tenements or hereditaments within the said province; and shall yearly send and transmit, or cause to be sent or transmitted, authentic accounts of such leases, grants, conveyances, settlements and improvements respectively, unto the auditor of the plantations for the time being, or his deputy, and also to our surveyor for the time being of our said province of South-Carolina; to whom we do hereby grant full power and authority from time to time, as often as need shall require, to inspect and survey, such of the said lands and premises, as shall be demised, granted and settled as aforesaid: which said survey and inspection, we do hereby declare, to be intended to ascertain the quitrents which shall from time to time become due to us, our heirs and successors, according to the reservation herein before mentioned, and for no other purposes whatsoever; hereby for us, our heirs and successors, strictly enjoining and commanding, that neither our or their surveyor, or any person whatsover, under the pretext and colour of making the said survey or inspection, shall take, demand or receive, any gratuity, fee or reward, of or from, any person or persons, inhabiting in the said colony, or from the said corporation or common council of the same, on the pain of forfeiture of the said office or offices, and incurring our highest displeasure. Provided always . that all leases, grants and conveyances to be made by or in the name of the said corporation, of any lands within the said province, or a memorial containing the substance and effect thereof, shall be registered with the auditor of the said plantations . . . within the space of one year, to be computed from the date thereof, otherwise the same shall be void. And our further will and pleasure is, that the rents, issues and all other profits, which shall at any time hereafter come to the said corporation, [shall be applied in such manner as the said corporation,*] or the major part of them which shall be present at any meeting for that purpose assembled, shall think will most improve and enlarge the said colony, and best answer the good purposes herein before mentioned, and for defraying all other charges about the same. And our will and pleasure is, that the said corporation and their successors, shall from time to time give in to one of the principal secretaries of state, and to the commissioners of trade and plantations, ac *These words are not in the original, but appear to be necessary to complete the sense. counts of the progresses of the said colony. And our will and pleasure is that no act done at any meeting of the said common council of the said corporation, shall be effectual and valid, unless eight members at least of the said common council, including the member who shall serve as chairman at the said meeting, be present, and the major part of them consenting thereunto. And our will and pleasure is, that the common council of the said corporation for the time being, or the major part of them who shall be present, being assembled for that purpose, shall from time to time, for, and during, and unto the full end and expiration of twenty-one years, to commence from the date of these our letters patent, have full power and authority to nominate, make, constitute and commission, ordain and appoint, by such name or names, style or styles, as to them shall seem meet and fitting, all and singular such governors, judges, magistrates, ministers and officers, civil and military, both by sea and land, within the said districts, as shall by them be thought fit and needful to be made or used for the said government of the said colony; save always, and except such offices only as shall by us, our heirs and successors, be from time to time constituted and appointed, for the managing collecting and receiving such revenues, as shall from time to time arise within the said province of Georgia, and become due to us, our heirs and successors. Provided always . . ., that every governor of the said province of Georgia, to be appointed by the common council of the said corporation, before he shall enter upon or execute the said office of governor, shall be approved by us, our heirs or successors, and shall take such oaths, and shall qualify himself in such manner, in all respects, as any governor or commander in chief of any of our colonies or plantations in America, are by law required to do; and shall give good and sufficient security for observing the several acts of parliament relating to trade and navigation, and to observe and obey all instructions that shall be sent to him by us, our heirs and successors, or any acting under our or their authority, pursuant to the said acts, or any of them. [The corporation may establish and train a militia, fortify and defend the colony, exercise martial law in time of war, &c.] And . . . we do . . . grant, that the governor and commander in chief of the province of South-Carolina . . . for the time being, shall at all times hereafter have the chief command of the militia of our said province. ; and that such militia shall observe and obey all orders and directions, that shall from time to time be given or sent to them by the said governor or commander in chief; any thing in these presents before contained to the contrary hereof, in any wise notwithstanding. ... And . . . we . . . do give and grant, unto the said corporation and their successors, full power and authority to import and export their goods, at and from any port or ports that shall be appointed by us . . . within the said province of Georgia, for that purpose, without being obliged to touch at any other port in South-Carolina. And we do. . . will and declare, that from and after the termination of the said term or [of] twenty-one years, such form of government and method of making laws, statutes and ordinances, for the better governing and ordering the said province of Georgia, and the inhabitants thereof, shall be established and observed within the same, as we, our