Mr. EDlt UNDS. The facts in relation to this caseas they appeared to us before the committee, are briefly these: This gentleman was the consul at Nin o, in China, in 1860. Ear ly in 1861, just ibout the time our troubles broke out, there appeared to him one morning another gentleman with a letter from one Tres cott, asst SecyState, not a commission, as it appears, but a letter stating that be this new man, had been appointed consul, and that this gentleman should turn over the office to him. This gentleman was a little suspicions that it was a contrivance for the purpose of getting the consulate with all its books and papers into the hands of the rebel authorities, and he refused to turn them over; and there upon the person who came out and himself, in that dispute, agreed to leave it to the arbitration of Commodore Stribling, I think it was; at any rate the chief naval officer on that station, and who was then actin charge dalfaires. They immediately submittegthe question as to whether' the person now under consideration ought, under those circumstances, to turn over the consulate, and the commodore decided that he ought not, but that he onghtto hold on until regular papers from the State Dept should be received. He accordingly did hold on and performed the duties of the office for these 8 months, or whatever the time was with the understanding between himself and this othergentleman, when the papers did come, that this man and not the other one should receive the compensation for that time. He accordingly, in good faith, drew his drafts in the regular way, own to the time of the termination of his otiicial career; but when the drafts got home, by some accident or other, the State Dept had paid the drafts of the other man who had retraced his steps from this understanding, and had'drawn accordingly. Now, therefore, it appears that this man was acting consul, and that, so far as technical regularity went, he was consul, because it does not appear to this day in the Dept of State that the new man ever had a commission.