the morning of the speech, upon his asking for the bag that he was to carry, he was told by Sheridan that there was none-neither bag nor papers. They must manage, he said, as well as they could without them;-and when the papers were called for, his friend must only put the best countenance he could upon it. As for himself, "he would abuse Ned Law-ridicule Plumer's long orations-make the Court laugh-please the women, and, in short, with Taylor's aid, would get triumphantly through his task." His opening of the case was listened to with the profoundest attention; but when he came to contrast the evidence of the Commons with that adduced by Hastings, it was not long before the Chancellor interrupted him, with a request that the printed Minutes to which he referred should be read. Sheridan answered that his friend Mr. Taylor would read them; and Mr Taylor affected to send for the bag, while the orator begged leave, in the mean time, to proceed. Again, however, his statements rendered a reference to the Minutes necessary, and again he was interrupted by the Chancellor, while an outcry after Mr. Sheridan's bag was raised in all directions. At first the blame was laid on the solicitor's clerk-then a messenger was dispatched to Mr. Sheridan's house. In the mean time, the orator was proceeding brilliantly and successfully in his argument; and, on some further interruption and expostulation from the Chancellor, raised his voice and said, in a dignified tone, "On the part of the Commons, and as a Manager of this Impeachment, I shall conduct my case as I think proper. I mean to be correct; and Your Lordships, having the printed Minutes before you, will afterwards see whether I am right or wrong." During the bustle produced by the inquiries after the bag, Mr. Fox, alarmed at the inconvenience which, he feared, the want of it might occasion to Sheridan, ran up from the Managers' room, and demanded eagerly the cause of this mistake from Mr. Taylor; who, hiding his mouth with his hand, whispered him, (in a tone of which they alone, who have heard this gentleman relate the anecdote, can feel the full humour,) "The man has no bag!" The whole of this characteristic contrivance was evidently intended by Sheridan to raise that sort of surprise at the readiness of his resources, which it was the favourite triumph of his vanity to create. I have it on the authority of Mr. William Smythe, that, previously to the delivery of this speech, he passed two or three days alone at Wanstead, so occupied from morning till night in writing and reading of papers, as to complain in the evenings that he "had motes before his eyes." This mixture of real labour with apparent carelessness was, indeed, one of the most curious features of his life and character. Together with the political contests of this stormy year, he had also on his mind the cares of his new Theatre, which opened on the 21st of April, with a prologue, not by himself, as might have been expected, but by his friend General Fitzpatrick. He found time, however, to assist in the rapid manufacture of a little piece called "The Glorious First of June," which was acted immediately after Lord Howe's victory, and of which I have found some sketches* * One of these is as follows: "SCENE I.-Miss Leake-Miss Decamp-Walsh. "Short dialogue-Nancy persuading Susan to go to the Fair, where there is an entertainment to be given by the Lord of the Manor-Susan melancholy because Henry, her lover, is at sea with the British Admiral— Song-Her old mother scolds from the cottage-her little brother (Walsh) comes from the house, with a message-laughs at his sister's fears and sings-Trio. SCENE II.-The Fair. "Puppet-show-dancing bear-bells-hurdy-gurdy-recruiting partysong and chorus. "Ballet-D'Egville. "Susan says she has no pleasure, and will go and take a solitary walk. "SCENE III.-Dark Wood. "Susan-gipsy-tells her fortune-recitative and ditty. "SCENE IV. "SEA-FIGHT-hell and the devil! "Henry and Susan meet-Chorus introducing burden, Among other occasional trifles of this kind, to which Sheridan condescended for the advantage of the theatre, was the pantomime of Robinson in Sheridan's hand-writing, though the dialogue was no doubt, supplied, (as Mr. Boaden says,) by Cobb, or some other such pedissequus of the Dramatic Muse. This piece was written, rehearsed, and acted within three days. The first operation of Mr. Sheridan towards it was to order the mechanist of the theatre to get ready two fleets. It was in vain that objections were started to the possibility of equipping these paste-board armaments in so short an interval-Lord Chatham's famous order to Lord Anson was not more peremptory. The two fleets were accordingly ready at the time, and the Duke of Clarence attended the rehearsal of their evolutions. This mixture of the cares of the Statesman and the Manager is one of those whimsical peculiarities that Crusoe, brought out, I believe, in 1781, of which he is understood to have been the author. There was a practical joke in this pantomime, (where, in pulling off a man's boot, the leg was pulled off with it,) which