garçon, is there joined by his wife and family, occupying a kind of "rus in urbe" in a suburb of Paris, called then “l'Allée des Veuves." During the period which elapsed between their establishing themselves here and the autumn of the following year (rather more than eighteen months), Moore divided his life between Paris delights and literary composition; but candour compels us to own that the portion devoted to dissipation and amusement formed by far the larger one. Nothing, to be sure, was ever like it! No wonder he originated his Epicurean in 1820, for he now exhibited a thorough example, in his own person, of one who makes self-indulgence his main pursuit.

With every disposition to extenuate Moore's incredible craving for excitement and company, we find it difficult to excuse this incessant gratification of it, otherwise than by the stale and well-worn plea of “ great temptations." Most of us have heard of those to which St. Anthony was exposed, and which we are bound to believe were overpowering in their nature, though we never could for the life of us ascertain in what they consisted. But the Saint could hardly have known what it was to have Vilamils, Storys, Cannings, Fieldings, and Washington Irvings, with Duchesses de Broglie, Lucy Drews, and the like sirens, all turned loose upon him, with their various seductions, offering the cup of flattery and convivial allurements (to each of which Moore was so susceptible) to his acceptance. One cannot answer for what the result of such trials might have been to a Saint, but with most men of lively temperament, in the prime of life and health, dwelling under a delicious sky, re

sistance would probably have been but ineffectually attempted.

The Paris episode, however, after all that can be urged, leaves a grave feeling of regret that Moore was ever drawn into so mischievous a vortex; though there were occasions when his time was more worthily and profitably invested. His acquaintance with Denon led to some not infructuous studies; whilst the arrival in Paris of his friends Lord and Lady Holland, around whom a certain intellectual atmosphere always gathered, seems to have strung up the Poet's mind to a healthier tone for a season, as the altered character of the "entries" in the Diary amply attests.

It is refreshing, too, amidst the whirl of daily dissipation, to find how tenderly he and Mrs. Moore continue attached to each other:-"25th March, 1821. This day ten years we were married, and though Time has made his usual changes in us both, we are still more like lovers than any married couples of the same standing I am acquainted with. Asked to dine at Rancliffe's, but dined at home alone with Bessy,'

.. ·

" &c.

Still, if justice were duly done upon mortal sinners, (which it rarely is, except by Baron P. .), Moore ought to have been sentenced, on his return to England, to a six months' sojourn in Baker-street or Torrington-square, without ever going to the play, and being only allowed to dine abroad once a month. At the end of such a probation (supposing him to have survived its rigours), the offender might have come out of it, if somewhat less fascinating and agreeable than before, more nearly resembling what, under the meridian of Greenwich at least, it is conceived a man blessed with a wife and children ought

to be. But it is far from certain that he would have been permitted to preserve this reformed character by his numerous soliciting friends.

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set up

The Bermuda defalcation having been made up, as has been already said, partly through the friendly aid of Lord John Russell (Messrs. Longman advancing the larger portion by way of loan), the poet and his little family leave Paris, and once more their rest" (if this phrase may be employed in connexion with so unquiet a spirit as his) at Sloperton Cottage. Shortly afterwards the Loves of the Angels came forth, for which we find the author receiving 700l.; and next the Fables of the Holy Alliance, so that we can scarcely accuse him of not working diligently at this time. Two visits to London, of a month each, succeed; during which his life was one incessant course of dining out, going to operas and plays, parties, balls, breakfasts, and so forth. His social reputation was now at its zenith, and the fashionable world opened its doors to him as to a privileged being. A delightful tour to Killarney, Cork, and other places in Ireland, in company with his noble friends of Bowood, enlivened the summer, and by the help of a subsequent visit to Mr. Benett, at Pyt-house, and the amusing sale of Mr. Beckford's effects at Fonthill, he managed to get through what remained of the year 1823, in his cottage home, contentedly enough.

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Sheridan's Life was the task on which, as we have stated above, Moore habitually and earnestly occupied himself; that is to say, when " Phipps” did not happen to "call in his gig" a form of seduction which, coupled with a vision of a dinner at the inn at Devizes in the background, rarely failed of its effect. It is

beside the purpose of this article to enter upon a critical notice of Moore's writings; yet it is impossible to allude to this particular work without observing that in it he is justly chargeable with misstatement on more than one point. A desire to drape the memory of his subject (we must not term him his "hero") with a plausible interest, had led him to cast unmerited censure upon many who had once stood in friendly relationship to Sheridan. It is now pretty

generally understood that the estrangement which latterly subsisted between the Whig party and Sheridan was altogether his own work. After the crowning disgrace of his always discreditable career -the getting by adroit management a sum of 40001. out of the hands of the party in whose keeping it was deposited by the Prince Regent, pending its application to the procuring a seat in Parliament for Sheridan-he appears to have felt it impossible to face his old associates; at least he ever after avoided the society of the eminent men of the Liberal party. It never could be said that they neglected him; they knew nothing, except that he kept aloof from them; but they were far from deaf to the cry of perishing decay when at length Sheridan permitted it to reach their ear.* The misplaced sarcasms, again, with which Moore seasons his dramatic detail of Sheridan's closing days-sarcasms levelled at certain noble persons who did violence to their feelings in attending his funeral rather than give pain to his widowthough partially retracted in his preface to the fifth

*Both the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Canning, Moore afterwards affirms (in his Diary), sent to Sheridan considerable sums within a year of his death.

edition, must be regarded as a poor device, resorted to by way of turning the reader's attention from the character of the man, and fastening it upon the condition to which he was reduced by the imputed inconstancy of his "great" friends.

There have been, perhaps, few examples of so prodigious an abuse of the disposition in human nature to tolerate vices and defective moral feeling, in behalf of brilliant talents, as Sheridan's character and conduct furnished. That there should be a limit, beyond which an admiring sympathy could not secure even him against disapprobation and contempt, ought to be subject for gratulation, not for querulous complaint. But a biographer, like a barrister, feels bound, we presume, to present the best case he can for his client; and this must be Moore's apology.* The statement concerning the Prince's indifference was not less unfounded; for it has been satisfactorily shown that George IV. entertained, for this pitiable wreck of a once cherished associate, sentiments more kindly than his conduct deserved; and further, that he would gladly have mitigated by his bounty the sufferings he compassionated.

The book we are speaking of, with all its faults, had also great merits, and was (like everything Moore wrote, indeed) eagerly welcomed on its appearance in the autumn of 1825.

The first edition sold rapidly, and Moore felt him

*In confirmation of this view of the matter, we may quote a passage from a book recently published:-"On my complimenting Moore," says Sir Robert Heron, " on his impartiality in the Life of Sheridan, he told me he regretted having suppressed many facts, and represented his character much too favourably." (Notes, 2nd ed. 1851, p. 254.)

I