Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1881-01-28
I]uortG oboffa Glmes
PORT TOBACCO:
Friday Morning, January 2Sst 1881
Compulsory Inspection Sustained.


The Court of Appeals on Friday last
rendered decision in the Tobacco In
spectien Test Case, in which Mr.. Henry
A. Turner, of this county, is defendant.
The facts out of which the case arose are
already entirely familiar to our readers.
The Indictment was in two counts. The
first count charges that the appellant, a
grower of tobacco, packed and shipped
hsgshead of tobacco to Bremen, Germany,
without having the hogshead inspected
and passed according to the laws Of thii
State. The second count charges that he
did not pay the outage due the State. To
this indictment the appellant filed de-
murrer, and the question of this appeal is
whether the facts thus set forth constitute
an indictabls offence. This question de-
ponds first upon the construction Of the
several statutes Of this State regulating
the inspection of tobacco, and second
upon the construction of the clause in the
constitution Of the United States which
provides that mo State shall, without the
consent of Congress, lay any imposts, or
duties on imports, or duties, except what
may be absolutely necessary for executing
its inspection laws" TART. 1, sec. 10, sub
sec. q By the code Of 1860 tho tobacco
inspection laws Of this State were codifed
under title getty of Baltimore" sub title
Tobacco" These were repealed by Act
Of 1854, chap 346, and other sections were
inserted. This Act provides for the man
ner of inspection, and complete provides
were made for the inspection OF each hogs
head by sampling. 1t was provided that
every hogshead should be liable to pre-
scribed charge for outage in proportion to
its weight, and the 41st section declared
that it should not be lawful to carry out
Of this State in hogsheads any tobacco
raised in this State except in hogsheads
which shall have been inspected, passed
and marked agreeably to the provisions
Of this Act By the Act Of 1870, chapter
291, the grower or purchaser of tobacco
was required to put his name on the hogs,
heads of tobacco, but was required to pay
outage, under the penalty imposed 3, sec.
Il, of the Act of 1854 The Act Of 1870,
says the Court, in thus permitting the
grower or purchaser Of tobacco, packed
in the county Or neighborhood, to export
the same without having the hogshead
opened for inspection, does not dispense
with any other requirement Of the Act OF
1864, in regard to inspection. 1t must be
weighed. marked and passed by the in
spectors. The penal clause of the Act of
1854, amended BY the Act of 1870, which
made it unlawful to carry out of the State
in hogsheads tobacco raised in this State,
except in according to the provisions Of
the Act, is omitted in the Act Of 1872, and
the appellant insists that this Act was in
tended for . substitute for all prior Acts
On the subject, and that there is now no
law in force in this State BY which the in
spection II tobacco is made compulsory /;
Justified by the facts. After all the money
the State has expended in the ir.pection
of tobacco and construction of warehouses
in Baltimore, if it had intended to annul
the system Of inspection it would never
have left the fact to implication and con-
struction, and it was the duty of the ap-
pellant to have delivered the hogshead Of
tobacco in question to the State inspect
ors, for them to ascertain its weights, size
of hsgsheads, and for them to mark ~ the
statute directed. In considering the SEC
end question the Court says that the out
age tax to pay the State for the expense
of inspection is not tax on exports, and
it afirms the judgement of the Court be-
low in fning the appellant for violating
the inspection laws of the State.