Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/729

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CNIIBD STATES Wi BANOHB. 717 �States," as used in the preceding member of the same sen- tence ; that this wholo section was originally a part of a revenue law, aiid bas been held to be still a crime against the revenue laws, although displaced by the Revision and put under the title "Crimes;" that as originally enacted the phrase "to commit any offence against the lawa of the United States," bas here been significantly changed ; and that all the cases cited in the marginal notes to the second edition of the Ee- vieed Statutes are cases of the character designated in this objection to the indictment. ' �It is to be observed that the aCt of March 2, 1867, c, 169, is entitled "An act to amend existing laws relatingto inter- nai revenue, and for other pv/rposes." The other purposes 8eem to be iniportant ameiidments to fhe criminal laws of the United States in no way especially Oonnected with the revenue lawe, that I call see, except that they aremade by a single section iti'this act, all the other sections of'wfaich do indeed pertain io the revenuie.' This ineongruity is not aJlom- alous in our' legiolation, where moet important subjects are disposed of in appropriation and other bills not at all ger- inane to those subjeotfeV That this section is of that ohar- aeter is plkinly shown by another branch of it that miakes an offence begun in one district and completed in another, triable in either. Act March 2, 1867, c. 169, § 30; 14 St.^ 484; Id. 471. These provisions are undoubtedly usefal in the administratioti of the revenue laws, but they are likewise necessary in any other branch of our criminal jurisprudence ; and the mere fact that they are found in a revenue law under a title like this, with the legislative habit that I have men- tioned, fumishes but slight, if any, indication of an inten- tion to limit their operation, as suggested by the argument we are considering. I think this section 30 of the act of 1867 finds its proper place in the Revised Statutes, where it bas been separated and oodified at sections 731 and 5440, and that it was intended originally to incorporate into our laws a statuts found in England and many of the states, and -which bas its root in the common law itself. Its object la ��� �