The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-05-03 00:00:00

LONDON,
THURSDAY, MAY 3, I.

• The two Houses of Parliament adjourned fast
night distil Friday. The Drawing-room at Such-
inghant Palace this day, and the ball and sapper
at Carlton House Palace at night, bare rendered
this arniogeszteut necenary.

There is no circumstance in our domestic affairs
that demands so imperatively the anxious attention
of the Ministers of the 'Crown, of Parliament, and
of all hunisne and good men in the empire, as the
very eroding extent to which the sports of weng-
gling prevails in parts of the country. Smuggling
is no longer the timid liesitsting attempt of few
poor and irresolute fishermen to erode the sceitiny
of tide-waiters and customhouse officers, it hos
assumed the bold and impudent front of a system
rego6rly-organised and well-supported, and pro-
ceeds with a confidence which nothing cosld inspire
but the assurance not only of ready markets sod
large gains, but slao of receiving protection sod
assistance from numerous bands of armed men.
Along the coasts of Kent and Sussex in particular
smuggling prevails to • most alarming degree; ves-
sels ere equipped, armed, and well manned fur this
particular service, while on shore there are land
forces trained and disciplined to effect the detiarks-
tioir of the merchandise, amid to defeat the efforts of
the officers and seamen employed on the preventive
stations, should they attempt to seize the suspected
articles. We reed continually of severe actions
fought between the seamen and the smugglers, and
' we have had occasionally to perform the melancholy
task of announcing the premature death of some
gallant officers and men who have fallen in this in-
glorious strife about casks of brandy and rolls of
tobacco. In the latest of these actions, Mr.
Snow, • promising young officer of the Severn,
was mortally wounded, iod we have this thy
to record his untimely death ; he died on the
morning of Friday last, leaving to his friends
the inoursifel consolation of thinking that he
displayed • courage worthy of a better quarrel,
and which under happier auspices might have
given to his name a conspicuous place iu the annals
of his country. The smugglers, we perceive, can
on say occasion of emergency assemble bodies rof
from 150 to 400 armed men; these are usually di-;
vided into three distinct parties. ape being sta-',
boned on the right of the debarltatiOn, and In-!:
other on the left, for the purpose of keeping off
the King's men, while the remaining party are
actively employed iu bringing the merchandise to
hood, and in finally bearing it off in triumph, in
spite of their autagonists, but under the fire of the
two flanking parties. The numbers employed by
the smugglers in these outrages against the laws of
their country, pore satisfactorily that notwith-
standing the boasted efficacy of the preventive ser-
sive, very large quantities of contraband articles
most be clandestinely introduced into the country;
for all these armed men must be ,paid for this
double risk of their lives, incurring as they do,
besides their immediate personal danger, *guilt
little short of high treason in opposing the King's
forces; and after this payment, which is no doubt
considerable, enough must still remain to rearing
pense in a pecuniary way the smuggler. themselves
for their own personal danger, and the chance they
incur of forfeiting their vessels and cargoes, should
they be encountered by one of the numerous
revenue cruisers that are continually on the watch
for them. ft would be impossible to praise too
highly the courage, promptitude, zeal, and energy
of the officers acrd men employed on the preventive
service ; but who does net lament to see qualities
so eminent, and which exist no where is a
higher degree than iu British seamen, employed in
a service so utterly unworthy of them t They have,
no doubt, checked in • great degree the amount
of smuggling along the coast, but it is obvious
that this offence still exists very eiFtensivelyii and
what is still worse, the very means devised to check
the one evil have given birth to soother immediately
connected with the former, but in its nature far
more injurious to society. The establishment of
preventive stations has occsaioued these dangerous
associations along the coasts to which we have
alluded—associations which resemble in spirit and

character the very worst classes of banditti which
Spain or Italy could present—which contain within
theta the 'prolific seeds of every species of individual
crime of the darkest sod deepest dye—which teach
the young and thoughtless to despise the sanctioner
law, and to set at defiance the very power of the
State, familiarizing them to violence and bloodshed,.
and provoking that restless and uneasy spirit of
enterprise which is wholly inconsistent with their
eau hisistaiwesuswl the general welfare of the caw.
meant,.
The severity of the laws that now exist against
smuggling, the extent of the power employed
to povent it, and still more, the desperate (stingy
and fidelity with• which these armed banditti sup.
port.the criminals against the King's officers. prove
that it is swir by increasing the river of the laws
that "a elohliare to see this crime, which is the

s J ,
\a

ipotesi or other 'tribes► effectually correettd
neither eau we hope to plate •ny serious rettraii.t
epos it by reading morel lee:tures to the numerous

