The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-22 00:00:00

Bri: Lill
Ivreign

Total
Decrease in 1830, 47 snips. Inertme in tonnage, 13,173 tali"

.. -
Fr to int balance V,..ct it appeared th.tt the total rem
imp (tithe corop.oy during the peat 'car were 238,1161.75. 9d.
and the total axpetditure 195,5431. 9e. 7d., leaving a basso;
01 39,6711. 18.. 2.1. upplic.t,ls to a dtvi•lend.
Altar some dise•Lason, the report, and dividend of If per
pot., were !greed to unanintottaly.
tlr JOHN HALL then read the following report in
respect to the &Oran with the Bond of Custom :

With re terenc; to the haattest qui sties, at issue be-
tween this cum pony and the Customs, the directors feel it
to be due tattoo prupri tors to furnish some information upon
• subject in values the interests of the company are so deepiy
concerned, and therefore, though the directors are advised
that it would be inexpedieut to the present state of legal
proceedings to ester into details, they thick it incumbent
upon them to Icy before the meeting each a statement of
matter, pouting, with the Customs as can with propriety be
given.
" Tsai proprietors are aware that shies the I:aliening of the
month of December, 1849, these docks have been subjected
to proceedings on toe part of the Beard of Customs of
the moat I striturdinaity and ha:rafting description, the
ponteulars of winch up to the mouth of July last were
adverted to in • atonement submitted to the proprietor at
the last halayiarly meeting.
" It is with regret that fie .irecters have now to notice
the eontisusuca of a course of conduct by the Customs so
Injurious mod unjust to that establishment, and productive of
so much inconvenience to the ecearneree of toe port. Public
bustrass in these docks continues to be seriously obstructed,
heavy expenses are incurred, and
trouble, end annoyance, are experienced by the company.
"The proprietors may perhaps recollect the circumst meet
set form in the statement before alluded to, of a trifi
quantity of molasses 'Urged to have been improperly
abstracted, but it may be worth while hers to recapitulate
some of the leading features of this extraordinary else.
" The Customs in the month of June let proceeded
against some of the servants of this company es felons, pre-
ferring an indictment infers the Grand Jury at the Central
Criminal Court, against one of the warehouse keeper. and
nice other of the servants of the cowpony, for having stolen
800:bs of molasses, the property of the Queen. The only
foundation for this extracrdinary charge was, that the parties
referred to had (in the discharge of their duty) filled up some
casks of molasses from a cask of overdrawing, belonging to
the same cargo and the same owners, in ignorance at the time
that • Customs' officer had marked the said cask of
overdrawing, with a ' broad arrow.' The reason for his
thus having placed under stop goods upon which the duty
had been paid, ant which had been imported with due
observance of every prescribed regulation, has never been
expleaned, and even had all the Customs regulations not
bees com,lied with, an idea may be formed of the frivolous
grounds for so vexatious and opprenive • proceeding, from
the fact that the gross value of the overdrawing. in question
is only about 41, on which the duties amounted but to 27..
This duty, however, bad been paid, making, therefore, the
entire proceeding the mote extrmadioery.
" The grand jury ignored the bill as to six of the parties
included in ie, but found a true bill as to the remaining
four (of course upon ex parte evidence), who thereupon were
taken into custody by the police, and conveyed to Newgate,
where they would have been locked up as felons, had they
not been released by bail being given by their private friend.
for their appearance in due time.
" This mode of preferring a bill of indictment before a
grand jury in the first instance, without • preliminary ex•
amination before a 'magistrate, is the most harsh and
oppressive wane that can be adopted against as accused.
ialenost universally in eases of felony an examination cake*
place before a ma,ristrate, when the accused party has an
opportunity of hearing the charge made against him, and of
making his defence, but, io the present instance this, the
usual course, was sot edopte I, • deviators from the same
the more to be deprecated, as the directors feel assured that
no magistrate would have committed these four men to take
their trial on the charge of felony after hearing the ex
planation that would have been giv.n of the transaction.
" This case was specially ordered to be tend at the Central
Criminal Conn by the Judges, and would. in the ordinary
esarse, have been di.pueed of about the 10th of July last,
isstead of which the trial of thiscbarge, so serious as against
these tour men, who had been in the company's service and
borne irreproachable characters for lona period., and, with-
out any reason being auigned for such an unusual course,
taken from the ordinary tribunal for the trial of criminal
charge, and removed into the Court of Qseen's Bench by a
writ of certiorari issued at the instance of her Majesty's
Customs.

" The effect of this proceeding was to postpone the trial
natil the beginning of December last, a course which
the directors considered molt hush and uojustifiable,
inasmuch as it did sot sppou that as, advaatago, tiller to