THE CASE OF THE Officers of the Customs Relating to the Seizure of a Parcel of FULLERS EARTH belonging to Mr. Edmond Warner Merchant, shipp'd to be Exported for Holland, under the Denomination of Potters Clay.
BY an Act made in the Twelfth Year of King CHARLES the Second, Intituled, An Act for Prohibiting the Exportation of Wooll, Woollfels, Fullers Earth, Or any Kind of Scouring Earth, It is Enacted, That no Person whatsoever, shall Export or put on Board any Ship or Vessel with intent to be Exported, any Fullers Farth, or Fulling Clay whatsoever, upon Forfeiture of the said Clay and Three Shillings per Pound Weight, &c.
By another Act made in the Fourteenth Year of the said King, it [...] taken notice of, That notwithstanding the Laws then made, yet (amongst other thing) great quantity of Fullers Earth and Fullers Clay, &c. was secretly Exported, to the great Decay of the Woollen Manufacture, the Ruin of many Families, and the Destruction of Navigation; which was like daily to increase, if some farther Remedy was not provided, and further Penalties imposed upon the Offenders.
It is therein Enacted, That whereas great quantities of Fullers Earth and Fulling Clay are daily Exported, under the Colour of Tobacco-Pipe Clay, that no Tobacco-Pipe Clay shall for the future be Exported, under the Penalties of the forfeiture of the said Clay and Three Shillings per Pound Weight, &c.
And it is also therein further provided, That if any Customer, Controller, Waiter, Searcher, or Surveyor, or other Officer, knowing thereof, and being wittingly or willingly aiding, assisting, or Consenting thereto, shall be adjudged and taken to be a Felon, and every Offender suffer and forfeit as in Case of Felony.
The Officers above-mentioned are Searchers, without whose knowledge no Goods can pass or be shipp'd to be Exported, nor discharged but by Cocquets signed under their hands, nor the Ships cleared from the Custom-house, but by Dispatches from them.
These Officers knew the Earth of Mr. Warner (who had shipp'd the said Earth before any notice given to them) to be Fullers Earth; having themselves experimented the same in Fulling of Cloth; which they found (by the Judgement of several Clothiers and Fullers) to perform all the Offices of other Fullers Earth.
If they had not stopped the Earth, they had been Consenting to the Exportation, in as much as the said Earth could not be Exported, but by Cocquet or Warrant signed by them: And as they are named by their Office in the before-mentioned Act, they must have been found guilty of Felony, and if prosecuted, suffer as Felons.
The said Officers moved the Barons of the Exchequer, That they would please to direct an Experiment in such place and by such persons as the Court should think fit, to prevent all falacious Experiments, and that the truth at the Trial might appear; but this was opposed by Mr. Warner.
They also offered Mr. Warner before the Commissioners of the Customs, That if he would not Export any more of the said Earth, not to insist on the Penalties; and the said Officers further declared in Court, by the Attorney General, before and at the Trial, That if a Verdict went for the King, they declined all the Forfeitures, that it might appear they sought not the Ruin of Mr. Warner, but tried only the right of the Earth, which was not above Twelve pounds value, to prevent the Exportation thereof as a National Good.
Yet upon the Motion of Mr. Warner in the Court of Exchequer, they were compelled to try the forfeiture of the said Earth (altho of so inconsiderable a Value) at Bar; whereby they were forced to expend several hundred pounds.
It's apparent, That if a Verdict had been given for the King upon the late Trial, the Officers could not have received the least advantage by it, altho it is as evident, That by the Exportation they are gainers by their Fees; and are by so much losers, if the shipping off be prevented, having acted only in this Matter under the necessity or their Duty, the Trust that the Law [...]s [...]itted to them [...] and the Publick Good of the Nation in general.