Mr. MAYNARD. Mr. Speaker, any claim I move to lay the bill on the involving but a few 100 dollars, standing upon its own peculiar facts, and having been examined and reported upon by a committee of this House, ought generally, in my opinion, to be allowed to pass upon the judgment of the committee and the report which they make, The amount of the present claim, however, is considerable; and the character of the claim is such as will make it a representative case for what may be a very large class of claims. As I understand the facts in brief, the owner of this vessel undertook to convey from NewYork to Fortress Monroe a lot of hay and straw, at the rate of $7 50 per ton; and a bill of lading was signed in M. usual form, with the exception that if the vessel was sent up the river from Fortress Monroe to unload, the war risk, as it is called, was to be assumed by the Government. It appears that this vessel was lost by being overhauled by a rebel cruiser. I did not understand from the report whether the carrier was held responsible for the loss of the cargo; I presume he was not; nor did I understand whether he had been paid for the carriage. If this fact ismentioned in the report my ear failed to catch it. Whether that was so or not I do not know that it would vary the condition of the case. The question involved in the case is, whether a o employed as a common carrier, or in any other service that might be called civil service, or analogous to ordinary civil service in time of peace, stands in any different legal attitude from those who are employed by private parties. The auditor who, under the law of Congress, has examined this case, has decided that a party who undertakes to carry for the Government as a common carrier assumes precisely the same risks and the same respon sibilities as a party carrying for private individuals. In this decision I think the auditor was clearly right. To hold that the Government is responsible for the loss of this vessel would, so far as I can see, make the Government liable for her loss in any other way by going down upon a shoal which was not laid down on the charts, or by any other of the 1,000 casualties to which this kind of service is always liable. It is urged that the presence of the rebel cruiser was not in this instance known. That may be true; but it was known that the sea was thus infested Mr. DELANO. Allow me, as I understand the morning hour is about to expire, to say there are some other matters the ComClaims desire to get before the House, and if this is going to lead to debate I hope the gentleman will yield and let me move to refer the bill to the Committee on the Private Calendar.