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GUY MANNERING.
127
CHAPTER IX.
Paint Scotland greeting ower her thrissle,
Her mutchkin stoup as toom's a whistle,
An' dmn'd excisemen in a bustle.
Seizing a stell;
Triumphant crushing't like a mussell,
Or lampit shell.
During the period of Mr Bertram's active magistracy, he did not forget the affairs of the revenue. Smuggling, for which the Isle of Man then afforded peculiar facilities, was general, or rather universal, all along the south-western coast of Scotland. Almost all the common people were engaged in these practices, the gentry connived at them, and the officers of the revenue were frequently discountenanced in the exercise of their duty, by those who should have protected them.
