famous satire, 'The Rolliad,' so popular that it went through twenty-two
editions in twenty-seven years, accused Sheridan of inflammatory
speeches among the operatives of the northern counties on the cotton
question. Sheridan retorted by saying that he believed Lord Rolle must
refer to 'Compositions less prosaic, but more popular' (meaning the
'Rolliad'), and thus successfully turned the laugh against him.

It was Grattan, I think, who said, 'When I can't talk sense, I talk
metaphor.' Sheridan often talked metaphor, though he sometimes mingled
it with sense. His famous speech about the Begums of Oude is full of it,
but we have one or two instances before that. Thus on the Duke of
Richmond's report about fortifications, he said, turning to the duke,
that 'holding in his hand the report made by the Board of Officers, he
complimented the noble president on his talents as an _engineer_, which
were strongly evinced in planning and constructing that very paper....
He has made it a contest of posts, and conducted his reasoning not less
on principles of trigonometry than of logic. There are certain
assumptions thrown up, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a
distance from the principal object of debate; strong provisos protect
and cover the flanks of his assertions, his very queries are his
casemates,' and so on.

When Lord Mulgrave said, on another occasion, that any man using his
influence to obtain a vote for the crown _ought_ to lose his head,
Sheridan quietly remarked, that he was glad his lordship had said
'_ought_ to lose his head,' not _would_ have lost it, for in that case
the learned gentleman would not have had that evening '_face_ to have
shown among us.'

Such are a few of his well-remembered replies in the House; but his fame