ut the middle of the eighteenth century the smuggling of tea into
the country had reached such extensive limits that the revenue which
ought to have been expected from this source was sinking instead of
rising. In fact it came to this, that of all the tea that was consumed
in this country not one half had paid duty and the rest was smuggled.
The bands of smugglers were well financed, were themselves hardy
sailors and skilful pilots. They had some of the best designed and
best built cutters and luggers of that time. They were able to
purchase from an almost inexhaustible market, and to make a quick
passage to the English shores. Arrived there they could rely on both
moral and physical support; for their friends were well mounted, well
armed, and exceedingly numerous, so that ordinarily the cargo could be
rapidly unshipped, and either hidden or run into the country with
despatch. Not once, but times without number the smuggling cutters had
evaded the Revenue cruisers at sea, showing them a clean pair of
heels. With equal frequency had the Preventive men on land been
outwitted, bribed, or overpowered. And inasmuch as the duties on the
smuggled articles were high, had they passed through the Customs, so,
when smuggled, they could always fetch a big price, and the share for
the smugglers themselves was by no means inconsiderable. But it is
always the case that, when large profits are made by lawless, reckless
people, these proceeds are as quickly dissipated in extravagance of
living. It is sad to think that these seafaring men, who possessed so
much grit and pluck, had such only been applied in a right direction,
actually died paupers. As one reads through the pitiful petitions,
written on odd scraps of paper in the most illiterate of hands begging
for clemency on behalf of a convicted smuggler, one can see all too
clearly that on the whole it was not the actual workers but the
middle-men who, as is usually the case, made the profits. A life of
such uncertainty and excitement, an existence full of so many
hairbreadth escapes did not fit them for the peaceful life either of
the fisherman or the farmer. With them money went as easily as it had
come, and taking into account the hardness of the life, the risks that
were undertaken, the possibility of losing their lives, or of being
transported after conviction, it cannot be said that these men were
any too well paid. Carelessness of danger led to recklessness;
recklessness led on