|
|
47 G. 3. st. 2, c. 60. § 20.
Reward to Officers seizing Spirits concealed under Water, One Moiety of their Value.
|
II. ‘And Whereas by an Act passed in the Forty-seventh Year of His present Majesty’s Reign, intituled, An Act to make more effectual Provision for the Prevention of Smuggling, it is amongst other Things provided in the Case of Seizures of Spirits, Tobacco, or Snuff made at Sea, or in any Port or Harbour, that if any Officer of the Customs or Excise, or other Persons making such Seizure, shall neither seize and prosecute, nor cause to be seized and prosecuted the Ship, Vessel, or Boat, in or on board which such Spirits, Tobacco, or Snuff shall be or shall have been brought, found, or seized, or which shall be used or employed in removing or conveying the same, nor shall stop, arrest, and detain the Persons, or some or one of them, who shall be or shall have been employed in navigating the Ship, Vessel, or Boat, in or on board which such Spirits, Tobacco, or Snuff shall be or shall have been brought, sound, or seized, or in unlading, removing, or carrying such Spirits, Tobacco, or Snuff, nor shall not convey or cause every such Person so arrested or detained to be taken or conveyed before One or more of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace to be dealt with according to Law, then and in every such Case the Officer of the Customs or Excise, or other Persons making such Seizure, shall be entitled to and shall be paid only One-Fourth Part of the Value at which such Spirits, Tobacco, or Snuff shall be or shall have been respectively estimated or fixed according to the Directions of the said Act: And whereas the pernicious Practice of Smuggling by Means of sinking small Casks of Spirits at Sea, and within the Limits of the Ports of this Kingdom, and getting them up as Opportunity offers, appears to have been much reforted to, and it is therefore expedient to extend and increase the Rewards to Officers of the Customs and Excise, and other Persons legally authorized to make Seizures, by whose Exertion and Diligence such Practice may be counteracted;’ Be it therefore enacted, That in all Cases where any such Officers and Persons as aforesaid shall seize, within the Limits of any of the Ports of this Kingdom, or in any of the British or Irish Channels, or elsewhere on the High Seas, within One hundred Leagues of any Part of the Coasts of Great Britain or Ireland, any Spirits which shall have been sunk or concealed under or in the Water within such Limits or Distance, every such Officer and Person so seizing such Spirits shall be, and he and they is and are hereby allowed One Moiety of the Value at which such Spirits shall be fixed or estimated as aforesaid; any Thing contained in the said recited Act, or in any other Act or Acts of Parliament to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
|
