The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-28 00:00:00

the changes in the present practice which will then take
place should he clearly stated, my lords proceed to indi-
cate the same.

" 1. AS REGARDS THE MERCHANT PAYING DIITIF S.
" In place of requiring; to send notes and coin for the
amount of the duties to be paid, the merchant may send
his own ordinary check upon any one of the bankers
whose names are included in the list attached to the
minute of the 4th of August, and who shall, before the
11th of October, express his willingness to comply with
the regulations therein.
" It will, however, be required that all checks shall
be crossed by the merchants with the words Bank of
England for Customs' duties,' legibly written upon them,
in order that it may be impossible that such checks can
be applied to any other purpose ; and it is suggested
that those words should be impressed in large letters
with a stamp, for the purpose of more clearly exhibiting
the specific use for which they are to be dealt with
throughout.
" -Merchants will bear in mind that all checks which
are paid up to each even hour during the day (from 9
till 3 inclusive) will be sent out at that hour, and that
checks received at any time after the even hour will not
be sent out until the next hour. But as soon as the
checks are received at the Custom-house, all the usual
entries will immediately proceed in the same way as if
the duties had been paid in cash, with a view to the
clearance of the goods.
"For the purpose, however, of further facilitating the
progress of the clearance of the goods for delivery, and
in order that no time shall be lost, the merchant will be
required, in addition to the ordinary document called an
entry or warrant,' upon. which the clearance now pro-
ceeds, to deliver therewith another document containing
a short abstract of the contents of the entry or war-
rant,' and which will be termed a discharge bill.' As
an example, the following is a usual 'entry or warrant'
now in use :

WEST INDIA DOCKS.
' Wellington.' Johnson ® Matanzas.
British ship. Home Consumption.
RUCK= AND CO.
JJ T 100 boxes. Five hundred boxes.
P Y C 150 boxes.
LR 0 150 boxes. One thousand eight hundred and
J V Y 100 boxes, fifty-three hundredweight, two
quarters, and fourteen pounds
Half-past Brown Clayed Sugar, not being
12, equal in quality to White
13 Sept. Clayed, the growth and pro-
-1854. duce of and imported from
Matanzas.
Warehoused by C. Smith, 10th August, 1854.
(104) £1,112 3s. 6d.
Duty not paid.
11th October, 1854."

" With this ordinary document must be delivered a
discharge of which the following would be the
proper form :

" WEST INDIA DOCKS.

Discharge Bill,
Wellington.' Johnson et, Matanzas.
RUCIUR AND CO.

Cwt. qrs. lb.
ZOO Boxes 1,853 2 14 Brown Clayed Sugar.

£1,112 3s. 6d.

Two o'clock,
13 Sept., (104)
1854. Duty paid.
" 11th October, 1854."
—the latter document being a short abstract of the for
mer.

" In the event of all the entries in the Long-room
beirg completed before the collecting clerk had returned,
the first document (the entry or warrant') will be de-
spatched to the delivery department, in order that the
necessary preparations may be made for the actual deli-
very of the gcods. This document will go from the
Customs marked Duty not paid.' As soon as the
clerk shall have returned, the discharge bill' will then
be forwarded to the delivery department, with the words
Duty paid' imprinted thereon. In the event of the
collecting clerk returning before the entries are all com-
plete in the Long-room, which win usually be the case,
both documents will he sent together to the delivery de-
partment, and in any cae as soon as the discharge
bill' has been received the goods will be delivered.
" The only additional duty, therefore, which will de-
volve upon the merchant will be to snake out and present
with the entry or warrant' the bill of discharge,' in lieu
of all the trouble, time, and risk which at present attend
the obtaining of notes and coin, and sending the same to
the Custom-house.

" 2. AS REGARDS THE FORM OF BUSINESS AT THE CUSTOM-

HOUSE.
"At the same stage of the entry of goods at which
money for the amount of duties is now received, checks
for the same, drawn upon any of the banking-houses in the
list furnished which shall have complied with the terms
of this minute, will be taken. At each hour, from 9
to 3 o'clock inclusive, a list will be made of all the checks
received in the preceding hour, classified according to
the banks upon which they are drawn, in such a form as
to show the total amount upon each bank, and the
aggregate amount of the whole, each check having pre-
viously been stamped with legible words, Received for
Customs' duties, the day of , 1854.'
" The collecting clerk will then be immediately de-
spatched to the various banks upon which the checks
are drawn. At each bank the checks will either be
endorsed in such a form as shall entitle the Bank of
England to pass them as cash to the credit of the Cus-
toms, or a transfer order will be received from the
private banks for the full amount of the checks
upon it, which will authorise the Bank of England to
transfer the amount from the amount of such bank
to the Customs' account. The clerk will then pro-
ceed to the Bank of England, and obtain an acknow-
ledgment attached to the list originally furnished of the
amount received by the tank to the credit of the Cus-
toms, with which be will return immediately to the
Custom-house. In the event of any check not being
paid, the same will he erased from the list at the Bank,
the amount for which the receipt is given reduced ac•
cordingly, and such unpaid checks will be returned to
the Custom-house.

