We iarmer'B iltontljhj Visitor. 



Yet its improvement, until of l..te, seems never 

 to have been rapid, nor, even among the ancients 

 — gorgeous as were their gardens — extended. In 

 Europe its advance, especially in horticulture, 

 was reluctant and slow, and it is said that in 

 England kitchen vegetables were almost un- 

 known even in the reign of Henry VIII. 



Front) its start, however, in the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, rapid improvements 

 were made; and the application of modern sci- 

 ences as auxiliary, have given to it an impulse 

 that promises results the most extraordinary. 

 Tl»d establishment of Horticultural Societies has 

 greatly urged this impulse ; and that of London 

 especially has worked wonders. In this country, 

 such societies have been constituted in almost 

 every considerable city; the most affluent and 

 scientific citizens have taken an ardent interest 

 in them, and the results are to be discovered in 

 most of the gardens in llif vicinity of their opera- 

 tions. The Society in Philadelphia is second 10 

 no one in the country in zeal or success; and its 

 splendid annual exhibitions, crowded by the elite 

 ot the town and its vicinity, prove how deep and 

 general an interest is cherished on the subject. 

 In our city almost every dwelling has its garden 

 anil its vines, and the produce of the latter is, in 

 the aggregate, enormous.— Philadelphia American 

 and Gazette. 



ori)c b 



isitor. 



CONCORD, N. H., JANUARY 31, 1848. 



Smuggling.— Among all the capitals of Switz- 

 erland, Geneva represents the aristocracy of 

 money ; it is the city of luxury, gold chains, 

 watches, carriages and horses. Its three thou- 

 sand workmen supply all Europe with jewelry; 

 seventy-five thousand ounces of gold and fifty 

 thousand marks of silver every year are trans- 

 formed in their hands, and their bare salary 

 amounts to two millions five hundred thousand 

 francs. 



Beautte's is indisputably the most fashionable 

 jewelry store in Geneva; it is difficult to imagine 

 a collection more rich in those thousand won- 

 ders which captivate the female mind. They 

 are enough to turn the head of a Parisian lady, 

 and to make a Cleopatra quiver with longing in 

 her tomb. 



These jewels pay a tax on entering France, 

 but in consideration of a discount of five per 

 cent., M. Beautte undertakes to smuggle them 

 in; and upon this condition the affair is transact- 

 ed between the purchaser and the seller, quite 

 openly and publicly, as if there were no excise 

 gatherers in the world. i\l. Beautte, it is true, 

 possesses wonderful address in baffling them ; 

 the truth of which compliment we will prove by 

 one anecdote out of a thousand. 



When the Count de Saint Cricq was Director 

 General of the custom-houses, he heard so fre- 

 quently of the grace and adroitness with which 

 the vigilance of his agents was cheated, that he 

 determined to ascertain for himself whether all 

 that was told was true. Accordingly he went to 

 Geneva, visited i\I. Beautte's store, and purchased 

 jewels to the amount of three thousand francs, 

 on condition that they should be conveyed to his 

 hotel in Paris duty-free. M. Beautte accepted 

 the condition like one used to bargains of that 

 sort, presenting only to the purchaser for signa- 

 ture a kind of private obligation, by which he 

 bound himself to pay the customary five per 

 cent, in addition to the three thousand francs. 

 The latter smiled, took a pen and subscribed 

 himself " Saint-Cricq, Director General of the 

 French customs," giving back the paper to 

 Beautte, who looked at the signature and con- 

 tented himself with replying, as he bowed, 

 " Monsieur Director of tht customs, the articles 

 which you have done me the honor to purchase, 

 will arrive in Paris as soon as yourself" 



M. ile Saint-Cricq thus defied, scarcely allow- 

 ed himself time to dine, but sent for post-horses 

 and departed an hour after the conclusion of the 

 bargain. 



Os passing the frontier, M. de Saint-Cricq 

 made himself known to the officers us they drew 

 near to examine his carriage, related to the chief 

 of the customs what had just taken place, re- 

 commended the most active watchfulness along 



the whole line, and promised a reward of fifty 

 lonis to the officer who should succeed in cap- 

 turing the contraband jewelry; for three days 

 not an excise man slumbered. 



During this time, M. de Saint-Cricq arrives in 

 Paris, alights at his hotel, embraces his wife and 

 children, and goes up to bis chamber to disen- 

 cumber himself of his traveling dress. 



The first thing he noticed on the mantel-piece 

 was an elegant box, with the form of which he 

 was not familiar. He approached and read on 



the silver plate which decorated it, "M. Count de 

 Saint-Cricq, Director General of the customs," 

 he opened it and found the jewels which he had 

 bought at Geneva. 



Beautie was in league with one of the waiters 

 at the inn, who, while helping M. de Saint- 

 Cricq's people in packing for their master, con- 

 trived to slip In the forbidden box. When ar- 

 rived at Paris, the valet seeing the elegance of 

 the case, and the particular inscription engraved 

 on it, had hastened to deposit it on his master's 

 mantel-piece. So the Director of the customs 

 became the first smuggler in the kingdom.— Brit- 

 ish paper. 



A Chapter on Smugglers. 



