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Rule 12. Every act of parliament in force in Great Britain or Ireland re- 55 Geo. 3. spectively, on the 12th May, 1815, by which any regulations were made, c. 57, § 10. established, or directed, for the ascertaining the value of any goods, or for the Former acts. remitting or allowing of any deduction of any duties on account of damage, or for the better securing the revenue of customs, or for the regular importation into or exportation from Great Britain or Ireland respectively, of any goods whatever, except where any alteration is expressly made by this act, and all clauses and things relating thereto, shall remain in full force and effect, and shall be applied to the subject of this act, and for carrying the same into execution, as fully as if they had been repeated and re-enacted in this present act.

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Rule 13. At the end of every quarter, the money in the said exchequer of Purchase of Great Britain, arising from the duties of customs granted by this act, shall be stock, 12. paid into the Bank of England, and to the account of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt of Great Britain, to a separate account to be opened and kept for that purpose; the said commissioners for the reduction of the said national debt shall, from time to time as soon as the same can conveniently be done, lay out the same in purchase of capital stock in such of the public funds or annuities, bearing an interest transferable at the said Bank of England, of 31. per cent. per annum, as shall appear to them most expedient, until the whole amount of capital stock required by this act to form such guarantee fund shall have been purchased.

When duties

Rule 14. When such capital stock shall have been purchased, and such guarantee fund formed and completed, the said commissioners for the reduc- to cease, § 13. tion of the national debt of Great Britain shall certify the same to the lords commissioners of the treasury in Great Britain, who shall forthwith cause notice thereof to be published in the London and Dublin Gazettes, and from the time to be mentioned in such notice the duties of customs granted by this act shall cease; and all sums of money arising from such duties which Money reshall remain in Great Britain by reason of any payment of such duties, after maining. such guarantee fund shall have been completed as aforesaid, and before the publication of such notice, shall go to and make part of the consolidated fund of Great Britain; and all sums so remaining in Ireland shall, in like manner, go to and make part of the consolidated fund of Ireland.

Rule 15. If any action or suit shall be brought against any person for any Limitation of thing done in pursuance of this act, such action shall be commenced within actions, 14. three calendar months next after the fact committed, and not afterwards.

Rule 16. So much of the preceding act as imposes or authorizes the col- 56 Geo. 3. lecting any duty of customs upon bullion and foreign coin of gold and silver c. 77. § 1. imported from any places therein described, is hereby repealed.

Bullion and

Rule 17. The duty of 21. upon every 1007. value of goods, as mentioned foreign coin. in the preceding act, shall not be paid for any such goods deposited under the Warehouse provisions of the acts of parliament for depositing goods in warehouses, and goods, § 2. which shall thereafter be taken out of the warehouses for exportation, and duly exported according to law, and under such regulations as are applicable to the like goods taken out of warehouses for exportation.

Rule 18. The duty in the said act of 1s. 6d. shall not be collected and Vessels impaid upon the ton burthen of vessels importing only blubber, train oil, head porting blubmatter, or whale fins, seal skins, and other produce of fish or creatures living ber, 3. in the seas, taken and caught by the crews of British and Irish-built vessels, and no other cargo as merchandize.

Wilkinson, Assignee of Haffenden and Newcomb, Bankrupts, against Loudonsack.—

June 27, 1814.

[Although the provisions of the acts granting exclusive privileges of trade to the
South Sea Company are now repealed, it is judged proper to insert this case on
account of the importance of its general doctrine.]
Case against the defendant, as sur-
viving partner of Scarratt, deceased, for
not safely stowing and conveying on
board their ship from London to Buenos
Ayres, and there delivering, a bale of

blankets, &c. Plea, general issue. At
the trial before Lord Ellenborough, C.
J. at the London sittings after Hilary
term, 1813, a verdict was found for the
plaintiff, and a rule nisi for a new trial

was obtained in the ensuing term, upon an objection taken at the trial to the legality of the voyage; and the court in Trinity Term, when the rule came on to be argued, directed it to stand over, and the objection to be stated in a special case, the material facts of which are as follows:

