ll send you to prison': which,
as he then had to explain, was not meant seriously. It came to be
understood that, in his case, the formula was to be avoided on pain of
being considered wantonly offensive.

He rigidly suppressed, at any rate, anything which could lower the
dignity of the proceedings. He never indulged in any of those jokes to
which reporters append--sometimes rather to the reader's
bewilderment--the comment, 'loud laughter.' Nor would he stand any
improper exhibitions of feeling in the audience. When a spectator once
laughed at a piece of evidence which ought to have caused disgust, he
ordered the man to be placed by the side of the prisoner in the dock,
and kept him there till the end of the trial. He disliked the
promiscuous attendance of ladies at trials, and gave offence on one
occasion by speaking of some persons of that sex who were struggling for
admission as 'women.' He was, however, a jealous defender of the right
of the public to be present under proper conditions; and gave some
trouble during a trial of dynamiters, when the court-house had been
carefully guarded, by ordering the police to admit people as freely as
they could. His sense of humour occasionally made itself evident in
spite of his dislike to levity. He liked to perform variations upon the
famous sentence, 'God has, in his mercy, given you a strong pair of legs
and arms, instead of which you go about the country stealing ducks'; and
he would detail absurd or trifling stories with an excess of solemnity
which betrayed to the intelligent his perception of their comic side.

Fitzjames thought, and I believe correctly, that he was at his best when
trying prisoners, and was also perhaps conscious, with equal reason, I
believe, that no one could do it better. His long experience and
thorough knowledge of the law of crime and of evidence were great
qualifications. His force of character combined with his hatred of mere
technicalities, and his broad, vigorous common sense, enabled him to go
straight to the point and to keep a firm hand upon the whole management
of the case. No rambling or irrelevance was possible under him. His
strong physique, and the deep voice which, if not specially harmonious,
was audible to the last syllable in every corner of the court,
contributed greatly to his impressiveness. He took advantage of his
strength to carry out his own ideal of a criminal court as a school of
morality. 'It may be truly said,' as he re