A. D. 1785. Public offices to the auditor, and to his respective clerks, shall cease during the said four months; and also, that at the expiration of the said term a certificate shall be produced from his Excellency the Governor or Commander-in-chief, that all accounts which have been brought in to the auditor's office prior to the first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, or against the confiscated estates which are or shall be brought in prior to the twenty-sixth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and eightyfive, are audited. VI. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the commissioners to be appointed as aforesaid are hereby authorized and to be superin- required, during the recess of the Legislature, to superintend the public commissioners, Offices of this State, and to examine their books, and to direct the mode of keeping their accounts. tended by the In the Senate House, the nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand JOHN LLOYD, President of the Senate. No. 1277. AN ORDINANCE TO APPOINT ADDITIONAL COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, SANTEE. Preamble. WHEREAS, by an Act passed the twelfth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, entitled “ An Act for building a new church in the parish of St. James, Santee," seven commissioners were appointed, and vested with certain powers therein contained, and it was also thereby enacted, that in case of the death, absence, or refusal to act, of any of the said commissioners, the remaining commissioners, or any five of them, were authorized to nominate and appoint another person or persons to be commissioners in the room of such person or persons so dying, absenting, or refusing to act; and whereas, four of the said commissioners have died since the commencement of the late war, and the remaining three are not empowered to name successors to them ; I. Be it therefore ordained, by the honorable the Senate and House of Commissioners Representatives, in General Assembly now met and sitting, and by the appointed. authority of the same, That John Bowman, Thomas Horry, Samuel Warren, and John Buchanan, be, and they are hereby appointed, commissioners, in addition to the three surviving commissioners appointed by the said Act, and are hereby vested with the same power and authority as the said first appointed commissioners were by the said Act; and in case of the death, absence, or refusal to act, of any the said commissioners, the remaining commissioners, or the major part of them, shall and may, and they are hereby fully authorized and empowered to, nominate and appoint another person or persons to be commissioners in the room and place of such person or persons so dying, absenting, or refusing to act; which person or persons so appointed shall have the same power and authority for putting the said Act in execution as the commissioners therein first named and appointed. In the Senate House, the nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand JOHN LLOYD, President of the Senate. A. D. 1785. AN ACT to incorporate the Vestries and Churchwardens of the Epis- No. 1278. copal Churches in the parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, in Charleston; and for other purposes. (Passed March 24, 1785. See last volume.) AN ACT FOR REGULATING THE INSPECTION AND EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO. WHEREAS, it is necessary tobacco should be inspected before the same is sent to foreign markets, as well to prevent fraud between the buyer and seller, as to prevent that article (the growth of this State) from being brought into disrepute abroad; No. 1279. Preamble. be erected. to be establish ed. 1. Be it enacted, by the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That proper warehouses shall be erected by the commissioners Warehouses to hereinafter to be appointed, where all tobacco, previous to its being exported or exposed to sale, shall be brought for inspection, and, after being passed, be deposited till called for exportation; which warehouses shall be established at the following places, that is to say-three warehouses in the city of Charleston, in such parts of the city as the commissioners Where they are shall think proper; one warehouse or warehouses at Georgetown; one warehouse at Beaufort; one warehouse or warehouses at Cheraw Hill; one warehouse or warehouses at Watboo Landing; one warehouse or warehouses at or near Friday's ferry, on the Congaree river; one warehouse or warehouses at Winnsborough; one warehouse or warehouses on the Wateree river, near Camden; one warehouse or warehouses at Campbell's warehouse, on Savannah river; and one warehouse or warehouses at Snow Hill, near the flats of the said Savannah river; one warehouse at the head of each fork of Edisto river; one warehouse or warehouses at Spring Hill, on Savannah river, at the plantation of Macartan Campbell. And where the proprietors of the lands at the above places shall refuse or neglect to erect such necessary buildings as the said commissioners hereinafter respectively appointed, or a majority of them, shall think necessary, they, the said commissioners, are hereby directed and required to cause the said warehouses to be built, of such sizes and dimensions as they may VOL. IV.