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of nearly three hundred miles from home, though I were of so tender an age that I could not be posed capable of discerning the propriety or impropriety of any difficult argument that might be thrown in my way, and consequently was liable to receive prejudices of education even in favour of quakerism. After I had served about three years of my apprenticeship, my master the quaker died, and I was turned over to a Presbyterian, or rather, as he was more properly called, an Independant. I afterward lived some time with an Irish papist, and also with another person who I believe had no religion at all. This extraordinary experience,' he adds,' has taught me to make a proper distinction between the OPINIONS of men and their PERSONS. The former I can freely condemn without presuming to judge the individuals themselves. Thus freedom of argument is preserved, as well as Christian charity, leaving personal judgment to him to whom alone it belongs.'

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The circumstances, however, in which Mr. Sharp was then placed, led him to apply himself closely to study, and to embrace every opportunity of acquiring religious information. In the house of one of his masters he met with a Socinian, with whom he disputed concerning the Trinity, and the atonement of Christ, and who contended that Mr. Sharp was in through want of acquaintance with the New Testament in the original. This induced him to apply diligently to the Greek tongue; and a similar discussion with a learned Jew led him also to apply to the study of Hebrew; the success with which his investigations were attended clearly appears from his Tracts on the doctrine of the Greek article, and on some difficult points of Hebrew construction; which have called forth the commendations of the present Bishop of

Salisbury, of the late Bishops Horsley and Middleton, and of the very Rev. the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and other eminent and distinguished scholars.

Mr. Sharp took up his freedom of the city in August 1757, and soon after lost both his father and his mother. His father was the youngest son of John Sharp, formerly Archbishop of York, who was eminently distinguished for piety and liberality. The father of the Archbishop was decidedly attached to the Puritans, and in high favour with the Parliamentary general, Lord Fairfax; his mother was on the contrary an equally decided royalist, and when by Lord Fairfax's orders search was made in every house for Common Prayer Books, she carefully, though at some risk, preserved those of her family, and put one of these books into the hands of her son, directing him to love and value it. The youth was particularly struck with the litany, and was afterwards deeply impressed by accidentally witnessing his father's private devotions: these impressions were never effaced, but grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. Of this Archbishop the following anecdote is recorded, which is too interesting to be omitted.

'It was his Lordship's custom to have a saddle horse attend his carriage, that in case of fatigue from sitting he might take the refreshment of a ride. As he was thus going to his palace, and was a mile or two before his carriage, a decent well-looking young man came up and with a trembling hand and faultering tongue presented a pistol, and demanded his Lordship's money. The Archbishop with great composure turned about, and looking stedfastly at him, desired he would remove the murderous weapon, and tell him fairly his condition. 'Sir, sir,' with agitation, cried the youth,

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no words, 'tis not a time, your money instantly.' 'Hear me young man,' said the Archbishop, you see I am a very old man, and my life is of very little consequence, yours seems far otherwise. I am named Sharp, and am Archbishop of York; my carriage and servants are behind, tell me what money you want, and who you are, and I will not injure you but prove a friend. Here, take this, and now tell me ingenuously how much you want to make you independent of so destructive a business as you are engaged in.' 'O sir,' replied the man, I detest the business as much as you, I am-but at home there are creditors who will not stay-fifty pounds indeed my lord would do what no tongue beside my own can tell.' 'Well, sir, I take it on your word, and upon my honour if you will in a day or two call on me, at, what I have now given shall be made up that sum.' The highwayman looked at him, was silent, and went off; and at the time appointed actually waited on the Archbishop, and assured his lordship his words had left an impression which nothing could ever destroy.

'Nothing more transpired for a year and a half, when one morning a person knocked at his Grace's gate, and with a peculiar earnestness desired to see him.

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Archbishop ordered the stranger to be brought in. He entered the room where his Lordship was, but had scarce advanced a few steps before his countenance changed, his knees tottered, and he sank almost breathless on the floor. On recovering, he requested an audience in private, and the apartment being cleared, he said, My Lord, you cannot have forgotten the circumstances at such a time and place; gratitude will never suffer them to be obliterated from my mind. In me, my Lord, you now behold that once most wretched of mankind; but now, by your inexpres

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sible humanity, rendered equal, perhaps superior in happiness to millions. Oh, my Lord, you have saved me in body and soul! You have saved a dear and much-loved wife, and a little brood of children, whom I tendered dearer than my life. Here are the fifty pounds, but never shall I find language to testify what I feel. Your God is your witness, your deed itself is your glory, and may heaven and all its blessings be your everlasting reward. I was the younger son of a wealthy man-your Lordship knew him-my marriage alienated his affection-my brother withdrew his love, and left me to sorrow and penury. A month since brother died, a batchelor, and intestate. What was his, is become mine; and by your astonishing goodness, I am now at once the most penitent, grateful, and happy of my species.'

