paid for the last ten years. The entire Custom Establishment of Ireland have now complied with that order; but no command, in consequence, from your Grace for the

payment of the claims, has issued, nor has it occurred to any person who communicates with your Grace on subjects of this nature, that it might be of the utmost consequence to the Officers to hold out to them the speedy expectation of relief being at length afforded them.-Subsequent to Mr. DUNDAS'S message, another order has come down to the Custom-house, requiring a second copy of the general return of fees. In the name of patience, is there any further order to be expected, or any other form to be gone through before this long protracted business is brought to a closé ?

One would have thought that in an experiment of this nature, for this is as flattering a name as I can give the Abolition Ac, it would have been deemed expedient to guard the persons holding his Majesty's Commission from any risk of injury to their situations. This idea appears to have been connected, in the mind of the late illustrious Mr. Pitt, with his favourite expression, the freehold of Office. His meaning, I conceive,

was,

was, that to the labours, the fidelity, the services of men holding Office there was something reciprocal on the part of the Crown, which ought to afford them protection and security in the prescriptive rights of their situation. But alas! when great men disappear from the scene of human affairs, how soon are their maxims slighted and forgotten! Whether such a departure from sound and just principle has or has not taken place in the instance I have adverted to, I leave to your Grace's candor to determine. And here I beg not to be understood as making your Grace in any manner accountable for the Abolition Act.-If it should prove to be a beneficial measure, your Grace will not, I dare say, claim the merit of it; and it would be very unfair that in the contrary event you should be responsible for the disappointment.-I hope I shall be acquitted of any invidious mention of so high a name in this discussion, when I declare that the general expectation of the aggrieved Officers looks to the mild and just temper

of your Grace's government for a redress of their hardships, in what ever manner they may have happened.-Mr. POOLE, I have heard, and do believe, is come over with the most

upright

upright views for the service of this coun try; his talent for official dispatch is also known to be of the first class. Public justice and expediency call for the application of such dispositions as these to the grievous case of the Revenue Officers; and I am persuaded your Grace will receive a suggestion to that effect, with your accustomed benignity, from whatever quarter it may

come.

I shall take the liberty of asserting, that the experiment of abolishing Fees has completely failed in the port of London. In this opinion I am supported by the result of inquiries made in the most exa& manner by a very competent person at the Customhouse of London, and at the docks, wharfs, and other dependencies. It is now acknowledged, that trade in that great emporium is much less relieved by the exemption from fees than it is chilled and obstructed, and retarded by a change in the feelings of Officers, which exhibits those forms of business as unprofitable labours, which before were associated with the cheering, sensations of emolument-It might, I think, have been guessed, without any extraordinary effort of sagacity, that the same description of

persons

in this Country, would not, under a similar trial, manifest any superior degree of patience, assiduity and alertness.-The fact is, I apprehend, that the measure has had still less success in this Country.-I am, however, bound in candour to acknowledge, that it has not as yet had a fair trial.-The embarrassments and dejection of the Officers, under the delays which have so long held back a large proportion of their income, the intrusion of their own perplexing concerns on that attention which ought to have been devoted to the claims of the Revenue and of the Merchants, are to be taken into computation as accounting for any failure which has hitherto happened in the Abolition System.It is but fair to allow, that these inconveniences must not be taken as permanently prejudicial to the plan.

The measure, however, appears to me to be objectionable on general grounds, and I offer my reasons for this opinion with every deference due to a very respectable Board, the Commissioners of Inquiry; to whom most certainly this country owes many facilities and improvements, and many economical arrangements in the conduct of public business. The report of the Commissioners of Inquiry,

Inquiry, made

upon an attentive consideration of the subject, and on the authority of very reputable witnesses examined before them, recommends the total abolition of Fees in the Custom department of Ireland.-From this determination, I trust it will not be thought presumptuous to differ, more especially as the whole business was little more than an experiment, and as it is usually thought to be a fair subject of discussion, in such cases, whether the result is favorable or otherwise.-All Revenue business, it is well known, has to pass through a number of official forms, and the obstructions and delays which happen in consequence, are admitted to be injurious to trade, and proportionably detrimental to the Revenue. If the Abolition Act has had the effect of relaxing the zeal of Officers, has inclined them to see any difficulties without regret, which it is not strictly official in them to remove, and to consider all the delay of business as lightening the weight of their own unprofitable labour, then, so far, I apprehend, both trade and Revenue must suffer by the late regulations. It has been urged, I know, that a great advantage has been gained by breaking off the intercourse

of