ivileges possessed
to-day. Add to this the undoubted fact that literally for centuries
there had lived along the south coast of England, especially in the
neighbourhood of the old Cinque ports, a race of men who were always
ready for some piratical or semi-piratical sea exploit. It was in
their blood to undertake and long for such enterprises, and it only
wanted but the opportunity to send them roving the seas as privateers,
or running goods illegally from one coast to another. And it is not
true that time has altogether stifled that old spirit. When a liner
to-day has the misfortune to lose her way in a fog and pile up on rock
or sandbank, you read of the numbers of small craft which put out to
salvage her cargo. But not all this help comes out of hearts of
unfathomable pity. On the contrary, your beachman has an eye to
business. He cannot go roving nowadays; time has killed the smuggling
in which his ancestors distinguished themselves. But none the less he
can legally profit by another vessel's misfortune; and, as the local
families worked in syndicate fashion when they went smuggling, so now
they mutually arrange to get the cargo ashore and, incidentally, make
a very handsome profit as well.

We need not envy the Government the difficult and trying task that was
theirs during the height of the smuggling era. There was quite enough to
think of in regard to foreign affairs without wanting the additional
worry of these contraband runners. That must be borne in mind whenever
one feels inclined to smile at the apparently half-hearted manner in
which the authorities seemed to deal with the evil. Neither funds nor
seamen, nor ships nor adequate attention could be spared just then to
deal with these pests. And it was only after the wars had at last ended
and the Napoleonic bogey had been settled that this domestic worry could
be dealt with in the manner it required. There were waiting many evils
to be remedied, and this lawlessness along the coast of the country was
one of the greatest. But it was not a matter that could be adjusted in
a hurry, and it was not for another forty or fifty years, not, in fact,
until various administrative changes and improvements had taken place,
that at last the evil was practically stamped out. As one looks through
the existing records one cannot avoid noticing that there was scarcely a
bay or suitable landing-place along the whole English coast-line that
did not become notorious for these smu