The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-17 00:00:00

THE ARREST OF DOCKYARD OFFICIALS
!OR ALLEGED PR&UDS ON THE REVENUE.

The Chairman of the London Dock Company (Mr.
Jska Catley) on behalf of the direeton, has written a letter
to the Pint Lord of the Treeing, praying for a conference
with his larkitip, for the purpose of entering into an ex.
eiseadou of the eireanntaness widish have led to the arrest
of several dock officials against who bills of indisimant
have hese found at the Old Bailey, as stated ia the Ex-
press of Saturday. The Isilowi•lg is a onpy el the Iseisr :
" Lou Doelpheme. JS.
4, Ks Louie—The &sensedon ef the Laden Desk DemUMpsey,
of whisk eampasy I have the lessest to be shako... an
easter the amenity of addressing themealves to your lord-
ship, kr Os purpose of Wiggles ee tbe seine of year ka-
li" the tiselment width this Umpasyhom Oar the Let three
mesa% been mesh* at the heads of the Honourable
el Onelems. to the great hindrasee of the trade of the
pat of Leadia.
" Thedesumalmees whisk musk, the di/SO.OIM to trouble
your Web* with this eassmettesse ere disclosed I. the
seeremeedonse whisk has been raniag between the Beard
of °when sad Mk company fie_ Me last throe meths, a
espy of whisk I take leave to eadoes.
Inane l the mend in question, this eons y had been
la harmosious intercourse with the el Ceseents.
There was every roues indeed, why it should be so.
Between the rousse Wad this eempany that, were no
soaking interests. Both had a cosmos motive for pro-
test*, with the utmost vigilant*, the t reperty deposited in
WI desks. The oommeny's interest I. this respect is, in fact,
Mimi& It I. remessible to the nose for the duties on all
geode mem* the desk, (el which the Masers et the revenue
take their 111,1111assenet), sad it la reepoesible to the importers
el the geode ler the due one at their property.
" The Seek gesapenies of Loudon have afforded, in truth,
my lord. a mese mheleatiel um of protections to the revenue.
!Zieweeesalled kW minuses by the state of things pro-
le*, pert sf Leaden at the time of their sem
bilehment. Two evils were then lejuriouly affecting the trade
end the rename. The accommodation for the landing
midi deposit el merchandise was insufficient for the menu-
kis_besinne et the port. Plunder and pilferage of goods
while en beard the skipping lyieg in the open river, waiting
for Melt tuna to discharge their canoes—end while in the
act of hang landed end warehoused—bad reached a height
which neither the exertions of the aims of the revenue

nor the vigilance of the police were able to repress. A
reference to the evidence given before • committee of the
House of Commons, at the time of passing the Bret Dock
Act, will amply confirm this statement. A new and dis-
tinct branch of police was called into existence to check this
evil. All proved ineffectual. The merchants saw their
property abstracted—the crown guffaw' in its revenue. The
merchants then came forward and took up the neatest. At
ea e xpentature of millions tthe capitol of this company alone
is 3,938,3101.) they constructed the noble establishments of
docks sad warehouses which this port now enjoys. They
enclosed them by high and sabetantial walls on the land
aide' and by Bold gates of the most solid kind on the water
side. From that time, plunder and pilferage ceased. There
was no longer any abstraction of property. re. °Meer. of
the customs took an account of everything landed in the
docks. The companies became responsible to the crown for
the duties, and to the merchants for the due care of thtir
merchandise. As a further safeguard to the crown, the
Inks of the customs were p'aced on the company's ware-
homes, in addition to those of the company, and no goods
were allowed to peas out of the dock', either by water or
by land, without the concurring act of the officers of the
customs.

" This system has worked, my lord, most beneficially from
that time to the present. The dispatch, order, and regula
rity with which the batiste/got the decks has been transacted, I
have been of the highest value to the 'mercantile body; while
to the crown, the security it has afforded err the collection of
t-e , and the economy it has enabled the Board of
Customs to effect 'herein, hare been inch as it would not be
easy to animate.
In the year 1629, such was the confidence felt by the
Board of Customs in the dock companies, that it removed
from the docks all the customs' lockers employed in attend-
ing the delivery of dry goods, melting a saving to the crown
thereby, in that item cone, of thousands per annum. The
customs, at the same time, left the undiminished responsibility
for the duties on the shoulders of the dock companies. Act-
ing in the spirit which the dock companies have always done
towards the revenue, they cheerfully acquiesced in this

