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 we 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.

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. of the river Dove. He also threw into heroic verse the account of Darius's feast, given in 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, how

ever, 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.