May 28. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



531 



ject by purveyors, clerks of the market, and salt- 

 petre men. {Parliamentary History, x, 67.) 



Shortly afterwards was passed an act (which 

 obtained the royal assent) giving liberty for im- 

 porting gunpowder and saltpetre, and for making 

 of gunpowder. The preamble asserts that the im- 

 portation of gunpowder from foreign parts had of 

 late times been against law prohibited, and the 

 making thereof within this realm ingrossed; where- 

 by the price of gunpowder had been excessively 

 raised, many powder works decayed, this kingdom 

 very much weakened and endangered, the mer- 

 chants thereof much damnified, many mariners 

 and others taken prisoners and brought into miser- 

 able captivity and slavery, many ships taken by 

 Turkish and other pirates, and many other incon- 

 veniences had from thence ensued, and more were 

 likely to ensue, if not timely prevented. (17 Car. I. 

 C.2I.) 



Lord Clarendon, in reviewing the various " im- 

 portant laws" of the Long Parliament to which the 

 king assented, makes the following observations 

 with reference to this particular act : 



" ' An Act for the free making Saltpetre and Gun- 

 powder within the Kingdom :' wliich was a part of the 

 prerogative ; and not only considerable, as it restrained 

 that precious and dangerous commodity from vulgar 

 hands ; but, as in truth it brought a considerable re- 

 venue to the crown, and more to those whom the crown 

 gratified and obliged by that license. The pretence for 

 this exemption was, 'the unjustifiable proceeding of 

 those (or of inferior persons qualified by them) who 

 had been trusted in that employment,' by whom, it can- 

 not be denied, many men suffered : but the true reason 

 was, that thereby they might be sure to have in readi- 

 ness a good stock in that commodity, against the time 

 their occasions should call upon them." — History of 

 Itebellion, book iii. 



On the 3rd April, 1644, the Lords and Commons 

 passed an ordinance for the making of saltpetre, &c. 

 This was grounded on the following allegations : 



" 1. The great expence of gunpowder, occasioned by 

 the then war within his Majesty's dominions, had well 

 near consumed the old store, and did exhaust the 

 magazines so fast, that without a larger supply, the 

 navy forts and the land armies could not be furnished. 



" 2. Foreign saltpetre was not in equal goodness with 

 that of our own country, and the foreign gunpowder 

 far worse conditioned and less forcible than that which 

 is made in England. 



" 3. Divers foreign estates had of late prohibited the 

 exportation of salt-peter and gunpowder out of their 

 own dominions and countries, so that there could be 

 but little hope or future expectation of any peter or 

 powder to l)e brought into this kingdom, as in former 

 times, which would enforce us to make use of our own 

 materials." 



From these circumstances, it was held most 

 necessary that the digging of saltpetre and making 

 of gunpowder should by all fit means be encou- 



raged, at that time when it so much concerned the 

 public safety ; nevertheless, to prevent the reviving 

 of those opj)ressions and exactions exercised upon 

 the people, under the colourable authority of com- 

 missions granted to saft-jae^er-jnera ; which burden 

 had been eased since the sitting of that Parliament. 

 To the end there might not be any pretence to 

 interrupt the work, it was ordained that the com- 

 mittee of safety, their factors, workmen, and ser- 

 vants, should have power and authority (within 

 prescribed hours) to search and dig for saltpetre 

 in all pigeon-houses, stables, cellars, vaults, empty 

 warehouses, and other outhouses, yards, and places 

 likely to afibrd that earth. 



The salt-peter-men were to level the ground and 

 repair damage done by them ; or might be com- 

 pelled to do so by the deputy-lieutenants, justices 

 of the peace, or committees of parliament. 



The salt-peter-men were also empowered to take 

 carts, by the known officers, for carriage of the 

 liquor, vessels, and other utensils, from place to 

 place, at specified prices, and under limitations as 

 to weight and distance ; and they were freed from 

 taxes and tolls for carriages used about their 

 works, and empowered to take outhouses, &c., for 

 their workhouses, making satisfaction to the 

 owners. 



This ordinance was to continue for" two years, 

 from 25th March, 1644. 



An ordinance of a similar character was passed 

 9th February, 1652, to be In force till 25th March, 

 1656 (Scobe'll, 231.). 



By an act of the Lord Protector and Parliament, 

 made In 1656, It was enacted that no person or 

 persons should dig within the houses or lands of 

 any person or persons of the commonwealth for 

 the finding of saltpetre, nor take the carriages of 

 any person or persons for the carrying of their 

 materials or vessels, without their leave first ob- 

 tained or had. (Scohell, 377.) This is the act 

 referred to by Beoctuna (" N. & Q.," Vol. vil., 

 p. 434.), and by my friend Mb. Isaiah Deck 

 (" N. & Q.," Vol. vll., p. 460.), tliougli I am not 

 certain that Mr. Deck's inference be correct, that 

 this act was passed In consequence of the new and 

 uncertain process for obtaining the constituents of 

 nitre having failed ; and it Is quite clear that Lord 

 Coke could not have referred to this act. The 

 enactment referred to Is Introduced by way of pro- 

 viso in an act allowing the exportation of goods of 

 English manufacture (inter alia, of gunpowder, 

 when the jmce did not exceed 51. per cwt.). 



Allow me. In connexion, with this subject, to 

 refer to Culhrm's History of Hawsted, 1st edition, 

 pp. 150. and 151., also to the statute 1 Jac. XL 

 c. 8. s. 3., by which persons obtaining any letters 

 patent for the sole making or importing gunpowder 

 are subjected to the pains and penalties of praj- 

 munlre. C. H. CoorEB. 



Cambridge, 



