Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/16

, the Members of the Legislature, and some of the highest Officers in the Colony.

Why an abuse of the Press, licentious beyond all former example, was suffered by the Government, to continue with impunity, it is not my business to inquire. I can easily conceive, that a great unwillingness should be felt, to notice a Paper so utterly contemptible, and conducted so entirely without regard to the maintaining a character, either for decency or truth. I can readily suppose, that it must have anticipated with confidence, that the public at large would receive from the perusal of such a Paper, no other impressions than abhorrence of its falsehoods and contempt for its author; and that any official notice of either, would only be giving a degree of importance to such a Journal, which it never could attain, if left to itself. How far It is right to forbear on such principles, or to forbear at all, I will not presume to say; my individual opinion is, that the Laws should not have been allowed to be insulted so long and so grossly, with impunity; and, I believe, that the forbearance shown, has only encouraged and increased an evil that other measures would have cured. But, no part of the responsibility rests with me; what I desire to give to the Public, is merely a statement of facts.

Finding, it would seem, that his Paper, conducted as it was, was not very profitable, he began in the Spring of 1826, to show symtomssymptoms [sic] of discontinuing it; and, if I remember right—for I have no file of his Papers before me—he threw out several hints of his intention to do so, complaining of the want of zeal and interest in the people, which prevented "their supporting an Independent Press;" but perceiving, as I hope I may more truly represent it, that the morality and honest principles of the people prevented their contributing to