John Cassell

“ Perhaps the swans of Ariosto would not have caught John Cassell's medal, even adorned with so handsome a record. But there is something to add to this. Cassell did much to raise the moral and intellectual level of the mass of the people long before State education was inaugurated; as was said at his death, "he founded an Empire of literature in the hearts and homes of the working man"; he was a pioneer of a system of self-culture which benefited millions of his fellow-citizens and delivered from obscurity many who rose to eminence as national leaders and political and social reformers. ”

“ Leicester and Throckmorton were induced to embrace it, and even Cecil was made aware of it, and favoured it. In Scotland, Murray, Maitland, the Bishop of Ross, Lord Boyd, were favourable to the measure; and Mary was sounded on the subject, and professed her readiness to be divorced from Bothwell; but as to marriage, from her past sorrowful experience, would rather retain her solitary life; yet, if the approbation of Elizabeth was obtained, would consent to take Norfolk—not, as all her miseries had flowed from her marriage with Darnley, contrary to the Queen of England's pleasure. ”

“ With characteristic energy Cassell started on a temperance tour—a journey fraught with difficulty and hardship; and a few months after we find a notice of him in269 the Preston Temperance Advocate: “John Cassell, the Manchester carpenter, has been labouring with great success in the county of Norfolk. He is passing through Essex on his way to London. He carries his watchman’s rattle—an excellent accompaniment of temperance labours.” A strange life that gaunt young prophet must have led ”

“ No sooner was he in England than he spoke his mind roundly as to his real feelings towards the puritans. He said to the bishops and courtiers: "I will tell you, I have lived amongst this sect of men ever since I was ten years old; but I may say of myself as Christ said of himself, though I lived amongst them, yet, since I had ability to judge, I was never of them." And this was at least sincere. He had grown more undisguisedly episcopalian as he saw Elizabeth sinking, and felt his hold on the throne through her own ministers. ”

“ The number of attendants on each king was to be precisely the same, and the road was to be guarded by the same number of troops of both nations. When the two kings had advanced a little way, each from his own place, Francis caught an alarm from some circumstance, halted, alighted from his horse, and remained in suspense till M. Morret told him there was no danger, when he re-mounted, and rode forward. Precisely a similar fear seized Henry, but the Earl of Shrewsbury said, "Sire, I have seen the Frenchmen; they be more in fear of you and your subjects than your subjects be of them ”

“ It is not pretended that John Cassell's life, apart from his work as publisher, gave him a claim to a place in the Temple. He raised himself from extreme poverty to moderate wealth, but many others have done that. The factory lad at the time of his early death at the age of forty-eight was the head of a firm with five hundred employees; but there was nothing rare in that—other men had amassed greater wealth and created bigger businesses. ”

“ Cosyns asked her why Norris had told his almoner on the preceding Saturday "that he could swear the queen was a good woman?" "Marry," replied Anne, "I bade him do so, for I asked him why he did not go on with his marriage, and he made answer that he would tarry awhile. 'Then,' said I, 'you look for dead men's shoes. If aught but good should come to the king (who was then afflicted with a dangerous ulcer) , you would look to have me.' He denied it, and I told him I could undo him if I would." ”

“ From 1835 to the autumn of 1836 he was hot-gospelling for teetotalism in the Manchester district. Then a restless desire for larger experiences set in, and he fared forth on foot to London. He made his great walk a missionary temperance tour, lasting about sixteen days. He spoke to any audience he could get in any town or village, and eked out his little store of money by doing odd jobs of carpentering. When he reached London his wealth totalled threepence. On the evening of his arrival he went to the New Jerusalem schoolroom, near the Westminster Road, where a meeting was being held. ”

“ They accused John of Gaunt, the king's son, lord Latimer, and lord Neville, for misadvising the king; and they went to the Tower for it. And now, when there is such a downfall of the state, shall we hold our tongues? Why," continued he, "may we not name those who are the cause of all our evils?" And he added, "Let us palliate no longer; if we do, God will not prosper us. I think the duke of Buckingham is the cause, and till the duke be informed thereof, we shall never go out with honour, nor sit with honour here. That man is the grievance of grievances! ”

