Opinion of the Court.

against the plaintiff until the ejectment suit was instituted. Mills v. Lockwood, 42 Illinois, 111, 118. "Laches," the Supreme Court of Illinois has well said, "cannot be imputed to one in the peaceable possession of land for delay in resorting to a court of equity to correct a mistake in the description of the premises in one of the conveyances through which the title must be deduced. The possession is notice to all of the possessor's equitable rights, and he need to assert them only when he may find occasion to do so." Wilson v. Byers, 77 Illinois, 76, 84. See also Barbour v. Whittock, 4 T. B. Mon. 180, 195; May's Heirs v. Fenton, 7 J. J. Marsh. 306, 309.

3. Reference is made to the depositions of several witnesses, including the plaintiff, who testified in his own behalf, in which are detailed statements made by Ruckman, at different times after 1862, in reference to the title to these lands. This evidence, it is contended, and properly so, was incompetent under the well-established rule that "a grantee in a deed is not affected with the declarations of the grantor made after the execution and delivery of the deed, unless, with full knowledge of such declarations, he acquiesces in or sanctions them." Higgins v. White, 118 Illinois, 619, 624; Steinbach v. Stewart, 11 Wall. 566, 581; Winchester and Partridge Mfg Co. v. Creary, 116 U. S. 161, 165. But the question remains, whether the decree cannot be sustained by such evidence in the record as is competent and relevant. We think it can. At any rate, after a careful sifting of the proof, and giving due weight to all the facts and circumstances that may properly be considered, we do not see our way clear to disturb the decree.

There are no other questions in the case that we deem it necessary to notice. The decree is affirmed.

Statement of the Case.

EASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. UNITED

STATES.

APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS.

No. 134. Argued January 22, 23, 1889.- Decided February 4, 1889.

Prior to the expiration, June 30, 1877, of a wristen contract with a railroad company for carrying the mails, the Postmaster General, acting under provisions of law, notified the company in writing that from the day of that expiration to a day which made a term of four years, the compensation would be at rates named in the notice, "unless otherwise ordered." The company transported the mails, and accepted pay therefor at those rates, without objection. On the 1st July, 1878, the Postmaster General reduced the rates 5 per cent under the provisions of an act of Congress to that effect. The company made no objections to this, and continued to transport the mails for the rest of the term of four years, and received pay therefor at the reduced rates. They then brought suit to recover the amount of the reduction made after July 1, 1878; Held,

(1) That there was no contract to carry the mails for four years at fixed rates;

(2) That the company might have refused to transport them at the reduced rates;

(3) That its failure to do so and the absence of a protest constituted an assent to the rates fixed by the reduction.

THE case was stated thus by the court in its opinion.

The claim upon which this action is brought is for the balance alleged to be due the appellant for carrying the mails of the United States on certain routes, between July 1, 1878, and June 30, 1881.

It appears from the findings of fact that this company, for some years prior to March 31, 1877, carried the mails on each one of thirteen routes, under written contracts with the Postmaster General prescribing the compensation it was to receive for such services. The last one of these contracts was made March 31, 1874, and covered the period beginning January 1, 1874, and ending June 30, 1877. This contract was made subject to the provisions of the act of March 3, 1873, 17 Stat. 558, c. 231; Rev. Stat. § 4002, which authorized and directed

Statement of the Case.

the Postmaster General to readjust the compensation thereafter to be paid for the transportation of mails on railroad routes, the pay per mile per annum, not to exceed certain rates, graduated by the average weight of the mails carried "to be ascertained in every case by the actual weighing of the mails for such a number of successive working days, not less than thirty, at such times after June 30, 1873, and not less frequently than once in every four years, and the result to be stated and verified in such form and manner as the Postmaster General may direct."

By an act approved March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 341, c. 128, the Postmaster General was directed to have the mails weighed by the employés of the Post Office Department, and to have the weights stated and verified to him by them, under such instructions as he considered just to the department and to the railroad companies. Subsequently, by an act approved July 12, 1876, that officer was "authorized and directed to readjust the compensation to be paid from and after July 1, 1876, for transportation of mails on railroad routes by reducing the compensation to all railroad companies for the transportation of mails ten per centum per annum from the rates fixed and allowed" by the first section of the act of March 3, 1873. The same act provided that railroad companies, whose railroads were constructed in whole or in part by a land-grant made by Congress on the condition that the mails should be transported over their road at such price as Congress should by law direct, shall receive only eighty per centum of the compensation authorized by the act of July 12, 1876, 19 Stat. 78, 79, c. 179; Richardson's Suppl. Rev. Stat. 224.

