e with death without benefit of clergy. This continued
to be the law in England until the Act (1827) 7, 8 George IV, c. 27
(Imp.), and in Upper Canada until 1841.

[43] Sir Peregrine Maitland.

[44] Banishment existed as a punishment in Upper Canada until 1841,
when it was finally abolished and succeeded by imprisonment.
Banishment was a very common alternative for hanging. I have counted
as many as four cases at one assize.

[45] The tradition is a floating and rather indefinite one. It has
some plausibility but there is nothing which to my mind can be
dignified by the name of proof. The facts of the Turner case will be
found in a Report by Mr. (afterwards Chief) Justice Powell to Sir
Peregrine Maitland's Secretary Edward McMahon, November 1, 1819,
_Canadian Archives, Sundries, U.C._, 1819.

[46] _Canadian Archives_, Q. 324, pp. 432, 436 Letter, June 8, 1818,
from "Thos. N. Stewart, Capt. H. P. late Royal Newfoundland Regiment"
to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, dated from Barnstable, North
Devon.

Turning to a more pleasant subject, while it may not be strictly
within the purview of this treatise, it may be permitted to bring to
light from the files of the Canadian Archives a story of a poor black
woman who showed true humanity. It may be considered by some at the
expense of her patriotism. That will not be admitted by everyone, for
what share did the Negro have in America in which he lived more than
in Britain which offered him freedom?

When in May, 1813, General Dearborn took Fort George in Upper Canada,
one of his prisoners was Captain Thomas N. Stewart of the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment who was wounded. Taken to the United States, he
was with several other British officers kept for months a close
prisoner at Philadelphia as a hostage under the retaliation system.

"At length," said he, "I with fourteen other officers made my escape
from the prison at Philadelphia by sawing off the iron bars with the
springs of watches, but from the active search which was made ten of
my companions were retaken in the course of three days. I ...
attribute my success (as well as that of two more British officers) in
being enabled to elude the vigilance of the enemy to the kindness and
humanity of a poor black woman to whose protection we committed
ourselves in our _real character_ and situation: and notwithstanding a
reward of one hundred dollars was offered for the apprehension of each
officer without our even being a