orts
to have been committed more than four years ago. When the
Indictment was preferred is not shown (as it was in the former
case) but the earliest date which shows its existence is 1st June
1835 when the certificate of the Clerk of the Court is given. No
process seems to have been issued in the State of Kentucky nor is
any other step shown to have been taken until the middle of last
month. There also it is suggested that the fugitive is a slave
that the real object of his apprehension is to give him up to his
former owners and so to deprive him of that personal liberty
which the laws of this country secure him. If this be conceded in
the present instance after a lapse of four years, no argument
could be consistently urged against the delivery up (on the usual
application) of persons who have been still longer resident in
this Province.

"'The delivery of a Slave under these circumstances to the
authorities claiming him would it is clear subject him to a
double penalty, the one of punishment for a crime, the other of a
return to a state of Slavery, even if he should be acquitted. The
former in strict accordance with our Statute, the other in direct
opposition to the genius of our institutions and the spirit of
our Laws. For this cause the Council feel great difficulty in the
course which they would advise Your Excellency to adopt, were
there any law by which, after taking his trial and if convicted
undergoing his sentence he would be restored to a state of
freedom, the Council would not hesitate to advise his being given
up but there is no such provision in the Statute.

"'On the other hand the Council feel that it cannot be permitted
that because a man may happen to be a fugitive slave he should
escape those consequences of crime committed in a foreign country
to which a free man would be amenable. This would be equally
contrary to the Law and to the spirit of mutual justice which
gave origin to it, in this Province as well as in the United
States. Considering however the circumstances of this case and
also the difficulty that might arise from it as a precedent the
Council respectfully recommend that time should be given to the
accused to furnish affidavits of the facts set forth in the
Petition presented on his behalf in order to a f