world, and needed that unworldly love, of which our blessed Lord, has set us so glorious an example. Those persons therefore alone, engaged in these with ardor, in whose bosoms burnt the same unearthly and impartial flame. Of minds of this stamp, Granville Sharp was the first; but he cordially united in every other "labor of love."
He was a liberal subscriber to the Naval and Military Bible Society which was formed in 1780. He presided on 2d May, 1804, at the meeting in London, from which the British and Foreign Bible Society took its rise, and is thus mentioned in Mr. Owen's history: "In Granville Sharp, the cause obtained a temporary patron, in whom the members of the establishment acknowledged a true churchman, and real christians of every denomination, a friend and a brother. Perhaps it would not have been possible to find, 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 venerable philanthropist. A churchman in faith, and universal in charity, he stamped upon the institution, while it was yet tender, those characters which suited its constitution and its end; and while he made it respected by the sanction of his name, he improved it by the influence of his example."
Within a month after the legal abolition of the African slave trade, a new society was formed (April, 1807) called "The African Institution." Prior to this it had been well ascertained through the settlement of Sierra Leone, that agriculture, commerce and freedom, might be introduced into Africa: it had been shown, that all the various natural products, brought from the West Indies, might be raised on the African soil; that the native chiefs might be made to perceive the full interests of peaceful communication; and that Africans in a state of freedom, might be habituated to labor in the fields, and were capable of being governed by mild laws, without whips, tortures or chains to enforce civil obedience. Even in the cases of insubordination, which had appeared among the settlers, their conduct, when compared with that of European colonists, was highly advantageous to the African character."
