"Then here is as I said, the sainting of two horrid conspirators; here is the Lord Russell sainted, that blessed martyr, my Lord Russell, that good man, that excellent protestant, he is lamented! and what an extraordinary man he was, who was fairly tried and justly convicted and attainted for having a hand in this horrid conspiracy against the life of the king, and his dearest brother his Royal Highness, and for the subversion of the government. And here is Mr.Sidney sainted! What an extraordinary man he was! Yes, surely, he was a very good man, because you may some of you remember, or have read the history of those times, and know what share Mr.Sidney had in that black and horrid villainy, that cursed treason and murder, the murder, I mean, of King Charles I., of blessed memory, a shame to religion itself, a perpetual reproach to the island we live in, to think, that a prince should be brought, by pretended methods of law and justice, to such an end at his own palace. And it is a shame to think that such bloody miscreants should be sainted and lamented, who had any hand in that horrid murder and treason; and who, to their dying moments, when they were on the brink of eternity, and just stepping into another world, could confidently bless God for their being engaged in that good cause, (as they call it), which was the rebellion which brought that blessed martyr to his death. It is high time for all mankind, that have any Christianity, or sense of heaven or hell, to bestir themselves to rid the nation of such caterpillars, such monsters of villainy as these are."

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When the counsel for Baxter (who had been imprisoned for his Paraphrase on the New Testament) moved for further time to prepare for trial, the chief justice told him, that “he would not give him a minute more to save his life;" adding, that they had to do with other sorts of persons, but now they had a saint to deal with, and he knew how to deal with saints as well as sinners. Yonder (he continued) stands Oates in the pillory, (as he actually did, in New Palace Yard) and says he suffers for the truth; and so says Baxter; but if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say, two of the greatest rogues and rascals stood there." Baxter was tried soon afterwards; but Jefferies brow-beat his counsel and witnesses to such an excess, that they were almost terrified from their duty. The taunting and ironical style adopted by him, in speaking of Russell and Sidney, was employed again with great effect on the trial of Baxter, whom the chief justice hated as a dissenter. On the prisoner attempting to address the court, Jefferies exclaimed,

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Richard, Richard! dost thou think we will hear thee poison the court? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave; thou hast written books enough to load a cart, every one is as full of sedition (I might say treason), as an egg is full of meat; hadst thou been whipt out of thy writing trade forty years ago it had been happy. Thou pretendest to be a preacher of the gospel of peace, and thou hast one

foot in the grave; it is time for thee to begin to think what account thou intendest to give; but leave thee to thyself and I see thou wilt go on as thou hast begun; but, by the grace of God, I'll look after thee. -I know thou hast a mighty party, and I see a great many of the brotherhood in corners, waiting to see what will become of their mighty Don; and a doctor of the party (looking to Dr. Bates) at your elbow, but by the grace of Almighty God I will crush you all." (xi. State Trials, 500.)

The man upon whom this scurrilous attack was made was a learned and pious person, to whom the bishopric of Hereford had been offered by Clarendon, but refused on account of conscientious scruples. "He was a man," says Mr. Fox in his historical work," of exemplary character, always remarkable for his attachment to monarchy, and for leaning to moderate measures in the differences between the church and those of his persuasion." We may imagine, when a person of this character was thus scandalously treated by Jefferies, what his conduct was when prisoners of less consideration stood before him. The real offence which Baxter had committed in the eyes of his judge, was his venturing to dissent from the church of England. A presbyterian was this judge's especial abhorrence. Thus, on the trial of the Lady Alice Lisle, when the prisoner, speaking of Mr. Hicks, said, that she did not in the least suspect him to be in the army, being a presbyterian minister, that used to preach and not to fight, the chief justice uttered a furious anathema against such schismatics.

"But I will tell you, there is not one of those lying, snivelling, canting presbyterian rascals, but one way or other had a hand in the late horrid conspiracy and rebellion; upon my conscience, I believe it; and would have been as deep in the actual rebellion, had it had any little success, as that other fellow Hicks; their principles carry them to it; presbytery has all other of villainy in it; nothing but presbytery could lead that fellow Dunne to tell so many lies as he has here told; for shew me a presbyterian, and I will engage to shew a lying knave." (xi. St. Tr. 359.)

