Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/27

 He has accordingly been, ever since, complaining, that myself and one or two others, whom he ridiculously and fasely represents as holding high situations under Government, have not been ruined beyond redemption, by this one act; and he has uncharitably and basely pretended to construe the forgiveness or forbearance of the Government (after we had suffered for our indiscretion) into an approbation of the act. The object of such insinuations is as evident as its injustice. He must think meanly of the hearts and minds of his readers, on whom he endeavors to impress such groundless suspicions. While he has been laboring to produce this impression, which he knows to be false, I and the others whom he was prosecuting at Law, have always felt that our case was most unfortunately prejudiced, and our trial prevented from being equal and dispassionate, by the step which His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor thought it proper to take, in dismissing Mr. Lyons from being a Clerk in his office, and thereby pronouncing, in the strongest terms, his condemnation of an act which was the subject of a Law suit depending against us.

Besides this artifice of attempting to throw suspicion on the Government, Mr. Mackenzie next attempts to console himself for his disappointment in not seeing our ruin complete, as well as his own fortune established, by stating that the extravagant verdict of the Jury, which he hoped was calculated to ruin ourselves and families, was paid wholly by the Officers of Government, and by certain individuals, whose characters and feelings he had cuelly outraged, and by pretending that, having done this, they had thereby proved not merely that they approved of the act, but that they had instigated and contrived it. I have, on my part, to assure the Public, that so far from being indemnified by the contributions, which, from various motives, were made for our relief, the burthen fell heavily upon such of us, as had the means of paying anything: and, I affirm, that the share of the verdict