appointment
and three judges had written to recommend clerks. Last night he had
heard decisively that he was not to have it. Coleridge, too, had become
Lord Chief Justice and the Government business had gone elsewhere. Well,
he will 'put on some extra work to keep hold of the wolf's ears which he
has held so long.' Coleridge, I may add, still took an interest in
Fitzjames's codification schemes, and they even agreed, or rather
vaguely proposed, to act the parts of 'Moses and Aaron,' Fitzjames
inspiring measures of which Coleridge was to take charge in the House of
Lords. This dream, however, vanished like others.

The dissolution of Parliament in January, 1874, was followed by a
general election. Proposals were made to Fitzjames to stand at several
places; including Dundee, where, however, Mr. Jenkins was elected. For
one reason or other he declined the only serious offers, and was 'not
sorry.' He could not get over 'his dislike to the whole affair.' He
'loathed elections,' and 'could not stand the idea of Parliament.'
Disraeli soon came into office, and 'the new ministry knew not Joseph.'
Fitzjames had quite got over his disappointment about the judgeship,
though he admits that he had at first felt it 'bitterly.' He has not
known how to find favour with chancellors or ministers. He therefore
resolves to make his own way; he cares more for what he is in himself
than for the position he holds; and he reconciles himself 'to the
prospect which obviously lies before him,' of obscure hard 'labour for a
good many years.' He 'puts away all his fair hopes in his pocket, and
resolves to do three things: a good bit of codifying,' whether on his
own account or for Government; a little book about India; and finally
the _magnum opus_ which he had so long meditated, which he thought that
he ought to begin when he was fifty (he was at this time just
forty-five), and which might take about fifteen years. The little book
about India is afterwards frequently mentioned in his letters under its
proposed title, 'The English in India.' It was, I think, to be more or
less historical, and to occupy some of the ground covered by Sir Alfred
Lyall's 'British Dominion in India.' It never took definite shape, but
led to the work upon Impey, of which I shall have to speak hereafter.
Meanwhile he is not without some good professional omens. He feels that
he will have to 'restrict his circuiteering,' and not to go to most of
the towns without special