An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

be so criminally or suicidally unscrupulous as to publish such a damaging defamation without being able to prove its truth immediately, by specifying the time and place of the alleged conviction and appealing to the official records of the courts. Every reader assumes, therefore, without hesitation, that such an allegation, deliber- ately published, by a well-known paper, as an indictment, must be true. 9. Now you, my Lord, as proprietor of the Sunday Express, can satisfy yourself, by a few minutes’ inquiry, that your editor is unable to specify the date or place of any such conviction. You can compel him to admit to you that he printed this, the most damaging libel conceivable, either without trying to verify it, or after failing to do so. You can satisfy yourself that he has not now, and never has had, one shred of evidence in support of his allegation. 10. I do not doubt that you will attribute to these facts the same moral significance as every honest man will ; namely, that your editor is utterly irresponsible and unscrupulous, devoid of any proper regard for truth, fair play, or public morality. Considering the circumstances in which Mr. Crowley was placed at the time—circumstances — 12 —