whenever the agents of government were around
their steps, they felt themselves in the midst of
enemies.

When the smugglers had proceeded so far
inland as to be out of danger, they made a halt,
and gave three cheers, — an exasperating sound
to the baffled guard.

" Let them cheer!" cried the Lieutenant,
" our turn will come next. Down to the beach,
my lads, ^before the tide carries off what belongs



A NIGHT WATCH. 105

to you there. If any of you can find tracks of
blood, it may not be too late for poor Nicholas,
after all. Down to the beach, and seize what-
ever you can find."'

He remained for a few moments on the steep,
ranging the horizon with his glass, internally
cursing the rapid progress that the lugger (which
few but Nicholas would have taken for a sloop,
however deep the shadow) was making in her
escape.

M The cutter always contrives to be just in the
wrong place," thought he, " or to arrive too late
when called. She will come, as she did before,
full sail, as soon as the smuggler has got out of
sight, and changed her course."

On joining his men, he found they had partly
recovered their spirits, amidst the booty which
lay before their eyes. Some few had given their
first attention to searching for the body of their
comrade, but the greater number were insisting
on the necessity of removing the seizure to the
Custom-house, before the tide should have risen
any higher. It was already washing up so as to
efface any marks of blood which might have re-
mained on the shingle ; and it seemed most pro-
bable, in the absence of any clue, that the body
of Nicholas was being dashed in the surf which
sent its spray among those who defied its ad-
vances to the last, before they mounted once
more upon the down. They were obliged to leave
a few tubs floating, after they had secured the
goods which it was most important to keep dry.
If these kegs could hold together amidst the



.1.06 A NIGHT WATCH.

dashing of the waves, they would be recoverable
in the morning from the sea, as the law forbade
all floating tubs to be picked up by anybody but
the Coast Guard, and the watch on the shore
could keep an eye on the observance of the law,
for the short time that would be necessary.

" Brady, post off to the station-house, and let
the ladies know we are all safe but one. Stay !
You will not thank me for sending you away
from your booty ; and, besides, they will not be-
lieve you. I must go myself. Halt a minute,
my lads."

The officer directed his steps to the gleam
which shone out through the curtain of Matilda's
window. Though he found her voiceless, and his
mother and sister in a state of restless terror, he
could not stay to revive them. The firing had
seemed to them so fearful that they would scarcely
credit the testimony of their own eyes that the
Lieutenant was safe, or his assurance that only
one life had been lost on the side of the Preven-
tive Force. He did not say whose life that was,
for he knew that there was not a man under his
command whom his wife would miss more than
poor Nicholas. This painful communication he
left to the morning. With an assurance that
the enemy had all marched off, and that no dan-
gerous duty remained, the officer entreated his
family to go to rest. It was very probable that
he might not come home till daylight, and it
would now be folly to waste any more anxiety
upon him.

Elizabeth thought it really would be very foolish,



A NIGHT WATCH. 107

though she declared she did not expect to sleep
a wink for a month to come. She began her
preparations, however, by putting up her work
with alacrity, and lighting her mother to her
bedroom. Matilda went also to hers, but not to
remain. As soon as all was quiet, she stole down
to the fire-side, laid wood upon the embers, put
out her light, and sat down, preferring a further
watch to broken dreams. The cracking of the
fuel and the ticking of the time-piece composed
her agitated thoughts ; but, instead of cheerful-
ness, a deep melancholy succeeded to the inter-
nal tumult of so many hours— a melancholy which
grew with that it fed on.

Matilda had not hitherto been given to deep
thought, or strong feeling, for any one but her
husband ; but the new influences of circumstance,
of late suspense and fear, of the hour, and of her
present social position, — all combined to stimu-
late her to higher reflection than, as a light-
hearted girl, she had been wont to encourage.
She would fain have known which of the men
had fallen, — what home was to be made desolate
by the tidings that must soon be on their way.
Were they to stun the young wife who, like her-
self, had O, no ! It was too dreadful to think

of! Were they to smite the matron, who, in
her Irish cabin, daily told the little ones around
her knee tales of the brave and tender father
who was to come back and caress them one day ?
Were they to wither the aged parent, who prayed
for his roving son, and looked for the return of
the prodigal before he died ; or the band of young



