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SHERIDAN. 539 which were his last in the House of Commons:—“If we fall, and if after our ruin, there shall possibly rise an im partial historian, his language will be, ‘Britain fell, and with her fell all the best securities for the charities of human life, the power, the honour, the fame, the glory, and the liberties not only of herself, but of the whole civilized world.’” Thus set this political luminary in the sphere which he had so many years enlivened by the brilliancy of his wit, and so often delighted by the power of his eloquence. Parliament was shortly afterwards dissolved, and Mr. Sheridan again tried his strength at Stafford, where how ever, notwithstanding the encouragement which he had experienced in the spring, he failed of success, nor, after his last speech, had he influence enough to conmand a seat for any other place. Under these depressing circumstances did this extraor dinary man retire from public life, without having the transient consolation of seeing that his departure was con sidered as a loss by those who had been used to court the aid of his talents. The world to him was now in a manner become a desert, in which there was little to cheer him amidst the gloom of neglect and the blast of penury; where he was continually tormented by the importunities of clamorous creditors, and pursued with unrelaxing seve rity by the harpies of the law. Harrassed by continual vexations at a period when nature stands in need of repose and indulgence, it was not much to be wondered that a man so long accustomed to convivial pleasures should seek relief from the pressure of increasing embarrassments in the intoxicating means of forgetfulness. Unfortunately the habits of Mr. Sheridan had ever been of a description that unfitted him for appli cation to business, and rendered him incapable of enduring misfortune with that firmness, which, if it does not remove trouble, takes away i t s sting. When, therefore, the trying season came, i t found him unprepared t o resist the violence o f the storm, and unable t o direct his steps b y any plan