[1] According to Dr Crisp, the swallow, martin, snipe and many birds
of passage have no air in their bones.--_Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond_. part
xxv., 1857, p. 13.
[2] By the term aeroplane is meant a thin, light, expanded structure
inclined at a slight upward angle to the horizon intended to float or
rest upon the air, and calculated to afford a certain amount of
support to any body attached to it.
[3] "On the Various Modes of Flight in relation to Aeronautics," by
J. Bell Pettigrew, _Proc. Roy. Inst_., 1867; "On the Mechanical
Appliances by which Flight is attained in the Animal Kingdom," by the
same author, _Trans. Linn. Soc_., 1867.
[4] _Revue des cours scientifiques de la France et de l'Etranger_,
1869.
[5] The sphygmograph, as its name indicates, is a recording
instrument. It consists of a smoked cylinder revolving by means of
clock-work at a known speed, and a style or pen which inscribes its
surface by scratching or brushing away the lampblack. The movements
to be registered are transferred to the style or pen by one or more
levers, and the pen in turn transfers them to the cylinder, where
they appear as legible tracings. In registering the movements of the
wings the tips and margins of the pinions were, by an ingenious
modification, employed as the styles or pens. By this arrangement the
different parts of the wings were made actually to record their own
movements. As will be seen from this account, the figure-of-8 or wave
theory of stationary and progressive flight has been made the subject
of a rigorous _experimentum crucis_.
[6] This continuity of the down into the up stroke and the converse
is greatly facilitated by the elastic ligaments at the root and in
the substance of the wing. These assist in elevating, and, when
necessary, in flexing and elevating it. They counteract in some
measure what may be regarded as the dead weight of the wing, and are
especially useful in giving it continuous play.
[7] "The importance of the twisted configuration or screw-like form
cannot be over-estimated. That this shape is intimately associated
with flight is apparent from the fact that the rowing feathers of the
wing of the bird are every one of them distinctly spiral in their
nature; in fact, one entire rowing feather is
equivalent--morphologically and physiologically--to one entire insect
wing. In the wing of the martin, where the bones of the pinion are
short, and in some respects rudimentary, the primary and secondary
feathers are greatly developed, and banked up in such a manner that
the wing as a whole presents the same curves as those displayed by
the insect's wing, or by the wing of the eagle, where the bones,
muscles and feathers have attained a maximum development. The
conformation of the wing is such that it presents a waved appearance
in every direction--the waves running longitudinally, transversely
and obliquely. The greater portion of the wing may consequently be
removed without essentially altering either its form or its
functions. This is proved by making sections in various directions,
and by finding that in some instances as much as two-thirds of the
wing may be lopped off without materially impairing the power of
flight."--_Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._ vol. xxvi. pp. 325, 326.
[8] "On the Various Modes of Flight in relation to Aeronautics,"
_Proc. Roy. Inst._, 1867; "On the Mechanical Appliances by which
Flight is attained in the Animal Kingdom," _Trans. Linn. Soc._, 1867,
26.
[9] "On the Physiology of Wings; being an analysis of the movements
by which flight is produced in the Insect, Bat and Bird," _Trans.
Roy. Soc. Edin._ vol. 26.
[10] The other forces which assist in elevating the wings are--(a)
the elevator muscles of the wings, (b) the elastic properties of the
wings, and (c) the reaction of the compressed air on the under
surfaces of the wings.
[11] The wings of the albatross, when fully extended, measure across
the back some 14 ft. They are exceedingly narrow, being sometimes
under a foot in width.
[12] _On the Flight of Birds, of Bats and of Insects, in reference to
the subject of Aerial Locomotion,_ by L. de Lucy (Paris).
[13] E.J. Marey, _Revue des cours scientifiques de la France et de
l'etranger_ (1869).
[14] "The Aero-bi-plane, or First Steps to Flight," _Ninth Annual
Report of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain_, 1874.
[15] "Resistance to Falling Planes on a Path of Translation," _Ninth
Annual Report of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain_, 1874.
[16] The _Aeronaut_ for January 1872 and February 1875.
[17] Cayley's screws, as explained, were made of feathers, and
consequently elastic. As, however, no allusion is made in his
writings to the superior advantages possessed by elastic over rigid
screws, it is to be presumed that feathers were employed simply for
convenience and lightness. Pettigrew, there is reason to believe, was
the first to advocate the employment of elastic screws for aerial
purposes.
[18] Stringfellow constructed a second model, which is described and
figured further on (fig. 44).
[19] "On Aerial Locomotion," _Aeronautical Society's Report_ for
1867.
FLINCK, GOVERT (1615-1660), Dutch painter, born at Cleves in 1615, was
apprenticed by his father to a silk mercer, but having secretly acquired
a passion for drawing, was sent to Leuwarden, where he boarded in the
house of Lambert Jacobszon, a Mennonite, better known as an itinerant
preacher than as a painter. Here Flinck was joined by Jacob Backer, and
the companionship of a youth determined like himself to be an artist
only confirmed his passion for painting. Amongst the neighbours of
Jacobszon at Leuwarden were the sons and relations of Rombert Ulenburg,
whose daughter Saske married Rembrandt in 1634. Other members of the
same family lived at Amsterdam, cultivating the arts either
professionally or as amateurs. The pupils of Lambert probably gained
some knowledge of Rembrandt by intercourse with the Ulenburgs. Certainly
J. von Sandrart, who visited Holland in 1637, found Flinck acknowledged
as one of Rembrandt's best pupils, and living habitually in the house of
the dealer Hendrik Ulenburg at Amsterdam. For many years Flinck laboured
on the lines of Rembrandt, following that master's style in all the
works which he executed between 1636 and 1648; then he fell into
peculiar mannerisms by imitating the swelling forms and grand action of
Rubens's creations. Finally he sailed with unfortunate complacency into
the Dead Sea of official and diplomatic painting. Flinck's relations
with Cleves became in time very important. He was introduced to the
court of the Great Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg, who
married in 1646 Louisa of Orange. He obtained the patronage of John
Maurice of Orange, who was made stadtholder of Cleves in 1649. In 1652 a
citizen of Amsterdam, Flinck married in 1656 an heiress, daughter of Ver
Hoeven, a director of the Dutch East India Company. He was already well
known even then in the patrician circles over which the burgomasters De
Graef and the Echevin Six presided; he was on terms of intimacy with the
poet Vondel and the treasurer Uitenbogaard. In his house, adorned with
antique casts, costumes, and a noble collection of prints, he often
received the stadtholder John Maurice, whose portrait is still
preserved in the work of the learned Barleius.
The earliest of Flinck's authentic pieces is a likeness of a lady, dated
1636, in the gallery of Brunswick. His first subject picture is the
"Blessing of Jacob," in the Amsterdam museum (1638). Both are thoroughly
Rembrandtesque in effect as well as in vigour of touch and warmth of
flesh tints. The four "civic guards" of 1642, and "the twelve
musketeers" with their president in an arm-chair (1648), in the
town-hall at Amsterdam, are fine specimens of composed portrait groups.
