Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/425

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FIT
399
FIT

important matters concerning him were agitated, and remained with him after his other servants had deserted him, and was an eye-witness of his death at Canterbury. He was one of the archbishop's clerks, lived at the same table with him, was a remembrancer in his chancery, a subdeacon in his chapel, a reader of bills and petitions, and occasionally performed the office of advocate, when the archbishop sat to determine causes. He was a man of probity and great moderation. When the archbishop, forsaken by his suffragans and in danger of being murdered, was recommended by Herbert, his divinity preceptor, to excommunicate any one who might assault him, Fitzstephen interposed, saying—"Far be that from my lord; the holy apostles and martyrs when they suffered did not behave in that manner." Fitzstephen was once, at least, despatched on important business to the pope, then probably at Rome or Benevento. He was a man of great learning for his time, was well acquainted with most of the Latin classic authors, and possessed a fair knowledge of Greek. He was as familiar with the ancient classic writers as was Peter of Blois, Saxo-grammaticus, or John of Salisbury. From the circumstance that he is often styled Cantuariensis and Stcphanides he has been sometimes confounded with Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury. About the year 1174 he wrote the "Life and Passion of Archbishop Becket," and prefixed to it his "Description of the City of London," which, next to Domesday Book, gives the earliest account of the metropolis, and a translation of which appears in Stowe's Survey of London. He coupled his "Description of London" with the "Life of Becket," in imitation of Sallust, who, in his history, describes the position of Africa. He lived in the reign of Stephen, wrote in the reign of Henry II., and died in the reign of Richard I., in the year 1191.—W. A. B.

FITZWILLIAM, Charles William Wentworth, in the peerage of the United Kingdom third Earl Fitzwilliam, was born in London on the 4th of May, 1786, only son of William, the second earl, some time lord-lieutenant of Ireland. An alumnus of Trinity college, Cambridge, Viscount Milton—the designation by which he was known up to the date of his accession to the peerage—was from an early period distinguished as an ardent reformer, at a time when zeal for reform was rather rare in the aristocratic class to which he belonged. From 1807 to 1830 he represented the West Riding in the liberal interest; and tradition says, that the contested election which sent him to the house of commons in the first-mentioned of these years, cost his father no less than a hundred thousand pounds! Lord Milton sat for North Northamptonshire between 1831 and 1833, when he was elevated to the house of lords by his father's death. In the agitation for the reform bill he took a prominent part, and once went the length of making a public declaration which caused great excitement at the time, that he would refuse to pay taxes if that celebrated measure were rejected. In 1832 he published in pamphlet form "An Address to the Landowners of England on the Corn Laws," strongly advocating the policy of repeal, long before the formation of the anti-corn-law league. With his accession to the peerage. Lord Fitzwilliam continued to be a prominent politician, and to the last took an active part in the discussions of the house of peers, but he never accepted office. In 1848 he published "A Letter to the Rev. John Sargeaunt" on the Irish famine, and enforcing the claims of Ireland to imperial aid in her difficulties. His lordship was much beloved as a landlord, and his personal character secured him the esteem and respect of all political parties in the West Riding. He received the garter in 1851, and was appointed lord-lieutenant of the West Riding in the year of his death, which occurred on the 14th of October, 1857.—F. E.

