pocket, on which he had, for days, fubfifted; and, when feized by his enemies, burst into a flood of tears! He was carried to London, and beheaded on Tower Hill the 15th of the fame month; five ftrokes of the axe, owing to the timidity of the executioner, being neceffary to the fevering of his head from his body. He died lamented by the English people, who followed him to the fcaffold with fentiments of the deepest commiferation.

In the month of September, 1685, JEFFERIES was fent down into the Weft to try, or rather butcher the delinquents; he was alfo accompanied by Colonel Kirke, a brutal officer, who vied with the judge in deeds of blood. His ruffian foldiers, he, in derifion of the cruel acts they perpetrated, chriftened by the name of his lambs! A ftory is told of him which outrages the feelings of humanity. He, at this time, debauched a young lady, on the condition of faving her brother, who was a rebel, but whom he next morning hung oppofite her chamber window! Pomfret, in his poem entitled Luft and Cruelty, has told this ftory in ftrains which cannot fail of impreffing us with its unparalleled infamy. The ftory, I am aware, has been differently related, and therefore its truth fuppofed to be invalidated. But Dr. Toulmin, in his Appendix to the Hif tory of Taunton, has fo judiciously stated the particulars, with the objections, that no doubt of its reality can attach itself to the unprejudiced mind. Rapin, indeed, whofe great merit is impartiality, remarks, that " It was not poffible for the King to find in the whole kingdom two men more deftitute of religion, honour, and humanity; Jefferies and Kirke were two cruel and mercilefs tygers, that delighted in blood. Jefferics himself gloried in his barbarity, and boafted, on this occafion, that he had hung more men than all the judges in England fince William the Conqueror. Kirke was not behind Jefferies in cruelty and infolence. Immediately after the Duke of Monmouth's defeat, being

fent

fent to Taunton, he caufed nineteen perfons by his own authority, without any trial or procefs, and without fuffering their wives or children to fpeak with them, to be hanged, with fifes playing, drums beating, and trumpets founding. In the fame town of Taunton alfo, Kirke having invited his officers to dinner, ordered thirty condemned perfons to be hanged, whilft they were at table, namely, ten in a health to the King, ten in a health to the Queen, and ten in a health to Jefferies!" The author of the Western Martyrology, obferves that it looked as if Jefferies, on this occafion, intended to have raised the price of halters; and Grainger calls him a murderer in the robes of a Lord Chief Juftice, fteeping his ermine in blood!

At Winchefter, the venerable Lady Lifle was tried for harbouring one of the Duke's party, though his name was in no proclamation. The jury brought her in not guilty; but Jefferies fent them out in a great fury, they found her not guilty three times; but the judge threatening them with an attaint of jury, fhe was brought in guilty, and executed, though upwards of feventy years of age! The only favour granted was, that the fentence of burning was changed into beheading. A gentleman alfo of refpectability, was condemned to be whipt once a year during his life through all the towns in Dorfetfhire; the poor man petitioned the King to be hanged; and his Majefty, ftruck with the requeft, pardoned him. This gentleman afterwards lived to vifit Jefferies in the tower, when, upbraiding him with his cruelty, the infamous judge's only reply was, that he had not exceeded his commiffion! But inftances of barbarity are without number.

The failure of this expedition of the Duke of Monmouth, is afcribed by hiftorians to a variety of canfes. Some attribute it to the departure of Fletcher of Salton, a very able man, who afterwards accompanied WILLI. AM; others declare that the Duke was betrayed by his own general, Lord Grey, a worthless character, who purchased

purchased his life on the occafion, but a few years after laid violent hands on himfelf. But whatever be the true caufe, the cruclties exercised on the unfortunate men, produced in the minds of Britons an univerfal abhorrence of those agents by whofe either remote or immediate influence they were perpetrated. Let us now, however, attend to JEFFERIES, whofe name will not be fpeedily forgotten in that part of the island. I have lately met with two old books which contain an account of this dreadful business just after it had happened. A paffage out of each fhall be here tranfcribed, for the expreffious indeed glow with an eloquent refentment. They both relate to JEFFERIES, and fhew that he was held in utter deteftation.

