1775: 15 George 3 c.40: An Act for amending and explaining an Act passed in the fourteenth Year of his Majesty’s Reign, intituled, An Act to establish a Fund towards further defraying the Charges of the Administration of Justice, and Support of the Civil Government within the Province of Quebec, in America.
[Preamble; Clause in Act 14 Geo. III. recited.]
‘Whereas by an Act, passed in the fourteenth Year of his Majesty’s Reign, (intituled, An Act to establish a Fund towards further defraying the Charges of the Administration of Justice, and Support of the Civil Government within the Province of Quebec, in America,) it is, amongst other Things, enacted, That if any Goods, chargeable with any of the Duties in the said Act mentioned, shall be brought into the said Province by Land Carriage, the same shall pass and be carried through the Port of Saint John’s, near the River Sorrel; or if such Goods shall be brought into the said Province by any Inland Navigation, other than upon the River Saint Lawrence the same shall pass and be carried upon the said River Sorrel by the said Port, and shall be there entered with and the said respective Rates and Duties paid for the same, to such Officer or Officers of his Majesty’s Customs as shall be there appointed for that Purpose; and if any such Goods coming by Land Carriage or Inland Navigation as aforesaid, shall pass by or beyond the said Place before named without Entry or Payment of the said Rates and Duties, or shall be brought into any Part of the said Province by or through any other Place whatsoever, the said Goods shall be forfeited; and every Person who shall be assisting, or otherwise concerned, in the bringing or removing such Goods, or to whose Hands the same shall come, knowing that they were brought or removed contrary to this Act, shall forfeit Treble the Value of such Goods; to be estimated and computed according to the best Price that each respective Commodity bears in the Town of Quebec at the Time such Offence shall be committed; and all the Horses, Cattle, Boats, Vessels, and other Carriages whatsoever, made use of in the Removal, Carriage, or Conveyance of such Goods, shall be forfeited and lost, and shall and may be seized by any Officer of His Majesty’s Customs, and prosecuted as therein-after mentioned: And whereas there is Reason to apprehend, that the Regulations and Restrictions contained in the said herein-before recited Clause, so far as they relate to the bringing of Rum, Brandy, or other Spirits, into the Province of Quebec by Land Carriage, may, without further Explanation, operate to the Prejudice and Disadvantage of the Commerce carried on with the Indians in the upper or interior Parts of the said Province, we, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, do most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted; and 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,
[His Majesty’s Subjects may bring, by Land or Inland Navigation, into any Parts of Quebec, not heretofore comprehended in the Royal Proclamation of Oct. 7, 1763, any Quantity of Rum, Brandy, etc.]
That it shall and may be lawful to and for all His Majesty’s Subjects freely to bring, carry or convey, by Land Carriage, or Inland Navigation, into any Parts of the Province of Quebec, not heretofore comprehended within the Limits thereof by His Majesty’s Royal Proclamation of the Seventh of October, One thousand seven hundred and sixty-three, any Quantity of Rum, Brandy, or other Spirits, any Thing contained in the before-recited Act of Parliament to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
Source: Ruffhead, Statutes at Large, volume 12.
See also: 1774: 14 George 3 c. 88: Quebec Revenue Act.