charges against officials or employees, except when such investigation is otherwise specially directed.

429. It is charged with the preparation of reports required by law to be laid before Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, relative to the employment and compensation of persons in various branches of the public service, and with the preparation and publication of the “United States Treasury Register."

430. It is also charged with the verification of all payrolls of the department; with the inspection of the accounts of steamboat inspectors and internal-revenue gaugers; and the examination of all estimates for salaries and compensation of officers and employees.

431. Also with the keeping of accounts of miscella neous expenditures from the appropriation for the collection of the revenue from customs.

432. Also with the keeping of the account of absence from duty of employees in the several bureaus and offices of the department, and the consideration of requests for leave of absence.

VIII. DIVISION OF STATIONERY, PRINTING, AND BLANKS.

433. This division is charged with the purchase and supply of stationery, blanks, and blank books for the department, sub-treasuries, depositaries, custom-houses, revenue vessels, life-saving stations, marine hospitals, light-houses, and internal-revenue offices; and with the supervision of the printing, binding, lithographing, and engraving for the department, except United States bonds and notes, United States currency, national-bank notes, and internal-revenue stamps; also with the arrangement for publication and the indexing of the several reports and tables comprising the finance report.

434. Also with the superintendence of the advertising

of the department; the examination and reference to the proper officers of the accounts for such advertising; and the subscription for newspapers and periodicals.

435. It is charged also with the preparation and delivery to disbursing officers of the Government of all disbursing checks used by them, except pension checks; the custody and distribution of official postage stamps for the department; the custody and distribution of cigar stamps to officers of the customs; the examination of the accounts of those officers to see that such stamps are properly accounted for; and, generally, with all business connected with the foregoing.

IX. DIVISION OF SPECIAL AGENTS.

436. This division is charged with the assignment and detail of special agents, and the examination of their ac counts for compensation and travelling expenses, and the examination and reference of their reports; also with the following enumeration of duties:

437. The supervision and enforcement of the regulations for the prevention of smuggling and frauds on the

customs revenue.

438. The supervision over the customs districts, and over the acts of customs officers and their books, papers, and records, with a view of securing uniformity in their methods of transacting business.

439. The supervision of the transportation of merchandise in bond, including the examination of the reports of collectors of customs at ports of shipment and of arrival; and the investigation of cases arising from alleged irregu larities in connection with such transportation.

440. The examination and approval of bonds for cus toms warehouses and bonded routes, and the enforcement of the laws and regulations governing the trade with Mexico

and Canada, so far as relates to the establishment of bonded routes and mode of transportation.

X. THE SECRET SERVICE DIVISION.

441. This division is under the charge of an officer designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as Chief of the Secret Service. The division itself, as well as the chief, is the creature of regulation of the department, the authority for its establishment being implied from the act of Congress appropriating for the current fiscal year a sum of money for the "expenses in detecting and bringing to trial and punishment persons engaged in counterfeiting Treas ury notes, bonds, national-bank notes, and other securities of the United States, and the coinage thereof, and for detecting other frauds upon the Government, to be disbursed under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury."

442. The division thus established, although connected with the Treasury Department, and immediately with the Secretary's office, has been placed by the Secretary under the general direction of the Solicitor of the Treasury.

443. The principal duties of the chief and his subordinates are to detect and to bring to trial persons engaged in counterfeiting the coin, currency, and securities of the United States, and those engaged in passing or dealing in the same; but they are also engaged in the detection of other frauds on the Government.

This division, as well as the preceding and the one named immediately hereafter, has no specific authority of law as an organization of the Secretary's office, and is not presided over, as in the case of the other divisions, by a chief whose appointment as such is provided for. The designation of the division and the detail of the head thereof, as well as its organization, spring from the general authority of the Secretary to prescribe rules for the government of his de

partment and for the distribution of business therein. (R. S., § 161.)

XI. DIVISION OF CAPTURED AND ABANDONED PROPERTY.

This division grew originally out of the administration by the Secretary of the Treasury of the acts of Congress restricting and regulating commercial intercourse with parts of the country the inhabitants of which were, or were declared to be, in a state of insurrection. Under these laws, trade regulations had to be established to meet the exigencies existing at the time of their enactment, arising out of the then existing rebellion of the year 1861 and subsequent years; captured and abandoned property had to be taken care of and accounted for; permits to trade were required to be issued within the terms of the laws; the purchase and disposition of the products of insurrectionary sections of the country had to be provided for under special laws applicable; and the vast business, intricate and delicate to the greatest degree, had to be taken care of under the general supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury. This involved the appointment and supervis ion of general and special agents, having special territorial jurisdiction, whose duties required the issue of permits; the regulation, under instructions from head-quarters, of trade; the seizure or receipt of property captured by the army or found abandoned; the safe-keeping and transportation of the same; its sale or other disposition; the rendition of proper accounts of the same or of its proceeds, and the decision of questions arising out of ownership, or controversies between claimants. In the administration of this business there has been a vast accumulation of papers, correspondence, and records, all of which are now in charge of the present Division of Captured and Abandoned Property, in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. It is

the duty of this division to preserve these files and records in a methodical manner, and to furnish information therefrom as it may be required by Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney-General, the Court of Claims, Claim Commissions, or to meet any other legal and proper demand. Considerable labor is required in the examination of the records pertaining to the seizure, detention, and sale of cotton by the United States, through its agents, during the war of the rebellion and subsequently; which examination and the information to be obtained are required by the Court of Claims, by rules issued upon the head of the department, to answer pending cases brought by claimants against the United States in that tribunal.

This division has referred to it, for adjudication, claims made under the fifth section of the act of May 18, 1872, (Stats. 17, p. 134,) by lawful owners or their legal representatives, of cotton seized after the 30th of June, 1865, by the agents of the Government, unlawfully and in violation of instructions, the net proceeds of which were actually paid into the Treasury of the United States. The operation of this section is limited, by its provisions, to claims filed in the Treasury Department within six months after the passage of the act. Although no claims are now filed or received under this provision, yet there are numerous claims yet unadjudicated, involving continuous and laborious employment of the head of this division and his assistants.

This division also examines and refers for payment final judgments of the Court of Claims in favor of claimants, it being provided, by section 1089 of the Revised Statutes, that such judgments shall be paid out of any general appropriation made by law for the satisfaction of private claims, on presentation to the Secretary of the Treasury of a copy of such judgment, properly certified by the clerk of