2nd. Authority to establish a recruiting service for the enlisted troops now on duty, viz, the regiment of South Carolina infantry and the battalion of South Carolina artillery, that the former may be recruited and filled up to ten full companies, and the latter increased to a regiment, with its proper complement of field officers. This will, of course, require the co-operation of the governor of the State.

3rd. Authority to procure, as speedily as may be, such means of transport armed if necessary, as will insure a speedy communication and transport, by the inland routes, between the different points of the coast, as well as such facilities for guard service as may be necessary.

4th. To enable these things to be done as speedily as possible, and to provide such material as may be required by the chief engineer in charge of the coast defenses and by the ordnance officer on duty here, that means to the following amounts may be placed to the credit of the following officers, subject to draft for no other purpose than the defenses of the coast, unless by order of the coast, unless by order of the Secretary of War: To the chief engineer, Major Trapier, $50,000; ordnance officer, Captain Childs, $25,000; quartermaster, Captain Lee, $100,000; total $175,000.

The reasons for the above are as follows: For the first, that many men will be willing to muster into service for a particular locality who would not engage to go beyond the limits of the State or the coasts adjacent. It would also be bad policy to take too many men from the vicinity of these plantations, drawn from localities thickly settled with black population.

For the second, is the manifest importance of keeping up the strength of the small force enlisted in the department being more reliable for the continued service of guarding the forts and batteries than men of a different class.

For the third that our only means of communication are by they inland routes, which are tortuous and shallow, and only available for certain classes of vessels. If we have these vessels and speedy communication the inland navigation is a great element of strength, but without it is one of weakness, enabling the enemy, by means of his barges, to over-power weak batteries, cut the communication, and lay waste whole sections of country containing valuable property. The guard service is required to enable us to watch the enemy's fleet, to assist vessels which may be endeavoring to run the blockade, and give timely notice of an attack in force. It is within my knowledge that one or two vessels at least have been warned off the harbor or captured which might have successfully run the blockade had there been a guard steamer to succor them. The brig West Indian, which ran the blockade this morning with 1,500 bags of coffee, came very near being lost by the wind failing when within 2 miles of the range of the forts and batteries. Had the calm lasted half an hour, chased as she was by the steam frigate and sloop of war now blockading here, she must have been captured by the boats of the squadron. A steam guard boat would have secured her from any hazard.

The reason for the fourth is, that while the War Department at Richmond is occupied with business of such gigantic importance as it now has in hand, many requisitions of vital importance lay by for their turn for consideration and action. Meantime master workmen and mechanics, many of them having their capital exhausted or in accounts against the Government are in the present state of the money market often unable to pay their workmen, and delay ensues in important business. Funds provided for general service in the Quartermaster's Department often are expended by requisition from abroad. Of the three requisi-