o enforce this law? We think not. The reader
will not require any extended comments from us to explain the motive;
yet we witnessed it, and cannot leave it without a few remarks.

It is well known that it has been the aim of that functionary, whose
"characteristic kindness" has not failed to escape the Governor's
notice, to thwart the consul in all his proceedings. In this instance,
he engaged the services of a "shipping master" as a pretext, and with
him was about to send the man away when his presence was essential to
test his right to the habeas corpus, and at this very time, more than
two months wages, due him from the owners, lay in the hands of the
consul, ready to be paid on his release.

The nefarious design speaks for itself.

The consul was informed of the proceeding, and very properly refused
to submit to such a violation of authority, intended to annul his
proceedings. He preferred to await the "test," demanding the prisoner's
release through the proper authorities. That release, instead of being
"a few days after this," as the message sets forth, was-not effected
until the fifteenth of May.

Let the Governor institute an inquiry into the treatment of these men
by the officials, and the prison regimen, and he will find the truth
of what we have said. Public opinion will not credit his award of
"characteristic kindness" to those who set up a paltry pretext as an
apology for their wrong-doing.

If men are to be imprisoned upon this singular construction of law,
(which is no less than arming the fears of South Carolina,) is it any
more than just to ask that she should pay for it, instead of imposing
it upon innocent persons? Or, to say the least, to make such comfortable
provision for them as is made in the port of Savannah, and give them
what they pay for, instead of charging thirty cents a day for their
board, and making twenty-two of that profit?

Had the Governor referred to the "characteristic kindness" of the
jailer, his remarks would have been bestowed upon a worthy man, who has
been a father to those unfortunates who chanced within the turn of his
key.

In another part of his message, commenting upon the existence of
disgraceful criminal laws, the management and wretched state of prisons,
he says, "The attorney-general, at my request, has drawn up a report
on the subject of prisons and prison discipline." Now, if such were the
facts, the reports would be very imperfect to be drawn up by one who