over 5,000 puncheons of rum. The Sufferance Wharves could accommodate 60,200, and in the year 1793 the Government were compelled to sanction the landing and storage of sugar at these places, although laid out for, and principally used by, the coasting trade. In the year 1796, the Sufferance Wharves on the south side of the river were known as: Chamberlayne’s, Cotton’s, Haye’s, Beale’s, Griffin’s, Symon’s, Stainton’s, Davis, Butt & Co.’s, Hartley’s, Pearson’s, Holland’s, Cole’s, Carrington’s Hoggarth’s, Scott’s, Merriton’s, representing a river tonnage of 2,890 feet. Those on the north side of the river were: Irongate, St. Catherine’s, Watson’s, Bryant’s, Down’s, representing a frontage of 786 feet; or a total for both sides of the river of 3,676 feet. In many instances, the charges at the Sufferance Wharves were even higher than those at the Legal Quays, to say nothing of the increased liability to plunder incurred by merchants in sending their goods there. And not only was this the case, but as Customs officers were only officially stationed at the Legal Quays, whenever they did duty at the Sufferance Wharves they were paid extra fees at the consignee’s expense; and when permission was given to land the whole of a cargo at these places, the consignee of each parcel of goods had to pay extra fees for his particular parcel, and those _pro rata_, in order that a separate sufferance might be taken out for them. If, therefore, after waiting four or six weeks to get his goods landed at one of the Legal Quays, a merchant, in despair, sent them to a Sufferance Wharf, it was like jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. Again and again the necessity of extending the Legal Quays was brought under the notice of Parliament, and in 1762 Lord Bute, then Prime-Minister, warmly supported a scheme for thus laying out a large tract of ground, including the Tower Ditch; but with all his influence, the parties interested in the maintenance of the then existing order of things were too strong for him, and the scheme had to be abandoned. Three years later another commission was appointed; but, after a bitter controversy, their proposition was rejected on the frivolous ground that the land which they proposed to acquire and lay out as Legal Quays was not an ‘open space’ as defined in the Act of Queen Elizabeth. From this time until 1793 various plans were suggested, but all of them were frustrated by the powerful combination of the wharfingers.