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Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2

T >> Thomas Moore >> Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2




Without vouching for the authenticity or novelty of this anecdote, (which
may have been, for aught I know, like the wandering Jew, a regular
attendant upon all fires, since the time of Hierocles,) I give it as I
heard it.]

Among his losses on the occasion there was one which, from being
associated with feelings of other times, may have affected him, perhaps,
more deeply than many that were far more serious. A harpsichord, that had
belonged to his first wife, and had long survived her sweet voice in
silent widowhood, was, with other articles of furniture that had been
moved from Somerset-House to the Theatre, lost in the flames.

The ruin thus brought upon this immense property seemed, for a time,
beyond all hope of retrieval. The embarrassments of the concern were
known to have been so great, and such a swarm of litigious claims lay
slumbering under those ashes, that it is not surprising the public should
have been slow and unwilling to touch them. Nothing, indeed, short of the
intrepid zeal of Mr. Whitbread could have ventured upon the task of
remedying so complex a calamity; nor could any industry less persevering
have compassed the miracle of rebuilding and re-animating that edifice,
among the many-tongued claims that beset and perplexed his enterprise.

In the following interesting letter to him from Sheridan, we trace the
first steps of his friendly interference on the occasion:--

"MY DEAR WHITHBREAD,

"Procrastination is always the consequence of an indolent man's resolving
to write a long detailed letter, upon any subject, however important to
himself, or whatever may be the confidence he has in the friend he
proposes to write to. To this must be attributed your having escaped the
statement I threatened you with in my last letter, and the brevity with
which I now propose to call your attention to the serious, and, to me,
most important request, contained in this,--reserving all I meant to have
written for personal communication.

"I pay you no compliment when I say that, without comparison, you are the
man living, in my estimation, the most disposed and the most competent to
bestow a portion of your time and ability to assist the call of
friendship,--on the condition that that call shall be proved to be made
in a cause just and honorable, and in every respect entitled to your
protection.

"On this ground alone I make my application to you. You said, some time
since, in my house, but in a careless conversation only, that you would
be a Member of a Committee for rebuilding Drury-Lane Theatre, if it would
serve me; and, indeed, you very kindly suggested, yourself, that these
were more persons disposed to assist that object than I might be aware
of. I most thankfully accept the offer of your interference, and am
convinced of the benefits your friendly exertions are competent to
produce. I have worked the whole subject in my own mind, and see a clear
way to retrieve a great property, at least to my son and his family, if
my plan meets the support I hope it will appear to merit.

"Writing thus to you in the sincerity of private friendship, and the
reliance I place on my opinion of your character, I need not ask of you,
though eager and active in politics as you are, not to be severe in
criticising my palpable neglect of all parliamentary duty. It would not
be easy to explain to you, or even to make you comprehend, or any one in
prosperous and affluent plight, the private difficulties I have to
struggle with. My mind, and the resolute independence belonging to it,
has not been in the least subdued by the late calamity; but the
consequences arising from it have more engaged and embarrassed me than,
perhaps, I have been willing to allow. It has been a principle of my
life, persevered in through great difficulties, never to borrow money of
a private friend and this resolution I would starve rather than violate.
Of course, I except the political aid of election-subscription. When I
ask you to take a part in the settlement of my shattered affairs, I ask
you only to do so after a previous investigation of every part of the
past circumstances which relate to the trust I wish you to accept, in
conjunction with those who wish to serve me, and to whom I think you
could not object. I may be again seized with an illness as alarming as
that I lately experienced. Assist me in relieving my mind from the
greatest affliction that such a situation can again produce,--the fear of
others suffering by my death.

"To effect this little more is necessary than some resolution on my part,
and the active superintending advice of a mind like yours.

"Thus far on paper. I will see you next ----, and therefore will not
trouble you for a written reply."

Encouraged by the opening which the destruction of Drury-Lane seemed to
offer to free adventure in theatrical property, a project was set on foot
for the establishment of a Third Great Theatre, which, being backed by
much of the influence and wealth of the city of London, for some time
threatened destruction to the monopoly that had existed so long. But, by
the exertions of Mr. Sheridan and his friends, this scheme was defeated,
and a Bill for the erection of Drury-Lane Theatre by subscription, and
for the incorporation of the subscribers, was passed through Parliament.

That Mr. Sheridan himself would have had no objection to a Third Theatre,
if held by a Joint Grant to the Proprietors of the other two, appears not
only from his speeches and petitions on the subject at this time, but
from the following Plan for such an establishment, drawn up by him, some
years before, and intended to be submitted to the consideration of the
Proprietors of both Houses:--

"GENTLEMEN,

"According to your desire, the plan of the proposed Assistant Theatre, is
here explained in writing for your further consideration.

