The  estrangement  begun  on  the  question  of  the  Renunciation
Act  had  ripened  into  open  warfare.  Grattan  had  voted  for
an  increase  in  the  army  ;  Flood  had  angrily  opposed  it,  and,
calling  Grattan  a  mendicant  patriot,  was  answered  in  a  speech
of  terrible  power,  told  to  his  face  that  he  had  long  been  silent
and  silent  for  money,  and  that  he  was  not  an  honest  man.^
In  spite  of  these  differences  Grattan  supported  Flood's  Bill,
though  not  with  enthusiasm  ;  but  Yelverton,  who  from  being
a  patriot  had  become  a  placeman,  led  the  opposition  with
great  eloquence  and  skill.  He  would  have  no  Bill  which
originated  with  the  Volunteer  Convention  ;  let  the  Volunteers,
whom  he  respected,  return  to  their  occupations,  turn  their
swords  into  ploughshares,  and  leave  the  business  of  legislation
1  Parliamentary  Debates,  ii.  40-43.
FLOOD'S  REFORM   BILL  7

in  those  hands  where  the  law  had  placed  it.  The  whole
forces  of  reaction  and  corruption  mustered  to  his  call,  and
by  158  to  "jy  votes  even  leave  to  introduce  the  Bill  was
refused.^  The  Volunteer  Convention  was  then  quietly  dis-
solved. Charlemont's  advice  was  then  taken — to  hold  county
meetings  and  rely  on  speeches  and  resolutions  and  petitions,
and  the  Bill  was  again  introduced  by  Flood  in  March  of  the
following  year.  It  reached  the  second  reading,  but  was  then
rejected  by  159  to  85  votes.^  A  further  motion  made  by
Flood  in  the  next  year  was  negatived  without  a  division  ;
and  so  determined  was  the  Government's  opposition  that  the
Sheriff  of  Dublin,  for  presiding  at  a  reform  meeting,  was
prosecuted  and  fined.^  It  was  useless  to  agitate  the  question
further,  and  Flood  and  his  friends  lost  courage,  concluding
that  with  such  influences  at  work  the  reform  of  such  a
Parliament  was  but  a  dream.
