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If any officer knows or suspects where private stills, worts, &c. are kept, and makes oath thereof before a justice, such justice may grant a special warrant to break open the suspected place, and seize the stills, worts, &c.
Penalty on proprietor or occupier.
Persons obstructing officers in seizing private stills, &c. to forfeit 100l.
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17. If any officer of excise shall know or have cause to suspect that any private or concealed still, or any back, vat, cooler, or other vessel used in illicit distillation, or any spirits, low wines, or wort or wash, or other materials preparing or prepared for distillation, are set up or kept in any house or place, . . . and shall make oath thereof before one or more justice or justices of the peace of the county, city, or place where such officer shall suspect the same to be set up . . . setting forth the ground of such suspicion, it shall be lawful for the justice or justices before whom such oath shall be made, if he or they shall judge it reasonable, by special warrant under his or their hands or seals, to authorize and empower such officer, by day or by night, to break open the doors or any part of such house or place where he or they shall so know or suspect that such private or concealed still, back, vat, cooler, or other vessel, spirits, low wines, wort, wash, or materials for distillation, . . . is or are so set up, . . , and to enter into such house or place, and to seize all and every such stills, backs, vats, coolers, and other vessels, and all such spirits, low wines, worts, wash, and other materials preparing or prepared for distillation, . . . which shall be there found and discovered, and either to detain and keep the same in the house or place where found, or to remove the same to the office of excise next to the place where the same shall be so discovered and found; and the proprietor or occupier of the house or place in which any such seizure shall be made shall forfeit one hundred pounds, subject to the mitigation hereafter mentioned; and if any person shall obstruct, oppose, molest, or hinder any officer of excise, or others acting in their assistance, in the searching for or seizing any such private or concealed stills, backs, vats, coolers, or other vessels, or spirits, low wines, wort, wash, or other materials for distillation, . . . or in detaining or keeping the same in the place where found, or in removing the same or any of them after seizure to the next office of excise as aforesaid, then and in every such case every person so offending shall forfeit one hundred pounds, subject to the mitigation hereafter mentioned.
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