retailers and consumers Of contraband merchan-
dise. To increase the members employed in the
preventive service, would, we fear, but increase
the dreadful evils arising from these bsuditti, for
while some articles of foreign produce are totally
prohibited, and others charged with duties eiceed-
iug by 100 or 400 per cent, their primary value, the
premium upon smuggiing is too large and tempting
not to induce those who now pursue the system still
to practise it, even amidst greater and more ap-
palling dangers; nor should the very serious expense
of the service be overlooked. and how great a draw-
back from the revenue. which is sought to be pro.
tested and ilaproved, mia.t any further incree.e
of the numerous liners alrtitdy employed along
whole line of our coasts. The only means of giving
a deadly blow to smuggling, and of dissolving these-
formidable associations the now ineintaiu a con-
stant warfare with our sailors, used keep the coasts
of
„England in a continued awn! of alarm and
danger, would be. for the Governinent to remove
all absolute prohibitions of foreign articles used in
this country—to place upon them is fuir protective
duty wherever such stay be necessary, and to re-
duce, generally, the thin's upon all articles of
Frequent and ordinary consumption, until the tax
bear something of a proportion to the primary value
of the article. In graduating the duties with a view
to the prevention of sinuggliog, reference might be
had to the balk of the article, so that theditliculty of
the illicit importation arising from the inconvenient
magnitude of the merchandise might counteract
the temptation arising from the diffennice between•
the amount of the duties and the primary cost.
Every sound principle of political ecot any teaches
the wisdom of encouraging rather than c.f. preventing
the importation of all articles of foreig n produce ;
but without entering at prevent into th is great and
extensive question, we submit that • ven in it.
spect to the interests of the revenue of t Ire Crown,
and of our domestic insnufactorers and traders, it
would be wise to reduce the duties on but .h foreign
merchandises as are the principal objects of the
contraband trade, to such a point as words] destroy
the profits of the smuggler. The Go vernment
would, iu the first instance, save a large it, roportinn
of the expenses incurred by the newly-est ablisheil
preventive stenciler ; it would also derive ;from all
increased consumption an amount of duty probably
, not much inferior to theaet total now paid i ata the
Treasury ; and it would moreover derive a certain
duty from the whole of the public consumption of
these articles, instead of being cheated, es at pre-
sent, out of the duty which ought to be paid' upon
the large quantities that are clandestinely imported.
The absence of all contraband goods from the home
market would enable the dometic manufacturer to
compete on better terms pith his foreign rival,
and the fair and honest trader and retri!-4ealer—.
one of the most important classes of perilous-in-the
State—would be protected from the peini6oes4
effects of the smuggler's activity. There would be
no inequality nor clandestine preference, all persons
would enjoy equal advantages so far as the foreign
trade was concerned, and an increased commerce
would enlarge the sources of individual end general
prosperity. The existing system of prohibition
and extravagant restraints upon the mutual inter-
course of independent nations is unnatural, and
we cannot be surprised if we find excrescences
arising from it grating to our moral perceptions,
and injurious in their consequences to the general
welfare of mankind.
This is a subject which we hope will be investi•
gated carefully and anxiously by the Parliamentary
Committees that are now engaged in an inquirr,
into the means of promoting the foreign commerce*
of the empire. •

Paris Papers of Saturday and Sunday last!
have arrived at our office. The probable inten-
tions and movements of the Allied Emperors have
become unfortunately of too much importance to.
Europe Dot to give a considerable degree of interest:
even to the rumours that relate to theti. Their
Imperial Majesties still remain at Laybach, where it
is supposed they will contioue for about mother
month ; they wilt then, it is and, visit Italy. that
they might estimate the effects produced is that
country by their energetic interference in its domes-.
tic concerns.
The 'hurries Observer asserts that the insurrec-
tion in Moldavia and Wallachia has subsided. but
private letters from these countries, on the con-
trary. affirm that the spirit of the Greeks in favour
of their independence is more animated thin ever.
The Freud. Funds continue to prove the Kerber*,
confidence entertained by the monied o..en of Paris
in the stability of their own Governs:seat and the
tranquillity of Europe. No fears seem to be ester-.
mined in the Ekchaoge of Paris that France will be
required by the Allied Sovereigns to suffer the
march of foreign troops through her dominions. for-
ths purpose of astucking Spain,. and at all events.
it courit.t be forgotten that the K :NO has already
Loma hiatiorlf` wet to aceerld to such a recintst.—
Thllf Preuch Five per Cerrt s. on Saturday were
f. 113. Bank Stuck. 1,31:7 f. 50 c.
The East India Coaspani-'s Ship General Byrd,
was ell well at see on the 14 th February. latitude
and laugitude not ateetissetil.
Yesterday a Coast et Dineeters wan held at the
East India Mew, ale* Feast:. Wsapsa, Ea It
was appointed a Proviaissal Iklember of Council 4I
Busboy. ,