Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/720

 706 V. BENCH AND BAR Jeffreys gained as great an ascendency over Hale as ever counsel had over a judge. To his intellectual gifts, Jeffreys added a noble and stately presence. There are three portraits of him ; the first rep- resents him when thirty years old, the next is of Jeffreys in his full robes as Lord Chief Justice, the last shows us the man in his robes as Chancellor. It is a very noble, delicate, and refined face that looks out from Kneller's canvas. There is birth, breeding, distinction in every line. He must have been a great lawyer ; for to Hale's testimony we may add that of the accomplished judge, a confirmed Whig, Sir Joseph Jekyll ; of Speaker Onslow, who bears testimony to his ability and uprightness in private matters ; of Roger North, who hated Jeffreys but was forced to admit : " When he was in temper and matters indifferent came before him, he became his seat of justice better than any other I ever saw in his place." But best witnesses of all are his recorded judgments. The incom- parable stupidity of Vernon, the reporter, has destroyed the value of Eustace vs. Kildare and of Attorney General vs. Vernon ; ^ but his decision in the East India Company's case is admitted by all lawyers to be a marvel of close legal rea- soning. In the House of Lords he saved the Duke of Nor- folk's case, and even his political enemies after the Revolu- tion did not reverse his cases. A master of the common law, he was yet a great chancellor. He promulgated a set of rules in chancery, the best since Bacon's time. Other of his deci- sions can be found in the reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower, an excellent lawyer. No doubt Jeffreys was a hard drinker. So was Lord Eldon, so were many able lawyers in our own country. He was no doubt savage and overbearing at times. He rode rough- shod over defendants and their counsel. He hated Puri- tans and all their works. He was often cruel and remorse- less. But even Lord Hale enlivened trials by breaking forth upon witnesses : " Thou art a per^^??ed knave, a very vil- lain ! Oh, thou shameless villain ! " Jeffreys' " Bloody As- sizes " is the greatest stain on his memory ; but no innocent person was punished in those trials. The worst that can be » 1 Vernon 419, 369.