624 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



dependence of port hospitality, as between this Government and the 

 British Government, in respect to vessels of either, is emphasized by 

 the 17th section of the law of 19th June, 1886, empowering the Presi- 

 dent to suspend commercial privileges to the vessels of any 

 372 country denying the same to United States' vessels. That sec- 

 tion is in harmony with a section in the British navigation law 

 which authorises the Queen, whenever British vessels are subject in 

 any foreign country to prohibitions or restrictions, to impose by 

 Order in Council such prohibitions, or restrictions upon ships of such 

 foreign country, either as to voyages in which they may engage, or ITS 

 to the articles which they may import into or export from any British 

 possession in any part of the world, so as to place the ships of such 

 country on as nearly as possible the same footing in British ports as 

 that on which British ships are placed in ports of such country. 



REVENUE LAWS AND REGULATIONS. 



The head of this department, having the responsibility of enforc- 

 ing the collection of duties upon such a vast number of imported 

 articles, under circumstances of so long a sea-coast and frontier line 

 to be guarded against the devices of smugglers, should not be inclined 

 to underestimate the solicitude of the local officers of the Dominion 

 of Canada to protect its own revenue from similar invasion. The 

 laws for the collection of duties on imports in force in the United 

 States and in the Dominion of Canada, respectively, will be found, on 

 comparison, to be on many points similar in their objects and 

 methods. They should naturally be similar, for both had, in the be- 

 ginning, the same common origin. In the United States, Congress 

 has divided the territory of each State by metes and bounds, usually 

 by towns, cities, or counties, into collection districts, for the purpose 

 of collecting duties on imports, and in each collection district has 

 established a port of entry and ports of delivery. In that manner ail 

 our sea-coast frontier is sub-divided for revenue purposes. The ob- 

 ject of our law is to place every vessel arriving from a: foreign port 

 in the custody of a customs officer immediately upon her arrival, in 

 order that no merchandise may be unladen therefrom without the 

 knowledge of the Government. The Canadian law is much the same 

 as our own in that regard, and in comparison with our own does not 

 seem to me [to] be unnecessarily severe in its general provisions. 

 Our own law provides, for example (sec 2774, Rev. Stat.,) that: 



Within twenty four hours after the arrival of any vessel, from any foreign 

 port, at any port of the United States established by law, at which an officer 

 of the customs resides, or within any harbour, inlet, or creek thereof, if the 

 hours of the business of the office of the chief officer of customs will permit, or 

 as soon thereafter as such hours will permit, the master shall report to such 

 officer, and make report to the chief officer, of the arrival of the vessel ; and he 

 shall within forty-eight hours after such arrival make a further report in 

 writing to the collector of the district, which report shall be in the form, and 

 shall contain all the particulars required to be inserted in and verified like the 

 manifest. Every master who shall neglect or omit to make either of such 

 reports or declaration, or to verify any such declaration as required, or shall 

 not fully comply with the true intent and meaning of this section, shall, for 

 each offence be liable to a penalty of one thousand dollars. 



Condemnation does not. in the opinion of this department, justly 

 rest upon the Dominion of Canada because she has upon her statute- 



