"

tions" by gentlemen who in France, would be called knights of industry, was valued by the Board at £339 13s. 10d., and was returned to the Exchequer for condemnation. It will scarcely be believed that the consummate atrocity of even Exchequer law does not permit a poor suitor to plead before its Court to claim his own property, unless within eight days after notice he finds ample security to pay the enormous costs that may be awarded against him! The bondsman was however found, and just as the defendant was preparing for trial, a neighbour to whom he showed two pins which had escaped the lynx eye of the fiscal alguazils, informed him he knew the maker of them, who was a real live British citizen, paying scot and lot in the parish of Clerkenwell. The manufacturer, on being shown the articles seized "marked them for his own," produced his apprentice, who had assisted in setting them, and the diamond merchant who had given him the stones and the order for setting. They had each been pawned by separate individuals, who were also discovered, and one of whom had actually summoned the pledgee for restitution. This overwhelming evidence of the utter imposture of the whole seizure was laid before the Board, and resulted in the restitution of the Clerkenwell watches, and a modest proposal that four of the pins should be returned if he would suffer the rest to be condemned; with a hint from the officers that they would ruin him if he baulked them in their prey. But it was, to use the slang suggested by the subject on which we write, "no go." The Clare-street innocent merely demanded access to the articles seized for inspection of his witnesses for the trial, and was, with the characteristic sharp practice of the Board, refused. Fourteen months after the seizure, the trial came on, and on the production of only two out of the many witnesses who eight months before had been examined before the Surveyor General, the Crown counsel threw up the case, consented to a verdict against the Customs, and the whole goods were given up to the defendant, materially injured and depreciated in value. A vain attempt was made to draw from the Treasury some compensation for costs and loss on proceedings which would have disgraced the rule of Russia, and made the Great Mogul to blush for the scandalous oppression,-(5th Report, Case No. 45.)

It is perhaps doubtful whether the preceding or succeeding case presents features of grosser abuse or greater enormity. It is only clear that there is no monopoly in the graver fiscal grievances..

V. Lyon Samuel is a Jew and has a counting house, No. 4, Bury-street, in the City of London. He is a wholesale dealer in watches and jewellery. When the Society of Friends chose a wife for Obadiah, in default of his picking one for himself, and sent her home, he said, "Thou art not very bonny, but there, take the keys." Na ture has not been very bountiful to our friend Samuel. He is certainly neither a Nar cissus, nor a Beau Brummel. But we know the man. He is as honest as Nathaniel as true as his own best chronometer-as incapable of a dirty trick or fraud upon fair dealing as the best man that ever ate pork. No man's character stands fairer, few have stood so long in his neighbourhood. Lounging quietly at his counting-house door one fine day," thinking, perhaps, of the unclean beast, but certainly not of "Her Majesty's Commissioners for Foreign Revenue," these Thames-street alguazils stalk into his premises, lay the claws of their fiscal inquisition upon thirty-nine gold and silver watches, and scarcely deigning to move their serene lips, carry them off before his face to their fence and ken, ultimately to be sold with other stolen goods! In vain he petitions the Treasury to restore his property-in vain he offered to prove that the duty had been paid on all the articles seized-utterly abortive are his demands that the goods should be returned to the Exchequer for condemnation, that the Crown officers might be made to prove their case, in place of forcing him to prove plaintiff, that he might be placed in the difficulty of proving a negative. He urges, indeed, that these watches were not seized on importation, or in the ship, but after having passed the Cus tom-house, and being in his own premises. He pleads that no forms of the Customs are so issued that it could be possible for the importer, after they are in his own premises, to preserve evidence of their having paid duty, or their identity with those for which he holds the clearance papers. The Customs will neither prosecute him, nor return his goods; a verdict, by a Jury, in his favour, would not cover the costs; the first loss is the best, and in fine he has to console himself for his loss by his taking it out in a bellyful of bull-ragging; and by winding up the correspondence, with the flourish of a peroration to the Treasury, in which he has the satisfaction to inform their Lordships that the act of which he complains "cannot be considered in any other light than a

