e
Critic_. His last dramatic composition was the tragedy, _Pizarro_,
produced in 1799. Elected to parliament in 1780, Sheridan was made
under-secretary for foreign affairs in the Rockingham administration
of 1782, and in 1783 he was secretary to the treasury in the
Coalition Ministry. He sprang into repute as a brilliant orator
during the impeachment of Warren Hastings, 1787-1794. His speech on
the Begums of Oude was one of the greatest ever delivered within the
walls of the British parliament. In 1806, on the return of the Whigs
to power, he was appointed treasurer in the navy. In 1812 his long
parliamentary career came to a close when he was defeated for the
borough of Westminster. He died in 1816, and was honored with a
magnificent funeral in Westminster Abbey.

To give an idea as to how Sheridan's oratorical powers impressed his
contemporaries, it is perhaps enough to repeat what Burke said of his
second speech against Warren Hastings, namely, that it was "the most
astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united of which
there is any record or tradition", and to add that when, after three
hours of impassioned pleading, he brought his first speech against
Hastings to an end, the effect produced was so great that it was
agreed to adjourn the house immediately and defer the final decision
until the members should be in a less excited mood. As a dramatist
Sheridan is second in popularity to Shakespeare alone. _The School
for Scandal_ and _The Rivals_ are as fresh and as eagerly welcomed
today as they were a hundred and forty years ago. Like Burke, he was
true to the land of his birth and his oppressed Catholic
fellow-countrymen. Almost his last words in the house of commons were
these: "Be just to Ireland. I will never give my vote to any
administration that opposes the question of Catholic emancipation."

Sheridan belonged to a family that was exceptionally distinguished in
English literature. Among those who preceded him as litterateurs were
his grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Sheridan, D.D.; his father, Thomas
Sheridan; and his mother, Frances Sheridan. Rev. Dr. Sheridan
(1684-1738), the friend and confidant of Dean Swift, kept a
fashionable school in Dublin, edited the _Satires_ of Persius in
1728, wrote a treatise on _The Art of Punning_, and figures largely
in Swift's correspondence. Thomas Sheridan (1721-1788) was at first
an actor of considerable reputation, both in Dublin and in London;
was next a tea