CHAP. XCIX. at the bar present at the debate?" and receiving the answer "Yes," Jeffreys started up, took the witness into his own hands,—and calling upon him to draw the inference which was A. D. 1683. for the jury,pinned the basket by this leading and highly irregular question,-"Did you find him averse to it or agreeing to it?" Having got the echoing answer which he suggested," agreeing to it," he looked round with exultation, and said, "If my Lord Russell now pleases to ask any questions, he may." * He addressed the jury in reply after the Solicitor General had finished, and greatly outdid him in pressing the case against the prisoner, while he disclaimed with horror the endeavour to take away the life of the innocent. He thus concluded:"You have a Prince, and a merciful one too. Consider the life of your Prince, the life of his posterity, the consequences that would have attended if this villany had taken effect. What would have become of your lives and religion? What would have become of that religion we have been so fond of preserving? Gentlemen, I must put these things home upon your consciences. I know you will remember the horrid murder of the most pious Prince, the Martyr, King Charles I. Let not the greatness of any man corrupt you, but discharge your consciences both to God and the King, and to your posterity."† Jeffreys had all the glory of the verdict of Guilty, and as the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton had rather flinched during this trial, and the Attorney and Solicitor General were thought men who would cry CRAVEN, and as the next case was not less important and still more ticklish, all objections to the proposed elevation of the favourite vanished, and he became Chief Justice of England, as the only man fit to condemn Algernon Sydney.‡ * "Jefferies would show his zeal and speak after him, but it was only an insolent declamation, such as all his were, full of fury and indecent invectives.". Burnet, ii. 216. † 9 St. Tr. 654. Evelyn, Oct. 4. 1683. "Sir Geo. Jefferies was advanced, reputed to be most ignorant, but most daring." This is the day on which he saw "the Duchess of Portsmouth in her dressing-room within her bed-chamber in her morning loose garment, her maids combing her, newly out of bed, his Majesty and the gallants standing about her." He is rewith the office of warded Chief Jus tice of the King's Bench. CHAPTER C. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR JEFFREYS TILL CHAP. Sworn in tice. Nov. 7. Nov. 21. 1683. His con duct on the trial of Sydney. THE new Chief Justice was sworn in on the 29th of September, 1683, and took his seat in the Court of King's Bench on the first day of the following Michaelmas term.* Sydney's case was immediately brought on before him in this Court, the indictment being removed by certiorari from the Old Bailey, that it might be under his peculiar care. The prisoner wishing to plead some collateral matter, was told by the Chief Justice, that, if overruled, sentence of death would immediately be passed upon him. Though there can be no doubt of the illegality of the conviction, the charge against Jeffreys is unfounded, that he admitted the MS. treatise on government to be read without any evidence of its having been written by the prisoner, beyond "similitude of hands." Two witnesses, who were acquainted with his handwriting from having seen him indorse bills of exchange, swore that they believed it to be his handwriting, and they were corroborated by a third, who, with his privity, had paid notes purporting to be indorsed by him without any complaint ever being made. But the undeniable and ineffaceable atrocity of the case was the Lord Chief Justice's doctrine, that "scribere est agere," and that therefore this MS. containing some abstract speculations on different forms of government written many years before, never shown to any human being, and containing nothing beyond the constitutional principles of Locke and Paley, was tantamount to the evidence of a witness to prove an overt We learn from Burnet the impression made by this appointment on the public mind. "All people were apprehensive of very black designs, when they saw Jefferies made Lord Chief Justice, who was scandalously vicious and was drunk every day; besides a drunkenness of fury in his temper that looked like enthusiasm. He did not consider the decencies of his post; nor did he so much as affect to seem impartial as became a Judge; but ran out upon all occasions into declamations that did not become the bar, much less the bench."- Own Times, ii. 231. CHAP. C. act of high treason. "If you believe that this was Colonel Sydney's book, writ by him, no man can doubt that it is a sufficient evidence that he is guilty of compassing and ima- A. d. 1683. gining the death of the King. It fixes the whole power in the parliament and the people. The King, it says, is responsible to them; the King is but their trustee. Gentlemen, I must tell you I think I ought more than ordinarily to press this upon you, because I know the misfortune of the late unhappy rebellion, and the bringing of the late blessed King to the scaffold, was first begun with such kind of principles. They cried he had betrayed the trust that was delegated to him by the people, so that the case rests not upon two but upon greater evidence than twenty-two witnesses, if you believe this book was writ by him." ney and The Chief Justice having had the satisfaction of pro- Scene benouncing with his own lips the sentence upon Sydney, of tween Syddeath and mutilation, instead of leaving the task as usual to Jeffreys. the senior puisne Judge, a scene followed which is familiar to every one. Sydney. "Then, O God! O God! I beseech thee to sanctify these sufferings unto me, and impute not my blood to the country; let no inquisition be made for it, but if any, and the shedding of blood that is innocent. must be revenged, let the weight of it fall only upon those that maliciously persecute me for righteousness sake.”