Washington, May 12, 1861

There are plenty of spies In the very midst of the federal troops here and elsewhere, but there being no declaration of war made, they cannot be treated as spies, they must be proved to be traitors to their country and dealt with as such.  

At a battalion drill yesterday of the Fifth Massachusetts regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Greene, a deep ditch was made in the suburbs of the City, over which the troops were exercised in charging, in order to accustom them to all the emergencies of actual service. Col. Greene and his command won much applause by their excellent and soldierly display.

We have from Mr. Whitaker, photographs, very recently taken, of General Beauregard, President Davis and Edward Ruffin, Esq, of Virginia, the eminent agriculturalist and secessionist.

General Beauregard has not a single Anglo-Saxon feature in his face. The whole tone of his countenance and attitude would lead any one to expect him to speak in some of the languages of continental Europe. It is a French face, but of the style of Cavaignac or Lamoriciere. It is of the solid type of Frenchmen.