CHAP.

MARCH 3, 1879.

(U. S. SLATUTES AT LARGE, VOL. XX, p.-—.)

-An Act making Appropriations for the Service of the Post Office Department for the fiscal Year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and for other Purposes.

SEC. 7. That mailable matter shall be divided into four classes:

First, written matter;

Second, periodical publications;

Third, miscellaneous printed matter;

Fourth, merchandise.

SEC. 8. Mailable matter of the first class shall embrace letters, postal cards, and all matters wholly or partly in writing, except as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 9. That on mailable matter of the first class, except postal cards and drop letters, postage shall be prepaid at the rate of three cents for each half ounce or fraction thereof; postal cards shall be transmitted through the mails at a postage charge of one cent each, including the cost of manufacture; and drop letters shall be mailed at the rate of two cents per half ounce or fraction thereof, including delivery at letter carrier offices, and one cent for each half ounce or fraction thereof where free delivery by carrier is not established. The Postmaster General may, however, provide, by regulation, for transmitting unpaid and duly certified letters of soldiers, sailors, and marines in the service of the United States to their destination, to be paid on delivery.

SEC. 10. That mailable matter of the second class shall embrace all newspapers and other periodical publications which are issued at stated intervals, and as frequently as four times a year, and are within the conditions named in section twelve and fourteen.

SEC. 11. Publications of the second class, except as provided in section twenty-five, when sent by the publisher thereof, and from the office of publication, including sample copies, or when sent from a news agency to actual subscribers thereto, or to other news agents, shall be entitled to transmission through the mails at two cents a pound or fraction thereof, such postage to be prepaid, as now provided by law.

SEC. 12. That matter of the second class may be examined at the office of mailing, and if found to contain matter which is subject to a higher rate of postage, such matter shall be charged with postage at the rate to which the inclosed matter is subject: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prohibit the insertion in periodicals of advertisements attached permanently to the same.

SEC. 13. That any person who shall submit, or cause to be submitted, for transportation in the mails, any false evidence to the postmaster relative to the character of his publication, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction, shall for every such offense be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.

SEC. 14. That the conditions upon which a publication shall be admitted to the second class are as follows:

First. It must regularly be issued at stated intervals, as frequently as four times a year, and bear a date of issue, and be numbered consecutively.

Second. It must be issued from a known office of publication.

Third. It must be formed of printed paper sheets, without board, cloth, leather, or other substantial binding, such as distinguish printed books for preservation from periodical publications.

Fourth. It must be originated and published for the dissemination of information of a public character, or devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry, and having a legitimate list of subscribers: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to admit to the second class rate regular publications designed primarily for advertising purposes, or for free circulation, or for circulation at nominal rates.

SEC. 15. That foreign newspapers and other periodicals of the same general character as those admitted to the second class in the United States may, under the direction of the Postmaster General, on application of the publishers thereof or their agents, be transmitted through the mails at the same rates as if published in the United States. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to allow the transmission through the mails of any publication which violates any copyright granted by the United States.

SEC. 16. That publishers of matter of the second class may, without subjecting it to extra postage, fold within their regular issues a supplement; but in all cases the added matter must be germane to the publication which it supplements, that is to say, matter supplied in order to complete that to which it is added or supplemented, but omitted from the regular issue for want of space, time, or greater convenience, which supplement must in every case be issued with the publication.

SEC. 17. That mail matter of the third class shall embrace books, transient newspapers, and periodicals, circulars, and other matter wholly in print (not included in section twelve), proofsheets, corrected proof-sheets, and manuscript copy accompanying the same, and postage shall

be paid at the rate of one cent for each two ounces or fractional part thereof, and shall fully be prepaid by postage stamps affixed to said matter. Printed matter other than books received in the mails from foreign countries under the provisions of postal treaties or conventions shall be free of customs duty; and books which are admitted to the international mails, exchanged under the provisions of the Universal Postal Union Convention, may, when subject to customs duty, be delivered to addresses in the United States under such regulations for the collection of duties as may be agreed upon by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General. SEC. 18. That the term circular" is defined to be a printed letter, which, according to internal evidence, is being sent in identical terms to several persons. A circular shall not lose its character as such, when the date and the name of the addressed and of the sender shall be written therein, nor by the correction of mere typographical errors in writing.

