RECOLLECTIONS
OF A
BUSY LIFE.
Painted by S. Walters.] [Engraved by R. G. Reeve.
View of the Port of Liverpool, 1836.
RECOLLECTIONS
OF A BUSY LIFE
BEING THE
REMINISCENCES
OF A
LIVERPOOL MERCHANT
1840-1910.
BY
SIR WILLIAM B. FORWOOD
D.L. J.P.
ILLUSTRATED WITH SEVENTEEN PLATES
LIVERPOOL:
HENRY YOUNG & SONS
1910.
To my Children
and
Grandchildren.
PREFACE.
Many of the following pages were written for private circulation.Influential friends have, however, urged me to publish them, as they mayappeal to a wider circle of readers. I have consented, with diffidence,but have availed myself of the opportunity to add some chapters uponlocal affairs, which I trust may be of public interest, and recallpleasing memories of bygone times.
W. B. F.
Bromborough Hall,
December 1st, 1910.
A FOREWORD.
There are but few men whose lives are worthy to be written for generalpublication, but there are many who have accumulated recollections andexperiences which must be interesting and instructive to those of theirown kith and kin, and it is for these I am about to jot down a fewreminiscences of a life which has been largely spent in public work—inhelping to build up the fortunes of a great seaport, in the localgovernment of an important Municipality, and in the administration ofJustice. Should these pages fall into the hands of friends I am surethey will be read with kindly and sympathetic feelings, and strangerswill, I hope, accord to them the consideration and indulgence due to anarrative written only for private publication.
Life is said to be short, but when I look back upon the events whichhave crowded into mine I seem to have lived a long time, and one cannotbut reflect that if the prospect had always looked as long as theretrospect, how much more patience and deliberation might have beenthrown into the ordering of one's affairs, and how entirely this mighthave altered the course of events and changed the goal of one'sendeavours. It is perhaps a merciful and wise ordinance that no man canreckon beyond the day that is before him, and therefore each day shouldbe so lived as to be typical of our life; for it is the only portion oftime of which we may truly say it is our own, and at