The corn arrives in the port of London in varioussized vessels, containing from 200 to 3,000 quarters; those from Essex and Kent bring from 300 to 500 quarters; those from Norfolk and Suffolk, 500 or 600 quarters; those from Ireland, 700 to 1,200; while those from foreign countries bring yet larger quantities. To make a ton in weight, there are about 37 bushels of wheat, 40 of beans or peas, 45 of barley, or 56 of oats. When a corn-laden ship arrives in the Thames, whether from British or foreign parts, it is subjected to numerous dues and corporate charges. There are waterbailliage, groundage, Lord Mayor's dues, cocket dues, and others. The city claims the right of measuring the corn, which is done by sworn meters and fellowshipporters. The meters are appointed by the City Corn and Coal Committee; whereas the porters are appointed by the Alderman of Billingsgate Ward, ex-officio Governor of the Fellowship-porters. There are meeting-places for both bodies, where they receive instructions as to the work to be done. The corn brought from the counties near London is mostly in sacks; but that which is brought from more distant places is in most cases stowed in loose bulk in the ships; and the metage arrangements vary slightly in the two cases. At the appointed time and place, a sworn-meter, accompanied by seven or eight fellowshipporters, board the ship, and proceed to measure the If the corn is in loose bulk, two of the porters lade the corn into the measure with concave wooden shovels, pass the "strike" over the surface, and empty the contents of the measure into a sack held by a third porter; when filled, the sack is hoisted up by three porters on deck, and shot by one of them over the ship's side; it falls into a lighter, in loose bulk. If the corn is in sacks, the sacks are emptied on board into the measures, and turned over the ship's side. When the lighter arrives at the granary, the corn is again measured, and is carried in sacks to the floor where it is to be stored, where it is again shot loose. When the corn is sold, the buyer sends sacks for it to the granary, and another measuring takes place. The meter and his gang of porters can measure from 400 to 800 quarters in a day, according to circumstances.

London, the Corporation and the Livery Companies | to establish themselves as factors or agents for different were accustomed to provide a store of corn to guard farmers, and to establish stands in different places. against scarcity. Sir Stephen Brown, Lord Mayor in These stands increased so much in number, that a 1438, established a public granary; and such granaries Corn Exchange was built to accommodate the factors, became frequent in later years: the main purpose being in Mark-lane, in 1747. Eighty years afterwards the to supply corn to the poor at cheap rates when the New Corn Exchange was built. Before describing the market-price became high. But the operations of the market operations at these places, we must speak of regular dealers became disarranged by these artificial the corn-ships in the river and the docks. proceedings; and there is now little question that the market-price of corn suffered more fluctuation from these causes than if the sale and purchase had been left to settle themselves. By about the year 1521, the city was regularly provisioned with corn by the Corporation and the Companies; a large store being always kept at the Bridgehouse. After a time it was determined that each of the twelve great Companies should buy their own corn, and store it up at the Bridgehouse, there to be sold from time to time. The garners at the Bridgehouse were divided into twelve parts, each for one Company. Baking-ovens also were built, some at the Bridgehouse and some at the Companies' halls. At length the Great Fire destroyed the granaries, mills, and ovens; and as it was found by this time that this corporate mode of buying and selling corn was not so effectual as the operations of private trade, the system died out. The corn at that time was landed at Queenhithe and Billingsgate, whence it was meted and carried on the backs of horses to various parts of London. There were two corn-markets, one in Cornhill, and one at the west end of Cheapside. Bread-street was for many centuries the chief market for baked bread; the bakers were compelled to sell their bread in open market, at fixed prices; and they were subjected to many penalties and punishments for deviating from the rules. In one instance a baker, for giving deficient weight, was drawn on a hurdle through the streets of the city, with a fool's cap on his head, and about his neck were suspended his loaves of deficient weight." The Assize of bread was determined first by the City authorities, and afterwards by Act of Parliament; its object was to compel the bakers to increase the size of the loaves in proportion to the fall in the price of wheat. The bakers of Stratford, in the fifteenth century, used to bring much bread up to London; the corn came to Stratford by the River Lea, and the bread was brought to London in carts, which took up their station in Cornhill and Cheapside, where the bread-carts soon became surrounded by the buyers. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Cornmarket was at Bear Quay in Thames-street; and there were flour and meal-markets at Queenhithe, and near Holborn-bridge. It was at this period that the commercial system of factorage-now employed in so many branches of trade-was first applied to the corn-trade. The change is said to have been brought about in the following way. A number of Essex farmers used to frequent an inn at Whitechapel, and leave with the landlord samples of corn, with a commission to sell for them, so as to avoid the necessity of the farmers attending the next market. The next stage was for persons

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corn.

