APPENDIX B. RULES OF PRACTICE IN CASES BEFORE THE ACCOUNTING OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE DIVISION OF THE COMPTROLLER. 1. REGULATIONS GOVERNING ATTORNEYS AND AGENTS PRACTICING BEFORE THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. The act of July 7, 1884 (23 Stat., 258), making appropriations to supply deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, and for prior years, provides "That the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe rules and regulations governing the recognition of agents, attorneys, or other persons representing claimants before his Department, and may require of such persons, agents, and attorneys, before being recognized as representatives of claimants, that they shall show that they are of good character and in good repute, possessed of the necessary qualifications to enable them to render such claimants valuable service, and otherwise competent to advise and assist such claimants in the presentation of their cases. And such Secretary may, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, suspend and disbar from further practice before his Department any such person, agent, or attorney, shown to be incompetent, disreputable, or who re fuses to comply with the said rules and regulations, or who shall with intent to defraud, in any manner willfully and knowingly deceive, mislead, or threaten any claimant or prospective claimant, by word, circular, letter, or by advertisement." In accordance therewith, the following rules and regulations are established by the Secretary of the Treasury: 1. A list of all persons entitled to practice as attorneys or agents before the Treasury Department will be kept in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. On this list may be placed the names of members of the bar in good standing, but the Secretary of the Treasury may require from any such member evidence that he is in good standing at the bar. 2. An agent before being enrolled may be required to file a certificate of a judge of a United States, State, or Territorial court, or a United States district attorney, that the agent is of good moral character, and competent to render claimants valuable service, and to advise and to assist them in the presentation of their claims. 3. No attorney or agent now debarred from practice in this department, or any other of the Executive Departments, will be placed upon said list until the charges upon which he was so debarred shall be removed or satisfactorily answered. 4. The head of any Bureau may require an attorney or agent to present satisfactory evidence that the claimant has authorized him to prosecute the claim, but no draft will be delivered to such attorney or agent, unless he files a power of attorney, duly witnessed and acknowledged, expressly authorizing him to receive it. 5. The revocation of a power of attorney, or other authority to prosecute a claim, by a claimant or his legal representatives, will not be recognized, unless by decision to that effect by the proper accounting officer. But in cases of suspended claims, any agent or attorney who has failed, or shall hereafter fail, to take action thereon within three months after the suspension of the claim, shall be deemed to have abandoned such claim, and the right of the claimant to employ another attorney shall be absolute. 6. No agent or attorney who appears by substitution filed after these regulations go into force will be recognized, unless by written consent of the claimant thereto, dated after the date of the substitution, and naming the person substituted. 7. No power of attorney filed after the adjustment of a claim or account by the accounting officers will be recognized, unless it shows that the claimant was fully cognizant when he executed it of the adjustment and of the balance found due him. 8. When a firm engaged in prosecuting claims shall be dissolved, or when persons associated as attorneys in a power of attorney shall contest the right of either to receive a draft, the members or survivors of such firm, or the associates in such power of attorney, must file with the Secretary of the Treasury an agreement showing which of such members, survivors, or associates may continue to prosecute the claims, or may receive a draft; otherwise, only the claimant will be recognized; and in no case will a final settlement of the account, or any steps towards the transmission of a draft to the claimant, be delayed more than sixty days by reason of the nonfiling of such agreement. 9. If a head of a Bureau has reason to believe, or if complaint be made to him, that any attorney or agent is guilty of any of the offenses set out in the above act, or of any violation of these rules, he shall report the case forthwith to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the Treasury will then mail to the usual address of such attorney or agent notice of the charges preferred against him, informing him that they will be investigated at the time stated in the notice, which time in no case shall be less than thirty days from the date of the notice. If on the investigation it shall appear that the charge is sustained, the Secretary of the Treasury will disbar or suspend such attorney or agent, and, until reinstated, he will not be recognized as an attorney or agent before the Treasury Department or any Bureau thereof. Such investigation will be upon written or oral testimony, as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. 10. These regulations shall go into force on and from the first day of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-six; and shall apply to all unsettled claims then pending in this Department, or which may thereafter be presented or referred to this Department for adjudication, but shall not be construed to abrogate any existing rules or orders of the accounting officers relating to the fees of attorneys or claim agents practicing before their respective offices. DANIEL MANNING, II. REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE REVISION, BY THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, OF ACCOUNTS SETTLED BY THE AUDITORS. The following regulations governing the matter of applications to the Comptroller of the Treasury, for a revision of accounts settled by the Auditors of the Treas ury, are published for the information and guidance of all persons interested. Section 8 of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Appropriation Act of July 31, 1894, which Act in so far as it provided for a reorganization of the accounting offices of the Treasury became effective October 1, 1894, contains the following: "The balances which may from time to time be certified by the Auditors to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, or to the Postmaster-General, upon the settlement of public accounts, shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government, except that any person whose accounts may have been settled, the head of the Executive Department, or of the board, commission, or establishment not under the jurisdiction of an Executive Department, to which the account pertains, or the Comptroller of the Treasury, may, within a year, obtain a revision of said account by the Comptroller of the Treasury, whose decision upon such revision shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, when in his judgment the interests of the Government require it, suspend payment and direct the re-examination of any account." "Any person accepting payment under a settlement by an Auditor shall be thereby precluded from obtaining a revision of such settlement as to any items upon which payment is accepted; but nothing in this Act shall prevent an Auditor from suspending items in an account in order to obtain further evidence or explanations necessary to their settlement. When suspended items are finally settled a revision may be had as in |