quaker, who went to
Turkey with an intention of converting the Grand Turk: he narrowly
escaped decapitation, by the interposition of the English ambassador. He
was afterwards confined in an asylum: in answer to inquiries how he came
there, he replied--"I said the world was mad, and the world said I was
mad; and they out-voted me."]

[Footnote 195: Passed, 5th November, 1834.]

SECTION XVI.

The _True Colonist_ newspaper was published daily during 1835: the
editor, Mr. Gilbert Robertson, filled its columns with strictures on
government, and in a style which might be termed heroic, if inspired by
truth. The rashness of his imputations was never surpassed. He heaped on
the governor, and the members of his administration, charges of
misdemeanour and felony. One day he denounced them at the police-office,
and the next printed his accusations _verbatim_. He libelled the
governor (whom he accused of altering a deed after its enrolment) in a
paper, headed "a fearful discovery;" and declared him not less deserving
than others of a capital conviction. Robertson charged an overseer of
Arthur with feloniously receiving hay for the governor's use, and with
his connivance. His nephews, Captains Forster and Montagu, were each
accused of a felonious appropriation of property belonging to the crown.
For these imputations, Robertson suffered fine and imprisonment;[196] in
part remitted by the clemency of Arthur. Such charges were a buckler to
the governor against the current scandal of the time. They were
transmitted to the colonial-office: they destroyed the moral weight of
the press, and cast suspicion on just complaints, yet emanating from a
community which tolerated such extravagance.

It is not to be inferred that the opponents of Arthur's government,
generally sanctioned these excesses. The violence of periodical writings
resulted partly from the paucity of topics, and was mainly a necessity
of trade. The limited field of discussion huddled all disputes into a
squabble. The writers could not forget the names of their antagonists:
they espoused with vehement zeal the trivial quarrels of this or that
functionary; officers, who were dismissed, supplied anecdotes of those
left behind, which were worked up in every form. The want of ideas and
information would have withdrawn many writers from the combat, had they
not possessed CAPITALS, exclamations (!!!!), and dashes--officered by
epithets of horror, as an army of reserve.