The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-22 00:00:00

duty. Now the original importer, who entered the goods
in the first -instance, was the only person knoWn to the
Crown as liable for the duty ; but goods were sold over and
over again without being taken out of bond, and it was a
very great hardship for the original proprietor, 10 or 20
years after he had sold the goods, and when they had
passed through several' hinds, and he had no cognisance
whether they were in existence, to be legally liable for the
duty if it should be found that a large portion of them had
been abstracted. The Government would therefore pro-
pose that when the importer should part with his goods
they might be re-entered in the name of the purchaser,
and weighed or gauged, and the original importer should
be no longer liable for the duty except on any deficiency
during the time the goods had been his, any such small
amount of duty to be paid at once. (Hear.) Further, the
Custom-house was to be obliged to take complete stock
every five years. (Hear, hear.) It would not be an entire
stock-taking of all goods in warehouse at one time, but it
would be going on from day to day, and every day, be-
cause it would be taking stock of all the goods which on
that day had been entered five years, so that the process
would be going on gradually. (Hear, hear.) The great
bulk of goods were cleared in less than five years. (Hear.)
Upon such stock-taking, the duty upon any deficiency be-
yond what was allowed by law would be paid, and there
would be a re-entry, from time to time, as if there was a
fresh importation. This would provide against the hard-
ship of calling upon persons to pay the duty upon goods
many years after they had parted with their interest in
them, and also of persons inadvertently selling goods in
the quantity of which there had been a material alteration,
through accident, or leakage, or fraud. [Mr. Mitchell—
Do you mean that there is to be a fresh entry on every
transfer ?"] The seller would be at liberty, if he chose (it
would not be compulsory) to re-enter the goods in the
name of the buyer at the time of the sale, transferring the
liability when he transferred the property. [Mr. Mitchell—
" Accompanied by weighing ?"] As to weighing and meas-
uring that was done at present ; it was necessary for making
out your invoice. [A Member—" Oh, no."] In the case
of some goods you would take the entry, but with the more
valuable goods you would take reweight or remeasurement.
However, that was a matter for arrangement between the
buyer and seller ; but if the seller failed to take advantage
of that security to himself, he must not complain that he
had to pay duty to which he was not liable, since he did
not take the means to get rid of the liability. (Hear.)
With regard to takinc, stock, that was a suggestion of
the cbmmittee:. It had been thought that the merchants
might find it caused a great deal of trouble. If they found
it troublesome, the Customs had no particular reason for
persevering in it ;. but they were willing, as far as they
were concerned, to make trial of it. Further ; at pre-
sent there were three distinct classes of warehouses—ware-
houses of special security ; warehouses of ordinary security
where the warehouseman gave bond and not the merchant;
and warehouses of ordinary security, where the individual
merchant gave bond and not •the warehouseman. The Go-
vernment thought these distinctionslunnecessary and absurd,
and they had to propose that all wami..a,...es should be of
one class. The multiplication of bonds-was an-evil, and it
was therefore proposed that there should not be a bond
from the merchant in each case ;"no merchant would have
to give any bond at all, but in all cases (as at present in
the second class of cases just mentioned) the warehouse-
keeper would give bond in a moderate amount, and he
would be responsible to the Crown for the small deficien-
cies more than the leakage allowed, as he was responsible
to his customer for safe custody of his goods. [Mr.
Mitchell.—" Do you propose any alteration with regard to
the removal 'of goods from one floor to another ?'] The
practice at present coincided with the recommendation of
the committee. They recommended delivery orders,'but a
book that was kept answered all purposes. (Hear.) The
next subject was that of passengers luggage. The com-
mittee recommended the examination of all the luggage on
board. He (Mr. Wilson) had taken a great deal of pains
upon' this •subject; and arrangements had `already been
made which might be regarded as an earnest of the desire
there was to give every facility and accommodation to pas-
sengers. (Hear.) With regard to Liverpool, passengers
arriving from North America had their luggage examined
on beard already ; but the case of vessels of that size, with
a great deal of room on deck, and comparatively few pas-
sengers, was very different froM that of short steamers
running up the 'Thames at every hour. The only place on
the continent where he had found the luggage exaimined
on board was Antwerp, and gentlemen who were in a hurry
to get a glimpse •of the Rhine might think it a very great
accommodation, and contrast it with what they might deem
our clumsy method. • But there was a dark side as well as
a bright one in these cases. He had more than once ar-
rived at Antwerp when it was wet, and found it most in-
convenient that the luggage was to be examined on deck in
the pouring rain. After experience of both he was rather
disposed to think the English plan the better of the two.
