Henry Billings Brown

“ Some allowance must be made for the magnitude of business done at a large port and the hurry and confusion necessaril, incident to its transaction as well as for the proneness of commercial men to look at the substance of thing, rather tha at the form in which their ideas are expressed. ”

“ We think there can be but one answer to this, and we hold the objection was not well taken.
3. The objections to the admission of Exhibits 1 and 2 are also untenable. These protests were in the following form: 'New York, July 25, (27,) 1857. Augustus Schell, Esq., Collector of the Port of New York-Sir: We hereby protest against the payment of a duty of 24 per cent., charged by you on worsted stuff goods, claiming that under existing laws said goods are only liable to a duty of 19 per cent. as a manufacture of worsted. ”

“ These, however, are claimed by the plaintiffs to be covered by the concluding clause of the double protest No. 6, which is in the following words: 'You are hereby notified that we desire and intend this protest to apply to all future similar importations made by us.' The same clause is found in the protest accompanying entries Nos. 11 and 13, but in none others. Exhibit No. 14 is a specific protest attached to the entry. As no claim was made that any specific protest, however served, had nay prospective effect, it follows that the claim for a repayment of duties on the 24 exhibits after No. ”