vision shall not apply to decisions of the court pronounced at the last term thereof, but that said decisions shall be printed and the volumes containing them delivered to the Secretary of the Interior, as prescribed by existing laws; and an amount sufficient to pay the salary and compensation of the reporter in connection therewith is hereby appropriated: And provided further, That the volumes of the decisions which said court shall hereafter pronounce shall be furnished by the Reporter to the public at a sum not exceeding two dollars per volume, and the number of volumes now required to be delivered to the Secretary of the Interior shall be furnished by the reporter without any charge therefor."

There is no repealing provision in the statute.

OPINION BY WILLIAM LAWRENCE, First Comptroller:

In regard to the first question, it is apparent on the face of the statute that the character of the appropriation clause which relates to the reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court in the act of August 5, 1882 (22 Stat., 254), should be considered with the provisions with which it is connected.

I. It is well settled, that provisions in appropriation acts, which refer to the particular appropriation made therein, cannot be construed as working by implication a repeal of general laws, or as extending in their application, beyond the time covered by the appropriation act, or to any objects other than those to which such provisions expressly relate. (Artificial-Limbs Case, 2 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 397.)

In the case of Minis v. The United States, 15 Peters, 445, in which a proviso in an appropriation act had been construed, in departmental practice, as permanent in its operation, the Supreme Court, in deciding that such was not the true construction, and that the proviso in question was "limited exclusively" to the particular appropriation to which it referred, said:

"It would be somewhat unusual to find engrafted upon an act mak ing special and temporary appropriation, any provision which was to have a general and permanent application to all future appropriations. Nor ought such an intention on the part of the legislature to be presumed, unless it is expressed in the most clear and positive terms, and where the language admits of no other reasonable interpretation.

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A general rule, applicable to all future cases, would most naturally be expected to find its proper place in some distinct and independent enactment."

This was said in relation to the act of March 3, 1835 (4 Stat., 733), "An act making additional appropriations for the Delaware Breakwater, and for certain harbours, and removing obstructions in and at the mouths of certain rivers, for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five." Since the date of that decision, Congress has, to a larger extent than prior thereto, adopted the practice of engrafting general legislation on annual appropriation acts, with titles declaring that they are passed for the purpose of making appropriations, "and for other

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purposes." The act of March 3, 1835, had no such addition to its title. These facts may, to a limited extent, render inapplicable to the act now in question the rule of construction adopted in the early period of the government. This modern practice of inserting permanent provisions in annual appropriation acts is a proper subject of consideration, since a "court, in construing an act, will look, if necessary, to the public history of the times in which it was passed," including the usages relating to the enactment of statutes. (Aldridge v. Williams, 3 How., 9; United States v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 91 U. S., 72; Minis v. United States, 15 Pet., 441; Bishop, Written Laws, 50, 74, 77, note 6, 92 a.) In view of this practice, it seems reasonable to hold, that, when it clearly appears that a provision in an annual appropriation act was intended by Congress to be permanent general legislation, it should be so regarded.* Adopting this rule, the provisions in the act of August 5, 1882, fixing (1) an annual salary for the reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and declaring him annually entitled (2) to clerk-hire in a fixed sum, and (3) to office rent, stationery, and contingent expenses in a specified amount, are to be regarded as permanent legislation, until changed by subsequent statute.

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1. The language of the act of August 5, 1882, is not reasonably susceptible of any other interpretation. It declares that "the reporter * shall be entitled to receive an annual salary," the amount of which is therein prescribed, and also "an additional sum" specified "when by direction of the court he causes to be printed and published in any year a second volume." The expressions "annual salary" and "in any year," clearly indicate a purpose to make a permanent provision as to the compensation of the reporter. The act declares that "said reporter shall be annually entitled to clerk-hire" in a specified sum, and "to office rent, stationery, and contingent expenses" in a fixed amount. These expressions also clearly indicate a purpose to enact permanent legislation, and they cannot reasonably be construed as applying only to the fiscal year 1883.

2. The permanent character of these provisions is indicated by the provisions of the statutes in relation to the office of the reporter, which were in force when this act was passed.

