FLOOD, Henry (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, be 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, who 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 mortally 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 he had never deserted. He was present at the great armed convention 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 w as 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, exchanged 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. In 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 success was not such as he had enjoyed in Ireland, and his career in the English parliament was not of much importance. Perhaps his greatest effort was his speech against Pitt’s famous commercial treaty. Flood died on the 2d December 1791. He left £5000 a year to Trinity College, Dublin, part of which was to found a professorship of Irish and furnish prizes for English and Irish composition, but this destination of the bequest was set aside.