an action to recover upon a postmaster's bond, certified transcripts of accounts are offered in evidence, the fact that they do not purport to contain the statement of credits claimed by the postmaster and disallowed by the government does not invalidate the transcripts. U. S. r. Hodge, (1851) 13 How. (U. S.) 478. Where a transcript of the account in a suit brought upon a postmaster's bond omitted allowed credits, it was held that such omission did not destroy the sufficiency of the transcript. U. S. v. Harrill, (1857) McAll. (U. S.) 243, 26 Fed. Cas. No. 15,310, citing U. S. v. Hodge, (1851) 13 How. (U. S.) 478. See under section 886, U. S. v. Case, (1892) 49 Fed. Rep. 270. Sec. 890. [Copies of statements of demands by Post-Office Department.] In all suits for the recovery of balances due from postmasters, a copy, duly certified under the seal of the Sixth Auditor, of the statement of any postmaster, special agent, or other person, employed by the Postmaster-General or the Auditor for that purpose, that he has mailed a letter to such delinquent postmaster at the post-office where the indebtedness accrued, or at his last usual place of abode; that a sufficient time has elapsed for said letter to have reached its destination in the ordinary course of the mail; and that payment of such balance has not been received, within the time designated in his instructions, shall be received as sufficient evidence in the courts of the United States, or other courts, that a demand has been made upon the delinquent postmaster; but when the account of a late postmaster has been once adjusted and settled, and a demand has been made for the balance appearing to be due, and afterward allowances are made or credits entered, it shall not be necessary to make a further demand for the new balance found to be due. [R. S.] Act of July 27, 1868, ch. 246, 15 Stat. L. 197. Sec. 891. [Copies of records, etc., of General Land-Office.] Copies of any records, books, or papers in the General Land-Office, authenticated by the seal and certified by the Commissioner thereof, or, when his office is vacant, by the principal clerk, shall be evidence equally with the originals thereof. And literal exemplifications of any such records shall be held, when so introduced in evidence, to be of the same validity as if the names of the officers signing and countersigning the same had been fully inserted in such record. [R. S.] Act of April 25, 1812, ch. 68, 2 Stat. L. 717; Act of July 4, 1836, ch. 352, 5 Stat. L. 109, 111; Act of March 3, 1843, ch. 95, 5 Stat. L. 627, 628. See title PUBLIC LANDS in this work, and see R. S. secs. 2469 and 2470, infra, relative to commissioner of the General Land Office preparing and certifying copies of records, books, and papers for use as evidence in courts of justice. The records of the land office being of great importance to the country and kept under the official sanction of the government, "their contents must always be considered, and they are always received in courts of justice as evidence of the facts stated." Galty v. Gallway, (1830) 4 Pet. (U. S.) 331. Book prepared as substitute for the original tract book. The records of a local land office having been burned, a book was subsequently prepared under the direction of the commissioner of the General Land Office as a substitute for the original tract book thus destroyed, and was transmitted by him in the regular course of his official duty to the register and receiver of the local land office for use in disposing of the public lands in that district. It was held that, although this book was not certified by the commis sioner of the General Land Office to be a correct copy of any record or paper on file in his office, yet it might be received in evidence under this section as an official book. Jesse D. Carr Land, etc., Co. v. U. S., (C. C. A. 1902) 118 Fed. Rep. 821, citing Belk v. Meagher, (1881) 104 U. S. 279. Land warrants. This section is authority for the introduction in evidence of the transcript of the General Land Office in a question as to the location of land warrants. Culver v. Uthe, (1890) 133 U. S. 655. Where a certificate of a copy was signed by a person as acting commissioner of the General Land Office," with the seal of the General Land Office attached, the certified copy was admitted under the section, such signature not showing a vacancy in the office of the commissioner. Murray v. Polglase, (1896) 17 Mont. 455. "The words 'evidence equally,' as used in the Act of Congress, were not intended to mean that in all cases the copy should have the same probative force as the original instrument, but that it should be regarded as of the same class, in the grades of evidence, as to written and parol, and primary and secondary." Campbell r. Laclede Gas Co., (1886) 119 U. S. 445. Sec. 892. [Copies of records, etc., of Patent-Office.] Written or printed copies of any records, books, papers, or drawings belonging to the Patent-Office, and of letters-patent authenticated by the seal and certified by the Commissioner or Acting Commissioner thereof, shall be evidence in all cases wherein the originals could be evidence; and any person making application therefor, and paying the fee required by law, shall have certified copies thereof. [R. S.] Act of July 8, 1870, ch. 230, 16 Stat. L. 207. Paine v. A This section relates only to records, books, papers, or drawings belonging