The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-10 00:00:00

REFORM OF THE CUSTOMS.

Yesterday a numerous and highly respectable de-
putation, appointed by a public meeting held on the
31 instant, for the purpose of effecting a reform of the
Board of Customs, had an interview with Lord John
Russell at the Treasury. The following gentlemen
were present on the occasion :—Mr. Masterman, M.P.,
Baron Lionel Rothschild, M.P., Sir J. Duke, Bat,
M.P., Alderman Thompson, M.P., Mr. James Clay,
M.P., Mr. Matthew Forster, M.P., Alderman Hum-
phery, M.P., Mr. John M'Gregor, M.P., Mr. T. A.
Mitchell,lM.P., Mr. Archibald Hestia, M.P., Mr.
George Sanders, M.P., Mr. John Sadlier, M.P., Al-
derman Salomons, M.P., Mr. W. Williams, M.P.,
Mr. Adamson (a deputation from Aberdeen), Mr.
Travers, Mr. R. W. Crawford, Mr. J. D. Powles,
Mr. J. P. Gassiot, Mr. Frederick Charles Huth, Mr.
Thomas Tooke, sen., Mr. Thome Tooke, jun., Mr.
C. Marryat, Mr. R. Hutchinson, Mr. W. J. Hall,
Mr. Benjamin B. Greene, Mr. Matthew Clark, Mr.
W. S. Lindsay. Mr. William Wallace, Mr. Frederick
Pattison, Mr. W. Hawes, Mr. J. Forster, Mr. A.
Crowe, Mr. W. Pye, Mr. P. Dickson, Mr. R. Har-
rison, Mr. H. L. Morgan, Mr. J. Dillon,, Mr. A.
Caldecott, Mr. A. Bosanquet, Mr. T. Naghten, Mr.
J. J. D.:Allcroft, Mr. F. Pegler, Mr. J. Sim, Mr. B.
Lancaster, Mr. W. H. Schneider; Mr. Sandeman,
Mr. A. de Arroyave, Mr. H. Watson Mr. W. Greg-
son, Mr. 4. G. Frith, Mr. C. Paris, Mr. S. Hanson,
Mr. R. J. Bagshaw, Mr. E. Burmester, Mr. T. Bux-
ton, Mr. Peel, Mr. J. Walker, stid...Mr. G. Hurry.
At one o'clock the, deputatembled at the
Treasury, and were received by Lord J. Russell and
Earl Granville.
Mr. MASTEEMAN, addressing the Noble Lords,
observed, that the present interview had been sought
for in consequence of certain resolutions adopted at a
public meeting held in the city of London in the
course of last week. He had had the honour to pre-
side over that meeting, and he thought he had never
witnessed a more numerous or a more respectable as-
sembly. Nothing like political feeling intermingled
in the proceedings ; the gentlemen present had long
considered the great grievances suffered by merchants
through the course pursued by the Customs Board,
and had long wished for an alteration in some way, but
the recent proceedings against the dock companies had
rendered that feeling more intense ; for, when public
bodies could be so attacked, ikmade individuals fear that
attacks would be made:on them. The deputation had
not sought the present interview with the view of
dictating any (particular measure to his Lordship
(Lord John Russell), though his Lordship was aware
of a report which had been adopted at a recent meet-
ing in the city. How far that might meet his Lord-
ship's views it was not for him to say; but the main
point they had now to urge was that some change
should take place, and that an assurance might be
given that the Select Committee on Customs of last
year would be re-appointed.--(Hear, hear.)
Mr. TRAVERS, the chairman of the deputation, then
read the following paper, entitled,
" REPRESENTATION TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN
RUSSELL, FIRST LORD OF HER MAJESTY'S TREA-
SURY, AND MEMBER FOR THE CITY OF LONDON,
BY THE DEPUTATION, APPOINTED AT A PUBLIC
MEETING FOR REFORM OF THE CUSTOMS, HELD AT
THE LONDON TAVERN, DEC. 3, 1351.
" The report and resolutions unanimously adopted at
the public meeting from which this deputation derives
its authority have been already laid !before your Lord-
ship, and explain the reasons which have induced us to
solicit the favour of this interview.

" Whether for the purpose of further inquiry into the
abuses and inefficiency of the Customs' department of
the public service, or of proceeding at once to the recom-
mendation of complete remedial measures, the deputation
have been commissioned to express the earnest desire of
the commercial classes that the Select Committee of last
session on the Customs should be reappointed at the
earliest period after the reassembling of Parliament; and
explicitly to ascertain the intentions of Government on

this subject. We, therefore, take leave to solicit the
favour of an intimation of your Lordship's determination
in reference to the re-appointment of the Select Com-
mittee.

" The deputation would be well contented here to
close their duties. But they have been charged with a
further commission, which, although, as involving re-
flections on individuals, they should have been glad to
be relieved from the painful necessity of fulfilling, they
regard as not less imperative upon them than important
in its own results.