The defendant and Scarratt were joint owners of the ship Elliot in the year 1806, and the bale of blankets was shipped on board her by the bankrupts on the 26th of October, 1806, to be carried from London to Buenos Ayres; at which time the freight of the said goods for that voyage was paid by the bankrupts to the broker of the defendant and his partner. The ship sailed on the voyage shortly afterwards. Buenos Ayres, which had been captured by the British forces, and remained in their possession for a short time, was recaptured by the Spaniards in August, 1806, but that fact was not known in England at the time of the shipment of the goods, and commencement of the voyage. In consequence of this recapture, when the ship arrived out, she was obliged to put into Monte Video; and there the goods were delivered to the bankrupts, having been damaged in the voyage, as stated in the declaration. No licence had been obtained from the South Sea company either for the ship or for any part of her cargo on that voyage. It was agreed that His Majesty's order in council, (a) dated the 17th of September, 1806, purporting to legalize the trade to Buenos Ayres, should be read as part of the case by either party. The question for the opinion of the court is whether the plaintiffs are entitled to recover.

Reader argued for the plaintiff, and Puller contrà.

Lord Ellenborough, chief justice, on this day delivered the judgment of the court. The question reserved by this case for the opinion of the court, whether the plaintiff's are entitled to recover in this action, depends on this, whether the contract to carrry the goods on the voyage stated in the declaration be or be not legal; for the injury complained of, in not packing, stowing, and carry

ing safely, or in carelessly and negli. gently packing, stowing, and carrying the goods, arises out of the contract for carrying, and depends on that contract: so that if the contract to carry the goods be illegal, no action bottomed in that contract, and arising out of a non-performance or ill-performance of that contract, can be sustained. The contract is to carry goods from London to Buenos Ayres. The duty on the part of the defendant to carry safely cannot possibly be detached or separated from the contract to carry the goods on the voyage; the voyage is prohibited by law, and any contract to perform that voyage is of course impliedly and by consequence prohibited, and no duty can arise out of a contract so prohibited. The freight for the carriage of the goods has been paid; but if the consideration for such freight is illegal, the performance of it cannot be enforced, for that would tend to encourage, rather than to defeat, every infringement of the law; it is like a premium of insurance paid on an illegal voyage, which cannot authorize the assured to call on the underwriter to perform his part of such contract; or, like a price paid for the smuggling prohibited goods into the country, which can never be made the foundation of an action, either for not bringing the goods at all, or not bringing them in a perfect undeteriorated state. The only remaining argument in favour of the plaintiff was, that here had been no wilful contravention of the law; both parties thought they were acting legally: but their misapprehension of the fact or the law cannot alter the character of the contract, which the court is called upon by this action to enforce. With every inclination to sustain the claim of the plaintiff, if by law we had been sanctioned in so doing, we cannot discover any legal ground on which his case can be satisfactorily placed. The consequence is that the rule to show cause why a non-suit should not be entered, and which was enlarged in order to bring the question before the court in the form of a case, must now be made absolute, and a NONSUIT entered.

MAULE and SELWYN's Reports,
T. T. 1814.

TITLE LXXXV.-BATAVIA.

[By order in council dated the 23d May, 1816, vessels are allowed to clear out for Batavia as a Dutch colony.]

(a) This order is considered as superseded.

TITLE LXXXVI.

EAST INDIES-GENERAL REGULATIONS. (a)

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[WHEN this work was first published, the right of the East India trade was almost exclusively vested in the East India Company; the laws respecting it were therefore omitted. It has since, however, become of very general interest, and much avidity has been manifested to obtain a participation of it. This object, it is well known, was effected about four years since, by the act of 53 Geo. 3. c. 155. As many of the laws under which this trade was formerly conducted still remain in force, and as a knowledge of their contents could not be acquired from any publication, the compiler examined all the statutes from the time of William III. (several thousand in number), and abridged and digested the whole of them relating to the trade in question.—It has been lately stated from high authority, that "the prosperity in our East India settlements since the free trade "has exceeded the most sanguine hopes of those who held out the advantages "that would be derived from it." Next to the law itself, nothing can, in the compiler's opinion, tend more to so desirable an object, than a clear but compressed exposition of that law, and which, perhaps, is not to be obtained from detached acts of parliament however ably penned. The utility of the following pages, comprising the whole of the regulations concerning the East India trade, is therefore submitted to the reader's own judgment; not only as to persons in this country, but also abroad.

