Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1006

CAW common cause with France and England by aiding in the Crimean war—a step which, when first proposed, met with strong opposition in the Sardinian chambers, but which was certainly the wisest, as to Italy it proved the most advantageous, that could have been taken, involving as it did the recognition of her existence as a nation by the most powerful states in Europe, and her consequent right to be heard in their councils. Accordingly, on the part of Sardinia, Cavour took his place in the conferences which assembled in Paris to settle the terms of peace. He embraced the opportunity of bringing the condition of his country, and of pleading her rights, before the conferences. The jealousy and resentment of Austria were roused, and in March, 1857, the Austrian minister was recalled from Turin, and the Sardinian minister from Vienna. Having ceased to hope for material aid from the British government in the struggle now seen to be inevitable, Cavour naturally turned to France; and, after a series of negotiations and arrangements, he had, in the end of March, 1859, an interview with Louis Napoleon at Paris, when the plan of operations, on the breaking out of hostilities, was finally settled. The warmly-cherished hopes of a free and united Italy "from the Alps to the Adriatic," inspired by the magniloquent promise of his powerful ally, Cavour now thought in a fair way of being realised. The illusion was soon dispelled.

For a sketch of the leading events connected with the war with Austria, and Garibaldi's subsequent attempt to make Rome the capital of Italy, the reader is referred to the article. Burning with indignation at the abrupt and, to Sardinia, insulting peace which Louis Napoleon had made with his Austrian brother at Villafranca, and finding the counsels which he urged on his sovereign at that crisis rejected, Cavour resigned his office as premier, and retired to his property at Leri. It was soon found, however, that his services could not be wanted in such a state of affairs as then existed, and early in 1860 he was again prime minister. From first to last, in this capacity, he displayed the most dexterous statesmanship, and by his efforts to improve her financial, commercial, and agricultural condition, did incalculable service to his country. Driven by the necessities of his position, and the interests he served, to a continually wavering policy, he, with great diplomatic skill, alternately caressed or persecuted, according to circumstances, the revolutionary element then so powerful in the more oppressed states of Italy. But none can deny that Count Cavour steered the vessel of his government amid conflicting elements and through difficult channels with consummate skill. He was admired in the Piedmontese chamber for facility and clearness in discussion. He had acquired some renown as a journalist, and was the author of several highly esteemed works on political economy. He died on the 6th of June, 1861.—E. A. H.  CAWTHORN,, a minor poet of the last century, was born at or near Sheffield in 1721. But little is known of his family or of the events of his life. He was educated at the grammar schools of Rotherham and Kirkby-Lonsdale; whether he went to any university is uncertain. In 1743 he was chosen master of Tunbridge school by the Skinners' company of London. In conjunction with his patrons, he founded the library annexed to that seminary. He is said to have been in the general intercourse of life generous and friendly; but in the management of his school singularly harsh and severe. Although a bad rider, it is said that he was much addicted to hunting; and with no ear for music he was enthusiastic on the subject of concerts and operas. He was killed by a fall from his horse in April, 1761, and was buried in Tunbridge church. Cawthorn's poems consist chiefly of moral tales, moral essays, epistles in the style of Ovid, and one or two amatory pieces. He is a close but feeble imitator of Pope. Always straining after sublimity and point, he mistakes bombast for grandeur, and only puns where he means to be witty.—T. A.  CAWTON,, a learned English divine, was born in 1605. He was celebrated not only for his classical attainments, but for his knowledge both of the Oriental and of the modern European languages. Cawton gave assistance to Walton in the compilation of his polyglot bible, and to Castell in his polyglot lexicon. He was presented to the living of Wivenhoe in Essex in 1636, and subsequently to the rectory of St. Bartholomew in London. Though Cawton held the religious principles of the puritans, he boldly denounced, in a sermon before the lord mayor and aldermen, the conduct of Cromwell and his associates in the execution of the king, and was in consequence imprisoned. He ultimately retired to Holland and became minister of the English church in Rotterdam, where he died in 1659.