Tobacco Trade, etc. Act 1753
(26 Geo 2 c.13)

An Act for the more effectually preventing the fraudulent Removal of Tobacco by Land or Water, and for the Ease of the fair Trader in Tobacco; and for ascertaining the Rates payable for the Portage of certain Letters, and for amending and for explaining the Laws relating to the Sale of Spirituous Liquors by Retail.

'WHEREAS the several Provisions for preventing the fraudulent Removal of Tobacco, by Land or Water, contained in an Act made in the twenty-fourth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, intituled, An Act for the more effectual securing the Duties upon Tobacco, have Commencement from the twenty-ninth Day of September one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one; notwithstanding which Provisions, such Tobacco as was imported before that Time, hath been or may be removed by Land or Water, otherwise than by the said Act is directed, inasmuch as the same having been imported before that Time, cannot be subject to the Regulations prescribed by the said Act: And whereas the Continuance of this Liberty may encourage the Importers or Possessors of uncustomed Tobacco, to pretend that the same was imported before the said twenty-ninth Day of September one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, and under that Pretence, Tobacco imported since that Time, and Tobacco Stalks stripped, and Snuff manufactured therefrom, may be removed otherwise than by the said Act is directed, to the great Prejudice both of the publick Revenue and of the fair Trader: And whereas it may reasonably be supposed, that all such Tobacco as was imported, and was Stock in Hand before that Time, hath been or might have been since disposed of:' Now, for preventing Frauds equally injurious to the publick Revenue and the fair Trader; Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the first Day of June one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, no Tobacco imported into Great Britain before the said twenty-ninth Day of September one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, and no Tobacco Stalks stripped, or Snuff manufactured from Tobacco so imported, shall be permitted to be removed by Land or Water; upon pain that all such Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks or Snuff, so removed, shall be forfeited, and shall and may be seized and prosecuted, and after Condemnation burnt and destroyed by such Persons, and in such Manner and Form, and with such Rewards for seizing the same, as by the said Act is directed in relation to any Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks or Snuff, on the Removal whereof Certificates are by the said Act required.

II. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful to and for any Officer of the Customs or Excise to seize and prosecute any Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks or Snuff which shall be removed from one Place to another in greater Quantities than by the said Act are allowed, and shall not be attended with such Certificates as by the said Act are required; and the Proof that such Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks or Snuff had before been removed from the Port of Importation with a proper Certificate, and that the Duties payable thereon had been paid or secured, shall be upon the Claimer or Claimers of the Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks and Snuff so seized, and not upon the Officer or Officers so seizing and prosecuting the same.

III. Provided always, That nothing in this or in the said Act contained, shall extend to prohibit the Exportation to Parts beyond the Seas of any Tobacco which hath been imported before the twenty-ninth Day of September one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, and shall be exported at any Time before the twenty-ninth Day of September one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, from any Port where the same shall be on the first Day of June one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three.

IV. Provided also, That if on the Back of any Certificate to be granted by virtue of the said Act for removing or carrying any Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks, or Snuff by Land, the Inn from whence the same shall be carried shall be described, such Certificate shall be as effectual to all Intents and Purposes as if the Name of the Person by whom the same shall be carried or conveyed were inserted thereon; any Thing in the said Act to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

V. Provided also, That every Certificate to be granted by virtue of the said Act, for removing or conveying Tobacco, Tobacco Stalks or Snuff, to be carried by Land or by Water from one Port or Place to another, shall be and be deemed a proper Certificate for that Purpose, although in such Certificate the Name or Names of the Person or Persons by whom the said Tobacco was imported, or by whom the Duties payable thereon were paid or secured, be not inserted therein, so as every other Requisite directed by the said Act, in case of such Removal, be observed, and the Name or Names of the Importer or Importers of such Tobacco be retained and expressed in the Bill or Bills from which such Certificates are, in the accustomed Manner, prepared; such Bill or Bills to be delivered to the Collector, or other chief Officer or Officers of the Port where the said Tobacco shall have been imported; any Thing in the said Act to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

VI. Provided also, That the second Purchaser of any entire Hogshead of unmanufactured Tobacco shall and may be intitled to the Benefit of a Certificate, on the Removal of any such Tobacco, or of any Stalks stripped, or any Snuff or manufactured Tobacco made therefrom, by Land or by Water, in like manner as Certificates by the said Act are directed to be granted to the first Purchaser from the Importer; and that in all such Certificates so to be granted to such second Purchaser of any entire Hogshead or Hogsheads of such Tobacco, the Name of the Importer or Importers, Seller or Sellers thereof, may be omitted, provided that the Seller to such second Purchaser shall have delivered to the Collector, or other chief Officer of the Port where such Tobacco shall have been imported, such and the like Account as the Importer or Importers thereof are by the said Act required to give.

