Southern shield., 1850-03-09
Form of Certificate.
INSTRUCTIONS,

particular time is specified; but on railroad and steamboat routes there is to be no more delay than is necessary to deliver and re- ceive the bags.
 2. The mail is to be conveyed in prefer ence to passengers, and to their entire ex- lclusion, if its weight and bulk require 1t.
 3. Post office blanks, mail bags, and the special agents of the Department, on the exhibition of their credentials, are to be conveyed, without further charge, on mail lines admitting of such conveyance. 4. Mail agents are to be conveyed, with out charge, on the principal railroad and steamboat lines where the size of the mails and the number of the offices will require their employment by the Department; and, in that case, a separate apartment for the assorting and safe-keeping of the mail is to be provided by the contractor, under the direction of the Department.
 ,. In all cases there is to be forfeiture of the pay of the trip when the trip is not run; forfeiture of at least one-fourth part of it when the running or arrival is so far behind time as to lose the connexion with a depending mail; and forfeiture of due proportion of it when a grade of service is rendered inferior to that in the contract. These forfeitures may be increased into Ipenaties of higher amount, according to the nature or frequency of the failure and the importance of the mail.
 6. Fines will be imposed unless the delin- quency be satisfactorily explained in due time, for failing to take from, O. deliver at, a post office, the mail, or any part of ii; for suffering it to be wet, injured, lost, or destroyed; or conveying it in a place or manner that exposes it 10 depreciation, loss, or injury; for refusing after demand 10 con- vey mail by any coach, railroad car, or steamboat, which the contractor regularly runs on the route beyond the specified humber of trips in the contract. and for not arriving at the time set; and for setting up orrunning an express to transmit commercial Intelligence in advance of the mail, penal ty will be exacted equal to quarters pay T. The Postmaster General may annul the contract for repeated failures; for vio- lating the post office laws; for disobeying the instructions of the Department; for refusing to discharge a carrier when re- IiulICd Dy tlC lOC JNl tillCht. AO4 LiC contract without the consent of the Post master General, or for setting up or run- hing an express as aforesaid.
 $. The Postmaster General may alter the contract, and alter the schedule, he allow ing pro rata increase of compensation, within the restrictions imposed by law, for the additional service required, or for the increased speed, if the employment of ad- dltonal stock or carriers is rendered neces- Isary; but the contractor may, in such case, reHnquish the contract, on timely notice, if | he prefers it to the change. The Postmas- ter General may annul the contract or cur tail the service and pay, when he wishes to dispense with the service in whole or in part, or place higher different grade ofservice on the route, he allowing one months extra pay on the amount dispensed with.
 | 9. The payments will be made through drafts on post offices or otherwise, after the expiration of each quarter-say in Februa- ", May. August and November.
 l0 The distances are given according to the best information; but no increased pay will be allowed, should they prove to be greater than is advertised, if the places are correctly named.
 II. The Postmaster General is prohibited by law from knowingly making contract for the transportation of the mail with any person who shall have entered into any combination, or proposed to enter into any combination, to prevent the making of any bid for mail contract by any other person or persons, who shall have made any agree ment, or shall have given or performed, or promised to give or perform, any consldera- ton to do, or not to do, any thing whatever to induce any other person not to bid for mail contract. Particular attention is called to the 18th section of the act of iS36, pro- lhibitng combinations to prevent bIddlng'
 l2. A bid received after time, to wit, the | 18th April next, at 10 . m, or without the guaranty required by law, or that combines several routes in one sum of compensation, cannot be considered in competition with a regular proposalno adjudged to be extrava- lgant.
 l l3. A bidder may offer, where the trans portation called for in the advertisement is difficult or impracticable at certain seasons, to substitute an ninferior mode of ofconveyance. or to intermit service a specified number of l. days, weeks, or months. He may propose to omit an office that is inaccessible, or is not on the stage road, the railway, or at a steamboat landing, as the case may be; or he may offer to substitute an inferior mode of supply in such cases. iIe may propose different days and hours d departure and arrival, provided no more running time is asked, and it is obvious that no mail conneX- ion or other public accommodation is pre- iudiced. He may ask for more running 1 time to the trip, during specified number of days, at certain seasons of peculiarly bad -Aa Gl... l... ha1-ooA thocc ch nneS a nrnnnSa