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that I ever heard of special pleading on a metaphor, or a bill of indictment against a trope; but such is the turn of the learned gentleman's mind that when he attempts to be humorous no jest can be found, and when serious no fact is visible."

An Unfettered Press.-The few sentences (remarks Brougham) with which Sheridan thrilled the House on the liberty of the press, in 1810, were worth, perhaps, more than all his elaborated epigrams and forced flowers on the Begum charge, or all his denunciations of Napoleon. "Give them," said he, "a corrupt House of Lords, give them a venal House of Commons, give them a tyrannical Prince, give them a truckling Court, and let me have but an unfettered Press, I will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth upon the liberties of England."

Untimely Relief from Taxation.-Pitt having proposed a repeal of certain taxes in 1792, his policy was thus censured by Sheridan : "A new feeling of hope is to be inspired into the people, a new feeling of gratitude is to be planted in their bosoms-they are to be taught to petition for relief from taxes. This is a very delicate subject for gentlemen to speak on; it lays an embargo on the House. No man can put himself into the ungracious state of opposing the repeal of afflicting taxes. Who can deny to the poor family the boon of getting their candles a halfpenny cheaper? Should a severe sense of duty urge any gentleman to look the true situation of the country in the face, and to oppose this artful and insidious way of attacking the privileges of the Commons House of Parliament, I well know how easily a cry may be raised against him, and with what facility he may be made the victim of a little well managed misrepresentation. I remember a line or two of some verses made upon my honourable friend [Fox] by one of his constituents, which have never failed to produce a torrent of applause, not from the elegance of the poetry so much as from the sturdy ad captandum praise which it gives him. My friend, who with all his merits has certainly no pretension to this praise, will pardon me for repeating it:

'Whenever a tax in the House was projected,

Great Fox he rose up and always objected.'

Now this, which is certainly untrue, may be turned very neatly to the detriment of those who may think it their duty to inquire before they act-to ascertain whether we really have a surplus before we give up our income; and at any rate the grace ought to come constitutionally from that branch of the legislature which has the power of the purse, and which has been so unmercifully called on, by the same right honourable gentleman, to draw the strings. Why has he not waited and given to the House the grace of originating the measure? The truth is, it has craftily been considered as the best answer to all the imputations against him for the Russian and Spanish armaments; so at least other men, who have less candour and respect for him than I possess, might insinuate. They might draw strange conclusions from the circumstances; and the nation might be brought to think that blunders are more advantageous to them than wisdom-that when he is convicted of error he is distributing to

them relief. A session without a blunder would be a session of calamity; but an armament would be desirable. I have,' he might say, 'involved you in a quarrel with Spain-here, there's a tax upon malt for you. I have made the English name ridiculous all over the world by bullying Russia here, take back the female servants, I have no use for them. I have involved you in a war with Tippoo Saib-take your candles a halfpenny cheaper in the pound.' Thus they are taught to love misfortune, to be enamoured of misconduct; and if an administration should succeed him, under which wisdom and prudence should produce their usual effects of security and quiet, the right honourable gentleman would be at the head of the most violent and clamorous opposition that this country ever witnessed. They would call out importunately for a change: 'Give us back that bustling and dangerous administration, that went on arming and unarming, taxing and untaxing; who committed so many blunders that they were for ever making atonement; who broke our heads that they might give us a plaster. We abhor this uniform system of order and quiet."

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His Wit and its Elaboration.-How little (says Brougham) Sheridan's wit was the inspiration of the moment all men were aware who knew his habits; but a singular proof of this was presented by Mr. Moore, when he came to write his "Life;" for we there find given to the world, with a frankness which must almost have made their author shake in his grave, the secret note-books of this famous wit; and we are thus enabled to trace the jokes in embryo, with which he had so often made the walls of St. Stephen's shake, in a merriment excited by the happy appearance of sudden, unpremeditated effusion. Take an instance from this author, giving extracts from the commonplace book of the wit: He employs his fancy in his narrative, and keeps his recollections for his wit." Again, the same idea is expanded into "When he makes his jokes you applaud the accuracy of his memory, and 'tis only when he states his facts that you admire the flights of his imagination." But the thought was too good to be thus wasted on the desert air of a common-place book. So forth it came at the expense of Kelly, who, having been a composer of music, became a wine-merchant. "You will," said the ready wit, "import your music and compose your wine." Nor was this service exacted from the old idea thought sufficient; so in the House of Commons an easy and apparently off-hand parenthesis was thus filled with it, at Mr. Dundas's cost and charge: "who generally resorts to his memory for his jokes, and to his imagination for his facts.”

