xlvi

EXHIBITION OF 1851.

ployed, the Royal Commissioners awarded a sum of £2,710 to be distributed ingratuities amongst them.

Custom-House Arrangemen ts.

With the view of facilitating as much as possible the admission of Foreign goodsfor Exhibition, the Commissioners at an early period put themselves in communi-cation with the Lords of the Treasury and the Commissioners of Customs, with aview to obtaining such fiscal arrangements as might be adequate for the protectionof the Revenue, without involving any unnecessary restrictions upon the admissionof articles intended to be exhibited. The Commissioners of Customs readily under-took to place the Building in Hyde Park on the footing of a bonded warehouse,and to establish such regulations for the security and safe custody of the goodsdeposited there, as should suffice to guard against any abuse of this privilege.They agreed also to dispense with some of the usual formalities on the landing ofthe goods, and to allow them to be conveyed, without examination, direct from thewaterside to the place of Exhibition, where they should be opened for the first timeby the Importer or his Agent, and examined in the presence of the proper officerof Customs.

Eight ports (London, Liverpool, Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Dover, Folkestone ,and Southampton), were accordingly named for the importation of goods intendedfor Exhibition, and a certain number of Custom-House agents were nominated bythe Commissioners of Customs, to take charge of such goods on their arrival. Allarticles transmitted through any of the agents so nominated were exempted fromthe usual examination at the waterside, and forwarded direct to Hyde Park.When once placed in the Building, the Officers of Customs took charge of them,and no article was allowed to be removed without their consent. Such articles aswere not sold or entered for consumption in this country, were re-exported at theclose of the Exhibition, without having been subjected to any duty whatever. It isgratifying to be able to state that no attempt was made by any person to abuse theprivilege thus aflbrdcd. Great liberality was shown by the Commissioners ofCustoms in cases in which the articles exhibited had suffered detriment or waste, asin the case of silks and other goods, of which the value had been much deterioratedby exposure, and of many smaller articles of consumption (such as essences, sweet-meats, snuff, &c.), in which a considerable waste had taken place. It being clearthat the diminution caused by such waste had not been the result of fraud, no dutywas charged in respect of it.

The whole of the Custom-house arrangements in connection with the Exhibition,were placed under the direction of Mr. Rolls, one of the principal officers of theBoard of Customs. Owing to the manner in which the business was conducted, itwas found that the revenue regulations offered but little impediment in thearrangement of the Foreign and Colonial divisions of the Exhibition. Some ideamay be formed of the amount of business thrown upon this department, from theliict that no less than 11,644 separate packages were received, many of which