on foreign imports by the act of July 14, 1832, entitled "An Act to alter and amend the several Acts imposing Duties on Imports," or by any other act, shall exceed 20 per cent. on the value thereof, one tenth part of such excess shall be deducted; from and after the 31st of December, 1835, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the 31st of December, 1837, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the 31st of December, 1839, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; and from and after the 31st of December, 1841, one half of the residue of such excess shall be deducted; and from and after the 30th of June, 1812, the other half thereof shall be deducted. Sect. II.-And be it further enacted, that so much of the second section of the act of the 14th of July aforesaid, as fixes the rate of duty on all milled and fulled cloth, known by the name of plains, kerseys, or Kendal cottons, of which wool is the only material, the value whereof does not exceed 35 cents a square yard, at 5 per cent. ad valorem, shall be and the same is hereby repealed. And the said articles shall be subject to the same duty of 50 per cent. as is provided by the said 2d section for other manufactures of wool, which duty shall be liable to the same reductions as are prescribed by the 1st section of this act. Sect. III.-And be it further enacted, that until the 30th of September, 1842, the duties imposed by existing laws, as modified by this act, shall remain and continue to be collected. And from and after the day last aforesaid, all duties on imports shall be collected in ready money, and all credits now allowed by law, to the payment of duties, shall be and are hereby abolished, and such duties shall be laid for the purpose of raising such revenues as may be necessary to an economical administration of the government; and from and after the day last aforesaid, the duties required to be paid by law on goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be assessed upon the value thereof at the port where the same shall be entered, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. Sect IV. And be it further enacted, that, in addition to the articles now exempted by the act of the 14th of July, 1832, and the existing laws, from the payment of duties, the following articles imported from and after the 31st of December, 1833, and until the 30th of June, 1842, shall also be admitted to entry free from duty; to wit, bleached and unbleached linens, table linens, linen napkins, and linen cambrics, and worsted stuff goods, shawls, and other manufactures of silk and worsted, manufactures of silk, or of which silk shall be the component material of chief value, coming from this side of the Cape of Good Hope, except sewing silk. Sect. V. And be it further enacted, that from and after the said 30th of June, 1842, the following articles shall be admitted to entry free from duty; to wit, indigo, quicksilver, sulphur, crude saltpetre, grindstones, refined borax, emery, opium, tin in plates or sheets, gum Arabic, gum Senegal, lac dye, madder, madder root, nuts and berries used in dyeing, saffron, turmeric, woad or pastel, aloes, ambergris, Burgundy pitch, cochineal, camomile flowers, coriander seed, catsup, chalk, cocculus Indicus, horn plates for lanterns, ox horns, other horns and tips, India rubber, unmanufactured ivory, juniper berries, musk, nuts of all kinds, oil of juniper, unmanufactured rattans and reeds, tortoiseshell, tin foil, shellac, all vegetables used principally in dyeing and composing dyes, weld, and all articles employed chiefly for dyeing, except alum, copperas, bichromate of potash, prussiate of potash, chromate of potash, and nitrate of lead, aquafortis and tartaric acid. And all imports on which the 1st section of this act may operate, and all articles now admitted to entry, free from duty or paying a less rate of duty than 20 per cent. ad valorem before the said 30th of June, 1842, from and after that day may be admitted to entry, subject to such duty, not exceeding 20 per cent. ad valorem, as shall be provided for by law. Sect. VI. And be it further enacted, that so much of the act of July 14, 1832, or of any other act, as is inconsistent with this act, shall be and the same is hereby repealed: provided that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the passage, prior or subsequent to the said 30th of June, 1842, of any act or acts from time to time, that may be necessary to detect, prevent, or punish evasion of the duties on imports imposed by law; nor to prevent the passage of any act prior to the 30th of June, 1842, in contingency either of excess or deficiency of revenue, altering the rate of duties on articles which, by the aforesaid act of the 14th of July, 1832, are subject to a less rate of duty than 20 per cent. ad valorem, in such manner, as not to exceed that rate, and so as to adjust the revenue to either of the said contingencies. Circular to Officers of the Customs. Treasury Department, April 20, 1833. The 7th section of the act