Section 116: Section 5390, Revised Statutes, "Misprision of felony," reads: "Every person who, having knowledge of the actual commission of the crime of murder or other felony upon the high seas or within any fort, arsenal, dockyard, magazine, or other place or district or country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, conceals," etc. For the above the words are substituted: "Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of the crime of murder or other felony cognizable by the courts of the United States, conceals," etc.

OFFENSES AGAINST COINAGE AND CURRENCY, ETC.

Section 117, "Obligation or other security of the United States defined:" Section 5413, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding the words "silver certificates," such certificates having been authorized by Congress since the enactment of the Revised Statutes.

Section 120: For section 5430, Revised Statutes, "Using plates to print notes without authority,” a substitute is reported, which is so drawn as to cover counterfeiting effected by the use of lithographic stones. This is recommended by the Secret Service Bureau of the Treasury Department.

Section 132, "Connecting parts of different instruments," is new, being designed to cover an offense occasionally committed which is not defined by any existing law.

Section 133, "Counterfeit money to be stamped," contains an amendment to the present law, adding a penalty for violations of the mandate found in the act of June 30, 1876.

In section 143, "Counterfeit obligations, securities, coins, or material for counterfeiting to be forfeited," a clause has been added to section 4 of the act of February 10, 1891, making it penal for anyone having the custody or control of such counterfeits, material, or apparatus to fail or refuse to surrender possession upon the demand of any authorized agent of the Treasury Department. This addition was made at the request of the Secret Service Bureau of the Treasury Department.

In section 147, "Imitating United States securities or printing business cards thereon," the words "silver certificate" are inserted.

Section 150, "Refusing to divulge knowledge of offenses," is new, and is added at the request of the Secret Service Bureau of the Treasury Department.

OFFENSES AGAINST THE POSTAL SERVICE.

This chapter was reported over two years since upon the representation of officers of the Post-Office Department that existing laws were inadequate for the punishment of offenses of considerable gravity, and that it was their desire to secure legislation for the reform of

those defects before the completion of the penal code. In its preparation we had the benefit of the advice of Mr. Harrison J. Barrett, then Acting Assistant Attorney-General for the Post-Office Department, and sought to avail ourselves of his abundant information respecting the needs of the service in the prosecution of offenses. After it was transmitted by us to the Attorney-General some changes were made by the law officers of the Post-Office Department, to which, with immaterial exceptions, we have conformed this revision. Thereupon it was embodied in "A bill to revise and codify the laws relating to the Post-Office Department and postal service and to amend the same, and for other purposes," which was introduced in the Fifty-sixth Congress and favorably reported by the House Committee on PostOffices and Post-Roads, but did not become a law.

It may be repeated in connection with this chapter that it is not regarded as important to call attention specifically to all changes that are recommended in existing laws respecting penalties. In numerous instances where penalties have been recovered by civil actions in the nature of actions of debt, we have substituted provisions for criminal prosecutions, for the reason that we regard the latter procedure as the more efficacious means of insuring the punishment of offenders. Other changes are reported, having in view a more proportionate adjustment of penalties to the gravity of the offenses respectively defined, in which the present laws, having been adopted from time to time, are regarded as faulty.

Section 151, “Conducting post-office without authority:" Section 3829, Revised Statutes, is amplified by a provision against the maintenance of private post-offices and letter boxes. This is in conformity with the general policy of the Government, and it is further recommended by considerations of great weight. It is found that in the larger cities these institutions are made the instrumentalities of practices partaking of fraud and immorality. In a notable case in New York, about two years since, they were employed as a means by which two human lives were sacrificed under circumstances of grave criminality.

Section 156, "Wearing carrier's uniform without authority:" Section 3867, Revised Statutes, is amended by inserting "or any imitation or similitude of such uniform."

Section 161, "Unlawful exercise of office or employment:" This section is new and is reported upon assurances that it is required to prevent a practice that has grown more or less common.

Section 163, "Stealing post-office property:" The words "for any lucre, gain, or convenience," where they occur in section 5475, Revised Statutes, are omitted as redundant, and for the reason that they add an unnecessary element to the proof required upon prosecutions for the offense defined.

Section 164, "Stealing or forging mail locks or keys:" Section 5477, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding the words "any key to any lock box, lock drawer, or other authorized receptacle for the deposit or delivery of mail matter;" also the words "or knowingly aid or assist in making, forging, or counterfeiting.

Section 165, "Breaking into and entering post-offices:" Section 5478, Revised Statutes, provides that "any person who shall forcibly break into, or attempt to break into, any post-office with intent to commit therein larceny or other depredation, shall," etc. The condition being that many post-offices are kept in buildings where stores or other occupations are carried on, it is to be questioned whether the authority of the United States can be extended to offenses against other property by reason of its location in such buildings. To remove the ambiguity here suggested, we have recommended a provision substituting the words "with intent to commit therein any offense defined in this chapter, or to steal or purloin any money or other property of the United States."

Section 166, "Entering postal car, assaulting clerk, etc.:" This is a new section designed to cover a class of offenses not elsewhere distinctly provided for.

