The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-15 00:00:00

REFORM OF THE CUSTOMS.

On Saturday a numerous and influential deputation fel
London and various outports waited upon the Chancell°
of the Exchequer, for the purpose of representing to him
the wants and wishes of the merchants of this country is
connection with the proposed reform in the Customs °es
pertinent.
Amongst those present were Mr. Charles Turrier'
M.P., Mr. Wm. Brown, M.P., Mr. Bramley_mooret
Mr. J. Cheetham, M.P., Mr. Pilkington, M.P., hit'
Brotherton, tsc.
Mr. Travers read a memorial from a public
held in London on the subject. The memorial stated that
the committee had been induced to take this step in OP:
sequence of a reply given on a recent occasion to )"'
Horsfall, on his inquiring in the House of Commol
when the Government might be expected to brin forw'sr,
the subject of a reform of the Board of Customs,--,''
reply being to the effect that " he (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) was not in a position to state whether ant
measures which the Government might take for the Wl,'
provement of the Customs' department and machine,'
would require legislative interference, but that the whole
subject was under the consideration of the Treasury, 01!
that the result of it would probably be embodied in ;
minute." After hinting that a Treasury minute could n°'
codify the fifty-one acts of Parliament relating to the
Customs now on the Statue- book, nor sufficiently siol'
plify, for the purposes of trade, the accumulated Treason
minutes, orders, and bye-laws of the Board of Custoengo
extending over a period of forty years, the memorial core
tinues

" We lay before you the heade of such suggestions 0
we deem most important. We submit that under the
existing law, a merchant's person may be seized, and 1)1
property detained or sold, without any warrant, without
any statement of charges, without any opportunity
afforded him of being confronted riTh the seizing officer°
or of personal explanation or defence before the CO'
mssioners ; and practically, there is no appeal from the
decision of the Commissioners, or, in fact, from 0:
off cer himself. The officer gives in his own account t,
the Board ; on complaint, the Board refers to the officer;
no one cross-examines him, and he receives, on his ow°
statement of the case, a portion of the proceeds of the
goods-as the reward of holding to his story. The apPes'
to the Lords of the Treasury is also nominal ; they refet
to the Board, and, noon the account given by the Board'
decide without seci3g either the officer or his victim.
" We complain that an appeal to the Court of Excbe'
quer involves a ruinous expenditure, under bond to Of,
cost, fines, and penalties ; and that costs are in no case.'
allowed to be recovered from the Crowr.4 That, in fa"
our Customs' system, as it stands, is the- one remaining
blot upon our commerce. We have opened our pat, ,
and seas) we still keep shut the narrow and rusty gate
the Customs;: we hare established courts. to expedite
and cheapen justice, hot we deny a place in them to the
sufferers under Customs' maladministration. No refornl
has touched the irresponsible secresy of the Customs
Board, nor the endless- heaping up of the costs- of CO"
toms' cases-in the Exchevier. We have in ordinary ease:
reformed our.modes of procedure, so as to allow of the
parties being examined face to face, with marked advantage
in eliciting the truth ; but, though a man's goods, papers'
books, everything he is worth in the world, be seize!
upon without warrant in- the name of the Customs, s,lci
knowledge of the accusatio 3, and of his accusers is withheld
from him he may be beggared in means, and ruined ~,
'
character:bat• neither the Customs' Commissioners ne'
the Lords of the Treasury will furnish him with- a state'
ment of the charges against him, nor allow him. to appear
personally in--his own defence: Until within the last fe,
years, the fall powers of the-Customs have been but se4,
dam exercised, or exercised only' against the weak ; °0
commercial classes were even ignorant that such power,
existed; and the irresponsible authority of the board W 59
tolerated, solely because the oppressive provisions-0f the
numerous acts-and bye-laws-lay dormant.
"It is now well understood-by people of all classes that
every hindrance to the passage of ships and goods, ever'i
tax and waste-of time, every risk of injury and loss, ever,
liability to the plunder, corruption, overcharge, and
in the way of the landing, warehousing, clearing, bali°6o,
selling, and distribution of merchandise, falls o'c Blast Wye
the consumer. We therefore confidently believe that then't
would be no.diffieulty in bringing the wholz: weight .",1
public opinion to bear in favour of au i o,licao•
sweeping reform of the present system.
DO " In conclusion, we beg respectfully to urge that dr
time shoul_d be lost in laying the bills, as soon as prePar'if
before the commercial community, with a view tothL
being passed into law in the present session
.of Parka
ment.