direct robbery, in defiance of all law or equity in any civilized country." This rhetorical effort is no doubt creditable to friend Samuel's powers of composition, but we confess we think it is scarcely worth thirty-nine gold and silver watches. It may be perhaps considered suspicious that he did not make himself plaintiff in a suit for illegal seizure, costs of suit notwithstanding-but it has to be explained that the Board of Customs has a six months statute of limitations of their own; and that they contrive to amuse their victim with delays, hints and hopes, until the half year after seizure has expired, and then break off the correspondence with the assurance that "their Lordships see no ground whatever for interfering in the case," when they have thus secured themselves against every chance of interference with themselves.—(4th Report, Case No. 37.)

It is occasionally the fate of vigilant and meritorious officers to "catch a tartar," and to experience the difference betwixt going for wool, and coming back shorn. In the public mind it is to be feared the following cases will excite more mirth than commiseration.

The first experimental victim thus introduces his adventure to the public:

VI. I am a citizen of London, and occupy a warehouse in the Minories, where I carry on the business of a drysalter, &c. On Saturday morning last, 13th of July, three men entered my premises and informed me they were officers of Customs, and that the object of their visit was to seize two bags of coffee, which had been illegally abstracted from the London Docks, and brought to my premises on the previous day. I told them they must have been misinformed, and denied that any such goods had been received on the premises either by me or any one else. They replied it was false, and that they had watched them out of the London Docks, through the St. Katherine, and finally delivered with other goods at my warehouse.

I and my friend, a Mr. Carpmael, the proprietor of the premises, protested against such a base accusation, but in vain, the porter in our employ was sent for, and questioned as to what goods he had brought out of the Docks on the previous day, when it turned out that what these guardians of the national revenue had assumed to be two bags of coffee were simply two bags of damaged coriander seeds, which were purchased by us at one of Mr. Samuel Carroll's public sales in Mincing Lane. The Dock notes were shown and the goods were examined by the officers, still they would not be convinced of their error, or that they had been misinformed. By virtue of their authority (I presume) they commenced opening and rummaging every article and every nook and corner of the premises to our great injury and annoyance, but without meeting with the object of their search, we at the same time satisfactorily showing to them by official and other documents that every article in our possession had paid the Custom duties imposed thereon.

On the previous Wednesday, the 10th of July, I paid the duty on one quarter cask of port wine ex Saltren's Rock from Halifax, North America, and brought it from the docks to my warehouse on the following day, for the purpose of being bottled for my own private use. The surveyor of Her Majesty's Customs, a Mr. Cockshott said it was very extraordinary a tradesman should have a quarter cask of wine on his business premises, and that it was there for the purpose of sale, and not for private use. I remonstrated, and reminded him that it was the practice of their honours the commissioners and other superior officers of Her Majesty's Customs, to purchase from at least two to three hundred gallons of spirits alone, for their own private use, exclusive of wines, at every quarterly Custom-house sale. He replied that they were gentlemen, and that such goods were conveyed from the docks to their own private residences, but then I was a trader, and had brought this wine to my house of business, the premises being licensed for the sale of pepper, &c.; and that he should take upon himself to assume that it was illegal. It was accordingly seized in Her Majesty's name. I had drawn off a few bottles, and requested him at any rate to leave me what he might consider was a moderate quantity of wine for a tradesman. No, not a single drop would the surveyor of Her Majesty's Customs leave behind.

Mr. Carpmael who occupies part of the premises also had some bottles of wine and spirits for his own private use, almost the whole of which had been purchased at the Customs and Excise sales, which his certificate proved, a considerable portion of which

had been upwards of three years upon the premises, all of which were declared a legal prize by Mr. Cockshott, the surveyor of Her Majesty's Customs. After having had possession of our premises from eleven in the morning until near five p.m., they prepared for removal; so zealous indeed were they in the performance of their duty, that they pressed for the Queen's service, the first cart they met with in the street. On my remonstrating with them upon the impropriety of pressing a neighbour's cart when there were plenty of town carts waiting for employment on the spot, he insolently replied that for such a purpose they would press the Lord Mayor's carriage if it were passing by.

