rited, and dignified; commanding respect, and communicating universal animation." His action, in the use of which he is not sparing, is often strong, and powerfully energetic; but never graceful.”"It might rouse, it might agitate a rude multitude; but will hardly please a cultivated audience. In argument, he is superiorly great,-in that respect, surpassing any man we have heard in the senate house; being, as his subject demands, either close, compact, and condensed; or, diffuse, dilated, and comprehensive; properly and pertinently enforcing the principal parts of the question, yet never overlooking its minutest or meanest points; connecting what is separated, contracting what is disjointed, and scientifically unfolding what is abstracted or obscure. If he ever seems

to recede or to retreat, it is not to desert the contest, but to select a better ground of attack. In the refutation of his opponents he exerts the full powers of his mind; exposing their impostures to contempt, and their fallacies to ridicule;

now, with the strictest forms of reason; and, anon, with the chastest raillery, and the happiest strain of irony.

"In invective he peculiarly excels, giving it a poignancy and a severity which the iambic measures of Archilocus hardly equalled; and which the most conversant and the most obstinate in such contests, have, after months of preparation, felt to be more keen and more cutting than their studied philippics. His argument adds considerably to all he says; for it is clear, regular, and accurately scientific; gradually leading from what is easy to what is abstruse; from what is conceded to what is disputed; forming a connected chain of argumentation, wherein not a link can be broken without diminishing its force, nor removed without weakening its evidence.

so that his knowledge appears universal, and its application instantaneous."

Such was the estimate of this great man which was formed by a living observer, of whose phraseology we may not always approve, but whose judgment, certainly, seems to us to be borne out by the specimens which have survived of Mr. Flood's powers as a reasoner, as an orator, and as a statesman. Those who were privileged to judge of him from private intercourse, have borne an equally favourable testimony to the extent of his erudition, the refinement of his taste, and that passionate love of literature and of the arts, by which, through life, he was distinguished. Indeed his last will, in which he bequeaths the whole of his property, the University of Dublin, for the puramounting to five thousand a-year, to pose of purchasing Irish manuscripts, and founding a professorship, with a view to the cultivation of the Irish language, while it proves what would now be acknowledged an almost prophetic foresight of the value of those precious and perishing relics, demonstrates the intensity of interest which he took in the antiquarian literature of Ireland.*

Lord Ross, writing with a fine enthusiasm, of his departed friend, thus expresses himself :—

"Often did Mr. Flood remark to me, that, while in the east ingenious men were collecting and translating with such laudable industry, the ancient writings of the inhabitants of that region between the Indus and the Ganges, the valuable memorials of our own island were neglected and perishing. He thought that many of the truths of ancient history were to be found at these two extremities of the lettered world; that they would reflect light and knowledge upon each other, and lead to a more certain acquaintance with the early history of man. His great mind was wont to combine the most distant things; to bring the east and the west into juxta-position; and by the comparison of these extremes, to examine the immutable coincidences of truth,"

That the Irish were descended from a Scythian colony, which first migrated

to Egypt, and afterwards passed to the western coast of Spain, from whence the voyage to this country would have been peculiarly easy, always appeared to Mr. Flood a probable hypothesis; and he was not a little confirmed in that notion, by the coincidences, in point of language, which were first pointed out by his friend Vallancey,* (whom he generously remembered in his will,) and the brazen swords which have been found in the bogs in Ireland, and which resemble those that have been dug up at Canne, and which were used by the ancient Carthaginians. A sneering and contemptuous anti-nationality distinguished the sciolists of his day, who seemed ashamed of their country; who were scandalized at any one who professed a belief in its ancient renown, or expressed a persuasion that the manuscripts written in the Irish language were deserving of being seriously regarded. With what indignant truth does Lord Ross reprove such scoffers, in his eloquent vindication of the will of his illustrious friend! "But Mr. Flood's authority alone ought to impress upon these manuscripts a deep stamp of credit and estimation. He was certainly one of the greatest men that ever adorned this country. His mind was the most capacious; his reason the most athletic; his judgment the most balanced; his erudition the most profound. His nature was too dignified to deceive others; his intellect too piercing to be deceived himself. Yet he, in the most solemn act of his existence, when he was going to leave a great memorial to all posterity of his unabating patriotism, and so make the termination of his life accord with all his actions while living, in which his country was his first and paramount object; for the prosperity of which he lived and laboured; and in the same ardour for its fame was just about to die; he, I say, consecrated with his dying breath these venerable records, and embalmed them and his own fame together, to all posterior ages; and thus, by such a conduct at such a time, when he knew that nothing but truth could throw glory around his declining orb, and when there was an end of every inclination which could cast obscurity upon truth,

