wide, may be constructed, to be occupied by no more and no other than two women, or by one woman and two children under the age of eight years, or by a husband and wife, or by a man and two of his own children under eight years, or by two men, members of the same family. If these provisions are violated, the master and owners shall severally forfeit $5 for each passenger on board for such voyage, to be recovered by the United States in any port where the vessel may arrive or depart. All vessels, United States or foreign, having space for fifty or more passengers other than cabin passengers, shall, when carrying passengers between the United States and Europe, have on the upper deck, over the hatchway, a house or booby-hatch, securely fastened, with two doors so constructed that one shall be always open for ventilation. And if the vessel carries a hundred and fifty or more such passengers, it shall have two such houses. The stairs leading between decks shall have a hand-rail of wood or strong rope. Every vessel with a legal capacity for more than a hundred such passengers shall, unless the vessel is equally well ventilated by other means, have at least two ventilators, proportioned in size to the between-decks, to rise at least six feet four inches above the upper deck, one to be placed forward and the other aft, one to have an exhausting-cap to carry off the foul air, and the other a receiving-cap for the fresh air. Any vessel conveying more than fifty such passengers shall have for their use on deck, housed, a convenient camboose or cooking-range, which shall be equal to four feet long and eighteen inches wide for every two hundred passengers, and larger for a greater number. This shall not interfere with their arrangements for cooking between decks, if that is deemed desirable. Any and every violation of these provisions as to houses, ventilators, and cambooses, is punishable with a penalty of $200, to go to the United States. The decks must be so constructed that they may be conveniently and thoroughly cleansed ; and there shall be a safe and convenient privy for the exclusive use of every one hundred passengers. When the weather is such that the passengers and their bedding cannot be mustered on deck, the between-decks shall be cleansed with chloride of lime or other equally efficient disinfecting agent. Each violation of these provisions is punishable with a penalty of $50. All such vessels so employed shall have on board, at the last port whence they sail, for the use of such passengers, well secured under deck, for each passenger, at least twenty pounds good navy bread, fifteen each of rice and oatmeal, ten each of wheatflour, salt pork, and salt beef, free of bone, fifteen of pease and beans, twenty of potatoes, and one pint of vinegar, all to be of good quality. Where rice, oatmeal, wheat-flour, or pease and beans cannot be procured of good quality and on reasonable terms, the quantity of the other articles may be increased and substituted. Where potatoes cannot be procured on reasonable terms, one pound of either of the other articles may be substituted for five pounds of potatoes. The captain shall deliver to each passenger at least one tenth part of such provisions weekly, commencing on the day of sailing, and at least three quarts of water daily. If such provisions and water are not so put on board, and the passengers are put on short allowance, each passenger may recover of the master or owner $3 for every day he is so put on allowance. The master of such vessel shall see that the provisions are properly cooked daily, and served out at stated hours, by messes or in such other manner as shall be most conducive to their health and comfort. If he shall wilfully fail to furnish and distribute such provisions, so cooked, he shall be punishable with a fine of not over $1,000, and imprisonment of not over one year; this penalty not to affect the civil responsibility of the master or owners for such default. The provisions of this act as to space shall apply to the space appropriated to steerage passengers in vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam, and navigating between the ports and in the manner named in this act, and to such vessels and the masters thereof; also, to vessels of any colonization societies transporting colored emigrants from here to the West Coast of Africa. Vessels bound from any port in the United States to any place in the Pacific Ocean or its tributaries, and vice versâ, shall be subject to the provisions of this act, except what relates to provisions and water. They shall furnish each passenger three quarts of water daily, and a sufficient supply of wholesome and properly cooked food; if not, they shall be subject to the short-allowance penalty. The certificate of an inspector of the customs, approved by the collector, that a vessel has complied with the requirements of this act, shall be deemed prima facie evidence thereof. The penalties imposed by this act shall be a lien on the vessel, and such vessel shall be libelled therefor in the circuit or district where the vessel arrives. The master of any such vessel arriving in the United States shall, when he enters his vessel, deliver to the collector a list of the passengers taken on board at any foreign place, which list, to be sworn to by the master, shall designate the age, sex, occupation, and country to which the passengers belong, and that of which they intend to become inhabitants, the part of the vessel in which they came, and whether any, and what, number died on the passage. The refusal or neglect of the master to deliver such list shall be punished in the same manner as a refusal or neglect to report and deliver a manifest of cargo. The collector shall