Superior Riding Officer      L80
Inferior   "       "          65
Allowance for horse           30

The general principle of promotion was to be based on the amount of activity and zeal which were displayed, the Superior Riding officers being promoted from the Inferior, and the Inspectors of Districts being promoted from the most zealous Superior Riding officers.

And there was, too, a difficulty with regard to the smugglers when they became prisoners.  We have already remarked how ready they were to escape from the men-of-war.  In the year 1815 there were some smugglers in detention on board one of the Revenue cutters.  At that time the cutter’s mate was acting as commander, and he was foolish enough to allow some of the smugglers’ friends from the shore—­themselves also of the same trade—­to have free communication with two of the prisoners without anyone being present on behalf of the Customs.  The result was that one of the men succeeded in making his escape.  As a result of this captive smugglers were not permitted to have communication with their friends except in the presence of a proper officer.  And there was a great laxity, also, in the guarding of smugglers sent aboard his Majesty’s warships.  In several cases the commanders actually declined to receive these men when delivered by the Revenue department:  they didn’t want the rascals captured by the cutters, and they were not going to take them into their ship’s complement.  This went on for a time, until the Admiralty sent down a peremptory order that the captains and commanders were to receive these smugglers, and when an opportunity arose they were to send them to the flagship at Portsmouth or Plymouth.

As illustrative of the business-like methods with which the smugglers at this time pursued their calling, the following may well be brought forward.  In the year 1814 several of the chief smuggling merchants at Alderney left that notorious island and settled at Cherbourg.  But those small craft, which up till then had been wont to run across to the Channel Isles, began instantly to make for the French port instead.  From Lyme and Beer in West Bay, from Portland and from the Isle of Wight they sailed, to load up with their illicit cargoes, and as soon as they arrived they found, ready awaiting them in the various stores near the quays, vast quantities of “tubs,” as the casks were called, whilst so great was the demand, that several coopers were kept there busily employed making new ones.  Loaded with spirits they were put on board the English craft, which soon hoisted sail and sped away to the English shores, though many there must have been which foundered in bad weather, or, swept on by the dreaded Alderney Race and its seven-knot tide, had an exciting time, only to be followed up later by the English Revenue cutters, or captured under the red cliffs of Devonshire in the act of taking the tubs ashore.  For the Customs Board well knew of this change of market to Cherbourg, and lost no time in informing their officers at the different outports and the cruiser-commanders as well.