The steamers on the Thames arrived at all hours, and some
of the vessels were very small. Suppose the only examina-
tion was to be on board—and you could not have both
plans—the steam-boat proprietors would not go to the
unlessea-
extent,
r practice
wpeanssteoobf
be.
dngo
excep-
tionalnetxatomainooinngs-
cases they would not provide rooms. You must have
the one plan or the other. But passengers would not much
like to be roused in the night, in the winter, to have their
luggage examined between Gravesend and London. At
examining-rooms,
the same time, it was hard that a man should be hindered
from catching the first train, and perhaps detained over
Sunday. The Government proposed to take a middle
course, and to arrange that passengers having not more
than two packages might have them examined between
Gravesend and London if they pleased, and passengers hav-
ing more might have at least a carpet-beg examined, but if
they contained any article liable to duty, they must go to
the Custom-house ; and where there was a large quantity
of luggage the present course would be pursued with re-
gard
oa cy b
n 1
don, e
eann Ind
instructionsade nhiagdhtbeternaiginv,
ofnorfoerxeavmierynaftaoioinlitiyn
to it. , With regard to Dover, arrangements had al-
that was possible. (Hear, hear.) The next subject was
the hours of attendance. The committee thought 'the
hours might be from 7 to 5 during the six summer months
in the out-door department, subject to a break in the
middle of the day, and for in-doors from 8 to 4, a clerk
remaining till Bto clear out ships. A few years ago a gene-
ral regulation was made with regard to attendance at all
the Custom-houses, but it was found that the circumstances
and the business varied so much that one rule could
not be applied to all ports'. In Hull, for example, tee
men were at work in summer from six o'clock to six,
with an interval for breakfast and dinner ; but then
they lived close to their work, and the inconvenience of
those intervals was very trifling. In Liverpool the officers
lived at a greater distance, and a different arrangement was
made, and so in London ; but special arrangements were
made from time to time to suit the convenience of parti-
cular trades. The Commissioners of Customs had consulted
the dock authorittes upon the subject, because the circum
stances of the docks and Customs were very much the same
to the extent of a large class of deck business ; and the
London Dock Company stated, through their secretary,
that in their judgment the present hours were adequate for
the purposes of business. On aparticular emergency there
was always an extension of the hours. If the attendance
was lengthened, the men in Liverpool and London must
either take a long interval in the middle of the day to go to
their homes at a distance, or they must resort to taverns,
which it was not desirable for officers to do. But direc-

tions had been given that every possible facility should be
afforded, and especially where merchants were willing to
pay for the expense of attendance for extra time ; and ar-
rangements had been made, whereby vessels could be
cleared "out to a much later hour than heretofore. The
hours could not be extendedin the indiscriminate way that
was recomme,o4 Withoiltain addition to the salaries of a
large !limber of men • there were upwards of 10,000 per-
sons in the employment of the Customs. (Hear.) The
next topic—the most important of this whole range of to-
pics—was the simplification of entries of free goods. It had
been supposed that the repeal of Customs duties must
cause a great saving in the transaction of Customs and
Excise dnties. When the soap
,duties should be repealed
there would be no more Occasion for the offioers connected
withthat department than if the duties had never existed;
so with all Excise duties, and it was almost acanon in fiscal
regulations that when you touched an Excise duty you
should remove it altogether. (Hear, hear.) But, in the
case of Customs' duties you must remember thatfree goods
might be made the medium of smuggling. The committee
had recommended " that the ship's manifest and the report
of her consignee be the sole entry required in the case of
free goods, and' that a copy of them be sent to the landing-
waiter as his warrant"- But ft bale professing to contain
one thing might be the medium of conveying another ; a
barrel of potatoes might have tobacco in the middle of it.
