514 
five hundred guineas that there was no: 
such step in contemplation.”—pp: 674- 
675..." ; ! 
“i From the period of this intrigue to 
thé hour of his death (the miserable cir- 
cumstances of which we shall pass over 
a8 sufficiently well known) nothing went 
well with Sheridan. His pecuniary diffi- 
culties increased as his resources failed 
him; and the dissolution of 1812 deprived 
him at once of his political consequence 
and his parliamentary protection. He 
made an attempt, indeed, to obtain a seat 
in the House, and stood for Stafford, and 
the failure there served materially to hasten 
his ruin.—After mentioning this cireum- 
stance, Mr. Moore states, under the date 
of 1813, that ‘the Prince Regent offered 
to bring him (Sheridan) into Parliament, 
but that the thought of returning to that 
scene of his triumphs and his freedom, 
» with the royal owner’s mark, as it were, 
upon him, was more than he could bear— 
and he declined the offer.’—p. 682. 
- “ We are willing to ascribe this repre- 
sentation to Mr. Moore’s want of infor- 
mation, and to hold him guilty, not of 
suppressing an.important fact, but of the 
minor offence of failing to search out the 
truth. The truth then is, that the Prince 
Regent did not merely offer to bring She- 
ridan into Parliament, but, about the lat- 
ter end of 1812, with a view to this object, 
his Royal Highness conveyed to him, 
through Lord Moira, four thousand pounds, 
‘The money was deposited by his Lordship 
with Mr. Cocker, the solicitor, who acted 
‘as a friend to Mr. Sheridan on this occa- 
sion, and a treaty was opened with Mr. 
Attersol for a seat for Wootton Basset. 
The negociation, indeed, was all but con- 
cluded, nothing being wanted but She- 
idan’s presence on the spot. On three 
successive evenings Mr. Cocker dined with 
Sheridan at an hotel in Albemarle-street, 
a chaise being on each night waiting at 
the door to convey them down to Wootton 
Basset: on each night Sheridan, after his 
wine, postponed the journey to the next 
day, and on the fourth day he altogether 
abandoned the project of purchasing a 
seat in Parliament, received the four thou- 
sand pounds, and applied them, as he was 
warranted to do by the permission of the 
donor, to his private uses. This transaction 
certainly delivers the King from the re- 
proach of never having ministered to the 
relief of Sheridan—a charge which has 
been urged against his Majesty in num- 
berless smart satires and lampoons.”” ; 
English in Italy, 3 Vols. Ditto, in Lon- 
don; 1825.—This is one of the most in- 
teresting and well written books of travels 
which we have seen for a long time past. 
The total absence of affectation and .the 
‘slang of virtuosoship, are among its best 
qualifications, and one that most engages 
our approbation. Without being insensible 
tothe great specimens of the maestr? which 
Supplementary. Review of Literature. 
abound in Italy, our author, with a lauda- 
ble determination to think for himself, dis- 
dains to admire, solely because others have 
admired. Among his morejserious)satires.on 
English follies, and his reprehension of the 
senseless custom of sending so many inya- 
lids to Italy, where their disorder is aggra- 
vated by retirement and absence from their 
friends and assistance, and generally termi- 
nates in death,hegives two pleasant instances 
of the manner in which the practice of, cicis- 
beism, whichis at once beastly and foolish, 
and which distinguish Italy from all other 
countries, is likely to perplex such English 
as venture upon it. It should seem that 
none can practise it safely, but such as\are 
“to the manner born.” The first story 
the author tells on this subject, is. of a 
Mrs. Grogram, who, being old and not 
very pretty, found it difficult to engage a 
cavalier serventi. Accident, at length, did 
for her what she could not accomplish for 
herself, in the following way :— 
“* Foreigners were all appalled by their 
respect for the punctilious dignity of an 
Englishwoman, and at the same time re- 
pelled by the countenance of the particular 
lady in question, from daring to aspire to a 
place, for which, by education, they were 
fit: and poor Mrs. Grogram would haye’ 
wandered over Italy unfashionably, but 
that a certain Count, a real indubitable 
Count, though truly I cannot call to mind 
his name, paid Mr. Grogram a morning 
visit, for the purpose of asking him if he 
wanted to be taught Italian, to have his 
shoes blacked, or if any office of the kind 
was vacant in his household, which he, 
the Count, would be most willing and 
ready to undertake. Luckily, however, 
the Italian noble prefaced his demand by 
considerable circumlocution, in listening to 
which, Mrs. Grogram displayed so much 
affability and graciousness, that the subtle 
Italian tacked and slackened sail, to ob- 
serve if something better might not be 
made of Mrs. Grogram’s mansion than 
occupying a situation thus altogether me- 
nial. The Count played his cards as skil- 
fully as it behoyes hungry men. to do, and 
he became soon the chosen friend of the 
Casa Grogram, as he called it in the best 
pronunciation he could. ; 
“ T leaye to the imagination of my 
reader to depict the lady and her/attend- 
ant, conversing, both in bad French, to 
the considerable amusement of every Eng- 
lish beholder: as to Italians, they wished 
their countryman joy of his good fortune, 
and saw nothing whatever extraordinary in 
the affair.” j Pit 
The reader will be pleased to peruse the 
following original and piquant narrative 
an adventure with Lord Byron. = 
“* There was a young Englishman’ then 
at Venice, a very young man, quite beard- 
less, and worshipping in all the ardour'Of 
boyhood, the genius of’ Byron. "He" 
sought the halls ‘of Venice; dlinost om 
other 
itt 