108 &. NIGHT WATCH.

kindred who watched with longing the glory of
their elder brother, and would be struck dumb
at this ignoble close of his envied service ? Who-
ever it was, a life was gone ! And how? Men
of the same countrv, members of the same social
state, had been made enemies by arbitrary laws.
They had been trained to deceive and to defy
one another when they should have wrought, side
by side, to nourish life instead of to destroy it, —
to strengthen peace instead of inflicting woe.
He who made the human heart to yearn at the
voice of kindliness, and to leap up at the tone of
joy, thereby rebukes the system which gives birth
to mutual curses, and flings sorrows into many
homes ; — He who gradually discloses to the
roused human ear the music of His name, does
it for other purposes than to have it taken upon
human lips in mockery as a pass-word to the
meanest frauds ; — He who made yon glittering
sea a broad path by which his children might pass
to and fro, so that the full may bear bread to the
hungry, and the skilful send clothing to the
naked, must pity the perverseness by which such
mutual aid is declined, or yielded only at the ex-
pense of crime — artificial crime, which brings on
natural, as its sure consequence ; — He who scat-
ters his bounties over the earth with impartial
hand, his snow and sunshine, his fruits and gems ; —
He who lets loose his herds on the plains of the
tropics, and calls the fishy tribes into the depths
of Polar seas ; — He who breathes upon the corn-
fields, and they wave ; who whispers among the
pine-forests of the North, and they bow before



A NIGHT WATCH. 109

him, — thus works that men may impart and en-
joy; and yet man will not impart, and forbids
his fellow-man to enjoy ; — He who in still small
voice says to the Hindoo beneath the palm-tree,
11 Get thee a home ;" who visits the broken sleep
of the toil-worn artizan to bid him get food and
rest; who comes in the chill wind to" the shiver-
ing boor to warn him to provide apparel ; who
scares the crouching Arab with thunders among:
the caverned rocks, and the Greenlander with
tempests on the icy sea, and the African with
wild beasts in the sultry night, that out of their
terror may arise mutual protection and social
ease, — is daringly gainsaid by intermeddlers, who
declare that one nation shall have scanty food,
and another miserable clothing ; and that a third
must still find holes in the rocks, or a refuge in
the trees, because neither wood nor iron shall be
given for habitations. Shall there not come a
day when the toil-worn Briton shall complain,
11 I was hungry, and ye gave me no food ;" and
the Pole, " I was naked, and ye clothed me not;"
and the Syrian wanderer, " I was houseless, and
ye sheltered me not;" and the gem-decked hun-
gering savage, " I was poor and miserable, and
ye visited me not, nor let me enrich you in re-
turn?" "When will men learn that the plan of
Divine Providence indicates the scheme of human
providence ; that man should distribute his pos-
sessions as God scatters his gifts ; that, as man
is created for kindliness and for social ease, he
should be governed so as to secure them ; that,
as all interests naturally harmonize under a law
17 L



110 A NIGHT WATCH.

of impartial love, it is an impiety to institute a
law of partiality, by which interests are arbitrarily
opposed ? When will men learn that it should
be with their wrought as with their natural
wealth, — that, as the air of heaven penetrates into
all hidden places, and nourishes the life of every
breathing thing, all the elements of human com-
fort should expand till they have reached and
refreshed each partaker of human life ; that as
the seeds of vegetation are borne here and there
by gales, and dropped by birds upon ridges and
into hollows, the means of enjoyment should be
conveyed to places lofty or lowly in the social
scale, whence the winged messengers may return
over the deep with an equal recompense ? When
will governments learn that they are responsible
for every life which is sacrificed through a legis-
lation of partiality ; whether it be of a servant of
its own, murdered by rebellious hands, or of a
half-nourished babe dying on its sickly mother's
knee, or of a spirit-broken merchant, or of a
worn-out artizan ? When will the people learn
that, instead of acquiescing in the imposition of
oaths which they mean to break, of a watch
which they permit to be insulted and slaughtered,
of a law which they bring up their children to
despise and to defy, they should demand with
one voice that freedom in the disposal of the fruits
of their toil, upon which mutual interest is a suf-
ficient check, while it proves a more unfailing
stimulus than any arbitrary encouragement given
to one application of industry at the expense of
all others? When shall we leave the natural



