Dear Sir--The undersigned, members of the Norfolk Bar, earnestly ask at your hands a copy of the judgment this day pronounced in the case of Commonwealth _vs._ Douglass, for publication. TAZEWELL TAYLOR, M. COOKE, H. WOODIS, WM. G. DUNBAR, SIMON S. STUBBS, WM. T. HENDREN, JNO. S. LOVETT, P. P. MAYO. _Jan. 10th, 1854._ “DECISION. Upon an indictment previously found against you, for assembling with negroes to instruct them to read or write, and for associating with them in an unlawful assembly, you were found guilty, and a mere nominal fine imposed, on the last day of this Court held in the month of November. At the time the jury came in and rendered their verdict you were not in Court, and the Court being about to adjourn for the purpose of attending to other official duties in a distant part of the State, it was necessary and proper, under the law, to award a _capias_ against you, returnable to the present adjourned term, so that the judgment and sentence of the law may be fulfilled. The Court is not called on to vindicate the policy of the law in question, for so long as it remains upon the statute book, and unrepealed, public and private justice and morality require that it should be respected and sustained. There are persons, I believe, in our community, opposed to the policy of the law in question. They profess to believe that universal intellectual culture is necessary to religious instruction and education, and that such culture is suitable to a state of slavery; and there can be no misapprehension as to your opinions on this subject, judging from the indiscreet freedom with which you spoke of your regard for the colored race in general. Such opinions in the present state of our society I regard as manifestly mischievous. It is not true that our slaves cannot be taught religious and moral duty, without being able to read the Bible and use the pen. Intellectual and religious instruction often go hand in hand, but the latter may well exist without the former; and the truth of this is abundantly vindicated by the well-known fact that in many parts of our own Commonwealth, as in other parts of the country in which among the whites one-fourth or more are entirely without a knowledge of letters, respect for the law, and for moral and religious conduct and behaviour, are justly and properly appreciated and practised.