Life of R.B. Sheridan, vol 2

㌈Life of R.B. Sheridan, vol 2 [with accents]

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Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2, by Thomas Moore #2 in our series by Thomas Moore
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Title: Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2
Author: Thomas Moore
Release Date: March, 2005 [EBook #7775] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 16, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
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MEMOIRS
OF THE
LIFE OF THE RT. HON.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
BY THOMAS MOORE
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.

[Illustration]

CONTENTS TO VOL. II.
CHAPTER I
.
Impeachment of Mr. Hastings.
CHAPTER II
.
Death of Mr. Sheridan's Father.--Verses by Mrs. Sheridan on the Death of her Sister, Mrs. Tickell.
CHAPTER III
.
Illness of the King.--Regency.--Private Life of Mr. Sheridan.
CHAPTER IV
.
French Revolution.--Mr. Burke.--His Breach with Mr. Sheridan.--Dissolution of Parliament.--Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox.--Russian Armament.--Royal Scotch Boroughs.
CHAPTER V
.
Death of Mrs. Sheridan.
CHAPTER VI
.
Drury-Lane Theatre.--Society of "The Friends of the People."--Madame de Genlis.--War with France.--Whig Seceders.--Speeches in Parliament--Death of Tickell.
CHAPTER VII
.
Speech in Answer to Lord Mornington.--Coalition of the Whig Seceders with Mr. Pitt.--Mr. Canning.--Evidence on the Trial of Horne Tooke.--The "Glorious First of June."--Marriage of Mr. Sheridan.--Pamphlet of Mr. Reeves--Debts of the Prince of Wales.--Shakspeare Manuscripts.--Trial of Stone.--Mutiny at the Nore.--Secession of Mr. Fox from Parliament.
CHAPTER VIII
.
Play of "The Stranger."--Speeches in Parliament.--Pizarro.--Ministry of Mr. Addington.--French Institute.--Negotiations with Mr. Kemble.
CHAPTER IX
.
State of Parties.--Offer of a Place to Mr. T. Sheridan.--Receivership of the Duchy of Cornwall bestowed upon Mr. Sheridan.--Return of Mr. Pitt to Power.--Catholic Question.--Administration of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Representation of Westminster.--Dismission of the Ministry.--Theatrical Negotiation.--Spanish Question.--Letter to the Prince.
CHAPTER X
.
Destruction of the Theatre of Drury-Lane by Fire.--Mr. Whitbread--Plan for a Third Theatre.--Illness of the King.--Regency.--Lord Grey and Lord Grenville.--Conduct of Mr. Sheridan.--His Vindication of himself.
CHAPTER XI
.
Affairs of the new Theatre.--Mr. Whitbread.--Negotiations with Lord Grey and Lord Grenville.--Conduct of Mr. Sheridan relative to the Household.--His Last Words in Parliament.--Failure at Stafford. --Correspondence with Mr. Whitbread.--Lord Byron.--Distresses of Sheridan.--Illness.--Death and Funeral.--General Remarks.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.
CHAPTER I
.
IMPEACHMENT OF MR. HASTINGS.
The motion of Mr. Burke on the 10th of May, 1787, "That Warren Hastings, Esq., be impeached," having been carried without a division, Mr. Sheridan was appointed one of the Managers, "to make good the Articles" of the Impeachment, and, on the 3d of June in the following year, brought forward the same Charge in Westminster Hall which he had already enforced with such wonderful talent in the House of Commons.
To be called upon for a second great effort of eloquence, on a subject of which all the facts and the bearings remained the same, was, it must be acknowledged, no ordinary trial to even the most fertile genius; and Mr. Fox, it is said, hopeless of any second flight ever rising to the grand elevation of the first, advised that the former Speech should be, with very little change, repeated. But such a plan, however welcome it might be to the indolence of his friend, would have looked too like an acknowledgment of exhaustion on the subject to be submitted to by one so justly confident in the resources both of his reason and fancy. Accordingly, he had the glory of again opening, in the very same field, a new and abundant spring of eloquence, which, during four days, diffused its enchantment among an assembly of the most illustrious persons of the land, and of which Mr. Burke pronounced at its conclusion, that "of all the various species of oratory, of every kind of eloquence that had been heard, either in ancient or modern times; whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, or the morality of the pulpit could furnish, had not been equal to what that House had that day heard in Westminster Hall. No holy religionist, no man of any description as a literary character, could have come up, in