President, Hon. JOHN BIGELOW.

First Vice-President, Rt. Rev. HENRY C. POTTER, D. D.

Second Vice-President, JOHN S. KENNEDY, Esq.

Secretary, GEORGE L. RIVES, Esq., 32 Nassau Street.

Treasurer, EDWARD KING, Esq., Union Trust Company, So Broadway.
Director, JOHN S. BILLINGS, LL.D., 40 Lafayette Place.

THE

REGULATIONS

HE Astor Building, 40 Lafayette Place, and the Lenox Building, Fifth Avenue and 70th Street, are open daily, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, from 9 A. M. until 6 P. M.

The Reading rooms and the Exhibition rooms are free to all persons; but children under the age of fifteen years must be accompanied by an adult.

In the Reading room of each Library Building certain shelves are set apart for books of reference, which readers are allowed to take down and examine at their pleasure. For all other books an application must be made by filling out and

signing one of the blanks provided for the purpose.

Published monthly by The New York Public Library, No. 40 Lafayette Place, New York City

Subscription One Dollar a year, single numbers Ten Cents

Entered as second-class matter at the New York, N. Y., Post Office, January 30, 1897

During the month of May there were received at the Library by purchase 3,554 books and 578 pamphlets, and by gift 1,446 books and 5,261 pamphlets.

There were catalogued 4,827 books and 5,397 pamphlets, for which purpose 24,349 cards and 1,425 slips for the printer were written.

The following table shows the number of readers and the number of volumes consulted in both the Astor and Lenox branches of the Library during the month:

Among the important gifts received this month were 21 volumes and 18 pamphlets from S. P. Avery; J. Abrahams, 1 old volume; Kansas State Library, 63 volumes; United States Superintendent of Documents, 1,000 pamphlets; Robert P. Porter, 294 volumes and 124 pamphlets; Secretary of State of Nevada, 27 volumes; Massachusetts State Library, 45 volumes; Library of Congress, 51 volumes and pamphlet; National Library at Rio de Janeiro, 18 volumes and 23 pamphlets, together with a large number of documents from British Colonies, the chief of which are, from different departments of the Queensland Government, 15 volumes and 30 pamphlets; the Cape of Good Hope, 18 volumes and 61 pamphlets; the South Australia Observatory at Adelaide, 11 volumes; and from St. Lucia, 2 volumes and 87 pamphlets.

The works relating to music have been transferred from the Astor building to the Lenox building, and together with the Drexel Musical Library have been arranged in the north reading room.

RECORDS OF THE CONFEDERATE ATTORNEYS-GENERAL.

SIR,

(From the original manuscript volume in the New York Public Library.*)

MONTGOMERY 1st April 1861.

I understand your letter of 30th ulto to propound for opinion the question whether under the act of congress to exempt from duty certain commodities, lemons, oranges, and walnuts are free.

The clause of the act which must control the decision of this question, exempts from duty certain enumerated articles, including "wheat and flour of wheat and flour of all other grains: Indian corn and meal, barley and barley flour: rye, and rye flour: oats, and oatmeal: living animals of all kinds: also all agricultural products in their natural state."

I confess to some embarrassment in arriving at a conclusion in all respects satisfactory. The language of the statute is so broad as to suggest doubts whether congress could have meant it to be as extensive in its application as its terms import; but it contains no words of limitation or distinction. It was doubtless passed in great haste in the urgent pressure of public business. This is shewn by the fact that it exempts from duty "living animals of all kinds" as though they had been previously chargeable, whereas they are expressly included in the free list of the tariff of 1857, already adopted by the congress.

What is the meaning of the clause "also all agricultural products in their natural state"?

Certain agricultural products had been previously specified, to wit, barley, corn, oats, rye and wheat, all of which were subject to duty prior to the passage of the act. The Legislator was plainly impressed with the conviction, that certain agricultural products had been omitted in the list or specifications. He desired to include them. The necessity for so doing is apparent, as many articles are to be found included in the tariff of 1857 which clearly belong to the same class of products as those specified. For instance, both rice and flax seed are omitted in the list, and it is presumed that no one can doubt these to be "agricultural products in their natural state."

An agricultural product" is something produced by cultivating the earth. Etymology and the common meaning of the words as used both in the popular and commercial sense justify this definition, and I cannot perceive by what principle of construction this plain interpretation is to be escaped, simply because the result will injuriously affect the revenue to an extent greater than Congress is supposed to have intended.

The earth is cultivated for the production not only of grains, but of vegetables and fruits. Those articles that are produced spontaneously, without the labor of *For an account of the volume see the Bulletin, vol. 1, p. 341 (November, 1897).