Office of the Historian

No. 323.
Sir Edward Thornton to Mr. Evarts.

Washington, November 14, 1879.

Sir: I have the honor to inclose copy of a letter addressed to the Marquis of Salisbury by Mr. George Kelly, of Mazatlan, Mexico, together [Page 496] with a copy of the Mexican custom-house regulations to which that letter refers, and under the provisions of which it would appear that the captain of the American steamer Newbern was imprisoned in September last.

Lord Salisbury has instructed me to inquire whether the United States Government is aware of the existence of these regulations, and whether it proposes to take any steps to procure their modification or removal.

I have, &c.,

ED W’D THORNTON.
[Inclosure 1.]

Mr. Kelly to the Marquis of Salisbury.

Mazatlan, September 19, 1879.

My Lord: In the absence of diplomatic relations and consequently of a British consulate at this port, I have the honor to inclose to your lordship an amendment of the Mexican tariff relating to punishment in the cases of smuggling or mistakes.

The very extraordinary authority given by this decree to ignorant or misguided officials over foreign mail steamships and merchant vessels generally, has shown itself by a test case which occurred yesterday.

The American steamer Newbern, W. Metzger, master, arrived on 11th instant from San Francisco, landed mails, passengers, and cargo, and proceeded on her voyage round the Gulf of California, returning to this port yesterday homeward bound.

During the steamer’s absence four packages without documents or owner were found in the custom-house warehouses, and, without any evidence, were supposed to belong to the Newbern.

The district attorney at once accused Captain Metzger as a criminal. He was taken off his ship, lodged in prison, and a mail steamer, having many passengers and a valuable specie freight, had to proceed to San Francisco under charge of her first mate.

* * * * * * *

GEO. KELLY.
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]

office for foreign affairs and of the department of justice and public instruction, second section.

The President of the Republic has been pleased to send me the following decree:

Porfirio Diaz, constitutional President of the United Mexican States, to the inhabitants thereof:

You are to understand—

That the Congress of the Union has thought fit to send me the following decree:

The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees:

  • Article 1. Besides the penalties fixed in chapters 20 and 21 of the tariff for the maritime and frontier custom-houses, of 1st January, 1872, smugglers, or those who defraud the fiscal duties, their accomplices and receivers, and such officials as connive with any of the former, will be punished with the corporal penalties hereinafter expressed.
  • Art. 2. For the cases specified in sections I, II, and III of article 86 of the aforesaid tariff, if the owners, conveyors, captains, or any other persons who bring the goods be apprehended, they shall suffer five years’ imprisonment and their names shall be published in the newspapers; if it be proved that any house of commerce established in the republic has been guilty of or favored smuggling after this law shall have come into force, besides the previous penalties applicable according to the cases, the name of that house shall also be published in the newspapers, the firm shall be debarred from all affairs and transactions with the public exchequer, and shall not be admitted into any official or mercantile document by the government offices.
  • Art. 3. In all the other cases specified in articles 86 and 87 of the tariff a corporal punishment shall be imposed of two months to five years’ imprisonment, on the following conditions: If the amount of the defrauded duties shall exceed a hundred dollars but not go beyond a thousand, the penalty of imprisonment from two to six months [Page 497] shall he imposed; if it exceeds a thousand without reaching two thousand, double; if it should exceed two thousand dollars but not reach three thousand, triple; and so on successively, without exceeding the maximum of five years.
  • Art. 4. Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted in the cases included in sections IV, V, and VI of article 86, chapter XX of the aforesaid tariff, when the amount of the duties; does not exceed two hundred dollars.
  • Art. 5. When the statement of the merchandise in the consular documents is made out in an ambiguous manner and without observance of the nomenclature of the items in the custom-house tariff, the penalty of double duties is imposed on the merchandise that is ambiguously declared, and in this case all the packages of the cargo are to be examined.
  • Art. 6. In cases of smuggling or fraud, when the penalty of imprisonment ought to be oris imposed on the perpetrators of such smuggling or fraud, half the punishment shall be awarded to accomplices, and one-fourth part to receivers concerned in these offenses.
  • Art. 7. Officials who are found to have been implicated in the aforesaid offenses shall suffer the punishments specified in the present law and those fixed in the existing custom-house tariff and the other laws applicable to the case, but always on the understanding that the penalty of imprisonment awarded to them can never be less than double the time that is imposed on the principal delinquent or delinquents in the smuggling or fraud.
  • Art. 8. All trials involving corporal punishment shall take place before the tribunals of the federation.
  • Art. 9. In the cases of smuggling or fraud aforesaid when the duties do not exceed a hundred dollars, the punishment shall be by the fines only, imposed in each case by the custom-house tariff of 1st January, 1872.
  • Art. 10. The circular of 9th September, 1877, is annulled. Consequently no more deductions shall be made for the partition of the value of the capture than those of the fiscal dues specified by the table of the said tariff, and the two per cent, mentioned in article 105 thereof.
  • Art. 11. The judges shall give notice to the departments of justice and finance of all actions brought for infractions of the tariff, and send copies of the sentences pronounced, which shall be published and sent to the consuls of the republic abroad to be published in the markets and exchanges of the countries in which they reside.
  • Art. 12. The maritime and frontier custom-house tariff of 1st January, 1872, and all provisions relative thereto, remain in force in all that is not at variance with the present law.

  • GUILLERMO PALOMINO,
    Deputy and President.
  • IGNACIO SANCHEZ,
    Deputy and Secretary.
  • V. L. VILLAREAL,
    Senator and President.
  • J. RIYERA y RIO,
    Senator and Secretary.

Wherefore I direct that this be printed, published, and circulated, and that it be duly fulfilled.

National Palace of Mexico, the 4th of June, 1879.

PORFIRIO DIAZ.

To the Licentiate, Protasio p. Tagle,
Secretary for Foreign Affairs and of the Department of Justice and Public Instruction.

I communicate this for your information and observance.

Freedom in the constitution.

Mexico, June 4, 1879.

PROTASIO P. TAGLE.