Resisting Temptation.-Once (relates Lord Byron) I saw Sheridan cry, after a splendid dinner. I had the honour of sitting next him. The occasion of his tears was some observation or other upon the subject of the sturdiness of the Whigs in resisting office and keeping to their principles. Sheridan turned round, "Sir, it is easy for my Lord C., or Earl G., or Marquis B., or Lord H., with thousands upon thousands a-year, some of it either presently derived or inherited in sinecure or acquisitions from the public money, to boast of their patriotism and keep aloof from temptation; but they do not know from what temptation those have kept

aloof who had equal pride, at least equal talents, and not unequal passions, and nevertheless knew not in the course of their lives what it was to have a shilling of their own." And in saying this he wept.

An Ambiguous Compliment.-" Before my departure from England," says Gibbon in his "Autobiography," "I was present at the august spectacle of Mr. Hastings' trial, in Westminster Hall. It is not my province to absolve or condemn the Governor of India, but Mr. Sheridan's eloquence demanded my applause; nor could I hear without emotion the personal compliment which he paid me in the presence of the British nation." The passage in the speech of the orator that afforded so much gratification to the historian is thus reported in the Morning Chronicle, June 14th, 1788: "He said that the facts that made up the volume of narrative were unparalleled in atrociousness, and that nothing equal in criminality was to be traced either in ancient or modern history, in the correct periods of Tacitus, or the luminous page of Gibbon." On being asked by some one, at the conclusion of the speech, how he came to compliment Gibbon with the epithet "luminous," Sheridan answered, in a half-whisper, "I said voluminous.""-Byron, in his "Monody on the Death of Sheridan," thus alludes to the appreciation in which a meed of praise from Sheridan was held :

"In whose acclaim the loftiest voices vied,

The praised-the proud-who made his praise their pride."

EDWARD GIBBON.

(1737-1794.)

A Mute Member.-The historian of the Roman Empire was returned for Liskeard in 1774, and sat in Parliament for eight sessions. Prudence, he says in his "Autobiography," condemned him to acquiesce in the humble station of a mute. "Timidity was fortified by pride, and even the success of my pen discouraged the trial of my voice." In a letter to a friend he writes, "I am still a mute: it is more tremendous than I imagined; the great speakers fill me with despair, the bad ones with terror." Gibbon supported Lord North's administration by his vote, and was appointed one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. He was employed by the Government, at the outbreak of hostilities with France in 1778, to draw up the official manifesto on that occasion.

A Contrast.-In a letter to a friend in 1783, describing his life at Lausanne, the ex-M.P. says: "Acknowledge that such a life is more conducive to happiness than five nights in the week passed in the House of Commons, or five mornings spent at the Custom House." But in his "Autobiography" he remarks, "I never found my mind more vigorous, nor my composition more happy, than in the winter hurry of society and Parliament."

His Application for Diplomatic Employment.-The following letter is given in Gibbon's "Autobiography and Correspondence.” The communication is without date, nor does the name of the nobleman

to whom it was addressed appear: "My Lord,-I am ignorant (as I ought to be) of the present state of our negotiations for peace; I am likewise ignorant how far I may appear qualified to co-operate in this important and salutary work. If, from any advantages of language or local connections, your lordship should think my services might be usefully employed, particularly in any future intercourse with the Court of France, permit me to say that my love of ease and literary leisure shall never stand in competition with the obligations of duty and gratitude which I owe to his Majesty's Government." Gibbon also applied to Lord Thurlow, soliciting an appointment as Secretary to the Embassy to Paris, in 1783. Of the result he writes: "The scheme is completely vanished, and I support the disappointment with heroic patience."

WILLIAM WINDHAM.

(1750-1810.)

