sent,as may be with decency." P. 17. "The English interest to be thoroughly supported. The only way of keeping things quiet is to fill the great places from England." P. 19. "No one for the future but Englishmen to be in great places. The Chief Baron to be an Englishman." P. 49. "I must own we deserve no favour here." P. 64. " Irish lawyers inferior in skill and experience to the English." P. 90. "The two Chief Justices to be Englishmen." P. 93. "If an English bishop be sent, let it not be for being good for nothing there." If so good a man could forget his duty as a prelate and minister to the people with whom he resided, what confidence ought Irishmen to have in inferior characters?
Similar sentiments operated upon the general class of imported placemen, who by misinterpretation, fraud and self interest, upheld the barbarism and hostility of both countries in their mutual administration. To such a man Lord Chancellor Wyndham cheerfully resigned the corrupt patronage and systematic support of an Irish Cabinet. In this manner the nation and its legal body were governed during the reign of George L, upon whose demise the sceptre fell to his son without any judicial or ministerial movement in either kingdom.
In 1792, Mr. John Fitzgibbon[1] applied for a call to the bar, with a moral and literary character not only sufficient for the purpose, but a scrutiny into which must attract attention and respect Though descended from Popish parents, he understood the law too well to apply without removing the effect of such impediment. For this also a recent precedent occurred in the case of a Mr. James Roche, who was admitted a barrister in 1729. His education in a French university could not be a matter of regular inquiry, as a college degree was neither respected nor required. With the preceding protections and qualifications the reader may feel impatient to know what ground of rejection could be fairly adduced against him. It seems, ambition or lucre urged him to take and publish notes of cases determined
- ↑ Father of the Earl of Clare.
