coasts of France, the British press gangs did not hesitate to seize victims for service on English menof-war. Because a man happened to dwell on French soil made no more difference to the British naval officers than did American birth when England insisted on her rights to search our ships and ports and impress alleged British subjects and deserters. It was often difficult for a Frenchman to prove his nationality. He would be seized before he had a chance to seek the aid of law or secure papers, and by the time any action could be taken by friends or authorities, he would be far out of reach, aboard a British man-o'-war on the high seas. This, then, added another to the many thorns in the sides of coastwise dwellers on both shores of the channel, and many a man joined the smugglers out of pure desire to devil the government and to keep out of the clutches of the press gang. Many also were actually deserters from the navy and, knowing that terrific cruelties and punishment faced them if captured, they took to a lawless life with the realization that a bit more of outlawry on their part could not add a jot to what was already due them if by chance they were caught. Thus, all along the two coasts, a more or less organized band of lawless characters grew up; a mingling of the former Owlers and smugglers; fisherfolk, who were willing to make money by anything short of murder; unfortunates out of work; ex-convicts and criminals;

mal-contents; deserters; men of birth and rank who had lost all; adventurers, who, now that the war was over found life dull enough and were glad of anything that promised thrill and excitement; common thieves and thugs,-a motley array of human mixed pickles-French, British, Breton, Dutch, Flemish and Lord knows what, but all just the proper material to develop into an utterly lawless, dangerous, terrible menace to life and property. From the dunes of Norfolk to the mouth of the Thames; from Land's End to Folkestone; from St. Nazaire to the Hook of Holland and beyond, the coasts were sprinkled with smugglers. But there were certain localities where they were most numerous and most famous. Certain places which were better adapted to the smuggler's trade than elsewhere, and where they foregathered and became most lawless.

Especially was this true of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Here the marshes and fens, that had proved so advantageous to the Owlers, also afforded a safe retreat for the smugglers who had superseded them, and Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea, Romney, Hoy, Folkestone and other ports were swarming with the "free traders" as they styled themselves. Some idea of the extent of their smuggling propensities may be obtained by the fact that in 1733 the combined counties of Kent, Sussex and Suffolk confiscated 54,000 pounds of tea and

123,000 gallons of brandy, seized from smugglers, and yet five cargoes were safely landed to one taken. So difficult was it to stop even a portion of the smuggling that the most drastic and severe, as well as unjust, laws were hastily passed. In 1746 it was decreed that the counties wherein smugglers were caught or committed crimes would be penalized. If goods were seized, the county wherein they were taken was forced to pay a fine of two hundred pounds. A revenue officer beaten or attacked meant a fine of forty pounds from the county where the crime occurred, and if an officer were killed the county was fined one hundred pounds. It was provided, however, that in case the offenders were brought to justice within six months the fines would be remitted, while, to encourage the hunting down of smugglers, there was a standing reward of five hundred pounds-a small fortune-for every smuggler taken by anyone.

But with only two hundred and ninety-one dragoons and a few hundred customs officers to patrol the channel coast, and with every shore dweller's hand against the law and in favor of the smugglers, little could be done. Even a man found loitering within five miles of navigable waters could be arrested on suspicion, and, if no satisfactory explanation of his presence was forthcoming, he could be flogged, and imprisoned for thirty days. But to arrest anyone in the district frequented by the smug

glers, to attempt to enforce the law, was a perilous undertaking. The smugglers outnumbered the officers ten to one, and their law was far more powerful, as far as the local people were concerned, than that of the king. And it was a very easy matter to run cargoes ashore. The channel was narrow; a swift lugger could make the passage in a few hours, and with the exact location of officials and coast guards known, confederates ashore could guide the incoming craft to a safe landing place by a light or beacon. Here would be gathered enough laborers to rapidly unload the contraband cargo and transport it inland; sometimes afoot and sometimes on horseback; rough, country fellows ready and willing to aid the smugglers for five or ten shillings a night, with a package of tea or cask of spirits thrown in, and equally ready to fight if need be. To unload and carry a lugger cargo of eighty casks of brandy, required forty husky Yokels, each carrying two four gallon casks, slung one on back, the other on chest, like a "sandwich man's" signs, by ropes over the shoulders, and forty stout, lusty, hard-muscled farm hands, in addition to the lugger's crew, was a force that would lead the customs officer to think twice before attacking. Moreover, if trouble was expected, the smugglers would have a force of "batsmen" ready; hired thugs armed with stout cudgels whose sole duty was to crack the skulls of too inquisitive strangers, and who, in the black

night, were far more efficient than men armed with firearms. Often the laborers would trudge many weary miles with their contraband burdens before reaching the destined hiding place or the customer who was to dispose of the goods, and if the distance was too great to be traversed before dawn, horses would be commandeered from the nearest farmer. A few days beforehand the farmer would receive an unsigned note informing him that his horses. would be required for an unnamed purpose on a certain night, and if he did not comply with the hint, he knew for a certainty that he would suffer most serious if mysterious consequences. His outbuildings would be burned, his live stock killed or injured, his implements and tools destroyed, and, moreover, he knew fully as well that if he said nothing and left his steeds to the night riders' mercies, he would find the horses safe and sound, though lathered and weary, in their stables when day dawned, and near them, a cask or two of brandy and a chest of tea as recompense. So never were the smugglers in want of mounts when necessity

arose.

And very soon the smugglers, growing, as lawbreakers ever do, more and more emboldened with success, and knowing they had the support of the people, became not at all loth to meet the soldiery and excise officers face to face, and instead of skulking into out-of-the-way spots, give them open