broken and the plate bent forward a few inches. This, you will admit, is a very different affair from the box being shattered to pieces. "Engineers will understand how trifling must be the internal pressure of the muzzle-box when informed that its front consists of a plate onehalf inch thick, four feet wide and six feet long, without a single brace or support. "The yielding of some light bolts before the muzzle ring was removed, afforded practical data for estimating exactly the small amount of internal pressure. "I refrain, for obvious reasons, from entering further into detail. I have much satisfaction in assuring you that our success is complete; not a single difficulty remains to be overcome. We handle the four hundred and twenty-pound guns with as little discomfort, and with more facility, than HULL and PERRY handled their forty-pounders. "Yours most respectfully, J. ERICSSON." THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. Messrs. GLASS, ELLIOTT & Co., the Submarine Telegraph cotractors, have written a letter to Mr. CYRUS W. FIELD, of which the following is an extract: "In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state that we are perfectly confident that a good and durable submarine cable can be laid direct from Ireland to New Foundland, and are willing to undertake the contract upon the following conditions: First. That we shall be paid each week our actual disbursements for labor and material. "Second. That when the cable is laid and in working order, we shall receive for our time, service, and profit 20 per cent on the actual cost of the line in shares of the Company, deliverable to us in twelve equal monthly instalments at the end of each successive month whereat the cable shall be found in working order. "We are so confident that this enterprise can be successfully carried out, that we will make a cash subscription for a sum of £25,000 sterling, in the ordinary capital of the Company, and pay the call on the same when made by the Company." Mr. VARLEY, the telegraphic engineer and electrician, writes as follows to Mr. CYRUS W. FIELD: "It gives me much pleasure to be able to inform you that the recent experiments which I have made upon our submarine cables have led to improvements by which I have no doubt that we shall be able to telegraph through an Atlantic cable direct from Ireland to Newfoundland at the rate of certainly 12 or more, probably 16, words per minute, the copper conductor not being less than 5 cwt. to the nautical mile." COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. 1. IMPORTANT DECISION RELATIVE TO STAMPE. 2. REVENUE STAMPS-WHEN MUST BE USED. 3. DECISION IN REFERENCE TO LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES. 4. TAX ON MANUFACTURES or CLOTHING. 5. DIRECTIONS AS TO REMOVAL AND EXPORT OF PETROLEUM. 6. BILLS OF LADING. 7. TAX ON SAND PAPER. 8. TAX ON LEATHER. 9. TAX ON DIARIES. 10. TALLOW NOT SUBJECT TO TAXATION. 11. WHEN ARE MANUFACTURES REMOVED WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE LAW. 12. INTEENAL and COASTWISE COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. IMPORTANT DECISION RELATIVE TO STAMPS. THE PERSON WHO MAKES, SIGNS OR ISSUES AN INSTRUMENT IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS AUTHORIZED TO AFFIX A STAMP. In the last number of the Merchants' Magazine (page 484,) we gave a decision of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to the effect that it will not do for the person receiving a check, &c., to affix and cancel a stamp. Below will be found another decision on the same point, only going further and explaining the question more fully. Treasury Department, Office of Internal Revenue, ) SIR: In answer to yours of the 30th October I reply, thatSection 94 of the Excise law requires "That on and after the first day of October, certain stamp duties shall be collected on all instruments, matters and things, as described in schedule marked B." Section 95 provides, "That if any person or persons shall make, sign or issue, or cause to be made, signed or issued, any instrument, document or paper, of any kind or description whatsoever, without the same being duly stamped for denoting the duty imposed thereon, or without having thereupon an adhesive stamp to denote said duty, such person or persons shall incur a penalty of $50, and such instrument, document or paper, shall be deemed invalid and of no effect." It seems to me perfectly clear that, by the provisions of section 95, the person who makes, signs and issues the instrument, is the only person who is authorized to affix the stamp required by the law; and the person who makes, signs and issues, &c., without affixing the stamp, incurs the penalty as aforesaid, and is liable to prosecution therefor, and the instrument or document is invalid in consequence of such neglect. Section 99 provides, "That the person using or affixing the stamp, shall write thereupon the initials of his name, date, &c. ;" other portions of the law impose penalties upon persons who receive documents or articles subject to stamp duty, from the person who makes, signs and issues them without being duly stamped, &c. I am, therefore, of the opinion, that a faithful compliance with the requirements of the provisions of the excise laws, demands 1st. That all papers subject to stamp tax, shall have the stamp affixed before the same are issued. 2d. That the stamp so affixed must be cancelled in the manner prescribed by the party making, signing or issuing (in other words, executing) the instrument, document or paper. Hence the receiving of an unstamped paper is a violation of the law. The attaching and cancelling of a stamp on a document so received is also unlawful, and the cancellation of a stamp on a paper (otherwise lawfully issued) by other than the party executing the paper to which the stamp is affixed, is equally improper. The only exception that exists in the law to the above ruling, is in the case of a Bill of Exchange or Order for the payment of any sum of money, drawn or purporting to be drawn, in any foreign country, but payable in the United States, in which case the acceptor or acceptors shall, before paying or accepting the same, place thereon a stamp, indicating the duty upon the same, as provided by Section 101 of the Excise Law. Very respectfully yours, GEO. S. BOUTWELL, Commissioner. TO GEO. W. KERR, Esq., Pres. Bank of Newburg, Newburg, New York. It should be stated in this connection that the Commissioner of Inter nal Revenue has decided that parties using revenue stamps may cancel the same by stamping upon them their initials, with the date, instead of writing upon them as heretofore. REVENUE STAMPS-WHEN MUST BE USED. Treasury Department, Office of Internal Revenue, Washington, Nov. 7, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to state that the Government now have increased facilities for supplying internal revenue stamps, and all orders now in this office, of the kinds already engraved, will be filled before the 15th instant. Within a very short time plates for every denomination of the different kind of stamps will be finished, and all orders will be promptly supplied. When this can be done, an