Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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MEMOIRS

OF THB

LIFE OF THE RT. HON.

KICHARD BRmSLEY SHERIDAN

BY THOMAS MOORE

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

REDPIELD

34 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK

1858

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PR
1

CONTENTS TO VOL. 11.

V,:.

CHAPTER I.
Impeachment of Air. Hastings. 5

CHAPTER II.

Death of Mr. Sheridan's Father.— Verses by Mrs. Sheridan on the Death 6f
her Sister, Mrs. Tickell . 43

CHAPTER III.
Illness of the King.— Regency.— Private Life of Mr. Sheridan. . 64

CHAPTER IV.

French Revolution. — ^Mr. Burke. — His Breach with Air. Sheridan. — Disso-
lution of Parliament. — Mr. Burke and Air. Fox. — Russian Armament. —
Royal Scotch Boroughs. 96

CHAPTER V.
Death of Mrs. Sheridan. . ., 124

CHAPTER VI.

Drury-Lane Theatre. — Society of " The Friends of the People."— Madame
de Genlis. — ^War with France. — ^Whig Seceders. — Speeches in Parliar
ment— Death of Tickell 143

CHAPTER VII.

Speech in Answer to Lord Momington. — Coalition of the Whig Seceders
with Mr. Pitt.— Mr. Canning. — ^Evidence on the Trial of Home Tooke. —
The " Glorious First of June."— Marriage of Mr. Sheridan.— Pamphlet
of Mr. Reeves.— Debts of the Prince of Wales.— Shakspeare Manuscripts.
— ^Trial of Stone.— Mutiny at the Nore.— Secession of Mr. Fox from

Parliament. 177

(8)

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IV CONTENTS^

CHAPTER VIIL

Play of " The Stranger."— -Speeches in Parliament—Pizarro. — ^Ministry
of 3ir. Addington. — ^French Institate.— Negotiations with Mr. Kem-
ble. 203

CHAPTER IX.

State of Parties. — Oflfer of a Place to Mr. T. Sheridaa — Receivership of
the Duchy of Cornwall bestowed upon Mr. Sheridan. — Return of 3ir«
Pitt to Power. — Catholic Question. — ^Administration of Lord Grenville
and Mr Fox. — Death of Mr. Fox. — Representation of Westminster. —
Dismission of the Ministry. — Theatrical Negotiation. — Spanish Question.
—Letter to the Prince. ,226

CHAPTER X.

Destruction of the Theatre of Drury-Lane by Fire.— Mr. Whitbread. —
Plan for a Third Theatre. — Illness of the King.— Regency.— -Lord Grey
and Lord Grenville.— Conduct of Mr. Sheridan. — ^His Vindication of
himself. 259

CHAPTER XI.

Affairs of the new Theatre. — Mr. Whitbread. — Negotiations with Lord
Grey and Lord Grenville. — Conduct of Mr. Sheridan relative to the
Household. — His Last Words in Parliament — Failure at Stafford.— Cor-
respondence with Mr. Whitbread. — Lord Byron. — Distresses of Sheri-
dan. — ^IllnessL-^Death and Funeral — General Remarks. . • 285

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MEMOIKS

OF THE

LIFE OF THE RT. HON.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN

CHAPTER I.

IMPEACHMENT OF MK. HASTINGS.

The motion of Mr. Burke on the 10th of May, 1787, " That
Warren Hastings, Esq., be impeached," having been carried with-
out a division, Mr. Sheridan was appointed one of the Managers,
" to make good the Articles " of the Impeachment, and, on the
3d of June in the following year, brought forward the same
f Oiarge in Westminster Hall which he had already enforced with
such wonderful talent in the House of Commons.

To be called upon for a second great effort of eloquence, on a
subject of which all the facts and the bearings remained the same,
was, it must be acknowledged, no ordinary trial to even the most
fertile genius ; and Mr. Fox, it is said, hopeless of any second flight
ever rising to the grand elevation of the first, advised that the for-
mer Speech should be, with* very little change, repeated. But such
apian, however welcome it might be to the indolence of his friend,
would have looked^bo like an acknowledgment of exhaustion on
the subject to be submitted to by one so justly confident in the
resources both of his reason and fancy. Accordingly, he had the
glory of again opening, in the very same field, a new and abundant
spring of eloquence, which, during four days, diffused its enchant-

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6 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

ment among an assembly of the most illustrious persons of the
land, and of which Mr. Burke pronounced at its conclusion, that
" of all the various species of oratory, of every kind of eloquence
that had been heard, either in ancient or modern times ; whatever
the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, or the morality
of the pulpit could furnish, had not been equal to what that House
had that day heard in Westminster Hall. No holy religionist,
no man of any description as a literary character, could have come
up, in the one instance, to the pure sentiments of morality, or in
the other, to the variety of knowledge, force of imagination, pro-
priety and vivacity of allusion, bea-uty and elegance of diction, and
strength of expression, to which they had that day listened. From
poetry up to eloquence there was not a species of composition of
which a complete and perfect specimen might not have been cull-
ed, from one part or the other of the speech to which he alluded,
and which, he was persuaded, had left too strong an impression on
the minds of that House to be easily obliterated."

As some atonement to the world for the loss of the Speech in
the House of Commons, this second master-piece of eloquence
on the same subject has been preserved to us in a Report, from
the short-hand notes of Mr. Gumey, which was for some time in
the possession of, the late Duke of Norfolk, but was afterwards
restored to Mr. Sheridan, and is now in my hands.

In order to enable the reader fully to understand the extracts
from this Report which I am about to give, it will be necessary to
detail briefly the history of the transaction, on which the charge
brought forward in the Speech was founded.

Among the native Princes who, on the transfer of the sceptre
of Tamerlane to the East India CJompany, became tributaries or
rather slaves to that Honorable body, none seems to have been
treated with more capricious cruelty than ClUyte Sing, the Raj^
of l^ares. In defiance of a solemn treaty, entered into between
him and the government of Mr. Hastings, by which it was sti-
pulated that, besides his fixed tribute, no further demands, of any
kind, should be made upon him, new exactions were every year
enforced ; — ^while the humble remonstrances of the Rajah against

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EIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 7

such gross injustice were not only treated with slight, but pun-
ished by arbitrary and enormous fines. Even the proffer of a
bribe succeeded only in being accepted* — the exactions which it
was intended to avert being continued as rigorously as before.
At length, in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings, who invariably, among
the objects of his government, placed the interests of Leadenhall-
Street first on the list, and those of justice and humanity Irniyo
*ntervalU> after, — ^finding the treasury of the Company in a very
exhausted state, resolved to sacrifice this unlucky Rajah to their
replenishment ; and having as a preliminary step, imposed upon
him a mulct of £500,000, set out immediately for his capital,
Benares, to compel the payment of it. Here, afler rejecting with
insult the suppliant advances of the Prince, he put him under
arrest, and imprisoned him in his own palace. This violation of
the rights and the roof of their sovereign drove the people of
the whole province into a sudden burst of rebellion, of which Mr.
Hastings himself was near being the victim. The usual triumph,
however, of might over right ensued ; the Rajah's castle was
plundered erf all its treasures, and his mother, who had taken
refage in the fort, and only surrendered it on the express stipu-
lation that she and the other princesses should pass out safe from
the dishonor of search, was, in violation of this condition, and at
the base suggestion of Mr. Hastings himself,f rudely examined
and despoiled of all her effects. The Governor-General, how-
ever, in this one instance, incurred the full odium of iniquity
without reaping any of its reward. The treasures found in the

* This was the transaction that formed one of thn principal grounds of the Seventh
Charge brought forward in the House of Commons by Mr. Sheridan. The suspicious cir-
eamstances attending this present are thus summed up by Mr. MilT: " At first, perfect
concealment of the transaction— such measures, however, taken as may, if afterwards
necessary, appear to imply a design of future disclosure ;— when concealment becomes
difficult and hazardous, then disclosure made."—- Ht<tm*yof British India.

t In his letter to the Commanding Officer at Bidgegur. The following are the terms in
which he conveys the hint : "I apprehend that she wiU contrive to defraud the captors of
a considerable part of the booty, by being suffi;red to retire vritltout examination. But thl<i
is your consideration, and not mine. I should he very sorry that your officers and soU
diers lost any part of the reward to which they are so well entitled ; but I cannot make
any objection, as you must be the best judge of the expediency of the jiromtced indulgence
to the Itannee."

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8 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

castle of the Rajah were inconsiderable, and the soldiers, who had
shown themselves so docile in receiving the lessons of plunder,
were found inflexibly obstinate in refusing to admit their instruc-
tor to a share. Disappointed, therefore, in the primary object
of his expedition, the Governor-General looked round for some
richer harvest of rapine, and the Begums of Oude presented
themselves as the most convenient victims. These Princesses,
the mother and grandmother of the reigning Nabob of Oude,
I been left by the late sovereign in possession of certain
government-estates, or jaghires, as well as of all the treasure that
was in his hands at the time of his death, and which the oriental-
ized imaginations of the English exaggerated to an enormous
sum. The present Nabob had evidently looked with an eye of
cupidity on this wealth, and had been guilty of some acts of ex-
tortion towards his female relatives, in consequence of which the
English government had interfered between them, — and had even
guaranteed to the mother of the Nabob the safe possession of
her property, without any further encroachment whatever. Guar
ranters and treaties, however, were but cobwebs in the way of
Mr. Hastings ; and on his failure at Benanes, he lost no time in
concluding an agreement with the Nabob, by which (in consider-
ation of certain measures of relief to his dominions) this Prince
was bound to plunder his mother and grandmother of all their
property, and place it at the disposal of the Governor-General.
In order to give a color of justice to this proceeding, it was* pre-
tended that these Princesses had taken advantage of the late insur-
rection at Benares, to excite a similar spirit of revolt in Oude
against the reigning Nabob and the English government. As
Law is but too often, in such cases, the ready accomplice of
Tyranny, the services of the Chief Justice, Sir Elijah Impey,
were called in to sustain the accusations; and the wretched
mockery was exhibited of a Judge travelling about in search of
evidence,! for the express purpose of proving a charge, upon

* " It was the practice of Mr. Hastings (says Burke, in his fine speech on Mr. Pitt's Tn-
diaBill, March 22, 1786) to examine the country, and wherever he found money to affix
guilt A more dreadful fault could not be alleged against a native than that he was rich.*'

t This journey of the Chief Justice in search of evidence is thus happily described by

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 9

which judgment had been pronounced and punishment decreed
already.

The Nabob himself, though sufficiently^ ready to make the
wealth of those venerable ladies occasionally minister to his
wants, yet shrunk back, with natural reluctance, from the sum-
mary task now imposed upon him ; and it was not till after re-
peated and peremptory remonstrances from Mr. Hastings, that
he could be induced to put himself at the head of a body of
English troops, and take possession, by unresisted force, of the
town and palace of these Princesses. As the treasure, however,
was still secure in the apartments of the women, — that circle,
within which even the spirit of English rapine did not venture,
— an expedient was adopted to get over this inconvenient deli-
cacy. Two aged eunuchs of high rank and distinction, the con-
fidential agents of the Begums, were thrown into prison, and
subjected to a course of starvation and torture, by which it
was hoped that the feelings of their mistresses might be worked
upon, and a more speedy surrender of their treasure wrung from
them. The plan succeeded : — upwards of 500,000^. was pro-
cured to recruit the finances of the CJompany ; and thus, accord-
ing to the usual course of British power in India, rapacity but
levied its contributions in one quarter, to enable war to pursue
its desolating career m another.

To crown all, one of the chief articles of the treaty, by which
the Nabob was reluctantly induced to concur in these atrocious
measures, was, as soon as the object had been gained, infringed by
Mr. Hastings, who, in a letter to his colleagues in the government,

Bheridan in the Speech : — *' When, on the 28th of November, he was busied at Lucknow on
fhat honorable business, and when, three days after, he was found at Chunar, at the dis-
tance of 200 miles, still searching for affidavits, and, like Hamlet's ghost, exclaiming,
*Swear,' his progress on that occasion was so whimsically rapid, compared with the
gravity of his employ, that an observer would be templed to quote again from the same
•eene, * Ha I Old Truepenny, canst thou mole so fast i' the ground ?' Here, however, the
comparison ceased ; for, when Sir Elijah made his visit to Lucknow ' to whet the almost
Munted purpose' of the Nabob, bis language was wholly different from that of the poet,
— 4br it would have been totally against his purpose to have said,

* Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul ccmtrive
Against thy mother aught.' "

VOL.11. ^1* n ^

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10 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

honestly confesses that the concession of that article was only a
fraudulent artifice of diplomacy, and never intended to be car-
ried into effect.

Such is an outline of the case, which, with all its aggravating
details, Mr. Sheridan had to state in these two memorable
Speeches ; and it was certainly most fortunate for the display of his
peculiar powers, that this should be the Charge confided to his man-
agement. For, not only was it the strongest, and susceptible of
the highest charge of coloring, but it had also the advantage of
grouping together all the principal delinquents of the trial, and
affording a gradation of hue, from the showy and prominent
enormities of the Governor-General and Sir Elijah Impey in the
front of the picture, to the subordinate and half tint iniquity of
the Middletons and Bristows in the back-ground.

Mr. Burke, it appears, had at first reserved this grand part in
the drama of the Impeachment for himself; but, finding that
Sheridan had also fixed his mind upon it, he, without hesitation,
resigned it into his hands ; thus proving the sincerity of his zeal
in the cause,* by sacrificing even the vanity of talent to its sue-
cess.

The following letters from him, relative to the Impeachment,
will be read with interest. The first is addressed to Mrs. Sheri-
dan, and was written, I think, early in the proceedings ; the
second is to Sheridan himself: —

" Madam,
" I am sure you will have the goodness to excuse the liberty I take
w^ith you, when you consider the interest which I have and which
the Public have (the said Public being, at least, half an inch a
taller person than I am) in the use of Mr. Sheridan's abilities.
I know that his mind is seldom unemployed ; but then, like all

* Of the lengths to which this zeal could sometimes carry his fancy and language,
rather, perhaps, than his actual feelings, the following anecdote is a remarkable proof.

On one of the days of the trial, Ix>rd , who was then a boy, having been introduced

by a relative into the Manager's box, Burke said to him, "I am glad to see you herfr-4
■hall be still gladder to see you there— (pointing to the Peers' seats) I hope you will be
in at the death— 1 should like to blood you."

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 11

8uch great and vigorous minds, it takes an eagle flight by itself,
and we can hardly bring it to rustle along the ground, with us
birds of meaner wing, in coveys. I only beg that you will pre-
vail on Mr. Sheridan to be with us this day, at half after three,
in the Committee, Mr. Wombell, the Paymaster of Oude, is
to be examined there to-day, s Oude is Mr. Sheridan's particular
province ; and I do most seriously ask that he would favor us with
his assistance. What will come of the examination I know not ;
but, without him, I do not expect a great deal from it ; with him,
I fiwicy we may get out something material. Once more let me
entreat your interest with Mr. Sheridan and your forgiveness for
being troublesome to you, and do me the justice to believe me,
with the most sincere respect,

" Madam, your most obedient

" and faithful humble Servant,
" Thursday^ 9 o'clock. " Edm. Burke."

" My dear Sir,

"You have only to wish to be excused to succeed in your
wishes ; for, indeed, he must be a great enemy to himself who
can consent, on account of a momentary ill-humor, to keep him-
self at a distance from you.

" Well, all will turn out right, — and half of you, or a quarter,
is worth five other men. I think that this cause, which was
originally yours, will be recognized by you, and that you will
again possess yourself of it. The owner's mark is "on it, and all
our docking and cropping cannot hinder its being known and
cherished by its original master. My most humble respects to
Mrs. Sheridan. I am happy to find that she takes in good part
the liberty I presumed to take with h^r. Grey has done much
and will do every thing. It is a pity that he is not always toned
to the full extent of his talents.

" Most truly yours,

** Monday. ** Edm. Burwb,

" I feel a little sickish at the approaching day. I have read

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12 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

much — too much, perhaps, — and, in truth, am but poorly pre-
pared. Many things, too, have broken in upon me."*

Though a Report, however accurate, must always do injustice
to that effectiv© kind of oratory which is intended rather to be
hoard than read, and, though frequently, the passages that most
roused and interested the hearer, are those that seem afterwards
the tritest and least animated to the reader,f yet, with all this
disadvantage, the celebrated oration in question so well sustains
its reputation in the perusal, that it would be injustice, having an
authentic Report in my possession, not to produce some speci-
mens of its style and spirit.

In the course of his exordium, after dwelling upon the great
importance of the inquiry in which they were engaged, and dis-
claiming for himself and his brother-managers any feeling of
personal malice against the defendant, or any motive but that of
retrieving the honor of the British name in India, and bringing
down punishment upon those whose inhumanity and injustice had
disgraced it,— he thus proceeds to conciliate the CJourt by a warm
tribute to the purity of English justice : —

" However, when I have said this, I trust Your Lordships will not be-
lieve that, because something is necessary to retrieve the British character,
we call for an example to be made, without due and solid proof of the guilt
of the person whom we pursue :— no, my Lords, we know well that it is
the glory of this Constitution, that not the general fame or character of any
man — ^not the weight or power of any prosecutor — ^no plea of moral or
political expediency — ^not even the secret consciousness of guilt, which
may live in the bosom of the Judge, can justify any British Court in pass-
ing any sentence, to touch a hair of the head, or an atom in any respect,
of the property, of the fame, of the liberty of the poorest or meanest sub-
ject that breathes the air of this just and free land. We know, my Lords,
that there can be no legal guilt without legal proof, and that the rulp
w hich defines the evidence i%as much the law of the land as that which
creates the crime. It is upon that ground we mean to stand.''

* For this letter, as well as some other valuable communicationB, I am indebted to xne
kindness of Mr. Burgess, — the Solicitor and friend of Sheridan during the last twenty
years of his life.

.f The converse assertion is almost equally true. Mr. Fox used to ask of a printed
speech, " Does it read well ?" and, if answered in the affirmative, said, " Then it was a
bad speeclj.**

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EIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 18

Among those ready equivocations and disavowals, to which
Mr. Hastings had recourse upon every en^ergency, and in which
practice seems to have rendered him as shameless as expert, the
step which he took with regard to his own defence during the
trial was not the least remarkable for promptness and audacity.
He had, at the commencement of the prosecution, delivered at
the bar of the House of Commons, as his own, a written refu-
tation of the charges then pending against him in that House,
' declaring at the same time, that " if truth could tend to convict
him, he was content to be, himself, the channel to convey it."
Afterwards, however, on finding that he had committed himself
rather imprudently in this defence, he came forward to disclaim
it at the bar of the House of Lords, and brought his friend
Major Scott to prove that it had been drawn up by Messrs.
Shore, Middleton, &c. &c. — that he himself had not even seen it,
and therefore ought not to be held accountable for its contents.
In adverting to this extraordinary evasion, Mr. Sheridan thus
shrewdly and playfully exposes all the persons concerned in it : —

" Major Scott comes to your bar— describes the shortness of time — ^re-
presents Mr. Hastings as it were contracting for a character — ^putting his
memory into commission — making departments for his conscience. A num-
ber of friends meet together, and he, knowing (no doubt) that the accusa-
tion of the Commons had been drawn up by a Committee, thought it ne-
cessary, as a point of punctilio, to answer it by a Committee alsa One fur-
nishes the raw material of fact, the second spins the argument, and the
third twines up the conclusion ; while Mr. Hastings, with a master's eye,
is cheering and looking over tiiis loom. He says to one, ^ Yoa have got my
good faith in your hands— ^cm, my veracity to manage. Mr. Shore, I hope
you will make me a good financier — Mr. Middleton. you have my humanity
in commission.' — When it is done, he brings it to the House of Commons,
and says. ^ I was equal to the task. I knew the difficulties, but I scorn
tiiem : here is the truth, and if the truth will convict me, I am content my-
self to be the channel of it' His friends hold up their heads, and say, * What
noble magnanimity I This must be the effect of conscious and real inno-
cence.' Well, it is so received, it is so argued upon, — but it fails of its
effect

" Then says Mr. Hastings, — * That my defence I no, mere journeyman-
work, — good enough for the Commons, but not fit for Your Lordships' con-
nderation.' He then calls upon his Counsel to save him : — ' I fear none of

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14 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

my accusers* witnesses — T know some of them well — ^I know the weakness
of their memory, and the strength of their attachment — I fear no testi-
mony but my own — save me from the peril of my own panegyric — preserve
me from that, and I shall be safe.' Then is this plea brought to Your Lord-
ships' bar, and Major Scott gravely asserts, — that Mr. Hastings did, at the
bar of the House of Commons, vouch for facts of which he was ignorant,
and for arguments which he had never read.

" After such an attempt, we certainly are left in doubt to decide^ ix) which
set of his friends Mr. Hastings is least obliged, those who assisted him in
making his defence, or those who advised him to deny it."

He thus describes the feelings of the people of the East with
respect to the unapproachable sanctity of their Zenanas : —

'* It is too much, I am afraid, the case, that persons, used to European
manners, do not take up these sort of considerations at first with the se-
riousness that is necessary. For Your Lordships cannot even learn the
right nature of those people's feelings and prejudices from any history of
other Mahometan countries,— not even from that of the Turks, for they
are a mean and degraded race in comparison with many of the^ great
families, who, inheriting from their Persian ancestors, preserve a purer
style of prejudice and. a loftier superstition. Women there are not as in
Turkey — they neither go to the mosque nor to the bath — ^it is not the thin
veil alone that hides them — but in the inmost recesses of their Zenana they
are kept from public view by those reverenced and protected walls, which,
as Mr. Hastings and Sir Elijah Impey admit, are held sacred even by the
ruffian hand of war or by the more uncourteous hand of the law. But, in
this situation, they are not confined from a mean and selfish policy of man
— not from a coarse and sensual jealousy — enshrined rather than inmmred,
their habitation and retreat is a sanctuary, not a prison — their jealousy is
their own — a jealousy of their own honor, that leads them to regard liberty
as a degradation, and the gaze of even admiring eyes as inexpiable pollu-
tion to the purity of their fame and the sanctity of their honor.

" Such being the general opinion (or prejudices, let them be called) of
this country, Your Lordships will find, that whatever treasures were given
or lodged in a Zenana of this description must, upon the evidence of the
thing itself, be placed beyond the reach of resumption. To dispute with
the Counsel about th^ original right to those treasures — to talk of a title to
them by the Mahometan law ! — their title to them is the title of a Saint to
the relics upon an altar, placed there by Piety,* guarded by holy Super-
stition, and to be snatched from thence only by Sacrilege."

• This metaphor wa» rather roughly handled afterwards (1794) by Mr. Law, one of the
adverse Counsel, who asked, how could the Begora be considered as " a Saint," or how

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 15

In showing that the Nabob was driven to this robbery of his
relatives by other considerations than those of the pretended re-
bellion^ which was afterwards conjured up by Mr. Hastings to
justify it, he says, —

** The fiict is, that through all his defences— through all his various false
suggestions — through all these various rebellions and disaflfections, Mr.
Hastings never once lets go this plea — of extinguishable right in the Na-
bob. He constantly represents the seizing the treasures as a resumption of
a ri^t which he could not part with ; — as if there were literally something
in tiie Koran, that made it criminal in a true Mussulman to keep his en-
gagements with his relations, and impious in a son to abstain from plunder-
ing his mother. I do gravely assure your Lordships that there is no such
doctrine in the Koran, and no such principle makes a part in the civil or
municipal jurisprudence of that country. Even after these Princesses had
been endeavoring to dethrone the Nabob and to extirpate the English, the
only plea the Nabob ever makes, is his right under the Mahometan law ;
and the truth is, he appears never to have heard any other reason, and I
pledge myself to make it appear to Your Lordships, however extraordinary
it may be, that not only had the Nabob never heard of the rebellion till the
moment of seizing the palace, but, still further, that he never heard of il
at all ; — that this extraordinary rebellion, which was as notorious as the re-
bellion of 1745 in London, was carefully concealed from those two parties
—the Begums who plotted it, and the Nabob who was to be the victim of it.

" The existence of this rebellion was not the secret, but the notoriety of
it was the secret ; it was a rebellion which had for its object the destruction
of no human creature but those who planned it ; — it was a rebellion which,
according to Mr. Middleton's expression, no man, either horse or foot, ever
marched to quell. The Chief Justice was the only man who took the field
against it, — the force against which it was raised, instantly withdrew to
give it elbow-room, — and, even then, it was a rebellion which perversely
showed itself in acts of hospitality to the Nabob whom it was to dethrone,
and to the English whom it was to extirpate ; — it was a rebellion plotted
by two feeble old women, headed by two eunuchs, and suppressed by an
a£Bdavit."

The acceptance, or rather exaction, of the private present of
£100,000 is thus animadverted upon :

were the camels, which formed part of the treasure, to be "placed upon the altar?"
Sheridan, in reply, said, "It was the first time in his life he had ever heard of ipeeial
pleading on a mdafhorf or RbiU of indictment against a trope. But such was the turn of
the learned Counssl's mind, that, when he attempted to be humorous, no jest could be
found, and, when serious, no fact was visiUe."

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16 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" My Lords, such was the distressed situation of the Nabob about a
twelvemonth before Mr. Hastings met him at Chunar. It was a twelye-
month, I say, after this miserable scene— a mighty period in the progress,
of British rapacity — it was (if the Counsel ^11) after some natural calami-
ties had aided the superior vigor of British violence and rapacity — it was
after the country had felt other calamities besides the Englieii — it was aftfer
the angry dispensations of Providence had, with a progressive severity
of chastisement, visited the land with a iamine one year, and with a Col.
Hannay the next — it was after he, this Hannay, had returned to retrace the
steps of his former ravages — it was after he and his voracious crew had
come to plunder ruins which himself had made, and to glean from desola-
tion the little that famine had spared, or rapine overlooked ; — then it was
that this miserable bankrupt prince marching through his country, besieged
by the clamors of his starving subjects, who cried to him for protection
through their cages — meeting the curses of some of his suljects, and the
prayers of others — ^with famine at his heels, and reproach following him, —
then it was that this Prince is represented as exercising this act of prodigal
bounty to the very man whom he here reproaches — to the very man whose
policy had extinguished his power, and whose creatures had desolated his
country. To talk of a free-will gift I it is audacious and ridiculous to name
the supposition. It was not a free-will gift What was it then? was it a
bribe ? or was it extortion ? I shall prove it was both — it was an act of
gross bribery and of rank extortion."

Again he thus adverts to this present : —

" The first thing he does is, to leave Calcutta, in order to go to the re-
lief of the distressed Nabob. The second thing, is to take 100,000/. from
that distressed Nabob on account of the distressed Company. And the third
thing is to ask of the distressed Company this very same sum on account
of the distresses of Mr. Hastings. There never were three distresses that
seemed so little reconcilable with one another."

Anticipating the plea of state-necessity, which might possibly
be set. up in defence of the measures of Ihe Governor-General,
he breaks out into the following rhetorical passage : —

" State necessity 1 no, my Lords ; that imperial tyrant. State NeceB^it^y
is yet a geherous despot, — bold is his demeanor, rapid his decisions, and
terrible his grasp. But what he does, my Lords, he dares avow, and avow-
ing, scorns any other justification, than the great motives that placed the
iron sceptre in his hand. But a quibbling, pilfering, prevaricating State-
Necessity, that tries to skulk behind the skirts of Justice ; — a State-Neces-
sity that tries to steal a pitiful justification from whispered accusations and

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 17

fabricated nimors. No, my Lords, that is no State Necessity ;— tear oflf the
mask, and you see coarse, vulgar avarice, — you see speculation, lurking
under the gaudy disguise, and adding the guilt of libelling the public
honor to its own private fraud.

" My Lords, I say this, because I am sure the Managers would make
every allowance that state-necessity could claim upon any great emergen-
cy. If any great man in bearing the arms of this country j — if any Ad-
miral, bearing the vengeance and the glory of Britain to distant coasts,
should be compelled to some rash acts of violence, in order, perhaps, to
give food to those who are shedding then: blood for Britain ; — if any great
General, defending some fortress, barren itself, perhaps, but a pledge of the
pride, and, with the pride, of the power of Britain ; It such a man were to
* * * while he himself was * * at the top, like an

eagle besieged in its imperial nest ;* — would the Commons of England come
to accuse or to arraign such acts of state-necessity ? No."

In describing that swarm of English pensioners and placemen,
who were still, in violation of the late purchased treaty, left to
prey on the finances of the Nabob, he says, —

" Here we find they were left, as heavy a weight upon the Nabob as ever,
— left there with as keen an appetite, though not so clamorous. They were
reclining on the roots and shades of that spacious tree, which their prede-
cessors had stripped branch and bough — watching with eager eyes the first
budding of a future prosperity, and of the opening harvest which they con-
sidered as the prey of their perseverance and rapacity."

We have in the close of the following passage, a specimen of
that lofty style, in which, as if under the influence of Eastern
associations, almost all the Managers of this Trial occasionally
indulged :f —

« The Reporter, at many of these passages, seems to have thrown aside his pen in
despair.

t Much of this, however, is to be set down to the gratuitous bombast of the Reporter.
Mr. Fox, for instance, is made to say, " Yes, my Lords, happy is it for the world, that the
penetrating gaze of Providence searches after man, and in the dark den where he has
tftiflcd the remonstrances of conscience darts his compulsatory ray, that, bursting the se-
crecy of guilt, drives the criminal frantic to confession and expiation." History of ^
Trial— Even one of the Counsel, Mr. Dallas, is represented as having caught this Oriental
contagion, to such a degeee as to express himself in the folloMrii^ manner ^— " We are
now, however, (said the Counsel,) advancing from the star-light of Circumstance to the
day -light of Discovery : the sun of Certainty is melting the darkness, and— we are ar-
rived at facts admitted by both parties!"

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18 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" I do not mean to say that Mr. Middleton bad direct iostructions fVom
Mr. Hastings, — that he told him to go, and give that fallacious assurance
to the Nabob, — that he had that order under hia hand. No— but in looking
attentively over Mr. Middleton's correspondence, you will find him say,
npon a more important occasion, ' I don't expect your public authority for
this ; — it is enough if you but hint your pleasure.' He knew him well ; he
could interpret every nod and motion of that head ; he understood the
glances of that eye which sealed the perdition of nations, and at whose
throne Princes waited, in pale expectation, for their fwrtune or their doom."

The following is one of those labored passages, of which the
orator himself w#s perhaps most proud, but in which the effort
to be eloquent is too visible, and the effect, accordingly, falls
short of the pretension: —

" You see how Truth — empowered by that will which gives a giant's
nerve to an infant's arm — ^has burst the monstrous mass of fraud that has
endeavored to suppress it.— U calls now to Your Lordships, in the weak
but clear tone of that Cherub, Innocence, whose voice is more persuasive
than eloquence, more convincing than argument, whose look is supplica-
tion, whose tone is conviction, — it calls upon you for redress, it calls upon
you for vengeance upon the oppressor, and points its heaven-directed hand
to the detested, but unrepenting author of its wrongs !''

His description of the desolation brought upon some provinces
of Oude by the misgovernment of Colonel Hannay, and of the
insurrection at Gbruckpore against that officer in consequence, is,
perhaps, the most masterly portion of the whole speech : —

" If we could suppose a person to have come suddenly into the country
unacquainted with any circumstances that had passed since the days of
Sujah ul Dowlah. he would naturally ask — what cruel hand has wrought
this wide desolation, what barbarian foe has invaded the country, has deso-
lated its fields, depopulated its villages ? He would ask, what disputed
succession, civil rage, or frenzy of the inhabitants, had induced them to
act in hostility to the words of God, and the beauteous works of man ?
He would ask what religious zeal or frenzy had added to the mad despair
and horrors of war ? The ruin is unlike any thing that appears recorded
in any age ; it looks like neither the barbarities of men, nor the judgments
of vindictive heaven. There is a waste of desolation, as if caused by fell
destroyers, never meaning to return and making but a short period of their
rapacity. It looks as if some fabled monster had made its passage through
the country, whose pestiferous breath had blasted mote than its voraciour
appetite could devour."

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 19

" If there had been any men in the country, who had not their hearts
and souls so subdued by fear, as to refUse to speak the truth at all upon
such a subject, they would have told him, there had been no war since
the time of Sujah ul Dowlah, — tyrant, indeed, as he was, but then deeply
regretted by his subjects— that no hostile blow of any enemy had been
struck in that land — that there had been no disputed succession — no civil
war — no religious frenzy. But that these were the tokens of British friend-
ship, the marks left by the embraces of British allies — more dreadful than
the blows of the bitterest enemy. They would tell him that these allies
had converted a prince into a slave, to make him the principal in the ex-
tortion upon his subjects ; — that their rapacity increased in proportion as
the means of supplying their avarice diminished ; that they made the sove-
reign pay as if they had a right to an increased price, because the labor
of extortion and plunder increased. To such causes, they would tell him,
these calamities were owing.

" Need I refer Your Lordships to the strong testimony of Msjor Naylor
when he rescued Colonel Hannay from their hands — where you see that
this people, born to submission and bent to most abject subjection — that
even they, in whose meek hearts injury had never yet begot resentment,
nor even despair bred courage— that their hatred, their abhorrence of
Colonel Hannay was such that they clung round him by thousands and
thousands ; — that when Major Naylor rescued him, they refused life from
the hand that could rescue Hannay ; — that they nourished this desperate
consolation, that by their death they should at least thin the number of
wretches who suffered by his devastation and extortion. He says that,
•when he crossed the river, he found the poor wretches quivering upon
the parched banks of the polluted river, encouraging their blood to flow,
and consoling themselves with the thought, that it would not sink into the
earth, but rise to the common God of humanity, and cry. aloud for vengeance
on their destroyers ! — ^This warm description — which is no declamation of
mine, but founded in actual fact, and in fair, clear proof before Your Lord-
ships — speaks powerfully what the cause of these oppressions were, and
the perfect justness of those feelings that were occasioned by them. And
yet,, my Lords, I am asked to prove tehy these 4)eople arose in such con-
cert : — * there must have been machinations, forsooth, and the Begums'
machinations, to produce all this I' — Why did they rise ! — Because they
were people in human shape ; because patience under the detested tyran-
ny of man is rebellion to the sovereignty of God ; because allegiance to
that Power that gives us the /orm« of men commsinds us to maintain the
rights of men. And never yet was this truth dismissed from the human
heart — never in any time, in any age — never in any clime, where rude man
ever had any social feeling, or where corrupt refinement had subdued all

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20 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

feelings, — never was this^^ne onextinguisbable truth destroyed from the
heart of man, placed as it is, in the core and centre of it by his Maker,
that man was not made the property of man ; that human power is a trust
for human benefit ; and that when it is abused, revenge becomes justice,
if not the bouuden duty of the iiyured I These, my Lords, were the causes
why these people rose."

Another passage in the second day's speech is remarkable, as
exhibiting a sort of tourney of intellect between Sheridan anji
Burke, and in that field of abstract speculation, which was the fa-
vorite arena of the latter. Mr. Burke had, in opening the prose-
cution, remarked, that prudence is a quality incompatible with
vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause : — "I never
(said he) knew a man who was bad, fit for service that was good.
There is always some disqualifying ingredient, mixing and spoil-
ing the compound. The man seems paralytic on that side, his
muscles there have lost their very tone and character — they can-
not move. In short, the accomplishment of any thing good is a
physical impossibility for such a man. Hiere is decrepitude as
well as distortion : he could not, if he would, is not more cer-
tam than that he would not, if he could." To this sentiment the
allusions in the following passage refer : —

** I am perfectly convinced that there is one idea, which must arise in
Your Lordships' minds as a sulgect of wonder, — how a person of Mr. Has-
tings' reputed abilities can furnish such matter of accusation agamst Him-
self. For, it must be admitted that never was there a person who seems
to go so rashly to work, with such an arrogant appearance of contempt for
all conclusions, that may be deduced from what he advances upon the
subject. When he seems most earnest and laborious to defend himself,
it appears as if he had but one idea uppermost in his mind — a determina-
tion not to care what he says, provided he keeps clear of fact He knows
that truth must convict him, and concludes, a converso^ that falsehood will
acquit him ; forgetting that there must be some connection, some system,
some co-operation, or, otherwise, his host of falsities fall without an enemy,
self-discomfited and destroyed. Bat of this he never seems to have had
the slightest apprehension. He falls to work, an artificer of fraud, against
all the rules of architecture ; — he lays his ornamental work first, and his
massy foundation at the top of it ; and thus his whole building tumbles
upon his head. Other people look well to their ground, choose their posi-
tion, and watch whether they are likely to be surprised there ; but he, as

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 21

if in the ostentation of his heart, builds upon a precipice, and encampe
upon a mine, from qhoice. He seems to haye no one actuating principle,
but a steady, persevering resolution not to speak the truth or to tell the
fact.

"It is impossible almost to treat conduct of this kind with perfect seri-
ousness ; yet I am aware that it ought to be more seriously accounted for
— because I am sure it has been a 8(»rt of paradox, which must have struck
Your Lordships, how any person having so many motives to conceal —
having so many reasons to dread detection —should yet go to work so
clumsily upon the subject. It is possible, indeed, that it may raise this
doubt — whether such a person is of sound mind enough to be a proper
object of punishment ; or at least it may give a kind of confused notion,
that the guilt cannot be of so deep and black a grain, over which such a
thin veil was thrown, and so little trouble taken to avoid detection. I am
aware that, to account for this seeming paradox, historians, poets, and
even philosophers — at least of ancient tiiues^have adopted the supersti-
tious solution of the vulgar, and said that the gods deprive men of reason
whom they devote to destruction or to punishment. But to unassuming
or unprejudiced reason, there is no need to resort to any supposed super-
natural interference ; for the solution will be found in the eternal rule?
that formed the mind of man, and gave a quality and nature to every pas-
sion that inhabits in it.

" An Hononible friend of mine, who is now, I believe, near me, — a gen-
tleman, to whom I never can on any occasion refer without feelings of res-
pect, and, on this subject, without feelings of the most grateful homage ;
— a gentleman, whose abilities upon this occasion, as upon some former
ones, happily for the glory of the age in which we live, are not entrusted
merely to the perishable eloquence of the day, but will live to be the ad-
miration of that hour when all of us are mute, and most of us forgotten ; —
that Honorable gentleman has told you that Prudence, the first of virtues,
never can be used in the cause of vice. If, reluctant and diffident, I might
take such a liberty, I should express a doubt, whether experience, obser-
vation, or history, will warrant us in fully assenting to this observation. It
is a noble and a lovely sentiment, my Lords, worthy the mind of him who
uttered it, worthy that proud disdain, that generous scorn of the means and
Instruments of vice, which virtue and genius must ever feel. But I should
doubt whether we can read the history of a Philip of Macedon, a Csesar, or
a Cromwell, without confessing, that there have been evil purposes, bane-
ful to the peace and to the rights of men, conducted — if I may not say, with
prudence or with wisdom — yet with awful craft and most successful and
commanding subtlety. If, however, I might make a distinction, I should
say that it is the proud attempt to mix a variety of lordly crimes, that un-
settles the prudence of the mind, and breeds this distraction of the brain.

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22 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

One maater-passion, domineering in the breast, may win the faoultiet of
the understanding to advance its purpose, and to direct to that object eyery
thing that thought or human knowledge can effect ; but, to succeed, it must
maintain a solitary despotism in the mind ; — each rival profligacy must
stand aloof, or wait in abject vassalage upon its throne. For, the Tower,
that has not forbad the entrance^of evil passions into man's mind, has, at
least, forbad their union ; — if they meet they defeat their ofcgect, and tiieir
conquest, or their attempt at it, is tumult. Turn to the Virtues — ^how dif-
ferent the decree ! Formed to connect, to blend, to associate, and to co-
operate ; bearing the same course, with kindred energies and harmonious
sympathy, each perfect in its own lovely sphere, each moving in its wider
or more contracted orbit, with different, but concentering, powers, guided
by the same influence of reason, and endeavoring at the same blessed end
— the happiness of the individual, the harmony of tlie species, and the glory
of the Creator. In the Vices, on the other hand, it is the discord that in-
sures the defeat — each clamors to be heard in its own barbarous language ;
each claims the exclusive cunning of the brain ; each thwarts and reproaches
the other ; and even while their fell rage assails with common hate liie
peace and virtue of the world, the civil war among their own tumultuous
legions defeats the purpose of the foul conspiracy. These are the Furies
of the mind, my Lords, that unsettle the understanding ; these are the
Furies, that destroy the virtue. Prudence, — while the distracted brain and
shivered intellect proclaim the tumult that is within, and bear their testi-
monies, from the mouth of God himself, to the foul condition of the hearf

The part of the Speech which occupied the Third Day (and
which was interrupted by the sudden indisposition of Mr. Sheri-
dan) consists chiefly of comments upon the affidavits taken be-
fore Sir Elijah Impey, — in which the irrelevance and inconsist-
ency of these documents is shrewdly exposed, and the dryness
of detail, inseparable from such a task, enlivened by those light
touches of conversational humor, and all that by-play of elo-
quence of which Mr. Sheridan was such a consummate master.
But it was on the Fourth Day of the oration that he rose into
his most ambitious flights, and produced some of those dazzling
bursts of declamation, of which the traditional fame is most viv-
idly preserved. Among the audience of that day was Gibbon,
and the mention of his name in the following passage not only
produced its effect at the moment, but, as connected with literary
anecdote, will make the passage itself long memorable. Poli-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 23

tics are of the day, but literature is of all time — and, though it
was in the power of the orator, in his brief moment of triumph,
to throw a lustre over the historian by a passing epithet,* the
name of the latter will, at the long run, pay back the honor with
interest. Having reprobated the violence and perfidy of the
Governor-General, in forcing the Nabob to pkinder his own re-
latives and friends, he adds : —

" I do say, that if you search the history of the world, you will not find
an act of tyranny and fraud to surpass this ; if yon read all past histories,
pemse the Annals of Tacitus, read the luminous page of Gibbon, and all
the ancient and modern writers, that have searched into the depravity of
former ages to draw a lesson for the present, you will not find an act of
treacherous, deliberate, cool cruelty that could exceed this."

On being asked by some honest brother Whig, at the conclu-
sion of the Speech, how he came to compliment Gibbon with
the epithet " luminous," Sheridan answered in a half whisper, " I
said 'voluminous.' "

It is well known that the simile of the vulture and the lamb,
which occurs in the address of Rolla to the Peruvians, had been
previously employed by Mr. Sheridan, in this speech ; and it
showe(i a degree of indifference to criticism, — which criticism,
it must be owned, not unfrequently deserves, — to reproduce be-
fore the public an image, so notorious both from its application
and its success. But, called upon, as he was, to levy, for the use
of that Drama, a hasty conscription of phrases and images, all
of a certain altitude and pomp, this veteran simile, he thought,
might be pressed into the service among the rest. The passage
of the Speech in which it occurs is left imperfect in the Re-
port : —

" This is the character of all the protection ever afforded to the allies of
Britain under the government of Mr. Hastings. They send their troops to

♦ Gibbon himself thoi^ht it an event worthy of record in bis Memoirs. " Before my de-
pi^are from England (he says), I was preient at the august spectacle of Mr. Hastings'^
Trial in Westminster Hall. It was not my province to absolve or condemn the Governor
of India ; bat Mr. Sheridan's eloquence demanded my applause ; nor could I hear without
emotion the personal compliment which he paid me in the presence of the British nation,
nmn this display of genius, which biased four successive days," &c. ftc.

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24 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

drsun the produce of industrj, to seize all the treasures, wealth, and pros-
perity of the country, and then they call it Protection ! — it is the protec-
tion of the vulture to the lamb. * • • "

The following is his celebrated delineation of Filial Affection, '
to which referenc is more frequently made than to any other
part of the Speech ; — ^though the gross inaccuracy of the printed
Report has done its utmost to belie the reputation of the original
passage, or rather has substituted a changeling to inherit its
fame.

" When I see in many of these letters the infirmities of age made a sub-
ject of mockery and ridicule ; when I see the feelings of a son treated by
Mr. Middleton as puerile and contemptible ; when I see an order given
by Mr. Hastings to harden that son^s heart, to choke the struggling nature
in his bosom ; when I see them pointing to the son's name, and to his stand-
ard while marching to oppress the mother, as to a banner that gives dignity,
that gives a holy sanction and a reverence to their enterprise ; when I see
and hear these things done — when I hear them brought into three delibe-
rate Defences set up against the Charges of the Commons— my Lords, I
own I grow puzzled and confounded, and almost begin to doubt whether,
where such a defence can be offered, it may not be tolerated.

" And yet, my Lords, how can I support the claim of filial love by argu-
ment — much less the affection of a son to a mother — where love loses its
awe. and veneration is mixed with tenderness? What can I say upon
such a subject, what can I do but repeat the ready truths which, with the
qu'ck impulse of the mind, must spring to the lips of every man on such a
theme ? Filial love ! the morality of instinct, the sacrament of nature and
duty— or rather let me say it is miscalled a duty, for it flows from the heart
without effort, and is its delight, its indulgence, its enjoyment It is guid-
ed, not by the slow dictates of reason ; it awaits not encouragement from
reflection or from thought ; it asks no aid of memory ; it is an innate, but
active, consciousness of having been the object of a thousand tender solici-
tudes, a thousand waking watchful cares, of meek anxiety and patient sac-
rifices, unremarked and unrequited by the object. It is a gratitude found-
ed upon a conviction of obligations, not remembered, but the more bind-
ing because not remembered, — ^because conferred before the tender reason
could acknowledge, or the infant memory record them — a gratitude and
affection, which no circumstances ^ould subdue, and which few can
strengthen ; a gratitude, in which even injury from the object, though it
may blend regret, should never breed resentment ; an affection which can
be increased only by the decay of those to whom we owe it, and which is

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 25

tbeD most ferrent wben the tfenralons voice of age, resistless in its feeble-
ness, inquires for the natural protector of its cold decline.

" If these are the general sentiments of man, what must be their de-
prayity, what mast be their degeneracy, who can blot out and erase from
the bosom the virtue that ib deepest rooted in the human heart, and twined
within &e cords of life itself — aliens from nature, apostates from faumanitj 1
And yet, if there is a crime more fiell, more foul — if there is any thing worse
tiian a wilful perseoutor of his mother — it te to see a deliberate, reasoning
instigator and abettor to the deed : — ^this it is that shocks, disgusts, and
appals the mind more tiian the other — to view, not a wilful parricide, but
a parricide by compulsion, a miserable wretch, not actuated by the stub-
born evils of his own worthless heart, not driven by the fury of his own
distracted brain, but leading his sacrilegious hand, without any malice of
his own, to answer the abandoned purposes of the human fiends that have
subdued his will I — To condemn crimes like these, we need not talk of
laws or of human rules — their foulness, their deformity does not depend
upon local constitutions, upon human institutes or religious creeds : — they
are crimes — and tiie persons who perpetrate them are monsters who violate
the primitive condition, upon which the earth wtfs given to man — they are
guilty by the general verdict of human kind.''

In some of the sarcasms we are reminded of the quaint con-
trasts of his dramatic style. Thus : —

." I must also do credit to them whenever I see any thing like lenity in
Mr. If iddleton or bis agent : — they do seem to admit here, that it was not
worth while to commit amasMore for the discount of a small note of hand,
and to put two thouiand women and ohildreato death, in order to proeuze
prompt payment"

Of the length to which the language of crimination was car-
ried, as well by Mr. ^eridan as by Mr. Burke, one example, out
of many, will suffice. It cannot fail, however, to be remarked
that, while the denunciations and invectives of Burke are filled
throughout with a passionate earnestness, which leaves no doubt
as to the sincerity of the hate and anger professed by him, — m
Sheridan^ whose nature was of a much gentler cast, the vehemence
is evidently more in tiie words than in the feeling, the tone of
indignation is theatrical and assmned, and the brightness of the
flash seems to be move considered liian the tiestmctireness of the
fire :-—

VOL. n. 2

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26 HXM0IB8 OF TH£ UF£ OF THE

** It is this eireuBstancft of deliberatioH and ^onseiousoefis of his goilt—
it is this that inflames the minds of those who watch his transactions, and
roots oat all pil^* for a person who coald act tinder sach an inflnence. We
conceive of such tynuits as Caligula and Nero, bred np to tyranny and op-
IHression, having had no equals to control them— bo moment for reflection
— ^we conceive that, if it conldhave been posnblo to seize the goiUy ]^ofii-
gates for a moment, you might bring conviction to their hearts and repent-
ance to their minds. But when you see a cool, reasoning, deliberate
tyrant— one who was not bom and bred to arrogance, — ^who has been
nursed in a mercantile line*— who has been used to look round unong his
fellow-subjects — to transact business with his equals — ^to account for con-
duct to his master, and, by that wise system of the Company, to detail all
his transactions — who never could fly one moment from himself, but must
be obliged every night to sit down and hold up a ^ass to his own soul —
who could never be blind to his deformity, and who must have brought his
conscience not only to connive at but to apiwove of it — this it is that dis-
tingnii^es it from the worst cruelties, the worst ea<»iiiities of those, who,
born to tyranny, and finding no superior, no adviser, have gone to the last
presumption that there were none above to control them hereafter. This
is a circumstance that aggravates the whole <^ the guilt of the unfortunate
gentleman we are now arraigning at your bar."

We now come to the Peroration, in which, skilfully and with-
out appearance of design, it is contrived that the same sort of
appeal to the purity of British justice, with which the oration
opened, should, like the repetition of a solemn strain of music, re-
cur at its close,— leaving in the minds of the Judges a composed
and concentrated feeling of the great public duty they had to
perform, in deciding upon the arrsagnment of guilt brought be-
fore them. The Court of Directors, it appeared, had ordered an
inquiry into the conduct of the Begums, with a view te ^be res-
titution of their property, if it should appear that the charges
f^ainst them were imfounded ; but to this proceeding Mr. Hast-
ings objected, on tiie ground that the Begums themselves had not
called for such interference in their favor, and that it was incon-
sistent with the " Majesty of Justice " to cctfidescend to volunteer
Her services. The pompous «nd Jesuitical styie in which this
lingular doetrine* is axpressed, in a letter addressed by the

• «If nothng (tayt Hr. Ifiil) remaiiied to ■Cain the rapatetioc af Mr. OMtidg* bat tiio

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRmSBEY SistBRIDAN. 27

Governor-general to Mr. 'Maq^erson, is thus ingeniously turned
to account by the orator, in windmg up his masterly statement
to a close : —

' And new befeire I come to tbe Iftet mflgnificeiit paragraph, let me call
the atteotloA (Mf those wfao, possibly, think themselves capable of judging
of the digiuty and character of justice in this coontty ; — ^let me call the at-
tention of those who. arrogantly perhaps, presume that they understand
what the features, what the duties of justice are here and in India ; — ^let
them leam a lesson from this great statesman, this enlarged, this liberal
philosopher :- ^ I hope I diall not depart from tbe simplicity of official lan-
guage, in saying that the Majesty of Justice ou^t to be approached with
solicitation, not descend to provoke or invite it, much less to debase itself
by the suggestion of wrongs and the promise of redress, with the denun-
ciation of punishment belbre trial, and even before accusation.' This is the
ex]i(M*tation which Mr. Hastings makes to his counsel. This is the character
which he gives of Brttieii justice.

" But I will ask Your Lordships, do you approve this representation ? Do
you feel that this is the true image of Justice ? Is this the character of
Brtish justice ? Are these her features ? Is this her countenance ? Is this
her gait or her mien? No, I think even now I hear you calling upon me
to turn from this vile Ubel, this base caricature, this Indian pagod, formed
by the hand of guilty and knavi^ tyranny, to dupe the heart of ignorance,
— to turn from this deformed idol to the true Majesty of Justice here.
Hete^ indeed, I see a different form, enthroned by the sovereign hand of
Freedom, — awful without severity — commanding without pride — vigilant
and active without restlessness or suspicion — searching and inquisitive
without meanness or debasement — not arrogantly scorning to stoop to the
voic« of afflicted innocence, and in its loveliest attitude when bending to
uplift the suppliant at its feet.

" It is by the miyesty, by the form of that Justice, that I do conjure and
implore Your Lordships to give your minds to this great business ; that I
exhort you to look, not so much to words, which may be denied or quib-
bled away, but to the plain facts,-^te weigh and consider the testii&ony in
your own nunds : we know the result must be inevitable. Let the truth
appear and our cause is gained. It is this, I conjure Your Lordships, for
your own honor, for the honor of the nation, for the honor of human na-
ture, now entrusted to your care, — it is this duty that the Commons of
England, q[>eaking through us, claims at yoor bands.

priaciplei avowed in this siagolar (rieading, his chtfaoter, among the frvmdm of justice,
would be sofficiently determined."

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28 MBMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

** The7 exhort jaa to it by every tiling that calls sublimely upon tiie
heart of man, by the Majesty of that Justice which this bold man has li-
belled, by the wide feme of your own tribunal, by the sacred pledge by
which you swear in the solemn hour of decision, knowing that that decision
will then bring you tbe highest reward that erer blessed the heart of
man, the consciousness of hft?ing done the greatest act of mercy ibr the
world, that the earth has e^er yet re^^red from any band but Heaven.—
My Lords, I have done."

Though I have selected some of the most remarkable passages
of this Speech,* it would be unfair to judge of it even from these
specimens. A Report, verbatim, of any effective speech must
always appear difiuse and ungraceful in the perusal. The very-
repetitions, the redundancy, the accumulation of epithets wbich
gave force and momentum in the career of delivery, but weaken
and encumber the march of the style, wh^ read. There is, in-
deed, the same sort of difference between a faithful short-hand
Report, and tiiose abridged and polished records whidi Burke
has left us of his speeches^ as there is between a cast taken di>
rectly from the face, (where every line is accwatcly preserved,
but all the blemi^es and excrescences are in r^id preservation
also,) and a model, over which the correcting hand has passed,
and all that was minute or superfluous is generalized and softened
away.

Neither was it in such rhetorical passages as abound, perhaps,
rather lavishly, in this Speech, that the chief strength of Mr. Sher-
idan's talent lay. Good sense and wit were the great weapons

* I hftd selected many more, but most co^fese that they appeared to me, w4iea in print,
8o little worthy of the reputati^ of the Speech, that I thought it would be, on the whole,
more prudent to omit them. Even of the passages, here cited, I speak rather from my
imagination of what they must have been, than from my actual feeling of what they are.
The character, given of such Rqiwrts, by Ix»rd 'Loughborough, is, no doubt, but too just.
On a motion made by Lord Stanhope, (AprH 29, 1794), that the short-hand writers,
employed on HasUQgs's trial, should be summoned to ^e bar of the Hoose, to readthm
mioutes. Lord Loughborough^ in the course of his obscrvationa on the motion, said,
" God forbid that ever their Lordships should call on the short-hand writers to publish their
notes ; for, of all people, short-hand writers were ever the farthest from correctness, and
there were no man's wordv they over beard that they again returned. They were in
general ignorant, as acting mechanically ; and by not considering the antecedent, and
catching the sound, and not the sense, they perverted the sellse of the speaker, and made
him appear as ignorant as themselves."

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BIGHT HON- BICHARD BRINSLEY SHEBIDAN. 29

of his oratory — shrewdness in detecting the weak points of an
adversiry, and infinite powers of raillery in exposing it. These
were^ faculties which he possessed in a greater degree than any
of his oontemp<Htiries ; and so vreU did he himself know the
stronghold of his powers, that it was but rarely, after this dis-
play in Westminster HaU, that he was tempted to leave it for
the higher flights of oratory, or to wander after Sense into that
region of metaphor, where too often, like Angelica in the en-
chanted palace of Atlante, she is sought for in yain.* His at-
tempts, indeed, at the florid <»> figurative style, whether in his
speeches or his writings, were seldom very suoeetsfiil. That
luxuriance of &ncy, which in Burke was natural and ind%enous,
was in him rather a forced and exotic growth. It is a remarkable
proof of this difference between them, that while, in the memo-
randums of speedies left behind by Burke, we find, that the
points of argument and buuness were those whidi he pr^)ared,
trusting to the ever ready wardrobe of his fancy for their adoni-
meut, — in Mr. Sheridan's notes it is chiefly the decorative pas-
sages, that are worked up beforehand to their full polish ; while
on the resources of his good sense, ingenuity, and temper, he
seems to have relied for the management of his reasonings and
facts. Hence naturally it arises that the images of Burke, being
called up on the instant, like spirits, to perform the bidding of
his argument, minister to it throughout, with an almost co-
ordinate agency ; while the figurative fancies of Sheridan, already
prepared for the occasion, and brought forth to adorn, not assist,
the business of the discourse, resemble rather those sprites which
the magicians used to keep inclosed in phials, to be produced for a
momentary enchantment, and then shut up again.

In truth, the similes and illustrations of Burke form such an
intimate, and often essential, part of his reasoning, that if the
whole strength of the Samson does not lie in those luxuriant
locks, it would at least be considerably diminished by their loss.
Whereas, in the Speech of Mr. Sheridan, which we have just
been considering, there is hardly one of the rhetorical ornaments

• Cbrran nied to uy laughingly, "When I can't talk sente, I talk metaphor.''

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ihat miglit not be detached, without, in any great degree^ injurit^
the force of the general statement Another consequence of this
difference between them is observaUe in their respective modes
of transition, from what may be called the bu^ne^ of a speech
to its more generalized and rhetorical paits. When Sheridan
rises, his elevation is not sufficiently prepared ; he starts abrupUy
and at once from the level of his statement, and sinks down into
it again with the same suddenness. But Burke, whose imagin-
aticm never allows even bumness to subside into mere prose^
sustains a pitch throughout which accustoms the mind to wonder,
and, while it prepares us to fsocompany him in his boldest ffi^ts,
makes us, even when he walks^ still feel that he has wings : —

" Mime quand Voiteau marche, on sent quHl a des ailes,"

The sincerity of the praises bestowed by Burke on the Speech
of his brother Manager has sometimes heen questioned, but upon
no sufEcient grounds. His zeal for the success of the Impeach-
ment, no doubt, had a considerable share in the enthusiasm, with
which this great effort in its favor filled him. It may be granted,
too, that, in admiring the apostrophes that variegate this speech,
he was, in some degree, ^amored of a reflection of himself;

'' Cunetaque mirati^f quihui est nUrabilu ipse."

He sees reflected there, in fainter light,
All that comMnes to make himself bo bright.

' But whatever mixture of other motives there may have been
in the feeling, it is certain that his admiration of the Speech was
real and unbounded. He is said to have exdaimed to Mr. Fox,
during the delivery of some passages of it, " There, — that is the
true style ; — something between poetry and prose, and better than
either." The severer taste of Mr. Fox dissented, as might be
expected, from this remark. He replied, that " he thought such
a mixture was for the advar^tage of neither — ^as producing poetic
prose, or, st 11 worse, prosaic poetry." It was, indeed, the opinion
of Mr. Fox, that the impression made \ipon Burke by these

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BIGHT H0K. BICHABD BBINSLBf SHS^IDAN. 31

somewhat too thea^cal tirades is obserrabie in the change that
subsequently took place in his own style of writing ; and that the
florid and less chastened taste which some persons discover in his
later productions, may all be traced to the example of this speech.
However this may be, or whether there is really much di&rence,
as to taste, between the youth^l and sparkling vision of the
Queen of France in 1792, sand the interview between the Angel
and Lord Bathurst in 1775, it is surely a most unjust dis^)arage-
ment of the eloquence of Burke, to apply to it, at any time of
his life, the epithet " flowery," — a designation only applicable to
that ordinary ambition of style, whose chief disfday, by necessity,
coQsists of ornament without thought, and pomp without sub-
stance. A succession of bright images, clothed in simple, trans-
parent language, — even when, as in Burke, they " crowd upon
the aching sense " too dazzlingly, — should never be confounded
with that mere verbal opulence of style, which mistakes the glare
of words for the glitter oi ideas, and, like the Helen of the
sculptor Lysippus, makes finery supply the place of beauty.
The figurative definition of eloquence in the Book of Proverbs
— " Apples of gold in a net-work of silver " — is peculiarly ap-
plicable to that enshrinement of rich, solid, thoughts in dear and
shining language, which is the triumph of the imaginative class
of writers and orators, — while, perhaps, the net- work, without the
gold inclosed, is a type equally significant of what is called
" flowery " eloquence.

It is also, I think, a mistake, however flattering to my country,
to call the Sdiool of Oratory, to whidi Burke belongs, Irish,
That Irishmen are naturally more gifted with those stores of
&ncy, from which the illumination of this high order of the art
must be supplied, the names of Burke, Ghrattan, Sherklan, Curran,
Canning, and Plunkett, abundantly testify. Yet had Lord Chat-
ham, before any of these great speakers were heard, led the way,
in the same animated and figured strain of oratory ;* while ano-

* Hit few noble sentences on the privilege of the poor man's cottage are universally
known. There is also his fanciful allusion to the confluence of the Saone and Rhone, tho
traditional reports of which vary, both as to the exact terms in whieh it was expressed,
and the persons to whom he applied it. Even Lwd Orford does iTot seem to have mscer.

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32 MSaCOlM O? TfiB LIF£ OF T9S

ther Englishman, Lord Bacon, by making Fancy the htmd-maid
of Philosi^hy, had long since set an example of that union of
the imaginatlYe and the solid, which, both in writing and in speak-
ing, forms the diaracteristic distinction of this school.

The Speedi of Mr. Sheridan in Westminster Hall, though so
much inferior in the opinion of Mr. Fox and others, to that
which he had delivered on the same subject in the House of
Commons, seems to have produced, at the time, even a more
lively and general sensation; — ^possibly from the nature and
numerousness of the assembly before which it was spoken, and
which counted among its multitude a number of that sex, whose
lips are in general, found to be the most rapid conductors of fame.

But there was one of this sex, more immediately interested in
his glory, who seems to have felt it as women alone can feel. " I
have delayed writing," says Mrs. Sheridan, in a letter to her sister-
in-law, dated four days after the termination of the Speech, " till I
could gratify myself and you by sending you the news of our dear
Dick's triumph ! — of our triumph I may call it ; for surely, no
one, in the slightest degree connected with him, but must feel
proud and happy. It is impossible, my dear woman, to convey
to you the delight, the astcmishment, the adoration, he has excited
in the breasts of every class of people ! Every party-pr^udice
has been overcome by a display of genius, eloquence and good-
ness, which no one with any thing like a heart about them, could
have listened to without being the wiser and the better for the
rest of their lives. What must my feelings be ! — ^you can only
imagine. To tell you the truth, it is with some difficulty that I
can * let down my mind,' as Mr. Burke said afterwards, to talk or
think on any other subject. But pleasure, too exquisite, becomes
pain, and I am at this m<xnent suffering for the delightful anxieties
of last week."

tuned the latter point. To these may be added the f<rfIowing specimen :— " I donU inquire
from what quarter the wind cometh, but whither it goeth ; and, if any measure that
comes from the Right Honorable Gentleman tends to the public good, my bark is ready.*'
or a different kind is that grand passage, — " America, they tell me, has resisted— I re-
joice to hear it,''— which Mr. Grattan used to pronounce finer than anything in Demos*
thenes.

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BIGHT HON, BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 33

It is a most happy combination when the wife of a man of
genius unites intellect enough to appreciate the talents of her
husband, with the quick, feminine sensibility, that can thus pas-
sicmately feel his success. Pliny tells us, that his Calpurnia,
whenever he pleaded an important cause, had messengers ready
to report to her every murmur of applause that he received ;
and the poet Statins, in alluding to his own victories at the Al-
banian Oames, mentions the " breathless kisses," with which his
wife, Claudia, used to cover the triumphal garlands he brought
home. Mrs. Sheridan may well take her place beside these
Boman wives ; — ^and she had another resemblance to one of them,
which was no less womanly and attractive. Not only did Cal-
purnia sympathize with the glory of her husband abroad, but she
could also, like Mrs. Sheridan, add a charm to his talents at home,
by setting his verses to music and singing them to her harp,—
" with no instructor," adds Pliny, " but Love, who is, after all,
the best master."

Tins l^ter of Mrs. Sheridan thus proceeds : — " You were per-
haps alarmed by the account of S.'s illness in the papers ; but I
have the pleasure to assure vyou he is now perfectly well, and I
hope by next week we shall be quietly settled in the country,
and suffered to repose, in every sense of the word ; for indeed
we have, both of us, been in a constant state of agitation, of one
kind or other, for some lime back.

" I am very glad to hear your father continues so well. Surely
he must feel happy and proud of such a son. I take it for
granted you see the newspapers : I assure you the accounts in
them are not exaggerated, and only echo the exclamation of ad-
miration that is in every body's mouth. I make no excuse for
dwellitig on this subject : I know you will not find it tedious.
God bless you — I am an invalid at present, and not able to write
long letters."

The agitation and want of repose, which Mrs. Sheridan here

• complains of, arose not only from the anxiety which she so

deeply felt, for the success of this great public effort of her hus-

baiid, but from the share which she herself had taken, in the la-

VOL. II, 2* j'

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34 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OP THE

bor and attention necessary to prepare him for it. The mind of
Sheridan being, from the circumstances of his education and life^
but scantily informed upon all subjects for whidi reading is ne-
ccssary, required, of course, considerable training and feeding,
before it could venture to grapple with any new or important
task. He has been known to say frankly to his political friends,
when invited to take part in some question that depended upon
authorities, " You know I'm an ignoramus — ^but here I am — ^in-
struct me and I'll do my best." It is said that the stock of nu-
merical lore, upon which he ventured to set up as the Aristar-
chus of Mr. Pitt's financial plans, was the result of three weeks*
hard study of arithmetic, to which he doomed himsd^ in the
early part of his Parliamentary career, on the chance of being
appointed, some time or other, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
For financial display it must be owned that this was rather a
crude preparation. But there are other subjects of oratory,
on which the outpourings of information, newly acquired, may
have a freshness and vivacity which it would be vain to expect,
in the communication of knowledge that has lain long in the
mind, and lost in circumstantial spirit what it has gained m. gene-
ral mellowness. They, indeed, who have been regularly disci-
plined in learning, may be not only too familiar with what they
know to communicate it with much liveliness to others, but too
apt also to rely upon the resources of the memory, and upon
those cold outlines which it retains of knowledge whose details
are faded. The natural consequence of all this is that persons, the
best furnished with general information, are often the most vague
and unimpressive on particular subjects ; while, on the contrary,
an uninstructed man of genius, like Sheridan, who approadies a
topic of importance for the first time, has not only the stimulus
of ambition and curiosity to aid him in mastering its details, but
the novelty of first impressions to brighten his general views of
it — and, with a fancy thus freshly excited, himsdf, is most sure
to touch and rouse the imaginations of others.

This was particularly the situation of Mr. Sheridan with re*
spect to the history of Indian affairs ; and there remain among

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 85

his papers numerous proofs of the labor which his preparation
for this arduous task cost not only himself but Mrs. Sheridan.
Among others, there is a large pamphlet of Mr. Hastings, con-
sisting of more than two hundred pages, copied out neatly in her
writing, with some assistance from another female hand. The
industry, indeed, of all around him was put in requisition for
this great occasion — some, busy with the pen and scissors,
making extracts — some pasting and stitching his scattered me-
morandums in their places. So that there was hardly a single
member of the family that could hot boast of having contributed
his share, to the mechanical construction of this speech. The
pride of its success was, of course, equally participated; and
Edwards, a favorite servant of Mr. Sheridan, who lived with
him many years, was long celebrated for his professed imitation
of the mwiner in which his master delivered (what seems to have
struck Edwards as the finest part of the speech) his closing
words, "My Lords, I have done!"

The impeachment of Warren Hastings is one of those pa-
geants in the drama of public life, which show how fleeting are
the labors and triumphs of politicians — " what shadows they are,
and what shadows they pursue." When we consider the im-
portance which the great actors in that scene attached to it, — ^the
grandeur with which their eloquence invested the cause, as one
in which the liberties and rights of the whole human race were
interested, — and then think how all that splendid array of Law
and of talent has dwindled away, in the view of most persons at
present, into an unworthy and harassing persecution of a meri-
torious and successful statesman ; — ^how those passionate appeals
to justice, those vehement denunciations of crime, which made
the halls of Westminster and St. Stephen*s ring with their
echoes, are now coldly judged, through the medium of disfiguring
Reports, and regarded, at the best, but as rhetorical eflusions, in-
debted to temper for their warmth, and to fancy for their de-
tails ; — ^while so little was the reputation of the delinquent him-
self even scorched by the bolts of eloquence thus launched at
him, that a subsequent House of Commons thought themselves

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36 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

honored by his presence, and welcomed him with snch cheers* as
should reward only the friends and benefactors of freedom ; —
when we reflect on this thankless result of so much labor and
talent, it seems wonderful that there should still be found high
and gifted spirits, to waste themselves away in such temporary
struggles, and, like that spendthrift of genius, Sheridan, to dis-
count their immortality, for the payment of fame in hand which
these triumphs of the day secure to them.

For this direction, however, which the current <rf opinion has
taken, mth. regard to Mr. Hastings and his, eloquent accuser^
there are many very obvious reasons to be assigned. Suc-
cess, as I have already remarked, was the dazzling talisman,
which he waved in the eyes of his adversaries from the
first, and which his fHends have made use of to throw a
splendor over his tyranny and injustice ever since. f Too often
in the moral logic of this world, it matters but little what the
premises of conduct may be, so the conclu^on but turiis out
showy and prosperous. Tliere is also, it must be owned, aniong
the English, (as perhaps, among all free people,) a strong taste
for the arbitrary, when they themselves are not to be the vic-
tims of it, which invariably secures to such accomplished des-
potisms^ as that of Lord Strafford in Ireland, and Hastings in
India, even a larger share of their admiration than they are,
themselves, always willing to allow.

The rhetorical exaggerations, in which the Managers of the
prosecution indulged, — Mr. Sheridan, from imagination, luxuri-
ating in its own display, and Burke from the same cause, added
to his overpowering autocracy of temper — were but too much

* When called as a witness befbre the House, in 1813, on the subject of the reneMral
<M the East India Company's Charter.

t In the important article of Finance, however, for which he made so many sacrifices of
humanity, even the justification of success was wanting to his measures. The following
is the account given by the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1810, of the
siHie m which India was left by his administration : — " The revenues had l)een absorbed ;
the pay and allowances of both the civil and military branches of the service were greatly
in urear ; the credit of the Company was extremely depressed ; and, added to all, the
* whole system had fallen into such irregularity and confusion, that the real state ot aflUirt
could not be aacertained till the conclusion of the year 1786-6. "—Jftinl Beport. ^

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BIGHT HON. BICHABD BBINSLEY SH£BIDAN. 87

calculated to thiow suspicion on the cause in which they were
emf^oyed, axkd to produce a reaction in favor of the pers<xi whom
they were meant to overwhelm. " Rogo vos, Jud'tces, — Mr. Has-
tings might well have said, — " ai iste disertus est, ideo me dam-
TMri oporUt ^"*

There are also, without doubt, considerable allowances to be
made, for the difficult situations in which Mr. Hastings was
placed, and t^ose impulses to wrong which acted upon him from
all sides — ^allowances which will have more or less weight with
the judgment, according as it may be more o^ less fastidiously
disposed, in letting excuses for ra|»ne and oppression pass muster.
The incessant and uigemt demands of the Directors upon him for
money may palliate, perhape, the violence of those methods
which he took to procure it for them ; and the obstruction to his
policy which would have arisen from a strict observance of Trea-
ties, may be admitted, by the same gentle casuistry, as an apology
fi^r his frequent infractions of them.

Another consideration to be taken into account, in our e.stimate
of the charact^ of Mr. Hastings as a ruler, is that strong light
of publicity, which the practice in India of carrying on the busi-
ness of government by written documents threw on all the ma-
chinery of his measures, deliberative as well as executive. These
Minutes, indeed, form a record of fluctuation and inconsistency —
not only on the part of the Govemor-G^ieral, but of all the
members of the government — a sort of weatlier-cock diary of
opini(n^ and principle's, shifUng with the interests or convenience
of the moment,! which entirely takes away our respect even for

• Seneca, Ccmtrovere. lib. iii. c. 19.

f Instances of this^ on the part of BCr. Hastings, are numberless. In remarlcing upon
his COTTupt transfer of the mani^ement of the Nabob's househotd in 177iB, the Directors
say, " It is with equal surprise and concern that we observe this request introduced, and
the Nabob's ostensible r^hts so solemnly asserted at this period by our Governor-General ;
because, on a late occasion, to serve a very diflRsrent purpose, be has not scrupled to de*
Clare it as visible as the light of the sun, that the Nabob is a mere pageant, and without
even the shadow of authority." On another transaction m 1781, Mr. Mill remarks : — " It
IS a curious nK>ral sp6ctacb to compare the minutes and letters of the Govemor-General,
when, at the beginning of the year 1780, maintaining the propriety of condemning the
Nabob to sustam the whole of the burden imposed upon him, and his minutes and letters
maintaiiung the propriety of relieving him from those biu-thens in 1781. The arguments

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88 KSHOIBS OF THE UF£ OF THS

success, when issuing out of such a chaos of Self-contradiction
and shuffling. It cannot be denied, however, that such a system
of exposure — submitted, as it was in this case, to a still further
scrutiny, under the bold, denuding lumds of a Burke and a She-
ridan — was a test to which the councils of few rulers could with
impunity be brought. Where, indeed, is the statesman that
could bear to have his obliquities thus chronicled ? or where is
the Cabinet that would not shrink from such an inroad of light
into its recesses ?

The undefined nature, too, of that power which the Company
exercised in India, and the uncertain state of the Law, vibrating
betwe^i the English and the Hindoo codes, left such tempting
openmgs for injustice as it was hardly possible to resist With
no public opinion to warn off authority from encroachment, and
with the precedents set up by former rulers all pdnting the
wrong way, it woidd have been difficult, perhaps, for even more
moderate men than Hastings, not occasionally to break bounds
and go continually astray.

To all these considerations in his favor is to be added the apipa-
rently triumphant fact, that his gov^nment was popular among
the natives of India, and that his name is still remembered by
them with gratitude and respect.

Allowing Mr. Hastings, however, the full advantage of these
and other strong pleas in his defence,, it is yet impos^ble, for any
real lover of justice and humanity, to read the plainest and least
exaggerated history of his government,^ without feeling deep

and facts adduced on the one occasion, as well as the conclusion, are a flat contradiction
to those exhibited on the other."

* Nothing can ba more partial and misleading than the coloring given to these trans-
actions by Mr. Nicholls and other apologists of Hastings. For the view which I have my-
self taken of the whole case I am chiefly indebted to the able History of British India by
Ur. Mill — whose industrious research and clear analytical statements make hioi the most
valuable authority that can be consulted on the subject.

The mood of mind in which Mr. Nicholls listened to the proceedings of the Impeachment
may be judged from the following declaration, which he has had the courage to proroui-
gate to the public : — "On this Charge (the Begum Charge) Mr. Sheridan made a speech,
which both sides of the House professed greatly to admire — for Mr. Pitt now openly ap-
proved of the Impeachment. / vriU itsknowUdge^ that 1 did not admire this tpeeck pf Mr,
Shendan,**

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BIGHT HON. BZOHAKD BBIKSLSY SHSBIDAN. 89

indignaticMi excited at almost every page of it. His predecessors
had, it is true, been guilty of wrongs as glaring — ^the treachery of
Lord Qive to Oimchund in 1757, and the abandonment of Ram-
narain to Meer Causim under the administration of Mr. Vansit-
tart, are stains upon the British character which no taleQts or
glwy can do away. There are precedents, indeed, to be found,
through the annals of our Indian empire, for the formation of
ihe most perfect code of tyranny, in every department, legis-
lative, judickd, and executive, that ever entered into the dreams
of intoxicated power. But, while the practice of Mr. Hastings
was, at least, as tyrannical as that o£ his predecessors, the prin-
ciples upon which he founded that practice were still more odious
and unpardonable, hi his manner, indeed, of defeilding himself
he is his own worst accuser — as ^ere is no outage of power,
no violation of J&ith, that might not be justified by the versatile
and ambidextrous doctrines, the lessons of deceit and rules of
rapine, which he so ably illustrated by his measures, and has so
shamelessly recorded with his pen.

NotMng but an early and deep initiation in the corrupting
school of IncBan politics eould have produced the &cility with
which, as occasion required, he could belie his own recorded asser-
tions; tym hostilely round upon his own expressed opinions, dis-
claim the proxies which he himself had delegated, and, in short,
get rid of all the inccmv^nences of personal identity, by never
admowledging himself to be bound by any engagement or
opinion which himself had formed. To seleet the worst features
of his Administration is no very easy task ; but the calculating
cruelty with which he abetted the extermination of the RohiUas
— his unjust and precipitate execution of Nuncomar, who had
stood forth as his accuser, and, therefore, became his victim, —
his violent a^ressicoi upon the Kaja of Benares, and that com-
bination of public and private rapacity, which is exhibited in the
details of his conduct to the royal family of Oude; — ^these are
acts, proved by the testimony of himself and his accomplices,
from the disgrace of which no formal acquittal upon points of
law can absolve him, and whose guilt the allowances of charity

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40 UEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

may extenuate, but never can remove, lliat the perpetrator of
such deeds should have been popular among tlie naUves of India
only proves how low was the standard of justice, to which the entire
tenor of our policy had accustomed them ; — ^but ^at a ruler of
this character should be held up to admiration in En^wid, is one
of those miomalies with wludi ij^glasd, more tiian any other
nation, abounds, axid only inclines us to wonder that the true
worship of Liberty should so hmg have ciHKtinued to flourish in a
country, where such heresies to her sacred eause M:e found.

I have dwelt so long upon the circumstances and nature of iMs
Trial, not only on account of the con8{»eaous plaee wiiidi it oecu.
pies in the fore-ground of Mr. Sheridan's life, but because of that
general interest whidi an observer of our Institutions must take
in it, from the clearness with which it brought into view some of
their best and worst features* Wlule, on one «de, we perceive
the weight of the popular scale, in the lead taken, upon an occsp
sion of such solemnity and importance, by two persons brought
forward from the middle ranks oi sodety into the very van of
political distinction and influence, on the other Jiand, in tibe sym-
pathy and favor extended by the Court to the practical assertor
of despotic principles, we trace the prevs^ence of that feeling,
which, since the commencement of the late King's reign, h%s made
the Throne the rallying point of all that are unfriendly to the
cause of freedom^ Again, m considering ike conduct of the
Crown Lawyers during the Trial — the narrow and irrational
rules of evidence which they sought to establish — ^the uncon-
stitutional control assumed by the Judges, over the decisicois of
the tribunal before which the cause was tried, and the refusal to
communicate the reasons upon which those deciac«is were found-
ed — above all, too, the legal opinions expressed on the great
question relative to the abatement of an Impeachment by Dis-
solution, in which almost the whole body of lawyers* took tiie

* Among the rest, Lord Erskine, who allowed his profession^ on this occasion, to stand
in the light of his jadgment. *' As to a Nisi^rius lawyer (said Burke) giving an opinion cm
the duration of an Impeachment — as well might a rabbit, that breeds six times a year
pretend to know any thing of the gr^station of an elephant.''

