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JEF and cheerful pleasure which she diffused round her husband and his friends. In 1820, after a keen contest, Jeffrey was chosen lord rector of the university of Glasgow, an honour of which he was justly proud; and in 1829 his brethren of the bar elected him their dean, the highest distinction of the kind that can be conferred in Scotland. Immediately after his elevation to this office he withdrew from the management of the Edinburgh Review, of which he had been sole editor since 1803. In the following year the long reign of tory administration terminated, a whig government was formed under Earl Grey, and Jeffrey, as indisputably the first Scottish lawyer of the party, was appointed lord-advocate, an office which he accepted with great reluctance. A few weeks after his elevation he was elected member for what were termed the Forfarshire burghs, but was unseated on petition, and found refuge in Lord Fitzwilliam's burgh of Malton. He represented this place till after the passing of the reform bill, when he was triumphantly returned, in 1832, by the Scottish metropolis which he had unsuccessfully contested in 1830. As a speaker he was generally thought to have failed in the house of commons. His speeches, especially his first on the reform bill, were full of profound thought and clear reasoning; but, like those of Burke, they were too philosophical and refined to be popular with an audience like the British house of commons. His opponents taunted him with having spoken "an article" instead of a speech. Jeffrey's parliamentary career lasted only about three years and a half. The most important measures connected with it were the Scotch reform bill, and the bill for the reform of the burghs of Scotland, both of which he prepared and carried through. In the midst of endless discussions about church patronage, law reform, and the Edinburgh annuity tax, which had thoroughly sickened him of parliamentary life, the death of Lord Craigie caused a vacancy in the court of session, and Jeffrey became a judge. The remainder of his prosperous life, which was prolonged to nearly the utmost limit assigned by the psalmist to the years of man, was passed in the quiet discharge of the duties of his judicial office. As a judge he was singularly patient, painstaking, diligent, and conscientious, and his decisions commanded universal and deserved confidence. Thus encircled by "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends," after a very brief illness he died on the 26th of January, 1850, in his seventy-seventh year. Mrs. Jeffrey survived him only a few months. Their only child was married to Professor Empson of Haileybury college.

The great event in the life of Lord Jeffrey was the establishment of the Edinburgh Review in 1802, when he was in his twenty-ninth year. Apart from his connection with that renowned periodical, he might have been honoured as a sagacious, eloquent, and eminently successful lawyer, and a zealous friend to civil and religious liberty; but he would never have obtained that worldwide reputation which he now enjoys, or have exercised that vast influence on public opinion which he long wielded. The credit, indeed, of originating the Review belongs to Sydney Smith, and its pages were adorned by the contributions of writers of the highest eminence in every department of literature and science; but it was mainly to the exertions of its editor that the journal owed its brilliant success. He was peculiarly fitted for the management of such a periodical, not only by his extensive and varied information, his almost intuitive sagacity, calm judgment, and singular versatility of intellect, but also by a natural sweetness and suavity of temper, which kept his mind serene and unruffled amidst all the harassing annoyances to which an editor is continually exposed. The success of the Review was instantaneous and complete. "Without patronage, without name, under the tutelage of no great man; propounding heresies of all sorts against the ruling fancies of the day, whether political, poetical, or social; by sheer vigour of mind, resolution of purpose, and an unexampled combination of mental qualities—five or six young men in our somewhat provincial metropolis laid the foundation of an empire to which in the course of a few years the intellect of Europe did homage." In the field of criticism the new journal produced an entire and immediate revolution. It rendered services still more important, however, to the cause of civil and religious liberty; and the amelioration or entire removal of a host of public and social evils which were then in existence, has been in no small degree owing to the able, fearless, and consistent advocacy of the Edinburgh Review during the twenty-seven years of Lord Jeffrey's editorship.

Although Jeffrey did not succeed in the house of commons, he was undoubtedly an eloquent orator. "His voice," says his biographer. Lord Cockburn, "was distinct and silvery: so clear and precise that when in good order it was heard above a world of discordant sounds. The utterance was excessively rapid, but without sputtering, slurring, or confusion, and regulated into deliberate emphasis whenever this was proper. The velocity of the current was not more remarkable than its purity and richness. His command of language was unlimited. He used to say that if he had to subdue the world by words, he would take his armour from Jeremy Taylor, and in copiousness and brilliancy no living man came nearer the old divine. The mind by which these fine weapons were wielded was fully qualified to use them. Ridicule, sarcasm, argument, statement, pathos, or moral elevation, he could excel in them all. The only defect was, that his magical facility led him into too much refinement, and consequently into occasional tediousness." —(Life of Lord Jeffrey, with a Selection from his Correspondence, 2 vols.)—J. T.  JEFFREYS,, Baron Wem, commonly known as Judge Jeffreys, was the sixth son of John Jeffreys, Esq., of Acton, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland of Bausey, near Warrington, in the county of Lancaster. He was born at his father's house between 1635 and 1640; but no registration of his baptism can be discovered, and the exact year remains doubtful. George's parents were persons of some though perhaps small, independent fortune, and of thrifty and quiet habits of life; yet their son was allowed to enjoy all the advantages of education which the younger child of a family in moderate circumstances could reasonably expect. He was first sent to the free school, Shrewsbury, and then removed to Westminster, whence without becoming a member of either university, he transferred himself to the Inner temple, and engaged with considerable zeal in the study of the law. Jeffreys showed an ingenious and persevering character, which enabled him to surmount the numerous difficulties lying in his path during early life; the pecuniary aid of which he stood in need while he pursued his studies at the Temple, was furnished, it is said, by his grandmother; and it was owing probably to his inability to defray the necessary outlay that he was never called to the bar. He did not suffer this drawback, however, to stand much in his way. At the Kingston assizes in 1666 several of the regular pleaders being deterred by the plague from attending circuit, he put a bold face on the matter, donned a gown, and though not strictly qualified, took briefs. His success encouraged him to proceed, and from that time he acquired a daily increasing practice. Shortly after his entrance into his professional duties he was lucky enough to secure the patronage of an Alderman Jeffreys, possibly a relation, possibly also the medium by which he had obtained a presentation to Westminster. This gentleman introduced him to his civic friends, and the shrewd young barrister so improved the situation by his good address and joviality, that he won the hearts of all the wealthy citizens and was in due course elected recorder of London. The recordership was only a step to farther preferment; the holder of such an appointment was a person whom the court thought it worth while to conciliate; and the idol of the aldermen had not long to wait before he was made solicitor to the duke of York, whose skirts he never left. His undoubted ability seconded his remarkable good fortune, and his rise now became rapid and uninterrupted. From a Welsh judgeship he was promoted in 1680 to the chief-justiceship of Chester with knighthood; in 1681 he was gazetted a baronet. When the prosecution of the abhorrers commenced, Sir George resigned his recordership and accepted the post of chief-justice of the king's bench; and finally, in 1685, the son of John Jeffreys of Acton, Esq., was installed as lord-chancellor of England. His honours had flowed fast upon him; and the rebellion of the duke of Monmouth found him in possession of the highest judicial dignity in the realm. There are few pages in the history of the seventeenth century which are more familiar than that which relates to the connection of Judge Jeffreys with Monmouth's rebellion; and there are few men of that time on whom the judgment of posterity has proved so singularly unanimous. Speaking of Acton, Pennant says—"This place was formerly the property of the Jeffries, a race which, after running uncontaminated from an ancient stock, had the disgrace of producing in the last century, George Jeffries, chancellor of England, a man of first-rate abilities in his profession, but of a heart subservient to the worst of actions. His portrait is a fine full 