spector of tobacco, nor by any person acting under the authority of any one of said inspectors of tobacco; but that the said Turner exported it from said city to Bremen, in Germany, without having procured it to be weighed, passed, and marked by any such inspector of tobacco, or by any person acting under the authority of any one of said inspectors of tobacco. The second count contained the same allegations, and the further averment that the said Turner did not, prior to said exporta tion, pay or cause to be paid any sum of money due for outage, or any sum of money due for storage, to the State of Maryland, on said hogshead, to any such inspector of tobacco, or to any other person having authority to receive the same, although certain sums of money were due and payable by him to said State for outage and storage on said hogshead.

Separate demurrers were filed to each count of the indictment, and then a written stipulation was filed by the parties, as follows: "It is agreed in this case, 1. That the matters and facts charged in the indictment in this case are true, as therein stated. 2. That for the more speedy final determination of the questions of law involved in this case the demurrers which the traverser has entered to this indictment shall be overruled pro forma by the court. 3. That after such overruling of the demurrers the case shall be forthwith submitted to the court, without the intervention of a jury, upon the admission contained in the first paragraph of this agreement." The demurrers were then overruled. The court then rendered a judgment that Turner pay a fine of $300. On the same day, Turner, by petition to said criminal court, setting forth that he had been adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and by the judgment of said court ordered to pay the sum of $300 to said State, prayed an appeal to the Court of Appeals of Maryland, assigning errors in the record. That court affirmed the judgment, and Turner has brought the case into this court by a writ of error, alleging that the statutes of Maryland on which the indictment was founded, and the validity of which was sustained by the State court, are repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.

It is claimed by the detendant in error that the statutory provisions the validity of which is denied by the plaintiff in

error are "inspection laws," within the meaning of clause 2 of section 10 of article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which clause is as follows: "No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net proceeds of all duties and-imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress."

By chapter 346 of the laws of Maryland of 1864, a new tobacco inspection law was enacted, as part of the code of public local laws, in place of and expressly repealing certain portions of said code. Sect. 1 provides for the appointment of five tobacco inspectors, one for each State tobacco warehouse in the city of Baltimore. By sect. 5 each tobacco inspector is required to employ such clerks and laborers, and provide and keep on hand such books, implements, and materials, as may be necessary for the economical and effective discharge of his duties as such inspector, and the salaries of the various clerks and laborers are prescribed, to be paid from the receipts in the respective offices, with the requirement that the inspectors shall at no time employ more labor than shall be necessary for the effective performance of the work to be done. There are provisions to facilitate the landing of tobacco at the wharves in front of the warehouses, and its removal therefrom, and to secure the safe preservation of the tobacco after its delivery at the warehouse. Sect. 10 is as follows: "It shall be the duty of each tobacco inspector to cause each hogshead of tobacco landed or delivered at the warehouse to which he is appointed to be numbered in succession as received, and to cause said number to be entered in a book kept for that purpose, together with the time said hogshead was received, the name of the vessel or other conveyance, if known to him, by which said hogshead was brought to the city of Baltimore, and of the owner or consignee of said tobacco, and the initials or other marks on said hogshead, identifying the same; and, when said hogshead shall be removed from said warehouse, he shall cause an entry to be made, in some book kept for that purpose, of the time when the same was so removed, the name of the per

son to whom the same was delivered, and of the vessel or other conveyance by which the same was taken away." It is provided by sect. 12 that each inspector shall cause all the tobacco in the warehouse to which he may have been appointed to be inspected as speedily as practicable, in regular order, as numbered; and by sect. 13 that he shall cause each hogshead of tobacco, before it is uncased, to be weighed, and the tobacco in each hogshead and the cask itself to be separately weighed, and the weight of each hogshead, as first weighed, and the gross and net weight of the tobacco therein contained, after inspection, to be entered in a proper book, with sufficient reference to its marks and numbers as previously recorded; and by sect. 14 that he shall mark on the side of each hogshead, with a marking-iron, its warehouse number and weight, and the net weight of tobacco contained therein, and its warehouse number on each head, with blacking; and, by succeeding sections, that he shall uncase and break all tobacco, in whatever State raised, and draw samples from each hogshead, and tie each lot of samples together, and label it with the warehouse number of the hogshead, and the number of the warehouse, and the date of inspection, and the name of its owner, or, if known, the initials or other marks on the hogshead, and deliver it sealed, if the tobacco be merchantable, to the owner, with a certificate stating the date of inspection, the warehouse mark and number of the hogshead, the weight thereof, and the net weight of the tobacco in it, and that unmerchantable tobacco shall be reconditioned, packed, reweighed, and reinspected, and then sampled and certified; and by sect. 27 that every hogshead shall be liable to the charge of $1.50 outage, if weighing less than 1,100 pounds, and to 15 cents additional for every 100 pounds, which shall be paid by the purchaser thereof to the inspector, before it is removed. Penalties are imposed by sect.. 40 for erasing, altering, or adding to any mark placed by the inspector on any hogshead or any label of any sample, and for fraudulently taking any tobacco from a sample, or substituting other tobacco for any in such sample, and for counterfeiting any inspector's certificate or seal. Sect. 41 is as follows: "After the passage of this act, it shall not be lawful to carry out of this State, in hogsheads, any tobacco raised in this State,