Ireland.

Russia.

[As to East India goods from Ireland, see TITLE 39.] [As to Persian goods from Russia, see TITLE 62.] [As to the trade between Gibraltar and Malta and the East Indies, Gibraltar and see TITLE 74.

Malta.

c. 95. § 1. Navigation

Rule 1. NOTHING contained in the Navigation Acts [TITLE 1.] 57 Geo. 3. or in any other act passed for the like purposes, shall extend to or in any way affect the importation or exportation by the East India Company, acts or by any other of His Majesty's subjects in British registered vessels navigated according to law, or in vessels registered or trading under the provisions of 55 Geo. 3. c. 116. [TITLE 87.] of any goods, at, into, or from any place within the limits of the charter of the said company, or to affect the importation or exportation at, into, or from any place whatsoever in such vessels as aforesaid of any goods, of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any place within the limits aforesaid, or to require that any bond for the exportation or importation of goods in any particular manner, shall be given in respect of any such vessels bound to or from any place situate within the limits aforesaid.

Rule 2. From the 25th Dec. 1817, no person, body politic or Prosecutions corporate, shall be liable to be sued for any penalty, nor any vessel,

(a) As to the island of Banca and the settlement of Cochin, and various matters connected with the Netherlands, see TITLE 68, As to various matters connected with France, see TITLE 69,

and seizures,

§ 2.

c. 95.

57 Geo. 3. liable to be seized by reason of any trading contrary to any such prohibition, regulation, or provision as aforesaid, or by reason of any bond mentioned in the said acts not having been given in respect of any vessel bound to or from any place within the limits aforesaid; and further, all vessels, or goods, which before the said day shall have been seized, and all penalties which before the said last-mentioned day shall have been sued for by reason of any such offence, shall be forthwith restored or remitted to the person, body politic or corporate, by whom the same may have been forfeited, upon payment to the person who shall have seized or sued for the same, of his reasonable costs of seizure or suit; provided always, that nothing herein shall extend to prevent any person or any body politic or corporate from disputing the legality of any judgment or other proceeding by appeal or otherwise, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed, or to prevent any person or body politic or corporate from taking the benefit of any other mode of relief from any such forfeiture or penalty, to which he or they by any act now in force or otherwise may be entitled.

Not to affect

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Rule 3. Nothing in this act shall extend to alter or affect the certain laws, provisions of 53 Geo. 3. c. 155. 54 Geo. 3. c. 34. [in note to Rule 19 of this title] 55 Geo. 3. c. 116. [Rule 29 of this title] and 57 Geo. 3. c. 36. [TITLE 74, Rules 23-35.] or to alter or affect the laws now in being relative to the trade of foreign nations in amity with His Majesty with the said British territories under the government of the said company in the East Indies.

Cape of Good

Rule 4. His Majesty's settlement at the Cape of Good Hope shall, Hope, for the purposes of this act, be deemed to be within the limits of the charter of the East India Company.

States in

amity, 5.

Former act, $6.

53 Geo. 3.

Rule 5. It shall be lawful to import into any island or territory within the limits of the said company's charter, not being under the government of the said company, in vessels which may belong to any state being in amity with His Majesty (not being an European state), and lying within the said limits, any articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any such state, and to export in any such vessel any goods which by virtue of this or any other act may have been legally imported into His Majesty's said islands or territories.

Rule 6. Nothing in this act shall extend to affect 57 Geo. 3. c. 1. [TITLE 83, Rule 10.]

