the old embankments and foundations, which had created such formidable difficulties, proceeded to strengthen the site with piles. The following account of the manner in which this process was managed is rendered interesting by subsequent results. Mr. Laing says," Piles were prepared of the length of 28 feet and 30 feet, and then were driven in those places whence the old walls, &c., had been removed. These piles were placed in triple rows under each wall, three feet apart, longitudinally. They were shod and hooped with iron, and they were driven till the rammer of the engine recoiled. But, after much power and considerable time had been spent in driving, it was found necessary to draw many of them up again, in consequence of their having been forced into an oblique direction by the resistance of some intervening portion of the old foundations. Sleepers of beech, measuring nine inches by five inches, were laid on the heads of the piles, filled in with brickwork, and a tier of beech planking was laid on these sleepers."

The preliminary difficulties having been overcome, the first stone of the new building was laid at the south-west corner by Lord Liverpool, then First Lord of the Treasury, on the 25th of October, 1813, and it was opened for business on the 12th of May, 1817. The northern elevation, fronting Thames-street, was plain and simple, but the south front, towards the river, assuming a more ornamental character, the central compartment projecting forward, and the wings having a hexastyle detached colonnade of the Ionic order. (Cut, No. 1.) The attic of the central part of the building comprising the exterior of the Long Room, was decorated with alto and basso-relievos, in panels, representing in a series of allegorical figures the Arts and Sciences, Commerce and Industry, and characteristic figures of the principal nations with which Great Britain holds commercial intercourse. The dial-plate, nine feet in diameter, was supported by colossal figures of Industry and Plenty, and the Royal arms were sustained by figures of Ocean and Commerce. The Long Room was 196 feet by 66. Unfortunately the foundation of the edifice gave way, notwithstanding the pains which had been taken to render it secure. In the Report of a Parliamentary Committee in 1828, on the duties connected with the Office of Works and Public Buildings, the failure of the building is somewhat harshly noticed. It is said, that "the fraudulent and scandalous manner in which the foundation of the New Custom House was laid, occasioned, by its total failure in 1825, a charge of no less than £170,000 to £180,000, in addition to the original expenditure of £255,000." The total cost of the edifice has therefore amounted altogether to nearly half a million sterling. The Long Room and the central part of the building were taken down and the foundations relaid, but the other parts remain as built by Mr. Laing. The figures just described, which decorated the principal front, were removed; but though there is greater plainness, the simplicity is pleasing, if not majestic. As the

breadth of the quay is not equal to the height of the building, it is not seen to advantage from that point, but the bridge or the middle of the river affords a better view. The river front is 488 feet in length.

About one-half of the persons employed in the civil service of the country are in the Customs. Not only is the immense business of its own port conducted at the London Custom House, but the Board of Commissioners which sits there has all the out-ports in the United Kingdom under its superintendence. From them it receives reports, and instructions from this central Board are issued to them in return. The Custom House is one of the oldest sources of statistical information; and under the Inspector-general of imports and exports clerks are continually engaged in recording the facts and figures which illustrate the commercial movement of the country, the result of their labours being frequently printed and made public by order of Parliament. In the reign of Charles II. the Privy Council for Trade urged the Commissioners of Customs "to enter the several, commodities which formed the exports and imports; to affix to each its usual price, and to form a general total by calculating the value of the whole." The official persons on the establishment thought that such a task was impossible, and it was not executed until 1694, when the office of Inspector-general of imports and exports was established; and the Custom House ledger, which records their value, was first kept. The 'official' rates of valuation still in use were adopted at the same time. The Act of 1694 rendered it imperative for all goods exported and imported to be entered in the Custom House books, whether by tale, weight, or measure, &c., with the prices affixed. From that date, when any article came to be exported or imported for the first time, the price presumed to be the then current value was entered in the books; which price ever after remained invariable. For example: when cotton goods were exported for the first time, the price they then bore was entered in the Custom House books; and that price is still attached to all goods exported of the same description. This is what is denominated the official value; but it soon became no measure of the current value of the articles, although it continued without any check until 1798. In that year the Government of the time imposed a convoy duty of four per cent., ad valorem, upon all mercantile commodities exported; and, to do this equitably, every shipper of goods was compelled to make a declaration of their then actual value. This is what is denominated the 'declared or real value.' There is at present a daily publication, called the Bill of Entry,' which is prepared and issued at the Custom House, for the purpose of affording information respecting the quantity of imports and exports, and of the arrival and clearance of ships.

