PBIVATE TRADE OP THE FALMOUTH PACKETS. 79 



depended on tlie bare oath of tlie persons concerned, unsupported 

 by any systematic questioning of the crew. 



At the end of 1799, or in the first weeks of 1800, an order 

 was issued prohibiting the private trade upon the West Indian 

 and American packets. The officers and sailors of those packets 

 were forbidden, under pain of dismissal, to carry goods of any 

 kind upon their vessel in future ; and an officer was appointed 

 at Falmouth for the express purpose of searching every packet 

 before she sailed, with full authority to turn out any goods which 

 he might find in any part of the ship, to whomsoev-er they might 

 belong. The Lisbon packets were allowed to continue the trade, 

 on account of the great importance to merchants of free com- 

 munication with Lisbon at that time. 



The question naturally arises, what induced the Government 

 to take this step ? Some strong motive must have prompted it, 

 for the system of private trade upon the packets was so ancient 

 that the Secretary of the Post Office admitted that he could not 

 trace its origin, and thought it might be ' 'coeval with the service 

 itself." That it was extremely profitable to the persons engaged 

 in it cannot be doubted. It was sufficient to attract sailors to 

 the Post Office service, where they worked contentedly for wages 

 far inferior to those paid by the customs or the East India 

 Company ; for they knew that by their own small ventures of 

 potatoes or any goods for sale at Jamaica or Barbadoes, they 

 could regain much more than they lost in pay. It is true that 

 the trade was contrary to the law. But the statute condemning 

 it was of the reign of Charles II, and had never been enforced. 

 Indeed so recently as in 1798 the private trade had been explicitly 

 sanctioned in new regulations then drawn up for the guidance 

 of the agent at Falmouth ; and it was distinctly stated that his 

 only duty in connection with the private trade was to assure 

 himself that the quantity of goods carried was not enough to 

 throw the vessel out of trim or to impede her sailing. 



Here then was an ancient and very highly valued privilege, 

 to attack which was to cause certain disaffection among the 

 seamen, and that moreover in time of war, when it was already 

 sufficiently difficult to provide for the regular despatch of the 

 mails. There had been no long growing dissatisfaction with the 



