Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/540

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536 SHERIDAN. “ that henceforth his honourable friend and he were separated in politics.” Nearly at the same time, Mr. Sheridan gave a bold and decisive opinion relative to the baseness, cruelty, and in justice of the slave trade. He incessantly urged the House to come to an immediate determination relative to that crying outrage; and added, that the power possessed by a West India planter over his slaves, was such, as no human creature ought to be suffered to exercise. On this subject, as well as on a reform of parliament, he was equally strenuous and uniform, whether in or out of place. Mrs. Sheridan, after a lingering illness, died at Bristol, on the 28th of June, 1792, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, and on the 7th of July she was buried in Wells cathedral. Independent of her vocal powers, she possessed a considerable genius for musical composition, and com posed the whole of the music in the popular pantomime of Robinson Crusoe, and several songs. She also wrote poetry with much harmony and feeling. On the 27th of April, 1795, Mr. Sheridan married Miss Hester Ogle, youngest daughter of the late Dr. Newton Ogle, Dean of Winchester. On his marriage with this lady, an estate at Pollesden, near Leatherhead, in Surrey, was purchased chiefly with her fortune; and there they occasionally resided, during several years. A grant from the Prince, of the Receiver-Generalship of the Duchy of Cornwall, estimated perhaps too high at 1200l. a year, was soon after added to his income. He had also a valuable interest in Drury-lane theatre; and his appearance in the Court of Chancery, in defence of his claims, forms an epoch in the proceedings of that tribunal. On this occasion, he displayed an unusual por tion of acuteness and penetration; he entered into the minutiae of accounts with a wonderful degree of precision; and while, as usual, he charmed all around him, Lord El don himself declared from the bench, that he had con winced him of every thing, but his “own prudence!” When the mutiny broke out at the Nore, Mr. Sheridan