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 fore

most 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 York 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.

began to prove his Two or three of his

In 1812 and 1813, he first powers as a public speaker. 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 present. 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

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