Mr. Justice CLIFFORD
delivered the opinion of the court.
Officers of the customs derive their compensation chiefly from certain enumerated fees, commissions, and allowances, to which is added, for the benefit of the collector of the port, a prescribed sum, called salary, which is very much less than the compensation to which the officer is entitled. Provision for such fees, commissions, and allowances, were first made by the act of the thirty-first, of July, 1789, which also allowed to collectors certain proportions of fines, penalties, and forfeitures.
Changes have been made in the rates of.fees, commissions, and allowances for such purposes at different periods to graduate the compensation of such officers to the nature and extent of the services imposed, but the theory and outline of the system have been preserved since the first acts were passed levying import and tonnage duties. Examples of such changes are found in the act of the eighteenth of Feb
ruary, 1793, for enrolling and licensing ships and vessels, and in the act of second of March, 1799, to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, and in the act usually called the Compensation Act, passed on the same day.
Regulations of a permanent character were made by those several acts that certain fees and commissions should be paid to the collectors of the customs, together with a certain proportion of the sums paid to them for fines, penalties, and forfeitures collected from persons found guilty of violating the penal prohibitions of the revenue laws. Such fees, commissions, and allowances it was provided should be paid to the respective collectors, and the requirement was that they should keep au accurate account of the same and of all expenses for rent, fuel, stationery, and clerk-hire, and that they should annually transmit such accounts to the Comptroller of the Treasury, but they were allowed by those laws to retain the whole amount of the emoluments derived from those sources beyond the expeusesof the office, without any limitation whatever. Expenses for rent, fuel, stationery, and clerk-hire were to be deducted from the gross receipts, but they were allowed to retain the whole of the net balance as official emoluments for their services.
Business revived and importations increased, and with such increase the compensation of the collectors, at certain ports became excessive, which called for new legislation; and by the act of thirtieth of April, 1802, Congress prescribed a maximum rate of compensation without making any reduction of the fees or commissions required to be paid to the collectors, but the provisions of the act did not extend to fines, penalties, and forfeitures.
By that act it was provided that whenever the annual emoluments of any collector, after deducting the expenses incident to the office, amount to more than five thousand dollars, the surplus shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury.
Twenty years’ experience under that act showed that it needed revision, as it applied without any discrimination whatever as well to the large ports where the principal importations were made as to those of comparatively little importance. Collection districts were accordingly divided by the act of the seventh May, 1822, into two classes, usually denominated the enumerated and the non-enumerated ports.
Under the provisions of that act the emoluments of collectors of the enumerated ports might reach the sum of four thousand dollars, but the ninth section of the act provided that whenever the emoluments of the office shall exceed that sum, in any one year, the collector, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to his office, shall pay the excess into the treasury for the use of the United States. But the maximum rate of compensation allowed to collectors of the non-enumerated ports under the provisions of that act, from all the sources of emolument therein recognized and prescribed, is three thousand dollars, and the tenth section of the act contains a provision similar to that found in the ninth section, requiring the collector of the non-enumerated ports to account for, and pay the excess, beyond the amount allowed as the maximum rate of compensation, into the public treasury,
Collectors under those provisions may receive the maximum rate of their offices if the office, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to the same, produces that amount from all the sources of emolument recognized and prescribed by the laws in operation. No one can receive more than the maximum rate and his lawful claim may be much less, according to the amount of business transacted in the office.
From that time until the passage of the act of the third of March, 1841, the laws providing for compensation of collectors remained without material change. Every such
office!’ is required by the fifth section of that act to include in his quarter-yearly account, among other things, all sums received by him fo.r rent and storage of goods, wares, and merchandise stored in the public storehouses for which a rent is collected beyond what is paid for the same by such officer. Moneys received from that source, it is contended, may be retained by a collector of a non-enumerated port sufficient to make his annual compensation six thousand dollars, the claim being that the maximum limit prescribed to the non-enumerated ports is repealed by the subsequent legislation, but this court held otherwise and decided that the collector under that act could in no case retain more than two thousand dollars, and that he was bound to pay the excess beyond that amount, into the treasury as part and parcel of the public money.
