Tom Sheridan was the idol of the young men at Cambridge, who pronounced him the cleverest fellow in the place, as in point of humour and fun he certainly was. His father once said to him, what really was the case, "Tom, you have genius enough to get a dinner every day in the week at the first tables in London, and that is something, but that is all, you can go no further." They thoroughly understood each other; the son was equally complimentary to the father, as many well-known anecdotes testify. On one occasion Tom Sheridan complained, over the bottle, to him that his pockets were empty. "Try the highway," was the father's answer. "I have," said Tom, "but I made a bad hit. I stopped a caravan full of passengers, who assured me they had not a farthing, for they all belonged to Drury Lane Theatre and could not get a single penny of their salary." Kelly tells a somewhat similar story. He says that father and son were supping with him one night after the Opera, at a period when Tom expected to get into Parliament. "I think, father," says he, "that many men who are called great patriots in the House of Commons are great humbugs. For my own part, if I get into Parliament I will pledge myself to no party, but write upon my forehead, in legible characters, 'To be let.'" "And under that, Tom," said his father, "Unfurnished.'" Tom took the joke, but was even with him upon another occasion. Mr. Sheridan had a cottage, about half a mile from Hounslow Heath. Tom, being very short of cash, asked his father to let him have some money. "I have none," was the reply. "Be the consequence what it may, money I must have," said Tom. "If that is the case," said the affectionate parent, "you will find a case of

loaded pistols upstairs and a horse ready saddled in the stable; the night is dark, and you are within half a mile of Hounslow Heath." "I understand what you mean," said Tom, "but I tried that last night; I unluckily stopped Peake, your treasurer, who told me that you had been beforehand with him, and had robbed him of every sixpence in the world."

The session of this year was not distinguished at its commencement by any striking feature. Sheridan had manfully expressed his opinions and his feelings upon the great points which had been agitated. The minor questions which were now brought forward, and were principally to enable the Government to carry on the war into which they had entered, engrossed but little of his attention. He carefully abstained from throwing any impediments in the way; he simply pointed out the steps which he thought should be pursued, and supported Mr. Fox on every occasion when he thought that support necessary. After a very brilliant speech from that gentleman, on a motion which he made to censure the ministers for advancing money to the Emperor of Austria without the consent of Parliament, Sheridan made an admirable address to the House, which conIcluded with a contest between Lord Chatham and Mr. Pitt. A motion made by General Fitzpatrick, to obtain the release of La Fayette, through the intercession of his Majesty with the Emperor of Germany, called forth from Sheridan some well-expressed opinions on the infamy of the detention of that great man in the prison of Olmutz. He expressed the highest veneration for his character, and believed that he might vie with the brightest characters in

English history. To the spirit of a Hampden he united the loyalty of a Falkland.

On the 26th of February, the Ministry was compelled to take a step which alarmed the times and seemed to hold forth the dread of an impending calamity. An order was issued by the Privy Council prohibiting the directors of the Bank of England from issuing any cash payments till the sense of Parliament could be taken, and proper measures adopted to support the public and commercial credit of the kingdom. On the following day a message was sent to the House of Commons, recommending the subject to their immediate and serious attention. The debates were long and arduous, they were frequent and monotonous, yet did Sheridan give unwearying attention to them, and night after night exhibit the same energy and industry of which his adversaries have doubted. The annals of the country show how well he fought her battles, and how sincere he then was, in his bold attacks upon the corruption and profligacy of the system he opposed; occasionally he introduced some happy hits, even upon the driest subjects. Thus, during the debate on the stoppage of cash payments, he made a fanciful allusion to the Bank. “An elderly lady in the city, of great credit and long standing, who had lately made a faux pas, which was not altogether inexcusable. She had unfortunately fallen into bad company, and contracted too great an intimacy and connection at the St. James's end of the town. The young gentleman, however, who had employed all his arts of soft persuasion to seduce the old lady, had so far shown his designs, that by timely cutting and breaking off the connection there might be hopes of the old gentlewoman once more

regaining her credit and injured reputation." Mr. Harrison's motion for the reduction of useless places gave him an opportunity of making a short but useful appeal to those who were at that time battening upon the public spoil. He more particularly alluded to Mr. Rose, whose name he publicly gave, as one holding several sinecures and situations which amounted to £10,000 annually, so that he did not spare those whom he condemned, and pointed out those whom he accused of corruption. If during the early part of the spring the nation had been somewhat alarmed at the state of its credit, it had now reason to feel the utmost anxiety. A mutiny was announced to have broken out in the Channel fleet; the dismay with which the intelligence was received was unequalled by any terror which the disasters of those times had occasioned. The stoutest hearts quailed, the kingdom was agitated from one end to the other, men looked at each other, as they dreaded that there was something more to be told, and that at last the downfall of the British empire was at hand.

The particular subjects to which Sheridan devoted his attention during the remainder of the session were an expedition to the West Indies, and that to Quiberon Bay. He still continued to enliven the House by his reading, and his sallies of wit and his humour. There are several speeches extant, from which extracts unfortunately cannot be made, which show that he possessed that readiness of reply and quickness of thought which some have denied to him. The dissolution of Parliament, which took place on the 20th of May, sent him back to his constituents at Stafford, who welcomed him there with every mark of respect, and returned him unopposed to the next Parliament.

Mr. Sheridan now became mixed up in one of those singular literary disputes which at the time of their occurrence excite the deepest interest, but are soon consigned, like every other marvel, to oblivion, excepting amongst those who love the curiosities of literature. William John Ireland was the son of a gentleman well known amongst the well-informed writers of the day. He had published some illustrations of Hogarth which had pleased the public, and he had likewise given to the world other works— "A Picturesque Tour through Holland;" "Picturesque Views on the Rivers Thames and Medway." Young Ireland had received a good education, had early imbibed a love of the drama, and one of his earliest recollections was that he had been delighted by a private play performed at Sheridan's residence in Bruton Street. At the early age of eighteen he wrote a tragedy, but instead of bringing it before the public under his own name, he conceived the singular idea of producing it as a work of Shakespeare's which had accidentally come to light after a long lapse of years. He told his father that a grand discovery had accidentally been made at the house of a gentleman of property; that among a quantity of family papers the contracts between Lowin, Condell, and Shakespeare, and the lease granted by him and Herring to Michael Fraser, had been found; that soon afterwards the deed of gift to William Henry Ireland, described as the friend of Shakespeare, in consequence of having saved his life on the Thames when in extreme danger of being drowned, and also the deed of trust to John Heminge, had been discovered; that in pursuing the search he had been so fortunate as to find some deeds establishing beyond all contro