building and fitting their vessels. The commissions were issued to private individuals, who received as recompense for their services a share of the proceeds of illicit cargoes and smuggling craft captured, so that the vessels were in effect privateers against the smugglers. In addition, the few state war vessels were transferred to coast guard service and in the orders issued to Captain Wm. Nott of the state sloop-of-war Guilford on May 15, 1799, he was instructed to cruise on the Sound and "make himself a terror to enemy ships and smugglers." One can almost trace the rise and fall of smuggling by a perusal of the reports of the customs receipts and while, in those days, the Treasury accounts were most involved and difficult to untangle, the following table will give some idea of what import duties amounted to. Thus, for the year 1795, the total customs receipts amounted to the sum of $4,399,472, in round figures. In 1800 it had risen to $ 9,080,932 While other causes, such as the aftermath of the War of 1812, and other events had some bearing upon the sudden rise of three times the receipts from 1805 to 1816, it was due in great part to the cessation of smuggling at that time, while the sudden and deplorable decrease of twenty millions in the following five years was coincident with the greatest prevalence of smugglers on our coasts. By 1825 smuggling was being suppressed and the beginning of the end was in sight. With no legitimate reason for smuggling, the law-abiding citizens no longer encouraged nor winked at the trade, and the government made rapid headway in suppressing the smugglers. Just what it cost is difficult if not impossible to say, for in the early part of the nineteenth century our government reports were far from being the clear and concise compilations that they are today. Customs, coastguard, naval and many other items were mixed or consolidated and there was no detailed tabulation or itemization of expenses. But that it was an expensive undertaking to wipe out the smugglers and safeguard the revenues goes without saying, and the results are evident if we example the daily papers of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and countless other ports, that were published at the time when smuggling was on its decline.* *It may be of interest to call attention to the fact that, while the causes of British and Colonial smuggling were quite distinct, and while the conditions in the two countries were dissimilar, yet, curiously enough, the development of smuggling, its rise, its decline and fall were almost coincident in the two countries. In these there are numberless items such as the few following; terse, matter-of-fact entries, evidently considered as everyday matters of little interest, almost as inconspicuous as present-day notices of violators of traffic laws who are arrested and penalized. Under date of June 1st, 1823, the following appears in a Baltimore paper: "The brigantine SPRAY of Norfolk, seized by the government cruiser THESPIS on the 19th, Ult., was sold at auction by the United States Marshall yesterday at 2 p. m., with all gear, fittings, etc., for the sum of $11,000.50. The confiscated cargo of tobacco, silk, spirits, et cetera, will be sold to the highest bidder on the 15th of this month at 10 a. m." Under date of August 14th of the same year (1823) we find the following item under "Maritime Intelligence" in the "Star": "In the United States Court yesterday John Skipworth, Henry Carter and Norman Garrison, alleged owners of the schooner JANE of Baltimore, which was seized some weeks since off The Capes, were placed on trial on the charge of smuggling." On the 22d of August the same paper reported the conviction of Skipworth and Carter; Garrison being discharged for lack of evidence, and further states that "Captain Edmund Jackson, master of the smuggling schooner JANE of Baltimore," had been placed on trial along with five members of the schooner's crew. In a Norfolk paper of January 24th, 1821, the seizure of the schooner STARLIGHT was record ed. In the same paper, under date of February, 1824 is an item regarding the capture of the hemaphrodite brig FLEETWING and under date of April 16th, 1825, is a list of the contraband seized by the customs from small boats attempting to land it from the "Pinkie" THREE PARTNERS. Even the New England papers of that period often contained items regarding smugglers and their vessels, and in a Boston Advertiser of November 16th, 1821, the trial of some eight smugglers is reported. In various issues of the "Sailors' Magazine" there are also records of the seizures of smuggling craft, the confiscation of contraband and the trials of smugglers. But it was only when the smugglers escaped after an exciting chase, or were captured after a lively engagement, or when there was some unusual or particularly interesting event connected with the affair,-"good copy" as a reporter would put it,― that the papers of the time printed any details or information of interest or value. Of course the smugglers did not haunt every nook and corner of our seaboard-if they had they could never have been suppressed, for there are many long stretches which, for one reason or another, are not at all adapted to running contraband. Much of the coast is rockbound, forbidding and without harbors or safe anchorages. There are vast areas of sand dunes with treacherous, shifting |