—J. T.  CAWTON,, son of the preceding, was born in 1637. He studied first at Utrecht, where he acquired a high reputation for learning, and subsequently at Oxford under Samuel Clarke. He received ordination from the bishop of Oxford in 1661; but his principles would not allow him to submit to the sway of the party then dominant in the established church; and after officiating for some time as chaplain to Sir Anthony Irby, and subsequently to Lady Arnim, he became minister of a nonconformist congregation in Westminster, and died in 1677. He was the author of a dessertation on the Hebrew language, of a life of his father, and of a treatise on Divine Providence.—J. T.  CAXTON,, the introducer into England of the art of printing, was born in the Weald of Kent early in the fifteenth century. The exact date of his birth has not been ascertained. Oldys places it in 1412. Some time between his fifteenth and eighteenth year, after receiving an education more than usually liberal for the time, he was apprenticed to Robert Large, an eminent London mercer, who was lord mayor of the city in 1439. Books would probably form part of Mr. Large's merchandise, and it has been conjectured that Caxton's literary tastes were developed while in this employment. He did not, however, fail to give ample attention to business, for we find that his master, who died in 1441, left him as a token of favour a legacy of twenty marks, and he was about the same time admitted a freeman of the company of mercers. In the course of the year following he went to the Low Countries, either to transact business on his own account or as agent for some trading house. We find him in 1464 commissioned, along with one Richard Whitehill, "to continue and confirm a treaty of trade and commerce between Edward IV. and Philip, duke of Burgundy." The two commissioners are named "ambassadors and special deputies." Caxton, however, was not wholly occupied with business, but found leisure to study the art of printing, and also to translate into English Raoul Le Fevré's Recueil des Histoires de Troyes. He seems to have begun the work in 1468, and for some reason to have discontinued it. When the Lady Margaret of York was married to Charles, duke of Burgundy, Caxton was admitted into her household, and seems to have occupied some high position there. At the request of his mistress, and "having," as he says, "no great charge or occupation, and wishing to eschew idleness," he resumed and finished his translation of the History of Troy. The date of his first essay in the art of printing is not known, neither how he acquired the knowledge of it. This only is manifest, that he learned it wholly in the Low Countries, for the types which he first employed must have been made without his having seen those in use at Paris, Venice, or Rome. The first product of his press was the original of his favourite Recueil des Histoires de Troyes; the second the oration of John Russell on Charles, duke of Burgundy, being created a knight of the garter; and the third his own translation from the French of Raoul Le Fevre, "whyche sayd translacion and werke," as the title testifies, "was begonne in Brugis in 1468, and ended in the holy cyte of Colen, 19th Sept., 1471." These three works were certainly printed by Caxton when abroad; but when he returned to England is not distinctly ascertained, farther than that it was before 1477. It is, however, more than probable that he established himself in London in 1474, for the figures of that date are inwrought with his device as a printer. If this be so, his translation from the French of the Game and Play of the Chesse (see ), printed in that year, is to be set down as the first book printed in England. There is, indeed, a story, to which, however, no credit can be given, that in 1468 Edward IV. sent over a M. Turnour, who, with the assistance of Caxton, bribed Frederick Corsellis, a servant in a Dutch printing-office, to bring to England the secret of his art, and that a book at Oxford, with the date 1468, is entitled to the honour which we claim for the Game and Playe of the Chesse. Whether this book was printed on the continent or in England, it is at least certain that Caxton was fairly settled in his native country in 1477, and that in that year he printed the Dictes and Notable Wyse Sayenges of the Phylosophers, a translation from the French by one of his earliest patrons, the Earl Rivers Mr. Caxton's first printing-office was at Westminster, and, as appears from a curious old advertisement in his largest type, and preserved at Oxford, it was set up in the almonry of the abbey. It was afterwards removed to King Street. Mr. Caxton not only busied 