to limit the application of the clause as shown by its general language and as manifested by the remedial purpose which led to its enactment. (Cong. Rec. vol. 14, pt. 4, p. 3263, 47th Cong. 2d Sess.) (c) Because to adopt a contrary view would be absolutely inharmonious with the context, since it would bring into play a conflict impossible of reconciliation. To make this clear it is to be observed that the last clause of the section makes criminal the demanding or obtaining in the assumed capacity which the first clause prohibits, "from any person or from the United States, any money, paper, document, or other valuable thing, "We say which the first clause prohibits because there is no reëxpression of the prohibition against assuming or pretending contained in the first clause except as that prohibition is carried over and made applicable to the second by the words "or shall in such pretended character demand," etc. As it is obvious that the acts made absolutely criminal by the second clause are acts which may or may not have been accomplished as the result of exerting in the pretended capacity an authority which there would have been a lawful right to exert if the character had been real and not assumed, it results not only that the conflict which we have indicated would arise from adopting the construction claimed, but the error of such contention as applied to the first clause is conclusively demonstrated.

Indeed the consideration thus given the contention in question was unnecessary because its error is persuasively if not conclusively established by the ruling in United States v. Barnow, 239 U. S. 74. In that case the accused was charged under both clauses of the section with having on the one hand falsely assumed to be an employee of the United States acting under the authority of the United States, "to wit, an agent employed by the government to sell a certain set of books entitled 'Messages and Papers of Presidents'" and with having taken

upon himself to act as such by visiting a named person for the purpose of carrying out the intended fraud, and on the other hand under the second clause of the section with having by means of the same false personation obtained a sum of money. The case came here to review the action of the court below in sustaining a demurrer to the indictment as stating no offense because there was no authorized employee of the character which had been falsely assumed and no legal authority therefore to have done the overt acts with which either count was concerned. The judgment was reversed under the express ruling that the existence of the office or the authority was not essential as the assuming or pretending to be and act as an officer or employee of the United States was within the purview of the statute and necessarily embraced within its prohibitions.

3. It is urged that the indictment is defective because of its failure to describe the circumstances of the offense. It suffices to say that after considering them we think that the many authorities cited to support the contention are wholly inapplicable to the conditions disclosed by the record and we are further of opinion that those conditions make it clear that the contention is devoid of merit. We say this because it will be observed from the text of the indictment which we have previously reproduced that it clearly charges the illegal acts complained of and the requisite fraudulent intent, states the date and place of the commission of the acts charged and gives the name and official character of the officer whom the accused was charged with having falsely personated. It is moreover to be observed that there is not the slightest suggestion that there was a want of knowledge of the crime which was charged or of any surprise concerning the same, nor is there any intimation that any request was made for a bill of particulars concerning the details of the offense charged. Under this situation we think that

the case is clearly covered by § 1025, Revised Statutes. Connors v. United States, 158 U. S. 408, 411; Armour Packing Co. v. United States, 209 U. S. 56, 84; New York Central R. R. v. United States, 212 U. S. 481, 497; Holmgren v. United States, 217 U. S. 509, 523.

4. It is insisted that there was no proof whatever tending to show an intent to defraud or to establish criminality under the section relied upon and therefore there should have been an instruction to acquit. In so far as the proposition concerns the absence of proof of the doing of an overt act which was authorized by law and therefore relates to the wrongful construction of the statute which we have previously pointed out, it is disposed of by what was said on that subject. As to the want of any evidence justifying the submission of the case to the jury on the question of the criminal intent relied upon or of the acts charged, we content ourselves with the statement that after a close scrutiny of the record we are of the opinion that the contention is wholly without merit and that the case was clearly one where the proof was of such a character as to justify its being submitted to the jury for its consideration.

5. Finally we come to consider a contention not raised in the trial court, not suggested in the court below while the case was there pending and before the order of dismissal which we have reviewed was entered, and not even indirectly referred to in this court when the case was pending on the direct writ of error which writ was, as we have seen, dismissed because it presented for consideration no question of jurisdiction and none arising under the Constitution. Indeed the contention now relied on was for the first time urged in a supplemental brief filed on the present hearing. The proposition is that the trial court had no jurisdiction, in fact that no such court existed, because the trial was presided over by the District Judge of the Western District of Michigan assigned to the

Southern District of New York conformably to the statute (Oct. 3, 1913, c. 18, 38 Stat. 203) and that the effect of such assignment under the statute was virtually to destroy the Southern District of New York by creating a new district whose boundaries were undefined, thus violating the rights secured to the accused by the Sixth Amendment since he was subjected to trial in a district not established when the offense with which he was charged was committed. In fact the further contention is made that to assign a judge of one district and one circuit to perform duty in another district of another circuit was in substance to usurp the power of appointment and confirmation vested by the Constitution in the President and Senate. As to the first of these contentions, we think it suffices to say that it rests upon a construction of the words of the statute authorizing the assignment of a judge of one district and circuit to duty in another district and circuit which is wholly unfounded and which rests upon a premise conflicting with the practice of the Government under the Constitution substantially from the beginning. As to the second contention, we think merely to state it suffices to demonstrate its absolute unsoundness. Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE MCREYNOLDS took no part in the consideration and decision of this case.

241 U. S.

Statement of the Case.

UNITED STATES v. ARCHER.

APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS.

No. 112. Argued December 7, 1915.-Decided May 1, 1916.

As questions of fact confront the court before a decision can be reached on the proposition of law herein involved, and the finding of fact on which the court below based petitioner's right of recovery for lands appropriated as a result of construction and extension of dikes by the Mississippi River Commission acting under authority of Congress are not sufficiently definite; this court, without expressing any opinion and reserving all questions of law, remands the case to the Court of Claims, for more particular findings on the testimony already taken or, in the discretion of the court, on further testimony. Quare whether the liability to the owner of a tract of land part of which was taken for erection of a dike in a navigable river is limited to compensation for the area actually occupied by the dike itself under Bedford v. United States, 192 U. S. 217 and Jackson v. United States, 230 U. S. 1, or includes compensation for the remainder of the tract destroyed by the deflection upon it of waters of the river by reason of the construction and maintenance of the dike under United States v. Grizzard, 219 U. S. 180.

47 Ct. Cl. 248, reversed.

PETITION in the Court of Claims for the recovery of $300,000 for damages alleged to have been caused by the officers and agents of the United States under the authority of an act of Congress creating the Mississippi River Commission by the construction and extending of a dike known as the Leland Dike upon the land of petitioners, called the Point Chicot Plantation.

A demurrer to the petition was overruled and after answer and hearing judgment was rendered for claimants in the sum of $54,920, to review which this appeal is prosecuted.

The findings were necessarily voluminous; we condense them narratively as follows: Claimants' plantation prior to the construction of the levee system to the state of completion which now exists was of great value and in a