University of Virginia Library

40. CHAPTER XL.

As I wish to group together what fell under my observation
concerning the Liverpool docks, and the scenes roundabout,
I will try to throw into this chapter various minor
things that I recall.

The advertisements of pauperism chalked upon the flagging
round the dock walls, are singularly accompanied by a
multitude of quite different announcements, placarded upon
the walls themselves. They are principally notices of the
approaching departure of “superior, fast-sailing, coppered
and copper-fastened ships,” for the United States, Canada,
New South Wales, and other places. Interspersed with
these, are the advertisements of Jewish clothesmen, informing
the judicious seaman where he can procure of the best
and the cheapest; together with ambiguous medical announcements
of the tribe of quacks and empirics who prey
upon all seafaring men. Not content with thus publicly
giving notice of their whereabouts, these indefatigable
Sangrados and pretended Samaritans hire a parcel of
shabby workhouse-looking knaves, whose business consists
in haunting the dock walls about meal times, and silently
thrusting mysterious little billets—duodecimo editions of
the larger advertisements—into the astonished hands of the
tars.

They do this, with such a mysterious hang-dog wink;
such a sidelong air; such a villainous assumption of your
necessities; that, at first, you are almost tempted to knock
them down for their pains.

Conspicuous among the notices on the walls, are huge
Italic inducements to all seamen disgusted with the merchant
service, to accept a round bounty, and embark in her
Majesty's navy.

In the British armed marine, in time of peace, they do
not ship men for the general service, as in the American
navy; but for particular ships, going upon particular cruises.
Thus, the frigate Thetis may be announced as about to sail
under the command of that fine old sailor, and noble father
to his crew, Lord George Flagstaff.

Similar announcements may be seen upon the walls concerning
enlistments in the army. And never did auctioneer
dilate with more rapture upon the charms of some country-seat
put up for sale, than the authors of these placards do,
upon the beauty and salubrity of the distant climes, for
which the regiments wanting recruits are about to sail.
Bright lawns, vine-clad hills, endless meadows of verdure,
here make up the landscape; and adventurous young gentlemen,
fond of travel, are informed, that here is a chance
for them to see the world at their leisure, and be paid for
enjoying themselves into the bargain. The regiments for
India are promised plantations among valleys of palms;
while to those destined for New Holland, a novel sphere of
life and activity is opened; and the companies bound to
Canada and Nova Scotia are lured by tales of summer
suns, that ripen grapes in December. No word of war is
breathed; hushed is the clang of arms in these announcements;
and the sanguine recruit is almost tempted to expect
that pruning-hooks, instead of swords, will be the weapons
he will wield.

Alas! is not this the cruel stratagem of Bruce at Bannockburn,
who decoyed to his war-pits by covering them
over with green boughs? For instead of a farm at the
blue base of the Himalayas, the Indian recruit encounters
the keen saber of the Sikh; and instead of basking in sunny
bowers, the Canadian soldier stands a shivering sentry upon

the bleak ramparts of Quebec, a lofty mark for the bitter
blasts from Baffin's Bay and Labrador. There, as his eye
sweeps down the St. Lawrence, whose every billow is bound
for the main that laves the shore of Old England; as he
thinks of his long term of enlistment, which sells him to
the army as Doctor Faust sold himself to the devil; how
the poor fellow must groan in his grief, and call to mind the
church-yard stile, and his Mary.

These army announcements are well fitted to draw recruits
in Liverpool. Among the vast number of emigrants,
who daily arrive from all parts of Britain to embark for the
United States or the colonies, there are many young men,
who, upon arriving at Liverpool, find themselves next to
penniless; or, at least, with only enough money to carry
them over the sea, without providing for future contingencies.
How easily and naturally, then, may such youths be
induced to enter upon the military life, which promises them
a free passage to the most distant and flourishing colonies,
and certain pay for doing nothing; besides holding out hopes
of vineyards and farms, to be verified in the fullness of
time. For in a moneyless youth, the decision to leave
home at all, and embark upon a long voyage to reside in
a remote clime, is a piece of adventurousness only one
remove from the spirit that prompts the army recruit to
enlist.

I never passed these advertisements, surrounded by crowds
of gaping emigrants, without thinking of rat-traps.

Besides the mysterious agents of the quacks, who privily
thrust their little notes into your hands, folded up like a
powder; there are another set of rascals prowling about the
docks, chiefly at dusk; who make strange motions to you,
and beckon you to one side, as if they had some state secret
to disclose, intimately connected with the weal of the commonwealth.
They nudge you with an elbow full of indefinite
hints and intimations; they glitter upon you an eye
like a Jew's or a pawnbroker's; they dog you like Italian

assassins. But if the blue coat of a policeman chances to
approach, how quickly they strive to look completely indifferent,
as to the surrounding universe; how they saunter
off, as if lazily wending their way to an affectionate wife
and family.

