Mr. ELIOT. I am asked by the Gentfrom NewYork to explain the amendments of the Senate, and I will do so. Mr. Speaker, the 1st amendmentwhich the Senate made to the bill as it was passed by the House was simply an enlargement of one of the sections of the House bill, which provided that the volunteer medical officers engaged in the medical dept of the burcaii might be continued, inasmuch as it was expecte that the medical force of the regular rmy would be speedily reduced to the minimum, and in that case all the regular officers would he wanted in the service. Itwas therefore thought right that there should be some force connected With the Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen. The Senate enlarged the provisions of the House bill by providing that officers of the vol unteer service now on duty might be continued as asst commissioners and other officers, and that the SecyWar might fill vacan cies until other officers could be detailed from the regular Army. That is the substance of the 1st material amendment. The next amendment strikes out a portion of one of the sections of the House bill, which related to the officers who serve as medical officers of the bureau, because it was provided for in the amendment to which I have Just referred. The next amendment strikes out from the House bill the section which set apart, reserved from sale, a million acres of land in the Gulf States. It may perhaps be recollected that when the bill was reported from the commit tee, I stated that in case the bill which the House had then passed, and which was known as the homestead bill, and which was then before the Senate, should become a law, this section of the bill would not be wanted. The bill referred to has become a law, and this section 5 providing for that reservation has therefore been stricken from the bill. The next amendment made by the Senate was to strike out a section of the House bill, which simply provided that upon application for restoration by the former owners of the land assigned under GenlSherman ’s field order, the application should not be complied with. That section is stricken out and another substituted for it, which provides that certain lands, which are now owned by the U.S., having been purchased by the U.S. under tax commissioners’ sales, shall be assigned in lots of 20 acres to freedmen who have had allotments under GenlSherman's field order, at the price for which the lands were purchased b the U.S.; and not only that those freedmen should have such allotments, but that other freedmen who had had lots assigned to them under GenlSherman ’s field order, and who may have become dispossessed of their land, should have assignments made to them of these lands belonging to the U.S. I think the jus tice 0 that provision will strike every one. And it will be perhaps a merit in the eyes of man that it does not call upon the Treasury for teexpenditure of an money. In the bill which was passed by the house it will be recol lected that there was a provision under which there should be purchased by the Commissioner of the bureau enough public lands to be substituted for the lands at 1st assigned to freedmen. Instead of that, provision is made b which they have property belonging to the U.S. which has come into its possession under tax sales, and where the titles have been made perfect by lapse of time.