Third son of the above [Thomas Sheridan, q.v.], in whom talents seemed almost boundless, and wit inexhaustible, was born in the month of October 1751, in Dorset-street, Dublin. He was placed, at Harrow school soon after the Christmas recess of 1762; and appears to have been sent thither for the express {522} purpose of learning how to get through the world, as his mother, in a letter to one of her correspondents, observing on the change, remarks, “As Dick probably may fall into a bustling life, we have a mind to accustom him early to shift for himself.” Dr. Parr, (we are told,) who was then one of the sub-preceptors, was the first who awakened in his young pupil any ambition to display the dawnings of his genius, as he was naturally indolent to excess, and careless about his own interests, yet always witty, facetious, and entertaining. Such, it may be justly remarked, was Sheridan at the early age of eighteen, and precisely the same was he till within a few months of his decease. Mr. Sheridan never was sent to the university, the derangement of his family affairs is generally supposed to have precluded the possibility of such a measure. He quitted Harrow in his eighteenth year; and, after having figured at Bath as the admirer of the celebrated Miss Linley, and fought a couple of duels on her account, to satisfy her family of his serious intentions with regard to study &c. he entered himself a member of the Middle Temple on April 6th 1773, and they were married on the 13th of the same month; he being in his twenty-second, and she in her nineteenth year.

At the time when this marriage took place, Mrs. Sheridan was under an engagement to sing for the benefit of the three choirs, at their musical meeting, which was that year to be held at Worcester. On this occasion she had been paid before-hand: but such was the pride of her husband, that he insisted upon having the money returned, accompanied by a declaration, that Mrs. Sheridan would not appear any more in public as a singer. The intimation very naturally astonished the directors, and they strongly represented the great loss which the charity must sustain in the absence of one upon whose powerful attractions they had relied as certain of drawing a crowded assembly. In addition to this unanswerable appeal, they remonstrated with no less energy, though in delicate terms, upon the justifiable grounds of complaint which the subscribers would have to make upon a dereliction that did {523} not originate in absolute necessity. This argument had its effect, and the lady went down to Worcester, where she enraptured crowded audiences by her harmonious strains; the delight of which, however, was allayed by the painful reflection that they would never more be repeated. When the meeting was over, she acted with great liberality, by putting the money that had been paid to her into the plate. And although she was afterwards repeatedly solicited with the most liberal offers, at a time when their resources were extremely confined, Mr. Sheridan persisted in his resolution against her public appearance.

On the 17th of January, 1775, his comedy of the “Rivals” was produced at Covent-garden theatre, and failed entirely through the bad enactment of the Irish character. It was, however, reproduced with a new representative of Sir Lucius O’Trigger, and its success was very considerable. To Mr. Clinch, who so admirably represented the fighting Hibernian, our author considered himself so much indebted, that he presented him soon after with a farce for his benefit, entitled “St. Patrick’s Day; or, the Scheming Lieutenant.” This piece contains a great deal of broad humour, is said to have been written within forty-eight hours, and gratified the galleries exceedingly.

In the autumn of 1776, Mr. Sheridan’s comic opera of “The Duenna,” was submitted to the public; the success of which was unprecedented, as it run half a score of nights longer than the Beggar’s Opera.

Mr. Sheridan’s reputation had now reached the utmost pinnacle of dramatic fame, and yet his fortune had obtained but little increase. Gay, volatile, dissipated, and hospitable to excess, his table was open to the whole circle of his friends and admirers. Yet notwithstanding the notoriety of his expenses, and the deficiency of his revenues, such were his fascinating manners, talents, and reputation at this moment, that he contrived to enter into, and succeeded in a negociation [sic] with Garrick, for the purchase of a part of his share of the patent of Drury-Lane theatre. On {524} this occasion he associated himself with Dr. Ford and Mr. Linley: these gentlemen, in 1776, agreed to pay the sum of £30,000. to the English Roscius, who at the same time reserved to himself certain other claims on, and advantages from the house. On this occasion Mr. Sheridan is allowed to have displayed great talents at finance; for it must be obvious that he was incapable of advancing a single shilling; he, however, contrived by mortgage alone, to obtain the money, and fulfil all his engagements.

“A Trip to Scarborough”* first performed on the 24th of February, 1777, brought crowded houses to the great satisfaction of the new partnership; while the “School for Scandal,” literally filled their empty treasury. This far-famed comedy first delighted an English audience on the 8th of May, of the same year; and during the whole season obtained the rapturous commendations of all the gay, genteel, and fashionable circles. In point of morality it is however grossly deficient, as the audience, from the first scene to the last, are led rather to admire than detest the elegant profligacy of Charles Surface. The grace and dignity of the Countess of Derby, together with the singular and appropriate powers of a King, a Palmer, and a Smith, contributed not a little to heighten the success. This brilliant dramatic effort, which obtained for its author the title of the “Modern Congreve,” was never published by Sheridan, although it has several times been printed surreptitiously.

The unsuccessful piece of “The Camp,” which was brought out at the period we were at war with America, has been ascribed to Sheridan, and he possessed so much apathy in regard to his own fame, that he never took the trouble to deny it. Tate Wilkinson, however, has satisfactorily rescued his name from this disgrace.