— Lord C. J. Jeffreys. "I pray God work in you a temper fit to go unto the other world, for I see you are not fit for this."Sydney. "My Lord, feel my pulse [holding out his hand], and see if I am disordered. I bless God I never was in better temper than I now am."- By order of the Chief Justice, the lieutenant of the Tower immediately removed the prisoner. A very few days after, and while this illustrious patriot was still lying under sentence of death*, the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys and Mr. Justice Withins, who sat as his brother Judge on the trial, went to a grand city wedding, where the Lord Mayor and other grandees were present. Evelyn, who was of the party, tells us that the Chief and Chief Justice Jef freys dances at a wedSydney lay ding while under sen tence of death. CHAP. C. June 14. 1684. Murder of Sir Thomas Armstrong. the puisne both "danced with the bride, and were exceeding merry." He adds, "These great men spent the rest of the afternoon until eleven at night in drinking healths, taking tobacco, and talking much beneath the gravity of Judges, who had but a day or two before condemned Mr. Algernon Sydney." The next exhibition in the Court of King's Bench which particularly pleased Jeffreys and horrified the public, was the condemnation of Sir Thomas Armstrong. It will be recollected that this gentleman was outlawed while beyond the seas, and being sent from Holland within the year, sought, according to his clear right in law, to reverse the outlawry.† I have had occasion to reprobate the conduct of Lord Keeper North in refusing him his writ of error, and suffering his execution; but Jeffreys may be considered the executioner. When brought up to the King's Bench bar, Armstrong was attended by his daughter, a most beautiful and interesting young woman, who, when the Chief Justice had illegally overruled the plea, and pronounced judgment of death under the outlawry, exclaimed, "My Lord, I hope you will not murder my father."- Chief Justice Jeffreys. "Who is this woman? Marshal, take her into custody. Why, how now? Because your relative is attainted for high treason, must you take upon you to tax the Courts of justice for murder when we grant execution according to law? Take her away." Daughter. "God Almighty's judgments light upon you.” Chief Justice Jeffreys. "God Almighty's judgments will light upon those that are guilty of high treason."— Daughter. "Amen. I pray God."- Chief Justice Jeffreys. "So say I. I thank God I am clamour proof. [The daughter is committed to prison, and carried off in custody.]-Sir Thomas Armstrong. "I ought to have the benefit of the law, and I demand no more."- Chief Justice Jeffreys. "That you shall have, by the grace of God. of God. See that execution be done on Friday next, according to law. You shall have the full Mem. 530. + Stat. 6 Ed. 6. enacted that if any outlaw yielded himself to the Chief Justice, &c. within a year, he should be discharged of the outl wry, and entitled to a jury. benefit of the law!!!" Armstrong was hanged, embowelled, CHAP. beheaded, and quartered accordingly. When Jeffreys came to the King at Windsor soon after this trial, "the King took a ring of good value from his finger and gave it to him for these services. The ring upon that was called his blood stone." In the reign of William and Mary, Armstrong's attainder was reversed. Jeffreys was then out of reach of process, but for the share which Sir Robert Sawyer had in it as Attorney General, he was expelled the House of Commons. † C. A. D. 1684. the House Jeffreys had now the satisfaction of causing an information Informato be filed against Sir William Williams for having, as Speaker te late tion against of the House of Commons, under the orders of the House, Speaker of directed the printing of "Dangerfield's Narrative," the of Comvengeful tyrant thus dealing a blow at once to an old enemy mons. who had reprimanded him on his knees, and to the privileges of the House, equally the object of his detestation. He was in hopes of deciding the case himself, but he left it as a legacy to his successor, Chief Justice Herbert, who, under his auspices, at once overruled the plea, and fined the defendant 10,000l. + Not only was Jeffreys a Privy Councillor, but he had become a member of the Cabinet, where from his superior boldness and energy, as well as his more agreeable manners, he had gained a complete victory over Lord Keeper North, whom he denounced as a "Trimmer," and the Great Seal seemed almost within his grasp. § To secure it, he still strove to do every thing he could devise to please the Court, as if hitherto nothing base had been done by him. When, to his great joy, final judgment was entered up against the City of London on the quo warranto, he undertook to get all the considerable towns in England to surrender their charters on · * Burn. Own Times, i. 580. "The King accompanied the gift with a piece of advice somewhat extraordinary from a King to a Judge: My Lord, as it is a hot summer, and you are going the circuit, I desire you will not drink too much.'" † 10 St. Tr. 105. See a beautiful reference to this case by Lord Erskine, in defending Hardy. - 24 St. Tr. 944. 13 St. Tr. 1436. 2 Shower, 471. Lord Campbell's Speeches, 284. § For the disputes between them, see ante, p. 478. Jeffreys a member of the Cabi net. |