Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-10-31

On M1kb66ch Of tfse Circuit Court to-day
there were only Judges Dunlop and Morsell
present, the other Judge. Mr.. Merrick, be-
ing absent, Passing around from the court
room couple Of squares into F street, a
sentry of the regular army could be seen
walking up and down before one of hand
some row of residences on the South side of
+ street, between Sixth and Seventh. The
house thus guarded is the residence of Judge
NIerrick, before which sentries were first
placed about five o'clock last evening What
was the special character of the offensive in
this case had not definitely transpired until
on the meeting of the Court this morning,
when communication was received by his
colleagues on the bench from Judge Mcrrick,
as follows:
"On Saturday, the 10Th of October, 1861,
Mr.. Foley, a lawyer of this city. called upon
me with petition, supported by affidavit
in proper form, praying for writ of habeas
corpus to the Provost Marshal, requiring
him to produce before the undersigned one
John Murphy. who, it is alleged, was
minor under the age of Is years, and ille-
gally detained by said Provost Marshal as
an enlisted soldier of the United States
The order was given by me to the Clerk,
who issued the writ in the usual form. |
was informed by Mr.. Foley on the afternoon
of Saturday that by reason of the many en-
gagements of the Deputy Marshal of the
District of Columbia, he himself took the
writ and served it, as by law he rightfully
might do upon the Provost Marshal, Gener-
al Andrew Porter-that when he delivered
the writ to the Provost Marshal, he was told
that he would consult the Secretary, q think
he said the Secretary Of State, whether he
should respect the writ or not-that he, Mr..
F., must consider himself under arrest, but
for the present might 60 at large as upon
his parole. Later in the afternoon Mr.
Foley again called at my house with one or
two other persons-one [ think was repre-
sented as the elder brother or some near re-
lative of the boy Murphy-and desired to
know whether he was now to consider the
boy as finally discharged and at liberty to
return home to his friends, inasmuch as he
had then been dismissed from the guard
room. [ declined to make any suggestions
to him in the premises, and told him that
whatever [ did in the matter must be done
judicially. and after facts had been spread
before me upon affidavit and the appropriate
motion, if any, made thereon, and that as
the Court would meet on Monday morning,
October 81, in regular term, l should ad
journ all proceedings under the writ until
Court, for the advice and action of the whole
Court. He stated that he would reduce all
the facts to writing. make affidavit and file
them, for that he expected to be arrested
He then withdrew.
''On Monday morning, just before the
meeting of Court, went into the Clerks
office and asked Charles McNamee, the De-
putty Clerk, if Mr.. Foley had filed any affi-
davit in the case. He examined the papers
and reported there was none. | then di-
rected him to endorse upon the papers that
they were by my order adjourned unto the
Court for its further action. After the ad
iournment of the Court was informed by
member of the bar that about / | o'clock
that morning Mr.. Foley had been arrested