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 from
London and various outports waited upon the Chancefitios
u.,d
of the Exchequer, for the purpose of representing to D'..;
the wants and wishes of the merchants of this country
il"
connection with the proposed reform in the Customs

_
partment.
Amongst those present were Mr. Charles Tnrnerf
M.P., Mr. Wm. Brown, M.P., Mr. Bramley-Moore'
Mr. J. Cheetham, M.P., Mr. Pilkington, M.P., Dir*
Brotherton, Sza.
Mr. Travers read a memorial from a public meet
held in London on the subject. The memorial stated ths,
the committee had been induced to take this step in e
sequence of a reply given on a recent occasion to „t)iel
Horsfall, on his inquiring in the House of Conalli
when the Government might be expected to bring folly he
the subject of a reform of the Board of Customs, the
reply being to the effect that " he (the Chancellor of t",
Exchequer) was not in a position to state whether all'
measures which the Government might take for the 01;
provement of the Customs' department and machinct'
would require legislative interference, but that the win
subject was under the consideration of the Treasury,
.313,
that the result of it would probably be embodied I°
minute." After hinting that a Treasury minute could o,°
codify the fifty-one acts of Parliament relating to t'"
Customs now on the Statue-book, nor sufficiently site
plify, for the purposes of trade, the accumulated Treasa
minutes, orders, and bye-laws of the Board of Custoos'
extending over a period of forty years, the memorial COly
linues

" We lay before you the heads of such suggestions ee
we deem most important. We submit that under tb.
existing law, a merchant's person may be seized, and I'7
property detained or sold, without any warrant, witbo,ll,,
any statement of charges, without any opportual':
afforded osois•fidoepodeerrhssioF
personal
lnf beingdexpp rlaancctaoiteni
practically,
oyn,otrtehdedrweefiet
inhsc tenhoeb
esfeoi seizing
appealnf
hoeitnoe:o:?e,"
from in
decision of the Commissioners, or, in fact, from "
officer himself. The officer gives in his own account
the Board ; on complaint, the Board refers to the officer;
no one cross-examines him, and he receives, on his 0
statement of the case, a portion of the proceeds of wai
goods as the reward of holding to his story. The apP
„ea
to the Lords of the Treasury is also nominal ; they re
!A
to the Board, and, upon the account given by the Boa'
decide without seeing either the officer or his victim.
" We complain that an appeal to the Court of Eyes'
quer involves a ruinous expenditure, under bond to it
cost, fines, and penalties; and that costs are in no e 7.
allowed to be recovet ed from the Crown. That, inni
our Customs' system, as it stands, is the one remalni„;§
blot upon our commerce. We have opened our 10',`1
and seas, we still keep shut the narrow and rusty gatejle
the Customs; we have established courts to expeulbe
and cheapen justice, but we deny a place in them to to
sufferers under Customs' maladministration. No /viaB
has touched the irresponsible secresy of the Custo;
Board, nor the endless heaping up of the costs of C
toms' cases in the Exchequer. We have in ordinary ca;tus
reformed our modes of procedure, so as to allow Of wal
parties being examined face to face, with marked
' advauts:s,
in eliciting the truth • but, though a man's goods, Pape
books, everything he is worth in the world, be se'-01l
upon without warrant in the name of the Custorntid
knowledge of the accusation and of his accusers is witlocio
from him ; he may be beggared in means, and ruined
character, but neither the Customs' Commissioners ,
the Lords of the Treasury will furnish him with a stater
ment of the charges against him, nor allow him to 81713;,‘
personally in his own defence. Until within the last
years, the full powers of the Customs have been but so
dom exercised, or exercised only against the weak ; ets
commercial classes were even ignorant that such P 04,0;
existed; and the irresponsible authority of the board, do
tolerated, solely because the oppressive provisions 0'
numerous acts and bye-laws lay dormant.
" It is now Fell understood by people of all classes ter;
every hindrance to the passage of ships and goods, e.,1
tax and waste of time, every risk of injury and loss, eilio
liability to the plunder, corruption, overcharge, and log,
in the way of the landing, warehousing, clearing, 101, 00
selling, and distribution of merchandise, falls at last gee,
twhoeucloansbuemneor.
difficultyW e er therefore r
be
ri
ng confidentlying th e believe
whole
vrthel
gt 10.` tool
public opinion to bear in favour of an immediate -
sweeping reform of the present system. DO
" In conclusion, we beg respectfully to urge that
time should be lost in laying the bills, as soon as prelleeir
before the commercial community, with a view t°44o.
being passed into law in the present session of Par
ment. f to
" We propose neither to defraud the revenue n°
abolish necessary taxes ; what we ask is that, in the a 1 to
ner of raising the revenue of Customs, amounting to
£22,000,000, there may be no needless obstructioa

