STATEMENT OF FACTS. 
 
 RELATING TO THE TRESPASS, 
 
 ON 'I’HE 
 
 PRINTING PRESS, 
 
 IX THE POSSESSION OF MR. WILLIAM LYON M’KENZIE, 
 
 IN JUNE 1826 . 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE PUBLIC GENERALLY. 
 
 AMD 
 
 PARTICULARLY TO TIIE SUBSCRIBERS; AND SUPPORTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE COLONIAL ADVOCATE. 
 
 
 YORK: 
 
 Printed by R. STANTON. 
 

 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting to the Public a statement of facts relating to the 
 trespass committed in 1S2G on the Printing Press, at that time in 
 the possession of Mr. William Lyon M’Kenzie, and candidly de¬ 
 claring and avowing the motives which influenced the persous con¬ 
 cerned in that act, I feel it necessary, as 1 am connected with the 
 Government by an office, however unimportant, to offer, respect¬ 
 fully, to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, 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, bv myself and a few others, in 
 language which could not have proceeded from any mind not cal¬ 
 lous 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 lon¬ 
 ger 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 he a true, faithful, and ungar¬ 
 nished statement of every thing that occurred relating to that hasty 
 tend inconsiderate act. 
 
IV 
 
 1 had once before made up my mind to give to the public my 
 sentiments on this subject, but I am almost ashamed to confess that 
 I was deterred, or rather restrained, by the conviction that the 
 Editor of the Advocate , and his fellow labourer the Freeman, would 
 represent me, as they had done before, to be acting under the di¬ 
 rection, or with the knowledge or sanction of the Executive Go¬ 
 vernment, and consequently, according to their doctrine, unworthy 
 of belief; and although I then felt, and do now feel, the perfect 
 absurdity of such a charge, and strongly condemn an apprehension 
 which may be by others pronounced very unworthy and unjust to¬ 
 wards the public, the currency w'hich the foulest and the most un¬ 
 founded attacks upon the character and reputation of some of our 
 oldest and most respectable inhabitants seemed to obtain through¬ 
 out the province, and the avidity with which they were sought af¬ 
 ter and read, by those whose abilities and station in society might 
 have taught them better, made me imagine that the time had not 
 yet arrived when I could hope for a cool, dispassionate and unbi¬ 
 ased opinion of my conduct, and the motives which governed it. 
 
 I had sufficient experience of the uncompromising baseness of 
 Mr. M’Kenzie’s disposition, and could not doubt that he would de¬ 
 scend to the meanest and most contemptible artifices, and use 
 the most strenuous exertions to paralize the effect which a candid 
 and ingenuous relation of facts was calculated to produce on the 
 minds of a generous and impartial public; but as he appeared to 
 think that he had already succeeded in establishing a belief, that 
 the Government had incited a party of young men to commit a 
 trespass on his property, it was not altogether improbable or unrea- 
 r on able to suppose that a similar artifice would be practised by him 
 on the credulity of the same persons, and with equal success. 
 
 Indeed it is more than probable that, he will now resort to this 
 stratagem to blunt the effect which the following pages may have 
 upon his subscribers; for I think they will find themselves not a 
 little at fault, when they reflect upon and compare the statei*feuts 
 
V 
 
 V 
 
 iiereia set ibrth, verified and strengthened as they arc by a solemft 
 affidavit of their truth, with the innumerable and extravagant false¬ 
 hoods, fabricated and ushered into the world by their friend Mr. 
 M’Kenzie, unsupported in any way but by his character and repu¬ 
 tation for honor and integrity, which his style of conducting his pa¬ 
 per was calculated to impress upon the public mind—for 1 know 
 not what other test they have by which to judge of his character. 
 
 If his word, supported only by a charcter so acquired, is to be 
 considered satisfactory, and is to stand uncontradicted even by the 
 oaths of eight or nine persons of undisputed veracity; then I most 
 sincerely hope and trust that his friends will at least pause, before 
 they ajjain condemn the conduct or motives of any one, against 
 whom the columns of such a Journal as the Colonial Advocate may 
 be filled, with base, scurrilous, and unfounded abuse. 
 
 SAMUEL P. JARVIS. 
 
 York , 1828. 
 
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STATEMENT &c. 
 
 Within the last few weeks the columns of certain newspa¬ 
 pers printed in this Town have been filled with statements con¬ 
 trived with much meanness and malignity, to inflame and abuse 
 the Public mind with respect to a transaction in which I am 
 stated, and not untruly, to have acted a prominent part. I 
 have thought several times before, that an explanation to my 
 fellow subjects of all that can be truly stated upon the subject 
 of Mr. M’Kenzie, and his infamous press, was due, in justice 
 to myself, and to others—and now, upon the occasion of the 
 mean and dclibei'ate revival of statements, formerly made, with a 
 full knowledge of their falsehood, I will discharge, candidly, at 
 all events, a duty which I think 1 owe to society—and I shall 
 do it in as few words, and as plainly as I can. 
 
 I will appeal to such of you as have, like myself, been born 
 and brought up in Upper Canada, to l’emember, that until 
 within these few years, our society was happily undisturbed, 
 and undisgraced, by those unfeeling and unprincipled attacks 
 upon the characters and reputations of individuals and families, 
 and by those gross and vulgar personalities which have, for 
 some time past, been a blot upon the Province—I say a blot 
 upon the Province, because, it juust appear very evident to 
 our fellow subjects in other Countries, that unless such calum¬ 
 niators found some support from others they could not continue 
 their scandalous trade ; and no one can expect but that in the 
 eves of all reflecting men, those who abet such a nuisance to 
 society, must appear as culpable as those who derive their bread 
 from it. I do not say that we had not formerly some newspa¬ 
 pers in which, for political purposes, and perhaps also in the 
 hope of making a profit by the slander, Public men were spoken 
 of in their Public capacity,'and the various authorities of the 
 
8 
 
 Province attacked with rancor and injustice. Indeed we all 
 know this was the case, and that with respect to the Printer 
 of one paper, he went to such unwarrantable lengths in con¬ 
 duct of this kind, that he was convicted and sentenced, for a 
 seditious libel, to a very ignominious punishment, from which 
 he was saved by the lenity of those against whom it had been 
 his whole employment, to endeavour to raise the hatred and 
 indignation of the Country. But then let it be remembered, 
 that although the Editors of these former journals transgressed 
 the laws, and become justly liable to punishment, it was against 
 Public Measures aud Public Men that their efforts, however 
 base and unprincipled, where directed. 
 
