The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-22 00:00:00

LONDOIr, FRIDAY, APRIL 22.

THERE is- not a person in the realm who is not
directly interested in the Customs Duties. There
are immense numters of persons whose peace of
mind is sorely troubled every year—as they return
to their native land after a voluntary expatriation of
a couple of months—by tho Custom-house re-
gulations, and the manner in which they are
put into practice by Custom-house officers.
From the QUEEN, who does not know at

any particular moment, when on board her yacht,
whether she is not bringing home a cargo of smug-
gled tobacco for the benefit of various portions of her
crew, to the honest tradesnuin whose wife insists
upon secreting about her person a few pairs of gloves
for which she has paid double their real value, trust-
ing in the chance of cheating the Customs of some
halfpence ; and throughout all the intermediate
grades of society the Custom-house is an object of
anxiety to all. The honourable merchant sighs
over the Customs as an obstacle to trade ;

the dishonourable merchant _ chuckles over them

...., ------
as a temptation to profitable evasion ; the
traveller chafes over them as a hindrance; the

statesman quotes them as the acme of bad manage-
ment. Everybody, in fact, knows something about
the Customs, and everybody is therefore interested in
them. We all feel a personal sympathy, more or
leas, in the collisions of the Customs with those with
whom they come in contact; we all recognise that
the constitution of the Customs Board is a matter that
may affect our interests very deeply. It is scarcely
possible, therefore, not to experience some disappoint.
ment when Mr. WILSON refuses to go into any
details with respect to what he is pleased
to style the • unhappy controversy ' that
arose some time back between the Customs and
the Docks. " The Committee," said Mr. WILSON,
11 thought it their duty not to express an opinion
thereon. In doing so, they had followed a very wise
course." Very possibly, but the public would have
been glad to know in what the wisdom consisted.
A very general opinion existed, at the time, that the
Customs had dealt very shamefully, if not very
illegally, with the Docks. Has the " wisdom" of the
Committee been shown in suppressing a condemna-
tory, opinion on conduct which has already been
condemned by the public. If so, it is a wisdom
which partakes rather more of cunning than
statesmanship. The same remark applies to the con-
stitution of the Board. Tho Government (the
speaker tells us) does not intend to deal with this
constitution on the present occasion. All the world
will be sorry to hear this—and disappointed into the
bargain. Nothing is more certain than that to the
faulty constitution of the Board a great portion of
the bad working of the system is owing. No satis-
factory improvement can be introduced into the ad-
ministration of the Customs until the constitution
of the Board is fundamentally altered. There
is no department of the State which is more
under the blight of what the historian of the
Peninsular war calls " the cold shade of aristocracy"
than the Customs. The distinctions in that service
are as strongly marked as in the Army. We are
wrong ; they are even more strongly marked. Small
as the chance may be of a man from the ranks ever
obtaining a command in the line, it is still greater
than that afforded to an officer in the laborious
grades in the Customs ever reaching one of
the poets filled up by those who have
the good luck to be allied with the dis-
pensers of patronage. To this peculiar fea-
ture of the evil Mr. WILSON, however,
tells us that the Committee have directed their at-
tention. There are 10,800 persons employed in the
Customs, of whom 1,000 are weighers and lockers,
and 1,720 tidewsiters, making 2,720 in these two
capacities only. Mr. WILSON allows that, under no
circumstances are these persons, whatever their
merit, permitted to pass a certain line of promotion.
The Committee propose that whenever a person has
been three years a superintending locker, he shall
have the liberty of demanding an examination by
his superior officer, upon undergoing which he shall
have a certificate forwarded to theTreasury,and have his
name enrolled as being eligible for promotion to the
higher ranks. This, it must be admitted, is a step
in the right direction. The upper ranks of the ser-
vice will be by this means constantly refreshed by
the infusion of new blood, while the lower ranks
will have their energies. increased by the stimulus
administered under the shape of a hope of promotion.
The reform in the mode of distributing rewards
appears, on the whole, to be also judicious. The
principle adopted is, that the officers concerned in
seizures shall have no immediate share in the profits
derived therefrom. All the fines and satisfaction which
have hitherto been paid direct to the officer, and
have thus opened a way for peculation, are now to
be converted into one fund, which will be distributed
once a year, either by division among the officers
generally, or to those of particular merit. An ex-
ception is made with respect to the officers of the
coast-guard, who, on account of the nature of the
service, are still allowed to retain a personal interest
in seizures made by them. The Committee next
suggest two changes: first, the abolition of the ex-
clusive privileges formerly claimed by Government
on the subject of costs; secondly, the reference of all
cases in which the amount involved does not exceed,
1001., and occasionally of others, to the County
Courts.
With respect to the transit of goods from one port
to another in their way between foreign countries
modifications are proposed. It appears that goods
to the amount of 400,0001. passed in transit through
the country in the month of March last, being at the
rate of nearly 5,000,0001. a year. By the present
law each person is bound to give a bond for the
amount of duty for which he is liable. It is recom-
mended that the railway companies shall give one
single bond for the whole amount, the railway being
responsible for the delivery of the goods in bond,
port, or dock, on the other side of the island. This
will he important.
The other points of the subject—wide as it is—all
need special comment iu relation to the intentions of
the Government. Each will require to be carefully
sifted. The present stage of the business is merely
preliminary and formal. When it comes before the
House as a matter of formal legislation it will have
to be discussed with all the care and attention due to
the immense interests which it involves.