"From our situations in the Theatres Royal of Drury-Lane and
Covent-Garden we have had opportunities of observing many circumstances
relative to our general property, which must have escaped those who do
not materially interfere in the management of that property. One point in
particular has lately weighed extremely in our opinions, which is, an
apprehension of a new Theatre being erected for some species or other of
dramatic entertainment. Were this event to take place on an opposing
interest, our property would sink in value one-half, and in all
probability, the contest that would ensue would speedily end in the
absolute ruin of one of the present established Theatres. We have reason,
it is true, from His Majesty's gracious patronage to the present Houses,
to hope, that a Third patent for a winter Theatre is not easily to be
obtained; but the motives which appear to call for one are so many, (and
those of such a nature, as to increase every day,) that we cannot, on the
maturest consideration of the subject, divest ourselves of the dread that
such an event may not be very remote. With this apprehension before us,
we have naturally fallen into a joint consideration of the means of
preventing so fatal a blow to the present Theatres, or of deriving a
general advantage from a circumstance which might otherwise be our ruin.

"Some of the leading motives for the establishment of a Third Theatre are
as follows:--

"1st. The great extent of the town and increased residence of a higher
class of people, who, on account of many circumstances, seldom frequent
the Theatre.

"2d. The distant situation of the Theatres from the politer streets, and
the difficulty with which ladies reach their carriages or chairs.

"3d. The small number of side-boxes, where only, by the uncontrollable
influence of fashion, ladies of any rank can be induced to sit.

"4th. The earliness of the hour, which renders it absolutely impossible
for those who attend on Parliament, live at any distance, or, indeed, for
any person who dines at the prevailing hour, to reach the Theatre before
the performance is half over.

"These considerations have lately been strongly urged to me by many
leading persons of rank. There has also prevailed, as appears by the
number of private plays at gentlemen's seats, an unusual fashion for
theatrical entertainments among the politer class of people; and it is
not to be wondered at that they, feeling themselves, (from the causes
above enumerated,) in a manner, excluded from our Theatres, should
persevere in an endeavor to establish some plan of similar entertainment,
on principles of superior elegance and accommodation.

"In proof of this disposition, and the effects to be apprehended from it,
we need but instance one fact, among many, which might be produced, and
that is the well-known circumstance of a subscription having actually
been begun last winter, with very powerful patronage, for the importation
of a French company of comedians, a scheme which, though it might not
have answered to the undertaking, would certainly have been the
foundation of other entertainments, whose opposition we should speedily
have experienced. The question, then, upon a full view of our situation,
appears to be, whether the Proprietors of the present Theatres will
contentedly wait till some other person takes advantage of the prevailing
wish for a Third Theatre, or, having the remedy in their power, profit by
a turn of fashion which they cannot control.

"A full conviction that the latter is the only line of conduct which can
give security to the Patents of Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden Theatres,
and yield a probability of future advantage in the exercise of them, has
prompted us to endeavor at modelling this plan, on which we conceive
those Theatres may unite in the support of a Third, to the general and
mutual advantage of all the Proprietors.

"PROPOSALS.

"The Proprietors of the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden appear to be
possessed of two Patents, for the privilege of acting plays, &c., under
one of which the above-mentioned Theatre is opened,--the other lying
dormant and useless;--it is proposed that this dormant Patent shall be
exercised, (with His Majesty's approbation,) in order to license the
dramatic performance of the new Theatre to be erected.

"It is proposed that the performances of this new Theatre shall be
supported from the united establishments of the two present Theatres, so
that the unemployed part of each company may exert themselves for the
advantage of the whole.

"As the object of this Assistant Theatre will be to reimburse the
Proprietors of the other two, at the full season, for the expensive
establishment they are obliged to maintain when the town is almost empty,
it is proposed, that the scheme of business to be adopted in the new
Theatre shall differ as much as possible from that of the other two, and
that the performances at the new house shall be exhibited at a superior
price, and shall commence at a later hour.

