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For the Spectator. Messrs. Editors:-I you some weeks since that I am alawyer, and became so because that profession has been for ages the enthusiastic friend of liberty. So far do I carry my love of perfect freedom, that every puppy the unrestrained privilege of growling to any tune that his own nature, or his master's orders may dictate, and to every blackguard the right of freely using the only vocabulary he has learned. You see then it would be inconsistent with my principles, to make any quarrel with the Billingsgate epithets so thickly abounding in the last effusion of "A Countryman." Some might designate them as "impudent, low, the impotent scurrility of 8 fool who felt that he was laboring to sustain a desperate cause-the last kick of a dying Bullock" pass them by with the more liberal commentary that "they are the natural and inalienable right of the poor being to whom other weapons of defence has been denied by & too frugal nature." Now to the urgument. I have nothing more to say about those "bonds." have given the views about them which the ignorant Judges and Lawyersof the county had, perhaps, unwisely entertaineduntil the necessities of the canvass raised up an unlettered "Countryman" to speak about them "as never man spake" before. In reference to them I-will leave "A Countryman" in the hands of one, apparently as unlettered as himself, and when our world shall get quite around, with its tail where its head ought to be, perhaps, it may be illuminated and convinced by the bloody "set to" between "A Countryman" and "Oooney"- contemporary pugilists with Sayers and the 'Benecia Boy. If Cooney shall consent to "take up his gage" which I rather apprehend, from the scurvy manner in which "A Countryman" undertakes to treat his effusions, there will be a pair of bloody noses in this legal arena, by election day."Cooney" will teach "A Countryman" how to charge his valuable productions as being "dark and unmeaning, and beneath the notice of any sensible man." He will show him by "knock down" arguments, that they are as sensible as his own and as full of meaning as an egg is of meat, and the only reason why "A Countryman" won't answer them; is that he can't. I should not be at all surprised if it should turn out that this only new made friend of Mr. Fultz, has by the proud self-conceit and unwarrantable rebukes of "A Couhtryman" been turned back to his first love, and that this and many more recruits for Thompsen, will prove to be the only fruit of his labors. He must learn to feed his "babies" on new milk. Not on fire. You have a new accusation against Judge Thompson. When will your black list be filled out To hear you and "Junius," and your principal, one would suppose that instead of being the presiding Judge, he has been for the last thirty years the principal criminal of the Circuit, and that while the outrages to right and justice and law called loudly for reformation, even your patriotic virtue needed the stimulant of a salaried office of two thousand a year to induce you to expose his criminality. To believe your clamor, the good people of the Circuit must first believe in the existence of a desperate state of public morals, in which you and your coadjutors fully participated, and at which you all winked until the hope of reward brought you to testify. But they do not believe your clamor, and at this moment they are nauseated and disgusted with your petty persecutions and shameless falsifications of all truth, and even of the records of the County. This last precious charge of yours is this "Upon the death of Mr. Kinney, one of the Banks of Staunton, (you think the Central,) was appointed Receiver, in his stead, and gare but one bond, as he did, and the Receiver ever since has given no other bond.Besides this, the singular fact of & Bank-a corporate body-being made officer of the Court, suppose is unparalleled in legal history. Who are you my "Countryman" "-that you talk so much and so confidently of law, and legal history? One might well suppose you to be the mighty Fultz himself, and that your effusions are only a long tail to his own cards, so learnedly do you discourse, and 80 positively affirm of legal niceties. All are prone to conclude either that you are yourselfa lawyer or that you have a lawyer to think for you, and that too, not one imbued with the high and noble principles of the profession, but what they call "a trapper," dealing in catches and sharp tricks. No plain and bona fide Countryman ever quibbled as you do. But to your last charge. Mr. Kinney died in Nov., 1859; the Central Bank was appointed Receiver of the Court November, 1857-two years before his death"not upon his death," as Countryman recklessly affirms. That Bank gave bond on its appointment, in the penalty of $20,000, with ample security, as the record shows, and it is true has given none since. But will not the people be surprised to learn that the Act of 1852, on which "Countryman" raises all his clamor, authorizes the Court to order an investment of funds paid into Court, in Bank stocks-which everybody knows are not as safe as Bank deposites-and yet this fault-finder is raising a clamor about the danger of loss to suitors from deposites in the Bank-when six per cent. compounded interest is secured by the terms of the order, and when the money is perfectly safe. But this appointment of "A Bank" is unheard of. Why is that wrong, Mr. Countryman The Bank is person, and it is a safe depository. What more-unless you are aiming to secure that little loaf to yourself, under the new Judge, by raising a clamor against "Corporations ?" But let me assure the people that so far from the appointment of a Bank "Receiver" being "unparalleled, it is often done by the other Courts of the State, and always by the State itself, and always, I, believe, when a Bank is at hand. "Countryman" can find one instance by addressing the Clerk of Albemarle. But I will not dignify the rant of this writer with further notice. The time is approaching now for action, and I am well content to await the music of the Polls, and to let "A Countryman" and "Jnnius" and their party be judged by the people of the Circuit, who have heard us all, and are prepared to render a verdict both in the case of Judge Thompson and in the case of Z. his maligners. For the Spectator. To the Physicians of the County. It does seem that our Legislature studies to add to our burden of taxation, while she does nothing to defend us in our privileges, 80 dearly paid for. We thought our license tax was high enough last year; but this Spring we find that we are taxed still higher. It is true that the law gives us a broken stick for our defence. (a presentment)