Consuls' duties.

Consul, may protest.

mon immigration.

political or growing out of or the result of such political offenses, or whose sentence has been remitted on condition of their emigration, and women imported for the purposes of prostitution, to immigrate to the United States. Provision is made for the inspection of a vessel, if there is reason to believe that such persons are on board, and for their detention, without permission to land, and their subsequent return at the expense of the vessel to the country from which they came. For violations of this statute the vessel is liable to forfeiture in the proper court of the United States.

377..It has been seen with regret that in foreign countries municipal corporations, private societies for reforming offenders, directors of alms-houses, and even private individuals, have not been restrained by their governments from sending to the United States convicts, or discharged convicts, or lunatics, or idiots, or imbecile paupers, unable to maintain themselves. Consular Officers are enjoined to exert an active vigilance to prevent such acts. Should any vessel of the United States, within his jurisdiction, attempt to transport such persons to the United States, he will endeavor to prevent the master from doing so. Should a foreign vessel attempt to do so, he will by earliest mail notify the collector of the port in the United States for which such vessel is bound.

378.. If a Consular Officer has reason to think that any person, society, or corporation, municipal or otherwise, in the country in which he resides, contemplate shipping paupers or eriminals as emigrants to the United States, he will at once forcibly protest to the local authorities, and will also immediately notify the Diplomatic Representative of the United States (or the Consul-General, as the case may be) and the Department of State. Such an act is regarded by the United States as a violation of the comity which ought to characterize the intercourse of nations.

MORMON EMIGRANTS.

Increase in Mor- 379.. The annual statistics of emigration show that large numbers of emigrants come to the United States every year from various countries of Europe for the avowed purpose of joining the Mormon community at Salt Lake, in the Terri

tory of Utah, under the auspices and guidance of the emissaries and agents of that community in foreign parts. And this representation of the interests of Mormonism is understood to have lately developed unusual activity. The accessions to the Mormon community are largely drawn from the ignorant classes of Europe, who are easily influenced by the double appeal to their passions and their poverty, held out in the promise of their peculiar practices and of a home in the fertile region where the community has established its material seat.

380..A recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has determined that the polygamy of Mormonism is a violation of the laws of the United States respecting the crime of bigamy, the provisions of which are embraced in section 5352 of the Revised Statutes. It is believed that no friendly power will knowingly lend its aid to attempts made within its borders against the laws and Government of the United States, and that every consideration of comity should prevail to prevent the territory of a friendly state from becoming a resort or refuge for the misguided men and women whose offenses would be intolerable in the land from whence they come.

Decision of the Supreme Court.

Instructions to Ministers in certain

381..It has been deemed proper, accordingly, that the Diplomatic Representatives of the United States in Great countries. Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, from which such emigration is known largely to come, should be instructed to urge the subject upon the attention of the governments to which they are severally accredited, in the interest not merely of a faithful execution of the laws of the United States, but of the good order and morality which are sought to be promoted by all civilized countries. And, as it is desirable that they should be able to fortify the representations which they may have occasion from time to time to make, by a citation of the facts that may come to the notice of Consular Officers within their several jurisdictions concerning emigration of this character, the latter are enjoined promptly to communicate to them any information that may be obtained of the probable departure of any considerable number of Mormon emigrants,

Violation of emigrant passenger laws.

Various forms.

Provisions of

statute.

and of any facts which may be of service in the discharge of their duties in this respect. A similar report should also be made to the Department of State.

EMIGRATION PASSENGER LAW.

382..It is the duty of all Consular Officers to report to the Department of State all violations by masters of vessels bound to any port in the United States or any Territory thereof of the statute regulating the transportation of emigrants between Europe and the United States.

MISCELLANEOUS DUTIES.

383.. It has been customary to give to the Consular Officers a variety of forms, to aid them in their business intercourse with masters and seamen, which sufficiently explain themselves without the necessity of instructions. For declaration of a master in case of death or loss of a mariner, see Form No. 74; of same to correctness of log-book, see Form No. 75; of same to ship's bills for repairs, see Form No. 76; for certificate in case of deviation of voyage, see Form No. 77; for certificate of ownership of a vessel, see Form No 78; for crew-list when required by port authorities, see Form No. 79; for order to pay seamens' wages at home, see Form No. 80; for master's acknowledgment to the same, see Form No. 81; for certificate of shipment of seamen, see Form No. 82; for master's agreement to increase wages, see Form No. 83; and for form to be used when shipwrecked seamen are picked up at sea and conveyed to any port, see Form No. 84. For form of an average bond, see Form No. 160. Forms for the authentication of signatures and certificate that an officer is qualified to administer oaths are given in Forms Nos. 88 and 89.

