After the 10th of October 1814 the allowance for victualling the crews of the Revenue cruisers was augmented as follows:—­For victualling commander and mate, 3s. a day each and 1s. 6d. per lunar month for fire and candle.  For victualling, fire, and candle for mariners, 1s. 10d. a day each.  The daily rations to be supplied to each mariner on board the cruisers were to consist of 1-1/2 lbs. of meat, 1-1/2 lbs. of bread, and two quarts of beer.  If flour or vegetables were issued the quantity of bread was to be reduced, and if cheese were supplied then the amount was to be reduced in proportion to the value and not to the quantity of such articles.  And, in order to obtain uniformity, a table of the rations as above was to be fixed up against the fore side of the mast under the deck of the cruiser, and also in some conspicuous place in the Custom House.

Very elaborate instructions were also issued regarding the use of the tourniquet, which “is to stop a violent bleeding from a wounded artery in the limbs till it can be properly secured and tied by a surgeon.”  The medicine chest of these cruisers contained the following twenty articles:  vomiting powders, purging powders, sweating powders, fever powders, calomel pills, laudanum, cough drops, stomach tincture, bark, scurvy drops, hartshorn, peppermint, lotion, Friar’s balsam, Turner cerate, basilicon (for healing “sluggish ulcers"), mercurial ointment, blistering ointment, sticking-plaster, and lint.

In short, with its fleet of cruisers well armed and well manned, well found in everything necessary both for ship and crew; with good wages, the offer of high rewards, and pensions; with other privileges second only to those obtainable in the Royal Navy; the Customs Board certainly did their best to make the floating branch of its Preventive service as tempting and efficient as it could possibly be.  And that there were not more captures of smugglers was the fault at any rate not of those who had the administration of these cutters.

[Illustration:  H.M.  CUTTER WICKHAM Commanded by Captain John Fullarton, R.N.  From a contemporary painting in the possession of Dr. Robertson-Fullarton of Kilmichael.]

A very good idea as to the appearance of a nineteenth century Revenue cruiser may be obtained by regarding the accompanying photographs of his Majesty’s cutter Wickham.  These have been courteously supplied to me by Dr. Robertson-Fullarton of Kilmichael, whose ancestor, Captain Fullarton, R.N., had command of this vessel.  The original painting was made in 1806, and shows a fine, able vessel with ports for seven guns a-side, being painted after the manner of the contemporary men-of-war.  To facilitate matters the central portion of the picture has been enlarged, and thus the rigging and details of the Wickham can be closely examined.  It will be observed that this cutter has beautiful bows with a fine, bold sheer, and would doubtless possess both