Smuggling, and illicit distilling, were reckoned among venial crimes, but both were practised to an extent unknown at the present time. Let us take a few examples in chronological order. January 31st. "A band of twenty-eight smugglers were met with lately, loaded with bladders full of smuggled whiskey, supposed to amount to 140 gallons, on their way from the Highlands to Glasgow. The Excise Officers, who met them, being only two in number, dared not attack them, and they all got off." The next reminds us somewhat forcibly of some late smuggling from one of Her Majesty's yachts: "February 23rd. The following singular occurrence, has, it is reported, taken place, very recently, at Woolwich. A transport, laden with Ordnance Stores unfit for further service, arrived from the French Coasts for the purpose of returning them, and remained some days before the unloading began: it at length took place, when, it is added, some inquisitive officers of the Customs requested to examine the Contents of the articles, and discovered that what was considered, and marked on the packages, as shot, shell, rockets, and other combustibles, consisted of Claret, Champagne, silks, lace, &c. The whole, it is said, were immediately seized, amounting to a considerable sum." This plan seems to have been tried on again, for in the _Annual Register_, 30th March, is a similar case, in which it is said that there were goods to the value of £7,000, for one man, packed up as "Return Congreve Rockets." The same Magazine, copying from a Glasgow paper, gives under date August 30th, the following: "How much soever the regular commerce of the Country is impaired by the present pressure, there is no question that the smuggling trade continues in extreme vivacity. This extraordinary traffic appears to be conducted with a publicity that could scarcely be credited but on the testimony of one's own sight. The Smugglers, or as they are styled from the manner of Conveying the Whiskey, _Flaskers_, go in large bands on the highroads in open day, and laugh at the traveller, who, by his looks, expresses wonder at contravention of the law so undisguised, and yet so undetected. On Monday night, for instance, a gang of twenty-four, with the order of so many soldiers, and under the directions of a leader who frequently called on those lagging behind 'to keep up,' marched through Springbank, and the neighbouring hamlets to Cowcaddens (in the suburbs of Glasgow), where, in the face of numbers of persons, some of whom bawled out 'Success to Smuggling,' they entered a house, and deposited their laden flasks, until the shades of night would enable them to penetrate in safety to their re-setters in Glasgow. We are informed that the places of distillation are nearly as notorious to the inhabitants of their vicinity, as the methods of conveyance; and whoever of the neighbours choose to make a visit to the popular distillers are regaled with undiluted spirit, wherewith to drink confusion to the Excise.