PART III

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER VII-PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH CONTROL

45. Extracts from a Navigation Act (1695/6)

BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND

This is one of a series of statutes regulating colonial trade. See below, Nos. 87, 146. - Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 62-65; Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 133, 147; Contemporaries, I, 185, 240, 462.

N Acr for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade.

AN

[I.] . . . That after the Five and twentieth Day of March One thousand six hundred ninety eight noe Goods or Merchandizes whatsoever shall bee imported into or exported out of any Colony or Plantation to His Majesty in Asia Africa or America belonging or in his Possession or which may hereafter belong unto or bee in the Possession of His Majesty His Heires or Successors or shall bee laden in or carried from any One Port or Place in the said Colonies or Plantations to any other Port or Place in the same, the Kingdome of England Dominion of Wales or Towne of Berwick upon Tweed in any Shipp or Bottome but what is or shall bee of the Built of England or of the Built of Ireland or the said Colonies or Plantations and wholly owned by the People thereof or any of them and navigated with the Masters and Three Fourths of the Mariners of the said Places onely (except such Shipps onely as are or shall bee taken Prize and Condemnation thereof made in one of the Courts of Admiralty in England Ireland or the said Colonies or Plantations [to bee navigated by the Master and Three Fourths of the

Mariners English or of the said Plantations as aforesaid and whereof the Property doth belong to English Men] And alsoe except for the space of Three Yeares such Foreigne built Shipps as shall bee employed by the Commissioners of His Majesties Navy for the tyme being or upon Contract with them in bringing onely Masts Timber and other Navall Stores for the Kings Service from His Majesties Colonies or Plantations to this Kingdome to bee navigated as aforesaid and whereof the Property doth belong to English Men) under paine of Forfeiture of Shipp and Goods one third part whereof to bee to the use of His Majesty His Heires and Successors one third part to the Governor of the said Colonies or Plantations and the other third part to the Person who shall informe and sue for the same by Bill Plaint or Information in any of His Majesties Courts of Record att Westminster or in any Court in His Majesties Plantations where such Offence shall bee committed. . . .

[VIII.] AND itt is further enacted and declared by the Authority aforesaid That all Lawes By-lawes Usages or Customes att this tyme or which hereafter shall bee in practice or endeavoured or pretended to bee in force or practice in any of the said Plantations which are in any wise repugnant to the before mentioned Lawes or any of them soe far as they doe relate to the said Plantations or any of them or which are wayes repugnant to this present Act or to any other Law hereafter to bee made in this Kingdome soe farr as such Law shall relate to and mention the said Plantations are illegall null and void to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.

[XVI.] [AND for a more effectuall prevention of Frauds which may bee used to elude the Intention of this Act by colouring Foreigne Shipps under English Names Bee itt further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from and after the Five and twentieth day of March which shall bee in the Yeare of our Lord One thousand six hundred ninety eight noe Shipp or Vessell whatsoever shall bee deemed or passe as a Shipp of the Built of England Ireland Wales Berwick Guernsey Jersey or of any of His Majesties Plantations in America soe as to bee qualifyed to trade to from or in any of the said Plantations untill the Person or Persons claymeing Property in such Shipp or Vessell shall register the same as followeth (that is to say) If the Shipp att the tyme of such Register doth belong to any Port in England Ireland Wales or to the Towne of Berwick upon Tweed then Proofe shall bee made upon Oath of One or more of the Owners of such Shipp or Vessell before the Collector and Comptroller of His Majesties Customes in such Port or if att the tyme

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of such Register the Shipp belong to any of His Majesties Plantations in America or to the Islands of Guernsey or Jersey then the like Proofe to bee made before the Governour together with the Principall Officer of His Majesties Revenue resideing on such Plantation or Island which Oath the said Governours and Officers of the Customes respectively are hereby authorized to administer in the Tenour following (vizt). . . .] The Statutes of the Realm (London, 1820), VII, 103-107 passim.

46. Creation of the Board of Trade (1696)

BY KING WILLIAM THIRD

This is a reorganization of the board created in 1660 (Contemporaries, I, No. 54), and again changed in 1752. The extract brings out the theory that the details of colonial administration belonged to the crown and not to Parliament. — Bibliography as in No. 45 above.

HIS

IS Majesties Commission for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom and for inspecting and improving His Plantations in America and

elsewhere.

