to give vitality to this form of dramatic humour, and to invest even his satirical portraits—as in the instance of Sir Fretful Plagiary, which, it is well known, was designed for Cumberland -with a generic character, which, without weakening the particular resemblance, makes them representatives for ever of the whole class to which the original belonged.

We must now prepare to follow the subject of this memoir into a field of display, altogether different, where he was in turn to become an actor before the public himself, and where, instead of inditing lively speeches for others, he was to deliver the dictates of his eloquence and wit from his own lips.

His powers of conversation and his delight in social pleasures brought him into terms of intimacy with many prominent members of the Whig ministry. Through Lord John Townsend he became acquainted with Mr. Fox, who declared him to be the wittiest man he had ever known. An introduction to Burke soon followed, and he became one of the most welcome visitors at Devonshire House. At Brooks's Club-house, where the Whig politicians blended conviviality with business, he soon shone pre-eminent among the hardest drinkers and wittiest talkers. He joined the party, and, with a few exceptions, was faithful to its creed and leaders through life. After performing some minor services to his party, he was sent to the House of Commons as member for the borough of Stafford, in October, 1780. The nation was suffering under the calamities of the American War, and Lord North's administration was assailed by every weapon of argument and invective.

He made his first speech in Parliament on the 20th of November, 1780, when a petition was presented to the House, complaining of the undue election of the sitting members (himself and Mr. Monckton) for Stafford. It was rather lucky for him that the occasion was one in which he felt personally interested, as it took away much of that appearance of anxiety for display, which might have attended his first exhibition upon any general subject. The fame, however, which he had already acquired by his literary talents, was sufficient, even on this

question, to awaken all the curiosity and expectation of his audience; and accordingly we are told in the report of his speech, that "he was heard with particular attention, the House being uncommonly still while he was speaking." The indignation, which he expressed on this occasion at the charges. brought by the petition against the electors of Stafford, was coolly turned into ridicule by Mr. Rigby, Paymaster of the Forces. But Mr. Fox, whose eloquence was always ready at the call of good nature, and, like the shield of Ajax, had "ample room and verge enough," to protect not only himself but his friends, came promptly to the aid of the young_orator; and, in reply to Mr. Rigby, observed, that "though those ministerial members, who chiefly robbed and plundered their constituents, might afterwards affect to despise them, yet gentlemen, who felt properly the nature of the trust allotted to them, would always treat them and speak of them with respect."

It was on this night, as Woodfall used to relate, that Mr. Sheridan, after he had spoken, came up to him in the gallery, and asked, with much anxiety, what he thought of his first attempt. The answer of Woodfall, as he had the courage afterwards to own, was, "I am sorry to say I do not think that this is your line-you had much better have stuck to your former pursuits." On hearing which, Sheridan rested his head upon his hand for a few minutes, and then vehemently exclaimed, "It is in me, however, and, by G-, it shall come out."

During the first few years of his political life, Sheridan produced but small impression, but he was steadily making his way into notoriety. On the overthrow of Lord North's ministry in the month of March, 1782, an entirely new administration was formed under the promising auspices of the Marquis of Rockingham.

Mr. Sheridan, as might be expected, shared in the triumph of his party, by being appointed one of the Under-Secretaries of State. This office he occupied but four months. The

death of the Marquis broke up this short-lived ministry, and split the party into two divisions. Lord Shelbourne was appointed prime minister, and Fox, Burke, and the other old Whigs resigned, and went into opposition.

In the new ministry Sheridan was made Secretary of the Treasury, but its fate was sealed when Mr. Fox's East India Bill was introduced. This bill passed the House of Commons, but was thrown out by the Lords; Fox was dismissed by the King, and Pitt was made prime minister. This was one of the most exciting periods in English political history, but its consideration belongs rather to the biography of Burke and Fox than of Sheridan. One of his happiest retorts occurred, however, in an early scene of this hurried drama during the debate on the Parliamentary Articles of Peace.

