588

TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 22?. 1832.

Proviso.

Steel.

Japanned andplated wares,&c.

Proviso.

Proviso.

Scrap and oldiron, &c.

Hemp, sailduck, cottonbagging, &c.

Manufacturesof silk, &c.

Sugars.

sickles or reaping hooks, scythes, spades, shovels, squares of iron or steel,plated, brass and polished steel saddlery, coach and harness furniture, ofall descriptions, steelyards and scalebeatns, socket chisels, vices andscrews of iron, called woodscrews, thirty per centum ad valorem: oncommon tinned and japanned saddlery of all descriptions, ten per centumad valorem: Provided, That said articles shall not be imported at a lessrate of duty than would have been chargeable on the material constitut-ing their chief value, if imported in an unmanufactured state.

Eleventh. On steel, one dollar and fifty cents per one hundred andtwelve pounds.

Twelfth. On japanned wares of all kinds, on plated wares of all kinds,and on all manufactures, not otherwise specified, made of brass, iron,steel, pewter, or tin, or of which either of these metals is a componentmaterial, a duty of twenty-five per centum ad valorem: Provided, Thatall articles manufactured in whole of sheet, rod, hoop, bolt, or bar iron,or of iron wire, or of which sheet, rod, hoop, bolt, or bar iron, or ironwire, shall constitute the greatest weight, and which are not otherwisespecified, shall pay the same duty per pound that is charged by this acton sheet, rod, hoop, bolt, or bar iron, or on iron wire, of the same num-ber, respectively: Provided, also, That the said last mentioned rates shallnot be less than the said duty of twenty-five per centum ad valorem.

Thirteenth. That all scrap and old iron shall pay a duty of twelvedollars and fifty cents per ton; that nothing shall be deemed old ironthat has not been in actual use, and fit only to be re-manufactured; andall pieces of iron, except old, of more than six inches in length, or ofsufficient length to be made into spikes and bolts, shall be rated as bar,bolt, rod, or hoop iron, as the case may be, and pay duty accordingly;all manufactures of iron, partly finished, shall pay the same rates of dutyas if entirely finished; all vessels of cast iron, and all castings of iron,with handles, rings, hoops, or other addition of wrought iron, shall paythe same rates of duty as if made entirely of cast iron.

Fourteenth. On unmanufactured hemp, forty dollars per ton: sail duck,fifteen per centum ad valorem; and on cotton bagging, three and a halfcents a square yard, without regard to the weight or width of the arti-cle: (a) On felts or hat bodies made wholly, or in part, of wool, eighteencents each.

Fifteenth. On all manufactures of silk, or of which silk shall be acomponent part, coming from beyond the Cape of Good Hope , ten percentum ad valorem, and on all other manufactures of silk, or of whichsilk is a component part, five per centum ad valorem, except sewing silk,which shall be forty per centum ad valorem.

Sixteenth. On brown sugar and syrup of sugar cane, in casks, twoand a half cents per pound; and on white clayed sugar, three and one-third cents per pound. (ft)

(а) An act of Congress imposing a duty on imports, must be construed to describe the article uponwhich the duty is imposed according to the commercial understanding of the terms used in the law, inour own markets, at the time when the law was passed. Curtis v. Martin et al., 3 Howard, 106.

The duty, therefore, imposed by the act of 1832, upon cotton bagging, cannot properly be levied uponan article which was not known in the market as cotton bagging in 1832, although it may subsequentlybe called so. Ibid.

(б) A seizure was made in the port of New Orleans , under the sixty-seventh section of the act of March2, 1799, ch. 22, regulating the collection of duties, which authorizes the collector, when he shall suspecta false and fraudulent entry to have been made of any goods, wares, and merchandise, to cause an examina-tion to be made ; and if found to differ from the entry, the merchandise is to be forfeited, unless it shall bemade to appear to the collector, or to the court in which a prosecution for the forfeiture shall be had, thatsuch difference proceeded from accident or mistake, and notfrom an intention to defraud the revenue. TheUnited States, by the collector ofMississippi, seized, as falsely entered at the custom-house in New Orleans ,certain casks of sugar, which had been entered as “ syrup,” alleging that they were sugar, in a partialsolution in water. The libel charged the entry to have been made with a fraudulent intention of evading theduty on sugar. The claimant gave evidence tending to show that the article seized was, in the prevail-ing mercantile understanding of the term, deemed syrup, and not sugar. By the Court :—The denomina-tion of merchandise, subject to the payment of duties, is to be understood in a commercial sense,although it may not be scientifically correct. All laws regulating the collection of duties are for prao»