The Southern Banner

JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS.

The proceedings of the Courts of Justice and the conduct of some of our judicial officers in this State are exciting a degree of interest not only in our own State but abroad, which we much fear will redound in no credit to those concerned. We have ever deprecated a resort to any measures either by our citizens or the officers of our Judiciary, which would in the least degree interrupt the even course of justice, the fair and equitable administration of the laws. The fact that many of our citizens are greatly embarrassed, that the rigorous prosecution of the remedies which the laws have placed in the power of the creditors, must result in great distress, does not afford an excuse for resort to measures, which virtually impair the validity of contracts, impede the proper administration of the laws, and will if persisted in, tarnish the proud and chivalrous character of our State.

At the time the contract was entered into, the creditor had a right to expect, that if the terms of agreement were not complied with that his remedy under the Courts of law, would be unimpeded; that justice would be administered without sale, denial or delay; such was and is the clear understanding of all contracting parties. The aggrieved has the right to demand redress, and every attempt on the part of the people, and every connivance on the part of judicial officers to withhold the redress, to impede a speedy extension of it, is disorganising in its tendency, dangerous as a precedent, and destructive of the supremacy of the laws, to which we must ever look for the protection of our persons and security of our rights.

We have been induced to make these remarks from seeing in the last Madison Whig Advocate, that no Court has been held there on the last Monday in April as required by law. The reason which operated upon the Judge are stated to be, the want of a house in which to hold Court. the house in which it was formerly held being destroyed, and the new one unfinished: although says the Whig, another house was offered, in which his honor could have sat and fully discharged his duty to himself, to his station, and executed the trust reposed in him by the people, and which the laws rendered obligatory.

The insufficiency of such a reason apparent upon its face, presents itself to every man, who is not blinded by the interest he feels in gaining delay, caring not by what means it may be procured, and the effect of such proceeding, must result in the prostration of the credit of our State. No man can be expected to rely upon a faithful performance of a contract entered into by any of our citizens, when the laws are not enforced for their protection; when officers of justice neglect to carry them into effect, and when the people resist and annul them whenever it suits their convenience.

Rumor says, that in some counties, the sheriffs and clerks have resigned for the purpose of preventing the collection of judgments, already rendered. The people ought to frown down such proceedings as disgraceful and unjust. To relieve ourselves from the embarrassments which too generally has been produced by our own imprudences, is a subject of interest to our whole community, but we sincerely trust that there are few in our State who are prepared to approve any illegal system of delay, which is calculated to disorganise and prostrate the ends of the law. At the last session of the Circuit Court for Rankin County, we learn from the Southern Sentinel, the question came up on the motion to quash the forthcoming bonds taken by the sheriffs upon levies, and was decided by Judge Nicholson, in favor of the motion. We are unprepared in the absence of a full knowledge of all the facts and circumstances, to express our opinion either pro or con, upon the justness of such a decision. The editor of the Sentinel takes bold grounds in opposition to it, as calculated to bear down the rule of practice under the statute, as hitherto recognised by the Bar and Bench; to disarrange and unhinge the settled system of the country, and if sustained by competent tribunals, to undermine the titles to a large portion of real and valuable estate.