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BIGHT HON. BIQHAR0 KlINSLBY SHmilDAK. 41

wroBg, the pedantic, and the unstatesmanlike side of the ques-
tion,-^while in all these indicaticwis of the spirit of that profes-
sion, and of its propensity to tie down the giant Truth, with its
small threads of teeteioality and precedwit, we perceive the dan-
ger to be apprdiended from the interference of such a spirit in
politics^ on the other side, arrayed i^nst these petty tactics of
the Forum, we see Uie broad banner of Constitutional Law, up-
held alike by a Fox and a Pitt, a Sheridan and a Dundas, and
find truth and good sense taking refuge from the equivocations
of lawyers, in sudi consoling documents as the Report upon the
Abuses of the Trial by Burke — a document which, if ever a re-
form of the English law should be attempted, will stand as a
great guiding light to the adventurers in that heroic enterprise.

It has been frequently asserted, that on the evening of Mr.
Sheridan's grand display in the House of Commons, The School
for Scandal and the Duenna were acted at Covent Garden and
Drury Lane, and thus three great audiences were at the same
moment amused, agitated, and, as it were, wielded by the intellect
of one man. As this triple triumph of talent — this manifestation
of the power of Genius to multiply itself, like an Indian god —
was, in ^e instance of Sheridan, not only possible, but within the
scope of a very easy arrangement, it is to be lamented that no
such coincidence did actually take ^ace, and that the ability to
have a(^ieved the miracle is aU that can be with truth attributed
to him. From a carefy exammation of the play-bills of the
different theatres during this period, I have ascertained, with re-
gret, that neither on the evening of the speech in the House of
Commons, nor on any of the days of the oration in Westminster
Hall, was there, either at Covent-Garden, Drury-Lane, or Hay-
market theatres, any piece whatever of Mr. Sheridan's acted.

The following passages of a lett^ from Miss Sheridan to her
sister in Ireland, written while on a visit with her brother in
London, though referring to a later period of the Trial, may with-
out impropriety be inserted here : —

" Just as I received your letter yesterday, I was setting out for

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42 KBMOIBS OF TBE LIFE OF THE

the Trial unth Mrs. Crewe and Mrs. Dixon. I was fortunate in my
day, as I heard all the principal speakers — Mr. Rurke I admired
the least — Mr. Fox very much indeed. The subject in itsdf was
not particularly interesting, as the debate turned merely on a point
of law, but the earnestness of his manner and the amazing pre-
cision with which he conveys his ideas is truly ddightfiil. And
last, not least, 1 heard my brotlifir ! I cannot express to you the
sensation of pleasure and pride that filled my heart at 1^ mo-
ment he rose. Had I never seen him or heard his name before,
I should have ccmceived him the first man among them at once.
There is a dignity and grace in his coimtenance and deportm^it,
very striking — ^at the same time that one cannot trace the smal-
lest degree of conscious superiority in his manner. His voice,
too, appeared to me extremely fine. The speech itself was not
much calculated to display the talents of an orator, as of course it
related only to dry matter. You may suppose I am not so lavi^
of praises before indifferent persons, but I am sure you will ac-
quit me of partiality in what I have said. When they left the
Hall we walked about some time, and were j(»ned by several of
the managers — among the rest by Mr. Burke, whom we set down
at his own house. They seem now to have better hopes of the
business than they have had for some time ; as the point urged
with so much force and apparent success relates to very material
evidence which the Lords have refused to hear, but which, once
produced, must prove strongly against Mr. Hastings ; and, from
what passed yesterday, they think their Lordships must yield.
— We sat in the King's box," &c.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHBRIDAK. 48

CHAPTER II.

DEATH OF MR. SHERIDAN's FATHER. — ^VERSES BY MRS. SHER-
IDAN ON THE DEATH OF HER SISTER, MRS. TICKELL.

In the summer of this year the father of Mr. Sheridan died.
He had been recommended to try the air of Lisbon for his
health, and had left Dublin for that purpose, accompanied by
his younger daughter. But the rapi^ increase of his malady
prevented him from proceeding farther than Margate, where he
died about the beginning of August, attended in his last moments
by his son !Kchard.

We have seen intJi what harshness, to use no stronger term,
Mr. Sheridan was for many years treated by his father, and how
persevering and affectionate were the efforts, in spite of many
capricious repulses, that he made to be restored to forgiveness
and favor. In his happiest moments, both of love and &me, the
thought of being excluded from the paternal roof came across
him with a chill that seemed to sadden all his triumph.* When
it is considered, too, that the fatter; to whom he felt thus amia-
bly, had never distinguished him by any particular kindness,
but, on the contrary, had always shown a marked preference for
the disposition and abilities of his brother Charles — ^it is impos-
sible not to acknowledge, in such true filial affection, a proof
that talent was not. the only ornament of Sheridan, and that,
however unfavorable to moral culture was the life that he led,
Nature, in forming his mind, had implanted there virtue, as
well as genius.

Of the tender attention which he paid to his father on his

* See the letter written by him immediately after hit marriage, vol. L page 80. and the
meedote in page HI, tame vvrf.

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44 MEMOIBS OF THS LIFS OF THE

death-bed, I am enabled to lay before the reader no less a testi-
mony than the letters written at the time by Miss Sheridan,
who, as I have already said, accompanied the old gentleman
from Ireland, and now shared with her brother the task of com-
forting his last moments. And here, — ^it is difficult even for
contempt to keep down the indignation, that one cannot but feel
at those slanderers, under the name of bi(^aphers, who calling
in malice to the aid of their ignorance, have not scrupled to as-
sert that the father of Sheridan died unattended by any of his
nearest relatives ! — Such are ever the marks that Dulness leaves
behind, in its Gothic irruptions into the sanctuary of departed
Genius — defacing what it cannot understand, polluting what it
has not the soul to reverence, and taking revenge for its own
darkness, by the wanton pro^mation of all that is sacred in the
eyes of others.

Immediately on the death of their father, Sheridan removed
his sister to -Deepden — a seat of the Duke of Norfolk in Surrey,
which His Giace had lately lent him — ^and then returned, Wm-
self, to Margate, to pay the last tribute to his father's remains. The
letters of Miss Sheridan are addressed to her elder sister in Ireland,
and the first which I shall •give entire, was written a day or two
after her arrival at Deepden.

"My Dear Love, Dibden, August 18.

"Though you have ever been uppermost in my thoughts,
yet it has not been in my power to write since the few lines I
sent from Margate. I hope this will find you, in some degree,
recovered from the shock you must have experienced from the
late melancholy event. I trust to your own piety and the ten-
demess of your worthy husband, for procuring you sudi a de-
gree oi calmness of mind as may secure your health from injury.
In the midst of what I have suffered I have been thankful that
you did not share a scene of distress which you could not have
relieved. I have supported myself, but I am sure, had we been
together, we should have suffered more.

" With regard to my brother's kindness, I can scarcely ex-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 45

press to you how great it has been. He saw my father while he
was still sensible, and never quitted him till the awflil moment was
past — I will not now dwell on particulars. My mind is not suf-
ficiently recovered to enter on the subject, and you could only
be distressed by it. He returns soon to Margate to pay the
last duties in the manner desired by my father, llis feelings
have been severely tried, and earnestly I pray he may not suf-
fer from that cause, or from the fatigue he has endured. His
tenderness to me I never can forget. I had so little claim on
him, that I still feel a degree of surprise mixed with my grati-
tude. Mrs. Sheridan's reception of me was truly affectionate.
They leave me to myself now as much as I please, as I had gone
through so much fatigue of body and mind that I require some
rest. I have not, as you may suppose, looked much beyond the
present hour, but I begin to be more composed. I could now
enjoy your society, and I wish for it hourly. I should think I
may hope to see you sooner in England than you had intended ;
but you will write to me very soon, and let me know everything
that concerns you. I know not whether you will feel like me a
melancholy pleasure in the reflection that my father received the
last kind offices from my brother Richard,* whose conduct on
this occasion must convince every one of the goodness of his
heart and the truth of his filial afiection. One more reflection of
consolation is, that nothing was omitted that could h&ve prolonged
his life or eased his latter hours. God bless and preserve you, my
dear love. 1 shall soon write more to you, but shall for a short
time suspend my journal, as still too many painful thought** will
crowd upon me to sufier me to regain such a frame of mind fs I
should wish when I write to you.

" Ever affectionately your

" E. Sheridan."

• In a letter, from which I have given an extract in the early part of this volume, writ-
ten by the elder sister oC Sheridan a short time after his death, in referring to the differ-
ences that existed between him and his father, she says—" and yet it was that scm, and
not the object of his partial fondness, who at last closed his eyes." It generally haj^
pent that the injustice of such partialities is revenged by the ingratitude of those who ar«

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46 KBK0IB6 OF THE LIFE OF THE

h anoUier letter, dated a few days after, she gives an account
of the domestic life of Mrs. Sheridan, which, like everything that
is related of that most interesting woman, excites a feeling to*
wards her memory, little short of love.

" My Dear Love, Dihden, Friday, 22.

" I shall endeavor to resume my journal, though my anxiety
to hear from you occupies my mind in a way that unfits me for
writing. I have been here almost a week in perfect quiet.
While there was company in the house, I stayed in my room,
arid since my brother's leaving us to go to Margate, I have sat
at times with Mrs. Sheridan, who is kind and considerate ; so that
I have entire liberty. Her poor sister's* children are all with
her. The girl gives her constant employment, and seems to
profit by being under so good an instructor. Their father was
here for some days, but I did not see him. Last night Mrs S.
showed me a picture of Mrs. Tickell, which she wears round
her neck. The thing was misrepresented to you ; — it was not
done after her death, but a short time before it. The sketch
was taken while she slept, by a painter at Bristol. This Mrs.
Sheridan got copied by Cosway, who has softened down the tra-
ces of illness in such a way that the picture conveys no gloomy
idea. It represents her in a sweet sleep ; which must have been
soothing to her friend, after seeing her for a length of time in a
state of constant suffering.

" My brother left us Wednesday morning, and we do not ex
pect him to return for some days. He meant only to stay at
Margate long enough to attend the last melancholy oflfice, which
it was my poor father's express desire should be performed in
whatever parish he died.

«««««« «

" Sunday,

" Dick is still in town, and we do not expect him for some
time. Mrs. Sheridan seems now quit^ reconciled to these little

the otilecu of them ; and the present instance, as there is bat too nottch reason to believe,
was not altogether an exception to the remarlL
. TickeU.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY ^OCRIDAN. 47

absences, which she knows are unavoidable. I never saw any one
so constant in employing every moment of her time, and to that
I attribute, in a great measure, the recovery of her health and
spirits. The education of her niece, her music, books, and work,
occupy every minute of the day. After dinner, the children, who
call her " Mamma-aunt," spend some time with us, and her man-
ner to them is truly delightful. The girl, you know, is the eldest.
The eldest boy is about five years old, very like his fether, but
extremely gentle in his manners. The youngest is past three.
The whole set then retire to the music-room. As yet I cannot
enjoy their parties ; — ^a song from Mrs. Sheridan affected me last
night in a most painful manner. I shall not try the experiment
soon again. Mrs. S. blamed herself for putting me to the trial,
and, after tea, got a book, which she read to us till supper. This,
I find, is the general way of passing the evening.

" They are now at their music, and I have retired to add a few
lines. This day has been more gloomy than we have been for
some days past ; — it it the first day of our getting into mourning.
All the servants in deep mourning made a melancholy appear-
ance, and I found it very difficult to sit out the dinner. But as
I have dined below since there has been only Mrs. Sheridan and
Miss Linley here, I would not suffer a circumstance, to which I
must accustom myself, to break in on their comfort."

These children, to;whom Mrs. Sheridan thus wholly devoted
herself, and continued to do so for the remainder of her life, had
lost their mother, Mrs. Tickell, in the year 1787, by the same
complaint that afterwards proved fatal to their aunt. The pas-
sionate attachment of Mrs. Sheridan to this sister, and the deep
grief with which she mourned her loss, are expressed in a poem
of her own so touchingly, that, to those who love the language of
real feeling, I need not apologize for their introduction here. Poe-
try, in general, is but a cold interpreter of sorrow ; and the more
it displays its skill, as an art, the less is it likely to do justice to
nature. In writing these verses, however, the workmanship was
forgotten in the subject ; and the caitic, to feel them as he ought,
should forget his own craft in reading them.

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48 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

" Written in the Spring of the Year 1788.

" The hours and days pass on ; — sweet Sprinif retorBB,
And whispers comfort to the heart tiiat mourns :
But not to mine, whose dear and cherifiAi'd grief
Asks for indulgence, but ne'er hopes relief.
For, ah, can changing seasons e'er restore
The lov'd companion I must still deplore ?
Shall all the wisdom of the world combined
Erase thy image, Mary, from my mind.
Or bid me hope from e&ers to receive
The fond affection thou alone could'st give T
Ah, no, my best belov'd, thou still shalt be
My friend, my sister, all the world to me.

" With tender woe sad memory woos back time,
And paints the scenes when youth was in its prime ;
The craggy hill, where rocks, with wiW iow'rs crownrd,
Burst frt>m ihe hazle copse or verdant ground ;
Where sportive nature every form assumes.
And, gaily lavish, wastes a thousand blooms ;
Where oft we heard the echoing hills repeat
Our untauj^t strains and rural ditties sweet.
Till purpling clouds proclaimed the closing di^,
While distant streams detained the parting raj.
Then on some mossy stone we'd sit us down,
And watch the changing sky and shadows brown.
That swiftly glided o'er the mead below,
Or in some Jancied form descended slow.
How oft, well pleas'd each other to adorn,
f7e stripped the blossoms fri>m the fragrant thorn.
Or caught the vic^et where, in humble bed^
Asham'd <^ its own sweets it hung its head.
But, oh, what rapture Mary's eyes would speak.
Through her dark hair how rosy glow'd her cheek,
If, in her playful search, she saw i^pear
The first-blown cowslip of the opening year.
Thy gales, oh Spring, th^i whiq>er'd life and joj ;—
Now mem'ry wakes thy pleasures to destroy.
And all thy beauties serve but to renew
Regrets too keen for reason to subdue.
Ah me I while tender recollections rise.
The ready tears obscure my sadden'd eyee^

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RIGHT HON. RICHAKO BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 49

And, while surrounding objects they conceal,
Her form belov'd the trembling drops reveal.
" Sometimes the lovely, blooming girl I view,
' . My youth's companion, friend for ever true,
Whose looks, the sweet expresaons of her heart
So gaily innocent, so void of art,
Witti soft attraction whisper'd blessings drew
From all who stopp'd, her beauteous face to view.
Then in the dear domestic scene I mourn.
And weep past pleasures never to return !
There, where each gentle virtue lov'd to rest,
In the pure mansion of my Mary's breast.
The days of social happiness are o'er.
The voice of harmony is heard no more ;
No more her graceful tenderness shall prove
The wife's fond duty or the parent's love.
Those eyes, which Iwighten'd with maternal pride,
As her sweet infants wanton'd by her side,
'Twas my sad fate to see for ever close
On life, on love, the world, and all its woes 5
To watch the slow disease, with hopeless care.
And veil in painful smiles my heart's despair ;
To see her droop, with restless languor weak,
While fatal beauty mantled in her cheek,
Like fresh fiow'rs springing from some mouldering claj
Cherish'd by death, and blooming from decay.
Yet, tho' oppress'd by ever-varying pain.
The gentle sufferer scarcely would complain,
Hid every sigh, each trembling doubt reprov'd,
To spare a pang to those fond hearts she lov'd.
And often, in short intervals of ease.
Her kind and cheerful spirit strove to please ;
Whilst we, alas, unable to refuse
The sad delight we were so soon to lose,
Treasur'd each word, each kind expression claim'd,^
* 'Twas me she look'd at,' — * it was me she nam'd.'
Thus fondly soothing grief, too great to bear,
With moumfhl eagerness and jealous care.

" But soon, alas, from hearts withltorrow worn
E'en this last comfort was for ever torn :
That mind, the seat of wisdom, genius^ taste,
The cruel hand of sickness now laid waste ;

VOL. 11. 3

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60 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE Oj?* THE

Sabdaed with pain, it eliar'd the common lot,

All, all its lovely energies forgot!

The husband, parent, sister, knelt in vain,

One recollecting look alone to gain :

The Evades of night her beaming eyes obsonr'd,

And Nature, vanquished, no sharp pain endured ;

Calm and serene — till the last trembling breath

Wafted an angel from the bed of death !

" Oh, if the soul, released from mortal cares,
Views the sad scene, the voice of mourning hears.
Then, dearest saint, didst thou thy heav'n forego,
Lingering on earth in pity to our woe.
rrwas thy kind influence sooth'd our minds to peace,
# And bade our vain and selfish murmurs cease ;

T?wa8 thy soft smile, that gave the worshipped clay
Of thy Iffight essence one celestial ray.
Making e'en death so beautiful, that we.
Gazing on it, forgot our misery.
Then-^pleasing thought I^ere to the realms of light
^ Thy franchis'd spirit took its ha.ppj flight,

With fond regard, perhaps, thou saw'st me bend

O'er the cold relics of my heart't best friend,

And heard'st me swear, while her dear hand I prest.

And tears of agony bedew'd my breast.

For her lov'd sake to act the mother's part,

And take her darling infants to my heart,

With tenderest care their youthful minds improve.

And guard her treasure with protecting love.

Once more look down, blest creature, and behold

These arms the precious innocence enfold ;

Assist my erring nature to fulfil

The sacred trust, and ward off every ill !

And, oh, let hetj who is my dearest care.

Thy blest regard and heavenly influence share ;

Teach me to form her pure and artless mind,

Like thine, as true, as innocent, as kind, —

That when some future day my hopes shall blesa^

And every voice her virtue shall confess,

When my fond%eart delighted hears her praise,

As with unconscious loveliness she strays,

* Such,' let me say, ^th tears of joy the while,

< Such was the softness of my Mary's smile ;

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, 51

Such was her youth, so blithe, so rosy sweet,
- And such her mind, unpractis'd in deceit ;
With artless elegance, unstudied grace.
Thus did the gain in every heart a place V

" Then, while the dear remembrance I behold,
Time shall steal on, nor tell me I am old.
Till, nature wearied, each fond duty o'er,
I join my Angel Friend — ^to part no more !"

To the conduct of Mr. Sheridan, during the last moments of his
father, a further testimony has been kindly communicated to me
by Mr. Jarvis, a medical gentleman of Margate, who attended
Mr. Thomas Sheridan on that occasion, and whose interesting
communication I shall here give in his own words ; —

" On the 10th of August, 1788, 1 was first called on to visit
Mr. Sheridan, who was then fast declining at his lodgings in this
place, where he was in the care of his daughter. On the next
day Mr. R. B. Sheridan arrived here from town, having brought
with him Dr. Morris, of Parliament street. I was in the bed-
room with Mr. Sheridan when thfe son arrived, and witnessed an
interview in which the father showed himself to be strongly im-
pressed by his son's attention, saying with considerable emotion,
* Oh Dick, I give you a great deal of trouble !' and seeming to
imply by his manner, that his son had been less to blame than
himself, for any previous want of cordiality between them.

" On my making my last call for the evening, Mr. R. B. Sher-
idan, with delicacy, but much earnestness, expressed his fear that
the nurse in attendance on his &ther, might not be so compet^it
as myself to the requisite attentions, and his hope that I would
consent to remain in the room for a few of the first hours of the
night ; as he himself, having been travelling the preceding night,
required some short repose. I complied with his request, and
remained at the father's bed-side till relieved by the son, about
three o'clock in the morning : — ^he then insisted on taking my
place. From this time he never quitted the house till his father's
death ; on the day after which he wrote me a letter, now before
me, of which the annexed is an exact copy :

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52 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

* Sir, Friday Morning.

* I wished to see you this morning before I went, to thank you
for your attention and trouble. You will be so good to give the
account to Mr. Thompson, who will settle it ; and I must furtlier
^% your acceptance of the inclosed from myself.
' I am, Sir,

' Your obedient Servant,

'R. B. Sheridan.

' I have explained to Dr. Morris (who has informed me that you
will recommend a proper person), that it is my desire to have
the hearse, and the manner of coming to town, as respectful as
possible.'

" The inclosure, referred to in this letter, was a bank-note of ten
pounds, — a most liberal remuneration. Mr. R. B. Sheridan left
Margate, intending that his father should be buried in London ;
but he there ascertained that it had been his father's expressed
wish that he should be buried in the parish next to that in which
he should happen to die. He \hen, consequently, returned to
Margate, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Mr. Tickell, with
whom and Mr. Thompson and myself, he followed his father's
remains to the burial-place, which was not in Margate church-y«ffd,
but in the north aisle of the church of St. Peter's."

Mr. Jarvis, the writer of the letter from which I have given
this extract, had once, as he informs me, the intention of having
a cenotaph raised, to the memory of Mr. Sheridan's father, in
the church of Margate.* With this view he applied to Dr. Parr
for an Inscription, and the following is the tribute to his old
friend with which that learned and kind-hearted man supplied
him: —

" This monument, A. D. 1824, was, by subscription, erected to the memo-
ry of Thomas Sheridan, Esq., who died in the neighboring parish of St

* Though this idea was relmquished, it appears that a friend of Mr. Jarvis, with a seal
for the memory of talent highly honorable to him, has recently caused a monument to
Mr. Thomas Sheridan to be raised in the church of St. Peter.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 58

John, August 14, 1788, in the 69th year of his age, and, according to his
own request, was there buried. He was grandson to Dr. Thomas Sheridan,
the brother oi Dr. William, a conscientious non-juror, who, in 1691, was
deprived of the Bishopric of Kilmore. He was the son of Dr. Thomas
Sheridan, a profound scholar and eminent schoolmaster, intimately connect-
ed with Dean Swifk and other illustrious writers in the reign of Queen
Anne. He was husband to the ingenious and amiable author of Sidney
Biddulph and several dramatic pieces favorably received. He was father
of the celebrated orator and dramatist, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He
had been the schoolfellow, and, through life, was the comp«iion, of the
amiable Archbishop Markham. He was the friend of the learned Dr. Sum-
ner, master of Harrow School, and the well-known Dr. Parr. He took his
first academical degree in the University of Dublin, about 1736. He was
honored by the University of Oxford with the degree of A. M. in 1758,
and in 1759 he obtained the same distinction at Cambridge. He, for many
years, presided over the theatre of Dublin ; and, at Drury Lane, he in public
estimation stood next to David Garrick. In the literary world he was dis-
tinguished by numerous and useful writings on the pronanciation of the
English language. Through some of his opinions ran a vein of singularity,
mingled with the rich ore of genius. In his manners there was dignified
ease ;— in his spirit, invincible firmness ; — and in his habits and principles,
nnsalded integrity."

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64 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

CHAPTER ni.

ILLNESS OF THE KINO. — ^REGENCY. — PRIVATE LIFE OF MR.
SHERIDAN.

Mb. Sheridan had assuredly no reason to complain of any
deficiency of excitement in the new career to which he now devot-
ed himself. A succession of great questions, both foreign and
domestic, came, one after the other, like the waves described by
the poet, —

" And one no sooner touched the shore, and died,
Than a new follower rose, and swelled as proudly."

Scarcely had the impulse, which his own genius had given to
the prosecution of Hastings, begun to abate, when the indisposi-
tion of the King opened another field, not only for the display of
all his various powers, but for the fondest speculations of his in-
terest and ambition.

The robust health and temperate habits of the Monarch, while
they held out the temptation of a long lease of power, to those
who either enjoyed or were inclined to speculate in his favor,
gave proportionably the grace of disinterestedness to the follow-
ers of an Heir-Apparent, whose means of rewarding their devo-
tion were, from the same causes, uncertain and remote. The
alarming illness of the Monarch, however, gave a new turn to the
prospect : — Hope was now seen, like the winged Victory of the
ancients, to change sides ; and both the expectations of those who
looked forward to the reign of the Prince, as the great and happy
millennium of Whiggism, and the apprehensions of the far
greatw number, to whom the morals of his Royal Highness and
his friends were not less formidable than their politics, seemed
now on the very eve of being realized.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 55

On the first meeting of Parliament, after the illness of His
Majesty was known, it was resolved, from considerations of deH-
cacy, that the House should adjourn for a fortnight ; at the end
of which period it was expected that another short adjournment
would be proposed by the Minister. In this interval, the fol-
lowing judicious letter was addressed to the Prince of Wales by
Mr. Sheridan : —

"Sir,
" From the intelligence of to-day we are led to think that Pitt
will make something more of a speech, in moving to adjourn on
Thursday, than was at first imagined. In this case we presume
Your Royal Highness will be of opinion that we must not be
wholly silent. I possessed Payne yesterday with my sentiments
on the line of conduct which appeared to me best to be adopted
on this occasion, that they might be submitted to Your Royal
Highness's consideration ; and I take the liberty of repeating my
firm conviction, that it will greatly advance Your Royal High-
ness's credit, and, in case of events, lay the strongest grounds to
baffle every attempt at opposition to Your Royal Highness's just
claims and right, that the language of those who may be, in any
sort, suspected of knowing Your Royal Highness's wishes and
feelings, should be that of great moderation in disclaiming all
party views, and avowing the utmost readiness to acquiesce in
any reasonable delay. At the same time, I am perfectly aware
of the arts which will be practised, and the advanti^es which
some people will attempt to gain by time : but I am equally con-
vinced that we should advance their evil views by showing the
least impatience or suspicion at present ; and I am also convinced
that a third party will soon appear, whose efforts may, in the
most decisive manner, prevent this sort of situation and proceed-
ing from continuing long. Payne will probably have submitted
to Your Royal Highness more fully my idea on this subject,
towards whidi I have already taken some successful steps.*
Your Royal Highness will, I am sure, have the goodness to par-

• This miMjt Kllxfjit tp ;h.e ^^^gotiatioii with Loid Thnrlow.

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66 MEMOIBS Of THE LIFE OF THE

don the freedom with which I give my opinion ; — ^after which I
have only to add, that whatever Your Royal Highness's judgment
decides, shall be the guide of my conduct, and will undoubtedly
be so to others.'*

Cf^tain (afterwards Admiral) Payne, of whom mention is
made in this letter, held the situation of Comptroller of the
Household of the Prince of Wales, and was in attendance upon
His Royal Highness, during the early part of the King's illness, at
Windsor. The following letters, addressed by him to Mr. She-
ridan at this period, contain some curious particulars, both with
respect to the Royal patient himself, and the feelings of those
about him, which, however secret Mid confidential they were at
the time, may now, without scruple, be made matters of his-
tory : —

^' My dbar SHERmAN, Hal/pctst ttn at night,

** I arrived here about three quarters of an hour after Pitt had
left it. I inclose you the copy of a letter the Prince has just
written to the CJhancellor, and sent by express, which will give
y<Mi the outline of the conversation with tiie Prince, as well as
tfee Mtuation of the King's health. I think it an advisable mea-
sure,* as it is a sword that cuts both ways, without being unfit to
be shown to whom he pleases, — but which he will, I think, under-
stand best himself. Pitt desired the longest delay that could be
granted with propriety, previous to the declaration of the pre-
sent calamity. The Duke of York, who is looking over me, and
is just come out of the King's room, bids me add that His
Majesty's ^tuation is every moment becoming worse. His pulse
is weaker and weaker ; and the Doctors say it is impossible to
snrvive it long, if his situation does not take some extraordinary
change in a few hours.

" So far I had got when your servant came, meaning to send
tbis by tiie express that carried the Chancellor's letter ; in addi-
tion to which, the Prince has desired Doctor Warren to write an

Xeaning, the conimmicatioii lo the Chancellor.

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RIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLBY SHERIDAN. 57

account to him, which he is now doing. His letter ^ys, if an
amendment does not take place in twenty four hours, it is impos-
sible for the King to support it : — ^he adds to me, he will answer
for his never living to be declared a lunatic. I say all thb to
you in confidence, (though I will not answer for being intelligi*
ble,) as it goes by your own servant ; but I need not add, your
own discretion will remind you how necessary it is that neither
my name nor those I use should be quoted even to many of our
best Mends, whose repetition, without any ill intention, might
frustrate views they do not see.

" With respect to the papers, the Prince thinks you had better
leave them to themselves, as we cannot authorize any report,
nor can he contradict the worst ; a few hours must, every indi-
vidual says, terminate our suspense, and, therefore, all precaution
must be needless : — however, do what you think best. His Roy-
al Highness would write to you himself; the agitation he is in
will not permit it. Since this letter was begun, all articulation
even seems to be at an end with the poor King : but for the
two hours preceding, he was in a most determined frenzy. In
short, I am myself in so violent a state of agitation, from partici-
pating in the feelings of those about me, that if I am intelligible
to you, 'tis more than I am to myself. Cataplasms are on his
Majesty's feet, and strong fomentations have been used without
^ect : but let me quit so painful a subject. The Prince was
much pleased with my conversation with Lord Loughborough,
to whom I do not write, as I conceive 'tis the same, writing to
you.

" The Archbishop has "written a very handsome letter, expres-
sive of his duty and offer of service ; but he is not required to
come down, it being thought too late,

" Good night. — I will write upon every occasion that infor-
matics may be useful.

" Ever yours, most sincerely,

"J.W. Patnb.

•* I have been much pleased with the Duke^s zeal since my re-
turn, especially in this communication to you."

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58 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" Dear Sheridan, Twelve o*clock, noon.

" The King last night about twelve o'clock, being then in a
situation he could not long have survived, by the effect of James's
powder, had a profuse stool, after which a strong perspiration
appeared, and he fell into a profound sleep. We were in hopes
this was the c-isis of his disorder, although the doctors were
fearful it was so only with respect to one part of his disorder.
However, these hopes continued not above an hour, when he
awoke, with a well-conditioned skin, no extraordinary degree of
fever, but with the exact state he was in before, with all the ges-
tures and ravings of the most confirmed maniac, and a new noise,
in imitation of the howling of a dog ; in this situation he was this
morning at one o'clock, when we came to bed. The Duke of
York, who has been twice in my room in the course of the night,
immediately from the King's apartment, says there has not been
one moment of lucid interval during the whole night, — ^which, I
must observe to you, is the concurring, as well as fatal testimony
of all about him, from the first moment of His Majesty's con-
finement. The doctors have since had their consultation, and find
His Majesty calmer, and his pulse tolerably good and much re-
duced, but the most decided symptoms of insanity. His theme
has been all this day on the subject of religion, and of his being
inspired, from which his physicians draw the worst consequences,
as to any hopes of amendment. In this situation His Majesty
remains at the present moment, which I give you at length, to
prevent your giving credit to the thousand ridiculous reports
that we hear, even upon the spot. Truth is not easily got at in
palaces, and so I find here ; and time only slowly brings it to
one's knowledge. One hears a little bit every day from some-
body, that has been reserved with great costiveness, or purposely
forgotten ; and by all such accounts I find that the present dis-
temper has been very palpable for some time past, previous to
any confinement firom sickness ; and so apprehensive have the
people about him been of giving offence by interruption, that the
t^o days (viz. yesterday se'nnight and the Monday following)
that he was five hours each on horseback, he was in a confirmed

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 59

frenzy. On the Monday at his return he burst out into tears to
the Duke of York, and said, ' He wished to God he might die,
for he was going to be mad ;' and the Queen, who sent to Dr.
Warren, on his arrival, privately communicated her knowledge
of his situation for some time past, and the melancholy event as
it stood exposed. I am prolix upon all these different reports,
that you may be completely master of the subject as it stands,
and which I shall continue to advertise you of in all its variations.
Warren, who is the living principle in this business, (for poor
Baker is half crazed himself,) and who I see every half hour,
is extremely attentive to the King's disorder. The various fluc-
tuations of his ravings, as well as general situation of his health,
are accurately written down throughout the day, and this we have
got signed by the Physicians every day, and all proper inquiry
invited ; for I think it necessary to do every thing that may pre-
vent their making use hereafter of any thing like jealousy, sus-
picion, or mystery, to create public distrust ; and, therefore, the
best and most unequivocal means of satisfaction shall be always
attended to. •

« Five o'clock, P. M.
" So far I had proceeded when I was, on some business of
importance, obliged to break off till now ; and, on my return,
found your letter ; — I need not, I hope, say your confidence is as
safe as if it was returned to your own mind, and your advice will
always be thankfully adopted. The event we looked for last
night is postponed, perhaps for a short time, so that, at least, we
shall have time to consider more maturely. The Doctors told
Pitt they would beg not to be obliged to make their declaration
for a fortnight as to the incurability of the King's mind, and
not to be surprised if, at the expiration of that time, they should
ask more time ; but that they were perfectly ready to declare
now, for the furtherance of public business, that he is now insane ;
that it appears to be unconnected with any other disease of his
body, and that they have tried all their skill without effect, and
that to the disease they at present see no end in their contemplation :
— the*pt are their -own words, which is all that can be inaplied in

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60 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

an absolute declaration, — for infallibility cannot be ascribed to
them.

" Should not something be done about the public amusements?
If it was represented to Pitt, it might embarrass them either
way *, particularly as it might call for a public account every day.
I think the Chancellor might take a good opportunity to break
with his colleagues, if they propose restriction^ the Law authority
would have great weight with us, as well as preventing even a
design of moving the City; — ^at all events, I think Parliament
would not confirm their opinion. If Pitt stirs much, I think any
attempt to grasp at power might be fatal to his interest, at least,
well turned against it.

" The Prince has sent for me directly, so I'll send this now,
and write again."

In the words, " I think the Chancellor might take a good op-
portunity to break with his colleagues," the writer alludes to a
negotiation which Sheridan had entered into with Lord Thurlow,
and by which it was expected that the co-operation of that Learned
Lord might be secured, in consideration of his being allowed to
retain the office of Chancellor under the Regency.

Lord Thurlow was one of those persons who, being taken by
the worid at their own estimate of themselves, contrive to pass
upon the times in which they live for much more than they are
worth. His bluntness gained him credit for superior honesty,
and the same peculiarity of exterior gave a weight, not their own,
to his talents ; the roughness of the diamond being, by a very
common mistake, made the measure of its value. The nego-
tiation for his alliance on this occasion was managed, if not first
suggested, by Sheridan ; and Mr. Fox, on his arrival from the
Continent, (having been sent for express upon the first announce-
ment of the King's illness,) found considerable progress already
made in the preliminaries of this heterogeneous compact.

The following letter from Admiral Payne, written immediately
after the return of Mr. Fox, contains some further allusions to
the negotiations with the Chancellor : —

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 61

** My dear Sheridan,

" I am this moment returned with the Prince from riding, and
heard, with great pleasure, of Charles Fox's arrival ; on which
account, he* says, I must go to town to-morrow, when I hope to
meet you at his house some time before dinner. The Prince is
to see the Chancellor to-morrow, and therefore he wishes I should
be able to carry to town the result of this interview, or I would
set off immediately. Due deference is had to oxxv former opinion
upon this subject, and no courtship will be practised ; for the
chief object in the visit is to show him the King, who has been
worse the two last days than ever : this morning he made an ef-
fort to jump out of the window, and is now very turbulent and
incoherent. Sir G. Baker went yesterday to give Pitt a little
specimen of his loquacity, in his discovery of some material
state-secrets, at which he looked astonished. The Physicians
wish him to be removed to Kew ; on which we shall proceed as
we settled. Have you heard any thing of the Foreign Ministers
respecting what the P. said at Bagshot 1 The Frenchman has
been here two days running, but has not seen the Prince. He
sat with me half an hour this morning, and seemed much dis-
posed to confer a little closely. He was all admiration and
fHendship for the Prince, and said he was sure every body would
unite to give vigor to his government.

" To-morrow you shall hear particulars ; in the mean time I
can only add I have none of the apprehensions contained in Lord
L.'s letter. I have had correspondence enough myself on this
subject to convince me of the impossibility of the Ministry ma-
naging the present Parliament by any contrivance hostile to the
Prince. Dinner is on table ; so adieu ; and be assured of the
truth and sincerity of

" Yours affectionately,
«' Windsor, Monday, 5 o'clock, F. M. " J. W. P.

" I have just got Rodney's proxy sent."

The situation in which Mr. Fox was placed by the treaty thus
3pmnienced, before his arrival, with the Chancellor, was not a

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62 MEHOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

little embarrassing. In addition to the distaste which he must
have felt for such a union, he had been already, it appears, in
some degree pledged to bestow the Great Seal, in the event of a
change, upon Lord Loughborough. Finding, however, the Prince
and \v3 party so fer committed in the negotiation wiUi Lord
Thurlow, he thought it expedient, however contrary to his own
wishes, to accede to their views; and a letter, addressed by him
to Mr. Sheridan on the occasion, shows the struggle with his own
feelings and opinions, which this concession cost him : —

" Dear Sheridan,

" I have swallowed the pill, — a most bitter one it was, — ^and
have written to Lord Loughborough, whose answer of course
must be consent What is to be done next 1 Should the Prince
himself, you, or I, or Warren, be the person to speak to the
Chancellor ? The objection to the last is, that he must probably
wait for an opportunity, and that no time is to be lost. Pray
tell me what is to be done : I am convinced, after all, the nego-
tiation will not succeed, and am not sure that I am sorry for it.
I do not remember ever feeling so uneasy about any political
thing I ever did in my life. Call if you can.

" Yours ever,

'' Sat, past 12. "C. J. F."

Lord Loughborough, in the mean time, with a vigilance quick-
ened by his own personal views, kept watch on the mysterious
movements of the Chancellor ; and, as appears by the fbllowing
letter, not only saw reason to suspect duplicity himself, but took
care that Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan should share in his dis-
trust : —

"My dear S.
** I was afraid to pursue the conversation on the circumstance
of the Inspection committed to the Chancellor, lest the reflec-
tions that arise upon it might have made too strong an impres-
sion on some of our neighbors last night. It does indeed appear
to me full of mischief, and of that sort most likely to affect the

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 68

apprehensions of our best friends, (of Lord John for instance,)
and to increase their reluctance to take any active part.

" The Chancellor's object evidently is to make his way by
himself and he has managed hitherto as one very well practised
in that game. His conversations, both with you and Mr. Fox,
were encouraging, but at the same time checked all explanations
on his part under a pretence of delicacy towards his colleagues.
When he let them go to Salthill and contrived to dine at Wind-
sor, he certainly took a step that most men would have felt not
very delicate in its appearance, and unless there was some pri-
vate understanding between him and them, not altogether fair ;
especially if you add to it the sort of conversation he held with
regard to them. I cannot help thinking that the difficulties of
managii^ the patient have been excited or improved to lead to
the proposal of his inspection, (without the Prince being con-
scious of it,) for by that situation he gains an easy and frequent
access to him, and an opportunity of possessing the confidence
of the Queen. I believe this the more from the account of the
twidemess he showed at his first interview, for 1 am sure, it is
not in his character to feel any. With a little instruction from
Lord Hawksbury, the sort of management that was carried on
by means of the Princess-Dowager, in the early part of the
reign, may easily be practised. In short, I think he will try to
find the key of the back stairs, and, with that in his pocket, take
any situation that preserves his access, and enables him to hold
a line between different parties. In the present moment, how-
ever, he has taken a position that puts the command of the
House of Lords in his hands, for * * *

♦ * * * 1

" I wish Mr. Fox and you would give these considerations
what weight you think ttfey deserve, and try if any means can
be taken to remedy this mischief, if it appears in the same light
to you.

" Ever yours, &c''

* The remainder of this tenteace if effaced by damp

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64 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

What were the motives that induced Lord Thurlow to break
off so suddenly his negotiation with the Prince's party, and de-
dare himself with such vehemence on the side of the King and
Mr. Pitt, it does not appear very easy to ascertain. Possibly,
from his opportunities of visiting the Royal Patient, he had been
led to conceive sufficient hopes of recovery, to incline the bal-
ance of his speculation that way ; or, perhaps, in the influence
of Lord Loughborough* over Mr. Fox, he saw a risk of being \
supplanted in his views on the Great Seal. Whatever may have
been the motive, it is certain that his negotiation with the Whigs
had been amicably carried on, till within a few hours of his de-
livery of that speech, from whose enthusiasm the public could
little suspect how fresh from the incomplete bargain of defection
was the speaker, and in the course of which he gave vent to the
well-known declaration, that " his debt of gi*atitude to His Ma-
jesty was ample, for the many fevors he had graciously con-
ferred upon him, which, when he forgot, might God forget

him r't

As it is not my desire to imitate those biographers, who swell
their pages with details that belong more properly to History, I
shall forbear to enter into a minute or consecutive narrative of
the proceedings of Parliament on the important subject of the
Regency. A writer of political bi(^aphy has a right, no doubt,
like an engineer who constructs a nav^able canal, to lay every
brook and spring in the neighborhood under contribution for the
supply and enrichment of his work. But, to turn into it the
whole contents of the Annual Roister and Parliameitary De-
bates is a sort of literary engineering, not quite so laudable,
which, after the example set by a Right Reverend biographer of
Mr. Pitt, will hardly again be attempted by any one, whose am-
bition, at least, it is to be read as weH as bought.
* Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, it is well known, differed essentially, not
only with respect to the form of the proceedings, which the lat-

* Lord Loughborough is supposed to have been the person who instilled into the mind
ot Mr. Fox the idea of advancing that claim of right for the Prince, which gave Mr. Pitt,
in principle as well as in fact, such an advantage over him.

t "Forget you !" said Wilkes, " he'll sec you d— d fost."

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BIGHT HON. BICHABD BRIKSLET SHSBIDAN. 65

ter recomm^ided in that suspension of the Boyal authority, but
aiso with respect to the abstract constitutional prindples, upon
which those proceedings of the Minister were professedly founded.
As socm as the nature of the malady, with which the King was
afflicted, had been ascertained by a regular examination of the
physicians in attendance on His Majesty, Mr. Pitt moved (on
the 10th of December), that a " Committee be appointed to ex-
amine and report precedents of sudi proceedings as may hav^
be^d had, in case of the personal exercise of the Royal aul^rit^
being prevented or interrupted, by infancy, sickness, infirmity, oi
oUierwise, with a view to provide for the same."*

It was immediately upon this motion that Mr. Fox advanced
that inconsiderate claim of Right for the Prince of Wales, of
which his rival availed himself so dexterously and triumphantly.
Having asserted that there existed no precedent whatever that
could bear upon the present case, Mr. Fox proceeded to say,
that " the circumstance to be provided for did not depend upon
their deliberations as a House of Parliament, — it rested else-
where. There was then a person in the kingdom, different from
any other person that any existing precedents could refer to, —
an Heir Apparent, of full age and capacity to exercise the royal
power. It behoved them, therefore, to waste not a moment un-
necessarily, but to proceed with all becoming speed and diligence
to restore the Sovereign power and the exercise of the Royal
Authority. From what he had read of history, from the ideas
he had formed of the law, and, what was still more precious, of
the i^irit of the Constitution, from every reasoning and analog]!

* Mr. Burke and Mr. Sheridan were both members of this committee, and the follow-
ing letter from the former to Sheridan refers to it */—

" Mt dear Sir,
** My idea was, that on Fox^s declaring that the precedents, neither individually nor
-colleciively, do at all an>ly, our attendance ought to have been merely formal. But as
you think otherwise, I shall certainly be at the committee soon after one. I rather think,
that they will D)t attempt to garble: because, supposing the precedents to apply, tho
ms^or part are certainly in their favor. It is not likely that they mean to suppress,— bat
it is good to be on our guard.

** Ever most truly yours, &c.

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66 ' MEMOIRS OP THE UFE OF THE

drawn from those souroes, he declared that he had not in his
mind a doubt, and he should Uiink himself culpable if he did not
take the first opportunity of declaring it, that, in the present con-
dition of His Majesty, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
had as dear, as express a Right to exercise the power of Sove-
reignty, during the continuance of the illness and incapacity,
with which it had pleased God to afflict His Majesty, as in the
case of His Majesty's having undergone a natural demise."

It is said that, during the delivery of this adventurous opinion,
the countenance of Mr. Pitt was seen to brighten with exultation
at the mistake into which he perceived his adversary was hurry-
ing ; and scarcely had the sentence, just quoted, been concluded,
when, slapping his thigh triumphantly, he turned to the person
who sat next to him, and said, " I'll un- Whig the gentleman for
the rest of his life !"

Even without this anecdote, which may be depended upon as
authentic, we have sufficient evidence that such were his feelings
in the burst of animation and confidence with whidi he instantly
replied to Mr. Fox, — taking his ground, widi an almost equal
temerity, upon the directly opposite doctrine, and assertmg, not
only that " in the case of the interruption of the personal exer-
cise of the Royal Authority, it devolved upon the other branches
of the Legislature to provide a substitute for that authority,"
but that " the Prince of Wales had no more right to exercise the
powers of government than any other person in the realm.''

The truth is, the assertion of a Right was equally erroneous,
^n both sides of the question. The Constitution having pro-
vided no l^al remedy for such an exigence as had now occurred,
the two Houses of Parliament had as little right (in the strict
sense of the word) to supply the deficiency of the Royal power,
as the Prince had to be the person elected or adjudged for that
purpose. Constitutional analc^y and expediency were the only
authorities by which the measures necessary in such a conjunc-
ture could be either guided or sanctioned ; and if the disputants
on each side had softened down their tone to this true and prac-
tical view of the case, there would have been no material difier-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 67

enoe, in the first stage of the proceedings between them, — ^Mr.
Pitt being ready to allow that the Heir Apparent was the ob-
vious person to whom expediency pointed as the depository of
the Royal power, and Mr. Fox having granted, in a subsequent
explanation of his doctrine, that, strong as was the right upon
which the claim of the Prince was founded. His Royal Highness
could not assume that right till it had been formally adjudicated
to him by Parliament. The principle, however, having been
Imprudently broadied, Mr. Pitt was too expert a tactician not
to avail himself of the advantage it gave him. He was thus,
indeed, furnished with an opportunity, not only of gaining time
by an artful protraction of the discussions, but of occupying vic-
toriously the ground of Whiggism, which Mr. Fox had, in his
impatience or precipitancy, deserted, and of thus adding to the
character, which he had recently acquired, of a defender of the
prerogatives of the Crown, the more brilliant reputation of an
assertor of the rights of the people.

In the popular view which Mr. Pitt found it convenient to
take of this question, he was led, or fell voluntarily into some
glaring errors, which pervaded the whole of his reasonings on the
subject. In his anxiety to prove the omnipotence of Parliament,
he evidently coilfounded the Estates of the realm with the Legis-
lature,* and attributed to two branches of the latter such powers as
are only legally possessed by the whole three in Parliament as-
sembled. For the purpose, too, of flattering the people with the
notion that to them had now reverted the right of choosing their
temporary Sovereign, he applied a principle, which ought to be
reserved for extreme cases, to an exigence by no means requir-
ing this ultimate appeal, — the defect in the government being
such as the still existing Estates of the realm, appointed to speak
the will of the people, but superseding any direct exercise of
their power, were ftilly competent, as in the instance of the Re-
volution, to remedy.f

* Mr. Grattan and the Irish Parliament carried this error still farther, and founded all

their proceedings on the necessity of " providing for the deficiency of the Third JESdcUe,"

f The most himinoos view that has boea taken of this Question is to be foond in an .A*

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06 KEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

Indeed, the solemn use of such language as Mr. Pitt, in his
over-acted Whiggism, employed upon thb occasion, — ^namely,
that the " right " of appointing a substitute for the Royal power
was " to be found in the voice and the sense of the people," — ^is
applicable only to those tjonjunctures, brought on by misrule and
oppression, when all forms are lost in the necessity of relief,
and when the right of the people to change and dioose their
rulers is among the most sacred and inalienable that either nature
or soci^ polity has ordained. But, to apply the language of
tiiat last resource to the present emergency was to brandi^ the
sword of Goliath* on an occasion that by no means called for it.

The question of the Prince's claim, — in spite of the efforts of
the Prince himself and of his Royal relatives to avert the
agitation of it, — was, for evident reasons, forced into discussion
by the Minister, and decided by a majority, not only of the two
Houses but of the nation, in his favor. During one of the long
debates to which the question gave rise, Mr. Sheridan allowed
himself to be betrayed into some expressions, which, considering
the delicate predicam^it in which the Prince was placed by the
controversy, were not marked with his usual tact and sagacity.
In alluding to the claim of Right advanced for His Royal High-
ness, and deprecating any further agitation of it, he " reminded
the Right Honorable Gentleman (Mr. Pitt) of ike danger of
provoking that claim to be asserted [a loud cry of hear ! hear !],
which, he observed, had not yet been preferred. [Another cry
of hear ! hear !]" This was the very language that Mr. Pitt
most wbhed his adversaries to assume, and, accordingly, he
turned it to account with all his usu^ mastery and haughtiness.
" He had now,". he said, "an additional reason for asserting the
authority of the House, and defining the boundaries of Right,
when the deliberative faculties of Parliament were invaded, and
an indecent menace thrown out to awe and influence their pro-
tide of the Edinburgh Review, on the Regency of 1811, — written by one of the inost
learned and able men of oor day, Mr. John Allen.

* A simile applied by Lord Somers to the power of Impeachment, which, he said,
" •bonld be like Goliath's swdrd, kept in the temple, and not used but upou great occa-

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BIGHT HON. BICHABD BBmSLIBT SHCBIDAN. 69

ceedings. In the dis(mssioii of the question, the House, he trusted,
would do their duty, in spite of any threat that might be thrown
out. Men, who felt their native freedom, would not submit to a
threat, however high the authority from which it might come."*
The restrictions of the Prerogative with which Mr. Pitt
thought proper to encumber the transfer of the Royal power to
the Prince, formed the second great point of discussion between
the parties, and brought equally adverse principles into play.
Mr. Fox, still maintaining his position on the side of Royalty,
defended it with much more tenable weapons than the questtoa
of Right had enabled him to wield. So founded, indeed, in the
purest principles of Whiggism did he consider his opposition,
on this memorable occasion, to any limitation of the Prerogative
in the hands of a Regent, that he has, in his History of James
II., put those principles deliberately upon record, as a funda-
mental article in the creed of his party. The passage to which
I allude occurs in his remarks upon the Exclusion Bill ; and as it
contains, in a' condensed form, the spirit of what he urged on the
same point in 1789, 1 cannot do better than lay his own words
before the reader. After expressing his opinion that, at the pe-
riod of which he writes, the measure of exclusion from the
monarchy altogether would have been preferable to any limit-
ation of its powers, he proceeds to say : — " The Whigs, who
consider the pow^^ of the Crown as a trust for the people, a
doctrine which the Tories themselves, when pushed in ailment,
will sometimes admit, naturally think it their duty rather to
change the manager of the trust than impair the subject of it ;
while others, who consider them as the right or property of the
King, will as naturally act as they would do in the case of any
other property, and consent to the loss or annihilation of any
part of it, for the purpose of preserving the remainder to him,
whom they style the rightful owner." Further on he adds : —
" The Royal Prerc^tive ought, according to the Whigs, to be
reduced to such powers as are in their exercise beneficial to the
people ; and of the benefit of these they will not rashly suffer

• Impartial B^^qfiiU the Proceediingt<mtJie8iaj^<^a^

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70 MSXOIRS OF THB LIFE OF TfiS

Ijie people to be deprived, whether the executive power be in
the hands of an hereditary or of an elective King, of a R^^t,
or of any other denomination of magistrate ; while, on the other
hand, they who consider Prerogative with reference only to
Royalty will, with equal readiness, consent either to the exten«
sion or the suspaision of its exercise, as the occasional interests
of the Prince may seem to require."

Taking this as a correct exposition of the doctrines of the two
parties, of which Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt may be considered to
have been the representatives in the Regency question of 1789,
it will strike' some minds that, however the Whig may flatter
himself that the principle by which he is guided in such exigencies
is fevorable to liberty, and however the Tory may, with equal sin-
cerity, believe his suspension of the Prerogative cm these occasions
to be advantageous to the Crown, yet that, in both of the princi-
ples, so defined, there is an evident tendency to produce effects,
wholly different from those which the parties professing them con-
t^.mplate.

On the one side, to sanction from authority the notion, that
there are some powers of the Crown which may be safely dis-
pensed with, — to accustom the people to an abridged exercise of
the Prerogative, with the risk of suggesting to their minds that
its full efficacy needs not be resumed, — to set an example, in
short, of reducing the Kingly Power, which, by its success, may
invite and authorize still further encroachm^ts, — all these are
dangers to which the alleged doctrine of Toryism, whenever
brought into practice, exposes its idol ; and more particularly in
enlighfened and speculative times, when the minds of men are in
quest of the right and the useful, and when a superfluity of power
is one of those abuses, which they are least likely to overlook or
tolerate. In such seasons, the experiment of tlie Tory might lead
to all that he most deprecates, and th^ branches of the Preroga-
tive, Once cut away, might, like the lopped boughs of the fir-tree,
never grow again.

On the other hand, the' Whig, who asserts that tie Royal Pre-
rogative ought to be reduced to such powers as are beneficial to

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BIGHT HON. RICHAUD BEINSLEY SHERIDAN. 71

fke people, and yet stipulates, as an invariable principle, for the
transfer of that Prerogative full and unimpaired, whenever it
passes into other hands, appears, even more perhaps than the Tory,
to throw an obstacle in the way of his own object. Circumstances,
it is not denied, may arise when the increase of the powers of the
Oown, in other ways, may render it advisable to control some
of its established prerogatives. But, where are we to find a fit
moment for such a reform, — or what opening will be left for it
by this fastidious Whig principle, which, in 1680, could see no
middle step between a change of the Succession and an undimin-
ished maintenance of the Prerc^ative, and which, in 1789, almost
v^ti the heels of a Declaration that " the power of the Crown
had mcreased and ought to be diminished," protested against even
an experimental reduction of it !

According to Mr. Fox, it is a distinctive characteristic of the
Tory, to attach more importance to the person of the King than
to his office. But, assuredly, the Tory is not singular in this want
of political abstraction ; and, in England, (from a defect, Hume
thinks, inherent in all limited monarchies,) the personal qualities
and opinions of the Sovereign have considerable influence upon
the whole course of public afiairs, — ^being felt alike in that court-
ly sphere around them where their attraction acts, and in that
outer circle of opposition where their repulsion comes into play.
To this influence, then, upon the government and the community, of
which no abstraction can deprive the person of the monarch, the
Whig principle in question (which seems to consider entireness of
Prerc^tive as necessary to a King, as the entireness of his limbs was
held to be among the Athenians,) superadds the vast power, both
actual and virtual, which would flow from the inviolability of the
Royal office, and forecloses, so far, the chance which the more
pliant Tory doctrine would leave open, of counteracting the efiects
of the King's indirect personal influence, by curtailing or weaken-
ing the grasp of some of his direct regal powers. Ovid repre-
sents the Deity of Light (and on an occasion, too, which may be
called a Regency question) as crowned with movable rays, which
might be put off when too strong or dazzling. But, according to

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72 ICEKOIRS OF THB LIFE OF THE

thb principle, the crown of Prerogatave must keep its rays fixed
and immovable, and (as the poet expresses it) ^^ circa caput ommb
mkantes,^^

Upon the whole, however high the authorities, by which this
Whig doctrine was enlbroed in 1789, its mani^t tendency, in
most cases, to secure a perpetuity oi superfluous powers to the
Crown, appears to render it unfit, at least as an invaiiable prin-
ciple, for any party professing to have the liberty of the people
for their object. The Prince, in his admirable Letter upon the
subject of the Regency to Mr. Pitt, was made to express the un-
willingness which he felt '^ that in his pers(m an experiment sdiould
be made to ascertain with how small a porticMi of kingly power
the executive government of the country might be carried on ;"
— but imagination has not far to go in supposing a ease, where
the enormous patronage vested in the Crown, and the consequent
increase of a Royal bias through the community, might give such
an undue and unsafe preponderance to that branch of the Legis-
lature, as would render any safe opportunity, however acquired, of
ascertaining with how much less power the executive government
could be carried on, most acceptable, in spite of any dc^mas to the
contrary, to all true lovers as well of the monarchy as of the people.

Having given thus much consideration to the opinions and prin-
ciples, professed on both sides of this constitutional question, it is
mortifying, after all, to be obliged to acknowledge, that, in the
relative situation of tlie two parties at the moment, may be found
perhaps the real, and but too natural, source of the decidedly op-
posite views which they took of the subject. Mr. Pitt, about to
surrender the possession of power to his rival, had a very intel-
ligible interest in reducing the value of the transfer, and (as a
retreating army spike the guns they leave behind) rendering the
engines of Prerogative as useless as possible to his successor.
Mr. Fox, too, had as natural a motive to oppose such a design ;
and, aware that the chief aim of these restrictive measures was to
entail upon the Whig ministry of the Regent a weak Government
and strong Opposition, would, of course, eagerly welcome the
aid of any abstract principle, that might sanction him in resisting

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLSY SHERIDAN. 73

such a mutilation of the Royal power ;— well knowing that (as in
the case of the Peerage ^1 in the reign of Greorge I.) the pro-
ceeduigs altogether were actuated m<H*e by ill-will to the succes-
sor in the trust, than by any sincere zeal for the purity of its
exercise.

Had the situati<Mis of the two leaders been reversed, it is more
than probable that tiieir modes of thinking and acting would have
been so likewise. Mr. Pitt, with the {urospect of poww before
his eyes, would have be^i still more strenuous, perhaps, for the
unbroken transmission o( the Prerogative — ^his natund leaning on
the side of power bdng increased by his own approaching diare
in it Mr. Fox, too, if stopped, like his rival, in a career of sue-
cestui administration, loid obliged to surrender up the reins of
the state to Tory guiduice, might have found in his popular prin-
ciples a still more plausible pretext, for the abridgment of power
in such unconstitutional l^nds. He might even too, perhaps, (as
his India Bill wiu*rants us in supposing) have been tempted into
the same sort of alienation of the Royal patronage, as that which
Mr. Pitt now practised in the establishment of the Queen, imd
have taken care to leave behind him a stronghold of Whiggism,
to facilitate the resumption of his position, whenever an opportu-
nity might present itself. Such is human nature, even in its
noblest specimens, and so are the strongest spirits shaped by ike
mould in which chance and circumstances have placed them.

Mr. Sheridan spoke frequently in the Debates on this question,
but his most important agency lay in the less public business
connected with it. He was the confidential adviser of the Prince
throughout, directed every step he took, and was the au^or of
most of his correspondence on the subject. There is little doubt,
I think, that the celebrated and masterly Letter to Mr. Pitt,
which by some persons has been attributed to Burke, and by
others to Sir Gilbert Elliot (afterwards Lord Minto), was prin-
cipally the production of Mr. Sheridan. For the supposition
that it was written by Burke there are, besides the merits of the
production, but very scanty grounds. So little was he at that
period in those habits of confidence with the Prince, which would

VOL. n. 4 r^ T

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74 lUBMOIBS OF THS LIFfi OF THE

entitle him to be seleeted for each a task in preference to Sh^dan,
tiiat but eight or ten days be^e the date of this letter (Jan. 2.)
he had dedared in tdw House of Commons, that '^ he knew as
little of the inside of Carlton House as he did of Buekingham
House," Indeed, the viol^it state of this extraordinary man's
t^nper, during the whole of the ^^^scusrixms and proceedings on
the Begen^, would have rendered him, even had his intimacy
with the Prince been ^oser, an un^ person for the composition
of a document, requiring so mudi caution, t^nper, and delicacy.

Hie oonjedure that Sir Gilbert £Uiot was the author of it is
somewhat more plau»ble, — ^that gentleman beii^ at this period
high in the favor of the Prince, and possessing talents sufiicient
to authorize the suspicion (whtdi was in itself a reputation) Uiat
he had be^i the writer of a compo^ion so admirable. But it
seems hardly necessary to go farther, in quest of its author, than
Mr. ^eridan, who, besides being known to have acted the part
of the Prince's adviser through the whole transaction, is proved
by the rough copies found among his pap^^ to have written
several other important documents connected with the Kegency.

I may dso add that an eminent statesman of t^e present day,
who was at that period, though very young, a distinguished friend
of Mr. Sheridan, and who has shown by the ability of his own
State Papers that he has not forgot the lessons of that school
from which this able production emanated, remembers having
hemrd some passages of the Letter discussed in Bruton-street, as
if it were then in the progress of composition, and has always,
I believe, been under the impression that it was principally the
work of Mr. Sheridan.*

I had writt^ thus far on the subject of this Letter^ — and shall
leave what I have written as a memorial of the fallacy of such
conjectures — when, having still some doubts of my correctness
in attributing the honor of the composition to Sheridan, I resolved
to ask the opinion of my friend, Sir James Mackintosh, a person

* To this authority may be added also that of the Bishop of Wmchester, who says,—
** Vi. Sheridan was supposed to have been materially concerned in drawing up this ad-
jDiiraUe cosqxMitioii.''

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BIGHT HON. BICHABD BiONSLSY SHEBIDAN. 7o

aboTe all otiiers qualified^ by relationship of talent, to recognize
and hold parley with the mighty spirit of Burke, in whatever
shape the " Royal Dane " may i^pear* The strong impression
on his mind — amomiting almost to eertamty — was that no other
hand but that of Burke could have written the greater part of
the letter '* and by a more diligent inquu*y, in which his kind-
ness assisted me, it has been ascertained that his opinion was, as
it could not ML to be, correct. The following extract from a
letter written by Lord MJnto at the time, referring obviously to
the surmise that he was, himself the author of the paper, con-
firms beyond a doubt the &ct, that it was written almost solely
by Burke :—

" January Slit, 1789.
** There was not a word of the Prince's letter to Pitt miae. It was origi-
nally Burke's, altered a little, but not improved, by Sheridan and other
critics. The answer made by the Prince yesterday to the Address of the
two Houses was entirely mine, and done in a great hurry half an hour be-
fore it was to be delivered."

While it is with regret I give up the claim of Mr. Sheridan to
this fine specimen of English composition, it but adds to my in-
tense admiration of Burke — ^not on account of the beauty of the
writing, for his fame required no such accession — ^but from that
triumph of mind over temper which it exhibits — that forgetful-
ness of Self, the true, transmigrating power of genius, which
enabled him thus to pass his spirit into the station of Royalty,
and to assume all the calm dignjty, both of style and feelmg, that
became it.

It was to be expected that the conduct of Lord Thurlow at this
period should draw down upon him all the bitterness of those

♦ It is amosiog to observe how tastes differ ;— the following is the opinion entertained
of this letter by a gentleman, who, I understand, and can easily believe, is an old estab-
lished Keriewer. After mentloniBg that it was attributed to the pen of Burke, he adds,
— " The story, however, does not seem entitled to much credit, for the internal character
of the paper is too vapid and heavy for the genius of Burke, whose ardent mind would
assuredly have dithsed vigor into the composition, and the correctness of whose judg«
ment woiUd as certainly have preserved it from the charge of inelegance and grammati-
cal deficiency.''— Db. Waikzns, Life qf Sheridan,

Boch, in nine cases out of ten, are the periodical guides of pubUo taste.

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76 MEMOIRS OF THB LIFB OF THE

who were in the secret of his ambidextrous policy, and who
knew both his disposition to desert, and the nature of the motives
that prevented him. To Sheridan, in particular, such a result of
a negotiation, in which he had been the principal mover and
mediator, could not be otherwise than deeply mortifying. Of
all the various talents with which he was gifted, his dexterity in
political intrigue and management was that of which he appears
to have been most vain ; and this vanity it was that, at a later
period of his life, sometimes led him to branch off from the
main body of his party, upon secret and solitary enterprises of
ingenuity, which — as may be expected from all such independent
movements of a partisan — generally ended in thwarting his
friends and embarrassing himself.

In the debate on that clause of the Bill, which restricted the
Eegent from granting places or pensions in reversion, Mr. She-
ridan is represented as having attacked Lord Thurlow in terms
of the most unqualified severity, — speaking of " the natural
ferocity and sturdiness of his temper," and of " his brutal bluff-
ness." But to such abuse, unseasoned by wit, Mr. Sheridan
was not at all likely to have condescended, bcjing well aware
that, " as in smooth oil the razor best is set," so satire is whetted
to its most perfect keenness by courtesy. His clumsy reporters
have, in tlus, as in almost all other instances, misrepresented
him.

With equal personality, but more playfulness, Mr. Burke, in
exposing that wretched fiction, by which the Great Seal was con-
verted into the Third Branch of the Legislature, and the assent
of the King forged to a Bill, in which his incapacity to give
either assent or dissent was declared, thus expressed himself: —
" But what is to be done when the Crown is in a deliquium ? It
was intended, he had heard, to set up a man with black brows
and a large wig, a kind of scare-crow to the two Houses, who
was to give a fictitious assent in the royal name — ^and this to be
binding on the people at lai^e !" The following remarkable
passage, too, in a subsequent Speech, is almost too well known
to be cited : — " The other House," he said, " were not yet per-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 77

haps recovered from that extraordinary burst of the pathetic
which had been exhibited the other evening ; they had not yet
dried their eyes, or be^ restored to their former placidity, and
were unqualified to attend to new business, llie tears shed in
that House on the occasion to which he alluded, were not the
tears of patriots for dying laws, but oi Lords for their expiring
places. The ircoi tears, which flowed down Pluto's cheek, rather
resembled the dismal bubbling of the Styx, than the gentle mur«
muring streams of Aganippe."

While Lord Thurlow was thus treated by the party whom he
had so nearly joined, he was but coldly welcomed back by the
Minister whom he had so nearly deserted. His reconciliation, too,
with the latter was by no means either ^cere or durable, — the re>
newal of friendship between politicians, on such occasions, being
generally like that which the Diable Boiteux describes, as having
taken place between himself and a brother sprite, — " We were
reconciled, embraced, and have hated each other heartily ever
since."

In the Regency, indeed, and the transactions connected with
it, may be found the source of most of those misunderstandings
and enmities, which broke out soon after among the eminent men
of that day, and were attended with consequences so important
to themselves and the country. By the difference just mentioned,
fcetween Mr. Pitt and Lord Thurlow, the ministerial arrange-
ments of 1793 were facilitated, and the learned Lord, after all his
sturdy pliancy, consigned to a life of ineffectual discontent ever
after.

The disagreement between Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox, if not ac-
tually originating now — and its foundation had been, perhaps,
laid from the beginning, in the total dissimilarity of their dispo-
sitions and sentiments — was, at least, considerably ripened and
accelerated by the events of this period, and by the discontent
that each of them, like partners in unsuccessful play, was known
to feel at the mistakes which the other had committed in the
game. Mr. Fox had, unquestionably, every reason to lament as
well as blame the violence and virulence by which his associate

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78 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

had disgraced the contest The effeef, indeed, produced npon the
public by the irreverent sallies of Burke, and by the too evid^it
triumph, both of hate and hope, with which he regarded the ca-
lamitous situation of the King, contributed not a little to render
still lower the thready low temperature oi popularity at which
his party stood throughout the country. It seemed as if a long
course of ineflfectoal struggle in politics, of frustrated ambition
and unrewarded talents, had at length exasperated Ms mind to a
degree beyond endurance ; and the extravagances into which he
was hurried in his speeches on this question, appear to have
been but the first workings of that impatience of a lodng cause —
that resentment of failure, and disgust at his partners in it —
which soon afterwards found such a signal oj^ortunity of ex-
ploding.

That Mr. Burke, upon far less grounds, was equally discon-
tented with his co-^erators in this emergency, may be collected
from the following passage of a letter addressed by him in the
summer of this year to Lord Charlemont, and given by Hardy
in his Memoirs of that nobleman : —

" Perpetual failure, even though nothing in that faUiure can be fixed on
the improper choice of the object or the injudicious choice of means, will
detract every day more and more from a man's credit, until he ends with-
out success and without reputation. In fact, a constant pursuit even of,
the best objects, without adequate instruments, detracts something f^m
the opinion of a man's judgment This, I tMnk, may be in psaci tlie cause
of the inactivity of others of our Mends who are in the vigor of life and
in possession of a great degree of lead and authority. I do not blatne
them, though I lament that state of the public mind, in which the people
can consider the exclusion of such talents and such virtues from their ser-
vice, as a point gained to them. The only point in which I can find any
thing to blame in these friends, is their not taking the efl'ectual means,
whidi they certainly had in their power, of making an honorable r^eat
from their proq>ect of power into the posae8si<m of reputation, by an ef-
fectual defence of themselves. There was an opportunity which was not
made use of for that purpose, and which could scarcely have failed of turn-
ing the tables on their adversaries."

Another instance of the embittering influence of these transae-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 79

tions may be traced in their effects upon Mr. Burke and Mr.
Sheridan — ^between whom there had arisen a degree of emula-
tion, amounting to jealousy^ which, though hitherto chiefly con-
fined to one of the parties, received on this occasion such an
addition of fuel, as (^read it equally through the mmds of both,
4nd conduced, in no small d^ee, to the explosion that fdlowed.
Both Irishmen, aod both adventurers in a r^on so much elevat-
ed above their original station, it was but natural that scmie such
feeling should kindle between them ; and that, as Burke was
already mid-way in his career, when ^erklan was but entering
the field, the stirrings, whether of emulation or envy, should first
be felt by the latter. It is, indeed, said that in die c^emonial of
Hastings's Ti-ial, the privil^es enjoyed by Burke, as a Privy-
councillor, were regarded witii evident uneasiness by his brother
Manager, who could not as yet boast the distinction of Eight
Honorable before his name. As soon, however, as the ra^d run
of Sheridan's success had enabled him to overtake his veteran
rival, this feeling of jealousy took possession in fiill force of the
latter, — and the close relations of intimacy and confidence, to
which Sheridan was now admitted both by Mr. Fox and the
Prince, are supposed to have been not the least of those causes
of irritation and disgust, by which Burke was at length driven to
break with the party altogetiier, and to show his gigantic strength
at parting, by carrying away some of the strcmgest pillars of
Wbiggbra in his grasp.

Lastly, to this painful list of the feuds, whose origin is to be found
in the times and transactions of which we are speaking, m;ay be
added that slight, but too visible cloud of misunderstanding,
whidi arose between Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan, and which,
though it never darkened into any thing serious, continued to
pervade their intercourse with each oAer to the last — exhibiting
itself, on tiie part of Mr. Fox, in a d^ee of distrustfiil reserve
not natural to him, and, on the side of Sheridan, in some of those
counter-workings of influence, which, as 1 have already said, he
was sometimes induced by his love of t^e diplomacy of politics
to practise.

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80 MEMOIRS OF THS LIFE OF THE

Among the appointments named in contemplaticMi of a Regen-
cy, the place of Treasurer of the Navy was allotted to Mr. She-
ridan. He would never, however, admit the ictea of certainty in
any of the arrangements so sanguinely calculated upon, but
continually impressed upon his impatient fiiends the possibility,
if not probability, of the King's recovery. He had even refused
to look at the plan of the apartments, which he himself was to
occupy in Somerset House ; and had but just agreed that it
should be sent to him for examinatioB, on the very day when the
King was declared convalescent by Dr. Warren. " He entered
his own house (to use Uie words of the relator of the anecdote)
at dinner-time with the news. T^ere were present, — besides
Mrs. Sheridan and his sister, — Tickell, who, on the change of ad-
ministration, was to have been immedialely brought into Parlia-
m^it, — Joseph Richardson, who was to have had Tickell's place
of Commissioner of the Stamp-office, — ^Mr. Reid, and some
others. Not one of the company but had cherished expectations
from the approaching change — ^not one of them, however, had
lost so mudi as Mr. Sheridan. With his wonted equanimity he
announced the sudden turn afiairs had taken, and looking round
him cheerfully, as he filled a lai^e glass, said, — * Let us all join
in drinking His Majesty's speedy recovery.' "

The measures which the Irish Parliament adopted on this
occasion, would have been productive of anomalies, both theoreti-
cal and practical, had the continued illness of the King allowed
the projected R^ency to take place. As it was, the most
material ccmsequence that ensued was the dismissal from their
official situations of Mr. Ponsonby and other powerful individu-
als, by which the Whig party received such an accession of
strengUi, as enabled them to work out for their country the few
blessings of liberty that still remam to her. Among the victims
to their votes on this question was Mr. CJharles Sheridan, who,
on the recovery of the King, was dismissed from his office of Sec-
retary of War, but received compensation by a pension of 1200/.
a year, with the reversion of SOOL a year to his wife.

The ready and ardent burst of devotion with which Ireland, at

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLKY SHERIDAN. 81

this moment, like the Pythagoreans at their mommg worship,
turned to welcome with her Harp the Rising Sun, was long re-
membered by the object of her homage with pride and gratitude,
— and, let us trust, is not even yet entirely forgotten.*

It has already been mentioned that to Mr. Sheridan, at this
period, was entrusted the task of drawing up several of the State
Papers of the Heir- Apparent. From the rough copies of these
papers that have fallen into my hands, I shall content myself
with selecting two Letters — the first of which was addressed by
the Prince to the Queen, immediately after the communication
to her Majesty of the Resolution of the two Houses placing the
Royal Household under her control.

** Before Toar Majesty gives an aaswer to the applicatton for your Royal
permisdoB to place and» Tour Mijesfy's separate aatbority the direction
and appointment of the King's household, and thereby to separate f^om
the difficnlt and arduous situation which I am unfortunately called upon
to fill, the aocitstomed and necessary support which has ever belonged to
it, permit me, wit^ every sentiment of duty and affection towards Your
Migesty, to entreat your attentive perusal of the papers which I have the
honor to enclose. They contain a sketch of the plan now proposed to
be carried into execution as communicated to me by Mr. Pitt, and the
sentiments which I found myself bound in duty to declare fti reply to that
communication. I take the liberty of lodging these papers in Your Mi^es-
ty's hands, confiding that, whenever it shall please Providence to remove
the malady with which the King my father is now unhappily afflicted,
Tour Majttty will, in justice to me and to those of the Royal f^tmily whose
affectionate concurrence and support I have received^ take the earliest
opportunity of submitting them to his Royal perusal, in order that no
interval of time may elapse before he is in possession of the true motives
and principles upon which I have acted. I here solemnly repeat to Your
Migesty, that among those principles there is not one which influences my
mind so much as the firm persuamon I have, that ray conduct in endea-
voring to maintain unimpaired and undivided the just rights, preroga-
tives, and dignity of the Crown, in the person of the King's representative,
is the only line of conduct which would entitle me to His Majesty's appro*
bation, or enable me to stand with confidence in his Royal presence on the

• This vain liope was ezpressed befoie the late decision on the Catholic qnestion had
proved to the Irish that, where their rights are concerned, neither public nor private
pledges are regarded.

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82 MEHOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

nappy day of his recovery ;~and, on the contrary, that those who, under
c(dor of respect and attadiment to hki Royal person, have contrived this
project for enfeebling and degrading the executive authority of the realm,
will be considered by him as having risked the happiness of his people
and the security of the throne itself, by establishing a fatal precedent
which may hereafter be urged against his own authority, on as plausible
pretences, or revived against the just rights of his fiiinily. In quaking
my opinions of tiie mo^e of the i>rqjector8 of this scheme, I tmst I need
not assure Tour M^esty tiiat the re8|>ect, dufy, and aifectioB I owe to Your
Majesty have never suffered me for a single moment to conuder you as
countenancing, in the slightest degree, tneir plan or their purposes. I
have the firmest reliance on Tour Majesty's early declaration to me, on
the subject oi public afl^irs, at the commencement ef our connnon calami-
ty ; and, whatever may be the efforts <^ evil or intefested advisers, I have
the same confidence that you will never permit or endure that the influ-
ence of yottf -reflected name shall be pro&ned to the purpose of distress*
ing the governvMnt and insulting the person of yaur son* How £ur thoee»
who are evidently pursuing both these objects, may be encouraged b/
Tour Majesty's acceptaooeof one part of the powws purposed to be
lodged in your hands, I will not i»resume to say.* The proposition has
assumed the dmpe of a Resolfition of ParUament, and therefore I am
silent.

" Tour Mfyesty will do me the himor to weigh tiie (pinions I formed
and deelared belSve ParUament had entertained the plan, and^ with those
before you, yomr own good judgment will decide. I have only to add that
whatever that decision may be, nothing will ever alter the interest of true
affection and inviolable duty," &c* &c.

The second Letter that I shall give, firom the rough eopy of Mr.
Sheridan, was addressed by the Prince to the King after his
recovery, announcing the intention of His Royal Highness to sub-
mit to His Majesty a Memorial, in vindication of his own conduct
and that of his Royal brother the Duke of York throughout the
whole of the proceedings consequent upon His Majesty's indispo-
sition.

* In speaking of the extraordinary imperxuM in imperiOf with which the command of
so much power and patrona^ would have inveeted the Queen, the Annual Raster
(Botnnson's) remarks justly, "It was not the least extraordinary circumstance in these
transactions, that the Queen could be prevailed upon to lend her name to a project which
would eventually have placed her in avowed rivalship with her son, and, at a moment
when her attention might seem to be absorbed by domestic calamity, have establidied
her at the head of a political party. '*

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 83

"Sir, #

" Thinking it probable that I should have been honored with your com-
mands to attend Your Migesty on Wednesday last, I have unfortunately
lost the opportunity of paying my duty to Your Majesty before your de-
parture from Weymouth. The accounts I have received of Your Msgesty^e
health have given me the greatest satisfaction, and should it be Your Ma-
jesty's intention to return to Weymouth, I trust, Shr, there will be no im-
propriety in my then entreating Your Majesty's gracious attention to apoint
of the greatest moment ta the peace of my own mind, and one in which I
am convinced Your Majesty's feelings are equally interested.* Your Ma-
jesty's letter to my brother the Duke of Clarence, in May last, was the first
direct intimation I had ever received that my conduct and that of my bro-
ther the Duke of York, during Your Majesty's late lamented illness, had
brought on us the heavy misfortune of Your Majesty's di^leasure. I
should be wholly unworthy the return^ of Your Mijesty^s eosfidene^ and
good opinion, which will ever be the first objects of my life, if I could
have read the passage I refer to in that letter without the deepest sorrow
and regret for the eflfect produced on Your Majesty's mind ; though at the
same time I fielt the firmest persuasion that Your Majesty's generosity and
goodness would never permit that effect io remain, without afl^ding us an
opportunity of knowing what had been urged against us, of replying to our
accusers, and of justifying ourselves. If the means of justification were in
our power.

" Great however as my impatience and anxiety were on this subject, I
felt it a superior consideration not to intrude any unpleasing or agitating
discussions upon Your Majesty's attention, during an excursion devoted to
the ease and amusement necessary for the re-establishment of Your Majesty's
health. I determined to sacrifice my own feelings, and to w^it with resig-
nation till the fortunate opportunity should arrive, when Your Majesty's
own paternal goodness would, I was convinced, lead you even to invite your
sons to that fair hearing, which your justice would not deny to the mean-
est individual <^ your sulgects. In this painful interval I have employed my-,
self in drawing up a AiU statement and account of my conduct during the
period alluded to, and of the motives and circumstances which influenced
me. When these shall be humbly submitted to Your Ms^sty's considera-
tion, I may be possibly found to have erred in judgment, and to have acted
en misti^n principles, but I have the most assured conviction that I shall
not be found to have been deficient in tiiat duteous aflfection to Your Ma-
jesty which nothing shall ever diminish. Anxious for every thing that
may contribute to the comfori; and satisfaction of Your Majesty's mind, I
cannot omit this opportunity of lamenting those appearances of a less
gracious disposition in the Queen, towards my brothers and myself, than
we were accustomed to experience ; and to assure Your Majesty that if

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84 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

by your affectionate interposition these most unpleasant sensations should
be happily removed, it would be an event not less grateAil to our minds
than satisfactory to Your Majesty's own benign disposition. I will not long-
er, &c. &o.