_
arrangement.
" Disregarding all the foregoing considerations, and acting
under the guidance of some apparently new and sudden im.
pulse, the hooourable Board of Customs has thought fit, my
lord, within the last three mouths, to commence a series of
snake upon this company, such as the correspondence
already referred to will show to your lordship. It bat
caused, during that period, a body of custom house officers
to ransack the whole of the company's premises, to the
great hindrance of business, and to the scandal of the port of
London.; it has made unlawful detentions and seizures of
rods ; officers have gone round among the mercantile
houses in the city, circulating the most atroci usly false re •
ports of the proceedings in the docks ; these officers have been
offering bribes to persons an the company's service to make dig-
clowns of something supposed to be known by them of wrong
doings by the company ; while men of the worst character
discharged by the directors for being detected in mavens-
doss in the docks, have been taken by the Customs into
their pay. The directors entreat of your lordship an atten-
tive consideration of the whole of this correspondence. When
it is oossidsred that the amount of duty on six articles alone
now in the Landon Docks amounts to 14,739,7201., and
when it is seen hew utterly insignificant are the cases of
accusation brought forward *ay the Customs against the com-
pany, the directors cannot but feel that no stronger evidence
could have been afforded of the carefulness and fidelity with
which the custody of this large property is conducted.
the Board "f Customs has not may made seizures, my
lord, which are absolutely unlawful, but it seems to raison-
stand its own position. Forgetting that its functions
are limited to the care of the revenue, and feeling that
in this capacity it had wholly exceeded its powers, it
comes forward gratuitously to assume the office
of " protecting the merchants" of Landon from
the acts et the directors of the dock companies. The
insinuation conveyed in this announcement is most
offensive to the dinettes. I humbly ask your lordship to
look at these facts ; that the directors of the three prin-
cipal dock companies, of whom I enclose a list, are ninety.
two in number; that they are selected from the most
considerable of the merchants of London ; that nicely
every large mercantile firm hat a member in the direction
of one or other of the dock establishments ; that these
same directors rre consequently smug the largest owners
of the goods deposited in the docks ; that they have neces-
sarily the deepest interest in suing that their goods are
faithfully and honestly dealt with ; and then I would beg
your lordship to consider whether anything more aunt.
able, or more inconsistent with the relative positi in of the
respective parties, can be conceived, than that a board of
revenue should tell these patties that it comes forward to
protect the merchants against their own acts as dock
direeten.
The last act of the Board of Customs took place on June
3. It has been the , under Exchequer process, of the
superintendent, the inspector, and one of the principal ware
house keepers, together with tome subordinate persons is
the Company's service, on a charge of defrauding the reve-
nue. The directors can hardly trust themselves, my lord,
to speak of this most offensive proceeding in the way which
it seems to them to deserve. Although no details are yet
given of the particular cue on which this proceeding is
founded, it evidently re'ers to the case which formed the
subject of a letter from the Company to the Board of Cue
toms, dated the 4th instant, to be found at page 73 at the
Correspondence. A more groundless proceeding can hardly
be imagined than this, against these three officers, who have
been from 28 to 36 years in the Company's main; men of
the most unimpeachable integrity, excellent personal con-
duct, and enjoying the respect of all poetise having inter-
course with the London Docks. The utdeeent huts with
which this proceeding has been taken has been such that
the Board of Customs did not even wait, u will be seen
by the Correspondence, for an answer to a
representation which it had made to this Com-
pany on this subject, which answer is now
before your lordship. A certain quantity of stuff, consisting
of sawdust, lime, oil from truck wheels, etc., instead of be-
big, as formerly, thrown on the refuse' heap in the docks,
and taken away by the scavenger, has, within the last four
lours. been sold to a person called a 'scum boiler,' for a very
nsignificant sam per hundred weight. The whole produce
of this stuff for the said four yeats does not average muss
than 601. per annum, and it does sot appear to contain any
ingredient liable to any duty whatever. But, without wait-
ing to hear what the directors of this company might have
to say on the matter, the board of customs issues this one:i-
nn process against the respectable persons I have trail-
cited.
" The directors of this company, feeling strongly the in.
jury and interruption which these proinge on the part of
the board of customs are occasioning to the commerce of the
port of London, are very desirous to have the honour of a con-
ference with your lordship thereon, for which purpose they
solicit that at an time which may suit your lordship's eon-
veal. nee, you will have the kindness to main a deputation
from the court of directors of this company.
I have the honour to be, my lord, your very faithful ser-
vant,
JOHN CATTLBY,
Chairman of the London Dock Company.

MARTLZBONE VILVIST.—Tho natty Met on Satur-
day, as usual. Thaaks were voted' to the representatives of
the borough for the stand they had taken in the Roue* of
Commons evilest the " centralisation " principle of the
Metropolitan Interments ➢ill; and Mr. Adolus limn*
gave notks of notion for the appointment of • Watts com-
mittee, to examine from time to time, and report, the state
et the parochial exchequer.
EZZOTION 07 • BIACON ON TON TONGUE SANDS.—
During the last few weeks the board of Admiralty have
ceased an emirate minty of the Tongue Sends to be made,
fa furtheranes of rendering the channels more safe to ma.
AIMS beating up and down. The result has been the ergo-
don of a oonspleamis buoy at the north end of the Tongue of
the Prince's Channel, the spot where the Royal Adelaide
was wrecked. The new buoy I. of itigentio dimensions it is
painted black, and is suinmunted by a staff and bell, sad is
dteoeraible at &considerable dictum. The sebscriptions for
the relief of the widows and orphans of the unfortunate
emigres who perished in the ill-fated vessel have, we are
(sorry to hear, been exceedingly small, sad inadequate for
I the ourposes intended.

Bisix PROM Gh.miaow To Nsw Yoss.—The
sew mew stem ship City of Glugow soiled frost Olueow
ow Sticky, os her *woad hip to New York. The City
softies a full cargo of light voluble goods, sad all her bottle
an also taken op.