Rule 7. The territorial acquisitions mentioned in 33 Geo. 3. c. 155. 1. c. 52. (a) together with such of the territorial acquisitions since ob

Acquisitions.

(a) By 33 Geo. 3. c. 52. § 71. the East India Company shall continue to have, use, and enjoy the whole, sole, and exclusive trade and traffic, and the only liberty, use, and privilege of trading, trafficing, and exercising the trade or business of merchandize in, to, and from the East Indies, and in, to, and from all the islands, ports, havens, coasts, cities, towns, and places between the Cape of Good Hope and Streights of Magellan, and limits in 9 Will. 3. or in a certain charter of the 5th of September, in the 10th year of the same King mentioned, in as ample and beneficial manner as the said company could thereby or otherwise lawfully trade thereto, subject nevertheless to the several limitations, conditions, and regulations of that act.

By 9 & 10 Will. 3. c. 44. § 61. certain persons therein described are allowed to freely traffic "and use the trade of merchandize, in such places, and by such 66 ways and passages, as are already frequented, found out, or discovered, or "which hereafter shall be found out or discovered, and as they severally shall

tained upon the continent of Asia, or in any islands situate to the 53 Geo. 8. north of the equator, as are now in the possession of, and under the c. 155. government of, the East India Company, with the revenues thereof respectively, shall continue in the possession and under the government of the said company, subject to such powers and authorities for the superintendance, direction, and control over all acts, operations, and concerns which relate to the civil or military government or revenues of the said territories, and to such further and other powers, authorities, and regulations, as have been already made or provided by any act of parliament in that behalf, or are made and provided by this act, for a further term, to be computed from the 10th April, 1814, until the same shall be determined by virtue of the proviso hereinafter contained.

China, and

Rule 8. The sole and exclusive right of trading, trafficing, and Exclusive using the business of merchandize in, to, and from the dominions of trade with the Emperor of China, and the whole, sole, and exclusive right of trade in tea, trading and trafficing in tea, in, to, and from all islands, ports, § 2. havens, coasts, cities, towns, and places, between the Cape of Good Hope and the Streights of Magellan, in such manner as the same rights now are or lawfully may be exercised or enjoyed by the said company, by virtue of any act or charter now in force, but not further or otherwise; and all the profits, benefits, advantages, privileges, franchises, abilities, capacities, powers, authorities, rights, remedies, methods of suit, penalties, forfeitures, disabilities, provisions, matters, and things whatsoever, granted to or vested in the said company by the said act, (a) during the term limited by the said act of the parliament of Great Britain, and all other the enactments, provisions, matters, and things contained in the said act, or in any other act whatsoever, Former acts. which are limited, or may be construed to be limited, to continue during the term granted to the said company by the said act, so far as the same or any of them are in force, and not repealed by, or repugnant to, this act, shall continue and be in force during the further term hereby granted to the said company; subject to such alterations therein as may be made by any of the enactments, provisions, matters, and things in this act contained.

and exclusive

Rule 9. At any time upon three years' notice to be given by par- When comliament after the 10th April, 1831, and upon payment made to the said pany's term company of any sum or sums of money which, according to the pro- trade to cease, visions of 33 Geo. 3. c. 47. (b) shall or may, upon the expiration of § 3. the said three years, become payable to the said company, according

to the true intent and meaning of the said act, then and from thence.

66

esteem and take to be fittest or best for them, into and from the East Indies, in "the countries and parts of Asia and Africa, and into and from the islands, ports, "havens, cities, creeks, towns, and places of Asia, Africa, and America, or any of

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them, beyond the Cape of Bona Esperanza, to the Streights of Magellan, where

any trade or traffic of merchandize is or may be used or had, and to and from every of them."

(a) In the original, the Irish act of 33 Geo. 3. is here referred to; but the Irish statutes, except as to the intercourse betwixt Great Britain and Ireland, do not come within the plan of this book.

(b) Intituled, “An Act for placing the Stock called the East India Annuities "under the Management of the Governor and Company of the Bank of Eng. "land, &c."

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