and shall have no opening or entrance except the one from the street, on which separate and different locks of the custom-house and the owner or proprietor of the cellars or vaults shall be placed.

SECTION 2. Unclaimed goods, wares, or merchandise required by existing laws to be taken possession of by collectors of the customs, may be stored in any public warehouse owned or leased by the United States, or in any private bonded warehouse authorized by this act, and all charges for storage, labor, and other expenses accruing on any such goods, wares, or merchandise, not to exceed in any case the regular rates for such objects at the port in question, must be paid before delivery of the goods on due entry thereof by the claimant or owner; or if sold as unclaimed goods to realize the import duties, the aforesaid charges shall be paid by the collector out of the proceeds of the sale thereof, before paying such proceeds into the Treasury, as required by existing laws. And any collector of the customs is hereby authorized, under such directions and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, to sell upon due notice, at public auction, any unclaimed goods, wares, or merchandise deposited in public warehouse, whenever the same may, from depre ciation in value, damage, leakage, or other cause, in the opinion of such collector, be likely to prove insufficient on a sale thereof to pay the duties, storage, and other charges if suffered to remain in public store for the period now allowed by law in the case of unclaimed goods. SECTION 3. Before any of the stores or cellars aforesaid, owned or occupied by private individuals, shall be used as a warehouse for merchandise imported by other merchants or importers, the owner, occupant or lessee thereof shall enter into bond, in such sums and with such sureties as may be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, exonerating and holding the United States and its officers harmless from or on account of any risk, loss, or expense of any kind, or description, connected with or arising from the deposit or keeping of the merchandise in the warehouse aforesaid; and all imports deposited in any public or private warehouse authorized by this act, shall be at the sole and exclusive risk and expense of the owner or importer.

SECTION 4. All goods, wares, and merchandise which may be hereafter duly entered for warehousing under bond, and likewise all merchandise now remaining in warehouse under bond, may continue in warehouse, without payment of duties thereupon, for a period of three years from the date of original importation, and may be withdrawn for consumption on due entry and payment of the duties and charges, or upon entry for exportation, without the payment of duties, at any time within the period aforesaid; in the latter case, the goods to be subject only to the payment of such storage and charges as may be due thereon: Provided, however, That where the duties shall have been paid upon any goods, wares, or merchandise entered for consumption, said duties shall not be refunded on exportation of any such goods, wares, or merchandise, without the limits of the United States: And provided further, That there shall be no abatement of the duties or allowance made for any injury, damage, deterioration, loss, or leakage sustained by any goods, wares, or merchandise, whilst deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse established or recognized by this act. SECTION 5. Any goods, wares, or merchandise, duly entered for warehousing, may be withdrawn under bond, without payment of the duties, from a bonded warehouse in any collection district of the United States, and be transported to a bonded warehouse in any other collection district within the same, and re-warehoused thereat; and any such goods, wares, or merchandise, may be so transported to their destination wholly by land, or wholly by water, or partly by land and partly by water, over such routes as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, and may likewise be conveyed over any foreign Territory, the government of which may have, or shall by treaty stipulations grant a free right of way over such territory; and for the purpose of better guarding against frauds upon the revenue on foreign goods transported between the ports of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific overland through any foreign territory, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby authorized to appoint special sworn agents as inspectors of the customs, to reside in said foreign territory where such goods may be landed or embarked, with power to superintend the landing or shipping of all goods passing coastwise between the ports of the United States on the Pacific and Atlantic, and whose duty it shall be, under such regulations and instructions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, to guard against the perpetration of any frauds upon the revenue: Provided, That the compensation paid to said inspectors shall not in the aggregate exceed five thousand dollars per annum.

SECTION 6. The Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe the form of the bond to be given for the transportation of goods, wares, and merchandise, from a port in one collection district to a port in another collection district in the United States, as provided in the preceding section; also the time for such delivery; and for a failure to transport and deliver, within the time limited, any such bonded goods, wares, and merchandise, to the collector at the designated port, an additional duty of one hundred per cent. shall be levied and collected, which additional duty shall be secured by such bond, or said goods, wares, and merchandise may be seized and forfeited for such failure, and any steam or other vessel, or vehicle transporting such bonded goods, wares, and merchandise, the master, owner, or conductor of which shall fail to deliver the same to the collector at the designated port, shall be liable to seizure and forfeiture.

