Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/130

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OEAMEE


CRESCINI


business, he smuggled the pamphlets of Kossuth, Mazzini, and Louis Blanc into their respective countries in the firm s goods, and used his wealth freely in pro gressive causes. He became M.P. for Newcastle in 1873 ; and in 1878, apropos of a Bill to increase the number of bishoprics, protested that the country wanted no more " sleek and oily parsons." He was equally zealous in supporting Bradlaugh in 1881. " The ghosts of obsolete opinions and worn- out ceremonials ought not to frighten us," he said (Life and Speeches of J. Goiven, 1885, p. 494). Cowen was a man of rigid principles and the widest human sym pathies. His unpopularity in the political world was due almost entirely to his integrity. D. Feb. 18, 1900.

CRAMER, Johan Nikolai, Ph.D.,

Swedish philologist. B. Feb. 18, 1812. Ed. Upsala University. He was ordained priest in 1842, but resigned his orders in 1858. He then taught in a school at Visby and wrote a number of works on philology and religion, zealously propagating the ideas of Strauss and Benan.

CRANCH, Christopher Pearse,

American artist. B. Mar. 8, 1813. Ed. Cambridge Divinity School. He joined the Unitarian ministry, but seceded from it in 1842 and devoted himself to art. He studied in Italy 1846-48, and in Italy and France 1853-63. In 1864 he was elected to the New York National Academy ; and, in addition to his paintings, he published various volumes in prose and verse, and Satan : A Libretto (1874). D. 1892.

CRANE, Walter, E.W.S., artist. B. Aug. 15, 1845. Ed. private school, Torquay. He was apprenticed at sixteen to W. J. Linton [SEE] and remained with him three years. He then took to the illustration of books, especially children s books, in which he set a new standard. At the same time he exhibited in all galleries, and he was the founder and president of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition (1888) and an Associate

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of the Society of Painters in Water Colours (1888). In 1892 he was appointed Director of Designs in the Manchester Municipal School of Art. In 1903 he received the Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy, and in 1904 the Albert Gold Medal. He was also associated with Morris, whose Socialism he shared, in improving wall-papers. In An Artist s Reminiscences (1907) he relates that in his early years J. E. Wise [SEE] helped to clear his mind of " superstitious shadows and theological bogies " (p. 78). Morris, Mill, and the Positivist literature com pleted his education, and he " decided for Free Thought" (p. 80). D. Mar. 14, 1915.

CREMER, Sir William Randal,

reformer. B. Mar. 18, 1838. Of a poor family, Cremer went to work in a shipyard at the age of twelve. He settled in London in 1852, and engaged in politics. In 1865 he was appointed secretary of the British Section of the International Working Men s Association, and in 1871 secretary of the Workmen s Peace Association. He entered Parliament in 1885, and in 1889 became secretary of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. His splendid work on behalf of peace brought him the Nobel Prize (the greater part of which he gave to the International Arbitration League) in 1903, the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1890, the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf in 1904, and knighthood in 1907. Howard Evans says in his Sir B. Cremer (1909) that he abandoned Chris tianity, though he remained religious. D. July 22, 1908.

CRESCINI, Professor Yincenzo, Italian philologist. B. Aug. 10, 1857. Ed. Padua University. He was appointed professor of the Neo-Latin languages at Genoa University, and is now professor of the comparative history of the Neo-Latin languages and literatures at Padua Univer sity. Professor Crescini, who is a Cavalliere of the Crown of Italy, has written a large number of philological and literary works. He is a Positivist of the Ardig6 school. 188