The manner in which Jefferies was accustomed to comport himself towards the counsel of the prisoners who were tried before him, may be seen by a reference to Baxter's trial. It is to be observed, that the only report of this trial was taken by the friends of the accused; but, on the face of it, there is every mark of authenticity.

"Mr. Wallop (Baxter's counsel) said, that he conceived the matter depending, being a point of doctrine, it ought to be referred to the bishop his ordinary; but if not, he humbly conceived that the doctrine was innocent and justifiable, setting aside the

*

inuendoes, for which there was no colour, there being no antecedent to refer them to (that is, no bishop or clergy of the church of England named) My lord,' says he, I humbly conceive, the bishops Mr. Baxter speaks of, as your lordship, if you have read church history, must confess, were the plagues of the church and the world.'' Mr. Wallop, (says the lord chief justice) I observe you are in all these dirty causes; and were it not for you gentlemen of the long robe, who should have more wit and honesty than to support and uphold these factious rogues by the chin, we should not be at the pass we are at.'-' My lord, (says Mr. Wallop) I humbly conceive that the passages accused are natural deductions from the text.'-' You humbly conceive! (says Jefferies) and I humbly conceive! Swear him, swear him!'' My lord, (saith he) under favour, I am counsel for the defendant; and, if I understand either Latin or English, the information now brought against Mr. Baxter upon so slight a ground, is a greater reflection upon the church of England than any thing contained in the book he is accused for.' Says Jefferies to him, 'sometimes you humbly conceive, and sometimes you are very positive; you talk of your skill in church history, and of your understanding Latin and English; I think I understand something of them as well as you; but, in short, I must tell you, that if you do not understand your duty better, I shall teach it you;' upon which Mr. Wallop sat down." (xi. St. Tr. 498.)

the

The iniquities committed by Jefferies in the West, after Monmouth's rebellion, must be too deeply imprinted upon indignant memory of every one, to require any details of them in this place. In reading the dark pages of our history, which disclose these transactions, it is difficult to determine whether Jefferies or his employer is most justly entitled to our execration. It appears that James was accustomed to call this bloody progress of the chief justice," Jefferies's campaign." "My lord chief justice," he observes, in one of his letters, " has almost done his campaign-he has already condemned several hundreds, some of which are already executed, more are to be, and the rest sent to the Plantations." It has been properly remarked, by the late learned editor of the State Trials, that his majesty's brutality, in calling Jefferies's circuit a campaign, is somewhat extenuated by the fact, that the chief justice actually had, upon that occasion, a military commission-(see Ralph, 888.) And, in confirmation of that circumstance, we have likewise the authority of Roger North. "After he (Monmouth) was beaten at Sedgmore, the lord chief justice Jefferies performed his memorable expedition in the West, armed not only with a commission of Oyer and Terminer, but also an authority to command the forces in chief, as General of the West, for so he was styled."-(Life of Lord Guildford, v. ii. p. 200.)

We have not space to follow Jefferies through the whole of his iniquitous course, but we must not omit to mention the

opinion entertained by him of his brother judges. We are told, in the Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, that in a confidential conversation which he held with Jefferies, then chancellor, on the affair of the bishops, Jefferies asserted that most of the judges were rogues. Soon afterwards, upon another occasion, he expressed himself in similar terms, at the same time calling chief justice Wright a beast.-(See Diary, p. 52.)

We shall only add the concluding scene of Jefferies's life, as given by the writer of the Lives of the Chancellors.

