marriage, or by threats, or by the exercise of his authority, or by solicitation, or the making of gifts or presents, seduce . . . any female passenger, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars; provided that the subsequent intermarriage of the parties seducing and seduced may be pleaded in bar of conviction.
It is farther provided, by the second clause, that neither officers, nor seamen, nor others employed on board, shall visit or frequent any part of such ship or vessel assigned to emigrant passengers, except by direction or permission of the master or commander, 'first made or given for such purpose.' Forfeiture of his wages for the voyage is the penalty attaching to any officer or seaman violating this wholesome rule; and the master or commander who shall direct or permit any of his officers or seamen to visit or frequent any part of the ship assigned to Emigrant passengers, except for the purpose of performing some necessary act or duty, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of 50 dollars for each separate offence. And the master or commander who does not post a written or printed notice, in the English, French, and German languages, containing the provision of the foregoing or second section, in a conspicuous place on the forecastle, and in the several parts of the ships assigned to emigrant passengers, and keep it posted during the voyage, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 500 dollars.
This is a wise and humane Act, passed at any time; but what lives of shame and deaths of misery would it not have prevented had it been in active operation for the last quarter of a century, as a restraint upon lawless brutality!
Before leaving the ship for the land, it may not be out of place to afford the reader, through the testimony of a reliable witness, Mr. Vere Foster, a notion of the manner in which emigrants were treated in some vessels, the dishonesty of whose owners or charterers was only equalled by the ruffianism of their officers and crews. The letter from
