§ 183. No goods belonging to a person not residing in the United States to be admitted to entry without oath. No goods, wares, or merchandise subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, and belonging to a person or persons not residing at the time in the United States, shall be admitted to entry, unless the invoice be verified by the oath of the owner, or one of the owners, in the form before prescribed, according to the nature of the case, which said oath shall be administered by a consul or commercial agent of the United States, or by some public officer duly authorized to administer oaths in the country where the said goods, wares, or merchandise shall have been purchased, and the same duly certified by the said consul, commercial agent, or public officer, in which latter case such official certificate shall be authenticated by a consul or commercial agent of the United States: Provided, That if there be no consul or commercial agent of the United States in the country from which the said goods, wares, or merchandise shall have been imported, the authentication hereby required shall be executed by a consul of a nation at the time in amity with the United States, if there be any such residing there; and if there be no such consul in the country, the said authentication shall be made by two respectable merchants, if any such there be, residing in the port from which the said goods, wares, and merchandise shall have been imported.1 Ibid. § 7, 8.

§ 184. But the Secretary of the Treasury may authorize entry in such cases, if satisfied no fraud was intended. - In all cases where goods, wares, or merchandise subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, and belonging to a person or persons not residing in the United States, shall not be

receiving the same. Each invoice (where several are presented for verification) must be stamped or marked, and an oath attached to each invoice. No invoice deficient in these proofs of genuineness will be admitted to entry, except such as are verified by the oath of the owner or owners at places where there is no collector of the customs, the oath being taken before a public officer duly authorized to administer oaths. Treas. Reg. April 29, 1858.

1 Collectors will be careful to see that the verification and authentication of invoices of merchandise belonging to persons not residing in the United States are made in conformity with the requirements of the supplementary collection law of March 1, 1823, and the existing regulations on the subject; and in all cases where these requirements are not observed by the consuls and commercial agents of the United States, they will promptly report the facts to the department.

Shipments of merchandise by several vessels can not be embraced in a single invoice, and be covered by a single consular certificate. The merchandise shipped by each vessel must be embraced in a distinct invoice, duly verified, if on foreign account, by oath of the owner, and authenticated by consular certificate. Gen. Reg. Art. 206, 207.

accompanied with an invoice verified by oath, and authenticated as required by this act, or where it shall not be practicable to make such oath, or there shall be an immaterial informality in the oath or authentication so required, or where the collector of the port at which the said goods, wares, or merchandise shall be shall have certified his opinion to the Secretary of the Treasury that no fraud was intended in the invoice of said goods, wares, or merchandise, the Secretary of the Treasury shall be, and he is hereby, authorized, if he shall deem it expedient, to admit the same to an entry: Provided, That the consignee, importer, or agent shall, previous to such entry, give bond, with sufficient sureties, to produce the invoice, if the same be practicable, sworn to and authenticated as may be required by this act, according to the nature of the case, and in the time and mode prescribed in the second section of this act, in cases where no invoice has been received: And provided always, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall in no case admit any goods, wares, or merchandise to an entry where there is just ground to suspect that a fraud on the revenue is intended. Ibid. § 10.

§ 185. Goods on joint account of resident and non-resident owners may be admitted on oath of resident owner, unless manufactured by owner residing abroad. In all cases where goods, wares, or merchandise subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, shall belong in part to a person or persons residing in the United States, and in part to a person or persons residing out of the United States, the oath of one of the owners residing in the United States shall be sufficient to admit the same to an entry according to the provisions of this act But it is expressly provided, That in all cases where the said goods, wares, or merchandise shall have been manufactured in whole or in part by any one of the owners residing out of the United States, the same shall not be admitted to an entry, unless the invoice shall have been verified and authenticated by such manufacturer in the manner prescribed. Ibid. § 11.

§ 186. Goods belonging to estates of persons deceased or insolvent may be admitted on oath of legal representative. — In all cases where goods, wares, or merchandise subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, shall belong to the estates of deceased persons, or of persons insolvent, who shall have assigned the same for the benefit of their creditors, the oaths required may be administered to the executor, administrator, or assignee of such persons in the manner prescribed by this act, according to the nature of the case. Ibid. § 9.

§ 187. Goods taken from a wreck to be appraised. - Before any goods, wares, or merchandise, which may be taken from any wreck, shall be admitted to an entry, the same shall be appraised. Ibid. § 21.

$188. Invoice of goods entered to be certified by collector, and entry conclusive against owner. When any goods, wares, or merchandise shall be admitted to an entry upon invoice, the collector of the port in which the same are entered shall certify the same 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 entry. Ibid. § 23.

