The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-09-17 00:00:00

TIIB LIVERPOOL CUSTOM-HOUSE.

In resuming our.observations on the "Bill of Entry" office,
we again briefly refer to the two sections of the Act under which
the Customs' Annuity and Benevelent'Fund" was established
—the fourth and the sixteenth sections—in order to mark dis-
tinctly the compulsory character. of the former, with respect to
the contributions of the officers of that department, in augmen-
tation of the fund; although by the later it is in the power of
the " Directors" to exclude them from any participation in its
benefit. It will be remembered that the fund is compounded of
this compulsory provision out of the salaries of officers, of cer-
tain profits derived from the Bill of Entry office, and of a table
of rates,, which is fixed higheithan those of other and most re-
spectable Life Insurance offices. With accumulations so de-
rived, it is not perhaps surprising that the managers of the fund
should find it convenient to pursue a course which may be pro-
ductive of great advantages to the favoured few every third
year, but which.caunot be considered as anything, less than a
great hardship, to use no stronger term, upon the excluded
officers of the Customs' department, constituting au immense
proportion of the whole number employed: The sixteenth sec-
tion of the Act, of which we gave all that was material ip our
last number, empowers the Directors " to alter and to make
any new and additional rules, regulations, and tables of rates of
subscription, ad libitum." This Act was passed in the 56 George
111., (1816), and we perceive that certain rules, &c. were made
on the 26th June, 1819. Of these rules so made we have not a
copy ; but we have before us a copy of certain new or altered
rules made on the 22d of December, 1827, i❑ the preamble of
which it is set forth, that the before-mentioned rules of June,
1819 "are hereby declared to be repealed; and in lieu thereof
the rules, regulations, and tables of rates of subscription and
payment herein-after set forth are made for the better manage-
ment of the said fund, by virtue of the Act aforesaid." These
last set out with what is called "the principle and policy
of the fund;" in which it is laid down that,—

" The Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund, established by an
act, passed in the fifty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty,
King George the Third, (cap. 73, local) entitled ' An act for estab-
lishing and regulating a fund for the widows, children, and relatives
of officers or persons belonging to the department of Customs in
England ;' by virtue of which these rules and regulationi, and the
tables of rates of subscription and payment marked A, B, and C an-
nexed, are made, _shall be raised. by, subscription, upon thg principle
of life insurance, in addition to the contribution of poundage, authorised
and granted -by 04-act aforesaid :—and the- widows of subscribers
shall in all cases participate, (in the form of a life annuity) to the ex-
tent of one-half, at the least, in the insurances effected ; unless for
misconduct in the woman, the directors shall, at the instance of the
subscriber, see cause to allow a different disposition ; and the admis-
sion by the directors of a nominee or nominees of a subscriber under
the said act, shall, as to the person of such nominee or nominees.
take place during the life of the subscriber ; and benevolent grants
shall be made to the destitute widows or children, or dependent rela-
tives of such persons only, who, during their lives, shall hare proposed
to subscribe to the fund to a reasonable extent, but whose proposals shall
hare been rejected."

This is designated " the principle and policy of the fund."
Perhaps this principle may be deemed somewhat restrictive; a
charge that will not be made against the 9th rule, which declares
that,—
" The Directors may, at their discretion, remunerate the secretary
for his trouble, and make reasonable allowances to persons affording
assistance in the management of the fund, and cause to be paid all
expenses incidental thereto."

A prudent economy is observable in the expenses of ma-
nagement of this fund; as, by the 10th rule, the subscriptions
and poundage are ordered to be deducted out of the quarterly
salaries of the officers, and shall be receivable by the receiver-
general in London, and by the collectors and comptrollers in
the out-ports, who are directed to transmit them to London for
investment.

