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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0417 and id is 1 raw text is: into each of the colonies, must be held imperative, unless it has been modified by
subsequent Acts of Parliament.
Now several statutes of a later date, particularly that of 7 & 8 WJIII, c. 22, passed
for the purpose of regulating the plantation trade, have been called in aid of the case
of the appellants, and if it wer6 clear that there could be no other trade between the
colonial ports except in the transportation of European commodities, an inference
might fairly be raised, that it was the intention of the legislature, in passing this
Act, to authorise a trade in such commodities. But there being a trade of another
kind, namely, in articles the produce of the colonies themselves, this statute must
be understood as composing a law for the regulation of that trade, and shall not be
construed to repeal a former statute by mere inference, when there is another subject
to which it will apply. The same observation will be sufficient to do away with any
effect which [76] might otherwise be supposed to belong to another statute which
has been referred to, 4 G. III, c. 15, s. 29. The Act 45 G. HI, c. 57, by which free ports
are established in certain islands in the West Indies, has likewise been resorted to,
and the clause in that Act has been pointed out, by which it is enacted, that it
shall be lawful to export in any British ship or vessel, owned and navigated accord-
ing to law, from any of the said islands in this Act enumerated to any British colony
or plantation in America or the West Indies, any goods or commodities whatever of
the manufacture of Europe ; but the island of St. Croix in not included in this
number, and the enumeration of some ports must necessarily be held to operate
to the exclusion of the others, and of St. Croix among the rest. If this, indeed,
had been an exportation from Kingston in Jamaica to St. Croix, the transaction
would have been legal, Kingston being one of the enumerated ports, but the voyage
from St. Croix to Kingston is as clearly illegal.
It has been made matter of observation by the counsel for the claimants, that
the Court below has not directed the distribution of the penalty in conformity to
the provisions of the law : the sentence of the Vice-Admiralty Court having ordered
distribution to be made in moieties to the seizor and the Crown, whereas by the
statute (15 Car. II, c. 7) under which these proceedings have been instituted and
carried on, it should have been distributed in three parts, one-third to the King,
another to the governor of the island, and another to the informer. In the mode of
distribution, however, the claimant can be in no manner interested. I shall not
disturb the sentence of the Court below, but shall affirm the condenmation of the
ship itself, and of the goods enumerated in the libel.
[77] SARAH -(Gill). July 31, 1811.-Navigation laws, breach of.-Importation
of European goods into St. Croix from Heligoland illegal, that place not being
considered a port of Great Britain.-Want of cocket.-Condemnation.
This was the case of a ship under English colours, which sailed from Liverpool
on the 17th of December 1809, at which port she was chartered for a voyage to
Heligoland, and thence to St. Croix, in the West Indies. The vessel arrived at
Heligoland on the 25th of the same month, and there took on board a cargo, consist-
ing of 87 firkins of butter and 112 bags of beans, with which she sailed to St. Croix,
without any clearance on board ; and, upon her arrival at that island, was seized
on the 30th of March 1810, by the searcher of the Customs, who instituted pro-
ceedings against the ship and cargo, under the statutes 15 Car. II, c. 7, and 4 GCeo.
III, c. 15.
On the 19th of April the cause came on for hearing, when the judge
of the Vice-Admiralty Court pronounced for the condemnation of the ship and
cargo.
From this sentence the present appeal was prosecuted.
Judgment-Sir W. Scott: This ship and cargo are proceeded against on two
grounds : first, for an importation into St. Croix, contrary to the statute 15 Car.
II; and, secondly, for not being provided with the proper cocket or clearance from
an officer of His Majesty's Customs, as required by statute 4 GCeo. III, c. 15. The
proceedings in the Court below were conducted in a manner not the most regular,
and the case was very [78] slenderly furnished with evidence; but the island of
St. Croix having been but lately reduced into British possession, the Vice-Admiralty
Court there established is, of course, not very well versed in the accuracy of legal
1238
THE SARAH
I DODS, 76.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0417&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)