This bill authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to the party named therein the sum of $905.

The proofs with which I have been furnished fail to satisfy me that the Government should grant a pension on account of death produced by a self-administered narcotic in the circumstances which surround this case.

I do not see how the relief proposed can be granted in this case without an unjustifiable departure from the rules under which applications for pension should be determined.

I believe this claim for pension to be a fraud from beginning to end.

I return without approval House bill No. 4580, entitled 'An act granting a pension to Farnaren Ball.'

Any other course leads to the expenditure of money by postmasters for work which they should do themselves.

I return without approval a joint resolution.

I think, when the application of Mr. Worden for an increase in his allowances was twice declined for any cause during the year covering his present demand, that if he made personal expenditures for clerk hire, and especially if he did so without the encouragement of the Department, they were made at his own risk.

The allowances to the Lawrence post-office for the year ending June 30, 1883, was $3,100.

I should be glad to respond to these sentiments to the extent of approving this bill, but it is one of the misfortunes of public life and official responsibility that a sense of duty frequently stands between a conception of right and a sympathetic inclination.

I transmit herewith a report in relation thereto from the Secretary of State.

The temptation to relieve from contracts with the Government upon plausible application is, in my opinion, not sufficiently resisted.

I can see no fairness or justice to the Government in such a proposition.

I return without approval House bill No. 19.

A second law for the same purpose is of course unnecessary.

I return without approval House bill No. 823, entitled 'An act granting a pension to Hannah C. De Wilt.'

The second enactment is of course entirely useless, and was evidently passed by mistake.

The temptation is very strong to yield assent to the proposition for the relief of a citizen from liability to the Government arising from conduct not absolutely criminal.