Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/70

 widest possible circulation of "educational" books and papers—and they were an enormous drain upon his pocket. The taxes on the paper used in printing "The Family Bible" amounted to £3,000 a year. In 1858 the paper duty cost Cassell altogether between seven and eight thousand pounds. He entered vigorously into the work of the new association. With Francis and Henry Vizetelly (who was secretary) he went on a mission to Ireland and Scotland to set up local branches.

His opening meeting in Ireland was notable for a speech in which he lucidly set out the case for repeal. He lamented the absence of educational chances for the Children of the poor; in England and Wales, the child population between the ages of eight and fifteen was estimated at 4,900,000, of whom only 2,040,000 attended school; the other 2,860,000 had no instruction whatever. "I myself," he said, "although largely engaged in publishing, am not a publisher by trade and profession, but took it up actuated by the desire to educate the class from which I myself sprung. I know that in the manufacturing districts of England there are thousands and thousands of uneducated individuals—so uneducated that they cannot read. I know that when I arrived at the period of manhood I could not tell what a noun or a verb was, but I could read and be guided by my own experience. I know that if he can simply read, every working man thus possesses the key to the temple of knowledge, by which he can open its portals and penetrate into its innermost recesses and most secret cabinets."

Cassell was one of the speakers when Milner Gibson led his deputation to Lord Derby on the subject in February, 1859. With all our boasted advances in civilization, he told the Minister, with all our educational societies and social science conferences, and with the efforts of all our leading Statesmen for the elevation of the nation, we were "the only nation which imposed a tax on the great medium of communicating knowledge to the people."