(ACT of April 20th, 1818.)

prices thereof, then, in addition to the ten or twenty per centum, as the case may be, laid upon correct and regular invoices according to law, there shall be added fifty per cent. on the appraised value; on which aggregate amount, the duties on such goods, wares, or merchandise, shall be estimated.

117. SEC. XII. In all cases where the appraised value of any goods, wares, or merchandise, appraised under this, or any other act concerning imports and tonnage, shall exceed, by less than twenty-five per centum the invoice value thereof, such appraised value shall be considered the true value of such goods, wares, or merchandise, upon which the duty is to be estimated, with the addition of such per centum as is by law required; but in all cases where the appraised value shall be less than the invoice value, the duty shall be charged on the invoice value in the same manner as if no appraisement had been made.

118. SEC. XIII. Any goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to an ad valorem duty, and belonging to a person or persons, residing, and at the time of importation thereof, being out of the United States, and which shall be imported in the United States, but for want of the verification required by the 8th section of this act not admitted to entry, shall be subject to the same appraisement, and to the same addition to the appraised value, as are prescribed by the eleventh section of this act, in the case of fraudulent invoices.

119. SEC. XIV. One half of the duty accruing on the additional fifty per centum, which may be imposed on any goods, wares, or merchandise, in virtue of the eleventh section of this act, shall be divided among the custom-house officers of the port in which such goods, wares, or merchandise, may be, in the manner prescribed by the act, entitled "An act to regulate the duties on imports and tonnage," passed on the second of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.

120. SEC. xv. Before any goods, wares, or merchandise, which may be taken from any wreck, shall be admitted to entry, the same shall be appraised in the manner prescribed by the ninth section of this act; and the same proceedings shall also be had, where a reduction of duties shall be claimed, on account of damage which any goods, wares, or merchandise, imported into the United States, shall have sustained in the course of the voyage.

121. SEC. XVI. The expenses of appraisements made under this act, shall, in all cases, be borne by the owner or owners of the goods, wares, or merchandise, appraised, except when the appraisement ordered under the eleventh section shall not exceed the invoice value of such goods, wares, or merchandise, and where it shall be made on goods damaged by the voyage; and except, also, when the goods, wares, or merchandise, appraised, shall have been taken from a wreck.

122. SEC. XVII. Each of the appraisers who may be appointed

(ACT of April 20th, 1818.)

under the ninth section of this act, in the several ports therein named, excepting New York, shall receive, as a compensation for his services, one thousand five hundred dollars per annum, and the appraisers for the port of New York shall receive each two thousand dollars per annum; and the merchants who may act as appraisers under this act shall receive for their services, while employed on that duty, a compensation of five dollars per diem; and the said sum of five dollars per diem, for each of the apprai sers (whether official appraisers, or selected merchants) shall be paid to the collector, by the owner or agent of the goods, wares, or merchandise, appraised by them, respectively, in all cases where such owner or agent may be liable to the expense of appraisement, before the delivery of such goods, wares, or merchandise, by the collector. The sums so received, shall be forthwith paid by such collector to the appraisers, and the amount so paid to the official appraisers shall be in part satisfaction of their salary.

123. SEC. XVIII. For every verification made under this act, before a consul of the United States, such consul shall be entitled to demand and receive from the person making the same a fee of two dollars.

124. Sec. XIX. When any goods, wares, or merchandise, shall be admitted to entry upon invoice, the collector of the port in which the same are entered shall certify such invoice under his official seal; and no other evidence of the value of such goods, wares, or merchandise, shall be admitted on the part of the owner or owners thereof, in any court of the United States, except in corroboration of such invoice.

125. SEC. xx. Any person or persons, who shall counterfeit any certificate or attestation made in pursuance of this act, or use such certificate or attestation, knowing the same to be counterfeit, shall, upon conviction thereof, before any court of the United States, having cognizance of the same, be adjudged guilty of felony, and be fined in a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years.

126. SEC. XXI. No discount shall be allowed on any goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, admitted to entry, unless the importer shall expressly state, on oath or affirmation, that such discount has been actually and bona fide allowed to the owner or owners of such goods, wares, or merchandise, in the payment made for the same.

127. SEC. XXII. The collectors of the customs shall be required to cause at least one package out of every invoice, and one package at least out of every fifty packages, of every invoice of goods, wares, or merchandise, imported into their respective districts, to be opened and examined, and if the same be found not to correspond with the invoice thereof, or to be falsely charged in such invoice, a full inspection of all such goods, wares, or merchandise, as may be included in the same entry, shall be made; and if any

(ACT of April 18th, 1820.)

package is found to contain any article not described in the invoice, the whole package shall be forfeited, and in case such goods, wares, or merchandise, shall be subject to an ad valorem duty, the same proceedings shall be had, and the same penalties shall be incurred, as are provided in the eleventh section of this act: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall save from forfeiture any package having in it any article not described in the invoice. 128. SEC. XXIII. Any bond to the United States entered into for the payment of duties, by a merchant belonging to a firm, in the name of such firm, shall equally bind the partner or partners in trade, of the person or persons by whom such bond shall have been executed.

