As Granville had continued unmarried, his brothers' houses were for many years his general residence; and it was not till the beginning of the year 1792, that he took chambers in the Temple for the purposes of various business that pressed upon him. In his brother's families, he was an example of the most kind and considerate behaviour towards the domestics of every class, who were as assiduous and as anxious to serve him, as he was careful to avoid giving them unnecessary trouble. For himself, he never at any time of his life retained a male servant: a feeble old woman was his only attendant at his chambers.

His benevolence, so universal to mankind, could not fail to be extended in just proportion to inferior animals, of whose nature he had ever been a close and studious observer. While a boy, he had been fond of taming them, and had always a favourite dog or cat, jackdaw, bat, or lizard. His occupation at the Ordnance gave him frequent opportunities of visiting the menagerie in the Tower, and he studied, with much observation, the peculiar dispositions of each animal. When in the country, he delighted no less in the various characters of the more friendly tribes of inferior creatures. In fact, nothing in creation, whether animate or inanimate, escaped his notice, his admiration, or his benevolence. But he more particularly applied the lesson, which was the result of his observations on other animals, to a scrutiny of the human bosom. He perceived, in the conduct of men toward the creatures destined to their use, an unsuspected test of moral character, by which he might safely ascertain the worth of every man's heart, and the grounds of his action toward his own species*.

spirit to her Heavenly Father this night, seemingly without the least sensibility of pain or suffering."

"28th December, 1812. Yesterday I received a most afflicting letter from my sister Sharp, at Dawlish, Devon, giving me the melancholy account of her daughter, my dear niece, Mrs. Baker. She received the holy Sacrament on her death-bed; and being most sincerely prepared for the awful change, she resigned her meek spirit to God, without a sigh or groan, as if her departure was only in sleep."

* The last entry in his common-place book being on this subject, will be found in the

In the exercise of his religion, he was careful to preserve a behaviour free from ostentation; but it was at the same time firm, and profoundly reverential. As he rose early, his first employment was either reading the holy Scriptures, or chanting a portion of the Hebrew Psalms to his harp. His evenings were closed in the same manner. When in London, he regularly attended the service of St. Paul's, and joined in the choral part*. In the respective families of his relations he regularly attended, and generally read, the Morning and Evening Prayers from the Liturgy. He was constant in his attendance on Divine worship twice, if possible, every Sunday, and never omitted any opportunity of receiving the sacrament. But his devotion, like every other part of his action, was simple. He disliked long sermons, particularly if preached extempore, and would often tell “Thou shalt not be heard for thy much speaking.” He objected to extempore preachers, because he thought it presumptuous in any man to venture to deliver his sentiments and opinions on subjects so momentous, without notes at least, when they might be so much better arranged in the closet.

his friend

He, in general, observed all the Fasts and Festivals. He was, indeed, in the habit of fasting frequently; but it was performed in a way so unobtrusive, that few persons were aware of the strictness with which he practised this religious duty. In his MS. Notes, in the year 1800, he mentions that he dined at his chambers every day in Passion week, with the exception that no notice whatever is taken of Good Friday, whence it is probable that that day was observed with more than common abstinence. He avoided travelling, or entering on any secular business, on Sundays; sacred music being his chief recreation on those days.

At all other times he was a frequent traveller, chiefly in public stage coaches, where he greatly enjoyed the mixture of characters

Appendix. The following passage occurs in his tract " On the Injustice of Slavery: "-" At present, the inhumanity of constrained labour in excess extends no farther in England than to our beasts, as post and hackney horses, sand-asses, &c. &c. But thanks to our laws, and not to the general good disposition of masters, that it is so; for the wretch who is bad enough to maltreat a helpless beast, would not spare his fellow-man, if he had him as much in his power." * See Mr. Shield's letter, in the Appendix.

which he met with, and where he not unfrequently found the means of exercising his benevolence. One day, going to his brother's house at Fulham in the stage-coach, a fellow-passenger, impatient at the ordinary delays attendant on conveyances of that kind, burst forth into expressions of immoderate rage, mixed with frequent oaths. Granville sat silent, taking no notice, in any manner, of his companion's fury; but the next morning he called on the angry traveller, and gently, but effectually, reproved him for his intemperate and unchristian behaviour.

His ever-active humanity was as unostentatious as his religion. Sufficient examples of it are at large before the world. But it had not been more constantly exercised in public concerns, than in the private incidents of every day. He appears never to have refused, or neglected, any application made to him of a charitable nature.

From a poor imprisoned Author, well known to many by his annual request of subscription to a pamphlet "On the Improvement of the Law of England with Regard to Imprisonment for Debt," he orders three copies to be left for himself.

