“This was an action of assumpsit against the defendant, who was Collector of the District of New-York, to recover a portion of a forfeiture which the plaintiff claimed under the collection law, as informer . . . It appeared on the trial, that the brig Rambler from St. Bartholomew’s, was on the 7th day of March, 1812, boarded, and a man put on board of her at Sandy Hook by the revenue cutter Active, under orders from the Collector to send vessels from St. Bartholomew’s bound for Amboy to New-York. The plaintiff was master of the Active, but was absent at the time in the interior of the state, and did not return until April.”