pensation for the performance of said duties shall be so much. as such officer so selected and the commissioners of emigration may agree upon, and thereafter the salary of the health commissioner shall be fixed by the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York, and paid from the treasury of said city.] (As amended by chap. 523 of 1851.)

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of emigration, hereafter named, to examine into the condition of passengers arriving at the port of New York in any ship or vessel, and for that purpose all or any of the said commissionors, or such other person or persons as they shall appoint, shall be authorized to go on board, and through any such ship or vessel, and if on such examination there shall be found among such passengers any lunatic, idiot, deaf, dumb, blind, [maimed] or infirm persons, or [persons above the age of sixty years, or widow with a child or children, or any woman without a husband, and with a child or children, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge,] or who, from any attending circumstances, are likely to become a public charge, or who, from sickness or disease, existing at the time of departure from the foreign port, are, or are likely soon to become a public charge, they shall report the same to the said mayor particularly, and thereupon, and unless a bond, as required in the second section of this act, shall have been given, the said mayor, or the person discharging the duties of his office, shall require in the endorsement to be made as aforesaid, or in any subsequent endorsement or endorsements thereon, and in addition to the commutation money, that the owner or assignee of such ship or vessel, with one or more sufficient sureties, shall execute a joint and several bond to the people of the State in a penalty of five hundred dollars for every such passenger, conditioned to indemnify and save harmless the commissioners of emigration, and each and every city, town or county within the State, from any further cost or charge, which said commissioners, or any such city, town or county shall incur for the maintenance or support of the person or persons named in such bond, or any of them, within [five] years from the date of such bond. The sureties to the said bonds shall be required to justify before and to the satisfaction of the officer making such endorsement, and by their oath, or affirmation, shall satisfy such officer that they are respectively residents of the State of New York, and worth double the amount of the penalty of such bond, over and above all debts, liabilities, and all property exempt from execution. The subsequent endorse

ment authorized in this section, may be made at any time within [thirty] days after such examination, or of the landing of any such person or passengers. (As amended by chap. 523 of 1851.)

SEC. 4. Gulien C. Verplanck, James Boarman, Jacob Harvey, Robert B. Minturn, William F. Havemeyer and David C. Colden, are hereby appointed commissioners, for the purpose of carrying into effect the intent and provisions of this act, of whom the said Gulien C. Verplanck and James Boarman shall constitute the first class, and shall hold their office two years; the said Jacob Harvey and Robert B. Minturn shall constitute the second class, and hold their office four years; and the said William F. Havemeyer and David C. Colden shall constitute the third class, and hold their office for six years; and upon the expiration of their several terms of office, their places shall be filled by appointments, to be made by the governor, by and with advice and consent of the senate, and the persons so appointed shall respectively hold their offices for the term of six years. The mayor of the city of New York, the mayor of the city of Brooklyn, the president of the German society, and the president of the Irish emigrant society of New York, shall also, severally, by virtue of their respective offices, be commissioners as aforesaid. The said commissioners shall be known as the "Commissioners of Emigration," and by that title shall be capable of suing and being sued; the money so as aforesaid to be paid to the chamberlain of the city of New York, shall be paid out on the warrant of the said commissioners, or a majority of them. It shall be the duty of the said commissioners to provide for the maintenance and support of such of the persons for whom commutation money shall have been paid as aforesaid, or on whose account bonds shall have been taken as aforesaid, as would otherwise become a charge upon any city, town or county, of this State; and the said commissioners shall appropriate the moneys aforesaid for that purpose, in such manner as to indemnify, as far as may be, the several cities, towns, and counties of the State, for any expense or charge which may be incurred for the maintenance and support of the persons aforesaid; such appropriation shall be in proportion to the expenses incurred by said cities, towns and counties, severally, for such maintenance and support. And the more fully to effect the object contemplated by this act, the said commissioners are authorized to apply in their discretion any part of the said money, to aid in removing any of said persons from any part of this State to another part of this, or any other

State, or from this State, or in assisting them to procure employment, and thus prevent them from becoming a public charge. The said commissioners are also authorized, in their discretion, to apply any part of the said moneys to the purchase or lease of any property, or the erection of any building, which they may deem necessary for the purposes aforesaid. But any expense so incurred by the commissioners in any city, town or county, shall be charged to the share of such moneys which any such city, town or county, shall be entitled to receive thereof, for expense incurred in the support or maintenance of the persons for whom commutation money shall have been paid as aforesaid, or on whose account bonds shall have been taken as aforesaid.

