Boards of Customs and Excise which Townshend had divided. The new Government recommended an absentee tax of 2d. in the pound on the rents of absentee proprietors. The measure was welcomed with enthusiasm by Flood, and was defended by him in Parliament with extraordinary ability. It was ultimately rejected in the Irish House of Commons and the Government were secretly in favour of that rejection, but they were at least its ostensible supporters and there was much hope that it would be revived. Some prospect was held out of a relaxation of the commercial restrictions which were the great economical grievance of Ireland, and a measure, which Flood warmly supported, was carried granting certain bounties on the export of Irish corn to foreign countries. It must be added that by becoming Vice-Treasurer Flood restored to Ireland a great Irish office which had hitherto been always given to Englishmen. These reasons, he said, determined him to accept office, and there appears to be no valid reason for questioning his account, though in his negotiations with the Government he unquestionably placed his pretensions very high, and personal considerations played an unduly prominent part. It may I think be truly said that the faults of his character were not those of corruption. A certain avarice of fame, an excessive solicitude about opinion, made him often jealous of competitors, fretful and uncertain as a colleague, anxious to identify himself with all great measures, and prone to exaggerate his share in their success. But in no other part of his life was he open to a suspicion of being governed by love of money; nor was he in this respect much tempted, for he possessed a large private fortune, and had no children.

Lord Charlemont protested strongly against the resolution of Flood, and there can be no doubt that it formed the fatal turning point of his life. In the very session in

SUPPORTS THE AMERICAN WAR

53

which Flood accepted office, Grattan entered the House of Commons, and he soon occupied the position which Flood would naturally have held. For nearly seven years Flood remained in office, and during that period he was obliged to keep silence on those great constitutional questions which in former years he had ceaselessly expounded. His character was no longer above suspicion, and the confidence of the people-the chief element of his powerhad passed away. The popular mind detects quickly a change of opinion or of political attitude, but it seldom cares to analyse carefully the motives that may have produced it. The absentee tax was so strongly opposed in England that it was not revived. The Newfoundland fisheries, it is true, were thrown open to Ireland and a few slight commercial relaxations were granted, but they were much less than Flood desired or than the necessities of Irish finances demanded. Supply Bills were still altered and a Habeas Corpus Bill was again rejected in England. The same fate befell another Militia Bill, and a Bill for making the tenure of judges secure. A two years' embargo was imposed upon Ireland in consequence of the American war; and in this unpopular measure Flood was compelled to acquiesce. Above all, the Irish Parliament was induced, though with some difficulty, to commit itself decisively against the Americans in the great struggle that had begun.

Like very many politicians of his time, Flood seems to have regarded the subjugation of America as of vital importance to the Empire. Destruction,' he once predicted in a characteristic sentence, will come upon the British Empire like the coldness of death. It will creep upon it from the extreme parts.' With the assent of the Irish Parliament four thousand Irish troops were sent to fight against the Americans. The inducement was that

the pay would be saved to Ireland; the objections were, that it left Ireland without the stipulated number of troops, and in a measure defenceless, and that this extraordinary exertion seemed to imply an extraordinary amount of zeal against a cause which was coming to be more and more regarded as that of justice and of freedom. Flood defended the measure, and designated the troops as armed negotiators.' It was to this unfortunate expression that Grattan alluded when he described him, in his famous invective, as standing 'with a metaphor in his mouth and a bribe in his pocket, a champion against the rights of America-the only hope of Ireland, and the only refuge of the liberties of mankind.' The American question added largely to the difficulties of the closing period of Lord Harcourt's Administration. The Presbyterians in the north were generally and violently in favour of the Americans, and the principles that were at issue in the struggle had a manifest bearing on the constitutional position of Ireland. The controversy had turned on the respective powers of local legislatures and of the British Parliament, and if Great Britain established her right to tax America without her consent it would be impossible to resist the extension of the same principle to Ireland. A powerful and independent body in the House of Commons strenuously resisted the determination of the majority to make Ireland an active party against the colonists, and the exigency of the struggle, as well as a dissolution of the House of Commons which took place in the spring of 1776, obliged the Viceroy to resort even more lavishly than his predecessor to corruption. Eighteen Irish peers were created in a single day and twelve peers were promoted in the peerage. The Pension List was rapidly increasing; 80,000l. was added in this Administration to the public expenditure, and, in spite of increased taxation, the debt rose by quick strides to a million of pounds. The

ALIENATION FROM THE GOVERNMENT

55

war with the colonies, and still more the rupture with France, had produced extreme distress. It was becoming evident that bankruptcy must speedily arrive unless either some great economy was introduced into the system of government or some new sources of wealth were opened. In the opinion of all the best judges an abolition of the commercial disabilities which so fatally cramped the industry of Ireland was the one real remedy for the disease, but such a measure would have to encounter the full force of manufacturing jealousy in England. In the autumn of 1776 Lord Harcourt resigned, and was replaced in November by the Earl of Buckinghamshire. In the early part of that year it appears that Flood had entered, though without success, into negotiations for obtaining a seat in the British House of Commons under the patronage of Lord North.

Flood appears to have given an efficient support to the Government of Lord Harcourt during all the proceedings that have been described, though he afterwards claimed to have tried in the Privy Council to give a more liberal bias to its policy. In the beginning of the Administration of Lord Buckinghamshire he showed himself much more alienated from the Government. He disliked the new Chief Secretary, Sir R. Heron. He absented himself from the meetings of the Privy Council. He complained that he was treated as a mere placeman.' He sat in the House of Commons a silent, moody, disappointed man, scarcely ever speaking, rarely voting, and manifesting clearly his discontent with his position. But he still retained his office, and by doing so he fatally impaired his influence with his countrymen.

A great change was now passing over the spirit of Ireland. In spite of the augmentation of the forces which was ruining the finances of Ireland, the country was

almost destitute of troops, and in the spring of 1778 France had allied herself with the revolted colonies. Privateers soon began to hover around the Irish coast and fears of invasion, or at least of a French predatory descent, became very acute. Protection was urgently needed, but the Government were compelled to acknowledge that they had neither troops nor money to furnish it. The Mayor of Belfast called upon the Government to place a garrison in that town at a time when there was reason to believe that a French descent was impending, and was informed that half a troop of dismounted cavalry and half a troop of invalids were all that could be spared to defend the commercial capital of Ulster.

Then arose one of those movements of enthusiasm that occur two or three times in the history of a nation. The cry to arms passed through the land, and was speedily responded to. Beginning among the sturdy Protestants of the north, the movement soon spread, though in a less degree, to other parts of the island, and all along the coast associations for self-defence were formed under the guidance of the leading gentry. Nearly all the gentry of Ireland threw themselves into the movement, and great subscriptions were made to purchase arms and accoutrements. The Catholics were not yet enrolled, but they showed warm sympathy with the movement and subscribed liberally towards its expense. From Howth to Connemara, from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear, the spirit of enthusiasm had passed, and the creation of an army had begun. The military authorities, who could not defend the country, could not refuse to arm those who had arisen to supply their place. In a few weeks more than 40,000 men had assembled, disciplined and appointed as a regular army, fired by the strongest enthusiasm, and moving as a single man. They rose to defend their country from the invasion