HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 287 



with more conspicuous lustre hereafter, he was by no means an 

 idle or ineffective assistant of his party. When, upon the Rock- 

 ingham party coming into power, Mr. Fox was Secretary of State 

 for the Foreign Department, Mr. Sheridan received his first poli- 

 tical appointment, as Under-Secretary to that gentleman. The 

 Marquis of Rockingham's death, and the appointment of Lord 

 Shelburne to be First Lord of the Treasury, threw out Mr. Sheri- 

 dan's party ; which, however, again came into power in 1783, and 

 Mr. Sheridan was appointed Secretary to the Treasury. Mr. 

 Sheridan continued in office but a very short time ; but it must be 

 observed, that, while employed, he conducted himself, if not with 

 the accuracy and close attention of a man trained to habits of 

 business, at least with integrity and honour. 



The Duke of Portland being afterwards succeeded as First 

 Lord of the Treasury by Mr. Pitt, it was Mr. Sheridan's lot almost 

 uniformly to be the defender of unsuccessful men and measures, 

 though this did not in the least shake his attachment to his friends. 

 Mr. Sheridan took little part in the memorable disputes concerning 

 America. The principal efforts of his parliamentary oratory were 

 displayed upon the following ocsasions : his Defence of Mr. Fox's 

 East India Bill ; his observations on Mr. Pitt's Perfumery Bill, in 

 the year 1785; his Speech on the Irish Propositions, in the same 

 year ; the part which he took in the question of the proper mode 

 of appointing a Regency on the first appearance of his Majesty's 

 lamented illness ; his noble conduct during the Naval Mutiny ; 

 and the wonderful display of eloquence that was exhibited to the 

 world in his speech summing up the Begum Charge against Mr. 

 Hastings. Mr. Sheridan was the constant advocate of Parliamen- 

 tary Reform, though without the dangerous temerity and impetuous 

 violence of reformers in general. He was a staunch friend of the 

 Liberty of the Press, and the bold and constant advocate of reli- 

 gious toleration. Such is a short sketch of Mr. Sheridan's par- 

 liamentary career ; a career upon which it would be superfluous 

 here to dilate. The facts are so well known, that it would be un- 

 necessary and they are so involved in the various opinions and 

 prejudices attendant upon the great party questions in which he 

 was engaged, that to express any decided approbation or censure 

 of the motives of himself and his party, would only be to revive ani- 

 mosities and to awaken unpleasant feelings that cannot be too soon 

 forgotten. His speeches, if not so highly finished, and so well 

 calculated for perusal as those of Mr. Burke, produced without 



