364 A. D. 1795- 



it is now, the commifTioners of the cufloms recommended to govern- 

 ment to make a legal quay at Bridge-yard on the fouth fide of the river ; 

 but it was never executed. About the year 1762 the court of exchequer 

 diredled a part of the Tower wharf to be converted into a legal quay : 

 but the part, to be referved for the crown, not being accurately fpecifi- 

 ed, the plan was allowed to fall to the ground. 



Of late years the conflrudion of wet docks has been fuggefted by 

 many public-fpirited perfons, as the befl expedient for obviating the 

 evils occafioned by the lumbered flate of the quays or wharfs, the too- 

 great throng of vellels on the river, (which has frequently been covered 

 by near twice as many as could find convenient room on its furface, 

 befides the fwarms of lighters and other craft attending them) and the 

 prodigious lofs fuftained by delay and plunder *. 



Weft-India produce being peculiarly liable tofuffer from depredation, 

 and the many other evils flowing from the crowded ftate of the port, 

 and the Weft-India trade having lately increafed more than almoft any 

 other branch of trade in the port of London f, the merchants concern- 

 ed in it, feeling themfelves, in their own intereft and that of their 

 friends in the Weft-Indies, the greateft fufferers, and being fully con- 

 vinced of the inefficacy of all the precautions they had hitherto taken 

 againft pilfering, took the lead in recommending the great utility of 

 wet docks for relieving the river by drawing off a confiderable number 

 of veflels from it, and giving difpatch and fecurity in difcharging the 

 cargoes, efpecially thofe of veflels from the Weft-Indies : and they ap- 

 pointed a committee of their own number to confider the moft effedtual 

 remedy, ai:id draw up a plan for carrying it into execution. 



The committee declared in their report, that ' the exijlence of the 

 ' Wejl-India trade at the port of London is neceffarily conneSled with a more 

 ' adequate pfovifion for the dif charge offljipping, and the ivarehoufing of pro- 

 ' dtice, than the legal quays can pof/ibly afford ; a provifion which may 

 unite economy, fecurity, and difpatch j and that thofe defirable objeds were 

 moft likely to be obtained by the conftrudion of a fufl&cient extent of 



* The depredatioHS, committed by the vaft va- fully, laid open by that able and patriotic magi- 



riety of claffes of thieves, who infeft the rircr and Urate, Mr. Colquhoun, in his Treatife on the com- 



its banks, are beyond what any perfon, wholely merce and police of the River Thames ; and a brief 



unacquainted with them, could think poffible to account of them will be given when I come to the 



be perpetrated. They are amply, perhaps almoft eftablidiment of tlie marine police in the year 1798. 



f The following account of the fugar and rum imported into London (hows the incrcafe in thefe 

 'WO chief articles of Weft-India produce. 



in the year cwt. of sugar. gal. of rum. 



1750 630,840 607,074 



1760 1,047,790 669,358 



1770 1,377.109 997.136 



1780 1,176,371 1,236,579 



1790 1,236,647 1,521,051 



1792 1,345,559 1,631,020 



1793 1,467,469 2,209,722 



1794 1>809,903 1,911,646 



