fiderable amount; the ftrength of fome of them is fuch as to enable them to bid defiance to the revenue cruisers, some of which have recently been infulted, fired upon, and beat off, and others have either been feized and carried off, or fcuttled and funk; in other inftances the crews of the fmuggling veffels have made prifoners of fome of the officers of the revenue, and have kept them aboard during the time of landing very valuable cargoes.It is also a practice for the large armed veffels to take under their convoy the small defenceless craft which are employed in the fame pernicious traffic. The landing of the cargo is regulated by fignals, and fecured by large gangs of men, armed chiefly with clubs and heavy whips, generally inflamed with liquor, and affembled in fuch numbers as to reduce the reveBue officers to be quiet spectators of the proceedings: this is generally the cafe, except when the revenue officers can obtain the aid of a large military force;fuch affiftance, in the prefent eftablishment of the army, must be extremely partial-it is quite inadequate to the purpose of general and effectual prevention the requifition is often attended both with delay, and with some notoriety:-and even when aid is obtained upon an information, it is generally fruftrated; for the scouts placed upon the thore give úgnals to the vessel at fea, which inftantly proceeds, according to the fettled fignal, to fome other place of rendezvous, at fifteen or twenty miles diftance, and lands the cargo in the night-time.

The cargo thus delivered is placed in waggons, or on horfes, being packed and prepared, for that purpose, in casks and oil skin bags; it is next either distributed upon the coaft and the parts adjoining, for fale and confumption, or brought to the neighbour hood of this metropolis, and into the metropolis, either under the open guard and protection of armed troops of men, or by a fallacious ufe of permits, or in difguifed pack. ages, by stage coaches, ftage waggons, and various other modes of conveyance.

Your committee are informed, that, on fome parts of the coaft, batteries have actually been erected to affist and protect thefe illi. cit importations; and they have reafon to believe that the number of large armed veffels employed in the fmuggling trade is not lefs than 120, befides near 100 fmaller veffels. The owners have introduced and established a mixed fyftem of war and trade-they purfue all the regular plans of book-keeping; riders are feat, from time to time, to receive orders within the circle of their refpective rides; which orders have already been collected in parts more diftant from the coaft :-Notice is then circulated, of the day and hour when the veffel may be exVOL. XLVI.

pected to appear off the shore with the return of the cargoes; a place of landing is fixed upon: fignals are settled; scouts are appointed; the degree of force which may be wanted is arranged; and, laftly, the terms of freight are adjusted, and alfo of infurance, in cafe the perfon who gives the order will not take the articles at his own risk. The commodities thus imported, if diftributed upon the coaft, are, in most inftances, fold at little more than half of the price which is given when regular duties are paid: if they are brought to the metropolis under infur ance, which is a common practice, they are delivered either to retail traders, or to private houfe keepers, at about two thirds of the price paid by the honeft confumer. The commiffioners of the revenue very justly observe, that their inland establishment is utterly unfit to fupprefs thefe proceedings, being calculated rather to detect frauds than to refift violence; and having hardly any powers of exertion upon the coaft, beyond the detection of small illicit importations and exportations, attempted by merchant veffels, or by the coasting trade; these practices are, confequently, become fo general, and fo it. refistible, that the fecurity of the revenue in many inftances depends on the honesty of the traders: and here, perhaps, it may deferve remark, that fince the fitting of your committee was known, the exertions of the fmugglers, to bring large stocks of goods into the kingdom, are reprefented to us to have been greater than ever.

Every opinion, and every teftimony has concurred to prove to your committee, that this fyftem, fo fatal both to the revenue and to trade, has, during the last four years, increafed in a very alarming degree; this naturally happened under all the circumstances attending the courfe and clofe of the late war; and it is the opinion of the commiflioners of excife, from which we cannot diffent, that the excise duties alone (which, on tea, coffee, brandy, and rum, amount annually at an average, to one million Sterling) would, if fmuggling could be prevented, produce revenue of more than three times that fum.

Your committee thould here observe, that, exclufive of the open and avowed profeffion of fmuggling, an illicit importation is carried on to a great extent, by the relanding of bounty and drawback goods; by coafters, which take goods aboard at fea or in foreign parts; by the officers of homeward-bound East and West India fhips, to a great amount; by fishing veffels; and by the crews and paf fengers of fome of the poft-office packets.

