Note 84 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

7 Geo. III. ch. 46, Ibid., 369. Bancroft's account of these Acts is not quite accurate (History, vi. 84, 85): "By another Act (7 Geo. III. ch. xli.) a Board of Customs was established at Boston, and general Writs of Assistance were legalized." The execution of the Laws of Trade was placed under the direction of Commissioners of Customs, "to reside in the said Plantations", where the king should direct,—not localized at Boston. It was by ch. xlvi. sec. x., not xli., that Writs of Assistance were legalized. But a more serious error is in the statement that "Townshend's revenue was to be disposed of under the sign-manual at the king's pleasure. This part of the system had no limit as to time or place, and was intended as a perpetual menace." This is far from being accurate. By section iv. it is provided that the revenue arising from the act should be applied, in the first place, "for the charge of the administration of justice, and the support of civil government" in the colonies; and the residue was to be paid into the receipt of the Exchequer, and entered separate and apart from all other moneys, and reserved to be disposed by Parliament for the defence of the colonies. It was the civil administration alone that could be paid by the king's warrant. The expense of the army could be appropriated only by Parliament; and the difference is worthy of attention.