shipped on the St. Lawrence to a single vessel, the proper invoice must be presented on entry, together with a copy of the clearance from the foreign port of exportation of the vessel from which the transhipment took place, certified to be a true copy by the collector or other chief revenue officer of the Canadian port at which the vessel was entered. When the articles embraced in a single invoice are transhipped on the St. Lawrence to several vessels, they will be admitted to entry on the production of the proper invoice, and a statement under oath of the person or agent superintending the transhipment, describing the articles by numbers, marks, &c., transhipped to each vessel, and stating in what invoice they are embraced, together with the certified copy of the clearance of the importing vessel, as above required.

of imports and ex

292. The Regulations prescribed in Chapter VII, rela- Statistical returns tive to commercial statistics, will be, in all respects, com- ports. plied with by collectors of frontier districts, so far as they are applicable. Attention is particularly directed to the necessity of correct returns of imports and exports. The former may be ascertained from the entries made by importers, and, for the ascertainment of the latter, the master of every vessel or boat, and the conductor of every railroad, or other carriage, will be required to produce a manifest of all articles laden on board such vessel, boat, Manifest to be proor carriage, to which manifest he shall swear or affirm, export. in the manner pointed out in the 11th section of the act of February 10th, 1820, entitled "An act to provide for obtaining accurate statements of the foreign commerce of the United States." The manifest and oath shall be in the form annexed:

FORM No. 88.

duced of articles of

1820.

Report and manifest of goods, wares, and merchandise, Form of manifest. laden on board the

bound for

in

Value-domestic pro- Value-foreign pro-
duction.
duction.

Marks. Numbers. Packages and contents.

Dollars. Cents. Dollars. Cents.

swear (or affirm) that the manifest now delivered by me contains a full, just, and true

to the collector of

Manifest to contain definite de

of packages and

293. This manifest should contain a particular account

scriptions & values of the marks, numbers, description of package and concontents. tents, and the value should be stated, according to the fact, under the column of domestic or foreign production. As merchandise of the growth or production of the United States can only be reimported free of duty on proof that it was duly cleared out, and that no bounty or drawback had been allowed on the same, the necessity for the production of this manifest becomes obvious. Persons forwarding goods of the growth or production of the United States to Canada, or other adjacent foreign territory, can only secure the right of bringing such goods back by complying with these requirements.

SECTION XIV.

ERRORS IN ENTRIES AND PROCEEDINGS THEREON.

Entries of same merchandise by

ART. 294. When two entries are made by different different parties. parties of the same merchandise the party first making due and legal entry, on proper bills of lading, is entitled to a delivery of the merchandise on the payment of legal duties and charges, or under warehouse bond for transportation or exportation from warehouse to a foreign port.

Change or amendment of entry in cases of error.

295. In view of the oath prescribed to be taken on entry by the act of March 1st, 1823, making it the duty of the importer, in case he discover, at any time after entry, any error in the invoice or account produced, or receive any other invoice, to make the same known im

mediately to the collector of the district with whom entry may have been made, it is considered proper, whenever such error is brought to the notice of the collector, before the invoice or account has come under the observation of the appraisers, or any examination has been made of the goods, and application under oath is made to amend the entry by the importer, that such application should be Report to be sent transmitted to this Department for such action as may be decision. deemed proper.

296. It has been the practice of the Department, in cases where it has been conclusively shown that the invoice value of an importation was far beyond the general market value of similar goods at the time of exportation, and was so invoiced by the foreign manufacturer with a view of procuring, on the eve of insolvency, large advances from the consignees, to authorize an amendment of the entry, and a due appraisement to be made of the merchandise. Such amendment, however, can only be made by authority of the Department on application for it in each case.

297. In cases where the collectors are instructed to forward to the Department, with their monthly abstracts of imports, the original entries embraced in such abstracts as vouchers, entries will be taken in duplicate-one to be transmitted to the Department, and the other to remain in the office of the collector by whom received, as a part of the records of his office.

to Department for

SECTION XV.

DUTIABLE VALUE OF IMPORTS.

1851.

