Memoirs of the life and writings of Michael Thomas Sadler, Esq.

Preface

The present volume is offered to the public with mingled feelings of confidence and distrust: confidence, when considering the truth, and value, and extreme importance of the views advocated : distrust, when recollecting the peculiar disadvantages under which the work has been performed.

The purpose of attempting to furnish the public with some kind of a connected view of the plans and principles of Mr. Sadler, was formed immediately after his decease; that is, in the autumn of 1835. The lapse of so long a period as has since intervened., may naturally be held to deprive the writer of all excuse for inaccuracies, or other faults in the per-

VI PREFACE.

formance ; and to render him justly responsible for the production of a well-considered and carefully prepared work.

It is on this point that he wishes to offer a single remark. He desires to explain, that although more than six years have passed away since the purpose was formed, the time actually spent over the present volume has scarcely exceeded an equal number of months.

This has arisen from various causes, but mainly from the pressure of other literary duties, which seemed of a more urgent character. Very soon after the plan of the present work was formed, a duty of another but kindred description appeared to be cast upon the writer ; and it was accordingly undertaken and discharged. At two subsequent periods the like again occurred. The reason for postponing the Memoir of Mr. Sadler in each case was the same, — that something like an urgent call of duty suggested itself, in the preparation of those works, which did not appear so clearly to exist, in point of time, in the case of this Memoir.

It will be perceived that the writer has thus again and again shewn, in the strongest manner, his confidence in the great value and importance of the topics

PREFACE. Vll discussed in the present work ; evincing repeatedly, his conviction, that the lapse of years would scarcely affect the worth of the book, or its just claim to popularity. He has still further exhibited this confidence, by permitting the work to incur the injury necessarily attendant on such an unusual and disadvantageous mode of composition.

No one accustomed to such a task, will undervalue the disadvantage of writing such a Memoir as the present by piecemeal; composing a chapter — then laying it wholly aside — taking up a totally different subject, and not returning to the work for six or even nine months. Such has been the way in which the present volume has been formed ; and no one can be more sensible of the faults which must necessarily accompany such a mode of dealing with the subject, than is the writer.

It will necessarily, he apprehends, be often found that the same idea, and probably in the same words, is repeated again and again. Equally probable is it, that important points of an argument, supposed by him to have been premised, are no where to be seen. Such errors and misfortunes as these seem inherent in such a system of composition, except the author were able to retain all that he had written in his mind, or were

Vlll PREFACE.

continually re-perusing the portions which had been completed.

It is needless, however, to dilate upon these circumstances. Deeply sensible of the many faults of the work, both in these and many other respects, the writer still reverts with hope to that which has encouraged him throughout his labour ; — the solid, substantial, and all-important character of the truths contained in this history. It was a deep and thorough conviction of their weight and value, which first impelled him to the undertaking. Made still more aware than ever before, in the progress of the work, of his own deficiencies, he has also been more and more confirmed in his attachment to these truths. He believes them to be essentially and indissolubly connected with the well-being of the country ; and in that belief he commends them to the calm consideration of all who feel an interest in her prosperity.

There is, however, one class, and that far from an unimportant one, at whose hands they will receive nothing of the kind. He alludes, of course, to a certain set of persons, who, with great activity and self-complacency, are accustomed on all occasions to present themselves to the public notice, as possessing an exclusive claim to the title of " Political Economists."

PREFACE. IX

By this entire body it was Mr. Sadler's fate to be constantly followed with misrepresentation, vehement abuse, and affected contempt. And their united efforts, though they could neither prevent the enactment of a Poor Law for Ireland, nor rescue the Malthusian theory from utter ruin ; still effected at least this minor mischief, that they prevented the author of both these good works from receiving, in his lifetime, that meed of public gratitude which was his due. In the present instance, except in so far as the insignificance of the writer may protect him, a repetition of the same system of disingenuousness may be expected. For his own part, he anticipates it with the most entire equanimity. He humbly trusts that the volume now offered to the public owes its formation in a very small degree indeed to any motives personal to the writer. Simply wishing to follow in Mr. Sadler's footsteps, as an expounder of the great principles which it was the business of his life to enunciate, he is quite content — he should rather say, will be eminently happy, if he may, in any degree, share his fate ; at least so far as to aid in producing beneficial results, without desiring or receiving any personal reward.

