PART II.
THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE BADGER REVENUE CUTTER AND A SMUGGLER.
THIS incident took place in or about 1817 or 1818, and excited no little attention at the time. A smuggling vessel, the Vier de Brudas ( Four Brothers) sailed from Flushing laden with a cargo of tobacco and spirits, and was bound ostensibly to the Faroe Islands.
The English law at that time prohibited British vessels from carrying spirits in casks containing less than sixty gallons, and tobacco and snuff in bales of less than four hundred and fifty pounds ; these weights being beyond the strength of any man to carry. Tea was prohibited altogether, and no vessel was allowed to have more than six pounds on board. The whole of the tea used in the British Islands was imported by the East India Company, which enjoyed a monopoly of the trade. London was the only port to which tea could be imported, and the duties thereon paid. Hence the smuggling of tea from France, in which country tea paid little or no duty. Hence also sprang up a species of smuggling along the south coast, and which was pretty extensively -
