XCVIII. properly termed the Spy Office,'-where the King spoke CHAP. with particular persons about intrigues of all kinds; and all little informers, projectors, &c., were carried to Chiffinch's lodging. He was a most impetuous drinker, and in that capacity an admirable spy; for he let none part with him sober, if it were possible to get them drunk, and his great artifice was pushing idolatrous healths of his good master, and being always in haste; for the King is coming, which was his word. Nor, to make sure work, would he scruple to put his master's salutiferous drops (which were called the King's, of the nature of Goddard's) into the glasses; and being an Hercules well breathed at the sport himself, he commonly had the better; and so fished out many secrets, and discovered men's characters, which the King could never have obtained the knowledge of by any other means. It is likely that Jeffreys being a pretender to main feats with the citizens, might forward himself, and be entertained by Will Chiffinch, and that which at first was mere spying turn to acquaintance, if not friendship, such as is apt to grow up between immense drinkers, and from thence might spring recommendations of him to the King, as the most useful man that could be found to serve his Majesty in London."* Solicitor to the Duke Thus while Mr. Common Serjeant was caballing in He is made the City with Lord Shaftesbury, who had established himself in Aldersgate Street, and talked of becoming Lord of York, Sept. 14. Mayor, he had secretly got a footing at Court, and by 1677, assurances of future services disposed the government to assist him in all his jobs. His opposition friends were a little startled by hearing that he had been made Solicitor to the Duke of York; but he assured them that this was merely a professional employment, unconnected with politics, which, according to professional etiquette, he could not decline; and when he was knighted as a mark of and royal favour, with which he was silly enough to be much tickled, he said that he was obliged reluctantly to submit to the degradation as a consequence of his employment. By some mischance, which is not explained, he missed the office of Recorder on the vacancy occasioned by the resigna knighted. He is eerder of elected Re London. XCVIII. CHAP. tion of Sir John Howel, who so outraged public decency on the trial of Penn and Mead*; but Sir William Dolbein, the successful candidate, being made a Judge on the 22d of October, 1678, Jeffreys was then elected his successor. Upon this occasion, there were three other candidates, Mr. Richardson, a Judge of the Sheriff's court; Mr. Turner, a bencher of Gray's Inn; and Mr. Robert Belwood, a barrister of the Middle Temple: but he was so warmly supported by both parties in politics, that they all withdrew before the day of nomination, and he is said in the City Records to have been "freely and unanimously elected." 6 St. Tr. 951. CHAPTER XCIX. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR JEFFREYS XCIX. THE new Recorder had hardly been sworn in, when, feeling CHAP. that the liberals could do nothing more for him, he utterly cast them off, becoming, for the rest of his life, the open, A.D. 1678. avowed, unblushing slave of the Court, and the bitter, perse- Jeffreys cuting, and unappeasable enemy of the principles he had openly rats. before supported, and of the men he had professed to love. He entirely forsook Thanet House, in Aldersgate Street, and all the meetings of the Whigs in the city; and instead of secret interviews with Will Chiffinch in "the Spy Office," he went openly to Court, and, with his usual address, he contrived, by constant assiduities and flatteries, to gain the good graces both of Nell Gwyn and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, who, since the fall of Lady Castlemaine, held divided empire at Whitehall, balancing the Roman Catholic and Protestant parties. To each of these ladies, it would appear from the libels of the day, his rise was attributed.* Advantage taken by Shaftes However, not long after he had openly ratted, an accident happened that had like to have spoiled all his projects; and that was the breaking out of the Popish plot. Although bury of the there is no reasonable ground for saying that it was contrived plot. "Well,' quoth Sir G, 'the Whigs may think me rude, At my preferment they, poor fools, may grudge, "Monmouth's tamer, Jeff's advance, Midsummer Moon. Duchess of Portsmouth's Picture. Popish CHAP. of Jeffreys. by Shaftesbury, he made such skilful and unscrupulous use of it, that suddenly, from appearing the leader of a small, A. D. 1679. declining, and despairing party, he had the city and the nation at his beck, and with a majority in both Houses of Parliament, there seemed every probability that he would soon force himself upon the King, and have at his disposal Perplexity all the patronage of the government. Jeffreys was for some time much disconcerted, and thought that once in his life he had made a false move. He was utterly at a loss how to conduct himself; and his craft never was put to so severe a trial. It is even said, that he had the meanness to try to reconcile himself to his old friends. But I do not believe that he seriously made or contemplated such an attempt, as it would have been foolish; for he had, in the insolence of his triumph, left himself no retreat, and he had not only deserted but vituperated and insulted the leaders of the opposition. His ad vice to the Court to outbid Shaftesbury in I have little doubt, therefore, that he soon recovered his courage, and with his usual intuition saw the right course to be pursued; for, like the man whose notice he once humbly courted, but to whom he was now opposed, he showed himself "A daring pilot in extremity, Pleas'd with the danger when the waves ran high." Being called into council, he recommended that the government should profess to credit the plot, and should outvie the other side in zeal for the Protestant religion, - but should contrive to make Shaftesbury answerable for the reality of the pretended conspiracy, so that, if hereafter it should blow up or the people Protestant should get tired of it, all that was done to punish the supreligion. posed authors of it might be laid to his account. zeal for the that he was Wonder I cannot understand why he was not now brought into not brought parliament, where his services were much wanted, and where into parlia- one would have expected from his bold, ready, and sarcastic ment. style of speaking, his success was certain. On the Exclusion Bill it might have been thought that his patron, the Duke of York, would have mainly relied upon him; and when Danby was to be impeached, that minister might well have availed himself of such a powerful advocate. Mr. Recorder had no longer a chance to be returned for the city of London, but most of the Cornish boroughs were then in the power of the government, and if there had been a difficulty in finding a seat for him near the conclusion of the parliament which had sat seventeen years, he might easily have been introduced in the two Westminster parliaments, and the Oxford parliament which followed. Yet Jeffreys remained the only lawyer of the 17th century who took a prominent part in politics, and was never a member of the House of Commons. Perhaps there were jealousies among the ministerialists in the House, which prevented his being permitted to join them, it being foreseen that he would immediately struggle for the lead; perhaps it was thought that the Court would be less benefited by his talents than damaged by his bad character, which was now notorious; and there might be a dread of his habit of intoxication, in which he occasionally indulged to great excess, and which might have led him in debate to divulge Cabinet secrets and have brought the administration into difficulties. CHAP. XCIX. A. D. 1679. prosecut. However this may be, we find that he set to work very Services of diligently in carrying out his own plan to work the popish plot. Jeffreys in Coleman, Whitbread, Ireland, and all whom Oates and ing popish Bedloe accused being committed to prison, --it was resolved plot. to prosecute them for high treason in having compassed the death of the King, as well as the overthrow of the Protestant religion,—and their trials were conducted by the government as state trials, partly at the bar of the Court of King's Bench, and partly at the Old Bailey. In the former, Jeffreys acted as a counsel, in the latter as a Judge.* It is asserted, and not improbably, that he had a real horror of popery, which, though he could control it in the presence of the Duke of York, and when his interest required, at other times burst out with sincerity as well as fierceness. Scroggs presided at the Old Bailey †, but Jeffreys whetted Jeffreys his fury by telling him that the King was a thorough be * 7 St. Tr. 6. 167. 312. 487. 609. 769. 842. 908. 959. 1050. 1081. 1208. 8 St. Tr. 128. 287. 301. 524. 573. 640. 653. † St. Tr. vol. vii. and Scroggs at |