For the reasons above stated district judges when holding courts outside of their districts, elsewhere than in the southern district of New York, are not authorized to be paid $10 a day upon their certificate, but are authorized to receive actual expenses upon itemized statements, supported by vouchers where possible. Whether these statements should be sworn to is a matter for the discretion of the Attorney-General, under whose control the appropriation for their payment is placed. In the letters of Judges Bunn and Seaman it is stated that until recently they were not required to make itemized statements of their expenses when holding court outside of their districts. In this they are mistaken, for the practice of requir ing such itemized statements has prevailed, as above stated, since the clause in the act of 1881 was passed, and an examination of the accounts of the marshal for the northern district of Illinois shows such itemized statements, although in one case it appears that Judge Seaman was allowed his expenses upon his certificate, apparently inadvertently, by the clerk who settled the account of the marshal, for that particular certificate was with some twenty other certificates of judges who were sitting in the circuit court of appeals. Respectfully, yours, The ATTORNEY-GENERAL. R. B. BOWLek, Comptroller. EXPENSES OF ACTING APPRAISERS OF CUSTOMS ATTENDING ANNUAL MEETINGS. The appropriation for the expenses of local appraisers of customs in attending their annual meetings is available for expenses of deputy collectors or other officers who, under sections 2946 and 2950, Revised Statutes, are acting as appraisers. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, December 7, 1895. SIR: I am in receipt of yours of the 6th instant, stating that a conference of local appraisers of customs was shortly to be held, and asking whether the expenses of deputy collectors or other officers of the customs acting as appraisers under the provisions of sections 2946 and 2950, Revised Statutes, can be 11268-VOL 2—19 paid from the appropriation "Expenses of local appraisers' meetings, 1896." Said appropriation reads as follows: "For defraying the necessary expenses of local appraisers at annual meetings for the purpose of securing uniformity in the appraisement of dutiable goods at different ports of entry, eight hundred dollars. (Act of March 2, 1895, 28 Stat., 931.) The manifest purpose of the appropriation, as evidenced by the language used, was to defray the expenses of those persons who, under the laws, are appraisers of merchandise at the different ports of entry. As sections 2946 and 2950, Revised Statutes, provide for the designation of officers of the customs to perform the duties of appraisers where no appraisers are in fact provided by law, the persons so designated are, in my opinion, "local appraisers" within the meaning of those words as used in said appropriation, and therefore their expenses incurred in attending said meeting are a proper charge against said appropriation. When there is an existing contract for the "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail-station service," with the condition that the Postmaster-General may cancel the same by payment of one month's compensation, or reduce the service without reduction of pay, it is within his discretion, in the administration of the postal service, to contract with another for street-railway postal-car service covering in part the service under the former contract, and allow both contracts to remain in full force. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, SIR: I am in receipt of yours of November 18, relating to the employment of street-railway companies for mail-messenger service, in which you ask whether the expense of such service in cities where there already exists regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail-station service, under subsisting contracts, may be paid from the appropriation for mail-messenger service. As an example the situation in the city of Boston is detailed in your letter. It appears that there exists, under contract with one L. C. Slavens, a "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail station service" for the carrying of the mail "between post-offices and railway stations, between postoffices and steamboat landings, between post-offices and mail stations, or between the several railroad stations, steamboat landings, and mail stations," within the territory covered by the post-office of the city of Boston; that in said contract it is provided that said Slavens shall be required— "To perform all new, or additional, or changed covered regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail-station service that the Postmaster-General may order at the city of Boston, during the contract term, without additional compensation, whether caused by change of location of post-office, stations, landing, or the establishment of others than those existing at the date hereof, or rendered necessary, in the judgment of the Postmaster-General, for any cause, and to furnish such advance wagons or extra wagous from time to time for special or advance trips as the Postmaster-General may require as a part of such new or additional service." It is further provided in the contract: "The Postmaster-General may change the schedule and termini of the route, vary the routes, increase, decrease, or extend the service thereon without change of pay; and that the Postmaster-General may discontinue the entire service whenever the public interest, in his judgment, shall require such discontinuance; but for a total discontinuance of service the contractor shall be allowed one month's extra pay as full indemnity." no decrease in compensation being made for a partial decrease of the service, as specifically required