of the 14th of July, 1832, entitled "An Act to alter and amend the several Acts imposing the Duties on Imports," provides, that in all cases where the duty which now is or hereafter may be imposed on any goods, wares, or merchandise imported into the United States, shall, by law, be regulated, or be directed to be estimated or levied upon the value of the square yard, or any other quantity or parcel thereof, and in all cases where there is or shall be imposed any ad valorem rate of duty on any goods, wares, or merchandise imported into the United States, it shall be the duty of the collector, within whose district the same shall be imported or entered, to cause the actual value thereof, at the time purchased, and place from which the same shall have been imported into the United States, to be appraised, estimated, and ascertained, and the number of such yards, parcels, or quantities, and such actual value of every of them as the case may require; and it shall, in every case, be the duty of the appraisers of the United States, and every of them, and every other person who shall act as such appraiser, by all the reasonable ways or means in his or their power, to ascertain, estimate, and appraise the true and actual value, any invoice or affidavit thereto to the contrary notwithstanding, of the said goods, wares, and merchandise, at the time purchased, and place from whence the same shall have been imported into the United States, and the number of such yards, parcels, or quantities, and such actual value of every of them as the case may require, &c. &c. The 9th section of the same act provides, "that it shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury, under the direction of the President of the United States, from time to time to establish such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the laws of the United States, as the President of the United States shall think proper, to secure a just, faithful, and impartial appraisal of all goods, wares, and merchandise as aforesaid, imported into the United States, and just and proper entries of such actual value thereof, and of the square yards, parcels, or other quantities, as the case may require, and of such actual value of every of them; and it shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury to report all such rules and regulations, with the reasons therefor, to the next session of Congress." The 1st section of the act of the 2d of March, 1833, entitled "An act to modify the Act of the 14th of July, 1832, and all other Acts imposing Duties on Imports," declares, "that from and after the 31st of December, 1833, in all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports by the act of the 14th of July, 1832, entitled 'An Act to alter and amend the several Acts imposing Duties on Imports,' or by any other act, shall exceed 20 per cent. on the value thereof, one tenth part of such excess shall be deducted," &c. It is believed that by this provision, and as necessary to the execution of the law, all duties imposed by any act of Congress upon foreign imports are substantially regulated by, and are directed to be estimated and levied upon, the value of the square yard, where that is the form, and upon some other quantity or parcel in cases where the duty is not imposed by the square yard; and that consequently the authority conferred by the 9th section aforesaid must necessarily be exercised, for the more effectual execution of the said act of the 2d of March, 1833. The following rules and regulations are therefore established, under the direction of the President of the United States, for the purpose of securing a just, faithful, and impartial appraisal of all goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States from and after the 31st of December next, and for the just and proper entries of the actual value thereof, and of the square yard, parcels or other quantities, as the case may require. In all cases of ad valorem duties under the act of the 14th of July, 1832, or any other act, the regulations at present authorised by law, for ascertaining the actual value, will remain unaltered. With respect to those articles liable to a specific duty, or other duty than that of ad valorem, the actual value thereof at the time purchased, and place from which the same shall have been imported into the United States or in the country wherein the same may have been originally manufactured, or produced, as the case may be, will be appraised, estimated, and ascertained, and the number of yards, or square yards, tons, pounds, gallons, bushels, or other parcels or quantities, and such actual value of any of them as the case may require, and just and proper entries thereof be made, in the same manner and according to the same regulations, as are required by the said act of the 14th of July, 1832, and other acts now in force in regard to articles paying ad valorem duty; and in all such cases the same verification of invoices and other proofs will be required and produced as are at present authorised