MEMOIRS

ETC. ETC,

Chapter I

A. D. 1780—1800.

PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

The history of the Life of Michael Thomas Sadler must be, in a great measure, a history of opinions, rather than of events. The chief circumstances of his career, viewed without reference to the workings of his ever-active mind, may soon be told. He was born at Snelston in Derbyshire, in the year 1780 : he continued to reside in that village and in the neighboring one of Doveridge, until the year 1800, when he removed to Leeds. In 1813 he entered into partnership with the widow of the late Samuel Fenton, Esq. of that place, whose eldest daughter he married in 1816. In March 1829 he was returned to Parliament as one of the representatives for the borough of Newark ; for which place he was re-elected in July, 1830. In May, 1831, Parliament having been again dissolved, he was returned for the borough of Aldborough in Yorkshire. His connection with Parliament terminating in December 1832, he removed about a year afterwards to Belfast in Ireland, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in July 1835, in the 56th year of his age.

He was the youngest son of Mr. James Sadler, who appears to have been, at the time of his birth, residing upon and cultivating a small estate in the adjoining parishes of Snelston and Doveridge in Derbyshire. By his will he bequeaths, " all my freehold and copyhold estate in Doveridge, to my son Joseph Sadler," "and all my freehold estate in Marston Montgomery, to my sons Benjamin and Michael Thomas Sadler."

Mr. James Sadler, — whom family tradition always described as a descendant of the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, of the sixteenth century, # — had married, in 1766, Frances, the daughter of the Rev. Michael Ferrebee, Rector of Rolleston

* The probabilities of this circumstance will be considered, at more length than would be expedient in this place, in note A. in the Appendix.

in Staffordshire. Mr. Ferrebee was the son of an eminent French Huguenot and refugee, who settled in London shortly after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and there acquired considerable property. Michael Ferrebee was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, where he greatly distinguished himself, and acquired the friendship of Swift and the chief literati of that day. His wife was a daughter of Henry Wrigley, Esq. of Langley Hall, near Middleton in Lancashire, whose family had resided on that property ever since the conquest. This estate was entailed on her daughter Frances, and thence to her children, the sons of Mr. James Sadler.

Mrs. Sadler appears to have united the polish of ancient gentility derived from one parent, with the intellectual attainments of the other. Her children have never ceased to regard her memory with the utmost affection and admiration ; and w r e have heard many of those who were formerly her neighbours in Derbyshire, and who now survive her, use language of equal warmth in describing her character.

Mr. Sadler had by this marriage six children, of whom two died in their childhood. Of those who survived, Michael Thomas was the youngest. His birth took place at Snelston, on the 3rd of January, 1780.

B 2

His faculties seem to have developed themselves at an early age. A taste both for drawing and music, manifested itself before he had reached his fifth year. Specimens of early talent in sketching, made about this period of his childhood, have been preserved in the family ever since ; and at the same age, he was accustomed to find out a tune on the harpsichord, after having heard it played or sung, without the assistance of the printed notes.

About the sixth year of his age, he was placed under the care of Mr. Harrison, a school-master of considerable reputation at Doveridge, and with him he remained till his fourteenth or fifteenth year. Here he acquired a competent knowledge of Latin and Greek, a good acquaintance with French, and the rudiments of Italian and German. But Mr. Harrison's favourite pursuit was that of Mathematics, in which he greatly excelled, and to which he naturally directed the ardent mind of his pupil. By the time young Sadler had completed his eleventh year, he had gone through Saunderson's Algebra, calculated eclipses, found logarithms, and become conversant with the most abstruse problems in pure and practical geometry.

At this period he became a correspondent of the chief scientific periodical of that day ; answering most of the mathematical problems proposed through that channel. Such indeed, was his proficiency, that at this early age, his tutor felt no hesitation in giving him the charge of a pupil of adult years, and who has since gained a distinguished reputation, but who was then passing the college vacations at Doveridge, for the benefit of Mr. Harrison's advice and direction.

At his twelfth year it was his father's intention to have removed him to a public school, with a view to his proceeding from thence to college. But on consulting Mr. Harrison, the tutor's fondness for his pupil caused him to use such persuasions, as induced Mr. Sadler to allow him to remain at Doveridge. Thus the whole plan and prospects of his life became deranged, and after remaining with Mr. Harrison till any longer stay appeared useless, he returned home, without any settled plan as to his further education or course of life.

Left now, for two or three years, very much to his own choice of pursuits, it happened fortunately, that his father possessed a large and well-selected library, which had been bequeathed to him by Mrs. Sadler's relative, the Rev. Henry Wrigley, Tutor of St. John's College, Cambridge. This collection contained all the standard English authors, together with the leading Greek and Roman classics; and as Michael had an insatiable thirst for reading, a year or two spent with these companions, made him familiar with all the best models, both ancient and modern.

