Haines

The plaintiff, as collector of internal revenue, brought this action under the revenue laws of the United States in the court of a justice of the peace for the county of Amador, to recover the sum of fifteen dollars due for a peddler’s license, and the sum of forty-five dollars as a pen *121 alty for peddling without a license — sixty dollars in the aggregate. The defendants appeared and moved to dismiss the action, on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject matter, for the reason that the cause of action arose under an act of Congress, and that Congress had no power to confer jurisdiction upon a state court, and on the further ground that two causes of action were improperly joined. The justice denied the motion. The defendants then answered, denying that they were partners, and denying that they had peddled or sold goods without a license, and that they had incurred any penalty under the act. A. Haines, one of the defendants, then alleges affirmatively that he had “taken out a license as required by law for himself and his partner Sam Haines under the style of Haines Bros.” This is the whole answer.

On the issues thus presented a trial was had before a…