Docks. Fourteen days notice of action is rendered necessary by the act Encouragements to Importation. of parliament, when the treasurer of the West India dock company is sued in case for an act done by the company which has occasioned an injury to the plaintiff (1); but although notice must be given in all cases before an action can be brought for a trespass or a tort, it may be doubtful whether the provision extends to actions of assumpsit (1). A letter from the plaintiff's attorney to the secretary of the West India dock company, claiming the delivery of goods in the possession of the company, to which the plaintiff was alleged to be entitled, and adding that the writer was instructed to take legal measures if it were not delivered forthwith, is not a proper notice of action; the treasurer of the company appears to be the person to whom notice is to be given; and at all events a letter which may be taken as a communication of courtesy, and leaves it open to conjecture what measures are in contemplation, and against whom they will be brought, is not a notice of action within the meaning of the statute. (2) The meaning of the term importation has been already in part considered in the chapter on the navigation laws (3). A vessel is in general considered to have imported her cargo when she has come within the limits of the port, in order to lay the goods on land (4), as when a ship brought a cargo of baysalt to a haven in England, and sold part of her cargo to another vessel, to which the goods were delivered, and afterwards exported, it was held, that an importation had taken place as well as an exportation, and that duties were payable accordingly on the cargo sold; and it was determined that the discharge of the goods from the vessel in which they were imported on the sale London dock act, 39 & 40 G. 3. c. 47. s. 151. act of 24 G. 2. c. 44. extended to this act. Limitation of actions 6 months, with 20 days notice required, and tender of amends allowed. General issue and treble costs. And East India dock act 43 G. 3. c. 126. s. 121. tender of amends, and 14 days notice of action, and s. 122. limitation, 3 months. Venue in the county. General issue and treble costs. See also Rotherhithe Commercial dock act, 50 G. 3. c. 207. s. 94. loc. and per. Rother G. 3. c. 171. s. 62. (1) Wallace v. Smith, treasurer (3) Ante, 244 to 252. (4) 2 Chalmer's Op. 280. Leake v. Smith, Bunb. 79. Com. Dig. Trade, C. 1. 12 Co. 18. 2 Price, 385. And see post as to exportation. Score v. the Lord Admiral, Meaning of Term "Importation." What an taking place, was equivalent to putting them on the land, as the delivery was made within the body of the county (1). If, however, goods are wrecked (2), or if they are brought by stress of weather within the limits of the port, and are not disembarked, they are not in general liable to forfeiture as having been imported (3). If foreign goods imported into this country are afterwards exported to foreign parts, they are liable to the usual duties on being again imported. (4) Restraints of The remaining divisions of the present chapter will be occupied in considering how far and in what manner exportation has been either-1. prohibited or restrained—or, 2. favoured and encouraged by our law (5). On a review of the laws that have been made with respect to importing goods into this country, it will be seen that importation has been frequently prohibited from an apprehension that if foreigners were allowed to introduce into the kingdom articles manufactured abroad, they might be able to undersell our domestic manufacturers in the home market. So, also, importation has been encouraged, when it was conceived that a supply of the materials of mechanical skill was necessary for the welfare of the manufactories. As, therefore, by a natural consequence, the exportation of manufactured articles would deserve encouragement, the exportation of the materials of the manufactures would on the same ground be properly restrained. Such has been the policy pursued by the legisla ture with regard to exportation. The exportation of raw produce has been generally prohibited, while the exportation of manufactured goods has been encouraged by various means. Whether, indeed, the restraints imposed on the exportation of unmanufactured goods, at the consideration of which we are now arrived, can be justified on true principles of policy,-whether they have not been calculated to advance the interests of the manufacturer at the expence of the producer of the raw material, as well as of (1) 12 Co. 18. See 2 Price, 385. 388. 391. (2) Com. Dig. Trade, C. Cro. El. 534. Vaughan 161. ante 244, 245, 246. (3) Hardr. 362. 2 Reeves' Hist. of Ship. 198.200. If a stat. impose duties on goods being imported by way of merchandize, that term should be used in the infor mation; and it is not sufficient to say they were laid on land by way of merchandize. Cro. El. 534, 535. Leake v. Howell. And see ante, 245. (4) 49 G. 3. c. 98. s. 39. (5) See Beawes, Lex. Merc. 6 ed. 111, &c. Docks. the public at large,-are reflexions to which it will be proper to Restraints of attend, when any further alteration shall take place in the law. Exportation. The arguments upon this subject have been before adverted to, in considering the law as it respects importation (1). We may therefore proceed at once to a consideration of the provisions by which exportation has been prohibited or restrained. Fuller's Clay. The woollen manufacture, it has been before observed, has Exporting Wool, always been regarded as an object of primary importance. Not Sheep, and only has the importation of woollen articles been restrained, but by a prohibition of the exportation of the materials of the manufacture, a monopoly has been established in favour of the woollen manufacturer against the growers of wool (2). In the reign of Edward III. the exportation of wool was prohibited upon pain of loss of life and member, and of forfeiture to the crown of all the delinquent's possessions (3). It seems, however, to have been intended that this law should not be perpetually in force, as it was declared that it should only continue until any other provision was made by the king and his council. Many other acts of parliament were passed in the same reign, as well as in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., to prohibit the exportation of wool by foreigners to any place but to the staple at Calais, which was then a dependency on this country; and by a statute of 8 Hen. 6. c. 23. it is provided that no man shall export any manner of thrums, or woollen yarn (4) under colour of thrums, under penalty of forfeiting double the value (4). The exportation of live sheep was made felony by a statute 8 Eliz. c. 3., and the offender was to be punished for the first offence with a year's (1) See ante 514 to 519. and Lord Sheffield's Reports on the Wool Trade, Pamphleteer, vol. 3. 