by echoing his expressions; as, when the Chief Justice said to the jury, "You have done like honest men," he exclaimed, in a stage whisper, "They have done like honest men.' As a mouthpiece of the Lord Mayor, the head of the Commission,-after conviction he had the pleasing duty of passing sentence of death by the protracted tortures which the law of treason prescribed. He said to Ireland, Grove, and Pickering, the Jesuits, "Thus I speak to you, gentlemen, not vauntingly; 'tis against my nature to insult upon persons in your sad condition: God forgive you for what you have done; and I do heartily beg it, though you don't desire I should: for, poor men! you may believe that your interest in the world to come is secured to you by your masses, but do well consider that vast eternity you must, ere long, enter into, and that great tribunal you must appear before, where masses will not signify so many groats to you; no, not one farthing. And I must say it, for the sake of those silly people whom you have imposed upon with such fallacies, that the masses can no more save you from future damnation than they do from a present condemnation. The sentence of the law is," &c.; and then came from his delighted lips the hurdle, the hanging, the cutting down alive, and other particulars too shocking to be repeated.* was then called to the bar, and although he was exceedingly dissolute in his morals, and so much embarrassed, that when a Serjeant he was arrested for debt in Westminster Hall, he was made, on account of his subserviency, first a Puisne Judge of the Common Pleas, and then Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. When he con. victed the Popish conspirators with such zeal, he believed that the government was sincere in prosecuting them, and he was confirmed in this notion by seeing Shaftesbury taken into office; but when he was told that "the President of the Council had no more influence with the King than his footman," he threw cold water on the plot, for which he was impeached. He was obliged to give up his office, but was allowed to die in peace. A few stanzas of a ballad then published upon him will show how he was regarded by his contemporaries : "A Butcher's son's Judge capital, Poor Protestants to enthral, And England to enslave, sirs; Lose both our laws and lives we must, So known an errant knave, sirs. "His father once exempted was "The good old man with knife and knocks, Stoop to him in his fury; But the brib'd son, like greasy oaph, Justice in Masquerade. *7 St. Tr. 138. He had a still greater treat in passing the like sentence on Richard Langhorn, an eminent Catholic barrister, with whom he had been familiarly acquainted. He first addressed generally the whole batch of the prisoners convicted,-whom he thus continues to upbraid for trying to root out "the best of religions;" "I call it the best of religions, even for your sakes; for had it not been for the sake of our religion, that teaches us not to make such requitals as yours seems to teach you, you had not had this fair, formal trial, but murder would have been returned to you for the murder you intended to commit both upon the King and most of his people. What a strange sort of religion is that whose doctrine seems to allow them to be the greatest saints in another world who have been the most impudent sinners in this! Murder and the blackest of crimes were the best means among you to get a man to be canonised a saint hereafter." Then he comes to his brother lawyer. "There is one gentleman that stands at the bar whom I am very sorry to see, with all my heart, in this condition, because of some acquaintance I have had with him heretofore. To see that a man who hath understanding in the law, and who hath arrived at so great an eminency in that profession as this gentleman hath done, should not remember that it is not only against the rules of Christianity, but even against the rules of his profession, to attempt any injury against the person of the King! He knows it is against all the rules of law to endeavour to introduce a foreign power into this land. So that you have sinned both against your conscience and your own certain knowledge." Last of all he offers his friend the assistance of a Protestant divine to prepare him for a speedy departure, and, referring him to the statute [A. D. 1679.] whereby the ministration of a Catholic priest is made illegal, he himself, though "a layman," gives him some" pious advice." He had carried the sympathies of his audience along with him, for, when he had concluded with the "quartering," he was greeted with a loud shout of applause.* * Thus, by the powerful assistance of the Recorder, did the government obtain popularity for prosecuting the plot till the people at last actually did get tired of it, and Shaftesbury was prevented from deriving any fruit from it beyond the precarious tenure, for a few months, of his office of President of the Council. The Recorder was equally zealous, on all other occasions, to do what he thought would be agreeable at Court. With the view of repressing public discussion, he laid down for law, as he said, on the authority of all the Judges," that no person whatsoever could expose to the public knowledge any thing that concerned the affairs of the public without license from the King, or from such persons as he may think fit to intrust with that power."