the famous Delpini laid claim to as his own, and publicly complained of Sheridan's having stolen it from him. The punsters of the day said it was claimed as literary property-being "in usum Delpini.” Another of these inglorious tasks of the author of The School for Scandal, was the furnishing of the first outline or Programme of "The Forty Thieves." His brother-in-law, Ward, supplied the dialogue, and Mr. Colman was employed to season it with an infusion of jokes. The following is Sheridan's sketch of one of the scenes: "ALI BABA. "Bannister called out of the cavern boldly by his son-comes out and falls on the ground a long time, not knowing him-says he would only have taken a little gold to keep off misery and save his son, &c. "Afterwards, when he loads his asses, his son reminds him to be mode. rate-but it was a promise made to thieves-'it gets nearer the owner, if taken from the stealer'-the son disputes this morality-they stole it, ergo, they have no right to it; and we steal it from the stealer, ergo, our title is twice as bad as theirs."" * For the expedition to the coast of France, after the Convention of Closter-seven. When he ordered the fleet to be equipped, and appointed the time and place of its rendezvous, Lord Anson said it would be impossible to have it prepared so soon. "It may," said Mr. Pitt, "be done; and if the ships are not ready at the time specified, I shall signify Your Lordship's neglect to the King, and impeach you in the House of Commons." This intimation produced the desired effect: the ships were ready. See Anecdotes of Lord Chatham, vol. i. made Sheridan's own life so dramatic, and formed a compound altogether too singular ever to occur again. In the spring of the following year, (1795,) we find Mr. Sheridan paying that sort of tribute to the happiness of a first marriage which is implied by the step of entering into a second. The lady to whom he now united himself was Miss Esther Jane Ogle, daughter of the Dean of Winchester, and grand-daughter, by the mother's side, of the former Bishop of Winchester. We have here another proof of the ready mine of wealth which the theatre opened,-as in gratitude it ought, to him who had endowed it with such imperishable treasures. The fortune of the lady being five thousand pounds, he added to it fifteen thousand more, which he contrived to raise by the sale of Drury-Lane shares; and the whole of the sum was subsequently laid out in the purchase from Sir W. Geary of the estate of Polesden, in Surrey, near Leatherhead. The Trustees of this settlement were Mr. Grey, (now Lord Grey,) and Mr. Whitbread. To a man at the time of life which Sheridan had now attained-four years beyond that period, at which Petrarch thought it decorous to leave off writing love-verses*-a union with a young and accomplished girl, ardently devoted to him, must have been like a renewal of his own youth; and it is, indeed, said by those who were in habits of intimacy with him at this period, that they had seldom seen his spirits in a state of more buoyant vivacity. He passed much of his time at the house of his father-in-law near Southampton ;-and in sailing about with his lively bride on the Southampton river, (in a small cutter called the Phædria, after the magic boat in the "Fairy Queen,") forgot for a while his debts, his theatre, and his politics. It was on one of these occasions that my friend Mr. Bowles, who was a frequent companion of his parties,f See his Epistle, "ad Posteritatem," where, after lamenting the many years which he had devoted to love, he adds: "Mox vero ad quadragesimum annum appropinquans, dum adhuc et caloris satis esset," &c. † Among other distinguished persons present at these excursions were wrote the following verses, which were much admired, as they well deserved to be, by Sheridan, for the sweetness of their thoughts, and the perfect music of their rhythm: "Smooth went our boat upon the summer seas, Leaving, (for so it seem'd,) the world behind, Peer'd, as we pass'd; and Vecta's* azure hue Oh! were this little boat to us the world, As thus we wander'd far from sounds of care, We gain'd that haven still, where all things cease!" The events of this year but added fresh impetus to that reaction upon each other of the Government and the People, which such a system of misrule is always sure to produce. Among the worst effects, as I have already remarked, of the rigorous policy adopted by the Minister, was the extremity to which it drove the principles and language of Opposition, and that sanction which the vehement rebound against oppression of such influencing spirits as Fox and Sheridan seemed to hold out to the obscurer and more practical assertors of freedom. This was at no time more remarkable than in the present Session, during the discussion of those arbitrary measures, the Treason and Sedition Mr. Joseph Richardson, Dr. Howley, now Bishop of London, and Mrs. Wilmot, now Lady Dacre, a lady, whose various talents,-not the less delightful for being so feminine,-like the groupe of the Graces, reflect beauty on each other. + Kelshot Castle. * Isle of Wight. |