emoluments of his office. The sum charged to him will be retained from his proper emoluments, to be carried to the credit of internal revenue collections, if the compromise remains unchanged. But as it is understood that in a suit now pending in the Court of Claims* by one of the railroad companies against the United States, the Government may assert a claim against the company affecting the compromise, but in no way relating to the action of the District Attorney, the money will be simply deposited to proper credit, but not as yet "covered" into the Treasury. The final disposition of it will await the result of the decis ion of the case in the Court of Claims. The conclusions reached in this case are all the more satisfactory, since they can in no way prejudice or reflect on the undoubted integrity, purity of character, learning, or ability of the distinguished District Attorney, or of any officer or party connected with the matters mentioned. It is in fact understood that the arrangements referred to followed precedents the good faith of which cannot be doubted.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

First Comptroller's Office, July 25, 1883.

IN THE MATTER OF MAKING AN ALLOWANCE FOR, AND REDEEMING, STAMPS IMPROPERLY OR UNNECESSARILY USED ON PACKAGES OF MATCHES.-MATCH-STAMP CASE.

1. Under the statutes in force prior to July 1, 1883, a manufacturer of "friction matches" was not required to affix stamps to packages thereof, until he sold them, or removed them from the manufactory for consumption or sale.

2. If stamps were by mistake unnecessarily used by a manufacturer on packages of matches before their sale, or removal for consumption or sale, and such packages were still held in the same condition on and after July 1, 1883, when stamps were no longer required, the stamps so affixed and remaining may be redeemed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

3. If, in such case, the manufacturer is indebted to the United States for stamps farnished to him, he may, in the account of stamps charged against him, be credited with the amount of stamps redeemed.

July 25, 1883, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue addressed a letter to the First Comptroller, saying, that the Diamond Match Company had filed a number of claims for an allowance on account of proprietary stamps affixed to packages of matches which were in its factory and unsold July 1, 1883, and that said company asks that the amount of the allowance be placed to the credit of its account with the InternalRevenue Office for such stamps. And the Commissioner asks to be informed whether, in the opinion of the Comptroller, "the amount found to be due can be credited in the account?"

* See MS. letter of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to the First Comptroller, July 24, 1883.

The Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of March 1, 1879 (20 Stat., 349, 351), contain the following:

"SEC. 3419. There shall be levied, collected, and paid on the articles mentioned in Schedule A, and in the manner hereinafter provided, the taxes mentioned in said schedule; and all the provisions of this chapter relating to dies, stamps, adhesive stamps, and stamped duties, shall extend to and include (except where otherwise provided for, or manifestly impracticable) all the articles or objects enumerated in schedule marked A, subject to stamp duties, and shall apply to the provisions in relation thereto.

or

SEC. 3426. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue may, upon receipt of satisfactory evidence of the facts, MAKE ALLOWANCE FOR OR REDEEM SUCH OF THE STAMPS issued under the provisions of this title, or of any internalrevenue act, as may have been spoiled, destroyed, or rendered useless or unfit for the purpose intended, or FOR WHICH THE OWNER MAY HAVE NO USE, or WHICH, THROUGH MISTAKE, MAY HAVE BEEN IMPROPERLY OR UNNECESSARILY USED, or where the rates or duties represented thereby have been excessive in amount, PAID IN ERROR, or IN ANY MANNER WRONGFULLY COLLECTED; and such allowance or redemption shall be made either by giving other stamps in lieu of the stamps so allowed for or redeemed, BY REFUNDING THE AMOUNT OR VALUE TO THE OWNER THEREOF, deducting therefrom, in case of repayment, the percentage, if any, allowed to the purchaser thereof; but no allowance or redemption shall be made in any case until the stamps so spoiled or rendered useless shall have been returned to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, or until satisfactory proof has been made showing the reason why the same cannot be so returned: Provided, That nothing herein shall be held as authorizing redemption of, or allowance for, any of the stamps allowance for which is prohibited by the provisions of An act relative to the redemption of unused stamps, approved July twelfth, eighteen hundred and seventy-six.

