The return to the writ of habeas corpus, stating that Somerset was kept by order of his master, with intent to send him to Jamaica, there to be sold.

He was descended from a French family possessed of considerable fortune in which they left on account of their religion, forfeiting their inheritance, and gaining their subsistence by industry, Anthony Benezet, at his death, left his whole fortune to the school, to which he had devoted his time and talents. He was universally respected, not only by his own sect, but by all who knew him 9.77zol #37

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the same ardour with which he had w.sought in English statute-books for the - defence of individual freedom, he now -turned to investigate the natural and 1 political rights of nations in general; the immediate motive was still the love of the English character. The duty of an Englishman (say his notes) to maintain the just limits of law according to the constitution, compelled me in the year 1774 to publish a Declaration of the people's right to a share in the legislature, which is the fundamental principle of the British constitution. Of this Declaration he writes in another memorandum, July 27, 1774, that he had to Dr. Franklin 250 copies, given which were sent to America the same day, and were reprinted in many pro1vinces within the year.

During the whole course of these transactions, Mr. Sharp had continued in the humble employment of a clerk * in ordinary in the ordnance-office, where the duties of his department appear to have been punctually performed, as on the death of the second clerk he succeeded to the place, and acted as assistant to the secretary Mr. Boddington. On his promotion he received an additional allowance,

In conformity to his sentiments, he now exhibited a fresh instance of his integrity. When hostilities commenced with America, he resigned his place.

His resignation, in a worldly sense, was an excess of imprudence: he had expended the remains of his paternal inheritance, and the fruits of his employment, in acts of bounty; and the protector of the helpless now stood himself in need of sustenance.

1

dental acquaintance with General Oglethorpe restored him to independence.

Being now without any civil employment, he devoted himself more fully to the pursuits of literary study, which are detailed by his editor. He had now attained his forty-first year: his public actions had been too important to leave him long in retirement: his writings, as they were never unconnected with existing circumstances, were all calculated to draw him into public view; they had been the means of introducing him to Dr. Franklin and other persons of eminentrepute; and he now owed to them an acquaintance with General Oglethorpe, whose esteem for his religious and political opinions led to important consequences to his fortune.

80

Mr. Sharp soon afterwards appeared, both in court and as an author, as the advocate of the impressed seamen, whose case he also defended against the s phistry of the great dogmatist Samuel Johnson. The latter maintained, that the liability to impressment was a condition necessarily attending that way of life, and when they entered into it, they must take all the circumstances; and knowing this, it must be considered as voluntary service, like that of an innkeeper who knows himself liable to have soldiers quartered upon him. That the cause was strenuously contested between two such antagonists, there can be little doubt: but the strength of Granville's talents did not lie in debate, and he felt severely the powers of Dr. Johnson. On this subject he says, ** I have been told that it is the common lot of the poor and laborious part of mankind to endure hardships and inconveniences; and that the pressing and forcing them into service is no injustice nor illegality, being nothing more than one necessary contingent circumstance of the low condition in 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 they are so all this has been urged with such plausible sophistry and important self-sufficiency of the speaker, as if he supposed the mere sound of words was capable of altering the nature of things. I am far from being ready at giving an immediate answer to subtle arguments, so that I may seem easily baffled when I am by no means convinced they have weight: if Dr. Johnson's doctrine were soqe fleet. Vide p. 126. true, that men choosing a sea-faring life, New MONTHLY MAG.–No. 82, HÀ VOL. XIV, 222 TẠI BẢO VỆ n

But the cordial attachment of his brothers, all now prosperous, was actively evinced in a family overflowing with mutual kindness, the accession to their household of such a relation would ever have been accounted a treasure; they now reverenced that obedience to conscience which had deprived him of competency, and strove to compensate his loss by every act of esteem and beneficence. Their letters are examples of disinterested tenderness, and the acceptance of their favour was considered an obligation.

