Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Hamlin.

Sir: With reference to previous instructions sent you on the subject of the collection by Spanish consuls residing within the territory of the United States of certain fees on the bulk of cargoes of goods and wares shipped from this country to Spanish ports, I herewith transmit, for your further information and for action similar to that which you shall have taken in like [Page 468] cargo shipped from this port, per American schooner Ida A. Payne, to Mayaguez, Porto Rico. I have had served upon the Spanish consul my protest, and ordered a copy to be forwarded to your good self.

I may state here that an analogous case would be the instruction from the Department of State of these United States to their consuls at Cuba and Porto Rico “to impose and collect a tax of ten cents for every 2,000 pounds of sugar, or other products, including the packages in which packed, exported from those islands and shipped to and cleared for a port in these United States.”

I am, &c.,

HENRY BESTE.
[Appendix to inclosure 1.]

To whom it may concern:

I hereby protest against the payment of an impost exacted by the Spanish consul at New York on the cargo consisting of goods, the product of these United States of America, shipped by me on board the British brig Zebenia, J. E. Merriam, master, bound for Arroyo, Puerto Rico, of ten cents for each and every 1,000 kilograms weight of said cargo, amounting to $21, and paid under compulsion on the ground that no foreign consul has the right to levy and collect a tax on goods shipped from the United States of America to the country or a colony under the government he represents, and being also liable to loss from peril of the seas before arrival at their destination.

HENRY BESTE.
[seal.]

Done and protested at the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, this 14th day of April, A. D. 1882, before me.

In testimony whereof as well the said Henry Beste as I, Edwin F. Corey, a notary public in and for the State of New York, by letters patent under the great seal of State, duly commissioned and sworn, have hereunto subscribed these presents, and I have caused my official seal to be hereunto affixed.

[seal.]
EDWIN F. COREY,
Notary Public.

State of New York,
City and County of New York, ss:

I, Edwin F. Corey, a public notary, duly commissioned and sworn, do certify the foregoing to be a true and exact copy of an original protest on record in my office.


[seal.]
EDWIN F. COREY,
Notary Public, 54 Wall Street, New York.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 56]

Mr. Beste to Mr. Hunter.

Sir: I beg to inform the honorable Department that I have been compelled to pay to the vice-consul of Spain at Machias, Me., a Mr. I. Sargent, a fee or, better said, an “impost” of ten cents for every kilo (about 2 pounds) on the weight of a cargo white pine lumber bought and shipped for my account, on board the American (United States) schooner Helen I. Holway, ———— Thompson, master, at Machias, Me., and bound for Arroyo, Puerto Rico, a Spanish colony, an act which I consider not only unjust, but also against international laws, for reason that a consul holding an exequatur from his government cannot levy and collect a tax on goods of American production and growth, and shipped in American bottoms from this country, before they have been landed in a Spanish port, on the road to which they may perish.

Furthermore, the consul is exempt from taxation, although his office is made one of “gain and profit” to his government.

If authorized by his government, it becomes more irksome, this impost, in the face of the great consideration granted by the authorities of these United States in allowing goods being shipped and laden on board of vessels under the Spanish flag without imposing the differential duty, enjoyed in the home country, formerly collected here, and which law, I have been given to understand, has not been repealed.

I remain, &c.,

HENRY BESTE.