SEC. 5. In case any of the persons for whom commutation money has been paid as aforesaid, or for whom a bond has been given as aforesaid, shall, at any time within five years from the payment of such money, or the execution of such bond, become chargeable upon any city, town, or county, within this State, it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to provide for the payment of any expense incurred by any such city, town, or county, for the maintenance and support of any such person, out of the commutation money to be paid as aforesaid, and the moneys collected on such bonds, so far as the same will enable them to do so. The said commissioners shall prescribe such rules and regulations as they shall deem proper, for the purpose of ascertaining the right, and the amount of the claim of any city, town, or county, to indemnity under the provisions of this and the preceding section. The said commissioners shall have power to provide for the support and maintenance of any persons for whom commutation moneys shall have been paid, or on whose account a bond shall have been given as hereinbefore provided, and who shall become chargeable upon any city, town, or county, in such manner as they shall deem proper; and after such provision shall have been made by such commissioners, such city, town, or county, shall not be entitled to claim any further indemnity for the support and maintenance of such persons.

SEC. 6. The said commissioners are authorized to employ such agents, clerks, and servants as they shall deem necessary for the purposes aforesaid, and to pay a reasonable compensation for their services out of the moneys aforesaid.

SEC. 7. The chamberlain of the city of New York shall, on the first Monday of January, in every year, and at such other times as he shall be thereunto required by the said commis

sioners, report to them the amount of money received by him since his last previous report, for commutation money as aforesaid, and the amount of such moneys remaining in his hands.

SEC. 8. The said commissioners shall annually, on or before the first day of February in each year, report to the legislature the amount of moneys received under the provisions of this act during the preceding year, and the manner in which the same has been appropriated particularly.

SEC. 9. In case of a vacancy in the said board of commissioners, the same shall be filled by an appointment to be made by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The person so appointed shall hold his office for the remainder of the term of the person in whose place he shall be appointed. The said commissioners shall in all cases be residents of the city of New York or city of Brooklyn.

SEC. 10. If any person for whom a bond shall have been given as aforesaid shall, within five years from the date of such bond, become chargeable upon any city, town, or county, of this State, or upon the money under the control of the said commissioners as aforesaid, the said commissioners may bring an action on such bond in the name of the people of this State, and shall be entitled to recover on such bond from time to time, so much money, not in the whole exceeding the penalty of such bond exclusive of costs, as shall be sufficient to defray the expenses incurred by any such city, town, or county, or the said commissioners, for the maintenance and support of the person for whom such bond was given as aforesaid.

SEC. 11. If any master or commander as aforesaid shall neglect or refuse to pay over to the said chamberlain such sum of money as is hereinbefore required for commutation money for each and every such person, within three days after the arrival of such vessel at the port of New York, or shall neglect or refuse to give any bond so required as aforesaid within the said three days, every such master or commander, and the owner or owners of such ship or vessel, severally and respectively, shall be subject to a penalty of three hundred dollars for each and every person or passenger on whose account such commutation money or such bond may have been required, to be sued for in the manner hereinafter provided.

SEC. 12. The penalties and forfeitures prescribed by this act may be sued for and recovered, with cost of suit, by and in the name of said commissioners of emigration, in any court having cognizance thereof, and when recovered shall be applied to the purposes specified in this act. It shall be lawful for the said

commissioners, before or after suit brought, to compound for any of the said penalties or forfeitures, upon such terms as they shall think proper.

SEC. 13. Any ship or vessel, whose master or commander, owner or owners, shall have incurred any penalty or forfeiture under this act, or under the act of 11th of April, 1849, amending the same, entitled "An act to amend certain acts concerning passengers coming to the city of New York," shall be liable for such penalties or forfeitures, which may be a lien upon such ship or vessel, and may be enforced and collected by warrant of attachment, in the same manner as is provided in title eight of chapter eight, of the third part of the revised statutes, all the provisions of which title shall apply to the forfeitures and penalties imposed by this act; and the said commissioners. of emigration shall, for the purposes of such attachment, be deemed creditors of such ship or vessel, and of her master or commander, and owner or owners, respectively. (As amended by chap. 339 of 1850.)

SEC. 14. The moneys now authorized by law to be collected by the health commissioner from the passengers in vessels arriving at the port of New York for the use of the marine hospital, except such as are paid under protest, shall be paid at such times as the said commissioners shall direct, to the chamberlain of the city of New York, and shall be drawn in the manner prescribed in the fourth section of this act; and the expenditures of the same for the purposes of the marine hospital, as now authorized by law, shall be made by the commissioners constituted by this act, or by the commissioners of health, under their supervision and direction. And any surplus which shall remain beyond such expenditures and the appropriations made by existing laws shall be applied by the said commissioners to the general purposes of this act.

SEC. 15. Any appropriation made by existing laws from said moneys shall hereafter be paid out of the same by the commissioners appointed by this act, and any moneys which have been or shall hereafter be paid under protest, shall, upon the settlement or judicial determination in favor of the State of the claims thereto, be paid to the chamberlain of the city of New York to the credit of the commissioners of emigration, and shall be applied by them according to the provisions of this act.

SEC. 16. The said commissioners are authorized to erect such buildings and make such improvements upon the land belonging to the State, known as the "marine hospital," as they shall deem necessary for the purposes of this act, and of the said