Political Training. — In 1783, Mr. Windham was appointed principal secretary to Lord Northington, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Before leaving England he called upon his friend Dr. Johnson, to whom he expressed, says Boswell, some modest and virtuous doubts whether he could bring himself to practise those arts which it is supposed a person in that situation has occasion to employ. "Don't be afraid, sir," said Johnson, with a pleasant smile; "you will soon make a very pretty rascal."

A Very Palpable Hit.-Sometimes he would convulse the House by a happy, startling, and most unexpected allusion; as when on the Walcheren question, speaking of a coup-de-main on Antwerp, which had been its professed object, he suddenly said, "A coup-de-main in the Scheldt! You might as well talk of a coup-de-main in the Court of Chancery." Sir William Grant (Master of the Rolls) having just entered and taken his seat, probably suggested this excellent jest; and assuredly no man enjoyed it more. His habitual gravity was overpowered in an instant, and he was seen absolutely to roll about on the bench which he had just occupied.-Brougham's "Statesmen."

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Homely Saxon.-" When some phrase of his," says Lord Brougham, "long after it was first used, seemed to invite attack, and a great cheer followed, as if he had unwittingly fallen into the scrape, he stopped and added, Why, I said it on purpose!' or, as he pronounced it, a purpose; ' for no man more delighted in the old pronunciation, as well as the pure Saxon idiom of our language, which yet he could enrich and dignify with the importations of classical phraseology."

Instability.-Mr. Windham (says Earl Russell) was unstable and irresolute. He said one day to Lord Henry Petty, who was sitting beside him, towards the end of his speech, "Which way did I say I would vote ?"

Convenient Illustration.-Windham's happiness in illustration was thus alluded to by Lord John Russell, in speaking on Parliamentary Reform in 1854: "I know to those who do not like the measure a fit

time is always wanting. Mr. Windham, who was a great master of illustration and allusion, when a measure of reform was introduced in a time of public quiet and peace, said, 'You are like the man in the Spectator, who had every symptom of the gout except the pain; you are going to deal with a disease that causes you no inconvenience.' Times changed, and there was a vast deal of commotion, and agitation, and excitement, and still Mr. Windham opposed reform, saying, 'Surely you will not repair your house in a hurricane!' On both occasions he was ready with an illustration, and so it is with many of those who now say that this is not the time to introduce a measure of Parliamentary reform.”

SIR PHILIP FRANCIS.
(1740-1818.)

An Unready Speaker.-Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the "Junius" letters, was unsuccessful as a speaker. His own theory on the subject is given by Lady Francis in her "Reminiscences:"-" Here I may account for his not being a ready speaker in Parliament, except when roused by indignation or feeling, when he electrified the House. He accounted for it from Lord Bacon's well-known axiom, Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready man.' 'I had enough and too much of the former, and none of the latter, in my youth. A vessel may be too full to part easily with its contents, and few orators are very exact men; besides, I had too much sensibility, and felt the House was against me. The House was Pitt's, and Pitt could not despise me, but he tried to make it believe he did."" Lady Francis adds another reason for his hesitation in speaking-namely, extreme anxiety to weigh every word lest it should convict him of being "Junius.”

An Appeal from Son to Father.-Sir Nathaniel Wraxall writes as follows of Francis: "However inferior he was to Burke in all the flowers of diction, more than once he electrified the House by passages of a pathos which arrested every hearer. A beautiful specimen of his ability in this point occurred during the debates on Pitt's India Bill. One of the regulations abolished the trial by jury for delinquents returning from India, and instituted a new tribunal for inquiring into their misdemeanors. Against such an inroad on the British constitution Francis entered his protest in terms of equal elegance and force. I am not,' said he, 'an old man, yet I remember the time when such an attempt would have roused the whole country into a flame. Had the experiment been made when the illustrious statesman, the late Earl of Chatham, enjoyed a seat in this assembly, he would have sprung from the bed of sickness, he would have solicited some friendly hand to lay him on the floor, and thence, with a monarch's voice, he would have called the whole kingdom to arms to oppose it. But he is dead, and has left nothing in the world that resembles him. He is dead! and the sense, the honour, the character, and the understanding of the nation are dead with him.'. . The repetition of the words, 'He is dead,' was attended with the finest effect; and the reflections produced by it involuntarily attracted every eye

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