When the celebrated singer, Signora Frazi, was returning to Italy, some pecuniary embarrassments, though of a trivial amount, detaining her on her road in France, it appears, by her letter of thanks, that he sent her a small sum, sufficient to relieve her difficulties.

At another time, an anonymous writer requested of him a loan of thirty guineas: his plea was distress, and the desire of concealing it; and the excuse for his application, his confidence in Granville's benevolence. Mr. Sharp's answer does not appear :-it was not of letters of this kind that he preserved copies. But a second letter from the unknown petitioner expresses his acknowledgments to him, for explaining his circumstances so openly to a stranger, and for ten guineas which had been sent with the explanation, What more ensued is not now to be traced *.

It is, perhaps, to this transaction that General Oglethorpe thus alludes in the beginning of one of his letters. "The manner of your acting towards that unfortunate young gentleman, is a new proof of the universal charity which animates your actions."

of

The following sentence, in a letter to Mr. Sharp from the late Governor Thicknesse, is similarly characteristic: "I asked my relation, the for his subscription, which he readily consented to; but he did not say, like the generous Sharps, Put down my wife, my brother,' " &c. &c.

This tenderness of sensibility toward the woes of a fellow-creature increased with his age; and even the decay of life, while it gradually impaired the necessary discrimination of proper objects of his bounty, did not abate the benevolent desires of his heart. The consequence of his infirm state, at the time when his last public actions were in progress, was that of which the world (unfortunately for real sufferers) presents too many examples. He became a prey to the entreaties, importunities, and sometimes almost the menaces, of hundreds, who pleaded resistless poverty as a species of right to every thing that he possessed. The doors of his chambers in the Temple were beset, from morning to evening, by a promiscuous assembly of poor and idle, who awaited his coming with the utmost vigilance, and who, at the first moment of his appearance, assailed him on every side. There is reason to believe, that, in the course of his latter visits to his chambers, he deprived himself, for the sake of his mendicants, of every article of value that could in any way be useful to them *.

As a British subject, he evinced in all his actions his loyalty to the Sovereign, and his zealous veneration for the Constitution of England. During the alarming riots in 1780, an armed association being formed within the Temple, where he was then resident, he solicited permission to head the body of pikemen, who constituted a part of the proposed defence +.

On his retiring to Fulham, during his last illness, the same importunate applicants followed him thither, and were with difficulty restrained from a frequent repetition of their visits, although several were proved to be impostors of the most disgraceful condition.

+ His definition of loyalty, in a note attached to his admirable conclusion of his friend Benezet's "Account of Guinea," deserves to be selected. "There is loyalty even in the law of liberty; for true loyalty, according to the strict meaning of the word, consists not only in a zealous attachment to the person of a sovereign, but includes likewise a conscientious and incorruptible observance of all those moral, as well as temporal laws, which are calculated for the mutual benefit and happiness of society."

In his general demeanour, although always serious on important points, he never assumed any rigour of manner or conduct, nor did he abstain from the common recreations of mankind. He occasionally attended plays, operas, balls, and concerts; and his acquaintances were numerous among all ranks.

He belonged for many years to a club called the Madrigal Society, where the constitutional vivacity of his disposition enabled him to join in and promote every innocent effusion of gaiety. The Members of the Club still speak with unabated respect of their venerable Associate, whose presence (as they report of him) never cast a gloom over their meetings, although it imposed that salutary restraint, which prevented the utterance of an impure expression, sentiment, or song, during his continuance among them *."

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But no intimacy of friendship, or familiarity of intercourse, even amid the ardour of youthful spirits, ever diminished the awful regard with which he at all times contemplated the higher hopes of our nature. In youth, he was the intimate friend of Sir William Jones; and when that amiable man was departing for India, Granville, in their farewell interview, addressed him thus: "We have talked together on many subjects: we have not yet spoken on the most material one, our reliance on the will of our Creator in all things. You are leaving us for India. I have drawn up a collection of prayers: suffer me to present it to you, and to entreat that, when you are far removed from me, you will adopt the use of it." Sir William Jones replied, that "his request was a high gratification to him, and he was glad to be able to say that he was himself constant in prayer.”

It is probable that a collection of prayers, found among his papers, is the same which he then presented to his friend.

Nothing, indeed, was more remarkable in Mr. Sharp's social intercourse, than the firmness with which he delivered his most serious opinions on many ordinary occasions, and the unembarrassed simplicity with which he uttered them, blending religion with almost

* I have been favoured with this anecdote by a Member of the Madrigal Society..