ruisers and Land-guard had been made certainly
not with the enthusiastic support of the Board of Customs, who had
indeed expressed their doubts as to whether such a transformation were
prudent.

Some idea of the number of his Majesty's ships and vessels which were
employed in the prevention of smuggling in the year 1819 may be
gathered from the following list. It should, however, be mentioned
that these did not include the numbers of Custom House cruisers which
the Admiralty had begun to control, but were actually the Naval ships
which aided those of the Revenue:--

Plymouth supplied 10 ships and 4 tenders
Portsmouth " 8 " 3 "
Sheerness " 8 " 2 "
Leith " 7 " 1 tender
Ireland " 12 " 1 "

at a total cost of L245,519. But it should also be borne in mind that
these ships of the Navy, or at any rate by far the greater number of
them, would have been in commission whether employed or not in the
prevention of smuggling, and in certain cases these ships were
employed in the Preventive service for only a part of the year.
Without the Revenue cutters the Navy could not possibly have dealt
with the smugglers, and this was actually admitted in a Treasury
Minute of January 15, 1822. The total number of Revenue cruisers
employed in Great Britain and Ireland during the year 1819, as
distinct from the ships of the Royal Navy, amounted to 69. The
following year this number had increased to 70. These were apportioned
thus:--

20 under the Commander-in-Chief at Sheerness
11 " " " " Portsmouth
14 " " " " Plymouth
12 " " " " Leith
11 were employed in Ireland
2 were employed by the Commissioners of Customs
--
70
==

To sum up then with regard to the Preventive Water-guard, let us state
that this had been constituted in 1809 to supplement the efforts of
the cruisers and Riding officers, the coast of England and Wales being
divided into three parts, and placed under the control of Inspecting
Commanders. Under this arrangement were included the Revenue cruisers
themselves. Then in 1816 the Admiralty had taken over these cruisers
from the Preventive Water-guard, and the following year the Coast
Blockade had taken over that portion of the coast between the
Forelands, to be extended in 1818 to Shellness and Seaford
respectively.

T