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 or two upon politics, especially one upon the state of the nation (art. 2, No. 64), advising moderation in all parties. He began, however, to take some part in political meetings, especially in co-operation with Sir James Gibson Craig [q. v.] He spoke at a meeting for abolishing the income-tax in 1816, and was very effective at the ‘Pantheon meeting’ (19 Dec. 1820) in favour of a petition for dismissing the ministry. From 1821 to 1826 he took an active part at public dinners promoted by the Scottish whigs. A speech which he delivered (18 Nov. 1828) upon the combination laws, explaining the ‘dangers and follies of unions and strikes by workmen,’ was published as a pamphlet, and 8,000 copies speedily sold.

Jeffrey was now fairly in a position for preferment. Some offers were made to bring him into parliament in 1821. In 1827 he was advised to try for an appointment to the bench, when he replied that four of his friends had superior claims. On 14 March 1829 he spoke at a meeting on behalf of Roman catholic emancipation, the last which he attended.

On 2 July 1829 he was unanimously elected dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Sir John Hope, the solicitor-general, declining to oppose him. He was so popular that the conservative majority did not care to use their power against him. He decided upon the election to retire from the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ of which Macvey Napier [q. v.] now became editor. His last article as a regular contributor appeared in October 1829, and he only wrote four others at considerable intervals.

Upon the advent to power of the whigs in 1830, Jeffrey received a reward for his long services to the party by the appointment to the post of lord advocate. He soon afterwards resigned the deanship, which on 17 Dec. 1831 was conferred upon his old opponent, Hope. His new office broke up Jeffrey's old mode of life, and was not without drawbacks. The income was about 3,000l. a year, but he had to obtain seats in parliament, which, between December 1830 and May 1832, cost him about 10,000l. (, i. 307). He was first chosen for the Forfarshire burghs, but unseated from a flaw in the proceedings. He was then chosen (6 April 1831) for Lord FitzWilliam's borough, Malton, for which he was again elected in June after the dissolution, having previously failed at Edinburgh, though a petition signed by 17,400 persons was sent to the town council on his behalf. After the passage of the Reform Bill he was elected at Edinburgh, 19 Dec. 1832—now for the first time an open constituency—receiving 4,058 votes, his colleague, James Abercrombie, receiving 3,865, and his opponent, Forbes Blair, 1,519. The two successful candidates were returned free of expense.

Jeffrey's parliamentary career was hardly a success, and his biographer's explanation substantially admits the facts. The lord advocate had to discharge a number of duties involving much drudgery and troublesome detail. Entering parliament at the age of fifty-seven, and with little previous experience of political warfare, he could scarcely acquire the art of debating. Though his speech on reform (4 March 1831) was praised by Mackintosh (Memoirs, ii. 479), and published ‘at the special request of government,’ and later speeches were received with respect, they seem to have been rather elegant essays than effective oratory. An affection of the trachea now and afterwards caused him much inconvenience, and he had to undergo a severe operation in October 1831. His official position restrained him, and forced him to defend some points to which he was personally indifferent. He was entrusted with the Scottish Reform Bill in 1831 and 1832, and in 1833 with the Burgh Bill. This involved the discussion of innumerable details and long wrangles in committees, and with the advocates of all manner of reforms or crotchets. He seems, however, to have been conciliatory and good-tempered. He was constantly afraid of some popular outbreak, and disgusted with ‘doctrinaire’ perverseness. In 1831 he was too ill to return to Scotland, and passed the summer at Wimbledon. He went out into London society, and in the spring of 1831 saw a good deal of his victim, Wordsworth, who met him in a friendly spirit. Worry and overwork oppressed him, as appears from Carlyle's account in the ‘Reminiscences,’ and he began to desire his release. In May 1834 he was glad to accept a judgeship in the court of session, and received a farewell banquet from the Scottish members. He took his seat on the bench 7 June 1834, and became Lord Jeffrey.

Henceforward his judicial duties absorbed all his energies. He generally visited London in the spring, spending his winters at Edinburgh, and his summers at Craigcrook. He had always delighted in society. In 1803 he was one of the founders of the ‘Friday Club,’ of which Scott was also a member. Though political differences and reviews of Scott's poems in the ‘Edinburgh’ kept them at some distance, they were always on friendly terms as the heads of two different circles. The Friday Club lasted over thirty years. From 1840 to 1848 Jeffrey tried with some