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than fifty dollars, the creditor can not reduce it to that amount and bring suit before a magistrate. If the claim is over fifty dollars, say fifty dollars and fifty cents, suit must be brought in the County Court; and if the creditor reduce the claim to fifty dollars or less, the defendant may give evidence to show the just claim is greater, and thus cast the plaintiff in the suit and charge him with the costs.
Now it so happens that a great many freedmen, at the close of the year, have due them sums exceeding fifty dollars, for the collection of which they are obliged to bring suit, if at all, in the County Court. If a lawyer is employed, and suit can not be brought without his services, a fee must be paid beforehand, sufficient at least to cover the disbursements. Many of the freedmen having nothing except the claim they seek to collect, are wholly unable to enter the court, and thus their claims are practically uncollectable.
I see no way to obviate this difficulty, except by the enlargement of the magistrate jurisdiction, which should be increased to at least one hundred dollars.

There ought also to be a statute to punish husbands for the abandonment of their wives. It should enable the wife to put herself upon the county, by reporting herself to the Overseer of the