The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

infaltivx

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1844.

'The great meeting at Alloway Kirk, to honour the
Inenwry of BURNS, deserves a few brief remarks. It
was honourable to the people of the United Kingdom,
for men, and women too, from England and Ireland,
were present to celebrate this great national tribute
to the most remarkable poet of modern times. There
could not be a better proof of the irresistible force of
genius, than the fact that a peasant wrote songs in
what has been called the Doric tongue, but unintel-
ligible to Englishmen and Irishmen, and in time they
were compelled, by the beauty and vigour of his
poetry, to learn the barbarous language, and sing his
divine airs with all the enthusiasm of nationality. No
man ever wrote so many songs destined to immor-
tality, and if,we except the beautiful odes of HoaAcs,
none have been so generally diffused over the habit-
able globe. In India, America, in nearly all the
islands of the ocean, and now even in China, the
songs of BURNS form a necessary accompaniment of
every festival, and the "Banks and Braes of Bonny
boon," " Highland Mary," and " Scots NNla hae
wi' Wallace bled," are as well known and as much
admired as on the banks of Ayr. Such a man was
worthy of a nation's gratitude, and nobly was the
tribute paid. The crowds who thronged to celebrate
the festival far exceeded expectation ; and at the head
a them was appropriately placed a chief whose family
sold domains BURNS has rendered immortal. None
could be better fitted for the chair than the proprietor
of the " Castle of Montgomery," and in justice to
nobility, no one performed his part better than the
Earl of EGLINTON. His speech was by far
the best that was made on the occasion.
It contained notning extraneous. It was all directed
to the main object of the day. It glowed with pa-
triotic feeling, and embodied sentiments which will
only make the world regret that present heir to
that illuArious family did not live in the time of

BURNS, to screen him, as he would willingly have I
done, from the pangs of poverty, and rescue Scotland
from the disgrace of allowing the first poet of the age
to pass his latter days in an ignoble employment.
The speech of Lord EGLINTON was all good, but
the following passages deserve particular notice,
and will thrill the heart of every Scotchman :
"Oh that he could have foreseen the futurity of
fame created for him this day, when the poet and the
historian,
,the peer and the peasant, vie with each
other in paying their tribute of admiration to the
humble but mighty genius of him whom we hail as
the first of Scottish poets. Such a foresight might
have alleviated the dreary hours of his sojourn at
Rlossgiel —might have lightened the dark days of his
pilgrimage on earth. Well does he deserve our
homage who has portrayed the Tottar's Saturday
Wight,' not in strains of inconsiderate mirth, but in
solemnity and truth, who breathed the patriotic
words that tell of the glories of our Wallace, immor-
talising alike the poet and the hero ; he who
could draw inspiration from the humble daisy,
breathed forth the heroic words of The Song of
Death,' strains, the incarnation of poetry and love,
and yet of the bitterest shafts of satire and ridicule
—obeying but the hand of nature, despising all the
rules of art, yet trampling over the very rules he set
at nought. At his name every Scottish heart beats
high. He has become a household word alike in the
palace and the cottage." These sentiments, though
expressed in glowing language, are only matters of
fact, but they do not come up to the truth. The
words of BURNS make every Scottish heart, it is
true, heat high ; but what heart do they not move ?
His words are sung on the banks of the Ganges, of
the Indus, and the Mississippi ; his fame has extended
over the world, and his songs of liberty hold out
hopes even to the most wretched slave. Scotland
may well be proud of a " ploughman" who has
spread her fame far and wide, and made a rude and
uncultivated language familiar to every civilised
nation.