SEC. 19. That "printed matter" within the intendment of this act is defined to be the reproduction upon paper, by any process except that of handwriting, of any words, letters, characters, figures, or images, or of any combination thereof, not having the character of an actual and personal correspondence.

SEC. 20. That mailable matter of the fourth class shall embrace all matter not embraced in the first, second, or third class, which is not in its form or nature liable to destroy, deface, or otherwise damage the contents of the mail bag, or harm the person of any one engaged in the postal service, and is not above the weight provided by law, which is hereby declared to be not exceeding four pounds for each package thereof, except in case of single books weighing in excess of that amount, and except for books and documents published or circulated by order of Congress, or official matter emanating from any of the departments of the government, or from the Smithsonian Institution, or which is not declared non-mailable under the provision of section thirty-eight hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of July twelfth, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, or matter appertaining to lotteries, gift concerts, or fraudulent schemes or devices.

SEC. 21. That all matter of the fourth class shall be subject to examination and to a postage charge at the rate of one cent an ounce or fraction thereof, to be prepaid by stamps affixed. If any matter excluded from the mails by the preceding section of this act, except that declared non-mailable by section thirty-eight hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes as amended, shall, by inadvertence, reach the office of destination, the same shall be delivered in accordance with its address: Provided, That the party addressed shall furnish the name and address of the sender to the postmaster at the office of delivery, who shall immediately report the facts to the Postmaster General. If the person addressed refuse to give the required information, the postmaster shall hold the package subject to the order of the Postmaster General. All matter declared non-mailable by section thirty-eight hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes as amended, which shall reach the office of delivery, shall be held by the postmaster at the said office subject to the order of the Postmaster General.

SEC. 22. That mailable matter of the second class shall contain no writing, print, mark, or sign thereon or therein in addition to the original print, except as herein provided, to wit, the name and address of the person to whom the matter shall be sent, and index figures of subscription book, either written or printed, the printed title of the publication, the printed name and address of the publisher or sender of the same, and written or printed words or figures, or both, indicating the date on which the subscription to such matter will end. Upon matter of the third class, or upon the wrapper inclosing the same, the sender may write his own name or address thereon, with the word "from" above and preceding the same, and in either case may make simple marks intended to designate a word or passage of the text to which it is desired to call attention. There may be placed upon the cover or blank leaves of any book or of any printed matter of the third class a simple manuscript dedication or inscription that does not partake of the nature of a personal correspondence. Upon any package of matter of the fourth class the sender may write or print his own name and address, preceded by the word "from," and there may also be written or printed the number and names of the articles inclosed; and the sender thereof may write or print upon or attach to any such articles, by tag or label, a mark, number, name, or letter, for purpose of identification.

SEC. 23. That matter of the second, third, or fourth class containing any writing or printing other than indicated in the preceding section, or made in the manner other than therein indicated, shall not be delivered except upon the payment of postage for matter of the first class, deducting therefrom any amount which may have been prepaid by stamps affixed to such matter; and any person who shall conceal or inclose any matter of a higher class in that of a lower class, and deposit, or cause the same to be deposited, for conveyance by mail, at a less rate than would be charged for both such higher and lower class matter, shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty of ten dollars: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent publishers of the second class and news agents from inclosing, in their publications, bills, receipts, and orders for subscription thereto; but such bills, receipts, and orders shall be in such form as to convey no other information than the name, location, and subscription price of the publication or publications to which they refer.

SEC. 24. That the Postmaster General may prescribe, by regulation, the manner of wrapping and securing for the mails all packages of matter not charged with first class postage. so that the contents of such packages may be easily examined; and no package, the contents of which cannot be easily examined, shall pass in the mails, or be delivered at a less rate than for matter of the first class.

