The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-04-16
[ From the New Volumes of Macaulay's Histo-
~ Of England.] xxx.
THE LAST DAYS OF JEFFREYS,

AmOnS tue maDy ouenoerS Wnos
names were mentioned in the course o
these inquiries, was one who stood alon,
and unapproached in guilt and infamy
and whom wings and tories were equal.
willing to leave to the extreme rigor o
the law. On that terrible day which
was succeeded by the Irish Night, th
roar of a great city disappointed of it
revenge had followed Jeffreys to th'
drawbridge of the Tower His impris.
onment was not strictly legal; bu
he at first accepted with thanks and bles
sings the protection which those darl
walls, made famous by so many crimes
and sorrows, afforded him against the
fury of the multitude. Soon however ht
became sensible that his life was still il
iminent peril.
For time he fattered himself with
the hope that writ of ha6eas corpu,
would liberate him from his confinement
and that he should be able to steal away
to some foreign country, and to hide him.
self with part of his ill-gotten wealth
from the dotestation of mankind; but,
till the government was settled, there
was no court competent to grant a writ
of ha6eas corpus, and, as soon as the
government had been settled, the Ha6e.
as Corpus act was suspended. Whether
the legal guilt of murder could be
brought home to Jeffries may be doubt
ed. But he was morally guilty of many
murders, that if there had been no other
way of reaching his life, retrospective
Act of Attainder would have been clam
orously demanded by the whole nation,
A disposition to triumph over the fallen
has ever been one of tae bssetting sins
of Englishmen; but the hatred of which
Jefries was the object was without a
parallel in our history, and partook but
too largely of the savageness of his own
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 conyicts listening to the
sentence of death, and of families clad
in mourning: The rabble congregated
before his deserted mansion in Duke St,
and read on the door, with shouts of
laughter, the bills which announced the
sale of his property. Even delicate
women, who had fears for highwaymen
and houscbreakers, breathed nothing but
vengeance against him. The lampoons
on him which were hawked about the
town were distinguished by an atrocity
rare even in those days Hanging would
be to mild death for him a grave un.
der the gibbet too respectable a resting
place; be ought to be whipped to death
at the carts tail; he ought to be tortured
like IN Indian he ought to be devoured
alive.
The street poets portioned out all his
joints with cannibal ferocity, and compu-
ted how many pounds of steaks might
be cut from his we'll fattened carcass.
Nay, the rage of his enemies was such
that, in language seldom heard in Eng
land, they proclaimed their wish that be |
might go the place of wailing and gnash-
ing of teeth to the worm that never dies,
to the fire that is never quenched. They |
exorted him to hang himself in his
garters, and to cut his throat with his
razor. They put up horrible prayers that
he might not be able to repent, that he
might die the same hard hearted wicked
Jefreys that he had lived. His spirit
As mean in adversely as insolent and in
human in prosperity, sank down under
'he load ofpublic abhorrence. His con-
originally bad, and much i'm
paired by intemperancc, was completely
broken by distress and anxiety.
He was tormented by cruel internal
disease which the most skillful surgeons
# that age were seldom able to relieve.
One solace was left to him-brandy.-
Even when he Lad causes to try and
to attend, he had seldom gone
% bed sober. Now when he had nothing
o occupy his mind save terrible reoolleo-
ions and terrible forebodings, he aban-
loned himself without reserve to his fa-
orite vice. Many believed him to be
'ent on shortening his life by excess. He
hought it better they said, to go off in t
drunken fit than to be hacked by
Aetch or torn limb from limb by the !
opulace. II
Once he was aroused from a state of c
bject dependency by an agreeable SEN Il
alton, speedily followed by a mortify 2
lg disappointment. A parcel had been O
1T for him at the Tower. 1t appeared 3
be barrel of Colchester oysters, his v
.vorite dainties. He was greatly moved. g
r there are moments when those who t
asst deserve affection are pleased to d
link that they inspire it. "Thank v
cd" he exclaimed, " have still some D
lends left !" He opened the barrel; v
I'd from among a heap of shells out n
mbled a stout halter. u
1t does not appear that ono of the fat Y
rers or buffoons whom he had enriched e,
1t of the plunder of his victims. came d
comfort him in the day of trouble. b
ut be was not left IN utter solitude. b