| 747 before they could be sent to jail. The constable to our surprise thereupon exhibited a mittimus from said justice as follows:-
"STATE OF ILLINOIS}
Hancock County.}
"The people of the State of Illinois, to the keeper of the jail of the said county Greeting:-
"Whereas Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith of the county aforesaid have been arrested upon the oath of Augustine Spencer and Henry O. Norton, for the crime of treason, and has been brought before me as a justice of the peace in and for said county, for trial at the seat of justice thereof, which trial has been necessarily postponed by reason of the absence of material witnesses; to wit: Francis M. Higbee and others; therefore I command you in the name of the people to receive the said Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith into your custody in the jail of the county aforesaid, there to remain until discharged by due course of law.
"Given under my hand and seal this 25th day of June, A. D. 1844.
(Signed,)
"R. F. SMITH, J. P. [L. S.]
"His Excellency did not think it within the sphere of his duty to interfere, and the prisoners were removed from their lodgings to jail. The recitals of the mittimus so far as they relate to the prisoners having been brought before the justice for trial, and it there appearing that the necessary witnesses of the prosecution were absent, is wholly untrue, unless the prisoners could have appeared before the justice without being present in person or by counsel; nor is there any law of Illinois within my knowledge which permits a justice to commit persons charged with crimes, to jail without examination as to the probability of their guilt.
"On Wednesday forenoon the Governor in company with one of his friends visited the prisoners at the jail, and again assured them that they should be protected from violence, and told them that if the troops marched the next morning to Nauvoo as his Excellency then expected, they should be taken along in order to insure their personal safety.
"On the same morning some one or more of the counsel
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