18*17.] On the Want, of Money. 37 



The going without a dinner is another of the miseries of wanting 

 money, though one can bear up against this calamity better than the 

 former, which really " blights the tender blossom and promise of the 

 day." With one good meal, one may hold a parley with hunger and 

 moralize upon temperance. One has time to turn one's-self and look 

 about one to " screw one's courage to the sticking-place," to graduate 



house. She said she had come provided for such an accident, and could give change 

 for a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred pound note, if it were necessary. Grimm 

 then went hack to his principal for farther instructions : who made an excuse that lie 

 had no stamped receipt hy him. For this, Mrs. B. said, she was also provided ; she 

 had brought one in her pocket. At each message, she could hear them laughing 

 heartily in the next room at the idea of having met with their match for once ; and 

 presently after, Sheridan came out in high good-humour, and paid her the amount of 

 her bill, in ten, five, and one pounds. Once when a creditor brought him a bill for 

 payment, which had often been presented before, and the man complained of its soiled 

 and tattered state, and said he was quite ashamed to see it, " I'll tell you what I'd 

 advise you to do with it, my friend," said Sheridan, " take it home, and write it upon 

 parchment /" He once mounted a horse which a horse-dealer was shewing off near a 

 coffee-house at the bottom of St. James's-street, rode it to Tattersall's, and sold it, 

 and walked quietly back to the spot from which he set out. The owner was furious, 

 swore he would be the death of him ; and, in a quarter of an hour afterwards they were 

 seen sitting together over a bottle of wine in the coffee-house, the horse-jockey with 

 the tears running down his face at Sheridan's jokes, and almost ready to hug him as 

 an honest fellow. Sheridan's house and lobby were beset with duns every morning, 

 who were told that Mr. Sheridan was not yet up, and shewn into the several rooms on 

 each side of the entrance. As soon as he had breakfasted, he asked, " Are those doors 

 all shut, John ?" and, being assured they were, marched out very deliberately between 

 them, to the astonishment of his self-invited guests, who soon found the bird was 

 flown. I have heard one of his old City friends declare, that such was the effect of 

 his frank, cordial manner, and insinuating eloquence, that he was always afraid to go 

 to ask him for a debt of long standing, lest he should borrow twice as much. A play 

 had been put off one night, or a favourite actor did not appear, and the audience 

 demanded to have their money back again : but when they came to the door, they 

 were told by the check-takers there was none for them, for that Mr. Sheridan had 

 been in the mean time, and had carried off all the money in the till. He used often 

 to get the old cobler who kept a stall under the ruins of Drury Lane to broil a beef- 

 steak for him, and take their dinner together. On the night that Drury Lane was 

 burnt down, Sheridan was in the House of Commons, making a speech, though he 

 could hardly stand without leaning his hands on the table, and it was with some diffi- 

 culty he was forced away, urging the plea, " What signified the concerns of a private 

 individual, compared to the good of the state ?" When he got to Covent- Garden, he 

 went into the Piazza Coffee-house, to steady himself with another bottle, and then 

 strolled out to the end of the Piazza to look at the progress of the fire. Here he was 

 accosted by Charles Kemble and Fawcett, who complimented him on the calmness 

 with which he seemed to regard so great a loss. He declined this praise, and said 

 " Gentlemen, there are but three things in human life that in my opinion ought to 

 disturb a wise man's patience. The first of these is bodily pain, and that (whatever 

 the ancient stoics may have said to the contrary) is too much for any man to bear 

 without flinching : this I have felt severely, and I know it to be the case. The second 

 is the loss of a friend whom you have dearly loved ; that, gentlemen, is a great evil : 

 this I have also felt, and I know it to be too much for any man's fortitude. And the 

 third is the consciousness of having done an unjust action. That, gentlemen, is a great 

 evil, a very great evil, too much for any man to endure the reflection of; but that" 

 (laying his hand upon his heart,) " but that, thank God, I have never felt!" I have 

 been told that these were nearly the very words, except that he appealed to the mens 

 conscia recti very emphatically three or four times over, by an excellent authority, 

 Mr. Mathews the player, who was on the spot at the time, a gentleman whom the 

 public admire deservedly, but with whose real talents and nice discrimination of cha- 

 racter his friends only are acquainted. Sheridan's reply to the watchman who had 

 picked him up in the street, and who wanted to know who he was, " I am Mr. Wil- 

 berforce !" is well known, and shews that, however frequently he might be at a loss 

 for money, he never wanted wit ! 



