Yeas-Messrs. Hart and Mathers--2.

Nays Mr. President, Messrs. Baltzell, Cooper, Haughton, Liv, ingston, Long, Pelot, Ramsay, Smith and Walker--10.

So the bill was rejected.

A bill entitled, An Act to repeal an act therein mentioned, was read the second time, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

A bill from the House of Representatives entitled, An Act to provide for improvements made on public lands, was read the third time, and on the passage of the same the yeas and nays were called for by Messrs. Pelot and Priest, and were:

Yeas-Messrs. Cooper, Hart, Haughton, Livingston, Long, Mathers, Pelot, Priest, Ramsay and Walker-10.

Nays-Mr. President, Messrs. Baltzell and Smith-3.

So the bill passed. Ordered that the title be as read.

Resolution from the House of Representatives, in relation to Temple Pent, Esq., was read the second time, the rule waived, read the third time, and adopted.

A bill from the House of Representatives entitled, An Act sup plementary to an act, approved 5th March, 1842, relative to roads and highways, was read the third time, and passed. Ordered that the title be as read.

A bill from the House of Representatives entitled An Act to divorce Martha Conner, was read the third time, and on the passage, the yeas and nays were called for by Messrs Smith and Priest, and

were:

Yeas-Messrs. Cooper, Hart, Haughton, Mathers, Priest, Ramsay and Walker-7.

Nays-Mr. President, Messrs. Baltzell, Livingston, Long, Pelot and Smith--6.

So the bill passed,

Ordered that the title be as read.

The report of the Committee on the State of the Territory relating to Indian depredations, was read the second time and adopted.

The Resolutions reported from the Committee on Public Accounts, with the report of the Committee on the petition of the representative of R. C. Allen, deceased, were read the second time and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

The Resolution reported from the Select Committee on the Seminary Lands, was read the second time, and ordered to be engroseed for a third reading.

On motion, the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, 10 o'clock.

TUESDAY, March 12th, 1844. The Senate met pursuant to adjournment. A quorum of members being present, the journal of yesterday was read and approved.

Mr. Pelot moved to reconsider the vote taken yesterday on the bill entitled an act to divorce Frnaces Dummett.

Mr. Walker proposed to reconsider also, the vote taken on yesterday on the bill for the relief of Caroline G. Jones, and also, the bill to divorce Wm. H. Brouss, and after some conversation between Messrs. Pelot, Cooper and Walker, the vote was reconsidered on the three named bills, and they were again placed among the orders of the day.

On motion of Mr. Pelot, the rule was waived to enable him to introduce without notice, a bill entitled An Act to authorize Joseph B. Watts and others to establish a toll bridge across the Suwannee river, which was read the first time, the rule waived, and read the second and third time and passed.

Ordered that the title be as read.

Mr. Cooper offered the following protest, which was read:

PROTEST.

The undersigned, members of the Senate, do hereby solemnly protest against the passage of the resolution adopted by a majority of one vote in the Senate on the eighth instant, in the absence of two members, for the following reasons, which they desire entered on the Journals:

The case in which the release is given, is the highest and mos heinous in the catalogue of crimes. In the Spring of 1840, two citizens of Jacksonville, in East Florida, one of them a peace-officer, the other a man of large family and of unoffending disposition. were attacked and shot down in a public house in the village in which they resided, by D. P. Bryant and John McMullen. The perpetrators of the deed were from the Metropolis of the Territory, did not belong to Jacksonville, and the quarrel arose from their manifestation of a disposition to disregard the local laws of the village and over-awe its officer. They were, on the commission of the crime, arrested. A Coroner's inquest found them guilty of murde:. They were sent to jail in St. Augustine. So soon as the news reached Tallahassee, powerful and influential friends rallied to ef fect their rescue. Legal counsel was employed to proceed forthwith three hundred miles to St. Augustine, accompanied by a large number of connexions and friends, and a habeas corpus was procured to effect their being bailed. Letters of indemnity signed by their influential friends here were taken with them to enable them to procure the bail. The present worthy and able Judge of the Eastern District, the very day of his first arrival in Florida, was applied to for the habeas corpus, and was induced, as we do not hesitate to say, in all respect for that officer, most erroneously to admit them to bail. Experienced, expert and able counsel appeared in their behalf while the public cause was most inefficiently represented. From thence they came back in triumph through Jacksonville home to Middle Florida. At the next term of Jacksonville Court, they were indicted for wilful murder, and their being bailed by the Judge was also presented as an outrage. Since then they

never appeared in East Florida. They were notoriously at large in the Capitol for a long time afterwards, and until January, 1842, the prosecuting officer for East Florida, nor their bail nor any one else adopted any means to secure them. In Janury, 1842, Judge Bronson, while attending the Court of Appeals, issued a warrant for McMullen's arrest, as he was then walking publicly, unmolested, in the streets of Tallahassee; and he was put in Tallahassee jail. Another application to bail him was made to and refused by the Court of Appeals, and he shortly after escaped from prison and fled from the Territory to Georgia, and from thence to Texas. Bryant had previously fled to Missouri. Their recognizance, entered into at St. Augustine were sued on and judgment got against the bail, who were indemnified by their Tallahassee friends.

The bail now ask to be released. The real parties, however, seeking the release are the Tallahassee gentlemen, who wrote to the bail and promised to save them harmless. What claim have these persons on the public favor or liberality? Had they done their duty they should have sent these murderers to Jacksonville according to their recognizance, to be tried for their crimes instead of countenancing their crime by allowing them to go at large and finally to escape. It is now said Bryant is dead, whether he is or not we regard as immaterial, but there is no positive proof that he is. McMullen it is said is in Mexico a prisoner, being one of the Texas army captured at Meir.

