MESSRS. LEAF AND THE CUSTOMHOUSE.

MESSRS. LEAP and Co. complain that we have stated their case with unjust severity; and they seem to have supposed that we had acted under the influence of statements derived from persons inimical to their interests. This is a very mistaken supposition : we acted, as we always do, from our own impression of the merits of the question ; our view of it was derived from the Parliamentary Paper and the speeches in the House of Commons, assisted by such general informa- tion as we could collect; we had no communication whatever with the parties in the City opposed to the house of Leaf—we sought no in- formation from that quarter, and we received none. Nevertheless, after a second perusal of the documents on both sides,—and more especially after an inspection of the premises in which the immense transactions of Messrs. Leaf are carried on,—we have corrected our former impressions ; and come to the conclusion, that we ought in fairness to insert their full explanation. We have had ocular proof that the whole Foreign silk trade of Messrs. Leaf forms an insignificant part of their establishment. We committed a mistake in regard to the duty paid by them on silk goods imported in 1831 : the sum in the account did not include all duties, but those on certain kinds of silk goods; and the Memorial states, that they had paid on Continental manufactures imported by themselves, on an average of five years, at the rate of 23,0001. per annum, besides pur- chases from other importers.

Smuggling, in some of the varieties of silk goods, is practised more or less by every dealer ; and we are satisfied that this must be the case till the duties are ldavered. The Government is convinced of it. A committee of inquiry is, we believe, determined on; when all these inysteries will be cleared up, and it will be seen how little reason the deluded silk-weavers and their abettors, who clamour against poor Huskisson's " free trade," have to complain of foreign competition. We subjoin the Memorial of Messrs. Leaf, which has now, like the case against them, been made a Parliamentary Paper, on the motion of Mr. Ellice.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF Ills MAJ ESTE'S TREASURY.

The Memorial of William Leaf and James Coles, of Old Change, in the City of London, Warehousemen. &covens, That in the month of August last, your Memorialists, having some extensive repairs and alterations in progress in their warehouses and premises, found it necessary, for the protection of a portion of their stock, which was lying in that part of the premises which was under repair, as well as to afford accommodation for the men. about fifty in num- ber, employed in the work, to remove a quantity of French silks and ribbons to the houses of three of their friends for safe custody, and the property was accordingly re- moved on the 5th and 6th days of that month.

That your Memorialists had no other object in removing the goods than those already stated. and that the various cases in which they had been packed were sent to the seve- ral parties, to whose care they were to be intrusted, openly and without the least at- tempt at secrecy, or of concealment of any kind; tine removal having been made by your Memorialists' usual porters and servants in the ordinary course of their business. That the different boxes remained at the houses of the friends in whose custody they had been placed, from tine 5th and 6th until the 12th day of August, a period of six or seven clays.

That during this period no attempt was made, or intention evinced, by your Memo- rialists, to secrete the goods which had been so removed from their premises, although ample opportunity was afforded to them so to do, and as it is natural they would have done, had they been conscious that any portion of the property had been smuggled, or was in any manner subject to the surveillance of the officers of the Customs. That in the afternoon of the 12th day of August, the various cases were simultane- ously seized, at the houses of the friends of your Memorialists, who hal taken charge of the goods, by certain officers of his Majesty's Customs.

That the only pretext for such a proceeding on the part of these officers was tine cir- cumstance of the removal of tine goods from the premises of your Memorialists, but which circumstance your Memorialists contend did not, however it might afford an op- portunity for an illegal exercise of authority. in tine slightest degree justify such an un- warrantable and oppressive measure ; the statute, by which the duties on foreign silks are imposed, not having rendered it necessary that the permission of the officers of the Customs should be given or required for the removal of such property after it had been cleared at the Customhouse.