The Revised Statutes provide as follows:

"SEC. 677. The Supreme Court shall have power to appoint a clerk and a marshal for said court, and a reporter of its decisions." (See acts of 24th Sept., 1789, sec. 7, 1 Stat., 76; 26 Aug., 1842, sec. 2, 5 Stat., 524; 29 Aug., 1842, sec. 1, 5 Stat., 545; 2 March, 1867, sec. 2, 14 Stat., 433.)

"SEC. 681. The reporter shall cause the decisions of the Supreme Court made during his office to be printed and published within eight months after they are made; and within the same time, shall deliver three hundred copies of the volumes of said reports to the Secretary of the Interior. And he shall, in any year when he is so directed by the court, cause to be printed and published a second volume of said decisions, of which he shall deliver, in like manner and time, three hundred copies." (See acts of 29th Aug., 1842, sec. 1, 5 Stat., 545; 21 May, 1866, sec. 1, 14 Stat., 51; 23 July, 1866, sec. 1, 14 Stat., 191, 205; 2 March, 1867, sec. 10, 14 Stat., 471.)

"SEC. 682. The reporter shall be entitled to receive from the Treasury an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, when his report of said decisions constitutes one volume, and an additional sum of fifteen hundred dollars when, by direction of the court, he causes to be printed and published, in any year, a second volume. But said salary and compensation, respectively, shall be paid only when he causes such decisions to be printed, published, and delivered within the time and in the manner prescribed by law, and upon the condition that the volumes of said reports shall be sold by him to the public for a price not exceeding five dollars a volume." (See acts of 29 Aug., 1842, sec. 1, 5 Stat., 545; 21 May, 1866, sec. 1, 14 Stat., 51; 23 July, 1866, sec. 1, 14 Stat., 191, 205; 2 March, 1867, sec. 10, 14 Stat., 471.)

"SEC. 3689. There are appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purposes hereinafter specified, such sums as may be necessary for the same, respectively; and such appropriations shall be deemed permanent annual appropriations.

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"To pay the reporter of the Supreme Court for three hundred copies of the second volume of the decisions of the court."

By the act of August 5, 1882, Congress intended to require the reporter to furnish volumes of reports at $2 per volume, instead of $5, as authorized by section 682 of the Revised Statutes; and, as compensation to the reporter for this reduction in the price of the reports, his annual salary was increased, and an allowance for clerk-hire, office rent, and contingent expenses was made. The object of this change is permanent in character, and hence the provisions for executing this object should be construed as having a permanent operation. The policy of the statute was by no means temporary; it did not apply to the current year alone, but was designed to secure a permanent public advantage in the reduced price of volumes of the reports. The provisions referred to are therefore to be regarded as permanent legislation.

3. There is no express repeal of any previously existing statute. As repeals by implication are not favored, the prior statutory provisions remain in force, except in so far as they are clearly superseded by the act of August 5, 1882. Judging by this rule, all prior provisions remain in force, except the first sentence in section 682 of the Revised Statutes, and the provisions fixing the price of the reports at five dollars a volume in the last clause of said section. The vouchers submitted by the reporter for payment of his salary should be accompanied by his affidavit, or other satisfactory evidence of compliance with the requirements of the several provisions of all these statutes which are now in force, as, e g., (1) that the volumes of decisions have been printed and published "within eight months after they are made," (Rev. Stat., 681, 682); (2) that the required number of volumes has been furnished the Secretary of the Interior "without any charge therefor" "within the same time," (Rev. Stat., 681, 682, act August 5, 1882); and (3) that the volumes of decisions have been, and are, "furnished by the reporter to the public at a sum not exceeding two dollars per volume," (Rev. Stat., 682, act August 5, 1882.) The reporter is not to be paid monthly; but the proper compensation for each volume of reports is to be paid upon performance of the conditions required. (William Lawrence, Ex parte, 1 Ohio St., 431.)

The provision for furnishing the reports at a sum not exceeding two dollars per volume is not satisfied when "the public" cannot obtain them at that price.

II. The clause in the act of August 5, 1882, which makes an appropriation for salary, clerk-hire, office rent, stationery, and contingent expenses for the office of the reporter, in the amounts therein specified, is a permanent annual appropriation. Several considerations support this conclusion.

