APPENDIX. 53 



Cuftoms, and as a remarkable public event, in which he was, Account of sir 



George Clerk. 



though not oftenfibly, one of the chief actors. For many years 

 before 1764, the Ifle of Man had been a fource of^great hurt 

 to the Revenue, by being under the fovereignty of the family 

 of ATHOL; as it was exempted from duties, and confequently a 

 receptacle for all the fmugglers who frequented the well coafl 

 of Scotland. In 1764, Mr GRENVILLE, who was then Mini- 

 fter, turned his thoughts towards the means of correcting the 

 abufes occafioned by the fituation of the ifland, and applied to 

 the Board of Cuftoms for fuch information as was neceflary to- 

 wards forming a plan for that purpofe. Mr CLERK was ap- 

 pointed by the Board to make a furvey of the -fouth-weft coafl, 

 where the fmugglers from the Ifle of Man landed their goods. 

 He executed the commiflion with great accuracy, and was foon 

 after fent for by the Board of Treafury to make his report. 

 He advifed, that the fovereignty of the ifland fhould be pur- 

 chafed, and the fame laws extended to it by which the reft of 

 the Britifh dominions were regulated, as the moft effectual 

 means of fupprefling the illicit trade. Mr GRENVILLE, from 

 motives of frugality, was at firft extremely averfe to a purchafe 

 of the fovereignty. As the public purfe was then extremely 

 low, and the object: of the purchafe of fo great a value, he pre- 

 ferred a plan, which, together with fome other regulations, was 

 to iiicreafe the number of cruifers on the ftation. He had 

 even gone fo far as to form it into a bill, which he intended to 

 have laid before Parliament, but was at laft prevailed upon to 

 give it up, after a perfeverance of feveral months in the inten- 

 tion ; during which time, Mr CLERK, in many converfations 

 with him on the fubject, laboured to convince him, that, with- 

 out being adequate to its end, it would have loaded the public 

 with a much greater expence than the fum neceflary to pur- 

 chafe the fovereignty. At laft, Mr CLERK'S plan was followed, 

 in almoft every eflential particular, by Adminiftration, and it has 

 been attended with the moft beneficial confequences. The 



fmuggling 



