Thus when the consul applied for the writ of habeas corpus, the right was denied him, notwithstanding the subject was heir-inherent to all the rights of citizenship and protection, which the laws of his own nation could clothe him with.  To show how this matter was treated by the press-though we are happy to say the feelings of the mercantile community are not reflected in it-we copy the leader from the “Southern Standard,” a journal published in Charleston, the editor of which professes to represent the conservative views of a diminutive minority.  Here it is:—­“Charleston, April 23, 1852.  “Colored Seamen and State Rights.

" Our readers have not forgotten the correspondence which some time since took place between His Excellency Governor Means and Her British Majesty’s Consul, Mr. Mathew.  We published in the Standard, of the 5th December last, the very temperate, dignified, and well-argued report of Mr. Mazyck, chairman of the special committee of the Senate, to whom had been referred the message of the Governor, transmitting the correspondence.  In our issue of the 16th December, we gave to our readers the able report of Mr. McCready, on behalf of the committee of the other house, on the same subject.

“We have now to call the attention of the public to the fact, that the practical issue has been made, by which the validity of the laws in regard to colored seamen arriving in our port is to be submitted to the judicial tribunals of the country.  For ourselves we have no fears for the credit of the State in such a controversy.  The right of the State to control, by her own legislation, the whole subject-matter, can, as we think, by a full discussion, be established upon a basis which, in the South at least, will never hereafter be questioned.  If there be defects in the details of the regulations enacted, the consideration of them is now precluded, when the issue presented is the right of the State to act at all times in the premises.

“The writ of habeas corpus was applied for before Judge Withers, during the term of the court which has just closed, by the British consul, through his counsel, Mr. Petigru, in behalf of one Manuel Pereira, a colored sailor, who claims to be a Portuguese subject, articled to service on board an English brig driven into this port by stress of weather; the said Manuel Pereira being then in jail under the provisions of the act of the legislature of this State, passed in 1835, emendatory of the previous acts on the subject.  Judge Withers, in compliance with the requirements of the act of 1844, refused the writ of habeas corpus, and notice of appeal has been given.  Thus is the issue upon us.