224 
HISTORY OF THE [book. vi. 
fraud of passing foreign built ships as English ; to¬ 
gether with various regulations to prevent counter¬ 
feit certificates, and frauds in the import and ex¬ 
port to and from the colonies; for all which, refer¬ 
ence must be made to the act at large, which is 
systematic and comprehensive in a high degree. 
These acts therefore, and some intermediate 
ones, which it js not necessary to particularise, 
may be considered as supplemental to the naviga¬ 
tion act, and they form altogether the foundation 
of our colonial code; most of the subsequent acts 
now in force, being framed in the same spirit, and 
intended to inforce and strengthen the system; 
with some few alterations and exceptions only, 
which however do not extend to any great and sub¬ 
stantial change in the principle or ground work.* 
* The following, I believe, are the chief additions, alterations, 
and exceptions, so far as the British sugar islands are principally con- 
cerned. If the reader is desirous of the fullest and most correct in¬ 
formation on this head, he is referred to a late History of the Law of 
Shipping and Navigation, by John Reeves, Esq. an admirable work, 
in which the driest subjects are treated with such clearness, precision, 
and elegance, as to render the book not only instructive, but in a very 
high degree entertaining and interesting. 
By statute 3 and 4 Ann, c. 5. Rice and melasses were put into the 
enumeration, and by c. 8. Irish linens, laden in Ireland in English 
built shipping navigated according to law, were admitted into the 
plantations. 
By 7 Ann, c. 8. Jesuits bark, and all other drugs, are permitted 
to be imported into Great Britain from the British plantations, on 
