Forwarding Merchant, one whose business it is to send forward goods to a distant consignee. There are in the United States persons who engage in this business almost exclusively, especially in the western cities, in which produce accumulates on its way to the east, and to which eastern goods are carried for distribution through the west. There is nothing, however, in their business which is so far peculiar to them as to be governed by peculiar laws of its own, and therefore call for especial statement. But there are two classes of persons who come under this name, or discharge the duties which it describes, and of whom more should be said. One of these consists of those who are called expressmen, and the other of common carriers, who, besides carrying goods on their own route, undertake to forward them still further. The whole business of expressmen is of comparatively recent origin; but it has already reached an immense extent and importance. It has grown out of common carriage of goods, but differs from it mainly in the fact that expressmen have no means of carriage of their own, but hire cars or vehicles, or room in them, and usually go with their parcels.

It may be said, too, that they usually carry parcels only, or if larger packages, still not cargoes or large quantities of goods, as hundreds of barrels or bales, the carriage of these things being still left to common or private carriers. The principal question in relation to expressmen has been, are they still common carriers in law, and do they as such come under the strict responsibilities of common carriers? In other words, do they insure the safe carriage and delivery of all the goods against all risks "except the act of God and the public enemy"? It is now settled that they do thus insure the goods they receive throughout the whole route for which they profess to be carriers, and that they are therefore liable for any loss or injury to them, without any proof or intimation of their negligence or default. No customer is bound to inquire by what means or by what arrangements the expressman proposes to carry his parcel. If he receives it in Portland, and undertakes, specially or by general advertisement, notice, or sign, to express it through (to use a common phrase) to New Orleans or San Francisco, he is responsible for its safe delivery there. -A railroad company which takes goods at one place to be carried to a distant one might be thought to come necessarily under the same rule, but it is not quite so.

There is this difference between the two cases: the expressman has not, or is not known to have, any regular means of conveyance of his own for any definite portion of the distance over which he assumes to carry the goods. The owner who gives him a parcel in Portland for New Orleans has no means of knowing, and indeed no reason for supposing, that the expressman has not made similar arrangements for all the parts of his route that he has made for any part. It is indeed commonly understood that every expressman does not undertake to convey goods everywhere, but this man advertises from A to B, because he has so arranged and provided, and that man from A to C, and the other from A to D; and his advertising, or indeed his undertaking to carry to the specified place, may properly be understood as a declaration on his part that he has made sufficient preparation in that direction and to that distance. But if the man in Portland puts goods on board a railroad car to go to New York, he knows, or should know, that the railroad company will convey it a certain part of the way in their own carriage, and under the charge of their own servants, and will not and cannot do anything beyond that point except to put it safely on board of the cars of another company, who will take it to or toward New York. That is, the man in Portland knows that the railroad company will there receive the parcel as a carrier, and take it a certain distance as carrier, and will then act as a forwarding merchant for the rest of the route, sending it on in the best way they can.

Here then is a change of relation, and with it a change of obligation; for the essential difference is this: a common carrier insures his goods against all risks but those Arising from the act of God or the public enemy; but the forwarding merchant is liable only for his own default or neglect. If a company take a parcel in Portland, and it is lost between Boston and Worcester, no one knows how, the sender can look at once to the company that took it if they are carriers all the way, but not if they were carriers only to Boston, where their road ends, and only forwarding merchants for the rest of the route, and can show that they delivered the parcel safely and properly for further carriage. If it is known where the parcel is lost, the sender may always call on the company who had it in their possession or under their care when it was lost. But if, as sometimes happens, it can be traced beyond the first carrier, and no negligence can be imputed to him, and no one knows what has become of it, the sender is wholly remediless unless the first carrier is carrier to the end. Whether he is so or not has been very much disputed. Cases turning on this point have been very frequent both in England and the United States, and perhaps the law may not be positively determined in either country.

Perhaps it may be said that the English courts are more disposed to fix the liability of carrier to the end upon the party that first takes charge of the parcel than our own courts; but upon the whole, and resting upon the most recent adjudications, the rules of law in this matter may be summed up thus. There may be a partnership in the business of common carriage as in all others, and a railroad company may connect itself with other companies or with other carriers, and form a quasi partnership, the effect of which will be that each member will be liable, in solido, for all the rest. In that case, all the companies on the whole route are liable for a loss occurring in any part; and in particular the first company taking the parcel, or the last into whose hands it may be traced, may be made liable severally for any loss which has happened on the route. The company comes under such a liability equally by forming such a partnership and entering into such a joint business, or by advertising or indicating such a joinder in business, in any way which entitles third parties to act on the belief of it.

And if such companies have a joint agent at either terminus or at any station, and this agent, with the knowledge of all, and purporting to act for all, sells a through ticket, as it is called, none of the companies thus represented can deny their joint business and joint or several liability for the whole; and if the price of the ticket is credited by the seller to all the companies and is divided among them, this constitutes conclusive evidence that each of them undertakes to be a carrier, with a responsibility as such, through the route. But the mere fact that a parcel directed to a distant place is received at a station, and there paid for for the whole route, does not of itself make any carrier for a part of the distance liable as carrier beyond that part. The test of the liability in every case is, what did the party undertake to be and to do? If he said he would carry all the way, he is liable as carrier all the way. If he said he would carry a part of the way and then send it on, he is only liable accordingly. And taking all the facts into consideration, which of these bargains was it that the railroad company made with the sender?-With this principle to guide us, we may return to expressmen.

A person living at Albany wishes to send by express a parcel to New Bedford. He gives it to an expressman of Albany, who takes it to New York, and there gives it to the expressman for Boston, who pays the Albany man his fee for bringing it to New York, and takes it to Boston. The expressman between Boston and New Bedford pays the New York man what he paid, and also the fare from New York to Boston, and takes it to New Bedford; and the consignee when he takes the parcel pays the man who gives it to him all he has paid, and in addition his fare from Boston to New Bedford. Now, if the parcel did not arrive safely, but was lost somewhere on the route, is each one of these expressmen liable for the whole ? We .should say this must depend upon what each one undertakes to do. If the Albany man advertises that he takes goods to New Bedford, he is liable as far as New Bedford as carrier. If he advertises that he carries parcels to Boston, he is so liable to that place; if only to New York, he is liable as carrier only to New York, and as forwarding merchant at New York, and there his liability ends; and so of all the rest.

Expressmen now not uncommonly insert in their bills of lading or receipts which they give their customers a clause to this effect:This company is responsible only as forwarders, and only for the negligence or other default of persons employed by them; and this is a part of our contract with all whose goods we carry." But the law is now settled that while a common carrier may make a valid special bargain with his customer, a mere notice or declaration upon a ticket or bill of lading does not constitute such a bargain, unless assented to by the customer.