TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. Sess. HI. Ch.83. 1843.

617

every description ; for wharfage and dockage; storage and rent; travel-ling expenses of officers and transportation of seamen; house rent topursers, when duly authorized; for funeral expenses; for commissions,clerk hire, office rent, stationery, and fuel, to navy agents; for premiumsand incidental expenses of recruiting; for apprehending deserters; forcompensation to judge advocates; for per diem allowance to personsattending courts martial and courts of inquiry, or other services author-ized by law; for printing and stationery of every description, and forworking the lithographic press; for books, maps, charts, mathematicaland nautical instruments, chronometers, models, and drawings; for thepurchase and repair of fire engines and machinery connected therewith,and for other machinery for the repair of steam engines in navy-yards;for the purchase and maintenance of oxen and horses, and for carts,timber wheels, and workmen’s tools of every description ; for postageof letters on public service; for pilotage and towing ships of war; forassistance rendered to vessels in distress; for incidental labor at navy-yards, not applicable to any other appropriation; for coal and other fuel,and for candles and oil for the use of navy-yards and shore stations, andfor no other object or purpose whatever, for the said half calendar year,three hundred and thirty thousand dollars; and for the said fiscal year,four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

For contingent expenses for objects not enumerated for the said halfcalendar year, one thousand five hundred dollars; and for the said fiscalyear, three thousand dollars.

For printing and publishing the code of rules and regulations for thegovernment of the navy, prepared by the Secretary of the Navy andAttorney General, in obedience to a resolution of the last session, incase the same should be ratified by Congress , one thousand dollars.

For defraying the expenses of the agencies for the inspection of hemp,authorized by a joint resolution of Congress , approved eighteenth Feb-ruary, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, four thousand dol-lars : Provided, That all provisions and clothing, hemp, and other ma-terials of every name and nature, for the use of the navy, and thetransportation thereof, when time will permit, shall hereafter be furnish-ed by contract by the lowest bidder as follows : the Secretary of theNavy shall advertise, once a week, for at least four weeks, in one ormore of the principal papers published in the place where such articlesare to be furnished for sealed proposals for furnishing such articles, orthe whole of any particular class of articles, specifying in such adver-tisement the amount, quantity, and description of each kind of articlesto be furnished, and all such proposals shall be kept sealed until the dayspecified in such advertisement for opening the same, when they shallbe opened by or under the direction of the officer making such adver-tisement, in the presence of at least two persons; and the person offer-ing to furnish any class of such articles, and giving satisfactory securityfor the performance thereof, under a forfeiture not exceeding twice thecontract price in case of failure, shall receive a contract for furnishingthe same; and in case the lowest bidder shall fail to enter into suchcontract and give such security within a reasonable time, to be fixed insuch advertisement, then the contract shall be given to the next lowestbidder, who shall enter into such contract and give such security; andthat all such bids or proposals shall be preserved and recorded, and re-ported to Congress at the commencement of every regular session; andthe same shall contain a true and faithful abstract of all offers made,embracing as well those which are rejected as those which are accepted;the said abstract shall embrace the names of the party or parties offer-ing, the terms proposed, the sums demanded, and the length of timethe agreement is to continue. And in case of a failure, to supply thearticles or to perform the work, by the person entering into such con-Voi,. V.—78 3 n 2

Contingent

expenses.

Printing navyregulations.

Expenses ofhemp agencies.

Proviso: ma-terials for thenavy, &c. to befurnished bycontract.