The reasons that induced him to abandon the track of business in which he had been twice engaged, are now unknown. The death of his father, however, left his choice at liberty; and in June 1758 he obtained a subordinate appointment in the Ordnance office.

From that date to the year 1764 there are few notices concerning the employment of his time: his office necessarily engaged the greatest portion of it: but it is certain that in this interval he completed those acquisitions in the sacred languages, which enabled him afterwards to maintain the extraordinary. part that he assumed in society. His hours of study were snatched from sleep, and some hints of the eagerness, with which he pursued his researches, are found in his letters.

In the March quarter of the year 1764 he was appointed a Clerk in ordinary, and removed to the Minuting Branch.

It was very soon after the date of this appointment that the singularity of his character began to unfold itself. In 1765, he unexpectedly engaged in a literary controversy with Dr. Kennicott (the learned publisher of the Hebrew Bible), which involved a contest for superior accuracy in Hebrew literature and Biblical learning, and which he conducted with no inconsiderable credit to his abilities*. Some

* The reader will find an account of this controversy in its proper place.

other tracts also appeared from his pen, tending to promote the general interests of society.

Nearly at the same time, chance directed his attention towards the sufferings of a race of men who had long been the sport and victims of European avarice. In the first moments of his action, he had no other object in view than the relief of a miserable fellow-creature, struggling with disease and extreme indigence; but such was then, under Heaven, the widely increasing spirit of social charity, that England was destined shortly to behold (and to be herself the scene of the extraordinary spectacle) a private and powerless individual standing forth, at the divine excitement of Mercy, to rescue those whom the force of disgraceful custom injuriously bound in chains;-to see him, when opposed in his benevolent efforts, arm himself, by the study of our laws, to assert the unalterable course of justice, and for that end prepare to resist the formidable decisions of men who had filled the highest stations in our courts of judicature; maintaining his ground against them with unanswerable arguments, and finally overthrowing the influence of authoritative, but unjust, opinions ;-an event not more glorious to the individual himself, than to our country's constitution, of which it demonstrated the mild and liberal spirit, friendly to every consideration that can be suggested for the benefit of mankind.

Mr. Sharp's papers, fortunately, afford the most accurate notices of these singular transactions from

their commencement. They are described in his usual clear and unaffected manner; and as the plainest truth is the greatest ornament of historical relation, the whole of his manuscript notes will be copied as occasion requires, and collected in the course of the following narrative. The reader has only to observe, that the parts so transcribed will be regularly distinguished by the prefatory capitals MS.; under which, both in the present and other parts of these Memoirs, Mr. Sharp will be left to relate his own history.

He gives the account of an AFRICAN, of the name of Jonathan Strong, whose pitiable case furnished the first opportunity of trying a cause, as important to humanity in general, as to the just renown of our English charter.

The professional arrangements of Mr. William Sharp, whose house was open every morning for the gratuitous relief of the poor, were the first means of bringing Strong to the knowledge of either brother. Pain and disease, the consequence of severe blows and hardships, led the miserable sufferer to seek the aid of medical assistance; and it was in one of his morning visits to the surgery in Mincing Lane that he was met by Granville, as he approached the door of the house, ready to faint through extreme weakness. On inquiry, it was found that he had been a Slave of Mr. David Lisle, a lawyer of Barbadoes, whose barbarous treatment had by degrees reduced him to a state of uselessness, and whose brutal

heart had then turned him adrift in the streets*. This happened in 1765.

By the united care of the two brothers, into whose hands Strong had providentially fallen, he was restored to health, and placed in the service

* It appeared in the course of the legal examinations which ensued, that Strong's master, Lisle, had beaten him violently on the head with a pistol, which made his head swell very greatly, and, when the swelling abated, a disorder fell on his eyes, which nearly occasioned the loss of his sight. This was followed by an ague, fever, and lameness in both feet, in which miserable condition he came to the surgery for relief.

The minutes of this case, as well as of the succeeding Negro causes, were taken down in short-hand by Mr. Sharp's orders. Copies of them in full are preserved in the collections of the African Institution.

↑ "Mr. William Sharp gave him admission to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was cured of his general complaints; but the return of his sight remained very doubtful. This affliction rendering him still incapable of providing for himself, both Mr. William and Mr. Grauville Sharp gave him charitable assistance at different times, not having the least suspicion that any person whatever had any claim on his person."-Minutes of the Case of J. Strong.

I cannot refrain from adding another short testimony of Mr. William Sharp's humane behaviour to the distressed, which appeared in the voucher delivered in court by Strong himself:

"I meet with a man-told him my case: he recommended to Mr. William Sharp in Mincing Lane, Fenchurch Street: I took his advice, and went to Mr. Sharp. I could hardly walk, or see my way, where I was going. When I came to him, aud he saw me in that condition, the gentleman take charity of me, and gave me some stoff to wash my eyes with, and some money to get myself a little necessaries till next day. The day after, I come to the gentleman, and he sent me into the hospital; and I was in there four months and half. All the while I was in

of a respectable apothecary (Mr. Brown) in Fenchurch Street. In that comfortable situation he remained for two years, when, as he was one day attending his mistress behind a hackney coach, he was seen, and quickly recognised, by the lawyer to whom he had been a slave; and who, conceiving, from his appearance and active employment, that he must have regained his strength sufficiently for useful labour, instantly formed a design to recover possession of him. He followed the coach, for the purpose of obtaining intelligence of his abode; and, having discovered it, laid a plan to entrap him.

MS. Some days afterwards, he (David Lisle) employed two of the Lord Mayor's officers to attend 'him to a public-house, from whence he sent a messenger, to acquaint Jonathan Strong that a

person wanted to speak with him: Jonathan, of course, came, and was shocked to find that it was 'his old master who had sent for him, and who ' now immediately delivered him into the custody ' of the two officers. Jonathan, however, sent for 'Mr. Brown, who likewise came; but being violently 'threatened by the lawyer, on a charge of having 'detained his property (as he called Strong), he was intimidated, and left him in Lisle's hands.

the hospital, the gentleman find me in clothes, shoes, and stockings, and when I come out, he paid for my lodging, and a money to find myself some necessaries, till he get me into a place. JONATHAN STRONG."