Leisure, and such a course of reading, soon produced one very common result, in a mind .of an imaginative and enthusiastic order. He begun to indulge in a poetic vein to a considerable extent. He versified many of the Psalms, and produced a poem in Spenserian verse, descriptive of the scenery of the river Dove. He also threw into heroic verse the account of Darius's feast, given in 1 Esdras iv. This, with some other pieces, he at one time intended to send to the press ; but discovering that Southey had anticipated him in the subject, he abandoned the intention.

We have not yet adverted to his religious views and impressions. Of these, in his earlier years, no distinct record has been preserved ; but it is certain that the sedulous instructions of his pious and highly-gifted mother had not been without their effect. Shortly before this time, however, a circumstance had occurred in the history of Doveridge, which exercised a peculiar influence over the religious position of the whole of the family. This was, the appearance of the Wesleyan Methodists in that village.

With most intelligent persons, probably, the prejudice and hostility formerly awakened by the mention of this name has subsided. If any, however, should yet feel a rising disgust at the idea of contact with this despised body, we would endeavour to calm the feelings of such an one, by the philosophical reflections of an historian who will not be suspected of either enthusiasm or sectarianism.

"A hundred years ago, the churchman was slack in his duty, and slumbering at his post. It was the voice of an enthusiast that roused the sleeper. Truth must condemn alike the overstrained excitement of the one, and the untimely supineness of the other. But the progress of time, and still more — of mutual emulation, has corrected the defects of each. Sleep has never again fallen on the churchman ; enthusiasm has, in a great degree, departed from the methodist. So closely have the two persuasions drawn to each other, that they are now separated on no essential points, and by little more than the shadowy lines of prejudice and habit." *

" The superstitions and excesses of the first Methodists cannot be concealed, with due regard to truth. But it is no less due to truth to acknowledge their high and eminent qualities. If to sacrifice every advantage, and to suffer every hardship ; — if to labour for the good, real or sup-

* Lord Mahon's History of England, Vol. ii. p, 391, posed, of their fellow-creatures, with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength, — if the most fervent devotion, — if the most unconquerable energy be deserving of respect, let us not speak slightingly of those spiritual leaders, who, mighty even in their errors, and honest even in their contradictions, have stamped their character on their own, and on the present times. It is proper to record, it is easy to deride, their frailties : — but let us, ere we contemn them, seriously ask ourselves, whether we should be equally ready to do and bear every thing in the cause of conscience, — whether, like them, we could fling away all thought of personal ease and personal advantage. It has often been said, that there is no virtue without sacrifices ; but surely it is equally true, that there are no sacrifices without virtue." *

Mrs. Sadler, the daughter of a beneficed clergyman, a woman of taste, education, and refinement ; and now of mature age, was not likely to be captivated by mere rant and extravagance. Firmly attached, also, to the Church of England, and that from a reasonable and settled conviction, we must in justice concede that, in listening to the preachers who visited Doveridge, she had no

* Lord Mahon's History of England. Vol. ii. p. 362.

intention of forsaking the communion of the Establishment. Her case, doubtless, resembled that of thousands. Giving to religion the supremacy which is its right ; — perceiving that if it deserves any place at all in the mind* of a human being, it deserves the first ; — acknowledging it to be, not wild enthusiasm, but sober reason, to be deeply and fervently in earnest about the things of eternity, — she probably found, in the vehemence and awakening zeal of the new visitants, something which touched her heart, while her reasoning faculties assented to its truth and value. She became a hearer of the Methodist preachers, without, however, throwing off her allegiance to the church, or discontinuing her attendance on its services ; and her family followed with her. We have rather spoken of Mrs. Sadler in this case, than of her husband, because in the formation of the religious views of a youth, the influence of a pious, intelligent, and beloved mother, must always have much to do ; and in the present instance this was unquestionably the case.

But the treatment of the Methodists in Doveridge, was too much like that which they met with in most other places. The vicious detested them for their faithful warnings, and their exhortations to purity of life. The pharasaical disliked them for their rigid requirement of a heart-service ;

— and unfortunately, the incumbent of the parish considered them as troublesome intruders, denounced them from the pulpit, and countenanced the use of strong measures to diminish the number of their adherents.

Some idea of the inveteracy of feeling against the Methodists, may be gained from a trifling circumstance which occurred while Michael Sadler was yet at school. He was going, one day, from Doveridge to a town at a short distance, and his road lay across a bridge which was thrown over the Dove, at a spot where the water was very deep. At this spot he met one of the most profligate characters in the village, and who was, very naturally, among the foremost in the opposition to the Methodists. After a few words of abuse, this man seized hold of young Sadler, and suspending him over the parapet of the bridge, swore that he would instantly drop him into the water, if he did not forthwith curse the Methodists. " Never!" said the boy, "you may kill me if you choose, but I never will ! " The wretch held him for several minutes, endeavoring to terrify him by threats and imprecations ; but not succeeding, his fears of the consequences prevailed, and he released the youth. A neighbouring magistrate urged Mr. Sadler to prosecute the man, but before any' resolve was taken, he had abruptly quitted the neighbourhood.

