to impress you with the sovereignty of

This amount is exclusive of all the long scale of law charges and attorney's fees that were incurred, and is entirely the perquisite of the sheriff. Now, notwithstanding that high-sounding clamor about the laws of South Carolina, which every South Carolinian, in the redundance of his feelings, strives to impress you with the sovereignty of its justice, its sacred rights, and its pre-eminent reputation, we never were in a country or community where the privileges of a certain class were so much abused. Every thing is made to conserve popular favor, giving to those in influence power to do what they please with a destitute class, whether they be white or black. Official departments are turned into depots for miserable espionage, where the most unjust schemes are practised upon those whose voices cannot be heard in their own defence. A magistrate is clothed with, or assumes a power that is almost absolute, committing them without a hearing, and leaving them to waste in jail; then releasing them before the court sits, and charging the fees to the State; or releasing the poor prisoner on receiving "black mail" for the kindness; giving one man a peace-warrant to oppress another whom he knows cannot get bail; and where a man has served out the penalty of the crime for which he was committed, give a peace-warrant to his adversary that he may continue to vent his spleen upon him. In this manner, we have known a man who had served seven months' imprisonment for assault and battery, by an understanding between the magistrate and the plaintiff, continued in jail for several years upon a peace-warrant, issued by the magistrate from time to time, until at length he shot himself in jail. The man was a peaceable man, and of a social temperament. He had been offered the alternative of leaving the State, but he scorned to accept it. To show that we are correct in what we say respecting some of the Charleston officials, we insert an article which appeared in the Charleston Courier of Sept. 1, 1852:--[For the Courier.]