original evidences of debt should be filed together with the releases, and left in the Department, and the authorities of Texas should also furnish a full and detailed statement of all the outstanding evidences of debt as they now exist, with the dates, numbers, and amount of each, and the names of all the claimants and their residences, so far as they can be ascertained.

No interest can be paid on the stock until after it passes out of the control of the Department; but, as previously stated, the interest will commence from 1st January, 1851. The Department will cheerfully issue the certificates of stock in such form and in such amounts as may be most advantageous for Texas, and the certificates which have been prepared are in amounts of 100, 500, 1,000, and 5,000 dollars, without coupons, and $1,000 with coupons-the former, which are transferable only on the books of the Treasury, are most desired by holders in the United States; and the latter, which are payable to bearer, and transferred by delivery, are in request for foreign holders. Previous experience has shown that certificates in sums of $1,000 are most desirable for this latter purpose. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

James B. Shaw, Esq.,

THOS. CORWIN, Secretary of the Treasury.

Comptroller of Public Accounts, State of Texas.

Circular of the Secretary of the Treasury respecting Mr. Hunter's Bill.

Treasury Department, Washington, March 27, 1851.

THE following instructions are issued for the strict observance and government of the respective officers of the Customs, in carrying into effect the provisions of the annexed act of Congress, approved 3d March, 1851, entitled "An act to amend the act regulating the appraisement of imported merchandise, and for other purposes," which takes effect on and after the 1st day of April next.

It will be perceived on examination of this act, that it fixes the period of exportation to the United States, as the time when the actual market value or wholesale price of any goods, wares or merchandise, in the principal markets of the country from which the same shall have been imported into the United States, is to be appraised, estimated and ascertained. This provision consequently supersedes and abrogates so much of the provisions of the sixteenth section of the tariff act of the 30th of August, 1842, as requires the market value, or wholesale price, to be appraised, estimated and ascertained at the time when the goods were purchased. The exportation contemplated by the act is not deemed to apply exclusively to goods laden on board a vessel at a shipping port in the country of which the goods may be the growth, production or manufacture, but likewise applies to any goods exported from an interior country remote from the seaboard, having no shipping port, being bona fide destined, in the regular course of trade, for shipment to some owner, con

signee, or agent, residing in the United States, of which satisfactory proof must be produced at the time of entry. For example, goods thus exported from Switzerland, being of the origin of that country, which can only be, or most usually are, exported through the seaports of France, or goods from Saxony or other interior German possessions, which must be, or most usually are, conveyed to a seaport for exportation to the United States in these and analogous cases, the exportation to the United States may be deemed to commence at the period when the goods leave the country of their production or origin, and the true market value in the principal markets of said country is to be ascertained and appraised; to which is to be added, as dutiable charges, the cost of transportation to the port of shipment, with the expenses thereat until the goods are actually laden on board the vessel in which they may be shipped to the United States. Where goods are shipped directly from the country of their origin, the bill of lading will ordinarily establish the period of exportation, and in the other cases referred to, the authenticity of the invoice by consular certificate, or in the absence of such proof, other evidence satisfactory to the United States appraisers, may be taken to fix said period. Where goods have not been actually purchased, the invoice must exhibit the actual market value, or wholesale price, at the period of exportation, with all charges included, in lieu of such value at time and place of procurement or manufacture, as required by the eighth section of the act of March 1st, 1823, and the oath required to be taken on entry may be so modified as to meet the case. When goods have been actually purchased, the invoice must, as heretofore, exhibit the true.cost of the goods; and the owner, consignee, or agent, will still retain the privilege allowed by the eighth section of the tariff act of the 30th July, 1846, of adding to the entry so as to raise the cost of value given in the invoice to the true market value or wholesale price of the goods at the period of exportation, and will moreover become subject to the other provisions of said section. The actual market value or wholesale price at the period of exportation to the United States having been appraised, estimated, and ascertained, upon the principles before stated, it becomes requisite to determine and fix the true dutiable value at the port where the goods may be entered and upon which the duties are to be assessed. The law enjoins that there shall be added thereto all costs and charges except insurance, and including, in every case, a charge for commissions, at the usual rates. These charges are as follows, to wit:

First-They must include purchasing, carriage, bleaching, dyeing, dressing, finishing, putting up and packing together, with the value of the sack, package, box, crate, hogshead, barrel, bale, cask, case, and covering of all kinds, bottles, jars, vessels and demijohns.

