THE SMUGGLER. 165 



brother or sell his country. The riding officers are somewhat 

 better than the rest ; but these fellows at the ports think no 

 more of taking a bribe to shut their eyes than of drinking a 

 glass of rum. Now you may attempt to bribe a smuggler for 

 ever, not that I ever tried, for I don't like to ask men to sell 

 their own souls, but Birchett has often. I cannot well make 

 out the cause of this difference, but certainly there is such a 

 spirit amongst the smugglers that they won't do a dishonest 

 thing, except in their own way, for any sum. There are the 

 Eamleys, even, the greatest blackguards in Europe, smugglers, 

 thieves, and cut-throats, but they won't betray each other. 

 There is no crime they won't commit but that, and that they 

 would sooner die than do; while we have a great many men 

 amongst us, come of respectable parents, well brought up, 

 well educated, who take money every day to cheat their em- 

 ployers." 



" I rather suspect that it is the difference of consequences 

 in the two cases,'' answered Osborne, "which makes men 

 view the same act in a different way. A custom-house 

 officer who betrays his trust, thinks that he only brings a little 

 loss upon a government which can well spare it ; he is not a 

 bit the less a rogue for that, for honesty makes no such dis- 

 tinctions ; but the smuggler who betrays his comrade or em- 

 ployer, must be well aware that he is not only ruining him in 

 purse, but bringing on him corporeal punishment." 



"Ay, sir, but there's a spirit in the thing," said Mowle, 

 shaking his head; " the very country people in general love 

 the smugglers, and help them whenever they can. There's 

 not a cottage that will not hide them or their goods; scarce a 

 gentleman in the county who, if he finds all the horses out of 

 his stable in the morning, does not take it quietly, without 

 asking any more questions; scarce a magistrate who does not 

 give the fellows notice as soon as he knows the officers are 

 after them. The country folks, indeed, do not like them so 

 well as they did, but they'll soon make it up.'' 



"A strange state, certainly," said the officer of dragoons; 

 " but what has become of the horses you mention, when they 

 are thus found absent?" 



" Gone to carry goods, to be sure," answered Mowle. 

 "But one thing is very clear, all the country is in the smuggler's 

 favour, and I cannot help thinking that the people do not like 



