Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/491

 CH. XIV.] , not to prove, that it may not he resorted to with safety, as a criterion, by which to measure the extent of the prohibition. This indictment is against the, importer for selling a package of dry goods in the form, in which it was imported, without a license. This state of things is changed, if he sells them, or otherwise mixes them with the general property of the state, by breaking up his packages, and travelling with them, as an itinerant peddler. In the first case, the tax intercepts the import, as an import, in its way to become incorporated with the general mass of property, and denies it the privilege of becoming so incorporated, until it shall have contributed to the revenue of the state. It denies to the importer the right of using the privilege, which he has purchased from the United States, until he shall have also purchased it from the state. In the last case, the tax finds the article already incorporated with the mass of property by the act of the importer. He has used the privilege he had purchased, and has himself mixed them up with the common mass, and the law may treat them, as it finds them. The same observations apply to plate, or other furniture used by the importer. So, if he sells by auction. Auctioneers are persons licensed by the state, and if the importer chooses to employ them, he can as little object to paying for this service, as for any other, for which he may apply to an officer of the state. The right of sale may very well be annexed to importation, without annexing to it, also, the privilege of using the officers licensed by the state to make sales in a peculiar way. The power to direct the removal of gun-powder is a branch of the police power, which unquestionably remains, and ought to remain with the states. If the possessor stores it himself out of town, the removal cannot be a duty on