of all ages, even of children. How eagerly did the little females of his brother's families watch the opening of his study door, as the signal of their mirth and play !'........ In fact, nothing in creation escaped his notice, his admiration, or his benevolence. But he more particularly applied the lesson which was the result of his observations on other animals, to a scrutiny of the human bosom. He perceived in the conduct of men toward the creatures destined to their use, an unsuspected test of moral character, by which he might safely ascertain the worth of every man's heart, and the grounds of his action towards his own species.'

The strength of his fraternal affection has already been adverted to, as well as his disinterested liberality. He is stated never to have refused or neglected an application for his charitable aid; and, in the latter part of his life, when age had impaired the power of discriminating the proper objects of bounty, without blunting his sensibilities towards the real or fictitious woes of his fellow creatures, he actually became a prey to the entreaties, importunities, and sometimes almost menaces,' of hundreds, who besieged the door of his chambers in the Temple, or followed him, even during his last illness, to Fulham,' pleading resistless poverty as a species of right to every thing that he possessed.'

His piety in all respects answered to the Apostolic definition of pure and undefiled religion it was the mainspring of all his actions. He was constant in his attendance upon Divine worship on the Sunday, conscientiously abstaining from travelling and all secular business. He was in the practice of fasting frequently, though few persons were aware of the strictness with which he observed it; for nothing could be further from his character than any thing ostentatious or obtrusive. His religious sentiments on some minor points, were slightly tinged with the amiable enthusiasm of his character. In interpreting all passing events with a reference to Scripture prophecy, he sometimes wrote and published under impressions for which it is not easy satisfactorily to account. The near approach of the Millennium was a favourite idea with him; and he cherished to the last the hope that his protracted life would allow him to witness, with the feelings of Simeon, the dawn of that bright era. He once went so far as to declare his opinion of its probable commencement in the ensuing spring. Mr. Hoare, in mentioning this anecdote, adds, that on Mr. Sharp's being asked if he did not speak of these things doubtingly,' he replied, Not at all, but as a positive truth; and that a Baptist minister present then exclaimed, What would we give, Mr. Sharp, for such a faith as yours!" The retailing of expressions used in private conversation, is not always judicious in itself, or just to the parties concerned. But there can be no question that the strength of Mr. Sharp's faith in

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reference to the events which he believed to be the matters of prophecy, proceeded from his habitual and implicit deference to the dictates of Revelation, joined to his steady contemplation of the revealed purposes of God. And it deserves remark, that in what might be termed the optical delusion which led to his imagining the latter days to be so near at hand, he fell into no worse mistake than the primitive Christians, who expected to be the living spectators of the coming of the Lord. The principle, then, in which Mr. Sharp's firmness of persuasion originated, was as honourable to his Christian character, as its influence on his own mind was consolatory. He was orthodox in the best and purest sense, inclining, however, it appears from some of his writings, to the Arminian philosophy. His belief in Divine and Satanic inspiration, to adopt his own terms, as principles of human action, was carried, some persons will be of opinion, to a great extent: he believed that all men are by Nature continually liable to receive the inspiration of the Devil and his angels as a principle of action, if they neglect the necessary resistance commanded in the Scriptures;' and that God has lodged the power of permitting or resisting them, entirely in the human breast.' In his "Tract on the Law of Nature and "Principles of Action in Man," from which we have taken these expressions, he enters at large into the question of the Demoniacs in the Gospel, conformably to this view of human nature; and he goes on to argue, that Man took upon himself the 'knowledge of good and evil, contrary to the express commands of God; and therefore we have no right to murmur at the permission which God has granted to "the Devil and his "angels," to take possession of all unguarded souls which unhappily yield to their suggestions and temptations, without resistance or repentance.' And more especially,' he adds, we have no right to murmur at this permission, if we consider that God has given us fair warning of our continual danger and warfare with the Principalities and Powers of darkness, as the Holy Scriptures plainly inform us, that we are continually liable to Satanical influence; and that the Devil will get an advantage over us, if we do not resist him as we ought! this necessary resistance, and the objects of it, consist the principal exercise of that assumed knowledge of Good and Evil for which we are accountable; viz. we know Evil from Good, and consequently know when we ought to resist; but if we do not resist, then we have chosen the Evil, and (in whatsoever mode the Evil is manifest) have given advantage to the Devil, and submit ourselves to his bondage. The choice, therefore, which is set before us amounts to this-Whether we will choose the "kingdom of God and his Righteousness,' and cheerfully assent (as the dignity of human nature re

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quires) to that" perfect law of liberty" which Christ has tendered to us for the regulation of our conduct towards all mankind, as well as for self-preservation? or-Whether we rather prefer the empire of Satan, the spiritual enemy, for the sake of those temporal gratifications and vile indulgences by which he holds men in bondage, through their carnal affections, till they become personal enemies even to themselves.'* We shall offer no comment on this passage, which we have extracted for the simple purpose of illustrating the theological views of the Writer, further than this, that there can be no question whether his sentiments were, or were not, more nearly related to a Scriptural faith and to practical piety, than the Sadducean notions on this subject which have so extensively gained ground in what is termed the religious world: In Grauville Sharp, they produced no other fruits than genuine fortitude and deep humility, a constant sense of a peculiar direction of Providence guiding and impelling his labours, and the devotion and watchfulness of the Christian.

