and that while the appraiser is empowered to obtain any information deemed material respecting dutiable value, he is not empowered to obtain information where classification. alone is involved, as in the case of any merchandise like sugar subject to specific duty upon quality tests.

There can be no question in respect to the appraiser's function as to determining dutiable value. The language of all the statutes, ending with the customs administrative act, section 10, and of all the decisions thereunder, expresses this duty. (Sec. 16, act of March 1, 1823, 3 Stat., 735; sec. 2, act of May 28, 1830, 4 Stat., 409; sec. 9, act of July 14, 1832, id., 592; secs. 16, 23, act of August 30, 1842, 5 Stat., pp. 563, 566; sec. 8, act of July 30, 1846, 9 Stat., 43; sec. 2, act of August 10, 1846, id., 96; act of March 3, 1851, id., 629; sec. 2902, Rev. Stats.) Allied provisions of the earlier acts and of the customs administrative act make the appraisement final and conclusive under certain conditions. The courts have sustained this finality unless the appraiser proceeded on some wrong principle contrary to law or exceeded his authority, and generally have sustained the results reached by the appraiser, with the exception of cases to which the qualifying principle just stated was applied. (Rankin v. Hoyt, 4 How., 327; Bartlett v. Kane, 16 How., 263; Greely's Administrator v. Burgess, 18 How., 413; Sampson v. Peaslee, 20 How., 571; Belcher v. Linn, 24 How., 508; Hilton v. Merritt, 110 U. S., 97; Auffmordt v. Hedden, 137 U. S., 310; Passavant v. United States, 148 U. S., 214; United States v. Passavant, 169 U. S., 16.)

The nearly uniform language of the statutes, on which the appraiser's functions rest, is that it shall be the duty of the appraiser, by all reasonable ways and means in his power, to ascertain, estimate, and appraise the actual market value and wholesale price of the merchandise, and the number of yards, parcels, or quantities, and such actual market value and wholesale price of every of them as the case may require. There are some differences in the language of the statutes, and some expressions therein which will presently be noticed, leading to an enlarged view of the appraiser's duties, but, generally speaking, these are regulated and defined in the manner just stated, and no direct grant of

power includes the ascertainment of quality and nature of merchandise as well as of value.

But, nevertheless, have the appraisers no duties to perform relative to other aspects of the merchandise than value, namely, such as the determination of nature or character, quality, origin, or the like; or are their functions in these respects only tributary to the inquiry concerning value? I can not think so. While, as stated, there is no express grant of authority to enter into any inquiry beyond the ascertainment of value, the nature of the case in its practical aspect, the relation of the appraising officers to the customs system and to the collector, and the fair, if not necessary, inference from all the laws, regulations, and decisions lead to the contrary view. Although it is the collector's duty to classify, his classification is based upon the appraiser's report to him, and, as I understand the matter, the appraiser's report embraces not only the question of value but the general result of the examination of merchandise, and the appraiser is the official who makes the report to the collector where the merchandise is subject to a specific duty as well as to an ad valorem duty. The polariscopic tests of sugar are made by officers and experts subordinate to the appraiser, and these tests of course respect quality and are reported by the appraiser to the collector; and it seems that the work of other branches of the customs staff, such as that of the samplers and weighers, is tributary to the appraiser's work, and that the latter is at least the conduit through which all information respecting imported merchandise, including its quality and nature as well as its value, reaches the collector.

I am unable to discover any reported case discussing fully the limits of the appraiser's power to investigate imported merchandise where the duties are specific, and the statements which I have just made go to a general view of the system of appraising imported merchandise and collecting revenue therefrom and to the main relations of the different officials to that system. It must be admitted that in the case of Marriott v. Brune (9 How., 619), deciding that duty is to be assessed, not upon an invoice weight, but upon the weight when landed, the Supreme Court said that an estimate made by the appraisers could be final only as to the

price abroad and not as to the quantity or weight reaching this country. "The latter is fixed by another class of officers authorized by law for that purpose; and if the appraisers undertake to fix it, their action in that respect is coram non judice, and a nullity." So here it might be said that the test is reached by the experts authorized for that purpose, and that while the appraiser may inform the collector of the result, he can not properly affect it any more than he can usurp the function of the weighers, and therefore has no authority to demand, for his information and guidance, the importers' commercial test. Yet I think that on the whole the laws now point to the authority of the appraiser as the final and chief examining officer by whom the collector is advised with respect to the classification. The question is confessedly difficult, and I will therefore proceed to examine in some detail various provisions and decisions which seem to me to tend to this view, embracing the expressions used in the law to which I refer above.

