"We are not great people at all," he said: "we are only common honest people--people that pay our debts." Hazlitt, who was a thoroughly honest though rather thriftless man, speaks of two classes of persons, not unlike each other--those who cannot keep their own money in their hands, and those who cannot keep their hands from other people's.

The former are always in want of money, for they throw it away on any object that first presents itself, as if to get rid of it; the latter make away with what they have of their own, and are perpetual borrowers from all who will lend to them; and their genius for borrowing, in the long run, usually proves their ruin.
Sheridan was one of such eminent unfortunates.

He was impulsive and careless in his expenditure, borrowing money, and running into debt with everybody who would trust him.

When he stood for Westminster, his unpopularity arose chiefly from his general indebtedness.

"Numbers of poor people," says Lord Palmerston in one of his letters, "crowded round the hustings, demanding payment for the bills he owed them." In the midst of all his difficulties, Sheridan was as lighthearted as ever, and cracked many a good joke at his creditors' expense.