be at hand the opportunity to carry out this intention; and throughout
the history of our nation--at any rate from the thirteenth
century--that portion of England, the counties of Kent and Sussex,
which is adjacent to the Continent, has always been at once the most
tempted and the most inclined towards this offence. Notwithstanding
that there are many other localities which were rendered notorious by
generations of smugglers, yet these two between them have been
responsible for more incidents of this nature than all the rest put
together.

What I am anxious at first to emphasise is the fact that, although
smuggling rose to unheard-of importance as a national danger during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (and this is the period to
which we shall especially address ourselves presently as affording the
fullest and the most interesting information on an ingenious phase of
human energy), yet it was not a practice which suddenly rose into
prominence during that period. Human nature is much the same under
various kings and later centuries. Under similar circumstances men and
women perform similar actions. Confronted with the temptation to cheat
the Crown of its dues, you will find persons in the time of George V.
repeating the very crimes of Edward I. The difference is not so much
in degree of guilt as in the nature of the articles and the manner in
which they have been smuggled. To-day it may be cigars--centuries ago
it was wool. Although the golden age (if we may use the term) of
smuggling has long since passed, I am by no means unconvinced that if
the occasions of temptation recurred to carry on this trade as it was
pursued during the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth
centuries, there would not be found many who would be ready to apply
themselves to such a task. To some extent the modern improvements in
living, in education, and increased respect for lofty ideals would