Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/62

48 duties, and, after carefully comparing the books and returns of the shipping merchants, the health officer, and the Custom House with the statements kept in the City Hall, on March 11, 1843, reported to the Board of Aldermen. It would lead us beyond the limits of this essay to enter into the particulars of their investigation, but a few of the facts, corroborated by the fullest evidence, will show how business was managed in the County Clerk's Office.

"All the accounts," says the report just mentioned, "from December, 1836, to July, 1842, contain the names of vessels in which passengers arrived, whether commuted for or bonded; but the whole business previous to June, 1837, was conducted without regard to detail, perspicuity, or regularity in the Mayor s Office, the office of the Clerk of the Common Council, and the Comptroller's Office, and it was impossible to ascertain what amount of money was or should have been paid previous to the dates last mentioned. It has, however, been discovered that moneys were received for commuting and bonding passengers previous to June, 1837, which were never paid into the city treasury, but it would be useless to ascertain what amount of such moneys was withheld, or by whom they were misapplied.

"From June 1, 1837, to July 2, 1842, the deficiencies for bonds and commutations, in accounts rendered to the Comptroller, amounted to $8,019 25. The number of passengers who were reported to the Comptroller as having been commuted for sums less than were recommended by the agent of the Commissioners of the Almshouse, but in relation to which neither receipts nor accounts had been obtained, was 8,965; and the passengers who had arrived from foreign countries, in vessels bringing ten or more passengers, none of whom had been accounted for, were 1,846."

The investigations of this committee, and the changes proposed by them in the supervision of the subordinate officers, effected a reform in the execution of the acts bearing upon immigration, but, nevertheless, the city was not greatly benefited by the change. With the daily increasing immigration, the profits growing out of the bonding system to the brokers became larger, and, with keen attention to pecuniary gain, these unscrupulous