CAPTAIN MAT'S WAGER.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1069, 6 August 1883, Page 4

CAPTAIN MAT'S WAGER.

"" XIT E R ATX R E.

The wind was howling up to Garrick-, fergus Lough. It had for days previously been howling steadily from j the nprthreast,. and now there was such a gale rushing past the Gobbins on the v.one;side and Donaghadee on the other, outward-bound vessels did not carei to tempt that which the Channel might have in store for them, but lay snug in Belfast harbor,; or, lower down the lough, rode at anchor as near shore as was safe and practicable. Good fires, good company, gbod liquor, and a roof over his head will however, go far to make a man comfortable in almost any weather, and on that stormy, night, when it was blowing g&at guns along a treacheious coast, Mr Peters, . known to all in that country side as the ‘ the gauger ’ seated in the best parlor of Widow Campbell’s public house at Eden, near Carrickfergns, certainly did not enjoy the merits of a particularly strong tumbler of punch any the less because the waves in the lough were tossing like mad creatures, and there was no likelihood of any change in the. weather, unless indeed that change might be for the worse, for 12 hours at any rate. In such a gale, and with such a sea running, there was not a man in the north who could ever think of trying to run a cargo, unless indeed it might be Captain Mat, and there in the flesh, and a good deal of it, sat Captain Mat before him partaking of his ‘tumbler’ also, and judiciously abstaining from praising too loudly whiskey which he was well aware had never ; paid the King sixpence. The habits of all ranks were differ ent then from what they are now. Life was simpler—no better perhaps, and probably not much worse than it is at the present tim<v but certainly not fettered by such hard and fast rules of expediency and propriety as harass the souls of easy-going people at this period of the world’s history. For example, if in 1881 an officer of excise were known to, spend his 1 off hours ’ in the society of a suspected smuggler—to meet him in public-houses, and hobnob with him across a round deal table set close in front of a roaring fire, someone in- authority would find a good deal to say on the subject; nay, possibly a member of Parliament might be found to stand up in the House, and inquire ‘if it were true, as reported,’ &c.; but sixty-five years ago, and even later, nobody troubled his head about such . I matters. A certain amount of work had .to be done,, and, providing it were done, a too rigid inquiry was never instituted as to the modus operandi. Besides, if Mr Peters had consorted with these only who were guiltless of defrauding the revenue, he must eil her have remained solitary or sought the society of his own underlings For it would have been very hard indeed in those days to find anyone who rendered onto Caasar’tho’things that were Cresar’s, unless he was made to do so. The popular feeling ran that it was right to cheat Ciesar, and it is only due to the populace to say they devoted themselves to the cause .they considered just with an ardour and constancy deserving of all praise. Who was not either thief or receiver ? —who did not run cargoes, or take share of the spoil ?—who failed to wink at practices which assuredly could not be considered legal ? Indeed, it would be very hard to say. The ten righteous ' men Abraham sought for in Sodom, and songht in vain, were not more difficult to find than ten men on that coast who did not get something out of smuggling, in ‘meal or in malt.’ # » 0 * So far, Captain Mat had kept himself out of reach of the law. HeJ was a man whoj deals in many things, and made his money in various expedients, some of which were perfectly harmless. He| own vessels—he owned houses—he owned land—he held a local appointment, which, it may be presumed, was not connected with government—he was a keen politician, and always at election lime made himself very busy,on behalf of the Tory candidates 1 Oh such occasions he sold his vote, his services and his influence at a high rate. He it was who, after having made a number of free and independent electors —who could not be bribed by the Orange side—drank, conveyed them to the Copeland Islands, where, without a boat, he left the men to repent their contumacy till after the fight was over. Possessed of a most fertile brain he proved invaluable to the party he flavoured; and the stories he told of such periods convulsed Mr Peters with laughter, and always—no matter how ‘ contrary ’ things had gone in the day—sent him to his bed at night, when he was able to go to bed, in better temper. Mr Peters was an Englishman who had been sent to Carrickfergns to try if he could disperse the gang that eluded the; vigilance of -‘ gauger after gauger.’ Things were done on that coast which Seemed to the Government incredible, except on the assumption that coastguardsmen and excisemen were in league with the enemy. Whiskey, for example placed in the king’s stores, the locks of which were* sealed with/the king’s seal, was found, when the doors were in due time opened, to contain water ; and it was well known that for years * poteen ’ had been openly conveyed into Belfast as ‘ buttermilk.’ About Mr Peter’s honesty there was no doubt, but though he had come to the town with the full confidence of the authorities in his cleverness, and with the determination of sweeping the lough ■ clear of smugglers, so far the country side and himself and Government were precisely in the same condition as when he landed in Ireland. Indeed his presence was regarded rather as a good jest. The very beggars took his measure the first day he walked past the Court House, the broad step of which building was a favourite resort of tliat numerous class. ‘ God help him, he’s soft ns butter,’

