He supported the idea of religious equality in Ireland, although without much enthusiasm for the Roman Catholic priests in his county who passed a vote of censure in April 1853.
The Bank of Ireland continued to pay as usual for a week more, resulting in a rush of investors withdrawing their money there.
It was found by the Irish courts that John Sadleir had begun to abstract money from the bank from about the end of 1854, and took a total of £288,000.
James Sadleir was chairman, managing director and a public agent of the bank, and on 29 February the first creditor sued him to recover £2,827 15s.
It was recognised that he would inevitably bear the brunt of the failure, and The Times reported that there was "a wide-spread feeling of pity" for him as he was already a ruined man.
In September, a Carlow newspaper reported that the police were on the wrong scent in looking in New Orleans, as he had made his way to South America.
By February 1857, all patience was at an end, and the Attorney-General for Ireland successfully moved for Sadleir's expulsion for failing to surrender to the warrants for his arrest.
Twenty years later, while taking his regular walk up the Zürichberg, Sadleir came upon a thief intent on robbing him of his gold watch.