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AGENT AT THE TREASURY.

Salary
Clerk

£250

50

£300

On considering this statement, and the relative salaries we have felt it our duty to propose for the officers of the customs in Ireland and Scotland, we are of opinion that a fixed salary of 1,2501. per annum, and à general authority to the central board to allow 2501. per annum In our Fourth Report we have stated that the more, under the regulations suggested for Scot-consolidation of the boards renders an office of land, will afford a fair and just remuneration for the duty to be performed. The establishment we propose for this office is as follows; viz.

Solicitor......

Addition when paid

First clerk.........

Second ditto

Third ditto

Fourth ditto

this description altogether unnecessary for Ireland, and the same reasoning applies with equal force to Scotland. We recommend, therefore, that it should be forthwith abolished, such compensation being made to the present holder as in your Lordships' opinion may be reasonable.

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£1,250
250

£1,500

350

250

200

100

viz.

Housekeeper..

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The establishments are at present as follows;

One usher

£ 150

142

£292

£70

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In thus proposing salaries for the solicitors of customs in Scotland and Ireland, we wish distinctly to express our opinion, that the individuals holding these situations should be considered as precluded from engaging in any private business whatever, and from receiving any fees or emoluments other than the salaries and extra allowances recommended, which are proposed as full and fair remuneration for all the duties to be performed. Their travelling charges should be paid in the same manner as the travelling charges of the surveyors-general; all fines, costs due from parties, and all payments to be made to law agents or otherwise, in the country, should go through the respective collectors of the revenue: fees to counsel and any other disbursements of the solicitor in Edinburgh or Dublin, when they exceed 107., should be paid on the order of the board; and when under that sum, by the accountant of petty receipts, subject to the future responsibility and account of the solicitor. We have entered into this de- The following are extra allowances upon the tail because we are convinced that the arrange-establishment of the department, to which it is ment for discontinuing the payment of costs to desirable to call your Lordships' attention; viz. solicitors in public departments will be altogether incomplete, unless they are at the same Inspector-general of imports and exports in England time excluded as much as practicable from pecuniary receipts and payments, and from the necessity of having any balances of public money in General register of shipping in England £50 When there were separate officers for the

their hands.

The number of individuals is rather less than we have proposed for Dublin, where the greater extent of the office renders the employment of more persons necessary. The local board of customs have stated to us their intention to consider and report to the general board the number to which these establishments may be limited when the department is removed to Leith; and from this report, your Lordships will be enabled to judge whether any and what alterations in the existing establishment may be necessary.

..........

£80

duties adverted to in England and Scotland, of the customs revenue; and the unanimous

these allowances were no doubt proper; as, however, the Scotch accounts are now to be altogether transferred to England, any distinct grant on their account cannot be requisite; we recommend, therefore, the discontinuance of these payments, on such compensation to the present holders as the circumstances under which they were originally granted may appear

to warrant.

opinions of the different mercantile bodies and others with whom we have communicated, have satisfied us, that whilst he has essentially promoted the interests of the public, he has at the same time given all the facility which, under the system of a separate board for Scotland, it was practicable to afford to the mercantile interests.

In closing our observations on the different offices in Edinburgh, more immediately under the board of customs, we feel it to be due to Mr. Earl, who has for so many years presided over that board, to express our high opinion of the benefits which have resulted from his public services: the exertions he has made have not been confined to the introduction of the English system and practice, to which we have already adverted, but have extended to every branch the annual sum of 5,1331.

We have thus brought under your Lordships' consideration the establishment of the customs as they exist in Edinburgh, and our suggestions for their future arrangement. The present annual expense (exclusive of the solicitor's department) appears to be 15,9401. The expense of the establishment we propose is 10,8071., making the reduction that will ultimately result from the adoption of our suggestions amount to

The following departments will then remain, viz. :—

Board:

One General and two Local Commissioners,

Secretary's office :

Annual expense....

To aid the board in the conduct of all the executive business of the department,

Annual expense.

Comptroller and Accountant-general:

To take care that all the orders of the lords of the treasury and of the central board relating to the receipt or expenditure of the revenue are complied with. To examine and control all the accounts of the department, and to arrange them for ultimate audit in England,

Surveyors :

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To aid the board in the inspection and control of the officers, and other matters requiring attention at the different ports,

Proportion of annual expense for Scotland.....

