our farmers were without perhaps a single
exception, ignorant of the existence of so stringent a ruling,
(if, indeed, it does exist,) and he did not see the propriety of
advertising it for the benefit of those whose character would
belie the suspicion of an intention to defraud the revenue. It
may be that "Noteriety Hayne," by thus flaunting in our faces his
puissant commission, means to enhance his consequence as a
prospective candidate far the Legislature, or that he thereby
seeks to ingratiate himself with the colored people who relish
(as he may suppose) the persecution and humiliation to which the
planters are subjected by such wanton abuses of misplaced
authority.

The transaction from this topic to matters of religion may be
somewhat violent; it is, nevertheless, a relief. The Marion
District Conference of the Methodist Church convened here on
Thursday last, and remained in session four days. An unusually
large number of delegates were in attendance. The deliberations,
which were presided over by Rev. W. C. Power, were conducted in a
spirit of earnest devotion to the important interests which came
up for consideration. The reports from the various charges in the
district, which embraces the Counties of Marlboro', Marion, Horry
and Georgetown, and portions of Darlington and Williamsburg,
exhibited a most gratifying state of the church. The
Sunday-Schools were shown to be in a very flourishing condition,
and the cause of temperance was making headway against all
opposition. The Rev. Drs. Shipp and Jones, presidents
respectively of Wofford and Columbia Female Colleges, were
present, and their fine pulpit ministrations added much to the
interest of the occasion.

DIVIDING THE NEGRO VOTE

WHY THE SOUTH HAS FAILED TO ACCOMPLISH IT

_A Northern Journalist's Impressions of the Palmetto State_

The following extracts from a letter of Mr. John Russell Young,
published in the New York Herald, are well worthy of attentive
consideration; but we need hardly say that in our opinion Mr.
Young is wholly mistaken in holding the white responsible, during
the last five years at least, for the solidity and infrangibility
of the negro in the South:

_The Letter_

Why is it that the Southerners, the whites who masters before the