THE BOARD OF CUSTOMS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
S'Itt—Some months ago, I addressed a letter to you on the subject of the Boards of Customs and Excise. In that letter (which you did me the honour of inserting in your valuable journal), I show,ed clearly that considerable reduction of expense might be effected, and facility and despatch in the transaction of business be greatly promoted; by the re- moval, at once, of those highly-paid officers called Commissioners. In their room, I proposed that the heads of the different departments atongst which the management of the revenue business is distributed, Should sit as " a Board." The adoption of this plan would effect a wing of the salaries now paid to Commissioners, and would insure a board better qualified to decide upon the matters which might come . before them ; as in almost every case, there would be at least one of the Board able to explain the circumstances, and the particular laws and regulations which bore upon them. Worthy of attention, however, as my plan undoubtedly was, it embraced a reform too extensive, and WHS directed against functionaries toe well connected and influentialao allow of its being received in the quarter which only could carry it into effect. I beg leave now to offer a few suggestions touching upon reforms of a more limited nature, and such as, I think you will agree with me, ought to be immediately adopted. One thing I am certain of. I have myself seen numbers of inferior officers harassed by removals, transfers, and reductions of salary, when the reform accom- plished was not half so reasonable and imperative as that which I am about to propose ; nor, in point of saving, of half its importance. The alteration I propose is this. On the Customhouse. establish- ment, there are five officers called " Surveyors-General." Their salaries are 800/. per annum each, and they have extra allowances for travelling and other services. Now, Sir, the reform for which I con- tend is, that those officers ought to be swept away at " one fell swoop." The saving effected by it would be considerable, as the salaries alone amount to 4,000/. per annum ; and I shall be able, I trust, to show that the service, so far from being impaired by the reduction, would be greatly improved. I undertake to show this: I feel convinced I can prove it to your satisfaction. I have little to say of the qualifications of the gentlemen who now fill the office of Surveyors-General. My , own opinion, indeed, is very far from a flattering one ; but their qualifi- cations have nothing to do with my argument, and I shall therefore pass them over. The Board is a Court of Appeal from the decisions of the Surveyors-General ; or at least a court of revisal and final judgment ; and, therefore, I may assume that the qualifications of a Commissioner are equal at least to those of a Surveyor-General. I contend then, Sir, that the office of Surveyor-General is unnecessary and improper. Unnecessary, because the duties of it might very well be performed by some of the nine Commissioners; and improper, because those duties decidedly ought to be performed by them. There are few, I believe, in the habit of transacting much business at the Customhouse, who have not heard described by others, or them- selves experienced, the inconvenience which arises from the ignorance of detail and inaptness for business observable amongst thoQe high functionaries, the Commissioners. When I assert that the majority of the Board are ignorant of the details of business and of the service, let it not be supposed that the assertion rests only on my own opinion. The truth is, that it is scarcely possible the case can be otherwise. The Commissioners are most of them younger branches of good fami- lies, and placed in their offices, not even with a pretence that they will be useful public servants, but to provide them with a comfortable pro- vision for themselves, in order that the pulls on the family purse may be lessened. Previously to taking a seat at the Board, how many of them, I would ask, ever saw even the outside of a ledger, or knew the meaning of the words "double entry, tare, over entry, or drawback?" They might be young men of average talent ; but a man cannot go to bed a man of pleasure and fashion, and rise in the morning a man of business. Application, opportunity, and experience, are required to form a man of business; and it cannot be affirmed that their habits and pursuits ever were such as could qualify them for a seat at the Board of Customs. CICERO, indeed, has recorded a memorable instance, in which a great man qualified himself for a very important military command, even during the period he was travelling to assume it—" In Asiam factus imperator venit," he says of Lueum.us, "cum esset Roma profectus rei militaris rudis." But such instances have always been rare ; and at any rate the journey from the West-end of the town to the Custom- house would be too short for such an astonishing progress. But you will ask, what has this to do with the Surveyors-General ? It has much to do with them : if their offices were abolished and their duties transferred to members of the Board, the latter would possess many opportunities of acquiring that knowledge of business and detail which it is so desirable they should possess. They would then exercise a personal supervision over the subordinate officers, as they ought to do; and would not be compelled to receive reports upon trust, to the injury of those officers, the chances against whom accumulate in more than a geometrical ratio, according to the number of Inspectors who have to handle their characters. On this subject, the lines of HoitAcE are are worth the Board's attention.
" Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem Quam guns aunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et rpm Ipso sibi tradit spectator."
But further, the Commissioners acting as Surveyors would hear the representations and opinions of merchants, see the details of bus:iLss, and observe the actual working of the system, and all in the very best way, that is, "at first hand," as it is usually expressed; and they could not fail to be greatly benefited by the experience and information which they would thus obtain.
The practicability of the alteration cannot be questioned. There are nine Commissioners, and not a word is required to prove that two of them might in rotation perform the duties of the Surveyors-General-
This letter has run to a greater length than I expected; for which I beg your indulgence. Should you honour it with your notice, I have in my Note-Book an entry headed" Coast Guard Office," which entry I will " turn into shape," that it may be submitted to you ; and trusting that it will not deserve to be termed an "airy nothing," I am, Sir, with the deepest respect for the talent and evenhanded justice that distin- guish the Spectator, your obedient servant and constant reader, A POOR CLERK.
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