598 JEFFREYS these social meetings that the "Edinburgh Re- view " was suggested and planned. The first number appeared Oct. 10, 1802, containing be- sides others seven articles by Sydney Smith, four by Homer, four by Brougham, and five by Jeffrey. Its learning, talent, spirit, and eloquence caused it to be nailed at once by the liberal party as the dawn of a brighter day, and by thoughtful men, indifferent to party, as an organ of the highest order for able and fearless discussion of every matter worthy of inquiry. A first and a second impression of 750 copies were rapidly exhausted; at the issue of the third number the regular sale was 2,500 copies, and in 1813 it exceeded 12,000. Jeffrey became its official editor with the fourth number, and continued to edit it for 26 years, during which period he was its most popular and effective contributor; and he wrote for it at intervals till near the time of his death. The whole number of his contribu- tions is 200, of which 79 were selected for re- publication (2d ed., 3 vols., London, 1846; 1 vol., 1853). In the larger part of them he ap- pears as literary critic, but several are devoted to metaphysics and to politics. The thorough- ness and ability with which he analyzed litera- ry productions, pointed out their beauties, and chastised their defects, was unprecedented in periodicals. His attack on the "Odes and Epistles" of Moore (1806) led to a harmless duel with Moore, and came near causing one between Moore and Byron. Against Words- worth, Southey, and Coleridge he waged a long war, which he subsequently admitted to be unjustifiable. Yet even in his harshest cri- tiques it was his custom to select the finest pas- sages for quotation. In 1813, after having been a widower eight years, he visited New York to marry Charlotte Wilkes, a grandniece of the celebrated politician John Wilkes. In 1815 he took up his residence at Craigcrook, two miles from Edinburgh, where he passed his summers until the year of his death. His reputation at the bar increased with his success as a reviewer. He rose to the highest eminence as a pleader, was elected in 1821 lord rector of the univer- sity of Glasgow, and in 1829 dean of the faculty of advocates, was appointed lord advocate in 1830, entered the house of commons in 1831, and was elevated to the Scottish bench in 1834. He took part in the reform debates in parlia- ment, but did not maintain there the reputa- tion for eloquence which he enjoyed at the bar. As a judge he was a model of courtesy and patience, and remarkable for the rapidity of his decisions and the vivacity and clearness of his statements. He was most highly es- teemed in private life, and as a brilliant con- verser, abounding in wit, fancy, and amiability. His biography was written by Lord Cockburn, with a selection from his correspondence (Edinburgh, 1852). JEFFREYS, George, lord, an English judge, born at Acton, Denbighshire (Wales), in 1648, died in the tower of London, April 19, 1689. His family was good, though not rich. He was educated at Shrewsbury, at St. Paul's school, London, and at Westminster school, under Dr. Busby. He became a member of the Inner Temple, May 19, 1663. Of his boy- hood and youth but little is known, and that is not to his credit. He was called to the bar Nov. 22, 1068, 18 months before which he had married Mary Nesham, daughter of a clergy- man, under romantic circumstances. On the death of this lady, in 1678, he married Anne, widow of Sir John Jones, who had been lord mayor of London. His rise at the bar was rapid, but his practice was in the Old Bailey and other London courts, always beneath the other tribunals in conduct, and in that age scarcely better than dens of torture and mur- der. So quickly did he rise that in March, 1671, he became common sergeant of the city of London. At that time he belonged to the "country party," and laid the foundations of his fortune by affecting to be a patriot and a Puritan; but he intrigued secretly for court favor, and was made solicitor to the duke of York, Sept. 14, 1677, and knighted. This startled his associates, but he insisted that the office was strictly professional, and in 1678 men of both parties united to elect him re- corder of London. He then went boldly over to the court party. In the days of the popish plot he was one of the most active against the accused, acting both as judge and as counsel, in different courts; and it was by his advice that the government placed itself at the head of the patrons of the plot, whereby its inven- tors were prevented from turning it to the profit they had expected. He was appointed chief justice of Chester and made king's ser- geant in April, 1680, and in 1681 created a bar- onet. Having offended the house of commons, he was reprimanded on his knees. The office of recorder he gave up Dec. 2, 1680. When the Oxford parliament was dissolved in 1681, and Charles II. resolved to destroy the whigs, Jeffreys became the most efficient agent of government. He labored against the city of London, and helped to extinguish its liberties. He was of counsel for the crown on the trial of Lord Russell, and was made chief justice of England, in order to effect the destruction of Algernon Sidney. He was deeply con- cerned in several other judicial murders of the same kind, and in the assaults on the munici- pal corporations. He presided at the trials of Gates and Baxter. On May 15, 1685, James II. made him a peer, by the title of Baron Jeffreys of Wem. In the summer of that year he was placed at the head of a special com- mission to try persons accused of having taken part in Monmouth's rebellion. Of the pris- oners brought before him, 320 were hanged, 841 ordered to be transported and sold into the slavery of the tropics, and others punished with scourgings, imprisonment, &c. Jeffreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his predecessors since the conquest. His
