'*  Lord  Holland  told  me  a  curious  piece  of  sentimentality  in
Sheridan.  The  other  night  we  were  all  delivering  our
respective  and  various  opinions  on  him  and  other  '  hommcs
marqiians,'  and  mine  was  this  : — '  Whatever  Sheridan  has  done
or  chosen  to  do,  has  been  par  excellence,  always  the  best  of  its
kind.  He  has  written  the  best  comedy  (School  for  Scandal),
the  best  opera  (the  Duenna,  in  my  mind  far  before  that  Saint
Giles's  Lampoon,  the  Beggar's  Opera),  the  best  farce  (the
Critic,  it  is  only  too  good  for  an  afterpiece),  and  the  best
address  (Monologue  on  Garrick).  and,  to  crown  all,  delivered
the  vert/  best  oration  (the  famous  Begum  Speech),  ever  con-
ceived or  heard  in  this  country  I'  Somebody  told  Sheridan
this  the  next  day,  and  he  burst  into  tears  I — Poor  Brinsley !
If  they  were  tears  of  pleasure,  I  would  rather  have  said  those
few  but  sincere  words  than  have  written  the  Iliad  or  made  his
own  celebrated  Philippic.  Nay,  his  own  comedy  never  grati-
fied me  more  than  to  hear  that  he  had  derived  a  moment's  gra-
tification from  any  praise  of  mine,  humble  as  it  must  appear
to  '  my  elders  and  my  betters.'  "

To  this  fine  imperishable  tribute  I  would  with  unafi'ected
humUity  and  the  utmost  sincerity  pray  leave  to  add,  that  I
would  rather  own  the  copyright  of  a  sentiment  of  Sheridan,  in
his  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  the  comedy  of  •'  The  Rivals,"
than  of  all  the  orations  he  ever  delivered,  and  of  all  the  bon-
mots  he  ever  uttered.
