XIV. PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY OF 1836.
Great discontent arose among the nautical men of Dover owing to the frequent failure of Mr. Moon's pier-head sluices, and the opinion was freely expressed that the country gentlemen who formed the main body of the Harbour Commissicjners were not fitted to control the Port. The townspeople's anxiety was expressed in three rremorials, one from the shipowners, one from the Corporation, and one from the Common Hall. The mail-boats had been susji^nded for three days, at Christmas, 1833, owing to ihe formation of the bar, and these memorials, which were sent to the King as well as to the Commissioners, followed each other in quick succession in January, 1834, in consequence of which Mr. Telford was called in, as already mentioned, and a new system of sluices, on a more elaborate scale, suggested to Mr. Telford by Sir Henry Oxenden, was undertaken. While that work was proceeding, it was found necessary to obtain an amendment of the Harbour Act of 1828 to secure sufficient powers, financial and otherwise, and m the Session of 1836 the C When that Bill came on for Second Reading mi the House of Commons, Mr. John Minet Fector, one of the Members for Dover, moved that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee to give the inhabitants of Dover an opportunity of declaring whether or not they were satisfied with the present constitution of the Board ; and the Bill was referred to a strong Committee, consisting of five Kent:sh Members, three of whom were Harbour Commissioners, and ten members nominated by the Government. The Committee sat to take evidence from the 12th of May till the 7th of June, when the witnesses examined were: —
John Shipdem, Register;
Henshaw Latham, Treasurer;
John Hawkins. Clerk of the Works;
John Iron, Harbour Master;
John Benjamin Post. Cinque Ports Pilot;
Daniel Peake, Cinque Ports Pilot ;
Philip Hardwicke, Receiver of Harbour Retits;
James Walker, Harbour Engineer;
William Prescott, Chairman of Meeting of Irihabitants ;
Humphrey Humphrey, Chairman of Common Hall;
Richard Wardle, Engineer's Assistant;
Robert Hammond, Warden of the Pilots;
Philip Going, Shipowner ;
Captain Boxer, R.X.;
Captain H. D. Jones, R.E., Government Witness;
Lieutenant B. Worthington, R.X., Author of a plan for Improving the Harljour;
Isaac Pattison, Harbour Pilot;
Captain F^lliot, R.X., a Government Witness ;
\\'illiam Cul>itt, C.E., a Government Witness.
The evidence given, especially on matters of opinion, was remarkably varied, the \iews of some nautical witnesses being flatly opposed to those of others similaily qualified. There was great weight of evidence to the effect that the works carried out during the last twenty years had made the HarJjour worse. The Harbour officials strongly approved the new sluicing scheme then under con.struction, but the witnesses sent down to examine the Harbour on behalf of the Government disappro\ed of the form and situation of the ])ier-heads, and several experienced witnesses were strongly in fa\"our of the proj)osals of Perry, Smeaton, Rennie and Walker for getting rid of the shingle by extending the South Pier. Se\eral witnesses were in favour of a re-constitution of the Harbour Board.
The report of the Select Committee was presented to the House of Commons on July ist, 1836, com[ rised in the following six resolutions : —
(i) That it is the opinion of this Committee that the constitution of the Board of Warden and Assistants in whom the management of the Harbour is at presented vested, requires alteration.
(2) That although this Committee consider that the constitution of the Board of Management requires alteration, as being objectionable in the mode of election, they see no ground for reflecting in any manner on the conduct of the gentlemen forming the Board.
(3) That, under all the circumstances of the case, as presented t(j the Committee, cspecia'ly in reference to the W'orks now in progress at Do\er Harbour, the Committee are of opinion that the completion is necessary, that the Bill to amend the Act for the more effectual maintaining and imp'oving Dover Harbour should be immediately passed; and, in regard to the constitution of the Board of Management as it exists at present, and as it is susceptil>le of improvement, it is the opinion of the Committee that a Bill should be introduced early next Session.
(4) That, in view of the administrations of the affairs of the Harbour, and to insure the more mature consideration of any plans that may be hereafter proposed for its improvement, all such plans, together with estimates for their execution, shall be submitted to the Lords of the Admiralty for their concurrence and approval ; and such plans and estimates, as well as annual accounts and receipts and expenditure of the Harbour Commissioners, shall be annually laid before Parliament.
(5) That in the Bill now in progress before the Committee a Clause shall be introduced by which the powers of the present ^^'arden and Assistants shall cease and determine after the end of the next Session of Parliament ; and in the event of Parliament not providing during the next Session for the future management of the Harbour, the pow-ers of the Wardens and Assistants shall be vested in the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for the time being until Parliament shall otherwise determine.
(6) That, without expressing an opinion on the policy of the Passing Tolls, the Committee, after the resolutions they have come to, do not think it necessary now to recommend any alteration respecting the dues of Dover Harbour.
It may be mentioned that on the fifth resolution the Committee were equally divided, and it was carried by the casting vote of the Chairman.
When the Bill came up for the Third Reading on July 5th with the Clause in it limiting the duration of the powers of the Commissioners, Sir Edward Kna^chbull asked the Speaker if that Clause was not contrary Jo the Standing Orders, no notice having been given to the parties interested. The Speaker replied that the Clause had certainly been introduced without the regular notice, and it would make an essential change in the situation of persons who had lent money to the Harbour. In consequence of this ruling, the Suspensory Clause founded on the report of the Committee had to be modified, leaving the existing powers of the Commissioners intact until an Act of Parliament was passed to deal with them. The recommendation of the Committee that a Bill making provision for Uie future management of Dover Harbour should be introduced early in the Session of 1837 was not carried out. Not long after that Session opened the death of William IV. brought about a dissolution of Parliament, and a change of Ministry, with the result that a quarter of a century elapsed before any Act was passed to alter the constitution of the Dover Harbour Board.
During that Parliamentary Enquiry of 1836, when those interested in Dover Harbour were ranged in tvo parties, a thoughtful native of Dover, who had some years l)efore retired from the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant, took up a position apart from either party. He had thought out a scheme for the general improvement and enlargement of the Harbour, and had spent about ;^4oo in pioviding plans and models to demonstrate its advantages. This harbour reformer was Lieutenant Benjamin Worthington, R.N., who had retired from the Navy soon after the Peace of 181 5, and his father being for many years the proprietor of the famous Ship Hotel, which overlooked the harbour, the subject in which he was manifesting interest had l)een constantly l)efore him from his earliest days. The works he advocated were of two kinds, the object of the one being to improve the condition of the harbour, and the other to enlarge it. He proposed to prevent the shingle from lodging in the harbour mouth, and to lessen the troublesome agitation in the tidal ba.sin by constructing a timber breakwater, extending 250ft. S.S.E. from the South Pier Head to deflect the bay eddy into the true tide, thereby diverting the shingle to the N.E., and reducing the swell in the harbour, his scheme being designed to co-operate with the natural currents.
The other part of his scheme was to enlarge the outer harbour at the back of the North Pier so as to give a new tidal area on the N.E. in return for that of which it had been robbed a few years earlier on the S.W., but the Commissioners rejected his ])roposals entirely.