to " the Patent Office, and letters-patent. Trask, (C. C. A. 1893) 56 Fed. Rep. 233. Affidavit of vendor of patent right. copy of letters-patent is duly authenticated only when it bears such official attestation as will render it legal and admissible in evidence; and therefore it was held that the affidavit of the vendor of the patent right, that his letters-patent are genuine, that they have not been revoked or annulled, and that he has full authority to sell or barter the right, is not sufficient attestation. Mayfield r. Sears, (1892) 133 Ind. 86. Second transcript. Where a transcript from the Patent Office is defective, another transcript may be certified which may correct the errors in the first. Brooks . Jenkins, (1844) 3 McLean (U. S.) 432. Assignments of patent rights." The sense the essential significance and intent - of this section is that the record or official copy of any assignment shall give to any person interested the prima facie assurance that an original assignment was made in terms as shown in the record, that such instrument was subscribed as shown, that it was delivered, that the signature thereto is the genuine signature of the assignor, and that such assignor had an assignable interest according to the purport of the instrument." Standard Elevator Co. v. Crane Elevator Co., (C. C. A. 1896) 76 Fed. Rep. 767 [citing Brooks . Jenkins, (1844) 3 McLean (U. S.) 432; Parker . Haworth, (1848) 4 McLean (U. S.) 370; Lee r. Blandy, (1860) 1 Bond (U. S.) 361; Dederick v. Whitman Agricultural Co., (1886) 26 Fed. Rep. 763; National Folding Box, etc., Co. v. American Paper Pail, etc., Co., (1893) 55 Fed. Rep. 488]. But contra. A certified copy of a patentoffice record of an assignment of a patent is not prima facie evidence of the genuineness of the instrument. New York v. American Cable Co., (C. C. A. 1894) 60 Fed. Rep. 1016 [citing with approval Paine v. Trask, (C. C. A. 1893) 56 Fed. Rep. 233, and disapproving of Brooks t. Jenkins, (1844) 3 McLean (U. S.) 432; Parker v. Haworth, (1848) 4 McLean (U. S.) 370; Lee r. Blandy, (1860) 1 Bond (U. S.) 361; Dederick v. Whitman Agricultural Co., (1886) 26 Fed. Rep. 763; National Folding Box, etc., Co. v. American Paper Pail, etc., Co., (1893) 55 Fed. Rep. 488]. Certificate by "acting commissioner.". Where there was a contest between the patentee and third persons, and the copies were Icertified to by a person signing himself as "acting commissioner," it was held that this might, on the face of it, be sufficient, there being a presumption of the legality of the appointment. Woodworth v. Hall, (1846) 1 Woodb. & M. (U. S.) 248. Sec. 893. [Copies of foreign letters-patent.] Copies of the specifications and drawings of foreign letters-patent, certified as provided in the preceding section, shall be prima-facie evidence of the fact of the granting of such letterspatent, and of the date and contents thereof. [R. S.] Act of July 8, 1870, ch. 230, 16 Stat. L. 207. There being nothing to show whether the foreign patent was an open or secret one, except what could be gathered from the copy itself and the fact of its production, it was held that, only public records being provable by copies certified merely, and it being taken for granted that the departments of a foreign government dealing with patents would not have the patent in a condition to certify by copy if it was secret, and not public, the fact of such certification showed it to be what could be certified, and that the invention described by it was, in the sense of the patent law, patented by the original patent of the copy produced. Schoerken . Swift, etc., Co., (1881) 7 Fed. Rep. 469. A copy Authentication of French patent. of a French patent certified by the director of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers of France, under the seal of that department, and verified by the minister of agriculture and commerce and the minister of foreign affairs, under their seals, but not by the great seal of France, was held to be authenticated in the proper manner and adunder missible in evidence the section. Schoerken . Swift, etc., Co.. (1881) 7 Fed. Rep. 469, citing De Florez r. Raynolds, (1880) 17 Blatchf. (U. S.) 436. Sec. 894. [Printed copies of specifications and drawings of patents.] The printed copies of specifications and drawings of patents, which the Commissioner of Patents is authorized to print for gratuitous distribution, and to deposit in the capitols of the States and Territories, and in the clerk's offices of the district courts, shall, when certified by him and authenticated by the seal of his office, be received in all courts as evidence of all matters therein contained. [R. S.] Resolution No. 5 of Jan. 11, 1871, 16 Stat. L. 590. Sec. 895. [Extracts from the Journals of Congress.] Extracts from the Journals of the Senate, or of the House of Representatives, and of the Executive Journal of the Senate when the injunction of secrecy is removed, certified by the Secretary of the Senate or by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, shall be admitted as evidence in the courts of the United States, and shall have the same force and effect as the originals would have if produced and authenticated in court. R. S.] Act of Aug. 8, 1846, ch. 107, 9 Stat. L. 80. This section "is not a statutory declaration that the journals are the highest evidence of the facts stated in them, or complete