We follow the corn to the granaries, which are large lofty buildings, studding both banks of the river for many miles; but the chief of them are about the neighbourhood of Bermondsey and Shad Thames. There are also warehouses for corn at most of the docks. The duty on imported corn is now so small, (1s. per quarter on all kinds of grain, and 44d. per cwt. on all kinds of flour and meal), that the speculative calculations of the bonding system are nearly abandoned; but in the

The Fish traffic of the Thames has a history of its own, wholly distinct from others.

Billingsgate had a long struggle with Queenhithe, in respect to precedence as a fish-market. Billings. gate is below bridge, Queenhithe above; and this alone would have given a superiority to the former; but in the time of Henry III., and for many generations afterwards, the customs or dues of Queenhithe were the perquisite of the queen-consort; and royal influence was not slow in enforcing such regulations as would bring the fish to that market which best suited the exchequer of the royal ladies. was often a struggle between the fish-dealers and the Court party, between whom the Corporation held its way as best it could. Queenhithe never did and never could extinguish its rival; on the contrary, as freedom of commerce gradually arose, the fish-dealers gradually brought into a regular system the location of the fishmarket just below the bridge. When Queenhithe was the chief landing-place for fish, the fishmongers congregated in the neighbouring streets; and Old Fishstreet, Fish-street-hill, &c., thus acquired their names. Old Fish-street first had mere fish-boards, then stalls, then sheds, then shops, and lastly houses for the accommodation of the fishmongers. There was in the 15th century a considerable space occupied as a fishmarket, a little to the north-west of old London-bridge, where now narrow streets abound. Fish were also sold at Stocks' Market, on the site of which the Mansion House now stands; and many of the principal fishmongers established themselves in the street directly in a line with the bridge, then called Bridge-street, but now New Fish-street and Fish-street-hill. The fishmongers and dealers in these places made strenuous efforts at different times to suppress the sale of fish by humbler dealers or by hawkers; but this they could not effect. The Fishmongers' Company was a powerful corporation from a very early period: at one time an offshoot from it existed, comprising the stockfishmongers, or those who dealt only in dried and salted fish. The Company had halls in Old Fish-street, New Fish-street, and Thames-street.

In some cases the dock authorities and the timber- | Altogether in the metropolis there are about seventy merchants employ their own men to clear the cargoes; timber saw-mills, some owned by timber-merchants, but in others it is customary to give the work to a but the majority by persons who merely cut timber contractor, called a lumper, who undertakes to get it for the trade. executed for a certain definite sum. These lumpers are often publicans; and, like most middlemen, they are accused of grinding down the wages of the regular hands, by employing any worthless or reckless fellows whom they can obtain at low wages. They can even underbid the Dock Companies themselves, where allowed so to do; because they make a portion of their profit by inducing the men to spend the greater part of their earnings at the public-houses. At the West India Docks the mahogany and fancy woods are taken from the ships and piled in heaps, by men who work six or eight in a gang. They have a few simple machines to assist them in raising the logs from the hold, dragging them along the quays, and stowing them in the warehouses. In the more extensive timber-trade of the southern docks, various systems are acted on according to circumstances. Some foreign timber-ships are unladen by their own crews, but all others by the timber-porters. Some are unladen in the docks; but others (when having heavy cargoes) in the river. Some of the cargoes are termed rafted goods, and some landed goods. The rafted goods are hewn timber; the landed goods comprise deals, battens, sleepers, &c. When a vessel is unladen in the river, the landed goods are discharged by lumpers who also load the lighters; but when small vessels go alongside a quay the lumpers discharge directly to the shore, where the wood is received by the dock-porters. The lumpers do not work on shore. The dock-porters are divided into two classes-deal-porters and stave-porters, who receive the landed goods and sort and pile them. The hewn timbers or rafted goods are thrust by the lumpers through the port-holes of the vessel into the water; here they are received by the rafters, who put them into lengths and sizes, and arrange them into floats of eighteen pieces each. If the ship is discharged in the river the rafter floats the timber to the pond of one of the docks; but if the ship is discharged in the dock, the rafter floats the timber only from the main docks to the pond. The rafter has much demand on his skill, in gauging and sorting the timber according to size, quality, and ownership, and making it up into floats. The rafters are all freemen of the Waterman's Company, to enable them to navigate their rafts in the river. There is an inferior class of rafters, called pokers, who are only allowed to work in the docks, not in the river. Rafters and pokers work directly for the Dock Companies, but deal and stave porters work under contractors or middlemen. The rafters are generally paid by the day; but the porters are paid by the piece, receiving so much for carrying and stacking a hundred deals or staves, &c.

Much of the timber thus brought into the Thames is cut up into veneers and other forms on the spot. There are about twenty saw-mills on the Thames, between London-bridge and Stangate, applied to this purpose.