 A few r years ago Mr. M’Kenzie came to this country a per¬ 
 fect stranger, and in the employment of a respectable man, who 
 has since become a w’orthy and useful member of our society— 
 and how long before or after I do not know', but probably some- 
 wdiere about the same time, Mr. Francis Collins, the present Edi¬ 
 tor of the Freeman , came here from another part of the United 
 Kingdom, equally a stranger to us all, and w as of course, like 
 other strangers, at liberty to gain among us, without hindrance, 
 an honest livelihood by any lawful course. We saw both these 
 persons for several years in this Town—the former apparently 
 earning his support by attending the shop of his employer— 
 the latter following his occupation ofjourneyman Printer in the 
 Gazette Office. Why they did not continue in these employ¬ 
 ments no one has any business to inquire—it is enough to 
 know', that no one of all those whom they now spend their time 
 in slandering could have had any inducement to injure them in 
 their several callings, and that no one did. They saw us living 
 as people do in other societies, happily and harmoniously.—We 
 had done so for a long series of years before they came among 
 us. During that time some of our most respected inhabitants 
 
ha^l gone to their graves in peace—and the feelings of their 
 relations had never been harrowed by brutal and inhuman at¬ 
 tacks, which the dead cannot repel—Many of our Towns¬ 
 women—aged and respectable mothers of families, had arrived 
 at the verge of life, without having been distressed and insulted 
 by having their names bandied about, with the coarsest abuse, 
 in the columns of newspapers—Many of our Townsmen had 
 here, as in all other countries, risen to independence and to 
 respectability in character and circumstances, by their own exer¬ 
 tions, without having drawn upon them, by their prosperity, the 
 envy of malignant spirits—without having their wives and mo¬ 
 thers, their daughters and sisters, and even their grand-mothers, 
 insulted and spoken of, with coarse and unfeeling insolence, in 
 newspapers industriously circulated throughout the province ; 
 for no offence of theirs, for no provocation they had given—in 
 short, for no other reason, and upon no other pretext, than that 
 their relatives happened to fdl those respectable stations which 
 some persons must fill in all civilized societies—but which are 
 always objects of envy to the mean and the vicious. 
 
 It was, I think, some time in the year 1824, that Mr. M’Kcn- 
 zie set up a paper called the “ Colonial Advocate ,” in the Dis¬ 
 trict of Niagara.—The principal object it professed was to ad¬ 
 vance the Commercial and Agricultural interests of the Pro¬ 
 vince—but it very soon became evident, that the conductor cl 
 the paper was determined to try whether there u r as not in this 
 colony an appetite for calumny, which he might turn to good 
 account, and which he might gratify wilh less trouble to him¬ 
 self, and less exertion of intellect than would be required for 
 more honest purposes ; for, indeed, it had been proved very 
 clearly to tho people of Upper Canada, that when a writer has 
 once brought himself to lay aside all regard to decency and 
 
/ 
 
 10 
 
 truth, nothing is easier than for him to fill the columns of 
 newspaper, once a week, with false and slanderous stories. 
 
 Mr. M’Kenzie, accordingly, even w’hile he kept his Press 
 at Niagara, commenced an attack upon a few persons, most 
 prominent, or supposed by him to be so, in public affairs, 
 and commenced it in a style which had been almost without 
 precedent in this Country before, and w r hich I am sure very 
 many people will remember excited their surprise at first, 
 though some of them may now have become rather callous. 
 
 After a considerable time, the Editor of the Colonial Advo¬ 
 cate removed his Press to York, and I am not sure, that he 
 did not for a while attempt to establish it at the head of the 
 Lake—ultimately, however, he fixed himself at York, and 
 published here a Paper under the original title of “ Colonial 
 Advocate,” at very irregular intervals. 
 
 I never subscribed to his Paper, but frequently saw it in 
 the hands of those who did—and probably as often in the 
 hands of those to whom he sent it without its being subscribed 
 for, as indeed he did for some short period to myself; for it 
 is very well known, that, in order to force himself if possible 
 into notice, he was in the habit of sending his paper to a 
 multitude of persons who did not subscribe, and thus, those 
 whom he chose to select as objects of his slander had to com¬ 
 plain of it as an additional injury, that that slander was gra¬ 
 tuitously circulated, and sent unbidden to Taverns and other 
 places, to meet the eyes of the people of the Country in every 
 quarter, whether they desired it or not. 
 
 For the months, or rather the years, during which the Co¬ 
 lonial Advocate was published in this irregular manner, it was 
 distinguished beyond all other Papers that ever had preceded 
 it, lor the rancorous and insolent language in w hich it attacked 
 
11 
 
 the Government, the Members of the Legislature, and some 
 of the highest Officers of the Colony. 
 
