516 FARMERS' REGISTER— SMUGGLERS TEACHING POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



SMUGGLERS TEACHING POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



[The two following extracts, from our last number 

 of the Foreign Quarterly Review, present amusing 

 examples of this truth — that in countries where the 

 despotism of rulers, or ignorance of the people, have 

 served to establish the system of protecting duties, or 

 restrictions on trade, to its utmost and worst extent, 

 the most important relief for the country, and most 

 etfectual opposition to the system, will be found in the 

 enterprise and devices of smugglers; who being invited 

 to iilegal and vicious acts by the government, then 

 serve to restrain the still more abominable course of 

 the government itself. Some years ago, when the 

 evils of the restrictive system seemed destined to prey 

 on the agricultural and general interests of the United 

 States, without hope of redress Irora the wisdom or 

 justice of government, we expected, and hoped, that a 

 change would be ultimately produced by the smuggling 

 remedy, which when brought fully into operation, 

 would be far more effectual in this country than in 

 either France or England. We are not afraid of avow- 

 ing these sentiments, because of the outcry and cant 

 about the demoralizing effects of smuggling. True it 

 is, that violations of law — even of the most iniquitous 

 laws — tend to bring all legal restraints into neglect and 

 contempt— and that the. persons who engage in smug- 

 gling are always criminal, and often the worst mem- 

 bers of society. And it is also true that the skilful 

 physician must sometimes administer a hurtful and 

 dangerous remedy to the patient, when it is the only 

 means of counteracting a more powerful and fatal 

 poison under which he is sufl'ering. In establishing 

 the restrictive system, government is the great poisoner 

 of the morals as well as of the interests of the country, 

 in comparison to whose acts, those of the most des- 

 perate smugglers are trivial: and their vicious acts 

 may be at any time stopped, and these free hooters 

 rendered harmless, by the government returning to a 

 course of justice and honesty.] 



Extractfrom the Review of Prenc/i Commercial Policy. 



The indirect efTect of this precious .system is as 

 mischievous as its direct operation. Smuggling 

 is carried nn in France in all the prohibited articles 

 to an extent that would be incredible were it not lor 

 the unimpeachable authority of the English Com- 

 missioners. "An investigation on the Belgian 

 frontier leads us to estimate the amount of British 

 goods (manufactures) smuggled into France, from 

 that side alone, at more than two millions sterling 

 a year!" — (Report, p. 52.) A prodigious mass of 

 colonial produce is also introduced clandestinely 

 across the same frontier. The same frauds are 

 likewise committed along the whole Atlantic and 

 Mediterranean coasts, and across the Spanish and 

 Eastern borders, where, strange as it may appear, 

 English merchandise finds its way for the pur- 

 pose; and to this must be added the produce of 

 other countries, smuggled in the same manner in 

 very large quantities. Tlicse enormous frauds are 

 committed, and go on increasing, in spite of the 

 most vigilant, ingenious, and unsparing preventive 

 service that exists in Europe. Messrs. Viiliers 

 and Bowring have collected some highly curious 

 information relating to the risk and cost of French 



smuggling. "According to an estimate grounded 

 on the most extensive investigations, the protect- 

 ing power of the 1 rench custom-house is on the 

 whole limited to thirty per cent, on manufactures; 

 so that the average rate of smuggling is probably 

 about twenty-five percent, on real value." — (^Re- 

 port, p. -18.) Fixed insurance lists exist at each 

 li'ontier and line of coast, and the contraband busi- 

 ness is carried on by large and wealthy 'smug- 

 gling companies,' with all the order and almost all 

 the security of regular business. The following 

 story has been already rejjeated on both sides of 

 the water, but it aflbrds such a felicitous proof of 

 the unconquerable ingenuity of li-aud, that we 

 shall insert it in our own pages. 



"The director of the (French) custom-house 

 says, that since the suppression of smuggling by 

 horses, in 182-5, dogs have been employed. In 1823 

 it was estimated that 100,000 kil. of goods were 

 thus introduced into France; in 1825, 187,315; in 



1826, 2,100,000 kil. — all these estimates being re- 

 ported as rather under the mark: the calculation 

 has been made at two and a half kil. as a pro rata 

 per dog. The dogs sometimes cany ten kil., and 

 sometimes even twelve. The above estimate 

 supposes that one dog in ten in certain districts, 

 and in others one in twenty, was killed; but these 

 calculations must necessarily be vague. In the 

 opinion of many of the custoin-house officers, not 

 more than one in seventy-five is destroyed, even 

 when notice has been given, and the dogs are ex- 

 pected. Tobacco and colonial produce are gene- 

 rally the objects of this illicit trade; sometimes cot- 

 ton twist arid manufactures. In the neighborhood 

 of Dunkirk, dogs have been taken with a burthen 

 of the value of'six, eight, or even twelve hundred 

 francs. The dogs which are trained to these 'dis- 

 honest habits' are conducted in packs to the foreign 

 frontier; they are kept without food for many hours; 

 they are then beaten and laden, and at the begin- 

 ning of the night started on their travels. They 

 reach the abodes of their masters, which are gene- 

 rally selected at two or three leagues from the 

 frontiers, as speedily as they can, where they are 

 sure to be well treated, and provided with a quan- 

 tity of food. It IS said they do much mischief by 

 the destruction of agricultural jiroperty, inasmuch 

 as they usually take the most direct course across 

 the country. They are dogs of a large size for 

 the most part. Among the measures proposed for 

 the suppression of this mode of smuggling, a pre- 

 mium of three francs a head has been allowed for 

 every frauding dog ( Chienfraudeur) destroyed; 

 but this, as appears by the tables, has been wholly 

 insufficient, though the cost has not been mconsi- 

 derable, namely, 11,000 francs per annum before 



1827, and 15,000 francs per annum since that pe- 

 riod, when the premium was allowed in the Thion- 

 ville district, wdaere the trade is still carried on by 

 the aid of dogs, more extensively than elsewhere. 

 It appears by the return that 40,278 dogs have 

 been destroyed between 1820 and 1830, and pre- 

 miums to the amount of 120,834 fiancs paid for 

 their destruction." — Report of Messrs. Viiliers and. 

 Boioring, p. 47. 



From .\lo.\andcrDunias's Travelling Impressions. 



"The most fashionable of the jewellery ware- 

 houses in Geneva is beyond doubt that of Mr. 

 Beautte; it is difficult even to dream of a collection 