Consequently the conclusion was that the compensation of a collector of one of the
enumerated
ports may be six thousand dollars, but the compensation allowed to the collector of one of the non-enu'merated ports cannot exceed five thousand dollars, according to the amount of fees and commissions collected and the amount received from rent and storage. Officers of the kind may receive the maximum rate of their office allowed by the prior law from the sources of emolument recognized and prescribed by that act, provided the office, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to the same, yields that amount from those sources; and in addition thereto he is entitled to whatever sum or sums lie may receive from rent and storage, provided the amount' does not exceed two thousand dollars, but the excess beyond that sum and the excess, if any, beyond the maximum rate of his office as fixed under the prior law, he is required to pay into the treasury as part and parcel of the public money.
Attempt was subsequently made by the United States to limit the operations of the Storage Act, as a source of compensation to collectors, to such storage
only
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Mr. Justice CLIFFORD
delivered the opinion of the court.
Officers of the customs derive their compensation chiefly from certain enumerated fees, commissions, and allowances, to which is added, for the benefit of the collector of the port, a prescribed sum, called salary, which is very much less than the compensation to which the officer is entitled. Provision for such fees, commissions, and allowances, were first made by the act of the thirty-first, of July, 1789, which also allowed to collectors certain proportions of fines, penalties, and forfeitures.
Changes have been made in the rates of.fees, commissions, and allowances for such purposes at different periods to graduate the compensation of such officers to the nature and extent of the services imposed, but the theory and outline of the system have been preserved since the first acts were passed levying import and tonnage duties. Examples of such changes are found in the act of the eighteenth of Feb
ruary, 1793, for enrolling and licensing ships and vessels, and in the act of second of March, 1799, to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, and in the act usually called the Compensation Act, passed on the same day.
Regulations of a permanent character were made by those several acts that certain fees and commissions should be paid to the collectors of the customs, together with a certain proportion of the sums paid to them for fines, penalties, and forfeitures collected from persons found guilty of violating the penal prohibitions of the revenue laws. Such fees, commissions, and allowances it was provided should be paid to the respective collectors, and the requirement was that they should keep au accurate account of the same and of all expenses for rent, fuel, stationery, and clerk-hire, and that they should annually transmit such accounts to the Comptroller of the Treasury, but they were allowed by those laws to retain the whole amount of the emoluments derived from those sources beyond the expeusesof the office, without any limitation whatever. Expenses for rent, fuel, stationery, and clerk-hire were to be deducted from the gross receipts, but they were allowed to retain the whole of the net balance as official emoluments for their services.
Business revived and importations increased, and with such increase the compensation of the collectors, at certain ports became excessive, which called for new legislation; and by the act of thirtieth of April, 1802, Congress prescribed a maximum rate of compensation without making any reduction of the fees or commissions required to be paid to the collectors, but the provisions of the act did not extend to fines, penalties, and forfeitures.
By that act it was provided that whenever the annual emoluments of any collector, after deducting the expenses incident to the office, amount to more than five thousand dollars, the surplus shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury.
Twenty years’ experience under that act showed that it needed revision, as it applied without any discrimination whatever as well to the large ports where the principal importations were made as to those of comparatively little importance. Collection districts were accordingly divided by the act of the seventh May, 1822, into two classes, usually denominated the enumerated and the non-enumerated ports.
Under the provisions of that act the emoluments of collectors of the enumerated ports might reach the sum of four thousand dollars, but the ninth section of the act provided that whenever the emoluments of the office shall exceed that sum, in any one year, the collector, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to his office, shall pay the excess into the treasury for the use of the United States. But the maximum rate of compensation allowed to collectors of the non-enumerated ports under the provisions of that act, from all the sources of emolument therein recognized and prescribed, is three thousand dollars, and the tenth section of the act contains a provision similar to that found in the ninth section, requiring the collector of the non-enumerated ports to account for, and pay the excess, beyond the amount allowed as the maximum rate of compensation, into the public treasury,
Collectors under those provisions may receive the maximum rate of their offices if the office, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to the same, produces that amount from all the sources of emolument recognized and prescribed by the laws in operation. No one can receive more than the maximum rate and his lawful claim may be much less, according to the amount of business transacted in the office.
