Mr. Ball in Ship-street. He was distinguished as an apt scholar, totally devoid of fancy or taste. Among his school-fellows were Foster, Boyd, and Grattan. FitzGibbon obtained his degree of B.A. from the University of Dublin in 1762, and that of LL.D. in 1765. He also took a degree at Oxford, and then entered as a student at the Temple. He was called to the Irish Bar, 19th June 1772, in his twenty-third year, and being a well-read and accomplished lawyer, his progress was rapid. The first year his fees were ₤343. By 1788 they had risen to ₤7,980 per annum. Altogether, between June 1772, and June 1798, he received £45,912. He joined the Munster circuit, where his father's reputation as a careful and painstaking lawyer, and his owning large estates near Limerick, gave him a status. Amongst those who rode circuit with him were Barry Yelverton and Curran. "Of slender figure, not very robust health, and rather delicate features, he had the haughty air, the imperious glance, the despotic will of a Roman emperor. He was an able and ready advocate, exceedingly painstaking, always master of his case, and these qualifications ensured him abundance of briefs." '* His personal appearance is also described by Barrington: "He was about the middle size; slight, and not graceful; his eyes — large, dark, and penetrating — betrayed some of the boldest traits of his uncommon character; his countenance, though expressive and manly, yet discovered nothing which could deceive the physiognomist into an opinion of his magnanimity, or call forth an eulogium on his virtues." Ambitious and desirous of distinction, a large allowance from his father did not lessen his eagerness for practice. The success of his advocacy on the University election petition of 1778, led to his election for the University of Dublin in 1780, his coadjutor being Hussey Burgh. When requested by the electors to support Grattan's Petition of Rights, he wrote: "I have always been of opinion that the claim of the British Parliament to make laws for his country is a daring usurpation on the rights of a free people, and have uniformly asserted the opinion in public and in private." We are told that "FitzGibbon's oratory, though inferior to that of many of his great cotemporaries— Grattan, Hussey Burgh, Yelverton, or Flood — was of no mean order. . . It was bold, rapid, and forcible — ministering always to his wants, and rescuing him from difficulties by its quick and apposite application. He had the power of awakening attention and infusing animation into the dull and flagging debate. When carelessness or absence of interest rendered the proceedings of the House stupid, he rushed forward, and by a sharp stroke of personal invective, or a vigorous attack upon the opposition generally, elicited the applause of his own party, or provoked the indignation of his adversaries, so that the strife was again renewed, and sparks of a divine eloquence were generated in the collision." '^ In 1783 he succeeded Yelverton as Attorney-General. Grattan approved of this appointment, although many of his colleagues feared FitzGibbon — amongst the rest, Mr. Daly, who declared: " You are quite mistaken; that little fellow will deceive you all." Before long he joined the Government side — in March 1784, opposing Flood's Reform Bill in a speech of singular power and acuteness, in which he bitterly denounced the action of the Volunteers. He was now found upon all occasions — especially upon the questions of Reform and Emancipation — in opposition to the popular party. Writers are much divided as to whether his course was prompted by ambition or by sincere conviction. From whatever motives, however, he bent his great powers and stern will implacably against Irish self-government, and supported English supremacy in all matters. Unlike many politicians, he is said to have carried his public resentments into private intercourse, and is often represented as a man rather to be feared than loved. The influence he before long exercised was enormous; his will became the pivot upon which the movements of the Government party turned, and he ruled in every department of Irish affairs with irresistible sway. He recommended himself to the King and Government by preventing the holding of a national conference in Dublin — threatening to attach the Sheriff, who had agreed to preside. His action was brought before Parliament, and in the course of the ensuing debate he styled Curran "a pimy babbler." Curran retorted: "I am not a man who denied the necessity of parliamentary reform at a time when I proved the expediency of it by reviling my own constituents — the parish clerk, the sexton, and the grave-digger." On the Regency question in 1788 FitzGibbon sided unreservedly with Pitt, proving the sincerity of his convictions by voting with the party that desired to limit the prerogatives of a probable king de facto. In the course of the debate FitzGibbon declared that it was Ireland's duty on all such questions implicitly to follow the leadings of the Parliament of Great Britain, and that a contrary course would inevitably lead to a union. The
