was of blankets not only at Wilmington but nearly through the whole country this article of blankets is most in demand. These blankets were formerly known by the designation of negro. I fear lest the house may have used in its letter the new apellation of soldiers' blankets. If such is the case that is the sole and only charge that can be made against me.

He also says that he had 'some letters from individuals giving good accounts to their families and friends in the North-letters which I was to mail at Halifax-two or three loose sheets with memorandums of merchandise suitable for the market and commissions to be executed for firends; in fine, one pointing out what should be done to announce to me whether or no the port was blockaded. " On the 27th of September, 1861, De Bebian wrote a statement of his case to the French minister representing that he was a prtner in the house of O. G. Parsly & Co., of Wilmington; that his usual occupation was traveling abroad in the business of said house; that he returned from avoyage of that kind on the 6th of July, 1861; and proceeding to state with regard to his last voyage as follows:

My partners and myself concluded that it was opportune that I should go to England to liquidate some weighty affairs we had with various houses. That being done I was according to circumstances to remain in Europe and keep the fund in hand or else remit their equivalents in the shape of sundry merchandise in case the port of Wilmington, N. C., should have ceased to be closed to commerce.

After alleging that his detention was without cause and attended with sundy hardships he makes the following statements in relation to his papers:

The journals have spoken of heavy sums and of papers compromising me found among my baggage. That is false. The amounts I had at the time of my arrest were made up of about $250 in gold and a bill of exchange for 5,700 francs. These sums seized at that time have since been restored, but not so with my other papers, which consisted of four letters addressed to different correspondents of the house of O. G. Parsly & Co., and solely devoted to t he details and settlements of accounts. A note annexed contains some instructions about the shipments of merchandise I was to make in case the blockade should have ceased to trammel commerce-not a single line that could be interpreted as implying any political mission.

The said letter of De Bebian to the French vice-consul seeks to mislead that functionary in regard to the intended investment of "funds in shipments of merchandise most in demand" by representing that the house meant "articles such as seem best for a future time," and by an attempt to confound army blankets or soldiers' clothing with negro blankets; and also to transfigure his system of reciprocal signals to facilitate the running of the blockade into a method of "pointing out what should be done to announce to him whether or no the port was blockaded. " Toward his excellency the French minister De Bebian was still more disingenous. In his letter to that personage he speaks of his intended evasion of the blockade under the disguise in the first place of a design to remit t he equivalents of certain funds in the shape of sundry merchandise in case the port of Wilmington should have ceased to be closed to commerce; and in the second place of referring to some instructions about the shipments of merchandise he was to make "in case the blockade should have ceased to trammel commerce," these equivocal expressions being evidently used to cover his premeditated design fraudulently to evade the blockade, and all reference to his code of reciprocal signals to effect that object being suppressed, as was also all notice of the letters attempted to be conveyed by him from parties in the insurrectionary States to parties in other portions of the United States. -From Record Book, State Department, "Arrests for Disloyalty. "