OCR Text |
Show 340 A1'R00[0US JUDGES. [A. D. 1G88. wa con. idcred enough to fix them with a publication, in point of la,v, of the suppo ·eel libel ; and (Jeffrey ·, after lcct uring them on their disloyalty, r equired the1n to enter into a. recognizance to appear before the Court of King's Bench, and answer the high rni demeanor of which they were guilty. 1"'hcy in "'i .,t d that, according to the privilege. of the I lou::;e of I ecrs, of which they 'vere nlctnber'"', th y could not lawfully be comtnitted, and were not bound to ent r into the required recognizance. Jeffrey., threatened to com1nit them to the Tower a public delinquents. Archbt'slwp.- "\Ve are reauy to go whither oever hi m8je ty may be plea eel to send u . Yv c hope the King of king. will be our protector and our judge. We fear nought from man; and having acted according to law and our conscience , no punishment shall ever be able to shake our resolutions." If thi struggle could have been fore een, even J eifreys would have hrunk from the 1nonstrous impolicy of sending th se men to jail, on what would be con idcre<l the charge of temperately exercising a constitutional right in defence of the ProLe ., tant faith, RO dear to the great bulk of the nation ; but he thought it was too late to resile. lie therefore, with his own band, drew a warrant for their commitinent, which he . igned, ancl handr (l roun<l the board. It wa signed by all the councillors present, except Father Peter, who e signature the king excu ed, to avoid the a\vkward appearance of Protestant bishops being sent to jail by a J csuit. An account of their trial will be found. in the next chapter; but there are orne circum tanccs connected with tl1eir acquittal in which Jeffreys personally appears. Seeing how he had acquired such immense favor, there were other lawyers who tried to undermine him by his own A. D. 1GS8.J GEORGE JEFFREYS. 341 arts. One of the mo t formidable of the e was Sir John Trevor, master of the rolls, who, o1nc author ay, certainly would Lave got the great eal had Jatn s remained longer on the throne, but whom J eifreys hacl hitherto kept down by reversing his decrees. The chancellor' alarm wa now excited by a report that Sir William Williams (who, fr01n b<;ing Speaker of the last "\V cstminstcr Parliarnent, anu :fined ten thousand pounds on the pro ecution of the Duke of York, was become the care ed solicitor general to James II.) Lad a positive promise of the great seal if he could obtain a conviction of the scv n bi hops.* Ilis brutal conduct to them during the whole trial, which w<:v no doubt reported to Jeffreys, would confirm the rumor and increase his apprehensions. The jury having sat up all nigbt without food, fire, or candle, to con ider of their verdict, the lord chancellor had, while they were still enclosed, come down to We ' tin in t ·r 1-Iall next morning, and taken his scat in court. When he heard the immense shout arise which soon made the king tremble on Ilounslow Ileath, he smiled and hid his face in his no:rgay, "a .. rnuch," ob erves the relater of the anecdote, " ug to "ay, 1\Ir. Solicitor, I keep n1y seal." Ilowever, the part. he had taken in sending the bi hops to the Tower had cau.., •d uch scandal, that the U ni vcr ity of Oxford would not ha vc hi111 for their chancellor, although, in the prospect of a vacancy, he had received many promi e of support. The 1nomcnt the news arrived of the death of the . * The arrangement of counsel in this celebrated case was very whimSical. ~he bishop: were defended by Pemberton, the ex-chief justice, who had presided a.t several of the late state trials by Levinz, awycr, and Finch, who had conducted them very oppressiY ly f~r the crown, and by Polloxfen, Treby, and Somers, considered stea<.ly "'\Vhigs. 29 * |