" In the meantime, the entries at the Custom-house
will have been proceeding as usual ; and, if they are
are completed in the Long-room before the return of the
cellecting clerk-, the entry or warrant' will be des-
patched to the delivery department, but marked ' Duty
itot paid,' in order that the documents for the delivery
of the goods may be prepared ; and as soon as the clerk
shall have retumed with the certificate that the checks
are paid, the discharge bill,' with the words Duty
paid,' in red ink, legibly stamped thereon, shall issue.
In the event of the clerk being back in time, both those
documents so marked shall be sent together to the deli-
very department.

In all other respects the business will proceed as at
present.

' Al REGARDS THE BANKING-HOUSES UPON WHICH

CHECKS WILL BS RECEIVED.
" It will only be necessary that they shall appoint an
officer to whom the Customs' collecting clerk can apply
at once, without being subject to delay (regularity and
despatch being essential to the plan), who will be au-
thorised either to mark the cheeks produced in f-uch a
way as will entitle the Bank of England to treat them as
money, or who shall furnish to the Customs' clerks a
transfer order upon the Bank of England for the full
amount of the checks presented. Each bank may eliclt
either of the plans mentioned, but in each case to be uni-
formly acted upon.

" 4. AS REGARDS THE BANK' OF ENGLAND.
" The only duty which will devolve upon the Bank
will be to receive the payments from the collecting clerks,
and sign the lists, as certifying the receipt on behalf of
the Customs of the amounts named therein.
" 3. By this machinery their Lordships hope that they
will thus materially abridge the labour and risk imposed
upon merchants in the present mode of paying duties ;
effect a considerable economy in the circulation, as well
as in the stocks, of bank notes necessarily held by bankers
and render unnecessary the present practice of sending a
Bank clerk to the Custom-house each day for the pur-
pose of cancelling and destroying all the notes received
on such day ; and thus bring the operation of Customs'
payments into strict harmony with the modern practice
of trade, by which much economy of time and money is
eff cted. At the same time they entertain a hope that
these advantages will be obtained at little or no addi-
tional cost to the department of Customs.
" 4. Their lordships, however, do not wish it to he
understood that the introduction of this plan—which
will, no doubt, on account of the great convenience
which it will afford, be generally adopted—will prevent
persons who may still prefer to do so, from paying their
duties in cash as at present.
" Transmit a copy of this minute to the Commissioners
of Customs, and request that steps may be taken forth-
with, with a view to the introduction of this system
on the 11th of October next.

" Transmit a copy of this minute to the Bank of Eng-
land for their information, and to each of the banking
firms named in the list attached to the minute of the 4th
of August, and request that they will intimate, by; letter,
to the Commissioners of Customs, their readiness to
comply with the provisions contained in this minute so
far as they are concerned, in order that theirnames
may he placed upon the list of bankers upon. whom
clo,cks will he received for the payment of duties.

" JAMES WM

ION."

•
EXTRAORDINARY DEATH.—Mr. Davis held an Inquest
en the 23d instant, at Knockmoles, near Swords, Icounty
Dublin, on the body of a man named Patrick Sherlock,
who, unhappily, came by his death under the following
circumstances appeared that some days bef‘re thea
deceased and a man named Patrick Falkner were Plough-
ing together, when the latter offered playfully to make
it wager of a halfpenny that he would fasten Sherlock's
b-hind his hack without a string, and put iiin in
andt that he could not get out. When the patties
t:°,:_"?; heailaud, Sherlock accepted the wager, and
1. halfpence were thrown upon tho ground. Sherlock
then got :int.haan,ciircle which was marked on the ground,
at,d pot hi,- s behind Lis back, when Falkner caught
his thumbs hi hi,.
:nth, F4O as to prevent his getting out,
y a rp
tims, btibbre
getting f„,, howevewrinning the wager. Sherlock, on
asit?oped for the money,: when
touching
ttuhehis knee in play, threw him
upon his bead, injuring ap.i.ne, and causing instant
paralysis of the entire frame..
in a
fet
dwaas brought to Rich-
mond Hospital, and died
found a verdiycts.that he had acci-
dentally jury, after
hearing the evidence,
met with his death whileplaying ,
with aikner.
—Dublin Express.
Rocs LIFE COMPANY.—A meeting of the Rook Life
Company yesterday attracted attention, in consequence
of its being for a septennial division of profits and the
large amount of property thus to be dealt with' The
assets of the company were stated at 2,207,734 and
the liabilitiesat 1, 575, 666/., leavinga surplus sof 7.32i071/
out of whieh a bonus of 609,7611. was declared:---one-
third in additional stock to the shareholders, and two.
thirds in an increase of the policies of the assured.