Imatges de pàgina
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CHAP. XVIII.

An act for amending the Staple of Tobacco, and for preventing frauds in his majesty's customs.

I. WHEREAS the act passed in the twenty second Preamble. year of the reign of his late majesty king George the second for amending the staple of tobacco and preventing frauds in his majesty's customs, is, from the many alterations made therein by the several acts since passed for amending and continuing the same, rendered difficult to be understood, whereby many penalties may be incurred, and this present general assembly having thought it expedient that the said laws should be reduced into one act.

house.

II. Be it therefore enacted by the Lieutenant-Gover- All tobacco nour, Council, and Burgesses, of this present General tobebrought Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the to a waresame, That for the more effectual preventing the exportation of trash, bad, unsound, and unmerchantable tobacco, all tobacco which from and after the commencement of this act shall be exported out of this colony (except only such tobacco as hath been, or shall be, viewed and inspected according to the directions of the laws now in force) shall be first brought to some or one of the publick warehouses herein after mentioned, and shall be there viewed and inspected in manner as herein after is expressed.

III. And be it further enacted, by the authority afore- All tobacco said, That no person shall put on board or receive in- to be exportto any ship, sloop, boat, or other vessel, in order to be ed shall be packed in exported therein, any tobacco not packed in hogsheads casks, and or casks, upon any pretence whatsoever; nor in any inspected. hogshead or cask, to be in that, or any ship, sloop, boat, or other vessel, exported out of this colony before the same shall have been viewed and inspected according to the directions of this act, except as before excepted: But that all tobacco whatsoever to be received or taken on board any ship, sloop, or other vessel, and

* In the original, the running title of the acts of this session, is "Anno Regni quarto Georgii tertii regis, and in the margin A. J). 1764, until you come to this place, when it is altered to quinto, and A. D. 1765, in the margin.

vessels intending to

load with tobacco.

to be therein exported, or to be carried or put on board any other ship, sloop, or other vessel, for exportation, as aforesaid, shall be received or taken on board at the several warehouses for that purpose herein after mentioned, or some or one of them, and at no other place The oath of or places whatsoever. And every master, mate, or masters of boatswain, of any ship or other vessel which shall arrive in this colony, in order to load tobacco during the continuance of this act, shall before the said ship or vessel be permitted to take on board any tobacco whatsoever, make oath before the naval officer of the district wherein such ship or vessel shall arrive (which oath the said naval officer is hereby empowered and required to administer) that they will not permit any tobacco whatsoever to be taken on board their respective ships or vessels except the same be packed in hogsheads or casks stamped by some inspector legally thereunto appointed, which oath they shall subscribe in a book to be kept by the naval officer for that purpose. And if any master shall cause any person who is not really and bona fide mate or boatswain to come on shore and take such oath, he shall for the said offence forfeit and pay twenty pounds. And if any master or commander Penalty on of any ship or vessel shall take on board, or suffer to such master, be taken on board, the ship or vessel whereof he is master, any tobacco brought from any other place than some or one of the publick warehouses herein after mentioned, or any hogshead or cask of tobacco not stamped by some lawful inspectors, or shall suffer to be brought on board any tobacco, except in hogsheads or casks stamped as aforesaid, every such master and commander shall forfeit and pay twenty pounds of lawful money for every hogshead or cask of tobacco which shall not have been brought from one of the said publick warehouses, or which shall not be stamped as aforesaid, and moreover every such hogshead or cask of tobacco shall be forfeited.

No tobacco

vessel in

bulk or par

IV. And for as much as the permitting tobacco in to be taken bulk or parcels to be waterborn, on pretence of being on board any carried to the warehouses established by this act, may give great opportunity to the clandestine running the same on board the ships lying at or near the said warehouses, whereby the evil of exporting trash tobacco may be still continued: Be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That if any person taking upon himself to carry any tobacco to or from any of the said

cels.

warehouses, in his sloop, boat, or other vessel, for hire, shall presume to take on board, or permit or suffer to be taken on board, any tobacco whatsoever in bulk or parcels, such tobacco shall not only be forfeited, and may be seized by any person or persons whatsoever, but the master or skipper offending herein shall forfeit and pay twenty shillings for every hundred pounds weight of such tobacco, and so proportionably for a greater or lesser quantity; and the master or commander of any ship or vessel wherein any tobacco in bulk or parcels shall be found, shall, over and above the forfeiture thereof, be subject and liable to the same penalty; to be recovered, if it doth not exceed five pounds, before any two justices of the peace of any county (one of them to be of the quorum) near the place where such ship, sloop, boat, or other vessel shall lie, and if it exceeds five pounds, in any court of record, by action of debt, wherein the plaintiff shall recover his costs. And every servant, slave, or other person employed in navigating any such sloop, boat, or other vessel, who shall connive at, or conceal, the taking or receiving on board any tobacco in bulk or parcel as aforesaid, shall, by order of such justices, receive on his bare back thirty nine lashes, well laid on; and if such sloop, boat, or other vessel, be under the care and management of a servant, who cannot satisfy and pay the said penalty, then such servant, and every other person employed under him who shall be guilty of conniving at, or concealing, the taking on board tobacco in bulk or parcel as aforesaid, shall, upon complaint thereof made to any justice of the peace, have and receive, by order of the said justice, thirty nine lashes, well laid on. And if any servant shall be again trusted with the care and management of any sloop, boat, or other vessel, and shall be convicted a second time of taking or receiving on board the same any tobacco in bulk or parcel, contrary to the directions of this act, the owner of such servant shall forfeit and pay the like sum of twenty shillings for every hundred pounds weight of such tobacco so taken or received on board in bulk or parcel, and shall also forfeit and pay five shillings for every day such servant shall thereafter be employed as skipper or master of any sloop, boat, or other vessel to him belonging; to be recovered, and applied, as aforesaid.

