also sent word that the five men should be tried before one of their
Courts of Judicature on the following Thursday, were he to fail to
send the money. As the captain declined to accede to their demands,
the five prisoners were on July 5 brought up and remanded till a month
later. Finding it was impossible to obtain their release the commander
of the _Sincerity_ weighed anchor and ran back to Ramsey to take in
the six released men, and then, sailing away to Whitehaven, arrived at
that place on the 10th of July.

We need not say more. The story is sufficient to indicate the utter
state of lawlessness which prevailed there. Peopled by outlaws and by
the scum of France, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and England, they were
a pretty tough proposition. Their violence was rivalled only by their
impudence; and fleets of wherries[8] would sail in company into
Ireland and Scotland loaded with cargoes of cheap brandy, which had
been brought from Holland for that purpose. As a means of checking
these Manx smugglers it was suggested that the English Government
should employ a number of tenders in this neighbourhood, since they
drew less water than the sloops-of-war and so would be more useful for
a locality that was not well supplied with deep harbours. Moreover,
these tenders would be well able to take the ground in the harbours
which dried out. Such craft as the latter were of about 160 tons,
mounted twelve to fourteen carriage guns, and were manned by a
captain, second officer, two mates, two quartermasters, a gunner, a
boatswain, carpenter, surgeon, and forty seamen.

From the south-east corner of England came reports not much better.
Just before the close of the year 1743 the Surveyor at Margate and his
men were out on duty along the coast one night when five of them came
upon a gang of about twenty-five smugglers. An encounter quickly