to others. Under the idea, therefore, of paying for the time of voters, every purpose of bribery might be effectually anfwered. In order to fhew that the idea of allowing victuals and drink to voters was by no means a new one, his Lordfhip diverted the House with a quotation from an ancient document drawn from Monkifh Latin. He adverted also to other parts of the bill, and compared them with the law as it ftood, fhewing, that if the public would but set their faces. against the fact, and bring it home to the offenders, the laws in being for the prevention of bribery at elections were so fully adequate to the evil, and gave fuch complete authority to inflict a proper punishment, that there was not the smallest neceffity for an additional ftatute upon the fubject. He faid, it had been fuggefted to him, that in a Committee of the House of Commons, conftituted agreeable to the directions of Mr. Grenville's act, it had been declared, that the candidates having paid money for the purposes profcribed by the prefent bill, were not guilty of bribery. Every fuch decifion that had been made, had been clearly illegal; a fact which a reference to the ftatutes already in being would demonstrate most incontrovertibly. His Lordship reasoned upon the ill policy of multiplying ftatutes unneceffarily. What the common law held to be criminal, there was no occafion to pass a written law to declare criminal. In like manner, what the ftatute laws had already declared criminal, it was idle and inconvenient to pafs new ftatute laws to declare criminal. In fhort, so strong, fo extenfive, and fo effectual, was the common and ftatute law in being against bribery at elections, that it appeared to him, that the framer of the bill under confideration was ignorant of the law as it ftood already, or he never would have thought fuch a bill as the present neceffary.

The bill was ordered to be printed.

March 24.

His Majefty being feated on the throne, the Commons were fent for, and being come with their Speaker, the King gave the Royal affent to seventeen public and fix private bills; after which his Majefty made the following moft gracious fpeech from the throne:

My Lords and Gentlemen,

"ON a full confideration of the prefent fituation of affairs, and of the extraordinary circumftances which have produced it, I am induced to put an end to this feffion of Parliament;

Parliament: I feel it a duty which I owe to the conftitution and to the country in fuch a fituation, to recur as speedily as poffible to the fenfe of my people, by calling a new Parliament.

"I truft that this meafure will tend to obviate the mifchiefs arifing from the unhappy divifions and diftractions which have lately fubfifted; and that the various important objects which will require confideration, may be afterwards proceeded upon with lefs interruption and with happier effect.

"I can have no other object, but to preferve the true principles of our free and happy conftitution, and to employ the powers entrusted to me by law, for the only end for which they were given, the good of my people."

Then the Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Juftice of the Court of King's Bench, Speaker of the House of Lords, by his Majefty's command, faid:

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

It is his Majefty's royal will and pleasure, that this Parliament be prorogued to Tuesday the fixth day of April next, to be then here holden; and this Parliament is accordingly prorogued to Tuesday the fixth day of April next." The next day, the 25th of March, the Parliament was diffolved.

FIRST REPORT from the Committee appointed to enquire into the illicit Practices used in defrauding the

Revenue.

(DECEMBER 24, 1783.)

The Committee appointed ta enquire into the illicit Practices now used in defrauding the Revenue of this Kingdom, and the most effectual Methods of preventing the fame; and to report the fame, with their Opinion thereupon, to the House,

PROCEEDED, without delay, to the difcharge of their duty; and finding themfelves likely to be involved in a variety of complicated and impórtant objects, determined, for the fake of perfpicuity, to feparate the matters referred to them; they have accordingly confined their firft enquiries to the nature and extent of the illicit practices; referving to a fubfequent difcuffion and arrangement, what may occur, or be fuggested to them, on the means of prevention.

Your Committee cannot proceed to ftate the refult, without acknowledging the information and affiftance which they have received from the principal Boards of British revenue, whose zeal and alacrity in furnishing full statements of the prevailing abuses, merit the approbation and acknowledgments your Committee.

of

If the whole of the information thus obtained, were to be ftated to the House, in addition to parole evidence of a very interefting kind, which has been given to your Committee, it would forin a detail which might be thought too voluminous, and would open many practices inexpedient to be made public: your Committee, therefore, have refolved not to enter into particulars, farther than may be neceffary to make their report intelligible; but rather to comprefs their materials within general expreffions; relying on the confidence which the Houfe will place in their veracity, and holding themselves in readiness, if more minute explanations and proofs fhould be required.

From the accounts of the principal officers of the out-ports, examined and ftated by the Commiffioners of Excife and Customs, it appears, that the fraudulent importation of many principle articles of revenue, without payment of duty, has lately increased to a very alarming degree, and is carried on with the moft open and daring violence, in every acceffible part of the @oaft of this kingdom.

The veffels uled for this purpofe are of various fizes, from 30 to 300 tons, mounting from fix to twenty-four guns, and navigated by crews from twelve to one hundred men.

The cargoes confist chiefly of spirits, tea, tobacco-stalks, fnuff, Eaft-India goods, wine, drugs, cambricks, laces, and filks.

The most confiderable of thefe veffels are able to make feven or eight voyages in a year; the largest of them can bring, in one freight, the enormous

quantity

1

quantity of three thousand half ankers of spirits, and ten or twelve tons of tea, befides other valuable articles to a confiderable amount: the strength of fome of them is fuch, as to enable them to bid defiance to the revenue cruizers, fome of which have recently been infulted, fired upon, and beat off; and others have either been feized and carried off, or fcuttled and funk'; in other inftances the crews of the fmuggling veffels have made prifoners of fome of the officers of the revenue, and have kept them abroad during the time of landing very valuable cargoes. It is alfo a practice, for the large and armed veffels to take under their convoy the fmall defencelefs craft which are employed in the fame pernicious traffic.

