now in custody at Fort Lafayette awaiting full disclosures. In his possession were found seventy letters, four of which were unsealed and sixty-six sealed. There was also found in his possession a sealed bag marked "Foreign office 3," with two labels as follows:

On Her Brit. Major 's service-The Right Honorable the Lord John Russell, M. P., H. B. M. 's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, foreign office, London.

R. BUNCH.

The bag bears two impression of the seal of office of the British consul at Charleston and seems to contain voluminous papers.

There were also found upon Mr. Mure's person in an open envelope what pretendes to be a passport in the following word. * Also a letter of instructions which is as follows. *

There were also found several unsealed copies of a printed pamphlet entitled, "A narrative of the battle of Bull Run and Manassas Junction, July 18 and 21, accounts of the advance of both armies, the battles and rout of the enemy, compiled chiefly from the detailed reports of the Virginia and South Carolina press, Charleston steam-power press of Evans & Cogswell, Nos. 3 Broad and 103 East Bay streets, 1861. "

This pamphlet is manifestly an argument for the disunion of the United States. Several copies of it were found in envelopes addressed to persons in England.

The marks and outward appearance of the bag indicate that its contents are exclusively legitimate communications from the British consul at Charleston to Her Britannic Majesty's Government. Nevertheless I have what seems to me good reasons for supposing that they may be treasonable papers designed and gotten up to aid parties engaged in arms for the overthrow of this Government and the dissolution of the Union. These reasons are:

First. That I can hardly conceive that there can be any occasion for such very voluminous communications of a legitimate nature being made by the consul at Charleston to his Government at the present time. This circumstance, however, is admitted to be very inconclusive.

Second. Consuls have no authority to issue passports, the granting of them being as I understand not a consular but a diplomatic function. Passports, however, have in other times been habitually granted by foreign consuls residing in the United States. But soon after the insurrection broke out in the Southern States a regulation was made by this Department which I have excellent means of knowing was communicated to the British consul at Charleston to the effect that until further orders no diplomatic or consular passport would be recognized by this Government so far as to permit the bearer to pass through the lines of the national forces or out of the country unless it should be countersigned by the Secretary of State and the commanding general of the Army of the United States. Mr. Mure had passed the lines of the army and was in the act of leaving the United States in open violation of this regulation. Moreover the bearer of the papers, Robert Mure, is a naturalized citizen of the United States, has resided here thirty years and is a colonel in the insurgent militarh Carolina.

Third. If the papers contained in the bag are not illegal in their nature or purpose it is not seen why their safe transmission was not secured as it might have been by exposing them in some way to Lord

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*Omitted here; see ante.

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