'
"'Not at all,' said I, 'lead is the very identical thing. If a man
don't like the statue and its price, and it's like as not he wont, he
will like the lead. There is no duty on statuary, but there is more
than thirty per cent. on lead. The duty alone is a fortune of not less
than thirty thousand pounds, after all expenses are paid.'
"'Well now,' said he, throwing back his head and laughing, 'that is
the most ingenious device to evade duties I ever heard of.'
"I immediately gave orders to my agents at Liverpool to send so many
tons to Washington and every port and place on the seaboard of the
United States except New York, but not too many to any one town; and
then I took passage in a steamer, and ordered all my agents to close
the consignment immediately, and let the lead hero change hands. It
was generally allowed to be the handsomest operation ever performed in
our country. Connecticut offered to send me to Congress for it, the
folks felt so proud of me.
"But I don't call that smugglin'. It is a skilful reading of a revenue
law. My idea of smugglin' is, there is the duty, and there is the
penalty; pay one and escape the other if you like, if not, run your
chance of the penalty. If the state wants revenue, let it collect its
dues. If I want my debts got in, I attend to drummin' them up together
myself; let government do the same. There isn't a bit of harm in
smugglin'.
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