and laborious discussion, effected some considerable changes in the East India Company's commercial privileges, in which Mr. Grant could not concur; but, on the other hand, it contained three important modifications of the law, which were in perfect accordance with the sentiments and reasoning above detailed, and the attainment of which, there can be no doubt, ought in justice to be ascribed, in a considerable degree, to his zeal and exertions.

The first of these was an augmentation of the ecclesiastical establishment of British India, and the institution of a bishop's see at Calcutta ; the second, the privilege granted to European teachers of Christian morals, or missionaries, of enjoying a regulated access to the natives of India; and the last, the annual appropriation of the sum of one lack of rupees for the general promotion of education among them. These results appear to have been the fruit of a series of wise, persevering, and pious exertions, made by Mr. Charles Grant, with a view to promote and secure the highest honour and truest interests of Great Britain in India, viz. the consolidation of her empire there, by the improvement of the intellectual and moral character of her subjects.

The only parliamentary measures of a date subsequent to the passing of the Charter Act to which we shall advert, in consequence of the part Mr. Grant took in them, are, the India Circuitous Trade Bill, which passed in December, 1813, and the proposal to lay open the China trade, in 1820, 1821. From the former a clause allowing the Canaries, the Cape de Verd Islands, and the Island of Madeira, to be used as ports of refreshment, was at his instance struck out, in order that those places might not be made depots of India goods to the prejudice of the Company. And Mr. Grant's exertions, in 1820 and 1821, for the defence of the Company's interests in their China trade, were incessant, and their issue successful. He had retired from the House of Commons, on account of his advancing age, in 1819. He was nevertheless examined, at his own request, upon the subject, before the Lords' committees, on the 6th and 13th July, 1820, and 26th February and 5th

March, 1821, and before a committee of the House of Com→ mons on the 16th and 17th April, 1821. The testimony which he gave upon these occasions was of considerable importance to the Company's interests; and it was supported by documents collected and prepared by himself, or under his immediate superintendance. So completely did Mr. Grant's evidence, and that of other members of the court who were examined before the committee, rebut the allegations of the petitioners against the Company, that it is well known no report was made by the committee in the first session; and it is equally certain that to this moment the projected innovation on the China trade remains unaccomplished; while the historical narratives and able calculations which he presented to parliament, stand uncontradicted upon its records, for the future refutation of any erroneous allegations which may be made by parties opposed to the Company in this branch of their traffic.

Mr. Grant's correspondence and intercourse were unusually extensive, and with persons of the first rank and consideration. Upon almost all occasions he received the fullest proofs of public as well as of private coufidence, and upon many, expressions of unusual respect. The opinion of Lord Cornwallis respecting him, at an early period of his public life, has been already adverted to. It is also generally understood that Lord Melville, while president of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, not only recommended him to the choice of the proprietors of India stock, but afterwards invited him to become a member of the Bengal council, which he declined, from motives the most disinterested and patriotic. The proprietors of India stock have themselves given him some tokens of their special favour. Very soon after they had placed him in the direction, they suspended one of their own byelaws, to enable him to retain a commercial establishment which he had formed in India. In April, 1807, they placed him in the direction by a very unusual majority of votes, Mr. Grant's name standing at the head of a list of twelve candidates, with 1523 votes out of a proprietary of less than 1900

persons and since his decease, viz. on the 17th instant, they have resolved to commemorate his distinguished services, by the erection of a monument at the Company's expence, in St. George's church, Bloomsbury.

The House of Commons, in which he sat for about seventeen years, viz. from 1802 to 1819, (being two years for the town, and fifteen for the county, of Inverness,) repeatedly elected him on committees, some of which were not connected with India affairs. He was appointed by act of parliament (37 Geo. III. c. 34. s. 6.) one of the commissioners for the issue of exchequer bills, and in 1818 was elected chairman of those commissioners. He was also included in the commission for the appropriation of the sum of 1,000,000l. sterling granted by parliament for the erection of new churches.

