The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

maximum salary of £lOO for the next eight or ten
years to come, with examples before them of men
having served twenty years before they obtained
£2OO a year ? Yet such are actually the facts of
the case.

It may be asked, however, how are these depart-
ments to be benefited P The proposition is to reform
the system altogether. Let there be a general
weeding of men, and curtailment of forms of proce-
dure. The evidence lately adduced before Mr.
HORSFALL'S Committee, and the petitions of the
clerks themselves, all point to the practisability of
such a scheme. It is the multiplicity of forms, and
the habit of keeping the accounts in duplicate
and triplicate, that are the barc3 of the Civil Ser-
vice. \Y, have always been advocates for the civil
anbeingfairly paid ; but we have, at the
same been desirous that he should work well,
servtit mes
and that his work when done should be useful to
the public.

It is to be hoped that a Committee will be
granted to examine into the mode of doing business
in the several departments of the Custom-house,
and which, after having simplified forms and ac-
separate the drones from the bees.
cThisou n tcourse awould enable the Government to give a
nigher remuneration to the clerks retained, and at
the same time render them better and more useful
servants of the Crown.

There are also other anomalies which at the same
time demand Some of the departments
requiretoattention.
be
re.classied.
The fiscal and statistical
offices which are now intermixed
and .placed under
offic)rs of opposite interests, would be batter sepa-
rated. The department of the Inspector-General
of Imports and Exports, which has nothing what-
ever to do with the collection of the revenue, and
which is wholly occupied in the preparation of sta-
tistics for the Treasury and the Board of Trade,
is, strange to say, still under the control and man-
agement of the Boarl of Customs. And
in the annual charge for the collection
of the revenue, its expenses are included
in one part of the account as a charge, and in an-
other part are deducted!

The anxiety and determination exhibited by the
clerks to bring about a reform in the system of
business at the Custom house, and to obtain for
themselves a proper remuneration for their services,
are deserving of success. And we cannot doubt but
that their exertions will result in the appointment
of a committee which will not stop in its investiga-
tions until it has simplified the public business of
this important branch of the civil service, and pro-
vided for the comfort anti well-being of the indus-
trious Custom-house clerks.

Lord Shaftesbury and General Garibaldi,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Having addressed to you a letter in which
I fully and accurately stated the history of my in-
tercourse with General Garibaldi, I had hoped that
no further observations would be necessary. But
I continue, to receive so many letters with, and
without, names on the subject, that I am compelled,
not only to re-assert my first statement, but to add
that no one of the charges made by the gentlemen
on Primrose-hill has, so far as lam concerned, a
shadow of foundation,—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, SHAFTESBURY.
May 18.