gument and
lucid summaries of fact. One is the case (1880) of the 'Attorney-General
v. the Edison Telephone Company,'[191] in which the question arose
whether a telephonic message was a telegram. If so, the Company were
infringing the act which gave to the Post Office the monopoly of
transmitting telegrams. It was argued that the telephone transmitted the
voice itself, not a mere signal. Fitzjames pointed out that it might be
possible to hear both the voice transmitted through the air and the
sound produced by the vibrations of the wire. Could the two sounds,
separated by an interval, be one sound? The legal point becomes almost
metaphysical. On this and other grounds Fitzjames decided that a
telephone was a kind of telegraph, and the decision has not been
disturbed. The other case was that of the Queen v. Price,[192] tried at
Cardiff in 1883. William Price, who called himself a Druid, was an old
gentleman of singularly picturesque appearance who had burnt the body of
his child in conformity, I presume, with what he took to be the rites of
the Druids. He was charged with misdemeanour. Fitzjames gave a careful
summary of the law relating to burials which includes some curious
history. He concluded that there was no positive law against burning
bodies, unless the mode of burning produced a nuisance. The general
principle, therefore, applied that nothing should be a crime which was
not distinctly forbidden by law. The prisoner was acquitted, and the
decision has sanctioned the present practice of cremation. Fitzjames, as
I gather from letters, was much interested in the quaint old Druid, and
was gratified by his escape from the law.

IV. MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

I have now described the most important labours which Fitzjames
undertook after his appointment to a judgeship. Every minute of the
first six years (1879-85) might seem to have been provided with ample
occupation. Even during this period, however, he made time for a few
short excursions into other matters, and though after 1885 he undertook
no heavy task, he was often planning the execution of the old projects,
and now and then uttering his opinions through the accustomed channels.
He was also carrying on a correspondence, some of which has been kindly
shown to me. The correspondence with Lord Lytton continued, though it
naturally slackened during Lytton's stay in England, from 1880 to 1887.
It revived, though not so full and elaborate as of old, when, in 1887