Since the conclusion of the war with still higher in the estimation of the Mexico, General Pierce has taken no citizens. A describer of the scene says: part in the general politics of the Union,The sentiments, the tone of the address, but has confined his action to, and been the earnest manner in which it was content to exercise his influence only spoken, his beautiful action, his manly, in, his own neighbourhood. He has erect appearance, his pale cast of countaken part only in the political affairs tenance, in which intellect and courage of his own state of New Hampshire, but were the predominating features, and these local affairs have closely touched his clear, loud voice, distinctly heard by upon the one or two great questions the remotest of his audience, all comwhich, par excellence, interest the whole bined to make a deep impression in Union. Thus he has sustained with favour of General Pierce, and many asenergy, in opposition to the Free-soilers, serted that this was the best inaugural who are so numerous in New Hamp-address ever delivered from that spot. shire, Henry Clay's measures of com- He is, undoubtedly, a very effective promise; and on the occasion did not speaker. He remained with his hat off hesitate to pronounce himself against until the close of the proceedings. The a personal friend, Mr. Atwood, who, ladies were in ecstacies, and so anxious being put in nomination by the demo- were some who happened to be in the cratic party for the governorship of New rear to see and hear him, that they Hampshire, had made engagements climbed upon the pediments of the with the Abolitionists and Free-soilers. | columns of the capitol, to their no small In 1850, a democratic convention as danger. Altogether it was a glorious sembled at Concord, for the purpose of spectacle of sublime majesty, casting revising the constitution of New Hamp-into the shade the idle pomp and unshire, and General Pierce was named its meaning pageantry of the coronation of president. In that character he es- kings and emperors." sayed, but it was without success, to Such has been till now the life of obtain the abolition of a certain clause General Franklin Pierce; such is the in the constitution, which provided that man who is now the first magistrate of no public office in the state should the United States. In the incidents of be filled by any but Protestants. The his former life, as we have seen, there old Puritan spirit which is still so has been nothing extraordinary. In all strong in some of the States of New epochs of the world's history there have England, twice caused the proposition been men, who have been more remarkto be rejected, and still maintains the able than their positions, and superior clause as an arm of oppression and to the affairs of which they have been insult, in spite of the general spread employed in the direction. In this inof tolerant ideas, and the almost uni-stance, whatever may be the undoubted versal acknowledgment of the principle of liberty of conscience.

This was the last political action of General Pierce before he was put in nomination for the presidency. In January, 1852, certain democrats of New Hampshire began to speak of him in connection with the forthcoming election, but he wrote to inform them that the use he made of his name was one entirely contrary to his wishes and inclinations. His name was not placed upon the democratic list of candidates at first. It was only when the democrats had begun to despair of their cause that it was really brought forward. It answered the triumph of his party-a triumph which was welcomed, as we all know, with the utmost enthusiasm to the whole Union.

merits of General Pierce, the contrary is the case. The situation is more important than the man, the circumstances by which he is surrounded of greater moment than himself. We shall seek, uselessly, in General Pierce for any thing besides modesty, patriotism, liberality; indefatigable perseverance, and an immense capacity for work. In these few words we have a resume of his whole character. What effect that character will have upon the destinies of the Union, it would be hard to say; and the future only can reveal. But that future is not a distant one; it is comprised within the narrow limits of four years. It can only be said that should the new President cause evil to the Union by giving way to the violence of the extreme section of his party, he will give the lie to the whole tenour of his past

He has subsequently given his inaugural address, and thereby raised himself life.

P. S.

179

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.

ONE morning, in the year fifty-seven, opportunities of judging; what the or thereabouts, of the last century, a lady waited upon a respectable schoolmaster, just commencing practice in Dublin, for the purpose of placing under his charge two of her sons, who were rapidly growing out of nursery control. Entering graciously into conversation with the inexperienced Dominie, she ventured to impress upon him how needful a thing was patience, in the profession which he had perhaps inconsiderately undertaken. 'These boys," said she, "will require a good deal of it. Hitherto I have been their only instructor, and they have sufficiently exercised mine; for two such impenetrable dunces I declare I never met with."