The admirable farce of “The Critic; or, a Tragedy Rehearsed,” was performed for the first time at Drury-lane, on October 30th, 1779. The success was immense, on account of the novelty and endless humour of the

* This is not an original play, being merely altered from Sir John Vanbrugh’s comedy of the “Relapse.” {525}

satire. The chief shaft was aimed at Cumberland the dramatist. The character of Sir Fretful Plagiary was supposed to represent him exactly. The decease of Garrick in the same year, produced a monody from his pen, which was delivered by Mrs. Yates in the character of the Tragic Muse. He also wrote an admirable epilogue to Miss Hannah More’s tragedy of “Fatal Falsehood.” Of Mr. Sheridan’s liberality and feeling as a manager, the following is well worthy of relation:— A person who had written a dramatic piece upon some temporary circumstance, put it into the hands of the manager, who, with his wonted carelessness, threw it aside and forgot it, till the season elapsed, after which it could be of no use. When the author applied for his manuscript, and gently remonstrated on the treatment he had met with, Mr. Sheridan returned him his play, accompanied by a handsome letter of apology, enclosing a bank note of the value of £100. as an atonement for his neglect. Among the dramatic exhibitions which have been attributed to his genius, about this period, one of the lowest description was the pantomime of “Robinson Crusoe; or, Harlequin Friday,” which was solely indebted for its uncommon success to the popularity of the story, the beauty of Loutherbourg’s scenery, and the skill of the performers.

Mr. Sheridan had now enjoyed an uninterrupted career of applause for many years, without being enriched by labours, which would have rendered any other man in the nation, not only independent, but affluent. He would have still continued, perhaps, to write for the stage, and to have received and expended large sums annually, had not the secret whisperings of ambition, intimated a new road, to glory.

Mr., now Lord John Townshend, a younger son of the first Marquis Townshend, was, like himself, a poet, and it is not at all to be wondered, that the congeniality of their minds should have produced, first an acquaintance, and then an intimacy. It was this gentleman who first intro-{526}duced Mr. Sheridan to Mr. Fox, and this incident converted the poet into a politician and a patriot. After some ineffectual attempts to obtain a seat in Parliament through patronage, Mr. Sheridan at length, in 1780, proposed himself as a candidate for the borough of Stafford. The mere expenses of this election are said to have cost him £1,000 a sum which he borrowed with some difficulty; and he was fortunate enough to be returned at so trifling an expense, although there was a petition against him, to the fifteenth Parliament of Great Britain, along with Mr. Monckton, uncle to Viscount Galway. What is not a little remarkable, he and this gentleman were colleagues during no fewer than six successive parliaments, for the same place; viz. those of 1780, 1784, 1790, 1796 1801, and 1802.

On the second reading of the bill, “for the better regulation of his Ma-jesty’s civil list revenue; and for abolishing several useless, expensive, and inconvenient places; and for applying the monies arising therefrom to the public service,” on February 26, 1781, he made his maiden speech in the house; and as it was in reply to Mr. Courtenay, it could not possibly have been a studied one.

The latter gentleman, having ridiculed all pretexts to virtue on the part of the Opposition, and hinted, that their sole object was place, power, and emolument; Mr. Sheridan, after a short and apposite exordium, observed, “that although it was difficult to answer any charge, which was accompanied by wit and irony, yet he was bound to notice two of the honourable gentleman’s similes at least. The one was, the insinuation that the Opposition was envious of those who basked in court sunshine, and desirous merely to obtain their places. Now I beg leave,” said he, “to remind him, that although the sun afforded a genial warmth, it also occasioned an intemperate heat, which tainted every thing it reflected upon. This excessive heat tended to corrupt as well as to cherish; to putrefy, as well as to animate; to dry, and soak up the wholesome juices of the body politic, and turn the whole of it into one mass of corruption. If those, therefore, who sat near him, did not enjoy so genial a warmth, as the honourable gentleman, and others, who, like him, kept close to the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, he was certain at least, that they breathed a purer air, an air less infected, and less corrupt. Another of the honourable gentleman’s allusions was not quite a new one. He had talked of the ‘machine of state,’ and of the ‘drag-chain of opposition.’ He would only observe upon this, that a drag-chain was never applied, but when a machine was going down hill; and then it was applied wisely. As to any thing else the gentleman has said, I shall not attempt to offer a reply; but shall {527} sit down, with observing, that the most serious part of his arguments appear to me to be the most ludicrous.”

Mr. Sheridan, now entirely relinquishing the Muses, became a regular attendant in St. Stephen’s chapel; and both there, and at all the public meetings of the time, was a strenuous opposer of the American war, and consequently, a violent foe to Lord North’s administration. On the conclusion of hostilities, he joined with many celebrated men, in a plan, for procuring a reform in Parliament; and actually sat in a convention for that express purpose, with Mr. Pitt, the Duke of Norfolk, the Rev. Mr. Wyvill, then chairman of the Yorkshire Committee; Sir Cecil Wray, Bart, and a multitude of other distinguished characters. On this, as on many similar occasions, he went much further than his party either wished, or intended; the Whigs, considered as a body, being supposed never to have been very fond of that measure. Notwithstanding this, he was now deemed so able, and at the Same time, so useful an assistant, that when the Rockingham party, in 1783, vaulted into the seat of power, he was immediately nominated under-secretary to his friend Mr. Fox, who was selected at that period, to preside over the foreign department. In this new and arduous situation, time sufficient for a display of his abilities was not allowed, for the Earl of Shelburne having been declared first lord of the treasury, by the especial intervention of the king, on the lamented demise of the Marquis of Rockingham, Mr. Fox resigned, after a few months enjoyment of office, and was of course followed by his secretary. Mr. Sheridan, who had before engaged in the “Englishman,” now joined in a similar periodical paper, called “The Jesuit”; but it ought to be here explicitly stated, that he was not the author of that bitter attack on a great personage, which afterwards produced a prosecution on the part of his majesty’s attorney-general, and a twelvemonth’s imprisonment to the publisher.

