Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/331

 and shall recover full damages for the same, together with costs of suit.

. And be it further enacted, That any action or suit to be brought against any person or persons, for any thing by him or them done in pursuance of this act, shall be commenced within three months next after the matter or thing done, and unless brought in a court of the United States, shall be laid in the county in which the cause of action shall have arisen; and the defendant or defendants in any such action or suit, may plead the general issue, and on the trial thereof give this act and the special matter, in evidence; and if a verdict shall pass for the defendant or defendants, or the plaintiff or plaintiffs become nonsuited, or discontinue his, her or their action or prosecution, or judgment shall be given against such plaintiff or plaintiffs, upon demurrer or otherwise, then such defendant or defendants shall have costs awarded to him, her or them, against such plaintiff or plaintiffs.

And in order that persons who may have incurred any of the penalties of this act, without wilful negligence or intention of fraud, may be relieved from such penalties,

. Be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the judge of the district within which such penalty or forfeiture shall have been incurred, at any time within one year after the last day of June next, upon petition of the party who shall have incurred the same, to inquire in a summary way into the circumstances of the case, first causing reasonable notice to be given to the person or persons claiming such penalty or forfeiture, and to the attorney of such district; to the end that each may have an opportunity of showing cause against the mitigation or remission thereof; and shall cause the facts which shall appear upon such inquiry, to be stated and annexed to the petition, and direct their transmission to the secretary of the treasury of the United States, who shall thereupon have power to mitigate or remit such penalty or forfeiture, if it shall appear to him that such penalty or forfeiture was incurred without wilful negligence, or any design or intention of fraud, and to cause any spirits which may have been seized to be restored to the proprietor or proprietors, upon such terms and conditions as shall appear to him reasonable.

. And be it further enacted, That the one half of all penalties and forfeitures incurred by virtue of this act, except as above provided, shall be for the benefit of the person or persons who shall make a seizure, or who shall first discover the matter or thing whereby the same shall have been incurred; and the other half to the use of the United States. And such penalty and forfeiture shall be recoverable with costs of suit, by action of debt, in the name of the person or persons intitled thereto, or by information, in the name of the United States of America; and it shall be the duty of the attorney of the district wherein any such penalty or forfeiture may have been incurred, upon application to him, to institute or bring such information accordingly: Provided always, That no officer of inspection other than chief officer, or officers of a survey, shall be intitled to the benefit of any forfeiture unless notice of the seizure by him made, shall be by him given within forty-eight hours next after such seizure, to the said chief officer or officers; but in such case the United States shall have the entire benefit of such forfeiture.

. And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall counterfeit or forge, or cause to be counterfeited or forged any of the certificates herein before directed to be given, or shall knowingly or willingly accept or receive any false or untrue certificate with any of the said spirits, or shall fraudulently alter or erase any such certificate after the same shall be given, or knowingly or willingly publish or make use of such certificate so counterfeited, forged, false, untrue, altered or