VII. 'And whereas by an Act made in the ninth Year of the Reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, An Act for establishing a General Post Office for all her Majesty's Dominions, and for settling a weekly Sum out of the Revenues thereof for the Service of the War, and other her Majesty's Occasions; the Post Master General and his Deputy and Deputies is and are authorized to demand, have, receive and take for the Portage and Conveyance of every single Letter or Piece of Paper sent to and from the General Post Office in London, to and from any Parts or Places in Great Britain, or the Kingdom of Ireland, certain Rates in the said Act mentioned: And whereas one or more Writ or Writs or other Proceedings at Law are frequently sent inclosed in a Letter, or wrote upon one and the same Piece of Paper with a Letter;' Be it declared and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every such Writ and every such Proceeding at Law shall be rated, taxed and paid for as a several and distinct Letter, according to the Rates mentioned in the said Act.

VIII. 'And whereas Patterns of Cloth, Silk, Stuff, and small Samples of other Sorts of Goods, and other Things, not being Paper, are frequently sent inclosed in a single Letter or Piece of Paper;' Be it declared and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That for every single Letter or Cover containing one or more Paper or Papers with Patterns, or containing one or more Pattern or Patterns of Cloth, Silk or Stuff, or one or more Sample or Samples of any other Sort of Goods, or one or more Piece or Pieces of any other Sort of Thing inclosed therein or affixed thereto, though not Paper, if the same together do not weigh an Ounce Weight, the Rates payable by the said Act for a double Letter shall be paid, and no more.