Except in

V. Provided always, That nothing herein before con- these instan tained shall be construed to prohibit any person from ces.

carrying, or causing to be carried, to the said warehouses, in any boat or other vessel, any tobacco in bulk or parcels for the payment of his or her levies, debts, or other duties; nor to prohibit any person to put or take on board any sloop, boat, or other vessel, any hogsheads or casks of tobacco, to be water-born to any warehouse or warehouses appointed by this act, so as the same be not carried out of the naval officer's district wherein the said tobacco shall be made; nor to prohibit the owner of any tobacco to transport his crops, or any part thereof, in hogsheads or casks, from one plantation to another, for the better handling or managing thereof; nor any purchaser of tobacco from bringing the same by water to be repacked, sorted, stemmed, or prized, before the same be carried to the said warehouses, so as such last mentioned tobacco be packed in hogsheads or casks: But no tobacco, on any pretence whatsoever, shall be carried or transported by water to be inspected out of the district limited and appointed for the several naval officers of this colony wherein the same is or shall be made; or, being so carried, shall not be inspected or passed by any inspectors, knowing the same to be made out of such district, upon pain of forfeiting, by the owner of such tobacco, and the inspectors who shall pass the same, twenty shillings for every hogshead, to the informer.

VI. Provided nevertheless, That it shall and may be Proviso rela- lawful for the inhabitants of Fleet's Bay, on the south ting to the side of Indian creek, in the county of Lancaster, to carinhabitants on Fleet's & ry their tobacco by water to the publick warehouses at Warrasqeak Indian creek; and the inhabitants of Warrasqeak bay, bays. and the parts adjacent, to carry their tobacco to be passed at any warehouse in the upper district of James river. VII. And be it further enacted, That every master vessels to of a ship or vessel wherein tobacco shall be laden, shall, give into the at the time of clearing, deliver to the naval officer two naval officers fair manifests of all the tobacco on board his ship or their tobacco vessel, expressing the marks and numbers of every

Masters of

manifest of

on oath.

hogshead, and the tare and neat weight stamped thereon, the person by whom shipped, and from what warehouse, and shall make oath thereto; and that the same is a just and true account of the marks, numbers, tare, and neat weight, of each respective hogshead, as the same was taken down by the person or persons appointed by him to take the same, before the said tobacco

was stowed away: And no ship or vessel shall be cleared by the naval officer before he shall have received such lists and manifests, one of which said manifests shall by the said naval officer be annexed to such master's certificate or clearance, to the end the same may be delivered to the chief officer of the customs in such port or place where the said ship shall unload, and the other of the said manifests shall by the said naval officer be transmited to the said chief officer of the customs by the next convenient opportunity.

warehouse.

VIII. And be it further enacted, That if the skipper Relanded to of any sloop, boat, or other vessel, or other person or bacco must persons to whom the care and management thereof be at some shall be intrusted, shall land or put on shore any hogshead, cask, or package of tobacco, put on board the same to be carried to any publick warehouse, at any other place or places than the warehouses by this act appointed for the reception and inspection of tobacco, or at some or one of them, or the wharfs or other landing to such warehouse or warehouses belonging, or shall put the same on board any other vessel, or suffer the same to be done, so as the same be not delivered at some of the said publick warehouses without fraud or embezzlement, or shall open any hogshead or cask of tobacco so as aforesaid water-born and landed, and take thereout any tobacco before the same be viewed by the inspectors, according to the directions of this act, or after the same has been viewed shall fraudulently open any hogshead or cask and take thercout any tobacco, every such offence shall be adjudged felony, and the offender or offenders shall suffer as in case of felony.

weather,

IX. Provided always, That nothing herein before Except in contained shall be construed to prohibit the landing or distress of putting on shore any hogshead, cask or package of tobacco, out of any sloop, boat, or other vessel, which by distress of weather shall be forced on ground, or become leaky, so as such landing be really and bona fide for the preservation of the tobacco laden in such vessel, and that the same be with all convenient speed carried thereafter to the warehouse or ship (as the case shall be) to which it was designed, without embezzlement,

bacco.

X. Provided also, That if by any of the accidents aforesaid, or negligence of the master or skipper of any bacee Damaged tovessel, any tobacco which hath been viewed and stamped shall in its carriage to the ship in which it is intend

K-VOL. 8.

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