The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-28 00:00:00

—lmposes a penalty of .t'loo on masters refusing to

9th.—Provides for the I

!ping of the bonds and prosecutions

cvu.
oth.—Confers the power of reducing the penalty imposed
ler the former Act on pilots failing to report passengers

Ith.—Requires mast
xpense at the usual

s of ships to land their passengers free
ing places, in the day time, and
for ships with passengers.
tary pensioners and their families
expense of Government, are

fines the anchorag,
Cabin passengers,

arried in transports, or at t

The remainder of the act is formal.
Government Emigration Office, Montreal,
2nd March, 1848.

The first and second clauses, it will be seen, im-
pose an absolute duty of lOs., currency, in lieu of
-t on landing in Canada, with
Os. additional, according to the

55., on each erm
a maximum of

length of time the passengers are detained on board
by quarantine—or 30s. in all, instead of 20s. the
maximum recommended by the Colonial office.
The shipowner has thus to make his arrangements
for the possible contingency of being called upon
to pay

255. per passenger more than was required
—al him by the old law; and as this exceeds con-
siderably the nett amount which he has been re-
ceiving for each passenger, its imposition upon
him must operate to deter him from taking pas-

The third clause, increasing the tax to 20s. per
head on passengers arriving after the 10th of Sept.,
and further increasing to 30s. on arrivals after the
30th September. Also, are more severe than the
terms imposed by the Colonial office ; but as few
vessels leave here for the fall trade after the begin-
ning of August, it will have little operation.
The sixth clause is a most oppressive one ; and
one would have wondered how it could have been
imposed by any set of men, having a knowledge of
the nature of the passenger trade, coupled as it is

with the previous clause, No. 5. The intended
operation of the two we find thus described in a
leading article of the Montreal Herald—a very well
It is enacted," he says,
mund per head will be
class of immigrants, viz..
ildren not belonging to any immigrating family ;
deaf and dumb, blind or infirm

ned a

lx of one

matic, is

above the age of sixty; or
any widow, with a child or children, and wife with-
•at her husband ; and any such person or child who
" be declared by the medical superintendent to be
become a charge on the public." In many
cases of families emigrating the husband goes first
to look out for a settlement, or the husband and
wife go together, and those left behind are sent for
when that settlement is obtained. Infirm children,
deaf and dumb, and aged parents also are sent for
by those who are ready to provide for them.
Widows may have friends and connexions
already there ; and with respect to idiots, &c.,
these will necessarily go accompanied with friends,
unless they become so on the passage. To levy a
tax which thus tends to sever the ties of kindred
and affection is cruel ; and in hundreds of instances
't will deter the best classes of emigrants—the pru-
'nt whose aim is to live by their labour and en-
')rise—from proceeding to Canada.
shall have on another occasion a few words
to say upon the spirit which seemed to animate the
majority of the Canadian Parliament in the debates
on this measure—a spirit which warrants us in the
expectation that it will be carried out in its utmost
stringency. In the meantime we may remind the
British shipowner that an appeal to the Home
Legislature is still within their power. Such a
measure, if the attention of the British Parliament
is called to its oppressive provisions, can never be
carried into operation.

or any persoz

kely to