s Liverpool is in a position to take toll on the general consumption of
the kingdom; and this toll in the shape of dock dues, added to the increase
in the value of landed property, occupied by warehouses, shops, and private
residences, has enabled the municipal corporation to bestow on the
inhabitants fine buildings, and greatly improve the originally narrow
streets. Liverpool has no manufactures of any special importance. Few ships
are built there in comparison with the demands of the trade, in consequence
of the docks having taken up most of the space formerly occupied by the
building-yards. The repairs of ships are executed in public graving docks,
chiefly by workmen of a humble standing, called pitchpot masters,--a curious
system, whether advantageous or not to all parties, is a matter of dispute.

The environs of Liverpool are particularly ugly, remarkably flat, and
deficient in wood and water. There are scarcely any rides or drives of any
kind. The best suburb, called Toxteth Park, although no park at all, lies on
the southern side of the town, parallel with the Mersey. In this direction
the wealthiest merchants have erected their residences, some of great size
and magnificence, surrounded by pleasure-grounds and fancy farms, presenting
very favourable instances of the rural tastes of our countrymen in every rank
of life. But there is nothing in the environs of Liverpool to make a special
ride necessary, unless a stranger possesses a passport to one of the mansions
or cottages of gentility to be found on each side of the macadamized road
behind rich plantations, where hospitality is distributed with splendour, and
not without taste.

The north shore of the Mersey consists of flat sands, bounded on the land
side by barren sand hills, where, driven by necessity, and tempted by a price
something lower than land usually bears near Liverpool, some persons have
courageously built houses and reclaimed gardens. On this shore are the two
watering-place villages of Waterloo and Crosby, less populous, but as
pleasant as Margate, with salt river instead of salt sea bathing, in shade
and plenty of dust. The hard flat sands, when the tide is down, afford room
for pleasant gallops.

The best settlement on the opposite shore, called New Brighton, has the same
character, but enjoys a share of the open Irish sea, with its keen breezes.
It must be bracing, healthy, dreary, and dull.

* * * * *

BIRKENHEAD is a great town