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54
LIFE AND STRUGGLES OF
CHAPTER III.
About the same period that I joined the Co-operative Trading Associations I became acquainted with Messrs. Cleave, Hetherington, and Watson, three men with whom I laboured politically and socially for a period of nearly twenty years; some account of these labours in various ways will be met with as I proceed with my story.[1] A
- ↑ Mr. Henry Hetherington, the great champion of the unstamped press, was a native of London, and born in Compton-street, Soho, in the year 1792. I became acquainted with him some time before he commenced the publication of the "Poor Man's Guardian," an event which gave rise to the unstamped warfare, and which gave birth to the cheap literature we so much enjoy. It was his firm determination and unflinching courage, that no punishment could daunt, that caused that warfare to be successful, though many others helped, and suffered in the fray.
Mr. James Watson, a seller of the unstamped, and publisher of many liberal works, was a native of New Malton, in Yorkshire, and was born on the 21st September, 1799. I first met with him at the Old Co-operative Society Rooms, Red Lion Square. He first came to town to take charge of Richard Carlisle's shop in Fleet Street, when the government prosecution was so hot against him for selling Pain's works. I have taken part in many associations with him, and I know of no politician I could better repose confidence in. Independent of his efforts and sacrifices in the cause of the unstamped, he rendered good service to the cause of progress by the great number of political and other useful works which he printed and published.
Mr. John Cleave, bookseller and publisher, was I think about the same age as Hetherington, but the place of his birth I cannot now recollect. He had been, I think, a sailor in early life, and had much of the sailor in his bearing. He was also rude and bluff in his manner at times, but he had a warm and generous heart; always ready to aid the good cause, and to lend a helping hand to the extent of his means. He laboured hard, and made great sacrifices in freeing the press from the stamps that fettered it.