From that time until the passage of the act of the third of March, 1841, the laws providing for compensation of collectors remained without material change. Every such
office!’ is required by the fifth section of that act to include in his quarter-yearly account, among other things, all sums received by him fo.r rent and storage of goods, wares, and merchandise stored in the public storehouses for which a rent is collected beyond what is paid for the same by such officer. Moneys received from that source, it is contended, may be retained by a collector of a non-enumerated port sufficient to make his annual compensation six thousand dollars, the claim being that the maximum limit prescribed to the non-enumerated ports is repealed by the subsequent legislation, but this court held otherwise and decided that the collector under that act could in no case retain more than two thousand dollars, and that he was bound to pay the excess beyond that amount, into the treasury as part and parcel of the public money.
Consequently the conclusion was that the compensation of a collector of one of the
enumerated
ports may be six thousand dollars, but the compensation allowed to the collector of one of the non-enu'merated ports cannot exceed five thousand dollars, according to the amount of fees and commissions collected and the amount received from rent and storage. Officers of the kind may receive the maximum rate of their office allowed by the prior law from the sources of emolument recognized and prescribed by that act, provided the office, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to the same, yields that amount from those sources; and in addition thereto he is entitled to whatever sum or sums lie may receive from rent and storage, provided the amount' does not exceed two thousand dollars, but the excess beyond that sum and the excess, if any, beyond the maximum rate of his office as fixed under the prior law, he is required to pay into the treasury as part and parcel of the public money.
Attempt was subsequently made by the United States to limit the operations of the Storage Act, as a source of compensation to collectors, to such storage
only
as is received
for stores
leased
by the Treasury Department, for which rents are paid by the importers of goods beyond the rent paid on behalf of the United States, but the court refused to adopt that narrow construction, and held that all sums received for storage, whether the goods imported were deposited in the public stores or the “other stores” named in the acts of Congress, are required to be included in the quarter-yearly account of the collector, which he is directed to. render to the Secretary of the Treasury, and that the yearly aggregate of such sums constitute the basis of computation in ascertaining what amount, if anything, the collector is entitled to receive as compensation from that source of emolument, and what amount, if anjdhing, he is required to pay over from that source, as excess beyond the two thousand dollai’s, into the public treasury.
None of these propositions are controverted by the defendant, nor does he contend that any of those provisions have been superseded by any express repeal, but he insists that surveyors performing the duties of collectors, under the fifth section of the act of the second of March, 1831, are entitled to the same compensation as the collectors of the
enumerated
ports.
Merchandise imported from a foreign port and consigned to merchants at St. Louis was required, if the importation was subject to custom duties, to be entered at the customhouse in New Orleans in the same manner as required in case of the entry of goods imported for consumption, and the officers of the customs at that port are required to proceed to assess the custom duties in the same way as if the merchandise had been destined for sale or consumption in that market.
Payment of the duties, however, is not required to be made at that port, but the importer is required to give a bond, called a transportation bond, conditioned that the packages described in the invoice shall, within a specified
time, be delivered to the surveyor aud acting collector of the port of St. Louis. Due notice of the proceedings is then given by the collector of the port where the duties were ascertained and assessed to the acting collector of the port to which the merchandise is destined. Such proceediugs being had, the vessel may proceed on her voyage, and when she arrives at the port of destination the packages are placed in the custody of the acting collector of that port, who receives the duties, giving notice of that fact to the collector of the port where they were ascertained and assessed, and the collector of the latter port is authorized to cancel the transportation bond given by the importer.
Compensation was claimed by the defendant at the rate of six thousand dollars per annum, and it is admitted that he retained that amount of the moneys collected by him in pursuance of that claim, two thousand-dollars of which accrued from rent and storage, and the other four thousand dollars accrued from fees, commissions, and allowances recognized and prescribed by the prior Compensation Act.
