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son confessed he sometimes stood awed and silenced by the resemblance.

This disputatious humour of Richardson was once turned to account by Sheridan in a very characteristic manner. Having had a hackney-coach in employ for five or six hours, and not being provided with the means of paying it, he happened to espy Richardson in the street, and proposed to take him in the coach some part of his way. The offer being accepted, Sheridan lost no time in starting a subject of conversation, on which he knew his companion 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 saying 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 argument, and regarding the retreat of his opponent as an acknowledgment of defeat, still pressed his point, and even hollowed more last words" through the coach window after Sheridan, who, walking quietly home, left the poor disputant responsible for the heavy fare of the coach.

66

HIS IMPROVIDENCE.

His improvidence in everything connected with money was most remarkable. He would frequently be obliged to stop on his journeys, for want of the means of getting on, and to remain living expensively at an inn, till a remittance could reach him. His letters to the treasurer of the theatre on these occasions were generally headed with the words, "Money-bound." A friend of his said, that one morning, while waiting for him in his study, he cast his eyes over the heap of unopened letters that lay upon the table, 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." Mr. Westley then informed him that he had once found, on looking over his table, a letter 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 took away the letter, and reserved the enclosure for some future exigence.

Among instances of his inattention to letters, the following is mentioned. Going one day to the banking-house, where he was accustomed to be paid 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. "Certainly, 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 to take two hundred, or three ?" said the clerk. At every increase of the sum, the surprise of the borrower increased. "Have not you then received our letter ?" said the clerk ;—on 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, he had been left in ignorance of his good luck.

POLITICAL PASQUINADES.

THE following string of pasquinades, written at different dates, though principally by Sheridan, owes some of its stanzas to Tickell, and a few others to Lord John Townshend. Time having removed their venom, and with it, in a great degree, their wit, they are now, like dried snakes, mere harmless objects of curiosity.

Johnny W-ilks, Johnny W-ilks*,
Thou greatest of bilks,

* In Sheridan's copy of the stanzas written by him in this metre at the time of the Union (beginning "Zooks, Harry! zooks, Harry!") he entitled them "An admirable new Ballad, which goes excellently well to the tune of

"Mrs. Arne, Mrs. Arne,
It gives me concarn," &c

How chang'd are the notes you now sing!
Your fam'd Forty-five

Is Prerogative,

And your blasphemy, "God save the King,"

Johnny W-ilks,

And your blasphemy, "God save the King."

Jack Ch-ch-11, Jack Ch-ch-ll,
The town sure you search ill,

Your mob has disgraced all your brags;
When next you draw out

Your hospital rout,

Do, prithee, afford them clean rags,

Jack Ch-ch-11,

Do, prithee, afford them clean rags.

Captain K-th, Captain K―th,
Keep your tongue 'twixt your teeth,
Lest bed-chamber tricks you betray ;
And, if teeth you want more,
Why, my bold Commodore,-

You may borrow of Lord G-11—y,

Captain K-th,

You may borrow of Lord G-11-y.

*Joe M-wb-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 Westminster whigs,

That your knighthood should utter one word,

Joe M-wb-y,

That your knighthood should utter one word.

M-ntm-res, M-ntm-res,

Whom nobody for is,

And for whom we none of us care;
From Dublin you came—

It had been much the same

If your lordship had stayed where you were,

M-ntm-res,

If your lordship had stayed where you were.

This stanza and the next were by Lord John Townshend.

Lord O-gl-y, Lord O-gly, You spoke mighty stronglyWho you are, tho', all people admire 1 But I'll let you depart,

For I believe in my heart,

You had rather they did not inquire,..

Lord O-gl-,

You had rather they did not inquire.

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And your crest be a spruce gallipot.

Gl-nb-e, Gl-nb-e,

The world's topsy-turvy,

Of this truth you're the fittest attester;
For, who can deny

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That the low become high,

When the king makes a lord of Silvester,

Gl-nb-e,

When the king makes a lord of Silvester?

Mr. P-1, 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 honours you'll now drive a job,

Mr. P-1,

For honours you'll now drive a job.

Oh poor B-ks, oh poor B-ks,
Still condemn'd to the ranks,

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Not e'en yet from a private promoted;
Pitt ne'er will relent,

Though he knows you repent

Having once or twice honestly voted, I

Poor B-k

Having once or twice honestly voted...

Dull H-1-y, dull H-1-y,
Your auditors feel ye

A speaker of very great weight,

And they wish you were dumb,
When, with ponderous hum,
You lengthen the drowsy debate,
Dull H-1-y,

You lengthen the drowsy debate.

There are about as many more of these stanzas, written, at different intervals, according as new victims, with good names 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 Table 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 :Will C-rt-s

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V-ns-t-t, V-ns- -t-t,--for little thou fit art.

Will D-nd-s, Will D-nd-s,—were you only an ass.
L-ghb-h,-thorough.

Sam H-rsl-y, Sam H-rsl-y,

coarsely.

P―ttym―n, P―ttym-n,-speak truth if you can.

SHERIDAN'S SERMON.

-)

THE Rev. Mr. O'B-(afterwards Bishop of having arrived to dinner at Sheridan's country-house near Osterley, where, as usual, a gay party was collected (consisting of General Burgoyne, Mrs. Crewe, Tickell, &c.), it was proposed that on the next day (Sunday) the rev. gentleman should, on gaining the consent of the resident clergyman, give a specimen of his talents as a preacher in the village church. On his objecting that he was not provided with a sermon, his host offered to write one for him, if he would consent to preach it; and, the offer being accepted, Sheridan left the company early, and did not return for the remainder of the evening. The following morning Mr. O'B- found the manuscript by his bedside, tied together neatly (as he described it) with riband ;-the sub; ject of the discourse being the "Abuse of Riches." Having read it over and corrected some theological errors (such as "it

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