That with equal propriety, the officers of the Customs might then, or at any time, in the exercise of their caprice, have seized, or seize, the whole of your Memorialists' fo- reign stock, and thus put them to the proof of the payment of fine duties upon all the silk goods in their possession. That at fine time this illegal and oppressive seizure was made, it was well known to the officers of the Customs that your Memorialists had, contrary to their invariable practice of paying the duties upon and clearing their foreign importations immediately on their arrival, twenty-three cases of French goods lying at the Customhouse, and which cases were allowed to remain in bond during the mouth of August, for the same reason that the property which had been seized was removed ;—the want of room in your Memorialists' warehouses, and tine inconvenience of having the boxes in the way of the workmen, as well as to protect the silks from fine risk to which they might have been subjected. of sustaining injury from the dirt and dust occasioned by the repair and alteration of tine premises. That your Menaonalists, immediately upon the seizure of tine goods being made known to them, claimed the property as their CAM and (desiring nothing but Justice and impartiality, and courting an opportunity of disproving the charge of the property being contraband) made a formal application to the Commissioners of the Customs, to be allowed to attend the examination of the boxes.

That although your Memorialists only asked permission to inspect their own goods for the purpose of showing, by the Customhouse books, and from tine invoices and other documents in your Memorialists' possession, that the duties had been regularly discharged upon the very articles which had been seized, yet this reasonable request, which would have been granted if a course of fair dealing had been intended, was not complied with. That your Memorialists having: instructed their solicitors to apply to the Board of Commissioners, were subsequently informed, in consequence of this professional inter- ference, and of application having been made to the law officers of the Customs, that no inspection of the goods would be permitted to your Memorialists, unless they pre- viously furnished the particulars of the property contained in the cases detained under seizure by the Board. That your Memorialists then produced to the Solicitor to the Customs an account showing the number of the pieces of broad silk, and of the boxes Of ribbons which were in each case, and distinctly explained, that your Memorialists' object in claiming per- mission to inspect the goods, was to take note of the several marks and numbers, in order to enable them to examine their invoices (which were very voluminous), and thus trace (though with infinite labour) melt distinct article, and thereby prove the pay- ment of the duty. Still your Memorialists were peremptorily refused permission to attend the examination of the cases, and denied access to their own property which had been so unlawfully seized. That by this act of injustice and oppression of the Board of Commissioners, whose duty your Memorialists respectfully contend it was to have afforded the facilities re- quired, your Memorialists were utterly deprived of the only means by which they could have shown that the seizure had been improperly made, and that the imputation cast upon your Memorialists, of their having evaded the payment of the duties upon lie goods seized, was unfounded in fact and unsupported by any reasonable proof.

That the refusal of the Board of Commissioners to afford your Memorialists the op- portunity sought by them, of establishing the fact that the duties had been regularly paid upon the identical goods which had been seized, amounted to a. positive denial of ustice, and at once placed your Memorialists in the power of the individuals by whom he seizure had been instigated and made; and who, by the operation of the revenue- awe, became deeply and beneficially interested in the condenamtien•eflhe goods, and

in the vault of any proceedings which might be instituted against your Memorialists to recover penalties for an alleged infraction of those laws.

Thut these circumstances and the inevitable consequences were perfectly well known to the Board ocCustoms and their law officers, because, under the existing law, the proof of the payment of .the duties is thrown upon the claimant; and that where an inspec- tion of the goods seized is refused to the claimant, the accused party, however innocent. is deprived of the best and only admissible evidence that the duties have been pro- perly satisfied. And here your Memorialists most respectfully submit to your Lordships, that the system thus acted upon by the Board of Commissioners, and carried into execution by the subordinate officers of the Customs, under the sanction of their superiors. and of which system your Memorialists have so great cause (as they trust Your Lordships will find) to complain, calls into action the worst passions of human nature, operates as an

inducement to false representations, and to vexatious and illegal seizures of property, and offers encouragement to the perjurer and a bounty to perjury, at the same time that it is fraught with oppression and injustice to the honourable trader; who, if every rea-

seeable facility be not afforded to him to establish his innocence, may at any time be made the victim of a designing man, incited, by cupidity or any other base motive, to sacrifice truth and good feeling at the price of the portion of the penalties which may be recovered at his instance, by his ingenuity, and upon his testimony, for an imputedc infraction of a penal statute.