The company was paid according to the terms of the contract of March 31, 1874, up to and including June 30, 1877. Prior to February 1, 1877, the Postmaster General sent to claimants, for each of the routes covered by its contract with the United States, a "railroad-distance circular," and, prior to April 16, 1877, a "railroad-weight circular;" the object of the first circular being to obtain accurate information for the use of the department in regard to the length and location of the plaintiff's road, and that of the last being to obtain a state

Statement of the Case.

ment of mail matter conveyed by it. The information called for by these circulars having been furnished, the Postmaster General, December 20, 1877, readjusted the compensation to be paid for carrying the mails over the routes in question, giving due notice thereof to the sixth auditor and to the railroad company. That order was in this form: "Authorize the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department to pay the Eastern Railroad Company, quarterly, for carrying the mail between from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1881, per annum (being $

and

at the rate of $ per mile per annum), unless otherwise ordered, subject to fines and deductions." On the same day the Postmaster General sent to the company a circular notice of adjustment of pay for each route in this form: "The compensation for the transportation of mails, etc., on your road, route between

and has been fixed from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1881, (unless otherwise ordered,) under acts of March 3, 1873, July 12, 1876, upon returns showing the amount and character of the service for thirty days, commencing April 16, 1877, at the rate of per annum, being $ per mile for miles." The compensation thus fixed was the maximum authorized by the act of 1873, as amended by that of 1876.

By the first section of the act of June 17, 1878, making appropriations for the fiscal year of the Post Office Department for the year ending June 30, 1879, and for other purposes, the Postmaster General was "authorized and directed to readjust the compensation to be paid from and after the first day of July, 1878, for transportation of mails on railroad routes by reducing the compensation to all railroad companies for the transportation of mails five per centum per annum from the rates for the transportation of mails, as the basis of the average weight fixed and allowed" by the first section of the act of July 12, 1876, 20 Stat. 140, c. 259; Richardson Suppl. Rev. Stat. 359. On the 12th of July, 1878, that officer readjusted the compensation to be paid to the appellant for the transportation of mails on said routes after July 1, 1878. Of this readjustment due notice was given to the company and to the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department. The

Statement of the Case.

notice to the Auditor was in this form: "Authorize the Auditor to decrease the pay of the Eastern Railroad Company for carrying the mails between from July 1, 1878, per annum, leaving the

to June 30, 1881, at the rate of

and

pay from that date per annum (being per mile,) being

a reduction of five per centum from the rates fixed for weight of mails in accordance with the act of June 17, 1878." The notice to the company was in this form: "Please take notice that the Auditor of the Treasury for this Department has been directed to decrease the pay of your company for the conveyancé of the mails on Route 9, between Portland and Portsmouth, from July 1, 1878, to June 30, 1881, $558.19 per annum, leaving the pay from the first-named date $13,233.55 per annum, being a reduction of five per centum from the rates fixed for weight of mails in accordance with the provision of the act of June 17, 1878."

In 1879, the Postmaster General, upon the application of the railroad company, caused the mails on the route between Portland and Boston to be re-weighed. That re-weighing resulted in an order, August 26, 1879, considerably increasing the compensation previously directed to be paid, but still it was five per cent less than it would have been under the order of December 20, 1877, unaffected by the reduction made by the order of July 12, 1878.

For carrying the mails on all the routes in question, from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1881, both inclusive, the railroad company received compensation in conformity with the above orders of the Postmaster General; that is, from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1878, according to the orders and notice of December 20, 1877, and from July 1, 1878, to December 30, 1881, according to those orders as modified July 12, 1878, and August 26, 1879.

The difference between the amounts actually paid to the claimant, under all of said orders, and the amount it would have received under the order of December 20, 1877 - if it was not bound by the order of July 12, 1878, making the reduction of five per cent is $5926.56, the amount claimed in the petition.