 ^ hy an abuse ol the Press, licentious beyond all former 
 example, was suffered by the Government to continue with 
 impunity, it is not my business to inquire. I can easily con¬ 
 ceive, that a great unwillingness should be felt, to notice a 
 paper so utterly contemptible, and conducted so entirely with¬ 
 out regard to the maintaining a character, either for decency 
 or truth. 1 can readily suppose, that it must have anticipated 
 
 with confidence, that the public at large would receive from 
 the perusal of such a paper, no other impressions than ab¬ 
 horrence of its falsehoods and contempt for its author ; and 
 that any official notice of either, would only be giving a de¬ 
 gree of importance to such a journal, which it never could 
 attain if left to itself. How far it is right to forbear on such 
 principles, or to forbear at all, I will not presume to say; 
 my individual opinion is, that the Laws should not have been 
 allowed to be insulted so long and so grossly with impunity ; 
 and I believe, that the forbearance shewn, has only encou¬ 
 raged and increased an evil that other measures would have 
 cured. But no part of the responsibility rests with me ; what 
 I desire to give to the Public, is merely a statement of facts. 
 
 Finding, it would seem, that his paper, conducted as it 
 was, was not very profitable, he began in the Spring of 
 1826, to shew symptoms of discontinuing it; and, if 1 remem¬ 
 ber right, for I have no file of his papers before me, he threw 
 out several hints of his intention to do so, complaining of 
 the want of zeal and interest in the people, which prevented 
 “ their supporting an Independent Press but perceiving, 
 as I hope 1 may more truly represent it, that the morality and 
 honest principles of the people prevented their contributing to 
 
12 
 
 support any man in obtaining a living by inventing and dis¬ 
 seminating slander. 
 
 Nevertheless, before Mr. M’Kenzie could make up his mind 
 to abandon his employment and endeavour to earn his living 
 by honest industry, he was determined to make one or two 
 desperate efforts to draw the universal attention of the public 
 upon him. Perhaps his hope was, that he should compel the 
 Government to prosecute him, by the unexampled scurrility of 
 his language; or, perhaps he expected to gain a rather less 
 degree of notoriety by enraging individuals and provoking 
 them to a prosecution, which he of course would represent as 
 persecution ; or he may have meant principally to make an ex¬ 
 periment, whether, by making his columns the vehicle of the 
 grossest and coarsest slanders, and of the most malicious lies, 
 aginst the living and the dead, against men and women, the 
 powerful and the helpless, he should not at least secure the 
 patronage of all those whose minds and hearts were so utterly 
 depraved, as to rejoice in this degredation of human nature, 
 and thus draw a subsistence from some source, no matter how 
 polluted. 
 
 Under the influence of some or all of these motives, he be¬ 
 gan in the month of May, 1826, to send into the world a series 
 of libels, unequalled for their disgusting ribaldry, for their 
 hardened insolence, and for their brutal and unfeeling cruelty ; 
 and these libels were directed, not merely against persons in 
 public situations who had borne his slander for years with 
 silent contempt, but against persons unknown in public life, 
 and unconnected with politics, against married women, against 
 aged widows, and even against our friends who had been long 
 dead, and who, while they lived, were universally beloved and 
 respected. Many of the foul aspersions thus published to the 
 
13 
 
 world, had no connection with any public measure; the mis¬ 
 fortunes, the poverty, the former occupations, the personal 
 appearance of individuals were all made alike the objects of 
 unfeeling and impious abuse, regardless of the pain which the 
 wanton calumny might bring to the bosoms of relations and 
 friends. To make the insolence the more intolerable, no pains 
 were taken to avoid mentiou of names; on the contrary, they 
 were given at full length—no blanks—no asterisks—all set 
 down plainly, to amuse the malice of the world, and to insure 
 the whole mass of unmanly scandal being as fully understood 
 and applied abroad, as it might otherwise only have been 
 among ourselves. 
 
 I cannot reconcile it to myself to be the means of giving a 
 second publication to these horrid papers, which, I am sure, it 
 has been the endeavour of all good men to forget; and, there¬ 
 fore, I will not, for the sake of justifying my own conduct the 
 more plainly, polute the public eye, with placing before them 
 any part of these productions, which no language can describe. 
 But I call upon any man who may have preserved a file of the 
 Colonial Advocate, to turn to the number published on the 
 18th May, 1826, as well as to those immediately preceding 
 and following it, and then to inform me, if he can, in what 
 Country, and at what time, the feelings of a whole Society 
 were ever so barbarously and cruelly outraged as they were 
 by this man, whom no one had injured—whom, indeed, many 
 of those whom he thus insulted, did not know by sight, and of 
 whose existence even, it is very probable, some of the persons 
 he abused were unconscious. 
 
 Need I say what must have been the feelings of those thus 
 injured, and what ought to have been the feelings of all man¬ 
 kind, against the individual who, for the chance of making H 
 
14 
 
 few pounds by such a trade, rather than by the honest exer¬ 
 cise of his mind and hands, could thus scatter his base calum¬ 
 nies to excite the hatred of the malignant, and the ridicule of 
 the unfeeling, to inflict pain and injury for which he could 
 never atone ? 
 
 If I speak warmly on this subject, it is because I am myself 
 the instance of the most cruel persecution of this heartless man. 
 1 never had with him either transaction or dispute of any 
 kind—I held no situation that made me responsible for any 
 -act of the Government, or that gave me any share in their 
 measures—I am not, and never was, a politician, not having 
 either the station or the disposition, and not pretending to the 
 talent that leads a person into that path ; if any merit belongs 
 to me for it, I had, like almost every other person, allowed his 
 slanderous attacks upon myself and others to pass unnoticed. 
 I never condescended to be the author of a line in print in 
 which he or his Colonial Advocate was spoken of. 
 
 But this signified nothing—I was connected with persons 
 who served the Government—in an humble office I had the 
 honor to serve it myself. I was, as every man of charac¬ 
 ter is, the friend of those Gentlemen whom he thought it 
 bis interest to abuse most; and I had a mother and a wife, 
 whose feelings he might wound, and children, whose love and 
 respect for their father might make them one day feel their 
 share of the pain, to w hich they could not yet be sensible. 
 