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In June, 1758, Mr. Sharp was appointed to a situation in the Ordnance Office, which necessarily occupied the greater part of his time; his leisure hours were, however, diligently employed in study, and in the preparation of some useful tracts, one of which, animadverting on some positions of Dr. Kennicott, the learned publisher of the Hebrew Bible, displayed considerable research and acuteness.

About the year 1765, Mr. Sharp's attention was first called to the melancholy condition of the poor African slaves. Mr. William Sharp, his elder brother, was in the habit of giving surgical advice gratuitously to poor persons every morning, and on one occasion Mr. Granville Sharp observed a poor negro approaching his brother's door, ready to faint through extreme weakness. On inquiry, he found that this poor man, whose name was Jonathan Strong, had been the slave of a lawyer in Barbadoes, whose brutal treatment had disabled him for service, and who, finding him in consequence useless,

had barbarously turned him out to perish in the streets. By the exertions of these benevolent bro

thers, poor Strong was placed in Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was restored to health, and eventually employed as servant to a respectable apothecary in Fenchurch-street. Here he remained two years, when his former master, the Barbadoes lawyer, accidentally recognized him while attending his mistress, and, conceiving from his appearance, that he had regained sufficient strength for useful labour, determined to recover possession of him. A few days after, Strong was sent for to a neighbouring public-house, where he was immediately delivered into the custody of two officers. Jonathan immediately sent word to his then master, who attended in order to procure his release, but being threatened by the lawyer, he was intimidated, and retired, leaving Strong in the lawyer's hands. Upon this the poor negro sent a letter from the Poultry Compter to Mr. Sharp, who did not at first recollect his name, but sent a person to inquire into the case, who was refused admission. On this Mr. Sharp went himself to the Compter, obtained a sight of Strong, and charged the master of the prison not to deliver him up to any person, until he had been carried before the Lord Mayor; to whom Mr. S. immediately proceeded, and gave information of Strong's being imprisoned without any warrant. On appearing at the Mansion-House, Strong was claimed by a notary public, who produced a bill of sale from his original master, to a Mr. Kerr; and a Mr. David Lair, the captain of a vessel bound to Jamaica, was also waiting to take Strong away. The Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Kite, having heard the claim said, that the lad had not stolen any thing, and was not guilty of any offence, and was therefore at liberty to go away,

whereupon the Captain seized him by the arm, and told the Lord Mayor he took Strong as the property of Mr. Kerr. Mr. Birch, the city coroner, then whispered, Mr. Sharp, charge him,' on which Mr. S. turned upon the Captain, saying, 'Sir, I charge you for an assault.' On this, Captain Lair, quitted his hold of Strong's arm, and all bowed to the Lord Mayor, and retired; Strong following Mr. Sharp, and no one daring to molest him; though a few days after, Mr. Sharp was charged by a writ, with having robbed the original master, David Lisle, of this slave. content with this, Mr. Lisle waited on Mr. Sharp to demand gentleman-like satisfaction; to whom Mr. Sharp replied, that as he had studied the law so many years, he should want no satisfaction that the law could give him.

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Mr. Sharp's professional advisers soon informed him, that according to an old opinion of the then Attorney and Solicitor General, Messrs. York and Talbot, A Slave by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or Ireland, doth not become free, and that the master might legally compel him to return again to the Plantations; that Lord Mansfield was decidedly of the same opinion, and that consequently they had no prospect of being able to defend him against Mr. Lisle's action. Thus forsaken by his professional defenders, a less decided person than Mr. Sharp, would probably have given up the cause in despair, but these difficulties only excited him to increased exertion, and he consequently applied himself diligently to study the legal question, and soon became satisfied that slavery could not legally exist on British ground, He therefore compiled a tract,

On the injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating Slavery, or even of admitting the least claim to private property in the persons of men in England,' which

was published in the year 1769. The parties engaged in this prosecution were, however, deterred from bringing their cause into Court, through an apprehension of incurring the heavy penalties denounced in the Act of 31 Charles II. 1679; for the better securing the liberty of the subject, by which it was very probable each of the parties concerned in the attempt to transport this Negro out of the country, might be convicted in a penalty of £500. After two year's delay, the plaintiff, Mr. Kerr, was compelled to pay treble costs to Mr. Sharp for not bringing forward the action.