SECTION 7. All leases of stores now held by the United States for the purpose of storing

warehoused or unclaimed goods, shall, on the shortest period of termination named in said leases, be cancelled, and no leases shall be entered into by the United States for any stores for the storage of warehoused or unclaimed goods at any port where there may exist any private bonded warehouses, after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-five· Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the leasing or hiring of such buildings or accommodation as may be required for the use of the United States' appraisers for the due examination and appraisal of imported merchandise at the ports where such officers are provided by law, nor to prohibit the leasing or hiring by collectors of the customs, for short periods, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, of such stores as may be required for custom-house purposes, at any of the smaller revenue ports of the United States: Provided, That no collector or other officer of the customs shall enter into any contract or agreement for the use of any building to be thereafter erected as a public store or warehouse, and no lease of any building to be so used shall be taken for a longer period than three years, nor shall rent be paid, in whole or in part, in any case, in advance. SECTION 8. The Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized, upon production of satisfactory proof to him of the actual injury or destruction in whole or in part of any goods, wares, or merchandise, by accidental fire, or other casualty, while the same rerained in the custody of the officers of the customs in any public or private warehouse under bond, or in the appraiser's stores, undergoing appraisal, in pursuance of law or regulations of the Treasury Department, or while in transportation under bond from the port of entry to any other port in the United States, to abate or refund, as the case may be, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount of impost duties paid or accruing thereupon; and likewise to cancel any warehouse bond or bonds, or enter satisfaction thereon in whole or in part, as the case may be. (See amendment Sec. 13, Tariff Act of 1865, ante, part i, ¶ 478.)

SECTION 9. That the Secretary of the Treasury be and is hereby authorized from time to time to establish such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the laws of the United States, for the due execution of this act, as he may deem to be expedient and necessary; and all acts and parts of acts conflicting with this are hereby repealed.

ACT OF APRIL 30, 1872.

(U. S. STATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. XVII, p. 58.)

CHAP. CXXIX.-An Act to amend Section Second, Act of August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, in relation to the Transportation and Exportation of Imported Goods, Wares, and Merchandise in Bond through certain Ports in the State of Texas.

That section second of the act of August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, entitled "An act authorizing imported goods, wares, and merchandise, entered and bonded for warehousing in pursuance of law, to be exported by certain routes to ports and places in Mexico," be so amended that imported merchandise, duly entered and bonded at a port of the United States, and withdrawn from warehouse in accordance with existing law, for exportation for San Fernando, Paso del Norte, and Chihuahua, in Mexico, shall pass through Indianola, the port of entry for the district of Saluria, in the State of Texas, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, as well as through the port of Lavaca, in said district, as required by said section.

CHAP.

ACT OF MARCH 24, 1874.

(U. S. STATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. XVIII, p. —.)

-An Act to establish Bonded Warehouses for the Storing and Cleansing of
Rice intended for Exportation.

From and after the passage of this Act importers' bonded warehouses, to be used for the storage and cleansing of imported rice intended for exportation to foreign countries, may be established at any port of entry in the United States, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.

MITIGATION ACTS.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1797.

(U. S. STATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. I, p. 506.)

CHAP. XIII.-An Act to provide for Mitigating or Remitting the Forfeitures, Penalties, and Disabilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned.

SECTION 1. Whenever any person or persons who shall have incurred any fine, penalty, forfeiture, or disability, or shall have been interested in any vessel, goods, wares, or merchandise, which shall have been subject to any seizure, forfeiture, or disability, by force of any present or future law of the United States, for the laying, levying, or collecting any duties or taxes, or by force of any present or future act, concerning the registering and recording of ships or vessels, or any act concerning the enrolling and licensing ships or vessels employed in the coasting trade or fisheries, and for regulating the same, shall prefer his petition to the judge of the district, in which such fine, penalty, forfeiture, or disability, shall have accrued, truly and particularly setting forth the circumstances of his case, and shall pray that the same may be mitigated or remitted, the said judge shall inquire, in a summary manner, into the circumstances of the case; first causing reasonable notice to be given to the person or persons claiming such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, and to the attorney of the United States for such district, that each may have an opportunity of showing cause against the mitigation or remission thereof; and shall cause the facts, which shall appear upon such inquiry, to be stated and annexed to the petition, and direct their transmission to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, who shall thereupon have power to mitigate or remit such fine, forfeiture, or penalty, or remove such disability, or any part thereof, if, in his opinion, the same shall have been incurred without wilful negligence, or any intention of fraud, in the person or persons incurring the same; and to direct the prosecution, if any shall have been instituted for the recovery thereof, to cease and be discontinued, upon such terms or conditions as he may deem reasonable and just.

SECTION 2. The judicial courts of the several States, to whom by any of the said acts a jurisdiction is given, shall and may exercise all and every power in the cases cognizable before them for the purpose of obtaining a mitigation, or remission, of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, which may be exercised by the judges of the district courts in cases depending before them.