Returning to the " Report of the Commissioners of
Revenue Inquiry," to which we directed public at-
tention on Saturday last, we shall again address our-
selves to some of its more remarkable features. We
have no doubt that all who have perused the "report"
itself, will have arrived at the same conclusion with
ourselves ; namely, that for many years past the
revenue of customs has been annually defrauded of
hundreds of thousands of pounds, through the com-
bination or conspiracy of certain officers of the Crown
this department of its service, with private
importers or their agents. It is to be ob-
served that whatever the meagre extent of the
knowledge which the public, as yet, possesses of the
evidence which has been takea by three examining
parties—(namely, the Board of Customs itself—sub-
ordinate officers, under them, delegated to conduct
particular investigations and to report the results
thereof to that Board ;—and this Commission of
Revenue Inquiry)—that evidence clearly implicates
to a vaguely surmised, but formidable extent, many
parties who had not yet been subjected to interroga-
tion, and many more who have been dismissed some
time since, but against whom the witnesses produced
before the Commisioners of Inquiry seem to be
capable of affording cumulative evidence.
The Commissioners of Inquiry after setting forth their
desire "to inquire r urther into the manner of conduct-
ing that part of the business of the Customs more im-
mediately in connexion with the two first heads of
fraud, which are therein described, and which is con-
ducted by the Searchers' Department,' " remark
that their previous Report (of 22d May last) was de-
voted exclusively to the subject of fraudulent impor-
tations of silk, lace, gloves, and fancy goods. It is a
melancholy confession which they are called upon to
make—that sufficient disclosures had been already
made to them, to prove that paid officers of the Go
vernment had been easily induced to facili-
tate the designs of the fraudulent trader in
his attempts to cheat the Revenue, "by
every mode of deceit, and every description
of falsehood." The Commission were forced, " very
early in their inquiries, to feel a distrust of the in-
tegrity of the officers and of the efficiency of the
system. The previous high character and estima-
tion of an officer appeared to be no guarantee for his
honour and integrity." They had ample reason to
arrive at these conclusions. In turning their atten-
tion to the "Gauging Department and the system
pursued at the dock warehouses," they deemed it
highly probable, from some remarkable evidence
brought before them, that " the practice of serious
frauds in regard to spirits and wines" was
continued, and the admission (in a particu-
lar case detailed in their former report)
of cigars as marble, in St. Katherine's Docks,
" demonstrated that the revenue was liable to fraud
in the docks as elsewhere." To show the wholesale
character of the frauds so successfully practised—
with the aid of the Custom-house officers—on the
revenue, we will now briefly note a few instances.
JOHN WYCIIERLEY (whose case we noticed on Mon-
day) being on duty as a weigher on the Custom-
house-quay, in May, 1840, was employed under Mr.
LANG, a landing-waiter (since dismissed), in opening
the outward case of what was apparently an article
of furniture. On a landing-surveyor's coming up,
LANG told him there was nothing in the asserted
book-case ; but after his departure, the case was
opened in LANG'S presence, and thy his desire.
There were in it fifteen packages,—" sixteen or
eighteen inches in length, of proportionate
depth and breadth ; and they were subsequently
placed in five or six baskets with locks. WYCHEELEY,
who watched them until after office hours, feared to
seize them without orders from LANG, though he
suspected something wrong. On the following
morning they had disappeared, and were never
brought to charge. It has been subsequently ad-
mitted by LANG himself, " that these goods were
clandestinely introduced with his aid on that occa-
sion, and Mr.SID-NEY HARRIS, his near connexion,
and then a landing-waiter, though now superseded,"
confirmed this statement.

Now, this middle state of condemnation,
this purgatory between the two extremes of un-
questioned tenure of office, and penal dis-
missal from it, we cannot understand. On
what principle do the Custom. house authorities pro-
ceed in such matters ? To us it appears a clear ques-
tion of " guilty or not guilty," which they have to
determine with regard to such offenders. If the
offence be established against them, turn them off, at
least, finally and distinctly. If the offence be not
established, the accused parties ought not to be sub-
jected to the disgrace of suspension. At the end of
April last,

" Two men in the employ of Messrs. Hall, warehouse-
men on Custom-house Quay, gave information, on oath,
before the Surveyors-general, of numerous transactions
in which, with the aid of the officers, the revenue had
been defrauded for several years preceding. In conse-
quence of this, several officers were suspended early in
May, including Messrs. Sidney Harris and Grayson,
landing-waiters, the former in the receipt of a salary of
3501., the latter of 2501. per annum. After being sus-
pended five or six weeks, withont admitting their guilt,
these last-mentioned officers, on the 13th of June, and
subsequently, fully confessed it, and detailed, on oath, a
long series of fraudulent proceedings, in which they and
other officers had been concerned."
GRAYsoN, it seems, lays on Corns, a landing-
waiter (one of the discharged), the having first
tempted him to pass goods improperly ; but fully ad-
mitting his own culpability, he claims the merit
of " not having carried to a greater extent
his roguery." And with some reason, as the Com-
mission think, seeing that " from his peculiar situation,
and the confidence reposed in him by his superior
officers, there was little limit to the frauds which he
might have committed. It would appear, however,
from the declarations of one of the Messrs. lIALL's
men, that IN MANY HUNDRED INSTANCES packages
of goods were taken away without payment of duty,
and without knowledge of the officers." We must
refer the reader to the extracts from the " Report,"
which we shall publish, for the mystery of the enor-
mous frauds perpetrated by means of " dummies" as
they are termed,—some of the packages from their
magnitude called " cottages," being as large as a
waggon could hold.