evidence of all that occurs in the progress of business in the respective houses; much less that the authentication of an enrolled bill, by the official signatures of the presiding officers of the two houses and of the President, as an act which has passed Congress, and been approved by the President, may be overcome by what the journal of either house shows or fails to show." Field v. Clark, (1892) 143 U. S. 649. See also U. S. v. Burr, (1895) 159 U. S. 85. Sec. 896. [Copies of records, ele., in offices of United States consuls, etc.] Copies of all official documents and papers in the office of any consul, viceconsul, or commercial agent of the United States, and of all official entries in the books or records of any such office, certified unler the hand and seal of such officer, shall be admitted in evidence in the courts of the United States. [R. S.] Act of Jan. 8, 1869, ch. 7, 15 Stat. L. 266. Sec. 897. [Certain books and papers in offices of district and circuit courts in Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas.] The transcripts into new books, made by the clerks of the district courts in the several districts. of Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas, in pursuance of the act of June twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, chapter one hundred and sixty-five, from the records and journals transferred by them respectively, under the said act, to the clerks of the circuit courts in said districts, when certified by the clerks respectively making the same to be full and true copies from the original books, shall have the same force and effect as records as the originals. And the certificates of the clerks of said circuit courts, respectively, of transcripts of any of the books or papers so transferred to them, shall be received in evidence with the like effect as if made by the clerk of the court in which the proceedings were had. [R. S.] Act of June 27, 1864, ch. 165, 13 Stat. L. 199. Sec. 898. [Transcribed records in the clerks' offices of western district of North Carolina.] The transcripts into new books made by the clerks of the circuit and district courts for the western district of North Carolina, in pursuance of the act of June four, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, chapter two hundred and eighty-two, when certified by the clerks respectively making the same to be full and true copies from the original books, shall have the same force and effect as records as the originals. And the certificates of the clerks of said circuit and district courts respectively, of transcripts of any of the said transcribed records, shall also be received in evidence with the like effect as if made by the proper clerk from the originals from which such records were transcribed. [R. S.] Act of June 4, 1872, ch. 282, 17 Stat. L. 217. Sec. 899. [When original records are lost or destroyed.] When the record of any judgment, decree, or other proceeding of any court of the United States is lost or destroyed, any party or person interested therein may, on application to such court, and on showing to its satisfaction that the same was lost or destroyed without his fault, obtain from it an order authorizing such defect to he supplied by a duly certified copy of the original record, where the same can be obtained; and such certified copy shall thereafter have, in all respects, the same effect as the original record would have had. [R. S.] Act of March 3, 1871, ch. 111, 16 Stat. L. 474. Rule as to secondary evidence. This Act "provides for putting in a permanent form proof of the contents of judicial records lost or destroyed, such proof to take the place of the original records for all purposes." There is nothing in this Act which changes the established rule as to secondary evidence. Cornett v. Williams, (1873) 20 Wall. (U. S.) 226. Lost records in bankruptcy may be supplied under the provisions of sections 899, 900. In re Friedlob, (1879) 11 Chicago Leg. N. 189, 9 Fed. Cas. No. 5,118. Sec. 900. [Same subject.] When any such record is lost or destroyed, and the defect cannot be supplied as provided in the preceding section, any party or person interested therein may make a written application to the court to which the record belonged, verified by affidavit, showing such loss or destruction; that the same occurred without his fault or neglect; that certified copies of such record cannot be obtained by him; and showing also the substance of the record so lost or destroyed, and that the loss or destruction thereof, unless supplied, will or may result in damage to him. The court shall cause said application to be entered of record, and a copy of if [it] shall be served personally upon every person interested therein, together with written notice that on a day therein stated, which shall not be less than sixty days after such service, said application will be heard; and if, upon such hearing, the court is satisfied that the statements contained in the application are true, it shall make and cause to be entered of record an order reciting the substance and effect of said lost or destroyed record. Said order shall have the same effect, so far as concerns the party or person making such application and the persons served as above provided, but subject to intervening rights, which the original record would have had, if the same had not been lost or destroyed. [R. S.] Act of March 3, 