But the best of Flinck's productions in this style is the peace of
Munster in the museum of Amsterdam, a canvas with 19 life-size figures
full of animation in the faces, "radiant with Rembrandtesque colour,"
and admirably distributed. Flinck here painted his own likeness to the
left in a doorway. The mannered period of Flinck is amply illustrated in
the "Marcus Curius eating Turnips before the Samnite Envoys," and
"Solomon receiving Wisdom," in the palace on the Dam at Amsterdam. Here
it is that Flinck shows most defects, being faulty in arrangement, gaudy
in tint, flat and shallow in execution, and partial to whitened flesh
that looks as if it had been smeared with violet powder and rouge. The
chronology of Flinck's works, so far as they are seen in public
galleries, comprises, in addition to the foregoing, the "Grey Beard" of
1639 at Dresden, the "Girl" of 1641 at the Louvre, a portrait group of a
male and female (1646) at Rotterdam, a lady (1651) at Berlin. In
November 1659 the burgomaster of Amsterdam contracted with Flinck for 12
canvases to represent four heroic figures of David and Samson and Marcus
Curius and Horatius Cocles, and scenes from the wars of the Batavians
and Romans. Flinck was unable to finish more than the sketches. In the
same year he received a flattering acknowledgment from the town council
of Cleves on the completion of a picture of Solomon which was a
counterpart of the composition at Amsterdam. This and other pictures and
portraits, such as the likenesses of Frederick William of Brandenburg
and John Maurice of Nassau, and the allegory of "Louisa of Orange
attended by Victory and Fame" and other figures at the cradle of the
first-born son of the elector, have disappeared. Of several pictures
which were painted for the Great Elector, none are preserved except the
"Expulsion of Hagar" in the Berlin museum. Flinck died at Amsterdam on
the 22nd of February 1660.
FLINDERS, MATTHEW (1774-1814), English navigator, explorer, and man of
science, was born at Donington, near Boston, in Lincolnshire, on the
16th of March 1774. Matthew was at first designed to follow his father's
profession of surgeon, but his enthusiasm in favour of a life of
adventure impelled him to enter the royal navy, which he did on the 23rd
of October 1789. After a voyage to the Friendly Islands and West Indies,
and after serving in the "Bellerophon" during Lord Howe's "glorious
first of June" (1794) off Ushant, Flinders went out in 1795 as
midshipman in the "Reliance" to New South Wales. For the next few years
he devoted himself to the task of accurately laying down the outline and
bearings of the Australian coast, and he did his work so thoroughly that
he left comparatively little for his successors to do. With his friend
George Bass, the surgeon of the "Reliance," in the year of his arrival
he explored George's river; and, after a voyage to Norfolk Island, again
in March 1796 the two friends in the same boat, the "Tom Thumb," only 8
ft. long, and with only a boy to help them, explored a stretch of coast
to the south of Port Jackson. After a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope,
when he was promoted to a lieutenancy, Flinders was engaged during
February 1798 in a survey of the Furneaux Islands, lying to the north of
Tasmania. His delight was great when, in September of the same year, he
was commissioned along with Bass, who had already explored the sea
between Tasmania and the south coast to some extent and inferred that it
was a strait, to proceed in the sloop "Norfolk" (25 tons) to prove
conclusively that Van Diemen's Land was an island by circumnavigating
it. In the same sloop, in the summer of next year, Flinders made an
exploration to the north of Port Jackson, the object being mainly to
survey Glasshouse Bay (Moreton Bay) and Hervey's Bay. Returning to
England he was appointed to the command of an expedition for the
thorough exploration of the coasts of Terra Australis, as the southern
continent was still called, though Flinders is said to have been the
first to suggest for it the name Australia. On the 18th of July 1801 the
sloop "Investigator" (334 tons), in which the expedition sailed, left
Spithead, Flinders being furnished with instructions and with a passport
from the French government to all their officials in the Eastern seas.
Among the scientific staff was Robert Brown, one of the most eminent
English botanists; and among the midshipmen was Flinders's relative,
John Franklin, of Arctic fame. Cape Leeuwin, on the south-west coast of
Australia, was reached on November 6, and King George's sound on the 9th
of December. Flinders sailed round the Great Bight, examining the
islands and indentations on the east side, noting the nature of the
country, the people, products, &c., and paying special attention to the
subject of the variation of the compass. Spenser and St Vincent Gulfs
were discovered and explored. On the 8th of April 1802, shortly after
leaving Kangaroo Islands, at the mouth of St Vincent Gulf, Flinders fell
in with the French exploring ship, "Le Geographe," under Captain Nicolas
Baudin, in the bay now known as Encounter Bay. In the narrative of the
French expedition published in 1807 (when Flinders was a prisoner in the
Mauritius) by M. Peron, the naturalist to the expedition, much of the
land west of the point of meeting was claimed as having been discovered
by Baudin, and French names were extensively substituted for the English
ones given by Flinders. It was only in 1814, when Flinders published his
own narrative, that the real state of the case was fully exposed.
Flinders continued his examination of the coast along Bass's Strait,
carefully surveying Port Phillip. Port Jackson was reached on the 9th of
May 1802.
After staying at Port Jackson for about a couple of months, Flinders set
out again on the 22nd of July to complete his circumnavigation of
Australia. The Great Barrier Reef was examined with the greatest care in
several places. The north-east entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria was
reached early in November; and the next three months were spent in an
examination of the shores of the gulf, and of the islands that skirt
them. An inspection of the "Investigator" showed that she was in so
leaky a condition that only with the greatest precaution could the
voyage be completed in her. Flinders completed the survey of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and after touching at the island of Timor, the
"Investigator" sailed round the west and south of Australia, and Port
Jackson was reached on the 9th of June 1803. Much suffering was endured
by nearly all the members of the expedition: a considerable proportion
of the men succumbed to disease, and their leader was so reduced by
scurvy that his health was greatly impaired.
Flinders determined to proceed home in H.M.S. "Porpoise" as a passenger,
submit the results of his work to the Admiralty, and obtain, if
possible, another vessel to complete his exploration of the Australian
coast. The "Porpoise" left Port Jackson on the 10th of August,
accompanied by the H.E.I.C.'s ship "Bridgewater" (750 tons) and the
"Cato" (450 tons) of London. On the night of the 17th the "Porpoise" and
"Cato" suddenly struck on a coral reef and were rapidly reduced to
wrecks. The officers and men encamped on a small sandbank near, 3 or 4
ft. above high-water, a considerable quantity of provisions, with many
of the papers and charts, having been saved from the wrecks. The reef
was in about 22 deg. 11' S. and 155 deg. E., and about 800 m. from Port
Jackson. Flinders returned to Port Jackson in a six-oared cutter in
order to obtain a vessel to rescue the party. The reef was again reached
on the 8th of October, and all the officers and men having been
satisfactorily disposed of, Flinders on the 11th left for Jones Strait
in an unsound schooner of 29 tons, the "Cumberland," with ten
companions, and a valuable collection of papers, charts, geological
specimens, &c. On the 15th of December he put in at Mauritius, when he
discovered that France and England were at war. The passport he
possessed from the French government was for the "Investigator"; still,
though he was now on board another ship, his mission was essentially
the same, and the work he was on was simply a continuation of that
commenced in the unfortunate vessel. Nevertheless, on her arrival at
Port Louis the "Cumberland" was seized by order of the governor-general
de Caen. Flinders's papers were taken possession of, and he found
himself virtually a prisoner. We need not dwell on the sad details of
this unjustifiable captivity, which lasted to June 1810. But there can
be no doubt that the hardships and inactivity Flinders was compelled to
endure for upwards of six years told seriously on his health, and
brought his life to a premature end. He reached England in October 1810,
after an absence of upwards of nine years. The official red-tapeism of
the day barred all promotion to the unfortunate explorer, who set
himself to prepare an account of his explorations, though unfortunately
an important part of his record had been retained by de Caen. The
results of his labours were published in two large quarto volumes,
entitled _A Voyage to Terra Australis_, with a folio volume of maps. The
very day (July 19, 1814) on which his work was published Flinders died,
at the early age of forty. The great work is a model of its kind,
containing as it does not only a narrative of his own and of previous
voyages, but masterly statements of the scientific results, especially
with regard to magnetism, meteorology, hydrography and navigation.