 These were, in Mr. M’Kenzie’s eyes, sufficient reasons, for 
 1 can fancy no other, for stigmatizing me in his paper as a 
 Murderer—in his paper, which he boasted of sending to all 
 corners of the world, and w hich you all know he sent to all 
 who would receive it, and to hundreds who would not. 
 
 In making this charge, he kuew he should be understood 
 
15 
 
 by all who read his Paper here, to be alluding to an occur¬ 
 rence, the most distressing of my life, which he has, within 
 these few' days, unreservedly recurred to in his Paper, endea¬ 
 vouring to attach to it every feeling of horror for which false¬ 
 hood could invent a motive. 
 
 I will not, I cannot, for feeling forbids me, dwell upon the 
 circumstances of a misfortune, which the heart of no man 
 should have suffered him wantonly to recall to the recollection 
 of those whose affliction may have been at least alleviated by 
 time—it is not necessary I should. Conscious that 1 acted 
 under a fatal necessity, which the condition of human society 
 imposes, I surrendered myself unhesitatingly to the officers of 
 Justice—1 endured imprisonment, unmitigated by favor—1 un¬ 
 derwent a public trial under circumstances of peculiar disad¬ 
 vantage, and w'ns readily acqitted by a Jury of my Country- 
 meu. The whole melancholy story has been long given to 
 the world. I will not do such injustice to myself, or such vio¬ 
 lence to the best feelings of mankind, as affect to be without 
 that lasting sensation of regret, which the greatest of misfor¬ 
 tunes has unavoidably occasioned, and which it is my lot, as 
 it has been the lot of many with whom I cannot presume to 
 compare myself, to bear and to lament. 
 
 After Mr. M’Kenzie had, in defiance of all shame and of 
 every feeling of restraint, sent into the world the very dis¬ 
 graceful Papers I have alluded to, and in particular that of 
 the 18 th May, 1826 , which I have already mentioned, he 
 seemed to consider it a very necessary measure of prudence 
 to keep himself as much as possible from the view and contact 
 of the Society which he had insulted. 
 
 He could not indeed have walked into the street, without 
 meeting the husband, son, or brother of some female whose 
 
16 
 
 'feelings he had outraged, and scarcely indeed without meeting 
 some one of the numerous individuals whose characters he had 
 wantonly attacked, with an equal disregard of decency and 
 truth. 
 
 I only desire any person to turn to his paper of the 18th 
 May, 1826, and, having read it as deliberately as his patience 
 will allow him, to ask himself, whether it is not expecting too 
 much from the members of any community on earth, to sup¬ 
 pose, that the person who had dared to propogate these odious 
 slanders, could, while the recollection of them was fresh in 
 the minds of those he had iusulted, walk the public streets, 
 with impunity, enjoying with a malignant smile, the pain he 
 had inflicted. My belief is, that he thought and felt it to be 
 unsafe to make the experiment; for he could hardly have done 
 otherwise than expect the same chastisement here, which, for 
 much less provocation, he had more than once received in 
 other parts of the Province. 
 
 The public feeling, indeed, was immediately expressed, and 
 very unequivocally ; Letters from those who had formerly be¬ 
 friended him, were inserted in other newspapers, declaring 
 their abhorrence of his conduct—Subscribers withdrew their 
 names—his papers were returned ; and those who had been 
 his Agents, were anxious to rid themselves of the discredit of 
 having any connection with such a paper, or such a person, 
 by publicly renouncing their Agency. 
 
 It was currently reported, that his creditors, seeing that his 
 situation had become hopeless, had*by his consent, taken pos¬ 
 session of his Press, and that he had given up his establishment, 
 and intended to take leave of the Province. I believe now r , that 
 it was so—that the experiment he had made was indeed about 
 to end in the way most creditable to the Country—that the 
 
17 
 
 want ot public patronage, and the decided expression of public 
 detestation had really put an end to Mr. M’Kenzie’s slanderous 
 career. , _ 
 
 In common with others I expected such a result, and did 
 not believe that another paper would have issued from the 
 press of the Colonial Advocate No one has greater reason 
 than myself to wish that not another had—for in that case, my 
 first notice of Mr. M’Kenzie’s press would have been spared as 
 well as this—the last, I trust, which I shall ever feel it neces¬ 
 sary to take of him, or of his trade of calumny, which he has 
 since driven, and which he no doubt will continue to drive so 
 long as it suits his purpose, and is permitted to go unpunished. 
 
 But the rancour of Mr. M’Kenzie’s mmd was not yet satis¬ 
 fied.—He had up to the moment of his hasty departure shot 
 his poisoned arrows w here he pleased—he had been called to no 
 account—he had had every thing his own way—arid even when 
 lie left his trade and this country together he yielded only to 
 a necessity of his own creating. But what was his last re¬ 
 source ? He went to Lcwistown to be sure—and took up his 
 residence in the United States—but he left as managing jour¬ 
 neyman at York, a person who had some years ago been con¬ 
 victed cf a seditious libel, and pardoned upon his earnest as¬ 
 surance no doubt, of repentance—and in the hands of this man, 
 and two or three apprentices, the press was still left, to usher 
 into the w r orld, under the conduct of no person apparently re¬ 
 sponsible, such falsehoods as Mr. M’Xenzie, now out of the 
 reach of justice, might choose to send them from a foreign 
 country. 
 
 When the first number that was printed, under these extra¬ 
 ordinary circumstances, made its appearance, it is not to be 
 wvondered, that all had not patience under such an abuse. 
 
 B, 
 
IS 
 
 Mr. M’Kenzie has affected to record the eighth day of June, 
 as a sort of era in this Province, because it was signalized by 
 a trespass on a Press, which in his hands, had been used 
 only to destroy whatever was most valuable in public or pri¬ 
 vate life ; and which he had so abused, that he had actually 
 accomplished with it, at last his own destruction. 
 