in respect to articles liable by previous acts to an ad valorem duty. The value of all such articles being thus ascertained, the proportion which the duty now paid by such articles bears to the said value will be calculated, and from the excess thereof beyond 20 per cent. there will be deducted, from and after the 31st of December next, 10 per cent.; that is to say, where such proportion shall be equal to 50 per cent., there shall be deducted 10 per cent. upon 30 per cent., or 3 dollars; and from and after the 31st of December, 1835 the like deduction shall be made from the same excess, or 10 per cent. upon 30 per cent., being 3 dollars more; and in the same manner, at the several periods specified in the said act of the 2d of March, 1833, until the 31st of December, 1841; from and after which, one half of the residue of such excess will be deducted, and the other half thereof from and after the 30th of June, 1812. From the proportion of the duty thus ascertained upon the wines of France, in addition to the said 10 per cent., there will also be deducted such further per cent. as will be necessary to preserve the discrimination in favour of such wines, stipulated in the convention between the United States and his Majesty the King of the French, concluded at Paris on the 4th of July, 1831, and authorised by law. It may be proper to observe, that all manufactures of cotton, or of which cotton shall be a component part, will be appraised, estimated, and ascertained, and the number of yards, square yards, or otherwise, parcel or quantities, and of such actual value thereof as the case may require, will be ascertained, and just and proper entries thereof made, according to the foregoing regulations. It is believed that the value of foreign imports referred to in the act of the 2d of March, 1833, is not the assumed value on which the duty upon all manufactures of cotton, or of which cotton shall be a component part, is directed to be estimated under the act of the 14th of July, 1832; viz. of thirty cents, if not dyed, coloured, painted, or stained, though valued at less than 30 cents; and of thirty-five cents, if dyed, coloured, painted, or stained, though valued at less than 35 cents the square yard. This value is merely artificial, and assumed by previous laws as a means of augmenting the ad valorem rate of duty, imposed for the purpose of protection, upon such articles; and the amount of the duty, although ascertained by the adoption of the minimum principle, is the proportion which the sum collected by the government bears to the actual value of the article; and, therefore, a quantity of such cottons, costing in fact 80 dollars, but valued for the purpose of the act of the 14th of July, 1832, at 240 dollars, really pays a duty of 75 per cent. upon the true value thereof. The act of the 24 of March, 1833, however, proceeds upon a different principle, and aims at a different purpose. It obviously intends to make an equal deduction from the duty on all foreign imports, and ultimately to reduce it to a rate not exceeding 20 per cent. upon the real, and not an assumed, value of the articles imported. This last purpose is explicitly stated in the last clause of the 5th section, which provides “that all imports on which the 1st section of this act may operate, and all arti cles now admitted to entry free of duty, or paying a less rate of duty than 20 per cent. ad valorem, before the said 30th of June, 1842, from and after that day may be admitted to entry, subject to such duty, not exceeding 20 per cent. ad valorem, as shall be provided for by law." And the 1st section, which has been already referred to, expressly provides for the deduction, after the 30th of June, 1842, of all excess of foreign imports above 20 per cent. on the value thereof, which shall have been imposed by previous laws, and to which they may then be subject. The object of thus establishing a general ad valorem duty on foreign imports, and of equalising the rate, can only be attained by calculating the duty on the real instead of the assumed value. This purpose is more particularly manifest from the last clause of the 3d section, which provides, that from and after the 30th of June, 1842, "the duties required to be paid by law on goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be assessed upon the value thereof at the port where the same shall be entered, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law." Each of these clauses relates to the actual value of the foreign import, and they differ only in estimating that value; previously to the 30th of June, 1842, the value in the foreign port being taken, and after that time, the value at the port of entry. The object of neither can be accomplished at any period, by adhering either to the nominal value assumed by previous acts, or to the rate of ad valorem founded upon such assumption. In all importations of manufactures of cotton, therefore, or of which cotton shall be a component part, after the 31st of December, 1832, the value thereof will be