Flinders paid great attention to the errors of the compass, especially
to those caused by the presence of iron in ships. He is understood to
have been the first to discover the source of such errors (which had
scarcely been noticed before), and after investigating the laws of the
variations, he suggested counter-attractions, an invention for which
Professor Barlow got much credit many years afterwards. Numerous
experiments on ships' magnetism were conducted at Portsmouth by
Flinders, by order of the admiralty, in 1812. Besides the _Voyage_,
Flinders wrote _Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen's Land_, _Bass's
Strait_, &c., and two papers in the _Phil. Trans._--one on the "Magnetic
Needle" (1805), and the other, "Observations on the Marine Barometer"
(1806). (J. S. K.)
FLINSBERG, a village and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Silesia, on the Queis, at the foot of the Iserkamm, 1450 ft.
above the sea, 5 m. W. of Friedeberg, the terminus station of the
railway from Greiffenberg. Pop. (1900) 1957. It contains an Evangelical
and a Roman Catholic church, and has some manufactures of wooden wares.
Flinsberg is celebrated for its chalybeate waters, specific in cases of
feminine disorders, and used both for bathing and drinking. It is also a
climatic health resort of some reputation, and the visitors number about
8500 annually.
See Adam, _Bad Flinsberg als klimatischer Kurort_ (Gorlitz, 1891).
FLINT, AUSTIN (1812-1886), American physician, was born at Petersham,
Massachusetts, on the 20th of October 1812, and graduated at the medical
department of Harvard University in 1833. From 1847 to 1852 he was
professor of the theory and practice of medicine in Buffalo Medical
College, of which he was one of the founders, and from 1852 to 1856 he
filled the same chair in the university of Louisville. From 1861 to 1886
he was professor of the principles and practice of medicine and clinical
medicine in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. He wrote many
text-books on medical subjects, among these being _Diseases of the
Heart_ (1859-1870); _Principles and Practice of Medicine_ (1866);
_Clinical Medicine_ (1879); and _Physical Exploration of the Lungs by
means of Auscultation and Percussion_ (1882). He died in New York on the
13th of March 1886.
His son, AUSTIN FLINT, junr., who was born at Northampton,
Massachusetts, on the 28th of March 1836, after studying at Harvard and
at the university of Louisville, graduated at the Jefferson Medical
College, Philadelphia, in 1857. He then became professor of physiology
at the university of Buffalo (1858) and subsequently at other centres,
his last connexion being with the Cornell University Medical College
(1898-1906). He was better known as a teacher and writer on physiology
than as a practitioner, and his _Text-book of Human Physiology_ (1876)
was for many years a standard book in American medical colleges. He also
published an extensive _Physiology of Man_ (5 vols., 1866-1874),
_Chemical Examination of the Urine in Disease_ (1870), _Effects of
Severe and Protracted Muscular Exercise_ (1871), _Source of Muscular
Power_ (1878), and _Handbook of Physiology_ (1905). In 1896 he became a
consulting physician to the New York State Hospital for the Insane.
FLINT, ROBERT (1838- ), Scottish divine and philosopher, was born near
Dumfries and educated at the university of Glasgow. After a few years of
pastoral service, first in Aberdeen and then at Kilconquhar, Fife, he
was appointed professor of moral philosophy and political economy at St
Andrews in 1864. From 1876 to 1903 he was professor of divinity at
Edinburgh. He contributed a number of articles to the 9th edition of the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. His chief works are _Christ's Kingdom upon
Earth_ (Sermons, 1865); _Philosophy of History in Europe_ (1874; partly
rewritten with reference to France and Switzerland, 1894); _Theism_ and
_Anti-theistic Theories_ (2 vols., being the Baird Lectures for
1876-1877; often reprinted); _Socialism_ (1894); _Sermons and Addresses_
(1899); _Agnosticism_ (1903).
FLINT, TIMOTHY (1780-1840), American clergyman and writer, was born in
Reading, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July 1780. He graduated at
Harvard in 1800, and in 1802 settled as a Congregational minister in
Lunenburg, Mass., where he pursued scientific studies with interest; and
his labours in his chemical laboratory seemed so strange to the people
of that retired region, that some persons supposed and asserted that he
was engaged in counterfeiting. This, together with political
differences, led to disagreeable complications, which resulted in his
resigning his charge (1814) and becoming a missionary (1815) in the
valley of the Mississippi. He was also for a short period a teacher and
a farmer. His observations on the manners and character of the settlers
of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were recorded in a picturesque work
called _Recollections of the Last Ten Years passed in the Valley of the
Mississippi_ (1826; reprinted in England and translated into French),
the first account of the western states which brought to light the real
life and character of the people. 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, and, besides editing the
_Western Review_ in Cincinnati from 1825 to 1828 and _Knickerbocker's
Magazine_ (New York) in 1833, he published a number of books, including
_Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot_ (1826), his best novel; _A
Condensed Geography and History of the Western States, or the
Mississippi Valley_ (2 vols., 1828); _Arthur Clenning_ (1828), a novel;
and _Indian Wars in the West_ (1833). His style is vivid, plain and
forcible, and his matter interesting; and his works on the western
states are of great value. He died in Salem, Mass., on the 16th of
August 1840.
FLINT, a city and the county-seat of Genesee county, Michigan, U.S.A.,
on Flint river, 68 m. (by rail) N.W. of Detroit. Pop. (1890) 9803;
(1900) 13,103, of whom 2165 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 38,550. It
is served by the Grand Trunk and the Pere Marquette railways, and by an
electric line, the Detroit United railway, connecting with Detroit. The
city has a fine court-house (1904), a federal building (1908), a city
hall (1908) and a public library. The Michigan school for the deaf,
established in 1854, and the Oak Grove hospital (private) for the
treatment of mental and nervous diseases, are here. Flint has important
manufacturing interests, its chief manufactures being automobiles,
wagons, carriages--Flint is called "the vehicle city,"--flour, woollen
goods, iron goods, cigars, beer, and bricks and tiles; and its grain
trade is of considerable importance. In 1904 the total value of the
city's factory product was $6,177,170, an increase of 31.1% over that of
1900. The settlement of the place, then called the Grand Traverse of the
Flint, began in 1820, but Flint's growth was very slow until 1831, when
it was platted as a village; it was chartered as a city in 1855.
FLINT, or FLINTSHIRE (_sir Gallestr_), a county of North Wales, the
smallest in the country, bounded N. by the Irish Sea and the Dee
estuary, N.E. by the Dee, E. by Cheshire, and S.W. by Denbighshire.
