Smuggling or Contraband Trade.

BOLD, venturous spirits, fond of excitement, and, moreover, tempted by a chance of realising great profits, after a brief period of exertion and risk, have ever been found ready to engage in Smuggling. In time of peace, the whole of the south coast of England may appear to the casual observer equally suited as a starting point for the contraband dealer. He buys the commodities required at some French port; whence, upon taking his departure, he enters upon the perilous adventures of stormy nights, surf-bound coast, vigilant officers, treacherous confederates, and many mishaps arising from unforeseen causes. When war closes the ports of France, then the coast opposite the Channel Islands, Guernsey, and Alderney, is more especially the seat of smuggling, as the east coast from its proximity to Holland.

Before smuggling had received its death-blow, parts of Dorset and Devon were as much concerned with smuggling as some counties with any particular trade. The population of whole villages supported themselves by such an unlawful occupation. Who was there that deemed the purchase of contraband articles sinful or improper? The best of the residents of sea-side towns made no scruple of buying anything the dealer of smuggled goods had for sale. Well might old Rattenbury, the bold smuggler, when boasting at a trial that he had brought up his son very carefully, say in answer to a question, if he had taught him the commandment, "Thou shalt not smuggle," that he did not see any harm in a little free trade. His superiors did not set him a good example. Free Trade did not bear its present occupation, but was an euphemism for contraband dealing, a disregard of fiscal laws. In 1735, when there was a duty of 17. a gallon upon rum, that spirit, as well as brandy and wine, were landed on our south-west coast. The Custom House officers had riding officers, tidesmen, and boatmen upon the look out, who made seizures sometimes in consequence of information, at others by sweeping at the bottom of the

sea, where a raft of tubs containing rum, brandy, &c. was supposed to be sunk.

It is not on every occasion that the dryness of fiscal matters can be enlivened by the labours of the poet. The late Rev. W. Crowe, in his much admired poem entitled "Lewesdon Hill," a lofty eminence of West Dorset, thus apostrophises Burton Cliff, east of Bridport harbour, and gives a beautiful and true picture of the coast as it was:

"From hostile shores returning, glad I look
On native scenes again; and first salute
Thee, Burton, and thy lofty cliff, where oft
The nightly blaze is kindled; further seen
Than erst was that love-tended cresset, hung
Beside the Hellespont: yet not like that
Inviting to the hospitable arms

Of beauty and youth, but lighted up, the sign
Of danger, and of ambush'd foes to warn
The stealth-approaching vessel, homeward bound
From Havre or the Norman isles, with freight
Of wines and hotter drinks, the trash of France
Forbidden merchandise. Such fraud to quell
Many a light skiff and well appointed sloop
Lies hovering near the coast, or hid behind
Some curved promontory, in hope to seize
These contraband: vain hope! on that high shore
Station'd, th' associates of their lawless trade
Keep watch, and to their fellows off at sea
Give the known signal; they with fearful haste
Observant, put about the ship, and plunge
Into concealing darkness. As a fox

That from the cry of hounds and hunters' din
Runs crafty down the wind, and steals away
Forth from his cover, hopeful so t'elude

The not yet following pack,—if chance the shout
Of eager or unpractised boy betray

His meditated flight, back he retires

To shelter him in the thick wood: so these
Retiring, ply to south, and shun the land
Too perilous to approach: and oft at sea

Secure (or ever nigh the guarded coast

They venture) to the trackless deep they trust
Their forfeitable cargo, rundlets small
Together link'd upon their cable's length,
And to the shelving bottom sunk and fixt
By stony weights; till happier hours arrive
To land it on the vacant beach unrisk'd."

The lighting fires upon the hills along the coast as signals to the returning smuggler has become a punishable offence under an Act of Parliament. The poet would now miss this feature in the western landscape.

The great changes wrought in the laws that refer to smuggling were important to the interests of great numbers of persons of property who risked money in such ventures. As the laws in force were evaded with the adroitness too generally displayed in such matters, others were framed that had in their turn to be remodelled, or which became a dead letter. All the cutters which cruized after smugglers were not the property of the Crown. Some belonged to private individuals, who fitted them out to capture smugglers and their crews, as privateers do an enemy. This was a speculation depending upon the success of the vessels so fitted out. Capt. Lisle of Lyme, afterwards of Weymouth, the son of an officer of customs at Lyme, owned several of those cruizers.

