rectness of their expense accounts are payable from the appropriation for the fees of clerks, and they should be charged by the clerks in their accounts instead of being collected from the witnesses. (8 Comp. Dec., 191.)

1503. A clerk is entitled to fees for administering oaths to marshals and deputy marshals in support of explanations to their accounts furnished by them upon the call of the accounting officers. (2 Comp. Dec., 482.)

1504. A clerk of a court is entitled to fees for administering oaths to field deputy marshals who are required by the Attorney-General and the accounting officers to swear to their quarterly accounts for fees and expenses. (3 Comp. Dec., 700.)

PER DIEMS.

1505. When a clerk personally attends court in one place in his district and by deputy attends at another place on the same day, he is entitled to a per diem for each. (147 U. S., 676.)

1506. The district and circuit courts of the United States are always open for the transaction of some business which may be transacted under the orders of the judge in his absence, and on such transaction rest the plaintiff's claims in this case, which the court sustain as business which could be transacted by the clerk in the absence of the judge, following the departmental construction of the statutes. Of course if that construction were obviously or clearly wrong it would be the duty of the court to so adjudge; but if there simply be doubt as to the soundness of that construction, the action of the Government in conformity with it for many years should not be overruled except for cogent reasons. (U. S. v. Finnell, 185 U. S., 236.)

1507. The clerk is entitled to per diem fees for attendance upon the circuit or district court when the court has met and been opened and adjourned by the judge for one day or for more than one day successively and then adjourned by written order of the judge from day to day for any number of days so ordered. (U. S. v. Pitman, 147 U. S., 669.)

1508. A clerk of a circuit court is not entitled to a per diem pay for services in selecting juries in connection with the jury commissioner. (U. S. v. King, 147 U. S., 676.)

1509. A clerk of court is entitled to per diem compensation for attendance on court on a day on which business was "transacted by the clerk under orders of the judge," although the business transacted is the entry of orders made by the judge at another place and sent to the clerk. (8 Comp. Dec., 848.)

1510. Under the act of March 3, 1887, prohibiting the payment of per diem compensation to the clerk of a court "except for days when the court is opened by the judge for business, or business is actually transacted in court," etc., the clerk is entitled to such fees for a day on which the court is opened by the judge for business, although no business is actually transacted on that day. (4 Comp. Dec., 161.) 1511. Under section 671, Revised Statutes, when neither of the judges of a circuit court is present to open the session at any time during the term, the marshal may adjourn the court from day to day for three successive days, and the clerk is entitled to a per diem fee for attendance upon the court.each of the four days the court is thus opened. (5 Comp. Dec., 403.)

1512. Under section 671, Revised Statutes, a marshal is not authorized to adjourn a circuit court from day to day after the first three days of the session, and the clerk of the court is not entitled to per diem fees for attendance on days when court is so adjourned by the marshal after that period. (4 Comp. Dec., 508.)

1513. A circuit court which is opened by the marshal or the clerk under an order of the judge, made while the court was in session, directing such opening in case

neither of the judges should be present, is not opened under section 672, Revised Statutes, and the clerk is not entitled to per diem fees for attendance on such days. (6 Comp. Dec., 787.)

1514. A circuit court which was opened on thirty-six days under an order for each day signed by the district judge and dated accordingly was opened under section 672, Revised Statutes, and the clerk is entitled to per diem for attendance on those days. (16 Comp. MS. Dec., 554.)

1515. A district court which was opened every day, except Sunday, for a period of eleven days, under separate orders for each day, but without date, which directed the marshal to adjourn the court to the next day, for the reason that the judge was unable to attend, was not opened under section 583, Revised Statutes, and the clerk is not entitled to a per diem fee for attendance on any of those days. (13 Comp. MS. Dec., 733.)

1516. A clerk of court is not entitled to per diem fees for attendance at court where the record on the journal does not show that the court was actually in session and that he was present, either in person or by deputy, on the days for which such fees were charged. (6 Comp. Dec., 382.)

1517. A clerk of the district court for the Territory of New Mexico is not entitled to per diem compensation from the United States for attendance at times outside of the regular terms of that court, as fixed by the Territorial supreme court, under the provisions of section 1915, Revised Statutes. (7 Comp. Dec., 463.)