Area, 257 sq. m. Included in Flint is the detached hundred of Maelor,
lying 8 m. S.E. of the main part of the county, and shut in by Cheshire
on the N. and N.E., by Shropshire on the S., and by Denbighshire on the
W. and N.W. The Clwyd valley is common to Flint and Denbigh. Those of
the Alyn and Wepre (from Ewloe Castle to the Dee) are fine. The Dee,
entering the county near Overton, divides Maelor from Denbigh on the W.,
passes Chester and bounds most of the county on the N. The Clwyd enters
Flint near Bodfary, and joining the Elwy near Rhuddlan, reaches the
Irish Sea near Rhyl. The Alyn enters the county under Moel Fammau,
passes Cilcen and Mold (_y Wyddgrug_), runs underground near Hesb-Alyn
(Alyn's drying-up), bends south to Caergwrle, re-enters Denbighshire and
joins the Dee. Llyn Helyg (willow-pool), near Whitford, is the chief
lake.
Both for their influence upon the physical features and for their
economic value the carboniferous rocks of Flintshire are the most
important. From Prestatyn on the coast a band of carboniferous
limestone passes close by Holywell and through Caerwen; it forms the
Halkin Mountain east of Halkin, whence it continues past Mold to
beyond the county boundary. The upper portion of this series is cherty
in the north--the chert is quarried for use in the potteries of
Staffordshire--but traced southward it passes into sandstones and
grits; above these beds come the Holywell shales, possibly the
equivalent of the Pendleside series of Lancashire and Derbyshire,
while upon them lies the Gwespyr sandstone, which has been thought to
correspond to the Gannister coal measures of Lancashire, but may be a
representative of the Millstone Grit. Farther to the east, the coal
measures, with valuable coals, some oil shale, and with fireclays and
marls which are used for brick and tile-making, extend from Talacre
through Flint, Northop, Hawarden and Broughton to Hope. The
carboniferous rocks appear again through the intervention of a fault,
in the neighbourhood of St Asaph. Silurian strata, mostly of Wenlock
age, lie below the carboniferous limestone on the western border of
the county. Triassic red beds of the Bunter fill the Clwyd valley and
appear again on the coal measures S.E. of Chester. Lead and zinc ores
have been worked in the lower carboniferous rocks in the north of the
county, and caves in the same formation, at Caer Gwyn and Ffynnon
Beuno, have yielded the remains of Pleistocene mammals along with
palaeolithic implements. Much glacial drift obscures the older rocks
on the east and north and in the vale of Clwyd. Short stretches of
blown sand occur on the coast near Rhyl and Talacre.
The London & North-Western railway follows the coast-line. Other
railways which cross the county are the Great Western, and the Wrexham,
Mold & Connah's Quay, acquired by the Great Central company. For pasture
the vale of Clwyd is well known. Oats, turnips and swedes are the chief
crops. Stock and dairy farming prospers, native cattle being crossed
with Herefords and Downs, native sheep with Leicesters and Southdowns,
while in the thick mining population a ready market is found for meat,
cheese, butter, &c. The population (81,700 in 1901) nearly doubled in
the 19th century, and Flintshire to-day is one of the most densely
populated counties in North Wales. The area of the ancient county is
164,744 acres, and that of the administrative county 163,025 acres. The
collieries begin at Llanasa, run through Whitford, Holywell, Flint,
Halkin (Halcyn), Northop, Buckley, Mold and Hawarden (Penarlag). At
Halkin, Mold, Holywell, Prestatyn and Talacre lead is raised, and is
sometimes sent to Bagillt, Flint or Chester to be smelted. Zinc,
formerly only worked at Dyserth, has increased in output, and copper
mines also exist, as at Talargoch, together with smelting works, oil,
vitriol, potash and alkali manufactories. Potteries around Buckley send
their produce chiefly to Connah's Quay, whence a railway crosses the Dee
to the Birkenhead (Cheshire) district. Iron seams are now thin, but
limestone quarries yield building stone, lime for burning and small
stone for chemical works. Fisheries are unproductive and textile
manufactures small.
The county returns one member to parliament. The parliamentary borough
district (returning one member), consists of Caergwrle, Caerwys, Flint,
Holywell, Mold, Overton, St Asaph and Rhuddlan. In addition, there is a
small part of the Chester parliamentary borough. There is one municipal
borough, Flint (pop. 4625). The other urban districts are: Buckley
(5780), Connah's Quay (3369), Holywell (2652), Mold (4263), Prestatyn
(1261) and Rhyl (8473). Flint is in the North Wales and Chester circuit,
assizes being held at Mold. The Flint borough has a separate commission
of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. The ancient
county, which is in the dioceses of Chester, Lichfield and St Asaph,
contains forty-six entire ecclesiastical parishes and districts, with
parts of eleven others.
Among sites of antiquarian or historical interest, besides the fragmentary
ruin of Flint Castle, the following may be mentioned:--Caerwys, near
Flint, still shows traces of Roman occupation. Bodfary (Bodfari) was
traditionally occupied by the Romans. Moel y gaer (bald hill of the
fortress), near Northop, is a remarkably perfect old British post. Maes y
Garmon (perhaps for _Meusydd Garmon_, as y, the article, has no
significance before a proper name, and so to be translated, battlefields
of Germanus). A mile from Mold is the reputed scene of _une victoire sans
larmes, gagnee non par les armes, mais par la foi_ (E.H. Vollet). The
Britons, says the legend, were threatened by the Picts and Saxons, at
whose approach the _Alleluia_ of that Easter (A.D. 430) was sung. Panic
duly seized the invaders, but the victor, St Germanus, confessor and
bishop of Auxerre (A.D. 380-448), had to return to the charge in 446. He
has, under the name Garmon, a great titular share in British topography.
At Bangor Iscoed, "the great high choir in Maelor," was the monastery,
destroyed with over 2000 monks, by Aethelfred of Northumberland in 607, as
(by a curious coincidence) its namesake Bangor in Ireland was sacked by
the Danes in the 9th century. Bede says (ii. 2) that Bangor monastery was
in seven sections, with three hundred (working) monks. The supposed lines
of direction of Watt's and Offa's dykes were: Basingwerk, Halkin, Hope,
Alyn valley, Oswestry (_Croes Oswallt_, "Oswald's cross"), for Watt's, and
Prestatyn, Mold, Minera, across the Severn (_Hafren_, or Sabrina) for
Offa's. Owain Gwynedd (Gwynedd or Venedocia, is North Wales) defeated
Henry II. at Coed Ewloe (where is a tower) and at Coleshill (_Cynsyllt_).
Near Pant Asa (_pant_ is a bottom) is the medieval Maen Achwynfan
(_achwyn_, to complain, _maen_, stone), and tumuli, menhirs (_meini
hirion_) and inscribed stones are frequent throughout the county. There is
a 14th-century cross in Newmarket churchyard. Caergwrle Castle seems early
Roman, or even British; but most of the castles in the county date from
the early Edwards.
See H. Taylor, _Flint_ (London, 1883).
FLINT, a municipal borough and the county town of the above; a seaport
and contributory parliamentary borough, on the south of the Dee estuary,
192 m. from London by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901)
4265. The seat of great alkali manufactures, it imports chiefly sulphur
and other chemicals, exporting coal, soda, potash, copper, &c. The
county gaol here, as at Haverfordwest, occupied an angle of the castle,
was removed to Mold, and is now Chester Castle (jointly with Cheshire.)
