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"XII. The said Adams Express Company, under the arrangements and understandings aforesaid, extended its business in a southerly direction, and, as the word 'express' imports, always by the shortest line of communication to all the principal cities in the South-namely, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Montgomery, New Orleans, Memphis, and other placesand in so doing was always afforded by those occupying the public office of a common carrier all necessary facilities therefor, and which facilities were by said carriers increased to the said Adams Express Company in proportion with the increase of the demands of the public therefor.

"XIII. The Adams Express Company has always, in the conduct of its business, paid, and now pays to the common carriers whom it employs a just and reasonable compensation, satisfactory to them, for the facilities afforded, and has itself always charged the public only a just and reasonable compensation for the express services performed for it.

"XIV. In the conduct of its business, as aforesaid, the Adams Express Company has always represented, and now represents, that portion of the public which desires to avail itself, in the transmission of its property and valuables, of the pecuniary responsibility of the express company, and of the safeguards and checks which it has originated, provided, and enforced for the safe custody of the property committed to its care.

"XV. The Adams Express Company conducted its business, as aforesaid, until the commencement of hostilities, in 1861, when, by reason of the derangements of commercial intercourse then ensuing, and for other controlling reasons of a public character then generally known, it was obliged to discontinue its organization and business in the Southern States, and it thereupon withdrow from the same, and sold so much of its good-will and its equipment as then there existed to the Southern Express Company, a corporation created, as this plaintiff is informed and believes, under and pursuant to the laws of the State of Georgia; and since then the express business in the principal Southern States has been, and is now, conducted by the said Southern Express Company, under said charter, by which it is expressly authorized to conduct the same, and which said charter gives a leg

Opinion of the Court.

islative description of the kind and character of business to be done by said company as an express company, and to a copy of which the plaintiff craves leave to refer.

"XVI. After the cessation of the hostilities aforesaid an arrangement was made, and which is now in force, between the said Adams Express Company and the said Southern Express Company, for the general regulation of the transportation of property coming from the territory of the one into the territory of the other, and by which property received by the Adams Express Company, destined for points within the territory of the Southern, and property received within the territory of the Southern, destined to points within the territory of the Adams Express Company, or reached by its connections, is interchanged at certain specified points, and upon a basis of charge proportioned to the distance traversed in the territory of either. In case of such interchange of express matter within such territory the express company originally receiving the same remains liable to the public for the value thereof, until delivered to the consignee.

"XVII. Since the said understanding and arrangement, the Adams Express Company has made such interchanges with the said Southern Express Company, and now makes the same, at Richmond, Lynchburg, and Danville, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cairo, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky, and has not, itself, since then either delivered or received express matter directly south of such points, but the territory so directly south thereof has been operated by the said Southern Express Company alone."

On the 23d of November, 1871, the Adams Express Company and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Company entered into the following contract:

"This agreement, made this twenty-third day of November, A.D. 1871, between Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company, by R. S. Stevens, its general manager, party of the first part, and the Adams Express Company, by

party of the second part, witnesseth:

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"1. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company will

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furnish for the use of the Adams Express Company one car each way on its line from Sedalia, Missouri, via Parsons, Kansas, to Junction City, Kansas, to be hauled on a passenger train each day that a passenger train is to run over the line. The car to be used exclusively by the Adams Express Company, but not to carry at any one time an excess of seven tons of freight; the charges by the express company to its patrons to be not less than one and one-half first-class rates of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company at the time, as per its freight tariff. The railway company will also furnish from Parsons south to the Arkansas River the necessary accommodations in its baggage-car, and also similar accommodations in a baggagecar on the Holden line on one train each way. The express car, as well as all express matter carried over the road in any baggage or other car, to be in charge of one agent or messenger of the express company on each train, who is to be carried

free.

"2. All express matter from points on or north of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and all that comes from any point beyond or east of St. Louis, via that city, for points on the line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway or beyond, is to be brought on the said line at Sedalia, and no business for this road is to be done, or freight of any kind to be received or delivered, at Vinita, except such as originated at or is destined to points on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad south and west from Franklin, Missouri.

3. As part compensation to the railway company for the privileges furnished by it, as herein provided, the express company will pay to the railway company monthly one hundred dollars per day for each and every day that trains are run over the railway or any part thereof.

"4. As part consideration, it is also agreed that the express company shall carry the money and valuable packages belonging to the railway company over the line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway free of charge, and for all matter going to or coming from points beyond the line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, the express company will charge not exceeding two-thirds of its regular rate for such business. The

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superintendents and agents for said express company, whenever it is necessary to supervise the business, to have the privilege of travelling over the line of said road free; passes for such free passage to be furnished on application of the superintendent of the express company for this division.

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"5. The railway company agree, further, that they will not carry freight or packages for pay in their baggage-cars on passenger trains, nor allow their conductors or baggage-masters or other employés to do so, during the existence of this agreement, nor will they allow any other company, firm, or person the privilege of carrying freight on their passenger trains at any less rate of payment per day, or any greater weight in a car, or upon any better terms in any way than is granted to said express company under this agreement.

"6. It is understood that as the line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway is extended south from the Arkansas River, similar accommodations will be furnished for an express business, as herein above provided, at a reasonably increased cost, to be paid by the express company, as shall hereafter be agreed upon.

"7. This agreement to take effect on the first day of December, A.D. 1871, and continue in force for one year thereafter, and until thirty days' notice shall have been given to the other by the party desiring to terminate same."

Under this contract the Adams Company carried on its business over the railroad line, without objection from the railroad company, until December 1, 1880, when the railroad company notified the express company that it would be expected to retire from the operation of its business on that road January 1, 1881, as on and after that date the business would be done by or for the railroad company. This suit was brought after the service of that notice, and the prayer of the bill is substantially like that in the other cases.

The railroad company at first answered the bill, and testimony was taken, but before a final hearing the answer was withdrawn and a demurrer substituted.

In each of the cases a preliminary injunction was granted, and from that time until now the express companies have occu

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pied the roads the same as before the suits, but in connection with the railroad companies, as carriers of express matter, or with some other express company to which the privilege of doing an express business over the line had been granted by the railroad company.

A large amount of testimony was taken, and on the final hearing a decree was entered in each of the cases, one of which is as follows:

"I. That the express business, as fully described and shown in the record, is a branch of the carrying trade that has by the necessities of commerce and the usages of those engaged in transportation become known and recognized so as to require the court to take notice of the same as distinct from the ordinary transportation of the large mass of freight usually carried on steamboats and railroads.

"II. That it has become the law and usage, and is one of the necessities of the express business, that the property confided to an express company for transportation should be kept while in transit in the immediate charge of the messenger or agent of such express company.

"III. That to refuse permission to such messengers or agents to accompany such property on the steamboats or railroads on which it is to be carried, and to deny to them the right to the custody of the property while so carried, would be destructive of the express business and of the rights which the public have to the use of such steamboats and railroads for the transportation of such property so under the control of such messengers or agents.

"IV. That the defendant, its officers, agents, and servants, have no right to open or inspect any of the packages or express matter which may be offered to it for transportation by the plaintiff's company, or to demand a knowledge of the contents thereof, nor to refuse transportation thereof unless such inspection be granted or such knowledge be afforded.

"V. That it is the duty of the defendant to carry the express matter of the plaintiff's company and the messengers or agents in charge thereof at a just and reasonable rate of compensation, and that such rate of compensation is to be found and