of
Commons, and would have been presented, had not his friends from Antigua,
the Hon. Mr. Byam, and Dr. Coull, disproved her assertions.

I can say something on this point from my own knowledge. Mary's petition
contained simply a brief statement of her case, and, among other things,
mentioned the treatment she had received from Mr. and Mrs. Wood. Now the
principal facts are corroborated by other evidence, and Mr. Wood must
bring forward very different testimony from that of Dr. Coull before
well-informed persons will give credit to his contradiction. The value of
that person's evidence in such cases will be noticed presently. Of the
Hon. Mr. Byam I know nothing, and shall only at present remark that it is
not likely to redound greatly to his credit to appear in such company.
Furthermore, Mary's petition _was_ presented, as Mr. Wood ought to know;
though it was not discussed, nor his conduct exposed as it ought to have
been.

9. He speaks of the liability he should incur, under the Consolidated
Slave Law, of dealing with a free person as a slave.

Is not this pretext hypocritical in the extreme? What liability could he
possibly incur by voluntarily resigning the power, conferred on him by an
iniquitous colonial law, of re-imposing the shackles of slavery on the
bondwoman from whose limbs they had fallen when she touched the free soil
of England?--There exists no liability from which he might not have been
easily secured, or for which he would not have been fully compensated.

He adds in a postscript that Mary had a considerable sum of money with
her,--from L36 to L40 at least, which she had saved in his service. The
fact is, that she had at one time 113 dollars in cash; but only a very
small portion of that sum appears to have been brought by her to England,
the rest having been partly advanced, as she states, to assist her
husband, and partly lost by being lodged in unfaithful custody.

Finally, Mr. Wood repeats twice that it will afford him great pleasure to
state for the governor's satisfaction, if required, such particulars of
"the woman Molly," upon incontestable evidence, as he is sure will acquit
him in his Excellency's opinion "of acting unkind or ungenerous towards
her."

This is well: and I now call upon Mr. Wood to redeem his pledge;--to bring
forward facts and proofs fully to elucidate the subject;--to reconcile, if
he can, the extraordinary discrepancies which I have pointed out between
his assertions