Chancellor of the Exchequer to captains of his Majesty's sloops to
make seizures, and the following year the Treasury authorised the
construction of seven sloops for service off the coast of Scotland.
The smugglers had in fact become so desperate, the English Channel was
so thoroughly infested with them, and the Revenue service was so
incapable of dealing with them in the manner that was obviously
essential for effectiveness, that the Admiralty ordered the captains
and commanders of His Majesty's ships to assist the Revenue officers
all they could in order to prevent the smuggling trade, and to look
out and seize all vessels employed in illegally exporting wool; for
the Admiralty had been informed by the Commissioners of Customs that
the Revenue officers frequently met with insults from French smuggling
luggers manned by armed crews, who carried on a brisk smuggling trade
by force and even dared the Revenue men to come aboard them.

But as the Revenue service afloat was assisted now by the Navy, so the
Revenue land guard was also aided by the Military. In 1713
arrangements had been made that dragoons should co-operate with the
riding officers in their operations against the owlers, and there are
plenty of skirmishes recorded showing that the dragoons were actually
so employed. Originally these soldiers were employed under the
direction of the riding officers, but, as can well be expected, there
was a good deal of jealousy and friction caused through the sharing of
the soldiers in the rewards for seizures, and after the year 1822 this
military assistance was not utilised to any great extent, although
legally Army officers can still be called upon to render assistance
against smuggling. And, in passing, one might mention that this
co-operation afloat between the Customs men and the Navy was equally
noticeable for a certain amount of ill-feeling, as we shall mention
on a later page.