"According to the information laid before the Commissioners of the Customs, the mode of proceeding seems to have been this:--the steam vessel from Calais which brought the goods, arriving generally after night had set in, and the navigation of the Pool hazardous, was moored at some spot lower down than its place of destination, thus deferring the making the entries at the Custom House until the following morning. A waterman, who was regularly employed with a barge on the river, was engaged by the parties to lie off the steam vessel, which he was only to approach on a signal previously concerted. He then received on board his barge various packages, which he secured by locking up in the cabin. Consultations were held at the time when the first of these transactions took place, upon the mode of taking these packages ashore least likely to excite suspicion. After various plans were proposed, the expedient was resorted to of using wine hampers, which were landed at one of the stairs in Thames Street, and carried by porters to the warehouses for which they were intended. Another waterman, in addition to the first, was associated in these transactions, and both of them, if the case had proceeded, were to have been witnesses on the part of the Crown. It is not a little remarkable that these men were led to tell all they knew in the business through some advantage taken of them, as they conceived, in paying them for a smaller number of parcels than they had delivered. "After two or three of these transactions had been completed, it began to be considered no longer safe to land the parcels within the precincts of the City; but a place higher up the river, near Battersea, was resorted to; and, as in this case the distance was much more considerable, the goods were carried home in carts. At length, when the number of transactions had amounted to ten or twelve, the bargemen seemed to have thought the affair ripe for exposure, and determined on making it. They gave information of the most precise kind respecting a landing intended to take place, in the beginning of August last, at the Battersea station. Persons were employed in different places for the purpose, and a cart was watched from and to a warehouse in the City belonging to Leaf and Co., at the door of which the goods were seized by a proper officer, and notice of it was given to Mr. Leaf, who happened to be at home at the time. They were afterwards taken to the Custom House. The total valuation of the goods taken on this occasion was something under £700.