"Had the great Turk," fays Mr. Turner, a clergyman of the church of England," fent his janifaries, or the Tartar his armies among them, they had escaped better. Humanity could not offend fo far, to deferve fuch punishment as JEFFERIES inflicted. A certain barbarous joy and pleasure grinned from his brutal foul. through his bloody eyes, whenever he was fentencing any of the poor fouls to death and torment, fo much worfe than NERO, fince that monster wished he had never learnt to write, because forced to fet his name to warrants for the execution of malefactors. JEFFE RIES would have been glad if every letter he writ were fuch a warrant, and every word a sentence of death. He obferved neither humanity to the dead nor civility to the living. He made the WEST an ACELDEMA, fome places quite depopulated, and nothing to be feen in them but forfaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghostly carcafes. The trees were laden almost as thick with quarters as with leaves. The houses and steeples covered as clofe with heads, as at other times frequently in that country with crows or ravens. Nothing could be liker Hell than these parts, nothing fo like the Devil as HE. Caldrons hiffing, carcases boiling, pitch and tar Sparkling and glowing, blood and limbs boiling, and tearing

VOL. VIII.

A 2

tearing and mangling, and HE the great DIRECTOR of all. In a word, discharging his place who fent him ; the most deferving to be the late king's chief juftice there, and chancellor of any man that breathed fince CAIN or JUDAS.'

To render this paffage the more intelligible, it fhould be remarked, that the bodies of these victims having been first decapitated and embowelled, were boiled in cauldrons of pitch and tar, in order to decorate the gibbets, which the barbarians were at that time bufily erecting in almost every part of the country. The limbs of a beloved parent, an affectionate brother, or of a dutiful fon, were thus exposed on the high roads, at measured distances, exciting at once' emotions of horror and indignation in the breast of the paffing traveller.

The other paragraph is poetry, but the lines are not lefs full and expreffive. They are fuppofed to have been written in the fhades, and are addreffed to JEFFERIES.

And fee, if terror has not ftruck thee blind,
See here along a ghattly train behind!
Far, far from utmoft WEST they crowd away,
And hovering o'er fright back the fickly day.
Had the poor wretches finn'd as much as thee,
Thou shouldft not have forgot humanity:
Whoe'er in blood can so much pleasure take,
Tho' an ill judge, would a good hangman make.
Each hollows in thy cars-Prepare ! prepare!
For what thou muft-yet what thou canst not bear,
Each at thy heart a bloody dagger aims,

Upwards to gibbets points, downward to endless flames!"

Thefe paffages, it must be remembered, were written about the very time these favage tranfactions took place, and this can be the only apology for the severe refentment by which they ftand characterized.

The fortitude with which thefe unhappy men died, reminded the spectators of the martyrs who joyfully ex

pired amidst aggravated torments in the firft ages of christianity. It is alfo remarkable, that the most eminent of the fufferers foretold with their last breath the termination of this violent and bloody business in the glorious Revolution. For, let it be recollected, that this horrible tragedy took place in 1685, and upon the arrival of our illuftrious WILLIAM in 1688, the principal authors of it were fcattered to the ends of the earth!

It is moderately computed, that for this Rebellion of about four weeks, three hundred and thirty-one were hanged in different parts of Somerfet, Dorset, and Devon; eight hundred and fifty were fold for flaves to his majesty's plantations in America, and four hundred and eight were fined, whipped, confined in prifon till either death or the revolution released them. Others have estimated, that the whole of thofe that died on this occafion, either in battle or in prifon, or by the hands of the execu tioner, together with thofe that otherwife fuffered in their perfons or fortunes, amounted to more than TWO THOUSAND! The Appendix of Dr. Toulmin's valuable Hiftory of Taunton, contains a very interesting sketch of this infurrection and of thofe agonizing scenes with which it was fucceeded *.

JEFFERIES, upon his return from the Weft, was made Lord Chancellor of England, and honoured with every fpecies of courtly approbation. In the new edition of the Biographical Dictionary is to be found the following sketch of the life of this monster. I fhall in

*Daniel De Foe was engaged in this rebellion, and escaped. Milton also, a few years before, at the Restoration, freed himself from the danger of an execution by concealment. It is therefore remarkable, that the authors of Robinson Crusoe, and of Paradife Loft should have been thus exposed to such imminent danger in the caufe of liberty, and furviving it, should have written two of the most curious, entertaining, and inftructive works in the English language,!