Part 2
For the security of the shipping in the port, and for the greater facility of loading and unloading merchandize, an immense range of docks and warehouses, extending nearly two miles along the eastern bank of the river (the Mersey), has been constructed on a scale of unparalleled magnificence, and forming one of those characteristics of commercial greatness in which this town is unrivalled. The docks are of three kinds, the wet docks, the dry docks, and the graving docks; the wet docks are chiefly for ships of great burden employed in the foreign trade, and which float in them at all states of the tide, the water being retained by gates; the dry docks, so called because they are left dry when the tide is out, are chiefly appropriated to coasting vessels; and the graving docks, which admit or exclude the water at pleasure, are adapted to the repair of ships, during which they are kept dry, and when completed are floated out by admitting the tide. The Old Dock, which was the first of the kind constructed in England, and for making which, an act of parliament was obtained in 1708, is not now in use, its site having been appropriated to the erection of a new custom-house, and other offices connected with the trade of the port. The Dry Dock, which is about to be converted into a wet dock, was constructed under the authority of an act passed in the 11th of George II., and is chiefly occupied by sloops from the north coast, which import corn, provisions, and slate, and convey back the produce of the West Indies, the Mediterranean, Portugal, and Baltic: it has a quay five hundred yards in length, and has communication with three graving docks; it has been considerably enlarged, and many of the buildings surrounding it have been taken down with the view of obtaining more quay room. The Salthouse Dock, so named from some salt-works formerly contiguous to it, was constructed about the same time as the Dry Dock; the upper part of it is chiefly for ships that are laid up, and the lower part for vessels in the Levant, Irish, and coasting trades; the quay is seven hundred and fifty-nine yards in extent, and is provided with convenient warehouses, with arcades for foot-passengers on the east side, and extensive sheds on the west side; between this dock and the river are some ship-builders’ yards, which the corporation intend to convert into docks for the craft employed in the inland trade. George’s Dock was constructed in the 2d of George III., at an expense of 21,000_l._; it was originally two hundred and forty-six yards in length, and one hundred yards in breadth, with a quay of seven hundred yards in extent; but it has been enlarged, and the quay is now one thousand and one yards in length: on the east side is a range of extensive warehouses, in front of which is an arcade for foot-passengers: and on the west side are sheds for protecting the merchandize from the weather: at the north and south ends of the dock are handsome cast-iron bridges; and a parade is continued westward for a considerable distance into the river: this dock has a communication with the two preceding docks, and also with the Prince’s Dock, by basins, which preclude the necessity of returning into the river. The King’s Dock, constructed in the 25th of George III., is two hundred and seventy yards in length, and ninety-six in breadth, and is appropriated to vessels from Virginia and other parts, laden with tobacco, which article is exclusively landed here: the new tobacco warehouses extend the whole length of the quay, on the west side, and are five hundred and seventy-five feet in length, and two hundred and thirty-nine in depth; the old warehouses on the opposite side, which were appropriated to that purpose, have been converted into sheds for the security of merchandize: ships from the Baltic, freighted with timber and naval stores, discharge their cargoes on the quay; across the entrance is a handsome swivel bridge of cast-iron: this dock has a communication on the south with a dry dock and two graving docks. The Queen’s Dock, constructed at the same time, is four hundred and seventy yards long, and two hundred and twenty-seven and a half in breadth, with a spacious quay, and is chiefly occupied by vessels freighted with timber, and by those employed in the Dutch and Baltic trades; at the south end it communicates with a basin of considerable extent, called the Brunswick Half-Tide Dock, which is also connected