ing the colliers' privilege
was. By the Act 6 & 7 William III, c. 18, sect. 19, 'Any officer
who presumes to impress any of the above shall forfeit to the
master or owner of such vessel L10 for every man so impressed;
and such officer shall be incapable of holding any place, office,
or employment in any of His Majesty's ships of war.' It is not
likely that the least scrupulous naval officer would make himself
liable to professional ruin as well as to a heavy fine. No parish
apprentice could be impressed for the sea service of the Crown
until he arrived at the age of eighteen (2 & 3 Anne, c. 6, sect.
4). Persons voluntarily binding themselves apprentices to sea
service could not be impressed for three years from the date
of their indentures. Besides sect. 15 of the Act of Anne just
quoted, exemptions were granted, before 1803, by 4 Anne, c. 19;
and 13 George II, c. 17. By the Act last mentioned all persons
fifty-five years of age and under eighteen were exempted, and
every foreigner serving in a ship belonging to a British subject,
and also all persons 'of what age soever who shall use the sea'
for two years, to be computed from the time of their first using
it. A customary exemption was extended to the proportion of the
crew of any ship necessary for her safe navigation. In practice
this must have reduced the numbers liable to impressment to small
dimensions.

Even when the Admiralty decided to suspend all administrative
exemptions--or, as the phrase was, 'to press from all
protections'--many persons were still exempted. The customary
and statutory exemptions, of course, were unaffected. On the
5th November 1803 their Lordships informed officers in charge
of rendezvous that it was 'necessary for the speedy manning of
H.M. ships to impress all persons of the denominations exprest
in the press-warrant which you have received from us, without
regard to any protections, excepting, however, all such persons
as are protected pursuant to Acts of Parliament, and all others
who by the printed instructions which accompanied the said warrant
are forbidden to be imprest.' In addition to these a long list
of further exemptions was sent. The last in the list included
the crews of 'ships and vessels bound to foreign parts which
are laden and cleared outwards by the proper officers of H.M.
Customs.' It would seem that there was next to no one left liable
to impressment; and it is not astonishing that the Admiralty, as
shown by its