"The Lord Jefferies' fate, as well as that of his master, King James, came on apace: for the Prince of Orange being landed, advanced towards London without opposition, and the king having taken the seal from the chancellor, left him in the lurch, and withdrew privately on the 10th of December, in the dead of the night, down the Thames, in order to go for France. The great seal was afterwards found by a fisherman, in the Thames; and the chancellor now without protection, having rendered himself obnoxious to most people, and being perfectly hated by the nation, on Monday, between three and four in the morning, withdrew; and having, in disguise, got down safe to Wapping, put himself on board a collier, which was pretended to be bound for Newcastle, but indeed was designed for Hamburgh; but some persons having notice thereof by the means of the mate, they went to a justice for a warrant to apprehend him; but he thought fit to put them off, whereupon they applied themselves forthwith to the lords of the council, who granted them a warrant, and they went immediately to search the ship; but on Tuesday night, not thinking himself safe on board the collier, in which he was to pass, he lay in another ship hard by, so that those who came that day to search for him, missed of him on board, but had information given them that he was hard by, at a little peddling ale-house, where accordingly they found him, being the sign of the Red Cow, in Anchor and Hope Alley, near the King Edward Stairs; from whence they immediately hurried him in a coach, guarded with several blunderbusses, to the Lord Mayor's, where the crowd was so great, and the rabble so numerous, all crying out togegether, Vengeance! Justice! Justice! that the Lord Mayor was forced to come out into his balcony, and, with his hat in his hand, desired the people to go away and keep the peace, and did promise them that he had already sent to the lords of the council about the matter, and that they should have justice done them; and that, in the meantime, their prisoner should be safely guarded; whereupon the people withdrew: and soon after, my lord, under a strong guard, was sent to the lords of the council, who committed him to the Tower, where he continued to the 18th April, 1689, when he was freed by death from his earthly confinement. He had, for some years before, been subject to terrible fits of the stone, which in all probability now accelerated his death; though others gave out that he abandoned himself to excessive drinking, thinking to support his sinking spirits by it, and that that helped forward to put a period to his life. He was buried privately in the Tower, the Saturday-night following, by an order his relations got from King William.”—(Lives of the Chancellors, i. 185.)

On reviewing the characters of the persons who, between the restoration and the revolution, filled the highest judicial situations in this country, it is impossible not to be struck with the want of public principle, and too frequently of private virtue, which the majority of them exhibit. At every period of our history, the Bench has displayed a decided inclination to support the prerogative; an inclination which has been in general manifested with modesty and discretion; but in the reign of Charles II. and his successor, the judges did not hesitate openly to throw themselves into the arms of the Court. It was not a bias in favour of the Crown which they exhibited; they became the eager and shameless advocates of its most unconstitutional pretensions. Immediately upon the return of Charles, ⚫ the bench was indeed, as we have already remarked, filled with men of some moderation and honesty. The picture given by Clarendon may perhaps be considered somewhat overcharged: -"All the courts of Westminster Hall were presently filled with grave and learned judges, who had either deserted their profession or practice during the rebellious times, or had given full evidence of their affection to the king and the established laws in many weighty instances: and they were then quickly sent in their several circuits, to administer justice to the people, according to the old forms of law, which was universally received and submitted to with all possible joy and satisfaction. * Denied it cannot be, that there appeared sooner than was thought possible, a general settlement of the civil justice of this kingdom; that no man complained without remedy, and every man dwelt again under the shadow of his own vine, without any complaint of injustice and oppression."-(Clarendon's Life, v. ii. p. 42).

Clarendon was well aware, that the attempt to establish the high prerogatives of the throne upon the ruins of the judgment-seat, must necessarily be unsuccessful; and he therefore employed his influence to preserve some degree of purity in the administration of the laws. His disgrace, however, removed the only restraint upon the corrupt measures of the Court, and Westminster Hall soon exhibited the spectacle of a bench of judges holding durante bene placito, and for the most part scrupulously attentive to the nature of their tenure. The consequence of this system has been so well described by Mr. Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere, that we shall venture to repeat the passage: :-" Our judges have been very corrupt and lordly, taking bribes, and threatening juries and evidence, perverting the law to the highest degree, turning it upside down, that arbitrary power may come in upon their shoulders. The cry of their unjust dealings is great, for every man has felt their hand." The creed of the crown lawyers of this day is to be found in the