Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/363

 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.

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

further progress. The pending United States election, and a question connected with consular jurisdiction, combined with a few other matters of less importance, now delay the settlement which I trust may soon be brought about, for nothing can tend so much to the advantage of two such great nations speaking the same language as free and easy intercourse.]
 * [Footnote: effected; but a question of jurisdiction has since then delayed its