benefited by ample legacies as will been seen on a perusal of the following memoir which we earnestly recommend to the serious and prayerful perusal of our young charge.

THOMAS CADDICK, the subject of the following sketch, was one of a large, though respectable family. He was from childhood trained to habits of industry and frugality; and when very young was appointed by his father, who had an interest in a Staffordshire colliery, regularly to rise at three o'clock in the morning, to relieve the person who during the night had charge of the steam-engine at the mines. This duty he discharged till breakfast time, and then used to walk four miles to school, taking his dinner with him, and returning home again on foot in the evening. How far this early discipline may have induced a love of labour it is impossible to say; but being blessed with strength of body and great energy of mind, he, while in health, usually selected the most laborious post when co-operating with others, and never appeared more in his element than when employed on matters requiring the exertion of all his powers. His educational advantages were comparatively limited, but amply sufficient, as is well known, to qualify him both to earn, and sustain, a first-rate business reputation. Had his scholastic privileges been greater, and he had thereby acquired a more studious and contemplative taste, it is highly probable much of the time which, in after years, he so steadily devoted to practical objects, would have been spent in literary and theoretical pursuits-not more fraught with happiness to himself in the cultivation, while of infinitely less advantage to his fellow men, than were the philanthropic engagements to which his attention was so constantly given. He may be said to have read men rather than books, and turned the knowledge thus obtained to good account.

Soon after his settlement at Tewkesbury, he was called in rotation to fill the various parochial offices. First, as overseer; and on taking that appointment, he found the rate books of his predecessors, for several years, had neither been audited nor fully collected, but he soon fetched up all arrears, and discharged his own proper duties with a promptitude never since equalled.

In the office of director of the poor, however, under our late local act, his exertions and his services were of far greater importance. On his entering upon it, the parish was overwhelmed with debt, and the House of Industry a scene of confusion; but under his management matters assumed a new aspect. During the full term of three years his seat at the weekly board was not once vacant; and only once, when on a journey, did he fail in his attendance at the house on Sundays during the said term, to see that the inmates went to their several

places of worship, and properly attended to their other duties of the day-an instance of punctuality unparalleled in the annals of that board. It may be added, that such was the sense the body corporate entertained of his services, that on his retirement they presented him with their highly complimentary acknowledgments, together with the gratuitous freedom of the borough.

Another instance of his public spirit, about the same period, was the establishment of a poor's coal depôt. Fifty years ago, when there was no canal communication between the Staffordshire coal pits and the river Severn, this town and district were dependent on the Shropshire barges for a supply of this essential article. The trade also being in few hands, stocks were usually low, and in times of continued frost, often entirely exhausted; consequently the poor of that day were at such seasons exposed to great privations. In ordinary times, moreover they had to pay a much higher price for their fuel during the winter months than has been the case since that canal has been opened. To meet this evil, he, in conjunction with a friend or two, either begged or borrowed-by subscriptions of half a guinea or a guinea, or the loan of ten or twenty guineas returnable without interest at the close of each season, a sufficient sum to form a capital for the purchase of coal during the summer, which was carefully stored away for the exclusive use of the poor during the ensuing winter, when it was sold them at about cost price. Thus they were ever after sure of a supply at a reasonable rate, and it is doubtful whether equal advantage to the industrious classes in this locality has ever resulted from any of the various attempts subsequently made to aid them as was realized by this benevolent scheme. Though nominally under the management of a committee, the work connected with this establishment fell chiefly upon our lamented friend, and of its magnitude few persons can form an adequate conception. During the war then raging, nearly all the money in circulation among the poor was copper, and the labour of counting and disposing of twenty pounds per week and upwards of this coin, was in itself no trifling addition to the labour of the manager. Nevertheless he zealously persevered in conducting this concern for more than twenty years, when having occasion to go from home for a week or two he endeavored to get some one of his colleagues to take charge of it during his absence-but in vain! Being thus deserted, and as the position of the poor was then much improved by increased facilities of ordinary supply, he decided on letting the lease of the premises (which was for twenty-one years, and then just about to expire) run out, without attempting its renewal.

Another department of public service in which he took a lively interest was as a trustee of the turnpike roads. For about forty years he paid the most unremitting attention to every minutiæ connected therewith, and with such happy success, that from a state of depression, with its securities below par-which was the position of the trust when he joined it-he lived to see it raised (mainly by his own vigorous counsel and exertion) to the highest state of prosperity. The annual statements of this respectable body have long held a conspicuous place in the parliamentary returns-showing great improvements effected, a heavy debt totally paid off, and the tax on travellers reduced one half. The introduction of railways has, in a great degree, lessened the interest taken by the public in this sphere of action, but when our departed friend entered upon it, it was highly conducive to the comfort and safety of the community. None but those who are old enough to remember the approaches to our town, in every direction, before his exertions commenced, can fully appreciate his labors. To exposure for many hours daily to the glare of a burning sun, while personally superintending the last of these improvements—the widening of the Long Bridge, he attributed that gradual decay of sight which was ever after one of his sorest trials. As an acknowledgment of these invaluable services, his co-trustees and the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood presented him with a handsome service of plate.

