the superior court. The assembly granted his request and the judges heard his case over again. Several interesting points came out in this last trial and also in connection with the earlier career of this over-zealous officer.

It appears that none of these commanders of revenue cruisers regarded it as necessary to announce their coming to the authorities. In fact they seemed to have looked upon themselves as being in the enemy's country. Dudingston had been suddenly startled by receiving a letter from the governor of Rhode Island stating that complaints had been made as to a piratical vessel and desiring him to show his commission, if he had one. The Governor and Company of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations had more authority than any of the other provincial governments excepting that of Connecticut. They even had appointed the customs officials and the law officers of the crown had stated as their opinion that it was at least doubtful whether they had this power or not. Safe on the Gaspee's deck, Dudingston had returned an offensive answer to this early demand, but now he was obliged to make what answer he could and produced a deputation from the Commissioners of the Customs authenticated with the signature of Richard Reeve, the secretary of the board. This had never been recorded in Rhode Island and was not sealed, nor was it copy attested under seal. The court held that Dudingston was not authorized to make seizures within the waters of the colony of Rhode Island. Judgment was given against him for the third time, and he was not allowed to appeal to England, because the amount involved was less than three hundred pounds. He recovered from his wounds and, in 1776, was again on the coast in command of a revenue cruiser, this time the Senegal of fourteen guns.

To the historical student the most interesting official attached to the head office of the Commissioners was the Inspector of Imports and Exports and Register of Shipping. This office was held in the earlier years by Thomas Irving, who came over from England with the Commissioners. Later he got into trouble with the Bostonians and was so roughly handled that he secured another appointment, becoming Receiver General of the quit-rents in South Carolina and member of the council of that province. His salary was 150 pounds per annum and he had an allowance of 200 pounds for clerks. Some of the

tabulations and records prepared in his office have been preserved and are of great interest. An examination of these tables gives one an idea of the total commerce of the colonies, both imports and exports. From them may be constructed a table showing the relative commercial importance of the several sections, colonies, or seaports. They can be used to illustrate the history of any one feature of our pre-Revolutionary commerce or to test the soundness of economic theories. From them we find that in the year 1771 over four million gallons of molasses were imported into the continental colonies of which less than 146,000 gallons came from the British West Indies. Bearing in mind that after the Act of 1766 molasses could be lawfully imported into the Northern colonies from the British or the foreign islands, these figures show that the colonists had been right in their earlier contention that the importation of British molasses, alone, would not satisfy their needs. The duty collected on this molasses at importation amounted to £17,423. At this time there were sixty-six distilleries in Massachusetts, alone. These used 19,800 hogsheads of molasses in each year at an average profit of one pound per hogshead. The commerce in molasses therefore was of great importance to the colonists and to the exchequer. Beside the amount of rum made in the northern colonies from West India molasses, two million gallons of it were imported from the West India Islands. This was all of British production, or at any rate was laden in the British Islands, because the acts of 1764 and 1766 prohibited the importation of rum from the foreign West Indies. Turning now to the consumption of rum, a great deal of it was used by the colonists themselves as a beverage; it seems, indeed, to have been regarded almost in the light of a necessity. A great deal of it was used in the Indian trade, being exchanged for furs of one kind or another. The export of it was also very large, amounting to 300,000 gallons in the year 1771, of which 234,000 gallons went to Africa, where it was exchanged for negroes and ivory.

Another significant fact that comes out from these tables has to do with the importation of cotton. This amounted, in 1771, to 486,584 pounds, of which 356,000 pounds came from the foreign West Indies. Almost all of this was worked up in the colonies, as the total exports of that year amounted to only 14,000 pounds, all of which went to Great Britain. These

figures are significant for two reasons: in the first place, they show that cotton was exported from the continental colonies before the Revolution, and that a great deal more of it was worked up into cloth in the colonies than has hitherto been supposed. These figures as to cotton are re-enforced by those in another table. From this it appears that the total importation in 1768-69 was 438,000 pounds, and the exportation only 18,422 pounds.

The importation of negroes into the continental colonies was not large when compared with that into the West Indies; still it was by no means inconsiderable as late as 1771. The tables give the total number of negroes imported as 4,737. Of these 2,754 were brought directly from Africa. No less than 2,000 of them came to Charleston, and of the 1,983 brought from the West Indies, nearly 1,000 went to Charleston. Only fifteen of the total number of negroes were brought to colonies north of Maryland. In this connection it may be stated that only three negroes were exported from the continent to the islands.