Examiner of Customs:

To check the quantity of goods imported or exported, and the duties paid
thereon,

£ s. d. 3,400 0 0

2,810 0 0

990 0 0

1,475 0 0

Annual expense.

Accountant of Petty Receipts:

To keep the minor accounts of the revenue; to register the seizures made,
and to inspect the officers' securities,

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To transact the law business of the department under the orders of the
board,

Annual expense..

Housekeeper, Officekeepers, Messengers, &c. :

840 0 0

250 0 0

200 0 0

1,620 0 0

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In our Sixth Report we have in like manner brought under your Lordships' view the establishments at the out-ports of Scotland.

The following is a summary of the expense of the officers proposed to be retained, with the additions suggested in the present report ; viz.

£ S. d.

Glasgow..

3,592 10 0

Greenock, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Port Glasgow, Rothe-
say, Tobermory, Oban, and Fort William
Campbeltown.....

16,780 0 0

1,162 10 0

Ayr, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Irvine, Stranraer, and Port
Patrick

3,250 0 0

Dumfries, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Wigtown and Kirk

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Dundee, with the subordinate officers of the port of Perth.....
Kirkcaldy, with the subordinate officers at the port of Anstruther

Grangemouth, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Alloa and Bor

rowstoness

Leith, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Dunbar and Prestonpans
Kirkwall....
Lerwick..

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1,020 0 0

930 0 0

3,305 0 0

1,826 0 0

3,290 0 0

1,807 10 0

3,035 0 0 11,794 7 6 920 0 0

490 0 0

£57,395 7 6

The establishment at each port provides

1st. For guarding vessels on their arrival.

2dly. Examining goods imported and exported.

3dly. Assessing, receiving, and controlling the duties when paid.

4thly. Securing the goods at certain ports, where they are allowed to be warehoused without

such payment.

We have, in like manner, in our Seventh and Tenth Reports, brought under your Lordships' consideration the establishments of the customs in Dublin, and the out-ports of Ireland. The summary of our recommendations under these heads, with the additions in Dublin suggested in the present Report, will be as follows; viz.

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Dublin, with the subordinate officers at the port of Wicklow................
Waterford and Ross, with the subordinate officers at the port of Wexford
Cork, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Youghall and Kinsale.....
Baltimore....

Limerick, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Tralee and Kilrush
Galway....

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Sligo, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Westport and Killybegs...
Londonderry, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Ballyraine and
Coleraine...

3,905 0 0

990 0 0

3,273 0 0

4,941 0 0

Belfast, with the subordinate officers at the ports of Donaghadee and Larne
Newry and Strangford.....

8,015 12 6

4,120 0 0

Drogheda, with the subordinate officers at the port of Dundalk.....

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the salaries due to them each quarter: as, however, no individual is placed on the establishment of the department without your Lordships' sanction, and as no addition to that establishment is passed by the auditors without your express warrant, this appears to us a very unnecessary account: it would, in our opinion, be more useful if, in lieu of this very voluminous docu

After full inquiry, we are satisfied that all ferent reports cannot, we are aware, be carried the business to be performed at Dublin and immediately into full effect. We would observe, Leith, having reference to the functions of the however, that it would tend materially to facililocal boards, may be fully provided for in the tate those reductions, if the establishments were several establishments we have recommended: at once decided on, and that portion of them we are equally satisfied, that the officers pro- which it may be expedient ultimately, though posed for the various out-ports will be found not immediately, to discontinue, were kept alamply sufficient for the business to be done: together separate. It is at present the practice removals from one port to another, as the ar- for your Lordships to receive from the comrangements of commerce change, will of course missioners of customs detailed particulars, spefrom time to time be necessary. The per-cifying the names of the different officers, and manent expenditure, however, for the salaries of the customs department for Scotland should not, in our opinion, ultimately exceed the sum of 70,000%. (with the exception only of any of ficers that may hereafter be transferred from the excise); and for Ireland the sum of 78,000l. In suggesting this limitation, we would repeat our recommendation that it should not be evaded by the payment of any salaries or allow-ment, a certificate were sent quarterly, setting ances out of the incidents or out of any fund other than the general revenue; neither should any new offices be created. The permanent addition to the annual expenditure of the department which attends the creation of a new and distinct office, is far from forming the weightiest objection to it; we have had occasion to witness great interruption to the ordinary business of the department, resulting, as it appeared to us, from the additional offices placed on the establishment, which have, necessarily interfered with the business of those already in existence, and created a confusion and intermixture of duties wholly incompatible with that clear and orderly course of practice which it is so essential to maintain. It will be in your Lordships' recollection, that in the department of the customs in Dublin we found twenty-two distinct establishments, whilst, on a liberal view of what was required for the due conduct of the public business, we deemed it necessary only to

recommend the continuance of six.

