any system of retaliation were to be adopted to meet the wrong we should begin with the strongest class of cases. I trust You Excellency will pardon me if I say thinks so still.

I beg leave to add a few words as to the representation of facts in the accompanying paper. The difficulty of obtaining correct statements in cases similar to the present is incredible. Even where, as in the present instance, the representation is made by a conscientious person, it is not to be implicitly trusted. I have been taught to be distrustful from many experiences. Mr. Bain, it is tue, is at Hatteras, but is not in irons, nor is he at hard labor. Mr. Hodges is not at Hatteras at all, but at Fort Hamilton, near fort Monroe, and is not in irons or at hard labor. Messrs. Armstead and Morris, so far from having been sent to Hatteras, have never been arrested. Daniel J. Turner went to Portsmouth after Bulter took military possession of the place, and being charged with offending against some regulation was imprisoned. It is alleged that he took the oath of Federal allegiance. Joseph Burke was arrested, but was released early in July last.

I shall be happy to carry out any directions which Your Excellency may give in the premises.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

[Inclosure.]

COLUMBIA, S. C., July 19, 1864.

His Excellency WILLIAM SMITH, Governor of Virginia:

DEAR SIR: In March last I introduced in the Senate of Virginia a preamble and resolutions relative to the arrest and imprisonment at Cape Hatteras, for no offense against law or order, of two worthy citizens of my native city, Rev. George M. Bain and W. H. H. Hodges, which requested you to call attention of the Confederate authorities to this outrage upon the rights of peaceful citizens of the Commonwealth, and ask that hostages might be held for them. This preamble and resolutions unanimously passed both houses of the General Assembly and were sent to Your Excellency. My army duties called me to the south immediately upon the adjournment of the Legislature, and I have never learned if any or what action had been taken by your in the prexies.

The preamble and resolutions were copied in the Yankee papers published in Norfolk and Portsmouth and freely commented on, yet, to add injury to injury, and heap insult upon insult, they arrested Messrs. W. Armstead, William H. Morris, Daniel J. Turner, and Joseph Burke,

merchants and gentlemen of position and intelligence-true Southern men; banished the first three to Cape Hatteras at hard labor, and the last named to Fort Monroe, where, at last account, he was cutting wood, with a ball and chain attached to his leg, for the negro cooks.

These gentlemen are directors of the Merchants and Mechanics' Savings Bank, of Portsmouth, of which Mr. Hodges is cashier, and the writer was president. Reverend Mr. Bain is cashier of the Portsmouth Saving Bank, and the only charge made against them is that the funds of their respective banks were removed beyond the gaps of he Federal tyrant "Beast Bulter," and his co-workers and co-robbers. The charge is true; that funds were removed, but the removal took place while that city was in possession of Confederate troops, and before its evacuation.

All these parties are native citizens of Virginia. Reverend Mr. Bain was born in Norfolk County, is identified with very many families in this