The Middle Period in the United States. 
137 
But the states could not regulate steamboats engaged in inter¬ 
state or foreign commerce, because this power was given to 
Congress by the Constitution. A bill was therefore introduced 
in this body, and passed in 1850, providing for United States 
steamboat inspectors, whose duties should be to test all boilers, 
inspect the boats, and see that the required number of life-boats, 
life-preservers, and the like were carried. As a compensation 
they were allowed to collect fees from the boat owners for each 
inspection. 
E. LATER FEES AS COMPARED WITH EARLIER FEE SCHEDULES. 
A comparison of the tables of fees of the middle period with 
those in force in the colonies, shows not so much a reduction in 
the size of the various fees as an attempt to put all charges in 
round numbers, in other words, to charge such amounts as 
would seem most convenient and customary for the public to 
pay. A comparative study of the early schedules of fees seems 
to show that there was an attempt to compute accurately, in 
dollars and cents, the cost of the various services performed by 
public officials; while the later fee-bills appear to be attempts 
to approximate roughly the cost of the service, rather than to 
really measure it. If we glance at the numbers in an early fee- 
law, they run as follows: * 1 5, 17, 25, 34, 13, 19, 42, 67, 50, 85, 
etc., while a later statute of the same kind would show the 
following figures: 40, 25, 50 cents, $1, .50, .20, etc. 
This would seem to indicate a regular increase in the amount 
of the fees, but a general statement that such is the case can¬ 
not be made. There may be a very decided increase in one 
state or in one part of a state, while in another there may be a 
decided decrease. A further explanation of some of the odd 
numbers in the earlier schedules is the fact, that the colonial 
fees were expressed in pounds and pence and, in the earlier 
laws, these were simply translated into their American money 
equivalents. 
western states all passed similar laws between 1850 and 1860. Rhodes, 
History of the United States, II, 18. 
1 Statutes, Conn., 1796. 