with the Brunswick Dry Basin. On the south of the half-tide dock, a new dock of larger dimensions than any of the preceding, for vessels laden with timber, is in progress, to be called the Brunswick Dock, with a basin to the south of it, and patent slips for the repairing of vessels, which will probably terminate the range of docks at the southern extremity. The Prince’s Dock, constructed under an act passed in the 51st of George III., was opened with great pomp on the day of the coronation of his late Majesty, George IV.; it is five hundred yards in length, and one hundred and six in breadth; at the north end is a spacious basin, belonging to it, and at the south end it communicates with the basin of George’s Dock. The quays are spacious, and there are sheds for the protection of goods from the weather: along the west side, near the river, is a beautiful marine parade, seven hundred and fifty yards long, and eleven wide, defended by a stone parapet wall, from which is a delightful view of the river and the shipping; at convenient intervals are three flights of steps leading down to the river, where boats are in constant attendance. To the north of the basin belonging to this dock, four spacious wet docks, and a large graving dock, which latter is to be fitted up with patent slips, are at present in a state of rapid progress; and, when completed, will probably terminate the range of docks on the north side of the town. The Duke’s Dock, between Salthouse and the King’s Dock, is a small dock belonging to the trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater, for the use of his flats, with commodious warehouses. The several carriers by water have also convenient basins on the river, for the use of their barges, with quays for loading and unloading their goods; and the Mersey and Irwell navigation company have a small dock, called the Manchester Dock, for the flats employed in that extensive trade, and for the transport to this town of the productions of Cheshire, and the adjoining counties. The whole range of the docks, when the northern and southern additions are completed, will be two miles and eight hundred and twenty yards in length. Spacious as they are they are still considered inadequate to the increasing commerce of the port, and measures are in contemplation for their further extension. The sums expended in the formation of these docks amount to more than two millions sterling; for clearing them from the accumulation of silt brought in by the tide, a dredging-machine, worked by a steam-engine of ten-horse power, is in constant operation, by which fifty tons per hour are raised into barges, and deposited where it may be washed away by the current of the river.
To this we are enabled to add, from an official paper, the following table, showing the area of water and the quantity of quay-space of these splendid docks:--
| Area of water in | Quay-Space in | Square Yards. | Lineal Yards. DRY BASINS. | | | | Prince’s Basin | 20,909 | 509 Seacombe Basin | 1,805 | 188 George’s Basin | 16,372 | 455 George’s Ferry Basin | 1,344 | 160 Old Dock Gut | 7,737 | 447 Queen’s Basin | 24,391 | 601 Brunswick Basin | 23,622 | 572 South Ferry Basin | 2,927 | 205 | | WET DOCKS. | | | | Prince’s Dock, with its two locks | 57,129 | 1613 George’s Dock, with its two passages | 26,793½ | 1001 Dry Dock as altered | 19,095 | 500 Salthouse Dock, with its passage | 23,025 | 759 King’s Dock, with its passage | 37,776 | 875 Queen’s Dock, with its two passages | 51,501½ | 1255 Half-tide Dock, with its passage | 13,185½ | 497 | | NEW NORTH WORKS. | | | | No. 1 Dock, with No. 1 Lock, and | | half of passage | 30,764½ | 1012 No. 2 Dock, with Entrance-Lock, | | and half of two passages | 29,085½ | 839 No. 3 Dock, with No. 2 Lock, and | | half of passage | 33,642½ | 1050 No. 4 Dock, with its Lock | 29,313 | 914 Half-tide Basin | 17,605 | 586 | | NEW SOUTH DOCKS. | | | | Brunswick Dock, with its passage | 60,824 | 1092 Half-tide Basin | 9,245 | 483 | ───────── | ──────
This forms a total of dock-room of one hundred and eleven acres; and the quay-space extends to the length of eight miles, within a few yards. The whole length of the river-wall is two miles, eight hundred and twenty yards, exclusive of the openings.
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FELIX NEFF.
[A Memoir of Felix Neff, Pastor of the High Alps. By William Stephen Gilly, M.A., Prebendary of Durham. Rivington, 1832.]
