dimick to receive his orders about Fort Independence before transfering them. They are getting on very well, and if the city authorities here would lose some of their sympathy for them would be all right. I wish none but the U. S. officers has access to them.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN S. KEYES,

U. S. Marshal.

413 BROOME STREET, NEW YORK, November 24, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

MY DEAR SIR: I wish to turn attention to a matter not included within the scope of your instructions tome: The number of prisoners in Fort Warren is large, the force is small and composed of inexperienced troops who are frequently changed. There is work going on which calls for a force of laborers and a constant passing in and out of civilians of the lowest class. On saturdays the whole laboring force goes home; there can be and is no examination of their persons as they pass in and out. Out of this can come correspondence or the escape of an individual prisoner which would not be of much account, but a bold and desperate dash might the fort much more cheaply then the Government took Port Royal.

The political prisoners have money and intoxicating liquors enough to subdue the virtue of a sentinel or two, and I see no impossibility in their taking Colonel Dimick prisoner. The suggestion of a possible resort to the lex talions will pout them all to thinking. The political and military prisoners are allowed to mix and confer at pleasure, which should not be, and altogether the business is conducted too loosely. It would be an improvement to transfer all the state prisoners to Fort Independence, and keep them under the charge of a corps of sappers and mines or other well-trained force, and with an officer in command who will feel that this is a business of life and death. I would not like to have it known to the military gentleman that I have made these suggestions as I know nothing of war, &c. If the attention of the proper department is turned to the subject so as to secure investigation and attention it will suffice.

Yours, respectfully,

S. C. HAWLEY.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 25, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to invite your attention to the inclosed copy of a communication of the 22nd instant addressed to this Department of Lord Lyons relative to the case of Charles T. (or L.) Temple, a British subject arrested at Frederick on the charge of being a deserter from the U. S. service, and to request that you will cause the matter to be investigated and the result communicated to this Department.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosure.]

WASHINGTON, November 22, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAMH. SEWARD.

SIR: I received on the 20th of last month a letter signed Charles T. Temple stating that the writer was a British subject; that he had been