utility of most of the new construction, exposing the fraudulent devices by which the contracts were obtained, and inviting investigation as to the quality of the work, I still insisted on the immense benefits, at comparatively small cost, of improving the water-way, in the following language:

"In my judgment a far more important improvement of the Erie Canal would be effected by a thorough system of ordinary repairs which should give the water-way its proper and lawful dimensions, and by progressively deepening it, wherever reasonably practicable, from seven to eight feet. As the object would be merely to enable the submerged section of the boat to move in a larger area of water, so that the displaced fluid could pass the boat in a larger space, it would not be necessary to alter the culverts or other structures, or to carry the walls of the canal below the present bottom; and the benefit would be realized in each portion of the canal improved, without reference to any other part of the channel which should remain unchanged. In facilitating the movement of the boat and quickening its speed, it would increase the amount of service rendered in a given time, and would thereby diminish every element of the cost of transportation. It would benefit the boatmen and carriers more, even, than one cent a bushel remission of tolls. It would be of more real utility to navigation than five or ten times its cost expended in the average manner of so-called improvements on the public works. But it is too simple, too practically useful, to enlist the imagination of projectors who seek the fame of magnificent constructions, and of engineers who build monuments for exhibition to their rivals, or to awaken the rapacity of cormorants who fatten on jobs.

"I renew the recommendation of my Annual Message upon this subject; and would draw particular attention to this clause, that provisions be made by law to enable the State engineer, soon after navigation is opened, to measure the depth of water in the canal by cross-sections as often as every four rods of its length, and on the upper and lower mitre-sill of each lock."

These opinions are deduced from the best engineering science as applied to canal navigation, and are confirmed by practical experience. In the present depressed state of business are found an increased necessity and a favorable opportunity for going on with this measure. The interests of the consumers in cheap navigation, of the boatmen and forwarders for every facility

in their business, the low prices of materials, and the scanty employment of labor, are all circumstances which conspire to demand attention to this subject, and to make the present a fit and advantageous time in which to begin the work; and I do now earnestly ask your consideration of these recommendations, which I regard as of high public importance.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew the recommendation recently submitted to you, that a law be passed conferring on the Canal Board full powers of investigation and redress of all wrongs done to the State in respect to canal work. It seems to me quite clear that such powers ought to be vested in that body, and in every similar body, irrespective of the particular occasion.

I likewise renew the recommendation of an ample appropriation in aid of the defences of the State against fraudulent or unjust canal contracts, and in aid of civil and criminal actions, in behalf of the State, growing out of canal frauds. It is impossible properly to prepare such cases for trial without larger expenses than the State has hitherto been accustomed to make. The machinery of the State for such legal controversies is very inadequate and ineffective compared with that of the United States Government or any other government, and needs to be supplemented by accessory measures. In recent instances we have seen rich and powerful public delinquents in the courts defending their possession of plunder and their personal liberty by very numerous counsel, stimulated by enormous fees, exceeding many times ordinary professional compensations. The effect is to demand extraordinary sacrifices of time and effort on the part of those who represent the people; to render the litigations extremely engrossing and burdensome. The State will not imitate the practice of an extraordinary rate of professional compensation; but not to foresee and to provide for attention, effort, and aids commensurate with the necessity, would be practically to abandon the assertion of the rights and the protection of the interests of the people against the wrongdoers.

XLVIII.

THE COMMISSION OF EMIGRATION.

To the Legislature.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, Albany, April 12, 1876.

I TRANSMIT herewith a communication from the Commissioners of Emigration, to which I earnestly invoke your immediate and considerate attention. You are doubtless aware that on the 20th of March last a decision was rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Hendersons vs. The Mayor, etc., of the City of New York and the Commissioners of Emigration, declaring unconstitutional and void the law of this State requiring a bond from the parties bringing emigrants into the port of New York to indemnify each city, county, and town of this State against such emigrants being a charge on them during the period of five years from the date of their arrival, but allowing a commutation of the liability under such bond now fixed by law at the sum of one dollar and a half for each emigrant.

The effect of this decision is totally and instantly to destroy the whole income of the commission, by means of which their beneficent operations have been hitherto carried on. The system is completely arrested, and for some weeks the commissioners have had no revenue whatever, and the means within their control will be exhausted by the 1st day of May.

The system was put in operation on the 6th day of May, 1847, under an Act passed the day before, and has been continued under subsequent amendments until the present time. In

the Report of the commissioners to the Legislature, submitted on the 31st of January last, they state their operations, during the period of their existence, as follows:

"It [the commission] has during this period supervised the landing of over six millions of emigrant passengers with their baggage; it has provided and cared for 1,717,838 of alien emigrants for a greater or less period during the first five years subsequent to their arrival; it has treated and cared for 547,209 in its various hospitals, etc.; it has supplied 485,669 with temporary board, lodging, or pecuniary assistance; it has provided 400,187 with employment, through the labor bureau at Castle Garden; it has forwarded to inland destinations and returned to Europe, at their own request, 58,122; it has relieved and provided for 226,651 in various counties and institutions of the State. Under this head the sum of $1,411,474 has been reimbursed by the commission to various counties and charitable institutions."

The commissioners have also cared for, in its various asylums, and sent back at its own expense to their native lands, many who have passed through this to other States, possessed of health and supplied with money, which they subsequently lost, and returned to this State to become a charge upon the commission. It has cured many cases of sickness of emigrants destined to other States, and then despatched them to their various designations to enrich other communities with their money, capital, and labor, value unimpaired.

The arrivals in the port of New York probably constitute at least 80 per cent of the total addition to the population of the United States by emigration, including the influx through Canada. The value of this accession to our population as a productive power is not to be measured by mere numbers. In an investigation which I had occasion to make some years ago it was ascertained that while the males between the ages of fifteen and forty in the resident population of the United States in 1860 were 21 per cent of the whole number, the males between the same ages among the emigrants arriving during forty years were 41 per cent of the whole number. If the total influx during the twenty-nine years has been seven and a half

millions, it has included the virile portion of a population of eighteen millions; that is, persons of the ages which are nearly coincident with those usually accepted as embracing the period of military service, and are also those of the largest capacity for physical labor. The chief sources of emigration have been Germany and Ireland, forming about two thirds of the whole influx. In the earlier portion of the period the Irish emigration was much the largest; in the later portion the German has been much the largest; in the whole period the German has been about one hundred thousand the larger. In 1856 the commission kept an account of the average cash brought by the emigrants, and it amounted to $68.08 per head, which is deemed a low estimate of the real amount.

This migration is the most remarkable which has happened in the history of the human race. It has enacted an immense part in the growth of our population, -the creation of great cities; the settlement of new States; the formation of the business of our railroads; the extension of all commerce and all industries; as well as in all the great national events of which our country has been the theatre. The benefits of this vast migration have been diffused all over the northern portions of the Republic. Less than 45 per cent of the emigrants remain within this State, even for the first year from their arrival ; and after that a much smaller proportion. But of course the tendency is for a large portion of those who become the objects of public charity to fall upon the City and State of New York. And the still more important function of protecting the emigrants from extortion, deception, and the innumerable variety of wrongs to which they are inevitably exposed, can only be performed by a machinery such as has been furnished by the laws of this State, which must be local in its operations, and can be most wisely and beneficially supplied by local and State authorities.

In the practical conjuncture which now exists, it seems to me necessary that the State should interfere and advance the necessary funds to carry on the operations of the commissioners for