Under section 16 of the act of 1823, supra, the appraisers are to examine and inspect imported goods. That act referred to ad valorem duties, but expressly applies to any other act, and the expression which I have emphasized is general and is repeated frequently in subsequent laws. The phrase in the customs administrative act is "to ascertain, estimate, and appraise" value, and the more general previous phrase, so far as express direction goes, led only to report of value, so that the earlier language may strictly be regarded as involving no greater power than the word "estimate" in the present law. Section 9 of the act of 1832, supra, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to establish regulations "to secure a just, faithful, and impartial appraisal of all goods and just and proper entries of such actual value thereof." This section is substantially reproduced by section 2949, Revised Statutes. So that the two phrases in the statutes from which the scope of the appraiser's duty has been drawn are that the appraiser shall examine and inspect merchandise in order to report the value thereof to the collector, and shall ascertain, estimate, and appraise value by all reasonable ways and means in his power.

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Section 2912 of the Revised Statutes, relating to the appraisement of wool, shows that the question of quality of an importation is within the appraiser's competence, although there, too, the matter of value chiefly is pertinent. Section 2921 is evidence, if evidence were needed, that it is part of the appraiser's duty to examine merchandise. Section 2926, relating to goods of which incomplete entry has been made, shows that the particulars generally of an importation, as well as the cost of value thereof, may be ascertained by appraisement, and section 2927 indicates clearly in respect to damaged goods, whether subject to duty ad valorem or by specfiic rates, that it is the appraiser's duty to ascertain and certify the rate or percentage of damage with respect to the number of articles and weight or measure involved as well as with respect to value. (See also sec. 2943.) In section 2933, involving a hygienic purpose, it is shown that examination and appraisal refer to quality, purity, and fitness as well as to value and identity. Section 2938 implies that the appraiser who revises and corrects the reports of an assistant appraiser (sec. 2929) has a general supervision of the duties of examination or appraisement performed where specially qualified experts are requisite, as in the sugar case which we are now considering; and section 2953 refers to accommodation for the use of the United States appraisers "for the due examination and appraisal of imported merchandise."

The oath which the appraiser at New York shall take under section 2614 binds him faithfully to direct and supervise the examination, inspection, and appraisement according to law; and the assistant appraisers, by section 2615, shall take an oath diligently and faithfully to examine and inspect such goods, wares, and merchandise as the appraiser may direct. Under section 2616 every officer appointed under the title Collection of Duties" shall take an oath that he will use his best endeavors to prevent and detect frauds against the laws of the United States imposing duties upon imports.

Some of the provisions of the Revised Statutes referred to have been repealed by later laws, and in most instances by the customs administrative act, for the reason chiefly,

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it would seem, that the later provisions simplify and systematize the previous laws, but are not inconsistent therewith. I have cited the repealed sections herein in order to show the general scope of the appraiser's duties under our customs administration, and these duties have certainly suffered no violent changes from later legislation. The Customs Regulations of 1892, articles 1120-1129, show that the appraiser examines and appraises imported merchandise; that he assists the collector in the assessment of duty and describes the merchandise in such terms as will enable the collector to classify the same, and reports the measurements and quantities where the surveyor does not weigh, gauge, or measure. It is provided that it is not the function of the appraising officers to classify, and that their chief business under the statute is to ascertain dutiable value. It is shown also that examiners make returns to the appraiser, and that the appraiser shall furnish, besides information as to price, value, quantities, and description, any further information affecting the assessment of duty which the collector or the naval officer may request. Article 1122 provides as follows:

"As the examinations of appraisers are made the basis of the general classification of importations for the assessment of duty, it is necessary that appraisers shall closely inspect the articles ordered for appraisement, and where they entertain doubts concerning the quality or denomination of articles, they shall submit samples thereof, with their opinions, to collectors, or for reference, in case of disagreement, to the Board of General Appraisers.'

Appraisers also must see (article 1128) that good and sufficient samples to admit of analytical or comparative tests shall be forwarded daily to the Board of General Appraisers, except in cases of merchandise identical in quality, materials, and value with importations received during the current. month. By article 830 it is the duty of the appraiser to make careful examination of any merchandise which the collector designates for that purpose. By article 831, which refers to section 2 of the customs administrative act as its foundation, it is provided that for the assistance of the collector in classification of merchandise the appraising