The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-08-30 00:00:00

IMPORTANT ALTERATION IN THE CUSTOMS'
LAWS.
The new law relating to the duties of Customs which has now
come into operation, contains a very important clause, by which
one magistrate is entrusted with the power to decide upon cases
of smuggling tobacco and spirits in a summary manner, where
the quantity of the former does not exceed six pounds, and of
the latter one gallon, without information or orders from the
'Boards esf Excise er Customs.- The sentenee.which the magis-
trate is to have the power to inflict for each offence is a penalty
not exceeding £5, and in default of payment imprisonment,
without hard labour, for any period not exceeding one month.
This clause will get rid of the expensive, troublesome, and com-
plicated machinery of the old laws, under which injustice was
frequently practised, the seizing officer having in the first instance
to take the offender before a magistrate and pray for his deten-
tion, until the case was reported to the Board of Customs or
Excise. When this was done, and the order of the Board to
prosecute was obtained, an information prepared by the Cus-
toms or Excise solicitor was laid before two magistrates, to which
the defendant was called on to plead, and after hearing evidence
the bench had no other alternative but to sentence the offender
to pay a fine of £lOO to the King, a disproportionate sentence
for smuggling a few ounces of tobaccco or a pint or two of spirits,
and recommend an application for mercy to the commissioners
of Customs or Excise. 'L'o obtain a remission of the penalty the
offender was compellel to send in a petition, and after some other
forms bad been gone through an order was sent down to the
prison directing the liberation of the prisoner, on paving 10s.,
205., or 40s, This course has been adopted for several years at
the Thames police-office, where seamen and others are daily
brought before the magistrates for smuggling small quantities of
tobacco and spirits. The magistrates have repeatedly complained
of the " farce" almost daily enacted in their office, of bringing
persons before them to be fined £lOO, and then immediately
liberating them on payment of a few shillings, and have fre-
quently urged on the Custom-house authorities the inconveni-
ence of such a course. The revenue officers, where the quantity
does not exceed as above stated, will in future bring the offender
direct before the magistrate, without waiting for an order from
the Board of Customs. We understand that a very objectiona-
ble practice has long existed at the Custom-house and Excise-
office in allowing persons in the superior ranks of life, stopped
with smuggled goods in their possession, to pay into one of those
departments a small fine, in order to avoid the exposure of a
public investigation at a police-office. We could mention a
hundred cases which have been thus compounded through the
intervention of agents who conduct those transactions, but two
will 9uflice. A few days ago a Captain Campbell, the master of
a ship, was stopped by a revenue officer named Lewis, with a
chest of tea which he had run ashore. The matter was duly
reported to the Board of Customs, but no prosecution was or-
dered; the defendant was ordered to be liberated, and a fine of
£5 was accepted as an equivalent for the offence. A few weeks
since a Scotch advocate was detected by a Custom-house officer
named Falconer, smuggling some whisky which he had kun out
of a Scotch steam-ship. He expressed a very anxious desire
that his name should not be brought before the public, and the
Commissioners of . Excise appeared to have complied with his
wishes, for no prosecution was instituted, and he was allowed to
pay £5 into court. Many poor men have been convicted in the
penalty of £25 at the various police offices, and sentenced, in
default, to three months' imprisonment and hard labour For an
exactly similar offence.