 The facts have all been detailed on Oath, in a Court of Jus¬ 
 tice—they have since been trumpetted forth with more or less 
 exaggeration in the newspapers of the province.—There never 
 was less room for misrepresentation or doubt—w hatever was 
 done was done openly—there was neither an attempt or wish 
 to conceal a single particular of the transaction.—It can all be 
 told in a few words. 
 
 In company with eight or nine persons, most of them, per- 
 naps all of them, younger than myself, I went to the office of 
 the Advocate at about half past six o’clock in the afternoon, with 
 the determination to abate an intolerable public nuisance— 
 with a perfect readiness to abide the consequnccs—but 1 will 
 freely grant without having reflected sufficiently upon them.— 
 The Press was overturned—the Types were scattered about, 
 and some portion of them, unquestionably, lost, thrown away, 
 and destroyed. No personal violence was offered to any bo¬ 
 dy, nor was any intended, though I do not deny that if resis¬ 
 tance had been made, under the influence of the feelings which 
 actuated myself and my companions, our intentions would pro¬ 
 bably have been nevertheless persevered in. 
 
 As it w as the extent of the injury was what I have described 
 and nothing more. I do not pretend to be able to estimate the 
 loss correctly-—(not the loss of Mr. M’Kenzie, for it turns out 
 that the press was really no longer his)—but 1 have heard others 
 state, and I lully believe it, that fifty pounds, and perhaps less, 
 
19 
 
 would have paid the whole loss he had sustained. The Presti 
 was soon afterwards- in operation again, and I imagine withow 
 any very great expense in materials or repairs. 
 
 An expression of indignation, rather than deliberate des¬ 
 truction, was the purpose of our attack. In either point of 
 view, I admit its impropriety, so far as Society is concerned, 
 and still more its folly—of all that followed, the public arc- 
 aware. Ot course, Mr. M’Kenzie, as a moments reflection 
 might have led us to expect, came back to the Province, de¬ 
 lighted with his success. He had at length succeeded in pro¬ 
 ducing such an effect, as I am satisfied he had been long con¬ 
 templating. He had, on the one hand, a few inconsiderate 
 individuals on whom he could wreak his vengeance, for an 
 injury little more than imaginary—while on the other, he 
 could make it answer the purpose of his politics, by affecting 
 to believe, that the Government, or any person whom he chose 
 to traduce, had been the contrivers of this hasty and thought¬ 
 less act. The loss, in point of fact, did not fall upon him, 
 but, for all that, he now might assume the language of com¬ 
 plaint, represent himself as persecuted, and, by my impru¬ 
 dence, and the imprudence of others ascociated with me, he 
 had a straight road before him for repairing his broken for¬ 
 tunes. We were all known, and were some of us responsible; 
 and it was not long before an action brought against us by 
 Mr. M’Kenzie, in £'2,000 damages, shewed pretty plainly 
 his conviction, that he had at last brought his Press and Types 
 to good market—his creditors, it is well known-, rejoiced with 
 him, and they had reason. 
 
 In the mean time, and up to the moment of the trial, Mr. 
 M’Kenzie was to be seen, traversing every corner of the Dis¬ 
 trict, spreading the story of w his wrongs—his wrongs in- 
 
20 
 
 deed! ! the wrongs ol hint \vliOj 111 almost c\cry Papci that 
 lie published with that Press, inflicted without provocation, 
 without other possible motive than malice, envy, or hopes ot 
 gain, injuries to characters and feelings which no money 
 could repair. 
 
 He took his stand at the corners of the principal streets, 
 leading into the Town, in order to catch the people of the 
 Country as they passed, and to qualify them by his harangues, 
 of a piece no doubt with the statements in his Papers, to dis¬ 
 charge, coaly and impartially , the duty of Jurors, in his own 
 case at the approaching Assizes, and in the hope, that, if they 
 should not be chosen, they might at least perform the friendly 
 task of instructing their neighbours. 
 
 His Counsel at the trial, thought it neither proper nor pru¬ 
 dent to give, by his assertions, any countenance to the base 
 falsehoods which Mr. M’Kenzie had uttered for the purpose 
 of implicating the Government, and various official characters, 
 in a transaction of which the Defendants alone were the au¬ 
 thors; but the wrongs, the losses, the sufferings, of the Plain¬ 
 tiff, were made the ground of an appeal to the compassion of 
 the Jury, and they were called on to prove their indignation 
 against an outrage of which the circumstances were of course 
 painted with the strongest colouring by the Counsel, while the 
 provocation, which no language could exaggerate, was kept 
 out of view'. 
 
 It was proved on the trial, by Mr. M’Kenzie’s own witnesses, 
 that the general tenor of his Paper was scandalous and scur¬ 
 rilous ; and the Counsel for the defence, in language which 
 must have carried conviction to every candid mind, shewed it 
 to be clear and certain, that, in the first place, Mr. M’Kenzie 
 had sustained no actual damage, and that if he had, it w as to 
 
21 
 
 be charged solely to liis own misconduct, and to provocations 
 more aggravated than had ever before been endured; and that 
 the peace oi Society having been infringed, and the posses¬ 
 sions and property of an individual trespassed upon, some 
 damages must of course be given ; yet, if they were limited 
 either to the amount of the loss which Mr. M’Kenzie had suf¬ 
 fered, or ot the recompense which his conduct deserved, they 
 must be small indeed. 
 
 The plain fact is, that the Press in Mr. M’Kenzie’s hands 
 had become worthless, and was a loss to him—when he aban¬ 
 doned it, it was left to his creditors—the loss of it, therefore, 
 as to Press and Types, (had it amounted to £50), was in 
 effect their loss, and not liis. 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 mo¬ 
 rality, it had only incumbered him with debt, and covered 
 him with contempt. 
 
