"It would be beyond the limits of an ordinary letter to
detail her baseness, though I will do so should his
Excellency wish it; but you may judge of her depravity by
one circumstance, which came out before Mr. Justice Dyett,
in a quarrel with another female.

* * * * *

"Such a thing I could not have believed possible.[19]

[Footnote 19: I omit the circumstance here mentioned, because
it is too indecent to appear in a publication likely to be
perused by females. It is, in all probability, a vile
calumny; but even if it were perfectly true, it would not
serve Mr. Wood's case one straw.--Any reader who wishes it,
may see the passage referred to, in the autograph letter in
my possession. T. P.]

"Losing her value as a slave in a pecuniary point of view I
consider of no consequence; for it was our intention, had
she conducted herself properly and returned with us, to have
given her freedom. She has taken her freedom; and all I wish
is, that she would enjoy it without meddling with me.

"Let me again repeat, if his Excellency wishes it, it will
afford me great pleasure to state such particulars of her,
and which will be incontestably proved by numbers here, that
I am sure will acquit me in his opinion of acting unkind or
ungenerous towards her. I'll say nothing of the liability I
should incur, under the Consolidated Slave Law, of dealing
with a free person as a slave.

"My only excuse for entering so much into detail must be
that of my anxious wish to stand justified in his
Excellency's opinion.

"I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
JOHN A. WOOD.
"_20th Oct. 1830_."

"_Charles Taylor, Esq._
_&c. &c. &c._

"I forgot to mention that it was at her own special request
that she accompanied me to England--and also that she had a
considerable sum of money with her, which she had saved in
my service. I knew of L36 to L40, at least, for I had some
trouble to recover it from a white man, to whom she had lent
it.

"J. A. W."

Such is Mr. Wood's justification of his conduct in thus obstinately
refusing manumission to the Negro-woman who had escaped from his "house of
bondage."

Let us now endeavour to estimate the validity of the excuses assigned, and
the allegations advanced by him,