d to unforeseen and
awkward results. We ought to admit that we are deliberately breaking the
law, because we hold it to be unjust and desire its amendment. He signs
the report of the Commission understanding that it sanctions this view.]

CHAPTER VI

_JUDICIAL CAREER_

I. HISTORY OF CRIMINAL LAW

The Commission upon the Criminal Code occupied Fitzjames for some time
after his appointment to a judgeship. His first appearance in his new
capacity was in April 1879 at the Central Criminal Court, where he had
held his first brief, and had made his first appearance after returning
from India. He had to pass sentence of death upon an atrocious scoundrel
convicted of matricide. A few months later he describes what was then a
judge's business in chambers. It consists principally, he says, in
making a number of small orders, especially in regard to debtors against
whom judgment has been given. 'It is rather dismal, and shows one a
great deal of the very seamy side of life.... You cannot imagine how
small are the matters often dealt with, nor how important they often are
to the parties. In this dingy little room, and under the most
undignified circumstances, I have continually to make orders which
affect all manner of interests, and which it is very hard to set right
if I go wrong. It is the very oddest side of one's business. I am not
quite sure whether I like it or not. At any rate it is the very
antithesis of "pomp and 'umbug."'

[Illustration: _From a Photograph by Bassano, 1886_

London. Published by Smith Elder & Co 15. Waterloo Place.]

The last phrase alludes to a conversation overheard at the assizes
between two workmen. One of them described the judge, the late Lord
Chief Justice Cockburn, as a 'cheery swine' who, as he affirmed, had
gone to church and preached a sermon an hour and a half long. The
sheriff, too, was there in a red coat, and had no doubt got his place by
interest. 'Pomp and 'umbug I calls it, and we poor chaps pays for it
all.' Fitzjames heartily enjoyed good vernacular embodiments of popular
imagination. He admitted that he was not quite insensible to the
pleasures of pomp and humbug as represented by javelin men and
trumpeters. His work, as my quotation indicates, included some duties
that were trivial and some that were repulsive. In spite of all,
however, he thoroughly enjoyed his position. He felt that he was
discharging an important function, and was conscious of discharging it
effi