The fast sailing and fast rowing luggers were in great request for the voyage across the channel. Then came some enactments, and these were no longer permitted to be used. Small sailing vessels were licensed, and two bondsmen were required in a good sum of money. If the craft had not a sliding bowsprit, only that fixed one called a steaved bowsprit, no bond was required. Owners that intended to send their craft "across," i. e., over to France, steaved their bowsprit, and so, as it were, proclaimed their speedy intention. All the Beer fishing luggers, known as Beer boats, went smuggling. Caught in a gale, they have been known to make their tubs into a raft, throw them overboard, and drift to leeward. The sea broke upon the floating tubs of spirits, and the open boat lived through the storm.

SMUGGLING.

TOBACCO.

SPIRITS.

373

The poet says nothing of tobacco. This was an important branch of the illicit trade. The store of captured tobacco was occasionally so great in the Lyme Custom House that it was burnt in a lime kiln, which was situated where the first warehouse on the Cobb now stands. The kiln was actually filled with tobacco, and each of the assembled bye-standers had an opportunity of stuffing his pockets full. At length the fire was applied, and the flavour could be sniffed at a great distance to leeward by the hardy mariner, who deplored such a waste of this cherished commodity. Tobaccostalks and fibres have also been smuggled for the being ground into snuff.

Smuggled spirits may well be styled "the trash of France." The article is a very inferior one, and is believed to be mainly derived from distillation from potatoes. In France the price was about half-a-crown a gallon, which the retail dealer here sold at fourteen shillings. The kegs held six, but the greater number only four gallons. These were slung across the shoulders of the helps, as those men who went down to the shore to run a cargo were called. At certain points strings of pack horses carried the cargo inland, or their substitute, light carts, where the improved roads admitted of their use.

The law's changes within a few brief years respecting smuggling would occupy much space. At one time, so late as about the year 1780, smugglers were allowed a latitude that will be scarcely credited. Nothing could be seized above high-water mark; so that pipes of wine have actually been landed close to the Custom House at Lyme, then at the bottom of the town, and allowed to remain on the beach and Cobbgate leading to the Custom House! Vessels used to come along ashore; when, if no officer of the customs - the only one who made captures was there, the goods were landed. If there was any interruption, the craft went elsewhere, and landed, or returned again to the same spot. At one time some vessels of about 100 tons were employed, called tonnagers. The papers were made out as if from Cherburg to Ostend. One of these was boarded off the Cobb, and

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found to be full of wine, and her papers were inspected. The next day she entered the Cobb without a single pipe of wine. Mr. Raymond, the collector of customs, seized her, as he said she could not have gone to Ostend and back in one night. The smugglers contested the matter in a trial at Dorchester. The evidence was complete to prove that the vessel was laden with wine one day, and the next was empty. The smugglers pleaded their having thrown overboard the cargo, to prevent the vessel from sinking. The judge having questioned one of the custom-house officers who boarded the vessel as to her condition at the time, the man, who had been bribed, answered, that he said to another officer, "Let us be off, or we shall share the fate of poor Admiral Kempenfelt." This saved the smugglers.

Some who were deeply engaged in smuggling ventures used to go round the country after the manner of mercantile travellers, and ask gentlemen what they would "give to have a pipe or hogshead of wine put into their cellars?" The price being agreed upon, it was only a question of conveyance. In a store at Bridport harbour, there were hundreds of pipes of wine at a time, not seizable as the law then stood.

A smuggler named Gulliver kept forty or fifty men constantly employed, who wore a kind of livery, powdered hair, and smock frocks, from which they obtained the name of the "white wigs." These men kept together, and would not allow a few officers to take what they were carrying, when the law was altered, and seizures were made from other weaker parties. Gulliver amassed a large fortune, and lived to a good old age. He employed lawyers to arrange his affairs so that all who should take any benefit from his fortune should bear the name of Gulliver. If not impressed, like the ancients, with a desire of posthumous fame, this worthy dreaded posthumous determination to be silent as to the founder of the fortune. Till of late years a chamber, open towards the sea at the mouth of the river Lyme, was in existence, where the "white wigs" took refreshment, and