These amounts are partly defrayed out of the corporate funds ; the part for the con stabulary is paid by Government, and the rest out of rates. The mayor has an annual allowance of 2700, to sustain the dignity of his office and maintain the hospitality of the town-hall. The city returns three members to parliament. The see of Liverpool was created in 1880 under the Act of 1879, by the authority of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, an endowment fund of about 100,000 having been subscribed for the purpose. See Leland s Itinerary; Camden s Britannia; K. Blome, Britannia; Danit l Defoe, Tour through Great Britain ; W. Enfiekl, Ilist. of Liverpool (sic), 1774 ; J. Aikin, M.D., Forty Miles round Manchester, 1795 ; T. Troughton, Hist, of Liverpool, 1810; M. Gregson, Fragments relating to Hist, of Lancashire, 1817-24 ; H. Smithers, Liverpool, its Commerce, &amp;lt;fcc., 1825 ; K. Sycrs, Hist, of Everton, 1830 ; Kcl. Baincs, Hist, of County Palatine of Lancashire, vol. iv., 1836 ; Thos. Baines, Hist, of Commerce and Toicn of Liverpool, 1852 ; Kd. Brooke, Liverpool during the last quarter of ISth Century, 1853; J. A. Picton, Memorials of Liverpool, 2 vols., 2d ed., 1875. (J. A. 1 .) LIVERPOOL, CHARLES JEXKIXSOX, FIRST EARL OF (1727-1808), was the eldest son of Colonel Jenkinson, Wai- cot, Oxfordshire, where be was born 16th May 1727. He was educated at Charterhouse school and at University Col-