Page:Statement of facts relating to the trespass on the printing press in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in June, 1826.djvu/8



In presenting to the Public a statement of facts relating to the trespass committed in 1826, on the Printing Press, at that time in the possession of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, and candidly declaring and avowing the motives which influenced the persons concerned in that act, I feel it necessary, as I am connected with the Government by an office—however unimportant—to ofter, respectfully, to the, an apology for the liberty I have taken in presuming to make use of His name, or the names of persons forming members of His Government, without first obtaining His permission, or even making Him aware of my intention.

But the Editor of the Colonial Advocate, having lately thought proper by representing in his usual style, statements relating to the injury committed upon his property, by myself and a few others, in language which could not have proceeded from any mind not callous to truth, and devoid of every honorable and virtuous feeling, with the sole view of exciting public indignation against myself and companions, and involving the Government in a suspicion created by his own malignant imagination, that they were the contrivers and instigators of the act he complains of; I cannot, in justice to myself, or to those implicated through my indiscretion, remain longer silent, and quietly witness this second attempt at imposition, without an effort to counteract its wicked and mischievous tendency, by what I declare on my honor, and what is known to eight or nine other persons concerned with me, to be a true, faithful, and ungarnished statement of every thing tahtthat [sic] occurred, relating to that hasty and inconsiderate act.