WILLIAM the Third by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith &a. To our Keeper of oure Great Seale of England or Chancellor of England for the time being, Our President of Our Privy Council for the time being, Our first Commissioner of Our Treasury And our Treasurer of England for the time being, Our first Commissioner of our Admiralty and Our Admirall of England for the time being, And our principall Secretarys of State for the time being, And the Chancellor of Our Exchequer for the time being, To Our Right Trusty and Right Well beloved Cousin and Councillor John Earl of Bridgewater, and Ford Earl of Tankerville, To our Trusty and Well beloved Sir Philip Meadows, Kn', William Blaithwayte, John Pollexfen, John Locke, Abraham Hill, and John. Methwen, Esquires, Greeting. . . .

KNO WYEE therefor that We reposing espetiall Trust and Confidence in your Discretions, Abilityes and Integrities . . . authorize and appoint you, to be Our Commissioners during our Royal Pleasure, for promoting the Trade of our Kingdome, and for Inspecting and Improving our Plantations in America and elsewhere. . .

...

K

And we do hereby further Impower and require you Our said Commissioners to take into your care all Records, Grants and Papers remaining in the Plantation Office or thereunto belonging.

And likewise to inform your selves of the present condition of Our respective Plantations, as well with regard to the Administration of the Government and Justice in those places, as in relation to the Commerce thereof; And also to inquire into the Limits of Soyle and Product of Our severall Plantations and how the same may be improved, and of the best means for easing and securing Our Colonies there, and how the same may be rendred most usefull and beneficiall to our said Kingdom of England.

And we do hereby further impower and require you Our said Commissioners, more particularly and in a principal manner to inform yourselves what Navall Stores may be furnished from Our Plantations, and in what Quantities, and by what methods Our Royall purpose of having our Kingdom supplied with Navall Stores from thence may be made practicable and promoted; And also to inquire into and inform your selves of the best and most proper methods of settling and improving in Our Plantations, such other Staples and other Mau[n]ufactures as Our subjects of England are now obliged to fetch and supply themselves withall from other Princes and States; And also what Staples and Manufactures may be best encouraged there, and what Trades are taken up and exercised there, which are or may prove prejudiciall to England, by furnishing themselves or other Our Colonies with what has been usually supplied from England; And to finde out proper means of diverting them from such Trades, and whatsoever else may turne to the hurt of Our Kingdom of England.

And to examin and looke into the usuall Instructions given to the Governors of Our Plantations, and to see if any thing may be added, omitted or changed therein to advantage; To take an Account yearly by way of Journal of the Administration of Our Governors there, and to draw out what is proper to be observed and represented unto Us; And as often as occasion shall require to consider of proper persons to be Governors or Deputy Governors, or to be of Our Councill or of Our Councill at Law, or Secretarys, in Our respective Plantations, in order to present their Names to Us in Councill.

And We do hereby further Authorize and impower you Our said Commissioners, to examin into and weigh such Acts of the Assemblies of the Plantations respectively as shall from time to time be sent or

transmitted hither for Our Approbation; And to set down and represent as aforesaid the Usefulness or Mischeif thereof to Our Crown, and to Our said Kingdom of England, or to the Plantations themselves, in case the same should be established for Lawes there; And also to consider what matters may be recommended as fitt to be passed in the Assemblys there, To heare complaints of Oppressions and maleadministrations, in Our Plantations, in order to represent as aforesaid what you in your Discretions shall thinke proper; And also to require an Account of all Monies given for Publick uses by the Assemblies in Our Plantations, and how the same are and have been expended or laid out.

E. B. O'Callaghan, editor, Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York (Albany, 1854), IV, 145–148 passim.

47. "Englishmen Hate an Arbitrary Power'

(1710)

BY JOHN WISE

Wise was one of the foremost prose writers of the colonial period, and minister at Ipswich.-Bibliography: Tyler, American Literature, II, 104-116; Palfrey, New England, III, 525-527; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, ch. i; J. A. Doyle, English in America, Puritan Colonies, II, 378; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 130.

NGLISHMEN hate an arbitrary power (politically considered) as

E they hate the devil.

For that they have through immemorial ages been the owners of very fair infranchizements and liberties, that the sense, favor or high esteem of them are (as it were) extraduce, transmitted with the elemental mate-rials of their essence from generation to generation, and so ingenate and mixed with their frame, that no artifice, craft or force used can root it out. Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurrit. And though many of their incautelous princes have endeavored to null all their charter rights and immunities, and agrandize themselves in the servile state of the subjects, by setting up their own seperate will, for the great standard of government over the nations, yet they have all along paid dear for their attempts, both in the ruin of the nation, and in interrupting the increase of their own grandeur, and their foreign settlements and conquests.