Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/727

 UNITED STATEB V. SANCHE. ���^15 ���information that he recejved it would be his duty to disclose to the collecter or other officer of the treasury department, and that in the light of these authorities he could not be con- sidered an informer; but that, on the other hand, if he were simply employed by the special agent of the department to unearth these smuggling transactions, with the understanding that he should depend for his compensation solely upon his right to the informer's share, that he ought to receive it. As the affidavits are silent upon this point I shall transmit this opinion to the secretary of the treasury, certifying the value of Brakeman's services to be $500, and that he is entitled to receive the same as the informer, in case he is not an officer of the United States within the meaning of the law. ���United States v. Sanche and others. (Cireuit Court, W. D. Tennessee. Jtine 22, 1881.) �Cbimiuai, Law— Conspiract to Commit an Ofpenob Agaikst thb United States— Rbv. St. J 6440— Wrbcks, Plundering ob Stbal» rsG PBOM— Rev. St. i 5358. �The Revised Statutes, } 6440, make any conspiracy to commit an act declared by any law of the United States to be a crime, an oflence against the United States, and do not restrict it to such acts as injure the United States. It applies as well to all conspiracies that aflect private rights or interests, where they are under the protection of the criminal laws of the United States, as to the rights and interests of the government itself. Seld, therefore, that a conspiracy to plunder a wrecked vessel within the admiralty and maritiotie jurisdiction of the United States is an oflence against the United States within the meaning of that section, that act being a crime within Revised Stat- utes, i 5358. �Same Subjbct— Doino an Act to Effect the Objbct of thb �CONSPIBACT — S0PFICIBNCT OF IndICTMENT. �An indictment that avers in any form of langnage that some act has been donc to carry out the agreement is sufBcient, whether it appears from the face of the pleading that the act averred would tend to effect the object or not, that being a matter.of proof and a question for the jury. Hdd, therefore, that an averment that one of the alleged conspirators " furnished and loaned" a skifE to be uaed by the others in plundering a wrecked vessel, was within the statute and eufflcient as a pleading. ��� �