• G. P."

The Statement here aonounced by His Royal Highness (a copy
of which I have seen, occupying, with its Appendix, near a hutt-
dred fblio pages), is supposed to have been drawn up by Lord
Minto.

To descend from documents of such high import to one of a
much humbler nature, the following curious memorial was pre-
sented this year to Mr. Sheridan, by a literary gentleman whom
tlie Whig party thought it worUi while to employ in their ser-
vice, and who, as far as industry went, appears to have been not un-
worthy of his hire. Simonides is said to be the first author that
ever wrote for pay, but Simonides little dreamt of the perfection
to whidi his crafl would one day be brought

Memorial for Dr. W. 71,* Fitzroy-street, Fitzroy-Cho^U

*^ In May, 1787, Dr. Parr, in the name ^f his political friends, engaged
Dr. T. to embrace those opportunities, which his connections with booksel-
lers and periodical publications might afford him, of sapporting the prin-
ciples of their party. Mr. Sheridan in August, 1787, gave two notes, Ml,
each, to Dr. T. for the first year's service, which notes were paid at different
pelnods — the first by Mr. Sheridan at Brookes's, in January, 1788, the second
by Mr. Windham in May, 1788. Mr. ^eridan, in different conversations,
encouraged Dr. T. to go on with the expectation of a like sum yearly, or
60^. half yearly. Dr. T. with this encouragement engaged in different pub-
lications for the purpose of this agreement. He is charged for the most
part with the Political and Historical articles in the Analytic Review, and
he also occasionally writes the Political Appendix to the English Review,
of which particularly he wrote that for April last, and that for June last.
He also every week writes an abridgment of Politics for the Whitehall
Evening Post, and a Political Review every month for a Suaday paper en-
titled the Review and Sunday Advertiser. In a Romance, entitled *■ Mam-

• This industrious Scotcliraan (of whosa name I have (Mily given the initials) was not
without some share of humor. On hearing that a certain modern philosopher had carried
his belief in the perfectibility of all living things so far, as to say that he did not despair
of seeing the day when tigers themselves might be educated, Dr. T. exclaimed, '* I should
like dearly to see him in a cage with ina of his pupils t^'

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RIGHT HON". RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 85

moth, or Homaa Nature Displaced, &c.,' I^. T. has shown how mindfal ho
is on all occasions oi his engagements to those who confide in him. He has
also occasionally moved other engioeS; which it would be tediouii and might
appear too trifling to mention. Dr. T. is not ignorant that uncommon char-
ges have happened in the course of this last year, that is, the year prece- «
ding May, 1789. Instead of 100/., therefore, he will be satisfied with 50/,
for that year, provided that this abatement shall not ibrm a precedent
against his claim of 100^ aanoally, if his further services shall be deemed
acceptaUe. There is one point on which Dr. T. particularly reserved him-
self, namely, to make no attack on Mr. Hastings, and this will be attested
by Dr. Parr, Mr. Sheridan, and, if the Doctor rightly recollects, by Mr.
Windham.
" Fitzroy-itreet, list Jtdy, 1789."

Taking into account all the various circumstances that con*
curred to glorify this period of Sheridan's life, we may allow our-
selves, I think, to pause upon it as the apex of the pyramid, and,
whether we consider his fame, his talents, or his happiness, may
safely say, " Here is their highest point."

The new splendor which his recent triumphs in eloquence had
added to a reputation already so illustrious, — the power which he
seemed to have acquired over the future destinies of the country,
by his acknowledged influence in the councils of the Heir Appa-
rent, and the tribute paid to him, by the avowal both of friends
and foes, that he had used this influence in the late trying crisis
of the Regency, with a judgment and delicacy that proved him
worthy of it, — all these advantages, both brilliant and solid,
which subsequent circumstances but too much tended to weaken,
at this moment surrounded him in their newest lustre and
promise.

He was just now, too, in the first enjoyment of a feeling, of
which habit must have afterwards dulled the zest, namely, the
proud consciousness of having surmounted the disadvantages of
birth and station, and placed himself on a level with the highest
and noblest of the land. This footing in the society of the great
he could only have attained by parliamentary eminence ; — ^as a
mere writer, with all his genius, he never would have been thus
admitted ad eundem among them. Talents, in literature or sci-
ence, unassisted by the advantages of birth, may lead to associo-

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86 MEHOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

tlon with tlie great, but rarely to equality ; — it is a passport
through the wdl-gimrded fronti^, but no title to naturalization
within. By him, who has not been bom among them, this can
only be achieved by politics. In thai arena, which they look upon
as their own, the Legislature of the land, let a man of genius, like
Sheridan, but assert his supremacy, — at once all tliese barriers
of reserve and {»ide give way, and he takes, by storm, a station
at their side, which a Shakspeare or a Newton would but have
enjoyed by courtesy.

In fixing upon this period of Sheridan's life, as the most shin-
ing sera of his talents as well as his &me, it is not meant to be
d^ed that in his subsequent war^e ¥dth the Minist^, during
the stormy time of the Frendi Revolution, he exhibited a prow-
ess of oratory no less suited to that actual service, than his elo-
quence on the trial of Hastings had been to such lighter tilts and
tournaments of peace. But the efifeet of his talents was far less
striking ; — ^the current of feelijig through England was against
him ; — ^and, however greatly this added to the merit of his efforts,
it deprived him of that echo from the public heart, by which the
voice jof the orator is endued with a sort of multiplied life, and,
as it were, survives itself In the panic, too, that followed the
French Revolution, all eloquence, but that from the lips of Power,
was disregarded, and the voice of him at tJie helm was the only
one listened to in the storm.

Of his happiness, at the period of wMch we are speaking, in the
midst of so much success and hope, there can be but little doubt.
Though pecuniary embarrassment, as appears from his papers,
had already begun to weave its &tal net around him, there was
as yet little more than sufficed to give exercise to his ingenuity,
fttid the resources of the Drury-Lane treasury were still in full
nightly flow. The charms, by which his home was embellished,
were such as few other homes could boast ; and, if any thing made
it less happy than it ought to be, the cause was to be found in the
very brilliancy of his life and attractions, and in those triumphs
out of the sphwe of domestic love, to which his vanity, perhaps,
oflener than his feelings, impelled lum.

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RIGHT HO]^. RICHARD BRINSLeV SHERIDAN. 87

Among his own immediate associates, the gaiety of his spirits
amounted almost to boyishness. He delighted in all sorts of
dramatic tricks and disguises ; and the lively parties, with which
his country-house Was always filled, were kept in momentary ex-
pectation of some new device for their mystification or amuse-
ment.* It was not unusual to dkpatck a man and horse seven or
e^ht miles for a piece of crape or a mask; or some other such
trifle for these frolics. His friends Tickell and RFchardson, both
men of wit and humor, and the former possessing the same
degree of light animal spirits as himself, were Uie constant com-
panions of all his social hours, and kept up with him that ready
rebound of pleasantry, without which the play of wit knguMi^.

There is a letter, written one night by Ridiardson at Tun-
bridge,f (afler waiting five long hours for Sheridan,) so full of
that mixture of melancholy and humor, which chequered the
mind of this interesting man, that, as illustrative of the character
of one of Skeridan's most intimate fnends, it may be mserted
here: —

/'Dear SaffiUBAK^ Mtdfymti.nime^MoutUSpkraim,

" After jost had been gone an hour or two I got moped damnably. Per-
haps there ia a sympathy between the corp(M*eal and the mind's eye. In
the Temple I can't see far before me, and seldom extend my epeeuiatlons
on things to eome into any fatiguing sketch of fefleQ^on.^-Frem yoor win-

* To gi^e some idea of the youthful to9e/)f this society, I shall mention one out of many
anecdotes related to me by pers<HBS who had themselves been «Mnament8 af it. The la-
diet having <me eV€siing vec^red the g^ittena/w in masqoerade dresses, which, with their
obstinate silence, made it impossible to distinguish one from the other, the gentlemen, in
their torn, invited tite ladies, next evenmg, to a similar trial of coi^cture on themselves ;
and notiee biii^ given that they were ready Amned, Mrs. ^leridan and her coiRpani<»is
wemadoutted into the dining room, where they found a party of Turks, sitting silent
and masked round the table. After a long course of the usual guesses, exclamations,
kc. kc.y and eaoh Uidy having takmi the arm of the person she was most siure of, they
heard a burst of laughter through the half-open door, and looking there, saw the g^itle-
roen themselves in their {»^oper persons, — ^the masks, upon whom they had been lavishing
their saga<^y, being no other than the maid-servants of the house, who had been thus
dressed up to deceive them.

f In the year 1790, when Mrs. Sheridan was trying the waters of Tunbridge for her
healtii. In a letter to Sheridan's sister from this place, dated September, 1790, she says,
'* I drink the waters once a day, aad-rkle and drive all the forenoon, which makes me
ravenous when I return. I fee! I am in very good health, and I am told that I am in high
beauty, two circumstances which ought and do put me in high good humor.*'

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88 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

dow, liowever, there was a tedious scope of black atmosphere, that I think
won my mind into a sort of fellew-traveller^ip, pacing me again through
the cheerless waste of the past, and presenting hardly one little nuified
cloud to give a dim ornament to the future ; — not a star to be seen ; — no
permanent light to gild my horizon ; — only the fading helps to transient
gaiety in the lamps of Tunlnridge ;— ^o Law coffee-house at hand, or any
other house of relief ; — ^no antagonist to biek^ one into a control of one's
cares by a successful opposition^* nor a softer enemy to aoothe one into an
oblivion of them.

** It is damned foolish for ladies to leave their scissors about ; — the frail
thread of a worthless life is soon snipped. I wish to God my &te had
been true to its first destination, and made a parson of me ; — ^I should have
made an excellent country Joll. I think I can, with confidence, pronounce
the character that would have been given of me : — He was ui indolent
good-humored man, civil at all times, and hospitable at others, namely,
when he was able to be so, which, truth to say, hastened but seldom. His
sermons were better than his preaching, and his doctrine better than his
life ; though often grave, and sometimes melancholy, he nevertheless loved
a joke, — ^the more so when overtaken in his cups, which, a regard to the
&ith of history compels us to sutjoin, fell out not unfrequently. He had
mwe thou^t than was generally imputed to him, tiiough it must be owned
no man alive ever exercised thought to so little'^ purpose. Rebecca, his
wife, the daughter <^ an opalent Ihrmer in the neighborhood of his small
living, l^onght him eighteen children ; and he now rests with those who,
being rather not absolutely vicious ^an actively good, confide in the
bounty of Proiddence to strike a mild average between the contending ne-
gations €i their life, and to allow tii^ in their fhture state, what he or-

* Richardson was remarkable for his love of di^;>atati(Hi ; andTick^U, wkea hard pressed
by him in argameat, i»ed often, as a last resoorce, to assume the voice and manner of
Mr. Fox, which he had the powor of mimicking so exac^, that Ridtaritooa confessed
he sometimes stood awed and silenced by the resemUanee.

This disputations humor of Richardson was cmce turned to account by Sheridan in a
very characteristic manner. Having had a hackaey-ceach in employ for five or six
hours, and not being provided with the means of paying it, he haj^iened to espy Richard-
son in the street, and proposed to take him in the coach some part of his way. "Hie offitr
being accepted, ^endan tost no time in starting a sulqect of coaversation, on which he
knew his companitm was sure to become argumentative and animated. Having, by
well-managed contradiction, brought him to the proper pitch of excitement, he affected
to grow impatient and angry, himself, and sa3ring that '< he could not think of staying in
the same coach with a person that would use such language," pulled the check-string,
and desired the coachman to let him out. Richardson, wholly occupied with the argu-
ment, and regarding the retreat of his opponent as an acknowledgment of defeat, still
pressed his point, and even h^lowed <* more last words" through tin coaeh-window after
Sheridan, who, walking quietly home, left the poor disputant responsible for the heavy
fare of the coach.

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RIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINBLBT SHSRIDAIC. 89

dained them in this earlUj pilgrimage, a saug neutrality and a useless re-
pose. — ^I had written thus far, absolutely determined, under an irresistible
influence of the megrims, to set off for London on foot, when, accidentally
searching for a cardlalgic, to my great delight, I discovered three fugitive
sixpences, headed by a vagrant shilling, immerged in the heap in my waist-
coat pocket This discovery gave an immediate -elasticity to my mind;
and I have therefore devised a scheme, worthier the improved state of my
spirits, namely, to swindle your servants out of a horse, under the pretence
of a ride upon the heath, and to jog on contentedly homewards. So, un-
der the protection of Providence, and the mercy of footpads, I trust we
shall meet again to-morrow ; at all events, there is nothing huffish in this ;
for, whether sad or merry, I am always,

" Most affectionately yours,

*'J. RiCHABDSON.

*^ P. S. Your return only confirmed me in my resolutioD of going ; for I
had worked myself, in five hours solitude, into msk a state of nervous mel-
ancholy, that I found I could not help the meanness of* crying, even if any
one looked me in the face. I am anxious to avoid a regular conviction of
so disreputable an infirmity ;— besides, the night has become quite plea-
sant"

Between Tickell and Sheridan there was a never-ending ^ skir-
mish of wit," both Terbal and practical ; and the latter kind, in
particular, was carried on between them with all the waggery,
and, not unfrequently, the malice of school-boys.* Tickell, much
less occupied by business than his friend^ had idways some poli-
tical ^etio; <r esprit on the anvil ; and sometimes these trifles were
produced by them jointly. The foUowmg string of pasquinades
so well known in political eirdes, and written, as the reader will
perceive, at different dates, though principally by Sheridan, owes
some of its stanzas to Tickell, and a few others, I believe, to Lord
John Townshend. I have strung together, without iregard to

* On one occatiion, Sheridan having covered the floor of a dark passage, leading from
the drawing room, with all the plates and dishes of the house, ranged closely together,
provoked his unccmscioiis play-fellow to porsae him into the midst of them. Having left
a path for his own escape, he passed through easily, but Tickell, railing at fall length into
me ambuscade, was very much cut in several places. The next day, Lord John Towns-
hend, on paying a visit to the bed-side of Tickell, found him covered over with patches,
and indignantly vowing vengeance against Sheridan for this unjustifiable trick. In the
midst of lus anger, however, he could not help exclaiming, with the true feeling of an
amateur of this sort of mischief, *' but how amazingly well done it was I"

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90 MXlCOIBd OF THE LIFB OF THB

chronology, the best of t^eee detadied lampoons. Time havrag
removed their venom, and with it, in a great degree, their wit,
they are now, like dried snakes, mere harmless objects of curi-
osity.

« Johnny W— Iks, Johnny W— Iks,*
Thou greatest of Mlks,
How chang'd are the notes yoa now sing I
Your feim'd Forty-five
Is Prerogative,
And your blasphemy, * God save the King,'

Jdmny W— Iks.
And your blasphemy, * God save the King.' "

"Jack Ch -oh— 11, Jack Ch— ch—U,
The town sure you search 111,
Your mob has disgraced all your brags ;
When next you draw out
Your faosi^tal rout.
Do, prithee, afford them clean rags.

Jack Ch—ch— 11,
Do, prithee, afford them clean rags."

" Oiqitoin K— ih. Captain K— ft,
Ke^ your tongue 'twizt yoor ieetii.
Lest bed-chamber tricks you betray ;
And, if teeth you want more.
Why, my bold Commodore, —
You may bcnrrow of Lord G-^1— y,

Captain^K-4h,
You may borrow of Lord Q — ^11— y.''
« t Joe M— wl^y, Joe M^wb— y,
Your throat sure must raw be,
In striving to make yourself heard ;
But it pleased not the pigs,
Nor the Westmhister Whigs,
That your Knighthood should utter one word,

Joe M — wb— y,
That your Ejiighihood should utter one word."

• In fflaeridaii's copy of the stanzas written by him in this metre at the time of the
Union, (b^nnmgr *' Zooks, Harry I zooks, Harry I" he entitled them, " An admirable
new ballad, whieh goes excellently well to the tnne of
<* Mrs. Ame, Mrs. Ame,
It gives me concom, " Ac
t This stanza and, I rather think, the next were by Lord John Townshend.

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RIGHT nON. RICHARD BRINSLET SHSRIDAN. 91

" M — ntm— res, M — ^Dfen-^reo^
Whom nobody for is,
And for whom we none of us eare ^
From Dublin you «ame —
It had mueh been ^e same
If your Lord^ip had stud where yoa were,

M~ntm— res,
If your Lordship had staid where yoa wore.''

" Lord O — gl— y, Lord O — gl — ^y,
You spoke mighty strongly —
Who you are^ tho*, all people admire !
But VVi let you depart,
For I believe in my heart,
Ton had rather they did not inquire,

Loi:d O— gl— y,
Tou had rath^ they did not iiiqure.''

« €tt— nb— e, Ol-^b— e,
What's good for the scurvy ?
For ne'er be your old trade forgot —
In your arms rather quarter
A pestle and mortar,
And your crest be a spruce gallipot,
Ol— nb—e,
And your crest be a qpruce gallipot"

« Gl— nb—e, Gl— nb— e,
The world's topsy-turvy,
Of this truth you're the fittest attester ;
For, who can deny
That the Low become High,
When^ King makes a Lord of Silverter,

Gl— nb— e.
When the King makes a Lord of Silvester/'

"Mr.P- l,Mr.P— 1,
In return for your zeal,
I am told they have dubb'd you Sir Bob ;
Having got wealth enough
By coarse Manchester stuff.
For honors youll now drive a job,
Mr. P— 1,
For honors you'll now drive a job."

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92 MllCOIBS 07 THB LIFE OF THE

** Oh poor B — ks, (^ poor B-^ks,
Still coademDed to the ranks,
Nor e'en yet fimn a private jHromoted {
Pitt ne'er will relent,
Though he knows you repent.
Having once or twice honestly voted,
PoorB— ks,
Having once or twice honestly voted."

« Dull H— 1— y, dull H— 1— y,
Your audience feel ye
A speaker of very great weight,
And they wish yon were dumb,
When, with ponderous hum.
You lengthened the drowsy debate.

Dull H— 1— y.
You lengthened the drowsy debate."

There are about as many more of these stanzas, written at
different intervals, according as new victims, with good na.mes
for rhyming, presented themselves, — the metre being a most
tempting medium for such lampoons. There is, indeed, appended
to one of Sheridan's copies of them, a long list (like a Tablet of
Proscription), containing about fifteen other names marked out
for the same fate ; and it will be seen by the following specimen
that some of them had a very narrow escape :

"WillC— rtr-8 "

<• V— ns— t— fc, V— ns— t— t,— for little thou fit art"

" Will D — nd — 8, Will D — nd-— s, — were you only an ass."

" L—ghb—h,— thorough."

"SamH— rsl--y,8«mH— rsl— y, coarsely."

" P — ttym — n. P — ttym — ^n, — speak truth, if you can."

But it was not alone for such lively purposes* that Sheridan
and his two friends drew upon their joint wits ; they had also but

* As I have been meatioiiiiig lome instances of Sheridan's k>ve of practical jests, I
shall take this opportunity of adding on« -more anecdote, which I believe is pretty well
known, but which I have had the advantage of hearing irom the person on whom the
joke was inflicted.

The Rev. Mr.O'B (afterwards Bishop of ) having arrived to dinner at

Sheridan's coontry-honse, near Osterley, where, as usual, a gay party was collected,

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BMNSLKY SHERIDAN. 93

too much to do with sulijects of a far dififerent nature — ^with debts,
bonds, judgments, writs, and all those other humiliating matters
of fact, that bring Law and Wit so often and so unnaturally in
contact That they were serviceable to each other, in their de-
fensive alliance against duns, is fuUy proved by various docu-
m^ts ; and I have now before me articles of agreement, dated
in 1787, by which Tickell, to avert an execution from the Theatre,
bound himself as security for Sheridan in the sum of 250^., —
the arrears of an annuity charged upon Sheridan's moiety of the
property. So soon did those pecuniary difficulties, by which his
peace and character were afterwards undermmed, begin their
operations.

Yet even into transactions of this nature, little as they are
akin to mirth, the following letter of Richardscni will show that
these brother wits contrived to infuse a portion of gaiety :

" Dbab Sheiodan, Estex-Sireetf Saturday miening,

*^ I had a terrible long baieh with Bobby this raoming, after I wrote to
yoa by Francois. J have so &r saooeeded that he has agr^ to continue
the day of trial as we call it (that is, in vulgar, unlearned lasgnage, to pat
it off) from Tuesday till Saturday. He demands, as t^Uralaaries, that
Wright's lull of 600^. should be given up to him, as a prosecution had been

(conusting of Genial BurgojrAe, Mrs. Crewe, Tickell, &c.) it was proposed that cm the
next day (Sunday) the Rev. Gentieman shoald, on gaining the consent of the resident
clergyman, give a speeimen of his talents as a |M-eacher in the village chtnrch. On his
objecting that he was not provided with a sermon, his host offered to write one for him, '
if he wonid constant to preach it ; and, the offer being accepted, Sheridan left the com-
pany early, and did not return for the remainder of the evening . Hie following morning

Mr. O'B found tile manuscript by his bed-side, tied t<^ether neatly (as he described

it) with riband ;— the subject of the discourse being the "Abuse of Riches." Having
read it over and corrected some theological error*, (sach as <*il is easier for a camel, at
Motes Miyt," to.) he delivered the sermon in his most impressive style, much to the de-
light of his own party, and to the satisfMtion, as he unsuspectingly flattered himself, of
all the rest of the congregation, among whom was Mr. Sheridan's wealthy neighbor Mr.

Some months afterwards, however, Mr. O'B perceived that the family of Mr.

C— , with whom he had previoasly been intimate, treated him with marked coldness ;
and, on his expressing some hmocait wonder at the cirewnstanoe, was at lengUk informed,
to his dismay, by General Borgoyne, that the sermon which Sheridan had written for him
was, throughout, a personal attack upon Mr. C ■ , who had at that time rendered

himself very unpopular in the neighborhood by some harsh conduct to the poor, and to
whom every one in the church, except the unconscious [M'eacher, applied almost every
sentence of the sermon .

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94 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

oommeoeed agaisft him, which, howevtr, he has stopped by an i^janotton
from the Court of Chanoery. This, if the transaction be as he states it, ai»-
pears reasonable enough. He insists, besides, that the bill should undergo
the most rigid examination ; that you should transmit your objections, to
ndiidi he will send answers, (for the point of a personal interview has not
been yet earned,) and tkat the whole aaowkt ai last, ^^latever it BMy be,
shoidd have yonr clear and ntisfied approbation ^-^nothiag to be doM wiik-
ottt this— almi^ty honor !

** All these things being done, I desired to know what was to be the re-
Bott at last : — * Surely, after having carried so many points, you wiU think
it oidy common decency to relax a litMe as to the time of payment ? You
will not cut your pound of fleah the nearest fromihe merehani^s heart?'
To this Bobides, ' I must have 200<U. pnt in a shape of practicable use, and
payment inunediately ; — ^for the rest I will accept security.' This was
strongly olyected to by mc, as Jewish in the extreme ; but, however, so we
parted. Tou will think with me, I hope, that something has been done,
b«wev«r, by this meeting. It has opened an access to a fhvorable adjust-
ment, and time aad triat may do much. I am to see him again on Monday
morning at two, so pray don't go out of town to-morrow without my seeing
you. The matter is of immense consequence. I never knew till to-day
that the inrocess had been going on so long. I am convinced he could force
you to trial next Tuesday Tdth all your infirmities green upon your head ;
•oprayfrtteadioii

**JR.B.8ktrid<»hE$f, "Yoursever,

** Lower Gretvenor-StreH. " J. Richardson."

This letter was written in the year 1792, when Sheridan's in-
volvements had begun to thicken around him more rapidly.
There is another letter, about the same date, still more charao-
teristio, — ^where, after beginning in evident anger and distress of
mind, the writer breaks offj as if irresistibly, into the old strain of
playfulness and good humor,

^ Dbib SREBmiir, WednBtday, Ssiex^Streei, tFuly 30.

** I write to you with more unpleasant ftelings than I ever did in my life.
Westly, aftw having told me for the last three weeks that nolhlng was
wanting for my accommodation but your consent, having told me so, so late
as Friday, sends me word on Monday that he would not do it at all. In four
days I have a cognotit expires for 200/. I can't suffer my family to be turn-
ed into the streets if I can help it. I have no resource but my abilities,
such as they are. I certainly mean to write something in the course of the
summer. As a matter of business and bargain I can have no higher hope

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RIGHT HOK. BIGHABD BBINSIJ!Y SH£BIDAN. 95

about it than that joa won't soflfer hj H. Howerer, if you won*t take it
■omebodj else tmut, for no human consideration will induce me to leave
any means un^ed, that may rescue my family from this impending misfor-
tune.

" For the sake of convenience you will probably give me the importance
of construing tMs into an incendiary letter. I wish to Grod you may, and
order your treasurer to deposit the acceptance accordingly ] for nothing
can be so irksome to me as that the nations of the earth diould think there
had been any interruption of frienddiip between you and me ; and though
that would not be tbe case fat fkct, htdh being Ibflu^Med, I must beUeve,
by a oeoeMity wliMi we c«ald not control, yet the said nattoas would so in-
tctoptet it If I d<m't hear from you before Friday, I shall conclude that
you leave me in this dire scrape id shift for myself.

*' JL B. Sheridan, Etq. « Tours ev«r,

« MUwnih, MiddUtem. " J. Rioba]ids(».''

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96 MBMOIRS OF THB LIFE OF THE

CHAPTER IV.

FBENOH REVOLUTION. — MlL BURKE. — HIS BREACH WITH
MR. SHERIDAN. — DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. — MR.
BURKE AND MR. FOX — RUSSIAN ARMAMENT. — ROYAL
SCOTCH BOROUGHS.

Wb have now to consider the conduct and opinions of Mr.
Sheridan, during the measures and discussions consequent upon
the French Revolution, — ftn event, by which the minds of men
throughout all Europe were thrown into a state of such feverish
excitement, that a more than usual degree of tolerance should
be exercised towards the errors and extremes into which all par-
ties were hurried during the paroxysm. There was, indeed, no
rank or class of society, whose interests and passions were not
deeply involved in the question. The powerful and the rich,
both of State and Church, must naturally havp regarded with
dismay the advance of a political heresy, whose path they saw
strewed over with the broken talismans of rank and authority.
Many, too, with a disinterested reverence for andent institutions,
trembled to see them thus approached by rash hands, whose tal-
ents for ruin were suflSciently certain, but whose powers, of re-
construction were yet to be tried. On the other hand, the easy
triumph of a people over their oppressors was an example which
could not fail to excite the hopes of the many as actively as the
fears of the few. The great problem of the natural rights of
mankind seemed about to be solved in a manner most flattering
to the majority ; the zeal of the lover, of liberty was kindled
into enthusiasm, by a conquest achieved for his cause upon an
arena so vast ; and many, who before would have smiled at the
doctrine of human perfectibility, now imagined they saw, in

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLKY SHERIDAN. 97

what the Revolution performed and promised, almost enough to
sanction the indulgence of that splendid dream. It was natural,
too, that the greater portion of that unemployed, and, as it were,
homeless talent, which, in all great communities, is ever abroad
on the wing, uncertain where to settle, should now swarm routid
the light of the new principles, — while all those obscure but
ambitious spirits, who felt their aspirings closed by the medium
in which they were sunk, would as naturally welcome such a
state of political effervescence, as might enable them, like enfran-
chised air, to mount at once to the surface.

Amidst all these various interests, imaginations, and fears,
which were brought to life by the dawn of the French Revolu-
tion, it is not surprising that errors and excesses, both of con-
duct and opinion, should be among the first products of so new
and sudden a movement of the whole civilized world ; — that the
friends of popular rights, presuming upon the triumph that had
been gained, should, in the ardor of pursuit, push on the van-
guard of their principles, somewhat farther than was consistent
with prudence and safety ; or that, on the other side. Authority
and its supporters, alarmed by the inroads of the Revolutionary
spirit, should but the more stubbornly intrench themselves in
established abuses, and make the dangers they apprehended from
liberty a pretext for assailing its very existence.

It was not long before these effects of the French Revolution
began to show themselves very strikingly in the politics of Eng-
land ; and, singularly enough, the two extreme opinions, to which,
as I have just remarked, that disturbing event gave rise, instead
of first appearing, as might naturally be expected, the one on
the side of Government, and the other on that of the Opposition,
both broke out simultaneously in the very heart of the latter
body.

On such an imagination as that of Burke, the scenes now pass-
ing in France were every way calculated to make a most vivid
impression. So susceptible was he, indeed, of such impulses,
and so much under the control of the imaginative department of
his intellect, that, whatever might have been the Accidental mood

VOL. II. 5

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98 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

of his mind, at the moment when this astounding event first
burst upon him, it would most probably have acted as a sort of
mental catalepsy, and fixed his reason in the very attitude in
which it found it. He had, however, been prepared for the part
which he now took by much more deep and grounded causes. It
was rather from circumstances than from choice, or any natural
aflSnity, that Mr. Burke had ever attached himself to the popular
party in politics. There was, in truth, nothing democratic about
him but his origin; — his tastes were all on the side of the splen-
did and the arbitrary. The chief reconimendation of the cause
of India to his fancy and his feelings was thdt it involved the fate
of ancient dynasties, and invoked retribution for the downfall
of thrones and princedoms, to which his imagination, always
most affected by objects at a distance, lent a state and splendor
that did not, in sober reality, belong to them. Though doomed
to make Whiggism his habitual haunt, he took his perch at all
times on its loftiest branches, as far as possible away from popu-
lar contact ; and, upon most occasions, adopted a sort of baro-
nial view of liberty, as rather a question lying between the
Tiprone and the Aristocracy, than on^ in which the people had a
right to any efficient voice or agency. Accordingly, the question
of Parliamentary Reform, from the first moment of its agitation,
found in him a most decided opponent.

This inherent repugnance to popular principles became natu-
rally heightened into impatience and disgust, by the long and
fruitless warfare which he had waged under their banner, and
the uniform ill success with which they had blasted all his strug-
gles for wealth and power. Nor was he in any better temper
with his associates in fhe cause, — ^having found that the ascen-
dancy, which he had formerly exercised over them, and which,
in some degree, consoled him for the want of official dominion,
was of late considerably diminished, if not wholly 'transferred
to others. Sheridan, as has been stated, was the most promi-
nent object of his jealousy ; — ^and it is curious to remark how
much, even in feelings of this description, the aristocratical bias
of his mind betrayed itself. For, though Mr. Fox, too, had

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 99

overtaken and even passed him in the race, assuming that station
in politics which he himself had previously held, yet so para-
mount did those claims of birth and connection, by which the new
leader came recommended, appear in his eyes, that he submitted
to be superseded by him, not only without a murmur, but cheer-
fully. To Sheridan, however, who had no such hereditary pass-
port to pre-eminence, he could not give way without heart-burn-
ing and humiliation ; and to be supplanted thus by a rival son
of earth seemed no less a shock to his superstitious notions
about rank, than it was painful to his feelings of self-love and
pride.

Such, as far as can be ascertained by a distant observer of
those times, was the temper in which the first events of the Re-
volution found the mind of this remarkable man ; — and, power-
fully as they would, at any time, have appealed to his imagination
and prejudices, the state of irritability to which he had been
wrought by the causes already enumerated peculiarly predis-
posed him, at this moment, to give way to such impressions
without restraint, and even to welcome as a timely relief to l^is
pride, tiie mighty vent thus afforded to the " splendida bili^^ with
which it was charged.

There was indeed much to animate and give a zest to the new
part which he now took. He saw those principles, to which he
owed a deep grudge, for the time and the talents he had wasted
in their service, now embodied in a shape so wild and alarm-
ing, as seemed to justify him, on grounds of public safety,
in turning against them the whole powers of his mind, and
thus enabled him, opportunely, to dignify desertion, by throw-
ing the semblance of patriotism and conscientiousness round
the reality of defection and revenge. He saw the party, too,
who, from the moment they had ceased to be ruled by him,
were associated only in his mind with recollections of unpopu-
larity and defeat, about to adopt a line of politics which his long
knowledge of the people of England, and his sagacious foresight
of the consequences of the French Revolution, fully convinced
him would lead to the same barren and mortifying results. On

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100 HEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the contrary, the cause to which he proffered his alliance, would,
he was equally sure, by arraying on its side all the rank, riches,
and religion of Europe, enable him at length to feel that sense
of power and triumph, for which his domineering spirit had so
long panted in vain. In this latter hope, indeed, of a speedy
triumph over Jacobinism, his temperament, as was often the
case, outran his sagacity ; for, while he foresaw clearly that the
dissolution of social order in France would at last harden into a
military tyranny, he appeared not to be aware that the violent
measures which he recommended against her would not only hasten
this formidable result, but bind the whole mass of the people
into union and resistance during the process.

Lastly — To these attractions, of various kinds, with which the
cause of Thrones was now encircled in the eyes of Burke, must
be added one, which, however it may still further disenchant our
views of his conversion, cannot wholly be omitted among the in-
ducements to his change, — and this was the strong claim upon the
gratitude of government, which his seasonable and powerful advo-
<jacy in a crisis so difficult established for him, and which the nar-
row tad embarrassed state of his circumstances rendered an ob-
ject by no means of secondary importance in his views. Unfor-
tunately, — from a delicate wish, perhaps, that the reward should
not appear to come in too dose coincidence with the service, — the
pension bestowed upon him arrived too late to admit of his deriv-
ing much more from it than the obloquy by which it was accom-

The consequence, as is well known, of the new course taken by
Burke was that the speeches and writings which he henceforward
produced, and in which, as usual, his judgment was run away with
by his temper, form a complete contrast, in spirit and tendency,
to all that he had put on record in the former part of his life.
He has, indeed, left behind him two separate and distinct armo-
ries of opinion, from which both Whig and Tory may furnish
themselves with weapons, the most splendid, if not the most
highly tempered, that ever Genius and Eloquence have conde-
scended to bequeath to Party. He has thus too, by his own per-

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 101

sonal versatility, attained, in the world of politics, what Shales-
peare, by the versatility of his characters, achieved for the world
in general, — ^namely, such universality of application to all opin-
ions and purposes, that it i^uld be difficult for any statesman of
any party to find himself placed in any situation, for which he
could not select some golden sentence from Burke, either to
strengthen his position by reasoning or illustrate and adorn it by
fancy. While, therefore, our respect for the man himself is
diminished by this want of moral identity observable through his
life and writings, we are but the mOre disposed to admire that
unrivalled genius, which could thus throw itself out in so many
various directions with equal splendor and vigor. In general,
political deserters lose their value and power in the very act, and
bring little more than their treason to the new cause which they
espouse : —

" Fortis in armis
Ocesaris Lahienus erat ; nunc transfuga vilis"

But Burke was mighty in either camp ; and it would have
taken itoo great men to effect what he, by this division of himself,
achieved. His mind, indeed, lies parted asunder in his works,
like some vast continent severed by a convulsion of nature, — each
portion peopled by its own giant race of opinions, differing alto-
gether in features and language, and committed in eternal hostil-
ity with each other.

It was during the discussions on the Army Estimates, at the
commencement of the session of 1790, that the difference between
Mr. Burke and his party in their views of the French Revolution
first manifested itself. Mr. Fox having taken occasion to praise
the late conduct of the French Guards in refusing to obey the dic-
tates of the Court, and having declared that he exulted, " both
from feelings and from principles," in the political change that had
been brought about in that country, Mr. Burke, in answering him,
entered fully, and, it must be owned, most luminously into the
question, — expressing his apprehension, lest the example of
France, which had, at a former period, threatened England with

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102 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the contagion of despotism, ^ould now be the means of introdu-
cing among her people the no less fatal taint of Democracy and
Atheism. After son.e eloquent tributes of admiration to Mr.
Fox, rendered more animated, perha^, by the consciousness that
they were the last offerings thrown into the open grave of their
friendship, he proceeded to deprecate the efiects which the lan-^
guage of his Right Honorable Friend might have, in appearing to
countenance the disposition observable among " some wicked per-
sons" to " recommend an imitation of the French spirit of Re-
form," and then added a declaration, equally remarkable for the
insidious charge which it implied against his own party, and the
notice of his approaching desertion which it conveyed to the other,
— ^that " so strongly opposed was he to any the least tendency
towards the means of introducing a democracy like that of the
French, as well as to the end itself, that, much as it would afflict
him, if such a thing should be attempted, and that any friend of
his could concur in such measures (he was far, very far, from be-
lieving they could), he would abandon his best friends, and join
with his worst enemies to oppose either the means or the end."

It is pretty evident, from these words, that Burke had already
made up his mind as to the course he should pursue, and but de-
layed his declaration of a total breach, in order to prepare the
minds of the public for such an event, and, by waiting to take
advantage of some moment of provocation, make the intempe-
rance of others responsible for his own deliberate schism. The
reply of Mr. Fox was not such as could afford this opportunity ;
— it was, on the contrary, full of candor and moderation, and re-
pelled the implied charge of being a favorer of the new doctrines
of France in the most decided, but, at the same time, most con-
ciliatory terms.

*• Did such a declaration," he asked, ** warrant the idea that he was a
friend to Democracy t He declared himself equally the enemy of all ab-
solute forms of government, whether an absolute Monarchy, an absolute
Aristocracy, or an absolute Democracy. He was adverse to all extremes,
and a friend only to a mixed government like our own, in which, if the
Aris :ocracy, or indeed either of the three branches of the Constitution, were

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RIGHT HOM. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 103

destroyed, the good effect of the whole, and the happiness derived under
It would, in his mind, be at an end."

In returning, too, the praises bestowed upon him by his friend,
he made the following memorable and noble acknowledgment of
all that he himself had gained by their intercourse : —

" Such (he said) was his sense of the judgment of his Right Honorable
Friend, such his knowledge of his principles, such the value which he set
upon them, and such the estimation in which he held his friendship, that if
he were to put aTl the political fbformation which he had learned from books,
all which he had gained from science, and all which any knowledge of the
world and its affairs had taught him, into one scale, and the improvement
which he had derived from his Right Honorable Friend's instruction and
conversation were placed in the other, he should be at a loss to decide to
which to give the preference."

This, from a person so rich in acquirements as Mr. Fox, was
the very highest praise, — nor, except in what related to the judg-
ment and principles of his friend, was it at all exaggerated. The
conversation of Burke must have been like the procession of a
Roman triumph, exhibiting power and riches at every step — oc-
casionally, perhaps, mingling the low Fescennine jest with the
lofty music of its march, but glittering all over with the spoils of
the whole ransacked world.

Mr. Burke, in reply, after reiterating his praises of Mr. Fox,
and the full confidence which he felt in his moderation and saga-
city, professed himself perfectly satisfied with the explanations
that had been given. The conversation would thus have passed
off without any explosion, had not Sheridan, who was well aware
that against him, in particular, the charge of a tendency to the
adoption of French principles was directed, risen immediately
after, and by a speech warmly in favor of the Revolution and of
the National Assembly, at once lighted the train in the mind of
Burke, and brought the question, as far as regarded themselves,
to an immediate issue.

" He differed," he said, " decidedly, from his Right Honorable Friend
in almost every word that he had uttered respecting the French Rcvolu-

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104 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

tion. He conceived it to be as just a Revolution as ours, proceeding upon
as sound a principle and as just a provocation. He vehemently defended
the general views and conduct of the National Assembly. He could not
even understand what was meant by the charges against them of having
overturned the laws, the justice, and the revenues of their country. What
were their laws ? the arbitrary mandates of capricious despotism. What
their justice ? the partial ac^udications of venal magistrates. What their
revenues? national bankruptcy. This he thought* the fundamental error
of his Right Honorable Friend's argument, that he accused the National
Assembly of creating the evils, which they had found existing in lull de-
f<»inity at the first hour of their meeting. The public creditor had been
defrauded ^ the manufacturer was without employ ; trade was languishing ;
famine clung upon the poor ; despair on all. In this situation, the wisdom
and feelings of the nation were appealed to by the government ; and was it
to be wondered at by Englishmen, that a people, so circumstanced, should
search for the cause and source of all their calamities, or that they should
find them in the arbitrary constitution of their government, and in the pro-
digal and corrupt administration of their revenues ? For such an evil
when proved, what remedy could be resorted to, but a radical amendment
of the frame and fabric of the Constitution itself? This change was not the
object and wish of the National Assembly only; it was the claim and cry of
all France, united as one man for one purpose.''

All this is just and unanswerable— as indeed was the greater
part of the sentiments which he uttered. But he seems to have
felled, even more signally than Mr. Fox, in endeavoring to in-
validate the masterly view which Burke had just taken of
the Revolution of 1688, as compared, in its means and object,
with that of France. There was,, in truth, but little similarity
between them, — ^the task of the former being to preserve liberty,
that of the latter to destroy tyranny ; the one being a regulated
movement of the Aristocracy against the Throne for the Nation,
the other a tumultuous rising of the whole Nation against both
for itself.

The reply of Mr. Burke was conclusive and peremptc«*y, —
such, in short, as might be expected from a person who came
prepared to take the first plausible opportunity of a rupture. He
declared that " henceforth, his Honorable Friend and he were
separated in politics," — complained that his ai^uments had been
cruelly misrepresented, and that " the Honorable Gentleman had

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RIGHT HOJr, RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK 105

thought proper to charge him with being the advocate of des-
potism." Having endeavored to defend himself from such an
imputation, he concluded by saying, —

" Was that a fair and candid mode of treating his arguments ? or was it
what he ought to have expected in the moment of departed friendship f On
the contrary, was it not evident that the Honorable Gentleman had made
a sacrifice of his fVlendship, for the sake of catching some momentary popu-
larity ? If the fact were such, even greatly as he should continue to admire
the Honorable Grcntleman's talents, he must tell him that his argument
was chiefly an argument €id invidiamj and all the applause for which he
could hope from clubs was scarcely worth the sacrifice which he had chosen
to make for so insignificant an acquisition.-'

I have given the circumstances of this Debate somewhat in
detail, not only on account of its own interest and of the share
which Mr. Sheridan took in it, but from its being the first scene
of that great political schism, which in the following year as-
sumed a still more serious aspect, and by which the policy of Mr.
Pitt at length acquired a predominance, not speedily to be for-
gotten in the annals of this country.

Mr. Sheridan was much blamed for the unseasonable stimulant
which, it was thought, his speech on this occasion had adminis-
tered to the temper of Burke ; nor can it be doubted that he had
thereby, in some degree, accelerated the public burst of that
feeling which had so long been treasured up against himself
But, whether hastened or delayed, such a breach was ultimately
inevitable ; the divergence of the parties once begun, it was in
vain to think of restoring their parallelism. That some of their
friends, however, had more sanguine hopes appears from an ef-
fort which was made, within two days after the occurrence of
this remarkable scene, to effect a reconciliation between Burke
and Sheridan. The interview that took place on that occasion is
thus described by Mr. Dennis O'Brien, one of the persons chiefly
instrumental in the arrangements for it : —

*' It appeared to the author of this pamphlet* that the difibrence between
these two great men would be a great evil to the country and to their

* Entitled " Utraoa Honiin.'*
VOL. II. 5* ^ ,

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i06 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

own party. Full of this persuasion he brought them both together the
second night after the original contest in the House of Commons ; and car-
ried them to Burlington House to Mr. Fox and the Duke of Portland, ac-
cording to a previous arrangement. This interview, which can never be
forgott*ji by those who were present, lasted from ten o'clock at night until
three in the morning, and afforded a very remarkable display of the extra-
ordinary talents of the parties."

It will easily be believed that to the success of this conciliatory
effort the temper on one side would be a greater obstacle than
even the hate on both. Mr. Sheridan, as if anxious to repel from
himself the suspicion of having contributed to its failure, took an
opportunity, during his speech upon the Tobacco Act, in the
month of April following, to express himself in the most friendly
terms of Mr. Burke, as " one, for whose talents and personal
virtue he had the highest esteem, veneration, and regard, and
with whom he might be allowed to differ in opinion upon the
subject of France, persuaded, as he was, that they never could
differ in principle." Of this and some other compliments of a
similar nature, Mr. Burke did not deign to take the slightest no-
tice — -partly, from an implacable feeling towards him who offered
them, and partly, perhaps, from a suspicion that they were in-
tended rather for the ears of the public than his own, and that,
while this tendency to conciliation appeared on the surface, the
under-current of feeling and influence set all the other way.

Among the measures which engaged the attention of Mr. She-
ridan during this session, the principal was a motion of his own
for the repeal of the Excise Duties on Tobacco, which appears to
have called forth a more than usual portion of his o;*atory, — ^his
speeches on the subject occupying nearly forty pages. It is upon
topics of this unpromising kind, atid from the very effort, perhaps,
to dignify and enliven them, that the peculiar characteristics of
an orator are sometimes most racily brought out. To the Cider
Tax we are indebted for one of the grandest bursts of the consti
tutional spirit and eloquence of Lord Chatham ; and, in these
orations of Sheridan upon Tobacco, we find examples of the two
extreme varieties of his dramatic talent — ^both of the broad,
natural humor of his farce, and the pointed, artificial wit of his

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 107

comedy. For instance, in representing, as one of the abuses that
might arise from the discretionary power of remitting fines to
manufacturers, the danger that those only should feel the indul-
gence, who were found to be supporters of the existing adminis
tration,* he says : —

*^ Were a man, whose stock had increased or diminished beyond the
standard table in the Act, to attend the CommissioBers and assure them
that the weather alone had caused the increase or decrease of the article,
and that no fraud whatever had been used on the occasion, the Commis-
sioners might say to him, ' Sir, you need not give yourself so much trouble
to prove your innocence ; — we see honesty in your orange cape.' But
should a person of quite a different side in politics attend for the same
purpose, the Commissioners might say, * Sir, you are not to be believed ;
we see fraud in your blue and bufif, and it is impossible that you should
not be a smuggler."

Again, in stating the case between the manufacturers and the
Minister, the former of whom objected to the Bill altogether,
while the latter determined to preserve its principle and only
alter its form, he says ; —

" The manufacturers ask the Right Honorable Gentleman, if he will
consent to give up the principle ? The Right Honorable Gentleman an-
swers, * No } the principle must not be abandoned, but do you inform me
how I shall alter the Bill.' This the manufacturers refused ; and they
wisely refused it in his opinion ; for, what was it but the Minister's saying,
* 1 have a yoke to put about your necks,— do you help me in fitting it on
— only assist me with your knowledge of the subject, and I'll fit you with
the prettiest pair of fetters that ever were seen in the world.' "

As a specimen of his quaint and far-sought witticisms, the fol-
lowing passage in the same speech may vie with Trip's " Post-
Obit on the blue and silver, &;c." — Having described the effects
of the weather in increasing or decreasing the weight of the stock,
beyond the exact standard established in the Act, he adds,

" The Commissioners, before they could, in justice, levy such fines,
ought to ascertain that the weather is always in that precise state of heat
or cold which the Act supposed it would be. They ought to make Christ-

♦ A case of this kind formed ihe subject of a spirited Speech of Mr. Windham, in 1792.
See his Speeches, vol. i. p. 207.

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108 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

mas give security for frost, take a bond for hot weather from August, and
oblige damps and fogs to take out permits.'^

It was in one of these speeches on the Tobacco Act, that he
adverted with considerable warmth to a rumor, which, he com-
plained, had been maliciously circulated, of a misunderstanding
between himself ^nd the Duke of Portland, in consequence (as
the Report expresses it) of " a certain opposition affirmed to have
been made by this Noble Duke, to some views or expectations
which he (Mr. Sheridan) was said to have entertained." After
declaring that "there was not in these rumors one grain of truth,"
he added that —

'' He would not venture to state to the Committee the opinion that the
Noble Duke was pleased to entertain of him, lest he should be accused of
vanity in publishing what he might deem highly flattering. All that he
would assert on this occasion was. that if he had it in his power to u:ake
the man whose good opinion he should most highly prize think flatteringly
of him, he would have that man think of him precisely as the Noble Duke
did, and then his wish on that subject would be most amply gratified."

As it is certain, that the feelings which Burke entertained to-
wards Sheridan were now in some degree shared by all those who
afterwards seceded from the party, this boast of the high opinion
of the Duke of Portland must be taken with what, in Heraldry,
is called Abatement — that is, a certain degree of diminution of
the emblazonry.

Among the papers of Mr. Sheridan, I find a letter addressed
to him this year by one of his most distinguished friends, relative
to the motions that had lately been brought forward for the re-
lief of the Dissenters. The writer, whose alarm for the interest
of the Church had somewhat disturbed his sense of liberality and
justice, endeavors to impress upon Mr. Sheridan, and through
him upon Mr. Fox, how undeserving the Dissenters were, as a
political body, of the recent exertions on their behalf, and how
ungratefully they had more than once requited the services which
the Whigs had rendered them. For this latter charge there was
but too much foundation in truth, however ungenerous might be
tlje deduction which the writer would draw from it. It is. r\o

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 109

doubt, natural that lai^e bodies of men, Impatiently suffering
under the ban of disqualification, should avail themselves, with-
out r.uch regard to persons or party, of every aid they can muster
for their cause, and should (to use the words of an old Earl of
Pembroke) " lean on both sides of the stairs to get up." But,
it is equally natural that the occasional desertion and ingratitude,
of which, in pursuit of this selfish policy, they are but too likely
to be guilty towards their best friends, should, if not wholly in-
dispose the latter to their service, at least considerably moderate
their zeal in a cause, where all parties alike seem to be considered
but as instruments, and where neither personal predilections nor
principle are regarded in the choice of means. To the great
credit, however, of the Whig party, it must be said, that, though
often set aside and even disowned by their clients, they have
rarely* suffered their high duty, as advocates, to be relaxed or
interrupted by such momentary suspensions of confidence. In
this respect, the cause of Ireland has more than once J)een a trial
of their constancy. Even Lord North was able, by his reluctant
concessions, to supersede them for a time in the favor of my too
believing countrymen, — whose despair of finding justice at any
hands has often led them thus to cany their confidence to market,
and to place it in the hands of the first plausible bidder. The
many vicissitudes of popularity which their own illustrious Whig,
Grattan, had to encounter, would have wearied out the ardor of
any less magnanimous champion. But high minds are as little
affected by such unworthy returns for services, as the sun is by
those fogs which the earth throws up between herself and his
light.

With respect to the Dissenters, they had deserted Mr. Fox in
his grea? struggle with the Crown in 1784, and laid their inter-
est and hopes at the feet of the new idol of the day. Notwith-
standing this, we find him, in the year 1787, warmly maintaining,
and in opposition to his rival, the cause of the very persons who
had contributed to make that rival triumphant, — and showing
just so much remembrance of their late defection as served* to
jrcnder this sacrifice of personal to public feelings more signal.

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110 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" He was determined," he said, " to let them know that, though
they could upon some occasions lose sight of their principles of
liberty, he would not upon any occasion lose sight of his prin-
ciples of toleration." In the present session, too, notwithstand-
ing that the great organ of the Dissenters, Dr. Price, had lately
in a sermon, publisb«d with a view to the Test, made a pointed
attack on the morals of Mr. Fox and his friends, this generous
advocate of religious liberty not the less promptly acceded to
the request of the body, that he would himself bring the motion
for their relief before the House.

On the 12th of June the Parliam^it was dissolved, — and Mr.
Sheridan again succeeded in being elected for Stafford. The fol-
lowing letters, however, addressed to him by Mrs. Sheridan dur-
ing the election, will prove that they were not without some
apprehensions of a different result. The letters are still more
interesting, as showing how warmly alive to each other's feelings
the hearts of both husband wife could remain, afler the long lapse
of near twetity years, and afler trials more fatal to love than even
time itself.

" This letter will find you, my dear Dick, I hope, encircled with honors
at Stafford. I take it for granted you entered it triumphantly on Sunday,
-—but I am very impatient to hear the particulars, and of the utter discom-
fiture of S — and his followers. I received your note from Birmingham this
morning, and am happy to find that you and my dear cub were well, so far
on your journey. You could not be happier than I should be in the pro-
posed alteration for Tom, but we will talk more of this when we meet. I
sent you Cartwright yesterday, and to-day I pack you off Perry with the
soldiers. I was obliged to give them four guineas for their expenses. I
send you, likewise, by Perry, the note from Mrs. Crewe, to enable you to speak
<rf your qualification if you should be called upon. So I think I have exe-
cuted all your commissions. Sir ; and if you want any of these doubtful
votes which I mentioned to you, you will have time enough to send for
them, for I would not let them go till I hear they can be of any use.

" And, now for my journal. Sir, which I suppose you expect. Saturday,
I was at home all day busy for you, — ^kept Mrs. Reid to dinner, — ^went to
the Opera,— afterwards to Mrs. St John's, where I lost my money sadly,
Sir, — eat strawberries and cream for supper, — sat between Lord Salisbury
and Mr. Meynell, (hope you approve of that, Sir,)— overheard Lord Salis-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. Ill

bury advise Miss Boyle by no means to subscribe to Taylor^s Opera, as
O'Reilly's would certainly have the patent, — confess I did not come home
till past two. Sunday, called on Lady Julia, — father and Mr. Reid to din-
ner, — in the evening at Lady Hampden's, — lost my money again, Sir, and
came home by one o'clock. 'Tis now near one o'clock, — my father is estab-
lished in my boudoir, and, when I have finished this, I am going with him
to hear Abb6 Vogler play on the Staflford organ. I have promised to dine
with Mrs: Crewe, who is to have a female party only, — no objection to that,
I suppose, Sir? Whatever the party do, I shall do of course, — I suppose
it will end in Mrs. Hobart's. Mr. James told me on Saturday, and I find it
is the report of the day, that Bond Hopkins has gone to Staflford. I am
sorry to tell you there is an opposition at York, — Mr. Montague opposes
Sir William Milner. Mr. Beckford has given up at Dover, and Lord * * is
80 provoked at it, that he has given up too, though they say they were both
sure. St. Ives is gone for want of a candidate. Mr. Barbam is beat at
Stockbridge. Charles Lenox has offered for Surry, and they say Lord
Egremont might drive him to the deuce, if he would set any body up
against him. You know, I suppose, Mr. Crewe has likewise an opponent.
I am sorry to tell you all this bad news, and, to complete it, Mr. Adam is
Btck in bed, and there is nobody to do any good left in town.

" I am more than ever convinced we must look to other resources for
wealth and independence, and consider politics merely as an amusement,
— and in that light 'tis best to be in Opposition, which I am afraid we are
likely to be for some years again.

" I see the rumors of war still continue — Stocks continue to fall — is that
good or bad for the Ministers ? The little boys are come home to me to-
day. I could not help showing in my answer to Mr. T.'s letter, that I was
hurt at his conduct, — so I have got another flummery letter, and the bdys,
who (as he is pretty sure) will be the best peace-makers. God bless you,
my dear Dick. I am very well, I assure you ; pray don't neglect to write
to your ever aflfectionate

" E. S."

"My Dearest Dick, Wednesday,

" I am full of anxiety and fright about you, — I cannot but think your let-
ters are very alarming. Deuce take the Corporation ! is it impossible to
make them resign their pretensions, and make peace with the Burgesses?
I have sent Thomas after Mr. Cocker. I suppose you have sent for the
out-votes ; but, if they are not good, what a terrible expense will that be !
—however, they are ready. I saw Mr. Cocker yesterday, — he collected
them together last night, and gave them a treat, — so they are in high good
humor. I inclose you a letter n^hich B. left here last night, — ^I could not
resist opening it Every thing seems going wrong, I think. I thought he

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112 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

was not to do anything in your absence. — It strikes me the bad business he
mentions was entirely owing to his own stupidity, and want of a little pa-
tience, — is it of much consequence ? I don't hear that the report is true of
Basilico's arrival ; — a messenger came to the Spanish embassy, which gave
rise to this tale, I believe.

" If you were not so worried, I diould scold you for the conclusion of
your letter of to-day. Might not I as well accuse you of coldness, for not
filing your letter with professions, at a time when your head must be full
of business ? I think of nothing all da/ long, but how to do good, some
how or other, for you. I have given you a regular Journal of my time,
and all to please you, — so don't, dear Dick, lay so much stress on words. I
should use them oftener, perhaps, but I feel as if it would look like deceit
Tou know me well enough, to be sure that I can never do what I'm bid,
Sir, — ^but, pray, don't think I meant to send you a cold letter, for indeed
nothing was ever farther from my heart

** You will see Mr. Home Tooke's advertisement to-day in the papers ;
— ^what do you think of that to complete the thing ? Bishop Dixon has just
called from the hustings: — he says the late Recorder, Adair, proposed
Charles with a good speech, and great applause, — Captain Berkeley, Lord
Hood, with a bad speech, not much applauded ; and then Home Tooke
came forward, and, in the most impudent speech that ever was heard, pro-
posed himself, — abused both the candidates, and said he should have been
ashamed to have sat and heard such ill-deserved praises given him. But
he told the crowd that, since so many of these fine virtues and qualifica-
tions had never yet done them the least good, they might as well now
choose a candidate without them. He said, however, that if they were
sincere in their professions of standing alone, he was sure of coming in,
for they must all give him their second votes. There was an amazing 4eal
of laughing and noise in the course of his speech. Charles Fox attempted
to answer him, and so did Lord Hood, — ^but they would hear neither, and
they are now polling away.

" Do, my dearest love, if you have possibly time, write me a few more
particulars, for your letters are very unsatisfactory, and I am full of anx-
iety. Make Richardson write, — what has he better to do ? God bless thee,
my dear, dear Dick, — would it were over and all well ! I am afraid, at any

rate, it will be ruinous work.

^ " Ever your true and aflfectionate

"KS.

** Near Jive. I am just come from the hustings ; — the state of the poll

when I left it was, Fox, 260 ; Hood, 75 ; Horne Tooke, 17 ! But he still

persists in his determination of polling a man an hour for the whole time

X saw Mr. Wilkes go up to vote for Tooke and Hood, amidst the hisses and

groans of a multitude."

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RIGHT HOX. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 113

• " Friday.

** My poor Dick, how you are worried ! This is the day, — you will easily
guess how anxious I shall be ; but you seem pretty sanguine yourself,
which ia my only comfort, for Richardson's letter is rather croaking. You
have never said a word of little Monkton :— has he any chance, or none ?
I ask questions without considering that, before you receive this, every
thing will be decided — I hope triumphantly for you. What a sad set of
venal rascals your favorites the Blacks must be, to turn so suddenly from
their professions and promises ! I am half sorry you have any thing more
to do with them, and more than ever regret you did not stand for West-
minster with Charles, instead of Lord John ; — in that case you would have
come in now, and we should not have been persecuted by this Home Tooke.
However, it is the dullest contested election that ever was seen — no can-
vassing, no houses open, no cockades. But I heard that a report prevails
now, that Home Tooke polling so few the two or three first days is an art-
ful trick to put the others off their guard, and that he means to pour in his
votes on the last days, when it will be too late for them to repair their
neglect. But I don't think it possible, either, for such a fellow to beat
Charles in Westminster.

" I have just had a note from Reid — ^he is at Canterbury : — the state of
the poll there, Thursday night, was as follows : — Gipps, 220 ; Lord * *,
211 ; Sir T. Honeywood, 216 ; Mr. Warton, 163. We have got two mem-
bers for Wendover, and two at Ailsbury. Mr. Barham is beat at Stock-
bridge. Mr. Tierney says he shall be beat, owing to Bate Dudley's man-
oeuvres, and the Dissenters having all forsaken him, — ^a set of ungrateful
wretches. E. Fawkener has just sent me a state of the poll at Northamp-
ton, as it stood yesterday, when they adjourned to dinner : — Lord Comp-
ton, 160 ; Bouverie, 98 ; Colonel Manners, 72. They are in hopes Mr.
Manners will give up, this is all my news, Sir.

" We had a very pleasant musical party last night at Lord Erskine's,
where I supped. I am asked to dine to-day with Lady Palmerston, at
Sheen ; but I can't go, unless Mrs. Crewe will carry me, as the coach is gone
to have its new lining. I have sent to ask her, for 'tis a fine day, and I
should like it very well. God thee bless, my dear Dick.

" Yours ever, trae and affectionate,
" E. S.

" Duke of Portland has just left me : — ^he is full of anxiety about you : —
this is the second time he has called to inquire." •

Having secured his own election, Mr. Sheridan now hastened
to lend his aid, where such a lively reinforcement was much want-
ed, on the hustings at Westminster. The contest here was pro*

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114 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

tracted to the 2d of July ; and it required no little exercise both
of wit and temper to encounter the cool personalities of Tooke,
who had not forgotten the severe remarks of Sheridan upon his
piimphlet the preceding year, and who, in addition to his strong
powers of sarcasm, had all those advantages which, in such a con-
test, contempt for the courtesies and compromises of party war-
fare gives. Among other sallies of his splenetic humor it is re-
lated, that Mr. Fox having, upon one occasion, retired from the
hustings, and left to Sheridan the task of addressing the multi-
tude, Tooke remarked, that such was always the practice of quack-
doctors, who, whenever they quit the stage themselves, make it
a rule to leave their merry-andrews behind.*

The French Revolution still continued, by its comet-like course,
to dazzle, alarm, and disturb all Europe. Mr. Burke had pub-
lished his celebrated " Reflections" in the month of November,
1790 ; and never did any work, with the exception, perhaps, of
the Eikon Basilike, produce such a rapid, deep, and general sen-
sation. The Eikon was the book of a King, and this might, in
another sense, be called the Book of Kings. Not only in Eng-
land, but throughout all Europe, — in every part of which mon-
archy was now trembling for its existence, — this lofty appeal to
loyalty was heard and welcomed. Its effect upon the already
tottering Whig party was like that of " the Voice," in the ruins
of Rome, " disparting towers." The whole fabric of the old Rock-
ingham confederacy shook to its base. Even some, who after-
wards recovered their equilibrium, at first yielded to the eloquence
of this extraordinary book, — which, like the aera of chivalry,
whose loss it deplores, mixes a grandeur with error, and throws
a charm round political superstition, that will long render its pages
a sort of region of Royal romance, to which fancy will have re-
course for illusions that have lost their last hold on reason.

^The undisguised freedom with which Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheri-
dan expressed every where their opinions of this work and its

* Tooke, it is said, upon coming one Monday morning to the hustings, was thus ad-
dressed by a partisan of his opponent, not of a very reputable character :— " Well, Mr.
Touke, you will have all the blackguards with you to-day." — " I am delighted to hear it,
Sir," (said Toolce, bowing,) " and from such good authority."

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 115

principles had, of course, no small influence on the temper of the
author, and, while it confirmed him in his hatred and jealousy of
the one, prepared him for the breach which he meditated with the
other. This breach was now, indeed, daily expected, as a natu-
ral sequel to the rupture with Mr. Sheridan in the last session ;
but, bj various accidents and interpositions, the crisis was delayed
till the 6th of May, when the recommitment of the Quebec Bill,
— a question upon which both orators had already taken occasion
to unfold their views of the French Revolution, — furnished Burke
with an opportunity, of which he impetuously took advantage, to
sever the tie between himself and Mr. Fox forever.

This scene, so singular in a public assembly, where the natu-
ral aflections are but seldom called out, and where, though bursts
of temper like that of Burke are common, such tears as those shed
by Mr. Fox are rare phenomena, — has been so often described
in various publications, that it would be superfluous to enter into
the details of it here. The following are the solemn and stern
words in which sentence of death was pronounced upon a friend-
ship, that had now lasted for more than the fourth part of a cen-
tury. " It certainly," said Mr. Burke, " was indiscretion at any
period, but especially at his time of life, to provoke enemies, or
to give his friends occasion to desert him ; yet, if his firm and
steady adherence to the British Ck)nstitution placed him in such
a dilemma, he would risk all, and, as public duty and public pru-
dence taught him, with his last words exclaim, ' Fly from the
French Constitution.' " [Mr. Fox here whispered, that " there
was no loss of friendship."] Mr. Burke said, " Yes, there vjas a
loss of friendship ; — he knew the price of his. conduct ; — he had
done his duty at the price of his friend ; their friendship was at
an end."

In rising to reply to the speech of Burke, Mr. Fox was so a^
fected as to be for some moments unable to speak : — he wept, it
is said, even to sobbing ; and persons who were in the gallery at
the time declare, that, while he spoke, there was hardly a dry eye
around them.

Had it been possible for two natures so incapable of disguise

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116 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

— ^the on 3 from simplicity and frankness, the other from ungov-
ernable temper, — to have continued in relations of amity, not-
withstanding their disagreement upon a question which was at
that moment setting the world in arms, both themselves and the
country would have been the better for such a compromise be-
tween them. Their long habits of mutual deference would have
mingled with and moderated the discussion of their present dif-
ferences ; — the tendency to one common centre to which their
minds had been accustomed, would have prevented them from
flying so very widely asunder ; and both might have been thus
saved from those extremes of principle, which Mr. Burke always,
and Mr. Fox sometimes, had recourse to in defending their re-
spective opinions, and which, by lighting, as it were, the torch at
both ends, but hastened a conflagration in which L iberty herself
might have been the sufferer. But it was evident that such a
compromise would have been wholly impossible. Even granting
that Mr. Burke did not welcome the schism as a relief, neither
the temper of the men nor the spirit of the times, which con-
verted opinions at once into passions, would have admitted of
such a peaceable counterbalance of principles, nor suffered them
long to slumber in that hollow truce, which Tacitus has described,
— " manente in speciem amidtiay Mr. Sheridan saw this from
the first ; and, in hazarding that vehement speech, by which he
provoked the rupture between himself and Burke, neither his
judgment nor his temper were so much off* their guard as they
who blamed that speech seemed inclined to infer. But, perceiv-
ing that a separation was in the end inevitable, he thought it safer,
perhaps, as well as manlier, to encounter the extremity at once,
than by any temporizing delay, or too complaisant suppression of
opinion, to involve both himself and Mr. Fox in the suspicion of
either sharing or countenancing that spirit of defection, which, he
saw, was fast spreading among the rest of their associates.

It is indeed said, and with every appearance of truth, that Mr.
Sheridan had felt offended by the censures which some of his po-
litical friends had pronounced upon the indiscretion (as it was
called) of his speech in the last year, and that, having, in cop*

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 117

sequence, withdrawn from them the aid of his powerful talents
during a great part of the present session, he but returned to his
post under the express condition, that he should be allowed to
take the earliest opportunity of repeating, fully and explicitly,
the same avowal of his sentiments.

The following letter from Dr. Parr to Mrs. Sheridan, written
inmiediately after the scene between Burke and Sheridan in tbe
preceding year, is curious : —

" Dear Madam,

« I am most fixedly and most indignantly on the side of Mr. Sheridan
and Mr. Fox against Mr. Burke. It is not merely French politics that pro-
duced this dispute ; — they might have been settled privately. No, no, —
there is jealousy Ijurking underneath ; — jealousy of Mr. Sheridan's elo-
quence ; — jealousy of his popularity ; — jealousy of his influence with Mr.
Fox ; — jealousy, perhaps, of his connection with the Prince.

" Mr. Sheridan was, I think, not too warm ; or, at least, I should have
myself been warmer. Why, Burke accused Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan of
acts leading to rebellion, — and he made Mr. Fox a dupe, and Mr. Sheridan
a traitor I I think thUf—Sknd I am sure, yes, positively sure, that nothing
else will allay the ferment of men's minds. Mr. Sheridan ought, publicly
in Parliament, to demand proof, or a retractation, of this horrible charge.
Pitt's words never did the party half the hurt ;— and, just on the eve of an
election, it is worse. As to private bickerings, or private concessions and
reconciliations, they are all nothing. In public all must be again taken
up ; for, if drowned, the Public will say, and Pitt will insinuate, that the
charge is well founded, and that they dare not provoke an inquiry.

" I know Burke is not addicted to giving up, — and so much the worse
for him and his party. As to Mr. Fox^s yielding, well had it been for all,
all, all the party, if Mr. Fox had, now and then, stood out against Mr.
Burke. The ferment and alarm are universal, and something mUst be
done; for it is a conflagration in which they must perish, unless it be
stopped. All the papers are with Burke, — even the Foxite papers, which
I have seen. I know his violence, and temper, and obstinacy of opinion,
and — ^bnt I will not speak out, for, though I think him the greatest man
upon the earth, yet, in politics I think him, — what he has been found, to
the sorrow of those who act with him. He is uncorrupt, I know ; but his
I>as8ions are quite headstrong ;* and age, and disappointment, and the sight
of other men rising into fame and consequence, sour him. Pray tell me

• It was well said, (I believe, by Mr. Fox,) that it was lucky both for Burke and Wind-
kam that they took the Koyal side on the subject of the French Revolution, as they would
have got hanged on the other.

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118 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

when they are reconciled, — though, as I said, it is nothing to the purpose
without a public explanation.

^' I am, dear Madam,

" Yours truly,

" & Parr."

Another letter, communicated to me as having been written
about this period to Sheridan by a Gentleman, then abroad, who
was well acquainted with the whole party, contains allusions to
the breach, which make its introduction here not irrelevant : —

" I wish very much to have some account of the state of things with you
that I can rely on. I wish to know how all my old companions and fellow-
laborers do ; if the club yet exists ; if you, and Richardson, and Lord John,
and Ellis, and Lawrence, and Fitzpatrick, &c., meet, and joke, and write,
as of old. What is become of Becket's, and the supper-parties, — the nocte&
ecenasque f Poor Burgoyne ! I am sure you all mourned him as I did, par%
ticularly Richardson : — pray remember me affectionately to Richardson. It
is a shame for you all, and I will say ungrateful in many of you, to have so
tcrtally forgotten me, and to leave me in ignorance of every thing public
and private in which I am interested. The only creature who writes to
me is the Duke of Portland ; but in the great and weighty occupations that
engross his mind, you can easily conceive that the little details of our So-
ciety cannot enter into His Grace's correspondence. I have indeed carried
on a pretty regular correspondence with young Burke. But that is now
at an end. He is so wrapt up in the importance of his present pursuits, that
it is too great an honor for me to continue to correspond with him. His
father I ever must venerate and ever love ; yet I never could admire, even
in him, what his son has inherited from him, a tenacity of opinion and a
violence of principle^ that makes him lose his friendships in his politics, and
quarrel with every one who differs from him. Bitterly have I lamented
that greatest of these quarrels, and, indeed, the only important one : nor
can I conceive it to have been less afflicting to my private feelings than
&tal to the party. The worst of it to me was, that I was obliged to con-
demn the man I loved, and that all the warmth of my affection, and the
zeal of my partiality, could not suggest a single excuse to vindicate him
either to the world or to myself, from the crime (for such it was) of giving
such a triumph to the common enemy. He failed, too, in what i most loved
him for, — ^his heart There it was that Mr. Fox principally rose above him ;
nor, amiable as he ever has been, did he ever appear half so amiable as
on that trying occasion."

The topic upon which Sheridan most distinguished himself
during this Session was the meditated interference of England in

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 119

the war between Russia and the Porte, — one of the few measures
of Mr. Pitt on which the sense of the nation was opposed to him.
So unpopular, indeed, was the Armament, proposed to be raised
for this object, and so rapidly did the majority of the Minister
diminish during the discussion of it, that there appeared for some
time a probability that the Whig party would be called into
power, — an event which, happening at this critical juncture,
might, by altering the policy of England, have changed the des-
tinies of all Europe.

The circumstance to which at present this Eussian question
owes its chief hold upon English memories is the charge, arising
out of it, brought against Mr. Fcx of having sent Mr. Adair as
his representative to Petersburgh, for the purpose of frustrating
the objects for which the King's ministers were then actually ne-
gotiating. This accusation, though more than once obliquely
intimated during the discussions upon the Russian Armament in
1791, first met the public eye, in any tangible form, among those
celebrated Articles of Impeachment against Mr. Fox, which were
drawn up by Burke's practised hand* in 1793, and found their
way surreptitiously into print in 1797. The angry and vindictive
tone of this paper was but little calculated to inspire confidence
in its statements, and the charge again died away, unsupported
and unrefuted, till the appearance of the Memoirs of Mr. Pitt by
the Bishop of Winchester ; when, upon the authority of docu-
ments said to be found among the papers of Mr. Pitt, but not
produced, the accusation was revived, — the Right Reverend
biographer calling in aid of his own view of the transaction the
charitable opinion of the Turks, who, he complacently assures
us, " expressed great surprise that Mr. Fox had not lost his head
for such conduct." Notwithstanding, however, this Concordat
between the Right Reverend Prelate and the Turks, something
more is still wanting to give validity to so serious an accusation.
Until the production of the alleged proofs (which Mr. Adair has

• This "was the third time that his talent for impeaching was exercised, as he acknowl-
edged having drawn up, during Uie administration of Lord North, seven distinct Articles
of Impeachment against that nobleman, which, however, the advice of Lord Rocking
iMxn induced him to relinquish.

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120 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

confidently demanded) shall have put the public in possession of
more recondite materials for judging, they must regard as satis-
factory and conclusive the refutation of the whole charge, both
as regards himself and his illustrious friend, which Mr. Adair has
laid before the world ; and for the truth of which not only his own
high character, but the character of the ministries of both par-
ties, who have since employed him in missions of the first trust
and importance, seem to offer the strongest and most convincing
pledges.

The Empress of Russia, in testimony of her admiration of the
eloquence of Mr. Fox on this occasion, sent an order to England,
through her ambassador, for a bust of that statesman, which it
was her intention, she said, to place between those of Demos-
thenes and Gcero. The following is a literal copy of Her Impe-
rial Majesty's note on the subject ;* —

" Ecriv^s au Cte. Worenzof qu^il me fasse avoir en marbre blanc le Baste
resemblant de Charle Fox. Je veut le mettre sur ma Coloaade entre eux
de Demosthene et Ciceron,

"Ha delivr^ par son eloquence sa Patrie et la Russie d'lme guerre a la
quelle 11 n'y avoit ni justice ni raisons."

Another subject that engaged much of the attention of Mr.
Sheridan this year was his own motion relative to the constitu-
tion of the Royal Scotch Boroughs. He had been, singularly
enough, selected, in the year 1787, by the Burgesses of Scotland,
in preference to so many others possessing more personal know-
ledge of that country, to present to the House the Petition of the
Convention of Delegates, for a Reform of the internal govern-
ment of the Royal Boroughs. How fully satisfied they were
with his exertions in their cause may be judged by the following
extract from the Minutes of Convention, dated 11th August,
1791 :—

•'* Mr, Mills of Perth, after a suitable introductory speech, moved a vote
of thanks to Mr. Sheridan, in the following words : —

* Found among Mr. Sheridan's papers, with these words, in his own hand-writmg,
annexed : — "N. B. Fox would have lost it, if I had not made him look for it, and taken
a copy."

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 121

"The Delegates of the Burgesses of Scotland, associated for the pur-
pose of Reform, taking into their most serious consideration the important
services rendered to their cause by the manly and prudent exertions of
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq., the genuine and fixed attachment to it
which the whole tenor of his conduct has evinced, and the admirable moder-
ation he has all along displayed,

" Resolved unanimously. That the most sincere thanks of this meeting
be given to the saft Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq., for his steady, honor-
able, and judicious conduct in bringing the question relative to the violated
rights of the Scottish Boroughs to its present important and favorable cri-
sis ; and the Burgesses with firm confidence hope that, from his attachment
to the cause, which he has shown to be deeply rooted in principle, he will
persevere to exert his distinguished abilities, till the objects of it are ob-
tained, with that inflexible firmness, and constitutional moderation, which
have appeared so conspicuous and exemplary throughout the whole of his
conduct, as to be highly deserving of the imitation of all good citizens.

" John Ewbn, Secretary."

From a private letter written this year by one of the Scottish
Delegates to a friend of Mr. Sheridan, (a copy of which letter I
have found among the papers of the latter,) it appears that the
disturbing effects of Mr. Burke's book had already shown them-
selves so strongly among the Whig party as to fill the writer
with apprehensions of their defection, even on the safe and mode-
rate question of Scotch Reform. He mentions one distinguished
member of the party, who afterwards stood conspicuously in the
very van of the Opposition, but who at that moment, if the au- >
thority of the letter may be depended upon, was, like others,
under the spell of the great Alarmist, and yielding rapidly to the
influence of that anti-revolutionary terror, which, like the Panic
dignified by the ancients with the name of one of their Gods, will
be long associated in the memories of Englishmen with the
mighty name and genius of Burke. A consultation was, how-
ever, held among this portion of the party, with respect to the
prudence of lending their assistance to the measure of Scotch
Reform ; and Sir James Maclcintosh, as I have heard him say,
was in company with Sheridan, when Dr. Lawrence came direct
from the meeting, to inform hun that they had agreed to si^pport
his motion.

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122 HEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

The state of the Scotch Representation is one of those cases
where a dread of the ulterior objects of Reform induces many
persons to oppose its first steps, however beneficial and reason-
able they may deem them, rather than risk a further application
of the principle, or open a breach by which a bolder spirit of in-
novation may enter. As it is, there is no such thing as popular
election in Scotland. We cannot, indeed, more* clearly form to
ourselves a notion of the manner in which so important a portion
of the British empire is represented, than by supposing the Lords
of the Manor throughout England to be invested with the power
of electing her representatives, — the manorial rights, too, being,
in a mtich greater number of instances than at present, held in-
dependently of the land from which they derive their claim, and
thus the natural connection between property and the right of
election being, in most cases, wholly separated. Such would be,
as nearly as possible, a parallel to the system of representation
now existing in Scotland ; — a system, which it is the understood
duty of all present and future Lord Advocates to defend, and
which neither the lively assaults of a Sheridan nor the sounder
reasoning and industry of an Abercrombie have yet been able to
shake.

The fbllowing extract from another of the many letters of Dr.
Parr to Sheridan shows still further the feeling entertained
towards Burke, even by some of those who most violently dif-
fered with him : —

" During the recess of Parliament I hope yon will read the mighty work
of my friend and your friend, and Mr. Fox's friend, Mackintosh : there is
some obscurity and there are many Scotticisms in it ; yet I do pronounce it
the work of a most masculine and comprehensive mind. The arrangement
is far more methodical than Mr. Burke's, the sentiments are more patriotic,
the reasoning is more profound, and even the imagery in some places is
scarcely less «plendid. I think Mackintosh a better philosopher, and a bet-
ter citizen, and I know him to be a far better scholar and a iar better man,
thaA Payne ; in whose book there are great irradiations of genius, but none
of the glowing and generous warmth which virtue inspires ; that warmth
which is often kindled in the bosom of Mackintosh, and which pervades
tljnoBt every page of Mr. Burke's book— :^ough I confess, and with sorrow

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 123

I confess, that the holy flame was quite extinguiehed in his odioas alterca>
tion with you and Mr. Fox."

A letter from the Prince of Wales to Sheridan this year fur-
nishes a new proof of the confidence reposed in him by His
Royal Highness. A question of much delicacy and importance
having arisen between that Illustrious Personage and the Duke
of York, of a nature, as it appears, too urgent to wait for a refe-
rence to Mr. Fox, Sheridan had alone the honor of advising His
Royal Highness in the correspondence that took place between
him and his Royal Brother on that occasion. Though the letter
affords no immediate clue to the subject of these cpmmunications,
there is little doubt that they referred to a very important and
embarrassing question, which is known to have been put by the
Duke of York to the Heir- Apparent, previously to his own mar-
riage this year ; — a question which involved considerations con-
nected with the Succession to the Crown, and which the Prince,
with the recollection of what occurred on the same subject in
1787, could only get rid of by an evasive answer.

