electric telegraph belonging to or under the control of the company, and which may have been lawfully constructed, or any apparatus or other part of any such telegraph or any works connected therewith, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

LXV. Any officer or servant of the company, and all persons called by any such officer or servant to his assistance, shall or may seize or detain any person who shall or may, in the presence of such officer or servant, wilfully have broken, injured or obstructed the working of any telegraph of the company, or any of the apparatus or works belonging to or connected with the same, and whose name or residence shall be unknown to such officer or servant, and shall convey such offender with all convenient speed before some justice, without any other warrant or authority than this act, and such justice shall proceed with all convenient speed to the hearing and determining of the complaint against such offender.

LXVI. If any person shall wilfully or negligently break, throw down, destroy, or injure any such telegraph, apparatus, buoys, or works as aforesaid, and shall not on demand make sufficient satisfaction for the damage thereby done, the company may recover such damages from the person so offending as any two justices think reasonable and adjudge, and the recovery of such damage shall not relieve such person from liability to any other punishment or penalty.

LXVII. The clauses of "The Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845," with respect to the recovery of damages not specially provided for, and of penalties, and to the determination of any other matter referred to justices, shall be incorporated with and form part of this act.

LXVIII. Nothing in this act, or the acts wholly or in part incorporated therewith, shall authorize the company to purchase, take, use, or otherwise interfere with any lands or any rights in respect thereof belonging to her Majesty in right of her crown without the consent in writing of the commissioners for the time being of her Majesty's woods, forests, and land revenues, or some one of them, first had and obtained for that purpose, and which consent such commissioners or commissioner are, or is, hereby authorized and empowered to give or to divest, prejudice, diminish, alter, or take away any of the estates, rights, privileges, powers, or authorities which now are or hereafter may be vested in or enjoyed by her Majesty, her heirs and successors. LXIX. All the costs and expenses of and incidental to the applying for and passing of this act shall be paid by the company.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, April 15, 1857.

SIR: Your letter on the subject of a contract with the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company has been received and considered, in connexion with the act of Congress to which it refers, and the correspondence of the company with the British govern

ment.

Under the direction of the Secretary, I have now to inform you that this department is prepared to contract with said telegraph company, as soon as a similar contract shall have been entered into with Great Britain, upon the following conditions, viz:

1. The United States, from the time of the completion of the submarine line of telegraph between Newfoundland and Ireland, and while it shall continue in working order, will pay at the rate of $70,000 per year, for twenty-five years, as a remuneration for the work done on behalf of the government, in conveying its messages outward and homeward: Provided, however, That if, within that time, the net profits of the company shall be equal to a dividend of six per cent. per annum on a capital of £350,000, then the annual payment by the United States is to be reduced to fifty thousand dollars for the remainder of the twenty-five years.

2. The said company, in consideration of the premises, will give to the government of the United States concurrently with that of the Great Britain a preference in the transmission of messages, the despatches of the two governments to have priority in the order in which they arrive at the stations, respectively.

3. The tariff of prices for the use of such submarine communication by the public shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and the government of Great Britain or its authorized agent.

4. The United States and the citizens thereof shall enjoy the use of the said submarine telegraph and the lines of telegraph which may at any time connect with the same at its terminus on the coast of Newfoundland and in the United States, for all time, on the same terms and conditions which shall be stipulated in favor of the government of Great Britain and the subjects thereof, recognizing equality of rights in such use among citizens of the United States.

5. The contract will be subject to the conditions expressed in the act of Congress on this subject, approved March 3, 1857, and may be terminated by Congress, after ten years, upon giving one year's notice.

The British government has expressed its readinesss to enter into stipulations of a similar character, by the letter of James Wilson, in behalf of the lords commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, dated November 20, 1856, and it is not doubted, therefore, that the two contracts may be completed at an early day. In the meantime, it is understood that the Secretary of the Navy feels himself at liberty to further the great purpose had in view by Congress, by furnishing two ships to be employed in laying down the submarine cable, and that these ships will soon be ready for sea.

Very respectfully, &c.,

PETER COOPER, Esq.,

JOHN APPLETON,
Assistant Secretary.

President of the New York, Newfoundland, and

London Telegraph Company.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

JUNE 9, 1858.—Unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. DAVIS submitted the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 15th ultimo, to inquire into certain charges made by citizens of Iowa against Henry M. Rice, a Senator from Minnesota, having had the same under consideration, report:

That, under the authority of the resolution, they procured from the War Department and elsewhere papers exhibiting the facts in the case, and had before them twenty-two witnesses, who testified, under oath, as to the allegations made against Mr. Rice; and, after an examination of all the testimony adduced, they do not find that it sustains any allegation which imputes criminality to or arraigns the integrity of Mr. Rice; and, finding nothing in the developments of the investigation which, in the opinion of the committee, tend to disqualify him for a seat in the Senate, they herewith submit the record in the case, as a part of this report, and ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

RECORD OF THE COMMITTEE.

MAY 19, 1858.

Committee met; all present.

Mr. H. M. Rice was in attendance by invitation of the chairman of the committee, who also invited Mr. T. Davis, of Iowa, to attend, but he was not present when the committee organized. The chairman presented a letter from the Secretary of War, dated May 20, 1858, in reply to his letter of the 18th instant, requesting that officer to communicate to the committee anything on file in the War Office relating to the conduct of Mr. H. M. Rice, his agent for the sale of Fort Crawford reserve, not embraced in his report of the 13th April,