1518. A clerk of the United States district court for the Territory of Oklahoma is not entitled to a per diem fee for attendance on days when the court is engaged upon Territorial business only. (5 Comp. Dec., 741.)

RECOGNIZANCES.

1519. Recognizances may be taken either in open court, in which case a record entry is made of the fact upon the journal, or by a separate instrument signed and acknowledged before a proper officer. In the one case the clerk is entitled to a fee for making the entry, and in the other for drawing and filing the recognizance (U. S. v. Barber, 140 U. S., 164, 166, par. 3), but not for both. (U. S. v. Payne, 147 U. S., 687.) 1520. A clerk is not entitled to charge for taking separate recognizances of witnesses in criminal cases unless witnesses could not be conveniently recognized together. (147 U. S., 676.)

RECORDS.

1521. The act of February 6, 1889, allowing to a defendant as of right a writ of error to the Supreme Court in capital cases, without security for costs, and making it the duty of the clerk to certify up the record, does not authorize the clerk to charge against the United States fees for such services. (2 Comp. Dec., 612.)

REPORTS.

1522. A clerk is not entitled to fees for making separate reports of the amount of fees due each juror and witness. (147 U. S., 676.)

SEALS.

1523. A clerk of a court is entitled to the fee for affixing the seal to the certified copy of an order appointing a United States commissioner furnished the appointee, such appointee not having been an officer until he accepted his appointment. (8 Comp. Dec., 479.)

1524. A seal is not necessary to authenticate the certificate of a clerk of court which is for the use of officers of the court only, and the clerk is not entitled to a fee for affixing a seal thereto. (6 Comp. Dec., 540.)

1525. A clerk of court is not entitled to a fee for attaching a seal to a copy of an order of court where the order itself directs a "certified copy" only. (6 Comp. Dec., 900.)

1526. A clerk of court is not entitled to additional fees for affixing seals to subpœnas, the seal being a component part of the writ for the issuance of which a fee is provided. (8 Comp. Dec., 479.)

1527. The Attorney-General and the accounting officers are authorized to determine what evidence is necessary in support of disbursements made by a marshal, and where it is provided by regulations of the Attorney-General that certain certificates of clerks of courts are sufficient for that purpose without the seal of the court, and the accounting officers concur therein, an order of the court directing the clerk to attach the seal to such certificates does not make the seal necessary, and the clerk is not entitled to a fee therefor. (9 Comp. Dec., 405.)

(See also Certificates, paragraphs 1227 to 1229.)

PART FOUR.

INSTRUCTIONS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS.

Page.

'Laws relating to the appointment, qualification, duties, powers, and compensation of United States commissioners...

217

220

Decisions

Dockets and papers.

229

230

Accounts

Explanations

236

Miscellaneous

236

Accounts of justices of the peace and other committing magistrates of States and Territories.

237

LAWS RELATING TO THE APPOINTMENT, QUALIFICATION, DUTIES, POWERS, AND COMPENSATION OF UNITED STATES

COMMISSIONERS.

1529. Act of May 28, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 184):

SEC. 19. That the terms of office of all commissioners of the circuit courts heretofore appointed shall expire on the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and ninetyseven; and such office shall on that day cease to exist, and said commissioners shall then deposit all the records and other official papers appertaining to their offices in the office of the clerk of the circuit court by which they were appointed. All proceedings pending, returnable, unexecuted, or unfinished at said date before any such commissioner shall be continued and disposed of according to law by such commissioner, appointed as herein provided, as may be designated by the district court for that purpose. It shall be the duty of the district court of each judicial district to appoint such number of persons, to be known as United States commissioners, at such places in the district as may be designated by the district court, which United States commissioners shall have the same powers and perform the same duties as are now imposed upon commissioners of the circuit courts. The appointment of such United States commissioners shall be entered of record in the district courts, and notice thereof at once given by the clerk to the Attorney-General. That such United States commissioners shall hold their offices, respectively, for the term of four years, but they shall be at any time subject to removal by the district court; and no person shall at any time be a clerk or deputy clerk of a United States court and a United States commissioner without the approval of the Attorney-General: Provided, That all acts and parts of acts applicable to commissioners of the circuit courts, except as to appointment and fees, shall be applicable to United States com