Mr. Cockshott informed me that I could petition their honours, the Commissioners. I decline to humbly petition their honours to be pleased to restore property which, in my opinion was illegally abstracted from my premises by their honour's officers. I am also in a condition to prove by individuals employed in the service of the Customs and others, that however strictly their honours the Commissioners and their officers may enforce the Customs' laws out of doors, they violate them themselves with impunity, and in my opinion are liable to heavy penalties in so doing. I also purpose to prove that the late extensive frauds on the revenue are mainly to be attributed to the indolence and incapacity of the superior officers of Her Majesty's Customs. In the meantime, as Her Majesty's officers have deprived me of every drop of my cheap North American port wine, the cost price of which was £3 10s. for a quarter cask of 28 gallons in bond, or about 1s. 5d. per bottle, duty paid, I must, if I desire to indulge myself with a glass of wine, proceed to the first gin shop, the Customs' laws forbidding me to partake of refreshment on my own business premises, so says Mr. Cockshott, surveyor of Her Majesty's Customs of the port of London.

ROBERT JAMES LORD,

5, Vine street, Minories, and 91 Fenchurch-street, City. (2nd Report, Case No. 12.)

Instead of petitioning the Board of Customs, where he was not likely to obtain any satisfaction or redress, Mr. Lord brought an action against Mr. Cockshott in the Court of Exchequer, which was expected to come on for trial in the sittings commencing on the 14th of May, 1851, but was compromised in April by the defendant, the Surveyor of the Customs paying the sum of £50 and costs.

Mr. Carpmael, to whom reference is made in the preceding letter, thus states his case in a letter to the Board of Customs :

VII. Honourable Sirs,-I beg respectfully to lay before your Hon. Board the following particulars of what I consider most unjustifiable and illegal conduct on the part of some of your officers. On Saturday, the 13th inst., on my arrival at my warehouse, No. 5, Vine-street, Minories, I found waiting for me, whom I afterwards learned was Mr. Cockshott (Surveyor), and two other Custom-house officers, who immediately requested to see two bags of coffee that had been delivered at my warehouse on the previous afternoon. I told them that no coffee had been brought to my warehouse, when one of the officers stated there certainly had been, for he had watched the man bring it from the London Docks and deliver it at my warehouse. I again said that it was not the case, but that I certainly had received some boxes of arrow-root from the St. Katharine's Docks, and two bags of coriander seeds from the London Docks, which I immediately showed them, and which they examined. I then told Mr. Cockshott that he was at perfect liberty, if he thought proper, to examine my warehouse and its contents, which, assisted by the officers, he immediately proceeded to do, and that most minutely, I affording them every information in the search as to duty, when purchased, &c. On proceeding into an inner room he saw on the shelves some bottled wine, and on the floor two bottles containing whiskey and brandy, which I informed him were for my private use, at the same time telling him when the duties were paid, &c. He then left, as I understood, to make inquiry if the lot of which a five gallon bottle of brandy was part, was purchased, as stated by me, at the Customs' 112th Sale, leaving one of the officers in charge of the premises. On their return, in about half-an-hour, Mr. Cockshott informed me that he had ascertained that the lot had been bought by

me; but that he must take both the wine and spirits away, as I had no right to keep wine or spirits in my warehouse, in consequence of my having a licence for tea and coffee only. I have since applied at the Inland Revenue Office, and seen the principal officers there, who inform me that my having a tea licence only, does not prevent my keeping any quantity of wine or spirits on my premises, and that, on the other hand, parties having licences for wines and spirits only, could have any quantity of tea or eoffee on their premises, and yet no offence be committed, unless the parties were found selling such goods without licence; in which case the parties would be summoned before their Board, and then fined, if the case were proved. This I beg to submit to your Hon. Board is what I always considered to be the law, and if correct, your Surveyor, Mr. Cockshott, has certainly committed a most illegal act, in taking away the wines and spirits from my premises.

