stance of the Peruvian minister, to the agents of the Peruvian Government to reship from Norfolk the guano belonging to that Government, which permit was immediately respected by me. If Mr. Cutting applied for, and the Treasury Department did not give him, a permit to take a return cargo in the Marblehead, it was a virtual refusal of such a permit by that Department instead of being a permit to take a return cargo as construed and carried out by General Viele. The Secretary of the Treasury only ruled that the Marblehead - the vessel only - might be "cleared" (have permission not sail), not with a cargo, and did not, I respectfully submit, authorize her being cleared, as she was, with a return cargo, under a military permit purporting to be based on a rule of the Treasury Department, which cannot be construed from the copy you sent me of Mr. Chase's letter to Mr. Cutting of September 27. This military permit for a return cargo was, I beg leave to remind you, in conflict with my instructions from the Navy Department, which I had the honor to communicate to you on the 23rd-24th of September, six days previous to the sailing of the Marblehead.

It appears that the schooner Conrad Fox, which you say came to Fortress Monroe loaded with coal and lumber for Norfolk, did not, as you were informed, come to Fortress Monroe "with a regular clearance for Norfolk." The captain of this schooner informed Captain Case to-day that he has no clearance or manifest, as there was no custom-house at Havre de Grace to issue them. Besides her enrollment and license for coasting trade she has nothing but a bill of lading, dated Havre de Grace, September 27, 1862, for 85 tons of coal and 5,000 feet of cullings, to be delivered to Kimberly & Bros., at Norfolk, Va. On the back of this bill of lading are the following indorsements:

HEADQUARTERS,
Norfolk, Va., October 8, 1862.

Permission is hereby given to Messrs. Kimberly & Bros. to receive from Fortress Monroe 85 tons of coal, per schooner Conrad Fox.

By order of Brigadier-General Viele:

J. H. LIEBENAU,

Assistant Adjutant-General and Provost-Marshal.

Approved and permitted.

JAMES MILLWARD,

Captain of Port, & c.

Lumber is included in the above permit from Norfolk.

EGBERT L. VIELE,

Brigadier-General.

Whilst the Conrad Fox had no special permit from the Treasury, War, or Navy Departments to trade, and not even the usual custom-house clearance, the military facilities shown by these indorsements were, I regret to find, given to her to trade here in violation of the instructions of the Government, which I had duly and seasonably communicated to you. The Conrad Fox was boarded by an officer from the Victoria (guard vessel), near Norfolk, on the 8th, and her papers examined and found informal. When this officer returned and made his report to the commander of the Victoria the latter immediately dispatched a boat to bring the Conrad Fox back, but she got to the wharf at Norfolk before the boat could reach her, when the provost-marshal interfered and claimed control of the vessel. He delivered her up on the 9th instant, by your order, and I am relieved by your assurance that there shall be "no recurrence of this irregularity." I am gratified that the provost-marshal at Norfolk has your instructions "to issue no permits to vessels with return cargoes or to vessels desirous of exporting domestic or other products until the decision of the Government is known."