quarterly report the same to the Secretary of State, who shall at each session lay the same before Congress. When there has been any death of a passenger other than cabin passengers, the master, owner, or consignees, within twenty-four hours after the required time of the delivery of the passenger-list, shall pay the collector $10 for each passenger above the age of eight years who died on the voyage by natural disease. If this money is not paid within the time, the master, owner, or consignees shall forfeit $50, in addition to the $10, for each such passenger so dying. The collector shall pay this money, as the Secretary of the Treasury by general rules may direct, to any board acting under the authority of the State in which the vessel arrives, (and if there be more than one such board, the Secretary of the Treasury for the time being, his decision to be final and without appeal, shall determine which is entitled to receive the same,) for the care and protection of sick, indigent, or destitute emigrants, to be applied to such objects. But payment shall in no case be made to any board formed for the protection of emigrants of any particular class, nation, or creed. The collector shall examine each emigrant ship on its arrival, and report to the Secretary in detail the length of voyage, condition of the vessel and passengers, causes of mortality, and all the particulars required by this act. This act takes effect as to vessels sailing from United States ports on the eastern side of the continent, in thirty days; from United States ports on the western side, and from ports in Europe, in sixty days; and from all other ports, in six months from the date of its approval. And the Secretary of State shall give notice of this act in the ports of Europe and elsewhere as he deems proper. March 3, 1855. 14 IX. PUBLIC RESOLUTIONS. [The omitted numbers are Private Resolutions.] No. 2. Joint Resolution to modify or change the Original Plan of the Custom-House at New Orleans. December 19, 1854. No. 4. Joint Resolution for the Appointment of Regents in the Smithsonian Institution. Rufus Choate and Gideon Hawley are reappointed. December 27, 1854. No. 5. Joint Resolution providing for the Engraving, Lithographing, and Publishing of Drawings, Maps, Charts, or other Papers for Congress. The engravings, &c. shall be procured by the Superintendent of Public Printing, under the direction of the committee of either House ordering the same, and the plates shall be in his charge. The paper for the same shall be procured in the same manner as printing-paper. January 18, 1855. No. 6. Joint Resolution relative to the Construction of the Laws for the Allowance of Additional Compensation to the Clerks in the Census Bureau. February 3, 1855. No. 7. Joint Resolution respecting the Arctic Expedition commanded by Passed AssistantSurgeon E. K. Kane. The Secretary of the Navy may send a steamer and tender for their relief, to be officered and manned by volunteers from the navy and elsewhere. February 3, 1855. No. 9. Joint Resolution authorizing the President of the United States to confer the Title of Lieutenant-General by Brevet for Eminent Services. The grade of lieutenant-general is revived, so that when the President and Senate may deem proper to acknowledge the eminent services of a major-general of the army in the late war with Mexico, in the mode already provided for in subordinate grades, the grade of lieutenant-general may be conferred, by brevet only, to take rank from the date of such service or services. When such grade has been once filled and become vacant, this resolution shall become void and of no effect. February 15, 1855. No. 13. Joint Resolution accepting the Sword of General Andrew Jackson, and returning the Thanks of Congress to the Family of the late General Robert Armstrong. It was the sword worn by General Jackson while in the military service of his country. It is deposited in the Department of State. February 28, 1855. * No. 14. Joint Resolution in relation to the New Orleans Custom-House. March 2, 1855. No. 23. Joint Resolution making an Appropriation for the Purchase of Territorial Libraries. $5,000 are appropriated for the purchase of Territorial libraries for each of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. March 3, 1855. No. 24. Joint Resolution explanatory of an Act passed 3d August, 1854. It was the intention of said act to give Wisconsin, in aid of the improvement of the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, a quantity of land, equal, mile for mile of its improvement, to that granted to Indiana by the act of 9th May, 1848. March 3, 1855. No. 25. Joint Resolution making Appropriation for the Payment of those entitled to the Benefits of the Resolution of the House of Representatives of the United States, passed 3d March, 1855, voting Extra Compensation to Pages, Folders, and others. The sum so voted is hereby appropriated. March 3, 1855. X. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. 1. Statement of Duties, Revenues, and Public Expenditures, during the Fiscal Years ending June 30, 1853, and June 30, 1854. [From Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 6, 1853, and Dec. 4, 1854.] The receipts into the Treasury were as fol- Year ending Year ending June 30, 1854. Sept. 30, $15,723,935.71 $19,718,822.00 Dec. 31, 11,307,465.45 13,587,821.27 Mar. 31, 16,208,498.82 16,896,724.83 June 30, 15,691,965.54 14,020,822.17 58,931,865.52 64,224,190.27 1,667,084.99 8,470,798.39 738,623.89 Total receipts, exclusive of loans, &c., 854,716.54 61,337,574.40 73,549,705.20 Balance in the Treasury, July 1, 1852 and '53, 14,532.636.37 21,942,892.56 * This includes the salaries of Chargés d'Affaires, and outfits of Ministers and Chargés. |