ARTICLE XXIII.

Estates of Citizens and Seamen Dying Without the
United States,

384..The following are the provisions of statute respectR. S., sec. 1709. ing the authority and duties of Consular Officers in relation to the estates of citizens and seamen of the United States

dying without the United States, viz: 1°. It is made the duty of a Consular Officer to take possession of the personal estate left by any citizen of the United States, other than seamen belonging to any vessel, who shall die within the Consulate, having there no legal representative, partner in trade, or trustee by him appointed to take care of his effects. He is directed to inventory the property, with the assistance of two merchants of the United States, or, for want of them, of any others he may choose. It is also his duty to collect the debts due the deceased in the country where he died, and to pay the debts due from his estate which he shall have there contracted. He is required to sell at auction, after reasonable public notice, the perishable part of the estate, and such further part as shall be necessary for the payment of the debts of the decedent, and the residue at the expiration of a year from the decease. The remainder of the estate is to be transmitted to the Treasury of the United States to be held in trust for the legal claimant ; except that if at any time before such transmission the legal representative of the estate shall appear and demand the effects, the Consular Officer shall deliver them up, being paid his fees, and shall cease his proceedings.

Publication of

death.

385..2o. The Consular Officer is further required, for the information of the representative of the deceased, to notify R. S., sec. 1710. the death in one of the gazettes published in the Consulate, and also to the Secretary of State, in order that the death may be made known in the State to which the deceased belonged. And he shall also, as soon as may be, transmit to the Secretary of State an inventory of the effects of the deceased, taken as before directed.

386..3o. When the deceased leaves, by any lawful testamentary disposition, special directions for the custody and management, by the Consular Officer, of the personal property of which he dies possessed in the country, the Consular Officer shall, so far as the laws of the country permit, strictly observe such directions. When the decedent appoints, by any lawful testamentary disposition, any other person than the Consular Officer to take charge of and manage the property, it shall be the duty of the latter, whenever required by the person so appointed, to give his official

When there is a will.

R. S., sec. 1711.

Effects of seamen

on shipboard.

4539.

aid in whatever way may be necessary to facilitate the proceedings of such person in the lawful execution of his trust, and, so far as the laws of the country permit, to protect the property of the deceased from any interference of the local authorities of the country where such citizen dies; and to this end it is made the duty of the Consular Officer to place this official seal upon all the personal property or effects of the deceased, and to break and remove such seal as may be required by such person, and not otherwise.

387..4°. When any seaman or apprentice belonging to or R. S., secs. 4538, sent home on any merchant-ship employed on a voyage which is to terminate in the United States dies during the voyage, the master should take charge of all moneys, goods, and effects which he leaves on board; and if the ship touches or remains at a foreign port before coming to any port of the United States, it is his duty to report the case to the Consular Officer there, and to give such officer any information he requires as to the destination of the ship, and the length of the voyage. Thereupon such officer may, if he considers it expedient so to do, require the said effects, money, and wages, to be paid to him, and upon that being done, he shall give the master a receipt therefor (Form No. 85). The Consular Officer shall also indorse and certify upon the agreement with the crew the particulars of such delivery and payment. In case he does not require the delivery and payment, it is his duty to obtain from the master a statement of the seaman's account with the vessel, and transmit a copy thereof to the Department of State. If the ship is sold in a foreign port and the master has in his hands the effects, money, and wages of a deceased seaman, the Consular Officer may require them to be delivered to him.

Effects not on shipboard.

R. S., sec. 4541.

388..5o. The foregoing paragraph applies only to property and effects of the seaman on board of the vessel. If such seaman or apprentice dies at any place out of the United States, leaving money or effects not on board of his ship, the Consular Officer at or nearest the place shall claim and take charge of such money and effects, and may sell all or any of them. The Consul must quarterly remit to the judge of the district courts of the ports from which the ships may have sailed, or the ports where the voyages terminate, all