1825. 1. That the cask should contain distilled spirits. 2. That it should be one which the law requires 60 Pipes of Brandy. should be marked and accompanied with a certificate, that is, one that has been used for foreign spirits. 3. That it should be found in the possession of some person unaccompanied with the legal mark and certificates. When these three facts concur, the property is presumed subject to forfeiture; and it follows, that unless all the constituents unite in the given case, it must be a case of innocence. But the whole argument of the libellant goes to impose a fourth circumstance as essential to the imputation of innocence, and the absence of which, of consequence, must exist in order to repel the imputation of crime; which is, that the distilled spirits in the cask should be the identical spirits imported in the cask; and this, not from any necessary construction of the language of the act, but as a deduction from the supposed policy of the act. We are induced to adopt the opinion, that even if it were consistent with the rules of construction to give a latitude to the meaning of language used in a statute so highly penal, the language of this act is so far from sanctioning the construction here contended for, that it actually repels it; for, it is observable, that when the act goes on to declare what it shall be incumbent on the defendant to establish, in order to escape the penalty of the law, the identity of the spirits found in the cask, with that originally imported, is not required to be proved. It is only required, that he should prove the spirits seized to have 60 Pipes of been legally imported, and the duties paid, and 1825. whether in those casks, or any other casks, is altogether immaterial to his defence. Gin and Brandy. brandy may interchange receptacles, and travel together in perfect security, provided they have been respectively legally imported, and the original certificates attend the casks to which they were originally attached. From this, we think it conclusively results, that the government had nothing in view but the security of its own revenue, without interfering with those devices of the mercantile world which look only to individual profit without defrauding the government; and hence, that the spirit and policy of the 43d section would carry us no further than its express letter. But there are other views of this subject which raise other questions in adjudicating on this cause. And, first, it is very obvious, that if the change of the contents of the cask could invalidate the immunities of the certificate in other cases, it could not in the case where domestic spirits have been substituted for that imported. If the evidence establishes any adulteration in this case, it proves it to have been made by the addition of American spirits to the imported brandy. But when the act imposes upon the claimant the necessity of proving "that the spirits found in the casks were imported into the United States according to law, and the duties thereon paid or secured," it could not have intended to impose an actual impossibility, by requiring such proof as to spirits which, ex vi ter 1825. mini, were not imported. Much less could it have intended to leave open a chance of defence, 60 Pipes of Brandy. where the substitution was of foreign liquors, upon which it might, by possibility, have been defrauded, and preclude all defence as to domestic spirits, a trade in which, coastwise or in any wise, was perfectly harmless, and could not have produced a fraud upon the revenue. But, although the libellant may have failed on his second count, he is entitled to all the benefit which the law allows him under his first and third. And here the case rests upon the general provisions of the 50th, 70th, 71st, and some other sections of the Revenue Law, under which the Collector was certainly justifiable in making any seizure, where he had reasonable ground to suspect that a fraud upon the revenue, or a violation of the revenue laws, was meditated. And upon showing probable cause for such seizure, the onus probandi is thrown upon the claimant. Whatever was the fact, the certificates of the numerous individuals who examined this brandy, and testified to its equivocal nature, were sufficient to attract the Collector's attention, and justify his instituting an inquiry to determine whether this brandy, notwithstanding the certificates, had actually paid the duty. The brandy which had paid the duty, might, by possibility, have been drawn off, and other brandy substituted that had evaded the duty. It would be too much, also, to hold him to a correct construction of laws, which have excited doubts and elicited contrary opinions in Courts of justice. The claimant, there 60 Pipes of Brandy. fore, upon the general provisions of the Collec- 1825. tion Law, was properly called upon to furnish an explanation of circumstances calculated to excite reasonable suspicion. After comparing the mass of testimony which the case affords, we are led to the conclusion, that the claimant has successfully repelled the charge of illicit importation. If, as before observed, the brandy was not the identical brandy imported in these casks in which it was seized, still all the evidence goes to prove that it was in part the same, and in part consisted of neutral spirits, which spirits two of the witnesses call American. Illegal importation, therefore, is out of the case. And the views which we have taken of the subject render it unnecessary to examine the question, whether the evidence establishes the fact of adulteration or not. Deeree of condemnation reversed, with a certificate of probable cause. 1825. The Thomas March 18th. [CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. JURISDICTION.] The STEAM-BOAT THOMAS JEFFERSON. JOHNSON and others, Claimants. The District Court has not jurisdiction of a suit for wages earned on But the jurisdiction exists, although the commencement or termina- However this may be, the act of 1790, c. 29. for the government and regulation of seamen in the merchant service, confines the remedy in the District Courts to such cases as ordinarily belong to the admiralty jurisdiction. APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Kentucky. Mr. Justice STORY delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit brought in the District Court of Kentucky for subtraction of wages. The libel claims wages earned on a voyage from Shippingport, in that State, up the river Missouri, and back again to the port of departure; and the question is, whether this case, as stated in the |