A. D. 1 764. 397 



out of the French iilands of St. Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St. 

 Laurence. [4 Geo. Ill, c. 15.] 



Agreeable to the fpirit of this law, all the officers of the (hips of war, 

 ftationed on the coafts of Ameuica and the Well-Indies were made to 

 take the cuftom-houfe oaths, and adl as revenue officers for the preven- 

 tion of fmuggling. But the alertnefs and adivity, which thofe gentle- 

 men had lately exerted with fo much advantage and honour to them- 

 felves and their country in taking prizes from the enemy, were more 

 prejudicial than ferviceable to the general interefts of commerce in their 

 new employment. Little acquainted, as may be fuppofed, with rules, 

 which require long fludy and pradlice to underfland them, and ftill lefs 

 with the prudential reafons, which had hitherto induced a relaxation of 

 the rigour of the law in cafes, where a judicious overlooking was for 

 the national advantage, they eagerly and indifcriminately feized every 

 veffel they found in the fmalleft degree tranfgrefling the Uriel: letter of 

 the law, the interpretation of which was in * a great mealure in their 

 own hands. 



The old northern colonies in America, it is well known, have very 

 few articles fit for the Britifli market ; and yet they every year took off 

 Jarge quantities of merchandize from Great Britain, for which they 

 made payments with tolerable regularity f. Though they could not, 

 like the Spanifh colonifts, dig the money out of their own foil, they 

 found means to make a great part of their remittances in gold and fil- 

 ver dug out of the Spanifli mines. This they effeded by being general 

 carriers, and by a circuitous commerce, carried on in fmall vefle Is, chief- 

 ly with the foreign Weft- India fettlements, to which they carried lum- 

 ber of all forts, fifli of an inferior quality, beef, pork, butter, horfes, 

 poultry and other live ftock, an inferior kind of tobacco, corn, flour, 

 bread, cyder, and even apples, cabbages, onions, &.c. and alio veflels 

 built at a Imall expenfe, the materials being almoll: all within thcm- 

 felves ; for which they received in return moflly filver and gold, fomc 

 of which remained as current coin among themfelves ; but the greatefl: 

 part was remitted home to Britain, and, together with bills of exchange 

 generally remitted to London for the proceeds of their bcfl: tilh, fold in 

 the Roman-catholic countries of Europe, fcrved to pay for the goods 

 they received from the mother country. This trade united all the ad- 

 vantages, which the wifeft and moll philanthropic philofopher, or the 



• In cafes of improper feizurc rcdrefs niiglit be value of a fliip and cargo feized in tlie year 1763 



foiijjilt liy appeal to the boards of ajmiialty or by a capt.liii of the navy, at the fiiit of the owner, 



trcal'ury at home; wliich, confidering the dthiy who olrtained a verdift for /^4C46 with colls, 

 and dillance, and tlic circumUanccsof the plalntifts f The tables of imports and cNVJort.") will (how, 



and the defendents, could very feldoni be produc- how large a balance was paid by New-England, 



live of any redrcfs. There was, however, at Itall New- York, and Pennfylvania ; while Maryland, 



one inllance ofacaufc being tried before the fupe- Virginia, the Carolinas, and in later year* Georgia, 



lior court at New-York in the year 1766 for the fomctinics received a balance from Uritain. 