Second-Commissions at the usual rate; but in no case less than 21 per cent., and where there is a distinct brokerage, or where brokerage is a usual charge at the place of shipment or purchase, that to be added likewise.

Third Export duties, cost of placing cargoes on board ship, including drayage, labor, bill of lading, lighterage, town dues, and shipping charges, dock or wharf dues, and all charges to place the article on shipboard, and

fire insurance, if effected for a period prior to the shipment of the goods to the United States. Discounts are never to be allowed in any case, except on articles where it has been the uniform and established usage heretofore, and never more than the actual discount positively known to the appraiser; but in no case to be allowed unless it is exhibited on the face of the invoice. Special attention is called to this item of discounts, as from information recently received by the Department, it is believed that numerous frauds have been practised on the revenue by excessive and unusual discounts being deducted on the invoices produced at the time of entry, and in no case are they to be allowed, except such per centage as may be ascertained to be customary on the different articles, respectively, at the places of purchase or shipment. Marine insurance is exempted by law.

Inquiry having been made whether freight from the country or place of exportation to the United States is embraced among the dutiable charges, it becomes proper to remark that, under no former revenue or tariff act has such freight ever been deemed a dutiable charge; but, on the contrary, it has uniformly been decided by the Department to be exempt therefrom. If the Department were now called upon to give a construction to the phraseology of the present law, as regards this point, without reference to the wording of previous tariff acts, or to the uniform practice of the Department on the subject, it might come to a different conclusion; but the language of the act of the 30th August, 1842, as regards the items of charges which are to form a portion of the dutiable value of goods, is precisely similar to that of the present law, and the construction put upon the former having been that freight from the port of shipment to the port of importation, does not form a charge subject to duty, the Department, after very full and mature consideration, does not feel authorized now to change that construction, especially in the absence of any explicit legal designation of freight as a dutiable item; presuming that as Congress was, of course, aware of the long practice of the Department on the subject, its views would have been clearly expressed respecting it, had the Legislature intended that the change should be introduced of including freight as one of the charges on which duty was to be levied. In addition to the construction thus put upon the tariff act of 1842, and uniformly acted upon since that time, the records of the Department show that the question has been frequently brought to its attention, as far back as 1799, under statutes of similar import to the present one, and extending through all the subsequent years down to the present time; and its invariable decision has been, that freight to the port of importation was not an item subject to duty.

It will be seen that the second section of the act gives full force and validity to the certificate of any one of the United States Appraisers, to establish the appraisement of any goods, wares and merchandise, required by existing laws, at ports where there are United States Appraisers; and at ports where no such Appraisers exist, similar validity is given to the certificate of appraisement issued by the Revenue officer to whom is committed the estimating and collection of duties, as enjoined by the twenty-second section of the tariff of 30th August, 1842. The law is deemed to refer to the certificate of a principal Appraiser, or one of the Appraisers at

large, appointed under the third section of the act hereto annexed, and not of an assistant Appraiser. Although the certificate before referred to is made conclusive evidence of an appraisement, yet it is to be distinctly understood that the law does not contemplate any relaxation or change in respect to the due inspection, examination, and other necessary acts required of the Appraisers in making appraisement in pursuance of existing laws and regulations.

The regulations respecting the duties of the Appraisers at large, appointed under the third section of this act, will form the subject of a separate circular of instructions. WM. L. HODGE, Acting Secretary of the Treasury.

INDEX TO VOL. VI.