by the advertisement under which the contract was made and which is made a part thereof. The sum of $49,516 per annum is payable under said contract. It appears that, this contract being still in force, the West End Street Railway Company has by your orders been designated as mail messenger at $12,750 per annum, for all service required between stations and substations in the city of Boston from May 1, 1895. It further appears that said West End Street Railway Company has been designated as mail messenger for other service at $1,543.99 per annum. It furthermore appears that the West End Street Railway Company furnishes cars built and used for mail purposes only upon substantially the same pattern as steam-railway postal cars, permitting the assorting and distribution of mail while en route, and that by reason of this system a large saving of time is made in the distribution of letters between the main postoffice and the several branch stations, and that accordingly you have deemed such street-railway service of decided advantage in the betterment of the mail service in the city of Boston. It does not appear that the contract for "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail-station service" with said Slavens has been terminated by giving the one month's notice required by the contract, and therefore that the full compensation provided for in the contract with said Slavens is required to be paid. On account of some suggestions having been made that while the "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail-station service" exists under the contract with Slavens without diminution of compensation you are not authorized to establish the mail-messenger service with the West End Street Railway Company, you ask for my decision upon the question. Mail-messenger service is specifically provided for in the act of March 3, 1887 (24 Stat., 492), as follows: "That the Postmaster-General be, and he is hereby, authorized to employ such mail-messenger service as may be necessary for the carriage of the mails in connection with railroad and steamboat service, transfer service between depots, over bridges or ferries, between post-offices, post-offices and branch offices or stations, in cases where by the laws and regulations of the Post-Office Department railroad companies, steamboat companies, and the masters of vessels are not required to deliver into and take from the post-offices the mails carried on their lines or vessels.” same. It appears that such mail-messenger service existed by regulations of the Post-Office Department prior to the passage of said act, and that the act was passed to specifically legalize the (House Report No. 2207, Forty-seventh Congress, first session.) The language of the act is broad enough to include what is known as the "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail station service," that service being in fact nothing more than mail-messenger service, performed under contracts executed in substantially the same manner as those required for star routes. For some reason, possibly because the contracts are so executed, payment therefor has always been made from the appropriation for inland transportation by star routes, and said fact has been reported to Congress annually in the reports of the Postmaster-General since 1886. That the service required of the West End Street Railway Company is mail-messenger service, authorized by the act of March 3, 1887, seems entirely clear, as that act provides for such service "between post-offices, post-offices and branch offices or stations," the methods to be adopted and the manner of service and the persons or companies to perform the same being left by the act to the discretion of the PostmasterGeneral. It is clear, therefore, that the designation of the West End Street Railway Company as a mail messenger was a proper and legal one, providing the same is not prohibited by the fact that at the time the designation was made there existed the contract with Slavens for "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail station service," and, therefore, that apparently there is a duplication of the service, with double pay. It appears, however, from the statements made by you in regard to the service rendered by the West End Street Railway Company, as above described, that that service is very different from the "regulation wagon mail messenger, transfer, and mail station service," and accomplishes a very different purpose, in addition to the carrying of the mail from the main post-office to the branch offices and between the various branch offices in the city of Boston. Whether this new service should have been inaugurated while another service existed for carrying the mails between the same points, but in a manner which did not accomplish the same results as that provided by the West End Street Railway Company, seems to be a matter entirely within the control of the PostmasterGeneral, under whom the appropriations for the postal service are placed, and who is responsible for their proper and economic use, and the accounting officers have nothing to do with the matter, provided the methods adopted by the PostmasterGeneral are legal. Whether the contract with Slavens should be canceled, under the provision therein which authorizes such cancellation upon the payment of one month's extra pay as full indemnity, seems also to be one for the determination of the Postmaster-General, depending upon his view as to whether upon a readvertisement of the service a benefit would arise to the Government by a saving of expense in the carrying of the mails under the reduced service. As the law authorizes the appointment of the West End Street Railway Company as a mail messenger and an appropriation exists for the payment of the expense thereof, and as |