fame rests on his work in connection with the Edinburgh Review, which he edited from its commencement in 1802 until 1829, and to which he was a constant contributor.  The founding of this periodical by a group of young men of brilliant talents and liberal sympathies, among whom were Brougham, Sydney Smith, and F. Horner, constituted the opening of a new epoch in the literary and political progress of the country.  J.’s contributions ranged over literary criticism, biography, politics, and ethics and, especially in respect of the first, exercised a profound influence; he was, in fact, regarded as the greatest literary critic of his age, and although his judgments have been far from universally supported either by the event or by later critics, it remains true that he probably did more than any of his contemporaries to diffuse a love of literature, and to raise the standard of public taste in such matters.  A selection of his papers, made by himself, was pub. in 4 vols. in 1844 and 1853.  J. was a man of brilliant conversational powers, of vast information and sparkling wit, and was universally admired and beloved for the uprightness and amiability of his character.

JERROLD, DOUGLAS WILLIAM (1803-1857).—­Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, s. of an actor, himself appeared as a child upon the stage.  From his 10th to his 12th year he was at sea.  He then became apprentice to a printer, devoting all his spare time to self-education.  He early began to contribute to periodicals, and in his 18th year he was engaged by the Coburg Theatre as a writer of short dramatic pieces.  In 1829 he made a great success by his drama of Black-eyed Susan, which he followed up by The Rent Day, Bubbles of the Day, Time works Wonders, etc.  In 1840 he became ed. of a publication, Heads of the People, to which Thackeray was a contributor, and in which some of the best of his own work appeared.  He was one of the leading contributors to Punch, in which Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures came out, and from 1852 he ed. Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper.  Among his novels are St. Giles and St. James, and The Story of a Feather.  J. had a great reputation as a wit, was a genial and kindly man, and a favourite with his fellow litterateurs, who raised a fund of L2000 for his family on his death.

JESSE, JOHN HENEAGE (1815-1874).—­Historical writer, ed. at Eton, was a clerk in the Admiralty.  He wrote Memoirs of the Court of England, of G. Selwyn and his contemporaries (1843), of the Pretender (1845), etc., and Celebrated Etonians (1875).