has given a testimony which ought to satisfy uninformed men of the value of these ancient writings, though uncorroborated by all the high authorities that bear evidence in their support. But his great bequest did not terminate here. He has ordered by his will that, after all the manuscripts in the Irish language that can be purchased have been ob tained, then those books and manuscripts in the languages that have an immediate affinity to the Irish shall likewise be purchased; thereby showing the great chain of thought that moved through his mind fame of Ireland, as preserved in these upon this subject; and that though the ancient records, was his primary object, the wide horizon of his intellect embraced

the early history of the whole human by the connection and comparison of race, which he hoped would be illustrated these collateral testimonies. After this his bequest extends to the purchase of books in all languages, at the discretion of the governors of the university; thereby insuring to Ireland in course of time the greatest library in the world. Of all the stupendous works of the Egyptian Ptolomies, none have transmitted their memories to posterity with a more luminous fame than their great library at Alexandria. The bequest of Mr. Flood is not less worthy of renown; it is the same in object, and not less in extent. How can a nation be truly great without learned men, and how can men be truly learned without such great repositories of literature to resort to? If the acts which have most stigmatized the most stigmatized barbarians, the Vandals and the Goths, have been the destruction of such collections of lettered works, surely he who founds and institutes such must receive proportionate applause from the civilized world? But his great bequest, which for wisdom and magnificence of design exceeds any thing of this kind upon record in ancient or modern times, goes further still: to use his own expiring words, seeing that nothing stimulates to great deeds more strongly than great examples,' he orders that the characters of some of those great men in ancient and modern times, who have been eminently serviceable and honourable to their country, should, in annual compositions, be commemorated

in our Universities: that their exalted actions may stand forth and be pourtrayed in living colours before every rising generation here to the end of time: that their ennobling sentiments may be poured into the minds of the young, to swell their thoughts to high conceptions and illustrious deeds: that the wreaths of true honor and fame may be hung up in their view to excite them to those actions of refined and sublimated virtue, by which alone they can hope to reach them.

eves

"This was the extensive range of Mr. Flood's bequest to the public; having first manifested in his will all the wise and tender anxieties and cares for those around him for whom duty and affection taught him to provide; having for these, when he was about to retire from the world, provided every means of competency, and spread every shade of protection which a prudent and liberal mind could suggest; he then turns his upon Ireland:-Ireland, for whose prosperity and liberty and glory he had so many years so illustriously toiled, and which was now to be closed from his view for ever. His great spirit, while it was just hovering over the tomb, was still busied about the future fame of his country; and dictated those expiring accents, which direct that the materials of learning, from all parts of the earth, should be from time to time collected and deposited in the bosom of our University. Thus founding for his country an everlasting pyramid of all the accumulated knowledge of man, which should out-top the works of all other nations; and by which every future genius of our island might climb to the summit of human intelligence, and take his towering flight. Lastly, to excite to this, and to every thing else great and worthy, he orders that the most exalted examples of

the most exalted men, that have ever improved and dignified human nature, may be applied to transfuse their virtues into the expanding bosoms of our youth; that thus as it were, through the medium of his last will, his voice, though dead himself, might call continually from the tomb upon the aspiring offspring of every succeeding age, to ennoble their minds, and spread glory over their country, by their knowledge, their talents, and their vir

unrivalled in his own country; and had it been his fortune to have moved upon a theatre as capacious as his own mind, his celebrity would not have been exceeded by any man's in any other."