-86. Retes of storeage. A. D. 1785. judge necessary; and to defray the expense, they are hereby empowered to take and receive from the inspector or inspectors, all such storeage of tobacco as may hereinafter be imposed thereon; and the said inspector or inspectors are hereby directed to pay into the hands of such commissioners all such monies as shall arise from the storeage of tobacco, where the said commissioners shall have built warehouses, twice a year, that is to say, in the months of May and November, which shall be done upon oath, until the expense of the said buildings are fully paid; and from thenceforward the proprietor shall be entitled to the said storeage, he keeping the said warehouses in proper repair, and keeping a sufficient number of good and sufficient prizes for heading up the tobacco after it has been strpped for examination; but where any proprietor shall neglect or refuse to keep in repair prizes or proper screws for the above purpose, it shall and may be lawful for the inspector or inspectors to have a sufficient number of prizes erected, two at least of which at each warehouse shall be for the particular use of such planters as choose to cooper their own hogsheads; to defray the expense of which it shall and may be lawful for the inspector so providing to stop the first storeage money that may come to hand, for that purpose. Inspector's duty. II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every Description of tobacco hogshead shall be made of good, well-seasoned timber, the staves hogsheads. not exceeding four feet two inches in length, and the outside of the head shall not exceed thirty-three inches diameter, and shall be branded with the initials of the maker's name; and when brought to any of the aforesaid inspections the inspector shall cause the cask to be stripped off, weighed and marked, the tobacco carefully examined, broke, and samples drawn out in as many places as the inspector may think necessary, and if found good, sound, clean and merchantable, he shall cause the hogshead to be put on, coopered and headed up, in a secure and merchantable manner, at the owner's expense, for which the inspector or cooper, finding nails, shall charge the sum of one shilling and six pence, and no more; provided nevertheless, where any persons choose to cooper their own hogsheads, they shall be at liberty so to do, and shall be allowed the immediate use of a prize or screw for that purpose, without fee or reward; and every hogshead so examined and weighed, containing not less than nine hundred and fifty pounds of neat tobacco, shall be deemed a shipable hogshead, and a tender in all tobacco payments. Proviso. Unmerchantatobacco to be burnt. Places to be provided for packing away all parcels of tobacco. III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That where any hogshead or parcel of tobacco shall be brought to any of the aforesaid warehouses for view, and on examination it is found to be mixed with trash, dirt, unsound or unmerchantable tobacco, the inspector shall cause the same to be picked, and the trash, or bad and unmerchantable, shall be publicly burnt by the inspector, and such as is sound and merchantable the inspector shall weigh and receive, and give a note for the same. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That at each warehouse in the country there shall be places provided by the proprietor, or, on his refusal, by the inspector, the expense of which to be deducted out of the storeage, a fit and a secure place for packing away all parcels of tobacco that may be brought for inspection; and the several inspectors are hereby directed and required to receive all such parcels as may be brought to them, and if found good, sound and clean, he shall weigh the same and have it put by in the place above described, for which he shall give a note specifying the name of the warehouse, the quantity, and that the bearer is entitled thereto; which said small parcels or light hogsheads the inspector shall cause to be prized in hogsheads not containing less than nine hundred and fifty pounds; and on any person or person's producing small notes to the amount of nine hundred and fifty pounds neat, with the following allowance as a deduction for shrinkage in weight, he or she, on paying the fees hereinafter expressed, shall be entitled to receive a note or certificate for a crop hogshead, as an allowance for shrinkage; on all transfer notes brought in to be exchanged for crop hogsheads, the inspector shall deduct from all such as are exchanged within a month of their date two per cent. and for such as are brought in within two months of the date, and above one, four per cent., and so on, till it shall amount to eight per cent., and no more; and where any of such transfer tobacco, that shall have been inspected before the first day of the past August, shall lie in any of the aforesaid warehouses till the circuit court, in November, of the district in which the said warehouse is situate, and nò note produced for the same, that then and at such circuit court the inspector shall cause the same to be sold at public sale, for cash; and the holders of notes for transfer tobacco, in any of the aforesaid warehouses in the country, after such sale, shall receive cash for the same, on producing the note to the inspector, at the rate the same was sold, with the deduction of ten per cent. for loss of weight and trouble of selling, receiving and paying. A. D. 1785. V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the inspectors at their several warehouses respectively shall receive each hogs- Inspectors to give notes for head of tobacco so examined, passed, weighed and coopered, into their tobacco respective warehouses, and shall number and brand the same S. C. and received: mark on the staves thereof the gross, the tare, and the neat weight of tobacco contained therein, and shall deliver to the owner a note, wherein shall be expressed the planter's brand, the number, the river, and warehouse, the gross, tare and neat weight, and upon presenting which note the tobacco shall be delivered to the holder thereof for exportation. 