Working of the licensing system in England.
Simulated papers.
The licence to sail from port to port, for example, contained
the following clause: "The vessel shall be allowed
to proceed, notwithstanding all the documents which accompany
the ship and cargo may represent the same to
be destined to any neutral or hostile port, or to whomsoever
such property may belong." With this licence,
the ship which carried it, foreign or British, was
enabled to pass through the British fleet; every
vessel thus authorized being permitted to take on
board another set of papers, which were, in point of
fact, a forgery from beginning to end. Should
the vessel be overhauled by English cruisers, she
nevertheless continued her voyage unmolested. If,
for example, she had actually cleared out from
London, it was stated in the simulated papers that
she had cleared out from Rotterdam. With this view,
the proper description was made out as nearly as
possible in the handwriting of the Custom-house
officer at Rotterdam; and, if it were necessary that
the signature of the French minister of state should
be affixed, as in the case of Holland, this was skilfully
forged, and even the fantastic signature of Napoleon
himself was sometimes attached to these forged
documents![1] These forgeries were not done perfunctorily
or by halves, for not only were the names
forged, but the seal was admirably engraved, and the
wax closely imitated. Indeed a regular set of letters
were frequently also forged, containing a good deal
of fictitious private anecdote, with a mixture of such
news from Rotterdam as might be supposed to be
interesting to mercantile people, together with an
- ↑ Mr. Brougham said in the House of Commons that he had himself seen the forged signature of Napoleon (Nap).
