alls, and use colloquial banter for our small shot.
In all disputes an English citizen has, for his last and sole appeal,
Opinion; as a citizen of Rome had Caesar.

The Government which puts its hand upon a nation's mouth and thinks to
stifle what it has to say, will be inevitably kicked and bitten. The
nation will, some day, get liberty and make amends for every minute of
restraint with lusty shouting. Among the continental states which
suffered from the Revolutions of 1848, were some in which the people had
less of social evil to complain of than we have in England; but they
were fretted by political restrictions, by a system of espial which
tabooed all conversation upon public matters before any stranger, and
they were glad enough to get their tongues at liberty. Adam, the old
traditions say, was made of eight pounds: a pound of earth, his flesh; a
pound of fire, his blood; a pound of cloud, his instability; a pound of
grace (how that was weighed the legend saith not); his stature; a pound
of blossom, his eyes; a pound of dew, his sweat; a pound of salt, his
tears; and, finally, a pound of wind, his breath. Now Governments which
don't allow each man his pound of wind, get themselves, sooner or later,
into certain trouble; for, when the wind does come at last (which it is
sure to do), it comes in a storm.

The freedom and the power of Opinion in England, have given an
importance to the press which is attached to it, as a direct agent in
producing social reforms, in no other European country. The journalist
lays every day a mass of facts before all people capable of thought; the
adult, who has learnt only to write and read, acquires his remaining
education--often not despicable in amount--from his weekly paper. Jeremy
Bentham, speaking of those old superstitious rites by which it was
intended to exorcise evil spirits, says very truly, "In our days, and in
our country, the same object is obtained, and beyond comparison more
effectually, by so cheap an instrument as a common newspaper. Before
this talisman, not only devils but ghosts, vampires, witches, and all
their kindred tribes, are driven out of the land, never to return again!
The touch of Holy Water is not so intolerable to them as the bare smell
of Printer's Ink."

What can a man learn by skimming the newspapers and journals of the day?
Why, in the northern seas there floats a very little film of oil, where
whales or seals have been. So thin a film, no bird cou