SEC. 25. That publications of the second class, one copy to each actual subscriber residing in the county where the same are printed, in whole or in part, and published, shall go free through the mails; but the same shall not be delivered at letter-carrier offices, or distributed by carriers, unless postage is paid thereon at the rate prescribed in section thirteen of this act: Provided, That the rate of postage on newspapers, excepting weeklies, and periodicals not exceeding two ounces in weight, when the same are deposited in a letter-carrier office for delivery by its carriers, shall be uniform at one cent each; periodicals weighing more than two ounces shall be subject, when delivered by such carriers, to a postage of two cents each, and these rates shall be prepaid by stamps affixed.

SEC. 26. That all mail-matter of the fist class upon which one full rate of postage has been prepaid, shall be forwarded to its destination, charged with the unpaid rate, to be collected on delivery; but postmasters, before delivering the same, or any article of mail-matter upon which prepayment in full has not been made, shall affix, or cause to be affixed, and canceled, as ordinary stamps are canceled, one or more stamps equivalent in value to the amount of postage due on such article of mail-matter, which stamps shall be of such special design and denomination as the Postmaster General may prescribe, and which shall in no case be sold by any postmaster nor received by him in prepayment of postage.

SEC. 33. That so much of this act as is embraced in sections four to thirty-one, both inclusive, shall take effect from the first day of May, 1879, and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

MANIFESTS AND CLEARANCES.

CIRCULAR

Tc Collectors and Surveyors of Customs on the Northern, Northeastern, and Northwestern Frontiers of the United States.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 26, 1865.

In order to secure uniformity in the practice of Customs Officers on our northern, north. eastern, and northwestern frontiers, in regard to manifests and clearances, this Department deems it advisable to issue the following instructions:

The second section of the Act of July 14, 1862 (12th Stat., 572, Chap. CLXIX), authorizes "Collectors and Surveyors of the collection districts on the said frontiers to keep on sale blank manifests and clearances required for the business of their districts;" and it is the duty of these officers to see that these documents are in proper form and properly executed.

By the first section of the same Act (12th Stat., 571), the master or manager of a vessel, enrolled or licensed for carrying on the coasting trade on these frontiers, is required, "before the departure of his vessel from any port," to "file a manifest of his cargo with the collector, and obtain a clearance;" which clearance, it is the custom generally, to indorse on a duplicate of the manifest.

If the vessel, on her passage, touches at any intermediate port of the United States, and there either lades or unlades any goods, the master or manager is, by the same section, required to report to the collector of such intermediate port such arrival, and produce his manifest (the duplicate above referred to), and the collector (of the intermediate port) is required to certify on such manifest a description of the goods so laden or unladen at his port, and return the manifest to the master or manager; and when the vessel arrives at the port at which the unlading of her cargo is completed, the master or manager must deliver to the collector there the manifest, "to be placed on file in his office." As this act does not define the nature or form of the documents in question, we must refer to prior enactments for light.

By the third section of the Act of March 2, 1831 (4th Stat., 487, Rev. Laws, 346), entitled "An Act to regulate the foreign and coasting trade on the northern, northeastern, and northwestern frontiers of the United States, and for other purposes," which section provides for the enrolment and license of vessels navigating the waters on those frontiers otherwise than by sea, and authorizes them "to be employed either in the coasting or foreign trade," these vessels are made, "in every other respect, liable to the rules, regulations, and penalties now (March 2, 1831) in force, relating to registered vessels on our northern, northeastern, and northwestern frontiers."

ation ?

What are those "rules, regulations, and penalties," touching the subject under considerThe one hundred and sixth section of the Collection Act of 1799 (1st Stat, 702, Rev. Laws, 133) provides that all vessels and vehicles arriving in districts on those frontiers with dutiable goods, shall be provided with "like manifests," and that "like entries shall be made;" and that "the powers and duties of officers of the customs shall be exercised and discharged in like manner as prescribed by the same act in regard to importations "in vessels from the sea."

