agent, and also the commissioners were absent; the clerk took the advice of Drs. Vache, Harris and Johnson, as he told me, who informed him that, the emigrant was not a fit subject for relief, that he was able to work, but unwilling to do so; the matter was referred to a committee, which has not yet reported; I am a member of that committee. I have always considered Mr. Thatcher a very humane person. We are satisfied that in that case Mr. Thatcher had been guilty of doing wrong, notwithstanding, he did so by the advice of Dr. Vache and others, and that upon a repetition of the wrong, we shall recommend his immediate removal, and of all others who are guilty of like improprieties.

I have a very favorable opinion of the working of the new lawthat it is a great advantage to the emigrant, and also to the interest and character of the state and city-under the old law, persons would come to our office for relief; we would send them to the agent of the Consignee, and he to the Commissioner of the Alms-House, neither of whom would afford the relief sought, and, in many instances, the emigrant would suffer; now it is not so. I think that had it not been for the new law, the city would have been deluged with pestilence, from the neglect. I think the commutation fee cannot be reduced at present with propriety; we have not had sufficient experience of the operations of the new law, to determine the propriety of reducing it; we have got to pass through the winter season before we can determine.

(No. 36. )

Testimony of James Harcort.

James Harcort sworn. I reside at the Quarantine, and am first mate of the hospital, and deputy health officer; was appointed by the Commissioners of Health. I represent the health officer in his absence. I think I have boarded at least two-thirds of the vessels as they arrive the last season, perhaps more. I receive $1500 per annum, which is paid out of the hospital fund. The health officer has fees for boarding and examining vessels; for all foreign vessels he receives from the owner or consignees of the vessel, $6,50; for all coasting vessels under 100 tons, $1; from 100 to 160 tons, $2; over 160 tons, $3. When I board a vessel he does not; I act for

him as a deputy; I perform two-thirds of the duty of the health officer in boarding vessels. I think I have seen the emigrants in possession of bills or cards of city boarding houses; some 3 or 4 days ago I saw an instance of the kind; a passenger had a card which he received in Liverpool. I know that bills are furnished to emigrants, but have never known a custom house officer to convey cards on board; there are bills printed in the German language, taken on board foreign vessels by persons in the employment of the health officer at quarantine; these bills give general information in relation to the country, routes of travel, &c. The trustees of the seamen's retreat have given the collection of their money to Mr. Robert M. Hazzard. He had little handbills printed and sent on board, giving information to masters of vessels of the place where it can `be paid. I have no doubt runners and agents go up to the city with emigrants on board the steamboats.

Samson, Hercules, Pilot, Chief, and other steamboats have been engaged in transporting emigrants from quarantine to New-York.

I believe the articles of medicines and other stores furnished by the Commissioners of Emigration to have been good. I have no complaint to make; but very seldom eat at the hospital; buy my own provisions; but occasionally dine there; generally see the meals served up.

My salary is paid by the Commissioners of Emigration, out of the marine hospital fund. The health officer has other duties to perform besides boarding vessels; he has the general charge of the hospital and establishment. His business, as health officer, calls him to the city often during the sickly season. Boarding vessels that have malignant diseases on board is very dangerous business; the person doing it exposing his life and health.

I do not know that boatmen receive compensation for distributing bills on board vessels. I do not believe any cards from boarding houses or forwarding houses, have been distributed on board vessels by men employed by the health officer.

(No. 37. )

Tes imony of James B. Johnson.

James B. Johnson being duly sworn, says: I am visiting physician of the Commissioners of Health; my duty is to visit sick emigrants, and to decide whether they are fit subjects to be sent to quarantine; in the discharge of my duty I am in the habit of visiting the office of the Commissioners of Emigration daily, from 9 o'clock, A. M., until 5 P. M., at intervals. During these visits I have never seen any bad treatment of emigrants by any of the clerks in the office of the Commissioners of Emigration, and found them to be as kind and attentive as men filling such situations could possibly be, having to deal frequently with frivolous complaints and demands. I have visited a kind of a receptacle for the sick emigrants, situated in the yard of the old alms house, during the month of June; do not know whether it was fitted up or employed by the Commissioners of Emigration or not; it was a kind of temporary shelter until the patients could be sent to quarantine; have never seen any of the sick lying on the ground; they were not so crowded as to be compelled to lie there; have never complained to any person in relation to the manner in which emigrants were treated at the office of the Commissioners of Emigration; never knew an instance where the Commissioners of Emigration or their clerks refused to receive and provide for persons that I have recommended as proper persons for their care and attention; it being my duty every day to send some applicants for relief to the office of the Commisioners of Emigration, I am aware of a complaint made by an emigrant against Mr. Thatcher, one of the clerks in the office of the Commissioners of Emigration. The applicant stated that he was sick, and desired to be taken of, as he had no money. Mr. Thatcher submitted the case to me as a physician, and on examining the person, I found he was not sick, and uot a fit subject for the Marine Hospital, to which place he desired to be sent. The emigrant then began crying, and refused to leave the office, insisting that the Commissioners of Emigration were bound to take charge of him, as he was sick and unable to work. I then advised him to enlist, when he replied that he had enough of that, as he had been in the British army for a short time. One of the clerks then offered to procure him work, but he refused on the ground that he was not able to work; but my opinion was that he was strong

enough to work. Think he is not capable of judging whether the emigrants have been benefitted by the passage of the law appointing the Commissioners of Emigration; his opinion of the law was at first unfavorable, but has since undergone a change on account of a number of cases which came under his own observation when the emigrants were well taken care of.

John O. Cole, being duly sworn, says, that he resides in the city of Albany, of which city he is police justice; that he knows that from complaints frequently made to him, great frauds are practiced upon emigrants.

They generally land in New-York, and buy tickets there, with the understanding and assurance that they are to be forwarded on to their place of destination with their luggage without further charge, and when they arrive at Albany, the person to whom they are consigned, denies the authority of the persons of whom the tickets were bought; if the tickets are accepted, the emigrants are required to pay exhorbitantly for the transportation of their luggage, and are, undoubtedly, often cheated in its weight.

He refers, in proof of this statement, to the depositions following, marked A, B, C, &c.

Bernard Marron, being duly sworn, says, that he landed in Quebec in July last, and came to Albany for the purpose of going to Buffalo, in this State; that two of his sisters and another female was in company, who were on their way to Columbus, in Ohio; that they arrived in Albany the on first day of August, and was directed by arunner to the office of Henry D. Smethurst, to get passage; that he agreed with the said Smethurst, or some one in his office, for the passage of the females to Columbus in Ohio, for twenty-one dollars, and paid the money and received tickets for their passage on a canal boat to Buffalo, and other tickets addressed to E. D. Robinson & Co., Buffalo, for their passage to Columbus, in Ohio; that himself went by the railroad to Buffalo, and arrived there seven days before the females arrived by canal; that upon presenting the tickets to Robinson for the purpose of getting a passage for the females to Columbus, Robinson told him that he could not send them on those tickets; that Smethurst had never sent him passengers before, and he was not sure of his pay; that he would send by telegraph to know whether he should send them on; that after waiting two days, Robinson said he could get no answer back, and he refused to send them; that deponent paid the passage of the females to Columbus, four dollars and fifty cents for each of them, himself remaining in Buffalo.