ascertained in the manner aforesaid; and from the amount which the rate of duty under the act of the 14th of July, 1832, or any other act, shall exceed 20 per cent. on such value, the deduction required by the act of the 2d of March, 1833, will be made according to the foregoing rules. Though these rules and regulations will not go into effect until the 1st of January next, they have been thus early adopted and made public, for the purpose of giving timely notice to the manufacturers and merchants, and all others concerned; and especially as to the verification, by the consuls abroad of the invoices of importations to be made after that time. Drawback. All articles subject to duty imported into the United States, not having been lauded more than 3 years, are allowed a drawback of the duties, on exportation of the same (except foreign dried and pickled fish, and other salt prov sions, and chain cables). Credits. When the duty on an article of which wool is not a omponen part does not exceed 200 dollars, it must be paid in cash without discount; when it exceeds 200 dollars, a credit of 3 mouths is allowed for the 12, and of 6 months for the other 12, reckoning from the date of the vessel's entry. Duties on wool, and all manu factures of wool, to be paid in cash without discount. Discount When the duties on any article, except wool and wool. len manufactures, exceed 20 dollars, and they are paid in cash at the time of entry, the porter is entitled to a discount of 4 per cent. Leakage and Breakage.-On spirits, 2 per cent.; ale, beer, and porter, in bottles, 10 per cent.; all other liquors, in bottles, 5 per cent. Restrictions. No goods to be imported in vessels less than 30 tons burden. No beer, ale, and porter, in casks of less capacity than 40 LOUIS M'LANE, Secretary of the Treasury. gallons, beer measure; or, if in bottles, in packages less than 6 dozen. No distilled spirits in casks of less capacity than 90 gailons, wine measure, except brandy, which may be imported in casks of any capacity, not less than 15 gallons Tonnage Duty-On American vessels, and the vessels of Denmark, Central America, Netherlands, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, Prussia, Sweden, Norway, Oldenburgh, Russia, Aus ria, Brazil, Hanover, Papal Dominions, Portugal, and Sar linia, from whatever port or place, and on French vessels coming from Martinique and Guadeloupe, free. On French vessels from other ports, and on all other foreign vessels (except as above enumerated) coming from ports where Americans are permitted to trade, 1 dollar per tou; and from ports where Americans are not permitted to trade, 2 dollars and 50 cents per ton. On Spanish vessels, coming direct from Spain, 5 cents per ton. Free Goods-The following, among other articles, are admitted free of duties:-Antimony, almonds, aloes, annotto, amber, amber gris, argols, arrowroot, arsenic, assafoetida.-Balsams, barilla, bees' wax, bleaching powder, brimstone, borax.-Cantharides; camphor, crude; capers, chalk, cinnamon, cloves, cocoa, cochineal, coffee; copper, in pigs and bars, and sheathing; cream of tartar, currants.-Dye woods of all kinds.-Fruits of all kinds, flax; furs of all kinds, not dressed-Ginger, gums of all kinds, gunny bags.-Hemp, Manilla and Sisal, hides, horns, honey.-Ipecacuanha, juniper berries, ivory, jalap.-Lac dye, liquorice pasie.-Mace, madder, manna, marble, munjeet.-Nuts of all kinds, nutmegs, nutgalls.-Oils-of almonds, aniseed, cassia, cinnamon, cloves, palm, juniper, lavender, bergamot, lemons, roses, opium, olives.-Pepper, peruvian bark, pimento, plaster of Paris.-Quicksilver.-Rags, rhubarb.-Sarsapa rilla, sulphur, shellac-Teas, from China; tin, in bars, plates, or sheets; tartar, tortoise-shell.-Verdigris.-Wood; wool, not costing over 8 cents per lb. The following Table exhibits the progressive reductions that will take place in the duties on some of the principal articles imported into the United States, under Mr. Clay's Bill. [We subjoin a statement of the arrivals at New York from foreign ports, taken from the New York Shipping and Commercial List. It may be remarked that no fact can be adduced more illustrative of the energy of the causes in operation to advance the prosperity of the city of New York, than the comparatively slight impression upon it which was produced by the great fire of the 16th of December, 1835. The value of the merchandise destroyed, was estimated by a committee appointed for the purpose, at $13,115,692; the buildings destroyed, in number 529, at $4,000,000. Contrary to general expectation abroad, few or no failures ensued as an immediate consequence of these losses. Losses from fire are indeed so frequent, and often so extensive, in New York, as to constitute a material drawback on the rate of its advancement in wealth. We find it officially stated, in the present summer (1840), that there occurred in this city, during the period of one year, 192 fires, being an average of more than one for every 48 hours! The collective amounts paid by the Insurance Companies, was $3,225,409 2,983,310 2,001,991 981,319 242,099 NICARAGUA, OR PEACH WOOD (Ger. Nicaragaholz, Blutholtz, Du. Bloedhaut; Fr. Bois de sang, Bois de Nicarague; It. Legno sanguigno; Sp. Palo de sangre; Port. Pao sanguinho), a tree of the same genus (Casalpinia) as the Brazil and sapan wood; but the species has not been exactly ascertained. It grows principally in the vicinity of the lake of Nicaragua, whence its name. It is said by Dr. Bancroft to be almost as red and heavy as the true Brazil wood, but it does not commonly afford more than a third part, in quantity, of the colour of the latter; and even this is rather less durable and less beautiful, though dyed with the same mordants. Nicaragua or peach woods differ greatly in their quality as well as price; one sort being so deficient in colouring matter, that 6 pounds of it will only dye as much wool or cloth as pound of Brazil wood; while another variety of it will produce nearly half the effect of an equal quantity of Brazil wood, and will sell proportionally dear.—(Bancroft on Colours, vol. ii. p. 332.) The London dealers distinguish Nicaragua wood into 3 sorts, viz. large, middling, and small; the price of the 1st sort (duty included) being from 147. to 201. per ton; of the 2d, from 81. to 101. per do.; and of the 3d, from 71. to 81. per do. The entries of Nicaragua wood for home consumption amounted, in 1831, to 1,485 tons: in 1832, they amounted to 1,880 tons; an increase that was, no doubt, in part at least, occasioned by the duty having been reduced in 1831 from 15s. to 5s. a ton. NICKEL, a scarce metal, which occurs always in combination with other metals, from which it is exceedingly difficult to separate it. When pure, it is of a fine white colour resembling silver. It is rather softer than iron: its specific gravity, when cast, is 8.279; when hammered, 8.932. It is malleable, and may without difficulty be hammered into plates not exceeding th part of an inch in thickness. It is attracted by the magnet; and is not altered by exposure to the air, nor by being kept under water. It is employed in potteries, and in the manufacture of porcelain.—(Thomson's Chemistry.) NITRE. See SALTPETRE. [NORFOLK, a seaport situated on Elizabeth river in Virginia, and 8 miles from Hampton Roads, in lat. 37° 12′ North, and longitude 76° 42′ West. Its harbour is capacious and deep, of easy access, and safe in all weathers. The Roads are formed by an enlargement of James river, at its mouth in the Chesapeake Bay; and they afford an anchorage for vessels, unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. These circumstances, together with the advantages of transportation furnished by the Dismal Swamp canal and the Portsmouth and Roanoke railroad, have rendered Norfolk a place of considerable trade. In this respect it takes precedence of any other place in the state of Virginia. We annex a plan of the Chesapeake Bay. See opposite page.-Am. Ed.] NOTE, PROMISSORY, See BANKING, and BANKS. NUT, OR HAZEL NUT (Ger. Haselnüsse; Fr. Noisettes, Avelines; It. Naccinole, Avelane; Sp. Avellanas; Port. Avellāas; Lat. Avellana), the fruit of different species of Coryli, or hazels. The kernels have a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to most palates. A kind of chocolate has been prepared from them; and they have sometimes been made into bread. The expressed oil of hazel nuts is little inferior to that of almonds. Besides those raised at home, we import nuts from different parts of France, Portugal, and Spain, but principally from the latter. The Spanish nuts in the highest estimation, though sold under the name of Barcelona nuts, are not really shipped at that city, but at Tarragona, a little more to the south. Mr. Ingliss says that the annual average export of nuts from Tarragona is from 25,000 to 30,000 bags, of 4 to the ton. They cost, free on board, in autumn, 1830, 17s. 6d. per bag.-(Spain in 1830, vol. ii. p. 362.) The entries of nuts for home consumption amount to from 100,000 to 125,000 bushels a year; the duty of 2s. a bushel producing from 10,000l. to 12,500l. nett. cas. NUTMEG (Ger. Muskatennüsse; Du. Muskaät; Fr. Muscades, Noix muscades; It. Noce muscada; Sp. Moscada; Arab. Jowzalteib; Sans. Jatiphala; Malay, Buah-pala), the fruit of the genuine nutmeg tree (Myristica Moschata), a native of the Moluccas, but which has been transplanted to Sumatra, Penang, &c. An inferior and long-shaped nutmeg is common in Borneo; but the fruit nowhere attains to the same perfection as in the MolucOf the several varieties of the tree, that denominated the Queen Nutmeg, which bears a small round fruit, is the best. The kernel, or proper nutmeg, is of a roundish oval form, marked on the outside with many vermicular furrows, within of a fleshy farinaceous substance, variegated whitish and bay. Nutmegs are frequently punctured and boiled, in order to obtain the essential oil; the orifice being afterwards closed; but the fraud is easily detected by the lightness of the nutmeg.-(Thomson's Dispensatory; Ainslie's Materia Indica.) |