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CHAPTER V.

DEATH OP MRS. SHERIDAN.

In the year 1792, after a long illness, which terminated in
consumption, Mrs. Sheridan died at Bristol, in the thirty-eighth
year of her age.

There has seldom, perhaps, existed a finer combinaticm of all
those qualities that attract both eye and heart, than this accom-
plished and lovely person exhibited. To judge by what we hear,
it was impossible to see her without admiration, or know her
without love ; and a late Bishop used to say that she " seemed
to him the connecting link between woman and angel."* The
devotedness of affection, too, with which she was regarded, not
only by her own father and sisters, but by all her husband's
family, showed that her fascination was of that best kind which,
like charity, " begins at home ;" and that while her beauty and
music enchanted the world, she had charms more intrinsic and
lasting for those who came nearer to her. We have already seen
with what pliant sympathy she followed her husband through his
various pursuits, — ^identifying herself with the politician as warm-
ly and readily as with the author, and keeping Love still attendant
on Genius through all his transformations. As the wife of the
dramatist and manager, we find her calculating the receipts of
the house, assisting in the adaptation of her husband's opera, and
reading over the plays sent in by dramatic candidates. As the
wife of the senator and orator we see her, with no less zeal,

« Jackson of Exeter, too, giving a description of her, in some Memoirs of his own Life
that were never published, said that to see her, as she stood singing beside him at th«
piano-forte, was " like looking into the face of an angel." •

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RliGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 125

making extracts from state-papers, and copying out ponderous
pamphlets, — entering with all her heart and soul into the details
of elections, and even endeavoring to fathom the mysteries of the
Funds. The affectionate and sensible care with which she watched
over, not only her own children, but those which her beloved sis-
ter, Mrs. Tickell, confided to her, in dying, gives the finish to this
picture of domestic usefulness. When it is recollected, too, that
the person thus homelily employed was gifted with every charm
that could adorn and delight society, it would be difficult, per-
haps, to find any where a more perfect example of that happy
mixture of utility and ornament, in which all that is prized by
the husband and the lover combines, and which renders woman
what the Sacred Fire was to the Parsees, — not only an object of
adoration on their altars, but a source of warmth and comfort to
their hearths.

To say that, with all this, she was not happy, nor escaped the
censure of the world, is but to assign to her that share of shadow,
without which nothing bright ever existed on this earth. United
not only by marriage, but by love, to a man who was the object
of universal admiration, and whose vanity and passions too often
led him to yield to the temptations by which he was surrounded,
it was but natural that, in the consciousness of her own power to
charm, she should be now and then piqued into an appearance of
retaliation, and seem to listen witfc complaisance to some of those
numerous worshippers, who crowd around such beautiful and un-
guarded shrines. Not that she was at any time unwatched by
Sheridan, — on the contrary, he followed her with a lover's eyes
throughout ; and it was believed of both, by those who knew
them best, that, even when they seemed most attracted by other
objects, they would willingly, had they consulted the real wishes
of their hearts, have given up every one in the world for each
other. So wantonly do those, who have happiness in their grasp,
trifle with that rare and delicate treasure, till, like the careless
hand playing with the rose.

" In swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas,
They snap it— it falls to the ground."

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126 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

They had, immediately after their marriage, as we have seen,
passed some time in a little cottage at Eastbumham, and it was a
period, of course, long remembered by them both for its happi-
ness. I have been told by a friend of Sheridan, that he once
overheard him exclaiming to himself, after looking for some
moments at his wife, with a pang, no doubt, of melancholy selt
reproach, — " Could anything bring back those first feelings 1"
then adding with a sigh, " Yes, perhaps, the cottage at East-
bumham might." In this as well as in some other traits of the
same kind, there is assuredly any thing but that common-place
indifference, which too often clouds over the evening of married
life. On the contrary, it seems rather the struggle of affection
with its own remorse ; and, like the humorist who mourned over
the extinction of his intellect so eloquently as to prove that it
was still in full vigor, shows love to be still warmly alive in the
very act of lamenting its death.

I have already presented the reader with some letters of Mrs.
Sheridan, in which the feminine character of her mind very in-
terestingly displays itself Their chief charm is unaffectedness,
and the total absence of that literary style, which in the present
day infects even the most familiar correspondence. I shall here
give a few more of her letters, written at different periods to the
elder sister of Sheridan, — ^it being one of her many merits to
have kept alive between her husband and his family, though so
far separated, a constant and cordial intercourse, which, unluckily,
after her death, from his own indolence and the new connections
into which he entered, was suffered to die away, almost entirely.
The first letter, from its allusion to the Westminster Scrutiny,
must have been written in the year 1784, Mr. Fox having gained
his great victory over Sir Cecil Wray on the 17th of May, and
the Scrutiny having been granted on the same day.

" Mt deab Lissy, London, June 6.

" I am happy to find by your last that our apprehensions on Charles's
account were useless. The many reports that were circulated hereof his
accident gave us a good deal of uneasiness ; but it is no longer wonderfUl

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 127

that he should be buried here, when Mr. Jackman has so barbarously mur-
dered him with jou. I fancy he would risk another broken head, rather
than give up his title to it as an ofiScer of the Crown. We go on here
wrangling as usual, but I am afraid all to no purpose. Those who are in
possession of power are determined to use it without the least pretence to
justice or consistency. They have ordered a Scrutiny for Westminster, in
defiance of all law or precedent, and without any other hope or expectation
but that of harassing and tormenting Mr. Fox and his friends, and obliging
them to waste their time and money, which perhaps they think might other-
wise be employed to a better purpose in another cause. We have nothing
for it but patience and perseverance, which I hope will at last be crowned
with success, though I fear it will be a much longer trial than we at first

expected. I hear from every body that your are vastly disliked—but

are you not all kept in awe by such beauty ? I know she flattered herself
to subdue all your Volunteers by the fire of her eyes only : — how astonish-
ed she must be to find that they have not yet laid down their arms I There is
nothing would tempt me to trust my sweet person upon the water sooner
than the thoughts of seeing you ; but I fear my friendship will hardly ever
be put to so hard a trial Though Sheridan is not in ofiSce, I think he is
more engaged by politics than ever.

" I suppose we shall not leave town till September. We have promised
to pay many visits, but I fear we shall be obliged to give up many of our
schemes, for I take it for granted Parliament will meet again as soon as
possible. We are to go to Chatsworth, and to another friend of mine in
that neighborhood, so that I doubt our being able to pay our annual visit
to Crewe Hall. Mrs. Crewe has been very ill all this winter with your old
complaint, the rheumatism — she is gone to Brightelmstone to wash it away
in the sea. Do you ever see Mrs. Greville ? I am glad to hear my two
nephews are both in so tljriving a way. Are you still a nurse ? I should
like to take a peep at your bantlings. Which is the handsomest ? have
you candor enough to think any thing equal to your own boy ? if you. have,
you have more merit than I can claim. Pray remember me kindly to Bess,
Mr. L., &c.t and don't forget to kiss the little squaller for me when you have
nothing better to do. God bless you.

" Ever yours."

** The inclosed came to Dick in one of Charleses frtmks ; he said he should
write to you himself with it, but I think it safest not to trust him."

In another letter, written in the same year, there are some
touches both of sisterly and of conjugal feeling, which seem to
bespeak a heart happy in all its affections.

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" My Dear Lisst, Putney y Augiut 16.

" You will no doubt be surprised to find me still dating from this place,
but various reasons have detained me here from day to day, to the great
dissatisfaction of my dear Mary, who has been expecting me hourly for the
last fortnight I propose going to Hampton-Court to night, if Dick returns
in any decent time from town.

" I got your letter and a half the day before yesterday, and shall be very
well pleased to have such blunders occur more frequently. You mistake,
if you suppose I am a friend to your tarrers and featherers : — it is such
wretches that always ruin a good cause. There is no reason on earth why
you should not have a new Parliament as well as us :~it might not, per-
haps, be quite as convenient to our immaculate Minister, but I sincerely hope
he will not find your Volunteers so accommodating as the present India
troops in our House of Commons. What ! does the Secretary at War con-
descend to reside in any house but his own ? — 'Tis very odd he should turn
himself out of doors in his situation. I never could perceive any economy
in dragging furniture from one place to another ; but, of course, he has
more experience in these matters than I have.

" Mr. Forbes dined here the other day, and I had a great deal of conver-
sation with him on various subjects relating to you all. He says, Charleses
manner of talking of his wife, &c. is so ridiculous, that, wheoever he comes

into company, they always cry out, — * Now S n, we allow you half an

hour to talk of the beauties of Mrs. S. — half an hour to your child, and an-
other half hour to your farm, — and then we expect you will behave like a
reasonable person.^

" So Mrs. is not happy : poor thing, I dare say, if the truth were

known, he teazes her to death. Your very good husbands generally contrive
to make you sensible of their merit somehow or other.

*' From a letter Mr. Canning has just got from Dublin, I find you have
been breaking the heads of some of our English heroes. I have no doubt
in the world that .they deserved it ; and if half a score more that I know
had shared the same fate, it might, perhaps, become less the fashion among
our young men to be such contemptible coxcombs as they certainly are.

" My sister desired me to say all sorts of affectionate things to you, in
return for your kind remembrance of her in your last. I assure you, you
lost a great deal by not seeing her in her maternal character : — it is the
prettiest sight in the world to see her with her children : — they are both
charming creatures, but my little namesake is my delight : — 'tis impossible
to say how foolishly fond of her I am. Poor Mary ! she is in a way to have
more j—and what will become of them all is sometimes a consideration that
gives me many a painful hour. But they are happy, with their little por-
tion of the goods of this world : — ^then, what are riches good for ? For my

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 129

part, as you know, poor Dick and I have always been straggling against
the stream, and shall probably continue to do so to the end of our lives, —
yet we would not change sentiments or sensations with .... for all his
estate. By the bye, I was told t'other day he was going to receive eight
thousand pounds as a compromise for his uncle's estate, which has been so
long in litigation : — is it true ?— I dare say it is, though, or he would not
be so discontented as you say he is. God bless you.— Give my love to Bess,
and return a kiss to my nephew for me. Remember me to Mr. L. and be-
lieve me

" Truly yours."

The following letter appears to have been written in 1785,
some months after the death of her sister, Miss Maria Linley.
Her playful allusions to the feme of her own beauty might have
been answered in the language of Paris to Helen : —

'* Minor eat tua gloria vero
yamague de forma pene maligna estJ^

" Thy beauty far outruns even rumor's tongue.
And envious fame leaves half thy charms unsung."

"My Dear Lisst, Delapre Ahhey, Dec. 27.

" Notwithstanding your incredulity, I assure you I wrote to you from
Hampton-Court, very soon after Bess came to England. My letter was a
dismal one ; for my mind was at that time entirely occupied by the aflfect-
ing circumstance of my poor sister's deaith. Perhaps you lost nothing by
not receiving my letter, for it was not much calculated to amuse you.

" I am still a recluse, you see, but I am preparing to launch for the win-
ter in a few days. Dick watf detained in town by a bad fever : — you may
suppose I was kept in ignorance of his situation, or I should not have re-
mained so quietly here. He came last week, and the fatigue of the journey
very nearly occasioned a relapse : — but by the help of a jewel of a doctor
that lives in this neighborhood we are both quite stout and well ag^ln,
(for /took it into my head to fall sick again, too, without rhyme or rea-
son.)

" We purpose going to town to-morrow or next day. Our own house
has been painting and papering, and the weather has been so unfavorable
to the business, that it is probable it will not be fit for us to go into this
month ; we have, therefore, accepted a most pressing invitation of General
Burgoyne to take up our abode with him, till our house is ready ; so your
next must be directed to Bruton-Street, under cover to Dick, unless Charles
win frank It agun. I don't believe what you say of Charles's not being

VOL. ir. 6*

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130 MKMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

glad to have seen me in Dublin. You are very flattering in the reasons
you give, but I rather think his vanity would have been more gratified by
showing every body how much prettier and younger his wife was than the
Mrs. Sheridan in whose favor they have been prejudiced by your good-na-
tured partiality. If I could have persuaded myself to trust the treacher-
ous ocean, the pleasure of seeing you and your nursery would have com-
pensated for all the famA should have lost by a comparison. But my
guardian sylph, vainer of my beauty, perhaps, than myself, would not suf-
fer me to destroy the flattering illusion you have so often displayed to your
Irish friends. No, — ^I shall stay till I am past all pretensions, and then you
may excuse your want of taste by saying, * Oh, if you had seen her when
she was young !'

" I am very glad that Bess is satisfied with my attention to her. The
unpleasant situation I was in prevented my seeing her as often as I could
wish. For her sake I assure you I shall be glad to have Dick and your fa-
ther on good terms, without entering into any arguments on the subject ;
but I fear, where one of the parties, at least, has a tincture of what they
call in Latin damnaius obstinatus mtUiOy the attempt will be difiScult, and
the success uncertain. God bless you, and believe me

" J/r«. Le/anu, Great Cuff-Street, Dublin, " Truly yours."

The next letter I shall give refers to the illness with which old
Mr. Sheridan was attacked in the beginning of the year 1788, and
of which he died in the month of August following. It is unne-
cessary to direct the reader's attention to the passages in which
she speaks of her lost sister, Mrs. Tickell, and her children : —
they have too much of the heart's best feelings in them to be
passed over slightly.

" My Dear Lisst. London, April 5.

" Your last letter I hope was written when you were low spirited, and
consequently inclined to forebode misfortune. I would not show it to She-
ridan : — ^he has lately been much harassed by business, and I could not bear
to give him the pain I know your letter would have occasioned. Partial
as your father has always been to Charles, I am confident he never has,
nor ever will feel half the duty and aflfections that Dick has always exprest
I know how deeply he will be afflicted, if you confirm the melancholy ac-
count of his declinhig health ;--but I trust your next will remove my ap-
prehensions, and make it unnecessary for me to wound his aflfectionate
heart by the intelligence. I flatter myself likewise, that you have been
without reason alarmed about poor Bess. Her life, to be sure, must be

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 131

dreadfiil ; — ^but I should hope the good nature and kindness of her disposi-
tion will support her, and enable her to continue the painful duty so ne-
cessary, probably, to the comfort of your poor father. If Charles has not
or does not do every thing in his power to contribute to the happiness of
the few years which nature can allow him, he will have more to answer to
his conscience than I trust any of those dear to me will have. Mrs. Crewe
told us, the other day, she had heard from Mrs. Greville, that every thing
was settled much to your father's satisfaction. I will hope, therefore, as I
have said before, you were in a gloomy fit when you wrote, and in the
mean time I will congratulate you on the recovery of your own health and
that of your children.

" I have been confined now near two months : — I caught cold almost im-
mediately on coming to town, which brought on all those dreadful com-
plaints with which I was afflicted at Crewe-Hall. By constant attention
and strict regimen I am once more got about again ; but I never go out
of my house after the sun is down, and on those terms only can I enjoy
tolerable health. I never knew Dick better. My dear boy is now with me
for his holydays, and a charming creature he is, I assure you, in every re-
spect My sweet little charge, too, promises to reward me for all my care
and anxiety. The little ones come to me every day, though they do not
at present live with me. We think of taking a house in the country this
summer as necessary for my health and convenient to S., who must be
often in town. I shall then have all the children with me, as they now
constitute a very great part of my happiness. The scenes of sorrow and
sickness I have lately gone through have depressed my spirits, and made
me incapable of finding pleasure in the amusements which used to occupy
me perhaps too much. My greatest delight is in the reflection that I am
acting according to the wishes of my ever dear and lamented sister, and
that by fulfilling the sacred trust bequeathed me in her last moments, I
insure my own felicity in the grateful afiection of the sweet creatures, —
whom, though I love for their own sakes, I idolize when I consider them as
the dearest part of her who was the first and nearest friend of my heart I
€rod bless you, my dear Liss : — this is a subject that always carries me
away. I will therefore bid you adieu, — only entreating you as soon as you
can to send me a more comfortable letter. My kind love to Bess, and Mr. L.

" Yours, ever afiectionately."

I shall give but one more letter ; whidi is perhaps only int^-
esting as showing how little her heart went along with the gaye-
ties into which her husband's connection with the worl4 of f^hion
and politics led her.

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132 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

" Mt Dear Lisst, May 23.

" I have only time at present to write a few lines at the request of Mrs.
Crewe, who is made very unhappy by an account of Mrs. Greville's illness,
as she thinks it possible Mrs. G. has not confessed the whole of her situa-
tion. She earnestly wishes you would find out from Dr. Quin what the
nature of her complaint is, with every other particular you can gather on
the subject, and give me a line as soon as possible.

" I am very glad to find your father is better. As there has been a re-
cess lately from the Trial, I thought it best to acquaint Sheridan with hia
illnees. I hope now, however, there is but little reason to be alarmed
about him. Mr. Tickell has just received an account from Holland, that
poor Mrs. Berkeley, (whom you know best as Betty Tickell,) was at the
point of death in a consumption.

" I hope in a very short time now to get into the country. The Duke
of Norfolk has lent us a house within twenty miles of London ; and I am
impatient to be once more out of this noisy, dissipated town, where I do
nothing that I really like, and am forced to appear pleased with every thing
odious to me. God bless you. I write in the hurry of dressing for a great
ball given by the Duke of York* to-night, which I had determined not to go
to till late last night, when I was persuaded that it would be very im-
proper to refuse a Royal invitation, if I was not absolutely confined by ill-
ness. Adieu. Believe me truly yours.

" You must pay for this letter, for Dick has got your last with the direc-
tion ; and any thing in his hands is irrecoverable /"

The healtK of Mrs. Sheridan, as we see by some of her letters,
had been for some time delicate ; but it appears that her last,
fatal illness originated in a cold, which she had caught in the
summer of the preceding year. Though she continued from that
time to grow gradually worse, her friends were flattered with the
hope that as soon as her confinement should take place, she would
be relieved from all that appeared most dangerous in her com-
plaint. That event, however, produced but a temporary inter-
mission of the malady, which returned after a few days with such
increased violence, that it became necessary for her, as a last
hope, to try the waters of Bristol.

The following affectionate letter of Tickell must bav^ been
written at this period : —

" My Deab SHEEn)AN,
** I was but too well prepared for the melancholy intelligence contf^ii|e4

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EIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 138

in your last letter, in answer to which, as Richardson will give you this, I
leave it to his kindness to do me justice in every sincere and afTectionate
expression of my grief for your situation, and my entire readiness to obey
and further your wishes by every possible exertion.

" If you have any possible opportunity, let me entreat you to remember .
me to the dearest, tenderest friend and sister of my heart. Sustain yourself,
my dear Sheridan,

" And believe me yours,

<* Most affectionately and faithfully,

** R. TiCKELL."

The circumstances of her death cannot better be told than in
the language of a lady whose name it would be an honor to
mention, who, giving up all other cares and duties, accompanied
her dying friend to Bristol, and devoted herself, with a tender-
ness rarely equalled even among women, to the soothing and
lightening of her last painful moments. From the lettei-s written
by this lady at the time, some extracts have lately been given
by Miss Lefanu* in her interesting Memoirs of her grandmother,
Mrs. Frances Sheridan. But their whole contents are so impor-
tant to the characters of the persons concerned, and so delicately
draw aside the veil from a scene of which sorrow and affection
were the only witnesses, that I feel myself justified not only in
repeating what has already been quoted, but in adding a few
more valuable particulars, which, by the kindness of the writer
and her correspondent, I am enabled to give from the same au-
thentic source. The letters are addressed to Mrs. H. Lefanu, the
second sister of Mr. Sheridan.

" Bristoly June 1, 1792.
*********

" I am happy to have it in my power to give you any information on a

* The talents of this young lady are another proof of the sort of gavel-kind of genius
allotted to the whole race of Sheridan. I find her very earliest poetical work, " TheSyl-
phid Queen," thus spoken of in a letter from the second Mrs. Sheridan to her mother, Mrs.
Lefanu : — "I should have acknowledged your very welcome present immediately, had
not Mr. Sheridan, on my telling him what it was, run off with it, and I have been in vain
endeavoring to get it from him ever since. What little I did read of it, I admired partic-
alarly ; but it will be much more gratifyix. ; to you and your daughter to hear that hs
read it with the greatest attention, and th«' !ght it showed a great deal of imagination.^'

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134 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

sabject so interesting to you, and to all that have the happiness of knowing
dear Mrs. Sheridan ; though I am sorry to add, it cannot be such as will
relieve your anxiety, or abate your fears. The truth is, our poor friend is
in a most precarious state of health, and quite given over by the faculty.
Her physician here, who is esteemed very skilful in consumptive cases, a»-
eured me from the first that it was a lott ease ; but as your brother seemed
unwilling to know the truth, he was not so explicit with him, and only re-
presented her as being in a very critical situation. Poor man ! he cannot
bear to think her in danger himself, or that any one else should ; though he
is as attentive and watchful as if he expected every moment to be her last
It is impossible for any man to behave with greater tenderness, or to feel

more on such an occasion, than he does.

*********

<' At times the dear creature suflers a great deal from weakness, and
want of rest She is very patient under her sufferings, and perfectly re-
signed. She is well aware of her danger, and talks of dying with the greatr
est composure. I am sure it will give you and Mr. Lefanu pleasure to
know that her mind is well prepared for any change that may happen, and
that she derives every comfort from religion that a sincere Christian can
look for."

On the 28th of the same month Mrs. Sheridan died ; and a
letter from this lady, dated July 19th, thus touchingly describes
her last moments. As a companion-picture to the close of She-
ridan's own life, it completes a lesson of the transitorinessof this
world, which might sadden the hearts of the beautiful and gifted,
even in their most brilliant and triumphant hours. Far happier,
however, in her death than he was, she had not only his affec-
tionate voice to soothe her to the last, but she had one devoted
friend, out of the many whom she had charmed and fascinated, to
watch consolingly over her last struggle, and satisfy her as to the
fate of the beloved objects which she left behind.

«/tt/yl9, 1792.
" Our dear departed friend kept her bed only two days, and seemed to
suffer less during that interval than for some time before. She was per-
fectly in her senses to the last moment, and talked with the greatest com-
posure of her apjn'oaching dissolution ; assuring us all that she had the
most perfect confidence in the mercies of an all-powerful and merciful Be-
ing, from whom alone she could have derived the inward comfort and sup»
port she felt at that awful moment ! She said, she had no fear of death.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 135

and that all her concern arose from the thoughts of leaving so many dear
and tender ties, and of what they would suffer from her loss. Her own
fiunily were at Bath, and had spent one day with her, when she was toler-
ably well. Your poor brother now thought it proper to send for them, and
to flatter them no longer. They immediately came ; — it was the morning
before she died. They were introduced one at a time at her bed-side, and
were prepared as much as possible for this sad scene. The women bore it
very well, but all our feelings were awakened for her poor Mher. The in-
terview between him and the dear angel was afflicting and heart-breaking
to the greatest degree injaginable. I was afraid she would have sunk un-
der the cruel agitation :— she said it was indeed too much for her. She
gave some kind injunction to each of them, and said everything she could
to comfort them under this severe trial. They then parted, in the hope of
seeing her again in the evening, but they never saw her more ! Mr. Sheri-
dan and I sat up all that night with her : — indeed he had done so for sev-
eral nights before, and never left her one moment that could be avoided.
About four o'clock in the morning we perceived an alarming change, and
sent for her physician.* She said to him, * If you can relieve me, do it
quickly ; — ^if not do not let me struggle, but give me some laudanum.'
His answer was, * Then I will give you some laudanum.' She desired to
see Tom and Betty Tickell before she took it, of whom she took a most af-
fecting leave I Your brother behaved most wonderfully, though his heart

* This physician was Dr. Bain, then a very young man, whose frimidship with Sheridan
began by this mournful duty to his wife, and only ended with the performance of the •"
same melancholy office for himself. As the writer of the above letters was not present
during the interview which she describes between him and Mrs. Sheridan, there are a few
slight errors in her account of what passed, the particulars of which, as related by Dr.
Bain himself, are as follows : — On his arrival, she begged of Sheridan and her female
friend to leave the room, and then, desiring him to lock the door after them, said, " You
have never deceived me :— tell me truly, shall I live over this night" Dr. Bain imme-
diately felt her pulse, and, finding that she was dymg, answered, " I recommend you to
take some laudanum ;" upon which she replied, " I understand you : — ^then give it me."

Dr. Bain fully concurs with the writer of these letters in bearing testimony to the ten-
derness and affection that Sheridan evinced on this occasion : — it was, he says, quite
*' the devotedness of a lover." The following note, addressed to him after the sad event
was over, does honor alike to the writer and the receiver : —

*< Mt Dear Sir, «

" I must request your acceptance of the inclosed for your professional attendance.
For the kind and friendly attentions, which have accompanied your efforts, I must remain
your debtor. The recollection of them will live in my mind with the memory of the dear
lost object, whose sufferings you soothed, and whose heart was grateful for it.
*' Believe rae,

" Dear Sir,

" Very sincerely yours,
" Friday nighJt. " R. B. Shkridan.'*

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186 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

was breaking ; and at times his feelings were so violent, that I feared he
would have been quite ungovernable at the last. Yet he summoned up
courage to kneel by the bed-side, till he felt the last pulse of expiring excel-
lence, and then withdrew. She died at five o'clock in the morning, 28th
of June.

" I hope, my dear Mrs. Lefanu, you will excuse my dwelling on this most
agonizing scene. I have a melancholy pleasure in so doing, and fancy it
will not be disagreeable to you to hear all the particulars of an event so
interesting, so afi9icting, to all who knew the beloved creature t For my
part, I never beheld such a scene — never suffered such a conflict — much as
I have suffered on my own account While I live, the remembrance of it
and the dear lost object can never be effaced from my mind.

'^ We remained ten days after the event took place at Bristol ; and on
the 7th instant Mr. Sheridan and Tom, accompanied by all her family (ex-
cept Mrs. Linley), Mr. and Mrs. Leigh, Betty Tickell and myself, attended
the dear remains* to Wells, where we saw her laid beside her beloved sis-
ter in the OathedraL The choir attended ; and there was such a concourse
of people of all sorts assembled on the occasion that we could hardly move
along. Mr. Leigh read the service in a most affecting manner. Indeed,
the whole scene, as you may easily imagine, was awful and affecting to a
very great degree. Though the crowd certainly interrupted the ^lemnity
very much, and, perhaps, happily for us abated somewhat of our feelings,
which, had we been less observed, would not have been so easily kept
down.

" The day after the sad scene was closed we separated, your brother
choosing to be left by himself with Tom for a day or two. He afterwards
joined us at Bath, where we spent a few days with our friends, the Leighs.
Last Saturday we took leave of them, and on Sunday we arrived at Isle-'
worth, where with much regret, I left your brother to his own melancholy
reflections, with no other companions but his two children, in whom he
seems at present entirely wrapped up. He suffered a great deal in return-
ing the same road, and was most dreadfully agitated on his arrival at Isle-
worth. His grief is deep and sincere, and I am sure will be lasting. He
is in very good spirits, and at times is even cheerful, but the moment he ia
left alone he feels all the anguish of sorrow and regret. The dtar little
girl is the greatest comfort to him : — ^he cannot bear to be a moment with-
out her. She thrives amazingly, and is indeed a charming little ci^ature.

* The following striking reflection, which I have found upon a scrap of paper, in Sheri«
dan's handM^iting, was suggested, no doubt, by his feelings on this occasion : —

" The loss of the breath from a beloved object, long suffering in pain and certainly ta
die, is not so great a privation as the last loss of her beautiful remains, if they remain
•o. The victory of the Grave is sharper than the Sting of Death."

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BIGHT HON. EICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 137

Tom bebaves with constant and tender attention to his father : — ^be laments
his dear mother sincerely, and at the time was violently affected ; — but, at
his age, the impressions of grief are not lasting ; and his mind is naturally
too lively and cheerful to dwell long on melancholy objects. He is in all
respects truly amiable, and in many respects so like his dear, charming
mother, that I am sure he will be ever dear to my heart. I expect to have
the pleasure of seeing Mr. Sheridan again next week, when I hope to find
him more composed than when I took leave of him last Sunday.'*

To the mention which is made, in this affecting letter, of the
father of Mrs. Sheridan, whose destiny it had been to follow to
the grave, within a few short years, so many of his accomplished
chil(fren,* I must add a few sentences more from another letter
of the same lady, which, while they increase our interest in this
amiable and ingenious man, bear testimony to Sheridan's attach-
ing powers, and prove how affectionate he must have been to her
who was gone, to be thus loved by the father to whom she was
so dear : —

" Poor Mr. Linley has been here among us these two months. He is very
much broke, but is still a very interesting and agreeable companion. I do
not know any one more to be pitied than he is. It is evident that the
recollection of past misfortunes preys on his mind, and he has no comfort
in the surviving part of his family, they being all scattered abroad. Mr.
Sheridan seems more his child than any one of his own, and I believe he
likes being near him and his grandchildren.''t

* In 1778 his eldest son Thomas was drowned, while amusing himself in a pleasure-
boat at the seat of the Duke of Ancaster. The pretty lines of Mrs. Sheridan to his violin
are well known. A few years after, Samuel, a lieutenant in the navy, was carried off
by a fever. Miss Maria Linley died in 1785, and Mrs. Tickell in 1787.

I have erroneously stated, in a former part of this work, that Mr, William Linley is the
only surviving branch of this family ; — there is another brother, Mr. Ozias Linley, still
Uvmg.

f In the Memoirs of Mrs. Crouch I find the following anecdote : — " Poor Mr. Linley I
after the death of one of his sons, when seated at the harpsichord in Drury-Lane theatre,
in order \^ accompany the vocal parts of an interesting little piece taken from Prior's
Henry and Emma, by Mr. Tickell, and excellently represented by Palmer and Miss Far-
ren, — ^when the tutOT of Henry, Mr. Aikin, gave an impressive description of a promising
young man, in speaking of his pupil Henry, the feelings of Mr. Linley could not be sup-
pressed. His tears fell fast — ^nor did he weep alone."

In the same work Mrs. Crouch is made to say that, after Miss Maria tinley died, it was
melancholy for her to sing to Mr. Linley, whose tears continually fell on the keys as he ac-
ooropanied her ; and if, in the course of her profession, she was obliged to practise a

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138 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

Towards the autumn, (as we leam from another letter of this
lady,) Mr. Sheridan endeavored to form a domestic establish-
ment for himself at Wanstead.

" Wansteady October 22, 1792.
" Your brother has''taken a hoase in this village very near me, where he
means to place his dear little girl to be as much as possible under my pro-
tection. This was the dying request of my beloved friend ; and the last
effort of her mind and pen* was mad? the day before she expired, to draw
up a solemn promise for both of us to sign, to ensure the strict perform-
ance of this last awful injunction : so anxious was she to commit this dear
treasure to my care, well knowing how impossible it would be for a father,
situated as your brother is, to pay that constant attention to her which a
daughter So particularly requires. • * * You may be assured I shall
engage in the task with the greatest delight and alacrity : — ^would to God
that I were in the smallest degree qualified to supply the place of that an-
gelic, all-accomplished mother, of whose tender care she has been so early
deprived. All I can do for her I will do ; and if I can succeed so far as to
give her early and steady principles of religion, and to form her mind to
virtue, I shall think my time well employed, and shall feel myself happy
in having fulfilled the first wish of her beloved mother's heart.

To return to your brother, he talks of having his house here immediately

Bong which he had been accustomed to hear his lost daughter sing, the similarity
of their manners and their voices, which he had once remarked with pleasure, then af-
fected him to such a degree, that he was frequently forced to quit the instrument and
walk about the room to recover his composure.

* There are some touching allusions to these last thoughts of Mrs. Sheridan, in an
Elegy, written by her brother, Mr. William linley, soon after the news of the sad event
reached him in India : —

" Oh most beloved ! my sister and my friend I

While kindred woes still breathe around thine urn.
Long with the tear of absence must /blend
The sigh, that speaks thou never shalt return.

" 'Twas Faith, that, bending o»er the bed of death.

Shot o'er thy pallid cheek a transient ray,

With softer effort soothed thy laboring breath.

Gave grace to anguish, beauty to decay.

" Thy friends, thy children, claim'd thy latest care ,
Theirs was the last that to thy bosom climg ;
For them to heaven thou sent'st the expiring prayer,
The las* that faVter'd on thy trembling tongue.''

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 139

iiimifihed and made ready for the reception of his nursery. It is a very
good sort of common house, with an excellent garden, roomy and fit for the
purpose, but will admit of no show or expense. I understand he has taken
a house in Jermyn-street, where he may see conpany, but he does not in-
tend having any other country-house but this. leleworth he gives up, his
time being expired there. I believe he has got a private tutor for Tom —
somebody very much to his mind. At one time he talked of sending him
abroad with this gentleman, but I know not at present what his determina-
tions are. He is too fond of Tom's society to let him go ft'om him for any
time J but I think it would be more to his advantage if he would consent
to part with him for two or three years. It is impossible for any man to be
more devotedly attached to his children than he is, and I hope they will be
a comfort and a blessing to him, when the world loses its charms. The last
time I saw him, which was for about five minutes, I thought be looked re-
markably well, and seemed tolerably cheerful. But I have observed in gen-
eral that this affliction has made a wonderful alteration in the .expression
of his countenance and in his manners.* The Leighs and my family spent a
week with him at Isleworth the beginning of August, where we were in-
deed most affectionately and hospitably entertained. I could hardly believe
him to be the same man. In fact, we never saw him do the honors of his
house before ; thatj you know, he always left the dear, elegant creature,
who never failed to please and charm every one who came within the sphere
of her notice. Nobody could have filled her place so well : — he seemed to
have pleasure in making much of those whom she loved, and who, he knew,
sincerely loved her. We all thought he never appeared to such advantage.
He was attentive to every body and every thing, though grave and thought-
ful ; and his feelings, poor fellow, often ready to break forth in spite of his
efforts to suppress them. He spent his evenings mostly by himself. He de-
sired me, when I wrote, to let you know that she had by will made a little
distribution of what she called * her own property,' and had left you and
your sister rings of remembrance, and her fausse monire, containing Mr.
Sheridan's picture to you,t — ^Mrs. Joseph Lefanu having got hers. She left
rings also to Mr. and Mrs. Leigh, my sister, daughter, and myself, and posi-
tively forbids any others being given on any pretence, but these I have
specified,— evidently precluding all her fine frienda from this last mark of
her esteem and approbation. She had, poor thing, with some justice, tum-

* I have heard a Noble friend of Sheridan say that, happening about this time to sleep
in the room next to him, he could plainly hear him sobbing throughout the greater part
of the night.

f This bequest is thus announced by Sheridan himself in a letter to his sister, dated
June 8, 1794 : — " I mean also to send by Miss Patrick a picture which has long been your
property, by a bequest from one whose image is not often from my mind, and whoM
memory, I am sure, remains in yours.''

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140 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OP THE

ed from them all in disgust, and I observed, during her illness, never men-
tioned any of them with regard or kindness."

The consolation which Sheridan derived from his little daugh-
ter was not long spared to him. In a letter, without a date, from
the same amiable writer, the following account of her death is
given : —

'< The circumstances attending this melancholy event were particularly
distressing. A large party of young people were assembled at your broth-
er's to spend a joyous evening in dancing. We were all in the height of
our merriment, — be himself remarkably cheerful, and partaking of the
amusement, when the alarm was given that the dear little angel was dying.
It is impossible to describe the confusion and horror of the scene : — he was
quite frantic, and I knew not what to do. Happily there were present
several kind, good-natured men, who had their recollection, and pointed*
out what should be done. We very soon had every possible assistance, and
for a short time we had some hope that her precious life would have been
spared to us — ^but that was soon at an end !

" The dear babe never throve to my satisfaction : — she was small and
delicate beyond imagination, and gave very little expectation of long life ;
but she had visibly declined during the last month. • * * Mr. Sheridan
made himself very miserable at first, from an apprehension that she had
been neglected or mismanaged ; but I trust he is perfectly convinced that
this was not the case. He was severely afflicted at first. The dear babe's
resemblance to her mother after her death was so much more striking, that
it was impossible to see her without recalling every circumstance of that
afflicting scene, and he was continually in the room indulging the sad re-
membrance. In this manner he indulged his feelings for four or five days ;
then, having indispensable business, he was obliged to go to London, from
whence he returned, on Sunday, apparently in good spirits and as well as
usual. But^ however he may assume the appearance of ease or cheerful-
ness, his heart is not of a nature to be quickly reconciled to the loss of any
thing he loves. He suffers deeply and secretly ; and I dare say he will
long and bitterly lament both mother and child." •

The reader will, I think, feel with me, after reading the fore-
going letters, as well as those of Mrs. Sheridan, given in the
course of this work, that the impression which they altogether
leave on the mind is in the highest degree favorable to the char-
acters both of husband and wife. There is, round the whole.

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an atmosphere of kindly, domestic feeling, which seems to answer
for the soundness of the hearts that breathed in it. The sen-
sibility, too, displayed by Sheridan at this period, was not that
sort of passionate return to former feelings, which the prospect
of losing what it once loved might awaken in even the most
alienated heart ; — on the contrary, there was a depth and mellow-
ness in his sorrow which could proceed from long habits of affec-
tion alone. The idea, indeed, of seeking solace for the loss of the
mother in the endearments of the children would occur only to
one who had been accustomed to find happiness in his home, and
who therefore clung for comfort to what remained of the wreck.

Such, I have little doubt, were the natural feelings and dis-
positions of Sheridan ; and if the vanity of talent too often turned
him aside from their influence, it is but another proof of the dan-
ger of that " light which leads astray," and may console those who,
safe under the shadow of mediocrity, are unvisited by such dis
turbing splendors.

The following letters on this occasion, from his eldest sister
and her husband, are a further proof of the warm attachment
which he inspired in those connected with him : —

" My deabest Brother,
" Charles has just informed me that the fatal, the dreaded event has
taken place. On my knees I implore the Almighty to look down upon
you in your affliction, to strengthen your noble, your feeling heart to bear
it. Oh my beloved brother, these are sad, sad trials of fortitude. One
consolation, at least, in mitigation of your sorrow, I am sure you possess,
— the consciousness of having done all you could to preserve the dear angel
you have lost, and to soften the last painful days of her mortal existence.
Mrs. Canning wrote to me that she was in a resigned and happy frame of
mind : she is assuredly among the blest ; and I feel and I think she looks
down with benignity at my feeble efforts to soothe that anguish I parti-
cipate. Let me then conjure you, my dear brother, to suffer me to en-
deavor to be of use to you. Could I have done it, I should have been with
you from the time of your arrival at Bristol. The impossibility of my
going has made me miserable, and injured my health, already in a very bad
state. It wq§ld give value to my life, could I be of that service I tliink I
might be of, if I were near you ; and as I cannot go to you, and as there
is every reason for your quitting the scene and objects before you, perhaps

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142 MEMOIRS OF THE LI^E OF THE

you may let us have the happiness of having you here, and my dear Tom ;
I will write to him when my spirits are quieter. I entreat you, my dear
brother, try what change of place can do for you : your character and ta-
lents are here held in the highest estimation ; and you have here some
who love you beyond the affection any in England can feel for you.
" Cuff-Street, Uh My, A. Lbfanu."

" Mt dear good Sir, Wednesday, Uh July, 1792.

" Permit me to join my entreaties to Lissy's to persuade you to come
over to us. A journey might be of service to you, and change of objects a
real relief to your mind. We would try every thing to divert your
thoughts from too intensely dwelling on certain recollections, which are
yet too keen and too fresh to be entertained with safety, — at least to occupy
you too entirely. Having been so long separated from your sister, you can
hardly have an adequate idea of her love for you. I, who on many occa-
sions have observed its operation, can truly and solemnly assure you that
it far exceeds any thing I could ever have supposed to have been felt by
a sister towards a brother. I am convinced you would experience such
soothing in her company and conversation as would restore you to your-
self sooner than any thing that could be imagined. Gome, then, my dear
Sir, and be satisfied you will add greatly to her comfort, and to that of
your very a£fectioQate friend, " J. Lepanu."

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BIGHT HOK. RICHARD BRINSLET SHERIDAN. 143

CHAPTER VL

DRURY-LANE THEATRE. — SOCIETY OF " THE FRIENDS
OF THE PEOPLE." — MADAME DE GENLIS. — ^WAR WITH
FRANCE. — ^WHIG SECEDERS. — SPEECHES IN PARLIA-
MENT. — DEATH OP TICKELL.

Thb domestic anxieties of Mr. Sheridan, during this year,
left but little room in his mind for public cares. Accordingly,
-we find that, after the month of April, he absented himself from
the House of Commons altogether. In addition to his appre-
hensions for the safety of Mrs. Sheridan, he had been for some
time harassed by the derangement of his theatrical property,
which was now fast falling into a state of arrear and involvement,
from which it never after entirely recovered.

The Theatre of Drury-Lane having been, in the preceding
year, reported by the surveyors to be unsafe and incapable of
repair, it was determined to erect an entirely new house upon
the same site ; for the accomplishment of which purpose a pro-
posal was made, by Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Linley, to raise the
sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, by the means of
three hundred debentures, of five hundred pounds each. This
part of the scheme succeeded instantly ; and I have now before
me a list of the holders of the 300 shares, appended to the
proposal of 1791, at the head of which the names of the three
Trustees, on whom the Theatre was afterwards vested in the
year 1793, stand for the following number of shares : — Albany
Wallis, 20 ; Hammersley, 50 ; Richard Ford, 20. But, though
the money was raised without any difficulty, the completion of
the new building was delayed by various negotiations and ob-
stacles, while, in the mean time, the company were playing, at an
enormous ei^pense, first in the Opera-House, and afterwards at
the Haymarket-Theatre, and Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Linley were
paying interest for the first instalment of the loan.

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144 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

To these and other causes of the increasing embarrassments of
Sheridan is to be added the extravagance of his own style of
living, which became much more careless and profuse after death
had deprived him of her, whose maternal thoughtfulness alone
would have been a check upon such improvident waste. We
are enabled to form some idea of his expensive habits, by find-
ing, from the letters which have just been quoted, that he was, at
the sapae time, maintaining three establishments, — one at Wan-
stead, where his son resided with his tutor; another at Isleworth,
which he still held, (as I learn from letters directed to him there,)
in 1793 ; and the third, his town-house, in Jermyn-Street. Rich
and ready as were the resources which the Treasury of the theatre
opened to him, and fertile as was his own invention in devising
new schemes of finance, such mismanaged expenditure would ex-
haust even his magic wealth, and the lamp must cease to answer
to the rubbing at last.

The tutor, whom he was lucky enough to obtain for his son at
this time, was Mr. William Smy the, a gentleman who has since dis-
tinguished himself by his classical attainments and graceful talent
for poetry. Young Sheridan had previously been under the care of
Dr. Parr, with whom he resided a considerable time at Hatton ;
and the friendship of this learned man for the father could not
have been more strongly shown than in the disinterestedness with
which he devoted himself to the education of the son. The fol-
lowing letter from him to Mr. Sheridan, in the May of this year,
proves the kind feeling by which he was actuated towards him : —

"DbarSir,
" I hope Tom got home safe, and found you in better spirits.
He said something aboui drawing on your banker ; but I do not
understand the process, and shall not take any step. You will
consult your own convenience about these things ; for my con-
nection with you is that of friendship and personal regard. I
feel and remember slights from those I respect, but acts of kind-
ness I cannot forget ; and, though my life has be^n passed far
more in doing than receiving services, yet I know and I value the

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 145

good dispositions of yourself and a few other friends, — ^men who
are worthy of that name from me.

"If you choose Tom to return, he knows and you know how
glad I am always to see him. If not, pray let him do something,
and I will tell you what he should do.

" Believe me, dear Sir,

" Yours sincerely,

"S. Parr."

In the spring of this year was established the Society of " The
Friends of the People," for the express purpose of obtaining a
Parliamentary Reform. To this Association, which, less for its
professed object than for the republican tendencies of sqme of
its members, was particularly obnoxious to the loyalists of the
day, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Grey, and many others of the leading
persons of the Whig party, belonged. Their Address to the
People of England, which was put forth in the month of April,
contained an able and temperate exposition of the grounds upon
which they sought for Reform ; and the names of Sheridan,
Mackintosh, Whitbread, &;c., appear on the list of the Committee
by which this paper was drawn up.

It is a proof of the little zeal which Mr. Fox felt at this pe-
riod on the subject of Reform, that he withheld the sanction of
his name from a Society, to which so many of his most intimate
political friends belonged. Some notice was, indeed, taken in the
House of this sympjpm of backwardness in the cause; and
Sheridan, in replying to the insinuation, said that " they wanted
not the signature of his Right Honorable friend to assure them
•of lus concurrence. They had his bond in the steadiness of his
political principles and the integrity of his heart." Mr. Fox
himself, however, gave a more definite explanation of the cir-
cumstance. " He might be asked," he said, " why his name was
not on the list of the Society for Reform 1 His reason was, that
though he saw great and enormous grievances, he did not see the
remedy." It is to be doubted, indeed, whether Mr. Fox ever fully
admitted the principle upon which the demand for a Reform was

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146 MEMOIBS or THE LITE OF THE

founded. When he afterwards espoused the question so warmly,
it seems to have been merely as one of those weapons caught up
in the heat of a warfere, in which Liberty itself appeared to him
too imminently endangered to admit of the consideration of any
abstract principle, except that summary one of the right of resist
ance to power abused. From what has been already said, too,
of the language held by Sheridan on this subject, it may be con-
cluded that, though far more ready than his friend to inscribe
Reform upon the banner of the party, he had even still less
made up his mind as to the practicability or expediency of the
measure. Looking upon it as a question, the agitation of which
was useful to Liberty, and at the same time counting upon the
improbability of its objects being ever accomplished, he adopted
at once, as we have seen, the most speculative of all the plans
that had been proposed, and flattered himself that he thus secured
the benefit of the general principle, without risking the incon-
venience of any of the practical details.

The following extract of a letter from Sheridan to one of his
female correspondents, at this time, will show that he did not
quite approve the policy of Mr. Fox in holding aloof from the
Beformers : —

" I am down here with Mrs. Canning and her family, while all
my friends and party are meeting in town, where I have excused
myself, to lay their wise heads together in this crisis. Again I
say there is nothing but what is unpleasant before my mind. I
wish to occupy and fill my thoughts with public matters, and to
do justice to the times, they afford materials enough ; but nothing
is in prospect to make activity pleasant, or to point one's efforts^
against one common enemy, making all that engage in the attack
cordial, social, and united. On the contrary, every day produces
some new schism and absurdity. Windham has signed a non-
sensical association with Lord Mulgrave ; and when I left town
yesterday, I was informed that the Divan, as the meeting at
Debrett's is called, were ftirious at an authentic advertisement
from the Duke of Portland against Charles Fox's speech in the

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RIGHT HON. EIC5ARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 147

Whig Qub, which no one before believed to be genuine, but
which they now say Dr. Lawrence brought from Biurlington-
House. If this is so, depend on it there will be a direct breach
in what has been called the Whig Party. Charles Fox must
come to the Reformers openly and avowedly ; and in a month
four-fiflhs of the Whig Club will do the same."

The motion for the Abolition of the Slave-trade, brought for-
ward this year by Mr. Wilberforce, (on whose brows it may be
said, with much more truth than of the Romsm General, " Annexuit
Africa lauro8,^^)was signab'zed by one of the most splendid orations
that the lofty eloquence of Mr. Pitt ever poured forth.* I men-
tion the Debate, however, for the mere purpose of remarking,
as a singularity, that, often as this great question was discussed
in Parliament, and ample as was the scope which it afforded for
the grander appeals of oratory, Mr. Sheridan was upon no occa-
sion tempted to utter even a syllable on the subject, — except once
for a few minutes, in the year 1787, upon some point relating to
the attendance of a witness. The two or three sentences, how-
ever, which he did speak on that occasion were sufficient to prove,
(what, as he was not a Wes<>India proprietor, no one can doubt,)
that the sentiments entertained by him on this interesting topic
were, to the full extent, those which actuated not only his own
party, but every real lover of justice and humanity throughout
the world. To use a quotation which he himself applied to ano-
ther branch of the question in 1807 : —

" I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To fan me when I sleep, and tremble when
1 wake, for all that human sinews, bought
And sold, have ever earned."

• It was at the conclosion of ihis speech that, in contemplating the period when Africsi
woak), he hoped, participate in those blessings of civilization and knowledge which
were now enjoyed by more fortunate regions, he applied the happy quotation, rendered
■tUl more striking, it is said, by the circumstance of the rising snn just then shining in
throng the windows of the House : —

** Not .primus equis Orient afflaoU cmhdU^

lUie sera rvbens aocendU lumina Veiper."

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148 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

The National Convention having lately, in the first paroxysm
of their republican vanity, conferred the honor of Citizenship
upon several distinguished Englishmen, and, among others, upon
Mr. Wilberforce and Sir James Mackintosh, it was intended, as
appears by the following letter from Mr. Stone, (a gentleman
subsequently brought into notice by the trial of his brother for
High Treason,) to invest Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan with the
same distinction, had not the prudent interference of Mr. Stone
saved them from this very questionable honor.

The following is the letter which this gentleman addressed to
Sheridan on the occasion.

^^ Paris, Nov, 18, Year I, of the French Republic,
" Dear Sir,
" I have taken a liberty with your name, of which I ought to
give you notice, 'and offer some apology. The Convention, hav-
ing lately enlarged their connections in Europe, are ambitious of
adding to the number of their friends by bestowing some mark
of distinction on those who have stood forth in support of their
causCy when its fate hung doubtful. The French conceive that
they owe this obligation very eminently to you and Mr. Fox ;
and, to show their gratitude, the Committee appointed to make
the Report has determined to offer to you and Mr. Fox the
honor of Citizenship. Had this honor never been conferred be-
fore, had it been conferred only on worthy members of society,
or were you and Mr. Fox only to be named at this moment, I
should not have interfered. But as they have given the title to
obscure and vulgar men and scoundrels, of which they are now
very much ashamed themselves, I have presumed to suppose that
you would think yourself much more honored in the breach than
the observance, and have therefore caused your nomination to
be suspended. But I was influenced in this also by other con-
siderations, of which one was, that, though the Committee would
be more careful in their selection than the last had been, yet it
was probable you would not like to share the honors with such
as would be chosen. But another more important one that

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHEBIDAN. 149

weighed with me was, that this new character would not be a
small embarrassment in the route which you have to take the
next Session of Parliament, when the affairs of France must
necessarily be often the subject of discussion. No one will sus-
pect Mr. Wilberforce of being seduced, and no one has thought
that he did any thing to render him liable to seduction ; as his
superstition and devotedness to Mr. Pitt have kept him perfectly
a Vakri from all temptations to err on the side of liberty, civil
or religious. But to you and Mr. Fox the reproach will con-
stantly be made, and the blockheads and knaves in the House will
always have the means of influencing the opinions of those with-
out, by opposing with success your English character to your
French one ; and that which is only a mark of gratitude for past
services will be construed by malignity into a bribe of some sort
for services yet to be rendered. You may be certain that, in
offering the reasons for my conduct, I blush that I think it ne-
cessary to stoop to such prejudices. Of this, however, you will
be the best judge, and I should esteem it a favor if you would
inform me whether I have done right, or whether I shall suffer
your names to stand as they did before my interference. There
will be sufficient time for me to receive your answer, as I have
prevailed on the Reporter, M. Brissot, to delay a few days. I
have given him my reasons for wishing the suspension, to which
he has assented. Mr. O'Brien also prompted me to this deed,
and, if I have done wrong, he must take half the punishment.
My address is " Rose, Huissier," under cover of the President
of the National Convention.

" I have the honor to be

" Your most obedient

"And most humble servant,

"J.H.ST0NB.*'

It was in the month of October of this year that the romantio
adventure of Madame de Genlis, (in the contrivance of which
the practical humor of Sheridan may, I think, be detected,) oc-
curred on the road between L<>ndon and Dartford. This dis-

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150 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

tinguished lady had, at the close of the year 1791, with a view
of escaping the turbulent scenes then passing in France, come
over with her illustrious pupil, Mademoiselle d' Orleans, and her
adopted daughter, Pamela,* to England, where she received both
from Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan, all that attention to which her
high character for talent, as well as the embarrassing nature of
her situation at that moment, claimed for her.

The following letter from her to Mr, Fox I find inclos#d in
one from the latter to Mr. Sheridan : —

" Sir,
" You have, by your infinite kindness, given me the right to
show you the utmost confidence. The situation I am in makes
me desire to have with me, during two days, a person perfectly
well instructed in the Laws, and very sure and honest. I desire
such a person that I could offer to him all the money he would
have for this trouble. But there is not a moment to be lost on
the occasion. If you could send me directly this person, you
would render me the most important service. To calm the most
cruel agitation of a sensible and grateful soul shall be your re-
ward. — Oh could I see you but a minute ! — I am uneasy, sick,
unhappy ; surrounded by the most dreadful snares of the fraud
and wickedness ; I am intrusted with the most interesting and
sacred charge ! — ^All these are my claims to hope your advices,
protection and assistance. My friends are absent in that mo-
ment ; there is only two names in which I cotdd place my confi-

* Married at Toomay in the month of December, 1792, to Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
Lord Edward was the only one, among the numerous suitors of Mrs. Sheridan, to whom
^e is supposed to I|ave listened with any thing like a return of feeling ; and that there
should be mutual admiration between two such noble specimens of human nature, it is
easy, without injury to either of them, to believe.

Some months before her death, when Sheridan had been describing to her and Lord
Edward a beautiful French girl whom he had lately seen, and added that she put him
strongly in mind of what his own wife had been in the first bloom of her youth and
beauty, Mrs. Sheridan turned to Lord Edward, and said with a melancholy smile, "I
should like you, when I am dead, to marry that g^l." This was Pamela, whom Sheridan
had just seen during his visit of a few hours to Madame de Genlis, at Bury, in Suffolk, and
whom Lord Edward married in about a year after.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 151

dence and my hopes. Pardon this bad language. As Hypolite
I may say,

" * Songez que je vous parte une langue itranglref^

but the feelings it expresses cannot be strangers to your heart.

" Sans avoir I'avantage d'etre connue de Monsieur Fox, je
prens la liberty de le supplier de comuniquer cette lettre k Mr.
Sheridan, et si ce dernier n'est pas ^ Londres, j'ose esp6rer de
Monsieur Fox la m^me bont6 que j'attendois de Mr. Sheridan
dans I'embarras ou je me trouve. Je m'adresse aux deux per-
somies de I'Angleterre que j 'admire le plus, et je serois double-
ment heureuse d'etre tir^e de cette perplexity et de leur en avoir
Tobligation. Je serai pent etre a Londres incessament. Je d6-
sirerois vivement les y trouver ; mais en attendant je souhaite
avec ardeur avoir ici le plus promptement possible I'homme de
loi, ou seulement en ^tat de donner de bons conseils que je de-
mande. Je renouvelle toutes mes excuses de tant d'importu-
nit^s."

It was on her departure for France in the present year that
the celebrated adventure to which I have alluded, occurred ; and
as it is not often that the post-boys between London and Dart-
ford are promoted into agents of mystery or romance, I shall
give the entire narrative of the event in the lady's own words, —
premising, (what Mr, Sheridan, no doubt discovered,) that her
imagination had been for some time on the watch for such inci-
dents, as she mentions, in another place, her terrors at the idea
of " crossing the desert plains of Newmarket without an es-
cort."

" We left London," says Madame de Grenlis, " on our return to France
the 20th of October, 1792, and a circumstance occurred to us so extraor-
dinary, that I ought not, I feel, to pass it over in silence. I shall merely,
however, relate the fact, without any attempt to explain it, or without add-
ing to my recital any of those reflections which the impartial reader will
easily supply. We set out at ten o'clock in the morning in two carriages,
one with six horses, and the other, in which were our maids, with four. I

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152 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

had, two months before, sent off four of my servants to Paris, so that we
had with us only one French servant, and a footman, whom we had hired
to attend us as far as Dover. When we w^ere about a quarter of a league
from London, the French servant, who had never made the journey from
Dover to London but once before, thought he perceived that we were not
in the right road, and on his making the remark to me, I perceived it also.
The postillions, on being questioned, said that they had only wished to
avoid a small hill, and that they would soon return into the high road
again. After an interval of three quarters of an hour, seeing that we still
continued our way through a country that was entirely new to me, I again
interrogated both the footman and the postillions, and they repeated their
assurance that we should soon regain the usual road.

" Notwithstanding this, however, we still pursued our course with ex-
treme rapidity, in the same unknown route ; and as I had remarked that
the post-boys and footman always answered me in a strange sort of laconic
manner, and appeared as if they were afraid to stop, my companions and
I began to look at each other with a mixture of surprise and uneasiness.
"We renewed our inquiries, and at last they answered that it was indeed
true they had lost their way, but that they had wished to conceal it from
us till they had found the cross-road to Daitford (our first stage,) and that
now, having been for an hour and a half in that road, we had but two miles
to go before we should reach Dartford. It appeared to us very strange
that people should lose their way between London and Dover, but the as-
surance that we were only half a league from Dartford dispelled the sort of
vague fsar that had for a moment agitated us. At last, after nearly an hour
had elapsed, seeing that we still were not arrived at the end of the stage,
our uneasiness increased to a degree which amounted even to terror.- It
was with much difSculty that I made the post-boys stop opposite a small
village which lay to our left ; in spite of my shouts they still went on, till at
last the French servant, (for the other did not interfere,) compelled them
to stop. I then sent to the village to ask how far we were from Dartford,
and my surprise may be guessed when I received for answer that we we?b
now 22 miles, (more than seven leagues,) distant from that place. Conceal-
ing my suspicions, I took a guide in the village, and declared that it was
my wish to return to London, as I found I was now at a less distance from
that city than from Dartford. The post-boys made much resistance to my
desire, and even behaved with an extreme degree of insolence, but our
French servant, backed by the guide, compelled them to obey.

" As we returned at a very slow pace, owing to the sulkiness of the post-
boys and the fatigue of the horses, we did not reach London before night-
fell, when I immediately drove to Mr. Sheridan's house. He was extremely
surprised to see me returned, and on my relating to him our adventure,
agreed with us that it could not have been the result of mere chance. H«

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RIGHT HON. RICHASD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 153

then sent for a Justice of the Peace to examine the post-boys, who were
detained till his arrival under the pretence of calculating their account ;
but in the meantime, the hired footman disappeared and never returned.
The post-boys being examined by the Justice according to the legal form,
and in the presence of witnesses, gave their answers in a very confused way,
but confessed that an unknown gentleman had come in the morning to
their masters, and carrying them from thence to a public-house, had, by giv-
ing them something to drink, persuaded them to take the road by which we
had gone. The examination was continued for a long time, but no further
confession could be drawn from them. Mr. Sheridan told me, that there
was sufQcient proof on which to ground an action against these men, but
that it would be a tedious process, and cost a great deal of money. The
post-boys were therefore dismissed, and we did not pursue the inquiry any
further. As Mr. Sheridan saw the terror 1 was in at the very idea of again
venturing on the road to Dover, he promised to accompany us thither him-
self, but added that, having some indispensable business on his hands, he
could not go for some days. He toDk us then to Isleworth, a country-house
which he had near Richmond, on the banks of the Thames, and as he was
not able to dispatch his business so quickly as he expected, we remained
for a month in that hospitable retreat, which both gratitude and friendship
rendered so agreeable to us."

It is impossible to read this narrative, with the recollection, at
the same time, in our minds of the boyish propensity of Sheri-
dan to what are called practical jokes, without strongly suspect-
ing that he was himself the contriver of the whole adventure.
The ready attendance of the Justice, — ^the " unknown gentleman"
deposed to by the post-boys, — the disappearance of the laquais,
and the advice given by Sheridan that the affair should be pur-
sued no further, — all strongly savor of dramatic contrivance, and
must have afforded a scene not a little trymg to the gravity of
him who took the trouble of getting it up. With respect to his
motive, the agreeable month at his country-house sufficiently ex-
plains it ; nor could his conscience have felt much scruples about
an imposture, which, so far from being attended with any disagreea
ble consequences, furnished the lady with an incident of romance,
of which she was but too happy to avail herself, and procured
for him the presence of such a distinguished party, to grace and
enliven the festivities of Isleworth.*

• la the Hemoirt of Had. de Genlis, lately published, shesnpplieB a ttill more mtereel

VOL. n. 7*

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154 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

At the end of the month, (adds Madame de Genlis,)

" Mr. Sheridan having finished his business, we set off together for Dover^
himself, his son, and an English friend of his, Mr. Reid, with whom I wai
but a few days acquainted. It was now near the end of the month of No-
vember, 1792. The wind being adverse, detained us for five days at Dover,
during all which time Mr. Sheridan remained with us. At last the wind
grew less unfavorable, but still blew so violently that nobody would advise
me to embark. I resolved, however, to venture, and Mr. Sheridan attend-
ed us into the very packet-boat, where I received his farewell with a feel-
ing of sadness which I cannot express. He would have crossed with us^
but that some indispensable duty, at that moment, required his presence in
England. He, however, left us Mr. Reid, who had the goodness to accom-
pany us to Paris."

In 1793 war was declared between England and France.
Though hostilities might, for a short time longer, have been
avoided, by a more accommodating readiness in listening to the
overtures of France, and a less stately tone on the part of the
English negotiator, there could hardly have existed in dispassion-
ate minds any hope of averting the war entirely, or even of
postponing it for any considerable period. Indeed, however
rational at first might have been the expectation, that France, if
left to pass through the ferment of her own Revolution, would
have either settled at last into a less dangerous form of power,
or exhausted herself into a state of harmlessness during the pro-
cess, this hope had been for some time frustrated by the crusade
proclaimed against her liberties by the confederated Princes of
Europe. The conference at Pilnitz and the Manifesto of the
Duke of Brunswick had taught the French people what they
were to expect, if conquered, and had given to that inundation
of energy, under which the Republic herself was sinking, a vent

mg key to his motives for such a contrivance. It appears, from the new recollections of
this lady, that '< he was passionately in love with Pamela," and that, before her depar-
ture from England, the following scene took place : — " Two days before we set out, Mr.
Sheridan made, in my presence, his declaration of love to Pamela, who was affected by
his agreeable manner and high character, and accepted the offer of his hand with plea-
sure. In consequence of this, it was settled that he was to marry her on our return from
France, which was expected to take place in a fortnight." I suspect this to be but •
continuation of the Romance of Dartford.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 155

and direction outwards that transferred all the ruin to her ene-
mies. In the wild career of aggression and lawlessness, of con-
quest without, and anarchy within, which naturally followed
such an outbreak of a whole maddened people, it would
have been difficult for England, by any management whatever,
to keep herself uninvolved in the general combustion, — even
had her own population been much less heartily disposed than
they were then, and ever have been, to strike in with the great
discords of the world.

That Mr. Pitt himself was slow and reluctant to yield to the
necessity of hostile measures against France, appears from the
whole course of his financial policy, down to the very close of
the session of 1792. The confidence, indeed, with which he
looked forward to a long continuance of peace, in the midst of
events, that were audibly the first mutterings of the earthquake,
seemed but little indicative of that philosophic sagacity, which
enables a statesman to see the rudiments of the Future in the
Present.* "It is not unreasonable," said he on the 21st of
February, 1792, " to expect that the peace which we now enjoy
should continue at least fifteen years, since at no period of the
British history, whether we consider the internal situation of
this kingdom or its relation to foreign powers, has the prospect
of war been farther removed than at present."

In pursuance of this feelmg of security, he, in the course of
the session of 1791-2, repealed taxes to the amount of 200,000/.
a year, made considerable reductions in the naval and military
establishments, and allowed the Hessian Subsidy to expire, with-
out any movement towards its renewal. He likewise showed
his perfect confidence in the tranquillity of the country, by break-

* From the following words in his Speech on the communication from France in 1800,
he appears, himself, to have been aware of his want of foresight at the commencement
of the war >—

" Besides this, the reduction of our Peace Establishment in the year 1791, and continued
to the subsequent year, is a fact, from which the inference is indisputable ; a fact, which,
I am afraid, shows not only that we were not waiting for the occasion of war, but that,
in oar partiality for a pacific system, we had indulged ourselves in a fond and credulout
•eonrity, which wisdom and discretion would not have dictated."

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156 MEMOiKS OF THE LIFE OF THE

ing off' a negotiation into which lie had entered with the holders
of the four per cents, for the reduction of their stock to three
per cent. — saying, in answer to their demand of a larger bonus
than he thought proper to give, " Then we will put off* the re-
duction of this stock till next year." The truth is, Mr. Pitt was
proud of his financial system ; — the abolition of taxes and the
Reduction of the National Debt were the two great results to
which he looked as a proof of its perfection ; and while a war,
he knew, would produce the very reverse of the one, it would
leave little more than the name and semblance of the other.

The alarm for the safety of their establishments, which at this
time pervaded the great mass of the people of England, carried
the proof of its own needlessness in the wide extent to which it
spread, and the very small minority that was thereby left to be
the object of apprehension. That in this minority, (which was,
with few exceptions, confined to the lower classes,) the elements
of sedition and insurrection were actively at work, cannot be de-
nied. There was not a corner of Europe where the same ingre-
dients were not brought into ferment ; for the French Revolu-
tion had not only the violence, but the pervading influence of
the Simoom, and while it destroyed where it immediately passed,
made itself felt every where. But, surrounded and watched as
were the few disaffected in England, by all the rank, property
and power of the country, — animated at that moment by a more
than usual portion of loyalty, — the dangers from sedition, as yet,
were by no means either so deep or extensive, as that a strict
and vigilant exercise of the laws already in being, would not
have been abundantly adequate to all the purposes of their sup-
pression.

The admiration, indeed, with which the first dawn of the Revo-
lution was hailed had considerably abated. The excesses into
which the new Republic broke loose had alienated the worship
of most of its higher class of votaries, and in some, as in Mr.
Windham, had converted enthusiastic admiration into horror ; —
so that, though a strong sympathy with the general cause of the
Revolution was still felt among the few Whigs that remained.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 157

the profession of its wild, republican theories was chiefly con-
fined to two classes of persons, who coincide more frequently
than they themselves imagine, — the speculative and the ig-
norant.

The Minister, however, gave way to a panic which, there is
every reason to believe, he did not himself participate, and in
going out of the precincts of the Constitution for new and ar-
bitrary powers, established a series of fatal precedents, of which
alarmed Authority will be always but too ready to avail it^Hf.
By these stretches of power he produced — what was far more
dangerous than all the ravings of club politicians — that vehement
reaction of feeling on the part of Mr. Fox and his followers,
which increased with the increasing rigor of the government, and
sometimes led them to the brink of such modes and principles
of opposition, as aggressions, so wanton, upon liberty alone could
have either provoked or justified.

The great promoters of the alarm were Mr. Burke, and those
other Whig Seceders, who had for some time taken part with
the administration against their former friends, and, as is usual
with such proselytes, outran those whom they joined, on every
point upon which they before most differed from them. To
justify their defection, the dangers upon which they grounded it,
were exaggerated ; and the eagerness with which they called for
restrictions upon the liberty of the subject was but too worthy
of deserters not only from their post but from their principles.
One striking difference between these new pupils of Toryism
and their master was with respect to the ultimate object of the
war. — Mr. Pitt being of opmion that security against the power
of France, without any interference whatever with her internal
affairs, was the sole aim to which hostilities should be directed ;
while nothing less than the restoration of the Bourbons to the
power which they possessed before the assembling of the Etats
Genereaux could satisfy Mr. Burke and his fellow converts to the
cause of Thrones and Hierarchies. The effect of this diversity
of objects upon the conduct of the war — particularly afler Mr.
Pitt had added to " Security for the future," the suspicious sup.

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158 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

plement of " Indemnity for the past" — ^was no less fatal to the
success of operations abroad than to the unity of councils at
home. So separate, indeed, were the views of the two parties
considered, that the unfortunate expedition, in aid of the Vendean
insurgents in 1795, was known to be peculiarly the measure of
the Burke part of the cabinet, and to have been undertaken on
the sole responsibility of their ministerial organ, Mr. Windham.

It must be owned, too, that the object of the Alarmists in the
M<r, however grossly inconsistent with their former principles,
had the merit of being for more definite than that of Mr. Pitt ;
and, had it been singly and consistently pursued from the first,
with all the vigor and concentration of means so strenuously
recommended by Mr. Burke, might have justified its quixotism
in the end by a more speedy and less ruinous success. As it
was, however, the divisions, jealousies and alarms which Mr.
Pitt's views towards a future dismemberment of France excited
not only among the Continental powers, but among the French
themselves, completely defeated every hope and plan for either
concert without or co-operation within. At the same time, the
distraction of the efforts of England from the heart of French
power to its remote extremities, in what Mr. Windham called
" a war upon sugar Islands," was a waste of means as unstates-
manlike as it was calamitous, and fully entitled Mr. Pitt to the
satire on his policy, conveyed in the remark of a certain distin-
guished lady, who said to him, upon hearing of some new acqui-
sition in the West Indies, " I protest, Mr. Pitt, if you go on thus,
you will soon be master of every island in the world except just
those two little ones, England and Ireland."*

That such was the light in which Mr. Sheridan himself viewed
the mode of carrying on the war recommended by the Alarm-
ists, in comparison with that which Mr. Pitt in general adopted,
appears from the following passage in his speech upon Spanish
affairs in the year 1808 : —

'' Hiere was hardly a person, except his Right Honorable Friend near
• ICr. Sheridan quoted this anecdote in one of hia speeches in 17M.

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EIGHT HON. KICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 159

lum, (Mr. Windham,) and Mr. Burke, who since the Revolution of France
had formed adequate notions of the necessary steps to be taken. The yi^
rious governments which this country had seen during that period were
always employed in filching for a sugar-island, or some other object of
comparatively trifling moment, while the main and principal purpose was
lost and forgotten."

Whatever were the failures of Mr. Pitt abroad, at home his
ascendancy was fixed and indisputable ; and, among all the tri-
umphs of power which he enjoyed during his career, the tribute
now paid to him by the Whig Aristocracy, in taking shelter
under his ministry from the dangers of Revolution, could not
have been the least gratifying to his haughty spirit. The India
Bill had ranged on his side the King and the People, and the
Revolution now brought to his banner the flower of the Nobility
of both parties. His own estimate of rank may be fairly col-
lected both from the indifference which he showed to its honors
himself, and from the depreciating profiision with which he lav-
ished them upon others. It may be doubted whether his respect
for Aristocracy \^as much increased, by the readiness which he
now saw in some of his high-born opponents, to volunteer for
safety into his already powerful ranks, without even pausing to
try the experiment, whether safety might not have been recon-
cilable with principle in their own. It is certain that, without
the accession of so much weight and influence, he never could
have ventured upon the violations of the Constitution that fol-
lowed — nor would the Opposition, accordingly, have been driven
by these excesses of power into that reactive violence which was
the natural consequence of an effort to resist them. The pru-
dent apprehensions, therefore, of these Noble Whigs would have
been much more usefully as well as honorably employed, in
mingling with, and moderating the proceedings of the friends of
Liberty, than in ministering fresh fiiel to the zeal and vindiotive-
ness of her enemies.*

• The case against these Noble Seceders is thus spiritedly stated by Lord Moira >~-
*' I cannot ever sit in a cabinet with the Doke of Portland. He appears to me to hav«
done more injury to the Constitution and to the estimati<ni of the higher ranks in this ooub«

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160 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

It may be added, too, that in allowing themselves to be per-
suaded by Burke, that the extinction of the ancient Noblesse of
France portended necessarily any danger to the English Aris-
tocracy, these Noble persons did injustice to the strength of their
own order, and to the characteristics by which it is proudly dis-
tinguished from every other race of Nobility in Europe.
Placed, as a sort of break-water, between the People and the
Throne, in a state of double responsibility to liberty on one
side, and authority on the other, the Aristocracy of England hold
a station which is dignified by its own great duties, and of which
the titles transmitted by their ancestors form the least important
ornament. Unlike the Nobility of other countries, where the
raiik and privileges of the father are multiplied through his off
spring, and equally elevate them all above the level of the com-
munity, the very highest English Nobleman must consent to be
the father but of commoners. Thus, connected with the class
below him by private as well as public sympathies, he gives his
children to the People as hostages for the sincerity of his zeal in
their cause — ^while on the other hand, the People, in return for
these pledges of the Aristocracy, sends a portion of its own ele-
ments aloft into that higher region, to mingle with its glories
and assert their claim to a share in its power. By this mutual
transfusion an equilibrium is preserved, like that which similar
processes maintain in the natural world, and while a healthy,
popular feeling circulates through the Aristocracy, a sense of
their own station in the scale elevates the People.

To tremble for the safety of a Nobility so constituted, with-
out much stronger grounds for alarm than appear to have existed
in 1793, was an injustice not only to that class itself, but the

try than any man on the political stage. By his union with ^Ir. Pitt he has given it to be
understood by the people, that either all the constitutional charges which he and his
friends for so many years urged against Mr. Pitt were groundless, or that, being solid,
there was no difficulty in waving them when a convenient partition of powers and emolu-
ments was proposed. In either case the people must infer that the constitutional princi-
ple which can be so played with is unimportant, and that parliamentary professions are
no Becarity.^^—LetterfromtheEarl of Moira to CoUmd M'Mdhon, in 1191. Parlianuntary
HiMUjry.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 161

whole nation. The world has never yet afforded an example,
where this artificial distinction between mankind has been turned
to such beneficial account ; and as no monarchy can exist without
such an order, so, in any other shape than this, such an order is
a burden and a nuisance. In England, so happy a conformation
of her Aristocracy is one of those fortuitous results which time
and circumstances have brought out in the long-tried experiment
of her Constitution ; and, while there is no chance of its being
ever again attained in the Old World, there is but little -proba-
bility of its being attempted in the New, — where the youthful
nations now springing into life, will, if they are wise, make the
most of the free career before them, and unencumbered with the
costly trappings of feudalism, adopt, like their northern neigh-
bors, that form of government, whose simplicity and cheapness
are the best guarantees for its efficacy and purity.

In judging of the policy of Mr. Pitt, during the Revolutionary
war, his partisans, we know, laud it as having been the means of
salvation to England, while his opponents assert that it was only
prevented by chance from being her ruin — ^and though the event
gives an appearance of triumph to the former opinion, it by no
means removes or even weakens the grounds of the latter.
During the first nine years of his administration, Mr. Pitt was,
in every respect, an able and most useful minister, and, " while
the sea was calm, showed mastership in floating." But the great
events that happened afterwards took him by surprise. When he
came to look abroad from his cabinet into the storm that was
brewing through Europe, the clear and enlarged view of the
higher order of statesmen was wanting. Instead of elevating
himself above the influence of the agitation and alarm that pre-
vailed, he gave way to it with the crowd of ordinary minds,
and even took counsel from the panic of others. The conse-
quence was a series of measures, violent at home and inefficient
abroad — far short of the mark where vigor was wanting, and
beyond it, as often, where vigor was mischievous.

When we are told to regard his policy as the salvation of the
country — when, (to use a figure of Mr. Dundas,) a claim of

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162 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

salvage is made for him, — ^it may be allowed us to consider a little
the nature of the measures, by which this alleged salvation waa
achieved. If entering into a great war without either consistency
of plan, or preparation of means, and with a total ignorance of
the financial resources of the enemy* — ^if allowing one part of
the Cabinet to flatter th^ French Royalists, with the hope of
seeing the Bourbons restored to undiminished power, while the
other part acted, whenever an opportunity offered, upon the plan
of dismembering France for the aggrandizement of Austria, and
thus, at once, alienated Prussia at the very moment of subsidizing
him, and lost the confidence of all the Royalist party in France,!
except the few who were ruined by English assistance at Quiberon
— ^if going to war in 1793 for the right of the Dutch to a river,
and so managing it that in 1794 the Dutch lost their whole
Seven Provinces — if lavishing more money upon failures than
the successes of a century had cost, and supporting this profusion
by schemes of finance, either hollow and delusive, like the Sink-
ing Fund, or desperately regardless of the future, like the paper
issues — if driving Ireland into rebellion by the perfidious recall
of Lord Fitzwilliam, and reducing England to two of the most
fearful trials, that a nation, depending upon Credit and a navy,
could encounter, the stoppage of her Bank and a mutiny in her
fleet — if, finally, floundering on from effort to effort against
France, and then dying upon the ruins of the last Coalition he
could muster against her — ^if all this betokens a wise and able
minister, then is Mr. Pitt most amply entitled to that name ; —
then are the lessons of wisdom to be read, like Hebrew, back-
ward, and waste and rashness and systematic failure to be held
the only true means of saving a country.

Had even success, by one of those anomalous accidents, which
sometimes baffle the best founded calculations of wisdom, been

* Into his erroneous calculations upon this point he is supposed to have been led by Sir
Francis D'lvernois.

f Among other instances, the Abbe Manry is reported to have said at Rome in a large
company of his countrymen—" Still we have one remedy— let us not allow France to be
divided— we have seen the partition of Poland : we must all turn Jacobins to preserve
our country."

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BIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 163

the immediate result of this long monotony of error, it could not,
except with those to whom the event is every thing — " Eventus,
stultorum magister "* — ^reflect back merit upon the means by
which it was achieved, or, by a retrospective miracle, convert that
into wisdom, which chance had only saved from the worst conse-
quences of folly. Just as well might we be called upon to pro-
nounce Aldiemy a wise art, because a perseverance in its failures
and reveries had led by accident to the discoveries of Chemistry.
But even this sanction of good-luck was wanting to the unredeem-
ed mistakes of Mr. Pitt. During the eight years that intervened
between his death and the termination of the contest, the adop-
tion of a far wiser policy was forced upon his more tractable
pupils ; and the only share that his measures can claim in the
successful issue of the war, is that of having produced the griev-
ance that was then abated — of having raised up the power op-
posed to him to the portentous and dizzy height, from which it
then fell by the giddiness of its own elevation,f and by the re-
action, not of the Princes, but the People of Europe against its
yoke.

What would have been the course of affairs, both foreign and
domestic, had Mr. Fox — as was, at one time, not improbable —
beea the Minister during this period, must be left to that super
human knowledge, which the schoolmen call " media sckntia^'*
and which consists in knowing all that would have happened, had
events been otherwise than they have been. It is probable that
some of the results would not have been so different as the res-
pective principles of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox might naturally lead
us, on the first thought, to assert. If left to himself, there is little
doubt that the latter, from the simple and fearless magnanimity
of his nature, would have consulted for the public safety with that
moderation which true courage inspires ; and that, even had it
been necessary to suspend the Constitution for a season, he would

• A saying of the wise Fabius.
Stare diu.** Ujcam.

