time. In addition, there were a number of men called "duffers," who
used to walk inland wearing coats in which a hundred-weight of tea was
concealed between two layers of cloth stitched together. They were
accordingly said to "quilt" so much of this commodity. These duffers,
having set forth on their walk, would eventually arrive in London and
dispose of the tea to hawkers who, in turn, carried it about the town
and sold it to the consumers, who, even if they had possessed any
scruples, could not possibly know that the leaves had been smuggled in
without paying the Crown's levy.

But it was not merely by exercising the strictest vigilance on the
activities of the Government sloops and land officers, nor entirely by
resort to trickery and violence, to threats and intimidation that the
smugglers managed to keep out of the hands of justice. They even
advanced one step further still, for there was a man named Norton
whom they employed as their agent to defend them against prosecutions.
This Norton at one time had actually been in the employ of the Crown
as clerk of the late Solicitor to the Customs. And it was generally
believed that Norton by some means--most probably by offering tempting
bribes--obtained news from the clerks of the Customs' solicitor when a
smuggler was likely to be arrested and a warrant was about to be
issued. Norton was then supposed to give the smuggler an immediate
warning and the man was able to make himself scarce. It was quite an
easy operation, for in those days when there was no telegraph and no
steamboat service across the Channel, all the "wanted" man had to do
was instantly to board his cutter, set sail, and hurry across to
France or Holland, where he was sure of a welcome, where also he could
employ himself in arranging for cargoes to be run into England perhaps
in the very vessel which had brought him across. There were plenty of
his compatriots resident in Flushing, so he need not feel homesick,