CONTENTS. CHAP. I. CONSTITUTION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE BOARD OF CUSTOMS 2.-Qualifications of the Commissioners 5.-The Board is not only of no use, but a positive hindrance DUTY-FREE GOODS.-TRANSIT AND TRANSHIPMENT Section 1.-Examination and Warehousing of Duty-Free Goods 289 293 PASSENGERS' LUGGAGE CHAP. VI. CHAP. VII. STATISTICS, Revenue, and EXPENDITURE OF CUSTOMS OFFICERS OF CUSTOMS CHAP. VIII. Section 1.-Their Qualifications, Duties, and Emoluments PART II. CHAPTER I. CONSTITUTION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE BOARD OF CUSTOMS. It was the desire of the Customs Committee, in addressing themselves to the composition of this Second Part of their Digest, to preserve, if practicable, the order of subjects, and the principle of classification adopted in Part I. On examining, however, the nature of the evidence, and the arrangement of the questions and answers, they have come to the conclusion that that is impracticable. The same answer is often applicable to several subjects-and to take it out of its connection to elucidate one topic would frequently render the tenour of examination discontinuous, or the sense obscure. The Committee are convinced also that a voluminous analysis would defeat the purpose of publication, which is that of engaging the attention of the commercial and general community to the important principles involved in the inquiry. Their endeavour will therefore be to be as brief as is consistent with clearness, and with the object of affording the reader an intelligent apprehension of the substance of the Reports of the Select Committee of the House of Commons. As the most convenient as well as succinct method of presenting the following analysis, the Committee have appended the numbers of the queries or the pages of the Report, from which they have quoted, by reference to which, those who would confirm the correctness of the Digest, or enter more minutely into the details of evidence may be enabled to examine the text of the original Reports. § 1. MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. The following Return which is printed as Appendix No. 3, to Report 1, p. 157, exhibits the composition of the Board of Customs. N The Chairman explained that (4) he had qualified for his office by acting previously as Deputy-Chairman for four months—as a "Member of Parliament since 1837"-(5) as Secretary of the Treasury on two occasions, and as Secretary at War, and Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Previously to that "he had acted as Deputy Chairman of the Quarter Sessions in the Country for fourteen years." As Financial Secretary to the Treasury he had (6) "to superintend all matters relating to the Customs" in 1834-5-so that (9) "the only experience he had previously had of the details of the Customs was during the short time he held the office of Financial Secretary at the Treasury." It appears by the return (730) that none of the present Commissioners were taken from the practical departments of the Customs; but Mr. Richmond, who has retired, had filled offices in the Customs previously to his appointment as Commissioner. When a vacancy occurred (1500) in the Deputy Chairmanship, it was filled, not by one of the members who had acquired the experience of the Board, but by a gentleman who had not previously been a Commissioner. As an authority more experienced than either the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Board, the Committee refer to the evidence of Mr. Charles Boyd, Surveyor General, who corroborates the confession, that knowledge of their business is neither expected nor required of Commissioners. (983) "He never knew any instance of a Surveyor General having been appointed a Commissioner of Customs in England." Mr. George Cornewall Lewis, one of the present Secretaries of the Treasury, implied by his very question to Mr. Dawson, his contempt for what are called "practical men." (1519) "If," enquired this official gentleman, "when a vacancy occurred at the Board of Customs, it was necessary to appoint a person from the department, would not the choice of Government be very much restricted as compared with what it is at present?" "Very much. restricted indeed," replied the witness; and the Committee concur with these authorities: the choice of the Government would be "restricted,"-restricted to those who are fitted for the place. In an Appendix to the Report, (No. 27, p. 3,) there is given an opinion of the authorities of the Treasury, which bears upon the subject of the practical working of the Board: "We believe," say the officers of the Treasury, in their Report, "that the superior officers to whom it has been the custom of the Board to refer for advice upon practical points, have generally discharged the duties entrusted to them efficiently and faithfully. From their practical knowledge, acquired step by step in their progress to the responsible offices they now fill, there are many cases in which their advice must be of great importance. We think, nevertheless, that the Board, individually and collectively, will be better fitted to judge of the soundness of the opinions submitted as guides to their judgment, by making themselves thoroughly conversant with the practical working of all the business which comes before them for consideration and decision." A rebuke more pointed, yet more subtle, was never wasted on incompetency more unconscious of its defects, or more self-sufficient in its callous blindness to the most cutting, if also the most quiet reproof, veiled in the polite disguise of a suggestion, (732) Sir Thomas Fremantle is not to be convinced that the recommendations of his superiors should be regarded as commands. As |