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 —