Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/373

 PEOPIiE V. COMPAGNIE GENERALE TRANSATLANTIQUE. 361 �paupers, vagrants, criminals, and diseased persons arriving in itS territory from foreign countries. A provision of the legislation of New York, then under consideration, concerned persons wlio sliould, on inspection, be found to belong to those classes, but the court acted on and held void that part of the statute which applied to all passen- gers alike, and that part alone. �The act of May 31, 1881, dififers from the prior statute only in levying a duty of one dollar for each alien passenger, instead of $1.50 for each passenger; and it may, perhaps, be limited to an alien who arrives for the first time. But it applies to such aliens who corne as travelers for pleasure, and have means, and intend to go back, and to such aliens who corne intending to remain, and have means, as well as to such aliens who are of the classes mentioued in section 1 of the act of May 28, 1881. It compels the owner of the vessel to pay one dollar for each of the alien passengers embraced in it for the privilege of landing him. The tax is expressly imposed for having the passenger corne by the vessel from a foreign port to the port of New York. The new statute is as liable to the objection stated by the court in the Henderson Case as was the statute in that case. �But it is contended that the provisions of section 3 of the act of May 31, 1881, make the statute valid, as one laying an impost, or a duty on imports, for executing its inspection laws, under this provision of article 1, § 10, of the. constitution of the United States : �"No State shall, without the consent of congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce o£ all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and controla of the congress." �The act of May 28, 1881, is the only so-called inspection law of the state of New York cited as one with the execution of which the com- missioners of emigration are charged by law. The money received from the one-dollar tax for each alien passenger arriving for the first time is to be expended, as far as necessary, in executing the act of May 28th. �The question arises, therefore, whether the act of May 28th is an inspection law within the meaning of article 1, § 10. Inspection laws were known when the constitution was framed in 1787, and ■what were inspection laws was well understood. They had reference Bolely to merchandise. Their object was to improve the quality ��� �