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bonds for the delivery, at the place of destination, of goods sent coastwise. They appoint the coast-waiters to attend the shipping and discharging of all coastwise goods. The searchers superintend the shipping of goods intended for foreign export, the entries for which, after being passed in the Long Room, are placed in their hands, and they examine the packages at their discretion, to ascertain if they correspond. The number of supernumeraries is very large, as the amount of business is dependent on the season or on the weather. When the wind blows from a particular quarter, and the arrival of ships is very large, there are sometimes as many as two thousand persons employed in the business of the Custom House between Gravesend and London Bridge. The principal officers for the collection of the revenues are collectors, inwards and outwards; comptrollers in each of these departments, and also surveyors. The duties are computed by their deputies or assistants, and the heads of the department administer the various oaths. The business of the in-door department of the Custom House, so far as relates to the importation and exportation of goods, is all transacted in the Long Room. The officers and clerks of the Long Room, about eighty in number, may be said to form three divisions :-the inward department, with its collector, clerks of rates, clerks of ships' entries, computers of duties, receivers of plantation duties, wine duties, &c.; the outward department, with its cocket writers, &c.; and the coast department. An officer of the Trinity House is accommodated in the Long Room with a desk and counter for the more convenient collection of lighthouse dues. The class of persons to be seen in the Long Room are shipbrokers and shipowners, and their clerks, who report arrivals and obtain clearances; the skippers themselves are frequently seen for the same object; and wholesale merchants, who have goods to import or export, to place in bond or to re-export. The officers of the room occupy a space extending along each side of the four sides, within which they have their desks. On the whole, it is a place which every person should visit at least once in their lives.

The progress of an article of foreign merchandise through the Customs to the warehouse or shop of the dealer is briefly as follows:-First, on the arrival of the ship at Gravesend tide-waiters are put on board and remain until she reaches the appointed landing-place. The goods are reported and entered at the Custom House, and a warrant is transmitted to the landing-waiters, who superintend the unloading of the cargo. A landing-waiter is specially appointed to each ship. Officers under him, some of whom are gaugers, examine, weigh, and ascertain the contents of the several packages, and enter an account of them. These operations are subject to the daily inspection of superior officers. When warehoused the goods are in charge of a locker, who is under the warehouse-keeper. When goods are delivered for home consumption the locker receives a warrant from the Custom House certifying that the duties have been paid; he then looks out the goods and the warehouse-keeper signs the warrant. When foreign or colonial goods are exported the process is more complicated. The warehouse-keeper makes out a "re-weighing slip;" a landing-waiter examines the goods, which continue in charge of the locker, and a cocket, with a certificate from the proper officers at the Custom House, is his authority for their delivery. The warehouse-keeper signs this document, and a counterpart of the cocket, called a 'shipping bill," is prepared by the exporting merchant. The goods pass from

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the warehouse-keeper into the hands of the searcher, who directs a tide-waiter to receive them at the water-side and to attend their shipment, taking an account of the articles; and he remains on board until the vessel reaches Gravesend, when she is visited by a searcher stationed there; the tide-waiter is discharged and the vessel proceeds; but before her final clearance the master delivers to the searcher a document called "a content," being a list of the goods on board, and which is compared with the cocket. It is then only that the cargo can be fairly said to be out of the hands of the Custom House officers. When British produce and manufactures are exported the course pursued is somewhat similar, the chief difference being that they are not, as in the case of foreign merchandise, exported from the bonding warehouse. The description and value of the merchandise is set forth, together with a declaration of its value. In cases where any export duty is payable, this declaration becomes the foundation upon which its amount is levied ; and correctness in this matter is provided for, since, on the one hand, the merchant is interested in not over-valuing his shipment: while, on the other, it is the duty of the revenue officers to prevent any under valuation being affixed, and if, in this respect, the correctness of the merchant is suspected, to subject the goods to seizure, by tendering him the value which he himself puts upon them. In cases where no export duty is payable, the declaration of value is equally required, and, as the party is then without any temptation to give false returns, it is reasonable to believe that none such are made. In every case the goods themselves are subjected to proper examination, and their quantities accurately taken, either by weight, or tale, or measure, according to their nature. In addition to this, a document is prepared, technically called a cocket, for which the previous bill of entry is the foundation, and on the back of this cocket the fullest particulars of the transaction are recorded, while any unintentional errors of the merchant are rectified; so that this document, a copy of which remains in the Custom House, becomes, in all respects, a full and authentic register of the shipment.

Previous to 1825 the statutes relating to the customs had accumulated from the reign of Edward I. to the number of fifteen hundred; and were, as might be expected, a mass of contradiction and confusion which puzzled the most experienced, and were highly injurious to the interests of commerce. The country is indebted to Mr. Huskisson, and to the late Mr. J. D. Hume of the Custom House, and afterwards of the Board of Trade, for a comprehensive revision of these statutes, and their consolidation into eleven acts. The acts for the regulation and management of the customs were still further simplified by several statutes passed in 1833; and at the present time it is probable that further steps are about to be taken in the same direction, though rather with reference to the duties than to the means by which they are collected. One of the acts passed in 1833 enumerates not fewer than 1150 different rates of duty chargeable on imported articles, while the main source of revenue is derived from a very small number of articles. For example, the duty on seventeen articles produced, in 1839, about 94 per cent. of the total revenue of customs, the duties on other articles being not only comparatively unproductive, but vexatious, and a hindrance to the merchants, shipowners, and others. In the above year, forty-six articles were productive of 983 per cent. of the total customs revenue.

The occasional importation of articles which are not enumerated in the tariff of duties is often productive of amusing perplexity. Mr. Huskisson mentioned a case of this nature when he brought forward the plans of consolidation already mentioned. A gentleman had imported a mummy from Egypt, and the officers of customs were not a little puzzled by this non-enumerated article. These remains of mortality, muscles and sinews, pickled and preserved three thousand years ago, could not be deemed a raw material, and therefore, upon deliberation, it was determined to tax them as a manufactured article. The importer, anxious that his mummy should not be seized, stated its value at 400/.; and the declaration cost him 2007., being at the rate of 50l. per cent. on the manufactured merchandise which he was about to import. Mr. Huskisson reduced the duties on non-enumerated manufactured articles from 50l. to 201. per cent., and of nonenumerated unmanufactured articles from 201. to 10l. per cent. A somewhat similar case has been recently mentioned in Parliament, relating to an importation of ice from Norway. A doubt was started what duty it ought to pay, and the point was referred from the Custom House to the Treasury, and from the Treasury to the Board of Trade; and it was ultimately decided that the ice might be introduced on the payment of the duty on dry goods; but, as one of the speakers remarked, "The ice was dissolved before the question was solved."*

* Debate in the House of Lords, Feb. 15, 1842.

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