Flint Castle was built on a lonely rock by the riverside by Edward I.
Here met Edward II. and Piers Gaveston. Edward III. bestowed its
constableship upon the earls of Chester, and here Richard II.
surrendered to Bolingbroke. It was twice taken, after siege, by the
parliamentarians, and finally dismantled in 1647. There remain a square
court (with angle towers), round tower and drawbridge, all three
entrusted to a constable, appointed by the crown under the Municipal
Corporations Reforms Act. Made a borough by Edward I., Flint was
chartered by Edward III., and by Edward the Black Prince, as earl of
Chester.
FLINT (a word common in Teutonic and Scandinavian languages, possibly
cognate with the Gr. [Greek: plinthos], a tile), in petrology, a dark
grey or dark brown crypto-crystalline substance which has an almost
vitreous lustre, and when pure appears structureless to the unaided eye.
In the mass it is dark and opaque, but thin plates or the edges of
splinters are pale yellow and translucent. Its hardness is greater than
that of steel, so that a knife blade leaves a grey metallic streak when
drawn across its surface. Its specific gravity is 2.6 or only a little
less than that of crystalline quartz. It is brittle, and when hammered
readily breaks up into a powder of angular grains. The fracture is
perfectly conchoidal, so that blows with a hammer detach flakes which
have convex, slightly undulating surfaces. At the point of impact a bulb
of percussion, which is a somewhat elevated conical mark, is produced.
This serves to distinguish flints which have been fashioned by human
agencies from those which have been split merely by the action of frost
and the weather. The bulb is evidence of a direct blow, probably
intentionally made, and is a point of some importance to archaeologists
investigating Palaeolithic implements. With skill and experience a mass
of flint can be worked to any simple shape by well directed strokes, and
further trimming can be effected with pressure by a pointed stone in a
direction slightly across the edge of the weapon. The purest flints have
the most perfect conchoidal fracture, and prehistoric man is known to
have quarried or mined certain bands of flint which were specially
suitable for his purposes.
Silica forms nearly the whole substance of flint; calcite and dolomite
may occur in it in small amounts, and analysis has also detected
minute quantities of volatile ingredients, organic compounds, &c., to
which the dark colour is ascribed by some authorities. These are
dispelled by heat and the flint becomes white and duller in lustre.
Microscopic sections show that flint is very finely crystalline and
consists of quartz or chalcedonic silica; colloidal or amorphous
silica may also be present but cannot form any considerable part of
the rock. Spicules of sponges and fragments of other organisms, such
as molluscs, polyzoa, foraminifera and brachiopods, often occur in
flint, and may be partly or wholly silicified with retention of their
original structure. Nodules of flint when removed from the chalk which
encloses them have a white dull rough surface, and exposure to the
weather produces much the same appearance on broken flints. At first
they acquire a bright and very smooth surface, but this is
subsequently replaced by a dull crust, resembling white or yellowish
porcelain. It has been suggested that this change is due to the
removal of the colloidal silica in solution, leaving behind the fibres
and grains of more crystalline structure. This process must be a very
slow one as, from its chemical composition, flint is a material of
great durability. Its great hardness also enables it to resist
attrition. Hence on beaches and in rivers, such as those of the
south-east of England, flint pebbles exist in vast numbers. Their
surfaces often show minute crescentic or rounded cracks which are the
edges of small conchoidal fractures produced by the impact of one
pebble on another during storms or floods.
Flint occurs primarily as concretions, veins and tabular masses in the
white chalk of such localities as the south of England (see CHALK). It
is generally nodular, and forms rounded or highly irregular masses
which may be several feet in diameter. Although the flint nodules
often lie in bands which closely follow the bedding, they were not
deposited simultaneously with the chalk; very often the flint bands
cut across the beds of the limestone and may traverse them at right
angles. Evidently the flint has accumulated along fissures, such as
bedding planes, joints and other cracks, after the chalk had to some
extent consolidated. The silica was derived from the tests of
radiolaria and the spicular skeletons of sponges. It has passed into
solution, filtered through the porous matrix, and has been again
precipitated when the conditions were suitable. Its formation is
consequently the result of "concretionary action." Where the flints
lie the chalk must have been dissolved away; we have in fact a kind of
metasomatic replacement in which a siliceous rock has slowly replaced
a calcareous one. The process has been very gradual and the organisms
of the original chalk often have their outlines preserved in the
flint. Shells may become completely silicified, or may have their
cavities occupied by flint with every detail of the interior of the
shell preserved in the outer surface of the cast. Objects of this kind
are familiar to all collectors of fossils in chalk districts.
Chert is a coarser and less perfectly homogeneous substance of the
same nature and composition as flint. It is grey, black or brown, and
commonly occurs in limestone (e.g. the Carboniferous Limestone) in the
same way as flint occurs in chalk. Some cherts contain tests of
radiolaria, and correspond fairly closely to the siliceous radiolarian
oozes which are gathering at the present day at the bottom of some of
the deepest parts of the oceans. Brownish cherts are found in the
English Greensand; these often contain remains of sponges.
The principal uses to which flint has been put are the fabrication of
weapons in Palaeolithic and Neolithic times. Other materials have been
employed where flint was not available, e.g. obsidian, chert,
chalcedony, agate and quartzite, but to prehistoric man (see FLINT
IMPLEMENTS below) flint must have been of great value and served many of
the uses to which steel is put at the present day. Flint gravels are
widely employed for dressing walks and roads, and for rough-cast work in
architecture. For road-mending flint, though very hard, is not regarded
with favour, as it is brittle and pulverizes readily; binds badly,
yielding a surface which breaks up with heavy traffic and in bad
weather; and its fine sharp-edged chips do much damage to tires of
motors and cycles. Seasoned flints from the land, having been long
exposed to the atmosphere, are preferred to flints freshly dug from the
chalk pits. Formerly flint and steel were everywhere employed for
striking a light; and gun flints were required for fire-arms. A special
industry in the shaping of gun flints long existed at Brandon in
Suffolk. In 1870 about thirty men were employed. Since then the trade
has become almost extinct as gun flints are in demand only in
semi-savage countries where modern fire-arms are not obtainable.
Powdered flint was formerly used in the manufacture of glass, and is
still one of the ingredients of many of the finer varieties of pottery.
(J. S. F.)
FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS. The excavation of these remains of the
prehistoric races of the globe in river-drift gravel-beds has marked a
revolution in the study of Man's history (see ARCHAEOLOGY). Until almost
the middle of the 19th century no suspicion had arisen in the minds of
British and European archaeologists that the momentous results of the
excavations then proceeding in Egypt and Assyria would be dwarfed by
discoveries at home which revolutionized all previous ideas of Man's
antiquity. It was in 1841 that Boucher de Perthes observed in some sand
containing mammalian remains, at Menchecourt near Abbeville, a flint,
roughly worked into a cutting implement. This "find" was rapidly
followed by others, and Boucher de Perthes published his first work on
the subject, _Antiquites celtiques et antediluviennes: memoire sur
l'industrie primitive et les arts a leur origin_ (1847), in which he
proclaimed his discovery of human weapons in beds unmistakably belonging
to the age of the Drift. It was not until 1859 that the French
archaeologist convinced the scientific world. An English mission then
visited his collection and testified to the great importance of his
discoveries. The "finds" at Abbeville were followed by others in many
places in England, and in fact in every country where siliceous stones
which are capable of being flaked and fashioned into implements are to
be found. The implements occurred in beds of rivers and lakes, in the
tumuli and ancient burial-mounds; on the sites of settlements of
prehistoric man in nearly every land, such as the shell-heaps and
lake-dwellings; but especially embedded in the high-level gravels of
England and France which have been deposited by river-floods and long
left high and dry above the present course of the stream. These gravels
represent the Drift or Palaeolithic period when man shared Europe with
the mammoth and woolly-haired rhinoceros. The worked flints of this age
are, however, unevenly distributed; for while the river-gravels of
south-eastern England yield them abundantly, none has been found in
Scotland or the northern English counties. On the continent the same
partial distribution is observable: while they occur plentifully in the
north-western area of France, they are not discovered in Sweden, Norway
or Denmark. The association of these flints, fashioned for use by
chipping only, with the bones of animals either extinct or no longer
indigenous, has justified their reference to the earlier period of the
Stone Age, generally called Palaeolithic. Those flint implements, which
show signs of polishing and in many cases remarkably fine workmanship,
and are found in tumuli, peat-bogs and lake-dwellings mixed with the
bones of common domestic animals, are assigned to the Neolithic or later
Stone Age. The Palaeolithic flints are hammers, flakes, scrapers,
implements worked to a cutting edge at one side, implements which
resemble rude axes, flat ovoid implements worked to an edge all round,
and a great quantity of spear and arrow heads. None of these is ground
or polished. The Neolithic flints, on the other hand, exhibit more
variety of design, are carefully finished, and the particular use of
each weapon can be easily detected. Man has reached the stage of culture
when he could socket a stone into a wooden handle, and fix a flaked
flint as a handled dagger or knife. The workmanship is superior to that
shown in any of the stone utensils made by savage tribes of historic
times. The manner of making flint implements appears to have been in all
ages much the same. Flint from its mode of fracture is the only kind of
stone which can be chipped or flaked into almost any shape, and thus
forms the principal material of these earliest weapons. The blows must
be carefully aimed or the flakes dislodged will be shattered: a
gun-flint maker at Brandon, Suffolk, stated that it took him two years
to acquire the art.
For accounts of the gun-flint manufacture at Brandon, and detailed
descriptions of ancient flint-working, see Sir John Evans, _Ancient
Stone Implements_ (1897), Lord Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ (1865,
1900); also Thomas Wilson, "Arrow-heads, Spear-heads and Knives of
Prehistoric Times," in _Smithsonian Report_ for 1897; and W.K.
Moorehead, _Prehistoric Implements_ (1900).
FLOAT (in O. Eng. _flot_ and _flota_, in the verbal form _fleotan_; the
Teutonic root is _flut-_, another form of _flu-_, seen in "flow," cf.
"fleet"; the root is seen in Gr. [Greek: pleein], to sail, Lat.
_pluere_, to rain; the Lat. _fluere_ and _fluctus_, wave, is not
connected), the action of moving on the surface of water, or through the
air. The word is used also of a wave, or the flood of the tide, river,
backwater or stream, and of any object floating in water, as a mass of
ice or weeds; a movable landing-stage, a flat-bottomed boat, or a raft,
or, in fishing, of the cork or quill used to support a baited line or
fishing-net. It is also applied to the hollow or inflated organ by means
of which certain animals, such as the "Portuguese man-of-war," swim, to
a hollow metal ball or piece of whinstone, &c., used to regulate the
level of water in a tank or boiler, and to a piece of ivory in the
cistern of a barometer. "Float" is also the name of one of the boards of
a paddle-wheel or water-wheel. In a theatrical sense, it is used to
denote the footlights. The word is also applied to something broad,
level and shallow, as a wooden frame attached to a cart or wagon for the
purpose of increasing the carrying capacity; and to a special kind of
low, broad cart for carrying heavy weights, and to a platform on wheels
used for shows in a procession. The term is applied also to various
tools, especially to many kinds of trowels used in plastering. It is
also used of a dock where vessels may float, as at Bristol, and of the
trenches used in "floating" land. In geology and mining, loose rock or
ore brought down by water is known as "float," and in tin-mining it is
applied to a large trough used for the smelted tin. In weaving the word
is used of the passing of weft threads over part of the warp without
being woven in with it, also of the threads so passed. In the United
States a voter not attached to any particular party and open to bribery
is called a "float" or "floater."
FLOCK. 1. (A word found in Old English and Old Norwegian, from which
come the Danish and Swedish words, and not in other Teutonic languages),
originally a company of people, now mainly, except in figurative usages,
of certain animals when gathered together for feeding or moving from
place to place. For birds it is chiefly used of geese; and for other
animals most generally of sheep and goats. It is from the particular
application of the word to sheep that "flock" is used of the Christian
Church in its relation to the "Good Shepherd," and also of a
congregation of worshippers in its relation to its spiritual head.
2. (Probably from the Lat. _floccus_, but many Teutonic languages have
the same word in various forms), a tuft of wool, cotton or similar
substance. The name "flock" is given to a material formed of wool or
cotton refuse, or of shreds of old woollen or cotton rags, torn by a
machine known as a "devil." This material is used for stuffing
mattresses or pillows, and also in upholstery. The name is also applied
to a special kind of wall-paper, which has an appearance almost like
cloth, or, in the more expensive kinds, of velvet. It is made by dusting
on a specially prepared adhesive surface finely powdered fibres of
cotton or silk. The word "flocculent" is used of many substances which
have a fleecy or "flock"-like appearance, such as a precipitate of
ferric hydrate.
FLODDEN, or FLODDEN FIELD, near the village of Branxton, in
Northumberland, England (10 m. N.W. of Wooler), the scene of a famous
battle fought on the 9th of September 1513 between the English and the
Scots. On the 22nd of August a great Scottish army under King James IV.
had crossed the border. For the moment the earl of Surrey (who in King
Henry VIII.'s absence was charged with the defence of the realm) had no
organized force in the north of England, but James wasted much precious
time among the border castles, and when Surrey appeared at Wooler, with
an army equal in strength to his own, which was now greatly weakened by
privations and desertion, he had not advanced beyond Ford Castle. The
English commander promptly sent in a challenge to a pitched battle,
which the king, in spite of the advice of his most trusted counsellors,
accepted. On the 6th of September, however, he left Ford and took up a
strong position facing south, on Flodden Edge. Surrey's reproaches for
the alleged breach of faith, and a second challenge to fight on
Millfield Plain were this time disregarded. The English commander, thus
foiled, executed a daring and skilful march round the enemy's flank, and
on the 9th drew up for battle in rear of the hostile army. It is evident
that Surrey was confident of victory, for he placed his own army, not
less than the enemy, in a position where defeat would involve utter
ruin. On his appearance the Scots hastily changed front and took post on
Branxton Hill, facing north. The battle began at 4 P.M. Surrey's archers
and cannon soon gained the upper hand, and the Scots, unable quietly to
endure their losses, rushed to close quarters. Their left wing drove the
English back, but Lord Dacre's reserve corps restored the fight on this
side. In all other parts of the field, save where James and Surrey were
personally opposed, the English gradually gained ground. The king's
corps was then attacked by Surrey in front, and by Sir Edward Stanley in
flank. As the Scots were forced back, a part of Dacre's force closed
upon the other flank, and finally Dacre himself, boldly neglecting an
almost intact Scottish division in front of him, charged in upon the
rear of King James's corps. Surrounded and attacked on all sides, this,
the remnant of the invading army, was doomed. The circle of spearmen
around the king grew less and less, and in the end James and a few of
his nobles were alone left standing. Soon they too died, fighting to the
last man. Among the ten thousand Scottish dead were all the leading men
in the kingdom of Scotland, and there was no family of importance that
had not lost a member in this great disaster. The "King's Stone," said
to mark the spot where James was killed, is at some distance from the
actual battlefield. "Sybil's Well," in Scott's _Marmion_, is imaginary.