282. vol. 4. 88. (2) See Lord Sheffield's Reports on the Wool Trade, Pamphleteer, vol. 3. 282. vol. 4. 88. Tucker's Essay on Trade, 63, 64, 65. (3) 11 Edw. 3. c. 1. 1 Macph. An. 518. See further stat. of the staple, 27 Edw. 3 stat. 2. c. 3. 3 Inst. 95. in which is also cited an old law from the Mirror, c.1 s.3. by which the carrying wool out of the kingdom was forbidden. By 38 Edw. 3. c. 6. the 27 Edw.3. stat. 2. c. 3. was repealed so far as it had export wool; and it was enacted, (4) 8 Hen. 6. c. 23. Pope, tit. Restraints of imprisonment and loss of his left hand; and the second offence was punishable with death (1). The exportation of sheep and wool, besides many other materials connected with the woollen manufacture, was again made felony by the statute 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 18., and the exporter was subjected to the same penalties and forfeitures as a felon (2). This law was found inefficacious, principally perhaps on account of the great gains to be acquired by exporting wool, and partly on account of the extreme severity of the punishment with which the offence was visited (3). It was therefore repealed by the statute 7 & 8 Wm. 3. c. 28. s. 4. so far as it made the exportation of wool felony (4). The illegal exportation, however, still continued to be treated with great severity (5); and in the 28th year of the reign of his present majesty, it was deemed expedient to amend the law, and to reduce all the provisions that had been made with regard to exporting wool, into one act of parliament. The 28 Geo. 3. c. 38. repealed all the statutes then in force which related to the exportation of live sheep, wool, woolfells, mortlings, shortlings, yarn or worsted made of wool, woolflocks, cruels, coverlids, waddings, or other manufactures or pretended manufactures made of wool slightly wrought up, or otherwise put together so that the same might be reduced to wool again, or mattresses or beds stuffed with combed wool or wool fit for combing or carding, or fuller's earth, fulling clay, or tobacco-pipe clay; except those parts of a statute of 9 & 10 W. 3. c. 40. (6), which related to wool shorn, laid up, or lodged within ten miles of the sea-side, within the counties of Kent and Sussex, and to the restrictions in respect of the buying of wool by persons residing within fifteen miles of the sea (6). The exportation of live sheep of any description of the breed of Great Britain, or of the islands of (1) 3 Inst. 104. 4 Bla. Com. 154. Com. Dig. Justices, s. 10. (2) It is lawful to export oxen and cows, or heifers and geldings, and all sorts of swine or hogs, by 12 Car. 2. c. 4. s. 10. 22 Car. 2. c. 13. s. 7. (3) 2 Macph. An. Com. 497, 8. (4) Com. Dig. Justices, s. 10. c. 28. and transportation for 7 Exportation. Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, or the causing them Restraints of to be put in any vessel or boat, to be conveyed out of Great Britain or any of the islands just mentioned (1), is punished with a forfeiture of the animals as well as the vessel in which they are conveyed; and every person concerned is to forfeit £3 for every sheep or lamb taken into a vessel with any such intent, and is to suffer solitary confinement for three months without bail, and also be imprisoned until the forfeiture is paid, so that the whole imprisonment for non-payment of the forfeiture does not exceed twelve months; and a second offence is punished with a forfeiture of £5 for every sheep or lamb, and the imprisonment is to be for six months, and if the penalty should not be paid, a further term not exceeding two years. Some exceptions are made in favour of the carrying of wether sheep with the wool growing thereon, when carried for the necessary food of the ship's crew, and of the transportation of sheep in Scotland from the mainland to islands adjacent to the estates (2). The principal object of the provisions against the exportation of sheep, manifestly is to prevent the English breed of sheep from being propagated in foreign countries. By the 9th section of the statute 28 Geo. 3. c. 38. it is enacted, that every person who shall "convey out of Great Britain, or the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, into any places out of the kingdom or isles aforesaid, any wool whatsoever of the growth of the kingdom, or of the isles aforesaid; or any woolfells, mortlings, shortlings, yarn or worsted made of wool, woolflocks, cruels, coverlids, waddings, or other manufactures (3) or pretended manufactures made of wool slightly wrought up, or otherwise put together so as the same may be reduced to and made use of as wool again, or mattresses or beds stuffed with combed wool or wool fit for combing or carding, or any fuller's earth, fulling clay, or tobacco-pipe clay," as well as every person concerned in such an unlawful exportation, shall forfeit 3 s. for every pound of wool, or else a gross sum of £50, at the election of the person suing, and shall suffer solitary imprisonment for three months, and if the penalty is not paid, for a further term of twelve months; and a second offence is visited with the same pecuniary penalty, but with imprisonment for the term of six months, and if the (1) See, as to Cowes in the Isle of Wight, 32 G. 3. c. 32. s. 2. (2) 28 Geo. 3. c. 38. s. 2-8. Pope, 216. woollen cloths can be exported |