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164 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

have known how to veil the statue of liberty,* without leaving,
like his rival, such marks of mutilation on its limbs. But it is
to be recollected that he would have had to encounter, in his own
ranks, the very same patrician alarm, which could even to Mr.
Pitt give an increase of momentum against liberty, and which
the possession of power would have rendered but more sensitive
and arbitrary. Accustomed, too, as he had long been, to yield
to the influence of Burke, it would have required more firmness
than habitually belonged to Mr. Fox, to withstand the persever-
ing impetuosity of such a counsellor, or keep the balance of his
mind unshaken by those stupendous powers, which, like the
horses of the Sun breaking out of the ecliptic, carried every
thing they seized upon, so splendidly astray : —

" qttaque impetus egitj
Hoc sine lege ruunty altoque sub cetherefixis
Ineursant stellis, rapiuntque per av'ia currumJ'

Where'er the impulse drives, they burst away
In lawless grandeur ; — break into the array
Of the fix'd stars., and bound and blaze along
Their devious course, magnificently wrong I

Having hazarded these general observations, upon the views and
conduct of the respective parties of England, during the Crusade
now begun against the French people, I shall content myself
with briefly and cursorily noticing the chief questions upon which
Mr. Sheridan distinguished himself, in the course of the parlia-
mentary campaigns that followed. The sort of ptcerilia warfare,
which he and the rest of the small band attached to Mr. Fox
carried on, during this period, against the invaders of the Con-
stitution, is interesting rather by its general character than its
detail ; for in these, as usual, the episodes of party personality
are found to encroach disproportionately on the main design,
and the grandeur of the cause, as viewed at a distance, becomes
diminished to our imaginations by too near an approach. Eng-

' ^ "IlyadesoatouUfatUmeUre p(mr tm mcment vnvoOe swlaLiberU^c^^
cache let statuei des dieucB.''— Mohibqdizu, liv. zii. chap. 20.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 165

lishmen, however, will long look back to that crisis with interest ;
and the names of Fox, of Sheridan, and of Grey will be affectionate-
ly remembered, when that sort of false elevation, which party-feel-
ing now gives to the reputations of some who were opposed to
them, shall have subsided to its due level, or been succeeded by
oblivion. They who act against the general sympathies of man-
kind, however they may be artificially buoyed up for the mo-
ment, have the current against them in the long run of fame ;
while the reputation of those, whose talents have been employed
upon the popular and generous side of human feelings, receives,
through all time, an accelerating impulse from the countless
hearts that go with it in its course. Lord Chatham, even now,
supersedes his son in fame, and will leave him at an immeasura-
ble distance with posterity.

Of the events of the private life of Mr. Sheridan, during this
stomly part of his political career, there remain but few memo-
rials among his papers. As an illustration, however, of his love
of betting — ^the only so^t of gambling in which he ever indulged
— the following curious list o£ his wagers for the year is not
unamusing : —

" 25th May, 1793. — ^Mr. Sheridan bets Gen. Fitzpatrick one hundred
guineas to fifty guineas, that within two years from this date some measure
is adopted in Parliament which shall be {bon^ fide) considered as the
adoption of a Parliamentary Reform.

" 29th January, 1793.— Mr. S. bets Mr. Boothby Clopton five hundred
guineas, that there is a Reform in the Representation of the people of Eng-
land within three years from the date hereof.

" 29/A January y 1793. — Mr. S. bets Mr. Hardy one hundred guineas to
fifty guineas, that Mr. W. Windham does not represent Norwich at the next
general election.

" 29th January, 1793. — ^Mr. S. bets Gen. ..^'itzpatrick fifty guineas, that a
corps of British troops are sent to Holland within two months of the date
hereof.

" \Bth March, 1793.— Mr. S. bete Lord Titchfleld two hundred guineas,

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166 MBMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

that the D. of Portland is at the head of an Administration on or before
the 18th of March, 1796 : Mr. Fox to decide whether any place th^Duke
may then fill shall bofid fide come within the meaning of this bet

" 26th Marchj 1793.— Mr. S. bets Mr. Hardy one hundred guineas, that
the three per cent, consols are as high this day twelvemonth as at the date
hereof.

" Mr. S. bets Gen. Tarleton one hundred guineas to fifty guineas, that Mr.
Pitt is first Lord of the Treasury on the 28th of May, 1795.— Mr. S. bets Mr.
A. St John fifteen guineas to five guineas, ditto. — ^Mr. S. bets Lord
Sefkon one hundred and forty guineas to forty guineas, ditto.

" \9th March, 1793.— Lord Titchfield and Lord W. Russell bet Mr. S.
three hundred guineas to two hundred guineas, that Mr. Pitt is first Lord
of the Treasury on the 19th of March, 1795.

" \%th March, 1793.— Lord Titchfield bets Mr. S. twenty-five guineas to
fifty guineas, that Mr. W. Windham represents Norwich at the next general
election.

As a sort of moral supplement to this strange list, and one
of those insights into character atd conduct which it is the duty
of a biographer to give, I shall subjoin a letter, connected evi-
dently with one of the above speculations : —

«Sm,
" I am very sorry that I have been so circumstanced as to
have been obliged to disappoint you respecting the payment of
the five hundred guineas : when I gave the draughts on Lord

* * I had every reason to be assured he would accept them, as

* * had also. I enclose you, as you will see by his desire, the
letter in which he excuses his not being able to pay me this part
of a larger sum he owes me, and I cannot refuse him any time
he requires, however inconvenient to me. I also enclose you
two draughts accepted by a gentleman from whom the money
will be due to me, and on whose punctuality I can rely. I ex-
tremely regret that I cannot at this juncture command the
money.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 167

" At the same time that I regret your being put to any incon-
venience by this delay, I cannot help adverting to the circum-
stance which perhaps misled me into the expectation that you
would not unwillingly allow me any reasonable time I might
want for the payment of this bet. The circumstance I mean,
however discreditable the plea, is the total inebriety of some of
the party, particularly of myseli^ when I made this preposterous
bet. I doubt not you will remember having yourself observed
on this circumstance to a common friend the next day, with an
intimation that you should not object to being off; and for my
part, when I was informed that I had made such a bet and for
such a sum, — the first, such folly on the face of it on my part,
and the latter so out of my practice, — I certainly should have
proposed the cancelling it, but that, from the intimation impart-
ed to me, I hoped the proposition might come from you.

" I hope I need not for a moment beg you not to imagine
that I am now alluding to these circumstances as the slightest invalid
dation of your due. So much the contrary, that I most per-
fectly admit that from your not having heard any thing further
from me on the subject, and especially after I might have heard
that if I desired it the bet might be off, you had every reason
to conclude that I was satisfied with the wager, and whether
inade in wine or not, was desirous of abiding by it. And this
was fiirther confirmed by my receiving soon afler from you lOOZ.
on another bet won by me.

" Having, I think, put thi^ point very fairly, I again repeat
that my only motive for alluding to the matter was, as some
explanation of my seeming dilatoriness, which certainly did in
part arise from always conceiving that, whenever I should state
what was my real wish the day after the bet was made, you
would be the more disposed to allow a little time ; — the same
statement admitting, as it must, the bet to be as clearly and as
fairly won as possible ; in short, as if I had insisted on it my-
self the next morning.

" I have said more perhaps on the subject than can be neces-

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168 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

sarjr ; but I should regret to appear negligent to an application
for a just claim.

" I have the honor to be,
« Sir,

" Your obedient servant,
" Herifwd St Feb. 26. « R. B. SnBRroAN."

Of the public transactions of Sheridan at this time, his speeches
are the best record. To them, therefore, I shall henceforward
principally refer my readers, — ^premising, that though the reports
of his latter speeches are somewhat better, in general, than those
of his earlier displays, they still do great injustice to his powers,
and exhibit little more than the mere Torso of his eloquence?
curtailed of all those accessories that lent motion and beauty to
its form. The attempts to give the terseness of his wit particu-
larly fail, and are a strong illustration of what he himself once
said to Lord * *. That Nobleman, who among his many ex-
cellent qualities does not include a very lively sense of humor,
having exclaimed, upon hearing some good anecdote from Sheri-
dan, " I'll go and tell that to our friend * *." Sheridan called
him back instantly and said, with much gravity, " For God's
sake, don't, my dear * *: a joke is no laughing matter in your
mouth."

It is, indeed, singular, that all the eminent English orators —
with the exception of Mr. Burke and Mr. Windham — should
have been so little anxious for the correct transmission of their
eloquence to posterity. Had not Gcero taken more care of even
his extemporaneous effusions, we should have lost that masterly
burst of the moment, to which the clemency of Ceesar towards
Marcellus gave birth. The beautiful fragments we have of Lord
CJhatham are rather traditional than recorded ; — there are but
two, I believe, of the speeches of Mr. Pitt corrected by himself,
those on the Budget of 1792, and on the Union with Ireland ; —
Mr^Fox committed to writing but one of his, namely, the tribute
to the memory of the Duke of Bedford ; — and the only speech of
Mr. Sheridan, that is known with certainty to have passed under

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EIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 169

his own revision, was that which he made at the opening of the
foUowing session, (1794,) in answer to Lord Momington.

In the course of the present year he took frequent opportuni-
ties of expressing his disgust at that spirit of ferocity which had
BO deeply disgraced the cause of the Revolution. So earnest was
his interest in the fate of the Royal Family of France, that, as
appears from one of his speeches, he drew up a paper on the
subject, and transmitted it to the republican rulers ; — with the
view, no doubt, of conveying to them the feelings of the English
Opposition, and endeavoring to avert, by the influence of his own
name and that of Mr. Fox, the catastrophe that awaited those
Royal victims of liberty. Of this interesting document I cannot
discover any traces.

In one of his answers to Burke on the subject of the French
Revolution, adverting to the charge of Deism and Atheism
brought against the republicans, he says,

*^ As an argument to the feelings and passions of men, the Honorable
Member had great advantages in dwelling on this topic ; because it was a
subject which those who disliked everything that had the air of cant and
profession on the one hand; or of indifference on the other, found it awk-
ward to meddle with. Establishments, tests, and matters of that nature,
were proper objects of political discussion in that House, but not general
charges of Atheism and Deism, as pressed upon their consideration by the
Honorable Grentleman. Thus far, however, he would say, and it was an
opinion he had never changed or concealed, that, although no man can
command hii9 conviction, he had ever considered a deliberate disposition to
make proselytes in infidelity as an unaccountable depravity. Whoever at-
tempted to pluck the belief or the prejudice on this subject, style it which
he would, fVom the bosom of one man, woman, or child, committed a bru-
tal outrage, the motive for which he had never been able to trace or con-
ceive."

I quote these words as creditable to the feeling and good
sense of Sheridan. Whatever may be thought of particular
faiths and sects, a belief in a life beyond this world is the only
thing that pierces through the walls of our prison-house, and lets
hope shine in upon a scene, that yould be otherwise bewildered
and desolate. The prosely tism of the Atheist is, indeed, a dismal

VOL. II, 8

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170 MEMOIRS 05* THE LIFE OF THE

mission. That believers, who have each the same heaven in
prospect, should invite us to join them on their respective ways
to it, is at least a benevolent officiousness, — but that he, who has
no prospect or hope himself, should seek for companionship in
his road to annihilation, can only be explained by that tendency
in human creatures to count upon each other in their despair, as
well as their hope.

In the speech upon his own motion relative to the existence of
seditious practices in tha country, there is some lively ridicule,
upon the panic then prevalent. For instance : —

" The alarm had been brought forward in great pomp and form on Satur-
day morning. At night all the mail-coaches were stopped ; the Duke of
Richmond stationed himself, among other curiosities, at the Tower ; a great
municipal officer, too, had made a discovery exceedingly beneficial to the
people of this country. He meant the Lord Mayor of London, who had
found out that there was at the King's Arms at Cornhill a Debating So-
ciety, where principles of the most dangerous tendency were propagated ;
where people went to buy treason at sixpence a head ; where it was retail-
ed to them by the glimmering of an inch of candle ; and five minutes, to be
measured by the glass, were allowed to each traitor to perform his part in
overturning the State."

It was in the same speech that he gave the well-known and
happy turn to the motto of the Sun newspaper, which was at that
time known to be the organ of the Alarmists. " There was one
paper," he remarked, " in particular, said to be the |)roperty of
members of that House, and published and conducted under their
immediate direction, which had for its motto a garbled part of a
beautiful sentence, when it might, with much more propriety,
have assumed the whole —

" Solem quia dicere falsum
Audeat / llle etiam cceeos instare tumultu9
ScBpe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere belles"

Among the subjects that occupied tlie greatest share of his
attention during this Session, was the Memorial of Lord ,Auck-
land to the States-General, — which document he himself brought

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLBY SHEAIDAN. 171

under the notice of Parliament as deserving of severe reproba-
tion for the violent and vindictive tone which it assumed towards
the Commissioners of the National Convention. It was upon one
of the discussions connected with this subject that a dispute, as
to the correct translation of the word " malheureux,^'' was main-
tained with mudi earnestness between him and Lord Melville —
two persons, the least qualified, perhaps, of any in the House, to
volunteer as either interpreters or pronouncers of the French
language. According to Sheridan, " ces malheureux*^ was to be
translated " these wretches," while Lord Melville contended, to
the no small amusement of the House, that *' mollyroo^'' (as he
pronounced it,) meant no more than " these unfortunate gentle- .
men."

In the November of this year Mr. Sheridan lost by a kind of
death which must have deepened the feeling of the loss, the most
intimate of all his companions, Tickell. If congeniality of dispo-
sitions and pursuits were always a strengthener of affection, the
friendship between Tickell and Sheridan ought to have been of
the most cordial kind ; for they resembled each other in almost
every particular — in their wit, their wants, their talent, and their
thoughtlessness. It is but too true, however, that friendship in
general gains far less by such a community of pursuit than it
loses by the competition that naturally springs out of it ; and
that two wits or two beauties form the last sort of alliance, in
which we ought to look for specimens of sincere and cordial friend-
ship. The intercourse between Tickell and Sheridan was not free
from such collisions of vanity. They seem to have lived, indeed,
in a state of alternate repulsion anc^ attraction ; and, unable to do
without the excitement of each other's vivacity, seldom parted
without trials of temper as well as of wit. Being both, too,
observers of character, and each finding in the other rich mate-
rials for observation, their love of ridicule could not withstand
such a temptation, and they freely criticised each other to com-
mon friends, who, as is usually the case, agreed with both. Still,
however, there was a whim and sprightliness even about tlieir
misdiief, wUdi made it seem rather an exercise of ingenuity than

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172 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OP THE

an indulgence of ill nature ; and if they had not carried on this
intellectual warfare, neither would have liked the other half so
well.

The two principal productions of Tickell, the "Wreath of
Fashion" and " Anticipation," were both upon temporary sub-
jects, and have accordingly passed into oblivion. There are,
however, some graceful touches of pleasantry in the poem ; and
the pamphlet, (which procured for him not only fame but a place
in the Stamp-office,) contains passages of which the application
and the humor have not yet grown stale. As Sheridan is the
hero of the Wreath of Fashion, it is but right to quote the verses
that relate to him ; and I do it with the more pleasure, because
they also contain a well-merited tribute to Mrs. Sheridan. After
a description of the various poets of the day that deposit their
offerings in Lady Millar's " Vase of Sentiment," the author thus
proceeds : —

'* At Fashion's shrine behold a gentler bard
Gaze on the mystic vase with fond regard —
But see, Thalia checks the doubtful thought,
* Canst thou, (she cries,) with sense, with genius fraught,
Canst thou to Fashion's tyranny submit,
Secure in native, independent wit ?
Or yield to Sentiment's insipid rule,
By Taste, by Fancy, chac'd thiough Scandal's school ?
Ah no^be Sheridan's the comic page,
Or let me fly with Garrick from the stage.
Haste then, my friend, (for let me boast that name,)
Haste to the opening path of genuine fame ;
Or, if thy muse a gentler theme pursue,
Ah, 'tis to love and thy Eliza due I
For, sure, the sweetest lay she well may claim.
Whose soul breathes harmony o'er all her frame ;
While wedded love, with ray serenely clear,
Beams from her eye, as from its proper sphere."

In the year 1781, Tickell brought out at Drury-Lane an opera
called " The Carnival of Venice," on which there is the following
remark in Mrs. Crouch's Memoirs : — " Many songs in this piece

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BIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 173

SO perfectly resemble in poetic beauty those which adorn The
Duenna, that they declare themselves to be the offspring of the
same muse. ' I know not how far this conjecture may be
foimded, but there are four pretty lines which I remember in
this opera, a-d which, it may be asserted without hesitation,
Sheridan never wrote. He had no feeling for natural scenery,*
nor is there a trace of such a sentiment discoverable through his
poetry. The following, as well as I can recollect, are the lines : —

*^ And while the moon shines on the stream,
And as soft music breathes around,
The feathering oar returns the gleam,
And dips in concert to the sound."

I have already given a humorous Dedication of the Kivals,
written by Tickell on the margin of a copy of that play in my
possession. I shall now add another piece of still more happy
humor, with which he has filled, in very neat hand-writing, the
three or four first pages of the same copy.

" The Rivals, a Comedy — one of the best in the English language — ^writ-
ten as long ago as the reign of George the Third. The author's name was
Sheridan — ^he is mentioned by the historians of that age as a man of un-
common abilities, very little improved by cultivation. His confidence in
the resources of his own genius and his aversion to any sort of labor were
BO great that he could not be prevailed upon to learn either to read or write.
He was, for a short time, Manager of one the play-houses, and conceived
the extraordinary and almost incredible prcgect of composing a play ex-
tempore, which he was to recite in the Green-room to the actors, who were
immediately to come on the stage and perform it. The players refusing to
undertake their parts at so short a notice, and with so little preparation, he
threw up the management in disgust.

* In corroboration of this remark, I have been allowed to quote the following passage
of a letter written by a very eminent person, whose name all lovers of the Picturesque
associate with iheir best enjoyment of its beauties : —

*' At one time I saw a good deal of Sheridan-^e and his first wife passed some time
here, and he is an instance that a taste for poetry and for scenery are not always united.
Had this h&ane been in the midst of Hounslow Heath, he could not have taken less in-
terest in all ar ?ind it : his delight was in shooting, all and every day, and my game*
keeper said thai •}{ all the gentlemen he had ever been out with he never knew so bad a
■hot"

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174 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" He was a member of the last Parliaments that were summoned in Eng-
land, and signalized himself on many occasions by his wit and eloquence,
though he seldom came to the House till the debate was nearly concluded,
and never spoke, unless he was drunk. He lived on a footing of great in-
timacy with the famous Fox, who is said to have concerted with him the
audacious attempt which he made, about the year 1783, to seize the whole
property of the East India Company, amounting at that time to above
12,000,000/. sterling, and then to declare himself Lord Protector of the
realm by the title of Carlo Khan. This desperate scheme actually received
the consent of the lower House of Parliament, the mtyority of whom were
bribed by Fox, or intimidated by his and Sheridan^s threats and violence ;
and it is generally believed that the Revolution would have taken place, if
the Lords of the King's Bedchamber had not in a body surrounded the
throne and shown the most determined resolution not to abandon their
posts but with their lives. The usurpation being defeated. Parliament was
dissolved and loaded with infamy. Sheridan was one of the few members
of it who were re-elected : — the Burgesses of Stafford, whom he had kept
in a constant state of intoxication for near three weeks, chose him again to
represent them, which he was well qualified to do.

" Fox's Whig party being very much reduced, or rather almost annihi-
lated, he and the rest of the conspirators remained quiet for some time ;
till, in the year 1788, the French, in conjunction with Tippoo Sultan, having
suddenly seized and divided between themselves the whole of the Britisli
possessions in India, the East India Company broke, and a national bank-
ruptcy was apprehended. During this confusion Fox and his partisans as-
sembled in large bodies, and made a violent attack in Parliament on Pitt,
the King's first minister : — Sheridan supported and seconded him. Parlia-
ment seemed disposed to inquire into the cause of the calamity : the na-
tion was almost in a state of actual rebellion ; and it is impossible for us,
at the distance of three hundred years, to form any judgment what dread-
ful consequences might have followed, if the King, by the advice of the
Lords of the Bedchamber, had not dissolved the Parliament, and taken the
administration of affairs into his own hands, and those 6f a few confidential
servants, at the head of whom he was pleased to place one Mr. Atkinson, a
merchant, who had acquired a handsome fortune in the Jamaica trade, and
passed universally for a man of unblemished integrity. His Majesty hav-
ing now no farther occasion for Pitt, and being desirous of rewarding him
for his past services, and, at the same time, finding an adequate employ-
ment for his great talents, caused him to enter into holy orders, and pre-
sented him with the Deanery of Windsor ; where he became an excellent
preacher, and published several volumes of sermons, all of which are now
lost.

*< To return to Sheridan :— on the abrogation of Parliaments, he entered

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAJ?'. 175

into a closer connection than ever with Fox and a few others of lesser note,
forming together as desperate and profligate a gang as ever disgraced a
civilized country. They were guilty of every species of enormity, and
went so far as even to commit robberies on the highway, with a degree of
audacity that could be equalled only by the ingenuity with which they es-
caped conviction. Sheridan, not satisfied with eluding, determined to mock
the justice of his country, and composed a Masque called * The Foresters,'
containing a circumstantial account of some of the robberies he had com-
mitted, and a good deal of sarcasm on the pusillanimity of those whom he
had robbed, and the inefficacy of the penal laws of the kingdom. This piece
was acted at Drury-Lane Theatre with great applause, to the astonishment
of all sober persons, and the scandal of the nation. His Majesty, who had
long wished to curb the licentiousness of the press and the theatres, thought
this a good opportunity. He ordered the performers to be enlisted into the
army, the play-house to be shut up, and all theatrical exhibitions to be for-
bid on pain of death. Drury-Lane play-house was soon after converted into
a barrack for soldiers, which it has continued to be ever since. Sheridan
was arrested, and, it was imagined, would have suffered the rack, if he had
not escaped from his guard by a stratagem, and gone over to Ireland in a
balloon with which his friend Fox furnished him. Immediately on his ar-
rival in Ireland, he put himself at the head oY a party of the most violent
Reformers, commanded a regiment of Volunteers at the siege of Dublin in
1791, and was supposed to be the person who planned the scheme for tar-
ring and feathering Mr. Jenkinson, the Lord Lieutenant, and forcing him
in that condition to sign the capitulation of the Castle. The persons who
were to execute this strange enterprise had actually got into the Lord Lieu-
tenant's apartment at midnight, and would probably have succeeded in their
project, if Sheridan, who was intoxicated with whiskey, a strong liquor
much in vogue with the Volunteers, had not attempted to force open the

door of Mrs. 's bed-chamber, and so given the alarm to the garrison,

who instantly flew to arms, seized Sheridan and every one of his party, and
confined them in the castle-dungeon. Sheridan was ordered for execution
the next day, but had no sooner got his legs and arms at liberty, than he
began capering, jumping, dancing, and making all sorts of antics, to the
utter amazement of the spectators. When the chaplain endeavored, by se-
rious advice and admonition, to bring him to a proper sense of his dreadful
situation, he grinned, made faces at him, tried to tickle him, and played a
thousand other pranks with such astonishing drollery, that the gravest
countenances became cheerful, and the saddest hearts glad. The soldiers
who attended at the gallows were so delighted with his merriment, which
they deemed magnanimity, that the sheriffs began to apprehend a rescue,
and ordered the hangman instantly to do his duty. He went off in a loud

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176 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

hone-laugh, and cast a look towards the Castle, accompanied with a ges-
ture expressiye of no great respect.

<< Thus ended the life of this singular and unhappy man — a melancholy
instance of the calamities that attend the misapplication of great and
splendid ability. He was married to a very beautiful and amiable woman,
for whom he is said to have entertained an unalterable affection. He had
one son, a boy of the most promising hopes, whom he would never suffer to
be instructed in the first rudiments of literature. He amused himself, how-
ever, with teaching the boy to draw portraits with his toes, in which he
»oon became so astonishing a proficient that he seldom failed to take a most
exact likeness of every person who sat to him.

^* There are a few more plays by the same author, all of them excellent.

** For further information concerning this strange man, vide * Macpher-
wn's Moral History,' Art. * JDrunkenneuJ "

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 177

CHAPTEE MI.

SPEECH IN ANSWER TO LORD MORNINGTON. — COALITION
OF THE WHIG SECEDERS WITH MR. PITT. — MR. CANNING.
— EVIDENCE ON THE TRIAL OF HORNE TOOKE, — THE
" GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE." — MARRIAGE OF MR. SHERI-
DAN. — PAMPHLET OF MR. REEVES. — DEBTS OF THE
PRINCE OF WALES. — SHAKSPEARE MANUSCRIPTS. —
TRIAL OF STONE. — MUTINY AT THE NORE. — SECESSION
OF MR. FOX FROM PARLIAMENT.

In the year 1794, tlie natural consequences of the policy pur-
sued by Mr. Pitt began rapidly to unfold themselves both at
home and abroad.* The confederated Princes of the Continent,
among whom the gold of England was now the sole bond of
union, had succeeded as might be expected from so noble an
incentive, and, powerful only in provoking France, had by every
step they took but ministered to her aggrandizement. In the
mean time, the measures of the English Minister at home were
directed to the two great objects of his legislation — the raising
of supplies and the suppressing of sedition ; or, in other words,
to the double and anomalous task of making the people pay
for the failures of their Royal allies, and suffer for their sympa-
thy with the success of their republican enemies. It is the opi-
nion of a learned Jesuit that it was by aqua regia the Golden
Calf of the Israelites was dissolved — and the cause of Kings was

* See, for a masterly exposure of the errors of the War, the Speech of Lord Lansdowne
this year on bringing forward his Motion for Peace.

I cannot let the name of this Nobleman pass, without briefly expressing the deep grati*
tude which I feel to him, not only for his own kindness to me, when introduced, as a boy,
to his notice, but for the friendship of his truly Noble descendant, which I, in a great de-
gree, owe to him, and which has long been the pride and happiness of my lift.
VOL. n. 8*

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178 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the Royal solvent, in which the wealth of Great Britain now
melted irrecoverably away. While the successes, too, of the
French had already lowered the tone of the Minister from pro-
jects of aggression to precautions of defence, the wounds which, in
the wantonness of alarm, he had inflicted on the liberties of the
country, were spreading an inflammation around them that threat-
ened real danger. The severity of the sentence upon Muir and
Palmer in Scotland, and the daring confidence witli which charges
of High Treason were exhibited against persons who were, at the
worst, but indiscreet reformers, excited the apprehensions of even
the least sensitive friends of freedom. It is, indeed, difficult to
say how far the excited temper of the Government, seconded by
the ever ready subservience of state-lawyers and bishops, might
have proceeded at this moment, had not the acquittal of Tooke
and his associates, and the triumph it diffused through the coun-
try, given a lesson to Power such as England is alone capable of
giving, and which will long be remembered, to the honor of that
great political safeguard, — that Life-preserver in stormy times,
— ^the Trial by Jury.

At the opening of the Session, Mr. Sheridan delivered his
admirable answer to Lord Momington, the report of which, as I
have already said, was corrected for publication by himself. In
this fine speech, of which the greater part must have been unpre-
pared, there is a natural earnestness of feeling and argument that
is well contrasted with the able but artificial harangue that pre-
ceded it. In referring to the details which Lord Mornington had
entered into of the various atrocities committed in France, he
says : —

" But what was the sum of all that he had told the House ? that great
and dreadful enormities had been committed, at which the heart shuddered,
and which not merely wounded every feeling of humanity, but disgusted
and sickened the soul. All this was most true ; but what did all this prove ?
What, but that eternal and unalterable truth which had always presented
itself to his mind, in whatever way he had viewed the subject, namely,
that a long established despotism sp far degraded and debased human na-
ture, as to render its subjects, on the first recovery of their rights, unfit for
the exercise of them. But never had he, or would he meet but with re-

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 179

probation that mode of argument which went, in fact, to establish, as an
inference from this truth, that those who had been long slaves, ought there-
fore to remain so tor ever I No ; the lesson ought to be. he would again
repeat, a tenfold horror of that despotic form of government, which had
BO profaned and changed the nature of civilized man, and a still more jea-
lous apprehension of any system tending to withhold the rights and liber-
ties of our fellow-creatures. Such a form of government might be con-
sidered as twice cursed ; while it existed, it was solely responsible for the
miseries and calamities of its subjects ; and should a day of retribution
come, and the tyranny be destroyed, it was equally to be charged with all
the enormities which the folly or frenzy of those who overturned it should
commit.

** But the madness of the French people was not confined to their pro-
ceedings within their own country ; we, and all the Powers of Europe, had
to dread it. True ; but was not this also to be accounted for ? Wild and
unsettled as their state of mind was, necessarily, upon the events which
had thrown such power so suddenly into their hands, the surrounding States
had goaded them into a still more savage state of madness, fury, and des-
peration. We had unsettled their reason, and then reviled their insanity ;
we drove them to the extremities that produced the evils we arraigned ;
we baited them like wild beasts, until at length we made them so. The
conspiracy of Pilnitz, and the brutal threats of the Royal abettors of that
plot against the rights of nations and of men, had, in truth, to answer for
all the additional misery, horrors, and iniquity, which had since disgraced
and incensed humanity. Such has been your conduct towards France, that
you have created the passions which you persecute ; you mark a nation to
be cut off from the world ; you covenant for their extermination ; you
swear to hunt them in their inmost recesses ; you load them with every
species of execration ; and you now come forth with whining declama-
tions on the horror of their turning upon you with the fiiry which you in-
spired."

Having alluded to an assertion of Condorcet, quoted by Lord
Mornington, that " Revolutions are always the work of the mino-
rity," he adds livelily : —

'•* If this be true, it certainly is a most ominous thing for the enemies of
Reform in England ; for, if it holds true, of necessity, that the minority
still prevails, in national contests, it must be a consequence that the smaller
the minority the more certain must be the success. In what a dreadful sit-
uation then must the Noble Lord be and all the Alarmists ! — for, never
sorely was a minority so small, so thin in number as the present Con-

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180 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

Bcious, however, that M. Condorcet was mistaken ia our object, I am glad
to find that we are terrible in proportion as we are few ; I rejoice that the
liberality of secession which has thinned oar ranks has only served to make
us more formidable. The Alarmists will hear this with new apprehensions ;
they will no doubt return to us with a view to diminish our force, and en-
cumber us with their alliance in order to reduce us to insignificance."

We have here another instance, in addition to the many that have
been given, of the beauties that sprung up under Sheridan's cor-
recting hand. This last pointed sentence was originally thus :
" And we shall swell our numbers in order to come nearer in a
balance of insignificance to the numerous host of the majority."

It was at this time evident that the great Whig Seceders would
soon yield to the invitations of Mr. Pitt and the vehement per-
suasions of Burke, and commit themselves still further with the
Administration by accepting of office. Though the final arrange-
ments to this effect were not completed till the summer, on
account of the lingering reluctance of the Duke of Portland and
Mr. Windham, Lord Ijoughborough and others of the former
Opposition had already put on the official livery of the Minister.
It is to be regretted that, in almost all cases of conversion to the
side of power, the coincidence of some worldly advantage with
the change should make it difficult to decide upon the sincerity
or disinterestedness of the convert. That these Noble Whigs
were sincere in their alarm there is no reason to doubt ; but the
lesson of loyalty they have transmitted would have been far
more edifying, had the usual corollary of honors and emoluments
not followed, and had they lefl at least one instance of political
conversion on record, where the truth was its own sole reward,
and tlie proselyte did not subside into the placeman. Mr. She-
ridan was naturally indignant at these desertions, and his bitter-
ness overflows in many passages of the speech before us. Lord
Momington having contrasted the privations and sacrifices
demanded of the French by tlieir Minister of Finance with those
required of the English nation, he says in answer : —

" The Noble Lord need not remind us, that there is no great danger of
our Chancellor q{ the Exchequer making any euch experiment. I can more

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 181

easily fancy another sort of speech for our prudent Minister. I can more
easily conceive him modestly comparing himself and his own measures with
the character and conduct of his rival, and saying, — * Do I demand of you,
wealthy citizens, to lend your hoards to Government without interest ? On
the contrary, when I shall come to propose a loan, there is not a man of you
to whom I shall not hold out at least a job in every part of the subscription,
and an usurious profit upon every pound you devote to the necessities of
your country. Do I demand of you, my fellow-placemen and brother-pen-
sioners, that you should sacrifice any part of your stipends to the publio
exigency ? On the contrary, am I not daily increasing your emoluments
and your numbers in proportion as the country becomes unable to provide
for you ? Do I require of you, my latest and most zealous proselytes, of
you who have come over to me for the special purpose of supporting the
war — a war, on the success of which you solemnly protest, that the salva-
tion of Britain, and of civil society itself, depend— do I require of you, that
you should make a temporary sacrifice, in the cause of human nature, of
the greater part of your private incomes ? No, gentlemen, I scorn to take
advantage of the eagerness of your zeal ; and to prove that I think the
sincerity of your attachment to me needs no such test, I will make your
interest co-operate with your principle : I will quarter many of you on the
public supply, instead of calling on you to contribute to it ; and, while
their whole thoughts are absorbed in patriotic apprehensions for their
country, I will dexterously force upon others the favorite objects of the
vanity or ambition of their lives.' ♦ ♦ • • *

*•*•• *****

" Good God, Sir, that he should have thought it prudent to have forced
this contrast upon our attention ; that he should triumphantly remind us
of everything that shame should have withheld, and caution would have
buried in oblivion I Will those who stood forth with a parade of disinter-
ested patriotism, and vaunted of the sacrifices they had made, and the ex-
posed situation they had chosen, in oi der the better to oppose the friends
of Bri^ot in England — ^will they thank the Noble Lord for reminding us
how soon these lofty professions dwindled into little jobbing pursuits for
followers and dependents, as unfit to fill the ofBces procured for them, as
the oflBces themselves were unfit to be created ? — Will the train of newly
titled alarmists, of supernumerary negotiators, of pensioned paymasters,
agents and commissaries, thank him for remarking to us how profitable
their panic has been to themselves, and how expensive to their country ?
What a contrast, indeed, do we exhibit ! — What I in such an hour as this, at
a moment pregnant with the national fate, when, pressing as the exigency
may be, the hard task of squeezing the money from the pockets of an im-
poverished people, from the toil, the drudgery of the shivering poor, must
make the most practised collector's heart ache while he tears it from them

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182 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

—can it be, that people of high rank, and professing high principles, that
they or their families should seek to thrive on the spoils of misery, and fat-
ten on the meals wrested from industrious poverty? Can it be, that this
should be the case with the very persons, who state the unprecedented peril
of the country as the sole cause of their being found in the ministerial ranks ?
The Constitution is in danger, religion is in danger, the very existence of
the nation itself is endangered ; all personal and party considerations ought
to vanish ; the war u^'^st be supported by every possible exertion, and by
every possible sacrifice ; the people must not murmur at their burdens, it
is for their salvation, their all is at stake. The time is come, when all
honest and disinterested men should, rally round the Throne as round a
standard ; — ^for what ? ye honest and disinterested men, to receive, for your
own private emolument, a portion of those very taxes wrung from the peo-
ple on the pretence of saving them from the poverty and distress which
you say the enemy would inflict, but which you take care no enemy shall
be able to aggravate. Oh! shame! shame! is this a time for selfish in-
trigues, and the little dirty traffic for lucre and emolument? Does it suit
the honor of a gentleman to ask at such a moment ? Does it become the
honesty of a Minister to grant ? Is it intended to confirm the pernicious
doctrine, so industriously propagated by many, that all public men are
impostors, and that every politician has his price ? Or even where there
is no principle in the bosom, why does not prudence hint to the mercenary
and the vain to abstain a while at least, and wait the fitting of the times ?
Improvident impatience I Nay, even from those who seem to have no di-
rect object of office or profit, what is the language which their actions
speak? The Throne is in danger! — * we will support the Throne ; but let
us share the smiles of Royalty ;' — the order of Nobility is in danger ! — * I
will fight for Nobility,' says the Viscount, * but my zeal would be much
greater if I were made an Earl.' * Rouse all the Marquis within me,' ex-
claims the Earl, ' and the peerage never turned forth a more undaunted
champion in its cause than I shall prove.' ' Stain my green riband blue,'
cries out the illustrious Knight, ' and the fountain of honor will have a
fast and faithful servant.' What are the people to think of our sincerity ? —
What credit are they to give to our professions? — Is this system to be per-
severed in? Is there nothing that whispers to that Right Honorable Gen-
tleman that the crisis is too big, that the times are too gigantic, to be ruled
by the little hackneyed and every-day means of ordinary corruption ?"

The discussions, indeed, during the whole of this Session, were
marked by a degree of personal acrimony, which in the present
more sensitive times would hardly be borne. Mr. Pitt and Mr.
Sheridan came, most of all, into collision; and the retorts of the

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 188

Minister not unfrequently proved with what weight the haughty-
sarcasms of Power may descend even upon the tempered bupk-
ler of Wit.

It was in this Session, and on the question of the Treaty with
the King of Sardinia, that Mr. Canning made his first appearance,
as an orator, in the House. He brought with him a fame, already
full of promise, and has been one of the brightest ornaments of
the senate and the country ever since. From the political faith
in which he had been educated, under the very eyes of Mr.
Sheridan, who had long been the friend of his family, and at
whose house he generally passed his college vacations, the line
that he was to take in the House of Commons seemed already,
according to the usual course of events, marked out for him,
Mr. Sheridan had, indeed, with an eagerness which, however
premature, showed the value which he and others set upon the
alliance, taken occasion in the course of a laudatory tribute to
Mr. Jenkinson,* on the success of his first effort in the House, to
announce the accession which his own party was about to receive,
in tlie talents of another gentleman, — the companion and friend
of the young orator who had now distinguished himself. Whe-
ther this and other friendships, formed by Mr. Canning at the
University, had any share in alienating him from a political creed,
which he had hitherto, perhaps, adopted rather from habit and
authority than choice — or, whether he was startled at the idea of
appearing for the first time in the world, as the announced pupil
and friend of a person who, both by flie vehemence of his politics
and the irregularities of his life, had put himself, in some degree,
under the ban of public opinion — or whether, lastly, he saw tlie
difficulties which even genius like his would experience, in rising
to the full growth of its ambition, under the shadowing branches
of the Whig aristocracy, and that superseding influence of birth
yid connections, which had contributed to keep even such men as
Burke and Sheridan out of the Cabinet — which of these motives
it was that now decided the choice of the young political Her-
cules, between the two paths that equally wooed his footsteps,
none, perhaps, but himself can fully determine. His decision,

• Now Lord Liverpool.

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184 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

we know, was in favor of the Minister and Toryism ; and, after
a friendly and candid explanation to Sheridan of the reasons and
feelings that urged him to this step, he entered into terms with
Mr. Pitt, and was by him immediately brought into Parliament.

However dangerous it might be to exalt such an example into
a precedent, it is questionable whether, in thus resolving to join
the ascendant side, Mr. Canning has not conferred a greater
benefit on the country than he ever would have been able to
effect in the ranks of his original friends. That Party, which has
now so long been the sole depository of the power of the State,
had, in addition to the original narrowness of its principles,
contracted all that proud obstinacy, in antiquated error, which is
the invariable characteristic of such monopolies; and which,
however consonant with its vocation, as the chosen instrument of
the Crown, should have long since invalided it in the service of
a free and enlightened people. Some infusion of the spirit of
the times into this body had become necessary, even for its own
preservation, — in the same manner as the inhalement of youthful
breath has been recommended, by some physicians, to the infirm
and superannuated. This renovating inspiration the genius of
Mr. Canning has supplied. His first political lessons were de-
rived from sources too sacred to his young admiration to be
forgotten. He has carried the spirit of these lessons with him
into the councils which he joined, and by the vigor of the graft,
which already, indeed, shows itself in the fruits, bids fair to
change altogether the nature of Toryism.

Among the eminent persons summoned as witnesses on the
Trial of Home Tooke, which took place in November of this
year, was Mr. Sheridan ; and, as his evidence contains some
curious particulars, both with regard to himself and the state of
political feeling in the year 1790, 1 shall here transcribe a part
of it:— -

" He, (Mr, Sheridan,) said he recollects a meeting to celebrate the esta-
blishment of liberty in France in the year 1790. Upon that occasion he
moved a Resolution drawn up the day before by the Whig club. Mr,
Home Tooke, he says, made no objection to his motion, but proposed an

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHEBIDAN. 185

Amendment. Mr. Tooke stated that an unqualified approbation of the
French Revolution, in the terms moved, might produce an ill effect out of
doors, a disposition to a revolution in this oountry, or, at least, be misrepre-
sented to have that object ; he adverted to the circumstance of their hav-
ing all of them national cockades in their hats ; he proposed to add some
qualifying expression to the approbation of the French Revolution, a de-
claration of attachment to the principles of our own Constitution ; he said
Mr. Tooke q)oke in a figurative manner of the former Government of
France ; he described it as a vessel so foul and decayed, that no repair
could save it from destruction, that in contrasting our state with that, he
said, thank God, the main timbers of our Constitution are sound ; he had
before observed, however, that some reforms might be necessary j he said
that sentiment was received with great disapprobation, and with very rude
interruption, insomuch that Lord Stanhope, who was in the chair, inter-
fered ; he said it had happened to him, in many public meetings, to differ
with and oppose the prisoner, and that he has frequently seen him receiv-
ed with very considerable marks of disapprobation, but he never saw them
affect him much ; he said that he himself objected to Mr. Tooke's amend-
ment ; he thinks he withdrew his amendment, and moved it as a separate
motion ; he said it was then carried as unanimously as his own motion had
been ; that original motion and separate motion are in these words : — ' That
this meeting does most cordially rejoice in the establishment and confirma-
tion of liberty in France ; and it beholds with peculiar satisfaction the senti*
ments of amity and good will which appear to pervade the people of that
country towards this kingdom, especially at a time when it is the manifest
interest of both states that nothing should interrupt the harmony which at
present subsists between them, and which is so essentially necessary to the
freedom and happiness, not only of the French nation, but of all mankind.'
" Mr. Tooke wished to add to his motion some qualifying clause, to guard
against misunderstanding and misrepresentation : — that there was a wide
difference between England and France ; that in France the vessel was so
foul and decayed, that no repair could save it from destruction, whereas,
in England, we had a noble and stately vessel, sailing proudly on the bosom
of the ocean ; that her main timbers were sound, though it was true, after
so long a course of years, she might want some repairs. Mr. Tooke's mo-
tion was, — * That we feel equal satisfaction that the subjects of England,
by the virtuous exertions of their ancestors, have not so arduous a task to
perform as the French have had, but have only to maintain and improve
the Constitution which their ancestors have transmitted to them.'— This
was carried unanimously."

The trial of Warren Hastings still " draped its slow length

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186 MEM0IB3 OP THE LIFE OF THE

along," and in the May of this year Mr. Sheridan was called upon
for his Reply on the Begum Charge. It was usual, on these oc-
casions, for the Mar^ager who spoke to be assisted by one of his
brother Managers, whose task it was to carry the bag that con-
tained his papers, and to read out whatever Minutes might be
referred to in the course of the argument. Mr. Michael Angelo
Taylor was the person who undertook this office for Sheridan ;
but, on the morning of the speech, upon his asking for the bag that
he was to carry, he was told by Sheridan that there was none —
neither bag nor papers. They must manage, he said, as well as they
could without them; — and when the papers were called for, 'his
friend must only put the best countenance he could upon it. As
for himself, " he would abuse Ned Law — ridicule Plumer's long
orations — make the Court laugh — please the women, and, in short,
with Taylor's aid would get triumphantly through his task." His
opening of the case was listened to with the profoundest atten-
tion ; but when he came to contrast the evidence of the Com-
mons with that adduced by Hastings, it was not long before the
Chancellor interrupted him, with a request that the printed Min-
utes to which he referred should be read. Sheridan answered
that his friend Mr. Taylor would read them ; and Mr. Taylor
affected to send for the bag, while the orator begged leave, in the
meantime, to proceed. Again, however, his statements rendered
a reference to the Minutes necessary, and again he was inter-
rupted by the Chancellor, while an outcry after Mr. Sheridan's
bag was raised in all directions. At first the blame was laid on
the solicitor's clerk — then a messenger was dispatched to Mr.
Sheridan's house. In the meantime, the orator was proceeding
brill%ntly and successfully in his argument ; and, on some fur-
ther interruption and expostulation from the Chancellor, raised
his voice and said, in a dignified tone, " On the part of the Com-
mons, and as a Manager of this Impeachment, I shall conduct my
case as I think proper. I mean to be correct, and Your Lord-
ships, having the printed Minutes before you, will afterwards see
whether I am right or wrong."

During the bustle produced by the inquiries after the bag, Mr.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 187

Fox, alarmed at the inconvenienee which, he feared, the want of
it might occasion Sheridan, ran up from the Managei-s' room, and
demanded eagerly the cause of this mistake from Mr. Taylor ;
who, hiding his mouth with his hand, whispered him, (in a tone
of which they alone, who have heard this gentleman relate the
anecdote, can feel the full humor,) " Tlie man has no bag !"

The whole of this characteristic contrivance was evidently in-
tended by Sheridan to raise that sort of surprise at the readiness
of his resources, which it was the favorite triumph of his vanity
to create. I have it on the autliority of Mr. William Smythe,
that, previously to the delivery of this speech, he passed two or
three days alone at Wanstead, so occupied from morning till
night in writing and reading of papers, as to complain in the
evenings that he " had motes before his eyes." This mixture of
real labor with apparent carelessness was, indeed, one of the most
curious features of his life and character.

Together with the political contests of this stormy year, he
had also on his mind the cares of his new Theatre, which opened
on the 21st of April, with a prologue, not by himself, as might
have been expected, but by his friend General Fitzpatrick. He
found time, however, to assist in the rapid manufacture of a little
piece called " The Glorious First of June," which was acted im-
mediately after Lord Howe's victory, and of which I have found
some sketches* in Sheridan's hand-writing, — though the dialogue

* One of these is aa follows :—

" Scacoj I.— Miss Leake— Uiss Decamjy^WaUh.
" Short dialogue— Nancy persuading Susan to go to the Fair, where there is an entertain
mcnt to be given by the Lord of the Manor — Susan melancholy because Henry, her lover,
k at sea with the British Admiral— /Sf^m^^Her old mother scolds from the cottage— her
little brother (Walsh) comes from the house, with a message— laughs at his sister's fears
and sings — Trio.

" ScENB n.— 2*« Fair .
" Puppet-show— dancing bear— bells— hurdy-gurdy— recruiting party— song and chorus

"Sottrf— D'EgvUIe.
I tays she has no pleasure, and will go and take a solitary vralk.
" SCKNK m.—Dark Wood.
** Satan— gipcy— tells her fortune— recitative and ditty.

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188 HEKOIBS OF THB LIFE OF THE

was, no doubt, supplied (as Mr. Boaden says,) by Cobb, or some
other such pedisseguus of the Dramatic Muse. This piece was
written, rehearsed, and acted within three days. The first opera-
tion of Mr. Sheridan towards it was to order the mechanist of
the theatre to get ready two fleets. It was in vain that ob-
jections were started to the possibility of equipping these pastfr.
board armaments in so short an interval — Lord Chatham's fa-
mous order to Lord Anson was not more peremptory * The
two fleets were accordingly ready at the time, and the Duke of
Clarence attended the rehearsal of their evolutions. This mix
ture of the cares of the Statesman and the Manager is one of
those whimsical peculiarities that made Sheridan's own life so
dramatic, and formed a compound altogether too singular ever
to occur again.

"ScmnjIV.

" SKA-FiOBT-^ell and the devil I

" Henry and Susan meet — Chorus introducing burden,

"Rule Britannia."

Among other occasional trifles of this kind, to which Sheridan condescended for The
advantage of the theatre, was the pantomime of Robinson Crusoe, brought out, I believe,
in 1781, of which he is understood to have been the author. There was a practical joke in
this pantomime, (where, in pulling off a man's boot, the leg was pulled off with it,) which
the famous Delpini laid claim to as hiji own, and publicly complained of Sheridan's having
stolen it from him. The punsters of the day said it was claimed as literary property —
being "in usum Delpini.'^

Another of these inglorious tasks of the author of The School for Scandal, was the fur-
nishing of the first outline or Programme of "The Forty Thieves." His Iwother-in-law,
Ward, supplied the dialogue, and Mr. Colman was employed to season it with an infu-
sion of jokes. The following is Sheridan's sketch of one of the scenes : —
<< Au Baba.

" Bannister called out of the cavern boldly by his son — comes out and falls on the
ground a long time, not knowing him — says he would only have taken a little gold to
keep off misery and save his son, &c.

" Afterwards, when he loads his asses, his son reminds him to be moderate — but it was
a promise made to thieves — ' it gets nearer the owner, if taken from the stealer'— -the
son disputes this morality — ' they stole it, ergo, they have no right to it ; and we steal it
from the stealer, ergo, our title is twice as bad as theirs.' "

* For the expedition to the coast of France, after the Convention of Goster-seven.
When he ordered the fleet to be equipped, and appointed the time and place of its ren-
dezvous. Lord Anson said it would be impossible to have it prepared so soon. " It may,"
said Mr. Pitt, " be done ; and if the ships are not ready at the time specified, I shall sig-
nify Tour Lordship's neglect to the King, and impeach you in the House of Commons."
This intimation i^odaced the desired effect : the ships were ready. See Anecdotes eS
Lord Chatham, vol L

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 189

In the spring of the following year, (1795,) we find Mr. Sheri-
dan paying that sort of tribute to the happiness of a first mar-
riage which is implied by the step of entering into a second.
The lady to whom he now united himself was Miss Esther Jane
Ogle, daughter of the Dean of Winchester, and grand-daughter,
by the mother's side, of the former Bishop of Winchester. We
have here another proof of the ready mine of wealth which the
theatre opened, — as in gratitude it ought, — to him who had en-
dowed it with suet imperishable treasures. The fortune of the
lady being five thousand pounds, he added to it fifteen thousand
more, which he contrived to raise by the sale of Drury-Lane
shares ; and the whole of the sum was subsequently laid out in
the purchase from Sir W. Geary of the estate of, Polesden, in
Surrey, near Leatherhead. The Trustees of this settlement were
Mr. Grey, (now Lord Grey,) and Mr. Whitbread.

To a man at the time of life which Sheridan had now at-
tained — four years beyond that period, at which Petrarch thought
it decorous to leave off writing love-verses* — a union with a
young and accomplished girl, ardently devoted to him, must
have been like a renewal of his own youth ; and it is, indeed,
said by those who were in habits of intimacy with him at this
period, that they had seldom seen his spirits in a state of more
buoyant vivacity. He passed much of his time at the house of
his father-in-law near Southampton ; — ^and in sailing about with
his lively bride on the Southampton river, (in a small cutter
called the Phsedria, after the magic boat in the " Fairy Queen,")
forgot for a while his debts, his theatre, and his politics. It was
on one of these occasions that ftiy friend Mr. Bowles, who was
a fi'equent companion of his parties,f wrote the following verses,
which were much admired, as they well deserved to be, by Sheri-

• Sec his Epistle, " ad Poeteritatcm," where, after lamenting the many years which
he had devoted to love, he adds : " Mox vero ad quadrageHmum anmem appropinquans,
dura adhuo et c iloris satis esset," &c.

f Among other distinguished persons present at these ezAIrsions were Mr. Joseph
Richardson, Dr. Howley, now Bishop of London, and His. Wilmot, now Lady Dacre, a
lady, whose various talents,— not the less delightful fit being so feminine,— like tht
groupe of the Graces, reflect beauty on each other.

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190 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

dan, for the sweetness of their thoughts, and the perfect musio
of then* rhythm : —

*' Smooth went our boat ai>on the summer seas,
Leaving, (for so it seem'd,) the world behind,
Its cares, its sounds, its shadows : we reclin'd

Upon the sonny deck, heard bat the breeze

That o'er us whispering pass'd or idly play'd
With the lithe flag aloft. — A woodland scene
On either side drew its slope line of green,

And hung the water's shining edge with shade.

Above the woods, Netley ! thy ruins pale
Peer'd, as we pass'd ; and Vecta's* azure hue
Beyond the misty castlef met the view ;

Where in mid channel hung the scarce-seen sail
So all was calm and sunshine as we went
Cheerily o'er the briny element.

Oh ! were this little boat to us the world.
As thus we wander'd far from sounds of care.
Circled with friends and gentle maidens fair.

Whilst morning airs the waving pendant curl'd.
How sweet were life's long voyage, till in peace
We gidn'd that haven still, where all things cease !"

The events of this year but added fresh impetus to that reac-
tion upon each other of the Government and the People, which
such a system of misrule is always sure to produce. Among
the worst effects, as I have already remarked, of the rigorous
policy adopted by the Itfinister, was the extremity to which it
drove the principles and language of Opposition, and that sanc-
tion which the vehement rebound against oppression of such in-
fluencing spirits as Fox and Sheridan seemed to hold out to the
obscurer and more practical assertors of freedom. This was at
no time more remarkable than in the present Session, during
the discussion of those arbitrary measures, the Treason and Se-
dition Bills, when sparks were struck out, in the collision of the
two principles, which the combustible state of public feeling at
the moment rendered not a little perilous. On the motion thar

• Isle of Wight. t Kclshot Castle.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 191

the House should resolve itself into a Committee upon the Trea-
son Bill, Mr. Fox said, that " if Ministers were determined, by
means of the corrupt influence they already possessed in the
two Houses of Parliament, to pass these Bills, in violent oppo-
sition to the declared sense of the great majority of the nation,
and they should be put in force with all their rigorous provi-
sions, — if his opinion were asked by the people as to their obe-
dience, he should tell them, that it was no longer a question of
moral obligation and duty, but of prudence." Mr. Sheridan
followed in the bold footsteps of his friend, and said, that " if a
degraded and oppressed majority of the people applied to him,
he would advise them to acquiesce in those bills only as long as
resistance was imprudent." This language was, of course, visited
with the heavy reprobation of the Ministry ;— but their own
partisans had already gone as great lengths on the side of abso-
lute power, and it is the nature of such extremes to generate each
other. Bishop Horsley had preached the doctrine of passive
obedience in the House of Lords, asserting that " man's abuse
of his delegated authority is to be borne with resignation, like
any other of God's judgments; and that the opposition of the
individual to the sovereign power is an opposition to God's pro-
vidential arrangements." The promotion of the Right Reverend
Prelate that followed, was not likely to abate his zeal in the
cause of power ; and, accordingly, we find him in the present
session declaring, in his place in the House of Lords, that " the
people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them."

The government, too, had lately given countenance to writers,
the absurd slavishness of whose doctrines would have sunk be-
low contempt, but for such patronage. Among the ablest of
them was Artliur Young, — one of those renegades from the
cause of freedom, who, like the incendiary that set fire to the
Temple with the flame he had stolen from its altar, turn the
fame and the energies which they have acquired in defence
of liberty against her. This gentleman, to whom his situation as
Secretary to the Board of Agriculture afforded facilities for the
circulation of his political heresies, did not scruple, in one of his

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192 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

pamphlets, roundly to assert, that unequal representation, rotten
boroughs, long parliaments, extravagant courts, selfish Ministers,
and corrupt majorities, are not only intimately interwoven with
the practical freedom of England, but, in a great degree, the
causes of it.

But the most active and notorious of these patronized advo-
cates of the Court was Mr. John Reeves, — a person who, in his
capacity of President of the Association against Republicans and
Levellers, had acted as a sort of Sub-minister of Alarm to Mr.
Burke. In a pamphlet, entitled " Thoughts on the English Go-
vernment," which Mr. Sheridan brought under the notice of the
House, as a libel on the Constitution, this pupil of the school of
Filmer advanced the startling doctrine that the Lords and Com-
mons of England derive their existence and authority from the
King, and that the Kingly government could go on, in all its
functions, without them. This pitiful paradox found an apologist
in Mr. Windham, whose chivalry in the new cause he had es-
poused left Mr. Pitt himself at a wondering distance behind. His
speeches in defence of Reeves, (which are among the proofs that
remain of that want of equipoise observable in his fine, rather
than solid, /Understanding,) have been with a judicious charity
towards his memory, omitted in the authentic collection by Mr.
Amyot.

When such libels against the Constitution were not only pro-
mulgated, but acted upon, on one side, it was to be expected, and
hardly, perhaps, to be regretted, that the repercussion should be
heard loudly and wamingly from the other. Mr. Fox, by a sub-
sequent explanation, softened down all that was most menacing
in his language ; and, though the word " Resistance," at full
length, should, like the hand-writing on the wall, be reserved for
the last intoxication of the Belshazzars of this world, a letter or
two of it may, now and then, glare out upon their eyes, with-
out producing any thing worse than a salutary alarm amid their
revels. At all events, the high and constitutional grounds on
which Mr. Fox defended the expressions he had hazarded, may
well reconcile us to any risk incurred by their utterance. The

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EIGHT HON. BICHARD BBINSLBT SHEBIDAN. 193

tribute to the house of Hussell, in the grand and simple passage
beginning, " Dear to this country are the descendants of the
illustrious Russell," is as applicable to that Noble family now as
it was then ; and will continue to be so, I trust, as long as a
smgle vestige of a race, so pledged to the cause of liberty, re-
mains.

In one of Mr. Sheridan's speeches on the subject of Reeves's
libel, there are some remarks on the character of the people of
England, not only candid and just, but, as applied to them at that
trying crisis, interesting : —

" Never was there," he said, " any country in which there was so much
absence of public principle, and at the same time so many instances of pri-
vate worth. Never was there so much charity and humanity towards the
poor and the distressed ; any act of cruelty or oppression never foiled to
excite a sentiment of general indignation against its authors. It was a cir-
cumstance peculiarly strange, that though luxury had arrived to such a
pitch, it had so little effect in depraving the hearts and destroying the mo-
rals of people in private life ; and almost every day produced some fresh
example of generous feelings and noble exertions of benevolence. Yet
amidst these phenomena of private virtue, it was to be remarked, that there
was an almost total want of public spirit, and a most deplorable contempt
of public principle. ♦♦♦♦•♦♦

When Great Britain fell, the case would not be with her as with Borne in
former times. When Bome fell, she fell by the weight of her own vices.
The inhabitants were so corrupted and degraded, as to be unworthy of a
continuance of prosperity, and incapable to enjoy the blessings of liberty ;
their minds were bent to the state in which a reverse of fortune placed
them. But when Great Britain falls, she will fall with a people full of iH*i-
vate worth and virtue ; she will be ruined by the profligacy of the gover-
nors, and the security of her inhabitants, — the consequence of those per-
nicious doctrines which have taught her to place a false confldence in her
strength and freedom, and not to look with distrust and apprehension to
the misconduct and corruption of those to whom she has trusted the ma-
nagement of her resources."

To this might have been added, that when Great Britain falls,
it will not be from either ignorance of her rights, or insensibility
to their value, but from that want of energy to assert them which
a high state of civilization produces. The love of ease that lux-

voL. n. 9

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194 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF. THE

ury brings along with it, — the selfish and compromising spirit,
in which the members of a polished society countenance each
other, and which reverses the principle of patriotism, by sacri-
ficing public interests to private ones, — ^the substitution of intel
lectual for moral excitement, and the repression of enthusiasm
by fastidiousness and ridicule, — these are among the causes that
undermine a people, — that corrupt in the very act of enlighten-
ing them ; till they become, what a French writer calls " e^prits
exigeans et caracteres complaisans^'* and the period in which theii
rights are best understood may be that in which they most easily
surrender them. It is, indeed, with the advanced age of free
States, as with that of individuals, — they improve in the theory
of their existence as they grow unfit for the practice of it ; till,
at last, deceiving themselves with the semblance of rights gone
by, and refinmg upon the forms of their institutions after they
have lost the substance, they smoothly sink into slavery, with the
lessons of liberty on their lips.

Besides the Treason and Sedition Bills, the Suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act was another of the momentous questions
which, in this as well as the preceding Session, were chosen as
points of assault by Mr. Sheridan, and contested with a vigor
imd reiteration of attack, which, though unavailing against the
massy majorities of the Minister, yet told upon public opinion
so as to turn even defeats to account.

. The marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Princess Caroline
of Brunswick having taken place in the spring of this year, it was
proposed by His Majesty to Parliament, not only to provide an
establishment for their Royal Highnesses, but to decide on the
best manner of liquidating the debts of the Prince, which were
calculated at 630,000/. On the secession of the leading Whigs, in
1792, His Royal Highness had also separated himself from Mr.
Fox, and held no further intercourse either with him or any of
his party, — except, occasionally, Mr. Sheridan, — till so late, I be-
lieve, as the year 1798. Tlie effects of this estrangement are
sufficiently observable in the tone of the Opposition throughout
the debates on the Message of the King. Mr. Grey said, that he

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 195

would not oppose the granting of an establishment to the Prince
equal to that of his ancestors ; but neither would he consent to
the payment of his debts by Parliament. A refusal, he added,
to liberate His Royal Highness from his embarrassments would
certainly prove a mortification ; but it would, at the same time,
awaken a just sense of his imprudence. Mr. Fox asked, " Was
the Prince well advised in applying to that House on the subject
of his debts, after the promise made ijx 1787 f — and Mr, She-
ridan, while he agreed with his friends that the application should
not have been made to Parliament, still gave it as his " positive
opinion that the debts ought to be paid immediately, for the dig-
nity of the country and the situation of the Prince, who ought
not to be seen rolling about the streets, in his state-coach, as an
insolvent prodigal." With respect to the promise given in 1787,
and now violated, that the Prince would not again apply to Par-
liament for the payment of his debts, Mr. Sheridan, with a com-
municativeness that seemed hardly prudent, put the House in
possession of some details of the transaction, which, as giving an
insight into Royal character, are worthy of being extracted.

" In 1787, a pledge waa given to the House that no more debts should be
contracted. By that pledge the Prince was bound as much as if he had
given it knowingly and voluntarily. To attempt any explanation of it
now would be unworthy of his honor, — as if he had suflfered it to be wrung
from him, with a view of afterwards pleading that it was against his better
judgment, in order to get rid of it. He then advised the Prince not to make
any such promise, because it was not to be expected that he could himself
enforce the details of a system of economy ; and, although he had men of
honor and abilities about him, he was totally unprovided with men of bu-
siness, adequate to such a task. The Prince said he could not give such a
pledge, and agree at the same time to take back his establishment. He
(Mr. Sheridan) drew up a plan of retrenchment, which was approved of
by the Prince, and afterwards by His M^esty ; and the Prince told him that
the promise was not to be insisted upon. In the Eang's Message, however,
the promise was inserted, — ^by whose advice he knew not He heard it read
with surprise, and, on being asked next day by the Prince to contradict It
in his place, he inquired whether the Prince had seen the Message before
it was brought down. Being told that it had been read to him, but that he
did not understand it as containing a promise, he declined contradicting it^

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196 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

and told the Prince that he must abide by It, in whatever way it might have
been obtained. By the plan then settled, Ministers had a check upon the
Prince's expenditure, which they never exerted, nor enforced adherence to
the plan. ♦*•♦♦*♦♦♦*♦♦
While Ministers never interfered to check expenses, of which they could
not pretend ignorance, the Prince had recourse to means for relieving him-
self from his embarrassments, which ultimately tended to increase them.
It was attempted to raise a loan for him in foreign countries, a measure
which he thought unconstitutional, and put a stop to ; and, after a con-
sultation with Lord Loughborough, all the bonds were burnt^ although
with a considerable loss to the Prince. After that, another plan of re-
trenchment was proposed, upon which he had frequent consultations with
Lord Thurlow, who gave the Prince feir, open, and manly advice. That No-
ble Lord told the Prince, that, after the promise he had made, he must not
think of applying to Parliament ; — that he must avoid being of any party
in politics, but, above all, exposing himself to the suspicion of being influ-
enced in political opinion by his embarrassments ; — that the only course he
could pursue with honor, was to retire from public life for a time, and ap-
propriate the greater part of his income to the liquidation of his debts.
This plan was agreed upon in the autum of 1792. Why, it might be asked,
was it not carried into effect ? About that period his Royal Highness be-
gan to receive unsolicited advice from another quarter. He was told by
Lord Loughborough, both in words and in writing, that the plan savored
too much of the advice given to M. Egalit6, and he could guess from what
quarter it came. For his own part, he was then of opinion, that to have
avoided meddling in the great political questions which were then coming
to be discussed, and to have put his affairs in a train of adjustment, would
have better become his high station, and tended more to secure public re-
spect to it, than the pageantry of state-liveries."

The few occasions on which the name of Mr. 'Sheridan was
again connected with literature, after the final investment of his
genius in political speculations, were such as his fame might ha^e
easily dispensed with ; — and one of them, the forgery of the
Shakspeare papers, occurred in the course of the present year.
Whether it was that he looked over these manuscripts wi'ii the
eye more of a manager than of a critic, and considered rather to
what account the belief in their authenticity might be turned,
than how far it was founded upon internal evidence ; — or whether,
as Mr. Ireland asserts, the standard at which he rated the genius
of Shakspeare was not so high as to inspire him with a very

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BIGHT HON. RICHAED BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 197

watohful &8tidiousness of judgment ; certain it is that he was, in
some degree, the dupe of this remarkable imposture, which, as a
lesson to the self-confidence of criticism, and an exposure of the
fidlibility of taste, ought never to be forgotten in literary history.

The immediate payment of 300/. and a moiety of the profits
for the first sixty nights, were the terms upon which Mr. Sheri-
dan purchased the play of Vortigem from the Irelands. The
latter part of the conditions was voided the first night ; and,
though it is more than probable that a genuine tragedy of Shak-
speare, if presented under similar circumstances, would have
shared the same fate, the public enjoyed the credit^ of detecting
and condemning a counterfeit, which had passed current through
some of the most learned and tasteful hands of the day. It is
but justice, however, to Mr, Sheridan to add, that, according to
the account of Ireland himself, he was not altogether without
misgivings during his perusal of the manuscripts, and that his
name does not appear among the signatures to that attestation of
their authenticity which his friend Dr. Parr drew up, and was
himself the first to sign. The curious statement of Mr. Ireland,
with respect to Sheridan's want of enthusiasm for Shakspeare,
receives some confirmation from the testimony of Mr. Boaden,
the biographer of Kemble, who tells us that " Kemble frequently
expressed to him his wonder that Sheridan should trouble him-
self 80 little about Shakspeare." This peculiarity of taste, — if it
really existed to the degree that these two authorities would lead
us to infer, — affords a remarkable coincidence with the opinions
of another illustrious genius, lately lost to the world, whose ad-
miration of the great Demiurge of the Drama was leavened with
the same sort of heresy.

In the January of this year, Mr. William Stone — ^the brother
of the gentleman whose letter from Paris has been given in a
preceding Chapter — was tried upon a charge of High Treason,
and Mr. Sheridan was among the witnesses summoned for the
prosecution. He had already in the year 1794, in consequence
of a reference from Mr. Stone himself, been examined before the
Privy Council, relative to a conversation which he had held with

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198 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

that gentleman, and, on the day after his examination, had, at
the request of Mr. Dundas, transmitted to that Minister in writ-
ing the particulars of his testimony before the Council. There
is among his papers a rough draft of this Statement, in compar-
ing which with his evidence upon the trial in the present year, I
find rather a curious proof of the faithlessness of even the best
memories. The object of the convereation which he had held
with Mr. Stone in 1794 — and which constituted the whole of
their intercourse with each other — was a proposal on the part of
the latter, submitted also to Lord Lauderdale and others, to ex-
ert his influence in France, through those channels which his
brother's residence there opened to him, for the purpose of avert-
ing the threatened invasion of. England, by representing to the
French rulers the utter hopelessness of such an attempt. Mr.
Sheridan, on the trial, after an ineffectual request to be allowed
to refer to his written Statement, gave the following as part of
his recollections of the conversation : —

*' Mr. Stone stated that, in order to effect this purpose, he had endea*
vored to collect the opinions of several gentlemen, political characters in
this country, whose opinions he thought would be of authority sufScient
to advance his object ; that for this purpose he had had interviews with
different gentlemen ; he named Mr. Smith and, I think, one or two more,
whose names I do not now recollect He named some gentlemen connect-
ed with Administration — ^if the Counsel will remind me of the name "

Here Mr. Law, the examining Coimsel, remarked, that " upon
the cross-examination, if the gentlemen knew the circumstance,
they would mention it." The cross-examination of Sheridan by
Sergeant Adair was as follows : —

" You stated in the course of your examination that Mr. Stone said there
was a gentleman connected with Government, to whom he had made a
idmilar communication, should you recollect the name of that person if you
were reminded of it? — I certainly should. — Was it Greneral Murray? — Ge-
neral Murray certainly."

Notwithstanding this, however, it appears from the written
Statement in my possession, drawn up soon after the conversa-

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 199

tion in question, that this " gentleman connected with Govern-
ment," so difficult to be remembered, was no other than the
Prime Minister, Mr. Pitt himself. So little is the memory to
be relied upon in evidence, particularly when absolved from re-
sponsibility by the commission of its deposit to writing. The
conduct of Mr. Sheridan throughout this transaction appears to
have been sensible and cautious. That he was satisfied with it
himself may be collected from the conclusion of his letter to
Mr. Dundas : — " Under the circumstances in which the applica-
tion, (from Mr. Dundas,) has been made to me, I have thought
it equally a matter of respect to that application and of respect
to myself, as well as of justice to the person under suspicion, to
give this relation more in detail than at first perhaps might ap-
pear necessary. My own conduct in the matter not being hi
question, I can only say that were a similar case to occur, I thmk
1 should act in every circumstance precisely in the manner I did
on this occasion."

The parliamentary exertions of Mr. Sheridan this year,
though various and active, were chiefly upon subordinate ques-
tions ; and, except in the instance of Mr. Fox's Motion of Cen-
sure upon Ministers for advancing money to the Emperor with-
out the consent of Parliament, were not distinguished by any
signal or sustained displays of eloquence. • The grand questions,
indeed, connected with the liberty of the subject, had been so
hotly contested, that but few new grounds were left on which to
renew the conflict. Events, however, — the only teachers of the
great mass of mankind, — ^were beginning to eflect what eloquence
had in vain attempted. The people of England, though general-
ly eager for war, are seldom long in discovering that " the cup
but sparkles near the brim ;" and in the occurrences of the fol-
lowing year they were made to taste the full bitterness of the
draught. An alarm for the solvency of the Bank, an impend-
ing invasion, a mutiny in the fleet, and an organized rebellion in
Ireland, — such were the fruits of four years' warfare, and they
were enough to startle even the most sanguine and precipitate
into reflection.

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200 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

The conduct of Mr. Sheridan on the breaking out of the Mu-
tiny at the Nore is too well known and appreciated to require
any illustration here. It is placed to his credit on the page of
history, and was one of the happiest impulses of good feeling
and good sense combined, that ever public man acted upon in a
situation demanding so much of both. The patriotic prompti-
tude of his interference was even more striking than it appears
in the record of his parliamentary labors ; for, as I have heard
at but one remove from his own authority, while the Ministry
were yet hesitating as to the steps they should take, he went to
Mr. Dundas and said, — " My advice is that you cut the buoys
on the river — send Sir Charles Grey down to the coast, and set
a price on Parker's head. If the Administration take this ad-
vice instantly, they will save the country — ^if not, they will lose
it ; and, on their refusal, I will impeach them in the House of
Commons this very evening."

Without dwelling on the contrast which is so often drawn —
less with a view to elevate Sheridan than to depreciate his party
— between the conduct of himself and his friends at this fearful
crisis, it is impossible not to concede that, on the scale of public
spirit, he rose as fiir superior to them as the great claims of the
general safety transcend all personal considerations and all party
ties. It was, indeed, a rare triumph of temper and sagacity.
With less temper, he would have seen in this awful peril but an
occasion of triumph over the Minister whom he had so long been
struggling to overturn — ^and, with less sagacity, he would have
thrown away the golden opportunity of establishing himself for
ever in the affections and the memories of Englishmen, as one
whose heart was in the common-weal, whatever might be his
opinions, and who, in the moment of peril, could sink the partisan
in the patriot.

As soon as he had performed this exemplary duty, he joined
Mr. Fox and the rest of his friends who had seceded from Par-
liament about a week before, on the very day after the rejection
of Mr. Grey's motion for a reform. This step, which was intend-
ed to create a strong sensation, hy hoisting, as it were, the signal

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 201

of despair to the 30untry, was followed by no such striking ef-
fects, and left little behind but a question as to its prudence and
patriotism. The public saw, however, with pleasure, that there
were still a few champions of the constitution, who did not " leave
her fair side all unguarded" in this extremity. Mr. Tiemey,
among others, remained at his post, encountering Mr. Pitt on
financial questions with a vigor and address to which the latter
had been hitherto unaccustomed, and perfecting by practice that
shrewd power of analysis, which has made him so formidable a
sifter of ministerial sophistries ever since. Sir Francis Burdett,
too, was just then entering into his noble career of patriotism ;
and, like the youthful servant of the temple in Euripides, was
aiming his first shafts at those unclean birds, that settle within
the sanctuary of the Constitution and sully its treasures : —

" irrifjvoJv T*ayaXa^

By a letter from the Earl of Moira to Col. M'Mahon in the
summer of this year it appears, that in consequence of the calami-
tous state of the country, a plan had been in agitation among some
members of the House of Commons, who had hitherto supported
the measures of the Minister, to form an entirely new Adminis-
tration, of which the Noble Earl was to be the head, and from
which both Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, as equally obnoxious to the
public, were to be excluded. The only materials that appear to
have been forthcoming for this new Cabinet were Lord Moira
himself. Lord Thurlow, and Sir William Pulteney — ^the last of
whom it was intended to make Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Such a tottering balance of parties, however, could not have been
Jong maintained ; and its relapse, after a short interval, into Tory-
ism, would but have added to the triumph of Mr. Pitt, and in-
creased his power. Accordingly Lord Moira, who saw from the
beginning the delicacy and difficulty of the task, wisely abandoned
it. The share that Mr. Sheridan had in this transaction is too

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202 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

honorable to him not to be recorded, and the particulars cannot
be better given than in Lord Moira's own words : —

" You say that Mr. Sheridan has been traduced, as wishing to abandon
Mr. Fox, and to promote a new Administration. I had accidentally a con-
versation with that gentleman at the House of Lord& I remonstrated
strongly with him against a principle which I heard Mr. Fox's Mends in-
tended to lay down, namely, that they would support a new Administration,
but that not any of them would take part in it. I solenmly declare, upon
my honor, that I could not shake Mr. Sheridan's conviction of the pro-
priety of that determination. He said that he and Mr. Fox's other friends,
as well as Mr. Fox himself, would give the most energetic support to such
an Administration as was in contemplation ; but that their acceptance of of-
fice would appear an acquiescence under ihe injustice of the interdict sup-
posed to be fixed upon Mr. Fox. I did not and never can admit the fairness
of that argument. But I gained nothing upon Mr. Sheridan, to whose up-
rightness in that respect I can therefore bear the most decisive testimony.
Indeed I am ashamed of offiering testimony, where suspicion ought not to
have been conceived.'

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EIGHT HON. RICHAED BRIKSLEY SHERIDAN. 203

CHAPTER yin.

-SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT.
— ^PIZARRO. — MINISTRY OP MR. ADDINGTON. — FRENCH
INSTITUTE. — NEGOTIATION WITH MR. KEMBLE.

The theatrical season of 1798 introduced to the public the
German drama of " The Stranger," translated hy Mr. Thomp-
son, and (as we are told by this gentleman in his preface)
altered and improved by Sheridan. There is reason, however,
to believe that the contributions of the latter to the dialogue were
much more considerable than he was perhaps willing to let the
translator acknowledge. My friend Mr. Rogers has heard him,
on two different occasions, declare that he had written every
word of the Stranger from beginning to end ; and, as his vanity
could not be much interested in si^ch a claim, it is possible that
. there was at least some virtual foundation for it.

The song introduced in this play, " I have a silent sorrow
here," was avowedly written by Sheridan, as the music of it was
by the Duchess of Devonshire — ^two such names, so brilliant in
their respective spheres, as the Muses of Song and Verse have
seldom had the luck to bring together. The originality of these
lines has been disputed ; and that expedient of borrowing which
their author otigkt to have been independent of in every way, is
supposed to have been resorted to by his indolence on this occa-
sion. Some verses by Tickell are mentioned as having supplied
one of the best stanzas ; but I am incluied to think, from the
following circumstances, that this theft of Sheridan was of that
venial and domestic kind — from himself. A writer, who brings
forward the accusation in the Gentleman's Magazine, (vol. Ixxi.
p. 904,) thus states his grounds : —

'* In a BODg which I purchased at Bland's music-shop in Holbom in th«

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204 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

year 1794, intitled, * Think not, my love/ and professing to be set to music
by Thomas Wright, (I conjecture, Organist of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and
composer of the pretty Opera called Rusticity,) are the following words : —

The song to which the writer alludes, " Think not, my love,"
was given to me, as a genuine production of Mr. Sheridan, by
a gentleman nearly connected with his family ; and I have little
doubt of its being one of those early love-strains which, in his
tempo de* dolci sospiri, he addressed to Miss Linley. As, there-
fore, it was but " a feather of his own" that the eagle made free
with, he may be forgiven. The following is the whole of the
song : —

" * This treasured grief, this loved despair.

My lot forever be ;
But, dearest, may the pangs I bear
Be never known to thee I'

" Now, without insisting that the opening thought in Mr. Sheridan's
famous song has been borrowed from that of * Think not, my love/ the
second verse is manifestly such a theft of the lines I have quoted as entirely
overturns Mr, Sheridan's claim to originality in the matter, unless * Think
not, my love,' has been written by him, and he can be proved to have only
stolen from himself."

" Think not, my love, when secret grief

Preys on my saddened heart.
Think not I wish a mean relief,
Or would from sorrow part.

" Dearly I prize the sighs sincere.

That my true fondness prove.
Nor would I wish to check the tear.

That flows from hapless love I

" Alas I tho' doom'd to hope in vain
The joys that love requite.
Yet will I cherish all its pain,
With sad, but dear delight.

*' This treasured grief, this lov'd despair,

My lot for ever be ;
But, dearest, may the pangs I bear
Be never known to thee !"

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 205

Among the political events of this year, the rebellion of Ire-
land holds a memorable and fearful pre-eminence. The only
redeeming stipulation which the Duke of Portland and his broth-
er Alarmists had annexed to their ill-judged Coalition with Mr.
Pitt was, that a system of conciliation and justice should, at last,
be adopted towards Ireland. Had they but carried thus much
wisdom into the ministerial ranks with them, their defection might
have been pardoned for the good it achieved, and, in one respect
at least, would have resembled the policy of those Missionaries,
who join in the ceremonies of the Heathen for the purpose of
winning him over to the truth. On the contrary, however, the
usual consequence of such coalitions with Power ensued, — the
good was absorbed in the evil principle, and, by the false hope
which it created, but increased the mischief. Lord Fitzwilliam
was not only deceived himself, but, still worse to a noble and
benevolent nature like his, was made the instrument of deception
and mockery to millions. His recall, in 1795, assisted by the
measures of his successor, drove Ireland into the rebellion which
raged during the present year, and of which the causes have been
so little removed from that hour to this, that if the people have
become too wise to look back to it, as an example, it is assuredly
not because their rulers have much profited by it as a lesson.