FLODOARD (894-966), French chronicler, was born at Epernay, and educated
at Reims in the cathedral school which had been established by
Archbishop Fulcon (822-900). As canon of Reims, and favourite of the
archbishops Herivaeus (d. 922) and Seulfus (d. 925), he occupied while
still young an important position at the archiepiscopal court, but was
twice deprived of his benefices by Heribert, count of Vermandois, on
account of his steady opposition to the election of the count's infant
son to the archbishopric. Upon the final triumph of Archbishop Artold in
947, Flodoard became for a time his chief adviser, but withdrew to a
monastery in 952, and spent the remaining years of his life in literary
and devotional work. His history of the cathedral church at Reims
(_Historia Remensis Ecclesiae_) is one of the most remarkable
productions of the 10th century. Flodoard had been given charge of the
episcopal archives, and constructed his history out of the original
texts, which he generally reproduces in full; the documents for the
period of Hincmar being especially valuable. The _Annales_ which
Flodoard wrote year by year from 919 to 966 are doubly important, by
reason of the author's honesty and the central position of Reims in
European affairs in his time. Flodoard's poetical works are of hardly
less historical interest. The long poem celebrating the triumph of
Christ and His saints was called forth by the favour shown him by Pope
Leo VII., during whose pontificate he visited Rome, and he devotes
fourteen books to the history of the popes.
Flodoard's works were published in full by J.P. Migne (_Patrologia
Latina_, vol. 135); a modern edition of the _Annales_ is the one
edited by P. Lauer (Paris, 1906). For bibliography see A. Molinier,
_Sources de l'histoire de France_ (No. 932).
FLOE (of uncertain derivation; cf. Norse _flo_, layer, level plain), a
sheet of floating ice detached from the main body of polar ice. It is of
less extent than the field of "pack" ice, which is a compacted mass of
greater depth drifting frequently under the influence of deep currents,
while the floating floe is driven by the wind.
FLOOD, HENRY (1732-1791), Irish statesman, son of Warden Flood, chief
justice of the king's bench in Ireland, was born in 1732, and was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church,
Oxford, where he became proficient in the classics. His father was a man
of good birth and fortune, and he himself married a member of the
influential Beresford family, who brought him a large fortune. In his
early years he was handsome, witty, good-tempered, and a brilliant
conversationalist. His judgment was sound, and he had a natural gift of
eloquence which had been cultivated and developed by study of classical
oratory and the practice of elocution. Flood therefore possessed every
personal advantage when, in 1759, he entered the Irish parliament as
member for Kilkenny in his twenty-seventh year. There was at that time
no party in the Irish House of Commons that could truly be called
national, and until a few years before there had been none that deserved
even the name of an opposition. The Irish parliament was still
constitutionally subordinate to the English privy council; it had
practically no powers of independent legislation, and none of
controlling the policy of the executive, which was nominated by the
ministers in London (see GRATTAN, HENRY). Though the great majority of
the people were Roman Catholics, no person of that faith could either
enter parliament or exercise the franchise; the penal code, which made
it almost impossible for a Roman Catholic to hold property, to follow a
learned profession, or even to educate his children, and which in
numerous particulars pressed severely on the Roman Catholics and
subjected them to degrading conditions, was as yet unrepealed, though in
practice largely obsolete; the industry and commerce of Ireland were
throttled by restrictions imposed, in accordance with the economic
theories of the period, in the interest of the rival trade of Great
Britain. Men like Anthony Malone and Hely-Hutchison fully realized the
necessity for far-reaching reforms, and it only needed the ability and
eloquence of Flood in the Irish House of Commons to raise up an
independent party in parliament, and to create in the country a public
opinion with definite intelligible aims.
The chief objects for which Flood strove were the shortening of the
duration of parliament--which had then no legal limit in Ireland except
that of the reigning sovereign's life,--the reduction of the
scandalously heavy pension list, the establishment of a national
militia, and, above all, the complete legislative independence of the
Irish parliament. For some years little was accomplished; but in 1768
the English ministry, which had special reasons at the moment for
avoiding unpopularity in Ireland, allowed an octennial bill to pass,
which was the first step towards making the Irish House of Commons in
some measure representative of public opinion. It had become the
practice to allow crown patronage in Ireland to be exercised by the
owners of parliamentary boroughs in return for their undertaking to
manage the House in the government interest. But during the viceroyalty
of Lord Townsend the aristocracy, and more particularly these
"undertakers" as they were called, were made to understand that for the
future their privileges in this respect would be curtailed. When,
therefore, an opportunity was taken by the government in 1768 for
reasserting the constitutional subordination of the Irish parliament,
these powerful classes were thrown into temporary alliance with Flood.
In the following year, in accordance with the established procedure, a
money bill was sent over by the privy council in London for acceptance
by the Irish House of Commons. Not only was it rejected, but contrary to
custom a reason for this course was assigned, namely, that the bill had
not originated in the Irish House. In consequence parliament was
peremptorily prorogued, and a recess of fourteen months was employed by
the government in securing a majority by the most extensive
corruption.[1] Nevertheless when parliament met in February 1771 another
money bill was thrown out on the motion of Flood; and the next year Lord
Townsend, the lord lieutenant whose policy had provoked this conflict,
was recalled. The struggle was the occasion of a publication, famous in
its day, called _Baratariana_, to which Flood contributed a series of
powerful letters after the manner of Junius, one of his collaborators
being Henry Grattan.
The success which had thus far attended Flood's efforts had placed him
in a position such as no Irish politician had previously attained. He
had, as an eminent historian of Ireland observes, "proved himself beyond
all comparison the greatest popular orator that his country had 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 constituencies with a genuine spirit of
liberty and self-reliance."[2] Lord Harcourt, who succeeded Townsend as
viceroy, saw that Flood must be conciliated at any price "rather than
risk the opposition of so formidable a leader." Accordingly, in 1775,
Flood was offered and accepted a seat in the privy council and the
office of vice-treasurer with a salary of L3500 a year. For this step he
has been severely criticized. The suggestion that he acted corruptly in
the matter is groundless; and although it is true that he lost influence
from the moment he became a minister of the crown, Flood may reasonably
have held that he had a better prospect of advancing his policy by the
leverage of a ministerial position than by means of any opposition party
he could hope to muster in an unreformed House of Commons.[3] The
result, however, was that the leadership of the national party passed
from Flood to Grattan, who entered the Irish parliament in the same
session that Flood became a minister.
