BY an Act made in the Twelfth Year of King CHARLES the Second , Intituled , An Act for Prohibiting the Exportation of Wooll , Woollfels , Fullers Earth , Or any Kind of Scouring Earth , It is Enacted , That no Person whatsoever , shall Export or put on Board any Ship or Vessel with intent to be Exported , any Fullers Farth , or Fulling Clay whatsoever , upon Forfeiture of the said Clay and Three Shillings per Pound Weight , &c.

By another Act made in the Fourteenth Year of the said King , it 〈◇〉 taken notice of , That notwithstanding the Laws then made , yet ( amongst other thing ) great quantity of Fullers Earth and Fullers Clay , &c. was secretly Exported , to the great Decay of the Woollen Manufacture , the Ruin of many Families , and the Destruction of Navigation ; which was like daily to increase , if some farther Remedy was not provided , and further Penalties imposed upon the Offenders .

It is therein Enacted , That whereas great quantities of Fullers Earth and Fulling Clay are daily Exported , under the Colour of Tobacco-Pipe Clay , that no Tobacco-Pipe Clay shall for the future be Exported , under the Penalties of the forfeiture of the said Clay and Three Shillings per Pound Weight , &c.

And it is also therein further provided , That if any Customer , Controller , Waiter , Searcher , or Surveyor , or other Officer , knowing thereof , and being wittingly or willingly aiding , assisting , or Consenting thereto , shall be adjudged and taken to be a Felon , and every Offender suffer and forfeit as in Case of Felony .

The Officers above-mentioned are Searchers , without whose knowledge no Goods can pass or be shipp'd to be Exported , nor discharged but by Cocquets signed under their hands , nor the Ships cleared from the Custom-house , but by Dispatches from them .

These Officers knew the Earth of Mr. Warner ( who had shipp'd the said Earth before any notice given to them ) to be Fullers Earth ; having themselves experimented the same in Fulling of Cloth ; which they found ( by the Judgement of several Clothiers and Fullers ) to perform all the Offices of other Fullers Earth .

If they had not stopped the Earth , they had been Consenting to the Exportation , in as much as the said Earth could not be Exported , but by Cocquet or Warrant signed by them : And as they are named by their Office in the before-mentioned Act , they must have been found guilty of Felony , and if prosecuted , suffer as Felons .

The said Officers moved the Barons of the Exchequer , That they would please to direct an Experiment in such place and by such persons as the Court should think fit , to prevent all falacious Experiments , and that the truth at the Trial might appear ; but this was opposed by Mr. Warner .

They also offered Mr. Warner before the Commissioners of the Customs , That if he would not Export any more of the said Earth , not to insist on the Penalties ; and the said Officers further declared in Court , by the Attorney General , before and at the Trial , That if a Verdict went for the King , they declined all the Forfeitures , that it might appear they sought not the Ruin of Mr. Warner , but tried only the right of the Earth , which was not above Twelve pounds value , to prevent the Exportation thereof as a National Good .

Yet upon the Motion of Mr. Warner in the Court of Exchequer , they were compelled to try the forfeiture of the said Earth ( altho of so inconsiderable a Value ) at Bar ; whereby they were forced to expend several hundred pounds .

It 's apparent , That if a Verdict had been given for the King upon the late Trial , the Officers could not have received the least advantage by it , altho it is as evident , That by the Exportation they are gainers by their Fees ; and are by so much losers , if the shipping off be prevented , having acted only in this Matter under the necessity or their Duty , the Trust that the Law ●●s itted to them● and the Publick Good of the Nation in general .