JAY JEDDO. 



were taken possession >f by the Dutch, towards the ] 

 i-irl of the .siur fiith century. The latter, having 

 t:onquered the native princes, made the island the 

 centre of their Indian possessions in 1619. In 1811, 

 the British made themselves masters of it, but re- 

 stored it at the peace of Paris, in 1814. The exac- 

 tions and oppressions have since occasioned several 

 insurrections of the natives. See Raffles's History of 

 Java (second edition, London, 1830) ; Crawfurd's 

 [ British resident at Java] Indian Archipelago ; Mar- 

 chal's Descript. Geog.. Hit.,e( Commercials de Java 

 (Brussels, 1826.) Bluine, a Dutch naturalist, who 

 resided nine years in the island, lias published a view 

 of the vegetable kingdom of Java. 



JAY (garrulus). These birds are distinguished 

 from the crows by having their bill rather short and 

 straight ; upper mandible somewhat inflected at tip ; 

 lower, navicular ; head feathers, erectile ; wings, not 

 reaching to the tip of the tail ; colours, brilliant. The 

 European jay (G. glandarius) and the blue jay of the 

 United States (G. cristatus) are the most prominent 

 and best known of this genus, and possess much the 

 same characteristics, both in their wild and their 

 domesticated state. They are lively, petulant, and 

 rapid in their movements ; exceedingly noisy, having 

 a faculty of imitating harsh sounds. When an owl 

 or other bird of prey appears in the woods, they utter 

 piercing cries, and assemble in great numbers to 

 attack the common enemy. The same thing takes 

 place when they see a sportsman, whose purpose they 

 often frustrate by their vociferous noise. They 

 indulge no familiarity with man, and discover all 

 that shyness and timidity so natural to thieves. In a 

 domestic state, they are restless, and much addicted 

 to transports of anger. When confined in a cage, 

 therefore, they soon lose their beauty, by the perpet- 

 ual rubbing and breaking of their feathers. Like 

 their kindred, the magpie and jackdaw (q. v.), they 

 can be taught a variety of words and sounds, parti- 

 cularly those of a harsh and grating character, as that 

 of a saw, &c. 



JAY, JOHN, an eminent American jurist and states- 

 man, was born in the city of New York, Dec. 1, 1745, 

 old style. After receiving the elements of education 

 at a boarding-school, and under private tuition, he 

 was placed, when fourteen years of age, at King's 

 (now Columbia) college, in his native place. Here 

 he devoted himself principally to those branches 

 which he deemed most important in reference to the 

 profession of the law, upon the study of which he 

 entered after receiving his bachelor's degree. In 

 1768, he was admitted to the bar, and in 1774 was 

 chosen a delegate to the first American congress, 

 which met at Philadelphia, and was placed on a com- 

 mittee with Mr Lee and Mr Livingston, to draft an 

 address to the people of Great Britain. It was pre- 

 pared by Mr Jay, and is one of the most eloquent 

 productions of the time. In the two following years, 

 he was re-elected, and served on various important 

 committees. In 1776, he was chosen president of 

 congress. In 1777, he was a member of the conven- 

 tion which framed the constitution of New York ; and 

 the first draft of that instrument proceeded from his 

 pen. The following year, when the government of 

 New York was organized, he was appointed chief- 

 justice of that state. In 1779, we find him again a 

 member of congress, and in the chair of that body. 

 From this, however, he was removed in the same 

 year by his appointment as minister plenipotentiary 

 to Spain. The objects of Mr Jay's mission were to 

 obtain from Spain an acknowledgment of the inde- 

 pendence of the United States, to form a treaty of 

 alliance, and to procure pecuniary aid; with regard to 

 the last only of which points, a satisfactory conclusion 

 WIB obtained. In 1782, Mr Jay was appointed one of 



the commissioners to negotiate a peace with Britain, 

 at tin- same time that he was authorized to continue 

 the negotiation with Spain. In conjunction with Mr 

 Adams and doctor Franklin, he resolved to disobey 

 the instructions of congress to follow in all things the 

 advice of the French minister, count de Vergennes, 

 who was embarrassing the negotiation with Britain, 

 in order to benefit France at the expense of the 

 United States, and accordingly they signed 1 a treaty 

 with the British minister, without his knowledge. 

 The definitive treaty having been signed in Septem- 

 ber, 1783, he soon afterwards resigned his commis- 

 sion as minister to Spain, and, in May, 1784, em- 

 barked for the United States. He was then placed 

 at the head of the department for foreign affairs, in 

 which office he continued until the adoption of the 

 present constitution, when he was appointed chief- 

 justice of the United States. In 1787, he received a 

 serious wound in the forehead from a stone, when 

 acting as one of a volunteer corps to preserve the 

 peace of the city at the time of the doctors' mob. 

 He was, in consequence, confined to his bed for some 

 time, a circumstance which obliged him to discon- 

 tinue writing for the Federalist, to which he had 

 already contributed the second, third, fourth, and fifth 

 numbers. The only other number in the volume from 

 his pen is the sixty-fourth, on the treaty-making 

 power. In 1784, he was sent as envoy extraordi- 

 nary to Great Britain, and concluded the treaty which 

 has been called after his name. Before his return in 

 1795, he had been elected governor of his native state 

 a post which he occupied until 1801. In that year, 

 he declined a re-election, as well as a re-appointment 

 to the office of chief-justice of the United States, and 

 retired to private life. The remainder of his days 

 was passed in devotion to study, particularly theolo- 

 gical, and to practical benevolence. He died, May 

 17, 1829, universally honoured and beloved. He was 

 a man of inflexible firmness of mind in the perform- 

 ance of duty, of great discernment, extensive informa- 

 tion, and fine talents as a writer. Although rather 

 cautious with strangers, with friends he was aflable 

 and frank ; economical in his expenses, he was at the 

 same time generous towards every object worthy of 

 his bounty. The letters between him and general 

 Washington, various extracts of which are contained 

 in the fifth volume of Marshall's history, exhibit the 

 elevated place he held in the confidence and esteem 

 of that illustrious man. 



JEDDO, JEDO, or YEDDO ; a city of Japan, 

 capital of the empire, at the head of a large bay, at 

 the mouth of a river, in the S. E. of Niphon ; 160 E. 

 by N. of Meaco. Lon. 140 E. ; lat. 36 30' N. The 

 population has heretofore been estimated at 1,000,000. 

 In 1812-13, the Japanese told to Golownin, that the 

 population exceeded 10,000,000 ; that in the princi- 

 pal streets were 280,000 houses, each containing 

 from thirty to forty persons; and that in the city 

 there were 36,000 blind men. Meaco was formerly 

 the capital, and is still the residence of the spiritual 

 emperor ; but the civil and military emperor has his 

 residence at Jeddo. This city is seven miles long, 

 five broad, and twenty in circuit. It has no walls, 

 except those which surround the palace. It is said 

 not to be surpassed in magnificence by any city in 

 Asia, since, besides the usual accompaniments of a 

 capital, all the princes and great men are obliged to 

 make it their residence for half of the year. It con- 

 tains, therefore, many splendid palaces, which stand 

 by themselves, surrounded by large court-yards and 

 stately gates, and, though built only of wood, and 

 one story high, are distinguished by varnished stair- 

 cases and large and finely ornamented apartments. 

 The palace of the emperor may be properly called a 

 I great fortified city. It is situated in the heart of 



