Recollections of a Busy Life: Being the Reminiscences of a Liverpool Merchant 1840-1910

Lord Curzon has gone into the House of Lords, where he will, I have no doubt, render great and distinguished service to the country; but had Lady Curzon lived I feel he would have entered the more congenial atmosphere of the Commons, and my prophecy that he would one day be Prime Minister would have been fulfilled.

The following incident proves the one great secret of Lord Curzon's success in life has been his remarkable industry. He made a journey to Persia, and wrote a book which is to-day the standard work on Persia. He was anxious to make an index, which he could have had done for him for a small expenditure, but he preferred to do it himself in his own way, and for this purpose he remained in rooms at Croydon for a month hard at work, and I believe I was the only person who knew his address.

The value of Lord Curzon's work in India cannot very well be overstated. Travelling through India some two years after his return home, we found everywhere the impress of his remarkable industry and thoughtfulness.

One day when visiting the cutcherry of a far distant province, we found the entire system of correspondence had been personally revised by the late Viceroy. On another occasion, the engineer of a coal mine to whom I was talking told me that the Viceroy visited his mine and personally interested himself in obtaining improved traffic facilities on the railway. On another day, when visiting a palace at Delhi, we found a number of Italians restoring the mosaics; they informed us they were still in the pay of Lord and Lady Curzon. I could go on enumerating instances of his activity and his abiding interest in India. In the restoration of the old landmarks and monuments in India, Lord Curzon has done a work which for generations to come will make his name memorable.

After Lord Curzon retired from Southport we had another election; this time Lord Skelmersdale, now the Earl of Lathom, was our candidate, and Sir Herbert Naylor-Leyland our opponent. The fight was a severe one. We missed the great personality of Mr. Curzon, and although Lord Skelmersdale was an industrious candidate, and was very ably assisted by Lady Skelmersdale, we lost the election. After this I retired from the chairmanship of the division, and was presented by the Southport Conservative Association with a handsome silver bowl.

I congratulated myself as a political leader that I was able to accomplish the conversion of the two largest landowners in the Southport Division, Mr. Weld-Blundell, of Ince Hall, and Colonel Blundell, of Crosby Hall. They had been for generations Liberal, and in the 1868 election Mr. Gladstone stayed with Mr. Weld-Blundell; but in 1886, on the Home Rule for Ireland question, they both supported Mr. Curzon, held meetings for us in their villages, and on the day of the election Colonel Blundell rode down to the poll at the head of his tenants. These, however, did not all vote for us. They had always voted Liberal and did not know why they should change because the squire had done so.

Crosby Hall and Ince were pleasant country houses to visit in the days of the old squires. It is strange that although the two estates march together the families have never inter-married since 1401.

The duties of a chairman of a division, in which both parties are evenly balanced, are not light, and can only be successfully accomplished if made personal. The secret of political success lies largely in organisation, and this must be vigilantly carried on in times when there is no political excitement, and when there is apparently no reason to work. A political organisation to be of any value must be continuous and must be thorough; it is not possible to organise a party on the eve of an election; you must have trusty lieutenants who know their work and do it. One of the weaknesses of any party organisation is the number of loafers, men ready to shout, but who are not capable of steady work. The quiet, but not very exciting task of looking after the register, watching removals, and having a careful canvass and cross-canvass of every elector, is the organisation and work which wins elections.

We had in Southport many excellent leaders, Mr. John Formby, Mr. Beauford, Mr. Clinning, and many others I could name, with whom it was a great pleasure to work, and my political association with the Southport Division will ever remain with me as a sunny memory.

I have declined several invitations to stand for Parliament – on two occasions from Southport, one from Walton, one from Everton, and more recently one from Westmorland. When in business it was not possible for me to enter Parliament, as my brother Arthur was already a member; and I have since felt that if a member is to make any position in Parliament he should enter the house on the right side of fifty.

Of late years my Free Trade principles have been a barrier to my taking an active part on the Conservative side. I did my best to prevent my friends delivering themselves up to Tariff Reform, and published a series of letters in the Daily Post on Free Trade v. Protection, which were afterwards published in pamphlet form, and had a very extensive circulation.

