and Pitt was recalled to office, as first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer. The opposition having a majority in the house of commons, for some time impeded the progress of public business; but after a severe contest, which was equally discreditable to Fox and his friends, and honourable to the talents and firmness of Pitt, the latter achieved a complete triumph. Sheridan, during this celebrated session, opposed the minister's scheme for the redemption of the national debt, as well as his more ordinary measures of finance; to qualify himself for the discussion of which, he had, it is said, imposed upon himself the task of studying arithmetic for more than a fortnight! He also took an opportunity to contradict the rumour, that he had written part of the Rolliad and Probationary Odes; warmly advocated what he conceived to be the dearest interests of his mother-country, during a debate on the Irish commercial propositions; and severely ridiculed the Duke of Richmond's plan for the fortification of dock-yards. On the 7th of February, 1787, in a committee of the whole house, he presented the charge against Warren Hastings, relative to the Begum Princesses of Oude, in so powerful a speech, that, at its conclusion, the whole of the assembly joined in a loud and continued tumult of applause. Of this astonishing oration, Pitt said that it surpassed all the eloquence of ancient and modern times, that it possessed everything that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and control the human mind. Fox declared, that all he had ever heard,-all he had ever read,-when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished like vapour before the sun; and Burke pronounced it to be the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit, of which there was any record or tradition. Sir William Dolden, as the " Annual Register" states, immediately moved an adjournment of the debate, acknowledging, that in the state of mind Sheridan's speech had left him, it was impossible for him to give a determinate opinion. Mr. Stanhope, who seconded the motion, observed, that when he had entered the house, his opinion was inclined to the side of Mr. Hastings; but such had been the wonderful efficacy of Sheridan's convincing detail of facts, and irresistible eloquence, that he could not but say that his sentiments were materially changed: nothing, indeed, but information almost equal to a miracle, could determine him not to vote for the charge; but he had just felt the influence of such a miracle, and he could not but ardently desire to avoid an immediate decision. His triumph on the above occasion has been celebrated by Lord Byron in the following lines: "When the loud cry of trampled Hindostan Arose to Heaven in her appeal to man, His was the thunder, his the avenging rod, The wrath-the delegated voice of God! Which shook the nations through his lips, and blazed, It was at this period that the pecuniary embarrassments of the Prince of Wales gave rise to so much discussion in Parliament; and Sheridan having become the frequent associate and principal adviser of His Royal Highness, he naturally took a prominent and animated part in defending his royal patron. He also zealously advocated the heir-apparent's claims to an unrestricted regency; but the sudden recovery of the king marred the flattering prospects of the Whigs, who had fully relied on being called to office by the Prince, as soon as the Regency bill, then in progress, should have passed. At the election for Westminster, in 1790, Sheridan who had been returned again for Stafford, having assisted Fox on the hustings, Horne Tooke termed him a merry-andrew, who attempted to cajole the mob, when the quack doctor, Fox, had left the platform. The interference of England between Russia and the Porte, and the state of the Scotch representation, were the main topics on which Sheridan spoke during the next session. In 1792, he was visited with a heavy domestic calamity. Mrs. Sheridan died in that year, at Bristol, of a decline, at the early age of thirty-eight. In her was united extraordinary talent to surpassing beauty, and the most intense perception of the enjoyments of home. For domestic privacy she gladly abandoned the feverish but flattering excitement of a splendid professional career; preferring the approbation of her husband to the applause and admiration of thousands. In all the employments of private life she displayed a romantic, yet exquisite taste; as a mother and a wife, she could not possibly be surpassed; and it may safely be said of her, that in manners, virtues, temper, accomplishments, and loveliness, but few have approached so near to the ideal standard of feminine perfection. It was happy for her that she did not live to witness the decline and distress of her beloved, and admired, but imprudent husband. In May, 1794, Sheridan had to make his reply on the Begum charge; and previously to its delivery, he passed two or three days alone at Wanstead, so occupied in writing and in reading papers, as to render him fearful he should be quite unequal to the task. This mixture of real labour, observes his biographer, with apparent carelessness, was one of the most curious features of his life and character. On each of the four days of his reply, Sheridan was assisted, as is the custom on such occasions, by one of his brother managers of the impeachment, whose business it was to read whatever paper might be necessary. Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor, who undertook this office, asked Sheridan, one morning, for the bag containing the documents. Sheridan replied, that he had neither bag nor papers, and that they must contrive, by management and effrontery, to do without them. He had not proceeded far in his speech, when the lord chancellor requested that the minutes of the evidence, to which Sheridan had just referred, might be read. Mr. Taylor, on this, pretended to send for the bag; and the undaunted orator continued his address, in order, as he said, not to waste time. In a few minutes the papers were again called for, and messengers were dispatched in all directions for the bag, which Sheridan affected to suppose had been mislaid. In the midst of the outcry, Fox ran up to Taylor, and anxiously inquired what had become of the bag: "Sir," replied Taylor, in a whisper, " the man has no bag!" In the meantime, Sheridan proceeded triumphantly with his speech; and, at length, in answer to another interruption, accompanied by rather a severe expostulation on his inattention and irregularity, from the chancellor, he indignantly observed, "that as manager of the impeachment, on behalf of the house of commons, he should conduct his case as he thought fit; that it was his most ardent desire to be perfectly correct in what he stated; and that should he fall into error, the printed minutes of evidence would correct him." : In 1795 he married Miss Ogle, daughter of the Dean of Winchester the lady's fortune was £5000, to which he contrived to add thrice that amount, and the entire sum being vested in trustees, they laid it out in purchasing the estate of Polesden, in Surrey. At this period, during the debates on the treason and sedition bills, Sheridan, following the example of Fox who preached popular resistance to the measures of government, was betrayed into utterance of much violent and unconstitutional language. The suspension of the habeas corpus act, and the investigation of the Prince's debts, were the next events of consequence in which he stood conspicuously forward. His conduct during the mutiny at the Nore was eminently patriotic: discarding all party feelings and private views, he zealously supported ministers; and nobly declared, that the time had arrived when the king had an undoubted right to call on all classes of his subjects to maintain the laws, and give effect to the measures of government. Immediately after Mr. Grey's motion for reform had been rejected by the house, he seceded, with Fox and his adherents, from parliament; but had the mortification to perceive, that this manœuvre created no sensation, and was productive of no benefit. The Irish rebellion, in 1798, furnished an inexhaustible topic for his eloquence, and he repeatedly im puted to the criminal misgovernment of the "wicked ministers," all the horrors which were then raging in his unhappy country. Sheridan continued to adhere pertinaciously to his party; refusing a lucrative situation offered by government to his son, and meeting with coldness a message from the king, "expressive of the approbation of which he regarded his public conduct, and the pleasure he should feel in conferring upon him some mark of his royal favour. In 1804, he received a welcome accession to his income, by a grant from the Prince of Wales, of the receivership of the duchy of Cornwall," as a trifling proof of that sincere friendship his Royal Highness had always professed and felt for him during a long series of years." The wishes of the prince deterred Sheridan from uniting himself to the Addington administration, although he supported it with a view to prevent the return of Pitt to the helm of state. The latter, however, was soon recalled to office, in which he continued until his death, which took place in 1806. The Fox and Grenville parties then coalesced, and succeeded to power. Sheridan, sharing in the triumph of his friends, obtained the treasureship of the navy; which, however, he considered totally inadequate to his merits, although his necessities, the result of constant imprudence, rendered it highly acceptable. On the death of Fox, which soon afterwards occurred, Sheridan felt anxious to offer himself as a candidate to the electors of Westminster; but was deterred by an intimation from Lord Granville, who is said to have looked with no favourable eye upon the treasurer of the navy, that government had promised its influence to Earl Percy. Parliament being soon afterwards dissolved, and Earl Percy having declined to offer himself again for Westminster, Sheridan was proposed as one of the candidates, and, after a tumultuous contest, was triumphantly elected. With bitter regret he beheld his colleagues rush into those measures which drove him, with them, from office; and, stripped of emolument and power, he once more returned to the ranks of opposition, a disappointed man, |