umers, who, even if they had possessed any
scruples, could not possibly know that the leaves had been smuggled in
without paying the Crown's levy.

But it was not merely by exercising the strictest vigilance on the
activities of the Government sloops and land officers, nor entirely by
resort to trickery and violence, to threats and intimidation that the
smugglers managed to keep out of the hands of justice. They even
advanced one step further still, for there was a man named Norton
whom they employed as their agent to defend them against prosecutions.
This Norton at one time had actually been in the employ of the Crown
as clerk of the late Solicitor to the Customs. And it was generally
believed that Norton by some means--most probably by offering tempting
bribes--obtained news from the clerks of the Customs' solicitor when a
smuggler was likely to be arrested and a warrant was about to be
issued. Norton was then supposed to give the smuggler an immediate
warning and the man was able to make himself scarce. It was quite an
easy operation, for in those days when there was no telegraph and no
steamboat service across the Channel, all the "wanted" man had to do
was instantly to board his cutter, set sail, and hurry across to
France or Holland, where he was sure of a welcome, where also he could
employ himself in arranging for cargoes to be run into England perhaps
in the very vessel which had brought him across. There were plenty of
his compatriots resident in Flushing, so he need not feel homesick,
and when at last the incident had blown over he could find his way
back to Kent or Sussex.

It was reckoned that about this time there were at least 20,000 people
in England employed in smuggling, and in some parts (as, for instance,
the village of Hawkhurst, about which we shall have more to say
presently) gangs of large numbers could be got together in a very
short time. In Hawkhurst alone 500 smugglers could be collected within
an hour. Folkestone, however, ran Hawkhurst fairly close with a
similar notoriety. Such gangs, well armed as they were, went about
with impunity, for notwithstanding that they were well known, yet no
one dared to molest them.

We mentioned just now that the danger to the State of this import
smuggling was not merely that goods were brought into the country
without payment being made to the Customs, but that inasmuch as the
contraband goods were purchased abroad partly by wool and partly by
actual c