PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



QUINET, EDGAR. 



667 



dumping of these packages, the serial numbers are 

 checked off and an entry made showing the date of 

 emptying and the name of the rectifier. Transcripts 

 have been required monthly from the books of every 

 distiller, rectifier, and wholesale liquor-dealer in the 

 United States, containing full descriptions of the 

 spirits purchased and sold by them. Complete ab- 

 stracts are made from the transcripts, so that all the 

 spirits of each distiller, as found in the several mar- 

 kets of the country, are condensed into one account 

 monthly. These abstracts are then compared with 

 the records showing spirits dumped by rectifiers, 

 so that if spirits are placed upon the market after 

 they are reported dumped, the fraud will be discov- 

 ered at once. So perfect and unerring is this sys- 

 tem that, although the spirits may have passed 

 through several hands, there is no trouble in fixing 

 the guilt where it belongs. This prevents the reuse 

 of stamps, which I have heretofore described as the 

 second method of committing frauds. 



2. To aid still further in preventing this character 

 of fraud, this office has lately adopted new regula- 

 tions in regard to the use of tax-paid stamps, by 

 which a portion of the stamp is cut out at the time of 

 dumping and returned with the ganger's report. 

 This effectually destroys the stamp and prevents its 

 reuse, while at the same time a sufficient amount of 

 the engraving is shown upon the slip to determine 

 whether the stamp is genuine. 



3. To prevent what I have described as the first 

 class of frauds, namely, removing spirits to the rec- 

 tifying-house without stamp, and disposing of the 

 same by filling stubs of rectifiers' stamp with a 

 small number of gallons and the stamps with a much 

 greater number, the following check has lately been 

 adopted: A new series of rectifiers' stamps has been 

 issued, in which each stamp has printed upon its face 

 the number of gallons the package contains, so that 

 the stub must necessarily show the same thing. 

 Every gallon of spirits for which a rectifiers' stamp is 

 issued must of necessity be returned by the gauger 

 and charged to the rectifier. It is, therefore, im- 

 possible for him to get rid of illicit spirits, even if 

 he succeed in removing them from the distillery to 

 the rectifying-house. 



4. As a further check upon frauds such as I have 

 described, the vigorous prosecution of the bondsmen 

 of more than forty storekeepers and gangers for 

 the forfeiture of the full penalty of the bond, which 

 has been set on foot, will do much to make such 

 officers honest. 



5. With regard to additional legislation required 

 to enforce the honest collection of tax on distilled 



spirits, I give it as my opinion that the only law 

 necessary is one that shall make the requirements as 

 stringent and the penalties for defrauding the Gov- 

 ernment as severe in the case of the rectiher as they 

 now are in the case of the distiller. The rectifier 

 should be required to give a bond in an amount equal 

 to the tax represented by all the spirits he can pos- 

 sibly rectify each month. The house and tract of 

 land upon which the establishment is located should 

 be forfeited to the United States in case of fraud, 

 lie should not be allowed to handle any spirits at 

 his rectifying-house except those he purchases for 

 rectification and sells under rectifiers' stamps. 



Under the present system of detecting frauds, at 

 least thirty days must elapse before the discovery 

 could be made and the guilt fixed. As the apparatus 

 in a rectifying-house capable of refining a quantity 

 of spirits upon which the tax would amount to one 

 hundred thousand dollars a month may not be worth 

 more than ten thousand dollars, it will readily be 

 seen that under the present law, which only forfeits 

 the apparatus and spirits owned by him at the time 

 of seizure, a rectifier may aid in defrauding the Gov- 

 ernment of one hundred thousand and forfeit only 

 ten thousand dollars. By absconding to a foreign 

 country he also escapes the criminal punishment. 



I have also to suggest that the law now in force, 

 in regard to returns to be made by rectifiers, is so 

 indefinite that some legislation is needed to enforce 

 the regulations of the commissioner. 



I also think it would be better if rectifiers, distil- 

 lers, and wholesale liquor-dealers, were required to 

 make transcripts of their books monthly, instead 

 of this labor being performed by local officers, as it is 

 at present. It would also relieve officials of an im- 

 mense amount of labor, and would accomplish the 

 more important result of preventing the destruction 

 of books by parties about to be detected in fraud. 

 There would then be a sworn copy in this office, that 

 would always be admissible evidence in courts 

 against the guilty parties. 



I am firmly of the opinion that the present large 

 tax levied upon distilled spirits can be collected with 

 but small loss. This opinion is based upon the fact 

 that every storekeeper, gauger, and employ^, who 

 is connected with the distillery where fraud is per- 

 petrated becomes a pensioner upon the distiller. If, 

 therefore, distillers be kept under such strict surveil- 

 lance that the amount of money gained by fraud is 

 not sufficient to pay a large corps of officers and 

 workmen in necessary collusion with them to con- 

 summate the fraud, they will, as a matter of policy, 

 be honest. 



Q 



QUINET, EDGAR, a brilliant French writer 

 and politician, born February 17, 1803; died 

 March 27, 1875. He studied law in Paris, but 

 soon was more attracted by philosophy and 

 belles-lettres. A result of these studies was a 

 translation of Herder's "Ideas on the Philoso- 

 phy of the History of Mankind," published in 

 1825. Goethe announced the translation, and 

 particularly recommended the introduction 

 written by the young translator. Two years 

 later Quinet went to Heidelberg, where he 

 was attracted by the lectures of the celebrated 

 antiquarian F. Creuzer. He was a member 

 of the scientific commission sent to the Morea, 

 and while there gathered materials for his 

 work, "De la Gr&ce moderne, et de ses Rap- 

 ports avec 1' AntiquitS " published in 1830. 



From 1838 to 1842 he held the chair of For- 

 eign Literature at Lyons, where his lectures 

 on the ancient civilization excited a profound 

 interest. From this situation he passed to 

 the chair of the Literature of Southern Europe 

 at the College of France, and here, in company 

 with Michelet, he assailed the Jesuits with a 

 keen, earnest, epigrammatic eloquence. 



In 1846 he was removed from his chair. 

 He threw himself eagerly into the reform agi- 

 tation that brought about the Revolution of 

 1848, and was elected a member of the Con- 

 stituent and Legislative Assemblies, where he 

 always voted with the Extreme Left, but was 

 expelled from France after the overthrow of 

 the Republic in 1851. He went to Brussels, 

 and afterward to a small village on Lake Gene- 



