848 SHERIDAN SHERIFF ertine named Matthews he fled with her early in 1772 to France, and they were secretly mar- ried*! Calais. The result was two duels with Matthews, in the last of which Sheridan was wounded. In 1773 he entered the Middle Temple as a student of law, and shortly after- ward was married anew by license, and retired to a cottage at East Burnham. On Jan. 17, 1775, his comedy of " The Rivals " was brought out at Covent Garden, and, though it failed the first night, speedily became the universal favorite it has ever since remained. It was followed the same year by the farce of " St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming Lieutenant," and the comic opera of " The Duenna," which had the then unparalleled run of 75 represen- tations during the season. In 1776, with his father-in-law and Dr. Ford, he purchased Gar- rick's share of Drury Lane. In the following year he brought out " The School for Scandal," which placed him at once at the head of comic dramatists. This was followed in 1779 by a monody on the death of Garrick, and the farce of " The Critic." Embracing the principles of the whig party, his first service was in con- nection with a periodical called " The Eng- lishman." In 1780 he was elected a member of parliament from Stafford, and entered the ranks of the opposition to the administra- tion of Lord North. His first speech, in re- ply to accusations brought against him for bri- bery and corruption in securing his election, disappointed both his friends and his enemies. He rarely spoke after this, and only after great preparation. In 1782 Lord North went out of office, and in the short-lived ministry of Rockingham which followed, Sheridan was one of the under-secretaries of state. After the accession of Shelburne to the treasury, he, with most of the friends of Fox, resigned. In the coalition ministry of Fox and North in 1788, Sheridan was secretary of the treasury, but retired on the accession of William Pitt. Parliament having been dissolved, he was one of the few adherents of the coalition that were reflected in 1784. On Feb. 7, 1787, Sheri- dan brought forward the charge against War- ren Hastings touching the spoliation of the begums or princesses of Onde, in an oration which was the greatest effort of his life, but no good report of which exists. In the trial of Hastings Sheridan was one of the man- agers of the impeachment, and made a second oration little inferior, which lasted four days. In 1790 he was reflected to parliament from Stafford. A rupture took place between him and Burke, caused somewhat by a mutual jeal- ousy, but ostensibly by a difference of opin- ion on the French revolution. In June, 1792, his wife died, and in 1795 he married a Miss Ogle, daughter of the dean of Winchester. His careless and extravagant style of living re- sulted in pecuniary embarrassment, and irreg- ularities of his private life placed him under the ban of public opinion. In the house of commons he vehemently assailed the adminis- tration, but at the time of the mutiny at the Nore lent it his support. In 1799 he brought out the play of " Pizarro," which is largely a translation from Kotzebue. Sheridan support- ed the short-lived ministry of Addington, and in this differed from Fox, between whom and himself a feeling of reserve and even aliena- tion had been for some time growing. In the ministry of Grenville and Fox, which succeed- ed the death of Pitt, he accepted the compara- tively unimportant office of treasurer of the navy. He was elected from Westminster after a severe contest; but in 1809, while speak- ing in the house of commons, he saw himself involved in almost total ruin by the burning of Drury Lane theatre, in rebuilding which he had already loaded himself with debt. In 1812 he failed to be reflected from Stafford, and this filled up the measure of his ruin. Hia health had been destroyed by drink, and his spirits were depressed by harassing duns. His books, his furniture, his presents were sold or passed into the hands of pawnbrokers ; even the portrait of his first wife by Reynolds went out of his possession ; and he was imprisoned two or three days for debt. While in his last illness an officer arrested him in his bed, and would have carried him to the sponging house had he not been threatened with prosecution by Sheridan's physician. He died near hia sick wife, deserted by all except his medical adviser and Peter Moore, Rogers, and Lord Holland, the few friends who had remained faithful to him in his misfortunes. He was buried in the poets' corner in Westminster abbey. His life, by Thomas Moore, was pub- lished in 1825, and his "Speeches" were "ed- ited by a Constitutional Friend " (5 vols. 8vo, London, 1816). His "Dramatic Works " form a volume of Bohn's " Standard Library " (1848), and have been edited, with a memoir, by James P. Browne, M. D. (2 vols. 8vo, 1878). A collection of Sheridan's dramas, poems, translations, speeches, and unfinished sketches, with a memoir and a collection of ana, has been edited by F. Stainforth (1874). SHERIFF (A. S. scyre, shire, and gerefa or refa, keeper or steward), in Great Britain and the United States, the chief officer of a county. The office of sheriff is of ancient Saxon origin, as appears from the composition of the word, which successively assumed the forms of shyre- greve, shiregreve, shirereeve, and shireve. Cowell writes the word shireve, and Blount shirif or shiref. In the Norman period the earl or count (comes) was the one to whom was committed the custody of the shire or county ; and when in course of time he was relieved of the active functions of the office, they were devolved upon an inferior officer, called therefore t ice-comes, who is identical with the sheriff. Gradually the earls were discharged not only of the duties of the office but also of the commission, and the sheriffs thus came to be the immediate officers of the crown and not of the earls ; and the sheriff