This is a volume which no one can read without improvement. It contains the history of a young Protestant clergyman, Felix Neff, who devoted his life to the duty of preaching the divine word to the scattered inhabitants of the dreary regions called “the High Alps” of France[1];--and who, in the discharge of this sacred trust, felt that he was advancing his principal object while he was improving the physical condition of these poor people, and leading them to the acquirement of _general_ knowledge. The difficulties which this wise and pious man encountered could only have been overcome by the most ardent zeal. The labours which he underwent, and the privations which he sustained, ruined his health, and consigned him prematurely to the grave. But his career, though short, was one of permanent usefulness to the mountaineers in whose service he perished: and he has left behind him a new example of how much one man may accomplish for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, who goes forward in a good work with singleness of purpose, regardless of any other reward but the approbation of his own conscience.
Neff was not a man in whom book-learning constituted the only knowledge. He received a tolerable education from the pastor of the village near Geneva in which he was born; and the contemplative and devout qualities of his mind were called forth by the grand and beautiful scenery by which he was surrounded in his boyhood. But he had a strong love for what was practically useful, and he therefore learnt the trade of a nursery gardener; he had a stronger passion for romantic adventure, and he entered as a private soldier in the service of Geneva in 1815. At sixteen, when he was a gardener, he published a valuable little treatise on the culture of trees; and, within two years after he became a soldier at the age of seventeen, he was promoted to be serjeant of artillery, in consequence of his theoretical and practical knowledge of mathematics. His anxious desire, however, was to be a teacher of religion; and he at length quitted the army to devote himself to the studies which would be necessary previous to his ordination as a minister. He first assumed the functions of what is called a pastor-catechist; and was ultimately called to the vocation for which he was so anxious, by one of those independent congregations of England, whose ministers are received in the Protestant churches of France. Neff adopted the resolution to be ordained in London, for the satisfaction of some religious scruples. This ceremony took place in a chapel in the Poultry, in 1823; and within six months after he was appointed authorized pastor of the department of the High Alps. To form an estimate of the labours which such an appointment involved, it may be sufficient to mention that, in order to visit his various flocks, the pastor had to travel, from his fixed residence, twelve miles in a western direction, sixty in an eastern, twenty in a southern, and thirty-three in a northern; and that Neff steadily persevered, in all seasons, in passing on foot from one district to another, climbing mountains covered with snow, forcing a way through valleys choked up by the masses of rocks that were hurled down by the winter’s storm, partaking of the coarse fare and imperfect shelter of the peasant’s hut, and never allowing himself any repose or relaxation, because the ignorance of the poor people who were intrusted to his charge was so great, that nothing but incessant activity on his part could surmount its evils. Mr. Gilly has justly observed (speaking in his character of an English clergyman), “it is well that we should see how hard some of our brethren work, and how hard they live; and that we should discover, to our humiliation, that it is not always where there is the greatest company of preachers that the word takes deepest root.”
The course of Neff’s life, and the affection which he inspired, will be better understood from the following extract:--
“When his arrival was expected in certain hamlets, whose rotation to be visited was supposed to be coming round, it was beautiful to see the cottages send forth their inhabitants, to watch the coming of the beloved minister. ‘Come take your dinner with us.’--‘Let me prepare your supper.’--‘Permit me to give up my bed to you,’--were re-echoed from many a voice, and though there was nothing in the repast which denoted a feast-day, yet never was festival observed with greater rejoicing than by those whose rye-bread and pottage were shared with the pastor Neff. Sometimes, when the old people of one cabin were standing at their doors, and straining their eyes to catch the first view of their ‘guide to heaven,’ the youngsters of another were perched on the summit of a rock, and stealing a prospect which would afford them an earlier sight of him, and give them the opportunity of offering the first invitation. It was on these occasions that he obtained a perfect knowledge of the people, questioning them about such of their domestic concerns as he might be supposed to take an interest in, as well as about their spiritual condition, and finding where he could be useful both as a secular adviser and a religious counsellor. ‘Could all their children read? Did they understand what they read? Did they offer up morning and evening prayers? Had they any wants that he could relieve? Any doubts that he could remove? Any afflictions wherein he could be a comforter?’