At length, a reconciliation having taken place between Mr. Fox and Lord North, who had bitterly attacked each {528} other, during the American contest, they soon gained the ascendancy in the House of Commons, by their united talents and influence; and Mr. Sheridan accordingly formed a part of the coalition administration, by being appointed to the confidential and important office of secretary of the treasury, in 1783.

In 1786, he ably and manfully opposed the extravagant plans of the late Duke of Richmond, for fortifying and protecting the dock-yards, by means of numerous, extensive, and expensive works; instead of recurring to the natural defence of Great Britain, arising out of a powerful navy. On this occasion, he alluded to the constitutional jealousy of the military power of the crown, which originated in this, - “That it was in the nature of kings to love power, and in the constitution of armies to obey kings.” He also observed,

“That the strong holds, now contended for, if maintained as they most be, in peace, by full and disciplined garrisons; if well provided, and calculated to stand regular sieges, as the present plan professed; and if extended to all the objects to which the system must inevitably lead, whether they were to be considered as inducements to tempt a weak prince to evil views, or as engines of power, in case of actual rupture; would in troth present ten times the means of curbing and subduing the country, that could be stated to arise, even from doubling the present military establishment; with this extraordinary aggravation attending the folly of consenting to such a system, that those very naval stores, and magazines, the seed and sources of our future navy, the effectual preservation of which was the pretence for these unassailable fortresses, would, in that case, become a pledge and hostage, in the hands of the crown, which in a country circumstanced as this was, must ensure an unconditional submission to the most extravagant claims which despotism could dictate.”

At seven in the morning, the House, which was very full, divided upon the question, and the numbers being equal, the speaker gave his vote on the side of Opposition, by which means the motion was lost.

In the spring of 1786, commenced the proceedings against Mr. Hastings, in which Mr.Sheridan was actively engaged for several years. The first difficulty encountered, by those who brought the charges, was an evident unwillingness on the part of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas to {529} produce the necessary documents. At length, Mr. Burke, on April 4, 1786, charged the late governor-general of Bengal, with high crimes and misdemeanours, and lodged nine articles against him, on the table of the House of Commons. The first of these, which comprehended the Rohilla war, was lost, eighty-seven only having voted for the motion, while one hundred and nineteen declared against it, on June 1st. On the 19th of the same month, Mr. Fox brought forward the Benares charge, which was carried by a majority of one hundred and nineteen to seventy-nine, the chancellor of the exchequer concurring in the vote.

On February 7th, 1787, in a committee of the whole house; Mr. Sheridan presented the fourth charge, viz. the resumption of the Jaghires, and the confiscation of the treasures of the Princesses of Oude, on which occasion, during a speech of five hours and a half, he commanded the universal attention and admiration of all who heard him. He commenced his speech by some pointed allusions to the conduct of Sir Elijah Impey, who had recurred to the low and artful stratagem of printed hand-bills of defence, in favour of Mr. Hastings, in respect to the present articles of accusation. Neither the informality on any subsisting evidence, nor the adducement of any new explanations on the part of the late-chief justice of Bengal, could make the slightest impression upon the vast and strong body of proof now intended to be brought forward. The long and unwearied attention paid by parliament to the affairs of Indla, the voluminous productions of their committees, - the repeated recommendations of His Majesty, - were all undeniable proofs of the moment, and magnitude of the consideration; and incontrovertibly established this plain, broad fact, that parliament had directly acknowledged that the British name and character had been dishonoured, and rendered detested throughout India, by the malversation and crimes of the principal servant of the East India Company. To some sarcasms propagated in another place he would ask, “Is parliament mis-spending its time by inquiring into the oppressions practised on millions of unfortunate persons; and endeavouring to bring the daring delinquent, who had been guilty of the most flagrant acts enormous tyranny, and rapacious peculation, to exemplary and condign punishment? Was it a misuse of their functions, to be diligent in attempting to wipe off the disgrace attached to the British name in India, and to rescue the national character from lasting infamy? Their idefatigable exertions in committees, - their numerous, elaborate, and dear clear reports, - their long and interesting debates, - their solemn addresses to the throne, - their rigorous legislative acts, - their marked detestation of that novel and base sophism in the principles of judicial inquiry, (the constant language of the governor-general’s servile dependents!) that crimes might be compounded, - that the guilt of Mr. Hastings was to honoured by his successes, - that {530} fortunate events were a full and complete set-off against a patent of oppression, corruption, breach of faith, peculation, and treachery, - and finally, their solemn and awful Judgment, that in the case of Benares, Mr. Hastings’s conduct was a proper object of parliamentary impeachment; had covered them with applause, and brought them forward in the face of all the world, as the objects of perpetual admiration. The vote of the last session, by which the conduct of this pillar of India, this corner-stone of our strength in the East, this talisman of the British territories in Asia, was censored, did the greatest honour to an English House of Commons, as it must be the forerunner of speedy justice on that character which was said to be above censure; but whose deeds were such, as no difficulties, no necessities could justify; for where is the situation, however elevated, and in that elevation, however embarrassed, that can authorise the wilful commission of oppression and rapacity?” As to the present charge, “He professed to God, that he felt in his own bosom the strongest personal conviction; and it was from that conviction, he believed the conduct of Warren Hastings in regard to the Nabob of Oude and the Begums, comprehended every species of human offence. He had proved himself guilty of rapacity, at once violent and insatiable, - of treachery, cool and premeditated, - of oppression, useless and unprovoked, - of breach of faith, unwarrantable and base, - of cruelty, unmanly and unmerciful. These were the crimes of which, in his soul and conscience, he arraigned Warren Hastings; and of which he had the confidence to say, he should convict him! As there were gentlemen ready to stand up his advocates, he challenged them to watch him, - to watch if he advanced one inch of assertion, for which he had not solid ground: for he trusted nothing to declamation. I desire credit,” added he, “for no fact which I shall not prove, and which I do not demonstrate beyond the possibility of refutation. I shall not desert the clear and invincible ground of truth, throughout any one particle of my allegations against Mr. Hastings, who uniformly aimed to govern India by his own arbitrary power, covering with misery upon misery the wretched people whom Providence had subjected to the dominion of this country; whilst in his favour, not one single circumstance, grounded on truth, was stated, - the attempt at vindication was false throughout.”