The demoralizing effect of the smuggler's 

 trade has for many years been strongly impressed 

 upon the mind of the editor of this paper. The 

 smuggling of forty years ago, during the exist- 

 ence of embargo and non-intercourse, preceding 

 the war of 1819— the illicit trade kept up during 

 the war itself— defeating the intent of those san- 

 itary regulations intended for the protection of 

 the great interests of the country— left us with 

 an impression of criminality in every evasion of 

 the revenue laws, such as time has not yet 

 effaced. 



The effect of high duties in the intercourse 

 between different countries, must be the encour- 

 agement of smuggling. It has become no im- 

 peachment of mercantile morality to invent al- 

 most any expedient to be rid of an onerous duty. 

 Accordingly we have often seen a tax on wool- 

 ens avoided by the admixture of cotton or silk— 

 the duties upon metals evaded by importing ar- 

 ticles of which the metal was made, charged 

 with less duty— ad valorem duties lessened by 

 falseinvoic.es; and all the arts of the money- 

 maker practised to add to the natural regular 

 honest profits. So common has become the 

 fashion to avoid the exactions of the custom- 

 house, that we have even wondered that high 

 duties were any where of value as measures 

 either ot' protection or revenue. 



The first of our travel upon the Canada front- 

 ier was in 1826, several years after embargo, 

 non intercourse and war had brought up men 

 on both sides the line to the trade of smuggling. 

 That day was before we had extensive sugar re- 

 fineries in the United States: for several miles 

 within the line of the United Stales we then met 

 upon the tables of most of the hotels, double- 

 refined British loat; which, on inquiry, we found 

 to be sold here as cheap, if not cheaper than the 

 most common honey-comb Philadelphia inferior 

 loaf of that time : the best London porter and 

 the purest Jamaica spirits were then common 

 and cheap: the cloths of common wear, evident- 

 ly of foreign origin, showed that the inhabitants 

 there enjoyed opportunities of genteel clothing 

 as well as genteel eating and drinking, to which 

 the people farther from the frontier were 

 strangers. 



Time passed on till 1833, when we travelled 

 over and along the line from Connecticut river 

 to Buffalo. We found then that any man dis- 

 posed to cheat the revenue might, if he had the 

 conscience to do it, fill his trunks with sufficient 

 wearing apparel at the lessened prices, equal to 



defraying the expenses of his journey of pleas- 

 ure ; and we further witnessed at the places of 

 ingress and egress in the very face of the custom- 

 house officers stores on the British side of the 

 line where there appeared no British population 

 to support them, filled with splendid fancy goods, 

 with all the appearance of freshness, which in- 

 dicated the articles there to be of quick trade. 

 Crossing the Niagara river below the falls, and 

 proceeding to the Chippewa battle-ground, a few 

 miles above, bars of iron lay along the bank of 

 the river in piles, evidently with the intent to be 

 carried over where a lax of fifty and a hundred 

 per cent, might be avoided. 



In a succession of years afterwards it had been 

 a matter of wonder how few were the seizures 

 of goods where a cordon of custom-house offi- 

 cers were placed along the line for the purpose 

 of arresting smuggling. When seizures were 

 made, the matter seemed to be of so small an 

 amount as that their forfeiture would pay only a 

 small part of the expenses of prosecution. It 

 was reported of the trade will) Montreal that not 

 so high a per cent, was charged for a warranty 

 of safe delivery as the Geneva jewellers exacted 

 for the delivery of their wares, for which, from 

 their greater compactness, a much better securi- 

 ty might be expected. When the duties on salt 

 amounted to at least half its value, Montreal 

 traders would guarantee its delivery at the ports 

 upon lake Champlain within the American lines, 

 for a premium of one or two per cent., and fur- 

 nish it in exchange for American produce, 

 which in its turn might be smuggled in the other 

 way. The severe tariff has been in a good de- 

 gree superseded in the law of 1846, and the 

 change of the British policy to encourage free 

 trade. There is now comparatively little temp- 

 tation to smuggle cloths or iron out of Canada. 

 The smuggling into Canada is at this lime much 

 the more active business. What is now done at 

 that business, when the temptations for profit 

 can present no inducement to compensate for 

 the smallest risque of seizure, is surely an ear- 

 nest of the very extensive illicit traffic in goods 

 that under the high tariffs of the last forty years 

 have been carried on. 



Unlil a short excursion which we made into 

 the lower townships over the Canada line dur- 

 ing the past summer, we had formed no compe- 

 tent idea of the almost (earful impunity with 

 which an extensive smuggling trade was carried 

 on. The smuggling trade with the low duties, 

 on either side could now be but a small object 

 of pecuniary gain. Yet habit has become so 

 strong with these people that they must continue 

 to smuggle. At the line between Derby and 

 Stanstead we found several well filled trading 

 stores : in them were a plenty of wooden wares 

 and the various agricultural implements, evi- 

 dently made in the States. Inquiring if these 

 wares and implements were made in Canada, an 

 affirmative answer was responded without hesi- 

 tation : the printed bill upon the New London 

 scythes was scarcely effaced. Taking the course 

 from Lamoille river to the Mississque, and thence 

 over a point of the Memphremagog lake to 

 Stanstead, we wished to find some convenient 

 access to the head waters of the Connecticut 

 river. The engineers were at Derby looking out 

 a route in the direction of Sherbrooke, for a rail- 

 road connecting with the Passumpsic road in 

 Vermont. Memphremagog is a beautiful sheet 

 of water, partly iu Vermont and partly in Cana- 

 da, upon the line of the 45th degree of north 

 latitude, and fed by waters running down from 