The landing of the cargo is regulated by fignals, and fecured by large gangs of men, armed chiefly with clubs and heavy whips, generally infla med with liquor, and affembled in fuch numbers as to reduce the revenue officers to be quiet fpectators of the proceeding; this is very generally the cafe, except when the revenue officers can obtain the aid of a large military force; fuch affiftance, in the prefent establishment of the army, muft be extremely partial-it is quite inadequate to the purpofe of general and effectual prevention the requifition is often attended both with delay and with fome notoriety and even when aid is obtained upon an information, it is generally frustrated; for the fcouts placed upon the fhore give fignals to the veffel at fea, which inftantly proceeds according to the fettled fignal to fome other place of rendezvous, at fifteen or twenty miles diftance, and lands the cargo in the night time.

The cargo thus delivered, is placed in waggons or on horfes, being packed and prepared for that purpofe, in cafks and oil-fkin bags: it is next either diftributed upon the coaft and the parts adjoining, for fale and confumption, or brought to the neighbourhood of this metropolis, and into the metropolis, either under the open guard and protection of armed troops of men, or by a fallacious ufe of permits, or in difguifed packages, by stage coaches, stage waggons, and various other modes of conveyance.

Your Committee are informed, that on fome parts of the coaft, batteries have actually been erected to affift and protect thefe illicit importations; and they have reafon to believe that the number of large armed veffels employed in the fmuggling trade is not lefs than one hundred and twenty, befides near two hundred fmaller veffels. The owners have introduced and established a mixed fyftem of war and trade--they purfue all the regular plans of bookkeeping-riders are fent, from time to time, to receive orders within the circle of their refpective rides; which orders have already been collected in parts more diftant from the coaft: notice is then circulated, of the day and hour when the veffel may be expected to appear off the fhore with the return of the cargoes; a place of landing is fixed upon; fignals are fettled; fcouts are appointed; the degree of force which may be wanted is arranged; and, laftly, the terms of freight are adjusted, and alfo of infurance, in cafe the perfon who gives the order will not take the articles at his own risk. commodities thus imported, if diftributed upon the coaft, are, in most instances, fold at little more than half of the price which is given when regular duties are paid if they are brought to the metropolis under infurance, which is a common practice, they are delivered either to retail traders, or to private housekeepers, at about two-thirds of the price paid by the honeft confumer.

X 2

The

The

The Commiffioners of the revenue very justly obferve, that their inland eftablishment is utterly unfit to fupprefs thefe proceedings; being calculated rather to detect frauds than to refift violence, and having hardly any powers of exertion upon the coaft, beyond the detection of finall illicit importations and exportations, attempted by merchant veffels, or by the coafting trade; thefe practices are confequently become fo general, and fo irrefiftible, that the fecurity of the revenue, in many inftances, depends on the honefty of the traders and here, perhaps, it may deferve ren.ark, that fince the fitting of your Committee was known, the exertions of the fmugglers to bring large ftocks of goods into the kingdom are reprefented to us to have been greater

than ever.

Every opinion, and every teflimony, has concurred to prove to your Committee, that this fyftem, fo fatal both to revenue and to trade, has, during the laft four years, increased in a very alarming degree,; this naturally happened under all the circumftances attending the courfe and clofe of the late war: and it is the opinion of the Commiffioners of Excife, from which we cannot dif fent, that the excife duties alone (which, on tea, coffee, brandy, and rum, amount annually, at an average, to one million fterling) would, if fmuggling could be prevented, produce a revenue of more than three times that fum."

Your Committee fhould here obferve, that, exclufive of the open and avowed profeffion of fmuggling, an iflicit importation is carried on to a great extent, by the re-landing of bounty and drawback goods; by coafters, which take goods aboard at fea or in foreign parts; by the officers of homeward-bound Eaft and Weft India fhips, to a great amount; by fishing veffels; and by the crews and paffengers of fome of the Poft-office packets.

It is computed, from the best examinations, that upwards of twenty millions of pounds of tea, and thirteen millions of gallons of brandy, have been fmuggled into the kingdom within the last three years: and it well deferves remark, that the national interests fuffer most effentially in many points of view, exclufive of the great lofs of revenue-this immenfe trade being fupported almost folely by the export of the bullion and specie of the kingdom, or by bills of exchange, and not by any interchange of manufactures, or other merchandize, except, perhaps, fome raw wool.

It farther deferves remark, that enormities of fuch violence and extent amount to a partial ftate of anarchy and rebellion; and have a tendency to weaken and impair every idea of a regular government, and all due fubmiffion to the laws of the land.

The means of prevention against hefe great evils, however inadequate to the purpose, have gradually been much increafed, and confequently have occafioned an increase in the public expences. Your Committee will, in a fubfequent Report, take fome notice of the different plans under which the revenue cruizers are engaged and established; it is fufficient for the prefent to refer to the Appendix, (No. 1.) for an account of the number and force of veffels employed in the different periods of 1763, 1773, and 1783; and alfo for an account of the increase of thofe veffels, from the 10th of October, 1780, to

the 10th of October, 1783. It is an obvious ious remark, on these accounts, as well as on the account of the charges paid upon the produce of feizures for the periods of 1763, 1773, and 1783, (which is in Appendix, No. 2.) that, though the illicit practices have increated, the exertions and expences of the public have alfo confiderably increafed. In reference to the paper to which your Committee