SMOLT 



SMUGGLING 



525 



Miscellaneous WorJu, toith Memoir, by Robert Ander- 

 son, M.D., carefully edited (6 vols. 8vo. Glasgow, 

 1796) ; Expedition to Carthagena added to 2d edition 

 (titli ed. 1820). Works, with Memoir, by John Moore, 

 M.D. (8 vols. 8vo. Lund. 1797 ), carelessly edited ; memoir 

 valuable owing to personal intimacy. Miscellaneous 

 Works, with Memoir, by Thos. Koscoe ( 1 vol. large 8vo. 

 Lond. 1840; many editions latest, 1878; New York, 

 1857, 6 vols. 12mo.). Sir W. Scott's Biograpliical Pre- 

 faces, published separately (2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1825). 

 Life and Selections, by Robert Chambers, LL.D. (1867). 

 Life, by D. Hannay ('Great Writers' series, 1887). 

 Works, carefully selected the three classical novels, the 

 plays, the poems with Life and Notes by the present 

 writer; Notes fill up blanks left by Smollett (1877). 

 See also Hazlitt's Comic Writers, Thackeray's Humour- 

 ists, and Masson's British Novelists. 



Sniolt. a name given to young river salmon 

 when they are bluish along the npper half of the 

 body and silvery along the sides. 



Smuggling* originally and strictly a crime of 

 commerce, a violation of customs laws, to be dis- 

 tinguished from such a crime of manufacture as 

 illicit distillation, which violates excise laws. But 

 the term is commonly applied also to the evasive 

 manufacture and disposal of commodities liable to 

 excise as well as to the clandestine importation of 

 articles on which customs duties have been im- 

 posed (see CUSTOMS DUTIES, EXCISE). Defraud- 

 ing the government of revenue by the evasion of 

 customs duties or excise taxes may therefore 

 serve as a definition. Tlie evasion of customs 

 duties is the prevailing sense of the term in the 

 popular mind, a sense in which there are in all 

 nations stirring stories of smuggling rich in roman- 

 tic incident. But, in the accepted use of language, 

 the other sense is quite common. A case reported 

 (June 1891) in the leading newspapers, as 

 ' Smuggling in London,' was that of two men 

 brought before a police-court on the charge of 

 defrauding the revenue by illicit distillation in a 

 warehouse in Holbprn. A great deal of smuggling 

 of the manufacturing kind is constantly carried on 

 all over Great Britain and Ireland. The govern- 

 ment is regularly defrauded of revenue in this way 

 to a far greater amount, it is believed, than it is 

 now by the commercial smuggling reported annually 

 by the commissioners of customs. We read fre- 

 quently of raids by revenue officers on smuggling 

 bothies in the Highlands of Scotland. In July 

 1891 an important seizure was reported to have 

 been made in one of the haunts of a smuggling 

 fraternity on the Gairloch, between whom ana 

 the people of the Outer Hebrides, where no 

 distilleries exist, a brisk trade in spirits is 

 carried on. But men well qualified to form a 

 eorrect opinion believe that the revenue is de- 

 frauded by illicit distillation all over the country 

 a great deal more than it is in the wild districts of 

 the north. In the manufacturing centres skilful 

 mechanics make their own utensils and tools for 

 the purpose, and repair and alter them easily. The 

 Highlanders are obviously at a disadvantage in 

 this respect. Since the duty was taken off' malt 

 by Mr Gladstone in 1880 there have been facilities 

 for this kind of smuggling which, there is good 

 reason to believe, have been taken advantage of in 

 the cities and manufacturing towns, and an occa- 

 sional find of the kind is reported. But the revenue 

 of the country is buoyant, and it is not desirable to 

 make too frequent exposure of crimes so obviously 

 created I>y act of parliament ; the chiefs of the 

 excise branch of the inland revenue department do 

 not, accordingly, encourage too curious enquiry 

 on the part of local revenue officers. In these cir- 

 cumstances exact information on the subject is not 

 available. 



Smuggling, in the sense of evading customs 

 duties by dealing in contraband goods, has ceased 



to deserve the name of a trade in the United 

 Kingdom. From about the close of the 17th cen- 

 tury to nearly the middle of the 19th century the 

 suppression of that kind of free trade by vigorous 

 methods of prevention engaged the close attention 

 of the inland revenue department. Free trade as 

 a national policy has put down the smuggling 

 trade. Only a very small number of persons com- 

 paratively deal in contraband goods now. But when 

 the duties on spirits were higher in England than 

 in Scotland, Northumberland and Cumberland were 

 haunted with smugglers. Haddington and Ber- 

 wick and the Scottish counties on the Solway were 

 long demoralised by unwise tariffs on articles of 

 import from abroad. Readers of Scott's novels know 

 the effective use he makes of smuggling for the 

 purposes of his art in Guy Mannering and Bed- 

 gauntlet. Robert Burns was an exciseman, and it 

 was also one of his duties to prevent the smuggling 

 of contraband goods. It is well known how in 

 1792 he placed himself on one occasion at the head 

 of the revenue officers and a guard of dragoons, 

 waded the Solway sword in hand, was the first to 

 board a smuggling brig, captured the crew, and 

 had the brig sold at Dumfries. It was on that 

 occasion that Burns wrote ' The Deil's awa' wi" 

 the Exciseman." The exploits of smugglers and 

 coastguardsmen in the frequent and bloody en- 

 counters that took place constitute the main interest 

 of many an exciting tale. 



The contrabandists, used to be one of the most 

 popular characters in Spain. The exports from 

 England to Gibraltar, to refer only to one of his 

 lines of activity, used to be large, and were intro- 

 duced by smugglers to the interior of Spain. It 

 was remarked fifty years ago or more that it would 

 be nearly impossible to prevent the smuggling of 

 British goods into the United States on the Cana- 

 dian frontier if the duties on importation were 

 excessive. These duties are now very excessive, 

 and inferences are allowable ; but the United 

 States government does not compile statistics of 

 smuggling either by the frontier or by the ports. 

 The injudicious tariffs which used to be imposed by 

 both England and France encouraged smuggling to 

 an enormous extent on both sides of the English 

 Channel ; spirits, especially brandy, tea, tobacco, 

 silk goods from France ; from England the most 

 important article of illicit trade was cotton-twist. 

 English goods were introduced into France chiefly 

 by the Belgian frontier, and dogs were trained to 

 convey them ; a dog would convey goods worth 

 from 20 to 50. There used to be cruel slaughter 

 of these dogs, a reward of three francs being given 

 by the customs authorities for every one seized. 

 A great historical outburst of smuggling was the 

 answer which commercial enterprise gave to 

 Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees. Silk from 

 Italy reached England by Smyrna after being a 

 year on passage, by Archangel after being two 

 years. Cotton-twist, coffee, sugar, tobacco were 

 shipped from England to Salonica, conveyed thence 

 by mules and horses through Servia and Hungary 

 to Vienna, and distributed over the Continent from 

 that capital. Coffee from London would reach 

 Calais by Vienna. The risks and expense raised 

 the price of sugar on the Continent to 6s. a pound. 



In 1831 an official report estimated the loss by 

 smuggling to the British revenue as exceeding 

 800,000 a year (in French brandy to the extent of 

 500,000). Three-fourths of the tobacco consumed 

 in Ireland was smuggled ; the total annual cost 

 of protecting the revenue was then from 700,000 

 to 800,000. In 1840 it was believed that 48 per 

 cent, of French silks paid no duty. The south 

 coast of England, especially Kent and Sussex, was 

 largely addicted to the smuggling trade with 

 France, by which it was stated that goods to the 





