Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/12



the last few weeks the columns of certain Newspapers printed in this Town, have been filled with statements contrived with much meanness and malignity, to inflame and abuse the Public mind, with respect to a transaction in which I am stated—and not untruly—to have acted a prominent part. I have thought several times before, that an explanation to my fellow subjects, of all that can be truly stated upon the subject of Mr. Mackenzie, and his infamous Press, was due, in justice to myself, and to others—and now, upon the occasion of the mean and deliberate revival of statements, formerly made, with a full knowledge of their falsehood, I will discharge, candidly, at all events, a duty which I think I owe to society—and I shall do it in as few words, and as plainly as I can.

I will appeal to such of you as have, like myself, been born and brought up in Upper Canada, to remember, that until within these few years, our society was happily undisturbed, and undisgraced, by those unfeeling and unprincipled attacks upon the characters and reputations of individuals and families, and by those gross and vulgar personalities which have, for some time past, been a blot upon the Province—I say a blot upon the Province; because, it must appear very evident to our fellow subjects in other Countries, that unless such calumniators found some support from others, they could not continue their scandalous trade; and no one can expect but that in the eyes of all reflecting men, those who abet such a nuisance to society, must appear as culpable as those who derive their bread from it. I do not say that we had not formerly some Newspapers in which, for political purposes, and, perhaps, also in the hope of making a profit by the slander. Public men were spoken of in their Public capacity, and the various authorities of the