In 1836 John Cassell made his first move towards London.

He worked his way to town, and lectured on the road.  He carried a bell, and with that brought together his audiences.

At times he was very roughly handled by the crowd; yet this had no effect upon him, except to make him the more determined.

His clothes became threadbare, his boots worn out, his general appearance dilapidated; but he got help from a few good people, who saw the hero beneath his rags.

He was three weeks accomplishing the journey; and when he arrived in London spent the first day in search of work, which he failed to obtain.

In the evening, seeing that a temperance meeting was to be held in a hall off the Westminster Road, he went to it; and asked to be allowed to speak.  Some of those on the platform viewed with distrust the gaunt, shabby, travel-stained applicant.  But he would take no denial, and soon won cheers from the audience.  When he stopped short, after a brief address, someone shouted “Go on”.  “How can a chap go on when he has nothing to say?” came the ready reply.  That night he had no money in his pocket to pay for a bed; so he walked the streets of London through the weary hours till dawn of day.

Other temperance meetings he addressed; for his heart and mind were full of that subject.  After one of the meetings a gentleman questioned him as to his means; and, finding the straits he was in, asked if he were not disheartened.

“No,” replied John; “it is true I carry all my wealth in my little wallet, and have only a few pence in my pocket; but I have faith in God I shall yet succeed.”

Struck by his manifest sincerity, the gentleman introduced him next day to a friend who took a warm interest in the temperance cause.

“Which wouldst thou prefer, carpentering or trying to persuade thy fellow-men to give up drinking, and to become teetotalers?” he asked.

Without hesitation John Cassell replied:—­

“The work of teetotalism.”

“Then thou shalt have an opportunity, and I will stand thy friend.”

John Cassell now went forth as a disciple of the temperance cause.  Remembering his experiences on the way to London he furnished himself with a watchman’s rattle, with which he used to call together the people of the villages he visited.

A temperance paper thus speaks of him in 1837:—­

“John Cassell, the Manchester carpenter, has been labouring, amidst many privations, with great success in the county of Norfolk.  He is passing through Essex—­(where he addressed the people, among other places, from the steps leading up to the pulpit of the Baptist chapel, with his carpenter’s apron twisted round his waist)—­on his way to London.  He carries his watchman’s rattle—­an excellent accompaniment of temperance labour.”

Cassell had a great regard for Thomas Whittaker.  It was an address given by this gentleman which had first made him wish to become a public man.