to traversing the water in ships or other vessels. In pursuance of the power to regulate commerce, congress has enacted laws conferring privileges upon ships built and owned in the United States, in order to encourage domestic navi. gation. This is done by imposing higher duties of tonnage and impost, upon foreign vessels and goods imported in them, than upon vessels of the United States and goods imported therein. These duties are called discriminating duties, because the law discriminates, or makes a distinction or difference between domestic and foreign navigation.

§ 306. By acts of 1790 and 1817, vessels of the United States, when entered in the United States from a foreign port or place, are made subject to a duty of six cents a ton; but if the officers and two thirds at least of the crew of a vessel, be not citizens of the United States, fifty cents a ton shall be paid. On every such vessel, entered in a district in one state, from a district in another state, the duty is six cents; but unless three fourths of the crew be American tizens the duty shall be fifty cents a ton.

§ 307. A higher duty is imposed on foreign than on American vessels. The above acts provide, that on vessels built within the United States, but which belong wholly or in part to subjects of foreign powers, a duty of thirty cents shall be paid; on other vessels, fifty cents a ton. On foreign vessels entered in the United States from a foreign port at which American vessels are not ordinarily permitted to trade, there shall be paid a duty of two dollars a ton. F.

§ 308. Vessels of the United States, to be entitled to the privileges enjoyed by such ships or vessels, must be registered pursuant to the laws of the United States. After the admeasurement of a vessel by a surveyor, to ascertain her tonnage, the collector records or registers in a book kept for that purpose, the names of the vessel and the port to which she belongs, her burthen, the year and the name of the place in which she was built. A certificate of such registry is then given by the collector of the district to the owner or commander of the vessel, who is required to give

305. What is navigation? What are discriminating duties? 306. What regulations exist as to the duties on American vessels ? 307. What are the duties on foreign vessels? § 308. What regula

a bond with sureties, that the certificate of registry shall be used only for the vessel for which it is granted. If a certificate of registry be fraudulently used for any vessel not entitled to the benefit thereof, such vessel shall be forfeited to the United States.

§ 309. The master of a vessel departing from the United States, bound to a foreign port, is required to deliver to the collector of the district a manifest of all the cargo on board, and its value, by him subscribed and sworn to be true; whereupon the collector grants a clearance for the vessel, which is a certificate stating that the commander has cleared his vessel according to law.

§310. Every vessel of the United States going to a foreign country, shall, at the request of the master, be furnish. ed with a passport, the form of which is to be prepared by the secretary of state, and approved by the president. A passport is a written license from the proper authority of a country, granting permission to pass from one country to another, or to navigate some sea without hindrance or molestation. It contains the name of the vessel and that of the master, her tonnage and the number of her crew, certifying that she belongs to the subjects of a particular state, and requiring all persons at peace with that state, to suffer her to proceed on her voyage without interruption.

§ 311. Passenger vessels are not permitted to carry a greater number of passengers than two for every five tons of their burthen. If the master or other person on board of a vessel of the United States, shall take on board at a foreign place, or bring into the United States; or if he shall transport from the United States to a foreign place, a greater number of passengers than two for every five tons of such vessel, according to the custom house measurement, he shall forfeit and pay one hundred and fifty dollars for every passenger above the number prescribed. If the number of passengers shall exceed such number by twenty, the vessel shall be forfeited to the United States. The master or cap

tions must be complied with to entitle United States vessels to the intended privileges? § 309. What is required of the master of a vessel departing for a foreign port? What is a clearance? § 310. When are passports granted? What is a passport? § 311. What restrictions

tain of a vessel is required to report to the collector a list or manifest of all the passengers, designating their age, sex and occupation; the country to which they belong, and of which they intend to become residents; and the number, if any, that have died on the voyage.

§ 312. None but citizens or persons of color, natives of the United States, may be employed on board of a vessel of the United States. For every other person so employed, the commander forfeits one thousand dollars. The master of every vessel bound to a foreign place, or of every vessel of the burthen of one hundred and fifty tons or upwards, bound to a port in any other than an adjoining state, is required to make a written or printed agreement with every seaman or mariner employed on such vessel. G.

