Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/279

 personal charm broke down the old prejudices caused by his whiggism and his youthful impertinence. The death of his sister, Mrs. Napier, affected him profoundly, and on 8 Aug. 1805 his wife died. His letters on the occasion show the exceeding tenderness of his nature. Their only child, born in September 1802, had died on 25 Oct. following. He was strongly attached to his sister's children; but his home was now desolate. He stuck gallantly to his work, and went into society even more frequently, though with a sad heart. In 1806 he went to London, where, as he said himself, his indifference to life enabled him to act coolly in the duel with Moore. Moore had taken offence at an article upon his ‘Epistles, Odes, and other Poems’ in the fifteenth number of the ‘Review.’ Jeffrey had condemned their immoral tendency with a vigour which Moore resented as a personal insult. Jeffrey met Moore at Chalk Farm on 11 Aug. 1806. Both combatants were even comically ignorant of the practices of duellists. A friend from whom Moore had borrowed pistols gave information to the police, and Bow Street runners took them in charge at the critical moment. Although Horner, who was Jeffrey's second, declared that the pistols had both been loaded, it was discovered at the police-office that there was no bullet in Jeffrey's pistol. Byron referred to this in ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,’ erroneously giving the ‘leadless pistol’ to Moore. The two authors were bound over to keep the peace, and Jeffrey, who had taken a fancy to Moore on the field of action, made satisfactory explanations, which were followed by a complete reconciliation. In 1814 Jeffrey got some articles from Moore for the ‘Edinburgh,’ and wrote in affectionate as well as complimentary terms (see the account of the duel in Diaries, i. 199–213). In 1825 Moore visited him in Scotland, and they preserved a cordial friendship.

Jeffrey's practice was now extending through all the Scottish courts, and he frequently appeared in appeals before the House of Lords. Though not a profound lawyer, he was a very effective advocate, especially before a jury. He had an ‘unchallenged monopoly on one side’ (, p. 179) before the general assembly for twenty years from 1807. He was able to take singular liberties (ib. p. 183) before this ‘mob of three hundred people’ ignorant of legal technicalities. They treated him as an honoured favourite, and though the fees were trifling, his general professional position was raised by his popularity with them. The introduction of juries for the trial of facts in civil cases in January 1816 gave him a new field, and he was employed in almost every trial before the ‘jury court’ (ib. p. 240). In spite of an artificial manner and a tendency to over-refinement, his sagacity—which was his ‘peculiar quality’ (ib. p. 242)—his great memory for details, his skill in veiling his own sophistries and exposing other people's, his versatility and general charm gave him great power. He appeared in one or two political cases, as the trial of Maclaren and Bird for sedition in 1817, and the defence of some persons tried for sedition at Stirling in 1820, and, though unsuccessful, made able speeches. He won a more questionable reputation by obtaining acquittals of some reputed criminals. A curious account of his rescue of one ‘Nell Kennedy,’ of which he was rather ashamed, is given in Carlyle's ‘Reminiscences’ (ii. 10–12).

In 1810 he moved from Queen Street to 92 George Street (, i. 199), where he lived till (in 1827) he moved to his last house in 24 Moray Place (ib. p. 279). At the end of the year he received a visit from M. Simond, a French refugee, whose wife was a sister of Charles Wilkes of New York, a nephew of John Wilkes. The Simonds were accompanied by their niece Charlotte, daughter of Charles Wilkes, with whom Jeffrey speedily fell in love. In 1812 he took a country house at Hatton, nine miles west of Edinburgh, where he spent part of three summers. Miss Wilkes had gone to her father in America, and in 1813 Jeffrey resolved to follow her. The countries were at war. He suffered from sea-sickness, and naturally was blind to the beauties of the sea, though singularly alive to beauty of landscape. He left his clients to themselves, gave the ‘Review’ in charge to two friends, and sailed from Liverpool in a ‘cartel,’ 29 Aug. 1813. He landed at New York on 7 Oct., married Miss Wilkes soon afterwards, and then made a tour to some large towns, conversing with the president (Madison) and James Monroe, the secretary of state, and patriotically defending the English claims which he had attacked in the ‘Review.’ He sailed from New York on 22 Jan. 1814, reaching Liverpool on 10 Feb. Jeffrey was ever afterwards a warm advocate of reconciliation with America. In 1815 he took Craigcrook, on the eastern slope of Corstorphine Hill, three miles north-west of Edinburgh, then an old keep with a disorderly kitchen-garden. He took great pleasure in improving the house and grounds, and there spent all his remaining summers. In 1815 he made his first visit to the continent. During the first years of the peace Jeffrey wrote many literary articles, but only one