h, but fitfully and transitorily only, like the flicker of a lamp
before its extinction. It was clear that the editor had not forgotten
the indignity and mental suffering he had undergone, and throughout the
remaining years of his life he always dwelt more or less in the shadow
of the cold and solitary cell. The records of the jurisprudence of
civilized countries contain few modern instances of the exaction of so
severe a penalty for so insignificant an offence.

The narrative has no further concern with Francis Collins, except to
record that he continued to edit and publish the _Freeman_ down to 1834,
when he fell a victim to the cholera invasion by which the Provincial
capital was ravaged during that year. He died on the 2nd of September,
and the _Freeman_ thenceforth ceased to exist.

FOOTNOTES:

[118] The Attorney-General, John Beverley Robinson, was ever valiant on
the stronger side. He tried to induce the Assembly to compel Dr. Horne
to insert in the next issue of the _Gazette_ a paragraph in the
following words: "From the incompetence or negligence of our reporter,
the debates of the House of Assembly inserted in the last number of this
paper were so imperfect and so untruly reported that no dependence can
be placed in their accuracy." The Assembly, however, were satisfied with
the humiliation to which the Doctor had been subjected, and would not
compel him to further self-abasement.

[119] Mr. Fothergill held the office barely three years, when he was
dismissed for voting with the Opposition in the Assembly against the
Government. It was an anomaly to permit the King's Printer to hold a
seat in the Legislative Assembly, and the Government could hardly be
expected to tolerate opposition from such a quarter. Mr. Fothergill was
the first incumbent of the office to develop liberal opinions. He was
sufficiently deep in the secrets of the Administration to make him a
dangerous opponent if he had felt disposed to wage war to the knife. Of
this fact the Administration seem to have taken a sort of oblique
cognizance. He had overdrawn his account by L360, and in settling with
him this sum was not taken into consideration. In other words, the
Government made him a present of L360. His successor in the office of
King's Printer was Mr. Robert Stanton.

[120] _Ante_, p. 171.

[121] _Ante_, p. 13.

[122] _Ante_, pp. 171-174.

[123] _Ante_, p. 136.

[124] The charge, as reported by Collins, will be found in the Appen