Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/59

Rh Mayor of the city of New York, or, in case of his sickness or absence, to the Recorder of the said city, of the name, place of birth, and last legal settlement, age, and occupation, of every person who shall have been brought as a passenger in such ship or vessel on her last voyage'. Said act also authorized the Mayor 'to require, by a short endorsement on the aforesaid report, every such master or commander of any ship or vessel to be bound with two sufficient sureties (to be approved of by the said Mayor or Recorder) to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of New York, in such sum as the Mayor or Recorder might think proper, not exceeding three hundred dollars for each passenger, not being a citizen of the United States, to indemnify and keep harmless the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty and the Overseers of the Poor of the said city, and their successors, from all and every expense or charge which shall or may be incurred by them, for the maintenance and support of every such person, and for the maintenance and support of the child or children of any such person, which may be born after such importation, in case such person or any such child or children shall, at any time within two years from the date of such bond, become chargeable to the said city." This act worked tolerably well so long as emigration was small, and the bondsmen, and the passengers landed by them, could be controlled. Consequently, we do not hear of any serious complaints during the first ten years of its operation; but, as soon as emigration assumed greater proportions, the law became susceptible of the most flagrant abuses, which were actually practised under it, and it did not afford the slightest indemnity for the maintenance of those who became chargeable to the city. As the brokers engaged in the bond business were only expected to pay for the bonded passengers in case of their sickness or destitution, a large field for the exercise of fraud and deception was opened to these shrewd speculators. The ship-owners preferred the system of bonding to any other, as by the payment of a trifle it exonerated them from all liability, and as they, of course, received from each passenger one dollar, which was included in the price of the passage, while the brokers assumed their liability at prices varying from one dollar to ten cents for each passenger, or still