1. There was no proof before men, by admission of the parties or otherwise, that it was a part of the agreement under which their cotton was shipped to Havana "that a given per cent. of the value" 'should be returned in arms and munitions of war for the use of the rebels." On the contrary, the papers submitted to me contain facts inconsistent with such an agreement. A letter from S. H. Kennedy, one of the house, to Messrs. Farwell & Co., of Boston, creditors of the firm for $8,681,85, dated New Orleans, May 17, 1862, advised them that the city was "in the hands of the Federal Government, and that the writer thought that it would not see, at least for many years, any other flag of authority than the Stars and Striples." It also contained this paragraph: "Although my firm was called upon to pay into the Confederate receiver's hands the amount due to you and the others as alien enemies I steadily refused, and am happy to say that I succeeded in putting some Confederate money into cotton, with which the blockade was run, and it has no doubt been sold in Havana, and so soon as I can obtain sales I will have your account adjusted."

2. The cotton did reach Havana, was sold there by the consignee, and the account sales, as does the third of exchange seized here by you, show conclusively that the entire proceeds were invested in sterling in London.

3. Another letter from the same to the same, dated June 10, 1862, after you had exacted payment of the amount of the third of exchange, advised the Boston house of the actual sale of the cotton (250 bales) in Havana for, net, @1,780, and that it had been remitted to London to be passed to the credit of the New Orleans house; that you had compelled the house to pay the bill, estimating it at $5 to the pound sterling, and that you had told them that you "did not confiscate the amount, but sequestered same subject to orders from your Government," and they added, "we are thus deprived by this sequestration, an of ours by the rebels, of some $17,000 or $18,000, with which we had intended paying you and others at the North debts due them;" and lastly-

4. In the only hearing of the case to which you invited me, after having done me the honor to ask me to decide between you and the claimants, and when, beside yourself and myself, one of the claimants, S. H. Kennedy, and their counsel, Messrs. J. D. Rozier and William H. Hunt, were also present, when you stated that the shipment was made under the agreement you now repeat, as to a return of a per centrum in arms, &c., Mr. Kennedy positively denied that any such existed in his case; and as yet I have seen no evidence under any known rule of evidence with which I am acquainted. Upon the whole, then, as far as the particular fact is concerned that I have examined, I submit that a more careful consideration of it will satisfy you that you are mistaken.

Second. That the third of exchange and account sales were forwarded to the claimants "through an illicit mail on board the steamer Fox, likewise engaged in carrying, unlawfully, merchandise between Havana and the rebel States;" that the third of exchange and papers were captured by the army of the United States on the 10th of May on board the Fox, flagrante delicto, surrounded by rebel arms and munitions concealed in a bayou leading out of Barataria Bay, attempting to land the contraband mails and scarcely less destructive arms