Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/15

 columns of a Newspaper, once a week, with false and slanderous stories.

Mr. Mackenzie, accordingly, even while he kept his Press at Niagara, commenced an attack upon a few persons, most preminent—or supposed by him to be so—in public affairs, and commenced it in a style which had been almost without precedent in this Country before, and which I am sure, very many people will remember, excited their suprise at first, though some of them may now have become rather callous.

After a considerable time, the Editor of the Colonial Advocate removed his Press to York, and I am not sure, that he did not for a while attempt to establish it at the head of the Lake—ulitmately, however, he fixed himself at York, and published here a Paper under the original title of "Colonial Advocate," at very irregular intervals.

I never subscribed to his Paper, but frequently saw it in the hands of those who did—and probably often in the hands of those to whom he sent it without its being subscribed for, as indeed he did for some short period to myself; for, it is very well known, that in order to force himself, if possible, into notice, he was in the habit of sending his Paper to a multitude of persons who did not subscribe; and thus, those whom he chose to select as objects of his slander, had to complain of it as an additional injury, that that slander was gratuitously circulated, and sent unbidden to Taverns and other places, to meet the eyes of the people of the Country in every quarter, whether they desired it or not.

For the months, or rather the years, during which the Colonial Advocate was published in this irregular manner, it was distinguished beyond all other Papers that ever had preceded it, for the rancorous and insolent language in which it attacked the