Economic subjects have been my favourite studies, and I have seen much of the working of Protection in America. In 1870 I delivered an address on Free Trade before the New York Chamber of Commerce, and at their request I repeated this address before the Chambers of Commerce in Cleveland, Chicago, etc., but with little success. The question of a Tariff had already become "political." I was present in America during some of their industrial crises, upon which I addressed several letters to the London Times and Standard. It is difficult to describe the intensity and the prolonged suffering caused by the over-production encouraged by Protection, with no outlet save the home market. The only relief was the "scrapping" of the surplus manufacturing power, which brought great suffering to the working people. I have since written many papers on the subject; the controversy does not therefore come upon me as something new. This is not the place, however, to discuss these matters, but one cannot understand Liverpool becoming enamoured with Tariff Reform. Liverpool lives on her shipping and carrying trade, and whatever else may happen, this is at least certain, that Tariff Reform must reduce the quantity of imports and exports, and there must be less freight for our shipping to carry. Tariff Reform may give temporary prosperity to the manufacturer, but if ever adopted will be a serious blow to the trade and prosperity of Liverpool, and indeed of Lancashire, as the cotton manufacturing industry depends entirely upon our ability to turn cotton into yarn and cloth at the lowest possible cost.

CHAPTER XI.

JUDICIAL WORK

I was placed on the Liverpool Borough Bench of Magistrates in 1873; on the Lancashire County Bench in 1882; on the Cheshire County Bench in 1900; and was made a Deputy-Lieutenant for Lancashire in 1902.

In 1900 Mr. Aspinall Tobin, on behalf of the Lancashire County Bench, invited me to be nominated as the deputy-chairman of Quarter Sessions. Lord Derby had retired from the chair, and Mr. Hugh Perkins had taken his place, therefore a deputy-chairman was wanted.

In accepting this invitation, I decided if elected to this important position to devote myself to the study of the criminal law, and to qualify myself as a magistrate, as far as a layman could do so. My spare time for several years was spent in reading the law of evidence and criminal law, and I also learnt a great deal from my chairman, who was a very painstaking magistrate, and who very kindly gave me much good advice. Mr. Perkins retired in 1894 and I was appointed chairman, and became the only lay chairman in Lancashire, the other three chairmen being all Queen's counsel. I was also elected chairman of the County Bench and of the Licensing Justices.

We had eight sessions in our court in each year, and this with the licensing work kept us very busy on several occasions. The sessions in those days lasted seven and eight days, and once even ten days.

The appeals from the decisions of the City Justices on licensing questions were very numerous; at one sessions we heard thirty-eight appeals, and as in most cases they involved the loss of the license these appeals were fought with great vigour, and Queen's counsel were generally engaged in their conduct.

Lord Mersey and the Honourable Justices Walton, Pickford, and Horridge, practised at our Quarter Sessions. I was gratified to receive a letter from one of these learned judges saying that what he knew of the rules of evidence had been mainly acquired in our court. Quarter sessions may be termed the nursery of the Bar. Young men get their first briefs, called "soups," at quarter sessions, and are naturally anxious to air their knowledge of the law, but many have to learn that the theory and the practice of the law are not quite the same, and that the application of the theory can only be obtained by practical experience in court, and this more particularly applies to the rules of evidence.

In addition to the judges named many eminent King's counsel have made their first start at our Quarter Sessions. I can recall the names of Messrs. McConnell, K.C., Steel, K.C., Collingwood Hope, K.C., W. F. Taylor, K.C., Alfred Tobin, K.C., and F. E. Smith, K.C., M.P.

For fifteen years we had no deputy-chairman of Quarter Sessions, which made my position somewhat arduous, as I could not absent myself from my post. In the end my old friend, Mr. W. Scott Barrett, the chairman of the County Council, was appointed my deputy, and a better selection could not have been made.

No part of my judicial work gave me more anxiety than the licensing appeals. One naturally felt great sympathy with the City Justices in their desire to reduce the drinking facilities which had been the cause of so much misery and wretchedness in Liverpool, but at the same time the scales of justice had to be held evenly. Whatever our decisions were, we felt they would meet with severe criticism; but this did not deter us from doing what we considered to be our duty, though we knew that our decisions might involve in many cases serious pecuniary loss and hardship. I am happy to think that our conduct of this very difficult business gave satisfaction, both to the public and to the licensees.