FITZWILLIAM, William, Earl of Southampton, a great naval commander of the sixteenth century, was the son of Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam of Aldwarke in Yorkshire. He was appointed one of the principal captains of the fleet sent out in 1513 to clear the sea of French ships, previous to the invasion of France by Henry VIII.; and he was seriously wounded by an arrow in an attack upon the French fleet at Brest. He took part in the siege of Tournay, where he received the honour of knighthood on account of his bravery. In 1520 he was vice-admiral of England, and guarded the channel when the Emperor Charles V. visited England. He was subsequently appointed ambassador to France; but a rupture having taken place between that kingdom and England, he was recalled in 1522, and ordered to sea with a fleet of twenty-eight sail, to sweep the channel of the French, and protect the English merchantmen. He afterwards assisted at the capture of Morlaix, and burnt Marguison. In 1523 he was made admiral and landed on the French coast at Treport in Normandy, and the year following he attacked Boulogne. He was one of those who subscribed the articles exhibited in parliament in 1529 against Cardinal Wolsey. He attended King Henry VIII. to Boulogne in 1532, when the famous interview took place between that monarch and Francis I.; and in 1535 was sent with other commissioners to treat with the French deputies about a league between England and France—one article of which was that the duke of Angouleme, third son of the king of France, should marry the Princess (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth. He was soon after made a knight of the order of the garter, and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and in 1536 was appointed admiral of England. Wales, Ireland, Normandy, Gascony, and Aquitaine. In 1537 he was advanced to the title of Earl of Southampton, and made lord-privy-seal in 1539. He was, as captain of the Forward, engaged in the expedition against Scotland in 1542, but at Newcastle on his way thither he died. His memory was held in such esteem that his standard was borne in the vanguard throughout that campaign.—J. T—r.

FITZWILLIAM, William Wentworth, fourth earl of (in the peerage of Ireland, second in that of England) and sixth baron of, was born, 30th May, 1748. Shortly after the death of his father in 1756 he was sent to Eton, where he was on the same form with Charles Fox and the late earl of Carlisle, and formed with them a lifelong friendship. From Eton he passed to King's college, Cambridge. Before he took his seat in the house of peers in 1769, he devoted some years to travel. Upon his entering political life, he ranged himself in the opposition to Lord North's administration. Upon the death of his uncle the marquis of Rockingham, whose views he supported. Lord Shelburne was placed at the head of the government. Lord Fitzwilliam and his friend Fox withdrew their support. But the advent of the French revolution caused him to stand by his order to stem the progress of the levelling principles that were then spreading through England. Accordingly he joined the duke of Portland, the earl of Spencer, and other nobles, and accepted the office of president of the council under Pitt, and subsequently that of viceroy of Ireland in January, 1795, whence he was recalled in the March following. After the death of Pitt the earl again became president of the council, which he retained till the following year, when he retired from public life. He died, 8th February, 1833.—J. F. W.

* FIX, Theobald, brother of Theodore Fix; born at Soleure in 1802, educated first at Berne, afterwards at Leipzig, where he was one of Hermann's favourite pupils. He fixed his residence in Paris, where in 1827 he was engaged to superintend Didot's edition of Stephens' Thesaurus. Fix's connection with this publication did not go beyond the first volume. From 1835 to 1837 he taught Greek at the ecole normale; was afterwards appointed professor of classics at the college Henri IV.; and in 1856 succeeded M. Regnault as bibliothecaire du conseil d'état. Fix edited the works of Chrysostom, thirteen vols., 1834-1839. He has also edited several of the Greek classics.—J. A., D.

FIX, Theodore, born at Soleure, Switzerland, in 1800; died at Paris in 1846. Fix was of a French family, who abandoned their country at the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His father was a physician. Theodore first sought to establish himself as a land-surveyor. In 1830 he appeared as an author, and wrote most of the geographical articles in the Bulletin Universel des Sciences. In 1833 he became the editor of the Revue mensuelle d'Economie Politique, and from that time to the period of his death, continued to publish in one journal or other, essays on such subjects of political economy as the circumstances of the day suggested. He published in the Revue Nouvelle, a little before his death, an article on the religious affairs of Germany, which attracted great attention.—J. A., D.

FIXMILLNER, Placidus, a German astronomer of some distinction, was born May 28, 1721, at Achleuthen, near the monastery of Kremsmünster in Austria. He received his first education from his uncle the abbot of the monastery; and showing a decided inclination for mathematical and astronomical studies, an observatory was built expressly for him at the expense of the religious community. Though with exceedingly imperfect instruments, this little observatory—or, as the Germans poetically call it, Sternwarte (Star-watch)—soon became, through his