contemplation of modern politics with simple
disgust. He is glad that he is, for the time at least, behind a safe
breakwater, but no one can say how much longer it will withstand the
advancing deluge.

Three months' rest after the attack of 1885 enabled him to go the summer
circuit, and during the latter part of the year he was recovering
strength. He became so much better that he was, perhaps, encouraged to
neglect desirable precautions, and early in 1886 he writes that he has
been able to dismiss from his mind a passing fear which had been vaguely
present, that he might have to resign. In the following September, Mr.
W. H. Smith requested him to become chairman of a Commission to inquire
into the Ordnance Department. What he learnt in that capacity
strengthened his conviction as to the essential weakness of our
administrative system; although the rumours of corruption, to which, I
believe, the Commission was owing, were disproved. He made, however,
such suggestions as seemed practicable under the circumstances. While
the Commission lasted he presided three days a week, and sat as judge
upon the other three. He felt himself so competent to do his duties as
to confirm his belief that he had completely recovered. He did a certain
amount of literary work after this. He made one more attempt to produce
a second edition of the 'View of the Criminal Law.' Indeed, the
title-page gives that name to his performance. Once more, however, he
found it impossible to refrain from re-writing. The so-called second
edition is more properly an abbreviated version of the 'History,' though
the reports of trials still keep their place; and, as the whole forms
only one moderately thick volume, it represents much less labour than
its predecessors. It includes, however, the result of some later
inquiries and of his judicial experience. He abandons, for example, an
opinion which he had previously maintained in favour of a Court of
Appeal in criminal cases, and is now satisfied with the existing system.
In this shape it is virtually a handbook for students, forming an
accompaniment to the 'Digest' and the 'History.' It was the last of his
works upon legal topics.

Meanwhile, if he wrote little, he was still reading a great variety of
books, and was deeply interested in them. His letters are full of
references to various authors, old and new. His criticisms have the
primary merits of frankness and independence. He says exactly what he
feels, no