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affirmation may be worth the present writer will not undertake to say. Kindly reader, bethink thee, how learned blockheadism is apt to draw its inferences respecting genius, of which it has in itself no forecast or apprehension, and doubt not that the grave authorities were in this case mistaken. One can admit Dr. Parr's competency to report of Sheridan's deficiency in regard to those "studies which were the pride of Harrow seminary;" but of his ability to understand the character of his pupil's capabilities one can hardly entertain so confident an opinion. The Doctor, however, observes that "He was a favourite among his schoolfellows, mischievous, and his pranks were accompanied by a sort of vivacity and cheerfulness; he was a great reader of English poetry, but was careless about literary fame." In after life, indeed, when Sheridan had given proof of superior talents, the Doctor could remember that he had at one time been addicted to classical reading, and was "well acquainted with the orations of Cicero and Demosthenes," and had even impressed him with the notion that "his classical attainments were considerable."

During his residence at Harrow, Sheridan learnt his first lesson in the

One of the youngsters, thus contemptuously introduced, was RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN; afterwards the brilliant and witty dramatist and politician whom we all know, and whose memory not a few of us delight to honour. He was scarcely at this period seven years of age; a boisterous, impetuous fellow, whose aversion to useful knowledge was probably the counterpart of a lively disposition. Utterly stupid we cannot conceive him to have been; but only indifferent to the popular hornbooks of the day, whose select narratives of good and naughty boys might seem to inculcate a too severe morality. What pro-" significance of sorrow." He had to gress he made under Dominie Whyte's training, neither authentic chronicle nor tradition has been careful to inform us. The perplexities he encountered and overcame, the difficulties that were too hard for him, the birchings he underwent, the practical jests and whimsicalities he perpetrated-the whole mingled tragedy and comedy and farce, which made up the drama of his schooldays, went out of recollection for ever with the extinguished memories of the boys that were at school with him.

About the year 1762, father Sheridan, for reasons of his own, packed up his household and settled his family in England. Harrow was then selected as the school considered most suitable for advancing Brinsley's education. The reputation of dulness still clings to him; he exhibited as yet none of those superior qualifications for which he was afterwards illustrious. So at least it has been affirmed by those who had

lament the loss of his mother, who died, at Blois, in 1766. The wild reckless nature of the boy was for a while subdued and softened by the mournful thoughts which this sad event awakened. With bowed dejected head he shunned converse with his gay companions, and sounded the awful depths which till now lay unrevealed within him. Time, how ever, brought back the olden cheerfulness. Bright sanative season of blessed youth, how it soon dries up with its joyful sunshine the dreary fountainsprings of grief, and repaireth the ruins of its habitation with the flowers that grow spontaneously in its path! We shortly find Sheridan assisting a fellow pupil in the composition of a farce; from which they expected to realize a sum of not less than £200. Fortune, however, seldom grants her bounties to that extent, to striplings; and this golden expectation was destined to be suddenly cut off. Other schemes were

projected; a miscellany in the manner trarch; Mr. Pliny Melmoth," thinking of the British Essayists, which did not nobody half so considerable as himself, proceed beyond the first number; a and therefore playing primary violin translation of Aristænatus, an obscure without further ceremony;" CumberGreek author, into English verse, which|land, "the querulous, the dissatisfied, was published but did not sell; occa- determined to like nobody and nothing sional poems, tales of love and wonder, except Cumberland;" Dr. Harrington, and other general medley of authorship," dry, comic, and agreeable;" and a enthusiastically undertaken but never whole host besides of magnificent obfinished. Of the translation of Aris- scure mortals, who had the luck to be tænatus a certain reviewer of the period celebrated in their day, but whose mecandidly remarks, "We have been idly mory has now gone to that bourne whence employed in reading it;" and adds, un-no memory returns. All these, in their graciously, "Our readers will in pro- several degree, fluttered and danced atportion lose their time in perusing this tendance at the court of a certain allearticle." It is clear, nevertheless, from gorical-fantastic-fashionable Queen of these several crude performances, that Bath-one Lady Miller, admirably deSheridan is beginning to care a little about scribed by Horace Walpole and Madame "literary fame;" from the bleak Pisgah | D'Arblay, and living in barbaric splenof popular indifference he is looking down over the confused valley of Literature; and though the scouts which he has sent forth bring him but unfavourable tidings, he does not abate one tittle of his faith that it is a land flowing with milk and honey.

dour at Bath Easton, where she held every Thursday a wonderful and brilliant entertainment, poetically styled a “fair of Parnassus." In London it seems Bath Easton was much reviled and laughed at; but Madame D'Arblay asserts that nothing was here “more tonnish than to visit Lady Miller, who is extremely curious in her company, admitting few people who are not of rank or fame, and excluding all who are not people of very unblemished character." Horace Walpole says, it was the practice of "all the flux of quality" to contend for prizes gained for rhymes and themes. "A Roman vase, dressed with pink ribbons and myrtle, received the poetry contributed, which was drawn out at every festival. Six judges of these Olympic games retired and selected the brightest composition, which was rewarded by permission for the author to kneel and kiss the hands of Lady Miller, who crowned the victor with myrtle." Flimsy foolish mortals! heard ye never how poor men toil and spin in this weary workshop of a world, that ye could find no worthier pastime than even this? Pitiful truly, and empty beyond conception, must have been all that paltry worship and apotheosis of vanity.

