AustLit

The Freeman's Journal reproduces an item from Melbourne's Roman Catholic-oriented newspaper, the Advocate. The article briefly maps the history of New South Wales Premier and Attorney General James Martin's prosecution of the Freeman's Journal.

'And why?', asks the Melbourne paper. Because Martin 'desires to crush [the Freeman's Journal] because it is as thoroughly Irish and Catholic in sentiment as it is Australian in it principles; and as it has not laid itself open to a prosecution for sedition or treason, he has adopted the pitiful and spiteful course of proceeding for heavy penaltees again its proprietors on the ground of a defect in the form of registration'.