The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-02-03

could give, he made haste to sell his fore
head Of brass and tongue of venom to
the court. Chifinch, who was accus-
toned to act IS broker in infamous con-
tracts of more than one kind, lent his aid.
He had conducted many amorous and
political intrigues, but he sssuredly never
rendered more scandalous service to his
masters than when he introduced Jeffreys
to Whitehall. The renegade soon found
a patron in the obdurate and reyengeful
James, but was always regarded with
scon and disgust by Charles, whose
faults, great as they were, had no affinity
with insolence and cruelty. "Thst
man." said the king, has no learning,
no sense, no manners, and more impu-
denee than ten carroted street walkers" I"
Work had to be done, however, which
could be trusted to no man who rever-
enced law or was sensible to shame, and
thus Jefreys, at an age at which bar
rister thinks himself fortunate if he is
employed to lead an important cause, was
made chief justice of the kings bench.
His enemies could not deny that he
possessed some of the qualities of great
Judge. His legal knowledge, indeed,
was merely such as he had picked up in
practices of no very high kind; but he
had one Of those happy constituted intel
lects which, across labyrinths of sophis-
try and through masses of material facts,
60 straight to the true point. Of his in
tellect, however, he had seldom the full
use. Even in civil causes his malevolent
and despotic temper perpetually disor-
dered his judgment. He frequently pour
ed forth on the plaintiffs and defendants,
barristers and attorneys, witnesses and
jurymen, torrents of frantic abuse, inter
mixed with oaths and curses. His looks
and tones had inspired terror when he
was merely young advocate struggling
into practice. Now that he was at the
head of the most formidable tribunal in
the realm, there were few indeed who
did not trembls before him.
Even when he was sober, his violence
was sufficiently frightful but in general
his reason was overloaded, and his evil
passions stimulated by the fumes of in
toxication. His evenings were ordinarily
given to revelry. People who saw him
only over his bottle would have supposed
him to be man gross indeed, scottish,
and addicted to low company and low
merriment, but social and good-humored.
He was constantly surrounded on such
occasions by bufoons, selected for the
most part from among the vilest petit
foggers who practiced before him. These
men bantered and abused each other for
his entertainment. He joined in their
ribald talk, sang catches with them, and
when his head grew hot, hugged and
kissed them in an ecstasy Of drunken
fondness. But, though wine at first
seemed to soften his heart, the effect a
few hours later was very different. He
often came to the Judgment seat, having
kept the court waiting long, and yet hay
ing but half slept of his debauch, his
cheeks on fire, his eyes started like those
of maniac. When he was in this state,
his boon companions OF the preceding
night, if they were wise, kept out of bis
way; for the recollection of the familiarity
to which he had admitted them infamed
his malignity, and he was sure to take
every opportunity of overwhelming them
with execration and invective. Not the
least odious peculiarities was the pleasure
which he took in broWbeating and NOR
tifying those whom, in hisfts of fmaudlin
tenderness, he had encouraged to pre-
sumo on his favor.
The services which the government
had expected from him were performed,
not merely without finching, but eagerly
and triumphantly. His first exploit was
the judicial murder of Algernon Sidney.
What followed was in perfect harmony
with this beginning. Respectable tories
lamented the disgrace which the barbar-
ity and indecency of so great function
airy brought upon the administration of
Justice. Jefreys, after the death of
Charles, obtained a seat in the cabinet
and peerage. This last honor was a
signal mark of royal appreciation for,
since the judicial system of the realm
had been remanded. in the thirteenth
century, no chief justice had been a
member of Parlian1ent.--Hacautey.