After leaving Harrow, Sheridan spent for some time rather a gay life at Bath, where his father, a distinguished actor and teacher of elocution, had fixed his family while he pursued his engagements elsewhere. In the idleness and dissipation of the place the young man readily participated. Of a lively social sensitiveness, he rapidly makes acquaintance with many men and women of consideration, of rank, of even questionable reputation; sees into the splendour and insipidity of fashionable circles; captivates young maidens by his lively brilliant talk; and makes a laughing-stock of elder ones by his witty and ingenious sarcasm. Any day in the year he might be seen lounging about the Crescent, the Circus, or the Parades; in the Pump-room, at concerts, at private parties, at the theatre; living a very butterfly's existence, and draining the cup of pleasure to the very dregs of weariness. Among the illustrious people whom Bath society included, was the respectable Hannah More, Nevertheless, one can well enough pious, and clever, and insipid; Mrs. understand that to any one in the midst Thrale, the lively and the vain, who of it, it might seem not altogether decould relate personal anecdotes of Dr. ficient in elegance and grace. For Johnson; Fanny and Harriet Bowdler, though Dame Miller turns out on near blue-stockings both, of very deep com- inspection to have been only a coarse plexion; Anstey, the author of the plump-looking vulgar personage, "aim"Bath Guide," "with an air, look, and ing to appear a woman of fashion, and manner, mighty heavy and unfavoura- succeeding only in having the appearble;" Mrs. Dobson, who translated Pe-ance of an ordinary person in common

life with fine clothes on,"-still she was an undoubted and acknowledged Queen of Fashion, and could dispense favours and distinctions not elsewhere attainable in Bath. Her bustling manners and mock important air, her wondrous condescension and good humour, were things of great attraction for the time; and gave her the power of making fashionable whomsoever she was pleased to honour. Sheridan, scarcely in his twentieth year, earned among the rest an occasional wreath of myrtle. Many of his compositions, written chiefly to this end, or celebrating some local event or topic, remain unto this day. They are for the most part good for nothing; unless it be to show us how a clever man could cleverly waste his time. Take, for example, a few lines from a satirical poem, written on the opening of the Upper Assembly Rooms, September 30, 1771. It is entitled, "An Epistle from Timothy Screw to his brother Henry, waiter at Almack's."

named Halhed, Sheridan's former partner in translation; also Sheridan's brother Charles; Norris, a singer, "who was supposed to have sung himself into the lady's secret affections;" Mr. Watts, a gentleman commoner of Oxford; Mr. Long, a man of fortune; Sir Thomas Clarges, and "several others known to fame;" Captain Matthews, a married man, a person of large property in Wales, and gentleman by courtesy; besides "every student at Oxford," who were severally and simultaneously "enchanted when she sang at the oratorios!"

Every other day there was a rumour that Miss Linley had "gone off" with this or the other suitor; which report was as regularly contradicted by the assurances of those who knew that she had done nothing of the kind. One morning, however, the rumour proved to be a fact. She had actually eloped. Not, indeed, with any of the gentry known most prominently as her admirers, but with Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who had silently and unsuspiciously succeeded in winning her to himself, while some of his friends thought him only using his influence to forward their own pretensions! In Bath there was no little rage and consternation; public curiosity was sufficiently busy and entertained; public and private scandal did not fail; jilted lovers felt themselves jockied beyond redemption. One jilted lover in particular, namely, the aforesaid Captain Matthews-married man, a person of

There are a few sentimental pieces, but they are scarcely more poetical than the above; as how, indeed, could they be -produced under such absurd circum-large property in Wales, and therefore stances?

