406 344 New Jersey Steam Nav. 6571 406 Co. v. Merchants' Bank 722 465 407 344-346 408 346-347 466 467 659 408 347-350 468 409350-352 352-355 469 470 660 409 355-357 471 248-250 Bowling v. Harrison OF THE Supreme Court of the United States, AT JANUARY TERM, 1848. 1*] *BENJAMIN G. SIMMS, Plaintiff in Error, V. THOMAS HUNDLEY. Sale of slaves brought into Mississippi from any other State, constitutional-refusal of Circuit Court to continue cause cannot be reviewed by writ of error-notarial certificate as evidence-rules of evidence prescribed by State statutes, followed by U. S. courts in such State. The decisions of this court in Groves v. Slaughter, 15 Peters, 449, and Rowan v. Runnels, 5 How. ard, 134, again affirmed. The continuance of a cause, or the refusal to continue it, rests in the sound discretion of the court in which the motion is made, and cannot be reviewed by writ of error. This, also, has been long settled. Under the statutes of Mississippi, a protest of promissory notes and statement of notices given to the parties, being certified under the notarial seal and verified by the affidavit of the notary, may be read in evidence. It is not necessary to introduce the notary, personally, to testify. Under plea of non assumpsit, testimony cannot be received relating to the residence of a party and bearing upon the jurisdiction of the court. HIS case was brought up by writ of error from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi. In 1835, the following notes were executed: $4,000. Port Gibson, 2d May, 1835. On the fifteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, I promise to pay, to the order of Passmore Hoopes, four thousand dollars, value received, negotiable and payable at the office of the Planters' Bank at Port GibH. N. Spencer. Indorsed: Passmore Hoopes, Benj. G. Sims. $5,169. Port Gibson, May 2d, 1835. Twelve months after the fifteenth February, 1836, I promise to pay, without defalcation, to the order of Passmore Hoopes, five thousand one hundred sixty-nine dollars, value received, negotiable and payable at the office of the Planters' Bank at Port Gibson. son. H. N. Spencer. Indorsed: Passmore Hoopes, Benj. G. Sims. 2*] *$4,000. Port Gibson, 2d May, 1835. On the fifteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, I promise to pay, to the order of Passmore Hoopes, four thousand dollars, value received, negotiable and payable 1 son. at the office of the Planters' Bank, at Port GibH. N. Spencer. Indorsed: Passmore Hoopes, Benj. G. Sims. Port Gibson, May 2d, 1835. Twelve months after the 15th February, 1837, I promise to pay, without defalcation, to the order of Passmore Hoopes, five thousand one hundred sixty-nine dollars, value received, negotiable and payable at the office of the Planters' Bank at Port Gibson. H. N. Spencer. Indorsed: Passmore Hoopes, Benj. G. Sims. $3,907.17. Clinton, December 14th, 1835. On the first day of January, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, I promise to pay Thomas Hundley three thousand nine hundred and seven dollars and seventeen cents, for value received. Benj. G. Sims. All these notes came into the possession of Thomas Hundley. In April, 1838, Hundley brought a suit in the Circuit Court, upon all the notes, against Sims, the plaintiff in error. At May Term, 1838, Sims, the defendant, filed two pleas, 1. Non assumpsit, and 2. That the notes were passed to Hundley for the purchase of slaves illegally introduced into the State, in contravention of the second section of the seventh article of the Constitution. The plaintiff joined issue upon the first plea and demurred to the second. The court sustained the demurrer, and the cause went to trial upon the general issue plea. When the cause was called for trial, the defendant moved for a continuance, and filed an affidavit, which it is unnecessary to state; but the court refused the continuance, to which refusal the defendant excepted. The bill of exceptions then proceeds as follows: The plaintiff then produced the following record of a protest of the said note for $5,169, which said record is in the words and figures following, to wit: State of Mississippi, Claiborne County, ss: I, William M. Randolph, notary public, branch Planters' Bank, Port Gibson, duly commissioned and qualified according *to [*3 law, and residing in said town, do hereby certify, that on the eighteenth day of February, 1837, I went to the branch Planters' Bank at |