A NIGHT WATCH. Ill

laws which guide human efforts as they guide
the stars in their courses to work, without attempt-
ing to mend them by our bungling art? When
shall man cease to charge upon Providence evils
of his own devising, and pray for deliverance
from the crimes he himself has invented, and from
the miseries which follow in their train ? We
implore that there may be no murder, and put
firelocks into the hands of our smugglers. We
profess our piety, and hold the Bible to unhal-
lowed lips in our custom-houses. We say
" Avaunt !" to all that is infernal when we bring
our children to the font, and straightway edu-
cate them to devilish subtilty and hatred. We
weekly celebrate our love for our whole race, and
yet daily keep back a portion of the universal in-
heritance of man. 0, when will man come in
singleness of heart before his Maker, and look
abroad upon His works in the light of His coun-
tenance !

Matilda's eyes were shining tearful in the fire-
light when her husband entered.

11 Hey ! tears, my love ? I saw no tears when
there was more cause, — two hours ago."

11 I had no time for them then," said Matilda,
brushing them away.

" And why now ? Do you dread more such
nights, or are you worn out, or "

" No, no; it was not for myself. It was
shame. — 0, I am so ashamed !"

" Of me, love? Do not you like my duty?
or, do I not perform it well ?"

11 O, no, no. I am so ashamed at the whole

l 2



112 A NIGHT WATCH.

world, and especially at our own nation, which
thinks itself so Christian. Here we send one an-
other out man-hunting. We make a crime, tempt
a man into it, and punish him for it. Is this
Christian?"

" It would be a disgrace to paganism."

" We are proud of being made in God's image,
and we take pains to make human governments
the reverse of the Divine. How dare we ask a
blessing upon them?"

" Come, come, my good girl, you must think
of something more cheerful. The hearing of a
life being lost has been too much for you. You
never were so near the scene of a murder before,
I dare say."

" Never," replied Matilda, with quivering
lips.

" It will not affect you so much again. You
will become more used to the circumstances of
such a situation as ours. You will feel this sort
of adventure less painfully henceforward."

" But I do not wish that," was all that Matilda
chose to say, lest her sorrow should be charged
upon discontent with her individual lot. She
looked out once more upon the sea, darkening as
the moon went down, and satisfied herself that
the time would come for which she had been
inquiring, — when man would look above and
around him, and learn of Providence.



( 113 )

Chapter VII.
HEAR THE NEWS !

All Was bustle about the nearest Custom-house
when the seized vessel and goods were expected
to arrive the next morning. The magistracy in
the neighbourhood were also busv, for there
seemed to be no end to the offences against the
law which had arisen out of the adventure of the
preceding night.

The first steps taken were towards the discovery
of the murderer of Nicholas ; and, for this pur-
pose, application was made to government for
aid, in the shape both of police-officers and of an
offer of reward for the disclosure of the mur-
derers. Little was hoped from the latter pro-
ceeding, as the smugglers were known to yield
powerful protection to each ot^ier, and to be
united by a bond of honour as strongly in each
other's defence as against the law. If Nicholas's
murderers were known to every dweller along
the coast, from Portsmouth to the North Fore-
land, there was little probability that any one
would step forward to name or lay hands on
them. But, the little th at government could do,
— pry about and offer bribes, was done ; and,
whether or not the gui'lty persons might tremble
or flee, every body eh^e laughed.

One of the gipsy band was brought up before
two justices of the peace on violent suspicion of

h 3



114 HEAR THE NEWS .

Laving, after eight in the evening, and before
six in the morning, made, aided, or assisted in
making, or been present at making, a signal, by
means of light, fire, flash, blaze, signal by smoke,
and so forth, through all the offences described
in the appropriate clause of that most singular
statute ordained for the prevention of smuggling.
No proof could be brought, though the truth of
the charge was generally believed, and the
gipsies thereby became more popular than ever.
They were dismissed, and every body laughed.

