Kings Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 | Page 4

wars with France, with Spain, to say nothing of the trouble with America. They were indeed anxious years that ended only with the Battle of Waterloo, and it was not likely that all this would in any way put a stop to that restlessness which was unmistakable. Wages were low, provisions were high, and the poorer classes of those days had by no means all the privileges 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 smuggling "runs": there is hardly a cliff or piece of high ground that has not been employed for the purpose of giving a signal to the approaching craft as they came on through the night over the dark waters. There are indeed very few villages in proximity to the sea that have not been concerned in these smuggling ventures and taken active interest in the landing of bales and casks. The sympathy of the country-side was with the smuggling fraternity. Magistrates were at times terrorised, juries were too frightened to convict. In short, the evil had grown to such an extent that it was a most difficult problem for any Government to be asked to deal with, needing as it did a very efficient service both of craft and men afloat, and an equally able and incorruptible guard on land that could not be turned from its purpose either by fear or bribery. We shall see from the following chapters how these two organisations--by sea and land--worked.
If we exclude fiction, the amount of literature which has been published on smuggling is exceedingly small. Practically the whole of the following pages is the outcome of personal research among original, authentic manuscripts and official documents. Included under this head may be cited the Minutes of the Board of Customs, General Letters of the Board to the Collectors and Controllers of the various Out-ports, Out-port Letters to the Board, the transcripts from shorthand notes of Assizes and Promiscuous Trials of Smugglers, a large quantity of MSS. of remarkable incidents connected with smuggling, miscellaneous notes collected on the subject in the Library of the Customs House, instructions issued at different times to Customs officers and commanders of cruisers, General Orders issued to the Coastguard, together with a valuable pr��cis (unpublished) of the existing documents in the many Customs Houses