SEC. 5442. Every consul, vice-consul, commercial agent, or vicecommercial agent, who knowingly and falsely certifies to any invoice, or other papers to which his certificate is by law authorized or required, shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, and by imprisonment for a term not more than three years.

SEC. 5443. Every person who willfully conceals or destroys any invoice, book, or paper relating to any merchandise liable to duty, which has been or may be imported into the United States from any foreign port or country, after an inspection thereof has been demanded by the collector of any collection-district, or at any time conceals or destroys any such invoice, book, or paper for the purpose of suppressing any evidence of fraud therein contained, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not more than two years, or both.

SEC. 5444. Every officer of the revenue who, by any means whatever, knowingly admits or aids in admitting to entry any goods, wares, or merchandise, upon payment of less than the amount of duty legally due thereon, shall be removed from office, and shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not more than two

years.

SEC. 5445. Every person who, by any means whatever, knowingly effects, or aids in effecting any entry of any goods, wares, or merchandise at less than the true weight or measure thereof, or upon a false classifi cation thereof as to quality or value, or by the payment of less than the amount of duty legally due thereon, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not more than two years, or both. SEC. 5446. Every person who dispossesses or rescues, or attempts to dispossess or rescue, any property taken or detained, by any officer or other person under the authority of any revenue law of the United States, or aids or assists therein, shall be imprisoned not more than twelve months, and fined not more than three hundred dollars.

SEC. 5447. Every person who forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, prevents, impedes, or interferes with any officer of the customs, or his deputy, or any person assisting him, in the execution of his duties, or any person authorized to make searches or seizures, in the execution of his duty, or who rescues or attempts to rescue, or causes to be res eued, any property which has been seized by any person so authorized, or who, before, at, or after such seizure, in order to prevent the seizure or securing of any goods, wares, or merchandise by any person so authorized, staves, breaks, throws overboard, destroys, or removes the same, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not less than one month nor more than one year, or both; and every person who discharges any deadly weapon at any person authorized to make searches or seizures, or uses any deadly or dangerous weapon in resisting him in the execution of his duty, with intent to commit a bodily injury upon him, or to deter or prevent him from discharging his duty, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a term not more than ten years nor less than one year.

SEC. 5448. Every person who falsely represents himself to be a reve nue officer, and, in such assumed character, demands or receives any money or other article of value from any person for any duty or tax due to the United States, or for any violation or pretended violation of any revenue law of the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall be fined five hundred dollars, and imprisoned not less than six months and not more than two years.

* See secs. 1715 and 1717.

H. Mis. 391-16

SEC. 5451. Every person who promises, offers, or gives, or causes or procures to be promised, offered, or given, any money or other thing of value, or makes or tenders any contract, undertaking, obligation, gratuity, or security for the payment of money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything of value, to any officer of the United States, or to any person acting for or on behalf of the United States in any official function, under or by authority of any department or office of the Gov ernment thereof, or to any officer or person acting for or on behalf of either House of Congress, or of any committee of either House, or both Houses thereof, with intent to influence his decision or action on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before him in his official capacity, or in his place of trust or profit, or with intent to influence him to commit or aid in committing, or to collude in, or allow, any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States, or to induce him to do or omit to do any act in violation of his lawful duty, shall be punished as prescribed in the preceding section.

SEC. 5452. Every person engaged in the importation of goods, wares, or merchandise into the United States, or interested, as principal[,] clerk, or agent, in the entry of any goods, wares, or merchandise, who at any time makes, or offers to make, to any officer of the revenue, any gratuity or present of any money, or other thing of value, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars or be imprisoned not more than two years.

OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT, ETC.

(Revised Statutes, Title LXX.)

SEC. 5482. Every inspector of steamboats who, upon any pretense, receives any fee or reward for his services, except what is allowed to him by law, shall forfeit his office, and be otherwise punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not more than six months, or by both.

