they could always fetch a big price, and the share for the smugglers themselves was by no means inconsiderable.  But it is always the case that, when large profits are made by lawless, reckless people, these proceeds are as quickly dissipated in extravagance of living.  It is sad to think that these seafaring men, who possessed so much grit and pluck, had such only been applied in a right direction, actually died paupers.  As one reads through the pitiful petitions, written on odd scraps of paper in the most illiterate of hands begging for clemency on behalf of a convicted smuggler, one can see all too clearly that on the whole it was not the actual workers but the middle-men who, as is usually the case, made the profits.  A life of such uncertainty and excitement, an existence full of so many hairbreadth escapes did not fit them for the peaceful life either of the fisherman or the farmer.  With them money went as easily as it had come, and taking into account the hardness of the life, the risks that were undertaken, the possibility of losing their lives, or of being transported after conviction, it cannot be said that these men were any too well paid.  Carelessness of danger led to recklessness; recklessness led on to a life that was dissolute and thriftless.  And in spite of the fact that these tear-stained appeals were usually signed by all the respectable inhabitants of the seaside village—­the rector, the local shipbuilder, Lloyds’ shipping agent, the chief landowners and so forth—­many a wife and family had to starve or become chargeable to the Union, while the breadwinner was spending his time in prison, serving as an impressed sailor on board one of his Majesty’s ships against the enemy; or, if he had been found physically unfit for such service, condemned to seven or more years of transportation.

But by the year 1745 smuggling had reached such a pitch that something had to be done.  The country was in such a state of alarm and the honest traders made such bitter complaints of the disastrous effect which these illicit practices were having on their prosperity that, on the 6th of February in that year, a Parliamentary Committee was formed “to inquire into the causes of the most infamous practice of smuggling and consider the most effectual methods to prevent the said practice.”  For it was clear that in spite of all that had been done by the Customs and Excise, by the Admiralty and the military, they had not succeeded in obtaining the desired effect.

And during the course of this inquiry a great deal of interesting evidence came out from expert witnesses, some of whom had not long since been the greatest smugglers in existence, but had come forward and received the pardon of the State.  We may summarise the testimony obtained by this Committee as follows.  The smugglers, after sailing away from England, used to purchase the tea abroad sometimes with money but at other times with wool.  That was a serious matter in either alternative if, as was the case, the transactions