My experience on the bench has not been fruitful in incidents, although one day when sitting at Petty Sessions in the city a lame woman was charged with breaking a window by throwing her crutch through it. The police evidently apprehended that she might use her crutch as a weapon while standing for her trial in the dock, for she had a bad character, and they carefully surrounded her; but she was too clever for them, and managed to hurl her crutch with great force at the Bench. Fortunately, it fell short and dropped harmlessly upon the clerk's chair, which was happily vacant.

At Petty Sessions in 1889 Mr. Scott Barrett sat with me to hear the charge against Mrs. Maybrick for the murder of her husband by administering arsenic. The enquiry lasted two days and we committed her for trial on the capital charge, feeling no doubt as to our duty, though of course we heard only the evidence for the Crown. It afterwards became a cause celèbre. Mrs. Maybrick was condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to penal servitude. She had many influential friends, and the agitation to obtain her release was continued with great activity for many years.

Walton Jail

In connection with my duties as chairman of the County Bench, I also acted as chairman of the Visiting Justices of the Jail at Walton. We visited every month, inspected the prison, heard any complaints which the prisoners had to make, sanctioned any extraordinary punishments, and distributed the funds subscribed to assist prisoners upon their discharge. During the ten years of my chairmanship, great reforms were introduced by the Prison Commissioners. The "treadmill" was abolished; the "cat o' nine tails," which originally was composed of nine strings of hard whipcord, each string having nine knots, was robbed of its terror, each string now being made of soft string without any knots, until, as a warder said to me, "I cannot even warm them up with it." Although these changes are all in the right direction, I cannot but think they have gone too far, as among the 1,200 prisoners at Walton there are many very rough characters, very difficult of control. Walton is now a great industrial reformatory, with prison discipline and prison diet. The governor told me he never saw the prisoners work with so much energy as when engaged breaking up the "treadmill"; every prisoner on entrance had to do a month on the "treadmill," whatever his sentence might be, and there is no doubt it was a severe punishment. The only severe punishment now left is solitary confinement, which is a terrible ordeal, and its abolition is now under the consideration of the prison authorities.

I must tell one good story. Mr. Platt, the head of the great engineering firm at Oldham, was the High Sheriff, and was inspecting the jail, and saw on the "treadmill" one of his workmen; he exclaimed, "Thomas, I am sorry to see you here." Thomas replied, wiping the beads of perspiration off his brow, "Aye, Master Sam, if they had this 'ere machine in Holdham they would work it by steam, wouldn't they?"

One day, when visiting the firewood factory, in which we gave temporary employment to discharged prisoners, we directed that about a dozen men should be sent away to seek work, as they had been too long in the factory. The following week there was an outbreak of burglaries in Bootle, and the whole crowd were back again in jail.

High Sheriff of Lancashire

The shrievalty of the County Palatine has always been esteemed the blue riband of shrievalties. Unlike his compeers elsewhere, the Lancashire sheriff is specially nominated by the King, whilst the office has always been maintained in circumstances of considerable splendour, and entails upon the sheriff the arduous duty of attending eleven assizes in the year, occupying on an average 130 days. The hospitalities attached to the office are also considerable, for the sheriff has to give a dinner to the grand jury and members of the bar at each assize.

Much deference has to be paid to the Judges of Assize, and many points of old-world courtesy and etiquette have to be observed, which add to the interest attaching to the office; and there can be little doubt that the sheriff's turn-out – a coach-and-four, with trumpeters and javelin men in their handsome liveries of dark blue and old gold – serves to impart dignity to the administration of the law, and to impress the multitude with its majesty and power.

The High Sheriff is the representative of the King, and takes precedence of everyone in the county, except the Judges of Assize and the Lord Lieutenant.

I was nominated to the office in 1893, and again in 1896, but, there being no one to take my place at Quarter Sessions, I asked to be excused. It was, however, a position which appealed to me – it seemed to me to be the coping-stone to my long devotion to judicial work – and when I was again nominated in 1908, I accepted, and was duly "pricked" by the King.

