154: WHIG NEWSPAPER. 



I look back with no small degree of satis- 

 faction at this part of my younger days, as 

 it was not time ill spent indeed, the em- 

 ployment was both rational and instructive; 

 and I have lived to see institutions much 

 resembling our little society grow up in 

 many of our populous towns and dis- 

 tricts. It tended also to improve those 

 faculties with which the Almighty had 

 endowed us ; and if not of practical 

 utility in every-day life, it strengthened 

 our sphere of knowledge ; with me in par- 

 ticular, it helped to invigorate the mind, 

 and to re-instate it in its former fond- 

 ness for literature. 



I remember about this time a weekly 

 paper was published in London, called the 

 Independent Whig. Its name alone was 

 indicative of its politics, and in its attacks 

 upon the Government it went much further 

 than any other publication, Gobbet's Re- 

 gister not excepted. As I often found time 

 to stroll into a bookseller's shop to read the 