The importations from Great Britain are bewildering in numbers and classifications, as well as important on account of their extent. They are divided into British products and foreign products imported through Great Britain. As the colonists were forbidden to import anything from Europe except salt, wine from the Wine Islands, and sub-tropical fruits, as oranges and lemons, from the Mediterranean, this importation of foreign manufactures through Great Britain represents the total consumption of European goods in the American markets. Until 1766 a drawback had been allowed upon European products on re-exportation from Great Britain. Grenville had tried to make good the loss to the revenue occasioned by this payment of drawbacks, by taxing textiles and some other things on importation into the colonies by his revenue law of 1764. This had aroused so much opposition in America that those duties had all been done away with in 1766, but, at the same time, the provisions granting drawbacks had been repealed. This amounted to collecting the same duties in England. Among the importation of British goods from Great Britain, textiles occupied the leading place, woolens, friezes, stuffs, serges, shalloons, and baizes, linens, lawns, diaper, chintz, printed cottons, and stripes; sail-cloth and duck, both British and foreign, India bale goods, as silks and muslins,

and long cloths. Oranges and lemons were imported in quantities, two million of them coming to Boston alone in the year 1772, while of figs to the same port there were 162 hundred-weight, and 12 hundred-weight of prunes. Among other commodities one notices a profusion of drugs, tobacco pipes by the thousand gross, and playing cards; of these 6,000 packs were brought to Boston in one year, but three times as many were imported into Virginia. Of all the commodities that occasioned trouble in those days, not even Madeira wine could compare with tea as an inciter to riot and disorder. It was brought in by the hundred thousand pounds throughout the years under review except in 1770 and after December, 1773. The largest importation was in 1768, when 877,000 pounds were imported through the custom house and paid duty; no less than 298,000 pounds being brought into Boston alone. The largest importation in this year, however, was to New York. In 1771 the total importation was 344,771 pounds and in 1772, 237,062 pounds. In the next year the importation fell off tremendously and was less than 150,000 pounds, of which 119,000 pounds came to Boston, and then the importation through the custom house entirely ceased. These figures seem startling when we recall that the agitation against tea began as far back as 1770 and even earlier. An examination of advertisements in the papers, and an inspection of the invoices of cargoes which were despatched from London for American ports confirms the impression gained from the table that there was a large and continuous movement of tea down to 1772.

The establishment of the American Board of Commissioners of the Customs and the reorganization of the service following their coming to Boston, together with the making of the new colonial restrictions a reality, put an end to illicit trade on any extended scale. The new system also powerfully affected coast wise commerce and undoubtedly diverted a great deal of it to land routes, much to the inconvenience of the colonists and to a considerably increased expense of handling the goods. In countless ways, therefore, the establishment of the Board changed modes of life and aroused friction. Enough, however, has been said to make good the thesis with which this paper started, that it was the compulsory payment of taxes and not any abstract theories of politics that incited the people to riot and, ultimately, to rebellion.

Dr. GREEN read the following paper:

Chief-Justice Samuel Sewall, in his Diary (II. 42), under date of October 6, 1701, has an interesting entry in regard to a pike-staff given by him to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. At that time Judge Sewall was the commander; and after describing a drill by the company he goes on to say:

I inform'd the Company I was told the Company's Halberds &c. were borrowed; I understood the Leading staff was so, and therefore ask'd their Acceptance of a Half-Pike, which they very kindly did; I deliver'd it to Mr. Gibbs for their Use,

They would needs give me a Volley, in token of their Respect on this occasion. The Pike will, I supose, stand me in fourty shillings, being headed and shod with Silver: Has this Motto fairly engraven:

Agmen Massachusettense

est in tutelam Sponsæ
AGNI Uxoris,

1701.

The Lord help us to answer the Profession. Were treated by the Ensign in a fair chamber.

The interesting part of this entry lies in the fact that the silver ferule of the pike, on which the motto was engraved, is still in existence. It is two and three-eighths inches in height and one inch in diameter and was placed originally on the lower end of the staff. It was found ten or twelve years ago by William L. Willey, Quartermaster of the Company, in a trunk full of old papers going back to Revolutionary times. The lower end of the staff, perhaps three inches long, holding the ferule, had been sawed off, and thus the silver band was saved. Sewall says that the pike was "headed and shod with Silver." From this expression I infer that the pike-staff had a silver band at the head or top, and another at the lower end, which, according to Sewall, served as a shoe, and that this latter one is identical with the ferule here described.

Judge Sewall, in the quotations from his Diary, does not give the whole of the Latin inscription on the ferule. Under the four lines, as printed, two more appear on the band, showing the giver's name. The additional lines are so battered and jammed that it is with great difficulty they are made out; but I give them here as deciphered by me. In engraving