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whenever thereafter the person claiming such labor or service shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such claim that the person whose service or labor is claimed had been employed in hostile service against the government of the United States, contrary to the provisions of this act.

Approved, August 6, 1861.

CONFISCATION OF VESSELS.

The seizure of vessels at New-York and other Northern ports, under the new confiscation act, still continues. All the vessels taken are first libelled, then confiscated, and will be finally sold to the highest bidder. Some of these vessels were loading with cargoes for foreign ports. The government, it is stated, will not claim their cargoes, (unless it should be proved that they were intended to be shipped to Southern ports,) and the owners will be afforded every facility for their removal.

In case of most of the seizures but a small part, say one-fourth of the vessel, belongs to parties in the seceded States. The three-fourths owners, resident in the North, will bid in the vessels, and, as the Secretary of the Treasury has discretionary powers by the act, he will undoubtedly remit the amount paid for shares previously owned by the bidders-in, and accept only the amount due for the portion of the vessel claimed by South

ern owners.

The Southern owners can, of course, have no claim upon the Northern buyers, as the act of Congress confiscates their property. The South is thus likely to be cut off from any ownership in a large number of vessels, and Northern shipowners will have an opportunity of adding to their property at a considerable rate, considering the probable amount which will be invested under the confiscation sale.

With regard to the transferred vessels, it is believed that there will be no special difficulty in establishing the illegality of the transfers. The federal government will not be likely to recognise powers of attorney issued by the rebels, particularly when they were issued for the purpose of attempting to nullify a law enacted by Congress, and to avoid the confiscation which the act of Congress and the proclamation of the President decree.

COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ITALY.

The Pungola of Milan gives the following details concerning the treaty of commerce now in course of negotiation between France and Italy: Absolute reciprocity in commerce and navigation, even in the coasting trade. Perfect equality for vessels as regards tonnage, pilotage and quarantine dues, &c.; also for loading and unloading cargoes in port, the use of docks &c. Agricultural and manufactured productions of all countries to be imported by French and Italian vessels without any differential dues being imposed. The productions of the two countries, exported or imported from one to the other, to enjoy the privileges accorded to those of the most favored nations. Perfect equalities of duties in the coral and other fisheries. All favors which may hereafter be accorded to any nation by either power, is to be accorded to the other. The reduced import duties on certain articles granted by preceding treaties to be extended to rice, flax and hemp tissues, salt meat, &c. The reductions

accorded to Belgium by the recent treaty to be extended to Italy. Abolition of the certificate of origin in the event of direct imports. Italian securities to be negotiated in the Bourse of Paris, and those of France in the Bourses of Italy. Abandonment of all taxes and charges whatever in case of shipwreck, also of all transit dues.

TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA.

The Delhi Gazette of June 27th gives the following as authentic: The Ambassador of the King of Kokan arrived in Cabul on the 5th, on his way to Peshawur, and was received very warmly in Durbar by the Ameer. He (the ambassador) informed the Ameer that he was going with certain proposals to the British authorities which had relation to news received at Kokan, to the effect that a treaty had been concluded between the Emperor of Russia and the Emperor of China, by which the Russians have pledged themselves to protect and hold seven cities belonging to China, situated near the boundaries of Yarcund Kashkur, and to occupy the same by an armed military force. The Russians have also agreed to assist the Chinese with troops, if necessary, against the British and Kokanees. It seems that the Emperor of China had written to the Czar to say that the British had taken some of his places near Hindostan, and were intending to come upon others; and his Celestial Majesty having received a very favorable answer to his letter from Russia was the cause of the treaty being concluded.

FREE IMPORTATIONS.

The Chamber of Commerce of Boulogne have published a notice calling particular attention to the liberal dispositions of the Circular, No. 781, just issued by the French Custom House, in accordance with which French subjects returning into France, or foreigners settling there, are allowed to import all articles of personal and domestic use, such as clothing, house-furniture, musical instruments, books, &c., free of duty. Agricultural implements, tools and mechanical appliances may also be imported free of duty by persons intending to employ them, and students' materials and marriage outfits are also to be exempt from duty.

THE ANGLO-FRENCH COMMERCIAL TREATY.

The Paris correspondent of the London Times, writing in September, says: Now that the first of October is approaching, the term at which the treaty of commerce with England is to be carried into full execution, the shopkeepers in Paris who deal in cotton goods are reducing their prices to a figure quite unprecedented. They fear, it is said, that the French market will be overstocked with British manufactures. Every Englishman they perceive in any public place they imagine to be a manufacturer come to compete with and undersell them. A Rouen paper states that the hotels in that town are filled with English merchants and manufacturers, come to make sales of their produce for the 1st of October, the period when a variety of British merchandise will be admitted into France on the payment of a duty of 15 per cent. ad valorem. That paper adds that the prices demanded by the English dealers are so mod

erate that they would create surprise, were it not known that English merchants make immense sacrifices in order to become masters of the market.

