The Express.
London, England, 1850-10-31 00:00:00

All that is noblest, bee, and gentlest in our Ware
I rises in revolt against the notion. It is impossible.

A PAILLOWII went the round of the mews tot
many days esti, bearing the aursetive and ielliterative
title of "Doings is the Desks." It 'iota to demelbe
the hops. and expeetatioss of she esstamhoon offi-
cials who ass at puma% ranniiking the docks- of
London. It three-lowly bitted that there Ina a veal
deal of "mystery" about the prooeedings, but that
brand-bye the mita= would make " revelations"
which would "astonish the commercial public." In-
namely as it wee worded, the paragra_ph was a
clumsy attempt at deception, after all. For it wes
not difficult to see its source. It was evident that the
shaft thee shot at the Doak Companies we. nothing
less than "a broad arrow." Ahd the customs have
so atm been detected in doing a little of the illicit,
that se one is surprised to find that they have at last
managed to smuggle a paragraph into the news-
PsErh
The Superintendents of the St. Katharine and
Loads& Docks have thought it necessary to publish
letters &eying that anything. bas occurred to
" astonish the commercial public. With deference,
however, we think the superintendeata wholly wrong.
The " revelations " of the paragraph itself have al-
ready very much " astonished the commercial public."
They have learnt with surprise that their most valu-
able goods have for the put three months been under-
going as thorough an examination as the dirty clothes
bag of a steam-boat pseeenger from Calais. Custom-
hone officers in the docks have been turning out bales
of silk, pushing their flats into bags of cochineal,
shaking up the lees of valuable pipes of port, and
taking samples out of hogshead' of Lafitte, lust as
coolly ea if they were their own. The " doings in
the docks" have indeed been without precedent The
Customs have treated the merchants of London as if
they were one and all petty plunderers and smugglers.
They have searched their goods as if they were in
the habit of as in every bale and cask and
bag some commodity that ought to pay a higher
duty. They hare bored into and tasted all their
wines to me that they were not spirits. They have
taken such an account of every merchant's goods as
will enable them to report to the Income Tax Com-
missionen the precise amount of all his dealings.
They have conducted this examination in the most
offensive way, at an enormous charge to the country,
and, as the Superintendent of the Loadon
declares, " without proving a single case in which the
revenue has been damnified to the value of a

farthing."
Most of our readers, at some period or another of
their lives, have gone to the dock cellars with what is
called a tasting order. Lest any of them should
chance in the ensuing week to visit the wine cellars
at St. Katherine's, It might be as well that they'
should be prepared for the occasion. In one of the
dimly lighted alleys of the vinous catacomb, they will
come across a party who will unfailingly flash into
their faces the lights of their dark lanterns. Pro-
ceeding further on. they will find that one or two el
this party have fjllowed them. Arrived at the cellar
the contests of which they are to taste, they will
probably detect these officials concealed behind as
adjacent pipe, attentively watching their movements
and listening to their conversation. What may be
the object of this inquisition—what revenue purpose
suck espionage is expected to answer—is more than
we can say. It appears to be • new branch of the
duties of the Custom-house, introduced by those vale-
able commercial authorities, the Cluticmos of the
RICEIEQUIII and the Commissioners of Customs.
The men who are thus engaged is " taking stook,'
as the customs delicately an it, are not the autho-
rised and appointed custom-hones officers of the pat
of Locdon, but bodies of "detectives," brought from
Liverpool under the charge of an ex-policeman, or
transferred from the excise department, where they
were more accustomed to dirty and obnoxious dodo.
The Commissioners of Customs, it seems, could nut
trust the old and reeporable offioers of the port sC
London to perform the duties devolved upon these,
superunmeraries. Whether they thought them in
league with the dock directors, or whether they
deemed them too honest for the new work, they have
not told them ; but the mistrust exhibited, and their
virtual aupercession, has been keenly felt by the Lon-
' don officers, who do not hesitate to express a very
strong opinion respecting the commissioners' "doings
doings
in the docks." Latterly, too, even the excise officials
have become dissatisfied. Many of tees" gentry
exist, not upon their miserable salaries, but upon
their share of the profits of a seizure. Wten
they were invited to the docks, they were led
to form tempting expectations of what they
would find concealed in those vast vaults and
lofty warehouses. But after three or four months'
search, having found something less than nothing,
they have become thoroughly disgusted, and are free
to say that " had it been an excise case, the search
would have been abandoned long ago."
The Customs, we have said, have found "something
less than nothing." This is literally true. They
went into the dock-cellars expecting, no doubt, rich
prizes in the shape of stock not entered, and sur-
plusage, which would entitle them to make seizures
of enure vaults. Instead of this, it appears by their
own present confession that they have discovered,
not surplusage., but deficiencies. More wins has
been entered at the Customs than is to be found in the
Dock Companies' possession. There is, they say, as
average deficiency of two or three gallons per pipe.
80, instead of exulting in the discovery of frauds apse
the customs, they are now crying out that there ere
basis epoa toe merchants. Now, we are leased
to believe that the merchants are not only TAD
able to protect their own interests, but that they de
not at all desire the interference of the Caguas in
any of their dealings. Whenever deficiencies in quan-
tities occur (and they are occasionally unavoidable)
the merchants and the dock companies r the

