HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
the sentiments of the government, 
whom he professed to vote with, 
on that occasion, with the greatest 
cordiality and cheerfulness. Ina 
noble burst of eloquence, he painted 
to the life, the atrocious conduct of 
Bonaparte, with respect to Switzer- 
land; which of itself, he said, if 
none other existed, was almost a 
legitimate cause of war; and urged 
from a review of his systems, his 
Ay 
sity of resistance, ‘* prompt, reso- 
lute, determined resistance, to the 
first aggression on his part, be the 
consequénces what they might.” 
These sentiments were received by 
the house and the public, with the 
warmest applause ; and were the 
more attended to, as coming from 
one, whose personal attachment to 
the leader of those, who supported 
the pacific system, could not be 
* consent has usually attached exclusively to 
politics, and his power, the neces- doubted.* 
* A portion of this speech however, produced an effect very different, we believe, 
from the intentions of the ingenious and able character who delivered it.—It was 
meant to be, asindeed it was, a ministerial speech, and supported the measures of 
administration with energy and effect. But in the playfulness of that wit and fancy, 
which distinguish Mr. Sheridan’s oratorical effusions, he fastened a degree of personal 
ridicule on the premier, the effects of which long remained, after his more serious 
arguments were forgotten; and was of far greater detriment, eventually, to his politi- 
cal existence, than the assistance he this night afforded him was of advantage. Some 
supposed resemblance in the deportment of Mr. Addington, to that. which common 
the professors of medicine, coin- 
eiding with the circumstance, of his being the son of the highly respected and eminent 
physician of the same name; had procured him, partially, the familiar appellation of 
“the Doctor.” Mr. Sheridan, in the course of his celebrated speech on this evening, 
not contented, (under pretence of giving their adversaries’ sentiments,) with holding 
up ministers to view, as the “ lees of a bottle of Tokay, on which white wine had beeg 
poured to make it pass for genuine ;""—one as a mere goose quill,”"— another as “astick 
of sealing wax, which, as soon as the drudgery of signing the peace was over, were to 
be considered as functi officiis, and thrown aside—allusions which were quickly 
caught, and kept the house in continued laughter— took occasion, in stating the 
personal dislike of some gentlemen to Mr. Addington, to quote Martial’s epigram, 
Non amo te, Sabide, nec possum dicere quare; 
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te. 
Of which he said the English parody would be more applicable to the parties— 
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, &c. (vide speech.) 
The particular emphasis which he laid on the word doctor, and his subsequent repe~ 
tition of it, occasioned it to be instantly applied ; and thenceforward the minister was 
generally distinguished by the apellation of ram poctor. ‘The public prints in the 
interest of his opponents, re-echoed the title, and twisted and tortured it into every 
species of allusion, that wit and humour could bring to bear upon the man and _ his 
measures, and held them up to that ridicule which is always fatal and destructive ta 
public character and confidence. 
Let it not be considered, that we have given in this note, too much consequence and 
importance to a nick name. It has been remarked by one of the most acute and philo- 
sophic of the French historians, that the epithets which were affixed to the descendants 
of Charlemagne, such as ‘ the bald,’ ‘ the stammerer,’ ¢ the fat,’ and ‘ the simple,’ 
were suited tothe contempt in which they were held by their subjects; and were the 
means, by which their enemies prepared those subjects for the destruction of the Car- 
_Wevingian race, and the admission of a more vigorous dynasty ! 
CHAP. 