Flood continued in office for nearly seven years. During this long
period he necessarily remained silent on the subject of the independence
of the Irish parliament, and had to be content with advocating minor
reforms as occasion offered. He was thus instrumental in obtaining
bounties on the export of Irish corn to foreign countries and some other
trifling commercial concessions. On the other hand he failed to procure
the passing of a Habeas Corpus bill and a bill for making the judges
irremovable, while his support of Lord North's American policy still
more gravely injured his popularity and reputation. But an important
event in 1778 led indirectly to his recovering to some extent his former
position in the country; this event was the alliance of France with the
revolted American colonies. Ireland was thereby placed in peril of a
French invasion, while the English government could provide no troops to
defend the island. The celebrated volunteer movement was then set on
foot to meet the emergency; in a few weeks more than 40,000 men,
disciplined and equipped, were under arms, officered by the country
gentry, and controlled by the wisdom and patriotism of Lord Charlemont.
This volunteer force, in which Flood was a colonel, while vigilant for
the defence of the island, soon made itself felt in politics. A
Volunteer Convention, formed with all the regular organization of a
representative assembly, but wielding the power of an army, began
menacingly to demand the removal of the commercial restrictions which
were destroying Irish prosperity. Under this pressure the government
gave way; the whole colonial trade was in 1779 thrown open to Ireland
for the first time, and other concessions were also extorted. Flood, who
had taken an active though not a leading part in this movement, now at
last resigned his office to rejoin his old party. He found to his
chagrin that his former services had been to a great extent forgotten,
and that he was eclipsed by Grattan. When in a debate on the
constitutional question in 1779 Flood complained of the small
consideration shown him in relation to a subject which he had been the
first to agitate, he was reminded that by the civil law "if a man should
separate from his wife, and abandon her for seven years, another might
then take her and give her his protection." But though Flood had lost
control of the movement for independence of the Irish parliament, the
agitation, backed as it now was by the Volunteer Convention and by
increasing signs of popular disaffection, led at last in 1782 to the
concession of the demand, together with a number of other important
reforms (see GRATTAN, HENRY).
No sooner, however, was this great success gained than a question
arose--known as the Simple Repeal controversy--as to whether England, in
addition to the repeal of the Acts on which the subordination of the
Irish parliament had been based, should not be required expressly to
renounce for the future all claim to control Irish legislation. The
chief historical importance of this dispute is that it led to the
memorable rupture of friendship between Flood and Grattan, each of whom
assailed the other with unmeasured but magnificently eloquent invective
in the House of Commons. Flood's view prevailed--for a Renunciation Act
such as he advocated was ungrudgingly passed by the English parliament
in 1783--and for a time he regained popularity at the expense of his
rival. Flood next (28th of November 1783) introduced a reform bill,
after first submitting it to the Volunteer Convention. The bill, which
contained no provision for giving the franchise to Roman Catholics--a
proposal which Flood always opposed--was rejected, ostensibly on the
ground that the attitude of the volunteers threatened the freedom of
parliament. The volunteers were perfectly loyal to the crown and the
connexion with England. They carried an address to the king, moved by
Flood, expressing the hope that their support of parliamentary reform
might be imputed to nothing but "a sober and laudable desire to uphold
the constitution ... and to perpetuate the cordial union of both
kingdoms." The convention then dissolved, though Flood had desired, in
opposition to Grattan, to continue it as a means of putting pressure on
parliament for the purpose of obtaining reform.
In 1776 Flood had made an attempt to enter the English House of Commons.
In 1783 he tried again, this time with success. He purchased a seat for
Winchester from the duke of Chandos, and for the next seven years he was
a member at the same time of both the English and Irish parliaments. He
reintroduced, but without success, his reform bill in the Irish House in
1784; supported the movement for protecting Irish industries; but
short-sightedly opposed Pitt's commercial propositions in 1785. He
remained a firm opponent of Roman Catholic emancipation, even defending
the penal laws on the ground that after the Revolution they "were not
laws of persecution but of political necessity"; but after 1786 he does
not appear to have attended the parliament in Dublin. In the House at
Westminster, where he refused to enrol himself as a member of either
political party, he was not successful. His first speech, in opposition
to Fox's India Bill on the 3rd of December 1783, disappointed the
expectations aroused by his celebrity. His speech in opposition to the
commercial treaty with France in 1787 was, however, most able; and in
1790 he introduced a reform bill which Fox declared to be the best
scheme of reform that had yet been proposed, and which in Burke's
opinion retrieved Flood's reputation. But at the dissolution in the same
year he lost his seat in both parliaments, and he then retired to
Farmley, his residence in county Kilkenny, where he died on the 2nd of
December 1791.
When Peter Burrowes, notwithstanding his close personal friendship with
Grattan, declared that Flood was "perhaps the ablest man Ireland ever
produced, indisputably the ablest man of his own times," he expressed
what was probably the general opinion of Flood's contemporaries. Lord
Charlemont, who knew him intimately though not always in agreement with
his policy, pronounced him to be "a man of consummate ability." He also
declared that avarice made no part of Flood's character. Lord
Mountmorres, a critic by no means partial to Flood, described him as a
pre-eminently truthful man, and one who detested flattery. Grattan, who
even after the famous quarrel never lost his respect for Flood, said of
him that he was the best tempered and the most sensible man in the
world. In his youth he was genial, frank, sociable and witty; but in
later years disappointment made him gloomy and taciturn. As an orator he
was less polished, less epigrammatic than Grattan; but a closer reasoner
and a greater master of sarcasm and invective. Personal ambition often
governed his actions, but his political judgment was usually sound; and
it was the opinion of Bentham that Flood would have succeeded in
carrying a reform bill which might have preserved Irish parliamentary
independence, if he had been supported by Grattan and the rest of his
party in keeping alive the Volunteer Convention in 1783. Though he never
wavered in loyalty to the British crown and empire, Ireland never
produced a more sincere patriot than Henry Flood.
See Warden Flood, _Memoirs of Henry Flood_ (London, 1838); Henry
Grattan, _Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Hon. H. Grattan_
(5 vols., London, 1839-1846); Charles Phillips, _Recollections of
Curran and some of his Contemporaries_ (London, 1822); _The Irish
Parliament 1775_, from an official and contemporary manuscript, edited
by William Hunt (London, 1907); W.J. O'Neill Daunt, _Ireland and her
Agitators_; Lord Mountmorres, _History of the Irish Parliament_ (2
vols., London, 1792); W.E.H. Lecky, _History of England in the
Eighteenth Century_ (8 vols., London, 1878-1890); and _Leaders of
Public Opinion in Ireland_ (enlarged edition, 2 vols., London, 1903);
J.A. Froude, _The English in Ireland_, vols. ii. and iii. (London,
1881); Horace Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._ (4 vols.,
London, 1845, 1894); Sir Jonah Barrington, _Rise and Fall of the Irish
Nation_ (London, 1833); Francis Plowden, _Historical Review of the
State of Ireland_ (London, 1803); Alfred Webb, _Compendium of Irish
Biography_ (Dublin, 1878); F. Hardy, _Memoirs of Lord Charlemont_
(London, 1812), especially for the volunteer movement, on which see
also _Proceedings of the Volunteer Delegates of Ireland 1784_ (Anon.
Pamphlet, Brit. Mus.); also _The Charlemont Papers_, and _Irish Parl.
Debates_, (vols. i.-iv.). (R. J. M.)