Change of master to be reported by new master, or owner, and oath of citizenship to be endorsed on register, or the register shall be void, and the master forfeit 100 dollars.

Upon the entry of a registered vessel, from a foreign port, at the port where an owner resides, he must make oath that the register contains the names of all the owners, and that no foreign citizen has any share in such vessel, by way of trust, confidence, or otherwise.

If any register shall be fraudulently used for any vessel not entitled to the benefit thereof, she shall be forfeited.

If any vessel, enrolled or licensed, proceeds on a foreign voyage without surrendering her enrollment or license, and being registered, she shall be liable to forfeiture.

In case a register is lost, destroyed, or mislaid, the master, on oath, and in compliance with the requisitions of the law, may receive a new one.

On satisfactory proof to the secretary of the treasury that a vessel has been sold, by process of law, and her register retained by her former owners, he may direct a new one to be issued.

No sea letter, or other document, certifying a vessel to be the property of a citizen of the United States, can be issued, except to vessels duly registered or enrolled, and licensed as vessels of the United States.

When a registered vessel is transferred, in whole or in part, to a citizen, or altered in form, burthen or rig, she must be registered anew, by her former name, or lose the benefits of an American vessel.

Every case of transfer, in whole or in part, must be by bill of sale, reciting the certificate of registry at length, and the certificate surrendered.

Vessels arriving from a foreign port must enter at an established port of entry, and no cargo can be unladen except at a port of entry or delivery.

Every American vessel arriving from a foreign port, must be provided with a manifest of her whole cargo, or the master forfeits a sum equal to the value of all goods not included therein; all goods not included, belonging to the master, officers, or crew, to be forfeited. The manifest to be delivered to the first officer of the customs who shall board her. Neglect, or refusal to produce manifest, subjects the master to a penalty of $500.

Merchandise destined for delivery at different districts must be distinctly set forth on the manifest.

Merchandise unladen without permit from the proper officers of the customs, to be forfeited: and the master and mate, each, forfeit one thousand dollars-except by an unavoidable necessity, to be satisfactorily proved to the collector

The register and crew list to be deposited with the collector, on entry of vessel, within 48 hours of arrival, and arrival reported to collector, within 24 hours.

Foreign vessels, on entry, to produce manifest of cargo, and certificate of consul of nation to which they belong, of the deposit of their papers with him.

No vessel permitted to an entry, until the master shall have delivered to the post-master all letters directed to persons within the United States.

Before departure for a foreign port, the master of every vessel must deliver to the collector a manifest of his whole cargo, and the value thereof, and obtain a clearance, under penalty of $500.

In case any part of the cargo consists of goods subject to inspection, by the laws of the States, a certificate of inspections must be produced, previous to clearance.

Before clearance, the shippers or consignors of the cargo must deliver a manifest of their portion of the cargo, under oath, setting forth the kind, quantity, and value of each article, and the foreign port where intended to be landed.

Vessels licensed for the fisheries, intending to trade at any foreign place, must obtain permission from the collector of the port whence she departs, deliver a manifest, and comply with all the requisitions of the laws applying to vessels engaged in foreign trade. If found within three leagues of the coast with foreign goods on board of the value of $500, without such permission, will be forfeited.

AN ACT

To provide for Recording the Conveyances of Vessels, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance of any vessel, or part of any vessel of the United States, shall be valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs and devisees, and persons having actual notice thereof; unless such bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance be recorded in the office of the Collector of the Customs where such vessel is registered or enrolled: Provided, That the lien by bottomry on any vessel, created during her voyage, by a loan of money or materials necessary to repair or enable such vessel to prosecute a voyage, shall not lose its priority or be in any way affected by the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Collectors of the Customs shall record all such bills of sale, mortgages, hypothecations, or conveyances, and also, all certificates for discharging and cancelling any such conveyances, in a book or books to be kept for that purpose, in the order of their reception, noting in said book or books, and also on the bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance, the time when the same was received, and shall certify on the bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance, or certificate of discharge or cancellation, the number of the book and page where recorded, and shall receive for so recording such instrument of conveyance or certificate of discharge, fifty cents.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Collectors of the Customs shall keep an index of such records, inserting alphabetically the names of the vender or mortgagor, and the vendee or mortgagee, and shall permit said index and books of records to be inspected during office hours, under such reasonable regulations as they may establish, and shall, when required, furnish to any person a certificate, setting forth the names of the owners of any vessel registered or enrolled, the part or proportions owned by each, (if inserted in the register or enrollment,) and also the material facts of any existing bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or other incumbrance upon such vessel, recorded since the issuing of the last register or enrollment, viz.: the date, amount of such encumbrance, and from and to whom, or in whose favor made; the Collectors shall receive for each such certificate, one dollar,