Mr. Sheridan now commenced his examination of Mr. Hastings’s defence. “Although he had gone so far back as the year 1775, for pretended grounds of justification from the charge of violence and rapacity, yet not one of the facts, as stated by him, but was fallacious. Groundless, nugatory, and insulting, were the affirmations of the ex-governor-general, that the seizure of treasure from the Begums, and the exposition of their pillaged goods to public auction, (unparalleled acts of open injustice, oppression, and inhumanity!) were in any degree to be defended by those encroachments on their property, which had taken place previously to his administration; or by those sales, which they themselves had solicited as a favourable mode of supplying their aid to the Nabob. Mr. Hastings wished to insinuate, that a claim was set up in the year 1775, to the treasure of the Begums, as belonging of right to that prince; and it would appear from a minute of council, that woman were entitled by the Mahomedan {531} only to the property within the Zenam where they lived. The Bow Begum had readily complied with this authority; the disputed property was accordingly given up; and no claim whatever was made to the residue, which was guaranteed to the Princesses of Oude, by Mr. Bristow, on the part of the Company. But Mr. Hastings having conceived a project of acquiring an immense sum of money by plunder left Calcutta in 1781, and proceded [sic] to Lucknow, as he said himself, with two great objects in his mind, namely, Benares and Oude. What was the nature of these boasted resources? - That he should plunder one or both, - the equitable alternative of a highwayman, who on going forth in the evening, hesitates which of the resources to prefer, - Bagshot or Hounslow. In such a state of generous irresolution, did Mr. Hastings proceed to Benares and Oude! At Benares, he failed in his pecuniary object. Then, and not till then, - not on account of any ancient enmities shewn by the Begums, - not in resentment of any old disturbances, but because he had failed in one place, and had but two in his prospect, did he conceive the base expedient of plundering these aged women. He had no pretence, - he had no excuse, - he had nothing but the arrogant and obstinate determination to govern India by his own corrupt will, to plead for his conduct. Inflamed by disappointment in his first project, he hastened to the fortress of Chunar, to meditate the more atrocious design of instigating a son against his mother; of sacrificing female dignity and distress, to parricide and plunder. At Chunar was the infamous treaty concerted with the Nabob’s visier, to despoil the Princesses of Oude of their hereditary possessions, - there it was that Mr. Hastings had stipulated with one, whom he called an independent prince; that as great distress had arisen to the Nabob’s government from the military power and dominion assumed by the Jaghierdars, he be permitted to resume such as he may find necessary; with a reserve, that all such, for the amount of whose Jaghiers the Company are guarantees, shall in case of the resumption of their lands, be paid the amount of theft net collections, through the resident, in ready money; and that no English resident be appointed to Furruckabad. No sooner was the foundation of iniquity thus instantly established, in violation of the pledged faith, and solemn guarantee of the British government; no sooner had Mr. Hastings determined to invade the substance of justice, than he resolved to avail himself of her judicial forms; and accordingly dispatched a messenger for the chief justice of India, to assist him in perpetrating the violations he had projected. Sir Elijah having arrived, Mr. Hastings, with much art, proposed a question of opinion, involving an unsubstantiated fact, in order to obtain even a surreptitious approbation of the measures he had pre-determined to adopt; ‘;the Begums being in actual rebellion, might not the Nabob confiscate their property?’ ‘Most undoubtedly,’ Was the ready answer of the friendly judge. Not a syllable of inquiry intervene as to the existence of the imputed rebellion; nor a moment’s pause,as to the ill purposes to which the decision of a chief justice might be perverted. It was not the office of a friend, to mix the grave caution and circumspection of a judge, with an opinion taken to sueh circumstances; and Sir Elijah had previously declared, that he gave his advice, not as a judge {532} but as a friend; a character he equally preferred, in the strange office which he undertook of collecting defensive affidavits on the subject of Benares.”

