The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-21 00:00:00

which makes him collector. The latest instance of an appoint..
ment of this kind exhibits precisely that process. And it is a
curious fact, that there remains in the practice of these depart-
ments, with respect to the collectorship, no other vestige of the
resolution of the Irish House of Cormnons than this method of
evading it. For appointments to the other offices mentioned in
the resolution, it has been too much the practice to create quali-
fications in a manner similar; and when officers who have
really served in the departments are promoted from lower to
higher stations, we do not find that the selections have been
generally made upon the recommendation of the persons qua-
lified to judge of the merits of the parties, or of their preten-
sions on the ground of service. Where there is no strict rule
or definite mode prescribed for confining the promotion to that
principle, it naturally and almost unavoidably becomes the
subject of interests and considerations foreign to those of the
revenue service; and the higher ranks may be as inefficiently
filled by selections, so made, as by the introduction of persons
entirely new to the department.
That the offices of the. revenue should, under such a system,
be generally occupied by persons well qualified to discharge
their duties, is certainly not to be hoped for; nor would it
be more reasonable to expect that, witnout being so occupied,
the service for which they are established could be satisfacto-
rily and economically performed. The persons employed in
the two branches of the revenue now under our consideration
are necessarily a numerous body, and much dispersed, ex-
posed to great temptations, and so much out of the reach of
the immediate superintendence of the highest authorities over
them, that a well-regulated system of subordination, complete
and connected in all its parts, can alone ensure the activity and
integrity of each individual. The chief requisite in such a
system is, that the superior officers should have a thorough
knowledge, derived from practical experience, of the duties of
those under their controul ; without which they must rather de-
pend upon their inferiors for assistance, than be enabled to super- '
intend and check their Conduct. But this competency in the
superior officers, without a strict exclusion of persons who are
strangers to thedepartment from the higher appointments un-
der the board, and without a well-regulated scheme of promo-
tion in all the others, is obviously unattainable.
It is, however, our duty here to state, that many officers who
have become valuable acquisitions to the respective depart-
ments, have been appointed to the higher situations in the ells_
toms and Excise in Ireland, although their appointments have
taken place in the manner we have already described. But
even if the fullest security could be obtained for the constant
exercise of such a discrimination on the part of the government;
and if all the officers appointed could be equally well chosen,
the objections to the practice would still, in our judgment, be
Msurmountable.

