It was a common saying among them that, if a gallows were set up every quarter of a mile along the coast, the trade would still go on briskly.

It had been discovered, some years before, that the vessels and the hiding places which were necessary to the business of the smuggler had frequently afforded accommodation to the traitor.

The report contained fresh evidence upon this point.

It was proved that one of the contrabandists had provided the vessel in which the ruffian O'Brien had carried Scum Goodman over to France.
The inference which ought to have been drawn from these facts was that the prohibitory system was absurd.

That system had not destroyed the trade which was so much dreaded, but had merely called into existence a desperate race of men who, accustomed to earn their daily bread by the breach of an unreasonable law, soon came to regard the most reasonable laws with contempt, and, having begun by eluding the custom house officers, ended by conspiring against the throne.