"As a young man ... [James Watson] moved to Leeds, and was immediately immersed in the clandestine world of the unstamped press: "'It was in the autumn of 1818 that I first became acquainted with politics and theology. Passing along Briggate one evening, I saw at the corner of Union Court a bill, which stated that the Radical Reformers held their meetings in a room in that court. Curiosity prompted me to hear what was going on. I found them reading Wooler's Black Dwarf, Carlile's Republican, and Cobbett's Register."