It is honourable to human nature to know that he continued to share the table and the purse of these excellent brothers for several years, until an acci

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forfeit thereby their natural rights as Englishmen, and lose the protection of the law, some immediate remedy ought to be applied to remove so unjust a premunire from an honest and necessary calling for whatever takes away the protection of the law and common rights from any man, or set of men, is, to all intents and purposes, a premunire, which, if we except the judgment of death, is the severest punishment that is known in the English laws; and therefore it is unjust and iniquitous, as well as impolitic in the highest degree, that the honest mariner's condition should be loaded with so hateful a contingency, and the most effectual discouragement to an increase of British seamen that could possibly be devised.

"But we see,' says an advocate for power, that it does not discourage. Men are still bred up to a sea-faring life; and in times of peace, multitudes are allured by the merchants' service to choose that condition whereby they are subjected to impress.' True it is, that the necessities of poor labouring men compel them to earn their bread in any way that they can get it; and when a war is over, the discouragement of pressing is in a great measure forgot, and the number of seamen of course again increased.

"But this makes no difference respecting the illegality and injustice of the oppression itself; for if the poor man is not protected in an honest calling, which is his estate and most valuable dependence, as well as the rich man, the law, or rather the administrators of it, are unjust and partial, having respect to persons, which the law abhors, and which religion strictly forbids; and therefore, if we can form any precise definition of iniquity, this partiality of which I complain, comes within the meaning of that term."

Nothing could better illustrate the superiority of sound judgment over specious reasoning, than this unadorned specimen of Granville Sharp's unsophisticated mind advocating the cause of humanity.

Another event, which distinguishes the life of this benevolent man, followed closely on the establishment of American episcopacy (of which he, was the chief promoter). This event was the founding of a free colony at Sierra Leone.

In the year 1786 he was endeavouring to remedy an inconvenience which had sprung out of his own humane ex

ertions in behalf of African slaves.
Many slaves had been brought over by
their masters in the metropolis, when
the case of Somerset was decided; and
having now no persons to support them,
no parish to call their own, and unac-
customed to any handicraft or calling,
they fell, by degrees, into great distress,
so that they were conspicuous through
the streets as mere beggars. To Mr.
Sharp they flocked as their common pa-
tron: he had considered them as or-
phans who had a claim to his protec
tion, and relieved them; but their
number being about four hundred, it
was not in his power to supply their
daily wants consistently with his duties
to other descriptions of the poor. He
had many private pensioners, to whom
he paid annual sums to a considerable
amount, and the entire maintenance
of these destitute Africans was utterly
In this dilemma
beyond his resources.
he formed a scheme for their permanent
support, and fixed upon some spot in
Africa-the general land of their an-
cestors-where, if they could be con-
ducted under a proper leader, supplied
with implements of husbandry, and pro-
visions for a time, they might, with a
moderate share of industry, maintain
themselves.

The settlers chiefly consisted of these blacks, and men of colour who had served in the late war, and now were starving about the streets of London, and must have perished there, had it not been for a subscription of charitable persons.

To form and direct a colony composed of men of ardent passions, and whose only lessons had been stripes and barbarous usage, and whom suffering naturally induced to start with dread from their fellow-creatures, required a mind and character fraught with all the resources which political knowledge and inflexible resolution could supply. But the scope of human action contained no enterprise of danger and difficulty, sanctioned by Christian principles, which Granville Sharp could be deterred from undertaking.

Mr. Smeathman, an ingenious and honourable man, who had resided some years at the fort of Sierra Leone, made a proposal to form a settlement there. The poor blacks resorted in a body to Mr. Sharp, and many of them had been at the place; they assured him there was much fine woodland unoccupied in that part of the coast; which account was confirmed by several channels, and

Memoirs of Granville Sharp.

1320.1
particularly by a young negro, whom
Mr. Sharp had saved from slavery just at
that time.

From his diary it appears, the idea of an African colony had long been in his contemplation before the attempt was made to realize the plan; a plan, as will be seen hereafter, constituted for a race of men uniformly open to the persuasions of reason; the impracticability of collecting a numerous society of such, is daily demonstrated: numerous human beings, perhaps endued with the capability of reason, are precluded, either by education or circumstances, from its advantages. The benevolent plan, which left out sufficient authority to strengthen laws, is to be found in Mr. Sharp's papers: it was the foundation of all the rules by which the colony was governed at its commencement.

