The Express.
London, England, 1849-02-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY

.atlibrair linetifdentarektion &airs lieluxill
clay, emisisting of ISt, *Waif( with a
whitlow and Asia' to the bighist officials named, and.
the dam composed of the 360 officials at the end of
the The leiter lejgbi their Gamer with ft Wary
of 281., and may nee to a saiary of 1301., per
annum ; beyoad that they are Incapable of pro-
motion. The letter start in their career with a salary of
11104 and may ries, in time, to Ussery highest aims
41-the depsetmeat, with a salary of 1,2001. or up.

For arresting the career of the subordinate class no
practically useful reason can be &segued. The land-
ing waiters, and the lockers and weighers are taken
from the same ranks of society. We have known in-
stances in which the elder brother has received an ap-
pointment .a locker or weigher, and the younger
brother as landing-waiter ; or when the son of a partner
in a mercantile establishment has obtained the former
and the son of a clerk in the house has received the
latter appointment. It in all chance. The whole of
these appointments are in the gift of the treasury ;
they are disposed of without any particular inquiry
into the position or capacity of the parties who are to
receive them ; the Treasury looks only to the power
of the parties recommending the candidates to be-
friend or injure it. Beyond the walls of the Custom-
House or Treasury, scarcely any person is aware of
the barrier in the way of the promotion of thole who
outer the subordinate class of the service. The pa-
ken receives and his nominee aceepts of the appoint-
ment offered, unaware of the distinction made be-
tween the two classes. And the consequence is, that of
two equals, the one may unwittingly enter a career in
which the moat faithful, able, and assiduous discharge
et his duties can never raise him above an income of
1301. per. annum, while the other, if he only avoids
getting into scrapes, must, if he survive, rise to the
receipt of 4001., and if he conducts himself well, to
the receipt of 1,2001. per annum.
What makes this causeless distinction more galling
sad irrational is that the lockers and weighers, and the
her of them who are promoted to be superintendents
of their alas% do in reality perform the same duties
as the laading-waiters. The weigher is theoretically
employed to weigh goods larded; the locker to take
charge of bonded stores; but both may be daily employed
to discharge the duties of landing-waiters sometimes
with an officer of that chug lounging about and sup-
posed to be overlooking them, sometimes without
even that seeming superintendence. When a young
man receives an appointment as landing-waiter he is
put for two or three months in the charge of an ex-
perienced locker or superintendent of lockers, to learn
his business, and having obtained such a superficial
knowledge of it as is possible in so short a time, he
starts on his career with a higher salary than his
instructor can ever hope three to.
Bach an arrangement is most prejudicial to the
service. It substitutes officers who have to learn their
business for officers who are thoroughly masters of it.
It produces in the high-salaried class of officers the
mischievous impression that they are above the me-
chanical drudgery to which the others must submit.
It has a nectesary tendency to destroy hope, and that
cheerful continuous exertion which emanates from it,
in those who are forbid to look for promotion, how-
ever much they may deserve it. The arrangement is
cruelly unjust to the subordinate class of officers, and
injurious to the efficiency of the service. This fact
has been recognised by the Board of Cagoule, who
have recommended to the Treasury that one appoint-1
sent as landing-waiter in five should be conferred
upon deserving subordinate officers ; but this recom.l
meadation, as tending to diminish the amount of
Tissmary patronage, has been rejected.
Oa present purpose, however, is to examine the
Mningement in its economical bearing.
The 150 landing-waiters in the London custom-
house are divided into six classes, whose eateries
raw from 1601. to 4001. a year. Their aggregate
salad s§snot= to 39,3001. per annum. The abor-
tions 'Boers are distributed into three classes of
wsliglsas, three of lockers, and three of superintend-
ents, with salaries ranging from 23/. to 1301. per
annum; their aggregate salaries amount to 29,973/.
The duties supposed to be discharged by lending-
miters alone are in reality discharged to such an
extent by the subordinate officers, that there is not by
any means full employment for the 150 officers of the
upper class. In addition to this consideration, it may
be remarked, that, with a prospect of being able to
rise to the higher appointments, salaries ranging from
1501. to 3001. would secure perfectly efficient officers
in this claw. The superintendents of lockers do, in
point of fact, habitually discharge all the duties of
landing-waiters ; this class might be augmented in
number, and made a transition stage in the promotion
from the subordinate to the high-paid offices. It is a
well-known fact that even under the existing arrange-
ments men in business prefer to hare their goods
searched, or landed, by an officer of this class. The
reason is, that they find them more assiduous and
ae-
tive—in plain language, less apt to give themselves
airs.