ART. 298. The act of March 3d, 1851, entitled "An act to Sec. 1 Act March 8, amend the acts regulating the appraisement of imported merchandise, and for other purposes," provides in its first section: "That in all cases where there is or shall be imposed any ad-valorem rate of duty on any goods, wares, or merchandise, imported into the United States, it shall be the duty of the collector within whose district the same shall be imported or entered, to cause the actual market

Value of which duties are to be assessed.

Definition of the term "country"

vs. Peaslee, How

p. 522.

value, or wholesale price thereof, at the period of the exportation to the United States, in the principal markets of the country from which the same shall have been imported into the United States, to be appraised, estimated, and ascertained; and to such value or price shall be added all costs and charges, except insurance, and including in every case a charge for commissions at the usual rates, as the true value at the port where the same may be entered, upon which duties shall be assessed."

299. The value upon which duties are to be assessed is thus established to be:

First. The actual market value or wholesale price of the merchandise in the principal markets of the country from which it was imported into the United States, at the date of exportation, to be ascertained by appraisement.

Second. All costs and charges, except insurance, and including, in every case, a charge for commissions at the usual rates, to be ascertained and added to the value found by appraisement, by the collector and naval officer, or the collector alone at ports where there is no naval officer.

300. The term "country," as used in the law, is to be Stairs and others regarded as embracing all the possessions of a nation, ard's Reports, v.18, however widely separated, which are subject to the same supreme executive and legislative authority and control. Accordingly, where duties were assessed on merchandise imported from Halifax, on its general market value in Liverpool, at the date of its exportation from Halifax to the United States, the action of the Department was sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States; Liverpool being, in the opinion of the appraisers, a principal market of Great Britain for the merchandise in that case. 301. What are to be regarded as the "principal marStairs vs. Peaslee, kets" of a country, in any given case, is for the determi18 Howard's Re-nation of the appraisers. It is a question of fact, not of law; and the decision of the appraisers is conclusive upon the government and the importer.

Definition of the

terms "principal

markets."

ports, p. 522.

Definition of "period of exportation."

302. The "period of exportation," where the merchandise is laden on board a vessel in the shipping port of the country of origin; or in which it was purchased or procured for shipment to an owner, consignee, or agent

residing in the United States, must be deemed and taken to be the date at which the vessel actually leaves the foreign port for her destination in the United States.

That period may ordinarily be established by the pro- How established. duction of the clearance granted to the vessel at the foreign port of departure, and the declaration of the master, under oath, at the time of entry, of the date when the vessel sailed.

tion of merchan

having no shipping

303. Merchandise from an interior country, having no Date of exportashipping ports of her own, through the ports of another dise from countries country, as from Switzerland, for example, destined for ports. the United States by way of Havre, is considered as exported, within the meaning of the law, when it passes the frontier boundary between France and Switzerland, on such destination.

market value, and cost and

cases.

The wholesale price or general market value of such Foreign merchandise in the principal markets of the interior charges in country, at the date when it passed the frontier for its destination in the United States, will, on importation and entry, be ascertained by the appraisers with a view to the assessment of duty; and to the value so ascertained will be added the cost of transportation, and other expenses, to the frontier, as dutiable charges.

such

Satisfactory proof of the date of exportation from such "Date of exportinterior country must be exhibited on the entry.

ation " from interior country to be proved.

dence.

304. In the absence, satisfactorily explained, of the Secondary proofs above indicated, showing the date of exportation from the foreign country, or in addition thereto, other evidence of that fact, such as letters of advice, entries in the vessel's log-book or journal, or testimony of witnesses, may be taken into consideration by the appraisers.

evi

to be added to for

value.

305. The law requires that there shall be added to the Costs and charges "actual market value or wholesale price" of imports, eign actual market ascertained as above, in order to fix the dutiable value, Sec. 16 Act Aug. 30, "all costs and charges, except insurance, and including in every case a charge for commissions at the usual rates."

306. These charges are:

First. The expenses of putting up and packing, together with the value of the sack, package, box, crate, hogshead, barrel, bale, cask, can, bottles, jars, vessels, and demijohns, and coverings of all kinds.