Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/162

 FITZGIBBON, JOHN, (1749–1802), lord chancellor of Ireland, the second son of John Fitzgibbon of Mount Shannon, co. Limerick, a successful Irish barrister, was born near Donnybrook in 1749. At school and at the university of Dublin he gained great distinction. Grattan was his great rival at Dublin, and had the superiority in the early, while Fitzgibbon succeeded best in the later years of the course. In 1765 Fitzgibbon obtained an optime for a translation of the 'Georgics,' 'the very rarest honour in our academic course' (Dublin University Mag. xxx. 672). He graduated B.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1767, and afterwards entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1770. In 1772 he was called to the Irish bar, and stepped at once into a large and growing practice. He received in his first year 3437l. 7s., between 1772 and 1783 (when he became attorney-general) 8,973l. 6s. 3d., and between 1783 and 1789 (when he became lord chancellor) 36,939l. 3s. 11d. (ib. xxx. 675). His father is said to have allowed him 600l. a year in addition. He conducted a successful election petition in 1778 against the return of Hely Hutchinson for the university, succeeded to the seat, and, along with Hussey Burgh, represented the university till 1783. In his early parliamentary days he gave a moderate support to the national claims. In 1780 he opposed Grattan's declaration of the legislative rights of Ireland; but, in consequence of an appeal from his constituents, promised to support it on the next occasion. 'I have always been of opinion,' he said, 'that the claim of the British parliament to make laws for the country is a daring usurpation of the rights of a free people, and have uniformly asserted the opinion in public and in private.' The total repeal of Poynings's law, however, seemed to him undesirable. On the necessity of repealing the Perpetual Mutiny Bill and of making the judges independent, he entirely agreed with his constituents (see his letter in, Lord Chancellors of Ireland, ii. 160).

He succeeded in keeping on good terms both with the government and with the nationalists. On several important questions he supported the latter, and had his reward in 1783, when Grattan, to his own subsequent regret, pressed for his appointment as attorney-general (, Memoirs, iii. 202). Fitzgibbon was never fortunate enough to find a suitable occasion for expressing the national feelings with which Grattan credited him. Until the union he remained practically the directing head of the Irish government, and consistently used his great influence to resist every proposal of reform and concession. His first conflict was over the question of parliamentary reform in the House of Commons, where he now represented Kilmallock. He opposed Flood's bill of 1784 as the mandate of a turbulent military congress; and, when the sheriffs of Dublin convened a meeting for the purpose of electing delegates to a national congress to consider the question, he wrote a letter threatening them with prosecution if they proceeded. He had the courage to appear at the meeting and repeat his threat. Reilly, the sheriff who was present, yielded, but was nevertheless fined for contempt of the court of king's bench in calling an illegal meeting. In the House of Commons Fitzgibbon defended both the legality and the expediency of this proceeding, and stated that it had been taken by his advice. In 1785 he supported the government's commercial policy with such power as to produce a special message of thanks from the king. In a speech on the treaty (15 Aug.) he referred to Curran as 'the politically insane gentleman,' whose declamation was better calculated for Sadler's Wells than the House of Commons. Curran retorted by saying that if he acted like Fitzgibbon he should be glad of the excuse of insanity. A duel followed, 'but,' says Lord Plunket in narrating the incident, 'unluckily they missed each other.' Curran is reported to have accused Fitzgibbon of determined malignity, shown by taking aim for nearly half a minute after his antagonist had fired (, Curran and his Contemporaries, p. 145). Mr. Froude ingeniously suggests that Fitzgibbon's deliberate aim was 'perhaps to make sure of doing him no serious harm' (English in Ireland, ii. 484). The enmity lasted through life; and Curran freely accused Fitzgibbon of purposely seeking opportunities to injure him.

In the Whiteboy Act of 1787 Fitzgibbon may be said to have begun his consistent policy of repression. He was presumably responsible for a clause, which had to be abandoned, giving power to destroy any popish chapel in or near which an illegal oath had been tendered. In later years he recurred repeatedly to the evil influence of the priests. At the same time he saw clearly the causes of outrage which repressive measures could not remove. In an often-quoted passage he gave his experience of Munster: 'If landlords would take the trouble to know their tenants,' he said, 'and not leave them in the hands of rapacious agents and middlemen, we should hear no more of discontents. The great source of all these miseries arises from the neglect of those whose duty and