 • 
 
 The Jury found a verdict of £G25 —and it has been paid, 
 not wholly by the Defendants themselves, but b\ 7 a tax, if I 
 vnav call it so, which our inconsiderate act imposed upon So¬ 
 ciety in various parts of the Province. We were enabled to 
 pay it, and to disappoint the malice of Mr. M’Kenzie, 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. M’Kenzie,* having received a more than tenfold recom¬ 
 pense for an injury provoked by himself, is evidently disap¬ 
 pointed, that individuals, whom his own unprincipled scur¬ 
 rilities had led into the only act of violence perhaps which can 
 
22 
 
 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, w'ith pleasure, 
 nine or ten individuals, for one trespass heedlessly committed 
 without concealment or disguise, and under the most pro¬ 
 voking- circumstances, ruined and disgraced for the rest of 
 their lives, whilst he is permitted to continue, as he had done 
 for 3 ’ears before, to stab the reputation of these persons and 
 their families, without provocation, without remorse, and 
 without punishment. 
 
 lie has accordingly been ever since complaining, that my¬ 
 self and one or two others, w hom he ridiculously and falsely 
 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 forgive¬ 
 ness or forbearance of the Government (after we had suffered 
 for our indiscretion) into an approbation of the act. The ob¬ 
 ject of such insinuations is as evident as its injustice—he must 
 think meanly of the hearts and minds of his readers, on whom 
 he endeavours to impress such groundless suspicions. While 
 he has been labouring to produce this impression, w hich 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 dis¬ 
 passionate, by the step which His Excellency the Lieutenant 
 Governor thought it proper to take, in dismissing Mr. Lyons 
 from being a Oleik in his office, and thereby pronouncing, in 
 
the strongest terms, his condemnation of an act which was the 
 subject ol a Law suit depending against us. 
 
 Besides this artifice of attempting to throw suspicion on the 
 Government, Mr. M'Kenzie 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, w as paid wholly by the Officers of Go¬ 
 vernment, and by certain individuals, whose characters and 
 feelings lie had cruelly outraged, and by pretending that having 
 done this, they had thereby proved not merely that they ap¬ 
 proved ol the act, but that they had instigated and contrived 
 it. 1 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 any thing: And 1 af¬ 
 firm, that the share of the verdict which I myself had to defray 
 from no very abundant means, was such, that if Mr. M’Kenzie 
 had made as much clear profit by his Press, during the whole 
 time he has employed it in the work of detraction, he would 
 not have found it necessary to leave the concern and abandon 
 it to his creditors. With this simple fact before the public, 
 I w ill ask, upon w hat calculation did the Jury found their ver¬ 
 dict r* 1 have also to assure Mr. M’Kenzie, rather than the 
 public, for many of the latter already know the fact, that 
 among the contributors to the payment of the verdict, were 
 mauv both of men and women, whose names had never been 
 made the topics of his slander, and who, living in different 
 parts of the Province, and having no reason for personal re¬ 
 sentment against him, yet felt that the cause was that of Society 
 in general, and voluntarily offered to bear their share in the. 
 consequences of a pardonable imprudence, committed under 
 
24 
 
 the influence of a most unpardonable provocation—so general 
 was the scandal excited by Mr. M’Kei^zie’s paper! ! As to 
 the idea, that those who contributed to our relief approved of 
 the act, it is hardly deserving of a serious refutation. 
 
 In point of fact, both I and my companions had the morti¬ 
 fication to find that no one approved of an act, the impolicy 
 of which, on every account (to say nothing of its bad tendency 
 as an example), was too evident not to be seen by every body, 
 and by ourselves as well as others, as soon as we reflected 
 upon it. 
 
 No persons certainly had more reason to regret or condemn 
 it, and none, I am persuaded, did more justly or more heartily 
 condemn it, than the very persons whom Mr. M’Kenzie would 
 insinuate (though be well knows better) to have given it their 
 countenance. 
 
 It is true that some persons seemed to think it reprehensible 
 chiefly as a breach of the Laws—and others as affording an 
 evident triumph and advantage to a worthless person. All 
 concurred in censuring and regretting the transaction from the 
 moment it was known, and if we had been unassisted, except 
 by those who thought we had done wisely, Mr. M’Kenzie’s ma¬ 
 lignant wishes might have been gratified to the utmost. 
 
 Another act to w Inch air. i»I Ivcnzie has resorted lor the pur¬ 
 pose of raising a prejudice against us, and at the same time 
 injuring the Government, is his insinuating that we had favor 
 shewn us in not being prosecuted criminally for the act, as 
 w ell as being made to pay more than ten times the value of the 
 property, which we overturned and threw about. 
 
 M e went without disguise'or concealment of any kind, and 
 in open day, to the premises of Mr. M’Kenzie, and did what 
 
25 
 
 1 have slated, and nothing more. We were all known, and 
 immediately prosecuted by him for damages. There was 
 nothing to investigate; every thing was known, and it was 
 lor Mr. M’Kcnzie to determine, whether, besides trying to fill 
 his pocket with damages, he should also have ns brought up 
 before the Sessions or Assizes and punished in another way. 
 