IX. 'And whereas by an Act made in the sixteenth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, intituled, An Act for repealing certain Duties on Spirituous Liquors, and on Licences for retailing the same, and for laying other Duties on Spirituous Liquors, and on Licences to retail the said Liquors; it is enacted, That no Licence shall be granted to any Person or Persons whatsoever for selling by Retail any Spirituous Liquors or Strong Waters whatsoever, except to such Persons only who shall keep Taverns, Victualling-houses, Inns, Coffee-houses, or Ale-houses, and that if any such Licences shall be granted to any other Persons, the same are thereby declared void to all Intents and Purposes; and it is thereby also enacted, That if any Person or Persons shall presume or offer to retail any of the said Spirituous Liquors without taking out such Licence as is therein mentioned, and renewing the same yearly, in manner therein mentioned, he, she or they, shall respectively forfeit and lose the Sum of ten Pounds for each Offence; and in case such Person or Persons shall refuse or neglect to pay the said Sum of ten Pounds, the same being lawfully demanded, it shall and may be lawful for any one or more Justice or Justices of the Peace of any County, Riding, Division, City or Liberty, upon Information upon Oath being made before him or them of such Refusal or Neglect, by Warrant under his or their Hand and Seal, or Hands and Seals, to commit such Person or Persons to the House of Correction for the County, Riding, Division, City or Liberty, wherein such Person or Persons shall reside, there to remain and to be kept to hard Labour for the Space of two Months, to be reckoned from the Day of the said Commitment; and the Person or Persons shall not be discharged until he, she or they, shall have paid the said Sum of ten Pounds, or until the full Expiration of the said two Months; and that nothing in the said Act shall extend or be construed to enable any Person or Persons to sell any Spirituous Liquors or Strong Waters by Retail, unless such Person or Persons be first licensed to sell Ale by two or more of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County, Riding, Division, City or Liberty wherein such Person or Persons shall sell the said Liquors, under the Hands and Seals of the said Justices: And whereas by one other Act made in the seventeenth Year of his Majesty's Reign, (intituled, An Act for granting to his Majesty the Surplus or Remainder of the Monies arisen or to arise by the Duties on Spirituous Liquors, granted by an Act of the last Session of Parliament, and for explaining and amending the said Act in relation to the Retailers of such Liquors, and for establishing an Agreement with the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies) it is enacted, That in case where a Licence shall have been granted for retailing Spirituous Liquors to any Person who shall at the Time of granting such Licence keep a Tavern, Victualling-house, Inn, Coffee-house or Alehouse, if such Person so licensed shall afterwards during the Time of continuing such Licence exercise the Trade of a Distiller, Grocer or Chandler, or keep a Brandy Shop or Shoos for Sale of Spirituous Liquors, the Licence granted in every such Case shall be void; and such Persons retailing Spirituous Liquors afterwards shall forfeit ten Pounds for every such Offence, notwithstanding such Licence so obtained; and that no Licence for retailing Spirituous Liquors shall authorize any Person to whom the same may be granted to sell such Spirituous Liquors in any other Place except in such Houses or Places thereunto belonging wherein he, she or they shall inhabit and dwell at the Time of granting such Licence, which Penalties by virtue of the said Act made in the seventeenth Year of his present Majesty's Reign may be mitigated by such Ways, Means and Methods, as any Penalty or Forfeiture may be mitigated by any Law or Laws of Excise: And whereas in and by a Clause in an Act of Parliament made in the twenty-fourth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, (intituled, An Act for granting to his Majesty an additional Duty upon Spirituous Liquors, and upon Licences for retailing the same; and for repealing the Act of the twentieth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, intituled, An Act for granting a Duty to his Majesty to be paid by Distillers, upon Licences to be taken out by them for retailing Spirituous Liquors, and for the more effectually restraining the retailing of distilled Spirituous Liquors; and for allowing a Drawback upon the Exportation of British made Spirits; and that the Parish of Saint Mary le Bon in the County of Middlesex shall be under the Inspection of the Head Office of Excise) reciting, That it may be doubted whether the said Penalty of ten Pounds can be recovered within the Limits of the Head Office of Excise in London before a Justice or Justices of the Peace; it is thereby declared and enacted, That the said Penalty may be recovered, and any Person retailing Spirituous Liquors without a Licence within the Limits of the said Head Office, may be convicted before any Justice of the Peace for the City, County or Liberty, where the Offence shall be committed, as well as before the Commissioners of Excise; and that such Penalty shall not in any Case, either by the said Commissioners or Justice of the Peace, be mitigated or reduced below the Sum of five Pounds: And whereas, notwithstanding the last recited Clause, it may be doubted whether the Justices of the Peace acting in the several Places which are not within the Limits of or under the immediate Care, Inspection and Management of the said Head Office of Excise, may not mitigate or reduce the said Penalties, of ten Pounds below the Sum of five Pounds:' Now to obviate such Doubt, be it enacted and declared by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Penalties of ten Pounds shall not in any Case be mitigated or reduced below the Sum of five Pounds, either by the Commissioners of Excise, or the Justices of Peace, whether such Justices act within or without the Limits of the said Head Office of Excise.

X. 'And whereas by one other Clause in the said Act of Parliament, made in the twenty-fourth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, it is enacted, That no Licence for the selling by Retail of Spirituous Liquors, shall be granted within the Limits of the Head Office of Excise in London, but to such as shall occupy a Tenement or Tenements of the yearly Value of ten Pounds or upwards, and for which they shall accordingly be rated, and pay in the Parish Rates; and that no Licence shall be of any Avail to any Person not so qualified, or for any longer Time than the Person so licensed shall be qualified as aforesaid, but shall be absolutely void: And whereas it is the true Intent and Meaning of the said Clause, that no Licence for retailing Spirituous Liquors be granted within the Limits of the Head Office of Excise in London, to any Person but to such as are sufficient and of Ability to occupy a Tenement or Tenements of the yearly Value of ten Pounds or upwards; and such Rate and Payment to the Church and Poor, is intended only as an additional Proof of such Sufficiency: And whereas within the Limits of the Head Office of Excise in London, there are several Persons who keep Taverns, Victualling-houses, Inns, Coffee-houses or Ale-houses, for which they pay considerably more than ten Pounds a Year, but such Persons are not rated, and do not pay accordingly to the Church and Poor for the same, such Taverns, Victualling-houses, Inns, Coffee-houses and Ale-houses, being situate in Places where Occupiers of Houses or Tenements are not rated or rateable to the Church and Poor;' Be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the twenty-fourth Day of June one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, it shall and may be lawful to and for his Majesty's Commissioners of Excise, and their Officers respectively, within the Limits of the said Head Office of Excise in London, to grant and deliver Licences for the retailing of Spirituous Liquors, pursuant to the Directions of the said several Acts of Parliament made in the sixteenth and twenty-fourth Years of his present Majesty's Reign, or either of them, to any Person or Persons within the Limits of the said Head Office of Excise in London, applying for such Licence or Licences, who shall at the Time of his, her or their Application for the same, in any Tenement situate in any Place where the Occupiers of Houses or Tenements are not rated or rateable to the Church and Poor, keep a Tavern, Victualling-house, Inn, Coffee-house or Ale-house, for which he, she or they respectively shall, to the Satisfaction of the said Commissioners of Excise, make it appear that he, she or they, do really and bona fide pay the full yearly Rent or Sum of twelve Pounds or upwards, without any Deduction or Abatement whatsoever, although the Person or Persons so applying for such Licence or Licences be not actually rated, and do not pay to the Church and Poor for the same accordingly.

