"A young handloom weaver in Carlisle was able to develop both his literacy skills and his political consciousness as his workshop responded with keen interest to the mounting Reform Bill crisis: "'I well remember how the weavers at Newtown used to club their pennies together to obtain the London newspapers ... The Weekly Dispatch was a great favourite ... Bell's Life kept us fully informed of the doings of the 'Fancy'. Our great paper, however, was the tri-weekly Evening Mail ... At the height of the reform agitation it was common for the men in our shop to gather round the fire about nine, and with me in the middle as reader, go through the debates until long after midnight. Thus with corrections from one and another, I learned to read, and thus likewise, at fourteen, I became somewhat of an advanced politician, known among my playmates as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.'"