1226 Biographical Account of the late Henry Flood, Efq. ford, by whom he never had any iffue. By his will, made in 1790, he difposes of his large property, amounting to 5000l. per annum, in the following manner. He leaves to his kinfman, Mr. Warden Flood, an eftate of about 3ool. per annum; to Mifs Cockburn, lady who lived with Lady Frances, roool.; to an old steward, roool.; and to his own fervant, 200l. He makes his dear wife, Lady Frances, together with his friend, Ambrofe Smith, efq joint-executors, requesting Mr. S. to act in the truft, and advise Lady Frances in every thing; and for his advice and trouble he gives him an annuity of 300i. per annum, and after the death of Lady Frances (whom he makes his refiduary legatee) an estate of that value, in fe fimple. Subject to thete bequefts, he devifes his whole eftate to his wife, for her life, and after her death to the University of Dublin, or to Trinity College, near Dublin, by whatever name it is moft properly and legally characterised; willing and defiring that, immediately after the faid eftate fhall come into their poffeffion, they fhall appoint two profeffors, one for the ftudy of the native Erfe or Irish language, and the other for the ftudy of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the ftudy of any other European language illustrative of, er auxiliary to, the ftudy of Irish antiquities or Irish hiftory; and that they fhall give, yearly, two liberal premiums for two compofitions, one in verfe and the other in profe, in the Irish language; and alfo two other liberal premiums for compofitions in the Greek or Latin languages, one upon any point of literature, antient or modern, and the other upon fome great action of antiquity, "feeing that nothing stimulates to great actions more than great examples." After these purposes fhall have been answered, he directs that the remaining fund fhall be employed in the purchafe of books and manufcripts for the library of the University. And if his directions in these refpects fhall not be complied with, the devife to them is made null and void: and if by any other means they shall not take the eftate fo devifed to them, according to his intention, then he bequeaths the whole of the estate fo devised to Ambrofe Smith, efq. in fee fimple for ever. And he defires that Col. Valancey, if living, fhall be one of the first profeffors -Nothing, hitherto, has been faid of the eloquence of this eminent ftatefman; and it is not eafy to characterife it. It was, undoubtedly, of the very first rate. He on every great occafion fhewed a great and comprehenfive mind, replete with know. ledge, ardent, vigorous, acute, and argumentative. His wit, and farcafm, and happy allufions (for his mind was replete with imagery) would have highly diftinguished any other man; but convincing being his chief object, and the faculty of reasoning his prin cipal power, his adverfaries have reprefented it as his only talent. His claffical allufions were never trite, always fhort, and uncom [Suppl. monly happy; and his metaphors chaste, pure, and unmixed. Powerful as he was in ftating, enforcing, and illuftrating fubjects which he propounded in parliament, and on which he always fhewed that he had obtained every poffible information, he was still more impreßlive in reply, always preferving his temper, and refuting his opponents with the fame perfpicuity, precifion, correctness, and elegance of language, which marked his original fpeech. To an Englith reader his reply to Mr. Wilberforce on the commercial treaty, and to Mr. Windham on the fubject of a parliamentary reform, may afford deci five proofs of the truth of this affertion. His memory was fo tenacious that he frequently, at the end of a long debate, anfwered every member of any weight who had froken on the oppofite fide, refuting their arguments feriatim, without the aid of a fingle note. Few men have ftudied the English language more attentively than he, or were better acquainted with all its niceties of construction and moft fubtle difcriminations: in confequence of which, while he hurried away his auditors by the ftrength of his arguments, he delighted every perfon of taste and judgement by a certain curiofa felicitas of diction, which added infinite grace and beauty to his eloquence. He fometimes leveled his adverfary to the ground by a fingle word. Thus, to mention one out of many inftances, he on one occafion talked of the unmeaning gabble of his opponents; and on another faid, that he should not waste the time of the Houte by refuting fuch trumpery arguments as had been adduced against him; resembling, in this refpect, the great Lord Chatham, whom he venerated, and venturing on the very utmost verge of propriety in the ufe of a low word, more ftrongly to mark his contempt of his opponent. His claffical allufions have been already spoken of. The felection of particular inftances of any fpecies of excellence is always difficult and hazardous; yet the following allufion is fo happy that it may bid defiance to criticifm. When a certain English fecretary was affailed by many pointed questions put to him by the leaders of oppofition, he at length rofe, and looking moft ruefully on an empty bench behind him, where his affiftants ufually fat, befought his antagonists not to arge the matter further, "for the gentlemen who usually anfwered quefions were not yet come."' "In antient times (replied Flood) the oak of Dodona spoke for itself; but the wooden oracle of our day is content to deliver his refponfes by deputy." A more fortunate allusion than this will not eafily be pointed out.