The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, December 29, 1888.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 240, 29 December 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, December 29, 1888.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The sad ending of tfie late John Baldwin’s career caused many expressions of regret when it became known on Christmas morn, both on the part of those who had been at variance with him during his life time as well as his intimate friends. We do not now wish to refer to matters that are best buried in the foigotten past—we have taken fitting opportunities to protest against what we have considered to be Mr Baldwin’s failings in his journalistic connection with the public —we endeavored to deal fairly with him during his lifetime, and especially after he had been incarcerated in gaol and was unable to defend himself, and there is much more reason why that should be our endeavor now that he is removed from this life’s cares. Our duty compels us to make a few words of comment in regard to Mr Baldwin’s demise. Like the rest of us he had his faults and he has had to suffer much on that account. His great failing was that he allowed the journal which he edited to drift into a personal tone which sooner or later meant failure where he might otherwise have had a triumph—if he had only in time eschewed a certain class of writing he might now have had the control of a powerful and popular paper instead of being so soon consigned to the cold clay. He was a man of great perseverance, and though we cannot admit that his advocacy was always on the right side, Mr Baldwin always fought with great energy. Against a series of reverses he held out manfully—we cannot say wisely—and maintained his spirits against odds which few would cire to face, but stilt he did not remedy the fatal mistake (which hia opponents could plainly see must tell heavily against him) until at last he was lodged in gaol on a charge of criminal libel. It would not be in place to refer to the case, other than to give expression to a very general opinion that Baldwin, though responsible, was not the writer of the libel upon Mr Bourke. At the trial the Chief Justice suggested that another person had written the libel, the jury discussed this point for a long time before they could come to an agreement, and neither before nor after the sentence did Baldwin admit that he had done it, though he complained bitterly that he had been wronged, and stated that at the time the libel appeared in his paper he had been very ill and was not able to give what appeared that supervision or thought that in his ordinary health he would have done. Perhaps this matters little now—it certainly cannot so far as the deceased journalist is concerned, though it might be a point of importance in regard to the wife and children who live to lament what to them must ba the deepest of sorrows. When Mr Baldwin took seriously ill he knew the end was approaching and he expre sed a desire to be at peace with all before he quitted this life. All journalists know that if they write according to their convictions they must be prepared to lose the friendship of many who are inclined to rely too much on that friendship for immunity from criticism, or who are too sensitive or unreasonable to endure outspokenness when it has reference to themselves. Mr Baldwin’s weakness as a writer, we may again say, was that he overstepped the line which most journalists would have felt bound to regard. We are all perhaps apt to do the same thing, and the failings of others serve as a lesson to those who may be liable to similar errors. The deceased had many good points, and though he had a hard life of it there are few who would not have wished that his energy had been used to better advantage and his for. tunes have been so much brighter.