SEC. 5524. Every master or owner or person having charge of any vessel who receives on board any other person, with the knowledge or intent that such person is to be carried from any State, Territory, or district of the United States to a foreign country, state, or place, to be held or sold as a slave, or carried away from any State, Territory, or district of the United States any such person, with the intent that he may be so held or sold as a slave, shall by punished by a fine of not more than five thousand nor less than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not more than five years, or by both.

SEC. 5533, Every accessory after the fact to murder, robbery, or piracy, shall be imprisoned not more than three years, and fined not more than five hundred dollars.

SEC. 5534. Every accessory after the fact to any robbery of the carrier, agent, or other person intrusted with the mail, of such mail or of any part thereof, shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, and be imprisoned at hard labor not more than ten years.

SEC. 5535. Every accessory after the fact to the offense of stealing or taking any letter, or other mail-matter, or any inclosure therein, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned not more than five years.

3. REMISSION OF PENALTIES. *

(Revised Statutes, Title LXVIII.)

SEC. 5292. Whenever any person who shall have incurred any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, or disability, or may be interested in any vessel or merchandise which has become subject to any seizure, forfeiture, or disability by authority of any provisions of law for imposing or collecting any duties or taxes, or relating to registering, recording, enrolling, or licensing vessels, or providing for the suppression of insurrections or unlawful combinations against the United States, shall prefer his petition to the judge of the district in which such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, or disability has accrued, truly and particularly setting forth the circumstances of his case, and shall pray that the same may be mitigated or remitted, the judge shall inquire, in a summary manner, into the circumstances of the case; first causing reasonable notice to be given to the person claiming such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, and to the attorney of the United States for such district, that each may have an opportunity of showing cause against the mitigation or remission thereof; and shall cause the facts appearing upon such inquiry to be stated and annexed to the petition, and direct their transmission to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary shall thereupon have power to mitigate or remit such fine, forfeiture, or penalty, or remove such disability, or any part thereof, if, in his opinion, the same was incurred without willful negligence, or any intention of fraud in the person incurring the same; and to direct the prosecution, if any has been instituted for the recovery thereof, to cease and be discontinued, upon such terms or conditions [as]t he may deem reasonable and just.

SEC. 5293. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe such rules and modes of proceeding to ascertain the facts upon which an application for remission of a fine, penalty, or forfeiture is founded, as he deems proper, and, upon ascertaining them, to remit the fine, penalty, or forfeiture, if in his opinion it was incurred without willful negligence, or fraud, in either of the following cases:

First. If the fine, penalty, or forfeiture was imposed under authority of any provisions of law fort imposing or collecting any duties or taxes, or relating to registering, recording, enrolling, or licensing vessels, and the amount does not exceed fifty dollars.

Second. Where the case occurred within either of the collection-districts in the States of California or Oregon.

Third. If the fine, penalty, or forfeiture was imposed under authority of any provisions of law relating to the importation of merchandise from foreign contiguous territory, or relating to manifests for vessels enrolled or licensed to carry on the coasting-trade on the northern, northeastern, and northwestern frontiers.

Fourth. If the fine, penalty, or forfeiture was imposed under authority of any revenue law, and the amount does not exceed one thousand

dollars.

Fifth. If the fine, penalty, or forfeiture was imposed by authority of any provisions of laws for levying or collecting any duties or taxes, or relating to registering, recording, enrolling, or licensing vessels, and the

See secs. 3469, 3471, 3472, and 5330.

+ See Act of March 3, 1797, chap. 13, sec. 1.
See fourth subdivision of this section.

case arose within the collection-district of Alaska, or was imposed by virtue of any provisions of law relating to fur-seals upon the islands of Saint Paul and Saint George.

SEC. 5294. The Secretary of the Treasury may, upon application therefor, remit or mitigate any fine or penalty provided for in laws relating to steam vessels, or discontinue any prosecution to recover penalties denounced in such laws, excepting the penalty of imprisonment,or of removal from office, upon such terms as he, in his discretion, shall think proper; and all rights granted to informers by such laws shall be held subject to the Secretary's power of remission, except in cases where the claims of any informer to the share of any penalty shall have been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, prior to the application for the remission of the penalty; and the Secretary shall have authority to ascertain the facts upon all such applications, in such manner and under such regulations as he may deem proper.

