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mies, and could not and would not understand why anyone should not have the right to import anything and everything one saw fit without paying a tax to those who shared neither labor, expense nor risk of cargo carrying. And the inhabitants, who regarding them as benefactors, were with them morally if not actively, looked upon all excise officers with suspicion and dislike, and aided and abetted the smugglers in every way-as long as it did not imperil their own freedom. All about the coasts,from Cromer to Penzance, these seafaring smugglers carried on their trade, but they varied not a little in methods, in character and in activities according to their racial characteristics and their environment. Those of East Anglia, of Suffolk, Norfolk and Linconshire, who found the low marshes, the extensive "Broads," and the uninhabited sandy coasts a splendid smuggling ground, were a rather callous, cold-blooded lot, possessing many of the inherited traits of the Vikings, and it must be confessed that they were an exception to the general run of the true smugglers and committed many acts of incredible cruelty when interfered with. Of them there is little to be said, though it is interesting to call attention to one of their customs. Along the Norfolk coast are sand dunes and endless sandy beaches, and the smugglers, traversing these, left tell-tale tracks that the coast guardsmen could readily follow. To obliter

ate these the smugglers were in the habit of hiring shepherds to drive their flocks across the sands after they had passed, a most clever and effective means of completely destroying all human footprints.

About the haunts of the old Owlers and the later thug-smugglers, in Surrey, Kent and Sussex, there were many of the later seamen-smugglers also. And while these fellows did not hesitate to fight if cornered, and much good spirits and blood were spilled and wasted in numerous encounters between the authorities and the smugglers, still, they preferred to outwit or outsail their enemies, and very often succeeded. Such was the case with the smugglers who owned and manned the FOUR BROTHERS out of Folkestone. She was an unusually large vessel, once a French privateer, and carried a crew of thirty-six men and four six-pounder guns. With over one hundred tons of leaf tobacco, considerable brandy and gin and thirteen chests of tea in her hold,-all destined for landing on the Irish coast, she sailed from Flushing. Then, off Dieppe at daybreak one morning when the wind was light, she sighted what were apparently two French fishing boats lying in the channel, and never suspecting anything wrong, the captain held his course. Imagine his surprise when one of the two craft quickly hoisted sail, and running up the British revenue flag, headed for the FOUR

BROTHERS. She was the revenue cutter BADGER under command of Lieutenant Nazer, and despite the fact that the smugglers' ship hoisted Dutch colors and tried to escape, the BADGER rapidly gained, for the FOUR BROTHERS had just been fitted with a new mast and carried light sails. Realizing the cutter would overtake them, and with a ship and cargo worth eleven thousand pounds under his feet, the smuggler captain trained one of his guns and fired on the pursuer. Instantly the fire was returned and a lively sea battle was on. For two hours it continued; the commander of the BADGER was wounded and a seamen killed, many of her crew were badly injured, and one man was killed and nine wounded on the FOUR BROTHERS. Just how the battle might have ended had it continued, no one can say, but the BADGER, heading for the smuggler, rammed the other's quarter, drove her bowsprit through the smuggler's mainsail, and the captain and crew of the FOUR BROTHERS thereupon promptly surrendered. Lieutenant Nazer was jubilant. Quite sure of the captives being convicted and the vessel confiscated with her valuable cargo, he sailed with his prize into Dover and saw his prisoners safely lodged in irons on the man-of-war SEVERN. But the gallant lieutenant and the officials had the surprise of their lives coming to them when the trial took place. By some mysterious miracle,

the captured smugglers had suddenly ceased to speak or understand English; the lawyers for the defence argued that there was nothing to prove the FOUR BROTHERS was British owned; they claimed that over half the crew were Dutch, and the jury, duly instructed by the judge as to the ethics of the case if the lawyers' words were true, brought in a verdict of not guilty. The men were released, the vessel and her cargo restored to them, and the amazed and bitterly disappointed commander of the BADGER was compelled to escort his late prize and her crew safely out of Dover harbor.

There were very few cases where fatalities occurred, however. One other was in March 1821, when, as was customary, officers boarded a supposed fishing smack-for every vessel that could be caught was examined, and one of the crew, Joseph Swain, in anger seized a sailor's cutlass and was shot. As far as known the last fatal encounter between smugglers and the officials took place on April 1st, 1838 at Camber Castle. There was an argument between coast guards and smugglers over contraband, a shot was fired, and an innocent bystander, a fiddler named Thomas Monk, was killed.

But because there were no serious engagements, no great bloodshed and few fatalities, it must not be supposed that the smugglers were not active.

They were very much alive; smuggling if anything on a more extensive scale than ever before, and almost without interference on the part of the officials. Not that the customs officers made no efforts to check the law breakers, but because of the almost insurmountable difficulties that confronted the government employees. It is said that there was not a cellar, a barn or even a church in a seacoast town of England that was not or had not been used as a storage place for contraband. Practically every residence possessed some place for the concealment of smuggled goods, and in many seaport towns there were secret underground passages leading from one building to another, so that the smugglers, if chased, could dart into an inn or house and reappear in quite a different part of the town. Several churches were known to have hidden rooms in their towers or elsewhere, and one parish clerk, when asked why churches were thus used, replied that he supposed it was because no one ever went near a church except on Sundays. Another story is told of a minister, who arriving at a small village where he conducted services on alternate Sundays, was informed by the sexton that he could not hold services that day. When pressed for a reason the sexton imparted the rather surprising information that, "the pulpit be's full o' tea an' th' vestry wi' brandy."

On another occasion a most strict and upright

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