MR DONNE AGAIN.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 269, 11 June 1868, Page 2

MR DONNE AGAIN.

It is strange that the eccentric, to use no harsher phrase, member for Brighton, for such in fact he is, can never be rational for more than a week or so together. He recently distinguished himself in Nelson in attacking the press, which throughout his career has been a bete noire to him, in the most scandalous manner. The (Jolonist of Tuesday, in reference to his conduct, has the following : —" Mr Donne, finding, we presume, that the character of clown did not bring the applause for which he longed, adopted the other e%'ening a course which we might have looked for from a scoundrel, but not from any one having the slightest pretensions to the name of gentleman. Full of revenge because the press will not report his empty and interminable speeches, of which a score on a night is no rarity, he made the vote for printing and advertising the pretext for aiming a slanderous and defamatory statement against both the Government of the Province and the proprietors of every newspaper in this city. He had the audacity to say that the Q-overnment of the Province spent the public funds for " the support of three newspapers, when one would do"; that advertisements were put into newspapers for the mere sake of " spending money on the newspapers" ; and that "if the Government were to withdraw its patronage in advertising and printing from any one of the three newspapers in this city, it would go down and die." Mr Donne has before now been publicly charged with falsehood, as witness Mr Tyler's scathing charges on the hustings at Westport, in presence of Mr Donne; and here we now, in reply to this disgraceful assertion, tell this ex-stroller that he uttered a wilful and malicious falsehood. The man who acts thus, who, out of a contemptible spirit of revenge, attempts to traduce the commercial credit of respectable men, puts himself beyond the pale of respect. He told the Council also that he was up to " newspaper dodges," having been at different times connected with newspapers; and the sad fate of some for which he did, we believe, the " out-door business"—

whatever that may be—ia the beat proof howfr " dodges " meet with their reward Thinking that in the heat and hurry of debate, this foolish person had used words for which he would afterwards be sorry, wo gave him an opportunity of apologising and retracting his defamatory statement; and, had he done so, the thing would have ended. Bat he acted after his kind, and refused. It were useless to waste serious argument on a man liko this, on whom the lessons of experience are totally thrown away; still, though such absurd and false statements as he made bear their own refutation, the spiteful man who utters them merits punishmient. One thing is clear, if the Government does spend money on unnecessary advertising to support papers, it certainly does not get from us that return which is expected from papers in the pay of a GJ-overnrnent; and as for " dying,"—'well, Mr Donne will have some cause to remember our liveliness, and to regret his own malicious stupidity. He should be the last man to talk of economy. By his manifold speeches, his useless divisions, and his utter waste of time in committee, Mr Donne has contrived to retard the session for weeks, and as each sitting day costs upwards of £2O, Mr Donne's vagaries must have cost the Province about £3OO, without doing an atom o? good to anyone, although it prolongs the period during' which Mr Donne drawa pay as member. And here we leave the slanderer."