except in hogsheads which shall have been inspected, passed, and marked agreeably to the provisions of this act, unless such tobacco shall have been inspected and passed before this act goes into operation; and any person violating the provisions of this section shall forfeit and pay the sum of three hundred dollars, which may be recovered in any court of law of this State, and which shall go to the credit of the tobacco fund." This section was amended by chapter 291 of the laws of 1870, by reenacting it with the following addition: “Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit any grower of tobacco, or any purchaser thereof, who may pack the same in the county or neighborhood where grown, from exporting or carrying out of this State any such tobacco without having the same opened for inspection; but such tobacco so exported or carried out of this State without inspection shall in all cases be marked with the name in full of the owner thereof, and the place of residence of such owner, and shall be liable to the same charge of outage and storage as in other cases, and any person who shall carry or send out of this State any such tobacco, without having it so marked, shall be subject to the penalty prescribed by this section." Sect. 42 prescribes the size of the casks in which tobacco raised in Maryland shall be packed, and forbids the inspector to inspect or pass it until packed in a hogshead of proper dimensions.

By chapter 36 of the laws of 1872, entitled "An Act to add a new article to the code of public general laws regulating the inspection of tobacco," some additional regulations were made, and some existing provisions were re-enacted, and some changes were made, and all inconsistent provisions of law were repealed; but the only material additions or changes made, so far as the present case is concerned, were these: By sect. 11, every inspector shall have uncased and break every hogshead of tobacco delivered for inspection, in so many places for Maryland and Ohio, and in so many places for Kentucky and Virginia, and, if the tobacco is sound, take a sample, and mark the hogshead with its number, the year of inspection, and the initials of the owner on each head and on the bilge, and the tare and net weight on the bilge. By sect. 15, each inspector shall keep in a book "the name of the owner, the number, gross, tare, and

net weight of every hogshead of tobacco inspected by him, the State where grown, the consignee of the same, the name of the vessel by which shipped out, and the name of the party shipping the same, and for every hogshead so inspected by him he shall issue his certificate or note, stating in such certificate or note the name or initials of the owner, the number of the hogshead, the State where grown, the date of inspection, and the gross, tare, and net weight of the hogshead, and he shall make no delivery of inspected tobacco from his warehouse except upon surrender of the certificate or note corresponding with the number of the hogshead." By sect. 26, "no tobacco of the growth of this State shall be passed or accounted lawful tobacco unless the same be packed in hogsheads not exceeding fifty-four inches in length of the staves, nor exceeding forty-six inches across the head, and the owner, or his agent, of tobacco packed in any hogshead of greater dimensions shall repack the same in hogsheads of the size herein prescribed, at his own expense, before the same shall be passed."

By chapter 228 of the laws of 1872, the charge for outage is fixed at $2 for every hogshead not exceeding 1,100 pounds, and 12 cents additional on every 100 pounds over 1,100 pounds, to be paid by the shipper of the tobacco, or his agent.

In order to determine whether the statutory provisions in question are obnoxious to the objection made, their meaning must be ascertained. The act of 1864 requires the inspector to examine the hogshead to ascertain whether it is of the required dimensions, and then to inspect the tobacco itself' by sampling the contents, and, when this has been done, and the weight ascertained, the hogshead is passed. In regard to the addition made by the act of 1870, c. 291, to sect. 41 of the act of 1864, the grower or purchaser of tobacco packed in the county or neighborhood where it is grown is permitted to export the same without having the hogshead opened for inspection by sampling its contents; but the act, requires such hogshead to be marked with the name and residence of the owner, and it is made liable to the charge of outage as in other cases, and any one violating its provisions is subjected to the penalty imposed by sect. 41 of the act of 1864. The act of 1870, in thus permitting the grower or purchaser of tobacco