It is computed, from the best examina tion, that upwards of twenty millions of pounds of tea, and thirteen millions of gal. lons of brandy, have been fmuggled into the kingdom, within the last three years; and D

guage, and measure. In short, the established practice of fees, which feems to be infeparable from a complicated and difficult fyftem of duties, added to the preflure of low falaries and great temptations, have combined to produce an intimacy and connection between the inferior officers and the merchants, which is very prejudicial to the public.

The relanding tea exported to Ireland is another evil which has of late greatly increased. The average amount of tea exported to Ireland for a period of three years, ending at Michaelmas 1778, was 2,114,360 pounds weight; and for the like period, ending at Michaelmas 1782, it amounted to ,169,111 pounds weight; fince that period the quantity exported has farther increased; and it is ftated to the commisioners of exeife, by reputable dealers, that a great pro portion of the tea fo exported is fent to reJand for the fole purpofe of being clande ftinely returned to Great Britain. It is an indirect proof of this reprefentation, that antecedent to the exemption from duty, the quantity of tea annually exported to Ireland, at an average of three years, was not more than 163,035 pounds weight; but that, for the year ending sth July 1782, it amounted to 1,596,426 pounds weight.

This practice, which appears from various evidence to have increased, and to be now increafing, arifes from a difference fubfifting between the British and Irish duties upon tea, the latter being very confiderably lower than the former; it is therefore an object of Jucrative trade for the Irifh vender of tea, to purchase it, and to pay the full trifh duties, after which he can chufe his opportunity of Joading it aboard fmall veffels, and tranfmitting it to the coafts of Scotland and Wales; the operation and effect of the whole is, that the amount of the Irish duties upon the quan tity of teas thus fmuggled into Great Britain, is a defalcation of British revenue, in favour of the Irish revenue, to the amount of the Irish duties upon the quantity fo fmuggled; and a fraud upon the British revenue to the amount of the British duties upon that quan. tity; and this is one of the many circumftances which induce us most seriously to obferve, that feveral inconveniencies and abufes exift in the trade and commerce of both Great Britain and Ireland, which reciprocally call upon both kingdoms for the earliest and most complete explanation and fettlement.

Your committee mentioned in a former part of this report, the manner in which the tea which has been fraudulently imported is brought from the fea fide, by armed bodies of men, to this metropolis and its neighbourhood; but, as a confiderable quantity is alfo moved by the fallacious ufe of permits, it is proper to take fome notice of that evil,

which feems to require a speedy redress. Many of thofe permits are forged and counterfeit; others are fraudulently obtained by the retail traders, who conceal the vend of their teas, and require permits for the removal of what has in fact been, or will be, fold by retail, though it appears upon the book to be ftill credited as flock in band: and permits thus obtained are fent to the illicit dealer, without any tea, and he immediately has credit with the revenue officers for the quantity named. By thefe means, which are equally practifed in regard to fpirits, the goods clandeftinely landed are introduced into the ftocks of dealers in tea and spirits, who have made entry upon the coaft of places convenient for this traffic. The spirits thus introduced into dealers ftocks are forwaided by regular permits to the metropolis; and the tea, which cannot legally be brought into London, even with permits, is carried into obfcure places, juft without the limits of the bills of mortality, (which places are entered for the purpofe); and from thence it is afterwards conveyed into the metropolis, either in packages under fix pounds, or by means which elude all probability of detection. As an inftance of the extent of this fraud, it may deferve remark, that, upon an examination of the excife officers books, the quantity of foreign fpirits and tea permitted to the town of Deal, from the flocks of dealers in London and its neighourhood, for a period of twelve weeks, ending the 15th of March laft, amounted to 76,420 gallons of fpirits, and 24.442 pounds weight of tea; although it is fufficiently obvious, that not one drop of thofe fpirits, nor one ounce of the tea, actually went from London; and that the permits were forwarded without any goods, to enable the traders to introduce into their stock a large quantity of fpirits and tea of the fame fpecies, fraudulently or forcibly landed from the smuggling cutters.

This extenfive abufe of permits, which, though introduced originally for the protec tion of the revenue, now operates to its detriment, is not confined to Deal and to London; for there is scarce any port in the kingdom, however remote, in which permits are not occasionally obtained, to protect the introduction of goods clandestinely imported.