“ The "Popular Educator" was pure Cassell. It was the crown and culmination of John Cassell's experience and judgment of the needs of those to whom general education had been denied. To any man who wished to supply those needs, so far as he could by private study, Cassell meant to offer the material and the machinery. The "Popular Educator" was "a school, an academy, and a university" all in one, as the Dublin University Magazine said. ”

“ Struck with consternation, and deeply rueing her weakness in giving up her own plans of caution, the queen, hastily seizing her younger son by the hand, and followed by her daughters, rushed from the palace of Westminster to the Sanctuary, which had protected her before; but not against a person so base and deadly in his ruthless ambition as this her brother-in-law of Gloucester. She knew the man, and she dreaded everything. Her eldest, son, Dorset, who was Keeper of the Tower, in his turn weakly abandoned that important stronghold, and also fled to the Sanctuary. ”

“ The people had great confidence in the mediation of the Duke of Norfolk, knowing that in all matters of faith he was wholly with them; and probably he thought it would be better to let the insurgents thus disperse, and so spare them, than to come to slaughter them. Be this as it may, the duke, on arriving in London, found Henry had summoned the nobility to meet him in arms at Northampton; but he convinced him that it was unnecessary, and that, by a little management, the insurgents would soon disperse of themselves.
But, of all men, Henry was the most unmanageable person. ”

“ The English, as they approached, saw the Abbot of Inchaffray walking barefoot through the Scottish ranks, and exhorting the soldiers to fight bravely for their freedom. As he passed they knelt and prayed for victory. King Edward, seeing this, cried out, "See! they kneel down; they are asking forgiveness!" "Yes," replied the bold Baron Ingelram de Umphraville; "but they ask it of God, not of us; these men will conquer or die upon the field."
The main body of the army, under the conduct of the king himself, advanced in a long, dense column upon the Scottish line ”

“ The conspirators, who had with them the staunch friends of Richard, the Earl of Salisbury and Lord Lumley, assembled on the day appointed at Oxford, but were surprised to find that neither the king nor their own accomplice, Rutland, had arrived. Suspecting treachery, they resolved to lose no time, but to surprise Henry at Windsor, where they knew he had but a slender guard. With a body of 500 horse they made a rapid ride that evening to Windsor, but arrived only to find that the intended victim had escaped. ”

“ John Cassell, though of a family originally Kentish, was born at Manchester on 23rd January, 1817. The child of poor parents, his school education was very simple and elementary, and at an early age he adopted the trade of carpentry. In most lads of that class, education, such as it is, is totally ended when once they leave the school-house to follow some manual calling ”

“ Livesey's reminiscences give us a glimpse of the John Cassell of eighteen. Livesey first saw him listening to one of his lectures at Oak Street Chapel, Manchester. He well remembered Cassell " standing on the right, just below or on the steps of the platform, with fustian jacket and a white apron on." Thomas Whittaker adds features to the portrait. Cassell, he says, was " a marvellous man, young, bony, big, and exceedingly uncultivated. ... ”

“ At last, finding all resistance useless—for she well knew that if she did not yield herself, Gloucester would force the child from her—she said, "My lords, I will not be so suspicious as to mistrust your truth." So taking young Richard by the hand, she said, "Lo, here is this gentleman, whom I doubt not would be safely kept by me, if I were permitted; and well do I know there be some such deadly enemies to my blood, that if they wist where any lay in their own bodies, they would cut it out if they could. The desire of a kingdom knoweth no kindred. Brothers have been brothers' bane ”

“ The Publicity Department also owes a great deal to a member of the Old Guard, J. H. Puttock. He was responsible for suggesting the designs and for the production of the noble posters of Cassell's publications which adorned the hoardings of the kingdom. He it was who carried out John Cassell's idea of adapting the French cartoon, "The Child: What Will He Become?" to the advertising of the "Popular Educator." Puttock was one of the boys who never grew up. He lifted or pushed everybody around him out of the dull rut of mechanical routine. ”

