26 CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS. [CHAP. 1. 



the expense of the ice-channel, the citizens of Boston declined to 

 be reimbursed. 



We were not detained more than an hour in the Custom 

 house, although the number of our packages was great. In that 

 hour the newspapers which had come out with us had been soj 

 rapidly distributed, that our carriage was assailed in the streets 

 by a host of vociferous boys, calling out, &quot; Fifteen days later 

 from Europe&quot; &quot; The Times and Punch just received by the 

 Britannia.&quot; In the course of my travels in the United States I 

 heard American politicians complaining of the frequent change 

 of officials, high and low, as often as a new party comes into 

 power. In spite of this practice, however, the Custom-house 

 officers, greatly to the comfort of the public, belong to a higher 

 grade of society than those at Liverpool and our principal ports. 

 I asked a New England friend, who was well acquainted with 

 the &quot; Old Country,&quot; whether the subordinates here are more 

 highly paid ? &quot; By no means,&quot; he replied. &quot; The difference, 

 then,&quot; said I, &quot; must be owing to the better education given to 

 all in your public schools?&quot; &quot;Perhaps, in some degree,&quot; he 

 rejoined ; &quot; but far more to the peculiarity of our institutions. 

 Hecent examples are not wanting of men who have passed in a 

 few years from the chief place in one of our great Custom-houses 

 to a seat in the Cabinet or an appointment as embassador to a 

 first-rate European power ; but, what is far more to the point, 

 men who are unsuccessful at the bar or the church, often accept 

 inferior stations in the Custom-house and other public offices 

 without loss of social position.&quot; This explanation led me to 

 reflect how much the British public might gain if a multitude 

 of the smaller places in the public service at home, now slighted 

 by aristocratic prejudices as ungenteel, were filled by those gentle 

 men who, after being highly educated at Eton and other public 

 schools, lead now a pastoral life in Australia, or spend their best 

 days in exile far from their kindred and native land, as soldiers 

 or sailors, wilhin the tropics. 