I am aware that, on the subject of Ireland and her wrongs, I
can ill trust myself with the task of expressing what I feel. Or
preserve that moderate, historical tone, which it has been my
wish to maintain through the political opinions of this work. On
every other point, my homage to the high character of England,
and of her institutions, is prompt and cordial ; — on this topic
alone, my feelings towards her have been taught to wear " the
badge of bitterness." As a citizen of the world, I would point
to England as its brightest ornament, — but, as a disfranchised
Irishman, I blush to belong to her. Instead, therefore, of hazard-
ing any farther reflections of my own on the causes and character
of the Rebellion of 1798, 1 shall content myself with giving an
extract from a Speech which Mr. Sheridan delivered on the sub-
ject, in the Jime of that year : —

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206 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

'^ What ! when conciliation was held out to the people of Ireland, waa
there any diecontent ? When the government of Ireland was agreeable to
the people, was there any discontent ? After the prospect of that concilia-
tion was taken away, — after Lord Fitzwilliam was recalled, — after the
hope*) which had been raised were blasted, — ^when the spirit of the people
was beaten down, insulted, despised, I will ask any gentleman to point out
a single act of conciliation which has emanated fi:om the Government of
Ireland? On the contrary ; has not that country exhibited one continual
scene of the most grievous oppression, of the most vexatious proceedings ;
arbitrary punishments inflicted ; torture declared necessary by the highest
authority in the sister-kingdom next to that of the legislature ? And do
gentlemen say that the indignant spirit which is roused by such exercise
of government is unprovoked ? Is this conciliation ? Is this lenity ? Has
everything been done to avert the evils of rebellion ? It is the fashion to
say, and the Address holds the same language, that the rebellion which
now rages in the sister-kingdom has been owing to the machinations of
* wicked men.' Agreeing to the amendment proposed, it was my first in-
tention to move that these words should be omitted. But, Sir, the fact
they assert is true. It is, indeed, to the measures of wicked men that the
deplorable state of Ireland is to be imputed. It is to those wicked Minis-
ters who have broken the promises they held out, who betrayed the party
they seduced into their, views, to be the instruments of the foulest treache-
ry that ever was practised against any people. It is to those wicked
Ministers who have given up that devoted country to plunder, — ^resigned
it a prey to this faction, by which it has so long been trampled upon, and
abandoned it to every species of insult and oppression by which a country
was ever overwhelmed, or the sphrit of a people insulted, that we owe the
miseries into which Ireland is plunged, and the dangers by which England
is threatened. These evils are the doings of wicked Ministers, and applied
to them, the language of .the Address records a fatal and melancholy
truth."

The popularity which the conduct of Mr. Sheridan, on the
occasion of the Mutiny, had acquired for him, — everywhere but
among his own immediate party, — seems to have produced a
sort of thaw in the rigor of his opposition to Government ; and
the language which he now began to hold, with respect to the
power and principles of France, was such as procured for him,
more than once in the course of the present Session, the unaccus-
tomed tribute of compliments from the Treasury-bench. With-
out, in the least degree, questioning his sincerity in this diange

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 207

of tone, it may be remarked, that the most watchfiil observer of
the tide of public opinion could not have taken it at the turn
more seasonably or skilfully. There was, indeed, just at this
time a sensible change in the feeling of the country. The dan-
gers to which it had been reduced were great, but the crisis seem-
ed over. The new wings lent to Credit by the paper-currency,
— the return of the navy to discipline and victory, — the disen-
chantment that had taken place with respect to French principles,
and the growing persuasion, since strengthened into conviction,
that the world has never committed a more gross mistake than
in looking to the French as teachers of liberty, — the insulting
reception of the late pacific overtures at Lisle, and that never-
failing appeal to the pride and spirit of Englishmen, which a
threat of invading their sacred shore brings with it, — ^all these
causes concurred, at this moment, to rally the people of England
round the Government, and enabled the Minister to extract from
the very mischiefs which himself had created the spirit of all
others most competent to bear and surmount them. Such is the
elasticity of a free country, however, for the moment, misgovern-
ed, — and the only glory due to the Minister under whom such a
people, in spite of misgovemment, flourishes, is that of having
proved, by the experiment, how difficult it is to ruin them.

While Mr. Sheridan took these popular opportunities of occa-
sionally appearing before the public, Mr. Fox persevered, with
but little interruption, in his plan of secession from Parliament
altogether. From the beginning of the Session of this year,
when, at the instance of his constituents, he appeared in his place
to oppose the Assessed Taxes Bill, till the month of February,
1800, he raised his voice in the House but upon two questions, —
each " dignus vindice," — the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, and a
Change of System in Ireland. He had thrown into his opposition
too much real feeling and earnestness to be able, like Sheridan,
to soften it down, or shape it to the passing temper of the times.
In the harbor of private life alone could that swell subside ; and,
however the country missed his warning eloquence, there is little
doubt that his own mind and heart were gainers by a retirement,

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208 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OP THE

in which he had leisure to " prune the ruffled wings'* of his bene-
volent spirit, — to exchange the ambition of being great for that
of being useful, and to listen, in the stillness of retreat, to the
lessons of a mild wisdom, of which, had his life been prolonged,
his country would have felt the full influence.

From one of Sheridan's speeches at this time we find that the
change which had lately taken place in his public conduct had
given rise to some unworthy imputations upon his motives.
There are few things less politic in an eminent public man than
a too great readiness to answer accusations against his character.
For, as he is, in general, more extensively read or heard than his
accusers, the first intimation, in most cases, that the public re-
ceives of any charge against him will be fi'om his own answer to
it. Neither does the evil rest here ; — for the calumny remains
embalmed in the defence, long after its own ephemeral life is
gone. To this unlucky sort of sensitiveness Mr. Sheridan was
but too much disposed to give way, and accordingly has been
himself the chronicler of many charges against him, of which we
should have been otherwise wholly ignorant. Of this nature were
the imputations founded on his alleged misunderstanding with
the Duke of Portland, in 1789, to which I have already made
some allusion, and of which we should have known nothing but
for his own notice of it. His vindication of himself, in 1795, from
the suspicion of being actuated by self-interest, in his connection
with the Prince, or of having received from him, (to use his own
expressions,) " so much as the present of a horse or a picture,"
is another instance of the same kind, where he has given substance
and perpetuity to rumor, and marked out the track of an obscure
calumny, which would otherwise have been forgotten. At the
period immediately under our consideration he has equally ena-
bled us to collect, from his gratuitous defence of himself, that the
line lately taken by him in Parliament, on the great questions of
the Mutiny and Invasion, had given rise to suspicions of his poli-
tical steadiness, and to rumors of his approaching separation from
Mr. Fox.

" I am sorry," he said, on one occasion, " that it is hardly possible for

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 209

any man to speak in this House, and to obtain credit for speaking firom a
principle of pablic spirit ; that no man can oppose a Minister without being
accused of faction, and none, who usually opposed, can support a Minister,
or lend him assistance in anything, without being accused of doing so from
interestea motives. I am not such a coxcomb as to say, that it is of much
importance what part I may take ; or that it is essential that I should divide
a little popularity, or some emolument, with the ministers of the Crown ;
nor am I «o vain as to imagine, that my services might be solicited. Cer-
tainly they have not. That might have arisen from want of importance in
myself, or firom others, whom I have been in the general habit of opposing,
conceiving that I was not likely either to give up my general sentiments,
or my personal attachments. However that may be, certain it is, they
never have made any attempt to apply to me for my assistance."

In reviewing his parliamentary exertions during this year, it
would be injustice to pass over his speech on the Assessed Taxes
Bill, in which, among other fine passages, the following vehement
burst of eloquence occurs :

" But we have gained, forsooth, several ships by the victory of the rtrst
of June, — by the capture of Toulon, — ^by the acquisition of those charnel-
houses in the West Indies, in which 50,000 men have been lost to this
country. Consider the price which has been paid for these successes. For
these boasted successes, I will say, give me back the blood of Englishmen
which has been shed in this fatal contest, — give me back the 250 millions
of debt which it has occasioned, — give me back the honor of the country
which has been taniished,— give me back the credit of the country, which
has been destroyed, — give me back the solidity of the Bank of England,
which has been overthrown ; the attachment of the people to their ancient
Constitution, which has been shaken by acts of oppression and tyrannical
laws, — give me back the kingdom of Ireland, the connection of which is
endangered by a cruel and outrageous system of military coercion, — give
me back that pledge of eternal war, which must be attended with inevita-
ble ruin I"

The great success which had attended The Stranger, and the
still increasing taste for the German Drama, induced Mr. Sheri-
dan, in the present year, to embark his fame even still more re-
sponsibly in a venture to the same romantic shores. The play
of Pizarro was brought out on the 24th of May, 1799. The he-
roic interest of the plot, the splendor of the pageantry, and some

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210 MEKOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

skilful appeals to public feeling in the dialogue, obtained for it
at once a popularity which has seldom been equalled. As for,
indeed, as multiplied representations and editions are a proof of
success, the legitimate issue of his Muse might well have been
jealous of the fame and fortune of their spurious German relative.
When the author of the Critic made Puff say, " Now for my
magnificence, — my noise and my procession !" he little anticipated
the illustration which, in twenty years afterwards, his own ex-
ample would afford to that ridicule. Not that in pageantry, when
tastefully and subordinately introduced, there is any thing to
which criticism can fairly object: — ^it is the dialogue of this play
that is unworthy of its author, and ought never, from either mo-
tives of profit or the vanity of success, to have been coupled with
his name. The style in which it is written belongs neither to
verse nor prose, but is a sort of amphibious native of both, — ^nei-
ther gliding gracefully through the former element, nor walking
steely on the other. In order to give pomp to the language,
inversion is substituted for metre ; and one of the worst faults
of poetry, a superfluity of epithet, is adopted, without that har-
mony which alone makes it venial or tolerable.

It is some relief, however, to discover, from the manuscripts
in my possession, that Mr. Sheridan's responsibility for the defects
of Pizarro is not very much greater than his claim to a share in
its merits. In the plot, and the arrangement of the scenes, it is
well known, there is but little alteration from the German origi-
nal. The omission of the comic scene of Diego, which Kotzebue
himself intended to omit, — the judicious suppression of Elvira's
love for Alonzo, — the introduction, so striking in representation,
of RoUa's passage across the bridge, and the re-appearance of El-
vira in the habit of a nun, form, I believe, the only important
points in which the play of Mr. Sheridan deviates from the struc-
ture of the original drama. With respect to the dialogue, his
share in its composition is reducible to a compass not much more
considerable. A few speeches, and a few short scenes, re-written,
constitute almost the whole of the contribution he has furnished
to it. The manuscript-translation, or rather imitation, of the

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BIGHT HON. BICHABD BBINSLEY SHEBIDAN. 211

" Spaniards in Peru," which he used as the ground-work of Pi-
zarro, has been preserved among his papers : — and, so convenient
was it to his indolence to take the style as he found it, that, ex-
cept, as I have said, in a few speeches and scenes, which might be
easily enumerated, he adopted, with scarcely any alteration, the
exact words of the translator, whose taste, therefore, (whoever he
may have been,) is answerable for the spirit and style of three-
fourths of the dialogue. Even that scene where CJora describes
the " white buds" and " crimson blossoms" of her infant's teeth,
which I have often heard cited as a specimen of Sheridan's false
ornament, is indebted to this unknown paraphrast for the whole
of its embroidery.

But though he is found to be innocent of much of the contra-
band matter, with which his co-partner in this work had already
vitiated it, his own contributions to the dialogue are not of a
much higher or purer order. He seems to have written down
to the model before him, and to have been inspired by nothing
but an emulation of its faults. His style, accordingly, is kept
hovering in the same sort of limbo, between blank verse and
prose, — while his thoughts and images, however shining and
effective on the stage, are like the diamonds of theatrical royalty,
and will not bear inspection off it. The scene between Alonzo
and Pizarro, in the third act, is one of those almost entirely re-
written by Sheridan ; and the following medley groupe of per-
sonifications affords a specimen of the style to which his taste
could descend : —

" Then would I point out to him where now, in clustered villages, they
live like brethren, social and confiding, while through the burning day
Content sits basking on the cheek of Toll, till l&ughing Pastime leads them
to the hour of rest."

The celebrated harangue of Rolla to the Peruvians, into which
Kemble used to infuse such heroic dignity, is an amplification of
the following sentences of the original, as I find them given in
Lewis's manuscript translation of the play : —

** Rolla, Toa Spaniards fight for gold ; we f<Hr our country.

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212 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

** Alonzo They follow an adyentnrer to the field ; we a monarch whom
we love.
** Atalib, And a god whom we adore I"

This speech, to whose popular sentiments the play owed much
of its success, was chiefly made up by Sheridan of loans from
his own oratory. The image of the Vulture and the Lamb was
taken, as I have already remarked, from a passage in his speech
.on the trial of Hastings; — and he had, on Ihe subject of Inva-
sion, in the preceding year, (1798,) delivered more than once
the substance of those patriotic sentiments, which were now so^
spirit-stirring in the mouth of Rolla. For instance, on the King's
Message relative to preparation for Invasion : —

" The Durectory may instruct their guards to make the fairest profes-
sions of how their army is to act j but of these professions surely not one
can be believed. The victorious Buonaparte may say that he comes like a
minister of grace, with no other purpose than to give peace to the cottager,
to restore citizens to their rights, to establish real freedom, and a liberal
and humane government. But can there be an Englishman so stupid, so
besotted, so befooled, as to give a moment's credit to such ridiculous pro-
fessions ? What, then, is their object ? They come for what they

really want : they come for ships, for commerce, for credit, and for capital.
Yes ; they come for the sinews, the bones — for the marrow and the veiy
heart's blood of Great Britain. But let us examine what we are to purchase
at this price. Liberty, it appears, is now their staple commodity : but at-
tend, I say, and examine how little of real liberty they themselves enjoy,
who are so forward and prodigal in bestowing it on others."

The speech of Rolla in the prison-scene is also an interpolation
of his own, — Kotzebue having, far more judiciously, (considering
the unfitness of the moment for a tirade,) condensed the reflec-
tions of Rolla into the short exclamation, " Oh, sacred Nature I
thou art still true to thyself," and then made him hurry into the
prison to his friend.

Of the translation of this play by Lewis, which has been found
among the papers, Mr. Sheridan does not appear to have made
any use ; — except in so far as it may have suggested to him the
Idea of writing a song for Cora, of which that gentleman had set
him an example in a ballad, beginning

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RIGHT HON, RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 218

" Soft are thy s umbers, soft and sweet,
Hash thee, hush thee, hush thee, boy."

The song of Mr. Lewis, however, is introduced, with some-
what less violence to probability, at the beginning of the Third
Act, where the women are waiting for the tidings of the battle,
and when the intrusion of a ballad from the heroine, though
sufficiently unnatural, is not quite so monstrous as in the situa-
tion which Sheridan has chosen for it.

The following stanza formed a part of the song, as it was
originally written : —

" Those eyes that beam'd this morn the light of youth.
This morn I saw their gentle rays impart
The day-spring sweet of hope, of love, of truth.

The pure Aurora of my lover's heart.
Yet wilt thou rise, oh Sun, and waste thy light.
While my Alonzo's beams are quench'd in night''

The only question upon which he spoke this year was the im-
portant measure of the Union, which he strenuously and at great
length opposed. Like every other measure, professing to be for
the benefit of Ireland, the Union has been left incomplete in the
one essential point, without which there is no hope of peace or
prosperity for that country. As long as religious disqualification
is left to " lie like lees at the bottom of men's hearts,"* in vain
doth the voice of Parliament pronounce the word " Union" to tjje
two Islands — a feeling, deep as the sea that breaks between them,
answers back, sullenly, " Separation."

Through the remainder of Mr. Sheridan's political career it is
my intention, for many reasons, to proceed with a more rapid
step ; and merely to give the particulars of his public conduct,
together with such documents as I can bring to illustrate it, with-
out entering into much discussion or comment on either.

Of his speeches in 1800, — during which year, on account, per-
haps, of the absence of Mr. Fox from the House, he was part'cu-

• " It lay like lees at the bottom of men's hearts ; and, if the vessel was but stirred,
It would come up.''— Baoon, Henry TIL

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214 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

larly industrious, — I shall select a few brief specimens for .he
reader. On the question of the Grant to the Emperor of Ger-
many, he said : —

" I do think, Sir, Jacobin principles never existed much in this country ;
and even admitting they had, I say they have been found so hostile to true
liberty, that, in proportion as we love it, (and, whatever may be said, I
must still consider liberty an inestimable blessing,) we must hate and de-
test these principles. But more, — I do not think they even exist in
France. They have there died the best of deaths ; a death I am more
pleased to see than if it had been eflFected by foreign force, — they have
stung themselves to death, and died by their own poison."

The following is a concise and just summary of the causes and
effects of the French Revolutionary war : —

" France, in the beginning of the Revolution, had conceived many ro-
mantic notions ; she was to put an end to war, and produce, by a pure form
of government, a perfectibility of mind which before had never been rea-
lized. The Monarchs of Europe, seeing the prevalence of these new prin-
ciples, trembled for their thrones. France, also, perceiving the hostility of
Kings to her projects, supposed she could not be a Republic without the
overthrow of thrones. Such has been the regular progress of cause and
effect ; but who was the first aggressor, with whom the jealousy first arose,
need not now be a matter of discussion. Both the Republic and the Mon-
archs who opposed her acted on the same principles ; — the latter said they
must exterminate Jacobins, and the former that they must destroy mon-
archs. From this source have all the calamities of Europe flowed ; and it
is now a waste of time and argument to inquire further into the subject"

Adverting, in his Speech on the Negotiation with France, to
the overtures that had been made for a Maritime Truce, he
says, with that national feeling, which rendered him at this time
so popular, —

" No consideration for our ally, no hope of advantage to be derived from
joint negotiation, should have induced the English Government to think
for a moment of interrupting the course of our naval triumphs. — This mea
sure, Sir, would have broken the heart of the navy, and would have damp-
ed all its future exertions. How would our gallant sailors have felt, when,
chained to their decks like galley-slaves, they saw the enemy's vessels sail-
ing under their bows in security, and proceeding, without a possibility of

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 215

being molested, to revictual those places wliich had been so long blockaded
by their astonishing skill, perseverance, and valor? We never stood more
in need of their services, and their feelings at no time deserved to be more
studiously consulted. The north of Europe presents to England a most
awful and threatening aspect ' Without giving an opinion as to the origin
of these hostile dispositions, or pronouncing decidedly whether they are
wholly ill-founded, I hesitate not to say, that if they have been excited be-
cause we have insisted upon enforcing the old established Maritime Law
of Europe, — ^because we stood boldly forth in defence of indisputable priv-
ileges,— because we have refused to abandon the source of our prosperity,
the pledge of our security, and the foundation of our naval greatness, —
they ought to be disregarded or set at defiance. If we are threatened to
be deprived of that which is the charter of our existence, which has pro-
cured us the commerce of the world, and been the means of (^reading our
glory over every land, — if the rights and honors of our flag are to be call-
ed in question, every risk should be run, and every danger braved. Then
we should have a legitimate cause of war ; — ^then the heart of every Briton
would burn with indignation, and his hand be stretched forth in defence of
his country. If our flag is to be insulted, let us nail it to the top-mast of
the nation ; there let it fly while we shed the last drop of our blood in
protecting it, and let it be degraded only when the nation itself is over-
whelmed."

He thus ridicules, in the same speech, the etiquette that had
been observed in the selection of the ministers who were to con-
fer with M. Otto :—

" This stiflf-necked policy shows insincerity. I see Mr. Napean and Mr.
Hammond also appointed to confer with M. Otto, because they are of the
same rank. Is not this as absurd as if Lord Whitworth were to be sent to
Petersburgh, and told that he was not to treat but with some gentleman of
six feet high, and as handsome as himself? Sir, I repeat, that this is a stifif-
necked policy, when the lives of thousands are at stake."

In the following year Mr. Pitt was succeeded, as Prime Mi-
nister, by Mr. Addington. The cause assigned for this unex-
pected change was the difference of opinion that existed between
the King and Mr. Pitt, with respect to the further enfranchise-
ment of the Catholics of Ireland. To this measure the Minis-
ter and some of his colleagues considered themselves to have
be«a pledged by the Act of Union ; but, on finding that they

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216 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

could not carry it, against the scruples of their Royal Master,
resigned.

Though Mr. Pitt so far availed himself of this alleged motive
of his abdication as to. found on it rather an indecorous appeal
to the Catholics, in which he courted popularity for himself at
the expense of that of the King, it was suspected that he had
other and less disinterested reasons for his conduct. Indeed,
while he took merit to himself for thus resigning his supremacy,
he well knew that he still commanded it with " a falconer's voice,"
and, whenever he pleased, " could lure the tassel-gentle back
again." The facility with which he afterwards returned to power,
without making any stipulation for the measure now held to be
essential, proves either that the motive now assigned for his
resignation was false, or that, having sacrificed power to prin-
ciple in 1801, he took revenge by making principle, in its turn,
give way to power in 1804.

During the early part of the new Administration, Mr. Sher-
idan appears to have rested on his arms, — having spoken so
rarely and briefly throughout the Session as not to have fur-
nished to the collector of his speeches a single specimen of oratory
worth recording. It is not till the discussion of the Definitive
Treaty, in May, 1802, that he is represented as having professed
himself friendly to the existing Ministry : — " Certainly," he said,
" I have in several respects given my testimony in favor of the
present Ministry, — in nothing more than for making the best
peace, perhaps, they could, after their predecessors had left them
in such a deplorable situation." It was on this occasion, how-
ever, that, in ridiculing the understanding supposed to exist be-
tween the Ex-minister and his successor, he left such marks of
his wit on the latter as all his subsequent friendship could not
efface. Among other remarks, full of humor, he said, —

'^ I should like to sapport the present Minister on &ir ground ; bat what
is he ? a sort of outside passenger, — or rather a man leading the horses round
a comer, while reins, whip, and all, are in the hands of the coachman on
the box ! {looking at Mr, Pittas elevated seat , three or four benches above that
of the TVeaswy,) Why not have an union of the two Ministers, or, at least,

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 217

0ome intelligible connection? When the Ex-minister quitted ofiSce, almost
all the subordinate Ministers kept their place& How was it that the whole
family did not move together? Had he only one covered waggon to carry
friends and goods f oi has he left directions behind him that they may know
where to call ? I remember a fable of Aristophanes^ s, which is translated
ft'om Greek into decent English. I mention this for the country gentle-
men. It is of a man that sat so long on a seat, (about as long, perhaps, as
the Ex-minister did on the Treasury-bench,) that he grew to it. When
Hercules pulled him off, he left all the sitting part of the man behind him.
The House can make the allusion."*

We have here an instance, in addition to the many which I
have remarked, of his adroitness, not only in laying claim to all
waifs of wit, " ubi non apparebat dominus^^^ but in stealing the
wit himself, wherever he could find it. This happy application
of the fable of Hercules and Theseus to the Ministry had been
first made by Gilbert Wakefield, in a Letter to Mr. Fox, which
the latter read to Sheridan a few days before the Debate ; and
the only remark that Sheridan made, on hearing it, was, " What
an odd pedantic fancy !" But the wit knew well the value of the
jewel, that the pedant had raked up, and lost no time in turning
it to account with all his accustomed skill. The Letter of Wake-
field, in which the application of the fable occurs, has been omit-

* The following is another highly humorous passage from this speech : — " But let
France have colonies I Oh, yes I let her have a good trade, that she may be afraid of
war, says the Learned Member, — that's the "way to make Bucmaparte love peace. He
has had, to be sure, a sort of military education. He has been abroad, and is rather
rough company ; but if you put him behind the eotmter a little, he will mend exceedingly.
When I was reading the Treaty, I thought all the names of foreign places, viz. Pondi-
cherry, Chandenagore, Cochin, Uartinico, &c, all eessiom. Not they,— they are all so
many trapt and hoiUs to catch this silly fellow in, and make a merchant of him ! I really
think the best way upon this principle would be this : — let the merchants of London open
ti public niitcKpMon, and set him up at once. I hear a great deal respecting a eertaia
ttatue about to be erected to the Right Honorable Gentleman, (Mr. Pitt,) now in my eye,
at a great expense. Send all that money over to the First Consul, and give him, what
yon talk of so much, CajntoZ, to begin trade with* I hope the Right Honorable Gentle-
man over the way will, like the First Consul, refuse a statue for the present, and post-
pone it as a work to posterity. There is no harm, however, in marking out the place.
The Right Honorable Gentleman is musing, perhaps, on what square, or place, he will
choose for iu erection. I recommend the Bank of England. Now for the material.
Not gold : no, no 1— he has not left enough of it. I should, however, propose papier
mache and old bank notes I''

VOL. II. 10 r^ 1

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218 MEHOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

ted, I know not why, in his published Correspondence with Mr,
Fox : but a Letter of Mr. Fox, in the same collection, thus al-
ludes to it : — " Your story of Theseus is excellent, as applicable
to our present rulers ; if you could point out to me where 1
could find it, I should be much obliged to you. The Scholiast
on Aristophanes is too wide a description." Mr. Wakefield in
answer, says, — " My Aristophanes, with the Scholia, is not here.
If I am right in my recollection, the story probably occurs in the
Scholia on the Frogs, and would soon be found by reference to
the name of Theseus in Kuster's Index."

Another instance of this propensity in Sheridan, (which made
him a sort of Catiline in wit, " covetous of another's wealth, and
profuse of his own,") occurred during the preceding Session. As
he was walking down to the House with Sir Philip Francis and
another friend, on the day when the Address of Thanks on the
Peace was moved. Sir Philip Francis pithily remarked, that
" it was a Peace which every one would be glad of, but no one
would be proud of." Sheridan, who was in a hurry to get to the
House, did not appear to attend to the observation ; — ^but, before
he had been many minutes in his seat, he rose, and, in the course
of a short speech, (evidently made for the purpose of passing his *
stolen coin as soon as possible,) said, " This, Sir, is a peace which
every one will be glad of, but no one can be proud of."*

The following letter from Dr. Parr to Sheridan, this year,
records an instance of delicate kindness which renders it well
worthy of preservation : —

"Dear Sm,
" I believe that you and my old pupil Tom feel a lively inter-
est in my happiness, and, therefore, I am eager to inform you
that, without any solicitation, and in the most handsome man-
ner. Sir Francis Burdett hts offered me the rectory of GrafTham
in Huntingdonshire ; that the yearly value of it now amounts to

* A similar theft was his observation, that " half the Debt of England had been inctirred
in pulling down the Bourbons, and the other half in setting them up" — which pointed re
mark he had heard, m conversation, from Sir Arthur Pigott.

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 219

200/., and is capable of considerable improvement; that the
preferment is tenable with my Northamptonshire rectory ; that
the situation is pleasant ; and that, by making it my place of
residence, I shall be nearer to my respectable scholar and friend,
Edward Maltby, to the University of Cambridge, and to those
Norfolk connections which I value most highly.

" I am not much skilled in ecclesiastical negotiations ; and all
my efforts to avail myself of the very obliging kindness condi-
tionally intended for me by the Duke of Norfolk completely
failed. But the noble friendship of Sir Francis Burdett has set
everything right. I cannot refuse myself the great satisfaction
of laying before you the concluding passage in Sir Francis's
letter : —

" ' I acknowledge that a great additional motive with me to
the offer I now make Dr. Parr, is, that I believe I cannot do any
thing more pleasing to his friends, Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and
Mr. Knight; and I desire you, Sir, to consider yourself as oblig-
ed to them only.'

" You will readily conceive, that I was highly gratified with
this striking and important passage, and that I wish for an early
opportunity of communicating with yourself, and Mr. Fox, and
Mr. Knight.

" I b^ my best compliments to Mrs. Sheridan and Tom ; and
I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, your very faithful well-wisher,
and respectful, obedient servant,

" September 27, Buckden, " S. Parr."

" Sir Francis sent his own servant to my house at Hilton with
the letter ; and my wife, on reading it, desired the servant to
bring it to me at Buckden, near Huntingdon, where I yesterday
received it."

It was about this time that the Primary Electors of the Na-
tional Institute of France having proposed Haydn, the great
composer, and Mr. Sheridan, as candidates for the class of Li-
terature and the Fine Arts, the Institute, with a choice not alto-
gether indefensible, elected Haydn, Some French epigrams

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220 MEMOIRS or THE LIFE OF THE

on this oocurrenoe, which appeared in the Courier, seem to have
suggested to Sheridan the idea of writing a few English jeux-
d' esprit on the same subject, which were intended for the newspa-
pers, but I rather think never appeared. These verses show that
he was not a little piqued by the decision of the Institute ; and
the manner in which he avails himself of his anonymous charac-
ter to speak of his own claims to the distinction, is, it must be
owned, less remarkable for modesty than for truth. But Vanity,
thus in masquerade, may be allowed some little license. The
following is a specimen : —

'^ The wise decision all admire ;
'Twas ju8t. beyond dispute-
Sound taste ! which, to Apollo's lyre
Preferr'd — a German flute I"

Mr. Kemble, who had been for some time Manager of Drury-
Lane Theatre, was, in the course of the year 1800 — 1, tempted,
notwithstanding the knowledge which his situation must have
given him of the embarrassed state of the concern, to enter into
negotiation with Sheridan for the purchase of a share in the pro-
perty. How much anxiety the latter felt to secure such an
associate in the establishment appears strongly from the following
paper, drawn up by him, to accompany the documents submitted
to Kemble during the negotiation, and containing some particu--
lars of the property of Drury-Lane, which will be found not
uninteresting : —

"Outline of the Terms on which it is proposed that Mr. Kemble
shall purchase a Quarter in the Property of Drury-Lane Thea-
tre.

^' I really think there cannot be a negotiation, in matter of purchase and
eale, so evidently for the advantage of both parties, if brought to a satisfac-
tory conclusion*^

'' I am decided that the management of the theatre cannot be respected,
or successful, but in the hands of an actual proprietor ; and still the better,
if he is himself in the profession, and at the head of it I am defflrona,
therefore, that Mr. Kemble should Ibe a proprietor and manager.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 221

" Mr. Kemble is the person, of all others, who must naturally be desirous
of both situations. He is at the head of his profession, without a rival ; he
is attached to it, and desirous of elevating its character. He may be as-
sured of proper respect, &c., while I have the theatre ; but I do not think
he could brook his situation were the property to pass into vulgar and il-
liberal hands, — an event which he knows contingencies might produce.
Laying aside then all affectation of indifference, so common in making bar-
gains, let us set out with acknowledging that it is -mutually our interest to
agree, if we can. At the same time, let it be avowed, that I must be con-
sidered as trying to get as good a price as I can, and Mr. Eemble to buy as
cheap as he can. In parting with theatrical property, there is no standard,
or measure, to direct the price : the whole question is, what are the proba-
ble profits, and what is such a proportion of them worth ?

" I bought of Mr. Garrick at the rate of 70,000/. for the whole theatre.
I bought of Mr. Lacey at the rate of 94,000/. ditto. I bought of Dr. Ford
at the rate of 86,000/. ditto. In all these cases there was a perishable pa-
tent, and an expiring lease, each having to run, at the different periods of
the purchases, from ten to twenty years only.

" All these purchases have undoubtedly answered well ; but in the chance
of a Third Theatre consisted the risk ; and the want of size and accommo-
dation must have produced it, had the theatres continued as they were.
But the great and important feature in the present property, and which is
never for a moment to be lost sight of, is, that the Monopoly is, morally
speaking, established for ever, at least as well as the Monarchy, Constitu-
tion, Public Funds, &c., — as appears by No. 1. being the copy of * The Final
Arrangement' signed by the Lord Chamberlain, by authority of His Majesty,
the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Bedford, Ac. ; and the dormant patent of
Covent-Garden, that former terror of Dmry-Lane, is perpetually annex^^
to the latter. So that the value of Drury-Lane at present, and in the for-
mer sales, is out of all comparison, — independently of the new building,
superior size, raised prices, &c., &c. But the incumbrances on the theatre,
whose annual charge must be paid before there can be any surplus profit,
are much greater than in Mr. Garrick/s time, or on thd old theatre after-
wards. Undoubtedly they are, and very considerably greater ; but what
is the proportion of the receipts ? Mr. Garrick realized and left a fortune

of 140,000/. (having lived, certainly, at no mean expense,) acquired in

years, on an average annual receipt of 25,000/. (qu. this ?) Our receipts
cannot be' stated at less than 60,000/. per ann. ; and it is demonstrable that
preventing the most palpable frauds and abuses, with even a tolerable sys-
tem of exertion in the management, must bring it, at the least, to 75,000/.;
and this estimate does not include the advantages to be derived from the
new tavern, passages, Chinese hall, &c., — an aid to the receipt, respecting

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222 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the amount of which I am very sanguine. What then, is the probable pro-
fit, and what is a quarter of it worth ? No. 3. is the amount of three set^
Bons' receipts, the only ones on which an attempt at an average could be
justifiable. No. 4. is the future estimate, on a system of exertion and good
management. No. 5. the actual annual incumbrances. No. 6. the nightly
expenses. No. 7. the estimated profits. Calculating on which, I demand
for a quarter of the property, * * * *^ reserving to myself the
existing private boxes, but no more to be created, and the fruit-oflaces and
houses not part of the theatre.

" I assume that Mr. Kemble and I agree as to the price, annexing the
following conditions to our agreement : — ^Mr. Kemble shall have his engage-
ment as an actor for any rational time he pleases. Mr. Kemble shall be
manager, with a clear salary of 500 guineas per annum, and * * per cent,
on the clear profits. Mr. Sheridan engages to procure from Messrs. Ham-
mersleys a loan to Mr. Kemble of ten thousand pounds, part of the purchase-
money for four years, for which loan he is content to become collateral se-
curity, and also to leave his other securities, now in their hands, in mort-
gage for the same. And for the payment of the rest of the money, Mr.
Sheridan is ready to give Mr. Kemble every facility his circumstances will
admit of. It is not to be overlooked, that if a private box is also made
over to Mr. Kemble, for the whole term of the theatre lease, its value can-
not be stated at less than 3,500/. Indeed, it might at any time produce to
Mr. Kemble, or his assigns, 300/. per annum. Vide No. 8. This is a mate-
rial deduction from the purchase-money to be paid.

" Supposing all this arrangement made, I conceive Mr. Kemble^s income
would stand thus :

Salary as an actor, -
In lieu of benefit,
As manager, - - -
Per centage on clear profit,
Dividend on quarter-share.

£

8,

d.

1050

315

525

300

♦2500

£4690

" I need not say how soon this would clear the whole of the purchase.
With regard to the title, &c. Mr. Crews and Mr. Pigott are to decide. As
to debts, the share must be made over to Mr. Kemble free from a claim
even ; and for this purpose all demands shall be called in, by public adver-

♦ " I put this on the very lowest speculation."

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KIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 22S

tisement, to be sent .to Mr. Eemble's own solicitor. In short, Mr. Crews
shall be satisfied that there does not exist an unsatisfied demand on the
theatre, or a possibility of Mr. Kemble being involved in the risk of a shil-
ling. Mr. Hammersley, or such person as Mr. Kemble and Mr. Sheridan
shall agree on, to be Treasurer, and receive and account for the whole re-
ceipts, pay the charges, trusts, &c. ; and, at the close of the season, the sur-
plus profits to the proprietors. A clause in case of death, or sale, to give
(he refusal to each other.''

The following letter from Sheridan to Kemble, in answer, as
it appears, to some complaint or remonstrance from the latter,
in his capacity of Manager, is too curiously characteristic of the
writer to be omitted : —

" Dear Kemble,

" If I had not a real good opinion of your principles and in-
tentions upon all subjects, and a very bad opinion of your nerves
and philosophy upon some, I should take very ill indeed, the
letter I received from you this evening.

" That the management of the theatre is a situation capable of
becoming troublesome is information which I do not want, and a
discovery which I thought you had made long since.

" I should be sorry to write to you gravely on your offer, be-
cause I must consider it as a nervous flight, which it would be as
unfriendly in me to notice • seriously as it would be in you
seriously to have made it.

" What I am most serious in is a determination that, while
the theatre is indebted, and others, for it and for me, are so in-
volved and pressed as they are, I will exert myself, and give
every attention and judgment in my power to the establishment
of its interests. In you I hoped, and do hope, to find an assistant,
on principles of liberal and friendly confidence, — ^I mean confi-
dence that should be above touchiness and reserve, and that
should trust to me to estimate the value of that assistance.

" If there is any thing amiss in your mind, not arising from the
trouhlesom£nes8 of your situation, it is childish and unmanly not
to disclose it to me. The frankness with which I have always

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224 MEMOIRS OF THE UFB OF THE

dealt towards you entitles me to expect that you should have
done so.

" But I have no reason to believe this to be the case ; and, at-
tributing your letter to a disorder which I know ought not to be
indulged, I prescribe that you shall keep your appointment at the
Piazza Coffee-house, to-morrow at five, and, taking four bottles
of claret instead of three, to which in sound health you might
stint yourself, forget that you ever wrote the letter, as I shall
that I ever received it.

« R. B. Sheridan."

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RIGHT HON. RICHAKD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 225

CHAPTER IX.

STATE OF PARTIES. — OFFER OF A PLACE TO MR. T.
SHERIDAN. — RECEIVERSHIP OF THE DUCHY OF CORN-
WALL BESTOWED UPON MR. SHERIDAN. — RETURN OF
MR. PITT TO POWER. — CATHOLIC QUESTION. — ADMINIS-
TRATION OF LORD GRENVILLE AND MR. FOX. — DEATH
OF MR. FOX. — REPRESENTATION OF WESTMINSTER. —
DISMISSION OF THE MINISTRY. — THEATRICAL NEGOTIA-
TION. — SPANISH QUESTION. — LETTER TO THE PRINCE.

During the short interval of peace into which the country was
now lulled, — like a ship becalmed for a moment in the valley
between two vast waves, — such a change . took place in the
relative positions and bearings of the parties that had been so
long arrayed against each other, and such new boundaries and
divisions of opinion were formed, as considerably altered the map
of the political world. While Mr. Pitt lent his sanction to the
new Administration, they, who had made common cause with him
in resigning, violently opposed it ; and, while the Ministers were
thus thwarted by those who had hitherto always agreed with them,
they were supported by those Whigs with whom they had before
most vehemently differed. Among this latter class of their friends
was, as I have already remarked, Mr. Sheridan, — who, convinced
that the only chance of excluding Mr. Pitt from power lay in
strengthening the hands of those who were in possession, not only
gave them the aid of his own name and eloquence; but endea-
vored to impress the same views upon Mr. Fox, and exerted
his influence also to procure the sanction of Carlton-House in
their fevor.

yoL. n. 10* ^ .

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226 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

It cannot, indeed, be doubted that Sheridan, at this time,
though still the friend of Mr. Fox, had ceased, in a great degree,
to be his follower. Their views with respect to the renewal of
the war were wholly different. While Sheridan joined in the
popular feeling against France, and showed his knowledge of
that great instrument, the Public Mind, by approaching it onlv
with such themes as suited the martial mood to which it was
tuned, the too confiding spirit of Fox breathed nothing but for-
bearance and peace ; — and he who, in 1786, had proclaimed the
" natural enmity " of England and France, as an argument against
their commercial intercourse, now asked, with the soflened tone
which time and retirement had taught him, " whether France
was /or ever to be considered our rival?"*

The following characteristic note, written by him previously
to the debate on the Army Estimates, (December 8, 1802,)
shows a consciousness that the hold which he had once had upon
his friend was loosened : —

" Dear Sheridan,

" I mean to be in town for Monday, — that is, for the Army.
As for to-morrow, it is no matter ; — I am for a largish fleet,
though perhaps not quite so large as they mean. Pl'ay, do not
be absent Monday, and let me have a quarter of an hour's con-
versation before the business begins. Remember, I do not wish
you to be inconsistent, at any rate. Pitt's opinion by Proxy is
ridiculous beyond conception, and I hope you will show it in that
light. I am very much against your abusing Bonaparte, because
I am sure it is impolitic both for the country and ourselves. But,
as you please ; — only, for God's sake, Peace.f

" Yours ever

" Tuesday night. « C. J. Fox."

It was aljout this period that the writer of these pages had,

* Speech on the Address of Thanks in 1803.

f These last words are an interesting illustration of the line in Mr. Bc^ers's Verses m
this statesman :—

" * Peace,' when he spoke, was ever on his tongue.''

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 227

for the first time, the gratification of meeting Mr. Sheridan, at
Donington-Park, the seat of the present Marquis of Hastings ;
— ^a circumstance which he recalls, not only with those lively im-
pressions, that our first admiration of genius leaves behind, but
with many other dreams of youth and hope, that still endear to
him the mansion where that meeting took place, and among
which gratitude to its noble owner is the only one, perhaps, that
has not faded. Mr. Sheridan, 1 remember, was just then furnish-
ing a new house, and talked of a plan he had of levying contri-
butions on his friends for a library. A set of books from each
would, he calculated, amply accomplish it, and already the inti-
mation of his design had begun to " breathe a soul into the silent
walls."* The splendid and well-chosen library of Donington
was, of course, not slow in furnishing its contingent ; and little
was it foreseen into what badges of penury these gifts of friend-
ship would be converted at last.

As some acknowledgment of the services which Sheridan had
rendered to the Ministry, (though professedly as a tribute to his
public character in general,) Lord St. Vincent, about this time,
made an offer to his son, Mr. Thomas Sheridan, of the place of
Registrar of the Vice- Admiralty Court of Malta, — ^an office which,
during a period of war, is supposed to be of considerable emol-
ument. The first impulse of Sheridan, when consulted on the
proposal, was, as I have heard; not unfavorable to his son's accept-
ance of it. But, on considering the new position which he had,
himself, lately taken in politics, and the inference that might be
drawn against the independence of his motives, if he submitted
to an obligation which was but too liable to be interpreted, as less
a return for past services than a lien upon him for future ones,
he thou^fht it safest for his character to sacrifice the advantage,
and, desirable as was the provision for his son, obliged him to
decline it.

The following passages of a letter to him from Mrs. Sheridan
on this subject do the highest honor to her generosity, spirit, and
good sense. They also confirm what has generally been under-
stood, that the King, about this time, sent a most gracious mes-

* Bocen.

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228 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

sage to Sheridan, expressive of the approbation with which he
regarded his public conduct, and of the pleasure he should feel
in conferring upon him some mark of his Royal favor : —

" I am more anxious than I can express about Tom's welfare.
It is, indeed, unfortunate that you have been obliged to refuse
these things for him, but surely there could not be two opinions ;
yet why will you neglect to observe those attentions that •honor
does not compel you to refuse 1 Don't you know that when once
the King takes offence, he was never known to forgive ? I sup-
pose it would be impossible to have your motives explained to
him, because it would touch his weak side, yet any thing is better
than his attributing your refusal to contempt and indifference.
Would to God I could bear these necessary losses instead of Tom,
particularly as I so entirely approve of your conduct.

" I trust you will be able to do something positive for Tom
about money. I am willing to make any sacrifice in the world
for that purpose, and to live in any way whatever. Whatever
he has now ought to be certain, or how will he know how to re-
gulate his expenses ?"

The fate, indeed, of young Sheridan was peculiarly tantalizing.
Born and brought up in the midst of those bright hopes, which
so long encircled his father's path,' he saw them all die away as
he became old enough to profit by them, leaying difficulty and
disappointment, his only inheritance, behind. Unprovided with
any profession by which he could secure his own independence,
and shut out, as in this instance, from those means of advance-
ment, which, it was feared, might compromise the independence
of his father, he was made the victim even of the distinction of
his situation, and paid dearly for the glory of being the son of
Sheridan. In the expression of his face, he resembled much his
beautiful mother, and derived from her also the fatal complaint
of which he died. His popularity in society was unexampled, —
but he knew how to attach as well as amuse; and, though
living chiefly with that class of persons, who pass ovef the sv^v

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 229

feoe of life, like Camilla over the corn, without leaving any im-
pression of themselves behind, he had manly and intelligent
qualities, that deserved a far better destiny. There are, indeed,
few individuals, whose lives have been so gay and thoughtless,
whom so many remember with cordiality and interest: and,
among the numerous instances of discriminating good nature, by
which the private conduct of His Royal Highness the Duke of
York is distinguished, there are none that do him more honor
than his prompt and efficient kindness to the interesting family
that the son of Sheridan has left behind him.

Soon after the Declaration of War against France, when an
immediate invasion was threatened by the enemy, the Heir Ap-
parent, with the true spirit of an English Prince, came forward
to make an offer of his personal service to the country. A cor-
respondence upon the subject, it is well known, ensued, in the
course of which His Royal Highness addressed letters to Mr.
Addington, to the Duke of York, and the King. It has been
sometimes stated that these letters were from the pen of Mr.
Sheridan ; but the first of the series was written by Sir Robert
Wilson, and the remainder by Lord Hutchinson.

The death of Joseph Richardson, which took place this year,
was felt as strongly by Sheridan as any thing can be felt, by those
who, iQ the whirl of worldly pursuits, revolve too rapidly round
Self, to let any thing rest long upon their surface. With a fidelity
to his old habits of unpunctuality, at which the shade of Richardson
might have smiled, he arrived too late at Bagshot for the funeral
of his friend, but succeeded in persuading the good-natured cler-
gyman to perform the ceremony over again. Mr. John Taylor,
a gentleman, whose love of good-fellowship and wit has made him
the welcome associate of some of the brightest men of his day,
was one of the assistants at this singular scene, and also joined
in the party at the inn at Bedfont afterwards, where Sheridan, it
is said, drained the " Cup of Memory" to his friend, till he found
oblivion at the bottom.

At the close of the session of 1803, that strange diversity of
opinions; into which the two leading parties were decomposed by

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230 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the resignation of Mr. Pitt, had given way to new varieties, both
of cohesion and separation, quite as little to be expected from the
natural affinities of the ingredients concerned in them. Mr. Pitt,
upon perceiving, in those to whom he had delegated his power,
an inclination to surround themselves with such strengjii from
the adverse ranks as would enable them to contest his resumption
of the trust, had gradually withdrawn the sanction which he at
first afforded them, and. taken his station by the side of the other
two parties in opposition, without, however, encumbering himself
in his views upon ofiice, with either. By a similar movement,
though upon different principles, Mr. Fox and the Whigs, who
had begun by supporting the Ministry against the strong War-
party of which Lord Grenville and Mr. Windham were the lead-
ers, now entered into close co-operation with this new Opposition,
and seemed inclined to forget both recent and ancient difierences
in a combined assault upon the tottering Administration of Mr.
Addington.

The only parties, perhaps, that acted with consistency through
these transactions, were Mr. Sheridan and the few who followed
him on one side, and fcord Grenville and his friends on the other.
The support which the former had given to the Ministry, — from
a conviction that such was the true policy of his party, — he perse-
vered in, notwithstanding the suspicion it drew down upon him, to
the last; and, to the last, deprecated the connection with the
Grenvilles, as entangling his friends in the same sort of hollow
partnership, out of which they had come bankrupts in character
and confidence before.* In like manner, it must be owned the
Opposition, of which Lord Grenville was the head, held a course
direct and undeviating from beginning to end. Unfettered by
those reservations in favor of Addington, which so long embar-

♦ In a letter written this year by Mr. Thomas Sheridan to his father, there is the fol-
lowing passage : —

" I am glad you intend writing to Lord ; he is quHe right about politics,— ^reprobates

the idea most strongly of any union with the Grenvilles, &c. which, he says, he sees is
Fox's leaning. * I agreed with your father perfectly on the subject, when I left him in
town ; but when I saw Charles at St. Ann's Hill, I perceived he was wrong and obsti-

llHtS.* "

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN^ 281

rassed the movements of their former leader, they at once started
in opposition to the Peace and the Ministry, and, with not only
Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, but the whole people of England against
them, persevered till they had ranged all these several parties
on their side : — nor was it altogether without reason that this
party afterwards boasted that, if any abandonment of principle
had occurred in the connection between them and the Whigs, the
surrender was assuredly not from their side.

Early in the year 1804, on the death of Lord Elliot, the office
of Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall, which had been held by
that nobleman, was bestowed by the Prince of Wales upon Mr.
Sheridan, " as a trifling proof of that sincere friendship His Royal
Highness had always professed and felt for him through a long
series of years." His Royal Highness also added, in the same
communication, the very cordial words, " I wish to God it was
better worth your acceptance."

The following letter from Sheridan to Mr. Addington, com-
municating the intelligence of this appointment, shows pretty
plainly the terms on which he not only now stood, but was well
inclined to continue, with that Minister : —

" Dear Sir, Georpe- Street , Tv^sday evening,

" Convinced as I am of the sincerity of your good will towards
me, I do not regard it as an impertinent intrusion to inform you
that the Prince has, in the. most gracious manner, and wholly
unsolicited, been pleased to appoint me to the late Lord Elliot's
situation in the Duchy of Cornwall. I feel a desire to communi-
cate this to you myself, because I feel a confidence that you will
be glad of it. It has been my pride and pleasure to have exerted
my humble efforts to serve the Prince without ever accepting the
slightest obligation from him ; but, in the present case, and under
the present circumstances, I think it would have been really false
pride and apparently mischievous affectation to have declined this
mark of His Royal Highness's confidence and favor. I will not
disguise that, at this peculiar crisis, I am greatly gratified at this
event. Had it been the result of a mean and subservient dev€^

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232 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF THE

tion to the Prince's every wish and object, I could neither have
respected the gift, the giver, nor myself; but when I consider how
recently it was my misfortune to find myself compelled by a
sense of duty, stronger than my attachment to him, wholly to
risk the situation I held in his confidence and favor, and that upon
a subject* on which his feelings were so eager and irritable, I
cannot but regard the increased attention, with which he has since
honored me, as a most gratifying demonstration that he has clear-
ness of judgment and firmness of spirit to distinguish the real
friends to his true glory and interests from the mean and mer-
cenary sycophants, who fear and abhor that such friends should
be near him. It is satisfactory to me, also, that this appointment
gives me the title and opportunity of seeing the Prince, on trying
occasions, openly and in the face of day, and puts aside the mask of
mystery and concealment. I trust I need not add, that whatever
small portion of fair influence I may at any time possess with the
Prince, it shall be uniformly exerted to promote those feelings
of duty and affection towards their Majesties, which, though seem-
ingly interrupted by adverse circumstances, I am sure are in his
heart warm and unalterable — and, as far as I may presume, that
general concord throughout his illustrious family, which must be
looked to by every honest subject, as an essential part of the
public strength at this momentous period. I have the honor to
be, with great respect and esteem,

"Your obedient Servant,
" Right Hon, Henry Addington, " R. B. Sheridan."

The same views that influenced Mr. Sheridan, Lord Mou*a,
and others, in supporting an administration which, with all its
defects, they considered preferable to a relapse into the hands of
Mr. Pitt, had led Mr. Tierney, at the close of the last Session,
to confer upon it a still more efficient sanction, by enrolling him-
self in its ranks as Treasurer of the Navy. In the early part of

* The offer made by the Prince of his personal services in 1803,— on which occasion
tShendan coincided with the views of Mr. Addington somewhat more than was agree-
able to His Royal Highness.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 23S

the present year, another ornament of the Whig party, Mr.
Erskine, was on the pomt of following in the same footsteps, by
accepting, from Mr. Addington, the office of Attorney-General.
He had, indeed, proceeded so far in his intention as to submit
the overtures of the Minister to the consideration of the Prince,
in a letter which was transmitted to his Koyal Highness by
Sheridan. The answer of the Prince, conveyed also through
Sheridan, while it expressed the most friendly feelings towards
Erskine, declined, at the same time, giving any opinion as to
either his acceptance or refusal of the office of Attorney-General,
if offered to him under the present circumstances. His Royal
Highness also added the expression of his sincere regret, that a
proposal of this nature should have been submitted to his ccm-
sideration by one, of whose attachment -and fidelity to himself
he was well convinced, but who ought to have felt, from the line
of conduct adopted and persevered in by his Royal Highness,
that he was the very last person that should have been applied
to for either his opinion or countenance respecting the political
conduct or connection of any public character, — especially of one
so intimately connected with him, and belonging to his &mily.

Iff at any time, Sheridan had entertained the idea of associating
himself, by office, with the Ministry of Mr. Addington, (and pro-
posals to this effect were, it is certain, made to him,) his knowl-
edge of the existence of such feelings as prompted this answer to
Mr. Erskine would, of course, have been sufficient to divert him
from the intention.

The following document, which I have found, in his own hand-
writing, and which was intended, apparently, for publication in
the newspapers, contains some particulars with respect to the
proceedings of his party at this time, which, coming from such
a source, may be considered as authentic : —

"State op Parties.

" Among the various rumors of Coalitions, or. attempted Co-
alitions, we have already expressed our disbelief in that reported
to have taken place between the Grenville-Windhamites and Mr,

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2^4 MSMOIBS OF THS LIFE OF THE

Fox. At least, if it was ever in negotiation, we have reason to
think it received an early check, arising from a strong party of
the Old Opposition protesting against it. The account of this
transaction, as whispered in the political circles, is as follows : —

" In consequence of some of the most respectable members of
the Old Opposition being sounded on the subject, a meeting was
held at Norfolk-House ; when it was determined, with very few
dissentient voices, to present a friendly remonstrance on the sub-
ject to Mr. Fox, stating the manifold reasons which obviously
presented themselves against such a procedure, both as affecting
Character and Party. It was urged that the present Ministers
had, on the score of innovation on the Constitution, given the
Whigs no pretence for complaint whatever; and, as to their
alleged incapacity, it remained to be proved that they were
capable of committing errors and producing miscarriages, equal
to those which had marked the councils of their predecessors,
whom the measure in question was expressly calculated to re-
place in power. At such a momentous crisis, therefore, waving
all considerations of past political provocation, to attempt, by
the strength and combination of party, to expel the Ministers of
His Majesty's choice, and to force into his closet those whom the
Whigs ought to be the first to rejoice that he had excluded from
it, was stated to be a proceeding which would assuredly revolt
the public feeling, degrade the character of Parliament, and pro-
duce possibly incalculable mischief to the country.

" We understand that Mr. Fox's reply was, that he would
never take any political step against the wishes and advice of the
majority of his old friends.

" The paper is said to have been drawn up by Mr. Erskine,
and to have been presented to Mr. Fox by his Grace of Norfolk,
on the day His Majesty was pronounced to be recovered from
his first illness. Rumor places among the supporters of this
measure the written authority of the Duke of Northumberland
and the Earl of Moira, with the signatures of Messrs. Erskine,
Sheridan, Shum, Curwen, Western, Brogden, and a long et ccetera^
It is said also that the Prince's sanction had been previously

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 285

given to the Duke, — His Royal Highness deprecating all party-
struggle, at a moment when the defence of all that is dear to
Britons ought to be the single sentiment that should fill the pub-
lic mind.

'' We do not vouch for the above being strictly accurate ; but
we are confident that it is not far from the truth."

The illness of the King, referred to in this paper, had been
first publicly announced in the month of February, and was for
some time considered of so serious a nature, that arrangements
were actually in progress for the establishment of a Regency.
Mr. Sheridan, who now formed a sort of connecting link between
Carlton-House and the Minister, took, of course, a leading part
in the negotiations preparatory to such a measure. It appears,
from a letter of Mr. Fox on the subject, that the Prince and
another person, whom it is unnecessary to name, were at one mo-
ment not a little alarmed by a rumor of an intention to associ-
ate the Duke of York and the Queen in the Regency. Mr.
Fox, however, begs of Sheridan to tranquillize their minds on
this point : — the intentions, (he adds,) of " the Doctor,"* though
bad enough in all reason, do not go to such lengths; and a
proposal of this nature, from any other quarter, could be easily
defeated.

Within about two months from the date of the Remonstrance,
which, according to a statement already given, was presented to
Mr. Fox by his brother Whigs, one of the consequences which it
prognosticated from the connection of their party with the Gren-
villes took place, in the resignation of Mr. Addington and the
return of Mr. Pitt to power.

The confidence of Mr. Pitt, in thus taking upon himself, almost

* To the infliction of this nickname on his friend, lb*. Addington, Sheridan was, in no
•mall degree, accessory, by applying to those who disapproved of his administration,
and yet gave no reasons for their disapprobation, the well-known lines, —
" I do not love thee. Doctor Fell,
And why I cannot tell *
But this I know full well,
I do not love thee, Doctor Fell."

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236 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

single-handed, the government of the country at such an awful
crisis, was, he soon perceived, not shared by the public. A ge-
neral expectation had prevailed that the three great Parties,
which had lately been encamped together on the field of opposi-
tion, would have each sent its Chiefs into the public councils, and
thus formed such a Congress of power and talent as the difficul-
ties of the empire, in that trying moment, demanded. This
hope had been frustrated by the repugnance of the King to Mr.
Fox, and the too ready facility with which Mr. Pitt had given
way to it. Not only, indeed, in his undignified eagerness for of-
fice, did he sacrifice without stipulation the important question,
which, but two years before, had been made the sine-qua-non of
his services, but, in yielding so readily to the Royal prejudices
against his rival, he gave a sanction to that unconstitutional prin-
ciple of exclusion,* which, if thus acted upon by the party-feelings
of the Monarch, would soon narrow the Throne into the mere
nucleus of a favored faction. In allowing, too, his friends and
partisans to throw the whole blame of this exclusive Ministry on
the King, he but repeated the indecorum of which he had been
guilty in 1802. For, having at that time made use of the reli-
gious prejudices of the Monarch, as a pretext for his manner of
quitting office, he now employed the political prejudices of the
same personage, as an equally convenient excuse for his manner
of returning to it.

A few extracts from the speech of Mr. Sheridan upon the Ad-
ditional Force Bill, — the only occasion on which he seems to have
spoken during the present year, — will show that the rarity of his
displays was not owing to any failure of power, but rather, per-

• " This principle of personal exclusion, (said Lord Grenville,) is one of which I never
can approve, because, independently of its operation to prevent Parliament and the peo-
ple from enjojring the Administration they desired, and which it was their particular in-
terest to have, it tends to establish a dangerous precedent, that would afford too much
opportunity of private pique against the public interest. I, for one, therefore, refused to
connect myself with any one argument that should sanction that principle ; and, in my
opinion, every man who accepted office under that Aministration is, according to the let-
ter and spirit of the constitution, responsible for its character and construction, and the
principle upon which it is founded."— ;SpeecA cf Lord GrenviCUon the motion qf Lord
Damleyfor the repeal of the AddiUonal Faroe BOlj Feb. 15, 1806.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 237

haps, to the increasmg involvement of his circumstances, which
left no time for the thought and preparation that all his public
efforts required.

Mr. Pitt had, at the commencement of this year, condescended
to call to his aid the co-operation of Mr. Addington, Lord Buck-
inghamshire, and other members of that Administration, which
had withered away, but a few months before, under the blight
of his sarcasm and scorn. In alluding to this Coalition, Sheridan
says,—

" The Right Honorable Gentleman went into oflSce alone ;— but, lest the
government should become too ftill of vigor from his support, he thought
proper to beckon back some of the weakness of the former administration.
He, I suppose, thought that the Ministry became, from his support, like
spirits above proof, and required to be diluted ; that, like gold refined to a
certain degree, it would be unfit for use w.ithout a certain mixture of alloy ;
that the administration would be too brilliant, and dazzle the House, unless
he called back a certain part of the mist and fog of the last administration
to render it tolerable to the eye. As to the great change made in the Mi-
nistry by the introduction of the Right Honorable Gentleman himself, I
would ask, does he imagine that he came back to ofiBce with the same esti-
mation that he left it? I am sure he is much mistaken if he fancies that he
did. The Right Honorable Gentleman retired from office because, as was
stated, he could not carry an important question, which he deemed neces-
sary to satisfy the just claims of the Catholics ; and in going out he did not
hesitate to tear off the sacred veil of Majesty, describing his Sovereign as
the only person that stood in the way of this desirable object. After the
Right Honorable Gentleman's retirement, he advised the Catholics to look
to no one but him for the attainment of their rights, and cautiously to ab-
stain from forming a connection with any other person. But how does it
appear, now that the Right Honorable Gentleman is returned to office ?
He declines to perform his promise ; and has received, as his colleagues In
office, those who are pledged to resist the measure. Does not the Right
Honorable Gentleman then feel that he comes back to office with a cha-
racter degraded by the violation of a solemn pledge, given to a great and
respectable body of the people, upon a particular and momentous occasion ?
Does the Right Honorable Gentleman imagine eithei; that he returns to
office with the same character for political wisdom, after the description
which he gave of the talents and capacity of his predecessors, and after
having shown, by his own actions, that his description was totally un-
founded ?"

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288 MBMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

In alluding to Lord Melville's appointment to the Admiralty,
he says, —

" But then, I am told, there is the First Lord of the Admiralty, — * Do
you forget the leader of the grand Catamaran project ? Are you not
aware of the important change in that department, and the advantage the
country is likely to derive from that change ?' Why, I answer, that I do
not know of any peculiar qualifications the Noble Lord has to preside over
the Admiralty ; but I do know, that if I were to judge of him from the
kind of capacity he evinced while Minister of War, I should entertain little
hopes of him. If, however, the Right Honorable Gentleman should say to
me, * Where else would you put that Noble Lord, would you have him ap-
pointed War-Minister again ?' I should say, Oh no, by no means, — I re-
member too well the expeditions to Toulon, to Quiberon, to Corsica, and
to Holland, the responsibility for each of which the Noble Lord took on
himself, entirely releasing from any responsibility the Commander in Chief
and. the Secretary at War. I also remember that, which, although so glo-
rious to our arms in the result, I still shall call a most unwarrantable
project, — the expedition to Egypt. It may be said, that as the Noble Lord
was so unfit for the military department, the naval was the proper place
for him. Perhaps there were people who would adopt this whimsical rea-
Boning. I remember a story told respecting Mr. Garrick, who was once
applied to by an eccentric Scotchman, to introduce a production of his on
the stage. This Scotchman was such a good-humored fellow, that he was
called * Honest Johnny M'Cree.' Johnny wrote four acts of a tragedy,
which he showed to Mr. Garrick, who dissuaded him from finishing it ;
telling him that his talent did not lie that way ; so Johnny abandoned the
tragedy, and set about writing a comedy. When this was finished, he
showed it to Mr. Garrick, who found it to be still more exceptionable than
the tragedy, and of course could not be persuaded to bring it forward on
the stage. This surprised poor Johnny, and he remonstrated. * Nay, now,
David, (said Johnny,) did you not tell me my talents did not lie in tra-
gedy ?' — ' Yes, (replied Garrick,) but I did not tell you that they lay in
comedy.' — * Then, (exclaimed Johnny,) gin they dinna lie there, where the
de'il dittha lie, mon V Unless the Noble Lord at the head of the Admiral-
ty has the same reasoning in his mind as Johnny M'Cree, he cannot possi-
bly suppose that his incapacity for the direction of the War-department
necessarily qualifies him for the Presidency of the NavaL Perhaps, if the
Noble Lord be.told^hat he has no talents for the latter, His Lordship may
exclaim with honest Johnny M'Cree, * Gin they dinna lie there, where the
de'il dittha lie, mon V "

On the 10th of May, the claims of the Roman Catholics of Ire

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLKY SHBRIDAN. 239

land, were, for die first time, brought under the notice of the Im«
perial Parliament, bj Lord Grenville in the House of Lords, and
by Mr. Fox in the House of Commons. A few days before the
debate, as appears by the following remarkable letter, Mr. Sheri-
dan was made the medium of a communication from Carlton-
House, the object of which was to prevent Mr. Fox from pre-
senting the Petition.

"Dbar Sheridan,

" I did not receive your letter till last night.

" I did, on Thursday, consent to be the presenter of the Catho-
lic Petition, at the request of the Delegates, and had further con-
versation on the subject with them at Lord Grenville's yesterday
morning. Lord Grenville also consented to present the Petition
to the House of Lords. Now, therefore, any discussion on this
part of the subject would be too late ; but I will fairly own, that,
if it were not, I could not be dissuaded from doing the public act,
which, of all others, it will give me the greatest satisfaction and
pride to perform. No past event in my political life ever did,
and no future one ever can, give me such pleasure.

" I am sure you know how painful it would be to me to dis-
obey any command of His Royal Highness's, or even to act in
any manner that might be in the slightest degree contrary to his
wishes, and therefore I am not sorry that your intimation came
too late. I shall endeavor to see the Prince to-day ; but, if I
should fail, pray take care that he knows how things stand before
we meet at dinner, lest any conversation there should appear to
come upon him by surprise.

" Yours ever,

''Arlington Street, Sunday, **C. J. F."

It would be rash, without some further insight into the circum-
stances of this singular interference, to enter into any specu-
lations with respect to its nature or motives, or to pronounce how
far Mr. Sheridan was justified in being the instrument of it. But
on the share of Mr. Fox in the transaction, such suspension of

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240 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

opinion is unnecessary. We have here his simple and honest
words before us, — ^and they breathe a spirit of sincerity from
which even Princes might take a lesson with advantage.

Mr. Pitt was not long in discovering that place does not always
imply Power, and that in separating himself from the other able
men of the day, he had but created an Opposition as much too
strong for the Government, as the Government itself was too
weak for the country. The humiliating resource to which he
was driven, in trying, as a tonic, the reluctant alliance of Lord
Sidmouth, — the abortiveness of his efforts to avert the fall of his
old friend. Lord Melville, and the fatality of ill luck that still
attended his exertions against France, — all concurred to render
this reign of the once powerful Minister a series of humiliations,
shifts, and disasters, unlike his former proud period in every
thing but ill success. The powerful Coalition opposed to him
already had a prospect of carrying by storm the post which he
occupied, when, by his death, it was surrendered, without parley,
into their hands.

The Administration that succeeded, under the auspices of Lord
Grenville and Mr. Fox, bore a resemblance to the celebrated
Brass of Corinth, more, perhaps, in the variety of the metals
brought together, than m the perfection of the compound that
resulted from their fusion.* There were comprised in it, indeed,
not only the two great parties of the leading chiefs, but those
Whigs who differed with them both under the Addington Minis-
try, and the Addingtons that differed with them all on the sub-
ject of the Catholic claims. With this last anomalous addition
to the miscellany the iniSuence of Sheridan is mainly chargeable.
Having, for some time past, exerted all his powers of manage-
ment to bring about a coalition between Carlton-House and Lord
Sidmouth, he had been at length so successful, that upon the
formation of the present Ministry, it was the express desire of
the Prince that Lord Sidmouth should constitute a part of it.

* See in the Annual Register of 1806, some able remarks upon Coalitions in general, as
well as a temperate defence of this Coalition in particular, — for which that work is, I sus-
pect, indebted to a hand such as has not often, since the time of Burke, enriched its pages

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 241

To the same unlucky influence, too, is to be traced the very
questionable measure, (notwithstanding the great learning and
ability with which it was defended,) of introducing the Chief
Justice, Lord Ellenborough, into the Cabinet.

As to Sheridan's own share in the arrangements, it was, no
doubt, expected by him that he should now be included among
the members of the Cabinet ; and it is probable that Mr. Fox,
at the head of a purely Whig ministry, would have so far con-
sidered the services of his ancient ally, and the popularity still
attached to his name through the country, as to confer upon him
this mark of distmction and confidence. But there were other
interests to be consulted ; — and the undisguised earnestness with
which Sheridan had opposed the union of his party with the
Grenvilles, left him but little supererogation of services to expect
in that quarter. Some of his nearest friends, and particularly
Mrs. Sheridan, entreated, as I understand, in the most anxious
manner, that he would not accept any such office as that of Trea-
surer of the Navy, for the responsibility and business of which
they knew his habits so' wholly unfitted him, — ^but that, if exclud-
ed by his colleagues from the distinction of a seat in the Cabi-
net, he should decline all pffice whatsoever, and take his chance
in a friendly independence of them. But the time was now past
when he could afford to adopt this policy, — the emoluments of a
place were too necessary to him to be rejected ; — and, in accept-
ing the same office that had been allotted to him in the Regency-
arrangements of 1789, he must have felt, with no small degree
of mortification, how stationary all his efforts since then had left
him, and what a blank was thus made of all his services in the
interval.

The period of this Ministry, connected with the name of Mr.
Fox, though brief, and in some respects, far from laudable, was
distinguished by two measures, — ^the Plan of Limited Service,
and the Resolution for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, — which
will long be remembered to the honor of those concerned in
them. The motion of Mr. Fox against the Slave-Trade was the
last he ever made in Parliament ; — ^and the same sort of mela»-

VOL. n. 11 ^

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242 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

choly admiration that Pliny expresses, in speaking of a beautiful
picture, the painter of which had died in finishing it, — " dolor
manus^ dum id ageret^ ahreptoB,^^ — comes naturally over our hearts
in thinking of the last glorious work, to which this illustrious
statesman, in dying, set his hand.

Though it is not true, as has been asserted, that Mr. Fox re-
fused to see Sheridan in his last illness, it is but too certain that
those appearances of alienation or reserve, which had been for
some time past observable in the former, continued to throw a
restraint over their intercourse with each other to the last. It is
a proof, however, of the absence of any serious grounds for this
distrust, that Sheridan was the person selected by the relatives
of Mr. Fox to preside over and direct the arrangements of the
funeral, and that he put the last, solemn seal to their long inti*
macy, by following his friend, as mourner, to the grave.

The honor of representing the city of Westminster in Parlia-
ment had been, for some time, one of the dreams of Sheridan's
ambition. It was suspected, indeed, — I know not with what jus-
tice, — ^that in advising Mr. Fox, as he is said to have done, about
the year 1800, to secede from public life altogether, he was actu-
ated by a wish to succeed him in },he representation of West-
minster, and had even already set on foot some private negotia-
tions towards that object. Whatever grounds there may have
been for this suspicion, the strong wish that he felt on the subject
had long been sufficiently known to his colleagues ; and on the
death of Mr. Fox, it appeared, not only to himself, but the pub-
lic, that he was the person naturally pointed out as most fit to
be his parliamentary successor. It was, therefore, with no slight
degree of disappointment he discovered, that the ascendancy of
Aristocratic influence was, as usual, to prevail, and that the young
son of the Duke of Northumberland would be supported by the
Government in preference to him. It is but right, however, in
justice to the Ministry, to state, that the neglect with which they
appear to have treated him on this occasion, — particularly in not
apprising him of their decision in favor of Lord Percy, suffi-
ciently early to save him from the humiliation of a fruitless at-

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BBINSLEY SHERIDAN. 248

tempt, — is proved, by the following letters, to have ori^ated in
a double misapprehension, by which, while Sheridan, on one side,
was led to believe that the Ministers would favor his pretensions,
the Ministers, on the other, were induced to think that he had
given up all intentions of being a candidate.

The first letter is addressed to the gentleman, (one of Sheri-
dan's intimate friends,) who seems to have been, unintentionally,
the cause of the mistake on both sides.

" Dear , Somerset-Place, September 14.

" You must have seen by my manner, yesterday, how much I
was surprised and hurt at learning, for the first time, that Lord
Grenville had, many days previous to Mr. Fox's death, decided
to support Lord Percy on the expected vacancy for Westmins-
ter, and that you had since been the active agent in the canvass
actually commenced. I do not like to think I have grounds to com-
plain or change my opinion of any friend, without being very
explicit, and opening my mind, without reserve, on such a sub-
ject. I must frankly declare, that I think you have brought
yourself and me into a very unpleasant dilemma. You seemed
to say, last night, that you had not been apprised of my inten-
tion to offer for Westminster on the apprehended vacancy. I
am confident you have acted under that impression ; but I must
impute to you either great inattention to what fell from me in
our last conversation on the subject, or great inaccuracy of re-
collection ; for I solemnly protest I considered you as the indi-
vidual most distinctly apprised, that at this moment to succeed
that great man and revered friend in Westminster, should the fa-
tal event take place, would be the highest object of my ambi-
tion ; for, in that conversation I thanked you expressly for in-
forming me that Lord Grenville had said to yourself, upon Lord
Percy being suggested to him, that he. Lord Grenville, * would
decide on nothing until Mr. Sheridan had been spoken to, and his
intentions known,^ or words precisely to that effect. I expressed
my grateful sense of Lord Grenville's attention, and said, that it

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244 MBMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

would coDfirm me in my intention of making no application,
however hopeless myself respecting Mr. Fox, while life remained
with him, — and the^e words of Lord Grenville you allowed/ last
night to have be^i so stated to me, though not as a message
from His Lordship. Since that time I think we have not hap-
pened to meet ; at least sure I am, we have had no conversation
•on the subject. Having the highest opinion of Lord Grenville's
honor and sincerity, I must be confident that he must have had
another impression made on his mind respecting my wishes be-
fore I was entirely passed by. I do not mean to say that my
offering myself was immediately to entitle me to the support of
Government, but I do mean to say, that my pretensions were
entitled to consideration before that support was offered to ano-
ther without the slightest notice taken of me, — the more espe-
cially as the words of Lord Grenville, reported by you to me,
had been stated by me to many friends as my reliance and jus-
tification in not following their advice by making a direct appli-
cation to Government. I pledged myself to them that Lord
Grenville would not promise the support of Government till my
intentions had been asked, and I quoted your authority for doing
so : I never heard a syllable of that support being promised to
Lord Percy until from you on the evening of Mr. Fox's death.
Did I ever authorize you to inform Lord Grenville that I had
abandoned the idea of offering myself] These are points which
it is necessary, for the honor of all parties, should be amicably
explained. I therefore propose, as the shortest way of effecting
it, — wishing you not to consider this letter as in any degree con-
fidential, — that my statements in this letter may be submitted to
any two common friends, or to the Lord Chancellor alone, and
let it be ascertained where the error has arisen, for error is all I
complain of; and, with regard to Lord Grenville, I desire dis-
tinctly to say, that I feel myself indebted for the fairness and
kindness of his intentions towards me. My disappointment of
the protection of Government may be a sufficient excuse to the
friends I am pledged to, should I retire ; but I must have it

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 245

understood whether or not I deceived them, when I led them to
expect that I should have that support.

" 1 hope to remain ever yours sincerely,

" R. B. Sheridan.
*' The sooner the reference I propose the better."

The second letter, which is still further explanatory of the
misconception, was addressed by Sheridan to Lord Grenville :

" My dear Lord,

" Since I had the honor of Your Lordship's letter, I have re-
ceived one from Mr. , in which, I am sorry to observe he

is silent as to my offer of meeting, in the presence of a third per-
son, in order to ascertain whether he did or not so report a con-
versation with Your Lordship as to impress on my mind a belief
that my pretensions would be considered, before the support of
Government should be pledged elsewhere. Instead of this, he
not only does not admit the precise words quoted by me, but does
not state what he allows he did say. If he denies that he ever
gave me reason to adopt the belief I have stated, be it so ; but
the only stipulation I have made is that we should come to an
explicit understanding on this subject,— not with a view to quot-
ing words or repeating names, but that the misapprehension,
whatever it was, may be so admitted as not to leave me under
an unmerited degree of discredit and disgrace. Mr. cer-
tainly never encouraged me to stand for Westminster, but, on
the contrary, advised me to support Lord Percy, which made me
the more mark at the time the fairness with which I thought he
apprised me of the preference my pretensions were likely to re-
<»ive in Your Lordship's consideration.

" Unquestionably Your Lordship's recollection of what passed

between Mr. and yourself must be just ; and were it no

more than what you said on the same subject to Lord Ho wick,
I consider it as a mark of attention ; but what has astonished me

is, that Mr. should ever have informed Your Lordship,

as he admits he did, that I had no intention of offering myself.

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246 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

This naturally must have put from your mind whatever degree
of disposition was there to have made a preferable application to
me ; and Lord Howick's answer to your question, on which I
have ventured to make a friendly remonstrance, must have con-
firmed Mr. 's report. But allow me to suppose that 1 had

myself seen Your Lordship, and that you had explicitly promised
me the support of Government, and had afterwards sent for me
and informed me that it was at all an object to you that I should
give way to Lord Percy, I assure you, with the utmost sincerity,
that I should cheerfully have withdrawn myself, and applied eve-
ry interest I possessed as your Lordship should have directed.

" All I request is, that what passed between me and Mr.

may take an intelligible shape before any common friend, or be-
fore Your Lordship. This I conceive to be a preliminary due to
my own honor, and what he ought not to evade."

The Address which he delivered, at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern, in declining the offer of support which many of the elec-
tors still pressed upon him, contains some of those touches of
personal feeling which a biographer is more particularly bound
to preserve. In speaking of Mr. Fox, he said, —

" It is true there have been occasions upon which I have diflfered with him
— painful recollections of the most painful moments of my political life!
Nor were there wanting those who endeavored to represent these differ-
ences as a departure from the homage which his superior mind, though un-
claimed by him, was entitled to, and from the allegiance of friendship
which our hearts all swore to him. But never was the genuine and con-
fiding texture of his soul more manifest than on such occasions ; he knew
that nothing on earth could detach me from him ; and he resented insinua-
tions against the sincerity and integrity of a friend, which he would not
have noticed had they been pointed against himself. With such a man to
have battled in the cause of genuine liberty, — with such a man to have
struggled against the inroads of oppression and corruption, — with such an
example before me, to have to boast that I never in my life gave one vote
in Parliament that was not on the side of freedom, is the congratulation
that attends the retrospect of my public life. His friendship was the pride
and honor of my days. I never, for one moment, regretted to share with
him the difficulties, the calumnies, and sometimes even the dangers, that

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 247

attended an honorable course. And now, reviewing my past political life,
were the option possible that I should retread the path. I solemnly and de-
liberately declare that I would prefer to pursue the same course ; to bear
up mder the same pressure ; to abide by the same principles ; and remain
by his side an exile from power, distinction, and emolument, rather than be
at this moment a splendid example of successful servility or prosperous
apostacy, though clothed with power, honor, titles, gorged with sinecures,
and lord of hoards obtained from the plunder of the people.''

At the conclusion of his Address he thus alludes, with evi-
dently a deep feeling of discontent, to the circumstances that had
obliged him to decline the honor now proposed to him : —

" Illiberal warnings have been held out, most unauthoritatively I know,
that by persevering in the present contest I may risk my ofiBcial situation,
and if I retire, I am aware, that minds, as coarse and illiberal, may assign
the dread of that as my motive. To such insinuations I shall scorn to make
any other reply than a reference to the whole of my past political career.
I consider it as no boast to say,Hhat any one who has struggled through
such a portion of life as I have, without obtaining an oflBce, is not likely to
abandon his principles to retain one when acquired. If riches do not give
independence, the next best thing to being very rich is to have been used
to be very poor. But independence is not allied to wealth, to birth, to
re^nk, to power, to titles, or to honor. Independence is in the mind of a
man, or it is no where. On this ground were I to decline the contest, I
should scorn the imputation that should bring the purity of my purpose
into doubt. No Minister can expect to find in me a*servile vassal. No Mi-
nister can expect from me the abandonment of any principle I have avowed,
or any pledge I have given. I know not that I have hitherto shrunk
in place from opinions I have maintained while in oppposition. Did there
exist a Minister of a different cast from any I know in being, were he to
attempt to exact from me a diffferent conduct, my oflSce should be at his
service to-morrow. Such a Minister might strip me of my situation, in some
respects of considerable emolument, but he could not strip me of the proud
conviction that I was right ; he could not strip me of my own self-esteem ;
he could not strip me, I think, of some portion of the confidence and good
opinion of the people. But I am noticing the calumnious threat I allude
to more than it deserves. There can be no peril, I venture to assert, un-
der the present Government, in the free exercise of discretion, such as be-
longs to the present question. I therefore disclaim the merit of putting
anything to hazard. If I have missed the opportunity of obtaining all the
support I might, perhaps, have had on the present occasion, from a very

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248 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OP THE

ficrapaloas delicacy, which I think became and was incumbent npon me,
but which I by no means conceive to have been a fit rule for others, I can-
not repent it. While the slightest aspiration of breath passed those lips,
now closed for ever, — ^while one drop of life's blood beat in that heart, now
cold for ever, — I could not, I ought not, to have acted otherwise than I
did. — ^I now come with a very embarrassed feeling to that declaration which
I yet think you must have expected from me, but which I make with re-
luctance, because, firom the marked approbation I have experienced from
you, I fear that with reluctance you will receive it. — ^I feel myself under
the necessity of returing firom this contest."

