Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/340

 328 FLO F L and asserted that he was engaged in counterfeiting. _ This led to disagreeable complications, which resulted in his leaving his parish and becoming a missionary in the valley of the Mississippi. There could have been no discipline better adapted to correct his natural sensitiveness than his work at the West in those days, where he came into contact with many rough people and peculiar social habits. His observations oil the manners and character of the settlers of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were recorded in a very picturesque work called Recollections of Ten Years passed in the Valley of the Mississippi, Boston, 1826. This book passed to a second edition, and excited so much interest as to be translated into French as well as reprinted in England. Indeed, it was the first account of the Western States of America which brought to light the real life and character of the people. Flint had acquired this knowledge of the young communities of the West, not only by his journeys among them as an itinerant preacher, but also by having been fora short period teacher and farmer on the banks of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. The success which this work met with, together with the failing health of the writer, led him to relinquish his more active labours for literary pursuits, His subsequent publi cations were as follows : Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot, 1826, a novel, the scene of which is laid in Mexico at the period of the revolution in which Iturbide was overthrown ; A Condensed Geography and History of the Western Stales in the Mississippi Valley, 2 vols. 8vo. Cincin., 1828; Arthur Clenning, a novel, 1828; George Mas m, the Young Backwoodsman, a novel ; Indian Wars in the West, 1S33; Memoir of Daniel Boone, 1834. In addition to these works, Flint published several transla tions from the French, and essays in the London Athencmm, the Western Review, and the New York Knickerbocker, of which last two magazines he was at different times editor. His style was vivid, plain, and forcible, and his matter in teresting ; the spirit of his writings was always humane and genial ; the Quarter!,// Review, in a notice of his first book, says: &quot;These pages reflect a sincere, humane, and liberal character, a warm and gentle heart, and hardly even a pre judice which is not amiable.&quot; He was very industrious, and liad acquired such a power of abstraction that he prose cuted the labour of translating the Bioyrapltie Universelle in a room where other persons were engaged in work or conversation, being so absorbed in his work as to lose all consciousness of where he was or who was present. He died in Salem, August 16, 1840. His works on the Western States are still among the best we have on the subject. FLODOARD, or FKODOAET (894-966), a French chronicler, was born at Epernay in 894. He was educated at Rheims, and for some time held the office of canon in the cathedral of that city. The later years of his life were spent in retirement at a neighbouring monastery, and were devoted to study and the exercises of piety. He died 28th March 966. His works are the most important contribu tion to the French literature of his time, and consist of Jlistoire de Ueglise de Rheims ; Chronique sacree, a poetical history of Jesus Christ, the apostles, the popes, and the paints and martyrs of the church ; and Chronicon Renim inter francos gestarum, which, beginning with the year 919 and ending with 966, throws more light than any other document on the annals of the 10th century. This work was first printed in the Renim Burgundicarum Chronicon, Basel, 1575 ; and a translation of it was inserted by Guixot in his Collection des Memoires rclatifs a I Histoire de France. The prose of Flodoard is very correct and elegant, but his poetry is no exception to the mechanical, unmusical, and common-place verses belonging to this period of literature. FLOOD. See DELUGE. FLOOD, HENUY (1732-1791), an eminent Irish orator and politician, born in 1732, was the son of the Right Honourable Warden Flood, chief-justice of the Queen s Bench in Ireland. He came of an old Kentish family, a branch of which had settled in Kilkenny during the Civil War. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin ; and he subsequently studied at Oxford under Markham, afterwards archbishop of York. On leaving the university with a good reputation for classical scholarship he proceeded to the Temple. Possessing a competent fortune, high social position, and considerable family influence, he determined to devote himself to a political life, and obtained a seat in the Irish House of Commons for his own county of Kilkenny. His abilities soon placed him in the position of a leader of the opposition or popular party, to which he rendered good service on several occasions. Among his more intimate friends at this time were the agreeable and gifted Lord Charlemont, Mr Bushe, and the famous Grattan, w r ho owed a good deal to Flood s assistance in entering upon public life. Though somewhat too solemn and dignified, Flood was an orator of considerable power, and especially master of that unsparing invective which was then one of the best employed weapons of debate, and which often degenerated into what would now be considered unwarrantable personalities. At that time, indeed, political rivalry frequently ended in personal hatred. In 1769 Flood had the misfortune to be involved in an election quarrel with a Mr Agar. The result was a duel, and on the second exchange of shots Agar was mor tally wounded. Flood was brought to trial, but acquitted. In 1775 Flood was persuaded to an act which seriously diminished his influence. He accepted the office of vice- treasurer under Lord Harcourt and the duke of Buckingham. But in 1780, in consequence of his strong sympathy with the cause of Irish independence and his position as lieutenant-colonel of the Irish volunteers, he felt obliged to resign this office, and in consequence he was removed by the Government from the council, treatment which ho bitterly resented. His influence was now entirely devoted to the support of the popular party, which in fact lie had never deserted. He was present at the great armed con vention of the volunteers which met at Dungannon, and proposed a resolution that the powers exercised by the Privy Council were unconstitutional. After the passing of the Irish Bill of Right through the splendid efforts of Grattan, Flood made an attempt to achieve what he considered would be a still greater triumph. He declared that the mere repeal of the Act (6 Geo. I.) which had subjected Ireland to the control of the English parliament was not enough, and insisted upon an express renouncement of the right of the English parliament to interfere in any way with the government of Ireland. Grattan, maintaining that his own measure was sufficient, vigorously opposed the bill which Flood introduced ; and the two orators, forgetting their old friendship, ex changed speeches full of the bitterest personal invective. The quarrel was about to end in a duel, and arrangements were actually being made for a meeting, when the affair was discovered, and both were bound over to keep the peace. Flood s bill was completely defeated, for it was altogether unnecessary, and could only have served as a triumph to Irish national vanity. la 1783 Flood obtained a seat in the English House of Commons (while retaining his seat in the Irish House), being elected M.P. for Winchester. He was afterwards (1785) member for Seaford. But his suc cess was not such as he had enjoyed in Ireland, and his career in the English parliament was not of much import ance. Perhaps his greatest effort was his speech against Pitt s famous commercial treaty. Flood died on the 2d