Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/374

 862 FBDKSAL BSPOBTEB. �of articles, and fit them for exportation or domestic use. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 203; 1 Kent, Comm. 439; Story, Const. § 1017. �In No. 44 of the Federalist, article 1, § 10 of the constitution is com- mented on, and it is said that the manner in which the restraint on the power of the states over imports and exports is there qualified — that is.in regard to inspection laws — '"seems well calculated at once to secure to the states a reasonable discretion in providing for the con- veniency of their imports and exports, and to the United States a reasonable check agaiust the abuse of their discretion." �In Bnrrill's Law Dictionary "Inspection" is defined thus: "Offi- ciai view or examination of commodities or manufactures, to ascer- tain their quality, under some statu te requiring it." �In Bouvier's Law Dictionary this is the definition: "The exami- nation of certain articles made by law subject to such examination, 80 that they may be declared fit for commerce." �In Clintsman v. Northrop, 8 Cow. 45, the inspection laws of New York are said to be laws "to proteot the community, so far as they apply to domestic sales, from fraud and impositions, and, in relation to articles designed for exportation, to preserve the character and reputation of the state in foreign markets." �Bj the constitution of New York of 1846, art. 5, § 8, all offices for "inspecting any merchandise, produce, manufacture, or com- modity whatever," were abolished. �As the term "inspection laws," in the section under consideration, refers only to laws for inspecting articles of merchandise, this shows that the terms "imports" and "exports," in the same section, refer only to articles of merchandise. Persons are not imports or exports, or articles to be inspected, under the section. To pass a statute directmg persons to be inspected to ascertain their condition as to character or pecuniary means, or physical characteristics, and then another statute calling the first one an inspection law, does not make it an inspection law. It was not and is not and can never be an inspection law, in the sense of the constitution. Nor can passengers arriving in the United States be imports or exports, in the seuse of the constitution. �In Brown v. State, 12 Wheat. 419, 437, the section referred to was under consideration, and it was said by the court : �" AVhat, then, is the meaning of the words ' imposts, or duties on imports or experts ?• An impost, or duty on impoits, is a ctistom or a tax levied on arti- cles biought into a country, and is most usually secured before the importer is allowed to exercise his rights of ownersliip over theai, because evasions of ��� �