Lord Chancellor Jeffreys- A Revised View

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30769, 5 June 1965, Page 4

Lord Chancellor JeffreysA Revised View

(Rerieiced by F.DJ Lord Chancellor Jeffreys and the Stuart Cause. By G. W. Keeton. Macdonald. 553 pp. Seven Appendices. Index. 43 Illustrations. “If the history of England.” j wrote the great Disraeli, “be I ever written by one who has the knowledge and the cour- ’ age. the world would be more 1 astonished than when reading the Roman annals by Niebuhr. ■Generally speaking, all the j great events have been disported: most of the; iimportant causes concealed:; (some of the principal I characters never appear,; and all who figure are so mis-, understood and misrepresented that the result is al complete mystification.” Disraeli made this statement when the Whig Interpret tation of English History., immortalised in Macaulay’s I prose, was universally accepted as the authentic version of England’s past. How-| ever, scholars with the knowledge and the courage havel not been lacking and some of■ the mystification mentioned by the great statesman has been dissipated. Professor Keeton’s monumental work on Lord Chancellor Jeffreys reveals the ogre of Whig legend as a jurist of distinction and a judge of integrity in the service of men less worthy than himself. The author is Professor of j English Law at University College. London, and his book ■ must have cost him years of I painstaking research. He has ! an understandable reluctance to bypass anything he has discovered and so not all parts of the book are equally digestible. Its appeal is more directly to the legal profession with its chapters on “The ; Later Stuart Judiciary.” “The Palatine Court of Chester." I “Jefferys’ Equity Decisions” I and such, but the general reader finds plenty to inter-1 est him in the circumstances I surrounding the Popish Plot, the Rye House Plot, the Mon-1 mouth Rebellion, the Bloody! Assizes and the fall of James IL The book abounds in illustrations, mostly portraits of Jeffreys himself painted in the days before ; postRevolution historians had destroyed his reputation, indeed, it was the impossibility of reconciling the handsome, sensitive face of the portraits with the demon depicted by Macaulay, that prompted the first reconsideration of this man's character and achievements: and then it became obvious that the brilliance and wisdom of his judgments, his mastery of the law of evidence anil consummate skill in crossexamination did not square with the drink-sodden sadist of the same document. Professor Keeton does not transform the demon into an angel, but he does make him a man—and a man of considerable distinction. Jeffreys came from a Welsh family with whom he was ever closely knit throughout his life. He was a faithful husband and a good father at a time when licentiousness was little restrained by public opinion. His unprecedented rise to eminence was due to his ability in upholding the law at a time when judges were considered important I officers of the royal administration. He sought patronage,; as did others, and gave |

ipatronage when he could; but Ilin a corrupt age, only one . allegation of sharp practice . could be proved against him Jeffreys was severe, for the , law was ferocious against traitors and felons, and Kee- ’ ton's account of the Bloody 1 j Assizes is not much less bloody than the traditional account: but the author shows that the decision to prosecute (the misguided Dissenters who ; followed Monmouth was made by James and his Council, that Jeffreys's trials were I completely fair and that the lawful vengeance that Tudor. I Stuart and early Hanoverian monarchs took on rebels was lone of the facts of life. It is j remarkable that the unutterable Scroggs of the Popish Plot trials has never been noticed by the historian, the ; decimation of the Highlanders after »he Jacobite Risings | is faintly regretted, while the milder Jeffreys lives in eteri nal execration. , Jeffreys was a staunch Anglican all the days of his I life, and when many of his time serving companions were deserting their communion in the hope of preferment from the Catholic king. Jeffreys remained firm. He served James well right to the end and was rewarded by being made the scapegoat for all the crass blunders of that monarch’s reign. He had suffered terribly from the stone and this, ; no doubt, made him peevish land irritable on occasion: and (legend has inflated this into I habitual blind rage. Wine was i considered a remedy for such a malady and Jeffreys certainly took too much on occasion: and legend has magnified this into habitual drunkenness. The legend is not hard to explain when we find that : Macaulay's authorities were mainly the most notorious I perjuror in English History. Titus Oates, and “that daunt- | less liar, Tutchin.” Professor Keeton has certainly acquitted Judge Jeffreys of most of the charges j laid against him. He has also (thrown further light on the i whole era. He explains the packing of juries, the con-

trol of Parliament and the paramount importance to Crown or governing class of the right to choose sheriffs. He sees the century as a time of great intellectual ferment and development of political ideas. Shaftesbury and his henchmen are shown as brilI liant and completely unscrupuI lous: Monmouth as vain and unreliable. No clear picture of James 11 emerges from ■these pages. His personal braverv and considerable contribution to the organising of the Roval Navy are merely j mentioned. The significant connexion between his conversion to Catholicism and the passing of the Test Act seems to have escaped the author. Professor Keeton does not discuss the question whether James really believed in religious toleration or not. He does however show how he threw away what popularity he had on ascending the throne and. by an immoderate use of the dispensing power and a revolutionary use of the suspending power, drove many loyal Anglicans into the arms of the plotting Whigs. Unlike most members of the House of Stuart, Janies had no power to win the loyalty of I those about him. In the crisis '■ to which he was unbelievably i blind, almost all deserted him —even his daughter Anne! His inglorious flight, without a word to the faithful Jef- ; freys, is the main memory posterity holds of Britain’s i last personal monarch. To the student who has read Miss Wedgewood and Christopher Hill, this biography is compulsory reading. Others may be inclined to skip the more strictly legal chapters. The style is lucid, , sometimes vivid, rarely brilliant; one paragraph of two whole pages is apt to discourage the general reader The thesis of the book should be introduced into school history everywhere to rehabilitate a distinguished servant of the Crown and provide a fine I example of critical historical I scholarship.