ON THE INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY OF THE PUBLIC PRESS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 6, 21 March 1868, Page 3

ON THE INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY OF THE PUBLIC PRESS.

(Continued from our last.) The whispers of reason, and justice, anp humanity will scarcely be heard amidst the clamor of assailants so importunate ; from them, therefore, we seek not redress by expostulation ; we apply to the liberal sentiments of a people truly free, who value their freedom, and who possess sense enough to take the most effectual methods for its security. They will renouno the power and pleasure which they received from the gratification of an improper curiosity, when they find that it cannot be gratified without rendering the liberty of the press a source of misery to the innocent ; when they find that the licentiousness of the people more effect tually Baps the foundation of liberty, and destroys the best property— the property of a good man. Let us turn our attention to the origin and progress of that species of publication which, within a few years, has become a general cause of complaint among all moderate and well-principled persons. In order to gain notice, a newspaper must at first abound in virulent abuse, and in scandalous anecdote. A letter-box is fixed to the windows of some of the most public Btreets of the metropolis. Into this receptacle every dark assasin is tacitly invited to throw his poisoned dose. No man is so virtuous as not to have a failing ; no man is so inconsiderable as not to have enemies. Here, then, is an opportunity of expressing those secrets which, perhaps, the confidence of a friend has made known to the treacherous divulger of them, and of gratifying the malice of a coward with safety ; and by the infliction of the cruelest injury, that malice which was perhaps excited only by a superior degree of excellence. And who is to sit in judgment on what is received? Those who are often attentive alone. The papers are submitted to the consideration of some dark conclave ; and if it se^ms good to the invisible agents who sit in it, the tale of infamy, the oblique insinuation, the whisper of suspicion, the invention of the wanton, the belief of the credulous, the virulence, pique, and public resentment are, in a few hours, scattered over an empire. In this manner the public erect a despot over themselves, one of their own order ; and sometimes one of the absurdest persons in it institutes a tribunal, where sentence is pronounced on all, frequently without due examination, and with little regard either to justice or to mercy. No other limits are assigned to the severe decree — which is issued out to brand with, infamy the beat of characters —than those which are necessary to escape the letter of the law, and elude the possibility of a successful prosecution. So unmanly and bo cruel are the decisions of this arbitary tribunal, that even the most innocent are often punished with its severest sentence, for purity and conjugal virtue are blackened with aspersion, which can scarcely be wiped off. Wounds are inflicted on the parent's heart which no time can heal ; for one great misfortune attending this mode of scandal is, that though all are ready to listen to the calumny, few have candor and patience to hear and admit the vindication. Many see the attack who never see the defence, even if the vindication were as generally received as the abuse. It is a cruel necessity to be forced reluctantly forward on the public eye ; to be obliged to answer severe and groundless charges, brought by those who have no right, either by the laws of God or man, to disseminate throughout the world an unprovoked accusation. Can that societybe well regulated where a' mechanic is able to erect himself into an oppressive tryant, tb wound the heart of the innocent, break the peace of mankind, blacken the brightest characters, abstract from the most allowed merit, degrade and lower every rank and dignity; and this not only with impunity, but with such rewards from the public as enable him to amass an independent fortune, and laugh over the ruin on which he has erected his prosperity ? Many among us are heard to complain of the encroachment of Government on the liberty of the subject, and of the oppressions of administration. I ask every individual in the Province of Otago whether he ever experienced a single act of oppression from the ministers of the Government equal to that which is daily and hourly inflicted, in the most arbitary manner, by an editor of a licentious public paper? The sure punishment of the law cannot be inflicted byany power known to our Constitution without a formal process, even on those who deserve it. But the operation of this engine of oppression in the hands of an interested plebian, unappoihted, unauthorised, and unoffended, inflict the severest penalty without judge, jury, witnesses, conscience, or humanity. The man who is guilty of this violation of every social law shall, in the mean time, think himself, and be thought by others, an honest man, and even a patriot; shall riot in plenty, amidst friends and riches ; while he who takes from me my purse, and the trash

it contains, perishes by the halter. All j this is tolerated by a sensible and humane people, because, by the abuse of language, the licentiousness of the press is called its liberty. I will not enlarge on the diabolical malignity of party and political abuse, j which flows through these dirty channels. Malignant as it is in its nature and origin, it is in this | age too much despised to effect much mischief. It as naturally pursues distinguished virtue, as a shadow the substance. If we take but a cursory view of past times, weflhall see that many who are now justly considered as models of virtue and political wisdom, were in their day aspersed with all the venom which the virulence of party could expectorate upon them. On bad hearts and mean minds the lucrative advantages of high affairs in the State will always* have an influence, irresistibly alluring. They will never rest at ease without a participation of them ; but will engage some poor dependent printer to admit their poisonous writing into his paper, in hopes of supplanting others, to make room for themselves. The poor printer thinks his fortune made when patronised by ministers, and stands ready to calumniate the best men, or to speak treason for the confidential suite (?) of a disappointed man, who would betray his country because he cannot procure a lucrative and distinguished place in the administration of its government. For their own sakes the public should not encourage pamphlets which deal in the bitterness of scandal ; their own hearts and happiness will be injured by the perusal of them ; and they cannot know how soon it may be their turn to suffer by the malignity which they are now so ready to enjoy. (?) (Communicated. )