These proofs of his unwearied industry, and determined perseverance in all he undertook, might be easily multiplied, as hardly any society was established among us during his time, either of a religious, charitable, or patriotic character, of which he was not either a member or a liberal pecuniary supporter.

While in business he, perhaps, devoted more hours to his own private affairs than did his neighbours to their several trades or professions; still was he uniformly the most punctual attendant at the meetings of all societies and committees on which he was enrolled; and even at this busy period was ever ready to listen to the calls of friendship, which were numerous and varied-as the sagacious adviser, the peacemaking arbitrator, or the faithful executor. In the latter capacity he kindly undertook several harrassing and protracted trusts, and fulfilled them with a discretion that could not be exceeded.

In cases of emergency too he has been called in by bodies with whom he was not officially connected, to overawe, by his dauntless bearing, unmanageable spirits, who would set at defiance all other men. He himself feared not the face of man in the discharge of any public duty; but, firm in his own integrity, would never shrink from enforcing

the right from others, although his consistent zeal might subject him, as it did in some instances, to the sneer of the haughty or the reproach of the unprincipled.

After thirty years, unremitting assiduity, he exhibited the somewhat rare virtue in a thriving man of knowing when he had realized sufficient, and retired from business. He then also determined not to let his property accumulate from savings, but to spend his full annual income —not in personal gratification or display, but in works of benevolence, and efforts to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of his countrymen and of the world at large. His expenditure, on these objects, has for many years by very far exceeded that of his own household. He did not however distribute his store recklessly, but with deliberation and a due regard to the relative claims upon him. Although some branches of his family were placed in circumstances of greater affluence than himself, there were others needing assistance, and to all such he afforded it readily and steadily, with a bountiful hand. Next in order, he placed Religious and Educational Societies. The widow and fatherless, too, always held a high place in his sympathies; many of this class did he cheerfully assist, and often with the most refined delicacy. The Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylums, the Infirmary, and the Dispensary, were never forgotten. In fact, want and woe in any shape, and from any quarter, were ever promptly assisted and alleviated to the extent of his ability. He knew nothing of sect or party when a deserving case was set before him. He occasionally met with a return that would have deterred most other men from a repetition of their bounty to the same parties-but neither ingratitude, duplicity, nor insult, could induce him to withhold his hand when such offenders or their families required renewed aid, and it could be indirectly administered.

During his few years' residence in London, he regularly attended those celebrated ministers of the Church of England, the Rev. Messrs. Romaine and Cecil, and to the close of life held those excellent men in high esteem—often referring to the pleasure and advantage he had derived from their ministry. He also, during the same period, attended the chapels in Lady Huntingdon's connexion, and ever retained and evinced a decided partiality towards that denomination of christians. Nevertheless he has, from his first settlement in Tewkesbury, statedly worshipped with the Baptist congregation, and I scarcely need add has ever been the most munificent supporter of the Sunday schools, Missionary societies, and every other benevolent object connected with it. He was the largest contributor, both of personal exertion and money, when this chapel was built more than forty years ago, and gave

upwards of three hundred pounds towards the enlargement of the vestry, and the erection of the school-room over it only a few years since. Our Tablet of benefactions, moreover records a subsequent act of his generosity, which will perfume his memory amongst the congregation assembling here for ages to come.

But we must now draw to a close our sketch of this worthy man's noble career. This is neither the time nor the place for indulging in unmixed eulogy, than which nothing would be more offensive to our lamented friend, could he be cognizant of it as applied to himself. It will be readily conceded that he had his failings and imperfections; and it is doubtless wisely ordered that much dross, in some shape or other, shall mingle in the composition of the best of mortals, that man may not "glory in man." Though ordinarily remarkable for accessibility and courtesy, he had often an abruptness and occasionally a sternness in his manner and address, which obscured-to strangers especially-the truly kind and sympathizing heart which animated his bosom; and his uncompromising plainness of speech sometimes displeased even his warmest admirers. It will however be admitted that his pungent rebukes were generally directed against what he took to be acts of negligence and inefficiency in the discharge of official duty, and were never intended to provoke-except to good works.

His last illness was a very long and trying one,-involving a confinement of nearly four years to the house. Still, under this weighty affliction, no one it is believed ever heard him utter a word approaching to complaint, or witnessed in him a gesture indicative of impatience. On the contrary, he often expressed his thankfulness that, in his state of weakness, he had not his bread to earn, and that he was not only himself surrounded with many comforts and alleviations, but had the means also of administering to the wants of others of low degree in similar circumstances of extremity.

Although he was not in the habit of prominently introducing his religious experience in his ordinary conversation, it was abundantly manifest, to those who were honored with his intimacy, that in his declining days his mind was steadily supported by the doctrines of that sacred book which he was ever so anxious to assist in circulating, through the medium of the Bible Society, to earth's remotest bounds. The twenty-third Psalm was a very favourite one, often quoted, and evidently the source of great consolation to him. He used to dwell especially, in his allusions to it, with considerable emphasis on the first clause of the third verse, "He restoreth my soul." He was not a man of pharisaical profession, but of consistent action; and while sparing of words, said most distinctly, by his conduct, with the Apostle