'It was in the autumn of 1818 that I first becam acquainted with politics and theology. Passingalong 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 go and hear what was going on. I found them reading Woller's Black Dwarf, Carlile's Republican, and Cobbett's Register. I remembered my mother being in the habit of reading Cobbett's Register, and saying she '"ondered people spoke so much against it; she saw nothing bad in it, but she saw a great many good things in it." After hearing it read in the the meeting room, I was of my mother's opinion.'