# Manx Primary Source Archive — Transcription

**Source image:** `20260219_140949.jpg`  
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-25 19:26  
**Method:** Automated (Claude Batch API — claude-opus-4-6)

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the Commodities they want in the Island, and to carry
them over at their own Risque at appointed Times
and Places, when, and where they Assemble to receive
them in Numbers, and with a Force too formidable
for the Officers of the Revenue, with any small Military
Parties that can be collected in those parts, to attempt
to disturb them: Nor do your Memorialists apprehend
that even a much larger Body of Infantry than is
now stationed upon the West Coast, would answer any
very good purpose, as the dexterity of the Smugglers
is so great that in a quarter of an hour the Cargo of
a Boat can be unloaded, and placed on Horseback;
upon which the Smugglers mount, and in case of
danger, gallop off through an extensive wild mountainous
Country, where no Troops, but light Horse, can possibly
pursue, and overtake them.

That the Vessels employed by the Officers of the
Revenue on that Coast are generally of small Force,
and it has frequently happened that when they have
pressed hard upon Boats from the Isle of Man, they
have been fired upon from such Boats; That it is not
indeed possible to prove that the Persons who fired
were actually Inhabitants of Man, but that Your
Memorialists apprehend, cannot render the Act of
Hostility less; it is an attempt to carry on an
illicit and prejudicial Commerce by force of Arms,
and to intimidate the Servants of the Revenue
from