After the orator had expatiated, in a vein of irony, on the conduct of Sir Elijah, whom he styled in ridicule the “Oriental Grotius,” who had given “his premature sanction for plundering the Begums,” and “become the posthumous support of the expulsion and pillage of the Rajah Cheit Sing;” he fully and ably insisted on the gross perversion of both the judicial and executive power of India. “At the same moment,” continued he, “that the sword of government was turned to an assassin’s dagger, the pure ermine of justice was stained and disgraced with the basest and meanest contamination. Under such circumstances did Mr. Hastings complete the treaty of Chunar; a treaty which might challenge all the treaties that ever subsisted, for containing, in the smallest compass, the most extensive treachery. Mr. Hastings did not conclude that treaty until he had received from the Nabob a present, or rather a bribe, of £100,000. The circumstances of this present were as extraordinary as the thing itself. Four months afterwards, and not till then, Mr. Hastings communicated the matter to the Company. Unfortunately for himself, however, this tardy disclosure was conveyed in words which betrayed his original meaning; for with no common incaution, he admits the present was of a magnitude not to be concealed. And what was the consideration for this extraordinary bribe? No less than the withdrawing from Oude, not only all the English gentlemen in official situations, but the whole also of the English army; and that too at the very moment when he himself had stated the whole country of Oude to be in open revolt and rebellion. Other very strange articles were contained in the same treaty, which nothing but this infamous bribe could have occasioned; together with the reserve which he had in his own mind, of treachery to the Nabob; for the only part of the treaty which he ever attempted to carry into execution, was to withdraw the English gentlemen from Oude. The Nabob, indeed, considered this as essential to his deliverance, on account of their supposed rapacity. Accordingly, at the very moment he pocketed the extorted spoil of the Nabob, with his usual grave hypocrisy and cant, ‘Go,’ he said to the English gentlemen, “Go, you oppressive rascals, go from this worthy, unhappy man, whom you have plundered, and leave him to my protection. You have robbed him, - you have plundered him, - you have taken advantage of his accumulated distresses; but, please God, he shall in future be at rest; for I have promised him he shall never see the face of an Englishman again.’ This, however, was the only portion of the treaty which he even affected to fulfil; for as to all other parts, we learn from himself, that at the very moment he made it, he intended to deceive the Nabob. Accordingly, he advised general, instead of partial resumptions, for the express purpose of defeating his views; and instead of giving instant and unqualified assent to all the articles of the treaty, he perpetually qualified, explained, and varied them with new diminutions and reservations. Was there any theory in Machiavel, any treachery upon record, any cold Italian fraud, which could in any degree be put in com-{533 }parison with the disgusting hypocrisy, and unequalled baseness which Mr. Hastings had shewn on that occasion! But there were some, who found an apology for the atrocity of these crimes, in the greatness of his mind; - but does not this quality arise out of great actions, directed to great ends? In them, and in them alone, we are to search for true and estimable magnanimity; to them only can we justly affix the splendid title and honours of real greatness. His course was an eternal deviation from rectitude, - he pursued the worst objects by the worst means, - he either tyrannised or deceived; and was by turns a Dionysius and a Scapin. As well might the writhing obliquity of the serpent be compared to the swift directness of the arrow, as the duplicity of Mr. Hastings’s ambition, to the simple steadiness of genuine magnanimity. In his mind all was shuffling, ambiguous, dark, insidious, and little; nothing simple, nothing unmixed; all affected plainness and actual dissimulation; - a heterogeneous mass of contradictory qualities; with nothing great but his crimes; and even these, contrasted by the littleness of his motives, which at once denoted both his baseness and his meanness, and marked him for a traitor and a trickster.”

Mr. Sheridan now shewed, by evidence, that the twofold accusation against the Begums was unjust; and that, first, they were not the ancient disturbers of the government; and, secondly, that the charge of having induced the Jaghierdars to resist the Nabob, was no less untrue - the fact, indeed, being fully substantiated, that no one of these ever did resist. He stated it to be incontrovertible, “that the Begums were not concerned either in the rebellion of Bulbudder, or the insurrection at Benares; nor did Mr. Hastings ever once seriously think them guilty. Their treasures were their treason; and Asoph ul Dowlah thought like an unwise prince, when he blamed his father for bequeathing him so little wealth. His father, Sujah ul Dowlah, acted wisely in leaving his son with no temptation about him, to invite acts of violence and rapacity. He clothed him with poverty as with a shield, and armed him with necessity as with a sword! - The third charge was equally false, - did they resist the resumption of their own Jaghierdars? Although they had resisted, there would not have been any crime, seeing that these were confirmed by solemn treaty; yet the Nabob himself, with all the load of obloquy imputed to him, never so much as accused them of stirring up opposition to his authority. To prove the falsehood of the whole of the charge, and to shew that Mr. Hastings originally projected the plunder; that he threw the whole odium in the first instance on the Nabob; and that he imputed the crimes to them before he had received one of the rumours which he afterwords manufactured into affidavits, would be seen from the dates of the various papers now about to be adduced; which would also implicate Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey.