"The Proposers will undertake to provide a Theatre for the purpose, in a
proper situation, and on the following terms:--If they engage a Theatre
to be built, being the property of the builder or builders, it must be
for an agreed on rent, with security for a term of years. In this case
the Proprietors of the two present Theatres shall jointly and severally
engage in the whole of the risk; and the Proposers are ready, on
equitable terms, to undertake the management of it. But, if the Proposers
find themselves enabled, either on their own credit, or by the assistance
of their friends, or on a plan of subscription, the mode being devised,
and the security given by themselves, to become the builders of the
Theatre, the interest in the building will, in that case, be the property
of the Proposers, and they will undertake to demand no rent for the
performances therein to be exhibited for the mutual advantage of the two
present Theatres.

"The Proposers will, in this case, conducting the business under the
dormant Patent above mentioned, bind themselves, that no theatrical
entertainments, as plays, farces, pantomimes, or English operas, shall at
any time be exhibited in this Theatre but for the general advantage of
the Proprietors of the two other Theatres; the Proposers reserving to
themselves any profit they can make of their building, converted to
purposes distinct from the business of the Theatres.

"The Proposers, undertaking the management of the new Theatre, shall be
entitled to a sum to be settled by the Proprietors at large, or by an
equitable arbitration.

"It is proposed, that all the Proprietors of the two present Theatres
Royal of Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden shall share all profits from the
dramatic entertainments exhibited at the new Theatre; that is, each shall
be entitled to receive a dividend in proportion to the shares he or she
possesses of the present Theatres: first only deducting a certain nightly
sum to be paid to the Proprietors of Covent-Garden Theatre, as a
consideration for the license furnished by the exercise of their present
dormant Patent.

"'Fore Heaven! the Plan's a good Plan! I shall add a little Epilogue
to-morrow.

"R. B. S."

"'Tis now too late, and I've a letter to write
Before I go to bed,--and then, Good Night."

In the month of July, this year, the Installation of Lord Grenville, as
Chancellor of Oxford, took place, and Mr. Sheridan was among the
distinguished persons that attended the ceremony. As a number of honorary
degrees were to be conferred on the occasion, it was expected, as a
matter of course, that his name would be among those selected for that
distinction; and, to the honor of the University, it was the general wish
among its leading members that such a tribute should be paid to his high
political character. On the proposal of his name, however, (in a private
meeting, I believe, held previously to the Convocation.) the words
_"Non placet"_ were heard from two scholars, one of whom, it is
said, had no nobler motive for his opposition than that Sheridan did not
pay his father's tithes very regularly. Several efforts were made to win
over these dissentients; and the Rev. Mr. Ingram delivered an able and
liberal Latin speech, in which he indignantly represented the shame that
it would bring on the University, if such a name as that of Sheridan
should be _"clam subductum"_ from the list. The two scholars,
however, were immovable; and nothing remained but to give Sheridan
intimation of their intended opposition, so as to enable him to decline
the honor of having his name proposed. On his appearance, afterwards, in
the Theatre, a burst of acclamation broke forth, with a general cry of
"Mr. Sheridan among the Doctors,--Sheridan among the Doctors;" in
compliance with which he was passed to the seat occupied by the Honorary
Graduates, and sat, in unrobed distinction, among them, during the whole
of the ceremonial. Few occurrences, of a public nature, ever gave him
more pleasure than this reception.

At the close of the year 1810, the malady, with which the king had been
thrice before afflicted, returned; and, after the usual adjournments of
Parliament, it was found necessary to establish a Regency. On the
question of the second adjournment, Mr. Sheridan took a line directly
opposed to that of his party, and voted with the majority. That in this
step he did not act from any previous concert with the Prince, appears
from the following letter, addressed by him to His Royal Highness on the
subject, and containing particulars which will prepare the mind of the
reader to judge more clearly of the events that followed:--

"SIR,

"I felt infinite satisfaction when I was apprised that Your Royal
Highness had been far from disapproving the line of conduct I had
presumed to pursue, on the last question of adjournment in the House of
Commons. Indeed, I never had a moment's doubt but that Your Royal
Highness would give me credit that I was actuated on that, as I shall on
every other occasion through my existence, by no possible motive but the
most sincere and unmixed desire to look to Your Royal Highness's honor
and true interest, as the objects of my political life,--directed, as I
am sure your efforts will ever be, to the essential interests of the
Country and the Constitution. To this line of conduct I am prompted by
every motive of personal gratitude, and confirmed by every opportunity,
which peculiar circumstances and long experience have afforded me, of
judging of your heart and understanding,--to the superior excellence of
which, (beyond all, I believe, that ever stood in your rank and high
relation to society,) I fear not to advance my humble testimony, because
I scruple not to say for myself, that I am no flatterer, and that I never
found that to _become_ one was the road to your real regard.