About three weeks after, ensued the Dissolution of Parliament,
—a measure attended with considerable unpopularity to the
Ministry, and originating as much in the enmity of one of its
members to Lord Sidmouth, as the introduction of that noble
Lord among them, at all, was owing to the friendship of another.
In consequence of this event. Lord Percy having declined offering
himself again, Mr. Sheridan became a candidate for Westminster,
and after a most riotous contest with a demagogue of the mo-
ment, named Paul], was, together with Sir Samuel Hood, declared
duly elected.

The moderate measure in fhvor of the Roman Catholics, which
the Ministry now thought it due to the expectations of that body
to bring forward, was, as might be expected, taken advantage of
by the King to rid himself of their counsels, and produced ono
of those bursts of bigotry, by which the people of England have
so often disgraced themselves. It is sometimes a misfortune to
men of wit, that they put their opinions in a form to be remem-
bered. We might, perhaps, have been ignorant of the keen, but
worldly view which Mr. Sheridan, on this occasion, took of the
hardihood of his colleagues, if he had not himself expressed it
in a form so portable to the memory. " He had often,'* he said,
" heard of people knocking out their brains against a wall, but
never before knew of any one building a wall expressly for the
purpose."

It must be owned, indeed, that, though far- too sagacious and
liberal not to be deeply impressed with the justice of the claims
advanced by the Catholics, he was not altogether disposed to ffo

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RIGHT HON. BICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 24&

those generous lengths in their favor, of which Mr. Fox and a few
others of their less calculating friends were capable. It was his
avowed opinion, that, though the measure, whenever brought for-
ward, should be supported and enforced by the whole weight of
the party, they ought never so far to identify or encumber them
selves with it, as to make its adoption a sine-qua-non of their
acceptance or retention of office. His support, too, of the Min-
istry of Mr. Addington, which was as virtually pledged against the
Catholics as that which now succeeded to power, sufficiently
shows the secondary station that this great question occupied in
his mind ; nor can such a deviation from the usual tone of his po-
litical feelings be otherwise accounted for, than by supposing
that he was aware of the existence of a strong indisposition to the
measure on that quarter, by whose views and wishes his public
conduct was, in most cases, regulated.

On the general question, however, of the misgovernment of
Ireland, and the disabilities of the Catholics, as forming its most
prominent feature, his zeal was always forthcoming and ardent,
— and never more so than during the present Session, when, on
the question of the Irish Arms Bill, and his own motion upon
the State of Ireland, he distinguished himself by an animation
and vigor worthy of the best period of his eloquence.

Mr. Grattan, in supporting the coercive measures now adopted
against his country, had shown himself, for once, alarmed into a
concurrence with the wretched system of governing by Insurrec-
tion Acts, and, for once, lent his sanction to the principle upon
which all such measures are founded, namely, that of enabling
Power to defend itself against the consequences of its own ty-
ranny and injustice. In alluding to some expressions used by
this great man, Sheridan said : —

" He now happened to recollect what was said by a Right Honorable
Gentleman, to whose opinions they all deferred, (Mr. Grattan,) that not-
withstanding he voted for the present measure, with all its defects, rather
than lose it althgether,'yet that gentleman said, that he hoped to secure
the revisionary interest of the Constitution to Ireland. But when he saw
that the Constitution was suspended from the year 1796 to the present pe-
VOL. n. 11*

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250 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

riod, and that it was now likely to be continued for three ypars longer, the
danger was that we might lose the interest altogether ; — ^when we were
mortgaged for suchti length of time, at last a foreclosure might take place."

The following is an instance of that happy power of applying
old stories, for which Mr. Windham, no less than Sheridan, was
remarkable, and which, by promoting anecdote into the service
of argument and wit, ennobles it, when trivial, and gives new
youth to it, when old.

" When they and others complain of the discontents of the Irish, they
never appear to consider the bause. When they express their surprise that
the Irish are not contented, while according to their observation, that peo-
ple have so much reason to be happy, they betray a total ignorance of their
actual circumstances. The fact is, that the tyranny practised upon the Irish
has been throughout unremitting. There has been no change but in the
manner of inflicting it. They have had nothing but variety in oppression,
extending to all ranks and degrees of a certain description of the people.
If you would know what this varied oppression consisted in, I refer you to
the Penal Statutes you have repealed, and to some of those which still ex-
ist. There you will see the high and the low equally subjected to the lash
of persecution ; and yet still some persons affect to be astonished at the
discontents of the Irish. But with all my reluctance to introduce any thing
ludicrous upon so serious an occasion, I cannot help referring to a lUtle
story which those very astonished persons call to my mind. It was with re-
spect to an Irish drummer, who was employed to inflict punishment upon a
soldier. When the boy struck high, the poor soldier exclaimed, * Lower,
bless you,* with which the boy complied. But soon after the soldier ex-
claimed, * Higher if you please,* But again he called out, *A little lower ;'
upon which the accommodating boy addressed him — * Now, upon my con-
science, I see you are a discontented man ; for, strike where I may, there's"^
no pleasing you.' Now your complaint of the discontents of the Irish ap-
pears to me quite as rational, while you continue to strike, only altering the
place of attack."

Upon this speech, which may be considered as the bouquet^ or
last parting blaze of his eloquence, he appears to have bestowed
considerable care and thought. The concluding sentences of the
following passage, though in his very worst taste, were as anx-
iously labored by him, and put through as many rehearsals on

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 251

paper, as any of the most highly finished witticisms in The School
for Scandal.

" I cannot think patiently of such petty squabbles, while Bonaparte ia
grasping the nations ; while he is surrounding France, not with that iron
frontier, for which the wish and childish ambition of Louis XTV. was so
eager, but with kingdoms of his own creation ; securing the gratitude of
higher minds as the hostage, and the fears of others as pledges for his
safety. His are no ordinary fortifications. His martello towers are thrones ;
sceptres tipt with crowns are the palisadoes of his entrenchments, and Kings
are his sentinels."

The Reporter here, by " tipping " the sceptres " with crowns,"
has improved, rather unnecessarily, upon the finery of the origi-
nal. The following are specimens of the various trials of this
passage which I find scribbled over detached scraps of paper ; —

** Contrast the different attitudes and occupations of the two govern-
ments : — B. eighteen months from his capital, — ^head-quarters in the vil-
lages, — ^neither Berlin nor Warsaw, — dethroning and creating thrones, —
the works he raises are monarchies, — sceptres his palisadoes, thrones his
martello towers."

" Commissioning kings, — erecting thrones, — martello towers, — Camb^
ceres count noses, — Austrians, fine dressed, like Pompey ^troops."

" B. fences with sceptres, — ^his martello towers are thrones, — ^he alone is
France."

Another Dissolution of Parliament having taken place this
year, he again became a candidate for the city of Westminster.
But, after a violent contest, during which he stood the coarse
abuse of the mob with the utmost good humor and playfulness,
the election ended in favor of Sir Francis Burdett and Lord
Cochrane, and Sheridan was returned, with his friend Mr.
Michael Angelo Taylor, for the borough of Ilchester.

In the autumn of 1807 he had conceived some idea of leasing
the property of Drury-Lane Theatre, and with that view had set
on foot, through Mr. Michael Kelly, who was then in Ireland, a
negotiation with Mr. Frederick Jones, the proprietor of the
Dublin Theatre. In explaining his object to Mr. Kelly, in a let-
ter dated August 30, 1807, he describes it as " a plan by which

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252 MEMOIRS OF TUE LIFE OF THE

the property raay be leased to those who have the skill aud the
industry to manage it as it should be for their own advantage,
upon terms which would render any risk to them almost impos-
sible ; — the profit to them, (he adds,) would probably be be-
yond what I could now venture to state, and yet upon terras
which would be much better for the real proprietors than any
thing that can arise from the careless and ignorant manner in
which the undertaking is now misconducted by those who, my
son excepted, have no interest in its success, and who lose
nothing by its failure."

The negotiation with Mr. Jones was continued into the follow-
ing year ; and, according to a draft of agreement, which this
gentleman has been kind enough to show me, in Sheridan's hand-
writing, it was intended that Mr. Jones should, on becoming
proprietor of one quarter-share of the property, " undertake the
management of the Theatre in conjunction with Mr. T. Sheridan,
and be entitled to the same remuneration, namely, lOOOZ. per
annum certain income, and a certain per centage on the net pro-
fits arising from the office-receipts, as should be agreed upon,"
&c. &c.

The following memorandum of a bet connected with this trans-
action, is of somewhat a higher class of waCgers than the One
Tun Tavern has often had the honor of recording among its ar-
chives : —

" One Tun, St. Jameses Market, May 26, 1808.
" In the presence of Messrs. G. Ponsonby, R. Power, and Mr. Bechcr,*
Mr. Jones bets Mr. Sheridan iSve hundred guineas that he, Mr. Sheridan,
does not write, and produce under his name, a play of five acts, or a first
piece of three, within the term of three years from the 15th of September
next. — It is distinctly to be understood that this bet is not valid unless Mr.

* It is not without a deep feeling of melancholy that I tranecribe this paper. Of
three of my most valaed friends, whose names are signed to it, — Becher, Pcmsonby, and
Power, — the last has, within a few short months, been snatched away, leaving behind
him the recollection of as many gentle and manly virtues as ever rpncurred (p f^vf
■weetness and strength to character.

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BIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 253

Jones becomes a partner in Drury-Lane Theatre before the commencement
of the ensuing season.

** Richard Power, " R. B. Sheridan,

" George Ponsonby, *• Fred. Edw. Jones.

" W. W. Becher.
" N. B.— W. W. Becher and Richard Power join, one fifty,— the other
one hundred pounds in this bet.

" R. Power."

The grand movement of Spain, in the year 1808, which led to
consequences so important to the rest of Europe, though it has
left herself as enslaved >and priest-ridden as ever, was hailed by
Sheridan with all that prompt and well-timed ardor, with which
he alone, of all his party, knew how to meet such great occa-
sions. Had his political associates but learned from his exam-
ple thus to place themselves in advance of the procession of
events, they would not have had the triumphal wheels pass by
them and over them so frequently. Immediately on the arrival
of the Deputies from Spain, he called the attention of the House
to the affairs of that country ; and his speech on the subject,
though short and unstudied, had not only the merit of falling in
with the popular feeling at the moment, but, from the views which
it pointed out through the bright opening now made by Spain,
was every way calculated to be useful both at home and abroad.

" Let Spain," he said, " see, that we were not inclined to stint the ser-
vices we had it in our power to render her ; that we were not actuated by
the desire of any petty advantage to ourselves ; but that our exertions
were to be solely directed to the attainment of the grand and general ob-
ject, the emancipation of the world. If the fiame were once fairly caught,
our success was certain. France would then find, that she had hitherto
been contending only against principalities, powers, and authorities, but
llhat she had now to contend against a people."

The death of Lord Lake this year removed those difficulties
which had, ever since the appointment of Sheridan to the Re-
ceivership of the Duchy of Cornwall, stood in the way of his
reaping the full advantages of that office. Previously to the
.departure of General Lake for India, the Prince had granted to

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254 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

him the reversion of this situation which was then filled by Lord
Elliot. It was afterwards, however, discovered that, according
to the terms of the Grant, the place could not be legally held or
deputed by any one who had not been actually sworn into it be-
fore the Prince'^s Council. On the death of Lord Elliot, there-
fbre, His Royal Highness thought himself authorized, as we have
seen, in conferring the appointment upon Mr. Sheridan. This
step, however, was considered by the friends of General Lake
as not only a breach of promise, but a violation of right ; and it
would seem from one of the documents which I am about to give,
that measures were even in train for enforcing the claim by law.
The first is a Letter on the subject from Sheridan to Colonel
M*Mahon: —

" My dear M*Mahon, Thursday evening,

" I have thoroughly considered and reconsidered the subject
we talked upon to-day. Nothing on earth shall make me risk
the possibility of the Prince's goodness to me furnishing an op-
portunity for a single scurrilous fool's presuming to hint even
that he had, in the slightest manner, departed from the slightest
engagement. The Prince's right, in point of law and justice, on
the present occasion to recall the appointment given, I hold to be
incontestable ; but, believe me, I am right in the proposition I
took the liberty of submitting to His Royal Highness, and
which (so for is he from wishing to hurt General Lake,) he gra-
ciously approved. But understand me, — my meaning is to give
up the emoluments of the situation to General Lake, holding the
situation at the Prince's pleasure, and abiding by an arbitrated
estimate of General Lake's claim, supposing His Royal High-
ness had appointed him ; in other words, to value his interest in
the appointment as if he had it, and to pay him for it or resign
to him.

" With the Prince's permission I should be glad to meet Mr.
Warwick Lake, and I am confident that no two men of common
sense and good intentions can fail, in ten minutes, to arrange it
so as to meet the Prince's wishes, and not to leave the shadow

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RIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 255

of a pretence for envious malignity to whisper a word against his
decision.

*' Yours ever,

" R. B. Sheridan.
" I vjrrite in great haste — going to A ."

The other Paper that I shall give, as throwing light on the
transaction, is a rough and unfinished sketch by Sheridan of a
•tatement intended to be transmitted to General Lake, containing
the particulars of both Grants, and the documents connected with
them : —

" Dear General,

" I am commanded by the Prince of Wales to transmit to
you a correct Statement of a transaction in which your name is
80 muc]i implicated, and in which his feelings have been greatly
wounded from a quarter, I am commanded to say, whence he
did not expect such conduct.

" As I am directed to communicate the particulars in the most
authentic form, you will, I am sure, excuse on this occasion my
not adopting the mode of a familiar letter.

" Authentic Statement respecting the Appointment by His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales to the Receivership of the Duchy
of Cornwall, in the Year 1804, to be transmitted by His Royal
Highness's Command, to Lieutenant-General Lake, Command-
er-in-Chief of the Forces in India.

" The circumstances attending the original reversionary Grant
to General Lake are stated in the brief for Counsel on this occa-
sion by Mr. Bignell, the .Prince's solicitor, to be as follow:
(No. I.) It was afterwards understood by the Prince that the
service he had wished to render General Lake, by this Grant,
had been defeated by the terms of it ; and so clearly had it been
shown that there were essential duties attached to the office,
which no Deputy was competent to execute, and that a Deputy,
even for the collection of the rents, could not be appointed but
by a principal actually in possession of the office, (by having

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256 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

been sworn into it before his Council,) that upon General Lake'a
appointment to the command in India, the Prince could have no
conception that General Lake could have left the country under
an impression or expectation that the Prince would appoint him,
in case of a vacancy, to the place in question. Accordingly, His
Royal Highness, on the very day he heard of the death of Lord
Elliot, unsolicited, and of his own gracious suggestion, appointed
Mr. Sheridan. Mr. Sheridan returned, the next day, in a letter
to the Prince, such an answer and acknowledgment as might be
expected from him ; and, accordingly, directions were given to
make out his patent. On the ensuing His Royal High-
ness was greatly surprised at receiving the following letter from
Mr. Warwick Lake. (No. II.)

" His Royal Highness immediately directed Mr. Sheridan to
see Mr. W. Lake, and to state his situation, and how the office
was circumstanced ; and for further distinctness to make a minute
in writing * * * *."

Such were the circumstances that had, at first, embarrassed his
enjoyment of this office ; but, on the death of Lord Lake, all
difficulties were removed, and the appointment was confirmed to
Sheridan for his life.

In order to affi)rd some insight into the nature of that friend-
ship, which existed so long between the Heir Apparent and
Sheridan, — though unable, of course, to produce any of the
numerous letters, on the Royal side of the correspondence, that
have been found among the papers in my possession, — I shall
here give, from a rough copy in Sheridan's hand-writmg, a letter
which he addressed about this time toi;he Prince : —

" It is matter of surprise to myself, as well as of ^eep regret,
that I should have incurred the appearance of ungrateful neglect
and disrespect towards the person to whom I am most oblig-
ed on earth, to whom I feel the most ardent, dutiful, and
affectionate attachment, and in whose service I would readily
sacrifice my life. Yefc so it is, and to nothing but a perverse

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BIGHT HON. RIOHABD BBINSLEY SHERIDAN. 26T

combination of circumstances, which would form no excuse were
I to recapitulate them, can I attribute a conduct so strange ou
my part ; and from nothing but Your Royal Highness's kind-
ness and benignity alone can I expect an indulgent allowance and
oblivion of that conduct : nor could I even hope for this were I
not conscious of the unabated and unalterable devotion towards
Your Royal Highness which lives in my heart, and will ever con-
tinue to be its pride and boast

" But I should ill deserve the indulgence I request did I not
frankly state what has passed in my mind, which, though it can-
not justify, may, in some degree, extenuate what must have ap-
peared so strange to Your Royal Highness, previous to Your
Royal Highness's having actually restored me to the office I had
resigned.

" I was mortified and hurt in the keenest manner by having
repeated to me from an authority which / then trusted^ some ex-
pressions of Your Royal Highness respecting me, which it was
impossible I could have deserved. Though I was most solemnly
pledged never to reveal the source from which the communica-
tion came, I for some time intended to unburthen my mind to
my sincere friend and Your Royal Highness's most attached and
excellent servant, M'Mahon — ^but I suddenly discovered, beyond
a doubt, that I had been grossly deceived, and that there had not
existed the slightest foundation for the tale that had been imposed
on me; and I do humbly ask Your Royal Highness's pardon for
having for a moment credited a fiction suggested by mischief and
malice. Yet, extraordinary as it must seem, I had so long, under
this false impression, neglected the course which duty and grati-
tude required from me, that I felt an unaccountable shyness and
reserve in repairing my error, and to this procrastination other
unlucky circumstances contributed. One day when I had the
honor of meeting Your Royal Highness on horseback in Oxford-
Street, though your manner was as usual gracious and kind to
me, you said that I had deserted you privately and politically,
I had long before that been assured, though falsely I am con-
vinced, that Your Royal Highness had promised to make a point

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258 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

that I should neither speak nor vote on Lord Wellesly's business.
My view of this topic, and my knowledge of the delicate situa-
tion in which Your Royal Highness stood in respect to the
Catholic question, though weak and inadequate motives, I confess,
yet encouraged the continuance of that reserve which my original
error had commenced. These subjects being passed by, — and
sure I am Your Royal Highness would never deliberately ask
me to adopt a course of debasing inconsistency, — ^it was my
hope fully and frankly to have explained myself and repaired
my fault, when I was informed that a circumstance that happened
at Burlington-House, and which must have been heinously mis-
represented, had greatly offended you ; and soon after it was
stated to me, by an authority which I have no objection to dis-
close, that Your Royal Highness had quoted, with marked dis-
approbation, words supposed to have been spoken by me on the
Spanish question, and of which words, as there is a God in
heaven, I never uttered one syllable.

" Most justly may Your Royal Highness answer to all this,
why have I not sooner stated these circumstances, and confided
in that uniform friendship and protection which I have so long
experienced at your hands. I can only plead a nervous, procras-
tinating nature, abetted, perhaps, by sensations of, I trust, no
false pride, which, however I may blame myself, impel me hi-
voluntarily to fly from the risk of even a cold look frdhn the
quarter to which I owe so much, and by whom to be esteemed is
the glory and consolation of my private and public life.

" One point only remains for me to intrude upon Your Royal
Highness's consideration, but it is of a nature fit only for per-
sonal communication. I therefore conclude, with again entreat-
ing Your Royal Highness to continue and extend the indulgence
which the imperfections in my character have so often received
from you, and yet to be assured that there never did exist to
Monarch, Prince, or man, a firmer or purer attachment than 1
feel, and to my death shall feel, to you, my gracious Prince and
Master."

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EIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 259

CHAPTEE X.

DESTRUCTION OF THE THEATRE OF DRURY-LANE BY FIRE.
— MR. WHITBREAD. — PLAN FOR A THIRD THEATRE. — ILL-
NESS OF THE KING. — REGENCY. — LORD GREY AND LORD
GRENVILLE. — CONDUCT OF MR. SHERIDAN. — HIS VINDI-
CATION OF HIMSELF,

With the details of the embarrassments of Drury-Lane Theatre,
I have endeavored, as little as possible, to encumber the attention
of the reader. This part of my subject would, indeed, require a
volume to itself. The successive partnerships entered into with
Mr. Grubb and Mr. Richardson, — the different Trust-deeds for
the general and individual property, — the various creations of
shares, — the controversies between the Trustees and Proprietors,
as to the obligations of the Deed of 1793, which ended in a
Chancery-suit in 1799, — the perpetual entanglements of the
property which Sheridan's private debts occasioned, and which
even the friendship and skill of Mr. Adam were wearied out in
endeavoring to rectify, — all this would lead to such a mass of de-
tails and correspondence as, though I have waded through it my-
self, it is by no means necessary to inflict upon others.

The great source of the involvements, both of Sheridan him-
self and of the concern, is to be found in the enormous excess of
the expense of rebuilding the Theatre in 1793, over the amount
stated by the architect in his estimate. This amount was
75,000/. ; and the sum of 150,000/. then raised by subscription,
would, it was calculated, in addition to defraying this charge,
pay off also the mortgage-debts* with which the Theatre was
encumbered. It was soon found, however, that the expense of
building the House alone would exceed the whole amount raised
by subscription ; and, notwithstanding the advance of a consider*

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able sum beyond the estimate, the Theatre was delivered in a
very unfinished state into the hands of the proprietors, — only
part of the mortgage-debts was paid off, and, altogether a debt
of 70,000/. was left upon the property. This debt Mr. Sheridan
and the other proprietors took, voluntarily, and, as it has been
thought, inconsiderately, upon themselves, — the builders, by their
contracts, having no legal claim upon them, — and the payment
of it being at various times enforced, not only against the
theatre, but against the private property of Mr. Sheridan, in-
volved both in a degree of embarrassment from which there
appeared no hope of extricating them.

Such was the state of this luckless property, — and it would
have been difficult- to imagine any change for the worse that
could befall it, — when, early in the present year, an event
occurred, that seemed to fill up at once the measure of its ruin.
On the night of the 24th of February, while the House of Com-
mons was occupied with Mr. Ponsonby's motion on the Conduct
of the War in Spain, and Mr. Sheridan was in attendance, with
the intention, no doubt, of speaking, the House was suddenly
illuminated by a blaze of light ; and, the Debate being interrupt-
ed, it was ascertained that the Theatre of Drury-Lane was on
fire. A motion was made to adjourn ; but Mr. Sheridan said,
with much calmness, that " whatever might be the extent of the
private calamity, he hoped it would not interfere with the pub-
lic business of the country." He then left the House; and, pro-
ceeding to Drury-Lane, witnessed, with a fortitude which strong-
ly interested all who observed him, the entire destruction of his
property.*

Among his losses on the occasion there was one which, from
being associated with feelings of other times, may have affected

* It is said that, as he sat at the Piazza Coffee-house, during the fire, taking some re-
freshment, a friend of his having remarked.on the philosophic calmness with which he
bore his misfortune, Sheridan answered, '' A man may surely be allowed to take a glass
of wine 6y his own jire-side."

Without vouching for the authenticity or novelty of this anecdote, (which may ha;Te
been, for aught I know, like the wandering Jew, a regular attendant upon all fires, sine*
the time of Hierocles,) I give it as I heard it.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 261

him, perhaps, more deeply than many that were far more serious.
A harpsichord, that had belonged to his first wife, and had long
survived her sweet voice in silent widowhood, was, with other
articles of furniture that had been moved from Somerset-House
to the Theatre, lost in the flames.

The ruin thus brought upon this immense property seemed,
for a time, beyond all hope of retrieval. The embarrassments
of the concern were known to have been so great, and such a
swarm of litigious claims lay slumbering imder those ashes, that
it is not surprising the public should have been slow and unwil-
ling to touch them. Nothing, indeed, short of the intrepid zeal
of Mr. Whitbread could have ventured upon the task of reme-
dying so complex a calamity ; nor could any industry less per-
severing have compassed the miracle of rebuilding and re-animat-
ing that edifice, among the many-tongued claims that beset and
perplexed his enterprise.

In the following interesting letter to him from Sheridan, we
trace the first steps of his friendly interference on the occasion ; —

"3iT Dear WmrHBREAD,

" Procrastination is always the consequence of an indolent man's resolv-
ing to write a long detailed letter, upon any subject, however important to
himself, or whatever may be the confidence he has in the friend he pro-
poses to write to. To this must be attributed your having escaped the state-
ment I threatened you with in my last letter, and the brevity with which I
now propose to call your attention to the serious, and, to me, most impor-
tant request, contained in this, — reserving all I meant to have written for
personal communication.

" I pay you no compliment when I say that, without comparison, you are
the man living, in my estimation, the most disposed and the most compe-
tent to bestow a portion of your time and ability to assist the call of
firiendship, — on the condition that that call shall be proved to be made
in a cause just and honorable, and in every respect entitled to your pro-
tgetion.

" On this ground alone I make my application to you. You said, some
time since, in my house, but in a careless conversation only, that you would
be a Member of a Committee for rebuilding Drury-Lane Theatre, if it would
serve me ; and, indeed, you very kindly suggested, yourself, that there
were more persons disposed ti assist that object than I might be aware

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262 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

of. I moBt thankfully accept the ofifer of your interference, and am con-
vinced of the benefits your friendly exertions are competent to produce.
I have worked the whole subject in my own mind, and see a clear way to
retrieve a great property, at least to my son and his family, if my plan
meets the support I hope it will appear to merit

" Writing thus to you in the sincerity of private friendship, and the reli-
ance I place on my opinion of your character, I need not ask of you, though
eager and active in politics as you are, not to be severe in criticising my
palpable neglect of all parliamentary duty. It would not be easy to ex-
plain to you, or even to make you comprehend, or any one in prosperous
and affluent plight, the private difficulties I have to struggle with. My
mind, and the resolute independence belonging to it, has not been in the
least subdued by the late calamity ; but the consequences arising from it
have more engaged and embarrassed me than, perhaps, I have been wil-
ling to allow. It has been a principle of my life, persevered in through
great difficulties, never to borrow money of a private friend ; and this re-
solution I would starve rather than violate. Of course, I except the politi-
cal aid of election-subscription. When I ask you to take a part in the set-
tlement of my shattered affairs, I ask you only to do so after a previous in-
vestigation of every part of the past circumstances which relate to the trust
I wish you to accept, in conjunction with those who wish to serve me, and
to whom I think you could not object I may be again seized with an ill-
ness as alarming as that I lately experienced. Assist me in relieving my
mind from the greatest affliction that such a situation can again produce, —
the fear of others suffering by my death.

" To effect this little more is necessary than some resolution on my part,
and the active superintending advice of a mind like yours.

" Thus far on paper . I will see you next , and therefore will not

trouble you for a written reply."

Encouraged by the opening which the destruction of Drury-
Lane seemed to offer to free adventure in theatrical property, a
project was set on foot for the establishment of a Third Great
Theatre, which, being backed by much of the influence and wealth
of the city of London, for some time threatened destruction to the
monopoly that had existed so long. But, by the exertions of Mr.
Sheridan and his friends, this scheme was defeated, and a Bill for
the erection of Drury-Lane Theatre by subscription, and for the
incorporation of the subscribers, was passed through Parliament.

That Mr. Sheridan himself would have had no objection to a
Third Theatre, if held by a Jouat Grant to the Proprietors of the

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EIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAK. 263

other two, appears not only from his speeches and petitions on
the subject at this time, but from the following Plan for such an
establishment, drawn up by him, some years before, and intend
ed to be submitted to the consideration of the Proprietors oi
both Houses : —

*' Gentlemen,

" According to your desire, the plan of the proposed Asmtant Theatre
is here explained in writing for your further consideration.

" From our situations in the Theatres Royal of Drury-Lane and Covenir
Garden we have bad opportunities of observing many circumstances rela-
tive to our general property, which must have escaped those who do not
materially interfere in the management of that property. One point in par-
ticular has lately weighed extremely in our opinions, which is, an appre-
heruion of a new Theaire being erected for some species or other of dramatic
entertainment. Were this event to take place on an opposing interest, our
property would sink in value one-half, and in all probability, the contest
that would ensue would speedily end in the absolute ruin of one of the pre-
sent established Theatres. We have reason, it is true, from His Majesty's
gracious patronage to the present Houses, to hope, that a Third patent for
a winter Theatre is not easily to be obtained ; but the motives which appear
to call for one are so many, (and those of such a nature, as to increase every
day,) that we cannot, on the maturest consideration of the subject, divest
ourselves of the dread that such an event may not be very remote. With
this apprehension before us, we have naturally fallen into a joint considera-
tion of the means of preventing so fatal a^blow to the present Theatres, or
of deriving a general advantage from a circumstance which might other
wise be our ruin.

'^ Some of the leading motives for the establishment of a Third Theatre
are as follows : —

" 1st. The great extent of the town and increased residence of a higher
class of people, who, on account of many circumstances, seldom frequent
the Theatre.

" 2d. The distant situation of the Theajtres from the politer streets, and
the diflSculty with which ladies reach their carriages or chairs.

" 3d. The small number of side-boxes, where only, by the uncontrollable
influence of fashion, ladies of any rank can be induced to sit

" 4th. The earliness of the houis which renders it absolutely impossible
for those who attend on Parliament, live at any distance, or, indeed, for
any person who dines at the prevailing hour, to reach the Theatre before
the performance is half over.

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264 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" These considerations have lately been strongly urged to me by many
leading persons of rank. There has also prevailed, as appears by the num-
ber of private plays at gentlemen's seats, an unusual fashion for theatrical
entertainments among the politer class of people ; and it is not to be won-
dered at that they, feeling themselves, (from the causes above enumerat-
ed,) in a manner, excluded from our Theatres, ^ould persevere in an en-
deavor to establish some plan of similar entertainment, on principles of
superior elegance and accommodation.

" In proof of this disposition, and the effects to be apprehended from it,
we need but instance one fact, among many, which might be produced,
and that is the well-Iinown circumstance of a subscription having actually
been begun last winter, with very powerful patronage, for the importation
of a French company of comedians, a scheme which, though it might not
have answered to the undertaking, would certainly have been the founda-
tion of other entertainments, whose opposition we should speedily have ex-
perienced. The question, then, upon a full view of our situation, appears
to be, whether the Proprietors of the present Theatres will contentedly
wait till some other person takes advantage of the prevailing wish for a
Third Theatre, or, having the remedy in their power, profit by a turn of
fashion which they cannot control.

" A full conviction that the latter is the only line of conduct which can
give security to the Patents of Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden Theatres,
and yield a probability of future advantage in the exercise of them, has
prompted us to endeavor at modelling this plan, on which we conceive
those Theatres may unite in the support of a Third, to the general and mu-
tual advantage of all the ProprietorsL

" Proposals.

" The Proprietors of the Theatre-Royal in Covent Garden appear to be
possessed of two Patents, for the privilege of acting plays, &c., under one
of which the above-mentioned Theatre is opened, — the otiier lying dormant
and useless ;— it is proposed that this dormant Patent shall be exercised,
(with His Majesty's approbation,) in order to lionise the dramatic perform-
once of the" new Theatre to be erected.

" It is proposed that the performances of this new Theatre shall be sup-
ported from the united establishments of the two present Theatres, so that
the unemployed part of each company may exert themselves for the ad-
vantage of the whole.

" As the object of this Assistant Theatre will be to reimburse the Pro-
prietors of the other two, at the full season, for the expensive establishment
they are obliged to maintain when the town is almost empty, it is proposed,
that the scheme of businesss to be adopted in the new Theatre shall differ

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 265

as much as possible from that of the other two, and that the performances
at the new house shall be exhibited at a superior price, and shall commence
at a later hour.

" The Proposers will undertake to provide a Theatre for the purpose, in
a proper situation, and on the following terms : — If they engage a Theatre
to be built, being the property of the builder or builders, it must be for an
agreed on rent, with security for a term of years. In this case the Proprie-
tors of the two present Theatres shall jointly and severally engage in the
whole of the risk ; and the Proposers are ready, on equitable terms, to un-
dertake the management of it. But, if the Proposers find themselves
enabled, either on their own credit, or by the assistance of their friends,
or on a plan of subscription, the mode being devised, and the security
given by themselves, to become the builders of the Theatre, the interest in
the buUding will, in that case, be the property of the Proposers, and they
will undertake to demand no rent for the performances therein to be ex-
hibited for the mutual advantage of the two present Theatres.

" The Proposers will, in this case, conducting the business under the dor-
mant Patent above mentioned, bina themselves, that no theatrical entertain-
ments, as plays, farces, pantomimes, or English operas, shall at any time be
exhibited in this Theatre but for the general advantage of the Proprietors
of the two other Theatres ; the Proposers reserving to themselves any
profit they can make of their building, converted to purposes distinct from
the business of the Theatres.

*' The Proposers, undertaking the management of the new Theatre, shall
be entitled to a sum to be settled by the Proprietors at large, or by an
equitable arbitration.

" It is proposed, that all the Proprietors of the two present Theatres
Royal of Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden shall share all profits from the
dramatic entertainments exhibited at the new Theatre ; that is, each shall
be entitled to receive a dividend in proportion to the shares he or she pos-
sesses of the present Theatres : first only deducting a certain nightly sum
to be paid to the Proprietors of Covent-Garden Theatre, as a consideration
for the license furnished by the exeroise of their present dormant Patent

" 'Fore Heaven ! the Plan's a good Plan ! I shall add a little Epilogue
to-morrow.

" R. B. S."
" Tis now too late, and IVe a letter to write
Before I go to bed, — and then, Good Night"

In the month of July, this year, the Installation of Lord Gren-
ville, as Chancellor of Oxford, took place, and Mr. Sheridan was
among the distinguished persons that attended the ceremony. As

VOL. II. 12 T

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266 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

a number of honorar degrees were to be conferred on the occar
sion, it was expected, as a matter of course, that his name would
be among those selected for that distmction ; and, to the honor
of the University, it was the general wish among its leading mem-
bers that such a tribute should be paid to his high political char-
acter. On the proposal of his name, however, (in a private meet-
ing, I believe, held previously to the Convocation,) the words
" Non placet^'* were heard from two scholars, one of whom, it is
said, had no nobler motive for his opposition than that Sheridan
did not pay his father's tithes very regularly. Several efforts
were made to win over these dissentients ; and the Rev. Mr. In-
gram delivered an able and liberal Latin speech, in which he in-
dignantly represented the shame that it would bring on the Uni-
versity, if such a name as that of Sheridan should be " clam suh- .
ducturrC' from the list. The two scholars, however, were im-
movable ; and nothing remained but to give Sheridan intimation
of their intended opposition, so as to enable him to decline the
honor of having his name proposed. On his appearance, after-
wards, in the Theatre, a burst of acclamation broke forth, with a
general cry of " Mr. Sheridan among the Doctors, — Sheridan
among the Doctors ;" in compliance with which he was passed
to the seat occupied by the Honorary Graduates, and sat, in un-
robed distinction, among them, during the whole of the ceremo-
nial. Few occurrences, of a public nature, ever gave him more
pleasure than this reception.

At the close of the year 1810, the malady, with which the king
had been thrice before afflicted, returned ; and, after the usual
adjournments of Parliament, ill was found necessary to establish
a R^ency. On the question of the second adjournment, Mr.
Sheridan took a line directly opposed to that of his party, and
voted with the majority. That in this step he did not act from
any previous concert with the Prince, appears from the following
letter, addressed by him to His Royal Highness on the subject,
and containing particulars winch will prepare the mind of the
reader to judge more clearly of the events that followed . —

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RIGHT HON. RICHAED BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 267

"Sir,

" I felt infinite satisfaction when I was apprised that Your Royal
Highness had been far from disapproving the line of conduct I
had presumed to pursue, on the last question of adjournment in
the House of Commons. Indeed, I never had a moment's doubt
but that Your Royal Highness would give me credit that I was
actuated on that, as I shall on every other occasion through my
existence, by no possible motive but the most sincere and un-
mixed desire to look to Your Royal Highness's honor and true
interest, as the objects of my political life, — directed, as I am sure
your efforts will ever be, to the essential interests of the Country
and the Constitution. To this line of conduct I am prompted by
every motive of personal gratitude, and confirmed by every op-
portunity, which peculiar circumstances and long experience have
afforded me, of judging of your heart and understanding, — to the
superior excellence of which, (beyond all, I believe, that ever
stood in your rank and high relation to society,) I fear not to ad-
vance my humble testimony, because I scruple not to say for
myself, that I am no flatterer, and that I never found that to he-
come one was the road to your real regard.

" I state thus much because it has been under the influence of
these feelings that I have not felt myself warranted, (without any
previous communication with Your Royal Highness,) to follow
implicitly the dictates of others, in whom, however they may be
my superiors in many qualities, I can subscribe to no superiority
as to devoted attachment and duteous affection to Your Royal
Highness, or in that practical knowledge of the public mind and
character, upon which alone mugt be built that popular and per-
sonal estimation of Your Royal Highness, so necessary to your
future happiness and glory, and to the prosperity of the nation
you are destined to rule over.

" On these grounds, I saw no policy or consistency in unneces-
sarily giving a general sanction to the examination of the physi-
cians before the Council, and then attempting, on the question of
adjournment, to hold that examination as naught. On these
grounds, I have ventured to doubt the wisdom or propriety of

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268 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

any endeavor, (if any such endeavor lias been made,) to in-
duce Your Roy&l Highness, during so critical a moment, to
stir an inch from the strong reserved post you have chosen, or
give the slightest public demonsfa'ation of any future intended
political preferences ; — convinced as I was that the rule of con-
duct you had prescribed to yourself was precisely that which
was gaining you the general heart, and rendering it impractica-
ble for ^ny quarter to succeed in annexing unworthy conditions to
that most difficult situation, which you were probably so soon to
be called on to accept.

"I may, Sir, have been guilty of error of judgment in both
these respects, differing, as I fear I have done, from those whom I
am bound so highly to respect ; but, at the same time, I deem it
no presumption to say that, until better instructed, I feel a strong
confidence in the justness of my own view of the subject ; and
simply because of this — I am sure that the decisions of that judg-
ment, be they sound or mistaken, have not, at least, been rashly
taken up, but were founded on deliberate zeal for your service
and glory, unmixed, I will confidently say, with any one selfish
object or political purpose of my own."

The same limitations and restrictions that Mr. Pitt proposed
in 1789, were, upon the same principles, adopted by the present
Minister : nor did the Opposition differ otherwise from their
former line of argument, than by ommitting altogether that
claim of Right for the Prince, which Mr. Fox had, in the pro-
ceedings of 1789, asserted. The event that ensued is sufficiently
well known. To the surprise of the public, (who expected, per-
haps, rather than wished, that the Coalesced Party of which Lord
Grey and Lord Grenville were the chiefs, should now succeed to
power,) Mr. Perceval and his colleagues wero informed by the
Regent that it was the intention of His Royal Highness to con-
tinue them still in office.

The share taken by Mr. Sheridan in the transactions that led
to this decision, is one of those passages of his political life upon
which the criticism of his own party has been most severely ex
erdsed, and into the details of which I feel most difficulty in en

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 269

tering ; — ^because, however curious it may be to penetrate into
these ^^ postscenia'' of public life, it seems hardly delicate, while
so many of the chief actors are still upon the stage. As there
exists, however, a Paper drawn up by Mr. Sheridan, containing
what he considered a satisfactory defence of his conduct on this
occasion, I should ill discharge my duty towards his memory,
were I, from any scruples or predilections of my own, to deprive
him of the advantage of a statement, on which he appears to
have relied so confidently for his vindication.

But, first, — in order flilly to understand the whole course of
feelings and circumstances, by which not only Sheridan, but his
Royal Master, (for their cause is, in a great degree, identified,)
were for some time past, predisposed towards the line of con-
duct which they now pursued, — ^it will be necessary to recur to a
ew antecedent events.

By the death of Mr. Fox the chief /?^5ona/ tie that connected
the Heir- Apparent with the party of that statesman was broken.
The political identity of the party itself had, even before that
event, been, in a great degree, disturbed by a coalition against
which Sheridan had always most strongly protested, and to
which the Prince, there is every reason to believe, was by no
means friendly. Immediately after the death of Mr. Fox, His
Royal Highness made known his intentions of withdrawing from
all personal interference in politics ; and, though still continuing
his sanction to the remaining Ministry, expressed himself as no
longer desirous of being considered " a party man."* During
the short time that these Ministers continued in office, the un-
derstanding between them and the Prince was by no means of
that cordial and confidential kind, which had been invariably
maintained during the life-time of Mr. Fox. On the contrary,

•This is the phrase used by the Prince himself, in a Letter addressed to a Noble Lord,
(no^Iong after the dismissal of the Grenville Ministry,) for the purpose of vindicating his
own character from some imputations cast upon it, in consequence of an interview which
he had lately had with the King. This important exposition of the feelings of His Boyal
Highness, which, more than any thing, throws light upon his subsequent conduct, was
drawn up by Sheridan ; and I had hoped that I should have been able to lay it before the
reader >~but the liberty of perusing the Letter is all that has been allowed me.

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270 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the impression on the mind of His Royal Highness, as well as
on those of his immediate friends in the Ministry, Lord Moira
and Mr. Sheridan, was, that a cold neglect had succeeded to the
confidence with which they had hitherto been treated ; and that,
neither in their opinions nor feelings, were they any longer suffi-
ciently consulted or considered. The very measure, by which
the Ministers ultimately lost their places, was, it appears, one of
those which the Illustrious Personage in questfon neither conceiv-
ed himself to have been sufficiently consulted upon before its
adoption, nor approved of afterwards.

Such were the gradual loosenings of a bond, which at no time
had promised much permanence ; and such the train of feelings
and circumstances which, (combining with certain prejudices in
the Royal mind against one of the chief leaders of the party,)
prepared the way for that result by which the Public was sur-
prised in 1811, and the private details of which I shall now, as
briefly as possible, relate.

As soon as the Bill for regulating the office of Regent had
pa,ssed the two Houses, the Prince, who, till then, had maintained
a strict reserve with respect to his intentions, signified, through
Mr. Adam, his pleasure that Lord Grenville should wait upon
him. He then, in the most gracious manner, expressed to that
Noble Lord his wish that he should, in conjunction with Lord
Grey, prepare the Answer which his Royal Highness was, in a
few days, to return to the Address of the Houses. The same
confidential task was entrusted also to Lord Moira, with an ex-
pressed desire that he should consult with Lord Grey and Lord
Grenville on the subject. But this co-operation, as I understand,
the two Noble Lords declined.

One of the embarrassing consequences of Coalitions now ap-
peared. The recorded opinions of Lord Grenville on the Regen-
cy Question differed wholly and in principle not only from those
of his coadjutor in this task, but from those of the Royal person
himself, whose sentiments he was called upon to interpret. In
this difficulty, the only alternative that remained was so to neu-
tralize the terms of the Answer upon the great point of diflfer-

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RTGHr HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 271

enoe, as to preserve the consistency of the Royal ipeaker, with-
out at the same time compromising that of his Noble adviser.
It required, of course, no small art and delicacy thus to throw
into the shade that distinctive opinion of Whigism, which Burke
had clothed in his imperishable language in 1789, and which Fox
had solemnly bequeathed to the Party, when

" in his upward flight
He left his mantle there.''*

The Answer, drawn up by the Noble Lords, did not, it must
be confessed, surmount this difficulty very skilfully. The asser-
tion of the Prmce's consistency was confined to two meagre sen-
tences, in the first of which His Royal Highness was made to
say : — " With respect to the proposed limitation of the authority
to be entrusted to me, I retain my former opinion :" — and in
the other, the expression of any decided opinion upon the Consti-
tutional point is thus evaded : — " For such a purpose no restraint
can be necessary to be imposed upon me." Somewhat less vague
and evasive, however, was the justification of the opinion opposed
to that of the Prince, in the following sentence : — " That day-
when I may restore to the King those powers, which as belonging
mly to hirn^\ are in his name and io his behalf," &;c. &;c. This,
it will be recollected, is precisely the doctrine which, on the great
question of limiting the Prerogative, Mr. Fox attributed to the
Tories. In another passage, the Whig opinion of the Prince was
thus tamely surrendered : — " Conscious that, whatever degree of
confidence you may think fit to repose in me," &;c.J

The Answer, thus constructed, was, by the two Noble Lords,
transmitted through Mr. Adam, to the Prince, who, " strongly
objecting, (as we are told), to almost every part of it," acceded

* Joanna Baillie.

f The words which I have put in italics in these quotations, are, in the same manner,
imderlined in Sheridan's copy of the Paper,— -doubtless, from a similar view of their im-
port to that M'hich I have taken.

X On the back of Sheridan's own copy of this Answer, I find, written by him, the fol-
lowing words : "Grenville's and Grey's proposed Answer from the Prince to the Address
of the two Bouses ;— very flimsy, and attempting to cover Grenville's conduct and cou-
■iftency in supporting the present Restrictions at the expense of the Prince.**

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272 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

to the suggestion of Sheridan, whom he consulted on the subject,
that a new form of Answer should be immediately sketched out,
and submitted to the consideration of Lord Grey and Lord
Grenville. There was no time to be lost, as the Address of the
Houses was to be received the following day. Accordingly, Mr.
Adam and Mr. Sheridan proceeded that night, with the new draft
of the Answer to Holland-House, where, after a warm discussion
upon the subject with Lord Grey, which ended unsatisfactorily to
both parties, the final result was that the Answer drawn up by
the Prince and Sheridan was adopted. — Such is the bare outline
of this transaction, the circumstances of which will be found fully
detailed in the Statement that shall presently be given.

The accusation against Sheridan is, that chiefly to his under-
mining influence the view taken by the Prince of the Paper of
these Noble Lords is to be attributed ; and that not only was he
censurable in a constitutional point of view, for thus interfering
between the Sovereign and his responsible advisers, but that he
had been also guilty of an act of private perfidy, in endeavoring
to represent the Answer drawn up by these Noble Lords, as an
attempt to sacrifice the consistency and dignity of their Royal
Master to the compromise of opinions and principles which they
had entered into themselves.*

Under the impression that such were the nature and motives
of his interference. Lord Grey and Lord Grenville, on the 11th
of January, (the day on which the Answer substituted for their
own was delivered), presented a joint Representation to the Re-
gent, in which they stated that " the circumstances which had
occurred, respecting His Royal Highness's Answer to the two
Houses, had induced them, most humbly, to solicit permission to
submit to His Royal Highness the following considerations, with
the undisguised sincerity which the occasion seemed to require,
but, Avith every expression that could best convey their respectful
duty and inviolable attachment. When His Royal Highness,
(they continued), did Lord Grenville the honor, through Mr.
Adam, to command his attendance, it was distinctly expressed to
him, that His Royal Highness had condescended to select him,

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 273

in conjunction with Lord Grey, to be consulted with, as the pub-
lic and responsible advisers of that Answer ; and Lord Grenville
could, never forget the gracious terms in which His Royal High-
ness had the goodness to lay these his orders upon him. It was
also on the same grounds of public and responsible advice, that
Lord Grey, honored in like manner by the most gracious expres-
sion of His Royal Highness's confidence on this subject, applied
himself to the consideration of it conjointly with Lord Grenville.
They could not but feel the difficulty of the undertaking, which
required them to reconcile two objects essentially different, — ^to
uphold and distinctly to manifest that unshaken adherence to His
Royal BKghness's past and present opinion, which consistency
and honor required, but to conciliate, at the same time, the feel-
ings of the two Houses, by expressions of confidence and affec-
tion, and to lay the foundation of that good understanding be-
tween His Royal Highness and the Parliament, the establish-
ment of which must be the first wish of every man who is truly
attached to His Royal Highness, and who knows the value of the
Constitution of his country. Lord Grey and Lord Grenville were
far from the presumption of believing that their humble endea^
vors for the execution of so difficult a task might not be suscep-
tible of many and great amendments.

" The draft, (then* Lordships said), which they humbly sub-
mitted to His Royal Highness was considered by them as open
to every remark which might occur to His Royal Highness's
better judgment. On every occasion, but more especially in the
preparation of His Royal Highness's first act of government, it
would have been no less their desire than their duty to have
profited by all such objections, and to have labored to accom-
plish, in the best manner they were able, every command which
His Royal Highness might have been pleased to lay upon them.
Upon j;he objects to be obtained there could be no difference of
sentiment. These, such as above described, were, they confi-
dently believed, not less important in His Royal Highness's view
of the subject than in that which they themselves had ventured
to express. But they would be wanting in that sincerity and

VOL. n. 12 *

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274 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

openness by which they oould alone hope, however imperfectly,
to make any return to that gracious confidence with which His
Royal Highness had condescended to honor them, if they sup-
pressed the expression of their deep concern, in finding that their
humble endeavors in His Royal Highness's service had been sub-
mitted to the judgment of another person, by whose advice His
Royal Highness had been guided in his final decision, on a mat-
ter on which they alone had, however unworthily, been honored
with His Royal Highness's commands. It was their most
sincere and ardent wish that, in the arduous station which His
Royal Highness was about to fill, he might have the benefit of
the public advice and responsible services of those men, whoever
they might be, by whom His Royal Highness's glory and the
interests of the country could best be promoted. It would be
with unfeigned distrust of their own means of discharging such
duties that they could, in any case, venture to undertake them ;
and, in this humble but respectful representation which they had
presumed to make of their feelings on this occasion, jbhey were
conscious of being actuated not less by their dutiful and grateful
attachment to His Royal Highness, than by those principles of
constitutional responsibility, the maintenance of which they
deemed essential to any hope of a successful administration of
the public interests."

On receiving this Representation, in which, it must be con-
fessed, there was more of high spirit and dignity than of worldly
wisdom,* His Royal Highness lost no time in communicating it

* To the pure and dignified character of the Noble Whig associated in this Remon-
strance, it is unnecessary for me to say how heartily I bear testimony. The only fault,
indeed, of this distinguished person is, that, knowing but one high course of conduct for
himself, he impatiently resents any sinking from that pitch in others. Then, only, in his
true station, when placed between the People and the Crown, as one of those fortresses
that ornament and defend the frontier of Democracy, he has shown that he can but ill
suit the dimensions of his spirit to the narrow avenues of a Court, or, like that Pope who
stooped to look for the keys of St. Pet^r, accommodate his natural elevation to the pursuit
of official power. All the pliancy of his nature is, indeed, reserved for private life, where
the repose of the valley succeeds to the grandeur of th6 mountain, and where the lofty
statesman gracefully subs' des into the gently husband and father, and the frank, social
friend.

The eloquence of Lord Grey, more than that of any other person, brings to mind what

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BIGHT HON. RIOHAED BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 275

fco Sheridan, who, proud of the influence attributed to him by the
Noble writers, and now more than ever stimulated to make them
feel its weight, employed the whole force of his shrewdness and
ridicule* in exposing the stately tone of dictation which, accord-
ing to his view, was assumed throughout this Paper, and in
picturing to the Prince the state of tutelage he might expect un-
der Ministers who began thus early with their lectures. Such
suggestions, even if less ably urged, were but too sure of a wil-
ling audience in ihe ears to which they were addressed. Shortly
after. His Royal Highness paid a visit to Windsor, where the
Queen and another Royal Personage completed what had been
so skilfully begun ; and the important resolution was forthwith
taken to retain Mr. Perceval and his colleagues in the Ministry.
I shall»now give the Statement of the whole transaction, which
Mr. Sheridan thought it necessary to address, in his own defence,
to Lord Holland, and of which a rough and a fair copy have been
found carefully preserved among his papers : —

Queenr Street, January 15, 1811.
"Dear Holland,

" As you have been already apprised by His Royal Highness
the Prince that he thought it becoming the frankness of his char-
acter, and consistent with the fairness and openness of proceeding
due to any of his servants whose conduct appears to have incur-
red the disapprobation of Lord Grey and Lord Grenville, to com-
municate their representations on the subject to the person so

Qointilian says of the great and noble orator, Messala : — " (^MdAminodjo ftrfB sefereM in
dioendo noMitatem mamJ* *

* He called rhymes also to his aid, as appears by the following : —

''An Address to the Prince, 1811.
" In all humility we crave
Our Regent may become our slave,
And being so, we trust that Hi
W\\\ thank us for our loyalty.
Then, if he'll help us to pull down
His Father's dignity and Crown,
We'll make him, in some time to comn,
The greatest Prince in Christendom."

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276 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

censured, I am confident you will give mo credit for tlie pain I
must have felt, to find myself an object of suspicion, or likely, in
the slightest degree, to become the cause of any temporary mis-
understanding between His Royal Highness and those distin-
guished characters, whom His Royal Highness appears to destme
to those responsible situations, which must in all public matters
entitle them to his exclusive confidence.

" I shall as briefly as I can state the circumstances of the fact,
so distinctly referred to in the following passage of the Noble
Lord's Representation : —

" ' But they would be wanting in that sincerity and openness
by which they can alone hope, however imperfectly, to make any
return to that gracious confidence with which Your Royal High-
ness has condescended to honor them, if they suppressed the ex-
pression of their deep concern in finding that their humble endear
vors in Your Royal Highness's service have been submitted to
the judgment of another person, hy whose advice Your Royal
Highness has been guided in your final decision on a matter in
which they alone had, however unworthily, been honored with
Your Royal Highness's commands.'

'' I must premise, that from my first intercourse with the Prince
during the present distressing emergency, such conversations as
he may have honored me with have been communications of re-
solutions already formed on his part, and not of matter referred
to consultation or submitted to advice, I know that my declin-
ing to vote for the further adjournment of the Privy Council's
examination of the physicians gave offence to some, and was con-
sidered as a difference from the party I was rightly esteemed to
belong to. The intentions of the leaders of the party upon that
question were in no way distinctly known to me ; my secession
was entirely my own act, and not only unauthorized, but perhaps
unexpected by the Prince. My motives for it I took the liberty
of communicating to His Royal Highness by letter,* the next
day, and, previously to that, I had not even seen His Royal
Highness since the confirmation of His Majesty's malady.

* This Letter has been given in page 268.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 277

" If I differed from those who, equally attached to His Royal
IL'ghness's interest and honor, thought that His Royal Highness
should have taken the step which, in my humble opinion, he has
since, precisely at the proper period, taken of sending to Lord
Grenville and Lord Grey, I may certainly have erred in forming
an imperfect judgment on the occasion, but, in doing so, I meant
no disrespect to those who had taken a different view of the sub-
ject. But, with all deference, I cannot avoid adding, that expe-
rience of the impression made on the public mind by the re-
served and retired conduct which the Prince thought proper to
adopt, has not shaken my opinion of the wisdom which prompted
him to that determination. But here, again, I declare, that I
must reject the presumption that any suggestion of mine led to
the rule which the Prince had prescribed to himself. My know-
ledge of it being, as I before said, the communication of a reso-
lution formed on the part of His Royal Highness, and not of a
proposition awaiting the advice, countenance, or corroboration, of
any other person. Having thought it necessary to premise thus
much, as I wish to write to you without reserve or concealment
of any sort, I shall as briefly as I can relate the facts which at-
tended the composing the Answer itself, as far as I was con-
cerned.

" On Sunday, or on Monday the 7th instant, I mentioned to
Lord Moira, or to Adam, that the Address of the two Houses
would come very quickly upon the Prince, and that he should
be prepared with his Answer, without entertainmg the least idea
of meddling with the subject myself, having received no autho-
rity from His Royal Highness to do so. Either Lord Moira or
Adam informed me, before I left Carl ton-House, that His Royal
Highness had directed Lord Moira to sketch an outline of the
Answer proposed, and I lefl town. On Tuesday evening it
occurred to me to try at a sketch also of the intended reply.
On Wednesday morning I read it, at Carlton-House, very hastUy
to Adam, before I saw the Prince. And here I must pause to
declare, that I have entirely withdrawn from my mind any doubt,
}f for a moment I ever entertained any, of the perfect propriety

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278 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

of Adam's conduct at that hurried interview ; being also long
convinced, as well from intercourse with him at Carlton-House
as in every transaction I have witnessed, that it is impossible for
him to act otherwise than with the most entire sincerity and
honor towards all he deals with. I then read the Paper I had
put together to the Prince, — the most essential part of it literally
consisting of sentiments and expressions, which had fallen from
the Prince himself in different conversations ; and I read it to him
without having once heard Lord GhrentUle's name even mentioned
as in any way connected with the Answer proposed to be sub-
mitted to the Prince. On the contrary, indeed, I was under an
impression that the framing this Answer was considered as the
single act which it would be an unfair and embarrassing task to
require the performance of from Lord Grenville. The Prince
approved the Paper I read to him, objecting, however, to some
additional paragraphs of my own, and altering others. In the
course of his observations, he cursorily mentioned that Lord
Grenville had undertaken to sketch out his idea of a proper
Answer, and that Lord Moira had done the same, — evidently
expressmg himself, to my apprehension, as not considering the
framing of this Answer as a matter of official responsibility any
where, but that it was his intention to take the choice and deci-
sion respecting it on himself. If, however, I had known, before I
entered the Prince's apartment, that Lord Grenville and Lord
Grey had in any way undertaken to frame the Answer, and had
thought themselves authorized to do so, I protest the Prince
would never even have heard of the draft which I had prepared,
though containing, as I before said, the Prince's own ideas.

" His Royal Highness having laid his commands on Adam
and me to dine with him alone on the next day, Thursday, I then,
for the first time, learnt that Lord Grey and Lord Grenville had
transmitted, through Adam, a formal draft of an Answer to be
submitted to the Prince.

" Under these circumstances I thought it became me humbly
to request the Prince not to refer to me, in any respect, the
Paper of the Noble Lords, or to insist even on my hearing its

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 279

contents ; but that I might be permitted to put the draft he had
received from me into the fire. The Prince, however, who had
read the Noble Lords' Paper, declining to hear of this, proceeded
to state, how strongly he objected to almost every paH of it.
The draft delivered by Adam he took a copy of himself, as Mr.
Adam read it, affixing shortly, but warmly, his comments to each
paragraph. Finding His Royal Highness's objections to the
whole radical and insuperable, and seeing no means myself by
which the Noble Lords could change their draft, so as to meet
the Prince's ideas, I ventured to propose, as the only expedient
of which the time allowed, that both the Papers should be laid
aside, and that a very short Answer, indeed, keeping clear of all
topics liable to disagreement, should be immediately sketched
out and be submitted that night to the judgment of Lord Grey
and Lord Grenville. The lateness of the hour prevented any but
very hasty discussion, and Adam and myself proceeded, by His
Royal Highness's orders, to your house to relate what had passed
to Lord Grey. I do not mean to disguise, however, that when I
found myself bound to give my opinion, I did fully assent to the
force and justice of the Prince's objections, and made other ob-
servations of my own, which I thought it my duty to do, con-
ceiving, as I freely said, that the Paper could not . have been
drawn up but under the pressure of embarrassing difficulties, and,
as I conceived also, in considerable haste.

" Before we left Carlton-House, it was agreed between Adam
and myself that we were not so strictly enjoined by the Prince,
as to make it necessary for us to communicate to the Noble
Lords the marginal comments of the Prince, and we determined
to withhold then. But at the meeting with Lord Grey, at your
house, he appe^^ed to me, erroneously perhaps, to decline con-
sidering the objections as coming from the Prince, but as origi-
nating in my suggestions. Upon this, I certainly called on Adam
to produce the Prince's copy, with his notes, in His Royal High-
ness's own*hand-writing.

" Afterwards, finding myself considerably hurt at an expres-
sion of Lord Grey's, which could only be pointed* at me, and

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280 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

which expressed his opinion that the whole of the Paper, which
he assumed me to be responsible for, was * drawn up in an
invidious spirit,' I certainly did, with more warmth than was,
perhaps, discreet, comment on the Paper proposed to be substi-
tuted ; and there ended, with no good effect, our interview.

" Adam and I saw the Prince again that night, when His Royal
Highness was graciously pleased to meet our joint and earnest
request, by striking out from the draft of the Answer, to which
he still resolved to adhere, every passage which we conceived to
be most liable to objection on the part of Lord Grey and Lord
GrenviUe.

" On the next morning, Friday, — a short time before he was
to receive the Address, — ^when Adam returned from the Noble
T-iOrds, with their expressed disclaimer of the preferred Answer,
altered as it was. His Royal Highness still persevered to eradi-
cate every remaining word which he thought might yet appear
exceptionable to them, and made further alterations, although
the fair copy of the paper had been made out.

" Thus the Answer, nearly reduced to the expression of the
Prince's own suggestions, and without an opportunity of farther
meeting the wishes of the Noble Lords, was delivered by His
Royal Highness, and presented by the Deputation of the two
Houses.

" I am ashamed to have been thus prolix and circumstantial,
upon a matter which may appear to have admitted of much
shorter explanation ; but when misconception has produced dis-
trust among those, I hope, not willingly disposed to differ, and,
who can have, I equally trust, but one common object in view
in their different stations, I know no better way than by minute-
ness and accuracy of detail to remove whatever may have ap-
peared doubtful in conduct, while unexplained, or inconsistent in
principle not clearly re-asserted.

" And now, my dear Lord, I have only shortly to express my
own personal mortification, I will use no other word, that I should
have been considered by any persons however high in rank, or
justly entitled to high political pretensions, as one so little

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 281

* attached to His Royal Highness,' or so ignorant of the value

* of the Constitution of his country,' as to be held out to Him,
whose fairly-earned esteem I regard as the first honor and the
sole reward of my political life, in the character of an interested
contriver of a double government, and, in some measure, as an
apostate from all my former principles, — ^which have taught me,
as well as the Noble Lords, that ' the maintenance of constitu-
tional responsibility in the ministers of the Crown is essential to
any hope of success in the administration of the public interest.'

"At the same time, I am most ready to admit that it could
not be their intentian so to characterize me ; but it is the direct
inference which others must gather from the first paragraph I have
quoted from their Representation, and an inference which, I under-
stand, has already been raised in public opinion. A departure, my
dear Lord, on my part, from upholding the principle declared by
the Noble Lords, much more a presumptuous and certainly in-
effectual attempt to inculcate a contrary doctrine on the mind of
the Prince of Wales, would, I am confident, lose me every particle
of his favor and confidence at once and for ever. But I am yet
to learn what part of my past public life, — and I challenge ob-
servation on every part of my present proceedings, — has war-
ranted the adoption of any such suspicion of me, or the expression
of any such imputation against me. But I will dwell no longer
on this point, as it relates only to my own feelings and character ;
which, however, I am the more bound to consider, as others, in
my humble judgment, have so hastily disregarded both. At the
same time, I do sincerely declare, that no personal disappoint-
ment in my own mind interferes with the respect and esteem I
entertain for Lord Grenville, or in addition to those sentiments,
the friendly regard I owe to Lord Grey. To Lord Grenville I
have the honor to be but very little personally known. From
Lord Grey, intimately acquainted as he was with every circum-
stance of my conduct and principles in the years 1788-9, 1 con-
fess I should have expected a very tardy and reluctant interpre-
tation of any circumstance to my disadvantage. What the
nature of my endeavors were at that time, I have-the written

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282 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

testimonies of Mr. Fox and the Duke of Portland. To you I
know those testimonies are not necessary, and perhaps it has been
ray recollection of what passed in those times that may have led
me too securely to conceive myself above the reach even of a
suspicion that I could adopt different principles now. Such as
they were they remain untouched and unaltered. I conclude
with sincerely declaring, that to see the Prince meeting the re-
ward which his own honorable nature, his kind and generous
disposition, and his genuine devotion to the true objects of our
free Constitution so well entitle him to, by being surrounded and
supported by an Administration affectionate to his person, and
ambitious of gaining and meriting his entire esteem, (yet tena-
cious, above all things, of the constitutional principle, that exclu-
sive confidence must attach to the responsibility of those whom
he selects to be his public servants,) I would with heartfelt satis-
faction rather be a looker on of such a Government, giving it
such humble support as might be in my power, than be the
possessor of any possible situation either of profit or ambition,
to be obtained by any indirectness, or by the slightest departure
from the principles I have always professed, and which I have
now felt myself in a manner called upon to re-assert.

" I have only to add, that my respect for the Prince, and my
sense of the frankness he has shown towards me on this occasion,
decide me, with all duty, to submit this letter to his perusal, be-
fore I place it in your hands; meaning it undoubtedly to be by
you shown to those to whom your judgment may deem it of any
consequence to communicate it.

" 1 have the honor to be, &c.

" To Lord Holland. (Signed ) " R. B. Sheridan.

"Read and approved by the Prince, January 20, 1811.

"R.B.S."

Though this Statement, it must be recollected, exhibits but
one side of the question, and is sOent as to the part that Sheridan
took after the delivery of the Remonstrance of the two noble
Lords, yet, combined with preceding events and with the insight

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RIGHT HON". RICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 283

into motives which they afford, it may sufficiently enable the
reader to form his own judgment, with respect to the conduct of
the different persons concerned in the transaction. With the
better and more ostensible motives of Sheridan, there was, no
doubt, some mixture of, what the Platonists call, " the material
alluvion" of our nature. His political repugnance to the Co-
alesced Leaders would have been less strong but for the personal
feelings that mingled with it ; and his anxiety that the Prince
should not be dictated to by others was at least equalled by his
vanity in showing that he could govern him himself But, whatever
were the precise views that impelled him to this trial of strength,
the victory which he gained in it was far more extensive than he
himself had either foreseen or wished. He had meant the party
to feel his power, — not to sink under it. Though privately
alienated from them, on personal as well as political grounds, he
knew that, publicly he was too much identified with their ranks,
ever to serve, with credit or consistency, in any other. He had,
therefore, in the ardor of undermining, carried the ground from
beneath his own feet. In helping to disband his party, he had
cashiered hiniself ; and there remained to him now, for the
residue of his days, but that frailest of all sublunary treasures, a
Prince's friendship.

With this conviction, (which, in spite of all the sanguineiiess
of his disposition, could hardly have failed to force itself on his
mind,) it was not, we should think, with very sel^gratulatory
feelings that he undertook the task, a few weeks after, of indit-
ing, for the Regent, that memorable Letter to Mr. Perceval,
which sealed the fate at once both of his party and himself, and
whatever false signs of re-animation may afterwards have ap
peared, severed the last life-lock by which the " strugglmg spirit"*
of this friendship between Royalty and Whiggism still held : —

" dfixtra crmem seeat, omnis et una

Dilapiiu ealoff aique in ventos vita reeesHt,^^

With respect to the chief Personage connected with these

* Luctana amima.

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284 MEMOIBS OF THE LIFE Of THE

transactions, it is a proof of the tendency of knowledge, to prv
duce a spirit of tolerance, that they who, judging merely from
the surface of events, have been most forward in reprobating his
separation from the Whigs, as a rupture of political ties and an
abandonment of private friendships, must, on becoming more
thoroughly acquainted with all the circumstances that led to this
crisis, learn to soften down considerably their angry feelings ;
and to see, indeed, in the whole history of the connection, — from
its first formation, in the hey-day of youth and party, to its faint
survival after the death of Mr. Fox, — but a natural and destined
gradation towards the result at which it at last arrived, after as
much fluctuation of political principle, on one side, as there was
of indifference, perhaps, to all political principle on the other.

Among the arrangements that had been made, in contempla-
tion of a new Ministry, at this time, it was intended that Lord
Moira should go, as Lord Lieutenant, to Ireland, and that Mr.
Sheridan should accompany him, as Chief Secretary.

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EIGHT HON. BICHAKD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 285

CHAPTER XL

AFFAIRS OF THE NEW THEATRE. — MR. WHITBREAD. —
NEGK'TIATIONS WITH LORD GREY AND LORD GREN-
VILLE. — CONDUCT OF MR. SHERIDAN RELATIVE TO THE
HOUSEHOLD. — HIS LAST WORDS IN PARLIAMENT. —
FAILURE AT STAFFORD. — CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR.
WHITBREAD. — LORD BYRON. — DISTRESSES OF SHERIDAN.
— ILLNESS. — DEATH AND FUNERAL. — GENERAL RE-
MARKS.

It was not till the close of thi« year that the Reports of the
Committee appointed under the Act for rebuilding the* Theatre
of Drury-Lane, were laid before the public. By these it appeared
that Sheridan was to receive, for his moiety of the property,
24,000/., out of which sum the claims of the Linley family and
others were to be satisfied ; — ^that a further sum of 4000/. was to
be paid to him for the property of the Fruit Offices and Rever-
sion of Boxes and Shares; — and that his son, Mr. Thomas
Sheridan, was to receive, for his quarter of the Patent Property,
12,000/.

The gratitude that Sheridan felt to Mr. Whitbread at first, for
the kindness with which he undertook this most arduous task,
did not long remain unembittered when they entered into prac-
tical details. It would be difficult indeed to find two persons
less likely to agree in a transaction of this nature, — the one, in
affairs of business, approaching almost as near to the extreme of
rigor as the other to that of laxity. While Sheridan, too, — ^like
those painters, who endeavor to disguise their ignorance of anat-
omy by an indistinct and furzy outline, — had an imposing method
of generalizing his accounts and statements, which, to most eyes,

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286 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

concealed the negligence and fallacy of the details, Mr. Whit-
bread, on the contrary, with an unrelenting accuracy, laid opea
the minutiae of every transaction, and made evasion as impossible
to others, as it was alien and inconceivable to himself. He was,
perhaps, the only person, whom Sheridan had ever found proof
against his powers of persuasion, — and this rigidity naturally
mortified his pride full as much as it thwarted and disconcerted
his views.

Among the conditions to which he agreed, in order to facilitate
the arrangements of the Committee, the most painful to him was
that which stipulated that he, himself, should " have no concern
or connection, of any kind whatever, with the new undertaking."
This concession, however, he, at first, regarded as a mere matter
of form — feeling confident that, even without any effort of his
own, the necessity under which the new CJommittee would find
themselves of recurring to his advice and assistance, would, ere
long, reinstate him in all his 4>rmer influence. But in this hope
he was disappointed — his exclusion from all concern in the new
Theatre, (which, it is said, was made a sine-qua-non by all who
embarked in it,) was inexorably enforced by Whitbread; and
the following letter addressed by him to the latter will show the
state of their respective feelings on this point : —

" My dear Whitbread,

" I am not going to write you a controversial or even an argu-
mentative letter, but simply to put down the heads of a few
matters which I wish shortly to converse with you upon, in the
most amicable and temperate manner, deprecating the im-
patience which may sometimes have mixed in our discussions,
and not contending who has been the aggressor.

" The main point you seem to have had so much at heart you
have carried, so there is an end of that ; and I shall as fairly and
cordially endeavor to advise and assist Mr. Benjamin Wyatt in
the improving and perfecting his plan as if it had been my own
preferable selection, assuming, as I must do, that there cannot
exist an individual in England so presumptuous or so void of

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RIGHT HON. RICHABD BBINSLBY SHERIDAN. 287

oommon sense as not sincerely to solicit the aid of my practical
experience on this occasion, even were I not, in justice to the
Subscribers, bound spontaneously to offer it.

" But it would be unmanly dissimulation in me to retain the
sentiments I do with respect to your doctrine on this subject, and
not express what I so strongly feel. That doctrine was, to my
utter astonishment, to say no more, first promulgated to me in
a letter from you, written in town, in the following -terms.
Speaking of building and plans, you say to me, * You are in no
way answerable if a had Theatre is built : it is not you who built
it ; and if we come to the strict right of the thing^ you have no
BUSINESS TO INTERFERE ;' and further on you say, ' Will you
but STAND aloof, and every thing will go smooth^ and a good
Theatre shall be built ;' and in conversation you put, as a simi-
lar case, that, * if a man sold another a piece of land, it was no-
thing to the seller whether the purchaser built himself a good or a
bad house upon it,^ Now I declare before God I never felt more
amazement than that a man of your powerful intellect, just view
of all subjects, and knowledge of the world, should hold such
language or resort to such arguments ; and I must be convinced,
that, although in an impatient moment this opinion may have
fallen from you, upon the least reflection or the slightest attention
to the reason of the case, you would, ' albeit unused to the re-
tracting mood,' confess the erroneous view you had taken of the
subject. Otherwise, I must think, and with the deepest regret
would it be, that although you originally engaged in this business
from motives of the purest and kindest regard for me and my
family, your ardor and zealous eagerness to accomplish the diffi-
cult task you had undertaken have led you, in this instance, to
overlook what is due to my feelings, to my honor, and my just
interests. For, supposing I were to ' stand aloof* totally uncon-
cerned, provided I were paid for my share, whether the new
Theatre were excellent or execrable, and that the result should
be that the Subscribers, instead of profit, could not, through the
misconstruction of the house, obtain one per cent, for their mo-
ney, do you seriously believe you could find a single man, wo-

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288 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

man, or child, in the kingdom, out of the Committee, who would
believe that I was wholly guiltless of the failure, having been so
stultified and proscribed by the Committee, (a Committee of my
own nomination,) as to have been compelled to admit, as the
condition of my being paid for my share, that ' it was nothing to
me whether the Theatre was good or bad V or, on the contrary^
can it be denied that the reproaches of disappointment, through
the great body of the Subscribers, would be directed against me
and me alone ?

**So much as to character: — ^now as to my feelings on tbo
subject ; — I must say that in friendship, at least, if not in * strict
rigkt,^ they ought to be consulted, even though the Committee
could either prove that I had not to apprehend any share in the
discredit and discontent which might follow the ill success of their
plan, or that I was entitled to brave whatever malic^or ignorance
might direct against me. Next, and lastly, as to my just inter-
est in the property I am to part with, a consideration to which,
however careless I might be were I alone concerned, I am bound
to attend in justice to my own private creditors, observe how
the matter stands : — I agree to waive my own * strict righf to be
paid before the funds can be applied to the building, and this in
the confidence and on the continued understanding, that my ad-
vice should be so far respected, that, even should the subscrip-
tion not fill, I should at least see a Theatre capable of being
charged with and ultimately of discharging what should remain
justly due to the proprietors. To illustrate this I refer to the
size of the pit, the number of private boxes, and the annexation
of a tavern ; but in what a situation would the doctrine of your
Committee leave me and my son ? ' It is nothing to us how the
Theatre is built, or whether it prospers or not.' These are two
circumstances we have nothing to do with ; only, unfortunately,
upon them may depend our best chance of receiving any pay-
ment for the property we pai-t with. It is nothing to us how
the ship is refitted or manned, only we must leave all we are
worth on board her, and abide the chance of her success. Now
I am confident your justice will see, that in order that the Com

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLET SHERIDAN. 289

mittee should, in ^strict right,'' become entitled to deal thus
with us, and bid us stand aloof, they should buy us out, and
make good the payment. But the reverse of this has been my
own proposal, and I neither repent nor wish to make any
change in it ^

" I have totally departed from my intention, when I first be-
gan this letter, for which I ought to apologize to you ; but it may
save much future talk : other less important matters will do in
conversation. You will allow that I have placed in you the most
implicit confidence — have the reasonable trust in me that, in any
communication I may have with B. Wyattj my object will not be
to obstruct, as you have hastily expressed it, but bona fide to assist
him to render his Theatre as perfect as possible, as well with a
view to the public accommodation as to profit to the Subscribers ;
neither of which can be obtained without establishing a repu-
tation for him which must be the basis of his future fortune.

" And now, after all this statement, you will perhaps be sur-
prised to find how little I require ; — simply some Resolution of
the Committee to the effect of that I enclose.

" I conclude with heartily thanking you for the declaration you
made respecting me, and reported to me by Peter Moore, at the
close of the last meeting of the Committee. I am convinced of
your sincerity ; but as I have before described the character of
the gratitude 1 feel towards you in a letter written likewise in
this house, I have only to say, that every sentiment in that letter
remains unabated and unalterable.

" Ever, my dear Whitbread,

"Yours, faithfully.

" P. S. The discussion we had yesterday respecting some investi-
gation of the past, which I deem so essential to my character and
to my peace of mind, and your present concurrence with me on
that subject, has relieved my mind from great anxiety, though
I cannot but still think the better opportunity has been passed
by. One word more, and I release you. Tom informed me
that you had hinted to him that any demands, not practicable to
be settled by the Committee, must fall on the proprietors. My

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resolution is to take all such on myself, and to leave Tom^s share
untouched."

Another concession, which Sheiidan himself had volunteered,
namely, the postponement of hb right of being paid the amount
of his claim, till after the Theatre should be built, was also a
subject of much acrimonious discussion between the two friends,
— Sheridan applying to this condition that sort of lax interpret-
ation, which would have left him the credit of the sacrifice with-
out its mconvenience, and Whitbread, with a firmness of grasp,
to which, unluckily, the other had been unaccustomed in business,
holding him to the strict letter of his voluntary agreement with
the Subscribers. Never, indeed, was there a more melancholy
example than Sheridan exhibited, at this moment, of the last,
hard struggle of pride and delicacy against the most deadly foe
of both, pecuniary involvement, — which thus gathers round its
victims, fold after fold, till they are at length crushed in its inex-
tricable dasp.

The mere likelihood of a sum of money being placed at his
disposal was sufficient — like the " bright day that brings forth the
adder" — to call into life the activity of all his duns; and how
liberally he made the fund 'available among them, appears from
the following letter of Whitbread, addressed, not to Sheridan
himself, but, apparently, (for the direction is wanting,) to some
man of business connected with him : —

" My dear Sm,
" I had determined not to give any written answer to the note
you put into my hands yesterday morning ; but a further peru-
sal of it leads me to think it better to make a statement in
writing, why I, for one, cannot comply with the request it con-
tains, and to repel the impression which appears to have existed
in Mr. Sheridan's mind at the time that note was written. He
insinuates that to some postponement of his interests, by the
Committee, is owing the distressed situation in which he is un-
fortunately placed.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 291

" Whatever postponement of the interests of the Proprietors
may ultimately be resorted to, as matter of indispensable neces-
sity from the state of the Subscription Fund, will originate in the
written suggestion of Mr. Sheridan himself; and, in certain cir-
cumstances, unless such latitude were allowed on his part, the
execution of the Act could not have been attempted.

" At present there is no postponement of his interests, — but
there is an utter impossibility of touching the Subscription Fund
at all, except for very trifling specified articles, until a supple-
mentary Act of Parliament shall have been obtained.

" By the present Act, even if the Subscription were full, and
no impediments existed to the use of the money, the Act itself,
and the incidental expenses of plans, surveys, &c., are first to be
paid for, — then the portion of Killegrew's Patent, — then the
claimants, — and then the Proprietors. Now the Act is not paid
for : White and Martindale are not paid ; and not one single
claimant is paid, nor can any one of them he paid, until we have
fresh powers and additional subscriptions.