Besides the warehouses and cellars, there are about one hundred and seventy distinct apartments in the Custom House, in which the officers of each department transact their business. The object to be accomplished by the architect, and which, as he tells us, he kept

constantly in view, was a judicious classification and combination of offices and departments so as to ensure contiguity and convenience, and at the same time to present such accommodation as was demanded by the peculiar purposes for which each was required. All the rooms are perfectly plain, with the exception of the Board-room, which is slightly decorated, and contains paintings of George III. and George IV.; the latter by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Long Room is the principal object of interest, being probably the largest apartment in Europe of the kind. The length is 190 feet, width 66 feet, and height between 40 and 50 feet. (Cut, No. 2.) The present room is not so handsome as the one taken down after the failure of the foundation. The cellars in the basement form a groined crypt or undercroft, built in the most substantial manner, and fire-proof; the walls are of extraordinary thickness; and a temperature is constantly maintained which is most suitable for wines and spirits, those which are seized by the officers of the Custom House being kept here. The King's Warehouse is on the ground-floor, and of great extent, and with its diagonal-ribbed arches presents a fine appearance in the interior. The public entrance to the Custom House is on the northern front, and leads to a double flight of steps. On the southern side there is an entrance for the officers and clerks from the quay and river.

The number of officers and clerks for whom accommodation is provided in the Custom House is about three hundred, and there are as many more whose business is chiefly out of doors, and who are in daily communication with the establishment. The inspectors of the river superintend the tide-surveyors, tidewaiters, and watermen, and appoint them to their respective duties for the day; and each of these inspectors attends in rotation at Gravesend. The tidesurveyors visit ships reported inwards, or which are proceeding outwards, to see that the tide-waiters who are put on board discharge their duty in a proper manner. The tide-waiters remain on board until the cargo is discharged, if the vessel is entering inwards; and in those outward-bound they continue until they are cleared at Gravesend. The landing officers, under the superintendence of the landing surveyors, attend the quays and docks, and take an account of goods as they are landed; and on the receipt of warrants showing that the duties are paid, they permit the delivery of goods for home consumption. The officers of the Coast Department attend to the arrival and departure of vessels between the port of London and the outports; and give permits for landing their cargoes, and take bonds for the delivery, at the place of destination, of goods sent coastwise. They appoint the coastwaiters 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 wea ther. When the wind blows from a particular quarter, and the arrival of ships is great, 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 ship-brokers, ship-owners, 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 landingplace. 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 warehousekeeper makes out a 're-weighing slip;' a landingwaiter 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

chant.

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.

THE EXCISE OFFICE.

Duties of Excise have been established in England somewhat more than two centuries. Clarendon states that an attempt was made to introduce these duties in 1626. On July 22, 1643, an ordinance of the Lords and Commons was issued for the speedy raising and levying of monies "by way of Excise, or new impost," for the maintenance of the forces raised by Parliament. It was further ordained, " for the better levying of the monies hereby to be raised, that an office from henceforth be erected and appointed in the City of London, to be called or known by the name of the Office of Excise, or new impost, whereof there shall be eight Commissioners to govern the same, and one of them to

were

may determine. Of the eight Commissioners appointed, three were Aldermen of the City, and another was one of the Sheriffs of London. The office which they established was open from eight in the morning to eleven, and from two till five in the afternoon; and it was placed under the cognizance of a Committee of the Lords and Commons, appointed for advance of money, which sat at Haberdashers' Hall. The Commissioners of Excise were empowered to call in the aid of the trained bands, volunteers, or other forces, if necessary. The first articles in the list of duties we ale, beer, cider, and perry. The brewers were required to enter weekly, in the new office, the quantity of beer sold, the names of the buyers, and were not to deliver any beer without first obtaining a ticket from the new Excise Office. The duty on strong ale or beer, of the value of 8s. the barrel, was 2s. if sold to the retailers, and 1s. if for private use. Private families, who brewed, paid a duty also. An Excise duty was also imposed, at the same time, on wine and certain groceries, on wrought silks, furs, hats, lace, and one or two other articles. The Royalists at Oxford soon followed the example of the Parliament, and adopted the new system of taxation, but they also declared that it should only be continued during the war. Although the people of London were so favourable to the Parliament, the new Excise Duty created riots in London, and the populace burnt down the Excise House in Smithfield; and Pym, who is called by Blackstone the father of the Excise, in a letter to Sir John Hotham, remarks, that it would "be necessary to use the people to it by little and little." The Parliament, however, went the length of subjecting meat and salt to the new tax; but they, some time afterwards, abolished it on these articles.

One of the earliest financial measures of the Government, after the Restoration, was the abolition of the Excise on all articles of consumption, except ale, beer, cyder, and perry, which produced a clear annual revenue of £666,383. These duties were divided into two equal portions, called the Hereditary and the Temporary Excise. The first was granted to the Crown for ever, as a compensation for the abolition by Act of Parliament of various feudal tenures,-as the Court of Wards, and Purveyance, and other oppressive parts of the Royal hereditary revenue. The other half was only granted for the life of the King. On the accession of James II., Parliament granted him for life the Temporary Excise, and increased it by additional duties on wines, vinegar, tobacco, and sugar; which, however, were only retained for a short period. The Government of the Revolution would gladly have made itself popular by abolishing the more obnoxious of the Excise duties, but its necessities would not allow of such a course. The duty on glass and on malt was first imposed in William's reign, and the distilleries were subjected to Excise duties as well as the brewers. The salt duty was re-imposed, and the duty on ale and

beer increased, the latter producing an addition of £450,000 a year to the revenue. During the thirteen years of the reign of William III. the Excise duties averaged nearly a million a year. The expensive wars of Anne's reign rendered it necessary still further to increase the number of articles subject to Excise, and duties were imposed on paper, stained paper, and soap. This branch of revenue produced an average of £1,738,000, during the twelve years of her reign. The produce of the Excise, during the reign of George I., averaged £2,340,000 per annum, with no addition to the number of excisable articles, except a small duty on wrought plate.

