uel Pereira, Colored Seaman. 1852. To Sheriff of Charleston District.

May 15th. To Arrest, $2; Register, $2, $4.00" "Recog., $1.31; Constable,
$1, 2.31" "Commitment and Discharge, 1.00" "52 Days' Maintenance of
Manuel Pereira, at 30 cents per day, 15.60

$22.81 Rec' payment, J. D--, S. C. D. Per Chs. Kanapeaux, Clerk.

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.]

"Many of the quiet and moral portion of our community can form no
adequate conception of the extent