A boy was brought up, on a charge of trespass,
by a farmer, who complained that his fenced land
had been entered and trampled, and his well and
bucket made use of without leave. The boy
pleaded that he had entered for the purpose of
putting out a fire which he suspected to be in-
tended for a signal to smugglers. The justices
referred to the statute, found that iC it shall be
lawful," &c, to commit this kind of trespass, and
that the boy Lad only done his duty. And now,
every body frowned.

A woman who had been caught standing near
a tub of the spirits which had been seized, which
tub was staved, was brought up on the charge of
having staved the same. The penalty was so
heavy as to tempt to .a vast deal of false swear-
ing on her behalf, by dint of which she escaped ;
and her friends and neighbours laughed again.
She was not the less glad of this issue that, being
a poor person, she would have been supported
while in prison by a daily allowance drawn from
Jhe pockets of the nation.



HEAR THE NEWS ! 115

A crew of fishermen were summoned to show
cause why they should not, according to law, pay
the treble value of a floating keg of gin, which,
having bumped against their boat at sea, they had
stretched out their hands to appropriate. There
was no use in denying the act, as it had been
witnessed by two keen eyes through unimpeach-
able glasses, from a headland. All that the fisher-
men could do was to swear that they only meant
to deliver over the spirits to the Custom-house
officers, and were prevented from doing so by
being arrested immediately on landing. The
magistrates considered this a very doubtful case ;
and, having before their eyes the fear of the col-
lective power of their smuggling neighbours,
gave their decision in favour of the fishermen ;
whereat the informers were indignant, and the
folks in waiting exulted.

All parties had by this time had enough of
this ceremony; but the justices agreed in assuring
the Lieutenant, that if they chose to look strictly
into the proceedings of their neighbours, and to
inflict all the punishments ordained in the statute
for all the modes of offence specified therein, they
might be constantly occupied from morning till
night ; the gaols would be filled ; there would be
a distraint for penalties in almost every cottage,
and offenders would be nearly as common as per-
sons who stood above five feet in their shoes.
They entertained him with a sight of the entire
statute, as he was not acquainted with the whole ;
and all thought it perfectly consistent with their
exemplary loyalty to decide that it was truly an



116 HEAR THE NEWS !

extraordinary specimen of legislation. The jus-
tices could no more boast of the achievements of
their authority in putting down smuggling than
the officer of his efficiency in preventing it. All
shook their heads, complimented each other's
exertions, and desponded about the availableness
of their own.

" What is to be done ?" was the commonplace
query which ensued.

" Why, you see," said one of the justices, " the
prohibiting a commodity does not take away the
taste for it ; and if you impose a high duty, you
only excite people to evade it, and to calculate the
average rate of the risk of detection. That being
done, there will always be abundance of specu-
lators found to make the venture, and no lack
of customers to bid them God speed."

" Then there are two ways of demolishing the
practice, — lowering the duties, so as to remove
the temptation to smuggling ; and increasing the
difficulty of carrying on a contraband trade."

" I should say there is but one," replied the
first speaker. " Difficulties have been multiplied
till we who have to administer the law groan
under them, and smuggling is still on the in-
crease."

" What is government about all the time?"
asked the Lieutenant. " They must know this,
and yet they let their own power be mocked, and
the interests of our manufacturers and commer-
cial men be sacrificed."

" Of our manufacturers, but not necessarily of
all our commercial men. Contraband trade is a



HEAR THE NEWS ! 117

fine thing for certain shopkeepers ; and you might
hear some curious stories below there," (nodding
towards the Custom-house,) " about certain me-
thods of obtaining drawbacks/and then re-land-
ing the goods by the help of our night-working
neighbours. However, government is getting a
glimpse of the true state of the case, as we shall
soon see."

" Because," observed the other magistrate,
" government is beginning to look to the right
quarter for information. It is nonsense to con-
sult collectors of the revenue, and persons in their
interest and of their way of thinking, about the
best method of rendering taxes effectual. The
only way is to contemplate the interests of the
tax payers. This done, it is easily seen that there
is not much wisdom in a system, the enforcement
alone of which costs the country many hundred
thousand pounds a year."

" And which is not enforced, after all, and
never can be. No, no ; the government sees
now that the only way is to lower the duties down
to the point which makes contraband trading a
speculation not worth attempting."

" What makes you suppose that government
views the matter in this light ?"

