y as the few remaining friends who still applauded
would be very sorry to subscribe anything towards his losses. He therefore
very quietly negotiated the sale of his paper to the rival editor, and
having concluded a satisfactory bargain, he placed the bulk of his property
in the poke of his plaid, and walked out of Swillingford just as if bent on
taking the air, leaving Mr. Grimes in undisputed possession of both papers,
who forthwith commenced leading both Whig and Tory mind, the one on the
Tuesday, the other on the Saturday.

The pot and pipe companions of course saw how things were, but the majority
of the readers living in the country just continued to pin their faith to
the printed declarations of their oracles, while Grimes kept up the
delusion of sincerity by every now and then fulminating a tremendous
denunciation against his trimming, vacillating, inconsistent opponent on
the Tuesday, and then retaliating with equal vigour upon himself on the
Saturday. He wrote his own 'leaders,' both Whig and Tory, the arguments of
one side pointing out answers for the other. Sometimes he led the way for a
triumphant refutal, while the general tone of the articles was quite of the
'upset a ministry' style. Indeed, Grimes strutted and swaggered as if the
fate of the nation rested with him.

The papers themselves were not very flourishing-looking concerns, the
wide-spread paragraphs, the staring type, the catching advertisements,
forming a curious contrast to the close packing of _The Times_. The 'Gutta
Percha Company,' 'Locock's Female Pills,' 'Keating's Cough Lozenges,' and
the 'Triumphs of Medicine,' all with staring woodcuts and royal arms,
occupied conspicuous places in every paper. A new advertisement was a
novelty. However, the two papers answered a great deal better than either
did singly, and any lack of matter was easily supplied from the magazines
and new books. In this department, indeed, in the department of elegant
light literature generally, Mr. Grimes was ably assisted by his eldest
daughter, Lucy, a young lady of a certain age--say liberal thirty--an
ardent Bloomer--with a considerable taste for sentimental poetry, with
which she generally filled the poet's corner. This assistance enabled
Grimes to look after his auctioneering, bleaching, and paper-hanging
concerns, and it so happened that when the foregoing run arrived at the
office he, having seen the next paper ready for press, had gone to Mr.
Vosper's, some