Mr. Smeathman was to conduct them to their destined places; and Granville distributed to the settlers a weekly sum from his own purse, which was continued till the time of settling: and an allowance of 12d. each person was made from the Treasury for any persons that were willing to go, and navy transports hired to carry them out.

At this important moment Mr. Smeathman's impaired health suspended the execution of the design. He was taken ill of a fever, and died in three days.

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The expedition now seemed at stand; Mr. Sharp stood involved in all the expenses attending the outset; the demurrage of the vessel had commenced, and the weekly pay to the settlers continued. In this situation Government again interfered; provision was made for transporting and supplying them with necessaries for the first six or eight months of their residence in Africa. Captain Thompson was appointed to accompany them in a sloop of war, and to see the promises of Mr. Sharp fulfilled; at last the little fleet sailed, on the 8th of April 1787.

As the history of this colony, now so respectable, is that of the cradle of African civilization, Mr. Prince Hoare has given an account of its establishment and progress, to the period of its final surrender into the hands of Govern

ment.

He subjoins Mr. Sharp's letters, during all the harassing events which took place in the infant colony, with his regulations and documents, fully manifesting the endeavour of a Christian to establish and support a state of entire

social freedom and justice by the power
only of a single hand.

With men casually selected” from
whatever description, hopes of such a
nature must have proved fallacious.
Reason and tenderness are not sufficient
to maintain order without authority,
much less to restore it when interrupt-
ed. But though he perceived the ne-
cessity of having recourse to the strength
of the Company incorporated by an act
of parliament, he could not but regret
the demolition of that ideal fabric of
happiness which he wished to raise for
an afflicted part of mankind. Mr. Prince
Hoare says, he has witnessed the strug-
gles of his mind on that occasion; once
only on paper such remarks appear as
evince his disappointment, that the
poor blacks were no longer proprietors of
the whole district as before, as the land
had been granted to the Sierra Leone
Company, so that they no longer en-
joyed the privileges of granting land by
free votes of their own council, nor the
benefit of their former agrarian law,
nor the choice of their own governor,
nor any circumstances of perfect freedom,
as proposed in the regulations-all these
privileges being submitted to the con-
troul and appointment of the Company;
and no settler can trade independently
of it." He adds, "But I could not
prevent this humiliating change; the
settlement must have remained desolate,
if I had not submitted to the opinion of
the subscribers. However, all slavery,
and the oppression of imposed labour,
are absolutely prohibited."

The accomplishment of this charter put an end to the laborious, and almost unprecedented efforts of an individual, during some years, to support an undertaking of such magnitude: henceforward he only shared in exertions with men whose devotedness to the cause may be thought to merit precedence in the high distinctions of virtue and philanthropy.

But though Granville Sharp mingled with the general body of Directors, a superior respect attached to his name among the colonies of Africa. Naimbana, the sovereign chief of Sierra Leone, whose disposition little corresponded with the prejudice of Europeans respecting his class (for he was peaceable, benevolent, desirous of knowledge, and afforded protection to all who were capable of it) sent his eldest son to England to Granville Sharp, intreating him to direct the education of the young Prince, who proved to be endowed with

ON VAMPIRES AND VAMPIRISM.

SINCE the appearance of the story of the Vampire, the conversation of private parties has frequently turned on the subject; and the discussion has been prolonged and invigorated by the pieces brought out at the theatres, as well of Paris as of London. Vampirism, at one period, had almost superseded politics, at Paris, in the journals of that lively and inquisitive city, during an interval of national expectation. The French literati, whom nothing escapes, desirous of displaying their learning, have brushed off the dust of repose and oblivion from more than one story applicable to the enquiry; of which the intent of the present paper is to set a specimen before our readers. This article deserves attention, no less from its temporary interest, than from its peculiar character, as part of the history of the human mind. It is connected with notions of the most extensive and powerful influence; and may be traced from the days of the most enlightened classical antiquity. Nay, indeed, so far as the relative question of the re-appear