action of scan. mag. brought by the Duke of York against Titus Oates, in which the jury, under his direction, awarded £100,000 damages.'

Ever since the disfranchisement of the City of London, the Ex-Recorder had ruled it with a rod of iron. He set up a nominal Lord Mayor and nominal Aldermen ; but, as they were entirely dependent upon him, he treated them with continual insolence.2

On the sudden death of Charles II., Jeffreys no doubt thought the period was arrived when he must be rewarded for the peculiar zeal with which he had abandoned himself to the service of the successor; but he was at first disappointed, and he still had to "wade through slaughter" to the seat he so much coveted.

Not dismayed, he resolved to act on two principles: Ist, If possible, to outdo himself in pleasing his master, whose arbitrary and cruel disposition became more apparent from the hour that he mounted the throne. 2ndly, To leave no effort untried to discredit, disgrace, disgust, and break the heart of the man who stood between him and his object.

Being confirmed in the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, he began with the trial for perjury of Titus Oates, whose veracity he had often maintained, but with whom he had a personal quarrel, and whom he now held up to reprobation,-depriving him of all chance of acquittal. The defendant was found guilty on two indictments, and the verdict on both was probably correct; but what is to be said for the sentence?" To pay on each indictment a fine of 1,000 marks; to be stripped of all his canonical habits; to be imprisoned for life; to stand in the pillory on the following Monday, with a paper over his head, declaring his crime; next day to stand in the 1 To St. Tr. 125. It is curious to observe that, in this case, after judgment by default, the inquisition being before the Court of King's Bench in banco, the Sheriffs of Middlesex attending in person, sat covered before the Judges, and the counsel began their speeches, "May it please your Lordships, you Mr. Sheriffs, and gentlemen of the Jury."

2 Sir John Reresby, giving an account of his dining with Sir James Smith, the Lord Mayor, says: "This gentleman complained to me that he enjoyed no more than bare title of Lord Mayor, the Lord Chief Justice Jeffries usurping the power; that the city had no sort of intercourse with the King but by the intervention of that Lord, and that himself and the aldermen were looked upon by the Court as no better than his tools; that upon all occasions his Lordship was so forgetful of the high dignity of the City, as to use him and his brethren with contempt."-Reresb. Mem. 207.