honest Mr. Richard Baines (known to
be a Liberal—the daring man!) was legally
persecuted and prosecuted out of the town;
and pitched his tent at Walton-le-Dale, in
Lancashire, in the valley of the Ribble, about
a mile off. Here the Edward Baines now
commemorated was born, on the 5th February,
1774. Richard, his father, entered on the
business of a cotton-spinner and manufacturer,
and subsequently became a coal-merchant.
He was an enterprising man, one sees very
clearly—bringing up his son as a temperate
Reformer—and opposed to all feudal cliques,
persuaded that no difference whatever existed
between Whig groceries and Tory groceries,
in point of intrinsic quality; in which belief
lies an immense deal of important political
truth, simple as it sounds.

Edward, a knowing, active boy, went to
school at Hawkshead. There was a pupil, his
senior by several years—Will Wordsworth,
we dare say, he was called—now mentioned
by mankind at large in a more reverent
manner. Edward went from Hawkshead to
the grammar-school at Preston. Here an
impatience of ill-administered authority, the love
of enterprise, and aspirations for extended
education which characterised the future man,
were, in the boy, faithfully, but ludicrously
predicated. His master was pompous and
ignorant, and smote his pupils liberally with
cane and tongue. It is not surprising that
the lads learnt as much from the spirit of
their master as from his precepts, and that
one of those juvenile rebellious, better known
of old than at present as a "barring-out," was
attempted. The doors of the school, the
biographer narrates, were fastened with huge
nails, and one of the younger lads was let out
to obtain supplies of food for the garrison.
The rebellion having lasted two or three days,
the mayor, town-clerk, and officers, were sent
for to intimidate the offenders. Young Baines,
on the part of the besieged, answered the
magisterial summons to surrender, by
declaring that they would never give in, unless
assured of full pardon and a certain length
of holidays. With much good sense, the
mayor gave them till the evening to consider;
and on his second visit the doors were found
open, the garrison having fled to the
of Penwortham. They regained their
respective homes under the cover of night, and
some humane interposition averted the punishment
they had deserved.

At this period of Baines's life the spirit of
frolic and adventure was very strong in him
and his companions. Stories are told of the
mayor's halberds being abstracted by this
mischievous set, and thrown into "the folly,"
or waterworks' reservoir; and one fair night
the youth passed in prison, for frightening a
lady by firing a pistol over her head. It is
some apology for him that at that time the
tradesmen of Preston were much addicted to
idleness and practical jokes. When these
boyish pranks were laid aside, and he and his
companions, having been put to business,
began to employ their leisure in reading,
speculating, and spouting, five of them
conceived the project of emigration. They had
read that in the United States there was
great encouragement for every kind of talent,
and especially a want of good schools: and
having a comfortable conceit of their own
qualifications, they planned the establishment
of a superior academy on the other side of
the Atlantic. Here, as in everything else,
young Baines seems to have been a leader,
having great influence over his associates.
Accordingly it was understood that he should
be at the head of the establishment: one of
the number was to be professor of botany,
another of music, and so on. The scheme
had been elaborated for a considerable time;
maps consulted, and pocket-money saved;
but the amount of their practical wisdom
may be judged from the resources with which
the expedition was undertaken. One of them
had saved sixteen shillings, another fifteen,
and the other three, smaller sums. They
actually left Preston one Sunday morning on
foot for Liverpool, whence they hoped to get
easily conveyed to America. In this, as may
be supposed, they were disappointed; yet it
was not till they had exhausted their small
store that they ventured to face their parents
and acknowledge their folly. Penniless they
returned from Liverpool to Preston, on the
Friday after their departure, and on the
road they relieved their hunger by making a
good meal of beans in a bean-field near
Rufford. They quietly crept into their several
houses, considerably humbler and wiser than
when they had left. Their scheme, however,
was not more visionary than the Pantisocratical
project of Coleridge, Southey, and their
friends, a few years later.

When sixteen years of age, Edward Baines
was apprenticed to a printer in Preston. He
had by this time become a shrewd speculative
youth, with a turn for study. He, and
some of his intimates, got up a debating
society: the French Revolution was now
going its fiery course, and the magistrates
threatened to prosecute them. In every
town, in those sad times, there was a fight
between the Boys and the Bigwigs. Abject
terror prevailed everywhere. And fancy
what the terror of the Bigwigs, in a little
provincial town, must have been! For, if
Burke, the resplendent, was the swan who
sang the death-chant of old institutions, there
were hundreds of geese everywhere, who
only cackled lamentably. We suppose most
families retain a singular remembrance of
the conduct of 'their grandfathers in those
days; possibly, an old gentleman in a
powdered wig—groaning over the "Courier," and
pronouncing the end of all things to be at
hand.

Edward Baines soon afterwards was
engaged on the "Leeds Mercury" to finish his
apprenticeship. Off set the young yeoman