66 Delivered the day of warehouses. VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That when tobacco shall be delivered at any of the said warehouses to any flat or And manifests other craft, to be carried to and laden on board any ship or vessel bound of tobacco deto a foreign market, or to waggons, to be removed to Charleston, the in- livered out of spector shall take up his note, and shall give a manifest of the tobacco so delivered, in which shall be expressed the name of the warehouse, and shall run in the following words: 17-, to A. B. patroon of the boat C, hogsheads of tobacco, marks, weights and numbers as per margin, to go on board the ship (or other vessel, as the case may be) E, for exportation." When removed by a waggon a blank shall be left for the shipper to insert the name of the vessel; the shipper's mark and number shall also be inserted in the face of the manifest, by the inspector, when known, but when it is otherwise a blank column shall be left for that purpose, and to be filled up by the shipper; and each captain or master of a vessel lading tobacco on board for exportation, shall safely keep those inspector's manifests till he has his intended complement on board, and shall then make a general one of his cargo, which shall be produced to the collector of the port before the vessel obtains a clearance to sail; which general manifest the collector of the port shall compare with the inspector's, and if found to agree with the inspector's several manifests, shall be filed in the office; and the following oath shall be administered to the captain or mate: "I, A B, do solemnly swear or affirm that I have no other tobacco on board the ship or vessel called the than what is in this manifest now by me produced expressed, neither shall any more be laden on board the said vessel for the present voyage by my knowledge or procurement: So help me God." And if any person shall be convicted of having knowingly taken a false oath or A.D.1785. affirmation in this respect, such person shall suffer as in cases of wilful and corrupt perjury. for exportation without an Inspector's manifest. VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any tobacco shall be found on board any ship or vessel bound to a foreign Penalty when tobacco is market, for which no inspector's manifest can be produced, the same shall found on board be confiscated, and the captain or master of the vessel shall be subject to of any vessel a fine of five pounds sterling for each hundred weight, and in proportion for a greater or lesser quantity, one half to the informer and the other half to the State, and to be recovered in any court of record in the State; or if any captain or master of any vessel, after producing his manifest to the officer of the customs, taking the oath, and obtaining his clearance, shall be convicted of receiving any tobacco on board besides what he has expressed in the said manifest, he shall forfeit double the sum aforesaid, and shall be liable to a prosecution for wilful and corrupt perjury. ble tobacco to VIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all Unmerchanta- trashy, unmerchantable tobacco, that may, after the passing of this Act, be be burnt within condemned by any of the inspectors respectively, the inspectors shall see 12 hours after that it be burnt within twelve hours after such condemnation, and on necondemnation. glecting so to do he shall forfeit and pay for each hundred pounds weight the sum of five pounds sterling, one half to the informer and the other half to the State, to be recovered as is hereinbefore directed. IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every set Inspectors to of inspectors respectively shall provide and keep in good repair, at their keep sufficient respective warehouses, good and sufficient scales and weights, at their own scales and weights at their expense, prizes, and other implements necessary for the inspection of own expense. tobacco, the expense of which to be defrayed as is hereinbefore directed, Inspector's fees. Pickers to be appointed. and on failure thereof shall be subject to a forfeit of ten shillings sterling per day, to be recovered by the person or persons aggrieved, before any justice of the peace of this State; and each inspector shall enter in a book, to be kept for that purpose, the number of each hogshead, the gross, tare, and neat weight, the maker's name, and to whom the same was delivered for exportation, and when; and where warehouses have been built by commissioners, the inspector or inspectors shall account with such commissioners and pay into their hands the storeage money, twice a year, as is hereinbefore directed; and where necessary buildings shall have been prepared by the proprietors, they shall account with the proprietors in like manner; and either may demand and have a sight of the inspectors' books, if it shall be judged necessary. X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That at every inspection in the country the inspector shall be allowed to take and receive for inspecting every hogshead of tobacco, weighing, branding and giving a note, the sum of three shillings sterling, to be paid by the person to whom the same shall be delivered for exportation; for prizing every hogshead made up of small parcels, the sum of four shillings and eight pence, to be paid by the person receiving a note for the same; for the hogshead, if found by the inspector, the sum of five shillings; for inspecting, weighing, branding, and giving a note, at each of the inspections in Charleston, the sum of three shillings, to be paid as is hereinbefore directed, by the exporters; for prizing every hogshead made up of parcels, in Charleston, the sum of six shillings; and for a hogshead, if found, the sum of seven shillings, to be paid as is above directed. XI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That at each of the inspections respectively there shall be one or more picker or pickers, who shall be approved of by the commissioners hereinafter to be named, and shall act upon oath, and be sworn by the said commissioners; |