1871, ch. 111, 16 Stat. L. 475. A proceeding to restore records is sui generis, and is to be governed by the statute authorizing it, and not by the state statute. It was not the intention of Congress by the State Conformity Act (June 1, 1872, 17 Stat. L. 196) to repeal or abrogate the Act of March 3, 1871. The proceeding to restore records does not come within the general term of practice or pleadings in the courts, which obviously has reference to the mode of commencing and trying causes. Turner . Newman, (1872) 3 Biss. (U. S.) 307, 24 Fed. Cas. No. 14,262. Sec. 901. [Same subject.] When any cause has been removed to the Supreme Court, and the original record thereof is afterward lost, a duly certified copy of the record remaining in said court may be filed in the court from which the cause was removed, on motion of any party or person claiming to be interested therein; and the copy so filed shall have the same effect as the original record would have had if the same had not been lost or destroyed. [R. S.] Act of March 3, 1871, ch. 111, 16 Stat. L. 475. Sec. 902. [Same subject.] In anv proceedings in conformity with law to restore the records of any court of the United States which have been or may be hereafter lost or destroyed, the notice rein may be served on any nonresident of the district in which such court is laid anywhere within the juris diction of the United States, or in any foreign country; the proof of service of such notice, if made in a foreign country, to be certified by a minister or consul of the United States in such country, under his official seal. This section was amended "so as to read as "above given by section 1 of the Act of Jan. 31, 1879, ch. 39, 20 Stat. L. 277, entitled "An Act to amend the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to the records and files of district and circuit courts of the United States lost or destroyed." Originally this section was as follows: “SEC. 902. In the proceedings to restore the records of the circuit and district courts of the northern district of Illinois, destroyed [R. S.] by fire on the ninth of October, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, under the three preceding sections, the notice required may be served upon any non-resident of said district anywhere within the jurisdiction of the United States, or in any foreign country, the proof of the service of such notice, if made in a foreign country, to be certified by a minister or consul of the United States in such country, under his official seal." Act of March 18, 1872, ch. 56, 17 Stat. L. 40. Sec. 903. [Same subject.] A certified copy of the official return, or any other official paper of the United States attorney, marshal, or clerk, or other certifying or recording officer of any court of the United States, made in pursuance of law, and on file in any department of the government, relating to any cause or matter to which the United States was a party in any such court, the record of which has been or may be lost or destroyed, may be filed in the court to which it appertains, and shall have the same force and effect as if it were an original report, return, paper, or other document made to or filed in such court; and in any case in which the names of the parties and the date and amount of judgment or decree shall appear from such return, paper, or document, it shall be lawful for the court in which they are filed to issue the proper process to enforce such decree or judgment, in the same manner as if the original record remained in said court. And in all cases where any of the files, papers, or records of any court of the United States have been or shall be lost or destroyed, the files, records, and papers which, pursuant to law, may have been or may be restored or supplied in place of such records, files, and papers, shall have the same force and effect, to all intents and purposes, as the originals thereof would have been entitled to. [R. S.] court to which it appertains, and shall have the same force and effect as if it were an original return made to said court; and in any case in which the names of the parties, and the date and amount of the judgment or decree shall appear from such returns, it shall be lawful for the court in which they are filed to issue the necessary process to enforce such degree of [decree or] judgment in the same manner as if the original record was before said court." Act of March 18, 1872, ch. 56, 17 Stat. L. 41. Sec. 904. [Same subject.] That whenever any of the records or files in which the United States are interested of any court of the United States have been or may be lost or destroyed, it shall be the duty of the attorney of the United States for the district or court to which such files and records belong, so far as the judges of such courts respectively shall deem it essential to the interests of the United States that such records and files to [sic] be restored or supplied, to take such steps, under the direction of said judges, as may be necessary to effect such restoration or substitution, including such dockets, indices, and other books and papers as said judge[s] shall think proper. Said judges may direct the performance, by the clerks of said courts respectively and by the United States attorneys, of any duties incident thereto; and said clerks and attorneys shall be allowed such compensation for services in the matter and for |