Chapter XV: George Jeffreys

His parentage, 267. School days, 267. Scheme of becoming a great
lawyer, 268. A student at the Inner Temple, 268. Associates with the
popular leaders, 272. Extravagance and poverty, 272. Precocity, 272.
Admitted to the bar, 273. Difficulties and energy, 273. Marriage, 274.
Practises at the Old Bailey and London sessions, 275. His forensic
abilities, 275. Common serjeant of the city of London, 276. His
contrivances to get on, 277. Opens a communication with the court,
278. Recorder of London, 279. Repudiates the liberals, 280. His policy
as to the Popish Plot, 282. His sentences of death, 282. Conduct in a
libel case, 283. Made chief justice of Chester, 284. His overbearing
insolence, 285. Visits his father, 287. Proceedings against him in
Parliament, 287. Resigns his recordership, 288. Complimented by the
king, 289. Chairman of the Middlesex sessions, 289. Counsel for the
crown against Fitzharris, Plunkett, and College, 290. Takes part in
other Court prosecutions, 292. Rye house trials, 294. Appointed chief
justice, 298. Trial of Algernon Sidney, 298. Case of Sir Thomas
Armstrong, 300. Of Sir William Williams, 301. Charters fall like
Jericho, 302. Other trials before him, 303. Rules London with a rod of
iron, 303. Reappointed chief justice by James II., 304. Trial of Titus
Oates for perjury, 304. Baxter's trial, 305. Jeffreys raised to the
peerage, 308. He rivals North, 310. His bloody assize, 310. Lady
Lisle's trial, 311. Other incidents of the bloody assize, 314.
Proceedings at Bristol, 319. In Somersetshire, 322. Prideaux's case,
323. An apologist for Jeffreys, 323. Tutchin's case, _note_, 323.
James or Jeffreys? 324. Made lord chancellor, 326. Hangs an alderman,
328. Meeting of Parliament, 329. Scheme of dispensing with the test
act, 330. Opinions of the judges in favor of the dispensing power,
332. Embassy to the pope, 333. Court of High Commission revived, 333.
Its proceedings, 334. Lord Delamere's trial, 334. Proceedings against
the Fellows of Magdalen College, 337. Prosecution of the seven
bishops, 338. Rivals of Jeffreys, 341. Birth of the Pretender, 342.
William of Orange lands in England, 343. James attempts
reconciliation, 344. Advance of William, 345. James flies, 347. Terror
of Jeffreys, 348. Search for him, 349. His arrest, 351. Committed to
the Tower, 353. James seeks to make him a scapegoat, 355. Assailed by
the press, 356. Presented with a halter, 356. Petition against him,
357. His death, 358. Domestic life, 359. His descendants, 359. Person
and manners, 359. Merits as a civil judge, 360. Chancery reforms, 361.
His opinion in favor of allowing counsel to prisoners, 362. His infamy
deserved, 363.

CHAPTER XVI.

ROBERT WRIGHT.

His parentage, youth, vices, and marriage, 364. His practice, 365. His
pecuniary embarrassments and frauds, 365. Becomes a favorite of
Jeffreys, 366. Who makes him a judge, 368. Attends Jeffreys in his
bloody assize, 368. Made chief justice, 369. Orders an illegal
execution, 370. Aids in forcing Catholic fellows on Magdalen College,
371. Sits in the Court of High Commission, 373. Volunteers an
extrajudicial opinion in favor of the Declaration of Indulgence, 374.
Attempts to force it to be read at Serjeant's Inn Chapel, 374. Trial
of the seven bishops, 374. At first unmolested after William of Orange
lands, 386. Arrested, and dies in Newgate, 386. His profligacy, 387.
Necessity of exposing wicked judges, 387.

APPENDIX.--CASE OF PASSMORE WILLIAMSON, 389-432