In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed, which made Billingsgate a free market for fish, and established certain regulations which somewhat curtailed the monopolizing powers of the more wealthy fishmongers. Among the strangest statutes passed in by-gone times are two or three having for their object to induce the people to eat more fish; and at different times within the last century, associations and projects were framed having the same object in view. It was sometimes urged that fish would be cheaper to the people than meat; at others, that by eating the fatness of the sea instead of the fatness of the land, our national wealth would be husbanded; and at others again, that by encouraging the fisheries we should raise up a

ably low prices. The wholesale market is over at nine o'clock, after which time the stalls are occupied for a few hours by retail dealers.

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AND ITS SYSTEM. These four commodities-coal, corn, timber, and fish-all present peculiar features in respect to Thames commerce and shipping. All other articles of merchandize may be conveniently noticed, so far as it falls within our present purpose to notice them, in connection either with the Dock system or the Custom House system of the Port of London.

The Custom House, like all the other great commercial institutions of the Port of London, had its growth by slow degrees. As early as the year 1000, in the reign of Ethelred II., customs duties were made payable on vessels arriving in London. Billingsgate was at that time the chief landing-place; and ships and boats arriving there had to pay from one halfpenny to fourpence each, according to their size and cargoes. Most of the merchants of the Port of London in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries were aliens foreigners; and they were, in many cases, dignified ecclesiastics, who were not too spiritually-minded to attend to their own pockets. Licences were not unfrequently granted by the sovereign to popes, cardinals, and other clerical dignitaries, to export wool and other commodities without payment of the duties; all ecclesiastics in the country were uniformly exempt from such duties; and their foreign brethren often acquired a goodly slice of such privileges.

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commodious and important than either of its predecessors. For a period of ninety-six years this structure witnessed the astonishing growth of the commerce of London, when fire again did its work, and destroyed the third Custom House in 1814. A fourth structure was opened for public business, in 1817; and although. that fourth may in one sense be deemed the same building as that which now exists, yet, as the foundation of the edifice gave way in 1825, and occasioned an expenditure almost equal to that which the structure itself cost, we may not unfittingly deem the present the fifth Custom House of the Port of London.

The

These several buildings showed by their successive enlargements the growth of the shipping trade of the Thames. The third Custom House was that which first exhibited the well-known characteristic of the Long Room, for the general transaction of business. This long room was 127 feet long, 29 wide, and 24 high. Some time before the fire in 1814, the Treasury had planned great extensions of the building; but the fire determined them to commence all de novo. third Custom House was distant about 500 feet from Billingsgate; but it was resolved to bring up the new one as far west as the landing stairs close to Billingsgate. The site was before that a mere river shore, dotted with small quays; but as it was determined to build the new Custom House on a lofty terrace, it was essentially necessary to lay a firm foundation; and it was a defect in this foundation that led to the disaster of 1825. An immense number of piles were driven into the soft soil; beech sleepers were laid on the piles, filled in with brickwork; beech planking was laid on the sleepers, and the structure was erected on the planking. Notwithstanding all this care the foundation proved treacherous; the long room and the central part of the building gave way, and by the time the present structure was finally completed the cost had risen to about half a million sterling.

The first germ of a regular Customs establishment in London was the location of an officer at the wharfs where wool was weighed and shipped; for in early times wool was regarded as by far the most important product of industry in this country. In 1559 an Act was passed, appointing twenty quays or wharfs in different parts of the Thames, where alone goods might be shipped or landed; one for corn only, others for wine and oil, others for fish, corn, and salt, and others for general merchandize. The owners of these quays were bound by penalty to see that no goods were landed or shipped except in presence of the Customs' officers; and the old creeks and landing-places were forbidden to be used for such purposes. These newlyappointed quays were called the legal quays, three of which were Old Wool Quay, New Wool Quay, and Galley Quay; but as the amount of accommodation afforded was so limited, extra places, called sufferance wharfs, were established, for the most part on the Surrey side of the river. At that time, the London Customs' Establishment was farmed to one individual for a definite yearly sum, and employed about fifty persons; but in 1590, the Government took the management in their own hands, and the revenue rapidly increased. The original Custom House, which was destroyed at the great fire, was little better than a mere warehouse. It was replaced by a new ornate. structure which cost £10,000. Again was it burned Of the apartments in the Custom House, nearly two down in 1718, and the third building was much more hundred in number, the Long-room is the only one

All the myriads of passengers by the Greenwich and Gravesend steamers are familiar with the external appearance of the Custom House. We first see that for which the citizens ought to be grateful to Mr. Laing the architect, and to the authorities-the fine open gravelled terrace, five hundred feet long. This is the only place of the kind on the Thames, within the limits of the City of London; and it is really a boon. to have such a promenade in the centre of the world of commerce. If at low water, the terrace appears to be lifted up to a noble height above the river; if at high water, we can see what is transacting on the terrace. Behind the terrace rises the structure itself, 488 feet in length, and having a façade sufficiently varied to present a fine appearance from the river; in the centre is a hexastyle Ionic portico; and each wing has a detached hexastyle colonnade of the same order. There are three flights of steps, to afford access to the interior. The northern front and the two ends are less