How happy is he born and taught "This man is freed from servile bands CLAPHAM is now a suburb of London. During the last decade of the eighteenth century it was a pleasant B and retired country village, at or near which some of the notable men of that day resided. Let us imagine ourselves on a fine summer afternoon-let us say July 12, 1798—to be present in a spacious oval room at the back of one of the houses situated on the south side of Clapham Common. This room was built by Henry Thornton, the owner of the house, at the suggestion of William Pitt, then Prime Minister of England. It is called the Oval Library. The walls are lined with shelves full of books; and from the table, where three gentlemen are sitting engaged in earnest conversation, there can be seen through the rounded bay-window, the trim, green lawn, surrounded by elms, fir trees, and shrubberies, presenting a calm, peaceful, and attractive scene. These three gentlemen are William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, and Charles Grant. They are busy discussing a question in which they are all deeply interested. This important question is the abolition of the slave-trade, which was then permitted in the English Colonies, though, chiefly by the exertions of Wilberforce, nobly seconded by his friends, Englishmen were beginning to awaken to the infamy and the impolicy of such means for carrying on the labour needed in their plantations. Henry Thornton was one of Wilberforce's dearest friends, who, more perhaps than any one else, strengthened his hands in this righteous cause. Charles Grant was another of his intimate friends, who also rendered him essential service in this respect. He was a tall, blueeyed Scotsman, who had served his country for several years in India, and had been for rather more than four years, a Director of the East India Company, and was then living in the house adjoining Thornton's. He was BIRTH BEFORE THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 3 in the fifty-third year of his age. We propose to write a brief sketch of his life, because he did so much for the benefit of India that we think those who read about that country ought to know the principal events in which he was concerned, and that they should gratefully cherish his memory. Charles Grant was the eldest son of a Highland gentleman, named Alexander Grant, belonging to the Urquhart branch of the clan of that name. He was born in March, 1746, at Aldourie, which is beautifully situated on the southern shore of Loch Ness, whither his mother had gone to stay with her parents, who then resided there. Those were the days when Prince Charles Edward raised his standard in the Highlands of Scotland, and Grant's father with his followers espoused his cause. A short time before the decisive battle of Culloden, Alexander Grant, being in the neighbourhood, went to the christening of his little son, accompanied by thirty of his friends, and a very weird and picturesque scene took place on that occasion. They named him Charles after Charles Edward Stuart; and, drawing their swords, they crossed and clashed them over the baby's cradle, thus enlisting him under the banner of the Prince. A few weeks after this, Alexander Grant was severely wounded at Culloden. As was the case with most of Prince Charles Edward's followers, he remained several months in concealment, hiding in woods and caves; and, when, in the following year, he was able to return to his home, he found his property ruined, and, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, he could not retrieve his affairs. He struggled on for nine years, and then he joined a Highland regiment which the Government was raising for service in America, where he died after the siege of Havanna in 1762. He had successfully defended a fort there; but afterwards died of fever, and his family did not hear of his death for some time. Meanwhile, his departure left his wife in sole charge of five children with very scanty means. She was a lady of great firmness as well as sweetness and piety, and admirably fitted for the task; but she died about two years after her husband had left her. The children were taken care of by several relations, but the one who did most for them was John Grant, their father's younger brother, who was himself very badly off, having an appointment in the excise which afforded him only £30 a year. He was, however, very kind and helpful to them so far as his limited means permitted him to be, and Charles Grant always remembered him with gratitude as his second father and truest benefactor. When the child was seven, he went to live with his uncle at Elgin, where he was sent to school; but, on his mother's death in 1758, the only way in which his uncle could provide for him was to apprentice him to a shopkeeper at Cromarty, named Forsyth, who proved a very kind but strict friend. Charles remained with him rather more than four years. Being a proud and over-sensitive youth, he fretted under the work, which he considered beneath him, and longed for a better position. At length the time came for a change to London. Owing to the kindness of Captain Alexander Grant, one of his relations, Charles obtained a situation as clerk in his mercantile house in the City, and he sailed from Inverness at the end of February, 1763, with half a BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. 5 guinea only in his pocket. Forsyth's letter of recommendation, which he took to his cousin, was so curiously worded that we give two or three sentences from it. "I do with justice recommend him as a young man of a very good genius in cyphers and keeping of accounts as much as can be expected from one who has had no great degree of education in this way. I recommend him to you as worthy of your friendship and encouragement, and I have not the least doubt of his rendering himself acceptable and endearing to you in all respects."* At first he was a clerk, and then the head clerk, in his cousin's business, and ere long he was able to help his uncle and his brothers, of whom he constituted himself the guardian. During all the hard time of his apprenticeship and more recently in London, he looked forward to visiting America or India with the object of improving his fortune. His ambition was now to be fulfilled. His cousins and employers desired that he should go to Calcutta, where they had been most successful. In November, 1767, he sailed for India. Before leaving England, he wrote the following affectionate letter to his uncle John, which we insert here to show the kindliness of his heart and the gratefulness of his feelings: "If I am successful, my first, my fondest wish shall be to give ease, and, if I can, affluence to you and the children. What do I not feel from the hardships to which you are exposed! I do not so much desire riches for myself as for my friends, and, if I ever acquire any, I trust they will not change *The Life of Charles Grant. London: John Murray, 1904, P. 6. |