Before any person shall be searched he may require to be taken with all reasonable despatch before a justice, or before the collector or other superior officer of Customs, who shall, if he see no reasonable cause for search, discharge such person, but if otherwise, direct that he be searched, and if a female she shall not be searched by any other than a female ; but if any officer shall without reasonable ground cause any person to be searched, such officer shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding ten pounds. If any passenger or other person on board any such ship or boat, or who may have landed from any such ship or boat, shall, upon being questioned by any officer of Customs or other person duly employed for the prevention of smuggling whether he has any foreign goods upon his person or in his possession or in his baggage, deny the same, and any such goods shall after such denial be discovered to be or to have been upon his person or in his possession or in his baggage, such goods shall be forfeited, and such person shall forfeit one hundred pounds, or treble the value of such goods, at the election of the Commissioners of Customs.