Southern shield., 1850-03-02
Form Of Certifcate.
TWSTnTTrTT0NTc

4aO AOV V4AJ1IS.
 l. Seven minutes are allowed for opening and closing the mails at all offices where no l particular time is specifed; but on railroad land steamboat routes there is to be no more delay than is necessary to deliver and re- ceve the bags.
 ,. The mail is to be conveyed in prefer ence to passengers, and to their entire ex- cusion, if its weight and bulk require it. }. Post office blanks, mail bags, and the lspecial agents of the Department, on the exhibition of their credentials, are to be lconveyed, 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 Departments 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 ot 1t 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 toreitures may be increased into Ipenalties of higher amount, according to the nature or frequency of the failure and
 the importance of the mail.
 | G. 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 it, for suffering it to be wet. injured, lost, or destroyed; or conveying it in place or manner that exposes it to depreciation, loss, or injury; for refusing after demand to con-
 vey a mail by any coach, railroad car, or steamboat, which the contractor regularly
 runs on the route beyond the specified
 number 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 a quarters pay. l '. The Postmaster General may annul
 the contract for repeated failures; for vo-
 lating the post office laws; for disobeyng
 the instructions of the Department; for
 refusing to discharge a carrier when re- quired by the Department; for assigning the contract without the consent of the Post master General, or for setting up or run hing an express as aforesaid
 s. 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- ditonal stock or carriers is rendered neces- lsary; but the contractor may, in such case, lrelinquish the contract on timely notice, ii 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 or different grade of service 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- ry, May, August and November.
 10. 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 Icorrectly named.
 II. The Postmaster General is prohibited l by law from knowing y making contract for the transportation of the mail with any person who shall have entered into any combination, or proposed to enter into any combnation, to prevent the making ot 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 considera-
 ton to do, CT not to do, any thing whatever
 to induce any other person not to bid for
 mail contract Particular attention is called
 to the 2Sth section of the act of 1856, pro-
 hibiting combinations to prevent bidding. | l2. A bid received after time, to wit, the
 10th April next, at 10 m, or without the guaranty required by law, or that combines several routes in one sum of compensation, lcannot be considered in competition with regular proposal not adjudged to be extraVa- lgant.
 I3. A bidder may offer, where the trans lportation called for in the advertisement IS difficult or impracticabe at certain seasons, l to substitute an inferior mode of conveyance, or to intermit service specified number of Idays, 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. He may propose different days and hours of 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- judiced. He may ask for more running time tn the trin dIlrinn a snecified nunn herI