-His admiration of the great Grecian orator led him to make, perhaps, too frequent ufe of enthymems; a mode of reafoning which, on account of the fuppreffion of one of the propofitions of the fyl logifm, feems not well fuited to a mixed affembly, and renders an argument more difficult to be understood by common auditors. He He was alfo perhaps too fond of fufpending his adverfary on the horns of a dilemma. He is thought by many, and particularly by his English auditors, to have fpoken too deliberately; and undoubtedly his manner, in this refpect, was very different from that which prevails in this country: but, confiftently with his fcheme of elocution, neither he, nor any other man, could have been a rapid fpeaker, his extemporaneous effufions being always as correct, energetic, and compreffed, as the premeditated fpeeches of others. He endeavoured never to use a superfluous word. He never, at any time, permitted himself to be dittufive or inaccurate. He who makes it a rule always to speak correctly, pointedly, and concifely, must speak deliberately, unless he pronounces a written fpeech. No man ever spoke an extemporary fpeech rapidly without being diffufive in argument, or incorrect in language, without tautology and repetition. It has been industriously repeated that he came into the English House of Commons in the decline of his life, and in the wane of his abilities; and this cry was clamourously kept up by two large bodies of men in Ireland, one of which had long endured the fhafts of his eloquence, and the other never forgave his enforcing and ohtaining the English act of renunciation. No affertion, however, can be more unfounded. The mind of that man whofe talents were originally fplendid, and who perfeveres during the whole course of his life in conftant habits of study, and daily exertions both in public and private, can fuffer nothing from the affaults of age. He was fifty-three years old when he was chofen a member of the English parliament. His abilities at the time of ins death were as ftrong as ever they had been at anv period of his life, though certainly a man of fixty years old has not fo much ardour as one of thirty: but what he loft in ardour he gained in knowledge, and the accumulated experience of thirty years. If, though he made a confiderable impreffion in England, that which he had previoufly made in Ireland was much greater, the caufe is fufficiently obvious. He had attached himfelf to neither of the two great parties that divide this country; nor would any office, however lucrative (he had voluntarily refigned one of the most lucrative the minifter has to give) have attached him to either party, without refponfibilty and a certain fhare of power. This he expreffly made the preliminary to any treaty on this fubject. One party was too ftrong in numbers, and the other too ftrong in abilities, to court his aid, though each would gladly have accepted it; and thus he stood folated in the house, without any perfon feeling an intereft in his exertions or fuccefs. Add to this, that, confequently, he was precluded from almost all great fubjects of debate, and, confiftently with the fi tuation in which he stood, could exert himfelf only on neutral questions.—To this im perfect delineation of the character and abilities of this extraordinary perfon, we shall only add, that if ten men, of the most exalted talents, were to be felected, by impartial and capable judges, from the English annals of the eighteenth century, now haftening to its clofe, the name of HENRY FLOOD would be found among them. The following masterly SKETCH of the PUBLIC CONDUCT and CHARACTER OF this gentleman, was published in Ireland about three weeks after his death. "It is great measures which mark the great statesman. Let the character of Flood he afcertained by the meafures he fupported. "When he first appeared upon the public fcene, the proftrated state of this country [Ireland] and its conftitution would have quenched the ardour of a common mind; it only feemed to inflame his.. "Our Parliaments were for the life of the king; the two houses had little more than a negative voice; the privy council here affumed the power of originating bills; and the privy councils in both kingdoms, of altering and fuppreffing them; the whole procefs of legiflation was corrupted and inverted; the judges held their places, not during life. but during pleasure; the king's bench of England, and the house of lords of England, exercised a fupreme jurifdiction over all our courts; we had no Habeas Corpus Act; we were allowed a trade scarcely with any nation upon earth; and a great standing army