A ship's 'manifest, which was but a list of the cargo, told
nothing, unless what 'it 'consisted of was stated ; there
might be a mixed cargo; and a number of packages consigned
to order, and . entered -" contents unknown ;"
and, if the
thing was discovered, no person came for Ward to own them.
To show the great danger that would be incurred by such a
regulation, he should, with permission of the house, describe
a fezcases in which smuggling had been attempted on an
extensive scale. A short time ago a large importation took
place into London- of oir-seed cake—an article duty free.
It was imported in open baskets from Belgium. A Custom-
house officer (a judge of oil-cake), happened to pick up a
piece. Smelling it made him sneeze ver' much ; and, on
examining it, he found that it consisted of compressed
snuff in- the - centre, with two cakes of oil-cake on either
side. The agent came forward and gave the-name of the
owner who had employed him, and stated that another
quantity of the same article had been passed at another
wharf. What came -Of that ?56 cwt. of oil-cake and 52
cwt. of snuff, on which the duty:was 1,6664. There was a
case at Leith, in which the bill of lading was made out
in the name of Long—no Finch person being known—and in
which the Custom house officer, having received informa-
tion found a large quantity 'of tobacco at the bottom of 5
casks of potatoes. It. was asked what reward would be
given for information on the transaction ; and.for some re-
ward which was offered the person who had not succeeded
in making a large sum by Smuggling gave information to
the Custom-house officers' which led them to discover an
extensive syatem of fraud. The Government felt the neces-
sity of giving every facility for the admission of goods, but
would not extend that facility so is to endanger the re-
venue and the interestsof the fair trader. Ostend butter
had become a favourite article of import. The anxiety to
get it to market was met by every facility. A number of
cases of Ostend butter were landed from a steamer a few
daysi ago: The rolls were not weighed, but counted ; and
an officer with a piece of clean wire probed a roll, which he
found to contain something hard. Each had in it a tin
such as that he had in Jiis hand (the hon. member held up
one of them) full of tobacco, the duty on which for each
case.was 201. At Liverpool. 32 tierces or hogsheads of pro-
visiOns arrived in an -American ship. The dock company,
finding the goods in their way, cleared them. When the
tierces were examined one tumbled to pieces, and out came
a large quantity of 'tobacco. The owner never appeared ,• if
those tierces had' passed, he could have produced his bill of
lading, and claimed the goods. 'At Glasgow, a short time
ago,'l2o barrels of rosin were landed. The rosin, which
was 'run into barrels in a liquid state, and congealed, was
brought in a solid form to this country, where the barrels
were examined by one in ten being cut in two ; 120 barrels
were passed ; but from an intimation which was given to
the .Custom-heuse officers they were led to follow the
goods ; and they, found that, out of the 120 barrels, to-
bacco enough chute to yield duties amounting to 501/. A
large steamer arrived in the river iu September last with
what purported to be rapeseed oil, which was passing as
free goods, when one piece of a cask came out, and be-
tween the oil and the outside it was found that there was
a space all round stuffed with tobacco. The duty on the
tobacco seized was no less than 1,5001. There was another
case of smriggling to which he wished to advert. The City
of Bolougne had arrived from Boulogne in the Thames
some two months ago, au officer, going into the chief-
mate's room, found the chief-mate dressing, and said,
Vhose
oand
t. boots h
e are
was
"TihnetYO are mine,' replied the
matethem found 40 watches
in he;
putting on an article of dress
bot The
officermot nelooking
for suspending itfrom the neck.)
a bag, with a, string
who might ht wear it, having When a person landed mg
capable of holding a great many watches. (lt seemed to be
ld b d e
appa-
rently good large chest, there won ean e o
necessary to advert, and the more so as it had
it was
at-
tracted a great deal- of notice, 'as it was a case in which a
matter. There was a case of a very serious nature n to which
P
art of the public press had been imposed on, and also as

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