PREFACE. The original idea of the "CUSTOMS OFFICERS' MANUAL" is owing to the inconvenience and embarrassment experienced by the Compiler on the occasion of his first contact with a class of duties wholly new to him, upon his promotion by competitive examination to the rank of Examining Officer. Others doubtless, under similar circumstances, have felt this inconvenience no less keenly than himself; and, like him, would have hailed as a boon a succinct manual on the subject of their new duties. This, however, was not to be had. The labour devolving on the compiler of such a work, and the risk attending its publication, may have deterred some more able, but, withal, more prudent, brother officer from undertaking the task which the Compiler marked out for himself. Quickened by the recollection of his own wants, and with easy access to the best materials, both official and parliamentary, he resolved to employ what leisure and opportunity the calls of duty might spare to him to remedy this patent want, by supplying the young Examining Officer with a book of reference, drawn from authoritative sources, illustrative and explanatory of the things which are most likely to embarrass him in his new career. To the Out-door Officer, in like manner, who aspires to the attainment of a higher grade, the work is calculated to offer advantages heretofore inaccessible, being so arranged as to give the fullest information on those subjects, a knowledge of which is indispensable to practical efficiency and competitive distinction. Although the requirements of the Clerks was not included in the original design of the work, yet it is hoped that its perusal will convince those gentlemen that their interests have not been entirely lost sight of. To give anything like a comprehensive system of Long Room practice would require a much better knowledge of that department than the Compiler can be supposed to possess: besides, it is a fact generally admitted, that when a man attempts the instruction of others on matters beyond the sphere of his own observation and experience, his efforts, however well directed, are seldom productive of much good. It is not the Compiler's intention to supply the work to merchants or others unconnected with the Service, he having excluded all reference to extraneous matter, where other than the interests of the Officers are concerned, and making their convenience his special aim, has ignored allusion to every subject not tending to that end. In the hope, then, that he has not miscalculated the importance of the subject, and that the utility of the work may justify the liberal patronage it has already obtained, it is now submitted to the indulgent consideration of the numerous and intelligent class in whose interests it has been compiled-the Out-door Department of Her Majesty's Customs. Exeter, 16th April, 1868. |