order will emanate from this Department, giving notice that after a certain day stamps must be used, or the penalty will be enforced. In the meantime the penalties for their non-use are operative, and will be enforced in all cases where stamps can be promptly furnished by the Government upon application. Very respectfully yours, C. F. ESTEE, Acting Commissioner. To J. D. VERMILYE, Esq., Chairman of Committee of the New York Clearing-House Association, New York. Treasury Department, Office of Internal Revenue, The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is prepared to supply the following stamps in quantities sufficient for the use of the people of the District of Columbia and of the States east of the Rocky Mountains, viz: "Playing cards," "proprietary express," "telegraph," "insurance," "fire and marine," " passage tickets," and "protest." The use of the stamps herein specified is hereby required in the District and States above described, on and after the first day of December next, and persons guilty of willfully neglecting to use said stamps will be subject to the penalty provided in the law. (Signed,) GEORGE S. BUTWELL, Commissioner. DECISION IN REFERENCE TO LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES, ETC. The Commissioner of internal revenue has made the following decisions: All life insurance policies are subject to stamp duty. Where the policy is conditional, that assured is to pay a certain sum annually or at other stated periods. Receipts for such payment are not subject to stamp duty. If the policy has expired by limitation, or by non-fulfilment of the conditions of the assured, the renewal or revival of the policy, in whatever form made, will be subject to stamp tax. Permits or agreements by which the terms of a policy are waived or changed in any respect, are subject to stamp as agreements. INTERNAL MANUFACTURES, &C. The following important decisions were made on the 15th of November, by acting commissioner C. F. ESTEE, Esq. Manufacturers owning more than one mill, must take out a license for each of the mills when they are on separate and distinct premises, and they must take out a separate dealer's license for each shop, office, or store where they sell anything to anybody, or where they offer anything for sale, except in cases where they sell the entire manufactures upon the premises of the manufactory. The three per cent. tax on manufactures must be paid in the district where the factory is situated. The fact that the company owning a fac tory in one district may own other factories in other districts, does not affect the question. The tax must be paid when the goods are sold or removed to other than an agent. A commission house cannot be regarded as an agent. The goods must pay tax upon their value in the market at the time they are sold or removed to other than an agent. Expenses of freight, commission, and sales should be deducted from the gross amount, and the tax should be laid on the net amount of sales when removed and sold from a place other than that where made. The goods which were in process of manufacture on the 1st of September are liable for a tax on their whole value. Gray goods purchased by the printer and on hand September, and previously, and converted into calico after that date, are liable for their whole value under a proviso of the 75th section of the tax law; goods converted into calico on which a tax has been paid, for being so converted shall pay a tax only on the increased value. But goods on hand on or prior to September 1st having paid no tax, cannot be exempted under this proviso, after being converted into calico. Calico printers are liable to be taxed for articles of their manufacture when sold or removed; but I am aware of no provision of the law that renders them liable for articles consumed by them in process of manufacture, except those articles made by themselves. Cigar manufacturers, and manufacturers of any kind of tobacco, must pay tax on any amount they may manufacture. They are excepted, together with producers of liquors, from the $600 limit in the seventyfifth section of the excise law, which prescribes that all manufacturers who may manufacture a less amount than $600 worth of goods per annum, shall not be made to pay three per cent. upon the amount they manufacture. DECISION IN REFERENCE TO MARKET MEN AND OTHER DEALERS. Generally the business of one who keeps a stall in the market is that of a retail dealer. There are exceptions however. The assistant assessor and assessor must judge in each case. If the dealer sells chiefly or entirely to consumers, though he may often sell in the original packages, he should be classed as a retail dealer. If, on the other hand, his sales are generally in the original packages, or if it is his occupation to sell to those who buy to sell again, or if this part of his business is considerable, so much that he depends upon and procures stock with reference to it, be shall be classed as a wholesale dealer, even though he sells at retail. The law contemplates sales at retail by wholesale dealers. A dealer who sells soap, candles, starch, tea, or other articles, by the original package, or salt by the wagon load, &c., &c., to consumers, is not a wholesale dealer under the law, but if he sells to those who sell again, he will be required to have a wholesale dealer's license. A furniture dealer who sells a bureau, sofa, or table to customers for their own use, whether in the package in which he received it or not, is not a wholesale dealer. DECISION IN REGARD TO IRON CASTINGS. First-All castings which are so well known, and so generally used, as to have a commercial value, must be taxed as manufacturers when sold or removed. Second-Other castings made upon special order of a machinest, but which are not known to the trade as manufactures in themselves, are exempt, not being manufacturers in contemplation of the law. Where a person makes castings only, he must pay the tax thereon. If, however, he manufactures castings, and uses them himself in the manufacture of other articles, the tax can be assessed only on the last. The right to levy the tax depends upon the fact of sale, or removal for sale or consumption. TAX ON MANUFACTURES OF CLOTHING. } Treasury Department, Office of Internal Revenue, Į SIR: Yours of the 5th, inclosing a series of questions from manufacturers of clothing, together with opinions of attorneys, is received. In answer to the queries I have the honor to say 1st. Persons who buy clothes and manufacture the same into garments are considered manufacturers within the meaning of the law. 2d. They will be required to pay duty upon the full value of the garments so manufactured. The fact that the manufacturer of the cloth has previously paid the required duty upon the cloth, does not authorize them to claim assessment upon the "increased value" only. The clause of section 75 requiring certain articles to be assessed upon the increased value was not intended to embrace any manufacturers not enumerated therein. In addition to this, the general principle running through the Excise Law is that each particular manufacture shall be taxed for its value, |