"We propose neither to defraud the revenue not fa
abolish nacessary taxes ; what we ask is that, in the real!:
ner of raising the revenue of. Customs, amounting r:
£22,000,00%. there may be ne needless obetruction to
trade,"
Mr. W. BROWN, M.P., said the memoria; which b,,,
a
now been placed in the hands-of the right: honourso
gentlemen contained a memorandum of the requiremen';
t
of the commercial community, and.expressed a.hope tba
before the bills to which they-referred were introduced
these suggestions would be embodied in them. He ba
only to =press, on the part of, the,Liverpoot merchants;
a strong desire and wish that any differences arisio;
between: them and the Customs authorities should 13.
submitted to an open tribunal, and not, as-hitherto, 0:
secret tribunal, where they weee required to defend theoli
selveg-from any charges that might be brought agoia,sig
them. He believed it would greatly simplify the vi°'
of the Customs, and prevent a great many unjust seizures'
(Hear, hear). They considered it a most important point;
in any alteration of the present system that they shoe
have on the spot an open tribunal.to appeal to. Gres
hardships frequently arose tinder the present system, ar":
as- an instance, he might state that an American so'!"
lately arrived in the Mersey. with a large Ipantity of rice
Some ill-disposed person, or ill-natured• officer, gave ill°
formation that there were smuggled goods under the rice►
and about 40 tons of it were thrown out by order of the
Customs ; it happened to, be a very wet• day, nothing,°
the kind was found, or had ever been there, but the VS',
was completely destroyed._ That was one of the grie'
ances of the present system, and if they had such a WI
bunal as he had stated to,resort to 4 which would con:lPe
the officer to state who. gave the false information, r 0
order that he might be punished, some redress might b"
obtained.

Mr. TURNER, M.P., said the establishment of opel
local tribunals was held, by all commercial men to be
the utmost importance,, because accusations were fre;
quently made, involving not only the property but Ova
character of the party, which could not be so easily mad
if the parties could be brought face to face.
The CHANCELLOR, of the EXCHEQUER said, in tile
answer he had given to Mr. Horsfall he did not apPr`,
bend that there could have beers any misunderstanding:
as the question had reference to the proposed alteratie;
in the constitution of the Board of Customs, and with teo
gard to a suggestion that a member of the Board, or 0,
chairman, should, have a seat in the House of Coma:00
10
His answer had reference expressly to the what''
te
alteration in the constitution of the Board of Customs;
and not to the improvements in the Customs' depar e
ment as regarded its machinery and working ; beeso,,f
measures had been taken for the preparation of act
Parliament in reference to the warehousing acts, and the
codification of the Custom laws. With respect to. the ba,-:
which it was desired should be submitted to the constqf
cial bodies throughout the country, for the consideratril
of their practical details, he was not aware that any rn
timation had: been given to them that these bills would be
submitted to them hy the present Government for thel
consideration of the practical details. What he shoal'
saytbe wpaarst,iethsatinhteerhesatded7Bonbdiebcetifoonreinthpeoyinwteroef principle
submit the draft of the bills when they were prepared tA,°
But the responsibility of the Government was not shifted
from ICS shoulders in this instance. He was extremeLY
glad to meet the present deputation, on account of
having representatives from Liverpool and the other
outports, because there was this difficulty on formeo
occasions, that it would seem as if all along they had bee,
discussing the case of the port of London exclusiv6
With respect to these bills the whole question was in 017,1
manner could they be soonest made known, and i 0
what way could the widest and freest scope be giveu.,(l
the commercial community to canvass their details viit
wring to the knowledge of the world and of parliaceeo
their wishes and their suggestions. He could not 5b.,
what might be the decision of the government as to sew
mating them to the commercial classes in draft.
frankly owned, although he was willing to be instrne` so
that it was not clear to him how he could bring tPeo,
measures amply before all portions of the mercantile COO
munity. Some portions of it were well organised for b 0
purpose of discussing these measures, and to them sue $o
step might be highly convenient ; but others were tic:lt. of
highly organised, and might possibly consider that %of
bad been treated with something less than fairness, if tg,'
were not acquainted with the details of these bills aseleef,
as the others. But, as the object was merely to ask aLi'l et
he did not see the disadvantage under which any port!otro„
the commercial community would be placed by the ill pp,
duction of these bills into parliament and the giving ttee,
time for their consideration before going into conite.ltse
The most convenient course for all parties was to I",pe°
duce the bills on the earliest possible day ; then the e nitY
rience and knowledge of the commercial comuluts,
would enable them to suggest many valuable amendotbeit
and all such amendments as appeared to justifY.oo
adoption might then be embodied in the bill before l'ops,
submitted to the consideration of the House of Conlool4,
If there was a strong wish that the drafts of the bills s re o;
be submitted, there was every disposition on the Pawist!
the Government to follow the course that strongarefal
might point out. Various points were under the ear the
consideration of the Government, and, with respect jou, to
Treasury minute, of course that was necessary PreT
the
waYi
the introduction of an act of parliament in the regularof
After some further discussion, in which severs
members took part, the deputation withdrew.
• 11

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vessels run so many knots that she should thin
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