ment or dispatch of business disclosed by such report. (R. S., § 175.)

34. In case of the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the head of a department, the first or sole assistant thereof, unless otherwise directed by the President in accordance with law, is required to perform the duties of such head until a successor shall be appointed or until such sickness or absence shall cease.

Likewise, in case of the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of any chief of a bureau or an officer thereof whose appointment is not vested in the head of the department, the assistant or deputy of such chief or officer, or if there be none the chief clerk of such bureau, is required to perform the duties.

Except in case of the death, absence, resignation, or sickness of the Attorney-General, the President may, in his discretion, authorize and direct the head of any department, or any other officer in either department whose appointment is vested in the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform the duties of the vacant office until a successor is appointed or the sickness or absence of the incumbent shall cease. But a vacancy occasioned by death or resignation cannot legally be filled under these provisions for a longer period than ten days. (R. S., §§ 177, 178, 179, 180.)

35. An officer or clerk of a department lawfully detailed to investigate fraud or attempted fraud on the Government, or any irregularity or misconduct of any officer or agent of the United States, has authority to administer oaths to witnesses attending to testify in the course of the investigation. Any head of a department wherein a claim against the United States is properly pending may apply to any judge or clerk of any court of the United States, in any State, District, or Territory, to issue a subpoena for any witness

within the jurisdiction to appear, at a time and place stated, before any officer authorized to take depositions to be used in the United States courts, there to give full and true answers to such written interrogatories and cross-interrogatories as may be submitted with the application, or to be orally examined and cross-examined upon the subject of such claim. Compulsory process may be used in such cases by the court to enforce the appearance and testimony of the witness. (R. S., §§ 184, 186.)

36. If the services of counsel are required by any head of a department at the examination of such witnesses or in the legal investigation of any claim pending in his department or any bureau thereof, he may give notice to the Attorney-General accordingly, and inform him of all the facts necessary to enable that officer to furnish proper professional service in attending such examination or in making the investigation. (R. S., § 187.)

37. The proper department, bureau, or officer, when called upon for the same by the Attorney-General in the interests of the defense of a suit in the Court of Claims against the United States involving transactions in such department or bureau or by such officer, is required to furnish a full statement in writing of all the facts, circumstances, and proofs, with a reference to or description of all official documents or papers, if any, as may furnish proof of facts necessary for the defense, mentioning the department, office, or place where the documents or papers may be procured.

If the claim has been passed upon and decided by the department, bureau, or officer, the statement must declare the reasons and principles, succinctly, upon which the decision was based. If such decision was founded upon an act of Congress, the act must be cited specifically; and any interpretation or construction of the same by the depart

ment, bureau, or officer must be set forth, and a copy of the opinion must be annexed. Where any decision in the case has been based upon a regulation of the department, or where such regulation has, in the opinion of the officer transmitting the statement, any bearing upon the claim in suit, the same must be distinctly quoted at length in the statement. Such statement may be held to apply to one case or a class of cases pending in the Court of Claims, the defense of which depends upon the same facts, circumstances, and proofs. (R. S., § 188.)

38. The head of a department is prohibited from employing attorneys or counsel at the expense of the United States; but when in need of counsel or advice, he is required to call upon the Department of Justice, the officers of which are required to attend to the same. (R. S., § 189.)

39. The balances which may from time to time be stated by the Auditor and certified to the heads of departments by the Commissioner of Customs or the Comptrollers of the Treasury, upon the settlement of public accounts, are not subject to be changed or modified by the heads of departments, but are conclusive upon the Executive branch of the Government, and subject to revision only by Congress or the proper courts. The head of the proper department, before signing a warrant for any balance certified to him by a Comptroller, may, however, submit to such Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balance, but the decision of the Comptroller thereon shall be final and conclusive, as hereinbefore provided. (R. S., § 191.)

Previous to the enactment of this provision, (March 30, 1868,) a long controversy had existed as to the exclusive jurisdiction of the accounting officers over matters of account. The opinions of Attorneys-General had left the question in much doubt; but it seems to have been at length

settled by the very exhaustive opinion of Attorney-General Crittenden, in 5 Opinions, 630, wherein he held to the doctrine of his predecessor, (Reverdy Johnson, page 87 of same volume,) "that the decision of a head of a department directing payment of a particular claim is binding upon all the subordinate officers by whom the same is to be audited and passed."

This was, however, under a different state of the law from that which now exists. The provision of the Revised Statutes in section 191, before cited, which was compiled from section 1, act of March 30, 1868, would seem to settle any doubt, and to declare, in as clear and explicit language as can be framed, a rule of practice directly the opposite of the doctrine before laid down by these officers. Although under that statute the head of a department may not alter or modify a balance found by the accounting officers, he may still withhold his warrant or requisition, and certify to the Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balance. Thus, the question as to the restraint which the head of the department may exercise upon the accounting officer, would seem to be still an open one, and not free from doubt. Of course this restraint operates only in favor of the United States. He is, nevertheless, still powerless to direct a credit to an officer's account, or the finding of an amount due against the judgment and action of the accounting officer. (See 5 Nott & Hun., p. 55.)

40. The head of each department is required to report annually to Congress, in detail, the manner in which the contingent fund for his department and the bureaus and offices thereof has been expended, giving the names of persons to whom payments have been made therefrom, the quantity and price of anything furnished, the nature of any service rendered and paid for, the time employed, and the

particular occasion or cause that rendered such service necessary, and the amount of former appropriations on hand, either in the Treasury or in the hands of disbursing officers or agents. It is his duty to require of such officers the return of precise and analytical statements of and receipts for moneys expended by them during the next preceding year, and to communicate the results of such returns to Congress. (R. S., § 193.)

41. He is required also to make an annual report to Congress of the names of clerks and employees of his department, stating the time that each was actually employed and the sums paid to each; also whether they have been usefully employed, and whether the services of any can be dispensed with without detriment to the public service; also whether the removal of any and the appointment of others in their places are required for the better dispatch of business. He is required also, as soon as practicable after the last day in September in each year in which a new Congress is to assemble, to cause to be filed in the Department of the Interior a full and complete list of all officers, agents, clerks, and employees employed in his department, with all statistics peculiar to his department required to enable the Secretary of the Interior to prepare the Biennial Register. (R. S., §§ 194, 198.)

42. The head of each department, with the exception of the Department of Justice, is required to furnish to the Congressional Printer copies of the documents usually ac companying his Department Annual Report on or before the first day of November in each year, and a copy of his annual report on or before the third Monday of November in each year. (R. S., § 196.)

43. In case of a proposed expenditure of public money upon any land purchased for the purpose of erecting thereon any armory, arsenal, fort, fortification, navy-yard, custom