256 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



of his not l)eing dismissed were his good character 

 and long service. 



The guard of the Southampton Mail had long 

 been suspected of smuggling, and at last the 

 Customs officers at that port determined to search 

 the mail. They accordingly attempted to stop it 

 one evening, but the guard himself levelled his 

 blunderbuss at them, swearing he Avould blow out 

 the brains of the man who should lay a hand upon 

 the horses or seek to search " His Majesty's Eoyal 

 Mail," and so he got off, with the hind boot 

 stuffed to bursting Avith excisable but unexcised 

 goods in the nature of spirits and tobacco. A long 

 correspondence between the Postmaster-General 

 and the Commissioners of Customs arose out of this 

 incident, each official jealous of his own Depart- 

 ment's rights as only Government officers can be ; 

 but the Postmaster- General, although declaring 

 himself an enemy to smuggling, was indignant 

 at the idea of the mail being searched and 

 possibly detained ; and although Avarning the 

 guard, approved his conduct. It needs no great 

 imaginative poAvers to picture that guard embark- 

 ing upon a colossal smuggling scheme after finding 

 himself thus secured from being searched. 



Although the mail-guards Avere as a body a 

 brave and devoted class of men, determined to do 

 their duty and to carry his Majesty's mails in 

 the face of all difficulties of snoAvstorms, winds, 

 and floods, yet they gave Thomas Hasker, Chief 

 Superintendent of Mail-coaches, a good deal of 

 trouble. They numbered 268, and he exercised 



