SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

GRANVILLE SHARP,

NINTH SON OF DR. THOMAS SHARP,

PREBENDARY OF THE CATHEDRALS AND COLLEGIATE CHURCHES OF YORK, DURHAM, AND SOUTHWELL, AND GRANDSON OF DR. JOHN SHARP, ARCHBISHOP of York.

BORN AND EDUCATED IN THE BOSOM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,

HE EVER Cherished FOR HER INSTITUTIONS THE MOST UNSHAKEN REGARD,

WHILE HIS WHOLE SOUL WAS IN HARMONY WITH THE SACRED STRAIN,

"GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, ON EARTH PEACE AND GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN,"

ON WHICH HIS LIFE PRESENTED ONE BEAUTIFUL COMMENT

OF GLOWING PIETY AND UNWEARIed beneficence.

FREED BY COMPETENCE FROM THE NECESSITY, AND BY CONTENT FROM THE DESIRE, OF LUCRATIVE OCCUPATION,
HE WAS INCESSANT IN HIS LABOURS TO IMPROVE THE Condition of MANKIND,
FOUNDING PUBLIC HAPPINESS ON PUBLIC VIRTUE.

HE AIMED TO RESCUE HIS NATIVE COUNTRY FROM THE GUILT AND INCONSISTENCY
OF EMPLOYING THE ARM OF FREEDOM TO RIVET THE FETTERS OF BONDAGE,
AND ESTABLISHED FOR THE NEGRO RACE, IN THE person of SOMERSET,
THE LONG-DISPUTED RIGHTS OF HUMAN NATURE,

HAVING IN THIS GLORIOUS cause TRIUMPHED OVER THE COMBINED RESISTANCE
OF INTEREST, PREJUDICE, AND PRIDE,

HE TOOK HIS POST AMONG THE FOREMOST OF THE HONOURABLE BAND
ASSOCIATED TO DELIVER AFRICA FROM THE RAPACITY OF EUROPE,
BY THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

NOR WAS DEATH PERMITTED TO INTERRUPT HIS CAREER OF USEFULNESS,
TILL HE HAD WITNESSED THAT ACT OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT
BY WHICH THE ABOLITION WAS DECREED.

IN HIS PRIVATE RELATIONS HE WAS EQUALLY EXEMPLARY:

AND HAVING EXHIBITED THROUGH LIFE A MODEL OF DISINTERESTED VIRTUE,
HE RESIGNED HIS PIOUS SPIRIT INTO THE HANDS OF HIS CREATOR,

IN THE EXERCISE OF CHARITY, AND FAITH, AND HOPE,

ON THE SIXTH DAY OF JULY, A. D. MDCCCXIII., IN THE SEVENTY EIGHTH YEAR OF HIS AGE.

READER,

IF, ON PERUSING THIS TRIBUTE TO A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL,

THOU SHOULDEST be disposed to suSPECT IT AS PARTIAL, OR TO CENSURE it as diffuse,
KNOW THAT IT IS NOT PANEGYRIC, BUT HISTORY.

ERECTED BY THE AFRICAN INSTITUTION OF LONDON, A. D. MDCCCXVI.

CHAP. III.

MUCH has been said already of Mr. Sharp's character in previous parts of this narrative, and much will presently be added in the obituary recollections of his associates. It may yet be allowable to occupy a short interval with a few of such further remarks as the progressive view of his actions and undertakings has suggested.

In the varied and extensive course of his singular life, the reader has seen his conduct towards the great, towards his equals, and towards the poor and low; towards friends and strangers: he has seen him the champion of social rights, and of religious obedience and charity.

Equally void of diffidence and presumption, he claimed and obtained access to men in the highest situations of the state, less from the interest connected with his near descent from an Archbishop of York, than from the effect produced by the grave simplicity of his character, and an amenity of manners which could not be forbidden or resisted. The facility of intercourse with the great encouraged him to think that he might, by their means, be useful to others. Hence the energy of his action with regard to the Slave Trade and Slavery, to the establishment of the colony at Sierra Leone, of Episcopacy and of Peace in the American Colonies.

Whenever he conceived that the interests of mankind were at stake, he discovered little or none of that artificial regulation of his thoughts, which is connected with what is called worldly management. In his plain declarations of religious or political truths, in his sudden introduction of great and momentous precepts, both in his conversation and letters, the fervency of his zeal bore not unfrequently the imputation of being abrupt and ill-timed. But these were distinctions which did not exist in his mind. He regarded life as a state of continued active preparation for the service of God: all times were,

in his estimation, the proper times for pursuing what was right to be done, and no time so particularly proper as the present instant. Pure and blameless in himself, he wished to wipe off the stain of sin from his race.

