also to submit therewith copies of the rulings under which repayments were made. (Act March 3, 1875, §§ 1, 2, 4.)

251. When any final judgment recovered against the United States, or other claim duly allowed by legal authority, is presented to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment, and the plaintiff or claimant therein is indebted to the United States, whether as principal or surety, it is required of the Secretary to withhold payment of an amount of such judgment or claim equal to the debt thus due to the United States. If such plaintiff or claimant assents to the set-off or discharges his judgment, or an amount equal to said debt or claim, the Secretary is directed to execute a discharge of the debt due from the plaintiff to the United States. But if such plaintiff or claimant denies his indebtedness to the United States, or refuses to consent to the set-off, then the Secretary must withhold payment of so much of the judgment or claim as will cover the indebtedness of the plaintiff or claimant to the United States, together with a sum sufficient to cover all legal charges and costs of prosecuting the debt of the United States to judgment. It then becomes the duty of the Secretary, if the claim of the United States is not already in suit, to prosecute the same to judgment with reasonable dispatch. And if in such action judgment shall be rendered against the United States, or the amount recovered for debt and costs shall be less than the amount so withheld, as before mentioned, the balance must then be paid over to such claimant by the Secretary, with six per cent. interest thereon from the time it has been withheld. (Act of March 3, 1875, ch. 149.)

2. The Safe-keeping and Disbursement of the Public Money.

252. The Secretary of the Treasury is required to direct the penal amount of the official bonds of all disbursing officers of his department. (R. S., § 176.)

253. He may delegate, under his hand and official seal, to one of the Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, authority to sign in his stead all warrants for the payment of money into the public Treasury, and all warrants for the disbursement therefrom of money certified by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury to be due upon accounts duly audited and settled by them. (R. S., § 246.)

254. He is authorized to receive deposits of gold coin and bullion with the Treasurer or any Assistant Treasurer of the United States, in sums not less than twenty dollars, and to issue certificates therefor, in denominations of not less than twenty dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. And he may issue certificates representing coin in the Treasury in payment of interest on the public debt, which certificates, together with those issued for coin and bullion deposited, shall not any time exceed twenty per centum beyond the amount of coin and bullion in the Treasury. These certificates are to be received at par in payment of duties on imports. (R. S., § 254.)

at

255. He is required to make, among other reports to Congress, one on the finances, containing estimates of the public revenue and expenditures for the current fiscal year; also plans for improving and increasing the revenue from time to time; also a statement of all contracts for supplies or services which have been made by him or under his direction during the year preceding; also a statement of the expenditure of moneys appropriated for the discharge of miscellaneous claims. (R. S., § 257.)

He is also required to lay before Congress at each regular session a statement of the amount of money expended at each custom-house during the preceding fiscal year, the number of persons employed, and the occupation and salary of each person at each custom-house during the same period. (R. S., § 258.)

256. He is required, at the expiration of thirty days from the end of each quarter, to publish in a newspaper at the seat of government a statement of the whole receipts of such quarter, specifying the amount received from customs, from public lands, and from miscellaneous sources; and also of the whole amount of payments made during the quarter, specifying the general head of appropriations, whether for the civil list, the army, the navy, Indian affairs, fortifications, or pensions. (R. S., § 266.)

257. The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to publish in some newspaper at the seat of government, on the first day of each month, the last preceding weekly statement of the Treasurer of the United States, showing the amount to his credit in the different banks, in the mint, or other depositories, the amount for which drafts have been given, and those remaining unpaid, and the balance remaining subject to his draft; also to specially note any changes that have been made in the depositories of the Treasury during the preceding month, and report to Congress, at the commencement of its next session, the reasons for such changes. (R. S., § 267.)

258. He may designate any officer of the United States who has given bonds for the faithful performance of his duties to be disbursing agent for the payment of moneys appropriated for the construction of public buildings in the district of such officer. (R. S., § 255.)

259. He may designate collectors of internal revenue to act as disbursing agents, in respect of the expenses of collecting the taxes and of other expenditures for the internal revenue service, within their respective districts, on giving good and sufficient bond, &c. (R. S., § 3444.)

260. He may designate one or more depositories in each State for the deposit and safe-keeping of money collected by virtue of the internal-revenue laws. (R. S., § 3211.)

261. He may issue his warrant for the payment of an allowance of drawback equal to the amount of the tax paid on fermented liquors, and on all articles mentioned in schedule A of section 3437 of the Revised Statutes, except lucifer or friction matches, cigar lights and wax tapers, when exported; provided that no allowance of drawback shall be made for any amount claimed or due less than ten dollars, nor on any article exported prior to March 31, 1868. (R. S., § 3441.)

262. He directs the penal amount of the official bonds of all Assistant Treasurers, and officers of any mint or assay office authorized by law to act as Assistant Treasurers, and requires such officers from time to time, as may be necessary in his discretion, to renew, strengthen, and increase their official bonds. (R. S., § 3600.)

263. He may employ special agents to be charged with the disbursement of public moneys, who shall give bond in such form and with such security as he may approve. (R. S., § 3614.)

264. It is his duty, as often as once in each week, and as much oftener as he may deem proper, to direct collectors and receivers of public moneys of every description within the District of Columbia, the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Charleston, to pay into the Treasury all public moneys collected by them or in their hands. (R. S., '§ 3615.)

The like authority in the Secretary as to all other officers and persons having public moneys in their hands, is implied by section 5492 of the Revised Statutes.

265. In places where there is no Treasurer or Assistant Treasurer, the Secretary of the Treasury, when he deems it essential, may specially authorize in writing the deposit of public moneys intrusted to a disbursing officer for disburse

ment in any other public depository, or authorize the same to be kept in any other manner and under such regulations as he may deem most safe and effectual to facilitate the payments to public creditors. (R. S., § 3620.)

266. The Secretary may, excepting as to moneys belonging to the postal service, transfer the money in the hands of any depositary of public moneys to the Treasury of the United States, to the credit of the Treasurer; and he may transfer such moneys in the hands of one depositary to any other depositary, as the safety of the same and public convenience may seem to him to require. (R. S., § 3640.)

267. He is authorized to cause examinations to be made of the books, accounts, and money on hand of the several depositaries, and for that purpose to appoint special agents as may be required, and to fix their compensation, not exceeding six dollars per day and travelling expenses. (R. S., § 3649.)

268. He may direct, as often as he shall deem proper, each naval officer and surveyor of a port, as a check upon the assistant treasurer or the collector of customs of their respective districts; each register of a land office, as a check upon the receiver of his land office; and the director and superintendent of each mint and branch mint, as a check upon the treasurers respectively of the mints or the persons acting as such, to make examinations of the books, accounts, returns, and money on hand of the assistant treasurers, collectors, receivers of land offices, treasurers of the mints and branch mints, and persons acting as such. (R. S., § 3650.)

269. It is the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to immediately suspend from duty any disbursing officer who shall exchange his funds other than for gold, silver, United States or national-bank notes, or who, when the means of his disbursements are furnished him in gold, silver, United