"I state thus much because it has been under the influence of these
feelings that I have not felt myself warranted, (without any previous
communication with Your Royal Highness,) to follow implicitly the
dictates of others, in whom, however they may be my superiors in many
qualities, I can subscribe to no superiority as to devoted attachment and
duteous affection to Your Royal Highness, or in that practical knowledge
of the public mind and character, upon which alone must be built that
popular and personal estimation of Your Royal Highness, so necessary to
your future happiness and glory, and to the prosperity of the nation you
are destined to rule over.

"On these grounds, I saw no policy or consistency in unnecessarily giving
a general sanction to the examination of the physicians before the
Council, and then attempting, on the question of adjournment, to hold
that examination as naught. On these grounds, I have ventured to doubt
the wisdom or propriety of any endeavor, (if any such endeavor has been
made,) to induce Your Royal Highness, during so critical a moment, to
stir an inch from the strong reserved post you have chosen, or give the
slightest public demonstration of any future intended political
preferences;--convinced as I was that the rule of conduct you had
prescribed to yourself was precisely that which was gaining you the
general heart, and rendering it impracticable for any quarter to succeed
in annexing unworthy conditions to that most difficult situation, which
you were probably so soon to be called on to accept.

"I may, Sir, have been guilty of error of judgment in both these
respects, differing, as I fear I have done, from those whom I am bound so
highly to respect; but, at the same time, I deem it no presumption to say
that, until better instructed, I feel a strong confidence in the justness
of my own view of the subject; and simply because of this--I am sure that
the decisions of that judgment, be they sound or mistaken, have not, at
least, been rashly taken up, but were founded on deliberate zeal for your
service and glory, unmixed, I will confidently say, with any one selfish
object or political purpose of my own."

The same limitations and restrictions that Mr. Pitt proposed in 1789,
were, upon the same principles, adopted by the present Minister: nor did
the Opposition differ otherwise from their former line of argument, than
by omitting altogether that claim of Right for the Prince, which Mr. Fox
had, in the proceedings of 1789, asserted. The event that ensued is
sufficiently well known. To the surprise of the public, (who expected,
perhaps, rather than wished, that the Coalesced Party of which Lord Grey
and Lord Grenville were the chiefs, should now succeed to power,) Mr.
Perceval and his colleagues were informed by the Regent that it was the
intention of His Royal Highness to continue them still in office.

The share taken by Mr. Sheridan in the transactions that led to this
decision, is one of those passages of his political life upon which the
criticism of his own party has been most severely exercised, and into the
details of which I feel most difficulty in entering:--because, however
curious it may be to penetrate into these _"postscenia"_ of public
life, it seems hardly delicate, while so many of the chief actors are
still upon the stage. As there exists, however, a Paper drawn up by Mr.
Sheridan, containing what he considered a satisfactory defence of his
conduct on this occasion, I should ill discharge my duty towards his
memory, were I, from any scruples or predilections of my own, to deprive
him of the advantage of a, statement, on which he appears to have relied
so confidently for his vindication.

But, first,--in order fully to understand the whole course of feelings
and circumstances, by which not only Sheridan, but his Royal Master, (for
their cause is, in a great degree, identified,) were for some time past,
predisposed towards the line of conduct which they now pursued,--it will
be necessary to recur to a few antecedent events.

By the death of Mr. Fox the chief personal tie that connected the
Heir-Apparent with the party of that statesman was broken. The political
identity of the party itself had, even before that event, been, in a
great degree, disturbed by a coalition against which Sheridan had always
most strongly protested, and to which the Prince, there is every reason
to believe, was by no means friendly. Immediately after the death of Mr.
Fox, His Royal Highness made known his intentions of withdrawing from all
personal interference in politics; and, though still continuing his
sanction to the remaining Ministry, expressed himself as no longer
desirous of being considered "a party man." [Footnote: This is the phrase
used by the Prince himself, in a Letter addressed to a Noble Lord,(not
long after the dismissal of the Grenville Ministry,) for the purpose of
vindicating his own character from some imputations cast upon it, in
consequence of an interview which he had lately had with the King. This
important exposition of the feelings of His Royal Highness, which, more
than any thing, throws light upon his subsequent conduct, was drawn up by
Sheridan; and I had hoped that I should have been able to lay it before
the reader:--but the liberty of perusing the Letter is all that has been
allowed me.] During the short time that these Ministers continued in
office, the understanding between them and the Prince was by no means of
that cordial and confidential kind, which had been invariably maintained
during the life-time of Mr. Fox. On the contrary, the impression on the
mind, of His Royal Highness, us well as on those of his immediate friends
in the Ministry, Lord Moira and Mr. Sheridan, was, that a cold neglect
had succeeded to the confidence with which they had hitherto been
treated; and that, neither in their opinions nor feelings, were they any
longer sufficiently consulted or considered. The very measure, by which
the Ministers ultimately lost their places, was, it appears, one of those
which the Illustrious Personage in question neither conceived himself to
have been sufficiently consulted upon before its adoption, nor approved
of afterwards.