was maintained in Ireland, under the authority of an English act of parliament, and without even the conftitutional counterpoife of a militia. "Mr. Flood ftruck at once at the root of all thefe enormities. He brought forward the bill for Septennial parliaments. To reftore the power of the people by a frequent recurrence of their elective powers, he knew, would foon give them fuch a voice in the constitution, as would enable them authoritatively to call for the restoration of every right. This Septennial bill, then, which had been fo often unfuccefsfully attempted, that it was never propofed without derifion, when urged with the overbearing energy of his eloquence, inftantly rofe into reputation, and was carried. "His next great attempt was a National Militia. He knew that a voice in the conititution was not fufhcient, if the people were overawed by a military force. He was, however, refifted by Government, and of course defeated. But the principle funk into the mind of the public, and it produced VOLUN TARY armaments. "He next leveled his abilities against that fabric of ufurpations, which was founded on the law of Poyning. The ground he took was the vicious and corrupt construction of that law;-the fafeft ground for the publick; becaufe, if the law was not mifconftrued, it could 1228 Biographical Account of the late Henry Flood, Efq. [Suppl. could only be got rid of by repeal, of which there was then little hope; but if it was mifconftrued, it only required integrity among our felves to rectify it. The first fruits of this exertion were, the rejection of altered money bills. "To prevent the accumulation of debt, and keep down the taxes of an impoverished country, were his objects on going into office, making at the fame time the most precife and unequivocal reservation in favour of all the great conftitutional principles which he had crer maintained. To fecure thefe objects, he ftipulated for his country, first, the reduction of twelve commitlioners of revenue to feven, which with the other appendages of this reduction, it was estimated would have produced a faving to the country of 20,0col. a year. Next, an abfentee tax, which, by a ftrange and unhappy change of fentiment in fome country gentlemen, failed. "Thefe measures, together with the general fyftem of frugality, for which he at all times contended, if carried into effect, would have prevented the public debt and taxes from having rifen above one half of what they are at the prefent day. "In lord Buckingham's administration, when the late Mr. Burgh moved for an extention of trade, Mr. Flood, with an emphatic tone, cried out across the house, "Why not a free trade?" The words were adopted; the free trade was carried. "The fpirit of Ireland, roufed by the American war, was now calling for the refloration of her rights in the most energetic accents. England was embarrailed and enfeebled. Ireland was armed. Mr. Flood faw the crifis, and feized it. The high office which he held he flung from him. He faced the minifter in the House of Commons, and, with all the vehemence of his eloquence, demanded the rights of his country. Ministry were thunder-ftruck and appalled. Burgh and Mr. Grattan ran across the houfe and embraced him; Mr. Burgh exclaiming, that this was the man, whole integrity the highest office in the land could not warp." Mr. "He then proceeded, inflexible by any thing but truth and honour, through that momentous feflion; always agreeing with the oppofition in principle, though fometimes differing from them as to the manner of carrying that principle into effect. Where he dittered, as far as experience has yet operated, it appears that he was not mistaken. The feffion concluded with the fimple repeal, and his argument for a renunciation. He, against the almost unanimous voice of the parliament of Ireland, against every fentment of the parlament of England, demanded the renunciation as the eflential incripentable recognition of the independance of Ireland. "The lawyers' corps was convinced by his argument, and concurred with him. The volunteers of the North were convinced, and concurred. The fentiment fpread, and kindled. The parliament of England renounced. "The ftupendous acquifitions of this fortunate crifis were fo many and fo mighty, he feared they might be furrendered or impaired, in fome moment of fupineness, by a corrupt and culpable Houte of Commons. There fore, to fecure these acquifitions for ever, he endeavoured to fortify the integrity of the Houfe of Commons by amending the form of reprefentation; and, delegated by the great national convention, he introduced his Reform bill into parliament. "He was at this moment elevated to the highest fummit of popularity, and power, and fame, to which he had ever reached, in the whole orbit of his life. The convention he ruled with an abfolute sway, by the fole fceptre of reafon. He never uttered there that he did not convince. He never convinced that he did not fucceed. Since the creation of the world, perhaps no undeified individual did ever receive fuch deference, fuch confidence, fuch fupremacy, from a wife and enlightened