Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/345

 and Empson; was popular with the students, among whom were Sir Monier Williams, Sir Bartle Frere, and Bishop Forbes of Brechin, and was peculiarly successful as a lecturer, although he was weak as a disciplinarian. His sermons at Haileybury are credited with the promotion of that high character in the members of the East Indian civil service which was signally displayed in repressing the mutiny of 1857. In 1833, while still at Haileybury, he was appointed Christian advocate of the university of Cambridge, and in 1850, on the elevation of Dr. Ollivant to the see of Llandaff, he succeeded to his chair as regius professor of divinity, and resigned his position at Haileybury. His lectures at Cambridge were those of a sound and well-read theologian, and of a refined and elegant scholar, but they were lacking in vigour and originality. At Commemoration 1862 he was created D.C.L. by the university of Oxford. In August 1864 he was raised by Lord Palmerston from the subdeanery to the deanery of Lincoln, but was induced to retain his regius professorship for six years, to the sacrifice of his own comfort and to the injury of both his cathedral and his university. He ultimately resigned the professorship in 1870, having previously given 1,000l. to the university for the foundation of two prizes for the study of the Septuagint. After a very protracted illness he died suddenly on 11 June 1872, and was buried in his native island of Guernsey. He was unmarried, and with the exception of some very trifling legacies his large fortune was divided between an unmarried brother and sister. He had collected a magnificent library of the best editions of the classical authors of many different languages; but although he was desirous that it should be kept together, with habitual indecision he was unable to decide to what institution to bequeath it, and on his death it was dispersed.

Jeremie wrote much on many subjects, but an excessive fastidiousness and a nervous sensitiveness to criticism acted as an effectual barrier to publication. With the exception of his occasional sermons, which were numerous, and chiefly preached at Cambridge, he published very little. A volume of collected sermons which he printed he withheld from publication. The matter of his sermons and manner of delivery were alike singularly happy. His voice, although weak, was always musical and sympathetic. He was a contributor to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana,’ writing the articles on Sextus Empiricus, the Pyrrhonists, Plotinus and the Later Platonists, ‘The History of the Christian Church in the Second and Third Centuries,’ and ‘The Roman Empire from Vespasian to its Extinction,’ and collected them as a ‘History of the Christian Church in the Second and Third Centuries,’ 1852, 8vo. 

JEREMIE, JOHN (1795–1841), colonial judge, was the son of John Jeremie, an advocate in Guernsey, where he was born 19 Aug. 1795. For some years he practised as an advocate in the royal court of Guernsey, and edited in 1815, with a preface and appendix of his own, ‘Traité sur la Saisie mobilière,’ a legal work by his father, who had died at Malta in 1810. In October 1824 he was appointed chief justice of the island of St. Lucia, and held this post for six years. His strong views as an abolitionist aroused much hostility among the West Indian planters, and the opposition which he met with from the government of St. Lucia led to his resignation. In 1831 his ‘Four Essays on Colonial Slavery’ appeared. This work had considerable influence, and was severely attacked by the upholders of slavery. In February 1832 Jeremie was appointed procureur-général, or public prosecutor, of the island of Mauritius. The colonists were disaffected towards the government owing to the measures adopted for the repression of slavery, and the appointment of so well-known an abolitionist as Jeremie was exceedingly unpopular. On his arrival at the harbour of Port Louis on 2 June he was prevented from landing until the 4th, when he came on shore under the protection of a military escort. His installation, which had been fixed for 22 June, was frustrated by the intentional absence of the judges, and on 20 July he was attacked in the streets by a mob. The governor of the island, Sir Charles Colville, thereupon directed him to retire, and he embarked for England on 29 July. On his arrival there on 29 Oct. he was ordered to return, and left England 6 Jan. 1833, arriving at the Mauritius on 29 April. During his second tenure of office an attempt was made to prosecute him for imprisoning and detaining some members of the volunteer patrols who had attacked the 87th regiment on 25 May. In August 1833 he charged the judges in open court with being notoriously interested in the slave-holdings, and with having recently incurred the censure of the colonial office for mitigating punishments for sedition and treason. The governor expressed disapproval of Jeremie's language; Jeremie resigned and quitted Mauritius on 28 Oct.

In 1836 he was sent out to Ceylon as judge, and on 15 Oct. 1840 was appointed governor of Sierra Leone. He was knighted