Connivance of the officers of Customs. hold, and of every part of the lower decks, and report to the Committee of Private Trade what vacant space, if any, remained therein which was fit and proper for the stowage of goods, and also whether any packages appeared to have been removed or displaced during the homeward-bound passage. When any vacant space was discovered which could not be satisfactorily accounted for, the commander was fined in the sum of 100l. for every sixty cubical feet of such vacant space. But these apparently stringent regulations were somehow or other too frequently of no avail, especially in cases where the illicit practices were effected by the connivance of the officers of Customs, or in various other ways, more easily understood than explained, so that convictions were too often rendered impossible or impracticable. And whenever these were made and actions were raised, the "compositions of such suits, very much to the prejudice of the Company," were so frequent that the Court had to request the Commissioners of his Majesty's Customs "to be pleased to give an account to its solicitor of all suits which were pending," and from time to time "of all suits that shall hereafter be brought against any of the commanders and officers of the Company's ships for practices of smuggling."[1]
Considering the very high remuneration of the Company's commanders and officers, and the very liberal manner in which they were treated, we should have thought that no one among them would have been guilty of illegal practices, especially when they were found to be highly prejudicial to the
- ↑ Standing orders of the East India Company, Hardy, p. 23.