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Collectors of the Customs shall furnish certified copies of such records on the receipt of fifty cents for each bill of sale, mortgage, or other conveyance.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the owner or agent of the owner of any vessel of the United States, applying to a Collector of the Customs for a register or enrollment of a vessel, shall, in addition to the oath now prescribed by law, set forth in the oath of ownership the part or proportion of such vessel belonging to each owner, and the same shall be inserted in the register or enrollment; and that all bills of sale of vessels registered or enrolled shall set forth the part of the vessel owned by each person selling, and the part conveyed to each person purchasing.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the twelfth clause or section of the act, entitled "An Act in addition to the several Acts regulating the shipment and discharge of seamen and the duties of consuls," approved July twentieth, eighteen hundred and forty, be so amended, as that all complaints in writing, to the consuls or commercial agents as therein provided, that a vessel is unseaworthy, shall be signed by the first, or the second and third officers, and a majority of the crew, before the consul or commercial agent shall be authorized to notice such complaint, or proceed to appoint inspectors, as therein provided, SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any person, not being an owner. who shall on the high seas, wilfully, with intent to burn or destroy, set fire to any ship or other vessel, or otherwise attempt the destruction of such ship or other vessel, being the property of any citizen or citizens of the United States, or procure the same to be done, with the intent aforesaid, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall suffer imprisonment to hard labor, for a term not exceeding ten years, nor less than three years, according to the aggravation of the offence.

Sɛc. 8. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall be in force from and after the first day of October next ensuing.

Approved, July 29, 1840.

I certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the original roll on file in the Department of State.

W. S. DERRICK, C. C.

CIRCULAR.

INSTRUCTIONS TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS RELATING TO MANIFESTS.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May, 1851.

The existing laws of the United States require that all vessels, whether American or foreign, coming from a foreign port, and bound to a port of the United States, shall, upon arriving within four leagues of the coast thereof, or within the limits of any collection district, produce to the proper officer of the revenue who may first board any such vessel, a full manifest of the cargo on board, detailing all the items thereof, the port or ports where the same may have been shipped, the names of the consignees thereof, and the different ports, if more than one, where the same is consigned or intended to be entered.

But the Department has ascertained that the execution of the salutary provision of the law on this subject has, in latter years, been in many ports greatly relaxed or entirely neglected, and masters of vessels are constantly permitted to make out and deliver their manifests after they have actually arrived at their port of entry.

The obvious protection to the revenue which this provision of law was intended to afford is thus greatly lessened; and, in cases of vessels bound to inland ports, great facilities are thus afforded for illegally landing portions of their cargo while passing up the great estuaries or rivers of the country, which portions thus landed, under the present practice of making out their manifests after reaching their port of entry, they can omit to report, but which otherwise would have to be accounted for, if the return of it had been included upon a manifest delivered agreeably to law, on their first entering the waters of the United States.

Independent, however, of these circumstances, and of the manifest necessity of throwing around the collection of the revenue all the guards against fraud which the law has provided and enjoined, the Department cannot, in a faithful discharge of its duties, allow so explicit a provision of the law to be relaxed, and still less to fall into disuse; and the Collectors of the Customs, the commanders of the revenue vessels, and all the boarding officers in the revenue service, are therefore required to carry the same into effect in future. The commanders of the revenue cutters are instructed to board all vessels from foreign ports arriving within the limits before referred to, and to demand and retain, one copy of their manifest, to be forwarded to the Collector of the port to which said vessels may respectively be bound, and to make, as provided by law, the needed endorsement on another copy, to remain on board the vessel thus boarded; and if the masters of any such vessels should not have their manifests ready for delivery, the officer, if practicable, and if not attended with too great delay and inconvenience, should remain on board until such manifest can be prepared and delivered to him. In all cases where the masters of such vessels from a foreign port have no manifests of their cargo ready for delivery when thus boarded, or who shall neglect or refuse to deliver them when

demanded by such boarding officer, the latter is instructed to report the same to the Collector of the port to which such vessel may be bound; and said Collector will, prior to enforcing the penalty prescribed by law, make report to the Department, accompanied by an affidavit of the master of the vessel, setting forth the causes for neglecting to comply with the law and regulations, together with any extenuating facts or circumstances involved in the case, for the consideration and action of the Department. The commanders of the cutters, and the boarding officers, are further instructed to transmit direct to this Department, monthly abstracts of all vessels thus boarded, and reported to the Collectors.

Although the Department is precluded from suspending or omitting to enforce the provisions of the law on this subject, yet, for the reasons before stated, and until proper notification of these instructions can be given, it will, in the exercise of the remitting power vested in it by law, extend such leniency and indulgence as the peculiar circumstances of the cases respectively may admit of, without hazarding the interests of the public revenue. But whatever le.

niency it may thus exercise, in such cases, in consequence of the erroneous practice which has existed for such a length of time in not properly enforcing the law on this subject, the penalty will be rigidly enforced in all cases where the masters of vessels were aware of the change in that respect, and of the existence of the present circular, previous to their leaving a foreign port for the United States.

The consuls and commercial agents of the United States abroad will be requested to take proper measures to give publicity to these regulations for the government of masters and owners of foreign vessels bound to the United States.

WM. L. HODGE,
Acting Secretary of the Treasury.

Reciprocity Treaty between the United States of America and her Britannic Majesty; concluded fifth June, 1854; ratified by the United States ninth August, 1854; exchanged ninth September, 1854; and proclaimed eleventh September, 1854.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas a treaty between the United States of America and her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at Washington, on the 5th day of June last, which treaty is, word for word, as follows:

The Government of the United States being equally desirous with her Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain, to avoid further misunderstanding be