DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 20, 1861.

Rev. A. L. HITZELBERGER,

Boston College, Harrison Avenue, Boston.

SIR: * * * This Department having adopted a rule which precludes all visits to political prisoners even from ministers of the gospel of any denomination has hitherto strictly observed it. If, however, the prisoners themselves shall in the event of sickness or any other reasonable cause require the services of their spiritual advisers the rule would be relaxed in favor of any one of undoubted loyalty.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

HEADQUARTERS, Baltimore, November 20, 1861.

Brigadier General H. H. LOCKWOOD,
Commanding Expedition to Eastern Shore.

GENERAL: * * * Officers who have been in the pay of the Confederates should be arrested and held as prisoners until the order of the Government is announced. Rank and file if they have laid down their arms need not be disturbed.

In regard to correspondence I see no objection to the free circulation of letters to all portions of the two counties in which the authority of the Government is re-established.

You are right in your opinion that no act of a rebel convention or legislature can be recognized. In all these respects the two counties must when they come back be in the statu quo before the rebellion. Until some principles of reorganization can be agreed upon either as a part of Maryland or of Western Virginia their corporate powers as counties will be sufficient to meet all their exigencies. I speak without having examined the statutes of Virginia, but on all these points I will write you hereafter. * * *

I am, very respectfully, yours,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 21, 1861.

JOHN S. KEYES, Esq., U. S. Marshal, Boston.

SIR: I have the acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant in reference to the transfer of prisoners from Fort Warren to Fort Independence.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

F. W. SEWARD,

Assistant Secretary.

OFFICE U. S. ATTORNEY, Baltimore, November 21, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SIR: In view of the recent arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell and of the discussions to which it may lead to may be of service to your Department to be informed of a case which justifies a very grave suspicion that a British official has lent his aid to an American vessel to violate the blockade off the coast of South Carolina. The schooner Adelaide, of Charleston, S. C., late in the month of August sailed from