Mr. GUTHRIE. Unless the laws have been repealed, there is authority for the SecyTreasury to direct so many packages ofan article imported to be sent to the appraisers store, ten, 15, 20, or 24. They are all exposed to the same inspection, and they are taken indiscriminately by numbers. They go to the appraisers store, and there they are opened and examined by the up raiser. The whole shipment is apraised in that way by the selected samples. n the regulations that I introduced when I was SecyTreasury there were directions about the whole matter. If there are any circumstances to induce suspicion the collector has authority to examine the whole lot, or to direct other samples to be drawn. There is sometimes cheatingpracticed in the samples. Irecollect the case of a large importation of Spanish eivars, and by some collusion between the entry clerk and the importer the samples were all drawn of an inferior quality of cigars, which were put up in Havana Tor that purpose. By some means or other communication was made to the Treasury Dept that that mode of evading the duty upon the best cigars had been adopted at SanFrancise o. Immediately steps were taken to preventthe attempted fraud. The samples as drawn were all correct, but from the information that went from the Treasury Dept here the customhouse officers there were enabled to seize and condemn the whole lot. It has never been the practice in our customhouses to examine every package. Enough of them are examined to show that they are all of the same quality of goods. The mode of cheating in that way is to put inferior goods on the topand superior goods at the bottom. The pack ages are examined by the examiners who test the quality of the goods and ascertain Whether they are all alike in the different ackages. There must be a euflicient number otPpackages sent to the appraisers store to give a fair sample of the whole importations. Then ifthe examiners do their duty, and the appraisers theirs, there is very little chance of imposition in that respect. It would be an endless story to detail all the modes that are resorted to to import goods cheap. My conviction, from the little experience that I adin the Treasury Dept, was that the American importing mer chants were generally and almost without exception honest, and the frauds that were committed were mostly committed by men who owed no allegiance to this Government and who came here to make money and then return to their own country. They were sometimes dealt with pretty harshly, because we encour aged the seizure of their goods whenever there was an appearance of fraud. I think this discretion about the number of packages to be eiamined is with the SecyTreesury and ought to be with him, with the right to the collector of the port, if he sees anything suspicious, to order either the whole to be seized or additional packages to be drawn for exami nation. The amendment was concurred in. The next excepted amendment was in section 6, linc 3, to strike out “5” and insert “six; ” so that it will read: That the appraiser who may be appointed under the provisionsof this actshall receive a compensation of $0,00operannum.