ommissioners, and we cannot but feel for them in their difficulties.
On the one hand, they had to wrestle with an evil that was national in
its importance, while on the other they had a service that was
anything but incorruptible, and required the utmost vigilance to cause
it to be instant in its elementary duties.

One of the reforms recommended towards the end of 1809 had reference
to the supply of stores and the building and repairing of Custom House
boats in London. The object aimed at was to obtain a more complete
check on the quantities and quality of the stores required for
cruisers and Preventive boats. And the example of the outports was
accordingly adopted that, when articles were required for these craft
that were of any value, the Collector and Controller of the particular
port first sent estimates to the Board, and permission was not allowed
until the Surveyor of Sloops had certified that the estimates were
reasonable. Nor were the bills paid until both the commander and mate
of the cruiser, or else the Tide Surveyor or the Sitter of the Boat,
as the case might be, had certified that the work was properly carried
out. And the same rule applied to the supply of cordage and to the
carrying out of repairs.

As one looks through the old records of the Custom House one finds
that a Revenue officer who was incapable of yielding to bribery, who
was incorruptible and vigilant in his duty, possessed both courage and
initiative, and was favoured with even moderate luck, could certainly
rely on a fair income from his activities. In the year we are
speaking of, for instance, Thomas Story, one of the Revenue officers
petitioned to be paid his share of the penalty recovered from William
Lambert and William Taylor for smuggling, and he was accordingly
awarded the sum of L162, 2s. It was at this time also that the
salaries of the Collectors, Controllers, and Landing Surveyors of the
outports were increased so that the Collectors were to receive not
less than L150 per annum, the Controller not less than L120, and the
Landing Surveyor not less than L100. And in addition to this, of
course, there were their shares in any seizures that might be made.
Sometimes, however, the Revenue officers suffered not from negligence
but from excess of zeal, as, for instance, on that occasion when they
espied a rowing-boat containing a couple of seafaring men approach and
land on the beach at Eastbourne. The Revenue officials made quite
ce