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sooner had these votes been passed than the Lord Lieutenant went down to the House, delivered in the form of a speech an angry protest, which he caused to be inserted in the journals of the House of Lords, and prorogued the Parliament though pressing business was on hand, and though several temporary statutes were expiring and required renewal.

For fourteen months it was not again summoned. In the meantime the Government fought their battle by numerous dismissals, and by the most lavish corruption in the forms of peerages, pensions and places. It was afterwards a confession or a boast of Lord Clare that not less than half a million of money was spent in obtaining a majority. With such a Constitution as that of the Irish Parliament, such efforts could scarcely fail. When the House met in February 1771, the customary congratulatory addresses to the Lord Lieutenant were duly carried, though not without great difficulty, and after a powerful opposition from Flood in the Commons and from Charlemont in the Lords. In seventeen divisions in the House of Commons on the first two days of the session the Government triumphed, but Ponsonby, the Speaker, resigned his office rather than present the address, and when another altered Money Bill was afterwards introduced, it was rejected on the motion of Flood without a division. The Commissioners of Revenue, who were not allowed to sit in the English House of Commons, had seats in that of Ireland, and Lord Townshend, with a view to increasing his parliamentary influence, resolved to increase their number from seven to twelve. Flood denounced the proposed measure, and on his motion the Parliament passed a resolution asserting the sufficiency of seven. In accordance with another resolution, the opinion of the House was formally laid before the Lord Lieutenant, who carried out his intention in

defiance of it. Every nerve was strained on both sides. Repeated votes of censure were brought forward and some of them were carried. Sixteen peers drew up a protest in terms of unexampled violence against the proceedings of the Viceroy, and outside Parliament public feeling was fiercely roused. Lord Townshend succumbed to the storm. He was recalled in September 1772, but before he left Ireland he succeeded in obtaining a vote of thanks from Parliament.

During the course of this contest a series of political papers appeared in Dublin, under the title of Baratariana,' which produced an extraordinary sensation, and are not even now quite forgotten. They consisted of a history of Barataria, being a sketch of Lord Townshend's administration, with fictitious names; of a series of letters modelled after Junius; and of three or four satirical poems. The history and the poems were by Sir Hercules Langrishe, the dedication and the letters signed Posthumus' and 'Pertinax' by Grattan, and those signed Syndercombe by Flood. Flood's letters are powerful and well-reasoned, though very violent, but, like his speeches, they are too laboured in style, and they certainly give no countenance to the notion started at one time that he was the author of the letters of Junius.

Flood had now attained to a position that had as yet been unparalleled in Ireland. He had shown that great abilities unconnected with office could find a real scope for action in the Irish Parliament. He had proved himself beyond all comparison the greatest popular orator that his country had as yet produced, and also a consummate master of Parliamentary tactics. Under Parliamentary conditions that were exceedingly unfavourable and in an atmosphere charged with corruption, venality, and subserviency, he had created a party before which ministers had begun to quail, and had inoculated the Protestant

FLOOD BECOMES VICE-TREASURER

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constituencies with a genuine spirit of liberty and of selfreliance. The concession of the Octennial Act was mainly ascribed to his efforts; he had done more than any previous Irishman to interest the country in parliamentary discussions, and he had placed before it a programme of reforms which gave a direction and an impulse to public opinion. No rival had as yet risen to detract from his fame, and no suspicion rested upon his conduct. The tide now began to turn. We have henceforth to describe the rapid decadence of his power. We have to follow him descending from his proud position, eclipsed by a more splendid genius, soured by disappointment, and clouded by suspicion, and sinking, after one brilliant flash of departing glory, into a position of comparative insignificance.

Lord Harcourt succeeded Lord Townshend as Viceroy. He came over to Ireland some time before the meeting of Parliament, which did not take place till October 1773. His government was intended to be a viceroyalty of conciliation, and it was noticed that Flood, as well as the more aristocratic leaders of the late Opposition, were present at his first levees. One of the chief objects of the new Lord Lieutenant was to win the support of Flood, of whose great abilities and influence in Parliament he formed the highest estimate. Blaquiere, the new Chief Secretary, was authorised to offer him the first great office that became vacant, and Harcourt wrote to England that it would be advisable to secure Mr. Flood almost at any expense, rather than risk the opposition of so formidable a leader.' These overtures were successful, and having at first supported the Administration as an independent member, he at length consented, in the October of 1775, to accept the office of Vice-Treasurer, with a salary of 3,500l. a year, and a seat in the Privy Council.

Of all the steps of his career this has been the most

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censured. The reasons, however, which Flood alleged for joining the Government are on record, and, besides contemporary letters and conversations that were preserved, we possess his own very elaborate vindication in a speech. which he delivered in 1783 in reply to the invective of Grattan. These reasons seem to me amply sufficient to exculpate him from the charge of corruption. Flood had never been a factious or systematic opponent of Governments. He had promised his warm support to that of Lord Bristol, who had accepted the Lord Lieutenancy under Lord Chatham; his persistent hostility to Lord Townshend, as he himself explicitly states, only dated from the prorogation, and it was confined to particular measures of a Viceroy who had been recalled. He desired, it is true, to make the Irish Legislature as independent as that of England, and it was an intelligible policy to stand apart from every Government which refused to make the concession; but such a policy then appeared absolutely suicidal. The constitution of Parliament and the character of its members made it seem utterly impossible that a measure of independence could be carried in the teeth of the Government, and if it were carried there was not the faintest probability of such a movement outside the walls as would compel the English Parliament to yield to it. It was not possible for Flood or for any man to predict the wonderful impulse that was given by the American War and by the arms of the volunteers.

Of the two other capital objects of his policy, the limitation of Parliament had been carried, and the establishment of a militia had for the present become impossible and unnecessary through the large augmentation of the regular army. The success of his opposition to Lord Townshend's Administration was chiefly due to the accidental alliance of some of the most selfish members of the aristocracy with

REASONS FOR TAKING OFFICE

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his party, and even then two votes of thanks to the Lord Lieutenant were carried. When Lord Townshend was recalled the Undertakers' at once returned to their old allegiance, the party of Flood speedily dwindled, and it appeared evident that under the existing constitution of Parliament this party could not reasonably hope to do more than slightly modify the course of events.

Under these circumstances Flood contended that the true policy of patriots was to act with the Government, and endeavour to make its measures diverge in the direction of public utility. A patriot in office would be obliged to waive the discussion of some measures which he desired, but he could do more for the popular cause than if he were leading a hopeless minority. In the restricted constitution of Ireland the Privy Council was a more important body even than the Parliament, for it was there that the principles on which the country was governed were in reality determined. A voice in that body was of the utmost importance to a reformer. Flood himself was so indisputably the first man in Parliament that he reasonably held that he could greatly influence the Government, and Lord Harcourt was an honourable and liberal man, and he came to supersede the Viceroy whom Flood had most bitterly opposed.

At such a time, and estimating the strength of parties when Ireland was in its normal condition, Flood concluded that the discussion of the independence of Parliament might be advantageously postponed, if its postponement were purchased by some minor concessions on the part of the Government, and the early policy of Harcourt showed a great disposition to make them. The creation of five new Commissioners of Revenue had been one of the measures of Lord Townshend which Flood had most vehemently opposed. One of the first acts of the new Administration was to abolish these commissioners and reunite the