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ings, arising out of the disorders in the government of India, on which he had already distinguished himself, he was appointed a manager.

"The great estimation in which he then stood, may be readily conceived by the following eulogium, pronounced on him by Burke, upon his exertions in the above business:

"He has this day surprised the thousands who hung with rapture on his accents, by such an array of talents, such an exhibition of capacity, such a display of powers, as are unparalleled in the annals of oratory; a display that reflected the highest honour upon himself-lustre upon letters-renown upon Parliament-glory upon the country. Of all species of rhetoric, of every kind of eloquence that has been witnessed or recorded, either in ancient or modern times; whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, the solidity of the judgmentseat, and the sacred morality of the pulpit, have hitherto furnished, nothing has surpassed, nothing has equalled, what we have heard this day in Westminster-hall. No holy seer of religion, no sage, no statesman, no orator, no man of any description whatever, has come up, in the one instance, to the pure sentiments of morality; or in the other, to that variety of knowledge, force of imagination, propriety and vivacity of allusion, beauty and elegance of diction, strength and copiousness of style, pathos and sublimity of conception, to which we have this day listened with ardour and admiration. From poetry up to eloquence, there is not a species of composition, of which a complete and perfect specimen might not, from that single speech, be culled and collected."

Mr. Fox said, that "all he had ever heard or read, when compared with it, dwinled into nothing."-Mr. Pitt acknowledged, "that he had surpassed all the eloquence of ancient or modern times, and that his speech (on the third charge against Mr. Hastings possessed every thing that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and control the human mind."

"The next great occasion in which the powers of his eloquence were called forth, was the question of regency: in which he supported, with great dignity, the rights of his Royal patron. Throughout the whole of this important period, the Prince of Wales honoured Mr. Sheridan with his confidence, and which has since remained with a steady constancy. About the same time he also lost his father, who died at Margate, August 14, 1788.

"The true friend of liberty, he always displayed himself as a genuine loyalist. During the melancholy period of the naval mutiny, he said

Whatever difference in political sentiments might prevail in the country, the moment was come when his Majesty had an undoubted right to call upon all his subjects for their zealous co-operation in maintaining the due execution of the laws, and in giving every possible efficiency to the measures of Government.' In all questions that regard liberty of the subject, Mr. Sheridan has ever been prominent and active and in questions of commerce and finance, as well as military affairs, he has surprised his most intimate friends.

"Mr. Sheridan had, previous to his entering into Parliament, increased his property in the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, by the pur chase of Mr. Lacy's share in the patent, in addition to his own; yet the

increased expenses of an establishment calculated for all that was great and gay, rendered the increase of fortune unequal to their support, and produced embarrassments, of which, however they may, on some occasions, delight in the recital, we should not feel warranted in the insertion..

"In 1792, he lost his lady, who died of a lingering decline. Mr. Wilkes said of her, she was "the most modest, pleasing, and delicate flower" he had seen.

"Once more he lent his aid to the interests of Drury-lane Theatre, as well as the drama at large. In the latter end of the season of 1799, appeared the tragedy of Pizarro, translated from the German of Kotzebue; but translated with such freedom and additional beauties, that it might be said to be his own. It was most happily adapted to the times and to the genius of the British nation, with all the graces and combinations of dramatic interest; hence the applause it met with, was unbounded.

"Notwithstanding the success of the establishment for which M. Sheridan's talents were so ably exerted, its finances were in a state that required the frequent interference of the Lord Chancellor; the decisions of whom were, however, always to the honour of Mr. Sheridan.

"It was about this time that he purchased the pleasant villa of Polesden, near Leatherhead, in Surrey, formerly the residence of Admiral Geary; soon after which, he was appointed receiver-general of the Dutchy of Cornwall, to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

"On the retirement of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Sheridan acted, as usual, in accordance with Mr. Fox and on the return of Mr. Pitt to office, he did not fail of his wonted rigour against him.

"On the death of that great statesman, Mr. Fox (after an absence from power of twenty-three years) was, by the unanimous voice of the Sovereign and the people, called into office, and Mr. Sheridan was invited to share the honours of his friend. He became a member of the privy council, and treasurer of the navy, and applied himself to the important duties of his situation with great diligence. But an event soon took place that checked the apparent serenity of his progress, as well as that of his copartners: this was the death of Mr. Fox.

"The pleasing prospects which honour, popularity, and power, might have given to the view of Mr. Sheridan, now soon faded before him. On the subject of the Roman Catholic question a difference in the cabinet took place, which occasioned a sudden dissolution of Parliament; in consequence of which, Mr. Sheridan again was found in opposition, in which he has continued ever since.

"Mr. Sheridan is the author and alterer of the following pieces; "1. The Rivals. C. 8vo. 1775.

"2. St. Patrick's Day; or, The Scheming Lieutenant. F. 1775. N. P.

"3. The Duenna. C. O. 1775. 8vo. 1794.

4. A Trip to Scarborough. C. altered from Vanbrugh, 1777;

Svo. 1781.

"5. The School for Scandal. C. 1777. N. P.

"6. The Tempest. Altered, 1777. N. P.

7. The Camp. Dr. Ent. 1778. N. P.

"8. The Critic; or, A Tragedy Rehearsed. D. P. 1779; 8vo. 1781. "9. Pizarro. T. 8vo. 1799.

