immediately, he prepares a bill of entry,
containing, besides a description of the goods,
mention of the name of the warehouse and its
proprietor; this bill, when perfectly attested
and signed, serves as a warrant to the
landing-officers to permit the commodities
to be warehoused; but they must be kept in
the same packages as on ship-board, or must
not be repacked except in the presence of
supervisors, which is also necessary during
any inspection of them or access to
them. If, through any causes, the importer
is not fully aware of the exact contents of
any package, he prepares a bill of sight,
containing an enumeration to the best of his
belief; they may then be landed provisionally
and examined in detail by an officer in
presence of the importer, who is thereby
enabled to prepare a correct bill of entry. If
the goods are simply brought to England
from one country to be re-exported in an
unaltered state to another, they generally pay
no duty; but the Customs' department take
special care in all that relates to the unshipping
and reshipment of such goods to prevent
evasion of the law.

Thus, it will be seen that there are multiplied
ways in which foreign goods imported
may be so managed, or mismanaged, as to
incur either absolute forfeiture or compulsory
sale, by which the owner will suffer a loss.
The question arises then, what will her
Majesty do with the commodities thus
gradually accumulated on her hands? She
holds a Custom-House sale at certain
intervals, a year or so asunder, at which
an auctioneer renders his services and
prints his catalogue in the usual way.
We may run through the alphabet, and
find agates, Berlin embroidery, bags, boots
and shoes, brushes, books, brandy, cambric
handkerchiefs, canvas, clocks, coffee, cordials,
cordage, cottons, elastics, furniture, artificial
flowers, feathers, gin, gloves, hair, hair-
guards, harness, hat-linings, ivory
ornaments, iron, jewellery, lace, leather, mats,
needles, needlework, organs, organ-pipes,
opera-glasses, optical instruments, paper,
pipe-stems, photographic apparatus,
perfumed spirits, picture-mouldings, porte-
monnaies, prints, rum, ropes, cigars, succades,
shawls, spirits, silk-vestments, silk-velvets
and ribbons, silk trimmings and gauzes, sugar,
tapestry, tea, timber, toys, watches,
waterproof-clothing, wine. As no one will buy a
pig in a poke, the buyers require to see these
things before bidding for them;
consequently, the wines, spirits, tobacco, and other
taxed articles of similar kind are placed on
view in the London, St. Katherine's, East
India, and West India Docks, some of the
rougher articles at Rotherhithe, while the
smaller and miscellaneous commodities are
deposited in the Queen's warehouse at the
Custom House.

Here, in this Queen's warehouse, we stand
among many lookers-on, surrounded by a
medley worth many thousands of pounds. A
queer place it is, with whitewashed walls and
dingy windows,—  counters placed here and
there, laden, or ready to be laden, with
treasures; intending buyers looking at the
several lots, and Custom-House officials
behind the counters bringing forward
anything that may be asked for, and keeping
a sharp supervisor at work. On one side
are carved cabinets, wardrobes, and buffets,
that have not had the good luck to
pass safely through Custom-House
formalities; on another are huge boxes of
German toys, containing smaller boxes of
Noah's Arks, and boxes of those interminable
soldiers that appear so sincerely to interest
German and French children; here are bales
and heaps of waterproof garments, and here
parcels of coloured prints, enough to stock a
galley; hanging around on this side are
saddles and bridles, and on that side tapestries
and carpets; on tables that groan beneath
their weight are clocks—black, brass, bronze,
and ormolu; and on tables of lighter frame
are nice little Swiss carvings, including all
the varieties of châlets, Alpine hunters, Tyrolese
maidens, spoons, paper-knives, and paper-
weights; round about are lenses for
photographic purposes, boxes of artificial flowers,
pasteboard-trays of porte-monnaies, or cigar-
cases, boxes filled with many gross of pipe-
stems, pianoforte actions without keys, or
strings, or aught else, bales of hat-linings in
dozens of dozens, tankards and cups in carved
ivory or bone, boxes of Berlin chair-covers
and slipper-pieces, and collars, and other
articles of embroidery, parcels of trimmings, and
laces, and braids in silk, and bales of elastic
webbing. In short, it is almost as difficult
to say what is contained in this assemblage,
as what is not.

All these goods are undergoing examination
and keen scrutiny by persons who know
to a shilling what everything is worth.
Hebrew countenances are mingled among the
Caucasian; and the feminine gender is
concerned with those lots involving the materials
for feminine vestments, such as the laces, silks,
embroideries, gloves, and so forth. Here,
with catalogue in hand, is a dealer examining
a lot consisting of six silver Geneva watches;
he opens, examines, turns about, shuts, opens
again, peeps within, peeps around each watch,
forms a judgment, makes a mark on his
catalogue, and says nothing. Here are two
personages, evidently learned in the respective
merits of Colt, and Adams, and Deane,
examining every twist and quirk on a pair
of revolvers, comparing notes, snapping and
cocking, and making mental resolutions as
to the prospective amount of their biddings.
Here, in a somewhat greasy hat and coat, is
one who looks like a small dealer in cheap
jewellery; he is engaged in scrutinising a
pasteboard-case filled with shirt-studs, wrist-
studs, pins, brooches, wristlets, and rings—all
very resplendent, but telling tales of gems