" Wo have been desired emphatically to express the
great dissatisfaction experienced_ byffin mercantile body
with that department of your Blip'sboW Goternment
which directs the administration of the Custom-house
system.
"When the merchant complains to the officers charged
with the collection of foreign revenue of irksome re-
strictions, useless forms, improper detentions, or unjust
seizures, the latter plead in justification of their acts a
Board's order, or the letter of the law. When the party
aggrieved appeals to the Board, that tribunal refers to
the obligation of the Acts of Parliament as its warrant,
or to the want of power to dispense with the requisitions
of statutes, the provisions of the tariff, or the absence of
a discretionary faculty as its excuse, and throws the
responsibility on the Treasury, as the sole depository of
discretionary powers in the last resort to grant dispen-
sations from obviously unjust regulations, or oppressive
applications of the law.
" The public are thus induced to regard the Govern-
ment as ultimately responsible for the abuses of which
they complain, either by a misapplication of the powers
it possesses, or by neglecting to apply to Parliament
for the ability to introduce such reforms as it never re-
fuses to the reasonable representations of an Adminis-
tration in which it reposes confidence.
"Regarding the Treasury as the head of the whole
revenue branch of the public service, we are instructed
to charge it upon that department—
" 1. That the:Board of Customs, of which it is, or ought
to be, the master, is generally inefficient and incompe-
tent; and that it has been suffered to regulate its own
time and attendance on its public duties, and to neglect
the recommendations of successive Commissions, and
even the instructions of the Treasury.
"2. That no improvement has been adopted in the
system of appointments, either of commissioners or in-
ferior officers, so as to secure to the public the benefits
of a competent administration of the system.
"3. That the Commissioners are inaccessible, their
proceedings conducted in secret, the official represents-
Cons on which they decide concealed from the parties
they affect, and that their acts are therefore altogether
removed from accountability to the public.
" 4. That their responsibility even to their superiors
is rendered practically a dead letter, inasmuch as an
appeal from the Board results only in a reference to the
sruebmstoavnetiathile
very tribunal from whose decision the appeal is made.
" 5. That the very fact of the co-existence of a Trea-
sury Commission and Parliamentary Committee to in-
quiree el' mn into
andt
is
acknowledged abuses of the
dan evidence of the general
conviction of the necessity of delegating to other
parties the duties which properly devolve on the Trea-
sury, and of interposing to exercise its functions to avert
the consequences of its neglect, or to remove complaints
which are caused solely by the want of a proper super-
vision of its officers. On referring to the twelve heads
of measures of reform suggested in the report adopted
by the public meeting, it may
be seen that many of them
might have been carried into effect by the simple execu-
tion of the authority of the Treasury; and that, with
regard to such as required the interposition of Parlia-
ment, to that department of the Government must be
attributed the omission or refusal to propose the neces-
sary measure for affecting the desired alteration.
lid;" 6. While many examples have been forwarded to the
Committee, duly authenticated, of gross maladministra-
tion of the Customs' Department, the deputation confine
themselves to circumstances judicially recorded or re-
ported to the Legislature, and therefore known to your
Lordship, for the justification of the public meeting in
committing to this deputation the painful duty they now
discharge. From the proceedings connected with the
prosecutions at the instance of the Crown against the
London and St. Katherine Dock Companies, the follow-
ing conclusions are but too plainly deducible :
" 1. That if the acts charged against these companies
have been illegal, indictable, and fraudulent, they have
been practised for many years with the sanction and
concurrence of that Board which now charges these acts
upon them as highly penal offences.
"2. That if the 'nominal fines' accepted by Govern-
ment as a compromise satisfy the justice of the ease
against the Dock Companies, the prosecutions were
totally without excuse; while if the counts of the indict-
ments, and especially the charge of the then Solicitor-
General, were true, the withdrawal of the several pro-
secutions cannot easily be distinguished from compound-
ing of felony.
" 3. That the attempt of tho solicitor of the Customs
to withhold from the accused before trial all information
of the particulars of the offences charged against them,
which brought down upon the prosecutors the marked
animadversion of the Court of Exchequer, and the sub-
sequent endeavour to ignore the judicatory chosen by the
for a new trial, are signal examples of abuse of powers,
and perversions of the first principles of justice for
exigency could afford even a
Crown, and to heap coats on the defendants by moving
feeble palliation.
e 0 and clearest duty of
"4, That while the first ~..s..
and respect our great na-
tional Government i to support
which no plea of public
in-
temperate language by which the London Dock Com-
pany has been assailed by the public officers were cal-
institutions, the unmeasured accusations and
culated to create the utmost alarm among our foreign
abroad of the character
to affect
of our merchants, and materiallyour commerce;
consignors for the safety of their property, to degrade
the high estimation entertained
to have
been not merely untrue, but without reasonable while the charge of the Chief Baron, and the verdict of
jury, have proved such charges so expressed
justifi-
cation.

" 5. That the means adopted to compel the submission
and consummate the humiliation of the Dock Companies
have been even more discreditable than the end; having
been pursued by secretly taking the servants of the