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Mr. Sharp, however, did not rest satisfied with having successfully resisted oppression in instance, but laboured by a series of correspondence and publications, to excite attention to the cruelties of the Slave Trade, and Slavery in general. He accordingly re-edited а publication printed in America, in 1762, entitled An account of that part of Africa inhabited by Negroes, and of the Slave Trade;' to which he added a conclusion, calculated to increase the public interest in the cause he had undertaken: he forwarded copies of these publications, with suitable letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other distinguished characters; and lost no opportunity of relieving the oppression of the poor Africans. While his suit with Lisle was still pending, he was called upon to assist in the case of Hylas, a poor negro, whose wife had been kidnapped by a man of the name of Newton, and sent to the West Indies to be sold for a slave. In consequence of the legal information communicated by Mr. Sharp, the aggressor was prosecuted in the Court of Common Pleas, damages were given, and the aggressor bound under a heavy penalty to bring back the woman, at the farthest, within six months.

The public attention was by these trials so far excited, that in various similar instances of outrage, recourse was promptly had to Mr. Sharp; he was in consequence applied to not long after by Mrs. Banks, the mother of the late Sir Joseph Banks, on behalf of a negro servant who was kidnapped from the house next her own residence, forced into a wherry and carried off to a ship bound for Jamaica. By Mr. Sharp's active exertions, a writ of Habeas Corpus was obtained, and served on board the ship in the Downs, where she was detained by contrary wind. A bill of indictment was subsequently found by the Grand Jury against the parties concerned in this outrage, by whom the cause was removed to the King's Bench, and brought into court before Lord Mansfield. On this occasion Mr. Dunning, one of the counsel employed by Mrs. Banks on behalf of the negro, held up Mr. Sharp's tract in his hand, and declared before Lord Mansfield and the Court, that he was prepared to maintain in the Courts of Great Britain, that no man can be legally detained as a slave in this country. In conclusion, Stapylton and his accomplices were found guilty, but in consequence of some doubts expressed by Lord Mansfield, they were not brought up for judgment.

These decisions, however, had, from technical circumstances, left undecided the grand point as to the general right of the Negro to personal freedom on arriving in England-but at length the important case of James Somerset came on. This man had been brought over from Virginia in Nov. 1769, by his master Mr. Charles Stewart, and in process of time left him. Stewart found an opportunity of seizing Somerset unawares, and conveyed him on board a vessel bound to Jamaica to be sold for a slave-from this situation he was rescued, and the

grand question was now brought before the Court of King's Bench, Whether any man at this day is, or can be, a slave in England.

Lord Mansfield, the Chief Justice, had in the case of Lewis, against Stapylton, evidently manifested a contrary impression; and at the commencement of this trial intimated that whatever the opinion of the court might be, even if they were all agreed on one side or the other, the subject was of so general and extensive concern, that from the nature of the question he should certainly take the opinion of all the Judges upon it. After various delays this interesting cause came to a decision, and such was the effect produced on the mind of the Lord Chief Justice by the very able reasonings of Mr. Serjeant Davy, Mr. Serjeant Glynn, Mr. Hargrave, Mr. Mansfield, and Mr. Alleyne, the counsel retained by Mr. Sharp-' that the court unanimously decided, June 22, 1772, that the claim of slavery never can be supported, that the power claimed was never in use here, or acknowledged by the law -that therefore the man Somerset must be discharged, and that the case was so plain, that it was not necessary to refer it to the twelve Judges.' The grand and important point was thus decided, that as soon as any slave sets foot on English ground, he becomes free.

The name of Granville Sharp became now eminently distinguished as the successful advocate of the oppressed, and the effect of his benevolent exertions spread far and wide. The numerous and respectable body of Quakers in North America, had been for some years endeavouring to alleviate the condition of the slaves in various provinces, and they immediately entered into correspondence with Mr. Sharp. His tract on the Injustice of Slavery had been previously obtained, and an abridgment of it published at Philadelphia;

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and now on the very day which terminated the case of Somerset, and established the rights of all negroes in England, Mr. Sharp received the first offer of a correspondence instituted for the sole object of forwarding the deliverance of African and other slaves, but which also led to other important results. His correspondent on this occasion was a Mr. Benezet, who had in 1762, reprinted Mr. Sharp's tract at Philadelphia, not being at all aware that Mr. S. had reprinted in England a publication of Mr. Benezet's on the same topic. The publication of Mr. S.'s tract in America had already produced important results. The House of Burgesses in Virginia sent a petition to the King, in April 1772, imploring his Majesty's paternal assistance in averting a calamity of the most alarming nature. The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa, hath,' they observe, long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its present encouragement we have reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your Majesty's American dominions.' In some other colonial assemblies an earnest desire had been evinced to abolish slavery, as well as the slave trade; though in this country, efforts were making to counteract the effects of the legal decisions in favour of negroes, and a motion was made in the House of Commons for leave to bring in a Bill for the securing of property in negroes and other slaves in this kingdom. These efforts called forth fresh exertions on the part of Mr. Sharp, but the projected measures were eventually abandoned.

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About this period Mr. Sharp's attention was called to the case of the Caribbees, or native inhabitants of St. Vincent's, between whom and the new settlers disagreements had arisen concerning

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