appointment of a regent. Of this opportunity of evincing his attachment to the popular cause, Mr. Ponsonby took care to avail himself by maintaining with great strength of argument, and, as ap peared by the event, with great success, the exclusive right of Ireland to nominate its own regent on the suspension of the royal functions. Mr. Grattan was in this contest the powerful co-adjutor of Mr. Ponsonby. The Irish Commons yielded to the joint exertions of the powers of those two distinguished senators, or rather perhaps to the delusive prospects which they conceived now opened to them, of pre-occupying the favour of a new sovereign, by protecting his rights against the mutilating hand of the Minister. The Prince of Wales was invited to assume the regency, unclogged by any restrictions whatsoever; and the viceroy, who, under the influence of his relation Mr. Pitt, had adopted the other side of this question, mortified by his disappointment, and the still more mortifying circumstances which attended it, withdrew from the government.

The triumph of the Opposition, however, was very short-lived: the happy restoration of the King's health soon taught the majority of that body the folly of their speculation, and induced many of them to atone, by very humiliating concessions, for having differed from the Minister. Mr. Ponsonby was not of this number; his opinion on the question of regency remained unchanged, his opposition to the system pursued in the administration of Ireland

1799-1800.

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was prosecuted with unabated vigour, and, his exertions to expose and to defeat it continued to display as much zeal and vehemence, as when the hope of success in that attempt had been most flattering.

until it finally Mr. Ponson

In consequence either of these continued efforts of Opposition to expose the corruption and incapacity of the government, or of that incapacity and corruption resorting to measures which goaded the Irish people to sedition and revolt, it is certain that discontent and disaffection began to grow in Ireland from the period we speak of, burst forth in the rebellion of 1798. by's pertinacity, and that of those with whom he acted in Parliament, in continuing to reprobate the system on which the Irish government was conducted, and the unyielding, coercive, and obstinate spirit, with which the Minister punished, instead of attempting to reclaim, the misled, has, from the current of public opinion running the other way, induced a temporary obscuration on his political character. Mr. Ponsonby, however, still preserves a consistent steadiness of opinion and conduct on this head, apparently disregarding what imputations the madness or the prejudice of irritated party-spirit may attempt to throw upon his principles or his motives.

Of Mr. Ponsonby's oratorical exertions, the great features are simplicity and strength. His language is constantly the most plain and the most preeise, unadorned by any of those rhetorical flourishes,

which much more frequently weaken the effect of a popular address, rather than render it more impressive. He seldom deigns even to use a metaphor; but, when he does, he selects always those which are strong and obvious. His sentences are generally short, and he is not very fastidious in avoiding a repetition of the same idea when he wishes to impress it strongly on the mind of his auditory, or when there is any thing in its nature which may make it liable to be misunderstood. The matter of his speeches is generally of the best kind, selected by a strong understanding, under the guidance of plain sense, from an extensive knowledge of politics and of mankind. It is chiefly, however, in a debate that Mr. Ponsonby is celebrated; and he certainly possesses, in a very eminent degree, either the knack or the science of exposing and refuting the arguments of an adversary. In this, his great memory is of the last importance to him. He never takes notes, and yet will frequently recapitulate and answer, nearly in the same order in which they were delivered, all the arguments which have been urged by his antagonists in a debate of twelve or fourteen hours. It must be observed of Mr. P. that he strictly observes the rule given by Cicero to his orator, and passes over, in perfect silence, the arguments which he cannot well answer. He notices only the feeble or the false parts of his opponent's reasoning; and, as he always makes it a point to close the debate, he thus is sure to attract from R 2

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his audience, on all occasions, the plaudits of victory. Mr. P. is now somewhat above forty years. old, his person inclining to plethoric, and the cast of his countenance strong and coarse.

MR. GRANVILLE SHARP.

THIS determined opponent of African slavery, and true patriot, is a grandson of the celebrated Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, who, in the arbitrary reign of James the Second, so honourably distinguished himself as the champion of the Protestant religion and of the liberties of his country. Dr. Sharp, immediately after the accession of King William, was made a bishop, and afterwards translated to the archbishopric of York, and he continued to be the zealous defender of the liberties of his country during the whole period of his valuable life.

His son, the father of Mr. Granville Sharp, was Dean of Durham, and emulated the pious zeal of his father, which he has transmitted, with all its lustre, to that benevolent character who is the subject of this memoir.

If any man of the present day deserves the name of philanthropist, it is Mr. Granville Sharp; since his whole life has been one continued struggle to improve the condition of mankind, sometimes by his literary labours, and, at other times,

by

by the more active services of benevolence. To commiserate the unfortunate, in him, seems to be a radical instinct, which, by its force, overpowers those cold and prudential maxims, by which the conduct of the generality are too often regulated. As for those prejudices, which would exclude the oppressed of any country, condition, or complexion, from the rights of humanity, to him they are entirely unknown. The African torn from his country, and the sailor from his home, have ever found in him an eloquent and successful advocate. In his treatise on the Injustice and dangerous Tendency of tolerating Slavery, his arguments, though sometimes diffuse, are strong and convincing. In this work he clearly proves, that the law of nature, deduced from philosophical reasonings, supposes an equality among all mankind, independent of the laws of society; nor can any social compact suppose one man to surrender his liberty, with the propriety of his person, up to any other, -a barter for which he can receive nothing in exchange of equal value. One circumstance which contributed greatly to call the attention of Mr. Granville Sharp to the consideration of slavery, and its evil effects on society, as it is curious, and developes in a high degree the excellent qualities of his heart, shall be here fully related. It has this peculiarity, also, that on its merits the law of England was ascertained, concerning the right to freedom of every person treading on English soil: about which, many eminent lawyers had enter