Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-03-21
From Maeaulay's History of England.
LAST DAYS OF JEFFREYS.

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 equally
willing to leave to the extreme rigor Of
the law. On that terrible day which
was succeeded by the Irish Night, the
roar of a great city disappointed of its
revenge had followed Jefreys to the
drawbridge of the Tower. His impris-
onment was not strictly 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 be-
came sensible that his life was still in
imminent peril.
For time he fattered himself with
the hope that a writ of hdbeaS corpus
would liberate him from his confinement,
and that he should be able to steal to
some foreign country, and to hide him
self 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 writ Of habeas
corpus and as soon as the government
had been settled the HabeaS Corpus act
was suspended. Whether the legal guilt
of the murder could be brought home to
Jefreys may be doubted. But he was
morally guilty of so many murders, that
if there had been no other way of reach
ing his life, a retrospective Act of At
tainder would have been clamorously de-
manded by the whole nation. A dispo-
8ition to triumph over the fallen has never
been one of the besetting sins of English
men; but the hatred of which Jefreys
was the object was without a parallel in
our history, and partook but too largely
of the savageness of his nature.
The people, where he was concerned
were as cruel as himself, and exulted in
his misery as he had been accustomed to
exult in the misery of convicts listening
to the sentence of death, and of families
clad in mourning. The rabble congre
gated before his deserted mansion il
Duke street, and read on the door, witt
shouts of laughter, the bills which an
nonnced the sale Of his property. Ever
delicate women who had tears for high
waymen and house-breakers, breatheC
nothing but vengeance against him. The
lampoons on him which were hawkeC
about the town were distinguished by an
atrocity rare even in those days. Hang
ing would be too mild death for him;
grave under the gibbet too respectable ;
resting-place he ought to be whipped t.
death at the carts tail he ought to b.
tortured like an Indian; he ought to b,
devoured alive.
The street poets portioned out all hi
joints with cannibal ferocity, and com
puted how many pounds of steak nigh
be cut from his well-fattened carcass. Nay
the rage of his enemies was such that, i
language seldom heard in England, the,
proclaimed their wish that he might go t
the place of wailing and gnashing of teetl
TO the worm that never dies, to the fir
that is never quenched. They exhorte
him TO hang himself in his garlers and t
cut his throat with his razor. They pl
up horrible prayers that he might not /
able to repent, that he might die the sam
hard-hearted, wicked Jefreys that he ha
>, lived. His spirit, as mean in adversely
insolent and inhuman in prosperity, san
down under the load of adherence. II
constitution, originally bad, and much in
paired by imtemperance, was complete
broken by distress and anxiety.
He was tormented by a cruel and il
= ternal disease, which the most skillful su
, geons of that age were seldom able to r
u lieve. One solace was left him, brand
= Even when he had causes to try al
. councils to attend, he had seldom gone
bed sober. Now, when he had nothil
to occupy his mind, save terrible recC
: lections and terrible forebodings, he aba
doned himself without reserve to his
= vorite vice. Many believed him to
bent on shortening his life by exec
He thought it best, they said, to 90 off
drunken fit than to be hacked by Ketc
= or torn limb from limb by the popula,
!, Once he was reused from a state Of a
jeet dependency by an agreeable sens
ton, speedily followed 10y mortifying d
appointment. A parcel had been left
,e him at the Tower. 1t appeared to be
a barrel Of Colchester oysters, his favor
Y. dainties. He Was greatly movedi
az there are moments when those who LEI
Iag,,.,.a afI..s4tar. .ra uiaaaed To ttainL RI