We have seen a distribution of the classes of land-
ing-waiters and subordinate officers, which has been
proposed as a substitute for the existing one, and
which has met with approbation in official quarters,
and among parties engaged in trade. It pro-
poses to throw the career of advancement
open from weigher to landing-waiter, and to
distribute the officers of these grades into flue classes :
viz. 80 landing-waiters, with salaries ranging from
1541. to 2001.; 120 superintendents of lockers (to be ,
called "auxiliary landing-waiters"), with salaries
ranging from 1201. to 1401. ; 110 lockers, with salaries
from 90/. to 1101.; and 170 weigher., with salaries of
701. and 801. The staff of landing-waiters and subor-
dinate officer., as at present organised, costa annu-
ally 69,2751.; reorganised upon the model here indi-
cated it would cost 54,6501. The yearly saving thus
effected in the London Custom-house alone would
amount to 14,6251.; and the reduction of expenditure
would be attended by increased efficiency. Officers
thoroughly conversant with their duties would be
substituted for men in many instances imperfectly
acquainted with them ; officers not above their busi-
ness would be substituted for a class who in too many
instances think themselves superior to its routine
drudgery. In justice to a neglected and meritorious
class of public servants, let us add that not one of
the subordinate officers was implicated in the exten-
sive and systematic frauds detected in the London
Custom-house some years ago.
Reduction of expenditure in the London Custom-
house need not be confined to the classes of officials to
whom we have been directing attention. A board of
eight commissioners—chosen with a view not to offi-
cial aptitude, but parliamentary influence—is mon-
noue. The fact is, as BENTIIAM said long ago, that
" beards are of no use but to make screens of." It
my not be possible to persuade public men of the
bath of this doctrine, and induce them to substitute
aye reepotuable head of this department for 'a board ;
Ist seemly time eseimisieeus are enough; and by thus
redesdag their =saber, a saving of 3,6001. per annum
might r mile. A reduction in the salaries of the
surveyor...neural and landing surveyors might be-
made te tie amount of at least 2,1001. per annum, and
the odes of superintendent of se,arcners dimmed
with altogether, which would save 6004 a year.
On the whole, the annual cost of the water-
side department of the London Custom-house
might be diminished by 20,0001. a year, and
increased compactness and efficiency imparted to its
organisation by the new arrangement. What is here
I said of the London Custom-house is equally true of
the custom-houses at the principal outports. For
example : in the Liverpool Custom-house the
absurd line of demarcation drawn between
the subordinate officers and the class beginning
with and rising from landing-waiters, has afforded a
pretext for saddling the establishment with some
San of "'militia", kndintr- waiters," who are only
I seminally employed, but amply paid for their see'
Anse when they are.
This review shows pretty clearly what ministers at
ess. or Upon mean when they talk of the imams
of national wealth and population rendering mere
costly civil establishments necessary. They have not
increased the efficiency of these establishments, but
they have made their increase in point of MlA-
bees • pretext for increasing government pa-
trolley and national expenditure. Were all the
departments of civil government subjected to the
same scrutiny u we have here subjected the cue?,
toms to, the result would be the same. We have se-
lected that department to illustrate our point
on account of its importance. The avowed
of collecting the customs in 1847 was 1,047,17274
and under the head of 334,4611. of" other payments,"
will be found some additional items of expense of col-
lection. We have shown how, in one department
alone, the expense of the establishment may be dimi-
nished, and its efficiency increased by the same pro-