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Lib. J. R.
& U. S.
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the Prescript of the Law, The Officer without the Inspection
Act would have his fees outstanding & dispersed all over the
Province, for the Collection of them he would be obliged to
appoint Several Receivers in Each County, for whose Care
and Fidelity he would find it difficult to obtain a sufficient
Security; should his Debtor refuse to Pay him he would be
delayed by a tedious Law Suit, no one by the Laws of this
Province can be sued without a demand first made, nor in
any other Court but that in the County where he resides,
unless the Claim is Cognizable in the Provincial Court, where
the Demand must be made, there the Tobacco might be paid.
The prejudice of County Court Jurys against officers, the
charges and Trouble of Sending a Clerk or Deputy to the
Remote parts of the Province to Prove the Service, the dis-
honesty of Receivers in taking Trash Tobacco, the Low Price
of the worst part of an uninspected, & unregulated Com-
modity the excessive Quantity of that Commodity ( for every
one would make it when it might be paid at home and without
Inspection or pay it when he might be furnished with it from
Virginia) the Expence of large Commissions and of Car-
riage to convenient Places for Shipping, are Circumstances
of great inconvenience.
An Inspection Act obtained in Virginia for Several Years
before any such Regulation was enacted here, which not only
drew the County Purchasers from us thither, But also some
of our best Tobacco which after an Inspection there, was
Stamped and Shipped to Europe as Virginia Tobacco, and
occasioned this further Mischief that much of the Virginia
Trash Tobacco which could not Stand the Test of an Inspec-
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p. 55
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tion was brought into this Province and Sent to Europe as
the Product of Maryland; thus our good Tobacco improved
the Credit of the Virginia Staple, and the Refuse of the Vir-
ginia Tobacco depreciated ours, and we make no doubt but
that the same Pernicious Practice would be Revived should
your Lordship dissent to the present Inspection Act.
By the Inspection Act a festinum Remedium is given to the
Officer: If the Debtor Refuses or omits to pay in a convenient
Time after delivery by the Sheriff of an Account of the
Claim, his Effects are liable to be Seised and Sold to make
Satisfaction, and his Person to imprisonment in the same
manner as upon an actual judgment at Law. the officer has
all possible security of being paid in Merchantable Tobacco
and at a place convenient for Shipping; By the Inspection
Act there is a great defalcation of the Proclamation fees, But
the Officer upon the whole is indubitably a Gainer
We might have represented to your Lordship how much
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