“The Camp is very generally attributed to Mr. Sheridan's pen; though Mr. Tate Wilkinson positively denies that it was written by him.

"To this gentleman likewise has been ascribed,

10. Robinson Crusoe. Pantom. 1781; 8vo. 1797."

FROM THE BRITISH CRITIC.

The Consolations of Erin, an Eulogy, by Charles Philips, A. B. of the middle Temple, Author of the Loves of Celestine and St. Aubert, a Romantic Tale. 5s. Stockdale. 1811.

The other publication of this writer, which is announced in the title page of the present, we had occasion to reprobate for its puerility and want of decency. We have no scruple, however, in allowing him the claim of poetical talent, which we think he may easily improve. The Consolations of Erin, are, in this writer's estimation, the distinguished Irishmen of the present day, who are objects of their country's attention: and his eulogies are directed to Sheridan, Grattan, Kirwan, Curran, Lord Moira and others. The following, which is intended to praise Mr. Moore, may serve as a specimen.

"See see who comes with careless measure
Looking bliss and breathing pleasure,
Led along by beauty's choir,

With heart of feather, tongue of fire
A Cupid carrying his lyre;

'Tis he the bard of voice divine,
Sweet melodist of love and wine,

He on whom monts and minions rail

The Muses little Nightingale,
Yes Erin, 'tis thy Patriot son,

Thy simple sweet Anacreon.

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Monts, reader, in this author's language, means the friends of decency.

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SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES.

FROM THE LITERARY PANORAMA.

A Biographical Memoir of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knight; by James Northcote,

Esq. R. A.

[From the fourth number of "The Fine Arts of the English School," in which elegant work it accompanies a Portrait of Sir Joshua.]

IN the early part of the last century, the progress which the British nation had made in matters of taste, particularly in the department of painting, was not equal to the general advances made in science and literature. Philosophers, statesmen, poets, and warriors, had already exalted and dignified the character of Great Britain, but no Englishman had then appeared to raise the fine arts to a degree of eminence proportionate to the other glories of the country. An opportunity so favourable for the exercise of high talents, and ardent emulation, was the fortunate lot of Sir Joshua Reynolds. This illustrious painter, and distinguished ornament of the English nation, was born at Plympton in Devonshire, on the 16th of July, 1723. He was the son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and Theophila Potter, and was the seventh of eleven children, five of which died in their infancy. It has been said that young Joshua was for some time instructed in the classics by his father, who assiduously cultivated the minds of his children; but as it is known that the son did not display any marks of classical learning in the early part of his life, it is most probable that the mass of general knowledge, which afterwards so eminently distinguished him, was the consequence of great application to study in his riper years; a good classical scholar he never was, at any period of his life. That he was what the world terms a genius, and of the first order, cannot be disputed. He possessed talents of the highest kind, which he brought into full and constant action by a laudable ambition and a strong desire of acquiring eminence in the profession he adopted. I have

heard him say that his father at first intended him for the medical department; and that if such had been his lot, he should have felt the same ambition to become the most eminent physician of his age and country. For it was ever his decided opinion, that the superiority to be attained and displayed in any pursuit does not originate in an innate propensity of the mind to that pursuit in particular, but depends on the general strength in the intellect, and on the intense application of that strength to a specific purpose. It is true, indeed, that at an early period of his life he made some scrawling drawings from the ordinary book prints which he found in his father's study; but the same thing has been done by ten thousand boys before him, and will be done again by thousands yet to come. It is the most common refuge of idleness to escape the labour of an irksome lesson. We find also that he read the Jesuit's Perspective at the age of eight years that he applied its rules in a drawing which he attempted to make of his father's school-house-a building fitted to his purpose, being on pillars-was a proof of his capacity and active curiosity. On showing it to his father, who was merely a man of letters, the surprise he excited, and the praise he obtained, naturally inflamed his ambition to conquer greater difficulties, in a field of knowledge in which he seemed to stand alone, from the ignorance of those about him in the graphic art. When Richardson's theory of Painting was put into his hands, he there saw the enthusiastic raptures in which an eminent painter is described: no wonder that he thought Raffaelle the greatest man the world had produced; the book told him so, which was all he could know of Raffaelle at that time. As he had shown those early inclinations towards the Arts, a neighbour and a friend of the family (a Mr. Cranch) advised the father to send his son to London, to be placed under the tuition of Mr. Hudson, a well known painter of portraits, who was also a native of Devonshire. This advice was taken, and young Reynolds first visited the metropolis, to be inspired by Hudson, on the 14th of October, 1741, when he was not full eighteen years of age.

In order to give the reader some idea of the state of the Arts at that time in this country, it must be observed, that Hudson was then the greatest painter in England; and the qualification that enabled him to hold this decided pre-eminence, was the ability of producing a likeness with that kind of address which, by the vulgar, is considered as flattering in the portrait. But after having done the head, Hudson's genius failed him, and he was obliged to apply to one Vanhaaken to put it on the shoulders and to finish the drapery, of both of which Hudson was totally incapable. Vanhaaken died, and for a time Hudson was driven almost to despair, and feared he must have quitted business. He met

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