S H E R 
and that while a character prone to the latter failings may 
frequently be reformed, there is little hope of amendment in 
calculating and sentimental rogues. Who will deny that this 
object is accomplished ? 
This play, like all our author’s productions, seems to have 
been the result of considerable pains taking. Every thought 
was committed to paperin several different modes, the best me. 
thods of setting it observed. Much wit was stolen, but rarely 
without an improvement that rendered it original. The 
characters of Tom Jones and Blifil are said to have served 
as the prototypes of Charles and Joseph Surface, yet the dif¬ 
ference is most striking. Moliere’s “ Misanthrope” seems to 
have furnished materials for the famous scandal-scene at 
Lady Sneerwell’s, and the incidents of Sir Oliver’s return 
from India are obviously borrowed from “ Sidney Bid- 
dulph," his mother’s novel. 
The following are Moore’s judicious remarks on the 
School for Scandal:—“ With but little interest in the plot, 
with no very profound or ingenious developement of cha¬ 
racter, and with a group of personages, not one of whom has 
any legitimate claims upon either our affection or esteem, it 
yet, by the admirable skill with which its materials are 
managed; the happy contrivance of the situations, at once 
both natural and striking’; the fine feeling of the ridiculous 
that smiles throughout, and that perpetual play of wit which 
never tires, but seems, like running water, to be kept fresh 
•by its own flow; by all this general animation and effect, 
combined with a finish of the details, almost faultless, it 
unites the suffrages, at once, of the refined and the simple, 
and is not less successful in ministering to the natural enjoy¬ 
ment of the latter, than in satisfying and delighting the most 
fastidious tastes among the former. And this is the true 
triumph of genius in all the arts, whether in painting, sculp¬ 
ture, music, or literature, those works which have pleased 
the greatest number of people of all classes, for the longest 
space of time, may without hesitation be pronounced the 
best; and, however mediocrity may enshrine itself in the 
admiration of the select few, the palm of excellence can only 
be awarded by the many.” 
The “ modern Congreve,” as he was now called, reaped 
both fame and profit from this sprightly effort of his dramatic 
muse; and in 1778, by the purchase of Mr. Lacy’s moiety 
of the patent, which appears to have been merely the transfer 
of a mortgage, burdened with two additional annuities, he 
obtained a most valuable property. 
As he was but an indifferent manager, although an ad¬ 
mirable writer of comedies, he now resigned the sceptre of 
old Drury to his own father; but, after his reign of a few 
months, as has been already stated, he abdicated in disgust; 
and the royal treasury, notwithstanding the boasted success 
of this triple monarchy, seemed to be emptied, rather than 
filled by long-continued prosperity. 
Indifferent to wealth, and even to ruin, Mr. Sheridan 
gladly averted his eyes from his own concerns to those of 
the state. He now aspired to be a senator, and possessing an 
ample qualification for a seat in Parliament, in consequence 
of his rent-charge on Drury-lane, through the friend¬ 
ship of Lord John Townshend, he was introduced to Mr. 
Fox, and in 1780, being elected for the borough of Stafford, 
entered on his parliamentary career. His first appearance 
before the public as a political character was in conjunction 
with Mr. Fox at the beginning of the year 1780, when the 
famous Resolutions on the State of the Representation, signed 
by Mr. Fox as chairman of the Westminster Committee, 
together with a Report on the same subject from the Sub¬ 
committee, signed by Sheridan, were laid before the public. 
Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage were the pro¬ 
fessed objects of this meeting ; and the first of the Resolu¬ 
tions, subscribed by Mr. Fox, stated, that, “Annual Parlia¬ 
ments are the undoubted right of the people of England.” 
