He also ordered that all carriages bearing the enemy’s flag should be seized and confiscated; and that women resorting to the neighborhood of the military prison and insulting the Federal troops, or communicating with prisoners by exhibiting and waving secession flags, should be imprisoned. Disloyal persons who, under the military rules, were liable to assessment for the support of loyal fugitives from their homes, should be compelled to pay their assessment. All persons of every rank or position, violating the laws, or interfering with their execution, should be dealt with under strict penalties. This energetic administration had the desired effect; and the violent minority who were determined, at every hazard, to plunge the State into war, were restrained, and order and peace assured and restored. THE STONE FLEET. Notwithstanding all the activity and watchfulness of the blockading vessels off the Southern coast, many instances were exultingly heralded by the Southern press, as well as in Europe, of the successful running of the blockade by vessels bound both outward and inward. The logic of these occurrences was very simple on the part of the secessionists and their sympathizers. The frequent evasion of the blockade proved that it was “inefficient” on the part of the Federal government, and therefore not only to be disregarded, but officially declared by foreign governments to be incomplete, and practically null and void. This declaration was expected to be sufficient to warrant the free movements of commerce, and any attempt to interfere on the part of the United States would be a challenge for the intervention of England and France. The repeated instances of vessels escaping rendered it an imperative necessity for the government to adopt some measure that would, if possible, prevent their recurrence at the principal ports of the South. For this purpose it was determined to close several of the harbors by placing obstructions in the channels. Most of the harbors of the Southern coast, in consequence of the deltas, and numerous islands at their entrances, have several channels, through which vessels of light draft may pass, while those of the heaviest draft are confined to one principal channel. This is the case in the approach to both Charleston and Savannah. The obstructing of these two principal channels was therefore assigned for the month of December.