Four thousand dollars may be received as compensation under that act by the collector of each of the seven ports named in the ninth section of that act, and the provisions of a more recent act give the same compensation to the collector of the port of Portland, Maine, but the tenth section of the said Compensation Act provides that whenever the emoluments of any other collector of the customs shall exceed three thousand dollars, after deducting therefrom the necessary expenses incident to his office, in the same year, the excess shall in every such case be paid into the treasury for the use of the United States.
St. Louis is not one of the enumerated ports, but the defendant insists that the act of the second of March, 1831, which devolved upon the surveyor of that port the duties of collector, designated a third class of ports, and that the
maximum compensation of such a collector is six thousand dollars. Nothing is contained in the act to support any such theory or to afford the slightest evidence that Congress intended anything of the kind. Instead of that the act provides that the surveyor charged with such duties shall receive, in addition to his customary fees, au annual salary of three hundred and fifty dollars, which is utterly inconsistent with the theory that he is entitled by virtue of that act to the same compensation as the collector of one of the enumerated ports.
Confirmation of that view is also derived from the further provision of the same section, that no salary arising under the act shall commence until the act shall take effect and merchandise shall be imported under its authority. Prior to that time the customary fees of the surveyor of that port accruing under the Compensation Act of the seventh of May, 1822, could not exceed two thousand dollars, and it is not pretended that he could retain to his own use more thau two thousand dollars from rent aud storage.
Apply those suggestions to the case before the court and it is clear that the compensation of the defendant., if regarded merely as a surveyor, could not exceed four thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, even if it be admitted that the sum called salary is an addition to the four thousand dollars to be derived from the other sources of emolument and not merely an addition to the basis of calculation in computing the maximum to be derived from fees, commissions, and allowances, as provided in the tenth section of the Compensation Act.
Small sums called salary have always been allowed to collectors and to the surveyors of certain ports, but such allowances have uniformly been included in the basis of calculation as part of the receipts from fees, commissions, and allowances in computing the maximum compensation of the officers interested. Surveyors of ports, where the officer is charged with the duties of collectors, now stand upon a different footing, as the act of the third of March, 1857, provides that such surveyors shall be entitled to the
same compensation as is allowed to collectors for like services, in the settlement of their accounts.
Grant that and still it is contended by the defendant that the maximum compensation of all collectors, except those of the enumerated ports, as provided in the tenth section of the Compensation Act, is repealed by the act requiring collectors to include all sums received for rent and storage in their quarter-yearly accounts. Much discussion of that topic, however, is unnecessary, as the question has been twice determined adversely to the defendant by the unanimous decisions of this court.
Such a collector cannot receive, under any circumstances, more than five thousand dollars, not even if the office earns a greater amount, and he may be obliged to accept much less in case the office does not earn three thousand dollars net from fees, commissions, and allowances, or in case the amount received from rent and storage falls short of two thousand dollars.
Effort is also made in argument to derive support to the proposition that the limitation contained in the tenth section of the Compensation Act is repealed, from the act which provides that the compensation of such a surveyor shall be the same as is allowed to collectors for like services, but it will be sufficient to say in response to that .suggestion that the court is of the opinion that the proposition.is destitute of any foundation whatever.
Suppose that is so, still it is insisted by the defendant that the act of the eighth of June, 1872, entitles him, as the administrator of the intestate, to retain to the use of the estate of the decedent a rate of compensation equal to six thousand dollars per annum, but the court is entirely of a different opinion.
Stripped of certain redundant words, the body of the act is exactly the same as section eighth in the prior aet.
Both
acts provide that such a surveyor “ shall be entitled to the same compensation as is allowed to collectors for like services,” and neither contains a word which is repugnant to the tenth section of the Compensation Act.
Nor is the proviso in the latter act inconsistent with the prior limitation, as the maximum allowance to such a collector is three thousand dollars from fees and commissions and two thousand dollars from rent and storage.
Judgment affirmed.
* 3 Stat. at Large, 695.