Under this Act, the Board of Trade has opened at all the shipping offices throughout the United Kingdom a department where the sailor, on his discharge, may deposit the whole or any portion of his wages; or may, by means of a money-order office, since added, remit them to his relations or friends. The effect has been salutary, inasmuch as the sailor is thus, to some extent (less than I could wish), prevented from being plundered by depraved persons, whose chief occupation consists in getting what they can out of him. Although Jack may still desire to retain from his wages enough for the proverbial “spree” or jollification after a long sea-voyage, too large a portion of his earnings still go to crimps and other depraved persons; but as a considerable amount is now either deposited at the savings-bank or remitted home, the crimp has less inducement to offer his very questionable services to the sailor than he had before this excellent Act came into operation.[169] FOOTNOTES: [149] Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, clause 303, _et seq._ [150] The first separate Act for regulating passenger ships was the 43 Geo. III. chap. 56. The substance of this Act and of all subsequent Acts will be found in the Appendix, No. 7, p. 600. [151] See ‘Fifteenth Report of Emigration Commissioners,’ 1855, p. 1, and ‘Sixteenth Report,’ 1856, p. 329. [152] 12 & 13 Vict. chap. lxxxi. [153] See evidence taken in 1851, more particularly questions 4244, 3878, 3879, &c. [154] See Captain Beechey’s report on _Annie Jane_, pp. 61, 62. [155] The United States Passenger Act, passed in 1855, will be found in Appendix to ‘Fifteenth Report of Emigration Commissioners,’ pp. 106, 107, &c. [156] Great exertions were made by this country to bring about so necessary an arrangement, and in 1870, ’71, and ’72, it was nearly effected; but a question of jurisdiction has since then delayed its further progress. The pending United States election, and a question connected with consular jurisdiction, combined with a few other matters of less importance, now delay the settlement which I trust may soon be brought about, for nothing can tend so much to the advantage of two such great nations speaking the same language as free and easy intercourse. [157] An excellent compendium of the Act; and the Act itself will be found in Willmore and Bidell’s ‘Mercantile and Maritime Guide,’ 1856, 223, _et seq._ The rules and Orders in Council are at pp. 244, 245. [158] But the great cause of improvement was the introduction of steam ships especially adapted for the purposes of emigration, to which I shall refer very fully hereafter. [159] See their annual reports. [160] As the law is more especially applicable for emigrant ships, the “statutory damages therein named” are 30_l._ for each person.