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Irish national party. Sheridan entered with zeal into the impeachment of War- ren Hastings — on 7th February 1789, delivering a speech on the charge relative to the Begum Princesses of Oude, the effect of which is said to have been with- out parallel. Burke described it as "the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argu- ment, and wit united, of which there was any record or tradition ;" whilst Fox said : " All that he had ever heard, all that he had ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished like vapour before the sun." Pitt acknow- ledged that this great speech "surpassed aU the eloquence of ancient or modern times, and possessed everything that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and con- trol the human mind." No report of this famous five-hour speech exists — Sheridan's habits of procrastination pre- venting him answering the appeals of his friends on the subject. On opening the impeachment he occupied four days with an address, which Burke said was un- matched for its splendour. Moore writes as follows : " Good sense and wit were the great weapons of his oratory — shrewd- ness in detecting the weak points of an adversary, and infinite powers of raillery in exposing it. These were faculties which he possessed in a greater degree than any of his cotemporaries. . . . His attempts at the florid or figurative style, whether in his speeches or writings, were seldom very successful. That luxuriance of fancy which in Burke was natural and indigenous, was in him rather a forced and exotic growth." In the summer of 1788 he lost his father, and his wife lost her sister, Mrs. Tickell, to whom she was tenderly attached, and to whose children she devoted herself the rest of her life. Sheridan was a special favourite with the Prince 0' Wales ; he advocated in Parlia- ment the payment of his debts, and in 1788 took an active part in the negotia- tions and debates regarding the Eegency. He may be considered at this period as at the summit of success. Among the bril- liant circle in which he shone, the gaiety of his spirits amounted almost to boyishness ; — he delighted in dramatic tricks and dis- guises ; and the lively parties with which his country-house was always filled were ever kept in momentary expectation of some new device for their mystification and amusement. At the same time he was plunging deeper and deeper into debt, and was obliged to put forth all his ingenuity to avoid writs, bonds, and judgments. Mrs. Sheridan died in June 1792, after lengthened illness. She had been a true 478
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wife, the sharer of all his cares ; yet the marriage had not been particularly happy. His grief, at first apparently intense, was essentially shallow. Within five months of her death he offered his hand to the child Pamela, believed to be the daughter of Madame de Genlis, who was afterwards married to Lord Edward FitzGerald. Cir- cumstances gradually tended to alienate Sheridan, not only from his great country- man Burke, but also to soiiie extent from Fox. One cause of estrangement between him and Burke arose in the progress of the French Revolution. In the spring of 1 795 Sheridan married Miss Ogle, daughter of the Dean of Winchester. With her fortune of .£5,000, and £15,000 raised by the sale of Drury-lane shares, he bought the estate of Polesden, in Surrey, which he settled upon her. In the session of 1795 Sheridan again supported a proposal for the payment of £630,000 of the Prince's debts, and he endeavoured to excuse the violation of the Prince's promise, made eight years before, when his debts were being cleared off, that he would contract no more. His prompt action and wise advice during the mutiny at the Nore, raised him considerably in public estima- tion, and showed that while favouring popular measures he was sincerely opposed to all revolutionary movements. During the Insurrection of 1 798 he vindicated the action of the liberal party in Ireland, and denounced in Parliament " those wicked ministers who have given up that devoted country to plunder — resigned it a prey to this faction by which it has so long been trampled upon, and abandoned it to every species of insult and oppression by which a country was ever overwhelmed, or the spirit of a people insulted. . . When conciliation was held out to the people of Ireland, was there any discontent? When the government of Ireland was agreeable to the people, was there any discontent ? " Nor was he less strenuous and consistent in his opposition to the Union. Concerning the misgovernment of Ireland, and the disabilities of the Catholics, his action, later on, continued to be uniform and con- sistent — he even opposed Grattan in his support of an Insurrection Act. Early in 1804 the office of Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall was bestowed upon him by the Prince of Wales, " as a trifling proof of that sincere friendship his Royal Highness had always professed and felt for him through a long series of years." In his letter of thanks Sheridan speaks of the Prince as one "by whom to be esteemed is the glory and consolation of my private and public life;" and con-
