SIR TITUS SALT. 



*HERE have been those who have not scrupled to 

 assert that large fortunes, and vast commercial 

 interests, must of necessity have had some portion 

 of falsehood or want of rectitude in their upbuilding ; that an 

 honest and at the same time a greatly successful business man, 

 they are inclined to think, is rather an exceptional growth of 

 this age and country. The man who claims our attention 

 now, who had much to do in developing the commercial im- 

 portance of the Midland Counties of England, and of the 

 country itself, was both honest and God-fearing, and his life is 

 another added to those perennial biographies whose lessons 

 will be drawn upon by all right-thinking men for all time to 

 come. The greatness of Sir Titus Salt was of a kind which 

 would make him popular and useful anywhere; the poet, the 

 author, and the preacher may appeal to a select few, but a 

 man who appeals to the practical instincts of a practical people, 

 as Sir Titus Salt has done, is sure to meet with almost universal 

 understanding and approval. 



The grandfather of Titus Salt bore the same name, and 

 carried on an iron-founding business at Sheffield. He does 

 not seem to have been particularly successful, as, when the 



140 