§ 189. Goods destined for certain interior ports may be entered at port of New Orleans, and such other ports on the seaboard as the Secretary of the Treasury shall direct. When any goods, wares, or merchandise are to be imported from any foreign country into Pittsburg, in the State of Pennsylvania, Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio, Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, Nashville, in the State of Tennessee, or into Natchez, in the State of Mississippi,1 the importer thereof shall deposit in the custody of the surveyor of the place a schedule of the goods so intended to be imported, with an estimate of their cost at the place of exportation; whereupon the said surveyor shall make an estimate of the amount of duties accruing on the same, and the importer or consignee shall give bond, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the surveyor, in double the amount of the duties so estimated, conditioned for the payment of the duties on such merchandise, ascertained as hereinafter directed; and the surveyor shall forthwith notify the collector at New Orleans of the same by forwarding to him a copy of said bond and schedule.2 Act March 2, 1831, § 1.

1 By subsequent acts, sundry other ports on the Mississippi and its tributaries have been constituted ports of entry for foreign merchandise; and by an act passed September 28, 1850, authority was granted for the importation of such merchandise destined for these ports and the ports named in the act of 1831 through such ports on the seaboard as might be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose, who was also authorized to prescribe the routes of transportation. Under this act, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have been designated as ports of importation for Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Nashville, Natchez, Evansville, and New Albany; and Charleston and Savannah as ports of importation for Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis; the routes and mode of transportation being left to the option of the importer.

2 The remaining provisions of this act are so far superseded by the

APPRAISEMENT.1

§ 190. Value of imports to be ascertained by appraisement. 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 market value or wholesale price thereof at the period of the exportation to the United States in the principal markets of the country from which the same shall have been imported into the United States, to be appraised, estimated, and ascertained; and to such value or price shall be added all costs and charges, except insurance, and including in every case a charge for commissions at the usual rates, as the true value at the port where the same may be entered, upon which duties shall be assessed.

§ 191. Certificate of one appraiser sufficient. The certificate of any one of the appraisers of the United States of the dutiable value of any imported merchandise required to be appraised shall be deemed and taken to be the appraisement of such merchandise required by existing laws to be made by such appraisers.

provisions of the warehouse laws that it is deemed unnecessary to reproduce them here. Under the regulations of the department for carrying into effect these laws, foreign merchandise may be entered for warehousing at any port of entry, and transported under bond to any one of the designated interior ports.

For the appraisement of goods, wares, or merchandise_required by this or any other act concerning imports and tunnage, the President of the United States shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint, in each of the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, two persons well qualified to perform that duty, who, before they enter thereon, shall severally make oath diligently and faithfully to examine and inspect such goods, wares, or merchandise as the collector may direct, and truly to report, to the best of their knowledge and belief, the true value thereof. Act March 1, 1823, § 16. Prior to this act all appraisements, whether of value or damage, were required to be made by merchants specially appointed and qualified. By subsequent acts, the number of appraisers has been increased at some of the ports, and like officers have been authorized and appointed at other ports. Assistant appraisers were authorized by the act of May 28, 1830. The duty of this grade of officers is to examine and inspect such goods, wares, and merchandise as the principal appraisers may direct, and to report to them the true value thereof. All appraisements are required, however, to be made by the principal appraisers; and this must be done on a personal examination of the goods.

§ 192. Where there are no appraisers, revenue officer to certify. Where merchandise shall be entered at ports where there are no appraisers, the certificate of the revenue officer to whom is committed the estimating and collection of duties of the dutiable value of any merchandise required to be appraised shall be deemed and taken to be the appraisement of such merchandise required by existing laws to be made by such revenue officer. Act March 3, 1851, § 1, 2.

§ 193. Appraisers to employ all reasonable ways and means to ascertain the actual value. It shall, in every such case, be the duty of the appraisers of the United States, and every of them, and every person who shall act as such appraiser, or of the collector and naval officer, as the case may be, by all reasonable ways and means in his or their power, to ascertain, estimate, and appraise the true and actual market value and wholesale price, any invoice or affidavit thereto to the contrary notwithstanding, of the said goods, wares, and merchandise in the principal markets of the country whence the same shall have been imported into the United States. Act Aug. 30, 1842, § 16.

§ 194. Appraisers may summon importer, and require production of letters. - It shall be lawful for the appraisers, or the collector and naval officer, as the case may be, to call before them and examine, upon oath or affirmation, any owner, importer, consignee, or other person, touching any matter or thing which they may deem material in ascertaining the true market value or wholesale price of any merchandise imported, and to require the production, on oath or affirmation, to the collector or to any permanent appraiser, of any letters, accounts, or invoices in his possession relating to the same, for which purpose they are hereby respectively authorized to administer oaths and affirmations; and if any person so called shall neglect or refuse to attend, or shall decline to answer, or shall, if required, refuse to answer in writing any interrogatories, and subscribe his name to his deposition, or to produce such papers when so required, he shall forfeit and pay to the United States the sum of one hundred dollars; and if such person be the owner, importer, or consignee, the appraisement which the said appraisers, or collector and naval officer where there are no legal appraisers, may make of the goods, wares,

1 At ports where appraisers are appointed, the powers conferred by this section must be exercised by them. Where there are no appraisers, the collector and naval officer, or, if there be no naval officer, the collector alone, acting as an appraiser, may make the examination contemplated.