From the Cheap Repository Tract, called "The Two Wealthy Farmers:"—a story, which, while it abounds in most useful moral and religious instruction, displays an insight into human nature, a talent for lively description, and a turn for quiet humour, which have seldom been surpassed.
"Well; but you can't say that we defraud the revenue, when we buy silks, or gloves, or lace, upon which we can pay no duty, even if we wished it!"
"These articles are absolutely prohibited by law, and you break the laws by purchasing them."
"But if the English can't make these things so well as the French, I don't see why I am obliged to buy inferior articles when I can get better—I am sure that I have heard you say yourself, that all matters of trade and manufacture should be suffered to find their own level, with as few restrictions as possible."
"This doctrine may be generally true; but there are many circumstances of a local or of a temporary nature, which may make restrictions expedient. However, you and I Emily are not legislators. Our business is to obey the laws of our country, even if they should happen to be not quite consistent with our own notions of political [oe]conomy.—But I must just add one or two observations upon the articles which you ladies are the most fond of smuggling. The prohibition of French and Italian silks was intended for the encouragement of our home manufacturers; especially the silk weavers in Spitalfields. You have often heard of the distress and poverty of those poor people. By buying foreign silk in preference to British, you, to a certain degree, add to that distress, and rob them of the encouragement, which they are entitled to by law. Of late, I believe, that branch of our manufactures has been in a flourishing state, and that the silk weavers are not only fully employed, but that they manufacture silks quite equal to those from abroad. If so, the ladies who smuggle them have no inducement but the pleasure of doing what is forbidden. The French and Italians you know, have advantages in the production of the raw material, which we have not; and it seems reasonable to give our own countrymen some protection to countervail those advantages.—So again with respect to gloves, and lace. One of the principal difficulties which in these times we have to contend with, is the difficulty of finding employment for our overflowing population. Glove-making and lace-making furnish employment for our poor women; employment the more desirable, inasmuch as they follow it at their own homes. If you knew how eagerly multitudes of your own sex catch at any employment, by which they can earn but a few shillings a week, both your patriotism and your benevolence would render you unwilling to deprive them of it. For you, Emily, with your warm and affectionate heart, are not one of those who would annihilate all distinctions of kindred and country, in a vague idea of universal benevolence.
"But, after all," continued the Admiral, "perhaps my principal objection to your smuggling is the encouragement, which you thereby give to the poor fellows, who follow this dangerous and illegal occupation. The habit of living in constant opposition to the laws is not only criminal in itself, but has a most injurious effect upon the whole of a man's character. I have just given you credit for some feelings of patriotism, but you know that these feelings seldom exist in the breast of a smuggler. We have Buonaparte's testimony, that, during the war, they were constantly employed in traitorously giving intelligence to the enemy; and in assisting the escape of the French prisoners of war. This is bad enough; but we all know how frequently they are guilty of crimes of a still higher description, of the dreadful crime of murder itself. And are you lady-smugglers quite sure that you are clear of all participation in this accumulated guilt? The receiver of stolen goods is deemed by the law the accessary of the thief: and is not the purchaser of smuggled goods in some degree an accessary of the smugglers? Besides, if you knew the distress and misery which smuggling often occasions to the families of those engaged in it, you could not, I think, encourage it."
The sisters felt the force of this latter argument more deeply than their father was aware of. They were both silent. At length Emily said, "Come, cousin Henry, cannot you put in a word to help us?"
"To help you?" replied he; "no indeed:" and then added gravely, "But I am sure, that my dear cousins will not continue smuggling, while I and my brave fellows are daily hazarding our lives for its prevention."
Emily looked down, while her face and neck became scarlet, and a long pause ensued. The Admiral felt that enough had been said, and was endeavouring to change the conversation to some other subject, when a servant opened the door, and said to Henry, "You are wanted, if you please, Sir."