heirs and successors, shall hereafter ordain and appoint, and shall be agreeably to law; and that from and after the determination of the said term of twenty-one years, the governor of our said province of Georgia, and all officers civil and military, within the same, shall from time to time be nominated and constituted, and appointed by us, our heirs and successors. No. 50. Molasses Act May 17/28, 1733 IN the exchange of fish, lumber and agricultural products for the sugar, molasses and rum of the West Indies, the northern English colonies in America early found their most important and most lucrative trade. Moreover, it was by means of this trade that the money for the purchase of manufactured goods in England was mainly obtained. The adoption of a more liberal commercial policy by France, however, in 1717, enabled the sugar of the French West Indies to displace the British product in European markets, and to compete successfully in the markets of the English colonies; while the prohibition of the importation of rum into France, ås a protection to the production of brandy, forced the producers of molasses in the French colonies to seek a market in New England and New York, where molasses, little produced in the English West Indies, was much in demand. The prosperity of the French colonies led to numerous protests from planters in the British sugar islands, and in 1731 a bill to prohibit the importation into Great Britain or the American colonies of any foreign sugar, molasses or rum passed the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. The object of the bill was attained, however, by the passage, in 1733, of the so-called Molasses Act, by which practically prohibitory duties were imposed upon the beforementioned articles. The act was systematically disregarded by the English colonies, and remained largely a dead-letter. The Molasses Act was to continue in force for five years; but it was five times renewed, and by the Sugar Act of 1764 was made perpetual. - REFERENCES. Text in Pickering's Statutes at Large, XVI., 374-379. The act is cited as 6 Geo. II., c. 13. The best discussion of the act is in Beer's Commercial Policy of England (Columbia Col. Studies, III, No. 2), chap. 6. An act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonies in America. WHEREAS the welfare and prosperity of your Majesty's sugar colonies in America are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, navigation and strength of this kingdom: and whereas the planters of the said sugar colonies have of late years fallen under such great discouragements, that they are unable to improve or carry on the sugar trade upon an equal footing with the foreign sugar colonies, without some advantage and relief be given to them from Great Britain: for remedy whereof. . . be it enacted ..., That from and after the twenty fifth day of December one thousand seven hundred and thirty three, there shall be raised, levied, collected and paid, unto and for the use of his Majesty . . . upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty . . ., which at any time or times within or during the continuance of this act, shall be imported or brought into any of the colonies or plantations in America, which now are or hereafter may be in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty . . ., the sum of nine pence, money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the proportion and value of five shillings and six pence the ounce in silver, for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to his Majesty, the sum of six pence of like money for every gallon thereof. . . ; and upon all sugars and paneles of such foreign growth, produce or maufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to his Majesty, a duty after the rate of five shillings of like money, for every hundred weight Avoirdupoize, of the said sugar and paneles. . . . II. [Such dutiable goods to be entered with the collector of customs at the place of importation, and the duty paid before landing.] III. [The said goods, if landed before entry and payment of duty, to be forfeited, and may be seized.] IV. And be it further enacted. . ., That from and after . . . [December 25, 1733]..., no sugars, paneles, syrups or molasses, of the growth, product and manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, nor any rum or spirits of America, except of the growth or manufacture of his Majesty's sugar colonies there, shall be imported by any person or persons whatsoever into the kingdom of Ireland, but such only as shall be fairly and bona fide loaden and shipped in Great Britain in ships navigated according to the several laws now in being in that behalf, under the penalty of forfeiting all such sugar, paneles, syrups or molasses, rum or spirits, or the value thereof, together with the ship or vessel in which the same shall be imported, with all her guns, tackle, furniture, ammunition, and apparel. . . V. [Persons assisting in the violation of Sec. IV. to forfeit treble the value of the goods.] VI. [A penalty of £50 for interfering with a customs officer in the discharge of his duty, and a like penalty on any officer conniving at fraudulent importation.] VII. [Shipmasters permitting such fraudulent importation, to forfeit 100.] VIII. [In suits, the onus probandi to lie on the claimer or owner.] That in case any IX. And it is hereby further enacted. sugar or paneles of the growth, produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations belonging to or in the possession of his Majesty..., which shall have been imported into Great Britain after the twenty-fourth day of June one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three, shall at any time within one year after the importation thereof, be again exported out of Great Britain, and that due proof be first made, by certificate from the proper officers, of the due entry and payment of the subsidies or duties charged or payable upon the importation thereof, together with |