The opinion expressed in the concluding sentence may seem, in some measure, at variance with the fact, that Mr. Flood could not be said to have been eminently successful, after his transplantation into the English House of Commons. This, however, may be accounted for by circumstances, which will still leave his senatorial reputation the first night of his entrance into that very high indeed. His first step, on assembly, was a false one. When his only object was, to say that he did not should have been silent. intend either to speak or vote, he He was, unfortunately, by the flattering attention with which he was received, drawn on to attempt doing more than that; and the consequence was, that he was damaged in public estimation by seeming to fail, where he never intended to appear successful. No matter what the accident by which a high-mettled horse may have broken his knees, his value will be depreciated by it, even more than his utility may be impaired; and so it was with Mr. Flood, who was discouraged, by what then occurred, from taking that active part in English politics upon which he had been previously resolved, and who never afterwards, but upon rare occasions, solicited the notice of parliament. But when he did do so, the reader has already seen it was with consummate power. And if he did not ardently engage in the strife of parties; and take that lead in the great affairs which then engaged public attention, which might be expected from his great abilities, it arose as much from the proud attitude of independence which he assumed, which kept him separated from the powerful interests by which public business was at that time managed, as from any other cause to which it could be reaHe was like a sonably attributed. ship which refused to sail in convoy, even after she had suffered some injury upon leaving port; and which, accordingly, must be less able to remedy the accidents or to overcome the difficulties which she may meet with on her voyage, than she would have been if

she had not resolved to pursue her course in a state of voluntary sequestration.

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But no failure in England can take from him the praise of unrivalled skill as a debater. Of that, he exhibited innumerable specimens in the Irish parliament. His readiness in availing himself of any incident which, in the stormy discussions in that assembly, might be turned to account, strikingly appeared, when, after the recognition of Irish legislative independence, it was deemed expedient to confirm an act passed in the reign of William and Mary, by which the crown of Ireland was inseparably annexed to the crown of England. Mr. Flood moved an amendment, for the perpetual union of the crowns, and the perpetual separation of the houses of legislation, which was strongly opposed by Mr. Fitzgibbon, Mr. Yelverton, and Mr. Grattan. At that time there was a small party in the house, consisting of thirteen members, the representatives of northern boroughs, and known by the name of "the Hillsborough Club." Their costume was "orange and blue." They were in the habit," adds our informant, a gentleman who writes from a personal knowledge of the facts, "of spending the night in convivial excesses ;" and entering the house, when, towards morning, the question was about to be put, and when their votes might be needed. "It was now three o'clock when Flood rose to reply, and he had not proceeded far, when these gentlemen entered the house in a body to vote against him. The orator paused, and affecting surprise, said, Hah! what do I behold!' Then with an air of joy and gratulation, and extending his arms as if to embrace his new allies, I hail,' said he, those glorious colours, auspicious to the constitution! These honorable men have, no doubt, spent the night in vigils for the glory and fortune of the commonwealth. Come, come to this heart, with all your patriotism.' The effect was magical. The voice of the orator was drowned amidst the cheers and acclamations of the house, and the astonished courtiers felt their livery for the first time a cause of confusion and dismay, while they fell back into the corridors amidst the broad laughter of the other members.

There were in the Irish, as there are in the English House of Commons, useful individuals, who made it their business to go through the house for the purpose of completing the muster of their party, preparatory to a division upon any important question. They are denominated in parliamentary phrase "whippers-in." One of these convenient gentlemen was very industriously employed in his vocation, while Mr. Flood was one night upon his legs; and his figure, as he glided between the benches, with pencil and paper in his hands, taking down the names of the supporters of administration, caught the eye of the orator, who plainly saw that unless he contrived to excite a strong feeling of indignation upon the instant, an arrangement would be made by which all his efforts must be, in all probability, defeated. He therefore paused, and, looking intently at the individual, with straining eye-balls, as if he saw a ghost, the attention of the whole house became riveted upon him, while the gentleman himself, the object of such intense interest, suspended his function, and, wholly unconscious of having given any cause for the astonishment that seemed depicted in every countenance, leant forward and gazed at the orator with an eye of asking wonder. At length Flood broke silence. What," he said, "is it that I see! Shall the temple of freedom still be haunted by the foul fiend of bribery and corruption? I see, personified before me, an incarnation of that evil principle which lives by the destruction of public virtue." And then, perceiving that he had the feeling of the house with him, he exclaimed, as if exorcising an evil spirit,-" Avaunt thou loathsome sprite, thou pander to ministerial profligacy! and no longer pollute with thy presence this edifice consecrated to the constitution." The effect of this hazardous appeal was very great indeed. The " 'whipper-in" withdrew, amidst shouts of execration, similar to those which the populace sometimes exhibit when they catch a glimpse of the hangman. And Mr. Flood resumed his argument to a more excited and favourable audience than he had before.

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His powers of repartee, and his command of classical allusion, were often