“ No women in the story, Lloyd's orders; and who so blithe to obey? It's awful fun, boys' stories; you just indulge the pleasure of your heart, that's all; no trouble, no strain."
In the Idler, in 1894, Stevenson describes the actual beginning of the writing and the pleasure the story yielded to him and his father:
"At Castleton of Braemar, on a chill August morning, by the cheer of a brisk fire, and the rain drumming on the window, I began 'The Sea Cook,' for that was the original title. Day by day, after lunch, I read aloud my morning's work to the family. ”

“ Many even flung away cap and shoe, and, half naked, they are said to have presented so savage an appearance as struck awe into the enemy.
The fight on the English side being intended, as at Creçy and Poictiers, to be on foot, Henry had placed all his baggage, with the priests and the horses, in the rear, near the village of Maisoncelles, under the guard of a small body of archers and men-at-arms. He dismissed all his prisoners on their parole to appear at Calais if he won the victory. He then mounted a grey palfrey, and rode along the lines of each division. ”

“ Follow me, I am your king; Tyler was but a traitor; be ye at rest and peace." Then he rode back to his company, who advised that they should draw off into the fields near Islington. Thither many followed the king; and many, hoping no good, quietly stole away. On coming into the fields, they beheld the renowned Free Companies captain, Sir Robert Knowles, with 1,000 men-at-arms; and the insurgents, now fearing the worst, got away as fast as they could, throwing down their bows, and many kneeling to the king and imploring pardon. ”

“ Then John of Gaunt advanced, pillaging and laying waste the country in the old English manner from Calais to Bordeaux, while Sir Robert Knowles, the Free Companion leader, with an army of 30,000 men, took his way by Terouenne and through Artois, burning and destroying all before him. He nest advanced to the very gates of Paris, up to which one of his knights rode, and struck a blow with his spear, having made a vow that he would strike his lance on the gate of Paris. The daring warrior, however, lost his life returning through the suburbs, being cut down by a gigantic butcher with his cleaver. ”

“ Scarcely were they out of the gates when the populace rose, seized the Bishop of Exeter, whom the king had appointed governor, beheaded him, and threw his body into the river. They met with and killed a friend of the favourites—one John le Marshal. They made themselves master of the Tower, and liberated all the state prisoners—a numerous body, most of them suffering from the attempts to put down young Spenser—and they entered into an association to put to death without mercy every one who dared to oppose the queen and prince. Such was the fury of the populace against the king and his favourite ”

“ With minds inflamed to the utmost pitch of animosity, the two armies met on the morning of Palm Sunday, March 29th, in the fields betwixt the villages of Saxton and Towton, about ten miles south of York. Edward issued orders that no quarter should be given, no prisoners should be taken; it was to be a war of extermination—a command in so young a man sufficiently demonstrative of the pitiless severity of his character. The action began at nine o'clock in the morning, under circumstances most unfortunate for the Lancastrians. ”

“ They condemned Pound to lose one of his ears in London, and the other in the place whence he came; to be fined one thousand pounds, and to remain a prisoner for ever unless he impeached those who incited him to this course. The queen interceded for the poor old man, but James forbade her ever again to open her mouth in favour of a catholic; however, some time after the French and Spanish ambassador remonstrated on the severity of the sentence, and the old man was suffered to retire to his own house at Belmont, in Hampshire, after standing a whole day in the pillory in London. ”

“ They assured him that the queen was asleep, and could not be disturbed. Such conduct and such an excuse, when an envoy from the Queen of England had come express on most important business, showed a determination to pursue a concerted course at all risks. Moreover, a servant of De Croc, the French ambassador, at the very moment that Bothwell and Lethington rode out, saw Mary standing at an upper window of the palace with the wife of Lethington, and pointed her out to the provost, who observed her give a friendly nod to Bothwell as he went away. ”