PRAYERFOR PARDON.—A petition was forwarded recently to the Hon. T. H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland, signed by 114 Ministers of the M. Episcopal Church, Black River Conference, asking for the pardon and release of Rev. Samuel Green, a colored local preacher, who is now lying in the Penitentiary of that State, under a sentence of ten years' imprisonment, for having in his possession a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin.—N. Y. Express.

  Think of that, kind reader, the land of the free and home of the brave! One hundred and fourteen Ministers of our holy religion, petitioning one of our governments to release a colored preacher from the Penitentiary, where he is sentenced for ten years, for the crime of having in his possession a printed book—a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin. What a text for the Fourth of July! We venture the opinion that at this moment there is not a government in the world which can show within its whole borders, an act so completely involving the very essence of outrageous tyranny. Of the whole fabric of outrages on humanity, reared by all of earth's infernal despots, we believe this act is entitled to be considered the chief and crowning stone. And yet with this despotism clutching at the throat of its victim, and 114 Ministers on their knees praying in vain that its grasp may be released, the air will continue to be vocal with the laudations of our free institutions.—Wisconsin Free Democrat.