Class 6.—­All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,500 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,500 or more per annum.

It is provided, That this classification shall not include persons appointed to an office by and with the advice and consent of the Senate nor persons employed as mere laborers or workmen; but all positions whose occupants are designated as laborers or workmen, and who were prior to May 6, 1896, and are now regularly assigned to work of the same grade as that performed by classified employees, shall be included within this classification.  Hereafter no person who is appointed as a laborer or workman, without examination under the civil-service rules, shall be assigned to work of the same grade as that performed by classified employees.

It is also ordered, That no person shall be admitted into any place not excepted from examination by the civil-service rules in any of the classes above designated until he shall have passed an appropriate examination prepared by the United States Civil Service Commission and his eligibility has been certified to this office by said Commission.

By direction of the President: 

HENRY T. THURBER,
  Private Secretary.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 12, 1897.

Hon. JUDSON HARMON,
  Attorney-General of the United States.

DEAR SIR:  The bill which has been for some time pending before the Congress providing for the adjustment and extension of the indebtedness of the Pacific railroads to the Government of the United States has been defeated in the House of Representatives.

In the case of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Kansas Pacific Railroad, a default in the payment of their indebtedness having occurred and suits having been commenced for the foreclosure of the lien upon said roads which is paramount to the lien and security of the United States, you are hereby directed, pursuant to the provisions of an act of Congress passed March 3, 1887, after taking such precautions and perfecting such arrangements as are possible to assure as far as practicable the payment of their indebtedness to the Government as a result of the suits now pending or others to be instituted, to take such proceedings in the courts as shall be needful to protect and defend the rights and interests of the United States in respect of such indebtedness, and to take steps to foreclose the mortgages or liens of the United States upon the property of these railroad companies.

In the case of the other aided Pacific railroads, as to which no foreclosure suits are pending, a different situation is presented, which requires further consideration before deciding the course to be taken by the Government.

Yours, truly,

GROVER CLEVELAND.

AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.

Rule VI of the civil-service rules is hereby amended by adding to the exceptions from examination in the departmental service a new clause, to read as follows: