Accordingly, it appeared absolutely necessary that the authority of the Emigration officers to control the stowage of heavy cargo should be placed beyond doubt; that the number of passengers for whom a surgeon should be required should be reduced from 500 to 300; that the Queen in Council should have authority to make special regulations, in excess of the law, for the prevention of sickness on board ship during the prevalence of epidemics; that the space allowed under the existing Act should be increased; that it should be obligatory to provide water-closets in the “between decks” for women and children; that a more ample dietary should be prescribed; that no ship should carry more than 500 passengers; that the number of passengers necessary to bring a ship under the Act should be reduced from one to twenty-five to one to fifty tons; that the exemption of ships carrying mails should be clearly defined; that runners should be required to wear badges; and, finally, that the subsistence-money in case of detention should be increased.
Legislation in the United States, 1855.
Concurrently with the proceedings taken on this side of the Atlantic, the Senate of the United States also took the matter up, but they relied, chiefly, on the answers given to a series of questions framed and addressed to parties competent to give information. Their recommendations, therefore, well deserve notice. Thus, they urged that a space should be reserved on the upper deck for exercise in proportion to the number carried; that a ship’s capacity should be limited by tonnage as well as space; that, during the winter months, the number allowed in proportion to tonnage should be reduced; that no passengers should be carried on an orlop deck; that the number of privies should be increased, with separate accommodation for females; that provisions should be issued cooked; that rules should be established for the maintenance of discipline; and, lastly, that the ship should be made responsible to the extent of the passage-money in the case of passengers dying at sea.[155]
The first Bill proposed in the United States did not pass. But, in 1855, a Passenger Act to regulate the carriage of passengers in steam-ships and other vessels, was introduced and became law. This latter Bill, though much less stringent than the Bill originally proposed, and in respect to space even less so than the previously existing law, introduced several new provisions of considerable value, the chief of which was a more ample dietary scale, and a provision that the master should, on his arrival, report every death on the voyage, and pay on account of such death a fine of 10 dollars. The fines so paid were made applicable to the care and protection of sick, indigent, or destitute emigrants; and the object in imposing the fine was to give the master of the ship a pecuniary interest in the health of his passengers. It was thought by some, that if this could be effected, a great step would be made towards improving their treatment on board. There was, however, a risk that masters would, by insurance, neutralise this interest, as was once attempted as respects the second moiety of passage-money in the case of emigrants sent to Australia.
Uniformity of action impossible.
Of course it was in the highest degree desirable that the laws of the United States and those of England with regard to passenger ships should be assimilated.[156] Indeed, various committees of the House of Commons and many eminent philanthropists had urged this assimilation, the main protection for passengers being to be secured by an inquiry as to their treatment by officers appointed at the place of arrival. There can be no doubt that, with a view to a perfect system, the laws on both sides the Atlantic ought to be identical; but the United States government, apart from the necessary diversity of regulations in various States of the Union, is placed in this further difficulty. The United Kingdom is not the only, nor will it be, hereafter, the principal source from which emigrants reach the United States. Large multitudes depart from German, Belgian, and French ports, and in 1853 and 1854, many emigrants sailed from ports in Norway. The passenger laws in each of these countries differ from each other, and even more from the law of the United States. There was, therefore, an insuperable difficulty in framing, on the other side of the Atlantic, a law so general as to embrace the provisions of the several European laws, without making it so vague as to be practically worthless.
English Passenger Act, 1855.
But our Passengers’ Amendment Act of 1855, which came into operation on the 1st October of that year, made some important advances towards the law of the United States. The principal alterations introduced by this Act, beyond the regulations of 1852, were, that the number of passengers was limited; the age of a “statute adult” reduced from fourteen to twelve years; a distinction was made between the upper and lower passenger deck; increase of space was allowed to passengers; mail steamers were exempted under special rules; the dietary scale improved; the amount of detention-money increased; and the emigrant runners placed under more efficient control.
One chief provision of the Passengers’ Act required that an abstract thereof and of the Orders in Council should be posted up in each emigrant ship.[157] The Emigration Commissioners, in their report of 1857, give an opinion that the Act has worked satisfactorily; that the changes introduced have tended, materially, to add to the comfort and promote the health of emigrants, the returns of mortality in ships to the United States attesting the same result.[158] On the other hand, the reduction in the number a ship might carry, and the increase in the dietary, necessarily added to the expenses of the passage, and, to a certain extent, diminished for a time the amount of emigration. Further, the Commissioners stated that the runners, at the ports of departure, have been brought more effectually under control, so as to prevent many of the abuses formerly prevalent.
Attempt to check issue of fraudulent tickets.