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All Protections of Men found on board of Vessels liable to Seizure to be forfeited; Men shall be impressed, and shall serve, &c. as under 45 G. 3. c. 123. § 7.
Commissioners of Customs &c. shall reward Persons taking such Men.
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XV. And be it further enacted, That no Person found on board of any Ship, Vessel, or Boat, liable to Seizure under this Act, or any Act or Acts of Parliament passed for the Prevention of Smuggling, shall be entitled to claim the Benefit of any Protection which may have been granted to secure such Person from being impressed into His Majesty’s Service, or to which he may be entitled under any Act or Acts of Parliament, or any Law or Laws, or in respect of any such Vessel having Letters of Marque; but every such Protection of every Person so found as aforesaid, shall be absolutely null and void; and also, it shall be lawful for any Officer of the Army, Navy, or Marines, or of the Customs or Excise, to detain or to take and carry any such Person, and every Person liable to be arrested and detained under this Act, or an Act passed in the Forty-fifth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, An Act for the more effectual Prevention of Smuggling, being a Seaman or Seafaring Man, to any Ship or Vessel of War in His Majesty’s Service, or to the Custody of any Officer employed in His Majesty’s Imprest Service; and any such Person being such Seaman or seafaring Man as aforesaid, may thereupon, if fit and able to serve His Majesty, be impressed into His Majesty’s Naval Service; and no Person so impressed shall, unless he shall be disabled or become unfit for Service, be discharged from His Majesty’s Service during the Period of Five Years, nor after the Termination of such Five Years, until the Conclusion of any War in which His Majesty may be then engaged; and all the Provisions and Penalties in the said recited Act of the Forty-fifth Year aforesaid, contained, as to discharging any Man entering into His Majesty’s Service under the said Act, shall extend to Men so impressed under this Act; and no Person so impressed shall forfeit any such Penalty of Treble Value, or One hundred Pounds, as in the said Act mentioned, unless he shall desert His Majesty’s Service, or quit the same without being duly discharged, any Thing in the said Act of the Forty-fifth Year, or in any Act or Acts of Parliament to the contrary notwithstanding; and it shall be lawful for the Commissioners of Customs or Excise of England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, and they are hereby required, upon Proof made to their Satisfaction, that any such Men have been so impressed and detained in or delivered over to His Majesty’s Naval Service, and also of the Ship, Vessel, or Boat, in which they shall be found, being liable to Seizure, or of such Person being liable to be detained as aforesaid, to award to the Person so detaining and delivering over any such Man or Men, any Sum not exceeding Twenty Pounds for each Man so detained or delivered over.
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