Bath was at this period highly distinguished for its music. The public

gentleman by courtesy-even made a public demonstration by advertisement in the Bath Chronicle; wherein he states concerts held there are said to have been that Mr. Richard Sheridan had left the best in England; though the private behind him a letter “to account for his ones were thought detestable, notwith-scandalous method of running away standing the "first-rate talent, and the from the place, by insinuations deromany amateurs of high consideration" gatory to his (Matthews's) character, that were engaged in them. Among and that of a young lady innocent as the most memorable of all the singers far as relates to him or to his knowof the day, and not to be forgotten for many a year to come, was Miss Linley, the daughter of an eminent musical composer. She, singing according to her vocation, in the "ancient city of King Bludud," turned the heads of nearly all the gentlemen of the place, and innocently drove many a married lady to the verge of jealousy. The catalogue of her lovers is almost as long as the pension list. There was a gentleman

ledge;" which statement, owing to grammatical peculiarities has rather bewildered the present writer, and will likely enough leave most readers in doubt as to what might be the advertiser's meaning. From other documents since published, however, it appears that Miss Linley had been induced to elope with Sheridan, principally to avoid certain scandalous advances which Matthews had been for

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some time making towards her; and in Hyde Park, described as a most that in revenge for the repulses he had ridiculous rencontre, ending in nothing." received, he was prepared to sacrifice Retiring for fear of observation to a the young lady's reputation. Sheridan coffee-house, a scuffle there took place had adroitly insinuated himself into by which Sheridan, "at the point of the his rival's confidence; seen what tem- sword," obtained from Matthews the per and disposition he was of; watched demanded apology. The gentleman by the progress of affairs to a crisis, and courtesy retracted what he had said, and then struck in at the right moment with begged pardon for the advertisement in frank and honourable proposals. All the Chronicle. Retiring afterwards to accounts acquit Miss Linley of any Wales, he, according to Moore's relation serious indiscretion; but as uniformly of the story, found himself received with agree in representing her as a coquette great coolness by the gentry of his disof the first magnitude. It was the trict; whereupon another duel was de fault of her position, perhaps, more than termined on, at the instigation of a Mr. anything besides; as a public singer Barnett, whose propensities for particishe was liable to dishonourable propo-pating in such affairs are understood to sitions, which however much she might have been rather more violent than disdain, she could not readily avoid wise. Another meeting took place, as being made to her. A long letter, of ridiculous as the first; and was sucsomewhat doubtful authenticity, very much in the style of the Clarissa Harlowe correspondence, was written professedly by Miss Linley after the elopement, and still exists: whereby it is apparent that her intercourse with Matthews had been extremely foolish and imprudent; but it affords no warranty for further allegations. Sheridan himself seems to have been always satisfied of her substantial innocence; and her entire affection for him has seldom been called in question.

At any rate the two had agreed to wed; and they were accordingly married at a village in the neighbourhood of Calais. For some time, however, the marriage was kept secret, and the lady meantime retired into a convent, until Sheridan should be able to claim her publicly as his wife. Father Linley, scarcely knowing what to understand by the affair, went speedily after the fugitives to France; where, after an explanation with Sheridan, it was resolved that the engagement should be fulfilled, and the parties very shortly returned to England.

After their arrival, a series of proceedings ensued, of the most ludicrous, romantic and absurd description. Young Sheridan, incensed by the accusations and abusive threats which Matthews, the gentleman by courtesy, had been making in his absence, declared he would not sleep until he had obtained an ample and just apology, or otherwise received such satisfaction as by law of honour gentlemen, in such circumstances, are bound to render to each other. There was accordingly a duel

ceeded by representations on both sides so utterly contradictory and incongruous, as to render it impossible for any one to form a just conclusion about the facts. Statement and counter-statement, equivocation, exaggeration, of every possible shade and degree, not unattended even with downright lying, have involved the matter in such confusion worse confounded," as to cut off all chance of ascertaining where truth ends and falsehood begins; accordingly, in this inexplicable state it remains to this day, and for ought the present writer is concerned, may now remain for evermore.

Immediately after the public announcement of their marriage, Sheridan and his wife lived for a short time in retirement at East Burnham, and it was soon generally understood that the lady had retired from her profession. She had property, it appears, to the amount of £3000, obtained under somewhat singular circumstances. One of her former suitors, the before-mentioned Mr. Long, "a man of large fortune," who had honourably solicited her hand in wedlock, and apparently received some encouragement, but being ultimately informed by her that she could never give him her affections, had thereupon, with wondrous magnanimity, not only resigned himself to his disappointment, but even undertaken the responsibility of breaking off the match, and actually paid the sum mentioned as an indemnity for the breach of covenant. Poor insapient Mr. Long! who would have thought it possible for mortal man to suffer himself to be so preposterously