Mr. FOSTER. I am not disposed to ques‘tion the liberality or the princely may nificence or munificence of this company; an I am not disposed to palter with them or with anybody else; but as guardians of the public Treasury I think it is not to be considered mean if we refuse to vote away $50,000 without the slight est possible consideration or reason. This propoaition is simply a donation to this company of $60,000 on acontract; and that. 1sthe whole of it. It may be mean to decline to agree to it. I must stand the charge of meanness if it be so, forIdo decline. I know of no reason on earth wh the Covermnent of the U.S. should give $50,000 to this company over and above what they have agreed to ire on an honest contract, which the company do not. claim the cannot perform and make money on, which by its terms the company are not to begin to perform until next anuary. We propose new to give them $50,000, preIf they do not, they do liminary to their beginning to perform it and to palter with this company the Senator thinks is very improper. This company, it seems to me, do not place themselves in a very enviable position by coming before this Senate and as ting the Senate, nearly one year before the time when their contract was to be executed, to relieve them from the performance of at least 1/3rd of the expense they incurred, without diminishing one dollar of the amountof money to be aid. Why cannot this company have a little of this princely magnificence and say, “Inasmuch as we ask the Government to relieve us of 1/3rd of the expense which, by the terms of the contract, we were to be charged with, if government will relieve us, we will perform the residue of the service for 2/3rds of the amount of the contract.” Why do not the company do that? Is the Government of the U.S. paltering with them because we hold them to a contract which they do not claim is a heavy one? The honorable Senator says they would not have offered to make this contract unless they had supposed they were going on the direct route from SanFrancisco to China or Japan. Did this company make this contract openly, avowedly, in writin, plainly, explicitly, witha secret reservation that as soon as it was made they would et it altered? Is that what is meant by their understanding of the contract? Surely the contract was a straight contract enough. There is no doubt about what the contract means. This companywere required by their contract to go from SanFrancisco by the way of Honolulu, to China and Japan, 12 times, if I mistake not, perannum for $600,000. Now, they come here, and the honorable Senator says that that is a very round about way to go to Japan, and they want to go to Japan, and they want to go in astraight line, instead of goin round by Honolulu. Mr. President, was this muuificent company com. posed of landlubbers who did not know the way by water from SanFrancisco to China and Japan when they made their contract? Did the notknow something about the great circles an Manry’s charts of the sea and the difficulty of getting to China by way of the Sand wich Islands as well when they made this contractasthey do now? Why, sir, it looks to me the more I examine this matter, as thouwh, had it been made furtherdown East, we should have talked about some little Yankee trickery in a contract of this kind; and that they made a contract in this way with a view, after it was done, of being relieved from the onerous and burden some part of it, and'holding on to the part that was profitable to the company. That maybe a most ungenerous suspicion; at when the gentleman talks about the Government paltering with the company because we refuse to give them a douceur of $50,000, I think it is as well to look the whole contract over. But for the stipulation that the steamers should touch at Honolulu, out and back, I would not have voted for this subsidy in the outset without that stipulation, I do not believe it would have passed Congress. It is an important part, to my constituents the most important part of the service. Now, I say, Mr. President, that it is fair to treat this company just according to the terms a“nd sense of the contract, saying to them, You have made this contract; now go on and perform it.” If you find at the end of it, or at the end of one year, that there has been something mysterious which we did not know when we began, which calls upon the Government, acting liberally, honest y, and fairly, to make an additional approprintion to them, I " shall be one of those, ifpI should chance to be here, who will vote to pay them an additional price over and above the contract price, if it appears that the contract has proved a hard one for the parties under circumstances which they could not reasonably foresee. But when the contract stands as this does, perfectly fair, open, honest, and above board, for us now to give them $60,000 more by wav of addition before they begin to perform it, is throwing away money; and it is not, as it seems to me, the most liberal course or the most uprightnnd honorable for this company to ask it at the hands of this Government.