XI. Provided always, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That every Person to be licensed for the retailing of Spirituous Liquors, pursuant to this Act, shall be subject to all other Provisions of the several Laws now in Force, in any wise relating to the retailing of Spirituous Liquors, or to the licensing the Retailers thereof, and on Breach of the said Provisions, or any of them, shall be subject and liable to the like Penalties, Forfeitures and Punishments, in the same Manner as other Retailers of Spirituous Liquors now are; and all and every Person and Persons authorized to put the said Laws in Execution against the Offenders acting contrary to them, or any of them, are hereby authorized and required to put the said Laws and each of them in Execution, against every Person to be licensed as aforesaid, who shall offend against the said Laws, or any of them.

XII. 'And whereas in and by one other Clause in the said Act of Parliament made in the twenty-fourth Year of his Majesty's Reign, it is enacted, That from and after the first Day of July one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, no Person whatsoever, being a common Brewer of Ale or Beer, or Inn-keeper, Distiller, or other Seller of or Dealer in any Kind of Spirituous Liquors, or who is or are or shall be interested in any of the said Trades or Businesses, shall during such Time as he or they shall be such common Brewer, Inn-keeper, Distiller, or other Seller of or Dealer in Spirituous Liquors, or interested in any of the said Trades or Businesses, be capable or have any Power to act, or shall be directly or indirectly concerned in acting as a Justice of the Peace, in any Matter or Thing whatsoever which shall any ways concern the Execution of the Powers or Authorities given or granted by any Act or Acts of Parliament in any wise relating to Distillers or Makers of Low Wines, Spirits or Strong Waters for Sale, or to the Duty or Duties imposed upon Low Wines, Spirits or Strong Waters, or any other Kind of Spirituous Liquors whatsoever, or to the granting Licences to the Retailers of Spirituous Liquors: And whereas notwithstanding the last recited Clause, it is doubted whether common Brewers of Ale or Beer, or Inn-keepers, Distillers, or other Sellers of or Dealers in any Kind of Spirituous Liquors, or who are or shall be interested in any of the said Trades or Businesses, being Justices of the Peace, may not grant Licences to the Retailers of Beer or Ale, which Licence is one of the necessary Requisites to intitle such Retailers to apply for a Licence to retail Spirituous Liquors: And whereas it is reasonable that such Persons, and also Victuallers and Masters, being Justices of the Peace, should be restrained from granting Licences to retail Beer and Ale;' Be it declared and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the said twenty-fourth Day of June one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, no Justice of the Peace, being a common Brewer of Ale or Beer, Inn-keeper or Distiller, or other Seller of or Dealer in Ale or any Kind of Spirituous Liquors, or interested in any of the said Trades or Businesses, or being a Victualler or Master, shall during such Time as he shall be such common Brewer, Inn-keeper, Distiller, Victualler or Master, or other Seller of or Dealer in Ale or Spirituous Liquors, or interested in any of the said Trades or Businesses, be capable or have any Power to grant any Licence or Licences to any Person or Persons whatsoever, for selling Ale, Beer, or any other Liquors by Retail; and in case any such Justice or Justices shall, contrary to the true Intent and Meaning hereof, presume to grant any such Licence, the same shall be and is hereby declared to be null and void to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.