SEC. 3430. Whenever any person makes, prepares, and sells, or removes for consumption or sale, drugs, medicines, preparations, compositions, articles, or things, including perfumery, cosmetics, lucifer or friction matches, cigar-lights, wax-tapers, and playing-cards, whether of domestic manufacture or imported, upon which a tax is imposed by law, as enumerated and mentioned in Schedule A, without affixing thereto an adhesive stamp or label denoting the tax before mentioned, he shall incur a penalty of fifty dollars for every omission to affix such stamp: Provided, That lucifer or friction matches, and cigar-lights, and wax-tapers, and all articles upon which a tax is imposed by law, as enumerated and mentioned in Schedule A following section thirty-four hundred and thirty-seven of the Revised Statutes, may be removed from the place of manufacture for export to a foreign country, without payment of tax, or affixing stamps thereto, under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may pre

scribe.

SEC. 3432. Every maker or manufacturer of any of the articles or commodities mentioned in Schedule A, who, to evade the duty charge. able thereon, or any part thereof, sells, exposes for sale, sends out, removes, or delivers any article or c mmodity, manufactured as aforesaid, before the duty thereon has been fully paid, by affixing thereon the proper stamp, as provided by law, or who to evade as aforesaid hides or conceals, or

causes to be hidden or concealed, or removes or conveys away, or deposits, or causes to be removed or conveyed away from or deposited in any place, any such article or commodity, shall be subject to a penalty of one hundred dollars, together with the forfeiture of any such article or commodity.

SCHEDULE A.

For and upon every packet, box, bottle, pot, phial, or other inclosure, containing any essence, extract, toilet-water, cosmetic, hair oil, pomade, hair-dressing, hair-restorative, hair-dye, tooth-wash, dentifrice, toothpaste, aromatic cachous, or any similar articles, by whatsoever name. the same heretofore have been, now are, or may hereafter be called, known or distinguished, used or applied, or to be used or applied as perfumes or applications to the hair, mouth, or skin, made, prepared, and sold or removed for consumption and sale in the United States, where such packet, box, bottle, pot, phial, or other inclosure, with its contents, shall not exceed, at the retail price or value, the sum of twenty-five cents, que cent.

Friction-matches, or lucifer-matches, or other articles made in part of wood, and used for like purposes, in parcels or packages containing one hundred matches or less, for each parcel or package, one cent.

When in parcels or packages containing more than one hundred and not more than two hundred matches, for each parcel or package, two

cents.

And for every additional one hundred matches or fractional part thereof, one cent."

The act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 488), "To reduce internal-revenue taxation, and for other purposes," provides:

That the taxes herein specified imposed by the laws now in force be, and the same are hereby, repealed, as hereinafter provided, namely: On capital and deposits of banks, bankers, and national banking associations, except such taxes as are now due and payable; and on and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, the stamp tax on bank checks, drafts, orders, and vouchers, and the tax on matches, perfumery, medicinal preparations, and other articles imposed by Schedule A following section thirty-four hundred and thirty-seven of the Revised Statutes: Provided, That no drawback shall be allowed upon articles embraced in said schedule that shall be exported on and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-three: Provided further, That on and after May fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, matches may be removed by manufacturers thereof from the place of manufacture to warehouses within the United States without attaching thereto the stamps required by law, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

OPINION BY WILLIAM LAWRENCE, First Comptroller.

Under the statutes in force prior to July 1, 1883, it is clear that a manufacturer of "friction-matches" was not required to affix stamps to packages thereof, until he sold them, or removed them from the manufactory for consumption or sale.

By the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 488), the stamp tax on matches, &c., was abolished "on and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-three." Any stamps affixed by a manufacturer to the packages of matches in question before their sale, or removal for consumption or sale, should be refunded if such packages remained with the manufacturer in the same condition on and after July 1, 1883.

