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526 SHERIDAN. duced Mr. Sheridan to Mr. Fox, and this incident con verted the poet into a politician and a patriot. After some ineffectual attempts to obtain a seat in Parliament through patronage, Mr. Sheridan at length, in 1780, proposed himself as a candidate for the borough of Stafford. The mere expenses of this election are said to have cost him 1000l. a sum which he borrowed with some difficulty; and he was fortunate enough to be returned at so trifling an expense, although there was a petition against him, to the fifteenth Parliament of Great Britain, along with Mr. Monckton, uncle to Wiscount Galway. What is not a little remarkable, he and this gentleman were col leagues during no fewer than six successive parliaments, for the same place; viz. those of 1780, 1784, 1790, 1796, 1801, and 1802. On the second reading of the bill, “for the better regulation of his Ma jesty's civil list revenue; and for abolishing several useless, expensive, and inconvenient places; and for applying the monies arising therefrom to the public service,” on February 26, 1781, he made his maiden speech in the house; and as it was in reply to Mr. Courtenay, it could not possibly have been a studied one. The latter gentleman, having ridiculed all pretexts to virtue on the part of the Opposition, and hinted, that their sole object was place, power, and emolument; Mr. Sheridan, after a short and apposite exordium, observed, “that although it was difficult to answer any charge, which was accom panied by wit and irony, yet he was bound to notice two of the honourable gentleman's similes at least. The one was, the insinuation that the Oppo sition was envious of those who basked in court sunshine, and desirous merely to obtain their places. Now I beg leave,” said he, “to remind him, that although the sun afforded a genial warmth, it also occasioned an intemperate heat, which tainted every thing it reflected upon. This exces sive heat tended to corrupt as well as to cherish; to putrify, as well as to animate; to dry, and soak up the wholesome juices of the body politic, and turn the whole of it into one mass of corruption. If those, therefore, who sat near him, did not enjoy so genial a warmth, as the honourable gentleman, and others, who, like him, kept close to the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, he was certain at least, that they breathed a purer air, an air less infected, and less corrupt. Another of the honourable gentle man's allusions was not quite a new one. He had talked of the “machine of state,” and of the “drag-chain of opposition.” He would only observe upon this, that a drag-chain was never applied, but when a machine was going down hill; and then it was applied wisely. As to anything else the gentleman has said, I shall not attempt to offer a reply; but shall