Southern shield., 1850-04-06
INSTRUCTIONS.

and closing the mails at ali offices where no particular time is speci(ed; but on railroad and steamboat routes there is to be no more delay than is necessary to deliver and re- ceive the bags.
 ?. The mail is to be conveyed in prefer ence to passengers, and to their entire eX- clusion, if it's weight and bulk require it. }. 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. l 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 assortng and safe-keeping of the mail is to be provided by the contractor, under inc 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 connection with a depending mail; and forfeiture of due proportion of it when grade of service is rendered inferior to that in the contract. These ioMeitures may be increased into Ipenalties 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 deln- lquency 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 } lsutering 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 to con- vey mail by any coach, railroad car, or Isteamboat, 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 lOrrunning an express totransmit commercial Intelligence in advance of the mail, penal ty will be eXacted equal to a quarters pay.
 '. The Postmaster General may annul the contract for repeated failures; for vio-
 lating the post office laws; for disobeyng the instructions of the Department; for refusing 10 discharge q carrier when re- Iquired by the Department; for assigning the Icontract without the consent of the Post master General, or for setting up or run lining an express as aforesaid.
 5. The Postmaster General may alter the contract, and alter the schedule, he allow ling 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- lditional stock or carriers is rendered neces- Isarv; but the contractor may, in such case, relinquish the contract, on timely notice, if he prefers it to the change. The Po3tmas- 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, Tor 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 Iexpiration of each quarter-say in Februa- Try, 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 lgreater than is advertised, if the places are correctly named.
 | II. The Postmaster General is prohibited lby law from knowingly making a contract flor the transportation of the mail with any lperson who shall have entered into any combination, or proposed to enter into any lcombnation, to prevent the making of any Ibid for mail contract by any other person Tor persons. who shall have made any agree lment. or shall have given or performed, orI } promised 10 give or perform, any considera- ton to do, CT not to do, any thing whatever Ito induce any other person not to bid for Imail contract Particular attention is called lto the 2Sth section of the act of 1886, pro- |hibitng combinations to prevent bidding.
 I2. A bid received after time, to wit, the l6th April next, at 10 a m, or without the guaranty required by law. or that combines several routes in one sum of compensation, cannot be considered in competition with regular proposal not adjudged to be extrava- gant.
 l3. A bidder may offer, where the trans Iportation called for in ihe advertisement IS difficult or impracticable at certain seasons, to substitute aninferior mode conveyance, Ior to intermt service specified number oi Idays, weeks, or months. He may propose Ito 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 Iof 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- Iiudiced. He may ask for more running jtime to the trip, during specified number |of days, at certain seasons of peculiarly bad roads; but beyond these changes a proposal