To exonerate the bail, and those who sustained these young men in their outrage, will be a precedent fraught with monstrous danger and evil. It will establish the fact that it is only necessary for a criminal to have rich, powerful, and influential friends and connexions, who will employ adroit and able counsel, to enable him to escape unpunished in Florida. The poor, unknown and friendless, may be hanged as scape-goats, but the powerful and aristocratic can violate the law with impunity, if this precedent is followed. It is alleged that the Indians infesting the country between Tallahassee and St. Augustine, was a good excuse for their bail not having arrested them after the indictment. Yet their counsel and friends, to effect their release, could travel the road, the members of the Legislature, and Judges of the Court of Appeals came by it. This excuse is a mere pretence What other excuse is there? None whatever. What other circumstance exist to justify the release of the bail. If Bryant is really dead, there was ample time and opportunity for him to have been arrested and yielded up. After their release, it is not impossible he may come to life again, and McMullen, if really a prisoner, on his release, return to the scene of his outrage with impunity. We believe the blood of the murdered Yeoman and Huffan demands, in this case, a rigid adherence to the law. The widow and orphans of the poor and unoffending Huffan demand justice at the hand of the authories for the murder of the husband and father. Shall they be disregarded? If they are, the laws will be a mockery, justice

a farce, and murderers may stalk abroad, glorying in their God-defying deeds. The poor and friendless will be compelled to take the law into their own hands, and violence and bloodshed will be the order of the day.

JAMES G. COOPER,
GABRIEL PRIEST.

Mr. Hart presented the petition of Rebecco Mary Hardin, praying to be divorced from her husband John B. Hardin, which was read, and referred to a Select Committee, consisting of Messrs. Hart, Mathers and Livingston.

Mr. Livingston from the Committee on the State of the Territory, to which was referred the claim of Eliza Mallet, reported the following resolution:

Resolved by the Governor and Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, That the Auditor of the Territory be, and he is hereby authorised and required to audit and allow the claim of Eliza Mallet for house rent, and for the safe keeping of a prisoner during the year 1841, amounting to $27.

Which was read the first time, the rule waived, and read the second and third time and adopted.

Mr. Livingston from the same Committee reported a bill from the House of Representatives entitled An Act relative to roads and highways in Nassau county, without amendment.

Mr. Livingston, from the same Committee, also made the following Report on the petition for the relief of David D. Young, which was received and read.

The Committee on the State of the Territory, having duly considered the petition for the relief of David D. Young, respectfully REPORT:-That the relief sought to be obtained from the Legisla tive Council, is in the power of the Executive of the Territory, and to him should the said petitioner apply. The Committee ask to be relieved from the further consideration of said subject.

M. C. LIVINGSTON, Chairman.

Mr. Livingston, from the Select Committee to which was referred the Preamble Resolutions relative to the mail route between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, made the following Report, which was read, the rule waived and the Preamble and Resolutions and the Report read the second time and adopted:

The Select Committee to which was referred the preamble and resolutions relative to a mail route from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, three times a week, respectfully

REPORT:

That the present mail route is very circuitous, losing more than fifty miles, (which will be readily seen by examining the accompanying diagram of the note.) The committee have ascertained that a direct route is practicable, and that the whole distance will not exceed one hundred and seventy-five miles. They therefore recom mend the following resolutions:

Resolved, by the Governor and Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, That our Delegate in Congress be requested to have established by law, a mail route from Tallahassee to Jacksonville in East Florida, direct, to be carried in four horse post coaches three times a week and back-and from Jacksonville to Charleston via Savannah, by steamers, to connect with said stage route.

Resolved further, That copies of the above preamble and resolution, with the annexed diagram, be sent to our Delegate in Congress, and the Post Master General.

M. C. LIVINGSTON, Chairman. The following bills and preambles and resolutions were received from the House of Representatives, and read the first time and otherwise disposed of:

An Act to provide for the establishing of public schools in the County of Franklin, the rule was waived, the bill read the second and third time and passed. Ordered that the title be as read.

An Act for the relief of S. S. Sibley, the rule waived, the bill read the second and third time and passed. Ordered that the title be as read.

Resolution appointing Commissioners to lay off the county-site in Nassau county, rule waived, read the second and third time, and adopted.

Preamble and Resolutions asking an establishment of a mail route from Cedar Keys to Columbus, Florida, the rule waived, the Preamble and Resolutions read the second and third time, and adopted.

Mr. Livingston moved that Mr. Baltzell have leave of absence for this day. Which was granted.

On motion of Mr. Baltzell, the vote on the bill entitled, An Act concerning hawkers, pedlars and itinerant traders, was reconsidered and the bill placed among the orders of the day.

An act from the House of Representatives, to amend an act incorporating the city of Apalachicola, approved 2d March, 1838, canie back on an amendment adopted by the Committee of Conference, and concurred in by the House of Representatives. The Senate refused to recede from its amendment to the bill.

A bill from the House of Representatives, entitled An Act for the relief of John Burgdorff, was read the first time and ordered to a second reading.

A communication from the House of Representatives:—the House has passed the Preamble and Resolutions from the Senate, asking a division of the Territorial Government, without amendment, also. A bill entitled An Act for the protection of the rights of women, without amendment.

The House of Representatives has appointed Messrs. Baldwin, Sanchez, Selph, Sanderson and Chapman, a Joint Select Committee on the part of the House, to act with a similar committee on the part of the Senate, to take into consideration the subject of compen