5 OCTOBER 1844, Page 14

MISERIES OF THE CUSTOMHOUSE.

PERHAPS too little attention is paid to the angry letters which so often grace the columns of the Times and other daily journals re- specting the enormities of the Customhouse. The "gentlefolks of England, who live at home at ease," think as little of the annoy- ances of the Customhouse as their fathers thought of the ocean's dangers. They see plainly that the complainant is angry ; think that he may be unreasonable ; half incline to sympathize with the searcher who had been galled by his petulant endurance of the discharge of a duty no more pleasant to the active than the passive party ; and perhaps pamper their imaginations with ludicrous images of a fussy old maid or testy bachelor storming under the infliction.

But, letter-writers apart, the delays and distractions at the Bri- tish Customhouse are a serious grievance, and felt by a pretty numerous class of so rambling a nation as the English. Let us take Southampton for example—because we have never heard of complaints of rudeness or incivility on the part of the officers there; which is more than can be said for those of London and Dover. The steamers for the West Indies, the Mediterranean, Havre, and the Channel Islands, all sail from and arrive at Southampton. As the terminus of the South-western Railway, that port has become one of the great gates of England. Troops of passengers are continually arriving from all parts of the world; and all must pass through the ordeal of the Custom- house. It is four or five o'clock in the morning, and two steamers have just come into dock brimfull of passengers; who have no earthly business in Southampton, and perhaps have urgent business elsewhere. They are told that their baggage cannot by any possi- bility be examined till after seven ; and at seven the first train starts. Duly at the hour, they are congregated in and around the small waiting-room, with its awkward table, and hard narrow benches. After an hour's delay, a door opens, and one person is summoned. Five minutes, ten minutes, quarter of an hour may elapse, before he is despatched. For some time only one official appears to summon the impatient passengers in Succession; at length one is appointed to each boat. Meanwhile, invalids and delicate women are kept waiting on the slow process—perhaps in a raw inclement morning. Nine o'clock approaches, when the second train starts. Some are barely able to catch it, unwashed, un- dressed, unbreakfasted; others see it depart, and perhaps another after it, before they are relieved from their purgatory. This scene is of daily recurrence, and enacted not at Southampton alone, but at London, Dover, Folkestone, Falmouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Hull, and Edinburgh. The petty miseries so long protracted, and inflicted upon so many, amount in a year to a serious diminution of the average of national comfort. If the public and legislators would look at the matter in this light—paint it to themselves in detail, as STERNS did the sufferings of his imaginary captive—they might be less in- clined to laugh at the angry letters in the newspapers, and more to devise some means of redress.

It is not so easy to say how the nuisance is to be abated. Uwe are to have customs-duties—and above all, duties on numerous articles, small elegant luxuries included—no power can prevent attempts to smuggle, especially on the part of the ladies. They will be nibbling at it. Forbidden lace, cambric, or essences, mit as irresistible to them as forbidden apples were to their first an- cestress. The officers are more civil than, every thing consi- dered, could reasonably be expected of them. But the imperfect organization of the service—the want of system and of hands— causes the delay; and dignitaries, like those whose oversight gave occasion to the Customhouse frauds, cannot be expected to take the trouble to expedite the business of searching, otherwise than by increasing the percentage on the collection of customs to an amount that might drive JOSEPH HUME into fits. There is little hope of reform,—unless, indeed, by the Premier's taking heart of grace and striking out of the list of taxable articles all the pretty little things which tempt to smuggling by the facility of stowing them away. A fixed duty of 48. a quarter on wheat would replace the whole of the loss ; and the abolition of duties on French gloves, cambrics, eau de Cologne, &c., would create a diversion in the families of the landed aristocracy, by winning the hearts of the ladies for the mea- sure. This method of abating the nuisance would have the further recommendation of dissolving the Anti-Corn-law League; for nine- tenths of its paying members would fall off from it, and the re- maining tenth would only talk languidly on, to save the appearance of consistency.