On Monday the 8th instant General Smith was arrested upon a warrant under the signature of Governor Carlin, in accordance, as stated, with a call from Governor Reynolds of Missouri, upon the affidavit of ex-Governor Boggs. Mr. Rockwell was arrested at the same time as the principal. There was no evasion of this call for the persons of Messrs. Smith and Rockwell. The Municipal Court, however, issued a writ of habeas corpus, according to the constitution and city charter. This writ demanded the bodies of Smith and Rockwell to be brought before the said court, but the officers in charge of these men refused to obey its call; though after some deliberation, they left them in charge of the city marshal, without the original writ by which they were arrested, and by which only they could be retained, and returned back to Governor Carlin for further instruction. Thus Messrs. Smith and Rockwell were free from the arrest, as the marshal had no authority to hold them in custody. Some two or three days after, the aforesaid officers returned, for the purpose of executing the Governor's order, without paying attention to the writ of habeas corpus issued by the Municipal Court; but Messrs. Smith and Rockwell were absent. In a free government every person's rights and privileges are the same; no extraordinary process can issue legally, nor no extra-judicial {101} act be required; justice, like her representative goddess, is blind to appearances, and favors no one. In this point of view, then, let us legally examine the case in question:--Mr. Boggs makes an affidavit in Missouri, and charges one O. P. Rockwell with "shooting Lilburn W. Boggs with intent to kill," on the night of the 6th of May, 1842, and that the said Rockwell had fled from justice to the state of Illinois. Shooting with intent to kill, and Mr. Boggs alive two or three months after to swear to it may be set down as insufficient grounds for writ from the governor of one state, to demand a person as a fugitive from justice in another state. For aught that appears to the contrary, he might have shot in his own defense and been justifiable; as the charge is not grounded on the wilful, malicious, or felonious intent, without the fear of God before his eyes, to murder. The affidavit is therefore not sufficient for the apprehension, detention and transportation of the said Rockwell to the courts of Missouri. Here we deny that the Orrin P. Rockwell arrested is the one intended in the writ, this Rockwell being not guilty. If Mr. Boggs _knew_, of himself, the fact that Mr. Rockwell shot at him with intent to kill, why did he delay the prosecution some two or three months? If he obtained his knowledge from a second or third person, why not avail himself of their affidavits in the body of the writ?