s it
had hitherto been. He could not throw off the effects of a trifling
accident in June so rapidly as of old; and in the last months of the
year his condition caused for a time some anxiety to his wife.
Considered by the light of what afterwards happened, these symptoms
probably showed that his unremitting labours had inflicted a real though
as yet not a severe injury upon his constitution. For the present,
however, it was natural to suppose that he was suffering from nothing
more than a temporary exhaustion, due, perhaps, to the prolonged wrestle
with his great book. Rest, it was believed, would fully restore him. He
was, indeed, already at work again upon what turned out to be his last
considerable literary undertaking. The old project for a series of
law-books probably seemed rather appalling to a man just emerging from
his recent labours; and those labours had suggested another point to
him. The close connection between our political history and our criminal
law had shown that a lawyer's technical knowledge might be useful in
historical research. He resolved, therefore, to study some of the great
trials 'with a lawyer's eye'; and to give accounts of them which might
exhibit the importance of this application of special knowledge.[185] He
soon fixed upon the impeachment of Warren Hastings. This not only
possessed great legal and historical interest, but was especially
connected with his favourite topics. It would enable him to utter some
of his thoughts about India, and to discuss some very interesting points
as to the application of morality to politics. He found that the
materials were voluminous and intricate. Many blue books had been filled
by the labours of parliamentary committees upon India; several folio
volumes were filled with reports of the impeachment of Hastings, and
with official papers connected with the same proceeding. A mass of other
materials, including a collection of Sir Elijah Impey's papers in the
British Museum, soon presented themselves. Finally, Fitzjames resolved
to make an experiment by writing a monograph upon 'Impey's Trial of
Nuncomar,' which is an episode in the great Warren Hastings story,
compressible within moderate limits. Impey, as Fitzjames remarks
incidentally, had certain claims both upon him and upon Macaulay; for he
had been a Fellow of Trinity and had made the first attempt at a code in
India. If this first book succeeded Fitzjames would take up the larger
subject. In the e