168                 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS            [Jan. 30,

letters herewith submitted that upon the fact becoming known in

the county that the subject had been brought to the attention of
the grand jury and an indictment found, a large number of the
most respectable citizens of the county, many of them living in the
immediate section of the county where the accident occurred, to-
gether with the mother of the unfortunate youth whose life had
been taken by the sad occurrence, the President, Faculty, and al-
most the entire body of the students of the college, joined in an
earnest remonstrance against any further legal proceedings in the
matter and recommended in the strongest terms executive clem-
ency in behalf of the accused.

It will also be perceived that the Judge of the Circuit Court for
Carroll county, together with the State's Attorney for that county,
sometime after the sad occurrence and when all the circumstan-
ces were well known and had been fully considered, recommended
in decided language that a nolle prosequi be granted. These re-
commendations accompanied by letters from other gentlemen of
great respectability and truth, and personally acquainted with the
mild and inoffensive character of the party indicted, stating that
the arraignment and trial of Kernan, in the state of mind in which
he then was, would probably result in the mental derangement of
a youth, in their opinion entirely innocent of any criminal intent,
determined me to exercise the power vested in the executive for
such cases, and to dismiss all further proceedings.

It is proper that I should also state, that the notice of the ap-
plication for a nolle prosequi was published as required by the
Constitution, in one of the papers published at Westminister, in
Carroll county, and that the department has not to this day re-
ceived any objection or protest, either verbal or written, against
granting a nolle prosequi as prayed.

T. Watkins Ligon.

On motion of Mr. Wickes,                                                   

The bill entitled, an act to permit persons to whom free ne-
groes or mulatto apprentices are bound in Worcester county to
hire them out, which was rejected on the 26th inst., was recon-
sidered.                                             

On motion of Mr. Lester,
The House adjourned.