I appointed the Rev. Canon Armour, D.D., as my chaplain, and my son Miles as the under-sheriff.

The Shire-reve, or high sheriff, was in the old Saxon days a position of great authority and power. He not only was the criminal judge of his shire, but also collected the King's exchequer, and the office was one which brought considerable profit to the holder. All this has been changed, the judicial functions and the collection of the King's revenue have long since been transferred to others; but theoretically the sheriff has considerable powers left in his hands – the power of arrest and the charge of the jails in the county, while the empanelling of juries and all legal processes of every kind are made in his name. He is also the returning officer at all elections; this in Lancashire involves considerable work, as the sheriff is responsible for parliamentary elections in twenty-three divisions, but fortunately for him, the detail work is discharged by the under-sheriff or acting under-sheriff, of whom in Lancashire there are three.

At the Lancaster Assizes in June, 1909, we had an interesting and picturesque ceremony. We drove up in the State carriage to the castle, and were received there by the Constable of the Castle, Mr. Dawson, supported by his two retainers, who were dressed in their costume of the fourteenth century. We proceeded into the Shire Hall, and the Constable requested me to hang my coat-of-arms on the walls with those of my predecessors since 1188. Having done so the trumpeters sounded a fanfare, and afterwards played "A fine old English gentleman." I then made a short speech, and the Constable, with similar ceremony, proceeded to place on the walls the shields of six of his predecessors as Constables. The Constables go back to the time of John of Gaunt. The shields of the Sheriffs and Constables are grouped under the shields of the various monarchs under whom they served, and make a very brave and interesting show. The Shire Hall was filled with spectators, and the function was quite mediæval and interesting in character.

In July, 1909, His Majesty King Edward visited Lancashire to present the colours to the newly-created Territorial Army. This was a special compliment to Lancashire, which had very nobly responded to the call made upon her and had raised a force of 36,000 men. The King and Queen stayed at Knowsley. In the park 15,000 Territorials were reviewed; and on the day following their Majesties proceeded to Worsley Park, where a further 12,000 were reviewed. The high sheriff being a civil officer, I had nothing to do with these functions as they were military, but we were invited to lunch at Knowsley and were then presented to the King and Queen, and afterwards at lunch we had the seats of honour, as it appears that when the King is present the high sheriff takes precedence even of the lord lieutenant. It was an interesting function, and in spite of indifferent weather passed off well.

One of the pleasantest incidents of the shrievalty is the number of distinguished and interesting people one meets. Upon the grand jury we altogether summoned 250 of the leading men of the county, and at our banquets we entertained, in addition to the grand jury, all the official world of the county and many others. During my year I had not only the honour of meeting our late King Edward, but King George, who, as Prince of Wales, was on a visit to Knowsley. I had some years ago the honour of escorting King George and the Queen over the Overhead Railway, when I was surprised and gratified with his interest in commerce, and the knowledge he displayed of the trade of the port; and in the somewhat lengthy conversation his Majesty honoured me with last year at Knowsley, I was still further impressed with his knowledge of Liverpool and his interest in the construction and movements of our great Atlantic liners. His Majesty struck me as being very "human" in his thoughts and sympathies, and ardent in his wish to be in touch with the activities which make for the advance and progress of the country; and I therefore look forward to a reign that will not only be distinguished and brilliant, but in which our King will be found to recognise and encourage by his interest the efforts of his subjects in all that makes for the advancement of the country and the well-being of his subjects.

The judges at our Spring Assizes this year were Lord Coleridge and Mr. Justice Hamilton. They spent the week-end with us at Bromborough. At the Winter Assizes in November we had Mr. Justice Ridley and Mr. Justice Bray. These Assizes will be memorable as having introduced what will be practically continuous sittings in Liverpool and Manchester of the civil judge.

I have been much interested in sitting on the bench during the progress of trials at Assizes. It is an education, and one cannot but be impressed with the great care the judges exercise, and with their patience and solicitude for the prisoner.

CHAPTER XII.

