Parliamentary Committee.
For twelve years I was chairman of this committee, and had much interesting work to carry through Parliament. The widening of St. Nicholas' Place and the throwing of part of St. Nicholas' churchyard into the street was a great improvement, relieving the congestion of traffic at this point.
We also endeavoured, during my term of office, to extend the boundaries of the city. We had a fierce fight in the House of Commons. The local boards of the districts we intended to absorb assailed us with a perfect torrent of abuse, and criticised severely our system of local government. We failed to carry our bill, the chairman of the committee remarking that Parliament would not grant any extension of city boundaries when it was objected to by the districts to be absorbed; but he added, "We are quite satisfied from the evidence you have given that Liverpool is excellently governed in every department." We made a mistake in pushing forward this bill on "merits" only, we should have done some missionary work beforehand, and arranged terms and conditions with our neighbours. My successor in the chair of this committee, Sir Thomas Hughes, profited by our experience, and succeeded where we failed.
We were greatly assisted in our Parliamentary work by Mr. Harcourt E. Clare, who was most able and diplomatic, and an excellent negotiator. His appointment as Clerk of the County Council, though a gain to the county, was a serious loss to Liverpool.