Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/104

88 Coffee that is hawked about is not smuggled as is pretended: it is stolen, or inferior, or jobbed for against other goods.

and are generally as good as the regular trade, sometimes better, and make the single exception in that respect, and as to cheapness, of any smuggled articles, you may perhaps obtain prime moulds at one shilling per doz. less than dipt candles; and about as much saving may be made upon soap.

But that species of contraband which is carried on to the largest extent, and is most ruinous to those engaged in it, is the distillation of ardent spirits; at one and the same time, the easiest effected, and the hardest to work at of all the illicit manufactures, as the article is difficult to dispose of when made, for publicans hesitate before they embark in a trade, from the trammels of which they can never be free. The makers and vendors frequently turn round upon their heel, and inform against the purchasers; upon whom, if they are licensed victuallers, the penalties are treble,—and the exise commissioners seldom relax so much on this as they do upon other offences.