The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-08 00:00:00

The Chinese Customs' Establishment.

A report, which has been prepared by Mr. Hart, Inspec-
tor-General of Maritime Customs in China, gives an in-
teresting account of the origin and progress of a foreign
customs' establishment in China. Tho manner in which
native officials have been wont to transact customs' business
at the Chinese ports is this :—Chinoso vessels aro Fcensed
for the coasting trade, and the tariffs generally amount to
about 10 per cent., the customs duties of a port would bo
assigned to a person holding some other Government office
in the locality, and so farmed as to hold him responsible
for the collection of a specific amount, with liberty to re-
tain any surplus, but in the absence of a strict supervision,
or under an established official laxity, each subordinate
having to pay for his place, lies to his superior, and makes
as good a purse as he can for himself. The merchants have
to make the best bargain they can with the officials, and
Government do not get half the duties really paid. Now
in 1854, when Shanghai seemed virtually lost to the Im-
perial Government, inextricable confusion arose in relation
to the customs, and in fact the collection of duties passed
from the hands of the Chinese for a time. Spasmodic at-
tempts were once or twice made by an office that was very
insufficiently recognised, but ships constantly left the port
without paying a farthing of duties, the consuls taking
from the merchants bonds, which were considered of ques-
tpco i
hffioo
inwee afee,brtlosehfiv of foreigners representing the three treaty
customsETalnai dgo iul tayt
an.ed
sEventuallyFrance,
sr
hiet
00
upwle
dna se
be
ea r rp underaanc ge
de di
ut
its
hd
proper
inspection
inspectorate was in the first instance
insttahnecUellaitefodreSigtesGovern-
mental measure, which relieved consuls from the necessity
of undertaking responsibilities in regard to the clearance
of foreign ships, and protected honest merchants from the
uncontrolled acts of bad men, at the same time 'securing
the revenue for the Imperial Government. It became,
however, more and more a Chinese institution, and
when the treaties of Tien-tsin were concluded in 1858, it
was arranged, in order to insure uniformity of treatment
for the merchants at all the ports, to extend the scheme to
all the places opened to trade. Accordingly, the foreign in-
spectorate is now represented at 14 ports, and employs in
various capacities some 400 foreigners and about 1,000
wa :Po
ehiri a grown
whore
juniors accustomed
T h
The
on first Chinese. It met with much hostility from the old Execu-
tive, who saw in it an invincible obstacle to the "doctoring"
of accounts, and it was not altogether welcomed by many
inspectorate
nocturnal "running" of cargoes ; but opposition has gra-
dually died away. to compounding for duties and
hraasnadi study i
te sitsabnlCoi swh ih n inveeesry
ne
generally treated as a branch of the Chinese public ser-
vice, in preparation. for work at the appointmentpors
vice, and regarded as naturally growing out of the now re-
lations in which China finds herself through the treaties
entered into with foreign Powers. At each office there is
one inspector, or commissioner of customs, representing
the three treaty Powers, with assistants under him of
various nationalities ; at the head is an inspector-general,
appointed by the Chinese Foreign-office. This inspec-
torate has secured for the State funds never dreamt of
before, and substituted for corrupt and inefficient offices an
honest and effective revenue administration, placing all
and every trader upon the same footing. It has also as-
sisted the Chinese in fulfilling with advantage to them-
selves the obligations into which they entered by treaty,
with trade at more than a dozen ports, and firms numbered
by the hundred, an interdependency of obligations has
grown up which could only be met by the operation of such
a uniform and efficient system as the inspectorate. In fact,
without it the only resource would have been to do away with
import and export duties altogether, and then allow the
officials in the interior full swing for local taxation ; and
how that would have answered is easily guessed. Tho more
intimate nature of the relations into which the members of
the inspectorate have been brought with Chinese officials
conduces not a little to read those officials to understand
foreigners better, and to clear away much of the suspicion
and dislike with which they regarded them ; and thus the
tendency is to remove the position of foreigners from the
support on which it has hitherto been based— force and
might, and to place it on one that promises better for the
future, and which, though at first nothing more than a mere
alaffvdearali criosn'Tmset ration is making
ectorate, more perhaps than
itselfiatTnhs
hts erooe nuai tgfnueht to
atp;_tnrpheyroene3oace:
titxhati
oihtesinrrot
through
monnef gegoaahfstate
the
oednnoiooneet
sfss
there appear to be an tap
atyo,inthteimfoercehigannegre.
open-
ing for the introduction of sundry reforms and useful :does.
It is gradually leading the Chinese mind .a the direction of
properly salaried official establishments ; and any step in
that direction will go far to do away with the canker that
preys on the very vitals of the country, and the multitudi-
nous sufferings and malpractices that are its concomitants.
The inspectorate will have finished its work when it shall
have produced
reducpedlace it .
a e administration as honest and
efficient

PROFICIENCY IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.—The
usual donation of 800 rupees has been made to each of the
following junior civilians for having passed in two of the
vernacular languages of India within six months from the
date of their arrival in this country :—Messrs. Beachcroft,
Manson, Gordon, Gardiner, Fryer, and Thorburn. To Mr.
Stogdon the Governor-General has also granted a donation
of 800 rupees for having passed in two languages in four
months from the date of his arrival ; also a gold medal for
a certificate of high proficiency in the Urdoo language.—
Allen's radian Mail.