they remarked while Captain Mat, after one apparently casual interview on ’the parade, declared the new-comer to< be ‘ green as a gosling.’ ■ Chapters will scarcely contain: an account of the practical jokes which were played off on the mi fortunate man. He was deluged with ‘ sure information, which always proved incorrect ; he was induced to go on fojol’s errands to all sorts of ridiculous places ; he was kept up at night and harassed during the day ; he was. ‘ warned ’ and he was ‘ threatened taken by a 1 spy ’ to the Rocking Stone in Island Magee, and left there at twelve o’clock p.tm to find his way home as best he could. ; There was hot” an inch of the Commons, or the Kuockagh, or the Cave Hill, or the Whitehead, or the Goblijns, his weary feet had not been 1 induced) to tread, bnt he made no seizure. The thin bine smoke of the stills mocked Him from afar—smoke which disappeared; as by magic when he drew near. He forgot that if he watched, others wpre watching too, that, sharp though his eyes might be, other eyes were sharper, and that he had to deal with a population who, even for the sport of the thing, delighted in cheating him in his dual character as an Englishman and an excise man. But he was brave. Captain Mat himself, who did not know the meaning of fear, acknowledged that fact, and the quality, combined with an almost childlike credulity and a geniality which caused him to enjoy life and overlook many offences induced the people to regard him, eventually, with a sort ,of liking, that made them hope he wotild not run himself into any harm, or force them in self defence to ‘do him ! a damage.’ By all parties it was clearly understood that if the best friends should happen, unfortunately, to meet ranged on different sides, no quarter would be asked or given. On the part of the smugglers there was no desire, to kill anybody—quite the contrary.—bnt they would kill if necessary. The captain of the cutter Firefly had been found on the shore beyond Kilroot, shot dead ; and Templecorra and Carrickfergns churchyards contained more than one grave where lay those who had fallen in hand-to-hand’ encounters along the coast; and thus Mr Peters felt no doubt that even Captain Mat, if a necessity arose, would stab him under the fifth rib, or in any other part of his body ; whilst he knew very well if he met the captain in command of a party he would shoot him like a dog, and feel no more remorse for what he had done afterwards. At that time the cholera was decimating the north of Ireland. Periodically, epidemics must attack any population ill fed, badly clothed, wretchedly housed. In the towns the disease made, of course, greater ravages; but even on lonely homes on hillsides people were dying in a manner to appal the stoutest heart. Captain Mat, by way of choosing a pleasant subject, was talking about the cholera. If the wind had set the other way, now,’ he remarked, * the disease might have a chance of blowing out to sea; but, as matters are, it will only get carried further inland, for the next gale from the south-west to bring back again. They have got it now at Lisburn, I hear; and a man was telling me he hears it has broken out in Armagh.’ ‘ It is dreadful to think of the people dying like cattle,’ said Mr Peters. ‘ Government ought to do something.’ ‘ King George is not the Almighty so far as ever I heard,’ answered Capt. Mat. ‘ That is true, bnt still do you not think if the sick were better cared for, and the houses cleaned, and good food and medicine supplied in proper time—•’ (To he continued.)