THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1881. A LEGAL THUNDERBOLT.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 140, 11 May 1881, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1881. A LEGAL THUNDERBOLT.

v Wordi aro things, and a drop of ink falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

You know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after that scandal them. Shaxesper-s. When the immortal dramatist penned the above lines, he must have had m his mind's eye the specimen of humanity which forms the subject of this article, "We found him despised and reviled, a literary Ishmael driven outside.the pale of journalism, with each man's hand against him, and tales of his ingratitude and treachery upon every lip We gave him our sympathy, we gave him our counsel, we gave him assistance, we gave him our protection ; we tried both m private and public to stem the- torrent of abuse and obloquy which, washurled at. him ; we disregarded the many warnings we received, and we earned the reputation of -being a fob) for our pains. We were told that according to the measure of the obligations which we conferred upon him, would we receive an equal complement of injury, ancl the result has proved that the warnings were not ill-timed. There are some men who grow rich upon i losses, just as there are some journalists who build up a reputation upon the number of libels m which they play a prominent part, and the specimen under review belongs to such a class. The " Wanganui Chronicle " regretted his connection wiht it; the "Herald" was next mulcted severely for the productions of his slauderous pen ; the " Eangitikei Advocate" was let m for £200 or £300 m defending au action which he brought upon it. Luckily tho proprietor of the " Feilding Guardian" secured liimself against loss, by discharging him before he had bad time to work the evil, nevertheless, tho Scribe could not sever his connection without the aid of the law having to be evoked. We have thus shown that every paper upon which he -hat* been employed has been embroiled m legal proceedings. After his dismissal at Feilding, he honored

Palmerston with his presence, and the paper of which he was put m possession, forthwith became notorious for its disgusting scurrility and the unmanly attacks which were the only originality which graced its columns. Neither age nor sex, person, nor position, was spared. The characters of estimable ladies were assailed by indecent inuendoes ; public servants, whose lips were closed unci bands tied, were a'tacked m a cowardly style, sui generis ; ancl a phase of journalism exhibited which m a less law-abiding country would have subjected the editor to bis fitting reward — tbe cow-hide. The names of the most worthy and prominent men m the County were bandied about m coarse, badlywritten, concocted paragraphs, with a view to tickle tbe prurieut tastes of the lovers of such questionable pabulum; while the character and reputation of their wives and daughters were stabbed by vague and mendacious insinuations, for the edification of tbe lovers of scandal. The reports of tbe various local bodies were entirely ignored, items of news which might prove of interest were unheeded, to make room for bogus letters containing cowardly attacks and accusations. Nor were the leading columns one wbit more select. The editor of this journal bad dared to expose tbe Scribe's want of honesty with regard to tbe West Coast Railway, aud forthwith next evening a low vulgar attack was made on his private character, which, while being cowardly and mendacious, was as full of libel as an egg is of meat. Instead of rushing into the arms of tbe law, as we assuredly might have done, we informed the writer that his character that would not bear analysis, and we solemnly warned bim that a repetition would be followed by a reprisal. Like a coward, as he was, tbe Scribe, under cover of various pseudonyms, made tbe coming election a handle for levelling a perfect volley of slander against the editor of this paper, until the very meanness of bis dastardly conduct at last disgusted his few remaining friends, and by them we were advised to bear it no longer. We took tbe advice, returned the bullets fired at us, and, as now appears, affected such damage to bis reputation as only a court of law cau heal. But his falsehood and misrepresentation has already bad a terrible punishment, and any one who was present at the Council meeting last Wednesday, when Councillor Ferguson placed him on tbe torture rack, must have pitied tbe poor wretch as he writhed and crouched beneath the stinging though richly deserved lash which was applied to him. And this is the man who pleads for protection. What consideration would be shown for a cowardly ruffian who having brutally assaulted a number of unoffending persons, bad his weapon wrested from him and thrashed within an inch of bis life. None whatever, and yet the cases are exactly parallel. Had it been m bis power to have stigmatised tbe editor of this paper as a thief or a murderer, he would have done so without compunction, and that we have written more strongly of bim than be could of us, bas been owing entirely to himself. Desperate cases require desperate remedies, and while we deeply regretted publishing what would give pain to the lady who bas tbe misfortune to be tied to such a man, under the circumstances there "Was no escape. We have killed the hydra-headed monster, whose obscene brutalities nnder tbe garb of "Squib," "Vagabond," Ac., Ac., sought to blast tbe reputation, of males and females, m order to affect a sale of his wretched trash, and we can confidently go to a jury with tbe knowledge that we have been compelled to take our action by the grossest provocation and a desire to preserve tbe public from the outrages to wbicb it was subjected. In doing this we have been compelled to use the scalpel somewhat severely, and the patient does not take kindiy to vivisection,' but as our motto bas always been " tbe greatest good to the greatest number," we hold that it is more fitting that one worthless being -should come te grief, than that a whole community should be tyrannised over.