Such are the remarks made by the biographer of Mr. Sharp in entering upon the consideration of his character-a character to which I feel, with depressing sensibility, no justice can be done in the short space allotted to these biographical notices. He was the son of the Rev. Thomas Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland, and was born in Durham, on the 10th of November, 1735. In 1750 he left Durham, having been apprenticed to a linen-draper of London. At the end of his apprenticeship, he engaged in a linen factory, and it was at this period he made his first advances in learning. Having a series of controversies with a scholar in London, whose name is not given, upon some disputed doctrines in the New Testament, his antagonist denied the correctness of our translation; whereupon Mr. Sharp, with that singleness of purpose which attended him through life, to spare no labors to ascertain the truth, immediately set upon the study of Greek, and with so much success, that he some years afterward published a small work upon the Greek Article. A controversy of a similar character with a learned Jew led him to the study of the Hebrew language. In June, 1758, he obtained a subordinate appointment in the Ordnance Office. From this time to 1765, little is known of him, except that he was pushing his studies in the ancient languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, with untiring industry. In this latter year, a circumstance happened which gave a new direction to his whole life, and which has caused him to be looked up to by a grateful posterity as the pioneer in the great and glorious reform, then commenced, of the abolition of slavery in England; then of the abolition of the slave trade; and finally, in 1834, of the abolition of slavery throughout the whole extent of the British empire. In 1765, a man by the name of Lisle had brought to England, from Barbadoes, an African, whom he claimed as his slave, by the name of Jonathan Strong. He treated him in a very cruel manner, and beat him so severely over the head as to cause his head to swell: from this, a serious disorder fell into his eyes, and he was abandoned by his master to the charities of the world. In this situation he applied to William Sharp, surgeon, the brother of Granville, and in process of time was cured. When cured, his so-called owner, who had in his sickness abandoned him, met him; and seeing him so well and strong, claimed him as his property. He fled to some friends for protection, and the knowledge of his case soon came to the ears of Granville Sharp, and enlisted all the energies of his soul. Suffice it to say that, by great exertions, he finally obtained the full release of the man.' But Mr. Sharp saw that the case of poor Strong was but one of many similar instances that existed in England, and he determined to devote his powers to effect the abolition of a system of oppression that was productive of such monstrous evils. Of his labors in this great enterprise, we will quote the account given in the "Edinburgh Review:"2 "Regardless of the dangers to which he exposed himself, both in his person and his fortune, Mr. Sharp stood forward in every case as the courageous friend of the poor Africans in England, in direct opposition to an opinion of Yorke and Read an interesting account of the case in the "Memoirs" before referred to, and also "Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade," pp. 66, 67. Edinburgh Review, xii. 362. Talbot, the attorney and solicitor-general for the time being. This opinion had been acted upon; and so high was its authority, that, after it had been made publie, it was held as the settled law of the land, that a slave, neither by baptism nor arrival in Great Britain or Ireland, acquires freedom, but may be legally forced back to the plantations. Discouraged by Judge Blackstone and several other eminent lawyers, Mr. Sharp devoted three years of his life to the study of the English law, that he might render himself the more effectual advocate of these friendless strangers. In his work, entitled, 'A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of tolerating Slavery in England,' published in the year 1769, and afterward, in his learned and laborious Inquiry into the Principles of Villanage,' he refuted the opinion of Yorke and Talbot by unanswerable arguments, and neutralized their authority by the counter-opinion of the great Lord Chief Justice Holt, who many years before had decided that, as force could be used against no man in England without a legal process, every slave coming into England became free, inasmuch as the laws of England recognised the distinction between person and property as perpetual and sacred. Finally, in the great case of Somerset, which was argued at three different sittings, in January, in February, and in May of the year 1772, (the opinion of the judges having been taken upon the pleadings,) it was at last ascertained and declared to be the law of the land, that, as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English territory, he became free. Among the heroes and sages of British story, we can think of few whom we should feel a greater glow of honest pride in claiming as an ancestor, than the man to whom we owe our power of repeating, with truth, 'Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs After this, Mr. Sharp interested himself very much in the cause of slavery in America, and corresponded with that great-hearted philanthropist, Anthony Benezet, with Dr. Franklin, Dr. Rush, and others. During all this time, he was merely a clerk in the Ordnance Office;2 but an incident soon occurred which prevented him from remaining in it any longer-an incident which showed a scrupulous