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Negros, but very shrewd people greatly accustomed both to travel and to Commerce) shared be ill-used on board of Emigrant ship, we have attempted the philanthropic task of guarding against maltreatment without either any body of Municipal Law to support and to guide our own Officers, yet any previous negotiations whatever with other powers.
It really is formidable to reflect how at any moment in any part of the Globe, this well-meant and Kindly Act may involve a dispute with any of the great powers of the World.
7th April.
Nor Labouchere
I confer that I think the Admiralty, unnecessarily nervous as to the difficulty of administering this law. I though I deprecate as much as any one can do the danger of any unnecessary risk of Collision with foreign powers. I am not of opinion that such risk is created by this Act to an extent greater than is already existing in other cases where the claims of justice & humanity are to be enforced by law.
On the four contingencies pointed out by the E[arl?] (^s I may remark, &c. It is not proposed to call on the officers of the Navy to act ... the only practical risk of collision would be with the United States but this law is much less stringent than the Act of Congress of 1855 regulating Emigrants from Europe to the U. States.