Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/452

 *



part of the navigation which is in any way dangerous. To this noble river and the facilities which its docks afford for the expedition and safe conduct of maritime commerce may be attributed, combined with its position as the readiest outlet for the vast manufactures of the surrounding district, the rapid rise of Liverpool. As an indication of its extraordinary prosperity, it is sufficient to state that while in 1812 the revenue of the Trustees, levied upon four hundred and forty-seven thousand tons of shipping and their cargoes, did not exceed 45,000l., it had in 1871 reached 562,953l., upon no less than six million one hundred and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-five tons of shipping; and in the year ending 1st July, 1872, the shipping frequenting the port had increased to six million five hundred and thirty thousand three hundred and eighty-six tons, and the annual revenue to 592,258l.

But the docks themselves are the marvel of the place. Along the whole of the eastern bank of the river (the site of Liverpool) there will shortly be, for upwards of six miles in length, the finest range of wet-docks in the world, protected by a sea-wall of an average thickness of eleven feet, and forty feet in height from its foundations, faced with massive blocks of granite, perhaps in itself one of the greatest works of the kind of modern times. Through the courtesy of the Secretary, we ascertain that the existing docks with their basins cover a water area of two hundred and sixty acres, and have a quayage of upwards of eighteen lineal miles: and to