STATUTES, PROCLAMATIONS, RULES, ORDERS, ETC. 369 



be sued for, prosecuted, recovered, and divided, in the same Manner 

 and Form, by the same Rules and Regulations in all Respects, as 

 other pecuniary Penalties, for Offences against the Laws relating to 

 the Customs or Trade of his Majesty's Colonies in America, may, by 

 any Act or Acts of Parliament now in Force, be prosecuted, sued 

 for, recovered, and divided. 



" X. And whereas by an Act of Parliament made in the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second, in- 

 tituled, An Act for preventing Frauds, and regulating Abuses, in 

 his Majesty's Customs, and several other Acts now in Force, it is law- 

 ful for any Officer of his Majesty's Customs, authorised by Writ of 

 Assistants under the Seal of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, to 

 take a Constable, Headborough, or other Publick Officer inhabiting 

 near unto the Place, and in the Day-time to enter and go into any 

 House, Shop, Cellar, Warehouse, or Room or other Place, and, in 

 case of Resistance, to break open Doors, Chests, Trunks, and other 

 Package there, to seize, and from thence to bring, any Kind of Goods 

 or Merchandize whatsoever prohibited or uncustomed, and to put and 

 secure the same in his Majesty's Storehouse next to the Place where 

 such Seizure shall be made: And whereas by an Act made in the 

 seventh and eighth Years of the Reign of King William the Third, 

 intituled, An Act for preventing Frauds, and regulating Abuses, in 

 the Plantation Trade, it is, amongst other Things, enacted, that the 

 Officers for collecting and managing his Majesty's Revenue, and in- 

 specting the Plantation Trade, in America, shall have the same 

 Powers and Authorities to enter Houses or Warehouses, to search for 

 and seize Goods prohibited to be imported or exported into or out of 

 any of the said Plantations, or for which any Duties are payable, or 

 ought to have been paid ; and that the like Assistance shall be given 

 to the said Officers in the Execution of their Office, as, by the said 

 recited Act of the fourteenth Year of King Charles the Second, is 

 provided for the Officers in England^' But, no Authority being ex- 

 pressly given by the said Act, made in the seventh and eighth Years 

 of the Reign of King William the Third, to any particular Court to 

 grant such Writs of Assistants for the Officers of the Customs in the 

 said Plantations, it is doubted whether such Officers can legally enter 

 Houses and other Places on Land, to search for and seize Goods, in 

 the Manner directed by the said recited Acts:" To obviate which 

 Doubts for the future, and in order to carry the Intention of the said 

 recited Acts into effectual Execution, be it enacted, and it is hereby 

 enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the said 

 twentieth Day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty- 

 seven, such Writs of Assistants, to authorise and impower the Officers 

 of his Majesty's Customs to enter and go into any House, Warehouse, 

 Shop, Cellar, or other Place, in the British Colonies or Plantations 

 in America, to search for and seize prohibited or uncustomed Goods, 

 in the Manner directed by the said recited Acts, shall and may be 

 granted by the said Superior, or Supreme Court of Justice having 

 Jurisdiction within such Colony or Plantation respectively. 



XI. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That 

 if any Action or Suit shall be commenced, either in Great Britain or 

 America, against any Person or Persons for any Thing done in pur- 

 suance of this Act, the Defendant or Defendants in such Action or 

 Suit may plead the General Issue, and give this Act, and the Special 



