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EARL OF CLARE,

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND.

WHETHER we confider the importance refulting from official fituation, or that which great activity, confiderable talents, and indefatigable zeal, always attach to their poffeffor, this nobleman is certainly the firft man in the Irish administration. Whatever may be the fate of his unhappy country, fo far as that fate is influenced by the prefent conteft, it may be fairly attributed to his wifdom or to his weaknefs, to his firmness or to his folly.

Lord Clare, although now occupying the higheft lawoffice in Ireland, and poffeffing almoft unlimited influence in its councils, cannot boaft a long line of noble ancestors.

He is removed but two degrees from a man in an humble walk of fociety, whofe life was distinguished only by a gradual transition from extreme poverty to an honourable competency, and that too acquired by useful industry, which at that period to a person in his situation profeffing the Catholic religion was not an eafy matter.

With the change produced in the circumftances of the family, a change feems to have alfo taken place in its creed for while yet a very young man, we find the late Mr. Fitzgibbon, his lordship's father, a ftaunch and zealous proteftant. It is faid, however, that he was originally deftined to officiate at a Catholic altar, and that he had actually received the education which was confidered neceffary to fit him for that station. If this account be true, it is at least certain that either the maturity of his judgment, or a change in his views, foon made him recant his errors; for he was yet in early life, when he was called to the Irish bar, to

which

which catholics were then inadmiffible, and at which he afterwards became a highly efteemed and fuccefsful pleader.

During that period, the bufinefs of the courts was monopolised by a few eminent barrifters: but the talents and the industry of Mr. Fitzgibbon forced him forward in fpite of envy, and in a few years he himself became one of those who, in some respects, claimed all the honours and the emoJuments of the profeffion. So fuccefsful indeed was he, that in the courfe of a life not uncommonly long, he is faid to have realised a fortune of nearly 8000l. per annum.

Of this gentleman, Lord Clare is the only furviving fon A profeffion in which the father had been fo fuccessful was naturally chosen by him for a favourite child. He was accordingly entered at an early age a ftudent of the university of Dublin, where he was contemporary with fome of the most celebrated men who have diftinguished themselves in all the recent and important transactions that have occurred in Ireland; fuch as Mr. Grattan, Mr. Fofter the present speaker of the Irish Commons, &c. He is yet remembered by fome of the old members of that seminary, on account of the ability and induftry which even then marked his character.

Having completed his course of collegiate studies, and kept his terms at the Temple, he was at length called to the Irish bar, with advantages poffeffed by few at the outfet of life, and these were supported by a high character, and a fortune which, even independent of any encrease from the fuccefs of forenfic labours, fecured to him fomething infinitely beyond a competence. Affluence, however, did not produce in Mr. Fitzgibbon what is too commonly its effect on the youthful mind--an indolent apathy. His affiduity in profeffional pursuits was not exceeded by any of his rivals at the bar; and though there was no man who drank more deeply of the cup of pleasure, yet few toiled through more

bufinefs,

bufinefs, or in the discharge of it displayed more of that accuracy of knowledge which is the refult only of attentive industry.

It was by the obfervance of a rule of life which none but ftrong minds have ever prescribed to themfelves, namely, "to fuffer no portion of time to pass without filling it either with business or with pleasure," that Mr. F. was enabled to unite those generally incompatible purfuits. With fuch application, and with talents certainly above the common level, though perhaps far below that at which his friends would place them, he foon rofe to eminence.

In the House of Commons, of which he became a member shortly after his call to the bar, by the operation of this principle, aided by a kind of eloquence, which, though it was neither very brilliant nor very perfuafive, yet being accompanied by a certain air of confident superiority, a confiderable effect was produced; and he was foon esteemed one of the most efficient fupporters of the party he espoused.

Without affecting popularity at any time, he launched into political life, uninvited and unbought, the partisan of the court, and the profeffed contemner of the profanum vulgus in this fentiment has has been wonderfully confiftent. From his first entrance he has not, in one fingle inftance, started from the track before him. His conduct has been marked by an unvaried and uniform fupport of the British cabinet, and an avowed, perhaps a revolting contempt, for the principles, motives, and objects of what has been called the popular party.

He had not been long in parliament, before the calamities brought upon Ireland by the continuance of the American conteft, rendered it neceffary to feek, in an enlargement of her commerce, for fome remedy against a general bankruptcy. The Commons, urged by the cries of a famishing people, called for what was then denominated "a free

"trade,"

trade," and Mr. F. much to his honour, did not oppofe the application. The defenceless state in which the kingdom had been left, by drawing off the troops to ferve on a diftant continent, fuggefted to the community the neceffity of arming for felf-defence. Mr. F. appeared in the ranks as a private; but it would be unjuft to charge him with participating in thofe high-flown fentiments of national pride, and love of freedom, which foon began to actuate the volunteer army, and which no doubt gave fome strength to the fubfequent declaration of legislative independence by the Irish parliament. He rather seemed to be carried forward by the irresistible impulfe of national fentiment, than to have advanced with it toward the goal. Accordingly, when an occafion occurred of retiring without dishonour from a caufe fo little congenial to his principles, he separated from the vulgar herd. The moment chosen by him was during the difcuffion of the long- agitated queftion, relative to the SIMPLE REPEAL of the fixth of Geo. HI. From that time to the present he has continued the zealous advocate for a strong and energetic government, and the powerful opponent of every man who attempted to reform, or innovate on prefent establishments.

When Mr. Scott was appointed Chief Juftice of the King's Bench in Ireland, Mr. Fitzgibbon fucceeded him as Attorney-general. No man was ever better fitted for the office. His firmnefs, his confidence in his own powers, and the bold tone with which he hurled defiance at his parliamentary opponents, on every queftion connected with Jegal or conftitutional knowlege, often appalled the minor members of oppofition, and fometimes kept even their chiefs at bay. These qualities, however, did not always conftitute a fure defence. The repulfe which on one memorable evening of debate he experienced on the part of the late LORD, then Mr. O'Neil, of Shane's Caftle, whofe manly

and

and honeft mind caught fire at the haughty and dictatorial language with which the attorney-general had dared to address him, is remembered by thofe who were then converfant in the politics of the day, and probably will not foon be forgotten.

But though this daring, and, as it is often called, overbearing fpirit, did fometimes mifcarry, in general it enfured him fuccefs. A remarkable inftance of its efficacy occurred at a time when the minds of the people were extremely agitated by the rejecting of their petitions for reform, and for protecting duties. At a moment when the ferment feemed to have arifen to a very dangerous height, an aggregate meeting of all the inhabitants of the metropolis was, on a requifition of several respectable perfons, convened by the high sheriffs of Dublin. The attorney-general was then the moft unpopular man in the country; and the mob had for fome time been in the habits of offering perfonal infult to thofe whom they fufpected of being adverfe to their wishes. Unawed, however, by these circumftances, Mr. F. attended only by one or two friends, made his way through the crowd, reached the hustings, interrupted a popular orator in the midst of his harangue, told the sheriffs that they had acted illegally in calling the meeting, commanded them to leave the chair, and threatened them with an information ex officio if they prefumed to continue in it. He then left the aftonished affembly amidft the hiffes of the mob; and the fheriffs instantly diffolved the meeting.

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Hitherto Mr. F. had acted with an administration which poffeffed both the power and the will to reward his exertions. When the event of the king's illness, in 1789, unhinged the Irish government, he stood in different circumstances.

* A profecution without the intervention of a Grand Jury.