THIR.TY—FIR.ST CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 34. 1851. 623 dollars; and the Secretary of the Navy is hereby required so to modify Hunting dry {hg contract ullcgcd to have been made on the seventeenth January 5;:* m C°m`°’· mt, as to confine the Sum to {hi} C0¤Stl'l1cti0!1 of the floating dock alone, gierms of com without the basin and railway: Provided, The contractors will agree tract and adver- {0 dg the work at the estimates made by the department in November for and December last.: And provided, The Secretary considers the said estimates fair and reasonable; and so much of said law as authorizes the construction of the basin and railway is hereby repealed: Provided, That before making said contract the Secretary of the Navy shall give at least sixty days’ notice by advertisement in the usual way. For transportation of the United States mail between New York and Tmnsporcqciou Liverpool, between New York and New Orleans, Havana, and Chargres, °f *}****1 é° L“'°*· . . . poo ,an to Ore- [Chagres,] and between Panama and some pomts in the Territory of gm, md to Ha. Oregon, eight hundred and seventy-four thousand six hundred dollars: v=m¤,¤¤<1t<>N¤w Provided, That no payment shall be made for said services except in Oggxénts to proportion to the mail service heretofore performed, or that maybe be made only hereafter performed; and that the Secretary of the Navy is hereby §g;:{"‘°° P°" directed to make payment in said proportion only: Provided, also, Advéuces to That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he i hereby, authorized and by refundeddirected to require the several advances of money made under the act of Congress, August third, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, 1848} <=h· 121- to the diiferent contractors or their assignees, for mail steamship service, to be refunded by deductions from the compensation of each line, ten pcr cent. annually, reckoning in the adjustment of the advances tc all of the lines, from the commencement of the performance of their respective mail service: Andpravided, further, That the said contract- Interest to bg ors or their assigns shall, from and after the passage of this act, pay P¤idinterest on the balances of said advances still due, at the rate of six per cent. per annum till paid: And also provided further, That the Re-mapge Secretary of the Navy and the Postmaster-General be authorized, by ;*}°";u.°*` “m°’ and with the consent of the contracting parties respectively, to rc- S mg` arrange the running of the United States mail steamships, so as to afford more direct dispatch between the ports of the United States and the Isthmus of Panama: Provided, That the Postmaster-General shall §emi·m0utb1y maintain a semi-monthly mail between Charleston, Savannah, and gggrlestggtwggg Havana, during the continuance of the Sloc-contract, and also to make “¤m,i,,.mI1 Ha. the service from Panama to California and Oregon conform with the Vaga- _ { Service required by the existing contract on the Atlantic side of the Pa:,$;°t0 gg; Isthmus, by increasing the trips of the Pacific line to semi-monthly: gen and Califor- Pfovided, That the said increased service on the Pacific side shall be “"i,mviS° ata rate not exceeding seventy-five per cent. upon the amount now ` paid for Pacific service, and to be performed in steamships built according to the specifications, and subject to all the clauses of the A.Harri’s contract, beneficial to the United States. And the Postmaster- General is hereby authorized to include in this arrangement such a provision for the transportation of the letter mails only in the steamships of the said contractors, running between New York and Chargres, [Chagres,] and as in his opinion the public service may demand, not exceeding in the whole the amount herein limited: And provided, further, Pzoviso. That the compensation for the semi-monthly service already pedormed between Panama, and California, and Oregon, and for such service for the coming year, shall not exceed three fourths the usual rate at which additional mail service may `be ordered under existing laws, and shall be paid out of any uuexpended balance of money heretofore appropnated for mail steam service: Provided, That whenever a better Rouge from route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is established, the S80- Qgntlfui; PI; YWKTY of the Navy and the Postmaster-General are authorized to ¤gl’8€ changed. with the present contractors for the Pacific line to change the terminus of the additional semi-monthly service hereby authorized, so as to