† *7 St. Tr. 487. After this, the story is credible which Sir Walter Scott used to tell of a Scotch Judge, who, having sentenced to death an old friend tried before him for murder, by whom he had often been beaten at chess, concluded by saying, “and now I think I have check-mated you!" +7 St. Tr. 929, 1124, 1127. The Grand Jury having several times returned "ignoramus" to an indictment against one Smith for a libel, in respect of a very innocent publication, though they were sent out of Court to reconsider the finding, he at last exclaimed, "God bless me from such jurymen. I will see the face of every one of them, and let others see them also." He accordingly cleared the bar, and, calling the jurymen one by one, put the question to them, and made each of them repeat the word "ignoramus." He then went on another tack, and addressing the defendant, said, in a coaxing tone," Come, Mr. Smith, there are two persons besides you whom this jury have brought in ignoramus; but they have been ingenuous enough to confess, and I cannot think to fine them little enough: they shall be fined two-pence for their ingenuity in confessing. Well, come, Mr. Smith, we know who hath formerly [A.D. 1679.] owned both printing and publishing this book."-Smith. "Sir, my ingenuity hath sufficiently experienced the reward of your severity; and, besides, I know no law commands me to accuse myself; neither shall I; and the jury have done like true Englishmen and worthy citizens, and blessed be God for such a jury." Jeffreys was furious, but could only vent his rage by committing the defendant till he gave security for his good behaviour. Such services were not to go unrewarded. It was the wish of the government to put the renegade Jeffreys into the office of Chief Justice of Chester, so often the price of political apostacy; but Sir Job Charlton, a very old gentleman, who now held it, could not be prevailed upon voluntarily to resign, for he had a considerable estate in the neighbourhood, and was loth to be stript of his dignity. Jeffreys, supported by the Duke of York, pressed the King hard, urging that "a Welshman ought not to judge his countrymen," and a message was sent to Sir Job that he was to be removed. He laid this heavily to heart, and desired only that he might speak to the King, and receive his pleasure from his own mouth; but was told that it was a thing resolved upon. Once, however, he went to Whitehall, and placed himself" like hermit poor," where the King returning from feeding his ducks in St. James's Park, must pass; but his Majesty was now so much ashamed of the affair, that, when he spied Sir Job, he turned short round and went another way. The old gentleman was imperfectly consoled with the place of Puisne Judge of the Common Pleas, which in the reign of James II., he was subsequently allowed to exchange for his beloved Chester. Meanwhile he was succeeded by Jeffreys, 66 more Welshman than himself," who was at the same time made counsel for the Crown, at Ludlow, where a Court was still held for Wales. Immediately afterwards the new Chief Justice was called to the degree of the Coif, and made King's Serjeant, [APRIL 26, 1680.] whereby he had precedence in Westminster Hall of the Attorney and Solicitor-General. The motto on his rings, with great brevity and point, inculcated the prevailing doctrines of divine right and passive obedience—" A Deo Rex, a Rege Lex." further mark of royal favour, there was conferred upon him the here As a ditary dignity of a Baronet. He still retained the Recordership of London, and had extensive practice at the bar. We have notices of a few important causes in which he was engaged as counsel. A new translation of the Psalms had been published under the title of "the King's Psalter," and the Stationers' Company applied to the King in Council to protect their property from invasion. Charles was present when the case came on to be heard, and thus was he addressed by the learned Recorder :-"They have teemed, Sir, with a spurious brat, which being clandestinely midwived into the world, the better to cover the imposture they lay it at your Majesty's door." We may know, from the introductory lines of "Absalom and Achitophel," that his Majesty was well pleased with any allusion, however public, to his gallantries. On the present occasion he whispered, "this is a bold fellow," and did not try to disguise his satisfaction. Jeffreys got a decree for his clients. He was equally successful in an important suit he conducted in the King's Bench for the Duke of York, to whom the revenue of the postoffice had been granted, and who had prosecuted a person of the name of Dockra for establishing "the penny post" in London for his own benefit. The Court decided that this was an infraction of the Duke's right. His Royal Highness therefore continued to have "the penny post" for the rest of this reign; and, from his own accession, it was under the immediate management of the Crown, the profits going into the public revenue.* * The great prosperity which Jeffreys now enjoyed had not the effect which it ought to have produced upon a good disposition,-by making him more courteous and kind to others. When not under the sordid restraint of injuring himself by offending superiors, he was universally insolent and overbearing. Being made Chief Justice of Chester, he thought that all puisne Judges were beneath him, and he would not behave to them with decent respect, even when practising before them. At the Kingston Assizes, Baron Weston having tried to check his irregularities, he complained that he was not treated like a counsellor, being curbed in the management of his brief.