*' It is said, and confidently believed in Lon-
don, that government has taken into consider-
ation this petition from the principal silk-manu-
facturers in and about London."

The Lieutenant read the petition in the news-
paper, of recent date, now handed to him.

" Hum. ' This important manufacture, though



118 HEAR THE NEWS !

recently considerably extended,' — aye, so it ought
to be, from the increasing number of wearers of
silk, — • is still depressed below its natural level' —
they are tired of Spitalfields subscriptions, I sup-
pose, and of living among starving weavers, who
throw the blame of their starvation on their
masters ; — * by laws which prevent it from attain-
ing that degree of prosperity which, under more
favourable circumstances, it would acquire.' —
Well ! what thinks the House of this petition ?"

11 That will be seen when government speaks
upon it. It is thought that the prohibition of
foreign silks will be removed, and a moderate
duty substituted. If so, it will be an important
experiment/'

" I rather think," observed the other magis-
trate, " that the fault will soon be found to be
neither in the undue mildness of the law, nor in
our way of administering it, — of both which the
customs and excise officers are for ever complain-
ing. I believe my friend here and I shall have
little less reason to bless the change than these
petitioning manufacturers."

" There will be enough left for me to do,"
observed the Lieutenant, " if, as I suppose, they
will leave as they are the duties on articles not
produced at home. Many a cargo of gin and
tobacco will yet be landed in my day. Mean-
while, I must go and see the unpacking at the
Custom-house. I hope I shall not be tempted
to smuggle within those very walls, on my wife's
account."

When the officer arrived at the Custom-house,



HEAR THE NEWS ! 119

he found the Collector and Comptroller invested
with all the dignity of active office, and the mem-
bers of the Coast Guard who were there to claim
their share of bootv, watching with eagerness for
the unpacking of a large store of that beloved
weed which was wont to " cheer but not ine-
briate " them on their watch. A few inquisitive
neighbours were peeping in from window and
door, and Mr. Pirn, admitted through favour,
from his son being the Collector's clerk, paced up
and down, his countenance exhibiting 1 a strange
alternation of mirth and vexation. He could not
help enjoying the fun of people eluding, and
baffling, and thwarting one another ; such fun
being one chief inducement to him to connect
himself as he had done with contraband traders;
but it was a serious vexation to see some of his
property, — goods on whose safe arrival he had
staked the earnings of his irksome school- hours,
— thus about to fall into the hands of those who
had paid no such dolorous price for them.

Somebody wondered that, as the smugglers
had taken time to carry away so considerable a
portion of their cargo, a large package of tobacco
should have been left behind : tobacco being an
exceedingly valuable article of contraband trade,
from the difference between its original cost and
its price when charged with the duty. If smug-
glers paid threepence a pound for their article,
and sold it at half-a-crown, it must repay their
risks better than most articles which they could
import. One of the guard believed he had seen
numerous packages of tobacco on the people's



120 HEAR THE NEWS !

shoulders, as they passed to the carts, and sup-
posed that the quantity before them formed a
very small portion of what had been landed.

" Most likely," observed the Collector. " There
is more tobacco landed than there is of any thing
else, except brandy and geneva. It is high time
government was bestirring itself to put down the
smuggling of tobacco. Do you know, sir," (to
the Lieutenant,) " these fellows supply a fourth
part of the tobacco that is consumed in England V*

" That is nothing to what they do in Ireland,"
observed Brady. " There were seventy vessels
in one year landing tobacco between Waterford
and Londonderry."

" Yes ; the Irish are incorrigible," replied the
Collector ; " they smuggle three-fourths of the
tobacco they use.''

The Lieutenant doubted whether they were in-
corrigible. Neither the Irish, nor any body else,
would think of smuggling unless thev were
tempted to it. If the duty, now three shillings
per pound, were reduced to one shilling, smug-
gling tobacco would not answer; the sinning
three-fourths would get their tobacco honestly,
and government would be the gainer. The same
advantage would arise in England from the re-
duction of the duty ; as, in addition to the prac-
tice of smuggling being superseded, the consump-
tion of the article would materially increase, as
is always the case on the reduction of a tax.
With every augmentation of the duty from eight-