The Cemetery
"The Leeds General Cemetery (also known as Woodhouse Cemetery, Woodhouse Lane Cemetery and, since its closure in 1969, St George's Fields) is a former cemetery in Woodhouse, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is now within the campus of the University of Leeds and has been landscaped and kept as an open space. Some original monuments and the cemetery chapel remain.
The Leeds General Cemetery Company Limited was set up in 1833 to create a new cemetery as that of the parish church was full. The cemetery opened in 1835, and a total of 93,569 interments took place in it.
In 1956 the University of Leeds acquired a majority shareholding in the company and in 1965 the University of Leeds Act was passed which allowed the university to remove monuments and create a public open space. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1967 and the last burial took place in October 1969. From March to November 1968 contractors removed the headstones and memorials, some of which were subsequently collected by Leeds City Museum, some retained and the rest covered with soil which was then grassed over and landscaped. There were no exhumations. The space re-opened to the public in 1969 as St George's Fields (the name of the area before the cemetery was created).
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The statue
The life size statue of Michael Thomas Sadler is shown dressed in classical dress, wearing a toga, stood on a plinth.
The statue and the chapel together are a Historic England Grade II Listed Building.
"Cemetery chapel, now library store, with statue against the NE side. 1835. Repair and rebuilding to upper walls and roof after a fire c1988. By John Clark for the Leeds General Cemetery Company. Ashlar, Delphstone and millstone grit, grey slate roof. Greek Revival style. Plinth. Portico on NW with 4 giant Ionic columns supporting entablature and moulded pediment, central door in shouldered architrave. SE end has 4 giant pilasters supporting entablature and pediment; 5 x 3 pane glazing between, a window on each return and panels with carved wreaths below each window. The ashlar is continued around each side to meet hammer-dressed gritstone on side walls which have a central recessed rainwater pipe. Statue of Michael Sadler: marble, life-size, draped in Greek style, the base carved with the words: 'PARK SCULPTOR LONDON 1837'. It stands on a cylindrical plinth with inscribed tablet giving details of his career: born Doveridge, Derbys, MP for the borough of Newark and Aldboro, died at Belfast, the memorial erected by his 'numerous private and political friends'. INTERIOR: not inspected. Sadler fought and lost the 1832 election for the Tories in Leeds; he was a linen merchant, member of the corporation, and an Evangelical paternalist devoted to factory reform. A recess on the back of the plinth indicates that the statue is not in its original position. (Beresford, M: Walks Round Red Brick: Leeds University Press: 1980-: 50; Fraser, D (Ed): A History of Modern Leeds: Manchester: 1980-: 276-78)."
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The plinth has the following inscription.
MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, F.R.S.
Born at Doveridge in the County of Derby
From early youth an Inhabitant of this Town.
Endowed with great natural talents,
A fervid imagination, a feeling heart, and an enquiring mind,
He cultivated, with success, amidst the distractions of trade,
The Elegance of Polite Literature
And the severer study of Political and Social Economy
As exhibited in his works on 'Ireland' and the 'Law of Population'
The display, on various occasions, Of a Copious Eloquence,
peculiarly his own,
In defence of the Protestant Faith,
Of the rights of humanity, and of the British Constitution,
Secured him, unsought for, a Seat in the House of Commons,
And he represented the Boroughs of Newark and Aldborough
In three successive Parliaments.
He distinguished himself in the Senate
As the bold defender of the Institutions of his Country,
And the propounder of measures
For a legal provision for the Poor of Ireland
And for ameliorating the condition of Factory Children
He died at Belfast, July 29th, 1835
Aged 58 years.
His remains rest in Ballylesson Churchyard
By his numerous private and political friends
This memorial has been erected.
To hand down to a posterity the name of a
scholar, a Patriot, and a Practical Philanthropist.
The Person
"English businessman from Yorkshire, radical Tory MP and leader of the factory reform movement.
Elected to parliament in 1829, Michael T. Sadler is perhaps best known for his campaign to limit work hours and improve conditions for child laborers. Although unsuccessful during his parliamentary term (cut short by the parliamentary reform of 1832 - Sadler lost his seat), the campaign he started and the evidence he gathered eventually led to the new laws curbing child labour.
In economics, Sadler's main claim to fame is his 1830 Law of Population. Malthus's old population doctrine recently had come under attack by Nassau William Senior in 1829, who posited instead the "demographic transition", that fertility actually declines with prosperity as people naturally preferred to limit their families in order to achieve a "better" standard of living for themselves. As Senior's argument gained ground against Malthus's, Sadler leaped into the fray with what seemed like a compromise, and proposed in his 1830 treatise, a modification of the Malthusian law, suggesting that population growth depended not only on food (as Malthus proposed), but also on space (Sadler's addition). Thus the Malthusian law, Sadler proposed, would be weaker in places with greater population density ("the prolificness of otherwise similarly circumstanced, varies with their numbers", v.2, p.352). As wealthier countries and places tended to have greater population density, it only seemed like fertility rates declined with wealth. Sadler did not really explain the basis of his case - his voluminous work reviewed many of the past arguments about fertility, but he did not really connect the population density argument to them. He simply assumed that population growth was greater in the countryside than in the cities.
Sadler's argument was famously attacked by Thomas Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review and George Poulett Scrope in the Quarterly Review."
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