to produce. But taint my public character'n cannot; four and twenty years employed in your service has established that; and as to my private, let that be learned from my friends, from those under my own roof. To these I appeal, and this appeal I boldly make with an utter contempt of insinuations, false as they are illiberal." Mr. Flood was proceeding, when the speaker rose, and called for the support of the house to keep the gentlemen in order.

Mr. John Burke then moved, that the gentlemen might be made to promise that nothing farther should pass between them; and this being resolved, the house was cleared. But in the mean time, both Mr. Flood and Mr. Grattan had disappeared.

Next morning, Mr. Flood and Mr. Grattan were brought in custody before Lord Chief Justice Annaly, who bound them both over to keep the peace, in recognizances of £20,000 each. They had, attended by their respective friends, almost reached the ground appointed for a serious interview, when they were arrested by officers whom the magistrates had despatched after them.

The following epigrammatic Dialogue appeared shortly after in the public prints.

Question. Say, what has given to Flood a mortal wound?

Answer. Grattan's obtaining fifty thousand pound.
Question. Can Flood forgive an injury so sore?
Answer. Yes, if they give him fifty thousand more.

MR. SHERIDAN.

"In senates, there his talents shone confest ;
As wit delighted, passion storm'd the breast.
The mind with taste, sense, judgment, feeling, fraught,
Seem'd to be blest by more than human thought!
Hence, burning words for freedom gave the choice,
The lightning of his eye, the magic of his voice!"

CHANDOS LEIGH.

In the debate on the articles of impeachment against Warren Hastings, in the House of Commons, on the 7th of February, 1787, Mr. Sheridan spoke on the fourth or Oude charge, for the space of five hours and forty minutes. His speech on that occasion united the most convincing closeness and accuracy of argument, with the most luminous precision and perspicuity of language; alternately giving force and energy to truth, by solid and substantial reasoning, and enlightening the most extensive and involved subjects with the purest clearness of logic, and the brightest splendour of rhetoric. It will be a permanent record of Mr. Sheridan's unrivalled abilities, that on this trying occasion, which of all others had divided not only the House of Conmons, but the nation at large, into a variety of parties, this memorable speech produced almost universal union. When he described the sufferings of the Begums of Oude, an indescribable emotion was perceived to agitate the feelings of the audience. Alluding to the factious parties in the house,

"But," said he, "when inhumanity presents itself to their observation, it find no divisions among them; they attack it as their common enemy; and as if the

character of this land was involved in their zeal for its ruin, they leave it not till it is completely overthrown. It was not given to that house, to behold the objects of their compassion and benevolence in the present extensive consideration, as it was to those officers who relieved, and who so feelingly describe the extatic emotions of gratitude in the instant of deliverance. They could not behold the workings of the hearts, the quivering lips, the trickling tears, the loud and yet tremulous joy, of the millions whom their vote of this night would for ever save from the cruelty of corrupted power. But though they could not directly see the effort, was not the true enjoyment of their benevolence increased, by the blessings being conferred unseen? Would not the omnipotence of Britain be demonstrated to the wonder of nations, by stretching its mighty arm across the deep, and saving by its fiat distant millions from destruction? and would the blessings of the people thus saved dissipate in empty air? No! If I may dare," said Mr. Sheridan, "to use the figure, we shall constitute heaven itself for our proxy, to receive for us the blessings of their pious gratitude, and the prayers of their thanksgiving."

On the conclusion of Mr. Sheridan's speech, the whole assembly, members, peers, and strangers, involuntarily joined in a tumult of applause, and adopted a mode of expressing their approbation new and irregular in that house, by loudly and repeatedly clapping their hands. A motion was immediately made and carried, for an adjournment, that the members, who were in a state of delirious insensibility, from the talismanic influence of such powerful eloquence, might have time to collect their scattered senses for the

exercise of a sober judgment. This motion was made by Mr. Pitt, who declared that this speech" surpassed all the eloquence of ancient and modern times, and possesses every thing that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and control the human mind."

THE BEGUM CHARGE.

Public curiosity was scarcely ever so strongly interested, as on the day when Mr. Sheridan was to speak on the Begum charge, on the impeachment of Mr. Hastings. The avenues leading to the hall were filled with persons of the first distinction, many of them peeresses in full dress, who waited in the open air for upwards of an hour and a half before the gates were opened, when the crowd pressed so eagerly forward, that many persons had nearly perished. No extract can do justice to this speech.

nown

"He has this day," said Mr. Burke, "surprised the thousands who hung with rapture on his accents, by such an array of talents, such an exhibition of capacity, such a display of powers, as are unparalleled in the annals of oratory! a display that reflects the highest honour upon himself---lustre upon letters---reupon parliament---glory upon the country. Of all species of rhetoric, of every kind of eloquence that has been witnessed or recorded, either in ancient or modern times; whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, the solidity of the judgmentseat, and the sacred morality of the pulpit, have hitherto furnished, nothing has surpassed, nothing has equalled, what we have this day heard in Westminsterhall. No holy seer of religion, no sage, no statesman,

no orator, no man of any literary description whatever, has come up, in the one instance, to the pure sentiments of morality; or, in the other, to that variety of knowledge, force of imagination, propriety and vivacity of allusion, beauty and elegance of diction, strength and copiousness of style, pathos and sublimity of conception, to which we have this day listened with ardour and admiration. From poetry up to eloquence, there is not a species of composition of which a complete and perfect specimen might not from that single speech be culled and collected."

The task of selection from such a treasure of excellence is difficult, but the following apostrophe may suffice to shew the justness of Mr. Burke's encomium.

"Oh faith! oh justice! I conjure you, by your sacred names, to depart for a moment from this place, though it be your peculiar residence, nor hear your names prophaned by such a sacrilegious combination, as that which I am now compelled to repeat, where all the fair forms of nature and art, truth and peace, policy and honour, shrink back aghast from the deleterious shade---where all existences, nefarious and vile, had sway---where amidst the black agents on one side, and Middleton with Impey on the other, the toughest bend, the most unfeeling shrink; the great figure of the piece, characteristic in his place, aloof and independent from the puny profligacy in his train, but far from idle and inactive, turning a malignant eye on all mischief that awaits him; the multiplied apparatus of temporizing expedients, and intimidating instruments---now cringing on his prey, and fawning on his vengeance; now quickening the limping pace of craft, and forcing every stand that