his iniquity into an epigram!—who reduced it into a shape the most portable and the most easily turned against him! This act and the spirit which inspired it was probably the remote reason why Judge SPRAGUE is on the Bench. But the immediate occasion of his promotion was his active agency in the Convention that nominated General HARRISON, and in the campaign that carried it out. Such are some of the rewards of patriotism! Republics are not always ungrateful!

In November, the trial of ROBERT MORRIS, Esq., one of the few colored men who have been admitted to practice at the Bar, came on and resulted in a triumphant acquittal. In this case, as in the two previous ones, no man was permitted to sit on the Jury who had an ill opinion of the Fugitive Law, or who would not consent to yield his birth-right to judge of the sufficiency of the law, as well as of the facts, into the hands of the Judge. And yet this was the result. It showed that even men who are willing thus to denude themselves of their most sacred privilege will not consent to yield the lesser one and convict a man whom they do not think to be guilty, merely to gratify Mr. WEBSTER, Mr. FILLMORE and the Unionsavers in general. It is but due, however, to Mr. Justice CURTIS, who presided at the trial, to say, that, setting aside his jury-catechising and his vindication of his monopoly of the law (in which he but followed the antipathies native to his species; for what great Judge was there ever that did not hate a Jury ?) with these inconsiderable exceptions, his conduct during the trial was unexceptionable, and his charge impartial. His conduct in this particular honorably contrasted with that of Judge SPRAGUE on the previous trials, who seemed to regard it as his mission to make good the forensic shortcomings of the poetical District Attorney. Mr. HALE and Mr. DANA well merited the gratification of this triumph by their admirable management of the defence. Mr. HALE's concluding argument was a magnificent effort of forensic eloquence, worthy of ERSKINE himself, in the State Trials, (not more important in their issues than these,) which have given him his historical immortality.

Whether the effect of this defeat in their strongest case will lead to the abandonment of the other proceedings, by the Government, has not yet evolved. It is very unlikely that a more favorable result can be expected in the other cases. In this, eleven of the Jury were for acquittal at the moment they were shut up, and the twelfth did not stand out long. Under these circumstances should the Government hold these indictments over the heads of men whom they cannot expect to convict, and subject them to all the expense and annoyance of

preparation for trial, it will be a high-handed and outrageous proceeding. But it would be in accordance with all its other acts in this direction.

The City Fathers distinguished themselves on this occasion by the avidity with which they seized it to free themselves from the suspicion of having taken a manly and honorable course. In an early stage of the proceedings Riley, the Deputy Marshal, had applied to City Marshal Tukey and the Mayor for assistance. None was furnished, as none could be lawfully demanded or employed, under the laws of the State. Whether this was done through a misunderstanding of the nature of the requisition, or from a full understanding of it and of their duties in the premises, we cannot say, but so it was. A controversy took place in the papers between these three functionaries, as to the readiness of the Mayor and Marshal to violate the laws of the State for the convenience of a Slavecatcher, the decision of which can be of no imaginable importance inasmuch as the only matter at issue was their respective personal veracities. But the roar of Pro-Slavery rage which was reverberated from Washington and rolled through the streets of Boston, found the following expression in the action of the Mayor and Alder

men:

"CITY OF BOSTON. In Board of Aldermen, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1851. Whereas, this Board has learned with deep regret that the integrity of the laws and the dignity of the Commonwealth and city have been greatly impaired by the forcible rescue and abduction of a prisoner from the hands of an officer of the United States, who had him in legal custody; therefore it is

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Ordered, That the City Marshal, under the instructions of the Mayor, be directed, whenever he shall be properly informed by a public officer of the State, or the United States, that there is danger that he shall be unlawfully obstructed in the performance of his official duties by a mob, and that he needs his assistance, immediately to repair to the place where it is apprehended said riot will be had, and there, faithfully and truly, with the whole police force under his control, use the same, in the most energetic manner possible, in support of the laws, and the maintenance of the public peace."

This order was subsequently unanimously approved of by the Common Council in resolutions, which, further, cordially approved of the Proclamation of the President and promised their earnest efforts to carry out its recommendations! This was the disgraceful attitude in which Boston was placed before the world by her constituted au thorities!

Times have changed since Boston was the gaze and admiration of the world for her heroic resistance to tyranny. Seventy years ago she was a little town, in comparison with her present dimensions, yet she would not submit to insult from the constituted authorities set over her when they were violating what she esteemed "a higher law," and she defied the whole physical force of the most powerful empire in the world, when it presumed to invade her rights. Then she could stand against the world;

"now lies she there

And none so poor to do her reverence!"

