As we have already seen, the provisions of the Alien Act of William IV. have been allowed to fall into disuse, and the penalties for neglect of carrying them out are never enforced. Hitherto even such returns as have been sent in, have been loosely and carelessly prepared. In some cases masters of ships have neglected to render any returns of the aliens on board their vessels; in others, the duty, instead of being performed by the captain or master of the vessel, as the Act requires, has been delegated to some inferior officer, with the result that the work has been performed in a hasty and perfunctory manner. But, however carelessly these lists are prepared, the Custom House authorities accept them just as they are, and no provision has been made for checking them. It is obvious that statistics prepared in such a manner are of no great value. Yet it is upon the authority of such returns as these that we are asked to disbelieve the evidence of our own eyes, and to admit that the matter is not of sufficient urgency to claim the attention of the Government. With regard to the steps which the Board of Trade are said to be taking to ensure more accurate statistics, it was stated by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach last session that in future the number of aliens on board the incoming vessels would be every now and then counted, and comparisons made with the master's returns. "Every now and then" is very vague; and until a check is systematically and regularly imposed upon the number of alien passengers on every ship arriving at all the ports, we cannot be sure of obtaining accurate returns. This vague promise on the part of the President of the Board of Trade was made--it should be noted--after a prolonged correspondence had taken place between that Department and the Association for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens. The Association, on the strength of the letter from the Secretary of the Customs, already quoted, had asked the permission of the Board of Trade--as the returns were admittedly unchecked--for its agent to be allowed, at the Association's expense, to go on board the incoming vessels for the purpose of checking the returns rendered by the masters. This request was met by _non possumus_[9]; and the Board of Trade wrote to say that though they had "no reason to believe that the returns hitherto received have been in fact inaccurate, arrangements have been made for a further check to be applied to the returns in future by the officers of the Customs when on board the ships." How far these vague promises given on the part of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in the House of Commons, and by the Department in the letter quoted, have been redeemed, it is impossible to say. The promise of a "further check" is not more reassuring, than Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's "every now and then," especially when we bear in mind that it had been admitted that hitherto there had been absolutely no check at all.