§ 313. Every vessel of the burthen or one hundred and fifty tons or upwards, navigated by ten or more persons, and bound on a voyage beyond the limits of the United States, and all merchant vessels of the burthen of seventy. five tons or upwards, navigated by six or more persons, and bound to the West Indies, shall be provided with a chest of medicines accompanied with directions for administering them. Vessels crossing the Atlantic ocean, shall have on board at least sixty gallons of water, one hundred pounds of salted meat, and one hundred pounds of wholesome ship bread, for each person on board.

§ 314. A fund is provided for the relief of sick and disa. bled seamen, by requiring the master or owner of every vessel of the United States, before it shall be admitted to entry, to pay to the collector, at the rate of twenty cents a month for every seaman employed on board; which sum he may retain out of their wages. The fund thus provided, is ad. ministered by such persons as the president of the United States shall appoint for the purpose.

§315. The register, clearance, and other papers granted by the officers of the customs to a foreign vessel, at her depart. ure from the port from which she shall have arrived, shall,

are laid upon passenger vessels? § 312. What persons only may be employed on United States vessels? How must contracts be made with seamen? § 313. How must certain vessels be supplied? 314. How is relief provided for sick and disabled seamen ! § 315, 316. With

previously to her entry in a port of the United States, be produced to the collector with whom the entry is to be made. And it is the duty of the master, within forty-eight hours after such entry, to deposit such papers with the consul or vice consul of the nation to which the vessel belongs; and to deliver to the collector the certificate of the consul or vice consul, that the papers have been so deposited. Any master who shall fail to comply with this regulation, shall be fined in a sum not less than five hundred, and not exceeding two thousand dollars. But this regulation does not extend to the vessels of foreign nations, in whose ports American consuls are not permitted to have the custody of the register and other papers of vessels entering the ports of such nations.

§ 316. No foreign consul may deliver to the master of any foreign vessel the register and other papers with him, until the master shall have produced to him a clearance from the collector of the port. For a violation of this law, the consul shall be fined in a sum not less than five hundred, nor exceeding five thousand dollars.

§ 317. Under the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, congress may pass embargo and quarantine laws. Embargo means a stop put to trade; or a prohibi tion of state, commonly on foreign ships, to prevent their going out of port or coming in. Before the war of 1812, a law of this kind was passed, (December, 1807.) In a case tried in the district court of Massachusetts, it was argued that the act was unconstitutional; that congress had no right, under the power to regulate commerce, thus to annihilate it, by interdicting it entirely with foreign nations. The court decided that the act was constitutional. The power of congress relative to commercial intercourse is sovereign, except so far as it is qualified by the restrictions expressed in the constitution.

§ 318. Quarantine signifies the time during which a ship, suspected of having contagious sickness on board, is forbid.

what regulations must foreign vessels comply on entering our ports? § 317. What is an embargo? When was an embargo law passed? 318. What is the meaning of quarantine? How has congress regu. lated quarantines?

den to have intercourse with the place where she arrives. The term is derived from the Italian quarantina, meaning the space of forty days, that being originally the period fixed for detaining ships in such circumstances. But the time now varies according to the circumstances of the case. Quarantines are required by the health laws of the states: and congress has enacted, that all vessels, whether from a foreign port, or from another district in the United States, and all revenue officers, shall be subject to the health laws of the state to whose ports such vessels shall be bound. And the president may direct suitable houses to be purchased or erected, in which goods may be landed from vessels subject to quarantine, at such other place in the state, as the safety of the revenue, and the observance of the health laws, may require.

CHAPTER XI.

Naturalization of Aliens-Bankruptcy.

"To establish a uni

§ 319. CONGRESS shall have power, form rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the sub"ject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States."-Art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 4.

§320. The evil to be apprehended from the immediate admission of foreigners to the privileges of citizens upon their arrival in this country, has already been the subject of remark. (§201.) Many of them having been educated under monarchical governments, can hardly be supposed to have much respect for republican institutions. At best, they can have but an imperfect knowledge of them. To intrust such persons with all the rights of native citizens, would be inexpedient and even dangerous. If they be ignorant, they may be deceived or misled; if poor and vicious, their votes may be bought. They are liable thus to become the dupes.

§ 319. What power has congress respecting naturalization and bankruptcy? § 320. Why ought not foreigners to be immediately al