“The Begums, by condition, by age, and by infirmities, were almost the only persons in India, who could not have thought of distressing that government, by which alone they could hope to be protected; and to charge them with a design to depose their nearest and dearest relatives, was equally odious and absurd. To ascribe to the princesses those insurrections which had constantly taken place in Oude, was wandering even {534} beyond the improbabilities of fiction; it might with equal probability have been insisted, that but for them, famine would not have pinched, nor thirst have parched, nor extermination have depopulated. Mr Hastings, wanting motive for his rapacity, had found it in fiction. But we are told, ‘that they complained of the injustice done to them.’ And, God at heaven! had they not a right to complain of the injustice, - after a solemn treaty violated, - after being plundered of all their property, - and on the eve of the last extremity of wretchedness, were they to be deprived of the last resource of impotent wretchedness, - complaint and lamentation! Was it a crime that they should crowd together in fluttering trepidation, like a flock of resistless birds on seeing the felon kite, who, having darted at one devoted individual, and missed hls aim, singled on a new object, and was springing on his prey with redoubled vigour in his wing, and keener vengeance in his eye. The simple fact is, having failed as to Cheit Sing, he felt the necessity of procuring a sum of money somewhere; for he knew that to be the never-failing receipt to make his peace with the directors at home! Let the fancy of the governor-general but conceive the proud spirit of Sujah Dowlah, looking down upon the ruin and devastation of his family, and beholding that palace which had been restored to him, plundered by that very army with which he himself had vanquished the Mahrattas; that very Middleton, who had been engaged in managing the previous violations, most busy to perpetrate the last; that very Hastings, whom he had left on his death-bed, the guardian of his wife, and mother, and family, turning all those dear relations, the objects of his solemn trust, forth to the merciless seasons, and a more merciless soldiery!

“I have heard of factions and parties in this House, and know that they exist. The prerogative of the crown finds its advocates among the representatives of the people; the privileges of the people find their opponents, even among the Commons of England, - there is no subject on which we are not broken and divided, - habits, connexions, parties, ail lead to diversity of opinion; but when humanity presents itself to observation, it finds no division among us, - it is attacked as the common enemy, and is never left until completely overthrown. It is not given to this House, to behold the objects of their compassion and benevolence; they cannot see the workings of the heart, the quivering lips, the trickling tears, the loud and yet tremulous joys of the millions whom their vote of this night would for ever save from the cruelly of corrupted power. But though they could not directly see the effects, is not the true enjoyment of their benevolence increased by the blessing being conferred unseen? Would not the omnipotence of Britain be demonstrated to the wonder of nations, by stretching its mighty arm across the deep, and saving by its fiat distant millions from destruction? And would the blessings of the people thus saved dissipate in empty air? No! - We shall constitute heaven itself our proxy, to receive for us the blessings of their pious gratitude, and the prayers of their thanksgiving. It is with confidence, therefore, that I move you on this charge, ‘that Warren Hustings be impeached.’”.

His speech occupied a period of nearly six hours in delivery; and so brilliant was he eloquence, and so argumentative the mode adopted on {535} the present occasion, that when Mr. Sheridan sat down, the whole House, as if fascinated with his eloquence, after a short pause, burst into an involuntary tumult of applause.

Mr. Burke declared it to be the most extraordinary effort he had ever witnessed; while Mr. Fox said, “all that he had ever heard, - all that he had ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished like vapour before the sun.” Even Mr. Pitt acknowledged, “that it surpassed all the eloquence of ancient or modem times, and possessed every thing that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and control the human mind.” Some members, afraid of the impulse thus given to the question, moved for an adjournment of the debate, and the minister concurring, this was accordingly agreed to, notwithstanding the assertion of Mr. Fox, “that it was unparliamentary to defer coming to a vote, for no other reason, that had been alleged, than because members were too firmly convinced.”

Next day, however, Mr. Pitt having declared that Mr. Hastings was criminal on two great points, - the violation of the guarantee, and the seizure of the treasures, - and that he had greatly enhanced his guilt by stifling the orders of the Court of Directors, commanding a revision of the proceedings against the Princesses, the motion was carried by a majority of one hundred and seventy-five against sixty-eight.

Mr. Sheridan took also an active part in the debates on the affairs of the Prince of Wales. On June 3rd, 1788, Mr. Sheridan summed up the evidence on the Begum charge, before the Lords in Westminster-hall, and from that moment his character was established as one of thf first orators and statesmen in the House of Commons.

Soon after this, the French revolution became an object of great importance; and on the army estimates being moved for on February 9, both he and Mr Fox paid a tribute of applause to those who had produced that great event. He deprecated the unqualified abuse and abhorrence of Mr. Burke, and conceived that revolution to be fully as just, and necessary, and glorious, as our own in 1688. He at the same time defended the general view and conduct of the National Assembly, and couldn’t understand what was meant by the charge of “having over-turned 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 adjudications of venal magistrates. What their revenues? - national bankruptcy.” Mr. Burke, in reply, declared, {536} “that henceforth his honourable friend and he were separated in politics.”

Nearly at the same time, Mr. Sheridan gave a bold and decisive opinion relative to the baseness, cruelty, and injustice of the slave trade. He incessantly urged the House to come to an immediate determination relative to that crying outrage; and added, that the power possessed by a West India planter over his slaves, was such, as no human creature ought to be suffered to exercise. On this subject, as well as on a reform of parliament, he was equally strenuous and uniform, whether in or out of place. Mrs. Sheridan, after a lingering illness, died at Bristol, on the 28th of June, 1792, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, and on the 7th of July she was buried in Wells cathedral. Independent of her vocal powers, she possessed a considerable genius for musical composition, and composed the whole of the music in the popular pantomime of Robinson Crusoe, and several songs. She also wrote poetry with much harmony and feeling.