THE NEW CATTLE MARKET.— Yesterday, the '
Markets Improvement Committee of the City corporation
exhibited at Guildhall the plans and models of the proposed
market in Copenhagen fields. Mr. Bunning exr,:lained the
planer the market to a considerable number of iicitoes con-
nected with the cattle trade. Of the le'ed purchased at
Copenhagen fields it is intended to ar ropriste 15 acres to
the purposes of the market, 30 sores MT lairs for the cattle,
9 acres for Slaughter-houses, and the same number for
roadways. It Is calculated that the market will be able to '
receive as many as 42,000 sheep, 6,700 bullocks, with calves
and pigs in proportion.
CRIME IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND.—Yesterday si I
return to the House of Commons was printed of crimes
committed in England and Ireland. In 182 the titur:,„,
of committals for crime in England was 27,510, ay.:: in Ire-
land in Ibsl, 21,681, of which 12,018 were u''..tble to read
or write. The same information is not •P'ccled as to Eng-
land, but in 1818, out of 30,319 cgrertlll,:gie, 9,691 were un-
able to roil or write,

FRANCE.

PA RIB,.THURSDAY_EVENING,

Today the Emperor mule the tour of the works
in progress at the Louvre.
The Moniteur contains an article sympathising
with the working climes, who are inconvenienced by
the rise in the price of lodgings-
The Moniteur contains the following official
news:

Yesterday, April 20, was the Erin, eroes birthday. His
Majesty's desire was that no festivities should take place
on this occasion. His fete will be eelcbra ted on the 15th
of August, St. Napoleon's day.
The police of llagnres de Luchon Visited several
stationers' shops last week, and seized a numt•cr of
portfolios ornamented with portraits of the Count de
Chambord, the Duchess of Orleans, and other mem-
bers of the Bourbon family.
The Princess Charlotte Bonaparte, Countess Fri-
moli, daughter of Prince Charles Bonaparte do
Canino, hus arrived in l'aris with her husband, to
pass some months with her father.

The committee of the Legislative Body on the bud-
get of 18.5-1 has named M. Schneider its reporter. It
is supposed that the report will be presented about
the commencement of May.
The members of the departmental commission went
yesterday morning to the Prefecture of the Seine to
take part in the extraordinary session for which they
had been convoked by a decree of the Moniteur, when
they were informed that the official journal had com-
mitted an error in its announcement, putting the 20th
inst. instead of the 281 b.

A letter from Compiegne to the Journal de l.liote
states that it is expected the Emperor and Empress
will take up their residence at the l'aloce of Com-
piegne in the course of the next month. A number
of workmen arc employed in different works for in-
creasing the accommodation required for the nume-
rous persons who will be invited to the palace.
Twelve stags brought from Marty have just been
turned our in the forest, and the hounds which bad
been ordered to Fontainebleau, aro to remain at
Compiegne.
To-day, at the Bourse, the Three per Cents. for
money declined 40c., and for the end of the month
30c.; and the Four-and-a-Half per Cents., both for
the account and for cash, 20c. A fall of 3f. occurred
in Bank Shares. Closing prices : For cash, Three
per Cents., 80f. 10e. ; Four-and-a-Half per Cents.,
103 f. 30c. For the Account: Three per Cents.,
80f. 03c. ; Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 103 f. 30c.;
Bank Stock, 2,730 f. • .4
In the railway market no improvement can be
reported. The concluding prices were : Northerns,
9131. ; Orleans, 1,042 f. 50c. ; Paris and Stras-
bourg, 845 f. 30e ; Paris and Lyons, 9441. 50e.; Paris
and Rouen, 1,130 f. 50c. ; Lyons to the Mediter-
ranean, 8151. 50c. ; Western of France, 7851.;
Rouen and Havre, 5301. ; Bordeaux and Cctte, 650f.'
LATEST FOREIGN BOULISES.-Amsterdam, Thurs-
day-Integrals Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 61 3-16.
Spanish One per Cent.. '23: • Interior Three per
Cents., 421. Vienna, Thursday-New Loan, 94;
Loan Letter B. Five per Cents., 107 L Bank shares,
1,395. Exchange on London, 10.50. Paris, 1.30.
Frankfort, Tuesday-Austrian Five per Cents.,
981 ; 1851, 98: ; 1852, 98; ; Two-and-a-Half per
Cents., 44,1. Russian Four-and-a-Half per Cents.,
(Baring), 1031 • Four per Cents. (H0pe),961 ; (Stleg-
litz), 921. Polish 500 fl. Bonds, 931. Spanish One
per Cent., 24 7-16; Three per Cents., 43,1. Sar-
dinian Five per Cents. (Rothschild), 991. Ham-
burg, 95:. Tuscany Five per Cents. (Golsmith),
1031; Bastogi 101. United States Six per Cents.,
1071. Exchange on Loudon, short, 1191.