Mr. ELIO. Perhaps I can explain it in this way: let my suppose that there movebeen vessels owned, we wi I say in Baltimore, which have, during the rebellion, continued the property of the old owners, but in order to enjoya freer right of way upon the ocean, and to avoid the embarrassments to which vessels sailing under the American flag were subjected by reason of the depredations of the provers upon the sons, they have procured, in different forms the forms of sealetter or licensea right to enjoy the protection and the privileges of for ei n vesse s, and have sailed under foreign flags while their loyal neighbors, with the stars an stripes at their masthead, have been subjected to great embarrassments, which I need not detaiighere, for they are familiar to the gentlemen of the House. Now, sir, we have believed that when American owners have seen fit to seek that foreign protection, unless there were strong reasons why they should have done so, their vessels ought not now to retain the character of American ship s. I will say, air, that Iunderstand the decision at the Treasury Dept to have been that where these vessels, although owned at home, have procured foreign licenses, they cannot, under the law as interpreted by that Dept, be continued under American registers. If that decision were entirely safeif that construction were, in the judgment of the committee, entirely soundthey would not probably have deemed this legislation necessary. But there is a doubt whether vessels which have continued in the hands of American owners but have been put under the protection of foreign flags may not have the right to sail again as American vessels; and it was believed that it was due to the loyal men who have suffered through this rebellion, who have clung to the flag, encountering the disadvantages and dangers to which their loyalt subjected them, that they should be recognize as the class to continue in the enjoyment of the right to float the flu upon their masts, and thatthose who have waive its privileges should not now seek to regain them, unless they can show that they ought, under the circumstances of the case, to have that right granted. In that case they willapply to congress, and legislation can be had.