" Lace, gloves and silk were most frequently the
for the purpose of con-
tentsfrau-
of the packages thus fraudulently introduced.
pßarnaiyadwyas, hfoorleevderb,ywsuasbs'erdiopntieon;' and a joint-stock com-
dulently importing tobacco from Rotterdam ; and three
hogsheads, in the early part of 1841 (about 3,400 lbs.
weight), were passed as cheese, though they were
examined by a landing-surveyor, one or two rows of
cheese being placed at the top of the cask. The sub-
scribers to this project cleared about 501. each ; but the
undertaking was stopped, from the jealousy Jf other
traders, who found it might interfere with their own

illegal importations. But, he adds, after this case, they
deemed their operations ' quite a certainty.'"

Clock faces, the duty upon which is 20 per cent. ad
valorem, were passed under entry at half the real num-
bers in the packages or case, as 200, for instance,
instead of 1,000. FOOTE, a landing-waiter, now
dismissed, is accused of having, while on duty at St.
Katherine's Docks, "purloined thousands of cigars,
distributing them amongst his friends, and amongst
the Custom-house officers, with great liberality."
Another delinquent got into the clutches of one of
the fraudulent traders thus :—A bacon dealer lent
GRAYSON 701., and having him thus in his power,
forthwith made arrangements with him for fraudulent
importations through his connivance. A person was
dispatched to Hamburgh, who sent over a large
quantity of the drug, coculus indicus, in 49 packages,
purporting to be, all of them, flax. In reality seven
only were flax ; and all were successfully passed as
flax, at the duty of ld. per cwt. on flax,
instead of 2s. 6d. per lb. on the coculus
indicus. The loss to the revenue by this little ope-
ration was 5291. In 1841, barrels of snuff were
passed by GRAYSON and FOOTE, in league, as barrels
of pork. The loss to the revenue may be inferred
from the fact that these two worthies received 1201.
between them from the importers—men, doubtless,
claiming for themselves the character of "highly re-
spectable" tradesmen. But FOOTE, and BULLET (another
landing-waiter), are said to have netted by a few similar
operations, in part of 1842, in warehouses and on
quays on the north side of the river, between 5001. and
1,0001. In most of these cases it was pretty certain
that if the packages had been tested by the " spit,"
the fraud would have been detected. But the
Austrian sentinel, in Tekeli, does not more
carefully abstain from thrusting his bayonet
into the miller's sack which contains the melodra-
matic hero, than the " weighers" seem to have
eschewed the notion of passing the spit into bales
and packages belonging to their friends. Hsums,
another officer, admits to have accomplished in six
or eight months of 1840, frauds on the revenue to the
amount of 5001., by passing wines and spirits either
short or under improper descriptions of quality—
tobacco as marble, and silk as specimens of natural
history (!) He received for his own services 801.,
and was enabled to carry on this system of deception
through the remissness of the landing surveyors ; for
in three months he was not visited by one of these
functionaries more than twice ! In 1841 and 1842 this
same adroit gentleman "passed improperly to a large
amount, and for ample remuneration, stained paper,
damask curtains, silks, and wines, either by aid of the
rough book system, or by omission of entry of small
boxes, either large ones or by short entries, or by
omitting any examination whatever," of the packages
passed.
Here, for the present, we once more pause ; much
marvelling what the system can have been,—how
worked and looked after by local and other subordi-
nates,—how checked, controlled, or investigated by
the superior authorities, under whose general juris-
diction it has been placed—which could be thus
easily, perpetually, impudently, and notoriously per-
verted to the robbery and spoliation of that revenue,
which its multiferious and very expensive machinery
was devised to protect and extend.

