The first Bill proposed in the United States did not pass. But, in 1855, a Passenger Act to regulate the carriage of passengers in steam-ships and other vessels, was introduced and became law. This latter Bill, though much less stringent than the Bill originally proposed, and in respect to space even less so than the previously existing law, introduced several new provisions of considerable value, the chief of which was a more ample dietary scale, and a provision that the master should, on his arrival, report every death on the voyage, and pay on account of such death a fine of 10 dollars. The fines so paid were made applicable to the care and protection of sick, indigent, or destitute emigrants; and the object in imposing the fine was to give the master of the ship a pecuniary interest in the health of his passengers. It was thought by some, that if this could be effected, a great step would be made towards improving their treatment on board. There was, however, a risk that masters would, by insurance, neutralise this interest, as was once attempted as respects the second moiety of passage-money in the case of emigrants sent to Australia. [Sidenote: Uniformity of action impossible.] Of course it was in the highest degree desirable that the laws of the United States and those of England with regard to passenger ships should be assimilated.[156] Indeed, various committees of the House of Commons and many eminent philanthropists had urged this assimilation, the main protection for passengers being to be secured by an inquiry as to their treatment by officers appointed at the place of arrival. There can be no doubt that, with a view to a perfect system, the laws on both sides the Atlantic ought to be identical; but the United States government, apart from the necessary diversity of regulations in various States of the Union, is placed in this further difficulty. The United Kingdom is not the only, nor will it be, hereafter, the principal source from which emigrants reach the United States. Large multitudes depart from German, Belgian, and French ports, and in 1853 and 1854, many emigrants sailed from ports in Norway. The passenger laws in each of these countries differ from each other, and even more from the law of the United States. There was, therefore, an insuperable difficulty in framing, on the other side of the Atlantic, a law so general as to embrace the provisions of the several European laws, without making it so vague as to be practically worthless. [Sidenote: English Passenger Act, 1855.]