The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

HIGH WATCH AT LONDON BRIDGE

r 111.9 DAT AW..27ra:.-.: A—fteiii-00-o7 MI. :4.
TO-MOlLlWw—Morning, 4 34 Afternoon, 14 174

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 29.

A MAJORITY of all parties in the House of Com-
mons and a considerable number of Peers had, it
seems, in their innocence imagined that if the
search ‘,f passengers' luggage co ig from France
should be suspended from April to November next
the public revenue of the United Kingdom would
not be likely to suffer any serious loss, or the
Treasury balance of the financial year 1867-68
be dangerously disturbed. Such was the thought-
less inexperience of public men, albeit legis-
lators, and therefore responsible, first and last,
to the country for the ways and moans of
carrying on the Qr EEN'S Government,
and probably most of them, once a year at least,
accustomed to cross the Channel and back again,
and therefore in a condition to judge by their
own personal observation and experience of the
frightful consequences to the national exchequer
of passengers being allowed to pass through Dover
and Folkestone without having their portman-
teaus and bandboxes opened and shut again under
the eyes of Custom-house officers. People who
have never been " civil servants," and have not
passed through the inestimable discipline of
copying forms, in a good round hand,
on large paper in a government office
are so desre'orately ignorant of the ex-
treme danger of loosing a single pin in any one
of the wheels of the imperial coach, on which
innumerable flies are sitting so confident
in their pushing power. Mr. WATKIN and
the rest of the influential deputation who
waited on the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
on Friday last are too evidently led astray by
that reckless common sense which only a long
habit of breathing the sedative air of
a Department can moderate and restrain.
They are blind to a thousand difficulties
which any eye and nose trained in a
Department can see and sniff out with
unerring acuteness. The object of this deputa-
tion was to present to the CHANCELLOR of the
EXiIIEQUER the Memorial signed by 448 peers
and Members of Parliament, simply asking, as
Mr. WATKIN expressed it, "that during the
" Great Exhibition of 1867, the examination of
" travellers' luggage between Loudon and Paris
" be suspended, the right to examine in suspi-
" ciouscases being reserved." On this request the
advice of the Treasuryand of the Customs Depart-
ment has been taken, and the result of we know
not how many communications, and we know
not how Large a consumption of pens, ink, and
paper, is that the Treasury, while admitting that
the search of passengers' luggage "always produces
" inconvenience and vexation to the public, and
" can only be justified byimporious necessity," ob-
ject to remove the inconvenience and vexation,
on the ground of damage to tho revenue by
smuggling spirits and tobacco from Paris to Eng-
land. The Chairman of the Customs is not at all
satisfied that considerable danger to the public
revenue will not arise if the indulgence asked for
be conceded. And the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
I'HEQCER, oppressed and overburdened by the sense
of his responsibility, and anxious, like the provincial
Othello, who blacked himself all over, to throw him-
self soul and body into a part which, histrionically
speaking, might be considered not altogether within
the range of his art, " makes up " admirably as an
inflexible administrator, with an air of solemn
hesitation and misgiving whichenablesevery British
taxpayer to feel that at all events he will not be
called upon to reimburse the amount of duty on
spirits and tobacco payable by passengers from
Paris to London between April and November
next.

No doubt it is reassuring to us all to find that
we have a Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer
who, although he never invented a surplus, sim-
plified a tariff, reduced a burden, or advanced
a step towards free trade, or approved a commer-
cial treaty, knows how to "abound in the sense"
of the Departments, and to keep a tight hand on
the portmanteaus and bandboxes of passengers from
Paris to London. This conscientious rigour in
looking after the shillings and sixpences, and let-
ting the millions take care of themselves (at the
Admiralty and Horse Guards) is a precious quality
in a Minister whose genius is so daring and
expansive in drawing bills for the repre-
sentation of the people. If Mr. DISRAELI
should still be Chancellor of the Exchequer
in April 1868, but with little or no surplus, it
will not be for want of a due estimate of the
responsibilities of his position as protector of the
public revenue from the depredations of travellers
and tourists. This is most satisfactory. But
it seems a little hard upon a CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEig*ER, who has really no other chance of
distinguishing himself in his term of office, that he
cannot venture to do a littlu favour to his
countrymen without fear of offending the " Depart-

" ments," or perhaps of embarrassing his suc-
cessor. Nobody ever expected the Treasury, still
less the Customs, to regard this Memorial with
approbation. Departments always see what they
call " the thin end of the wedge" in the slightest
interference with routine. How would the perms-
nent officials of the " Departments " have judged
a priori Sir R. PEEL'S and Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S alterations in the tariff, or the
Commercial Treaty with France? The CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER charges Mr. WATKIN with
having proved too much and made too strong a
case for doing away with the search of passengers'
luggage altogether. Perhaps this is not so much
Mr. WATKIN'S fault as the fault of the case on the
other side. It would be very difficult to represent
in adequate terms the reasons for suspending the
search of passengers' luggage for six months with-
out at the same time enforcing by impli-
cation the reasons for doing away with
it altogether. As a question of revenue,
the suspension of search from April to November
next will be the more objectionable in proportion
to the extraordinarily multiplied number of
travellers from Paris to London. If it would be
a serious danger to the revenue to let passengers' ,
luggage pass unsearched during an ordinary
season, it will be destructive to the revenue to
suspend the search this year. It might be sup-
posed that no responsible member of Parliament
would commit himself to a proposal for seriously
endangering the public revenue, even for the
sake of doing a civil thing to our neighbours.
If Mr. WATKIN has proved too much for
the six months' suspension, the Chairman of
Customs has returned the compliment by asking
men of business, or rather of common sanity, to
believe that the public revenue will be seriously
endangered by the quantity of spirits and tobacco
likely to be imported in passengers' luggage from
Paris to London, if, instead of the present
almost nominal search, involving so much unneces-
sary annoyance and delay to hundreds of harmless
passengers, a system of surveillance were estab-
lished sufficient to prevent a systematic contra,
band importation of goods worth smuggling,
by persons and in packing cases which
the dullest custom-house officer could detect.
As Mr. WATKIN remarked to the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, the experience of every smoker
could estimate the amount of tobacco likely to
be smuggled from Paris to London, and as to
spirits, it is known that we export spirits to
France. French brandy, to be smuggled by
travellers, must be packed in bottles; how many
bottles, then, would it take to repay the risk, or
how few to escape detection? As to silks and
other costlier articles, they are just as likely to
escape search, and just as easy of detection now
as they would be if the portmanteaux and band-
boxes of ordinary passengers were not searched at
all. For, we repeat, the search of passengers' lug-
gage is almost nominal, and it is not the severity
of the search, but the unnecessary delay and
inconvenience that passengers complain of,
and the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER is
asked to suspend. This delay and inconvenience
will be increased in proportion to the number of
travellers during an exceptional season. The
French Minister of Finance asked what there was
to smuggle between France and England ; and
assured Mr. WATKIN that the French Government
not only would give orders to reduce the search to a
mere ceremony, but were anxious to discuss the
whole question of modifying or abolishing search
under a reciprocal convention. Ono can easily
forgive a Department for shrinking from such a
conclusion as this, but the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER is not a Department, and might
even lead the way towards so happy a result
without endangering his reputation, or the revenue.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)