It was with this view of our human condition, that, venerating and vindicating the precepts of his Saviour and the just claims of his fellow-creatures, he stood forward, in the presence of all orders of society, to assert his own clear discernment of its obligations, and to arouse others to the execution of them; summoning every where the believer to the recollection and performance of his duty. Whether addressing himself to the Governors of our political State, or the Ministers of our religious Establishment, he considered them alike as especial and appointed instruments of one Eternal Principal, whose wisdom he humbly acknowledged and adored.

In his earnest applications to them on public concerns of religion or justice, he exhibited a singular union of the utmost firmness in the pursuits of his purpose, with the most entire and unvarying respect to their persons and public character. While he lost no advantage which his unreserved frankness in the expression of his sentiments could procure to his cause, and while he offered the most awful admonitions to the most exalted stations, he was never found to infringe on the reverence due to national dignity. Of this admirable deportment, several of his conversations and letters inserted in this narrative are sufficient instances.

But neither did the abject condition of poverty and distress, any more than the splendid privileges of rank and station, prevent him from beholding in all men their essential condition, and the natural claims of our earthly existence. He looked up through man to his Creator.

His benevolence was not more disinterested and pure, than it was active and firm; and though his course of action might often for moments be diverted by visionary hopes, he as often recurred to its direct path, and never failed to pursue its main purpose with effect.

He adopted no rash measures, he sought no subtlety, he rested on no subterfuge.

As he sought his universal rule of conduct in the Sacred Writings, while he made the interpretation of them the object of his most anxious study, he regarded his acquirements of knowledge, even from those Divine sources, as the means only, not the end of his wishes. His favourite text of Scripture was, "The tree which beareth not good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire." He conceived that the doctrines of Christianity should not be confined to the pulpit, but should be carried uniformly into all the general concerns of daily life.

The high sense of his duty to the will of God, as revealed in the Scriptures, never for an instant deserted him. No human wisdom or authority stood in competition with this paramount. obligation. The strong conviction of this necessity preserved him calm, humble, modest, and even timorous, in private life, and rendered him in public action the most fearless of men. His conduct and deportment in all questions of national or religious importance, were most truly of an heroic kind.

If he felt ambition-and what elevated mind is devoid of that feeling?-it was that alone of treading in the steps of his Divine Master. To obey, and humbly to adore,' although the first, was not the sole object of his heart. He wished, and he dared to hope, that he might be permitted to imitate the Perfection which descended from above, and to preserve in his frail vessel some portion of the purity or that light, which he had diligently sought for his guide. Had martyrdom been in his day a requisite proof of steadiness in the faith of a Christian, he was one for whom it might, without danger of fallacy, have been said, the grave had no terror, and death no sting.

The resoluteness of his character was very early formed. It was neither the result of long profession in the cause which he supported, nor engendered by its success. He has left in his memorandums a short account of a conversation with a friend in the year 1781 (while he was struggling in behalf of the West-Indian Slaves with little

external prospect of success), in which it appears that the disclosure of his intrepid spirit was too plain to be mistaken*.

He was, therefore, far from destitute of that enthusiasm which is the powerful and necessary ingredient in every great enterprise. He felt a confidence, which the integrity of his heart could well justify; and the results that attended his humble means of exertion led him secretly to acknowledge a protection, which surpassed the strength of man. Under the impression of such feelings many of his letters are evidently written; and, particularly in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he has described his persuasion, on reviewing the effects of his efforts, that a peculiar direction of Providence had guided his labours†.

The degree of Divine communication imparted to our mortal state, in whatever light it be regarded, must always furnish a topic of the most awful consideration. Whatever impression had been made in this respect on Granville's ardent mind, it is certain that his almost prophetic warnings were too frequently justified in the actual succession of events.

But in the commencement of his action he appeared to have been urged forward solely by a confidence in the rectitude of his aim. His distinguished course of benevolence was wholly practical, and only gradually led him to the accomplishment of the great objects, whose never-dying memory surrounds his tomb.

That he was an enthusiast in one point, who would wish to deny? He was an enthusiast in the doctrines of Christianity, as delivered by Christ and his Apostles; and he is among the proofs which the world has seen, that enthusiasm in those doctrines is productive of benefit to mankind.

*" Friday, March 23. Called on General Oglethorpe, who had been very ill, but much recovered. I read to him a part of my first letter to the Bishop of Peterborough, with which he expressed himself highly satisfied, and thanked God that he had lived to have those points so clearly opened to him: that, without the least degree of enthusiasm, he was satisfied God had made me an instrument of warning of this kingdom; that the actual accomplishment of heavy judgments in the kingdom, and its colonies, ought to convince me of it: that he feared I should be a martyr, because he trusted that I would honestly maintain my principles; but he hoped God would strengthen me to bear whatever might happen.".

+ Part III. p. 213.