The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-14 00:00:00

L'JNDON, MONDAY, MARCII 11.

A FM years since it would have been impossible
to assemble sueli a deputation upon any commerciel
question as on Saturday hod an interview with the
CIIANCKLLOE of the Ex( itimeelt un the subject of
Customs Refurm. Under the old network of mow-
pollee merchants and manufacturers were broken up
mto special cliques. Every port had some favoured
interest to &tem,. The world's cec.merce with
each close lay within the circle of its particular =-
Lupoly ; and they card for LJ abuse, however great,
so :on g as it mole no trespass upon their
oats borders. But before Free Trade, these
narrow-minded limits have given way ; and
the trading classes arc fast risin;; to the convic-
tion that they have no divided interest, and that
their strength lice in their being spoken of and felt
as "the commercial community." They begin to ap-
preciate their real position in the State; to feel that
it is they who give impulse to the world's industry—
they who find markets few every product of our vast
nia:bine power—they who find the English work-
man his customer at the antipodes, and bring to his
doer his bread grown ten thousand miles away—they
who lay before the toiling millions their wagto—they
who spread iebncaid the character of England for
commercial integrity and truth—they who make the
seem ity of lingland the surest, and the land of Eng-
land the most valuable—they who (ruin every corner
of the globe brine the products which feed the general
wants, and bear the taxed products that go to swell
the Exchequer—they whose bu,lness relations, deep-
rooted amongst the people of every climate and
tongue, make it the whole world's interest to be
at peace with Englund. We are pleased to
bud that it was in this spirit that
the deputation waited upon Mr. GLADSTONE.
They had no favour to seek, males interest to advo-
cate, but simply to demand for the common good
increased facilities_ to commerce.... There was pro-

bably not a single breach of either our home; or
foreign trade not repruentsd upon the deputation.
The London Committee for Reform of the Customs,
appointed in 1331, by upwards of right hundred of
the leading merchants, bankers, and traders of
the City, might of itself be said to repre-
sent not merely London, but the entire King-
dom. London is proverbially slow to move.
It no easy matter to bring the merchants from
their counting-houses, or to associate them for any
purpose, however important. There must be a real
pressing grievance, or a cause sound enough, for even
a Bank director to stir London. lint it has been
most heard of in the agitation for Customs Reform,
nut merely because of the Dock prosecutions falling
upon London merchants, nor because about
11,000,0001. of Customs revenue is paid by the port of
London alone, but from the simple fact that every
inconvenience to the trade of London is felt is
every business throughout the Kingdom,
and brings, not only from the ports, but
from every town, its letters of complaint ;
and it is therefore as reprtsentutives of the commer-
cial wants of the entire people that the Committee of
London merchants have so tar fought the battle of
Customs Reform.

Nothing could be more temperate or to the purpose
than the document read by Mr. TRATERI, as chairman
of the Committee, and which we elsewhere publish
with the Report. It states the evils of the existing
Customssystem; its vexatious delays —its irresponsible
authority—its seizorcs upon secret information—
its investiptions with closed doors—its appropria-
tion of private property—its refusal of reports—
its power to enact by-laws with all the force
of statutes—its fifty-one acts and its forty years
of board orders, which are always declared repealed
when they are complained of, and in force when
Ileac is any illerlity of the Board to be defended.
It poiLts to the coinmertiti. irorance of the Com-
missioners—to the temptations to fraud thrown in
the way of the officers by allowing them to share la
fines, seizures, and compromises—to the enormous
costs of Exchequer suits to the public, whether as
plaintiffs or defendants, and the exemption of the
Crown from costs—to the utter absurdity of appeals
to the Lords of the Treasury—to the vexation,
system of ad ralorena duties, and to the power pos-
sessed by the officers of Customs to bring utter ruin
upon men following their business honestly, and
without the possibility of their obtaining either a
hearing in their defence, or a statemout of the
charges against them. It urges the important
point, that the commercial classes are far
more deeply concerned in the prevention of
every evasion of duties than the Board of Cus-
toms or its officers; that it is for the interest both of
the Exchequer and the commercial classes that the
management of the Customs shall be open, simple,
uniform, and the law urn the subject clear,
and in its application caeap and expeditious.
It seems certain that no such clearness can be ex-
pected under the hands of the existing Board of Cus-
toms, who have assumed a position of hostility to the
commercial community, nor from professional law-
makers, well learned in words, but not at all in
commerce ; but is likely to be arrived at only by sub-
mitting to the commercial class for revision and
suggestion any Bills to be prepared for Parliament
previous to their being brought before the House.
There is no need we should dwell upon the
strangeness of the fact that the Customs should have
been so long suffered to remain in a condition not
only so unfitted to our growing commerce, but
utterly at variance with the spirit of the people asi
with every other institution of the country.
It is very rarely that a deputation is favoured with
so distinct a reply as that of Mr. GLADSTONE. He
admitted not only the evils, but the Delimit' discredit
of the existing system; referred pointedly to a codi-
fication not merely of the Customs Law, but of the
tariff; pledged himself to the earliest possible intro-
thetion of the bills after Easter; impressed upon
the members of the deputation that although the
Government thought it best to take the responsi-
bility of laying the bills upon the table, they would
be most desirous that the commercial classes should
suggest amendment.; that, therefore, ample time
would be allowed for the utmost publicity to be given
to the bills, and that they would be reprinted with
the amendments ar.d referred to a Select Committee.
It therefore rests apparently with the commercial
classes themselves to establish a sound Customs system.
There is, however, the difficulty in the way ex-
pressed very forcibly by Mr. TRAVEL) and Mr.
IiALL, and by their cheers concurred in by the great
majority of the deputation, that the bills are being
prepared by the very originators and defenders of
the Dock Company prosecutions,—in whom the
commercial classes most justly can have no confi-
dence. The conviction amongst them is that through
Custom-house influence the Committee upon the
amendments will be so framed as either to render
the amendments useless. or to delay the
bills over the season. For this reason alone
it was so strongly urged that the bills should
first be submitted to the commercial classes, and
should, in fact, be introduced as coming from them.
Nor would there have been any difficulty in the way
of such a course. London. though having no Cham-
ber of Commerce of its own, is in constant communi-
cation with such institutions throughout the country,
and could have no difficulty in transmitting the
drafts and collecting the several local amendments.
But, as it is, Mr. GLADSTONE may rest assured that,
however good the new system, perfected by amend-
ment, may be, it can never be worked with satisfac-
tion to the commercial classes by tho old tools of the
Custom-house. The new laws must have a new
Board. The machinery of the commercial classes
must have commercial men to work it.

A FUNERAL Seavier. is to be celebrated to-
morrow, in the catholic church of St. James, Spat:kWh-glace,
Manchmter-square, for the repose of the soul of her lute
Imperial Higbee*. the Prince* Marie Amelia, sister of the
Ealpev r of Brasil and of the Queen of l'ortugal. Invitations
Lave bei.o sent by the EfilAiliult MiUistlf 1 oil the repre-
natation of the Sovereigns who are related by consangui-
mity or Rlfniq with the august dece...odois well al to nit
atermtuzutto and Brazilian) Iclidcal is Losioa.