 Ii it is the duty of the Government or of Crown Officers to pro¬ 
 secute criminally for every trespass done to individuals, whether 
 those individuals complain of it or not, I think I have aright to ask 
 why the Crown Officers have allowed Mr. M’Kenzie to call me a 
 Murderer, another person a Shoe-black, and another a Beggar, 
 in his Newspaper as often as he pleases, and to abuse in the 
 most offensive manner, not only the whole Magistracy of the 
 District in a body, but every individual, male and female, 
 whom be clioses to make the object of his malice. I think 
 their character is as dear to them, and mine to me, as the old 
 Press and Types which Mr. M’Kenzie knows he had never 
 paid for, could possibly be to him. I know if I complain, or 
 if any other person should complain, of Mr. M’Kenzie’s Libels, 
 the Grand Juries must notice them, and the Attorney General 
 must conduct the prosecution ; but, inasmuch as we have not 
 thought it worth our while to do so, Mr. M’Kenzie lias gone 
 unpunished by the public, although lie 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 insinua¬ 
 tions and complaints of Mr. M’Kenzie, 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 depend¬ 
 ing; they would cheerfully have suffered any imprisonment, 
 or paid any fine to the public, upon an Indictment, in the 
 
26 
 
 hope that such punishment would have prevented the Jury 
 from giving as large damages to Mr. M’Kenzie, 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 that individual, who 
 knew the aggressors and had chosen his remedy against them. 
 Our Counsel stated, very truly, at the trial, the handle that 
 Mr. M’Kenzie 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. 
 M’Kenzie has, w'ithin 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 forbore to proceed upon his complaint because 
 he expressly declined to prosecute, alledging, that he thought 
 the civil action was punishment enough. 
 
 But no sooner has Mr. M’Kenzie 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, because we were not indicted, although he tells us 
 himself, that he was expressly applied to and declined to 
 prosecute. 
 
 I shall only say of this, that it is like Mr. M’Kenzie. 
 
 As to the amount of damages aw arded, I have no inclina¬ 
 tion to say much on the subject, nor do 1 think I need. It is 
 but justice to Mr. M’Kenzie’s Counsel, however, to say, that 
 they resorted to no unfair or unworthy means, to inflame or 
 prejudice the Public. The Jury have by law the discretion 
 of measuring the damages, and it would be wasting time to 
 
27 
 
 say much of the manner in which they have exercised if. 
 I have no wish to do more than to observe, that for insults far 
 less aggravating than abound in Mr. M’Kenzie’s paper of the 
 18th May, 1826, he is stated to have been twice horse-whipped 
 in different parts of the Province, and for that particular paper, 
 to have been hung in effigy at Kingston and at Ancaster. 
 
 Of these outrages he has thought it prudent to take no no¬ 
 tice. — Had I, or any other person, whom Mr. M’Kenzie had 
 grossly libelled in that paper, met him in the street and chas¬ 
 tised him on the spot as he deserved, l know not what damages 
 he might have succeeded in obtaining here—but vve have all 
 read enough of such proceedings in other countries to know, 
 that his chance of Six Pence damages with an English Jury, 
 who should have heard his libels read, would have been at 
 least doubtful. By what law, or upon what principle it is, that 
 the property of a Ruffian is more sacred than his person, 1 am 
 at a less to understand. 
 
 But I have done with Mr. M’Kenzie and his verdict.—Be¬ 
 fore I conclude, I have a few words to oiler, which I think are 
 required by a sense of justice to others. 
 
 The Public know the individuals who were associated with 
 me in the attack upon the Advocate Press—most of them w ere 
 young men — that they are not lawless characters is best proved 
 by appealing to the whole tenor of their lives, and by : • ■ ■. ng 
 the single question, upon whose property did they ever tres¬ 
 pass before ? 
 
 Not satisfied with abusing us first—then suing us, and then 
 after obtaining satisfaction, returning to the subject and abusing 
 us again, Mr. M’Kenzie has thought it would be a good stroke 
 of policy, to insinuate at least, that the Government, the Ma- 
 
28 
 
 gistrates, the Crown Officers and others, were all concerned in 
 the outrage ; and if he can make any one believe it, the truth 
 or falsehood of the statement, is not likely, as every one knows, 
 to give him much concern. He has accordingly thrown out 
 certain hints for public suspicion to work upon, and then af¬ 
 fects to regret, that his Counsel would not allow him upon the 
 trial to attempt to prove the truth of his assertions, telling him 
 very gravely, that it would hurt his cause.—They knew it 
 would, and so did he, for not a question could have been asked 
 with that view, that would not have proved at once upon oath, 
 the injustice and the malice of his own insinuations. He 
 thought it better therefore to confine his calumny to his paper, 
 and say nothing about the proofs. 
 
 On this head I feel it right to state, truly and plainly, with 
 respect to Mr. Allan, who is a Magistrate, and Mr. Hewnrd, 
 who is not, and I believe never has been, that I neither saw 
 them, nor knew they were in view. The transaction took 
 place just at that time, in a Summer afternoon, that people are 
 usually to be seen standing or walking near their doors.—The 
 house of Mr. Allan is immediately opposite to the Advocate 
 office—the house of Mr. Heward near and in sight, thou oh 
 more distant—and the Attorney General’s office stands between 
 them. 
 
 Had I\Ii • Allan or ]\lr. Heward been in the street before we 
 
 entered the house, I am convinced I should have seen them._ 
 
 But as they were not, and as the whole transaction occupied 
 but a moment of time, being scarcely sooner began than en¬ 
 ded, had they known what was going on, they could not pos¬ 
 sibly have prevented it and as to their being parties to it, and 
 approving it, because they happened to be in sight, it might 
 be said as truly, that the crowd that stood on the bank, hist 
 
29 
 
 Spring;, and saw the Squaw quarrelling with Higgins, and 
 strike him with the axe, were accomplices in his death. 
 
 Another statement wholly false is, that the party rendezvou¬ 
 sed at the Attorney General’s office.—If they had done so, it 
 would only have shewn more clearly their heedlessness and in¬ 
 discretion—but there is not a word of truth in the assertion. 
 It is well known that the Attorney General’s residence is a 
 mile from his office, which he therefore does not see except in 
 office hours, and which might be used by any Clerk w ho keeps 
 the key of it, w ithout the know ledge of the Attorney General, 
 for any purpose. But the truth is, it was neither used nor in¬ 
 tended to be used on this occasion as a place of rendezvous, 
 any more than the ofiice of the Canadian Freeman—not one 
 of the part}' had been in it, or came from it—and the wdiole 
 foundation for the story is, that some of the young men were 
 seen to come past it, and from that direction, as others did past 
 other bouses in the other street. The office, however, was all 
 the while locked up and fastened, and the Attorney General, 
 I dare say, at his dinner at the other end of the town, knowing 
 as much of what was doing as Mr. M’Kenzie, who was at Lew- 
 istown. 
 
