Cirrus@Austlit

A rebuff to 'the most corrupt, jobbing, and worthless servant in the employ of the people [who] was ... canvassing the town for signatures to a requisition to the Sheriff, to convene a public meeting "to take into consideration the state of the Press of the Colony"!'

According to the editorial only 'seven signatures were received, five of which were those of the only public servants the Press on this side the Colony had ever interfered with.'

'It it a most remarkable fact,' states the editorial, 'that no person can discover a severity in the tone of the Launceston Press, save those officials, whose misconduct in their public situations oblige the ... [Press to] castigation.'

The 'canvassing' may have been in response to the editor of the Cornwall Chronicle, William Lushington Goodwin's, accusation of misconduct against the Launceston port officer, Matthew Curling Friend, in 1838. The two men were in a long running feud that escalated in 1838.