Vol. VI.
No. 4.
BOSTON.
April, 1894.
SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN.
NO English judge was better known by name to the American Bar than Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, who died on the 1 ith of March, 1894. He came of a family of hard-workers, some of whom were dis tinguished as well as industrious. His grandfather, Mr. James Stephen, was a wellknown Master in Chancery, and played a leading part in the anti-slavery movement, while his father, Sir James Stephen, was for a time Under Secretary of the Colonies, and was the author of " Essays in Ecclesias tical Biography." His only brother is Mr. Leslie Stephen, the eminent litterateur. Born at Kensington Gore on March 3, 1829, he was educated at Trinity College, Cam bridge, where he graduated in 1852. The early part of his career, either at Cambridge or in the Temple, gave no indication of the eminence which belonged to his later years. He did not distinguish himself as a scholar at his University, and his rise at the Bar — to which he was called at the Inner Temple in 1854 — was far from rapid. His qualities were not those of the advocate. His speeches were always models of lucidity; but his delivery was ponderous, and the ac curacy of his, views was not accompanied by rapidity of judgment, Five years after his call, however, he was appointed Recorder of Newark-on-Trent, and he obtained a moderate practice on circuit and at ses sions. The first case to bring his name promi nently before the public and the profession was the prosecution of the Rev. Roland
Williams in the Court of Arches on a charge of heresy preferred against him by the Bishop of Salisbury. In this defense he obtained his first opportunity of displaying those extraordinary powers of research for which subsequently he became famous. The reputation he acquired in this ecclesi astical trial was strengthened by the part he played as one of the prosecuting counsel in the case of Governor Eyre. But it was in the fields of journalism and literature that his best work was done, during the fifteen years that elapsed between his call to the Bar and his appointment as legal member of the Council of the Governor-General of India. He was a regular contributor to the "Saturday Review " and the " Cornhill Magazine," and to several others of the leading periodicals of the day, the whole of his contributions being marked by a thor oughness of thought and lucidity of phrase which rendered them very acceptable read ing even to those who did not share the conclusions at which he arrived. He was one of the earliest and most valued contrib utors to the " Pali-Mall Gazette." It is re lated that on many an occasion the editor would receive two articles on topical subjects from his pen before ten o'clock in the morning, and that their argumentative power and phraseology would not be inferior to his more studied contributions to the reviews. A number of his essays were gathered into a volume and published under the title of "Essays by a Barrister." His chief work of legal interest before he went to India was
