GRANT, CHARLES, Lord CrI.ENELG, was born in India, at Kidderpore, presidency of Bengal, in 1779. He was of a highland family, the Grants of Shewglie. His grand father (who was slain at the battle of Culloden) married one of the Macheaus of Kiu chyle; and father was born in Aldourie House, and the banks of Loch Ness, also the birthplace of sir James Mackintosh. The father of lord Glenelg (also Charles Grant) went early to India, became one of the most distinguished directors of the East India company, represented for many years the county of Inverness in parliament, and was, along' with 'Wilberforce, Thornton, Zachary, IN lacaulay, and others, a leading member of the Clapham sect, described by sir James Stephen in his Eceletiastical Essays. He died in 1823, aged 77. Charles, his eldest son, was carefully educated, and distinguished himself at Magdalene college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1804. In 1805 lie published a poem on the Restoration of Learning in the East, which had carried the university prize awarded by Dr. Claudius Buchanan. He was called to the bar in 1807, but never practiced. In 1811 he was elected M.P. for the Inverness dis trict of burghs; and afterwards succeeded his father in the county representation, he continued in the house of commons for a period of 25 years, at the expiry of which he was raised to the peerage by letters-patent bearing date May 8, 1835. Grant held for five years the office of a lord of the treasury; and in 1819 succeeded to the important appointment of.'secretary fOr Ireland, Which he continued to fill for about two years.
He was the first secretary for Ireland that sought to carry out conciliatory measures. He endeavored to suppress the orange demonstrations, to secure impartial administration of justice, and to devise a system of national education adapted for Catholics as well as Protestants. Nearly all that has since been done was proposed by this enlightened statesman, and the future historians of Ireland will point to him as one of the genuine though ill-requited benefactors of that country. From 1823 to 1827 Grant was vice president of the board of trade; from 1830 to 1834, president of the board of control; and from Nov. 1834 to Feb. 1839, secretary of state for the colonies. After this period, Grant withdrew in a great measure from public affairs, but supported the liberal party by his vote. He died at Cannes, in France, in 1866. Lord Brougham pronounced Grant to be " the purest statesman be had ever known." Ile was an eloquent speaker, though partly from diffidence, and partly from indolence, he spoke but seldom. Some of his despatches as colonial secretary, on the rights of the natives in the colonies, on repressing idolatry, and abolishing slavery throughout the British possessions in south Africa, are models of elevated and just thought, and of fine impressive English.