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Show 322 ATROCIO US J UDGES. [A. D. 1G85. upon,'' says Roger North, "he turns to the mayor, accoutred with his scarlet and furs, and gave hin1 all the ill names that scolding eloquence could supply; and so, with rating and staring, as his way was, never left till he n1ade him quit the bench and go down to the criminal's post at the bar; and there he pleaded for himself as a con1mon rogue or thief must have done ; and when the mayor he itateu a little, or slackened his pace, he bawled at him,-and stamping, called for his guards, for he was still gener al by commi ·sion. Thus the citizens saw their scarlet chief magistrate at the bar, to their infinite terror and atnazement." Only three were executed for trea on at Bristol; but J effreys looking at the end of his campaign to the r eturns of the enen1y killed, had the satisfaction to find that they amounted to three hundred and thirty, besides eight hundred prisoners order ed to be tran ported.* Ile now hastened homewards to pounce upon the great seal. In his way through Somersetshire, with a regiment of dragoons as his life-guard ... , the n1ayor took the liberty to say that there were two Spoke who had been convicted, and that one of these left for execution wn not the one intended to suffer, the other having contrived to make his escape, and that fayor might perhaps till be shown to hin1 whorn it was intended to pardon. ''No ! " .. aid the general-judge ; " his fmnily owe a life; he shall die for his namesake ! " To render such narratives credible, we must r ecollect that his tnin<.l was often greatly disturbed by fi Ls of the stone, and still more by intemperance. Burnet, speaking of his behavior at this * 1\iacaulay states the number of the tran sported a t eight hundred and forty-one, and of the hanged at three hundred and twenty.-Ed. A. D. 16S5.] GEOHGE JEFFREY ·· . 323 time, says, " lie wa perpetually either drunk or in a rage, liker a fury than the zeal of a judge. ' I shall conclude my sketch of Jeifr y as a criminal judge with his treatment of a prisoner whom be wa ager to hang, but who escap J with liCe. This wns P rideaux, a gentleman of fortune in the we t of England, who ha<l been appreh ·ncled on the landing of l\I onn1outh, for no other rea.~on than t1wt his father hau been attorney general nndC'r Cromwell. A r ~ ward of five hundred pound.-, with a fi·ee pardon, wns offered to any witn e~ses 'vho would give evidence again t him; but none could be found, and he was discharged. Aftenvard .. , two convicts \vere prevailed upon to say that they bad seen him take sou1e part in the in "urreclion, and he was again cast into prison. Ilit~ friends, alarmed for his safety, though convinced of his innocence, tried to procure a pardon for him, when they were told '; that nothing could be done for him, as the king had given hitn to Llw cllief ju. tice," (the fltmiliar phrase for the grant of an estate abouL to be fo rfeited.) A negotiation was then opened with tf cnning,, the avowed ngent of Jeffreys for the sale of pardon~, and the smn of fifteen thousand pounds was actually paid to him by a banker for the deliverance of a n1an who e de. truction could not be effected by any perversion of the fo r malities of law ::~:- There is to be fo und only one defender of these atrocitie . "I have indeed so1netimes thought," snys the author of A Caveat acrainst the Whio· "that in Jeffr eys's western circuit c o' justice went too far before n1ercy was remembered, though there was not above a fourth part executed of what were * He bought with it a large estate, the .qamc of which the people changed to Aceldnmo , as being bought with innocent blood. - Ed. |