ted from his great-uncle. There was, however, a
really friendly feeling between them both now and afterwards; and
Coleridge was at this time very serviceable. He is 'behaving like a good
fellow,' reports Fitzjames July 5, and is 'sending Government briefs
which pay very well.' By the end of the year Fitzjames reports 'a very
fair sprinkling of good business.' All his old clients have come back,
and some new ones have presented themselves. There were even before this
time some rumours of a possible elevation to the bench; but apparently
without much solid foundation. Meanwhile, he was also looking forward to
employment in the direction of codification. He had offered, when
leaving India, to draw another codifying bill (upon 'Torts') for his
successor Hobhouse. This apparently came to nothing; but there were
chances at home. 'I have considerable hopes,' he says (June 19, 1872),
'of getting set to work again after the manner of Simla or Calcutta.'
There is work enough to be done in England to last for many lives; and
the Government may perhaps take his advice as to the proper mode of
putting it in hand. He was soon actually at work upon two bills, which
gave him both labour and worry before he had done with them. One of
these was a bill upon homicide, which he undertook in combination with
Russell Gurney, then recorder of London. The desirability of such a bill
had been suggested to Gurney by John Bright, in consequence of a recent
commission upon Capital Punishment. Gurney began to prepare the work,
but was glad to accept the help of Fitzjames, whose labours had made him
so familiar with the subject. Substantially he had to adapt part of the
Penal Code, which he must have known by heart, and he finished the work
rapidly. He sent a copy of the bill to Henry Cunningham on August 15,
1872, when it had already been introduced into Parliament by R. Gurney
and read a first time. He sees, however, no chance of getting it
seriously discussed for the present. One reason is suggested in the same
letter. England is a 'centre of indifference' between the two poles,
India and the United States. At each pole you get a system vigorously
administered and carried to logical results. 'In the centre you get the
queerest conceivable hubblebubble, half energy and half impotence, and
all scepticism in a great variety of forms.' The homicide bill was
delayed by Russell Gurney's departure for America on an important
mission in the following winter