This appointment, though now first formally
made in the minute book, was always understood to have taken place; but the
modesty of Mr. Sharp was such, that, though repeatedly pressed, he would
never consent to take the chair, and he generally refrained from coming
into the room till after he knew it to be taken. Nor could he be prevailed
upon, even after this resolution, to alter his conduct: for though he
continued to sign the papers, which were handed to him by virtue of holding
this office, he never was once seated as the chairman during the twenty
years in which he attended at these meetings. I thought it not improper to
mention this trait in his character. Conscious that he engaged in the cause
of his fellow-creatures solely upon the sense of his duty as a Christian,
he seems to have supposed either that he had done nothing extraordinary to
merit such a distinction, or to have been fearful lest the acceptance of it
should bring a stain upon the motive, on which alone he undertook it.
[Illustration]
On the second and sixteenth of October two sittings took place; at the
latter of which a sub-commitee, which had been appointed for the purpose,
brought in a design for a seal.
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