On the arrival of Colonel Arthur, Mr. Bent determined to throw off official supervision, and claimed a property in the title of the _Gazette_. The partnership between him and the government was not very distinct. Money had been lent for the purchase of material, but this he was expected to repay. His right to the property, questioned by Arthur, was allowed on reference to the governor-in-chief. The editor of Mr. Bent's choice was Evan Henry Thomas, Esq. In June, 1824, appeared the first article of the press thus set free; and, as the first, is worthy lasting remembrance. "We esteem ourselves," observed the writer, "a BEACON, placed by divine graciousness on the awfully perilous coast of human frailty." "We view ourselves as a SENTINEL, bound by allegiance to our country, our sovereign, and our God. We contemplate ourselves as the WINNOWERS for the public." He then proceeds--"We desire to encourage the cloudless flames of rectified communion," rejecting "each effusion, however splendid, of degenerate curiosity and perverted genius--of misanthrophic ascerbity and calumnious retrospection." Such were the vows and resolutions of the father of journalists. He added, "the duties of our typo-graphic province are performed by the proprietor and one assistant." Having offered his columns for discussion, a writer of considerable colonial fame, R. L. Murray, appeared under the signature of "A COLONIST." His letters addressed to Arthur, reviewed his government contrasted with that of his predecessor: they were said to approach the style of Junius; read in modern times, they may have lost much of their spirit. They were, however, offensive to Arthur, and he resolved to start another _Gazette_, which should put down opposition. As the quarrel warmed, Bent grew more daring, and the first _ex-officio_ prosecution was instituted against him. Rather by implication than directly, the lieutenant-governor was charged with attempting to deprive Bent of his property; the fraud being defeated only by the superior justice of Governor Brisbane. In another paragraph the writer stated the _extra martial incarceration_ of Colonel Bradley, taught the colonists what might be expected from Arthur's anger. In one of these libels, Bent declared that he would not surrender his rights to a "Gibeonite of tyranny." The attorney-general ingeniously explained, that though Gibeon was a good man, that did not qualify the inuendo. Fox was a friend of freedom, but such was not the Foxite of tyranny. In truth, the whole discussion is painful to a friend of liberty and justice. It is difficult to imagine a less dangerous opposition than such compositions, or to account for their prosecution, except as an outbreak of offended pride.