Chambers's journal of popular literature, science, and art, fifth series, no. 122, vol. III, May 1, 1886

No. 122.—Vol. III.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1886.
BY AN EXAMINING OFFICER.
In a recently issued, readable little volume by Mr W. D. Chester, H.M. Customs, London, entitled Chronicles of the Customs , there occurs a chapter on the tricks of smugglers, which suggests an interesting comparison of past and present methods of smuggling. The volume referred to treats of many matters connected with Customs’ work besides the prevention of smuggling; but we must confine our remarks to smuggling pure and simple, with a few examples of clever evasions of the Customs’ laws.
From the days of Ethelred, when it was enacted that ‘every smaller boat arriving at Billingsgate should pay for toll or custom one halfpenny, a larger boat with sails one penny,’ those who have had to carry out the collection of the revenue have been disliked by everybody who had to submit to taxation. It is not easy to understand this dislike. People who use coal, gas, water, or any of the necessities of existence do not, as a rule, view with very great disfavour the people whom they pay to supply these commodities. Why they should dislike those whose business it is to collect the funds which provide government with the wherewithal to insure protection for life, property, and trade, is an anomaly which it is difficult to comprehend. In olden days, the bold and daring smuggler was the darling of the coast, and the officers who endeavoured to prevent his depredations the most disliked of all government officials. Yellow-backed novels have portrayed his prowess in the most glowing colours. The word-pictures which represent him as a free-and-easy, good-natured soul, with gentlemanly manners and genteel exterior, have been read and admired wherever English novels of a seafaring type have been circulated; and no exciting ocean tale is considered sufficiently spicy unless a chapter or two is devoted to the daring thief who defies his country’s laws, and is rewarded with admiration for doing so; while ordinary thieves are spoken of with contempt, and obtain a far from acceptable recompense in the shape of jail ‘skilly.’