The Freeman's Journal reflects on the persecution it has faced, particularly since the March 1868 assassination attempt on H. R. H. Prince Alfred, as 'the only newspaper in Australia at all pretending to express the views of Irish Catholic Nationalists upon home and colonial matters'.
'Save and except in the withdrawal of the Government advertisements', the writer declares that 'the Freeman, so far from suffering, has gained considerably by the efforts made by the Government and their anti-Catholic sympathisers to crush it.'