" How then can Mr. Sheridan attribute to any postponement
of his interests, actually made by the Committee, the present
condition of his affairs 1 and why are we driven to these obser-
vations and explanations 1

" We cannot but all deeply lament his distress, but the palli-
ation he proposes it is not in our power to give.

"We cannot guarantee Mr. Hammersley upon the fiind
coming eventually to Mr. Sheridan. He alludes to the claims
he has already created upon that fund. He must, besides,
recollect the list of names he sent to me some time ago, of per-
sons to whom he felt himself in honor bound to appropriate to
each his share of that fund, in common with others for whose
names he left a blank, and who, he says in the same letter, have
written engagements from him. Besides, he has communicated
both to Mr. Taylor and to Mr. Shaw, through me, offers to im-
pound the whole of the sum to answer the issue of the unsettled
demands made upon him by those gentlemen respectively.

" How then can we guarantee Mr. Hammersley in the pay

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292 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

ment of any sum out of this fund, so circumstanced 1 Mr.
Haratmersley's possible profits are prospective, and the prospect
remote. I know the positive losses he sustains, and the sacrifices
he is obliged to make to procure the chance of the compromise
* he is willing to accept.

" Add to all this, that we are still struggling with difficulties
which we may or may not overcome ; that those difficulties are
greatly increased by the persons whose interest and duty should
equally lead them to give us every facility and assistance in the
labors we have disinterestedly undertaken, and are determined
faithfully to discharge. If we fail at last, from whatever cause,
the whole vanishes.

" You know, my dear Sir, that I grieve for the sad state of
Mr. Sheridan's affairs. I would contribute my mite to their
temporary relief, if it would be acceptable ; but as one of the
Committee, intrusted with a public fund, I can do nothing. I
cannot be a party to any claiiA upon Mr. Hammersley ; and I
utterly deny that, individually, or as part of the Committee, any
step taken by me, or with my concurrence, has pressed upon the
circumstances of Mr. Sheridan,
"lam,

" My dear Sir,

" Faithfully yours,

" SouthUl, Dec. 19, 1811. " Samuel Whitbrkad."

A Dissolution of Parliament being expected to take place, Mr.
Sheridan again turned his eyes to Stafford ; and, in spite of the
estrangement to which his infidelities at Westminster had given
rise, saw enough, he thought, of the " veteris vestigia Jlammce'^ to
encourage him to hope for a renewal of the connection. The
following letter to Sir Oswald Moseley explains his views and
expectations on the subject : —

" Dear Sir Oswald, Cavendish- Square^ Nov. 29, 1811.
" Being apprised that you have decided to decline offering
yourself a candidate for Stafford, when a future election may

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 293

arrive, — a place where you are highly esteemed, and where every
humble service in my power, as I have before declared to you,
should have been at your command, — I have determined to ac-
cept the very cordial invitations I have received from old friends
in that quarter, and, (though entirely secure of my seat at Ilches-
ter, and, indeed, even of the second seat for my son, through the
liberality of Sir W. Manners), to return to the old goal from
whence I started thirty-one years since ! You will easily see
that arrangements at Hchester may be made towards assisting
me, in point of expense, to meet any opposition^ and, in that re^
spect^ nothing will be wanting. It will, I confess, be very grati-
fying to me to be again elected by the sons of those who chose me
in the year eighty, and adhered to me so stoutly and so long.
I think I was returned for Stafford seven, if not eight, times, in-
cluding two most tough and expensive contests ; and, in taking
a temporary leaVe of them I am sure my credit must stand
well, for not a shilling did I leave unpaid. I have written to the
Jeminghams, who, in the handsomest manner, have ever given
me their warmest support ; and, as no political object interests
my mind so much as the Catholic cause, I have no doubt that
independent of their personal friendship, I shall receive a continu-
ation of their honorable support. I feel it to be no presumption
to add, that other respectable interests in the neighborhood will
be with me.

" I need scarcely add my sanguine hope, that whatever interest
rests with you, (which ought to be much), will also be in my
fevor.

" I have the honor to be,

" With great esteem and regard,
" Yours most sincerely,

" R. B. Sheridan."

" I mean to be in Stafford, from Lord G. Levison's, in about
a fortnight."

Among a number of notes addressed to his former constituents
at this time, (which I find written in his neatest hand, as if tV
tetuied to be sent), is this c irious one : —

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294 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" Dear King John, Cavendish- Square, Sunday night,
" I shall be in Stafford in the course of next week, and if Your
Majesty does not renew our old alliance I shall never again have
faith in any potentate on earth.

" Yours very sincerely,
" Mr. John K. " R. B. Sheridan."

The two attempts that were made in the course of the year
1812 — the one, on the cessation of the Regency Restrictions,
and tho other after the assassination of Mr. Perceval, — ^to bring
the Whigs into official relations with the Court, were, it is evi-
dent, but little inspired on either side, with the feelings likely to
lead to such a result. It requires but a perusal of the published
correspondence in both cases to convince us that, at the bottom
of all these evolutions of negotiation, there was anything but a
sincere wish that the object to which they related should be ac-
complished. The Marechal Bassompiere was not more afraid of
succeeding in his warfare, when he said, " Je crois que nous se-
rous assez fous pour prendre la Rochelle^'' than was one of the
parties, at least, in these negotiations, of any favorable turn that
might inflict success upon its overtures. Even where the Court,
as in the contested point of the Household, professed its readi-
ness to accede to the surrender so injudiciously demanded of it,
those who acted as its discretionary organs knew too well the
real wishes in that quarter, and had been too long and faithfully
zealous in their devotion to those wishes to leave any fear that
advantage would be taken of the concession. But, however high
and chivalrous was thai feeling with which Lord Moira, on this
occasion, threw himself into the breach for his Royal Master, the
service of Sheridan, though flowing partly from the same zeal,
was not, I grieve to say, of the same clear and honorable char-
acter.

Lord Yarmouth, ^t is well known, stated in the House of
Commons that he had communicated to Mr. Sheridan the inten-
tion of the Household to resign, with the view of having that in-
tention conveyed to Lord Grey and Lord Grenville, and thus r^

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLKY SHERIDAN. 295

iuoving*the sole ground upon which these Noble Lords objected to
the acceptance of office. Not only, however, did Sheridan endeavor
to dissuade the Noble Vice-Chamberlain from resigning, but
with an unfairness of dealing which admits, I own, of no vidica-
tion, he withheld from the two leaders of Opposition the intelli-
gence thus meant to be conveyed to them ; and, when questioned
by Mr. Tierney as to the rumored intentions of the Household
to resign, offered to bet five hundred guineas that there was no
such step in contemplation.

In this conduct, which he made but a feeble attempt to ex-
plain, and which I consider as the only indefensible part of his
whole public life, he was, in some degree, no doubt, influenced
by personal feelings against the two Noble Lords, whom his
want of fairness on the occasion was so well calculated to thwart
and embarrass. But the main motive of the whole proceeding
is to be found in his devoted deference to what he knew to be
the wishes and feelings of that Personage, who had become now,
more than ever, the mainspring of all his movements, — whose
spell over him, in this instance, was too strong for even his
sense of character ; and to whom he might well have applied the
words of one of his own beautiful songs —

" Friends, fortune, fame itself I'd lose,
To gain one smile from thee !"

So fatal, too often, are Royal friendships, whose attraction,
like the loadstone-rock in Eastern fable, that drew the nails out
of the luckless ship that came near it, steals gradually away the
strength by which character is held together, till, at last, it
loosens at all points, and falls to pieces, a wreck !

In proof of the fettering influence under which he acted on this
occasion, we find him in one of his evasive attempts at vindicar
tion, suppressing, from delicacy to his Royal Master, a circum-
stance which, if mentioned, would have redounded considerably
to his own credit. After mentioning that the Regent had
" asked his opinion with respect to the negotiations that were
going on," he adds, " I gave him my opinion, and I most de-

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296 MEMOIKS OF THE LIFE OF THE

voutly wish that that opinion could be published to the world,
that it might serve to shame those who now belie me."

The following is the feet to which these expressions allude.
When the Prince-Regent, on the death of Mr. Perceval, entrust-
ed to Lord Wellesley the task of forming an Administration, it
appears that His Royal Highness had signified either his inten-
tion or wish to exclude a certain Noble Earl from the arrange-
ments to be made under that commission. On learning this,
Sheridan not only expressed strongly his opinion against such a
step, but having, afterwards, reason to fear that the freedom
with which he spoke on the subject had been displeasing to the
Regent, he addressed a letter to that Illustrious Person, (a copy
of which 1 have in my possession,) in which, after praising the
" wisdom and magnanimity" displayed by his His Royal High
ness, in confiding to Lord Wellesley the powers that had just
been entrusted to him, he repeated his opinion that any " pro-
scription" of the Noble Earl in question, would be " a proceed-
ing equally derogatory to the estimation of His Royal Highness's
personal dignity and the security of his political power ;" — add-
ing, that the advice, which he took the liberty of giving against
such a step, did not proceed " from any peculiar partiality to the
Noble Earl or to many of those with whom he was allied ; but
was founded on what he considered to be best for His Royal
Highness's honor and interest, and for the general interests of the
country."

The letter (in alluding to the displeasure which he feared he
had incurred by venturing this opinion) concludes thus : —

" Junius said in a public letter of his, addressed to Your Royal
Father, ' the fate that made you a King forbad your having a
friend.* I deny his proposition as a general maxim — I am con-
fident that Your Royal Highness possesses qualities to win and
secure to you the attachment and devotion of private friendship,
in spite of your being a Sovereign. At least I feel that I am
entitled to make this declaration as far as relates to myself —
and I do i"- under the assured conviction that you will never re

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BIGHT HON. KICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 297

quire from me any proof of that attachment and devotion incon-
sistent with the clear and honorable independence of mind and
conduct, which constitute my sole value as a public man, and
which have hitherto been my best recommendation to your
gracious favor, confidence, and protection."

It is to be regretted that while by this wise advice he helped
to save His Royal Master from the invidious appearance of acting
upon a principle of exclusion, he should, by his private manage-
ment afterwards, have but too well contrived to secure to him
all the advantage of that principle in reality.

The political career of Sheridan was now drawing fast to a close.
He spoke but upon two or three other occasions during the Ses-
sion ; and among the last sentences uttered by him in the House
were the following; — which, as calculated to leave a sweeter
flavor on the memory, at parting, than those questionable trans-
actions that have just been related, I have great pleasure in
citing : —

" My objection to the present Ministry, is that they are avowedly array-
ed and embodied against a principle, — that of concesssion to the Catholics
of Ireland,— which I think, and must always think, essential to the safety
of this empire. I will never give my vote to any Administration that op-
poses the question of Catholic Emancipation. I will not consent to receive
a furlough upon that particular question, even though a Ministry were car-
rying every other that I wished. In fine, I think the situation of Ireland a
paramount consideration. If they were to be the last wwds I should ever
utter in this House, I should say, * Be just to Ireland, as you value your
own honor, — be just to Ireland, as you value your own peace.* "

His very last words in Parliament, on his own motion relative
to the Overtures of Peace from France, were as follow: —

" Yet after the general subjugation and ruin of Europe, should there
ever exist an independent historian to record the awful events that pro-
duced this universal calamity, let that historian have to say, — * Great Bri-
tain fell, and with her fell all the best securities for the charities of human
life, for the power and honor, the fame, the glory, and the liberties, not
only of herself, but of the whole civilized world.' "

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In the month of September following, Parliament was dis-
solved ; and, presuming upon the encouragement which he had
received from some of his Stafford friends^ he again tried his
chance of election for that borough, but without success. .Hus
failure he, himself, imputec^ as will be seen by the following let-
ter, to the refusal of Mr. Whitbread to advance him 2000Z. out
of the sum due to him by the Committee for his share of the
property : —

" Dear Whitbread, CooJc's Hotel, Nov, 1, 1812.

" I was misled to expect you in town the beginning of last
week, but being positively assured that you will arrive to-mor-
row, I have declined accompanying Hester into Hampshire as I
intended, and she has gone to-day without me ; but I must leave
town to join her as soon as I can. We must have some serious
but yet, I hope, friendly conversation respecting my unsettled
claims on the Drury-Lane Theatre Corporation. A concluding
paragraph, in one of your last letters to Burgess, whidb he
thought himself justified in showing me, leads me to believe that
it is not your object to distress or destroy me. On the subject
of your refusing to advance to me the 2000/. I applied for to
take with me to Stafford, out of the large sum confessedly due
to me, (unless I signed some paper containing I know not what,
and which you presented to my breast like a cocked pistol on
the last day I saw you,) I will not dwell. This, and this alone,
lost me my election. You deceive yourself if you give credit to any
other causes, which the pride of my friends chose to attribute
our failure to, rather than confess our poverty. I do not mean
now to expostulate with you, much less to reproach you, but sure
I am that when you contemplate the positive injustice of refusing
me the accommodation I required, and the irreparable injury
that refusal has cast on me, overturning, probably, all the honor
and independence of what remains of my political life, you will
deeply reproach yourself.

" I shall make an application to the Committee, when I hear
you have appointed one, for the assistance which most pressing

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BBINSLEY SHERIDAN. 299

circumstances now compel me to call for ; . and all I desire is,
through a sincere wish that our friendship may not be interrupt-
ed, that the answer to that application may proceed from a horn
fde Committee^ with their signatures^ testifying their decision.
" I am, yet,

" Yours very sincerely,
« S. Whitbread, Esq. " R. B. Sheridan."

Notwithstanding the angry feeling which is expressed in this
letter, and which the state of poor Sheridan's mind, goaded as he
was now by distress and disappointment, may well excuse, it will
be seen by the following letter from Whitbread, written on the
vwy eve of the elections in September, that there was no want of
inclination, on the part of this honorable and excellent man, to
afford assistance to his friend, — but that the duties of the perplex-
ing trust which he had undertaken rendered such irregular ad-
vances as Sheridan required impossible : —

"My dear Sheridan,

" We will not enter into details, although you are quite mis-
taken in them. You know how happy I shall be to propose to
the Committee to agree to anything practicable ; and you may
make all practicable, if you will have resolution to look at the
state of the account between you and the Committee, and agree
to the mode of its liquidation.

" You will recollect the 5000Z. pledged to Peter Moore to an-
swer demands ; the certificates given to Giblet, Ker, Ironmonger,
Cross, and Hirdle, five each at your request ; the engagements
given to Ellis and myself, and the arrears to the Linley family.
All this taken into consideration will leave a large balance still
payable to you. Still there are upon that balance the claims
upon you by Shaw, Taylor, and Grubb, for all of which you have
offered to leave the whole of your compensation in my hands, to
abide the issue of arbitration.

" This may be managed by your agreeing to take a consider-
able portion of your balance in bonds, leaving those bonds in
trust to answer the events.

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300 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

" I shall be in town on Monday to the Committee, and will be
prepared with a sketch of the state of your account with the
Committee, and with the mode in which I think it would be pru-
dent for you and them to adjust it ; which if you will agree to,
and direct the conveyance to be made forthwith, I will undertake
to propose the advance of money you wish. But without a clear
arrangement, as a justification, nothing can be done.

" I shall be in Dover-Street at nine o'clock, and be there and
in Drury-Lane all day. The Queen comes, but the day is not
fixed. The election will occupy me after Monday. After that
is over, I hope we shall see you.

" Yours very truly,

" Simthill, Sept 25, 1812. " S. Whitbread."

The feeling entertained by Sheridan towards the Committee
had already been strongly manifested this year by the manner in
which Mrs. Sheridan received the Resolution passed by them,
offering her the use of a box in the new Theatre. The notes of
Whitbread to Mrs. Sheridan on this subject, prove how anxious
he was to conciliate the wounded feelings of his friend : —

"My dear Esther,
" I have delayed sending the enclosed Resolution of the Drury-
Lane Committee to you, because I had hoped to have found a
moment to have called upon you, and to have delivered it into
your hands. But I see no chance of that, and therefore literally
obey my instructions in writing to you.

" I had great pleasure in proposing the Resolution, which was
cordially and unanimously adopted. I had it always in contero-
plation, — but to have proposed it earlier would have been im-
proper. I hope you will derive much amusement from your
visits to the Theatre, and that you and all of your name will ul-
timately be pleased with what has been done. I have juat had a
most satisfactory letter from Tom Sheridan,
"lam,

" My dear Esther,

" Affectionately yours,
" Dover-JStreet, July 4, 1812. " Samuel Whitbrba|v"

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RIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 301

"My dear Esther,

" It has been a great mortification and disappointment to me,
to have met the Committee twice, since the offer of the use of a
box at the new Theatre was made to you, and that I have not had
to report the slightest acknowledgment from you in return.

" The Committee meet again to-morrow, and after that there
will be no meeting for some time. If I shal. be compelled to re-
turn the same blank answer I have hitherto cone, the inference
drawn will naturally be, that what was designed by himself, who
moved it, and by those who voted it, as a gratifying mark of at-
tention to Sheridan through you, (as the most gratifying mode of
conveying it,) has, for some unaccountable reason, been mistaken
and is declined.

" But I shall be glad to know before to-morrow, what is your
determination on the subject.

" I am, dear Esther,

" Affectionately yours,

''Dover- Street, July 12, 1812. " S. Whitbread." ,

The failure of Sheridan at Stafford completed his ruin. He
was now excluded both from the Theatre and from Parliament :
— the two anchors by which he held in life were gone, and he was
left a lonely and helpless wreck upon the waters. The Prince
Regent offered to bring him into Parliament ; but the thought
of returning to that scene of his triumphs and his freedom, with
the Royal owner's mark, as it were, upon him, was more than he
could bear — and he declined the offer. Indeed, miserable and
insecure as his life was now, when we consider the public humili-
ations to which he would have been exposed, between his ancient
pledge to Whiggism and his attachment and gratitude to Roy-
alty, it is not wonderful that he should have preferred even the
alternative of arrests and imprisonments to the risk of bringing
upon his political name any further tarnish in such a struggle.
Neither could his talents have much longer continued to do them-
selves justice, amid the pressure of such cares, and the increased
indulgence of habits, which, as is usual, gained upon him, as all

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302 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

other indulgences vanished. The ancients, we are told, by a sig-
nificant device, inscribed on the wreaths they wore at banquets
the name of Minerva. Unfortunately, from the festal wreath of
Sheridan this name was now bat too often efl^ced ; and the same
charm, that once had served to give a quicker flow to thought,
was now employed to muddy the stream, as it became painful to
contemplate what was at the bottom of it. By his exclusion,
therefore, from Parliament, he was, perhaps, seasonably saved
from affording to that " Folly, which loves the martyrdom of
Fame,"* the spectacle of a great mind, not only surviving itself,
but, like the champion in Bemi, continuing the combat after life
is gone : —

^*Andava comhattefido, ed era marto.-'

In private society, however, he could, even now, (before the Rubi-
con of the cup was passed,) fully justify his high reputation for
agreeableness and wit ; and a day which it was my good fortune
to spend with him, at the table of Mr. Rogers, has too many
mournful, as well as pleasant, associations connected with it, to
be easily forgotten by the survivors of the party. The company
consisted but of Mr. Rogers himself. Lord Byron, Mr. Sheridan,
and the writer of this Memoir. Sheridan knew the admiration
his audience felt for him ; the presence of the youilg poet, in
particular, seemed to bring back his own youth and wit ; and the
details he gave of his early life were not less interesting and ani-
mating to himself than delightful to us. It was in the course of this
evening that, describing to us the poem which Mr. Whitbread had
written and sent in, among the other Addresses, for the opening
of Drury-Lane, and which, like the rest, turned chiefly on allu-
sions to the Phenix, he said, — " But Whitbread made more of
this bird than any of them : — he entered into particulars, and

♦ " And Folly loves the martyrdom of Fame."
This fine line is in Lord Byron's Monody to his memory. There is another line, equally
true and touching, where, alluding to the irregularities of the latter part of Sheridan's
life, he says — '

" Vnd what to them seem'd vice might be but woe."

9

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 803

described its wings, beak, tail, &c. ; in short, it was a Poulterer'a
description of a Phenix !" ,

The following extract from a Diary in my possession, kept by
Lord Byron during six months of his residence in London, 1812
— 13, will show the admiration which this great and generous
spirit felt for Sheridan : —

'' Saturday y December l^, 1813.

" Lord Holland told me a curious piece of sentimentality in
Sheridan. The other night we were all delivering our respec-
tive and various opinions on him and other ' hommes marquans,^
and mine was this : — ' Whatever Sheridan has done or chosen to
do has been par excellence, always the best of its kind. He has
written the best comedy, (School for Scandal,) the best opera,
(The Duenna — in my mind far before that St. Giles's lampoon,
The Beggar's Opera,) the best farce, (The Critic — it is only too
good for an after-piece,) and tHe best Address, (Monologue on
Garrick,) — and to crown all, delivered the very best oration, (the
famous Begum Speech,) ever conceived or heard in this country.'
Somebody told Sheridan this the next day, and on hearing.it, he
burst into tears ! — Poor Brinsley ! If they were tears of plea-
sure, I would rather have said those few, but sincere, words,
than have written the Iliad, or made his own celebrated Philippic.
Nay, his own comedy never gratified me more than to hear that
he had derived a moment's gratification from any praise of mine
— humble as it must appear to ' my elders and my betters.' "

The distresses of Sheridan now increased every day, and
through the short remainder of his life it is a melancholy task
to follow him. The sum arising from the sale of his theatrical
property was soon exhausted by the various claims upon it, and
he was driven to part with all that he most valued, to satisfy
further demands and provide for the subsistence of the day.
Those books which, as I have already mentioned, were presented
to him by various friends, now stood in their splendid bindmgs,*

♦ In most of them, too, were the namei of the givers. The delicacy with which Mr.
Harrison of Wardour-Street, (the pawnbroker with whom the books and the cup were de-

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304 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

on the shelves of the pawnbroker. The handsome cup, given
him by the electors of Stafford, shared the same fate. Three or
four fine pictures by Gainsborough, and one by Morland, were
sold for little more than five hundred pounds ; * and even the
precious portrait of his first wife,f by Reynolds, though not ac-
tually sold during his life, vanished away from his eyes into
other hands.

One of the most humiliating trials of his pride was yet to
come. In the spring of this year he was arrested and carried to
a spunging-house, where he remained two or three days.
This abode, firom which the following painful letter to Whit-
bread was written, formed a sad contrast to those Princely halls,
of which he had so lately been the most brilliant and favored
guest, and which were possibly, at that very moment, lighted up
and crowded with gay company, unmindful of him within those
prison walls :—

^^Tooke*8 Court, Cursitor- Street, Thursday, past two,
" I have done everything in my power with the solicitors,

White and Founes, to obtain my release, by substituting a better

security for them than their detaining me — ^but in vain.

" Whitbread, putting all false professions of friendship and

feeling out of the question, you have no right to keep me here !

— ^for it is in truth your act — if you had not forcibly withheld

posited,) behaved, after the death of Mr. Sheridan, deserves to be mentioned with praise.
Instead of availing himself of the public feeling at that moment, by submitting theso
precious l«Iics to the competition of a sale, he privately communicated to the family and
one or two friends of Sheridan the circumstance of his having such articles^! his hands,
and demanded nothing more than the sum regularly due on them. The Stafford cup is in
the possession of Mr. Charles Sheridan.

* In the following extract from a note to his solicitor, he refers to these pictures :
" Dear Bukgsss,

" I am perfectly satisfied with your account ;— nothing can be more clear or fair, or
more disinterested on your part ;— but I must grieve to think that five or six hundred
pounds for ray poor pictures are added to the expenditure. However, we shall come
through !"

■I- As Saint Cecilia. The portrait of Mrs. Sheridan at Enowle, though less ideal than
tha^ of Sir Joshua, is, (for this very reason, perhaps, as bearing a closer resemblance to
the original,) still more beautiftil.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 305

from me the twelve thoitsand pound^^ in consequence of a threat-
ening letter from a miserable swindler, whose claim YOU in
particular knew to be a lie, I should at least have been out of the
reach of this state of miserable insult — for that, and that only,
lost me my seat in Parliament. And I assert that you cannot
find a lawyer in the land, that is not either a natuarl-born fool or
a corrupted scoundrel, who will not declare that your conduct in
this respect was neither warrantable nor legal — ^but let that pass
for the present.

" Independently of the lOOOZ. ignorantly withheld from me on
the day of considering my last claim. I require of you to an-
swer the draft I send herewith on the part of the Committee,
pledging myself to prove to them on the first day I can personal-
ly meet them, that there are still thousands and thousands due
to me, both legally, and equitably, from the Theatre. My word
ought to be taken on this subject ; and you may produce to them
this document, if one, among them could think that, under all
the circumstances, your conduct required a justification. O God !
with what mad confidence have I trusted your word, — I ask jus-
tice from you, and no boon, I enclosed you yesterday three dif-
ferent securities, which had you been disposed to have acted
even as a private friend, would have made it certain that you
might have done so without the smallest risk. These you dis-
creetly offered to put into the fire, when you found the object of
your humane visit satisfied by seeing me safe in prison.

" I shall only add, that, I think, if I know myself, had our
lots been reversed, and I had seen you in my situation, and had
left Lady E. in that of my wife, I would have risked 600Z. rather
than have left you so — although I had been in no way accessary
in bringing you into that condition.

" S. Whitbread, Esq. "R. B. Sheridan."

Even in Jthis situation the sanguineness of his disposition did
not desert him ; for he was found by Mr. Whitbread, on his
visit to the spunging-house, confidently calculating on the repre-
sentation for Westminster, in whieh the proceedings relative to

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306 KEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

Lord Codirane at that moment promised a vacancy. On his
return home, however, to Mrs. Sheridan, (some arrangements
having been made by Whitbread for his release,) all his forti-
tude forsook him, and he burst into a long and passionate fit of
weeping at the profanation, as he termed it, which his person had
suffered.

He had for some months had a feeling that his life was near
its close ; and I find the following touching passage in a letter &om
him to Mrs. Sheridan, after one of those differences which will
sometimes occur between the most affectionate companions, and
which, possibly, a remonstrance on his irregularities and want of
care of himself occasioned ; — '' Never again let one harsh word
pass between us, during the period, which may not perhaps be
long, that we are in this world together, and life, however cloud-
ed to me, is mutually spared to us. I have expressed this same
sentiment to my son, in a letter I wrote to him a few days since,
and I had his answer — a most affecting one, and, I am sure, very
sincere — ^and have since cordially embraced him. Don't imagine
that I am expressing an interesting apprehension about myself,
which I do not feel."

Though the new Theatre of Drury-Lane had now been three
years built, his feelings had never allowed him to set his foot
within its walls. About this time, however, he was persuaded
by his friend. Lord Essex, to dine with him and go in the even-
ing to His Lordship's box, to see Kean. Once there, the ^'ffcmtcs
locV^ seems to have regained its influence over him ; for, on miss-
ing him from the box, between the Acts, Lord Essex, who feared
that he had left the House, hastened out to inquire, and, to his
great satisfaction, found him installed in the Green-room, with
all the actors around him, welcoming him back to the old region
of his glory, with a sort of filial cordiality. Wine was imme-
diately ordered, and a bumper to the health of Mr. Sheridan
was drank by all present, with the expression of many a hearty
wish that he would often, very often, re-appear among them.
This scene, as was natural, exhilarated his spirits, and, on parting
with Lord Essex that night, at his own door, in Saville-Row. he

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RIGHT HON. EICHARD BBINSLEY SHERIDAN. 807

said triumphantly that the world would soon hear of him, for
the Duke of Norfolk was about to bring him into Parliament.
This, it appears, was actually the case ; but Deatii stood near as
he spoke. In a few days after his last fatal illness began.

Amid all the distresses of these latter years of his life, he ap-
pears but rarely to have had recourse to pecuniary assistance
from friends. Mr. Peter Moore, Mr. Ironmonger, and one or
two others, who did more for the comfort of his decline than any
of his high and noble associates, concur in stating that, except
for such an occasional trifle as his coach-hire, he was by no means,
as has been sometimes asserted, in the habit of borrowing. One
instance, however, where he laid himself under this sort of obli-
gation, deserves to be mentioned. Soon after the return of Mr.
Canning from Lisbon, a letter was put into his hands, in the
House of Commons, which proved to be a request from his old
friend Sheridan, then lying ill in bed, that he would oblige him
with the loan of a hundred pounds. It is unnecessary to say
that the request was promptly and feelingly complied with ; and
if the pupil has ever regretted leaving the politics of his master,
it was not at that moment, at least, such a feeling was likely to
present itself

There are, in the possession of a friend of Sheridan, copies of
a correspondence in which he was engaged this year with two
noble Lords and the confidential agent of an illustrious Person-
age, upon a subject, as it appears, of the utmost delicacy and
importance. The letters of Sheridan, it is said, (for I have not
seen them,) though of too secret and confidential a nature to
meet the public eye, not only prove the great confidence reposed
in him by the parties concerned, but show the clearness and
manliness of mind which he could still command, under the
pressure of all that was most trying to human intellect.

The disorder, with which he was now attacked, arose from a
diseased state of the stomach, brought on partly by irregular
living, and partly by the harassing anxieties that had, for so many
years, without intermission, beset him. His powers of digestion
grew every day worse, till he was at length unable to retain any

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808 KEMOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

sustenance. Notwithstanding this, however, his strength seemed
to be but little broken, and his pulse remained, for some time,
strong and regular. Had he taken, indeed, but ordinary care
of himself through life, the robust conformation of his frame,
and particularly, as I have heard his physician remark, the pecu-
liar width and capaciousness of his chest, seemed to mark him
out for a long course of healthy existence. In general Nature
appears to have a prodigal delight in enclosing her costliest es-
sences in the most frail and perishable vessels : — but Sheridan
was a signal exception to this remark ; for, with a spirit so
" finely touched," he combined all the robustness of the most
uninspired clay.

Mrs. Sheridan was, at first, not aware of his danger ; but Dr.
Bain — whose skill was now, as it ever had been, disinterestedly
at the service of his friend,* — thought it right to communicate
to her the apprehensions that he felt. From that moment, her
attentions to the sufferer never ceased day or night ; and, though
drooping herself with an illness that did not leave her long be-
hind him, she watched over his every word and wish, with unre-
mitting anxiety, to the last.

* A letter rom Sheridan to this amiable man, (of which I know not the dute,)
written in reference to a caution which he had given Mrs. Sheridan, against sleeping in
the same bed with a lady who was consumptive, expresses feelings creditable alike to
the writer and his physician : —

* ' My dear Sir, Jtdy 31.

*' The caution you recommend proceeds from that attentive kindnei» which Hester al-
ways receives from you, and upon which I place the greatest reliance for her safety. I
so entirely agree with your apprehensions on the subject, that I think it was very giddy
in me not to have been struck with them when she first mentioned having slept with her
friend. Nothmg can abate ray love for her ; and the manner in which you apply the in-
terest you take in her happiness, and direct the influence you possess in her mind, ren-
der you, beyond comparison, the person I feel most obliged to upon earth. I take this
opportunity of saying this upon paper, because it is a subject on which I always find it
difficult to speak.

" With respect to that part of your note in which you express such friendly partiality,
as to my parliamentary conduct, I need not add that there is no man whose good opinioa
ean be more' flattering to me.

" I am ever, my dear Bain,

" Tour sincere and obliged

" R. a SBXRmiK."

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RIGHT HCN. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHEBIDAN. 309

Connected, no doubt, with the disorganization of his stomach,
was an abscess, from which, though distressingly situated, he
does not appear to have suffered much pain. In the spring of
this year, however, he was obliged to confine himself, almost
entirely, to his bed. Being expected to attend the St. Patrick's
Dinner, on the 17th of March, he wrote a letter to the Duke of
Kent, who was President, alleging severe indisposition as the
cause of his absence. The contents of this letter were com-
municated to the company, and produced, as appears by the
following note from the Duke of Kent, a strong sensation : —

Kensington Palace, March 27, 1816.
" My dear Sheridan,
" I have been so hurried ever since St. Patrick's day, as to be
unable earlier to thank you for your kind letter, which I received
while presiding at the festive board ; but I can assure you, I was
not unmindful of it then, but announced the afflicting cause of
your absence to the company, who expressed, in a manner that
could not be misunderstood, their continued affection for the
writer of it. It now only remains for me to assure you, that I
appreciate as I ought the sentiments of attachment it contains
for me, and which will ever be most cordially returned by him,
who is with the most friendly regard, my dear Sheridan,

" Yours faithfully,
" The Right Hm. R, B, Sheridan, " Edward."

The following letter to him at this time from his elder sister
will be read with interest : —

" My dear Brother, Dublin, May 9, 1816.

" I am very, very sorry you are ill ; but I trust in God your
naturally strong constitution will retrieve all, and that I shall
soon have the satisfaction of hearing that you are in a fair way
of recovery. I well know the nature of your complaint, that it
is extremely painful, but if properly treated, and no doubt you
have the best advice, not dangerous. I know a lady now past
seventy four, who many years since was attacked with a similar

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810 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE .

complaint, and is now as well as most persons of her time of life.
Where poulticing is necessary, I have known oatmeal used with
the best effect. Forgive, dear brother, this officious zeal. Your
son Thomas told me he felt obliged to me for not prescribing for
him. I did not, because in his case I thought it would be ineffec-
tual ; in yours I have reason to hope the contrary. I am very
glad to hear of the good effect change of climate has made in
him ; — I took a great liking to him; there was something kind in
his manner that won upon my affections. Of your son Charles
I hear the most delightful accounts : — that he has an excellent
and cultivated understanding, and a heart as good. May he be a
blessing to you, and a compensation for much you have endured !
That I do not know him, that I have not seen you, (so early and
so long the object of my affection,) for so many years, has not
been my fault; but I have ever considered it as a drawback upon
a situation not otherwise unfortunate ; for, to use the words of
Goldsmith, I have endeavored to ' draw upon content for the
deficiencies of fortune ;' and truly I have had some employment
in that way, for considerable have been our worldly disappoint-
ments. But those/ are not the worst evils of life, and we have
good children, which is its first blessing. I have oflen told you
my son Tom bore a strong resemblance to you, when I loved
you preferably to any thing the world contained. This, which
was the case with him in childhood and early youth, is still so in
mature years. In character of mind, too, he is very like you,
though education and situation have made a great difference.
At that period of existence, when the temper, morals, and pro-
pensities are formed, Tom had a mother who watched over his
health, his well-being, and every part of education in which a
female could be useful. You had lost a mother who would have
cherished you, whose talents you inherited, who would have soft-
ened the asperity of our father's temper, and probably have
prevented his unaccountable partialities. You have always shown
a noble mdependence of spirit, that the pecuniary difficulties you
oflen had to encounter could not induce you to forego. As a
public man, you have been, like the motto of the Lefanu family,

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BIGHT HON. EICHABD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 811

^Sine macula ;'* and I am persuaded had you not too early been
thrown upon the world, and alienated from your family, you
would have been equally good as a private character. My son is
eminently so. * * *

" Do, dear brother, send me one line to tell me you are better,
and believe me, most affectionatdy,

"Yours,

" Alicia Lefanu."

While death was thus gaining fast on Sheridan, the miseries
of his life were thickening around him also ; nor did the last cor-
ner, in which he now lay down to die, afford him any asylum
from the clamors of his legal pursuers. Writs and executions
came in rapid succession, and bailiffs at length gained possession
of his house. It was about the beginning of May that Lord
Holland, on being informed by Mr. Rogers, (who was one of
the very few that watched the going out of this great light with
interest,) of the dreary situation in which his old fi-icnd was ly-
ing, paid him a visit one evening, in company with Mr. Rogers,
and by the cordiality, suavity, and cheerfulness of his conversa-
tion, shed a charm round that chamber of sickness, which, per-
haps, no other voice but his own could have imparted.

Sheridan was, I believe, sincerely attached to Lord Holland, in
whom he saw transmitted the same fine qualities, both of mind
and heart, which, notwithstanding occasional appearances to the
contrary, he had never ceased to love and admire in his great
relative ; — the same ardor for Right and impatience of Wrong
— the same mixture of wisdom and simplicity, so tempering each
other, as to make the simplicity refined and the wisdom unaffected—
the same gentle magnanimity of spirit, intolerant only of tyranny
and injustice — and, in addition to all this, a range and vivacity of
conversation, entirely his own, which leaves no subject untouched
or unadorned, but is, (to borrow a fancy of Dry den,) " as the
Morning of the Mind," bringing new objects and images succes-
sively into view, and scattering its own fresh light over all.
Such a visit, therefore, could not fail to be soothing and gratify

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812 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

ing to Sheridan ; and, on parting, both Lord Holland and Mr.
Rogers comforted him with the assurance that some steps should
be taken to ward off the immediate evils that he dreaded.

An evening or two after, (Wednesday, May 15,) I was with
Mr. Rogers, when, on returning home, he found the following a^
flicting note upon his table : —

" Saville-Row.

" I find things settled so that 150/. will remove all difficulty.
I am absolutely undone and broken-hearted. I shall negotiate
for the Plays successfully in the course of a week, when all shall
be returned. I have desired Fairbrother to get back the Guar-
antee for thirty.

" They are going to put the carpets out of window, and break
into Mrs. S.'s room and take me — for God's sake let me see
you.

" R. B. S."

It was too late to do any thing when this note was received,
being then between twelve and one at night ; but Mr. Rogers
and I walked down to Saville-Row together to assure ourselves
that the threatened arrest had not yet been put in execution. A
servant spoke to us out of the area, and said that all was safe for
the night, but that it was intended, in pursuance of this new
proceeding, to paste bills over the front of the house next day.

On the following morning I was early with Mr. Rogers, and
willingly undertook to be the bearer of a draft for 150/.* to Sa-
ville-Row. I found Mr. Sheridan good-nature^ and cordial as
ever ; and though he was then within a few weeks of his death,
his voice had not lost its fulness or strength, nor was that lustre,
for which his eyes were so remarkable, diminished. He showed,
too, his usual sanguineness of disposition in speaking of the price
that he expected for his Dramatic Works, and of the certainty
he felt of being able to arrange all his affairs, if his complaint
would but suffer him to leave his bed.

* Lord Holland afterwards insisted upon pa3ring the half of this sum,— which was not
the first of the same amount that my liberal friend, Mr. Refers, had advanced for Sheri-
dan. «

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BIGHT HON. RICHABD BRINSLET SHERIDAN. 813

In the following month, his powers began rapidly to fail him ;
— his stomadi was completely worn out, and could no longer
bear any kind of sustenance. During the whole of this time,
as far as I can learn, it does not appear that, (with the exceptions
I have mentioned,) any one of his Noble or Royal friends ever
called at his door, or even sent to inquire after him !

About this period Doctor Bain received the following note
from Mr. Vaughan : —

"My dbar Sir,
" An apology in a case of humanity is scarcely necessary, be-
sides I have the honor of a slight acquaintance with you. A
friend of mine, hearing of our friend Sheridan's forlorn situation,
and that Ife has neither money nor credit for a few comforts, has
employed me to convey a small sum for his use, through such
channel as I think right. I can devise none better than through
you. If I had had the good fortune to have seen you, I should
have left for this purpose a draft for 50Z. Perhaps as much
more might be had if it will be conducive to a good end — of
course you must feel it is not for the purpose of satisfying trou-
blesome people. I will say more to you if you will do me the
honor of a call: in your way to Saville-Street to-morrow. I am
% mere agent.

" I am,

" My dear Sir,

" Most truly yours,
" 23, Ora/ton-Street, « John Taylor Vaughan. *

" If I should not see you before twelve, I will come through
the passage to you."

In his interview with Dr. Bain, Mr. Vaughan stated, that the
sum thus placed at his disposal was, in all, 200/. ;* and the pro-
position being submitted to Mrs. Sheridan, that lady, after con-
sulting with some of her relatives, returned for answer that, as

* Mr. Vaughan did not give Doctor Bain to understand that he was authOTized to go be-
yond the 2001. ; but, in a conversation which I had with him a year or two aAer, in cob*
templation of this Memoir,, he told me that a Airther supply was intended.

VOL. n. 14

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314 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

there was a su^ciency of means to provide all that was neces-
sary for her husband's comfort, as well as her own, she be^ed
leave to decline the offer.

Mr. Vaughan always said, that the donation, thus meant to be
doled out, came from a Royal hand ; — ^but this is hardly credi-
ble. It would be safer, perhaps, to let the suspidion rest upon
that gentleman's memory, of having indulged his own benevo-
lent disposition in this disguise, than to suppose it possible that
so scanty and reluctant a benefaction was the sole mark of atten-
tion accorded by a " gracious Prince and Master"* to the last,
death-bed wants of one of the most accomplished and faithful
servants, that Royalty ever yet raised or ruined by its smiles.
When the philosopher Anaxagoras lay dying for want of suste-
nance, his great pupil, Pericles, sent him a sum of money. " Take
it back," said Anaxagoras — " if he wished to keep the lamp alive,
he ought to have administered the oil before !"

In the mean time, the clamors and incursions of creditors in-
creased. A sheriflTs officer at length arrested the dying man in
his bed, and was about to carry him off, in his blankets, to a
spunging-house, when Doctor Bain interfered — and, by threaten-
ing the officer with the responsibility he must incur, if, as was
but too probable, his prisoner should expire on the way, averted
this outrage.

About the middle of June, the attention and sympathy of the
Public were, for the first time, awakened to the desolate situa-
tion of Sheridan, by an article that appeared in the Morning
Post, — written, as I understand, by a gentleman, who, though on
no very cordial terms with him, forgot every other feeling in a
generous pity for his fate, and in honest indignation against those
who now deserted him. " Oh delay not," said the writer, with-
out naming the person to whom he alluded — " delay not to draw
aside the curtain within which that pirotid spirit hides its suffer
ings." He then adds, with a striking anticipation of what after-
wards happened : — " Prefer ministering in the chamber of sick-
ness to mustering at

• See Sheridan's Letter, page 268.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 316

* The splendid sorrows that adorn the hearse ;'

I say, Life and Succor against Westminster-Abbey and a Fune-
ral!"

This article produced a strong and general sensation, and was
reprinted in the same paper the following day. Its effect, too,
was soon visible in the calls made at Sheridan's door, and in the
appearance of such names as the Duke of York, the Duke of
Argyle, &c. among tha visitors. But it was now too late ; — the
spirit, that these unavailing tributes might once have comforted,
was now fast losing the consciousness of every thing earthly, but
pain. After a succession of shivering fits, he fell into a state of
exhaustion, in which he continued, with but few more signs of
suffering, till his death. A day or two before that event, the
Bishop of London read prayers by his bed-side ; and on Sunday,
the seventh of July, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, he died.

On the following Saturday the Funeral took place ; — ^his re-
mains having been previously removed from Saville-Row to the
house of his friend, Mr. Peter Moore, in Great George-Street,
Westminster. From thence, at one o'clock, the procession
moved on foot to the Abbey, where, in the only spot in Poet's
Corner that remained unoccupied, the body was interred ; and
the following simple inscription marks its resting-place : —

"RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN,

BORN, 1751,

DIED, 7th JULY, 1816.

TmS MARBLE IS THE TRIBUTE OF AN ATTACHED

FRIEND,

* PETER MOORE."

Seldom has there been seen such an array of rank as graced
this Funeral.* The Pall-bearers were the Duke of Bedford, the
Earl of Lauderdale, Earl Mulgraye, the Lord Bishop of London,
Lord Holland, and Lord Spencer. Among the mourners were

• It was well remarked by a French Jouma., in contrasting the jtenury of Sheridan's,
latter years with the splendor of his Funeral, that " France is the place for a naan of let-
ters to live in, and England the place tor him to die in."

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816 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

His Royal Highness the Duke of York, His Royal Highness the
Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Argyle,the Marquissesof Anglesea
and Tavistock ; the Earls of Thanet, Jersey, Harrington, Bes-
borough, Mexborough, Rosslyn, and Yarmouth ; Lords George
Cavendish and Robert Spencer ; Viscounts Sidmouth, Granville,
and Duncannon; Lords Rivers, Erskine, and Lynedoch; the
Lord Mayor ; Right Hon. G. Canning and W. W. Pole, &;c.,
&c.*

Where were they all, these Royal and Noble persons, who
now crowded to " partake the gale" of Sheridan's glory — where
were they all while any life remained in him 1 Where were
they all, but a few weeks before, when their interposition might
have saved his heart from breaking, — or when the zeal, now
wasted on the grave, might have soothed and comforted the death-
bed 1 This is a subject on which ifc is difficult to speak with
patience. If the man was unworthy of the commonest offices of
humanity while he lived, why all this parade of r^et and hom-
age over liis tomb 1

There appeared some verses at the time, which, however in-
temperate in their satire and careless in their style, came, evi-
dently, warm from the heart of the writer, and contained senti-
ments to which, even in his cooler moments, he needs not hesi-
tate to subscribe : —

* Oh it sickens the heart to see bosoms so hollow,

And friendships so false in the great and high-bom ; —
To think what a long line of Titles may follow
The relics of him who died, friendless and lorn I

" How proud they can press to the ftmeral array

Of him whom they shunn'd, in his sickness and sorrow —
How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day,
Whose pall shall be held up by Nobles to-morrow I"

• In the train of all this phalanx of Dukes, Marquisses, Earls, Viscounts, Barons,
Honorables, and Right Honorables, Princes of the Blood Royal, and First Officers of the
State, it was not a little interesting to see, walking humWy, side by side, the only two
men whose friendship had not waited for the call of vanity to display itself— Dr. Bain and
Mr. Rogers.

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 817

The anonymous writer thus characterizes the talents of She-
ridan : —

" Was this, then, the fate of that high-gifted man,
The pride of the palace, the bower, and the hall —
The orator, dramatist, minstrel, — ^who ran
Through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all.

*< Whose mind was an essence, compounded, with art,
From the finest and best of all other men's powers ; —
Who TXkVdj like a wizard, the world of the heart,
And could call up its sunshine, or draw down its showers ; —

" Whose humor, as gay as the fire-fly's light,

Play'd round every subject, and shone, as it play'd ; —

Whose wit, in the combat as gentle as bright,

Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade ; —

•
** Whose eloquence brightened whatever it tried,

Whether reason or fancy, the gay or the grave.

Was as rapid, as deep, and as brilliant a tide,

As ever bore Freedom aloft on its wave !"

Tliough a perusal of the foregoing pages has, I trust, sufficiently
furnished the reader with materials out of which to form his own
estimate of the character of Sheridan, a few general remarks
may, at parting, be allowed me — rather with a view to convey
the impressions left upon myself, than with any presumptuous
hope of influencing the deductions of others.

In considering the intellectual powers of this extraordinary
man, the circumstance that first strikes us is the very scanty
foundation of instruction, upon which he contrived to raise him-
self to such eminence both as a writer and a politician. It is
true, in the line of authorship he pursued, erudition was not so
much wanting ; and his wit, like the laurel of Ceesar, was leafy
enough to hide any bareness in this respect. In politics, too, he
had the advantage of entering upon, his career, at a time when
habits of business and a knowledge of details were less looked

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S18 MEHOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

for in public men than they are at present, and when the House
of Commons was, for various reasons, a more open play-ground
for eloquence and wit. The great increase of public business,
since then, has necessarily made a considerable change in this
respect. Not only has the time of the Legislature become too
precious to be wasted upon the mere gymnastics of rhetoric, but
even those graces, with which true Oratory surrounds her state-
ments, are but impatiently borne, where the statement itself is
the primary and pressing object of the hearer.* Burke, we
know, was, even for his own time, too much addicted to what
falconers would call raking^ or flying wide of his game ; but
there was hardly, perhaps, one among his great contemporaries,
who, if beginning his career at present, would not find it, in
some degree, necessary to conform his style to the taste for
business and matter-of-fact that is prevalent. Mr. Pitt would
be compelled to curtail the march of his sentences — ^Mr. Fox
would learn to repeat himself less lavishly — ^nor would Mr.
Sheridan venture to enliven a question of evidence by a long
and pathetic appeal to Filial Piety.

In addition to this change in the character and taste of the
House of Commons, which, while it has lowered the value of some
of the qualifications possessed by Sheridan, has created a demand
for others of a more useful but less splendid kind, which his edu-
cation and habits of life would have rendered less easily attain-
able by him, we must take also into account the prodigious dif

* The new light that has been throvim on Political Science may also, perhaps, be as-
signed as a reason for this evident revolution in Parliamentary taste. " Truth," says Lord
Bacon, " is a naked and open daylight, that doth not show the masques, and mummeries,
and triumphs of the present world half so stately and daintily as candle-lights ;" — and
there can be little doubt that the clearer any important truths are made, the less contro-
versy they will excite among fair and rational men. and the less passion and fancy ac-
cordingly, can eloquence infuse into the discussion of them. Mathematics have produced
no quarrels among mankind — ^it is by the mysterious and the vague, that temper as well
as imagination is most roused. In proof of this, while th'' acknowledged clearness, al-
most to truism, which the leading principles of Political Science have attained, has tended
to simplify and tame down the activities o( eloquence on that subject, there is still an-
other arena left, in the science of the Law, where the same illumination of truth has not
yet penetrated, and where Oratory will still continue to work her perplexing spells, till
Common Sense and the plain principles of Utility shall find their way there also to weaken
.them.

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EIGHT HON. EICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 319

ference produced by the general movement, at present, of the
whole civilized world towards knowledge ; — a movement, which
no public man, however great his natural talents, could now lag
behind with impunity, and which requires nothing less than
the versatile and encyclopcedic powers of a Brougham to keep
pace with it.

Another striking characteristic of Sheridan, as an orator and
a writer, was the great degree of labor and preparation which
his productions in both lines cost him. Of this the reader has
seen some curious proofs in the preceding pages. Though the
papers left behind by him have added nothing to the stock of
his chefd'oeuvres^ they have given us an insight into his manner
of producing his great works, which is, perhaps, the next most
interesting thing to the works themselves. Though no new star
has been discovered, the history of the formation of those we
already possess, and of the gradual process by which they were
brought " firm to retain their gathered beams," has, as in the in-
stance of The School for Scandal, been most interestingly unfold-
ed to us.

The same marks of labor are discoverable throughout the
whole of his Parliamentary career. He never made a speech
of any moment, of which the sketch, more or less detailed, has
not been found among his papers — with the showier passages
generally written two or three times over, (often without any
material change in their form,) upon small detached pieces of
paper, or on cards. To such minutise of effect did he attend,
that I have found, in more than one instance, a memorandum
made of the precise place in which the words " Good God, Mr.
Speaker," were to be introduced. These preparatory sketches are
continued down to his latest displays ; and it is observable that
when from the increased derangement of his affairs, he had np
longer leisure or coUectedness enough to prepare, he ceased to
speak.

The only time he could have found for this pre-arrangement
of his thoughts, (of which few, from the apparent idleness of his
life, suspected him,) must have been during the many hours of

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i20 HSHOIBS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the day that he remained in bed, — when, frequently, while the
world gave him credit for being asleep, he was employed in lay-
ing the frame-work of his wit and eloquence for the evening.

That this habit of premeditation was not altogether owing to
a want of quickness, appears from the power and liveliness of
his replies in Parliament, and the vivacity of some of his retorts
in conversation * The labor, indeed, which he found necessary
for his public displays, was, in a great degree, the combined ef-
fect of his ignorance and his taste ; — the one rendering him fear-
ful of committing himself on the matter of his task, and the
other making him fastidious and hesitating as to the mcm'ner of it.
I cannot help thinking, however, that there must have been, also,
a degree of natural slowness in the first movements of his mind
upon any topic ; and, that, like those animals which remain gaz-
ing upon their prey before they seize it, he found it necessary to
look intently at his subject for some time, before he was able to
make the last, quick spring that mastered it.

Among the proofe of this dependence of his fancy upon time
and thought for its development, may be mentioned his :&miliar
letters, as far as their fewness enables us to judge. Had his wit
been a " fruit, that would fall without shaking," we should, in
these communications at least, find some casual windfalls of it.
But, from the want of sufficient time to search and cull, he seems
to have given up, in despair, all thoughts of being lively in his
letters ; and accordingly, as the reader must have observed in
the specimens that have been given, his compositions in iMs way

• His best Jxm-mots are in the memory of every one. Among those less known, per-
haps, is his answer to General T , relative to some difference of opmion between them

on the War in Spain : — " Well, T^— , are you still on your high horse?" — "If I was on

a horse before, I am upon an elephant now." " No,T , you were upon an <xs$ before,

and now you are upon a mule."

Some mention having been made in his presence of a Tax upon Milestones, Sheridan
said, " such a tax would be unconstitutional,— as they were a race that could not meet
to remonstrate."

As an instance of his humor, I have been told that, in some country-house where h§
was on a visit, an elderly maiden lady having set her heart on being his companion in a
walk, he excused himself at first on account of the badness of the weather. Soon after-
wards, however, the lady intercepted him in an attempt to escape without her : — " Well,'*
she said, "it has cleared up, I see." "Why, yes," he answered, "it has cleared up
enough for onCj but not for two."

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BIGHT HON. BICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 321

are not only unenlivened by any excursions beyond the bounds
of mere matter of fact, but, from the habit or necessity of taking
a certain portion of time for correction, are singularly confused,
disjointed, and inelegant in their style.

It is certain that even his bon-mots in society were not always
to be set down to the credit of the occasion ; but that frequently,
like skilful priests, he prepared the miracle of the moment be^
fore-hand. Nothing, indeed, could be more remarkable than the
patience and tact, with which he would wait through a whole
evening for the exact moment, when the shaft which he had rea-
dy feathered, might be let fly with effect. There was no effort,
either obvious or disguised, to lead to the subject — no " question
detached, (as he himself expresses it,) to draw you into the am-
buscade of his ready-made joke" — and, when the lucky moment
did arrive, the natural and accidental manner in which he would
let this treasured sentence fall from his lips, considerably added
to the astonishment and the charm. So bright a thing, produced
so easily, seemed like the delivery of Wieland's* Amanda in a
dream ; — ^and his own apparent unconsciousness of the value of
what he said might have deceived dull people into the idea that
there was really nothing in it.

The consequence of this practice of waiting for the moment of
effect was, (as all, who have been much in his society, must have
observed,) that he would remain inert in conversation, and even
taciturn, for hours, and then suddenly come out with some bril-
liant sally, which threw a light over the whole evening, and was
carried away in the memories of all present. Nor must it be
supposed that in the intervals, either before or afler these flashes,
he ceased to be agreeable ; on the contrary, he had a grace and
good nature in his manner, which gave a charm to even his most
ordinary sayings, — and tliere was, besides, that ever-speaking
lustre in his eye, which made it impossible, even when he was
silent, to forget who he was.

A curious instance of the care with which he treasured up the
felicities of his wit, appears in the use he made of one of those

• See Sotheby's admirable Translation of Oberon, Canto 9.

VOL. n. 14*

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822 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

epigrammatic passages, which the reader may remember among
the memorandums for his Comedy of Affectation, and which, in
its first form, ran thus : — " He oertamly has a great deal of fan-
cy, and a very good memory ; but, with a perverse ingenuity, he
employs these qualities as no other person does — for he employs
his fancy in his narratives, and keeps his recollection for his wit :
— when he makes his jokes, you applaud the accuracy of his
memory, and 'tis only when he states his facts that you admire
the flights of his imagination." After many efforts to express
this thought more concisely, and to reduce the language of it to
that condensed and elastic state, in which alone it gives force to
the projectiles of wit, he kept the passage by him patiently some
years, — till at length he found an opportunity of turning it to
account, in a reply, I believe, to Mr. Dundas, in the House of
Commons, when, with the most extemporaneous air, he brought
it forth, in the following compact and pointed form : — " The
Right Honorable Gentleman is indebted to his memory for his
jests, and to his imagination fbr his facts."

His Political Character stands out so fully in these pages, that
it is needless, by any comments, to attempt to raise it into
stronger relief If to watch over the Rights of^the Subject, and
guard them against the encroachments of Power, be, even in safe
and ordinary times, a task ftill of usefulness and honor, how
much more glorious to have stood sentinel over the same sacred
trust, through a period so trying as that with which Sheridan
had to stru^le — when Liberty itself had become suspected and
unpopular — when Authority had succeeded in identifying patrio-
tism with treason, and when the few remaining and deserted
friends of Freedom were reduced to take their stand on a nar-
rowing isthmus, between Anarchy on one side, and the angry
incursions of Power on the other. How manfully he maintained
his ground in a position so critical, the annals of England and of
the Champions of her Constitution will long testify. The truly
national spirit, too, with which, when that struggle was past, and
the dangers to liberty from without seemed greater than any
from within, he forgot all past differences, in the one common

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BIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 828

cause of Englishmen, and, while others " gave but the, left hand
to the Country,"* proffered her both of his, stamped a seal of sin-
cerity on his public conduct, which, in the eyes of all England,
authenticated it as genuine patriotism.

To his own party, it is true, his conduct presented a very dif-
ferent phasis ; and if implicit partisanship were the sole merit
of a public man, his movements, at this and other junctures, were
far too independent and unharnessed to lay claim to it. But,
however useful may be the bond of Party, there are occasions
that supersede it ; and, in all such deviations from the fidelity
which it enjoins, the two questions to be asked are — were they,
as regarded the Public, right ? were they, as regarded the indi-
vidual himself, unpurchased 1 To the former question, in the
instance of Sheridan, the whole country responded in the affirm-
ative ; and to the latter, his account with the Treasury, from
first to last, is a sufficient answer.

Even, however, on the score of fidelity to Party, when we re-
collect that he more than once submitted to some of the worst
martyrdoms which it imposes — that of sharing in the responsibil-
ity of opinions from which he dissented, and suffering by the ill
consequences of measures against which he had protested ; — when
we call to mind, too, that during the Administration of Mr. Ad-
dington, though agreeing wholly with the Ministry and differing
with the Whigs, he even tlien refused to profit by a position so
favorable to his interests, and submitted, like certain religionists,
from a point of honor, to suffer for a faith- in which he did not
believe — ^it seems impossible not to concede that even to the ob-
ligations of Party he was as faithful as could be expected from a
spirit that so far outgrew its limits, and, in paying the tax of
fidelity while he asserted the freedom of dissent, showed that he
could sacrifice every thing to it, except his opinion. Through all
these occasional variations, too, he remained a genuine Whig to
the last ; and, as I have heard one of his own party happily ex-
press it, was " like pure gold, that changes color in tht fire, but
comes out unaltered."

* His own word!.

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824 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

The transaction in 1812, relative to the Household, was, as I
have already said, the least defensible part of his public life.
But it should be recollected how broken he was, both in mind
and body, at that period ; — his resources from the Theatre at an
end, — ^the shelter of Parliament about to be taken from over
his head also, — and old age and sickness coming on, as every
hope and comfort vanished. In that wreck of all around him,
the friendship of Carlton-House was the last asylum left to his
pride and his hope ; and that even character itself should, in a
too zealous moment, have been one of the sacrifices offered up
at the shrine that protected him, is a subject more of deep r^ret
than of wonder. The poet Cowley, in speaking of the unpro-
ductiveness of those pursuits connected with Wit and Fancy,
says beautifully —

" Where such fairies once have danc'd, no grass will ever grow ;"

but, unfortunately, thorns will grow there ; — ^and he who walks
unsteadily among such thorns as now beset the once enchanted
path of Sheridan, ought not, after all, to be very severely criti-
cised.

His social qualities were, unluckily for himself, but too attrac-
tive. In addition to his powers of conversation, there was a
well-bred good-nature in his manner, as well as a deference to
the remarks and opinions of others, the want of which very
often, in distinguished wits, offends the self-love of their hearers,
and makes even the dues of admiration that they levy a sort of
" Droit de Seigneur^^ paid with unwillingness and distaste.

No one was so ready and cheerful in promoting the amuse-
ments of a country-house ; and on a rural excursion he was al-
ways the soul of the party. His talent at dressing a little dish
was often put in requisition on such occasions, and an Irish stew
was that on which he particularly plumed himself. Some friends
of his retail with delight a day of this kind which they passed
with him, when he made the whole party act over the Battle of
the Pyramids on Marsden Moor, and ordered " Captain" Creevey

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 825

and others upon various services, against the cows and donkeys
entrenched in the ditches. Being of so playful a disposition
himself, it was not wonderful that he should take such pleasure
in the society of children. I have been told, as doubly charac-
teristic of him, that he has often, at Mr. Monckton's, kept a
chaise and four waiting half the day for him at the door, while
he romped with the children.

In what are called Verb de Sociiti6^ or drawing-room verses, he
took great delight ; and there remain among his papers several
sketches of these trifles. I once heard him repeat in a ball-
room, some verses which he had lately written on Waltzing, and
of which I remember the following :

" With tranquil step, and tijnid, downcast glance.
Behold the well-pair'd couple now advance.
In such sweet posture our first Parents mov'd,
While, hand in hand, through Eden's bowers they rov'd ;
Ere yet the Devil, with promise foul and false,
Turned their poor heads and taught them how to Walse,
One hand grasps hers, the other holds her hip—
• • • • •

For so the Law's laid down by Baron Trip."*

He had a sort of hereditary fancy for difficult trifling in poe-
try ; — particularly for that sort, which consists in rhyming to the
same word through a long string of couplets, till every rhyme
that the language supplies for it is exhausted, f The following
are specimens from a poem of this kind, which he wrote on the
loss of a lady's trunk : —

"My Trunk!
« {To Anne,)
" Have you heard, my dear Anne, how my spirits are sunk?
Have you heard of the cause ? Oh, the loss of my Trunk I
From exertion or firmness I^ve never yet slunk ;
But my fortitude's gone with the loss of my Trunk!

♦ Thit gentleman, whose name suits so aptly as legal authority on the subject of Waltx-
mg, was at the time these verses were written, well known in the dancing circles.

t Some versei by General Fitzpatrick on Lord Holland's father are the best specimen
t)iat I know of f lis sort of Scherzo.

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826 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

Stout Lacy, my maid, is a damsel of spunk ;

Tet she weeps night and day for the loss of my IVunl /

I'd better turn nun, and coquet with a monk ;

For with whom can I flirt without aid from my IVunk I

Accurs'd be the thief, the old rascally hunks ;
Who rifles the fair, and lays hands on their THnks!
He, who robs the King's stores of the least bit of junk,
Is hang'd — ^while he's safe, who has plundered my Think I

m ♦ * • • • •

There's a phrase amongst lawyers, when nunc- a put for tune;
But, tunc and nunc both, must I grieve for my TVunk !
Huge leaves of that great commentator, old Brunck,
Perhaps was the paper that lin'd my poor TVunk !
But my rhymes are all out ; — ^for I dare not use st — ^k ;*
'Twould shock Sheridan more than»the loss of my DrunJk."

From another of these trifles, (which, no doubt, produced
much gaiety at the breakfast-table,) the following extracts will
be suffident: —

** Muse, assist me to complain,
While I grieve for Lady Jane.
I ne'er was in so sad a vein,

Deserted now by Lady Jane.

• • * •

Lord Petre's house was built by Payne-
No mortal architect made Jane.
If hearts had windows, through the pane

Of mine you'd see sweet Lady Jane.
*****

At breakfast I could scarce refrain
From tears at missing lovely Jane,
Nine rolls I eat, in hopes to gain
The roll that might have fall'n to Jane^^^ Ac

Another written on a Mr. Biffg^ contains some ludicrous coup-
lets :—

" I own he's not fam'd for a reel or a jig,
Tom Sheridan there supasses Tom Bigg. —

* He hftd a particiUaf horror of thit word.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 327 ^

For lam'd in one thigh, he is obliged to go zig-
Z&gj like a crab — for no dancer is Bigg.
Those who think him a coxcomb, or call him a prig,
How little they know of the mind of my Bigg I
Tho' he ne^er can be mine, Hope will catch a twig —
Two Deaths — and I yet may become Mrs. Bigg.
Oh give me, with him, but a cottage and pig,
And content I would live on Beans, Bacon, and^i^^."

A few more of these light productions remain among his pa-
pers, but their wit is gone with those for whom they were writ-
ten ; — the wings of Time " eripuere ^'ocos.*'

Of a very different description arc the following striking and
spirited fragments, (which ought to have been mentioned in a
former part of this work,) written by him, apparently, about the
year 1794, and addressed to the Naval heroes of that period, to
console them for the neglect they experienced from the Govern-
ment, while ribands and titles were lavished on the Whig Seced-
ers: —

" Never mind them, brave black Dick,
Though they've played thee such a trick —
Damn their ribands and their garters,
Get you to your post and quarters.
Look upon the azure sea,
There's a Sailor's Taffety I
Mark the Zodiac's radiant bow.
That's a coUar fit for HOWE I—
And, then P— tl — d's brighter far.
The Pole shall furnish you a Star 1*
Damn their ribands and their garters,
Get you to your post and quarters.
Think, on what things are ribands showered —

The two Sir Georges— Y and H 1

Look to what rubbish Stars will stick,
To Dicky H n and Johnny D ^k I

* This reminds me of a, happy application which he made, upon a mbieqaent occasion,
•f two lines of Dryden :—

" When men like Erskine go astray,
The stars are more in fault than they."

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^828 HEMOIBS OF THE LIF£ OF TH£

Woald it be for your country's good,

That you might pass for Alec. H d,

Or, perhaps, — and worse by half—

To be mistaken for Sir R h !

Would you, like C , pine with spleen,

Because your bit of silk was green?

Would you, like C , change your side,

To have your silk new dipt and dyed ? —

Like him exclaim, ^ My riband's hue

Was green — and now, by Heav'ns ! His blue,'

And, like him — stain your honor too ?

Damn their ribands and their garters,' *

Get you to your post and quarters.

On the foes of Britain close,

YIThile B ^k garters his Dutch hose,

And cons, with spectacles on nose,
(While to battle you advance,)
His * Honi soit qui mal y pensej "

It has been seen, by a letter of his sister already given, that,
when young, he was generally accounted handsome ; but, in later
years, his eyes were the only testimonials of beauty that re-
mained to him. It was, indeed, in the upper part of his face that
the Spirit of the man chiefly reigned ; — the dominion of the
world and the Senses being rather strongly marked out in the
lower. In his person, he was above the middle size, and his
general make was, as I have already said, robust and well pro-
portioned. It is remarkable that his arms, though of powerful
strength, were thin, and appeared by no means muscular. His
hands were small and delicate ; and the following couplet, writ-
ten on a cast from one of them, very livelily enumerates both
its physical and moral qualities : —

" Good at a Fight, but better at a Play,
Godlike in giving, but — the Devil to Pay I"

Among his habits, it may not be uninteresting to know that
his hours of composition, as long as he continued to be an author,
were at night, and that he required a profusion of lights around

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLBY SHERIDAN. 829

hiin while he wrote. Wine, tpo, was one of his favorite helps to
inspiration ; — " If the thought, (he would say,) is slow to come, a
glass of good wine encourages it, and, when it does come, a glass
of good wine rewards it."

Having taken a cursory view of his Literary, Political, and
Social qualities, it remains for me to say a few words upon that
most important point of all, his Moral character.

There are few persons, as we have seen, to whose kind and
affectionate conduct, in some of the most interesting relatiohs of
domestic hfe, so many strong and honorable testimonies remain.
The pains he took to win back the estraiged feelings of his father,
and the filial tenderness with which he repaid long years of pa-
rental caprice, show a heart that had, at least, set out by the
right road, however, in after years, it may have missed the way.
The enthusiastic love which his sister bore him, and retained un-
blighted by distance or neglect, is another proof of the influence
of his ami&ble feelings, at that period of life when he was as yet
unspoiled by the world. We have seen the romantic fondness
which he preserved towards the first Mrs. Sheridan, even while
doing his utmost, and in vain, to extinguish the same feeling in
her. With the. second wife, a course, nearly similar, was run ;
— the same "scatterings and eclipses" of affection, from the
irregularities and vanities, in which he continued to indulge, but
the same hold kept of each other's hearts to the last. Her early
letters to him breathe a passion little short of idolatry, and her
devoted attentions beside his death-bed showed that the essential
part of the feeling still remained.

To claim an exemption for frailties and irregularities on the
score of genius, while there are such names as Milton and New-
ton on record, were to be blind to the example which these and
other great men have left, of the grandest intellectual powers
combined with the most virtuous lives. But, for the bias given
early to the mind by education and circumstances, even the least
charitable may be inclined to make large allowances. We have
seen how idly the young days of Sheridan were wasted — ^how
soon he was left, (in the words of the Prophet,) " to dwell care-

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680 HSHOIBS OF THS LIFE OF THE

lesslj," and with what an undisciplined temperament he was
thro¥m upon the world, to meet at every step that never-failing
spring of temptation, which, like the fatal fountain in the Grarden
of Armida, sparkles up for ever in the pathway of such a
man : —

" Un fonte sorge in lei, che vaghe e monde
Ha I'acqae si, che i rigaardanti asseta,
Ma dentro ai fireddi saoi cristalli asconde
Di tosco estran malvagita secreta."

Even marriage, which is among the sedatives of other men's
lives, but formed a part of the romance of his. The very at-
tractions of his wife increased his danger, by doubling, as it were,
the power of the world over him, and leading him astray by her
light as well as by his own. Had his talents, even then, been* sub-
jected to the maneffe of a profession, there was still a chance that
business, and the round of regularity which it requires, might
have infused soncie spirit of order into his life. But the Stage —
his glory and his ruin — opened upon him ; wid the property of
which it made him master was exactly of that treacherous kind,
which not only deceives a man himself, but enables him to de-
ceive others, and thus combined all that a person of his care-
lessness and ambition had most to dread. An uncertain income,
which, by eluding calculation, gives an excuse for improvidence,*

• How feelingly aware he was of this great source of all his misfortunes appears from
a passage in the able speech which he delivered before the Chancellor, as Counsel in his
own case, in the year 1799 or 1800 : —

*'It is a great disadvantage, relatively speaking, to any man, and especially to a very
careless, and a very sanguine man, to have possessed an uncertain and fluctuating in-
come. That disadvantage is greatly increased, if the person so circumstanced has con-
ceived himself to be in some degree entitled to presume that, by the exertion of his own
talents, he may at pleasure increase that income — thereby becoming induced to make
promises to himself which he may afterwards fail to fulfil.

" Occasional excess and frequent unpunctuality will be the natural consequences of
Puch a situation. But, my Lord, to exceed an ascertained and limited income, I hold to
be a very different matter. In that situation I have placed myself, (not since the {nresent
unexpected contention arose, for since then I would have adopted no arrangements,) but
months since, by my Deed of Trust to Mr. Adam, and in that situation I shall remain un-
til every debt on earth, in which the Theatre or I am concerned, shall be fully and fairly
discharged. Till then I will live on what remains to me — preserving that spirit of un-
daunted independence, which, both as a public and a private man, I trust, I have hi|h
erto maintained."

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BIGHT HON. RICHABD BEINSLKY SHEBIDAN. 831

and, still more fatal, a facility of raising money, by which the
lesson, that the pressure of distress brings with it, is evaded till
it comes too late to be of use — such was the dangerous power
put into his hands, in his six-and-twentieth ye^u*, and amidst the
intoxication of as deep and quick draughts of fame as ever young
author quaffed. Scarcely had the zest of this excitement begun
to wear off, when he was suddenly transported into another
sphere, where successes still more flattering to his vanity awaited
him. Without any increase of means, he became the companion
and friend of the first Nobles and Princes, and paid the usual
tax of such unequal fnendships, by, in the end, losing them and
ruining himself. The vicissitudes of a political life, and those
deceitiid vistas into office that were for ever opening on his
party, made his hopes as fluctuating and uncertain as his means,
and encouraged the same delusive calculations on both. He
seemed, at every new turn of affairs, to be on the point of re-
deeming himself; and the confidence of others in his resources
was no less fatal to him than his own, as it but increased the fa-
cilities of ruin that surrounded him.

Such a career as this — so shaped towards wrong, so inevitably
devious — ^it is impossible to regard otherwise than with the most
charitable allowances. It was one long paroxysm of excitement
— no pause for thought — ^no inducements to prudence — ^the attrac-
tions all drawing the wrong way, and a Voice, like that which
Bossuet describes, crying inexorably from behind him "On, on !"*
Instead of wondering at the wreck that followed all this, our only
surprise should be, that so much remained uninjured through the
trial, — that his natural good feelings should have struggled to the
last with his habits, and his sense of all that was right in conduct
so long survived his ability to practise it.

Numerous, however, as were the causes that concurred to dis-
organize his moral character, in his pecuniary embarrassment lay

* " La loi est proncmcee ; il faut avancer toujoars. Je voudrois retourner sur mes pas ;
' Marche, Marche !' Un poids invincible nous entraine ; il fant tans cegse avancer vers
le precipice. On te console poartant, parce qne de terns en terns on rencontre des objets
qui nous divertissent, des eaux courantes, des fleurs qui passent. (hi vondroit arreter ;
* lUrcbe, Harche V *'— Sermon tur la Returrection.

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332 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

the source of those blemishes, that discredited him most m the
eyes of the world. He might have indulged his vanity and his
passions, like others, with but little loss of reputation, if the con-
sequence of these indulgences had not been obtruded upon obser-
vation in the forbidding form of debts and dbfaresses. So mudi
did his friend Richardson, who thoroughly knew him, consider his
whole i^haracter to have been influenced by the straitened drcum-
stances in which he was placed, that he used often to say, " If an
enchanter could, by the touch of his wand, endow Sheridan sud-
denly with fortune, he would instantly transform him into a most
honorable and moral man." As some corroboration of this opi-
nion, I must say that, in the course of the inquiries which my
task of biographer imposed upon me, I have found all who were
ever engaged in pecuniary dealings with him, not excepting those
who suffered most severely by his irr^ularities, (among which
class I may cite the respected name of Mr, Hammersley,) una-
nimous in expressing their conviction that he always meant fairly
and honorably ; and that to the inevitable pressure of circum-
stances alone, any failure that occurred in his engagements was
to be imputed.

There cannot, indeed, be a stronger exemplification of the
truth, that a want of regularity* becomes, itself, a vice, from the

• EBs improvidence in every thing connected with money was most remarkaUe. He
would frequently be obliged to stop on his joomeys, for want of the means of getting on,
and to remain hving expensively at an inn, till a remittance could reach him. His let-
ters to the treasurer of the theatre on these occasions were generally headed with the
words " Money-bound." A friend of his told me, that one morning, while waiting for
him in his study, he cast his eyes over the heap of unopened letters that lay upon the ta-
ble, and, seeing one or two with coronets on the seals, said to Mr. Westley, the treasurer,
who was present, "I see we are all treated alike." Ifr. Westley then informed him
that he had once found, on looking over this table, a Tetter which he had himself sent, a
few weeks before, to Mr. Sheridan, enclosing a ten-pound note, to release him from some
inn, but which Sheridan, having raised the supplies in some other way, had never thought
of opening. The prudent treasurer toQk away the letter, and reserved the enclosure for
some future exigence.

Among mstances of his inattention to letters, the following is mentioned. Going one
day to the bankh'g-house, where be was accustomed to receive his salary, as Receiver
of Cornwall, and where they sometimes accommodated him with small sums before the
regular time of payment, he asked, with all due humility, whether they could oblige him
with the loan of twenty pounds. "Cei'ainly, Sir," said the clerk, — "would you like
any more— fifty, or a hundred?" Sheridan, all smiles and gratitude, answered that a
hundred pounds would be of the greatest convenience to him. " Perhaps you would like

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 333

manifold evils to which it leads, than the whole history of Mr.
Sheridan's pecuniary transactions. So far from never paying his
debts, as is often asserted of him, he was, in fact, always paying ;
— but in such a careless and indiscriminate manner, and with so
little justice to himself or others, as often to leave the respectable
creditor to suffer for his patience, while the ft-audulent dun was
paid two or three times over. Never examining accoimts nor
referring to receipts, he seemed as if, (in imitation of his own
Charles, preferring generosity to justice,) he wished to make
paying as like as possible to giving. Interest, too, with its usual,
silent accumulation, swelled every debt ; and I have found seve-
ral instances among his accounts where the interest upon a small
sum had been suffered to increase till it outgrew the principal ; —
" minima pars ipsa puella sui^

Notwithstanding all this, however, his debts were by no means
so considerable as has been supposed. In the year 1808, he em-
powered Sir R. Berkely, Mr. Peter Moore, and Mr. Frederick
Homan, by power of attorney, to examine into his pecuniary
affairs and take measures for the discharge of all claims upon
him. These gentlemen, on examination, found that his bond fide
debts were about ten thousand pounds, while his apparent debts
amounted to five or six times as much. Whether from conscien-
tiousness or from pride, however, he would not suffer any of the
claims to be contested, but said that the demands were all fair,
and must be paid just as they were stated ; — ^though it was well
known that many of them had been satisfied more than once.
These gentlemen, accordingly, declined to proceed any fuilher
with their commission.

On the same false feeling he acted in 1813-14, when the bal-
ance due on the sale of his theatrical property was paid him,
in a certain number of Shares. When applied to by any cred-

to take two hundred, or three?" said the clerk. At every increase of the sum, the sar-
prise of the borrower increased. "Have not yoa then received our letter?" said the
clerk ;—o% which it turned out that, in consequence of the falling in of some fine, a sum
of twelve hundred pounds had been lately placed to the credit of the Receiver-General,
and that, from not having opened the letter written to apprise him, ho had been left in
ignorance of his good luck.

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8S4 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE

itor, he would give him one of these Shares, and allowing his
claim entirely on his own showing, leave him to pay himself
out of it, and refund the balance. Thus irregular at all times,
even when most wishing to be right, he deprived honesty itself
of its merit and advantages ; and, where he happened to be
just, left it doubtftil, (as Locke says of those religious people,
who believe right by chance, without examination,) " whether
even the luckiness of the accident excused the irregularity of
Ae proceeding."*

The consequence, however, of this continual paying was that
the number of his creditors gradually diminished, and that ulti-
mately the amount of his debts was, taking all circumstances
into account, by no means considerable. Two years after his
death it appeared by a list made up by his Solicitor from claims
sent in to him, in consequence of an advertisement in the news-
papers, that the bond fide debts amounted to about five thousand
five hundred pounds.

If, therefore, we consider his pecuniary irregularities in refer-
ence to the injury that they inflicted upon others, the quantum
of evil for which he is responsible becomes, after all, not so
great. There are many persons in the enjoyment of fair char-
acters in the world, who would be happy to have no deeper en-
croachment upon the property of others to answer for; and
who may well wonder by what unlucky management Sheridan
could contrive to found so extensive a reputation for bad pay
upon so small an amount of debt.

Let it never, too, be forgotten, in estimating this part of his
character, that had he been less consistent and disinterested iu
his public conduct, he might have commanded the means of be-
ing independent and respectable in private. He might have
died a rich apostate, instead of closing a life of patriotism in
beggary. He might, (to use a fine expression of his own,)
have " hid his head in a coronet, ' instead of earning for it but
the barren wreath of public gratitude. While, therefd^e, we
admire the great sacrifice that he made, let us be tolerant to the

* Chapter on Reason.

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RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 335

errors and imprudences which it entailed upon him ; and, recol-
lecting how vain it is to look for any thing unalloyed in this
world, rest satisfied with the Martyr, without requirmg, also,
the Saint.

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THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ

This book is due on the last DAfE stamped below.

JUL 1 6 1996

/VJG2 5ni:,6i(fi;'i!

60fn-e,'eT(H35S3aS}S3Ta

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UNIVEflSITy OF OALIFpHNIj

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