SECTION 3. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the right or claim of any person, to that part of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, incurred by the breach of any of the laws aforesaid, which such person shall or may be entitled to by virtue of the said laws, in cases where a prosecution has been commenced, or information has been given, before the passing of this act, or any other act relative to the mitigation or remission of such fines, penalties, or forfeitures; the amount of which right and claim shall be assessed and valued by the proper judge, or court, in a summary manner.

SECTION 4. [That this act shall continue in force for the term of two years, and from thence to the end of the next session of Congress, and no longer.]

ACT OF FEBRUARY 11, 1800.

(U. S. STATUTEs at Large, VOL. II, p. 7.)

CHAP. VI.-An Act to repeal Part of an Act, entitled "An Act to provide for Mitigating or Remitting the Forfeitures, Penalties, and Disabilities, accruing in certain Cases therein mentioned," and to continue in Force the Residue of the Same.

The fourth section of an act entitled "An Act to provide for mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties, and disabilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned," passed on the third day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and the residue of the said act shall be, and the same is hereby, continued in full force, without limitation of time.

ACT OF JULY 14, 1832.

(U. S. STATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. IV, p. 597.)

CHAP. CCXXXIII.-An Act to amend the Act, entitled "An act to provide for Mitigating or Remitting the Forfeitures, Penalties, and Disabilities accruing in certain cases therein mentioned."

In all cases of fine, penalty, or forfeiture, mentioned and embraced in the act entitled "An Act to provide for mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties, and disabili

ties accruing in certain cases therein mentioned," or in any act in addition to, or amend atory of said act, and not exceeding fifty dollars in amount, or value, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he hereby is authorized, if in his opinion the said fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without wilful negligence or intention of fraud, to prescribe such rules and mode of proceeding, to ascertain the facts, as in his opinion may be convenient and proper, without regard to the provisions of the act above referred to; and upon the said facts, so to be ascertained as aforesaid, the said secretary may exercise all the power conferred upon him in and by said act, as fully as he might have done had said facts been ascertained under and according to the provisions of said act.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1839.

(U. S. STATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. V, p. 339.)

CHAP. LXXXII.-An Act making Appropriations for the Civil and Diplomatic Expenses of Government for the year eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.

SECTION 2. From and after the passage of this act, all money paid to any collector of the customs, or to any person acting as such, for unascertained duties, or for duties paid under protest against the rate or amount of duties charged, shall be placed to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, kept and disposed of as all other money paid for duties is required by law, or by regulation of the treasury department to be placed to the credit of said treasurer, kept and disposed of; and shall not be held by the said collector, or person acting as such, to await any ascertainment of duties, or the result of any litigation in relation to the rate or amount of duty legally chargeable and collectable in any case where money is so paid; but whenever it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, that in any case of unascertained duties or duties paid under protest, more money Las been paid to the collector or person acting as such than the law requires should have been paid, it shall be his duty to draw his warrant upon the treasurer in favor of the person or persons entitled to the over-payment, directing the said treasurer to refund the same out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

EXTRACTS FROM POST-OFFICE ACTS.

(U. S. REVISED STATUTES.)

SEC. 3912. The rate of United States postage on mail-matter sent to or received from foreign countries with which different rates have not been established by postal convention or other arrangement, when forwarded by vessels regularly employed in transporting the mail, shall be ten cents for each half ounce or fraction thereof on letters, unless reduced by order of the Postmaster General; two cents each on newspapers; and not exceeding two cents per each two ounces, or fraction thereof, on pamphlets, periodicals, books, and other printed matter, which postage shall be prepaid on matter sent and collected on matter received; and to avoid loss to the United States in the payment of balances, the Postmaster General may collect the unpaid postage on letters from foreign countries in coin or its equivalent.

SEC. 3913. All letters conveyed by vessels not regularly employed in carrying the mail shall, if for delivery within the United States, be charged with double postage, to cover the fee paid to the vessel.

SEC. 3916. To facilitate letter correspondence, and to provide for the transmission in the mails, at a reduced rate of postage, of messages, orders, notices, and other short communications, either printed or written in pencil or ink, the Postmaster General is authorized and directed to furnish and issue to the public, with postage-stamps impressed upon them, "postal cards,” manufactured of good stiff paper, of such quality, form, and size as he shall deem best adapted for general use; which cards shall be used as a means of postal intercourse, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Postmaster General, and when so used shall be transmitted through the mails at a postage charge of one cent each, including the cost of their manufacture. SEC. 5465. Any person who shall forge or counterfeit or knowingly utter or use any forged or counterfeited postage-stamp of any foreign government, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor of not less than two nor more than ten years.