arrange v..
matter between theuesivvue. way amicably and satis-
factorily, without collier la ibe Customs for an um-
pire. And we have no dealt that they will continue
so to do. The Dock Cespasdes are too deeply inte-
rested in securing the seerehants' custom, and the
merchants are too deeply interested in the security
and facility which the dock system affords them, to
leave any doubt as to the amicable settlement of all
questions that arise between them. It is indeed,
something new and suspicious that the customs—the
legalised persecutors of the commercial community—
should set itself up as the guardian and conservator
of trade. Its duty hitherto hu been to discover that
commerce is fraudulent : the merchants may fairly
doubt that it is more scrupulous than of old when A
suddenly turns round and professes to find out that
commerce is defrauded.
We said that the customs had found no surplusage,.
This is a mistake. It hu found one. One fine warm
morning in the middle of last summer, the liabiissis at
the Old Bailey were surprised at the unexpected ap-
pearance in the court of a number of respectable
prisoners in the custody of a body of detectives.
" What is their offence r was asked all round. "Pi-
racy," at once concluded a worthy alderman who is
interested in shipping. " A robbery of shawls,"
whispered a Jew bill broker who attended as • wit-
nue. A burglary at the Mansion-houss, and all
the plate stolen," was the apprehension of a Sheriff
who wee still under the influence of the dinner of the
night before. Horrible as was this idea, it was as
nothing to the terrible tale that soon began to circu-
late, 0 A felonious robbery upon the Qom herself,
—so mays the indictment."
It soon appeared, however, that the " felonious
robbery upon the QUEEN herself " was only an imagi-
native phrase for a robbery of her Majesty's Customs.
The six gentlemen who were brought up in custody
were charged with the plunder of an indefinite
quantity of molasses" in the docks. It was an odd
thing to be concerned in stealing—as well on account
of the trifling value of bad treacle as of the ob-
vious difficulty of carrying it out of the docks in one's
hat or trousers' pockets. However, the charge was
made, and "the offenders" were all bound over to
warm& it ; the principal culprit—a little grey headed
aid gentleman of 70, in spectacles and pantaloon'
(presenting anything bat the appearance of a pirate
Of a burglar) being obliged to find bail, himself in4ool.
and two friends in sureties of 2001. each to answer for
the tremendous accusation.
, Now what do the public suppose was the Watery of
ibis gnat trawl. tees P Molasese,m every•ne knows,
'nes liable to fermentation. In very hot weather it is
lennosquently necessary to prevent the auks burst•
fat taking out bangs and drawing off a
quantity from each. This operation had
ben perfumed in the drag warehouse of the
111 isthmian Docks upon a large number of ,
Milholdedmiains lying there. The overdrawing,
aillestod in a small auk, holding between
Bast 14 pilau. The "Liverpool gang" came