waste of wine which surely might be easily
avoided, and which must amount in the course
of the year to hundreds of bottles, but in
the tobacco region the same want of economy is
remarkable. The amount of liquor saved in the
course of the year in a London gin palace by
the contrivance there adopted for collecting the
drippings of the glasses has often been quoted.
Were a similar carefulness to make the most of
everything, observed inthese London Docks, some
startling results would doubtless be obtained. The
institution called the "Queen's tobacco-pipe" was
out of order when your Eye-witness paid his
visit to the tobacco region of the docks, but he
was told concerning it that it was a great kiln
into which the damaged tobacco was thrown
to be destroyed by burning. It would be well
if our consumers of cheap cigars never got any
worse tobacco than this which is burnt up, and
it would be well if our poor friends who buy an
ounce of tea at a time never took away in their
screw of paper a worse article than that which,
condemned as " damaged," is sent out in lighters
to the mouth of the river and pitched into the
sea.

Your Eye-witness in his visit to the docks
confined himself to the wine-vaults and the
tobacco and spice departments. Concerning
the first of these— a legitimate prey to
excise— it may be observed that the difference
between the value of the thing itself, and the
sum charged as duty, is even more remarkable
than in the case of the wine and spirit tax. On
the £589,780 worth of tobacco imported at the
London Docks in the year 1850, no less a sum
was exacted than £6,935, 812, before the fumes
of this popular drug were allowed to arrive at the
nostrils of the public.

There are many things connected with the
commercial world, which strike the non-commercial
world with astonishment. There are few
persons who, entering the spice depot of the
London Docks, would fail to be surprised at the
amount of cinnamon and nutmegs imported at
this single place of debarkation. Heaven help
us! one would suppose one bale of cinnamon
enough for the whole of England for ever.
There are eight thousand imported here
annually. Of these, however, about seven
thousand five hundred are re-exported again, and
principally to Spain. The Spaniards make an
enormous use of cinnamon in the manufacture
of chocolate; and as they are— like other
foreign nations— extremely averse to parting with
money, they prefer coming to this country for
their cinnamon, to importing it themselves from
Ceylon: the reason being that in the latter
case they would have to pay for it in coin,
while here they get it in exchange for wines
and fruits, and other Spanish produce.

After wandering for some time among the
cinnamon groves, the attention of your Eye-
witness was attracted to certain bales, differently
packed from the rest, and of larger and more
cumbersome proportions. On asking the
superintendent of the department— a very intelligent
and humorous old gentleman— what was the
destination of these bales, and why they were
packed differently from the others, your Eye-
witness was put in possession of the following
particulars, to which he begs to call the attention
of those foreign authorities whom the matter
concerns:

"These, sir," said the superintendent, pointing
to the packages in question, " these are
some bales of cinnamon done up ready to be
shipped for Pernambuco or Mexico; and you
wouldn't believe, unless you was to see it,
how those bales are packed. The South Americans,
who are under a very heavy duty on
imported cinnamon, send over to us in a
private way an order for a certain number of
bales, each of which is to be rolled up, first of
all in a blanket, then in two tarpaulins, and then
in matting over all. Well, sir, I obey the order,
and it isn't for me to inquire why the cinnamon
is to be so packed. I know, certainly, that in
the course of the voyage, with the heat and one
thing and another, those tarpaulins get fused into
a kind of solid waterproof case round the cinna-
mon; but it isn't for me to suppose that when
the ship gets near land, these bales are chucked
overboard, and that then the Pernambucans, or
Mexicans, or whoever they may be, go out
quietly in boats and pick them up. It isn't
for me to think that the bales are carefully
packed, and that the tarpaulins are clapped on
over all, in order that the cinnamon mayn't be
spoiled when the packages are thrown into the
sea. Blankets are very much wanted over there,
and so, maybe, is tarpaulin. I only do as I'm
bid, and if they sent word over, that the
cinnamon was to be wrapped up in ladies' ball
dresses— and if they paid their money— why, I
should obey 'em, sir."

There is, surely, all over the world an innate
sympathy with smuggling. Even the gentleman
whose half-notes the Chancellor of the
Exchequer is always acknowledging in the
Times, would, doubtless, on his return from
the Rhine, use every trick in his power to hide
his eau-de-Cologne from the Custom-house
officers.

The Sixth Journey of

THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER,

A SERIES OF OCCASIONAL JOURNEYS,

BY CHARLES DICKENS,

Will appear Next Week.

Early in April, price 5s. 6d., bourd in cloth, will be
published,

THE SECOND VOLUME,

Including Nos. 27 to 50, and the Christmas Double
Number, of ALL THE YEAR ROUND