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CADELL,
anciently Cadella, a surname which has acquired a high standing in the
literary history of our country, from its connexion with the publication
of some of the most valuable and standard works of modern times, and
particularly the principal family of this name in Scotland is Cadell of
Cockenzie, now Tranent, in East Lothian. The name is supposed to be
originally Welsh, but is more likely to have been of French origin, and is
the same as Calder (See CALDER, surname of.]
CADELL, ROBERT,
an eminent publisher, whose connexion with Sir Walter Scott’s works will
perpetuate his name, was born at Cockenzie on the 16th December
1788. He was the son of Mr. Cadell of Cockenzie in East Lothian, and about
1807 entered into the employment of the late Mr. Archibald Constable, the
eminent publisher. About the end of 1811, he was admitted into partnership
with him, on the retirement of Mr. A.G. Hunter of Blackness from the firm.
The business was for a long period extensively carried on under the
well-known firm of Constable and Company. He married in 1817 the daughter
of Mr. Constable, who died in a year afterwards; and in January 1821, he
married Miss Mylne, daughter of Mr. George Mylne, accountant in Edinburgh.
By this lady, who survived him, he had eight daughters.
In 1826, after
the failure of Constable and Co., Mr. Cadell became the sole publisher of
Scott’s works, In Lockhart’s life of his father-in-law there are some very
interesting notices relative to Cadell’s connexion with the great
novelist, who has recorded in his Diary that “Constable without Cadell is
like getting the clock without the pendulum; the one having the ingenuity,
the other the caution of the business.” Sir Walter’s opinion of him is
thus favourably expressed in his Diary, at the time his publishers were
about to fail: – “Cadell came at eight to communicate a letter from Hurst
and Robinson, intimating they had stood the storm. I shall always think
the better of Cadell for this – not merely because ‘his feet are beautiful
upon the mountains who brings good tidings,’ but because he showed feeling
– deep feeling, poor fellow. He, who I thought had no more than his
numeration-table, and who, if he had his whole counting-house full of
sensibility, had yet his wife and children to bestow it upon. I will not
forget this, if all keeps right. I love the virtues of rough-and-round men
– the others are apt to escape in salt rheum, salvolatile, and a white
pocket-handkerchief.”
A large stock of
Sir Walter’s works in the hands of his bankrupt publishers was sold off
for half its cost, a circumstance which created an impression among the
London booksellers that the value of the copyrights had been wrought out.
Mr. Cadell, however, had a different opinion, and having secure among the
members of his own family sufficient money to carry out a scheme which he
had quietly matured, he first communicated it to Mr. Ballantyne the
printer, and finding that he coincided with him in the calculations he had
made, they went together to Abbotsford to propound it to Sir Walter Scott.
In December 1827, Mr. Cadell became joint-proprietor of the copyright of
all Sir Walter’s works then published. Mr. Lockhart, in his ‘Life of
Scott,’ thus details the circumstances: – “The question as to the property
of the ‘Life of Napoleon,’ and ‘Woodstock’ having now been settled by the
arbiter, (Lord Newton) in favour of the author, the relative affairs of
Sir Walter and the creditors of Constable were so simplified that the
trustee on that sequestrated estate resolved to bring into the market,
with the concurrence of Ballantyne’s trustees, and, without further delay,
a variety of very valuable copyrights. This important sale comprised
Scott’s novels from “Waverley’ to “Quentin Durward’ inclusive, besides a
majority of the shares of the poetical works. Mr. Cadell’s family and
private friends were extremely desirous that he should purchase part at
least of these copyrights, and Sir Walter’s were not less so that he
should seize this last opportunity of recovering a share in the prime
fruits of his genius. The relations by this time established between him
and Cadell were those of strict confidence and kindness, and both saw well
that the property would be comparatively lost were it not secured; that
henceforth the whole should be managed as one unbroken concern. It was in
the success of an uniform edition of the Waverley novels, with prefaces
and notes by the author, that both anticipated the means of finally
extinguishing the debt of Ballantyne and Company; and, after some demur,
the trustees of that house’s creditors were wise enough to adopt their
views. The result was that the copyrights, exposed to sale for behoof of
Constable’s creditors, were purchased, one half for Sir Walter, the other
half for Cadell, at the price of eight thousand five hundred pounds, a sum
which was considered large at the time.
