CHAP. 1797. have seen in this awful peril but an occasion of triumph over the Minister whom he had so long been struggling to overturn- and, with less sagacity, he would have thrown away the golden opportunity of establishing himself for ever in the affections and the memories of Englishmen, as one whose heart was in the common-weal, whatever might be his opinions, and who, in the moment of peril, could sink the partisan in the patriot. As soon as he had performed this exemplary duty, he joined Mr. Fox and the rest of his friends, who had seceded from Parliament about a week before, on the very day after the rejection of Mr. Grey's motion for a Reform. This step, which was intended to create a strong sensation, by hoisting, as it were, the signal of despair to the country, was followed by no such striking effects, and left little behind but a question as to its prudence and patriotism. The public saw, however, with pleasure, that there were still a few champions of the Constitution, who did not " leave her fair side all unguarded" in this extremity. Mr. Tierney, among others, remained at his post, encountering Mr. Pitt on financial questions, with a vigour and address to which the latter had been hitherto unaccustomed, and perfecting by practice that shrewd power of analysis, which has made him so for midable a sifter of ministerial sophistries ever since. Sir Francis Burdett, too, was just then entering into his noble career of patriotism; and, like the youthful servant of the temple in Euripides, was aiming his first shafts at those unclean birds, that settle within the sanctuary of the Constitution and sully its treasures: σε πτηνων τ' αγαλας Σεμν' αναθηματα.” By a letter from the Earl of Moira to Col. McMahon in the summer of this year it appears, that, in consequence of the calamitous state of the country, a plan had been in agitation among some members of the House of Commons, who had hitherto supported the measures of the Minister, to form an entirely new Administration, of which the Noble Earl was to be at the head, and from which both Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, as equally obnoxious to the public, were to be excluded. The only materials that appear to have been forthcoming for this new Cabinet were Lord Moira himself, Lord Thurlow, and Sir William Pulteney - the last of whom it was intended to make Chancellor of the Exchequer. Such a tottering balance of parties, however, could not have been long maintained; and its relapse, after a short interval, into Tory CHAP.. XVII. 1797. CHAP. ism would but have added to the triumph of Mr. Pitt, and increased his power. Accordingly XVII. 1797. Lord Moira, who saw from the beginning the delicacy and difficulty of the task, wisely abandoned it. The share that Mr. Sheridan had in this transaction is too honourable to him not to be recorded, and the particulars cannot be better given than in Lord Moira's own words: "You say that Mr. Sheridan has been traduced as wishing to abandon Mr. Fox, and to promote a new Administration. I had accidentally a conversation with that gentleman at the House of Lords. I remonstrated strongly with him against a principle which I heard Mr. Fox's friends intended to lay down, namely, that they would support a new Administration, but that not any of them would take part in it. I solemnly declare, upon my honour, that I could not shake Mr. Sheridan's conviction of the propriety of that determination. He said that he and Mr. Fox's other friends, as well as Mr. Fox himself, would give the most energetic support to such an Administration as was in contemplation; but that their acceptance of office would appear an acquiescence under the injustice of the interdict supposed to be fixed upon Mr. Fox. I did not and never can admit the fairness of that argument. But I gained nothing upon Mr. Sheridan, to whose uprightness in that respect I can therefore bear the most decisive testimony. Indeed I am ashamed of offering testimony, where suspicion ought not to have been conceived." CHAP. XVIII. PLAY OF "THE STRANGER." SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. FRENCH INSTITUTE. NEGOTIATION WITH MR. Kemble. XVIII 1798. THE theatrical season of 1798 introduced to the CHAP public the German drama of "The Stranger," translated by Mr. Thompson, and (as we are told by this gentleman in his preface) altered and improved by Sheridan. There is reason, however, to believe that the contributions of the latter to the dialogue were much more considerable than he was perhaps willing to let the translator acknowledge. My friend Mr. Rogers has heard him, on two different occasions, declare that he had written every word of the Stranger from beginning to end; and, as his vanity could not be much interested in such a claim, it is possible that there was at least some virtual foundation for it. The song introduced in this play, “ I have a silent sorrow here," was avowedly written by Sheridan, as the music of it was by the Duchess of Devonshire - two such names, so brilliant in XVIII. 1798. CHAP. their respective spheres, as the Muses of Song and Verse have seldom had the luck to bring together. The originality of these lines has been disputed; and that expedient of borrowing, which their author ought to have been independent of in every way, is supposed to have been resorted to by his indolence on this occasion. Some verses by Tickell are mentioned as having supplied one of the best stanzas; but I am inclined to think, from the following circumstances, that this theft of Sheridan was of that venial and domestic kind— from himself. from himself. A writer, who brings forward the accusation in the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. lxxi. p. 904.), thus states his grounds "In a song which I purchased at Bland's music-shop in Holborn in the year 1794, intitled, Think not, my love,' and professing to be set to music by Thomas Wright, (I conjecture, Organist of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and composer of the pretty Opera called Rusticity,) are the following words : "This treasured grief, this loved despair, But, dearest, may the pangs I bear Be never known to thee !' "Now, without insisting that the opening thought in Mr. Sheridan's famous song has been borrowed from that of Think not, my love,' the second verse is mani |