Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 2).djvu/344

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conveyed. The editor not immediately answering this proposition, our hero observed that he was convinced no writer known to or approved by the editor could have sent such defamatory libels; but an anonymous calumniator was an assassin that attacked in the dark, and ought to be made public. The editor said he had not seen the hand-writing, but that there was a general rule to withhold from persons complaining of a libel, the means of establishing the proof. Hamilton immediately answered to this,—"Mr. Editor, I must take the liberty of observing that you misconceive my meaning; we do not want the hand-writing as the means of establishing the libel. The libel, sir, is printed and published by you, you assert, and we believe, without your knowledge, and contrary to your practice. But I am determined that the libel shall un-