manner made him
a universal favourite both among manufacturers and customers. He was
much beloved by his clerks and assistants, many of whom grew gray
in his service. He was American Vice-Consul for a time, but from his
first coming to England does not seem to have taken any great interest
in American politics. During the Civil War in the States, although his
sympathies were altogether with the North, he took no public part in
the dispute, standing in strong contrast to his countryman and fellow
townsman, Mr. Goddard, who wrote voluminously, and whose writings had
a very marked effect upon the public opinion of England on that great
question. As an English politician, Mr. Van Wart was neither very
active nor very ardent. He was a Liberal, but inclined to Whig views.
He opposed Mr. Bright in his first contested election for Birmingham,
but there is reason for thinking he regretted it afterwards.

When the town was incorporated, in 1838, he was chosen to be one of
the Councillors for Edgbaston Ward, and on the first meeting of the
Council, was elected Alderman, an office he held for twenty years.
He might have been Mayor at any time, but he invariably declined that
honour. He was one of the first creation of Borough Magistrates, and
he conscientiously fulfilled the duties of that office until near his
end, when increasing deafness rendered him incapable.

In private life he was greatly beloved. Those who had the pleasure of
the acquaintance of Mrs. Van Wart say that he always treated her with
remarkable deference and consideration, "as if she were a superior
being." His intercourse with his gifted brother-in-law, Washington
Irving, seems to have been of the most close and affectionate
character. His presence at an evening party was always greeted with
a hearty welcome, up to the latest period of his life; and it was
pleasant to see, when he was verging upon his 90th year, how
young ladies seemed as desirous to meet his kindly glance as their
great-grandmothers may have been sixty years before.

Up to a year or two before his death, his robust constitution;
his quiet, regular habits; his equanimity of disposition, and his
temperate method of life, preserved his strength and vigour almost
unimpaired. Few can forget his hale and hearty presence, as he strode
along the streets of Birmingham; his peculiar walk--the strange jerky
spring of the hinder foot, and the heavy planting of the front, as
if he were striking the eart