The record., 1912-09-05

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cession of robed I.SN Il ,-.y
judges march past HS " E..:"-l
his fathers door. Ek -:
He walked into AS Es.I
the house with the m n (~-1
announcement that NS@O W.
he intended to be JUDGE JEFFRtTS
a Judge. Young as he was, the
lad-GeorGe Jefreys-was already
accustomed TO have his way. He
bullied or cajoled his parents in
TO giving him costly school ed
ucation and law course that they
could i'll afford. Thus started a ca
reer that was 10 cost England many
hundred innocent lives.
From the very first young Jeffreys
was a man of mark. He was brilliant,
strikingly handsome, and had an al
most supernatural power of reading
other mems minds and purposes. He
took scant pains TO study and never
had much real knowledge of law. But
his cleverness supplied what his
learning lacked.
He took up criminal practice and
handled cases no decent lawyer would
touch. He had a genius for making
influential friends. Through these
friends and his own cunning he rose
fast in his profession. At last he at
unscrupulous King Charles ii. Charles
despised Jeffreys as a man. but was
not above using the young lawyer to
do his dirty work A strong faction
of the people We're the kings political
opponents. Jeffreys publicly declared
himself the peoples friend-and &C.
cretly worked for the king. From
both factions he received high re-
wards
BY the time he was thirty he was
a baronet and Chief Justice of Eng.
land. Then he threw off all pretense
Of decency. His drunkenness. his In
sane temper his insolence made him
soisssa s4u. j.. s.sfrs~f---1o-~---.ssE sE.--s
vii Often in court he would brow
beat witnesses with a volley of filthy.
bitter. blasphemous sarcasm, make
the jury tremble by a maniac glare
of his black eyes. foam at the mouth
with rage. then break into a spasm Of
loud laughter or into flood Of tears.
When Charles III. died without d.
rect heir the dead monarch's younger
brother took the throne as James
ii. Jeffreys had already curried favor
with James and now rose to higher
power than ever. James made him a
baron and showered favors on him.
1t was during this kings reign. in
1855, that Jeffreys enacted his vilest
crimes. The Duke of Monmouth had
laid claim to the English throne and
had fooled thousands of simple mind
ed farmers and shop folk into joining
his rebellion. The uprising was crush
ed. The duke was beheaded His
captured followers were brought be.
fore Jeffreys for trial. Then came a
horror still known as the Bloody
AssiZes"
Jeffreys (iirst making his work
easier by falsely limiting that those
who pleaded guilty" would be spar.
ed) condemned to death 800 men and
boys. (Some historians say 7OO.)
hSoS WSlC
cry of trial. during which Jeffreys
alternately raved, cursed, drank, wept
howled with laughter and behaved In
general like madman. Even the
hardest-hearted servants of the king
were Mortified by such slaughter-the
more so since many of the condemned
were innocent people who had taken
no part in the rebellion. Jeffreys was
ordered to be more lenient. So he
sent S41 of the remaining prisoners
| to be sold into slavery In India and
the Barbadoes and had the rest
scourged or thrown into Jail.
Throughout the trial he spared any
one who could pay him a large enough
bribe. But few of these country folk
and tradesmen could raise such sums
as he demanded. For his work at the
"Bloody Assizes" Jeffreys was made
Lord Chancellor of England. He
boasted that as chief justice he had
hanged more men and women than
all his predecessors put together.
Three years later the English peo.
PIE grew tired Of James III. and over.
threw him. He fed into exile. JEFF.
freys, knowing how he himself was
hated by the people. tried to get sc.
cretly out of England. He shaved
off his shaggy eyebrows. dressed as a
sailor and boarded an outgoing ship
But on the eve of sailing he went
ashore and got drunk in a waterside
tavern. A POOR writer whom he had
once unjustly punished recognized
him.
at is the bloody judge!" shouted
the writer.
The mob hurled themselves upon
the disguised Jeffreys and were tear.
ing him to pieces when the authorities
rescued him. He was taken TO the
Tower of London and imprisoned
there, until at the age Of forty he
drank himself to death Though he
had ten children his family soon died
ont. His own name, however, is still
remembered and cursed throughout
England.
The time to let out n link ia when