me down with a run,' writes Fitzjames
(March 14, 1873); 'Gladstone is out of office; Coleridge is going out;
my Evidence Act and all my other schemes have blown up--and here am I, a
briefless, or nearly briefless, barrister, beginning the world all over
again.... I have some reason to think that, if Gladstone had stayed in,
I should, in a few weeks, have been Solicitor-General, and on my way to
all sorts of honour and glory.' However, he comforts himself with
various proverbs. His favourite saying on these occasions, which were
only too common, was 'Patience, and shuffle the cards.' The Gladstone
Ministry, however, was patched up, and things looked better presently.
'I am,' he says in May, 'in the queerest nondescript position--something
between Solicitor-General and Mr. Briefless--with occasional spurts of
business' which look promising, but in frequency resemble angelic
visits. On June 27 he announces, however, that a whole heap of briefs
'has come in, and, to crown all, a solemn letter came yesterday from the
Lord Chancellor, offering to appoint me to act as circuit judge in the
place of Lush, who stays in town to try that lump of iniquity, the
Claimant.' He was, accordingly, soon at the Winchester Assizes, making a
serious experiment in the art of judging, and finding the position
thoroughly congenial. He is delighted with everything, including Chief
Baron Kelly, a 'very pleasant, chatty old fellow,' who had been called
to the bar fifty years before, and was still bright and efficient.
Fitzjames's duties exactly suit him. They require close attention,
without excessive labour. He could judge for nine hours a day all the
year round without fatigue. He gets up at 5.30, and so secures two or
three hours, 'reading his books with a quiet mind.' Then there is the
pleasure of choosing the right side, instead of having to take a side
chosen by others; while 'the constant little effort to keep counsel in
order, and to keep them also in good humour, and to see that all things
go straight and well, is to me perfectly exquisite.' His practice in
journalism has enabled him to take notes of the evidence rapidly,
without delaying the witnesses; and he is conscious of doing the thing
well and giving satisfaction. The leader of the circuit pays him 'a most
earnest compliment,' declaring that the 'whole bar are unanimous in
thinking the work done as well as possible. This,' he says, 'made me
very happy, for I know, from knowing the men