The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

The merchants and officers in the Long-Room at the Custom-House, are much at variance, respecting the payment of the convoy duty; the former assert that it is no longer payable, because the last clause in the act stipulates, "that the act shall be in force until preliminaries of peace are signed, and no longer." The convoy duty was imposed till the preliminaries of peace should be signed. It is still levied under pretence that, though preliminaries are signed with France, they have not yet been signed with Holland and Spain: but it must soon cease. It has yielded upon an average one million and a half per annum; and it is understood, that a percentage will be imposed on the excise and customs, to make up for its loss.