The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-30 00:00:00

follow. It is, however, considered to be impossibl.,
that the matter can stop where it is, and that in due
course the whole of the nefarious practices now
opened will be followed out. Where so many par-
ties are Cognisant' of course no secret can be kept for
any length of time, and if it could the approaching
session of P;,rliament must put an end to all mystery,
fbr a report will be called for and must be made by
the. commission of inquiry. Such report cannot fail
necessarily to he full and complete, seeing so many
parties are mixed up in the inquiry both as witnesses
and as implicated in the malpractices so long going
on The immediate progress of the exposure is how-
ever looked for with much anxiety, and the forth-
coming articles in the papers me awaited with in-
terest corresponding.
SUN.—Prices in the Funds exhibited an upward ten-
dency this afternoon, and Consols closed at 92:1 921
for Money, and 92i 93 for the Account. India
Stock declined, 247 249 ; Exchequer Bills, Old, 49
51 ; New, 48 50 premium.

1 The prices of Foreign Securities were, Dutch Two-
and-a-Half per Cents., 51; 52 ; the Five per Cents"
102 102 f ; Belgian, 102 103 ; Danish, 83 84 ; and
Brazilian, 66 67.
The Share market showed a decided improvement.
London and Birmingham were 183 185 ; Birming-
ham and Gloucester, 39 41 ; Great Western, 81 82 ;
the half Shares, 59 59f • South Western, 57f 58 ;
North Midland, 56 58 ; the New, 27 28 ; South East-
ern and Dover, 224 23; Eastern Counties, 81 8} ;
Northern and Eastern, 35 36; Blackwall, 6f 7 ; and
BriOton, 34i 34i per share.
quotations for the Bonds were—Colombian,
15 16 ; Peruvian, 15 16 ; Portuguese Five per
Cents.. 35f 35i ; the Three per Cents., 21 211;
Spanish Five per Cents., 154 16; the Three per
Cents., 204 21.
Much has appeared upon the subject of frauds on
the Customs, and which would lead to the inference
that frauds were of recent occurrence. Such, how-
ever, is not the case, and, from practical knowledge,
it may be stated that this great inducement to commit
' them was removed by Lord Monteagle, when Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in 1833, and that the system
then acted upon by the Government, leads but to the
conclusion, that if completely carried out, robbery
would be ended. The method by which these frauds
have been committed has been by smuggling, with
or without the connivance of the officers, or by de-
ceiving them, and thus causing them innocently to
become agents. thereto. It has been already stated in
the public prints that some few binding waiters have
lent themselves to what might be going on, and the
lowness of the pay might have induced them to facili-
tate that, which with all their vigilance they knew
they would not be able to prevent. So far they de-
served punishment, but it comes with a bad
grace to extol the superior activity of the
present authorities, whose information has been
derived from the reports of their own officials
upon petitions for the restoration of goods which had
been seized under circumstances of suspicion. The
frauds committed at the several quays by shipping
one description of goods instead of another (the latter
being delivered for home consumption), has for years
been notorious to every merchant. Changing pack-
ages on their way to the vessels for others, contain •
ing earth and bricks, by means of bribing the ser-
vants of the Crown to shut their eyes to the
fact that the cart which bore a certain
number up to a particular spot, bore an-
other when it arrived at the destination,
caused the discovery of the famous opium robbery,
and chiefly led to the reduction of duty upon this ar-
ticle. Shipping juniper-berries for the drawback, from
which the virtue had been extracted, and importing
coculus indicus, with a feworange berries mixed with
it, and paying the duty upon the contents of the pack-
ages under the latter denomination, have all, years
since, been brought before the Commissioners. It
was not until the rates of duties were so greatly re-
duced, that a principal qualification of a merchant's clerk
was to be able to obtain as large a tare as possible ; the
articles being sold duty paid, and at the real tare to
the purchaser, the difference of course being profit.
An instance could be cited in which instructions were
sent to Sicily to make lids of certain particular cases
of the heaviest that could be found. The object here
was to get a large tare, it being then the custom to
weigh the cover and calculate the total at
five times as much. To prevent detection, with
the merchant in question, contrary to usual rule,
it was stipulated that the actual weight of the chests
should be ascertained at the warehouse of the pur-
chaser, lest (and this is important) the Customs' officers
should by accident discover what had been done. In-
stance upon instance similar to these would be ad-
duced, but all temptations to these frauds have for
years been done away with ; and by the tariff at pre•
sent in operation it is not worth the trouble of any to
attempt to commit them. The articles chiefly smug-
gled now are tobacco, tea, and some such necessaries,
loaded with heavy duties ,• and the grave question
arises whether greater comfort could not be given to
the consumers by a further reduction, so as to render
contraband trading unprofitable, and the huge ex-
penses of the Customs' police unnecessary, whereby
much would be gained and much saved to the country.