SEC. 5295. Any officer or other person entitled to or interested in a part or share of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture incurred under any law of the United States, may be examined as a witness in any of the proceedings for the recovery of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture by either of the parties thereto, and such examination shall not deprive such witness of his share or interest in such fine, penalty, or forfeiture.

REMISSION OF FINES.

SEC. 9. That the fines imposed by sections five, six, seven, and eight of this act shall be subject to remission or mitigation by the Secretary of the Treasury when the offense was not willfully committed, under such regulations and methods of ascertaining the facts as may seem to him advisable. (Act of June 19, 1886.)

NOTE. In case, after proclamation has been made by the President, under section 11, suspending the tax on vessels from any foreign port, customs officers learn that the fees or dues of any kind or nature imposed there, on vessels of the United States, or that the import or export duties on their cargoes are in excess of the fees, dues, or duties imposed on the vessels of the country in which such port is situated, or on the cargoes of such vessels, they will bring the fact, without delay, to the attention of the Bureau of Navigation.—(Treasury circular, June 21, 1886.)

EXCLUSION BY PROCLAMATION OF FOREIGN VESSELS FROM CERTAIN

PRIVILEGES.

SEC. 17. That whenever any foreign country whose vessels have been placed on the same footing in the ports of the United States as American vessels (the coastwise trade excepted) shall deny to any vessels of the United States any of the commercial privileges accorded to national vessels in the harbors, ports, or waters of such foreign country, the President, on receiving satisfactory information of the continuance of such discriminations against any vessels of the United States, is hereby authorized to issue his proclamation excluding, on and after such time as he may indicate, from the exercise of such commercial privileges in the ports of the United States as are denied to American vessels in the ports of such foreign country, all vessels of such foreign country of a similar character to the vessels of the United States, thus discriminated against, and suspending such concessions previously

granted to the vessels of such country; and on and after the date named in such proclamation for it to take effect, if the master, officer, or agent of any vessel, of such foreign country excluded by said proclamation from the exercise of any commercial privileges shall do any act prohibited by said proclamation in the ports, harbors, or waters of the United States for or on account of such vessel, such vessel, and its rigging, tackle, furniture, and boats, and all the goods on board, shall be liable to seizure and to forfeiture to the United States; and any person opposing any officer of the United States in the enforcement of this act, or aiding and abetting any other person in such opposition, shall forfeit eight hundred dollars, and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. (Act of June 19, 1886.)

4.-PIRACY AND TRIALS.

(Revised Statutes, chap. 8.)

SEC. 4297. Any vessel built, purchased, fitted out in whole or in part, or held for the purpose of being employed in the commission of any piratical aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure, or in the commission of any other act of piracy, as defined by the law of nations, shall be liable to be captured and brought into any port of the United States if found upon the high seas, or to be seized if found in any port or place within the United States, whether the same shall have actually sailed upon any piratical expedition or not, and whether any act of pi racy shall have been committed or attempted upon or from such vessel or not; and any such vessel may be adjudged and condemned, if captured by a vessel authorized as hereinafter mentioned, to the use of the United States and to that of the captors, and if seized by a collector, surveyor, or marshal, then to the use of the United States.

SEC. 4299. The collectors of the several ports of entry, the surveyors of the several ports of delivery, and the marshals of the several judicial districts within the United States, shall seize any vessel or boat built, purchased, fitted out, or held as mentioned in section forty-two hundred and ninety-seven, which may be found within their respective ports or districts, and to cause the same to be proceeded against and disposed of as provided by that section.

SUMMARY TRIALS FOR CERTAIN OFFENSES AGAINST NAVIGATION

LAWS.

(Revised Statutes, chap. 9.)

SEC. 4305. All the penalties and forfeitures which may be incurred for offenses against this Title may be sued for, prosecuted, and recovered in such court, and be disposed of in such manner, as any penalties and forfeitures which may be incurred for offenses against the laws relating to the collection of duties, except when otherwise expressly prescribed.