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An Act ascertaining the Gage and Tare of Tobacco Hoggsheads and
to prevent cropping cutting and Defaceing Tobacco taken on board
Shipps or Vessells upon Freight and for laying Impositions on
Tobacco p the Hoggshead for the Support of Government and
for the encouraging Settlements in this Province by ascertaining
the manner of paying his Lordships Alienation Fynes and Quit
Rents for the Terme therein proposed and for takeing of the Three
pence p Hoggshead formerly raised for the publick Charge.
Forasmuch as the Laws heretofore made for ascertaining the Gage
of Tobacco Hoggsheads have in great Measure proved ineffectual
either for want of laying Sufficient Penalties upon the Offenders or
of proper Methods to inflict them, but more especially as it seemes
to this present Generall Assembly by requireing a Complyance with
such a Gage as has been found by experience to tend to the ruin of
such Traders as were strict Observers of it, the Generallity of Our
Tobacco being of so light and Chafy a nature that it has been found
wholly impracticable & in a manner impossible to Pack or Prize so
much of it in a Hoggshead of the late Gage of Thirty Inches in the
Diameter of the Head as would Suffice for the payment of Freight
and other Charges ariseing thereon the Freighters of such small
Hoggsheads haveing been frequently brought in Debt by the Small-
ness of the Quantity of Tobacco contained therein to the great Dam-
age of the Tobacco Trade particularly of the fair Traders therein
which seems in a manner to have brought the latest of the aforemen-
coned Laws into a Generall Disuse it being rather more Mischevious
to the Freighters to be brought in Debt by their strict observance
of that Gage than to Loose their Tobacco here for exceeding it for
remedy whereof for the future
Be it Enacted by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary by
and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordships Governeur and the
Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly and the Authority of the same
That from and after the End of this present Session it shall and may
be lawfull for any person or Persons whatsoever suspecting discover-
ing or knowing of any Hoggshead or Hoggsheads of Tobacco that
shall exceed Forty Eight Inches in the Length of the Stave or Thirty
two Inches in the Diameter of the Head within the Croze or that
shall exceed Thirty Seven Inches Diameter in the Bulge on any Acci-
dent or pretence whatsoever (Thirty Six Inches Diameter in the
Bulge being supposed a Competent Gage) to call to his Assistance
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Liber LL, 4
Acts
p. 302
(Calvert
Paper,
No. 812, 7)
Acts of
July, 1716,
ch. 8
[Superseded
by 1717,
ch. 7]
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