In conclusion, I would beg to inform your Honourable Board that I have been in business as a tea, coffee, and spice dealer, &c., for more than twenty-four years past. and during the whole of that time have never had any complaint or information made against me, for any irregularity in my mode of conducting business; and that, during the whole of that time, I have been in the habit of buying at the sales of Colonial and Foreign produce in Mincing-lane, as also at the Customs and Excise sales, &c. That being well-known in the City, the conduct of your officers is calculated to do me serious injury. I have, therefore, to request your Honourable Board will give immediate directions for the restitution of the goods so improperly, as I would submit, taken from my premises, and order such compensation for the injury sustained by me in consequence, as at the discretion of your Honourable Board may seem meet. 5, Vine-street, Minories,

22 July, 1850.

I am, &c.

THOMAS CARPMAEL."

The wine and spirits were ordered to be returned by Board's order, 30 July, 1850; but Mr. Carpmael thinking that something more was due to him, brought an action against Mr. Cockshott, in the Court of Exchequer, which was compromised by the defendant, the surveyor of the Customs, paying as

Such are a few only of the " elegant extracts" from the doomsdaybook of Custom-house annals. We have reasons much stronger than suspicion and conjecture for the statement, that the most flagrant examples of oppression have been suppressed by a private settlement and a pledge of secrecy. A great West End house, and a firm of Liverpool jewellers, we have access to know could a tale unfold which would satisfy the most sceptical, that without the grossest dereliction of duty to themselves and their profession, the trading classes of this country can no longer suffer the commerce of the country to be exposed to the hazards of the infliction of those wrongs at the hands of the Custom's establishment, from which so many have endured the intolerable hardships foreshadowed in the preceding narrative.

It is satisfactory to know, that as the story of the Customs unfolds itself, the interest of the public rises with the occasion, and the victims of its management gather courage to proclaim their wrongs by sympathy with the bolder utterance of more outspoken sufferers.

CHAPTER XI.

"THE LAW IS OPEN-SO IS THE LONDON TAVERN."

CHEAP AND SPEEDY JUSTICE.

It is no part of the province of this Committee, to contribute their contingent to the general condemnation of the system of jurisprudence established in these realms. Entertaining individually very decided opinions on the subject, they content themselves with reserving their expression for a more relevant opportunity; and with referring the public, to the declarations of Lords Denman, Cottenham, Brougham, and other judges of equal eminence, whose denunciations of the abuses of the law and equity courts, occasionally rise to the emphasis of invective. Since the age of Sir Thomas More, who boasted that he was the first chancellor who had ever cleared the Rolls of his court of causes, and whose new Atalantis contains the bitterest execration of his profession of Shakespeare, who classes the "law's delay" among the leading evils of human society, and Massinger, who founds the most successful of his plays upon the iniquities of English law-of the Protector, whose letters are filled with unmeasured exposures of the combined folly and scandalous injustice of the system; down to our own time when the "glorious uncertainty of the law" has become naturalised among us as a proverb, and when we have seen Parliament, as the only means of defining real rights, and making titles to property clear and indefeasible, enacting that the whole reference to the courts of law, but especially of equity, should be entirely set aside, and virtually proceeding upon the assumption that no man would purchase property in Ireland unless he received the guarantee of Parliament that his rights should be protected, not by, but from the tribunals of the country; the connected traditions of public opinion have altogether superseded the necessity for any declaration of the views of this Committee upon the general subject.

But the legal judicatories of the kingdom connected with all questions betwixt the fiscal authorities and the mercantile community, are fairly embraced within the category of the present enquiry; and to this part of the subject the present notice shall be devoted.

Originally the whole courts of law and equity within the realm were