Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/26

 to Press and Types, (had it amounted to £50) was, in effect, their loss, and not his. The loss of the opportunity of using such an engine of malice and falsehood, was in reality, no loss to him or them; for, while he had used it, unmolested, and unrestrained, either by force or law, or religion or morality, it had only encumbered him with debt, and covered him with contempt.

The Jury found a verdict of £625—and it has been paid, not wholly by the Defendants themselves, but by a tax—if I may call it so—which our inconsiderate act imposed upon Society in various parts of the Province. We were enabled to pay it, and to disappoint the malice of Mr. Mackenzie, by the voluntary contributions of persons who, sharing the feelings of indignation under which we had acted, regretted, while they condemned, the rash, imprudent, and improper act, into which those feelings had hurried us.

Mr. Mackenzie, having received a more than tenfold recompense for an injury provoked by himself, is evidently disappointed, that individuals, whom his own unprincipled scurrilities had led into the only act of violence, perhaps, which can be laid to their charge, have not been forever ruined by it—he would be content with nothing less than that they should be marked out, for the remainder of their lives, as proscribed members of Society—forever unworthy of the countenance of the Public, or the confidence of their Government. He would wish that an injury offered to a venomous Press, which had once been his, should be the only offence never to be pardoned, and never to be atoned for—and he would see, with pleasure, nine or ten individuals, for one trespass heedlessly committed, without concealment or disguise, and under the most provoking circumstances, ruined and disgraced for the rest of their lives, whilst he is permitted to continue—as he had done for years before—to stab the reputation of these persons and their families, without provocation, without remorse, and without punishment.