CANTERBURY.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 436, 27 December 1861, Page 3

CANTERBURY.

(From the Press.)

LIBEL.—MOORHOUSE v. WATSON. The. 25th day of November ought to he entered in our history as a red-letter-day. Upon that day we had the honor of a visit from his Honor the Superintendent. Had there been a court circular in the province, an announcement would doubtless have appeared at the time, stating 'his Honor the Superintendent trausacted business to day at the Press office, and had an audience of the chief printer and dark of that establishment;' the business consisted in pumping those officials, respecting the publication of a letter in our columns the Saturday previous, signed, ' A Tenant of the Crown.' Mr. SJoorbouse enquired the name of the writer of that letter, addiDg significantly, • I have been looking out for my opportunity, and now I have got it, that is the game I have been playing all along.

Had Mr. Moorhouse sent his attorneys, as is usually done in such caseg, so indiscreet an admission would have been avoided. We have always given Mr. Moorhouse full credit for veracity, and we cordially believe him oo this ocoasion. We believe he has been long waiting fjr au opportunity to bring us withiu reach of the law. We can readily believe, beo*toe it ia in strict accordance with all his policy, that he has btsen anxiously wafrjng fctr a chg:i<te of retaliating by any means, no matter what, for the free and honest criticism which we can readily suppose has cot been very agreeable to him. Having tried for four years to trample every, appearance ot independeuoa out of the Council, Mag tested, the peopU witU Qoatea^t,

their tnuuey without'their permission, i f st'd so let them even see their ucc.iu.jis till ii stiiletl him, assumed the right of concocting iai]\\;ay schemes without thcicounesy. of informing fhen{, the next stop, naturally enough, is to atfuok-tiu* Hbetty of the press. That little remark -was, we say, significant—'l have been waiting for you, that has been my game all along.' It is not this particular libel, if libel it be,—that is only the peg to hang the action on, It ia the past course of this journal, it is the intolerable criticism of bis publio conduct which is real cause of offence, ■

The result of the interview was a slip of paper politely handed to our printer, requesting us in the name of Mr. Justice Gresson to pay to Mr. Moorhouse tbe sum of two thousand pounds, being the precise amount of damage done to his character by the few inadvertent words in question.

It would be extremely improper iv u3 to an* ticipate the verdict of a jury by any discussion, as to the alleged libel in question; bun we may be allowed to express our very sincere sorrow at what has taken place. Whatever may be the result, a great and sad le3son has been read to Mr. Moorhouse, which he will probably not forget. We took occasion in several articles to point out that there was a great inconvenience and a great impropriety in the head of the government engaging in private speculations in matters in which a line of policy of. conduct was dictated by his public duties.' We took exception, for instance, to the Superintendent purchasing land in the neighborhood of the proposed railway station at C.hristchurcb, as a private speculation, whan his public duty requited that his judgment should be wholly free and unbiassed as to the position of that station and of the line of railway. We never said, there was anything dishonorable or dishonest in saoh aa act; but we said it was obviously one which a very scrupulous public officer would have avoided. We may have been wrong ; but we thought it our duty to expose whit wo held to b^ a great laxity of opinion, likely to be»exceedingly dangerous to the public, service. Now Mr. Moo.house publicly Bttaoked us for thfse opinions, and defended his actions, on tbe ground that be had a full right to epecu'ate iv such a manner and under such circumstances. That we understood, aud all tbe world understood, to be the pith and meaning of bis attack upon us in the Town Hall. It was ea9y enough to see that such a line of argument was likely to be misunderstood ; that it might convey to some minds a meaning wider than Mr. Moorhouse intended. ' The Tenant of the Crown,' a simple man of a pastoral, not to say bucolic turn of mind, little able as it appears to draw refined distinctions in language, and prone to the perilous hi? bit of generalising from slight premises, actually thought that on the same reasonings as that by which Mr. Moorhouse defended the speculation in the railway station site, might also be defended a speculation in land in the neighborhood of the coal mine, of the existence of which Mr. Moorhouse might be aware ia the course of his official duties. The pastoral mind was no doubt in error, and hasteued at once in the fullest and most ample manner to repair his error, and hastened at once in the fullest and most ample manner to repair his error by retracting the words be had inadvertently used; but the very fact of the letter having been written ought to shew Mr. Moorhouse the very wrong and dangerous inferences which might possibly be drawn from bis most ill judged speech in the Towu Hall. Here is a gentlemau living up the country, taking no part inpolities, not having the slightest wish or intention of imputing anythiog wrong or . dishonorable t;i Mr.* Moot house, who has the imWesion left 03 his mind by hearing or reading that foolish display, that the Superintendent'thought that there was no harm at all iv his speculating upon information brought to him in the course of his official duties. Never was man more amazed wh«n be wa,3 informed by us that Us Honor not only repudiated such inferences altogether, but deemed an accommodation to the amount of two thoutsand pounds indispensable to the repair of his wounded honor, and the restoja'ion of bis repiitation, shattered by these foolish and, as it seems, illogical expressions, notwithstanding their penitent retraction by the simple minded author.

We say honestly we are very sorry for these proceedings. The result of such an action is, of course, a matter of comparative indifference to ÜB. ( But, looking to the sort of men from whom such actions usually come, we cannot help feeling a kind of Bbair A o that our chief magistrate should have consented to the humiliating position of allowing his name to appeal' iv the character of a plaintiff in such a proceeding. Take up any country newspaper in England and you will read of these aotions by the score.

Do they ever come from magnates or ministers or men of high position and character? Very rarely:—mostly from couutry attorneys and men whose character will not stand many hard knocks. Actions for libel are brought either far money or for character. In the ease of men in trade, whcsa business has been damaged by the libel, money is the fair remedy : hut where such actions are brought by honorable men in defence of character, it is always in order to obtain the opportunity of publicly disproving facts alleged on the other side. But an action brought by a man in high office for a few inadvertent worJs, lightly used; and instantly retracted wlieu pointed out—Alas! is that what our Superintendoiuy ia come to? We should expect this sort of thing from Oily Gammon or Sally Brass—but, from Mr. Moorhouse! ] Look through the pages of the English press, and we shall find they swarm with expressions which, were the law of libel strictly enforced, would bring the writers within its clutch. But men iv high station can afford to deßpise such attacks; and if they cannot, it ia a sure test they are unfit for the rank in which acoideut has placed them, but to which there is do surer proof they do not belong.

If Mr. Moorhouse does not know, he must be rudely taught to utiderstaud the distiuctioa between attacks on public actious and on private* character.

Far be it from us to justify a licentious preas. We know well where bald criticism ends and license begins. We take it as aa uudesigned compliment that this lynx eyed lawyer has been for six mouths Watching our columns* and has discovered no expression agaiust which an action would lie.

But we shall not be deterred by the bullying of chiefs or the whining of toadies, from attacking the wrong doings ot a tyrannical and inscrupulous government; and as we have spared ua trouble to defend the rights of the people and their representatives from aggression, so weuow rather we cotne than shrink irom the ta^k of defeadiug their most pwoiqu* U«rUige—Th% hMrtx «(lhe (nw^