TREATY WITH TURKEY.

The treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Turkey, which is to come into operation on the 1st of October, has been laid before Parliament. Turkish produce and manufactures purchased by British subjects are to be liable to no duty, except an export duty of 8 per cent., diminishing annually by 1 per cent., until it be reduced to a fixed ad valorem duty of 1 per cent., to cover the general expenses of administration and control; and the produce and manufactures of the dominions and possessions of Her Britannic Majesty are not to be subject in Turkey to any duty beyond an import duty of 8 per cent., but the import of tobacco or salt is prohibited. There is to be no differential duty on British shipping. The duty of 3 per cent. now levied on articles passing through Turkey by land to other countries is to be reduced to 2 per cent., and after eight years, is to be merely 1 per cent., to defray the expense of registration. No charge is to be made on British produce or goods in British ships passing through the States. The "most favored nation" clauses are inserted.

Decisions of the Secretary of the Treasury of questions arising upon appeals by importers from the Decisions of Collectors relating to the proper classification, under the Tariff Act of March 2, 1861, of certain articles of Foreign Manufacture, entered at the ports of Boston and New-York.

HOLLOW WARE.

Treasury Department, July 12, 1861. Sir, I have had under consideration your report on the appeal of Messrs. LALANCE & GROSJEAN from your assessment of duty, at the rate of 30 per cent., under the provision for "manufactures of metal, &c., not otherwise provided for," "in section 22 of the tariff act of March 2, 1861, on certain "hollow ware" imported by them.

The appellants claim entry at the rate of 24 cents per pound, as being provided for in section 7, under the classification of "hollow ware, glazed or tinned."

The articles in question it appears are returned by the appraisers at your port as composed of " metal, and hollow, but not castings of iron." The provision under which the importers claim to enter at a duty of 2 cents per pound refers, in my opinion, to hollow ware, being a casting of iron, and does not embrace hollow ware of any other description. Being excluded from that classification, the wares in question would fall under the provision to which you referred them on the entry, viz.: "Manufactured, articles, vessels and wares, not otherwise provided for, of brass, copper, gold, iron, lead, pewter, platina, silver, tin or other metal, or of which either of these metals, or any other metal, shall be the component material of chief value," and your decision assessing duty at the rate of 30 per centum ad valorem is affirmed.

I am, very respectfully,

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. HIRAM BARNEY, Esq., Collector, &c., New-York.

WOOLLEN CARD CLOTH.

Treasury Department, July 29, 1861. Sir, I have had under consideration your report on the appeal of Mr. BENJAMIN POLAND from your decision, subjecting to duty, at the rate of 12 cents per pound, and in addition thereto 25 per centum ad valorem, as a "manufacture of wool, made wholly or in part of wool, not otherwise provided for," under the tariff of March 2, 1861, certain "woollen card cloth" imported by him.

The appellant claims entry thereof at the rate of 30 per cent. under section 22 of the tariff of 1861, as being provided for in the provision for "manufactures not otherwise provided for, composed of mixed materials, in part of cotton, silk, wool or worsted or flax.' The article under consideration is a manufacture, cotton, wool and linen, and is used for manufacturing cotton cards.

After a careful examination of this case I concur with you in opinion, that the merchandise in question is subject, under the second subdivision of section 13 of the tariff of 1861, to duty at the rate of 12 cents per pound, and in addition thereto 25 per centum ad valorem. Your assessment of duty at those rates is affirmed.

I am, very respectfully,

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. J. Z. GOODRICH, Esq., Collector, &c., Boston, Mass.

PRINTED COTTON HANDKERCHIEFS.

Treasury Department, September 10, 1861. Sir, I have had under consideration the appeal of Messrs. L. HEIDENHEIMER & Co., from your assessment of duty at the rate of "2 cents per square yard and ten per centum ad valorem in addition," on printed cotton handkerchiefs, under the provision in section 14 of the tariff of March 2, 1861, for "manufactures of cotton, &c., on finer or lighter goods of like description, not exceeding 140 threads to the square inch, counting the warp and filling, two cents per square yard, and if printed, painted, colored or stained, there shall be levied, collected and paid a duty of 10 per centum ad valorem in addition."

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The appellants claim that the above section refers "only to goods sold by the yard, and printed cotton handkerchiefs being bought and sold by the dozen or by the piece, the meaning of the act could not be to levy on them a duty by the yard," but that they should be classified either under the head of "all manufactures of cotton, bleached, printed, painted or dyed, not otherwise provided for," at 30 per cent., section 14, or, as wearing apparel ready for use," at the same rate of duty, section 22.

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These goods are in pieces of several dozens in length.

I concur in the views expressed by you, and the goods in question are liable, in my opinion, to duty at the rates assessed on the entry, viz., two cents per square yard and ten per centum in addition.

I am, very respectfully,

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. HIRAM BARNEY, Esq., Collector, &c., New-York.

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