BLUNDELLSANDS, CROSBY AND BROMBOROUGH

Having already described the pretty suburbs of Bootle, Seaforth and Litherland, lying to the north of Liverpool, and the little seaside resort, Waterloo, as they were in the 'forties and 'fifties, we will now proceed further afield. Two miles to the north-west of Waterloo the quaint old-fashioned village of Crosby stood, with its thatched black and white cottages and its old church built of red brick with its square tower. Between Crosby and the seashore there were no houses. Immediately to the north of Waterloo, Squire Houghton had built a large house (Sandheys) surrounded by quite a park, but to the north of this there was only a long stretch of sandhills until Hightown Lighthouse was reached. About 1860 Mr. Arnold Baruchson built a large house on the sea front, which for some years was the only house on the shore, and was the beginning of Blundellsands. Other large houses followed, lining both sides of Burbo Bank Road. The splendid air and magnificent marine views quickly made Blundellsands an attractive place, but it had no roads, only sandy lanes, and the only approach was the circuitous one through Crosby. Its little iron church nestled in the sand dunes. Altogether it was a very quiet, secluded place. We took up our residence at "Ramleh" in 1871. Shortly afterwards an American friend expressed his surprise that people who could afford to live in the fine houses he saw scattered about should be content to worship God in a "tin" church, as he termed it. This made me think. I called upon the clergyman, the Rev. B. S. Derbyshire, and put the matter before him, and offered, if he would accompany me, to go round and try to raise money to build a permanent church. Our first effort was not very successful, we received promises of only £1,450; but by dint of begging, bazaars, etc., we eventually got together sufficient money to build St. Nicholas' church, of which Mr. Derbyshire was appointed the first incumbent. Before the iron church was erected a service was held every Sunday by the Rev. S. C. Armour (now Canon Armour) in a schoolroom at Brighton-le-Sands, to which he attracted large congregations by his excellent preaching.

In the slight allusion made to Blundellsands – my home from 1871 to 1898 – I have scarcely done justice to its attractions. Probably no place in the United Kingdom possesses a finer marine prospect. Its wide expanse of sea, with its background of the Welsh mountains, Snowdon standing in the far distance, and in the near foreground the constant parade of great merchant ships and steamers, which pass and repass all the day long, make a picture which for beauty and varying interest it is difficult to surpass.

The Earl of Northbrook, when First Lord of the Admiralty, stayed with us at "Ramleh," and remarked that when he looked out of his bedroom window in the morning he was amazed at the lovely view expanded before him, and could not resist getting up, although it was only seven o'clock, and taking a walk along the terrace in front of the house. At breakfast he told us he knew of no marine view so charming except the Bay of Naples. Of course, it is not possible to compare the two places; each has its points of attractiveness.

"Ramleh" was a fine, commodious house, on the sea front. We bought it partly built; its completion and the various additions we made gave us much pleasure and delight, and we were greatly attached to it.

Crosby Grammar School

We had in Crosby an old school, endowed some three hundred years ago by a Crosby boy who made his fortune in London, a part of which he handed to the Merchant Taylors' Company for educational purposes in the village in which he was born.

The school was established, the old schoolhouse erected, and it was carried on with varying, but no great success, for over two hundred years. At one time when the Merchant Taylors came down to inspect it, they found it had been closed for some years, whilst the head-master was living at Sefton quietly drawing his salary. Within my recollection the scholars numbered only fifteen to twenty, and the head-master frequently adjourned the school in the afternoon to go rat-hunting. But when Canon Armour was appointed head-master, he at once sought to bring about a change and extend the area of the school's usefulness. The city property belonging to the school had meantime greatly increased in value, and the opportunity appeared favourable to make the school a great middle-class institution. In this I was in hearty accord with Canon Armour. We called meetings of the inhabitants to promote a petition to the Charity Commissioners in favour of our project. The Vicar of Crosby offered very strong opposition on the ground that we were robbing the poor man of his school. In the end we were successful, the present schools were built at a cost of £37,000, and were soon filled with 250 pupils, and under Canon Armour's able guidance quickly took a leading position for scholarship, and became celebrated for the success attained by the pupils at Oxford and Cambridge. Canon Armour made this school his life's work, and right well he did it.