That your Memorialists, in the natural indignation excited by the tyrannical and: oppressive conduct which they have represented to your Lordships, determined to try the legality of the seizure which had been made of their property ; but unhappily they soon found, from their legal advisers, that as the onus of the proof of the payment of the ditties was thrown upon them as the claimants, while the means of identifying the par

fielder articles seized with the payments actually made were denied to them, the law officers of the Customs had only to look on, and, in the absence of the distinct proof of the payment of the duties by your Memorialists on the identical goods under seizure and claimed by them. establish a verdict for the Crown.

That the goods seized, were parts and parcels of numerous invoices and importations, made by your Memorialists, at different times since the year 1826, and of various pur- chases made by them of other importers ; and that it was totally impossible, as your Memorialists were then and are still prepared to show (the very extensive nature of their dealings precluding the possibility of their keeping a piece-book), to give evi- dence of the payment of the duties, unless they had the marks and numbers of the articles under seizure, and so untruly alleged to be contraband. That the law officers of the Customs having made, for the purpose of colouring their refusal to show the property, some observations equally calumnious and absurd as to the danger of granting your Memorialists' request,—among other things asserting the possibility of invoices being fabricated to meet the charge,—your Memorialists pro- cured witnesses from Lyons and other parts of France, to prove the regular purchase and shipment of the 'mode, and subpamaed other persons to show the entry of the same goods at the Customhouse, and the payment of tine duties thereon.

That on the arrival of these witnesses in London, those from the Continent bring- ing with them, (to produce if necessary) copies of the invoices, bills of lading,' and other papers, relating to their purchases and shipments for your Memorialists, regularly certified by the official authorities competent, according to the law of France, to give authenticity to such documents, your Memorialists caused another application to be made for leave to inspect their goods, which was again refused to them, although the Solicitor of the Customs was fully informed of the trouble and expense your Memorialists had taken and incurred, to meet the objections before raised by him l to the granting of their request. That your Memorialists, having thus found that the only means by which the pay- ment of the duties could be proved were sealed against them, by an undue exercise of official authority, and that it was, consequently, impossible for them, in despite of the Justice of their case and their own consciousness of innocence of tine offence imputed to them, to meet the Crown with the slightest chance of success in a Court where the law officers of the Customs had the power to protect the proceedings instituted on the suggestion of the informer at the expense of the suffering claimant, by withholding the only information by which his innocence could be established, consented, at the sug- gestion of some of their private friends' to compromise the prosecution ; and that they accordingly agreed to pay the sum of 20,0001, on the express terms and conditions that their goods should be restored to them, and that all legal proceedings should be stayed.

That the restoration of the goods seized was iti the first instance strongly objected to ; but that this express condition, without which your Memorialists would not, on any terms, have compounded tine prosecution, was ultimately agreed to, (in consequence' of your Memorialists, on the objection being made known to them, insisting on proceeding to trial) ; and upon payment of the sum stipulated, the property was returned.

That the payment of 20,000/. was a secondary consideration to your Memorialists, cotnyazed with the object which they contemplated in making so large pecuniary sa- erifice,—namely, the restoration of their property, with a view to the refutation of the unjust and unfounded charge which had been made against them ; your Me- morialists not allowing any consideration of pecuniary loss to be put in competition with the opportunity which might be so purchased, of dearing themselves from the ca- lumnious aspersions to which they had been subjected in consequence of the seizure of their property. That the value of the goods which had been so seized, and which had been claimed . by your Memorialists, and restored to them under the circumstances detailed, was • 5,469/.9s. 3d. as valued by the proper officers of Customs.

