have
happened in 1864, when Yorkshire was added to the Midland Circuit, and
an infusion of barristers from the Northern Circuit consequently took
place. It seems that the manners and customs of the northerners were
decidedly less civilised than those of their brethren. A hard fight had
to be fought before they could be raised to the desired level. In 1867 I
find that Fitzjames proposed the abolition of the Circuit Court. He was
defeated by twenty votes to fifteen; and marvels at the queer bit of
conservatism cropping up in an unexpected place. In spite of these
encounters, Fitzjames not only formed some very warm friendships on
circuit, but enjoyed many of the social meetings, and often recurred to
them in later years. He only despised tomfoolery more emphatically than
his neighbours. Nobody, indeed, could be a more inconvenient presence
where breaches of decency or good manners were to be apprehended. I
vividly remember an occasion upon which he was one of a little party of
young men on a walking tour. A letter read out by one of them had the
phrase, 'What a pity about Mrs. A.!' Someone suggested a conjectural
explanation not favourable to Mrs. A.'s character. He immediately came
in for a stern denunciation from Fitzjames which reduced us all to
awestruck silence, and, I hope, gave the speaker an unforgetable lesson
as to the duty of not speaking lightly in matters affecting female
reputation. He collapsed; and I do not recollect that he ventured any
comment upon a letter of the next morning which proved his conjecture to
be correct. The principle was the same.

These characteristics, as I gather both from Mr. Justice Wills and from
Mr. Lushington, caused Fitzjames to be the object rather of respect than
of general popularity. His friends could not fail to recognise the depth
of his real kindness of heart. Mr. Justice Wills refers to one little
incident of which my brother often spoke. Fitzjames visited him at the
'Eagle's Nest,' in 1862, and there found him engaged in nursing Auguste
Balmat, the famous guide, who was dying of typhoid fever. The natives
were alarmed, and the whole labour of nursing fell upon Mr. and Mrs.
Wills. Fitzjames, on his arrival, relieved them so far as he could, and
enabled them to get some nights' sleep. I remember his description of
himself, sitting up by the dying man, with a volume of 'Pickwick' and a
vessel of holy water, and primed with some pious sentences to be
repeated if the last ag