On the 27th of April, 1795, Mr. Sheridan married Miss Hester Ogle, youngest daughter of the late Dr. Newton Ogle, Dean of Winchester. On his marriage with this lady, an estate at Pollesden, near Leatherhead, in Surrey, was purchased chiefly with her fortune; and there they occasionally resided, during several years. A grant from the Prince, of the Receiver-Generalship of the Duchy of Cornwall, estimated perhaps too high at £1,200 a year, was soon after added to his income.

He had also a valuable interest in Drury-lane theatre; and his appearance in the Court of Chancery, in defence of his claims, forms an epoch in the proceedings of that tribunal. On this occasion, he displayed an unusual portion of acuteness and penetration; he entered into the minutiae of accounts with a wonderful degree of precision; and while, as usual, he charmed all around him, Lord Eldon himself declared from the bench, that he had convinced him of every thing, but his “own prudence.’” When the mutiny broke out at the Nore, Mr. Sheridan {537} rose in his place in the House of Commons, and supported ministers with energy and eloquence; and when the kingdom was threatened with an invasion, he publicly, avowed, “that the time had now arrived, when His Majesty possessed an undoubted right to call on his subjects, of all ranks and descriptions, for their zealous co-operation, in supporting the due execution of the laws; and in giving every possible efficiency to the measures of government.” In 1799 the patriotic drama of “Pizarro” was produced, the success, of which was beyond all calculation - twenty-nine editions of a thousand each, were sold off instantly The unparalleled success of the above, may be fairly attributed to the peculiar situation in which this country stood in regard to France, and to the first-rate talents of Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, and Mrs. Jordan, who were all three in the zenith of their powers.

On the demise of Mr. Pitt, a coalition was formed between Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville; and they and their friends, constituting what was then termed “all the talents of the country,” immediately occupied the great offices of state. On this occasion, Mr. Sheridan was nominated a privy councillor; and obtained the office of treasurer of the navy, estimated at 4000£ per annum. It would have been happy both for himself and his family, if he had accepted a patent place for jife of 2000£ a year, as was suggested by Mr. Fox: but he declined this proposition; and on a new writ being issued for Stafford, he was re-chosen, foe the last time, on February 10th, 1806.

As his influence had obviously declined in that borough, at the general election which occurred in the course of the same, year, he offered himself, and was returned tot the city of Westminster, on which occasion he stood second on the poll, having 4642 votes, to 4966, on the part of his opponent, Mr. Paul. Notwithstanding, he was at that moment a very unpopular candidate; yet, so great was the dread lest the feeling of the people should conquer, that Mr. Sheridan not only obtained the support of all the public offices, but, indeed, of the whole {538} aristocracy residing within the bills of mortality. The expense of this contest, as well as of the petition that followed, was borne by means of a subscription, £1,000 of which was advanced by the late Duke of Queensberry; who, as it has been said, actually supposed not only his personal safety, but even his property to depend on the event!

In 1807, his former antagonist being dead, Mr. Sheridan now became a popular candidate; but being deficient in respect to one material ingredient in all contests of this nature, Lord Cochrane obtained a decisive majority. During this second contest, he maintained from the hostings, that it was his intention, were he returned, to attempt the accomplishment of two objects, highly conducive to the interests of his constituents; “the first of these was to regulate the conduct of the hired magistracy of Westminster; and the second, to prevent the publicans from being entirely dependent on the brewers.” He concluded by confessing, “that the chief motive of the present struggle, was to seat his son for Ilchester, and himself for Westminster; so that liberty might have two friends instead of one in the House of Commons!”

Having thus failed in the second city in the kingdom, Mr. Sheridan was nominated for the borough just alluded to, and continued to represent that place during two parliaments. But he no longer distinguished himself by the ardour of his attacks; the brilliancy of his replies; the pertinacity and promptness of his questions. In short, he but seldom attended the House, and seemed to have deserted his party, which soon availed itself of but too good an apology for that utter desertion and abandonment of him!

Mr. Sheridan terminated his political career on the 21st of July, 1812, with one of the most brilliant speeches he ever delivered, on the subject of the overtures for peace which had recently been made by France. Having declared resistance to Buonaparte even with the hazard of defeat as absolutely necessary, he concluded in these animated words {539} which were his last in the House of Commons. “If we fall, and if after our ruin, there should possibly rise an impartial historian, his language will be, ‘Britain fell, and with her fell all the best securities for the charities of human life, the power, the honour, the fame, the glory, and the liberties not only of herself, but of the whole civilised world.’ ”

Thus set this political luminary in the sphere which he had so many years enlivened by the brilliancy of his wit; and so often delighted by the power of his eloquence. Parliament was shortly afterwards dissolved, and Mr. Sheridan again tried his strength at Stafford, where however, notwithstanding the encouragement which he had experienced in the spring, he failed of success, nor, after his last speech, had he influence enough to command a seat for any other place.

Under these depressing circumstances did this extraordinary man retire from public life, without having the transient consolation of seeing that his departure was considered as a loss by those who had been used to court the aid of his talents. The world to him was now in a manner become a desert, in which there was little to cheer him amidst the gloom of neglect and. the blast penury, where he was continually tormented by the importunity of clamorous creditors, and pursued with unrelaxing severity by the harpies of the law.

