Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/626

 612 federal bepoeteb. �Thb Latjba. (Circuit Court, S. D. Neu) Ym-h. September 12, 1881.) �1. PBNAXTrKS AND FORFBITUIIBS — POWEE OF THB SECKETABT OF THE TkEASTJRT �— Steam-Vessels— Caekting Pabbengebs in Excbss. �The secretary of the treasury may remit daims of informers and of the United States to penalties and forfeitures incurred, under sections 4465 and 4469 of the Revised Statutea, for carrying a greater number of passengers than the certiflcate of inspection permitJs, ahd such remission will operale as a full discharge. . �2. CoNSTiTUTioifAL Law— Ret. St. § 5294. �Section 5294 of the Revised Statutes, providing thatthe secretary of the treas- ury may, in certain cases, remit fines and penalties, etc., is not uucoustitu tional. It does not infringe the pardoniug power of the president. �In Admiralty. �In this case I find the following facts : �On the thirty-flrst of May, 1880, the steam-boat Laura, then a vessel pro- pelled wholly by steam, and not a public vessel of the United States, nor a vessel of any other country, nor a vessel propelled in whole or in part by steam for navigating canals, and also then a steam-vessel navigating waters of the United States, which then were highways of commerce and open to competitive navigation, and also then a steam-vessel within the meaning of and subject to the provisions of title 52 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, entitled "Eegulation of Steam-vessels," and which had theretofore been duly inspected both as to her hull and as to her boilers, and to which a certiflcate of inspection had been granted on or about July 2, 1879, in accord- ance with the provisions of said title, in which certiflcate of inspection it was stated that said vessel had suitable accommodations for and was allowed to carry 142 passengers, carried as passengers on board of her from Bridgeport, in the state of Connecticut, to the city of ISTew Yorii, in the state of New: Yorli, 422 passengers. On the same day the said vessel carried, as passengers on board of her, from the said city of New Yorlc to Bridgeport, aforesaid, 417 passengers. Each of the said 839 passengers paid or became liable for the sum of at least 20 cents as passage money. �On the seventeenth of November, 1880, the Bridgeport Steam-boat Com- pany, a corporation, the owner of the said vessel, received, on its application therefor, a warrant of remission from the secretary of the treasury of the United States, pf which the following is a copy: �"Warrant of remission. To all to whom these presents shall corne: I, John Sherman, secretary of the treasury of the United States, send greeting: Whereas, a petition, bearing date the eighteenth day of October, 1880, has been made before me by the Bridgeport Steam-boat Company, by J. B. Hubbell, superintendent, for the remission of a forfeiture of the passage money and certain penalties, amounting to $5,661, alleged to have been incurred by the steam-boat Laura, on the thirty-flrst day of May, A. D. 1880, by carrying au excess of passengers over the number allowed by law, viz., on a trip from Bridgeport to New Yorlc 280 passengers in excesa, and on a trip from New Yorli to Bridgeport 275 passengers in excess, under the Revised Statutes of ��� �