the several public offices
might wear Jacks with the seal of the respective office.

From a report made by the Harwich Customs in 1726 it is clear that the
King's colours were at that date hoisted when a Revenue cruiser chased
a suspect. But as to what the "King's Colours" were no one to-day
knows. Among the regulations issued to the Revenue cruisers in 1816
the commanders were informed that they were not to wear the colours
used in the Royal Navy, but to wear the same pendants and ensigns as
were provided by the Revenue Board. By 24 George III. cap. 47, certain
signals of chase were prescribed. Thus, if the cruiser were a Naval
vessel she was to hoist "the proper pendant and ensign of H.M. ships."
If a Custom House vessel she was to hoist a blue Customs ensign and
pendant "with the marks now used." If an Excise vessel, a blue ensign
and pendant "with the marks now used." After this had been done, and a
gun fired (shotted or unshotted) as a warning signal, she might fire
if the smuggler failed to heave-to. And this regulation is by the
Customs Consolidation Act of 1876 still in force, and might to-day be
made use of in the case of an obstinate North Sea cooper. What one
would like to know is what were the marks in use from 1784 to 1815.
Mr. Atton believes that these marks were as follows:--

At the masthead: a blue pendant with the Union in canton and the
Customs badge of office (a castellated structure with portcullis over
the entrance, and two barred windows and two port-holes, one barred
and one open, the latter doubtless to signify that through which the
goods might enter) in the fly.

At the gaff: a blue ensign similarly marked.

The English Excise, the Scottish Customs, Scottish Excise, and the
Irish Revenue signals of chase were blue pendants and ensigns
similarly flown, but as to the badges of office one cannot be certain.
The matter of English Customs flags has been obscured by the quotation
in Marryat's _The King's Own_, where a smuggler is made to remark on
seeing a Revenue vessel's flag, "Revenue stripes, by the Lord." It has
been suggested that the bars of the castle port and portcullis in the
seal were called "stripes" by the sailors of that day, inasmuch as
they called the East India Company's flag of genuine stripes the
"gridiron." But to me it seems much more likely that the following is
the explanation for calling a Revenue cutter's flag "stripes." The
signal flags Nos. 7 and 8, which were used by