Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/456



value of the said goods, including said charges, at the place of exportation, the collector shall designate one merchant, skilled in the value of such goods, and the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, may designate another, both of whom shall be citizens of the United States, who, if they cannot agree in an appraisement, may designate an umpire who shall also be a citizen of the United States, and when they, or a majority of them, shall have agreed, they shall report the result to the collector, and if their appraisements shall not agree with that of the United States’ appraisers, the collector shall decide between them.

. And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the customs shall cause at least one package of every invoice, and one package at least out of every twenty packages of each invoice, and a greater number, should he deem it necessary, of goods imported into the respective districts, which package or packages he shall have first designated on the invoice to be opened and examined, and if the same be found not to correspond with the invoice, or to be falsely charged in such invoice, the collector shall order, forthwith, all the goods contained in the same entry to be inspected; and if such goods be subject to ad valorem duty, the same shall be appraised, and if any package shall be found to contain any article not described in the invoice, or if such package or invoice be made up with intent, by a false valuation, or extension or otherwise, to evade or defraud the revenue; the same shall be forfeited, and the fifteenth section of the “,’” passed first March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three; and also so much of any act of Congress as imposes an additional duty or penalty of fifty per centum on duties upon any goods which may be appraised at twenty five per centum, or ten per centum above their invoice price, is hereby repealed; and no goods liable to be inspected or appraised as aforesaid, shall be delivered from the custody of the officers of the customs, until the same shall have been inspected or appraised, or until the packages sent to be inspected or appraised, shall be found correctly and fairly invoiced and put up, and so reported to the collector: Provided, That the collector may, at the request of the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, take bonds, with approved security, in double the estimated value of such goods, conditioned that they shall be delivered to the order of the collector, at any time within ten days after the package or packages sent to the public stores shall have been appraised and reported to the collector. And if, in the mean time, any of the said packages shall be opened, without the consent of the collector or surveyor given in writing, and then in the presence of one of the inspectors of the customs, or if the said package or packages shall not be delivered to the order of the collector, according to the condition of the said bond, the bond shall, in either case, be forfeited.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the collector to cause all goods entered for re-exportation, with the right of drawback, to be inspected, and the articles thereof compared with their respective invoices, before a permit shall be given for lading the same; and where the goods so entered shall be found not to agree with the entry, they shall be forfeited: and every importer, owner, consignee, agent, or exporter, who shall enter goods for importation, or for exportation, or transportation from one port or place to another, with the right of drawback, shall deposit with the collector the original invoice of such goods, if not before deposited with the collector, and in that case an authenticated invoice thereof to be filed and preserved by him in the archives of the custom-house, which shall be signed by such importer,