He began
his paper, however, and, after carrying it on three quarters of
a year, with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered it to me
for a trifle; and I, having been ready some time to go on with it,
took it in hand directly; and it prov'd in a few years extremely
profitable to me.
I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular number,
though our partnership still continu'd; the reason may be that,
in fact, the whole management of the business lay upon me.
Meredith was no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober.
My friends lamented my connection with him, but I was to make the best
of it.
Our first papers made a quite different appearance from any before
in the province; a better type, and better printed; but some spirited
remarks of my writing, on the dispute then going on between Governor
Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people,
occasioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talk'd of,
and in a few weeks brought them all to be our subscribers.
Their example was follow'd by many, and our number went on
growing continually. This was one of the first good effects of my
having learnt a little to scribble; another was, that the leading men,
seeing a newspaper now in the hands of one who could also handle
a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and encourage me.
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