Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/30

 prosecution; but, inasmuch as we have not thought it worth our while to do so, Mr. Mackenzie has gone unpunished by the public, although he has not—as we were forced to do—made any recompense to the individuals for the injuries he and his Press had inflicted.

But people will know better what to think of these insinuations and complaints of Mr. Mackenzie, when I state to them—as I now do—that the Defendants were, above all things, anxious that they should have been prosecuted criminally by the Grand Jury or the Crown Officers, while the civil cause was depending; they would cheerfully have suffered any imprisonment, or paid any fine to the public, upon an Indictment, in the hope that such punishment would have prevented the Jury from giving as large damages to Mr. Mackenzie, and they were disappointed, (and the Crown Officers know it) that they did not think proper in this case, any more than in other cases of trespass committed against the person or property of an individual, to interfere uncalled for by the individual, who knew the aggressors and had chosen his remedy against them. Our Counsel stated very truly, at the trial, the handle that Mr. Mackenzie would have made, and the motives which he would have imputed to such a departure in his case, from the ordinary forms of proceeding. But what is best of all, Mr. Mackenzie has, within these few days, confessed in his paper, that the Grand Jury, hearing the evidence given in Court, did notice the transaction so far, that they sent for him to their room, and only forebore to proceed upon his complaint, because he expressly declined to prosecute, alleging, that he thought the civil action was punishment enough.

But no sooner has Mr. Mackenzie pocketed his £625, and applied a small part of it in repairing the injury done to his Press, and the rest to his other purposes, than he resumes his trade of slander, and abuses the Grand Jury and the Court altogether,