integrity, a transparent beauty of character, as rare as it is delightful to behold. He had long witnessed with great solicitude the difficulties between England and her then American colonies, and sympathized entirely with the latter, justly holding the sentiment "Our country, right or wrong," to be an execrable one. Accordingly, in 1774, he published a work entitled, "A Declaration of the People's Natural Rights to a Share in the Legislature," the very thing for which WE so strenuously contended. When, therefore, hostilities actually occurred, and 1 I must give a short extract from one of the letters of the venerable Dr. Rush to Mr. Sharp, dated Philadelphia, May 1, 1773, it does so much credit to the heart of the author:-"A spirit of humanity and religion begins to awaken, in several of the colonies, in favor of the poor negroes. The clergy begin to bear a public testimony against this violation of the laws of Nature and Christianity. Great events have been brought about by small beginnings. Anthony Benezet stood alone, a few years ago, in opposing negro slavery in Philadelphia, and now three-fourths of the province, as well as the city, cry out against it. I sometimes please myself with the hopes of living to see it abolished. With esteem for your virtues, and in particular for your zeal in behalf of the negro slaves in America, I am, with great respect, yours, "BENJAMIN RUSH" The office for the supply of cannon for the army. he saw that he would be obliged, by his official station, to be instrumental in fut nishing munitions of war to the troops of his own country, which he deemed to be in the wrong, he at once resigned his public office, though he had been in it nearly twenty years, and was fitted for no other employment-had none in view— and had spent all his paternal inheritance, and the excess of his salary above his own wants, in acts of benevolence and philanthropy. How refreshing to witness such instances of strictly conscientious conduct! But that God in whom he trusted did not leave him to want. His brothers, who were in comfortable circumstances, highly applauded his course, and cordially invited him to partake of their bounty, to any extent, and for any duration. He accepted their kind invitation for the time, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He had before, in 1767, published a work "On the Pronunciation of the English Tongue," and, in 1768, a tract entitled, "Remarks on several Important Prophecies," and a small treatise on the "Eastern Coast of Africa." He also took strong ground against the impressment of seamen-thus showing himself ahead of his age in another department of philanthropy. On this subject he had an interview with Dr. Johnson, who, instead of encouraging him in his laudable efforts, argued the "necessity" of impressing seamen. How much he was influenced by the "great moralist," will appear from the following remarks, in his own diary, upon THE DUTY OF PLEADING FOR THE OPPRESSED. I have been told that it is the common lot of the poor and laborious part of mankind to endure hardships and inconveniences; that the pressing and forcing them into service is no injustice nor illegality, being nothing more than one necessary contingent circumstance of their low condition of life, in which they were bred; and that the cruelty rather rests with persons, who, like me, take notice of their grievances, and render them unhappy by persuading them that they are so. All this has been urged to me with such plausible sophistry, and important self-sufficiency of the speaker, as if he supposed that the mere sound of words was capable of altering the nature of things; as if there were no distinction between good and evil, but that the circumstances of persons or occasions might render it expedient or necessary to practise the one as well as the other. Thus the tyrant's plea of necessity is made to remove all bounds of law, morality, and common right! But "wo be to them that call evil good, and good evil!" Happy would it be for this nation, and the eternal souls of such as mislead it, if the feelings of the seamen and other laborious poor had no other stimulation than the recital of their unhappy cases by such poor advocates as myself! Are they not surely of the same blood-have they not the same natural knowledge of good and evil to discern, and the same feelings to be sensible of injuries-as those who cause their sufferings? It is to prevent and dissuade from acts of violence and injustice, but surely not to aggravate the sense of them, that such circum stances are noticed. Nay, it is charity towards the oppressors, as well as the oppressed, to endeavor to convince them of their error; and how can this be done but by speaking of the oppressions? It is even a crime to be silent on such occasions; for the Scriptures command, "Open thy mouth; judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." Nay, it is the cause of God himself, who has declared, "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoreth Him hath mercy on the poor." Granville Sharp now took an increased interest in the abolition of the slave trade, in connection with which an instance of horrible cruelty had been brought to light, which has hardly its parallel on the page of history. The ship "Zong" sailed from Africa, with 440 slaves on board, for the island of Jamaica: many had died on the voyage, and when the ship came in sight of Jamaica, a large number were sick. "The master of the "Zong" then called together the officers, and told them that, if the sick slaves died a natural death, the loss would fall on the owners of the ship; but if they were thrown alive into the sea, it would be the loss of the underwriters." Accordingly, they