Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/34

 which might lead to worse excesses. I feel that, by one imprudent and rash proceeding, we have been the means of supporting rather than suppressing a Nuisance, and that we were doing for a very despicable Person, the very thing he wanted—we were giving him notoriety, which he wanted to obtain by any means, and at any price.

But I feel, that more than all, the Government, and those individuals of the Government whom Mr. Mackenzie had been employed in traducing, had reason to complain of our want of consideration, in subjecting them to insinuations which they could not condescend to repel.

I allowed persons, thoughtlessly, to join me, whose connexion with the friends and officers of the Government would afford a plausible ground for a malicious calumny, not considering that their having been provoked beyond others by the brutal slanders on their relations and employers, though it prompted them most strongly to the act, made them the last persons that should have been suffered to join in it.

As the best amendment I can make for the lateness of my reflection, I have taken upon myself the task without the knowledge, and consequently without the approbation of the Government—whose servant I am—to give to the Public this true account of a matter, upon the fame of which Mr. Mackenzie evidently hopes to live, after the injury has been recompensed.

As to the morality or immorality of the act, I am easy on that head, for I feel that I deserve more the respect of Society, and have more reason to respect myself, as an actor in the attack upon the Press of the Colonial Advocate, than those persons who, regardless of the peace and happiness of families, have contributed funds for the propagation of scandal and falsehood by subscribing to the Paper which has proceeded from it.