The great fact in Jeffrey's life, and _that which makes his name memorable in the literary history of Britain, is that, for a period of twenty-six years (1803.1829) he was the editor of, and one of the prin cipal contributors to, the Edinburgh Review.' With the history of that journal, his career is identified, and it became what it was under his hands. To use Jeffrey's own phrase, it stood on two legs—the one leg being the criticism of current literature; the other being Whig politics. Both as a literary critic and as a politician, Jeffrey was the soul of the 'Review.' To enumerate his articles in both capacities; to estimate the vast influence exerted by the 'Review,' during his manage ment, on the contemporary literature and contemporary politics of Britain ; to revive the numerous controversies both literary and political, in which the 'Review' was engaged ; or to reconsider the right and the wrong of its literary judgments, in particular, on the distinguished poets of the period, such as Scott, Byron, Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, &c., is here unnecessary. All this belongs to the well-known literary history of the first quarter of the present century. Suffice it to say that Jeffrey's honesty in the expression of his opinions was never doubted; and that, where he was wrong, it was because his judgments, though honestly given, were limited by the essential nature of his own intellect. As a literary critic, he proceeded on what has been called " the beauty and blemish " principle of reviewing; that is, it was his regular habit first to state in clear, sharp, opinionative language what he considered the " beauties " of a poem or other work, and then, as a necessary drawback, to append a list of the " blemishes." And, although, in following this method, ho undoubtedly remained constitutionally insensible to the higher poetry of Wordsworth and his kindred cousociates, he unquestionably exer cised a healthy influence on the many by his chastisements. Where he praised, he praised heartily ; and it is to his credit that, if his negative judgments have not been always ratified, his favourable decisions generally bave. In politics there is now less question as to the value of his influence in promoting what was on the whole good and useful. He was uniformly on the aide of progress and improve ment; and, though he never was a Democrat, nor what would now be termed a Radical, but only a moderate Whig, his fighting, in his earlier days, was uniformly uphill. It is significant of the adaptation of his writings, both literary and political, to the purposes of rapid immediate effect, that, when a selection of his essays from the 'Edinburgh Re view' was published in four volumes in 1843, the work did not take such rank in our permanent literature as has been accorded to the similar collections of the essays of Macaulay, Sidney Smith, Carlyle, and others.
To return to Jeffrey's life, apart from the 'Review :' his professional practice rapidly increased, as his powers as a lawyer found oppor tunities of displaying themselves. In some respects he was without a rival at the Scottish bar—combining good knowledge of law with singular perspicuity and ingenuity, and a rapid, fluent, and brilliant style of eloquence. As a speaker he was so rapid that once, at Glasgow, the defendant in a libel case, where he was conducting the prosecution, after listening to his torrent of words, declared that, by calculation with his watch, "that man had actually spoken the English language twice over in three hours." Jeffrey's triumphs as a pleader, both in criminal and civil cases, were numerous; but nowhere was be more successful, or more in his element, than at the bar of the General Assembly of the Scottish Church, of its annual meetings in May, when he was usually retained in important ecclesiastical cases. With his gradual increase of practice his wealth increased correspondingly, till at last he was in the receipt of a haridsome annual income. But his wife did not live to share the full flush either of his fame or his fortune ; she died in 1805: and it was while he was on a visit to London in 1806, to distract his mind from this calamity, that the famous 'leadless' duel between Jeffrey and Moore took place at Chalk Farm—occasioned by Jeffrey's notice of Moore's early poetry, and immortalised by Byrou'a reference to it in his 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' Byrou, Moons, and Jeffrey were all afterwsrda the beat of friends; and both the duel and the satire were laughed over among them. With Scott also, notwithstanding that their original political differences were somewhat intenelfied by Scott's secession from the Edinburgh Review' to aid iu founding the ' Quarterly' in It09, Jeffrey plea)? remained on terms of personal friendship; and nowhere were Scott's novels more cordially welcomed and praised than in the ' Edinburgh.' At length, after remaining a widower eight
years, Jeffrey married again. His second wife wise an American lady, Miss Charlotte Wilkes, the daughter of Mr. Charles Wilkes of New York, and the grand-nlece of Wilkes the notorious politician. Ile had met this lady during a visit of her family to Britain ; and, in order to marry her, he undertook a voyage to America in 1813. During his brief stay in America, he saw some of the most important men in the United States, and formed an acquaintance with American society and American institutions. After his return, he and his wife resided for some time in the now town of Edinburgh; but ultimately he removed to Craigcrook, a beautiful little property at the foot of the Coretor phine Hills, about two miles from Edinburgh, the old turreted mansion of which, and the wooded grounds, were much improved by him in subsequent years. The vicinity of the place to Edinburgh made it perfectly convenient for his professional engagements; and till the tima of his death be here received as his guests his professional and other friends, and all strangers of distinction who visited Edin burgh. The elegant hospitalities of Craigcrook were proverbial ; and the house and grounds retain their associations with Jeffrey, as Abbotsford is associated with the name of Scott. Here Moore sang his songs under the roof of his former adversary; and here, in later days, Dickens formed that acquaintance with the venerable critic which ripened into so strong a friendship.
In the year 1b21, Jeffrey was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. Whig polities were by this time in the ascendant in Scotland; and Jeffrey, as the Whig leader, took his part in the public meetings and other demonstrations which heralded the approach of the era of Reform. Having been chosen Dean of the Faculty of Advocatca in 1829, he deemed this office incompatible with the editor ship of the 'Review,'.whIch accordingly he resigned into the hands of Mr. Napier. He still took an interest in the 'Review ' however ; and at a considerably later period, when his son-in-law, Mr. Empson, suc ceeded Mr. Napier as editor, it was his delight to revise proofs and correct articles, as his son-in-law's deputy. In the meantime however he bad passed through new phases of his life. In 1830 he was elected a member of the first parliament of William IV., being returned for the Perth, Forfar, and Dundee district of burghs. In March 1831 he was unseated on petition, but was immediately returned again by Earl Fitzwilliam for the borough of Mahon. lie represented this borough till 1832, taking part in the Reform debates ; and in the end of that year he was returned to the first reformed parliament for the city of Edinburgh. along with Mr. Abercromby, the speaker (now Lord Dunfermline). He remained in parliament till 1834, and was Lord Advocate of Scotland under the Grey government His parliamentary success however did not answer the expectations that had been formed from his fame as a critic and a forensic orator; and ho seems himself to have welcomed the change when, in 1834, he was raised to a vacant judgeship on the Scottish bench, and so relieved from the cares of parliament. Scottish judges have the courtesy-title of ' Lord ;' and hence Jeffrey was thereafter distinguished as Lord Jeffrey, though still legally only Francis Jeffrey, Esq. As a judge, he had a very high reputation for soundness, conscientiousness, and rapidity. He was noted for a habit of interrupting pleaders when they wandered, so as to bring them back to the point ; and so long as he was in the second division more business was sent before him than before any other judge. Ile continued in the discharge of his duty almost to the last, dying in his seventy-seventh year, after a short illness, at Craigcrook, on the 26th of January 1850. In the relations of private life, Lord Jeffrey was a sin:ularly affectionate and amiable man, soft-hearted to a degree which surprised those who, till they saw him, had figured him only as a sharp and severe critic. A very genial impression of him in this respect is to be gathered from the selections from his correspondence pnblialied by his friend Lord Cockburn, as an appendix to hie Biography, in 1852.