example we may discern the value of a single step of virtue. His early action of humanity to a distressed Negro brought on the freedom of slaves in England, and, in its consequences, led to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and to the other singular events which have been related. His charitable attempt to restore to social comfort those whom he had rescued from slavery, and to provide a home for them in their native land, laid the foundation of African culture and commerce; and by having given birth to the establishment at Sierra Leone, which is still the central spring of our benevolent action in that part of the globe, he will justly be entitled to be called, in future ages, the first civilizer of Africa.

If the important efforts now making for the improvement of Africa should ultimately attain their end, and diffuse over an immense continent that light, and those blessings, from which it has been so long excluded, to Granville Sharp the gratitude of future generations must be offered. That his thoughts were long turned to that object, various papers, superscribed "African civilization," sufficiently demon

strate.

When the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company declared the surrender of its rights to the British Government, they, almost at the same moment, announced the birth of another Institution, formed for the purpose of saving from the power of fortune those advantages which, in spite of every discouragement and of failure itself, had been demonstrably proved to have been gained to the general condition of humanity. The Sierra Leone Company had fixed the basis of African civilization; and, though unsuccessful in the full attainment of the original plan, and finally driven, like its first Founder, to the necessity of resigning the establishment into more powerful hands, it had formed a necessary ground-work for the beneficent advance of that strength to which it appealed for the protection of its invaluable purposes. It had ascertained the power of introducing agriculture, friendly commerce, and freedom itself, into Africa. It had shown, that all the various natural products, brought from the West Indies, might be raised on the African soil; that the Native Chiefs might be made

to perceive the full interests of peaceful communication; and that Negroes, in a state of freedom, might be habituated to labour in the fields, and were capable of being governed by mild laws, without whips, tortures, or chains to enforce submission to civil authority. If insubordination appeared for a time among a part of the settlers, their conduct in those circumstances, when compared with European colonists in other parts of the globe, afforded a result even advantageous to the African character.

But, what surpassed all other benefits, the establishment of the Sierra Leone Company had created a point of confidence for the Natives in the sound of friendly intentions, when professed by an Englishman. Although a sceptic of Africa might still doubt the existence of an anxious disposition to diffuse improvement and knowledge among the natives of his country, independently of all views of interest, the experience of twenty years had yet made it possible for him to believe, that British voyagers might court his acquaintance without designing to kidnap his family, or betray himself into slavery; and he might, like Felix, be "almost persuaded" that the blessings of mutual benevolence and good faith were not universally denied by nature to European traders*.

In the commencement of the attempt to support the colony of freedom at Sierra Leone, the Company had undertaken to bear the whole expense of the enterprise; and, if the richest channels of wealth had been opened, the mother country could not have failed to reap the

* See First Report of the African Institution, p. 43.

I shall add one more anecdote to the many already extant on this subject. It was related to me by an amiable and highly respectable nobleman, lately deceased, the early part of whose life had been passed in his Majesty's service in the Navy; and I shall give it in his own words. "The late Admiral Matthew Buckle commanded a small squadron on the coast of Africa, and had a broad pendant on board the Assistance, of fifty guns. One day, while at anchor on the coast, a Negro came off with his canoe, loaded with fruits, and all that he had that was valuable. The Commodore being on the quarter-deck, the Negro accosted him with What ship this?'-The other replied, in the jargon of the country, King George ship, man of war ship. The Negro replied, doubting, No, you Bristol ship.-The Commodore repeated what he had said; but the Negro felt his fears increase, and, exclaiming Dom your heart, you Bristol ship,' leaped overboard, leaving his canoe to its fate......I scarcely need add, that the canoe was humanely towed on shore, where the owner was most likely to find it."

fruits of success, though she incurred no charges of government or protection. When the Company was afterwards compelled to solicit relief from the Minister, it received a liberal pecuniary aid; but it still wanted the most desirable protection of the parent state from that devastating traffic, in the place of which it strove to substitute the natural relations of human intercourse. It in vain solicited Parliament to banish the horrid trade from that narrow region of Africa, in which the settlement was formed. English slave-mongers were permitted, to the last*, to trade even in the river of Sierra Leone, and, by every means of artifice and malice, often to divert the unfortunate settlers from their better views.

