25 JANUARY 1930, Page 29

That handsome but cruel Welshman, Baron Jeffreys of Wem, Lord

High Chancellor of England, was " a great lawyer, a great judge and a great man ; the trusted confidant of one King and the neglected adviser of another." Thus Mr. J. G. Muddiman in his interesting and historically important Bloody Assizes (Hodge, 10s. 6d.). The autumn of 1685, following Monmouth's rebellion, was a dreadful time in the West Country: Lord Jeffreys fined, whipped, hanged, drew and quartered the late conspirators with terrible severity ; all Somerset was made hideous by heads and limbs on gibbets ; such scenes have never been seen in England before or since. It is very possible that Jeffreys has been maligned, but Mr. Muddiman hardly strikes us as impartial, though he is undeniably brilliant and conscientious.