Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/640

612 J A Y J E A ing September his letter, written in the name of Congress, was addressed to the people of the States on the subject of currency and finance ; and before the end of the year, having previously resigned his chief -justiceship and his presidency, he was despatched as plenipotentiary to Spam, where he landed January 22, 1780. The results of the mission were unsatisfactory. In addition to the fact that he was not received by the Spanish court in a formally diplomatic character, he was seriously embarrassed by the action of Congress in drawing bills upon him for more than half a million dollars, in the hope apparently that he would have received a subsidy from Spain before the bills fell due. Although by stooping to the humiliation of impor tuning the Spanish minister, and by accepting a number on his own personal responsibility, Jay was able to meet some of the bills, he was at length forced to protest others ; and the credit of the new country was only saved by a timely subsidy from France, out of which Franklin was enabled to remit from Paris the sum required to meet the bills then due. In 1781 Jay was commissioned to act with Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Laureus in negotiating a peace with Great Britain. He arrived in Paris from Spain, June 23, 1782 ; and after a variety of negotiations, in the course of which Jay evinced a jealous suspicion of the dis interestedness of France and a punctilious attention to the digiiity of his country, the provisional articles were signed on November 30, 1782, and the formal treaty on September 3, 1783. Jay resigned his commissions, and on July 24, 1784, landed as a private citizen in New York, where he was presented with the freedom of the city, and elected a delegate to Congress. On May 7th the last-named body had already chosen him to be foreign secretary ; and in that post he remained till the beginning of the Federal Government in 1789. In the question of the institution of such a government he had taken a keen interest : he joined Hamilton and Madison in issuing the Federalist ; he published anonymously (though without succeeding in concealing the authorship) An Address to the People of New York, in vindication of the constitution ; and he ably seconded Hamilton in inducing his native State to adopt it. On September 26, 1789, he became the first chief- justice of the supreme court of the United States. During one of his circuits Harvard University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. In 1792 he consented to stand for the governorship of New York State; but the " canvassers " who scrutinized the votes disqualified the returns of three counties ; and, though Jay had received an actual majority of votes, his opponent General Clinton was declared elected. During the war between Great Britain and France, the relations between the former and the American States became critical ; a definite commercial treaty seemed the only means of averting war. Chief-Justice Jay was chosen envoy to England, though not without strong opposition. He landed at Falmouth in June 1794, signed a treaty with Lord Grenville on November 19, and disembarked again at New York, May 28, 1795. Several of the articles of " Jay s Treaty," especially that which declared that a free ship did not make free cargo, were hailed at home with furious denunciation. Jay was accused of having betrayed his country ; his effigy was burnt along with copies of the treaty, and even after Washington signed the ratification in August, the States were in a ferment that prevented for a time the really beneficial action of the treaty. Two days before he landed, and before the parti culars of the treaty had been published, Jay had been triumphantly returned as governor of his native State, and, notwithstanding his temporary unpopularity, he was re- elected in April 1798. With the close of this second term of office in 1801, he closed his public career. Although not yet fifty-six years old, he refused all offers of office, and, retiring to his estate near Bedford in Westchester county, New York, spent the rest of his life in rarely interrupted seclusion. His public utterances from 1821 till 1828 were mostly as president of the American Bible Society. On May 17, 1829, John Jay, in his eighty-fourth year, ended a life whose purity and integrity are commemorated in a sentence by Daniel Webster : " When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself." The Life of John Jay, with Selections from his Correspondence, and Miscellaneous Papers, was published in 2 vols. by his son William Jay in 1833. JAY, WILLIAM (1769-1853), dissenting preacher and religious author, was born at Tisbury in Wiltshire on May 6, 1769, The son of a stone mason, he had adopted his father s calling, when his appearance attracted the attention of the Kev. Cornelius Winter, the dissenting minister. Mr Winter at that time presided over a religious seminary at Marlborough, in which, with his advice and assistance, the young mason became a student in 1785. During the three years and a half that Jay spent at Marlborough, the wonderful preaching powers which distinguished him till the day of his death were rapidly developed. His first sermon was delivered in his seventeenth year ; and before his majority he had preached nearly a thousand times. In 1788 he had even for a season occupied B,owland Hill s pulpit in London. But his yonth warned him to seek more time for study, and he therefore accepted the humble pastorate of Christian Malford, near Chippenham, where he remained about two years. He had hardly spent a year in his next charge at the Hot Wells, Clifton, when he was unanimously chosen to be minister of Argyle Independent Chapel in Bath; and on January 30, 1791, he entered the sphere in which he was to spend the rest of his active life, attracting to his chapel hearers of every religious denomi nation and of every social and literary rank, and winning for himself a wide and solid reputation as a brilliant pulpit orator, as an earnest religious author, and as a pious minister. In 1841 the jubilee of his pastorate was cele brated; in 1852 he was requested to retire; and the con nexion of sixty-three years formally ended in January 1853. He died on December 27, 1853. Asa preacher Jay was eloquent and impressive ; but his expres sions and style at times wanted refinement and delicacy. His sermons were often so practical and direct as to excite suspicion, though quite unfounded, of being aimed at individuals. He was fond of peculiar texts, and did not always restrain his sense of humour when in the pulpit. The popularity which Ms writings, especially his devotional writings, have found with a wide circle of readers vouches for their worth. In his books he is always earnest, homely, and practical, and at times attains a certain neatness of diction and aptness of illustration. Perhaps the best known of his works are his Morning and Evening Exercises ; The Christian Contemplated ; The Domestic Minister s Assistant ; and his Discourses. For his Short Discourses for the Use of Families the diploma of D.D. was conferred upon him by the college of New Jersey ; but he did not avail himself of the title. Jay also wrote an excellent Life of Rev. Cornelius Winter, and Memoirs of Rev. John Clarke. An edition of Jay s Works in 12 vols. 8vo, revised by himself, was issued in 1842-44 ; again, reduced in price, in 1856. A new edition, in 8 vols. 8vo, was announced in 1876. For further particulars see Jay s Autobiography, 1854 ; Kev. S. Wilson s Memoir of Jay, 1854 ; Wallace s Portraiture of Jay, 1854 ; and Cyrus Jay s Recollections of William Jay, 1859. JEAN D ANGELY, SAINT, chief town of an arrondisse- ment in the department of Charente-Inferieure, France, is situated in a fertile vine-bearing district on the right bank of the river Boutonne, 16 miles south-east of La Rochelle. The most interesting buildings are the ruined abbey, destroyed in 1568, two large towers used as a prison and forming the remains of a 17th century church, an embattled clock-tower dating from 1276, a handsome colonnaded market-place, and a hospital. The inhabitants are engaged in distilling brandy, wool-spinning, and the