Yet, even on the ruins of the fabric, in which the hopes of the individual philanthropist who had planned, and the liberal and powerful Company who had fostered the design, had alike expired, a new association dared to found its structure, as on a basis at once of convenience and security, on which "schools might be maintained, useful arts might be taught, and an emporium of commerce established, by those whom its patronage might animate, or its information enable, to engage in such undertakings†.”

With sentiments of this nature, and renovated hopes, the AFRICAN INSTITUTION presented itself to the public. It announced its design, "to improve the temporal condition and the moral faculties of the natives of Africa; to diffuse knowledge, and excite industry, by methods adapted to the peculiar situation and manners of the inhabitants; to watch over the execution of the laws that have been passed in this and other countries, for abolishing the African Slave Trade; and, finally, to introduce the blessings of civilized society among a people sunk in ignorance and barbarism, and occupying no less than a fourth part of the habitable globe‡.”

The Act for prohibiting the Slave Trade was passed on the 25th of March 1807. The Directors of the Sierra Leone Company agreed to the surrender of the colony into the hands of Government on the 7th January 1807, and the Bill for its surrender was brought into Parliament on the 8th of August following. The actual surrender was made on January 1, 1808. + First Report of the African Institution.

↑ Second Report of the African Institution.

To accomplish these stupendous views, it proposed no purchase of territory, no commercial speculation, no colonial settlement, no religious mission; but "to collect and diffuse instruction concerning the natural productions of the country, its agricultural and commercial capacities, and the condition, as well intellectual as political, of its inhabitants; to introduce and promote among them letters, arts, medical discoveries, improvements of husbandry, and methods of useful and legitimate commerce; to establish amicable correspondences; to encourage enterprise in exploring the unknown interior, not merely to gratify curiosity, but to obtain and disseminate useful knowledge; and to open sources of future intercourse *.

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This Institution was formed in April 1807, at a period which appeared eminently fitted for prosecuting its benevolent designs; since the suspension, during the war, of that large share of the Slave Trade commonly carried on by France, Spain, and Holland, might naturally be expected, when combined with the effect of the abolition laws of Great Britain, America, and Denmark, to produce nearly the entire cessation of that horrid traffic, along a line of coast extending between two and three thousand miles in length, and thereby to afford a peculiarly favourable opportunity for giving a new direction to the industry and commerce of Africa†."

Of the progress and effects of this Association likewise, while it is hourly exerting itself in the eyes of Europe and of the world, any recital would be here superfluous.

Mr. Sharp was chosen one of the first Directors, at the advanced age of seventy-three; and the duties, which it was occasionally his part to execute, were performed by him with the same zeal and activity, which had distinguished the early part of his life. He assisted regularly at every meeting, even to the last but one previous to his decease.

In the year preceding that event, he was called on to present to his

→ Second Report of the African Institution.

+ Ibid.

Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester (the Patron and President of the Institution) an account of his exertions in favour of African and American freedom. He accordingly presented a copious MS. (from which many parts of the foregoing narrative have been selected), and received the following answer:—

،، Sir,

Colonel Dalton to Mr. Granville Sharp.

"February 27, 1812.

"I beg to inform you, that I have had the honour to lay your MS. before his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, as I was instructed to do by your accompanying letter. I am honoured with his Royal Highness's commands, to convey to you his high approbation of the zeal with which you have so invariably and effectually forwarded this good cause,-a cause so near the hearts of all humane persons. I am also directed to assure you of the pleasure it is to his Royal Highness, to be put in possession of the MS. you have presented him with.

"I must not close my letter without obeying strictly the further instructions I have been honoured with from his Royal Highness, to express how sensible he is of the real benefit, such valuable and strenuous exertions have procured to this interesting cause in which we continue to be engaged.

"I have the honour to be, Sir," &c. &c.

PROTESTANT UNION.

The year 1813, the last year of Mr. Sharp's life, was distinguished by an Association denominated the Protestant Union, formed for the purpose of defending, by the sole weapons of argument and reason, a cause which the members held most sacred,—the cause of religious freedom.

The admission of Papists into offices of political trust and power was at that time openly demanded by men of a leading character in Ireland; and a Bill was brought into Parliament, by which their political freedom, or emancipation (as it was termed) from all the restraints imposed by various Acts of our Legislature, since the time of James II., was solicited from the Government of Great Britain, as a right.