n decision,
and while Anderson was in jail at Toronto, the court after anxious
deliberation granted the writ[28] but it became unnecessary owing to
further proceedings in Upper Canada.

In those days the decision of any Court or of any judge in habeas
corpus proceedings was not final. An applicant might go from judge to
judge, court to court[29] and the last applied to might grant the
relief refused by all those previously applied to. A writ of habeas
corpus was taken out from the other Common Law Court in Upper Canada,
the Court of Common Pleas. This was argued in Hilary Term, 1861, and
the court unanimously decided that the warrant of commitment was bad
and that the court could not remand the prisoner to have it
amended.[30] The prisoner was discharged. No other attempts were made
to extradite him or any other escaped slave; and Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation put an end to any chance of such an attempt
being ever repeated.[31]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The first Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States in
1793. Three years afterwards occurred an episode, little known and
less commented upon, showing very dearly the views of George
Washington on the subject of fugitive slaves, at least of those slaves
who were his own.

A slave girl of his escaped and made her way to Portsmouth, N. H.;
Washington on discovering her place of refuge, wrote concerning her to
Joseph Whipple the Collector at Portsmouth, November 28, 1796. The
letter is still extant. It is of three full pages and was sold in
London in 1877 for ten guineas. (_Magazine of American History_, Vol.
1, December, 1877, p. 759.) Charles Sumner had it in his hands when he
made the speech reported in Charles Sumner's _Works_, Vol. III, p.
177. Washington in the letter described the fugitive and particularly
expressed the desire of "her mistress" Mrs. Washington for her return
to Alexandria. He feared public opinion in New Hampshire for he added.

"I do not mean by this request that such violent measure should be
used as would excite a mob or riot which might be the case if she has
adherents; or even uneasy sensations in the minds of well disposed
citizens. Rather than either of these should happen, I would forego
her services altogether and the example also which is of infinite more
importance."

In other words if the slave girl has no friends or "adherents" send
her back to slavery--if she has and they would actively oppose her
return, let her go--an