That upon the examination of these goods, when they were restored to your Me- morialists, with the marks and numbers thereon, and upon a comparison thereof with the original invoices in their possession, and their corresponding payments for duties, your Memorialists are enabled to prove, that the duty had been paid by them, in the year 1831 alone, upon the following goods, being part of the identical articles so, seized,—namely, 87 Pieces of Gros d'Orleans, cost price at Lyons £1030 18 6 ditto 64 11 6 33 .. Figured Haytien 404 10 6 1 .. White Gros des Indes 10 0 0 5 .. Coloured Gros de Naples 33 6 6 35 .. Black Satin 398 8 8 3810 .. Ribbons 2044 10 0 £3986 5 8 Besides 16 pieces, of the value of 150/. without numbers, and

which, consequently, cannot be traced 150 0 0

£4136 5 8

That the fact of the duties on the goods described having been paid, if not actually• known to the officers of the Customs whose province it was to make an examination of them preparatory to condemnation, might, with their facilities of access to positive in-- formation, have been ascertained if ordinary diligence had been used for the purpose,. and in particular the regular discharge of the duty on the 87 pieces of Gros d'Orleans valued at 1,0301. 18s. 6d. must have been remembered, considerable discussion having arisen at the time when the goods were cleared at the Customhouse (in the course of' the year 1831) as to the character of the silk and the duty chargeable thereon.

And here your Memorialists take leave to repeat, that part of the goods, which had been seized, had been purchased of other importers; and to state, that other portions of them had been two or three years in your Memorialists' stock, and that it would be im- possible for your Memorialists to prove the payment of the duty upon such parts as they mad so purchased of other importers ; and that it. might be difficult for them, at this time, to indentify that portion of the property which had been for several years in their stock ; yet, your Memorialists anxiously court an impartial investigation into aR the facts connected with tine numerous articles seized, satisfied that, on the proof of the payment of the duty on the large portion already particularized, a liberal presumption would warrant the conclusion that the remainder of the goods were also duty paid. That your Memorialists repel with indignation and contempt an insinuation that has been made against them, that they are persons who live by a system of contraband dealings, and that, infect, the evasion of the payment of duties on French silks, was a matter of vital importance to your Memorialists' trade ; and at onceto refute the false- hood of such unworthy representations, to show how inconsistent such a charge is with your Memorialists' conduct, and how little their business transactions warrant such illiberal attacks, your Memorialists take leave to subjoin a statement of their annual purchases, which, taken upon an average of the last five years, are as follow From Glasgow and the neighbourhood £100,000

Leeds 150,000 Manchester and Macclesfield 440,000!!!

Coventry 250,000 I I 1. Leicester 100,000

Carried forward.... £1,000,0e0 Brought forward.... £1.000.000 Nottingham and Derby 100.000

Norwich 80,000 Worcester and Yeovil 100,000 Spitaltields 150,000!! I

All France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy 110,000

Making a Total of £1,540,000 of whieh their foreign trade bears a proportionof about one-fifteenth part, thus exhibiting the magnittule and extent of your Memorialists' dealings with the British manufac- - timers, and the comparatively limited amount of their Continental transactions. And your Memorialists further take leave to state, that, during. the last five years ending in July ll31, the total amount of the duties paid by them upon French and • other Continental manufactures imported by then:selves, was one hundred and seventeen lhousand pounds, being an average of twenty-three thousand four hundred pounds per an- num ; and that during the same period your Memorialists have purchased Freud' silks to the extent of about ninety thousand pounds ftom other importers, being an annual average of ogghieen thousand pounds.