Section 3426 of the Revised Statutes as amended by the act of March 1, 1879 (20 Stat., 349), authorizes the redemption of the stamps, "which, through mistake," "were unnecessarily used," "by refunding the amount or value to the owner thereof." The stamps were affixed, "through mistake," when affixed under the impression that they would be required by the law at the time the matches might be sold or removed for consumption or sale.

The Diamond Match Company is indebted to the United States for stamps sold on credit, as authorized by section 3425 of the Revised Statutes. And the question now presented is, whether a credit on this indebtedness is a "refunding" of "the amount or value" of the stamps "unnecessarily used," within section 3426 of the Revised Statutes, as amended. The answer must be, that it is clearly so. The law never

requires a vain or useless act. And it would scarcely seem necessary to require actual payment in money from the Diamond Match Company of its indebtedness to the United States, and then to pay it money for stamps redeemed. It may be said that, in practice, in order to secure the action of the Secretary of the Treasury and the First Comptroller, statements should be made and the proper pay and covering warrants should be issued, as in case of actual payments. (1 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 2d ed.; App. Ch. I, 419; Rev. Stat., 3617, 3618, 3621, 3622, 3623, 3624, 3633, 3692.) This process is unnecessary, however.

If the Diamond Match Company actually paid its indebtedness, the process would be by a covering warrant. Match-manufacturers and others, who purchase stamps under the provisions of section 3425 of the Revised Statutes, pay for such stamps by depositing the value thereof with a United States depositary to the credit of the treasurer-the depositor receiving triplicate certificates of deposit. The original of these certificates is forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury, upon which a warrant issues, granted by the Secretary, countersigned by the First Comptroller, and covering the amount of such certificate of deposit into the Treasury to the credit of moneys received from internal-revenue duties. The duplicate certificate is sent to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. And, if the claim for stamps "unnecessarily used" should be allowed, it can only be actually paid by a Treasury warrant duly issued on a balance certified by the First Comptroller upon an account stated by the Fifth Auditor. But this double process is also unnecessary in the case now under consideration. All the safeguards by these proceedings are secured by other means. The account of the United States with the Diamond Match Company, including charges for stamps fur

28 D 83

nished, and credits for deposits of money on account of sales, for commissions, and for allowances on account of stamps "unnecessarily used," will be referred by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with proper vouchers, to the Fifth Auditor for his action; after which, it will be acted on by the First Comptroller, and a balance will be duly certified. This is the usage. In fact, the law requires that a set-off be made in such case; since no actual payment can properly be made of any claim allowed to the Diamond Match Company, while it is indebted to the United States in an equal or greater sum. (Georgia case, 4 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., ante, 354.)

The amount, which may be found due to the Diamond Match Company for stamps redeemed, may be credited on the account of the United States against said company for stamps furnished to it. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue will be advised accordingly.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

First Comptroller's Office, July 26, 1883.

IN THE MATTER OF THE RIGHT OF A MARSHAL, IN "TRANSPORTING CRIMINALS," TO MILEAGE FOR A GUARD, WHO RECEIVES MILEAGE ALSO FOR THE SAME TRAVEL AS A WITNESS.-MARSHAL'S GUARD CASE.

1. A marshal, in. "transporting criminals," is entitled to mileage for a "necessary guard" in any district or Territory where there is [a] penitentiary," although such guard has been subpoenaed, and is also entitled to and receives mileage for the same travel as a witness.

In the examination and settlement of marshals' accounts (Rev. Stat., 269, 277), the question is presented to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon-whether a marshal, in "transporting criminals," is entitled to mileage for a guard who has been subpoenaed, and is also entitled to and receives mileage for the same travel as a witness?

DECISION BY WILLIAM LAWRENCE, First Comptroller.

The Revised Statutes contain provisions prescribing fees for marshals and witnesses, respectively, as follow:

SEC. 829.

"MARSHALS' FEES.

For transporting criminals, ten cents a mile for himself and for each prisoner and necessary guard; except in the case provided for in the next paragraph.

For transporting criminals convicted of a crime in any district or Territory where there is no penitentiary available for the confinement of convicts of the United States, to a prison in another district or Territory designated by the Attorney-General, the reasonable actual ex