Nothing occurs deserving of particular notice until we reach
the 26th rule, the only one applicable to " benevolent grants."
It runs thus:—

" The Directors, with the consent of. a meeting of subscribers, may
apply a portion of the monies accruing to the fund from the contribution of
poundage in benevolent grants ; 'either in gross Sums of money or in
annuities to the destitute widows, or children, or dependent relatives
of such persons only who, during their lives, shall hare proposed to subscribe
to the fund to a reasonable extent, but :chose propOsOls shall hare been re-
jected ; and every such grant in the way of annuity shall be re-con-
sidered and re-voted annually."
This rule, we think, comes under the'desciiptiOn which is well
expressed by the term " cold charity." An officer of the cus-
toms is called upon, by virtue 'of an' act of Parliament, to con-
tribute, during a long series of years, a pOrtion of his salary to
a benevolent" fund, belonging exclushiely to that department
of the public service to which•he is 'attached. Upon his death,
notwithstanding such regular, contribution On: his part, his
widow or children. are absolutely excluded from all the be-
nefit of this fund, uililess he should happen.tO have experienced
the advantage of the rejection of a proposal to insure his life in
it. The case of his' widow or childreil would .be somewhat
bettered if that favour of rejection' should happen to have been
conferred upon him.. 'Because, then, it would be competent, but
by no means "compulsory"- .upon- the-directors, to show their
beneVolent feeling by giving back to 'his widow or children a
portion of the stiouerrwhich he had contributed 'during his life
to this " benevolent fund" !

But it must not be supposed that the accuinulatiOns of this
fund remain unappropriated. Oh, no ! This is well defined in
the 27th rule, where it is laid down that,— •
" The Directors shall cause the accounts and the general state of the
fund to be minutely investigated, under competent professional ad-
vice, at the end of every this& ; and if 'it shall appear that
monies or securities remain to the fund, beyond what is amply suffi-
cient to answer and pay all the insurances and engagements of the
fund, such surplus monies or securities shall be deemed to be profit ;
and such profit shall be apportioned among the subscribers according
to computations to be made of their respective claims on the fund,
by virtue of their insurances ;—and the profit awarded to subscribers
shall be applied, in limitation of tlw estimated number of their prospec-
tive annual subscriptions, if payable for the whole term of life, or
in reduction of any number of such annual subscriptions already limited ;
and, in the event of such annual subscriptions becoming ultimately
discharged or being otherwise paid off, such profit shall be applied in
an equivalent increase of the annuities or capital monies insured by them,
or both, as the case may be."
The remainder of this rule applies to the possible case "of
the monies and securities belonging to the fund not being suf-
ficient to answer and pay all the insurances and engagements
of the fund;" a case which, however possible, is little probable,
as, we think, we can easily show. What does this 27th rule,
then, comprehend? Why, it
presumes a profit "beyond what
is amply sufficient to answer and pav all the insurances and
engagements of the fund;" and it further contemplates, that
such profit will be sufficient to enable the directors not only to
diminish, and finally to extinguish, the premiums payable by
the assured, but even to add to the capital sums for which such
annual premiums were paid, or to the annuities which had
been purchased, or to both, in the shape of bonus, after all
payments by the assured, annual or otherwise, should have
totally ceased. Truly, these gentlemen have, with great wis-
dom, taken a leaf out of the book of their great prototype, the
"Equitable Assurance" of London. They have not only done
this, but they have gone much further. For, whilst the "Equit-
able Assurance" rested their "table of rates of subscription"
upon the fallacious principle laid down in Dr. PRICE'S North-
ampton tables, than which any thing more erroneous could
scarcely be devised, it was still open to every man to propose
himself as a proprietor by assurance, or to decline doing so, as
he pleased. And if be paid a high premium for the privilege,
either himself or hiS successors have received or will receive it
back in diminished premiums, or large bonuses front the accu-
mulated millions of the funds of the society. Not so with the
"Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund." It is true that
they fix pretty high premiums in their tables,—higher than
most of' the Life Assurance offices,—tpuch higher, certainly,
than five of them, whose tables now lie open before us. If it
rested here, and' Men had the option of applying to insure, or
of deClining tado sot not a word could be said. But the ease
is very different 'when there is not only a high premium fixed
in the table of rates, but many other and extraneous resources
are called in aid of the fund. IA just occurs to us to take a
vulgar business-like Dr. and Cr. way of illustrating our case.
Suppose we say, beginning, contrary to mercantile practice,
with the credit side,—

"CUSTOMS' ANNUITY AND BENEVOLENT FUND. Cr.
By premiums for assurances, as per tables, higher than those of the

great majority of Life Assurance Offices.
By contribution of poundage out of the salaries of officers of Cus-

toms, according to act of-Parliament.
By net proceeds of the " Bill of Entry, published for the benefit of
tl►e Customs' Benevolent Fund," and subscribed for, at five guineas
per annum, by the merchants in London, Liverpool, Bristol, and
elsewhere.