Southern shield., 1851-03-22
INSTRUCTIONS
Embracing certain conditions, chich ucW
 incorpOr0ted io he contracts.

Incorporated m Me contracts. l. Seven minutes are allowed for opening and closing the mails at all offices where no particu-
 lar time is specified; but on railroad and steam boat routes there IS to be no more delay than Is necessary to deliver and receive the bags. g. The mail to be conveyed in preference to
 passengers, and to their entire exclusion, if its
 we ght and bulk require 1t.
 B. Post Office blanks, mail bags, and the lspecial agents of the Department, on the exhi- biton of their credentials, are to be conveyed without further charge, on mail lines admitting of such conveyance.
 4. Mail agents are to be conveyed without
 charge on the principal railroad and steamboat Hines, where the size of the mails and number of the offices will require their employment by the Department; and, in that case, separate Apartment, for the exclusive of the Depart ment and Agent for the asserting and safe | keeping of the mail is to be provided by the lcontractor, ard under the direction of the De- lpartment.
 | }. In all cases there is to be forfeiture of the pay of the trip when the trip is not run and
 of not more than three times the pay of the tri p
 when the trip is not run, and no sufficient eX
 cuse for the failure is furnished, forfeiture of
 at least one-fourth part of 1t when the running
 or arrival is so far behind time as to loose the
 connection with depending mail ; and for feiture of a due proportion of 1t when grade of
 service Is rendered inferior to that in the con- tract These forleitures may be increased into penalties of higher amount, according to the
 nature or frequency of the failure and the i'm
 portance of the mail.
 6. Fines will be imposed unless the delin-
 quency be satisfactorily explained in due time,
 for failing to take from, or deliver at, post of fice the mail, or any part of it; for suffering it
 to be wet, injured, lost, or destroyed; or con veying it in place or manner that exposes it to | depreciation; loss, or injury; for refusing after
 demand to convey a mail by any coach, railroad car or steamboat which the contractor regular y runs on the route beyond the specified num- Der of trips in the contract, and for not arriving
 at the time set and for setting up or running Ian express to trans init commercial intelligence in advance of the mail, penalty will be exact ed equal to quarters pay.
 '. The Postmaster General may annu the contract for repeated failures; for violating the Post Office laws for disobeving the instruc- Itions of the Department; for refusing to dis charge carrier when required by the Depart ment; for assigning the contract without the lconsent of the Postmaster General, or for setting up or running an express as aforesaid. &. The Postmaster General may alter the |contract and alter the schedule, he allowing pro rata increase of compensation, within the re. lstrictions imposed by law, for the additional |service required, or for the increased speed. if the employment of additional stock or carriers is rendered necessary; but the contractor may, in such case, relinquish the contract on timely notice, if he prefers it to the change. The Postmaster General may annul the contract or lcurtail the service and pay, when he wishes to dispense with the service, i'll 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 ex- piraton of each quarter-say in February, 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 lis 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 con tract by any other person or persons, or who shall have made any agreement, or shall have given or performed, or promised to give or per form, any consideration to do, or not to do, any thing whatever to induce any other person not Ito bid for a mail contract Particular attention
 lis called to the 28th section of the act of 1886, prohibiting combinations to prevent bidding 12 A bid received after time, to wit, the lst
 of April next, at 10 m, or without the guaran- ty required by law, or that combines several