 heart and soul, with one of the two great
parties that divided the town - the Blues and the Buffs. Now the Blues lost no
opportunity of opposing the Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing
the Blues; and the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met
together at public meeting, Town-Hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words
arose between them. With these dissensions it is almost superfluous to say that
everything in Eatanswill was made a party question. If the Buffs proposed to new
skylight the market-place, the Blues got up public meetings, and denounced the
proceeding; if the Blues proposed the erection of an additional pump in the High
Street, the Buffs rose as one man and stood aghast at the enormity. There were
Blue shops and Buff shops, Blue inns and Buff inns; - there was a Blue aisle and
a Buff aisle, in the very church itself.
    Of course it was essentially and indispensably necessary that each of these
powerful parties should have its chosen organ and representative: and,
accordingly, there were two newspapers in the town - the Eatanswill Gazette and
the Eatanswill Independent; the former advocating Blue principles, and the
latter conducted on grounds decidedly Buff. Fine newspapers they were. Such
leading articles, and such spirited attacks! - »Our worthless contemporary, the
Gazette« - »That disgraceful and dastardly journal, the Independent« - »That
false and scurrilous print, the Independent« - »That vile and slanderous
calumniator, the Gazette;« these, and other spirit-stirring denunciations were
strewn plentifully over the columns of each, in every number, and excited
feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of the
townspeople.
    Mr. Pickwick, with his usual foresight and sagacity, had chosen a peculiarly
desirable moment for his visit to the borough. Never was such a contest known.
The Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, was the Blue candidate; and
Horatio Fizkin, Esq., of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, had been prevailed upon
by his friends to stand forward on the Buff interest. The Gazette warned the
electors of Eatanswill that the eyes not only of England, but of the whole
civilised world, were upon them; and the Independent imperatively demanded to
know, whether the constituency of Eatanswill were the grand fellows they had
always taken them for, or base and servile tools, undeserving alike the name of
Englishmen and the blessings of freedom. Never had such a commotion agitated the
town before.
    It was late in the evening, when Mr. Pickwick and his companions, assisted