This occurrence took place when Michael was about twelve years of age. It was in his eighteenth year that he took a more public part in this quarrel, by publishing a small pamphlet in defence of the Methodists, against a public attack of the vicar from the pulpit. A merely local and passing discussion of this kind could have no interest for our readers, and we shall therefore make no extract from this production ; merely remarking as we pass, that although it can prefer no claim to any distinguished rank as a controversial treatise, it is at least far beyond the powers of most youths of eighteen, however intelligent and well-educated.

It was not long after the publication of this tract, that a sudden attack of illness deprived him of his excellent mother; — a loss most deeply felt at the time, and to which even at a distance of thirty years, he could never recur without evident emotion. Mr. Sadler survived her but a short time ; and neither of them had reached to what is commonly understood by the term of " old age." A short time before Mr. Sadler's death, he had fixed young Michael in business at Leeds, in connexion with and under the care of his elder brother, Mr. Benjamin Sadler. This event, and the breaking up of the family which immediately followed, brought to a close the first and probably the pleasantest portion of his life.

Chapter II

A. D. 1800—1818.

EARLIER YEARS AT LEEDS.

We are now to contemplate Mr. Sadler in his sudden removal from rural enjoyments and literary leisure, into the busy scenes of trade, and the turmoil of a large manufacturing town. He settled in Leeds in the year 1800, and remained a sharer in his brother's business for several years, until, about the year 1810, they jointly embraced the opportunity of entering into partnership with the widow of Mr. Samuel Fenton, an extensive importer of Irish linens in that town. With this concern, Mr. Sadler continued to be connected up to the period of his death.

In looking at Mr. Sadler as a man engaged in trade, the first reflection that suggests itself, is that of congratulation on his being associated with one in every respect better fitted than himself to conduct commercial affairs with accuracy and success. In fact, the turn of his mind, the nature of his education, and the desultory habits of the later years of his youth, had so far unfitted him for that close and unremitting attention to business, which in these times of perpetual competition in all branches of trade, has become absolutely essential to success, — that it is difficult to imagine, how, without such friendly guidance and support, his course could have led to aught but disaster. Literature, and especially poetry, never lost its hold on his mind. Frequently he would become so absorbed in these pursuits as to forget all other affairs for days and even weeks together. Of these fits of abstraction various amusing anecdotes are told ; which, however, it is scarcely necessary to offer to our readers. His devotions to the muse, nevertheless, were not of a sufficiently sustained character. He had the failing, a considerable but not an uncommon one, of leaving many things incomplete and unfinished, in the hope of a happier hour for adding the last touches. A habit, too, of writing down his thoughts on loose scraps of paper, and not always transferring them to a more permanent receptacle, necessarily occasioned the loss of many portions of his writings. Still our regrets need not exceed the limits of moderation on this score.

He was enabled, in a later period of his life, to perform various labours of such solid and substantial value, as to leave all poetic fame but that of the very first order, far behind, — and to that first order we cannot affect to believe that he would have reached. His chief work, an epic poem on the national subject of the deeds of Alfred, follows in its structure and versification, the great works of Pope and Dryden ; and we know too well that of an hundred followers in this track, which the last hundred years have produced, not one, even of our greatest names, has achieved even moderate success in this path. We therefore leave "Alfred" in its unfinished state with no very poignant repinings, — well-pleased that that feeling of dissatisfaction with his own productions which genius can never wholly lose, — drove him from these pursuits, to labours of far higher value and more enduring utility. But though we have been obliged to describe Mr. Sadler as very far from an exemplar in the conduct of his own commercial affairs, it is due to him to observe, that, when called into active exertion in the more varied field of public life, he never failed to shew himself possessed of talent, energy, and even great perseverance in labour. Not being here annoyed by the monotony of the counting-house, his powerful mind threw itself into every work of this kind which was presented to him, and never failed to place him in the foremost rank among the public men of his adopted town. And these labours were of the most varied character. He became a frequent contributor to the Leeds Intelligencer, the leading paper in the north of England, of the " blue," or Tory party. He took the command of a company in the Leeds volunteers ; and exhibited great skill in the high state of discipline to which he brought it. He became an active visitor of the sick and destitute poor, in connection with an institution called " the Stranger's Friend Society." He was for several years the superintendant of one of the largest Sunday Schools in Leeds, comprehending several hundred scholars. He also took a seat at the board for the management of the poor in that immense parish : and when the Treasurer of the Poor-rates left his post, Mr. Sadler undertook this arduous duty ; and performed for several years a task, without remuneration, which, on his retirement, the parish thought deserving, in his successor, of an allowance of £150 a year. For this service he received the unanimous thanks of the town : but he considered himself chiefly recompensed by the full acquaintance which this office afforded him, with the habits, the wants, and the sufferings of the poor ; — an acquaintance which was largely conducive to his subsequent and more important public services.