Harrassed by continual vexations at a period when nature stands in need of repose and indulgence, it was not much to be wondered that a man so long accustomed to convivial pleasures should seek relief from pressure of increasing embarrassments in the intoxicating menus of forgetfulness. Unfortunately the habits of Mr. Sheridan had ever been of a description that unfitted him for application to business, and rendered him incapable of enduring misfortune with that firmness, which, if it does not remove trouble, takes away its sting. When, therefore, the trying season came, it found him unprepared to resist the violence of the storm, and unable to direct his steps by any plan {540} that could secure him from future calamity. In such a bewildered state he increased his difficulties by the efforts which he made to elude them, and accelerated his dissolution in endeavouring to drown the sense of his misery. Such is the heavy impost which men of eccentric genius have to pay for sacrificing their time and talents in uncertain pursuits, and to obtain a little ephemeral popularity. Mr. Sheridan always lived and acted without any regular system for the government of his domestic conduct; the consequence of which was, as might have been expected, that he became the sport of capricious friendship; and when the winter of his days approached, and he had separated from his political connexions, he experienced the folly of neglecting those resources which can alone support the mind in every exigency, and minister to its comfort in the dreariness of solitude. Home, though the abode of domestic virtue and affection, was no longer safe to a person so well known and so much sought after by numerous applicants; to avoid whose troublesome inquiries, and to gain a respite from anxiety, he passed much of his time in coffee-houses and taverns. Continual ebriety was the result of such a course of life; and the effects of it upon his constitution, which had been naturally a very robust one, soon appeared in his countenance and his manners.

Some idea of his extraordinary stamina may be formed from fhe following incident. A person going to bear the debates in the House of Commons, called at the Exchequer coffee-house, where his attention was fixed by a gentleman taking tea, with a parcel of papers before him. Afterwards he called for a decanter of brandy, which he poured into a large glass, and drank off without diluting it in the least, and then walked away. The spectator soon followed, and went into the gallery of the House, where, to his astonishment, he heard one of the longest and most brilliant speeches he ever listened to, delivered by this votary of Bacchus, who was no other than Mr. Sheridan.

But such libations, however invigorating they may be for a moment to the animal spirits, or even inspiring to genius, make dreadful inroads upon the vital system, and when persevered in, never fail to undermine the entire fabric. This was the case with Mr. Sheridan, upon whom the pernicious practice increased to such a degree, that at length his digestive powers were completely destroyed, his memory of course became impaired, and the symptoms of organic disease manifested themselves in a swelling of the extremities and an enlargement of the abdomen, which soon left nothing for hope.

The complication of disorders multiplied rapidly, and he was confined to his room, where, to aggravate the wretchedness of his situation, and the distress of his family, an officer forced his way and arrested him in his bed. After remaining a few days in the house, this callous being signified his intention of removing the dying prisoner to a spunging-house, which resolution he was only prevented from carrying into execution by the interposition of Dr. Baine, the physician, who said that his patient was in such an extremely weak and exhausted state, that to move him at all, even in his own house, would most probably be fatal; but that if he were to be taken away in a violent manner, the agitation would most certainly be attended by immediate death, in which case he should feel it to be his duty to prosecute the officer for murder. This declaration had the proper effect, and the unfortunate victim was suffered to remain in the bosom of his afflicted family, from whom he received every kind attention, and all the comfort that could be administered. As far as sympathetic solicitude could administer relief or comfort, Mr. Sheridan received every consolation from the kind attention of a numerous acquaintance and an affectionate family. But there is abundant reason to hope that his last moments were cheered by the more gratifying consolation that springs alone from faith and repentance. Some days before his death, the Bishop of London, who is a near relation of Mrs. Sheridan, desired Dr. Baine to ask if it would be agreeable to his patient to have prayers {542} offered up by his bed-side. When the commission was imparted to the sick, he assented with such an expression of fervent desire, that the bishop was instantly sent for, who lost no time in attending to the solemn call, and, accompanied by the physician, read several offices of devotion suited to the awful occasion. In these prayers Mr. Sheridan appeared to join with humility and aspiration, clasping his hands, bending his head, and lifting up his eyes, significant of that penitential frame of mind which becomes every human spirit in its passage out of time into eternity. After this he seemed to possess much internal tranquillity until life ebbed gradually away, and he departed, without any apparent struggle or agony, in the arms of his affectionate consort, on Sunday, at noon, July the 7th, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. As it was deemed advisable that the funeral should be conducted without pomp, and yet be marked by a proper respect to the talents of the deceased, the body was removed from Saville Row, to the house of Mr. Peter Moore, in Great George Street, Westminster, which being a short distance from the Abbey, rendered a walking procession the more convenient. He was buried on the Saturday following, near the remains of Garrick and Cumberland.

Mr. Sheridan has left behind him two sons, one by a former, another by the wife who survives him. To present our readers with a character of Sheridan we imagine is almost needless - the task is superseded by his life: suffice it to say, as a statesman he was incorruptible, and never, we believe, in a solitary instance did he speak or vote against his conscience. His speeches in the senate are distinguished as combining every quality that constitutes brilliant oratory. His wit was proverbial, many specimens of which are on record, and as a companion at the festive board he appears almost to have been without a rival; but his absolute neglect of prudence in the common affairs of life, involved him in continual distress, and he died as might have been conjectured, pennyless, heartbroken, and deserted.