Other Times, other Manners. 227 



honourable subterfuge, and shrouds his offences under 

 cover of scurrility, abuse and bodily strength, is, in my 

 opinion, a base shuffling poltroon and coward, and such I 

 consider Mr. ROBERT Phipps ! Could any words stronger 

 than contempt occur to my mind, I should not hesitate 

 to apply it to his ruffian threat." 



If any one was aspersed or scandalised in any way he 

 seems to have rushed into print at once. Here is an 

 example from the Royal Gazette of June 24th, 1819: — 



" Whereas there are people in Demerary who report 

 that I have advertised that I was robbed, with a view to 

 cheat my creditors. The Undersigned therefore informs 

 them that he wishes them no other harm than that they 

 may pay their debts before I have mine. — J. Thevin." 



The language used in the papers was particularly 

 strong, but the Guiana Chronicle went far beyond the 

 Gazette. A correspondent in the latter on the 22nd of 

 August, 1822, thus speaks of this venomous publication. 



" The subscribers to the justly called " Obnoxious" 

 Chronicle were kept waiting last night to nearly eight 

 o'clock for their papers — and for the sake only of having 

 time to insert three of the most scurrilous and abominable 

 letters which ever stamped infamy on a public journal. 

 In the face too of an editorial article developing the 

 pernicious consequences of the licentiousness of the 

 press in another part of the world. Waiting with pain- 

 ful anxiety as to how long the Public Prosecutor will 

 suffer such things to be, I am, &c. — Q. C." 



This is how the Chronicle spoke of the Gazette on 

 the 30th of the same month : — 



" The once white robed innocence (!) of the Royal 

 Gazette^ 'wasting its sweetness on the desert air,' and 



