Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/202

 190 FSDEBAL REPORTER. �it, — and it had stood for a length of time, and by evaporation the quantity had been decreased, bas the wholesale liquor dealer, under the law, the right to add to it water ? Is that such a change of the package as brings him within the inhi- bition of this statuts ? �A rectifier is one who changes liquors by adding to them or oompounding them or rectifying them; and yet the courts have held, under the statute defining what a rectifier is, that the mere addition of water to his spirits would not make him a rectifier, or the mixing of certain spirits of the same char- acter, if they were under a certain age, would not be rectifica- tion. 10 Int. Eev. Eec. 131; Bump's Int. Eev. Law, 217; Int. Eev. Manual, (1879,) p. 182. It seems to me that the mere addition of water to spirits which had been properly stamped and marked, and upon which Hhe full tax had been paid, could not be regarded as such a change in the package of the spirits which were in the possession of the wholesale liquor dealer as would bring him within the inhibition of the statute. I fail to see what reason would induce the courts to bring such an aot within the inhibition. It would take noth- ing from the government in any way whatever, and it would in no sense take from these spirits any element which would be necessary and essential for the government in tracing them from one point to another. �Witnesses have testiûed that the mere lapse of time has the effect to reduce the proof of spirits as well as the number of wine gallons, and, if this be the fact, the same difficulty in trac- ing the spirits would exist there that would arise by the addition of water. I therefore think that the mare addition of water would not bring the party within the inhibition of the statute. �Verdict for the defendant. ����