e people of the province were forcibly reminded of by the
presence of imported gentlemen, whom it had pleased her Majesty to
place in all responsible offices. In fact, the Home Government,
through its pewter-headed policy, was for ever making laws to suit the
immediate demands of a favored few, who said good things of loyalty
and toryism, and left the rest to chance.

"During this state of affairs, Skipper Hornblower's fame sounded far
and wide, and many were the stories told of his smuggling exploits,
and how Squire Burgle always kept a large stock of British goods on
hand, which he never sold cheaper than any body else, though he got
richer. Hornblower's account of how he and the Squire carried on
business together in the good old times may not be uninteresting,
'Squire Burgle,' said Hornblower, 'was a great man in them days, said
a sight of good things in his prayers every night and morning,
denounced smuggling, and hoped all those fearless men that followed it
would see the error of their way, turn to her Majesty, and make their
loyalty honor the State. Squire used to send me to Boston--(the Dash
was the only craft in the trade then)--with little things to sell, and
a return cargo of flour, gin, tobacco, and such like Yankee notions,
which the Nova Scotians must have, and upon which her Majesty lavished
most ungracious duties, to fetch home. Well, the Squire lived at the
town of Annapolis, twenty miles up a river, where Digby, at its
entrance, was the only port of entry within a hundred miles. Seeing
that I liked to make quick trips, it was not always convenient to stop
at this obdurate port of entry, and so I used to lay the Dash's head
for a piece of dark wood on a point of land outside the entrance
(always being careful to have a clearance in _merchandise_) and run
her close aboard of it. Squire had a cousin living near that bit of
wood, who used to understand the thing, and could sight the Dash's
signal ten miles at sea. Lying off and on until sundown, the Squire's
cousin would hang out a light on a tree; if at the top it was the
signal--'All right;' if half-mast, 'Keep out!' 'There's the light--all
right to-night! the boys used to say, when it gleamed at the tree
top.' Then into the basin and up the river we used to dodge, passing
on the opposite side of the river, and as far from the port of entry
as it was possible to get, and reaching a point on the banks where the
cargo was to be discharged, while the folks