SEC. 3986. No person shall carry any letter or packet on board any vessel which carries the mail otherwise than in such mail, except as provided in section three thousand nine hundred and ninety-three; and for every such offence the party offending shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars.

SEC. 3987. No vessel departing from the United States for any foreign port shall receive on board or convey any letter or packet originating in the United States which has not been regularly received from the post-office at the port of departure, and which does not relate to the cargo of such vessel, except as provided in section three thousand nine hundred and ninetythree; and every collector, or other officer of the port empowered to grant clearances, shall require from the master of such vessel, as a condition of clearance, an oath or affirmation that he has not received on board, has not under his care or control, and will not receive or convey any letter or packet contrary to the provisions of this section.

SEC. 3988. No vessel arriving within any port or collection district of the United States shall be allowed to make entry or break bulk until all letters on board are delivered at the nearest post-office, and the master thereof has signed and sworn to the following declaration, before the collector or other proper customs officer:

do

"I, A. B., master of the —, arriving from —, and now lying in the port of solemnly swear, (or affirm) that I have, to the best of my knowledge and belief, delivered at the post-office at -, every letter, and every bag, packet, or parcel of letters, which were on board the said vessel during her last voyage, or which were in my possession or under my power or control."

And any master who shall break bulk before he has delivered such letters, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars, recoverable, one-half to the officer making the seizure, and the other to the use of the United States.

SEC. 3989. Any special agent of the Post-Office Department, when instructed by the Postmaster General to make examinations and seizures, and the collector or other customs officer of any port,* without special instructions, shall carefully search all vessels for letters which may be on board or which have been conveyed contrary to law.

SEC. 3990. Any special agent of the Post-Office Department, collector, or other customs officer, or United States marshal or his deputy, may at all times seize all letters and bags, packets or parcels, containing letters which are being carried contrary to law on board any vessel or on any post-route, and convey the same to the nearest post-office, or may, by the direction of the Postmaster General or Secretary of the Treasury, detain them until two months after the final determination of all suits and proceedings which may, at any time within six months after such seizure, be brought against any person for sending or carrying such letters.

SEC. 3991. Every package or parcel seized by any special agent of the Post-Office Department, collector, or other customs officer, or United States marshal or his deputies, in which any letter is unlawfully concealed, shall be forfeited to the United States, and the same proceedings may be had to enforce the forfeiture as are authorized in respect to goods, wares, and merchandise forfeited for violation of the revenue laws; and all laws for the benefit and protection of customs officers making seizures for violating revenue laws shall apply to officers making seizures for violating the postal laws.

SEC. 3992. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit the conveyance or transmission of letters or packets by private hands without compensation, or by special messenger employed for the particular occasion only.

SEC. 3993. All letters inclosed in stamped envelopes, if the postage-stamp is of a denomination sufficient to cover the postage that would be chargeable thereon if the same were sent by mail, may be sent, conveyed, and delivered otherwise than by mail, provided such envelope shall be duly directed and properly sealed, so that the letter cannot be taken therefrom without defacing the envelope, and the date of the letter or of the transmission or receipt thereof shall be written or stamped upon the envelope. But the Postmaster General may suspend the operation of this section upon any mail-route where the public interest may require such suspension. SEC. 3995. Any person who shall knowingly and wilfully obstruct or retard the passage of the mail, or any carriage, horse, driver, or carrier carrying the same, shall, for every such offence, be punishable by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.

SEC. 3996. Any ferryman who shall delay the passage of the mail by wilful neglect or refusal to transport the same across any ferry shall, for every ten minutes such mail may be so delayed, be liable to a penalty of ten dollars.

"Importations through the Mail.-The Postmaster General complains that registered letters and packages received through the mail from foreign countries are seized and detained by the collector of customs at the port in the United States at which they first arrive. and requests that measures shall be taken to prevent such alleged violation of the postal laws.

"It has been agreed that collectors shall not require postmasters to deliver to them any letter or package addressed to a person residing at another port or place where a customs officer is stationed. A careful inspection, however, should be made by the postmaster, and, if any such letter or package be suspected to contain dutiable articles, the postmaster at the place of destination should be notified, in order that he may inform the proper officer of the customs. Such letters and packages should be opened in the presence of an officer of the customs by the person to whom addressed, and any dutiable article contained therein, not mentioned in a postal convention applicable, should be seized and held to await the decision of this department, upon any application which may be made for a mitigation of the forfeiture incurred.”—(Treasury Circular, November 26, 1873. Syn. Series No. 1723.)