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ROHANCE OF THE LAW COUFTS - POLITICAL & SOCIAL
PROSECUTIOr-: OF THE LOrmON "GLOREI! 1915 _ THE PART
PIAJED IN A NE',wOUNOy,IW LIll EL SUIT SI XTY YEARS AGO
The prosecution by the Br itish Government a rev days ago, of the London
Globe, recalls the historic l i be l
suit of Tobin V8 Shea , t r i ed in the Supreme
Court at St. John's in the l a t e fifties, and
arising out of the publication 1n
the "Nevfoundkender-" of an extract from the above paper. Compared \lith 'What is
printed and published wh ole sal e today, the wor d s seem almost harmless and more
likely to provoke mirth than anger, but the man who constituted the public life
of those days, took matters more seriously, and perhaps 'Were more combative , and
put up with l e s s than the ordinary citizen does today.
The actual libel,
or article comp'ladned of, ve e 'Written by Father Prout, the
ve.LL-knovn author of t.he "Bells of Shand on'",
vh o at that time was the Paris correapondent,
of the London G'Lobej
it was published in the London edition of that
paper,
and republished here i n t he Newfoundlander, at that t i me owned and edited
__by . .tbe...late-Sir_Edw:lXd-..s~ , _.t hen _8 : membe Z'.-o~th~cuti.v.e.,..,.G~ ,...,.and-l:eprasent .,.. ~ ---= ==
ing Ferryland District i n the Legislature .
The plaintiff, the Han . Jamal'! Tobin,
at the time of t he publica t i on of the libel, V8S F'i.na ncdnI Secr e t ar y of the Colony,
~S~d;:~~:f~s~tffF;~tJ~ ~~,1~~Ci~Il;~~~d~~{~i;~rt l6f_-~h~~$;; - f-~ '::ck'l mae;~tt
hat the publication of the word s complained of led to his dismissal from
that
office . The suit cannot be regarded as an ordinary libel suit . It was taken up
and espoused by one political party, and condemned by the other . Public meetdngs
numbering over two thosand per-sons were
held previous to the trial, endorsing 'the
action of the defendant .
In Nevf'ound'Iend we have had more 'then one ce lebrated t rial of 8 historica l
character J i n both divisions of the Supreme Court, and anyone can sp end a plea sant