The requisites of such manifests, as defined by the twenty-third section of the same act (1st Stat., 614, Rev. Laws, 77), are:

1st. That they shall be in writing, and signed by the master or other person in charge of the vessel and shall set forth

2d. The names of all ports and places of embarkation and destination of the cargo. 3d. The "name, description, built, tonnage," and home port of the vessel.

4th. The names of the owners of the vessel, according to her register; the name of the master or other person in charge; the names of consignees, and description of consignments to order, set forth in the bills of lading; and the names of all passengers, distinguishing between cabin and steerage.

5th. A just and particular account of all goods on board, with the marks and numbers thereof; an account of remaining sea-stores, if any; and a particular description of the baggage of each passenger.

It will be your duty, of course, to examine carefully the section itself for more particular information.

The one hundred and eleventh section of the same act (1st Stat., 704, Rev. Laws, 134), provides "That in cases where the forms of official documents, as prescribed by this act, shall be substantially complied with and observed, according to the true spirit, meaning, and intent thereof, no penalty or forfeiture shall be incurred by a deviation therefrom."

There appears to be but little difficulty in ascertaining what was meant by the act of July 14, 1862, as respects vessels of the United States arriving at our ports on the frontiers referred to, with dutiable goods; and although the status of such vessels going from district to district, with goods exclusively of the growth or manufacture of the United States, is not equally clear, there seems to me to be no doubt that, in regard to both classes of vessels, duplicate manifests of the whole cargo, substantially as prescribed by the twenty-third section of the act of 1799, are required to be delivered to the collector of the port of departureone of which is to be filed in his office, and the other returned to the master, with a clearance indorsed thereon; that arrivals at intermediate ports are to be reported, and goods laden or unladen there to be entered on the manifest remaining in the master's hands; and that this manifest is to be filed at the port where the unlading is completed. That, as to the form and execution of the manifest, it is sufficient, if the spirit of the law be complied with; that the one great object of the act of 1799 was to secure the payment of duties on foreign importations, and when there is no reason to suppose, from the papers or transactions of masters, that they designed to evade or thwart that object, they are not to incur penalties or forfeitures by a deviation from the prescribed forms; that the penalty upon the owners for neglecting to file manifest, obtain clearance, report arrival and lading or unlading of goods at intermediate ports, or to deliver manifest to be filed at the port of destination, as required by the first section of the said act of July 14, 1862, is a fine of one hundred dollars, imposed by the sixth section of the "act to prevent smuggling," &c, passed June 27, 1861 (13th Stat., 198), and that no penalty is imposed by either of these two sections for unlading goods without a permit.

The penalty for unlading foreign goods without a permit is prescribed by the fiftieth section of the act of 1779 (1st Stat., 665, Rev. Laws, 96), the provisions of which, as we have seen, are extended to ports on our northern frontiers by the one hundred and sixth section of the same act. There seems to be no authority for imposing a penalty upon coasting vessels on those frontiers for unlading, without a permit, goods of the growth or manufacture of the United States. Such, at least, was the law prior to the passage of the Act of June 17, 1864 (13th Stat., 134), which repeals the act of 1831, above referred to, and changes the phraseology of the proviso to the third section thereof, so as to read "Provided, that such boat, sloop, or vessel shall be, in every other respect, liable to the rules, regulations, and penalties now in force, relating to registered and licensed vessels." Does the first section of this act containing this proviso change the prior law? I think not. The general laws in regard to licensed vessels are so different from those regulating registered vessels, that to hold the vessels on our northern fronties subject to both, would involve the question in endless difficulties and absurd conflicts. The concluding words of the proviso must, ia my opinion, be taken in a restricted sense, and held to mean the rules, regulations, and penalties then in force relating to United States vessels navigating the waters of those frontiers otherwise than by sea, and authorized by their papers to engage in both the foreign and coasting trade; and this trade I hold to be in no way governed by the Coasting Act of 1793.

As the Secretary of the Treasury alone is vested with authority to prescribe regulations and remit penalties under these acts, customs officers should correspond directly with him upon questions relating to the same.

H. MCCULLOCH,

Secretary of the Treasury.