The Melville

Sections 4465 and 4499 of the Revised Statutes are as follows:

To recover the penalty of $500 provided for in the section last quoted, the government libeled the steamer in question, which is a large steam tug, for taking on board and carrying, on a certain stated occasion, more passengers than -permitted by its certificate of inspection, which authorized the carrying thereon of 75 passengers only. On the hearing of the evidence given on behalf of the respective parties, the court below dismissed the libel, and the government has brought the case here.

The material facts are undisputed, and the merits of the matter may be fairly judged by this extract from the testimony of the witness Cal-lender, who was the secretary and general manager of the claimant company:

The fact is undisputed that more than a hundred people got on the tug and were carried by it, under the circumstances stated; but we agree with the court below that those circumstances were such that the case, is not within the meaning of the prohibition contained in section 4499 of the Revised Statutes, above quoted, which contemplates, in our opinion, the voluntary taking on board any more than the permitted number of…