 As to my own conduct and motives,—I confess the w'ant of 
 prudence—the impropriety, of the former—1 cannot, and do not 
 admit, the impropriety of the latter.—I feel now', and I felt it as 
 strongly after an hours reflection, that what vve did w'as w rong 
 —and 1 regret it.—It w'as infringing the peace of society, and 
 taking the law into our own hands ; and it w as setting an ex¬ 
 ample which might lead to worse excesses. I feel that by one 
 imprudent and rash proceeding, w’e have been the means of sup¬ 
 porting rather than suppressing a nuisance, and that we were 
 doing for a very despicable person the very thing he wanted— 
 
30 
 
 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. M’Kenzie 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 . bowed persons, thoughtlessly 7 , 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 slan¬ 
 ders on their relations and employers, though it prompted them 
 most strongly 7 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 know¬ 
 ledge, and consequently without the approbation of the Go¬ 
 vernment, whose servant I am, to give to the public this true 
 account of a matter, upon the fame of which Mr. M’Kenzie 
 evidently hopes to live, after the injury has been recompensed. 
 
 As to the morality or immorality of the act, 1 am easy on 
 that head, for 1 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 propogation of scandal and 
 falsehood, by subscribing to the paper which has proceeded 
 from it. 
 
 The original of the Affidavit which follows, may be seen 
 by any person in my possession. 
 
 SAMUEL P. JARVIS. 
 
 York, January , 1828. 
 
31 
 
 Samuel P. Jarvis, Charles Richardson, John Lyons, and 
 James King, Esquires; Peter M’Dougall, Merchant; Henry 
 Sherwood, Charles Reward, and Charles Baby, Gentlemen; 
 severally make oath and say, that they were the Defendants 
 in the action of Trespass brought by William Lyon M’Kenzie, 
 for an injury done to his Press and Types, in which a verdict 
 of £625 was rendered for the Plaintiff-—That the act com¬ 
 plained of was committed without much time for reflection, 
 and without any deliberate concert—that it proceeded front 
 the impulse of their own minds, under a strong feeling of in¬ 
 dignation, for very cruel, false, and scandalous attacks then 
 lately made in the Colonial Advocate, upon some of the De¬ 
 fendants, or their relations or friends.—And, lastly, these de¬ 
 ponents say, that the charges and insinuations made in some 
 of the public Newspapers, that the Defendants were incited 
 and persuaded to do the act complained of, either by the Go? 
 vernment, or by any members of the Government, or by any 
 Magistrate, or that they had communicated their intentions to, 
 or consulted w’ith any other person or persons who were not 
 then actually assembled and met together, or that the same 
 w as made with their approbation, are wholly and utterly untrue. 
 
 Sworn before me, this J SAMUEL P. JARVIS, 
 
 2 d January, 1828, J> HENRY SHERWOOD, 
 
 Alex. M’Donell, /.P.) JAMES KING, 
 
 C. R. HEW ARD, 
 CHA.RLES BABY, 
 PETER M’DOUGALL. 
 JOHN LYONS, 
 
 CHA’S. RICHARDSON. 
 
 John Lyons, sworn to the aforesaid Affidavit before me, the 
 10th day of January, 1828. 
 
 JAMES CUMMINGS, J.P, 
 
 Sworn before me, at Niagara, Charles Richardson, to the 
 
 said Affidavit, this 10th day of January. 1828. 
 
 J. MUIKHEAD, J.P 
 
32 
 
 Since writing this Statement, I have read in the Montreal 
 Gazette of a late date (13th December, 1827,) the following 
 paragraph :— 
 
 “ The Colonial Advocate of the Gth instant, has embellished 
 “ his paper with a curious diagram, purporting to illustrate 
 “ the destruction of the printing materials employed in the 
 
 “publication of this Journal, and giving the relative positions 
 “ of the individuals w hom he asserts to have been engaged in 
 “ the affair. We would advise Mr. M’Keuzie to lot this mat- 
 “ ter drop, as we have it in our power to throw some light on 
 “the subject. Does he recollect declaring to an individual in 
 “ Montreal, that his real loss amounted to forty-five dollars 
 “only, and that he had cleared two thousand four hundred 
 “and fifty dollars by this business? If Mr. M’Kenzie denies 
 “ this, we beg leave to remind him of the time and place where, 
 “ and the person to whom such declaration was made, w hen 
 “ the Editor and Proprietor of the Colonial Advocate was last 
 “ in Montreal, at a public house, not a hundred miles from 
 “ our Establishment, and to a person then in our emplov.” 
 
 It is not a bad comment upon the opinion I have expressed, 
 and I dare say, if Mr. M’Kenzie, or any of his witnesses or 
 friends desire to know more they can be satisfied bv a reference 
 to the conductor of that paper, of whose name 1 am ignorant. 
 
 I remember an editorial remark of Mr. Gurnctts, the Editor 
 of the Gore Gazette, which leads me to think, that he could, 
 if he would, throw further light upon this point. 
 
 In the mean time, I think the Montreal Gazette Jins made 
 it pretty clear, that instead of calling the verdict a ten-fold 
 recompense for all Mr. M’Kenzie’s loss, I should have been 
 nearer the truth if I had used the w ords fifty-fold. 
 
 S. P. J. 
 
 Printed by R. Stanton. 
 
aw 1731