1. The act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat., 468, 471), entitled "An Act making Appropriations and to supply Deficiencies in the Appropriations for the Service of the Government for the fiscal Year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and for other Purposes," provided as follows:

"That the following sums, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same are hereby, appropriated for the objects hereinafter expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, namely:

"SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That if the Supreme Court shall in any one year direct its reporter to publish a second volume for such year of its decisions, and if such second volume shall be published accordingly, an additional sum of fifteen hundred dollars shall be paid said reporter therefor on the delivery by said reporter to the Secretary of the Interior, for distribution according to existing laws, of three hundred copies of such second volume of said reports; and the amount necessary to pay the same is hereby appropriated."

The substance of the principal provision of this section (10) is carried into and constitutes part of sections 681 and 682 of the Revised Statutes. The clause which makes the appropriation, although found in an act making annual appropriations, "and for other purposes," is in section 3689 of the Revised Statutes herein quoted, regarded as constituting a permanent annual appropriation. The same reasons which operated to classify this clause as a permanent annual appropriation apply to the appropriating clause now in question in the act of August 5, 1882..

The words "and an amount sufficient for the payment of said sums is hereby appropriated"-employed in the act of August 5, 1882, геquire this construction. The preceding language specifies what sums are "said sums." It declares that the reporter is "entitled to receive

an annual salary" in a specified sum. It declares that "said reporter shall be annually entitled to clerk-hire in the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars." The same language is applied to "office rent, stationery, and contingent expenses" in a specified sum; and then follows the clause appropriating "an amount sufficient for the payment of said sums." Evidently these provisions cannot be limited to one year without doing violence to the ordinary meaning of language. They were enacted by Congress with a knowledge that less explicit language used in the act of March 2, 1867, had been incorporated in the Revised Statutes as a permanent annual appropriation. The appropriating clause in the act of August 5, 1882, is used in connection with permanent provisions for salary and expenses, and its construction may not inappropriately be regarded as affected by the maxim noscitur a sociis. This clause, is, therefore, to be deemed as making a permanent annual appropriation.

The question as to the mode of disbursement, is one to which the rulings in Senate-Disbursement Case (2 Lawrence, Compt. Dec. 404) apply.

I. A proper mode of disbursing the appropriation made by the act of August 5, 1882, for the office of reporter of the Supreme Court will be, (1) to pay the salary by warrant on the Treasurer, issued on a balance certified by the First Comptroller, on an account stated from time to time and settled by the First Auditor, and (2) to pay the clerk hire, office rent, stationery, and contingent expenses through a special disbursing agent. Either mode might properly be adopted as to both classes of payments; but the modes, as stated, would seem to be most convenient and appropriate.

II. There are two modes of paying claims against the United States. 1. A claimant may present his claim to the proper Auditor, who then states an account therein and makes a report thereof to the Commissioner of Customs, or proper Comptroller, as the case may be. The latter, when satisfied of the correctness of the report, certifies a balance due, on which a warrant to the Treasurer of the United States issues, directing the payment of the balance so certified as due. The Treasurer then makes payment in money or by draft. (Rev. Stat., 236, 248, 269, 273, 277, 305, 306, 307, 308, 316; Senate-Disbursement Case, 2 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 404; McKnight v. United States, 13 Ct. Cls., 302, 304; s. c., 98 U. S., 179.)

2. A great variety of classes of claims are paid by (1) disbursing officers (Rev. Stat., 235, 305, 351, 524; act March 3, 1881, sec. 2, 21 Stat., 385); (2) disbursing clerks, (Rev. Stat., 176, 201, 215, 235, 351, 393, 416, 440, 496, 522); (3) disbursing agents (Rev. Stat., 255, 3144, 3657, 3658, 4839); and (4) "special agents, charged with the disburse

ment of public moneys." (Rev. Stat., 3614.)

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Disbursing officers and disbursing clerks are generally appointed as such; disbursing agents are generally appointed as such, or have duties as such by virtue of appointment to some office; while "special agents, charged with the disbursement of public moneys" are not generally appointed by virtue of any express statutory authority, but by heads of executive departments, respectively, who are charged with the duty of expending money under appropriation acts; and have, as