Amidst the multiplicity of his occupations, his parliamentary constituents and his native country enjoyed a large share of his anxious attention. At the date of his election to a seat in parliament, the Highlands of Scotland were, as regards the means of internal communication, in a state of almost primitive destitution. Adequately to supply these deficiencies, in a country so poor, so extensive, so thinly peopled, and abounding with physical obstacles, was an undertaking too gigantic for the efforts of local combination. Such being the undeniable condition of the Highlands, government resolved to undertake various magnificent works, which, now in a state of completion, add greatly to the convenience and welfare of the country. The Caledonian Canal was the first which was commenced. The original conception of this navigation was of very early date; but Mr. Grant, though he did not originate it, stood forth at once as its indefatigable promoter and to his ceaseless importunities to government, and his devoted services as a commissioner, the country, perhaps, mainly owes it that the progress of this noble work was not, in times of national danger and difficulty, delayed, or completely frustrated. After twenty years of anxious labour,

Mr. Grant had the satisfaction, in one of his latest visits to the Highlands, of superintending in person the formal opening

of this navigation. The act for cutting the Caledonian Canal was followed by another for the formation of Highland roads and bridges. Mr. Grant, it is understood, was among the first projectors of this measure, and, for a period of twenty years, he strenuously exerted himself to advance it. The completion of the plan embraced the formation of fourteen hundred bridges, and above a thousand of the finest roads in Scotland. These works have been accomplished by an expenditure of above a million sterling. Among other measures of local improvement in his native country, in which Mr. Grant co-operated, one of the latest efforts of his public life, was the promotion of the act for building and endowing fifty new churches in the extensive parishes of the Highlands. The establishments formed of late years in Edinburgh and in Inverness for the extension of education in the Highlands, which, by means of 150 schools supported by them, have done much to disperse the moral darkness of the remote parts of Scotland, constantly found in him a warm and efficient friend. Mr. Grant was also among the first to introduce Sunday-schools into that quarter. Two of those he supported by giving salaries to the teachers at his own private expence, which he continued to do during the last twenty years of his life.

*

Among many private testimonies to his worth, it may be sufficient to refer to two, being those of political opponents. The late Sir Philip Francis, at the close of a debate on India affairs, in which he had been decidedly opposed to Mr. Grant, declared, that no man in England had a higher opinion of his moral character than he had. 66 Upon the facts in question," Sir Philip added, "there cannot be a more competent witness, nor any human evidence less to be suspected." Another opponent, Mr. Scott Waring, declared, that Mr. Grant was "incapable of asserting what he did not believe to be true, or of delivering his sentiments on a subject which he did not understand."

Although Mr. Grant ever considered the affairs of India as his peculiar province, and as a sufficient occupation for his mind, he allowed himself to have some other public en

gagements; but chiefly in connection with religious or benevolent subjects. He appears to have been for many years a director of the South Sea Company. He was a member of the Society in London for promoting Christian Knowledge, as well as of another society of the same name, connected exclusively with the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. He was elected a vice-president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, upon its institution, in 1804, and was at different subsequent periods chosen vice-president of the Bloomsbury and North-east London Auxiliary Societies. He was also connected with the Church Missionary Society. To many other associations of a religious or charitable description, he afforded the sanction of his name, and the aid of his contri bution.

* The following honourable resolution, passed unanimously by the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Nov. 17, 1823, on the intelligence of his lamented death, will show how highly and justly his value was estimated by that respectable institution.

"With feelings of the deepest interest, the committee have listened to the melancholy intelligence of the death of Charles Grant, Esq., one of the vicepresidents of this society; and while they desire to express their heartfelt sympathy with his afflicted family, they feel it incumbent on them to record their sense of the eminent services he was enabled to render, not only to this society, but to the cause of religion throughout the world. In this cause, during the long period of half a century, he laboured with unwearied zeal; and his active and persevering exertions, proceeding from Christian principle, and directed by talents of the highest order, and by a judgment singularly enlightened, profound, and penetrating, were productive of the most beneficial effects. Closely connected as he was, from early life, with British India, its spiritual interests lay peculiarly near his heart, and his efforts to promote them only ceased at the moment when he was called to his eternal reward. It pleased Divine Providence to honour him with numerous opportunities of extensive usefulness in that quarter of the globe; and those opportunities he both eagerly embraced, and successfully improved. In particular, he was greatly instrumental in promoting and protecting those beneficent institutions for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, which sprang up in India itself, and which have so copiously enriched our Asiatic dominions with the treasures of Divine Truth. Severely as his loss will be felt by this and every other society which has for its object the glory of God or the happiness of man, to British India it might be deemed almost irreparable, were it not for the persuasion that the great cause to which he devoted the unceasing labours of his life, and the powerful faculties of his mind, was emphatically the cause of Him who has the hearts of all men in his hands. It is the hope and earnest prayer of the committee, that He may graciously raise up, in the place of this venerated individual, other instruments, possessing the rare endowments and the large and liberal views by which he was distinguished, and equally disposed with him to consecrate them all to their Saviour's service,