SHERIDAN
AT THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS[1]
(1788)
Born in 1751, died in 1816; settled in London in 1773; Proprietor of Drury Lane Theater in 1776; entered Parliament in 1780; Secretary of the Treasury in 1783; Treasurer of the Navy in 1806; left Parliament in 1812; author of "The School for Scandal," 1777.
If a stranger had at this time [in 1782] gone into the kingdom of Oude, ignorant of what had happened since the death of Sujah Dowlah—that man who with a savage heart had still great lines of character, and who with all his ferocity in war, had still with a cultivating hand preserved to his country the riches which it derived from benignant skies, and a prolific soil—if this stranger, ignorant of all that had happened in the short interval, and observing the wide and general devastation, and all the horrors of the scene—of plains unclothed and brown—of vegetation burnt up and extinguished—of villages
- ↑ From Sheridan's speech as delivered before Parliament sitting as a High Court in Westminster Hall, on June 3, 6, 10 and 13, in 1788, when as much as fifty pounds was known to be paid for a seat. When Sheridan had spoken the final word, "My lords, I have done," he was caught by Burke in his arms and "hugged with the energy of generous admiration." So says Macaulay, but Macaulay represents that Sheridan " contrived with a knowledge of stage effect which his father might have envied, to sink back, as if exhausted, into the arms of Burke." Only one of Sheridan's speeches has been preserved in anything approaching an adequate report.
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