Chairman he deprecates the admission of a practical officer, to a seat at the Board. He conceives that the experience which the ablest servants of the Customs could bring to the table, would be only dexterity in timber measuring and gauging. (733) “I always find," observes the Chairman, "that persons intimately connected with practical details, have particular notions of their own upon the subject." He appears to think it best to have no particular notions, and to decide without data, and judge prior to information. "The Committee," he proceeds, (734) "cannot be aware of the immense number of practical questions connected with the Customs; and if the Commissioners were to attempt to superintend them in detail, they would have neither time, nor, I think, judgment for the discharge of the important duties of the Board, official, ministerial, and judicial, which they are called upon to discharge."-In short, the Chairman of the Board implies, that as it is impossible to master all the duties, it is better to be incapable of performing any of them. After such a declaration the next question follows with the sequence of a corrollary. (735) "All the present commissioners had to learn their business when they went there?— They had to learn that part of their business when they went there." In his evidence, however, upon this point the Chairman of Customs is moderate, and speaks with absolute hesitation, in comparison with his Deputy, Mr. G. R. Dawson. It is observed to Mr. Dawson, (1517) that in the lower department of the Customs the best officer is always selected for promotion, and he is asked, "might not the same rule be applied in appointing practical officers to higher seats at the Board?""Certainly," replies the Deputy Charman, "If the Government chose to adopt it, of course it could be adopted; but, nevertheless," says he, (1507) "I think it would be the most dangerous and most useless thing that could possibly be done." The argument he employs is drawn from the case of a Surveyor General, who he thus describes: "The Surveyor General is a man who begins by being a landing waiter and he works his way up to the top of the department, perhaps after 25 or 30 years' experience.... He comes to the Board room without the slightest knowledge of anything whatever except the practical business of the department, and that practical business very often of a very antiquated nature. The Surveyors General cannot be supposed to have, and are not in a situation of having, the general information that the members of the Board have. I have seen, myself, instances where it has come to be a question between practice and policy; and in those cases the practical Commissioner is always an impediment instead of an advantage; he urges, 'Such was the practice 20 years ago.' He is replied to, But circumstances have altered, steam and other improvements have been introduced; the practice 20 years ago is not suitable to the practice of this day.' 'Oh, that may

6

be your opinion; it was so in my day, and it is better not to alter it now. In short, the word 'practice' meets you in every direction, and becomes an impediment to a more liberal construction and more liberal management on the part of the Customs." But the Deputy Chairman is met as follows: (1508) "To take another profession, say the mercantile, you are aware that thousands of instances have occurred of men in mercantile life having raised themselves from the lowest beginning to be merchants of great eminence?-There have been many. (1509) Have you ever heard it stated that those merchants who have so raised themselves to eminence were less liberal in their views and proceedings than those who had been born to the station?Certainly not; but I do not think that a merchant would be at all a proper person to be a Commissioner of Customs." Then comes a diplomatic addition, (1510) "I do not consider him at all disqualified, but I do not think he would make a good Commissioner of Customs. It is a mere opinion of course.'

It appears, however, to have escaped Mr. Dawson's astuteness that if Surveyors General are of low origin and limited education, it is probably because Commissionerships hitherto have not been opened to the ambition of a higher class, and he seems to forget that if the fiscal practice of the Customs is antiquated, and has not been adapted to "steam and other improvements," that must be the fault of the Commissioners who regulate that practice. But in plain truth, than these replies, a bolder assault upon the ordinary understanding never was attempted, and this evidence is relieved from grave rebuke, only by its grotesque absurdity and ridiculous contradictions. "If the government chose to adopt it, of course it could be adopted

it would be the most useless and dangerous thing that could possibly be done. I do not consider him at all disqualified, but I do not think he would make a good Commissioner." Such are a few of the flowers of Mr. Dawson's fancy, and specimens of his consistency and intellect.

The divided allegiance which plain men owe to common sense, and to their superiors, generally results in their declaring their loyalty to the former. Mr. Charles Boyd, the Surveyor General, could not talk nonsense with the easy confidence of Mr. Dawson, and therefore gave up the attempt. Having been thought by Government fit for the office of Commissioner of Customs in Dublin, (981) he could not be brought to think that the climate of London reduced him to a state of incapacity for the duties of the Thames-street Board. Having the fear of the Deputy-Chairman before his eyes, he slyly observes, (998) "I must not say how advantageous it would be; but I think that some practical knowledge at the Board would not be at all prejudicial to it." Perhaps Mr. Brown, M.P., did not at once apprehend the subtle satire of this reply,

ostensibly to the Committee, but really at Mr. Dawson, for with Lancashire downrightness, he asks Mr. Boyd at once(1000) "Have you any doubt that an infusion into the Board of Customs of practical officers would be beneficial to the public service?" Mr. Boyd answered, with emphasis, "I have no doubt it would."-As admirals are first of all midshipmen, and field marshals begin as ensigns or cornets-as even primates must enter the church as curates, and the present Lord Chancellor commenced his legal career as an attorney-at-law; a general prejudice appears to prevail, not at all confined to Custom-house officers, in favour of the proposition, that the best qualification of a master is apprenticeship. Mr. Cattley, a London merchant, was asked by Alderman Humphery, himself also a member of the commercial classes, (3609) "What qualification do you think would be a fit qualification for a Commissioner of Customs?" His prompt reply was the very obvious one: "a knowledge of business and trade."