That the capital invested by your Memorialists in their business. is between 300,000/. and 400,0001. ; and that so far from this capital having been, as has been most unwarrantably and falsely stated by an honourable Alderman (who has boasted in a letter, addressed by him to the Secretary of the Silk-weavers' Committee, of having 'held up your Memorialists as " the great smuggler to merited obloquy and contempt.") .'abused' to the injury, instead of being employed for the benefit of their suffering fel- low-subjects,"- has been, and is employed almost exelusivcly in British manufitetures ; thousands of fatuities in each of the districts already enumerated, being necessarily dc. pendent upon your Memorialists' extensive business for employment and support. That your Memorialists have read, with equal surprise and indignation, that it has been alleged in a letter, addressed by another honourable gentleman to his consti- tuents. that your Memorialists "had been deeply engaged in illicit trade, with lie ob- - ject of deriving large and undue profits from a systematic violation of the provision, if the law for the protection of the English manufactures ;" whereas your M emorialist s • .unhesitatingly assert, that their foreign transactions (comparatively small as they are with the magnitude of their business) hove been carried on, more with a view to st Mat- late the eflbrts and ingenuity of the home manuthetnrer, by the introduction of art ivies of superiority and bode, than to their individual prolit,and: that the foreign depart inept 'of your Memorialists' establishment has, in fact, realized a much smaller profit than the other branches of their trade.

. That your Memorialists are prepared to substantiate these statements, by the pro- . &Lotion of their invoices and other authentic documents; and while they submit I heo,

to your Lordships in the proud satisfitction of contributing largely to promote the in- . terests of many important manulitetures in this country, they feel it due to themselves, . as respectable citizens of the first commercial city in Europe, to defend their characters from the imputation of contraband dealing, which less successful competitors in laci- ness are conspiring, through the instrunteutalit y of others, and in places where your . Memorialists cannot nwebthe slanderers, to fasten upon them; your Memorialists fear- lessly declaring that no other. house in the king. hint has, either by exertion, capital. - or talent, done more to encourage the manulltetures of their native country than

themselves.

And here your Memorialists deem it necessary to call your Lordships' attention to the het, of an unworthy attempt having been made by the law officers of the Customs, to couple the seizure, to which this memorial and representation has immediate re- ference, with another seizure which bad been made at the door of your Memorialists' warehouse, on the 5th day of the same month of August, of a parcel of goods, which had been improperly placed in a cart belonging to your 31emorialists, but which goods were not the property of your Memorialists. nor were they in any manner connected or acquainted with the transaction, although your Memorialists have discovered that advantage had been taken of the facilities afforded by a large establishment to use it conveyance belonging to yonr Memorialists dealings for the private dealinss of' others. And here your -Memorialists also deem themselves warranted in calling the atten- tion of your Lordships to other annoyances to which your Memorialists have been subjectea by some of the subordinate officers of the Customs, and which annoyances are necessarily attendant upon, and are created by the system of which your Memo- rialists have coniplained. That, on the lbth of September last, a public carrier's cart having arrived at your Memorialists' premises, about eight o'clock in the morning, with six bales of Man- chester and Macclesfield silks, valued at about 800f., one of ofliCeiti interested in the seizure and proceedings for which your Memorialists are now seeking redress and compensation, took possession of the diffigent bales of goods, and conveyed them to the Customhouse as contraband; but which goods were, after a strong remonstrance . against such an act of aggression had been made to the Board of Commissioners by your MemorialiSts, returned to them. • That your Memorialists have adverted to these facts in consequence of tbe un- worthy attempts that have been made, and are still making, to wrest them to your Memorialists' prejudice, and to show to your Lordships that the most honourable dealings may be tortured to the injury, if not to the ruin of any importer of foreign goods, so long as the system of which your Memorialists have complained shall be sanctioned by the authority of his Majesty's Government. That your Memorialists have been advised mud believe that the peculiar hardship of their case entitles them to the liberal consideration of his Majesty's Government.

And your Memorialists, therethre. pray that your Lou lships will be pleased to institute an inquiry into the circumstances connected with the transaction embraced by this memorial, and thus Aim]. your Memorialists an oppor- tunity to prove the payment of the duties on the goods seized; and that thereupon your Memorialists may lie declared entitled to a restitution of the sum paid by them under the peculiar circumstances above detailed. LEAF, Sox, and COLES.