But our Passengers’ Amendment Act of 1855, which came into operation on the 1st October of that year, made some important advances towards the law of the United States. The principal alterations introduced by this Act, beyond the regulations of 1852, were, that the number of passengers was limited; the age of a “statute adult” reduced from fourteen to twelve years; a distinction was made between the upper and lower passenger deck; increase of space was allowed to passengers; mail steamers were exempted under special rules; the dietary scale improved; the amount of detention-money increased; and the emigrant runners placed under more efficient control. One chief provision of the Passengers’ Act required that an abstract thereof and of the Orders in Council should be posted up in each emigrant ship.[157] The Emigration Commissioners, in their report of 1857, give an opinion that the Act has worked satisfactorily; that the changes introduced have tended, materially, to add to the comfort and promote the health of emigrants, the returns of mortality in ships to the United States attesting the same result.[158] On the other hand, the reduction in the number a ship might carry, and the increase in the dietary, necessarily added to the expenses of the passage, and, to a certain extent, diminished for a time the amount of emigration. Further, the Commissioners stated that the runners, at the ports of departure, have been brought more effectually under control, so as to prevent many of the abuses formerly prevalent. [Sidenote: Attempt to check issue of fraudulent tickets.] In the United States, also, and especially at New York, efforts have been made to stop the frauds heretofore committed by this class on emigrants. In that city, an establishment, under the control of the Commissioners for Emigration, has been set on foot at Castle Garden, to protect emigrants from runners, and from those who sell them fraudulent or false inland passage-tickets. In consequence of a representation from the United States Government, whereby it appeared that, the suppression in the States, of frauds connected with the sale of inland tickets had led to a system of selling the same description of tickets in Europe or on board emigrant ships, an official notice of this fact was given to emigrants, cautioning them that the safest course was not to purchase an inland ticket in England, but to defer making arrangements for the passage up the country, till their arrival at the port of debarkation. This notice, however, applied to the United States only; and it was stated, explicitly, that the through tickets given by the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada to emigrants proceeding to the St. Lawrence were not open to suspicion, and were, besides, of great benefit to the emigrant. [Sidenote: General improvements.]