Section 167, "Detaining, secreting, embezzling, etc., mail matter or contents:" Sections 3890, 3891, 3892, 5467, 5468, 5469, and 5470, Revised Statutes, deal with a large class, but substantally the same class of depredations upon the mail. These it has been deemed desirable to embrace in one section. We do not overlook the fact that a higher criminality attaches to offenders employed in the postal service than to those not so employed; but it is submitted that this consideration is met by a provision giving a liberal elasticity to penalties, leaving it to the court to consider the relation of the offender to the service in fixing the punishment.

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Sections 168 and 169, "Postal clerks, etc., failing to deliver mail,” Carrying stolen mail into another district:" In the prosecution of persons committing depredations upon the mails in transit it has been found difficult, and often impossible, to secure evidence of the particular district in which the crime was committed. We are, of course, obliged to respect the provisions of section 2 of Article III, and the sixth amendment of the Constitution, the latter of which requires that "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law." To meet these conditions we have provided two sections not found in existing laws. The first makes it an offense for a clerk, carrier, agent, or messenger, etc., to fail to deliver the mail, or any part of it, to the person to whom he is required by law or the regulations or practice of the Post-Office Department to deliver the same.

The

second makes it an offense for anyone to carry into any district of the United States any letter, or the contents thereof, which has been unlawfully abstracted from the mail, knowing the same to have been so abstracted, etc. It is believed that these sections will prove of great assistance in the prosecution of offenders who now, in many instances, enjoy immunity.

Section 172, "Injuring letter boxes or mail matter, assaulting carrier, etc." This section is a consolidation of sections 3869 and 5466, Revised Statutes, the one having reference to injuries to letter boxes and the other to mail matter deposited in such boxes.

Section 173," Assault with intent to rob:" This section is proposed as a substitute for section 5473, Revised Statutes, defining attempts to rob the mail.

Section 176,"Obstructing the mail:" Section 3995, Revised Statutes, is amended by inserting the words "or railway car, steamboat, or other vehicle or vessel."

Section 177, "Delaying the mail at a ferry:" To the word "ferryman" in section 3996, Revised Statutes, are added the words “or other person having charge or control of any ferry;" and this section is further amended by inserting a maximum penalty without respect to the length of the delay.

Section 181, "Removal and reuse of stamps:" This section is a consolidation of sections 3922, 3923, 3924, and 3925, Revised Statutes, all of which deal with kindred offenses.

Sections 182 and 183, "False returns to increase compensation," and "Unlawful pledging or sale of stamps:" It has been represented to us that it has been found to be the practice of some postmasters to induce persons outside of the delivery of their respective offices to deposit mail matter in them, or to purchase postage stamps, for the purpose of increasing their compensation. The act of June 17, 1878, is here amended by the insertion of language designed to prevent this class of frauds.

Section 185, "Obscene, etc., matter nonmailable:" In construing the act of September 26, 1888, amendatory of section 3893, Revised Statutes, the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Swearingen v. United States (161 U. S., 446), decided that "the words 'obscene,' 'lewd,' and 'lascivious,' as used in the statute, signified that form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity, and have the same meaning as is given them at common law in prosecutions for obscene libel." In that case language of gross indecency was held not to be "calculated to corrupt and debauch the minds and morals of those into whose hands it might fall" so as to come within the terms of the law. In the light of this decision, and to prevent a flagrant abuse of the mails, we have added the words "indecent, vile, or filthy," in the revision of the sections mentioned.

Section 187, "Lottery, gift enterprise, etc., circulars, etc., not mailable:" The words "or concerning schemes devised for the purpose of obtaining money or property under false pretenses," in section 1 of the act of September 19, 1890, are omitted, as they have respect to an offense which is fully covered by another section, and are not essentially germane here.

Section 188, "Bringing lottery tickets into the country:" Section 1 of the act of March 2, 1895, is amended by substituting for the words "from one State to another" the words "from one State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to another State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia." This change becomes necessary in the light of the decision in United States v. Ames (95 Fed. Rep., 453), in which it was held that a complaint charging a person with having caused lottery tickets to be carried and transported from a State to a Territory did not charge an offense within the statute.

Section 189, "Postmasters not to be lottery agents:" In section 3851, Revised Statutes, the words "free of postage" seem to be nugatory, in view of other provisions. They are accordingly omitted.

Section 190, "Use of mails to promote frauds:" Section 5480, Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of March 2, 1889, contains the words "to be effected by either opening, or intending to open, correspondence or communication with any person, whether resident within or outside the United States, or by inciting such other person or any person to open communication with the person so devising or intending." It is obvious that these words are not necessary to establish the criminality of the act sought to be denounced or the jurisdiction of the United States over the same, and it further appears from the decision in United States v. Smith (45 Fed. Rep., 561) that they add an element to the proof necessary for conviction. They are accordingly omitted in the revision here submitted. The section is further amended by adding the words "or shall knowingly cause to be delivered by mail according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed." The following words are omitted: "The indictment, information, or complaint may severally charge offenses to the number of three when committed within the same six calendar months, but the court thereupon shall give a single sentence, and shall proportion the punishment especially to the degree in which the abuse of the Post-Office Establishment enters as an instrument into such fraudulent scheme and device."

Section 192, "Poisons and explosives nonmailable:" The transmission through the mails of poisonous, infectious, and explosive matter is an evil that, it is submitted, should be prohibited or controlled by efficient safeguards, and section 3878, Revised Statutes, is inadequate