The first time one of these mysterious personages accosted
me, I fancied him crazy, and hurried forward to avoid him.
But arm in arm with my shadow, he followed after; till
amazed at his conduct, I turned round and paused.

He was a little, shabby, old man, with a forlorn looking
coat and hat; and his hand was fumbling in his vest pocket,
as if to take out a card with his address. Seeing me stand
still he made a sign toward a dark angle of the wall, near
which we were; when taking him for a cunning foot-pad, I
again wheeled about, and swiftly passed on. But though I
did not look round, I felt him following me still; so once
more I stopped. The fellow now assumed so mystic and
admonitory an air, that I began to fancy he came to me on
some warning errand; that perhaps a plot had been laid to
blow up the Liverpool docks, and he was some Monteagle
bent upon accomplishing my flight. I was determined to
see what he was. With all my eyes about me, I followed
him into the arch of a warehouse; when he gazed round
furtively, and silently showing me a ring, whispered, “You
may have it for a shilling; it's pure gold—I found it in the
gutter—hush! don't speak! give me the money, and it's
yours.”

“My friend,” said I, “I don't trade in these articles; I
don't want your ring.”

“Don't you? Then take that,” he whispered, in an
intense hushed passion; and I fell flat from a blow on the
chest, while this infamous jeweler made away with himself
out of sight. This business transaction was conducted with
a counting-house promptitude that astonished me.

After that, I shunned these scoundrels like the leprosy;
and the next time I was pertinaciously followed, I stopped, and

in a loud voice, pointed out the man to the passers by; upon
which he absconded; rapidly turning up into sight a pair of
obliquely worn and battered boot-heels. I could not help
thinking that these sort of fellows, so given to running away
upon emergencies, must furnish a good deal of work to the
shoemakers; as they might, also, to the growers of hemp
and gallows-joiners.

Belonging to a somewhat similar fraternity with these
irritable merchants of brass jewelry just mentioned, are the
peddlers of Sheffield razors, mostly boys, who are hourly
driven out of the dock gates by the police; nevertheless,
they contrive to saunter back, and board the vessels, going
among the sailors and privately exhibiting their wares.
Incited by the extreme cheapness of one of the razors, and
the gilding on the case containing it, a shipmate of mine
purchased it on the spot for a commercial equivalent of the
price, in tobacco. On the following Sunday, he used that
razor; and the result was a pair of tormented and tomahawked
cheeks, that almost required a surgeon to dress
them. In old times, by the way, it was not a bad thought,
that suggested the propriety of a barber's practicing surgery
in connection with the chin-harrowing vocation.

Another class of knaves, who practice upon the sailors in
Liverpool, are the pawnbrokers, inhabiting little rookeries
among the narrow lanes adjoining the dock. I was astonished
at the multitude of gilded balls in these streets, emblematic
of their calling. They were generally next neighbors to the
gilded grapes over the spirit-vaults; and no doubt, mutually
to facilitate business operations, some of these establishments
have connecting doors inside, so as to play their customers
into each other's hands. I often saw sailors in a state of
intoxication rushing from a spirit-vault into a pawnbroker's;
stripping off their boots, hats, jackets, and neckerchiefs, and
sometimes even their pantaloons on the spot, and offering to
pawn them for a song. Of course such applications were
never refused.

But though on shore, at Liverpool, poor Jack finds more
sharks than at sea, he himself is by no means exempt from
practices, that do not savor of a rigid morality; at least
according to law. In tobacco smuggling he is an adept;
and when cool and collected, often manages to evade the
Customs completely, and land goodly packages of the weed,
which owing to the immense duties upon it in England,
commands a very high price.

As soon as we came to anchor in the river, before reaching
the dock, three Custom-house underlings boarded us, and
coming down into the forecastle, ordered the men to produce
all the tobacco they had. Accordingly several pounds were
brought forth.

“Is that all?” asked the officers.

“All,” said the men.

“We will see,” returned the others.

And without more ado, they emptied the chests right and
left; tossed over the bunks and made a thorough search of
the premises; but discovered nothing. The sailors were
then given to understand, that while the ship lay in dock,
the tobacco must remain in the cabin, under custody of the
chief mate, who every morning would dole out to them
one plug per head, as a security against their carrying
it ashore.

“Very good,” said the men.

But several of them had secret places in the ship, from
whence they daily drew pound after pound of tobacco,
which they smuggled ashore in the manner following.

When the crew went to meals, each man carried at least
one plug in his pocket; that he had a right to; and as
many more were hidden about his person as he dared.
Among the great crowds pouring out of the dock-gates at
such hours, of course these smugglers stood little chance of
detection; although vigilant looking policemen were always
standing by. And though these “Charlies” might suppose
there were tobacco smugglers passing; yet to hit the right

man among such a throng, would be as hard, as to harpoon
a speckled porpoise, one of ten thousand darting under a
ship's bows.

Our forecastle was often visited by foreign sailors, who
knowing we came from America, were anxious to purchase
tobacco at a cheap rate; for in Liverpool it is about an
American penny per pipe-full. Along the docks they sell an
English pennyworth, put up in a little roll like confectioners'
mottoes, with poetical lines, or instructive little moral precepts
printed in red on the back.

