be of the first importance.  To disregard the first, would have been considered an insult to the feelings of her people; and if the question had first been mooted with the Federal Government, the ire of South Carolinians would have been fired; the slur in placing her in a secondary position would have sounded the war-trumpet of Abolition encroachments, while the latter would have been considered a breach of confidence, and an unwarrantable disregard of her assertion of State rights.  The Executive transmitted the documents to the Assembly, that body referred them to special committees, and the Messrs. Mazyck and McCready, reported as everybody in South Carolina expected, virtually giving the British consul a very significant invitation to keep his petitions in his pocket for the future, and his “black lambs” out of the State, or it might disturb their domesticated ideas.  Thus was the right clearly reserved to themselves, and the question settled, so far as the State Legislature was concerned.  The next course for Mr. Mathew was to appeal to the Judiciary, and should redress be denied, make it the medium of bringing the matter, before the Federal courts.

We cannot forbear to say, that the strenuous opposition waged against this appeal of common humanity arose from political influence, supported by a set of ultra partisans, whose theoretical restrictions, assisted by the voice of the press, catered to the war-spirit of the abstractionists.

The British consul, as the representative of his government, knowing the personal suffering to which the subjects of his country were subjected by the wretched state of the Charleston prison, and its management, sought to remove no restriction that might be necessary for protecting their dangerous institutions, but to relieve that suffering.  He had pointed the authorities to the wretched state of the prison, and the inhuman regimen which existed within it; but, whether through that superlative carelessness which has become so materialized in the spirit of society—­that callousness to misfortune so strongly manifested by the rich toward the industrious poor and the slaves-or, a contempt for his opinions, because he had followed out the instructions of his government, things went on in the same neglected manner and no attention was paid to them.

Now, we dare assert that a large, portion of the excitement which the question has caused has arisen from personal suffering, consequent upon that wretched state of jail provisions which exists in South Carolina, and which, to say the least, is degrading to the spirit and character of a proud people.  If a plea could be made, for excuse, upon the shattered finances of the State, we might tolerate something of the abuse.  But this is not the case; and when its privileges become reposed in men who make suffering the means to serve their own interests, its existence becomes an outrage.