The want of a due system of promotion (having reference only
to experience or merit) in such departments, operates very in-
juriously in two ways. In the first place, by filling the higher
situations with persons alike unqualified to execute their own
duties, and to superintend those of the officers under them ; and
in the next, by taking from those who occupy the lower, the
strongest and most effective incitement to activity and good con-
duct—the prospect of future advancement. Under such cir-
cumstances, the inferior officers can neither be encouraged by
the hope of reward, nor compelled by vigilant superintendence,
to perform their duties to the utmost of their ability. The na-
tural consequence is, in Ireland, what it would be every where—
a state of things such as we have described.
In the English Excise department, the regulations for pro-
motion of officers arc eminently calculated to ensure a succes-
sion of active and faithful servants • and these regulations being
strictly acted upon, the most beneficial results are exhibited, in
the superior efficiency and more economical management of
that department.
It is also to be observed, while there exists a power of intro-
ducing
persons into the higher offices of a revenue establish-
ment, who have not acquired experience in its lower stations,
there will be a difficulty in resisting the effect of influence in
the appointments, and a tendency to render these offices more
suited, in point of emolument, to persons of superior education
and habits of life—habits often ill adapted to the laborious at-
tention required in the performance of the duties annexed to
these situations. It will accordingly be found, as we have be-
fore remarked, that the principal officers of the Excise in Eng-
land are paid, in proportion to the duty and responsibility of
their offices, at rates considerably lower than officers of a simi-
lar rank and description in the revenue departments of Ireland,
and it seems to be illustrative of the principle to which we are
adverting, that a similar distinction exists between the higher
officers of the Excise and those of the Customs in England, in
which last mentioned department, previously to the recent re-
vision of it by the Commissioners especially appointed for that
purpose, the selection of persons to fill the higher offices under
the Board was not so restricted as to be made exclusively from
those who had acquired experience in the lower, had been re-
commended to them by their official services.
In suggesting a remedy for that defect in the English Cus-
toms, by the introduction of a well-regulated system of pro-
motion, the Commissioners of Inquiry appear to concur with
us in our opinion of the essential importance of such a system
to the effective and economical management of the Revenue ;
while the readiness with which those suggestions have been
adopted by your Lordships, and with which you have trans-
ferred from yourselves the unrestricted power of selecting of-
ficers for the superior situations in the Customs, affords a con-
clusive confirmation of the soundness of that opinion.
The effect of the incorporation of the boards would be to ex-
tend these wholesome regulations to Ireland, together with all
the rules and provisions by which both the Customs and Ex-
cise are now governed in England.
Before, however, a measure involving so extensive a change
is determined upon, it may naturally be an object of inquiry,
whether the improvements in point of economy, efficiency, and
uniformity, intended to be produced by that incorporation, may
not be attainable by merely reducing the number of Commis-
' sioners in the Irish and Scotch Boards, by diminishing the scale
of the establishments in Ireland, and by subjecting them strictly
to one common code of regulations, framed under the sanction of
the Treasury, and maintained by its constantly superintending
authority. We have fully considered this alternative ; and
we are satisfied, that white it would scarcely, if at all, be less
difficult of execution, its ad vantages would fall very far short of
those which a complete incorporation is calculated to produce.
We conceive that your Lord ships' Board is rather constituted
to administer a general authority over the revenue service, than
calculated to superintend the details of it in their execution ;
and therefore, that if you were to continue to govern the
Boards in Ireland and Scotlar d as distinct establishments, by
your own immediate directions, you would be under the ne-
cessity of placing so much reliance upon them, and of leaving
so much to their discretion in natters relating to the practical
management of their departments, that there would be no
security for continued uniformity between them, and not a
little danger (upon the grounds which we have already stated,
of the gradual recurrence of unnecessary expense. General
regulations, however carefully frarcied, and strictly prescribed,
are liable, in the hands of separate authorities, to be adminis-
tered with differences of constructivn and application, which,
although inconsiderable at first, insensibly lead to important
variations. We feel confident, thert•fore, that the uniformity
contemplated by Parliament cannot be secured permanently,
by merely introducing new regulationse for the Government of
the existing establishments ; and that while they continue in-
dependent of each other, the manageirsent of the revenue can
neither be reduced to the most economy cal scale of which it is
susceptible, nor be effectually secured against the disposition
to recur to superfluous expenditure.
If these views of the importance of a c omplete uniformity,
and the impracticability of preserving it otherwise than by an
,undivided authority in the management each branch of the
revenue, be correct, it must be evident they will be applicable
to the two separate Boards which exist in Scotland also, and
that the general plan of incorporation will nt,t be complete un-
less those Boards are likewise embraced in it.
The extension of the powers and duties of dais Commission to
the ievenue departments of Scotland has tali en place too re-
cently to admit of our having yet inquired full) into the details
of their establishments, or having had an op; ortunity of in-
specting them personally. We have, however, derived such
information respecting the general management c‘f the Customs
and Excise, the only branches of the Revenue in Scotland ad-
ministered by separate Boards, from the papers annexed to the
reports of the Commissioners for inquiring into the Ic.;ustoms and
Excise of England, and from the personal examivation of the
Chairman of the Excise in Scotland, that we feel fully warrant-
ed in making it a part of our general recommendatic n, that the
Boards of Scotland should be united in one Commi salon with
those of England and Ireland. Such an union, with respect to
the Customs in Scotland, appears to have been contemplated by
the Commissioners to whom we have alluded, from the pas-
sage which forms the cunclusion of their report upon that de-
partment.

peforewe proceed to explain the plan by which we are of
opinion that the Commis!ionera of Customs and Excise, btAll, of