SHANGHAI (380), the chief commercial city and port of China, on the Wusung, an affluent of the Yangtse-kiang, 12 m. from the coast, and 160 m.  SE. of Nanking; large, densely-peopled suburbs have grown round the closely-packed and walled city, which, with its narrow, unclean streets, presents a slovenly appearance; the French and English occupy the broad-streeted and well-built suburbs in the N.; the low-lying site exposes the city to great heat in the summer, and to frequent epidemics of cholera and fever; an extensive system of canals draws down a great part of the interior produce, and swells the export trade in tea, silk, cotton, rice, sugar, &c.

SHANNON, the first river of Ireland, and largest in the British Islands, rises in the Cuilcagh Mountains, Co.  Cavan; flows in a south-westerly direction through Loughs Allen, Ree, and Derg, besides forming several lough expansions, to Limerick, whence it turns due W., and opens out on the Atlantic in a wide estuary between Kerry (S.) and Clare (N.); has an entire course of 254 m., and is navigable to Lough Allen, a distance of 213 m.

SHANS or LAOS, the name of a people, descendants of aborigines of China, forming several large tribes scattered round the frontiers of Burma, Siam, and South China, whose territory, roughly speaking, extends N. as far as the Yunnan Plateau of South China; some are independent, but the bulk of the tribes are subject to Siam, China, and the British in Burma; practise slavery, are Buddhists, somewhat superstitious, indolent, pleasure-loving, and for the most part peaceable and content; chased gold and silver work, rice, cotton, tobacco, &c., are their chief exports.

SHARON, a fertile region in Palestine of the maritime plain between Carmel and Philistia.

SHARP, ABRAHAM, a schoolmaster of Liverpool, and subsequent bookkeeper in London, whose wide knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, &c., attracted FLAMSTEED (q. v.), by whom he was invited in 1688 to enter the Greenwich Royal Observatory, where he did notable work, improving instruments, and showing great skill as a calculator; published “Geometry Improved,” logarithmic tables, &c. (1651-1742).

SHARP, BECKY, an intriguing character in Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair,” very clever, but without heart.

SHARP, GRANVILLE, a noted abolitionist, born in London; trained for the bar, but accepted a post in the London Ordnance Office, which he held until the outbreak of the American War; was a voluminous writer on philology, law, theology, &c., but mainly devoted himself to the cause of negro emancipation, co-operating with Clarkson in founding the Association for the Abolition of Negro Slavery, and taking an active interest in the new colony for freedom in Sierra Leone; won a famous decision in the law-courts to the effect that whenever a slave set foot on English soil he becomes free; he was also one of the founders of the Bible Society (1734-1813).