show
that the difficulties offered to the profession by the Government were
difficulties that existed merely to be overcome. Perhaps fiscal reform
may restore the old pastime.

[Sidenote: THE LAND SMUGGLER]

The word smuggler arouses in the mind the figure of a bold and desperate
mariner searching the coast for a signal that all is safe to land his
cargo. But as a matter of fact the men who ran the greatest risks were
not the marine smugglers at all, but the land smugglers who received the
tubs on the shore and conveyed them to a hiding place preparatory to the
journey to London, whither the major part was perilously taken. Such
were the Alfriston smugglers. These were the men who fought the revenue
officers and had the hair's-breadth escapes. These were the men whose
houses were watched, whose every movement was suspected, who needed to
be wily as the serpent and to know the country inch by inch.

Not that the sea smuggler ran no risks. On the contrary, he was
continually in danger from revenue cutters and the coastguards' boats.
Bloody fights in the Channel were by no means rare. He was also often in
peril from the elements; his endurance was superb; he had to be a sailor
of genius, ready for every kind of emergency. But the land smuggler was
more vulnerable than the sea smuggler, his rewards were smaller, and his
operations were less simple. There is a vast difference between a dark
night at sea and a dark night on land. Once the night fell the sea was
the smuggler's own: he was invisible, inaudible. But the land was not
less the revenue officer's: the land smuggler had to show his signal
light, he had to roll casks over the beach, he had to carry them into
security. His horse's hoofs could not be stilled as oars are muffled,
his wheels bit noisily into the road, he was liable to be stopped at any
turn. And he ran these risks from the coast right into London. I doubt
if the land smuggler has had his due of praise. Sometimes the land
smuggler had to be land smuggler and sea smuggler too, for many of the
ships never troubled to make a landing at all. They sailed as near the
shore as might be and then sank the tubs, which were always lashed
together and kept on deck in readiness to be thrown overboard in case of
the approach of a cutter. The position of the mooring having been
conveyed to the confederates on shore, the vessel was at liberty to
return to France for another cargo, leaving the responsibility of
fishing