Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/662

 634 J E K J E K every page is illumined by some gleaming epigram or flash, of originality. Jerrold seems to revel in the sarcastically satirical, perhaps the easiest and most directly effective of all satire. He appears to have reserved the softer side of his nature for his private life. He is far more at home in satirizing the foibles of men than in praising their good points. Here and there there are tender gleams of rarest pathos in his pages ; but these do not occur in scenes ela borated to move pity, but in the simple half unconscious finishing touch to some little picture, drawn from the author s heart. That Jerrold has painted for us no full- length portrait of a thoroughly noble character is due to his ultra-keen perception of the bad in human nature. &quot; Mr Capstick &quot; in St Giles and St James, who is perhaps the most truly benevolent of all his personages, escapes the difficulty of revealing his excellence in consistent speech by becoming an amiable hypocrite, and poses as &quot; the man with gall in his words and balm in his deeds.&quot; A writer in the Edinburgh Review for 1859 accuses Jerrold of being a &quot;sentimentalist,&quot; of writing &quot; to gratify his sympathies and antipathies, and not to bring out the truth.&quot; That is an extreme statement, which has some foundation in fact. Jerrold often attacked what he con sidered an abuse without stopping to weigh the ultimate consequences, and without being swayed by very satisfac tory or conclusive reasons. Sometimes too the epigram or the jest seems to have suggested the opinion, rather than the opinion the epigram. That he generally espoused the healthy side was due more to his instinct than to his reason, more to his heart than to his head. His keen feelings often carried him to great lengths in invective. He did not escape the besetting sin of all social reformers. He is tempted to elaborate and intensify the peculiar aspect of the question that best suits the lesson he seeks to read ; and although it is impossible to doubt his perfect sincerity and honest intention, yet the darkening of the shadows has a disingenuous air, and we are tempted to suspect that he has been unconsciously impelled to exaggerate reality or distort fact in order to justify his diatribe. Such a sus picion is fatal to satire. It enlists our sympathies, on a most healthy principle, on the side of what is attacked ; and it is the cause why so much of what Jerrold wrote has missed fire. This fault of colouring, which earnest social satire can scarcely escape, has been commonly translated by critics as &quot; bitterness &quot; ; but bitterness is far too ill-natured a word to describe the vivid, quivering feeling in which there is not the faintest tincture of personal animus, and in which all the sharpness is on behalf of the poor and the op pressed, with whom his own life had taught him sympathy. Douglas Jcrrold s Works were collected by himself in 8 vols. Svo., 1851-55, and again in 4 vols. Svo in 1859. The Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold, by his son Blanchard Jerrold, was published in 1858; 2d ed., 1869. (F. MU.) JERSEY, the largest and most important of the CHANNEL ISLANDS (q.v.), is situated between 49 15| and 49 10 1ST. lat., and between 2 Of and 2 15 W. long., 1C miles west of Normandy and 125 south of Southampton. The total area comprises 28,717 imperial acres, or about 45 square miles. It is of oblong form, with a length of about 11 miles from east to west, and an average breadth of about 5 miles. Along the northern part of the island a belt of elevated land runs from east to west, displaying bold and picturesque cliffs towards the sea. The east, south, and west coasts consist of a continuous succession of large open bays with marshy or sandy shores terminated by rocky headlands. The principal bays are Greve au Lanc^on, Greve de Lecq, and Bouley Bay on the north coast ; St Catherine s Bay and Grouville Bay on the east coast ; St Clement s Bay, Samarez Bay, St Aubin s Bay, and St Brelade s Bay on the south coast ; and St Ouen s Bay on the west coast. The sea in many places has encroached greatly on the land, and sand drifts have been found very troublesome, especially on the west coast. The sur face of the country is broken by winding valleys having a general direction from north to south, and as they approach the south uniting so as to form small plains. The lofty hedges which bound the small enclosures into which Jersey is divided, the trees and shrubbery which line the- roads and cluster round the uplands and in almost every nook of the valleys unutilized for pasturage or tillage, give the island a rich and luxuriant appearance, and completely neutralize the bare effect of the few sandy plains and sand- covered hills. Some of the coast scenery is grand and striking, presenting many features of special interest. According to J. A. Bird (&quot;Geology of the Channel Islands,&quot; in the Geological Magazine, London, 1878), Jersey rests on syenite rocks, which appear in three great masses in the north-west, south-west, and south-east of the island. Between these masses there is in the west an extensive formation of shale and schist, and in the north-west a for mation variously composed of porphyries, limestone schist, altered sandstone, quartzite and quartzose conglomerate. In the neighbourhood of St Helier there is an accumula tion of volcanic rocks consisting of trap, porphyry, and amygdaloid. China stone clay is obtained in large quantities. There are some veins of lead, and ironstone is occasionally found. The climate of Jersey is somewhat warmer in summer and colder in winter than that of Guernsey. The annual mean temperature is 51, the annual rainfall about 30^ inches, and the number of days upon which rain falls about one hundred and fifty. The wettest season is from October to January, but rain seldom continues long. The island enjoys a very early spring and a lengthened autumn. Snow and frost are rare, but dense fogs frequently prevail. Fruits and flowers indigenous to warm climates grow freely in the open air. The land is rich and very productive, the soil being chiefly a deep loam, which is lighter upon syenite and granite than upon the other formations ; the sandy portions in the vicinity of the bays have become very fruitful through cultivation. The lands are held either as freeholds or on a nine years lease. On account of the Norman law of succession the farms have become very much subdivided. It is only rarely that they exceed 50 acres, and very many are less than 3 acres. The farmhouses and cottages are remarkably neat and comfortable ; and the peasantry, who all farm their own land, are perhaps the most contented and prosperous in the United Kingdom. A five-course shift (turnips, potatoes or parsnips, wheat, hay, hay) is that usually followed. The frequency with which root crops are grown, and the abundant supply of sea manure, have greatly enriched the soil. The seaweed or vraic harvest occurs at certain seasons which are prescribed by law. It is only then that it is permissible to cut the vraic from rocks; but loose vraic is gathered in large quantities at all seasons. The implements of husbandry are generally old-fashioned. The peasantry take advantage of every bit of wall and every isolated nook of ground for growing fruit trees. Grapes are ripened under glass ; oranges are grown in sheltered situations, but the most common fruits are apples, which are used for cider, and pears. The island is intersected by a network of roads. There is a railway line between St Helier and St Aubin s, and connects St Helier and Gorey. According to the agricultural returns for 1880 the total area of arable land was 18,950 acres, a percentage of 66 - 2 to the total area, of which 2920 acres were under corn crops, 7456 under green crops, 4359 under rotation grasses, 4087 under permanent pasture, and 128 fallow. Under orchards there were 1345 acres, under market