Samuel Blatchford

“ The question of the right of Maryland, under the constitution of the United States, to require that the dimensions and gross weight of a hogshead containing tobacco grown upon its soil shall be ascertained by its officers before the tobacco shall be exported, is a question of law, because the question is as to whether such law is an inspection law. ”

“ The things required to be done in respect to the hogshead of tobacco in the present case, aside from any inspection of quality, are to be done to prepare and fit the hogshead, as a unit, containing the tobacco, for exportation, and for becoming an article of foreign commerce or commerce among the states, and are to be done before it becomes such an article. ”

“ On the same day, Turner, by petition to said criminal court, setting forth that he had been adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and by the judgment of said court ordered to pay the sum of $300 to said state, prayed an appeal to the court of appeals of Maryland, assigning errors in the record. That court affirmed the judgment, and Turner has brought the case into this court by a writ of error, alleging that the statutes of Maryland on which the indictment was founded, and the validity of which was sustained by the state court, are repugnant to the constitution of the United States. ”

“ Quality alone may be the subject of inspection, without other requirement, or the inspection may be made to extend to all of the above matters. When all are prescribed, and then inspection as to quality is dropped out, leaving the rest in force, it cannot be said to be a necessary legal conclusion that the law has ceased to be an inspection law. ”

“ By section 11, every inspector shall have uncased and break every hogshead of tobacco delivered for inspection, in so many places for Maryland and Ohio, and in so many places for Kentucky and Virginia, and, if the tobacco is sound, take a sample, and mark the hogshead with its number, the year of inspection, and the initials of the owner on each head and on the bilge, and the tare and net weight on the bilge. ”

“ By section 5 each tobacco inspector is required to employ such clerks and laborers, and provide and keep on hand such books, implements, and materials, as may be necessary for the economical and effective discharge of his duties as such inspector, and the salaries of the various clerks and laborers are prescribed, to be paid from the receipts in the respective offices, with the requirement that the inspectors shall at no time employ more labor than shall be necessary for the effective performance of the work to be done. ”

“ By chapter 346 of the Laws of Maryland of 1864, a new tobacco inspection law was enacted, as part of the Code of Public Local Laws, in place of and expressly repealing certain portions of said Code. It provides (section 1) for the appointment of five tobacco inspectors, one for each state tobacco warehouse in the city of Baltimore. ”

“ The court said that, in making pilotage regulations, the legislative discretion had been constantly exercised, in this and other countries, in making discriminations, founded on differences both in the character of the trade and in the tonnage of vessels engaged therein. ”

“ It is provided by section 12 that each inspector shall cause all the tobacco in the warehouse to which he may have been appointed to be inspected as speedily as practicable, in regular order, as numbered ”