Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-03-15
Gistorifal.
[From Macaulay's History of England
The last days of Jeffries, one OF the
AtrOciOus Judges.

last udyS VI OhO VI INV
AtrOciOus Judges.
Among the many offenders whose
names were mentioned in the course of
these inquiries was one who stood alone
and unapproached in guilt and infamy,
and whom wings and tories were willing
to leave to the extreme rigor of the law.
On that terrible day which was succeed
ed by the Irish Night, the roar of great
city disappointed of its revenge had fol-
lowed Jeffries to the draw bridge of the
Tower. His Imprisonment was not strict
ly legal; but he at first accepted with
thanks and blessings the protection which
those dark walls, made famous by so
many crimes and sorrows, afforded him
against the fury of the multitude Soon,
however, he became sensible that his
life was still in imminent peril.
For a time he fattercd himself with
the hope that a writ of hobeas corpus
would liberate him from his confinement,
and that he should be able to steal away
to some foreign country, and to hide
himself with part of his ill-gotten wealth
from the detestation of mankind, but till
the government was settled, there was
no court competent to grant a writ of
Aabeas corpus and as soon as the gov
ernment had been settled, the habeaS
corpus act was suspended. Whether the
legal guilt of murder could be brought
home to Jeffries may be doubted. But
he was morally guilty of so many MUIR
ders, that if there had been no other way
of reaching his life, retrospective Act
of Attaindcr would have been clamorous-
ly demanded by the whole nation. A
disposition to triumph over the fallen
has never been one Of the besetting sins
of Englishmen but the hatred of which
Jeffries was the object, was without 9
parallel in our history, and partook but
too largely of the savageness of his OWL
nature.
The people, where he was concerned
we're as cruel as himself, and exulted in
his misery as he had been accustomed tt
exult in the misery of convicts listening
to the sentence of death, and of families
clad in mourning. The rabblc congre-
gated before his deserted mansion il
Duke Street, and read on the door will
shouts of laughter the bills which an
nounccd the sale of his property. Ever
the delicate women who had tears fol
highwaymen and house breakers, breath.
ed nothing but vengeance against him
The lampOons on him which were hawked
about the town were distinguished by ar
atrocity rare even in those days. Hang.
ing would be too mild death for him
grave under the gibbct too respectable
resting place he ought to be whipped
to death at the carts tail; he ought tc
be tortured like an Indian; he ought tc
be devoured alive.
The street poets portioned out all his
joints with cannibal ferocity, and com.
puted how many pounds of steak might
be cut from his well fattened carcass
Nay, the rage of his enemies was such
that in language seldom heard in England
they proclaimed their wish that he might
go to the place of wailing and gnashine
of teeth to the worm that never dies, tc
the fire that is never quenched. They
exhorted him to hang himself by his gar
tiers, and to cut his throat with razor.
They put up horrible prayers that he
might not be able to repent, that he
might die the same hard hearted, wicked
JefIries that he had lived. His spirit,
as mean in adversely, as insolent and in
human in prosperity, sank down under
the load of public adherence. Hiscon'
sttution, originally bad and much inn
paired by intemperance, was completely
broken by distress and anxiety.
! lie was tormented by cruel internal
disease, which the most skillful surgeons
of this age were seldom able to relieve
One solace was left to him--brandy.-
Even when he bad cases to try and coun.
ellis to attend he had seldom gone to bee
sober. Now, when he had nothing Il
occupy his mind, save terrible recollec-
tons and terrible forebodings, he aban'
doned himself without reserve to his ia
vorite vice. Many believed him TO b.
bent on shortening his life by excess
He thought it better, they said, to 60 Of
in drunken fit than to be hacked by
Ketch, or torn limb from limb by thu
populace.
Once he was reused from state O
abjcct dependency by an agreeable sen