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Show .!.) -' G AT Il 0 C I 0 t; :3 .1 C I) ( ~ E:..;. [A. I>. l l.lt said he, " if you lutve no n1ore for lying tha n I have for swearing, you n1ight wear a leathern doublet as well as I." '.fl1is blunt r eply got to the west end of the town, and was r en1embered among the courti e r~ ngainst J cffrry::; when be grew to Le a great man. \Yhile a trial was going on, he wa-- de,·otedly earnest in it ; but when it wa over, he would rcekle ... sly get drunk, a if he neYcr were to have another to conduct. Coming .... o mueh in contact with the aldermen, he ingratiate<l l1 in1sclf " ·ith them very n1nch, and he w a~ particularly patroni zed uy a namesake (though no relation) of his own- tTeffreys, alderman of Dread Street \¥"ard, who was very wealthy, a great moker, (an accompli~hn1ent in ·which the lawyer could rival him, a-' v-cll as in drinking.) and 'rho had im1nense infl uence with the Ji \·ery. Pu.sl1ed by him, or ri ..,ing rapidly by his own buoyancy, our hero, before he had been two years and a half at the bar, nnd 'vhile only twenty-three years of nge, was electccl common s 1:jeant of the city of L ondon -an office whieh has rai. ed a Dentnan as well a~ a tTeffrcy to be chief ju. Lice of E ngland. This fir t step of his elevation he oLtaineu on the 17th of ~larch, 1671. But his ambition was only infl arned by this promotion, which di ... qualified hi1n for a considerable part of his bar practice, and he r esolved entirely to change the field of his operations, n1aking a da h at \ Vestminstcr ITall. IIc knew well that he could not be employed to draw declarations and pleas, or to argue demurrers or special verdicts ; but he hoped his talent for exatnining witnesses and for speaking might avail him. At any rate, this wns the only road to high di~tinction in his profession, and he spurt?ed the idea of spend- A. D. lCTu.) 277 ing his life in trying petty la rcenies, and dining with the city compames. Hard drinking was again his granJ r esource. I Ie could now afford to in vite the great city attorneys to l1is house as well as carouse wi th then1 at t<.n·erns, and they were plea ed with the a ttentions of a ri~ing ban·i tcr ns well a" ehanned with the pleasantry of the most jovial of companions. IIe likewi e began to cul ti vute f~lshionable .. :oeiety, and to consider how he 1night contri ,.e to get an in tro(luct iou at court. " lie put himself into all compan ie~, for whic.:h he wa qualified by using himself to drink hard." Now was the time whrn men got forward in li Ce Ly howing their hatred of puritani ~m, their devotion to church nnd king, and an affectation of Yice, even if act ually free fi·on1 it. Y et · uch was the Ycr~atility of J 'fT'rcy.s, that for the nonce he could appear ·anctin1onious, and e,·en puritanical. Thus l1e deceivcu the rcligiou~, the nwrnl, the immaculate Sir 1\l atthew IIale, then chief j ust ice of the ICin()''s Bench. Hoger North, in drawing the character of this extraordinary man, says, - " Although he was Ycry g rnx e in hi own per ·on, he loved the mo ·t bizarre and i rr eo-ular wi t, in the praetice of the law before him rno~t ext ra ' 'agantly. So S ir George J efli·eys gained as great an a ·ccnch~nt jn prnct ice over him a , ever counsel had over a judg e." As a ICing's Bench practi tioner, J effreys wn.3 first employecl at Nisi Prius in action_, for a~::;anli and defamation ; but before long the city a ttorneys gave him brief:~ in eommercial causes tried at Guildhall, and though in bane he could not well stand up against regular ly-bred lawyer~, like Sir F ranc·is North, Sir William J ones, Sir Cre~weJl Leviuz, and I Ieneage Finch, the son of the l.Jord Chnnccllor Nottingham, hP. was 2..t |