Among all the sights of the docks, the noble truck-horses
are not the least striking to a stranger. They are large and
powerful brutes, with such sleek and glossy coats, that they
look as if brushed and put on by a valet every morning.
They march with a slow and stately step, lifting their ponderous
hoofs like royal Siam elephants. Thou shalt not lay
stripes upon these Roman citizens; for their docility is such,
they are guided without rein or lash; they go or come, halt
or march on, at a whisper. So grave, dignified, gentlemanly,
and courteous did these fine truck-horses look—so
full of calm intelligence and sagacity, that often I endeavored
to get into conversation with them, as they stood in contemplative
attitudes while their loads were preparing. But all
I could get from them was the mere recognition of a friendly
neigh; though I would stake much upon it that, could I
have spoken in their language, I would have derived from
them a good deal of valuable information touching the docks,
where they passed the whole of their dignified lives.

There are unknown worlds of knowledge in brutes; and
whenever you mark a horse, or a dog, with a peculiarly
mild, calm, deep-seated eye, be sure he is an Aristotle or a
Kant, tranquilly speculating upon the mysteries in man. No
philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.
They see through us at a glance. And after all, what is a
horse, but a species of four-footed dumb man, in a leathern
overall, who happens to live upon oats, and toils for his masters,

half-requited or abused, like the biped hewers of wood
and drawers of water? But there is a touch of divinity
even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should
forever exempt him from indignities. As for those majestic,
magisterial truck-horses of the docks, I would as soon think
of striking a judge on the bench, as to lay violent hand
upon their holy hides.

It is wonderful what loads their majesties will condescend
to draw. The truck is a large square platform, on four low
wheels; and upon this the lumpers pile bale after bale of
cotton, as if they were filling a large warehouse, and yet a
procession of three of these horses will tranquilly walk away
with the whole.

The truckmen themselves are almost as singular a race
as their animals. Like the Judiciary in England, they wear
gowns,—not of the same cut and color though,—which reach
below their knees; and from the racket they make on the
pavements with their hob-nailed brogans, you would think
they patronized the same shoemaker with their horses. I
never could get any thing out of these truckmen. They are
a reserved, sober-sided set, who, with all possible solemnity,
march at the head of their animals; now and then gently
advising them to sheer to the right or the left, in order to
avoid some passing vehicle. Then spending so much of their
lives in the high-bred company of their horses, seems to have
mended their manners and improved their taste, besides imparting
to them something of the dignity of their animals;
but it has also given to them a sort of refined and uncomplaining
aversion to human society.

There are many strange stories told of the truck-horse.
Among others is the following: There was a parrot, that
from having long been suspended in its cage from a low
window fronting a dock, had learned to converse pretty fluently
in the language of the stevedores and truckmen. One
day a truckman left his vehicle standing on the quay, with
its back to the water. It was noon, when an interval of

silence falls upon the docks; and Poll, seeing herself face to
face with the horse, and having a mind for a chat, cried out
to him, “Back! back! back!”

Backward went the horse, precipitating himself and truck
into the water.

Brunswick Dock, to the west of Prince's, is one of the
most interesting to be seen. Here lie the various black
steamers (so unlike the American boats, since they have to
navigate the boisterous Narrow Seas) plying to all parts of
the three kingdoms. Here you see vast quantities of produce,
imported from starving Ireland; here you see the decks
turned into pens for oxen and sheep; and often, side by side
with these inclosures, Irish deck-passengers, thick as they
can stand, seemingly penned in just like the cattle. It was
the beginning of July when the Highlander arrived in port;
and the Irish laborers were daily coming over by thousands,
to help harvest the English crops.

One morning, going into the town, I heard a tramp, as
of a drove of buffaloes, behind me; and turning round, beheld
the entire middle of the street filled by a great crowd of these
men, who had just emerged from Brunswick Dock gates, arrayed
in long-tailed coats of hoddin-gray, corduroy knee-breeches,
and shod with shoes that raised a mighty dust.
Flourishing their Donnybrook shillelahs, they looked like an
irruption of barbarians. They were marching straight out
of town into the country; and perhaps out of consideration
for the finances of the corporation, took the middle of the
street, to save the side-walks.

“Sing Langolee, and the Lakes of Killarney,” cried
one fellow, tossing his stick into the air, as he danced in his
brogans at the head of the rabble. And so they went!
capering on, merry as pipers.

When I thought of the multitudes of Irish that annually
land on the shores of the United States and Canada, and, to
my surprise, witnessed the additional multitudes embarking
from Liverpool to New Holland; and when, added to all

this, I daily saw these hordes of laborers, descending, thick
as locusts, upon the English corn-fields; I could not help
marveling at the fertility of an island, which, though her
crop of potatoes may fail, never yet failed in bringing her
annual crop of men into the world.