Mr. Alderman Humphery pursues his interrogatories:

(3610) You think that such persons would be better Commissioners than young men who are just come from college? -I think so; I certainly think they would be better qualified, (3597) and I confess that it was with some astonishment, that as a merchant of this city, I saw that eight gentlemen were appointed Commissioners of Customs, who could never have known anything of their business till they were appointed.

(3598) Some of those gentlemen must have recently left the University?-From the Return, I see three gentlemen who must have been appointed very shortly after they had finished their University career. There is the Honourable Stephen Edmond Spring Rice, 24 years of age at the time he was appointed; he is now 36 years of age. Then there is Stephen George Lushington, Esq., he was 26 years of age at the time he was appointed; he is now 52. Then there is Frederick Goulburn, Esq., who was 27 years of age at the time he was appointed; he is now 33. And the designation appended to each of the names shows that not one of the previous pursuits of those gentlemen was such as to make them conversant with the business of the Customs.

(3601) Will you read what the previous pursuits of those gentlemen were?-Mr. Lushington was Private Secretary to one of the Secretaries of the Treasury. Mr. Spring Rice was Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer;' and Mr. Goulburn was 'A Barrister at Law.'

(3602) Do you not believe that those gentlemen so designated were the private secretaries of their own fathers who happened at that time to be the Secretaries of the Treasury, or Chancellors of the Exchequer ?—Yes.

Mr. J. D. Powles and Sir John Hall, men of the largest experience, both concurred with Mr. Cattley. Mr. Tooke, the eminent author of the valuable work "On Prices," and himself a merchant of fifty-six years standing, gave the following evidence :

(3909) From your intercourse with commercial men, do you or do you not find more dissatisfaction of the conduct of the Customs prevailing now, as to the administration of the Customs law, than you found prevailing in the time of Mr. Dean and Mr. Deacon Hume?-As far as I can judge, most decidedly so.

(3935) Do you consider that it would be to the public interest to open the door for superior officers of Customs becoming Commissioners?—I should say nothing could be more impolitic than to impose any obstacle to that. Mr. Richmond, who was a very efficient Commissioner, rose from a subordinate department.

(3950) What sort of training would you require ?-Training to habits of business; those are points that rest upon the discretion of the parties who have the appointment.

(4021) Do you consider that a man of business is a man who is well acquainted with the business that he is called upon to perform?-Yes, and who does it attentively and thoroughly.

(4019) Do you consider that a man just come from college could be regarded as coming within the description of a man of business?-Certainly not. I should beg leave to repeat what I said before, that you cannot exactly define what constitutes a man of business. A man may have been thirty or forty years in routine business, without being a man of business; but every body cognizant of business knows what is meant when you speak of a man of business; it is like the definition of common sense. Supposing you say that such a man is deficient in common sense, your meaning is perfectly understood. If you applied to merchants in London, and put the question to them, "Do you consider that the Board of Customs, as at present constituted, consists of men of busi

ness?" I think the answer that you would invariably receive would be, that they were not men of business.

The intrepid Deputy-Chairman, it is but just to observe, entertains a very different opinion of the merits of "self and partners." He thus "rises with the occasion."

(1502) Is it not the duty of the Commissioners of Customs to collect a revenue of upwards of £20,000,000 sterling, in such a way as on the one hand to prevent fraud, and on the other to avoid embarrassing the commerce of the country by unnecessary interference?

(1503) In the discharge of that duty, have not the Commissioners to administer a most complicated system of laws, and of rules and regulations grounded on them, to check the accounts, and to superintend the conduct of 10,000 or 12,000 officers?

(1504) That being so, do you consider a young gentleman of 24 or 26 years of age, without any previous experience, competent to discharge those important duties ?-Every young gentleman of 24 years of age would not be competent to it; but there are many young gentlemen of 24 years of age who would be more competent to do it than other gentlemen of 64 years of age; and I consider that the qualifications, character and education of a gentleman of 24 years of age are to be taken into consideration in saying whether he is capable of discharging those duties or not; and that is done by those who have the power of making the appointment." It is but right to add that Mr. Dawson appears by the return to be himself 59, and that at 24 he was no doubt quite as efficient as he is

now.

§ 3. DUTIES OF COMMISSIONERS.

Having to some extent shown what officers the public get for their money, it naturally suggests itself to enquire, what money the officers get-and as one of their most important duties appears to be quarterly to draw their salaries, the section may properly commence with satisfying the anxiety of the public on that head.

The Chairman (13) informs us that he gets £2000 a yearhis deputy £1700, and the rest £1200.

For this, according to the Chairman, (47) the "Board sits for the transaction of business daily during the year, excepting