was over thirteen, it was just under twenty.
And, here again, Captain Matthew Gunthorpe, this time commanding the
Excise cutter _Vigilant_, and Captain Robert Hepburn of the Excise
cutter _Regent_, in the year 1816 seized nineteen smugglers each, or a
total of thirty-eight. As neither captain had reached the twenty and
both were equal, it was decided to add the second and third rewards
together (_i.e._ L300 plus L200) and to give L250 to Captain
Gunthorpe, officers and crew, and L250 to Captain Hepburn, officers
and crew. And there is on record at this time a memorial from one W.
Blake, the son of W. Blake, senior. The last-mentioned had been
commander of the cutter _Nimble_, but was drowned in 1816. His son now
prayed for the reward of L300 to be paid to the family of the
deceased, as he had captured sixteen smugglers.

After the Admiralty had taken over the Revenue cruisers they did not
neglect to sanction a pension system, and the following scheme was
embraced:--Commanders of cruisers on retiring were to have from L91,
5s. to L155, 2s. 6d. per annum, according to their length of service;
and for any wound received they were to have an additional L91, 5s.
per annum. First mates were pensioned after five years' service at the
rate of L35 a year, but after thirty years' service they were to have
L85 a year as pension. And so it was arranged for all ratings down to
the boys. The widow of a commander killed or drowned in the service
was allowed L65 a year.

And now that we are in that period after the year 1815 we must not
fail to bear in mind that this is the epoch when the smugglers were
using ingenuity in preference to force. The busiest part had yet to
come and did not occur till the third decade of the nineteenth
century. But even from the time of the Battle of Waterloo until, say,
about 1825 there were ten years in which the smugglers left no device
untried which they could conceive to enable them to outdo the Revenue
authorities. And we may now proceed to give actual instances of these
ingenious attempts.

We begin with the early part of 1816. At this time the Tide-Surveyor
at one of the out-ports had reason to suspect that the French
market-boats which used to sail across to England were in the habit of
bringing also a good deal of silks and other prohibited goods. At last
he went on board one of these craft and immediately after she had
arrived he caused the whole of her cargo to be put ashore. He then
search