Such were the gradual loosenings of a bond, which at no time had promised
much permanence; and such the train of feelings and circumstances which,
(combining with certain prejudices in the Royal mind against one of the
chief leaders of the party,) prepared the way for that result by which
the Public was surprised in 1811, and the private details of which I
shall now, as briefly as possible, relate.

As soon as the Bill for regulating the office of Regent had passed the
two Houses, the Prince, who, till then, had maintained a strict reserve
with respect to his intentions, signified, through Mr. Adam, his pleasure
that Lord Grenville should wait upon him. He then, in the most gracious
manner, expressed to that Noble Lord his wish that he should, in
conjunction with Lord Grey, prepare the Answer which his Royal Highness
was, in a few days, to return to the Address of the Houses. The same
confidential task was entrusted also to Lord Moira, with an expressed
desire that he should consult with Lord Grey and Lord Grenville on the
subject. But this co-operation, as I understand, the two Noble Lords
declined.

One of the embarrassing consequences of Coalitions now appeared. The
recorded opinions of Lord Grenville on the Regency Question differed
wholly and in principle not only from those of his coadjutor in this
task, but from those of the Royal person himself, whose sentiments he was
called upon to interpret. In this difficulty, the only alternative that
remained was so to neutralize the terms of the Answer upon the great
point of difference, as to preserve the consistency of the Royal speaker,
without at the same time compromising that of his Noble adviser. It
required, of course, no small art and delicacy thus to throw into the
shade that distinctive opinion of Whigism, which Burke had clothed in his
imperishable language in 1789, and which Fox had solemnly bequeathed to
the Party, when

"in his upward flight
He left his mantle there."
[Footnote: Joanna Baithe]

The Answer, drawn up by the Noble Lords, did not, it must be confessed,
surmount this difficulty very skilfully. The assertion of the Prince's
consistency was confined to two meagre sentences, in the first of which
His Royal Highness was made to say:--"With respect to the proposed
limitation of the authority to be entrusted to me, I retain my former
opinion:"--and in the other, the expression of any decided opinion upon
the Constitutional point is thus evaded:--"For such a purpose no
restraint can be necessary to be imposed upon me." Somewhat less vague
and evasive, however, was the justification of the opinion opposed to
that of the Prince, in the following sentence:--"That day when I may
restore to the King those powers, which _as belonging only to him_,
[Footnote: The words which I have put in italics in these quotations,
are, in the same manner, underlined in Sheridan's copy of the
Paper,--doubtless, from a similar view of their import to that which I
have taken.] are in his name and in his behalf," &c. &c. This, it will be
recollected, is precisely the doctrine which, on the great question of
limiting the Prerogative, Mr. Fox attributed to the Tories. In another
passage, the Whig opinion of the Prince was thus tamely
surrendered:--"Conscious that, whatever _degree_ of confidence you
may _think fit_ to repose in me," &c. [Footnote: On the back of
Sheridan's own copy of this Answer, I find, written by him, the following
words "Grenville's and Grey's proposed Answer from the Prince to the
Address of the two Houses,--very flimsy, and attempting to cover
Grenville's conduct and consistency in supporting the present
Restrictions at the expense of the Prince."] The Answer, thus
constructed, was, by the two Noble Lords, transmitted through Mr. Adam,
to the Prince, who, "strongly objecting, (as we are told), to almost
every part of it," acceded to the suggestion of Sheridan, whom he
consulted on the subject, that a new form of Answer should be immediately
sketched out, and submitted to the consideration of Lord Grey and Lord
Grenville. There was no time to be lost, as the Address of the Houses was
to be received the following day. Accordingly, Mr. Adam and Mr. Sheridan
proceeded that night, with the new draft of the Answer to Holland-House,
where, after a warm discussion upon the subject with Lord Grey, which
ended unsatisfactorily to both parties, the final result was that the
Answer drawn up by the Prince and Sheridan was adopted.--Such is the bare
outline of this transaction, the circumstances of which will be found
fully detailed in the Statement that shall presently be given.

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