forth the total amount of the establishment sanctioned for the permanent conduct of the business, and the precise amount that has been paid; annexing at the same time an explanation in detail of the excess, and specifying any reduction that might then be practicable: such a certificate would keep the attention of the central board of customs, and of your Lordships, directed to the reductions that have been ultimately determined on, and, we doubt not, tend materially to hasten the period of their final accomplishment.

T. WALLACE. (L. 8.) W. J. LUSHINGTON. (L. S.) HENRY BERENS. (L. s.) R. W. HAY. (L. s.) Office of Inquiry into the Collection and Manage

ment of the Revenue, 1st June, 1825.

The appendix to the foregoing report (which consists of nearly 800 folio pages) contains let

ters, accounts, statements of various officers, examinations of witnesses, &c.

EXCISE.

The Twelfth Report, to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, of the Commissioners appointed by the Acts of the 1st and 2d Geo. IV. c. 90, and 3d Geo. IV. c. 37, for inquiring into the Collection and Management of the Public Revenue arising in Ireland, and into certain Departments of the Public Revenue arising in Great Britain.

There should be nothing difficult or intricate in the business of the customs: it is capable of the most simple and accurate arrangement; and when it has been made complex, this result has, in our opinion, arisen as much from a multiplicity of offices, and an unnecessary division of duties, as from any other cause it is under these circumstances that we recommend to your Lordships to require that all business hereafter accruing in the customs, either of Ireland or Scotland, should be allotted to some one of the existing offices; and steadily to resist every proposal for the establishment of new or distinct depart- His Majesty having issued his Royal Warments: if with this be combined in every case rant, in the terms of the Act 3 Geo. IV. c. 37, the practice of exacting the most clear and dis-empowering this commission to inquire into the tinct accounts, and the fullest information on all collection and management of the excise revesubjects connected with this revenue, the im-nue in England, we shall delay entering at provements that have already taken place in its length into the mode of charging each of the collection will, we have no doubt, be progressive, different excise duties, and offering our sugand the result most satisfactory to your Lord-gestions for improving and securing their collecships, and to the interests of the public. tion, until these inquiries shall have been com

The various reductions proposed in our dif-pleted: in the mean time, we proceed to lay before

your Lordships the result of our investigation into this department in Scotland, so far as it has had reference to the receiving, paying, and accounting for the excise duties; the operation of the new distillery law; and the establishments employed under the direction of the board of excise in that country.

With a view to render our observations on these subjects more intelligible to your Lordships, we shall preface them with a short statement of the mode of charging the different duties.

When an individual wishes to engage in a trade subject to the excise laws, it is necessary he should state, in writing, at the nearest excise office, the particulars of the premises which he proposes to make use of, and obtain a license, the general form of which is as follows:

“I, whose name is hereunto subscribed, and
"seal set, being the person specially ap-
"pointed for that purpose by the commis-
"sioners of excise in
in

66 pursuance of an act of parliament passed
"in the
year of his Majesty's reign,
"do hereby authorise and empower
“living at

to exercise the trade or
"business of at his aforesaid house,
"and places thereunto belonging, from
"the
to the he having paid
"the sum of for this License, to the
"cashier of excise, according to the said

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have charged a

This account is in general checked by an entry required from the trader, on oath, of the quantity of goods he has made. Should it at any time appear that the officers trader less than he ought to have been charged, the accounts are corrected in the succeeding period or “round,” and if more, the matter may be brought by the trader before the magis. trates, any two of whom, on hearing the case, are authorised to grant a warrant for his relief, called an "absolvitur."

When the goods manufactured, and the duty to be charged, have been thus ascertained, an account of the quantities and of the sums due is extracted from the officers' books, and, after having been checked and signed by the supervisor, is ultimately sent to the head office in Edinburgh. This account is denominated

66 act. Given under my hand and seal" Voucher," and its form is as follows; viz.

a

GLASGOW!

Collection:

2d District,

2d Round, 1825; Candle Voucher, commencing 25th August, 1824, 1st Division, and ending 10th October, 1824.

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