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 teacher of elocution; and finally came forward with an improved system of education, in which oratory was to have a conspicuous part.  In this connection he published an elaborate Plan of Education in 1769, but his ideas, some of which are in accord with modern practice, were not taken up, He also compiled a pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, with a prosodic grammar, and in 1784 published an entertaining Life of Swift.  Frances Sheridan (1724-1766), wife of Thomas and mother of Richard Brinsley, who as Frances Chamberlaine had been known as a poetess, wrote after her marriage two plays, The Discovery and The Dupe, and two novels, The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph, which was a great success and was translated by the Abbe Prevost into French, and The History of Nourjahad, an Oriental tale.  In 1775 the singular spectacle was presented of the son’s play running at Covent Garden while the mother’s was being acted at Drury Lane.

Among Sheridan’s descendants who earned a niche in the temple of literary fame were his grand-daughters, the Countess of Dufferin (1807-1867) and the Hon. Mrs. Norton, afterwards Lady Stirling Maxwell (1808-1877), and his great-grandson, the first Marquis of Dufferin and Ava (1826-1902).  Lady Dufferin’s Lament of the Irish Emigrant ("I’m sittin’ on the style, Mary”) has moved the hearts and brought tears to the eyes of countless thousands since it was published more than fifty years ago.

Sir Philip Francis (1740-1818), born in Dublin, was the son of a clergyman of like name who attained some literary eminence as the translator of Horace and as a political writer.  After filling various important government positions, Philip Francis, the son, was in 1773 made a member of the Council of Bengal, where his relations with the governor-general, Warren Hastings, were of an extremely strained character, amounting at times almost to a public scandal.  He returned to England in 1781, entered parliament, made a name as a speaker, took part in the impeachment of Hastings, and composed numerous political pamphlets.  He is generally supposed to have been the writer of the celebrated Letters of Junius, which appeared at intervals in the Public Advertiser between January 21, 1769, and January 21, 1772.  These letters are distinguished for their polished style, their power of invective, their galling sarcasm, their knowledge of state secrets, and their unparalleled boldness.  Every prominent man connected with the government was attacked:  even the king himself was not spared.  As revised by their pseudonymous writer in a reprint made in 1772, they number 70; a later edition, in 1812, contained 113 more.  Their authorship has been the subject of much controversy, nor is the question yet finally settled.  In his Essay on Warren Hastings, written in 1841, Macaulay went to considerable trouble to prove, by the cumulative method, that Francis was the writer, and since then that opinion has been generally, but not universally, maintained.