years, night and day, he toiled at his almost superhuman undertaking.

Some notion may be formed of the Herculean nature of the undertaking, when it is stated that the Customs laws had accumulated from the reign of Edward I. to the enormous amount of fifteen hundred statutes. These statutes, often confused, often contradictory, sometimes unintelligible, formed, previous to the year 1825, the intricate and labyrinthine chaos of our Custom House Legislation. It required long and patient study to ascertain where the provisions were to be found which regulated the merchant and the trader in the management of his affairs. They were puzzled and harassed beyond measure. Into this confused and disordered mass, Mr. Hume introduced clearness, harmony, and regularity. He collated the scattered enactments, and arranged the matter under ten heads; the regulations respecting each of which formed a separate Act. Within as small a number as ten intelligible statutes, he contrived to preserve all that was requisite. As Mr. Hamel, the present Solicitor to the Customs, has observed, "it was justly deemed a great triumph of industry and skill." If, however, the reader would ascertain for himself the extent and merit of what was achieved, he must examine and contrast the Babel library of the Custom House laws and regulations about thirty-five years ago, with the single volume that contains Mr. Deacon Hume's codification; which, to quote the words of one who privately printed some memorials of Mr. Huskisson

soon after his decease, "is so clear and comprehensive that neither the meaning nor the application of those laws can any longer be mistaken.”

Mr. Hume, however, did not survey his completed labours with entire complacency. He thought that the great object had not been completely obtained; he contended that the simplification might have been carried further-that the reform had only commenced-and in his valuable evidence before the Import Duties Committee in 1840, he publicly communicated his views in detail, strengthened by longer reflection, and more matured experience.

*

The laws of the Customs, as prepared by Mr. Deacon Hume, the subjects of which were the law of navigation, the registering of vessels, the warehousing of goods, the granting of bounties, the prevention of smuggling,† and some provisions relating to the Isle of Man, were introduced into Parliament in high terms of commendation by Mr. Herries, at that time one of the secretaries of the Treasury. They received the Royal assent in the month of July, 1825. Mr. Huskisson, probably from his deeming it a hopeless undertaking, did not appear at the outset to be very solicitous as to the result. No one, however, more sincerely felt and acknowledged its value, as soon as it was accomplished. Mr. Hume, immediately after the passing of the Acts, proceeded to prepare an edition

* A further codification was effected in 1845, by Mr. Walford, founded on Mr. Hume's consolidation; and another by Mr. Hamel in 1853. †This subject was entirely confided to Mr. Thackeray, and although included in the volume, formed no part of Mr. Hume's labours.

of them, with notes and indices. A member of the House of Commons to whom this country is greatly indebted,* informed the writer of this narrative that he well remembers Mr. Huskisson holding up a copy of it, and observing in terms of exultation, that a single octavo volume contained the entire laws of the Customs. Both in and out of Parliament he constantly referred with the greatest satisfaction to the compilation and enactment of this new fiscal code. And the friend of Mr. Huskisson, already referred to, correctly remarks, “A task of such magnitude and extraordinary labour Mr. Huskisson frequently declared could never have been achieved but by the unwearied diligence of Mr. Deacon Hume, to whom the lasting gratitude of the country is owing for his persevering exertions, and for the essential benefit which he thus conferred

upon the commercial world." As has been already intimated, not only were the laws of the Customs consolidated, but some considerable changes were effected at the same time in the laws themselves, " in conformity with the spirit of those principles of commercial intercourse on which the Government had determined to act, while duties of importance were considerably reduced, those on numerous minor articles were lowered. During the war the rates of the tariff had been so increased, for the single purpose of revenue, that they had become for the most part inapplicable to a state of peace, and required general revision. This revision was regulated by the follow

* Lord John Russell.

ing principles:-First, those duties were reduced, the heaviness of which tended to lessen rather than to increase their total product. Secondly, the duties on raw materials, and on various articles useful in manufactures, were lowered to little more than nominal sums. Thirdly, protecting duties of extravagant amount were reduced to that point, at which the consumer was fairly entitled to relief, either by the increased industry of the home manufacturer, or by access to the sources of supply. And, lastly, the comforts and tastes of the public, and the advantage of their retail suppliers, were consulted by the removal of duties which prevented the introduction, or most unnecessarily abridged the use, of many articles without benefit to any parties whatever."

"By the system founded on these principles, there has not only been distributed amongst a numerous population a great increase of employment, but its diffusion has been greater, in proportion, than its increase. It is also very remarkable that those trades which have been prominent in complaining of foreign competition have neither suffered more in diminution of profits, nor increased less in extent of business than those which have been able to hold foreign competition at defiance."

"Besides this consolidation of the Customs laws, an Act was passed in the same year, whereby many commercial advantages were conferred on the colonies beyond those contained in Mr. Robinson's two Acts of 1822; Mr. Huskisson laying down as the fundamental principle on which his alterations were founded-a

principle deduced from past experience with respect both to Ireland and our Colonies-that so far as the colonies themselves were concerned, their prosperity was cramped and impeded by a system of exclusion and monopoly; and that whatever tended to increase the prosperity of the colonies could not fail, in the long run, to advance, in an equal degree, the general interest of the parent state.' By these Acts, not only articles of first necessity, but goods of all descriptions, with very few exceptions, were allowed to be imported from all countries, either in British ships, or in the ships of the country of their production; and the goods of the colonies were allowed to be exported in any ships to any foreign country whatever. The only part of the colonial system which was persevered in was that which excluded foreign ships from carrying goods from one British place to another."

"The admission of foreign ships, however, was not unconditional: it was made to depend upon reciprocal or equivalent liberality towards our trade and navigation on the part of the countries profiting by the advantages of it; but a power was given to the King in Council to relax the rigour of the law, if occasion should, in any particular cases, seem to require it. The privileges of warehousing were extended to the chief trading ports of the colonies; a measure which was well adapted to promote the creation of entrepôts in those places, for the general barter trade of that quarter of the globe."

* Stapleton's "Political Life of Canning," vol. iii. 1831.