SEC. XXIV. [See Drawbacks, 35.]

129. SEC. XXV. All penalties and forfeitures incurred by force of this act, shall be sued for, recovered, distributed, and accounted for, in the manner prescribed by the act, entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," passed on the second day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, and may be mitigated or remitted, in the manner prescribed by the 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.

SEC. XXVI. This act shall continue in force for the term of two years from and after the passing thereof. [Continued by act of April 18th, 1820. Infra.]

ACT of April 18th, 1820. Pamphlet edit. 49,

SEC. 1. The act passed on the twentieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled "An act supplementary to an act entitled, an act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, passed the second day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine," shall continue in force for two years, from the twentieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and from that time until the end of the next session of congress, and no longer,

The following clause of Sec. xx, act of March 2d, 1799, Supra, 4. page 188, was omitted accidentally. "And the oath or affirmation aforesaid, if taken by a collector, may be taken before any magistrate authorized to administer oaths within the district to which he belongs; but if taken by another officer, shall be taken before the collector of his district; and being certified under the hand and seal of the person by whom the same shall have been administered, shall within three months thereafter be transmitted to the comptroller of the treasury; in default of taking which oath or transmitting a certificate thereof, the party failing shall forfeit and pay two hundred dollars, to be recovered with costs of suit in any court of competent jurisdiction, to the use of the United States.

NOTES.

The law punishes the attempt not the intention to defraud the revenue by false invoices, 5 Cranch, 311.

(ACT of March 2d, 1799.)

A doubt respecting the construction of a law, may be good ground for seizure, and authorize a certificate of probable cause.

Ib.

Duties do not accrue until arrival at the port of entry. Ib. 368, and 9 Cranch, 104.

The word insolvency, in the act of March 2d, 1799, Sec. 65. [Infra, 47.] means a legal insolvency: but if the debtor has made a bona fide conveyance, or mortgage, or if his property has been seized in execution, it cannot be made liable to the United States. 2 Wheaton, 396, and 426.

ACT of March 2, 1799. 3 Bioren, 136.

An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage.

1. SEC. 1. The state of New Hampshire shall be one district, to be called the district of Portsmouth, of which the town of Portsmouth shall be the sole port of entry, and the towns of Newcastle, Dover, and Exeter, ports of delivery only; but all ships or vessels, bound to or from either of the said ports of delivery, shall first come to, enter and clear at Portsmouth; and a collector, naval officer, and surveyor, for the said district, shall be appointed, to reside at Portsmouth; and the authority of the officers of said district shall, for the purposes of this act, extend to the northern boundary line of the said state of New Hampshire, adjoining to the British colony of Lower Canada. [Infra, 66.]

2. SEC. 11. In the state of Massachusetts there shall be twentytwo districts and ports of entry, to wit: Newburyport, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem and Beverly, as one; Marblehead, Boston, and Charlestown, as one; Plymouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, Edgartown, New Bedford, Dighton, York, Biddeford and Pepperelborough, as one; Portland and Falmouth, as one; Bath, Wiscasset, Penobscot, Frenchman's Bay, Machias, Passamaquoddy, and Waldoborough. [Infra, 18, 19, 45, &c.]

(ACT of March 2d, 1799.)

To the district of Newburyport shall be annexed the several towns or landing places of Almsbury, Salisbury, Haverhill, and Newbury, which shall be ports of delivery only; and a collector, naval officer, and surveyor, for the district, shall be appointed, to reside at Newburyport.

To the district of Gloucester shall be annexed the town of Manchester, as a port of delivery only; and a collector and surveyor shall be appointed for the district, to reside at Gloucester.

To the district of Salem and Beverly shall be annexed the town or landing place of Danvers, as a port of delivery only; and a collector, naval officer, and surveyor, for the district, shall be appointed, to reside at Salem, and a surveyor, to reside at the town of Beverly.

To the district of Marblehead shall be annexed the town of Lynn, as a port of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Marblehead.

To the district of Boston and Charlestown shall be annexed the towns or landing places of Medford, Cohasset, Hingham, and Weymouth, as ports of delivery only; and a collector, naval officer, and surveyor, for the district, shall be appointed to reside at Boston.

To the district of Plymouth shall be annexed the several towns or landing places of Scituate, Duxbury, and Kingston, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Plymouth.

To the district of Barnstable shall be annexed the several towns or landing places of Sandwich, Falmouth, Hardwich, Wellfleet, Provincetown, and Chatham, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Barnstable.

In the district of Nantucket, the port of Nantucket shall be the sole port of entry and delivery; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Nantucket.

In the district of Edgartown, a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Edgartown.

To the district of New Bedford shall be annexed Westport, Rochester, and Wareham, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at New Bedford.

To the district of Dighton shall be annexed Swansey, Somerset, Freetown, Berkeley, and Taunton, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Dighton.

To the district of York shall be annexed Kittery and Berwick, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at York.

To the district of Biddeford and Pepperelborough shall be annexed Scarborough, Wells, Kennebunk, and Cape Porpoise, as ports of delivery only; and a collector for the district shall be appointed, to reside at Biddeford.