It is impoffible to estimate, with any precifion, how far the revenue may have fuffered by these various practices. The annual average quantity of each fort of tea fold by the Eaft India Company, for ten years, from March fale 1773, to September fale 1782, exclufive of the private trade, was,

Bohea,
Congou,
Souchong and Pekou

lbs. 3,075,307

523,272

92,572

5,742,464

The quantity of tea fuppofed to be brought annually into Great Britain by the various methods of illicit importation, amounts, according to the eftimate of the commiffioners of excife, to near feven millions of pounds: your committee conceive that eftimate to be grounded on a combination of the accounts received from the feveral fubordinate revenue officers, who have very full information at the out-ports, as to the number of fhips employed in the illicit trade, their freights, cargoes, and voyages. This account derives confirmation from a curious paper laid before your commitee by the deputy-accountant of the India Houfe, and which is annexed in Appendix, No. 7. It appears from that paper, that about thirteen millions of pounds weight of tea are brought by the foreign companies into Europe; five one-half of which are computed, from the best information, to be the confumption of the continent of Europe; the remaining feven one-half must be prefumed to be introduced into Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies of Great Britain.

It is farther to be remarked, that, exclufive of the illicit import of tea from the European markets, the quantity of factitious tea which is annually manufactured from floe, liquorice, and ash-tree leaves, in different parts of England, to be mixed with genuine tras, is computed at more than four millions of pounds.

If these feveral estimates approach towards the truth, the annual lofs to the revenue, by

the frauds committed in the article of tea aJone, very confiderably exceeds the net reve Bue derived from that article, and cannot be computed at less than one million Sterling Exclufive of this lofs of revenue, your committee muft again advert to the unfavourable balance in cash or bills of exchange, in return for the immenfe import of tea; and to the life and vigour given by fuch an impart to the whole fyftem of fmuggling: the interefts, trade, and shipping of the Engh Eaft India Company are alfo much narrowed by it; and a large body of failors are employed in illicit trade, who might otherwise be occupied in an extenfion of the trade to

China.

In the refult of this part of our inquiry, it has been reprefented to your commitee, by a refpectable body of the fair dealers in the article of tea, that their trade must be entirely ruined, unless fome plan can be devised, fuch as fhall either remove all inducement to fmuggle tea into the kingdom, or fuch as, leaving the inducement, fhall effectually counteract it. Your committee, leaving this important matter for the prefent to the feris

ous confideration of the House, will now proceed to other articles of lefs extent, though well meriting the attention of Parliament.

The tobacco duties are a very principal article of revenue; their amount, at different periods, may be collected from the account in Appendix No. 8

It is ftated to your committee, by the commiffioners of the cuftoms in Scotland, that the illicit importation of this article is fuppofed to have increased;-the tobacco duties undoubtedly may be expected to suffer by means of the Irish smuggling boats; and if the duty paid in Ireland continues, as at prefent, to be confiderably lower than what is charged in England, the operation will be fimilar to what has already been stated with respect to tea clandeftinely imported from Ireland.-There are feveral other circumstan. ces refpecting this great object of revenue, which in due time may merit parliamentary attention; but in the prefent unfettled ftate of this trade, whether confidered as an article of commerce or of revenue, your committee have thought it most expedient to postpone the difcufhon. [To be continued.]

Account of a fevere FROST in SIBERIA.

[Given by M. L'Abbé Chappe D'Aute roche, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.]

I was told, in paffing through Solikamfky, fituated in the western limits of Siberia, that in 1761 M. de L'Ifle's thermometer had funk down to 280 degrees, which answers to about seventy of M. de Roumur's. This extreme, and almoft incredible degree of cold appeared to me aftonishing indeed, as the thermometer on which it was obferved was exposed on a wall to the north, in an open yard, fo that I did not conceive it was poffible a man could live in the degree of cold he muft neceffarily be exposed to. In crof fing the yard to take the observation, my breath froze to my lips, and made an icicle of my beard. Sometimes the cold is fo exceffive as to ftrike both men and horfes dead, who happen to be at too great a diftance from any house to shelter themselves from it. The extreme condenfation of air prevents the fmoke of chimnies from rifing; fparrows and magpies drop dead on the ground; nor can either skins or dung defend the huts of the natives. A man, who only walked about eighty steps from his own door, had his nofe and his hands fo frozen, that both would have mortified, had not the greatest care been taken. Though thus attacked by the weather, he was covered with fur, and his hands were wrapped in a fur hood,

NEW