This is an action at law, brought by Clement A. Auffmordt. John F. Degener, William Degener, and Adolph William von Kessler, composing the firm of C. A. Auffmordt & Co. against Edward L. Hedden, collector of the port of New York, in the superior court of the city of New York, and removed by the defendant into the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York, to recover an alleged excess of duties, paid under protest, on goods imported into the port of New York from Bremen by the steamer Main, and entered at the custom-house at New York on March 13, 1886. After issue joined the case was, on the application of the plaintiffs, separated into two causes of action, the present one covering all questions of law and fact involved in the importation, except those which concerned the rates of duty affecting it, and the trial involved in the case now before us proceeded on that basis. It was had before Judge WHEELER and a jury, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiffs for $10, for which amount, with interest and costs, judgment was entered in July, 1887. The plaintiffs brought a writ of error, claiming that the verdict should have been for a larger sum. The valuation of the goods on entry was 7,070 francs, on which a duty of 50 per cent. was paid. Afterwards, the appraisers raised the valuation by adding 440 francs 10 centimes to the 7,070 francs, making a total valuation of 7,510 francs 10 centimes. On a reappraisement by a merchant appraiser and a general appraiser, under section 2930 of the Revised Statutes, the same result was reached, and, on this valuation of 440 francs 10 centimes, a duty of 50 per cent. was paid, amounting to $42. The controversy in the case relates to this $42. There is no foundation for the suggestion made in the brief for the plaintiffs that they paid any duty upon non-dutiable charges. Various assignments of error are made which are not especially referred to in the brief for the plaintiffs, and those which are discussed in that brief may be classified under distinct heads. Section 2930 of the Revised Statutes, under which the principal question in the case arose, was as follows: 'If the importer, owner, agent, or consignee of any merchandise shall be dissatisfied with the appraism ent, and shall have complied with the foregoing requisitions, he may forth with give notice to the collector, in writing, of such dissatisfaction, on the receipt of which the collector shall select one discreet and experienced merchant to be associated with one of the general appraisers wherever practicable, or two discreet and experienced merchants, citizens of the United States, familiar with the character and value of the goods in question, to examine and appraise the same, agreeably to the foregoing provisions, and, if they shall disagree, the collector shall decide between them; and the appraisement thus determined shall be final, and be deemed to be the true value, and the duties shall be levied thereon accordingly.' At the trial, the plaintiffs put in evidence the following-named parts of the general regulations under the customs and navigation laws, published by the treasury department in 1884, namely: Chapter 3, pt. 3, arts. 447-506, both inclusive; chapter 5, pt. 8, arts. 1399-1410, both inclusive; and articles 1415-1417, both inclusive; also, extracts from instructions issued for the guidance of officers of the customs and others concerned, by the secretary of the treasury, under date of July 1, 1885, known as 'Treasury Department Document No. 712,' being instruction of June 9, 1885, p. 245, No. 6957; instruction of June 10, 1885, p. 249, No. 6959; and instruction of July 20, 1885, p. 305, No. 7029. Of the general regulations of 1884, above referred to, those which are material in this case are set out at the end of this opinion.