The Journal of the Two Sicilies of the 27th ult. pub-
lishes the second judgment of the military court, sitting
at Cocenza, which was pronounced on the 24th. This
sentence includes the foreign refugees who embarked
in Calabria on the IGth of June last. Seventeen have
been condemned to death. The KING ordered the
sentence to be put in execution regarding the most
guilty parties; consequently nine were executed on
the 28th. The following are the names :—Don AT-
TALIO BANDEIRA, D. EMILIA. BANDEIRA, D. NICOLA.
RICCIOTTI, D. ANACARSI NARDI, D. DOMENICO
MORO, GIOVANNI VENERUCCI, GIA.COMO ROCCA,
FRANCESCO BARTI, DOMENICO LUPATELLI."
Fifteen executions have now taken place on ac-
count of the Calabrian revolt, several of whom be-
longed to the higher ranks in society. Three were
Venetian noblemen. The two brothers, BANDEIRA
and Moao, were lieutenants in the Austrian navy ;
M. NARDI was an advocate from Modena, and Ric-
CIOTTI was an officer in the army, who had distin-
guished himself in the Peninsular war.

Madrid journals of the 4th have been received.
More arrests had taken place, and executions also
were anticipated. Discontent had begun to appear
among the troops, and eleven officers of one regiment
had been discharged from the service. Though the
capital apparently was tranquil, great despondency
and uncertainty as to the intentions of the Govern-
ment prevailed. The Finance Minister, Senor MoN,
had arrived from Barcelona, and made an arrange-
ment with the Bank of San Fernando for another ad-
vance of money for the month of August.

The Three per Cents. were done at 271 at 60 days;
the Five per Cents. at 20 9-16 for cash, and 19- at
60 days.

The debate in the House of Lords on Lord
MINTO's motion, respecting the navy, furnishes a
fruitful topic for discussion in the Paris papers,
which turns chiefly, however, on the Otaheite affair.
The Opposition journals, as well as those of the Go-
vernment, have, from what occurred in the House,
found out the error into which they had been led by
a Tory London paper. The remarks of the Duke of
WELLINGTON and Lord ABERDEEN leave no doubt
that reparation must be made for the outrage com-
mitted on Mr. PRITCHARD. The Siecle thus com-
ments on the debate :—" Every word spoken this sit-
ting contains a proof of the of England to-
wards France, and a design to humiliate us, whether
in peace er in war. Under an appearance of modera-
tion, Lord lIADDINGTON makes it clearly understood
that he watches us, and that he is ready for whatever
may arise. As to the Duke of WELLINGTON, he
speaks as if he were always assured of having a
Spanish army under his command, or a Prussian
army on our flank to change our victory at Waterloo
into a sanguinary defeat. This ardent rivalry of the
two first nations of the world could have' been pre-
vented, but by a deplorable system of foreign policy,
interests have been brought together which ought to
have been kept apart, and the maintenance of a peace
equally desirable for the two nations, will become
every day more difficult. The bending of the knee
of M. GUIZOT will only render more intolerable the
pride of the British aristocracy."
The Conimerce regards the misunderstanding be-
tween England and France in a very serious light,
and justly asserts that as a hostile fe cling prevails on
both sides, the least spark will cause a terrible con-
flagration. Now, we ask who is to blame for this bad
feeling? Is it not the Opposition journals of Paris,
who at intervals for the last threeor four years heaped
every abuse en " Perfidious Albion," and even tha t
abuse made little impression on the people of England
till the late outrage committed on an Englsh subject
at Otaheite. "The English Ministers," says the
Commerce," seek as much as they can to calm public
opinion indirectly by their journals; but as far as
they are directly and personally engaged themselves,
they are compelled to obey it. This is a novel situa-
tion which merits to be studied with the greatest
care, and which ought to be well understood. For
the first time since 1830 it is not only the two Go-
vesnments, but the two nations which are opposed to
each other. The two Governments, it is true, still
take each other by the hand, but the two people cast
looks of defiance and anger at each other. Such a
state of things is assuredly very serious.Yhen a mis-
understanding arises between Governments, the
changing a Minister often suffices to restore harmony;
but when that misunderstanding has made its way
into the hearts of the people, no one can foresee the
issue of it. Although on former occasions, important
subjects of dispute have not led to collision between
the English and us, no one can deny that war might
not arise out of the most insignificant affair. This
new state of public feeling in England is, in our opi-
nion, the most important feature of the case. Although
it is only now in its infancy, and is only shown by
trifling circumstances, it is nevertheless very visible
to those who are acquainted with the country, and
attentively watch what is going on. France must be
acquaintedto her."
Our duty
into
pooridnetritnoouttto be taken un-
prepared. The Ministerial journals take a more favourable
view of the affair, and one of them seems to infer
that our Government is inclined, for what reason we
cannot see, to throw the blame on Mr. PRITCHARD.
" We find ourselves," says the Journal des Debats,
" called upon to declare that we attach no impor-
tance to this debate, in which Lord ABERDEEN, the