"Mr. Pitt (say the Parliamentary Reports) was pointedly severe on the gentlemen who had spoken against the Address, and particularly on Mr. Sheridan. 'No man admired more than he did the abilities of that Right Honourable Gentleman, the elegant sallies of his thought, the gay effusions of his fancy, his dramatic turns and his epigrammatic point; and if they were reserved for the proper stage, they would, no doubt, receive what the Honourable Gentleman's abilities always did receive, the plaudits of the audience; and it would be his fortune sui plausu gaudere theatri.'. But this was not the proper scene for the exhibition of those elegancies.' Mr. Sheridan, in rising to explain, said that 'On the particular sort of personality which the Right Honourable Gentleman had thought proper to make use of, he need not make any comment. The propriety, the taste, the gentlemanly point of it, must have been obvious to the House. But,' said Mr. Sheridan, 'let me assure the Right Honourable Gentleman, that I do now, and will at any time he chooses to repeat this sort of allusion, meet it with the most sincere good-humour. Nay, I will say more-flattered and encouraged by the Right Honourable Gentleman's panegyric on my talents, if ever I again engage in the compositions he alludes to, I may be tempted to an act of presumption-to attempt an improvement on one of Ben Jonson's best characters, the character of the Angry Boy in the Alchemist.'

Mr. Sheridan's connection with the stage, though one of the most permanent sources of his glory, was also a point upon which, at the commencement of his political career, his pride was most easily awakened and alarmed. He himself used to tell of the frequent mortifications which he had suffered, when at school, from taunting allusions to his father's professionbeing called by some of his school-fellows "the player-boy," &c. Mr. Pitt had therefore selected the most sensitive spot for his sarcasm; and the good temper, as well as keenness, with which the thrust was returned, must have been felt even through all that pride of youth and talent in which the new Chancellor of the Exchequer was then enveloped. There could hardly, indeed, have been a much greater service rendered to a person in the situation of Mr. Sheridan, than thus affording him an opportunity of silencing, once for all, a battery to which this weak point of his pride was exposed, and by which he might otherwise have been kept in continual alarm. This gentleman-like retort, combined with the recollection of his duel, tended to place him for the future in perfect security against any indiscreet tamperings with his personal history.*

* The following jeu d'esprit, written by Sheridan himself upon this occurrence, was found among his manuscripts :

"ADVERTISEMENT EXTRAORDINARY. "We hear that, in consequence of a hint lately given in the House of Commons, the play of 'The Alchemist' is certainly to be performed by a set of gentlemen for our diversion, in a private apartment of Buckingham House.

"The characters, thus described in the old editions of Ben Jonson, are to be represented in the following manner-the old practice of men's playing the female parts being adopted:

In following Mr. Fox into opposition, Sheridan soon became one of his most efficient supporters. As a man of wit-of wit not only as a power of mind, but as a quality of character -he detected weak points in arguments, or follies in declamation, with an instinctive insight.

In the session of 1786, when the Duke of Richmond, who had gone over to the administration, brought forward his plan for the fortification of the dockyards, Sheridan subjected his report to a scorching speech. He complimented the duke for the proofs he had given of his genius as an engineer :

"He had made his report," said Sheridan, "an argument of posts, and conducted his reasoning upon principles of trigonometry, as well as logic. There were certain detached data, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a distance from the main object in debate. Strong provisions covered the flanks of his assertions. His very queries were in casemates. No, impression, therefore, was to be made on this fortress of sophistry by desultory observations; and it was necessary to sit down before it, and assail it by regular approaches. It was fortunate, however, to observe, that notwithstanding all the skill employed by the noble and literary engineer, his mode of defence on paper was open to the same objection which had been urged against his other fortifications; that if his adversary got possession of one of his posts, it became strength against him, and the means of subduing the whole line of his argument."

From 1780, the period of his entering Parliament, to 1787, Sheridan, though he had spoken often, had made no such exhibition of his powers as to gain the reputation of a great orator. But about this time the genius and energy of Burke started a subject which not only gave full expression to his own great nature, but afforded the orators of his party a rare occasion for the most dazzling displays of eloquence. I refer, of course, to the impeachment of Warren Hastings. In bringing forward in the House of Commons the various charges, the charge relating to the spoliation of the Begum princesses of Oude was allotted to Sheridan. The event was