motive-power of their own, whether generally used or not, except those included in classes 1 and 2, ante.

b. Barges and boats without sails or internal motive-power of their own, engaged in trade with Canada.

c. Barges and boats without sails or internal motive-power of their own, which carry passengers.

d. Barges and boats without sails or internal motive-power of their own, wholly employed upon the marine waters of the United States. Examples of these four classes are found in the schooner-barges of the Great Lakes, with or without center-boards and with small masts, which are usually towed, the passenger-barges of the western rivers, and barges wholly engaged in trade on Long Island Sound or other marine waters.

FEES.

By the acts of April 18, 1874, and June 30, 1879, all fees and charges are prohibited for services required by Title 52, Revised Statutes, to be rendered in enrolling or licensing barges and all such vessels, except where they are engaged in trade with contiguous foreign territory, or are provided with sails or internal motive-power of their own, which two classes of vessels (a and b, ante) pay fees for all services rendered. The Department holds that these acts do away with all charges and fees hitherto exacted for admeasuring, enrolling, and licensing these vessels, now required to be documented by law, with the exceptions. just named. But all other fees and dues must be exacted. JOHN SHERMAN,

COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS AND OTHERS.

Secretary.

(4406.)

Steam-vessels-Masters must be citizens of United States.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 29, 1880.

SIR: The Department is in receipt of yours of 22d instant, in which you complain that the local inspectors of steam-vessels at New York decline to issue to you a license as master on the ground that you are not a citizen of the United States.

The act of Congress approved April 17, 1874, provides that "any alien who, in the manner provided for by law, has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and who shall have been

a permanent resident of the United States for at least six months immediately prior to the granting of such license, may be licensed, as if already naturalized, to serve as an engineer or pilot upon any steamvessel" * * *. Section 4155, Revised Statutes, however, provides that any person receiving a license as master shall make oath that he is a citizen of the United States, and the Department therefore sustains the decision of the local inspectors at New York in declining to grant you a license as master until you have become a citizen of the United States.

Very respectfully,

JOHN B. HAWLEY,

Assistant Secretary.

JOHN COWELL, Esq., New York.

(4407.)

Rebate of duties on goods withdrawn from warehouse for use on American

vessels.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 30, 1880.

SIR: This Department is in receipt of your letter dated the 27th instant, inquiring in what manner the time in which vessels can engage in the coasting trade under section 2513 of the Revised Statutes should be computed.

You are informed that to make up the two months mentioned in the section, only the period between the date of clearance in the coasting trade and that of the subsequent entry, indorsed in each instance on the register of the vessel, should be included.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 31, 1880.

SIR: The Department is in receipt of your letter of the 28th instant, submitting the appeal (5049f) of Messrs. Strasburger, Pfeiffer & Co.

from your assessment of duty at the rate of 60 per cent. ad valorem on certain "silk-spun rubber elastic" imported by them, per "Algeria," September 11, 1879.

The appellants claim that the goods in question are entitled to entry at the rate of 50 per cent. ad valorem, under the provision in Schedule M, Revised Statutes of June 22, 1874, for "manufactures of India rubber and silk."

The appraiser reports that they consist of elastic cord and braids composed of "India rubber and silk, silk chief value, and containing no cotton, flax, wool, or worsted," and that they were classified for duty at the rate of 60 per cent. ad valorem, under the provision in section 1, act of February 8, 1875, for "all goods, wares, and merchandise not otherwise herein provided for, made of silk, or of which silk is the component material of chief value, irrespective of the classification thereof for duty, by or under previous laws, or of their commercial designation." In view of the fact that the goods in question are covered by the later provision of law, the claim of the importer is rejected, and your assessment of duty is hereby affirmed.

Very respectfully,
By order:

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, New York.

H. F. FRENCH,

Assistant Secretary.

TO COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., March 2, 1880.

The following decisions of the Department for the month of February, 1880, upon the construction to be given to acts of Congress relating to the tariff, navigation, and other subjects, are published herewith for the information and guidance of officers of the customs and others concerned.

JOHN SHERMAN,

Secretary of the Treasury.

[Omitted from January decisions.]

(4409.)

Common carriers—Goods cannot be shipped further than one bonded route

extends.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 7, 1880.

SIR: You are informed that twelve cases of Madeira wine shipped at your port on the 24th ultimo via the Old Colony Railroad, and consigned to Gilmor & Gibson, Baltimore, Md., under transportation bond No. 9, have been taken into custody by the collector at New York, for the reason that the common-carrier bond of the Old Colony Railroad Company and the Old Colony Steamboat Company, approved July 30, 1878, does not authorize transportation south of New York.

You will please inform the shippers of the merchandise in question that entry thereof at New York, for rewarehouse and transportation, is necessary before the same will be allowed to go forward.

Hereafter you will not permit entry to be made at your port for points beyond the route covered by the bond of the carrier to whom the goods are originally delivered for transportation.

Very respectfully,
By order:

H. F. FRENCH,

Assistant Secretary.

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, New Bedford, Mass.