Once, in a committee of the Sierra Leone Company, after a long discussion of the difficulties which had impeded the progress of their undertaking, he suddenly rose, and said with great warmth, "All these impediments arise from our great enemy, the devil, against whom there is no power of resistance, except by fervent prayers to God."' p. 458.

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That this was his own constant practice, he strikingly evinced on another occasion. When Sir William Jones, his intimate friend in youth, was departing for India, Granville, in their farewell interview, thus addressed him: "We have talked to"gether on many subjects: we have not yet spoken on the most "material one, our reliance on the will of our Creator in all things. You are leaving us for India. I have drawn up a col"lection of prayers: suffer me to present it to you, and to en"treat that, when you are far removed from me, you will adopt "the use of it." Sir William's reply is stated to have been, that the request was a high gratification to him, and that he was glad to be able to say that he was himself constant in prayer. In fact, it is a high but not overcharged encomium which has been passed upon this excellent man by an individual who knew him well, and who was a fellow-labourer in the cause of Africa, Mr. Z. Macauley, that he was one,

'who for near eighty years, stemmed the tide of oppression and corruption; who, animated by a simple view of his duty, and that Christian philanthropy which emanates from the love of God and Christ, stood before kings and judges in the cause of the friendless and the faint; who laboured for God and man with unexampled as

* Pp. 199-201. Second Edition. sm. 8vo. 1809.

siduity and perseverance, and who yet made no account of his labours; who waged no war but with the devil and the works of the devil and the flesh; and whose highest enjoyment arose from the advancement of Christ's spiritual kingdom in his own soul, and from the anticipation of its full establishment in every heart. I verily believe that a purer and more upright mind, one more single in its aim and intention, and more unequivocally scrupulous as to the rectitude of his means, more simply directed to the glory of God and the good of man, has never left this world.'

Little needs be said beyond what has already been intimated, with regard to the manner in which Mr. Hoare has executed his honourable task. He speaks of a tedious research into confused and crowded documents,' as having rendered his performance somewhat embarrassing; and to this circumstance we must ascribe the deficiency both of arrangement and of compression, (though there is rather a parade of method and orderly distribution of the materials,) which constitutes the chief defect of the work. Occasionally, but only occasionally, (as at p. 411.) the Author has indulged in the attempt at fine writing: he has for the most part laudably confined himself to the simple style which is adapted to biography. Upon the whole, he has presented to us a very interesting and even valuable volume; but in the event of a new edition in an octavo size, we would earnestly recommend an abridgement of the historical portions of the work, as well as a more concise view of Mr. Sharp's sentiments and character, which are at present too much left to be gathered from notices scattered throughout the Memoirs. If the collected letters are to make their appearance in a complete form, those which are introduced in this volume, will of course, be omitted in a new edition. It were a pity, that the life of such a man should not be exhibited within the compass of a volume better adapted, both as to bulk and price, to general readers. A portrait of Mr. Sharp is prefixed, engraved from a drawing by Dance, made when he was fifty-eight: it presents a physiognomy exceedingly striking, but deficient in that cheerful benignity which was so prominent a trait in Mr. Sharp's countenance as well as character. We much prefer, on this account, the small medallion in Mr. Bowyer's publication of "Poems on the Abolition of the Slave "Trade."

Art. II. 1. Journals of two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, undertaken by Order of the British Government in the Years 1817-18. By John Oxley, Surveyor-general of the Territory, and Lieutenant of the Royal Navy. With Maps and Views. 4to. Price 21. 10s. London, 1820.

2. Van Dieman's Land. Geographical and descriptive Delineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land. By Lieut. Ch. Jeffreys, R. N. 8vo. Price 5s. London, 1820.

3. The History of New South Wales. By Mr. O'Hara. 8vo. Price 14s. London.

4. A Statistical, historical, and political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, and its dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land. With a particular Enumeration of the Advantages which these Colonies offer for Emigration, and their Superiority in many Respects over those possessed by the United States of America. By W. C. Wentworth, Esq. a Native of the Colony. 8vo. Price 12s. London, 1819.

E have, especially in our own language, a considerable quantity of valuable matter illustrative of the various inquiries connected with the systematic adjustment of Colonial policy, but it is to be found, for the most part, only in a scattered or an imperfect state: a distinct and comprehensive work on that very important and pressing subject, has now become, on many accounts, highly desirable. Adam Smith discussed the general question vigorously, but on narrow grounds. J. B. Say, in his excellent "Traité d'Economie Politique," has adverted to it luminously, but incompletely and with unavoidable brevity. Mr. Brougham's "Inquiry into the Colonial Policy "of the European Powers," is a useful and an able book, but the Writer was then at an age too early to have treasured up the results of mature reflection and protracted inquiry; it is not always clearly written, and its reasonings are too frequently indistinct and unfinished. Some valuable gleanings are to be obtained from Talleyrand; and the somewhat too voluminous "Collection de Memoires sur les Colonies" of M. Malouet, will afford many available facts, and just, though merely incidental remarks. M. de Pradt's very lively and by no means uninstructive octavo " On the Colonies and the present American "Revolutions," is altogether too superficial and hasty to supply the deficiency which we are now regretting.

There is a strong and very natural, though perfectly irrational tendency in the administrators of all long established governments, to be guided rather by precedent than by sound principle, and to follow the easy track marked out by custom and routine, in preference to the more difficult, though safer road of reason and general experience. In addition to this, it is obvious to remark, that there is too ordinarily among public cha