JEFFERIES AND KIRKE. ΟΙ offend so far, to deserve such punishment as JEFFERIES inflicted. A certain barbarous joy and pleasure grinned from his brutal soul through his bloody eyes, whenever he was sentencing any of the poor souls to death and torment, so much worse than NERO, since that monster wished he had never learned to write, because forced to set his name to warrants for the execution of malefactors. JEFFERIES would have been glad if every letter he writ were such a warrant, and every word a sentence of death. He observed neither humanity to the dead, nor civility to the living. He made the WEST an ACELDEMA, some places quite depopulated, and nothing to be seen in them but forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghostly carcases! The trees were laden almost as thick with quarters as with leaves. The houses and steeples covered as close with heads, as at other times frequently in that country with crows or ravens. Nothing could be liker Hell than these parts, nothing so like the Devil as HE! Caldrons hissing, carcasses boiling, pitch and tar sparkling and glowing, blood and limbs boiling, and tearing and mangling, and HE the great DIRECTOR of all! In a word, discharging his place who sent him; the most deserving to be the late king's chief justice there, and chancellor, of any man that breathed since CAIN or JUDAS." To render this passage the more intelligible, it should be remarked, that the bodies of these victims, having been first decapitated and embowelled, were boiled in caldrons of pitch and tar, in order 92 JEFFERIES AND KIRKE. to decorate the gibbets, which the barbarians were at that time busily erecting in almost every part of the country. The limbs of a beloved parent, of an affectionate brother, or of a dutiful son, were thus exposed on the high roads, at measured distances, exciting at once emotions of horror and indignation in the breast of the passing traveller. А сору of a warrant for one of these savage executions may be seen in that ingenious work the History of Bath, by the Rev. R. Warner, who mentions the circumstance in terms of just severity. The other passage is poetry, but the lines are not less expressive. They are supposed to have been written in the shades, and are addressed to JEFFERIES: And see, if terror has not struck thee blind, For what thou must—yet what thou canst not bear,* Upwards to gibbets points, downward to endless flames! These passages being written about the time these transactions took place, can be the only apology for the resentment by which they are characterized. The fortitude with which these unhappy men died, reminded the spectators of the martyrs, who JEFFERIES AND KIRKE. 93 joyfully expired amidst aggravated torments in the first ages of Christianity. It is also remarkable, that the most eminent of the sufferers foretold with their last breath the termination of this violent and bloody business in the glorious Revolution. For, let it be recollected, that this horrible tragedy took place in 1685, and upon the arrival of our illustrious WILLIAM in 1688, (only three years afterwards) the principal authors of it were scattered to the ends of the earth! It is computed, that for this Rebellion of about four weeks, three hundred and thirty-one were hanged in different parts of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon; eight hundred and fifty were sold for slaves to his Majesty's plantations in America, and four hundred and eight were fined, whipped, and thrown into prison, till either death or the revolution released them! Others have estimated, that the whole of those that died on this occasion, either in battle or in prison, or by the hands of the executioner, together with those that otherwise suffered in their persons or fortunes, amounted to more than TWO THOUSAND! The Appendix of Dr. Toulmin's History of Taunton contains an interesting sketch of this insurrection, and of those agonizing scenes with which it was succeeded. Nor will it be improper to remark, that Daniel De Foe was engaged in this rebellion, and escaped. Milton, also, a few years before, at the Restoration, freed himself from the hazard of an execution by concealment. It is remarkable, that the authors of Robinson Crusoe, and of Paradise Lost, should 94 JUDGE JEFFERIES. have been thus exposed to such danger in the 、 cause of liberty, and, surviving it, should have written two of the most entertaining and instructive works in the English language! JEFFERIES, upon his return from the West, was made Lord Chancellor of England, and honoured with every species of courtly approbation. In the new edition of the Biographical Dictionary is to be found the following sketch of the life of this monster. I shall introduce it here, because it imparts a just idea of the man, and contains at least one good trait for the sake of humanity. "LORD GEORGE JEFFERIES, Baron Wem, commonly known by the name of Judge Jefferies, was the sixth son of John Jefferies, Esq. of Acton, in Denbighshire. He was educated at Westminster School, where he became a proficient in the learned languages, and was thence removed to the Inner Temple, where he applied himself assiduously to the law. His father's family was largé, and his temper parsimonious, consequently the young man's allowance was scanty, and hardly sufficient to support him. decently; but his own ingenuity supplied all deficiencies till he came to the bar, in which, as it is affirmed by some, he had no regular call. In 1665, he was at the assizes at Kingston, where very few counsellors attended, on account of the plague then raging. Here necessity gave him permission to put on a gown, and to plead, and he continued the practice unrestrained till he reached the highest employments in the law. Alderman Jefferies, a namesake, and probably a JUDGE JEFFERIES. 95 relation, introduced him among the citizens; and, being a jovial bottle-companion, he became popular amongst them, came into great business, and was chosen their Recorder. His influence in the city, and his readiness to promote any measure without reserve, introduced him to court, and he was appointed the Duke of York's Solicitor. "He was active in the Duke's interest, and carried through a cause which was of consequence to his revenue: it was for the right of the Penny Post Office. He was first made a Judge in his native county, and in 1680 was knighted, and made Chief Justice of Chester. When the parliament began the prosecution of the abhorrers, he resigned the recordership, and obtained the place of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and soon after the Accession of James the Second, the Great Seal. He was one of the greatest advisers of all the arbitrary measures of that unhappy and tyrannical reign, and his sanguinary proceedings against Monmouth's adherents in the West, will ever rénder his name INFAMOUS! There is, however, a singular story of him in this expedition, which tends to his credit, as it shews that when he was not under state influence, he had a proper sense of the natural and civil rights of men, and an inclination to protect them. The mayor, aldermen, and justices of Bristol, had been used to transport convicted criminals to the American Plantations, and sell them by way of trade, and finding the commodity turn to account, they contrived a method to make it more plentiful. Their legal convicts |