of the author's intentions, you are not bound to subject him to infamy, because, in the zealous career of a just and animated composition, he happens to have tripped with his pen into an intemperate expression in one or two instances of a long work. If this severe duty were binding on your consciences, the liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man could venture to write on any subject, however pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other.

From minds thus subdued by the terrors of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason, nor any masterly compositions on the general nature of government, by the help of which the great commonwealths of mankind have founded their establishments; much less any of those useful applications of them to critical conjunctures, by which, from time to time, our own Constitution, by the exertion of patriot citizens, has been brought back to its standard. Under such terrors all the great lights of science and civilization must be extinguished; for men cannot communicate their free thoughts to one another with a lash held over their heads. Liberty herself, the last and best gift of God to his creatures, must be taken just as she is; you might pare her down into bashful regularity, and shape her into a perfect model of severe, scrupulous law, but she would then be Liberty no longer; and you must be content to die under the lash of this inexorable justice which you have exchanged for the banners of freedom.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), the great Irish orator, was a native of Dublin. His father, Thomas Sheridan, was the author of the first pronouncing dictionary of

the English language; he was also a celebrated actor of his day, the foremost teacher of elocution, and the author of a much-used book on the principles of that art.

Young Sheridan was given good opportunities for an education. He was sent to Harrow for his collegiate training, an institution under the direction of the celebrated Dr. Parr. He gave little evidence of aptitude for learning. On the contrary, he was indolent and careless in his

work. But his early association with his father about the stage had interested him greatly in dramatic composition. He therefore began his theatrical writing early. His productions were dramatic and humorous in character. This exercise laid the foundation of and stimulated his talent for dramatic writing, which culminated in a few years in four great dramas, which have given him an exalted place among literary men.

An early marriage, which necessitated his providing a home, induced him to seek a livelihood in authorship, in which he had already gained distinction in school. His knowledge of stagecraft, his ability to discover the distinguishing points of characters and set them forth fittingly in their relation to each other, made him the greatest playwright of his day; for in the next few years he produced successively "The Rivals," "The School for Scandal," "The Critic," and "The Duenna," all celebrated for their excellence, the first two ranking among the highest and best of English comedies.

But Sheridan was not content to rest on his laurels won in literature. He chose another field, the field of oratory. His training had already aided him greatly toward this end. He had been thoroughly drilled in speaking and acting by his father, had cultivated enunciation and declamation, had taken part in theatricals, had listened to Garrick and others of the best actors of the time, and had followed their vocal methods; he had acquired the art of directness in speaking, which the actor learns so well in addressing others face to face; he had cultivated the art of written expression, had developed his already wonderful imagination, in his plays and other writings, until he had acquired fascinating methods of speaking and had begun to use his conspicuous natural gifts in public addresses. Through the influence of friends he was nominated for a seat in Commons and was successful in the election. It was not long after he entered Parliament before opportunity offered itself for a speech. Knowing of his literary fame, the members listened with entire respect but not with admiration. Indeed his speech was a distinct disappointment to his friends. One of them declared to him afterwards: "I don't think this is your line. You had better have stuck to your former pursuits." But Sheridan uttered his famous reply, "It is in me and it shall come out of me."

His sense of shame at his partial failure stimulated him to renewed effort, and he set to work with great diligence to inform himself on the subjects he proposed to discuss in public, and to write upon them for forceful and effective expression. Having great ingenuity, ready wit, perfect self-possession, and "a boldness amounting almost to effrontery," he made himself at last a most dexterous and effective debater; insomuch that Parliament was astonished and swayed by his masterful eloquence.

Most of the time during his public career Sheridan was arrayed with Fox and Burke against Pitt the Younger. Pitt became chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons at the age of twenty-three, and prime minister a year later. In one of his speeches he taunted Sheridan and undertook to crush him by reference to his career as an actor and dramatist. "No man," said Pitt, "admires more than I do the abilities of that right honorable gentleman, the elegant sallies of his thought, the gay effusions of his fancy, his dramatic turns and his epigrammatic point. If they were reserved for the proper stage, they would no doubt receive the plaudits of the audience, and it would be the fortune of the right honorable gentleman to exult in the applause of his own theater." When Sheridan had opportunity to reply he did so with admirable adroitness as follows:

On the particular sort of personality which the right honorable gentleman has thought proper to make use of, I need not comment. The propriety, the taste, and the gentlemanly point of it must be obvious to the House. But let me assure the right honorable gentleman that I do now, and will at any time he chooses to repeat this sort of allusion, meet it with the most perfect good humor. Nay, I will say more. Flattered and encouraged by the right honorable gentleman's panegyric on my talents, if I ever engage again in the composition.

he alludes to, I may be tempted to an act of presumption and attempt an improvement on one of Ben Jonson's best characters, that of the Angry Boy in the 'Alchemist."" The effect was such that "Pitt came near having the title of Angry Boy fastened upon him for the rest of his life." The skirmishes of wit between these men were a thing of common occurrence, and in most of them Sheridan came off best. At one time when Pitt was speaking and Sheridan was interrupting him with questions, some pertinent and some perhaps impertinent, the annoyed minister turned upon him and declared before the House that "the right honorable gentleman's opposition is an eternal drag chain." To which Sheridan retorted like a flash that "the drag chain is never applied except when the machine is running downhill."

Sheridan's fame as an orator rests chiefly on his speeches in the trial of Warren Hastings. Burke had made a thorough investigation of the atrocities committed by the English in India, and had summoned the strength of the Whigs for the impeachment of Hastings. To Sheridan was assigned the part relating to the cruelties inflicted upon the Begums, or Princesses of Oude. Aided by the facts furnished him by his colleagues, Sheridan brought forward the charge in Commons in 1787. This speech, though not preserved, owing to the very imperfect method of reporting, is said by the most distinguished men of the time to be an astonishing burst of eloquence. Fox said: "All I have ever heard or read, when compared with it, dwindles into nothing and vanishes like vapor before the sun." Burke called it "the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united, of which there is any record or tradition." Even Pitt, his worst foe, concluded his encomium thus: "It surpassed all the eloquence

of ancient or modern times, and possessed everything that genius or art could furnish to agitate or control the human