ne by the Customs as before.

It may seem a little curious that whereas the Board of Customs had
controlled these vessels for about a hundred and fifty years this
sudden change should have been made. But, primarily, any customs
organisation must belong to the shore. The employment of cruisers was
in its origin really an afterthought to prevent the Crown being
cheated of its dues. In other words, the service of sloops and cutters
was a kind of off-shoot from the service on land. It was only because
the smuggling was so daring, because the Crown was so regularly robbed
that some means of dealing with these robbers on sea and on even terms
had to be devised. But, of course, with the Admiralty the case was
quite different. For long centuries that department had to deal with
ships and everything therewith connected. Therefore to many it seemed
that that department which controlled the Navy should also control
that smaller navy comprised by the Revenue cruisers.

At this date we must recollect that the Battle of Waterloo had been
won only a few months, that once and for all Napoleon had been crushed
and broken, that at last there had come peace and an end of those wars
which had seemed interminable. From this return of peace followed two
facts. Firstly, the European ports were now opened afresh not merely
to honest traders, but to the fleets of smugglers who could go about
their work with greater safety, with less fear of being captured by
privateers. Thus it was most probable that as the English Channel was
now practically a clear sphere there would be a renewed activity on
the part of these men. But, secondly, it also followed that the
Admiralty, charged no longer with the anxiety and vigilance which a
naval war must bring with it, was free to devote its manifold
abilities, most especially in respect of organisation, for the benefit
of the Revenue department. At one and the same time, then, there was
the chance of greater smuggling activity and a more concentrated
effort to put down this smuggling.

Furthermore, inasmuch as the wars had ended the Navy needed fewer men.
We know how it was in the case of Naval officers, many of whom found
themselves unemployed. But it was not less bad for the seamen, many of
whom had drifted into the service by the way we have seen--through
being captured smuggling and then impressed. Returned once more to
their native haunts after long separation, was it likely that having
done so much ro