“It was thus that he was the father of his flock, and master of their affections and their opinions; and when the seniors asked for his blessing, and the children took hold of his hands or his knees, he felt all the fatigue of his long journeys pass away, and became recruited with new strength. But for the high and holy feelings which sustained him, it is impossible that he could have borne up against his numerous toils and exposures, even for the few months in which he thus put his constitution to the trial. Neither rugged paths, nor the inclement weather of these Alps, which would change suddenly from sunshine to rain, and from rain to sleet, and from sleet to snow; nor snow deep under foot, and obscuring the view when dangers lay thick on his road; nothing of this sort deterred him from setting out, with his staff in his hand, and his wallet on his back, when he imagined that his duty summoned him. I have been assured by those who have received him into their houses at such times, that he has come in chilly, wet, and fatigued; or exhausted by heat, and sudden transitions from excessive heat to piercing cold, and that after sitting down a few minutes his elastic spirits would seem to renovate his sinking frame, and he would enter into discourse with all the mental vigour of one who was neither weary nor languid.
“When he was not resident at the presbytery, he was the guest of some peasant, who found him willing to live as he lived, and to make a scanty meal of soup-maigre, often without salt or bread, and to retire to rest in the same apartment, where a numerous family were crowded together, amidst all the inconveniences of a dirty and smoky hovel.”
We have already stated that the benevolent pastor of the High Alps was intent upon improving the condition of his people as to physical comfort, at the same time that he proclaimed to them the hopes and consolations of religion. Let us see how he set about this work:--
“His first attempt was to impart an idea of domestic convenience. Chimneys and windows to their hovels were luxuries to which few of them had aspired, till he showed them how easy it was to make a passage for the smoke, and admittance for the light and air. He next convinced them that warmth might be obtained more healthily than by pigging together for six or seven months in stables, from which the muck of the cattle was removed but once during the year. For their coarse and unwholesome food, he had, indeed, no substitute, because the sterility of the soil would produce no other; but he pointed out a mode of tillage, by which they increased the quantity: and in cases of illness, where they had no conception of applying the simplest remedies, he pointed out the comfort which a sick person may derive from light and warm soups and other soothing assistance. So ignorant were they of what was hurtful or beneficial in acute disorders, that wine and brandy were no unusual prescriptions in the height of a raging fever. Strange enough, and still more characteristic of savage life, the women, till Neff taught the men better manners, were treated with so much disregard, that they never sat at table with their husbands or brothers, but stood behind them, and received morsels from their hands with obeisance and profound reverence.”
He taught the people of the valleys how to irrigate their lands, so as to increase the crop of grass, which is exceedingly small. He found the utmost difficulty in explaining to his hearers that the water might be made to rise and fall, and might be dammed up and distributed accordingly as it might be required for use. The labour and expense appeared to them insuperable difficulties. In spite of their prejudices he accomplished his object, working with the people as a common labourer, and applying his knowledge as an engineer for their exclusive advantage. By thus teaching them how to double their crops he saved them from some of their most severe privations. He taught them also how to cultivate the potato with advantage. But he did more even than this. He incited the people to build a schoolhouse in one of the districts where knowledge was most wanted: and that proper teachers might be spread throughout these regions so shut out from the ordinary means of education, he persuaded a number of young persons to assemble together, one or two from each community, during the most dreary of the winter months, when they could not labour in the fields, and during that time to work hard with him in the attainment of that knowledge which they were afterwards to spread amongst their uninstructed friends and neighbours. The perseverance of these young people was worthy of their zealous pastor. To accomplish this good work perfectly he obtained the assistance of a studious young friend, who was preparing himself for a great public school. Neff’s own account of his progress as a schoolmaster is so interesting that we are sure our readers will not complain of its length:--