-Weston, B. "Sir George, since the King has thrust his favours upon you, and made you Chief Justice of Chester, you think to run down every body: if you find yourself aggrieved, make your complaint: here's nobody cares for you."-Jeffreys. "I have not been used to make complaints, but rather to stop those that are made."—Weston, B. “I desire, Sir, that you will sit down." He sat down, and is said to have wept with anger. His intemperate habits had so far shaken his nerves, that he shed tears very freely on any strong emotion.† * Life of Guilford, ii. 99. + The manner in which Jeffreys was regarded by the public at this time is very strikingly illustrated by an anonymous letter received by him, which had fallen into the hands of Sir Peter King, Recorder of London, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and is now preserved among the papers of the Earl of Lovelace. This effusion of malignity, like the famous letter of Mary to Elizabeth, which cost the Scottish queen her We may be prepared for his playing some fantastic tricks before his countrymen at Chester, where he was subject to no control; but the description of his conduct there by Lord Delamere (afterwards Earl of life, professes in a candid and friendly spirit to communicate the ill-natured things said of the party addressed: 66 6 May it please your Lordship,—You were once counsel for me at a trial where you spake so brave and loud that we carried the cause, and I have loved you for it ever since; and having an opportunity now to show it, I send you the following account, for it is useful for men who design to be great, to know what the people say of them. The other day I was at the election of the Sheriffs," where one of my neighbours commended the former part of your speech exceedingly, and said your fellow servant Coleman's declaration was not better penned; yet he could not believe that the D. of York's solicitor could be very hearty in the Protestant religion. But he thought you a very proper man for the office you hold in the City, to be our mouth and lungs, when Sir Richard Clayton is our head, because now those parts are good in their kind. 'But I wonder,' continued he, that they two agree no better, for I am sure my Lady Jefferies the longest day she has to live cannot forget the kind. ness Miss Bludworth met with at his house one night." Aye, but,' says another, 'all Lord Mayors have an antipathy against him ever since he betrayed his client the Lord Mayor of York at the council table.' 'What you call a betraying,' said I, 'was but prevailing with his client to submit to the council board, who are in the wrong, and might appear to have the better on't. But for that and some other like services, he was lately made Chief Justice of Chester, and soon will be AttorneyGeneral.' 'What is the manner of making an Attorney-General?' said my neighbour. I told him I thought it was by entering a form of words (as the City of London does at my Lord Mayor's day, in the Courts of Westminster Hall): Dominus Rex ponit loco suo Georgium Jeffries, &c. If that be all,' said a stander-by, 'Sir George has got that already, for that was the form of his marriage license." Whereat some of the company fell a laughing, but I cannot imagine why. However, I desired them to be civil and mannerly, and not to laugh at you whom they ought to respect, as being the mouth of the City. My neighbours presently snapt me up, and said that you were the foul mouth of the City,' and pointing to you on the hustings cried, "That's our mountebank lawyer, and that you could no more make an argument at law than you could speak softly; and though you bragged that as long as Nelly Wall was the mistress, and the Dss of P. was her mistress and our master's mistress, you could have what you would at court; yet he said you were already come to the highest, and we should see you dwindle to nothing like your wife's jointure. I replied that he might be mistaken; we should live to see you Lord Chancellor, and then the lady would be sure to have a good jointure, and to have her train held up. I know,' said he, 'an addition to his wife's jointure would be very welcome, but for his coals they were taken up in her maiden days.' I was extremely vexed at that, but I thought it best not to stir in such a business, and 'tis no great matter what he says, for he is a rascal and a rebel,— —a very fanatic, and in my next letter you shall know his name. In the mean time, I will be a spy for you at the Rainbow and the Amsterdam Coffee-houses, where the fanatics speak oftentimes very saucily of you. One of them told me a lie there t'other day, 'that my lady was bt to bed before her time, and that you reckoned without her host, and that you were the Bull and Moses of the City,' and said, 'when you come to be put in the pillory as Harris was, you will never be able to get your head out again. But when we get them into the Crown Office, you and I will make them pay for all.® 1 Satire on his bullying style of doing business at the bar. 2 24th June, 1680, when Jeffreys as Recorder conducted the proceedings. 8 Alluding to some scandalous anecdote respecting his second wife, whose maiden name was Bludworth. * Vide post an account of the lady's frailties. 5 Vide ante, p. 395. 5 A threatened prosecution for defamation in the Court of King's Bench. |