The Excise still remained the most obnoxious branch of the public revenue. The laws for its protection were very severe, and no other tax so constantly and inconveniently interfered with the trading classes, or excited so wide-spread a prejudice; for the unpopularity of the duties on importation was chiefly confined to the towns on the coast, but the Excise laws were felt by persons in every corner of the country. When Sir Robert Walpole introduced his great scheme for extending the Excise, he was baffled by the most violent and ignorant burst of popular clamour which it was ever the fate of a minister to encounter. Conceiving that the laws of the Customs were insufficient to prevent fraud, there being only one check-that at the time of importation-he proposed that tobacco should be subject to the laws of the Excise as well as those of the Customs. While the total duty would not be increased, the Customs duty was to be only three-farthings the pound, and he added:-" I propose for the future that all tobacco, after being weighed at the Custom-house, and charged with the said threefarthings per pound, shall be lodged in a warehouse or warehouses, to be appointed by the Commissioners of Excise, of which warehouse the merchant-importer shall have one lock and key, and the warehouse-keeper to be appointed by the said Commissioners shall have another, that the tobacco may lie safe in that warehouse till the merchant finds a market for it, either for exportation or home consumption." If he sold for exportation, the quantity, after being re-weighed, was discharged of the Customs duty of three-farthings; and if for home consumption, he paid also the same duty, and on delivering it to the buyer, an inland duty of fourpence to the proper officer appointed to receive the same. This is precisely, in its main features, the admirable principle of the present warehousing system; but in vain did Sir Robert Walpole urge the merits of his plan, and plead for it "as a most innocent scheme, hurtful to none but smugglers and unfair traders." In vain did he assert and demonstrate, with great clearness, that his measure would increase the revenue, and "tend to make London a free port, and, by consequence, the market of the world." The alarm had been thoroughly sounded from one end of the country to the other, even before the minister brought forth his project; and when his intentions were only surmised, the country was lashed into such a state of blind fury,

that it seemed to have lost its common sense on this occasion. The opposition throughout the country became so furious, that Walpole is reported to have said that, "in the present inflamed temper of the people the Act could not be carried into execution, without an armed force; and there will be an end of the liberty of England, if supplies are to be raised by the sword;" and he would, he said, resign rather than enforce taxes at the expense of blood. On the 11th of April, when the Bill stood for a second reading, he moved that it should be postponed to the 12th of June, or, in other words, he abandoned his scheme. The Wine Bill, a measure of similar character, was never brought in. No great national victory could be hailed with such exuberant triumph as that with which the country greeted the defeat of the minister's 'monster project.'

Above half a century elapsed after the defeat of Sir Robert Walpole's Excise scheme before any minister ventured again to enter upon the consideration of new Excise duties. Two, at least, of Mr. Pitt's predecessors had been afraid of proposing any fresh taxes of this nature; but he successfully carried measures of the very same nature as those which Walpole was compelled to abandon. In 1784 he imposed an Excise duty on bricks, and several classes of traders were compelled to take out licences; and in 1786 he proposed to transfer the greater part of the duty on foreign wines from the Customs to the Excise, as a means of preventing extensive frauds upon the revenue; for even allowing the consumption to have been only equal to what it was in 1750, the revenue suffered an annual loss of £280,000. The wine-merchants of London and their brethren in the country represented the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of subjecting wine to the Excise laws, and the danger of extending those laws; but a great change had taken place in the public mind in the course of half a century, and the people remained perfectly quiescent. In order to put an end to the smuggling of tobacco, by which the revenue sustained a loss of £300,000 a year (out of 12 million pounds consumed 5 millions were smuggled), the same minister proposed in 1789, to transfer the greater part of the duty from the Customs to the Excise, and, of course, to subject the manufacturer to the survey of the exciseman. On this occasion he alluded to the success of the transfer of duties in regard to wine; and although a few members expressed their disapprobation of the extension of the Excise system, the measure was carried through both Houses with great ease.

Pitt could now carry any fiscal measures which he seriously thought necessary; and in 1793 not fewer than twenty-nine articles were subject to the Excise laws, and the gross amount of this branch of revenue was about ten millions and a half. The highest amount which the Excise produced in any one year, for England, was £27,400,300 in 1821; and the largest number of officers in this department, for the United Kingdom, was 7,986 in 1815, their salaries amounting to £904,922. In 1846 the net Excise revenue for the United Kingdom was £12,251,932. At