rain until its arrival in Canada, where
only the amount and grade are noted by a Treasury agent, and a like
amount in grade and quantity (though it may be not the identical grain)
is by such agent billed and sealed in cars for carriage to the United
States. I do not find any statute authorizing this practice. Section
3006, which authorizes this interstate trade through Canada, is limited
to merchandise passing from "port" to "port" of the United States, and
plainly means that such merchandise shall be taken up by our revenue
officers at a "port" of the United States as a starting point.

The following are the conclusions at which I have arrived:

First. That Article XXIX of the treaty of Washington has been abrogated.

Second. That even if this article were in force there is no law in force
to execute it.

Third. That when in force the treaty imposed no obligation upon the
United States to use the concessions as to transit made by Canada, and
no limitation upon the powers of the United States in dealing with
merchandise imported for the use of our citizens through Canadian ports
or passing from one place in the United States to another through
Canada, upon the arrival of such merchandise at our border.

Fourth. That therefore, treaty or no treaty, the question of sealing
cars containing such merchandise and the treatment of such sealed cars
when they cross our border is and always has been one to be settled by
our laws, according to our convenience and our interests as we may see
them.

Fifth. That the law authorizing the sealing of cars in Canada containing
foreign merchandise imported from a contiguous country does not apply to
merchandise imported by our own people from countries not contiguous and
carried through Canada for delivery to such owners.

Sixth. That the law did not contemplate the passing of sealed cars to
any place not a "port," nor the delivery of such cars to the owner or
consignee, to be opened by him without the supervision of a revenue
officer.

Seventh. That such a practice is inconsistent with the safety of the
revenue.

The statutes relating to the transportation of merchandise between
the United States and the British possessions should be the subject
of revision. The Treasury regulations have given to these laws a
construction and a scope that I do not think was contemplated by
Congress. A policy adapted to the new conditions, growing in part out of
the construction of the Canadian