* III. 1774. CHAP. after being witnesses to the miserable fate that had overtaken him, begin in their hearts to pity him; and from the fickleness so common to human nature, perhaps, by way of compensation, acquit him of part of his crimes; insinuate, that he was dealt hardly with, and thus, by the remembrance of their compassion on this occasion, be led to show more indulgence to any future offender in the same circumstances." There is a clearness of thought and style here very remarkable in so young a writer. In affecting to defend the Duke against the charge of fickleness and unpunctuality, he says, "I think I could bring several instances which should seem to promise the greatest steadiness and resolution. I have known him make the Council wait, on the business of the whole nation, when he has had an appointment to Newmarket. Surely, this is an instance of the greatest honour; * and, if we see him so punctual in private appointments, must we not conclude that he is infinitely more so in greater matters? Nay, when Ws came over, is it not notorious that the late Lord Mayor went to His Grace on that evening, proposing a scheme which, by securing this fire-brand, might have put an end to all the troubles he has caused. But His Grace did not see him :-no, he was a man of too much honour; he had promised that evening to attend Nancy * Wilkes. III. Parsons to Ranelagh, and he would not disap- CHAP. point her, but made three thousand people witnesses of his punctuality." There is another Letter, which happens to be dated (1770), addressed to " Novus," some writer in Woodfall's Public Advertiser, and appearing to be one of a series to the same correspondent. From the few political allusions introduced in this letter, (which is occupied chiefly in an attack upon the literary style of Novus,") we can collect that the object of Sheridan was to defend the new ministry of Lord North, who had, in the beginning of that year, succeeded the Duke of Grafton. Junius was just then in the height of his power and reputation; and, as, in English literature, one great voice produces a multitude of echoes, it was thought at that time indispensable to every letter-writer in a newspaper, to be a close copyist of the style of Junius: of course, our young political tyro followed this "mould of form" as well as the rest. Thus, in addressing his correspondent - "That gloomy seriousness in your style, that seeming consciousness of superiority, together with the consideration of the infinite pains it must have cost you to have been so elaborately wrong,will not suffer me to attribute such numerous errors to any thing but real ignorance, joined with most consummate vanity." The following 1774. СНАР. III. 1774. is a specimen of his acuteness in criticising the It is amusing to observe, that, while he thus criticises the style and language of his correspondent, his own spelling, in every second line, convicts him of deficiency in at least one common branch of literary acquirement: - we find thing always spelt think; whether, where, and which turned into wether, were, and wich;-and double m's and s's almost invariably reduced to "single blessedness." This sign of a neglected education remained with him to a very late period, and, in his hasty writing, or scribbling, would occasionally recur, to the last. From these Essays for the newspapers it it may be seen how early was the bias of his mind towards politics. It was, indeed, the rival of literature in his affections during all the early part of his life, and, at length, -whether luckily for him self or not it is difficult to say,gained the gained the CHAP. mastery. There are also among his manuscripts some commencements of Periodical Papers, under various names, "The Detector," "The Dramatic Censor," &c. ; - none of them, apparently, carried beyond the middle of the first number. But one of the most curious of these youthful pro. ductions is a Letter to the Queen, recommending the establishment of an Institution, for the instruction and maintenance of young females in the better classes of life, who, from either the loss of their parents or from poverty, are without the means of being brought up suitably to their station. He refers to the asylum founded by Madame de Maintenon, at St. Cyr, as a model, and proposes that the establishment should be placed under the patronage of Her Majesty, and entitled "The Royal Sanctuary." The reader, however, has to arrive at the practical part of the plan, through long and flowery windings of panegyric, on the beauty, genius, and virtue of women, and their transcendent superiority, in every respect, over men. The following sentence will give some idea of the sort of eloquence with which he prefaces this grave proposal to Her Majesty :-"The dispute about the proper sphere of women is idle. That men should have attempted to draw a line III. 1774. 1774. CHAP. for their orbit, shows that God meant them for comets, and above our jurisdiction. With them the enthusiasm of poetry and the idolatry of love is the simple voice of nature." There are, indeed, many passages of this boyish composition, a good deal resembling in their style those ambitious apostrophes, with which he afterwards ornamented his speeches on the trial of Hastings. He next proceeds to remark to Her Majesty, that in those countries where "man is scarce better than a brute, he shows his degeneracy by his treatment of women," and again falls into metaphor, not very clearly made out: "The influence that women have over us is as the medium through which the finer Arts act upon us. The incense of our love and respect for them creates the atmosphere of our souls, which corrects and meliorates the beams of knowledge." The following is in a better style: "However, in savage countries where the pride of man has not fixed the first dictates of ignorance into law, we see the real effects of nature. The wild Huron shall, to the object of his love, become gentle as his weary rein-deer; he shall present to her the spoil of his bow on his knee ;-he shall watch without reward the cave where she sleeps; he shall rob the birds for feathers for her hair, and dive for pearls for her neck; — her look shall be his law, and her beauties his wor |