Notwithstanding this strong declaration, it may be doubted 
whether Sheridan was, any more than Mr. Fox, a very 
sincere friend to the principle of Reform. Deeming the 
scheme of Cartwright and others, which these Resolutions 
recommended, impracticable, he always took refuge in it 
I D A N. 123 
when pressed upon the subject, and would laughingly advise 
his political friends to do the same:—“ Whenever any one," 
he would say, “ proposes to you a specific plan of Reform, 
always answer that you are for nothing short of Annual Par¬ 
liaments and Universal Suffrage; there you are safe.” He 
also had evident delight, when talking on this question, in 
referring to a jest of Burke, who said that there had arisen a 
new party of Reformers, still more orthodox than the rest, 
who thought Annual Parliaments far from being sufficiently 
frequent; and who, founding themselves upon the latter 
words of the statute of Edward III., 'that “ a parliament 
shall be holden every year once, and more often if need be,” 
were known by the denomination of the “ Oftener-if-need- 
bes.” “ For my part,” he would add, in relating this, “ I 
am an Oftener-if-need-be.” 
During the busy interval that passed between his first 
appearance and his appointment under the Rockingham ad¬ 
ministration in 1782, Sheridan rarely took part in the de¬ 
bates. The impeachment of Hastings raised Sheridan to 
the summit of fame as an orator. Against the former, the 
first two charges had been made. The third was brought 
forward by Sheridan on the 7th of February, 1787, in the 
most famous speech ever delivered in Parliament. The 
reader of that speech finds in it, however, a sad prolixity; 
a display of oriental knowledge, not necessary, and not 
bearing on the point in question; more unsupported in¬ 
vective than intelligent men, even of that age, might a priori 
have been supposed likely to admire; and some similies, that 
instead of illustrating the orator’s ideas, must have distracted 
the attention of his audience. Yet the Commons thought so 
highly of this oration, that they adjourned, because they 
deemed it unjust to proceed to vote under its overwhelming 
impression. It had occupied all the family, and Mrs. She¬ 
ridan in particular had laboured so much at it, as materially 
to have injured her health. Another speech was made on 
the Renaus charge, on the 2d of April, and on the 15th, 
Sheridan began his famous summing up of the charge con¬ 
cerning the Begums of Oude, which occupied the house five 
days, and was still more prolix but nearly as effectual as the 
one he had delivered the preceding year. 
When the king was taken ill, and the whigs so far forgot 
in their private friendship their public principles, as to talk of 
the prince of Wales’s right to the regency, Sheridan fell 
into the same servile course. At the period of the French 
Revolution, Burke quarrelled with Fox and Sheridan, a cir¬ 
cumstance which called forth a famous sarcastic speech 
from the last. He continued tolerably attentive to his du¬ 
ties, and on the occasions of the public reporters being ex¬ 
cluded from Lincoln’s Inn, by his defence of them; and 
of the mutiny in the fleet, when he supported a ministry he 
hated, manifested his liberality of feeling and his conscien¬ 
tiousness. 
The last great epoch in his life, was the time when a nego- 
ciation was carried on with Lords Grey and Grenville, in 
1811, to bring them into the ministry. At this time, Sheri¬ 
dan seems to have felt little affection towards his whig 
friends, and to have been wholly bent on inveigling himself 
into the Prince’s good graces. He accordingly proceeded to 
satirize his old party, and to his great dishonour, suppressed 
a most important communication, that he had been charged 
to make them- Lords Grey and Grenville had refused to 
accept office, unless the Prince’s household should go out. 
Lord Yarmouth requested Sheridan to inform those noble¬ 
men, that the household would resign. He not only sup¬ 
pressed this message, but when Mr. Tierney asked him a 
question on the subject, offered to bet five hundred guineas 
no such resignation was contemplated. 
Sheridan had long laboured under pecuniary difficulties, 
and the dissolution of parliament in 1812, deprived him at 
once of his political consequence and of a protection from 
his duns. He failed in his attempt to get elected for Stafford, 
and thereby encreased his distress. At this period his royal 
master did not desert him, but transmitted 3 or 4000 pounds 
to him through Lord Moira’s hands, to purchase a seat for 
Wtiotton Basset. The negotiation was all but concluded. 
nothing 
