It was in 1816, while employed as a tinplate worker, by the firm of Matthews and Masterman, of Union Court, Holbom Hill, that he first essayed public life. He was then twenty-six years of age. Before this time he had read no work of Paine’s; but the distress of that year excited him to inquiry. Knowledge speedily prompted nim to action. He wrote scraps for the newspapers, (principally the _Independent Whig_ and the _Newt_) which scraps were all condemned: ‘A half-employed Mechanic is too violent;’ this was the notice in answer to correspondents. He annoyed Mr. Cobbett by a foolish acrostic, on the name of Hunt. He wrote to Hunt himself, and paraded one night, two hours in front of his hotel, in Covent Garden, before he could muster courage sufficient to ask the waiter to take his effusion up. At this time he burned to see himself in print; although, as he afterwards confessed, he was not able to write a single sentence fit to meet the public eye.(2) 1. Repub. vol. xi. p. 101. 2. Repub. vol. xii. p. 2. In 1817 _The Black Dwarf_ made its appearance, which was much more to Carlile’s taste than _Cobbett’s Register_, but as the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and Sidmouth had sent forth his Circular, there was a damp among the newsvendors, and few would sell. This excited Carlile with a desire to become a bookseller. The story of Lackington beginning with a stall encouraged him. He resolved to set a good example in the trade of political pamphlets. Finding the sale of the _Black Dwarf_ very low, he borrowed £1 from his employer, and invested it in one hundred _Dwarfs_, and on the 9th of March, 1817, he sallied forth from the manufactory, with his stock in his handkerchief, to commence the trade of bookselling. He traversed the metropolis in every direction to get newsvendors to sell the _Dwarf_, and called every day to see how they sold. He inquired also after _Cobbett’s Register_, and Sherwin’s _Republican_, but finding that they did not want pushing, he took none of those round. Indeed, he refused to avail himself of the profit he could have made by taking _Cobbett’s Register_ because it did not go far enough.(1) He carried the _Dwarf_ round several weeks, walking thirty miles a day, for a profit of fifteen and eighteen pence. At length an information was lodged against the publisher, and Mr. Steill was arrested. Carlile at once offered to take his place. 1. Repub, vol. xi. p. 102.