Sir Walter’s
Diary, of date December 20, 1827, has the following allusion to this
event: – “Anent the copyrights, the ‘pock puds’ were not frightened by our
high price. They came on briskly, four or five bidders abreast, and went
on till the lot was knocked down to Cadell at £8,500; a very large sum
certainly, yet he has been offered a profit on it already. The activity of
the contest serves to show the value of the property. On the whole, I am
greatly pleased with the acquisition.” “Well might the ‘pock puddings’
(the English booksellers),” continued Mr. Lockhart, “rue their timidity on
this day; but it was the most lucky one that ever came for Sir Walter
Scott’s creditors. A dividend of six shillings in the pound was paid at
this Christmas on their whole claims. The result of their high-hearted
debtor’s exertions between January 1826, and January 1828, was in all very
nearly £40,000. No literary biographer, in all likelihood, will ever have
such another fact to record. The creditors unanimously passed a vote of
thanks for the indefatigable industry which had achieved so much for their
behoof.”
Into this new
enterprise, which was a scheme of Mr. Cadell’s, he threw all the energy of
his character, his business skill, and the zeal springing from his
enthusiastic confidence in Sir Walter’s popularity, and his own unbounded
love and veneration for the Great Magician. The whole series of novels
were republished in small octavo five-shilling volumes, neatly got up,
with plates and embellished title-pages, and explanatory notes by the
author.
After the death
of Sir Walter, a fresh arrangement was come to with regard to the
copyright, of which Mr. Lockhart, in his ‘Life of Scott,’ gives the
following account: – “Shortly after Sir Walter’s death, his sons and
myself, as his executors, endeavoured to make such arrangements as were
within our power for completing the great object of his own wishes and
fatal exertions. We found the remaining principal sum of the Ballantyne
debt to be about £54,000. £22,000 had been insured upon his life; there
were some moneys in the hands of the trustees, and Mr. Cadell very
handsomely offered to advance to us the balance, about £30,000, that we
might, without further delay, settle with the body of creditors. This was
effected accordingly on the 2d of February, 1833, Mr. Cadell accepting, as
his only security, the right to the profits accruing from Sir Walter’s
copyright property and literary remains, until such times as this new and
consolidated obligation should be discharged.”
In May, 1847,
Mr. Cadell took upon himself all the remaining debts upon the estate, on
the transfer to him by the family of their remaining claim over Sir
Walter’s writings. This debt included an heritable bond over the lands of
Abbotsford for £10,000. This transaction Mr. Lockhart says “crowned a
long series of kind ser ices to the cause and memory of Sir Walter Scott.”
Mr. Cadell died
20th January 1849. His health had been in a declining state for
nearly a year. During the last few months of his life he was in treaty for
the sale of the entire copyrights, which were valued at the enormous sum
of £60,000. In 1851, they were purchased by Adam and Charles Black,
publishers in Edinburgh. Mr. Cadell issued Scott’s works in every form and
shape. There was an edition suited to every class of society, from the
splendid Abbotsford, on which he spent about £40,000, down to the cheap
people’s edition in parts, of which he used to boast that he sold about
70,000 copies. Sir Walter’s manuscripts were preserved by him with great
care, and it was with pride that he used to exhibit these literary
treasures to his friends. His taste was sound and discriminating, his
plans comprehensive and liberal, and his application unwearied. His
punctuality was almost proverbial. Exactly at nine o’clock every morning,
except Sunday, he entered his carriage at Ratho; and, along the road to
Edinburgh, the country people knew the time to a minute, by the appearance
of what they called “the Ratho coach.” The same order and regularity were
conspicuous at his place of business in St. Andrew’s square, Edinburgh. In
the beginning of 1845, Mr. Cadell had bought the estate of Ratho, where he
resided in his latter years. |