He also began about this time, to take a decided part in political affairs ; both generally, in support of the government on the great question of war with France ; and more especially, in the celebrated contest for the representation of the county of Fork which took place in 1807. In this unexampled struggle, Mr. Sadler's whole energies were devoted to the service of Mr. Wilberforce, and he was gratified in being enabled to render most efficient assistance in placing that gentleman at the head of the poll, with the immense number of 11,806 votes.

In 1812 and 1813, he first began to prove his powers as a public speaker. Two or three of his earliest attempts were reported in the Leeds Intelligencer of that period, and it may safely be asserted, that, looking at them as the spontaneous productions of a man who had spent his first twenty years in an obscure village, and the next ten in the din and bustle of a manufacturing town, they present the fullest promise of that harvest of fame and of usefulness, which, at a later period of his life, he was so rapidly to gather in.

In the year 1812, the country was anew disturbed by the agitation of what was called " The Catholic Question." For several preceding years, the subject had slumbered, and men's minds had ceased to be exercised upon it. The affairs of the continent, and the approach of a powerful enemy to our own shores, necessarily drew the public attention in another direction. But as the more immediate peril, the energies and efforts of the French usurper, seemed to decline, and the contest was removed to a greater distance, room was left for the discussion of domestic controversies ; and thus an internal danger returned upon us, less appalling to outward view, and less rapid in its advances, but hardly to be preferred by any reflecting lover of his country, even to the horrors of war, or the presence of an hostile invader.

On the revival of this question in Parliament, at the beginning of 1813, a public meeting was called by the mayor of Leeds, and held in the spacious chancel of the parish church, at which it was computed that nearly two thousand persons were pre-* sent. The object of this meeting was to petition Parliament against the proposed concessions. Mr. Sadler's speech in seconding that petition seems to have been the chief feature of the day's proceedings. His reasonings must necessarily now appear of a familiar and every-day description ; for the repeated discussions which have since taken place, have rendered the argument, on either side, " a thrice-told tale," But if we could abstract our thoughts from these later views of the question, and look at it as then presented, with a degree of

c novelty, to the people of Leeds, we should probably admire both the selection of the topics, and the powers of expression manifested in the following passages from that speech :

" In resisting what is most improperly, and I fear insidiously, denominated ' Catholic Emancipation/ we stand completely aloof from all intention of interfering with that religious freedom, of which, in common with every individual in the British empire, his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects are already in the full possession and in the undisturbed exercise ;■ — an inestimable privilege, which, I cannot but remark, has never yet been extended by them, in the plenitude of their power, to those whom they stigmatize as ' heretics.' And we are likewise absolved from the necessity of deliberating whether any, or what further portion of political power might be safely added to those many important civil privileges, already conceded to them by their best benefactor, our venerable Sovereign ; (with what effect I need not here declare : ) for they most unequivocally assert, that nothing less than a total, and as it should appear, an unconditional surrender of those privileges still pertaining to the Protestant establishment, will be accepted by them. To meet the question, thus narrowed, we are assembled this day ; and under the full conviction, that a nation, as much as an individual, has an undoubted right to chuse its own servants, or in other words, prescribe to whom its authority shall be delegated, — we conscientiously protest, in the terms of the petition just read, against their becoming our judges, our legislators, our ministers, our commanders, and in fine, perhaps ultimately our Sovereigns ; and we are sanctioned by the united authority of reason, religion, and experience, in this our determination.

" Sir, the Protestant cause has long been identified with that of the British nation. May they never be separated ! But we are firmly convinced, that to concede to its grand adversary the power it seeks to recover, to resign that influence which it would infallibly exert, would be to dilapidate the venerable fabric of that happy constitution erected by the wisdom and cemented by the blood of our ancestors ; would shake the very pillars on which the Protestant throne of these realms is founded ; would invalidate the title of the present Protestant royal family ; would threaten the existence of the Protestant establishment ; would change many of our laws and subvert many of our sacred institutions ; would extinguish the very spirit of the glorious revolution of 1688, and pour contempt on those great characters, who, under divine providence, brought about that happy event ;