THE LONDON DOCKS. 80S 



more secure by an extra amount of cooperage, for 

 rough usage in a sea-voyage, consisting of tray-shaped 

 heads to the barrels, and extra hoops and clamps.* 



Only certain ports have the privilege of receiving 

 vessels laden with tobacco. The moorings of such 

 vessels are regulated by the officers of the customs, 

 who may come on board the vessel when within four 

 leagues of the coast, and demand the official record of 

 freightage. They then batten down the hatches; in 

 which operation the crew must aid if required; and 

 should they be improperly opened by any but the 

 government officers, a fine of £200 may be inflicted, 

 or the vessel and cargo forfeited, as well as the master 

 fined, if the tobacco be unladen before the custom- 

 house officer authorises it. 



We may now imagine the barrels or hogsheads 

 unshipped and ranged in the English dock-yard. The 

 tobacco-warehouse at the London Docks is one of 

 those metropolitan sights which could only be seen 

 in a city of great commercial power. Sometimes 

 40,000 hogsheads may be seen rangeofjii' long alleys 

 under the vast roof of this emporium, with passages 

 between each, only wide enough for necessary removal. 

 In the interview the tobacco- traders had with the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer in November 1857 ; the 

 usual London stock was stated to be 40,000 hogs- 

 heads; but owing to bad crops, it had decreased to 



* The pressure is so great, and the mass ot leaf so impervious, that 

 instances are on record of tobacco washed from wrecked ships, the exterior 

 of the mass completely rotted, but the interior dry and sound. 