affembly. "But his good fortune, as if it had been now ftrained beyond its strength, broke, and from this time faded him. "His Reform being rejected, and the convention diffolved, there being no immediate profpect of any momentous occurrence here, he went over to the English parliament. "That the people there should be jealous of the reputation of their own orators; that they thould have heard with difpleafore frequent compartons made between them and Mr. Flood. to the difadvantage of the latter; that their national pride should be glad to feize any flender opportunity to disparage and decry him, it is eafy to fuppofe; but that they fhould have the folly to reprefent him as a man of feeble talents and no understanding, was an extravagance of pride and prejudice fcarcely imaginable. Yet fuch was the fact. Every effort of noife and clamour, while Le was fpeaking, and every artifice of perverfion and derifton after he had done, were employed against him even by his own countrymen. "When he came back to the Irish house of commons, he was treated with the fame barbarous clamour as in England. The fublimeft triumphs of his reafon, the moft lumicous effufions of his wir, were over powered and drowned in the noife of the corrupt and the factions From this time the double tide of both parties ran agamit him. His having fpurned the vice-treafurerihip fhewed that the greatest office could not manacie his integrity. His whole conduct as a ftatefman, and particularly the renunciation, fhewed that no political chicane could dupe his understanding. Neither to be bought or bubbled, he was therefore every where to be overwhelmed and undermined. The wrath of all parties, however otherwife adverie, concentrated concentrated against him. The friends of the king were never to forgive his repudiation of the vice-treasurerfhip. The friends of Mr. Pitt and the friends of the king became one. The friends of Mr. Fox were never to forgive the renunciation. Indeed in this last measure he had been too much a friend to Ireland, not to be viewed as a foe by every English party, and confequently by every clafs of their partizans here. The people too here, having now become quiefcent after fuch arduous exertions, were become almoft indifferent fpectators of the public fcene, and afforded no bafts to fupport him against fuch concurrent hoftilities. He till however attempted the Parliamentary Reform. He attempted it by the aid of the fecond convention or congrefs, and by the most vigorous efforts of his own voice in parliament. The fpirit of the people funk more and more. At last he was obliged to desist. "He then attempted his Reform in England. All parties, however difinclined, confeffed, that it was the wifeft fpeech, and wifeft plan, that had yet been propounded. It failed; but if ever a Reform fhall fucceed there, it is generally thought, it will be the Reform of Henry Flood. "Now the mine was springing under his feet, which was to annihilate all his political power for ever. A diffolution of parliament was fhortly to take place in both kingdoms; and there is much reafon to fuppofe, that the great parties in both confpired in the one point, to keep him out of both parliaments. The people no where took him up. This is mentioned, not to caft any uncommon ftain of ingratitude upon his countrymen, though he was the laft man then upon earth whom they ought to have fuffered to be fo un down.. The greatest characters in all countries have experienced fimilar defection. "At length the great phenomenon appeared. Both parliaments were elected; and Flood, with all his property, alt his abilities, all his defervings, was of neither a member. Even upon the people here this feemed to make little impreffion; and fome of his oldeft friends feemed unaffected at the event. He retired to the country; and his great mind, which could never have been depreffed by the worse inflictions of the enemies of his country, was not fo well able to fuftain the neglect of his countrymen. "He died the 2d of December 1791, at Farmly, in the county of Kilkenny, in the Seth year of his age. "His property he bequeathed to the people of Ireland, under the direction of the Univerfity of Dublin; leaving it under fuch regulations as he conceived would make it molt contribute to the fame of his country." Various interpretations have been put upon the bequest of Mr. Flood to the University of Dublin. The extent therefore and object of it we fhall briefly explain. There are many manufcripts in the Irish language, which are the most ancient and authentic records, that any nation in Europe can boaft. These are now either fcattered and perithing in the poffeffion of individuals in Ireland, or configned to oblivion in the libraries of France and Rome. To have these venerable memorials depofited in the University of Dublin was his first object. To provide, by the establishment of an Irish profeffor, for the developement of all the curious and interefting information they contained, his next. After this, the in-, come of his eftate is to replenish the library of that Univerfity with all valuable books ancient