even equal. Sheridan's delicacy of taste and correctness of judgment, might easily lead him to perceive the deficiencies of Cumberland's tragedy in all the true requisites of that species of writing; and his powers of satire enabled him to expose those deficiencies with exquisite ridicule. But what was his own success when he tasked his genius to a similar undertaking; when he endeavoured to engraft, upon the bastard stock of Kotzebue, the vigorous shoots of his own imagination? Pizarro stands a memorable instance of the triumph of show and splendid declamation, united with the temporary feelings of politics, over the genuine dictates of sound taste and reason. I know it has been attempted by the friends and admirers of Mr. Sheridan, to insinuate that we are indebted to Kotzebue for all that is contemptible in Pizarro, and to Sheridan for all that is excellent. Slender as this praise is, for how little in Pizarro can be pronounced excellent when contemplated without the adjuncts of scenic representation, still I must dispute Sheridan's claim to it. I have examined the original German dramas, out of which Pizarro has been compounded, and the impression upon my mind is, that Sheridan has not very much improved what he has taken. He has produced a tragedy which I am inclined to think even Cumberland would have disowned, and he has succeeded even less than Cumberland would have done. Let us not forget, therefore, when we

see the author of the Battle of Hastings bending beneath the lash of the Critic, that the hand which inflicts the punishment has committed the same

error.

Shortly after the performance of this tragedy, Cumberland's first patron and master, the Earl of Halifax, died. His character of him has already been given. He was succeeded in his office, as secretary for the colonial department, by Lord George Germain, a nobleman to whom Cumberland was totally unknown, and from whom, therefore, he could expect but few services. He prepared himself, consequently, to retain contentedly his subordinate office of clerk of the reports, though 'he had previously been in treaty, under the friendly auspices of Lord Clare, with Mr. Pownall for the secretaryship. The nomination of Lord George Germain, however, left him but little hopes of completing that negociation, so frigidly precise and formal was his lordship's reception of Cumberland upon his first introduction to him after his accession to office.

From this state of contented apathy, however, he was soon agreeably roused. One day, as his lordship was leaving the office, he suddenly relaxed from his austerity of manner, and very courteously invited him to pass a few days with him and his family at Stoneland near Tunbridge Wells. This invitation happened

to be delivered in so subdued a tone of voice

that it was not very distinctly heard by Cumberland, and so little had he taught himself to expect any such distinction from his lordship, that he doubted whether he had accurately understood any part of what was addressed to him. To resolve his doubts, he applied to his lordship's confidential secretary, who admitted the likelihood of the invitation, but expressed some apprehensions as to the propriety of accepting it. Cumberland partly participated in these apprehensions, but he adopted the only method of ascertaining their justness. He visited Lord George, and was received by him with a friendly cordiality, which "day by day improved, and which no one word or action of his life to come ever for an instant interrupted or diminished." The almost immediate consequence of that friendship was, the attainment of his object with regard to the secretaryship. His lordship had heard of Cumberland's endeavours to effect a negociation with Mr. Pownall, by which he was to give him a certain compensation for his place, but the new favourite was now told he should have the place without giving any consideration for it. Mr. Pownall's willingness to retire was, of course, implied in his disposition to sell his office to a successor, and Lord George Germain informed him one day, that his Majesty was pleased to accept his resignation, and had also appointed Cumberland to succeed him. All stipulation was positively forbidden, and Cumber

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land took his seat at the table as secretary to the board. He could not do less than express his very deep sense of obligation to Lord George Germain, for this act of patronage and kindness, and his lordship replied, that if Cumberland was as happy in receiving the appointment as he had been in communicating it to him, he was then very happy indeed.

Cumberland now found himself secure in the possession of an office, whose emoluments were, at least, adequate to all the necessaries of life, to many of its comforts, and to some of its luxuries. He did not indeed enjoy it long, for, upon the dissolution of Lord North's administration, the Board of Trade was abolished, and Cumberland lost his place. He might have said as Gibbon did, who was one of the Lords Commissioners, "that he was stripped of a convenient salary." Cumberland, however, like the historian, resorted to his pen, though with a degree of success very different. To Lord George Germain he continued ardently attached during the whole period of his lordship's life, and often alleviated the burthen of his official duties, by taking to himself as large a share of them as he could, without appearing to encroach upon the business of others. There was, indeed, some merit in this undisguised devotion to the interests of his lordship, for at that period he was rather an unpopular character, and they who advocated his cause had to encounter some

of the strongest and most irreconcileable prejudices of mankind; and Cumberland justly observes, in reference to his own active friendship, that there "is a middle kind of way which some men can hit off between doing all and doing nothing, which saves appearances and satisfies easy consciences;" but that lukewarmness of disposition never, I believe, formed any part of Cumberland's cha

racter.