proceeded to their horrid work, and actually threw overboard into the sea ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO HUMAN BEINGS ALIVE! This, as might be supposed, did much to arouse the nation to the character of the execrable traffic; and Granville Sharp never ceased laboring for its abolition till he saw the object of his wishes attained. Another event which distinguishes the life of Mr. Sharp occurred about the year 1787,-it was the foundation of the colony of free blacks at Sierra Leone. In consequence of his own benevolent exertions, a large number of slaves had been freed in England, and being brought up to no trade, they became more or ess dependent on public charity. These he had sent to Sierra Leone at his own expense, and thus he may be considered as the Founder of the COLONY AT THAT PLACE. In this same year, the society was formed in London for the abolition of the slave trade, of which Mr. Sharp was a prominent member, and in which he continued to labor with unabated zeal till his death. Soon after this, a number of Christians of different denominations conferred together about forming a Bible Society, which resulted in the establishment of the "British and Foreign Bible Society," in 1804, of which Mr. Sharp was the first chairman. "Perhaps it would not have been possible," says Mr. Owen, the historian of the society, "to find, throughout the British dominions, a man in whom the qualities requisite for the first chairman of the British and Foreign Bible Society were so completely united as they were in this eminent philanthropist." Without going further into detail, we may say of Mr. Sharp that in every good cause-in every thing that tends to honor God and bless man-he took the deepest interest, and labored, to the extent of his powers, to the day of his death, which took place on the 6th of July, 1813.3 It is unnecessary to write a eulogy upon Mr. Sharp's character. What it was, 1 Prov. xxxi. 9. 2 Ibid. xiv. 31. The following epitaph upon his tomb was written by the Rev. John Owen:-"At the age of seventy-eight, this venerable philanthropist terminated his career of almost unparalleled activity and usefulness, July 6, 1813, leaving behind him a name that will be cherished with affection and gratitude as long as any homage shall be paid to those principles of justice, will be sufficiently seen from this brief sketch of his life. As a scholar, he stood very high; indeed, it was wonderful how he accomplished so much in literature, while he labored so assiduously in every prominent object of benevolence. But though his writings were numerous, and had many readers at the time, and exerted great influence, yet, as most of them were pamphlets, and were written for temporary purposes, they are not much referred to now. Among them, however, are many that are not ephemeral. Such are his "Remarks on Several Important Prophecies," ," "Remarks on the Use of the Definite Article in the New Testament," "Remarks on Duelling," "An Account of the Division of the English Nation into Hundreds and Tithings," "On Personal Liberty," "A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share of the Legislature," &c. &c. In his memoirs, is a list of sixty-one publications on various subjects of law, religion, classical literature, morals, and philosophy. Indeed, a life of greater activity, usefulness, and benevolence, the world has seldom if ever witnessed. THE LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR.1 All the moral duties of the Gospel are briefly comprehended in two single principles of the Law of Moses, namely: The love of God, and the love of our neighbor. Nothing, therefore, can be esteemed truly lawful under the gospel, that is in the least repugnant to either of these; and we need never be at a loss to distinguish what is, or what is not so, if we will but carefully consider the proportion or degree of that love, which is clearly expressed to be due both to God and our neighbor in these two comprehensive and eternal maxims. The degree of love due to God exceeds all comparison or consideration of other things; for it must (says the text) be "with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," which necessarily implies a most fervent zeal for the glory of God, far exceeding all worldly considerations. And with respect to the degree or true proportion of love due to our neighbor, we have no pretence to plead ignorance, since the appointed measure of it is contained in every man's breast-"Thou shalt love thy reighbor as thyself." "On these two commandments" (said the Eternal Judge) "hang all the law and the prophets." The same Eternal Judge of mankind made also, on another occasion, a similar declaration concerning the sum or compendium "of the law and the humanity, and religion, which, for nearly half a century, he promoted by his exertions and adorned by his example." The inscription on his monument in Westminster Abbey (which I had the pleasure of reading myself in July, 1850) is much longer. Two of the lines read thus:-"HIS WHOLE SOUL WAS IN HARMONY WITH THE SACRED STRAIN, GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, ON EARTH PEACE, AND GOOD-WILL TOWARDS MEN." But two more lines I read with most painful interest, when I thought of the inconsistency of my own country:-"HE AIMED TO RESCUE HIS NATIVE COUNTRY FROM THE GUILT AND INCONSISTENCY OF EMPLOYING THE ARM OF FREEDOM TO RIVET THE FETTERS OF BONDAGE." From the tract entitled "The Law of Liberty, or Royal Law, by which all Mankind will certainly be judged." In these extracts from Granville Sharp, I have preserved the italics of the author; or, rather, what he has in smali capitals, I have printed in italics. a Deut. vi. 5. 4 Lev. xix. 18. Matt. xxii. 40. |