and modern, which must render it in time the most noble repofitory of literary production in the world. Laftly," as great examples incite to great deeds," (to use the expreffion of his own laft teftament) he orders annual rewards to be given to the University for the best compo. fitions in celebration of thofe great charac ters, who have adorned the world, and benefited the human race, What can be more noble? What can be more wife? What can be more charac teriftic of a mighty mind and patriotic heart than the whole scheme of this great bequest? -a bequest TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND, under the direction of the University, to draw its ancient records from neglect and oblivion, to make a great depofit in that kingdom of all the valuable works of literature, to encourage learning and learned men, and to inflame pofterity by the annual celebration of great exploits to the fublime ambition of emulating them! Let the ignorant ftare.-Let the fordid deride. The virtuous and the wife will remember the name of HENRY FLOOD to lateft pofterity with gratitude and veneration. The altercation between Mr. Flood and Mr. Grattan, alluded to in p. 1225, arofe in the Irish houfe of commons on the following motion, which was made on Tuesday, Of. 28, 1783. Sir H. Cavendish moved, "that the condition of this country demands that every practicable retrenchment confiftent with the fafety thereof, and with the honourable fupport of his majesty's government, should be made in its expences." Mt. FLOOD. I find myself little capable of speaking to this question, oppreffed with fickness as I am; not in the leaft degree expecting fuch a question this night, and more aftonifhed than ever I was in my life, to find the least symptom of opposition rifing on the other fide of the house. The oppofition to fhould originate here, for the resolution does not go as far as it ought to do. In lord Townshend's administration, a refolution was propofed, "that the condition of this country required every practicable retrenchment to be made in its expences;" and the admini ftration 1230 Biographical Account of the late Henry Flood, Efq. ftration of that day thought they had done I am as willing as any man to pay compli- [Suppl. been involving her deeper and deeper, becane yond her ftrength:-when all the woll we at first engaged her in an undertaking be united against Britain, and the was furround ed with enemies on every fide, we gave way to the feelings of our hearts, and spared her flagrante bello, we granted her more that 4000 men; and, fome time afterwards, time of war the country could fubfist with half of our remaining troops! If then in out troops, will any man fay that in time of profound peace the ought to fupport 15,000 men? No, now is the time for reducing your military establishment; let your intention be known this day, that the right hon. secretary may have time to communicate with England; if you neglect the prefent opportunity, ne for reftoring the finances of this country. minifter hereafter will have even a pretence I can gain nothing by it; I am ready in ei I am no partizan either here or in England. ther place, like a man, to fupport minister wrong, to oppofe them, and refift their meawhile they are right; and whenever they are fures. At prefent I hope my honourable friend will allow me to alter his metion, and ftate a precife idea; I would have it run thus: "Refolved, that the condition of this country and that the military establishment, in its prerequires every practicable retrenchment, &c. fent state, affords room for effectual retrenchment." I love the army as a body of brave and kingdom to their benefit. Now, fir, if miworthy men, but I would not facrifice the nifters really mean economy, they will agree with this amendment of mine; if not, they will amufe us with words only. long, nor take up the time of the house, by Mr. GRATTAN.-I fhall not trouble you apologizing for bodily infirmity, or the affec felf, or enter into a defence of my character, tation of infirmity.-I fhall not speak of my. having never apoftatized.-I think it is not neceffary for the house now to investigate what we know to be fact. I think it would be better to go into the bufinefs, as the house did upon another occafion, without waiting the formality of the committee's reportgrateful nation has bestowed upon me, for As to myfelf, the honourable reward that a ever binds me to make every return in my power, and particularly to oppose every unneceffary expence. I am far from thinking fpeech; and I believe he will find inftances with the honourable gentleman as to the the throne, but prodigality practifed. This where œconomy has been recommended from wasthe cafe in lord Harcourt's administration. An administration which had the support of the hon. gentleman, and therefore he, of all men, cannot be at a lofs to reject that illufory fpeeches of lord lieutenants. With refpe&t ta œconomy, which has fo ofter appeared in the the Genevete, I never could have thought it poible to give the speech fuch a bias as has been mentioned, and that people will be deceived, |