trade,"
M- W. B

,ROWN, M.P., said the memorial whie 10
now been placed in the hands of the right" honouralits
gentleman contained a memorandum of the requireffletot
of the commercial community, and expressed a hope eclf
before the bills to which they referred were introduchot
betweenhi(osstnheeHaf leeytvreamh-eeeanrestro
hardships
these suggestions would be embodied in them. Ileotst
ld
only to express, on the part of the Liverpool Inerchs,,io
a strong desire and wish that any differences ar,IS be
shoa
trh}i
ebitaeuhrne)b
am.
eTwavnibei dede
yr
ietet hot ewin,
esoiyCud ulewdrseet
rgodermi
etr sae
atqlamuyui
ort
she:
dtomritpimotl iipdef
yose
ri
og
from any charges that might be brought 8°.,,,—0r1C
submitted to an open tribunal, and not, as hitherto,
the
Customs, and prevent a great many unjust sertant t,- riot,
alteration ot the present system that they 5"-tigt
.yon the spot an open tribunal to appeal to. Gred,
as an instance, he might state that an American f?ce,
frequently arose under the present system, snip
lately arrived in the Mersey with a large quantity of rlis.
Some ill-disposed person, or ill-natured officer, gare,„s,
formation that there were smuggled goods under the 1.1;$
and about 40 tons of it were thrown out by order of
,;of
Customs ; it happened to be a very wet day, nothiPtcs
the kind was found, or had ever been there, but tbe
was completely destroyed. That was one of the Or
antes of the present system, and if they had such 3 pet
bunal as he had stated to resort to. which would e°°l
the officer to state who gave the false info; mationflie
order that be might be punished, some redress might
obtained.
Mr. TURNER, M.P., said the establishment of °eef
local tribunals was held by all commercial men to Ire,
the utmost importance, because accusations were the
quently made, involving not only the property but de
character of the party, which could not be so easily PI
if the parties could be brought face to face. the
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, in„re'
answer he had given to Mr. Horsfall he did not 0;49
hend that there could have been any misunderstano
as the question had reference to the proposed alter', re'
in the constitution of the Board of Customs, and o'o
gard to a suggestion that a member of the Board, or op
chairman, should have a seat in the House of Coentblo
His answer bad reference expressly to the Prt-off
alteration in the constitution of the Board of Cusnot'
and not to the improvements in the Customs' Moe,
ment as regarded its machinery and working ; bee.,of
measures had been taken for the preparation of aicbe
Parliament in reference to the warehousing acts sottillsf
codification of the Custom laws. With respect to the v.,er
which it was desired should be submitted to the 05100
cial bodies throughout the country, for the considers
of their practical details, he was not aware that 10131)0
timation had been given to them that these bills croul.beit,
submitted to them by the present Government for
consideration of the practical details. What he o°ol
say was, that he had no objection in point of princiP"
submit the draft of the bills when they were prepared,
the parties interested, and before they were introd°4oo
But the responsibility of the Government was not 54,1811
from its shoulders in this instance. He was extremity
glad to meet the present deputation, on account other
having representatives from Liverpool and the,°oof
outports, because there was this difficulty on rob,
occasions, that it would seem as if all along they hau.felf,'
discussing the case of the port of London exclool
With respect to these bills the whole question was in d 0
manner could they be soonest made known, 014
what way could the widest and freest scope be 01$0,
the commercial community to canvass their detail'oeo;
bring to the knowledge of the world and of
their wishes and their suggestions. He could n°0411;
what might be the decision of the government as to P,
mitting them to the commercial classes in draft' ctou'
frankly owned, although he was willing to be instrlitaer
that it was not clear to him how he could bring coil;
measures amply before all portions of the mercantile
munity. Some portions of it were well organised lgoeD,o
purpose of discussing these measures, and to thenlot
step might be highly convenient ; but others were "t thri
highly organised, and might possibly consider thit,foili
bad been treated with something less than fairness' ;eitr ,
were not acquainted with the details of these bills,teiceof
as the others. But. as the object was merely to asst
~`ijollo,
he did not see the disadvantage under which any Pf: iptrlg
the commercial community would be placed by 0001/e,
duction of these bills into parliament and the givi"itte.
time for their consideration before going into vOl,, jetre,
The most convenient course for all parties was t' eSP.ty
duce the bills on the earliest possible day ; then WouJlo,
rience and knowledge of the commercial cos lidoefiev
would enable them to suggest many valuable arol,fy 0,0
and all such amendments as appeared to just it
adoption might then be embodied in the bill bef°l.,,,pela
submitted to the consideration of the House of c,nbooof
If there was a strong wish that the drafts of the We.: par j 8
be submitted, there was every disposition on til_`:„e
the Government to follow the course that stfu_h'clire,l,,,
might point out. Various points were under tlio*ct t0..170
consideration of the Government, and, with resteciotPy.
Treasury minute, of course that was necessary P' iarsc
eegrrall of t
the in
Aftert introduction tei of nu anrotfhe r actdis coufsps
iaornl
inm ewn th ii
en
ht hseor
members took part, the deputation withdrew- . .

A YOUNG' LADY says that, in a yachting wttipli
vessels run so many knots that she should
results of the race must be all ties-.-Punch'

the
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