The preceding pages have given details of some principal actions and exploits of a very remarkable man; whose projects, dictated by benevolence and inspired by philanthropy, were all prospective. Their first, and, apparently, principal object, was to provide relief for the indigent, and an asylum for the oppressed. Their second, to unite the pensioners on the liberally contributed bounty, in a social compact for mutual assistance, and a ready cooperation for the general good. But even this, beneficent as it was, fell short of his aim. He considered himself to be engaged in forming a Colony, destined to extend and flourish under the salutary principles of order and justice, and the sustaining sanctions of civil law, and a form of government, which his breast swelled with the patriotic hope, would be well constituted and wisely administered.

This very statement of the origin of these political institutions, bears on it the indications of their perpetuity, especially as the freedom obtained for the first emigrants from rigorous exaction in their native country, was remembered and cherished in that which they settled, till it formed the constituents of civil liberty, which at length "threw off every yoke," for the attainment of NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.

Hence, his agency, services and expenditures in settling the Province of Georgia, his disinterested devotedness to its establishment and progressive welfare, and his bravery and personal exposure in its defence, enrolled among the important achievements of his long and eventful life, constitute the most splendid trophy to his fame, and will ensure to his name a memory as lasting as that of America itself.

On a mural tablet of white marble, in the chancel of Cranham Church, is the following inscription, drawn up by CAPEL LOFFT, Esq.

Near this place lie the remains of JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE, Esq. who served under Prince Eugene, and in 1714 was Captain Lieutenant in the first troop of the Queen's Guards. In 1740 he was appointed Colonel of a Regiment to be raised for Georgia. In 1745 he was appointed Major General; in 1747 Lieutenant General; and in 1760, General of his Majesty's forces. In his civil station, he was very early conspicuous. He was chosen Member of Parliament for Haslemere in Surry in 1722, and continued to represent it till 1754. In the Committee of Parliament, for inquiring into the state of the gaols, formed 25th of February, 1728, and of which he was Chairman, the active and persevering zeal of his benevolence found a truly suitable employment, by visiting, with his colleagues of that generous body, the dark and pestilential dungeons of the Prisons which at that time dishonored the metropolis; detecting the most enormous oppressions; obtaining exemplary punishment on those who had been guilty of such outrage against humanity and justice; and redressing multitudes from extreme misery to light and freedom.

Of these, about seven hundred, rendered, by long confinement for debt, strangers and helpless in the country of their birth, and desirous of seeking an asylum in the wilds of America, were by him conducted thither in 1732.

He willingly encountered in their behalf
a variety of fatigue and danger,
and thus became the founder of
the Colony of Georgia;
a Colony which afterwards set the noble example
of prohibiting the importation of slaves
This new establishment
he strenuously and successfully defended
against a powerful attack of the Spaniards.
In the year in which he quitted England
to found this settlement,
he nobly strove to secure
our true national defence by sea and land,
—a free navy—
without impressing a constitutional militia.
But his social affections were more enlarged
than even the term Patriotism can express;
he was the friend of the oppressed negro,—
no part of the globe was too remote,—
no interest too unconnected,—
or too much opposed to his own,
to prevent the immediate succor of suffering humanity.
For such qualities he received,
from the ever memorable John, Duke of Argyle,
a full testimony, in the British Senate,
to his military character,
his natural generosity,
his contempt of danger,
and regard for the Public.
A similar encomium is perpetuated in a foreign language;[1]
and, by one of our most celebrated Poets,
his remembrance is transmitted to posterity
in lines justly expressive of
the purity, the ardor, and the extent of his benevolence.
He lived till the 1st of July, 1785;
a venerable instance to what a duration
a life of temperance and virtuous labor
is capable of being protracted.
His widow, Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Nathan Wright of Cranham hall, Bart.
and only sister and heiress of Sir Samuel Wright, Bart.
of the same place,
surviving, with regret,
but with due submission to Divine Providence,
an affectionate husband,
after an union of more than forty years,
hath inscribed to his memory
these faint traces of his excellent character.

"Religion watches o'er his urn,
And all the virtues bending mourn;
Humanity, with languid eye,
Melting for others' misery;
Prudence, whose hands a measure hold,
And Temperance, with a chain of gold;
Fidelity's triumphant vest,
And Fortitude in armor drest;
Wisdom's grey locks, and Freedom, join
The moral train to bless his shrine,
And pensive all, around his ashes holy,
Their last sad honors pay in order melancholy."[2]

[Footnote 1: Referring to the encomium of the Abbe Raynal, in his Histoire Philosophique et Politique.]

[Footnote 2: These last verses were added by the old friend of the
General, the Rev. Moses Browne.]