Now she is insulted and spit upon, and takes it patiently,—not from a Christian spirit of endurance of injuries, but from sheer cowardice and lack of manly spirit. Her very servants mock her, and she thanks them for it. Her political tyrants cover her with ignominy, and she falls prostrate and blesses them for the benefaction. If the action of the City Government and the general tone of the press of the great parties are to be accepted as the expression of the state of mind of this city, never were the members of a corporate body of a more mean and abject spirit than the citizens of Boston. The spirit of the time-serving corporations of England, which made haste to substitute the name of William of Orange for that of James II., in their servile addresses, rise into magnanimity and elevation of soul, compared with theirs. Does Boston deserve this or not? Do these sneaking time-servers fitly represent her, or do they not? We are afraid they do represent what the Friends might call "the Weight" of the city. That the wealth and boastful piety of Boston think they cannot be kicked too much, provided it be by the foot of Slaveholders or their tools. But we draw this encouragement from it all, that there must be a strong under-current of wholesome feeling setting in the opposite direction, that makes Washington and Boston feel these demonstrations to be necessary. The more sensible of the Slave Senators evidently place no confidence in all the protestations of Northern men. They know that the public sentiment of the North is against the execution of the Fugitive Bill; and they know, too, that what Mr. HALE said in that debate is confirmed by all history, and by none more than that of the Slaveholding States; "no law, when it has not the moral support of the people, whether in Massachusetts or in Louisiana, can be enforced." Boston is degraded as low as servile prints and time-serving functionaries can thrust her; but there may yet be righteous men enough found in her to save her from final and utter Reprobation.

THE SIMS CASE.

An opportunity was but too soon afforded to the City Government of Boston to prove the sincerity of its Slavecatching loyalty, — of which it availed itself eagerly. The month of April, 1851, will be ever memorable, or infamous, in the annals of the City as the date of the first return of a Fugitive Slave under the new law, from New England. On the night of Thursday, the third of that month, a colored man of the name of THOMAS SIMS, who had been an inhabitant of the city for three or four weeks, was arrested on a warrant issued by Commissioner CURTIS. The arrest was made by two Police officers, by the direction of City Marshal TUKEY. This work, of course, was in no respect within the scope of their official duties, even if it did not come within the purview of the Latimer Law forbidding all State officers from taking part in the arrest of a Slave. The defence which Marshal TUKEY made of himself before the Committee raised by the Senate to inquire into the matter, was, that he directed his officers to make the arrest under the instructions of the Mayor to preserve the peace of the city, the United States Marshals being such bunglers at their trade that they could not catch their Slave without exciting a riot! SIMS defended himself and stabbed the officer somewhat severely, and would probably have made a more serious resistance had he known that he was arrested as a Slave. The pretence of the arrest was that he was making a disturbance in the street, and persons asking why he was in custody were told that it was for theft. Thus the very first steps in the process were marked by illegality and falsehood. He was then taken to the Court House and kept under guard during the night, in the Grand Jury Room. The intelligence got abroad, however, and a strong excitement pervaded the city. Fears were entertained that the examination would be proceeded with forthwith and the certificate granted, without giving the prisoner the chance of a hearing, -a course which would be perfectly in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the Fugitive Law. For making an inquiry to this effect of Riley, one of the chief bloodhounds on this scent, the Hon. SAMUEL E. SEWALL was given into custody by that dog in office and actually committed for a brief space to the watch-house! So supreme were the minions of the Slave Power for that season !

During the night Marshal TUKEY had surrounded the Court House with a heavy chain, and put the whole Police force on duty to continue

and end the work he had begun the day before. The insolence of TUKEY and his myrmidons was beyond imagination. They compelled the Judges of the Supreme Court to creep under the chain in their way to the Bench, and so loyal were those Magistrates to the dominant power that they submitted without a murmur. Chief Justice WELLS of the Common Pleas instituted an inquiry into the cause of this obstruction, and would, perhaps, have taken measures to abate the nuisance, had it not been for the submission of the higher Court. All the mercy he could obtain from the omnipotent TUKEY was that the chains should be raised so that he could pass under them without stooping, and that persons wishing to attend his Court should have permission to do so! Notwithstanding this gracious consent of the Autocrat to the laws of the land, many persons were turned back and prevented from attending the Courts of Law. In the morning the examination took place before Commissioner CURTIS, an obscure lawyer of the name of SETH J. THOMAS acting as Counsel for the claimant. CHARLES G. LORING, Esq., a lawyer of the very first eminence, (who is believed to have refused more than one offer of a seat on the Supreme Bench,) and the Hon. ROBERT RANTOUL, Jr., volunteered their services and conducted the case of the prisoner, in connection with Mr. SEWALL, with a most honorable zeal as well as with great skill and acumen. It was generally believed, however, that the insignificant individual who was found ready to disgrace an honorable profession by prostituting himself to the purposes of Slavecatching, had the advice and counsel, secretly, of some of the most eminent Whig counsellors, who were well content to assist at the beneficent work provided that their left hand knew not what their right hand did.

It is unnecessary to recapitulate the evidence that was produced to prove that SIMs belonged not to himself, but to one JAMES POTTER, of Georgia. It was enough to satisfy the Commissioner, and that was all that was necessary to seal the fate of poor SIMS. The Constitutionality of the Fugitive Law was argued with great ability by Messrs. LORING and RANTOUL; but, of course, ruled to be sufficient by the Commissioner. Two attempts were made to bring the case by Habeas Corpus before the Supreme Court. The first was peremptorily and somewhat crustily refused on the ground that the State Courts had no jurisdiction in the premises. Did those learned judges mean to affirm that no law can be passed by Congress of the constitutionality of which they will take notice? Their predecessors had no difficulty in construing the Constitution according to their views of its true intent, when