The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-04-25
CHARACTER OF JEFFREYs.
BY MACAuLAY.

>SP'SSA - o'AA Wy
National Intelligencer, On extract of a
London letter, remarking upon the char
acter of Joffreys, as drawn by Macau-
lay in his History of England. That
our readers may be able to Judge for
themselves of the justice of the sketch
We copy it, as follows:
The great seal was left in Guilford's
custody; but marked indignity was at
the same time offered to him. It was
determined that another lawyer Of more
vigor and audacity should be called to
assist in the administration. The person
selected was Sir George Jeffreys, Chief
Justice of the Kings Bench. The de-
pravity Of this man has passed into a
proverb. Both the great English par
ties have attacked his memory with. en-
ulous violence; for the Wings consider
cd him their most barbarous enemy, and
the Tories found it convenient to throw
OIL him the blame of all the crimes which
had sullied their triumph. A diligent
and candid inquiry will show that some
frightful stories which have been told
concerning him are false or exaggerated
yet the dispassionate historian will be
able to make very little deduction from
the vast mass ofinfamy with which the
memory Of the wicked Judge has been
loaded.
He was man Of quick and vigorous
parts, but butconstitutionally prone to inso-
lcnce and to the angry passions. When
emerging from boyhood, he had risen
into practice at the Old Bailey bar, a
bar where advocates have always used
a license of tongue unknown in West
minister Hall. Here during many years,
his chief business was to examine and
cross-examinc the most hardened mis-.
creants of a great capital. Daily con-
aicts with prostitutes and thieves called
out and exercised his powers so cffec-
tually that he became the most consum-
mate bully ever knownin his profession.
All tenderness for the feelings Of 9th
ers, all sclf.rcspect, oil sense Of tho be-
coming, were ob!iterated from his mind
lie acquired q boundless command Of
rhetoric in which the vulgar express ha-
tired and contempt. The profession of
malcdictions and vitupcrativc cpithcts
which composed his vocabulary could
hardly have been rivalled in the fish
market or the bear garden. His coun-
tcnaucc and his voice must always have
been unamia5lc; but these natural ad-
Yantages-for such he seems to have
/ thought thcm-he had improved to
such degree that there were few who,
in his paroxyms of rage, could see or
hear him without emotion. Impudence
and ferocity sat upon his brow. The
| glare of his eyes had fascination for
the unhappy victim on whom they were
placed; yet his brow and eye were said
to be less terrible than the savage lines
Of his mouth. His yell Of fury, as was
said by one who had often heard, sound
cd like tho thunder of the judgement
day. These qualifications he carried
while still a young man, fron, the bar to
the bench. lie early became com
mon sergeant, and then recorder of
London. AS judge at the city sessions
he exhibited the same propcnsitics which
aftcrward, in higher post, gained for
him an uncnvia5lc immortality. Al
ready might be remarked in him the
most odious vice which is incident to
human nature, delight i'll misery
There was fiendish cxultation in the
way in which he pronounced SEN
tcncc on offenders. Their weeping and
imploring seemed to tittillatc him yo-
luptously, and he loved to scare them
into fits by dilating with luxurious am
plifcation on all the details of what
they were to suffer. Thus, when he
had an opportunity Of ordering an un-
lucky adventures to be whipped at the
carts tail, 'Hangman,' he would ex-
claim, 4 charge you to pay particular
attention to this lady!-Scrouge her
soundly, man! Scrougo her till the
blood runs down! 1t is Christmas; q
cool time for madam to strip in Sec
that you warm her shoulders thourough-
lyp He was hardly less facetious when
nc passed Judgment on Ludowic Mug
glcton, the drunken tailor who fancicd
himself q prophet. 'Impudcnt rogue!r
roared Jcffreys, thou shalt have an ea.
sy, easy, easy punishment One part
of this easy punishment was the pillory
in which the wretchcd fanatic was al
most killed with brickbats.
By this time the nature .Jcffrcvs had