Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/57

Rh, 1814, the country being then at war with Great Britain, the town of Castine, in Maine, was captured by the British forces, and remained in their exclusive possession until after the ratification of peace in 1815. During this period the British Government exercised all civil and military authority over the place, established a custom house and allowed merchandise to be imported, some of which remained in Castine after it was evacuated by the enemy. On the re-establishment of the authority of the United States, the American collector of customs for the district, claiming a right on the part of the United States to Federal duties on the goods in question, demanded payment of the same from the owners or importers; and, the claim being resisted, the case went up to the United States Supreme Court, which with complete unanimity gave judgment, through Justice Story, for the owners or importers in the following language:

"We are all of the opinion that the claim for duties can not be sustained. By the conquest and military occupation of Castine, the enemy acquired that firm possession which enabled him to exercise the fullest rights of sovereignty over that place. The sovereignty of the United States was suspended, and its laws could no longer be enforced there, or be obligatory on the inhabitants who remained there and submitted to the conquerors. By the surrender the inhabitants passed under a temporary allegiance to the British Government, and were bound by such laws and such only as it chose to impose. From the nature of the case, no other laws could be obligatory on them; for where there is no protection or allegiance, or sovereignty, there can be no claim to obedience."

Taxes, therefore, are necessarily the creation of each state, and no self-respecting Government ever permits any other Government to interfere with its tax laws or their execution, and a toleration of such interference in any degree presupposes dependence, subjection, or absence of independence. An obvious co-relation of this proposition, and also a matter of fact, is that a violation of the tax or revenue laws of one country has never been regarded as an offense or crime in any other country; and the English courts have held that contracts to evade the customs laws of a foreign country are not illegal. Hence, also, offenders in this respect are never taken into account in extradition treaties between different nations and their governments. Some years ago a United States district attorney in New York procured through the Department of State at Washington the extradition of a person from England on the. charge of forgery. On his arraignment before a United States court it transpired that the offense committed was the manufacture and use of fraudulent invoices, to which forged or fictitious names had been attached, for the purpose of evading the payment of United States customs